making good on a childhood dream

it's no secret that i have been trying to get to the olympics since i was about 2 years old and watched dorothy hamill skate. and i don't mean as a spectator. my mom says that i would stand on the fireplace hearth to get as close to the t.v. as possible and watch intently. i begged, begged, begged to take ice skating lessons, but the nearest ice rink was a good 45 minutes away. then i thought that gymnastics would take me there, but when i realized that i was double their height, i knew that was a no go. i've never let go of the desire to win an olympic medal, and that is especially apparent during the olympics. 6 years ago, my plan was to start synchronized swimming. i figured that i could do that easy enough and that by the beijing games, i could feasibly be there. then i heard how much they train. so that's not gonna really work with my schedule. now, i'm no expert...but i really think i could successfully pick up curling. i did some research and there is this one curler that is competing in these olympic games that is 43. by the next winter olympics, i will only be 39. and...it doesn't look like you have to be in crazy good shape either. i did find out that she started curling when she was 8... which scares me a little. but how hard can it be? this could be a real possibility. i was beyond excited to watch the women's skating with my girls. i told aiden for weeks leading up to the olympics that i couldn't wait to watch it with her...just like i watched it when i was her age. technically, i think annslee could have gone either way, and aiden fell asleep half-way through the night (poor darlin...it was getting really late and she had to put up with a bunch of skiing events and news intermittently.) actually, annslee has been pretty obsessed with the downhill skiing. she will stare at the t.v. when that is on forever. now we call them "her friends, the skiers." but that's really beside the point. here is a picture of me and the girls watching the skaters. it does make me happy.

i am very thrilled to report that in a little over a week, i am starting adult ice skating lessons. this is all thanks to my friend, g. she had the very brilliant idea and checked into it. chad is being very supportive of this idea. he became really supportive when i agreed to taking lessons as a single skater instead of the ice dancing lessons that i originally talked about. his response to that suggestion made me laugh. he said, "yeah. i can't skate and i can't dance. do you really think this is the sport that i should try to pick up?" anyhow...i digress. the point is, that in a week, g and i will be lacing up our skates and i will be taking my very first ice skating lesson. wow...it's like 31 years since i first asked for lessons, but i think it's important to make good on a childhood dream.

tame the crazy

i really shouldn't do this. let you all in on the actual crazy that is in my mind. i think you're supposed to tame the crazy in front of others...right? i don't know why, but when i took annslee to the doctor for her 4 month well check up this past week, i told myself that i was going to blog it. not so much for whoever may end up reading this, but for me...because hopefully when i look back on this post, i will realize how far i've come in this area of the crazy. counting how many times i've been to the pediatrician as a mother is not possible, but i can add up the well check ups at least. they go at 2 weeks, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months, 9 months, 12 months, 18 months, 24 months, 3 yrs, 4 yrs, 5 yrs. i'll stop there because that is when they stop getting all the immunizations. so, if my calculations are correct...for my 4 children thus far, i have taken them 36 times for just the well check up. this does not include all the sick or "mychildisscreamingallthetimeandnotsleepingandspittingupcontiuouslyandhasarashthatwon'tgoaway" visits. (annslee has been about 6 times for various reflux/rash reasons). so anyways...this is what i go through EVERY. SINGLE. TIME.

