Note to Self

The lock on the door to my office is not the same as the lock on the front door of the building. Nor is it the same as the back door. Or the closet door. Or the other random keys I found in my office. Not that it would matter, as all of those keys were inaccessable to me because Henry locked the office door.

In the Nashville area, it costs $50 to open a locked door. And takes about half of a second.

Tuesday Twelve - The Jon & Kate Edition

1. If you didn't watch last night's big "Special Announcement" episode, don't read this. It's a total spoiler.

2. Let's start with the Kids Crooked Houses. I am SO. SICK. of the product placement on that show. I totally understand they have a huge viewer base, and that if you put a product on the show it will sell. Every single episode is about selling something. The houses were adorable, but come on. Four of them? I understand they have eight children. If we had eight children, we would get one playhouse and they would share. Not four "uniquely designed children's playhouses. . . " which start at $5000. Each time I see something on that show (ie: the Playdoh the kids were playing with or Jon's John Deere tractor) I wonder if they paid for it or if it was "placed" there.

3. There is zero communication in that house. Are you kidding me that Kate didn't know where the playhouses were going to go? Did she even know they were getting them? She seems so uninvolved in that family.

4. Jon is obnoxious. He seems so irritated by the whole process. Someone needs to remind him that he signed the contract - nobody forced him to do this. When Kate called him to tell him she didn't think that was a good place for the houses (which I agreed with, btw) he was so rude to her. He's a baby.

5. Speaking of babies. . . I'm pretty sure the obnoxious behavior shown by the twins is pretty typical of girls who are 8 years old. Oh. My. God. If I had that going on at our house all the time, I would want to be on speaking engagements 20 days a month or hanging out at bars with 23 year old girls. And I'm glad I have three boys.

6. Why do the sextuplets wear freaking bibs still when they eat? They are 5 years old. David is 5 years old. If I put a bib on him, he would never wear it. Nor does he need to. . . Jack doesn't even wear a bib!

7. Why does Jon constantly look as if he has a sunburn? Is this some sort of microdermabrasion gone bad?

8. Kate's hair. . . Always looks cute from the front. The back? Notsomuch. Reverse mullet is such an apt description.

7. Big surprise they're getting divorced. That was the worst kept secret ever.

8. Jon needs to grow up. All his talk about "I'm only 32 years old. . . I'm excited for what's next. . . " WAHWAHWAHWAHWAH!!! He's a big cry baby. Nobody forced him into a life with 8 children and a bossy wife. It wasn't an arranged marriage. Maybe she wouldn't have been so bossy if he stepped up a little more and acted like an adult, rather than the 9th child. It's not easy to be a parent, especially with a large family. I don't feel bad for him - I feel bad for their children.

9. Kate is a martyr. I don't feel bad for her either. They each made choices that got them to where they are today. Is she a bossy girl? Yes. Does she seem more adult in their relationship than her husband? YES. Do I feel like they should have turned the cameras off and focused on saving their family instead of entertaining the masses? Absolutely. They don't want to.

10. I have never been divorced, nor am I a child of divorced parents, but I think Kate's announcement that she will "NEVER spend a holiday away from my children" is possibly unrealistic. I believe a judge will decide that. If they can work that out, great. I think 5 years from now when there are girlfriends, step-parents, etc. in the picture, that might not work out so well. I hope for their children that it does.

11. All of her organic cooking is flying out the window when it's Daddy's turn at "the kids' house"! I so see him ordering pizza and being the "cool dad" while she has to do the real parenting.

12. I'm done watching this show. I say again. . .

Weekend Round-Up

I hope everyone had a great weekend. And a wonderful Father's Day to all of my Daddy readers. . . I suspect that's just my own daddy!

