Why yes, I am!

We used to bank with Wachovia.  Now through the power of the merger, we bank with Wells Fargo.  The other morning, I called Wells Fargo to ask a few questions about the electronic bill pay on their Website.  I was most concerned that our recurring monthly payment for the mortgage was about to come out 3 weeks early and cause some really big problems for us.

The kids were doing well and I decided I had a few minutes I could squeeze this call in.  The representative Marion took my call and couldn't be more sincere and happy to welcome me to Wells Fargo.  "Welcome!  Welcome!  Welcome!  We are so happy to have you here" is exactly how she greeted me.  I loved it!  Within a few minutes of trying to explain to her why I was calling, all hell started to break and the kids seriously sounded like they were killing each other.  Doors were slamming over and over again, blood-curdling screams were being heard, and very high-pitched and loud screaming/shouting/crying was added in nicely for more chaos.  It was very out-of-control, very quickly.  You would've thought I had about 10 kids in an all out war, rather than just the 2 I have.

In a very calm voice, Marion tells me, "Why don't you put the phone down for a few minutes, I'll stay on the line and you can go take care of that."

Take care of what I am thinking?  This is completely normal in my house.  hehehehehee.  I replied, "No, your coming with me.  This will only take a second."

I went up to Ian's room where the scene was going down, grabbed Sam and said, "Get out of your brother's room NOW!".  I carried her downstairs and gave her a cup of juice.  I figured by now, she was very thirsty from all the screaming and having her put a straw in her mouth would keep her from protesting having to leave Ian's room.

Within 30 seconds, the house was completely quiet and you would've thought I was alone and kid-free. 

Marion was the first to talk, "Wow. You are awesome. That was amazing."  

I will now be calling Marion daily.  I liked talking to her.

The Summer of Pizza

If this summer will be known to me as the summer I sweat, than clearly this is "the summer of pizza" for the kids.  I am afraid the kids are going to turn into pizzas themselves.  Oy!  It is a little embarrassing how often it has become our go-to meal for lunch or dinner this summer. 

Is there any food easier to obtain, more reasonably priced, easier to eat (requiring very little utensils) and so kid-friendly?  I think not.  Pizza is one of those miracle meals in my opinion and makes dinner a snap, especially when you are with a group of friends and don't want the good times to end because something like dinner needs to happen.

I used to try to space out the kids having pizza on back-to-back days.  Now, my main concern is that they don't eat it in back-to-back meals.  Yes, pizza has become that prevalent in our lives this season.  It was very humorous when Jeff said, we need to get chicken nuggets back in the rotation.  Ha!! 

I know once Fall comes, we will get back into our routine and pizza will become its usual, once-a-week Sunday night treat.  However, until then, I am keeping the pizza place on speed dial.

Remember to say I love you.

This week is a very sad one for my husband's family.  Jeff's sister's husband lost his father very unexpectedly.  According to reports, he was in the car driving to pick up his other son, had a heart attack and crashed into a tree.  It sounds like it was instant and pain-free.

I had the good fortune of knowing Harold Salter.  Even though Howard's parents live in Michigan, they'd come to MD often to visit their son, daughter-in-law and grandson.  From time to time, we'd all get together and I got to know what a wonderful husband, father, and grandfather he was.  I always enjoyed our time together.

I am a firm believer that when it is your time to go, there is little you can do to cheat death.  I am not saying that it is a license to do drugs or live dangerously because it wouldn't matter one way or another.  And I am certainly not saying that if given a diagnosis of some kind of disease, you shouldn't fight like hell to recover, but at some point, you've been given a hand to play by G-d, and when the cards are done, your time is up. 

I try to find the good in any situation (no matter how much it sucks) and have come to the following conclusions:

Howard and Matthew were currently up in Michigan and had a wonderful 3 or 4 days visiting with Harold before the tragic event.  This to me is HUGE, as they have some very recent, great memories of their father/grandfather.
My in-laws were not currently on a trip somewhere and had the opportunity to easily leave Baltimore as soon as they heard the news and be a comforting presence for Howard and his family.
No one else was in the car with Harold and he didn't involve any other cars in the accident.
It was quick and hopefully, relatively pain-free.

To my sister-in-law and her family, I will be thinking of you today and extend my deepest sympathies during this difficult time. You and the family are in my thoughts and prayers.  May you remember Harold as the wonderful, caring, loving man that he was.

Once again, we are reminded it can all change on a dime.  Your here one minute, taken in the next.  I try so hard to always tell those around me how much I love them.  Whenever I talk to my family, we always end every call with "I love you". 

And so if your reading this right now, there is a good chance that you are very special to me.  I love that you are in my life and treasure our time together.  I hope I don't take our friendship for granted.  And if I am lucky enough to be related to you, please know that I couldn't ask for a better family.  While I have little in terms of material possessions, it matters more that I am very rich in love, friendship, and family.  Thank you.

A water park surprise!

A Certifikid deal came out a few months ago.  Admission for 4 to one of five local water parks, all for $10.  Such a great deal!  Immediately, emails started going back and forth between some of us deciding which water park we wanted to go to and what day would work for all of our schedules.  The coupon specified we could only use it on weekdays, starting at 3:00pm.  We decided to go last Thursday to Pirates Cove Water park in Lorton.

