Another Month Gone

Where do they go? Only one month left of summer. That means I have to start planning J-man's birthday party. Should be low key this year since we are going to have it over labor day weekend this year. We usually go out of town for that weekend, but not this year. This year we are expecting a baby!! No not me, Christine and Ryan are due Sept 4th and I don't want to miss it! They did not find out the sex of the baby and the suspense is killing me. They don't realize that I am plotting and planning around this big date. I am planning on making some dinners for their freezer, and I can't wait to go shopping for pink or blue, cause they got enough green and yellow! Its gonna be great to snuggle up to a little baby again, but then leave and go get a full nights sleep! Is that evil of me to think that way? I owe Christine big time babysitting for all the times she watched the boys, and I am sure she is planning on cashing in!
So the birthday party this year is going to be bowling. Okay.....Mr. Gutterball can't break 100 and can barely lift a bowling ball wants to go throw gutter balls with his friends. Fine with me, I am pretty sure they serve beer, so much better for the parents. Now that bowling alley's don't totally reek of smoke they are not so bad. I wonder if they will let me bring in a cake? Just trying to keep the mess out of my house, but J-man is thinking slumber party too. Hmm. No.
Got one more camping trip planned for this weekend at Mt. Rainier. The weather is not supposed to be that great, and I am not up for camping in the rain, so might be home early. If it is nice I am excited to get that close to the mountain and get some hiking in. We are taking Yukon with us, but I am not sure how much hiking he can do, poor guy had to be helped up the stairs last night to go to bed. Bad hips suck.
In a couple of weeks I am joining my Mom for the Relay for Life for the American Cancer Association. She signed me up as a Cancer survivor, which I guess I am, but I don't like to talk about it. I have my next check on Thursday, lets hope for another cancer free visit - Woo Hoo! I will be dedicating my walk to Jan Nelson, my friend Jen's Mom, who is currently battling against ovarian cancer. Battling is the right word, she is fighting so hard and I am so inspired by her strength, and she is so supportive of Jen and an awesome Grandma even during radiation!
This morning I was up at the pool swimming with our pools masters swim program. It was my second time and I think I am going to stick with it for the rest of the summer. The coach is a friend from College and she is helping me with my strokes and pushing me to get a really good work out. J-man is impressed that I joined "a swim team" but was very disappointed to learn that we don't have meets. He can't understand why I am doing it. Oh maybe to see if I can lose 30 pounds or so? Plus I have to admit it feels great. I got into a rhythm today in the water, I need to see if I can get my kick-turn back and practice0 butterfly a lot more, it was really hard to get out of the water on that one. Maybe I should sign myself up for some lessons right along side of T-man! He is working on side breathing now, it is pretty funny to watch.
Well time to go back to the pool for water polo and swim lessons.

Diving Champs!

Well the dive season ended this weekend. J-man dove very well and took 6th place. Our whole dive team won as well, and even though we did not have the greatest weather, we still had a good time. This was his first dive. He got several 6's for it!
Goofball even during a serious event.
Look at that height!

The Haircut won

Apparently the swim cap made quite the impression, because J-man wanted his hair cut on Sunday. Then T-man was jealous that J-man got a haircut and he didn't, so on Tuesday I took him for a hair cut also. They look pretty good, huh? Minus the sharpie art on Joey that will hopefully fade away now that swim team is over!

They are boys and never stop acting like them. I started taking pictures because they were being so nice to each other and cute, but as soon as the camera comes out they start wrestling and putting bunnie ears on each other and basically just being the playful little boys that they are. Then they scream "I want to see the picture!" and then laugh and laugh at how funny the picture turns out. Thank goodness for digital, cause 9/10ths of the pictures that they ask me to take are not printable. Funny, but nothing to send on to the Grandma's. We still try to fool them that we have good little boys that never act like monkeys.

Oh yeah, and I finally figured out why they sell just pajama bottoms for boys. I can not get these boys to wear any of their pajama tops. I didn't think that it would last but it has been months. Maybe when it gets cold out again? I am currently only buying bottoms, or the ones that come with both shorts and pants with only one top, then I don't feel like I am wasting my money buying the top that just sits in the jammie drawer all lonely and unworn. Another one of those boy things.........that drive me NUTS!!!

Haircut or Swimcap?

This has been a very busy week for the J-man. He had a dive meet on Monday and luckily his uncle Burt was around to watch!

Then he had a swim meet on Tuesday, followed by another dive meet on Wednesday. Friday was 2 birthday parties and Saturday morning another swim meet!

Well J-mans hair is getting pretty long and shaggy and fried from the sun, chlorine and more sun. It has turned white also. Mom and especially Dad are not happy with the resulting crayzy hair look. I have been joking all swim season about getting him a cap and on Saturday I gave him a choice - Haircut or Swimcap. Here is the result:

Well he got a medal on Saturday and earned lots of points for his team as well as 2 improvements on freestyle and backstroke. Go J-man and the swimcap. I wonder if he would have been faster with the ears tucked in too........

