Random things this week...

OK, so I keep waiting for the perfect moment to sit down and blog all the different little things that occur each day and just realized that that's never going to happen and I'm just going to have to sit down and do the best I can! So, none of the following is in any particular order and most of it in doesn't flow together at all but here goes:
Last weekend we took the kids to the Bronx zoo again. I mentioned once before how big and beautiful and nice it is. Even one of the kids said it's like being in a zoo within a forest. (Who knew NYC had forests)?!? Unfortunately it rained on us (the weatherman said it would rain in the p.m. I didn't realize he meant anytime after noon. I thought he meant at night)so that put a damper on us. Nevertheless we persevered albeit because of the downpour we had to spend WAY too much time in the Mouse House. The kids enjoyed watching the kangaroo rat jump up and down repeatedly. I enjoyed watching it from a good distance...don't like rodents. I like them even less than visiting the Reptile House.
I've noticed that when we take the kids to all these cool places they complain a lot. Maybe I've raised homebodies because they just want to be at home all the time. Even Caleb, who needs to be busy busy busy, often complains that he wants to go home. When we were at the zoo, I was talking to Dave about how as a kid, I loved to go to the zoo. It was a special treat. I remember even enjoying it as a teenager just for something 'different' to do. Dave thinks maybe it's 'cause we (he and I) watched a LOT of t.v. as kids so when we got to go out, it was exciting. We really try to limit how much our kids watch t.v. so sometimes it seems that's all they want to do and don't appreciate when we take them somewhere. (I think; that's our current theory anyway).
Here's another analogy: I limit my kids to one treat per day. That is, one item containing sugar. Whether it's a cookie, lollipop, tootsie roll or whatever, they only get one a day. And they only get ice-cream on Sundays, unless something special is going on. Other moms here, I've noticed, give their kids whatever they want, whenever they want. I'm the ONLY mom at the public pool who brings just crackers, pretzels, and fruit for snacks. I used to not bring ANY snacks but then my kids were mooching snacks off of other moms. The other moms bring Doritos, Cheetos, Oreos, Chips Ahoy, you name it. And their kids, seriously, have unlimited access to these items.
Okay, so on Saturday, my kids were invited to a birthday party at a place called the "sportsdome". It was an all-boy sports themed birthday party where they had organized games of soccer, baseball, dodge ball, etc. Then they took a break to have pizza and ice-cream cake. So they bring out the ice-cream cake, sing happy birthday, blow out the candles, etc. While the cake is being cut up, ALL the kids (except mine) run back onto the field to play dodge ball. The cake is being served and none of the other kids WANT any. They just want to play ball and never came back to the table to eat...not even the birthday boy! EXCEPT for my kids. So there's my 3 boys sitting at this huge table scarfing down ice-cream cake because heaven knows when they're going to get any again in the future. Could be a whole week before they get ice-cream again. I asked them if they wanted to go out and play with the other kids but, no, the treat was way more important to them. (I had some myself and it was delicious)!
I told Dave, the other kids get that stuff all the time so maybe it's not such a big deal to them. I feel like by limiting them I've made them want it even more because it is "forbidden". Sigh...parenting, so so easy...
I have a new hobby. It's called tie-dyeing! When the kids had a school arts festival a few months ago, they got to make their own tie dye shirt and I brought a Zumba shirt and tie dyed it. It was fun and, I think, looks really good. I also did a bandanna and love it. I wear it in my hair every chance I get. SO, I just ordered and received all my professional tie dyeing paraphernalia and did 6 bandannas and 3 shirts this morning. They are still setting out to dry so I don't know how they came out yet. Keep your fingers crossed! If they worked great I'll post a picture so you can all be jealous of my new hobby. Maybe, just maybe, you'll get a tie dye shirt for Christmas! Lucky you!
However, here's few things I learned this morning:
1. tie-dyeing is messy
2. no matter how careful you are, tie-dyeing is messy
3. because tie-dyeing is messy and we are renting our house, I should do EVERYTHING in the backyard, far far away from the house.
4. tie-dye ink is permanent; it will NOT come out
5. when purple tie-dye ink spills ALL over your right hand, your right hand WILL be stained purple indefinitely; you cannot wash it off...especially off your fingernails
One more random thing:
I commented to the kids the other day how they are starting to make some friends here in NJ. Peter (age 5)replied, "Yeah, I've made about 50 friends already; but that's just a ballpark figure".

