Friday, March 27, 2009

Home show

There is a huge home show coming up in Rapid City this weekend, which got me to thinking about our house and the adorable upgrades that we have made *wink, wink*. So, I decided to take my peeps on a little tour of our house. Here we go...

Come in, my friends, through the laundry room door since the front screen door was a victim to the wind several months ago and refuses to open. Try not to fall vicitim yourself to the booby trap of shoes that we have set in front of the door and enter the dining room/kitchen. Pick your way through the minefield of Cheerios super-glued to the floor by chocolate milk on my floor that was just swept and mopped and be sure to check out the mountain of to-be-filed (someday) paperwork and miscellaneous magazines and newsletters that have yet to be read. Don't be alarmed by the smell. It's just the trash that needs to go out, or it could be the dishes in the sink from yesterday that wouldn't fit in the dishwasher, or maybe it's the dirty diaper pail, or it could be the dogs. Whatever, we can't smell it anyway since we live in it. On your right is the living room where no one lives but the laundry. Need a clean pair of undies? Go no further than the chair, folks. It's the perfect place for all your laundry needs. At times it is known to eat children, but they usually find their way out eventually. Darn. There might be a remote control somewhere in this room, but it hasn't been seen in ages. The thing that I always see in this room is the mysterious smear that has recently appeared on my curtains. It's origin and DNA have not been proven as of yet. It looks a lot like dried snot, but there's no telling. A lot of things look like dried snot. Now, let's venture further toward the back of the house. Through the hall of horrors, aka the portrait gallery, filled with a dizzying array of dollar store frames sporting photos of Vince's family. Note the absence of pictures of my side of the family tree. We take pictures, we just never have them printed or framed. Then we will look to our left and see the bathroom, which was once a source of much frustration and is now...a source of much frustration. I call it the bathroom of wonder because I wonder when I will ever be able to use it by myself. Maybe when the kids go off to college? We can only guess. Now, it gets really scary. Sam's room/guest room/Vince's man room/storage is directly across from the bathroom where at any time of the night while Sam is asleep, you can turn on the bathroom light (the loudest light switch in the world) "CLICK" and wake him up. It's best to just pee in the dark, but try not to stub your toe on the bathroom stool that sneaks out from it's hidey hole in the middle of the night to find a place directly in your path. When you bounce it off of the cabinet "BANG" then jump up and down cursing "%*%$$@#&^$" and holding your foot in your hand only to fall against the glass shower door "PING", please try not to wake the baby. Then it's on to the other bedrooms. Take a right and wander in to the girl's bedroom which looks more and more like a toy store every day. Except messier. If you can see the floor, you may enter, but don't look too closely at the marker stains in the carpet. Turn around and enter into the Master's domain. You can tell it's his room because he has taken special care to mark his territory, as evidenced by the men's clothing, shoes, camo this and that, the SWAT and Counter-Terrorist magazines and the legions of patches, hats, shirts, bags, pins, challenge coins, etc. that are collected by my husband laying all around. Also, a laundry bomb has apparently gone off in our room. So, for clean clothes, hit the LR chair, but for dirty ones, check out our room. I can't tell if there's a hamper in there or not. I know we have one somewhere. But if you're looking for dirty underwear, don't look anywhere near where the hamper should be because somehow it never makes it that far. That's what you had to step over to get into the room. Don't mind the dust in here. When people come over, we just shove everything in here and close the door. It hasn't been cleaned since, well I don't know when. And that, ladies and gentlemen, concludes our tour. I hope you have enjoyed your foray into the Sidders's house. Come back any time. We enjoy having people over. It gives us the excuse and motivation to clean our house and hide all the stuff I have just described. If you come over unexpectedly, at least now you know what you're up against.

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Wooohooo!

