A million tomorrows later

I made some lame declaration that the day following my last post there would be another post.  Whatever, I try. 

ANYWAY… the change I am seeing….

Owen’s school just implemented “table washers” during lunch.  Originally the kids ate lunch, cleaned up their own place, and went to line up for lunch; however, after many failed attempts at the clean up your own place part, it was time for official TABLE WASHERS.  The job description of a table washer is to wipe down the table after everyone else is done for one week before they change to someone else.  Owen is dreading the task because he says kids are gross when they eat and even went so far as to say that he often packs up his lunch early because too many kids have gross food and the way they eat it bothers him.  (I know, he could possibly need therapy in the future). 

Owen had told me about the table washers when they started and then he told me this:

O: “Mom, you will never believe this, the table washers get a cookie on Fridays!!!”

J: “How lame!!!”

O: “I know, they announced it today and everyone was like, whoooo, whoooo and started cheering.  Not me, I was like, boooo.”

J: “Really?”

O: “Yes, mom, I even went up to two of the recess teachers after and I told them that they should not be handing out cookies to the kids for washing the tables and they should give them Frog Prides instead (a frog pride is a ticket for doing something good, all of the staff at school hand them out and it enters the kids into a drawing for a weekly toy).

J: “You really did that? What did they say?”

O: “They said that I can have a Frog Pride when I am a table washer and they said they would take my concerns to Mr. Golden (the principal).” 

*********************************

I am still over the moon about this. 

I can’t believe how often our children are rewarding for doing something they should do anyway.  As parents, we are not doing our children any favors by constantly rewarding them to exist.  It makes it impossible for children to develop their own sense of accomplishment, learn what is important to them, and teach them to do a good job because it feels good.  We send them conflicting messages when we reward them after soccer games, baseball games or music class with a treat and this starts when they are really really young.  We assign them a job - give them a cookie for doing it; do a random desk check -  give them a jelly bean when it is clean; tell them to run around and exercise at T-ball in order to be healthy – follow it up with a pack of Oreos and a juice box; have your name forgotten by a teacher - get a Skittle.  The more I am aware of it, the more I notice it EVERYWHERE. 

Although, I do agree that if you have to wash gross food from gross kids off the tables you should get a reward, but it would be nice if the reward could be something more than another cookie. 

My neighbor said that she doesn’t know what Owen will do when he is older, but she feels that he will change something.  I hope she is right.   

Maddening

The votes are still being counted, but Initiative 522 is trailing. While I am not really surprised, I am dumbfounded that we are here. 

The cost of food will go up if we label foods that contain GMO ingredients. ....

How does this statement make any sense? Companies change labels ALL the time and there are no cost changes. 

I don't remember a major uprising when the FDA required foods to be labeled for trans fat in 2006. 

I definitely didn't read anything about energy drinks costing more when they changed their label a few months ago to replace the word supplement with nutrition. 

The same company that posted a $1.48 Billion profit this year, donated $6 million to defeat the initiative, and I am supposed to believe they are protecting the consumer from rising costs. I am quite sure they do not care about my costs. They care about their costs and how those bottom lines are affected if GMOs are labeled.  

It is actually a bit maddening. 

The only saving grace? My kids are learning and listening.  

(I would elaborate except I cannot trust what I might say if i drifted off to 

Sleep....and that is happening. )

Therefore, tomorrow's  post: How I am making a difference.

One Day

In the future, I am going to wish I had this blog to look back on to remember my life.  Owen asked me a question the other day about something he used to do as a baby, and I realized I have mom brain and could remember nothing.  If I spent half as much time writing about my life as I do reading about other people’s lives, I would have a pretty good history to look back on.   

The problem with getting behind on writing is that there is no good way to start again.  I have SO many pictures, SO many things to talk about, and SO many things going on in my head.  Where do I begin?

