Perfecting Imperfection

I’m exhausted.  We have been so busy it is unreal.  On top of all of that, I’ve been trying to keep up with the Flylady stuff AND stay on track with my E-mealz…both of which are going very well (we had Creamy Roast Beef Pitas today – they weren’t bad at all…)  A lot of the E-mealz recipes are ones I can see myself adding things to so that they are more to our liking.  There have been a few of the meals that we have liked, but didn’t love just because it was missing something . . . so next time I make it I will add the missing ingredient.  The Flylady thing isn’t going as well as I would like…but I’m keeping afloat.  I haven’t been able to dive into my Zone cleaning quite yet, but I’m closer than I was when I started.  My goal is to get there the second week in June – that’s a full week after a full week of no work for me…that should help because Tuesdays throw me all off.  Jerry is home all day with the kids on Tuesday and he doesn’t Fly.  Not that I expect him to and not that it’s really a mess or anything when I get home, but my sink isn’t as clean as I would like it and for some reason the kids just aren’t as happy.  It’s because he’s NOT the Mama…which isn’t a bad thing, but I always feel like I’m paying for being away all day, even if it was for work and not fun.  Okay – so, my exhaustion is causing me to ramble…on with it already.

I started doing a Sunday Wrap-Up a while back and then just forgot about it…kind of like how I forgot to keep up with other Memes that I had been doing.  Anyway – this is going to be kind of Sunday Wrap-upish. 

Here’s a pic of my kiddos with my parents…it’s the last pic I have of the kids before the battery died in my camera (which is why you won’t see any other pictures from our fun filled weekend) 

Friday night ~ I had Mommy Group and the big kids stayed at my parents’ house.  I had a great time at Mommy Group . . . the ride down was a lot of fun, too. 

Saturday ~ The kiddos came home early afternoon.  That gave me time to get the newsletter for school done in the morning.  The twins were really well behaved and I even got a few loads of laundry done, too!

Saturday evening ~ Jerry went shopping all over the place for birthday gifts and groceries.  When he came home we ate and put the kids to bed…then we watched Funny People.  I have mixed feelings about it.  It wasn’t a bad movie and it wasn’t an awesome movie.  It was just an okay movie.  I guess I probably wouldn’t recommend that you watch it because if you hate it I don’t want you to blame me for wasting hours of your life…but if you do watch it, I’d be interested in hearing what you thought about it. 

Sunday ~ by far our busiest day of the weekend.  We started out at a part for our friend’s son, Ethan.  He was turning 3 and had his party at Giggles and Smiles.  Fun was had by all – especially me because those are some FAST slides.  I took my niece, Angelina, up with me and helped her go down them.  She gets nervous with heights and any kind of floor with holes in it.  So I basically threw her over the parts that made her nervous.  I was the only adult going down the slides, though – good thing or bad thing?  I think it’s one of the things that makes me love my job so much – I’m a big kid and enjoy playing more than most kids do.  :)

After that party, we had another birthday party to go to…this one was for Jerry’s grandmother.  She turned 94.  It was a great party – two disappointments, though.  1) The weather stunk and 2) the Penguins lost. 

Well – apparently, I’m not going to get to finish this post beyond this…and I’m not loving it anyway – so, I’ll just end it with a promise to write a better, more complete post in the future….hopefully after a good night’s sleep. 

So today we went to Chuck E. Cheese for my husband's cousin's son's 5th birthday party. The kids had a blast! Seriously, it was so much fun - but exhausting...and crowded. I joked with my SIL that if we ever have a CEC birthday party it is going to be at like 5pm on a Tuesday afternoon so no one else is there.

The thing that kills me is that it was a BEAUTIFUL day outside. If we weren't already signed up for this party we would have been playing outside for sure...so what on earth were all of these people doing there that weren't at some party? Take your kids outside! Let them run around and play in the fresh air! It doesn't cost anything - is a lot less crowded and noisy...and will tire them out 1000 times faster. Oh, and you can take a blanket, chair or what have you and plop your butt somewhere and watch...that is if you don't feel like chasing them around or playing with them.

This was NOT the case at CEC. There wasn't an empty seat to be had in the whole freakin' place. Not that my kids would have let me sit for an extended period of time. There was the 3 minutes that Nate was playing air hockey with Porter that I was able to plop my butt down at some table where people had left all their stuff...I figured if they came back they'd understand...and if not I would be standing up in the next 2 minutes anyway.

So - here's some pictures. They really did have a great time and it was well worth it. I just wish there were about 100 less people there. :)

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So, we tried to fly kites on Sunday. It was chilly and the sun kept peeking in and out from behind the clouds. It was an okay day to be outside with a jacket on. We thought for sure that it would be a good day to fly a kite - but alas, we had no wind! Much to the dismay of my 3 year-old son, we couldn't get the kites up in the air.

Yesterday was the exact opposite. It was sunny and warm. Almost short weather - DH did have shorts on, but the rest of us stuck to long pants and short sleeves. The kite flew, though...and my son was thrilled. :)

Here are some pics - which will be the last ones I ever take with my Samsung camera because as I was putting the kids in the car yesterday I sat on the camera (which, yes, I had in my back pocket because the maternity pants I have don't have front pockets) and cracked the screen. I cried and DH went and bought me a new camera and then told me I was spoiled. Which is true. My new camera came from Radio Shack...it doesn't have the bells and whistles that my Samsung did - but I found that I didn't really use those bells and whistles anyway. :)

Okay...gotta get to work. :( I really want to sleep...maybe a nap this afternoon!

Is that a cool kite or what!?



Nate and Daddy flying kite.





Nate finally doing it himself!

I love the museum. My husband and I have fond memories of strolling through the museum looking at all of the beautiful, amazing and awe-inspiring objects - whether it be art or some giant prehistoric creature or a stuffed bear, giraffe or monkey of some sort. For some odd reason the museum actually is (or I should say was) a sort of aphrodisiac for my husband. We loved the museum...so yesterday, we decided our children would love the museum as much as we do and we should take them! Umm...I should mention we decided to take our 3 and 2-year-old to the Art and Natural History Museum - not the Children's museum or the Science Center where there are interactive things for them to do - buttons for them to push, things for them to crawl on. NO - we took them to the "Please do not touch" museum. Hmm...yeah - that was a great idea.