Guns and knives and swords, Oh My!

Last weekend we piled into the the van and headed north to the U.S. Military Academy, also known as West Point. It was about an hour drive through beautiful scenery.

Here is a brief description I borrowed from Wikipedia:
The United States Military Academy, also known as West Point, or simply USMA (or Army, for NCAA purposes), is a United States Army post and service academy. West Point was first a military post under the command of Benedict Arnold. Established in 1802, it is the oldest military academy in the United States.

After we took a tour of the grounds (the only way to get ON the grounds is via guided tour) we then checked out the museum where we viewed what is considered to be the oldest and largest diversified public collection of miltaria in the Western Hemisphere. OK, well, we ran out of time but we saw the important areas...or what I like to call "little boy heaven". I'm referring to the two galleries in the basement of the museum: the large weapons gallery and the small weapons gallery. Don't worry, the camera battery died while in the museum so you don't have to suffer through too many pictures of guns.

We had a great time and look forward to going again. Below is a link to my West Point web album if you want to see pictures with a description of our day.

July 21, 2007 WestPoint

Harry Potter...

Our Saturday started with the UPS man ringing our doorbell bright and early with a special delivery! You'll never guess what it was. I immediately read the last page, of course, then I handed it over to Dave and Sam who have been waiting anxiously for its arrival. They have been pretty good, so far, about sharing it with each other but I'll keep you posted on that as the plot thickens!
Later that evening, we all sat down as a family to watch George Burns and John Denver in the movie, "Oh, God". As we were about to watch it, the kids were asking about what movie we were watching and I told them it was a movie that I saw when I was a kid. Caleb promptly asked, "Does it have color?"

The peoples Dave sees...

Working adjacent to the TODAY show, you can imagine the variety of people Dave has the opportunity to get a look at. And NO, the Naked Cowgirl hasn't been on the TODAY show. Anyway, he usually hears people screaming hysterically and he'll think, "Either there's been a terrorist attack in Rockefeller Plaza OR Al Roker just stepped outside". Thankfully, it's always been the latter.

With the TODAY show's summer concert series in full swing, he's been privilege to Hilary Duff, KT Tunstall, America, Chicago, Bon Jovi, Rihanna, Enrique Iglesias and many more. He doesn't usually get a good luck at them since he's up on the 10th floor and has to look straight down at them, but he can usually hear them fairly clearly.

ANYWAY, two days ago, Larry (one of the head mucky-mucks at Patek Philippe) was giving a tour of the Patek Philippe service center to John Mayer. (For those of you who don't know this singer, you can either google him or just know that he's won a coupla Grammy's and was recently dating Jessica Simpson). He walked right by Dave's workshop. When Larry introduced him to Laurent (the head watchmaker and Dave's boss), John Mayer said, "Hi, I'm John" and Laurent asked in his thick French accent, "Oh, are you a watchmaker?" (Poor Laurent is always on the lookout for good watchmakers). I don't know what John's response was but I think it would be funny if he'd said, "No, I'm just a singer".

My weekend in the City, part 2

The second day of my workshop was pretty much like the first. I learned from talking to the other women there that many of them were from Bergen County, New Jersey, just like me. Unlike me, though, they all either drove in or took the ferry. Some of them even stayed overnight Saturday in a hotel. (I rode the bus in and then took the subway). I also learned that once they got into Manhattan, they took cabs! I was so surprised to find out that I was the ONLY one in the whole workshop who rides the subway! It never even occured to me to take a taxi when I could take the subway for under $2. They said they don't use the subway because a) they don't know how to navigate it and b) they're scared of scary subway people (like me, I guess)? Anyway, although I felt a little like "ghetto girl" all of a sudden, I am perfectly happy to ride the subway and have never felt unsafe...

