Mandajuice

Sink-bath goddess, BFFs, Too Damn Hot, T-Ball practice

How come my children get so DIRTY in the summer?  I had given Genoa a bath in the morning, but by bedtime she was already too crusty for the sheets.  This was her first sink bath in this house (why use the sink when I have the huge tub upstairs?!) and she LOVED it and didn't want to get out.

Yesterday it was H.O.T. here, almost 100 degrees and they're predicting the same for today.  Alex had soccer camp from 11:30 to 12:30 and before noon, his coach walked him back over to me saying he didn't look good.  Alex hung out with us in the shade with about as much energy and personality as a wet towel.  After ten minutes and zero improvement, we packed up and went home to the air conditioning.  He perked up as soon as he time to cool off, so I guess he's genetically predisposed to DESPISE hot weather, like his father, grandmother, great grandmother and so on.

We met Tonya and Kendall at the park and they followed us home

We spent the afternoon moving as little as possible and talking as much as we could while the kids watched the Princess DVD Genoa picked out the other night.  I snapped this shot without the kids even knowing it.

Can you say BFF?

Just as the temperature started to peak, I got a call from Alex's T-Ball coach.  When I heard his voice, I assumed he was calling to cancel practice that night because of the heat, but instead he told me he was going to surprise the kids by using water balloons instead of softballs at practice.  He is SUCH an excellent coach!
Alex thought it was the best T-ball practice in the history of T-Ball.

Genoa had a decent time too.

And somehow I managed to keep my camera dry!

I love food

While I was in California, one of Dave's clients brought him some fish he caught on a recent trip to Alaska.  It was vacuum-sealed and frozen fresh and last night I rolled it in panko bread crumbs and made this dinner, this otherworldly dinner.  And as much as I love to cook, I can take very little credit for the awesomeness because nothing I did to that fish could have possibly made it taste bad.  First we tried the Halibut (the one on the left) and it was tender and flaky and almost sweet and I found myself unable to eat it without making noises I generally prefer to save for the bedroom.  Then I tried the sea bass and it was even better and I'm pretty sure I had an out-of-body experience. 

I honestly forgot how good truly fresh fish can be and suddenly I'm not necessarily SO opposed to the idea of letting Dave get that fishing boat he's always wanted.  Seriously, it was THAT good.

Have I mentioned how much I love food?  Because I. Love. To. Eat.  Before the week is up, I want to post another gastric bypass post and I'm full of ideas.  But just in case I forget anything, are there any lingering questions I haven't answered so far?  Even if you've asked me before, ask again and I'll try to address everything I can.

Several people have asked me how much I'm able to eat in one sitting, so here is that same dinner plate after I ate as much as I possibly could (and secretly wished for a temporarily larger tummy!):

Mad ME, PM Preschool, Coupon Cutting

Ever since I got back from California, Dave and I have been putting the kids to bed and then sitting up late watching the first season of Mad Men on On Demand.  It's a decent series and really artfully filmed and we've been enjoying it.  And let's face it, there's NOTHING ELSE on TV right now.  Even SYTYCD is off (I was happy that it came down to Josh and Twitch, but I wish Twitch had won in the end)! 

So imagine my horror when last night, after a particularly harrowing bedtime experience with Alex (child needs his butt in bed no later than 8PM and it was after 9 and he was LOSING IT), I went to go play the next episode in all its beautiful High Def glory and it was GONE.  DISAPPEARED.  The only episodes AMC has On Demand right now are the three latest ones from the new season. 

WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THAT?

Seriously.  I need to make an angry phone call (OBVIOUSLY), but who do I call?  The cable company?  AMC?  Someone important needs to hear of my extreme displeasure!

Now I'm going to change the subject, so here's a picture I took of my neighbor's lilies.  Aren't they spectacular?!

I've been chewing on the idea of keeping Alex in afternoon preschool next year.  I enrolled him in the afternoon class only because it was all I could get and he's first on the waiting list for the morning class, which means he will probably get in if I want him to.  The thing is, though, I can drop him off at 1:00 and then put Genoa down for a nap and get three glorious hours all to myself...

To study for the CFP exam.

Woohoo!  But I think that's what I need to do.  The only thing I'm unhappy about is that it means we won't be available for play dates during the week.  AT ALL.  Everyone else will have preschool in the AM and we won't get to see them except for on our one day off each week (which is either Monday or Friday, I'm not sure yet).  But still, I've GOT to study for my test (it's HUGE!) and this way I won't have to burden Carol with babysitting for me almost every day until the end of November.  So I guess I'm really not chewing it over at all, I've already made up my mind.

