Lucky number seven, a philosophical blog

Seven months. That's how old the chunk was at exactly four o'clock today. It's hard to believe that the skinny squalling little red faced newborn is the same chunky little army crawler who is in the process of taking over my living room.

He's doing just beautifully. His days are spent eating applesauce and biter biscuits, working on crawling, and refining one hell of a howl when he doesn't get his way. He smiles and laughs more than any baby I've ever seen and I'm taking every chance I can to snuggle him because before I know it, he's off again in search of laundry to knock over or a cat's tail to pull or a big sister to antagonize.

It's hard to believe how fast time flies. When we moved here, I was pregnant. I knew no one. It was cold and gray and I wondered how I was going to survive being away from my Mom and all of my friends and my (huge) extended family. Two and a half months later, Chunk was born and the weather started to warm up. I started making new friends, attending Goog-sponsored family events, and I felt like I had been given a precious gift - the chance to enlarge my circle of friends and to rediscover who I am and who I'm meant to be as a wife and a mother and a friend and an Amy.

I still miss my Mom dreadfully. I'd give anything to go to Chili's with Jax for a margarita and a chocolate molten cake. Seth's hugs don't email very well and Sarah's visit was way too short. But that doesn't mean things are bad. In a lot of ways, things are better than ever. I feel so blessed to have met so many new and wonderful people and to live in such an astonishingly beautiful place. Sometimes when the Chunk wakes up to nurse at the far-too-early hour of five a.m. I pause in the kitchen to get a drink of juice and see the mountains turning pink. And then I go snuggle back into my still-warm bed and listen to my sweet baby breathe before my girls are up and bouncing for another day and Skippy heads to a job that he loves and I think that really, I'm pretty damn lucky. Seven months has gone by in a flash, and to show for it I have the most gorgeous baby boy anyone could ask for. And I realize that I've barely scratched the surface of all that I still have to do.

All good things must end.....

And soccer too. LOL

We officially survived the first year of kid's soccer. Oh. My. God. What an eight week whirlwind.

I will say that it's amazing how much progress five little five year olds can make in two months.

The first game: Six little girls stand in little trios opposite each other on a mini field. The coaches blow their whistles. All the little girls keep standing there, shuffling their feet and kind of looking at each other like "You kick it!" "Noooo, YOU kick it!" until finally, someone halfheartedly nudges the ball into play. Practices are spent mobbing the poor coach and asking when it's time for another water break.

Fast forward to today's game. Six little girls spread out across mid-field, shifting their weight from foot to foot and looking expectantly at the coaches, poised to make their move at the first tweet of the whistle. When it comes, they're off, pushing, shoving, and throwing elbows for all they are worth. THESE princesses take no prisoners and you'd better get the hell out of the way. There's tripping, there's falling and rarely, there's tears. We've gone from a walk in the park to a three and a half foot war zone people, and it's impressive.

So yeah. Soccer was fun. I'm soooooo very glad that it's over though. We did get a chance to get to know some fantastic parents and we were pleased with our coaches - talk about a big commitment. Every so often I think about trying to coach next year and then I realize that I must have temporarily lost my mind.

I think we're going to take the winter off from activities. I'm determined not to over schedule the hell out of my kids like so many parents do, but at the same time I feel like I have to give them as many opportunities as I can so that we can find something they can genuinely enjoy, something that inspires their passion as they get older. But for now, I think we're going to just focus on the holidays, go play on the mountain, and other stuff like that. Kbear will stay in dance, and *maybe* we'll think about swim lessons for the Banana.

After all, softball starts in the spring. *wink*

Lazy Saturday...or NOT

So have you ever decided that it would be a great idea to host about fifteen people for breakfast on a Saturday morning in your rental that you hate that barely has enough room for your family, bright an early the morning after you've worked until midnight the night before?

No?

Only me?

Hmmmmmmmmmmm.....

