You know how when you get behind with the laundry or the dishes or, let’s get real, cleaning the entire house? And then it’s just so much to do, so overwhelming, that you don’t know where to start? That’s kinda what I feel like when I think about my blog. I am so behind.

I want to share, I promise, but I don’t know what to talk about first. (It’s a good thing catching up on blogging’s not like doing laundry, right? Where you don’t mind folding it, but you HATE, HATE, HATE (!!!) putting it all away.)

So, anyway. The beginning? That’ll work, right?

July 22-25: Time off, Stay-cation, Paris

I miss being a stay-at-home mom sometimes, especially in the summer when the children are out of school and spending the warm summer days in the care of someone else. While we love her, summer is my favorite season and I want to spend it with my favorite little people. I wish we could splash around on the beach, like I used to do when I was younger, but being land-locked kinda puts a damper on that.

I took a couple of days off in July and on Thursday, July 22, the kids and I hung out, more or less. The day before I’d found out someone had stolen my debit card number, so we spent some time at the bank getting a few things straightened out, withdrawing money and depositing Jaiden’s birthday money into her account (oh what a thrill – and she enjoys getting her bank statements because they make her feel like a grown-up!). We had lunch at Subway, then storytime at the library where I had the pleasure of reading “Pirate Jim” to the four dozen or so children in attendance.

They also made pirate hats or mermaid crowns and Jenna, in her four-year-old wisdom, glued a piece of CHALK to hers. Because she thought it was decoration. Wish I had a picture of that. lol.

Is it ridiculous that I remember the kids and I wanted to make breakfast and fruit for dinner, so we went to the farmer’s market and came home to make something yummy? At least that’s how I remember it. That was the first night the book club I have with Dara and Christa met, which we did at Marlo’s, so I can’t say for certain.

And having a dinner date with two awesome ladies mid-week? Fantastic! I can’t wait until we meet again (which was supposed to be this week, but we’ve had to postpone it because life is calling, but I’m very eager for it).

The following day, Darin was also off of work, so we packed the children up and took them to Memphis for a little sight-seeing. We’ve been planning on visiting Mud Island River Park and riding the trolley for a couple of years and finally did it.

The River Walk is awesome! We weren’t expecting it because all we’d searched for was pricing. We knew there was a park, some sort of river park. And when you get there … wow. It’s installation art, my art nerd friends. A 3-D topographical concrete representation of the Mississippi River from start to finish. And more. We walked from the beginning all the way to the end, which is the Gulf of Mexico (minus the oil spill) and a large splash park area. We rode paddle boats and had a picnic and took pictures with the Memphis skyline behind us.

When the kids were good and hot, cranky, wet and ready for a nap, we got in the truck and crossed the bridge from Mud Island over to Memphis proper. And, like little tourists, we got on the trolley. This was always so much fun to do in Nebraska City when I was a kid that I thought our kids would enjoy it, too.

Really, I was there. The problem with being the person with the camera is that you usually aren’t in pictures. Darin has a picture of me, Jaiden & Jenna on the paddle boats, but it’s on his phone. Phooey. Nevermind, I added it!

Anyway, so we rode until we saw the National Civil Rights Museum. I didn’t know where it was, but we saw it was right next to a stop so we hopped off about 30 seconds later. And it took my breath away.

(“Hello, we are cranky and tired and hot!” they say.)

Jenna is a big MLK fan. HUGE. (He is second to Obama for her – she’s a big Obama fan. And yes, she’s 4.) It was awesome to show her that this wreath marks the spot where he was shot and killed. We didn’t take the (expensive as all get out!) tour, but we did venture inside and look around the bookstore. The children each picked out rubber bracelets that say things like Hope and Change. I cried as I read the back of almost every book about the struggle for a group of people to be treated equally, to have the same rights as the white people who for so many years oppressed them. And when I say I cried, I mean I bawled huge alligator tears.

It was embarrassing, but I decided I wasn’t going to be ashamed of myself. Being there, in the very place where Martin Luther King Jr. and thousands of Memphis workers carried signs saying “I AM A MAN” was humbling and something I will never, ever forget. And we shouldn’t forget.

