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seriously - I'm going to be blogging soon... really, I have some great ideas... just no TIME! As in NO time... as in I should currently be making birthday party invitations for my soon to be 10 year old and his rockin' party which I have yet to plan... I should be delivering a card to a neighbor that I still haven't finished... and I should be... well, let's be honest - my life is CHOCK FULL of "should be" and "ought to"s...

for today - let's just offer a Happy Birthday to my morning therapy walking partner and you'll just have to trust that some future hilarity is coming. Not only does she help keep me sane and not judge when I want to kill a certain kitty - she is a faithful blog reader that actually knows me in real life and STILL thinks I'm funny

I'll tell you about the Kitty later. Really - I even made notes for what to blog about today (including the kitty story) while I should have been doing something else...

Anyone have a great idea for a birthday party invite?

standard of living... and eating... and cleaning...

it's been one C-R-A-Z-Y week. I've gotten a lot done, the kids have all had a good week in school. They've only missed the bus ONCE (luckily on the day I'd scheduled myself to be home at that point!).

So here's the thing... Man Of The House is camping. He left Thursday. We ate frozen pizzas for dinner Thursday night. Frozen individual pizzas which were purchased specifically for hungry teenagers who come home from school when they've refused to pack a lunch (not cool) or eat the school food (not appealing). I ran to the store today and bought replacements. I also bought generic PopTarts... a dollar a box - usually PopTarts are a vacation luxury, but a dollar a box? yep, I gave in and the kids have already cracked open a box... following April's suggestion they also had some fruit and milk... and one of them had a bowl of cereal...

Lazy Dinners? How often are they acceptable? Daily? (please just say yes) I was chatting (in real life guys - my internet at work is out... it's killing me AND making me a little less dependent) with a friend who says that as long as the BRAND of pizza isn't the same there's no problem with serving pizza repeatedly during one week. I'm personally TOTALLY on board with this - of course... notice I don't pull the Uber-Lazy Dinner nights unless M.O.T.H. is out of town... :)

I can do anything better than you...

hey, don't take offense, I'm just quoting my favorite "Annie Get Your Gun" song... (whoa, two posts involving Annie in one week... weird...)

We went and saw that musical this afternoon and it was every bit as fun as I remember from 20+ years ago when I last saw it and some of the innuendo went flying WAY over my head. Gave me hope for all those little children whose parents had dragged them along to the show!

So now I can't sleep because I've got "there's no business like show business" and "You can't get a man with a gun" running around in my head.

But seriously... you GOTTA love the classic "I can do anything better than you"... it reminds me of the old days watching Sesame Street when they'd play that cute little "Everyone Makes Mistakes" song... and my sister and I would re-write the lyrics a tad bit...

"If you make a mistake while counting up to ten... well, you're a dork so go away and don't bug me again... Big people, small people, matter of fact ALL people, everyone makes mistakes except for meeeeee"

and yes, I do realize that the "me" didn't work when it was "us" singing it... so sue me, we made a mistake...

with apologies to Annie

My CPR certification expired awhile back... hmmm... yep, that's absolutely true as long as by "awhile" you're willing to think in terms of 8 years and not... say... 8 weeks...

Before this I had stayed currently certified and frequently took classes well before the expiration of my prior card - just because it was convenient... So I noticed a few changes over the years... # of breaths per # of compressions has changed, changed again, and is now MUCH easier to remember (and BONUS - I no longer have to ask my unconscious victim how old they are!)

Did you know that the dummies are SO much easier to use these days???? Seriously... SO much easier! (hmmm... maybe it's because I find myself more at ease with dummies these days Crash?) No, but really - the process just felt faster and cleaner! We didn't have to keep passing the dummy around and wiping it down - we each had one!

I still felt stupid asking a Dummy if they were okay... and asking an invisible bystander to run and call 911 (and request that they also get and AED - yes I DID remember) - but at least I no longer had to say "annie, annie, are you alright?" Of course, the one thing that hasn't changed... my poor little hands are bruised from doing hundreds of compressions - which if I'd saved someone's life wouldn't bother me in the least - I think.

The highlight of my day?

My test - they were giving each of us a scenario (darkened street - downed bicyclist - what do you do?) to re-enact... but when I come up they tell me that I'm in the school district offices (big stretch, I was...) and I walk into this very room (seriously guys - I'm an actress, give me SOMETHING to work with!) and find MAX (who is our school superintendent) laying on the floor non-responsive. Seriously? I know this guy - I don't want to be envisioning myself giving him mouth to mouth next time I run into him in the halls... this is potentially problematic!!! But rest assured - I passed... even though I neglected to tear the invisible clothing off of Max... somehow, I think my subconscious wasn't going to allow me to do THAT!

Gotta love being prepared for the worst - it really does create lots of fun...

OH! and just so you all know - if any of you plan on collapsing where I'm the first responder, could you please lay down on a bench... my knees are killing me...

Juggling

this morning as I limped along on my morning walk we were talking about juggling. and yes, I really was limping - probably shouldn't have walked on that darn ankle, but I NEED the therapeutic conversation more than I need to walk the rest of the day right?

anyway - like I said, we were talking about juggling... and having actually learned HOW to juggle back in the college days (can't do it now - don't ask) the analogy was hitting home when we were discussing how we juggle all the things in our lives...