So yeah. A bunch of fruit loop locations were hosting events for the Heirloom Apple Days in Hood River this weekend. If you don't already know this fun little fact, an heirloom apple is a variety that has been around for 100 years or more. You rarely see them in stores and orchards work hard to make sure that they don't just disappear. Neat huh? Don't say you never learned anything form my blog. Anyway, we decided (okay, because I know Skippy reads my blogs, *I* decided) that it would be fun to host an early morning breakfast this weekend, before we all formed a caravan out to the loop for some fruit filled, tractor riding, apple pressing, goat petting fun. We told everyone to come on over with some juice or some fruit or some breakfasty type contribution, and we'd have hot cinnamon rolls ready and waiting.

Which of course, brings me to the cinnamon rolls. Oh god the cinnamon rolls. They are a Skippy-specialty. Little fluffy spirals of cinnamon and sugar goodness topped with a little bit of cream cheese heaven. Soooooo damn good. Soooooo not fat free. Two dozen rolls disappeared in about ten minutes, along with copious amounts of potatoes, apples, juice, milk, and homemade applesauce. So now, thanks to Skippy, our Google breakfast clan is all walking around with a little bit of cinnamon happiness glued to their hips or thighs or ass. But good lord it was worth it. I mean really, they deserve their own blog, but I digress.

Breakfast, and then the loop. That was the agenda. I left the baby with Skippy and loaded up the girls (who were of course bouncing around in their car seats all hopped up on that cream cheese heaven I mentioned) and we hit the road, four cars, eight grown ups, and four kiddos geared up and ready to go. A half hour later we arrived at our first stop - Cody's Orchard. There, the kiddos got to each pick out a piece of fruit and have it washed and ready to eat while the grown ups shopped - I picked up some pears to embark on some more baby food making craziness. Then we took a tractor ride through the orchard - which was actually really fun. By the time we got back to the fruit stand, the were getting ready to make cider using an old fashioned press and all of the kids got to take turns giving it a whirl, and then trying the result, which they thought was just about the coolest thing ever.

After Cody's we lost one of our carloads to the kiddo-nap-Gods, (which was a bummer) and the remaining three continued along our merry way to Draper's Farm. At Drapers we got to peruse numerous fruit bins, including several full of the famous Heirloom apples, we petted goats and pigs, swung on the swing, admired the mountain - which was absolutely stunning I must admit - and took one slightly terrified trip to the leaning port-a-potty of doom. Then, I admired Ami's leg of lamb that she purchased, which I myself would have no clue how to prepare. Then I looked at Ami with a bit of awe, because apparently *she* knows what to do with a leg of lamb. But then again, I have a husband who makes kickass cinnamon rolls and I'm slowly learning to cook stuff that doesn't come out of a box, so I suppose it's all a wash.

After Drapers we lost yet another carload full of nap-bound-kiddo and moved on past pear trees and alpacas to Mt View Orchards, where a Germanfest was in full swing. From music to brats and potatoes and all-you-can-drink cider, we were happy that we had decided to make the trip. We indulged in a German-style picnic lunch - with decidedly American hotdogs for Banana and Kbear - and took a breather while my girls did everything they could to destroy the (thankfully) indestructible playground equipment and then I bought yet MORE apples (plus some Asian pears) and at long last, we began our backtrack.

No trip out to the loop is complete until you've stopped off at Packer's Cookie Stop and Bakery (lucky number 13) and pick up their dinner-plate sized cookies - a steal at five for five bucks - and indulge in a peach smoothie or huckleberry ice cream cone or in my case, a caramel apple cider. And yes, you guessed it, I bought more apples. But in my defense, these were different. Feeling adventurous, I invested in a few "winter banana" apples: a new variety that is supposed to taste like a banana. I thought that Skippy might enjoy them because much to his chagrin, he has a fairly serious allergy to bananas despite the fact that he loves them. He hasn't tried one yet but we'll have to see what his official review is when he does. I'd be curious myself but I brought home a bunch of golden delicious for my own personal stash.

