the girl who invites you to "Family Day"

Today started as a normal day. Wake up, get the kiddos breakfast, pop in a DVD to keep them occupied, make coffee and go sit on the porch with the laptop to really wake up.

At some point today that changed. It became "Family Day," a new official holiday for this clan.

And what sparked this? The Max and Ruby DVD I put in for the kiddos. Apparently, Ruby decided to throw a party for her family and the episode dealt with all the things required for the perfect party. Well, Zack got it in his head that he was going to do the same thing. While I groggily refilled my cup o'Joe and reminded myself that staying up into the wee hours scrapping was going to take its toll on my diurnal clock (go ahead, look it up, Princess), Zachary was corralling his brothers into tidying up the living room (!!!) and then decorating it with various blankets and stuffed animals.

He was making up games and creating a schedule of events. He was having his brothers create invitations for Mommy and Daddy and making sure that even the Luvvies were invited.


In short, I have a party planning prodigy on my hands.


Here is the schedule of events, complete with timeline!

Unfortunately, the party was just about to get started when some friends stopped by to play. I could see he was clearly torn, so I told him to go ahead and play, I had to go grocery shopping and we'd do the party tonight.

While I was at the grocery store, I was inspired by the marked down baked goods. So what if the cake is a day old? It's half off and I was in the mood to celebrate! So, I got us a cake and had it piped with the following:


The Baker gave me such a smile when she handed it off to me!

Ok, we have the makings of an official celebration now, don't we? After all, if it's written on a cake, it's cause to celebrate! lol!

So after unloading the groceries, we got down to the First Official Martinez Clan Family Day Celebration.

It started with Arts and Crafts:


We're making headbands and Macaroni necklaces out of ribbon from my stash I threw in the Kids' Arts and Crafts box.


Check out the tongue action! He is soooo is mother's son! (Seriously, it helps me concentrate!)

After Arts and Crafts, we had "Make Your Own Pizza." English Muffins (Mom and Dad used French Bread), some Pizza Sauce, Turkey Pepperoni (don't tell them, they'll suddenly decide what was fine when they didn't know is now disgusting), and olives. I made each kid a plate with two English Muffins split and spread with sauce, and then gave them another plate with cheese, pepperoni and olives. Completely on their own, they made faces!


While the pizza baked, there was dancing to Radio Disney and a lesson on how to "juggle" tissues courtesy of Zachary. I wish I had gotten pictures of that, but I was busy in the kitchen cleaning up the pizza mess and unloading the dishwasher. I peeked through the pass-thru occasionally and nearly busted a gut a couple times!

Next was dinner and a movie. Spider-Man 3 to be exact. I got a commentary from dh throughout the whole movie about what actually happened in any of the various comic incarnations and what was unique to the movie. Quite an education. I did marry a Geek, ya know.

After the movie, cake and ice cream. The boys argued for candles and I was happy to oblige. We all blew out the candles together, and even relit them since Matthew was a beat behind and was upset he didn't get to blow any out. Six family members, six candles.

And lest you think Eli was ignored in all of this family fun, Zachary made him a ziti bracelet, which turned into a teething ring, he was served a (naked) english muffin of his own with his dinner, and he got to taste cake for the first time. A good warm up for his birthday in just over two months from now. (!!!)


Actually, I think he did pretty well, considering. He managed to actually navigate most of the cake to his mouth with minimal (for an almost 10 month old) icing smearage.

After getting hopped up on cake and ice cream, the kids took their baths, got cups of our traditional nightcap of "hot foamy milk," (warm milk, flavored with vanilla, frothed by our improvised cappuccinno maker, and sprinkled with raw sugar) "Kiss, Hugs!" (our traditional name for tucking in) and nighty-nights all around.

How cool was that?

At the end of the night, I cuddled Zachary close and thanked him for making this such a special day. Mother's Day is next weekend, but I feel like it came early for me tonight.

I'll admit, these past couple months have been tough on me emotionally. I haven't had any luck in the job market and constantly worrying about the fall out of that has made me quite moody. However, it has given me so much time with my family, and today was a celebration of that.

So here's to the start of another great Family tradition, thanks to my wonderful son.

the girl who took some pictures

Got into a picture taking mood today. Matthew was just so darn cute in his hat and the light was all golden and the sky was so blue...it had to be done.

Enjoy!

the girl who is waiting for a break in the rain

It's a rainy Florida Day and I'm waiting for it to clear so I can go meet the locksmith at Albertsons and pay him $200 to change out the ignition switch on the van which, inexplicably jammed up on me. (Although, apparently its a common problem on that particular make/model/year)

Matthew comes out to the porch and sees that its raining and proceeds to make the following statement:

"Mommy, it's raining. The sun is saaad. You have to make it happy. Sing Mommy, sing about cars. Go 'Cars, cars, cars!' (in sing-songy voice) Do it, Mommy! Do it!"