Also?  Last night I used these:

Anyone who says cutting coupons doesn't work hasn't heard this: last night I saved $26 on my groceries at Fred Meyer.  TWENTY-SIX DOLLARS.  $20 of it was the rewards coupons I get when we spend, what? $700 every 8 weeks (which is a lot easier than you'd expect for me given that Fred Meyer is a two-minute drive from my house) and I saved an additional $2 on my expensive hair goop, $2 on dairy, and $2 on Diet Coke (bringing the 12-pack price down to a cheap $2.50, I bought four).  You just can't beat that!

I think this color should be called "Visible From Satellite"

Yesterday Fernando (oooooh, FERNANDO!) came to paint Carol's house.  Two weeks ago she painted samples to show the HOA board and get approval and I told her that the color she chose was too bright, too pastel, etc, etc, etc:

She picked the top color and it turned out that maybe, just maybe, I WAS RIGHT.

Dave and I walked out yesterday morning to go shop for a mattress (by the way we TRIED the Sleep Number Bed and RETURNED IT.  It was awful!  It felt like I was sleeping in a hammock!) we caught a glimpse of the freak show color and requested that Carol come out and take a look at Fernando's progress.  You have to keep in mind that while many houses in our neighborhood are fairly saturated colors, they are all EARTH TONES of the typical Northwestern variety with lots of brown and/or gray in them. 

So she had Fernando stop painting while we all freaked out about what to do.  The process of picking a house color takes about a month for approval and here we were with the painter scheduled already and $400 worth of wasted paint. 

So we called some members of the HOA board and by the end of the day she had two additional colors approved:

I prefer the lighter color, personally, but I think she's going to go with the darker one.  It is a huge improvement over the first choice!  (The new color is the small square one).

It's scary, but whenever we do decide to paint OUR house again, I will have no say in the color.  Dave gets the outside, I get the inside, remember?  Good thing I can be pretty persuasive...

Also, I posted a BUNCH of vacation photos yesterday, feel free to take a look.  Alex took this one of me and Jamie:

And I actually handed my camera off to a stranger to get this one of  my dad and me:

On Capitalism...

When the iPhone came out, my brother bought one immediately and I didn't even want to touch it because everything Apple sells is contagious.  I didn't want to want one.  But I could see him over there with his shiny happy touch screen, surfing the web while we ate dinner.  Then my mom waited in line on the morning the 3G came out and SHE got one too.  And every time anyone un-holstered their iPhone in my presence, I made the same remark, "If I had an iPhone, I might never look my children in the face again!"  Seriously.  The Internet.  IN YOUR POCKET.  ALL THE TIME.  I'm bad enough about shutting the laptop as it is.

So yesterday I ordered an iPhone.  Our two-year contract expires next week and we've been waiting over a year to change our phone numbers from their original California area codes.  I have no explanation other than that I just woke up in the morning and decided to buy one.  $200 is apparently the magic number because between the birthday money I've been saving and my "fun" share of Dave's last bonus, I have exactly enough that this won't come out of the family budget.  There's goes the money I was saving for a chopping block counter!  Now I just have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive and then learn to pace myself so I don't Twitter myself  into Carpal Tunnel surgery.

*****
Yesterday Dave took Alex to an air show and I had the whole day free to go shopping with Genoa.  I started off looking at mattresses.  I know!  My life is so GLAMOROUS! 

Genoa is mostly sleeping through the night at this point, although she wakes up a few times to shove her feet down the back of my pajamas and make sure I'm still next to her, which, sadly, I always am.  I haven't slept in the same bed with my husband for close to a year.  The bed is just WAY too hard for me and any bed on which we might compromise is too soft for him.  So our plan is to buy two XL twin mattresses and shove them together, forming a makeshift King.  I'm not sure it's any cheaper than buying a new mattress, but at least we'll both be able to sleep in the same "bed" at the same time.

*****

While we were out, I returned the so-called sexy jeans.  The waist was too tight and even after wearing them around the house a few times, they still gave me muffin top, so I got my $70 back.  I then spent said money on jeans for Alex for school, three pairs at Gap kids.  Then I bought 13 shirts at Old Navy for $85 and now our school shopping is complete. 

I'm loving the fact that Alex is finally out of toddler sizes and can wear all the awesome big kid clothes in a size XS.  There is SO MUCH MORE to choose from and he digs all the cool t-shirts I was able to pick out for 40% off.  We were all unprepared for how unbelievably cute he would look in jeans.  I haven't bought him a pair in several years (potty training makes jeans a more-complicated option).  Pictures coming soon.

Home is where my husband is

We had a nice vacation and everything, but Y'all?  I'M EXHAUSTED.  I always forget what a gianormously huge pain in the butt it is to travel ALONE with two kids under five.  It did not help me IN THE LEAST that on both legs of our air travel it was too early in the day to order myself a cocktail.  Not to mention that the last time I flew with the kids and DID order myself a cocktail, it drew me some interesting looks from my fellow fliers.  To them I say, "WALK A MILE IN MY SHOES!"  Did I mention that neither of my kids will sleep on the plane anymore?  Or that Genoa HATES flying?