At that point, the cinnamon induced haze had finally worn off and it was time to leave the valley and return to The Dalles. Laden with cookies and at least six different types of apples and pears, we got back home around three.

And we took naps.

Can you blame us?

Now it's time for a bath and bed. I've earned it.

Funny Things My Kids Have Said Lately....

I overheard this conversation between Skippy and Kbear one morning. K was watching some little blurb on one of the kids' channels about snakes.

K: Daddy? Can I have a snake?

Skippy: Maybe someday when you are a little bigger you can have a little snake K.

K: Can I have an anaconda?


An ANACONDA people. LOL

And out of nowhere in the car one day....

*sniff*

*sniff*

Me: Banana do you need to blow your nose?

Banana: No mommy.

*pause*

Banana: Mommy? Where do boogers live when they aren't in your nose?


Now how in the heck do you answer that one?

And finally, part three of I've been a bad, bad blogger....

Ok. So I'm going to wrap up Sarah's visit in this blog, so help me God.

Thursday was the thrift store and hippie pizza. Friday.....well Friday we did the Google.

Oh yes indeed. Sarah got to go to Google for lunch on Friday. You need to understand that this is a big deal - Skippy's MOM hasn't even been to Google, despite numerous requests. Hell, 90% of The Dalles hasn't been to Google. Plus it was steak, chicken, baked potato and salad bar day and who in the hell can pass that up?

So we took her to lunch. Got her some Google swag. Introduced her to bunches of people, who of course all thought she was adorable. It was really pretty cool. Then we just hung out. Made her a Mii that night on the Wii. Played some Scrabble with Skippy and our friend Amy. Stayed up too late.

Saturday we braved the Harvest Fest one of the farms was having. We survived for about an hour and a half before throwing in the towel. But the kids had fun. Pictures are on picasa of course, or will be shortly. More sister bonding ensued. It was all good.

Sunday brought sleep and soccer. Then we threw a fiesta dinner party with some friends from work and played more scrabble. Ate lots of tacos. Talked about what a kickass week it had been.

Before I knew it it was Monday morning and I had to take her back to good old PDX for her flight home. Goodbyes were hard. We've always been close, but after ten days together in my Oregon-mommy-world, I think we both felt that saying goodbye was kind of rough.

She landed safely in the windy city last night, and I'm sure she's glad to be home. I can't wait for her next visit. Love you boog.

Part two of I've been a bad, bad blogger....

The waterfalls, continued.

After we hiked up to the top of Wahkeena Falls and got soaked in the process, we came back on down and piled back into the car to drive the quarter of a mile to the big puppy, Multnomah.


Here's Banana with a big leaf she found.



Here's Kbear looking cute as usual.



Here's Aunt Sarah at Multnomah Falls

We really really wanted to take the hike to the bridge, but it was just too wet and too cold and we decided that instead we would potty and dry off. So we hit the bathrooms, the gift shop, and then the restaurant on the lodge. Now that was classy. Or maybe it was 'K'lassy. I have to set the scene you see. You walk into the lodge and it's this big beautiful rustic old building. There is a massive fireplace and it smells like woodsmoke and cinnamon. There are tables with white linens, fresh flowers, and tea light candles, and a small but elegant menu that obviously charges extra due to the ambiance.

So what did we do? We asked for a table by the fireplace, sat our wet butts down, and then Sar and I each ordered a glass of Oregon wine.

And french fries for the kids.

Wine and french fries.

Klassy I tell ya. But fun. We rolled back into town around dinnertime and just hung out for the rest of the evening.

Thursday was a day to nap, veg out, and make mini-meals. Around four o'clock we decided we should go do something. So we went thrift store foraging. That was far more fun that it really should have been. We got some crazy mad loot and after almost two hours, we packed back into the car and headed across the river to Bingen, Washington, where we took Sarah to our new favorite pizza place, Solstice Cafe. For those of you who live out here, if you haven't been to Solstice yet, you have to go. It's good stuff. And if you have kids, it's a parental heaven because they have a great kids menu and a fantastic little play area. Skippy calls it our "crunchy granola pizza place" because everything is locally grown and organic. But it's good.

