My Real Life

1.  Last summer, Real Man bought a Jeep.

Suddenly, he noticed people were waving to him when he was driving.

All the time.

At first we thought that maybe people just liked the Jeep, and then we noticed that all of the people who were waving were also driving Jeeps.

We started to think that, maybe, it was a “thing.”

So, we did what everyone does when they don’t know something.

We googled it.

And it is, in fact, a “thing.”

There are forums dedicated to the “Jeep Wave.”

Who knew?

2.  I spent all day Saturday and Saturday night in the city with Kim, Erin and Michaela.

We had a fantastic time together and I just love those girls.

Kim did a Mark Wahlberg impression that had me almost snorting my boneless pork ribs out of my nose.

(BTW…Buddakan has the most delicious boneless pork ribs I have ever, ever eaten.  They made them special for us because they cook a lot of their food in oyster sauce which would have had me stabbing myself in the thigh with an Epi-Pen, but I’m sure they were just as good in the oyster sauce!)

We slept in Kim’s apartment which was absolutely dead silent while we slept.

And yet…

6:48 am, guess who was wide awake?

Yep.  Me.

Hate that.

3.  How much do I love the fact that the entire adult cast of Modern Family was nominated for Best Actor or Best Actresses, and that two of them won.

That show makes me laugh out loud every single week.

Congrats.

4.  Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

Stayed away for a very long time.

Caught one episode.

Sat like a zombie with my mouth open in complete disbelief of what I was seeing.

Can’t. Look. Away.

However, the one thing I will say is that they all seem very, very happy in their lives, and that’s gotta count for something.

5.  I wonder…if I ever won an Emmy award if I would remember to thank everyone I wanted to thank, or if I’d be in such shock that I’d thank the guys at the food service truck and completely forget Real Man and the kids.

I like to think that I’d be able to keep my wits about me, but I wouldn’t put money on it.

6.  I just finished the book “Shadow of Night” by Deborah Harkness.

It’s the second in a trilogy, and I read the first book last year: “The Discovery of Witches.”

So good.

So very good.

However, I had to wait a year for the second one to come out and now I have to wait a year for the third one to come out.

Grrrr…

Finding a trilogy after they’ve all been written = fun.

Finding a trilogy at the beginning of the trilogy = an exercise in extreme patience.

7.  The monkeys are interested in doing another video blog for you, however, we need questions!

So, if you have any questions for the monkeys, please drop them in the comments below!

Have a great week!

Today I thought I might post things as they happen.

I’m heading into the city today to spend the day and night with the girls in a little rest and relaxation centered bachelorette-type deal for Kim.

Nothing crazy…lunch, dinner, chilling with the girls.

Perfect.

So, throughout the day (providing my phone cooperates) I’ll be posting what I’m doing in real time.

Which means the blog won’t be finished until the end of the day, but seeing a work in progress is always fun, too!

7:24

Getting some last minute snuggles.

9:29 am
On my way!

11:00
Reunited!

11:56 am
SOHO street fair

12:17 pm
Bobo for lunch!

1:57 pm
Le Petite Puppy

2:31 pm
Shopping break

4:14 pm
A little shoe shopping

5:12 pm
The bride bought US all slippers for our slumber party!

5:49 pm
Snacks at Kim’s place
The best cheese ever

6:31 pm
Ready to go to dinner
Me and the bride 🙂

7:12 pm
Buddakan for dinner

10:30 pm
Back to Kim’s for our slumber party!

When I was in middle school, I was a latchkey kid.

I was a latchkey kid before middle school, but my story takes place in middle school.

When I was in middle school, I was a latchkey kid.

When I was in middle school, we got HBO.

It was awesome.

Anyone remember HBO in the early days?

The camera going down the streets in the fake city while the HBO theme music played?

“Da da daaa, da daaa, da da da da…da da daa, (dadadumdadadum) da da daa (dadadumdadadum)…”

Anyway…

I watched a lot of movies on HBO after school while “doing my homework.”

One of them has always stuck with me.

Maybe because for a two month period, it was on at 3:00 every single day so I watched it a gajillion times.

Maybe it was because, even as a seventh grader, the movie moved me to big, enormous sobbing tears.

The movie was “Six Weeks” with Mary Tyler Moore and Dudley Moore.

MTM had a daughter who was a ballet dancer, and is diagnosed with leukemia.

Somewhere along the way, they meet Dudley and the adults fall in love.

The night before the daughter gets her dream of performing in the Nutcracker she performs a pretend wedding for her mother and Mr. Moore.

The vows always make me cry.

