For reals.

Let's see, it's been since MARCH that I've updated this thing. Well, if you count the non-stop twitter feed, then heck, I've been updating daily -- and rather regularly.

What does that say? I really don't have time to sit down and pound out anything relevant that's more than 140 characters. But limit me to 140 characters of random musings - and I'm all over it.

So, this blog will be a collection of random; indulging on more than that 140 character restriction. First, how annoying that I could be leaving work right now -- this very second -- but instead, for some reason, I've logged on here and decided to dive in. Is this really the best use of my time? Meh. I'll type fast.

Age has been on my mind a lot lately. The people I work with seem to be getting younger - I make jokes based on cultural references, then have to explain. Someone "brags" about being in the business for 7 years ... and I snort....I've been working here in KC for longer than that, and made several other stops before getting here. Ouch!

I used to eat cake at the retirement parties of journalists who'd put in the long haul at one place and think "Why would you EVER stay in one place that long?? That'll never be me." Hm. I'm getting pretty close to a 10 year anniversary. Wow. I'm gonna blame that on kids. Not a bad thing, I suppose. There's something to be said for longevity (knock on wood. no seriously, knock on it RIGHT NOW.)

I'm finding more gray hairs in the once tiny gray hair farm in one spot of my head. Not a fan. I have actually made myself late to things because I've been playing "catch the gray hair w/tweezers" at my mirror. Nothing's worse than noticing one in the car - and trying to pull it with my fingers only spiral it up like curling ribbon....taking it from blendable to a wiry spring coming out of the top of my head.

I could go on about the age thing, but I've suddenly grown bored with that. Again - another reason Twitter & it's 140 rule is good for me. I'm easily distracted. Short attention span.

Anyhoo...I'm really looking forward to the trip we're taking Memorial Day weekend. We're going to ... wait for it ... Arkansas! Did you just wrinkle up your nose? Stop that. Seriously. I wanted to hit the road. I'm made to travel - and it had been too long - so I INSISTED we take SOME sort of trip over the holiday weekend. We got a touristy-flyer-type thing in the paper begging folks to SEE ARKANSAS! And I checked it out ... and thought: perfect road trip. We won't waste too much time in the car .. but still get far enough away to feel...well, away.

And that's the thing. I'm really looking forward to that "away" part. We're gonna stay in a cabin in the woods. So, seriously AWAY. No plans for all sorts of activities and events etc etc that normal family vacations entail. We just go and be. Go and be. You know, just go there and HANG. Not rush to this thing and that and must see this and that. Nope, just be.

I am seriously considering leaving my cell phone at home. Correction: freakin' awesome iPhone that totally feeds my short attention span. Just typing about it right now makes me want to pick it up and mess. But - it comes with the drawbacks of work emails. Dong! Another email is in. Dong! Look, a red number on top of email icon envelop counting how many emails are sitting here. Waiting to be read. Dong! Could it be the boss making big changes? Dong! Could it be someone with a question only I can answer? Dong! Some email just landed about someone misunderstanding something and when you read it it'll put you in a bad mood and hang over you 'til you return to work. Dong! Yeah...that's not a good thing when you're TRULY trying to be on vacation.

Ok. Seriously I should go home now. Hm. Maybe if I took my phone w/me on vacation I could blog from there....complete with pictures of us relaxing. And then I could foursquare every move we make. I could be mayor of some tiny coffee shop in a tiny Arkansas town.

For reals.

Who's Counting?

Funny car conversation tonight.

Kids were asking random questions. And eventually Kyle asks, "Why do grownups get to use cuss words and bad words?"

Long pause. Um, ah, well ... I answered with, "Well, when you're grown up you just get to do stuff that kids don't get to do. And not all of it is really good stuff."

Kyle says, "Well one of you used the s-word like 10 times."

Me, "What? When? Was it Daddy?"

All 3 kids then say, "No Momma it was YOU! When you were trying to fix Nick's drawer!'

Someone pipes up, "Yeah, we were counting. And you used the d-word - and - "

I interupt, "Ok ok ok I get it."

And then I punch Ryan in the arm - who is howling, and practically driving off the road.

So, I've turned into my father. He mastered the art of cussing - kind of like the dad on Christmas Story .. you know, making stuff up as he goes. I remember one time he was working on the house and yelled out "JEE--SUS, JOSEPH AND MARY!" We found it funny that he'd go for the tri-fecta. But even better was when he'd make stuff up. I still remember giggling with my brother after a string of obscenities with some brand new words that ended with "piss-ant printer!" Dad eventually heard us giggling - -which, timed wrong, could mean trouble - but lucky for us, got him giggling too.

I don't think I've quite evolved into creative cussing. Though, after stubbing my toe pretty badly, I did string together a pretty wild combination of every word I could think of. Ryan still laughs about that one. Thankfully - kids weren't around to count..and call me on it later.

Beeping, Cussing and Not Laughing

Had to share this story.

The other night, at about 2:30 in the morning, I woke up to the hall light coming on -- and beeping. I soon realized the beeping was probably a smoke detector - and that my husband was already up trying to make it stop.

