volcanic eruptions

I found a book called 365 Experiments the other day and picked it up because I thought it would be fun to do with the kids. It felt like I was pulling teeth for them to do just one of the experiments in there (and I let Jake pick). He's doing his best to look like I abuse him here in this picture.

The first experiment the boys did was a volcano. The book called for:

play-dough (I used modeling clay)

film canisters -- you know how hard those are to find these days? I just used up two glass spice jars so I washed and used those.

1 tbs baking soda

1 tbs vinegar

(we used a lot more, because we wanted to see some real action)

We pretty much just stopped measuring and poured the vinegar right in. You can see Jake here with a hint of a smile.
I forgot to mention nails...they weren't part of the original list, but the kids wanted something to represent all the people that get fried with hot lava....how did I raise such blood-thirsty beings?

I also made them look up what actually causes volcanos to erupt and why vinegar and baking soda have such a reaction and made them write it in their own words, because I'm a mean horrible mommy (at least that's the impression I got with all the eye rolling -- they'll thank me later -- right?).

Next week it's how to make limestone....Isaac's choice. It calls for shoeboxes and I have none, I do believe that's a reason to go shoe shopping. I love science.

our dirty BIG secret

I have a couple secrets to share with you. It's all probably TMI and I will probably alienate a lot of you out there....but there could be someone out there in blogland who will find comfort that they are not alone....

We'll start with my problem with procrastination. Dodi, on January 23rd mentions in her blog that she finally put away Christmas. I read it, I laughed, I commented....but shamefully I had my stack of various nativities on the side table waiting for me to pack up.

Well come March they were still there. Last week, I FINALLY packed them up. If you look closely you can see the clovers on the newspaper ads....that would be ads for St. Patrick's day. How sad is that? Wrapping Christmas up with St. Patrick's day advertisements......

All wrapped and ready to go into...what is our next dirty secret.....our basement. Have you ever seen the show Hoarders? I love that show. I'm horrified by that show. I AM that show. At least my basement is. Let's start with over 20 years ago when my dad died. I packed away some of his books. We both shared a love of reading and a love of collecting books. The problem was, I never opened those boxes again. Part of it was that it was too painful, partly who knows why. We've been carting these books with us over seven moves (Jason, in this case is a freakin' saint!). We moved into this house about six years ago and have have since remodeled the first two floors. The problem is that I've just been throwing stuff in the basement to-deal-with-later as each room got completed that combined with the boxes and boxes of books have given us THIS:

My project for the next couple of months is to go through EVERYTHING and throw out at least....gasp - half, okay maybe a third, mostly a fourth of the junk down there and find a home for whatever we keep. I started today, I cleaned out six boxes and have three boxes in a pile to donate to Good Will and the library.

And, I found these gems....
Jason threatened to slap me when I began to disparage his trekkiness.

We also found some of my high school report cards...which Jason decided to scan and save on his computer --why? I wanted to toss them....seriously a D in Algebra, like I want my kids to see that? I definitely don't want them to see the 30 absences from the same class (a correlation?)

We also found my high school literary publication where I had a poem published....Jason read it and laughed and laughed...His comment was, 'geeze, trace, was part two how you slit your wrists, can you get more depressing? Maybe we should send this to the Zoloft company and they can use it in an ad" I won't include the poem here...thankfully I've grown out of that teen-girl-life-is-horrible-angst.

This project may be funner then I thought it would be. Tomorrow, more boxes. I wonder what I'll find.

POTD -- Easter project

Saw this very cute Easter idea on another blog and decided to totally steal -- uh, I mean try it for myself.

Can't wait until the tulips come up in my garden, until then....I bought some at the store....Spring is here...it makes me happy.

POTD -- quick dinner...really quick.

This is one of our favorite oh-my-gosh-I've-worked-10-to-11-hours-met-Jason-at-baseball-where-I-stay-and-finish-watching-Jake-practice-baseball-and-Jason-takes-Isaac-to-Karate-Jake-and-I-go-home-get-dinner-ready-in-time-for-Isaac-and-Jason-to-get-home dinners.

Fish Tacos, super duper easy

or Lazy Fish Tacos

A couple boxes of your fave frozen fish, I use either the garlic herb or lemon herb

A package of corn tortillas

Coleslaw salad mix (without dressing)

Jalapeno Ranch Dressing

Like I said, I'm super lazy, but my friend who is a much better cook, housekeeper, crafter, mom, human being then I am, takes regular ranch and mixes some green tabasco sauce...I think it might be jalapeno juice -- I'm not quite sure, it's green and in a tabasco bottle. I also think she makes her own fish too....wouldn't be surprised if she made her own tortillas, I'd hate her if she weren't my best friend...

