Ridiculously Awesome

Being a mom can be rough. However there is nothing like the awesomeness that comes when you aren't expecting it, like these gems. 

"You don't know me...I'm 100% awesome." ~ Jack

Standing on the soda aisle, looking at caffeine free Coke -"This is why America is awesome". ~Jack

Jack: What is your third favorite color?

Thomas: Black

Jack: No, it can't be. Black isn't a color, it's a shade. 

Ben: If it's in the crayon box, it's a color. 

"I'm really close to being a man, but Thomas, you still have a few years". ~Jack

Man my kids rock. 

What the kids say and some family pictures.

The other day Thomas did something for which he got in trouble. Part of his punishment was to replace the item he destroyed and he was sent to his room. 

As he was walking up the stairs this is our conversation:

Thomas: Mom, don't tell dad.

Me:  We don't keep secrets, so I am going to tell dad.

Thomas: (Now WAILING) NO, DON'T TELL DAD. I DON'T WANT TO GO TO JAIL.

Me: What?!?

Thomas: If you tell dad, I will have to go to jail, and I'm too little to go to jail.

Where does he get this stuff?

Then with Jack.

Ben and I have been talking about holding Jack back a year in school.  There are many reasons for this, and we have talked to Jack about some of them. 

The other day, I was reminding him of some of the changes we were looking for. 

Me: Now, Jack, you know that we need to see some improvement so that you can move on to grade 2.

Jack: Yes. But mom, I don't want to stay back another year.

Me: I know, but we need to see some changes.

Jack: I know, but mom, I don't want to wait an extra year to go to University.

Well at least he has motivation. 

I hope that motivation stays with him for the next few years, like until he graduates high school.

And now for some family pictures.  We all ended up wearing white shirts. In my opinion it might have been a little much, but we still looked nice, so we took some pictures.

This kid is ALWAYS picking his nose.

Valentine's Dinner.

Wouldn't you know, Ben had some people visiting for work today. Which meant he took them to dinner tonight, instead of me. *pout*

This was my Valentine's Dinner. I even splurged and ate a Big Mac.

I find it hard to resist the secret sauce.

*done pouting*

At least these two handsome fellas agreed to be my dates!

Although, as soon as they finished eating, they ran off to the Play Place, and left me all alone.

So I read a magazine, and watched the other McDonald's customers, which is quite entertaining. As are my children- one performed "Gangnam Style" and the other spun around until he couldn't walk straight. It was pretty awesome. I'm pretty sure you wish you were here, celebrating with us.

And I dressed for the occasion.

Happy Valentine's Day!

*hugs*

 

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I Have Been Living a Lie. A Confession

For years I have been living a lie. And today I am going to come clean.

 

I don't like Nutella.

Yet, I have said that I love it. I have been telling this lie for years. Why? Because I wanted to be cool. For so long most people I know GUSH about how much they love the chocolatey, hazlenut concoction. I don't like hazelnuts. I have felt the pressure of this lie for years. Telling lie after lie, only to tell more lies. It has been difficult with the many lies. I went as far as to pin some Nutella recipes on Pinterest. Yes my friends, I was that desperate.

I have finally come to terms with my dislike of Nutella. Partially because I found something else to replace it. Namely this lovely treat:

 

Which is from Trader Joes. Which, in my opinion, partially redeems my coolness. Because everyone knows Trader Joes= coolness.

 

I ask you to forgive me for lying and for not sharing in the love of Nutella.

 

The End.

 

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Adam's Peak, Sri Lanka.

This weekend Ben and I hiked "Adam's Peak" here in Sri Lanka.  Adam's Peak is supposed to be where Adam first stepped foot after he was cast out of heaven, or where Buddha stepped on his way to paradise.  You see, there is a stone with a footprint in it, and many different religions believe it to be the footprint of someone of significance. Thus it is the sight of pilgrimage for many believers of many different faiths.  I would not say that Ben and I were on any sort of pilgrimage, but it was certainly a significant event.

The hike itself is about 7 miles round trip (I was also told 7 km each way- I will give both numbers just in case one is wrong), and most of that is stairs. We did our hike at night so that we could reach the top to watch the sunrise. I must say that both Ben and I underestimated the immense feat that was before us.

We arrived at our hotel at about 7:00 p.m., had dinner, and went to bed.  We had to be up and ready to go at 2:00 a.m..  We went to bed at 8:00, and things were looking good.  That is until 11:00 p.m. when I woke up with the thought that I didn't pack my shoes.  Ridiculous, I thought to myself.  Who goes on a hike and forgets to pack their shoes?  I tried to dismiss the thought, but I jumped out of bed, and looked in the suitcase.  IDIOT (this word is a bad word at our house, so I am practically swearing here) I. FORGOT. MY. SHOES. WHAT. AN. IDIOT. (Again with the bad word)

The only shoes I had were my flip flops.  IDIOT.  

