Like the old television show claimed kids REALLY do say the darndest things. Ian recently asked me "why was I born so cute?" and Amanda never fails to disappoint with something subtle, witty, and clever.

However, it's ME who recently said something that I would never have imagined I would need to say..........
"Ian what did you do with my bra?" (mind you he was happily running around with it on moments before, but still)

I haven't done one of these in a while, but I thought I would toss one out today.

I LOVE the sound of rain (especially since we get so little)
I LOVE the quiet of our home when the kids are at school
I LOVE when I pre-plan dinner
I LOVE when I feel like I have my act together.

What do you LOVE about your day?

Cue music --Sheila E, Glamorous Life........

BUSY laundry day --- I got everything DONE. All hampers are empty and both of the boys have fresh bedding. Everything is washed, folded, and 85% put away. (that nagging hang-up part) This is a huge accomplishment for me, so flip me a fish. AND I got two Days of our Lives episodes, one Grey's Anatomy, and almost one Private Practice off the DVR. So I really feel like I accomplished something.

After church, I picked up some Chinese food. And now that the kids are in bed, I'm going to watch a movie and scrapbook. Good times. It's like our quiet Fri/Sat. evenings of old when the kids were toddlers. Collin even went and grabbed Starbucks too. Life is good.

Funniest part of the day by far.......Sean was making his way around the table eating random Chinese off the other kids plates after they had left the table. Dh and I were still sitting there talking. Sean pipes up with "I'm like that chess guy who goes around the table beating people at chess....except I go around and eat off everyone's plates." Ooooookkkkk, son. I ask "Bobby Fisher?" He says "yes, I'm the Bobby Fisher of Chinese food" LOL, Whatever. I guess he really enjoyed the new pork dish we chose. All 72 rock solid pounds of him.

Maybe the sun will come out Tomorrow and it won't be 80 degrees outside.

It's a Hard Knock Life being a Mom of four and raising two Little Girls and two little boys. Definitely not Easy Street.

Maybe someday I'll get to NYC and I'll say to myself I Think I'm Gonna Like It Here

But in the meantime, it's ALL Annie all the time. With some basketball thrown in; heading straight toward baseball season.

FAVORITE THING FRIDAY
This is the COOLEST book out there and it truly is invaluable. So imagine my surprise when the book arrived in my mailbox as a surprise gift from my mother-in-law. She's a gem and knows how much I love Eat This, Not That (the fast food version).

I truly do my best to provide healthy options for my kids. I already buy whole wheat bread, brown rice, and whole wheat pasta. I read labels and spend time picking the best options. But his book breaks everything down easily and keeps it real.

For example: Sweet Cereals
EAT Apple Jacks, Not Apple Cinn. Cheerios, who knew?
EAT Fro. Flakes Gold, Not Post Golden Crisp
They are basically saying 'Hey, we know your kids want this stuff so here is the better choice.'

It compares random things and tosses out surprises all the time. It recommends Nature's Own Whitewheat bread. Again, who knew? I've always skipped the 'whitewheat' stuff but this could be a great option as a chance-of-pace selection for the kiddos.
Ragu vs. Prego --- "Ragu wins over Prego in nearly every matchup". Even Hamburger Helper has a page (um, no thanks!)

I think everyone can benefit from this book. Everyone. The kids have even been scouring the pages and telling me that Funyuns & SunChips are on the Eat This page for corn chips.

It's tough b/c I am a sale and coupon shopper, but at least I know what I really want to stock up on when I can.

Now I'm going to eat some leftover See's candy while the kids are at school.

DEEP BREATH

That's what I took this morning. After dropping all the kids off at school(s), I grabbed Eclipse and headed to Starbucks with my gift card. Grabbed a cup o' joe and an apricot/blueberry muffin and sat in the warm while I read, in peace. No one talking to me. No one asking me for a snack. No one I had to share my muffin with.

And then I felt guilty.

WHY?????????

Why do Moms do this to themselves? After getting through a few pages of the book, I found myself getting distracted by the laundry sitting waiting to be folded, the bills I need to pay, and figuring out how is it that EVERY Starbucks has a line when we are supposed to be in a recession..........yes, I probably have ADD, but who doesn't these days. WHY can't I just enjoy this short time? I thought about the women who work away from their homes full-time and get it all done. I thought about Jen and her fearsome foursome and how she GETS it done.

