4 Ring Circus

the original blogger is back

2012-01-31T09:20:00.000-08:00

Look who decided to come out of retirement and be publicly funny again:

Our very own Matt Ring!

Then and NOW

2012-01-29T00:04:00.001-08:00

Oh dear. As I write this I know its a bad idea. I have that much blogging and Internets wisdom to know that and yet here I am, on my tablet, hunting and pecking on the weird keyboard just to write a post about how old I tuned today. Midnight blogging after 5 Blue Moons is never good.

Today my sister and I went to see the Clumsy Lovers.

When I first loved this band I was 22'ish and living in the greater Seattle area surrounded by friends who loved nothing more than hitting up the local bar (what up Tractor Tavern!?), drinking Bud Light, and dancing! I have no idea how many times we went to Ballard to see them play. Maybe it was more than I remember, maybe it was less. Somehow 11 years later I still know all the words to their songs and I still swoon over their lead Trevor.

Now the venue is better and I'm fortunate enough to have the connections that get me into the VIP section where we have actual chairs, drink service, and close bathrooms.

Then we had no seats. We were forced to stand (which forced us to dance, you're welcome Ballard!), wait in line for our Buds, and use super dirty bar bathrooms.. BUT we didn't CARE!

From our fancy seats in the balcony tonight we were able to look down on all the "regular" people out on the floor and oh man how it brought me back! I Do love my life and my kids/husband/job/fam/etc but I also loved being 22 and free of obligation! As all this was flooding my head I was also thinking about how, with Matt in Seattle for the weekend, I needed to get home because I told the babysitter 11 and I have no idea if 12 is going to be a problem. I remember babysitting and not caring if the parents were late but now that I'm on the other side it feels different. And I know I'm switching between past and present tense which is why the Internet needs a breathalyzer.

I'm home and I'm still smiling about getting to see an old favorite band. Even if I did come home to a child who had wet the top bunk and probably ruined yet another mattress. On a totally unrelated note: who wants to come to the Rings garage sale this summer?!

the Pasco Andas came for a visit

2012-01-20T07:00:00.000-08:00

and I thought some pictures should go up to document it. Sweet little Royal is no longer a baby, he's like a real kid now that my kids can play with. Such fun!While they were here my dad, Pete, Vanessa and I drove up to Mt. Spokane for a quick snowshoeing trip because...they bought me and Matt a pair of snowshoes to share for Christmas! The term share will be used loosely when it comes to the snowshoes.

Annie got a pair too and now that we've got snow I'm thinking this weekend the girls are going for a winter hike!

Maui

2012-01-19T21:03:00.000-08:00

I don't even know where to start with the Maui pictures. When I downloaded them to my computer just now there were 400 of them - sure 100 were of Annie's toys - but the other 300 were awesome and it's going to be hard to pick a few for the blog.

I think I'll just keep playing my Words With Friends and avoid it for a while longer.

Happy Birthday Husband!

2012-01-19T20:10:00.000-08:00

Sorry I didn't get you the cake or the presents you wanted. I got you some pretty cute kids though ah?

best.office.party.ever

2011-12-30T08:35:00.001-08:00

Let me start by saying we're a bunch of CPAs. Immediately you think that we're boring or that we think dumb stuff is funny, only the latter is true with this crew in this case.

This year one of the partners at our firm (below, on the left) suggested a couple of us wear the same dress to the party. What fun! I'm in. Below we're trying on a purple prom'y little diddy that was beautiful, but mine wouldn't zip (probably a dress malfunction, had nothing to do with my extra-large back). We tried on like 10 dresses and decided on a one shoulder peacock inspired number. We figured if we're going to do this we're doing it big.

The dresses were a hit and everyone (keep in mind we're in a room full of CPAs and their significant others who love the CPAs) thought we were awesome, not clique'ish or exclusive at all, just pure awesome. At least that's how I remember their reaction.

I couldn't get enough of my naked shoulder. It was just so freeing to have it out there.

After the official party at the SteamPlant we went to the Starlight Lounge downtown. Where we proceeded to continue drinking way to much and I started dancing (that's me below, dancing).

Our firms owner came out with us to the 'after party' and actually asked me where I learned to dance like that. 'Ummm...I was born with moves this good?' was all I could think of. I mean it's true really. Some people are just born with really great moves.

the rest of Christmas day

2011-12-28T20:00:00.000-08:00

After opening presents with the kids and eating breakfast we headed back up to Deer Lake to celebrate with Matt's extended family.

Below is Aunt Janeen with Annie and Matt's cousin's daughter Alanna.

Some of the ladies drinking wine after dinner.

Again, my pictures are a little lame due to the no-flash camera. I apparently took 2 pictures with the lights on and 10 by candlelight, I'm going to leave those ones off because I'm tired. And I'm sick. Did I mention we're all sick? It's a great way to spend the holiday season. I highly recommend it.

Christmas morning

2011-12-28T08:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning the kids slept in for the first time in their frikin' lives. They've both been sick with awful coughs and slept terribly all night, so we let them sleep as long as they wanted. Matt wouldn't let me leave our bedroom though because he wanted them to discover the presents and observe the half eaten cookies without mom sitting on the couch drinking coffee reading a book.

So I laid in bed and tried to read a book for like 2 hours before Charlie finally came in a 'woke us up'. I think it was like 7:45 but I swear I had been up since like 5 so it felt much later.

(Annie's behind the camera, obviously)

Annie got her own camera for Christmas, a cardboard house for her to color, a pillow pet, some crafts, a Hello Kitty pillow, and some other random gifts. She seems to be most in love with the pillow pet that Santa brought her. A pillow shaped like a dog. Genius.

Charlie got several GI Joe vehicles, a Star Wars thingamajig, some puzzles, and a Toy Story Wii game.

Santa came through with a Kinect for the family to share. He also brought the kids the new Disneyland game where you get to travel around the park and do different tasks on the various rides. Charlie figured it out today while Matt and I were getting the house back in order from the holidays, it seems pretty fun.

Eve Night

2011-12-27T20:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve eve we went over to my parent's house for a celebration with my side of the family. My pictures are terrible because I didn't bring the camera with a flash. Who has a camera with no flash? (you're wondering) I do and it's awesome outside in the daytime, it sucks at night, even inside.

Forget about the pictures. Just know that we ate a lot, drank a lot, and the kids got to open some great presents from Grandma and Grandpa Anda.

more lovlies from Christmas #1

2011-12-27T08:29:00.000-08:00

Matt's sister sent me these:

(no kids around...)

Eve Day

2011-12-27T08:00:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve Day was spent chillin' at our house. We made cookies.

We licked the beaters.

We threw snow at each other.

And we didn't do a whole lot else. It was pretty great.

the first of many Christmas celebrations

2011-12-26T20:26:00.000-08:00

Above is Annie posing for the camera, I'm hoping this silly phase passes quickly, we're into real smiles here folks. And in other news sometimes I can't get my cursor to start above the first picture, so since today is one of those days imagine these words above the snarky Annie picture.

The weekend before Christmas the four of us headed up to Deer Lake to have a Christmas celebration with Matt's sister Katie and her husband Cage (Grandma and Grandpa were there too of coursey course).

Matt's dad built Annie a 3 story Barbie house and built Charlie a 3 story fortress for his GI Joe characters. Note Charlie in the background playing with his, Annie in the foreground wrestling with her dad.

Now she's trying to wrestle with her brother.

In her mind she's succeeding, in his mind she's interfering with his playtime with all his new toys. Gotta love little sisters!

The 4 of us posing in our leis. Were the leis a Christmas present? (I'm assuming you're asking yourself) Yes they were - they represent the trip the Rings are taking us on in a few short weeks to Hawaii! Whoop whoop!

The girls with their morning martinis.

I had to throw this in here because:

a: Matt has never carved anything before and

b: Matt recieved this smoked turkey from a broker he works with on the east coast, he was oddly proud of it all weekend

And that is more or less the story of round 1.

spending a day with my boy

2011-12-19T19:22:00.000-08:00

About a week ago I got to spend the day chaperoning Charlie's school fieldtrip. It was fun to see how he acts around his school friends and to spend the day doing stuff that 5 year olds are in to.

The fieldtrip consisted of us riding the city bus downtown and completing a checklist that his teacher had made for us. I was in charge of Charlie and just 1 of his friends so we got to go at our own pace and do things in the order we wanted.

Below the boys are running with the Bloomsday statues. Not pictured is them walking up to each one and declaring if they're boys or girls...Here they are at the wagon...
Monkey bars under the wagon...
Not pictured is us feeding the garbage goat every leaf within a 20 foot radius, riding the carrousel, going to the library, visiting the post office, visiting Matt at work, looking at the Christmas trees at the Davenport and eating lunch at the sushi train place (Charlie's choice I swear).

Below we're killing time at Starbucks. Drinking cocoa and waiting for our bus.

Such a fun day with my little boy!

Christmas programs galore.

2011-12-19T19:07:00.001-08:00

Annie's first Christmas program this year was the one for the North Wall School that she goes to 2 days a week. Her class performed 2 songs, she's the one right in the middle in the white dress with the red bow in her hair.The boys in her class discovered how fun it was to shout into the microphone about halfway through the 1st song. It was basically over after that, we couldn't hear Princess-Pants singing her heart out over the microphone yelling. Below is Charlie and Grandpa laughing at the obnoxiousness.

Her second program this year was for the Mead Co-op where she goes to school 1 day a week. Below she's rockin' out to Mele Kalikimaka. A way better performance than the first time around.

No Christmas programs for Charlie this year. I think in 1st grade they get to perform some songs for the parents, not this year though.

Biz E!

2011-12-18T21:37:00.000-08:00

Seriously. December is practically gone and we've packed so much in and I feel like I've totally neglected the world by not telling them every fun detail on my bloggy blog. Next week the kids are out of school and I'm working less hours so I promise a real post will come soon.

For now though please enjoy my darling kids:
And their crazy mom!
I'll maybe tell you the story behind this adventurous outfit next time I turn on the blog if I still find it funny and not retarded in my head. Right now I still remember the night as being fun and there's pretty much nothing I like looking at more than my bony right shoulder, especially since I re-dedicated my life to Weight Watchers for like the billionth time last week due to the spare time that has grown to the size of an actual full sized tire (don't let the bony should fool you, nothing else is bony on this body), so I may find it necessary to put up more pictures from this night (my office Christmas party). You know how around Christmas time there's always an article in the paper about how you should act at an office Christmas party and how it's never appropriate to drink too much and act foolish in front of people you need respect from Monday thru Friday? It was one of those Christmas parties that make people write those articles. Probably enough said on the topic.

