Am I There, Yet?

Cheese:

I love to cook.  I love to try new recipes.  I love to pour over recipe books and if my family would let me I could watch Food Network all day long.  (Here comes the cheesy part…)  I absolutely adore my husband who doesn’t mind cleaning up after the messes I make in the kitchen.  He’s the BEST!!!

Whine:

I HATE, HATE, HATE, HATE grocery shopping.  I have to go grocery shopping today and it’s already 3:00 and I still haven’t gone.  I am procrastinating horribly today.  I don’t have anything in my kitchen for dinner tonight.  But, just the thought of entering the crowded grocery store, fighting my way through the aisles and trying to figure out which items to purchase based on quality and price just makes me cringe.  Ugh!  I used to dislike grocery shopping when I lived in a small town in the west…but, now that I live in the most densly populated state this weekly task is so much less enjoyable.

Thanks for letting me whine.  Any tips for making grocery shopping more enjoyable?

…same ol’…same ol’.  LOL!!!  I’m such a snob…somebody slap me!  I love my life…

Josh’s parents just left this morning.  They came to visit us this weekend and we had a great visit.  After church on Sunday we took them to Liberty State Park for a picnic dinner.  It was fun to eat, visit and watch the kids play in the shadow of the Manhattan skyline and the Statue of Liberty.

(Josh’s parents with the grandkids)

It rained all day Monday, so we didn’t do much.  We hung around the house and only went out for lunch.

Tuesday was fun.  We went to the Jersey Shore.  The weather was perfect and we had a great time.

Here’s the six of us at lunch.

The kids rode a few rides on the boardwalk and then we played some putt putt golf.

I met a new man…he’s the “bad boy” type…but it was a short lived fling because…

…my husband is so hot!!!

Not to mention we make such cute kids.

What more could I ask for?

Did I mention that I love my life?

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Lion King update:  Many of my friends and family know that Titus is saving money to see Lion King on Broadway.  He’s been searching every surface of everywhere we go looking for lost money.  He checks under park benches and inside vending machine slots.  He’s been charming people out of their spare change with his dimples.  We counted his money today and he’s saved $89.70!!!  How crazy is that?  Not bad for a 4 year old!

I can’t believe that summer is about half over.  Lilly will be back in school before I know it…yikes!  We’re having a fun summer.  We’ve been doing some traveling and having lots of company…two of my favorite things.  During our down times I’m trying to keep some sort of schedule with the kids.  I wanted to share my three favorite summer sanity tools:

#1)  Cooking Rocks!  Rachael Ray 30-Minute Meals for Kids

I love this cookbook.  The kids look through it and decide what they want to make.  Then they help me put the ingredients on my shopping list and help me with the grocery shopping.  This makes grocery shopping with them much more bearable when they have a task to do.  Then the real fun comes when they get to cook the meal.  Another benefit is that they never complain about the food they make.  If I were to make something it would be too this or too that…but, if they make it then it’s great.

Yesterday Lilly made Pasta with Trees (Broccoli).  Lilly said, “Oh…this is so good!  I bet if I were on Food Network Star and I made this that the judges would really like it.”

#2)  1001 Activities for a Smarter Child

My mom gave this to us and it’s fantastic.  The kids love to look through it and pick out activities to do.  One of the activities we did recently was called Smells Good!  I blindfolded them and placed a tray in front of their noses and they had to guess what it was that they smelled.  On our tray I put a sliced lemon, a small bowl of cinnamon, soap, a small bowl of pepper and some toothpaste.  The kids had to guess what they smelled and then come up with another word that starts with the same letter as the item they smelled.

Another activity was creating a TV Studio.  I cut a hole in a box and they decorated it to look like a TV.  Then they taped it to their table and made a weather map and taped it to the wall behind them.  They then put together a live weather report behind the TV and did a live broadcast of the news and weather.  Here’s a picture I took of that:

The ideas are simplistic…but, the kids love it.  Most activities don’t take much longer than 15 minutes…but, the kids love the time spent together and they forget to fight with each other when we’re working on an activity.  Bonus points for me!  

#3)  Do You Doodle?

I love this book.  Titus is a little artist and can sit and draw for hours.  This book is great because it is kind of like a coloring book except that the pictures aren’t complete.  The child is supposed to use their imagination and their drawing skills to complete the picture.  For example, there’s a picture of a bare foot with the caption, “It’s biting my foot!” and the child is supposed to draw a picture of whatever it is that’s biting the foot.  There’s another one that’s a picture of a couple of skyscrapers and the caption reads, “Finish building the city.”

Here’s a picture that both kids collaborated on.  The first fisherman caught a shark.  The second fisherman caught a pair of jeans.  The third fisherman caught a big fish (he has a happy face) and the last fisherman caught a baby fish (he has a sad face.)

