Everyone needs a Gopher

If I had to name 3 things that are essential to surviving car trips with kids they would be:
1 - snacks. Lots of them.
2- dvd player and movies. Preferably ones that don't make you want to hurl yourself out the window. (Alternately, headphones for you.)
3 - a Gopher. My family calls it the grabber, but it's essential if you have a van or kids who are too little to get the million things they drop on the floor or who want a snack or drink every 3 minutes but you don't want to take off your seat belt to climb back there. (the link is to Amazon, but you can get them at WalMart for $9.99 right now.)

-Other things that help us are limiting drinks for the bigger kids (especially the one with the tiny bladder). We only had to stop 3 times on the way to my parents' house and made the trip in 9 hours instead of 10 this time.
-Have them pack their own toys, if they are going to bring entertainment. This way, it's their own fault if they don't like what they have.
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Our trip was fantastic! Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays and we had a smooth drive, a great visit with family, and left while we still felt like we'd like to stay.
(We find it's better to leave while you're still wanting more. Quit while you're ahead sort of mentality.)

We're home now, and as an aside; I've browsed/read all the posts from while I was gone, but I had almost 300 in my Google Reader and there's just no way to comment on everything, so forgive me if I skipped!
My mind is focusing on getting Mt. Laundry conquered. 

The trip home was not as great. There was no excitement about seeing beloved family members, and the kids were crabby-ish from late nights and extra spoiling, plus there were crowded highways and 9+ hours driving in the rain and cold. There were still good parts though.

mine!

If you've seen Finding Nemo, then you know what I mean when I say my living room sounds like a flock of seagulls right now. Mine!Mine!Mine!Mine!
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I'm feeling out of sorts today. Perhaps it's the weather (rain,rain,rain) or the fact that the weather is supposed to get worse tomorrow. I still can't hear the words SEVERE without feeling like I'm going to lose it. The Celexa helps on a day to day basis but doesn't help enough during bad weather, which seems to be my #1 anxiety trigger. Having a storm shelter also helps, but only if all the children are home. If they're at school I worry about having to drive them and if they're safe and if I should keep them home...
I had to take O & C to school during the worst part of a thunderstorm last week and I was shaking like a leaf by the time I got there. It was raining so hard I could barely see! I tried to congratulate myself for actually doing it and not wimping out, but the rest of the day I felt like I couldn't breathe. *sigh*

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Just when I thought we were done with illness for a few days, O threw up on Thursday night. D also came home sick that day - which NEVER EVER happens. He stayed in bed the rest of the day. He stayed home Friday as well, which was good for me because I was sick that day and although he wasn't feeling well either, he took care of the kids. By Saturday I was feeling mostly better and he went to rugby.
He got a gash on his head which he is totally downplaying but definitely needed stitches. He's so stubborn.
I superglued it together twice and it's holding so I guess all's well that ends well. He bought more rugby shorts because his have a hole and I winced because that means he's not planning on retiring anytime soon.
The last game of the fall is the weekend after Thanksgiving, but then the spring season will start in late January. I don't even want to think about it.
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I finally lost another pound.
I'm going to try really hard not to indulge TOO much over the Thanksgiving holiday. It apparently takes me 3 months to lose 11 pounds, but only a day to gain it back.
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A friend on facebook posted about how the last few months have been really hard and that her uncle had just committed suicide. Among the comments was one of her "friends" saying that things could be worse, at least one of her kids didn't die.
Do people really think those types of comments are helpful?!
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Tonight I get to go out for drinks and dinner and Breaking Dawn part 1 which will probably be cheesy as all get out and I'm sure I will enjoy every second of it!
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I've got a couple friends going through some really hard times right now, and I hope they know I'm praying for and thinking about them.

Where's that trap door?

Remember my last post when I mentioned that we had 3 programs to go to? Well, 2 of them were yesterday.
O's was first and it was so cute. His school does a Fall Celebration for just the 4 year olds. They serve a real Thanksgiving meal after the program and (being on a diet) all I had eaten was an apple and coffee, so that I could eat something yummy for lunch.
Well.

Miss L was great during the program. Smiling, laughing, flirting with people behind us. She danced around! Adorable!

We were lucky (so we thought) to be the FIRST people in line for lunch. I was holding Miss L but she wanted down and I had to carry 2 plates and D had to carry three. Our plates were full and there were LOTS of people behind us when I heard a sound. THE SOUND.

I looked to my right and there was Miss L; projectile vomiting her breakfast of blueberries on the (thankfully not carpeted) floor. 12 inches from the food line and ALL THOSE PEOPLE. I wanted. to. die. o.m.g.
Horrifying.

D took her to the bathroom to begin a lengthy and not nearly good enough clean up and I got the boys settled in their seats and ate a few bites of food, as quickly as I could. My appetite was a little dampened... imagine that.
When D got out of the bathroom, I took Miss L home and he and the boys stayed and ate. I had to miss d's program last night, so that sucked.
So much for a nice family celebration day!

