Getting played on my iPod

Lately...........

HOW TO SAVE A LIFE by The Fray
SWING LOW by Rocco DeLuca and the Burden
PUT YOUR MONEY WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS by Jet
ALL THESE THINGS THAT I'VE DONE by The Killers
HERE IT GOES AGAIN by Ok Go
GOD'S GONNA CUT YOU DOWN by Johnny Cash
DOESN'T REMIND ME by Audioslave
DEAR GOD by XTC
INTERSTATE LOVE SONG by Stone Temple Pilots
NO RAIN by Blind Melon
THE WEATHER WITH YOU by Crowded House
GOING THE DISTANCE by Cake

Follow up to last night.

I had planned this museum/dinner thing so that we would absorb a lot of time before Kevin's flight arrived. Things didn't take as long as they were suppose to.

The museum was cool, they were impressed with the dinosaur skeleton. I bought them little stuffed birds that twerp when you squeeze them, because I am cool like that. They made nests for their birds next to their beds last night, which is just cute.

On the way from the museum to the restaurant, we got to see a drug deal go down. Fantastic.

The restaurant was cool too, I have eaten there before but it has been a long time. Hayden was concerned about the menu, on our way to the The Flying Biscuit, she asked me what kind of food they had. She seemed concerned. The menu is a little hippieish, with all whole grains and no french fries. But everything was cool, she found an omelet and grits that she actually ate, almost entirely (The grits were totally out of this world, and I am a grit connoisseur). The boys had the most delicious french toast, of which they ate almost all gone. While we were waiting on our to-go food, which the waiter forgot about, the boys decided to perform for us. There was some great music playing in the restaurant and Tristan stood in his chair and played air guitar and made up some words. Jonas joined him, playing air drums. The show was entertaining (Hayden was fairly mortified they were doing this), until Tristan lost his balance and fell into his plate of french toast and raspberry sauce. It was awesome. Cream went everywhere. I was kicking myself for leaving the camera in the car.

We arrived at the airport too early, but luckily I was able to burn up some time by making FOUR passes through the south terminal, trying to figure out how to get my car into the parking deck. Then, inside the airport we had ice cream, again in an effort to burn some time. Since we can no longer go down to the gates, riding the cool airport train was out as a form of entertainment. We went to a level that is right above the atrium where people hang out and wait and eat and the boys ran laps up and down the curved corridor that overlooked the atrium below. I think they ran for about 15 minutes non-stop. Whee.

Once Kevin showed up, we had to spend a considerable amount of time getting the bag, because it only makes sense to put the baggage from 6 flights at one baggage carousel. I mean, why use the one right next to it that has three bags circling around and around?

By the time we pulled into the driveway at 9:30pm, all had returned to normal. The children were bickering and fighting, I had yelled at Hayden for being an antagonist and Kevin's hair was standing on end from his having run his hand through it. Sweet family bliss!

Weekend without Daddy

Kevin has been gone since very early Friday morning. He has been off on a vacation in San Francisco, visiting his BFF. He has had good fun and been able to only be responsible for himself, although I am not exactly confident that he was very responsible at all. A guy who lives in the Bible belt, away for a weekend, sans wife and kids, in San Francisco....what can you really expect? Anyway, he is coming home tonight (yaaay!).

While he was gone, things here were actually great. I thought for sure I would lose my mind and tie the children in the closet while I mixed drink after drink for myself in the kitchen. But no, we had a good time and I managed to maintain control of my temper (mostly). We went to a puppet show at the Atlanta Center for Puppetry Arts and saw THE coolest puppet show. Then we visited my parents and even brought them a gourmet dinner from Zaxby's. We went shopping at Costco and made a meal of all the samples they had, then went home to ride bikes and play trains. Well, the twins did that, I hung out and supervised and drank wine. Hayden went to sleepover with a friend where she certainly stayed up too late. She called me at 11:30pm Sunday night, while I was in the middle of watching the season 6 premiere of 24. I was initially irritated to have to pause the show, but when she said, "I thought you might be lonely with dad and me gone so I wanted to call and tell you goodnight", my heart nearly exploded into a million little pieces. She can be so sweet at times, love that! Today we plan to visit Fernbank Museum of Natural History and then have dinner at The Flying Biscuit, and then on to the airport to pick up Daddy.

