Friday Facts

Thankful for: MY NEW VAN!!!! And of course, my fabulous, wonderful, and oh-so-sexy insurance agent who worked his magic and even though we added a van that was 10 years newer and worth five times as much as my old one, we are only paying $7 more a month in insurance. Oh, yeah, he's that good. And only I can say he's sexy. Well, I guess I can't stop you if you decide to call him that, too, but he is my husband.

Listening to: The Little Einsteins. I know it's a real animal, but I always crack up when I hear "baby boobie bird." I can't help it, the teenager in me snickers a little every time.

Looking forward to: The Christmas season! Oh, the Santa Train, the Lights of Christmas, getting our tree, everything. I love it. The kids and I have been singing "Baby it's Cold Outside" for the last week or so. Emma does the Sammy Davis Jr. part and I sing the Carmen McRae part. The boys jump in wherever they see fit. It's awesome.

I am needing or wanting: A maid. That would make my life a lot easier. I can barely keep up with all the pee on the bathroom floor.

Missing: Still missing my tennis shoe. Which is such a bummer this time of year. I want my tennis shoe back! I finally took everything out of my closet, and no shoe. Everything from under the bed, no shoe. Where in the world is my shoe?!?

Quote of the week: From Grant: "Mommy, I, one time, ran Lightning McQueen on your van, an' then Lightning McQueen get-ed taken away. I missed him, an' so I prayed for him, an' he came-ded back! An' I not run Lightning McQueen on your van anymore." (WooHoo! He's learning!! And is it not adorable that my two year old prayed for his toy? I love it!)

Welcome to the family, Smurfmobile!

Yesterday was a good day. I went into Bellevue, a city about 100 miles from my house. For you non-Washingtonians, it's just on the other side of the Lake Washington from Seattle. It's actually pretty close to where I grew up, so my Dad had been scouting vans for me around the area.

He had found three that we were going to look at. We picked the best one and started there. We didn't get any further.

Let me introduce the newest member of our family, the Smurfmobile:

I had taken several pictures throughout the day yesterday, but the battery died in my camera and I didn't have a chance to charge it to upload the pictures before someone (cough Brenda cough) started giving me a hard time about not blogging about the van. So I pulled this pic off the cars.com listing.

She's a 2007 Dodge Grand Caravan. She has 32,000 miles, stow and go seating, power doors and liftgate, and some sort of connecty-thingy where you can sync your garage door opener to the van and it'll open you garage door for you. Which would be really handy if, you know, I had a garage.

The salesman was awesome. He treated me well, was honest and straightforward and even fed me lunch. Hey, I love a free lunch. As it turns out, we went to the same high school, he was the year behind me. Neither of us recognized each other.

I got the van for six thousand dollars less than it's Kelley Blue Book value, and I negotiated my way into a full tank of gas. I'm a happy girl.

Emma loves it. "Mommy! Guess what! I have my very own blower thing back here! And my own light! And a cool handle that I can grab hold of if we ever get into an accident, Mommy, if you know we are going to get into an accident, just say, 'Emma! We're going to get into an accident!' and I'll grab my handle and I'll be safe."

Well alrighty then.

The only downside is that it's blue. The picture there is muted, it's actually almost periwinkle. Marty calls it Seahawks blue. I think it would be really pretty as the color of my bedroom, but not necessarily my car. It'll grow on me, I'm sure.

So there you have it. The great van hunt is over. They took the green machine in on trade, and it did not die before I traded it in (thank you, Jesus!) Now I can move on to better things. You know, like cleaning up pee.

Dear Ben,

Thank you for your interest in potty training. I am thrilled that you get so excited about going on the potty and that you love wearing your big-boy undies. I am very proud of you.

I know that you are only two and a half, but I would like to ask a favor of you. If you would be so kind as to try and remember to flush the toilet, I would be forever grateful. If that is too much to ask, simply closing the door behind you when you leave would be fantastic. See, in the mornings when I am trying to get Emma ready for school, get breakfast for everyone, solve Grant's dilemma of where his Mack truck is, and save the cat from the baby who is trying to teethe on his ear, I do not have the time to follow every step of your potty training process. And of course, you do not want me to, which was made clear last week when you yelled at me to get out of the bathroom, and then slammed the door behind me.

