Have You Ever Been So Tired...

... that you refused to sit in your seat during Sunbeams and instead fell asleep on the floor?

Tess has.

Spring Break 2015: Day Four

On day four we didn't take any pictures. But we did:

• Got Tess's hair cut (But not as short as I wanted. I told the lady 3 different times I wanted it shorter, and I'm pretty sure she only humored me and pretended to cut. Growl.)
• Went to Fresh Thyme (Super exciting, I know. But I love that store.)
• Did boat loads of laundry
• Did a bunch of stuff for Relief Society (when it rains it pours with this calling!)
• Hung out with Gigi, Logan, and Bergen
• Watched as Gigi made MY dinner (long story short: she had extras and gave it to me. Whoopee!)
• And ate the delicious dinner.

It was a good day.

Spring Break 2015: Day Three

We spent day three of Spring Break 2015 at the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. (a.k.a. The Best Children's Museum Ever.)

This included:

Seeing Bumblebee the Transformer.

Playing a game where you turn into a Transformer on the screen and your movements make the Transformer on the screen move.

Cole particularly liked seeing himself on the screen.

Spencer was really good at it.

He got the highest score!

Miss Tess wasn't interested in the game.

Just posing and looking cute,

Josh patiently went last.

And made his Transformer dance!

Josh's score.

We also played in wind tunnels...

...and water...

... and sand!

All four had to try out a real Indy race car.

And of course Spencer found a computer to play with for a while.

 I took some selfies under the Chihuly glass sculpture.

And then we spent some quality time in the dark. (Tess did much better than I expected during the planetarium show!)

We got lost for a bit in a maze of mirrors.

And then we finished the day on the carousel. (Tess was terrified of everything except sitting on the benches. This does not bode well for Disney World.)

Spring Break 2015: Day Two

On the second day of Spring Break Cole discovered that Chocolate Lucky Charms turn your milk chocolatey. Pretty quickly, too.

We stayed around the house. I cleaned and worked out and edited while the kids played and ate and made messes. We have a good system going.

Batman (aka Cole) got a little bored by the end of the day.

Tess got a little Easter confusion and started talking about her bunnies dying and being resurrected. It was just luck that I even heard her taking about it. That girl talks NON-STOP and I will be the first to admit that I don't always pay 100% attention to her. I've gotten pretty good at saying "yes" and "uh-huh" and things like that at the appropriate times. Because I'm a wonderful, wonderful mother. 😉

Spring Break 2015: Day One

Spring Break 2015: Day One included:

• Using some of the Kohl's gift card Grandpa Viggo and Grandma Joy gave us for Christmas to buy summer t-shirts, sunglasses, and little stuffed Lightening McQueens that make a five year old boy so very, very happy that he politely (!) requests a picture to be taken.

• Lunch at Subway with Daddy. Because that's the only place in the whole wide world the kids wanted to have lunch. Actually, it was kinda nice: the kids all sat at one table and Lance and I sat at another and enjoyed talking. At least until this old, super friendly guy from Logansport started talking to us. Gotta love the ultra-friendly Midwest...
• Buying everyone their own box of cereal for the week. As the expected chaos ensued down the cereal aisle, a single college guy who was walking by said something along the lines of "Cereal for spring break! That's a great idea! Can I have some, too?" Unfortunately, I'm not Midwestern friendly enough to buy strangers cereal. Perhaps I should be.

Frozen Cereal: Tess

Fruity Pebbles: Lance

Reese's Puffs: Josh

Chocolate Lucky Charms: Cole

Lucky Charms: Spencer

• A sleet/snow storm. Because it is Spring Break in Indiana, after all. (No pictures of the storm. It was too depressing.)

The Management

The idea for this sign came to me this morning. At 5:15. 

It's like the Walking Dead on school mornings, but on the first day of Spring Break? Up before dawn.

In other news, since I was up and it is no longer bitterly cold outside I decided to go for a run. I went 3.1 miles and shaved 3 minutes off of the last time I did that outside. Woo-hoo!