And with that my friends I'm done for the night!

the undefeated Gobots

2011-12-04T20:49:00.000-08:00

I like this picture because they all look so fierce, blurry, but fierce. Don't even think about coming to our end of the court, we will squash you!
And also, CHARLIE MADE 2 BASKETS! Boo yah suckers!

The North Pole is in Coeur d'Alene.

2011-12-04T20:28:00.000-08:00

It's true. And it's just as magical the 4th or 5th time you go. Even if your kids are total turkeys and won't pose for a single cute picture, still magical.

Cuttin' down our Christmas Tree.

2011-11-26T09:00:00.000-08:00

(why's he grabbing her crotch?, he's going to regret being so silly in front of his camera happy mom someday)

After cutting down our tree at GreenBluff we got all our decorations out, Annie had a hay-day trying on antlers and playing with singing bears. Nothing makes this girl happier than dressing up and playing with loud toys.

(cute picture that I found on my camera today, Annie the photographer has such an artistic eye)

(very artistic)

Finished tree product.

Our cute little stockings.

It's officially the Christmas season!

Proud owner of a tablet.

2011-11-25T21:03:00.001-08:00

I'm supposed to be putting up Christmas decorations, or folding laundry, or working on picture calender gifts, or walking on the treadmill but I can't because ....Mama got a tablet today! It's just an HP thingamajig that we found while scouring the ads yesterday. Office Depot was having some deal where if you bought a computer they'd let you buy this tablet for $150 (normally $500). *Lucky* for me Matt's computer got the blue screen of death yesterday (coincidence?).

Like the good wife that I am I offered to get up at 6:30 and get him a new computer if I could get the tablet too. And we could call it my Christmas present but I'd need to open it right away. Lesson for those new to adulthood or marriage: thats a normal way to act as an adult in a marriage. Don't ever just do something because its nice or it would help your family's budget. Always negotiate to get a tablet out of the deal. And demand that you get to use it right away and not have to wait to open it, this is also normal and mature behavior.

By the by, I can't put this thing down, its so fun! Did you know you can check out books from the library and read them on your tablet? Charlie and I checked out some books that he wants to read tomorrow. I might even read a book too. Of course I'd have to stop playing around and actually read but I think by tomorrow I might be ready for such a challenge.

Happy Black Friday to me!

Actually there are more Black Friday confessions. I totally agree with celebrating one holiday at a time and I feel very bad for all the retail employees who had to work at midnight, but since it was happening and me staying in bed silently protesting wasn't going to give them any more time with their families I decided to just say screw it and hit the mall. So I got home at 3 am from my midnight trip to the mall, climbed into bed in my clothes, set my alarm for 3.5 hours later and took a little nap. At 6:30 I flew out of bed, in yesterday's clothes, and headed out for our important electronic purchases.

I got to the northside Office Depot and they were already out of the tablets (even though their ad said they opened at 7 and I was standing there talking to the manager at 6:50 by the doors that had clearly been opened for quite some time?). The super nice manager, hungry for my husband's money offered to call the downtown store to see if they had any left, they did and their nice manager Jeff offered to put my name on it. I high fived the northside manager, jumped in the mini-van, and drove like a stereotypical crazy Black Friday shopping housewife towards the downtown store. About halfway there I realized I didn't ask if they still had the computer I was supposed to buy for Matt, no computer would mean no tablet.

I walked in the store and I kid you not, Manager Jeff was waiting for me by the front door. I say "Jeff?", he says "Jeannette?", we hug each other with our eyes, and he finds me my tablet AND Matt's computer. Phew.

So very proud of myself today. I *saved* my hardworking husband so much money today! At least that's how I read the story.

Thankful for silly children.

2011-11-25T20:26:00.000-08:00

On Thanksgiving we took a long walk so the kids could burn off some of their squirrel 'iness and we could burn off a fraction of the calories we were planning to consume later that day. It was a fun way to spend a day with the family.

Then we came home and ate ourselves silly.

Jingle Bell Run 2011

2011-11-20T20:08:00.000-08:00

This was my 3rd time doing the Jingle Bell Run but my first time with silly socks and a tu tu. Way out of my comfort zone but if there was ever a run to dress up for this was it.I mean, look at these guys! Think they were comfortable? Brave, but probably not comfortable.
Same picture as above but outside. Necessary.
After the 5k we headed to the Swinging Doors to eat more calories than we burned and drink beer and/or bloody marys at 10 am. Such a fun morning with the ladies.

Winter's here. sigh

2011-11-19T14:13:00.001-08:00

At least the kids and the husband are enjoying it.

(random art'sy shot by Annie, makes me laugh what she likes to take pictures of)

a story about basketball

2011-11-13T15:51:00.000-08:00

This is going to sound crazy but some 4 and 5 year olds are awesome at basketball. Charlie had his first practice and game yesterday, also Matt's first day as coach. The little guys on his team blew us away with their dribbling and defensive skills. All of them had such spirit and tried so hard, it was great to watch.

The other team blew us away with their amazing ability to hug the ball tight to their chests and run down the court. They also had this sweet move where they would run (holding the ball, rarely dribbling) towards their own hoop, realize there were 5 kids guarding the basket, think better of it and turn around and just shoot the ball at the un-guarded basket (also known as our basket).

Final score (we're not supposed to keep score, but we do):
Purple team - 6
Black team on Black team's hoop - 2
Black team on Purple team's hoop - 4

Charlie's game was by far the funniest sporting event I've ever witnessed. Can't wait for next week!

persisting in folly

2011-11-13T10:39:00.000-08:00

My family's at Silver Mountain without me. It's overwhelming to think about how I should spend my day. So far:

Had cake for breakfast, planning to go on a run later to cancel that out. Could have skipped the cake and skipped the run and netted back to zero.

Want to go to the mall later to get new running pants, putting in 2 hours of work to earn some money to pay for said pants. If there was no cake in the world the running wouldn't be necessary and the 2 extra hours of work wouldn't be necessary, back to zero if the cake would just go away.

Hosted a Shutterfly party last night so they would send me free coupon codes for free calendars and Christmas cards (for me and my guests). Spent $100 on food and drinks and got $30 worth of free Shutterfly products for doing so. Spent a lot of time cleaning the house for the party. Now I'm at less than zero, but I do have a clean house.

Sometimes I feel like I'm running in circles (not literally, because I don't have the right pants yet).

Tumble Bugs!

2011-11-06T20:04:00.000-08:00

Charlie, Cousin Caden, and Annie just started a session of Tumble Bugs at the Y and I thought I should share some pictures of them stretching. They're all very proud of the skills they're learning, stretching being one of them.

I signed Charlie up because it's for ages 3 - 5 and I figured he'd rather participate than sit with me on the sidelines every week and just watch Annie and Caden. After the first class he absolutley loved it, couldn't stop talking about how he learned to skin-the-cat on the bars.

We're all looking forward to next week's class!

Ring Halloween

2011-11-06T19:50:00.000-08:00

Halloween started with a trip to my office and a trip to Matt's office to trick-or-treat around the offices. Matt's whole department dressed up like a roller derby team, so he took Annie's Dora knee pads, elbow pads, skates, some of her Barbie band-aids and pieced together a costume.

The Green Lantern and Strawberry Shortcake each left the office circuit with a full bucket of candy. If it were up to me we would have called it a day at 11 am. Not up to me though.

Matt got home after work and changed from a roller derby guy to a rap mogul and took the kids out for another round of trick or treating.

This is their candy stash after I've already eaten enough to make myself sick of Baby Ruths, given the PayDays and Twizzlers out to the trick-or-treaters knocking at our door, and let them each have 2. We're talking way too much candy.

I'm trying to be a good parent and eat as much as I can to save them from a future of bad teeth and poor nutrition habits. That's the kind of loving parent I am.

Pumpkins!

2011-10-31T12:00:00.000-07:00

We ran out of time this year and didn't make it to the pumpkin patch. Albertson pumpkins work too though.

Go Black Bats!

2011-10-31T07:30:00.000-07:00

The Black Bats had their final game for the fall on Saturday. We're not supposed to keep score but we totally did and they totally won.Charlie didn't exactly score any goals this season but he did have some good passes and had fun so the season was a success.
For the last game we told Annie she had to be the mascot and dress like a bat. She's so fun to mess with.
After the game the coaches gave all the kids personalized medals. Such a nice touch, Charlie will have his Black Bats medal forever.
Thanks Mr. and Mrs. Wells for coaching!

Maybe next time I'll put the camera away before I go downstairs for another beer.

2011-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

Last night after Charlie's soccer game we had a few of his teammates over so we could drink beer with their parents. I mean so the kids could play.Perhaps next time when I turn on a movie and tell them to be good and leave the adults alone I'll actually put my camera away. Annie got ahold of it and documented the events taking place upstairs.

the movie

no one watching the movie

the photographer

one of Charlie's buddies

Cake Pops Halloween Style

2011-10-29T07:00:00.000-07:00

Charlie's last soccer game for the season is tomorrow so to celebrate the Black Bats last game I attempted to make them some black bats for their after game snack.I made the wings too big because by the time I went to wrap them up each of them had at least 1 broken wing. Hopefully the 5 year old boys won't be too hard on me.

Since a batch of cake pops make like 36 or so I made the rest Halloween style. First up: mummies!
Second up: pumpkins!
Well that was a silly way to spend 3 hours. Therapeutic in a way, but unarguably silly. 5 year old boys would be just as happy with store bought cupcakes. Oh well.

Strawberry Shortcake vs. the Green Lantern

2011-10-28T16:23:00.000-07:00

Today was Charlie's Halloween party at school so I packed Strawberry Shortcake up and crashed the party. We got to help with the crafts and participate in the Halloween parade that paraded through the classrooms.

My favorite kid in his class (besides Mr. Charlie of course) is the cute little gnome second from the left. He was already naturally short and round and made the most darling gnome. Talk about working with what God gave you - good job parents of the gnome!

Thanks Mom for making Annie's costume! She got tons of compliments from all the moms - everyone seems to remember playing with Strawberry Shortcake dolls when they were little and Annie looked just like the dolls used to! (the dolls of today are a little taller, a little slimmer, and a little sexier, Annie went with classic Strawberry Shortcake and focused on the cute factor)

Marie and the Mermaid

2011-10-28T16:17:00.000-07:00

Annie's not actually going to be a Mermaid for Halloween but the other day she felt like wearing her extra costume around and posing for pictures with Marie (her special kitty she earned at Disneyland by going on all the scary rides like Space Mountain and Tower of Terror, we don't just buy our kids souvenirs like normal parents, we torture them first).

