Chaos

Cousins arrived yesterday to spend the week.  Within seconds there was more chaos than we have seen since last year (when cousins were here).  There are blankets, clothes, backpacks and toys all over the floor, water balloons freezing in the freezer (despite that it is 60 degrees outside), suitcases, wet clothes lying on the floor, cups of water on the counter, tv blaring in the background, angry cousins cause they don’t like the selected movie, and this is all within the last 2 hours. 

I almost went insane and had my house cleaner come tomorrow.  Then I saw the above chaos and promptly rescheduled for another date.  It was either that or I would lose my mind trying to keep it clean to believe I got my money’s worth. 

We will have her come later so that we can eat terribly, live in a mess, watch movies while we play with toys, stay up too late and thoroughly enjoy the chaos and the wonderfulness of having COUSINS!

Through my eyes.

Angie had a post the other day that Evan thought Ivy looked a little like Maggie Simpson.  The other day her hair was horrible as a result of a previous day with two crazy ponytails that got wet and then something weird happened to the front, resulting in a hairdo leaving her looking a tad like a sloth bear.  

(a happy sloth bear)

Thoughts about Owen

Things I love…

1. That every Tuesday he goes to the speech therapist to learn to say his “s” sound.  She comes down to get him so I don’t have to bring Ivy up and then she brings him down at the end of the lesson.  From the beginning he has just jumped out of the car and headed in like he has always done that.  He is so trusting.  His “s” sound is getting better everyday.

2. That he has a silver tooth and still loves the dentist.  He had an eventful dentist visit a few weeks ago, he had 4 cavities one of which needed a crown.  For a small child such as himself, a crown is a silver cap.  It is a molar that will eventually fall out, but for now I love that silver tooth.   He is still excited for his next visit and thinks the dentist is great (his dentist is amazing by the way, other than saying he thinks something a little sharp went in his mouth, he has no idea he had a shot).

3. That tonight he is preparing a solar system to take to school tomorrow for sharing.  He is learning about the solar system in school and wanted to created his own.  He has bouncy balls in different plastic bags: the sun and 8 plants (rest in peace Pluto as a planet).  We have Mrcre, Venus, Rth (+ 1 moon), Mars, Jupitr, Satrn (+ 6 moons), Uranis, Neptoon.  I am in love with those bags. 

4. That he very rarely stops singing.

5. That he calls Ivy “Honey”.

6. That he can’t wait for the baby to be here.

7. That he saw some weeds in the yard on Sunday and told me that the yard didn’t look very distinguished.

8. That he and I have a bedtime kiss: Kiss on the lips, kiss on each of his cheeks, kiss on each of my cheeks, then we say (from a book we have): Sometimes you make me mad, sometimes you make sad, but no matter what you say or do I will always love you, then we kiss on the lips again.  He makes sure we do it every night.

9. That he likes me to lay on the couch on my side with my knees bent so he can snuggle in “his nest”.

10. That he asks if we can always live together.  I always say yes – forever! 

I heart that kid.

One day a few weeks ago……

There was a day a few Saturdays ago when we went to a Toyota dealer to look at the Sienna.  You see, we figured with three kids we wanted more car than what the truck provided and I wasn’t sure I was on board to deal with three car seats in a really tight row in the 4-Runner.  I am sure I would have been fine, but I felt like the 4-Runner was small for me and the two kids, I was not sold that it would work with another baby. 

Forever I have wanted a Sequoia.  Then one day, out of nowhere, I realized that it was not really practical.  I envisioned spending way too much on a car that would have a third row with access only by scaling the middle seat to get to the back.  I know the seat goes down and you can get in the back that way, but I will have two car seats on both sides.  The vision of muddy little rain boots after a day at school flying over the seats was enough to make me reconsider. 

The question begged to be asked: “Could I drive a mini-van?”. 

I posed the question to Emilee, who owns a Sequoia, who responded with a definite YES, I could drive a mini-van.  She assured me that if she could go back in time she would get one in a second.  She also said that everyone she knows that has one loves it (and she knows a lot of people with one).  I decided to sleep on it and see how it felt. 

