Mom, Molly... and a Celebrity Sighting!

My mom and Molly arrived today!!!

They are in town because we are going to attend the Women of Faith conference this weekend, and I am so

very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very,

very happy to have them here,

AND

I am really looking forward to the conference,

AND

I am really excited that Devon will be Mr. Mom for the next two days!

The conference will be my longest break from mama-duties since February 15, 2008!

So, this afternoon, as the kids and I were driving home from picking up Joe after school, Molly texted me that Jason Castro was on the plane with them.  I was like, "No way! We are listening to him right now!!!"  He sings our favorite version of "Hallelujah"-  you know, the one that Max and Lucy sing? Jason Castro is awesome! I voted for him several  times when he was on American Idol!

Molly told me to have my camera ready at the airport so that I could document this celebrity sighting.

I thought I was being sly with my paparazzi skills, but...

Dude, he was hip to my tricks!  He is looking right at me!

How embarrassing!

Fortunately, Molly and Lucy asked to take a picture with him.

He and his wife were so nice to stop to talk with us, and we told him that Lucy and Max sing his songs, and they told Lucy that they like her shirt, and Jason said that he likes Max's hair- even his curls in the back!

Did you catch that?

Add Jason's vote to the poll:  He likes Max's hair!

And this was from a man who has dreadlocks down to his waist :)

Exquisite!

Aunt Merry delivered Lucy's Halloween costume today.

Merry made it by hand with love,

and it is so very lovely...

Lucy loves to watch the ballet Swan Lake,

which is a DVD that Merry gave to Lucy.

So, Lucy's costume is just like the lead dancer's in the ballet~

The Swan Princess.

What a lucky Lu!

Dress-Up

'Tis the season for dressing up!

It is Spirit Week at Joe's school, and today's dress-up theme was simply "Dress-Up Day."

Dress-up as what?  we asked.  Halloween costumes?  No, that is on Friday.

Dress-up in your silliest clothes?  Nope, just dress up and look nice.

Well, okay!

Joe was feelin' the spirit of Spirit Week, so this morning I helped him achieve his dapper-ness.  He was lookin' sharp in daddy's tie and mama's leather blazer :)

On Monday after Stroller Strides, the smaller people and I went to a Halloween party with our Stroller Strides friends.  Lucy put on a pretty ballerina ensemble and Max dressed-up as "Woo-ee".  My costume was that of a tired and sweaty mama.

 Lucy made a craft, and we ate yummy snacks, and Max smeared orange frosting all over his face and hair...

Why does he do this?

We tried to assemble the kiddies for a group shot- everyone looked ADORABLE in their costumes.  SO CUTE!

The group shot was quite a challenge!  I didn't have much luck from my angle.

So, I stole borrowed this picture-

Much better!

Opinions, Please!

To the right you will see a poll regarding Lover Boy's curls at

the center of his neck.

This poll is anonymous- I promise :)

Beach Towels

Leave Devon and Lucy alone with the camera, and this is what you find when you download pictures!

Rantz News:  Last week I found and secured a rental house for our family!!!  We are moving!  The house met all of our "wish list" criteria, and it is less than a mile away from our current residence, so we don't have to worry about Joe changing schools, or losing touch with our neighbors/community.  We feel pretty blessed :)

We are not sure when we are going to make the big move, but I was anxious to move something into our new place, so I started with beach towels!

And there they sit, in an empty linen closet in an empty house!

I'll admit that I am a bit nervous about moving.  I think that my nerves are attached to the uncertain outcome of the short sale of our home.  Plus, moving can be a lot of work.  But I am mostly excited, and the kids and Devon are excited too!

More details to come as we fill this emtpy closet!

No David!

Max's favorite book is No, David! by David Shannon.  

I found this book at the consignment store for $1.00, and it is one of those purchases that has become a special treasure.

Max searches through all of Lucy's girly books until he finds No, David! and then, in his own Maxy-language, he declares that he has found The Book, and he excitedly hopes that someone- anyone!- will read it to him.  On many occasions, Lucy has been the one to read to Max, and Lucy does not yet know how to read, but it works out just fine since every page simply reads, "No, David!" (or another variation of the exclamation "No, David!"). 

You see, David is an active little boy, much like our Max, and through the pages of the book we see him track mud into the house, run down the street naked, splash buckets of water out of the bathtub, play ball in the house, etc., and his mother constantly has to say, "No, David!" 

It just couldn't be more appropriate that Max is drawn to this book because he is a boy that requires constant supervision or else he finds himself in trouble, and even though I watch him like a hawk, I find that I constantly repeat, "No, Max!"

