Love note from the Hubster

On Thursday mornings, the hubster is out of the house at 2:40 am to go to a Holy Hour Eucharistic Adoration, back home around 4:25 and heads straight downstairs to workout. He showers and then is off to catch an early train all before we wake up. Surprisingly, he is able to do this without waking up the house. When I woke up Thursday morning, I found a sweet thank you note on the table for him since I had made his lunch the night before. When I sat down with my laptop to have my morning coffee and catch up on emails, I was greeted by an email from my hubster with the subject line that read "Don't be freaked out but...." Oh sure, I won't freak out. What the heck, what in the world happened?? Here is the text of the email from him...

There is something living in the workout room. I was riding the bike and looked up and saw a black figure scurry across the door toward the furnace. Real nice that when in the middle of my Rosary I yell "Holy S__t!" I went to check when I was done with my workout and didn't see anything. So we should keep an eye out. I think it is probably a mouse like we have / had in the garage (might be the same one).I am catching the 5:56 train this morning.BP

Note to self, exercise isn't really THAT important! I'll be sticking to walking outdoors.

Lions and Tigers and Bears.... OH MY!!

Yesterday we took a little Park Family Field trip to the Catoctin Zoo up in Thurmont, Maryland. We've driven by the zoo plenty of times on our way to visit friends in Pennsylvania, but have never stopped in. On Saturday afternoon, the Baker Family called to see if we'd like to tag along with them to the zoo. Without much thought (you know like what it would take to get 7 people out of the house for 7:30 am Mass, packing up a change of clothes for the kids and snacks for the car ride) we agreed. I've found these are the best kinds of outings and actually the most relaxing (yes that word can be used in the same sentence with "outing" & "5 kids").

The overall review on the zoo..... The Park's will be monkeying around at The Catoctin Zoo and Wildlife Preserve again! The kids were able to get far closer to the animals and see them much better than they ever could have at the Washington Zoo. No there are no pandas, but truly we've been to the Wash. Zoo before and never seen the panda's. Also no giraffe's or elephants. So what did they have? Monkey's galore, reptiles, lions, tigers, bears, wolves, fish, birds, jaguars, and the best part (according to the boys) were the 2 playgrounds situated throughout the grounds. We were there on the opening weekend, so there were actually a lot of animals that weren't back from their winter siesta's. It was still an awesome time. It was pricey and I think the next time we go we'll be purchasing a yearly pass. Yes, the kids had THAT much fun!

Beamer's Sticky Mess

Yesterday morning I was full-throttle into the Tuesday morning rush when everything came to a sticky screeching halt! I had just let Beamer in from being in the back yard and he seemed to cower away from me. Very strange since more often than not if I'm moving he's right under my feet. As I was running to take a shower, I found Beamer "hiding" in his crate and he wouldn't come out. I was thinking he's either sick or he did something REALLY bad. I pulled him out and there was a familiar smell, but not one that would normally be associated with dogs. Hmmmm, did he get a hold of Simon's plate of waffles? He sure did smell like syrup. I ran downstairs and was reassured that Simon's plate of waffles had not been attacked by the dog, BUT the Costco size FULL bottle of syrup that was on the pantry floor was now 1/4 full and laying nicely on it's side (the cap was left inside the pantry as he was trying to drag this into the other room)....

Fortunately, for the dog and kids sakes I tend to have a semi-decent sense of humor about these situations and choose to grab the camera before reacting. Like the time I heard the Costco size box of Frosted Flakes being dumped on the floor by Simon. Maybe what I need to do is stop shopping at Costco??

So I ran upstairs, camera in hand, planning to snap a picture of Beamers sad face, but instead found him getting sick. DUH! A bit too much sugar for you? It was 9:15 and I had yet to get showered and Simon needed to be in Chantilly at 10:00 and Mary Kate wasn't yet dressed. After smearing the syrup all over the floor with a roll of paper towels, I grabbed the vinegar and voila! the sticky mess was gone. Beamers crate would have to wait until I got back.

I left the back door cracked so that Beamer could come and go as the syrup was working its way through ;) This I would find was going to be a blessing and burden. When I walked through the door at 12:30 he was running around in the backyard terrorizing the poor neighbor that was gardening. Beamer came running into the house and it appeared as though he was wearing some kind of camoflauge dog sweater. NOT! That "sweater" would instead be all the leaves that were not raked up 3 months ago caked to his body! Beamer was now a walking leaf pile. No I did not get a picture of that, you may use your imagination.