How much do I love Shutterfly?

2011-10-25T09:56:00.001-07:00

So much!!!

They have so many great Christmas cards to choose from! Last year we used them for our Christmas cards and our annual calendars we make for everyone in the family. I love the calendars because you can personalize them with birthdays and events important to just your family. They make fantastic gifts (assuming your giftees like looking at your kids for 12 months which mine do thankyouverymuch!).

I'm hoping this year they choose me to receive some of their cards for free for blogging about them. Wish me luck and you may receive a pretty card like this one, only it will be filled with precious Disneyland photos of the Ring kids!

DL Continued

2011-10-17T19:19:00.000-07:00

Matt and Charlie's very favorite ride was Star Tours. They've changed it up and it's a 3D ride now and it's different pretty much different every time. The boys rode it 10 times (Annie and I were done after 8) and they never saw the same show twice.

Haunted Mansion all tricked out for Halloween.

Charlie's second favorite was Big Thunder Mountain - such a change from last year when he refused to go on it a second time.

The new Toy Story ride at California Adventure is 3D too.

Exploring on Tom Sawyer Island.

Charlie was selected to be in the Jedi Training Academy again.

This is him giving the storm troopers the double force push after he defeated Darth Vader.

The teacups always make them so happy!

And that's about it for the pictures - oh wait - I took 246 of them! How about that's it for the blog. To see more you'll have to stop by and view the Shutterfly book I ordered :)

MS Brewfest

2011-10-16T21:04:00.000-07:00

How fun is it to get dressed up and drink beer with co-workers and friends? Turns out it's very fun. The MS Brewfest we volunteered at last night didn't even have all that smelly German food that's I'm never excited about. It just had David's Pizza and about 15 different breweries serving beer.

My job was to pour beer for the Hopworks Urban Brewery in Portland. I may have sampled my fair share and then some, not a bad product.

Disneyland Baby!

2011-10-16T11:43:00.001-07:00

We couldn't resist, we just had to go back to Disneyland again this year. It's pretty much the happiest place on Earth to vacation with kids. Below are some pictures of Miss Annie meeting the Disney characters (Charlie wasn't into it).

Some fun Annie quotes from the trip:
.

While at IHOP -

Matt to the waitress while trying to decide what to order: I'm torn.

Annie to the waitress: My dad will have the corn.
.

While walking around in Disneyland -

Annie to me: Mom! I saw someone in a princess costume! It was a human!
.

After refusing to go on Splash Mountain a 4th time -

Annie to Matt: Dad, I like you, but I just don't like Splash Mountain.
.

Below is the picture I took and mentioned in a previous post. They were tuckered tuckered out on the way home.

More pictures to come...

Vegas Baby!

2011-10-14T06:43:00.000-07:00

Every trip to Vegas is fun and every trip is a little different. This one was with 2 fun co-workers who were up for whatever I wanted to do (hear that husband?!). The first night we hit the free happy hour at the Westin where we were staying. Managed to drink 4 beers during the free hour thankyouverymuch.

Next we hopped on the Deuce and headed down to Fremont Street to try out the new zip line. As far as zip lines go it wasn't really that exciting, however it was pretty fun to get to zip line at the same time as 2 other people and to do it in such a cool setting.
While at the Fremont Street Experience we experienced this lady with ginormous breasts. All real and on display for the world to enjoy.
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Then we went to our conference the next day. In the evening the software company whose conference we were attending hosted a social evening. Managed to drink 4 free beers there too, nothing makes me happier than saying free and saying beer in the same sentence.
.

After the social we headed over to the strip and ate at this yummy little French restaurant across from the Bellagio. We got to watch the fountain show from our seats on their outdoor patio. Another thing that makes me happy is ordering really expensive food when someone else is paying (the firm pays for our meals on educational trips like this), so like the pig that I am I ordered the lamb. The lamb turned out to be the biggest portion of lamb I've ever seen and I ate every bite of it...then went into the casino and threw it up. Dumb, but pretty standard Jeannette.
.

The we had one more day of learning and we were off to the airport.

We had about an hour to kill before airport so we hit the mall so my co-worker could enjoy 36 ounces of margarita while I enjoyed the Gap.
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And that's the story of Vegas 2011.

Traveling with my children.

2011-10-13T10:44:00.000-07:00

Last week I was fortunate enough to get to go to Las Vegas with 2 fun co-workers for a 2 day conference. We got to fly down on Wednesday afternoon so that we'd have plenty of time for zip lining over Freemont street and all the deep fried twinkies we could handle. It was a glorious flight down, I got to order beer on the plane, I got to read my book, I got to sit quietly with my thoughts. If you've ever traveled with kids you know that these are things you cherish only when they're taken away (which they always are when your kids are with you, except for the beer part, there are limits to how far I'll go for my kids).

After the conference was over on Friday I hopped on a plane and headed to Orange County where my family was arriving shortly. Matt flew down with the kids, alone, to meet me for our Disneyland vacation. Matt becomes a snake charmer with our kids when he's alone with them. They do what he says and they do it happily, so his flight down sounded like a breeze from what was described to me.

Then we had our vacation for 5 days and that will be a brand new post complete with darling pictures for you to enjoy.

Then, on Wednesday we headed home, together. We had McDonald's at the airport and let the kids split a 16 oz lemonade. That's 8 oz each in their child-sized bladders.

We got on the plane and I drew the long straw again because the 3 of them were together and I was across the isle. Watching Matt pick up dropped Legos and dropped Little Mermaid figurines every 2 seconds never got old.

Then the beverage cart came and the kids got to choose a kind of juice to order. A big deal in their lives, making your own decisions is really under-rated. Orange for Charlie, Cranberry for Annie. 6 more ounces each deposited into their tiny little bladders.

Now their thirst is quenched, they're tired of playing, and they're ready for a nap on Dad's thigh. They both pass out right away, then Matt follows their lead and falls asleep too. One of the stewardesses made me take their picture saying it would make a great ending for my Disneyland scrapbook. I tried not to look annoyed as I put my book down to dig around for my camera (I kid!).

Fast forward an hour and the captain comes over the PA and says we'll be making our decent in to Seattle in about a 1/2 hour. Matt wakes up, breathes in through his nose, and whispers loud enough for me to hear but hopefully no one else that he thinks they both peed their pants.

How I didn't see that coming I don't know. We filled them both with liquid and then put them to sleep. I should know my kids better than that by now. They're smart, they're cute, they're clever, but if there's one thing they're not it's being able to hold their pee while they sleep.

So I spend the next 30 minutes trying to think of ways to get off the plane without everyone holding their noses and looking around to see who peed their pants. Also trying to think of what I can do in our 60 minute layover in Seattle to get my hands on some dry pants for our flight over to Spokane.

Thankfully Grandma Cheryl packed Annie's carry on the previous Friday and with the knowledge of an experienced mother she remembered a spare pair of pants and undies for Annie. Also thankfully I didn't remove said pants from her carry on for the flight home. So when we got off the plane I just went to the restroom, removed Annie's shorts and dress, changed her in to her dry pants and coat with no shirt and she was back to her happy self.

Charlie proved to be the problem. Matt took him into the bathroom with the plan of finding a hand dryer to hold Charlie's crotch under. No such luck, every bathroom at SeaTac has paper towels.

Next plan was to hit every gift shop and look for kid's pants to buy. I was very close to buying women's Sleepless in Seattle boxer shorts in size extra-small for him. Yes they were pink and yes they were $16.95 and yes no one would ever wear them again, and yes Sleepless in Seattle was a great movie but I just couldn't do it.

Next we found a Life Is Good clothing store. I kid you not this store had 60 different t-shirts and 2 different pairs of pants. 1 pair was for toddlers, the biggest size they had was a 4T (Charlie's a 5 or 6). I was about to pay for them when Matt, the voice of reason, pointed out that they would be skin tight, they were pretty thin and see through, and Charlie wouldn't be wearing underwear. So I put them back. The other pants they had were little girl pajama bottoms for $25. They were pink, and they were expensive, and Charlie looked like such a sad little puppy when I asked him if he'd wear them home. So I put those back too.

Next plan was to find a little boy at the airport and offer his mom money for his pants. Matt spotted a little girl about Charlie's size and was like "what about her pants?" and I was like "sure, her mom looks kind of scrawny (probably an extra-small), I can take her, you hold the little girl down and take her pants off. Our flight boards in 5 minutes. We time it right we can steal her pants and run on to the plane and by the time they realize what happened we're long gone." Shockingly this scenario didn't play out either.

So what we did was make our sweet little boy with a tiny bladder ride home from Seattle to Spokane in pee soaked underwear and shorts.

Charlie - when you're older and you read this just know that I'm sorry for being so unprepared and so cheap.

Alaska Flight 507 - I know you're not reading this but I just need to say it: thank you for not embarrassing our little boy and whispering about his wet pants. We appreciate it.

Alaska passengers who rode in our plane and sat in isle 11 after us - sorry for not telling the stewardesses that the seats should probably be Lysol'd. We forgot.

Super Anda Fest

2011-10-05T06:07:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my parents rented a condo on Lake Coeur d'Alene for a little Anda family reunion. My Uncle John drove up from Arizona. My Aunt Mary and Uncle Walt drove over from Olympia. And my cousins Megan, Ben and Jason all stopped by for part of the week.

And of course my goofy siblings and their goofy offspring were there too.

So good to see everyone and log in some serious family time!

Silverwood!

2011-10-02T19:26:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my parents treated us to a day at Silverwood. So much fun - thanks Mom and Dad!

And now for a random story about this sign:

When I did the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay last summer part of the deal was that at about midnight your team meets at Silverwood and rides Tremors in the middle of the night. For some reason this sign upset me on so many levels I'm not sure where to even begin.

Why is the guy holding his severed head a cartoon? So kids who can't read will understand the sign. Should kids who can't read even be riding this ride?
Are they making light of the situation by making it cartoony? Is it funny to lose your head at a theme park?
I didn't want to stand up, but after seeing this sign it was all I could think about.
Did they make this sign because someone did stand up and get their head severed?
I'm kind of on the tall side for a woman, should I have been worried that I might get clipped?

When I rode Tremors at midnight back in August I hated it. I think the lack of sleep from the race interfered with my regular spot on judgement and I just let the sign go to my head (pun!). Every tunnel that the roller coaster went through I kept thinking "is this going to be the one that kills me? Did I tell my kids how much I love them before I left?".