UNTIL, after the workshop. I went to get on my subway train (the E train) only to find NO ONE else on the train, anywhere. I was completely alone. Eventually, before we left the station, a few stragglers came in but they didn't get on the car I was in. SO, I'm sitting there all alone thinking, this could be bad. Some freak could get on my car and no one would hear my screams or anything. I found myself hoping that someone would get on my car but then dreading it, too...not knowing WHO might get on with me. (Don't worry, I took a picture). Eventually, someone did get on at the next stop and luckily, he seemed relatively normal by NYC standards. I flashed my biceps a couple times to let him know I was the Shellminator and that seemed to do the trick. He didn't mess with me.

In addition to feeling frightened on the subway, I got lost! I was clearly on the E train. It said E train on the outside and on the inside of the train. However, they decided to make it an F train which goes to Queens which is completely opposite from where I needed to go to catch my bus. PLUS, the World Trade Center station where I caught the train is ONLY an E train station. NOT F, B, D, V or any other letter of the alphabet! Why they would do this, I have no idea. At least I clued in before we got to Queens. Me and a whole bunch of other people jumped off at Rockefeller Plaza, scratching our heads and very perplexed. I was able to ride back one stop but then had to sprint through Times Square to catch my bus. (No time to look for the Naked Cowboy).

July 15, 2007 Woolworth bldg. and City Hall

My weekend in the City

Ok, so I've been wanting to get certified to teach Pilates Reformer because 1) I think it would be an awesome thing to teach and is the wave of the future 2) It pays well 3) I can teach it without physically having to workout...it's more like personal training, i.e., it's something I can teach with a bum knee. However, it's hard to get certified and it's VERY expensive to get certified. There was a certification course being offered this weekend in New York City. I decided to bite the bullet (concerning the $$) but when I tried to register, it was already full and I couldn't get in. On Friday afternoon, my boss at New York Sports Club called me and said they had had a cancellation if I wanted to still join the class I could and that, by the way, it would be free! (Apparently NYSC gets one or two complimentary attendees for their employees and I lucked into one of the complimentary spots!!!)

SO, I spent 9-5 Saturday and Sunday at New York Sports Club in downtown Manhattan. I met lots of nice gals and learned a lot and had a great time...especially since it saved me about $700! It is right around the corner from the World Trade Center and nextdoor to St. Paul's Chapel. St. Paul's has been around since 1766 and is where George Washington was inaugurated in 1789.

Don't worry, I didn't take any pictures from the workshop. But I did take pictures during our lunch breaks, etc., as I explored the surrounding neighborhood. I've never spent much time at all downtown so it was fun. (For you non-Yankees, downtown refers to the southern tip of Manhattan...primarily the financial district). Here is a link to my web album to see the pictures. I captioned most of them to explain instead of writing it all here on my blog. So you'll have to click on the link to get to the web album and then click on each picture to see it better and read the caption. This link is just for the first day. I'll post the 2nd day soon. Enjoy!

July 14, 2007 St. Paul's Chapel/Ground Zero

The things Dave sees...

Dave sees a LOT of interesting things each day in NYC. He walks through Times Square twice a day which is a journey in and of itself. He often sees the Naked Cowboy who is "famous" for standing around Times Square playing his guitar and singing LOUD in nothing but hat, boots, and tighty whities...even in the winter, no matter how cold it gets. Anyway, today he saw something he hadn't seen before. It was the Naked CowGIRL. Dave said he didn't know it was legal for a woman to be in public and be that naked. He just stared and stared at her for at least 15 minutes...completely astonished by her public nudity. (KIDDING HERE)!

Apparently, in NYC it is OK. In fact, it is actually legal for women to be completely topless in NYC! There was a big hoopla awhile ago about breastfeeding in public (in NYC) and then another hoopla about women's rights being equal to men's so they finally legalized toplessness!

Here's a picture of the Naked Cowboy...if you want to see his counterpart, you'll have to google it yourself. I'm not providing a picture for you! (She averages, by the way, $300/night in tips)!