Today:

I spent the day cleaning the house.  I decided to let our housecleaner go at the beginning of the summer and I remembered quickly why we hired her.  But, with the kids getting a little older, it was harder to justify keeping her (well that and the fact that I owe Angie a ton of money and I am sure I am capable of cleaning my own house).  I cleaned for hours and didn’t even finish.  I am not sure if other people struggle so much with keeping a clean house or if I am just raising a bunch of baby pigs.  I think I have 4 pigs living here, and yes, I still have three kids and no, I do not include myself in that figure. 

We spent the night at a “trunk-or-treat” collecting a lot of crap.  There are a few times when I wish I could unlearn what I know about food.  Without a doubt, Halloween would be at the top.  I see them all with their little buckets full of candy and their little smiling faces and sparkling eyes, and I know that I have no choice other than to let them eat it.  I try to smile back and look excited, but it is really hard.  Luckily, for Halloween they are very excited to leave their candy out for the Great Pumpkin to take during the night in exchange for toys and presents the next day.  The Great Pumpkin will then store our candy until December when it is time to make gingerbread houses.  The only problem with this plan is their plan about the amazingness of what is coming.

Tonight:

The girls are upstairs asleep and Owen and Greg are watching football together.  I can only imagine how excited this makes Greg.  He is calm on the surface, the kind of calm where you act all cool and collected so as not to put any added pressure on the wonderfulness occurring in front of your eyes, but on the inside he is dancing, cheering, jumping, and most importantly: praying that this does not end.  Owen loves to use his imagination, he can’t have too many stuffed animals, he can often be found in a costume of some sort, he loves to play school, he says he is never playing baseball again, and he does not like football, that is, until a few weeks ago.  Owen just ran upstairs to put on a jersey, and now I hear him yelling at a player, asking questions, and has just informed me that the only thing better than watching Iowa football with his dad would be for me to join them and bring some popcorn with me. 

His newfound love for football stems from an amazing program Owen participated in this year.  Owen is a Bruin Buddy, a little buddy to one of the football players on the high school football team.  The school pairs up the football players with an elementary student, and the little buddy gets to run down on the field before the home games, join their buddy in the locker room after the games, join in one of the practices, have their buddy come to the school at recess and lunch, and attend classes at the high school with their buddy.  Greg is absolutely obsessed with the program, and I am sure even more now considering he is watching football with his son and they spent the night last night throwing the football and practicing tackling.  If we had a life savings, Greg would probably give it to Owen’s buddy to show his gratitude.  Good thing we don’t.

Tomorrow night the little buddies and their players are going roller-skating!

*****************

There it is, candy and football, I guess that is where I start…..

That made a good day

Two things started this day right 

1. I put on a little orange dress for court today and Owen turned to me and said, "you do always look so good in that dress". Ha! Sweet little son. 

2. The carpool was looking very suspicious on the way to school today when suddenly they all started laughing. One of the twins announced that Owen and Jordyn were holding hands. They all screamed with laughter and became embarrassed. Jordyn declared Owen did it, to which I believe 100%. 

I will have to watch that boy. As an aside,  he went through the yearbook and found the cutest girl in every class the other night. Trouble in the making that one... He takes after his dad. 

Reasons to hide from school

School has arrived, and although I mostly like it, for three reasons I would consider homeschooling. Here they are in no particular order. 

1. Packing Owen's lunch. Honestly, it is horrible on so many levels. He barely likes anything, I try to limit his wheat intake, and add to that the poor child in his class with life threatening egg, dairy, and peanut allergies, leaving me to wonder if everything that is in his lunchbox could be dangerous. It is awful I tell you, and it just got more awful when I found out today that he needs a healthy snack everyday. The healthy snack is in his lunchbox!! 

2. Bedtime. Curse bedtime in fact. We barely have a routine, getting ready for bed around here mostly consists of me asking kids to get in their pajamas and those children laughing silently to themselves as they just don't. It is quite heroic if they are in bed by 9:30, and please take note I did not say asleep by 9:30 (that is another battle all together). 

