Rod Blagojevich=Michael Scott

Isn't it true?  Rod is the same as Michael!  Zero self awareness.  Goofy smile.   And did I mention zero self awareness.  

Beware All You Germaphobes

If like me you are not an enthusiastic enforcer of handwashing and bathtime, relax, you are just helping your kids.  Read this.  Glad to know my low hygiene standards are contributing to my children's well being.  Also, in my quest to be more earth friendly I stopped buying anti-bacterial soap and soap in bottles and just use a bar of soap, a soap dish, and water.  I feel justified.

Growing Up

At church on Sunday Clara was standing next to our bench in the aisle, twirling.  Her friend stepped out in the aisle about six rows back and Clara enthusiastically yelled, "How are you Faye?"

Another sign she is growing is the fact I have to buy her new shoes every few months.  Turns out Clara enjoys shoe shopping.  I took her to Target (since I don't know how to shop anywhere else) and set her loose in the shoe aisle.

"oooh, cute."

"Do you like these shoes?"

"Yes.  Put shoes on Cwawa."

She enthusiastically tried on so many pairs and was so angry we didn't throw them all in our cart.  She finally settled on the brown Mary Janes which featured a little lady bug charm, "ohhh, wike it, wike it (like it like it), wady bugs."

Never Going To Catch Up or The Final Hawaii Post

Oh man, I really want to finish blogging about Hawaii and our fun week back in UT before the kids had to go back to school and the other things that have happened since then.  I like having the record, especially since I don't journal or scrapbook, but once you get behind it is so hard to get back on track.  Sometimes travel loggish posts are soooo frustrating..  I want to take blogger by the neck and strangle it, like when I am trying to upload pictures and it says bad request.  And then I give up and never post.  So frustrating.  But I will not let blogger beat me this time.  I will finish this post!  This is it man....so brace yourself for a giant catching up post.

Here are a few more pictures of some of the things we did whilst on the lovely island of Hawaii.  At the Hilton to watch the dolphins:

One of several delicious beach picnics prepared by Tutu.

This was our first picnic, at Waialea aka 69.

This was us about to be blown out to sea at Laupahoehoe:

This is one of the several perfect beach days at Mauna Kea we enjoyed

before Rob and the rest of the family arrived.  It was

so beautiful.  We stayed for hours and hours:

Trying to take a break from the beach we ventured 

down to Kona and took the kids to see Bolt, with

some shopping on Ali'i Drive.  The kids money 

was buring a hole in their pockets that day and they all

bought some good tourist junk (I mean treasures):

We took a quick drive over to the Waipio overlook and 

walked down into the valley a little ways.  Amazing:

Rob dreaming of backpacking into Waimanu...someday:

Tutu's friends the Barlockers live in a gorgeous home

down at the Mana Lani.  They invited us down for a day 

of snorkeling and a delicious dinner.  It was a great spot and 

we saw tons of amazing fish.  They boys really got out there too.

They also spent about an hour snorkeling in the tiny hot tub:

Clara loved the cats.  "tum here fusty. tum here Daddy-O"

The cats, wisely, mostly ran the other direction:

On our last day, Rob and I took the kids to Hakalau, 

a beautiful little valley.  It had been raining hard, which

only added to the beauty:

Then we went to Kolekole for frisbee.  We watched 

the waves and some surfers:

We finished the day off with another trip to 

Akaka, which was, after all the heavy rain,

amazing:

And just for fun, some more beach shots:

THE END

phew....I'm all caught up

Happy Inauguration Day!!!

I wish I were there!!!!!  I am happy today.

Losing Battles

I feel like on a daily or near daily basis the bulk of my time is spent fighting unwinnable battles. For example:

*Trying to get the laundry cleaned, folded, and put away before a mountain of new laundry appears.  That mountain takes one lousy day to reassert itself.

*Trying to keep the house clean.  Impossible.  And there are two levels of clean;  picked up and technically clean (vacuumed, scrubbed, dusted, wiped, etc.).  Picked up is hard enough, you think I have time for clean?

*Cleaning the toilet seat clear of dried pee.  Ick. Impossible.  I am thinking of imposing a fine.  $1 for the seat, $2 for the floor, $5 for the shower curtain or wall.  

*Cleaning the kitchen floor only to have Clara toss her meal on it (a tri-daily ritual).

*Trying to feed my kids healthy food, only to have at least one kid per meal refuse to eat what was prepared.  If only they knew how lucky they were that I make such an effort for them.  (Pearls before swine?).

*Fighting piles.  No matter what I do, no matter how hard I try, stacks appear on all vertical surfaces.  I have to be crazy vigilant to keep the mail and school work from stacking up.  A true losing battle.

*Trying to get back to my post-Anders, pre-Clara weight, which isn't going to happen even though I faithfully work out 5-6 days a week.

*Trying to find places to put all our crap in our storage-less house.  Why don't I just purge?  I do.  A lot.  It is still is bursting at the seams.

*Trying to keep a steady stock of milk in the fridge.

*Getting all the homework done before dinner, so we can have a relaxing evening with time to play a game, read, or do a puzzle (yeah right).  Homework and piano and extra-curricular anything can be so dang exasperating!!!

I could go on and on.  But here is the thing.  I may be losing the battles, but I think in the end I will win the war (it does often feel like I am fighting a war).  My kids will know that I tried, strived, for cleanliness.  My kids will know that healthy food is important and maybe even someday they will like beans and whole wheat and almonds and all vegetables and scorn refined overly-processed foods.  Hopefully when they see their first box of hamburger helper they will look at it with puzzlement and pity the people that eat that stuff.  They will know that exercise is valuable and important.  They will know that I tried.  All these seemingly futile battles, that feel a lot like banging our heads against a wall, aren't futile.  Our kids will see that even though we usually don't meet the high standards we set, we still have them, and they are important.  And that is why we do it, right?

Terrible Two?

Anyone seen The Bad Seed?  About the sweet little murdering girl, who is pictured above getting a spanking?

It seems that Clara is turning into a bit of a rotten stinker.  Of course with three older siblings mauling her constantly with love and affection, I can see how she has needed to learn to be aggressive.  Yesterday at the gym she had to get written up (an incident report) for hitting and pushing the younger babies!  Emabarrassing.  And when I say "are you going to be nice?" she grins diabolicaly and said, "no."  I don't really think she knows what I meant, but still.  Today I said, "We don't push.  We don't hit.  No. No. No."  And she said, "Yes.  Push babies."  Seriously?  The bad seed!  How do you discipline a nearly two year old without it becoming some kind of game?  Help!