Mistakes in Motherhood

We are home from vacation, and things are back to the way they should be. Our house desperately needs cleaned, laundry is at a healthy level. The princess is fighting with the littlest prince, she has learned to tattle in her little baby way. She points at something, glares at it, and then in gibberish tells me all about it. I have appointments galore, I need to make a trip to Costco and the regular grocery store, and Bobby is already planning his next business trip. Yes, life is how it should be.

No Comments | In: A lot about nothing | tags: Confessions, Domestic Diva, Family, Lame-o, Me, Vacations. | #

It is 6:45 and I have been up in a quiet house for 2 hours now. It was super hot last night so we opened at window, and some baby birdies outside my window decided I needed to be up before 5am. I shut the window, but the damage was done so I got up and showered, played around on Facebook, chatted with some friends, and did some laundry.

We are over on the other side of the state right now, we drove over for my grandparents 60th wedding anniversary at my parent’s cabin in Idaho. We came back into town to see friends, and will go back on the weekend for a family reunion before returning home early next week. We packed for the 90 degree Eastern WA weather, and ended up freezing our butts off in the cold Idaho-in-the-woods weather.

It is nice being in the same state as my sister and parents. It was even nicer that my other sister could come over from Montana and we could spend the weekends together. When we go home, I know we will all be sad, but it is nice to know we are only 300 miles from “home”.

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I am so sore today, I have found all the muscles in my body, especially in my butt. This morning while crawling into my van I actually checked to see if I was sitting on something…. nope, it was just my swollen glutes. My hands felt bruised when holding the steering wheel. I felt beat up. How did I sustain these injuries? Well, for one, it was a direct result of not listening. It was a secondary response to me not realizing when I was out of my league.

Let’s start at the beginning. Yesterday I was bored. It was 2pm and I was up the night before until 4am so I was feeling tired and stir crazy and I decided a nice fall walk in the unseasonably warm weather would be just what I need. I posed an invitation to my local friends on Facebook to suggest a great place to visit with the baby on my back, the three kids on foot, and our two large dogs. It was suggested that I take the kids & dogs to Helen Hunt Falls. I stopped by the grocery store on the way and got energy bars and we had water bottles, a backpack and were ready to go. My GPS could not find Helen Hunt falls, so I set it to Seven Falls, a pay-to-visit area nearby the free Helen Hunt Falls. I now know this was my first mistake.

It was a beautiful drive once I got to the Broadmoor area of town. The temperature was near perfect, the air was clean and crisp. The trees were a lush array of yellows and reds and there was a small dusting of leaves below them. The red rocks towered above us, as the road narrowed to a small guard-post where we paid our $20 entrance fee. This is what lead to the second mistake.

We head a couple miles up a very narrow road to the parking area and chaotically unload kids and pets and jackets and packs. I put the baby in a pack on my back and take the Great Dane. Christopher gets the backpack as the Golden Retriever is too much for him to handle. The dogs excitedly yank us up the hill to the falls pulling us to each new person, smell, chipmunk, or dog.

The visitor center had a small walk-through next to a stream on the left of it. The water was crystal clear and small fish swam around. If you have ever been to Disney and been on splash mountain, you will remember how happy the ride was until moments before you took the death defying plunge to the bottom. I felt much this way as the stairs emerged before us. Remember where I said paying $20 was my second mistake? That is because I figured if we paid for it, we might as well enjoy it, right? So the sign at the bottom of the falls warn you that the climb is 224 steps. Two HUNDRED and twenty four.

It was probably around step 50 and the dogs freaked out with the height that I realized what a huge mistake I had made. I was cursing the friend who recommended this death trap and feeling overwhelmed by a 95 pound dog who’s attitude about the steps is to just run up as fast as she could to get it over with, dragging me and the baby along with her.

At the first platform we took a small break to drink a little water and mentally prep for the second climb. There was another woman with a tiny toy poodle and a baby. My dogs were trying to mess with the puppy and felt like they were pulling our arms out of our sockets in order to sniff the puppy. When the stairs cleared I decided we had better press on while we could.

