friday fotos....are these things ever really on friday anymore?!

I am sick. Sick, sick, sick. It's the WORST being sick in the summer too since the heat seems to intensify all the symptoms. My Sudafed is trying to see how loopy it can make me. Currently, my head feels like it's floating off my shoulders, so I guess the medicine is winning....might make for an interesting short Friday Fotos :).

Here's the small amount we've been up to this week:

The **coveted spot ** in the patch of sun emitted by the skylight. The little boys love to fight over who gets to lie in it!----



One evening, I ran some papers over to a friend who lives just around the corner. As I was nearing my house on the return, this is what I saw....

My creative Ethan in his interesting pajama combination....wearing the hat we put on snowmen....and dancing with an umbrella in the front yard. Passerby's were slowing down to smile at him or give him the thumbs up.....completely unaware they were creating a monster! This boys goals in life are: "to be a house painter in the day time, and to be a comedian at night." I think he may be living at home for a while... :) but love him and his imagination!!!

Liam has been working for several weeks on a behavior-related sticker chart and finally finished it to earn his Webkin.....

See the frog watching him play the Webkinz games? The frog has gone EVERYWHERE with us this week! I love that Liam truly values the reward of all the effort he put in.

And now I'm off to bed. Hopefully my head will be screwed on straight enough tomorrow to get back to reading blogs. Oh yeah...did I mention I'm also potty training? So, yuppers, just -a wee bit- wacky around here. Wouldn't change a thing though :) !

Hope you're enjoying your week too! ~Happy Tuesday-ing!!!~

the marvel that is the dollar store

Howdy-ho bargain shoppers! I'm in the mood for some savings! Let's take a trip, shall we? I'm thinking here:


Jennifer P.'s tips for a successful trip to the dollar store.....

Make sure you go early in the morning--in your grungy clothes--with your hair pulled back--and your retainer in --- and no make up. Don't want to be putting on any heirs to go to the Dollar Tree now, do we?!

First stop: Seasonal. I'm loving these flower-adorned fly swatters because they are lovely AND functional. I think I'll buy one in every color, because heck! they are just a dollar, right?!

Next stop: something for the kids. I'm leaning toward this cops and robbers toy. I won't be deterred by the fact that it looks to be completely dripping in lead paint, or that the cop is freakishly large compared to the robber (and also that his weapon appears to be "a hug"). I'm sure my boys will glean hours and hours of enjoyment from it!:

Oh boy! Here's my favorite aisle: Knick Knacks! This is the kind of stuff you grab for first in the event of a fire or earthquake. I'm really going to stock up today---I've got a lot of friends with birthdays coming up!......

Uh-oh! Looks like we need a clean up on the baby aisle!......

Here's evidence that patience pays off!--I've been waiting and waiting for this CD to come in! I'm a HUGE Paris Hilton fan!....

A forward thinking kinda mom like me will have her mind on what to make for dinner, even when it's still morning. I think I found it! Mmmmmm.....I can almost taste it now!:

I was a little disappointed that they only had 3 of these. I'm going to hold out until I can buy a whole set for my dinner parties!:

Now, bargain lovers or not--there really are a few items you should NOT buy at the dollar store.....

1. (I don't think you should trust this kind of thing to the Dollar Tree. If you're desperate and broke, give me a call and I'll spot ya the thirteen bucks for an EPT, k? )

2. (beware of appearance-altering products with misspelled words like "eazy")

3. (I think you're better off scouring the second hand store for some Victoria's Secret pass-me-down bras and undies, these just don't look like very good quality.....)

Now if you're a good shopper, you should emerge from the store with a carseat full of deals like this!:

Hope you've had as much fun as I did! (And I bet if you're slightly intoxicated, this post was probably especially hilarious!)

Remember: Keep Shopping! Because lots of stuff will make you happy! :)

the continuing torture of being made to read my poetry

Since I'm pretty sure this one's not going to make the cut,
I offer you a glimpse into the worst of what I've been writing these past few weeks.
Trying to put together a manuscript that should take most people a year... in 3 months?
Sooooo me. HA!
You'll all come buy the book for, say, $11.95, right?! :)

SYMPHONIA
"The stains will require explanation" -Jon Woodward

Musicians are people you pick up
Off the street in Glasgow

Honest instruments, sideways flapping
through slender music

You take them back to your kitchen--
they wash dishes and offer legal advice,

Convert you to their six-string religion,
Each string a tenant of accumulated sound

The supreme truth being
that yesterday contains the original experience
though it never outlives a lonely whistle,
Reasoning of the mouth

And the night eats up the spectrum of B Flat Major
And their laughter eats up half the house
And their stories go further than lyrics
And their sleep goes deeper than an empty bed

Clothes closed up the middle
with stitches like burst bagpipes.

