My pride wrapped in yarn

Random Great American picture. Trusty old point and shoot!

I had no idea we needed a stadium blanket for soccer practice tonight. Meredith and I froze while watching Alex run up and down the field, weaving in and out of tiny orange cones. I conned Merdi into sitting on my lap as much as possible; but she doesn’t understand the human blanket concept yet.

As we pulled into soccer, my cell phone rang and I noticed it was a call from the elementary school. I had Alex with me, so I knew it wasn’t a your-son-just-threw-up-in- gym-class call. As soon as the sweet lady told me she was with Market Day, I cringed. I KNEW today was Market Day pick up, and even fielded my reminder call last night. I became a self-fulfilling prophecy by joking with the reminder mom that I would most likely forget to pick up my order. I kept my promise.

While Meredith was at school this morning, I made an honest attempt at buying her some warmer clothes. If she can avoid wearing pants, she will, but my dress and tights combos seem to be limited this year. I hit my regular haunts and didn’t find much. A friend suggested I try a department store, like Macy’s. Never even occurred to me! I am easily overwhelmed and I don’t like to shop. Department stores do me in. I think I might have to go to an actual indoor mall, rather than my normal lifestyle centers. I’m sure I’ll just wind up buying a bunch of stuff on line that doesn’t fit. That way I’ll have an entire post written while I wait in line at the post office to return it all.

Alex was out of school early today for a teacher in-service day, and I feel badly that I didn’t really do anything special with him. I don’t really know what I was so busy doing this afternoon, but I know I should have taken him up on his offer to play a game of “Go Fish.” My laundry will be here tomorrow and Alex won’t.

I forgot to mention Meredith and I had very special lunch guests yesterday. My Grandpa and Grandma Berger came to visit. They were in West Baden Springs to celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary. That’s twice as long as I’ve been alive. At least I think it is. Math isn’t my thing. I was kicking myself after they left because I didn’t pull out my camera. Sometimes it gets in the way of me being a part of the day, so I leave it in the bag, but I almost always regret it. My Grandpa will be 82 next week and my Grandma will be 81 in December. I think it’s pretty impressive they made it all the way here from West Baden with little direction from me. My Grandma had it all under control with her Mapquest directions. It was such a treat to see them! I so appreciated them driving the extra 2 and half hours. It means a lot to me for a lot of reasons.

Tonight at dinner Alex shared something from his day with us, which is pretty monumental. I could earn an oral surgery degree with the amount of teeth pulling I do with that kid. Alex voluntarily told us he was the star student in art today. I was visibly proud and he quickly brushed off the praise and told me it was probably just because he helped clean the art room. I choose to believe it’s because he’s a brilliant artist and made the best yarn collage ever.

Great Weekend

Whew, this weekend went by in a flash. Brandon’s company rented out Six Flags, Great America near Chicago on Saturday. This used to be somewhat of an annual event for us, but the last time I was there I was six weeks pregnant with Alex. I was very cautious, and had to be talked into riding the carousel. The weird part is, that trip seems like it happened a week ago. I swear time moves faster once you have children.

We left fairly early Saturday morning thinking it would take us four hours to get there. Turns out, it only takes three hours including a lengthy stop for breakfast.

You know what’s funny about having the new car? When we had the van and were traveling; we hit the through drive-thru and ate with wheels turning. I’m determined to keep this vehicle clean. (I once stepped on an errant juice box on the floor of the van. If you want a physics lesson in velocity, try stepping on a juice box with a size 10 loafer.) So now we go in to eat and it turns out it’s much easier. I’m not fiddling around opening apples with my teeth and handing out napkins in a panic.

But, I digress…Even with a breakfast stop we made it to Great America an hour early. Oops. I had us dressed like we were headed for the slopes. I thought since the high temp for the day by us was 78, it would probably be around 70 there. You know, it is three hours north after all. It was warm, and thankfully I packed shorts for Alex. Brandon wore shorts despite my warning that he “would freeze to death.” Meredith and I hoofed it all over the park like Nanuks of the North. After nearly boiling in my three quarter length black sweater, I finally shed the top layer and schlepped around in my coffee spotted t-shirt, which was a bit too tight. I looked the part of an amusement park goer to say the least. I was horrified to see my rear in side view. I realize why I tend to wear longer sweaters.

