March in a Nutshell-one month in one post

  Oh my stinkin' heck.  While I am BEYOND  happy that Spring is here and we are getting more sun and warm enough days that the snow melts shortly after it falls now, could the days slow down just a tad?!

Actually part of me is happy that March just kind of flew by.  It's been a month.  I love April, because all the crazy stops for a few weeks, and we get the pleasure of Spring Break before everything goes in to overdrive for the end of the school year when every teacher, administrator and PTA person decides that we must now get every single activity that we can possibly come up with in before the school year ends even if it means scheduling something every day of the week and scheduling some things so that they overlap.
It's awesome.
But hey, only 42 school days left till Summer vacation!

So, what happened to March?

Sam turned 7 months.

(Seven?!)

We got a little bit of snow.

(this was actually at my parents house, we didn't get quite this much)

Basketball season wrapped up.

Jacob did learn to dribble lower....

Knowledge Bowl competitions for the girls.

Running!  Yay!

With my littles!  Double Yay!
(even more amazing when I look back to last year and never dared dream it would happen)

This is my very chill Sam after his first run.  Within 2 minutes he's fast asleep every time.

Weekend runs creeping back into double digits-Yay again!

Pinewood Derby.

A case of pineapples.  Love.

Sam's first outdoor swing.

Pi Day.  Celebrated with 3.14 pieces of pie of course.  Key Lime and Coconut Cream.

Animal Reports...
In Kindergarten

And Second Grade

Student of the Month

Sewing a dress for a neighbor who was in a pageant
(I WISH I had a picture, she looked fabulous and it was fun to see the dress come together so perfectly!)

*almost* done transforming the girls' room....pictures to come when I finish the bedding.

Midweek date with my love to watch the Cougs in the Sweet 16.  Saddest OT ever.
(But hey, still gotta love Jimmer!)

New Playground:

Woo-hoo!  and also very sad....because we bought it from some of our best friends ever who are moving from a few houses down the street to a few states away.  Dangit.

Ate fried rice out of a giant bowl.

After which I introduced Aaron to Phineas and Ferb.  My new favorite thing for the kids to watch.

It was warm enough (almost) that I kicked back on the lounge chair in the backyard to start working on my tan.  Yes really, and yes, in a swim suit.  After all that snow you saw was it really warm enough?  Meh.....that's debatable.  But darnit mid 50s sure felt like paradise for about 30 minutes.  Mid to upper 60s this weekend?  Oh yeah.  I'll be laying out again.  Bring on the sun!

Also, I may have found the perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe.

This is actually a picture of the batch that turned out looking awful.  Really.  I'll remake them and share.

For the grand finale, Aaron is now officially halfway done with nursing school!  And he has this week off.  Oh what joy to have my husband come home from work last night and not have class or homework!  The kids were beside themselves with excitement that dad was home.  Just one more year....just one more year....just one more year....
(for now I'll avoid thinking on the BSN and whatever else follows this one more year)

And yes, eventually I'll still post that Dr Suess party we had.  After I repaint the kitchen and dining room.  and maybe my older boys' room.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

And can someone please clear up for me why I keep seeing people say "Happy St Paddy's Day"?
Shouldn't it be "Patty's"  since it would be short for Patrick?

We started the day off.....totally not how I planned.  Big fat mom fail as I slept through my alarm and botched a fun breakfast.  Oh well.  More important that I was up with the baby during the night, right?  Poor kid.  You forget how hard it is to be up every other hour after you've had the luxury of sleeping a decent number of hours for nearly two months.

But everyone was in green, and despite a little freak out from the seven year old who was "wearing green underwear but everyone keeps telling me it doesn't count and I can't find a green shirt that I want to wear and people are going to pinch me!",  it was a fairly calm morning.

I figured I'd at least make the after school snack fun, so we went with Lucky Charms.  They really are always after me Lucky Charms, so I shared.

For dinner the kids requested their now favorite St. Patrick's Day dinner, Leprechaun Pie.  Which is really spinach quiche.  Yes, my kids request spinach quiche.  It's fabulous.  They also requested green mashed potatoes.  Who am I not to oblige?  I think it would have worked a little better if we'd fried them up as hash browns, but whatever.

Charlotte felt the need to be artistic with her dinner.  I didn't feel like being parental this evening, so she got away with it.

Even Sammy got in on the green meal, dining on a fabulous concoction of spinach, carrots and peas.
He loved it.

 Yes he is in a girly high chair.  One day I'll make a new cover.

With key lime pie for dessert, I'll give this day full of green two thumbs up.  I did forget to dole out the gold nuggets (Rolos), but I'm sure the kids won't mind those coming a day late.

Here, have one more little leprechaun picture.

Ok, two.  But hey, he is one lucky little guy!

Winning!

Sorry.  Couldn't help myself.  And the guy's going on tour now.  Wow.

On another note completely unrelated to Charlie Sheen, since I'm having issues with my photos here, which will take all sorts of 2 1/2 minutes of effort to figure out which external hard drive is unplugged but is something I can't do while nursing (I'm good, but not good enough to crawl around under a desk while nursing), I'll share something else I just saw.

Go HERE.
Too funny.

Now go get yourself some grapes and grasshoppers and celebrate St Urho's Day before you get all greened out for St Patrick tomorrow.


Heinäsirkka, heinäsirkka, mene täältä hiiteen


Happy Wednesday!

I haven't washed my hair since last Saturday

I also haven't shared my awesome Dr Suess party or Sam's 7 month pictures.  Granted that was because ("beacuase") we were without internet for a couple of days last week while we switched providers and has nothing to do with hair washing.

I survived being offline for a few days, and wouldn't you know it, my biggest irritation was that I couldn't look up a phone number or watch The Biggest Loser.   Also since we use VOIP (internet phone), our home phone didn't work for a while.  There is someone who calls me at least a few times a month and every time she calls I'm gone.  I swear.  Last week there were messages left when the phone wasn't working.  I'm sure she thinks I'm just a jerk that never answers the phone.
Yes we still have a home phone.  There are very few people that have my cell phone number and I'd like to keep it that way.  Especially now that my kids are entering that talking on the phone stage.  The last thing I want is their friends calling my phone.  And I don't believe in cell phones for kids except in special cases.  If they feel the need to complain, I will get an old stretched out springy phone cord that was supposed to be about 5 feet long but having been pulled down the hallway and shut in bedroom doors has now become about 15 feet long and duct tape it from our phone base to the actual phone.  When they are tethered and must stand in a common area of the house to make and receive phone calls we'll see what they think.

Don't worry, I watched TBL last night.  And ate cookies while I watched it.  whoops.

I'm getting tired of snow, which is actually an improvement this year.  Usually by the first or second week of February I'm going stir crazy and dying for Summer, I held off longer this year.  I'm thinking it has helped significantly that temperatures have been floating up into the 40s and thus any snow we have been getting for the past couple of weeks doesn't last long out here.  It's nice.

I was able to sneak in 7 miles on Saturday morning and it felt great.  It's nice to be running again.

Now if I could just get my eating back in line I'd be set.  If I didn't love baking so much it would be easier.

Aaron will be on MedSurge rotation next quarter.  Should be more exciting than the care facility he's currently in, though he has actually kind of enjoyed that and gotten to know some really neat people.  In two weeks we officially mark the halfway point in school.  Yay!
Of course next quarter is Tues-Fri, with Friday being overnight which means I'll have a husband Saturday afternoon, Sunday and Monday night, but you can do anything for a few months, right?

I do want just one day with nothing on the calendar though.  Just one nothing day.  Looking at the calendar, I should be able to have that in, oh, maybe June of 2019.  If I'm lucky.

Maybe in a couple of weeks we'll just have a play hooky day.  I'll wait till it's a nice sunny warm day, excuse the kids from school, skip whatever extra curricular stuff is going on that day and just go play.  Everyone needs a mental health day, right?
Maybe the fact that I love the idea of keeping all 8 kids home and with me all day just means that that I need mental health help?

I've got so many errands to run this week that it's annoying.  Especially since gas quadrupled in price over the past week and driving a large vehicle doesn't exactly lend itself to killer gas mileage.  I am just grateful that the constant driving isn't the norm.  Phew!