This is one of my top two most embarrasing parenting moments, or at least it feels like it right now. (The other one involved an OB/GYN, a toddler and a paper gown.)

She threw up 2 more times in the next hour and has been perfectly fine ever since. No fever. NOTHING. She's back to her usual self and I'm glad, but wow. Bad timing on that one.

Uh...

Is Thanksgiving really next week?    !!!!
After we get back from our Thanksgiving trip to see my family, we will have Miss L's (2nd!!) birthday, and then our 6-months-early-10-year-anniversary trip (SO EXCITED OMG) and then Christmas and then another trip, to Texas for New Years and then OMG it will be 2012. HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE?!
There are also 3 school programs between now and then, 3 Christmas parties we will try to attend, a few birthday parties, 2 more frickin' frackin' rugby games, and the other million jillion things we have to do this time of year.
But... I'm done Christmas shopping so that's one less thing to worry about. Our Christmas cards have arrived too, and are waiting to be addressed and sent.

Great news: D & I will have our first alone vacation since having children. I don't think words can appropriately explain the level of excitement I am feeling.

More great news: We will get to see SO much family in the next 5 weeks!

Not so great news: We will drive over 3,000 miles in the next 5 weeks. omg. My a$$ hurts just thinking about it. Plus, traveling this time of year is hit or miss. Good weather gods + PlzNoIllnessThx gods need to smile upon us.

I think I'm a little crazy and to top it off I'm still busting my butt to try to lose weight and I'm still down 10 pounds. Gah! (And I'm hungry *sigh*)
However, I feel really great so that's something I can hang on to.

 We took family pictures this weekend. You'll notice I mostly picked ones where D& I looked good because the kids were being ridiculous.
Here are a few of my favorites: 

grown ups out there?

I have 3 sick kids at home and haven't left the house since Friday afternoon and even then it was only to pick up d from school. I am going stir crazy and miss talking to grown ups and if I have to hear one more joke with a tooting sound or underwear in the punchline, well... I think there's some rum around here somewhere.
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If everything goes according to plan, in one month and 10 days (not that I'm counting or anything) D and I will be going on a 3 night vacation. Alone. For the first time EVER since we started a family.
(PLEASE OH PLEASE let everything go right.)
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Have you tried the Starbucks Via packs that you can get in the store? The one I picked up was for iced coffee and you just add 8 oz of water and half the packet (or 16 oz of water and the whole packet... kind of wish they made smaller packets...) and stir, add ice and voila! Iced coffee. I also added a splash of milk to mine, but overall it was very yummy and only 50 calories which is nice for iced coffee and it was different and sweet enough that it felt like a treat. It was a good pick me up for my crabby day today. 
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I was looking through old pictures with d today (he loves to look through our photo albums) and came across some pictures of me when I was a few months past 2 years old.

I think Miss L looks like me:

Candy Tiers

All the candy in the house gets sorted into tiers (in my head). It's just automatic, based on what I like and don't like.
Tier 1 is The Good Stuff. It's the stuff I would eat even if I wasn't really hungry, just because I really like it. (It's also the stuff that is already eaten from our candy bowl...)
           Examples: Kit Kats, 100 Grand, Twix, Dark Chocolate Milky Way, Milky Way

Tier 2 is also pretty good stuff. I'd eat it if I felt like something sweet but it would be fairly safe from me otherwise.
           Examples: 3 Musketeers, Skittles, M&M's, Snickers, Star Burst, Hershey Bars, Crunch Bars

Tier 3 is sugar emergency, PMS, really bad day stuff. As in, normally I wouldn't bother with it, but in certain situations it will have to do.
           Examples: Tootsie Rolls, Tootsie or Blow Pops, Twizzlers, Jolly Ranchers, Whoppers, Baby Ruth

Tier 4 candy is the only candy I can keep in the house because I really don't like it and am pretty much never tempted to eat it.
            Examples: Smarties, Sweet Tarts, Laffy Taffy, Dum Dums, Candy "sticks" that are really just candy cigarettes in different boxes, Pixie Stix, Pay Day


I buy Tier 4 candy for handing out. It's really the only safe way for me to guarantee that I won't have to re-buy candy before Halloween even gets here. Unfortunately, we got a ton of Tier 1 candy during trick or treating this year.

I let my kids have at it for 2 days following Halloween and then we get rid of the candy. Really, I put a small bowl of Tier 4 (and a few Tier 3) stuff in the cabinet for bribery purposes and half a freezer bag of Tier 2 stuff in the freezer for um... emergencies. The rest goes with D to work and I pretend to forget about the bag in the freezer until I actually do. Lucky for us, my Tier 3 and 4 are his Tier 1 & 2. We married well.


What are your tiers?