So I oblige by singing "cars" over and over.

"It's not working, Mommy! Do it again!"

I guess there are reasons I don't have a singing career as it is still raining. Lol.

******

So what to do when it's raining except take pictures of the little boys all together on the bed?

Here they are, all together on the edge of the bed. My two baldies and two Breck models side by side.

Now they are head over heels having fun.


And finally, it's tummy time for all.

*****

I love where we live. The location is excellent with the school across the street and easy access to grocery store, gas station and babysitter. The cons are pretty much that we are six people living in a 1200 sq ft space with all the "stuff" six people accumulate. Add to that the fact that the storage in this place is not overwhelmingly great and you find you have to get creative.

One of the purchases I was looking forward to making (but have since put on hold) was an IKEA expedit bookcase. Scrappers swear by it and I thought it would be a good place to store my ever growing collection of albums and possibly some scrappy supplies. The boys still get into things, but they have learned that Mommy and Daddy's toys are to be respected, so I was finally comfortable putting some of it more in the open. Sure it would have taken up the last remaining wall space in the living/dining room, but at least I had a place for it.

Well, after cleaning out my office at work, I had to find a place for the cradle my "assistant" used to occupy. My grandfather made it before he passed and it has been passed around to all the grandchildren for the great-grandbabies. I'm the most recent to have it, and possibly the last. So, until my parents come to visit from Texas, it's mine to take care of, cherish, and store.

Thing is, its big. I'm talking a nice sized wooden cradle that does break down to some extent, but we aren't talking pack and play here. So it took up the spot destined for my bookcase. However, I still had two problems. 1.) I just knew that the kiddos would look at it as an invitation to play on/in it and Ididn't want it damaged. 2.) I still have a ton of albums overflowing their storage. So, I found a solution.

Nice, huh? My "babies" all in one place. Now there are still a couple albums stashed away, but the bulk are here and it makes me happy.

*****

Speaking of creative storage solutions, I'm trying to streamline my stash. Now, I'm using more and more of it as I complete lo's (even though I've fallen off the wagon slightly.) but it still occupies my amoire and chest and some space in the bedroom as well. I got a clip-it-up last year and discovered that while it stores everything magnificently, it just doesn't work for me. It's awkward to turn without overbalancing it and it was sort of crowded. I dream for the day I have a room of my own (or at least a room I share with dh just for our playthings) and can use the clips on a rod type system. I think that will work better. Aside from the embellies, I also have a huge stash of ribbon. I really don't know why, I don't use it enough to justify all the ribbon I have, but there ya go. It's a scrapper's mentality. the second I get rid of it, I will probably need it for some project. I'll search all over for it, get frustrated, and finally remember I purged it Don't laugh! It's happened!

To that end, I've tried several systems: the all wrapped neatly on wooden clothespins system, the wrapped neatly on chipboard cards system, and the kept on spools and sorted by color system. Trouble was, I always seemed to revert to the carelessly unrolled and thrown in whatever storage container was handy system.


These were all the containers I was using to store my ribbon in. Yes, some have been repurposed since my revelation (more on that in a sec) and I'm not inclined to UN-repurpose them for the sake of a photo.

Now the revelation. My LSS was selling some ribbon organizers recently and I was skeptical as to how well they would work. I was certain that the ribbon would get all sorts of tangled. However, after seeing the owner work steadily during a crop (back in December) to fill this organizer, I was amazed. She managed to get a box about 2 ft square, filed to the brim with ribbon (on spools, loose, in baggies, all of it) into this little bag about the size of a makeup case...with room to grow!

So I sat on the idea for a little while and finally took the plunge. This is the result.

And there is plenty of room left over to grow. What I like about this is that I can still add ribbon and keep it separated by color without having to move anything else. Plus it's squishy and easily stores in a quarter of the space I was using before! And, I'm happy to report, I have had no issues with tangling (as of yet) All in all, a good $20 investment. Love it!

*****

Eli update: the little boy wants to crawl! He spends a LOT of time practicing. Raising up on his knees and rocking back and forth. All with a look of concentration on his face. Catch him at it and he drops down to his belly, so I'm going to have to go stakerazzi to get a shot, but this comes close.


He's still the happiest, most easy-going baby ever. I am so happy he joined the family! Every day I think about how, even though I had my hands full with three boys, I always felt the family had some growing to do. And when I was pregnant, I really didn't have the little girl longings I had with the others. I knew (or was resigned to, lol) I was going to have another boy. He's my ray of sunshine, my little Eli-phant, and I love him to pieces.

