we had a nice, little memorial day weekend. complete with a home improvement project (BOO!)
and swimming (YEAH!).

chad started things off on saturday with a little painting. i’m happy to say that i helped him by dusting the woodwork so that the tape would stick when he went to tape the room off. i used to think that i was good at such projects…the detail of the taping, the edging, the color picking outing…however i find myself getting edged right out of the situation. which is really fine by me because i H-A-T-E painting. being pregnant, i find, is a great excuse to not have to feel guilty about not being around to help. my job was to…like i said…dust the molding and clear everything out of the bathroom before chad got to it. (he had already prepared aiden’s new, big girl room.) and i did just that. then…i took the kids to my parents to hang out there for the day in order to leave chad to his masterful work in peace. the smell is not good for me or the kids and the windows needed to be open upstairs. my rules…no windows open upstairs with kids in the house. and…no kids around paint.

he finished it in 1 day and i loved coming home to the finished product. well…almost finished. my jobs also include getting the rooms put back together.

today, we (i) made a picnic lunch and then we took the kids to the pool. they were loving this little outing. we (they) swam a while and then we ate lunch. after getting in the pool to cool off a little, chad and i were able to lounge and watch the kids play. during adult swim, all the kids get in the baby pool. this is where we could have potentially had a problem. chase, true to form was making friends with everyone there and we overheard him chatting with an older boy. i‘d say he was about 10 or 11. i heard chase ask him what his name was. i did not hear the boy answer, but did hear chase respond with, “that’s a girl name.” now, i knew he was not meaning this to be rude…he was legitimately confused. the boy must have said, “what?” because chase repeated himself and i immediately called chad’s attention to the potential issue. luckily, the kid just sorta shrugged and went on and luckily they called all swim…so he left the baby pool. i called chase over to us and he was very confused as to why he was being called down. we asked him what he said to the boy. he said…”i said that he had a girl name.” chad said, “what was his name?” chase said, “bret.” chad said, “that’s a boy’s name.” chase said, “no it’s not. it’s what aiden wears in her hair. you know. barrette.”

i was rolling. seriously stifling the laughter. chad said, “no chase…it’s bret. and it’s a boy’s name.” i said, “even if his name was kristen, don’t tell an older and bigger kid that he has a girl’s name.” chase shrugged and said ok and trotted back to the pool. chad and i just looked at each other with big eyes and laughed some more. you really can’t argue with his logic.

well…the minute i started thinking that i had not had a blog-worthy story in a while, chase comes to my rescue.

we have small group at our house every sunday night, starting at 5:30. my brother, kevin has been having 2-a-days ever since he was put on the fight card for a june fight and decided to take colton to train with him last night. colton had been wanting to go and last night was perfect for him to go watch because it was just kevin, one of his training partners and his coach. colton got to punch around on the bags, learn some techniques and watch kevin in action. however, that left chase and aiden to take care of themselves upstairs during group. normally, we set them up in the movie room and let colton “watch” them and it works out fine. why spend $25 every sunday night on a babysitter when colton can do it? well…chad and i wondered how it would go without colton (the responsible one) to keep an eye on the decision making of the younger ones, but figured we would give it a go. how much trouble could they really get into? this, i have now learned is never really the question…but only a matter of options. they could not be in the movie room because we had been cleaning out the guest bedroom, turning it into aiden’s big girl room all day and it was full of holiday bins and gift wrap stuff. so, we put them in pj’s, tucked them into the boy’s beds and put a special movie on. i told them that they would get to get up after group was over, but to stay there for the movie. “okay,” they said. at least i thought they said okay.

about 1/2 the way into group, i started having that mommy instinct that i should go check on them. i hadn’t really heard anything…but just had that feeling. i made a mental note to do that at the next lull in the conversation only i heard both of them on the stairs before i had the chance. i met them half way up the stairs and aiden was holding a part of the ceiling fan chain in her hand. she informed me that chase had “broken the fan in his room”. chase began explaining the “accident”. he said, “i just wanted to hold onto the fan and spin around, but it broke and it was an accident.” all the while, he was doing the full body motion of hanging from a ceiling fan while letting it spin him around in the air. i was somewhat in shock that he would actually try this, while also thinking, “why have i not addressed this as a no go before?” i should have known one of them would try it. luckily, when he jumped from his bed, he only grabbed the chains, and not the fan blades…which were spinning at the time. only the chains broke and not the entire fan. i guess the group had heard some of the commotion because when i walked back into the living room, they were just kind of looking at me. i calmly said, “yeah…we need colton to watch them. chase just tried to hang from his fan and spin around.” most of the other moms looked at me with their mouths hanging open while the dad’s said, “that’s awesome!!”