I am a "No!" mom- you know, the kind of mom who is always saying no! no! No! NO!

No, David had been missing for a couple of days.  We looked through all of the bookshelves, and through all of the toys, and through all of the rooms, and we couldn't find the book anywhere.  Max would ask "No Dayday?", and we would respond by continuing the search and calling out for the hiding book, "No, David!", and we finally found it deep under our sofa.  Hooray!  No, David!

It has been a long day of football watching and busy children, and this evening it was quiet for just a few moments as Joe was playing at a neighbor's house, Lucy was watching a movie upstairs, and Max had taken a baggie of Cheerios upstairs to watch the movie with Lucy.  It was almost too quiet.  I cuddled up on the sofa with Devon and announced that this moment was my favorite moment of the day.  He agreed.  We wondered if Max was getting into trouble upstairs, unsupervised.  There were stacks of clean clothes on the bed that he could knock down.  He could splash around in his choice of the two toilets.  He could unplug the TV.  We heard him call down to us, "Mama!  Dada!" 

We called back, "What, Maxy?"

We heard his little feet run from the top of the stairs back to our bedroom. 

Neither of us wanted to get up to go check on him.

We heard him run back again to the top of the stairs.  "Mama!  Dada!"

This time Devon called back, "No, David!"

Max said, "Oh."

We giggled at the fact that he is starting to answer to David.

I yelled up, "No, David!", and I heard him say, "Whaa?"

Devon sighed a big sigh and decided that he should probably go check on our smallest boy, who is becoming more and more like Dennis the Menace.  He left me alone on the sofa- my favorite moment of the day was over.

"OH NO!  MAX!  ANNIE, COME QUICK!"

"Do I have to?"

"YES!  YOU'D BETTER TAKE A LOOK AT THIS!"

I reluctantly climbed the stairs, naive to what I would find-  Max had so many options upstairs- the possibilities were endless!

He had found a hot pink/red lip gloss in the back of my nightstand (darn, I'd forgotten about that gloss!).  He took the gloss to my white Ikea Ektorp chair and ottoman and proceeded to rub it all over his face and hair and my chair.

Devon and I just stared at him.  We were somewhat speechless.  I wanted to laugh, and I kind of wanted to yell, and I definitely didn't want to be the one to clean Max.  No, David!  Okay, what do we do now?

First, we took pictures of the disaster.  Then, Devon put Max in the bathtub and washed his pink hair twice before he was blond again.  I took some Goof-Off to my chair and scrubbed away. 

In the aftermath of the lip gloss fiasco, Max opened our front door and tried to escape, and he pulled a whole box of frosted cookies down from the kitchen counter top and spilled them (leaving Halloween-colored sprinkles all over the floor), and he opened the oven while our dinner was baking, and Devon found the baggie of Cheerios emptied on our bed.

No, David!

Max finished the day by reading his favorite book.

Note to File

Lucy says "merote" instead of "remote"

Max says "down mama" when he wants to get either down (from high chair) or up (on mama's lap)

Lucy asks for every single toy that is advertised on TV.  "We'll put it on your Christmas list!"

Max's diet is 99% dairy

Lucy isn't changing her clothes as many times each day as she used to, and she likes to wear "warm leggers" these days (leggings)

Max thinks that both Woody and Buzz are both named Woody- or "Woo-ee"

Lucy has introduced Max to the fun game of pushing all of the sofa cushions off of the sofa and then jumping onto them on the floor

Max thinks that both dogs and cats are "goggies"

Lucy is going to be dancing in the "Chinese Tea" scene in a production of Nutcracker

Max announces "Tutu!" every time that our phone rings

Can I freeze time so that they can stay this way a bit longer??

I've been putting my new camera to work, and I was able to snap some pics of our ballerina-

And also some pics at Joe's softball game-

 And I took my little mermaid to our neighborhood Halloween festival-

We haven't made it to a pumpkin patch yet, and now it is stormy outside.

But we've got an exciting week ahead of us, so stay tuned!

(I'm probably over-selling the exciting week, but I am excited, so humor me!)

Back in Business!

I am back in business with a new camera!

(and also a trim and fresh highlights/lowlights)

I am a whole new woman!

And I will admit that I took 15 pictures of myself standing in front of a bathroom mirror before settling on this shot :)  And I will also admit that my hairstylist told me that she found a few grey hairs :)  And can someone please tell me which spelling of "grey" is the proper one to use when writing of grey hair?  Is it grey or gray?