As I was running the sun came up and it was HUGE and BEAUTIFUL and kinda stung my eyes after a while because it was pretty bright. But it was so huge it made me think of Tatooine. And then I thought, "Wait, does Tatooine have two suns or two moons? Or is it both?" In my head I saw Luke standing on a cliff, but could not for the life of me remember if it was two moons or suns in the background. And then I thought, "You are a big nerd, Maren."  But then I thought, "I might be a big nerd, but not so big that I'm up at an ungodly hour to play video games. They get that from their father."

And with that I smugly jogged home to post my sign.

Totally Cole

Cole is refusing to learn how to put on and tie his own shoes. REFUSING. With spring/summer so close - and with it easily put-on sandals - I have decided to leave this battle for back-to-school season. Hopefully it will be easier to convince Kindergartener Cole that this is a life skill he needs to master. Because Pre-K Cole will have none of it.

The other day we were running a little late and it was quite frustrating to have to put his shoes on, especially because he just kinda lays there and refuses to help in any way.

Me: You know, it would be a really big help if you would put your own shoes on.
Cole: No.
Me: Okay. It would be a really big help if you would just untie your shoes before you bring them to me.
Cole (in his snarkiest, wow-you're-so-dumb-mom voice): WHY WOULD I DO THAT?!
And then he proceeded to give me the most exasperated look a five year old boy can give.

And that, gentle readers, is Cole in a nutshell.

Today

Today was spent cleaning and exercising and editing (a lot) and doing all the things that have to be done on Mondays. But it was also spent enjoying the glorious weather, going on walks, playing with sidewalk chalk, and getting free ice cream cones at DQ for FHE.

It was a good day. A long, busy day. But good.

Time Out For Women 2015

I was able to spend Friday night and Saturday with these wonderful ladies.

Amelia, Ashley, Kanien, Deidra, Me, Cyndi

We talked, ate, wandered, listened, walked in the rain, slept a little bit, enjoyed seeing Comic Con and St. Patrick's Day race people decked out in their various costumes, talked some more, ate some more, listened some more, and did a little shopping.

We also got matching totebags. Because we're cool.

I'm pretty lucky to have such good friends!

Cake for Dinner

This afternoon I asked the kids what they wanted for dinner. (Lance had a meeting and when Lance isn't home for dinner making anything "real" just isn't worth it, you know what I mean?)

So Josh snarkily answered "Cake! We should have cake!" And Spencer chimed in "Yeah! Let's have cake!" And they laughed at how clever they were because no way Mom would ever make cake for dinner.

Challenge accepted.

Blueberry Buttermilk Breakfast Cake was prepared and baked.

And there was much rejoicing - until I cut it and realized it was not done. What the what!?!  The tooth pick had come out clean! And then there was much sadness and the kids had to eat their eggs and yogurt without cake. (I wasn't going to let them eat just cake for dinner.)

So I baked it some more and some more and some more and THIRTY MINUTES later it was done. Crazy.  But it was then time to go to scouts.

So we had the cake as a little bedtime snack and there was much rejoicing. Again.

And Josh proclaimed that we should have cake every night. And Tess claimed that the cake had cured her hiccups. And Cole asked for more. And Spencer just rolled his eyes. (As he is wont to do lately.)

Mom win.

What'd You Say?

Being a mom is always, if nothing else, consistently entertaining. Here are a few things I have found myself saying lately. (Some of them fairly often.)

"Do you want to get dressed or run around naked for a bit?"  "Naked." "Get to it, then."

"Why is there a single church sock in the trunk of the van?"

"Why are you hiding in my closet?"

"Who locked you in the pantry?"

"School is good for you. And for me. Mostly for me."

"Mikey Mouse would NOT approve of this."

"Well, I'm not sure what you expected. Water is WET."

"Yes, Harry does yell a lot in this one. Well, he's angry. And a teenager." (Discussing Harry Potter #5.)

"Please take that marble out of your belly button."

Starring Tess

Setting: Sam's Club, 7ish pm

Characters: Me, pushing a heavily laden cart; Tess, sitting in the cart front seat; Spencer, Josh, and Cole clamboring and running around the cart and up and down the aisles

Begin scene: Tess has the hiccups. She lets out a particularly belchy one.

Tess: Hey! I tooted in my mouth!

