Big Burrito

Good morning. This is my dear husband eating a La Bamba burrito. Their slogan is "Burritos as Big as your Head". It should be more like "Evacuate the Area after Your Husband Eats one of These."

We spent the weekend in Peoria, Illinois for a soccer tournament. We *almost* spent the weekend explaining to the Peoria police department why a parent from the other team had a soccer ball wedged into his underwear. In all my soccer mom years, I'd never seen a guy with the cajones this guy was toting. Not only did he come over to OUR side of the field where our parents were standing and taunted us ("if you didn't want to play a contact sport, go play tennis!") he also interrupted our coach's pep talk after the game (we LOST) and started making rude comments to him, in FRONT of his team. I was completely aghast, but didn't have enough time because all of a sudden my sweet, quiet husband got into his face and told him he needed to leave the premises stat. He was such a creep. I don't mean like, jerk parent going over the line creep, I mean he was driving a dirty old van and probably had frozen heads in his freezer kind of creep.

Then we had to play them the next day for the championship!

But soccer Karma was in our favor and after two overtimes and penalty kicks (one which my daughter scored!) we won the championship.

Then the little toad has the audacity to call us white trash, once again, in front of our kids, after not saying one thing to him! And THEN, and then...once we'd all left, one of the parents was getting into their car (from our team) and the weasel came over and APOLOGIZED for his behavior and told them to tell our team what a great job we'd done. WTF???!?!?!?!

All I can say is, I certainly hope that guy has signed up for some tennis lessons.

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This week is a pretty slow week for us. Next week I am going with Al on her school overnight field trip to a southern Il camp. It should be fun, I love the outdoors and am not afraid of bugs, so that puts me in favor of having a good time. Hoss I will try to take some pictures of birds if I find some worth picturin'.

I may need to someone to make sure LP doesn't eat any more of those burritos though!

On Overprotective Parenting

There have been numerous posts lately about overprotective parents (here and here for examples) Both authors are fantastic parents, either to wonderful children or pampered felines. At any rate, I have always had a strong opinion about overprotection, due to the fact my parents were the definition of it. Catholic guilt runs deep in my veins, and since I was a girl, my brother got away with a helluva lot more than I ever did. My parents would have probably hired a taste tester if they could have afforded it, in the rare case someone wanted to poison us.

In defense of my parents however, they were nowhere near my aunt, who forced her children to wear life jackets while traveling on the bridges over the Mississippi. You cannot get to St. Louis from my town without going over such a bridge, and when my cousin went with us one time to St. Louis and did NOT HAVE HER LIFE JACKET chaos ensued and I thought she might just jump out of our car. Never mind that the river is hundreds of feet and she would surely die of impact, with or without said jacket.

Annnnnnyway.

I try to be a fair moderation of both protective and lax. I chop up the grapes before I serve them, I never let my kids out of my sight at certain venues, and we are always with protective helmets and what not. But I also let them get dirty and run in the rain, and ride roller coasters and go in the deep end at the pool.

Now then.

Here's the thing, and my point about overprotective parents. The one thing they forget, the one thing they never worried or dreamt could ever happen, will. For example, my brother-in-law. Here's a kid, you know, has to call home when he goes out the door, knows how to swim, wears his seat belt, etc. He got hit by a VAN crossing the street. Now, that never would have crossed anyone's mind as something to even have to worry about right?

Yesterday, I was giving Mo a bath. Our water heater is completely on the fritz, and sometimes the hot water does not work. I turned the faucet on to rinse her hair, and the first bucket I poured was cool water. Thinking it was still cold, I poured ANOTHER bucket full onto her head.

It wasn't cold. It was SCALDING. I scalded my own little girl.

Before I could stop, I had dumped the whole bucket onto her head. She screamed a scream I would never forget. I immediately went to the sink and put her head under cold water for a bit. Frantic, i drove to the doctor's office and they saw her immediately. Mo got first degree burns, but fortunately there was no scarring or blistering. I was sobbing in the doctor's office, and she kept reassuring me that it was an accident, but I felt awful. How could I hurt my own baby like that!

Needless to say, Mo got several pieces of chocolate yesterday and rarely did her feet touch the ground, instead, being on my lap or in my arms the whole day.

So from now on I will most definitely have a keener sense for the water temperature, but I can assure you she will still not have to wear a life jacket in the bathtub, or across any bridges.

Still shaking

Again I woke up getting shook, and there apparently have been numerous aftershocks in the area. It's pretty crazy, but interesting.

My parents took my minivan today to pick up a bookshelf they purchased, so I will be the cool soccer mom driving around in a green Oldsmobile.

Yesterday Mo figured out how to unlock the screen door and ran outside to freedom. She was already frolicking on the swing set by the time I realized it was just a little bit too quiet.

Finally, there are a few songs on my playlist I thought I would share. If you do not know of these songs, please go hunt them down on iTunes or elsewhere and listen. They are truly great songs.

1. "Everlong" acoustic version, Skin and Bones by the Foo Fighters
2. "Love's Divine" Seal
3. "I want Love" Elton John
4. "Mad man Across the Water" Elton John
5. "Melissa" Allman Brothers

Whole Lot of Shaking Going on!

When I was in Girl Scouts around 11 years old, I went on an overnight with my troop. During the middle of the night, the entire lodge we were staying in began to shake! Several of us woke up, and one of the girls (and I will clearly insert here NOT ME) yelled, "It's an Earthquake!"

