Ladies' Birthday Lunch

One of my favorite things about living in Waconia is our wonderful neighbors. They have been not only FUN, but they have rescued us several times......from everything ranging from needing an extra egg, to needing a ride for someone to hockey, to taking the kids with no warning as Bob & I rush off to the ER with some health crisis. Unfortunately, all of the above mentioned examples have occurred too frequently for comfort sometimes!

In our cul-de-sac, there are four of us families who all just click, and all of our kids love to play together. We were so sad when one of these families moved across town this past spring. (Their house is still for sale.....just reduced to $395,000 if anyone is interested.....it is beautiful, and has an even better view of the lake than ours does!) We still see them quite frequently with school and hockey, and our kids still get together to play. They just can't run across the yard like they use to!

The four of us moms started going out to lunch for our birthdays a few years ago. Kristen and I actually have the same exact birthday, so we are kind of suckered out of an extra lunch date...she was the first person I ever met with my same day! I am the baby of the group, Kristen is 2 years older, and the next is 2 years more, then 2 years more. Despite the slight diversity in age, all of our kids are around the same age, so we have tons to talk about. Interestingly, I have the oldest, and the youngest kid in the group! We all look forward to the birthday lunches when we leave all 16 kids behind to live or die while we go enjoy ourselves for just a few hours. It is so great!

Today we went to the Cheesecake Factory....not for the cheesecake (I do not even like cheesecake), but for the food. All I can say is YUM!!!! Oh my goodness, was it good! Three of us had never been there before, and I can hardly wait to go back to try something else. We were all so full from our tremendous meal, that no one even got to try dessert. We will have to add that to the list for next time also.

We reluctantly went back home through the treacherous roads due to the ice and falling snow/sleet. We saw several cars in the ditch, and one was totalled on our own Highway 5. We all started getting the "when are you coming home?" calls from our kids along the way. These calls helped us ease back into the realities of our worlds as we pulled into our neighborhood and walked up our own driveways into our homes. It was really a great afternoon, and I am so thankful that I have these wonderful ladies with which to do life together.

Sunday

Schedule too busy to blog.....I have only been home 2 hours today, been to church twice, to Target & a small grocery trip, Crispy was at hockey at the U of MN all day (thankfully he went with a friend), Alex is at youth group and then will be off to a movie, and I will be off to another hockey game in half an hour.

Oh! But church was awesome! We have started a 42 week series that began the first Sunday in January and will go all year long......"The Jesus Ultimatum".....we are learning exactly all that Jesus commands us to do. Sure, we have heard it all before, but not spelled out so clearly or as "blindingly insightful"(thanks, Bob!). This was the third week already, and it has all been very inspiring. It is going to be an amazing year. If you are interested, the messages are uploaded online onto the church website located under LINKS to the right.

Happy Birthday, to Me & Everyone Else!

Today was the annual January Birthdays Party at our house. We now have 5 of us (Michael, Lyle, Crispy, me, & Ryan)with birthdays in January in the ever-expanding Zajac clan. When I finally came home from Crispy's party last night at 9:30pm, my poor baby, who had been fine when I left, had a fever running around 104 degrees. He was miserable, and the two of us had a very difficult night, with very minimal sleep. This morning was not much better, and he added a very high-pitched, almost constant scream-cry from the moment we got out of bed, until shortly before the party started. It was tough.

I held my sad little guy all morning (did I mention Bob was at work today until sometime after one?), and Jonny finally "demanded" that he take the baby for a while so I could have a break for my birthday. What a great kid! I took the opportunity to take a shower and bask in the silence without the screaming. It was about as blissful as it would get today! When I came back down, the kids (led by Jonny), had hung a birthday banner they had made, and each handed me a homemade card. It was so very sweet! Soon after, my husband came home with some pretty little flowers in a smiley face mug for my daily dose of Cappuccino(his hopes of turning me into a morning person)....hooray! Reinforcement was here!

Even though I virtually had nothing prepared, we seemed to have a nice get-together, and all the kids enjoyed playing with each other. The sublime part of the evening was going out to the Wildfire restaurant where we also met up with Mary....LADIES ONLY. It was terrific, and the food was wonderful. The steak was just the cure for my headache, and we all sampled their award winning Key Lime pie~ YUM! Back at home, the men ordered pizza for the kids and most everyone, including my dad, played a friendly game of poker. All the kids were happy (and fed!) when we arrived back home which made the dinner even better....no guilt at all was involved. Now that is a difficult thing!

