You Know You're a Parent When...

You are painfully aware of the futility of trying to maintain or repair ANYTHING in a room shared by young boys.

This torn wallpaper is actually worse behind the dresser! I probably would have taken it a lot harder had I been the one to decorate this room, but it came this way when we bought our house. It will serve until the boys are old enough to want to change it.

Notice that this ceiling fan is not only missing a blade, but it's light globe is also long gone.We should have known better than to put the boys' bunk-bed under the fan, but the room is pretty square and it was going to be within reach where ever we put it. The popcorn ceiling is also a daily casualty of the bunk-bed. Those little white buggers are all over the place; you would think it was snowing indoors!

Postscript: One of our three sons is solely responsible for the wallpaper, ceiling fan blade and the ceiling popcorn removal (breaking the light globe was a joint effort). Those of you who know our boys can probably guess which one has done all of this damage, those of you who don't know our sons can refer to this post to draw your own conclusion.

Take These Broken Dreams!

Christmas, a Florida vacation and then the flu, I certainly have not been able to keep-up with everything with so much disruption in life. So, it came as no surprise to me when strange movies began to appear in the mailbox as a result of a long, neglected Netflix Que.

Haven't we all done this before?

I am sure at some point in my Netflix organizing, I had a good reason to put The Secret of My Success in my que, but I can't seem to remember why!

Watching a few of these golden oldies from the eighties got me to thinking about how our culture used to view the corporate business world as compared to today.

Secret of My Success, Trading Places, Working Girl, Wall Street, Baby Boom, just to name a few, are all examples of the idealism in which we once viewed the suit-and-tie, corporate boardroom lifestyle. Hollywood told us that anyone could make a fortune in the business world with just a little common sense and an assumed identity!

Do they even make movies like this anymore? I am hard pressed to think of any modern movies that similarly create the illusion of a "Get Rich Quick" corporate world.

What kind of fortune making schemes do Americans aspire to today? My best guess is that young people have transferred their adoration of the yuppie business world, to an adoration of celebrity life. Movies released over the past decade often revolve around the lives of celebrities, some fictionalized, for example: Notting Hill, Almost Famous, Americas Sweethearts, and American Dreamz. Not to mention television reality shows like American Idol.

In both of these cases, whether it is in a corporate office or on a stage, singing in front of thousands, the general theme is that fame and fortune can be easily acquired.

Isn't that the whole underlying idea that appeals to us lazy Americans?

Americans want it all, but they shouldn't have to work too hard or sacrifice anything.

Here is my list of 80's Businessman Get Rich Quick & Easy Movies

1. Wall Street
2. Trading Places
3. Risky Business
4. Working Girl
   
5. Secret of My Success
6. Baby Boom
7. Big Business
8. Big
9. Mr. Mom (Teri Garr is a mom turned tuna fish advertising genius)
   

Please let me know if I forgot any!!

Back to Life, Back to Reality

We are all trying to get back into our normal routine this morning after spending last week in Florida, camping and visiting Disney World. We all had a wonderful vacation; thank-you to Grandma and Grandpa Holland for the perfect Christmas gift!

Eight of us shared a campsite in the Disney park at their Fort Wilderness and we visited 3 of their 4 theme parks: Epcot, Animal Kingdom and Magic Kingdom. The weather was beautiful, the crowds were light, the lines were short and the food was delicious (just ask my bathroom scale!).

Now I am beginning the difficult task of getting everything back into functioning order here at home. The kids have resumed their schoolwork this morning and there is swim practice and theater later this afternoon. There was very little downtime during our holiday break and this morning I have had to hit the ground running despite feeling a little groggy and hungover from the excess of fun and relaxation.

Here are some pictures from our visit. Enjoy!

Corby and the kids ride to the swimming pool with Grandma

We were surprised by how much Henry loved the Disney Characters

Grandpa and Elora riding the bus back to camp for the little boys' naptime.The boys wait for the Epcot fireworks showI think the little boys ended up riding this over 10 times.All the kids loved Thunder Mountain Railroad, although Jacob did not want to ride it again because it was too wild. (click this photo for a better look at Jacob's expression!)

The Case of The Smelly Trash Cans

During the course of an average day at home with four young children, there are often strange mysteries that arise. Parents must often tap into crime-solving skills residually learned from watching the X-files, Law & Order and perhaps even the Spielberg classic Young Sherlock Holmes.

Each day I am left wondering:

Where did this come from? Who started this fight? How is this getting so dirty? Why does this keep getting moved? What is this thing?

One of my proudest moments as a mommy sleuth involved a cellphone that had been missing for a few days (long enough to lose its charge) and a curious light left on in a closet. With no adult explanation for why the coat closet light was on, I knew that something was not quite right. After digging way back under a nest of jackets I discovered a three-year-old's cache of stolen items to rival any pirate's buried treasure, cell phone included.