cover the infant carrier with a blanket before going in the building. have a wipe ready. have my debit card, hand gel and my own pen in my pocket. use a wipe to open the door and push the elevator button, then use the same wipe to open the door to the office. use my own pen to sign in. tell the receptionist that we are waiting in the hall. use the same wipe to open the door to get to the hall. i gel my hands even though i haven't touched a thing. i hold the carrier the whole time because i'm scared of all the germs that have "settled" on the floor. (if i didn't sound crazy before...i'm sure that last sentence pushed me over the crazy edge.) this is when the infant carrier starts to get really heavy, by the way, but i push through and hope we don't have to wait there long. they come to call us back and i always let the nurse go ahead of me so that i don't have to touch the door handles. when we get into the room, i put the infant carrier on the paper on the table and ask them if the room had been cleaned after the last patient. they always say yes, but spray the chairs for me anyways. (i don't know why this makes me feel better because i don't even sit in them.) while they are asking me questions, i get another antibacterial wipe and wipe the edges of the table where the paper doesn't touch. i get a thick blanket out of the diaper bag (that is also on the paper) and spread it on the table. by this point, they are having me get the baby down to their diaper. when we go to weigh them, i ask them to put the paper protector sideways and to use 2 of them so that the baby doesn't touch the scale at all. when we get back to the room, i put them on the blanket while they measure their heads and length. i always watch to make sure that their hands don't touch the wall. if they do, i wipe them. when the nurse leaves, i pick up the baby and we normally sing lullabies and bounce around the room. the doctor comes in and i somewhat stress about all the other kids that the stethoscope has touched, but i surprisingly don't freak out or break out the wipes. after we are done, i wipe their hands and feet with a wipe, get them dressed and get them all snuggled back in their car seat and cover it up with the blanket. i fold the blanket with the table side folded in and then i use my own pen while checking out, say no thanks to the stickers, and use a wipe on the door handle and elevator buttons. when we get to the car, i take the blanket off the car seat, click it in and gel my hands. one time i took a can of lysol and sprayed the bottom of my shoes before i got in the car...but most of the time i take my shoes off outside before walking in the house. once we get home, i change clothes, put the dirty blankets, burp rags and clothes in the washer and give the baby a bath. then breathe a sigh of relief that i don't have to do it again for another 2 months.

*if it is one of the older kids, they walk...but everything else stays about the same except for a lot of "don't touch anythings." i will admit, at this point, that i'm quite aware that this is not normal behavior...however it is mine.

i've come a long way

9 years old is a good thing. life has changed a bit for dear, little colton. due to being the oldest of 4, he has acquired a few responsibilities that are new to him. for one reason or another, the transition from little kid to big kid has been harder for me than him. not only for sentimental reasons, but logistically too. for example, when do you turn over teeth control? let's not kid ourselves...if i am not going over them, it will take a small miracle for them to remain cavity free. this is just one small issue that has been a hard loss of control for me. there is also when to start letting them bathe themselves, pick out their own clothes, put their own laundry away, making beds, cleaning rooms, and the one that still plagues me...washing their own hands. i still have the "if it's gonna be done right i have to do it" voice in the back of my head. however, since adding puddin to the already less than in control equation, i have had to let go. we have come up with a great little idea, and it is called colton gets paid $5 a week to dust the entire house for me, put his laundry away, help chase and aiden get theirs put away, keep his room and bathroom clean, and do whatever else i may ask him to do to help. let's face it...i would gladly pay him three times that for doing that stuff, but he thinks $5 is the cat's meow. puddin only takes 1 long nap during the day and it is from about 9:30-12:00. so i have given myself "chores" to maintain what is left of my sanity*. before this plan was in place, i was ready to pull my hair out. i felt like i was spinning my wheels all day long trying to keep it all done and it just isn't possible. now, as long as i finish my "chore" i feel accomplished. mondays is laundry. (i start it sunday afternoon and then try to have it finished by when the kids get home from school on monday so that they can take it up.) tuesdays i try to hit the grocery store. wednesday is bathrooms. thursday is sweeping and mopping. colton usually dusts on either saturday or sunday. i need to find a good time to vacuum. this never quite fits in because i don't want to wake annslee up. technically, my house han't been vacuumed since, like, christmas...but we aren't gonna focus on that right now. this works for me, because instead of thinking i need to be "getting something done", i can say, "i finished the bathrooms, so i can sit down and play with aiden instead of going to the next thing"...because there is always the next thing. before colton was born, i cleaned the house from top to bottom every single week and any time we had company. i mean, you just never know when someone from small group might want to poke their head in a linen closet upstairs or something. so, everything was always perfect. today, i would challenge someone to be able to get the door closed to my upstairs linen closet after poking their head in it...due to the fact that about 18 towels and 6 down pillows would most likely fall on their head if they did decide to take a gander. i've come a long way!