camping saves lives

sometimes playdate teaches you a thing or two.
usually it has something to do with how the maximum volume for a given household can increase six thousand-fold within seconds of playmate arrival or how best buddies can fight just as ruthlessly as siblings. but today it was actually something helpful. the boys constructed a "tent"in the living room.
tents are fun.
good times.
that is, until you must return blankets to their storage places dog hair and preschool-snot laden or launder the whole mess. but no matter.
tents are fun.
good times.
and also crazy good babysitters. because little A has been sitting silently alone in the tent for the last 25 minutes while the boys run rampant... noisily, possibly violently around the house.
tents are safe.
good times.

what's that? i can't hear you over all this noise.

if your babies are like mine, sometimes they are crabby and whiny.
please say yours do it too!
today, it was my itty one-  the usually happy one who all of a sudden won't ride in the car for more than 4.5 seconds without starting to cry and whine. and then she kicks it up a notch and screams and cries because she thinks her almost 2 year old opinion should be heard.
so i do like any other insane former performer would do and crank the music to near speaker-blowing levels and wail to my hearts content. i choose to believe that this is not comparable to sound torture or a menace to developing ears and is instead a healthy release for a disgruntled me.
and when i roll up bumping to a light and my windows are down and my vehicular neighbor double takes to see a wanna-be broadway diva jamming out instead of some young hooligan, all the better.
i can almost see my future teenage children eye rolling the hell out of me and it makes me smile. but first things first, because today when i picked up my 4 going on 14 year old angsty one and expected him to shout at the noise when the car started, instead he instantly began to belt out the song playing on the radio.

we are young-ung-ung. so let's set the world on fi-eya. we can burn bri-eta than the suuuu-uh-uh-uh-uh-uh-uuunnnnnn. tonigh-igh-igh-eee- ighty-igh-ight. we are young-ou-oung...
i must admit that i love this song. which means i can totally picture myself barefoot in an empty dance studio spinning wildly and calling it artistic license.
yep. my poor kids are screwed-
gonna be just like me!

just for your auditory pleasure, this acoustic version is fantastic!

you can find me chillaxin in literary heaven

oh i'm sorry- did you call me a dork? was it because i am totally engrossed in The Hunger Games series and will probably cause full-on neglect of the kids tonight (and possibly tomorrow if i actually choose to sleep tonight)?
well, you'd be right. holy katniss- it is soooo good.

i do this whenever i start a series and that is precisely why i put it off until now, when the movie trailor forced me. but i can't talk now, i might have a few minutes while my students are taking a test and i have a physical need to retrieve book 2 from my bag.
and my mockingjay pin.

there i was just channeling my inner 'bambi'

i don't know what got into me yesterday.
i think maybe just the lovely spring air, but anyway, i was like a little frolicking deer shaking off the winter fuzz.
IF little frolicking deer did round off- back handsprings like they were a 16 year old gymnast again... i was outside with the kiddos and just felt the urge to tumble. it had seriously been at least 7 years since i last purposely went head over tail.

maybe i was just trying to impress my husband (though it would have been better in my old cheerleading skirt).
pause- i am 31 years old.
before i did it, i thought about how sore i would be today but i did it anyway.

and you know what? it wasn't half bad.
and i wasn't sore this morning at all. though last night my right hip went into a lovely spasm a whole 2 hours post-flip and i got a little worried. then when sciatica began coursing down my rear i started to curse my springtime springiness, but thankfully it worked itself out.

and then today at about 10 am... i freaking fell down my stairs!
not even joking- THAT is what tumbling really looks like- and it was not pretty. there was nothing cute and doe-like about it.
and now i hurt like hell.
you know what got into me today?

Arnica.
and irony.

steppin out: little crabby lady edition

little miss A stepped out for a birthday party for a few of her peeps a couple weeks ago and i was on a random self-imposed blog hiatus. but i just have to share.
because she is adorable.
i think there is no rule that says i can't pretend like it happened today.
she wanted nothing to do with me taking her picture though.
cue hiding in the cabinet...

Cardi: Thrifted, Leggings and Shoes: Target Clearance

my other little person was the exact opposite and was just begging to be photographed. he is not wearing anything spectacular (unless you're four and think that random 90's cartoons of super mario brothers are the coolest thing evah) but i am a sucker for any child that actually pretends to be interested in me and smiling for the camera.

Shirt: Children's Place, Jeans: Walmart, Shoes: Vans

and me? nobody would take my picture but i guess i looked okay and i stepped out with them.

i don't turn down cake.

