why it takes 20 minutes to get out the house

Before kids getting ready in the morning and out of the house was peaceful and easy. You just had to get showered, ready and roll on out. Now it is anything but peaceful or easy. I am a relatively organized person. OK, fine I am not relatively organized-I am super anal and a rule giver. My kids (especially Devin) are type A and rule followers. Riley tends to dilly dally but she is just three and a free spirit. Devin is my mini me and super anal and very rigid when it comes to schedules and rules.

Yesterday the kids had 9:45 dentist appointments.

8:30 I hop in the shower and gave Devin and Riley construction paper and crayons to make our dentist (who is a very good family friend) birthday cards. Devin was on it like white on rice and Riley drew lots of balloons for him. I told Devin he needed to get dressed while I was in the shower and he said fine. I gave them both cereal bars to eat since we were out of time to have anything else. 

8:40 I got out of the shower atand yelled down to remind him to get dressed. He was re writing the birthday card because he forgot the "r" in Thurber. Riley was already dressed but had to come put lotion on (again) while I got ready.

8:45 and I am now dressed in my yoga pants and t and Devin is still down stairs now coloring a birhtday cake on the card. My hair is soaking wet so I throw a bobby pin in my bangs and put a hair tie on my wrist to braid it once I get in the car.

8:47 I now cut him off from the card writing and now order him to get dressed. He goes upstairs and cannot find his favorite t shirt. It's downstairs so he comes down completely naked to look for his shirt and now a specific pair of Batman Lego undies. Both were folded in the basket and his jeans were in the dryer trying to dry from this damp house.

8:51 now and Riley has taken off her sandals and is applying her third application of sparkly pink lip gloss. Devin has finally gotten dressed and cannot find his sneakers.

8:52 I find his sneakers and start to pack up the half eaten cereal bars, water and their tooth brushes since they will have stank morning cereal bar breath on the way. I pour my now luke warm coffee into a to go cup and cannot find the lid. I will be super careful I promise.

8:55 Riley where are you?  Riley-"I'm upstairs going poopies." I go up and find her completely naked in my bathroom pooping. She tells me it hurts her bum when big poopies goes out but feels better when she;s all done. I just nod and wipe. Then she insists she dresses herself again. From capris, to tunic, bracelet, head band and of course the sandals are lost that she took off 5 minutes ago.

8:57 We found her sandals in the kitchen on her chair. Super. Lets get going.  Devin where are you? Devin-I am coloring Dr Thurber's Brayson a picture of Batman since he likes super heroes and he can give it to him. Brayson is my friend but I do not see him a lot." OK Devin can you finish it in the car so we are not late?" Devin-"yeah sure but you have to not go over any bumps BC that makes me color sloppy and I have to start all over again." ~See super anal and type A. At least he is neat and on top of things.

9:00 Finally get the keys and the kids out the door. Where are my flip flops? Riley "in the toy room." I find one and slip it on trudging through the explosion that happened in the toy room. Cant fricking find the other one and realize I am dragging the dogs leash around with the one on my foot b.c Devin has attached the leash to the thong. UGH. I go upstairs, grab socks. Put the socks in my purse along with the half eaten cereal bars, tooth brushes, tooth paste and a water.

9:02 kids are playing in a muddy puddle in the driveway and I walk over to the open door and there are no carseats...then remember the carseats are sitting in the garage. UGH UGH UGH. Put my coffee down on the shelf, walk back to the car with my purse, birthday cards and sneakers in hand. Note to self-walking on fallen pollen that has been rained in bare feet on is super mushy and gross.

9:02.30 tell kids to stay out of the puddles because they will get dirty and wet

9:03 Riley is crying BC her white sandals now have dirty water all over them. Devin is still splashing in the puddles and I am about to loose it. I get Riley's carseat out of the garage and strap it in.

9:04 Riley has now taken off her sandals while sitting down on the wet ground and is in stitches b.c her pants are now wet. My hair is partly dry but frizzing like crazy. I yell at Devin to get out of the puddle and he says "I am not in the puddle mom, only my stick is bc I am making mud soup." He is right, but WTH-just leave the puddle alone. I tell Devin to sit in my car so I can take Riley inside.

9:05 I take Riley in and get her a new pair of capris and different sandals and we go back outside.

9:06 Devin hops out of the car and rips a leaf off the bush to put in the puddle. Will you  leave the puddle A.L.O.N.E. Riley is strapped in to her seat and I go to get Devin's from the garage.

