What I really want for my birthday

My birthday is on Sunday.  For those of you looking to buy me a gift…these are your choices.

Cash is always acceptable.

A pillow. Not just any pillow but the pillow to beat all pillows. One that puts me to sleep the instant my head hits it and when I wake up I feel like a brand new woman.

The ability to eat ice cream and cookies for every meal and never gain an ounce.

My daughter to sleep all night, every night from 8pm to 7am.

My son to lose the desire to argue about every god blessed thing in the world.

Boone to come back to life on Lost. *sigh*

Chris Martin. Wrapped in ribbon. On my doorstop.

A Lost Girls weekend in Las Vegas.

To be able to walk in the front door and have the first thing I hear not be “Whats for dinner?”

My favorite size 8 low rise boot leg Levi’s multiplied by 10. I have only one pair and they recently developed a hole in the knee. *sob*

My neighbors dogs to mysteriously disappear into thin air. Or the sudden inability to bark.

Questions of the day answered here.

I’m making a T-shirt. I’m wearing it everyday until my sunburn goes away.

Here’s what it says….

Yes, I have been out in the sun.

Yes, I do know that I have a bad sunburn on my face. In case I didn’t know, its a good thing you told me.
I also know that my face is peeling very badly. Thanks for asking.

Yes, I do know that I am not supposed to be in the sun without sunscreen. Please don’t lecture me.

My scalp is also peeling and I do not have dandruff, I have a burned, peeling scalp. Please don’t recommend a good dandruff shampoo.

No I am not a leper, but if I were, you’d be the first one I’d touch.
Anymore questions?

My Busy Weekend

Mom and I had a yard sale on Saturday. My friend Nykky came and brought her little boy Connor, who is the same age as Maddie so they had a lot of fun. The kids were really good. We did pretty well on the yard sale, but we have so much stuff leftover that we're going to hold another one at my house in a few weeks. I got so fried out in the sun that day. I know, bad Karla. I should know better. I guess wait on that annual dermatology review until the burn dies down a bit. I'll be getting a lecture from my dermatologist anyway.  The weather has been so hot the last few days and it doesn't look like its going to cool down for a few days.

Yesterday we took the kids to Salisbury Park and they played at the beach and we had a picnic. It was already hot at 11:30 am so we cut it shorter than we wanted to. We took them over to my dad's and let them play in the pool for awhile. Of course they wanted to stay so Joel and I left. He took me to Circuit City and bought me my birthday present…an IPOD. I call it my K-Pod. I've been begging for one. He took me and let me pick out the one I wanted. I know my birthday's not for another week, but he said we may as well do it now. Then we went out to dinner at Red Robin. Then I came home and loaded my K-Pod and put it on and haven't taken it off since. My family thinks I am ignoring them. Hungry? I'm sorry I can't hear you, all I hear is COLDPLAY. (obviously it's not just Coldplay. It holds about 240 songs….so it's only mostly Coldplay).

It's going to be another super busy week so I'm not really sure how much computer time I'll get. I'm going to try to catch up on blogs soon, I promise. I hate not being able to read them everyday. Damn summertime

Fear Not

I'm still here. Just had a really busy weekend. I'll update tomorrow and hopefully catch up on everyone elses blogs. This is the first time I've turned on my computer in 4 days.

Mom and Dylan Day

Today was Dylan's last day of 2nd grade so I picked him up at the bus stop. First thing I notice is that he wasn't running to the car like I expected. As he gets closer to the car, I notice he's actually limping and his knee is all bandaged up.  He has blood dripping down his leg.  I opened it up and it's a really bad scrape. He fell at recess and cut his knee up pretty bad on the gravel. I drove him home first and cleaned it up and put some medicine on it and bandaged it back up.  The nurse did it at school too. She didn't do a very good job though, there were still pieces of gravel stuck in the wound.  I asked him why the nurse didn't do a very good job, he said "Because she's just a nurse, and you're a doctor. She only has little people to work on and you have big people" (for the record, I'm not a nurse or a doctor, but apparently my child thinks so).