So, anyway, I am back in business.  I purchased from Costco a Canon PowerShot SD940 IS Elph.  I was tempted to buy a Nikon, so that I could be cool like Ashton Kutcher, but I decided on a Canon.  I am anxious to leave my living room and go out into the real world to see how pics of my active kids will turn out.  A visit to the pumpkin patch may be in order!

In other news, today is Joe's last softball game!!!!  Did you catch the enthusiam?  Let me try again-  TODAY IS JOE'S LAST SOFTBALL GAME!!!!!  WooooHoooo!  It has been a short and painful season.  May I never, ever have to relive it ever again.  But, hey, maybe I'll get some great pictures at the FINAL game with my NEW camera!

The glass is half full today, people!

HALF FULL!

Who Dunnit??

My camera is broken.

It is garbage!
It is unusable!

I'm not going to point any fingers, but my suspicions lead me to believe that the damage was done by
 someone who is little,

someone who is curious,

someone who is a rascal,

someone who likes to break things.

I simply cannot live without a camera.

I cannot BLOG without a camera!

Any suggestions on what I should buy to replace my Canon piece-of-trash?

I'm not too picky, because I don't know much about cameras.

All I know is that I've got to keep a steady eye on little people!  :)

Over the River and Through the Woods

While Devon is out of town at a softball tournament (he owes me big-time, right??), the kids and I escaped to Merry's house for the day.  Aunt Merry is taking on Halloween costumes for Lucy and Joe, and there was work to be done!



Costumes will be revealed later- they aren't ready yet!





Doing some research for Lucy's costume



I love him a little bit



Joe picked apples off of Merry's tree to feed to Tank



We are a little apprehensive.  Can you tell?



Max and Lola became best friends

And Merry taught Max how to do squats.  I've been thinking that it was time for that boy to start working out!

Lucy soaks up Merry's attention

Dinner?  How about popcorn and a movie



It was a pretty great day :)

Confessions

Our fall decor:

That's it- just three tiny pumpkins!

I've got some work to do!

However, I do have a resident Buzz Lightyear.

He smells so good in the morning that I dig my nose into his little neck- as deep as I can get it- and I want to nibble him up for breakfast. 

Is that weird?

My Family

This is my family.

My mom and dad, my brother Adam and his wife Jillian, and their kids Avery, Ellee and Brady, my brother Seth, and my sister Molly.

I miss them terribly.

Last night they all got together for pizza at Adam and Jill's house.

Pizza on a Tuesday night with the family- does it get better than that? 

Washington is a really beautiful place to live.

If only Washington was home to these 9 people, it would be perfect.

The Social Network

If you need a reason to see the new movie The Social Network, I'll give you two:

1. It is really, really good.  Like, Oscar-buzz-good.

Perhaps you don't think that I'm the most reliable movie critic, seeing as how I watched Titanic in the theaters no less than 6 times and Armageddon tops my list as BEST. MOVIE. EVER.  But you can trust the box office results, which puts The Social Network at the top of the ranks for the second weekend in a row.

 
2.  Justin Timberlake is in this movie.  Need I say more?
 

 

Well, I will say more!

 

This movie tells the story of Facebook, the popular social networking website.  More specifically, it is about the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg.  While the mere thought of finding entertainment in computer geeks and their special projects sounds like a doozy, I can assure you that this film is exciting, and funny, and relevant- so relevant that we noticed that several people in the crowded theater were checking their Facebook accounts on their phones while waiting for the movie to begin. And it is smart- so smart that I personally lack the ability to form words into sentences to adequately express how smart it really is. And while one minute I would be cheering for one guy, the next minute I'd be on the other guy's team, and by the end of the movie, I didn't know who was the good guy and who was the bad guy! 

 

After we left the theater, Devon and I talked about the movie during our entire drive home.  What did you think about this part....?  What do you think happened to....?  Did you realize that....?  I'd like to learn more about....  And after we arrived at home, I googled Mark Zuckerberg to learn more about him, in hopes of having a better understanding of how true-to-fact the movie was or how much of it was embellished. 

 

And not that it truly matters to most people how Facebook came into existence- what does matter is that Facebook exists.  I remember that my friend Jacqui once left me a message on my MySpace account that read something along the lines of, "You need to cross over to Facebook!  Facebook is the new black."  So I did create a Facebook account, and since then I've connected with people like Lilith, a German exchange student who I knew during my senior year of high school, and Leah, a friend from Sunday school when I was a child, and the whole group of women that I've met through Stroller Strides, and friends from college, and aunts and uncles, and my bffs, and my neighbor, and friends from my previous job, and the job before that too... My point is that Facebook is a part of my life.  It has connected me with people, and for the most part, I like people!  I like looking at their pictures and reading their status updates.  I like seeing their spouses and children and where they like to go on vacation. 

