The Great Room Swap

Since musical beds is a favorite past time at our house each night, we have decided to change around the room arrangements. 

Problem: Conor never sleeps in his room with Tom and instead sleeps on the floor of Joey and Logan's room each night.  He and Joey want to share a room so badly that they both sleep on the floor together (leaving Joey's bed completely empty and leaving a pile of sleeping bags on the floor).  This has been going on for months... maybe a full year now!

Problem: Since Conor spends every night on the floor of Joey and Logan's room he doesn't really take any ownership of his and Tommy's room.  Instead he just passes through each day to get his clothes and leaves a mess of dirty clothes in his wake.  This seriously annoys Tommy.

Problem: Emmie and Logan take the longest to put to bed each night.  Since they are in separate rooms that requires Jeff and I to divide and conquer.  This means that we are both dealing with bedtime stall tactics instead of doing whatever else needs to be done for the night.

Here is the proposed solution:
Logan moves into Emmie's room with her.  Conor moves into Joey's room.  Tom gets his own room. 

In theory, this will solve the problems we are having. 
In theory, bedtime will be easier. 
In theory, the rooms will be cleaner. 
I have a lot of theories...

Of course this isn't just a matter of moving rooms.  Emmie's room is sufficeintly girly and Logan has no interest in leaving his pirate room for the land of flowers and butterflies.  So, that room will need to be changed into a gender neutral theme that excites them both. 

We are also changing Tommy's room to a Navy theme since it is his dream to attend the Naval Academy. Plus I figure we just embrade it since he is already doing that whole pre-teen staple posters to the walls thing anyway.

Last but not least, we need to move the trundle bed from the loft into Emmie's room for Logan.  Emmie recently got Conor's twin bed (since he didn't use it anyway) so now we are down a bed overall.  No idea what we are doing with the loft yet. 

Stay tuned for before and after pics.  The plan is for this transistion to take place over Spring Break.  We shall see if my theories are correct... fingers crossed!    

Pics from the Week 3/4/12

So I have seen this done on other blogs, and I figured I would give it a shot.  Here is my past week in iPhone photos.

Joey on a Big Kahuna trip with Cheri.

Logan & Emmie on the way home from school.

Girl Scout Cookies + Wine = Not a pairing you'd find in Napa
Don't necessarily recommend Thin Mints with wine but it was all I had.

Joey as the "corvax" in his Italian play.

Doctors office waiting room... waiting to see what the doctor said about my 911 episode...
verdict remains that I hyperventilated. :o(

Yes, that says over 61,000 items in my Inbox and yes, our IT guy must hate me!

Emmie looking adorable as usual.

Joey drew this for me - it is me with a flower, tree, and birds.  Oh that flying disk above the flower? 
That is "aliens invading" of course!

Logan enjoying a cupcake from a new cupcake bakery we discovered.

Jeff being amazing as he performs magic tricks for the kids.

New nail polish I tried this week... I was not a fan. It looks better on Emmie.

How sad is it that I was seriously excited about the launch of Tide Pods?
And how wonderful is my husband for ordering them directly from Tide so I would get them asap?!
It's the little things... :o)

Joey Turns 6

Joey turned 6 on Saturday and celebrated with a Robots in Space birthday party at our house.  He was so excited to turn 6 and has been telling me all weekend that he is a "big boy now" and doesn't need my help with things he would've asked for 3 days ago. 

For me this marks the first birthday that I didn't cry.  I don't know if this means that I am okay with him turning 6, or if I was just too busy with the party to remember to have an emotional meltdown over my baby getting so big.  I frankly think it was the latter.  Even during the singing of happy birthday I did not tear up.  Again this is not because I have suddenly learned to cope with my kids getting older - Jeff had a huge hornet land on his leg and I was trying to get it off without it stinging him. So we missed the actual moment when he blew out the candles (thankfully one of our guests recorded it on her iPhone!). 

The highlight of Joey's birthday was his party.  He requested it be a "robots in space" theme and we had a lot of fun planning this occassion.  Over the past couple months we made robots out of household items like chip containers, and picked up little robot trinkets whenever we spotted them in the dollar bins at Target and Michaels. For all that preparation you would think we wouldn't have been up until 3 a.m. the night before the party getting things ready... you'd be wrong!