After the Civil Rights Museum, we loaded back into the trolley, then into the truck and headed back home. We dropped Emma off with her mother, then traveled from the Mississippi-Tennessee line up to the Tennessee-Kentucky line to Paris. On the way we stopped in Humboldt at a little mom and pop restaurant and I had a DELICIOUS chicken-artichoke pizza that was like HEAVEN. Mmm.

We stayed in a cabin just outside of Paris, on the Tennessee River. On Saturday, July 24, we went to Fort Donelson, the site of a Civil War battle. We were there with Darin’s best friend, his teenaged nephew and two of his nephew’s friends. It was super, super hot out (97 plus humidity) and I wasn’t feeling well, so after our picnic and eagle-watching when the guys all went hiking in the woods, the girls and I sat in the truck. They watched a movie while I read more of To Kill a Mockingbird.

To make a long story short, later that day we ended up at the river, swimming. And I don’t like swimming in rivers, so I read about another 100 or so pages in my book (which was super fantastic, by the way). The next morning, the boys all went fishing in a pontoon boat, then the girls and I and one of the teenagers joined the rest of the group. They all had a blast jumping off of the boat and into the lake.

And then? The weekend was done. We made the three-hour trek back home, I finished my book (and shed a little tear) and reality began again. So sad.

I feel like I am living for the weekends right now. Work has become just that: work. Not fun, not thrilling, not something I’m passionate about any longer. So the weekends are what I’m after (which is a horrible way to live because we should savor each and every day).

The next weekend we celebrated three birthdays (my sister-in-law Katie and both of my parents) and my parents’ anniversary. Katie and Tyrel had a housewarming/birthday party, my dad turned 60 and a few days later my mom turned 51. We had a cookout and swimming at their place the day after the housewarming.

On Saturday, July 31, I met up with some people from church and we packed meals for Haitians with the Stop Hunger Now campaign. It was incredible and a great bonding experience for us as a church family. And beyond that, it was a wonderful experience as a Christian, and humbling to pack small little meals that would serve six people. One cup of rice, one cup of soy, one scoop of dried veggies, a seasoning packet. We throw more than that away every single day. I will never forget it and plan to do it again. More pictures are up on the church’s Facebook page.

Here are Christa and I enjoying the wind in our hair nets. When we were posing for this I thought she was doing some sort of gangsta pose with her plastic-gloved hands. When we were done I asked what sign she was doing, “I was just showing my gloves off!” Oh. My bad! It’s a good thing I didn’t bust out with a sign myself, right? Ha.

That night was the housewarming/birthday party at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. My mom requested pictures of some of her other grandchildren in white clothes and in a field of sorts as her birthday present, so that night I took some. And Darin helped.

We had the boys (Caiden and Caleb) dress up in Jaylen’s baptismal outfit, Khloe wore the dress Jaiden wore in my first wedding and Emma and Jenna wore Jaiden’s baptismal dress. They turned out pretty cute, despite the fact that it was 95 degrees out, we were losing daylight (it was about 7:30 p.m. or so in this one) and we were in an itchy field. Oh, and they’re all between 18 months and 4.5 years old (blah – I’m not a fan of child photography lol).

—–

So I kept going and going and going with the update and realized it was getting entirely too long to read in one sitting, so come back tomorrow and we’ll talk all about the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year and why I was furious with the school system and whatever else I come up with!

PS – It has been RIDICULOUSLY hot here this summer with heat advisories every day for about three weeks or so. We haven’t had much relief until this week. It’s amazing how WONDERFUL it feels when it’s only 90 degrees out, right? The humidity is so crazy, basically stealing the air from your lungs when you walk outside (even in the mornings). It’s been exhausting, that’s for certain, but autumn is on the horizon again, so that’s making everyone happy. I think this is the second hottest summer on record here.

Thanks for reading and always know you can keep up with me on a day-to-day (or up-to-the-minute) basis on Twitter and Facebook (if we’re friends). Hasta manana!

Photo by Jasin Boland/Columbia Pictures

What do cows do for fun? They go to the moooo-vies! (This is one of the kids’ favorite jokes. lol.)

This afternoon Darin and I loaded up the older two kids (the younger two were at his mom’s house) and headed towards the dump. Except that we stopped off at the movies; we told them we were picking up trash and they reluctantly got out of the truck. But, well, we tricked them. Darin dropped the three of us off to watch the remake of The Karate Kid.

