March Madness

Have you filled out your NCAA Tournament bracket yet? Hurry up - games start tomorrow. I think I'll choose someone else besides BYU or OU this year.

Vegas

Last weekend we took a little trip with some friends to visit Vegas. Our purposes were threefold:

1. Darren - to see the almighty Cougars rock the Mountain West Tournament (lost to UNLV in the championship game).

2. Stacie - to visit Lindsay Stoddard and have a little girl time with her and pal Jenny Covey in exchange for the hubbies' time at the tourney.

3. Boys - to see buddies Jake and Joe, to run like hooligans in an actual backyard (not a teensy front yard like ours), jump on the tramp, play the Wii 24/7, hang with the cute Covey girls, eat fast food, find fossils (roof tiles), and have unlimited access to the beloved Stoddard snack drawer.

It was a great time, and despite the hazards of taking kiddos to the strip ("Mom, did you see the innapropriate pictures? That girl had hardly any clothes on. We should write a letter and tell them to take them down." I think he's been listening to me too much. I get a little miffed by the barrage of billboards around LA. Anyone remember the "Nip/Tuck" ones? The creepy ones from the wax museum movie a couple years ago? I almost did write a letter about that one. ANYWAY! I digress . . . ) we couldn't resist the Bellagio fountains. They just don't get old. The Grove here in LA is a mini version, but it's still fun to see the scale of the spray. Too bad the garden was in transition and inaccessible.

I Wear my Sunglasses at Night

Here's a video for all you Top Gun fans, featuring a young Tom Cruise in some mean shades. This is a couple months old, at the height of Davis's love for the doorway jumper. The sweet sunglasses are from a birthday party the boys attended - where they also received some sweat bands. (nice swag, eh?) They felt cool but looked pretty dorky. Naturally, we couldn't resist putting them on the baby and laughing at his oblivion.

Little Does He Know

This last weekend we spent some time in Newport Beach (lovely, BTW) and on the way home we spotted a limo on the freeway. Spotting limos is like spotting VW bugs for us.

You see, a last year Dalton won a limo ride to Chuck E. Cheese with 10 other kindergarteners - as a reward for a fundraiser. Ever since he's been enthralled by limousines - "Why can't we have one? Do you have to be famous to have one? I have an idea, let's get famous and buy a limo to ride around in!" Needless to say, Dane's also quite fascinated by them because he WASN'T allowed to go along on the ride. You know how seeing your sibling doing something so awesome you can't stand it can make you bright green. So, la dee dah, they love limos.

Back to the OC freeway - limo next to the van (which has recently been christened the "Millenium Falcon" - which luckily won out over the "Death Star") . . . Dalton again brings up the subject of our lack of limo or prospect of limo and I try to pacify him by suggesting that perhaps for his wedding we'll get a limo for him to ride in. This idea is immediately exciting and he starts giggling and looking for someway to commit me to this forever. Then in a sweet voice he says, "I'll take my wife, you mom, dad, and all my little brothers. You're my family and I don't want to go anywhere without you guys."

What a sweetie! Little does he know that his wedding night will be one time that he'll certainly not want us around. Aaahhhh, innocence.

random dinner conversation

In spite of all the actually interesting stuff we've been doing lately, I'm going to jot down a funny conversation we had at dinner tonight. We played "2 lies and a truth", where you say two things that are completely bogus - but sound believable, and one thing that's actually true. Everyone else tries to figure out which is the truth. Dalton and Dane's turns were, needless to say, rather entertaining.

Dalton: Today I, um, . . . I went to school and I forgot to wear clothes! I was naked! Then at recess I fell and broke my arm! Um, . . . I did math.

Mom and Dad: Okay Dane, you decide which is true.

Dane: Um, uh. . . you broke your arm?

Dalton (with a self-satisfied laugh): Nope!

Dane: Uh . . . you went to school naked?

Dalton: Nope.

Dane: I know! You did math!

Dalton: You got it!


Then for Dane's turn we weren't sure if he'd get the concept, but here's what he came up with:

Dane: Today I watched tv and had a drink and a snack. Today I watched tv and had a snack and no drink. Today it rained poop.

The truth was that he had a snack and no drink. It was a big deal because I didn't give him a drink with his snack and of course he brought this to my attention. Customer Service here in our house being as accomodating as it is, the situation was shortly rectified.

