You know you're a bad mom when...

...you eat all the chocolate out of your kids Halloween buckets. And I mean all the chocolate. Down to the last Tootsie Roll.

What can I say? It was a really hard day. The kind of day that makes me want to move to Australia*. The kind of day that makes me eat my children's candy.

Here's hoping tomorrow is better.


*Did anyone else read that book growing up?

Guess who's back...back again...

Well folks, after much waiting and anticipating, you can relax. Your long wait is over. I'm returning from my 2-month hiatus from blogging. I know the suspense has been killing you. I know you're anxiously awaiting further news and developments from the Erickson household. I know you're dying - dying - to hear about our visit to Grandma's back in August.

The good news is that I am going to update you generally on the goings-on of the last couple months. But the better good news is that I have a cute new background on my blog...Happy Halloween, everyone! (Did you know: Halloween is quite possibly my favorite holiday?)

Okay, here it is. The top 20 things that you've missed out on over the last couple of months:

20) Our trip to Grandma and Grandpa's included lots of time with Uncle Greg, Uncle Eric, and cousin Dallin. We're grateful for any male association that Ethan can get, what with two older sisters and only girl cousins on the Erickson side.

19) Andrea learned how to play the drums with Uncle Eric, and she was actually quite good at keeping the beat on the cymbal, while Eric rocked out on the rest of the set.

18) The kids spent a lot of time in Grandma's vegetable garden. Here they are, eating their carrots they've just picked, and pretending to be the Fierce Bad Rabbit from Beatrix Potter's book, The Fierce Bad Rabbit (which we love).

17) We went bowling with Grandma and Grandpa. It was the girls' first time bowling. They both did well, but Natalie beat Andrea with a score of 76 by using the kick-n-roll method.


16) Andrea is growing up: She started all-day kindergarten in September. So far it has been a success; she loves everything about it, especially riding the bus, recess, and lunch.

First day of school-wearing her favorite outfit

Now that she is a big kindergartner, I guess she's in charge, because she came home after her first day of school and proceeded to explain The Rules to us. For 15 minutes straight. And then we had to "think about The Rules and remember them." And we couldn't talk to each other. And we had to raise our hands to talk to her.

Yikes.

15) With the beginning of school, so started the major meltdowns. They were a daily routine for a while. There was Andrea, melting down each night as she adjusted to her new schedule of all day kindergarten. And then there was me, melting down at least that often because I felt like this was the beginning of the end of my daughter's childhood. Luckily, we're both starting to get a handle on things.

14) Natalie is growing up: "I'm going to put this hat on and look like a woman!"

13) Ethan is growing up: He walks around, hands in pockets, eating big "happles," and calls after "Lollee" and "Sha-sha" (Natalie and Andrea).

12) I feel like I've become a legitimate Mom: I now volunteer in Andrea's art class at school. And I'm the Homeroom Mom. I'm sure this has to be some rite of passage into official motherhood.

11) We continued our 4-year tradition of apple picking at Hartland Orchard. This year wasn't quite as much fun because of the poison ivy Andrea found on most of the trees (her Eagle Scout father has taught her well), but we still got tons of apples and had a great time.

10) Family prayers have been shortened in response to Andrea's request to "make it short, Dad"

9) So the formerly potty-trained Natalie is now struggling in that department. She wasn't having major accidents, just little dribbles that were enough to require a change of clothes 3 times a day. Since I don't like doing that much laundry, I made her a little potty chart and promised her everything from stickers to candy to money in the hopes that it would motivate her to keep her pants dry.
Day One: She had 3 full-blown accidents. We're talking puddles, not dribbles.

We're open to suggestions.


8) We have finally solved the mystery of why Natalie dislikes wearing shoes with such passion - fierce, angry, tantrum-throwing passion: When she wears shoes, she can't cross her big toe over her 2nd toe, which apparently she really really likes to do.

7) Andrea's favorite music has come to include Beyonce and Taylor Swift. (All the single ladies-all the single ladies!) Not sure how I feel about this. Actually, I know exactly how I feel about this.

6) Natalie periodically transforms into "Fairianna," (pronounced fairy-AH-na). This is the magical fairy person she made up who likes to skip and frolic around the house, casting magical spells with her magical ice cream scoop.

5) With Andrea being gone all day, and Anders working his super-fun busy season hours, we try to make the most of our time together. We do fun things, like visit the farm at Frying Pan Park, watch movies, or my personal favorite: do nothing at all.

