Vindication!

Ok, you know how I posted earlier about what a "normal" grocery budget should look like? Well, the internet gods have answered my prayers (I have MASSIVE faith in this department) and MSN Money blessed me with an article addressing this very thing!

Here is a small excerpt from the article -- right after the author described her challenge to feed a family of 4 on $100 a week:

"First, let's say that any reduction in my grocery bill was welcome, as most weeks we spend nearly $250 at a grocery store. That's well above the $182 budget the U.S. government considers "moderate" for a family of our size and ages."

Hooray for $182 a week! We have one whole extra person, and these totals do not include cleaning supplies, toiletries (lip gloss;), diapers/Pull Ups, etc. Just food! Factor in the extra human, 2 cats, and the arsenal of cleaners we go through here, and I'd have to say that I am not being excessive at $200-$250 a week. Although I will admit that it makes me shudder to think what my bill will look like when I have 3 teenagers (2 of them boys).

Attention Nicole of the future: Dang girl! You look hot! Oh, you're running 45 miles a week now? Wow, you don't look a day over 29! What are you, a size 2? What's that? You've finally figured out how to do your hair so you don't look like a slob/toddler? And you've started your own business and make more than Boone does? And your children are the most well behaved, smartest kids in the state? (Where was I going with this? Oh yeah...)

Ahem! Nicole of 2008 is hereby predicting that you spend upwards of $400 a week on household food/supplies by the year 2018. If 2008 Nicole is right (and I like my odds), 2018 Boone must buy 2018 Nicole a new car. Totally fair and purposeful.

Something other than poop stories!

Alright, let's move on to something more pleasant -- SCHOOL IS BACK IN!

Rylan began first grade 2 weeks ago and I have been informed that her teacher already refers to her as "the little overachiever". Sounds about right. She has also started ballet lessons and loves getting to dance like "a real ballerina". Can't you see what a traditional ballet pose she is striking here?

OK, to be fair, this was before the first lesson, so let's all cut her some slack.

Another exciting thing in Rylan's life the last few days was to see the bloom of her sunflowers. She planted these with her Nana in the spring and we were supposed to help her water them every day when we watered our vegetable garden in the back yard. If you were only shown this picture, you might say, "Not bad, Terry family!"


Only we never got around to planting the vegetables, so the sunflowers got a little...neglected. Honestly, Boone and I were shocked that they bloomed, but she and Keaton were thrilled to death. Don't look too closely at the actual stems/leaves/general bendy-overness/lack of vitality, okay?


In any case, Rylan has a lot to be happy about in her little world, and what better way to celebrate than by hosting an event?


I'm not sure if my favorite thing about this is:

• that it is an actual advertisement for a cat show on her bedroom door
  
• that she chose to highlight the even as both free and "a cool one" (because nothing irritates me more than a "pricey and lame" cat show)
• that she ran out of tape so she attached the flyer with a stove sticker

Boone and I haven't heard anything more in the way of details about the cat show, but we HAVE seen trophies for the cats (works in progress) on her art desk. I promise to keep you all updated.

Keaton has also had a busy couple of weeks as he started preschool in mid-August. He is going 3 mornings a week which is just about perfect for him (and me) for the time being. This was the night of the open house. I look kind of weird but Keaton is cute so, whatever.


This was the actual first day. He loves going to school but has some challenges we are working through. It's a good thing he is so good looking because he charms people into putting up with a lot of his antics. If he was ugly he'd be in trouble (more than usual).

Case in point...


He helped himself to a "small" cup of yogurt and when the whole tub came gurgling out of the container, he just used it to wax the table! On second thought, that must be his charm oozing out because he didn't get reprimanded for this one bit.

So yeah. We are chugging along. We still have Branik, I just don't have "first day of a new activity" photos of him, so he's getting left out this time around.

What?

OK FINE. Because I am an honest blogger, I will post the only photo I have of Branik the last 2 weeks. It is freaky and blurry and he has blood and syrup and a sticker on his clothes, but this is how he looked tonight before dinner.

That's all I got. Senor Nosebleed Cross-Dressing Cousin It de la Syrup. So sue me.

In fairness to Branik I will also post what his older siblings looked like today. Also freaky/slightly disturbing. But very real, which is my whole goal with blogging.

The most embarrassing thing about these photos is that now you will all recognize Boone and I in our disguises when we go to Democratic events. Busted.

The Beach!

So we went to Myrtle Beach last weekend and met up with some of our best friends from our Ohio days. We had such a blast with them -- that is, until I got food poisoning on the last night. But what can you do, right? The silver lining to that story is that although I ate like a total cow all week, I came home nearly 3 pounds lighter than I left! Yippee!

