Am I feeling relief, or am I in shock?

Soooo.....

There are no children in my house. That's right, my friends, for the first time in 10 years, all of my kids are walking, talking and in school all day on a matching schedule. No running to drop them off after lunch, no interrupting naps to pick someone up, no babies in my house at all. Period. Yes, I think it might be shock I am feeling.

They were all so adorable in their back to school outfits and new backpacks. I'd post a picture, but I still don't know how. I have begged my computer savvy, extremely loving and indulgent husband to figure it out for me, and then show me how, so maybe soon some visual aids will join my words. But until then, picture three mini me's, only way, super cuter, with great big packs on their backs and 3 boxes of Kleenex clutched in their hands heading into school. This is, unbelievably, Dillon's last year in elementary school in this district. It does seem like only yesterday, as we moms are wont to say, that I was taking HIM to his first day of kindergarten. Time surely does fly.

We had chocolate chip panckakes for breakfast. Talia's hair was braided and pulled back into pig tails. Dillon's feet are almost the same size as mine. The boy's shirts matched, but they had different shorts. Ta looked too much like a teenager for my heart to handle. My house is so quiet. Yep.....I am pretty sure it is shock.

Nope, they aren't the mail man's

Soooo....here is some irrefutable proof that the kids DEFINITELY belong to John.

Down the road we go, on our way to the YMCA for summer youth fitness, inconveniently scheduled from 6-7 in the evening, and from the back pipes up a little voice. "Mommy," my adorable girl child says, "do you know Queen Amidala? You know, from Star Wars?" Ummhmmm, I respond. "Did you know she was only 14 when she became queen? Just 14! Can you believe that?" Oh, I am not believing something alright, but it is NOT the queen's tender years. "And," adds my information source, "all her girls that served her, they were her age, and they weighed the same as she did, and they looked like her and were the same height." Wow, I respond. And thus begins a very rousing conversation in the back about where, precisely, the places can actually be found, and how they developed their weapons and machinery. You will be happy to know that it was established that Star Wars, its people and various locations are located in our imaginations. And this frighteningly informative pint sized sci fi fan is certifiable proof that these children are indeed the spawn of John Rowland.

10 Things I love About Blu

In honor of the return of Betsy Blu, carefully restored to her former glory, and seemingly no worse for the wear, I dedicate this post to her. For approximately two weeks, we tootled around in Loaner....that would be our rental, a grey Toyota Corolla which I did NOT love. Now that we have her back, we realized how important she is to us, so we welcome her home with this ode to Betsy in the form of 10 things we love about Blu!

10. She is such a pretty shade of Blu.

9. She has a clock. I know, it doesn't seem like an ammenity, but after a few weeks without one in Loaner, it is definitely something we came to appreciate.

8. Storage, storage, storage and more storage! Whomever invented Stow-and-Go should win the Nobel Prize. I nominate them.

7. The ability to place the kids out of reasonable reach of one another. The back seat of a midsize vehicle is just not big enough for three kids, trust me. Sound familiar to any other parents out there? "Stop touching me! Stop touching me! STOP touching me! STOP touching ME! STOP TOUCHING ME!" "AHHHH! Mom! He/she hit me!" Sigh...

6. The interior of the van allows space for sound dispersement. The back seat of the Corolla is just too darn close to the front seat, and too darn small for all that noise. I am fairly certain John and I had tiny aneurysms every time we went somewhere in the car, which also explains why we are now even more forgetful, so please don't mention it.

5. Comfortably positioned arm rests. Perfectly placed for premium arm propage.

4. Ideal steering wheel design. Who knew there even was one, right? But there is! And Betsy's is designed ideally for comfort in both one, and two-handed driving.

3. Power locks. Man did we miss them, and along with those....

2. Remote power locks and sliding doors. As a mom of more than one, these are such a must! I knew when we added Betsy to the family that this was going to spoil me, and man, oh man, was I right!

1. Finally, Betsy is a well-worn, well-loved member of our family. I know we are a bunch of funny bunnies for considering our vehicles a part of the fam, but we are okay with that. She always takes good care of us and gets us where we need to go sanely and comfortably. We sure did miss you, Betsy, and welcome home!

Rockin' the....pizza foot?