While I do spend most of my time trying to deduce who, what, when, where and how, there are rare times when I get to witness a criminal in the act. Last night was one of those nights.

A few days ago, my suspicions had been aroused when I noticed that our bathrooms were particularly pungent. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not a great house keeper and with so many little boys in the house, there is usually a urine smell that underscores the overall odor of the two bathrooms that the kids use. But this smell was particularly strong, so I checked for the usual culprit, urine soaked underwear left on the floor after an accident. I found no such thing - Hmmmm, curious.

I noticed the following day that the trash can seemed out of place, but only a bit. Very suspicious.

Last night I was really clued in when I found the bathroom trash far from its cubby next to the toilet, in fact, it was in the middle of the floor. Upon further investigation, I discovered that there was pee (and a whole lot of it) filling the trash. AH-HA!

My oldest son was getting ready for his bath and I immediately went into my line of questions.

Me - "Have you been peeing in the trash can?"

Corbin - "I don't think so. Maybe when I wasn't paying attention." (Corbin has a very short attention span, and I sometimes find him in the bathroom, totally engrossed in something, with his pants down, oblivious as to why he even went in there!)

Me - "This isn't a little bit of pee. This isn't an accident. I don't think you could have done this without paying attention."

While questioning my first suspect I had little time to pay much attention to our second oldest boy who had trotted into the bathroom to get undressed for his bath. In mid-interrogation, with the smoking-gun trashcan right in front of me, Jacob walked right up to it and calmly began to pee in the trash like it was the most natural thing in the world.

Caught in the act!!!

Looking back, I can relate to the gratification felt by wildlife biologists who spend years studying animals and then finally witnessing something never seen before.
"Researchers have long speculated about the wild gorilla's mating habits, but now for the first time in history, scientists have seen...."

This morning, Jacob proudly exclaimed, "Mom! Mom! I went to the bathroom and I didn't use the trashcan!" I am so proud.

So, The Case of The Smelly Trash Cans has been closed (yes, trashcan is plural, this was happening in more than one). But despite getting a full confession, I never was able to ascertain a motive. Why was Jacob peeing in the trashcans? We may never know.

Sweeney Todd at Monaco Pictures

There is a brutal, uncomfortable cold making its way around our house. Henry has already had it and I am on my second day of stuffiness. Corby is just beginning to feel sick. We almost canceled plans we had made to go out last night, but at the last minute we decided to go ahead and see a movie.

We have been wanting to visit the new Monaco Pictures at Bridge Street in Huntsville, so we decided to go "all out" and paid online for the VIP balcony seats ($12 per ticket+$2 online fee). It was neat ordering on their website because their balcony seats are numbered and assigned just like in a playhouse. We choose AA4 and AA5.

Though this was the first time I had ever been to Bridge Street, I really didn't get to walk around much because, as usual, we were running a bit late for the movie. I could see the lit Carousel and bridge from where we parked, but I didn't see much else. I will go back for shopping some other time.

Monaco Pictures was definitely a unique theater experience. Downstairs in the lobby was a restaurant with a huge bar that glows red from underneath. An outside seating area included two fire places surrounded by modern, IKEA style sofas. A huge staircase winds toward the door, and upstairs is the Prive VIP area.

We made our way upstairs where we found another lit bar (this time blue) surrounded by more lounge-type furniture. We each ordered a drink, popcorn and Corby was a bit hungry so he ordered an appetizer-like chicken dish. All of this is allowed in the theater, even the alcohol (all of the upstairs seats are for ages 21 years and older) and since we were a bit late we went right in.

The seats in the balcony give you a large amount of leg room and the leather rockers are much wider than normal movie seats. Because we didn't quite know how to pick our seats, we were seated with a little wooden table between us, but if we had planned it right, we could have sat with a movable armrest in between us that would convert our seats into a love seat.

Overall, we had a great time. We saw Sweeney Todd, which we both loved, but would certainly not recommend to everyone.

After all was said and done, we ended-up spending around $60, which is actually about twice what we usually spend for a night at the movies. Next time we will try the "cheap seats"at $9 each, my guess is they will be just as good.

Long time, no blog!

It has been such a long time since I last blogged! I must admit, feel a little guilty for petering out during the school year, but we have been very busy. Starting today, the kids are officially "off" from school for Christmas and I have a little more time than usual. Also, all of the kids' activities are on holiday hiatus, so that means no swim practice, dance class, theater, chess club, scout meetings or soccer. Hooray!

