I read a magazine article titled “63 Things to Do With Your Kids Before They Grow Up”

First Thing: “Run a marathon. But not all at once. Set a goal with your kids to run a full 26.2 miles over the course of a year….”

Great idea! But not with my kids - That would be not so fun.

So my goal: Run a marathon (104 times around the track) by Labor Day weekend.

I started today and, pathetically, I could only run one time around the track. (Granted, I did just finish up an hour of playing tennis, so I was already feeling it in the legs).

I’m so excited about this! Sometimes you just need a good push!

If I had been on top of my game here, I would have remembered to get Eppie what he wanted for Father’s Day - A witty T-shirt.

Last night, Eppie was online and wanted to show me the funniest shirt he had ever seen (from threadless). That’s when it hit me that I forgot to get him his shirt. When I checked out this shirt, at first I was like, “huh?” But two seconds later I could not stop laughing. He is totally getting this shirt if it’s the last thing I do:

And then Eppie and I found the perfect one for my dad:

I guess being a doctor, my dad is pretty morbid and will totally dig this shirt. He still wears the one I gave him 15 years ago that says, “Eat Right. Exercise. Die Anyway.”

For fun, here are some of the other shirts that Eppie and I love (these are from Busted Tees):

Here are some of my favorite Daniel quotes from the last two weeks or so:

-Because I had been spending so much time doing stage rehearsals and shows last week, Daniel told my sister Katie, “I just want Uncle Dan to fire my mom!!!”

-Daniel’s prayers often turn into church sermons. Last week as Daniel was closing his prayer, he said, “In the name of Jesus Christ…who loves our environment because heaven is a lot like earth, except they don’t have bodies there. Amen.”

-Driving home from church last week, we asked Daniel what his primary lesson was about. He told us this story: “Once there was a little boy who’s daddy died, so the mom had to get a job. The little boy decided to help his mom, so he got a job too. Now, Sister Hansen didn’t tell us if the boy had to have a job interview or not, but I’m guessing he did…

-”Mom, is Lizzie asleep yet?”

“I don’t know. I can’t see her.”

“Is she camouflaging herself again?”

-Daniel made a rocket out of Legos that he called “spacey.” He loved spacey dearly for about three days, until he broke. After he broke, Daniel sang made-up songs to spacey. I really got a kick out of the some of the lyrics, and Daniel’s acting was worthy of an Oscar. But what really got me going was when Daniel broke out into a Britney Spears song:

“Oh Spacey, Spacey,
How was I supposed to know
That something wasn’t right?”

- Today, we were planning on splitting up the kids and doing a “boys date” and “girls date,” where ep and Daniel would go to the movies while Holly and Lizzie played together.  The discussion surrounding the subject led to these 2 gems from Daniel:

Dad: Daniel, do you want to go see Kung Fu Panda with me?
Daniel:  Well, is it level 1 Kung Fu Panda or level 2 Kung Fu Panda?
Dad: Daniel, there are no levels, it’s just a movie.
Daniel: No Dad.  There are levels.  Is it level 1 or level 2?
Dad: Ummm… I think it’s level 2…
Daniel: Ok, then let’s go… I think there’s a level 3…

Later, Daniel recanted on his desire to go see the movie.  The conversation with Holly was as follows:

Daniel: I don’t want to go the movie with Dad.  I want you to come.
Mom: But Daniel, you and Dad are going to have a boy date, and Mom and Lizzie are going to have a girl date.
Daniel: Boy dates aren’t any fun when there are no girls.

After cutting my wig Katie Holmes’ style for the dance show, I couldn’t resist turning my kids into little Suri Cruises.

It’s been a while. 

The reason:  Utter Exhaustion!!! 

I am mentally and physically exhausted…all the time.

When Ep got the job in Philly, I thought, “No problem.  I’m a tough cookie.  I can handle being a ’single mom’ for a while.” 

Well…I’m beat.  And I’m not embarrassed to admit it.  We all have “our moments” and these past few weeks have been just that.  It’s at the point where if you were to genuinely ask how I was doing, I’d probably burst out in tears.  (But no one really actually asks that question sincerely, so I don’t have to worry).

BUT….there is hope!  The dance show will be over next weekend so that means I get my husband back on the weekends!  Horray!!!  AND…Ep is allowed to work at home once or twice a week now (until we sell our house…which I took off the market today.  I’m in no mood to keep a house tidy right now).

Don’t get me wrong.  My life isn’t that bad.  In fact, it’s great.  But every mom knows that if you don’t get a break once in a while, you literally start going crazy.  Very, very normal. (At least that’s what everyone tells me.  I hope it’s normal.)

But it’s never a good thing when you get out of bed in morning and already feel like you’re going crazy!  Nope, not normal at all.  And that’s where I’m at right now.

Today in particular was a tough one. 

But you know what?  I’m in good spirits now: 

Elizabeth went to bed without a fight…and didn’t even attempt to climb out of her crib.  Victory!!!

