rachel's continued ramblings

well, it's almost time. we are leaving tomorrow morning to head south to portland for our first, family camping trip. pathetic, i know. when dave and i got married, we put all sorts of camping gear on our gift registry. we got sleeping bags, air mattresses, a tent, a camp stove... stuff like that. not to say we haven't used it - well, not the stove - but never at an actual camp site. we've done the backyard camping thing, just to appease shane a few times. the sleeping bags have been thoroughly used... even peed on and puked on a time or two. lovely, i know, but hey, that's life with kids. i got the cool cookbook i ordered in the mail yesterday. i can't wait to try it out. http://www.schallertel.net/~rmasters/ yay. meal plans without scrounging through a million cookbooks and trying to figure out what we can actually eat (before 5:30pm). one more aspect of daily life i'm trying to organize.

you know those days... the kind when you look at your children and wonder where they came from... the kind when you wonder why on earth you ever thought having children was a good idea? the kind when you feel like the worst mother in the world because you haven't uttered anything in their general direction that wasn't delivered via yelling? the kind when you understand why some animals eat their young? yeah. it's one of those days.

do you ever feel at odds with yourself? i constantly feel like i'm a big wad of contradictions. and being the living-in-my-head, overthinking type i can spend years, i mean hours pondering things. it can really get me down. example: diapers. one would think that this was a relatively easy thing to handle. i've got 3 kids. i'm pretty familiar with diapers. it seems so simple; your baby needs a change so you take the old diaper off and put a new one on. done. right? no. i have this constant dilemma going on. cloth or disposable. i have 25 perfectly good fitted cloth diapers that i paid a lot of money for when i decided a couple years ago that i was done filling up landfills. so micah wears them a good share of the time. but it bugs me that they're so bulky, especially with the covers on and clothes fit funny and that totally drives me nuts. so at home, he just wears the diaper w/ no cover and when we leave the house, i put a disposable on him. not usually...

okay, after a discussion w/ mary about to do lists, i decided to go ahead and 'publish' mine. check it out, it's over there on the right, below my blog list. i had one started in a notebook that i had made in response to something i read in 'the procrastinator's handbook'. the idea is to make a list that's 101 items long. anything you can think of. well, i don't have that many, but quite a few. i put an * by something if it's something that has been worked on but not completed and an X in front of it if it's done. so go ahead and kick my butt if you don't see any *'s or X's showing up. in other news... now dave is sick. ::crossing my fingers::

remember this ? well, probably not because it's been so dang long. okay, i know mary remembers because she decided to harrass remind me about it recently. after 2 months of forgetting about giving up on this project, it was resurrected yesterday. okay, i can't claim responsibility. dave did it. somehow or other he got this bee in his bonnet to go clean out the garage. so he did, for a long time. and made good progress too! check it out! better, eh? and, the MOMS club is having a garage sale in a couple weeks, so i've got two boxes full of stuff i'm going to sell there, plus some baby stuff that we had listed unsuccessfully on craigslist, plus a few kitchen items that we got as wedding gifts and wound up not really needing - also listed unsuccessfully on craigslist. so yay! we just might succeed! someday... in other news... now shane has a fever. will it never end???

i noticed the spots on the bottom of one of layla's feet today. the fact that the inside of her mouth is full of sores made me suspicious. she's still having a tough time of it. she bounces back and forth between being almost back to normal and being completely miserable. no fever though, so i think we're on the mend, but the poor thing has got to be uncomfortable. micah is kind of the same. no fever, sometimes fine, sometimes very clingy and he hasn't wanted to eat a lot today. i haven't noticed anything on his hands or feet and there's no way he's letting me see inside his mouth, so who knows. but i assume he's got the same thing. they're both sleeping more than usual. layla didn't want to take a nap today, and then at 4, i found her passed out on the floor in the corner of her bedroom. she slept until after 6 and still hasn't totally come to. she's currently snuggling with daddy and watching the preseason niners game. so load...