They are plaid
They are felt
They are boot heel black
on the blue kitchen chairs

Now they're eating shredded coconut by the handfuls
Coconut in their mouths
Coconut in their beards
Coconut on the smiling stone floor
And this ends by taking the top off a circle.

~Jennifer P.

*and remember....copyrighted---yadda, yadda, yadda.....just because it might not make the cut doesn't mean that it's not still mine and won't be chopped up and used as pieces in other poems. I call the ones like that my "poetry casseroles".

Thanks for reading. Now move along....wait--say something first....then move along :).

i'm no summer blockbuster

where is everyone?!?!

is it because school is out and summer is in? vacations? gardens? camping?

or is it me?

seriously--I feel like my life has been simultaneously crazy busy and crazy boring. Just not a lot to say right now, I guess. It's like a soap opera (which I haven't watched since I was 19, but I'm pretty sure not much has changed)---some seasons Mercedes finds out that her fourth husband is really her brother, and everyone catches a terminal disease, and a serial killer is loose in Green Valley, and you can't miss a day of watching because it's excitement, excitement, and excitement. And other seasons, well--it's just all kissing and heavy eye makeup. That's seems to be the season I'm having right now. Somehow I feel the need to apologize for it.

Though there is a certain kind of peace that comes with a life centered around smoked kohl eyeliner as compared to being chased by a crazy with a butcher knife while your fourth husband/brother is on his deathbed with cowpox. Even if people could care less.

Yup.

What two words describe your life right now?

joy in the cycle of the everyday

No Friday Fotos this week--I've been too busy to even remember that I had a camera!

It's been one of those weeks where it seemed every conceivable chore around my house had somehow accumulated: The laundry pile was applying for its own zip code, the grass was up to my eyeballs, my sink had turned into Mt. Dishmore, and the only toys my children chose to play with were the ones with a jillion pieces--which they were so kind as to scatter about in as many places through the house as possible.

And of course all of this hits when it feels like I'm a balloon with a pin hole in it---slowly deflating my energy.

Please tell me some of you feel this way on occasion too?! Like your legs weigh a ton each, and every time you stand up it's like trying to walk through cement, and all you feel like doing is sitting on the couch and eating Otter Pops and reading blogs and Facebook updates?

I do have a little secret to getting me over down weeks like this---it's called "The Rheumatic Fever Memory".

Last year, when I was sick with rheumatic fever and in the worst pain of my life---when I couldn't sit up or eat or hold a book or even change position in the bed without feeling like someone was beating me with a mace---when I was basically a prisoner in my body left to stew in my own thoughts until the pain medication would mercifully kick in--when I wondered (since they didn't know what I had at the time) if I was ever going to be better again--the thing I found myself missing the most, fighting to get well for the most--was the cycle of the everyday.

I didn't care if I never got to go to Macy's or have a pedicure or go on a luxury vacation. All I wanted to was get well enough to be of use again. I wanted to wake up and make a bed, comb four little boys' hair, vacuum a floor, load a dishwasher, hunt down lost shoes, scrub a toilet 5 times a day, and make a dinner that everyone would complain about. Those mundane, thankless, daily kind of chores that--in and of themselves-- are the stuff that drives us to read US Weekly and covet Paris Hilton's life, are a kind of magic when you consider them in a cycle. In a cycle, all of those things lead to a clean, productive, orderly home. Kids who learn to work along side you wearing shirts with all the stains removed. The testing and increasing of your patience. Those simple daily memories of life with laughter and surprises, and little talks shoved in amongst the necessary.

When you can't do ANYTHING--you realize just how much you miss doing everything.

So, that's what I focused on this week: The fact that I am well enough to feel the hum of the vacuum in my hand. The scent of a fresh bottle of Gain being opened. That certain (albeit ever-so-temporary) shine of a newly mopped floor. And I do it all for these cuties:
They're my reason to not break "the cycle", and to find the joy in the every day.

Hoping you find the joy too--without rheumatic fever, of course :) .

~Happy Weekending!~

really crappy super powers

Jenners turned me onto a Tweet page called "Crap Super Powers" . P.S. : I don't Twitter, so don't go askin' to follow me or anything...but I found the concept hilarious.

