How to burn a gajillion calories:

Let's see if you can guess how I just burned an entire days worth of calories:


A. Went for a super long run and got chased by a pit bull most of the time.

B. Did an entire week's worth of P90X dvds while talking on the phone to my sister.

C. Hit the elliptical machine, lifted weights and finished up with the treadmill.

D. Changed the sheets on the boys' bunk beds.



If you guessed D, you would be correct! Seriously, every time I change the sheets I don't wonder why I only do it like four times a year or unless absolutely necessary (you know, puking and that sort of thing). If the bunk bed didn't fit so well and if the room was a little bigger and if.....

Next time I want to wrestle and burn calories I'll just lay on the floor and let the kids attack me. It would for sure be easier.

The "eeevil" Water Bottle: I miss you.....

With the recent popularity of "going green" and all of the people jumping on the band wagon, I decided to do my part. Well, sorta.

Mainly, I'm just cheap. But, heck if that makes me an environmentalist, I'll take my brownie point thank you.

Usually we always have a case of bottled water in the outside fridge mainly used for road trips, hot summer days when the tap water is just to darn yucky to drink and sitting on the nightstand in our room.

You know, it's the middle of the night, you wake up thirsty as all get out and you reach for that glorious bottle. So refreshing and wonderful to quench that all powerful 2am thirst. Dramatic? Yes. True? Even more.

We've been out of water bottles for about three weeks now. Yes, I am frugal. Yes, I am perfectly willing to drink tap water. Yes, I keep forgetting it at Costco.

The other night as I was climbing in to bed Randy asked if we were still out. "Oh honey, I'll go get you a nice big cup of ice water, much more refreshing than those awful environmental hazards". Maybe if I play the green card he won't question my miserly ways or memory problems.

After taking a few sips out of the cup he tried to decide where to set it down for the 2am swig. Well, first you have to hope no flies land in it, that would be a real bummer. Or spiders. We splat at least two a night running across the ceiling right over our bed. Bet that cup of ice water seems refreshing to them too. Hmmm.

"Babe, when my pager goes off in the morning I'll knock the thing all over". Do I four or five children? "I'll take it and put it on my nighstand, you always say you're like a bull in china shop". We giggle, I put the water on a towel on my side.

I proceed to turn off the light, take the clip out of my hair, set it down on the nightstand and listen to water pouring down the sides and back of the nightstand and all over my books. The sound of the water literally pouring off the dresser was quite noisy in the dark room; I ran to get a towel and mopped up the mess.

I'm still not sure which is worse on the environment. Adding to greenhouse gas effect from cleaning up the mess and washing the towel I used (the dresser was a little dusty, so I couldn't exactly reuse the thing) or the measly plastic bottle I should have had.

Tucked in....

After saying prayers, Ryder leaned over to Ashlynn and with a big kiss says, "You are my good sister, Ashlynn. I LOVE you!"

"You are my good brother, Ryder. I LOVE you too!!" More hugs and kisses.

This is what it's all about.

Bedtime routine.

On the nights Randy is home, the kids have a very specific routine. After getting their jammies on they either race daddy upstairs or, their favorite, daddy loads them up, one on each shoulder, or one on his back and one on a shoulder and runs upstairs. Now usually I race with them, but these days I am lagging a little bit behind. My center of gravity isn't what it was a few months ago, but I put in a 'good effort' according to the kids.

Once upstairs the race is on to brush teeth, get last sip of water, and go last potty time. Then the fun begins. Ashlynn and Ryder each get several turns of being tossed up in the air and thrown on our bed. Yes, they actually beg for Randy to throw them "as high as you can, daddy". They even have names for what flip or toss they want and they have the option to close their eyes for "more fun". This goes on and on with giggling and silliness until 'mean mommy' says "that's enough, time for bed". Oh yeah, they're really calm and ready. Right.

They get one final toss into their own beds while I'm repeating "calm down, it's time for bed" a million times.

Thanks daddy, who's the kid around here?

Tonight daddy's on shift, so it will be "so boring" at bedtime. I could always "squish" them (which they beg for as well), the extra weight I'm hauling around will come in handy after all.

Wednesday night I'll try to get a picture of their moves so you can share in my joy.

Gage and the crib.

All of our kids have gone to nap and bed pretty good, but Gage takes the cake. This kid never even makes a whimper when I put him down for snoozy or night, night.

Yesterday, I announced it was time for snoozyville and he just cruised right up the stairs to his crib, pointed to his noisemaker (for me to turn it on) and reached up for his crib.

At night I will say "time for night, night; let's go brush your teeth." And off he zooms up the stairs, to the bathroom, pointing to his toothbrush. When I take him to his crib he literally dives into it. Randy and I are just in awe of how much this kid loves being put to bed.

Now there has been one minor exception to his amazing behavior: when we are not home. If we try to put him down for a nap on Sunday afternoon at Dale and Linda's, he screams like crazy. One of us has to lay on the bed so he can see us until he falls asleep. And last week at Mimi and Papa's it was a nightmare. Almost every night and naptime Randy had to get him to sleep first or the kid would just scream and scream.

He does the same thing every Sunday at the church nursery too. They eventually have to bring him to us in service because they can't get him to stop.

How can a kid be so easy going at home and a nightmare everywhere else? Is it separation anxiety? How can I help him?

Seeing as how we spend 99% of our time at home, it's not a huge issue, but it can be a little annoying when you get so spoiled with the usual routine.