9:07 Strap Devin's into my car and get him to get in the car. I walk around to my door, get in and close all the doors. Sigh and in reverse we go. Devin is handed his Leap Frog explorer and Riley has B. I tell them mommy needs a quiet ride. I am officially a South Jersey girl again since I have yet to put my shoes on.

9:08 we are en route and pull onto Atsion and I go to finally take a much needed sip of my coffee...and its not in the cup holder. Where is it you ask? Well duh that is simple-It is sitting in the garage on the shelf. BOO! Devin also reminds me that I am a forgetful mommy because I forgot his coloring book and crayons to finish Brayon's picture.

We got to the dentist just on time after I cleaned my feet in the car, but my sneaks on. Wipes the kids down and brushed their teeth. Both have a clean bill of health and love our dentist.

We stopped by Pottery Barn in Marlton for a quick return and this is now the 4th time I have been there since moving home and the third time I have had to deal with bitchy and rude sales associates. Only once was I helped by someone who was polite and helpful. I acutally left the store once and called Princeton asking to speak with a manager and she was very helpful and direct shipped (for free) items Marlton would not help me with. F- you Marlton and your wenches that work at your store. You no longer get my business. I was planning to shop yesterday after I returned the pillow that did not "go" with my bedding but nope, I did not want to help their daily sales after dealing wtih the associate.

Officially a Mudder!





Frankie and I have been looking forward to running a Tough Mudder for months now. We signed up back in December? and have been amping ourselves up for this. We got my sister Kelly, her boyfriend Dan and his brother Jonathan to join a team for the PA #2 run this past weekend. To those who do not know what a Tough Mudder is, visit here. Our race was over 12 miles with 27 obstacles. Frank and I were a little leery going in to it since neither one of us really had time to train. I ran once-eek and Frankie ran (maybe) 5 times over the course of 2 months. We had done some serious labor in the back yard over the last few weekends so we were hoping that would have helped us prepare for the course. It did, we were fine ;).



Mudderboatin SOBs



Starts out by driving over 2 hours up to the Poconos. Parking and hoping on the shuttle bus from the raceway and driving 20 minutes to the course. I was starting to get nervous at this point. The weather was perfect for a race and the vibe was very up beat when we got there. Registration was a breeze and bag check was very organized. I was thoroughly impressed with how smoothly the whole arrival process went.







 

We got ready to go and looking around for the start line you cannot see it...why you ask? well it is because you have to climb over an 8 ft wall to get there! Super fun from the beginning. I thank god that I am a small female because I put one foot on the cleat on the wall, Frank hoisted me up by my other leg and I grabbed onto the top and lifted myself up and over. I dangled from the top and dropped down on the other side (gracefully of course.) The MC at the start line was awesome. Got us all amped up with music in the back ground. He explained what the idea of a Tough Mudder was, had us recite a pledge about helping one another and being a team etc and off we went.

Fifty yards into the start we ran through muddy water-so long dry socks and sneakers. Next up was Kiss of Mud where you army crawl through muddy water under barbed wire. This was a little tough because the muddy ground was peppered with rocks and stones. Jogging through the woods over muddy rocky terrain was the majority of the course between obstacles. Very rarely did we have flat level ground. (I forget the exact order of the obstacles and I forgot to get a map when we were done. ) We then went over Berlin walls #1 which was a series of two 8-9 ft wooden walls. They were not hard for us and as a team we were up and over in a flash.



Berlin walls 1-9 ft tall



Next was a serious 4 ft walls to go over. I am guessing there were 12-15 of them. Dan, Jon and Frank had a super easy time with this all being over 6 ft tall, still not hard for Kelly and I. Next up was Artic Enema---awful! It was a VERY large dumpster with about 5 feet of water and ice. You had to jump in, swim/walk half way to a wall, swim under the water going under the wall and when you popped up on the other side you had to break through the few inches of ice cubes to get above water. Then push the ice out of the way just to get to the ladder.Once to the ladder you had to climb up and out then down the ramp. HOLY SHIT that was cold and it just took your breath away. Standing on the ground once out you are in complete shock and have to gain normal breathing again. I say this was the worst obstacle! It wasn't hard per say, it was just shocking and completely uncomfortable. No to mention we are now soaking wet with smelly freezing water. 