I still have much to do to get ready for Christmas and our upcoming trip to Florida. I have to report that (again) our family yearbooks will not be finished in time for gift giving, but I assure you that I am still working on them and will make sure everyone who wants one gets one. (For those of you who are wondering what the yearbooks are, just imagine a year-in-review magazine featuring just our family.)

A few topics to note:

Elora and Corbin did very well in their first scholastic team chess tournament this school year. Corbin's primary team (K-3) finished in third place overall and Elora won every single one of her games, despite it being her first year in the elementary bracket (4-6) plus she played first board.

The boys had their first theatrical performance last weekend and I must say that they did a great job. The director was a little nervous about what the outcome would be, seeing that Jacob tried to play duck-duck-goose on stage during the dress rehearsal, but fortunately he pulled through for the actual performance.

Corbin as Sniffwhiskers and Jacob as Tripalong in The Mouse That Didn't Believe in Santa Clause

Corby and I were able to attend the annual Margarita Ball at the VBCC this November. This is a charity event that collects Toy-for-Tots in exchange for a night of dancing, food and free margaritas. Since we almost never get to spend a night out together, this was a real treat. Thanks to those who made it possible with tickets and babysitting!

Before leaving for our night on the town

A brief Holiday warning:
For those of you visiting us for Christmas, I just wanted to warn you that our Christmas tree experienced a near topple, multiple items volleyed into it (mostly shoes by Jacob) and a near fire (Corbin playing with the lights) all in the first week of putting it up. It has since had three strands of lights go out (I was able to replace two with solid blue strands we had on hand, but the third is still out), and the bottom branches are sagging nearly to the floor. Yes, Christmas is still on as planned, but you will have to excuse the half-lit monstrosity in the corner. It is still standing, but it does look the worse for wear.

Lastly, I have received a few comments that I perhaps should lay off the political blogs, and I apologize for sometimes voicing my opinion so loudly. I am thinking about starting a separate blog for such ideas. In all likelihood, it would just sit idle most of the time, but when that disgruntled political mood stuck me, I would have a place to release it! Does anyone have any comments or suggestions? What do you think?

Corbin and Jacob riding the Ron Paul float in the Madison Christmas Parade.

Gaming: It's Mental Candy That Rots Lives

When I was in fifth grade, I remember being envious of the little girl down the street who had a Nintendo. I would fervently try to be her friend in hopes of being invited over so that I could try-out her games. I didn't get to play often, and my brother and sisters and I spent most of the afternoons playing four-square or hide-and-seek.

About a year later, my father bought us an 8-bit Sega. I have many memories of playing Hang On and Astro Warrior. We played from the moment we woke-up until it was bedtime. Deep-down I knew that it wasn't healthy to spend so much time playing and I always felt a little remorse when the sun set and I realized I hadn't been outside all day.

During adolescence I played less and less, but if ever I had a homework assignment I was avoiding or a paper I didn't want to write, there was always some sort of video game to distract me. I was able to submerge the guilt of many failing grades by simply immersing myself in some sort of game.

In college I discovered online gaming and my husband and I admittedly played side-by-side in virtual worlds. I knew it had to stop after our first child was born, and although I was able to quit without too many relapses, it was years later before our house was completely game free.

This history explains why we now maintain our home as a game-free zone.

Although we do have a computer, we do not have a gaming console in our house, and even though the children have asked for gameboys, they have been told that we don't ever want them in our house.

Recent news reveals the various dangers of gaming when taken to an extreme. Just last week a 10-year-old boy killed himself by jumping out of his 19th floor apartment window because his parents grounded him from playing computer games, another 10-year-old killed a 3-year-old after mimicking a violent game he played excessively. Not to exclude adults who play too much, this summer two babies in Nevada almost starved to death due to lack of care while their parents both obsessively played a computer game.

I am sure that these stories are not as rare as one might think. It makes you wonder why the American Medical Association recently rejected a proposal to recognize video game addiction as a psychiatric condition.

When our children ask "Why can't we play video games?" I explain to them that they are a waste of time and there are better things to spend time on. But my husband usually adds that video games are "too fun" which is really the most dangerous thing about them.

The pure fun of playing these games creates a pleasurable disconnect with reality that makes any pain or discomfort felt in the real world irrelevant, just like alcohol or narcotics. Thankfully people are figuring this out for themselves despite an official addition designation. There are countless websites that offer support for gamers and family members. Hopefully, our society is not far from a general awareness that might someday save a life in more ways than one.

Helpful Links:

www.smithandjones.nl, Amsterdam clinic with a gaming addiction program.

www.gamerwidow.com, for partners of gaming addicts.

www.olganon.com, On-line Gamers Anonymous forum.

www.netaddiction.com, includes online tests for Internet and gaming addiction.

www.addictionrecov.org, Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery.