5 Random Questions

1. If you know you're going to be spending a quiet day at home reading, watching tv, etc., do you change out of your PJs?

That depends... if I really have NOTHING to do, I would stay in my pj's but unfortunately that never happens anymore now that I am a mother. I find that I can be much more productive dressed in clothes than hanging around in PJs. Growing up, though, we always stayed in our PJs ALL DAY LONG on Christmas Day. A tradition I loved and tried to hold on to for as long as possible. But, as luck would have it, my life now is different than my life then and not getting dressed on Christmas day is no longer an option. I do wait until after all the gifts have been opened though before I get dressed. And recently there have been a few lazy weekend days when Ryan never got dressed. A kid after my own heart... The girls ALWAYS get dressed. Felisa does it immediately upon waking some days.

2. What do you do to pass the time on a long car trip?

Before kids? Listen to audiobooks, talk, sleep, read...
After kids? Listen to kids' music and stories, crochet (if I'm not driving - I'm usually months behind on a baby blanket and this is something that passes the time nicely). I used to be able to read in the car but now it gives me a headache.

3. If you had to date one of the seven dwarves, who would you choose and why? (Your options are Bashful, Doc, Dopey, Grumpy, Happy, Sleepy, and Sneezy).

Doc. Friendly, intelligent, nice. Not too happy. Not too sad. Of course there is some merit to a few of the other options... Sneezy (he could totally relate to me on those mornings that I just can't stop sneezing), Sleepy (he wouldn't mind that I was also sleeping my life away), Happy (well, because he's happy).

4. What one thing would you recommend that everyone try at least once in their life?

Build something. I love the sense of accomplishment I get when I open a box, follow the instructions, and end up with something that I MADE.

5. If you were hosting a dinner party and were able to have one writer, one musician and one actor of your choice as guests, who would be at your table, and what would you feed them?

Writer-Laura Ingalls Wilder (I always wanted to be her. And I look just like Melissa Gilbert!)
Musician- John Denver or The Carpenters (I can just sing, sing, sing along to their songs)
Actor- John Travolta (He's cute. And maybe he'll teach me to dance while the music is playing)

I would probably make some random new recipe that I'd never tried before, operating under the assumption that of course it will be delicious and turn out fabulously. Which it usually does. I almost always use Taste of Home or Quick Cooking magazine recipes when I do this so I am confident in the quality of the recipe.

Bargains (or not!)

So, when is a bargain, not really such a bargain? Let me tell you...

We bought a frame many years ago at Marshalls. Or Ross. Or TJMaxx. I'm not sure which and I didn't really look at the price tag yesterday before I finally attempted to remove it. And since we bought it there, it must have been a good deal, right?

So said frame has been sitting around our house for who knows how long now, tucked in random corners here and there just waiting... After Felisa was born (or maybe when I was still pregnant), I decided that this frame (a long skinny one with 3 openings in the mat) would be a perfect place to put the cute baby pictures I have. All of the kids, at the hospital, with their hands in their mouths/around their faces. Basically identical poses. How perfect would that be?!?

Being the perfectionist that I am, I couldn't hang the frame until I had all 3 pictures. And being the frazzled mom that I am, I didn't have a black and white 5x7 of Felisa in the requisit pose.

Yesterday, in a moment of inspiration (or perhaps insanity!) I decided that since I did have two of the pictures, I could get at least those two into the frame, get the frame on the wall, and put away the frames that the pictures were currently residing in. Progress!

45 minutes later... There has been much cursing and muttering. Apparently leaving the price tag (which, by the way, there should be a law prohibiting price tag placement on the picture frame glass!) on for several years is a very bad idea. Because it was NOT coming off. Vinegar. Rubbing alcohol. Razor blades. Did I mention curses? Nothing was working. Where is the lighter fluid when you need it?!? (Ron later informed me that the adhesive remover in the laundry room downstairs probably would have worked. Sure. But where was it when I needed it?) I just about bled trying to pry back the little metal prongs holding the backing in place. And those miniature nails that hold the hangar on? Don't even get me started! Another part of the price tag law above could be that all frames must come with the hangar already on, not just included. I'm pretty sure factory robots are more adept at attaching them than I am!

But... the pictures are in the frame. The frame is on the wall. All is well until Felisa discovers that it is her picture that hasn't been included. Uh oh. So Ron and I spent another 30 minutes or so looking for, printing, and mounting a picture of Felisa. And, at long last, the project is done! I can admire my identical triplet babies all together forever!

Can I be your servant?

Those are words you don't necessarily want to hear your baby girl saying. Bella and Felisa have taken a renewed interest in the "Princess Collection" - the magnetic wooden "paper dolls". We have a single doll with princess clothes as well as a two-doll pack with regular clothes. The Princess doll had disappeared for several months but was recently unearthed. Of course the Princess doll is the favorite because there is only one doll and there are two girls who want to play with her. Oh and the fancy princess dresses and crowns may also play a part in the favoritism!

Even though Felisa offering to be a servant is a little unsettling on the surface, when you look deeper it is a good thing. The servant's job is to pick out the clothes that the princess requests. The fact that they know this means they have been paying attention to Cinderella, retaining information, processing it, and adapting it to their own needs. It also means that they have figured out a way to play peacefully and happily together with the one princess doll. That alone is worth millions to this mother who hates fighting, disagreements, and discontent!

Catching Up

A few blog-worthy things lately that I need to catch up on...