David Cook just won American Idol and I couldn’t be happier. 

I watched AI while eating my new favorite snack ever…Cracked Pepper and Olive Oil Triscuits with sharp chedder cheese spread.  Divine!

My husband called me three times in the middle of the show to make fun of Jordin Spark’s golden mu mu and the horrendous song George Micheal sang…and I just thought to myself, “I’m so lucky to have a guy who, although I never see him much anymore, thinks to call me everytime he wants to put someone down.” Ah, true love.

Yup, I’m happy.  Still exhausted.  But very happy. 

We’ll see what tomorrow morning brings. 

Since I now work in a creative field, I don’t have to dress up for work everyday - only days when I’m presenting designs to a client. Today was one such day, and almost without fail, people I encountered in the office today noted, “You’re wearing a shirt and tie today.”

This got me thinking… is it REALLY necessary to include the “shirt and” part of that statement? I mean, seriously, which of my colleagues is shocked that I decided to wear a shirt today? Sure, I’ve become progressively more casual at work of late, but I can’t recall a single day where I decided to work sans shirt.

While on the topic of “dressing up for work,” I love this line from a comedian whose name unfortunately escapes me:

People say that you should dress for the job you want, not the job you have…but when I came into the office dressed as an astronaut, they sent me home.

I’m writing this post in an effort to make sure that when Lizzie reads a hard copy of this blog a few years from now, she won’t be like, “You didn’t love me as much as Daniel because you never wrote about me.”  (Trust me, I was like that growing up, so if she has my genes, she will definitly do the same thing….but then again, she will NOT have six brothers and sisters to compete with)  So here it goes…

Tidbit #1 -

Elizabeth accidently locked herself into our house one evening last week.  It was one of the longest 45 minutes of my life.  With the help of GREAT neighbors, we were able to break the lock on one of our windows, and Daniel (the hero - and he won’t let you forget it) climbed in and unlocked the door from the inside.

We went to Lowes the next day to get a spare key!

Tidbit #2-

Elizabeth has the coolest bed head.  One of these morning I need to take a picture of it.

Tidbit #3-

Elizabeth has taught me and Daniel some new variations on certain words.  No longer do Daniel and I say the words Milk, Juice, Book and Socks.  Those words have completely disappeared from our lexicon and have been replaced by Lizzie’s variations:  Milk-ah, Juice-ah, Book-ah, and Ocks. 

Strange how that happens.  I’m 28 years old and I get a kick out of saying, “Okay kids, let’s put on your shoes and ocks!”

Tidbit #4-

She still has to go to bed with at least one book.  But now, she also has to go to sleep with her winnie the pooh which is the same size as her.  She reads to him and gives him some of her milk .  It’s quite cute.

Tidbit #5-

Elizabeth hates church nursery. 

Tidbit #6-

Elizabeth has the most awsome fake life you’ll ever hear.

Tidbit #7-

Elizabeth’s nickname is Bean.  In fact, we probably call her this 90% of the time.  Other nicknames are Beany, Beaner, Beany-Baby, Lizard, Lizard-Breath, Lizzie-Lou,  and Lizzy-Tizzy.

Tidbit #8-

Elizabeth has started potty-training herself.  We have a long ways to go, but at least there’s interest.

Tidbit #9-

Elizabeth is the easiest child.  But once we leave the confines of our house, all hell breaks loose. 

Only if I’m desperate will I take her to the grocery store.  Forget the library - I only go on Saturdays with Daniel now.  Church is the longest three hours of our life.  Public bathrooms are disasterous - she crawls under all the stalls…and what can I do to stop her? And unless I plan on running out of a dressing room half naked chasing after a one-year old, I will never take Elizabeth clothes-shopping with me. 

Tidbit #10-

Elizabeth is a chocoholic.  If she sees chocolate in any form, she will rant and kick and scream until she gets it. 

Like mother, like daughter.

(And no, I do not always let her have it!  I’m a some-what decent mom)

Tidbit #11-

If you can drink it and it’s not milk, Lizzie thinks it’s juice.  Kind of funny watching her desperately point to a bottle of Sprite and say “juice,” like that should make it okay for her to drink it.

Dan was over again today (He’s over here all the time lately to work on video stuff with eppie). 

I was having a particularly rough day with the kids, and Dan watched as elizabeth threw a book off the counter.

“Elizabeth!” he jokingly scolded, “Don’t throw your mother’s ‘The Joy of Motherhood’ book off the counter.”

“That is definitely not a ‘Joy of Mothering’ book,” I replied.  “But thinking about it, isn’t it interesting just how many kinds of joy-of-mothering books there are out there….and how many of them I have read!  It’s like we mothers need a book to read every now and then to convince us that being a mom really is not miserable, but rather…joyful.”

“Yeah,” said Dan.  “Like, you’ll never see a ‘The Joy of Eating Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream’ book, will you?  Of course not, because everyone knows that eating Ben and Jerry’s ice cream is very joyful.”

So true, Dan.  So true.