Before we knew it, the weekend had arrived! But that's another blog. Right now I have to go make lunch!

I've been a bad, bad blogger, intermission.

Ok. Now that I've run the girls to school and gotten the baby up and woken Skippy up for work and kicked his butt into the shower, I'm going to take a few minutes and enjoy my freshly picked-up Starbucks white chocolate mocha on my couch before I have to run Skippy to work and then attack the grocery store. But first I have to share this picture. I think it's pretty much the funniest picture EVER. My friend Amy took it this weekend. The baby weighs eighteen pounds. The apple weighs two. My recap of Sarah's visit is coming, I promise.

Part one of I've been a bad, bad blogger.....

I don't think I've updated since we took Sarah up to Timberline Lodge. Now that was almost a week ago and we put her on a plane back home yesterday. I really have no excuse, other than the fact that we were having too much fun for me to find time to blog. So here we go,

THE REST OF SARAH'S VISIT, IN REVIEW:

Wednesday. Wednesday was our designated "Waterfall Extravaganza Day." After a fabulous day of snow play on Tuesday, we decided to head out to Multnomah Falls on Wednesday. So we picked up Banana from school and hit the road, heading West on 84 for about an hour to begin our day with lunch in Troutdale. Yes. Troutdale. Shut up, Sarah laughed too. I didn't name the towns people.

First we had lunch at McDonalds, where apparently, Kbear had some deep, life altering experience with the wall mural. We think it was speaking to her:


Sarah, being Sarah, enjoyed some pre-pressed chicken product goodness. She's going to hate that I posted this picture on my blog, but what are big sisters for?


And then we began our backtrack. Troutdale (stop laughing) is at mile marker 17. We headed down the Historic Highway, coming back East and made our first official stop at Vista House, known as the "Gateway to the Gorge." It's also known by our family as "THE MILLION DOLLAR BATHROOM" because that's pretty much all it really is. It's this really neat little building with awesome lookout platforms WAAAAAY up on the hill where you first come back into the Columbia River Gorge. So you can stop there and do two things. You can take pictures, and you can go potty. We did both. The weather was okay. It was overcast and kind of drizzly. In other words, it was fall in Oregon. We still got some nice shots though, and they are all on my picasa site.



Then we continued our eastward track towards the falls. Multnomah Falls is one of the highest waterfalls in North America, and it's one of my absolute favorite places in all of Oregon. It's actually the biggest of a group of seven waterfalls all along this one stretch of the old highway and it's absolutely breathtaking. We hit the first one coming in from the West, which is Latourell Falls and took some great pictures. Then we moved on to my favorite smaller fall, Wahkeena and took a .2 mile hike to the top. Awesome hike, except for the part where it started pouring. There is really something that feels counterproductive about looking at a waterfall in the rain. But I think Sarah enjoyed it anyway.



I've got to run the girls to school. TO BE CONTINUED.....

Playing catch up with Sar's visit.

We have been on the go pretty much non-stop these last few days. I'm going to backtrack and start with Tuesday, when we took Sarah up to Timberline Lodge.

I did all of my crazy mommy running around Tuesday morning while the girls were both in school (this included taking Skippy BACK TO WORK - Yay!) and then once everyone was back home we had a quick lunch of thrown together goodies and we hit the road.

It was 55 degrees in The Dalles, under grey skies with a light drizzle. We were in high spirits as we headed out on the Mt Hood Scenic Byway from Hood River. The only bummer was that it was too overcast to see the mountain. It's really an awesome sight on a clear day but we figured we would take what we could get.

The drive was beautiful. Fall is funny here in the Pacific Northwest. You have tons of evergreens and then all of a sudden BAM! you'll have this bright beautiful yellow maple or red oak tree that just splashes color all over the place. It's awesome.