But I digress.

See Ben, the thing is, if I cannot follow you every step of the way, and I am running around like mad again, there will be another opportunity for Drew to sneak into the bathroom, pull himself up on the toilet and decide the used toilet paper in there would be fun to chew on. Really, removing used, toilet-water-logged paper from my ten month old's mouth is not something I can handle again. That's right, Ben, the two times I dealt with that this morning are more than plenty for me.

So if you will grant me this simple request I would be forever in your debt. I know you would rather have a happy Mommy than one you have to visit on Thursdays in a padded room, right? Can we work this out?

Thank you for your consideration. You are truly a delight.

Love,
Mommy

Today

I am going to try and buy a van.

I hope this works out, I hope that everything the salesman told my Dad is true and we can make this particular van work.

And I sincerely hope that my sweet little van will actually make it to the dealership, and not break down or explode into a ball of flames before I get there.

Thank you, Holly for watching the boys, you rock!

(deep breaths)

Not Me! Monday! Car Shopping Edition

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! Car Shopping Edition! Not Me! Monday was created by MckMama, you can head over to her blog to see what she and everyone else have NOT been doing this week.

I did NOT borrow a Durango from a friend while my van was in the shop. As I am used to my sweet mini-van, I was NOT freaked out by the very loud off-road tires. Very, very loud. I did NOT end up calling my friend to make sure I was not destroying the vehicle, since I was freaked out about the sounds that I was not used to.

I did NOT have the brilliant idea to bring along a portable DVD player while car shopping so that Marty could sit with the kids and they could watch a movie while I looked at vans. It did NOT work like a charm.

I did NOT decide to earn some cool mommy points by letting the kids watch the movie on the way home. I did NOT start to freak out royally when I heard the borrowed SUV start to make some holy-crayola-the-engine-is-breaking noises, and actually panic about how I was going to break it to my friends that I broke their SUV and would be returning it on a tow truck. I did NOT feel a little foolish when I realized that the kids were watching a John Deere Tractor movie, and they had talking about antique tractors and all I heard was the chugging and puffing of the antique tractor, not the Durango.

I did NOT at one point decide to let the kids have drive-thru dinner in the Durango because there was no other way. I did NOT threaten them within an inch of their lives to keep everything neat and tidy. And I most certainly did NOT dump my super-sized root beer straight out of the cup holder and onto the floor under my feet, and have to pull over to retrieve it. There is NO WAY I would do such a careless thing in someone else's car! (And I did NOT shampoo the rug to get it all clean, too. Don't worry!)

I have NOT felt the need to smack a few car salesman upside their heads this last week. And I was certainly NOT thisclose to actually cussing one particular gentleman out yesterday, after the price of a van I was ready to purchase suddenly jumped two thousand dollars. I would NEVER be so angry that I would lose my cool like that, especially in front of my father. (Who probably wouldn't have minded a few choice words at all, considering what had happened.)

I do NOT think that Internet car shopping is freaking awesome. And I absolutely LOVE taking the Internet info and actually seeing the vehicle. I mean, there are NEVER discrepancies, EVER! And I am NOT extremely frustrated by car salesman who lie outright and aren't really good at it. I am NOT an educated shopper who knows about the vehicles, and will call you out if you tell me you own a particular model that doesn't exist.

I am NOT sick and tired of trying to buy a new van, and want this to be over with. I am NOT trying desperately to learn what the lesson God wants me to get out of this, so we can just be done!

What did you NOT do this week?

Freedom Isn't Free

SPC Aaron Aamot
Age 22
from Custer, WA

I'm proud to be an American,
Where at least I know I'm free
And I won't forget the men who died, who gave that right to me
And I'll proudly stand up next to you,
and defend her still today,
For there ain't no doubt, I love this land,
God bless the USA
In loving memory of SPC Aaron Aamot, KIA November 5, 09
Thank you for making the ultimate sacrifice.
To read more, click HERE.

