Go get'em, Tiger!

  So, we are half way across the country from our kids right now - fun on one end, gut wrenching on the other end.  They have been going to the Mayo back up day care during the day and then staying at a friends house at night (HUGE THANK YOU Summer and Paul - you guys are amazing!!).  

    The first day after their day care experience, we got a call from Sarah.  It is the call that breaks any parents heart - someone was being a bully.  Here is how it went down from Sarah's perspective:

    "Mommy, there was a mean kid in a black shirt who pushed me.  I told him to stop, but he didn't, and I told the teacher, but she didn't do anything."  Right about now, I started going through the steps that I would take to catch the next flight home to track down said mean-kid-in-the-black-shirt and turn momma bear on him, but then Sarah continued:

    "When he walked by me again, I went 'GRRRRRRR'.... just like a tiger!"   Me, "Did he push you again?"  Sarah, "No he didn't!"

    Yep, she's going to be just fine.  

Daddy's Great...

...Give's us chocolate cake!!!...

... "Well, look BEHIND you!!"

..."Uh Uh, We asked for EGGS, and MILK, and Dad made us eat this!!"

(sorry, only my family is going to get this inside joke!!)

    If you haven't heard/seen the "Bill Cosby, myself" comedy dvd/cd, then run, don't walk, to the store and get it now.  Or call me, I'll share :).  Go ahead, I'll wait...

    Got it?  Heard it?  There are few problems that can't be solved with a good dose of Cosby comedy.  It will have you laughing out loud more times then you can count (it's the good, old fashioned crude-free humor, even!!... well there is the segment on child birth, but that is actually more true then he could imagine!!).

     How did we come to have chocolate cake for breakfast, you ask?  Well, yesterday I had the proud honor of turning hmmm.... 29, ya, that's right, I'm 29... again ;).  Jerry was so cute in getting all of the kids rounded up the night before and taking them out for "mommy birthday shopping," complete with sarah's super secret mission to get the present by me and into her room without me knowing it.  (She did succeed, and when I went to look in her room, she was completely confident that I wouldn't find her hiding place... she even "didn't" tell me where it was... "Mommy, it's NOT in my backpack!!"... Jerry and I are still laughing about that one~).

     On my actual birthday, Jerry and I went to dinner, and tarried a wee bit too long because the kids were all asleep when we got home.  So this morning when we woke up, He declared it "Birthday Breakfast Morning" and we all got chocolate cake and ice cream.  Being the "do-what-I-say-not-what-I-do-Dietitian," I didn't mind one bit!!  

    Needless to say, Everyone was happy in our household this morning... and I'm now off to the gym for payback :).

    Have a great day in your neck of the woods!

Exhibit #857...

...in the case of Jen vs the Dog...

... otherwise known as, "Why I hate my dog"

     Seriously, when is the last time you actually walked over to the TV to change the channel/volume/etc??  I know, I know, I tout it all the time in my health lectures, "You know, you could burn more calories at night just by going without the remote for a while..."  But in reality, that tidbit of healthy advice fits into my "do what I say, not what I do" category.

The main benefit to walking to the TV has been that I can take a good swing at said dog on each trip.  Okay, okay before you go calling PETA (or whatever that animals rights group is...) on me,       I don't really kick my dog.  I just really, really want to sometimes!!

... P.S.  Did I mention that this is the THIRD remote the defendant has destroyed??!

A Day at the Dells

Fun in the Sun... or in the indoor water playland, anyway!!

Since our summer officially began on August 12, we decided to make up for lost swimming trips, and headed to the Dells for a weekend of fun.  If you aren't from the midwest, you may be asking yourself, "what are the Dells, and how can you make up for a whole summer of swimming there??"  

   Wisconsin Dells - strategically placed in the middle of winter tundra land (so it's no wonder that their 'busy' season is in the heart of winter!!) is an entire town FILLED with hotel after hotel that have 3-5 major water parks inside their buildings.  Ours was the Great Wolf Lodge, which had a water park about the size of 3 Seven Peaks put together.  It was massive.  It was fun.  It was TIRING!

Seth and Sarah on the big turtle

Seth 'striking a pose'

Ben was in heaven with his own slides to go down (it's not often that you see a sign that says only people under this height allowed!!)

... and they all drove home happily ever after :)  

(they didn't even budge when we put them from the car to their beds - the easiest night routine EVER!)

We're Baaaack!!