4) Andrea is learning to read and loves reading to "the kids." (Now that she is a kindergartner, this is how she refers to Natalie and Ethan.) Here she is reading them her first take-home book assignment (in the port-a-crib):

3) I have made some attempts at domesticity. Completed projects include: canning peach jam, raspberry jam, and applesauce; and sewing pillows, jammies, and a witch costume. Projected projects include: sewing more jammies, sewing curtains, sewing a quilt, sewing Christmas stockings, sewing Barbie clothes for Christmas, and sewing Christmas pageant costumes. A little ambitious, perhaps?


2)We went camping a couple of times. Once with Grandma and Grandpa in Idaho, where we had a pleasant time picking flowers, singing by the fire, and eating delicious food...

...and once in Shenandoah National Park, where they only sell wet firewood, and where we learned that our family of 5 doth not fit into a 4-person tent. Go figure.


1) We realized we have shot ourselves in the foot. Ethan does stuff like this...

...and then we point and laugh and take pictures. And then we tell him 'no'. And then we wonder why he's such a stinker who loves to get into trouble.


And there you have it. The last 2-3 months in a nutshell in our crazy family's life. Now that I'm all caught up, let's see if I can keep this thing updated a little more frequently. (But don't hold your breath...)

6 Days in the Car

We just returned from three weeks of a wonderful family adventure. I don't know how to even begin to record everything that happened, or how to explain what this vacation did for our family.

My intent was to update the blog while on vacation; I gave up on Day 2. (I did post a little about the adventures of our first day.) So, if you will bear with me, I will attempt to do this in a few segments. (We'll see how far I actually get.)

First, the car trip:

We loaded up the minivan and headed west to Boise to visit Grandma and Grandpa Miller for a couple of weeks. The trip was 36 hours of drive time; we did it in about 4 days with some stops along the way. We got some weird looks and raised eyebrows when we told people we were going to drive across the country with three little kids. Just to spite everyone, we had a fabulous time together in the car.


Passing the Time
I started off with great expectations. I packed books, toys, games, crafts, coloring books, and other fun things to do in the car with the kids. We made Fruit Loop necklaces, ate fun snacks, and played with punching balloons.

The play dough was a hit...

...and the girls made themselves beautiful with their new make-up kits (notice Natalie's pink, glittery face):

We had a DVD player as a backup - just to get us through the hard times. Our goal was to only watch one or two movies each day. Who were we kidding!? By the end of the trip, we were tired and our enthusiasm was spent; we watched Veggie Tales and High School Musical and the Music Man pretty much non-stop that last day...oh well. Good intentions, right?


Hotel
The highlight of the car trip for the kids was being at "Hotel." (To Andrea and Natalie, Hotel is a proper noun and a destination in and of itself - like Red Robin or Florida.) At Hotel, the kids enjoyed Cartoon Network - which made me grateful that we don't have cable at home. A pineapple under the sea? Really? Is that the best they could do?

Swimming is always fun, but swimming at Hotel is extra exciting. Maybe it's because Dad is there to throw, catch, and wrestle with the kids in the water - way more fun than the usual baby pool with Mom. I have to mention that at the last hotel pool, Ethan learned how to dunk himself while holding on to the ladder. He was a little dare devil, going under again and again. It scared me to death - that was probably part of the appeal for Ethan.


Part of the fun of Hotel is sleeping together with the whole family in a cool new room. The kids loved it, and I have to say it was nice to have everyone - Mom and Dad included - asleep by 9:00. I can't remember the last time I went to bed that early. So nice!

Beautiful Country
Maybe this is lame, but we loved seeing the country and its beautiful variety. The Appalachians are gorgeous, lush, and green. The Midwest made me want to drop everything we are doing in Virginia and live simple, wholesome lives as farmers. Nebraska was surprisingly beautiful. Kansas was clear and open, and you could see the whole sky (which is something I really miss in Virginia). Wyoming...well, Wyoming had some very interesting windmills - hundreds of them, all lined up on hilltops. And of course, the Rocky Mountains are always gorgeous and were surprisingly green for August.

Family Time
Since most of our vacation time is spent with extended family (which is great), we don't have lots of our own family time together. The car trip was wonderful for that reason...just the 5 of us for a few days. We listened to music, we played, we were silly, and we just enjoyed being together. We even had little Family Home Evening together on Monday night. Dad gave a great impromptu lesson about the beautiful earth that Heavenly Father created; we sang songs; Natalie offered a sweet little prayer thanking Heavenly Father for the trees and birds. And then we played Name That Tune with the iPod - who knew that Andrea knows John Mayer and Natalie knows Jack Johnson?