The next night, someone I went to high school with posed a question for discussion on Facebook:  Should I get a mini-van?  The response was overwhelming positive in favor of getting a mini-van over other large SUVs.  While most agreed that it wasn’t their dream car and minus the kids they certainly wouldn’t be driving it, but throw back in the kids and you don’t get better than the mini-van.  2 points for the mini-van.  0 for the Sequoia. 

A few days later my ex-boyfriend from college posted on Facebook that he just bought the Honda Odyssey.  Rob has a mini-van.  My ex-New Yorker boyfriend with only 2 kids had a mini-van.  Hmmm.  3 points for the mini-van.  Actually, that probably brought the count to 5 for mini-van, extra points for un-believability. 

Suddenly I see mini-vans everywhere I go and suddenly I find myself wanting one.  It is as though the Universe is screaming at me that I need a mini-van.  The Sequoia seems like an unpractical distant memory and I realize I crossed over to the group of mini-vanners, and more so, I am excited about that.  Greg agreed it was the best choice and we decided we would buy one at the end of the summer. 

One gray yucky day after t-ball, we decided to head out to the dealer “just to look”.  I swear that is why we went, we even tried to drive by the cars slowly without getting out of the car.  Before long we decided we just had to get a better look and jumped out. Before I knew it, the guy was there asking all kinds of questions, you know the ones they teach them in selling cars school to make you think they are your friend and you hold all the cards. 

And then things progressed, suddenly before my eyes, Greg was taking a test drive, we were walking down to the office, we were sitting in the office, we were discussing prices and trade-in options, we were discussing colors and credit scores and models. 

And then we couldn’t help ourselves and signed the papers for a new loan for a 2011 Toyota Sienna Limited!!!

And then before I knew it this was happening…

and now we have this….

and I am in LOVE. 

It is very clear that I can not only drive a mini-van, but I can love one as well.  (especially one with all of the bells and whistles they offer, that obviously helps)

And today was the first day that I truly used the mini-van.  We went to zoo.  We loaded Owen and his friend in the back, Ivy and Evan in the middle seats and Angie and I rode in the front.  Everyone had room, everyone fit, no struggles with seatbelts or car seats and we were all in one car, and the baby to be could have joined us.  Owen and his friend watched a movie on the way back with their wireless headphones, Angie and I listened to old country songs on the XM radio while the navigation system assured we made it back the right way, the babies slept soundly in the middle, the stroller rode in the back with room to spare, and…. I couldn’t help but fall a little more in love. 

I am sold.   

I am so Proud

The other night around 8:20, a miracle happened. Both of our children were asleep (not the miracle).  I was reading a book (not the miracle), the house was clean (house cleaner day, don’t get your hopes up, I didn’t clean it, that is not the miracle), and someone knocked at the door.  Odd.

I wiggled free from Ivy and answered the door to find the neighbor girl holding a measuring cup.  It was the day I had been waiting for!!  A neighbor borrowing something from me!  I silently held my breath as she started with her request.  All I could think in my head was, “please let me have it, please let me have it”.  She holds out her cup and asks if she can borrow a 1/2 cup…here it comes….. of vegetable oil.  I HAVE VEGETABLE OIL, I scream in my head.  It’s a MIRACLE.  The joy.  Not only am I not borrowing something from them, but I have something someone wants.  I am a now a true neighbor.  (For those that know me well, it is not unheard of for me to want to make cookies and have to set out to the store to buy the flour or sugar or more before I start; having what they wanted, was a big deal).

I race to the cupboard, offer to let her take the whole bottle to which she was very sure that the cup would work, and pour my ingredient into her little cup, fulfilling my neighborly duty of borrowing out a cooking ingredient. 

I closed the door and returned to the couch to read, all the while feeling so proud of myself for having vegetable oil in the cupboard.