i tossed the fan part to chad and said, “could you please go explain to your son why he can’t spin from fans.”

so, everything was fine until about 2:00. i had left this morning with an agenda. i had to get the boy’s to school, get aiden to school, find a nail salon near the south shore area to purchase chase’s teacher’s b-day gift, get to my (much needed) hair appointment, swing through a drive-through to get lunch, and get back to aiden’s school to pick her up in time to get to the boy’s school to deliver the b-day gift. no problem.

everything went great until the getting to aiden’s school to pick her up part. the freeway was closed and it was stand still along the feeder. glancing at the clock, i figured i would only be about 5 minutes late. no big deal. 5 minutes ended up being 10 and when i got to the school, she was 1 of 2 kids left. i already felt like a criminal at that point. however, it was about to get worse. i rounded the doorway and saw her teacher…ready to go home (if it weren’t for the delinquent mom’s who don’t pick up their kids on time) and she said, “is everything okay?” i said, “yeah…it’s just that getting here from the north is impossible with the freeway shut down.” she just looked at me and said, “you do realize you missed the mother’s day party today.” this was more of a statement than a question. i, in complete horror and shock said, “WHAT????” she proceeded to tell me that it had been written in the news letter AND that she had sent an e-mail on tuesday. how could i have possibly missed it? i felt terrible. aiden was playing on the other side of the room and had missed the whole exchange and all i wanted to do was run to her and profusely apologize and tell her that i would buy her a pony to make up for my thoughtless mistake. that’s when the teacher said, “yeah…she was 1 of only 3 kids whose mom’s didn’t come. she was pretty upset.” ok. not only was i buying her a pony…but we were now taking a trip to disney world. i called for her and she skipped over to me and said, “mooooommmmmmyyyyyy” in her most loving and happy tone. had she forgiven me? she was talking to me. that was a good sign. i apologized and told her how sorry i was. i started crying like a baby and she said that it was okay. she gave me my presents that she had made which turned the knife in my heart a little more. in the car, on the way to the boy’s school, we went over all the details of the party so that we can re-create it at home tomorrow. we are going to the grocery store in the morning to get all the same snacks and paper plates, etc.

fast forward to the boy’s school. i delivered the pedicure gift card without a hitch, and checked both the boys out of their classes with only 5 minutes left in the school day. it was at this point that i realized i didn’t have my keys. i combed chase’s teacher’s class…listened to the kids come up with all kinds of stories about who “took” them…and retraced my steps to the office where i thought i may have layed them down. keep in mind that all this traipsing about was happening with 3 kids following me around, just wanting to go home. we got out to the car and i saw them in my purse. through the windows. of the locked car. now…i didn’t really feel bad about this because it was my first time to lock the keys in the car and i have driven all over creation rescuing chad from the very same dilemma on multiple occasion. i went and used chase’s teacher’s phone to call my knight in shining armour to come to our rescue. the conversation went like this:

mindy: “chad…i’m at the school and i locked the keys in the car.”

chad: “how did you do that?”

mindy: “oh, i don’t know. similar to the way you’ve done it a bazillion times.”

chad: “silence.”

we decided that i would start walking home with the kids instead of standing on the curb waiting. he would meet us at home to unlock the house. about 1/8th of the way into the trip, i said, “come on kids! this is like an adventure!!” that’s when aiden started screaming that her foot hurt. her new flips had rubbed a blister and it was then that i had to go barefoot in order to convince her that it was ok to go barefoot. about 1/2 way into the trip, we ran into an unfortunate dead rat in the middle of the sidewalk. it was all furry and looked like it was sleeping. only with bugs on it. the kids…just seeing the tale of desperoux, didn’t like that. and neither did i for that matter. i told them to walk in the grass to get around it and aiden freaked out about walking in the grass without her shoes. i ended up having to carry her. i couldn’t look at that rat another minute. it was then that i decided that this had not been one of my finer afternoons.

after colton’s ballgame the other night, we decided to take advantage of baskin robbin’s 31 cent scoop night. never mind that the line was about 30 people deep and wrapped around the store outside…daiquiri ice was back and i was getting some.

the real entertainment came on the drive home from the ice cream parlor…and i do love calling it that. it makes me feel like i live in the early 60’s or on the brady bunch or something. we have 2 family shows that we all watch together weekly. the first is dancing with the stars and the second is american idol. in the car…on this particular night, the conversation turned to dwts. aiden was informing us that melissa was out of the competition this week due to “dropping her ribbons.” in actuality, she had overheard the announcer speaking of a rib injury and mistaked it for dropping her hair ribbons. when i asked her to clarify, she said, “you know…she lost her bows!” bruised ribs…hair ribbons…same difference. she can’t compete.

