On the Edge

I'm just one step away from insanity today. It's the culmination of a long string of events that have stacked one on top of another... I'm tired, I'm stressed, I'm emotionally drained.

I have re-arranged every commitment I had this week to accomodate my kids today. They each have something important for me to go to. Brayden has a Halloween Carnival at school. Ian has the school-wide BBQ lunch for students and families. Megan is performing with the High School Marching Band tonight during the Football game's Halftime show. And Taylor has the Regional Swim Competition today. Last night, I carefully planned out my schedule so that I could attend each and every one of these events. There is no flexibility in my schedule today and it's going to be tight. Very tight... but just barely do-able.

Taylor's swim meet is supposed to run from 1-3:30 p.m. After he got on the bus this morning, he sent me a text saying the meet would be over at 1 p.m.

WHAT!?!?

Seriously, I'm about ready to lose it. This is likely his last meet. It's a BIG deal. I have re-arranged my life to be there, and now they might be changing the time?

I have a flyer printed out with the schedule and contact information for the meet director that was sent home at the beginning of the week. The district is running this meet. If they variate from the schedule they have printed and advertised, and I show up to find out my son has already finished, I'm going to lose it in a big way.

So if you could, keep your fingers crossed for me today... (really it's the district athletic director you should be worried about....) I would be eternally grateful.

It's going to be a long day.

UPDATE:

So, apparantly, I was confused about which Regional Conference we belong to. Thank goodness I had the thought to check that before sending a blasting email to the district athletic director. Because of this confusion, I missed Taylor's events, but he called me and filled me in on his times. He swam the 200 in 2:12 and the 500 in 6:09. The 500 time is his personal best. He doesn't know if he will move up to the finals tomorrow. I really hope he makes it in one of them since I missed it today. We'll see...

On a more negative note, while trying to drive my beast of a truck into the city parking garage to attend Brayden's preschool carnival, I scuffed the front passenger bumper on the brick wall. If you know my hubby, you are cringing right now in a big way. Don't worry, I already fessed up, and even took a picture of the damage and sent it to his phone.

On a more positive note, I think this day may have hit rock bottom. It can only get better from here, right? Do you ever have a day where you wish you could go back to bed and hit the reset button?

For the Love of Four Year Olds

A couple of funny exchanges Brayden and I have had over the last day or two:

Yesterday morning, we are on the couch cuddling under a blanket. I said, "Wow... Brayden you have dragon breath!"

Brayden just stares at me thoughtfully as if he's trying to decide if this is a good or a bad thing. Then in slow motion, he leans in really close to me and opens his mouth ever so slowly and begins to exhale like when you are fogging up a mirror with your own breath, " H-H-H-A-A-A-A-A-A"... right in my face.

Then he just smiles... Mission Accomplished.

Earlier this morning, we are still debating what costume he will wear to preschool today. It's two days before Halloween, but this kid gets to dress up today, tomorrow and Saturday. I don't care what he picks (even if it's a different outfit each time,) but it must be something we already have. For him, being the last of 4 kids, there are plenty of choices.

Me: So are you going to wear the Knight costume to school today?

Brayden: No, I'm going to be a ninja.

M: We don't have a ninja.

B: NNNOOO, a ninja clone.

M: We don't have a ninja clone either.

B: You can make one for me.

M: Why don't you make it?

B: Well, that would be HARD!

And just a minute ago, Brayden was watching me play Bejeweled Blitz on Facebook. He says, "mom, I want to play on the computer." I reply with my standard stall tactic, "you have to take a bath before you can play on the computer." He runs off into the bathroom and I hear the sink running. He runs back, triumphant, and says, "Mom, I made my hair flat, so I can play on the computer now!" Nice try, little man, nice try.

Inspiration

My blog is my internet home page. I see it several times a day when I log onto the internet. And yet, here it has been for a week and I still don't have a concrete thing to blog about.

I could do a "brag " post about my freshman son going to Regionals for Swimming. Of course, he isn't likely to make it past that point. The competition is fierce!