I sat for an hour. Got 35 pages read. Called it good and came home to jump back into life. Break over, but I still feel guilty.

All's quiet on the western front......
Kids are in school; car is at the shop; working on packing up decorations/filling in the calendar/laundry/typical Mom stuff.

But I wanted to share my reading list for the year (as many people are). Amy linked me up to The Library Thing and it's really easy. I'm just going to log in my reading as I go and I hope to surpass my reading for 2008. Hey, I read ten books (not including the numerous selections for the kiddos) and that is a HUGE accomplishment for someone who never read for pleasure. I'm getting there..........my '08 shelf

(that's supposed to be a picture of the covers from '08 but I can't link it correctly, grrrrr)

It all started on a normal day in sunny Arizona. I was packing the car in my pajamas while the kids ate breakfast and played. After a bit of time, I realized I hadn't seen my dog in a while. He had been outside with the kids and they didn't realize it. P.A.N.I.C. I'm 370 miles from home in a strange neighborhood to him. I jump in my car and start scanning the streets (thank goodness for the grid-like configurations). Oh my gosh!!!!! I would drive up to a street and stop to call him while looking right and left. I noticed a truck coming toward me and lo and behold the guy had Fritz hanging out his passenger window and he was out looking for his owner. I immediately asked him 'did you find that dog on the street?' and he said 'yes - he had called my home number on his tag and was searching for me once he realized I was from out of town'. I burst into tears. And Fritz was pretty much glued to my side for the rest of the day.

Moving on.......deep breath.....we hit the road heading toward 29 Palms to stop and visit some friends before trekking all the way home. What's that? I'm going 98MPH; um, NO...I'm going with the flow of traffic. Oh great, my speedometer is on the blink. @@ Lucky I have a full tank of gas and a trip counter. We arrived at our friend's home five hours later. I really need my speedometer; I'm afraid to go fast w/o it.

So we are watching the kids play RockBand and just hanging out. Out of nowhere, Amanda makes a mad dash for the bathroom. Oh freaking no! You guessed it - puking. Another one bites the dust. WHY(*?>(% wasn't I wise enough to just go home? Why was I stupid enough to think after two days post-Ian-illness we were fine? I immediately put a halt to staying for dinner and sent the kids looking for their shoes while I cleaned & Lysoled the bathroom. I am a terrible friend; I feel so bad. With a nice yellow bucket & plastic grocery bags for lining. I started the mad dash for home. 100 miles.

Poor Amanda -- we weren't even to the main road and she was grabbing the bucket. Sigh. Before we got down the hill to the interstate.....I had to stop and ask for more grocery bags from a random store in the middle of nowhere. On or around puke #5 for Amanda, Maggie chimes in with 'why aren't we home yet?' immediately followed by 'OMG, I'm going to throw up'...........I kid you not. I'm completely serious. Amanda managed to swing the bucket back to her with little mess. I'm still 45 miles from home at this point. The boys are both asleep. I will never get home at this rate. [Fingers crossed that Maggie is just nauseous from listening to Amanda.]

With a wonky speedometer that does not work AT ALL at this point (unless I'm going so fast that it doesn't even register) and running low on plastic bags, I'm simply frantic to get home. Amanda lurches once again and I immediately roll down the back passenger window in an effort to get air and noise into the car so no one else will gag from Amanda. The freezing blast of air wakes the boys -- I think I heard Sean mutter 'what the hell Mom, close the window?' but I was to worried about Maggie starting up again to really comprehend it all. Seriously, the poor child is dry-heaving at this point so I do not even pull over to change liner & toss the precious bag.

2-1/2 hours later we arrived home. Home-Sweet-Home. Amanda stepped in the door bucket in hand and started up again. Maggie held out until she had some 7-up and then decided to join Amanda.

BUT - I will be thankful for something:
1) no traffic jams
2) plastic grocery bags
3) hand sanitizer
4) a hot shower
5) my own bed (while dh sleeps downstairs on puke patrol)

Cue Twilight Zone music...........