You are GOING to have fun!!!

Since I’m not the swearing type, add whatever expletive you would like at the end of that title! (I wanted to!)

As you should know by this point, Hubby took TRMinator to Bear Lake this weekend to go snowmobiling with the family.  They left bright and early this morning ( I know because of course I got up and had to make sure that they got everything.) and will be back sometime tomorrow.

Since Hubby has done a few fun things with just TRMinator lately, I thought it would be fun to take the G-man to have a special day today with the Princess and me.  He was actually excited to go this morning.  The first place we went was to the Treehouse Children’s Museum.  It was really sweet, because G-man stuck with the Princess the whole time.  (Usually he has nothing to do with her except to needle and annoy her.)  He took on the role of big brother quite well, which was good, because I lost them a few times. (Lots of school groups were there this morning!)  After about 45 minutes, he said that he was done.  Princess was still enjoying playing with the trains, so I told him to wait a bit longer.  5 minutes later he said he was completely done, so we left.

Next up was next door at Fat Cat’s, which is an arcade place if you’re not familiar with it.  They also have a Pizza Factory in the building so I thought it would be fun to have lunch there as well.  They have bowling lanes there also, and G-man has been playing bowling on my parent’s Wii and has been pretty good at it, so he wanted to try it in real life.  When we first got there the lanes were pretty busy, so I suggested we have lunch first.  When we were done eating (in case you were wondering, it actually wasn’t bad taking those two to a sit down restaurant by myself!) the lanes were practically empty so I thought it would be a great time to go bowling, or bowling balling, as the Princess puts it.  Well, of course by that point G-man decided that he was done for the day and wanted to go home and play on the X-Box.  I mean, come on!  He had been away from his game for about 2 hours at that point!  That’s perfectly understandable, right?  (grrrr!!)

At some point in all of that I had mentioned possibly going to Boondocks, another arcade place a bit closer to our house, as well, and the Princess really wanted to go there.  Of course G-man didn’t, he just wanted to go home.  So we got in the car, and I cranked up the Phineous and Ferb album that I had downloaded to my MP3 player just for today, and told him that I wasn’t going to let him be a stick in the mud (I already fill that role in our family) and that he was going to have fun today whether he liked it or not!!  So since he was pretty much captive in the car at this point, I drove us to Boondocks.

The nice thing about Boondocks is they have a regular bowling alley as well as a miniature one geared more for little kids.  I thought the G-man would enjoy the smaller one more since it doesn’t take as long as a regular round of bowling.  Well, guess what!!   He did enjoy it!

Little stinker.

After bowling balling we went on to the arcade games.  I think he spent about $5 in the machine with the stuffed animals that has the claw because last week when we went there he actually won an animal.  He must have the knack with those claw things because even though he didn’t win a stuffed animal this time, he won a plastic dinosaur in another claw machine.  After they spent the rest of their money in the arcade games, (I may have commandeered Princess’ card a lot, but at least I won her tickets!) I allowed that we could go home. 

I thought that we had fun today, if you ask the G-man, he may have something different to say, but I don’t care!  If I have to force him to have fun, so be it!! 

Helloooo Mister Sun!!

I wasn’t going to post anything today, but I just had to congratulate the sun for finally coming out!  In full force!  It’s not terribly warm, but I don’t care, it’s sunny! 

With the sun showering us with it’s lovely rays I actually wanted to get stuff done!  I went for my run, washed my car (including windows!), and vacuumed it out also.  I hate how my car gets so gunky in the winter, so I love when I get a chance to clean it up and remember what color it actually is. 

I feel like I should be outside planting something or pulling weeds.  I know it’s still too early for that, but days like today remind me that just maybe we won’t be stuck in the doldrums of winter forever.  Yay for the sun! 

I’m the stick in the mud!!

Most of Hubby’s siblings and their families are spending the week at Bear Lake this week.  They are all getting condos and spending the time either at the pool or sledding and playing outside in the snow.  My kids are still off track through the end of the week, so this would be a good chance to go and relax and play with all the cousins, right?  Wrong!  We are not going.  Well, I should say, the younger two and I are not going.  Hubby is going and taking TRMinator with him, but not till Friday and he is only going to spend a day up there.

Why, you may be asking, am I  not going up there and vegging with everyone?  Well, several reasons, the first of which is I am not a vegger.  I can’t handle having nothing to do.  I guess you could say I don’t relax well.  The second is there is nothing to do there in the winter except play in the snow, and I don’t particularly enjoy the snow or the cold.  If there was a big town there with shopping and other stuff to do it would be different.  But there’s not.  And it’s boring.