Well, I did it! Actually, we did it. Vince helped so much when he decided to run with me today. It was my first 5K and it was a doozy! One of the first things we did was run up this gigantic hill. I'm not exaggerating here. A lot of people walked the hill and then started running. I am so very proud to report that we ran the entire thing! Of course, at the pace we were going, there were people walking who were keeping up with us, but that's okay. I ran. We started off very slowly just to be sure not to hurt ourselves in all the excitement. There was a small group of women, one of whom was very pregnant that passed us at first. I was a little embarrassed. But we ended up passing them on the hill and staying in front of them the rest of the way, so I feel better. We ended downtown at the Dublin Square Pub and had our celebratory beer, then left to go pick up the kids. We picked up a pizza on the way home too. We decided to walk from the pub to our car to cool down and stretch our legs a little. That was a pretty long walk! Anyway, we made it and could not have been happier. Poor Vince had to slow his pace WAY down to stay with me, but he didn't seem to mind. He was so awesome during the whole thing. There was another girl that ran most of the way with us. I met her in sewing class and we noticed each other at the starting line. She thought our pace was good and that Vince was a great motivator, so she stayed with us while her mom walked ahead of us. Yes, her mother walked faster than we ran. We finished in about 38 minutes, which is a good time for me, especially with that hill. When we got home, after I got the kids from next door--thanks Jim and Sherri!-and ate some lunch, we crashed hard. I could feel myself getting droopier and droopier by the minute. I guess when the adrenaline wore off, it was curtains for me! Vince, you are the wind beneath my wings-love you!! (Cue the music)

Also, I have to give a shout out to a lovely lady named Pam for being such a sweetheart! My little Scottish friend, you don't even know how much seeing your smiling face this morning before and after the race meant to me. She was there with a high-five and a big hug at the finish line. I love the encouraging advice given in that fabulous brogue!

Of course, there were tears. Since you all know that I'm a big bawl-baby I don't mind telling you that. And I did make a fool of myself at the end. At the finish line, they wanted us to make a single-file line and give them the bottom portion of our bib. Well, I was a little confused which way to go and the guy stuck his hand out to show me. I thought he was just giving me a high-five! I was like, "Yeah" and smacked his hand! Then he shouted (to be heard over the masses) for me to keep going to the right. Oh! Duh. I felt like a dork. Oh, well. I am a dork. Probably no one noticed but me. I hope.

So, on to the next one!

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

Nervous

I am so excited and nervous!! I signed up yesterday for my first 5K! That's 3.2 miles for us Americans. After I got all signed up, the lady said she hadn't seen the course, but heard that it was hilly. Great! Could you have maybe mentioned that before I made out my check? Well, I'm stuck now. I think it will be fine. I run some hills anyway when I get to run outside because we live on the west side of town (which always makes me want to throw gang signs and say, "West siiiide!) which is pretty hilly. Now, the east side of town where the race will be is not hilly. I guess they found the only hill over there and decided to make us run it. Thanks. Appreciate ya. I called my friend Sheri for running advice since she has been running for years and has done several races, including marathons and half-marathons. She calmed me a bit. Gave me a pep talk. "Just take it slow, keep your pace and try not to get caught up in the whole race atmosphere and run too fast at the beginning." Thanks, Sheri! I hope I can remember that on Saturday. I don't need to win the thing, just finish it without walking and get my t-shirt! Vince says that if I can find someone to watch the kids on Saturday, he will run it with me. That would be nice to have someone to run it with. Whew! I have butterflies just blogging about it.

It's been interesting around here lately. Katie has been going to dance and giving her teacher trouble. I don't know what to do. At home, she does great. If I ask her to show me first position or an arabesque (I'm sure I butchered the spelling on that one!) she does it just fine. She tells us that she wants to go to class and learn to dance. But, get her in the dance studio and she completely ignores what the others are doing and ends up sitting against the wall. I talked to the owner and her teacher and they aren't sure what to do with her. The teacher gives out stickers to the girls who participate during class, but Katie could care less. Andrea, the owner, thinks maybe it's because it's her first structured class. I think the mirrors and stuff distract her. I told her that I was disappointed in her and made her go to her room when we got home, but I don't think that's the right thing to do because this is supposed to be a fun thing and I don't want to turn it into a stuggle. If it were Audrey, I would tell her that she has to finish this session and then if she doesn't want to do it again, fine. Katie's a little too young to understand that and I also don't want to be a burden to the dance teacher who has other kids in there to deal with. If we're paying by the month, why would I pay for her to go and sit against the wall? I've already paid for the recital costume (so adorable!) and hate to quit after the struggle we had getting her in the class to begin with. Not to mention the fact that the grandparents paid for this class and outfits for her birthday. Vince and I are thinking to give her another couple of weeks and then..?? Audrey has been wanting to take the class and she's the right age for this class. The outfit fits her, the leotard fits her, she knows the positions because she does it along with Katie. Should we ask if she can take Katie's place if her sister doesn't shape up? I welcome any comments, questions, and/or suggestions!! Maybe she's just still too young and we should try again next year. She's so emotional and dramatic (don't know where she gets that!) and it breaks my heart to see her upset when the teacher tells her to sit down because she's not following along. She's been so excited for this class for so long so I'm really perplexed as to why she does this.