We loved it.

It’s not the Karate Kid I grew up watching. There’s no wax on, wax off. There are no Cobras or Jersey accents (was that Jersey?) or Pat Morita. There’s a move to a new place, a bully, a girl, a Kung-Fu teacher, a hurt leg and a huge win. Of course there’s also a chore/life lesson used as the basis of the Kung-Fu lesson. The bones of the story are the same, the details different.

We really enjoyed it. From a parent’s perspective, it was a great movie that I didn’t mind my children watching because the language was mostly safe (Jaden Smith’s character cusses and is reprimanded for it) and there were no mature scenes or situations.

I felt Jaden Smith did an excellent job acting and could teach some Hollywood pop icons a thing or two; he has all of the best parts of his parents (actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith). I would be really surprised if he didn’t win something during awards season because he really did a fantastic job (if Kristen Stewart wins something and he doesn’t I’m really going to be surprised).

Jackie Chan is typical Jackie Chan, minus the comedic antics (he actually has a really great dramatic scene), Chris Tucker and Edwin Starr. And Taraji P. Henson rocks; you might remember her as Shug from Hustle & Flow (one of my faves) or Aunt April in I Can Do Bad All By Myself.

We were discussing our rating of the movie while we waited on Darin and the little girls to pick us up; Jaiden said she didn’t want to give it two thumbs up, she wanted to give it a “million billion” thumbs up.

And I cried a little in a few places.

Jaylen has already asked to buy it on DVD and I’m pretty sure we will be adding it to our collection. I can’t wait to see it again.

Photo by Kimberly French/Summit Entertainment

Tonight was also our Eclipse meet-up! In November I met up with my co-worker Sara and our boss’s daughters to see New Moon and after that we vowed to see Eclipse together too. Tonight we had a big dinner: Darin, me and the kids; Sara, her brother and her friend; our boss’s daughters; and Gwen and her children. Then? Time for the movie! Darin and our kids and Gwen and her kids had dinner, but didn’t go to the movie.

Anyhoo.

This movie was better than the first two. I liked Edward more, but I’m still Team Jacob (have been since I read New Moon in December ’08). I’m just over the whole controlling boyfriend thing, so Edward doesn’t really appeal to me too much. But I digress.

Movie adaptations of books can never encompass the entire thing. By now, we all know this, don’t we? But it still seems like so much was left out.

What I liked? Edward’s proposal and Bella’s engagement ring. Jacob’s one-liners (“Let’s face it, I’m hotter than you are!”). Bella’s hair and makeup. Charlie’s one-liners. The t-shirt quilt Bella’s mom gave her during her visit. The flashbacks. Jasper as a soldier. The field of wildflowers.

What I didn’t like? Kristen Stewart’s awkward acting. Bree Tanner. Rosalee (a personal problem – I’ve seen her in too many things and can’t get past her other roles). Jasper in present day (he’s just weird). Bree Tanner (what is up with her?). The new Victoria’s hair (it’s weird up front). The way Bella chooses Edward over Jacob (blah!).

When the movie was over, I went to a local restaurant to pick up the kids and see my husband for a few minutes (I love having a husband, by the way, especially the one I have because he is wonderful). He wanted to watch the UFC fight and took the children with him because our times overlapped by about 15 minutes or so. I know he was really ready for me to pick them up, especially since it was after bedtime and they couldn’t sit still or stop whining.

Save for Jaylen, they didn’t protest bedtime too much. Especially Emma who was in her jammies and already tucked into bed when I went upstairs for our nightly hugs and kisses.

Photo by Jonathan Wenk/Sony Pictures

Once they were in bed, I indulged in yet another movie: Julie & Julia (it finally hit my movie channels!). I am my dad’s child in that I adore watching movies and when The Mister is not here or otherwise engaged, I love watching them. Having a cooking blog myself, and having read parts of Julie & Julia when it was just a blog (back in ’02), I’ve wanted to watch the movie for quite awhile. I’ve heard mixed reviews and, well, mine is mixed too.

I think the general consensus in the blogosphere is that Julie Powell (the blogger) is self-absorbed (aren’t we all?) and that came through in the movie. I didn’t like her. But I adored Meryl Streep/Julia Child. I’m not sure if I liked Amy Adams in this role, but Meryl Streep, as always, rocked it.

