Woe is Me

**This post is completely whiny.  If you don't want to hear it, don't read it.  And, I realize everything I'm whining about is self-inflicted, so please do not feel the need to point that out.  That being said, when it comes to planning family activities, I am but 1/4 of the vote.**


We are busy.  I know I've said that in previous posts, but I was just being a big ol' whiner then.  I know someday I'll look back at this post and think the same thing.  But, let me list our winter activities for you, by kid.
Elise:  ski racing team, piano, Girl Scouts, gymnastics
Jerod:  basketball, piano


I realize that may seem a little underwhelming at first glance, but this is what our weekly schedule looks like:

Monday:  Ski practice from 6-8p, Basketball practice for an hour, starting at either 6,7, or 8p depending on the week.
Tuesday:  Elise's piano lesson 5:15-6:15p, and, if it's the 2nd Tuesday of the month, Girl Scouts from 4:00-5:15p
Wednesday:  Ski practice form 6-8p
Thursday:  Jerod's piano lesson, scheduled for 4:15 (but with weekly texts from his teacher asking to change it... to 5, or 6, or  6:15, or 6:30, depending on the week), Basketball game at 6,7, or 8p... ya know, depending on the week, and gymnastics from 6-7p.


Other interesting facts about our lives/schedules include the following:

• Both kids also go to school.  Including bus time, this spans from 9:00a-4:15p, M-F
• If the above mentioned piano lessons are going to be worth even a small part of the cha-ching cha-ching ching we're dropping on them, both kids really need to be practicing on a daily basis.
• Chris has already started training for next summer's marathons, and he's doing it in true Chris fashion:  full-throttle.  He has an online coach who prescribes each week's mileage for him.  By this time on Sunday, he will have run 50 miles this week.  Next week's schedule calls for 54.  
• Not long after we moved into this house (7+ years ago), Chris decided he was done driving to work. Coinciding with that decision was the thought process that he no longer had need for his own set of wheels, so we are a one car family.  
• Chris has started a side business (patentcore.com) which, not surprisingly, takes a lot of time.  In addition to that, he is busier in his day job than he's been in the 11+ years of his career. Back in the day he was typically home by 5:00.  Reality has slapped us in the face.  He's now typically out of the home life equation until 6, unless I hound/guilt him into catching the early bus home. 
• This past fall I decided that I wanted to become a mentor with Bolder Options, thus committing myself to spending a couple of hours a week with a 13 year old girl who is 'at-risk.'  This part of my crazy schedule I really enjoy, minus the transportation challenges created by only having one car.

As is the case with pretty much any topic, I have lots of opinions on all this.  Since I've been more than a little trigger happy with the bullets lately, and since I can barely string together a coherent thought, I'll use them again here.

• We have become the hyper-scheduled, over-extended family that I really never wanted to be.
• My kids are being exposed to a wide array of experiences, hopefully developing a life-long appreciation for arts, sport, and an active lifestyle.  
• Something's got to go.  If not, this family needs a second car.
• As the stay-at-home mom in this convoluted equation, I'm wearing quite a few hats (lunch assembler, launderer, bookkeeper, piano practice facilitator, homework assistant, and shuttle service provider, occasional classroom volunteer, to name a few).  Trouble is, you see, I'm not doing any of them particularly well.  
• On Mondays and Wednesdays, and frequently Thursdays, kids are waking up anywhere between 7 and 8:30am, hitting the bus at 9am, coming home at 4:15p; and frequently needing to be out the door for the evening activity (which, let's face it, should usually be plural: activities) by 5:30.  On ski nights and 8p basketball nights, nobody's realistically getting to bed before 9:30.  Heck, last night was a 7p basketball night and the kids were still up well past that 9:30 mark.  
• I guess it's just due to the fact that I've always had piss-poor time management skills, but we are typically not getting to piano practice.
• On Tuesdays, where all we typically have is a 5:15-6:15 piano lesson, I feel like we're on vacation.