****

Well, there was a break in the rain and went to meet the locksmith at my stranded van. $210.00 later, I'm mobile again. Now to use it to go job hunting. It's funny how not having to go to work changes things. I'm using my down time to organize and purge, slowly but surely. We want to move to a house with more room to spread out when our lease is up. I'm hoping to find something in the area and same school district. Of course, being employed will make that a whole lot easier, lol, so I better get back on track.

the girl who survived another birthday

So, Matthew turned four (I can't believe he has survived this long sometimes!) and we had the usual festivities. Unfortunately, I had to work on his special day and you just don't tell a kid who is counting the days to his birthday that you'll do it on the weekend. Every time he spoke of his birthday it was "Cas, cars, RACEcars!" so I figured I was pretty safe in being able to pick out something he's like.

As you can see from the pictures, he got his wish. A racecar birthday cake and some more Disney Cars shake n' go cars. He also got a Cars pillow book and a Cars tee. So all in all, quite the respectable haul for a four year old.

The days of showering the kids with gift after gift after gift are long since gone. For one thing, may I point out I have four children? It isn't just the financial aspect (although that certainly plays a part) but it is the sheer amount of STUFF that accumulates when you have four kids.

I hate to say it, but when it was just Zachary he was spoiled at gift giving time. If one action figure would be cool, then the entire collection of action figures should be that much better! Right? I think Daddy had a little bit to do with that too. What man really grows out of crashing cars and playing good vs evil?

"Yeah, Honey. I think he really needs the entire collection of He-Man figures because I remember them from my childhood and I had so much fun!"

Never mind that that retro craze only lasted about three months. They were the right three months because they fell right around Christmas!

Of course, I can't really talk. I'm sure if we had a little girl it would look like Strawberry Shortcake and My Little Pony went on a bender and vomited all over my precious little princess' room. But we dodged that bullet, lol.

***************************

Of course, with the birthday comes the annual check-up at the Doctor's. Poor Matthew had to get FOUR shots. But he was as fearless as ever and only started to cry on the very last one. You know, those icky intra-muscular ones that burn when they go in. He got to that one and statred wailing, "Mommy, I don't want to do this anymore!"

For putting up such a brave face, he earned his reward of a McFlurry on the way home and was actually neat enough with it that it only took one pass with the hose to wash out a small serving of imitation vanilla frozen treat with oreos out of the van.

Eli was also due for a check up so he tagged along. My little porker is a big boy now! Six month old and 14lbs 12oz. He is 26 inches long and has completely caught up developmentally.

No mother is supposed to have favorites, but I do. He is my favorite baby. (Just like Zack is my favorite 8 yo, Ian my favorite 5 yo and Matthew my favorite newly-minted 4 yo.) I just am enjoying him so much! He is so interactive, he holds your gaze and will have a conversation with you in coos and burbles.

I think its because Zachary was my first, and I really had no clue what I was doing. He survived (Thank goodness!) but the anxiety I felt over "Am I going to screw this up?!!" diminished the joy slightly. Ian and Matthew came so close together (and then Matthew had a slew of health problems--not that you'd know it now) I never got to enjoy them as babies. But Eli. With Eli I can take the time to wonder at the chubby cheeks and perfect rosebud lips. I can confidently play with him, feed him, bathe him, all of that and still have time to marvel at how he responds, the teeny fingers, how strong he is. He is such a little miracle to me and I just turn to mush whenever he smiles and grabs my fingers. Even though he was the surprise to end all surprises, he truly completes this family.

***********************************

Update on the washer. The repair guy finally made it out last Monday after missing our appointment on Saturday. So I had to take the day off of work because you couldn't make an appointment for a specific time and the window was 8 am to 5 pm! Really? Sheesh, could you be a little more vague? I got the call to come into work, they're having an all manager meeting with the owner and everyone must be there, so I had to contact the repair service and tell them that they couldn't come for the next two hours. I go to the meeting (at which HR was not addressed even once--more on that later) and got home to find two repair guys struggling with the washer. (DH was home by that time) After about an hour, they got things mostly put back together and declared it fixed. I say mostly because the front cover wasn't attached in one corner and hung all whopper jawed off the side. But, hey, it may not look pretty but it works, right?

My landlord called to follow up and I said, "Guess what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!" Yep, I was washing. Hallelujah! It took me about three loads to figure out that, yeah, it spins once more but NOW IT DOESN'T AGITATE!! Grrrrr!

So the repair guy came out again yesterday, looked at for five minutes, declared he needed to order parts and he'd see me NEXT Saturday.

Double grrr.

And I can't exactly use the hotel anymore to wash my clothes.

In brief, when the hotel was bought last year the new owners came in proclaiming they didn't believe in HR but offered me the position of Manager anyway. Wel, they weren't kidding. Now it's a year later and I've set everything up for them, so I guess my services aren't needed anymore, thank you very much.

I'm trying not to be bitter and look at it as an opportunity to grow somewhere else, but it still was a surprise, for all that it wasn't completely unexpected.

And my last day would be two weeks before I qualify for vacation.

But I negotiated with them and explained they really needed to keep me a little bit longer to train someone on payroll. So I have three weeks before I am unemployed.

Yay.