 

I know that both sides of the coin can be argued- to participate or not to participate.  And while I often flip-flop between the two sides (my mom has chosen not to participate while my sister posts status updates everyday), I land somewhere on the side of participation, and after seeing this movie, there is no denying the value and the power of the social network in today's society.

 

When Zuckerberg developed Facebook, I don't think that he meant to change the world, but I really think that he did just that.  And according to the movie, his motivation never was money, yet at 26 years old he is currently the world's youngest billionaire.  Billionaire!

 

I hope that I've done an okay job at promoting The Social Network.  Go see it- you won't be disappointed!  And did I mention Justin Timberlake is in it?

 

I can't wait to see it again!

I Love Saturday

I slept in until 9.  Lucky me!!

It was a perfect Seattle fall day-  rainy.

The day's agenda was blank.

Joe stayed busy with Legos.

Lucy and Max entertained us all, like this-

Devon made chocolate chip cookies.

I was asked, "Do you not like to grocery shop anymore?  You haven't been in weeks."

So we all went grocery shopping.

And then we had soup for dinner.

I had to do a lot of snuggling to decide which was more snuggly- glow-in-the-dark skeleton pajamas or footed pink fleece pajamas.

It was a tie.  They are equally snuggly :)

 What next?

I'm glad you asked!

Bedtime for the littles, and Thursday's Grey's Anatomy for me and Devon.

And a glass of wine for me :)

The Rantz Report

Devon is home!  I might consider forgiving him for being gone all week.  I said might :)

Ahh, Poop.

Lucy wanted to go to the mall yesterday so that she and Max could play on the boats.  I aim to please, so we went to the mall.

Of course, we had to walk past the Gap, just to see what was going on in there, and GapKids was offering an additional 40% off clearance prices!  So exciting!

I had the kids in my B.O.B. stroller-  Max was asleep in his side and Lucy was buried in her side underneath the pile of clothes that were just too good of a deal to not buy. Literally, you could barely see her face.  Darn, I should have taken a picture!

Anyway, we pulled into the handicap dressing room- you know, to accommodate my stroller which is the size of a small vehicle- and Lucy was super jazzed to 1) be dug out from under the pile and 2) try on clothes!!!!  My girl loves shopping.

So, we took off her outfit and shoes and began to decide which garment she will try first, and then she started doing the potty dance.  She denied that she had to go potty, though it was completely obvious, and 15 seconds later, she was like MOMMYIHAVETOGOPOTTYRIGHTNOW!!!!

To avoid a puddle in the dressing room, I swiftly grabbed Lucy, who was wearing only her princess panties, and ran!

I stood at the door of the bathroom while she sat on the toilet so that I could keep an eye on my dressing room door, which was wide open, because, you know, I left my son in there.

And then I heard him.  He woke up, and he was pissed!  The door slammed shut behind me as I grabbed some toilet paper and wiped Lucy.  I'll be honest- she hasn't mastered wiping.  I picked her back up and ran to the screaming child in the handicap dressing room.  Nope, we didn't wash our hands.  Don't judge me.

Max never quite recovered from waking up in his stroller, alone in a small foreign room with a large pile of mismatched clothing (it is really tough to find a matching outfit on clearance).  He didn't want to forgive me for leaving him or for planning a trip to the mall during nap time.  He didn't even want to try on any of the clothes that I'd selected for him!  But since I'd already taken off all of his clothes, I thought it was an opportune time to change his wet diaper, and so I did, yep, right there on the bench in the dressing room.  Once he finally settled down, I noticed him take a familiar stance and make a familiar face and I thought to myself you've got to be kidding me- now you are going to poop?

His diaper was soooo stinky and full of poo, and I made the quick decision to change it in the dressing room, again, instead of hauling undressed children back to the bathroom, again. Just as soon as I'd finished with Max, Lucy said MOMMYIHAVETOGOPOTTYRIGHTNOW!!

"But Lucy, I already took you potty!"
"I have to go poo!  Right now!"

I left the door open as I ran back to the bathroom, this time carrying both kids- one wearing only a diaper, and one wearing only her panties.

