My Real Life

Last week was Spring Break, and originally, my plan had been to take the monkeys into the city to see the Harry Potter exhibit before it heads out of town in April.

However, at the last minute, Monkey Girl and I were invited to go into the city to see “Annie” on Broadway.

We said ‘yes’ and spent last Wednesday in NYC with a good friend of Monkey Girl’s and her mom.

We had a blast.

Julia and her friend are two peas in a pod, and I was able to overcome (I hope) my general social wonkiness and appear to be a semi-normal person.

However, the trip in reminded me just how long the train ride is, and thinking about Tiny on that train for that long made me begin to get a little tic.

I talked about it with Julia’s friends mom, who I think I can safely now call my friend, and she shared with me something she and her husband used to do when her kids were little.

They’d take the train just a few stops toward the city to a town that had a park and a playground at the train station.

They’d play for awhile, get some lunch in town, and then head home.

My boys are always asking to go on the train, and we haven’t taken them, except for once, a few years ago, and this seemed like a great solution and a nice, little adventure.

Also, kids ride for half price and Tiny was free, so the cost wasn’t prohibitive, which is always a concern when you have four kids.

So, Saturday morning, we woke up, told everyone to get dressed and headed to the car.

Now Saturday morning happened to be the same day that this happened:

…so, before hitting the train station, I picked up a few papers at the store.

The cashier already had seen the front page when I walked in and said “Oh my gosh!  I saw this was you and I’ve been telling everyone, ‘She comes in here all the time!'”

I. Felt. Like. A. Rock. Star.

I bought five copies and off we went.

When we pulled into the parking lot of the train station, the boys were beyond excited, but were a little apprehensive, as well.

Baby Monkey was concerned that the train might be too loud.

Monkey in the Middle was sure we didn’t know what time it was coming, that I didn’t buy the right tickets, that we wouldn’t be able to sit together, that we would miss our stop, etc.

That’s traveling with Monkey in the Middle, though.

I had clued in Monkey Girl the night before, so she helped us out with assuring the guys it would all be okay, and, as you might imagine, Baby Monkey just kept asking “Where we goin’?”

The train came, we got on and the kids loved it.

I’m not sure what it is about my boys and modes of transportation.

Cars, trucks, trains.

They love them all.

This was no exception.

They looked out the window, marveled when the conductors voice would tell us the next stop, watched the ticket takers with fascination, and couldn’t believe how quickly we made it from town to town on the train.

And Tiny continued to ask “Where we goin’?”

We got to the correct station, hopped off and hit the park.

We played for what felt like forever, and then decided to have lunch.

We hit a bagel shop, got fruit, bagels and sandwiches and had a great lunch.

Headed back to the train station, twenty minutes early, where I told everyone to go to the bathroom, but no one had to go.

Five minutes before the train was to arrive, guess what?

Monkey in the Middle suddenly HAD to go.

We ran for it and he made it.

We got back just as they were making the announcement that we were on the wrong platform, so we booked it up the stairs, over the bridge and back down on the other side just as the train pulled in.

The ride home was much quieter:

Tiny didn’t even have time to utter “Where we goin’?” before he fell fast asleep.

Nice little trip, half day, good times.

It was a nice reminder that you don’t always  have to go whole hog when trying to do something special for the kids.

They appreciate the effort of anything, and something as basic as this can turn into an adventure they’ll never forget.

(Even if the thing they’ll never forget is the woman who was pulled over by two cops, taken out of her car, and the put in the back of the police car after a very wobbly walk on a straight line.  Real Police action beats any other adventure any day.)

For those of you who celebrate, I hope you have a wonderful holiday with family!

At our house, the bunny came and was good to our monkeys.

Baskets were hidden inside a Tardis play tent (which immediately identifies us as the nerdiest family on the block, but these monkeys love Dr. Who and his time-travel machine, the Tardis) and in each basket was a sonic screwdriver, another Dr. Who  invention.

Throw in a treat or two and Easter is done.

Don’t worry…we aren’t one of those families that confuses Easter and Christmas.

That bunny seemed to know that we still have Halloween candy that the monkeys haven’t eaten, in our pantry, so he went light on the candy and threw the two Dr. Who surprises in the mix.

Saves me from eating leftover candy for the next ten months, and gives them something to stimulate the imagination.

It’ll be interesting to see if anyone tries to smuggle their sonic screwdriver into church, later this morning.

Easter at our house…okay, everything at our house…always a little different, but we like it that way.