The other problem that I have is really of Hubby’s making.  Usually everyone that goes up there rents snowmobiles for a day or two.  Hubby really likes to go snowmobiling, especially with his brothers.  I don’t really have a problem with that per se.  The problem that I have is that when he rents a snow machine he wants to get his money’s worth out of it, so that is first on his mind.  I come second on those days, which I’m not used to and I don’t like!  See, it’s really his fault because he has spoiled me and has always put me first, so when there’s something else that is put ahead of me it kind of ticks me off!  So rather than have him split his attention, I just decided not to go.

I actually had a hard time coming to that decision.  I waffled for quite a bit on whether or not I would go.  I thought it would be fun to hang out with my SIL’s and that the kids would enjoy sledding for a little bit, but then I remembered how ticked off I was at Hubby by the time I left last year, after I packed everything and everyone up by myself while he was out playing, and how I swore to myself that I was never going to go again.  I decided that it was probably better for our marriage if I didn’t go.

I hope everyone else enjoys their little winter vacation.  I’m sure Hubby and TRMintator will have fun while they are there.  I will be content to stay home and be the stick in the mud!

The cat is out of the bag

We did it!  We told the kids where we are going!  Oh yeah, we were going to try and hold out and keep it a secret, huh?  Well, we decided that we were telling too many other people, and that it was going to slip, so rather than have them find out from someone else, we told them ourselves the other night. 

I really wanted to tell them before Hubby takes TRMinator up to Bear Lake with him this week.  He’s going snowmobiling with his family and it could come up very easily since several of the family members that will be there know about it. 

Where are we going you ask?  We are just going to Disneyland.  It’s not very exotic, but neither the kids nor I have ever been there.  We will be spending 3 days in Disneyland and one day in Legoland.  I think that this will be the first actual family vacation, that isn’t just to another family member’s house.  My parents are going as well.  Hopefully it will be fun and not too stressful for me if I think we are getting off schedule!  AAHHH!!!  Banish the thought!

I’m the guilty party!

When I was talking to my friend Sarah the other day, I told her I was a marshmallow.  I didn’t mean that I was soft and spongy, (although I suppose that could be the case as well) I meant that sometimes I feel more guilt about things than I really probably should.

Hubby and I are talking about putting our house on the market again.  We tried to sell it for a few months last year, but then got scared by the economy and took it off.  That time we used  a friend of ours as our agent.  She told us that she would cut her side of the commission when we sold it because she would make it up when we bought a house.  She asked us how we wanted her to advertise and told us how much it was to put our house in several different advertisements.  Holy cow they were expensive!  Of course I didn’t want her to spend money on us that she might not recoup (I don’t think I was really convinced that it was going to sell) so there wasn’t a whole lot that was done to market our house. 

Now that we are thinking about trying again I’m not sure that I want to use her as our agent.  I think we might want a new perspective on it.  But of course, I would feel horribly guilty if we didn’t go with her again.  She took us around to look at several houses when ours was on the market, and I would like her to make some money, at some point for all the time she spent on us.  That, and I really don’t want to pay the full 6% commission if we listed it with someone else!  The really silly thing about this whole situation is, if I could just get over this I probably would have bit the bullet, and our house would be for sale right now.  Instead I’m anguishing over whether our not we would burn that bridge with our friend if we went with someone else and what we should do about it.

Hubby has also been talking about going on another vacation, just the two of us.  His uncle (whom he works for) told him a couple of years ago that the points are piling up on the credit card that they use for the business and we should just take a trip once a year or so and use the points for our airfare.  The last trip we took was in 2008 when we went to NYC.  Hubby is throwing around crazy things like going to Hawaii.  I have two problems with that.  The first one being, a flight from here to Hawaii is like 7 hours.  I think I might possibly die if I were on a cramped plane for 7 hours.  The longest flight I have been on was 4, and that was akin to torture.  I just get really bored!  The second problem is that we would need to farm out our kids.

Here’s my take on babysitting.  I don’t like to ask people to do something that I wouldn’t want to do myself, and I HATE babysitting!  The only people that I feel somewhat comfortable asking are my parents.  But I have guilt associated even with that because I know that as much as my parents love my children and are willing, even anxious to keep them for several hours, they want them for several hours, not several days.  They are in the grandparent stage of life and don’t want to go back to the parent stage of life even for a week.  They’ve been there, done that.  The other problem I have is self inflicted guilt because I know my mother.  She hasn’t ever gotten to take fun trips like the ones that we have gone on, so I know that she would much rather come with us than stay home taking care of our kids.

I think it all comes down to in my mind, that I am their mother, they are my responsibility, and if we go on a vacation, I am shirking my God-given responsibility.  And of course, I feel guilty!

Ssshhh!!!