My cries of anguish woke Ben up, and we both searched the bag again.  You know, in case I missed my shoes the first 1000 times I had already looked.  

I decided I would wear my socks, and just go like that.  Ben looked at me with that face that screams IDIOT, and told me that I could borrow his flip flops, which were a little more sturdy than mine. I decided that I would have to climb the mountain in flip flops.  

I didn't go back to sleep after that, and at 2:00 am.  We loaded the bus.  

Here is the rest of the trip in pictures and captions.

The top of the mountain from the beginning of the hike.

I am pretty sure that the movie "Joe Versus the Volcano" was highly based on this mountain.

Statue of Buddha at the start of the hike.

  Oh, so you want to climb this mountain, huh?  I will just lay here and watch.

I didn't take any pictures of the hike up, but let me describe it for you.  Stairs.  The entire climb was stairs, well 89% stairs.  And, it is about 7 km up and 7 km down.  Have you ever done a stair climber machine for 5, okay, closer to 4 hours straight.  No?  Probably because that is crazy.  Yes, crazy. That is what this felt like.

The good thing is that there are many tea shops and other stores that sell water and snacks along the way.  In fact, they were almost all the way to the top.  My thought when I saw them was that someone had to carry all those water bottles, soda bottles, and EVERY. LITTLE. ITEM. up those stairs.  It made me feel like a wimp.

  

We made it to the top at the same time as every other person who wanted to watch the sunrise from the top of the mountain.  We made it to the top, but couldn't really see, so we started the climb back down to find somewhere to watch the sunrise.  We didn't even see the famous footprint.  However, in order to see it, you have to take off your shoes and your hats, and it was really cold and crowded so we skipped that part.  We found out later that the actual footprint is buried several feet underground, so we wouldn't have even see the "real" thing anyway.

We did find someplace to watch the sunrise, sans the crowds and the noxious odors.  I didn't mention the odors, but you know, we have a crowd of people that have been climbing stairs for hours all packed together, and well, I am sure you can imagine.

Victory.  We watched the sunrise.

Ben beginning the descent. 

Some of the stairs.  This part was seriously steep. Okay, most of it was seriously steep.

Once the sun came up we had such beautiful views, which made the journey so much easier.

What a cute couple. And my favorite picture from our trip.  I'll make it extra large to show its importance.

And we mustn't forget my footwear.  Yes.  I am in fact wearing flip flops and socks.  Surprisingly my feet stayed warm and pain free the entire time.  I must add that there was a lot of praying going on in my head.  As an interesting note, most of the Sri Lankan people climbing were also wearing sandals or barefoot.  So I really fit right in...well not really, I think the socks gave it away that I was not local.

This is the mountain we climbed. Mighty impressive if you ask me.  

Overall it was a great experience.  I am grateful that my feet didn't hurt.  I am also grateful that we did not bring our kids.  Some people brought their kids and carried them up the entire way- I am incredibly impressed with them.  One of the marines also helped carry one of the kids up, and I am seriously impressed with her as well. One of the things that made the trip great was the wonderful people we went with. 

I am glad I did it, but probably won't do it again.

And from now on I will always double check to make sure I have my shoes.     

How to look like a tourist. Another tutorial by yours truly.

There are many ways to stand out as a tourist.  I will only go into two different ways that I commonly see and/or have done myself (perhaps did today).

Today Jack and I played tourist and went to the Gangaramaya Temple, here in Colombo.  

One:  Carry a guide book with you.  When in doubt, open it up.  Maybe in the middle of the road, stopping to make sure you are in fact supposed to be crossing the road.  Perhaps stopping traffic; creating another obstacle for the many motorists to go around (hopefully).  This may bring into mind a joke about a chicken and a road.

Step Two:  Wear a shirt that is from the place you are visiting.  Really.  You don't see many locals wearing shirts from their own city.  I mean, how many people from New York City wear the I (heart) NY shirts?  Very few, if any.  How many French people wear shirts with the Eiffel tower on it?  Pretty sure not many.  You want to look like a tourist, wear a shirt you have just bought.  

(Think of the movie "What about Bob?")

There you have it.  Two ways to look like a tourist.  

Now, like I said I have in fact done both of these things. (Well, I don't think I have opened a guidebook in the middle of the road, but I have seen it done.)  I don't think that looking like a tourist is always a bad thing.  In fact, I think being a tourist can be exciting.  