I could do a "stressed out" post about the 24 hour period a few days ago in which Eric and I were more than 50% sure he was going to be laid off in a couple weeks. (False Alarm, we are safe... for now.)

I could do a "parent of the year" post because given the amount of video games my kids have been playing lately, I'm guaranteed to be voted out of that competition.

I could do a "frustrated" post about all the drama and what-not of daily life.

I could do a "project" post and show you a tablecloth project I've been working on. I came up with the idea 6 weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to working on it.

I could do a "complaining" post about how tired I feel all the time and how poorly I've been managing my time. And how I NEVER get enough sleep!

I could do a "gratitude" post because after more than a year of having broken gears on my bike, Eric got them repaired on Saturday! Thank you Sweetie!

I could do a "life's not fair" post and go into detail about all completely unfair situations of life.

I could do a "wish list" post since my birthday is coming up, but I don't even know what I want. World Peace?

In the end, I won't do any of these and just wait for the perfect blogging opportunity to come. For me, I find that blogging is "feast or famine"... just got to wait for the right inspiration to come my way!

The Grass is Always Greener...

The kids have had two full weeks off school. Yesterday and today are also vacation for the kids while teachers go back for inservice. Tomorrow will be our first day back. I've decided that 2 weeks is perfect. 14 days is too much!

Here's a few reasons as to why it would have been better for school to start on Monday:

If I have to watch one more cheesey Scooby-Doo movie, I'm going to lose it.

I think we've seen every SpongeBob episode ever made in the last two weeks, and some of them twice.

Arguments and meltdowns over whose turn it is to control the TV/XBOX have been happening hourly.

The last few days it's been too hot to play outside. And the pool has been too cold to swim in.

I was actually starting to like my get up at 6 a.m. routine. Now I have to start all over again getting used to it.

Decisions on what to be for Halloween are still going on. Even though I've been firm in my commitment to NOT buy anything new for costumes. We are going green this year and re-using stuff we already have. (Sounds noble, but it's just code for "mom is lazy and cheap".)

I have less than 3 weeks left to train for the Desert Grande Triathlon. It's so much harder to get my sorry butt to the gym when everyone is laying around in pj's watching cartoons. I just want to be lazy too.... (and I have been, much more than I should have!)

My house looks like a tornado has whipped through. And no matter how much we clean it up, it looks like this again in less than a couple hours. Even teenagers make their fair share of messes... especially in the kitchen, since they know how to cook too!

So, tomorrow, the grind begins again. Homework, cub scouts, commitments and meetings. I know within 2 weeks, I'll be counting down the minutes to Christmas Vacation. But I am tired of being lazy... who knew that could happen? I will likely be absent in blogland for the next few days. If I'm not cleaning my house from top to bottom, I'll be sneaking time to read Dan Brown's latest novel.... when I'm not at the gym, of course!

R & R?

I was kidding myself if I thought a trip to the Grand Canyon with a 4 year old boy would consist of Rest or Relaxation. But we love camping, so it's always worth it!

Weather wise, it was cold, overcast and windy quite often. No rain or snow, but lots of clouds. Doesn't exactly make for good scenery shots... It seemed like the clouds really muted the gorgeous colors of the canyon. I did get a couple that I like, but no sunset photos. What a bummer!

I did take lots of people shots and animals... oh, the animals. Of course, you have to be quick to get the animals, so they aren't the greatest photos, but we saw a ton of wildlife! And the kid shots... well, just keep in mind that everyone is wearing camping clothes. Which as you know, often are worn out and mismatched. If I had known I was going to be pointing my camera so much at the kids this trip, I would have been more discriminate in their clothing choices! (And even though I can't seem to find a single picture where Ian isn't scowling, he really did have fun!) Here are some random highlights and pictures I liked from the trip:

Fall Colors... only yellow, but still - proof of fall! Yeah!

Here is one of the two canyon shots I am happy with. The clouds are probably the most interesting part!

This tree kept all the kids entertained for about 30 minutes... and better yet, it was 15-20 feet from the edge. We could actually look over the edge and enjoy the scenery for a few minutes without worrying about a certain someone falling off the edge!