********************************

In other news: Zachary is currently burning batteries in his new cd player listening to Radio Disney Jamz 10 over and over and over. It was his reward for bringing home straight A's, Honor Roll and perfect attendance. Give me just a moment to revel in the glory that I didn't screw him up and he's doing just fine! Until the teenage years at least...

Speaking of the teenage years. My LOAD quest continues and I've done pretty well at keeping up. Here's a smattering of my recent lo's (but not all, I'm actualy keeping some back for pub)

I can wait
Zachary just seemed a little too teenagerish in these pictures, hence the journaling about how I really can wait.

Smitten
This cutie girl latched on to Zack at a birthday party. He was oblivious, but I knew she was making a play for my little guy!

8
A layout designed around the premise of a little boy emptying his pockets. No frogs though.

It's not easy being green
My mistake. How could I possibly buy a green shirt for my OCD boy when his color is blue? green is Zack's color!

Waiting
this one is kind of a cheat because I did it a little bit ago, but I posted it in lieu of a different Eli one I'm holding to submit. It tells about waiting for Eli to come home from the NICU.

Lucky

How lucky are we to have found Mitzi? A woman who loves my kids (and Eli especially) as her own?

And that's it until I have something else that's blogworthy come up. Seems like it wouldn't take much, lol.

the girl who tackled Mount Washmore!

So my washer is broken.

And I have four children.

One who regularly soaks his bed because diapers just aren't built to take that kind of overnight load.

One who is hit or miss with soaking his bed because he can't wake himself up to pee.

One who likes to change clothes a million times a day because dress-up is his favorite game and he hates being dirty.

And one who will go commando to school because he just doesn't like underwear--so I guess he saves me a bit on laundry there.

Plus there is myself who goes through a billion towels cleaning up messes around the house caused by these four lovely children.

And factor in pajamas every day in addition to the daily outfits, along with bath towels for six because no, we can't just hang a towel up and reuse it, we must toss it on the floor either intentionally to soak up the water or intentionally because we are too short/lazy to hang it up again.

Are you starting to get a picture of my laundry needs here?

My landlord, bless her heart, has been playing "second opinion" and between my schedule and DH's, well, its hard to line that up. I think we might actually get it fixed next weekend.

Pray for me.

So, because of the massive amounts of laundry that my family generates, I was in desperate need to do some washing. And a laundromat would have been hideously expensive. Luckily for me, I work at a hotel with an on-site laundry for doing towels and sheets and such. So asked for and got permission to come in and utilize the massive, industrial size washers and driers on property.

Want to see how much laundry a family of six can generate in two weeks time?

The four year old is there for comparison of size. That's two laundry hampers, two sterilite bins that I use for sorting and four sheets bundled with whatever didn't fit in the actual laundry containers. Yes, I am ghetto.

It took two loads in the industrial sized washers plus two loads in the smaller industrial (think extra-extra large capacity, it took one hamper and one bin) to complete this mess.

On the bright side, I got all of my laundry washed and dried in about four hours.

On the down side, now I still have to fold it and put it away. A task that may take another two weeks.


Ian is still bald. This is his new favorite hat. For today at least. The boy has always loved hats and now he has an excuse to wear them more often. Little fashion victim that he is. Yes, he is sleeping with it.


And we have a thumbsucker! I thought for awhile there that he was going to be a knuckle-gnawer (say that five times fast) but he recently found his thumb and seems quite happy at the discovery. Of course, I also suspect that he is teething. We have just started formula and cereal together. Next up will be veggies! Yum!


Want to show off my Target dollar spot find. Look at this cutie-patootie, totally Elsie inspired apron! $2.50! I lurve it so much!

And of course, my layout a day quest continues. I have done so well so far! I am four layouts away from finishing Zachary's 7 year old album and recently finished up year 6. And, since we are half-way through year 8, that means minimal catching up there. Once I'm done with Z, I'll work on Ian, then Matthew, then Eli. This is a good time for catch up as I seem to always have a slump in picture taking between Christmas and Easter.

Here are a couple from this week. Not all, as I don't want to overload you, but a couple of favorites.

"E"

This is Eli's title page to his album. It's 12x12 picture that I had printed at Scrapbookpictures.com on metallic paper. It is so much lovelier in person.

finding neverland in your own backyard

This one came together so quickly. And I love the journaling. I've had people say they love the "quote" but I gotta brag, it's all me! I wrote that! It says: "Never again will playtime be this free and unfettered, fluid and changing, limited only by your imagination. This is the secret to youth."

Which Way to Fun?

Another example of take everything you have and throw it on the page. I *think* this works. In any case, it's fun.

And I'll try to pop in a picture of it later, but my big news from the Z-Man is that he was chosen "Student of the Month" for his school! Unfortunately, I did NOT receive a tacky bumper sticker to slap on the back of my official Mom mini-van to thumb my nose at other people's apparently sub-standard children.

