What to do when you're sick - a tutorial

Notes from this past Tuesday...

1. Raid your husband's dwindling prescription pseudoephedrine and mentally curse all meth users for causing it be taken off the market because it's the only decongestant that works on your nose. 

2. Attempt to start your day with purpose but give up on the idea of actually achieving anything by 10:00 am and climb back in bed for the first nap of the day. 

3. Remember the old adage: "feed a cold" and raid your children's candy stash, taking all the good chocolate.

4. Catch up on The Amazing Race.

5. Catch up on Survivor.

6. Let your kids park in front of the TV, convincing yourself that endless hours of cartoons and Wii Lego Batman can't do that much harm. 

7. Wander around your home staring at all the housework that should be done before climbing back into bed for your second nap of the day. 

8. When your husband calls to tell you that he tweaked his neck at work and can barely turn it, pretend to empathize for at least 5 seconds before explaining that your head HAS EXPLODED and you are the one that needs feeling sorry for.

9. Put a bra on, it's almost 5:00 pm. 

10. Take off your bra, it's almost 8:00 pm, thank heavens!

11. At bedtime, explain to your children that bible time is not going to happen because Daddy's away coaching a basketball game and  "mommy's brain is zapped".

12. Explain the meaning of "zapped".

13. Unwittingly demonstrate the meaning of "zapped" by walking into the wall as you turn to leave the kids' room.

14. Curl up in front of the fire and watch past seasons of Monk on Netflix, nursing your bruised ego and eating half a dozen or so Lil' Cuties (seedless mandarins) and drinking a cup or 3 of white hot chocolate. Mmmmm, almost makes up for being sick :)


Difficulty level: amazingly easy, would you believe it?!

This boy

Warms my heart daily. 

He is so different from both Russ and I... shy, embarrassed of any sort of spotlight, analytical, emotional, frustrated when he can't do things perfectly... and thoughtful, smart, precise, caring, loving, sweet, and funny. Really funny!

Okay, that part is just like his father. 

Cooper will do things like stare at the clock in consternation when you tell him at 6:03 pm that he has an hour left of playtime because he's going to bed at 7:00 pm, and then turn to you and say, "No, that's only 57 minutes". 

He'll tell you that he's not nervous "at all" to go on stage for the school Christmas program and then freeze like a deer caught in the headlights as soon as he's up there and barely move a muscle.

(It's endearing, honest.)

He'll also spend hours drawing you a card or picture, hide presents under your pillow, make you breakfast as a surprise, and come up with perfect gift ideas for anyone he knows. 

A couple of days ago he remembered that my cousin Linley had flown to California to visit her grandparents for a few days and decided he wanted to send her a postcard.

Always one to encourage my children's thoughtfulness, I told him I didn't have a postcard so he was out of luck. 

He then suggested that he could make one and I told him that I thought they had to be a specific size and I didn't know what it was so that was probably a no-go as well. Cooper would not let it go, he'd make a card and an envelope. I informed him that she was coming home on Tuesday so sadly it would probably pass her in the mail on her way home.

Aren't I an awesome Mom?

Finally Cooper came up with the perfect solution. We could drive to her apartment and leave it on her front door to welcome her home. 

Shoot, I had no comeback for that one. So I told him that was a great idea and to go ahead with his card.

He never minds sharing the credit either - even when it's undue.

Yep, that boy is good for me. In more ways than one.

Monday confessional - the white stuff

First off, I need to let you know that I have a few little "addictions". Nothing serious of course, just some things I CAN'T SEEM TO LIVE WITHOUT.

1. Facebook (but really, aren't we all?)

2. Naps

3. White chocolate mochas

4. White chocolate anything

Which leads to my confession. Last week I bought a multi-pack of flavored hot chocolate packets from Costco. My kids love drinking the stuff and it's especially nice to have over the holidays. I put the boxes out on the counter for the family to pick from and they were excited to have FIVE flavor choices. 

But the truth is I didn't actually show them all of the flavors... it was a 7 pack, not a 5 pack.

These are hiding in my "special" drawer. 

And I'm not willing to share. 

Is that wrong of me? 

Back in the swing of things

Last night was the season kickoff for CCHS basketball so our evening was spent down at the school rooting for the Cougars once again.

Oh how quickly it comes back around each year! I'm always a mixture of excited and not quite ready. Excited for my husband, who is the girls varsity head coach and an absolute ball of energy and enthusiasm when it comes to basketball (even when in the middle of a serious sinus infection), and not quite ready myself, for all the games with a toddler in tow and evenings with Russ gone at practices and away games. 

(Which I don't often travel too because when your school is out in the "country", and you play other teams also out in the "country", you're looking at a lot of 45 min to 1 1/2 hour drives ONE WAY. And did I mention I have a toddler?)

But back to last night. It was also "breast cancer awareness" night, with the crowd in pink and our teams playing in pink ribbon uniforms. Pretty cool if you ask me. There was a t-shirt decorating contest and Kendall was a finalist for the elementary school. 

My favorite part is "Belive" :)

Blake got in on the action too, and boy was he excited to wear a "basketball game" as he proudly called it.

 Go pink!

Russell stopped on his way home from work the day before to buy himself a pink shirt and was proud as punch to find one he thought he'd wear again, and on clearance from $44.00 to $11.00. In his words, he was "stoked" about the deal.

Proud to wear pink.

And just like that he stepped into my world of "the shopper's high".  

Welcome honey. it's a fun place to be. 

untied shoes

Lately Blake has formed the very annoying habit of untying his shoelaces while we're driving in the car. This means that when we get wherever we're going I have to re-tie them before getting him out of his car seat. Which is not fun to do when it's windy and raining out. And we live in Oregon so, hello wind and rain.

There has been much: "Blake you may not untie your shoes while we drive - it's a no-no!" going on from the front seat of the car because of this.

So Tuesday, after leaving bible study and driving for all of one minute, I hear this from the backseat:

"Uh-oh Mommy, shoes! Uh-oh..."

And my immediate response was, "Blaaaaaake, did you untie your shoes?!"

I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions however because Blake instantly replied back:

"No Mommy I didn't, my fingers did!"

OH. Well... never mind then... I guess :)

Age: 2 1/2. Make-me-laugh ability: A+