We were already running a little late at this point since I already had the movie tickets for 1:35 and it was 12:40 when we got to the restaurant. Luckily I knew the waitress and she put a rush on the lunch so we got in and out quickly. Intially Dylan had wanted to eat a cheese pizza, but once we got there he decided that he wanted Lasagna, because on the menu it said "Just as good as your Mom's", so he said he figured it must be really good. (awwhhh). I ended up telling him what movie we were seeing during lunch. I couldn't keep the secret anymore. I pulled out the movie tickets and laid them on the table. He stared at them for a minute and then he said "Mom….you have X-Men tickets?" I said "Yes." He said "When are you going to see that?" I said "Today." He said "With me???" I said "yes….." He totally flipped and called me the best mom EVER. (I asked him to write it down)

After lunch we had time to cruise by the gas station and grab some candy and pop to stuff in our bag (shh) and get to the theater just in time for X-Men III to start.  It was actually a pretty good movie. I'm not usually the parent that accompanies him to superhero movies, so he had to give me a bit of a backstory to the movie and explain which character was which, so that helped alot.  It wasn't as violent as I thought it would be. I've definetely seen worse. There was one steamy scene involving Logan and Jean that I wish wasn't there, I was about 1/2 second from covering a little boys eyes before it stopped. They also had some colorful language I would have rather not been in there. They used Hell and Damn alot, but it's not that I was so concerned about. Other than that, it was rather entertaining. 

I also got his report card back today, which he failed to mention until after the movie.  It was suprisingly good though. You see, I have an extremely smart, but very unmotivated child. If he worked up to his potential he'd be limitless…however he doesn't want to.  His report card however, was fantastic.  My biggest concern for him was his penmanship which he'd always got poor marks on before.  He now is getting good marks and the teacher even made a comment about his improvement.  

His testing scores came back as well.  He's testing at a 4th grade level, which isn't suprising to me at all.  I honestly think his reading level is even higher, like maybe 6th grade. There isn't anything he can't read and when he is reading he never stumbles on words. Not in anything he reads.  

Because of his grades and improvement in the year, he's earned himself a trip to Six Flags Enchanted Village this summer, so YAY for Dylan. 

Maddie-isms, Last Day of School and Photo Wednesday

Every day she makes me laugh more and more

~~Yesterday she told me "I want a sister. I don't want a brother anymore, because mine is mean to me." (too bad)

~~We were laying down next to each other reading books in bed and she said "mom, you need to move over and make more room for my privates"

Today is Dylan's last day of second grade. It's devestating that my baby is going to be a 3rd grader! You know you've reached a whole new level of old when you can actually remember being in the the grade your child is going into. We're heading off to lunch and a movie together. It should be fun. I can't wait to see his face when he finds out we're seeing X-Men III.

Here is the Wednesday Photo.In honor of Dylan's last day of 2nd grade I decided to post a picture of Dylan and I on his last day of 1st grade. We went to the Pacific Science Center.

Never a dull moment

Last night around 7:00 our doorbell rang. When this happens its usually either Crazy Mary coming over the yell at me for something or a Jehovah's Witness.  Last night it was neither.  It was our new neighbor, two houses down frantic because her 4 year old girl wandered off. Dylan and I put our shoes on and went out searching for her.  We, along with most of the neighborhood searched the entire area.  After 45 minutes she was finally found, but it was a pretty scary 45 minutes.  I'm not sure who found her or where she was but we're really glad she's home.  That poor mother was absolutely frantic.  I  can't even begin to imagine how horrible she felt.

Ode to my husband – father of my babies

Joel is a great father. His parenting style compliments mine in such a way that it makes everything work in sync perfectly. In the areas where he is patient, I am not.  In the areas where I am patient, he is not.  We are both well aware of each others parenting strengths and weaknesses and are willing and able to back off and let the other take over when necessary.

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I wasn't around anymore (I know thats morbid, but you just wonder these things). I wonder if Joel could handle it by himself. I wonder what kind of a father he would be without me around.  I'll probably never know the answer to this, but I know for a fact that he would do his best and whatever it took to take care of his babies.   

I once got upset with him because he didn't strive for better.  He works a job where he makes 1/2 the money he could working somewhere else.  If he took a different job, I could quit my job and stay home with my babies.  One day I saw the light. I realized that he's not "settling" with the job he has now.  He does it for us. If he worked for the other company he'd be making twice as much, but he'd be home very little. He'd either be home really late at night, or if it was too far away he'd have to stay away for a whole week and come home on the weekends.  He would never see his babies. He couldnt play UNO with Dylan at night before bed. He couldn't tuck his babies in.  I understand now and I respect him more for it.  