... it would appear that layla has shared her germs with micah. joy. i thought he seemed a little off. layla seems to be feeling better today, but she's super, extra sensitive. right now she's screaming hysterically because shane flushed her poop. earlier, she decided she wanted to stick a corn poker in her peanut butter sandwich... one slice of bread was too thin and it wasn't working very well, so i offered to help her, which she accepted. i folded the peanut butter side over, and stuck the corn poker through that. she was impressed at first, but then something apparently tragic happened and she dissolved into hysterical crying and kept looking at her sandwich and screaming "it's dead. it's dead." over and over. i had a really hard time displaying appropriate sympathy without cracking up. i have no idea what she was talking about.

so this time it's layla who is sick. she woke up whiny today and i eventually became compelled to take her temperature. yup. she's sick. she said her throat hurt and then later she said her ears hurt. well that's a free ticket to the doctor. so we got her an appointment at 4:30. great. well, not exactly. we had a logistical dilemma of epic proportions. dave was at the dentist. we still only have one working car. the dr's office is in bellevue. shane had soccer practice at 5:30 back here in woodinville. so we tried to make it work. it didn't. dave finished with his dentist appointment around the time i was leaving to take layla (and shane and micah, because really, that was my only choice) to her appointment, so i picked him up (fortunately, the dentist is in redmond, which is on the way) and we all went to the dr. i took layla in and dave took the others to a swim shop to get shane's new goggles - yeah, we still hadn't managed to find those....

so yesterday morning, i was forced to get up very early and go wait around the YMCA to sign shane up for his homezone class. after sitting around for like 45 minutes in which time i filled out forms, drank coffee, tried to keep from dozing off, drank coffee, tried to read a book, and drank more coffee, they finally called my number. i gave them my forms and a check and they signed shane up for the proper day, etc. yay. one more thing done. on my way out, i noticed a beautiful classic VW bug. now, being a bug enthusiast, i took a minute (or 5) to do a walk around and check this bug out. it wasn't in perfect condition, but pretty close. it was red, late '60s i'd say. maybe '67 or '68. it looked something like this: but without the fancy hubcaps. i checked out all the places that i had 'issues' with mine and typical trouble spots. there was no rust to speak of. no bubbles under the paint near the chrome. the interior was fabulous! and... there was...

3 year old logic is great! layla was in the backyard today and she came up to the door with her lightning mcqueen bike helmet in her hands and said to me, "when i break my lightning mcqueen helmet, you better get me a princess one." (yes, mary. i am aware that my worst nightmare is unfolding before me.) dave brought home dairy queen treats when he went to pick up our pizza this evening. layla was very excited about this and wanted hers as soon as she was done with her pizza. we informed her that she had to eat her green beans first before she could have it. she's not so fond of them lately and made a little stink about not wanting to eat them. but we stuck to it and said she had to eat them first. so she turned to me and said, "mommy, you eat my beans so i can have my ice cream." then there was this conversation: layla: daddy, i want some blue jelly beans. dave: you don't need any jelly beans. layla: but i want some blue jelly beans! dave: no, layla. layla: ...

so it's not quite noon on sunday, and already we're totally wiped out. it's been outrageously hot here (for seattle) and it seems like stuff always happens all at the same time. here's just a short rundown, beginning friday afternoon. 1. went to target to buy new goggles for shane - they were out. 2. while at target, layla fell out of the shopping cart. yes, i know. mom of the year, right here! 3. she was okay. 4. went over to sports world since we had to go order shane's soccer shirt anyway. they didn't have any goggles, but i did get his shirt ordered and got him some black shorts and socks. practice starts tuesday this week. aaaaggghhh!!! 5. when we got back in the car, layla managed to get her fingers smashed in the car door. 6. again, she was okay. 7. went to the ymca for shane's swim test. he borrowed some goggles, and tested at fish level... impressive since he finished in june at minnow . he was stoked about that. 8. went to kat's birt...

1. What is in the back seat of your car right now? which back seat? car seats, trash, the 'jon and kate box' that has spare diapers, wipes, a bib, spare socks for the kids, spare pants and underwear for layla, uhhh... trash, foam animal hats from noah's birthday party, trash, 2 strollers, layla's sandals, some semi-crushed pirate's booty that layla dumped out of a cup, crumbs, dirt, a little potty, a wind-up doc hudson car, trash, who knows what else... trash. 2. When was the last time you threw up uhh, may 2007. the most awful episode of stomach flu that hit all members of our family. 3. What's your favorite curse word? dammit or crap, although crap isn't really cursing. 4. Name 3 people who made you smile today? shane, layla, micah (how convenient) 5. What were you doing at 8 am this morning? drinking coffee, feeding a baby, listening to layla tell me that she wanted 'milk on her life' 6. What were you doing 30 minutes ago? wasting time 7. What w...

