Elsa's Fashion Blog #6

I don't know how she does it...

For some reason, she HAD to kick off the hiking boots that went with the ensemble.

I don't know why.

After putting the big kids on the bus she had a sneaky little smile on her face and said,

"People will think I'm Carl, won't they?"

Like she was pulling the wool over everyone's eyes by wearing his clothes, they will see him not her?

Funny, beautiful, baby girl.

Now off to snuggle a sick little boy.

Elsa's Fashion Blog #5

Yup, she wore that hat

ALL

DAY

LONG.

IN PUBLIC!

Then, because all day wasn't enough- she popped it back on after bath time to sleep in.

Too bad she lost her dreadlocks after swimming all spring break in a pool and very little hair brushing...

Dreads would nicely compliment the hat.

A Paranoid Runner

I realize this is true,  but I have a little story. I ran my best time today. 5 miles in 49 minutes (hey!  it's good for me...). I think it had something to do with listening to NPR's TED talk on "The Violence Within Us."  It was all well and good until I hit a more isolated section of the loop and passed a guy who could look a little rough, with tattoos on his hands. It left me feeling paranoid. And I'm pretty paranoid anyway. When I run alone I wear my hair in a bun (I've heard that rapists look for girls with ponytails because they're easy to grab). I only run during daylight, in public areas. But that combination of listening to violence and passing someone to seemed a little rough sure made me speedy (for me). Especially not knowing if he was coming up behind me until I worked up the courage (around a good string of oncoming cars) to look behind me and see that he was no where in sight. But, those TED talks are so great! I love that it's 50 minutes of a good story, well done in the fantastic NPR style. It's thought provoking and entertaining enough to keep me moving. It's my new favorite way to run. I highly recommend it.

Fart Noises

When I came home from Arizona late last year, I had the bright idea to buy the kids a book about farts.

And yes, it makes various fart noises to supplement the story.

Here's a picture, in case you think it would be fun too...

Anyway, on the way to school Elsa hit the sound buttons repeatedly.

Fart

after

fart

after

fart

after

fart.

She only stopped when we were at the stoplight at the off ramp of Hwy 101 and Black Lake Boulevard where the same boy often sits with a sign looking for a hand out.

He looks like he really, really loves his dog.

I always notice him when I see him.

Anyway, she stopped the fart noises long enough to look up to see the homeless guy and says, "Really?!  He still doesn't have any money?!  Where does he get his clothes?  Does he take his shirt off when its hot outside?" Such a random string of questions, thoughts and observations. A teeny tiny snippet of what's going on inside that little head. But good questions. With so many homeless people around our beautiful town, where do they come from?  Are they really needy and unable to care for themselves? And how telling that my 4 year old takes it all in. Do I encourage compassion? Or do I instill the need to learn to take care of yourself, and make good choices? I try to do all three.

Smile for the Camera

Today is class picture day for 3 of my kids.

Sarina's class decided (much to her chagrin) that they should all wear something sporty.  I think she ended up looking adorable.

I've been trying to convince Carl to wear jeans and something nice to school for over a year, but his beloved teacher talked about how important it was to wear something nice to school for class picture day.

So, this morning Carl came in wearing a blue oxford shirt and jeans.

WHAT?!

Yup, it's true- I have proof.

Charlie was just happy about it all and only needed long sleeves.

Elsa pulled out her very best (in her mind) go-to outfit.

I captured it.

So, on the way to school I told them they should imagine daddy tickling them when the photographer said, "smile!"

One of them suggested, instead, that they smile like when Elsa said, "Mommy said bull****!"

Humility smacked me in the face.

But those little faces sure do sparkle when they remember their baby sister shouting profanities.

Elsa Fashion Blog #4 (?)

Another beauty.

They're endless, those combinations from her brothers' dresser.

Elsa's Fashion Blog

Here's another beauty for you.

Land of the free, camo hat, brother's basket ball shorts, and brother's socks with the heel halfway up her calf.

Pretty awesome.