“…for now…for there isn’t any always…”

Ugh.  Because she knows she’s dying and for now is all there is.

Get it?

Awful.

Then, she dances in the show and dies in her mothers arms on the subway.

Oh, sorry…spoiler alert.

I’m tearing up just thinking about it.

I may need to see if Netflix has it.

If I watched it now, I might find it horrifyingly cheesy, but I doubt it.

It was my first real tearjerker.

Not my last.

Kim can tell you.

We saw Steel Magnolias together.

“I could jog all the way to Texas and back…but my daughter can’t!”

We also saw My Girl together.

“Where are his glasses?  He can’t see!  Where are his glasses?”

Surprised we didn’t flood the town with our tears.

I saw Marley and Me a few years ago.

I had specifically not watched that film because I knew it would make me cry.

Then, one day while on maternity leave, it was on.

Why not? I figured.

Why not, indeed.

Poor Real Man got a call that went something like this:

“What’s the matter with you?  Why would you leave me home alone to watch a movie like Marley and Me?  Do you know about this movie?  Do you know what happens?  The dog…that sweet, sweet dog!  It’s awful!  Awful!  Why would you let me watch this?  You have to monitor what I watch…you know I can’t watch sad movies like this!  This is all your fault!”

All of the above said through heaving sobs and sniffles full of snot that could not be contained as the tears ran down my cheeks.

Poor guy.

Anyway, I’ve been feeling kinda sappy lately, and I keep thinking about Six Weeks.

Do you have a go-to sad movie?

One that you watch when you just want to wallow for awhile?

I’d be interested to hear.

Because I’m always up for a good cry.

We had no school on Monday due to the Jewish holiday.

Happy New Year to my friends who celebrate!

I’ve been missing my kids like I’ve lost a limb since school started (although passing Monkey Girl in the hallway every day certainly helps) so I decided to make the best of the day.

We started with me making pancakes and the kids stuffing themselves full of them.

Then, we hit the park in a neighboring town.

It’s a park we frequent often, however, we didn’t go throughout the summer because parks + heat make us all grumpy.

We’re fall park people.

Which means, Tiny was in a stroller or carseat when last we hit this park.

He had a blast.

They all did.

We spent a good few hours there and then met Real Man for lunch.

Came home, did some laundry, Monkey Girl baked some cookies, big boys played with cars and Tiny took a nap.

Then, we drove Monkey Girl to voice lessons, and the boys and I hit another park.

No time for pictures there, as Tiny had figured out how parks are done and he was on the move.

We’re fortunate to live in an area that has so many amazing places for kids to play.

Side note: I’m typing this post on Monday night after the kids have already fallen asleep.

Baby just came in to tell me he had a bad dream.

What about?

A tornado.

I’ve always said this kid had a sixth sense.

(If you are confused right now, go back a few posts and find the one about all the dreams I’ve been having about tornadoes lately.  And, no…I did not discuss this with the kids.)

I’ve been having a lot of dreams about tornadoes lately.

Last night, the dream was that I was in Wooster, Ohio (where I went to college).

My friend, Sharon, asked if I wanted to go to church with her, so I said okay.

She drove Monkey in the Middle and I to church and we found the last spot in the parking lot.

We walked to the door together and MiM and I walked in.

Some woman waved me over and said, “He can come with me,” and he went off to the children’s activity and I turned around to ask Sharon where she wanted to sit, but she wasn’t anywhere to be seen.

However, suddenly Real Man’s sister was waving to me from the back of the church, so I went over to her.

We sat together for, what felt like, and interminable service and when it was over, I said, “I’m going to get MiM.”

We went to the kids room where he was involved in some activity with paints and glue.  He was very happy to see me.

We walked out into the parking lot and Sharon was standing there, tapping her foot.

“$475,” she said.

I was like, “Huh?”

She told us that she had, apparently, parked illegally and the cops had come and she now had a ticket for $475.

She was furious, as you can imagine, and as she’s talking, MiM starts tugging on my sleeve.  I look down at him and he’s staring into the sky.

I follow his gaze and see an enormous, black tornado swirling toward us.

Sharon, me, MiM, Real Man (who suddenly appears), and my sister-in-law hop into Sharon’s BMW (not really sure what kind of car she drives in real life) and she starts backing up to get away, however, it’s too close.

The car starts spinning and spinning, but staying on the ground.  Real Man is holding on to MiM and I for dear life (once we got in the car, his sister disappeared) and the car just spins and spins and then the funnel just disappears up into the sky.

Real Man, Mim and I hop out of the car and just start racing toward campus because all we can think about is finding Monkey Girl, Baby and Tiny, and then I woke up.