My house is a mess!

Sam woke up with a fever on Wednesday morning. He had it for 48 hrs. and now he's fine. During the summertime, the boys have an extended chore list. (They also get a larger allowance each week). However, since Sam was sick we didn't expect him to do his chores, of course. Unfortunately, that means I have to pick up his slack! I didn't realize how much I love having him empty the dishwasher, sweep the floor, etc. Now my house is a mess!
p.s. Just in case you're worried I'm running a sweat shop here, you should know that half of their chores consist of things like: read a book, do a page of math problems, work on spelling, etc.

Here's some total Momsense!

Swim! Swim! Swim!

Hey gang, here's a video (below) in case you're wondering what we're doing with our summer. Each city has a pool that you buy a season pass for...you buy a pass to the city pool that you reside in...Anyway, you can't just pay to enter each time; you HAVE to buy a season pass. It cost $200 for me and the kids (no Dave) to buy a pass to our city pool and that was, apparently CHEAP. Other cities nearby cost as much as $500 for the summer pass! Ours is the cheapest and it is a fairly nice pool. The kids have friends there from school that they enjoy spending time with and I am meeting their moms so it is good for everybody. I figured if we were going to spend that much money we would go EVERYDAY...which is fine with the kids, apparently. Plus we're getting a head start on our skin cancer...

Sam and Caleb are fairly strong swimmers but Peter was still in floaties as of last weekend. Since then, he has taught himself how to swim alone and is now fearlessly jumping into the 8 ft. deep end! I can't believe just a few days ago, literally, I was trying to get him to let go of the side wall and just try to swim to me two feet away! He catches on quick! But now instead of relaxing by the side and chatting with the other moms, I have to keep my eyes glued to Peter to make sure he doesn't die. Yesterday he followed Sam and a friend to the MIDDLE of the deep end where he finally realized he was in way over his head, literally. Luckily I was watching him closely from the side and was able to dive in and assist him before we had a code red. Hopefully that taught to be more cautious? Or maybe it just taught him to have no fear because Mom will always be watching and ready to come to his rescue???! I'm so excited for him but kinda sad that our days of orange floaties are over...
p.s. I know you are all dying to see me in a swimsuit...sorry, I am BEHIND the camera the whole time! Peter is the first one to jump in, then Caleb, then I tell Sam to dive in.

Mega Bubbles Gun

 

Peter has ALWAYS loved bubbles...I mean, what kid doesn't? But I remember buying him bubbles for birthdays and Christmases because sometimes that was all he would ask for. Bubbles just make him so happy. Anyway, he has this "Mega Bubbles Gun" that we got for him one day in Chinatown in NYC. It is battery operated and has a tiny motor that blows continuous bubbles when you pull the trigger. Anyway, I still have the packaging from it because of the interesting, cryptical instructions on the back. I am going to share them with you completely unabridged, punctuation (or lack thereof) and all:

"Behind startup the trigger, must wait for the conduit which in the squirt gun full of liquid to the head of pump, then turn the trigger out and home several times, urge the head of pump form the water membrane, namely can blow the dunk sucessful."

Now, I know you're thinking if only I could see the illustration that goes with these directions then it would all make sense. The illustrated instructions mostly consists of a drawing of a kid running around blowing bubbles. Apparently he figured out how to work the darned thing. He's probably the one who wrote them...with a little help from a Chinese/English dictionary!

