Last Week Catch up.

oh my I am on some serious Catch up this week. Before I finish doing my amazing Utah trip with the Girlies I am going to do a fast catch up from last week, and I mean fast!! (edit** it took me all day!)

Monday:

I have never come home from a trip and not been totally flattened for at least 3 days. I could not believe I woke up so refreshed and just happy to be alive. Then I realized some of the reasons.

• I flew on the airplane all by myself and was able to read a book the entire time
• i only had one suitcase to unpack and it was done within minutes of being home and everything in the wash
• i was amazed it took leaving what I do every day to come home and be better at it

we planted our small garden for the smallest back yard in the whole world. I am always amazed at how overgrown it gets in a few months and always wish I had taken a before photo so here it is.

Tuesday: Jeff and I went grocery shopping together at the new commissary north of us. It is brand new and we heard it was so nice. The one in the city is a pain for me to get to and is kind of small and difficult to maneuver in if there is more than two carts inside.

I am not sure if it is because i am watching too much cable news or if it is because I am a horrible grocery shopper but I seem to be buying way too much food each time I go. I feel like I need to seriously stock pile.

I think because Jeff was with me I bought way healthier food. A whole cart full of fruits and vegetables. I took Amie's idea to cut them up into containers for eating. Thank Amie brilliant idea it has totally worked. We didn't buy any junk. (i didn't even slip in a Ritter Candy bar from the German isle) But there seemed to be so many groceries in the car.

This week also marked my one year of no diet coke! i can't believe it. seriously.  but since i try to be honest in all that i do - i did drink a Coke this year.  One the day I had to leave Annie Kate's basket ball game and had a nervous breakdown in the car, i drove straight to McDonalds (they have the best fountain drinks ever) and ordered the largest Coke they had.  If I had thought of it I would have ordered two.  I drank it in about 3 minutes.  I felt sick like I was drinking syrup but loved the burn.  So, even though it is worse than diet coke it was not diet coke.  I almost drank one for my one year anniversary but I knew if I did I may find myself with an empty case by the end of the day.

Wednesday: I am embarrassed to admit this but Jeff had another day home with us on Wednesday and I felt like a Queen being able to sleep in. But what is amazing to me Jeff was still able to go for a 5 mile run and get the girls up and off to school and pack a picnic for the day even before my eyes opened! How does he do it? So we decided to spend a day at the zoo. The weather is wonderful here and would lure anyone to move here. Everything is green and lush and no humidity! (talk to me in two week when I can't breathe and am getting bit by bugs and have sweat dripping down my face)it was hot enough for the girls to wear their new gymboree one piece outfits (yea gymbucks!)

they remind me of things i used to wear when i was a kid.

Caroline only had one melt down when we went into get our free Panda for finally signing up to be zoo members. (the zoo is free but if you are a member you don't have to pay the $15.00 parking) We had a great day at the zoo and just feel so lucky that Jeff is able to spend so much time with these little girls. It has been a long time coming and I feel more appreciative of any time we all get to spend together.

We saw Panda's (the girls favorite)

and tigers

and ant eaters (never seen these before) oh my!

Jeff packed a healthy lunch for us all. I think while I was gone last weekend Jeff realized how much junk I let the kids eat and so he was showing me if you give them real food they will eat it. I was shocked. They had actual fruit and sandwiches. Jeff made for us these awesome wheat bagel turkey sandwiches with my favorite green chilies! It was heaven.

Thursday:

I made some plans for our trip to NY this summer getting our entire family tickets to Mary Poppins for $30 each on the front row of the ultra nose bleeds. (and amazing tickets for AK and I to Wicked shhh it will be a surprise)

we also spent last week doing a little research for our vacation this summer. oh my am i really ready to fly over again on a plane with no windows and screaming kids.... any Italy tips feel free to send them my way. we are also planning a back up Spain trip in case we get to the airport (base) and there is a plane leaving for Spain - we are so crazy.
The kids got a new plasma car (on sale at target) that Sally Jane has claimed it as her own and freaks out when anyone even dad gets on it. It is a fun car and fits even the biggest of bums.the blossoms are almost gone and being replaced by leaves - there is nothing like Spring out here in the East.

Thursday Morning was Moms and Muffins at Caroline's preschool. She has been looking forward to this for weeks. they made muffins for the moms and gave us their Mother's day gift which is a sparkly broach made of puzzle pieces. on the door it had a list of I love Mommy because... She said because I make her pink cake!i loved going to see her in school and secretly watch her. She is definitely a middle child and i feel like sometimes gets a little forgotten. So this was a good day for me and her together!

