Shaking My Head (Part One?)

I consider myself to be a pretty even-keel kind of person. I might get frustrated or irritated by things, but most of the time, you'd never know it to look at me...I can usually keep myself pretty well in check. There are some things, however, that just chap me, and occasionally I'll find myself muttering or fuming or just simply shaking my head in disbelief. Here are a few that have gotten me recently:

• I went to get my nails done a few weeks ago, and there was a woman sitting at one of the stations who was on the phone the ENTIRE TIME I WAS THERE. And not just on the phone, but talking into her Bluetooth headset because, well, nails. Of course, she was sitting right next to where they sat me, so I was "able" to overhear much of her conversation with the various people she decided to call while there (when one phone call ended, she would call someone else...of course). My favorite part was hearing her mutter into her BLUETOOTH that she didn't want to go into specifics about something to do with her and her boyfriend because there were too many people around, then hearing her immediately proceed to go into said details regardless of her audience. #SMH
• Last month while grocery shopping, I found myself in the bread aisle. I was shopping for mini bagels for Greyson's school lunches. The bagels I wanted are located on the bottom shelf of that section, so I was squatting down in front of my cart to grab what I needed, and I pulled a bag of bagels off the shelf. I'm pretty careful when buying bread to make sure that it's not rock hard or moldy, so I was inspecting the bag per usual...and noticed something I'd never seen before - a hole in one corner of the bag. But not just any hole...this one was a hole from someone's teeth...and just behind the hole in that bag was a mini bagel with a bite taken out of it. You guys, I'm serious!! SOMEONE TOOK A BITE OF A BAGEL THROUGH THE PLASTIC BAG, THEN PUT IT BACK ON THE SHELF!!! And that missing bite...GONE!! It was not in that bag!! Now, I watch my children pretty closely at the store ("stop touching things," "put your hands in your pockets," "no, you can't have that," "no, we already have that at home, we don't need another one," "yes, you can go get a cookie, but only one," etc...), so to see that there was a shock to my Mom-brain...seriously!! I put the defiled bag of boiled bread in my cart along with a bag that was unsullied, and took it up to customer service. Wow. Just wow. #SMH
• Two weeks after the bagel incident, I was again in the bread aisle at the same grocery store, this time for bagels and for buns for Labor Day hamburgers. I just recently discovered Brioche buns for hamburgers, and I'm telling you what, I may never eat another type of bun again (unless it's a pretzel bun, because seriously OMG yum). Burned once before, I check the bag of bagels for anything strange, find nothing and go home. Get home, unload groceries, and hey, what do you know...those lovely Brioche buns that I didn't inspect as closely...? Yep. Someone took a bite out of those too!! Which meant going BACK to the store to return them and get new ones, as if I don't already have 8479 too many things on my plate as it is. I'm speechless. #SMH
• I work in an office building, 15 floors of professionals who rent office space in order to conduct their businesses. I'd wager that at least 40% of the tenants in this building are attorneys, our office included. The attorney I work for handles Family Law cases as well as Estate Planning and Probate law. Most of the family law cases we are currently working on have children in the mix, which makes what I do very challenging at times...especially when our clients bring their kids to appointments with them. Don't get me wrong, I understand that childcare is expensive...I'm so grateful to not be writing checks for daycare anymore...and I totally understand that stuff comes up. BUT when you have 4 children under the age of 6 and an appointment with your attorney regarding your separation from your children's other parent, it's usually a really good idea to either find someone to look after your precious cargo for a couple of hours OR reschedule your appointment for another time when childcare is available. It's really NOT a good idea to bring your 4 adorable children to your appointment with you, leave them in the hallway by the elevator under the "direction" of 5-yr old big sister for an hour, and let them run up and down the hallways screaming their heads off and generally disrupting the entire floor. Your children are beautiful, you should be proud of them...please leave them with a sitter next time. #SMH

I'm certain that there will be more "Shaking My Head" posts in the future...the hits just keep on coming! At least it's not boring!!

XOXO

A Day in the Life of a Hummingbird Mom...

Write about real life, they said! Write about the things that are part of your everyday, they said!

Ok, here goes!

Today's Schedule (bare-bones edition):

• 8:00am - Greyson starts school
• 8:30am - Nick starts school
• 8:30am - I start work...AFTER stopping for a quad-shot latte to get me through the morning. (I should NOT have stayed up watching that movie last night!)
• 12:20pm - I have a dentist appointment across town, then back to work
• 2:30pm - Greyson gets done with school (Papa will pick up, thank goodness)
• 3:15pm - Nick gets done with school (Papa picking up)
• 4:00pm - I'm done with work and get to kill time until...
• 5:30pm - Nick has to be back at school for a Showstoppers performance at the BHS Open House
• 6:00pm - Open House starts - I'm staying for this, so I can meet Nick's teachers, etc.
• 6:10pm - Greyson has taekwondo - Daddy will take him after we watch Nick sing (stay tuned for a video)
• 6:45pm - Taekwondo ends
• 7:00pm - Nick has driver's ed - Daddy will drop him off
• 8:00pm - Open House ends - now I get to kill more time until...
• 9:00pm - Driver's ed ends

You guys. Seriously. This is not a joke...this is my life. I left home at 7:30am this morning, and won't get home until 9:30pm this evening...and this is what the majority of our days look like! (Thursday's are probably the "worst" day for being busy, because not only does Nick have driver's ed from 4-6pm, Greyson has soccer practice AND swim lessons that overlap each other, which means he misses the last 20 minutes of his soccer practice so he can take a 25 minute swim lesson - thankfully soccer happens in the field connected to the aquatic center.)