When it was over I thought, “Well, okay … I can scratch that one off of my list.” I honestly don’t know if I liked it or not. And did Julia Child really not like her? That’s interesting …

Overall? Loved Karate Kid, am so-so on Eclipse and Julie & Julia. And the veggie pizza I had for dinner? Freakin’ fabulous!

“Meesaiko, when you wake us up tomorrow, you have to say, ‘Rise and shine, get up!’ …”

The command sounds simple enough, rise and shine. As I dig out clothes for tomorrow morning, I consider saying it in the morning to humor my tiny stepdaughter.

Emma is climbing into bed, plopping down, pulling her covers up to her chest and delicately smoothing the blanket. Jenna is still sitting in the middle of bedroom floor, putting her underwear on and fumbling with a fleece nightgown.

“Emma, you can be Rise and I can be Shine, okay?” Jenna says, matter-of-factly. Then she mimicks the way she thinks I’ll say it, ‘Wake up, Rise and Shine!’, and giggles.

And I giggle too because, dude, how damn cute can you be?

+++

It’s Sunday morning and Darin and I are picking the children up from an overnight at my parents’ house. They have been swimming, using swimsuits that stay at their grandparents’ house so we don’t have to bring them over every time we come. Jenna is wearing a t-shirt.

“Mommy! You fah-gotta bwing my bay-ding suit!” she yells at me, as if I had any idea they were spending the night when we dropped them off 15 hours before (I didn’t). “I swimmed in my shirt!”

Since her birth she has embodied all that is meant by an exclamation point. She is fully of energy! She is bossy and commands your attention! And her eyes grow big with excitement at almost every sentence! Sometimes, when she is upset or embarrassed, she is more like a semicolon and that ray of energy is broken or diverted, but the exclamation point always returns. This day, she is two exclamation points.

Jenna and the others have gone inside to change their clothes; Jenna, however, has been swimming in her ‘pennies’ and they are wet.

“You didn’t bwing me no dwy pennies!”

Wow, excuse me. I didn’t know you would end up swimming in your underoos. My apologies.

My mom takes Jenna’s wet undies and heads towards the laundry room, they need a quick run through the dryer. Ever the boss, Jenna follows her and tells her what to do.

“Gwammy! Put dem in the dwyer, NOT IN THE WETTER!”

The wetter. You know, the opposite of the dryer.

+++

Though he has been in her life since birth, Emma has never fully warmed up to her Uncle Isaac. And it’s become a running joke in the family.

“Emma, give Isaac a hug,” we’ll say. And she run away and hide. Almost every single time.

Jenna, on the other hand, LOVES Isaac. They’re like night and day, those two. (Bada-bing! Thank you, I’ll be here all week!)

Since Dara and Isaac have moved, Emma has decided to thaw the ice princess routine. Dara even has photographic proof that Emma sat next to Isaac one day.

Tonight we all went to watch Darin’s softball game and I tried to prepare Emma beforehand.

“Is Isaac your BFF, Emma? Say yes!” Look at me, forging everlasting friendships. Ha.

“Okay! I’ll say it.”

So fast-forward about an hour. Isaac and Dara show up and I remember our little joke.

“Emma, who’s your best friend?” I asked with a laugh.

She turns around to look for Isaac, then hides when they make eye contact. This is not going as planned.

“Emma, who’s your BFF?”

She peeks out, points at Isaac and says, “THAT GUY!”

+++

We have a free summer membership to the Pink Palace Museum in Memphis, so Sunday we took our first trip. There were a lot of neat exhibits and the kids really enjoyed it. They asked a lot of questions and at one exhibit, Jaylen asked about this funny metal contraption.

“That’s a cowbell,” I say.

Yeah, you know where I’m going with this, right?

A few seconds go by, then I say it, even though I know they won’t get it. It pretty much just stumbled out of my mouth. I couldn’t help it.

“Do you have a fever, Jaylen?”

Puzzled, he looks at me and shakes his head. I continue looking at different items and notice Darin has now joined us. He’s feeling Jaylen’s forehead, but I thought he was just aggravating him.