Correction.

Funkin' awesome.

Don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

Each Day Can Bring A Surprise

Today, in the hustle and bustle of the first baseball games of the season, I looked up to behold this wonder of wonders...

Yes, she's wearing her brother's polo shirt, last year's baseball hat, and this year baseball pants.

BUT LOOK WHAT'S IN HER ARMS!

Yup, it's a baby doll and she asked me to play with her.

Here's a snippet of our conversation:

Me:  Are you the mama?

Elsa: No.

Me:  Are you the big sister?

Elsa:  No, I'm the big brother. Do you want to be a boy or a girl, mama?

I love that in her play she gets a choice.

It was a freezing, wet, windy day today but both boys played baseball.

Charlie wouldn't pose but I caught him lurking in the background.

I  love this sport.

It's the only one I understand.

I May Be Going Crazy

I know, I know, I say that a lot.

Today was a good illustration.

I started off the day with a "run" with my quick footed friends.  So, in reality I panted behind them for most of the 5 miles.  There are brief periods when I can hang, but it's not for long and not all too often...

That was all great, truly- I always feel so good after I've gone for a run.  I just need to do it more often.

It was a usual Monday morning, zipped to my mom's house for a quick shower, squeezed in an errand before picking up Elsa.

Two more errands on the way to a friend's house for her to play and me to hang out.

But on errand #2 I realized that my vision was like I'd just finished staring directly into the sun for too long and the blind spots wouldn't blink away.

I powered through a little more before it hit me that I was having a visual migraine.

I haven't had one of those in a good 6+ years.

My vision on my right size became completely swirly- like I was looking through a kaleidoscope.

So, I wrapped up the Safeway excursion and grabbed a coffee hoping caffeine would clear it up.

And it did.

Mostly.

At least I could see enough to get to the car and over to our friends house where I think the yummy lunch she had for us helped too.

It wasn't until after we came home that I realized that for tonight I'd booked not one but two babysitters.

Oops.

What kind of crazy lady does that?!

Me.

The good news is that out of guilt for cancelling on one I re-scheduled another night so Mark and I get a date night.

Woo hoo.

Maybe that was my subconscious way of getting a date night...

I was still feeling off tonight when I was getting ready for my meeting, so I used that garbled brain of mine and instead of picking up a protein box with my coffee like I usually do at Starbucks I went big.

In fact, I got a Big Mac,

and scarfed the whole thing down in the parking lot in probably two seconds flat.

I remember once in high school I had a male teacher who approached me laughing (in a rather mean way) because he'd watched me eat something in soc (sosh- for those of you not familiar with CHS) corner for lunch and I must have shoved it into my mouth rather quickly because he inferred that my manners were quite atrocious.  He's the same teacher who told my cheer squad my parents were divorcing before I could explain it to them{RUDE}

He would have been ROLLING to see me eat that Big Mac.

Which totally undid all the calorie burning of the 5 miles I panted behind my friends who are real runners.

Can't win them all, can you?

My Legs Are Burning Mama!

Yesterday, I'll admit- during the middle of the day-

I laid in my bed

I pulled the down comforter up really high

and I hoped that if the kids came up and down the stairs calling out my name they wouldn't notice me laying there

in my bed

so I could get a little nap in.

Then I heard poor little Elsa sound more and more frantic

saying her legs were burning.

Truthfully, it was with a little bit of reluctance that I finally got up and checked on her.

Poor thing had wet her pants because she was laughing so hard at some silly antics performed by her big brother.

She tried to take care of it herself in the downstairs powder room.

She took off her wet pants then started wiping herself down with the wipes in the bathroom.

Unfortunately, they were bleach wipes not diaper wipes.

I popped her into the bath, washed her lower half down with cera ve soap and coated her in triple paste from the waist down figuring that if that stuff worked magic on a diaper rash it had to work on bleach burns...

And I think it did.

Thank goodness I saved the big old tub of triple paste, you never know when that crazy kind of stuff might happen.