The honest truth? Some days I grab the little juggle-balls labeled "family" and "sanity" and hold on for dear life.

Seriously - if the ones labeled "work", "exercise" and I'm ashamed to say "blogging" get dropped on the floor, they'll still be there when I get back around to them won't they? Shoot - the "exercise" one will be even bigger and squishier and thus easier to juggle right????

See, I can manage - you just may never KNOW that I manage because the "blogging" ball was dropped that day...

unless... my OTHER juggling strategy gets put into play - in which case you'll see me on the 5 o-clock news with the teaser line "local Mom throws juggling balls at students, children, teachers, and anyone else who dares to think she should take any responsibility for anything other than her own nailpolish"

one old dog...

so here I am - taking a break from my efforts to learn MovieMaker and PhotoShop today... yep, Today... I don't see why I shouldn't be able to master 2 new programs in one day - some may call it insanity - but for the purpose of today's "discussion" let's go with the friendlier and less psycho term Determination.

I need to learn these... I need to use them in my work... so why are they so danged HARD? I know, I know... .they're probably not hard, I'm probably just hung up on why MovieMaker isn't more like iMovie... and PhotoShop should certainly be more like what I'm used to... scissors, crayons, and my endless artsy skillz.

I had to laugh when one of the people helping me taught me the "old school" way of doing something... "old school"? shoot, Old Schools didn't HAVE computers people!!!

Don't get me wrong, I love my computer... we have a very tumultuous relationship at times and the neighbors might report a tiff or two that they've wanted to intervene on... but the passion is still alive and we'll never be parted. Ummm, wait, let's drop that metaphor right now - I'm actually typing this on my work laptop :)

Anywho - I'm apparently an old dog who can't learn new tricks... I WAS going to have this amazingly photoshopped picture of myself RIGHT HERE to show you how much I've learned... it didn't turn out so hot... as a matter of fact... the only photo I got very far on at all was an iris... which quickly turned into a blue blob... which I then deleted out of impatience and unwillingness to make a complete fool of myself...

so, I will apologize in advance to any of the children I will help with these program in the months to come... I'm sure they will be teaching ME far more than I am teaching THEM!

I might just be losing it...

wish "it" referred to all the poundage I've put on in the past few months... but no... "it" is apparently my sanity.

I probably shouldn't claim to have ever had "it" in the first place... but it's all going downhill from here. Why? Hmmm, not sure... I look around me and see lots of people who cope with stress - thus I should be able to cope with stress right? Right? And my "stress" really isn't all that horrible really... it's maybe a 3 on a scale of 1 to 10... 1 being my life between marriage and the birth of my first children and 10 being my life when my third child was born and the other two were sick with pneumonia and chicken pox...

See, life is GOOD - I've got no complaints!


Shoot - if I've got no complaints what on EARTH am I going to blog about today????

Hmmmm....
The boys' "mini-mission" is almost over... a few hours until their "release" fireside - and can I mention how proud I am of their adherence to the rules and willingness to participate??? When I heard the rules about no TV, no internet, no radio, no video games, and no "gasp" iPod I fully expected to hear a lot of groaning. Not so... although I should tell them NOW that when they are gone for 2 years I will NOT be willing to log in to their game of "Crazy Planets" each day to collect their resources... sorry guys - you'll just have to deal.
I should also mention how grateful I am to my recently returned missionary brother who spoke with my older son at the very beginning of all of this - about the choice to either dedicate your life in full or waste time and effort in looking for loopholes. Good timing. Wish I could say that the house has been uber-quiet and spiritual all week as a result of the computer and TV being off... but I'm sure nobody will buy into the fact that children 3 through 5 "caught the spirit" or that their mom shunned technology for the week in support. (I did cut back... for instance, right now they are upstairs baking cookies so that I can get my blogging fix... when the cookies are done I will have to shut off the computer... in support. Maybe a tiny bit because I don't want to get crumbs in the keyboard... but mostly in support.

School starts soon... too soon. I need to spend a day making the kids try on every stitch of clothing in the house and assembling "outfits" so that we can determine how many pairs of jeans need to be purchased... and let me just tell anyone out there who is currently working on their family planning... HAVE YOUR KIDS IN THE EARLY FALL! Birthdays are a great time to get all new school clothes - really. My 3rd son (Po) has an early September birthday (although I would recommend early August...) and as much as I'd love to give him all his new school clothes for this celebration I can't really get away with it because of those "other" children who loudly point out that they got new school clothes for "free" and got fun toys and games for their spring birthdays... somehow Po sees this as some sort of injustice? Go figure...

My hair is growing out. I'm not sure I like it... however I do know that ManOfTheHouse likes it... or maybe him "liking it" is his nice way of saying that he didn't like it short? Here's the thing... it's MY hair, on MY head, and MY sweat that runs down MY neck during MY morning walks... and it grosses ME out. Let's see how long this lasts... Shhhhh... don't tell him, but I liked his hair better when it was a different style too... and he won't (ummm "can't") change it back to suit me so why am I worried about how he likes mine?

Mmmmm... I think I smell cookies... Guess I'd better go and "taste test" the wares... and if you've EVER wondered - Yes, I frequently DO just sit down at the computer with no idea what to type into my blog :)