She is not normal

I just asked Abby to pick up a mess she made in her room, to which she responded, "I'm too delicate to clean up those toys."

Where does she come up with this stuff?

Wow

Yup. Enough said.

Who says?

Who says that a thirty-six year old mother of four can't wear Converse?

My kids!  That's who! 

I was in Nate's room today when I noticed a pair of Converse shoes in his closet that he had only worn for a few months before he grew out of them.  They are a nice shade of denim blue, very neutral and unisex, and I thought "Huh....I like those shoes, I wonder what size they are?"  I checked them out and sure enough, they were just my size!  I know you are thinking it's really weird to be wearing your kids old shoes and quite frankly, I agree with you, but these are Converse!  They just get better with age!  So I sat down right there on his bedroom floor and tried them on.  Wow...can you say "comfy" and "dang, I look cute"?  I walked in the next room to show my kids that I had a brand new pair of shoes and you know what they did?  They laughed!  I asked them, "So do you think I could get away with wearing these?"  Nate just pauses and says, "Uh.....sure......", while Alex, who knows better, remains silent.

Well, I guess I got my answer. 

But you know what?  I'm gonna wear 'em anyway!

Happy camper!

So we just got back from our annual Crockett family camping trip.  Five days of the great outdoors with my parents, sisters and their spouses, 13 kids and 6 dogs.  I know.  It sounds insane.  Probably because it IS!  And we keep doing it year after year, people!  But even though I freeze my butt off every year, come home with two-hundred bug bites and spend the next 2 weeks doing laundry and trying to get the smell of smoke out of my hair, I freaking LOVE it!  We make more great memories in those 5 days than we do all year long.  I love sitting around the fire at midnight, just talking and joking, playing dumb campfire games.  I love the food that always seems to taste better in the mountains.  I love the smell!  Isn't it amazing how a smell can bring memories rushing back to you?  Well, not the disgusting pit toilets, but the smell of the clean air and the river.  Every time I step out into the forest, the smell of the trees just makes the memories of camping trips with my family as a kid come flooding back to me.  I forget about all of this until I get up there and I realize I am making these memories for my own kids now.  These really are the best times of my life.  But because I also really enjoy making fun of camping, you must listen to this hysterical bit about camping from comedian Jim Gaffigan.



Yup!

Abby's funnies

Abby:  "Oh Mom, I don't want to be a girl."

Me:  "Why?"

Abby:  "Because I want to be a boy so I can grow up and marry you.  In the temple!"

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

Me:  "I have to go to work Abby."

Abby:  "But why do you have to go to work?"

Me:  "So I can make money for our family to pay the bills."

A few minutes later she comes in my room and hands me a penny. 

Abby:  "Here is a penny for your bills Mom!"

A few minutes later....

Abby:  "Mom, when you get home I want some money so I can buy something.  Like a pony.  Or a Snickers."

My how time flies

...and it flies regardless of whether or not you are having fun.  Believe me, the past four months of my life have not been my idea of having fun.  School, work, family, health, finances...everything seems to be a jumbled mess.  I will spare the general public the details and focus on the present.

So...we are presently experiencing what I like to call the "summer time warp".  It's a strange phenomenon where time seems to move at a breath-taking speed, but yet we accomplish absolutely nothing of importance.  It's a strange feeling.  People ask you what you have been doing all summer and you look at them with a sort of dazed expression and rack your brain for something exciting to tell them.  I honestly don't know what I have done all summer other than our trip to Santa Cruz, California.  I planned it, went on it and then spent the next two weeks recovering from it.  Even when I try to talk about the actual trip to California I can't even think of what we did for 10 days!  I can only say, "Uhhh...we went to the aquarium and the beach a few times?"  Now I am facing the next two weeks full of scout camps, birthday parties and family camping trips and before I know it I will be shopping for school clothes and paying registration fees.

Here's my other beef:  why in the heck does time seem to move so much faster now that I'm older?  Back when I was 8, the summer seemed like it stretched on FOREVER.  I would be out of school on June 5th and two weeks later I would be complaining to my Mom about how bored I was.  Really?  Youth is completely wasted on the young.

So anyway, back to my summer experience.  It's been blazing hot here for the past several weeks, which makes it so you either go swimming or hole up in your lovely air conditioned house.  Since we are pretty much broke right now, we have been doing the latter.  Whenever I am home for days on end, I tend to try finding creative outlets.  Oh yes...that means Barbie clothes and Mod Podge galore!  Can I just say that I freaking LOVE Mod Podge?  You can use that gunk on anything!  If I ever decide to finally upload pictures from my camera, I will include a few of my latest projects.  Most have no purpose whatsoever, but that is part of what makes them so fun to create, right?

Happy Summer!!

LOL

I was backing up some documents on an old computer yesterday and ran across this little gem.

Funny things my kids have said:

Seth (age 5)

Seth:  Mom, do we have tornadoes in Magna?

Mom:  No, I don’t think so.

Seth:  Oh good.  Now we can all relax!

Alex (age 11)

While watching an interview with Harrison Ford for the new Indiana Jones movie in 2008, Alex says:  Wow, that guy looks like a really, really old Han Solo.

