Summertime

What did I do with this knucklehead and his sisters today?

We watched Rise of the Guardians. (Rented from the library - how awesome is that? Totally new release - right?)

We made pumpkin bread AND darn good chocolate cupcakes and I didn't eat one bite. (For this I felt I should receive some sort of award which no one felt the need to offer me.)

We played Farmville 2. Go ahead and judge - we like it and so does our Mimi who lives far away so it is a fun way for us to connect. The kids get so excited about the little animals and they love it when Mimi sends them stuff.

We all learned how to operate a manual can opener.

We ate a lot of canned green beans.....

We all read a bunch of books. (I am not even just saying that - we actually read.)

We did the Teen Beach Movie Dance Along. Two things you should know about this - I secretly totally enjoyed it and I am glad my husband was not home. I believe it is possible that he would have teased me. He loves me and all but - let's be honest - I would have teased me.

We went swimming.

We ate homemade meatballs for dinner. I really love homemade meatballs. Almost made up for the lack of cake.

Oh yeah and we had canned green beans with that.

I wonder if I could cook green beans in eggs in the morning....

It is possible I should have thought through the can opener activity a little but but hey - it is my responsibility to teach these children how to be productive citizens. People should know how to work can openers.

Now I am typing on my computer watching America's Got Talent with husband while the girls play and the aforementioned knucklehead is putting around the living room - literally - golf ball, putter, cups, etc.

Sigh - I love summer time. I really do.

Keeping it Real

This is a post about keeping it real.

I love it when I hear (read on Facebook, blogs etc) 

"oh sure - I would look like that after I had a baby if I had a makeup artist and hair stylist show up at my hospital room...." (In case you have been under a rock - A really pretty Princess in England had a baby)

Listen Sweetheart, you tell yourself whatever you need to get you through your day but I am telling you - there is no makeup artist/hair stylist/pair of spanks in the WORLD that could make me look like that ONE day after having an 8 pound baby. You get to be a princess because you are a princess. You look and act and talk and walk like a princess. Just keeping it real folks. You can say that Husband is my prince and I am his princess and I would totally agree  but we were looking pretty bedraggled when we brought home that first little duchess. We are also totally ok with our ordinariness.

Just keeping it real folks.

Now on that same note. Did you know that people are WAITING to name their babies in England to hear what that little royal dude's name is going to be? I make fun of that but it is possible that I would wait to name my baby because I would HATE to accidentally  use the same name and then my poor kid would be one of like a hundred Chuck's (or whatever name) in his Kindergarten class.

Just keeping it real folks.

If you are a long time follower of the blog you know about my cupcake days. "Toughen up cupcake. You are not the only fat chick in the gym!" has been a long time mantra of the BFF and I and it helped me lose 25 pounds of baby weight (about 4 years after the last baby - keeping it real of course). I have never been one to hide my body from my kids. This is a good little body. It is not perfect but you know what? I am proud of it. It has worked hard and withstood some stuff. It made three beautiful babies and fell off of a bunch of horses and has somehow despite all forces of nature learned to ski again but now it is telling me,

 "Holly - in the interest of keeping it real - I think you should probably get your chubby butt back into yoga class and while I am not criticizing (this is my body still talking in case you lost me) it would probably not be the worst idea if you picked up a weight or two."

I'm all "ok body - whatever you say" and then do you know what my body told me back?

Ouch - damn girl - that hurt. 

Really? Not supposed to work like that. The body talked. I listened and now it is talking back. That sucks.

Just keeping it real folks.


Who's Line is it Anyway is a very funny show that I used to watch in the middle of the night when I was nursing my now 9 year old. It is back on and it a little bit makes me want a baby again but it mostly makes me happy I don't have to stay up all night and it really makes me want to laugh. I always like to confess guilty TV pleasures here so this is my keeping it real confession for the night.

Just keeping it real folks.

I love summer time. I love my little family. I REALLY REALLY REALLY love my new kitchen. I love that I am starting to get my groove back. I just might catch up after the craziest 6 months ever and I am pretty excited about that. I like being able to sit at my little computer and type my stream of consciousness posts for both of my followers to read and I really love that Husband just walked through the front door and said.

"Hey Babe."

Just keeping it real folks.

Happy Birthday my Zoe!

So here is a random collection of pictures. I dig through pictures and get distracted and look and laugh and talk and can't help myself but wonder how 9 years have passed but yet again, I find myself at the end of a birthday. My Noodle is 9 years old and here are just a few pictures to celebrate her....