It was about halfway up the second set of stairs that I felt like my lungs were about to explode. Matthew was scared and clinging to the rails, Isis was trying to drag me up to be with Austin and Chloe, and I feel like I am going to die. There were people waiting at the top to climb down so I pressed on, red faced, out of shape, and winded.

At the top of the stairs, there was another 2 hour round trip to Helen Hunt’s burial site, but at 4pm I started freaking out that we had started way too late, that I was exhausted, and most importantly that we had to get the dogs back down those steps, potentially in the dark! Austin and I were deciding how we were going to get the dogs down the stairs and I think we had just decided that when we got back to the stairs, that Austin and Chris would go down with one dog, and Chris would wait at the bottom with the one dog, while Austin would climb back up to get the other dog and head down again. At about this time a gentleman approached us and said that they would be closing the path soon and that he would be happy to take one of the dogs down half way for us so I could use two hands to hold onto the rail with the baby on my back. On the middle landing, a young gentleman offered to take the dog the rest of the way down so our first volunteer could wait for his wife to come down the stairs.

About this time I was feeling pretty bummed that we could not finish our hike, so we decided to take the mountain elevator to the other side of the canyon to see views of the falls.

The falls were gorgeous, although I do wish they had been more swollen with water. I bet in the spring when the snow is melting they are an amazing sight.

I will really miss the red rocks of Colorado. By this time I was already looking forward to taking another hike through Garden of the Gods one last time before we leave Colorado.

Sophie was pretty bored with the whole trip, she didn’t quite understand why I would not let her climb up the stairs that were no more than plastic steps supported by a single beam in the center of the steps and handrails.

The little boys had a good time, even if they did not get to finish the hike.

We took the scenic drive on the way home and decided I would take the boys out to dinner for the fist time in months after I showered. While in the shower I realized that my friend had NOT recommended Seven Falls, where we had gone. But a lesser waterfall down the road in a free area without any stairs! Next time I will run in and mapquest driving directions to any place that my GPS cannot find, and I won’t push the kids and dogs and I up an area that is too much for us. I don’t regret the trip at all, I just wish we had left the dogs at home and gone earlier to be able to take the two hour hike.

1 Comment | In: People, Places & Things, This is how I roll | tags: Family, Fur Babies/Pets, Insanity, Me, Photography, Vacations. | #

*Now, with working pictures!!*

Wow, what a whirlwind of the last 3 months. I had a GLORIOUS summer. First vacation was up to Glenwood Hot Springs a few hours northeast of here in Glenwood Colorado.

The drive was gorgeous, the kids loved all the tunnels and the hot springs were amazing. The pool was a city block and so comfortable. Sophie fell asleep floating in my arms several times.

The next weekend we went to Canon City about an hour from here to camp in these amazing little one bedroom (sleeps 6) cabin with a full kitchen and bathroom. We stayed at a Yogi Bear campground, so the kids were super busy with activities and contests. Austin did an essay for a contest on his dad since we were there for father’s day and made me cry.

As soon as we were unpacked from Yogi I packed up the 4 kids and two large dogs and drove 1200 miles to visit my family. I got to spend a few days in Montana with my oldest sister and her 5 little ones (sorta, two teens, a tween, the youngest two are the most adorable twin toddler girls!!) After that I went to my parents land in Idaho where we spent the 4th of July on the beach, picked huckleberries, and enjoyed each others company. My grandparents came over from Montana to see us and it was so wonderful to see them again. Then we headed back to Spokane were we went back and forth between Spokane and the cabin in Idaho for the rest of the month. I also got to see my other sister and her two kids who are just amazing kids. My niece writes music and plays them on the guitar and athletic and confident and just a remarkable young woman. Here are a few pictures of our time in Priest Lake:

Two days after we returned from Idaho, Bobby came home from Iraq for 3 weeks. Our anniversary is July 28th and he flew home the afternoon of the 27th so with the help of my friend Tracie I was able to plan an amazing little getaway. We went to a super nice restaurant in town and then I surprised him with an overnight stay in a gorgeous suite at a 4 star hotel at the Cliff House in Manitou Springs. They had a bottle of wine and chocolate covered strawberries and a rose waiting for us when we arrived.