Generous

I decided it was finally time to drag out the maternity clothes.  I couldn’t do this however, without dragging out all the old baby clothes, both boy and girl stuff.  I had never really put anything away the right way, plus I had Angie and Emilee delivering clothes to be stored at all kinds of random times.  So, the bottom line was a lot of clothes.  I took all the clothes and figured the best way to start was by sorting them into girl, boy and pregnant person clothes.  The beginning of the sorting looked a little like this:

I had more clothes than I expected.  I realize now that I can wear all sorts of clothes for the next 4 months and if I buy anything for this baby, Greg should get mad at me (I didn’t say I won’t, I just said he shouldn’t be happy, I know I totally will anyway).

All I could do was sort these clothes, after that I was at a loss.  It was time to call for reinforcement…Angie!  After all, I don’t need any of the boy clothes, while she could use some in the future for Evan and perhaps she will have another boy.  She took the boy bin, I took the girl bin and we sorted.  Goodwill, save, consignment, garbage.  We sorted for hours and finally came up with a good pile for each and clothes we would actually put small children in again.  I washed all the maternity clothes, sent all the others to the garage, and loaded up the car with consignment and Goodwill clothes. 

Angie ended up with $8.00 cash and a $4.00 credit for the consignment store and I walked away with $16.00 cash and a $19.00 credit.  That sure felt good. 

And now to the point of my story, yes there is a point.

I had the Goodwill bag to drop off.  After a lovely day of running errands, meeting up with Greg, having a picnic in the back of our car and stopping for ice cream, it was time to make the stop to deliver the goods.  I pulled up, gave them the bag, took my receipt and drove away.  I was talking to Angie when the drop was made and I made a comment that I always worry when taking things to Goodwill, what if I delivered the wrong bag, or what if my favorite sweater just happened to make its way into the bag and tried to give itself away.  We laughed and I drove away to buy some hairspray.  Upon arriving, I grabbed my purse to get my wallet when I discovered it was not there.  It only took two seconds for me to realize that I DONATED my wallet to GOODWILL.  I was putting Ivy in her seat after the ice cream stop, holding her ice cream, mine and my wallet.  It was then that I decided to casually toss my wallet to the front seat.  I watched the little purple guy fly into the Goodwill bag.  I laughed to myself that I had better get that out.  By the time I hooked Ivy in, walked to the front and took the first delicious bite of my ice cream, all thoughts of the wallet had disappeared as I was much more focused on the ice cream. (Oreo and Mint Chocolate Chip). 

I yelled to the car of children, “I just sent my wallet to Goodwill in that bag!”  Owen started crying and pleading with me to hurry back there, to go get it.  Ivy pretended to care and faked cry a little bit.  We turned the car around, only a mere 10 minutes from the source of the drop-off. 

I hopped out of the car to about 8 guys working on gathering donations, and made my awesome statement, “I just dropped a bag of clothes off and the bag had my wallet in it.”  Boy, I sounded smart.  I received a few snickers and was told it was found and was up front with the management.  SIGH!!  Owen and I were so happy (and of course Ivy was too although she had no idea why).  Everything was there, the cash, the cards, the license and the Costco card. 

I like to give generously, but next time, I won’t give away quite so much. 

A little trip away

It was a gloomy gray morning, I woke up and looked outside.  “I need to get away to somewhere warm”, I thought to myself.  This thought was quickly followed by one somewhere along the lines of “ok, warm it is”.  I quickly planned a trip in my head to San Diego.  This would be great, we would go to Sea World, walk on the pier, hang out at the beach, and eat too much food.  We are going! 

I came downstairs for my early morning phone call to Angie and told her of my pending plans.  She was in.  It seems that we have had a little more rain clouds this winter than those in the past and it wasn’t hard to convince her.  Now, with a family that is so very close as is ours, I really can’t plan a trip to San Diego in good conscience without inviting the whole crew.  I called Emilee, Ben and my dad, I proposed the plan, and before we knew it, we had plans to go to Disneyland in addition to the events stated above. 