We had a great weekend. Saturday morning we headed to the Splash Pad for S's birthday party. If you remember, she's David's "girlfriend". Her family lives in our neighborhood, and I've gotten to be friendly with her mom. They're a sweet family. Her party was fun. David didn't want to go in the water at the splash pad because "the last time I got sunscreen in my eye". Sorry about your luck - it's 95 degrees out. He sat on a bench and watched the other children play. Henry splashed for a few minutes, waited in line for a boy who was about 10 to stop playing with the big water gun, and the boy never stopped. Henry got upset, started crying, and didn't want to play anymore because "dat big boy should KNOW BETTER! We take turns!" I was proud of him for his nice manners, and I wanted to kick a ten year old's ass. We went back to play in the shade while the other children were playing. I made S's cake, which I (of course) neglected to take a photo of before we got to the party. It was a cute beach themed cake with palm trees, waves, and "life persavers" as David called them.

After S's party, we came home and everyone took a three hour nap. How often does that happen? Never. It was fabulous! We ran a couple of quick errands, had dinner, then sat out on the front porch and had root beer floats. It was very close to a perfect day.

Sunday morning we got up early and headed over to Loveless Cafe for some Father's Day breakfast with my father-in-law. We had a great breakfast, but Jack is not really a great restaurant patron. He stared at the woman at the table next to us and screamed, "GIGI! GIGI!" the whole time. She looked nothing like my mom, but clearly he thought she did!

We headed to Sam's after breakfast to pick a few things up. When we got home, Chris took David and Henry to the movies to see Up. Henry was all about it. David? Notsomuch. He's not a great movie-goer. He gets scared, so they came home early. We headed to my parents' house after for some dinner and swimming.

I hope you had a great Father's Day weekend!

Pre-K

When I registered David for Kindergarten, I filled out the paperwork to put Henry on a waiting list for the Pre-K program at David's school. The spots are first filled on an income-based requirement, which we don't meet. Once those spots are filled, if there is still availability they select students from the waiting list who do not meet the income requirement. Like Henry. I really didn't think that it would be an option, as the space is limited to 20 students. We had a call today that Vanderbilt University is doing a study with the TN Department of Education on the effectiveness of Pre-K. Our county will be a part of the study, and the committee at Vanderbilt chose Henry to be a part of it, if we would like to participate. He will go to the same school as David, Monday through Friday, and I think he'll love it. And we will have no preschool tuition, which I love! He's going to be so excited when he finds out he will go to "David's school"!

Sleep over

David and Henry are having their first sleep over at a friend's house tonight. They're at Julie's tonight. . . and I hope they last all night. They're never going to want to come home, since she took them all to McDonald's AND Chuck E. Cheese. In the same day. Henry could die today and go happily. When Henry got up this morning (at five o'clock, by the way) he instantly asked if J.T. was up yet. Um, chickens aren't up yet. This will be interesting!

Edited to add: No late night phone calls, and an update from Julie this morning saying that all was well. Next time, sleepover at our house! They'll be talking about this for months! And why is David cuddling with a BOWLING BALL?!

Sunday Sunday

We've had a productive day! Some of what we've done:

• Early morning run to Krispy Kreme for donuts, iced coffee, and the newspaper. That is a big treat for us these days, as I outlawed donuts a while back. As Henry said this morning, "What the hell. It's a treat!"
• After donuts, clean up the kitchen, empty the dishwasher, and take our existing bed apart. Why? We're getting a King Size, baby! It will be delivered this afternoon.
• Change shower curtains, clean bathrooms, hang new window treatments in our bedroom.
• Wash/fold/put away three loads of laundry.
• Make some oatmeal raisin cookies.
• Go to Hell-Mart to get some fruit, stuff to make burgers for tonight, and some random other things. Come home and actually immediately cut up our fresh fruit so it's not a total PIA to eat when we want it.
• Play outside on the slip & slide for a while.

Still on the agenda? Clean out some clothes from the boys' closets and dressers, change their beds, get dinner going, do some Wii Fit yoga with my little yogi masters, make our menu and schedule for the week, and lounge around on our new bed!!

Home Again

Just wanted to quickly update to say everything went as planned this morning. I was home by 10, resting comfortably. I still feel groggy/sleepy from the meds, but otherwise am feeling fine. Thanks for all of your sweet thoughts. It means a lot!