Then we were off for our family vacation to Disney World!! The kids had NO idea where we were going so when we missed our flight they were super bummed. A night at the Hilton near the airport and all was forgotten.

When we finally made it to Orlando we had so much fun. The weather was hot and muggy but we did not mind. The park was crowded and the lines were long but we barely noticed. By the end of the day we were so happy we had rented a house and had our own rooms to go to and a full kitchen so we could just grab a bowl of cereal and crash for the night. We spent two days at the Magic Kingdom.

Then we spent a day in Epcot, which really was not enough!

We also spent a day at Animal Kingdom, where my camera battery promptly died and a rushed day at Hollywood Studios because we were having a little get together with three families who live in Florida whom I have been friends with for seven years. Talk about a fun night!! The kids got along great, the men folk hit it off instantly, and we girls had a blast talking the night away.

Bobby’s vacation was over before we knew it and the boys headed back to school. Austin and Christopher are both in middle school this year and Matthew is in his last year of preschool.

They are enjoying school, except Austin had a problem with his math teacher. She was bullying him and talking down to him since day one. She seemed to single him out. Anyone who knows Austin knows this kid is a golden child. Today he *asked* me if he could put my laundry away for me and folded a basket of laundry without being asked and then put it away. The same child I heard tell his brothers “lets keep the kitchen clean, mom worked hard on it today”. Well his breaking point was when he was sitting on his feet so he could see his math book, he’s short like we are and the desks are bigger this year. The teacher yelled at him to sit on his butt and when he explained he could not see if he sat that way she told him “maybe you need to have your mommy send you in with a booster seat?!” Austin did not say anything, but went to the principal to demand a new teacher because he was tired of being treated like dirt and then having her demand his respect. The school still has not called to tell me of this incident or to apologize, but I have not called them either as I kind of fell like this is Austin’s battle, not mine and he is handling it like a true warrior!

Christopher has his ups and downs. On one hand he is helping out more to earn money to replace games he lost of Austin’s, he mowed the lawn for me tonight. On the other hand he is having problems with doing what he needs to do in a timely matter (getting ready for school, completing homework, etc) and he has had a few outbursts here and there that are uncalled for.

Matthew is having a hard time with preschool this year, he’s having some major separation issues and clings to me at drop-off. Once I leave he is fine, but man he wrenches at my heart strings. Today I was listening to music and he said to me “I sure like this song about them living in a lallow sub-barine!!” He’s a funny boy.

Other than that, we are trying to adjust to Sophie’s moods. She’s getting 4 molars in right now and her 4 front teeth are still trying to come in the rest of the way. If that is not bad enough, because of teething she is getting horrible bleeding diaper rashes so both ends are hurting her. She is talking up a storm and says “here you go” “go bye?” “yogurt” “mommy” “Austin” among all her other words. She’s a smart little thing and made her toy say bye-bye by cycling through other sounds until it came back to bye-bye again when I was pressuring her to wave bye-bye to me.

Bobby and I are doing well, 5 more months until he gets home and I am just trying to stay busy to help move time. I am also trying to get healthier and keep my house cleaner. I am trying to get into the habit of going to the gym on M, W & F when I drop the kids off at school. I have already started to see and feel changes in myself.

So, if you have made it this far, here is my massive update of why I have been MIA. I am hoping be around a little more now that school has started. If you want a link to *all* my Disney pics the link is here.