Once we were all through that we headed back into the woods for a muddy, rocky jog up and down the hills and the Death March was next. Straight up what is equivalent to a black diamond ski slope. Frank and Jon decided to be over ambitious and started to run up it, ha ha I caught up with them half way since I took it easy and was walking quickly up it. It was so steep that people was sliding back down it even being totally dry ground. We are about 3 or so miles in at this point and starting to get super thirsty and thankfully the water station was just about a half mile away.

Next was tunnels underground. Frank and Dan were both worried about this one. They both have a sense of claustrophobia. Not only are you in the dark in a tunnel under the ground, but you are crawling through stinky smelly mud the whole time. Gag! The tubes were about 25 feet long and once you turned the bend about 5 feet in you had a bit of day light at the end. Not bad :) Worst part for me was the stench. 

Heading back through the woods we went through at least a quarter mile of sludge and slippery mud. It seemed like it was never ending. Log Jammin was next which is a series of three huge log walls you had to alternate up and over. The ups you had to climb up and over and the unders you had to belly crawl under. There was barbed wire over top the unders forcing you to go under and not cheat. Great obstacle for the small females.



Fire walker was next. That was running through about 30 yards of hay soaked in gas. HOT and smokey and my contacts were glued to my eyes after that one. After this was a water/snack station. Sharkies chews were there with some fresh water. Very needed at that point.

Devils bead was next. This was a huge heavy cargo net that other Mudders had to hold up to get under. Great team work on this obstacle. The net was much heavier than I had expected it to be. Thank goodness for camaraderie at this point.

Hold your wood was next. This was about a 1/4 or so long of an up and down around a golf course holding a freshly cut round of hard wood. The wood is heavy and after a while is exhausting to hold up. Not impossible, but tiring none the less.

We then got to Spiders web which was a 12-15 foot high cargo net. The net was so loose that as you climbed up it you were actually bending backwards and trying to climb up at an angle. It was tough to do, but once you get your chest up, you can hoist yourself over with enough upper body strength. There were people holding the bottom, but it still was not tight enough. There were bananas and water stations at this point which was awesome.

We were of course dry at this point so why not add another water obstacle right? We came to Walk the Plank which is a platform you have to climb up and jump off of. Not only do they make you stand there at the top and wait (giving time to think about what you are doing) but you know that water is going to be frigid! It wasn't that bad. I do not have fear of heights and your stomach only drops a tad.

The area around this pond was covered in slippery mud making it very difficult to stay on your feet. One guy next to us almost ended up in the pond again, but thanks to his teammates-they grabbed on to him just in time. We ran back through the woods and around the golf course toward the start line which you have to pass. I think we were about 7 miles in at this point? Maybe 8? Next obstacle was crawling under a foot bridge which had barbed wire above you. We all steam rolled which by the time you get out you are so dizzy. Big mistake doing that!

Next was one of the best obstacles. It was called Everest. It was a greased quarter pipe that you had to sprint up to and leap with hopes that people dangling over the top would catch you and help you up and over. This was super dangerous and as we walked up a guy was walking away with a medic with his wrist turned at a 90* to the side-eww! Again another super team helping obstacle. I was able to run and jump with my arms extended like super man and two guys grabbed each of my hands. As I dangled a third told me to lift my left leg and as I did all three yanked me up and to the top. Frankie was tall enough that he could run, jump and grab the top rail while two guys helped lift him high enough to pull over. Hysterical to watch people do this. Some people had enough speed to run and jump high enough to do it alone. Most needed a few people helping.

A short distance ahead was the Electric eel. Super cool obstacle and sucky at the same time. You are crawling through about a foot of water with dangling hot wires. So if someone gets shocked by a wire-that shock carries through the charged water and shocks you in return. I did not get shocked by the hanging wires, but did by the water from someone else. Strange feeling...made my quad contract under water.

We then ran back into the woods and I want to say the second set of Berlin walls were next? It gets kinda fuzzy at this point what we did. The second set was 12 feet tall and much harder to get over than the first set. I still had it some what easy since I put my foot on the cleat, one guy had my right foot and pushed up as the other guy lifted my left foot off the cleat. I just had to grab the top and pull up and over. I love that Frankie, Jon and I got help from random people.

After that was the Boa Constrictor. This was another tube crawl but this time it consisted of two 20 ft long black tubes, one going down into water and one coming up from the water. The one going down was super easy and then you paddle through the 5 feet of water (under barbed wire so not to stand) and then up the next tube. The one going up was much harder and the water started halfway up the tube opening. You had to stay flat on your belly like a snake-hence the name boa constrictor.

