Dirty Dishes

I have dirty dishes in my sink as I write this.

Today is a rain day here at home.  It's a cool 60 degrees and the mix of cool temps and rain seems like a gift delivered to our doorsteps.

But inside or home it hasn't felt cozy and nice.

We just received AMAZING hand me down clothes.  I mean, a-maz-ing.  Boxes and boxes of them.  Last night I held up each item and one of the four boys said yay or nay to it.  Then I told them to make sure they had them taken care of.

And they trotted upstairs like angels and did.

At least, I thought they did.

This morning I told the boys that since it's so rainy and cool, how about they get their room totally clean so we are all set for when we all get home after being gone a week to face the football and school schedule's we'll be facing.

Granted, the boys don't like to hear about school.  I don't like to hear about school.

I could hear them fighting and whining and screaming at each other.

Because I was still in my pj's and barefoot, I easily snuck up the stairs to see their rooms...trashed.

Messier than they were before, if that's possible.  PILES of all the clothes I have worked so hard to wash, dry and fold literally strewn from one end of the room to the other.

S4 wanted to tattle on S3.  S3 was clinging to S4 begging him not to.  S2 was playing.  S1 was laying on his bed.

I snapped.  I did.  I told them I did not appreciate spending HOURS of my day every day washing, drying and folding their clothes for them to do this.

S2 piped up that he had taken care of all his clothes and had a whole dresser drawer with nothing in it.

I found out later that was because he had taken armloads of clothes and dropped them off on S3 and S4's bed as in "Here are new clothes for you!".

I stormed out of their room, sat down in a chair and cried.

I did.

Then I bucked up, stormed up those steps and we had a major overhaul of their rooms.  We sorted every item of clothing.  We made beds.  We left not a thing on the floor but the clothes for us to give to another family with three boys.

While they were finishing up, I made one of their favorite lunches, tuna noodle. I had told them they couldn't eat until the room was vacuum clean.  They thought they might die of starvation.  Instead of lunch at noon we had lunch closer to two.  I may have snickered a little at their "dire" predicament.

Today was the day I have been looking forward to all week.  A day to bake and clean and call me crazy, but I was looking forward to it all.  I can't wait to leave for Arizona knowing my house is clean.  I mean, what if something happens to me and people come to my house only to realize that I had to put mouse poison in one of my kitchen drawers and I have cobwebs all over my walls?  I mean, I just can't have that!

But that's my life.

Today my husband is gone for his second overnight this week.  Very unusual, he hardly ever has an overnight and so to have two in one week is...unusual and never happened.  Yesterday I had a GREAT day.  The boys had a fun day.  And today I just look around our messy home and listen to my fighting boys and just want to hide in the laundry room (the one room no one knows exists except me) and cry.

And it would help if my fairy godmother would show up right about then and turn everything sparking clean and make the awful mice hiding in my house like the cute little Gus and his friends from Cinderella. 

This may have been my FAVORITE movie growing up! 

But that didn't happen.

Instead, I just kept on keeping on. Take a deep breath in and out.  My Prince Charming sent me a text to tell me he had emailed me a song that he just heard that he swears I could have written.

And this is what he sent me.



That man, I love him so...as in my husband.  Not the teenage boy Scotty.

I needed this EXACT song today.  I had never heard it before.  It is bound to become one of those songs you sing for the rest of your life.

THIS is what I usually am like.  I need to relax and forget the cobwebs and while the boys need to clean their rooms, heck, I have SO VERY MUCH to be thankful for.  So much.

Right down to the man who is gonna come stumbling in this door exhausted.

As I was writing this, he called me to tell me he is headed home early.  Will be home in about an hour.   The boys have gone upstairs and the chandelier is literally swaying with them running and playing and not fighting.  And while the house is a mess and there are dirty dishes in my sink, I am looking forward to forgetting all that and curling up in his arms with our boys all around and watching some tv tonight, just relaxing and being us.

But if a fairy godmother and magical mice show up and clean my house, I won't send them away.  Heck, I may cry just for the joy of seeing them and having a clean house!

Just thought I'd be depressingly honest with you all today.

Today is My Birthday!

Disclaimer: Writing this before my birthday

Today is my BIRTHDAY!!!!

I am thrilled because I am all about birthday week.

Hopefully, we can do a beach day today.  That is my ideal way to celebrate my birthday, so thankful I was born in August so I get beach days on my birthday.

This year, however, I don't get a birthday week.

I get birthday WEEKS.

Seriously.

Exactly seven days from today, I am hopping on a plane and headed out to meet this family.

Becca.

Michael, Becca, Steve and Jack.

I just broke into a HUGE grin writing that.

Also, I have goosebumps.  I am all cold and jittery and hot and sure my neck is blotchy red because I am THAT excited.