1 Comment | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Austin, Bobby, Christopher, Family, Finances, Matthew, Me, Photography, Silliness, Sophia, Vacations. | #

I have not had much time to update my blog, let alone breath, but I have a moment as we are just getting home camping in Canon City. The weekend before we were in Glenwood Spring at the hot springs for Sophie’s little friend Winter’s birthday, her party was Saturday. Seventeen days ago, my own little Sophia had her very first birthday. I am just in disbelief that my teeny tiny princess is already a year old. How time flies!! She’s got such a huge personality for such a teeny tiny little thing. She’s not walking or standing up yet by herself, but she is pulling up on stuff and walking along furniture A LOT. I imagine she will be 13-14 months before she walks, just like the rest of my kids.

Next week we will be driving home to WA state to go spend time with my family for 3-4 weeks, and then we will come home in time for Bobby to come home on leave for 3 weeks. We are planning a huge surprise family vacation, but I am not saying where until the airplane tickets are purchased and the vacation home rented. The kids start back at school 2 days before Bobby heads back to Iraq.

No Comments | In: People, Places & Things, This is how I roll | tags: Austin, Bobby, Christopher, Domestic Diva, Family, Matthew, Me, Milestones, Sophia, Vacations. | #

Tomorrow we are going to the Aquarium up in Denver as a Christmas gift from my mom (she sent us cash to spend, we decided a mini-vacation would be how to spend it). But because of the weather we decided to ditch our plans of hitting the zoo in addition to the aquarium and were looking for a secondary place to visit.

We have already gone to the museum of science & nature, a cool robot zoo was closed on Mondays, the children’s museum is too juvenile for the pre-teens, and about the only thing left was a theme restaurant with cliff diving & shootouts, or a bug museum. Matthew was still up so we were bouncing ideas off of him to see what HE wanted to do, this is how the conversation went down.

Me: “Hey Matthew, tomorrow we are going to see the fish at that aquarium!”
Matthew: “Oh no, the fish will BITE me!!”
Me (laughing): “No they won’t… how about we go to the zoo??”
Matthew: “Nooo mommy, the birds will bite me!”
Me: “Ok Matthew, how about the butterfly house?”
Matthew (wide eyed): “MOMMY! The butterfly will bite me!!”
Me (laughing harder): “Ok then son, where do you want to go. What do you want to do that’s fun??”
Matthew: “I know! We can go to the dentist!!”

It took Bobby and I a moment to compose ourselves.. he is such a goofball.

No Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Humor, Matthew, Vacations. | #

Sorry for the lack of posting, I have my hands full with my fourth now being mobile and getting the most out of hubby’s last two weeks here in town. I do have a lot of mini updates though I wanted to share with you all.

On the 22nd I took Sophie to Children’s Hospital in Aurora to meet with one of the best pediatric rheumotologists in the state, he was amazing and super sweet. He told me that Sophie is healing well from her reaction to my antibodies and she should outgrow her neonatal lupus really soon. He did tell me new studies suggest that she is at a higher risk of having Lupus sometime in her lifetime (10% chance) and that will become a 20% chance if I am diagnosed with Lupus myself.

Last week, Matthew reminded us that Bobby and I are setting a bad example in our play talk. He was wanting some cereal and Bobby was finishing up something and I was busy with the baby and so it took him a couple minutes to get Matthew is cereal. When Bobby got into the kitchen, Matthew responded “thanks for getting your ass up to get me some cereal” in the sweetest and most chipper tone. We had him repeat it because we thought we must have misheard. Once it was clear he was using trucker talk (and apparently mommy & daddy talk) we told him that was a naughty word and not to use it again. We then proceeded to bust a gut as soon as he was in bed for the night.

Christmas went well, the kids not only did not seem to notice the scaled back amount of gifts, the also did not care and seemed to enjoy their gifts even more this year than normal!! Cash Christmas all the way from here on out!! We got some lovely family gifts that will allow us to have a great “staycation” when we go visit a nearby aquarium and zoo in a neighboring city as a family. It will also afford us a membership to the local zoo. We also get to go pick out a new game for the family and my sister made us an incredible photo album from my visit up north this summer. I have a very thoughtful family!!