“Echo, he feels fine,” Darin says. “He doesn’t have a fever. Why’d you ask that?”

Seriously?

“I’ve got a fever … MORE COWBELL! Get it?”

“You are so not funny.”

He always says that, but he always laughs when he does. So I don’t believe him.

+++

We’re sitting at the dinner table, talking and chewing as we usually do. I’m staring at Jenna, trying to determine what’s different about her hair before I realize it was the other four-year-old with self-imposed layers.

“DID YOU CUT YOUR HAIR, JENNA GRACE?!”

I know she saw the fire in my eyes. The cut wasn’t so bad, I’ve seen much worse, but she needed to know it was not okay.

She nodded her head in honesty, letting me know she did, in fact, cut her own hair. And with her brother’s scissors. I’ve already been through this twice with Jaiden (well, three if you count the fact that she cut Jaylen’s hair too) and once with Emma, this is pretty much old news and, besides, it looks like long layers. Not bad at all.

“WHY did you cut your hair, Jenna?” I expected an ‘I don’t know’ but Jenna … well, Jenna’s gonna give it to you straight.

“I wanted to look like Jaiden!”

Well okay then.

+++

“Mom, can you like, set your alarm for 5 o’clock and we get up, get dressed and leave by 6 o’clock?”

This girl cannot be serious, I think. Jaiden is like her father (and her stepfather, for that matter) and loves to sleep. If no one bothered her, she’d sleep half the day away.

“What? No way! Why would you want to get up that early?”

We usually get up between 6:40-6:50 a.m. each morning, then hurriedly begin our day. It’s just how we roll.

“I want to beat Landon to Ms. G–’s house tomorrow. He gets there at 6:30 and he’s always the first one!”

She must be trippin’ if she thinks I’m getting up that early so that they can beat another kid to school. It’s summer break, for Heaven’s sake!

+++

“Stick with me and I’ll teach ya baseball,” my husband tells me before bed tonight, just after he’d spent 10 minutes explaining a play to me. A hidden ball trick, perhaps?

Good luck with that.

I’m the girl who asks about the lines on the football field (What are they, lasers? Can the players see them?) every single season. I really think he’s wasting his time.

It’s actually just after midnight right now, which means I didn’t technically get an entry in on June 12. Forgive me.

This morning, Jaiden, Jenna and I went over to my brother’s house and watch my niece and nephew for a bit while he and my sister-in-law had to work. We went to the library, where I realized how long it’s been since I’ve taken care of two toddlers going in opposite directions! lol. My two 4-year-olds are a little more independent and calm these days and I’d forgotten how tiring it can be with little one those ages (1.5 and 2.5). At one point, Caiden picked up a whole stack of books from the shelf, including the bookend, and set it on the kids’ table “to read”. Like 54 books or something. lol. And I didn’t see it happen because I was chasing Khloe down – she was hiding between VHS tapes.

We also met Darin and Jaylen at McDonalds, had lunch and let the older kids play for a bit, then came back home to nap. It was such a fun time, though. I love those little people!

For most of the rest of the day, I lied on the couch and read Black Beauty. Almost done! It’s changed the way I treat my puppies.

We’d had plans to watch the UFC fight with two other couples and neither was actually able to come, but since we’d already dropped the kids off at my parents’ house, we went anyway. A local restaurant shows the fights for free, they just ask that you purchase something from the menu. Anyhoo. Fights? Not really my thing. However, the last two were pretty good. So sorry for Chuck Liddell who REALLY got it handed to him, especially by a guy with a broken arm. Ouch.

And now, ’tis time for bed. Goodnight!

I had a great idea for dinner tonight: a dinner picnic in the park, followed by kids playing on the playground and parents walking around the track.

It was a good idea in theory, but for children who’ve been in the sun a little too much over the last few days, no bueno. So we decided to go with sandwiches in the house. Everyone had sandwiches for lunch, though.

A fun twist? A lunchbox dinner.

I made sandwiches for each of the children, gave them (Scrabble) Cheez-Its, string cheese and drinks inside their Shamu lunchboxes (what kids’ meals are served in at Sea World) and they thought it was fantastic. Everyone ate with almost no problem. They were waaay too giggly, but battling giggly is a lot easier than battling children who refuse to eat.