We have had a busy weekend, every night we have all gone to bed tired. It feels good to have crammed a lot into one long weekend, I like to feel that the days haven't been wasted. But the reality is, I don't know how to relax. It is difficult for me to just hang out at home. I get extremely restless. In between all the goings and doings, I also did laundry, cooked, cleaned, organized toys that were scattered all over the house, hung a rack thingy in my closet, organized a bunch of recipes that had been stuffed in a binder forever, and watched 12 episodes of 24, season 5.

I feel pretty tired. But yet, restless.

Limerick

Looky, Daddy! wrote this most fantastic, special limerick. It just cracked me up because it totally hit home with me.

Surely There Must Be Some Mistake

I could hardly believe it was true
All we did is what other folks do
But the doctor was there
And he said, "Look, I swear
There's not just one heartbeat, there's two!"

Tagged

I got tagged by Jewels, who is apparently a mud duck or lives with them or something...what the hell is a mud duck anyway?

So, here is the deal:
THE RULES: Each player of this game starts with the "6 weird things about you." People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state this rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don't forget to leave a comment that says "you are tagged" in their comments and tell them to read your blog."

1. I can't stand feeling crumbs on the floor with my barefeet, it sends me into a fit of cleaning.

2. I can't stand wearing shoes in the house, which sort of exacerbates the issue above.

3. I like the smell of gasoline, bleach and fresh paint.

4. I hate talking on the phone, only because I can't seem to focus on the conversation. I have to be doing something else while on the phone and then I get all distracted and find myself saying, "I'm sorry, what?"

5. I worry like crazy about my mom but I would never let her know that.

6. I love to get dirty outside. I like getting sweaty and I like camping and all things outdoors and dirty. But I hate dirt in my house, I am a clean freak.

So, I am not going to tag anyone else because the people I would tag have already been.

Assurance that this baby factory is closed for business.

I saw a mom with 8 kids at Target yesterday. It made my uterus hurt and my ovaries run and hide.

I was standing in line behind her in the customer service area, waiting to return something. Her oldest looked to be maybe 10 or 11 and then the others were all younger than him and she was pregnant. I watched them in awe/fear. I made the assumption that they were homeschoolers, just because our schools are back in session and this was in the middle of the day. Or maybe they were all skipping school. She did a good job maintaining order, she barked out commands like a CTU Field Agent. As she was returing her items, one kid in a stroller freaked out and started screaming and trying to escape. She snapped her fingers and pointed at one of the older boys who immediately went over to attend to his sister. When she finished with her return, she rattled off stroller assignments to the older kids, three strollers! Mom carried a baby in a carrier. She didn't smile, she seemed very, very focused on the tasks at hand. Her kids were all talking to her at once, or ordering each other around. There was a lot of talking. And a lot of people saying, "Mom". I started to feel panic just watching them!

I kept thinking to myself, A) Wow. I could never do that. She must have been trained by the Navy Seals, and B) Why does she let her kids go out in public with their pajamas tucked into cowboy boots? That's just wrong. No matter who you are.

For Stephanie

My friend, Stephanie, emailed me today commenting that I had not written since before Christmas. She said, "you must be super busy!". Well, no, not really Steph! I am just pathetically addicted to 24 and have been doing nothing in my free time other than working out on the elliptical (while watching 24) and watching 24 on my couch while drinking wine. So, I haven't written because I have not had any profound or entertaining thoughts!

Stephanie is currently in India on business and is out of range for me to chat with her on the phone. She and I share the same birthday and have known each other for 20 years now. Often I will call her on my cell phone while driving home from work because I know she is also driving home from work. I love those conversations and have come to rely on chatting with her often. So, hey Stephanie! I miss talking to you! Oh and I read the book you gave me fro Christmas (The Memory Keeper's Daughter). I loved it, it was excellent and thanks very much :)