I laid there and listened as he removed one detector. Then heard the beeping continue. I listened as he removed another dectector. The beeping continued - and now he was cussing.
I am now laying there, wide awake, kind of shaking my head. I'm thinking "the sound is coming from the HALL." But I don't move. He's mad, and frankly, I was entertained. How many is he going to take down? How many times will I hear it be removed from the ceiling, hear a beep, then hear cussing? Comedy.

Then he comes to the doorway, "I don't know what the @#$!^& is wrong." I don't say anything. He storms off for the basement. (Checking detectors down there.) Yes, I'm thinking he's a moron.

I get up. I'm certain the beeping is in the hall. I stand in the hall. The beep is so loud it hurts my ears. I get the stool he's been using in every room and grab the carbon monoxide detector. It beeps as I hold it in my hand. My *first try at solving the beeping mystery.

He's now coming up the stairs. I walk over to him - and hand him the device, "It's the carbon monoxide detector." (To myself: YOU DIPWEED!)

I turn around and head back for bed. Soon he crawls in too. I stifle giggles. I figure he's so mad, giggling would get me in trouble.

I bring it up the next day: "So....you haven't said anything about the 'detector incident' last night?" He laughs. I tell him about hiding my giggles when he came to bed. Turns out, he too, was hiding giggles -- thinking I was annoyed and it would tick ME off.

Too bad. It would have been nice to have laughed together at that one.

I scrapped!

I had not scrapped ANYTHING since the first weekend of January - LAST YEAR.

Lots of excuses, no time, picture issues, etc etc.

Well, as you saw in the post below - my oldest turned 10 recently. And I REALLY wanted to do a layout of him w/his cakes over all the years leading up to 10. And I wanted to have it up for his birthday. So -- I cranked out this layout:

That got my juices flowing ... so I decided to try to do more. I grabbed an envelope of photos and told myself - no matter what, I'm going to scrap something in this envelope. Turns out, the envelope had a bunch of mostly blurry shots of the kids -- taken with an underwater camera. But I stuck to my guns -- and completed this:(shot is a bit dark - pic is from my phone)
I'm also nearly done w/another layout from that same envelope! Yeah! I'm scrappin' again!

Birthday Mania

Almost done.
Birthday mania.
Seriously.
We kick it off with Nick -- his birthday is Dec. 22nd -- yep, RIGHT before Christmas. Then we do Christmas and move in to the January month of celebration. Nick had a "puppy/spiderman/Mizzou" party. We make a grand effort to keep Christmas out of it. No Christmas wrapping paper, everyone wears MIZZOU stuff...we open presents in a different room away from the tree. (That's also because the tree usually swallows up the room we normally do that in.) My hope is for him to never say "My birthday is at Christmas and that stinks." So far so good. We'll see how long that lasts.

Kyle turned 7 on the 10th. He wanted a "Ben 10" Party. And like his older brother, he really, really wanted a sleepover. Note: boys have sleepovers. GIRLS have slumber parties. Just an important piece of trivia for you. Important. Anyway - we usually let them pick -- some party at some place, or a sleep over with a limited number of guests. At first, we thought WE were getting the good deal not having to pay for some elaborate party at some venue ... but now I'm not so sure which is REALLY the better deal. The boys LOVE the sleepover. And Kyle was VERY excited to have his first one this year. I think it was also a first for some of the boys he invited - and they too were quite excited. We had the traditional ice cream sundae bar with tons of toppings and the (gross) spraying of whip cream straight into the mouth.
The next day we then had family over for more celebrating.

Jack turned 10 on the 17th. That's right, their birthdays are exactly 7 days a part. So yes, we had BACK TO BACK sleepovers + family night parties. Yep. Insane. Jack wanted a "basketball" themed party...and he started the ice cream sundae bar tradition and kept it going. He always invites the 3 boys who live on our street - and they now expect the big sundae bar. They too had quite a great time. Lots of Wii games. (Check out the video on our family website here.) Both parties were quite loud and both kept us up late. Though I think the 9-10 year olds were more "disgusting." (Louder burps and more potty talk to reign in.)

Can you believe we have a 10 year old? We can't. We have a kid who has a word to describe how long he's been around: a decade. We've been parents for a DECADE. Wow.
That freaked us out. So imagine how it's gonna feel in 2013 when we have a TEENAGER *AND* a "DECADE" kid! Ack!






Did you think I was done talking about birthdays? Um, no. My dad's birthday was January 12th. As far as I know, he did not have a theme party. Unless it was "TVs" or "politics." So, his bday is certainly lower-maintenance.


And this week is Ryan's birthday. And believe me, by the time we get to his birthday, we've had the whole family over like 3 times... plus 2 other parties in the house...and well, Ryan has very little interest in "partying." He's ready to chill. We're actually kind of excited because I have the day off and all 3 kids will be in school. We will go to lunch, maybe a movie - and not have to worry about sitters or anything. Just chill.

Birthday mania. Nearly complete. And actually, pretty fun.

Test post from phone