3. Getting up.  That is all on that. It is self explanatory. 

Well, since homeschooling is not in the cards, I put the kids to bed last night,  got up this morning, and packed Owen a lunch.  

Not much else I can do I suppose. Carry on!!

Shopping girl

The girls and I went to buy toilet paper last night and accidentally decided to get Ivy school clothes. 

That girl loves to shop. She was so full of life and energy as she tried things on, looked for her size, and decided what she liked. She would have stayed there all night if I let her. In fact, the only way she was willing to leave was when I told her we could go to other stores today. 

We finally left the store at 10:00. The second we got home she started busily telling Greg about shopping and started to lay out all her clothes for the world to have a better look.  Once we had taken sufficient pictures to her liking of the line of clothes, she decided she would take a bag upstairs and clean out her drawers to make room for the new clothes. She left for a bit and came back down with two bags and declared she was giving all her old clothes away. I am quite sure what we bought last night does not have drawer filling ability and when I said we could look today, I meant another shirt or two.  I realize now she envisioned walking through the door looking like Pretty Woman, excessive bags in hand. 

When she woke up today, the first words out of her mouth related to shopping with a gentle reminder to make sure we went today. 

She is sitting next to me reciting over and over what we need to do today and the things we forgot to buy, including the tap shoes and ballet shoes for her new dance class. 

She is doing dance, gymnastics, and swimming. She has put in a request for soccer and T-ball. She is going to school everyday, including one full day and can't wait to eat lunch at school. Add all of that to her obsession for shopping and the fact that she just turned 4 two months ago, and I hope I can keep up with her as she gets older!

She is crazy, but truth be told, I am a little obsessed with her. 

Security Guard Day

July adventure in the books

It is 12:05 am and our return ferry is about to set sail for home, all the little ones are asleep in the back, and I am sitting in the car as we move across the water.

With July rapidly coming to a close, we needed an adventure. A few Internet searches lead us to settle on a 30 minute ferry ride, followed by a 30 minute car ride to our destination of a small street fair, carnival rides, and fireworks on the lake. We had never been across the water in our car and we had never been to Silverdale and we certainly had never heard of Whaling Days. 

We arrived a little later than expected due to a 90 minute ferry wait on the way out, and we are due to arrive home a little later than expected because we missed the 11:05 ferry by about 7 minutes. We obviously didn't mind, I mean what good is an adventure without a little adventure. 

The lesson of this adventure, if there is one to be learned, is that if we thought we may one day move to Silverdale, we won't. The town was a bit scruffy and a little rougher than we prefer, no one was allowed to be alone (not even Angie or I) and we were sure a fight was going to break out any minute. And while the people seemed nice enough, there was a high percentage of very young people smoking and entirely too many people that should have been wearing more clothes.  

We arrived a little later than planned and we were headed home a lot later than planned, but traveling mishaps were not the only mishaps of the July adventure. 

For example: 

1) there was the time that Owen stepped in a bush on the beach and as he pulled his feet and shoes out of the bush, he was covered in stickers and unable to move.

2) or the time when Owen threw a log and somehow ended up with what he called seaweed legs

3) the time that Owen, Ivy and Evan were about to go down the slide together and right before they took off, Ivy tried to straighten her mat and it took off without her, she was left with her sticky little legs touching the slide and was forced to scoot herself down while crying all the way as Evan and Owen slid gleefully down together.

4) the time we set up shop to watch fireworks and after waiting two hours, watched the first one go off behind a building;

and finally,
 

5) the time when ( this was my personal favorite) Ivy pushed Owen off a bridge into a little ditch during the fireworks, in the dark. (It took me a minute to figure out who fell. He was completely covered in the brush and I wasn't sure if he was wet or gone and I could only see his foot. Once I realized he wasn't dead or drifting off to sea, I laughed my butt off. A stranger had to help me heave him out. I am the worst mom, I laugh now just thinking about it, I even laughed at his whimpering self after we pulled him out. I honestly had no choice.)