We wondered if maybe we had completely lost our minds when we planned to have 6 adults and 10 kids staying in one suite together, but it really worked out well and we all still like each other. Well, at least we still like the families we were with -- I guess we shouldn't assume that the feeling is mutual.

Anyway, here are some pictures for anyone who cares...

This was just before our first trip to the indoor water park at the resort -- awesome place to stay with little kids, especially if you want "non-sun" water options.

Boone and his boys in the Lazy River -- Branik really enjoyed this, you just can't tell by the look on his face this particular moment.

We headed outside too, and I was able to capture the craziness of our group in one shot...

That's every kid in chronological order and 5 of the 6 adults (notice how I managed to keep myself in a bathing suit off the blog:) You'll notice Jessica (out of the water on the left) struggling to keep Branik from hurling himself into the pool like this...

This kid had no fear and did this over and over and over and over again until Boone and I had aching arms from lifting a sopping wet 2 year old out of the water repeatedly. I wish I had a picture of his face while he was doing this -- he looked high (but happy!).

Here we are at Joe's Crab Shack -- I'm happy because we are eating...again...okay, still. Some guy was walking around making balloon animals and swords for customers and he practically drooled all over us when he saw a table with 10 kids. It kept them entertained for a good half hour, so it was totally worth the $20 tip (especially because I didn't pay it!)

We also went to the aquarium and the kids got to hold horseshoe crabs which was cool...


...Branik really loved this shark and ray exhibit and sat totally fascinated for a long time. It WAS pretty relaxing and they had all this groovy mood music on so we all just kind of chilled out.

But the majority of our time was spent at the beach, digging in the sand, body surfing, and generally wasting time and loving it...


Good friends, good food, good beach -- we think we'll do this again next year, except maybe without the throwing up at the end next time. We love you Spittles and Wests!

The Great Outdoors! (even greater when I'm not in them:)

Last weekend, Boone decided to take Ry and Keaton camping along with the male component of the Patterson family. We aren't brave (read "stupid") enough yet to try Branik in a tent with his sibs, so he and I stayed home. I am perfectly fine with this arrangement for as long as it holds.

Anyway, Ry and the boys drove about 30 minutes to Clarks Hill Lake for a quick overnighter, but you'd never have guessed it by looking at the car! I wish I would have taken pictures of the back of the Tahoe on the way out because they had enough gear to go to Mars. Even so, they stopped at McDonalds on the way out (because kids don't eat foil dinners, okay?) arrived to a totally empty campground, set up the tents, and went to lake.

Keaton spent most of his time doing this (throwing fistfuls of rocks into the water)...

...and then cleaning his muddy hands on his pants. Nice. This is similar to how he cleans syrup off his fingers, only he uses his hair instead of his bottom (but only because he is sitting on it).


Rylan spent the majority of her time like this...

... gathering THOUSANDS of clam shells off the lake shore. They were both in heaven and loved having the kind of free reign that comes only when Mom is in another county and therefore unable to think about the laundry accumulating by the minute.

When it started to get dark they headed back up to build a fire and make Smores. At about 10:30 when they were all sufficiently sick and sticky they called it a night (note the school bus and Harold on Keaton's pillow -- classic).


Boone reported that not much in the way of "sleeping" occurred -- it was more "laying quietly in tent" until Boone HAD to pee at 5:00 am (he's old). The kids were pretty much awake after that which meant Saturday was a recovery day for all of them (Keaton begged to go to bed at 11:00 am and crashed out for around 3 hours when they got home). I, on the other hand, got over 8 UNINTERRUPTED hours of sleep for the first time in I don't know how long. It was awesome.

Anyway, they got up early and had pancakes, because everyone knows that the only way to follow a McNugget and Smores dinner is with a boatload of maple syrup and juice the next morning!

After this, the 3 kids managed to convinced the dads that they REALLY needed to swim in the lake at 8:00 in the morning -- how could anyone say no to these faces?


Well, if you're me, you just say "Ummm, no." But I'm mean, and at the time I was still unconscious in my bed (tee-hee!) so you can guess what happened...

They all had an absolute blast and Keaton keeps asking about when he gets to go camping again. Kudos to Boone for being a great dad and gutsy enough to attempt this with young kids (and take a bunch of pictures too!)

I suppose Branik and I will be joining them soon enough, and I will do my very best not to ruin all the fun by being the Mom. Although it looks to me like I probably should have been there for what appears to be Ian and Rylan's lakeside wedding...

Feel free to send the happy couple gift cards to Target -- I swear they'll get them...

Why Mommyhood is Fun (yes, I said fun!)

Well, it must be your lucky day. Boone is still busy and I am all caught up on the DVR, so I guess I'll post again!