When I rode it last weekend it was actually kind of fun. I still hated their sign, but with the proper amount of sleep the night before I was able to just read it and move on. Not move on - move on because obviously I took a picture of it and I'm devoting some precious space on the Internets to it's inappropriateness, but move on like as in I didn't get off the ride this time and shout to the people still in line how awful the ride was. That kind of move on.

Slightly too much for a FaceBook status.

2011-09-23T15:00:00.000-07:00

Afternoon kindergarten gives me exactly enough time to:

make a homemade peach (some from our tree), raspberry (all from our garden) pie
clean the kid's bathroom
do 1 load of laundry
wash dishes from said pie
dance to toddler tunes with 3 year old
paint a 3 year old's finger AND toenails

And I know this because I accomplished all of these things while Charlie was at his 2 1/2 hour school today! Who's the greatest adult in Spokane today?!

this is what happens when I leave my camera in plain sight

2011-09-23T13:12:00.000-07:00

(that reminds me: need to remember to make sure Annie wears shorts under her skirts)

Most.Fun.Ever

2011-09-15T19:05:00.000-07:00

Last weekend one of my besties got married up in Bellingham. She was absolutely stunning and the Rings had an absolute blast. Thanks Anna for making Annie a flower girl - she took her job very seriously and felt like such an important part of the day.

Congratulations my Baby Bird!

Charlie and Annie meet Bellingham.

2011-09-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

I tried to take them to as many of my favorite spots as possible: the Bagelry, Boulevard Park, the Gap. The Gap looks just as I remember it. Being there brought back memories of having way too much disposable income from my high school jobs - first at Taco Bell then at the Bagel Factory. Man I miss being able to spend 100% of my paycheck on clothes.

End of Summer.

2011-09-12T21:14:00.000-07:00

We spent the last weekend before school started at the lake. Matt and Charlie took advantage by taking one last jet ski ride. Annie spent her day putting lotion on everyone who would let her. Way to take advantage Annie.

Naughty and Nice

2011-09-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

Nice.

Still nice.

Kind of naughty.

Kindergarten, here we come!

2011-09-06T19:09:00.001-07:00

The light version of today:

classic front door shotcutting through the vacant lot by our house to shave 5 minutes off our walk

the path to the school

getting settled

listening to a story

No pictures of mom's sad walk home alone.

The dark version:

95% of our walk to school was great. It was 90 degrees out. Charlie was making jokes about how I was going to cry when I had to leave him. All was well until we got about 1/2 way across the soccer field. We were mid-way across when recess for the 5th and 6th graders started. I don't know the exact number but lets say roughly 80 giant kids started pouring out of the school and started running straight for us. Half of them swarmed the playground while the other half spilled on to the field we were cutting across.

Charlie stopped dead in his tracks and his mood changed instantly. He stammered: I didn't know I'd be going to school with such big kids. I'm not used to seeing such big kids. Mom, we've got to move, we're in their way. We're going to get hit by a ball!

My heart was totally breaking for him. This was exactly why I had such a hard time leaving the house today. My baby has been so sheltered. We've kept his world so protected, totally by design, up until now.

He's going to learn words like "fart" and "nu-uhhh" and "shut-up". Kids are going to make fun of him when he says "bless you" to himself when he sneezes. I can't go on or I'll never finish this post.

So back to today. He's frozen in his tracks in the soccer field and I can't really get him to move. I try grabbing his hand but he shakes me off (embarrassed?). I resort to kind of walking behind him in a herding fashion to get him moving.

We finally get to his classroom, which is a portable outside the school, and I see someone I know. I visit for a couple of minutes and Charlie hides behind me holding my leg. His confidence is gone.

Next we walk in to the classroom which is full of about 38 parents and 19 kids. Charlie's the only one without a dad? I didn't know this was a 2 parent kind of event, we'll get it right with Annie. So he has to walk through the crowd and find his seat. He won't even look at the other kids at this point.

After he got seated the teacher called the kids over to the circle time area and told the parents to sit in the kid's seats. She read them The Kissing Hand while we (or possibly just me?) tried not to listen because the words would make us (just me) cry.

When she was done reading she told the kids to turn around and blow their parents a kiss and then said it was time for us to leave. Charlie turned around and gave me the biggest smile. It was then that I knew he'd be ok. He was in his element now sitting on the carpet listening to stories surrounded only by 5 year olds. Me on the other hand could hardly see the door through my tears.

His teacher had given us some Hershey kisses wrapped up in a little tissue with a little note attached. When I got outside I ripped the note off, stuffed the kisses into my pockets Napolean Dynomite style, and used the tissue to wipe my snotty nose like the classy, classy lady that I am.

Now I'm glad they can talk. Because they make me laugh.

2011-09-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

Annie: When we were at Grandma from the Lake's house we watched (singing) Poor Funyan!

Charlie: IT WAS PAUL BUNYAN!

Annie: without missing a beat or acknowledging him And he had a cow named Babe.

Charlie: IT WAS AN OX ANNIE!

Annie: And there was a cat named Sassy.

Me: That was a different movie though right?

Annie: I don't know.

She's got to be so tired of everyone correcting everything she says. I'm with Charlie though, the details need to be correct or it's just irritating.

Sometimes I wish they couldn't talk.

2011-09-01T16:09:00.000-07:00

In the car today...

Annie: Mom, are my legs fat?

Me: NO! Your legs are perfect!

Annie: No, they're fat.

Charlie: Everyone's legs are fat at the top. Mine are fat too. Mom's are the fattest. Mom's are really, really fat.

Did you really need to put 2 "reallys" in there Charlie? Like I don't already have a complex.

Annual Andafest

2011-09-01T16:07:00.000-07:00

Every summer brother Pete and wife Vanessa invite us down to Pasco for a weekend long pool party.

Annie going down the slide.

Charlie - face first!

The cousins - Annie (3), Charlie (5), Royal (1.5), and Caden (4).

Annie and Caden at the fair.

Ursula (Vanessa's sister) and Annie.

Annie and Charlie having their first slushies at the fair.

Story time with Grandma (this is post mutton busting, hence the shirtless Annie, the sawdust was still irritating her hours later).

Royal and Annie.

Diva-Pants.

Playing duck, duck, goose waiting for the lightening to pass before we could go in the pool Sunday morning.

Charlie and Matt.

The crew.

Thanks Pete, Vanessa and Royal! We had a great time!

Video Proof

2011-08-30T14:10:00.000-07:00

As promised...the famous videos of my brave kids riding sheep.

The first one is Charlie.

My favorite part is at the end when he walks right by us and doesn't even look at us. Guess he was mad.

The next one is Annie. It's super long, skip to the end if you don't want to stare at a the arena for 2 minutes.

I don't know when I made the shift from being a decent mom to being a terrible one happened. But these videos are proof that the shift has been made. I just hope my kids will forgive me someday.

The story of mutton bustin'.

2011-08-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

If you're not familiar with "mutton bustin", perhaps because you were raised somewhere other than Eastern Washington?, let me start with a brief run down of what goes on.

Kids under 55 pounds are dressed up in helmets and protective vests and are placed on sheep. Said sheep, or mutton, are released from a shoot and the kids are timed on how long they can stay on the sheep. It's cruel and only the worst parents sign their kids up and take pictures, videos and laugh.

So this weekend at the Benton Franklin County Fair the Rings and the Finnegans were those parents. We signed up not only 4 year old Wild-Man-Caden (my nephew), and 5 year old Won't-Let-My-4-Year-Old-Cousin-Show-Me-Up-Charlie, but we also signed up 3 year old Clueless-Annie.

So now I'm officially a terrible parent. A terrible parent who chose the easy route and let her 3 year old sign up for what the big boys were doing rather than make a hard? parenting decision and tell her no. Hindsight is such a bitch.

They only had room for 15 kids so everyone interested put their name in a hat and the 15 drawn got to ride. Lucky for us (us being the parents wanting to be entertained, not the kids) all 3 of the kids got chosen.

Sadly I can't get my videos to upload on to the blog. I may have to back them up and try from a different computer. Maybe I'll try that tomorrow.

So because I was video taping the events I have no pictures of their actual rides. You'll have to actually read my typing to get the play by play.

Caden
Caden was up first. Not just first of our 3 kids but first of all 15. His sheep goes out of the shoot and just stands there. Technically Caden's ride lasted 30 second which was basically a world record. Sadly, it didn't count.

They pulled Caden off and put him on a new sheep. New sheep ran crazy fast across the rink and Caden only lasted about 2.5 seconds. Quite possibly the longest 2.5 seconds of his life. He took a face full of sawdust like a total champ on his way down.

Because his ride was less than 3 seconds he didn't get a score and was sent on his way with sawdust stuck to every sweaty spot on his body and a blue ribbon. Did I mention it was 98 degrees out while they were doing this? Holy moly it might have been the hottest day I've been alive for.

Charlie
Charlie was 3rd to ride (out of the 15 kids). Charlie made it all the way across the rink like a pro. He fell at the very end but when I reviewed the video it kind of looked like the crew pulled him off the sheep, he maintains that he fell though.

Charlie got a score of 80. The score was based on his control of the animal and overall technique (hold on for dear life or be trampled by a wild sheep?). Because his score was so high he was asked to ride again as a finalist. Yay?

Annie
Annie was 11th to ride. The wrangler asked her about 20 times if she was sure she wanted to do this. He checked and double checked her waiver, walked by us a bunch of times giving us every opportunity to pull her out, and then finally opened the gate releasing the sheep.

He said over and over before she started 'she's our littlest cowgirl folks, this Annie from Spokane is a brave one'. Not that she's not brave, because she is, but I think what she really was though was unaware. We explained she would be riding a sheep, she got to watch 10 kids before her ride the sheep, but I still don't think she really understood what was about to happen.

So the sheep took off and Annie fell after about 2 seconds but kept hanging on. Great entertainment for the crowd that's not her family that loves her. Scary for her family that was watching and was immediately thinking holy crap what have I just done to my child!
After she finally let go the wrangler ran over and picked her up she was crying and mad and covered in sawdust. I ran over and got her and she was saying in between sobs 'I was so scared', 'the sheep went so fast'. Then she looked over at the pony rides going on next door and all the happy kids riding the ponies and she goes 'they're not falling off'.

That's when it hit me that she thought the sheep was just going to walk along slowly in a circle and she was going to get a nice little ride on a cute little sheep and she would be like Mary and her little sheep would be white and snow and everything would be nice. Instead of that fantasy she got the ride from hell on an angry gray sheep who ran like hell across a rink didn't care at all if she got dragged and trampled.
So we get her calmed down and my mom and I decide to take her to the bathroom since Charlie's second ride shouldn't be for a few more minutes. She goes to the bathroom and as I'm wiping sawdust from all the places that sawdust should never be Matt calls me on my cell and says Charlie's suiting up for his second ride right this second.