Darn!

the girl who went to see Santa

So I braved the crowds and took the kiddos to go see Santa Claus this weekend. I am a Bad Mommy. It was the first visit for everyone except Zack, and he hadn’t been since he was three I think. Every new kid decreases my interest in leaving the house. However, I figured that I really did need to do this if only to try to extend the magic a little longer for my eldest who is 99% sure Santa Claus does not exist. Strangely enough, he does still seem to believe in the Tooth Fairy. Then again the Tooth Fairy brings money and perhaps he’s afraid if he stops playing the game, the $$$$ will dry up.

(Aside story: Zacky lost a tooth last week, but it had a cavity in it. He jiggled it so much trying to work it out early, that it broke, so he only presented the tooth fairy with half of a tooth. The Tooth Fairy only left half of a dollar bill and didn’t take the tooth (that part was unintentional, but that’s what happens when the Tooth Fairy’s husband fills in because the Tooth fairy went to bed early). So when Zacky asked if half a dollar bill was worth anything, I told him, “Not without the other half. I bet half of a tooth isn’t worth anything to the tooth Fairy and she was trying to tell you to take better care of your teeth.” I think he bought it. He’s been brushing much better since then.)

Back to the Santa story. Downtown Disney really has the best Santa Claus. Real hair and beard, snowy white and the right build. And while he isn’t exactly “jolly” he certainly looks benevolent. I think he could get cast as God in the next 10 Commandments if he lost his “bowl full of jelly.” Lol. Seriously, he does have a really “all knowing” look about him. Well, we got to the line and it didn’t look too long and then they put up The Sign.

You know.

The one that says, “Santa has gone to feed the Reindeer and will be back at ____”

Great. Half an hour of standing in line with four kiddos and not even advancing. Just great.

And about that time, the temperature decided that after weeks of 80 degree weather in December, it would be a good time to drop the temperature about 15 degrees. Of course I hadn’t made the kiddos bring jackets.

Wonderful. Just wonderful.

Have I mentioned we haven’t been to see Santa in years? Now you know why.

Anyway, thanks to the family behind us and their kids because they kept my kids entertained with games like, stroller shake, toss the popcorn, and, my favorite, SCREECH! Those parents were so understanding, and I think they took pity on me, standing in line with a hyper 8yo, whiney 5 yo, and no fear, not gonna mind Mommy 4 yo with a 5 month old strapped to my chest. Why haven’t mothers evolved extra arms?

When the reindeer were fat and happy, Santa came back to the tune of “Here Comes Santa Claus” and then he completely floored me by actually walking through the line of kiddos waiting to sit on his lap, shaking hands, giving hugs, and tickling baby’s chins. It was such a thoughtful entrance. Zack almost seemed to get that spark of belief back meeting the Big Guy in person. Matthew was so overcome by awe that he hung back on the sidelines and Ian—well Ian though the music was too loud, so he stuck his fingers in his ears and wouldn’t even look at Santa!

When it was finally our turn, Matthew had regained his courage and his charm and stuffed Geckie (his security blanket) under his shirt and walked up to Santa with his big belly going “Ho, Ho, Ho! I Santa!” I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture! Bad Scrapper! Bad! But he made Santa laugh! They were quickly shuttled on and off Santa’s lap (ugh! I know its necessary, but I wish they could have spent some more one on one with the Big guy) and gave their lists to Santa very quietly (for my kids).

Zack wants a Wii, a DS and Pokemon: Diamond and Pearl game to go with either. (In his dreams!) Also, High School Musical 2; the extended edition. (That’s the important part, it MUST be the extended edition. I don’t think they even MAKE a non extended version, so he’s pretty safe there.)

Matthew wants a Cars bed, and Cars Toys, and Cars game. Basically, put Lightning McQueen on something and he wants it. They could sell Cars broccoli and he’d want it.

And Ian. My sweet, precious Ian. His needs are simple. He just wants some crayons and paper.

I think Santa can arrange that!

Eli, of course, is too young to want anything besides his next bottle, so he was singularly unimpressed. Plus he’s nursing a cold, so he wasn’t his usual smiley self.

So the kids got their requests into Santa, a little magic was restored in my suspicious 8 year old, and Mama got her pictures. Sort of.

Afterwards, instead of a picture, I was handed a card and sent on my way.

Wait, what?

No instruction or anything, just a little business sized card with a website address and an ID number and NEXT! To the people behind me.

What?

Disney has a program where every time you stop and have your picture taken, they assign it this special ID number and you can basically get your entire Disney vacation online. You can view and share the pictures and order prints or even just the cd with all the images to print yourself ($12.95 per print, $124.95 for the photo cd) Yep, Disney always finds new and creative ways to make their $$$ while making it more convenient for their guests to spend it.

But I wanted to walk out of there with an actual picture!