The good news, at least for the next few weeks, is that despite this weekday craziness, our weekends are pretty much free.  The bad news is that my attitude is in the toilet.  I'm tired of having to figure out transportation when our one car can't get us to two places at once (despite the fact that we have awesome friends and family who frequently help-- shout out to the Klukow family and Donna).  I'm tired of feeling like I dropped the ball when we don't get to piano practice in a day.  I'm tired of taking 10 minutes out of the already harried morning schedule to rush Chris (who is frequently running late due to the enormous amount of miles he's logging on most mornings) to the bus stop. I'm tired of having to pack lunches because the school lunches are complete crap.  I'm tired of putting meals on the table that my kids won't eat.  I'm tired of requests to change J's piano lesson.  I'm tired of being the person that's never supposed to be tired because she doesn't have a wage earning job.

In short, I guess I'm just tired.  Winter break is upon us, and we'll have a nice little break from many of these activities.  Hopefully the new year will recharge me.  Let's hope.

My Week

Highlights of my last week include, but are not limited to:

• A really, really awesome Halloween
• Assisting my kids' school nurse with vision screening of about a bazillion first and second graders  
• Multiple incidents of my nine year old son sharting in his pants while trying to get to the bathroom (not exactly a new issue, but one we haven't had to visit for a long time, though in my not-so-humble opinion not long enough) 
• A revelation from the nine year old that he doesn't want to poo at school for fear of the toilet overflowing, so he's simply been pinching his penny and holding it in
• Asking previously mentioned nine year old if he needed an enema (I dare say, if you haven't had the experience of having such a conversation with your child, your parenting journey is not complete... and I wish you an incomplete journey)
• A call from the school nurse (after school was out, but before the kids had arrived home on the bus) telling me, that, despite the fact that she'd received a call from Jerod's teacher saying he was headed to health office and looked sick and pale, she'd never seen him  (Don't worry if you're confused.  This one still confuses me.)
• A call less than a minute later from the bus barn saying that Jerod was feeling very, very bad on the bus, so the driver was re-routing the whole load of kiddos so that Jerod could be dropped off next
• The sinking feeling of putting 2+2 together and realizing that my kid DID indeed need the enema, but I had been too spineless to push the issue because, let's face it, who REALLY wants to administer such a procedure on her own offspring
• The even more sinking feeling of realizing that my spinelessness resulted in my kid becoming so backed up with poo in his rectum and intestine that he was having severe cramping and pain so intense that he could barely walk off the bus and needed to be carried into the house by his mom and would, eventually, vomit due to the extent of discomfort
• A trip to the ER 
• Jerod barfing all over the scale at he ER (then looking up at the nurse with his sweet, pale, sick face with tears welling up in his eyes and saying "I'm so sorry.")
• A different nurse, who, bless his heart, had a horribly over-simplified view of this issue and repeatedly insinuated that the reason we were facing this issue is that Jerod is a couch potato and plays too many video games.  
• An absolutely incredible P.A. who more than made up for the shortcomings of the stupid nurse.  Needless to say, this situation sucked on about a bazillion different levels.  However, it did lead me to that rare experience of seeing someone doing what she was no doubt born to do.  Her bedside manner was unparalleled to any I've ever seen... simply amazing.  
• An enema administered by the stupid nurse, and the subsequent elimination of what seemed to be two metric tons of poo; immediately after which, Jerod said, "I can walk, I can jump, I'm HUNGRY!"
• The pleasure of getting to call my kid's teacher for the 'I don't know what your policy is, but if J needs to go to the bathroom, then, for the love of all that's good and holy, let him go to the bathroom' conversation
• A reminder of how much it sucks to be in a hospital with a sick kid, how incredibly exhausting it is even when the issue is minor, and how unbelievably blessed I am to have kids who are generally healthy and happy
• A reminder of how fortunate my family is to have insurance and access to quality healthcare... ya know, for when I completely drop the ball as a mom and my kid needs to go to the ER for an enema

Since I'm blogging for the first time in ages, I'm going to go ahead and throw in some Halloween pics.  