We stopped a few times to take pictures along the road. The kids were well behaved and Sarah and I had even more kickass sister bonding time. We really can talk about everything and anything. It made me so happy to have her here, driving along in the car next to me. We stopped off really fast a Trillium Lake and although the view left a lot to be desired (the mountain was totally covered with clouds and fog) and the weather less than appealing (steady rain), we were able to snap some quick shots and continue on our way.

In Government Camp we turned off of the main road and onto the road that leads up to Timberline. It was raining and about 45 degrees - already a ten degree drop from The Dalles. You pass three neat little waterfalls pretty much as soon as you turn off so we admired those and kept working our way up the six miles to the lodge.

After about three miles, I could have sworn I saw a snow flurry. And then another. I glanced at Sarah to see if she noticed it and saw her scanning the landscape as well. We said nothing to the kids.

But another half mile down the road there was no denying that it was SNOWING. The thermometer read 33 degrees and the most beautiful big fluffy flakes were falling from the sky and coating the trees. We grinned like idiots while the girls did their best to rupture my eardrums squealing with delight.

By the time we got to the lodge a few miles later, it was coming down fast. Talk about pretty - the girls were ecstatic and me and Sar were pretty darn tickled too. We hustled everyone into the lodge and explored for awhile, hit the gift shop, sat by the big fireplace, and then went upstairs and had salads, milk and cookies, and sodas by the big picture windows and watched the snow come down.

Then we went out to play. You can see a few pictures on picasa. Suffice it to say we were wet shivering messes by the time we got back into the car, but it was so worth it. We got to play in the snow in October! All in all, not that much fell - probably half an inch. It was just enough to make the place look like a fairy tale, and not so much that it was dangerous to get back down the mountain.

Considering we almost didn't make the drive, it was so worth it.

Yesterday we hit the falls. I'll have to write about that tomorrow. Right now I have to get munchkins into bed! Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/freckledmama/AuntSarahDoesOregon

Snow and sleep

Been busy busy busy with our houseguest.

Didn't do much yesterday. Vegged out.

Took Sar up to Timberline Lodge today. It was pretty awesome. Played in the snow.

More details to come.

Now it's time for some snoozes.

Sisters......

Wheeee it's been a fun and crazy weekend. My little sister Sarah is visiting from Chi-town and we've been going, going, going. It has been so fun to just hang out. Sisters are great. I mean, they don't care if your house is a mess or your cat is a total pain in the ass or if you're having a bad morning because your five year old can't find her soccer cleats. They just love you.

I picked Sar up yesterday at PDX with Banana and Chunk in two. She was bleary eyed but ready to start exploring so we hit Saturday Market in Portland. Today I introduced her to the hilarious world of five year old soccer, which you may know from my other blogs, is an experience much like I imagine acid to be.

It's been a good weekend, and a great visit so far. I did manage to slice open my finger with the apple slicer this morning, which resulted in an ER visit this evening but it doesn't even warrant its own blog. They just got me all cleaned up with some of that medical super glue stuff, issued strict instructions to come back immediately for stitches if it reopens, gave me a new tetnus shot (OUCH) and sent me on my way.

The kids are thrilled that thier Aunt Sarie is here. She's enjoying the mountains, and we're just enjoying her visit.

We have a busy week ahead of us. Dance class tomorrow for Kbear, and a doc appointment for Skippy - hopefully they will clear him to go back to work for the sake of everyone's sanity. Then we're going to try to pack in the waterfalls and hopefully a trip up to Timberline Lodge and some other stuff before we send Sar back to the Windy City. Everyone have a fantastic week! *loves*

He's on the move!

Watching the Chunk is so funny lately. He's been scooching around the living room on his tummy for a few weeks now and he's slowly but surely getting better at it. He's already discovered the dog's bone, the handles on my coffee table, leaves that get dragged in, shoes, and various other things that probably don't belong in his mouth.