Bobby’s passport came without incident even though we did not expedite it. I give them props, they were SUPER fast! Now all that is left is an updated drivers license, and some legal paperwork.

Sophie got her first babydoll today (well, technically yesterday), it’s a darling little plus baby in a pea pod. She ADORES it. She also got to ride in the cart at the grocery store sitting all by herself and balanced very well. She loves to babble and her favorite sound right now is “da-da”. It melts our hearts.

We had our annual New Year’s gluttony feast too this year. Apparently my children think “get any kind of junk food you want, this is the one day of the year you can eat junk food” translates into getting a fruit salad platter and a cheese tray. Don’t get me wrong, they did get fried chicken, and doughnuts, but overall I was very impressed with their choices when allowed to have “anything in the store”. I am just glad this is once a year, my poor grocery budget for the next two weeks almost DOUBLED! YIKES! Junk food is expensive!

No Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Family, Finances, Health, Holidays, Humor, Insanity, Matthew, Parenting, Ramblings, Silliness, Sophia, Updates, Vacations. | #

Saturday we left to spend the weekend in Alamosa. We rented a ‘Kabin’ at the KOA because it was the only way to get DH to agree to it since he HATES tent camping (I don’t mind, but was not looking forward to it with 4 kids, one being 2 months old, and 2 large dogs). DH had Monday off, so we spent three days, and two nights and the trip was a ton of fun.

The purpose of the trip was to go to the Great Sand Dunes National Park, talk about a BEAUTIFUL place to go, and silly me, I forgot my camera. The sand was so soft, it was like sticking your feet into silk. We set up the lawn chairs in the shade and the kids splashed around in Medano creek and had a blast building dams and sand castles.

We also stayed up late and roasted marshmallows and ate s’mores and enjoying each others company. Bobby loved that we had a charcoal grill and a campfire to cook over, he is somewhat resentful that I insisted be buy a gas grill because I wanted to be able to use it too.

On the way home, we puttered around in San Luis, the oldest town in Colorado, established in 1851 and Fort Garland, which was built in 1858 to protect settlers and abandon 30 years later. It was commanded by Kit Carson, who is the namesake to Fort Carson, Bobby’s current place of employment and his last duty station while he was in the Army.

On the first night, we were sitting around the fire, looking at the stars and enjoying the silence (all 4 kids were sleeping inside) and some coyotes started to howl in the north; soon some coyotes south of us joined in. There must have been 10 coyotes howling all around us when a cow mooed and the coyotes abruptly stopped howling and did not start up again for almost a full minute. Bobby and I bust up laughing and I don’t think I would have believed it had I not heard it with my own ears.

2 Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Austin, Bobby, Christopher, Family, Matthew, Me, Sophia, Vacations. | #

I am finally back from my 3 week long vacation in Spokane and I totally need a vacation! The short version

• 3 weeks away from home
• 4 kids- ages 12, 10, 3, and 1 month
• Just me, Bobby did not come
• 3400 miles driven total
• Four 12 hour days of driving

Every year I try to send Austin & Christopher to see my parents, either by flying them up to Washington alone, or by flying or driving with them. Last year we flew them up first, then Bobby, Matthew and I drove up together and then the five of us drove back together. The trip from Colorado to Washington is about 1200 miles each way.

This year Bobby did not have enough vacation time and it was even more important for me to go because my dad is having some health issues and because I wanted my family to meet Sophia. I knew it would not be easy to drive that far with a 4 week old and a 3 year old, but they were actually very good. My van has a DVD player in the back and all the jacks necessary to hook up a game system, so the three boys brought their Gamecube and kept themselves entertained while the baby slept through most of the drive. We made a point to stop once or twice a day at parks along the way to get the kids out of the car. In Billings the hotel we stayed at had a pool with a water slide and the five of us unwound in the pool, which was heavenly after the long drive.