By the time 2 p.m. rolled around on Saturday we were ready for our guests. 

Joey dressed as an astronaut for the party and bounced from friend to friend with the biggest smile on his face.

There were a couple of memorable moments from the party...

Jeff, in an attempt to reduce the number of kids on the trampoline, announced "Who wants ice cream?!" His idea totally worked and kids came pouring out of the trampoline.  The only problem... we weren't serving ice cream.  I didn't buy any for the party and I didn't have any paper bowls or plastic spoons...  Miraculously we were able to piece together enough for all the kids from what I could find in our freezer. Crisis averted.

After the cupcakes were all distributed Emmie was somehow left to her own devices.  Everyone was distracted with other things and Emmie took this opportunity to lick the frosting off of all the remaining cupcakes.  From what we could tell when we spotted her, she had successfully cleaned off the tops of at least five cupcakes.  Cheri was able to snap some photos of the little princess before we cleaned her up...

 
The party was an overall success.  Joey had a great time and the 20 or so kids that attended also seemed to have a blast.  And really, that's all that is important.

As one of our guests put it, "another great Freeland party!"

15 Seconds of Fame

I recently agreed to participate in an Albie Aware Breast Cancer Foundation You Tube Video, to raise awareness of the foundation's mission.  Basically Cheri asked me to help and if Cheri asks me to help, then I am helping. 

The diva at the shoot

They needed me, Joey, Logan and Emmie to be in this video.  We showed up at the production studio knowing nothing more than it would take about two hours to shoot and not to wear busy patterns.  There were 7 other people in the video (including Cheri) and they wanted all of us to stand perfectly still, look solemn, and look directly into the camera without even moving our eyes for 10 seconds.  This is pretty much a no-brainer if you are over the age of 5 but for Logan and Emmie this was a major struggle.  Emmie was cut from the video shoot almost immediately.  I was fine with that, there is no possible way a 2 year old is going to stay perfectly still for 2 seconds let alone 10! 

It took about 2 hours to get the shots they needed.  Logan tried so hard to be a statue, but it took a lot of effort on the director’s part to get him to keep his eyes from moving for that long.  In the end, the foundation was happy with the video and hopefully it will achieve their goal of raising awareness.

Most people who see the video have told me Logan stole the show... let me know what you think!

You can check out our acting debut here - http://youtu.be/t-eeQPepQRQ

Romance, Flowers, and Paramedics

Tuesday is our 8 year wedding anniversary and to celebrate Jeff and I went away for a much needed kid-free trip to the Bay Area. We dropped the kids off at their respective schools Thursday morning, left notes for the sitters (thank you Cheri and Aunt Megan!), packed our bags, and headed out of town.

First we headed to Sausalito.  It was a beautiful day and meandering along the quiet streets of Sausalito was a perfect way to start our trip.  As a kid I used to go sailing under the Golden Gate Bridge with my dad and we always left from the docks in Sausalito.  I wasn't a huge fan of the actual sailing part since it made me want to puke every time (this was before I discovered the magic of Dramamine) but I always loved Sausalito.  Walking through that town always made me feel like I was walking through a painting.  The quaint shops, serene views of the bay, and the architecture of all the buildings makes the town look like it is straight out of an artist rendering of a seaside village.

During every trip to Sausalito we always drove past a little blue florist shop with gorgeous flowers outside.  Even as a child I was a hopeless romantic and always dreamed that someday my true love would buy me flowers from that little shop.  I told Jeff this story years ago and now we never pass through Sausalito without him stopping to buy me flowers from that shop.  It is one of the most romantic things he has ever done for me and this trip was no exception.  He pulled the car over, jumped out, and returned with my favorite flower. 

Next we checked in to our hotel in San Rafael and took advantage of the free drinks at the Embassy Suites reception.  For dinner we headed to another sleepy seaside town - Tiburon.  We didn't realize how sleepy this town was until we got there at a whopping 7:00 p.m. and the whole town had practically shut down.  We did find a Mexican restaurant that was open and were able to enjoy a nice dinner together. 