But the good news is that we're home and we have no plans to fly anywhere any time soon.  I also am putting this in writing right now: the next time I get on an airplane, my husband will be right next to me.  This is the last time I want to vacation without him and even though that means we won't be able to make a trip in the foreseeable future, I'm cool with that. 

I really REALLY missed him.

Vote for Portland!

I'm posting this Blogher poll because I really want to go to Blogher next year and it would be beyond awesome if the conference was held in Portland.  Not ONLY because I wouldn't have to fly anywhere, but also because it's a perfect city for the conference.  We have the bestest airport in the entire US, excellent summer weather, great hospitality and low prices.  I can't imagine why anyone would want it to be held anywhere else!

A list of recent activities that really each deserve(d) their own post

1.  Seeing my cousin Crystal and her 2-year old daughter.
2.  My friend Becca's baby shower.
3.  Dinner at Red "Wonster" with the crew.
4.  Taking G to the mall for princess shoes.
5.  Lunch with Esther, my old boss.
6.  Mmm Togo's Yum.
7.  Jamie and I picking up again like we see eachother every week.
8.  Drinks with Deneen, the newly-working mom.
9.  Both brothers landing new jobs.

On swimming...

So far we're having a great time, but our vacation has been nothing if not loud.  An oft-whiny four-year-old combined with an even more often and more screamy two-year old PLUS a 15-month old who caught his cousin's cold (of course he did!  we're on vacation!) equals very little quiet time.  Add to that a grandma with both a keen garage sale sense and a high tolerance for noisy toys and we're basically vacationing in a cacophony of chaos.

My two child free siblings keep disappearing downstairs.  I wonder why?

And then there's the swimming...

I'm just going to come right out and say this, but I basically hate swimming.  When Alex was a newborn I read a story about some parents who took their two-year-old kid on a house boating trip and while they turned around to unload the car each thought the other one was watching the child and he slipped silently into the water and drowned.  It took them two hours to find his body.  So in spite of being a relatively decent swimmer myself and honestly not EVER remembering a time when I feared the water or couldn't swim, one of my most pressing and psychotic parental fears is DROWNING.  It's even worse than my postpartum fear of accidentally leaving Genoa in the hot car (remember that? good times!).

So when I'm in the pool with my kids, I'm basically a mess.  I might look all happy and fine on the outside in my giant skirted bathing, but I can't breathe and inside, I'm Freaking Out.  And then there's the wet hair and the chlorine and the not being able to see because I took my glasses off and the splashing and the dry skin and yeah,  I'm obviously no fan of swimming.

Naturally, Alex fears the water almost as much as I fear his drowning in it.  Last year he fell under for approximately two seconds and it scared him and I overreacted and somehow that experience has been growing exponentially in his mind.  It was literally NOTHING, almost a non-event, but it has turned itself into a Fear with a capital F.  Even after four whole months of twice-weekly swimming lessons, he basically spends the entire time we're at the pool sitting on the top step wearing a life jacket and refusing all of our requests to hold him in the water.

Yet he BEGS ME ALL DAY LONG to go swimming.  It's his favorite activity and it honestly breaks my heart a little that he won't actively participate in something he loves so much.  The child would take a two-hour bath in our big tub every day if I let him, but he won't step into my parent's pool, where the non-event happened, not even up to his knees.

Yesterday I got him to let me hold him in the middle of the spa for about ten minutes.  I told him it was time to get out of the pool (you know, off the top step) and he didn't want to go, so I said, "Fine.  If you let me hold you in the water, we can stay."  So we did and he was fine.  And now you know my strategy for getting him over this fear.  Step by step I'm going to threaten that pool time is over.

Genoa, on the other hand, could not be more opposite of her brother.  She wants you to pull her around the pool, wearing a floaty or not, while she blows bubbles in the water and kicks her feet.  Yesterday she kept jumping across the spa between my sister and me, not paying a lick of attention to whether or not we were there to catch her when she jumped (we always were, obviously, but still!).  She put her face in the water (up to her nose) and got her hair wet and let us hold her so she could float on her back.  She has absolutely NO fear whatsoever and I love it.

So in spite of my fear and my obvious distaste for the activity, I suck it up and take my kids swimming because they love it and I love them.

Genoa was slow to warm...

Genoa was slow to warm..., originally uploaded by Mandajuice.

I'm being a terrible blogger this week in spite of plentiful fodder. Audrey arrived! Genoa adores her! My nephew decided to start walking today! Tomorrow we're having a big family party. I'm having too much fun to stop and write about it.