InstaFriday

Good Friday to you! 

Here's what's been going on this week...

Girlfriends dinner at my friend, Therese's, to welcome her two oldest girls home from college. With bunny name tags and all. Delightful!

 After dinner we played this game that involved us all sharing our most embarrassing moments on a piece of paper and then trying to guess who it was. DIED laughing. Such a fun evening.

A little lego shopping trip with a buddy to use his birthday money. 

How Blake watches "scary" movies.

 Scrapbooking with Tricia! And doing a little picture organizing on the laptop. I spent a lovely two days this week doing this, and NOT cleaning or entertaining children. Like I said, lovely.

 Nick Furry says hello. We like her.

 A full-on egg dying operation at Grandma Tracy's last night!

My nephew Elijah decided he wanted ALL the eggs green. And his hands.

I just love a baby bundled up like a burrito! Babysitting little Tristan.

OH THE CUTENESS!

Happy weekend and HAPPY EASTER!!!!

Father son date to the Blazer game

Last night Cooper attended his first NBA basketball game as his 10th birthday present from us. And because his dad is the coolest, he got to experience it from the 10th row off the floor! Gooooo Blazers!

Cooper had pretty much the best night of his life.

Too bad the Blazers got stomped. 

Not that Coop cared. He got a shirt launched from a t-shirt cannon!

(It's also too bad mama was stuck solo in nursery duty at church while daddy was gone and had to change not one, not two, but THREE poopy diapers before the night was done.)

(Mama's not bitter.)

Of mice, breaks, and birthdays

Cooper turned ten this past weekend and celebrated by having a sleepover and shopping outing with his Grandma T, going to the movies with his family, and fracturing his arm.

The fracture occurred Saturday morning, the unfortunate result of a failed attempt at a leapfrog jump over a coffee table in Grandma's living room. After much inspection and debate, we decided to wait on a trip to the emergency room because we thought (hoped) it was just a sprain, and with some ice and a borrowed wrist brace from a cousin, Cooper went the rest of the weekend without much complaint. By Sunday evening however, Cooper was babying his arm pretty carefully and finally starting to show some swelling.

And that's when I heard the little voice inside my head saying "YOU ARE AN IDIOT."

So yeah, I took Cooper into the doctor's office yesterday morning, the day of his birthday party that was scheduled to begin at 1:00 pm, with a good sized dose of mom guilt and a super-sized dose of we're-never-going-to-get-out-of-here-in-time-for-the-party doom.

(nervous that a shot may somehow be involved)

(slightly swollen appendage to the right)

Sure enough, the xray showed a fracture, but fortunately nothing needed to be reset (and just like I had assured several times, no shots were required) and with a few phone calls and a little finagling the party was able to go on, with only an hour delay in the start time.
 

Cooper declared the day "the best day ever!" and "better than Disneyland!"

You see, at ten years old, nothing beats the excitement of getting your first cast and then almost immediately getting to show it off to seven of your friends, all while receiving gifts at the same time.

And if that's not enough... guess what was Cooper's first present?

Eeeeeek!

(cousin Drew for the win!)

 Her name is Nick Fury and no, I haven't touched her, but yes, I gave my permission beforehand. 

Although my bet is on the dog eating it.

For Cooper's party we went to the Wunderland Arcade for an afternoon of nickel gaming! The kids loved it and all I had to do was bring cupcakes and "drinks with lids". So easy.

(with cousin Mark)

(please excuse my sad cupcakes, I had 15 minutes to decorate them)

Russ managed the crew of boys so well and was the hugest help. Sadly this is the only picture of him I took:

(Awkward picture of an almost-over hug)

It was taken right after Cooper found out that his birthday gift from us was tickets for him to go with daddy to a Blazer game tomorrow night, sitting on the TENTH row off the floor. (Thank you friend-of-a-friend-of-a-coworker at Russ's work!) He was pretty excited, although I still don't know that we topped the mouse. 

Honestly, I don't know if anything will be able to beat yesterday in Cooper's books :)

Monday Confessional

Sometimes I take ditzyness to a whole new level.

For example: I am the kind of girl who believes her two small baking ramekins (the kind used for individual creme brulees) are lost for MONTHS because I can't find them anywhere in my kitchen, and even ask friends and family if I loaned them out to them, only to realize they've been in my bathroom drawer the whole time, where I moved them to hold my bobby pins and hair ties and where I see them every. single. day.