Are you good at keeping secrets?  I’m not, in fact, I’m terrible at it.  Case in point, when Hubby and I were dating I got him a pair of Doc Martin sandals for Christmas.  I was so excited about them that I gave them to him in September.  Then he broke up with me several weeks later. (he was notorious for doing that while we were dating, it’s a wonder I married him!)  I guess the bright side of that situation was that we got back together by Christmas and I got a ring for my present that year, which kind of put the shoes to shame.  My point is that I’m horrible at keeping secrets.  I usually just get too excited and I give it away.

Hubby and I are planning a family vacation that the kids don’t know about.  We aren’t going till April, so I’d kind of like to keep the cat in the bag till it’s a bit closer to the date.  We’ve been talking about it for a little bit, and somehow have managed not to spill the beans yet…  (crossing my fingers!)

Of course then there’s the problem of how we are going to tell them.  Do we make a big production of it (which is what I’m leaning towards) or do we just break down one day and say, “Hey kids, guess what.  We’re going  _________.”  (I can’t tell you yet!  TRMinator reads this!  Albeit not terribly frequently, so I’m guessing that he’s going to know by the time he reads this, depending on how long I can hold out.)  

Does anyone want to start a little friendly wager on how long I’ll last before I slip up and say something?  I would bet not too long.  I can’t keep secrets, that’s just how I roll!

Hmpf!

Hmpf!  We hear that a lot of that around our house.  It’s usually accompanied by a very dramatic pump of the shoulders as the princess exits the room.  Apparently her royal highness doesn’t usually like the way we minions do her bidding.  I don’t think that we live up to her standards very much, so we hear the “Hmpf” a lot.

We like the Disney version of princesses around here, the ones that are kind and nice to everyone- especially birds and woodland creatures, and don’t throw a little fit when something doesn’t go their way.  Hubby has decided that he is not going to condone this almighty behavior, so when she does that she has to go to the corner.

The other night, as they were getting ready for bed, something didn’t go the way she thought it should, so she got upset and threw her shoulders up in a huff and “Hmpf!!”ed, except on her  way back down she remembered that she wasn’t supposed to do that anymore.  So as she cried while standing in the corner, she wailed, “I wish I hadn’t humpfed!”  Yes, don’t we all, Princess, don’t we all.

Some random thoughts for Friday

Why is it, that I decide that the house is a filthy mess at 7:30 at night?  I decide to vacuum, then I think I might as well get a bucket of Mr. Clean going so I can wash the banisters, because they are starting- well not really starting as much as has been for awhile now, to feel a bit grimy.  Mind you, I’ve been meaning to do this for the last week, but I couldn’t find the inspiration for it and now for some reason 8:00 at night seems like a good time for it now.  I know, it was a bit odd.

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Since we’re on the subject of cleaning, I have a question for those that figure out the wonders of our universe, if I can still remember the last time I cleaned something, why can’t it still be clean?  I mean, come on!  If it has been so long since the last time I cleaned my kitchen floor, or washed my baseboards that I can’t even remember doing it, then by all means they should be dirty again.  But if I can specifically remember the last time I cleaned them, (and it doesn’t seem all that long ago) then they should still be clean!  Don’t you think?  Just throwing that out there.

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I’m trying to remind myself that I was sick this week, and that I’m not a total loser because I only got out once this week to run.  I was sick Monday, I still wasn’t 100% on Tuesday, and Wednesday I was being lazy, I’ll admit.  I finally got out on Thursday and TRMinator came with me.  It’s kind of funny to run with him.  He is used to running in spurts as fast as he can.  The last time he came with me I called him floppy.  I think he was a bit offended by that.  I showed him how I pace my breathing and try to have a bit of a steady rhythm.  He did much better this time.  Of course he had to show me up and sprint the last straightaway, but whatever.

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I think that’s pretty much all I have.  I must have emptied my head of all the random thoughts that were floating around!  Boy that feels better!

The G-man strikes again

Oh, my G-man.  Those of you who know him, know what I mean when I say that.  The latest G-incident:

It was my turn to take the boys for scout carpool.  The afternoon started well enough.  I had him get his scout shirt on and get ready to go, while listening to just a small amount of grumbling.  I went out and got in the car to wait for him as he finished putting his shoes on.  He came out without his coat, so I told him to go back and put it on.  As I sat there in the car and waited for several minutes (it should have literally taken him two seconds, his coat was right by the door) I wondered how long it could possibly take to put a coat on.  The longer I waited, the angrier I got.  I called the house (I was already in the car!) and asked TRMinator what G-man was doing.  He was watching TV!  I could have killed him!!  By this point I was fuming and I grounded him from the computer and XBox for the rest of the night.

