Why I chose Alex and the skateboard over sleep

It may sound like a simple choice. However, if I'm being honest, it wasn't. It has been a very busy few weeks. We are still in the midst of home renovations which just adds to the chaos that kids bring. Also, I was recently awarded a journalism award for an article I published last year. While this was great news, the other side of it was that I needed to go to New Orleans to accept the award. On top of this was the fact that I only had 2 weeks to prepare for this trip and that I would be gone for 6 days. I had never been away from my kids that long. Heck, I'd never been away from my husband that long. But, we all survived it and the trip was an interesting adventure- perhaps for another post. Partly because of the 5 nights in a hotel and the stress of undone projects, the homework piling up and trying to catch up at work, I haven't slept much in the last month. I'm starting to feel like I have a newborn all over again (just the lack of sleep that is). So, last night I took a couple Tylenol PMs and went to bed at a decent hour. Finally- sleep! Well, until 6am rolled around and Alex came in begging me to take him to the skateboard park- right now! You may be wondering why he was insisting on going at the crack of dawn. It has a little bit to do with the fact that Alex gets up before most birds and more to do with the fact that he was a bit traumatized by our last skateboard park adventure. Unknowingly, I brought him on a sunny afternoon last time. There were so many kids there you could hardly move. And, they were good- really good. Alex was so intimidated he couldn't hardly ride in a straight line. So, I had tried to make him feel better about it and told him that next time we'd just have to go earlier before the bigger kids even get out of bed. And so, he looked at me with those beautiful big blue eyes and I decided that in 20 years it wouldn't matter if I slept or not, but it would matter if Alex remembered that I cared enough to pick him and his skateboard over me and my sleep. But still, it was tough. That's just being honest. In the end, this was my reward.....(and yes, the park was completely empty- big surprise!)...

Our life with Hemingway

Yes, that is Ernest Hemingway I am referring to. And the above picture is him in his younger years (obviously). So, you are probably wondering what any of this has to do with our lives, right? For any of you who know Alex well, you can probably already guess. Alex is a story teller. Very creative, wordy and will give you every detail in a story multiple times. Pretty sure he didn't get this from his dad as Chris is a "cut to the chase" kind of guy and sometimes listening to Alex's long winded stories baffles him. I personally love it, it makes me chuckle at the things he notices and the things he adds to embellish his tales. To demonstrate this, I would like to treat all of you blog readers to an Alex story.  You may first need a little background on this topic. Alex is addicted to hot lunch. I mean, seriously addicted, it is like a drug to him. He was previously allowed to take hot lunch one day/week. This went well for awhile until he decided he was just going to take it every single day. No matter what we take away, what punishment we give him, it  doesn't matter. He takes hot lunch everyday anyways. Of course, we are still sending cold lunch everyday, which he is apparently eating for snack. The way the school system is set up, they cannot refuse hot lunch to the elementary kids so even if you take all the money out of their account (which I have done) they will just bill you for it. Currently we are spending about $15 a week on hot lunch plus making 5 cold lunches. Yes, we are insane, we openly admit this. It is a daily battle for our poor little addict. So, now you have the background on this topic.  I will now set the scene for this story......

Alex comes home from school, proudly announcing that he got a red star today (which means he didn't need any reminders and no time outs were needed- it's a good thing). Great, we said, we are really proud of you. I didn't even bring up hot lunch, I didn't want to know. He was good and only took it 4 days last week so I was blindly hopeful we were improving. Then, this story poured out of dear Hemingway Jr....(as best I can recreate the details)

"So, this is what happened. Well, first my friend, ya know Noah from the other class, not the Noah in my class, right. Ok. He was just walking along minding his own business and he fell, fell right into the sewer thing. Ya know the thing that has all of the horizontal bars on it, yeah, he got his arm stuck, right? Ok well, then my other friend was trying to pull him out of there and then, yep, he broke his arm. Broke it. So, I had to use my hot lunch code so he could eat"

Stop the story---- "Alex- you better not have had hot lunch today."

"Mom- you are not listening. His arm was BROKEN, I mean seriously broken, he couldn't carry his food tray and he didn't want to give me his lunch number. Well, actually I didn't want him to give it to me because I might remember it and then start eating lunch on his account (yes- God forbid some other poor family has to bear the brunt of Alex and his lunch addiction)- so I had to get him food, right, I mean he was starving and his arm was broken. He couldn't carry the food tray no way, the arm was bent ya know."

"Alex- you better not have given away your lunch code. (as a background to this, this has happened before and we have had to have his PIN number changed once already)"

"Of course I didn't. I just got in the lunch line, right in the line like I was going to have hot lunch, but then I used my code so my friend with the broken arm could eat".

"Alex, you better not have eaten hot lunch. If he needs lunch, he can just go through the line and they will give him lunch, do NOT start buying hot lunch for all your friends!!" At this point, I was losing patience and wondering what the real truth was so I started dialing the phone. "MOM- who are you calling." "Your teacher to find out what happened today"....

Then, poor Ernest had a look of panic.....

And then..."Wait, no wait mom, I promise I will tell you the truth. I really wanted hot lunch today"

"So....nobody broke their arm?"

"No"

"And you didn't buy anyone else lunch, right"

"No, just me. But did you like my story?"

Ahhh.....I wonder if Hemingway's parents had similar stories to tell. After all, someone as creative as the man who wrote "The Old Man and the Sea" must have had an interesting childhood. Of course, I wouldn't want to make too many comparisons beyond the stories as the life of Hemingway was quite tragic (so don't read too much into this). We have always said you can believe about 10% of what Alex tells you. It is just that sometimes it is hard to figure out which 90% is the part you should ignore......