Despite the mishaps, we laughed really hard, loved the fireworks, enjoyed the lake, did something different, stayed out too late, and were reminded we love where we live. 

Success! 

 

Priorities

I was making bread the other day when Owen and his friends came in. They asked me what I was making this time and said that I am always making things AND that I make everything from scratch. 

I almost died a little. I was that mom! The mom that makes everything from scratch! I was (and continue to be) so excited. 

Of course, this mom can't possibly do it all. While I may make things from scratch these days, I am watching Owen right now during his tennis lesson and he is wearing my flip flops. We donated his tennis shoes after the Dirty Dash and one Croc got up and walked away the other day. He is not wearing my shoes out of choice, but rather because he has NO shoes.

Flip flops are fine for tennis. Who needs shoes anyway, after all, I am the mom who is always making something and makes everything from scratch!! Isn't that enough?

UPDATE: Sooo, apparently shoes are important. The lesson ended and his coach told me that Owen did great and then added an aside saying ever so nicely, "try to get him some shoes, there is only so much you can do in flip flops". 

Yes! We will get right on that! Today! I mean, we were coincidently headed there now! 

Then we drove away and I apologized to Owen. He responded ever so nicely and said , "it is ok, don't worry... Well kind of worry". 

New shoes it is!  

Ooops

We were driving home tonight in separate cars, the kids and I in one and Greg in the other.  I looked in my rearview mirror to see a policeman behind Greg with his lights on.  I knew he wasn’t speeding since I wasn’t speeding and I was ahead of him.  I figured he must have been texting or talking on the phone without his headset, both of which would have been hideous!  Owen was sure Greg was going to jail.  Greg called a few minutes later and informed me (ever so rudely) that it wasn’t what he did, but what I didn’t do.  Apparently, his tabs have been expired since September, 2012; and to think, he was worried when my tabs were over 1 week due.

What I didn’t do, I am so sure…..

Just so we are clear in the future:

Greg – take out garbage, take out recycling, take out food waste, kill bugs, move plants around outside, renew your car tabs each September.

Jen – everything else.

Now I cannot be blamed.

My forgotten life

I barely recognize myself.  Let’s review:

• I just ate salmon drenched in butter with a side of honey sesame sweet potatoes.  I liked them, Greg did not. 
• I am going to get ready for bed soon and when I do, I will wash my hands with the liquid soap I made and I will brush my teeth with my homemade toothpaste.  (Again, I am a fan.  Greg is not).  
• I make sure my children do a little “earthing” each day by playing in the dirt or being barefoot outside. 
• I just bought a cleaner that can do everything (bathrooms, kitchen, ant killer, help with acne, dish soap, bug bites, shampoo, and laundry soap to name a few) and it actually works.  It is human safe, non-toxic.  I am actually a little obsessed with it.  www.branchbasics.com
• I make my own fruit snacks with grass-fed gelatin.
• I lather my kids up with coconut oil when they go out in the sun.  No burns yet, and it has been HOT!
• Each night before bed I put apple cider vinegar on my face. 
• My bathroom looks like my kitchen.
• I cooked vegetables for myself the other night and put garlic on the vegetables, on purpose!
• There is nothing in my kitchen that was here last year.
• I planted a garden. 
• I use essential oils for all of our ailments.
• We make homemade ice cream
• I am this close to trying raw milk.

and that is just to name a few. 

The moral of the story: I am glad I am still married and that Greg still likes me. 

No more heat

We are having a heat wave and I hate it. I hate it with all my heart because I cannot escape it. With no air conditioner in my house or at work and a forecast for days near or into the 80s , life begins to feel a bit hideous. 

I decided today it is time for the air conditioner to be installed. I am totally prepared to be laughed at when I call tomorrow for an immediate installation, but for the sake of not sweating while I sit here, who cares, bring on the laughter and install my air!! 