Friday:
I went into AK's class to get working on one of the end of the year gifts for her AWESOME teacher. We will be making the dollar book (i loved hearing of all the girls at the blog party who are making these this year) as well as a picture quilt. I bought the quilt at Joann's for only $24.00 and it is all premade and came with the special crayons for the kids to color on. There is exactly enough squares for each kid and one for the group photos. The teacher was out of town so we got it all done in one day.


I got there a little early and so I had lunch with my little cutie. She was thrilled but told me not to embarrass her by taking any photos (too bad so sad) She said this was the best smile she could give me if I was going to pull out my camera. I sat down at the end by the girls first and then she joined me. But during lunch she told me that she always sits on the boys end.
It was interesting to observe because she seemed a bit uncomfortable on that end of the table. She is a true oldest child who spent 5 years by herself and seems bothered by loud noises and kids not doing what adults ask them to do. She kept rolling her eyes at me and expressed this is why she does not sit down at this end - the girls were kind of crazy.

then one of the girls was pretending to smoke with her long stick pretzel. Annie Kate said, "you shouldn't even pretend to smoke" I felt an uncomfortable feeling watch the girl look at Annie Kate like "who are you to tell me what to do" I jumped in saying smoking is really bad for you and pretending to do bad things could lead to doing bad things. One girl told about her grandpa dying from smoking. I then became a total mom and gave my little speech about drugs, smoking and drinking. ( the apple does not fall far from the tree) They were all listening and then all started telling me about their parents drinking habits. One girl said my mom only drinks a lot when she goes out and "parties". (annie kate later asked me what it means for a mom to go out and "party") It was an interesting discussion and gave me the itch to just hide my kids from the world and never leave the house (ok that would last about 32 hours). I came home with an renewed responsibility to teach my daughter good principles in my home and pray she will make wise choices. But I did see the fine line of her thinking what she is doing is right without looking self righteous... any thoughts on this are much appreciated and welcomed.



Saturday:

We had a rainy morning and a rained out soccer game. Since we brought the bikes out of Winter hiding Caroline has been dying to ride anywhere she can. We rode down to the lake but Jeff was smart and brought the truck knowing riding home may not happen. (he was right even though it is not even half a mile from our house)
it was a cool day which is always nice to have a good breeze. Sally Jane loves any chance she can to wear her hand knit sweater from Grammy she got for her 3rd birthday!
on the path we saw three boys walking from the town center. One of them was holding flowers. I asked him if they were for his mom for mother's day. he said yes. I had to resist the urge to hug and kiss him but did do an over dramatic "you are such a wonderful kid and she will be so grateful" he blushed!
i love the ruffle on Sally Jane's sweater and could not resist this daddy fingers squeeze!
Annie Kate and her buddy were able to sneak the Plasma car away from Sally Jane and found a great hill to go down. Later her friend said, "next time we should probably wear helmets when we do that"

We then felt it had been too long that we had gone (what 2 weeks) without taking advantage of the historical downtown so we left the house right when we would normally be putting the kids to bed and went to see some monuments at night. Also I had big expectation of getting some cute Mother's Day photos of me and the kids.

ya, what was I thinking! Caroline running from me, Sally Jane picking the gook out of her fingers and Annie Kate was just bothered by the whole thing.

We took a walk up to the Lincoln memorial and I was scouting how the heck we are going to do our family photos on the steps this year. They are doing some massive road construction in front of the memorial so I will be excited to see what they are doing. I don't ever come here without of thinking of Jane Payne.
I decided that since the girls were anti photo that Jeff and I could get some photos of us. I think Jeff was as excited to be in the photos as the girls - Self Portraits may just have to a permant way of life for me.
when we walked off the elevator Caroline said, "yes mom this guy - the one in the chair" this was of course after her comment a few months ago when I took her to Jefferson and she thought we were at the Lincoln.
See that figure in the back of the photo...

that is Annie Kate saying... Next monument please!We walked over to the Korean War Memorial. I must check out some book about this because I know there are many significant meanings to this and just can't remember them. I love this wall at the memorial.
We then walked the path along the reflection pool in the dark. There was a family of baby ducks, probably 20 little chicks crossing behind their mother duck. It was so cute but so dark I could not get a photo. The kids loved it.

Annie Kate took a shadow self portrait in front of her home state Louisana!
being at the memorials have prompted me to check out these books from the library. These are exactly why monuments are all over the city so that people will learn and remember these amazing, heartbreaking, heroic, world changing events and people. You can never visit a monument or musem too many times. Every time our kids ask us new questions. Most of which I can't answer.the girls ran around the memorial twice and then laid down exhausted and watched the water fountains on their back.

our family self portrait at the WWII.
Sally Jane peeking through the stroller.