We got back to the hotel and planned to head to the jacuzzi at 10:00 p.m. for the adult-only swim.  That's when I got a nasty stomach ache and felt like I was going to be sick.  Cursing the Mexican food for ruining our romantic night I headed for the bathroom and proceeded to attempt to use mind power to keep all food in my stomach.  The last thing I wanted to do was get sick, I just wanted the feeling to pass and for our night to continue.  Suddenly I felt my right hand go numb and start to cramp up.  I thought that was weird but was really too focused on not vomiting to care too much.  But my hand got worse and I couldn't stop it from cramping up.  This freaked me out.  It was like my thumb was attracted to my wrist and I couldn't stop it from bending in a totally uncomfortable way.

Now my stomach ache was a distant memory, I was fully focused on the fact that I could not control my own hand.  Then my left hand did the same thing.  Now I am panicking.  My arms from the elbow to my hands were paralyzed in a horribly uncomfortable position.  I can't even describe how it felt but it was terrifying.  That's when I called for Jeff to call 911.  He made the call and then tried to make me as comfortable as possible.  We both tried to stay calm but it was so scary.  My legs started to cramp next and I was convinced I was going into shock or having a seizure or something.  Nothing like this had ever happened to me before, but I like to self diagnose so of course I decided my whole body was shutting down and I would be losing consciousness any minute now.  I kept picturing that scene from Pulp Fiction where they have to stab Uma Therman in the heart with that giant needle...

The paramedics arrived soon (though it seemed like an eternity) and immediately asked if I have issues with anxiety.  I thought this was a supremely stupid question to ask, obviously I am dying so get out the giant needle STAT! I told them that I don't have issues with anxiety and they quickly assured me that they had seen this before and that all I needed to do was slow down my breathing to make it stop.  Once I realized that I wasn't dying and that this was something that the paramedics had seen before, I started to calm down.  I then realized where I was and said to the paramedic nearest me, "Ewwwww this is so gross, I am lying on a hotel bathroom floor!"  He thought that statement was funny and agreed to move me to a chair. 

In the chair another paramedic proceeded to explain to me that I had hyperventilated.  This seemed ridiculous to me, I wasn't stressed when it happened and I had never hyperventilated in my life.  Then he said the pain from the stomach ache could have caused me to hyperventilate without me knowing it.  It wasn't that painful a stomach ache though.  The whole thing made no sense.  I definitely started to panic after I became paralyzed but I don't know what really started it. 

All in all, five paramedics, a hotel representative and of course my husband all were in our hotel room watching me unfurl myself as I slowed my breathing.  I didn't have to go to the hospital and within 30 minutes I was able to move my hands again.  They all left our room and the only remnants of the experience were my sore wrists.   To be watching the Food Network from my hotel room less than an hour after thinking my heart was about to stop was surreal.  Not exactly the romantic night we had in mind!

The next day we were determined to salvage our trip and headed to San Francisco.  We walked across the Golden Gate Bridge - something I have always wanted to do.  It was so awesome!

Then we had a picnic in Golden Gate Park and headed to Stowe Lake where we rented a row boat.  Jeff rowed me around the lake in a scene right out of a movie - we even had background music compliments of the iTunes on Jeff's cell phone.

Our final stop was at the Japanese Tea Garden where we had tea and walked amongst the beautiful gardens.  That is one of my favorite spots in San Francisco and it was a perfect ending to a wonderful day.

We spent three hours in the car trying to get home (horrid traffic) and ended up meeting our kids and Cheri at Bounce Spot.  Back to reality with a renewed sense of what is important in life and an even stronger connection with my wonderful husband. 

Must Love Shoes

I didn't used to have this love affair with shoes.  There was a time when shoes didn't really matter to me.  But about 6 years ago that all changed.  I met a pair of BCBG pumps and fell in love.  Ever since then I have been charmed by sandals, dazzled by heels, and smitten with boots.  A year ago my husband got me one of those shoe of the month memberships and took my relationship with shoes to a whole new level.