Now he's trying to figure out how to crawl. First he sticks his little butt in the air. Sits like that for a minute. You can practically HEAR the wheels turning. Wiggles his butt. Oh! Then he gets up on his hands too! Here he goes!!!! Yup, here he.....and then he plots back down on his belly, apparently exhausted.

Last night he actually was rocking back and forth on his hands and knees and just couldn't get any momentum down, and that made him cry. That was one of those "I'm going to parent hell for laughing" moments.

But look out world, he's getting close! Between learning to crawl, eating rice cereal, mommy's home made applesauce, and recently a biter biscuit, things are exciting in the world of the Chunk. He had a doctor's appointment this week and after two shots (major bummer), he got an outstanding check up. He weighs 18 pounds, ten ounces and he's going to be tall like his daddy. He's in the 90th percentile for height and the 75th for weight. He's just perfect.

We do have to make him an appointment to have a chest Xray done. For those of you who aren't aware, C has always been a very wheezy and noisy breather. He always sounds congested. Since babies are very rarely born with allergies, we have some concerns. Ideally he should have outgrown this by now and since he hasn't, it's time to take a look inside. So the first step is a chest xray to make sure his lungs are clear and then we'll have an appointment with an ENT (ear nose and throat) specialist and they can take a peek. Although we are confident that everything will be okay, say a quick prayer that it all works out.

So other than all that, it's been pretty uneventful around here lately. My "baby" sister comes into town tomorrow (she's 21, but she'll always be my baby sister) and I can't wait to see her. I've got all sorts of fun stuff planned around the regular school/soccer/dance routine. So now today I need to clean my house. Or at least scrub the toilet and change the sheets on her bed. Skippy continues to recover. We are on day two of no pain meds (yay) and he goes to the doctor on Monday, where he will hopefully get the okay to go back to work. I was down for the count yesterday with a migraine, body aches, and a bunch of throwing up but thankfully I feel much better today. I think I may have just hit the wall after a couple of long and rough weeks.

All in all, it's business as usual.

Got Wood? Part two....

So remember my blog from yesterday? I was all excited about the fact that we were having a cord of wood delivered today. I had visions of cozy fires, hot chocolate, and a dog eared book that's been read over and over all winter long, dozing on the couch late into the night under an afghan after the kids go to bed while the animals curl up to watch the flames.

Um, yeah.

So today the truck pulls up around back. I go out to give the guy his check and he asks me, "Where do you need to stack it?" I told him we wanted to put it up against the back of the house, near the back door where the eaves would hang over and protect it for the most part with the help of a tarp. Plus there are concrete bricks out there so it wouldn't be on the damp ground, etc. He nods and tells me that's a good spot, but he can't get this truck into the yard so he's going to unload there in the back alley. I'm thinking no problem right? It's only about thirty feet from the alley to the back of the house. I mean, we're on a double lot but it's not *that* big.

I told him I had to go feed the baby but to holler if he needed anything. Amicable goodbyes are exchanged, thank yous all around, yadda yadda yadda, and it's all good.

Or so I think.

Ten minutes later, the wood was all unloaded and they were on their way to their next delivery. I didn't even hear them leave.

Problem is, they left my wonderful cord of wood at the back of the property, on the other side of the garage, in a big splintery heap. Not all of it is split, and it's not anything close to resembling something that is orderly stacked.

Apparently delivered means, "We'll get it to your house, the rest is up to you." I asked our neighbor where we went wrong, thinking that maybe we got ripped off on the customer service end of things but I've been assured that "that's just how it's done and oh by the way, you've got an axe right Ame?"

Um......

Good god. Live and learn. Of course today is the one day Skippy is out of the house in three weeks doing some work that couldn't wait, so I strapped the baby into his car seat, plopped him in the backyard, and with the help of my girls, the little girl next door, and our retired neighbor, we got 90% of it stacked up against the house with the help of a radio flyer and a hand cart. The other 10% will need to be split and cut down by hand to fit into our fireplace. I am totally exhausted. I so owe those kids some ice cream and I'm going to make the neighbors a cobbler.