Yes, looking back I can sense the latent hostility of my last post. Evidently someone turned off my filter - you know the one that censors your offensive thoughts and inappropriate comments, thus allowing you to make friends and other such social stuff. But, I will not delete it. Sometimes it help to be a hag. You feel in the mood to be lots nicer afterwards, right?

So behind

Yes, I know. I'm really backed up in my blogging. All you die-hards are secretly judging and chastising my lack of commitment to my blog.


Well, here's the deal.


In addition to the really busy life that is swirling around me, my attempts to live more efficiently in this new year have shaken up my priorities a wee bit - bumping blogging a little lower on the totem. Don't get me wrong, it's fun to do all this posting WHEN I magically get 5 consecutive minutes to sit at my computer before midnight - but realistically that rarely happens in the absence of other, higher priority activities demanding my attention.

Thus I have to roll up the nagging guilt incurred over not posting lately, place it in my hand, and blow it away. I will post perhaps in binge episodes when the kids are whisked away by daddy for a few minutes or when I get post-bedtime computer access (Darren is done with part 2 boards, so that might happen again soon :) ) But otherwise - don't give up on me, just lower your expectations a bit. I'm not going for "loser" status, just upper-end mediocrity. I try not to kill my self esteem by holding myself to perfection level standards in all areas of my life - just the super important ones - you know, like . . . um, the "hair fixing" area, the "faucet cleaning" area, and above all the "using a blinker" area.

And while I'm soap-boxing, I must add that I am a little - well, repulsed is a strong term, but it's along those lines - by all those blogs out there that seem to have been contracted out by a public relations firm. Are they selling something, i.e. the idea that they are perfect and their life is so utterly idyllic that they don't even need to shop for deodorant or mouthwash? I can't even attempt to market that idea because anyone who knows me is aware that I am REAL and mercilessly self-depricating if anything. So consequently my blog is as well. No offense to those of you attempting to perpetuate the modern myth of the perfect hot mom, but I'm not gonna read your blog. It's boring. Truthfully, I have no time for bloghopping anymore, but if I did I wouldn't read it. (Feel the love JLC).

ENUF!!!! Time to let go of this thrice saved draft. Blow away!

Poor Baby

Diagnosis: RSV and double ear infections.

I almost took him in last Friday, but didn't make enough effort. What a bad Mommy.

Recovery Complete

Is it just me or is it hard to recover from a vacation? Getting back to normal takes a little time. I always try to leave my house in tip top shape when we leave town so that I can come home to cleanliness and order - but why? It turns into chaos within 15 minutes of being home.
First there's the laundry volcano that erupts from the crammed suitcases - even though I did it all before we packed up to come home! Then there's the creative meal whipped together from the meager cupboard contents and the impending HUGE grocery trip to restock. Sprinkled throughout is the messed up sleep schedule - translating into overtired kids who don't sleep in and are suddenly bored out of their tree because there are no cousins to play with 'round the clock. Then you deal with mail and bills and emails and all the stuff you ignored while you were gone. Then, my favorite part . . . your husband has to go back to his normal routine, abandoning you with the children!!!!!!

It's rough. But - it is predictable, so you just deal and get back into it. That's how Stacie got her groove back.

Yesterday was Plain Awful

You can say that again.

Yesterday was plane awful.

It was. And you may say, "Stacie, you're prone to exaggeration." And I'll rightly admit I have a dramatic flair for storytelling - but this time it's just a black and white fact: yesterday was plain awful. Because of a plane. Well, actually multiple planes. I suppose I should expound even though my shoulders tense up just remembering the harrowing details.

Let's just say it involved a rowdy drive in heavy snow, security check (which I hate!!! love the end, hate the means. must we take all of our shoes off? must I remove the peacefully sleeping baby from his carseat and put his blankets in the scummy gray bins? do we have to toss all of our water? it's so annoying!) hours of delayed flights, kids sleeping on the Vegas airport floor, paying a taxi for a ride home so our friend could go to bed, and hitting the pillow at 2:15am.

That should suffice. Seriously, in the taxi on the way home - with soft armenian chatter in the background, watching the meter go from 26.75 to 28. 85 - I felt my jaw slacken and realized that it had been clenched for the previous 13 hours. And although deep down I know this isn't true, it just makes me feel better to say that I will never fly again!!! Curse Southwest Airlines and whoever made the decision to give our plane to the flight heading into Orange County because they have a curfew and LAX doesn't!!!

Phew! I feel better. My back still hurts, but I'm over the rest. Ya know why? Because . . .

The sun'll come out . . . tomorrow!!! So ya gotta hang on 'til tomorrow!