We arrived right at 3:00pm and upon entry was handed 3 tickets.  I asked the guy what it was for and he said, "Starting at 5:00pm, the ticket will get us a hot dog, soda, chips and ice cream."  Wow!  Apparently we picked "Family Fun Night" as our day to go.  This occurs each week, every Thursday through the summer.  Who knew?  What a great surprise and this made the Certifiked deal even sweeter!  Dinner was now taken care of.  In addition, the family fun night included music being played and various games for the kids to play in.  Sam even participated in the air guitar contest. 

I think I was expecting a little more to the water park.  There was one big main structure in the middle of the pool for the kids to play on, with slides and things to climb on.  And there was an infant wading pool with another little slide.  The boys had a blast and didn't stop playing for a second.  Sam was tall enough to stand in the main pool, but I was still nervous about her ability to stay upright in water that went up to her shoulders and held her hand or kept her in sight the whole time. 

We had a great afternoon and after 3.5 hours, I was ready to pack up my kids and head home.  They would've been very happy being there until close (at 7:00pm), but its always better, in my experience, to leave with them wanting more.

While we don't have it on the calendar to go back again this summer, I will definitely go back next year.

Drenched.

I can sum up Summer 2011 in one word, "SWEAT". 

This is the summer I seem to have started sweating and can't stop.  Yuck!  I don't "glisten", "glow" or "perspire" like some people.  I sweat!  There are few things grosser than feeling a drip of wetness start at the top of your back or front and drip all the way down.  And then it repeats over and over until you are soaked. There is only so much protection you can ask from your deodorant.  I am finding the heat unbearable and to make matters worse, I seem to be outdoors much more than I'd like to be. 

With the marathon training well underway, I can't seem to start early enough to escape the extreme sweating that is taking place.  A few weeks ago, we did a 12 mile run, starting at 5:00am.  It was still completely dark out and the temps were already 80 degrees. Oh my!  You can imagine what I looked like 2.5 hours later when the run was over. Fortunately I survived our Saturday runs in June and July and now just need to make it through August. 

The heat wave the D.C. Metro area is experiencing isn't helping the situation.  This past month has officially gone down in the record books as the warmest July on average.  Oy!  Walking from the car to indoors throughout the day has me worn out and gasping for cool air.  The high temps of 98+ degree weather is enough for me to hibernate until Fall.  There are some days that even going to the pool isn't refreshing enough and the water is too warm.  It's much easier to stay indoors where the AC is blowing strong and I can temporarily forget it is 102 degrees outside, with a heat index of 112. I am generally a happy person, but this heat has me becoming miserable.

This Saturday, our schedule has us running 14 miles.  We will be meeting at 4:30am to accomplish this.  The training plan I am following says the long runs should be 90 seconds to 2 minutes per mile slower than normal and to go even slower to safely train when heat and humidity are factors.  I am already going slow; if I go much slower, the heat is really going to catch up to me.

Two wishes granted continued...

HOW IAN BECAME A JEDI

Once we heard that Hollywood Studios does Jedi Training, we knew Ian had to do it.  This would be such an amazing experience for him and the highlight of his summer.  There were many rumors swirling around online about how one gets selected for the Jedi Training.  One of the things we heard is that you show up and get randomly selected out of the line up of kids wanting to participate.  Another thing we read is that one of the best ways to get picked is to be wearing Star Wars clothing gear.  My sister Lori ran out and bought Ian a Star Wars shirt to wear (he had a few at home, but I didn't pack them). We also read that if the guy picking out the kids in line said, "Hey you, in the blue shirt" and your kid was wearing a blue shirt too, to just push him out front.  He wouldn't get rejected.  This sounded quite exciting and I was gearing up for the challenge.  Ian was going to get picked!

I did find out the night before that Hollywood Studios no longer picks the kids randomly and it is now a first come, first serve basis.  We just now needed to make sure we got there first.  The park opened at 9:00am and we planned to get there by 8:30am.  When we arrived, there was already a line waiting to get in.  We went to the far right where Disney employees and their guests go and slowly made our way to about 2/3rds up the line before I didn't feel ok sneaking in front of unsuspecting people who really weren't in an organized line and were all over the place.  They opened the gates at 8:45am and Jim, Ian and I made our way to the waiting area for the ropes to drop and the park to officially open.  We took a guess that we were in the right area.  A sizeable group had already formed and I wedged our way up front to ask the guy on the other side of the rope if we were where we wanted to be and what we should expect once the rope officially dropped.  Everyone who was already waiting, looked at me and said thank you for asking these questions.  There was no signage and no one knew what was going on.  We were all in the dark and once the park officially opened, we knew every second counted. 

Juan explained to us that once they open the park, to follow him and he will take us to the building where the kids sign up for the Jedi Training Academy.  They pick 11 kids for each of the shows and there are about 10 shows throughout the day.  Jim and I really wanted to get Ian in the first show and not be hanging around the park all day long.  Plus, as each hour passed, it was only going to get hotter and hotter.