Camp and Parenthood and Fun and Fears and All that Good Stuff

This lovely six year old girl is at camp this week.

I think I could likely write on this fact for hours. I will try to restrain myself. But not completely. And before reading this post, you might want to read this post.

As a family, this is our fourth year at the fabulous Camp Tanadoona. It's an awesome place, and our kids have loved the time they've spent at day camp there. However, this year when the catalog came in the mail, way back in the dead of winter when the ground had umpteen inches of snow on it and we were making the most of all nine of our degrees, Chris pointed out to all of us that there was a mini-resident camp for kids ages 6-10. Upon being asked, Elise responded without hesitation: I WANT TO GO. Not terribly surprising coming from her, especially when I think back to the fits she threw the year I was taking Jerod and she wasn't yet old enough to go (see the linked post above). Jerod's take on the situation was that he needed to see whether or not his buddies could go. He ultimately stayed home.

My response? Well, let's just say I was a little more on the fence. Six seems pretty young for this sort of thing; and when I was leaving her on Sunday, I was thinking six seemed REALLY young for this sort of thing. However, she was ready! She begrudgingly let us take the picture you see above, but all in all, she could not ditch us quickly enough.

I have talked before about the weirdness involved with leaving your kids at camp (again, see the linked post above). As a parent with kids at the ages and stages of mine, it is just beyond strange to have ZERO contact with them. My experience as a camp counselor does reassure me. I know kids love camp (what's not to love really), and I know the staff is well trained to deal with it if they don't. If there were a problem, I would be contacted. This is what I have to keep telling myself. No news is not only good news, it also likely means she's having the time of her life.

I know that opinions on whether a six year old should spend three nights at camp are likely all over the board. Ultimately I needed to be talked into it. I have a few thoughts for those of you who think I'm completely nuts.

1. You're right. I am 100% nuts. This is not up for discussion

2. No two kids are alike, and to make a blanket statement that no six year old should go to a camp like this would just be silly.

3. Parental fear is not a good reason to NOT let a kid do something.

(It's probably important that I mention here that I'm not writing this as a rant in response to someone who has judged me on this issue. I'm simply working through the oddness that is having only one child at home this week.)

I'm going to elaborate on number three a bit. I'm at a stage in life where I'm coming to the realization that I've probably let fear have just a little too much control over my life. Not that I'd change anything, and not that I'd really say that fear has ever debilitated me; but, in my life, I have trended toward doing what is safe and easy. I could go on and on, but that is a post for another day.

Thankfully, I have a fun loving adventurous husband who provides balance for my kiddos. I am thankful he brought up mini-resident camp and talked me into it, and here's why: I believe that there is some value in letting a kid take the plunge. Truth be told, Elise is too busy being her father's daughter to know anything about fear or doubt. I think that is completely awesome. She knew she could do it, and if I'd told her no, I'd have sent a message to her saying I didn't think she was capable. There's a big, bad world out there waiting to teach her all about fear and doubt; so I don't need to take on that task. My job is to say, "Yes you can!".

So, there you go. This is slightly deeper than my 'gee it's hot out there post.' My 2.2 readers must be completely dazed and confused right now.

Anyhoo... Elise is at camp. I hope she's having a heckuva time, but I can't wait to see her tomorrow!

Feelin' Hot Hot Hot

Oh my word... I am in the midst of my 11th summer in this great state. For 11 years, I've stated that Minnesotans don't know what heat is. I hereby retract that statement. Depending on your source, it's somewhere between 95 and 98 degrees right now, and the heat index is somewhere between 111 and 120 degrees.

It is simply criminal that a place that endured the winter we just went through should have to deal with this. Ugh.

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Yeah Right...

A blog post every day... who am I kidding?

It's been a busy few days. Previously mentioned camping trip was canceled, initially due to chance of rain. I think the rain may have stayed away from our intended destination (Lake Lillian, MN), but heat indexes were over 100 degrees. Ish.