A young girl offered to keep an eye on my room and commented, "You've got your hands full!" and I wanted to say, "Yeah, and my husband is golfing! In California!"  but I resisted. 

Lucy pooped, I wiped, we all washed our hands, Max screamed some more, I bought only a few items which I will most likely return, and we left the mall without ever playing at the boats.  We had to leave to go to Joe's softball game, which is where I was when I received an email from Joe's science teacher.  He bombed a test and she'd like to meet with him after school....   I took a look at the failed test later in the evening, splattered in red ink, and his efforts were so low that he didn't even spell his name correctly.  "Joe Rant."  Kill me now!!

Some days, I honestly feel like my kids collaborate to take me down.  What are the odds that Lucy and Max both had to poop at the Gap?  And I've been working my tail off to get Joe dialed in at school (and when I remind him of my many efforts, Lucy reminds me that I don't have a tail), and I completely unravel when I find that he isn't doing his part.  This would be one of those times when I dramatically announce to Devon IGIVEUP!, except- have you heard?- Devon is out of town.

I have a counseling appointment this afternoon-  where shall I begin?? 

:)

The Blog's Birthday; A Pity Party

Would you believe that today is my blog's birthday?  I'm not sure if it should be called a birthday or an anniversary, but either way, I wrote my first blog post on this date 2 years ago.

I brainstormed about how to celebrate the occasion and what to write about, but my creative juices weren't flowing.  Plus, a full day of mommying kept me busy until 10 minutes ago, when Lucy finally fell asleep on my lap.  Devon is out of town, and it is a circus act to get all three kids to sleep without our divide-and-conquer tactics.  A solo operation goes something like this-  make a bed for Lucy on the sofa, send Joe to bed to read for 30 minutes, use the 30 minutes to get Max to sleep, hope that Max is asleep by the time that Joe is done reading, pray with Joe and say goodnight, and then finally cuddle with Lu if she isn't already snoozing.  Tonight went according to plan, except that Max and Lucy followed me down to Joe's room to pray with him, and this is never a good situation because they try to play with his Legos, which makes Joe very uneasy.

Since Lucy is usually the last one still awake, I enjoy getting to snuggle with her without Max sitting on my head or pulling her hair.  I don't mind too much that she is a night-owl.  She takes after her parents, I suppose!

So, back to the birthday/anniversary, I think that my blogging abilities have been stifled today because I am bummed.  I don't like being home at night without Devon.  I get scared (yes, we live in the safest neighborhood ever, but still...).  And I don't like being a single parent.  And I don't like making the coffee in the morning or driving Joe to school.  And this trip, well, Devon isn't in Portland working his buns off, staying at a lame hotel by the airport.  No, Devon is in northern California on a "business" trip- he is staying in a fancy hotel with his buddies, playing golf on a fancy golf course, eating fancy food, getting fancy gifts from vendors, and worst of all, he got to hang out with my dad tonight. 

Am I jealous?  Yes.  Am I sad?  Yes.  Am I feeling sorry for myself?  Yes!  I want to do fancy things!  I could use a good night's sleep without Max's feet in my back!  I like good meals!  I even like golf!  I especially like California, and most of all, I like my dad! 

It's not fair!!!!

My day was not fancy.  However, I'd be lying if I said that there weren't a few highlights: The weather was nice.  I watched Mary Poppins with Lucy and her friend Molly, and Lucy sang "A Spoon Full of Sugar" all afternoon.  And Joe's softball team got their first win, but the kids and I missed most of the game because we arrived late, which was probably for the better since I spent most of our time there trying to keep Max from throwing rocks.  And since we lost one of Lucy's shoes somewhere between the car and the mile-long hill that we had to trek to get to the softball field, she had to stay in the stroller and could not join Max in his rock-throwing escapades.

And this is unrelated, but Max has an awesome black-eye.  The bruise is actually on the side of his eye, and I've been calling him Bruiser.  He fell at a playground yesterday and hit his face on a step.  I tried to get a picture of him lookin' all tough (or abused), but I didn't have any luck.  I'll try again tomorrow. 

Well, so much for being celebratory.  Welcome to Pity City- population 1. 

Besides, blogs don't really have birthdays  :)     

Date Night in 5 Simple Steps

Step 1  Hire a babysitter to stay with kids.  Yep, total stranger. 

Step 2  Get in car and drive away.  Don't look back.

Step 3  Eat, drink and mingle.

Step 4  Enjoy Jack Johnson.

Step 5  Drive back home from Portland, hoping that kids are sleeping, safe and happy.

Success!