In my senior year in high school, I hopped on a plane with my parents and brother and we flew to Hawaii.  Yes, Hawaii.  My uncle was stationed there so we spent some time with my aunt and family.  It is one of my happiest family memories.

I have never gotten on an airplane again.

So, for my birthday this year, I have told my husband not to get me a single thing.  Because he told me to go to Arizona.  Told me to go! Because he loves me so!

Whenever I go away on any sort of vacation or day trip, I always keep it as mum as I can.  I wait until I get home and say, "Surprise! I went away! Here are the highlights!"

Not this time.

This time I am going to share as much as I want in the moments I experience it.

I think Becca will too.

So you better be following her blog.

Seven days.

In seven days I am going to get on a plane.

Scares me to death.

Baby steps, baby steps...

And then I get to spend FIVE days with Becca.

There are NO words to how excited I am.  How thrilled I am.  How annoying I have been squealing around my house and to anyone who will listen to me.

Can. Not. Wait.

Meet Kristin Alkire and Hear About My New Job

Earlier this summer, I was asked if I would be interested in writing for a local magazine.

"Sure,"I shrugged.  But the more I thought about it, the more excited I got.

Like, to the point of nearly bursting.

So when they decided to let me write on a trial run, I was a wee bit more than ecstatic.  If you don't believe me, just ask Jake.  I may have been unbearable.  Cute, I hope, but unbearable.

My first interview couldn't have been sweeter.

In the blazing heat, she drove to my house so I could keep the boys at home.  She sat in my sweltering dining room and drank coffee - um, how could I not like her? She drinks COFFEE - and an hour later, when she went to leave, I felt the stranger that arrived at my door had left a friend.

So much so, that when she went to shake my hand I was thinking hug - but honestly, who hugs in 100 degree heat? - so there I was, arm in the air, bringing it down to a dramatic hand shake.

And while I was sitting at my table, in my house, with my four boys packing for the beach, I was trying to think, "be professional. be professional. be professional."

Sometimes, professional is over rated.

I sat down to write about our meeting.  But I just couldn't keep it to the short amount of words that they asked for.  There was too much to share.

And so, here on my blog, I will give you the article that did not get published.

Kristin Alkire left her kids at home with her husband and drove out to a little non air conditioned farmhouse on a day that was slated to reach 104 degrees because that is just the type of person she is.

Kristin has been teaching Biology at Otsego High School for the past 11 years and is also the Department Chair of the High School Science Department. She was nominated for Look Who’s Talking by a fellow colleague, Holly McCaw, who wrote, “Science isn’t usually the hot subject among students, but they love her and rave about how she makes it all fun and interesting and she’s inspired many students. I recently interviewed our school’s Top Ten students and I would say half of them mentioned her in who they would like to thank or who inspired them.”

The 2011/12 school year started on a high note for Kristin.  Kristin was one of the recipients of the 2011 Yale Educator Award.  To receive the award, a student from Yale must nominate one of their former teachers. “I feel very honored to have received this award,” Kristin was quoted as saying on the school website,  “What makes it really special, though, is the fact that Marisa Kaugars nominated me for the honor.  She is an absolutely incredible young woman and it means so much to me that she took the time out of her busy summer to complete the nomination.  This award is really more of a reflection of Marisa than it is on me.”

As she sips her coffee, Kristin laughs.  “The funny thing is, I didn’t want to be a teacher!”  Both her parents are retired teachers and while she loves them and admired their work, she wanted to be her own person.  She began her college education at Hope College as pre-med.  But it didn’t take her long to switch to teaching and she has never regretted her choice.

At the end of the 2011/12 school year, Kristin was nominated as the Teacher Honoree.  “I stood up to tell them I hope they all have the opportunity to do what they love because it means a lot to do what you love, but I just ended up crying”, she admits.

Having played basketball for Hope College, she coached basketball and track for Otsego.  But this year she and her husband (who teaches 8^th grade science at Hamilton) resigned from their separate coaching commitments.  “It was a difficult decision,” she shared, “But we just needed more family time.”

Kristin and Nathan celebrate ten years of marriage this year and are busy with their four year old daughter, Zoe and one year old son, Brendan.  I asked this 32 year old how she keeps up with all she has going on.  “It’s challenging.  Thankfully I have a great level of understanding with my husband because he is a teacher as well.  I try to always be productive, trying to utilize my time as best I can.  My parents are retired and a great help.  I have a great support system.”

“The relationships you develop with the students, who I call ‘my kids’, do make a difference,” she explains. “Education is tough right now because there is a lot of negativity so I go back to making connections with my students and focusing on making a difference for them.”