I won't lie, I did take some pleasure in bathing him and not-so-gently pulling the leaves out of his fur. Love this dog, but seriously it's like having 3 toddlers!

Got Laundry?

Guess what we were up to today?

I'm usually very good at keeping up with the laundry, but for some reason I am much better at doing it during the week. I guess because it is just part of my daily routine. When the weekend rolls around, routine's are more of a distant memory and then I get knocked over Monday morning with the reality of a large family. This past Sunday I did realize that I had yet to run the washing machine all weekend and thought about starting a load, but instead put it off until Monday. Well Monday rolled around and my Costco shopping list had become far too long to put off any longer. Fine, I'll work on the laundry after Costco. Well the van was unloaded and grandma was getting ready to leave (the list was too long to have had kids tag along with me), when the phone rang and Nolan was running a fever and needed to be picked up. Did I mention that I had yet to get a shower in and it was now 3:00? I picked him up, lined up a babysitter to watch him while I took Andrew and Ri to CCD and then to Karate. Got home, put kids to bed and the last thing I wanted to do was attack the mountain o'laundry. So this morning, while Nolan and Simon were laying low with fevers, Mary Kate and I decided to start the laundry. I don't usually take pictures of my dirty laundry, but this pile was just too much. I am happy to say that it is now 3:00 and all the laundry is washed and folded (with the exception of the one load in the dryer) and will be put away when Mary Kate is up from her nap!

This is how I define a successful day!

I'm A Wonder Poacher

The kids had "silly dinner" tonight, also known as pancakes for dinner. I really wasn't in the mood for pancakes, unless they were pumpkin pancakes and I knew that there would be at least one member of the family that wouldn't have eaten them anyway (if you guessed Ri, you were right). The hubster came home in time to take two of the boys to karate and I took care of bathing the 2 boys left behind. Mary Kate likes to stand outside the tub and terrorize the boys by threatening to turn the shower on (I know she has succeeded when I hear the blood curdling screams).

While waiting for the inevitable scream to beckon me to the bathroom, I figured out what I wanted for dinner. Poached eggs! Random? Yes. I knew we had an egg poacher that I believe was given to me by mom back when we first got married, but getting my hands on it and trying to remember how to use it was a whole other story. Google to the rescue. I panicked when the only links I was coming across involved boiling water and slowly pouring cracked egg into water?? Uh oh, I was now desperate to find my poacher and directions for how to use it. I did find it and saw that it was made by Duncan Hines, I guess they used to do more than cakes and brownies. I finally found directions online for the "perfect poached egg" using a poacher.

Kids were out of the tub and gathering up books that I had promised to read after I ate (I really was obsessed with eating the poached eggs). In under 5 minutes, I had 2 slices of toast with butter and 2 poached eggs PERFECTLY made! Definitely hit the spot, so when hubs got home he was treated to my poaching obsession too :)

A funny conversation while I was eating...
Mary Kate: "zat momma?"
Me: "that's mommy's eggs Mary Kate"
Nolan: "Mommy how old are you?"
Me: I told the truth, not sure why he needed the age though "34"
Nolan: "Mary Kate, when you are 34 you gets eggs too"

Nuggets with a hint of lavender

I was emptying the dishwasher this evening while also dishing out the kids very nutritious dinner of chicken nuggets, doritoes and grapes (ok so there was some nutrition in the meal) and calling them to the table. Once the kids were all seated and debating whether or not Ri would eat the nuggets, I found something I never thought I'd find in a dishwasher. Apparently, Mary Kate must have wanted a little more flavor washed into our dishes because she put 2 lavender scented fabric softener sheets in the dishwasher. I must say they held up pretty nicely though during the wash, they were still in once piece at the bottom of the dishwasher.

Buon Appetite!

Movie time guessing

Kids are pooped after playing in the snow, so they are settling in for a movie. Instead of the usual battle of picking the movie, I decided I would pick and there would be no arguments. These kids are nuts, typically when I put a movie in they will guess the movie within the first 10 seconds of the first preview on the DVD.