We are making headway on the Yellowstone trip. We have decided to rent a tent camper. It's not that expensive and we will still get the experience of tent camping, just with a (kinda) real mattress and heat! Yay for common sense! We have also decided to take a short jaunt to Wisconsin over Easter to visit my family. My grandparents are not in the best health and we don't get to see them very often. I just got to thinking that they have never met Sam and haven't seen Katie since she was about 4 months old. I told Vince that I really should get over there to see them while they are still around. He agreed so we called my Aunt Kris and asked if we could stay with her. She said yes, so we are off somewhere around the 9th of April. Of course, as with anything involving my family, it can't be a simple, quick trip. My aunt wants to host an open-house kinda thing where any relatives that want to come visit with us can and that way we won't have to drive all over town trying to visit a million people in 2 days. My parents are planning to come too which means that they will not be visiting us in SD for Sam's 1st birthday, which means that they all want to do an early birthday party for him while we're there. My husband just rolls his eyes, grits his teeth and says, "Sure, honey." through his tight-lipped smile. Also, it was mentioned that my brother and his girlfriend and their new baby come too. I don't know if they are planning on it though. Vince is planning to make a trip to the public museum and zoo while we are there. And Audrey is VERY concerned that the Easter Bunny will not be able to find us if we are not at home, so we have to plan an egg hunt as well. We'll see how much of this actually gets done during the 2 or 3 days that we are there. And, once again we'll be trailing 3 beagles with us. Don't you envy me?

Well, I need to go fold come clothes and get some fabric ironed. I saw the cute little dresses that Cora's mom and granny were making for their Etsy website and decided that I could make those too! They look so darling and comfy. I was going to buy a couple for my girls from them, but they keep selling out their stock in a matter of minutes and I kept missing out. I have already made a couple and they just turned out so cute that I wanted to do some more. I know several people with new baby girls and thought I could make some for gifts too. I feel kinda bad ripping off their idea, but it's not a new thing. They are simple t-shirt dresses and I'm not competing with them by trying to sell them to anyone. Am I bad? Meanwhile, between sewing and running my house work has really suffered. HA! As if it weren't suffering before! Wish me luck and I'll be sure to let you all know how my race goes.

Monday, March 9, 2009

Kindergarten!

This morning I took Audrey for her Kindergarten screening. We bundled up ('cause it's snowing AGAIN!) and scraped the car and drove the 4 blocks to South Canyon Elementary school-go Hawks! We got her all registered and tested so that she can start school next fall. She did really well. She was above average on most skills. We met her teacher, Mrs. Molina. She seemed nice. She is a kindergarten teacher after all. I think nice is a requirement! Audrey said that her teacher had a pretty name and was really excited when I told her that that place was where she would go to school. She kept asking me how long until fall. When I told her it would be several months, she said, "Then it's goodbye pre-school, hello Kindergarten!" Too funny.

Well, Sam is in a mood today. He has wanted to be held all the time. I'm just not gonna do it. If I sit down or put him down, he screams. He doesn't know yet that if he continues to scream he can do it from his bed because I don't tolerate cranky babies very well. I'm a mean mommy. Vince is sick too, so I have more than one whiner in this house right now. The other night I had to go somewhere and left him with a couple of the kids when he wasn't feeling well. I asked him if when Sam got up from his nap he would feed him. His response was no, that he was not feeling up to it. I wondered aloud why that never stops him from expecting me to take care of 4 people when I'm sick. When I got home, Sam was being fed. Anyway, I should go put Sam in his bed so he doesn't wake up Katie and Vince. It's pretty quiet around here when Audrey is at school and everyone else is napping. Bliss! Alas, it is short-lived, but that's okay. That just means that all is well and normal and that we have happy, healthy kids, right?

Saturday, March 7, 2009

That was soooo fun!