i went to a funeral today. i don't know what to say about it. it was a funeral. it was long. it was a hot day. it made me feel sad. it was a nice service... as far as those things go. ed kaiser died about a week and a half ago. he was a long-time member of my church, and my dear friend, trudy's father. thank God i don't know what it's like to lose a parent, but when it happens to a friend, it makes you think about stuff you don't want to think about. ed spent a good share of the last year treating lymphoma. part of me wants to say that at least it wasn't a hugely long, painful process, but that doesn't make someone's death any nicer. i don't know what to think or what to say really to my friend or her family. i've not been there, so i don't know what the right thing to say is. 'i'm sorry.' doesn't really express much. well, i guess we should be thankful that ed is done with his cancer now and heaven is a much bett...

...when you have just stuck a spoonful of some mushy, gloppy, sticky substance into your baby's mouth and he immediately sneezes? all over you. and the floor. and the table. and the chairs. oh yeah.

ok, so i am a regular reader of dawn's blog at 'because i said so' over there on my blog list. she's hilarious and has a following of like a bazillion readers because of her hilarious ebay listing of pokemon cards that got sneaked into her shopping cart while grocery shopping w/ her 6 kids. anyway, every sunday night she does the 'sunday sound out' where she answers questions that people posted as comments on her blog. well, one of mine made it this week! woo hoo! i feel like i got a letter from the queen of england or something. anyway, there were a bunch of pictures she took from a recent camping trip and one of them was of a particular sign that is quite obviously phallic and therefore hilarious. my comment, the picture, and her response follows... OMG! the picture of that one sign has me ROFL. where was that and what was it 'supposed' to be a picture of??? i'm totally dying. my husband has to see that. LMAO. Clearly, it's indicating you shoul...

so i had a dinner disaster this week. it actually spanned 2 nights. i found a recipe online for black bean and bacon soup. it sounded good, so i decided to make it. on wednesday. so i soaked the beans over night and all the next day and late that afternoon, i started putting the soup together. everything was going fine until it was time for the soup to be done and the beans were still almost crunchy. huh? i think they left out a lengthy 'simmer' part of the directions on the recipe. so we made a mad dash into town and had a lovely dinner at taco del mar. on thursday evening, i put the pot back on the stove to simmer some more. i was noticing that the excess simmering was causing the soup to look really thick, so i added a little more broth to it, especially since the final direction of the oh-so-trustworthy-internet-recipe said to put it all in the blender and puree it. so when the beans were sufficiently not crunchy, i spooned the stuff into the blender and pureed a...

so maybe it's just because he's the youngest or because he's supposed to be my last and all that yada, yada, yada... but this kid just melts my heart. i know that everyone thinks their baby is the cutest in the world, but seriously, is he not adorable?

Make a Smilebox slideshow

the title of the ad is... "pee" you have got to be kidding me. nice. i think i need to quit writing about bathrooms.

look over there to the right. do you see it? the title of the ad that google has running right now is "public urination". LOL! how do i wind up with these things? somebody click on it please! i'm not allowed to click on my own ads (it's in the rules!) so someone else has to do it.

this one comes from layla... people in our house eat a lot of life cereal... or actually, now we eat shredded spoonfuls or whatever it's called since i discovered that life has lots of artificial ingredients and we're trying to eliminate as many of those as possible. this is the closest 'natural' stuff i can find. everyone thinks it tastes the same, which makes it a good trade. anyway, we still call it life because it's habit. and besides, there are so many good puns that come from that! like this one: "daddy, you need to get yourself some life!" nothing like a 3 year old telling you to get a life!

so a rather anticlimactic seafair sunday for us. watching the blue angels on tv is just not the same. then again after last year, being right on the water's edge, it's hard to follow up. i woke up this morning with the intention of taking layla and micah to church with me, leaving dave home with shane - who is better, but having an enforced day of rest. i managed to get up, shower and get dressed before i crawled back into bed and told dave i didn't want to go. so he got up and took them. it seems i've been struck down with a stupid cold. it's august! why are we sick?