So the guessing begins... "I know" is unanimously screamed. I tell them to come whisper in my ear. Andrew says in my left ear "Journey to the Center of the Earth" while at the same time Nolan was whispering in my right ear "I don't know tell me". Nice try Nolan! However I will give him props because by the time he got back to the couch and they were 15 seconds into the first preview sure enough he yelled out "RV!" Righto!

Feeling the love

We were just finishing up dinner tonight when Simon came back to the table to say he was hungry.

Me: "Hmm that's interesting Simon, maybe if you had stayed at the table and eaten with us then you wouldn't be so hungry. Your plate's been cleared and we are done eating, looks like you'll be hungry until breakfast"
Simon: "No, I'm hungry, you go away mommy"
Me: "Sounds good to me, you can finish up the dishes"
Hubs: "OK, I'll go on the internet and look for a new mommy. Maybe from Russia."
Andrew: "hey how about Puerto Rico"

Gee Andrew thanks for the love and support! Oh and he's not going to bed hungry, he decided to have a cheese stick and yes he had already eaten half of the dinner we had given him before he decided he wanted down from the table.

Clearly, I need to retrain these boys

We are having a lazy day here after a quick trip to and from PA. I'll set the scene of the latest conversation that reminds me I NEED to retrain my boys thinking...

I'm sitting at the computer in the family room, Hubby is at the kitchen table on his laptop. Before I sat down to the computer I had put waffles in the toaster for Andrew. Once I was all comfortable and "working" away responding to emails and checking in on the diet group , Andrew came into the room and this is where the fun begins..

A: "Mom, my waffles are ready"
Me: "And....? Can you not get them and put peanut butter on them?" dripping in sarcasm
A: "No, I broke my hands while I was downstairs" he said with an equal amount of sarcasm. Where did he get THAT??
Dad: "What about me, why didn't you ask me?"
A: "Because you are working"
Me: I'm now facing the cabinet with my hands up in the air looking at the ceiling.
Dad: "And what is Mom doing?"
A: "Well right now she is praying for Mercy"
Dad: "The year is 1952, Ladies don't bother your husband with your problems, because his problems are far worse......"
Me: At this point I tuned him out as he continued to repeat the email that circulates every few months about life in the 50's and how woman were to act.

So we all had a good chuckle, but it really does show me that the kids see very distinct roles here in the house. It's not that dear hubby wouldn't have taken care of the waffles or sippy cup, or bottom that needs wiping, or diaper change.... It's just that as a Mom who is here 24/7 and has always done everything, that is the role they see me do the most. I'm OK with it, but sometimes it's good to say "hey, go ask your dad!" I know for certain that if I weren't here this morning, you know if I was off getting my nails done, shopping and having a cup of coffee (WAKE UP MARGARET!!, you are daydreaming), the boys wouldn't have starved because they wouldn't have hesitated to ask daddy for anything.

Penguins in Virginia

Well here it is, my first post.... the thought has been brewing for awhile and yesterday morning when we awoke in a frozen state and swore that there had to be penguins in our bedroom, the morning "Park Antics" began. Apparently, mischievious Mary Kate pulled a chair up to the thermostat on Sunday and not only turned the heat off, but turned the AC onto 61 degrees. We were FROZEN!! I did as best as I could to warm the house up - fireplace on, baking Riley's breakfast in the oven. I called Ri over to the table and found him laying on the heat vent trying to warm up. Sweet Mary Kate had no problem keeping warm because she has a space heater in her room and nice fleecy footed PJ's!

Once we were all thawed out, I was talking to a friend on the phone and when I told her the story her first words (after the laughter) were "you need to write a blog". I have also recently started to dust off the RD books and remove the cobwebs from the nutrition side of my brain to help Barbara Curtis of http://www.mommylife.net/ with the diet group that she has started. Barbara Curtis also gently encouraged me to start my own blog (thanks Barbara). I have another dear friend that I talk with daily and have been providing lots of surviving-pregnancy and parenting-boys advice to for the last 4 years, until recently she always referred to me as "I have this friend with 5 kids and she says..." She's told me countless times that I should write a book (yeah, No!) So here goes.... Who knows what this blog will become. I hope the Park Antics will provide some laughter to you. You can count on not finding a perfect writer, there will be many grammatical errors. Most things will be lighthearted, but I can get deep too!



Enjoy!