We then ran a bit more and got to the Funky Monkey. This was a long track of monkey bars that were on an incline and then mid way declined in an A frame. The bars themselves were either greased or spun. I made it to the first one, reached for the second and it spun sending me into the dirty cold water below. Frankie made it all the way across and then the same thing happened to him with only 3 bars left!

We went to the Trenches next. This was 4-5 mud pits about 30 feet long each of anywhere between shin to mid thigh deep water. Under the water was rocks, mud and deeper holes to make you loose your footing. At the end of each trench was a small hill to climb up and over to get to the next trench. Great obstacle but again, smelly and gross.

I want to say the Rings were next? But I am not sure. This was 6 rings gladiator style that hung over water. You stand on the platform and made your way across the water. Frankie was successful at this one again and having his wing span was definitely a great advantage for him. He could reach the first and second rings to start off. I of course could only reach the first so I had to swing out off the platform to grab the second. I did that successfully and then as I reached for the third letting go of the first-down I went. BOO. I was wet again.

Twinkle toes may have been next. This was finally one I could do and do to completion. It was hard to balance on for two reasons. First the "beam" swayed and shook as you got a good part out and two some guy came on as I was about 1/3 of the way down. He fell off shaking the thing like no other. I was able to stand and get started back up and walk down more then another guy got on. I did make it to the other end successfully though.

 

Electric shock therapy was last. This was running through water with dangling charged wires. I made it through this with no shocks. Yay to that.  I know I skipped a few but I honestly cannot remember them all. It was about 12.25-12.5 miles long with 27 obstacles. Most of the run was through the woods over rocky terrain with mud and water all over the place. We went up and down the whole time with hardly any flat ground. Definitely no joke and a great challenge. Upon completion you were handed an orange head band, a shirt, protein bar, banana and a beer!

We had a blast and cannot wait to do it again.

Weekend of prep time, party time and recovery...



climber is so little next to this mother of a
swingset!



The weekend was a SUPER busy but very successful one. Frankie rebuilt the playhouse floor of the swing set we were given and re assembled it. It took him about 7 hours total to do it over the course of two days and now the kids have a super awesome swing set to play on. We will have to replace a few more pieces here and there and some of the swings-but it definitely has years of play  left in it! Funny to see how GIGANTIC it is next to their old climber. Thanks again Kennedy family!

Derby day was great. Perfect overcast day with cool temps so no one was super hot. This is the first year that we did not actually have bets on the horses and to be honest I did not even get to see the roster this year. I was too busy trying to get the yard/house/food ready that I never got the chance to check out the horses running this year. At least I can prepare better for Preakness in two weeks and lay some bets down.

I am so thankful to have such great friends, family and new neighbors here. Getting to spend the weekend outside surrounded by friends and family both days was just awesome. The kids had a ball playing with their cousins and friends all weekend as well. Both of my kids are very social and love to play with other people, and having my friends have kids around their age is just awesome! Between park play dates, scheduled ones and just meeting new friends out and about-they are happy campers. Summer should bring even more fun since we will get to the beach and pool with friends more often. One thing I definitely did not miss while away for 5 years is the pollen. GAG! Green and yellow everywhere-my sinuses and eyes hate me. Come on Zyrtec work already! Friends in Vegas-enjoy that beautiful spring weather----its been cloudy and rainy here in teh 60s!

Time to take Woody to his pre op appointment! Bladder stones to be removed next week. My poor little pooch.

The Charmed Life-

So I we are laying in bed this am and Miss Riley waltzing in around 6:11. I told her it was still dark out and to go back to bed. She said she wants to snuggle and who can say no to that? She climbed up into our new bed and was out cold in less than 30 seconds. Her little warm cozy body and sweet smell is just awesome. Devin then walked in a few minutes later and fell asleep on Franks side. My heart was full and we were all cozy and warm until 6:28 when I turned off the alarm clock, picked Devin up and carried him back to his bed. Riley stayed in bed with Frank while I ran out to the bagel store and got coffees. I told Frankie last night I would go and get bagels first thing in the morning for him since he always got day old bagels and never fresh same day. We are out of coffee so I picked up two coffees too.