*sigh* Maybe I'm not cut out for mountain life.

Got wood?

Because we're going to!

Tonight while we were eating dinner (waffles and sausage and pineapple for anyone who cares) a big truck and trailer pulled up in front of the house. Since we only really have on-street parking here, I blew it off, thinking it was probably someone for one of the neighbors.

Then Bailey started to bark and wag her tail and generally be nutty.

I went to the door and smiled at the seemingly nice guy standing on the other side of our front gate, warily looking at my dog, who first of all could *maybe* scare the pants off of a bunny. We always say that if someone ever broke in, Bailey would just be disappointed when they didn't load her into the truck for a ride with all our stuff. But anyway, I figured the guy was lost because why on earch would some dude I don't know have his truck parked in front of my house pulling a trailer full of firewood?

Well silly goose, apparently because our landlord mentioned that we would be interested in some wood for winter.

For you midwest people, heating your house when it's cold is a bit different here. A ton of houses (ours included) only have electiric wall heaters built into each individual room. No baseboard heat, no gas furnace, nada. We don't even have a thermostat, a point of contention that regularly drives me batshit crazy. People here utilize fireplaces and pellet stoves to heat their homes.

When we had fireplaces in the midwest, they were a means of ambiance, or comfort or perhaps after a few glasses of wine, romance. They were for curling up with a good book and a cup of hot chocolate while the wind howled outside.

Here they are to keep your tushie from freezing off while the wind howls outside.

So we have a cord of wood being delivered tomorrow. That's a LOT of wood. It's about four feet wide by four feet tall by eight feet long, stacked against the side of the house.

But hey, we'll be warm.

This is your brain.....

This is your brain on drugs.

Oh my god. Pretty much the funniest post-sugical moment EVER. One second he was playing with Kbear and her dress up scarves while I made him a plate of chinese take out and the next, he was snoring away.

You've got to love modern day medicine. It battles cancer, keeps allergies at bay, and allows me to take funny pictures of my husband.

Mrs. Banana's Mom? This is the health nurse.....

Banana had her first trip to the nurse's office today. Head hurts, tummy hurts, and fever. Major bummer.

I'll tell you though, no parent likes to hear those words on the other end of the phone.

It feels like only yesterday...

That I lost my mind. Have you seen it anywhere?

What a day. No, really. I would have blogged about it had I had the energy.

7:00a.m. Got the girls up for school. This was accomplished by a combination of poking, prodding, cajoling, and finally the outright threatening stuffed animal demise. Got everyone up, dressed, and in Cbaby's case, into a dry diaper. My mother-in-law Dixie was up and about and we finally made it out the door at 7:45, right on time. The day was off to a good start and things looked promising. It was all downhill from there!

7:50a.m. Dropped Banana off at school.

8:01a.m. Dropped Kbear off at pre-school.

8:15a.m. I myself was dropped off at home so that Dixie could go have breakfast with an old girlfriend. I spent a little bit of "free time" changing the baby, nursing the baby, and making my hair look like something that didn't resemble Banana's Baby Alive doll after she took scissors to it. I think I may have even found time in there to pee in peace, but I can't tell you for sure. Then I ran to Safeway to get some cookies to add to my snack for my Mommy Meeting because the night before I had stayed up late making muffins-from-a-box and I didn't feel like that was quite enough. Nothing like the self-inflicted pressure of the mommy wars to get you moving on a sunny Tuesday. Treated myself to a raspberry mocha iced something-or-other that my ass does NOT need because dang it, I deserved it.

9:15a.m. Arrived for my MOPS meeting. MOPS stands for Moms of Pre-Schoolers. Cute huh? I think that's because CHWOMSYDGN (Come Hang With Other Moms So You Don't Go Nuts) doesn't spell anything cute. Anyway it's an absolutely awesome organization here in town that meets twice a month for lectures, crafts, budget ideas, and all sorts of other stuff designed to bring moms of little kiddos together. They provide childcare and the snacks always rock. Unfortunately I always have to leave early to get my kids but the hour I'm able to stay is totally worth it.