The Bake-Off
Ryan made (with some assistance!) a chocolate chip pizza pie for the Cub Scout Bake-Off last week. It looked good, tasted good, and even won an award for "Best Pie"! Ryan seemed to enjoy himself which is good. I must admit it was a hard process for me... first the seemingly never-ending debate about what to make. Looking through Betty Crocker, narrowing the list down from 10 to 5 to 3 to finally 1. Allowing him to measure, stir, pour, crack the egg... all the things I prefer to do myself because it's just faster and usually not as messy. But it was the Cub Scout bake-off, not the overly-controlling mother bake-off so I really tried to let him do most of it all while making it a pleasant experience. Overall, a success. It looked so good apparently that Ron volunteered to bring one to work on Tuesday. Which means on Monday I get to have the overly-controlling mother chance to make my very own.

2 Down...
Ryan checked out some audio cassette books at the library and wanted to listen to them last night. I had him get my 12-year old walkman, the bright yellow shock-proof one I got since I kept dropping and breaking my walkmans on the ship. This thing survived the Navy but the kids were apparently too much for it. I changed the batteries but nothing. No signs of life. No radio, no tape, nothing. That's one...

Next I headed down to the laundry room to pull out my old boombox. The one Santa brought for me way back in about 1985. Still works. I set it up in his room, got the tape started and everything is fine. For one and a half tape-lengths. Then for some reason it quit playing. It will rewind and fast forward but won't play. Hmmm... That's two...

How many more electronic devices will I be able to kill off this weekend?

Sick Kids or Alien Invasion?
The girls have been dealing with seasonal allergies this fall. They have been off the medicine now for a week or two. They still cough a bit but seems to be manageable. Ryan was sick before Halloween. Fever and a cough. Fever is long gone but cough still lingers.

They have been cranky. They have been cantakerous. Unpleasant. Disagreeable. Crying. Fighting. Basically not the loveable kids I used to have. So my question is this... WHY?

Is it a phase that they all just happen to be going through at the same time (independent phases, joint execution)? Is it because they don't feel well? Are they not getting enough sleep?

Someone needs to tell me what to do so I can fix them. Otherwise, I may be forced to leave them on the curb with a sign, "Free to a Good Home"...

Quote

"A model needs careful lighting, professional makeup, and expensive clothes to look as beautiful as any ordinary woman does to a man who has fallen in love with her."

-Marilyn vos Savant, "Ask Marilyn"

Official Race Results

I ran in my first race ever (not counting the one I ran at age 10 but had to drop out of because I was so slow and so far behind the pack, I ended up lost!). The official results have been posted. It was the 5K Turkey Trot. I ran it in 29:57.8 (a supposed 9:40/mile pace) and placed 152 overall out of 225 who actually showed up to run in the rain.

I am happy to report that I had the best cheering section out there. Ron, Emilio, Lourna, and the kids came decked out in rain gear and umbrellas to cheer me on. The course went down and back on the same street so I was able to see them twice. Felisa was crying when I didn't stop on my way back but all was well when I did eventually show up back at home. Yesterday she was playing "race", running in circles around the living room. Even though I was trying to sneak in a snap, she made me watch her and say "go 'lisa!" the entire time. So much for naptime. The winner of the race was a 31-year old lady who ran it in 16:51.4 (yes, that's half the time it took me!) so maybe that will be Felisa one day...

I was very excited to finish under 30 minutes. I probably wouldn't have, if it weren't for my boot camp classmates I was running with. Niza wants to do a 10K in December. I'm thinking I'll pass for now and bask in the glow of this accomplishment for a little longer.

And now I must get off the computer and get the lifeboat ready. It looks like I waited a little too long to get started on the ark... hopefully we won't wash away and even better would be if it lets up a little around 3:00 when I have to go get Ryan from school!

Leg Stories

Betty Lou was nice enough to forward some of the theories we came up with while we were in Texas since I couldn't write fast enough that day to record all of them...

1) Ryan's.....Cinderella story but the prince had a leg and foot to try on all the girls instead of a glass slipper

2) Bella's...Santa Claus made too many doll legs and they were sort of laying around the earth

3) James' ...A woman didn't want her husband to chase her so she stole his leg

4) Betty Lou's .... Guy driving down I-10 and rolled down his window and stuck his leg out window to cool off and it blew off

5) Neighbors' stories....
a) fell out of an airplane
b) guy works at I-Hop (think that's pretty funny)

More Thoughts on "The Leg" from Betty Lou

As you can see, the Mystery Of The Leg has been solved. Of course,
there are more questions than answers now.....was the leg attached to someone
who was in the back of the truck and it shook off? If not, why was the leg
in the back of the truck while driving lessons were given? Did the person
learning to drive think he only needed his right leg & foot for the brake
and gas, so took off the left leg and put it in the back to keep it out of the
way? And...since there was a 12 pack of beer, how much alcohol was
involved in this driving lesson? Was it a lesson on how to
drive one-legged while drunk? If he takes up driving one-legged and drunk
as a habit and would get stopped by the cops, when he has to get out of the car
for a sobriety test and falls on his face, he could claim he fell because
he was one-legged and not because he was drunk. I think the story could go
on and on.

Leg Mystery Solved

I don't think I ever posted the end of the leg story so here it is...

the leg has been claimed. the person's mother said it fell out of the back of
his truck when he was teaching someone to drive.