So we run out of the bathroom and race back to the mutton rink. Charlie's got his helmet on and he's ready to go and right as we get within earshot we hear the wrangler say over the mic that Charlie has changed his mind and won't be riding.

Of course I'm not about to make him after what I just saw the 3 of them go through, but I did want him to finish what he signed up for. Plus it turns out that he's good at this and how cool would it be if my boy who has never been a dare devil in his life sweeps this thing and wins a belt buckle? I mean, I'd buy him a belt for sure!

Anyways, so he comes over and he's crying because he's embarrassed and he thinks we're mad and disappointed and I ask him why he didn't do it and his response was that he didn't want to get his new shirt dirty (my mom had bought all 3 of them 'I survived mutton busting' shirts). Not 'I didn't want to die'. Or 'getting dragged by a sheep through sawdust praying I don't get trampled isn't actually fun'. But 'I didn't want to get my new shirt dirty'.

So that's the story of mutton bustin' for the Rings and Finnegans. Later we found out that all 6 finalists who rode got a trophy. When I told Charlie that he said he would have done it if he knew he'd be getting a trophy. I'd say oh well, next time, but I think we all know there will be no next time for the Ring kids. Caden Finnegan...he may have a next time, but the Ring kids are just glad to still be alive.

The End.

phone dump

2011-08-26T20:25:00.000-07:00

A friend of mine just put up all these random pictures on her blog as she was backing up the pictures on her phone. Which reminds me, I should back these up, some of them are fun.

I don't remember where we were going or what we were doing but Charlie concocted this sweet outfit all by himself.
Red Robin on Charlie's 5th birthday.
Charlie jumping on the trampoline at Discovery Park (today).
Wrestling at Discovery Park (also today).
Me, my lazy eye, Annie, and our secret dog Brutacus that I don't think I ever blogged about because I couldn't spell his name right and we only kept him for 24 hours and I didn't want all the dog lovers in the world to call me an awful person for giving him back.
Our basement every. single. day. Girl toys meet boy toys and have to figure out how to get along. This day it worked.
Annie being awesome.
Annie, Caden and Charlie playing Twister.

How's that for random? Now back to my Showtime free preview. Only 3 months left, what am I going to do?

The Ultimate Ladies Weekend

2011-08-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

I wish I could talk about all the silly stuff that went down this weekend in Seattle with my girlfriends but this blog is rated PG and I'd like to keep it that way. Instead I present some pictures of the friends I'm so lucky to have after all these years!

Danielle & Brenda

Not a picture of a friend but evidence of some beautiful wedding shower decorations I helped assemble.
Kristi, Danielle, Brenda posing for me before Anna's wedding shower.
Brooke bringing home more champange before the shower (since we critisized the strength of the mimosas we insisted on testing before the shower started, you're welcome for saving the shower Brooke).
Brooke, myself, bride-to-be Anna
Julie and Me
Brenda and Erin

So good to see you girls and can't wait to see you again in 2 weeks at Anna's big show!

More fun at Riverfront Park.

2011-08-21T20:27:00.000-07:00

Grandpa Rick, Annie and Caden riding the Spider Charlie riding the Strawberries
Cousins (take 1) outside the Tilt'o'Whirl
(take 2)
(take 3)

2 more weeks until our Riverfront Park passes expire. We've gotten our $34 (a kid) worth this summer fo'shizzle.

S2S and a Lotta BS

2011-08-14T21:49:00.000-07:00

I don't really know how to even start this post. I just went through one of the craziest, most wonderful, and most awful experiences of my adult life this weekend. I participated in the 185 mile Spokane to Sandpoint relay race.

Back in May after my 1/2 marathon I thought it would be a good idea if I signed up for another race to motivate myself to keep running. A friend from work asked me to be on her team for this relay and I was like you know what? I know enough crazy ladies to form my own running team and I'm going to do that. So I did that.

Thursday night we met to decorate the vans. As team captain I also took this opportunity to begin mothering my team. I made them stand in the order they'd be running in, wearing a wig of their choosing, and listen to me talk through the details of each person's run and all the van exchanges and when we'd be sleeping and when we'd be showering. (And I knew these details because I did some superstar math in Excel, which they made fun of, but ended up loving in the end.) They embraced me as their Team Mother and let me continue with my role throughout the weekend - my van lovingly named me their Van Mom. You may think I'm joking when I say it warmed my heart but I'm not and it did.Below is all 12 of us at 5:30 in the morning at the top of Mt. Spokane. There was a wig contest for the first runner so to show our support for Lady Godivia we all wore wigs to send her off.
This is my van with our trademark whale on top and a mannequin with a pink wig wood glued to his head. The whale stayed with us all 32 hours, the mannequin turned out to be super heavy so we ditched him after the van judging was over.

Our amazing Lady Godiva running the first leg of the relay.

Next up was a costume contest. Our runner Shannon choose to run in her actual wedding dress. We helped her tie the tulle in knots so she wouldn't trip and off she went. Her mom freaked a little when she heard what she was doing but her Van Mom didn't. Her Van Mom couldn't have been prouder of her little girl.

Another shot of our bride, this time with her sister (we'll call her the maid of honor) running after her shouting words of wisdom and encouragement.

Next up was runner 3 and sadly there was no contest for #3 to participate in. All Miss Olivia had to look forward to was a long 7 mile run with a hill and a couple of turns and some beautiful landscape (that her sister described to her through the megaphone while running next to her).
After Olivia's run my pictures get a little dicey. There's really no evidence from here on out that any running took place. I assure you that it did though.

After the 6 girls in our van finished we swung by Starbucks and Subway and headed to our shower stop. Our shower stop happened to be at Lady Godiva's house and she had a pool so we swam and pretended that we were just over for a swim and we didn't have to get back in the van and go do what we just did 2 more times.

But thankfully we remembered that we like doing hard things and this was going to be a really hard thing to do so we just embraced it.

After a quick stop at Rite Aid for batteries for our new teammate, Mitch the Megaphone (where we also picked up some mini bottles of wine for the next day's breakfast) we were headed to Mirabeau Park where the last runner from Van 2 would be finishing up and passing the baton back to our van.
Again things are dicey picture wise. We all ran again and somehow ended in Coeur d'Alene. We supported our runners not by offering them cold water or anything helpful physically, but by sticking with them whenever possible and talking at them through the megaphone about what good runners they were. They were good runners and we offered them support by telling them that over and over.

We also offered our flavor of support to every runner we saw. We learned their names whenever possible and shouted out how proud we were of them every chance we got. When we couldn't catch names we just said 'Hey blue shorts, you're a fast runner. We love that you're fast and we're proud of you but if you wouldn't mind letting our girl Marie catch up and pass you we'd think you were nice too.' People laughed and I like to think it's that laughter that carried them through their super hard runs in the 90 degree Spokane heat and later through the middle of the night runs in Northern Idaho.

On a side note today has been weird. Social situations have been hard to blend back in to. I was at my in-laws and they had a friend over who was learning how to clean a fish. He decided that I should learn to. Instead of learning with him I told him I'd support him by taking pictures of him learning and that's how I would help him through the experience. He looked at me like a crazy person and went ahead and cleaned the fish. I just kept thinking about how I could have supported him better had I had Mitch with me. I could have said 'you're a good fish cleaner' and he would have smiled and kept cleaning and that would have made us both feel good.

This is me running. I made the girls take a picture of me so I would remember this experience was real and not a weird dream.

So now our van has run twice and it's evening time so we're off to find some dinner and try to catch some sleep on the hard ground at Silverwood while we wait for Van 2 to do their runs. We got to Silverwood and I couldn't sleep a wink. As Van Mom I had the weight to making everything work and if I slept through the phone call that said they were getting close we wouldn't be ready at the exchange and I would have let them down. Plus the ground was super hard and Angie was snoring next to me and people were coming and going and packing up all around me and I couldn't tune it out.

So Van 2 got done around 1:30 a.m. and 9 of the 12 of us road Tremors (the scariest roller coaster in the world, never ride it please!). Then it was our van's turn to run again. At this point we've been up since like 3:30, we've run twice, we've eaten weird food, and running along the rural roads of Northern Idaho sounds like a bad idea. 5 of the 6 of us loved it though and no one got attacked by a bear or the KKK so we were all still basically happy when it was over. All except Van Mom.

Van Mom found that last run to be the hardest thing she's ever done. Running is already hard and to do it without sleep or proper pooping facilities is difficult. I had to dig deep and I didn't come up with what I should have. Instead I just shouted at my van "I don't want to be a runner, I just want to be a fat girl".

Thankfully they wouldn't let me quit. Instead they recorded my motto on the megaphone and played it back to me pretty much nonstop for my 6 mile run. I wouldn't have made it without those wonderful ladies.

Shannon and Mitch

Shelby with Shannon, Olivia and Mitch rooting her on.

The Team.

There were 77 teams in the race and we placed 1st. Not 1st in time, in time we were DEAD LAST (true). We won the team spirit award though which is only given to 1 team. By winning it we get $300 off next year's registration. The team that won for time got $-0- off next year's registration so who do you think they want back next year? Exactly.

At the end of the day I hugged my new 11 best girlfriends and told them it's been fun but I'm just not a runner, I'm a fat girl. It just comes more naturally to me. Ice cream loves me and I love it and I don't want to fight with it any longer.

After sleeping for 12 hours last night though I'm almost back to my normal self and I'm pretty sure that running is the way to the good life (to quote One Republic) and this gonna be a good life and I should keep doing hard things. If I don't the ice cream will take over and it won't be pretty and I'll have to buy new clothes and I'll probably have to make a spreadsheet to figure out how to do that.

Hear that S2S'ers? Mom's back. Turns out she's not a quitter afterall. Next year she's going to find a better way to micromanage both vans though because mom's can have more than 5 kids if they want. They can have 11 and still be good moms to all 11 of them and I'm going to figure that out by next August. Get excited!

My Eel and Ray

2011-08-11T17:18:00.001-07:00

The kids just finished their second round of swim lessons this summer. They had a blast and Mr. Charlie can now swim 5 feet underwater unassisted. Miss Annie loves her goggles and likes splashing around with the other kids that were in her class. I wrote that Christmas card style by the way. One quick sentence about each kid and we're done.

Kicking it.