The plans became plane tickets, the plane tickets became plane rides, the plane rides became rental cars and we were there.  Everyone had a slightly different trip planned, Emilee drove, Ben flew to San Jose, my dad flew to LA and everyone had varying stay dates.  Angie and I arrived on Thursday.  We started out basking in the sun while we waited for the rental car husbands to return.  It wasn’t long before we packed up the bags and moved to the shade.  It was sort of like, “Bright light, bright light!” as we haven’t seen a lot of the sun here.  The rental cars finally arrived and when I saw Steve pull up, I was a little worried.  The rental car I picked said "Economy" and would hold 5 passengers and 2 bags.  I figured I would trade passengers for bags and we would be fine, but when I saw Steve’s teeny car I was confident I would be leaving Greg’s back at the airport.  Greg came out of no where behind Steve to help load in the bags and I asked if we would all fit.  Very confidently he told me we would be fine and smiled.  Ok, this should be fun.  We hauled our bags over to an UPGRADED car for the same price.  I was so proud of Greg, now his bag could come!!

It was off to the hotel and a quick stop for lunch at Souplantation.  I will never understand why they don’t have those here.  Mmmm. Mmmmm.  We even went twice while we were there and if Owen had his way, a third would have been in the plans as well. 

Lunch was good, the hotel turned out to be perfect.  Finding the hotel was an event in itself.  Angie and I wanted a place on the beach and almost got a rental house for way too much money.  We regained our senses and decided to go really cheap away from the beach.  We read the reviews and kept looking.  We ended up in a hotel on the beach for a reasonable price and even got a discount if you mentioned the Neeleman reunion when you booked it.  It had all the requirements we wanted, breakfast, beach, fridge, and clean. 

Thursday night after dinner we discovered Yogurtland and thank heavens we did.  It was one of those do it yourself frozen yogurt shops.  The mint yogurt with Oreos was a favorite of the kids and I and let’s say we went back there more than twice.  (And, the best part, they have one here.  A little ways away, but WHO CARES!)

Friday was a day at the beach in the sun, taking pictures and eating snacks. 

Saturday was DISNEYLAND.  We had all been disgruntled for weeks after finding out that they would be closing at 5:00 that evening for a “private event”, but that went away when we learned it was the world premiere of Pirates of the Caribbean 4.  Now it was cool.  We had our list of rides that closed early, hit those first, and made our way around.  Ivy was not a fan of Pirates the ride, she covered her ears in the dark and cried down the hill, but she LOVED Small World.  She stood on the bench and danced and pointed and smiled.  It was definitely the highlight of my trip for Ivy.  She would have stayed on the merry-go-round all night if we would have let her.  Owen loved the Buzz ride as much as last time although he told me he was more excited to see his cousins than go to Disneyland, that was the highlight of my trip for Owen. 

Sunday was SeaWorld.  It was a little chilly that day.  A tad breezy and cloudy.  Not the sun we left for, but it was fun just the same.  I love SeaWorld after Disneyland, it is nice to move at a slower pace and we were all happy to rest our weary feet while waiting for the shows to start.  Ben put us on a strict show schedule which worked perfectly!  We ended the day with a delicious Mexican dinner in Old Town.  The worst part of the day was the shopping episode for our souvenirs.  Ivy picked four things and would not put any of them back.  Owen wanted three things.  A day of Disneyland, a long day at SeaWorld = I really didn’t care and bought all of them!  It made them happy (of course now they all sit in a pile on the floor next to me, and I am not sure what happened to the promise from Owen that if I bought all of those things he would play with them everyday). 

Here is my documentation of SeaWorld in pictures – awesome.

We ended our trip with another day at the beach, a walk along the boardwalk, swimming in the freezing ocean, a small baby girl with a fever, another trip to Yogurtland, plane sickness by Owen, too many snacks on the plane, tired kids, happy kids, happy parents, cousins that didn’t want to say goodbye, pants that were too tight, a lot of stuffed animals we don’t need, a lot of chilly wind and a trip that will go down in the books as one of the best!