Let It Go!

It seems that everyone in the world (or maybe just those who have small Frozen-obsessed children) is tired of hearing "Let It Go", right? I am. We have to listen to it in the car, in the house, all the time. I even find myself singing it as I do laundry, etc. My girls belt it out a capella at random. And at the risk of sounding really corny, the song truly has the right idea. Just let it go. Whatever 'it' may be, sometimes you need to just 'let it go'. Today was the perfect example of this. An epically bad day. And I mean EPIC. Tears, tears, tears, screaming, screaming, screaming (from both adult and youth females in the house), power struggle after power struggle. I honestly cannot think of an uglier mothering day, and very few days where I felt my kids were so beyond reason. I was feeling even worse that my own mother was present to witness all this ugliness. It just didn't seem that there was any way to salvage the day. So, instead of fighting 'it' (the kids, the to do lists, the expectations, the stress, what have you), I just decided to let it go.....and we rolled out the red carpet (read Jayhawk blankets that we turned over to the red side), gussied up our hair to our 2 and 5 year old likings (meaning not how I would like it), and put on our Sunday best (meaning random items out of the dress-up box) for a one of a kind fashion show. I was the photographer (and I snapped 1,022 photos--don't worry, only about 100 are worth keeping. I have about a 10% chance of taking a good picture with one click) and I chose musical selections that seemed to really inspire my little divas (most notably, the ever appropriate "Welcome To The Jungle", "Roar", and "Girl On Fire"). After an hour of giggles and performing, this awful day seemed somehow full of a bit of joy. We capped it off with a pasta and wine (grown up girls only, of course) dinner, and then we all took our estrogen to our respective rooms and went to bed early. Tomorrow is another day, girls.

A-tti-tude

She has the best facial expressions.

For real.

She has the head tilt down that's for sure

Oh, Adrienne

Some sort of interpretive dance. Totally into it.

She actually was singing "Let It Go" here. It was the encore number of the show

Serious about her role as Elsa. Doesn't this kid's mother know how to schedule a haircut???

And, as usual...not so serious

Basking in the limelight

Somebody's looking pretty grown-up.

Sandy Eggo

Thanks to my mom, I was able to run away with Matt for a few days as I tagged along to a conference he attended in San Diego. This was the first time I have left the girls and not really worried about them. They sleep all night, are potty trained, can tell you what they want/need, and they just love to play. I dare NOT say they are easy (because they are not), but they are at a really fun age for some special girl time with Grammy. Every text I received mentioned something about a craft. They crafted and crafted, and crafted some more. Thank goodness they had someone besides their craft-less mom to craft with them (my idea of a craft is a coloring book and washable crayons). I came home to rock pets, butterfly window decals, painted magnets, and more. Go, Grams! Girls, quickly lower your crafting expectations.

So, San Diego. Perfect, perfect weather. Sunshine that fed my winter-distressed soul. Time alone with my husband to wander, explore, and chat. Lengthy breakfasts, walks, and shopping with a dear friend and mentor (while said husband was at the conference). One too many freshly squeezed salty dogs in the spot they originated. The best dessert ever in the form of a lemon tart with brulee topping at a darling French bistro. A zucchini and cactus taco that rocked my world. Tan lines on my feet from my TOMS. All good stuff. I brought my camera, but never pulled it out of my bag. A few highlights from the pics off my phone...

The reported best spot for fish tacos just happened to be right outside our hotel room window. Score.

Darn salty dogs. Old people acting a little bit silly.

Another old people selfie

Are Californians experts on this topic?

This sweet old man made some beautiful signs of my girls' names...see below

Also out the room window: San Diego convention center, the bay, and Coronado.

For Jillian. These writings are on silk and need to be matted and framed.

For A

My chariot, er surrey, awaits. 

Driving the surrey around Coronado. If I look scared it's because my husband tried to crash us into the rocks.

OK maybe not completely scared.

Excuse me, sir, but don't you know it's not safe to text and drive?!?

My handsome and unusually relaxed lunch date. The spot for the zucchini/cactus taco. I loved everything about this restaurant and this moment in time. 

Walking towards the USS Midway Museum. I gotta admit, I wasn't super thrilled about this suggestion, but went along with it. What an awesome experience to explore this ship. We learned a ton, and I have a new respect for all our military does to keep our country safe.

Maverick wanna be

I could not get over the size of the mixer in the galley. That and the laundry room. Unreal.