We rode all the rides for which the kids met the height requirement and/or were willing to ride. I really wanted to ride some of the bigger roller coasters but Alex wasn’t interested. Meredith had the chutzpah, but lacked the height. The big hit of the day was the log flume. The kids thought it was hilarious that Brandon and I were both soaked. We left late in the afternoon and we were exhausted. We checked into our hotel before getting some dinner. Alex checked out the place, and said, “Well, this is a fairly nice hotel.” Again, he’s six going on 40, and yet still throws tantrums. He gets it honestly, I threw one on the way home.

Our hotel was in the middle of a business park in Deerfield, so there weren’t obvious choices around for dinner. This is the reason I love navigation systems; we typed in Portillo’s Hotdogs, and viola it took us to one. I know I’ve rhapsodized about my love of Portiollo’s before, but just to reiterate; a Portillo’s hotdog is on my “last meal” list. Yes, I think about what I’d eat before an execution. I’ve converted our children. It didn’t take much. For whatever reason, I can't figure out how to rotate this video. Argh! It's a very enthusiastic restaurant review from Meredith, so just watch it with your head cocked sideways. Oh, and kindly ignore my Marge Simpson voice and Brandon clearing his throat. And one more thing...click on play and then immediately click on pause so the video will load completely. Then click play, othewise it's jerky.

Slept in Seattle

I’m home and with any luck, I’ll be caught up on my housework by Halloween. It’s amazing how much laundry can accumulate in four days. Yowzers, let’s hope the ole Kenmore holds it together.

Dark and early Saturday morning, Brandon and the kids dropped me off at the airport so I could catch a flight to Seattle. The day before, Meredith asked how I’d be getting to the airport and I told her they were going to take me. It didn’t occur to her Brandon would be home and she said, “Oh. Do I have to do the steering wheel?!”

Brandon had soccer duty and I was relieved to hear I didn’t miss Alex’s first goal.

I got into Seattle around noon and my friend Michelle, whom my mom calls “Peaches and Cream,” picked up me and our friend Sarah. It was a rainy day in Seattle, which doesn’t sound surprising, but every time I’ve gone to visit, it’s been gorgeous! We grabbed some Mexican and went back to Michelle’s house to get ready to eat again.

Michelle is the hostess extraordinaire. (Is that right? Spell check says it’s right. I think spell check gave up.) Michelle whipped up quiche, Caesar salad and a caramel apple cheesecake. That’s right; I consumed all my WW points for the week in one day. Our friends Jeannine and Joe, and their pug Cheech, came over for dinner. *All these people are friends from college and even though I don’t get to see them all that often, we always pick up right where we left off, except we’re no longer wearing flannel pants and Sigma Kappa sweatshirts. Oh, and Cheech didn’t go to Bradley.
They came over so we could finalize our plans for our winery tour. I thought it was going to be a winery tour, but it was really more of a tasting room tour, which was fine by me! It was really fun and Jeannine and Joe know a lot more about wine than I do. I’m sure they cringed while I purchased several bottles of wine too sweet for regular consumption to bring home.

Monday we spent the day hanging out with Michelle and just spending time as old friends. We pulled out all kinds of scrapbooks this weekend. I would like to know why there were no stylists when I was in school. Not that I could have afforded to hire one, but looking back at pictures, it would have been worth every penny.

Tuesday morning Sarah and I flew home. I grabbed a book to read on my way home. I finished my library book on the way there, and I found one for $5 in the clearance section. When I paid, it was only $1.24. I felt really cheap and even cheaper when I got to the portion of the book that I was embarrassed to have my seat mate see. It isn’t a romance novel, so I wasn’t expecting it.

I was so glad to get home to see the kids. They were very excited to see me and I never realize just how much I’ve missed them until they crawl into my lap or make me laugh. I’m excited to see Brandon too, but it’ll have to wait until Thursday. If the kids can hold it together, behavior wise, Brandon has a big surprise weekend planned for them. Brandon is proof you can be a good dad even if you live out of a suitcase.

Campaign Announcement

I wanted to wait until the right time to publish the newsreel found above. I will be gone for a few days, and I thought I would leave you with my BIG, EXCITING news! If you're interested in knowing why I've been so busy lately, please click on the play button on the above video. It contains a segment that ran locally last night. I'm scared and nervous, but incredibly proud to finally find a use for my degree. Wish me luck!

A pumpkin with flair

In a ploy to avoid deep cleaning our living room, I decided to put out a few Fall and Halloween decorations. I got out a few pumpkins and a wreath or two. Meredith pulled out all sort of odd decorations I’m embarrassed to admit I once displayed with great pride. As most of you know, we go overboard on Christmas decorating and the kids have their own trees. They don’t understand why other “holidays” don’t get the same respect. So, they both insisted on having these little battery operated light-up jack-o-lanterns in their rooms.