On Friday Elise and her pal Emma were scheduled for soccer camp. Emma's brother was going to hang with Jerod and me. Long story short (rain!), we ended up at The Works. Love, love, love the fact that this place is a five minute drive from my house. Elise and Emma got a kick out of the mirror. After Emma and Porter went on their merry way, the rain continued. It rained, and rained, and rained, and rained. We made the perfect lazy day of it. We went out to lunch, then headed to the $2 movie to see 'Rio.' Since it was STILL raining in the evening, we had some family Wii time. Jerod put on a little costume (see below). Makes a momma proud.

An Attempt

I'm going to try to commit to a nearly daily blogpost for one month. This should be good, hee hee! I can tell you the fam's going camping this weekend. So I will drop the ball on Saturday and Sunday, if not before.

Anyhoo...


This week has been all about soccer for Miss Elise. Soccer camp is taking place each morning, and she played her last game of the summer house league season last night. I wish I were more of a fan, because this girl LOVES her soccer. Depending on who you ask, she scored somewhere betweet four and seven goals last night. She's like buttah... she'll be in a cluster of girls trying to get to the ball, and all of a sudden she'll squeeze out, dribbling the ball like a pro, and frequently put it in the goal. Yeah... I'm bragging. It's damn impressive if you ask me. And, I also think she's pretty cute.

Watermelon Salad on the Food Network

Watermelon Salad on the Food Network

Whipped this up yesterday. I have a new favorite summer food. Uh-maze-ing.

Summer 2011, Day 1

There seems to be some debate about what constitutes the first day of summer. We bumped into one of Jerod and Elise's buddies from church while at the grocery store today. When I asked him how his first day of summer was going, he informed me that his first day of summer had been on Saturday. I suppose he's correct, but for me, this is the first week day where I haven't had to pack a backpack or get anyone to the bus. Thus, today is the first day of summer.

We have been busy little bees lately. Soccer started before school ended. Throw that in with all the end of the year stuff for school and you get a pretty busy few weeks from mid-May until June 10th.

Here is a random selection of photos from our oh, so thrilling lives lately.

Jerod on his 9th birthday. He had a great school year, and is looking forward to starting baseball tomorrow.

This is what you will frequently find Elise doing these days. Thank God I don't care about clean walls and door jambs.

This lovely young lady is my niece. She graduated from Larned High School in May. Circumstances were such that I was the only Holt of Bernard Place that was able to make it. It was a nice get-away. Chris got a good taste of my daily life while I was gone :)

My Name is Anne and I am....

suffering from PMS and a small amount of anxiety this week. My husband would likely use more colorful language if you asked him. I won't type all the things I think and feel on that topic, though.

We're co-hosting a little benefit for our local YMCA here on Saturday evening. Nothing fancy, just a little gathering of 30-ish folks who have been invited to our house to pay $15 for a fajita dinner. It's fair to say that I don't know a good number of these folks very well. As a result, I'm feeling a little edgy about getting the house and food ready. Above mentioned PMS is not helping matters any. Above mentioned husband isn't really helping matters either.

Husband is frequently telling me (and everyone else) I'm going overboard. Apparently, when you invite a group of people over (have I mentioned that a lot of them I don't know too well) to your house to pay for a meal, cleaning the house and the yard and making sure you put forth a decent meal are optional. I wish I'd known this earlier... I wouldn't have waited so long to host such an event. Hell, maybe I should open a restaurant. Silly, silly, stupid, dumb me. On the bright side, I guess there's no need to tackle this:

(yes, my son's room is a danger zone, once again)

Maybe husband is right on some level, but his delivery of news could be a little more, umm, shall we say, diplomatic. Perhaps he could find a way of saying as much so that I don't have a compelling urge to choke him with my bare hands??

In addition to this little fundraiser, we're celebrating Jerod's 9th birthday party (by playing a game of baseball with his buds) on Sunday afternoon, and running 18 miles on Saturday morning. I think I'll do a happy dance on Monday morning when all this is done.