Lily

Good old Lily.  She came, she taught, and she left. 

About a month ago or so an uninvited robin came into my life  This particular robin wasn’t the kind you normally see, you know, the kind that runs around on the grass looking for worms, nope, this was the crazy kind that continuously bashes into the window.  Over and over and over again.  All day long. 

The first day, after the kids got home from school, I crazily announced to Owen that I was going to get a gun and shoot the bird.  That seemed like a good idea until he marched over to Ivy and calmly said, “mom is going to shoot the bird”, and she started to cry her eyes out.  Ok, I won’t shoot the bird …. yet. 

Ivy must really have a knack for psychology as even at the young age of three, she realized that she needed to humanize the bird to protect it.  It was its only chance. The bird was a she and we knew this because Ivy looked into her eyes and could tell.  Not only was she a she but her name was Lily.   As if it was a question, obviously I am not going to shoot the bird now!  How could I shoot something with a name like Lily. 

I tried everything.  I put papers on the window to let her know that it was a window, I closed the curtains, I opened the curtains, I ran out the door flailing my arms and screaming at her, I sent the kids out to scare her away.  After a few days, I finally admitted defeat.  Lily was here to stay and to drive me crazy. 

As time went on I was bothered less and less by her constantly bashing into the window.  I decided she either had a nest nearby or thought that the bird in the window was the most beautiful bird she had ever seen. 

After about 9 days, I was talking to Emilee about Lily and suddenly so many things became clear. 

“I feel bad for Lily, she just sits there and bashes into the window all day long as though something may come from it.  I watch her pick her little self up off the ground and do it again over and over.  She is going to get hurt.   I just wish she would understand and do something different.”

As the words rolled off my tongue I suddenly realized I was Bob , Lily was Dr. Leo Marvin, and the window was like a vacation to Lake Winnipesaukee.  What was I thinking! Lily wasn’t here to drive me crazy, but to help me see my crazy.  I am Lily, bashing into the window over and over and wanting something different.  As I continued to therapy myself, I realized there are things I need to change about myself.  Things will never be different if I just fly into the window all day long. 

And with that, Lily came by a little less each day and after two weeks she was gone.  Once I learned what she was here to teach (cause obviously that was what she was doing and the empty nest we found a few days ago had nothing to do with it), she had less use for the window.  As I continued to make changes in my life, some big like acknowledging an unhealthy relationship in my life, some small like running to Lowe’s to buy a hose instead of constantly hating the hose that leaks and continuously coming in wet after watering the plants, Lily had less and less to show me and she moved on (or flew away and quietly died of a severe brain injury, I choose #1). 

Who knew that the crazy bird that I wanted to shoot would move me forward when I am stuck and would remind me that opportunities to learn are where we choose to find them.

 

Lily

(Seriously, I should pay myself some good money for this therapy.)

Back from Somewhere

As we near the end of April, I can finally feel myself reconnecting with myself.  Doing the yearbook for the school was HARD and STRESSFUL.  While it got done and I am soo excited about it, it was a lot of work.  After the book was submitted, I had to spend the next three weeks taking care of everything that I didn’t do while I was working on the yearbook.  I am just glad I came out alive, otherwise, I wouldn’t be here to warn people of the dramatic effects of natural shampoo.

In my mission to eliminate chemicals in my life, Angie and I decided to try some natural products, one of which was a natural shampoo.  I was a little hesitant from the beginning, but throwing caution into the wind, I went for it.  Apparently a natural shampoo is different than “regular” shampoo, because it is a soap rather than a detergent.  When you use the detergent shampoo, it strips your hair and then you have to use conditioner to cover up the damage from the shampoo.  With the natural shampoo you don’t use a conditioner but instead rinse with vinegar to balance the hair’s pH.  This sounds very complex, I know. 