Big fun with big sister and Daddy

 Hi Momma

 Daddy's girl

 She loved those fingers and her yellow blankie. At first it's name was "My" and then it went to "lello" and finally  became her "yellow blankie". Shh don't tell but it is in her bed still. It used to accompany us everywhere we went and my greatest fear was losing it. Now it stays safely in her room but is still very much loved by both of us.

 Ready for Sesame Street Live!

 2nd Birthday Party

I love you baby girl. I wish I had more time to look through your pictures but you want me to come and sit with you and read some Katie Kazoo so I will look through pictures another day.

Another July - another retelling of the Noodle Bear's birth story

So I am a big believer in stories - I think that the only way that stories can really live on is if they are retold so each year on my children's birthdays - I like to tell their birth stories. It just so happens that today is such a day.

My Noodle was an easy pregnancy and I was very very excited that she was a girl and I was very very defensive about any "oh you didn't get your boy" cracks. She was meant to be and I knew it and I would not listen to a word edgewise.

We were getting closer and closer to her due date which was July 14th. I did teach until the end of the school year and then my oldest (then age 2) and I spent most of the day in our backyard pool. She was due on July 14th and she was looking like a good size baby so my good buddy Dr. (Insert OB's name here) said that we could induce on July 14th.

Mimi and Papa came over early to stay with my two year old and Husband and I got to the hospital nice and early. All seemed well, I had my epidural in and Husband and I were playing cards. Suddenly, I said, "hey I felt that" and then I said, "hey I REALLY felt that - ouch" and so on and so forth. We called the nurses, and called the doctor back in and the anesthesiologist.
The anesthesiologist normally worked in cardio and he sort of shrugged his shoulders (incidentally - never a good thing for a medical professional to do) and administered more medicine in my epidural. By now, I am in full labor and I am feeling EVERYTHING.
Finally, Husband finally has the presence of mind to lean me forward and look at my back and says, "ummm excuse me - her epidural fell out!" The last dose of medicine that he had given had just soaked my sheets and I had no epidural, was dilated to like a 7 I think and let me tell you - that hurt hurt hurt.
Now I know that some people are natural labor people - great - bully for you - I know myself and had planned on an epidural. Also what is interesting is that even after having a shaky epidural experience with my second - you betcha I had one with my third.:)

As a matter of fact, I have friends that can attest to the fact that in my childbirth class with first born - I nearly asphyxiated myself trying to do my breathing which lead me into my hysterical giggles that I get which then led to a little crying jag - all right in the middle of the class. Anyway - I digress - that is a story for her birth story.

The doctor comes back in and says that he wants to do another epidural - I am in a lot of pain at this point and say, "well sure". Man - sitting up in that bed holding on to Husband and the nurse (who buy the way was one of my Kindergarten students' Moms which was interesting) for dear life while he tried to put that thing back in was - well - tough.

So he gets it going, I lay back, Husband looks sort of haggard and two nurses are standing there chatting. I say to Husband, "Umm honey - I feel funny, I feel REALLY funny." He says, "don't tell me - I think we need to tell them"

Here is what happened next from my perspective, "heeeeeyyyy, looooook aaaattt thhhaaaattt evvverrryyoonnnneeee isssss mooovvvvinnnngg reeeeaaalllly faaaast buuuut I feeel reeealllly slooooowwww."

My blood pressure (which tends to run pretty low normally) dropped dramatically and suddenly this swat team of nurses comes in, pushes Husband out of the way and there are literally like 6 of them all standing around my bed. I remember the blond one at the end looking at me and even though I was feeling so weird I remember my eyes getting bigger and her asking me what was wrong. I think I said that all of them were freaking me out by being in there and asked what was the matter. They basically told me that I had trouble with my epidural and they were going to have to turn it off and get my blood pressure back up.

When that crisis was over and the swat team went on to their next mission, Husband and I were left looking at each other, like "what's next?"

Next thing I know - KK's mom ( the nurse whose name I can't remember now but I remember the little boy) comes in and says it is time to push. Well I push not for very long ( and remember - no epidural anymore so I can feel most of this) and she says, "ok - we have to stop and wait for Dr. Insert OB's name here.
I said, "oh no - I think you are doing great - let's just go ahead!!!" Well Dr. Insert OB's name here came in, said hello to Husband, says hello to the nurses, doing his doctor thing.
He grins at me, is putting some gloves on and goes to start putting his gowns and stuff on and looks down and says, "HEY!" He dropped what he was doing - looked at me and said something along the lines of the fact that they weren't kidding around - I really was ready - I think I pushed one or two more times and then - there she was.