July 4th...Holiday Haircuts

Happy July 5th! I thought I'd share what we did on the 4th...not too exciting but we had a good day. It started out with Caleb convincing me to watch a short video we borrowed from the library called "Scary Animals". It focuses on various creatures: bats, poison dart frogs, spiders, etc. He was convinced I was too scared to watch it since I hate spiders so he felt it was a great accomplishment to get me to sit and watch it. He would warn me when the parts with spiders were coming so I could cover my eyes.
I told him I would only watch it if, afterwards, everyone would cooperate for Holiday Haircuts. (All 3 boys desperately needed a haircut). So, after the video I cut all the boy's hair and they all showered so they could be presentable for the 4th. (?!)
After a lovely dinner full of fresh fruit which is finally in season, we took the kids to see the movie Ratatoille. It is pretty good. I don't like rats AT ALL, but these were...almost cute if you didn't think about them being vermin. Anyway, it was a very well-done movie. Peter got bored towards the end...there is a lot of dialogue and not so much action. And most of the dialogue is English spoken with a French accent so even I had to concentrate really hard to understand what they were saying. Dave is used to that everyday at work so he probably didn't even notice it!
Afterwards, we came home to enjoy our special dessert of homemade cream puffs. It had been raining off and on so we kept checking the internet website for our local fireworks to see if they were going to cancel. At one point, 8:28pm to be exact, Dave checked the website and it said that they had decided to have the fireworks whether it was raining or not...at 8:30! So we all jumped into the van. I was able to grab 2 umbrellas and 4 towels on the way out. We drove toward the fireworks, parked, and walked through the rain 'til we got to a clear spot. By clear spot I mean where we could see the fireworks, not as in it stopped raining and 'cleared up'. The fireworks were fabulous and the kids, for the most part, didn't seem to notice the rain pelting them the whole time. I wasn't particularly miserable but I did find myself sitting there making deals with God..."please let this be the last firework" "please let THIS be the last firework" "please please please make it stop raining", etc. We're all dried out now and glad we got to see them.
I have a new passion I just want to share real quick. They're called TastyKakes. If you've read the Janet Evanovich Stephanie Plum series (also another passion of mine) then you've heard of them. I think they're an East Coast item...they're just like the Hostess line of cupcakes, etc., and they're SOOO yummy. I buy them at a discount store, of course, so I can get MORE that way. I'd include a picture for you but I just ate the last one. Maybe I can find a picture online.
One more thing: my spell check is telling me that "internet" should be capitalized. Sounds like it's feeling kinda touchy about that...

Memorial Day dodgeball 2006

Memorial Day dodgeball 2006

Ok, I'm just playing with my blog features now to see if I can figure out by myself (just this one time without having to ask Steph for help) how to add video clips to my blog. I don't think I got it right, but I'm trying. After you click on it, you have to click on it again...it will be the one on the right, not the one on the left. Also, once it starts, you can make it less grainy by clicking on the upside down triangle on the lower right and selecting 'original size'. I'm sure Steph will call me later and help me fix the whole thing! Both clips were taken with our OLD digital camera so I apologize in advance for the grainy quality!
Anyway, if you WANT to watch it, it's just a video of Memorial Day in 2006. Our friends the Dahles (coming from St. Louis) and the Gibsons (Steph's family) came to stay with us for Memorial Day both years we were in Oklahoma. We had SO much fun together. This is a video of playing dodgeball on the trampoline. Not the safest activity, but fun nevertheless. It starts with me, Dave, Amber, Geoff, and poor little Sam on the trampoline. If you'll notice, us adults had no problems sacrificing the children in order to stay in the game. You'll also hear Geoff say at one point, "Doesn't anybody want to play with me?" It was hard to even stand upright on that darned trampoline if Geoff was bouncing on it. He is a heavy duty bouncer! He bounces Amber right off at one point.
Next is a clip of Geoff and Craig singing with a little bit of Dave as backup. It was taken the year before, in 2005. I wonder if I should've asked their permission before posting...

Guys singing Memorial Day 2005

Ain't I Beautiful! part 2

 

Hey gang, as I was looking for a scary picture of Steph to post on HER blog, I came across this picture of me and Peter from last Christmas. It's one of the rare times when I have a full face of makeup on and my hair is actually fixed and I think I look darn good. SO, I'm posting it to counterbalance the picture that Steph posted! (See "Ain't I beautiful" in June's posts). I forgot to tell you, also, that when Sam saw the picture that Steph posted, he asked me who it was. I told him it was ME. He didn't say, what's with the glasses, or what's with the scary eyes, he said, "What's with the hair?"