chase, who is totally and completely fascinated with gilles (all due to the superman dance that he did at the beginning of the season) informed us all for the bazillionth time that he was, in fact going to be like gilles when he grew up and do a dance on dwts and rip open his shirt to reveal a big super S on his chest.

when one is listening intently and is somewhat befuddled by the actual conversation happening between her 3 very unique and entertaining kids in the backseat, you can understand how one may or may not completely tune out what is playing on the radio. it would not be unheard of to not realize that a “questionable” song was playing, rather loudly, throughout the vehicle. it was when it got quiet and i heard…and i quote…”she moves her body like a cyclone. she makes me want to do it all night long,” that i turned it off with haste. i then said, “wow…that was a song about the iowa state cyclones,” attempting to do damage control. there was a short silence followed by colton saying, “that didn’t sound like no fight song to me.”

so, colton is in the middle of his first season of official little league. you may be thinking…is there really a difference between little league and the parks and rec leagues? let me answer you by saying……..”ummm…yeah.” i was not initially aware of these difference until shortly after we started. the uniforms are more official; they practice more; they have more games; they have longer games; they had an opening day with a parade; oh…one of my favorites…they have a concession stand; and it is waaaaayyyyy more competitive to name a few. colton is in the dixie league. this is, from what i can tell, when it gets serious. he had to go to try outs where the “scouts” watched him bat, run and field and then “drafted” him to a team.when we got to these tryouts, we saw the pitching machine set up on the pitcher’s mound and i thought colt’s eyes were gonna bug right out of his head. he said, “i can’t hit a pitching machine!!!!” chad was out of town so i had to pretend i knew what i was talking about and walk him through it. well…there was no time for warm up and he got up there and swung at 5, missed 4 and fouled off 1. he’s pretty fast…so he had that going for him. and he has a pretty good arm…so his tryout ended with him obsessing about being the worst batter in the world. in the beginning, i complained about how much they were having to practice…it being on a school night…etc. etc. etc. however…the other night made it all worth it. here is how the story goes.

colton has been steadily improving all season and is somewhere in the middle of the batting order. he rarely missed, but he always grounded it mid field somewhere. he had a late game a couple of weeks ago where during both his at bats, he struck out. he was visibly frustrated and developed a less than desirable attitude at home as a result of his “1 game slump”. so…here we are at his next game. “get back on the horse.” “shake it off.” “quick bat.” he was feeling in pretty good spirits when i dropped him at the field, annnnd i “accidentaly” left his “unlucky” bat at home. i told the team mom who stays in the dugout with the boys that we wanted him to use another kid’s 17 oz bat. (his is 19 oz.) his first at bat, he struck out. uh oh. this is not going to be good. he came up again and tension was high. he was a bundle of nerves and i was yelling from the stands that it was his turn. “you have this, baby.” 1 pitch…strike 1. 2nd pitch…strike 2. “come on colton…you can do this!” 3rd pitch…SMACK!! a beautiful line drive down the 3rd base line to the fence!! i could barely contain myself. i was not even embarrassed by my pregnant belly flopping around as i jumped up and down in the stands. everyone went nuts because he knocked in our leading run. as he stopped on second base, he gave the ole’ fist pump to the sky and adjusted his batting helmet as if he was biggio, berkman, or bagwell. that won him the game ball that they give out after each game. what a complete thrill!! at his game on friday night, he hit a sailer into the outfield that landed perfectly between the outfielders and then went on to catch a pop fly at 2nd. i think his confidence is back and the “1 game slump” is behind him. i’m so proud of my little ball player. i can still see him, at 4 and 5 years old, practicing for hours in the backyard…glove in hand…pretending it was bottom of the 9th; tie game; he makes the winning play. i remember thinking…i bet that never comes to fruition. who would have known!!

take me out to the ball game. as long as it’s colton’s.

the story is about aiden and her modesty at old navy the other day. lately, i have been finding cuter tops in the little girl’s department than in the toddler’s department. the problem here is that aiden is just turning 4…so she is technically wearing a 4T or a 5T. however…sometimes i get lucky and an xs from the girl’s fits her. i wanted to try an extremely cute, 4th of julyish top on her to see if this would be one of the times where we got lucky. we were all the way in the back of the store; there was no one around; and the dressing rooms were all the way on the other side of the store. so, being that she is only 3, i said…”come here and let me slip this on you really fast to see if it fits.” i took her top off of her, exposing her torso to no one but the clothes racks and she covered herself up and said, “moooooom…no one wants to see this.”