Et voila....(Jason likes it with two corn tortillas per taco, me not so much)
The family gives it two thumbs up....and Hannah hopes someone will drop something....

POTD --Busted

How could such a little cutie like this do anything wrong?

Ah-ha, so busted. She was up on the couch but got her tags snagged on the blanket when she jumped off (most likely when she heard me walking towards the living room). Oh well, at least this time it wasn't eating a whole jar of peanut butter that some child...Isaac...left on the counter, or ripping through a box of kleenix in the back yard, leaving a ton of white wet soggy cold messes to clean up.

Good thing she's cute and lovable.

potd -- time for Botox?

I don't actually spend a lot of time looking at myself, don't normally wear make up, and when I do, my glasses are usually off when I'm applying and I just see a pleasant haze. Well the other day I caught a look at myself in the rear view mirror and saw how angry I looked, so I tried to relax my expression and all the creases STAYED....AHHHHHH, not only that, little tiny brown specks all over my cheeks, freckles? Do olive-skinned people even get freckles? Is it better to say freckles then say age spots?

So what should it be, micro-derm abrasion, botox, bangs, or whatever else is out there?

And there it is ......... I'm turning into my mother.

potd -- first signs....yay!

POTD --- Waiting for Spring

So this is the little garden between my house and our neighbors that I love to plant with an overabundance of flowers. Notice the snow......This is the magazine I just bought for the purpose stated above.
Now, I just need Spring to get here.

Big sigh.

I should write a parenting book.....

The kids, Jason and I were at Red Robin the other night and Isaac asked Jake for a bite of his dinner. Jake said, "No." Not because he wanted to eat it all, but because he was being mean in that big brother sort of way (which I totally understand because I was mean in that big sister kind of way).

Isaac started to whine (he does it so well, I'm hoping there's a doctoral program for that).

I say, "Isaac, this is your brother's dinner, if he doesn't want to share, he doesn't have to........but...."

Jake's hands clamp down on his ears and he starts singing.

(WTH)

I ask him what he's doing.

"Mom, please, please don't make me feel guilty"

Meanwhile, Isaac gleefully chants, "make Jake feel guilty, make Jake feel guilty"

The four of us cracked up.

Jake gave his brother a bite.....without me screaming, guilting, or threatening

And this is when I realized parenting with sarcasm and guilt does work.

POTD -- I wasn't kidding

Last week I mentioned that I was getting my tax stuff all together and when I did I would organize it and tab it all out for the accountant, because I'm OCD like that...well I wasn't kidding.

But, yay, tax stuff ready to go! I hope I don't owe (I rhymed, I'm so proud)

POTD -- donations for future orthodontia needs appreciated

Isaac lost another tooth the other day. He said he was opening one of those bottles that you're supposed to open with your mouth and his tooth flew out.

He didn't believe me that there are no such bottles. Nor did he believe me that you aren't supposed to use your mouth in lieu of any type of tool.

He also mentioned to us that a friend of his told him that you get $15 dollars for your last tooth from the Tooth Fairy. Since this is not going to happen in our house, we tried to convince him that the Tooth Fairy pays kids for their teeth based on the parents' income and maybe her parents were really really wealthy but since we aren't a tooth is only worth a couple dollars at our house (more if it's pulled by a dentist, -- and given the way his teeth are coming in, he may be coming into a bit of money shortly thanks to the dentist -- but still not 15$ a tooth).

And I began to wonder, one: how is this fair (and thankfully, his somewhat A.D.D. -- in the way of most eight year olds -- mind wandered off in another direction and two: how do we get into such discussions?

But what I find amazing is that even though kids compare what they received for Christmas, what they got in their Easter baskets and what the Tooth Fairy leaves them under the pillow, and they must realize there are some serious discrepancies, they still believe. I love that.

POTD -- finally cleaned out my closet

I started this project weeks ago. It's not like it was that difficult. But I think because it was never going to look like one of those awesome California Closets where everything was just so and STAY THAT WAY, I was discouraged before I even started. Today...well today I'm more in a realistic, this is just how it is - mood and I got it done...whoo hoo. I need to stop being perfectionistic about certain things...because it's never EVER going to be perfect and it will most certainly never stay that way!

POTD -- death and taxes

So people complain about paying taxes...me, well I whine about the paperwork....especially because for some reason I always, always lose some key portion of the paperwork. This year it's my W2s and the giving statement from our contributions to Children's Hospital that I've lost.