Nate (age 9)

Nathan is laying on our bed next to Shawn, comes right up to his face, looks at him for a few seconds and then says, “Hellooooo, baldy.”

Oh thank you January

I just wanted to take the time to express to the wonderful month of January my deepest thanks.

Thank you for being the worst month of the year.  Thank you for your gray skies, your sub-freezing temperatures, your short days, your long nights and your singular lack of interesting holidays.  My gratitude to you for making my life miserable;  for ruining the air with your inversion;  for causing much post traumatic stress, but most of all thank you for being OVER!

Until next year....

I will not be missing you.

Love,
Megan

Feeling grinchy

Some of my favorite movie quotes of all time, courtesy of The Grinch:

The Grinch: Blast this Christmas music! It's joyful AND triumphant!
...............................................................................................

The Grinch: The nerve of those Whos. Inviting me down there - on such short notice! Even if I wanted to go my schedule wouldn't allow it. 4:00, wallow in self pity; 4:30, stare into the abyss; 5:00, solve world hunger, tell no one; 5:30, jazzercize; 6:30, dinner with me - I can't cancel that again; 7:00, wrestle with my self-loathing... I'm booked. Of course, if I bump the loathing to 9, I could still be done in time to lay in bed, stare at the ceiling and slip slowly into madness. But what would I wear? 
 ..............................................................................................

The Grinch: All right, you're a reindeer. Here's your motivation: Your name is Rudolph, you're a freak with a red nose, and no one likes you. Then, one day, Santa picks you and you save Christmas. No, forget that part. We'll improvise... just keep it kind of loosey-goosey. You HATE Christmas! You're gonna steal it. Saving Christmas is a lousy ending, way too commercial. ACTION!
[Max knocks the red nose off]
The Grinch: BRILLIANT! You reject your own nose because it represents the glitter of commercialism. Why didn't I think of that? Cut, print, check the gate, moving on.
...............................................................................................

Cindy Lou Who: Santa?
The Grinch: WHAT?
Cindy Lou Who: Don't forget the Grinch. I know he's mean and hairy and smelly. His hands might be cold and clammy, but I think he's actually kinda... sweet.
The Grinch: SWEET? You think he's sweet?
Cindy Lou Who: [nods] Merry Christmas, Santa.
[goes upstairs]
The Grinch: Nice kid... baaad judge of character.

In a nutshell

I sooooo don't have time to be doing this.  But oh well.  Here we go anyway.  I just have so much to say that every time I think about posting something new on this blog I get overwhelmed and push it to the back of my already bursting at the seams brain.  So here is my life in a very condensed set of small sentences in no particular order.  The so-called nutshell.  (Note to self:  research this phrase sometime in the future and find out what the heck it really means.  Cuz I'm kinda nerdy like that.)

1.  Guess what?  I passed THE test!  Woo hoo!  It was harder than I thought it would be.  Kinda thinking I'm also not as smart as I once thought I was.
2.  Shawn quits his job in one month and starts school 3 weeks later.  This brings two thoughts to my mind.  First, what in the HECK are we thinking?  Second, it's possible that those 3 weeks might end in divorce. :)  What am I going to do with him for that long? (No Craig, not that.)
3.  I miss my friends in Maine.  I cried for 45 minutes last night because they called and left us a funny message on our machine.  Didn't realize how much I really, really wish they were here right now.  (Love you guys!)
4.  I am approaching this holiday season with the same amount of usual dread, but have found that I have this one little irritating ray of hope and anticipation sparkling somewhere in the darkness.  Ok...this is new.  What do I do with that?
5.  I made Barbie clothes for Abby the other day.  It was like an eruption of spontaneous creativity that I just had to get out.  So I neglected everything else in my life and worked for 2 hours until I created this one little dress for her Barbie.  2 hours people!  What is wrong with this picture!?!  It is pretty dang cute though.  And modest, which is so unlike the Barbie we know.
6.  Abby turned 3 last week.  She is so flippin' cute.  She acted like a princess all day, saying things like "Why thank you." and "Whatever shall we do?".  She is an actress in the making, I tell you.  I also made her a beautiful cake.
7.  I feel like I have totally neglected my boys the last few months.  I am experiencing huge amounts of guilt about that.  But I don't know what to do to fix it.
8.  I have been actually exercising in a sort-of consistent way with my friend Heidi.  She is way awesome!  And the fact that she still likes me even though I completely sleep in and ditch her sometimes makes her an angel in my book.  I love her!!
9.  I got a new calling.  I was the Primary pianist but now have been promoted to Primary chorister.  I do not have feelings about this yet, only that I am bummed that Heidi (see number 8) won't be there anymore to chit chat with me.  I'm also unsure if I will be able to muster that much happiness for such a long period of time.  Primary choristers are just so dang enthusiastic and fun!
10.  I hate cars.
11.  I hate driving cars.
12.  I hate spending hundreds of dollars to repair cars that I don't even like to begin with.
13.  I think I'm stretching now for things to say, so I must be done.

That will be all.