I already have one useless super power which would be turning my food into poop (though I'm sure my colon loves that one!), but mine isn't nearly as funny....or as useless....as some of these that others came up with:


*The ability to squirt ketchup out of the tips of your fingers, but only when underwater

*Ability to fly, but only downward

*The ability to produce beautiful poetry, but only when attending a cockfight

*The ability to smell unscented candles

*The uncanny ability to turn one pound of chocolates into 5 pounds of butt fat

*Having the power to disguise yourself as an ant but only when in the company of George Clooney

*The ability to sort your recyclables with 100% accuracy

*The ability to convert other types of pencils into #2 pencils

*Being able to time travel but only to 1942 Germany

*The ability to turn nouns into verbs

*The ability to stare out the window at a bird without moving for an hour

*The ability to hear someone thoughts but only when they're thinking about Richard Simmons.

*Able to transform into a Cheetah --with broken ankles

Oh please tell me you laughed at some of those!

Then please tell me you'll comment about what crappy super power you wished (or didn't wish!) you had! It would totally make my Wednesday! :)

mega edition friday fotos: a whole lotta birthday goin' on

I think this is the most photos I've ever put into one blog post before (!), so I'll be as short on the words as I can. It was a FABULOUS evening! No rain. Perfect temperature. Had about 60-70 people show up throughout the evening--and no one complained about parking (or lack thereof). Pretty impressive for something not quite so impressive as turning 34 :) !!!

Here's my backyard all ready to go:

I actually did nearly all the decorating while chatting on the phone with an old friend--made the time pass quickly!

My nieces came early and so I told them to go sit on the trampoline and not to touch anything :)!

More backyard....

My attempt at beautifying the eyesore that is my giant hot tub. The kids in attendance actually loved watching these float around. One blue plate casualty there at the bottom....


Here are my sweet neighbors (who are also my friends) embracing the "if you can't beat the noise, join it" attitude. It was loud---really, really loud. So I guess I should be publicly thanking my entire neighborhood for not calling the police!

Bloggy friends came too! (L-R) Miki came from the next town over, Elena made the nearly 5 hour drive, (me), and Queenie just moved here and came to meet us. Definitely a highlight of the night to have these ladies here!:

Here (on the left) is my professor/ poetry mentor/ author of this comment ...J. Reuben Appelman (his name link is for his upcoming movie), and a dear friend from my high school days, Ryan (on the right). They were so lucky as to get the rickety old hot tub stairs to sit on.....

The musical stylings of Kinetic Karma!

My nephews are the two behind the microphones. They did a great job and even had a few of us up and dancing!

------

More friends...the lucky ones who got one of the *whole 10* chairs I had out:

Everyone else sat (uncomplainingly :) ) on blankets, including another bloggy/ real life friend:

I made my own cake based on one I spied on Meg's blog. Got all the candles out in my first try too! (but I forgot to make a wish! uh-oh!)

My dear friend Heidi came with her Polynesian dance group and gave us an amazing performance!:

I was loving her for being so kind AND THEN she made me get up and dance....nothing like showing off your lack of dance moves at your own party! :)....

Another of Queen Shiner and I (and my nieces who insisted on jumping into the photo, I think they were the most photographed guests at the party!)....

Here's my friend Ryan singing one of his original songs "Midwestern Blond". You would swear you were listening to Johnny Cash!

Almost over....

And just like I promised all my neighbors, it was almost silent by 10 pm!


I am soooo grateful to friends Heidi and Elli who figured out I was in WAY over my head trying to do it all by myself and came to help frost cupcakes and load my dishwasher. To my brother for keeping the food and drinks well stocked the whole time (and who made a fabulous bouncer when the very drunk "friend of the neighbor" wandered over). To Brandon and Tyler for supplying the great music, and Heidi (again!) for her *magical Samoan hips*. To another nephew, Nick, who manages a pizza place and got me all the food for next to nothing. And to everyone else who came and made me feel like a million bucks! When I looked over my pile of gifts and saw Bath and Bodyworks lotions, ice cream gift cards, books, flowers, and marshmallow circus peanuts---I couldn't help but think how blessed I am to have friends who know me so well.

And to you blog readers I say--if you can do it: THROW YOURSELF A PARTY! Whether it's your birthday or your "just because", you'll be happy you did. If a single mom on a Dave Ramsey budget can do it---so can you :)!

i should be in bed but i'm up crying instead

Something very "Dr. Seuss-ish" about the title, no?

It wasn't a very good birthday. It was mostly good--I'm always aware of my blessings--but the bad parts weren't very good.

We've got a gerbil down.

About 5 minutes before it was time to pick the big boys up from school, I stepped into the bathroom to do my "bathroom business", then went to round up Liam and James to go. Liam was coming out of Zane and Ethan's room with the unmistakable look of *uh-oh* on his face. He tried desperately to get the door closed before I could go in. I made it past him.

I found Cinnamon and Spice (Zane and Ethan's beloved gerbils) running around on the little pool table in the room. Now Liam had seen his brothers get the gerbils out and do this before--so that, in itself, was not naughty. What WAS naughty was that A. he is not suppose to be in his brother's room without asking them or me to go in first and B. He is never, EVER suppose to play with their gerbils.

And here's where it takes a sad turn:

You could tell he'd tried to pick the gerbils back up to get them in their cage and couldn't do it (they're wicked fast), but that he'd apparently caught Spice (Zane's gerbil) by the tail.....and pulled it off.

Seriously--there was the furry stub of her tail on the pool table, and her running around with exposed bone, bleeding everywhere, but fine other than that. "Degloving" it's called, and gerbils, according to google, are prone to it.

Sick yet? I was.

I picked the kids up from school, then left the big boys in charge while I rushed the gerbil to the vet --knowing I would be using my tuition money for whatever it is they were going to do to her (googling had told me amputation was necessary, and the odds weren't good)--but unable to look at my otherwise very stalwart 11 year old's tearful face and tell him I couldn't do anything. I had to do SOMETHING.

The vet confirmed the worst. The tail would become infected and the gerbil would die if it wasn't amputated. However, the chances of the gerbil surviving anesthesia were little to none. And it was going to be $300. Or for $25 I could have it put to sleep. I couldn't do it---spend that kind of money on a slim to none chance. I took my $25 option and cried all the way home.

Mostly I cried because I knew of the hard feelings that would now exist between Zane (11) and Liam (5). How do you fully forgive your little brother for killing your pet, especially when he was breaking the rules in the first place?

I came home and found them playing a computer game together. Zane said he felt sad and mad, but that didn't and wouldn't yell at Liam. And then he cried some more. I took them all to dinner and then we had birthday pie. And then he cried some more. I put them to bed. And he cried some more.

There will probably be more tears tomorrow. And I would be lying if I didn't say that I hate handling all this stuff on my own. I feel so incapable sometimes. Most times. Though I feel my faith is big enough to overcome my fear, it doesn't mean that I still don't have a healthy dose of fear for my boys and their future as children of divorce--especially with incapable me holding the wheel of life.

So--there you have it. I could think of better ways to spend my birthday than toting a bloodied gerbil in a tupperware container across town and worrying my children would grow up hating each other, but silver lining: there was pie involved. Banana Cream.

Asking for a few prayers for peace and unity and forgiveness in our little family again.

Thanks.

it's my birthday and i'll blog if i want to!

TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY!--Oh yes it is!!!

---I have no humility when it comes to *my* one day a year. ----

In fact, I decided to throw myself a huge party on Friday. It will be a strange, conglomorative mess of all the different types of people in my life: single friends, married friends, old friends, young friends, friends I haven't seen since high school, church friends, non-church friends, one friend who would probably catch fire if he stepped into a church, and two blogging friends I've never met before!

Did I mention there will also be Polynesian dancing? And live music? And japanese paper lanterns hanging from my trees? and birthday cake I'm making myself?

I'm saving Friday Fotos for Monday again so I can show you all of the *party-down-edness.*

In the meantime, read one of my most favorite posts EVER! This one from last year's b.day, when I almost died......


http://theboysquad.blogspot.com/2008/06/this-could-be-last-day-of-my-life.html


Now I'll take two days of shamelessly wishing me Happy Birthday, thank you :) !

Love to you all!

friday fotos...is it monday already?

Where or where did the weekend go?!?! The weeks seem to be flying by so quickly that it's hard to catch my breath. Not sure if school getting out in a few weeks will help or hurt the insane speed with which life is passing. But, at least I'm keeping some kind of record of it!--



Here's what we've been up to this week:


The week started off with a BANG! (as in....shoot me already :)! )--this is what my house looked like at 10 pm last Monday:
and this is only a small section of it! I love blogging for the fact that instead of screaming at a mess like this....I just take a picture of it :) .

-----------------


One of my friends brought his Dauschunds over for the boys to play with. Zane was in dog heaven:

I haven't put many pictures of Ethan up lately--so here's one of he and Liam and me. It's all about what we do with our hands in pictures lately....I'm sure we look like some kind of weird gang:

I can never, ever go back to Cost Plus World Market! Oh. my. head. I grabbed some of this **bag of deliciousness** last time I was there and ate the whole thing in 3 days.....

My flowers are back!!! Hooray for a whole summers worth of homemade bouquets:

---------------------------------------
Now, I really hesitated putting these last ones up since I'm not generally a yank-your-shirt-up-and-take-a-photo-in-the-bathroom-mirror kinda gal, but when I caught a glimpse of my abs the other day, I was soooo happy.