I told Ian once the crowd got moving to get as close to Juan as possible and not worry about me.  I'll keep up and be right behind him.  There was no organized line behind Juan and the kids and obsessed moms who want their kids to participate in this were having to do a slow run to keep up. It was like a sort of  "Running of the bulls", but with moms and kids instead of bulls. The excitement was building and the lack of line and organization behind Juan was adding to the moment.  We were thisclose to making the Jedi Training Academy a reality!

While in the waiting area, I had made friends with some of the moms whose kids rightfully should've been in the first 3 positions and we were all excited that it looked like our kids would get to be in the first show.  But this one mom and kid came out of the blue and started elbowing and pushing a few moms to get behind her.  It was crazy and I was a little shocked watching it happen.  The mom in front of me started pushing back and then the yelling between the two of them started. This was all while we were still trailing Juan.  Whoa!  I said, "Ladies, really.  We are far up enough that all of our kids will be in the first show.  There is no need to get ugly about it."  The instigator stopped pushing and took her place before me.  I went with the flow and kept moving to keep up with Ian.  We finally made our way to the building to officially sign up and this is where the line got organized and snaked around the ropes.  It was pretty impressive how we managed to get in front of all the families that were in the same spot we were.  Not sure there will be enough spaces to accommodate all these kids, but it didn't matter.  Ian was #5 in line and we were golden.  There would be no wait and Ian was going to be in the first show.  I am not sure who was more excited, me or Ian.

Because they arranged the kids by height, Ian was placed front and center.  Seriously, I was jumping up and down at this point and couldn't stop texting Jeff and Heather with the news, while simultaneously also updating Facebook and taking video and pictures.  This was such a HUGE moment in Ian's life. 



Ian getting dressed in Jedi clothing



Ian learning the offical Jedi moves

 

Ian is in the front, right-hand side.

 

Ian practicing his moves and fighting Darth Vader

The group graduating the Jedi Training Academy

The kids were given a certificate for graduating.  Ian immediately said when he gets back home, he was going to give Jedi lessons to his friends.  The whole thing lasted 20 minutes and except for the initial confusion at the beginning on where to go, it was incredibly well done and so much fun.  Mission completed.

Two wishes granted

One thing my mom wanted to do for the kids when they were down in Orlando is get Ian into the Jedi Training Academy at Hollywood Studios and for Sam to be able to meet the princesses at Magic Kingdom. 

Both events didn't take place until the last 2 days of their trip.  With my stepfather working for Disney, the biggest benefit we take advantage of is free entry into all the Disney parks.  However, this does not allow any other shortcuts to take place and we stand in line or wait to get picked for something like every other Joe Shmoe at the park.

MEETING THE PRINCESSES!

Over the years, we have yet to spend the money on a character breakfast, lunch or dinner for either of the kids.  While this surprises some of my friends, I believe it is a very expensive activity and one that neither of the kids would fully appreciate unless it was a character they were really into.   Sam loves all things princesses and next year when she has turned 4, we will indulge in her getting the Bippity Boppity treatment and do a princess breakfast.  This Summer, my mom thought it would be very cool for Sam to get to see some of the princesses without going to all of the expense.  So we decided on a Tuesday, after dinner and hopefully with the hottest part of the day winding down, we'd go to the Magic Kingdom and find the princesses that you can stand in line to meet.

As we left the restaurant where we had dinner, the sky was full of rain clouds and an ominous shade of gray and black.  It was going to rain and it was going to rain hard!  In the 20 minute car ride to the theme park, the sky lit up over and over again giving us a crazy lightning display.  As Florida is known for its lightning, you can imagine it was pretty spectacular.  The rain started and became blinding rain in a flash.  Did this stop my mom and stepfather from their plans of taking us to Disney?  Noooooooooooooo!  They were fearless and knew all too well, that the rain would stop as quick as it began and the skies would be clear in no time. 

The lighting and rain was the best thing that could've happened.  Tourists everywhere left the park and the temperature outside was now a good 10 degrees cooler.  We got a rockstar parking spot, entered the park and within 15 magically short minutes, Sam was standing in front of 3 of her favorite princesses; Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora. 

As we were walking in, there was a pretty sweet rainbow in the sky greeting us.  Unfortunately this picture doesn't do it justice.

Totally star-struck

It was really neat to see Sam look at the princesses for the first time.  She was in awe and couldn't take her eyes off of them.



For some reason, Sam needed to show Aurora her foot.




Sam is not entirely certain of Cinderella's intentions.



Belle is Sam's all-time favorite and the only
princess she would leave my side for.

And, because anything goes when you are hanging with the grandparents and on vacation, we took advantage of the near-empty park and literally walked-on a few rides after we were done with the princesses.  It wasn't until 10:00pm, that Ian looked at me and said, "are we going to still get ice cream before we leave here?"  "Yes, sure Ian", I answered.  Because what kind of mother would I be to say no to the kids getting ice cream at 10:30pm, a good 3 hours past their bedtime and still a good 30 minutes from actually being in bed?

Stay tuned for how Ian got into the Jedi Training Academy!