Speaking of hair washing and Aaron, he is the reason I haven't washed my hair for three days.  He has been hearing all about that whole 'not washing your hair is the best thing you can do for your hair' thing, so he dared me to do it.  Since I am apparently still only 13 years old and am willing to accept dares for silly things like this, I'm doing it.  I can rinse my hair, just no actual shampoo or conditioner.  Since I rarely use any other hair product (spray, gel, mousse) it should be a little more doable.  We'll see.  So far I'm pleasantly surprised that I don't feel gross and oily.

Now since I've been up for 2 1/2 hours, done a toning class, eaten breakfast, and fed the baby, but have only managed to do one load of laundry, I need to get myself out of the nice squishy desk chair, get the rest of the kids up and be functional.  I only have an hour and a half before school starts and I have to have five kids out the door on time, followed closely by myself and the three others to go start the craziness that is Tuesday this week.  The real bummer is that I'm going to have to miss boot camp and will be hard pressed to get a run in this afternoon.

But I just got a big toothless grin and slobbery face sucking from my baby, and have a two year old with crazy bedhead rocking out to the High School Musical soundtrack with her nine year old sister.

With that kind of a start to the day things can't be all bad.
Even if I won't be washing my hair.

Sam's got mail

Sam received a package in the mail the other day.

This one was actually delivered to our porch, not rubber-banded to the mailbox door.  Sweet!

One of my favorite things about blogging and online forums and such is the opportunity for new friends.  A very kind new friend sent Sam a very sweet gift.

He LOVES this.
Really.
Sure most babies love a new toy or whatever you're showing them for a bit-they'll lock in to see what it is, do a little exploring and go from there.

But these were like magic!  Sam flipped for the minute I opened the box.

Not only was he locked in to them, he was smiling and giggling and kicking wildly, latching on like he'd found his long lost best friends.

Meet Berlioz and Andiamo.

So. darn. cute.

Can you see his face under there?

Pure joy.

And the happiest diaper change ever.

From head

to toe

An absolute hit!

And one more even though it's a fuzzy phone picture.....this was Sunday afternoon at a friend's house....he was getting fussy but just wouldn't settle in.  Enter the bear, and once he was covered in his favorite blanket he zonked right out!  He now sleeps with either-or both-every time.

Thank you so much J & A!

 

I AM a runner

Sometimes the miles are so few and far between I start to question it.
I needed the reminder tonight.

Running skirt
Tech tee
Light Jacket
Joy!
A few new songs on the ipod
Sky streaked with pink and orange as the sun dropped below the mountains
A nice and easy 4.5 miles
Still light at 6:30pm.....
Perfect.

And even a little quicker than I expected.

The temperature has soared to the upper 40s in the afternoon, so this evening it still felt practically balmy out.  The quads were a little chilly by the last mile, but it just encouraged me to move a little faster.
The air was beautifully crisp, smelling of wet sage, a little snow and an underlying hint of....green.  It makes me just giddy that you can smell that Spring is on it's way.

It's time to start logging more miles.  Time to start running more often.  Time to be a runner again.

Especially since Sam is big enough and strong enough for this now:

That sight makes my heart skip a beat.
Even if my two year old is annoyed with being bundled.

The drawback of the grandparent excitement

My younger half was going to hang out with the grandparents yesterday while I took Sam to his neuro appointment.  My parents only live about 45 minutes away and we see them a few times a month, but the excitement at the prospect of going to Bebe and Pompa's house (also referred to as Beebs and Pomps when we are feeling too lazy to use two syllable names) is beyond exciting.

They spent all of Sunday evening looking forward to it and planning what to do while there.

And then Monday morning rolled around.  My alarm went off at 4:45am (yes really), because I had a 5:15 workout scheduled.  I was lazing in bed for a few minutes before I had to suck it up and get going.

As I laid there, I saw my bedroom door open.
"Mom?"
"What the?!  Why in the world are you awake?  It's 4 something in the morning?"
"Is it time to go yet?"
"Huh?"
"To see Beebs and Pomps!  Is it time to go?"
"No.  PLEASE go get back in bed."

The 6 year old retreated.  But not too far.
As I was headed out the door shortly after 5, I bumped into said 6yr old, who was now accompanied by his 4yr old sidekick.  They were putting their socks and shoes at the front door so that they'd be ready to go.  Both were already dressed as well.

They had a long wait till 8:30 when it was actually time to go.

So other than a long wait, what's the drawback to that early rising excitement?

You sleep through dinner.