My dad looked amazing, we don’t know what is causing his health problems, but he has to be on oxygen and we are all pretty bummed about that because my dad leads such an active lifestyle and the oxygen pretty much keeps him tied down. My dad is a non-smoker, and the doctors had no answers to why he is having breathing problems, despite spending a week in the ICU.

While we were there we visited with Bobby’s nieces and nephew who we met last year for the first time. To make a long story short, Bobby and his brother had a falling out. We have always liked ex-SIL, but lost contact with her when we moved away. I met her back in 1997 when she introduced us to her oldest daughter, R., despite her husband’s (Bobby’s brother) wishes. I found BIL on myspace, contacted his girlfriend who gave me his ex-wife’s number, and we have been in frequent contact since.

Here is a picture of her youngest daughter with my youngest daughter. Click to see a larger image.

And here is a picture of her three and my four.

From Left to right is Austin -12, B. – 9, and Matthew – 3
Christopher – 10, A. – 6, R. – 11, and Sophie – 5 weeks.

In addition to spending time with my parents and his family, we also got to go to Faragut National Park in Idaho for a family reunion. My mom and her sisters and their families get together once a year for a long weekend campout. Since my dad could not stay the night and I did not want to camp with a baby, we drove back and forth each day (1 hour drive each way). My sister kept Austin and Christopher with her so they were able to stay the night. Matthew loved playing in the dirt as you can see.

It was so nice to spend the weekend with my sisters, Aunts and uncles, cousins, and all their kids. My oldest sister made me the nicest gifts ever, she is so talented. She scrapbooked a little brag book, and hand painted Sophia’s name on wooden letters, she also got her the most darling little outfit. All three were in Sophie’s colors, pink and brown, which I did not know were also my sister’s colors. I need to take and share some pictures, the scrapbook has got to be about the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen, I wish I had an ounce of her talent.

We also spent a lot of time up at their cabin in Priest Lake Idaho. The older boys stayed a little over a week up there with my parents, where the little ones and I drove back and forth a couple times (2 hour drive) since the cabin is unsafe with exposed electrical and a loft without rails. They are building it themselves, so they are waiting for inspections and such, and with my dad’s health issues, they did not expect the process to take so long. Since they are only a couple miles from the lake, we spent almost all our time at the lake. Click on the pictures below to see larger images.

Time flew by so fast, I only got to spend a couple hours with my best friend of 28 years, and my best friend of 14 years.

My mom started the potty for penny campaign with Matthew, and now he is almost potty trained, I am so proud! He is now peeing in the potty with maybe one or two accidents a day, and rarely needs reminding. Even more shocking is that he is pooping in the potty, something we could not get him to do when we almost had him trained a few months ago!

Leaving was bittersweet, I was so homesick and missed Bobby so much, but I did not want to leave either. I had such a wonderful time with my parents, and the boys were ready to leave me forever and live with their grandparents forever. My 11 year anniversary is tomorrow, and school starts in 2 weeks, so it was necessary to return. On the drive home, I did get some amazing pictures of Sophie, you can’t tell in the pictures, but her eyes almost looked violet in the light.

She was so good in the car, she only cried when she wanted to nurse. The rest of the time she either slept or just looked around contently, or smiling at her brothers.

4 Comments | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Austin, Auto Stuff, Bobby, Christopher, Family, Friends, Health, Holidays, Insanity, Marriage, Matthew, Me, School, Sophia, Vacations, Vehicle(s). | #

Wow, what a rush. If I missed you while we were in town, SORRY, we were double & triple booked the entire trip and I just could not make time for everyone.

In a nutshell, we drove for 2 days total, saw my family, saw his family, saw some friends, met his brother’s family for the first time, camped, boated, swam, go, go, go, go, go!

The kids were all good, the drive was too long, and we did not NEARLY have enough time. I really miss my family and I wish we lived close enough to see them anytime I wanted to.

No Comments | In: A lot about nothing | tags: A lot about nothing, Family, Vacations. | #