today, colton stayed home from school. no…he’s not sick. he had a field trip downtown to see a play and he begged and begged to not go. he said that he had never been on a field trip without me and i am not the room mom this year for his class, so i could not go. this was sort of disappointing to me, but then again i was relieved because i have been feeling so crumby. the last place i would want to be is on a hot bus with screaming 2nd graders when the nauseousness hits. and far from home, at that. so…we let him skip it. i know…i know…probably the wrong parental decision, but i really don’t care. the boy makes all a’s with his eyes shut and one hand behind his back; has all E’s in conduct and never misses…so i figure that missing one field trip is not going to tarnish his record. annnnnd…that gives us a good excuse to take the kids to the theater in houston to see broadway’s the wizard of oz. i don’t know if we will actually get to…because tickets for a family of 5 (and 1/2) are probably ridiculous and not an option…but maybe!!

in other news…aiden has chosen her room. we have 4 bedrooms upstairs. 1…what has always been the nursery and where aiden still is now; 2…a guest room; 3…the boy’s room, now that they share; and 4…another guest room that was chase’s before they moved in together. so…she got to pick whether or not she wanted to be on the same side with “her boys” or next to the baby. she said that she needed to be with her baby, so indeed…that is where she will be. so…we are in the market for the cutest white day bed and trundle that a girl ever saw. i found one online at jcpenney.com that i l….o….v….e, so i am going there today to see if we can order it. oh…the most important part of this story is that we were not going to be able to get it for her, except for a very sweet, and generous granna and grandaddy offered to get her a bed for her birthday!! so they are getting the bed and we are getting the trundle and i could not be more excited about it.

and chase…he’s chase!! i think he is the happiest kid on the planet (unless he is tired or hungry…and then you would think he was possessed). he is at school right now…charming his way out of doing his “cutting with scissors”. he hates cutting…and his teacher loves him so that she just lets him skip it. that’s chase. and he won that battle without even knowing he was fighting it. he has baseball practice tonight where he will work on his crowd pleasing skills. like running out of the dugout to bat and waving at everyone in the crowd and then after he hits it…waving to the crowd again before he starts running. i mean, getting to first on time is over rated. colton, however believes that every one of his games is a tryout for the majors. every time chase bats…everyone turns around and tells me the same thing…”he’s gonna be an entertainer for sure!!” he’s entertaining all right. let it be said that those dimples had me at first sight when he was about 15 minutes old. i was his first fan.

lately i have been feeling so yucky that i have not even logged onto the computer…much less posted anything. i haven’t checked e-mail in weeks. hopefully, in a couple of weeks i will be feeling lots better. hopefully.

chad has pretty much been having to pick up the slack around here. seeing as i can’t enter the kitchen without feeling as though i will either throw up or pass out…meals have been a bit of a challenge. he has to get the kid’s breakfast in the morning, and feed them dinner. i try to stay out of there. as chase would say…”it’s not my favorite.”

secondly, the house has pretty much taken on a mind of it’s own. if i had the energy, i would take pictures. it is quite the sight. dishes everywhere (because i can’t look at them without gagging); clothes covering the floors (they may or may not be clean. if they don’t smell…they wear them); the playroom probably has things growing under the layers of toys (i don’t even want to think about that); at least 1 bathroom seems to be clogged all the time; the main one seems to always smell like urine (i hold my breath). you get the drift. i would pay a large sum of money for someone to come clean my house for me right now.

colton and chase are in full baseball mode. they have 2 games a week and sometimes they don’t start until 7:45…putting us getting home around 9:45 on a school night. that’s fun. the plus…2 words……..concession and stand. i survive on snow cones. grape please.

aiden has become used to our “special playtime” really being “come crawl in bed with mommy and watch playhouse disney until noon” time. i tell myself they are educational programs and she won’t remember this later.

i just choked down milk of magnesia for dinner. that speaks for itself.

everyday chase asks, “are you still sick mommy?” poor guy. it’s becoming his norm. aiden takes it all in stride. and last night, colton wanted to know how much longer til the first trimester is over. i knew what he meant though. how much longer til i won’t bark orders from the couch and stop flying off the handle at the drop of a hat. that’s when i said…”not much longer baby…and i’ll feel a lot better. just a couple of weeks.” then i realized he has the timing compared to how much school he has left until summer…which is what he was more concerned with…which made me feel a little better. i am watching my “angry voice” though. when aiden thinks she’s in trouble, she just starts saying, “i’m cold.” not sure what that’s about. and if chase gets in trouble and i call for him…he says from the other room, “are you going to talk rude to me?” geeeeez. that makes one feel fantastic.

i know, i know…stop complaining. there is a light at the end of the tunnel. 11 weeks down. mommy will be back soon.

-currently cleaning the bathrooms.

-going to sweep and mop the floor.

…my hero.