A couple anecdotes from the Rowland household for your enjoyment

Anecdote 1:

Last night for dinner was bow tie pasta with spicy alfredo sauce, topped with seasoned chicken. MMMMmmmmMMMMmmm good. Everything was ready and the kids were around the table helping me out by gathering plates, cups and what-not, and what comes on the radio?? Oh, trust me, you want to know! I mean, I don't know, or care, what your preferred genre is, this song is good stuff. How can you go wrong with a title like Rockin' the Beer Gut? Not possible! This song is a must sing along, as you can imagine, and if you can't something MUST be wrong with your imagination, and you might wanna have that looked into. As my children and I have excellent imaginations, we went to town. I squealed in girlish delight (...) and ran to the living room to blast the volume, and hustled back to the table so the party could begin. Picture it: the four of us dancing like loons, lip syncing our hearts out, while Dillon and Caleb accompany us on their guitars, comprised of a broom and a long wooden stick. When the chorus got to the line about it just being a little extra love around the waist, I actually picked Caleb up and wrapped him around my middle. Sigh....good times. For the uninformed, here are the lyrics so you can get the full picture! http://www.cowboylyrics.com/lyrics/trailer-choir/rockin-the-beer-gut-27372.html
Sometimes I wonder, am I warping them, or creating priceless memories? Then I laugh it off and get back to the real world!

Anecdote 2:

Yet again, it's dinner time. This evening, per petite request, is the classic Homemade English Muffin Pizza. Kids dig the zanniest things. When Ta came into the kitchen, she exclaimed out loud in her excitment, and I got the elusive "Oh, thank you Mommy!" with no prompting what-so-ever. So out comes the first sheet of pizza muffins, and I am getting the kids plates all together as I discuss with John his progress on heating up some leftover porkchops for me, which had been prearranged. Needless to say....John was emailing as he laid out on the couch, i.e. NOT holding up his end of the bargain. Therefore, it was my indisputable wifely duty to harrass him for his slacking. To which it was his husbandly duty to tackle me and slam me (in the most loving and non abusive way) up against the door. To which it was the kids childrenly duty to jump on his back and come to my defense. While this was all terribly enjoyable and laughter filled the room, the best is yet to come! Because the monkey on John's back led to him losing his balance and staggering backwards. Doesn't that sound inocuous? Well, unbeknownest to all of us revelers, Caleb had brought in his freshly served up muffin pizza and put the plate on the floor, in preparation for our family movie night, and said muffin pizzas had the misfortune of being in the path of John's enormous, hairy, MAN FOOT! As our poor littlest guy looked sadly upon his plate and uttered this miserable line..."My pizzas!"....John begins hopping on one foot, uttering a strangled "Ahhhhhhh! It's hot!" And me, being the loving wife that I am, collapsed on the floor laughing, and responded with..."Well, yeah, it's fresh out of the oven!" Ahhhh, good times!
I have a picture of the foot pizza, and once I figure out how, I will add it in here. Heh

I hope you have enjoyed this peek into our world, we sure enjoy being here!

Is it the universe, or is it the van?

So, when someone else's insurance adjuster suggests that you vehicle is bad luck, what's that say about the state of things? A few years ago, after adding Caleb to our brood, we correctly surmised that Dodge did NOT invent the Neon for a family of 5. This called for an upgrade. Thus, Betsy Blu entered our family (yes, we name our vehicles, among various other innanimate objects. Don't judge!) Boy were we in heaven. I mean, seriously people! We could do Wal-Mart AND Sam's Club in one trip, and still go shopping as a family. Well, approximately 4 months later, in what I hear was a lovely rainstorm, a very nice man lost control of his vehicle and came to a forceful stop- in the side of our beautiful Betsy Blu. We should have seen the writing in the sky then, but how were we to know that was just the beginning? In the four-ish years Betsy has been in our family, she has had, as of 1:08 PM, June 9th, been involved in 4, count 'em- FOUR, collisions. Here's a count for your edification: Our fault- 0. Repair required- 3. Children involved- yes. Rain involved (aka hydroplane. Come on folks! Let's slow down and drive with care!)- 2. Hit and Run- 1. So when Mr. Aaron Aust from Progressive chuckles over our ordeals and suggests that mayhap our minivan isn't the treat we thought her to be, can you blame me for wondering if there might just be a smidge of truth involved? Well, praise the Lord and pass the pudding because noone was injured but the van for the fourth time. And wise or no- I LOVE YOU BETSY BLU!

Oh, no, here I go...

OK, I held out on myspace for years. Then I piddled around on it and hated it to Hades. Then it was facebook, and I was resolute about not being drawn in. Look how well I can stick to my guns! No facebook here, no sirree! Then Kesha had this adorable blog...which I bookmark.... which led to link clinking.... which led to thinking. I know, dangerous right? So here I am, link clicking away, reading all these great stories about other families and the delightful little things so and so's cutie pie did today, and I realized something. OMG! MY cutie pies do things worth remembering, and my memory gets more faulty every year! All these beautiful memories would be lost in the miasma of my mind. That would truly be a tragedy. Well, to me any way. So there begins the thought- I could blog. I mean, it's like talking, right? And boy can I talk! And who cares if only I ever read it and laugh at my cutie pies funny doings? I'll be able to hold on to those moments for as long as I can back up my harddrive! Amazing. So, it looks like I have fallen into the blog trap. Let's see how well I manage!