When I got home I messaged Hubby and told him about the incident all the while wondering what screw is lose in G-man’s brain.  For pete sake!  He knew I was waiting for him, didn’t he?

When Hubby got home, he asked G-man why he was grounded.  After some cajoling he said that he got in trouble. When he asked what happened, he said that he thought I told him to go back in and hang on, instead of go back in and get your coat on.  So he watched some TV while he waited for me.  Oh brother!  Well, that makes a little bit more sense than just completely forgetting what I told him to do two seconds after I told him to do it.  That would be my G-man.  He didn’t question why I would tell him that, he just thought it was a a bit more time to avoid scouts.  That’s how his mind works.  Ahh, sometimes I think my life would be boring without my G-man.

By the way, he’s still grounded for the rest of the night.  I think he can go one whole evening without playing on the computer.  The grounding just won’t be continued for the rest of his life, as I was seriously considering.

Uggh…

I had started a post the other day, but I haven’t finished it because I have been sick.  I haven’t been sick for awhile, and I forgot just how fun this can be. (that would be in a sarcastic font if there was one)  I spent the whole day on the couch only getting up to either take my children to school or pick them up.  At this point I am starting to feel better, and I’m getting very antsy, but I still don’t have enough energy to do much of anything.  Except of course blog on my pretty pink laptop!

I have to say, my family has been pretty cute while I’ve been down and out.  Hubby ran to the store first thing this morning to get me some Sprite and some magazines to read.  He stayed to take the boys to school even though I told him that I could do it.  (I must have sounded pathetic enough.)  I told the boys they could just have school lunch today, but they made their own lunches.  I’m kind of bummed that I didn’t get up off the couch to see their efforts.

I feel like I’m on the mend, which I hope I feel better tomorrow because I’ve got too much to do!  We’ve got parent teacher conferences among other things to do tomorrow!  I don’t have time for another day of this stuff!   Uggh!

Don’t you hate it when…

You spend half the day putting all your Christmas decorations away, and make a trip through the house to find all those pesky little things that are hiding from you.  You convince yourself that you are going to get all of them this year, unlike last year, when you forgot that 4 ft. tall tree on your plant shelf, and by that point you were tired of putting things away so it stayed there till May.  You remember the little nativity set that is tucked away on a shelf that was in the other room.  You remember the advent calendar candy streamers, and even remember where you put the thing that you pulled down to make room for said streamers, and put that back up.

At this point you are feeling pretty good about yourself.  You remembered to put everything away.  You’re not going to find anything else in a month and then have to go into the dungeon of your house and try to find room in your already fairly neatly packed and somewhat organized Christmas boxes, to put this forgotten, neglected decoration away.

Then your mom points out something that should be fairly obvious to you.  I mean, they are hanging on the railing that separates the kitchen and the family room, come on, it’s a spot you look at every day!  Ah yes, the second set of Christmas stockings.  Huh.  How on earth did you miss those?  If I didn’t know you so well, I would have said that you were blind!  Especially since they are pretty much out in the open.  They weren’t hiding from you!  Sheesh!!

In case you weren’t sure, the dummy in question is me.  And, yes, they are still up.  I may just leave them up till next Christmas!  We have these stockings because the one with my name on it is the one I had as a kid.  My grandma’s friend knitted my brother and I one when we were little.  When I got married, she made one for Hubby and sent it to me.  Then when each of my kids were born, she knitted them one also.  I think it’s so neat that she did that for us, I have to put them up somewhere.   These are the stockings that Santa usually puts an X Box game in it for each of the kids.  Needless to say, they usually make a beeline for these Christmas morning. 

So much for my careful check of the house to make sure I got everything!  Oh well, one less thing I have to put up next year, if they are still up by then!

Good job Iowa!!

Let me preface this by saying, I’m not generally a huge football fan, but I had to watch this game!  In case you didn’t watch, Iowa beat Georgia Tech in the Orange Bowl, 24-14.

You can take the girl out of Iowa, but you can’t take Iowa out of the girl!

What a couple of nerds!

Yes, this is how hubby and I spend our evenings.  Just for the record, I was getting TRMinators spelling list of the school website.  Of course as soon as I was done with that I started surfing the web.  Don’t judge me!

Happy 2010!

Happy New Year!  How did you spend your New Year’s Eve?  Was it like this?

Or this?

We spent our New Year’s Eve with our neighbors at a neighborhood party.  We have great neighbors, so it’s fun to get together and see what craptastic white elephant gifts everyone has come up with this year!  I am quite proud that I actually stayed up till midnight, and was still lucid when the ball dropped.  That is somewhat of an accomplishment for me!