Statistics

One in four pregnancies result in miscarriage. Do you see where this is going? I had a doctor's appointment today, and it wasn't a good one. The baby measured two weeks too small and has no detectable heart beat. We're very disappointed, and my heart is very sad. I've never had a miscarriage before, and wasn't at all prepared for this result. Are you ever? I'm not going to dwell on this, because it's upsetting. I'll be having a small procedure Friday morning to take care of it, and we'll move on.

Too Young?

Are David and Henry too young? Too young for their own mini-fridge in their room? I'm thinking if I put one in and stocked it with milk, grapes, and string cheese, maybe they would leave me alone a little longer in the morning. You know, like maybe until after six?

It doesn't mean it's time to get up just because "it's light out".

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to me! Friday was my birthday and I've had a fabulous birthday weekend. I took Friday - Monday off of work, and am so, so glad I did. I'm still dealing with all of the insurance business from our flood almost two months ago, and I needed a break.

Friday also meant the end of Chris working at Nissan! Yahoo! We've really liked the company, but he's ready for a change in his career, and it was the right time. He was a little sad to leave, but he's over it! And we're both SO excited to be debt free by the end of the week, thanks to his severance check. Now the school plans start for him.

Friday I woke up to presents from Chris and the boys in the kitchen, and presents outside of my front door from Julie. What a nice surprise! I also am getting from Chris my standard gift, a new Vera Bradley bag and matching wallet. Predictable? Yes, but I love it. I can't decide between this one or this one. Or maybe this one. We had a babysitter Saturday night and went to look at them, but the store we went to had like three bags. I was disappointed! We also went to "I-hog" for breakfast on Friday morning. It's the kids' favorite breakfast place, and I *knew* they would be well behaved. Wrong. David and Henry were great, but Jack was a nightmare. He faked it for a while and behaved well. Then he went all crazy demon baby on us and started screaming. I brought him out to the car while Chris stayed and ate with the boys!

We also had a great visit with my grandparents, who were here for the weekend. We had a great time, and I wish we could see them more. Yesterday we spent the day at my parents' house with them, my parents, and my sister just swimming and playing. We had a great weekend!

Today we're all business, off to pick up our car, get some cleaning done, and perhaps have sweet Sophia and her cute sister Audrey over to play. If that doesn't happen, I'm thinking maybe we'll take the kids to the splash pad for a bit to play. Chris hates it there, but he can get over it.

Have a great day!

Updates

I've gotten some flack for not updating my blog. From my mother. With whom I speak every day. . . I think that's really funny, since anything I will post here she already knows!

There's really nothing new, which is why I haven't posted! I've been working, and when not working playing with the boys. Certainly not cleaning my house, which is on the agenda for this weekend. The boys are out of school now, and have been staying busy. They went to the park twice last week with our babysitters, came to camp at work with me on Tuesday, went to the Splash Pad in town yesterday with the sitter, and will be at camp again tomorrow. Their social calendars are much busier than mine.

Our air conditioner stopped working Monday. When it was 90 degrees out. Love that. It was fixed yesterday, so all is well again. It made me realize how much I appreciate central air! David and Henry have bunk beds, and with no air it was hot in their beds Monday night. Chris pulled their mattresses of, and they slept on the mattresses on the floor. They thought that was great. David woke up yesterday morning so excited because "the night went so quick sleeping on the floor!"

I think I'm going to get the boys tickets to Thomas and Friends Live in July. They are still so obsessed with Thomas, I know they would love it. We'll leave Jack home, because he doesn't really sit still well. . . Any volunteers to keep him for a couple of hours?!

Chris' last night of work is Thursday night. He's excited, but I know he'll miss some of the people he works with. He's bringing barbecue in for everyone on his last night. We had to turn our lease car in to start the purchase process, so this is what I drove to work today. I have to say I felt much cooler in the Thunderbird than in my minivan. . .

My grandparents will be here this weekend, which I'm excited about. My grandfather and I share a birthday, so we'll be celebrating that while they're here. And I've not seen my grandfather since the last time I was in Massachusetts, four years ago. FOUR YEARS! I can't believe it's been that long since I've been back!

OK, I'm going to get my day started. Have a great day!