The Girl Scout Troop leader, who thought of me as the Evil Little Girl, yelled, "Jana! Stop scaring all the other girls and go back to bed."

Seriously. I was the bad apple. All was blamed on me. I spent the rest of the weekend making lanyards in the dirty bathroom separated from the other girls. And I didn't even do it! (Read this in the mind set of an 11-year-old, and you will be like, "Nuh-uh! That is like, SO unfair, ohmygosh.")

The next morning, the radio was buzzing about the small 'earthquake' we had the night before. Girl Scout Lady said nothing, and I had to make breakfast for the whole troop. WTF?

In 1990, there was some guy claiming conditions would be right for an earthquake in this area precisely on December 3rd of that year. I was in high school, and they actually considered cancelling school for the day. My mother was so freaked out, she insisted we take a drive to Canada that week to avoid all possible earthquake activity. Nothing happened. I may have gotten a B on a math test that day, but in the grand scheme of things, that wasn't that far from normal.

Last night, I was sleeping on the couch, NOT due to domestic discord but my insomnia was once again rearing its very ugly head and I went to the couch for some much needed relief from my husband's snoring. Snoring + insomnia = insanity. Around 4:30 a.m., the entire room starts shaking!! At first i thought it was a VERY large truck, but then I soon realized it was an earthquake. LP came running in, "Jana! It's an earthquake!" Mr. Obvious we call him. Mo woke up crying, and I woke up Rug and we all went to the kitchen, not really knowing what to do. Yes, the kitchen, with all the knives and what not. We're smart ones here in the Midwest. Notice now that we completely forgot about the oldest child, I guess we thought she could fend for herself. They have earthquake preparedness class in school, right?

Well we all went back to sleep and this morning it was all the buzz. 5.4 earthquake, and i am alive to tell about it. My knick-knacks the only true victims of the house.

TMI (too much information!)

Thought I'd play since I've been a bad blogger lately. This comes from Shelli.

1. Did you have to pay or did you get money back?
3 kids = we go paid. Going straight into the savings, sorry Uncle Sam. We want a new house. I still have to share a bathroom with my kids, and that is just wrong.

2. What was your biggest financial mistake?

The Dodge Durango!!! Oh my god. What a mistake. LP HAD to have it. And at the time was (gulp) $1.80 a gallon and I thought, my god, that is SOOOOO expensive!! And the Durango got 15 miles to the gallon. So we traded in for a Honda CR-V which I hated for 3 years, and got my beloved Dodge Minivan. Oh-- and having a kid at 23 years of age. That really does not help you financially get ahead. Trust me.

3. Are you a screamer?

On a roller coaster I am. :)

4.(part 1) What part of your body, other than your genitals, do you love to have touched?

My hair

(part 2) What part of a partner's body, other than their genitals, do you love to touch?

Hmm. I don't know. I like holding hands or their back. Certainly not FEET.

5. What commercial catch phrase best describes your life?

Calgon, take me away.....

Takes a licking but keeps on ticking.



Bonus (as in optional): What was the last thing you took without permission? What was the last thing taken from you without your permission?

I took one my daughters' Cadbury eggs from her Easter basket.

WIthout my permission? I'd say I've been quite screwed in the grocery aisle lately. How can a gallon of milk cost almost $5??

My sanity has certainly been taken from me when it comes to where this country is, and that was definitely without my permission. I hope we all can make an educated decision in November.

Nothing to Say.

1. Mo has a new word "Da!" which of course means, "Dance"! and she says it every time iTunes pops up on the computer screen.

2. Stomach flu has invaded our house hold the second time in a month. WTF? I've had enough puke in my life in the last few years. Make it stop.

3. The weather has finally gotten into the 70s. I can crawl out of my shell now.

4. I figured out how to use the Macro on my camera. I know! I'm an idiot! But it is SO cool.

5. We are officially credit-card debt free. Ahhhhhhhhhhh. Now we just have to pay off my van and we can buy that dream home on the hill with the picket fence.

6. The 'talent' show is tomorrow and when I say 'talent' I mean my kids have made up some goofy dances and are getting up in front of the school to do them. Hey, what can I say, they learned it from me. I did "PYT" in 5th grade, so more power to them.

7. I'm officially now back into my size (<) jeans! Woot! And am now at a 11:20 mile. My daughter just did a 7:40 minute mile yesterday. Makes me humble I guess.

8. My parents got back from Arkansas and brought me back a sweatshirt from Sam Walton's (founder of the illustrious Wal-Mart) hometown. I'm so proud.

9. I had this dream that I was this totally hot chick in a bikini last night. Dare to dream.

10. Last weekend I went out with a bunch of girls I did not know, the only one I knew being the 'birthday' girl. She got a limo and all the cute young girls were out the windows screaming at cute boys outside, "Woo hoo!" "Hey you're hot!" "What's your name?" I got to the window and shouted, "Do you have a 401K? What's your pension look like? Is your mother in the same state?"

11. Al had her first 'dance' last week and she said it was the most boring thing ever. Sure it was. I spent the entire time of her first non-chaperoned no adults I know there event chewing my nails and waiting for her to return. We cuddled on the bed and watched Return of the Jedi when she got home. That's my girl!!!

12. I meant to only go to five.