Fathers Day Weekend

First I’d like to wish a very Happy Birthday to my Aunt Libby!! and also to my dear friend Kristi’s little boy Alex, who turned 3 yesterday. I never made it onto the computer yesterday to get a chance to post this. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Fathers day started with Joel and I fighting. Isn’t that the way it always goes? We had big plans for yesterday and we were at each others throats. Initally I wanted to take the kids somewhere in the morning so he could sleep in for Fathers Day but he didn’t want to. Then yesterday morning all of a sudden he did want to. So I took the kids and went and got donuts and had breakfast with MY daddy. The kids got to play on the trampoline a bit and had some fun. Then we went home to give Joel his fathers day cards and gifts. The kids each picked out a candy bar for him and we got a Seattle Mariner’s pop holder for him too.

I made a big turkey dinner, mashed potatoes, broccoli and rolls. I also made a gigantic delicious apple crisp for dessert. For the first time ever, I made LUMP FREE mashed potatoes. YAY FOR ME.

We tried to watch that new show Treasure Hunters last night, but we just couldn’t get into it. I think we were both too tired to think. Sunday nights do that to us. We just thankful to have survived another weekend.

In the afternoon yesterday we went to Salisbury Park (or Raspberry Park, as Maddie calls it). The kids played for a long time and threw rocks in the water. Maddie made a friend.  She isn’t afraid to just jump right in and start talking to kids. Dylan was not that way and still to this day, is not that way at all.  Her and this girl, Kennedy were walking around the park holding hands and giggling.  They were so cute. Maddie brings her to me and Joel and introduces us “this is my mom and dad. This is my friend.” SOO cute. I got a picture of them together, I’ll upload it later.

After we left the park, we went to the Port Gamble Farmer’s Market. Dylan and I shared a plate of barbequed oysters and Joel had a BBQ Pork sandwich. Poor Maddie didn’t like any of that so she had some potato chips.  Her heart wasn’t too broken though. Not until we tried to leave.  She was doing the pout walk.  Moms of toddlers know the walk: arms folded, chin on chest, lip out, stomping. We were ignoring her pout walk until it looked like she was going to walk into a car. So Joel said “you better watch where you’re going or your going to run into something”. So she looked up, but only with her eyes.  It is very hard to describe, but she looked so funny, doing her pout walk but trying to watch where she was going without taking her chin off her chest.  We were laughing so hard we had tears rolling down our cheeks.

Last night Joel, Dylan and I played the grand champion round of UNO. Wouldn’t you know it. We’re beat by an 8 year old boy.We hang our heads in shame. 

Patience Level – LOW

I had a dangerously low patience level today. I woke up with a splitting headache and Maddie and Dylan were both crabby and arguing all morning long.  I took them to the store with me this morning (HUUUGE mistake) to purchase our fathers day dinner supplies.   What the heck was I thinking? They ate breakfast before we left but they whined and moaned the WHOLE trip about being hungry.  “I’m STARVING. When can I eat some food???” Okay my ethiopian children, maybe next week.  

Maddie threw a temper tantrum in the middle of the store because I wouldn’t let her have this stuffed dog. Dylan got pissy with me because I wouldn’t buy him a $5 package of cherries.

I told them they were both permanently banned from grocery stores everywhere.

Dylan did redeem himself by offering to help carry my groceries to the car.  Shocking, I know.

Apparently my patience level wasn’t the only one at a low level today though. My dad took the kids for a few hours so Joel and I could see a movie (I’ll get to that in a minute). When he brought them home I said “Were they good?” He said yes while shaking his head no. LOL He said he thought maybe he was just having some patience problems today. Maybe there is just a common denominator here, and they are 8 and 2. 

The movie we saw was The Break Up. I liked it. I’ve heard mixed reviews. Some loved it, some thought it was dull. I thought it was good.  It was worth seeing in the theater, in my opinion. Maybe it was just worth getting out of the house for 2.5 hours. Either way, money well spent.

Wednesday is Dylan’s last day of school. It’s also a half day. We’re having a special “mom and son” day. I’m picking him up after school and taking him to a special lunch and a movie.  He’s long since known he can’t see X-Men III. He’s been devastated about this.  He knew we were going to see Nacho Libre on Wednesday. He’s conceded to this and has regretfully accepted his non-X-Men fate. 

Today when we were at the movie theater, I purchased advanced tickets for Wednesday. For X-Men III. It’s a huge suprise (mom DO NOT tell him.) I can’t wait to see his face when we walk through the X-Men door rather than Nacho Libre.  He’s gonna flip. It’s worth it to have to sit through another X-men film.  Okay, Hugh Jackman is worth it too.