But, if you click the link ( http://digital.zoompubs.com/publication/?m=2516&l=1 ), you will read the article that DID get published.  You will see an ancient old photo of me that I surely hope will not scar you.  And you will SEE Kristin.  The photo of her is amazing....

She is amazing.

To follow the Women's Lifestyle Magazine of Greater Kalamazoo, just like them on facebook.  You can find copies of the magazine FREE in many areas around the Kalamazoo area.  My good friend Korene found one for me already and dropped it off at the library.  She is a dear.  But maybe she just needed some Biggby coffee...they are a pick up site for the magazine.

To check out the work of the photographer (who I will officially meet this week), like her facebook page or follow her on twitter.

I thought this could be fun for you and I.  Because now I can keep introducing you to amazing people and places in my local area.  Really, this is going to be way fun part time job - I think - if they keep me on.

But don't you worry, Sue and I will still be doing Praise and Coffee Magazine.  As if we could stop doing that....

Thanks for being excited for me on this new adventure!

Football

It's that time of year again.

Football.

This year S1 has sorta decided to play.  As in, he survived two conditioning practices and isn't for sure if he is going to play.  Well, until he got this t-shirt, that is.

We signed S2 up for football today, he was THRILLED to get his old number back again.

Look at those tough farm boys!

S3, you can't see, is crying because he isn't playing this year.  If he cries much more, his Daddy may give in and sign him up.  S3 has been sadly looking at his Daddy all night tonight.

I wanted to get a photo now, in the beginning.  Before the bruises, before the losses, before the wins, before the exhaustion, before the elation.  Two boys playing football...it makes me tired all ready.  And it makes me thrilled all at the same time.

This was the sunset tonight...

It feels like summer ended tonight.

Well, other than the fact that it was 94 degrees today.

As I walked the track tonight at school while S1 had his conditioning practice, I chatted with two of my dearest friends.  I watched our kids and a bunch of other kids ride their bikes and play their own football game on the hill.  I waved hello to old friends.

I have missed the camaraderie of football season for me as well.

So, look forward to LOTS more post of the boys football season.

It's sure to be eventfully thrilling!!!!

And if you are a football mom...or if you just love football...check out this book.  I can't wait to reread it!

The Boys Helped Me Pick Out My New Glasses

The title get you?

Yah, it's true.

I have worn contacts since a senior in high school.  That means that my glasses are prehistoric.  Sure, I could get new lens for my new prescription in them but they are ancient old and I just don't want to be caught in those glasses for anything.

Because I have a trip coming up (check back to find out where on the 7th), I figured I really should have a "back up" plan in case my contacts malfunctioned or my eyes were too tired and dry to handle wearing them for a second longer.

Sam's Club happens to have an optometrist on hand.  I have visited my eye doctor faithfully and think the world of them but I couldn't pass up inexpensive frames.  And I was in Grand Rapids for four boys dentist appointment (Dentist side note...there is one hygienist there that the boys and I fear.  She would be much nicer if she drank coffee and ate donuts, I am sure, but she doesn't.  And she chastises us for doing that and damaging our teeth.  We try to avoid her.  She was suppose to clean S2 and S3's teeth.  S4 said, as she walked out of the waiting room with S2), "That's the mean doctor. Glad I don't have her!") so a stop in at Sam's Club was easy.

I went to see if I could get an appointment while I let the four boys eat as much food and drink as much soda from the cafe.  Hey, they had just come from the dentist.  That soda shouldn't effect them one bit.

I fully expected a quick "Your prescription is this, pay here" type of exam.  But the optometrist was thorough and I was impressed with all that he did to make sure I had the best prescription.  He had me try on some contacts.  He took pictures of the inside of my eyes (kinda freaky) and was nice and chatty in a not bad way.

The boys?  They gobbled down food and stood outside the door watching the huge flat screen t.v.'s that happened to have a cartoon on it.  Could it get better?

Then I had to find a pair of glasses.

I had four boys trying to help me.

I had ten pairs of glasses they liked.

I had three boys trying on glasses begging me to buy them for them.

I took approximately 500 hundred pictures and sent 1,000 texts asking for help.  Okay, not really, but I did take a bunch of pics and I did send a bunch of text and I did send my pic on twitter and instagram to see what they said.

S1 picked my glasses almost immediately.  The pair I liked the color of the most just didn't fit right.  The glasses S1 picked I liked everything about.  The woman who ran the desk told me they were the best look on me.  But I still hemmed and hawed because it's a touch choice.

I finally picked them out.

I paid. Because you all will want to know, for me to get frames, lens, eye glass exam, contact prescription, photo of the back of my eye to make sure they were well (they are) it costs $277.  The glasses should be ready on the 9th.