When I named this blog, it was an inside joke between an old friend and I - he used to call me "Hummin'bird" affectionately after watching how busy I keep myself. Sometimes I wonder if that might have been a self-fulfilling prophecy...but I'm ready to SLOW DOWN now!!

We are so lucky to have grandparents and siblings close by to help with transportation and child care as needed...I can't even imagine how we'd make it all work otherwise. But seriously...

I need a vacation.

Hmmmm... Almost 3 years later...

Aaaannnddd here we go again.

After a lovely lunch date today with my sister-in-law, who has been patiently waiting for the right time to discuss this, I have been challenged to start blogging again. I love doing this...love writing about my life...but who has the time?! In true hummingbird style, I am a busy lady with not a lot of time left in the day to breathe, much less blog, but I'm going to give it a try...again.

This isn't intended to be a money-maker for me. It started as a place where I could direct my friends and family from all over so that they could see what is going on in our lives. I had (please note the past tense reference) planned to be very diligent about getting in a couple of posts per week, just enough to share with those I care about without overwhelming them with the Clark Family shenanigans. Yeah, that worked out.

Three years later, here I am again. I'll try to be better about posting more often...even if it's once a month, that's not too bad...right?! For now, I'll leave you with a few pictures of my family from this last summer and our "vacation" to Southern California and Disneyland (and Sea World... and the San Diego Zoo... and Legoland...you get the picture).

XOXO 

Being A Mom Is Hard...

Sometimes when I wake up I feel about 80 years old. I look in the mirror and and am quickly reminded that, while I'm not 80 by a long shot, I am not the 20-something that I used to be either. I'm not as young as I'd like to be, but not as old as I could be. I have my children to thank for that.

I'm a Mom. It was a choice I made 13 years ago with the unexpected pregnancy and then birth of my oldest son. It was a choice I made when I married my husband and embraced his daughter as if she were my own (even though she lives 200+ miles away with her mom). And it was a choice I made as Shannon and I tried for two long years to conceive Greyson. And not once have I looked back and regretted those choices!

HOWEVER, there are times when I wish I could lock myself in my bathroom and cry and scream and hit things out of sheer frustration and helplessness! There have been times where I would have gladly traded one of my children in for a new Jeep (not really, but still). There are times when I get home after working an 8-hour day and all I want is quiet... instead, all I get is chaos. Running away isn't an option, but sometimes just getting away from it all would be a treat.

I have gray hairs that I'm not ready to embrace. I have bags that have taken up permanent residence under my eyes. My "baby weight" is still not gone (not that I've done much of anything to get rid of it). I have laugh lines and crows feet. I have wrinkly fingers and mildly flabby arms. (Thank God the hubs loves me anyways!!)

I'm a Mom.
I'm a short-order cook (much to my chagrin).
I'm a chauffeur.
I'm a house-keeper.
I'm a drier of tears (sometimes even when I'm the cause of said tears).
I'm a kisser of owies.
I'm the world's best hug (in their eyes, anyways).

I'm not the best mom in the world, but I'm theirs. And I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Snow Days

For those of you who know me...I mean REALLY know me...you'll recall that I. HATE. SNOW. Like, really hate it.

It's my personal opinion that snow should stay in the mountains, where people who love it - like my husband - can go to play in it. It should NOT come down the hill to town where people who do not love it - like me - have to continue to function normally.

Driving in the stuff...no thanks. Even with the Subaru that Shannon continues to remind me we have...nope. And playing in it...ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND??? And yet, I have boys. Boys who love to play in it. Boys who were beyond thrilled to look out the window this past Sunday morning and see it not only covering the ground, but dumping out of the sky. Boys who stood at the window asking excitedly, "When can we go play?!"

I was recovering from the stomach flu. Shannon was directly in the throes of that nasty bug. And the boys wanted to play in the cold wet white stuff. So I said ok.

Because I was still unwell, I stood just inside my sliding glass door while those two bundled up boys went to town in the snow. A foot deep, mind you...Greyson was in it practically up to his waist! And it continued to dump. Not just snowing, but DUMPING. I did go outside a few times in my jammies and slippers to take a few pictures, because what good is snow if you can't take some pictures of it? Plus, the boys were having so much fun. It was torture trying to get them back inside, but I needed to sit, and Daddy (who had tried for about 10 minutes to go out with them) was not in good shape. With the promise of more later (I never said HOW MUCH later), they came inside...all red cheeks and runny noses and icy fingers and happy.

Sadly, another trip out to play was not in the cards for them on Sunday. I just wasn't up to it, and while Nick at 13 years old would have been fine on his own, I wasn't about to let him take Greyson out there unsupervised...too many reminders - some not so gentle - to "stop throwing snowballs at your brother" didn't give me much confidence in that scenario ending well.

Then next day, however, the snow had finally stopped falling, and we were left with a foot of snow in our backyard and a "bluebird" type of day to play in. And since Mom and Dad were both feeling significantly improved, guess who got to go out and play too?! And you know what...??? I actually had fun!!

We built a "snomily" - five snow people in varying heights, one for each of us. Mom had hair (tree branches), Daddy had a beard (again, tree branches), and Greyson had a twig sticking up out of the top of his head. And Nick, dear sweet boy, made it so that the "Nick" and "Brooklyn" snowkids were hugging!

AND I ACTUALLY HAD FUN!!! (Wait, did I already say that?)

I took pictures, because...well, if you know me at all, you know that documenting that moment in time where I actually enjoyed the snow with my kids was of the utmost importance.

And now...I think I can give skiing with Shannon a try. I just need to make sure I have the right gear, but I think I'll be a bit more open-minded about a trip east on SR-542 to Mount Baker. There is hope for me yet! :)

XOXO