Life was good. Picked up (still warm) bagels, freshly brewed coffees and was listening to Sirusly Sinatra on the way home. Pulled into the driveway and went to pick up my coffee while the lid popped off and splattered coffee all over my brand new beige upholstery, console and floor. OK fine, I can deal with that. Walked Frank's coffee inside, got the oxy and paper towels, placed my 24 oz coffee on the driveway and cleaned up the car. After that was all clean I closed the door and then preceded to kick my coffee over. AHH. My so smooth and relaxing morning was just shocked back into reality in a matter of moments. Sigh, no use of crying over spilled coffee. Having a warm bagel was awesome though. Thanks Medford Bagel for being open at 6:45 :)



w a baby chick yesterday











Devin just woke up now and Riley and I are watching Cars and playing Five Little Monkeys-Cant catch me Game when she gets bored of the movie. Its another gloomy day and I LOVE it. The rain is awesome and it sure does help get the pollen washed away. Lacrosse has been canceled the last two days since the fields are a disaster and I am assuming today's game will be as well. We shall see later.

My cousin Lyneal is coming by today with her son Ethan. Can't wait for the kids to play together. Time to run to Wawa for a NEW coffee and Murphy's for some things before they get here.

 

And remember that Tupperware the squirrels ate through? I had it on the ledge in the porch yesterday and they f-ing ate through the screen, through the other side of the Tupperware and got stuck in my porch. UGH, now I have a big hole in the screen!

Back in business!

It has been forever since I last posted. I have not had the lap top since a virus infected it a bit ago. Note to all those out there-be careful on public sites. I went to OC Marylands public page and got infected!



trying to break in!

f-ing squirrels!

Lots has gone on here. Fence is up-wire is on it so the dogs and kids (cannot) get out. Woody of course found a spot at the gate where he can slide under so I have a block of wood there now. We will fix it for good once we tear out that portion of our driveway and re-grade it and put in a paver walkway. The lady who owned our home prior to us had this gigantic driveway that actually extended into the back yard so we will be tearing that up shortly.



the shed will be moved to the clearing by the grill and rotated
90* to open to the backyard. asphalt inside fence is going to be
torn up too.





Back yard reno last weekend went really well. An old childhood friend of mine put our fence up and did a great job. Anyone who needs fence work or trees down go to Bryan Lure-I can give you his info if you need it. Frank and I worked on clearing small trees and underbrush while the guys installed the fence. We even took our turn at tearing up a portion of the old driveway to make room to move our large shed. This shit is no joke with getting a workout in. Raking and cleaning up are tiring-but tearing down trees, moving cords of wood and ripping up asphalt just put wear on your body. No wonder landscapers are in such great shape! We are not close to being done, but it is a major improvement from when we first moved in. I love to see the progress of the yard coming along. We have taken down about 10-15 small/medium trees and eliminated A LOT of mountain laurel which is everywhere! Frankie is digging his new chain saw that I got him for his birthday-I just need to get him a pair of overall and mask. Haha  One good thing about doing yard work is my biceps are back and the rest is getting stronger :)

Kids are definitely keeping me busy. Having the fence in is great-but that does not stop them from going through the garage to end up outside the fence. I need to put a chain lock on the garage door when we are home. Miss Riley is VERY guilty of going through the garage to play in the driveway. Her sweet little face is hard to get mad at, but I cannot get work done with her escaping through the garage door. Devin is loving all this moist dirt because that means WORMS! He loves playing with and looking for earth worms. I have even been able to find  little salamanders in the dirt for him to hold. Riley loves to hold them too, but for some reason is freaked out over ants and gnats? She screams and fake cries with gnats flying around her or an ant on her leg-but will hold a three inch long worm?

Our across the street neighbors gave us their old play set this weekend. Its one of the big Rainbow kind that has an extended arm on it from the playhouse. Frankie needs to rebuild the floor of the playhouse and supports around but overall its in great shape. He got the lumber the other night now just needs some free time to built it...Small detail...but Devin and Riley are pumped to be able to swing and slide in their own backyard. Once we replace a few more items it will be good as new and last a while in our yard. That was the one stinky part about living in Vegas-no room for a real playset! Horray for a real yard! and great neighbors!

Devin loves playing tball. I was warned that it is brutal to watch and it really is. Its cute that the little guys have fun doing it-but some of them are such dingbats and are not paying attention. Night games are way worse than morning games. Noone was into it last Friday night when he had his last game. It takes forever to get through an inning and it really is not baseball. There are very few kids that understand what to do with the ball if it comes to them and so on. It is sad to see that some of the older 6ish year olds on his team and the teams we play cannot throw far enough to get the ball where it needs to go, or hit well. It just means that their parents do not play with them in the yard and that is sad to me. Throwing and catching is one of the easiest things to do with your kid...get outside and do it parents! We have a game tonight, but since it is to rain all day I am guessing it will be canceled.