    So our internet has been down for the past few days, and can I just say, I am officially addicted.  I think I went into the shakes over not having it there right at the tip of my fingers, anytime I needed it.  I have learned that I can live without a LOT of things in life.  Internet is NOT one of those things.  It got so bad for the last few days that I seriously considered loading up all of the kids and going to the local coffee shop just to get onto their wifi connection.  If you have ever seen me in a confined public space with all four kids in tow, you KNOW how desperate I truly was that this option even looked appealing to me!

   But the tech guy came to the house (which was pretty funny, since when he got here, he called the same number I had called for tech support, and they basically walked him through step by step what they could have easily walked me through, but oh well, I got the internet back, I will not complain!!), and we are back online... and there was much rejoicing (to coin a phrase from Monty Python!!).

    We hope your summer is winding down fabulously, and that you finally get a chance to breath when school opens up once again :).

The Eagle has Landed!!!!!

   The day has come - THE TEST is over!!!!  Jerry made it back from Chicago at midnight last night, very worn out after a whole day of testing.  I absolutely don't envy him and all of the insane tidbits of information he had to digest in the past little while.  

    Now we just kickback, settle in, and wait for TEN WEEKS for the scores to be mailed to us.  (And I thought the hard part was behind us...)

     Oh, the joys of medical training just NEVER END!!!!

Freaks of Nature...

But Freaks in a GOOD way :)...

Some traits in my kids are just, well, not normal.  

Exhibit A)  Friday morning the kids are watching PBS while I am cleaning up the kitchen upstairs.  Sarah comes up the stares and says, "Mommy, I have watched too much movie.  Can I wash some windows?"  I get her the cleaning supplies, and she literally washes EVERY window on the top floor.  She even commandeered Benjamin to help out. (of course this can't have anything to do with the fact that she is trying to earn money to buy a scooter...)

Exhibit B)  I ask Seth to throw away a water bottle when we were finished drinking it.  He did, and then came back to me and asked, "But mom, shouldn't we recycle that bottle?"  To which I replied, "Yes, we probably should."  Seth, "Well, then why did you tell me to put it in the garbage?"  He ran and fetched it out of the garbage and then went out of his way to go out back and put it in the recycling bin.

Exhibit C)  I tell Sarah to put the clothes she took off in the dirty clothes hamper.  I come back a little later to take the said hamper downstairs, to see that sure enough, Sarah's dirty clothes are there, all neatly folded and placed gently in the hamper.

Seriously, where did these kids come from ?!

Fun at the Fair!

The Mayo Family Fair, that is... Fun times for all!

        To be quite honest, I wasn't that excited about going to the 'Family Fair' this year, because in years past it has been a bunch of booths with the local businesses giving coupons and trying to get their name out there, with one or two games for the kids outside with insanely long lines in the blistering heat.  Wahoo.  

     Since the other option for our Saturday was to sit at home and watch the hands tick around the clock on our ultimate countdown for boards, I loaded up the kids and we ventured out.  I do have to say, I was VERY pleasantly surprised to find the business booths gone, and replaced with a BUNCH of fun activities for the kids.  (There were so many activities, in fact, that we didn't get to them all, and Sarah let me know that fact multiple times throughout the rest of the day... "Well, mom, SOME kids got to go to ALL of the rides!!" as we were getting home... and at dinner when asked, "what were some of your favorites things?", after listing some of her favorites, "Well, mom, I would have had more to list if we could have gone on ALL of the rides, but we didn't, so I don't have very many favorites to say!"... yep, that's my 6-going-on 15 year old!)

We were eating our lunch of pizza, and without a word Benjamin suddenly drops his pizza and B-lines it across the room.  I catch up with him, to find him dancing with Elmo.  Ben's eyes were so big, I thought they were going to pop out of his head!!

Of course Sarah was in Heaven when Cinderella came around!!

This is my kind of roller coaster, one where I can stand to the side and hold Ben's hand, without feeling like I'm going to loose my own lunch being on the actual ride!!

Joshy showing off his pizza face - I couldn't hand it to him fast enough while he was in  full eating mode!

I do have to say, it was well worth juggling the 4 kids alone to get there!

Note to self:  After spending 2 1/2 hours at a fun carnival, where the kids get a big sugar and excitement overload, DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT attempt to run into Wal-Mart on the way home.  You will end up in the middle of the Saturday rush, blocking the main path of 2 way traffic up the rows as the 3 year old crumbles to the floor because you can't hold both him AND the crying baby AND push the cart AND pick out the groceries at the same time, followed by the 6 year old crumbling to the floor complaining that his legs are just 'too tired' to move more and why can't he get into the cart to be pushed by your already over-occupied arms, all the while trying to reason with your 6 going-on 15 year old daughter the logistics of why she doesn't need a treat since she has just downed a truckload of cotton candy and a snow cone on the way to the store.  