True story.

Look, I even took a picture.

Just another day in the life with Jodi! (shakes head at self)

Fake InstaFriday

"Fake" in that my instagram app and cell phone are still in evil cahoots to thwart my every picture upload. So while these pics were all taken with my cell phone and cropped in instagram, only two of them actually made it onto instagram. 

9 attempts out of 10 end in my phone freezing and me having to remove the battery to restart it. Yet somehow this still doesn't stop my from trying every time. I'm all, NEVER GIVE UP, NEVER SURRENDER!

 Nighttime devotions with daddy. 

I don't know what I love more, that my husband wants to do it, or that I don't have to!

 (I'm not at my best come the kids' bedtime.)

Hello, Miley. This little lady follows me EVERY.WHERE. And if I make eye contact at any time she sits up and looks at me like, "yes, Mom? Shall I come over so you can pet me?"  Then, if I fail to break eye contact quickly enough, she does come over, and then I have to pet her.

Dogs. 

Apparently March Madness requires furniture rearrangement. 

 One day I'll look at this picture and cry thinking about how all three of my boys used to be able to fit together in a chair, instead of being irritated that there was a chair in my way.

I won't lie, I was pretty pleased with my ensemble yesterday. 

My #tbt (throwbackthursday) pic - 5 month old Blake, aka the child with the head as round as a basketball. (Except for that one spot on the left back that went completely flat from him NEVER EVER MOVING HIS HEAD WHILE SLEEPING. EVER.)

Happy Friday to you! Our Spring Break starts today and we have a few fun plans up our sleeve... #1 being: sleeping in! Yay!! (Or maybe that's just my fun plan :)

The weird day

Don't worry, there's chocolate at the end :)

Monday

12:34 am: I finally climb into bed after staying up late blogging about my week and weekend of sick kids and fun happenings.

1:00 am: Cooper bursts into the room, startling me awake in a confused panic. He is crying, he doesn't feel good. I rush him to the bathroom, leave him in front of the toilet, run to the kitchen to grab a big bowl, and come back 30 seconds later to find out he's thrown up all over the floor and bath mat. Drats.

1:05 am: operation Bathroom Sanitization begins.

1:20 am: I make a cozy bed on the couch for Cooper and bring out my heated throw for myself - settling in at the opposite end of the couch for moral support. I then realize the adrenaline of the past twenty minutes has completely woken me up and I lay there for the next hour, my super sonic mom hearing in full effect. Double drats.

2:30 am: puke session #2 begins and I try my best to comfort my prone-to-the-dramatic son who is sure that he has descended to the very pits of hell and his life can not go on. Which I totally get. Puking sucks.

2:45 am: we settle back in and this time I am able to drift off, praise Jesus. 

4:40 am: Russ comes out into the living room ready to leave for work, doesn't realize we're on the couch and turns all the lights on. Once again I am startled awake in a confused panic. Cooper also wakes up, decides he's ready to get back in his own bed, moves a little too fast, and throws up again, this time splattering my couch. 

4:45 am: operation Couch Sanitization begins.

5:00 am: Russ has left for work, Cooper is back asleep, I go back to my own bed and realize that once again adrenaline has done it's magic and I'm wide awake until I get Kendall off to school at 7:45 am. 

8-10:30 am: I sleep the sleep of the dead, barely aware that both boys have woken up and are watching cartoons.

10:30 am: I get up, feel guilty about the time, and decide to simultaneously do laundry, wash dishes, mop and sweep my floors, scrub down my kitchen, and for some crazy reason, remove the shelves in my fridge to wash them in the sink.

1:30 pm: my energy fizzles as quickly as it began and I head back to bed after putting both boys down for naps. 

4:00 pm: my eyes open. Good grief, where did the time go? Russ is managing the kids and once again I feel guilty and decide to vacuum the living room, cook a healthy dinner, and enlist Blake, Kendall, and Russ to do a house pick up.

5:30 pm: dinner is eaten, Kendall has done the dishes, and somehow everyone has disappeared from the living room except myself when the front door bell rings. I glance down in horror and realize I'm still in my grungy sweats from the night before, with fuzzy striped socks, yesterdays makeup, and my hair a double-nap-day DISASTER. And Oh look, it's Russ's hunting buddy, Tyson. I answer the door sheepishly and call for Russ, then pretend to conjure up magic that will make him forget he ever saw me. We laugh, but secretly I DIE.