So I sigh, and figure online ordering won’t be so bad and go off with all my little duckies in a row to Ghirardelli’s for some of the world’s best hot chocolate. On the way there, we pass the Guest Service Building and notice a family that had been behind us in line striding purposefully in as another family that was ahead of us came walking out…looking at a picture.

Light bulb!

So I go in and see that we can view and order our prints there. Let me tell you something. I have worked in Orlando for nearly 15 years, and one thing I’ve learned is that Disney really does want and expect their employees to always be on, not have a bad day, and always treat each person as if they were put on earth only to serve them for that moment. I like that. I appreciate that. No matter how many times I am disappointed by bad service when I go out and about, I can always rationalize it with “What do you expect? It’s Wal-Mart after all.” (Or Subways, or Burger King, or McDonalds.) There are places where bad service just doesn’t surprise you. Disney is not one of them.

The guy behind the counter apparently had not gotten his dose of Pixie Dust that day because he was monosyllabic and offered no instruction or help at all. He just stood there, waiting on me to do…something. I finally had to say, “Pretend this is the first time I’ve done this and have no clue what’s going on.” And even then, all I got was a bored, “Pictures here, prices here. Choose which one you want.”

After waiting an hour to Santa with four kiddos in the rapidly colder weather, I really could have used a little Disney magic and I just wasn’t getting it.

And apparently, the photo ordering section doesn’t have a register. So I had to go to the store next door to pay and then bring the receipt back to pick up my picture. The added inconvenience of dragging the kiddos to and fro ate up my last nerve and we cut our visit short. We got the hot chocolate, grabbed a quick shot with Buzz and hightailed it out of there.

Still, I did end up getting a shot of the kids. I wish the photographers had actually tried to get the kids to smile…they will on cue, but were overwhelmed with the moment of meeting Santa. (Who was awesome in making sure he got full eye contact with each kid) But I understand with the cattle call nature of Santa Pictures and the line behind us they were rushed. I can understand that, but I also think my perception of the pictures was a little distorted because of the experience I had just had with the associate.

I wish I could share the picture with you so you could judge for yourself, but after all of that hullabaloo, I'VE LOST THE CARD!! So I guess extra prints are now out of the question. Lucky I go the one.

Even after all of that, we’ll go back to DTD next year for more because that Santa RAWKS! I’ll just try to either go earlier or find a time where the line isn’t so long and the boys can spend a little bit more one on one time.

Now all I have to do is help Santa out with the shopping and Christmas is done. Yay!

***************************************

In other news: Zachary continually tries to find ways around practicing his handwriting. One of the exercises he has to complete every week is to use each of his spelling words in a sentence. Well, he figures that if he can write a sentence that uses multiple spelling words, then he doesn’t have to write as many sentences. Pretty smart, huh? Of course, then you end up with sentences like this:

“Morning has two vowels and, of course, no planets.”

Snort!

*************************************

Gotta share the kiddos artwork with everyone. These are so going in the “save until they’re grown up and embarrass them with it on Prom Night” box. Just cute, nostalgic little memories no one but their Mama appreciates!

the girl who has a strange child

This post is dedicated to Ian. He is such a unique child. I mean, you can really see he has his own outlook on how the world should work. One thing I have found holds true when raising children, is that they will always surprise you. Not always in a good way, but at least parents (moms especially) can never say that their life is boring.

How can life be boring when your kids do things such as this?

It’s a lovely diorama/playhouse nicely ensconced in a drawer. It reminds me of when I used to make Barbie furniture out of Kleenex boxes. At least my kids’ imaginations won’t leave me hanging when I have a runny nose.

The other strange thing from Ian I, unfortunately, did not take a picture of. Basically, it creeped me out—although it was done in innocence. Ian enjoys “decorating” the underside of Zachary’s bed (it is the ceiling over his bed after all.) I wandered into their room the other day to find a Beanie Baby hanging from the underside. By his neck. I mean, seriously, it looked like he just couldn’t take the cuteness anymore and decided to off himself! I half expected a “Goodbye Cruel World!” note clenched in his furry little paw. I found this mildly disturbing and morbidly funny at the same time. Of course, Ian wasn’t thinking of lynching that poor bear on purpose. He just wanted him to decorate his space. Lol.

Or how about this?

Ian saw a commercial for a nail salon on tv and decided he wanted his nails painted. I asked him what color he’d like and he requested blue. As luck would have it, I happened to have some blue nail polish. (incredibly old, I haven’t painted my nails in years) So we end up with blue nails for Mother and Son.

We also end up with a slightly miffed Dad. Nail polish, of course, is just for girls. However, it was late at night, I was folding laundry and watching Jon and Kate + 8 and Ian woke up and wanted to join me. We had a silly bonding moment (for the record, he painted my nails after I did his) and it was F-U-N!

At least he didn’t ask for pink nail polish!

And then there was last night.

Ian enjoys dressing up so much that I keep all the Halloween costumes in a drawer for him just for that purpose.