I tried it first last Saturday.  The instructions state that it takes some getting used to and as the chemicals are removed from your hair your hair goes through a “detox” period.  They say it can take up to two weeks in which you may have more puffiness, static and oiliness.  They are not kidding.  My detox period was HIDEOUS.  I pulled my hair in two braids one day and my hair looked wet.  My sisters actually laughed at me periodically through the day.  Fresh from the shower, straight from the blow dryer, my hair looked like I hadn’t washed it in weeks.  It was awful.  I carried on Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and gave up on Thursday. 

I know it was just hair, but I found myself feeling a little down, a little scruffy, a little not like myself.  I went to Owen’s baseball game with a hat on and found myself standing alone looking longingly at everyone’s chemically covered, beautiful, non-greasy hair, worn down without fear.  I woke up on Thursday and as I sat in bed feeling the greasiness that was once my hair, I just knew that I couldn’t possibly get up and do that horrible vinegar rinse one  more day.  I was throwing in the towel.  I got up and washed my hair with my shampoo from Trader Joe’s and picked up my conditioner bottle with glee.  My hair wasn’t quite the same as it once was but it wasn’t the hideous hair that I had seen for the last few days.   I had no regrets, after all, who can just have hair that people go around laughing at periodically through the day. 

I am on the search for a different, natural shampoo, one that doesn’t require a vinegar rinse.  I will report on my findings. 

As an aside, we got the shampoo from a company based out of Utah called Bubble and Bee.  I love the natural face wash, deodorant, facial moisturizer and body butter.  I totally recommend it, and if you need a shampoo to try, I know of a barely used bottle you could get for a good price!

My brain!! (post edit - 18 month stats)

The deadline has arrived. I have until Monday at 4:00 pacific time to submit the yearbook.

I have worked on the book almost non-stop during the last 48 hours and I am exhausted.

I have pictures of students swarming through my head, clip art of frogs taking over my thoughts, and borders and designs and colors clouding my vision.

I am resting now, recharging my creativity and preparing for the final countdown.

The end is near and that is as much of a blog post that I can muster.

***************POST EDIT*********************
An after the fact post: I can muster up something!  I forgot Autumn's 18 month stats and whether I will care later or not, here they are.

29 1/4 tall - 2.84%
18 lbs 15oz - .5%
*****************************************************

Stolen phone

Don't you love going through you phone and finding this:

My kids are so weird

I nursed Owen until he was about 26 months. When he would want me to nurse he would come up and ask for "oh no". Apparently, at some point something happened where I said "oh no" when he wanted to nurse and he thought that is what it is called.

Ivy would walk up to me and hold up her finger and say one time. Apparently, I told her one last time one time too many.

Autumn, who doesn't talk much, pants and sings. When she first wants to nurse, she looks at me and starts panting. Then, she nurses on one side and stops, looks at me and sings a song. Ahhh Ahhh.
Ahhh. Ahhhh. We have appropriately titled it Other Side Song.

See, I told you they are weird.

Kid recess lady

I headed to Owen's school early today to take some morning pictures. Owen and I were walking across the parking lot and he noticed one of his fellow recess ladies walking in, to which he yelled out, "hello Ms. Jay!"

"Good morning Owen."

"Did you get a haircut?"

"Why yes, I did get a haircut Owen."

"It looks good, I can tell clear from over here."

We walked into the office and I signed in and as we headed back outside, along side the recess ladies, I noticed Owen speed up a tad and join his fellow friends. He walked in step with them and told them about his morning.

I suppose he really is a recess lady himself.

Freaking out a little

There are two reasons everyone looks forward to the last day of school. 1. Summer vacation and 2. YEARBOOKS.

I temporarily went insane at the beginning of the year and I responded to a help wanted flyer from the PTA. I volunteered to not only be on the yearbook committee, but head that committee.

I started out with 3 committee members and now I have 1. That 1 is leaving during the last two weeks before the submission deadline for Hawaii and Canada. I am not sure what happened to the other members other than one deserted her assigned task in the middle of it and the other hasn't responded to the last three emails.

