A true Winner

I watched the American Idol finally tonight and felt like such a sap. I like the show and all, but have never really been brought to tears, until tonight. When Philip Philips won tonight it seemed like all the other seasons until about half way through his song he just quit singing. He took his guitar off his shoulder, and with tears streaming down his cheeks he walked off the stage and just hugged his family. Well, first of all I am a big family oriented person, and secondly I have three sons of my own, so I love to see boys love on their mamas. I just thought it was a great display of what was most important to him in his life during his big moment. If I do nothing else as a mom, my hope is that I raise kids who come back to hug their family in their big moments!!!!

I will race you home!

Well, let’s see. I have taken the wrong kids to the wrong practices. I have forgotten to pick Bo up from day care, and forgotten to pick up Josh from play practice. And then there is that time I picked up Timmy and Kate, and then pulled off and left him on the bench. Although I don’t think I can be held fully responsible for that one, he was reading and Kate and Timmy got off the bench and he never noticed. As you can see I already have quite a reputation. Well, today I just added to my list…. I didn’t leave a kid at school, I went to pick the kids up while my 5 year was put on the bus to go home. Yup, I got to day care and as I scanned the room wondering where he was, his teacher looked at me wondering why I was there. Yeah, I had forgotten the kids ride the bus now. I told the others not to ride it home but forgot to tell the daycare, so they put him on the bus of course. I went running out of there, I jumped in my van and took the back roads home. I was just praying I would be the bus, so I didn’t have to have to school call me, wondering where I was, just adding to my reputation. But I made it home 30 seconds before the bus got there. Whew. Thank goodness. I then stuck him in the van and headed back up to the school to see Josh’s robotics show, which was the reason the kids weren’t riding the bus anyway. The funny think is, well more like frustrating, but we will go with “funny” for the sake of my sanity. Anyway, I went back up to the school only to find out that Josh told me the wrong time. I wasn’t supposed to be up there at 3, I was supposed to be up there at 5:30. So it was never even necessary for me to go pick up the kids anyway. They could have just ridden the bus home, and avoided the whole, “sending the five year old home alone” issue. Lol And then to sweeten the deal, now that I was supposed to be watching Josh at from 5:30 to 6:30, but I had to coach Bo’s soccer game at 6:15. Crazy as the evening was it all worked out. A friend of mine coached the first 10 min. of my game for me, so I could watch Josh’s show, and then came back to finish the soccer game. Crazy, but it worked! Hope your week is off to a great start!! Mine sure is. lol

Catch "phrase"

Some of my mom friends and I were talking the other day of the mis-pronounced words our kids say. We talked of how cute it is when they say them and how it is bitter-sweet when they grow into saying it correctly. We are happy they are growing and developing on que, but we will miss the cute things they say. I remember when Josh would say, “What is that in the world?” And I loved when Timmy would call Buzz Light Year, Buzz Lightner. And Bo still calls helicopters, hebachopper. My nephew Ayden has a couple of my favorites. He calls Popsicles, pop-a- socles. And my ultimate favorite is “smarshmallow”, I love that word so much I think we should call marshmallows, “smarshmallows” all the time, that is way more fun!!! So now I am hoping to hear from you. Either post on this blog or facebook me your “quotes” I would LOVE to hear them!!!!!!