Spencer, Josh, and Cole literally fall to the floor, laughing.

Tess sits up straighter, reveling in her potty humor glory and attention.

The joke is repeated - many times - throughout the rest if the trip.

End scene.

Heatin' Things Up

Have I complained much about how cold it's been this winter? No? Well, it's been cold. Really, really COLD. Ridiculously cold. Ice Planet Hoth cold.

Last Sunday Lance came in from shoveling snow and I asked him if it was cold outside and he said "It's around 12 degrees," and I said "Oh, that's not too bad." AND I MEANT IT. 

You get the idea.

So when we started having furnace problems on Wednesday I was more than a little nervous. First, because it's so freaking cold and not having a furnace is not really an option, and second because repairs in this home never come cheap and we have a lot of big expenses coming up.

On Wednesday morning I started smelling something burning. At first I thought it was something caught in the element in the dishwasher, but that wasn't it. It didn't take me too long to realize it was the furnace. I wasn't really sure what to do, so I changed the filter, but that didn't really do anything. So I decided to turn the furnace off because I had to leave the house for a few hours that morning and I didn't want to come home to a burned down house.

I came home later and tried turning the furnace back on to see if it still smelled. No dice. 

The repairman was there an hour later, and within 5 minutes he knew what the problem was: a burned out motor. It had literally burned and melted some of the plastic, stopped working, and tripped the fuse. Easy enough to replace as long as the part is in stock and we could pay the $600 for parts and labor.

(It must be noted that all morning I had had visions of us having to entirely replace the furnace. Crazier things have happened in this house, right? So $600? Not nearly as bad as what I had been fearing!)

Fortunately for us, the part was in stock and our rainy day slush fund was full. Three hours later our furnace was as good as new. The repairman offered to let me keep the burned out motor. And for half a second I seriously considered it, I mean, it was now a pretty expensive piece of junk. But no thanks.

That evening Lance mentioned how lucky we are to be able to have something like this happen and not have to freak out about it or worry about where the money is going to come from.

Luck?  No way. Blessed - we have been extremely blessed! We're not rich by any stretch of the imagination, but we're doing okay. We work hard and spend our money wisely, we pay our tithing and give a generous fast offering, and we save a good chunk each month for things like this. (I've been saving even more since we moved into this house and all of the appliances have decided to die. Sometimes all at once.) We don't go into debt if we can help it. In fact, the only debt we have right now is the house. (And if Aimpad ever takes off, we'll kiss the mortgage good-bye first thing!)

We've been extremely blessed, and I just feel like I should acknowledge that.

Tess's Preschool Program

Last week was Tess's Winter Program for preschool. It was pretty much what you would expect of a program featuring 3 and 4 year olds: low production value, high entertainment.

Tess was a hoot-and-a-half. First, we had to do a photo shoot before leaving for the program.

The hand on the hip and the little tummy slay me.

The boys were not exactly thrilled about having the spend the evening in a strange church watching their little sister sing. They changed their tune slightly when told there would be treats at the end.

The kids were pretty cute. They wore shirts they had decorated with snowflakes made from their handprints.

The songs were... well, kinda sung, kinda yelled.  Watch this and you'll understand:

At one point all of the children sat down and then later stood up again. Except Tess. For whatever reason - whether obstinate or spaciness - she sat for several minutes, despite the whispered pleas from her teachers! (Spencer and Josh nearly rolled on the floor laughing over this. Cole just scowled.)

She finally stood back up, only to then pretend to be eating something, complete with melodramatic pantomimes and fake chewing. Don't ask - we have no idea why.

I'll give her this, though: she knew every word to each song! Not that she will sing them for us at home.

The program was short and sweet, and we soon found ourselves "fellowshipping" with the other preschool families. (If fellowshipping means my kids snarfing down desserts and complaining when I tell them they've had enough, as well as not sitting with anyone else because our family fills a whole table.)

The only part of the night Cole smiled. He was none to happy that Tess was in the spotlight for the evening.

"But I've only had 8 cookies, Mom! Why can't I have more!??!"

Back home she was not as inclined to have a photo shoot with her new shirt. Turkey.

Well, it was an entertaining evening, to say the least. Well done, Tess!