Guys always ask, "What is it with women and shoes?" And while I used to struggle to find an answer to that, I now know exactly what it is with women and shoes.  It can be summed up in three points -

1. That hideous ultraviolet lighting in the store will never make you disgusted in the way your feet look in a pair of shoes.
2. Those little mirrors in shoe stores let you just focus on your feet, which means you will never walk out of a shoe store vowing to never eat another piece of cake.
3. Unlike the transformation that can occur with clothes that look amazing on a mannequin, if the shoes look gorgeous in the box they don't mysteriously become ugly on your feet. 

Here are some of my current favorite pairs...

Before you ask, no they are not comfortable and yes, I can chase a toddler in them but prefer not to! 

The Search for Snow

Our bi-annual Freeland Family Snow Trip was an overall success.  Instead of renting a house this year we stayed at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Carson City, Nevada.  The rooms were nice, the beds comfortable, and the free breakfast in the morning was the best part.  With five kids you learn to appreciate a free continental breakfast!

We arrived at about 10 p.m. Friday night and it was another two hours before we got the kids to bed.  We brought the pack n' play for Emmie hoping she would sleep in it like a crib.  Ha! She spent at least a half hour showing us that she could climb in and out of the pack n' play like it was a jungle gym.  At midnight we got all of them to sleep - me and Emmie in one bed, Jeff and Logan in one bed, Conor and Joey in one bed, and Tom got his own bed.

Saturday we loaded up all the kids and the snow gear and went in search of snow.  Typically this time of year finding snow in the mountains would not be an issue, but this year winter seems to be on a vacation.  We did find snow about 30 mins from our hotel at Spooner Summit and Emmie got to play in it for the first time.  Little Miss "I Do It" had trouble walking in it but still refused to be carried and stumbled her way through the snow for hours.  We built a snowman, had a snowball fight, went sledding, and built snow forts. 

Next we headed back to the hotel for lunch and a break.  After a couple of hours we headed back out and went to historic Virginia City.  Jeff has fond memories of visiting Virginia City as a young boy and was looking forward to taking our boys to the Bucket of Blood Saloon for a sarsaparilla- I on the other hand was not exactly thrilled with that idea.  But, like many other activities I do in life, I figured this was part of having boys... visiting places called "bucket of blood."

Unfortunately we didn't quite make it to Bucket of Blood Saloon.  Emmie can be quite a handful when she wants to be.  At this point in the day our little princess was running on 6 hours of sleep from the night before (typically she gets 10) and no nap, which means she was a complete mess.  She wanted to run in the street, take home one of everything in every store, cry for no apparent reason, walk in the opposite direction of wherever we were headed, etc.  Logan was not much better than Emmie and between the two of them it was not the meandering tour through the streets that Jeff had envisioned.  We still did get those sarsaparillas at a saloon complete with real life miners at the bar and real dead deer heads on the wall - oh joy.

We ended Saturday with dinner at Applebees, which is only worth mentioning because it was Jeff's first time at an Applebees.  We always tip our waiter/waitress well when we bring the whole crew to a restaurant.  Not because our kids are terrors, they are very well behaved and polite in restaurants, but because there are seven of us at a table and we leave that table a mess.  Plus we have toddlers so if you are fast with their food, bring us extra napkins, and happily take care of random requests like, "can you heat up this milk please?" or "do you happen to have chocolate chips you can put in those pancakes?" we will love you forever.  In fact, I am not above writing you a glowing thank you note on our receipt if you can help keep our restaurant experience from being Hell on Earth.   

Sunday we headed to the North Shore of Tahoe and found a great sledding hill that in the summer is a driving range.  The kids had a blast sledding for hours and I loved that there weren't any trees they could crash into.  After they wore themselves out we started the trek home. 

All in all I would say this was a pretty successful trip.  Only minor injuries when Logan crashed into a bush sledding with Tommy on Saturday and scraped up his face.  And only needed one item that we didn't pack, Cortisone for a mosquito bite (I almost thought of everything!).

In the end, the kids had a great time and that is really the most important part for a trip like this.