The Anniversary

So today was our 12 year anniversary. We reserved a babysitter for last night, enjoyed wine and chocolates after a fancy dinner and watched a great play at the Fox.

Insert record screech here...
Au contraire, mon frère.
Here is what we really did. I called four babysitters last week; one had her phone disconnected (how awesome are those parents?! Abuse it and lose it, which really sucks when that is the only number listed for the babysitter.), one listed phone number went to a business (and it wasn't the babysitting kind of business) and a set of twins didn't return my message. So, no babysitter for us.

We started today with no real plans but Emily talked us into loading up the bikes and going for a ride. We were all hungry and planned to eat at Subway prior to our bike ride but there wasn't a Subway around. In fact, the only restaurant around was an old, run-down Burger King. We did get to eat alone though, the kids wanted to sit at the "bar" adjacent to us. We got to pretend we were on a high school date at Burger King; burger shots are so fancy and all.

We then headed into the park and started riding. The weather wasn't bad, a bit warm and humid but such is life in these parts. Then, as I was trying really hard not to look like a pansy and walk my bike up a steep hill I stood up to pedal. Big mistake. I thrust my leg down and directly into a sharp point of my water bottle holder. It reads like a really lame story but it really hurt like... well, let's move on. As I sat on the pavement nursing my bleeding, bruised leg my wonderful husband of 12 glorious years cleaned me up and bandaged my leg. He even threw in a "Happy Anniversary" to make it all feel better. I pulled up my big girl pants and carried on.

We took a trail that led us through some very dense (HUMID!) woods and then let the kids play at a playground while we took an obligatory sweaty self-portrait, before heading back. We've picked one or two ticks off of ourselves but at least three off each child; the kids must taste better. So, Happy 12th Anniversary to my wonderful husband. Thank you for always rescuing me when you sense the chaos is about to dunk me underwater. You are the life ring I can always reach out and grab and know I am safe; I simply can't imagine life without you.

Cool Video

This commercial was shown during the American Idol finale.

Happy Birthday Jacob

Today my oldest "baby" turns 11. He's transitioned from asking for cars and trucks for his birthday to asking for I-Pods and CDs instead. When did all this happen?! I simply can't be old enough to have a child starting middle school in the fall.

A few things we love about Jacob:

* He remembers every.single.thing he reads or learns. This comes in handy when you are wondering how many light years separate the Earth and Jupiter or just how many teeth a shark has.
* He loves learning about how things work.

* He can be extremely helpful around the house; he'll even start laundry on his own sometimes!

* He is very passionate about what he believes in.

* He is very concerned with doing the right thing. We hope and pray this will help him overcome bad peer pressure as he matures.

* He is extremely intelligent and we know he will change the world in some way.

* He loves to mow the yard!

* He loves to read and will out read J and I any day of the week.

* He loves to act and entertain; he's a great storyteller too.

* He is a great big brother to Matthew, even though we know younger siblings can be annoying sometimes. Matthew looks up to Jacob for everything.

Jacob made his splash into the world 3.5 weeks early to two very young parents that had no idea what they were doing. The first time he cried J and I looked at each other and said "Now what?!" Somehow we've muddled through and I don't think we've messed him up yet; I credit that all to Jacob's resilience and forgiveness! Jacob teaches us that we all love in a different way and Jacob has already touched many people in his short 11 years.

Big News

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Cards

I'm slow this week and I'm getting my Mother's Day cards out late. Those that expect cards this weekend do not fear, you will have an early week surprise instead. I prefer to blame the postal service; if they delivered on Sunday my cards would not be late. Right?

Monday

I'm not a Monday hater but today is inching me every bit closer to being one. Here is my day: (and it's not even over so help me now)
Disclaimer: This post is riddled with curse words that I usually only think in my head but don't actually type. Today has been so great I've thrown a few in.

1. The oldest child will.not get out of bed. I allow natural consequences to teach him a lesson and he leaves for school without breakfast. 25% of me feels bad because I know he will be hungry but the other 75% hopes it leads to more mornings that he is not laying in bed for 45 minutes when he should be up. Puberty is chomping at the bit so I'm sure it will not only continue but get a hell of a lot worse.
2. Get all the paperwork ready to pick up the adoption documents at the secretary of state's office and send them off to the consulate in Chicago. This wasn't too hard since I've done two other packets.
3. On my way downtown I stop and have lunch with J; that was nice. (which is good because the day goes to complete crap shortly thereafter)
4. I reach for the GPS to find my way downtown without driving myself into a neighborhood where I really should not be. The GPS isn't there so I call J to catch him before leaving the parking lot so I could get it from his car; he does not have it.
5. After some discussion we come to the conclusion that the GPS was stolen from the van last night. The ONE night we left the van unlocked and the ONE time we left the GPS mount suctioned to the windshield just happens to the one night that some craptastic criminal is looking to make a buck. The craptastic criminal was very polite though; they left my black pouch in the middle console where they found it, zipped shut no less!
6. I get lost on my way downtown due to the craptastic criminal stealing my GPS and end up next to a vehicle whose passenger is physically demonstrating how he beat in someone's face to the driver. Upon the next stop light I quickly did a U turn in the middle of the road; I can't tell you how much I love the tight turning radius on my Sienna. I love it so much I may just buy another one when the time comes; it probably just saved my life today.
7. My wonderful husband became my personal GPS and directed me over the phone. Once reaching downtown I had to call twice more because I was driving in circles among the one way roads...Lost AGAIN due to the craptastic criminal.
8. I parked...Parallel parked! Hallelujah, something is going right.
9. My documents were ready and they were ALL there. This is good because the secretary of state is really not someone you should lose your temper with.
10. Upon leaving I see a Kinko's and stop there to make some copies so I don't have to come all the way home to make the copies and then leave again to drop off the FedEx envelope. I quickly learned how to run the Kinko's copy machine and wow, that works much better than my scanner/printer/copier at home! I need a money order to pay the Chinese Consulate fees; they don't issue money orders but the convenience store two doors down does.
11. The convenience store will only accept cash for the money order payment; every other store has accepted debit. I don't have $225 cash on me and I don't have a GPS to pawn so I hit the ATM. At this point I'm starting to get a bit flustered but I am remaining calm. I step over to the ATM to withdraw the $225 and the ATM says; "screw you, I don't have $225 either. The most you can get from me is $200."
12. So I leave and head for the van but then I see a bank and a cashier's check is accepted at the consulate. I don't have an account at the bank but I thought I'd try anyway. I pull every card that I have in my purse...bat the eyelashes, talk real nice, it's for an adoption, we don't have a local bank, yada, yada, yada. No Go.
13. So I give up and leave downtown but not before getting lost TWO more times because my friggin GPS is gone.
14. Two hours later I finally made it back towards my house and go to Wal-Mart. I know some people really have the hate relationship thing for Wal-Mart but today, I ♥ Wal-Mart. I was able to get my stupid money order (and found out they have the cheapest money order fees), replace my kids' toothbrushes left at Nana's house this weekend and buy Matthew a cheap pair of tennis shoes to get him through the next few days until the shoe left behind gets mailed home. Bless you Wal-Mart.

The police came and took a report for the stolen GPS; maybe they will help it find it's way home. HA, GPS humor. I hope Bitchin' Betty is annoying somebody else this evening. I can only hope she is stuck saying "recalculating....do a U turn."

I was able to get the kids to eat every bit of dinner on their plates this evening. Want to know the secret? Hold strawberries dipped in chocolate over their heads until they eat their chicken. All of a sudden the chants of "chicken again? But we have chicken every night" turns into "wow, this chicken is great!"