Last night he got into the Christmas Spirit, so allow me to introduce…

Buzz Batman Claus!!!

**********************************************

Thanks to my friend Jen for the kick in the butt needed to start menu planning. It took a couple hours of thought at the puter, and my shopping trip was longer than usual, but I planned meals for the month and went shopping for the next two weeks this past weekend. Now, she bragged about spending only $250 for the month and I’m not quite there. Of course I have twice the number of people in my fam, so I think spending $285 for two weeks was a good deal. Plus, between store specials and coupons, I saved $50. I put so much in my cart, I actually had to park the cart in a closed lane and put a note on it: “Working on cart #2, please don’t put away!”

And how did I fill up one and a half carts prior to checkout, but walked out with three carts? Some weird grocery physics. I guess it just proves all those hours spent on Tetris weren’t wasted after all.

And here is something to make you feel old. The bagger (little whippersnapper that he is) had never had homemade Rice Krispie treats! He said he didn’t even know you could make them at home, he grew up on the premade stuff!

Ok, Sonny. I’ll make some for you as soon as I get my walker out of the shop and my gout dies down.

Anyway, the trip was great and so far, I’m loving not having to do any thinking about dinner. When I go to make tonight’s dinner, I’ll pull whatever I need to defrost from the freezer and it will be ready for the next night. I’m starting to get a system and I really like it.

****************************************************

Eli update. Nothing new really with the little guy, but I wanted to show off some pictures!

This outfit on Eli sparked Matthew’s infamous “baseball game” adventure.

And this was taken last night after his bath. Can’t you just smell the “new baby” scent?

*******************************************************

The tree went up last night and I finally allowed the kids to put more than one ornament on the tree this year. Unfortunately, they still wound up all in one spot, so I let them do one box worth of ornaments and then went back and rearranged. Hey, it makes me feel better!

Anyway, we had our first casualty of the Christmas season. R.I.P. Oscar, the Grouch. Zack fumbled him in his excitement and he wound up breaking…although you can’t tell in the picture. The entire back side of this ornament is completely caved in and broken. I am actually expecting more as this is the first year with the concrete floors. Sigh! I miss carpet!


So, again, the past two weeks in a nutshell. Time is flying and I can’t believe that 2007 is almost over! Now all I have to do is panic about Christmas and the year will be done before I know it.

the girl who is celebrating "Happy Day", for REAAAL!

Today is "Happy Day," so decreed by my nearly-five-year-old. I'm not quite sure what sparked it, but he woke up and announced it. Apparently on Happy Day, you get to go to Miss Mitzi's school! So I guess we celebrate it Monday through Wednesday. I wonder if this will count as one of our paid holidays for work?

Busy, busy, busy time of year and then I just add to it by taking on this modeling thing. The Friday before last, I got an email from our Scout about a modeling call the next day in Miami. I figured I'd go and use it as a learning experience even though we didn't have Zack's composite cards yet. The Scout told me to take all three of the older boys even though Ian barely qualified for their age requirement and Matthew didn't. So I did. And it was quite the learning experience for me.

I learned I can’t be away from Eli for 24 hours and not bring my breast pump, as much as I thought I was close to weaning.

I learned traveling with three kids in a mini van for four hours is torture,

I learned that my public Mommy Manners only last about 12 hours and after that I snap.

I learned that Ian falls asleep in the car, Zack will join him soon after and Matthew will stay awake the entire time asking me questions.

I learned Radio Disney doesn’t last much past Kissimmee.

I learned that when the call asks for a specific age, they really mean a specific size.

I learned that there are many pretty people in Miami and they all showed up for the call.

I learned that professional models have no modesty issues and I got to see quite a bit of toned, buff, chiseled bodies as they stripped down to try on samples.

I learned that I am going to avoid open calls in Miami and concentrate on papercasting and local calls because $150 a trip is not in my budget.

And lastly, I learned that Zack really is serious about this and might actually have what it takes.


The call was interesting, and I found out later it was not done “professionally” (I could have guessed that when we were all lined up outside someone’s (really cool) house in South Beach) and that it was normally handled by a casting agency. They dismissed the younger two right off the bat, but did seem interested in Zack. They had him try on a sample outfit (kinda Euro-punk cute) and took his picture and asked him some questions about sports he liked and if he could ride a bike. However, not having a completed comp card really hindered us in this case, since they didn’t go through a casting agency. I was told that the casting agency will have you fill out a form and take a Polaroid to attach along with your comp card and resume, so the fact we didn’t have one yet wouldn’t be a huge deal. They didn’t have anything like that and I ended up scrawling Zack’s info on a scratch piece of paper. Since we haven’t heard back, I’m assuming he didn’t get cast, which is fine. I don’t think I could have handled the Miami drive again AND prep for Thanksgiving.