Busy Mom's Tip #3

Get stuff ready for tomorrow tonight.

Last night we got home late from watching fireworks and had to put the boys right to bed. Mitch and I vegged out in front of the TV for a little bit then went to bed. I did not put the swim bag out with the towels in it or get anything ready for this morning. So what happened?? Total chaos. I had some phone calls come in and I was on the phone until the very last minute before swim practice and so we were running out the door. I felt rushed trying to find all the stuff and I was late. So I threw the kids in the car and SMASH! Out goes the little decorative fence and my van has some nice big scratches on it. Luckily the piece that fell off of the van, snapped right back on, lol. Message from above, slow down girl why didn't you get that stuff ready to go last night?

So you see, if I would have put the towels and goggles in the bag and had it by the door and ready to go, no running around like a crazy person and feeling rushed! This works for going to work too. Pack your lunch the night before, have the coffee ready to just be turned on, have your clothes picked out..... these are all great time savers in the morning. Especially for someone like me who is not a natural morning person, but rather a night owl who deals with the early risers because I only get to "enjoy" them until they are 18. And I am still holding out hope for that "someday" when they like to sleep in. A girl can dream anyway.

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a Picnic in the Park celebration in our neighborhood. There was food and games, a bounce house and Dizzy's Tumble Bus! All the neighbors were there as well as the local Fire Department. The boys got to take a turn using the fire hose to wet each other down.

We had brought Yukon down to the park with us and J-man took him into the crowd getting sprayed. We walked home with 3 dripping wet boys!

I was worried that Yukon was going to get to hot, but not after he got hosed down, that water was cold!

Busy Mom's Tip #2

Use a calendar.

I have 2. One on the fridge and one that I carry around with me. Most of the time they have the same stuff on them. The only time I have gotten in trouble with double booking is when I try to do stuff with out my calendar - gets me in trouble every time. So I keep my portable calendar and sync it up with the fridge calendar and everybody is happy.
The good part about my portable calendar is that it also has an address book in it. I have it all updated with addresses and phone numbers (home, work and cell) for all my friends and family. This will come in handy when I get my new cell phone.
Why am I getting a new cell phone? Thanks for asking. I am getting a new cell phone because some LOSER (or group of losers) decided to steal my old one out of my car last night. And the car charger. I guess I could say that it was my fault for leaving it in my car, but you know what? its not. It is MY car that was parked in MY driveway. It was MY phone with all of MY friends and family's phone numbers in it and pictures of MY kids. I paid for it, and still have to pay the monthly fee for the "service" even though I am unable to use it. And I am really pissed. Could you tell? The police officer was very nice and informed me that I was not the only victim of the "car prowler". Four other neighbors got robbed and they stole a mini-van from the house on the corner. I am lucky that they did not take the garage door opener or anything else, I think it was a grab and dash, anyway I hope they catch them.
So now I have to decide what kind of phone to get - and if I want to just pay for a new phone or have Cingular (or At&t or whoever they are now) own me and my minutes for another 2 years. Ugh. Why can't I just have my pink razor back? It was so cute and it had Ryan Shupe and the Rubberband wallpaper from when I saw them at the Tractor Tavern. And I had just paid for my Maroon 5 ringtone! Those bastards stole my new ringtone!! I had forgotten all about that - grrrr. Now I am even madder!!

Busy Mom's Tip #1

Don't just cook dinner, cook 3.



That is right, if you are going to go through all the trouble of chopping, mixing and baking, might as well triple that recipe and save some for later. Most meals will freeze well, or parts of it will, and you can eat one later on in the week and the other next week. Trust me, if you do this 2 times a week or even just on the weekends you will save time. Not just the time it takes to prep the meal, but the time it takes to decide what is for dinner.

Tonight I made Meatloaf. 3 of them. We ate one for dinner and 2 for the freezer. This same meat mixture I also rolled into meatballs, 90 of them. That is 3 more meals for us. So tonight I actually made 6 dinners with one recipe. I used 8# of hamburger, 3 cups bread crumbs, 7 eggs, 1 onion (don't tell the boys about that), 2 cans of tomato sauce and some spices. I cooked the meat loaves first and while those were in the oven I scooped out all the meatballs with a cookie scoop. Meatballs go on a cookie sheet to get flash frozen and then into ziplock freezer baggies. The meatloaves got wrapped up and stuck in the freezer after they cooled. I do this alot and have various meals and meal "parts" in my freezer for dinner with very little effort.

So this is the first tip, and a most important one that I tell my friends and family when they ask how I keep it all together. I don't think I keep it all together all that well, but I try really hard to do a few key things right and this is one of them. More to come, I promise!