That’s how most of my natural disaster dreams are.  I’m in the midst of it, either alone or with one of the kids, and after the tide recedes, the funnel goes back into the clouds, the winds die down, I am running like the devil is at my heels to get to the rest of the family.

One website I checked said that tornado dreams mean you are feeling overwhelmed or life is chaotic.  I can definitely get on board with that explanation, these days.

I wrote about that very thing the other day, however, I don’t feel like life is out of control.

Or, maybe I do and I just don’t realize it.

My dreams are always quite colorful and intricate and I usually remember them upon waking, so they offer me a lot of fodder for self-reflection.

Hopefully tonight, instead of dreaming about almost being swept away by a tornado I could dream about winning the lottery.

That would be a much nicer way to wake up.

Right now…

…Monkey Girl is lying on her bed, reading, as she’s been doing for the past hour and a half.  Almost done with one book, ready to pick up the next.

…Monkey in the Middle is playing basketball on the deck with Real Man, after having a football catch in the backyard, after taking a walk around the neighborhood.

…Baby and Tiny are taking a break from playing together, having a snack in the kitchen, one heading toward a nap when he’s done, the other heading to the basement to continue his play.

…I am finishing up some schoolwork that I worked on until 9:30 last night when I finally called it a day.  Hoping to head out to shoot a few hoops with the big boys, unless they wear out before I get there.

1. How long did it take for you to find your wedding dress? (Wedding dress pics anyone?)

1 day.

I hit a store in town, tried on 5 dresses, said no.

I hit one store in another town, saw my dress hanging, fell in love, tried it on and that was that.

I’m pretty decisive about things.

2. Someone in your general vicinity releases a NASTY smelling fart. Do you say anything or blow it off?

Depends who it is that is in my general vicinity.

Real Man/my parents/the kids…I say something.

Anyone else…I blow it off.

They’ve gotta be embarrassed as heck.  Why add to it?

3. What is the scariest thing that happened to you or scared you recently?

I looked at myself in the mirror.

Okay, okay…I kid.

Truly?

I caught an episode of Here Comes Honey Boo Boo.

Trust me.  It qualifies as scary.

4. Favorite brand and flavor of ice cream.

It’s a tie.

Baskin Robbins Peanut Butter Chocolate or Breyer’s Mint Chocolate Chip.

However, since they both have to be distant memories for me, Edy’s No Sugar Added Triple Chocolate satisfies my sweet tooth in small amount.

5. Are you able to sleep well in hotels?

Like a baby.

But, that may have to do with the fact that I’ve never stayed in a hotel with the monkeys.

Just maybe.

School has started and we are all adjusting to the new routine.

Some days, Monkey Girl and I are up and out of here before the boys are even blinking their eyes.

(Not including Real Man who is up at the crack of dawn to exercise)

We drop off Tiny on our way to school, and hit the ground running once we get there.

After school there is field hockey, football, ice hockey, voice lessons, youth group at one church, CCD at another, dinner, baths, showers, books and finally (blissfully) bed.

I don’t say this to complain.  We are no more busy than any other family I know, and everyone seems to be fully enjoying school and the activities with which they are involved.

Nighttime routines have changed, as well.

Monkey in the Middle is allowed to stay up half an hour later than he used to, and Baby Monkey has adjusted well to going to bed alone.

Monkey in the Middle has also decided he doesn’t want to sit with Baby while he is read to before bed.

Instead, he brings his own chapter book into Monkey Girl’s room and reads on her bed, next to her.

(Of course, he wanted me to know that, every now and then, he wouldn’t mind hearing some of those books we pick out of the library…particularly the Halloween ones.)

So, Baby gets Real Man and/or I all to himself during books, which makes going to bed alone more palatable.

By the time Monkey in the Middle is done with his reading time, Baby Monkey is fast asleep, and Monkey in the Middle is soon to follow.

And then there is Monkey Girl who would stay up reading all night if we let her.

However, she too has a bedtime and when it comes, we go in and tuck in that long body of hers, kiss her and tell her how very much we love her.

And then go collapse in our bed.

For ten minutes until Monkey Girl comes in to tell us something she forgot to tell us before bedtime.

And then wants to be re-tucked in.

Some things never change.

🙂

Another thing that never changes is dinner.

It remains one of the highlights of my day as we sit around and share stories from our days, adults and children talking to each other and over each other, but still listening to each other, Tiny shrieking his own little sentences from his chair, desperate to be part of the conversation.

It’s a new routine…very different from the laid back ease of the summer.

It’s chaotic on the best of days, and yet…

Life is good.