Really, how many times can I get lost in Lansing

Ok so I got lost yet AGAIN!!! I know this comes as no shocker to most of you but if you want to here the story, here it is…. A couple of weeks ago I was heading into the doctor to hopefully figure out why I created such a seen in Sams, which inspired the blog my sister wrote titled, “Mom, down, we have a mom down.” It seemed my problem coincided with “that time of the month”, so I decided to go see the doctors who delivered my babies. I had been having issues since the birth of my last kid so I figured this was the place to start. The only problem is I hadn’t been back to this office in 5 years so I couldn’t remember exactly the best way to get there. You would think that having 4 kids I would have spent enough time there to permanently etch a map in my mind, but nope. I’m gonna go with the story that the pregnancy hormones affect your ability to retain memories formed during that time period. Not the fact that I am directionally challenged. Anyway I was on my way and I called my mom for directions. She wasn’t sure what the most direct route was and gave me all kinds of options and I wasn’t exactly sure of what she was talking about so I decided to call Michael. He told me to take 127 to Michigan Ave and go left. My doctor’s office is in the professional building across the street from the hospital. After I hung up with him I realized I didn’t have my wallet. I thought I left in on my dresser but wasn’t sure. So I called my mom to ask her to check while I headed that way. I really didn’t have time to turn around and I still wasn’t even sure it was there. A couple minutes later she called to tell me it wasn’t there. I pulled over and looked more thoroughly on the floor, I found it wrapped in my coat!! I had grabbed it, I just didn’t remember. Ugh! I turned back around and was on my way. As I made my way up 127 I saw the exit signs for 496 and recognized what my mom was talking about. I thought to myself, “Hey, that was the highway my mom had mentioned. Ya know, now that I think about it I think that way would be faster!” So despite my conscience telling me not to detour from my route, off to the other highway I went. As I got onto 496 I realized I had quit talking to my mom before I found out what exit to take. “Ok, Jamie.” I thought. “You can do this.” I also remember my mom saying something about taking M-99 all the way in, so that was probably the exit I needed. “Yeah, that’s it I assured myself.” I am sure you are wondering why I didn’t just make a phone call. Well, to be totally honest I did not want to call Michael and tell him I detoured from the plan, because seriously I should know better. I would rather call him later and tell him I detoured from the plan and tell him of how successful I was at navigating myself. Ha! You can probably guess that didn’t happen. Furthermore I didn’t want to call my mom and tell her the same thing either. Everyone is quite aware of my directional handicap and I just couldn’t bring myself to admit what I had done. Besides, how hard could it be. Well, as I grew more confident in my decision I noticed an ambulance to my left getting off on the Pennsylvania exit. Considering that my doctor is right across from the hospital, “Hmmmm.” I thought. “That is not a good sign.” I would have followed the ambulance, but by the time I saw it there was a median between us and all I could do was watch it disappear. “That’s ok.” I reassured myself. “I am sure there are lots of ways to get there, I am just going to come in from the other side.” So I kept on going and got off at MLK. I passed over Kalamazoo and began to feel so proud, because Michigan Ave should be next. But nope, Michigan Ave doesn’t not exist anymore by the time you are on MLK. I can’t give you step by step what happened next, it extremely confusing, all I know is I did a lot of turning around looking for where Michagan Ave disappeared too, and I HATE one way roads!!!! Seriously, what is the purpose other than make navigating more confusing!!!!! For someone like me, who spends a lot time turning around, one way roads just mess me up even more! So there I was zig zagging all over down town Lansing searching for Michigan Ave. Finally, I was due to be at the doctor in 3 minutes and I had no choice but to call and let them know I was lost. Here is the conversation….. Me: “hi, I am lost. I am close but have no idea how to get there.” Receptionist: “what road are you on.” Me: “ just a sec let me come to a sign.” Receptionist: Do you see the capital.” Me: “No” Receptionists: “Don’t worry you are just a couple minutes way, I will get you here as soon as I figure out where you are” Me: “OK, I just crossed over Kalamazoo for the 4th time. Receptionist: Ok go back to Kalamazoo and go East. At this point I am thinking, “Is East left or right.” I looked for the sun I couldn’t see it. At this point I am missing the compass I had in my old van. I tried to describe to here where I was and she said I should go left on Kalamazoo. I did and as I described to her what I was seeing. Receptionist: “Nope the park should be on your right, you need to turn around and go the other way” I then made 3 left hand turns to end up back at Kalamazoo once again. She then ask me what road I was on and I told her,(I don’t remember the name anymore) Receptionist: Ok, if you are on that road you need to go Left on Kalamazoo. Not realizing she thought I was going the south on this road when I was actually going North. I turned left once again, and the park was on the wrong side of the road yet again. Finally, I see what is happening and I somehow get myself on Kalamazoo going the correct direction. I then described what I was seeing and she got me to Michigan Ave. When I checked in the receptionist couldn’t help but giggle when she heard my name, and then apologized to me for doing so. I assured her I wasn’t offended and that I certainly didn’t want to admit to her how often this happens to me. Sad thing is I actually have a Garmin, but I had accidentally taken the power cord into the house recently and the battery was dead. I would like to say I leaned my lesson and I will never detour from Mike’s directions again, but I think we all know that isn’t true. So, I guess I will just have more blog material when this inevitably happens again.