2011-08-09T06:00:00.000-07:00

We had a great weekend at the lake. The weather was hot. The beer was cold. The lake was refreshing. The kids tried out the jet ski. Aunt Katie and Uncle Cage were in town. Grandma Cheryl didn't make anyone wear a fanny pack. What more can you ask for really.

Speaking of riding bikes....

2011-08-08T06:00:00.000-07:00

This guy can ride mini-bike!And this girl can ride a little bike with training wheels! Note: this is always the view I have of her, she rides FAST.

And (drumroll)...this guy can ride without training wheels! Go Charlie!

An investment.

2011-08-07T19:54:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 I declared the bike trailer the Best Investment Ever. I think it's fun to make stupid statements that are sure to bite me in the rear later on. I always have. The bike trailer is still fun on paper and I'm still glad we picked it up at a garage sale and I'm still glad I haven't let Matt sell it at one but calling it the best investment, or even a good investment, is kind of a stretch.

.
My dad came by on his bike the other day and asked for the advice on the shortest route back to his house. Rather than describing it I decided to just show him. All I need from him was to dig out the bike trailer in the garage, put 77 pounds worth of kid in it, not notice that both tires are flat, and ride 2 miles pulling said heavy kids. Done and done!

The last time I tried riding with them in the trailer my heart about exploded* and that was probably back in 2009 when they didn't weigh 77 pounds.

.
By the way, I've got a bike trailer for sale. It's really awesome. All offers considered.

.
*I should totally go in to sales.

Future Mathlete

2011-08-02T09:22:00.001-07:00

Charlie: Triplets are when there's 1 boy, 1 girl and 1 half-boy and half-girl.

Me: There's really no such thing as a half-boy and a half-girl. There would either be 2 boys and a girl, or 2 girls and a boy.

Charlie: No. That's not real. You're teasing me.

Me: It is real. I'm not teasin'.

Charlie: But that's not fair?

Me: I know. Being a triplet isn't fair.

Kind of scary how math oriented his brain is sometimes. Things have to be even or they don't make sense.

Another example: yesterday we bought a 3 pack of swimming goggles. He said to me "1 pair will be for me, 1 pair for Annie, and we'll save the last pair in case we have another baby." Never entered his mind that 1 of them could just have 2 pairs. (And for the record there's no other baby coming someday.)

Twenty-Five Mile Creek Campground

2011-07-31T20:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend we camped with some old friends at the Twenty-Five Mile Creek Campground on Lake Chelan. We live off of Five-Mile Road in Spokane, which sadly is not just 20 miles away from where we camped. It was more like 4 hours away, however the drive went by fast. Charlie read and Annie chitter chattered and before we knew it we were in paradise.

Before I keep going can I get a amen for beating Lori and Maleah to the blogging punch? They both had the nerve to criticize my blogging frequency this weekend. So what if I like to watch tv at night and then take 1 night off to put up 14 posts covering everything we did in the last month. We have a free Showtime preview right now and I'm not about to squander it. Life is too short.

So camping. Our site was awesome. (future self: if you're re-reading this don't forget to get spot 73 again) It was shaded in the morning, partial sun in the afternoon, right by a creek, close to the bathrooms, close to the swim area, couldn't have been better if I'd have gone there and picked it out in person. I reserved it on the Internet and picked it based on the fact that there was an open spot next to it that some of our friends could reserve. That being the only criteria, I pretty much lucked out with all the other stuff.

So the friends. The friends we camped with are all people Matt went to high school with and has stayed buddies with over the last *cough cough* 15 years. Many of them also went to college with us so I've known most of them for roughly 15 years as well. Holy cow do I feel like I've got one foot in the nursing home right now.

On to the pictures.

Matt, Jace, Charlie and Annie crossing the creek.Charlie, Annie, Andrew and Sora watching a Saturday morning cartoon. Clarification: Sora was watching the big kids, the big kids were watching a cartoon.

The great little swim area.

The offspring (from left): Iain Bales (1), Halle Emery (2), Mason Dyk (2), Sora McPherson (2), Annie Ring (3), Andrew Dyk (4), Charlie Ring (5).

The five that can hold still. (Coincidence that their moms all do family blogs and these kids are probably used to having every second of their lives photographed? Probably not.)

The EHS'ers that brought us together: Julie, Matt, Jace, Matt, Kyle.

My darling family.

Probably going to be our Christmas card.

Matt and the kids on Danger Island (their term).

The family in front of the mansion.

Inappropriate.

Appropriate.

Smores!

Me, my friend Lori, her ham Mason.

Thanks for a fun camping trip old friends! Same time same place 2012. I'll bring the palm'tini's. You guys bring those cute kids of yours (and more tini's?) and we'll be set!

Boating on Deer Lake

2011-07-27T16:29:00.001-07:00

Ha ha. Let's take a picture of mom swimming.

Now let's take one of Mom and Annie.

And another.

And 5 more that aren't getting added to the blog. Usually I encourage the husband to participate in the photo taking. I should have specified that swimsuit pictures aren't really my favorite. If I'd have know he was taking so many I would have stopped talking and sucked in a little. Dang it.

Hiking at Deer Lake

2011-07-27T16:19:00.000-07:00

Sorry Cheryl, you should know better than to wear a fanny pack (and make my kids!) when I have my camera handy.

For the record (this blog is THE record) this was a 10 minute hike up through Matt's Grandpa's property. It took 20 minutes to get the fanny packs and visors organized and fitted properly. I felt like that needed to be noted.

Dollar Store Squirt Guns

2011-07-27T16:14:00.001-07:00

There are some things the Dollar Store is so great for - the entertainment that squirt guns give us is so worth a dollar!

While I was there I saw a sign for $1 steak. There are some things that just shouldn't be purchased at the Dollar Store.

Orcas: Things we did at the cabin

2011-07-27T15:45:00.000-07:00

Taught Annie to use the camera.

Played some baseball.

Played Angry Birds.
Watched Hook.

I think that should do it for the Orcas posts!

Orcas: Things we did at parks

2011-07-19T21:27:00.000-07:00

The first night we were on the island we met up with my dad at the park in town to listen to an outdoor concert.We quickly realized that we could listen to the music from the deck of the best pizza place ever. I lived on the island for 2 summers during college - my friends Julie, Katie and I spent way too much of our respective paychecks at this place.
On day 3 we drove in to Moran State Park and hiked to Cascade Falls. It was a short little hike with lots to see (3 waterfalls, many fallen trees, a frog, old'ish hikers that found it amazing that my kids could do this hike (keep in mind it was less than 1.5 miles total)).

After our hike we hit the play area. The tire swing was Annie's favorite thing ever. Charlie on the other hand practically puked when Matt and I got them spinning super fast.
That's it for the park post.

Orcas: Things we did on the beach or near water

2011-07-19T20:53:00.000-07:00

The kids are at such a great age for Orcas activities. We spent a couple hours each morning just climbing on the rocks, hunting for little sand crabs, and balancing on the logs (the rocks were lava game kept them entertained forever!).

We also made time to play with kelp, something every child should make time to do every once in a while.

Oh and my favorite activity was helping them find shells to paint and glue on to driftwood.
I declared it 'center time' (preschool terminology) and made them do it. I think they enjoyed it as much as me and Aunt Ginger did. Granted we didn't have any glue so we used contact cement (what you would use if you were putting new laminate down on your counters) and our paint was all dried out so we had to color the shells with markers. Next year I'll be a little more prepared for center time.
We were also fortunate enough to have Grandpa Rick on the Island at the same time as us. He took us out for a boat ride where we saw probably 20 - 30 seals on the rocks near the island.

Another favorite beach activity was SMORES! Hersheys for the kids, Reese for me and Matt.

(this is my happy Reese face)

On our way to the ferry on the last day we stopped by the public beach to walk around a little. We found a ton of starfish on the rocks.

Charlie seems to be going through a crazy face phase. I remember him liking all of our beach and water activities much more than he's showing in these pictures.

On a side note I recently discovered blurb.com, a site that allows you to turn your blog in to a photo book. So now I have a new reason to document our life. I think the blog book is going to replace the traditional photo album in this household. That way we preserve the story that goes with each picture. So get excited for more stories and pictures of our little family!

Orcas: Things we did on the ferry

2011-07-16T10:35:00.000-07:00

Charlie worked on his little notebook, Annie ran around the ferry, Matt chased her, and I actually got to read a book. Such a treat in my world.

Ice Caves

2011-07-15T08:46:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we stayed with some friends in the Seattle area. Sunday morning we took the kids on a hike to the Ice Caves near Silverton.

Before we started Charlie read all the rules that were posted by the trailhead. One of the rules was 'do not walk on the ice caves and do not walk on the base of the mountain'. When we got to the base of the mountain there were tons of people walking on the snow so Matt and I started to as well.

Charlie reminded us we weren't supposed to and like total tourists we were like "everyone else is doing it, I'm sure it's fine". Guess where this is going? Seconds later the ranger comes running up and tells everyone to get off the snow. Apparently the caves were under the snow and the snow could have collapsed at any time. Next time we'll consider listening to the only one in the group who read the rules, even if he is only 5 years old.

Thanks Ryan and Cristy for housing us and entertaining us!

Riverfront Park

2011-07-11T11:56:00.000-07:00

Taking advantage of our Riverfront Park passes and a nice sunny day.

Apparently there was lots of stuff in the sky that day.

It's getting hot in here.

2011-07-07T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yesterday a friend invited us to the country club pool. It was glorious and the kids and I didn't want to leave. After 3 hours in the sun another pool goer asked me if I was wearing any sunscreen (I was wearing tons). That was a sure sign that whitey needed to get back indoors, so we called it a day.
Here we are (below) back home playing with our poor man's water toy. Sure, it's no country club pool and there's no one asking me if I'd like another Bud Light Lime, but it's still fun and super-white mom can supervise from inside so she doesn't get even more lobstery. Now if I could just find someone to fetch me a Bud Light Lime I'd be all set.

My Super Sweet Budweiser Birthday Bash

2011-07-05T20:52:00.000-07:00

I've never really loved where my birthday fell during the month of July. I remember growing up 1/2 of my friends could never come to my birthday party because they were doing something with their families for the 4th of July. It was a day that was supposed to be all about me and for some people it wasn't and that made Princess Jeannette sad.

And then there were the years we spent the 4th on Orcas. My mom always made me feel special with a nice cake and party games but the kids at the party weren't necessarily my friends, they were cousins or friends of cousins or random kids staying in nearby cabins.