I turned to let S1, who had come to check on me and see if I was finally ready to go, and told him we just needed a few groceries as I put my checkbook back in my purse.  But I looked up to not see S1 but a VERY surprised older man.

Oops.  Don't need groceries with him!  I laughed and explained and he was too shocked to reply so I just gathered up the boys and headed as far away from there as possible.  To the clear other side of the store.  Where girls with long beautiful hair descended up on me.

"Sit here! Oh, let us style your hair!" and so they got out these flat iron curler thingy's and curled my hair.  "What do you do to your hair?" they asked.

"Nothing."  It's true.  It is washed and combed and that's all.  Sometimes I blow dry the very top of my head to speed along the drying process but it's too thick to blow dry.

"Oh, I am so jealous! It's soooooo pretty!"  Another stylist started working on the other side of my head to show of the flat iron to a woman with too short hair.

"They sell for upward of 300 dollars but we sell them here twice a year for 40 dollars," the girls explained to me.

The boys, suckers for all infomercials, begged me to get one.

My amazing stylist assured me it was a great deal when I sent her a text.

So I purchased one.

The boys cheered.  Literally, three of them hugged me and jumped for joy.

I would wonder if they think I look hideous and this is my turning point to look pretty but I'll just go with they were glad I bought the cheetah print one.

So soon I should be posting a picture of me with curly hair - or super soft super straight hair - and glasses.

All thanks to my boys. 

I guess my worry in having them help me choose them was as unfounded as my husband said it would be.  He assured me that they would be great at picking out glasses for me.  Well, I should have never doubted him.  They picked out glasses AND a flat iron.

He may never let me have them pick things out for me again.

Photo A Day

I noticed on instagram that a lot of people were posting #PhotoADay.  And then a friend filled me in...they follow a list of things to take a photo of every day.

I thought this sounded fun so I did it for July.

I missed a few days but all in all, I kept up with it pretty well.

The thing I have found to be the MOST fun is that all day you are looking for that photo you are going to take.  It's like a treasure hunt.  On days I didn't check first, I usually kicked myself because a moment would come to mind that would have worked great but I had missed.

The other thing I have enjoyed is getting help from the boys and my husband on this.  My husband every once in awhile asks me what the picture of the day is and helps me keep an eye out for it.  So then it's even more fun and even more like a treasure hunt!

In July when I had run out ideas to blog about because it was so dang hot, I should have been blogging my photos.  Someone might have thought them fun...like Cohagen Chronicles, I think.  Because I got the idea really from her when I found myself looking for her new photo a day (she has some fancy other list...and she has TALENT.)

Anyhow, here is the list for August....

Here is the post that explains the rules and introduces you to the creator...

Photo A Day August Challenge

by Fat Mum Slim

Living Life Inspired

Camping With Diaper Diaries.

I just mopped myself into my computer desk just to blog to you.

Really.

I would take a photo for you but my phone is in the kitchen and I am here at the desk and I would have to re-mop my floor if I went to get it and I'm grateful for all you readers and all that but, well, I don't feel like re-mopping right now.

Bur, really truly, I did mop myself into a corner and what was in that corner?

My computer.

Sometimes my brilliance is astounding.

Anyhow...

We just got back from camping.

We camped for seven full days with my mom and her dog Maggie, my brother, Dan, his wife, Ginger and my adorable nephews Levi and Hunter.  My sister was supposed to show but she was camping elsewhere.  My dad came out to visit us and my aunt was there three times.  Jake took a vacation day and camped three days with us.

No shower incidents occurred...you all are evil for hoping that they would.

We did, however, camp next to Pirates.

I kid you not.

And we had an entire cooler filled with crawdads and a turtle...because doesn't everyone?

Just like doesn't everyone take their pet bunnies camping with them?

I also had to wage full out war on a mouse.  So far the mouse is winning.

But one of the best parts of the trip was that Diaper Diaries came along camping with us.

Didn't you know she loves to camp?

in fact, she made this button for us all.....

Oh, this says she does not like to camp....

Okay, here is the story behind that.

While camping, Diaper Diaries posted a blog and since I did check my email on my phone (love the iphone, especially when my computer has no internet connection), I read this blog post on which she stated why camping is NOT a vacation.

Every time I walked to the bathrooms, I giggled.

In the shower, with my mom in the shower next to me, she hollered over the not sound proof wall, "I'm not feeling like I am on vacation" and when I looked down at my flip flopped feet standing in the shower that I understood what she meant.

But we did have a GREAT time.  A wonderful time.  

And when I arrived home, I took a shower with bare feet.

It was glorious.

I'll fill you in on the camping trip as soon as I can...I have much to share and other things I need to write too...so maybe I'll just toss some camping posts out in the next week or two.

What are your thoughts on camping?