The worst part, I prefer to be a committee of one. I am pretty sure I should go to therapy or something for rejoicing in the fact that my help left. What can I say, I like things my own way and with too many cooks in the kitchen, well it doesn't look like what is in my head.

My submission deadline is fast approaching on April 5. I don't mind being a yearbook team of 1 1/2 but if I start to think of the gravity of the situation, that I am basically in charge of creating MEMORIES for 600 plus people, I feel my chest tighten a tad. Let me say that again, MEMORIES FOR 600 plus people. One of the two reasons you look forward to last day of school will be made by me. I am creating a book people will save for years to come.

I am crazy for taking it on and crazy for wishing away my staff, and yet on a daily basis I think about who I should talk to in order to secure my job for next year and what I will do different.

My first order of business - figuring out how to avoid a committee from the beginning.

I know, I need therapy.

I’m Sailing!

It was time for the 2nd trip on the 12 trips of 2013 tour.  Take a busy month and add to it a bunch of sickies in my house, we opted for a day trip.  At first we wondered if a day trip was ok or if it would be lame, and then we remembered we made up the rules and this time, a day trip was fine!  The rules of our trips are simple, something fun that we have never done before. 

We certainly have never been on a sailboat!

I got a text from Steve for a free boat trip and February’s adventure was soon going to be a reality. 

Angie called me before we left and asked if I really wanted to come. 

“I hate the water, I hate sailing, I hate boats, I hate to be cold, are you kidding, I am coming!”

We sat freezing on the boat (cause we only take adventures where we practically freeze to death), with the most perfect sailing captain, and I looked at our kids having less than the time of their life on a boat and I laughed.  I still laugh.  It was one of those surreal moments when you look around and despite the dark clouds, the wind blowing, the life jackets stuck in the kids’ faces, the babies that can barely move, and the fear of being on the water on a 17 person sailboat, and you realize that you are somehow having so much fun. 

And if there was any question about whether it was a good day, as they started the motor, I heard a little voice say, “Owen, I want to hold your hand” and then I knew that no matter what happened, well other than if our boat had capsized, I was a fan of sailing.

 

I will not be lame

During January, Greg sent me a link to go see the snowy owls that migrate to Ocean Shores during the winter months.  He thought it would be fun to take Owen and go.  I do not do anything exciting, so I am sure when I called him at work one day and told him we were going to Ocean Shores that weekend, he was shocked.  I like to do the same thing and keep order, yet at the same time crave chaos and constantly need to be doing something.   (I just read that line and wonder how I even exist.)

Even though it was my own plan, I was a little weary about going, but as I discussed this with myself, in my head, not out loud, I came to the conclusion that the decision to go wasn’t for me, but for the rest of them.  My people don’t care if we are home early for bed before school.  They certainly don’t care if the weekend is spent driving to see owls, leaving no time for cleaning.  They most definitely don’t care that packing is stressful and that there is so much to do before we go.  They only care that we are going and that they will get chips in the car (kettle brand, non-GMO of course) and their pajamas will be there when we get there.

I made the decision to go.

It couldn’t be that easy.  (As if getting to that point was easy..).   I fought with myself some more as I now questioned whether we should stay in a hotel or make it a day trip.  Then my fun self told my lame self that a day trip is totally not fabulous and I reminded myself that I want my kids to remember me one day as someone fabulous and amazing and honestly, how unamazing is a day trip?!

I made the decision to stay overnight.

Of course I was not done with the self talk.  I further pondered the question as to why I am so lame, self analyzed a bit more, decided to change my ways, invented the “I will not be lame: 12 trips of 2013” and we drove away to search for owls, gather rocks on the beach, freeze our butts off, eat somewhere delicious, munch down ice cream, swim in the hotel pool, enjoy the continental breakfast, sleep till we were done, and head home when we felt like it. 

It was fabulously amazing.