So finally, at age 33, I decided to quit crying about it. It's not so bad to share a birthday weekend with the Nation. It's really not! To ramp up my new found joy I applied to host a Budweiser Bash. Budweiser sent me all kinds of goodies for me to share with my guests. My guests were whatever members of Matt's family happened to be at their lake spot on the 3rd, and that was a-ok by me. And by my guests I don't really mean that I did any form of hosting. Everyone brought food and beer to share, I just handed out some beer coozies from the pockets of my Budweiser apron and snapped some pictures here and there.

Mentally I had taken my birthday into my own hands and was having a good time with it but then my husband surprised me with the greatest gift you can give a food addict - an entire Costco cake. I didn't see it coming at all - I never give that guy enough credit.

On a side note: I had no idea that my love of the Costco cake was so well known. My old pal Katie commented on FaceBook that she hoped I'd get a Costco cake for my birthday. Perhaps I should stop talking about it so much?

Or perhaps I should talk about it more? Who else is upset that they no longer let you pick your filling and frosting combo? White cake with chocolate mouse filling and buttercream frosting - hell yes! Chocolate cake with strawberry cream filling - yes please! Now we're limited to all white or all chocolate. Come on Costco!

Since I shared my day with the Nation (Deer Lake did fireworks on the 3rd this year) we got to light sparklers with the kids. We also got them some of those little snap it things that you throw at the ground, which turned out to be hours of fun for them. They set traps all over Matt's Grandpa's house by lining the steps with snap its. So tricky. Another side note: the girl pictured below folding her arms is Abby. Abby of 5-year old flower girl fame.
Annie is definitely mine.

My husband also surprised me with a new wireless mouse (wires are so 2010! sheesh!) and a new little video camera called a Bloggie Touch. It's the size of my phone and it holds 4 hours of HD video plus it's a 12 megapixel camera. It's super easy to use and fits nicely in my pockets (even nicer in the pockets of my Budweiser apron). Thanks Matt! I love it!

Also thanks to everyone in Matt's family for playing along with the Budweiser Bash! Hope you enjoyed your barley malt, yeast, rice, hops, water, nothing more and nothing less!

Happy 4th of July!

2011-07-04T21:00:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of our long weekend spent at the lake. Today was HOT. Most people did this:Annie and Grandma Cheryl did this:

And Charlie did this:

Charlie finished his first chapter book this weekend (who remembers Bunnicula!?) and couldn't wait to start on the 2nd book we got at the library (the Legend of Sleepy Hollow, why we ended up with 2 scary books just boils down to crappy parenting, there's no other explanation).

More on My Sweet Budweiser Birthday Bash soon and more on my new video camera/tiny camera gadget thing Matt got me for my birthday soon too. I've got lunches to pack, laundry to wash, sunburned feet to aloe up, etc....

Happy 7th Anniversary Trip

2011-06-26T20:54:00.000-07:00

Love my husband but I have learned something in 7 years: no matter how many hints you drop he will not surprise you with a romantic weekend away. So since this is what I wanted I just went ahead and planned it myself. Sans the romance though. I thought it would be more fun if we brought the kids. Sans the surprise part too. I needed to tell him to make sure he could take a day off work.

So on Friday we took off for our weekend away. We went up to B.C. to Ainsworth Hot Springs.

Sassy Pants posing for the camera.

Getting ready to go in the caves (which are kept at 114 degrees, perfect for small children and careless parents).

Matt coming out of the Cold Plunge (which is kept at 55 degrees, perfect for crazy people).

The family headed into the cave (Annie can't take her eyes off the stalagmites and stalactites, they freaked her out).

My attempt at following them with the camera. It was so hot my pictures all turned out like this:

Hiking in Kaslo B.C.

Found a cool bridge on our hike.

Annie scoped out 3 ice cream shops in Kaslo. We let her pick one as a reward for doing such fine research.

This is as romantic as the weekend got...the kids gave Matt a massage.

And this is the only evidence that we were there together and not on 2 separate trips with similar looking kids (which is how it feels looking at the pictures).

Happy 7th Hubs! Thanks for being 'spontaneous' with me!

Budweiser...

2011-06-26T20:35:00.000-07:00

Being super cheap has always kind of been my thing. Now that couponing and grouponing are cool I feel like I can talk about my finds and people will actually care.

Here's the story I want you to care about:

On some couponing blog I like to visit (I couldn't tell you which one, I read lots of them) I saw a link for HouseParty. They were looking for people to host a Budweiser house party. All you have to do is agree to throw a party and they'll send you $30 in rebates for the beer, a $10 VISA gift card for you to put towards food, Budweiser can coozies (24 of them!), 4 Budweiser frisbees, and several other random goodies.

So I filled out their little survey to apply and I got accepted! And...they only selected 30 people! I'm not sure if I should really be proud of the fact that they agree that I'm their target audience or if that should be embarrassing to me but I am and it's not!

(photo taken by Annie Ring)

I know it looks like I'm super happy to be wearing a Budweiser apron and holding a Budweiser platter to my crotch but really I'M SUPER HAPPY TO BE WEARING A BUDWEISER APRON AND HOLDING A BUDWEISER PLATTER TO MY CROTCH!

So the party had to be held on July 3rd or 4th so I choose to do it on the 3rd because we'll be at Deer Lake with 20+ family members who already like to party and will be thrilled when I show up with my box of goodies. AND. Because it's my birthday and throwing yourself a Budweiser themed 33rd birthday party at your in-laws house seemed classy enough for me!

Hope that was as exciting for you to read as it was for me to write!

Monkey took my camera.

2011-06-26T20:31:00.000-07:00

Annie's new thing is photography. Her favorite subject is her own feet....
Today, while downloading pictures onto my computer, I found that she's branched out. It's really not a bad picture of her doll house.
Nice work Little Girl!

Father's Day '11

2011-06-19T21:16:00.000-07:00

What better way for Matt to spend his Father's Day weekend than with his old pal Krusty and his family! The Krusty's moved to Wisconsin a year ago and were passing through Spokane on their way home for the summer and decided to stay the weekend with us. What fun for us!

The crew.Charlie and Sora.

Lone biker chick.

For the last night that our friends were staying with us we convinced them they wanted to get back in the car and go over to Kellogg ID with us. Matt's other Father's Day wish was that we stay a night at the Morning Star Lodge and play in their indoor waterpark. It just made sense to do it when we had fun friends in town so we'd have more people to play with - so we went for it.

The crew eating dinner.

Kiddos sleeping after spending the whole day at the waterpark.

Ring kids.

Krusty riding the Flow Rider

Matt's turn.

Cheering section.**

My turn.

Lazy River.

Annual Happy Father's Day shot.

Random public shower moment.

Happy Father's Day father of my children!

Happy Father's Day to you too Grandpa Ken and Grandpa Rick!

**On a side note: Annie wanted to try body boarding. I told her she had to be 8. She seemed sad. The water pressure would have shot her across the building and she would have slammed into the back wall, I'm sure of it. The 3 year old mind works in such mysterious ways.

Class of 2011.

2011-06-12T12:24:00.000-07:00

Charlie 'graduated' from preschool a few weeks ago and I'm finally getting around to proving it. Below is his class at the Co-op.
A picture of Grandma Cheryl because she helped out with the graduation in a big way. She wrote a poem for me to read that highlighted each child in Charlie's class. She also wrote a song that the kids sang to their teacher thanking her for a great year. Thanks Cheryl! I think both were very well received and appreciated by Miss Susan and the other parents!

Congratulations little graduate! On a very related note we received a call on Friday from the principal at the elementary school a block away from our house. We've been on the waiting list all year to get in and we've finally made it! Charlie will be in afternoon kindergarten which isn't ideal, however at least he doesn't have to take a bus to a school far away from our house!

a family that hikes together

2011-06-12T12:19:00.000-07:00

A few pictures from our hike at Riverside State Park last weekend.(Charlie gathered 'throwing stars' to protect us on our hike)

Attempting a picture with my kids, flashbacks from last year on the very same hike. I guess it's just not meant to be.

We've been trying to do a hike with the kids every weekend that we can. However this weekend we didn't make it thanks to the dishwasher breaking and needing replacing, yard work, an impromptu trip to the YMCA with Jon Solo and Brett Dennen, and other random life stuff.

Next weekend is looking promising though. Our ourdoorsey friends are staying with us for the weekend and I'm sure they'll be all over it.

Do you like how I casually threw out there that we took a rock band to the YMCA with us? We're so hip. The YMCA employee who asked for an autograph while Brett was swimming laps was not.

This is what it's come to.

2011-06-03T19:40:00.000-07:00

I'm offering up a cute picture of Charlie on his last day of Co-op as a peace offering. My sad little blog has suffered lately for so many reasons. I can no longer blame my lack of computer accessibility though thanks to my generous husband's Mother's Day gift of a new laptop.

I have new excuses that are somewhat related to each other. Get excited.

Excuse #1: we got a new 47 inch flatscreen and it alone has changed my life and consumed all my spare time. We called Comcast and had them set us up with an HD cable box and my life got even more awesome. TV watching has never been the same and I LOVE IT. The images are more clear than seeing real, live people. Words can't do it justice.

I've found all kinds of new shows that are so much more interesting on the new flatscreen (I'd imagine, although I never saw them on our dumb old non-HD 32 inch Panasonic). Has anyone else seen Shameless on Showtime (we're on a 6-month free trial, which may be why I've never heard of this filthy but totally awesome show before)? I've even discovered Extreme Couponing on TLC which is all of a sudden so interesting on the new tv.

Every night I put the kids to bed (as early as Matt will let me), I get my bowl of ice cream, and I settle in for 2-3 hours. It's so wrong and I feel so guilty while I'm doing it but it makes me so happy. So happy.

Excuse #2 why the blog sucks lately: the 1/2 marathon is over and I no longer have to exercise. I think exercise keeps the mind sharp and focused which for me meant my life, ie the blog, was organized and current. When I was focused it was like: raise the kids, do the laundry, work my 25 hours a week, update the blog, run, make dinner, eat healthy.

Now that I've given up the exercise my mind is mushy and much more willing to give in to nights filled with mindless tv watching and ice cream eating. The kids are raising themselves and the laundry gets done when someone runs out of socks.

Never fear though. Tonight it ends. I think I'll go out big too. I've got an unopened pint of Starbucks ice cream hidden in the downstairs fridge and I've got the fancy tv all to myself.

Tomorrow training for the Spokane to Sandpoint Relay starts. My share of the relay will be between 14 and 17 miles so slacking off is not an option. Had I not been such a goober these last 3 weeks I'd be going on a 6 mile run tomorrow. Instead I'll probably be doing a 3 mile run with some walking sprinkled in for good measure.