Progress Update

Progress update on the home renovations. The new counters are in and I love them, they actually look like real granite, awesome! Most of the backsplash is in- still needs to be sealed and grouted. Very happy with the  natural stone, each piece is unique and beautiful. Wall painting is done. Still haven't hung anything back up, afraid to put holes in the new walls! Still missing the trim and the tile in the entry way. Cabinets need to be painted and the new drawers/doors are missing still. Overall, it is looking really good. I am being patient, but part of me just wants to scrub the house from top to bottom. I may need some time off once this is done so I can reorganize and clean the whole first level of the house! Here are the latest pictures.

Sweet Little Bunnies

Captured some really cute pictures this Easter that I thought I'd share....

My Insanity

Ok, I admit it- I have trouble throwing things away. I mean, serious trouble. Don't get me wrong, I don't save garbage and our house doesn't look like an episode of Hoarders (which by the way if you haven't seen, OMG that show is nuts!). However, I do seem to hold onto things that are truly unecessary. This becomes apparent every once in awhile when I decide I need to do some serious cleaning. Today it was the storage room. Now, keep in mind this is the room that we have basically packed up and moved 3 times over the past 12 years. I can't say I've even opened most of these boxes since that time. But, today I decided I was going to dive in and declutter the disaster. I found lots of treasures- clothes I had bought for the girls, rollerblades they have already outgrown, etc. Most things I could either quickly decide, "yes, I can certainly live without this" and then it was either trash or donate pile (unless I end up putting them in a garage sale). There were a few items I couldn't really decide what to do with. One of them is my wedding dress. I suppose I should keep it, although it is currently stored in a flimsy trash bag and I'm sure has turned all sorts of yellows by now, but I can't just throw it away, right? So, back it went right into the storage room again. That will have to be a decision for another day. Then, I came across these absolutely terrifying dolls. Now, I'm sure they didn't look quite this bad when I initially put them in storage, but now they honestly look like something out of a really bad horror movie. Was I honestly thinking I would give these to my kids someday as a sort of passed down heirloom? Good God, they are hideous! I will let the pictures speak for themselves.

So you don't think I'm a complete lunatic- they both do have a lot of sentimental meaning. The blonde one (notice what a nice haircut I gave her by the way) was my first "real" doll that my mom bought me. I distinctly remember getting her. She has the perfect beautiful outfit- it was a pink fur coat with a matching dress. Not long after I got her, my sister (Jenny- next in line for those of you who don't know) colored all over her and her beautiful clothes. It seems most of that has disappeared now though. I still remember being so angry at her for doing that. Can't blame her really, it was probably me who left the markers out for her to get in the first place! Notice the creepy eyes- not sure why they turned that awful shade of gray, but that is one scary doll!

The purple bodied doll goes back even further. This is "sloppy jo". I don't actually remember why that was her name, but it was. I carried that doll around so much that eventually her whole body fell to pieces. This is why she is now sporting this attractive purple body. Aunt Jackie had to recreate the body for me. It hasn't held up the best over the years though as you can see her arm is about to fall off.

And so, I will throw them away. Although there is still a part of me that feels a little sad about this. I can't honestly find a reason to keep these scary things in the house. Although, I could refurbish them for some downright haunted halloween decorations!

Anna Turns 6

Ok.....so this happened a few days ago- March 31st to be exact, but I am just now finally getting to the posting. What can I say, life is a bit hectic lately. So, 6 years ago this week, one of the sweetest, most thoughtful people came into my life. Anna is such a little darling. Although she has been nicknamed "Annatude" on occasion, she is in general, just an easy going kid. In reminiscing, I came across some of my favorite baby photos of her.

I especially appreciate the one with Alex holding her since I think it's been about that long since they willingly touched each other without pain being the outcome. Someday maybe that will happen again :)

And now, here is Anna, all grown up!

Love you beautiful!

Possibly the most inappropriate thing ever said by a 6 year old......

Kids. Yep, kids. That kind of sums up all I can say about this post. When they are 6 and 7, they have an odd fascination with all things related to body parts and functions. I don't think this fascination ends for awhile, especially with boys. That said, we had a lovely day yesterday- it was Anna's 6th birthday. I will post that in another post with a more appropriate title. At the end of this lovely day we were outside and the neighbors that live behind us were on a walk. We have met them before, but not talked at any length. They stopped, we were chatting, the kids were playing (they have kids the same ages as Anna and Alex). Anna and Alex were running around, getting along poorly with each other, as is their usual. Anna kept trying to tattle on Alex for something and we just kept redirecting her back to the yard, telling her to get along. After all, we were in adult conversation, making new friends, who we seem to have a lot in common with. Finally, Anna could not stand it anymore and she ran over and as we tried to send her back to play, she screamed very loudly "BUT MOM, ALEX IS PUTTING HIS NUTS ON MY HEAD". Oh God, what did she just say? Ok, try to act cool- nope too late, everyone heard it, probably even the neighbors inside their houses. I will say that I have never in my life heard Anna say anything remotely like this. Nope, not ever. Perfect timing. Could it be coincidence that the neighbors had to leave shortly after this? I don't know, but if I heard someone else's kid say this, I'd certainly think twice about letting my kids play at their house! Having kids sure does change your social life! I think I'll let the dust settle and when the kitchen is done perhaps I'll bake them some cookies as a good will gesture.