Alex plopped his on the dresser and made it his job to make sure the pumpkins both had fresh batteries. Meredith took it upon herself to make her pumpkin match her décor and sense of style.

Today was a hectic day. I dropped off Merdi at school and ran errands ALL DAY. I mean that. My rear was in the driver’s seat until I picked up Meredith. After school, Joe and Annie came over to play for awhile and that made the kids’ day. We’ve been outside as much as possible because I know it won’t be long before our backyard is barren and I get wind burned while getting the mail.

I’m getting ready to head to Seattle to visit my dear friend Michelle, who is perhaps one of the sweetest women I know. Michelle recently lost her father, so our friend Sarah (Sarah with an “H,” not Beckman-Alexander) and I are going out for a visit. It will be a bittersweet trip. There’s little that bothers me more than not being able to physically be with a friend in need, so I’m anxious to hug her! Rumor has it there is a winery tour planned for Sunday, so I’m really excited! You know how I found out about the tour??? Facebook!

Facebook will be the death of me!

These two are entirely responsible for my demise!

I realize I’m a little late to the party, but at Sara’s suggestion, who was conned into joining by Stephanie, I joined Facebook. I’ve officially given up hope for a spotless house. I was very reluctant to join because frankly I felt silly and too old. I once joined MySpace and had a page for all of an hour. I felt like a predator.

So, when Sara suggested Facebook, I balked. Sara then told me about several of our friends from BU who had pages and I started to reconsider. Sara is in sales and is very good at her job. I caved, created a profile and lost several hours over the course of the weekend.

You all know how much I love pictures. I love pictures of people I know and don’t get a chance to see all that often even more! Facebook allows you to upload pictures to a little album and most of my friends have filled them with fun pictures of their families.

I’ve been in touch with people I haven’t heard from in years and I’ve had an account for four days. I’m even having lunch next week with a friend I grew up with, and we’re meeting right by our house! How fun!

If a few more people join from my high school graduating class, I see no reason to ever attend a reunion. I can see their families, read little snippets about them, and won’t get stuck by the bar in an awkward conversation with no end.

Don’t worry Brandon, I did get all the laundry done today and managed to plant the GIANT mums we bought at Costco. Meredith and I also cleaned the bonus room. See, I’m a great multi-tasker!

I put Merdi down for her nap and after an hour, she announced she was finished with her nap. Meredith loves her nap, so I was a little surprised. I told her since she was up she could help me clean the toy room. She was suddenly exhausted and slept for another hour.

We have our first Cub Scout meeting tonight and I wish I was more excited. I just loathe the thought of not getting home until 8:00 and still having to do baths and bed. I’m a creature of habit and really don’t like to throw off our nightly routine. Blurg!

Fun in our mailbox

Yesterday was a Holy Day for Meredith. The new American Girl catalogue arrived in the mail. For starters, Meredith thinks her friend “Miss Barbara” sends her the catalogue. I think she just wants it to be from Miss Barbara. Meredith thumbed through the pages as we ran our errands and she would occasionally squeal about something she found and want me to pull over so she could add it to her Christmas list on the spot. When Meredith finally finished pouring over the pages, she closed the back cover and said, “Oh, wow! That’s a bad hair day!” She was referring to this:

Poor Kirsten had to have some work done. Don’t feel bad Kirsten. I’m in need of a little work myself.

One of our errands was to pick up the dry cleaning. Note to Brandon, not a good idea to wear a silk shirt while scrubbing my parents’ grill. The spots are still there. I bet all of you are picturing Brandon scrubbing the grill in an early 90’s shirt your date might have worn to Homecoming. Don’t worry, it’s not that kind of a shirt and anyway it doesn’t look like he’ll be wearing it anytime soon. Our dry cleaner has a bowl of suckers for the taking, so Meredith loves the cleaners. Before we went in, Meredith told me she would be getting an extra sucker, “Not two for me. One for Alex.” She did just that and she stuck it in his door handle to surprise him. What a sweetie.

Meredith’s kindness was outdone by her brother who used one of his two library allotments to check out Enchanted for his sister. Of course, he’s completely obsessed with the level of care Meredith is to give to the book. Nevertheless it was a really kind gesture!

They both washed away any bonus points they earned today when we went shopping for pants for Alex. I remembered why I just shop when they’re in school, do a fashion show at home, and make returns the next school day. Dear Lord! There were requests for everything from a cupcake coin purse to a plug in air freshener. Give me a break! For the record, we still have no pants that fit Daddy Long Legs. Alex has long legs and no rear. I have short legs and…well, you get the idea.