Linking up with Harper's Happenings today. Check them out!

who needs leprechauns when you have your own cute little shorties

On Valentine's Day I swore that I would stop putting so much energy into my holidays for awhile... the kids are probably too young to enjoy it and I am fairly sure my husband would survive if a day passed without decorations, themed desserts and craftiness.
aaaand here i sit on St. Patrick's day covered in icing and glue bits. In other words, I lied to myself :)

Not completely though- I have toned it down considerably. I didn't put up any decorations until this morning when N and I slapped a little banner together in 10 minutes. Since his little hands cut and glued and stickered, it was perfect.

and we made cupcakes and other green food and corned beef and cabbage. we slapped on our green and pinched and pinched and pinched but that is all. It was low-key but it felt nice.

Let's be honest, who can live up to a pinterest holiday these days anyway??
Happy St. Patty's Day!

put on your blue suede shoes... or not since we're not in memphis

Sometimes you just have to bust outta town for a bit. That is exactly what we did last weekend- we headed to Nashville so that I could start my country recording debut, or so that we could see some good friends that we have ignored for far too long. They have a sweet little girlie who I had to squeeze and good ole Tennessee is the halfway point for us so we packed up the family and hit the road.

For only having two days, we fit quite a bit in and even though we 'may' have pushed our poor children to the very limits of tired-and-crabbydom, they were troopers. And it is a good thing that we were on a three days before payday style budget or I might have walked stomped away with three pair of cowboy boots, and a giant belt buckle with no place to wear them because StL is the home of the wannabe cowboy and I am always good at jumping on a bandwagon.

The only disappointment was a lack of a ladies night out, which I must confess that I was aching for as we walked down Broadway at 4 PM and live music was drifting from every venue. But we just couldn't because we were afraid that Coyote Ugly would make us take a job there or something and we'd have to ditch our families and become songwriters and cut off guys ponytails and not stop the moonlight (guess I can't deny having watched that movie). But next time. Next time we will live it up complete with boots and maybe even a snap up cowboy shirt and it will be grand. I'll keep you posted.

sometimes i miss the old me and sometimes i don't, but i always appreciate the memory

once upon a time i danced.
i sang.
i pretended at a scripted life.
i wore black and jazz shoes and used words like downstage, proscenium and intermission.
i fed off of applause and bottled water.
warm muscles and natural vibrato.
i collected time signatures and Charlestons and fell in love with a co-star.

once upon a time, my floor was piled with scores and marked-up sheet music and there was choreography tumbling through my head.
there were rehearsals and herbal teas and hours of stretching.
sequins, mirrors and set pieces.
bowler hats, lipstick and a piercing spotlight.

once upon a time i wept to know that i couldn't be a character forever.
i smiled at the memory of a curtain, a cast list, an encore.

and then my real life started and though it wasn't a fairytale, and nobody danced in sync, the plot was more exciting than i ever could have imagined.
and i even kept my leading man.

Ten On Ten [3.10.12]

So it's true- this post is late... again. But this time, it's because we were out of town doing cool things and I couldn't let the interwebz know that we weren't at home and invite trouble to befall our poor little doggie who was staying home alone for the first time ever!

This weekend we met some of our best friends in Nashville and it was a great time- these ten on ten pictures are clearly from our drive there, an afternoon at The Hermitage (maybe that's not clear) and a quick distraction post check-in at the hotel- thank goodness for Winnie the Pooh and a laptop. I wish all my weekends were this sunshiny- I really needed it.

Linking up with A Bit Of Sunshine again today for the monthly Ten On Ten project.

Always a lovely time

it's true, there is no real point to this story

i am in a blog rut again. if you count not blogging at all as a rut instead of a failure, which i do because i am trying to be positive.
this week my positivity has gone about as far as being positive that i couldn't be positive.

i think mentally i kept telling myself that it would be okay to be all broody and crabby until tomorrow because that marks the start of my spring break (woooooo hoooooo).
a thirty-something woman's version of woo hoo is remarkably different by the way than the woo hoo's of spring breaks past when i was tan in march and willing to wear a two piece swimsuit but the spirit is still in there somewhere, buried behind my random want for a cupcake and a nap.

but i digress.
i keep having all these things i want to talk about and then i just don't. mostly because my children have been hell bent on the destruction of my sanity and my house. you should see this place... it is like a tsunami of fun wiped out my decor. but that is okay i guess, because if N is not unleashing the power of our too many toyboxes, he is all in my face asking me if i love him 723 times per day (without exagerration). i can only assume that i am the world's worst mom if my child is that concerned with me LOVING him. of course i love you buddy!!!!!!!!! times a zillion, times a zillion and one times per day. that is a lot of loving.

and it's only gonna get better because i am on a mission to be super happy, fun, mom right after i finish being can't-stop-grading-papers mom in about 20 minutes. because that's when my student's exams are due in my email inbox and my spring break officially begins.

woooooooooooo hooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! bring me my bikini! and a large large towel to cover up with ;)

MMmmmMMMmmmMMM crunchy

Appo