Carnival-Crazed

We survived the school carnival last night (barely). Matt and I are always amazed at what awesome turnouts family events in this community have. Everyone is always happy to have something to do with the kids, especially in winter. This was Adrienne's first time at something like this, and she was like an uncaged wild animal discovering the new realm of fun for "big kids". We started with the bounce house (mom cringes)

Of course she was wearing a tutu. I wish I would have videoed the sound of her giggling with joy

Next we went to "fish". The fish was a craft where you have to scratch off the black to reveal some beautiful colors.

The obstacle course room

We made our own crowns

Visited the duck pond

Made bracelets

Played in all sorts of fun stuff in the sensory room. The favorite was the lime jello.

We capped off the night with some cotton candy

Sugar high. I took no pictures of the cupcake tasting (because it was a wild experience of chaos and mess), nor the balloon animals. 

Some Weeks

Some weeks are so ridiculous one just has to laugh. This was one of those for me. They say things happen in threes (where did that idea come from anyway?) and my string of three began Sunday night at 9:30 when I went upstairs to figure out why I could still hear Adrienne banging around her room over 2 hours after we had put her to bed. I could hear her jumping and playing and babbling through the monitor, but she wasn't talking about anything in particular or alerting me to any needs, so I just let it go. That was a bummer. I opened her door to find her naked, poop covering her hands, poop on the walls, poop smeared on her book, poop INSIDE the drawers under her window seat, poop INSIDE a bag on her floor. It was everywhere. Let's just say that 5 days later, I am still finding smears of poop I didn't see. It was U-GLY. You can bet I raised my voice. You can bet I was pretty upset. You can bet I woke my sleeping husband to come HELP ME navigate this situation. So, while I cleaned, changed bedding, etc. he bathed our little stinker, put her in some clean jammies, and then took her down to our bed to lay with him while I worked (that sounded a bit too rewarding to her in my opinion, but this wasn't the time for parenting squabbles). Matt told me he thought that perhaps she had an accident thought we'd be upset, and then literally tried to hide the evidence for fear she'd be in trouble. I tend to be a little suspicious about that, but decided to go with that and offer some grace and repaired the damage of my frustrations the next day. I am flabbergasted about this since she has been doing so well and hasn't done any of these shenanigans in months. Forgive me, Adrienne, for not remaining on my toes! The funny part about this little ditty is that Matt told me that while they were laying in bed waiting for me to change her sheets, she looked at him and said, "My mommy is angry at me.......but my daddy is not angry at me" with a coy little grin. Work it, girl.

The next day, I was feeling tired and frustrated with the winter, the poop clean up I still had to do (carpet stuff) and decided to just run the groceries home before we went back into town to get Jillian for school. Adrienne usually sleeps in the car during this time (and I sit and read or do my Bible study), but for some reason the idea of unloading groceries, cleaning carpets, and managing all the after school/dinner chaos on this day just seemed like too much. Unloading groceries while one child slept in the car and the other was at school sounded much better. That decision was another bummer. I was almost home when I met a car on 85th street and got over to the side (with all the snow, it's tough to tell where the road ends and shoulder begins on these country roads, so we usually just drive down the middle) as we passed. I apparently got over too far, and the snow just pulled me in. I bounced around feeling like we were careening toward a ditch/fence and would surely flip. I struggled to just hold the wheel steady and slowly break. Suddenly we were out of the snow and stopped on the road, no harm done. I sat for a minute until my legs stopped shaking and then continued the remaining 1/4 mile home, feeling super lucky and blessed that we were OK. And then I pulled in the garage and thought that I should probably check to make sure the car was OK. Well, it wasn't.

After some duct tape repair, she is good to drive until the new fender arrives for replacement on April 2nd. Keeping it classy over here. 

On the right you will see the nice groove my car made when we "fell in"

And then, Monday night I got out of the shower and thought I had a little rash on my hips but blew it off as having the water too hot or something. I woke up Tuesday morning and realized it wasn't just a little rash. It was red, non-blanching, and all over.

Bummer number three

After watching it for a couple days I went in yesterday and was diagnosed with a case of "full body hives of unknown origin". Awesome. I'm on day two of a 5 day course of prednisone, which equals crazy hyper-shaky from the side effects of oral steroids. Giddy up.

We are capping off the week with a trip to the school carnival tonight. Dirty bounce houses full of screaming kids and too much cotton candy just might push me over the edge.....