(Yes, yes…that is a 5 pound Hershey bar front and center.  Don’t even ask.)

We are a good three months into 2013 now, and I think that’s a fair amount of time to look at my 20 Wishes for 2013 and see how we are doing.

I’ll be honest, I’m not feeling particularly good about it, but I have to admit that I haven’t looked at the list in awhile, so I could be doing better than I thought, without even realizing it.

Yeah, let’s hope for that.

1. Take the family to DisneyWorld. We’ve been talking about doing this for quite awhile and just haven’t done it. I want this to be the year.

So…there actually was a plan in place and we were getting prices and were planning to take the family, as a surprise, next week.  However, a few things came up and won’t be resolved by then, and so we are having to postpone.  Until these things get resolved, I also can’t really make any future plans (it sounds dire, it’s not…I’ll explain when I’m able) so we are still thinking about it and are planning to plan it when we are able.  (Planning to plan…ay-yay-yay.)

2. Get a playset for the backyard. I want the kids to play outside more, and I know my kids and a playset would definitely do it.

This weekend, in fact, Real Man and I are going playset hunting.  We’re hoping it’s simple like, “We want this one.  Here’s our money.  Come set it up.  Go play.”  But, someone started saying things about having to get the yard graded, etc. and we are not happy with that.  Fingers crossed – easy to find and simple.
3. Get weight down by 9 pounds AND KEEP IT THERE. Goal weight: 125

Um, let’s make that 11 pounds, now.  It has been a stressful, stressful few months around the monkey house and I am a stress eater.  I also haven’t made the time to exercise in quite awhile and the scale this morning showed me the consequences of those two things put together.  Very disappointed in myself.

Steps in the right direction – I’m back to logging my food at WeightWatchers.com and I used the delayed opening, this morning, to hit the treadmill.  In a stroke of genius, I chose to start watching “Breaking Bad” while on the treadmill this morning and I am hooked.  I am only going to allow myself to watch that show while on the treadmill, so that will definitely motivate me.
4. Incorporate more vegetables into the family diet.

I’m working on it…I am.  In the last few weeks of the play and then with Tiny in the hospital, veggies took a backseat for awhile, but they are back.  Roast Beef in the crockpot for dinner tonight with green beans and raw, cut up red peppers.
5. Make $1,000 by selling on eBay.

We were cooking, there, for awhile, but again, life got in the way.  I plan to look around, this weekend, to find some more things to start selling again.  This is a doable goal.
6. Get blog readership to 200 per day average.

Interestingly, you’d think that I would have doubled my readers with the publicity that the book is getting.  I haven’t.  For awhile, when we would all give shout outs to the other authors, the format that the blogs were listed had me last, and I think people petered out about midway through the list.  They reorganized, and it still wasn’t helping.  However, I do have a few more Facebook followers on the My Real Life FB page, so that is something.  I’m still working on it, and with our first book signing coming up, I’m hopeful that will improve my numbers as well.
7. Make home office neat, organized, and functional.

That’s a project for next weekend.  I’ve already taken the “before” picture.
8. Read 50 books (and keep track!)

I got up to 11 before life exploded.  The play, Tiny, and now the book.  This whole book thing is like a second full-time job.  Keeping up with the emails and posts and press releases and events and publicity.  Seriously…like another full-time job.  It all leaves me completely wiped out at the end of the day and I can barely stay awake for the shows that we have DVR’d by the time I am able to relax, so reading isn’t in the picture.  However, Erin made a book recommendation, the other day, that I am going to check out.  Although, I have read this book.  Have you?
9. Get pictures hung. We’ve been here a year and a half and haven’t hung up our pictures yet. Drives me nuts.

Not yet.
10. Have family photo taken.

Not with these 11 pounds to lose.
11. Really go through my closet and be ruthless with getting rid of what I don’t wear.

I’m thinking about this for a Spring Break project, next week. 🙂
12. Play piano at least once a week. I teach piano lessons, so I am always at the piano, but I rarely carve out the time to play for myself. I went to college as a vocal and piano performance major and I feel like I’m neglecting that part of myself.

I was doing well with this, and then it fell by the wayside.  I may sit down for a few minutes before my piano student comes, this afternoon, and play a piece of two.
13. Only eat out once a week, if at all.

I plead the fifth.  It’s been nuts around here, okay?  I did a good grocery shop yesterday, though, so I’m looking at homemade for some time to come.
14. Write in my journal more often. I only wrote in it twice in 2012, so anything would be an improvement! I think keeping the blog up every day takes it’s place, but they have different purposes and I don’t want to neglect my journal writing.