8 pounds, 3 ounces 5:48 - little baby girl. I watched while they took her over to the little baby whatever and she stopped crying almost immediately. My first thought was uh oh and then I looked over and saw her little skinny arm reaching up for the lights. She was so quiet and they gave her to me and I don't think I let her go for a long time after that. She just looked at me like,
"Hi Mommy - I am here - ready to go."

Catching up....

So I know that I have said this before but the primary reason for the blog is so that I can remember. I want to remember these crazy times and I want to be able to look back on the seasons of my life as a mother and be able to take myself back there to the days of the past - good or bad.

Therefore - I am going to type out what has happened in the past 6 months. Now I am not doing this to compare - you may very well have been busier than me - not the reason that I write.

I am not doing this to complain because I honestly have nothing to complain about. I am blessed and busy and live an active life.

I am writing these things down for three reasons:

A. So that I can remember why there is such a big gap in my blogging.
B. So that I can remember how insane the past 6 months have been
C. To celebrate it's conclusion and sort of a send off for blogging and my "normal" life moving forward.

Anyhoo - here goes.

December 23rd, 2012 -- we went to breakfast for my birthday and skiing with the kids which is awesome but anyone that has ever been skiing with three little kids knows the work and laundry involved with skiing with them every weekend.

December 24th, 2012 - packing, church, presents, more packing, wrapping, preparing
December 25th, -2012 - wake up, open gifts, load up, head to airport, snow storm in DALLAS. Yes - we were flying from Boston to Dallas and had to wait in the airport for 4 hours on Christmas Day because of a snow storm in Dallas. Totally messed up - I know.
Enjoy the next week in Texas with family.
January 1,2013 - fly back to Boston
January 2nd, 2013 - right back to school and subbing
January 14th, 2013 - drive to Maine for an awesome week of skiing at Sugarloaf just the 5 of us.
January 22nd - begin with a week of subbing and then a 12 week Masters practical. The long and short of the Masters is that I was working on my Masters in Elementary Education in my own classroom in Texas. I was to the point in the program when I needed to finish 12 weeks in my own classroom and then I would graduate. I had my third baby in 4 years that year and started my very happy 6 year stint in stay at home Mom land.

Then three children and a move across country later it was time for me to call up the University and say, "Hey - can I finish this degree?" They said sure and I had to go back and retake some classes. I had two choices - I could find a full time and job and finish the masters or I could complete a 12 week practical essentially student teaching - again. Soooo I did that. All three kids and I were in the same school and I am so happy that I did it. Working twelve weeks with three elementary schoolers for free was not exactly easy but once again - so proud to have finished it.

I finished that up on a Friday and on the Thursday before Mothers Day we got to keep our friends two year old until Monday night. For four days. An extra two year old. Yep - totally pulled that off. It was actually really fun and we love her dearly so I am not complaining - still just detailing the last six months. She was SO cute. Her parents built her crib in my basement and every morning she would wake and call for me...

"Hoooooolllly, I awake now. We food the dooooogggs. Hoooolllly, I awake now. we food the dooooooggggs."

Stinking cutest kid ever (except for when my own were two of course)

Anyway - I digress...

On the Monday that we gave the baby back we started demo on our kitchen. Yep - because that seemed like a good idea - to jump into a total kitchen remodel at that time. Awesome.

Two weeks past and it is time for soccer tryouts. My OTHER part time job is for a local soccer club and we had soccer tryouts - M,T,W for two weeks straight - in the rain - from 3:30-8:30 and then hours and hours and hours after and before on the computer getting offers out and answering questions. I was sleeping maybe four hours a night and then still all systems go during the day with the kids and regular life.

Oh yeah - the kitchen remodel ran over and was being completed during this time.

Yep - that was fun.

Then fifth grade graduation. End of the year stuff - Helped organize a teachers luncheon -  Teachers gifts - A BIG soccer tournament - and other end of the year fun stuff. Then packed and now we are enjoying a wonderful, relaxing - I am slowly unwiding from being wadded up so tight I could have exploded -  family vacation.

Thus the catch up on the Bowheads Blog.

That said - Hello my bloggy (and Facebook) friends! I have missed you and guess what????

I'm BAAAAAAACCCCCCKKKKKK.

;)