Wow. It's getting late. I gotta get these darn kids in bed so I can get started. Peace out.

Spokane River

2011-05-22T14:11:00.001-07:00

The falls were so high today we got wet crossing the bridge. It was wild.

1/2 Marathon Photos

2011-05-20T11:42:00.000-07:00

Big thanks to friend Diane for coming out to the finish line! Action photos to prove I actually did this are actually kind of necessary.

(and no, I don't really remember this photo being taken, totally dizzy and delirious at this point)

Hiking somewhere in Spokane (I don't really know where).

2011-05-17T15:56:00.000-07:00

What a difference a year makes. Both kids LOVE to hike now!

Of course they also love to fight over who gets to be the leader but at least no one's making me carry them back to the car anymore.

Sushi Maru

2011-05-15T15:36:00.000-07:00

We have a new sushi train restaurant (the food moves around the restaurant on a conveyer belt and you take what you want) in Spokane and since yesterday was kind of big for me the family decided I got to pick where we ate.

It was actually a great choice for the kids too though. They loved playing with the chopsticks and when Matt and I decided what we wanted off the train we let them taking turns grabbing the plates. Also, they had popcorn chicken and cream puffs so the kids didn't have to eat the eel and octopus Matt and I were chowing down on.

Charlie practicing with the chopsticks.He got even better at it when they brought out the little plastic attachments for the tops to keep them together.

Annie just basically drummed with hers.

Fun place, we'll definitely be back.

Finisher!

2011-05-14T16:37:00.000-07:00

Today was the BIG day. I did my first 1/2 marathon and actually didn't die (like I was planning on)!

Rather than a big long story of how it went down here are a few conversations my friend Angie had before/during/after the race.

Before.
Angie: How many of these people do you think are wearing underwear?
Me: Pretty much none. Including us! Can I get a what what!?
Angie: I wish I had my computer so I could make my FaceBook status 'going commando with 2,000 other people right now'.

Me: I can't wait for this to be over so I can go back to sitting on my couch on more of a full time basis.

Me: We should stretch or something right?
Angie: Oh yeah. Let's just find someone who looks like they know what they're doing, stand behind them, and do what they're doing.

During.
Me: If I have to quit and hail a cab, or an ambulance, promise me you'll still finish.
Angie: No way. You can do this.
Me: I probably can't. Instead of training last week I went to a hula hooping class. I don't think it prepared me for this like I had hoped.

Both of us more than once: If that guy can do it so can we.

Angie: The jelly beans in my pocket are getting sweaty. Do I have a rainbow running down my leg?

Angie: My husband (who is a high school cross country coach) told me that even if you're feeling good at mile 3 don't get cocky. You still have 10 to go. He says he meant it in an encouraging way.
Me: I'm not sure my husband knows where I am. I feel like he's going to wake up and be surprised that I'm not home.
Angie: Didn't you tell him that your race was today?
Me: Yeah but he doesn't usually hear me when I tell him things until I've told him 3 times. I think I only told him twice.

Me during the first 9 miles: Oh dear. This was a bad idea.
Angie during the first 9 miles: No! We're middle aged mommies and we're running 13.1 miles like it's nothin'! You're doing awesome!

Angie during the last 4 miles: I think my body is mad at me. Go on without me.
Me during the last 4 miles: No! We're middle aged mommies and we're running 13.1 miles! You're doing this!

After.
Angie: Only 1 full marathon runner (who started at the same time as us but 13.1 miles away somewhere in Idaho) beat us. I feel kind of proud of that.

Angie: Do you feel dizzy?
Me: I feel like I'm dreaming. I don't remember driving the last mile.

All in all it was fun and I'm glad I did it. I'm also glad that I found a friend who pushed me to train, to actually show up on race day, and who stayed by my side the whole time. We finished together at about 2 hours and 45 minutes. Next year we're shooting for a slightly better time, mostly because it was a little embarrassing to be beat by someone who ran 13 more miles than we did.

When it's your blog and you're the mom...3 posts about your day is considered holding back.

2011-05-10T09:53:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day was spent playing around with the kids. We went to 2 parks we'd never taken the kids to in Chewelah (near Deer Lake, my in-laws headquarters). Then we went for ice cream and lattes. Then we went back to the lake where the kids caught a ton of fish.

The kids made me some great gifts and Matt got me one of those little laptops that I get to call my own.

They spoiled me - it was really great! (and now it's over and I'm back to my life of laundry, work, wiping children's bottoms, etc)

Mother's Day Dinnerfest

2011-05-08T16:06:00.001-07:00

Not only did he set the table but he made the centerpiece himself. The craftmaster is in the house!

Fishing at Deer Lake.

2011-05-08T14:21:00.001-07:00

Charlie caught 4, Annie caught 3. Very fun for them.

new development

2011-05-08T09:34:00.000-07:00

Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting here at the Circus. Mamma got a new computer for Mother's Day!

Thanks Hubs!

Bloomsday 2011

2011-05-03T06:19:00.001-07:00

Here's something weird: I had the same number in Bloomsday 2009 as I did in 2011. Out of 50,000+ Bloomies how did I get the same number? Here's something exciting: my dear, old (OLD 60!) Dad did Bloomsday with us this year! He did it with a pace of 14:37 per mile which is pretty great! Way to go Dad!

The clown on the left is my brother-in-law who finished in 1 hour 8 minutes (a pace of 9:10 per mile). He's a clown from now on.
Here's something about me: I had my best time this year (this was my 5th Bloomsday), 1 hour 22 minutes (11:02 per mile pace), but I'm mad about it. I've been training for a 1/2 marathon, which is coming up in 12 short days, so I thought this would be a breeze and it WASN'T. I had to walk some of it, which I wasn't anticipating.

On the bright side I'm surprizingly not sore, so the training must be helping a little.

Next year I'm shooting for an hour ten. You heard it here first.

Oh and I placed first among people with the same last name again. Not because I got faster, because they got slower.

Easter re-do.

2011-04-30T15:44:00.000-07:00

Since Matt's still gone and the kids are playing quietly (or they left? I don't know. It's quiet and I don't care why.) I'll re-do Easter.

Here they are dying eggs. Charlie was super careful with the eggs and eased each one into the dye. Annie was less careful and dropped each one in her dye totally oblivious that each one was cracking as she was doing it.Below is Charlie and Caden hunting for eggs Easter morning.

Annie showing off her loot.

Annual Anda-side cousin shot (missed you Royal!).

After brunch and an egg hunt at our house we headed over to Matt's Aunt's house for dinner and another egg hunt.

These guys were there.

So were these guys.

Annual Rice-side cousin shot.

Kids are less-quiet now, I should go pay attention to them.

Marmot March

2011-04-30T15:33:00.000-07:00

Get excited: this post has pictures not taken from my phone on the fly. Matt's not home so I'm stealing the use of his computer for a few.

My Marmots did their 3rd Marmot March today (a 1-mile race through Riverfront Park) and it was the BEST ONE EVA! Charlie ran the whole thing and he ran it ridiculously fast. He and I finished in 16 minutes, which felt fast even to me and my legs are probably twice as long as his.

Our only mishap was when Charlie collided with a punk, teenager riding his skateboard through the park. They both fell and the skateboard went flying. Charlie was a little at fault because he wasn't running in a straight line and he kind of darted in front of the punk. HOWEVER. Why would you skateboard through a race of 250 kids ages 0 - 6 with roughly 500 parents running along side? There were cones...

Anywho. Charlie jumped up, brushed himself off and finished strong.

Fun.

I heard you.

2011-04-30T15:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Dave,

I had a thought, wanted to blog it for you. Oh wait, I lost it.

No here it is: thanks for telling Matt to buy me a new computer. He's not going to listen, but thank you.

Jeannette

Calling this an Easter post.

2011-04-25T08:12:00.000-07:00

Our laptop is on the fritz so to put pictures on the blog I have to take them on my phone, email them to myself, and open them on the laptop. Our USB ports don't work anymore and I'm starting to accept old lappy is on his way to the graveyard.

So for now please enjoy my random pictures I took with my phone this weekend!

Below: Charlie in the car after his soccer game in which he scored his 1st goal (during a game)! Yes someone passed it to him and he was standing in the perfect please, likely randomly, in order to kick it in. He didn't hesitate or step out of the way so it went in and that COUNTS! Below: Annie was also in the car.

Below: We went to an egg hunt at Riverfront Park. There were billions of kids, billions of eggs, and it was total madness. My kids threw elbows like we taught them and they walked away tearless and with full Easter baskets. Made us quite proud as other parents were consoling their crying kids who got trampled and left with no eggs.

Below: Another picture of Annie. She wore the bunny ears all weekend and was quite adorable all weekend.

Happy Easter friends!

Celebrate however you want!

2011-04-22T12:31:00.000-07:00

What better way to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus than with free wings?!

Not sure why I felt like sharing this. I don't even really like wings. Or Hooters.

Annie = too small for a backpack

2011-04-22T09:30:00.000-07:00

In June Annie is going to start at North Wall where Charlie currently goes 3 days a week. They'll both be going 2 days a week through the summer. She had her preview day on Monday and I told her if she did well at school I'd buy her a backpack. In April, at Wal-Mart, they only sell 1 size, really huge.

She needs it big though. I'm going to have to pack lots of spare outfits, she's not really comfortable using other people's bathrooms. She was at school for 2.25 hours on Monday and peed her pants. So if you figure she'll be there about 7 hours a day when she really starts she'll need 3-4 outfits a day. Hence the giant backpack.

Here's to potty training!

Spo Dis

2011-04-21T15:55:00.000-07:00

Nothing makes me happier than a bargain. Today at Spokane Discount was a good day. Let me draw it out for you people who relate to my cheapness:

Key Lime Cheesecake Bar mix $4.50
3 reusable ceramic coffee cups with silicone lids and sleeves $9
3-pack of Calvin Klein wife beaters $9.50
Men's short sleeve Nautica dress shirt $6
Little girls snow pants for next year $2.80 (originally $40!)
Little girls Baby Lulu dress $1.05
Women's Evie pink tank top $1.40
Women's Jantzen tankini top $1.40

Total with tax: $39

Snow pants for $2.80! Let me say it again: SNOW PANTS FOR $2.80!

Something to make you smile on a Tuesday.

2011-04-19T08:43:00.000-07:00

Roller derby try-outs here we come!

2011-04-10T12:10:00.001-07:00

Actually, forget roller derby. We're going to invent a new sport. It's going to involve roller skating and softball into one game. Stay tuned.