And Thanksgiving was the next item on my schedule. I ended up taking the Wednesday before Turkey Day off to clean the house, shop and prep the food. I needed it! Got everything ready, only to find out my FIL was not going to be coming! He was the one I was stressing out over!

Fast forward to the next day and I had decided to take a more relaxed approach and was taking my time in getting started in the morning. Then FIL calls to say he's coming after all so I go from relaxed to stressed in 2.9 seconds.

All I have to say about Thanksgiving is that its over and the leftovers are gone at this point so yay.

I ended up working on Sat to make up for not going in on Wed and so between the drive the previous weekend, Thanksgiving and working on Sat, I feel like I haven't really had a weekend in awhile!

Add to that, we did Zachary's headshots this past Sunday. Wow! What a difference a professional photographer makes! My little 8 year old looks 12! He didn't much care for the makeup (a dot of undereye concealer, a light dusting of powder and some carmex on his lips) and kept making his squinty, pouty face, but he had some awesome shots. I hope these comp cards get him some work, because I am NOT driving to Miami for calls anymore. We will go for actual castings , but unless we win the lotto, it's just not feasible. Although I hear that they have calls in town once in awhile, so we can definitely hit those.

Eli is up to nearly 13 pounds! Here he is with his chubby smile. He has wrist bracelets, dimpled knees and no neck--the perfect level of chubbiness without being too chubby. Just the right size to sqeeeeze! I still love carrying him around in his sling. I must say, I tried every padded, buckled, belted contraption and this is by far the easiest, most versatile and most comfortable baby carrier around. I have so much freedom in it and getting Eli in and out doesn't rquire being next to a padded surface and an extra set of hands. And he loves it too!


Every time I go out in it, someone comments on it and asks me how it is. I think I need to order another one since I plan on using it for awhile and I think I ordered this one too short (I'm not wearing it precisely correctly. The rings should be on my shoulder.) Plus, I'd love another color choice to coordinate with more outfits.

And Matthew is his usual charming self. He has two phrases that he has been repeating incessantly lately. It was cute at first, but now its getting to be annoying.

The first is, "Deal!" He tries to get his way with something and he'll come up and present you with it very matter-of-factly, then he'll end it with "DEAL" and stick out his hand for you to shake. Example: "Mommy! Mommy! The toy on tv, we gotta buy it! You hafta go to the store right now! Deal, Mommy? Deal?" or "Mommy, I don't want to go to bed. I want to watch teedee (TV), Deal?" I don't think he quite grasps the concept that making a deal usually means *I* get something out of the bargain too, lol!

The second is "for real." He says this incessantly to impress upon me his sincerity. "Mommy, Zacky hurt me, for REAAAAAL!!!" Yeah, right, I saw him brush up against you on his way to the bathroom. I saw you look for an audience and then throw yourself on the floor howling. I know you're an actor looking for a stage. For real.

Next up is Christmas. Between all the shopping, cleaning, working, organizing, crafting, baking etc. that needs to be done between now and then, I could use a few more official "Happy Days" between now and then.

For real.

the girl who would like to introduce

Ford Modeling Agency's newest child models. Yes, we did it. We signed him up. Now all we have to do is get his headshots taken ($$$ YIKES! $$$$) but the scout was very enthusiastic about ALL of the boys. However, because of the expense involved, we are only going to market Zack and Eli. Eli because he doesn't need headshots (being an infant apparently snapshots will do.) and is a baby and will only be expected to be cute and Zack because he is the most mature at the moment and really can understand what is expected.

So this is our newest adventure. I hope it goes well. They are interested in Ian and Matthew too, but little Drama King Ian had a meltdown at the scout's office and we agreed that maybe he should work his way into the business gradually. And Matthew...well, we might do a sibling shot on Zack's comp card (see I'm already getting the lingo down!) and market him from that, but one $600 expense at a time, thank you very much!

The big thing here is that its Ford Models. Wowza. That's a HUGE name in "the biz" and I have high hopes we will be doing some serious road tripping to Miami for some college tuition opportunites.
And of course, this is Eli at the present moment. Getting stronger and chubbier every day. Look at those baby push ups! Such a big boy! He is really becoming VERY animated and smiling, cooing, razzing and really working at engaging people. He has excellent eye contact too. If he's sitting next to you and you're not paying attention to him, he'll start to razz and smile until you start playing with him. And the boy has a huge attention span! Mommy and Daddy get bored with the game long before he does.

Eli actually has a call for a catalog shoot for Mini Boden on Wednesday, but I don't think we can make it because he is coming down with a little cold. We shall see if I can make arrangements for the other boys and how he's feeling before I decide anything.

Still, I'm amazed it was this easy to get the boys signed. I've always known they were something special, but when someone else tells you that they're so special they want to make money off of them, well it's a huge ego boost to this Mama.

And one more triumph for the Martinez boys: Zachary not only got straight A's on his report card, but he was the oNLY kid in his class to get straight A's! Go go, little Einstein!