They each had the opportunity to choose what went on their sandwich, which always helps keep the dinnertime fights at bay. Why? Just like adults, children want control and power. Choosing what you eat is something simple that makes a big difference. I’m not a short order cook and I don’t run a restaurant, but from time to time we do plan dinners that allow them options: PB&J or ham & cheese? Pepperoni pizza or cheese?

One of my brothers recently criticized this, telling me I shouldn’t give four-year-olds choices. And why not? We were eating lunch that day and my kids cleaned their plates and thensome while … let’s just say his didn’t. Doesn’t work for everyone, but it’s worth a shot. Especially if some of your children are like some of mine and hate eating some nights.

This is what my life has looked like lately.

This is a shot from the inside of one of my notebooks at work, but you get the idea. Busy, chaotic, unorganized.

Up until this week, we had soccer, literally, six days a week. Softball on Mondays. Wednesdays are my long days at work. Saturdays we usually had three soccer games in the morning, an adult league game or two in the afternoon and perhaps a softball game at the same time. Sundays we had church and chores.

Several weeks ago I took on more responsibilities at work when my favorite co-worker left. (Not extra pay, just extra duties.) Quitting my job is always a weekly discussion around here and the reason I stay is because I love it. I love reporting. It’s fun and it’s not felt like a job until recently. And now? I kind of hate it. I’m a slave to my desk, it seems. My days are very long and stressful, trying to squeak everything out and do it in a timely fashion. Up until a few days ago, I’d not only been reporting and managing the website and social media sites (which is two jobs), but writing up obituaries, typesetting weddings and engagements and birth announcements and community correspondents, paginating, fielding phone calls and training two new employees. Let’s not forget writing stories and keeping on top of the social media sites are tough to manage on their own, but I am completely overwhelmed with trying to do it all.

By now, you know me. You know that I regularly bite off more than a lot of people can chew. I’m decent with managing things and don’t let a lot of things slip by me. You probably also know that in the midst of all of this, my husband also works and travels (sometimes), I have a photography business, I was a team mom for three soccer teams this season and, oh yeah, I have four kids.

I don’t get to watch a lot of television, but I do make time for Glee and, occasionally, Ghost Hunters with the hubby. Sometimes (like this weekend) we go on dates. I don’t cook as often as I used to. We’ve attempted a garden and landscaping the front yard. But my house is never clean (it’s been embarrassingly messy lately, what with all of this laundry that NEVER goes away) and I never get to see my friends and family members and I never get time to just sit, to just read.

Actually, right now I’m in the bathtub and when I’m finished honoring my blogging commitment I’m going to read a magazine, which is like a luxury.

Two weeks ago, I took a few days off and we traveled to Alabama and last weekend we went to San Antonio on vacation. This? Was FANTASTIC! And a reminder that I need to slow down.

From now until August we have no soccer practices. No school. Lots of daylight. We have no soccer games to take up our Saturdays. We’ve divided up the workload at work, so maybe I can get home at a decent time and leave work at, well, work (though I’m a workaholic, so I’ll need to work on it). We have a free membership to a Memphis museum for the summer, one I’ve always wanted to visit. I want to go to the sprinkler park in Collierville and the Ripley waterpark. I want to take the kids swimming at my parents’ house and to visit with their aunts and uncles (and cousins) who all moved 10 minutes away this past weekend. I’m planning trips to the library on Saturdays, especially now that my lovely sister-in-law is the librarian (and we have no soccer games! woo!). I also plan on eating lots of ice cream, just because I can.

This is now. And I want to enjoy it.

Again, I apologize for my absence. Sometimes we just have to weigh our priorities and lately mine have been in the family, full-time job, side job and soccer mom areas. Cleaning still remains at the bottom of my Things I Want to Do list, but a few nights ago I was up until 2 a.m. cleaning the kitchen, folding several loads of laundry and catching up on other things. Boring, I know. I try to avoid it, but last night it really needed to be done. Bleh. At least Thin Mints and Law & Order helped me through it.

We had a pretty awesome Easter, made even better by the fact that chocolate was present and I could finally eat it! That was a long 40+ days, my friends. LONG. And I will probably give chocolate up for Lent again next year. Once I got past the 21-day mark, I knew it was all downhill and I didn’t want to give up. I totally rocked Lent, people. Jesus is super proud and shows me each and every day by keeping my allergies mostly at bay.