I have to dedicate a little portion of this to Melinda, who rode back east with us. Melinda sat in the back with the kids most of the time, which allowed Anders and I some quality/quantity time to chat. She was also helpful in expediting potty breaks. The kids loved having her along; she has lived with us for so long that she's like their second mother and is practically part of the family.

Visiting Family
Along the way, we stayed with Great Grandma Erickson in Provo, where we got to visit with Matt, Tyrelle and baby Elllie, Jonah and Charlotte, and Auntie Melinda. A few highlights from Provo included:

playing in the water fountains on BYU campus...



...and riding in Great Grandma Erickson's awesome elevator in her house.


We also got to walk to church, which is a pretty novel thing to do when you don't live in Utah.



Thank you, Great Grandma Erickson, for your hospitality and kindness!!

We also got to stay with Jake, Amanda, and that sweet baby Audrey in St. Charles, MO on the way back home. I wish I had pictures to show, but alas, the camera was full that last day of our trip. But Jake and Amanda were so good to us and showed us a great time - shopping at the outlet mall, playing on new playgrounds, swimming with froggies, and more food than we could handle. The best attraction was Audrey, the newest little Erickson cousin. What a sweetheart!

Ethan adopted a new habit of screaming at the top of his lungs, and it kind of peaked while we were in Missouri. Our apologies to Amanda for keeping Audrey awake. Thanks, Jake and Amanda, for putting up with our crazy family!

The Bad Points
There were a few bad points of driving across the country, such as:

- nasty, nasty, nasty gas station bathrooms
- Natalie's increased tinkling the last day = bathroom stops every 2 hours
- hours of watching/listening to High School Musical 2
- Anders' speeding ticket in Sydney, Nebraska
- a flat tire while staying with Jake and Amanda (but we are glad it didn't happen on the road)
- eating at McDonald's about 5 times, which is about 5 times too many
- the crumb-laden, bug-splattered, slightly stinky car that resulted from 80 hours of total travel time.

But overall, the journey was a success, and we would do it again in a heartbeat. Stay tuned for Adventures at Grandma's...

They can take my husband away...

...but they can't take away his Marriott points.

My husband works for PwC, a lovely little accounting firm to which we have sold our souls. Anders is gone from home a lot, and he occasionally travels. This stinks, but it also means that we get free nights at the Marriott from time to time.

Tonight we are sleeping in a Residence Inn. Today we drove 14 hours, crossed through 5 states - Virginia, West Virginia, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois - and finally stopped in the 6th state - Missouri. We are on a little adventure we like to call "going to Grandma's."

We've never driven to Idaho before, where Grandma and Grandpa Miller live - we've always flown. But we thought we'd try something different this time and use these 4 days of driving to bond, to see the country, and to use our Marriott points.

Highlights from our first day:

- West Virginia: While driving through the mining communities on windy mountain roads , we discovered that Natalie gets car sick. Luckily, I had a bag that successfully contained the results of her car sickness. We took a quick detour to throw away the bag, and to relocate Natalie to a seat where she could see out the front window. It seemed to help. This adventure set us back about 30 minutes.

- Kentucky: We stopped at a gas station. While waiting for Dad, I had the kids line up by the car and led them in doing head-shoulders-knees-and-toes and other various activities. Only later did I realize I that had an audience. A woman came over and said she enjoyed watching me to that.

- Indiana: Practically the whole state was under construction. One lane, 45 miles an hour, for what seemed like forever. We were glad to get to Illinois.

- Illinois: Smoke started coming from the cd player. Hmmmm. We pulled it out; we'll see what happens tomorrow.

The kids were soooooooooooooooooo excited to "go to hotel." Swimming, cool beds, new room - it's like a party to them. They've been amazing on the trip so far. Let's hope they don't revolt tomorrow when we tell them we get to do it all over again.

(sigh)

So our old fridge died. I say old, but I know for certain that it wasn't any older than 5 years. A fridge should last longer than that, don't you think?

Anyway, a repairman came to check it out. He said we were the unluckiest people he'd met in his 35 years of appliance maintenance. It's nice to know you're unique...but you don't want your refrigerator woes defining that uniqueness for you. Apparently there was one wire that was 'arc-ing' - whatever that means - and of all the wires on our fridge, it is the one that cannot be replaced.

And there goes one perfectly good refrigerator right down the drain - or to the dump - all because of a faulty wire. (I'm seeing some potential life parallels here...)