10:15a.m. Grabbed Cbaby from the nursery (which is staffed by grandmas getting their baby fix and huffing sweet baby hair smells) and we ran across town to get Kbear from pre-school and then BACK to the house to hustle up to the bus stop with Dixie to get Banana from the bus. Whew. That was a hectic hour.

11:15a.m. Spent this time running around and getting ready to head or Portland for Skippy's follow up doctor's appointment. Helped my mother-in-law hang a molly bolt in my kitchen for my neato-keen fruit basket, threw Banana into the shower after she decided she wanted a spritz of Mommy's perfume - eight spritzes to be exact. Changed the baby. Nursed the baby (are you seeing a trend here yet?), got Kbear a snack, threatened to divorce Skippy if he didn't get his ass out of the shower (God bless that man, he just blows me off when I get insane and does his thing anyway, LOL), switched car seats around, repacked the diaper bag and finally, at long last, got into the car. On time even.

12:30p.m. We spent the next hour or so driving into the city. In the rain. While eating Arby's. I still haven't quite completely mastered the whole driving while eating thing out here yet. I mean, you get on 88 in Illinois and it's no problem to eat and drive. You just set your cruise and use your knees to keep the wheel straight. No turning required. You could seriously plug a hot plate into your lighter and like, make soup. And eat it. No problem. Not so much here in Oregon. There's you know, a river and mountains and lots of curves. But I managed to get us to the city unscathed. The girls were with Dixie in her car, for which I am eternally thankful.

1:00p.m. Spent this time waiting for Skip to have his appointment. New drugs, wheeeee. For those who are interested, he is healing fine but is definitely still a long way from being all better. There is still some muscle repair that has to happen and the back issues themselves just have to continue to get stronger. In the meantime he gets to stay pharmaceutically stoned and he's home until October 15th, at which point he'll have another appointment and hopefully be cleared to go back to work. It's so nice that he has a job that he actually misses and I know he's anxious to get back to it.

3:00p.m. Finally left the hospital and ran to Powell's for some books that Skippy wanted to grab for Dixie as a thank you for helping us so much with the kids this past weekend. Trust me, she deserved them. I love Powell's. If you're not from this area and you ever come to Portland, go to Powell's. It's the world's largest free-standing bookstore and they earn that title. The place takes up an entire city block and you could get lost in there for days if you set your mind to it.

4:30p.m. Arrived at Skippy's Uncle Tony's house to reclaim our kiddos. Watched the rain machine crank back up. Switched car seats. Got wet. Changed the baby. Herded everyone back into the car. Got more wet.

5:15p.m. FINALLY on the road. It was raining. Like, REALLY raining. Scary raining. Thought we were going to die about twenty miles outside of the city when a semi in the other lane threw a SHEET of water on my windshield at 67 miles an hour. White knuckled the wheel, the whole nine yards. Super scary stuff. Thankfully the kids slept through it because mommy freaked out a bit. Skippy "talked me down from the ledge" as he is fond of saying, and we continued our trek homeward.

6:30p.m. Rolled into town. Dropped off drug prescriptions. Picked up a pizza.

6:45p.m. Got home. Nursed the baby, brushed my hair, and headed up to PTA. A big thanks again to AmyM for coming down the hill to babysit my kids and my husband.

7:02p.m. Skated into PTA just when they were getting started. Officially got elected President. Still not sure how that happened.

8:30p.m. Got out of PTA, went to pick up drugs. Came home and ate pizza while watching The Biggest Loser, which always feels dirty. I should have been eating carrots or something.

10:30p.m. Took a much needed bubble bath. Finally crashed around midnight.

And now I'm tired just from typing it all out. Holy crap what a day. Today is a laundry-sit-on-my-butt-watch-crappy-TV day.

Right now my Mom is on a plane to Jamaica. Earlier I found a cinnamon chex in my bed. Such is life.