Ok, it is quite obvious now why I was asking others to send me stories they would like to post. Last week I was sure I was going to get back to work on my blog, well we can see how successful that was. LOL On the bright side, at least Bo is giving me less material to write about. In fact today’s story doesn’t have anything to do with Bo, it has to do with Jessica’s kids!!!!! Ayden PEED on ZAYNE! Yup, you read me right! Ayden peed on Zayne, and not by accident. It was pre-meditated. Granted it was probably 3 seconds pre meditated, but for a 3 year old that is some planning! Ya see, I was babysitting for Jess on a warm sunny day, so the kids were off playing in the yard making my life really easy. Bo came in to use the bathroom and Ayden and Zayne disappeared into the garage. Moments later I peeked into the garage to see how they were doing. As I opened the door I saw Ayden with his Spiderman britches to his knees and his equipment in hand, and Zayne was standing in a puddle. He apparently enjoyed the water works and was wondering why Ayden had turned it off. He proceeded to jump up and down in the puddle. Oh yeah, and did I mention he was barefooted. “Oh no Ayden.” I said. “You can’t pee in the garage!” As I scoop up Zayne to rush him to the tub, I felt his shirt was wet. I put 2 and 2 together and exclaimed, “Ayden! Did you pee on Zayne?!?! “Yup.” Ayden replied. “I sure did.” I looked at the back of Zayne’s shirt, and there was a wet line as if some on sprayed him with a small steady steam. Oh wait, that is exactly what happed. Only it was a steady stream of PEE!!!!! I am just glad to say this time it wasn’t my kid giving me such blog material.

A story from Gina.... ok I have debated on telling the rest of this story but then I thought maybe its better to tell it and get a laugh because all I really want to do right now is cry so here it goes! As I posted earlier Jello spilled in the fridge and ran out onto the floor and under the fridge. I start the clean up process and start taking the drawers out of the fridge. Im thinking great this was on my spring clean...ing list so might as well get it done. (This is after I took several deep breaths and calmed down!) First drawer out and start washing. Now this fridge has plastic looking covers over the front of each drawer, why they couldnt write produce on the drawer itself is beyond me....WELL jello got between the cover and the drawer so I popped the cover off and CRACK! I busted it! DANG IT!!! Deep breath its only a small piece so I super glue it back on. Next drawer comes out and Im all careful with it thinking I cant break this one...RING!!! Phone starts ringing so I set the drawer on the sink (I actually hold my hands out to make sure its staying!!!) I make a quick grab for the phone... and as I turn back around what do I see? Yes the drawer sliding of the counter to the floor breaking into pieces!!!! Im not going to lie I said a bad word at this point! Back to super glueing I go, now I only have two hands so Im trying to hold the pieces and get the glue cork out at the same time so what do I do??? Grab the cork thingy with my teeth and pull! Super GLUE runs down my lip!!! With tears in my eyes Im thinking gasoline and a match would be perfect for this fridge!!!! OK I get all that squared away and clean and go back to wiping the fridge out. I get to the light bulb in the back with the plastic cover over it, low and behold jello ran down the inside of it. DEEP BREATH! Take the cover off clean it wipe around the light bulb and there is a FLASH AND POP!!! YES I got the rag to close to the light bulb and popped it!!! By this point and time I just sit in the kitchen floor and cry! Now while all this is going on I have Emma complaining her belly hurts, Maddie wants everything in the pantry to eat and Gage is smart enough to stay out of the way!!! Finally I shove a bag of crutons to Maddie and tell her to go to her room and eat them... I get the fridge put back together all the food put away again.... I step back to close the door and step in a puddle of water!!!! The bowl I was using to rinse my rag out had a hole in it and let a puddle of water loose across the kitchen floor and under the table!!! Maddie comes crying her eyes all swollen because she rubbed crutons in her eyes!!! Moral of the story some messes are better left for tomorrow even if it is cherry jello!!!!See More

Let's get back to writing

Well, it has been awhile since I have blogged. I would like to say that it is because my life has been so calm and boring that I haven’t had anything to write about, but who would believe me. Lol It has been a very busy couple of weeks starting with a family member hospitalized, my cousin home from Afganistan, and yes, yet another story of me getting lost. I will be posting stories of the past to weeks to come, but for now I will leave you with this story about Bo…..


The kid cracks me up. He is better at going to bed now than he used to be, but he a couple times a week. Well the other night he knocked on our door and said, “Mom, my knee hurts.” Naturally my response was, “Well, go rest it in BED.” And the rest of the conversation went like this…

Bo “I can’t walk to bed, I can run, I can’t stand, I can't see, I can’t do anyfing.”
Me “Well, I guess you can’t go to school tomorrow then.”
Bo “No I CAN go other places, I just can’t walk at home.”
Me “Goodnight Bo.”
Bo “ugh, goodnight.”

He keeps us entertained, that is for sure.
Stay tuned, more stories about my "calm and boring" life to come.