We’ve had a visit from the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny recently. Neither has been on top of their game lately; the Tooth Fairy forgot to come when Jaylen’s second tooth came out and forgot the second night as well. Oopsies. Thankfully she pulled it out on the third day with $2 tucked inside a giftcard envelope. The Easter Bunny visited us on Easter morning and brought gardening toys, a plush animal, gardening gloves and little chocolate creatures (bunnies or owls). Can you guess what we’ve been working on?

These are our little seeds! We planted them on March 28 and they are big little guys already. This was taken almost two three weeks ago, so they are much bigger now. We’re growing spinach, onion, green beans (the tall guys!), watermelon, baby romaine, cantaloupe, carrots and cucumbers. We will likely not have success with some of these, but we thought we’d give it a shot. Project Garden 2010 will also include another attempt at growing tomatoes, plus peppers and something else I can never remember.

I talked to my grandmother for about 2 hours on her birthday (Oh! Strawberries! That’s what I’m forgetting!) and we discussed the garden. As a kid, my brothers and I spent summers at her house and we always loved picking strawberries. Anyway, so she asked if I was going to be hoeing and it took me a second to realize she meant the garden. My generation has negative, promiscuous connotations with the word hoe, unfortunately, but I promise to get out there and hoe it up every once in awhile. It’s all for the veggies, what can I say?

All of my babies are in soccer, as I’ve said. From the big one (Darin) down to the littlest of the little (Emma), everyone’s tying on some cleats this season and getting out on the field. As a sidenote: I love the above photo. I was snapping photos of the kiddos doing their “all-in”  last weekend and when I got home, I saw that one of our kids was getting a sweet little kiss from his dad, who was risking his job being at the game. Such a sweet moment and I’m so happy to have captured it. I’m taking photos at all of the games to give to parents at the end of the season, but I’m going to try to remember to print this out or email to his mom this week.

So: SOCCER. Last week was the first week of games (the week before they were rained out). Admittedly, I have little patience, but I’m working on it. Coaching 3- and 4-year-olds in soccer is … trying. I just don’t have the patience for it the way the other coach (pictured above) does.

Yesterday Last weekend Two weeks ago (it’s taken MANY tries to write this!) I also participated in my first-ever sporting event. I say participated rather than played, because most of the time I sat on the bench and waited to substitute people when they were tired. I scored a sunburn, though. This weekend I actually got out there and played. I really suck, but I try.

During the first half of our game this last weekend, I pulled a muscle in my thigh and was getting ready to sub out when I saw my husband drop to the ground. We both got hurt during the same play. Mine was just a pulled muscle, his was a very, very bad sprain. We’re talking red and blue and purple bruises and a walking boot thingy, bad. We really thought it was broken so I made him go to the ER, but thankfully it’s not. God took my sanity into mind, I do believe.

The kids and I have been loving the Woodland Phlox this year. So much of it came up on our property! It was really beautiful. We picked enough for two really large (and I mean REALLY LARGE!) bouquets plus a couple of smaller bouquets as well and displayed them on our mantle, TV stand and dining room table. They’re very pretty and springy!

A few weeks ago Darin went out of town for 10 days, which means it was me and 3-4 kids at the house. Alone. For days on end. I was a single mom for several years before Darin and I got married and I’m not used to the independent lifestyle anymore. You don’t realize how much someone does for you until they go away. It’s hard to adjust sometimes, especially because I have to get up earlier and have to make sure Emma is ready for school at the same time we usually wake up when Darin’s home (Grandma picks her up when Daddy’s not here).

Not that I’m whining about him being gone because he’s just going to trade shows, not war zones, and he’ll be back in a week or two or three. But when you have four children, parenting is difficult, especially when your right hand man is away. Anyway. I’m a Navy brat and former Army wife, adapting is in my blood. When your significant other is away, you suck it up and drive on, you don’t wallow in self-pity. I’m pretty independent and pride myself on knowing that I can do just about anything I put my mind to and what I can’t do, I can be resourceful and find someone who can.