There are a lot more ways to look like a tourist.  What are some of your favorites?

Of course, when you are a tourist, you must, must, must take a picture of everything.

And...you must take pictures of everything your guide tells you to take pictures of.  Then when they ask for a tip, you can thank them for these little gems:

I would like to thank Jack for tagging along with me.  He was a little reluctant to come with me, but he was so good AND had a good time.  Win-win.

Oh my, another week has gone by.

This week has been fun and full of adventures. Here are some of the pictures of our week. Because as you all know, if you don't take a picture and document it in a least two ways, how do you know it really happened?

 

What I have been working on: Christmas decorations. This year, I wanted to do an angel theme, so I have been busy making angel wings and collecting all sorts of different angels. It has been really fun. Oh, and if you were ever wondering if paper mâché goes bad if left in the fridge too long, the answer is yes, and it smells quite nasty.

 

While I have been crafting, the boys have also been working on their artistic abilities.

 

They are totally cute, and face painting was a wonderful way for them to have fun when I was working on my projects.

 

 

We have also been exploring around town.

The man on the right is carrying cut up pineapple on his head.

 

And, this is what I wore. Have I told you for the last year have been documenting my outfits almost daily? I can't remember if I told you before, in fact, I think I did. Either way, now you know. It has been fun to see the good, bad, and strange things I have worn over the last year. But this is about last week.

 

 

This week has been great, and next week is Thanksgiving, and I can already smell the turkey, which is much better than the rancid paper mâché smell.

I have cooking preparations all week, so wish me luck...I am pretty sure I am going to need it.

This is the first time I am attempting a turkey since 2008 when it ended in tears (raw turkey is never a good thing). This time the stakes are a little higher as we have invited people over...maybe you should be wishing them luck.

 

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Recent Conversation.

I thought I would share this conversation I had with Jack a few days ago. It made me smile.

Jack: I think we should be a family of five.

Me: Really, how are we going to do that?

Jack: Add another kid.

Me: Where are we going to find another kid?

Jack: We just need to find a five year old that no one likes, and he can be in our family.

Me: But if no one likes him, what if we don't like him?

Jack: Of course we would like him, he would be our brother.

 

So we are on the look out for a five year old that no one likes.

 

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Cockroaches vs. the biggest and most threatening thing in the room.

This morning before church, I sent Jack into his bedroom to get dressed.  He came back to me, with his pajamas still on.  He told me there was a cockroach in his room, so he couldn't possibly get dressed.  "Don't worry, I'll take care of this."  I was sure by the time I got to his room the cockroach would be long gone.  Wrong.  The thing was on it's back, wiggling its little legs back and forth.  Ben wasn't home, so I did the only logical thing I could think of.  I put a plastic cup over the cockroach, and a book on top of the cup so that this super cockroach could not escape.  I would have Ben take care of it when we got home from church.

Tonight, we were putting the boys to bed, and it was my turn to get them water.  I reached down and grabbed the water cup.  Shockingly, I had forgotten about my prisoner.  The cockroach ran, I screamed,  the boys screamed, and Ben came running.  Lovingly Ben says to me, "what is wrong with you?  It's only a cockroach, and you screamed like someone was dying.  You are the biggest and most threatening thing to this cockroach."  Followed by "Why didn't you just kill it?"  I made up some excuse about not having enough time before church...blah, blah, blah.  Then he looked at me (you know the look of calling out my lame excuse), and I knew I had to tell him the truth.

I have an irrational fear that if I don't kill the cockroach when I attempt to squish it, it will jump into my screaming mouth and lay cockroach eggs and a few days later little baby cockroaches are going to climb all over my sleeping face.  Seriously.  I read "Scary Stories" enough to know that these things have happened.  AND I don't like the crunching noise that comes with squishing a large cockroach.

Luckily for me, Ben killed the cockroach, and I laughed so hard, Jack asked me if I was crying.  You see it became really funny as soon as I wasn't the one who had to squish it.  It was ridiculous hilarious that I was so clever in avoiding killing this fearsome creature.

So if you come over to my house, you might want to be careful about picking up random cups off the ground.  Just sayin' you never know what you might find underneath.

Preparing for change. A tutorial of sorts.

Do you remember when I gave a tutorial?  Yes, my friends, I did.  Here it is.  I think it is about time for another one.

I am really good with change.  In fact, I would call myself an expert on change.  I thought I could write a few suggestions in case there is anyone that struggles with change, and feels like hiding in a hole/cave/dark room when change comes along.  Change ALWAYS comes easily to me.  I would say that I make changes gracefully/beautifully/perfectly.  I am emotionally stable and am able to roll with the punches quite well.  Okay, okay, enough of my perfectness.  You are not here to read how perfect I am, but how to become such.  Of course, I will be using tales from my own life to illustrate how you too can be like me.