What We Do When We Are Bored

It has been a bit crazy around here lately. I know, it is always a bit crazy, but lately, well, it's been two bits crazy.

I still haven't found my new van, and I made the decision to return the Durango to it's rightful owners as I do not know how long I will be without a vehicle. I'm back to driving my own van, and hoping and praying that we do not break down on the road. Because of this, we have been sticking around home as much as we can.

But we are getting bored.

I mean, you can only eat cereal and watch so much TV.

And you can only eat so many refrigerator magnets.

I brought in the little outdoor slide, which was great for about a day. When they started jumping off the top of slide and seeing who could fly the furthest, I said no. Some games are for outside, but taking outside games inside could get someone hurt. Then they decided to bring out all their pillows and blankets to make a padded area to jump off the slide onto, like the high-flying circus children that they are. ("Hey, Mom! I know you said we couldn't be trapeze artists, but now we have a net, see? So it's OK, right?") When I put the kibosh on that one, they made a "snuggle fort." My kids are the greatest!
Many of you will remember that a few months ago, I tried potty training the twins. If you were not here for that experience, I'll make it easy for you. It didn't go well. We went diaper-free for seven days, and finally came to the realization that they just were not ready. They are only two and a half, and I know that's pretty early (especially for boys,) so we went back to diapers for a while. Well, Ben has been showing interest again. Like showing up on the kitchen with a wet diaper in his hands, naked under his pants.

He was rather proud of himself, to say the least.

Yesterday morning, he came up to me and said, in his little Ben way, "Mommy, I go peepee, I go peepeeeee??" So off to the bathroom we went, where he went peepee in the potty and refused to put on a new diaper.

Well alrighty then. Potty training readiness cues, anyone?

I let him pick out some undies and he was off, happily playing. He continued to go potty every ten to fifteen minutes on his own and stayed dry all morning. Wow, this is going to be great! I thought stupidly to myself.

Until.

I had invited the neighbor girls over for the day, as there was no school and the kids could have a distraction from the everyday routine. Of course, having a eight year old, two five year olds, two two year olds, and a ten month old wasn't exactly calm. Six kids in 1,400 square feet is just plain loud, no matter how sweet and well behaved these girls are.

Nap time came, and I put diapers on the boys and tucked them into bed. They were a bit riled up, and I heard giggling and banging coming from the room of the supposed-to-be-sleeping boys. I yelled one warning from the living room, and as the noise continued, I went in to intervene.

What greeted me from the moment the door opened was the assailing stench of poop. (Insert opportunity to remain calm and take deep breaths here. Immediately stop taking deep breaths, as the poop smell is nauseating.)

Ben had decided once again, that he did not want his diaper on, and had removed it mid-poop. He then proceeded to sit everywhere, smearing gobs of poop on every surface and then pee all over his bed. By the time I discovered this lovely little mess, he had smeared poop all over his sheet, his blanket, his pillow, and his Ted. He had gotten poop on his owl and stuffed rocket and then apparently decided that since they were dirty, he didn't want them, so he flung them across the room. The rug was poopy. His bed frame was poopy. And Ben, well, Ben was covered in poop.

I turned and left to gather my thoughts and inform the girls that they would need to work on their craft project with what they had so far, I was not going to get out paint for them until I had cleaned up the boys' room. Of course, the immediately ran into the boys room to see, and dissolved into a fit of poop-induced laughter.

I shooed away the pack of giggling girls, cleaned up the poop mess, changed Ben's bedding and tried to calm the boys down. Yeah, right. They eventually yelled and screamed for three hours, not napping at all. As a result, Drew did not get a good nap, as it is hard to sleep through someone kicking the wall right on the other side of your crib.

Today, the sun is shining, so I think we will be heading outside for a change of scenery. Maybe we will "go leaf-piling" as the kids call it.

Whatever adventure we end up with, as long as it doesn't involve poop, I don't care.