I will not relate to you all the drama that ensued over finding a replacement refrigerator. I will say that more than one fridge was delivered to our house, my counter top was sawed off, some baseboards were removed, and a window sill was cut in half.

And I was not happy.

But not to worry. All is well. We have a refrigerator. It works. More importantly, it fits.

Lessons learned from this experience:
1.) Never shop for appliances with children.
2.) Appliances can be returned. So if they don't fit, it is not necessary to cut apart your house.
3.) I do not look American. (The delivery man informed me of this. According to him, I look either British or Irish. He was shocked when I told him I'm from Texas. I'm not sure what this means...)

Perspective

Today I'm thankful for all the little experiences that help put things into perspective:

1. I have a dear friend from college who is expecting her third baby. She just found out her baby will likely not live more than a few days past birth, if it makes it that long at all. How grateful I am for my own three healthy kids!

Even though I still sometimes cry when I think about my own rotten pregnancies, her experience has made all those horrible months seem so insignificant. And I would gladly go through them again, rather than to know that I would lose my baby.

Her experience has made me realize that the things that 'plague' my life are just so silly - a hip that sometimes hurts, a house that is never clean, a refrigerator that stops working in the middle of the night. Who cares?! I am so grateful for my kids, and that I've never been asked to experience the kind of heartache she is experiencing right now.

2. So sometimes (or a lot of times), my husband works late. And when he doesn't have to be in the office late, he usually comes home and has to do more work. And I occasionally like to complain about that. It would be nice to have a husband home every night for dinner. My kids would love to have a Daddy every night to sing to them at bedtime.

- HOWEVER -

My sister's husband is beginning his training to become a fighter pilot in the Air Force. We are so proud of him for all his hard work and dedication to his family and country. But something my sister said in her blog put my husband's work into perspective: "i wish i didn't have nightmares about losing my husband to war." (To read her most excellent blog, click here.)

I am grateful that I don't have to fear for my husband's life when he goes off to fight financial and IT fraud in the government. The most dangerous thing that he faces is the drive home every day, and maybe a little carpel tunnel. How easy!

3. So I feel like I am failing at most of the things I do. My kids fight; my house is dirty; my cooking is mediocre. But I have finally realized my true purpose in contributing to this household: Keeping the toilets flushed. I walk around, and at any given time I can find at least one potty in need of being flushed. I'm not sure why, but it seems like I am the only person in the house who knows to how to do this.

And I am really good at it.

Quite Content

(This is another post I started a while ago and am just now getting around to finishing...)

Here I am at the end of another long, crazy - yet uneventful - week. This week brought such adventures as: a terrifying trip to the dentist (Andrea), terribly scraped knees (Natalie), 147 mosquito bites (Ethan), a sprained finger and gimp leg (Emily), and working at the office until 2:00 am (Anders).

But the dentist is forgotten, the scrapes are healing, the mosquito bites don't seem to bother, the sprained finger and gimp leg are manageable, and my workaholic husband took Thursday and Friday off to be with his family.

Last night we went camping. Our intention was to camp at Shenandoah National Park. Then we chickened out - we've not been camping with all three kids before, and we thought something a little closer might be a better way to test our outdoor-survival-with-3-little-kids skills. Burke Lake became Plan B - family camping, lots of bathrooms, playgrounds, and only 20 minutes from home.

Then my hip went crazy on me (you'd think I was in my 80's, not my 20's), and Anders got three hours of sleep Wednesday night (thank you, PwC), so we quickly came up with Plan C: camping at the In-laws.

We had a fabulous time.

We roasted hot dogs for dinner (this is the only acceptable way to cook a hot dog, by the way...)

And camping wouldn't be camping without s'mores. (Apparently, in our family you have to look like an Amazon woman to really be camping. Nice hair, girls :)

We also made blueberry-peach cobbler in the dutch oven, using the blueberries we picked last weekend in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Natalie was the Blueberry-picking Champion...she was very determined to get every last ripe blueberry from every bush.

Camping wouldn't be camping without Daddy. He was the hero - building fires, playing with hot coals, and setting up tents. When it came time for lights out, Ethan wasn't too thrilled to be in an unfamiliar place. And so Daddy came to the rescue. He pulled out his guitar and sang until Ethan and Andrea (and Mommy) were asleep. Natalie couldn't be lulled so easily, so Anders paid her $1. She took the bribe and went right to sleep.

Beautiful weather, beautiful family, and time spent together makes one happy, content momma.