So one Saturday, while I was on top of the world and my husband was somewhere in Bean Town with post-Fenway euphoria, I decided I’d mow the grass. It needed it and, well, sometimes I’m a nice wife who wants to do something nice for her husband so he can spend more time with her when he gets home. It was a novel idea, yes.

Except, well, I’d never, ever mowed the grass before. I grew up with two younger brothers and they always did it. I’d never learned. I did learn how to operate a riding mower as a child, thanks to one of my late grandfathers, so at least I had that going for me, but I really didn’t know how to start ours or what to do once I got it going.

Can you see where this is going? Not a good place, let me just say.

I had to let my 6- and 7-year-olds ride with me to tell me what to do. My children taught me how to mow the grass – and how to follow my husband’s OCD rules on where to go when you mow. (Just a sidenote: WHY does he mow all of that DIRT?) I’m sure we were quite the sight.

And, word to the wise, you can’t back up with the blades down. Apparently the mower doesn’t quite prefer to do that. It cuts off when you do, just so you know. Because I did it and it shut off. Several times. Then it wouldn’t start three times. The third time? We were stuck. Way in the back corner of the yard. At the bottom of a hill so steep drunk people trip walking up it (don’t ask).

Let the hilarity ensue.

I couldn’t get it started, no matter what I did. And yes, we had gas. So the kids and I PUSHED IT up the stupid hill and into the garage. It’s quite the workout, just so you know.

Oh, but it doesn’t end there. (Of course not, right?)

The yard looked really awful, so an hour or so later I decided to try it again. And? IT STARTED! Yay! I got back out there and started mowing it. My brother and sister-in-law dropped by and said it looked like a bad haircut. lol. The kids were mad at me because I wouldn’t let them ride this time – I was tired of stopping to switch passengers and trying to finish in the daylight. I was also going really, really fast. And sideways on the hill.

And that? Is how I figured out that the mower stops when your butt is not on the seat.

Because I was gettin’ it, going pretty fast across the steep hill, and totally FELL OFF. And tumbled down the hill a little bit. But the mower stopped, which is important. My husband would be really, really pissed if his mower went tumbling (the wife, not so much).

My kids saw it happen. And it was totally embarrassing! I got back up and finished. I haven’t mowed since.

I think I will stick with things I’m good at, like planting flowers (not that I really know how to do that very well, either).

And speaking of that, we have curb appeal now. This makes me happy! We dug out a flower bed in front of the porch, cleaned out the existing bed and put in new dirt. Then we planted some azaleas and bedding plants, but the stupid big dog keeps digging in the flower beds. (This REALLY infuriates me!) Our friends/neighbors/co-worker Gwen and TJ dug up and split some of their hostas for me, so I planted those last weekend. They look so cute!

Of course the azaleas in front of the garage (the left in the photo above) have all died. I don’t know why. The porch flower bed has a lot more top soil mix in it and the other bed is mostly clay, so that could be the reason. And this is where I tell you I really, really hate clay. It sucks.

Last Sunday I had an engagement/bridal shoot with Erika and Joshua. They’re getting married on May 22 and Gwennie and I are shooting the wedding. We had SO MUCH FUN on Sunday’s shoot with them and we got some REALLY great photos, too! Still working on post-processing them and I will definitely share the rest of the set when I’m done.

We shot bridals for about 2 hours, then engagement shots for an hour. Gwen & I make a really, really good team (we have 3 years’ worth of teamwork at the paper). We researched engagement shoots for inspiration, then put that to work with Joshua and Erika. They were so willing and cooperative!

Erika’s bridals were done around the square in Covington and at one point we passed an antique shop owned by our former co-worker Sherri, who decided to let us use a red velvet sofa. Sherri and her new co-worker Mary K moved that thing to the middle of an intersection on the square and as we finally got ready to get to shooting, a deputy came by and held traffic for us (small town charm, what can I say?). The photos came out SO GREAT! I can’t wait to share, but we have to wait until their wedding day to do so. Let me just say: I am SUPER proud of these shots! Be on the lookout for those on May 22.

I’m also working on getting a new look for the site – I’ve chosen a blogsite style – and I’ll let you know when that makes its debut.

And now that it’s taken me three weeks to finally write this, let me wrap it up! For daily updates, you can always follow me on Twitter and don’t forget to become a fan of Echo Day Photography on Facebook!