Seriously--look! You can see some definition! That means the 2 months of inclined, weighted sit ups I've been doing are having some (slow) effect:

It's nothing like the six-pack I use to sport in college, but I don't have 3 hours a day to work out anymore.....and I've had four kids.....and one of them was a 22 1/2 inch, nearly 10 pound giant....I'm surprised I even have any stomach muscles left and that's all I'm gonna say about that!

I think this should go on the Christmas card this year, what do you think :) ?

~ Happy Week-ing!~

jennifer is dead

No, no----I'm not really. But Mama Kat's writers workshop tells me to pretend I am. And to write my own obituary. Since I'm doing this past 9 am in the morning (when the tumbleweeds are blowing through blogland and the lonely air is ringing with the sound of crickets), I probably won't have many readers--but I'm intrigued with the idea so here goes
*************************************

Jennifer P. was found dead in her golden bed this morning. She slipped away peacefully in her sleep with her boyfriends Alan Rickman, Sporticus, and Blake Lewis by her side.

She was loved by all who knew her, but especially by her children....and also those she gave her millions to. Her fortune was made in the lucrative world of poetry, where she will be remembered for her readings to standing room only crowds and her status as Poet Laureate of the United States for 23 years in a row. She also ran an interior design business, recorded a jazz album, was the 3 time Iditarod champion, restored vintage british roadsters, and drove a forklift for a packaging company on the weekends "just for fun".

Her childhood was a happy, imaginative one where she use to pretend she was going to the sports club to play tennis with Leif Garrett and Shaun Cassidy (which really meant walking to the end of the street with a tennis racket, standing next to the stop sign, and talking to herself). As a teenager, she was the one picking flowers along the side of the road, and rescuing stray kittens--while sporting blue streaked hair and wearing fishnet stockings with Doc Martens. She also had some mad, teenage synthesizer playing skillz.

Her 4 beautiful boys must have come to her through immaculate conception, for surely she would never have married anyone who duped her and left after 13 years....

Her funeral will be held, as she requested, at the circus. Everyone will eat popcorn and wave overpriced light-up toys while the Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings an original composition devoted to her. Blake Lewis will also do a little beat boxing. Afterwards, the remainder of her fortune will be divided amongst all those in attendance and she will be buried beneath the Luxor in Las Vegas.

No one can say this woman didn't know how to live.

aaaaah yeeeeah.


(*elements of fiction may have been woven in amongst the truth in the above piece. I'm just sayin.... :) )

i'm not a violent person, but....

one of these days I swear I'm going to track cancer down, stand on its throat, and totally kick the crap out of it with my early 90's steel-toed boots.

It's making its dirty rounds around here again, taking friends and parents of friends.

I feel like the experience I went through losing my mom to it is made a little more bearable when I take what I've learned and help others. So, that's where I am and what I'm doing.

I'll be back in a day or two.

And if you happen to see cancer--you better tell it to watch its back. There's a very angry mother in boots coming after it.

friday fotos---all in a day's work

I realized in the hustle and bustle of yesterday that I had only taken one picture all week. So this session of Friday Fotos is really more like a peek into a few hours of my life, but just to make myself feel better I'll say...

Here's what we've been up to this week.........


I call this picture: Things Liam deems necessary to have with him while playing outside:


Zane got this scooter for Christmas when he was 4 and learned to ride it. Ethan started riding it when he was 3. Liam at 2. And James learned to ride it when he was still 1! Now he can make it clear around the block. Yeah....I know.....he's not wearing a helmet.....but isn't he just too cute?:



And this is how Liam has taken to riding his bike lately. How he doesn't crash is a mystery to me! :

James loves to play in the van and pretend he's a dog:

Meanwhile, back inside----look what we got!!!:

This is Cinnamon and Spice. Gerbils have proved to be much heartier than the hamster, and they seem very happy living amongst the *stress* of the Peterson household. They're actually really fascinating to watch! They love to chew on toilet paper rolls, eat pieces of Waffle Crisp cereal, and keep me awake at night running on their wheel.

And James patiently waiting for Liam to wake up so they can play. I love that my kids still take naps. Ah....sweet, sweet nap time....

Finally, the one picture that was not taken on Thursday:

Here's the boy squad taking flowers to my mom's grave on Memorial Day. They can hardly contain their enthusiasm.... Still, we had a good talk about her and the things we missed, and I hope they learned what it means to continue to remember and honor those who have passed on.

And that's my rock star lifestyle ladies. Try not to be jealous :)

~Happy Weekending!~