That was Katie's response to her first ever dance class. She really loved it. I got to sit in a little waiting room with the other parents and watch through the glass like a bunch of Garfields suctioned to the window. She did okay for her first go. There were a couple of times that she didn't want to do something, I'm sure because it was all new to her and the other kids were breezing right on through. So, the teacher (an 18 year old beauty named Brooke) would have everyone do it with Katie so that she wouldn't feel embarrassed. Then she would perform just fine. She really caught on to everything quite easily. I was so scared that she was going to get there and not want to do it, but she was fine. Thank God! I also met the owner and got everything settled with the recital costume and tuition and such. I asked the teacher if Katie was behind in any way and was there anything I needed to work with her on at home. She told me at this age, she's not behind at all. I got the feeling after watching the class that the kids, who are all 3 and 4, don't retain much from week to week anyway. She had to go through the positions and all that with all of them, so I didn't feel like Katie was lacking at all. Crisis averted! Audrey was so jealous. I felt bad for her but explained that she gets to do all kinds of things that Katie doesn't get to do like soccer and school and that just because one kid gets something doesn't mean the others will too. Katie was proud to show Daddy her mad skills when she got home! I can't wait for the recital. It's gonna be so cute!

So, Vince and I are planning a vacation to Yellowstone early this summer. Actually, it will still be spring here and a mite cold yet for tent camping, but being the brave souls that we are, that doesn't faze us. Well, it fazes me, but not my husband, boy he's all about the camping. His boss Nancy worked at Yellowstone for years and tells us that at the time of year we are going we should see all the baby animals because that's about when everyone starts calving. However, there is also still snow on the ground in some places and not all the campsites and roads are open. Also, doesn't that mean that there will be angry mama bears protecting their young 'uns? Yeah....I'm wondering about hotels in the area. We don't want to spend that kind of money, but my husband hates the cold as much as anyone else and I'm wondering how long we'll last. I don't wanna be cold either, but my main concern is for the kids. We've camped in cold conditions before, even with kids, but this may be colder than anything we've done. Also, we will have the dogs to deal with. I swear, these stupid dogs are becoming more trouble than they are worth! I love animals, but I'm just about ready for these guys to be gone. We can't really afford to kennel them for the 10 days that we'll be gone, but if we take them that limits how much we can do because we can't leave them at our campsite when we aren't there and technically they aren't supposed to stay in the car either. Dumb animals. Like we have so much extra room in our car after packing us and 3 kids, plus our camping stuff and luggage, right? And we can't leave them here and just have a neighbor feed them because we have that cranky lady across the way who is now unemployed and therefore listening for any barking 24 hours a day instead of just at night. Anyway, I'm sure our trip will still be beautiful and I should stop complaining. Some people don't get to see in their whole lives half the stuff that we have gotten to see in the last 5 years. We've even talked about making the trip up to the Canadian border to see Glacier National Park while we're out and about. I don't know if that will happen though because it's still cold/snowy enough there that some of the roads are closed and we don't know how much we would get to experience. It might be better just to spend all that time at Yellowstone. Everywhere we have been we've tried to experience as much of that area as we can before we move. We have been to mountains, oceans, rivers, deserts, swamps, forests, battlefields, forts, historic homes and places, and have seen so many wonderful cities, towns and wide spots in the road. We have been snorkeling, boat riding, deep-sea fishing, swimming with sea lions, white-water rafting, hiking, canoeing, horseback riding, have met people from all walks of life and cultures and have friends from coast to coast. How can I possibly complain? Where there's a will, there's a way, people....

I suppose that I should get off of this stinkin' addictive machine--Facebook, anyone?--and start cleaning my house. We have a busy week as usual. Tonight Audrey has a birthday party to attend, Sunday is my week to teach Children's Church, and I just realized that Monday I have a scheduling conflict. I was supposed to have Joy School here, but I have to take Audrey for her Kindergarten screening at 9:30. Guess I'll get on the phone and start calling the other mommies. Monday we also have to pick up Katie's pictures that we took and get Audrey to school, then pick her up and take Katie to dance. Tuesday I'm at the Y subbing for someone else. It just gets crazier from there! If I can not get sick, it'll be a miracle. I've got a really sore throat and am worried that I picked up strep. It's going around the YMCA nursery, and I was holding the baby who had it last week right before they found out that's what it was! YAY! I'm not holding the babies anymore, haha! Like that's possible. Okay, so I'm off for now. Have a great weekend.