When I was twenty-one, I went on a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  I was asked to go to Rochester, New York.  I don't really like the cold, and in order to prepare for the extreme cold, I would sleep with the window open, so I could get used to the lower temperatures.  It worked like a charm.  I was never cold, even when walking on long rural streets in 20 feet of snow.

When I was pregnant with Jack, I spent many hours and nights preparing for his arrival.  I would stay up all night, listening to the sound of infant cries, depriving myself of much needed sleep so that I would be used to it.  I would also throw food on myself during meals.  Particularly messy foods like applesauce, pudding, and milk in order to know what it would be like to be covered in baby messes.  This definitely worked, because if you didn't know it, I am the best mother.  Ever.

In order to prepare for Sri Lanka, I have turned off the air conditioner (both home and car) in order to thin my blood so that I will not be uncomfortable in the hot and humid conditions.

I am also leaving standing water around, bathing in sugar water, and putting any smelly lotion/perfume on (all at the same time, of course) so that I can attract any mosquito in the Northern Virginia area. This, of course is so that when we arrive in Sri Lanka, I will be accustomed to mosquito bites.

I hope that this has been helpful.  I know that if I were you, I would love such sound advice and encouragement.



By the way, I also prepare by making light of all of the things I certainly expect to be difficult.

I knew it would end in tears, just as so many things do.

Flying a kite is one of those activities I knew would not end well with the boys, but I did it anyway.  

As a child, I remember trying so hard to get a kite to fly without success, and I am pretty sure that each attempt ended in tears.  (I don't fully recall, however, because I have blocked out anything negative I have ever done.  Including crying over ridiculous failures.)

Which brings me to my desire for the boys to fly a kite.  

Both of the boys had their own kite, and both of them were able to get them up for a few moments.  Unfortunately, as soon as the wind stopped, so did their smiles.

However, if they ever say, they never flew a kite (as I am claiming from my childhood) they cannot make that claim.

Here is the proof.

These next pictures are my favorite from our adventure.  

Jack is mid-fit in this one, and Thomas is in the background laying down after he gave up.

"Oh, why me?"

One day in our exciting life.

Today was another day on home leave, and it was awesome!

First, we woke up around 8:30 (rough, huh?) to find out that my sister had her third baby.  We get to meet the little one in a few weeks! I would also like to point out that I correctly predicted the sex of her child (boy).  Hooray for me.  Winning.

Then I went and got my haircut.  I feel fresh and lovely.

THEN we went to an arcade, and Ben and I WON Deal or No Deal.  Yes, my friends, we won the jackpot of 200 tickets!  I know, you are all impressed.  

Our spoils.  The tickets just kept going and going.

Getting ready to cash in.  We ended up with a sword and an eye patch,
 four ninja toys, two dum-dum suckers,  twelve little frootie candies,
 and a glider with a rotating propeller.  WINNING.

My treat of the day (well one of them).  These are amazing! 

My brother and I went to All-you-can eat sushi.

Oh, and I am pretty sure that Ben has purchased my Valentine's Day gift.  I am going to try to keep it a surprise by not reading the e-mails that I know are there...

And we are going to do it again tomorrow.  

Well actually, tomorrow isn't going to be as great, but you know, I like blogging about the best so that no one knows how boring our life really is.

Fly Me Away.

I had a really clever idea this year for sending off our letters to Santa.  BALLOONS!  We were going to write our letters, attach them to some balloons, and send them off to the North Pole.  Brilliant, creative, and just amazing, right?  Yeah...no.

I had high hopes- see they love the balloons.

It could have been a great idea if every thing went as planned, but it didn't.  First, we got the balloons, and the boys were so excited!  We went home to write our letters, and I wrote mine, just as I was supposed to.  I asked for some outrageous things like world peace, ginormous diamond earrings, a new car, you know totally non-realistic, but AWESOME requests.   The kids started out strong, but ended up throwing their lists on the ground, refusing to finish, and refusing to pose for the camera so that I could document my amazing idea.  Seriously, kids. They obviously don't understand my need to record every moment of creative genius that I have.
It all deflated from there.  The fits continued and I gave up.  Fine.  I guess Santa won't get his letter this year.  Fine.
Then Ben came home from work, and I went to bed.  It was a rough day.

We could save the balloons for tomorrow.

Maybe not.

Deflated. 

My genius.

My creativity.

The balloons.

Deflated.

Now on to my next amazing idea...