7:00 pm: I tell Russ I feel upside down from my day and I need to do something to feel better, so I go read a devotional book in the bathroom, talk to the Lord for a bit (mainly telling Him why I think it would be perfectly right and fair for me to NOT get sick when everyone else seems to be succumbing to it), then put my big girl panties on and jump on the treadmill. After a couple of miles and a refreshing shower I feel clean and ready to take on an hour of helping Cooper (who has recovered nicely) with his homework from his missed day of school. I'm even patient and everything!

9:00 pm: all children are asleep in their beds, the house is quiet and clean. I'm reading emails on the computer when Russell suddenly looks up at me with an "Uh Oh", and runs to the garbage can to throw up. 

9:01 pm: we just look at each other for a second and then laugh a little bit and finally I say, "well at least YOU can take care of yourself!" 

9:02 pm: and then I go eat a Cadbury cream egg. Because sometimes a mom is just DONE.  

Another instagram post

So not to go into details or anything but it's been a puking kind of week in our household (along with the rest of North America according to my facebook newsfeed) and my mommy duties have been on high demand.

So have my awesome science project display board skills. Those things don't assemble themselves without serious adult intervention supervision, people.

And thus, I give you another easy instagram post, because who's too busy to take cell phone pictures even in the midst of construction paper chaos and throw up?

Not me.

 Last weekend. Did I mention already how much I loved snow shoeing?

 And how fun these ladies were to go with?

After the weekend was over was when we had our first casualty of war. Vomit with a side of 102 temps.

Lots of Netflix.

 Tuesday night I escaped from the house and met Jana at the track to walk. And for the 1 millionth time we both showed up accidentally matching. I don't know how we do it but it happens 5 times out of 10. 

 Thursday night I got my second escape: clothing swap at my friend Shay's house!

9 girls, 2 rooms full of clothes, 1 bag of new-to-me items, loads of fun. 

 Friday night our second victim was struck, poor Kendall, who was just way too miserable for me to take a picture of. Our night involved a maximum of 3 hours of sleep and plenty of movie watching. 

 I will say, the one good thing about stomach bugs is that they are usually short-lived. By Saturday afternoon I was able to leave Kendall in the very safe hands of her daddy while I ran over to my friend Nicole's baby shower, where I stayed half the amount of time as the rest of the guests but managed to eat twice the amount of pink frosted shortbread. (I may or may not have snuck some out in my purse when I left. Amazing stuff.)

Sunday night all was well enough that Russ and I could BOTH go out for a birthday dinner celebration for my sister and brother-in-law, whose birthdays are 8 days apart. 

Dave was wearing his Shamrock tee because he just ran a 15K race that morning with my brother...

who we are now referring to as Grizzly Adams. 

That's his girlfriend, Christine. We think she's the cutest :)

And that was my week in a nutshell! Minus the science project and the multitude of laundry.

Here's to a barf-free week!

*post script: 1:00 am Monday morning: Cooper starts throwing up. DANG ITTT. So much for that thought.

Call me madam adventure

Because I went on my first snow showing trip and there's no stopping me now!

I LOVED it.  Actually, I don't know how I managed to go this long without trying it out because of how into snow showing my Mum is, but we rectified that last weekend, on the most gorgeous spring day possible.

{Why hello, Mt. Hood, we meet again.}

Mum invited me to join her and our friends Therese and Sarah for an easy 3 mile trek from Frog Lake to Lower Twin Lake and back and it was just perfect, Sarah also being a snow shoe virgin and neither of us wanting to take on more than we could handle, or more accurately, waddle. (It's a little awkward at first walking with your legs wider than you normally would.)

(As you can see I was not going to miss a photo opportunity of me in snow shoes... SNOW SHOEING FOR REALS!)

When we reached Lower Twin Lake we stopped for a break and a snack, and ended up feeding some friendly gray jays (aka camp robbers). 

Not pictured: Therese getting adventurous and feeding them off her head, and Mum falling backwards head over heels while trying to get up from a crouched photo shooting position.

Good times.

By the time we got back to the car to head home Sarah and I were already declaring our love for the snow shoe and willingness to go again.

Translation: Mum and Therese, you need to plan another trip :)