And in case you don't already think I'm a freak...when I do finally get it all together, I separate all the sections and tab them out with colorful labeled tabs before I hand them to our accountant.

I know, I know, I need therapy.

POTD -- Happy Valentine's Day

I have the cutest hubby out there!

POTD -- Isaac's a yellow belt!

Yay Isaac!

POTD - No one knows how to draw a dog!

Some of the words we got last night...."interview" - Good Lord, how do you draw "interview"?? (I tried a guy behind a desk...it didn't work). One of the pictures above was Jason drawing the word "contagious", Jay got it just fine (or was it Lindsey, I forgot who was partners with whom at that time), my "contagious" drawing wasn't as descriptive, I think because I drew lines rather then drops.

All of our dogs looked alike and all the dogs looked the same as all of our horses and strangely a lot like Jay's rendition of the United States (he claimed that the "dip" he drew in California was the Baja peninsula, he was just being very accurate)

All in all, it was a wonderful evening of laughter, good food, and wonderful company.

POTD--Hate my pager

The dreaded pager, I hate this thing. I cringe when I hear beeping sounds, even the beeping sound in my car, indicating my seat belt is not on. When other people's beepers go off I want to hurl something at them (yes, I did get called out last night)

I can't watch Gray's Anatomy any more because their beepers go off ALL.THE.TIME. I swear I have beeper PTSD.

Even when my beeper isn't going off, it weighs heavily on me. I don't want to start a project because I might be called in. I sort of wander around the house in limbo land wondering if my beeper is going off and I have to rush to work.

I love my job. I love helping people. The beeper, is well, a pain!

Thankfully, I have only two more call days in the next two months as I transition into the chronic unit and then I will gladly tie a colorful bow on this thing and return it to my boss.

blog a picture a day challenge

My friend, Martha, emailed me about a picture a day challenge and it sounds like fun. We'll see if I actually stick with it, especially because it's taken me a month and a half to even start it (to be fair, part of that time was spent prepping for vacation, being on vacation and recovering from vacation....yes, I know you feel sorry for me). So today will be day one of this fun challenge. It's a great way, Martha emailed, and I agree to see what happens in our daily lives.

I call this: WE HAVE A FREAKIN' CLOSET PEOPLE!

my husband cracks me up

a couple of weeks ago, I had this conversation:

patient: I think there are people staring at me through the window.
me: We're on the umpteenth floor, no one is out there or able to look into the window.
patient: Isn't there a ledge?
me: No, and it's 100 degrees below zero, so even if it were possible, no one would want to because it's so cold.
patient: (doesn't believe me), I'm just going to try and be happy.
me: I think that's a great idea
patient: (starts singing the Don't Worry, Be Happy song and mumbling something about the peas being burned in the oven -- which is crazy talk, because really who bakes peas?).
me: (calls the primary nurse and begs her to bring his psych drugs PRONTO).

I tell Jason this story, he says:

You so should have told him that no one was watching him through the window, because you watch him through the T.V.

Jason makes me laugh ALL THE FREAKIN' TIME!

disclaimer: I would never ever never ever in a million years ever say this to a patient....and Jason isn't a nurse so we don't have to worry about him.

Iao Needle, Botanic Gardens, Lanai and our last day

One of our days in Maui we visited Iao State Park and a private botanic garden on the road to the state park. It was gorgeous, as is everything in Hawaii. First, I am going to bore you with a bunch of pictures of flowers and fruit....but coming from a semi-arid, land-locked, full-on-in-winter state, I just can't help myself.

The pointy mountain (hill, if you're from Colorado) is Iao needle. Such bloody battles fought in such a lush, peaceful area - maybe they didn't get what a mellow relaxing place they were living. I certainly never felt like fighting while we were there.



We had lunch at some indi-pizza place and ordered half our pizza "Hawaiian". Why yes, we did think we were clever.




Lanai

We did a snorkeling excursion to Lanai, although the water was too rough to snorkel there, we ended up back in Maui for that. We were able to spend some time at the tidal pools though and saw an octopus and other neat looking sea creatures.

If you look really closely you can make out one of the octopuses tentacles.

Our last day

We just hung out at the hotel on our last day, Isaac and I at the pool and Jake and Jason Kayaking in the ocean. We barbecued shish-kabobs at the poolside grill that night and watched our last Hawaiian sunset. It really was such a fantastic vacation that had the added blessing of watching Jason's cousin getting married and visiting with his aunt and uncle.

Mahalo