Next.
15. Really learn about self-publishing to see if it is an option for my novel.

I’ve learned a LOT about self-publishing through this whole I Just Want to Pee Alone experience.  I think it is definitely an option for my novel.  I just need to feel like it’s ready for the public eye, and after so long, I’m not sure.

Which leads me to #16.
16. Re-edit my novel.

I think the first book I need to read when I get a minute is my own.  It’s time to really go through it again and re-familiarize myself with the story. It’s definitely been long enough that I’m not too close to the material, any more.
17. Shred and pare down all of our files.

Not yet.
18. Sell the van.

This one makes me so weary, I don’t even want to talk about it.
19. Take more pictures.

January was the month of picture taking.

Then came February and I still took pictures, but not as many.

March…maybe one or two?

I’ll get back to it in April when Spring inspires me to pick up the camera again.

There are only so many pictures you can take with an icky, gray background.
20. Be outside more.

It snowed today.

We had a delayed opening.

Enough said.

1.  My kids crack me up.

They’ve been huddled around my laptop for almost an hour, intently working on something.

What are they doing?

Mapping out routes to random places using Google Maps.

Me:  “What are you doing, there?”

Baby Monkey:  “Using Google Maps.”

Me:  “Why?  You going somewhere?”

Monkey in the Middle: “It’s important to know how to go places.  And, if you zoom down to street level, you can pretend it’s a driving game.”

—–

2.  Real Man is more than a little awesome.

We were not having a good day.

Any of us.

Everyone was grumping at everyone else and it was going downhill quickly.

So, while sitting at dinner, Real Man holds up a spoon and says, “This is the love spoon.  We’re going to pass it around and when it’s your turn to hold the spoon, you have to say why you love someone at this table, and it has to be specific and more than ‘he’s nice,’ or ‘she’s funny.'”

And they did it.

And the day was saved.

More than a little awesome, that guy I married.

—–

3.  I don’t know how Instagram works, but everyone seems to have an Instagram account.

I mean, I have an account, but I always figured it was just to take pictures and then add cool effects.

I’m not sure how to (or why to) follow people on Instagram.

Is this really something else I need to do?

I love social media…I really do.

I just don’t know if I can add something else to my list of things to read, watch or check.

Weigh in, friends.

Instagram…worth it?

—–

4.  I am currently loving these commercials:

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5.  Don’t forget to enter our contest to win a free copy of I Just Want to Pee Alone.

Not just any copy…a signed copy…signed by the four New Jersey authors.

I don’t mean to brag, but I’m one of them.

Contest ends tonight at 8 pm.

I had the opportunity, recently, to have lunch with three of the other writers in “I Just Want to Pee Alone.”

We are the Jersey contingent to the book.

I’ll admit, I was feeling more than a little nervous.

These women are pros.

They pull in numbers of readers on a daily basis that I don’t even dream of matching in a year.

They have Facebook followers out the wazoo and their reach is far and wide.

I’m…

Well, I’m just me.

So, throughout this whole book experience, I’ve been feeling a bit…

…inadequate isn’t the word I want, but it’s the only one that’s coming to mind.

We met at a New Jersey diner and got to talking.

Okay, they got to talking and I just listened.

(Yes, I realize that those of you know who know me well are shocked to hear that I was quiet.  It happened.)

These women were a wealth of knowledge and they were funny and real and normal.

I liked them and they seemed like people I’d like to know even if we hadn’t written a best-selling book together.

(You didn’t think I was going to not plug the book today, did you?)

So, I’ve expanded my world a bit and you get to benefit.

How, you ask?

Oh, because while we were lunching, we signed some books.

For you.

If you’d like to win a copy of “I Just Want to Pee Alone”, complete with the signatures of the four New Jersey contributors, simply leave me a comment below, telling me about a great thing that has happened to you in the past week.

I think we can all use a pick me up, these days, so positive comments get you an entry.

And…of course…you get an extra entry for sharing a link to this post on Facebook or Twitter.

Contest ends Tuesday night at 8 pm!

Once you’ve entered, please go check out the blogs of my amazing New Jersey co-authors.  They rock.

Kim at Let Me Start By Saying

Anna at Random Handprints

Kim at The Fordeville Diaries

Remember…if you’ve already read the book, or are planning to, please head over to Amazon and leave some feedback!