So…that’s what the kids have been up to…well besides playing in the park, watching too much TV and playing video games.  My ideal day would be for us to get up, eat breakfast together, go to the park (while it’s still cool outside), work on their “homework” (I have them do 2 pages a day in their summer skills books:  preschool for Titus…1^st Grade for Lilly),  do an activity or cook something before they get to play video games.  But, I haven’t had one ideal day this summer.  That’s O.K. because we’re only halfway through…I still have a few weeks to go.  Just when I get a good routine down it’ll be time for school to start again.

I love this age…I love my kids.  I’d probably have several more by now if I didn’t have such rough pregnancies.

It’s taken me a few days to recover.  As mentioned in my previous post, the kids and I took a trip out to Oregon to see my parents and some of our friends.  It was really great seeing everybody.

I want to update my blog…but don’t want to bore everybody with the little details of my life.  But…since I have bloggers block…here’s the boring details.  Maybe something interesting will come out of it.

We actually got home on Wednesday…but, are still a bit off kilter.  We arrived at the Portland airport at 10:00 PM Tuesday night.  Our plane didn’t leave until 12:30 AM…so I went to Coffee People and grabbed a SlammaHamma for myself and hot chocolates for the kids.  They thought it was so great that they were not only still out of bed at 10:00 at night…but that Mom was giving them hot chocolate.  We went over to our gate and I got out the dvd player and the kids watched a movie until it was time to board the plane.  I thought for sure they’d fall asleep before then…but they waited until they were on the plane.  They slept great.  I didn’t sleep a wink…the entire flight.  I don’t know why…it could’ve been because an airplane isn’t exactly the most comfortable place to sleep, or because the flight attendants couldn’t stop chatting, or because I wanted to keep my eyes on the kids.  Either way…I was as cranky as it gets by the time we landed.  Thank God my kids are patient with me.  I texted Josh asking him to bring me my blanket and pillow when he came to pick us up…he was kind enough to oblige…but, I couldn’t sleep in the car either.  The New Jersey Turnpike isn’t exactly the place to try to catch some zzzzzz’s, either.

You can only guess what I did all day Wednesday.  I was pretty much unconscious…while the kids fended for themselves.  Please don’t turn me in to the authorities.  The kids know where the food is and how to change the TV channels.  Nobody’s life was endangered.  It’s all good.  They were pretty tired, too and just plain happy to be home.  They didn’t argue or fuss the entire day…at least not that I’m aware of!

I’m not the only one who’s still off balance.  Lilly can’t get to sleep before midnight and will sleep in until 11:00 every morning if I let her.  Titus is right back on schedule.

Since I was gone all last week and Josh’s brothers were here the week before…Josh and I haven’t had a lot of time to ourselves.  He found a babysitter to watch the kids yesterday and took me to the city.

We had a lot of fun.  No great plans…we didn’t catch a show or walk through a museum or shop ‘til we dropped.  It was a gorgeous day, so we went to Greenwich Village and grabbed some lunch and coffee (of course!)  We then wandered over to Washington Square Park and sat and listened to a jazz concert in the park.  We talked, laughed, dreamed and people watched.  We then started wandering through the NYU campus and headed uptown.  We passed Union Square and before we knew it we found ourselves in the Flatiron District and Madison Square Park.  We walked 19 blocks. By this time we realized we were only 10 blocks from the train station so we kept walking.  When we got to the Manhattan Mall, I talked Josh into going inside.  I’ve heard a lot of talk about Steve and Barry’s and Sarah Jessica Parker’s new line of clothes…so I wanted to check it out for myself.  Cute stuff…unbelievable prices.  I didn’t feel like trying anything on…so I grabbed a couple of T-shirts and will probably go back. 

It was a good day.  It was especially great to spend several hours with Josh without any every day pressure and interruptions. 

And those are the boring details of my life.

Here are a few pictures from our Oregon trip:

Here are the kids goofing off at the Minneapolis/St. Paul airport during a layover.

I love this picture of Titus and my mom (Aren’t they cute with their matching bowling shoes?) 

SOLD!!!  Wahoo!!!! 

So…….What’s new with you?

I just thought I’d pop in and say a quick, “hi!”  The kids and I flew to Oregon to spend some time with my parents and friends for the week.  We’re having a great time.  It’s been really great seeing everybody and I’m particularly excited about going to church tomorrow.

I have some other big news…We sold our house!!!!  I didn’t mention it on the blog, because I didn’t want to get too excited…just in case something happened.  But, the closing is scheduled for Wednesday and everything is going smoothly.  Wahoo!

I’m excited to be rid of the 2nd house payment…but, a part of me is also very sad.  This is it…our last physical tie to our past…besides family and friends…of course.  The kids and I walked through the house for the last time a couple of days ago.  My son had to be convinced that we didn’t leave any of his toys behind.  As we were leaving, my daughter asked, “Why did we have to move?”  I hate that question.  I don’t blame her for asking…sometimes I ask the same question.  I do love this community, but I don’t idealize it.  It’s a great place to come back to visit…but, it also no longer feels like home.  This has been a surreal visit…with everything looking so familiar and then yet so foreign.

I wish Josh were here.  He had to stay home and work…mostly because everybody else in the office is on vacation…or at a conference.