Oh, and how's this for fun?? Check out the weekend forecast. Out-friggin-standing.

Minneapolis, MN 55436

Change Location

Friday

5/13/2011

Hi: 60°

Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers. Highs around 60. North winds 10 to 15 mph.

Lo: 47°

Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Lows around 45.

Saturday

5/14/2011

Hi: 58°

Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of showers. Highs 55 to 60.

Lo: 46°

Mostly cloudy in the evening then becoming partly cloudy. A 20 percent chance of showers. Lows around 45.

Sunday

5/15/2011

Hi: 62°

Partly cloudy with a 20 percent chance of showers. Highs around 60.

Lo: 44°

Partly cloudy. Lows 40 to 45.

A Little Story about my Kitchen

Last Friday afternoon, before the kids got off the bus and before Chris got home from work, I really cleaned my kitchen. The half million pieces of paper that had come home from school during the week had been sorted and filed, as had the quarter million pieces of mail. The counters and table had been thoroughly wiped down, and the floor was swept.

It is perhaps important to note that I don't do this thorough of a 'cleaning' all that often, mainly because our next meal (a.k.a. mess maker) is usually just a few short hours away. Generally speaking, the wipe down mentioned above happens once a day at most. Please don't call child protective services. I'm building immunity in my kids. It will serve them well, we live in a dirty world.

But, the weekend was on its way, and I knew I'd feel good if I got it done. And I did. Fast forward to Sunday. The kitchen was a complete wreck. Normally this wouldn't phase me. It is messy more often than it is clean. However, the Sunday mess got to me, and I'll tell you why. WE HADN'T HAD A SINGLE MEAL IN THE KITCHEN. Friday night was the school carnival, so we ate there. After said carnival, Jerod and Elise went to spend the night with my parents so Chris and I could go for a long training run early Saturday morning. Saturday we had lunch with my folks when we picked up the kids, and dinner at the house of some of our friends. And, on Sunday we had breakfast at church, as it was the annual youth fundraising breakfast. Said breakfast was HUGE, so we skipped lunch. Yet, the kitchen was filled with backpacks, drinking glasses, and more paper (Anyone who thinks we're moving to a paperless society should visit my kitchen).

Happy Easter... a day late

The Tourney

After KU's untimely exit from the tourney, I had trouble looking at the family brackets anymore. However, I'm hosting book club on Friday night and trying to tidy a bit. Thus, I needed to tally everything up so I could send those babies to the recycling bin. And the winner is....

Anne!!!

Thank you, thank you, thank you very much. Next time we go out to dinner, I get to pick. I will most certainly be drunk with such power!

Final results:

Anne: 40-27

Elise: 39-28

Chris: 38-29

Jerod: 36-31

Ladies rule, boys drool.

Arizona Spring Break

We are home now. They dragged me kicking and screaming to the airport. It was a fabulous trip!

Climbers

I've got mixed feelings about technology, smart phones, social networking via the web, and all the other good stuff that falls under the same umbrella. Don't get me wrong, I'm a big fan, but I do see how a person (yours truly) can be too connected, especially with so much available ALL THE TIME, via the phone. However, I would like to kiss whoever's responsible for putting decent cameras on phones. Without them, we wouldn't have these gems. We had no idea the kiddos would end up climbing the rock wall while making our routine Wednesday evening trip to the YMCA.

They were awesome. Jerod made it all the way to the top. He was within about 2 feet of the top and said he was done. I couldn't blame him. The person belaying, though, gave him a little advice and encouragement, and up he went. You could pretty much see Jerod's mind switch from 'I'm done' to 'I'm going to finish this.' As a parent, it was pretty cool to see him conquer.

Elise didn't get quite as far, but she did awesome as well. At one point when she was pretty high up and she looked back at us with actual trepidation in her eyes. It's highly unusual to see any uncertainty in our typically fearless go-getter. The minute she got down and out of the harness, though, she was ready to get back up there. As Chris said, it's nice to know that the girl can reach a point where she experiences a little fear.