A half smile, but not the real deal:

This is a great shot of Taylor... don't get a lot of genuine smiles out of him for the camera much anymore either!

I just love the pose Brayden is making in this one... He often says, "I'm King of the World!"My girlie girl... she lived with this beanie hat on the entire trip!Squeezed together on the shuttle bus. It was way more crowded this year in October than it was 3 years ago when we visited with Jeff and Molly's family.This is the other canyon shot I like. One of these trips, I'm going to have to get some sunrise photos. That means getting up and hiking to the canyon edge before the sun comes up. Hmmm... maybe not...
The kids with Grandma and Grandpa... waiting to see if the sunset will be worthwhile. It was a dud!

A perfect tree for lots of kids to hang out in. Darn you Ian... can't you give me one smile?

Highlight for the boys... roasting marshmallows for smores.

This is my favorite photo from the whole trip and it took me about 10 tries and 3 different camera settings to get it. Plus the looks on their faces is priceless!

R & R

In just a few minutes, I'll be on my way with the four kids on a little mini-vacation to this world famous National Park that is only 4.5 hours drive away from my AZ home. We will be meeting up with my parents to visit the park. My dad has never been to Grand Canyon. My mom has only been once, when she was a young girl. This is our 3rd visit... so we get to play "tour guide".

Sleeping bags, check.

Beanies, gloves and hoodies, check.

Food, Smores, Hot Chocolate, check.

Diet Coke, check.

Should be covered! Can't wait to see the sunset again and get some more cool pictures like these.

See you in a few days!

Aren't computerized stickie notes so fun?

Can you think of a more fun way to write random bits of nothing?

I learned the stickie note trick from this wonderful blogger. (No, I don't know her, but I stalk her blog on a regular basis... check it out, I think you'll love it too!) Here is the website where you can go to make your own! Enjoy and have fun with it!

You know it's Autumn in Phoenix when...

I took this photo last November on a trip up to the Mountains:

I used the title Autumn instead of Fall because it's possible that many of you think Phoenix doesn't have the season Fall.

When I first moved here, I didn't think Phoenix had Fall either. When it can still hit 90's in November, that hardly feels Autumn-ish.

Now that I've been in Phoenix for 5 Summers, (that's how I mark my time in the Grand Canyon State.... by the number of Summers we have survived), I've come to realize the subtle nuance's of my favorite season, even here, in the desert.

Don't get me wrong, it will never be like places where the trees turn yellow and the the nights are cold. But for Phoenix, Fall does exist. Here are some of the cues I've noticed that signals Summer 2009 is finally and officially OVER!

*At 9 p.m., it's equal temps inside and out. Last night it was 82 degrees inside my house and a quick check at weather.com told me it was also 82 degrees outside. But, the outside actually FELT like 80 degrees. So, at that point, I gave the green light to open up all the windows!

*It's below 70 degrees in the morning when I'm driving Taylor to school at 6:15. Waking up to a cool (not cold, mind you) morning feels so refreshing after 4 months of 24 hour heat.

*You know Fall is here when you can complete your entire Tooth Brushing ritual and not have your tap water get warm. (Warm tap water in the Summer is one of my biggest pet peeves about being down here!)

*The bushes are in full bloom. My plants are also rejoicing at the break in the heat and I was able to cut back my watering on the plants, trees and the lawn!

*My alarm goes off at 6:00 a.m. to take Taylor to school. In the summer, the sun comes up before 5 a.m., so there's no watching the sunrise. I've actually seen several beautiful sunrises in the last two weeks while I'm on driving duty (and I've been driving with the windows down and loving every minute of it!)

*This morning, I came home from school drop-off and opened every window I could, and started taking down what was left of my "black-out" shades in the windows. We have officially been "de-caved". (I just made that word up!)

*And last but not least, I can wear my hair down all day without feeling like I'm going to suffocate, pass out, or melt. (Yes, I still get sweaty in the afternoon... but any small improvement is a good thing, right?)

Today I'm going to celebrate Autumn by putting up my Halloween decorations. The 10 day forecast for the next 10 days is looking pretty amazing, so I'm going to soak up every ounce of it!