    Believe me, you can have PB&J sandwiches for Sunday dinner.  It's just NOT worth it!!

ONE day more!!!

...until I can reclaim this man from the catacombs of the outer darkness that is board study mode!!!

     Yes folks, we are officially on the 24 hour countdown, and it has come none too early.  All I can say about the past 6 months or so, is that it has been LONG and GRUELING... and I wasn't even the one doing the studying!!

    Needless to say, tomorrow can't come soon enough!! 

Back in the Saddle again... sort of...

     Yes, there really is something to the '24 hour' flu - almost as if there is a timer attached to the tiny, tear-out-your-guts viruses that makes them spontaneously combust exactly at the 24 hour mark.  wahoo.  Now I am just dealing with the lingering cold, which I will take anyday over what I was dealing with yesterday.  Fun times indeed!

     I do have to say a HUGE thank you to my dear gator-aide and saltine crackers friend and co-YW conspirator... er... I mean leader ;).  Sarah - that was so sweet of you - and you have no idea how good those cute little saltine crackers tasted!  (The kids were so enthralled by them, we have had them at every meal since!).

     And another HUGE thank you to the 'diaper fairy' for tonight.  That is so funny that I just put the last diaper on Ben, thinking, 'what am I going to do in the morning?  I guess he'll just have to suck it up - literally- and wear one of Joshie's ever dwindling pile of size 3's, when I got your call.  Truly inspired you were.  Truly yoda statement was that last sentence.  Too much star wars we have been watching.  Truly digressing I am right now...  

     I have been the huge recipient of the past couple days of the tender mercies of the Lord - and it has been in the form of some very sweet people.  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!!

An Inconvenient Truth...

Sick kids    +     healthy mom = inconvenient

Sick mom   +    Healthy kids   =   horrible

 Sick mom (as in, having to write this post from a prone position...with frequent runs to the porcelin king)      + healthy, VERY energetic kids   +  husband just 5 days away from boards, so I won't let him near our coven of germs....    = excrutiating(sp?).

..... deep thought moment... if someone has a fever, and drinks some chocolate syrup, will the nursing child get hot chocolate??

... okay, now I really need to go... after the thought of drinking syrup...

The FINAL Countdown!!!

   Okay - we are at T-minus 7 days and counting...  the dreaded BOARDS are lurking right around the corner (One week from today, to be exact!!).  What are the boards, you ask?  Well, picture the most horrific, energy sucking, husband-zombie-turning, family-stress-load-exploding, utterly loathsome abyss you can imagine, and that's basically it, in a nutshell.  (And I wonder why my family labels me the 'drama-queen??!')

   But seriously, life around here has been completely dismal, so say the least.  At this point, I really don't care how they turn out (okay, so that was a lie - I really do want him to pass... a LOT... especially since our lively hood pretty much HINGES on the outcome... and it determines whether or not the past 8 years of our lives have really meant anything in the medical world... but no stress, or anything, right?!)... I just want them OVER!!   

   It seems like the closer the date comes, the longer the days become.  We'll make it to next Monday, right??!  

   I don't think I'll have to post anything about the finishing of the actual test.  You will hear the Shouts of Joy from here...

... okay, whine officially over.  You may now return to your regularly scheduled lives :)

We are daughters of our Heavenly Father...

'Oh yes, boys and girls, it's time to dust the cobwebs off the old YM medallion and break out the personal progress... YW here I come...

Okay, so I am just a WEE bit scared over this one - the last time I was in young women, was, well, when I was actually a young woman.  Fast forward a *few* years, a husband, and 4 kids later, and wow, it's a bit more intimidating than the last time I remember...

Hey, at least we have a full year to gear up for camp :).  Let the good times roll!!

... in harmony with trying to 'identify' with the youth of today, I have *out of complete obligation of course ;), started the twilight series.  Well, I say start, but I am now into the 2nd book and absolutely hooked!!  So, I may be out of it for a while as I soar through the mayhem that is the world of vampires and warewolfs (all with good hearts, mind you!).  (Don't worry, true to my freakish-must-have-happy-endings self, I have already read the end, so I don't give myself an anerism(sp?) in the interrum :).