Even at night the Vietnam Memorial is kept lit so family members can find their family. I have never been here at dark so I thought that amazing. I think Amanda in the UK had asked what the rubbings were for. All the names of the soldiers in the USA who died in the Vietnam war, are on the black reflecting wall of the memorial. They are engraved so that you can put a piece of paper on them and rub a pencil over it the take any name home with you. I always love seeing family members scratch on that name, even though it is so sad why they are doing it. Truly a great memorial.

and has prompted me to search for the book too.

Sunday:
Mother's day was great and 14 years in the making. Seriously. I am a gal with high expectations and am finally learning to do a little bit of lowering and expressing them to make my life smoother. The night before I told Jeff how excited I was for the next day. I seriously can't sleep before most holiday's no matter how small. It is a blessing and a curse, blessing for me curse for Jeff. I told him what will make me most excited for mother's day will be just being excited that it is my day. I said I don't want to change any diapers, I want to sleep in, I don't want to do any dishes, I don't want to buckle car seats, carry screaming kids, I don't want to decide on what we will have for dinner (i didn't care if we had cereal I just didn't want to decide) I wanted dessert after dinner and most of all just be as giddy as I was that it was my day. Jeff was laughing so hard and I think I love him because he gives me such a hard time. He said consider it done.

And that was my day. It has taken me 14 years seriously to learn to tell Jeff what is going on in my head instead of expecting him to figure it out. I used to play the silly game that if he really loved me then he would know what I was thinking - ya don't play that game you will never win.

We had some friends that had us and another family over for breakfast. It was incredible. Wheat pancakes with homemade bananna and pecan syrup, two kinds of eggs, baccon, sausage, fruit, homemade cinnamon rolls with yummy icing, waffles - and the husband made everything! He is a great cook and a great friend.
this is what Annie Kate made at A days (she seriously has the best A day's leaders ever!) it is the word of wisdom printed on fabric and sewn into a quilt with vegetable fabric! and has a darling tag on the back that says Happy Mother's day!

Jeff also spoke in church on Sunday and was asked specifically to speak on his own mother and tell some stories. (which was a great talk) A few weeks ago I reminded him that it would be ok to at the end to mention his wife the mother of his own children. Because I knew that if he went the entire talk and said nothing of me I would be totally freaked out. And could see the conversation " I can't believe you didn't even say one thing about me the mother of your children" and him saying, "but they asked me to talk about my mom" I don't mean to make him sound at all insensitive but he is a very task oriented focused person. And so (thanks Lindsay for remembering) at the end of his talk in one sentence he said he loved his wife. That was all I needed nothing more nothing less. And that conversation was also 14 years in the making. Am I crazy to share this personal story that shows my insecurity and slow learning... maybe. But I will just say the sooner you learn to share with your friends, family and spouse your expectaions the happier everyone will be. As my brother in law Kirk always says, "A Happy Wife is a Happy Life!"Jeff and the girls gave me this bracelet

and ring. I was so excited and really was hoping for this ring. I had gone into the Brighton store and made a wish list that Jeff could go in any time and see what I liked. (again something that took me 14 years to figure out) The girls were so exited because they knew I liked it. At the end of the day I took off my jewlery before I went to bed and then after being in bed I went back and put my ring on so I could sleep with it because I love it so much.

new on our doorstep...
embarassingly to admit one of me reasons for not blogging is trying to get used to a new keyboard (which is as thin as paper) and our new computer! It has been a long time coming and we are so excited to have it. Being a Mac there are a few different things I have not figure out and am actually on my PC blogging because I can't seem to figure a few things out.
like right clicking and getting photo properties out of smugmug, and moving my blog photos around in a post. I realize I am not as good with change as I like to think I am.

So last week was great and I can't believe that I even considered not doing my catch up. I kind of thought nothing happened last week and that I didn't take any photos... silly me that is what I get for thinking.

Do you ever squirm when you hear what kids are saying and doing these days?
How do you teach your kids to choose the right without being self righteous?
Do you tell people what you expect of them? did it take you 14 years to figure it out?
Have you ever been to Italy?
Are you planting a garden this year?
When was the last time you rode a bike?
Have you seen Mary Poppins on Broadway?
Are you so exited to find out that if you are the first person to read this entire thing and comment I am sending you 11.5 yards of lucisous ribbon because I can't believe you took the time to read this whole thing!!!