Rylan made this in school (note my flexibility!) and I just have to say how much I love my girl for drawing me as a stick figure and then describing me this way:


Man, is that kid gunning for some Polly Pockets or what! Don't ask me what finger sandwiches are, and for the record, I know nothing about dinosaurs. And while The Incredibles is just fine as far as Pixar movies go, my favorite show is The Office. But the part with my weight is totally accurate.

More about Ry. She LOVES to cook and will help out in the kitchen any way we (okay, Boone) will let her. So you can imagine her joy when her dad asked her to make Jello 100% by herself today! He walked her through it step by step but didn't help at all. I somehow missed taking pictures of the first part, but this was her serving us our portions...

I must say it was the best grape Jello I have ever ingested. It may be the only grape Jello I have ever ingested, but still, it was delish.

In other "man, our kids are getting big" news, Keaton got his first big boy bike today! He is already very comfortable on the bike, but has absolutely no interest in stopping so he refuses to brake. This could be problematic later on.

You'll be stunned to learn that he picked a Thomas helmet and pads (he put the pads on after this shot - calm down Nana!) and cruised up and down the cul-de-sac with Rylan for a good long while. This is really his birthday present from us but if we wait until late June to give it to him, it will be too hot to ride until, oh, Christmas. We figure that we can just remind him on his actual birthday that he got a bike already, which we are certain will work on a 4 year old. Plan B is to give him a container of Daisy brand sour cream which he loves because the word "daisy" ends in the letter "y". That's honestly why he asked me to take this picture:

(As I am taking Rylan's Jello serving shot) : "Mommy! Can you take a picture of the red 'y'?! Mommy, Mommy! See the red 'y'?!"

(I take the picture -- thank you digital camera)

"Can I see the picture of the red 'y' ?"

(Now comparing actual tub of sour cream to image of sour cream on LCD screen, grinning widely): "That's 2 red 'ys'" (don't ask me how to punctuate multiples of a letter in quotation marks).

Anyway, when he was done advertising for Daisy, he mined all the chocolate chips out of his cookie and ate what was left. Who does that? That kid hates chocolate. And yes, he asked me to take this picture too.

Branik, on the other hand, loves cookies and all their components more than life itself. We can't even say the word around him or he goes totally ballistic -- running around the kitchen screeching "tooteee!!! tooteeeeee!!!" He loves them so much he used his to scoop up his grape Jello. Although to be fair, who wouldn't use a cookie as a utensil if given the opportunity?


Whew! I am all blogged out, but Happy Mother's Day to all the cute, fun, smart, talented, and wonderful moms I know. And I guess to the Ugly Moms too ;)

Best Parents of All Time!

So last weekend was "Latino Fest" up at Fort Gordon. And by "Latino Fest", I mean "regular carnival with mariachi music playing over static clogged loudspeakers". Not a whole lot of Latino anything goes on in Georgia, but we went along with it.

Being that Boone and I are the greatest parents we know, we decided to take the kids for as much fun as we could stand. In retrospect, I'm not really sure how exposing your children to carnies and letting them eat things like fried Oreos and funnel cakes makes you a good parent, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. Here's a glimpse into how things went:

Pony ride for 3 kids...$15


30 ride tickets...$26



2 "ice cream" cones...$6


Having your 6 year old pout the whole way home while muttering under her breath "we NEVER get to do anything fun" while her brothers scream bloody murder because we didn't let them ride the "big swings" (ages 12 and over)...PRICELESS.

A few things about this last photo: we did actually share the ice cream with Branik -- he had already finished his (and been swabbed from head to toe with baby wipes) which is what allowed me to get the picture. Keaton is clearly eyeing Rylan's cone because his is also long gone. Rylan still has a mountain of food while the rest of us are done (surprise!), and what is with her goofy face? Do they teach this in Kindergarten or something? As for Boone, well, Boone hates having his picture taken. No really, I'm serious. But doesn't he have great legs?


Moving right along to the next piece of evidence that proves my mothering instincts are outstanding:

Why on earth did I allow my child to eat something this color? Seriously. My friends can tell you that I lose sleep over the chemicals in plastic sippy cups leaching into my kids' drinks, but then I let them eat cupcakes from the Walmart bakery with 3 1/2 cups of Incredible Hulk Green frosting on them. Yeah, that's safe.

Even more awesome is that we let Branik have another one later in the day. At least I can share part of the blame with Boone on this one. The first one was all me.


That a boy, Bran! Get that nose bleeding for the third time today! Just a little further...

Trust me when I say that you are not sad that you missed his diapers the next day. And how many times have I commented on the contents of Branik's diapers on this blog? Gross. Maybe I should quit assuming that everyone is in my stage of life, where discussing your children's bowel movements in great detail is a totally acceptable thing to do. Or maybe it's not really acceptable and nobody is telling me? Hmmm...