We ended the night with multiple rounds of "Happy Birthday", and candle blowing. Laura stood in for Michael who had to leave after poker to go to hockey practice...it was preparation for her upcoming birthday in a few weeks. While some people passed up the offerings of various cakes, I spared no such self control to indulge in my favorite Marzipan cake from Woullet's Bakery that my mom so faithfully brings me each year. Thanks Mom, that is always the highlight of my year!

Happy Birthday, Crispy!

My little boy turned 6 today! I can't believe how fast the years go by. He has always been such a sweet, kind-hearted soul, and 6 years later, he remains as such. We had a great day today doing special things just for him. He picked going to the Children's Museum, where Grandma C met up with us for a short while. It is always such a nice place to go, even on super-crowded days like today. The kids are always so well entertained, and they love running from one thing to another, giving their attention spans a holiday from needing to focus on anything for more than 2 minutes. There is so much to see and do there that we never see it all in one trip. Today we were there for 3 hours and did not even play in their favorite enormous water table! The Sesame Street display was a hit(even though they barely know what it is thanks to Nick Jr), and Crispy & I enjoyed a game of checkers in the park. The kids all love the Ant Hill, where they dressed up in little ant suits and proceeded to run around the hill looking for National Treasures. After a quick cupcake break, they were off to work at the brick mill making sure to catch the bus to work their second shifts as ethnic restaurant cooks, postal workers, and rock band members. I think we could spend all day at the museum without getting bored. What a great place.

On the way home, we picked up party supplies and pizza for Crispy's first real birthday party ever. We arrived home at 4pm, and quickly decorated the cake, picked up the house, filled the treat bags, nursed the baby, and cooked the pizza before his guests began arriving at 5:30. What started out as a small party of 3 turned into a party of 8, as all of his little friends were able to make it, even on such short 2-day notice! The energy in our house was to the roof! I do not remember such noise and hyperness with the older boys' parties when they were this age.....I must has suppressed specific parts into my subconscious. After pizza and cake, Jonny and I braved the task of bringing all of the boys to the pool, swimsuits, towels, floaties, winter jackets, boots, and all.

WARNING: Do NOT try this at home! This should only be attempted by professionals.

It was pure chaos in the locker room as 8 pairs of socks and underwear, towels and boots went flying everywhere. With 4 lockers, we managed to suppress the "stuff" inside. The kids had an absolute blast in the pool, and I was enjoying the reprieve from reprimands as I let the lifeguard take over that duty for a while. Since he does not yet know how to swim, Crispy loved using his floatie (which are usually not allowed in the pool)....it allowed him to experience the water in many new ways. You would think that after 90 minutes of tag, water basketball, and hard play in the water, that a group of 5 and 6 year olds would have properly expended their energy, but I think it only fuelled it somehow.

After 30 more minutes than planned, the kids reluctantly left the pool (some needing much more prodding than others). In the locker room, it was backwards chaos resembling what had gone on when we arrived. We made it with only one lost pair of underwear, one lost pair of socks, and one kid who crawled into a locker and locked himself in it. I sent Jonny upstairs to get the guy at the front desk to rescue him, though I was quite tempted to leave him there for a bit to perhaps learn a lesson from this stunt. With the temperature a balmy -10 degrees, the kids piled into the truck quite speedily and we drove them all home, now 60 minutes later than expected. Judging from how loud they all were in the truck, I think that they had a great time, and it was funny how none of the parents seemed to mind the extra hour away. Crispy said he had a really nice birthday. Everyone should sleep well tonight!

Fitting into Place

I knew that there was a REAL reason behind not going to the dentist for 10 years.....it is because only bad things come out of visiting the dentist. Why go?

Today I had to go back to "fit" one of my molars for a crown. Gee, I thought only old people got crowns. It was a blast for nearly 90 minutes of drilling, sanding, molding, and other oral horrors. Last time, my teeth hurt for 3 days after just the cleaning.....I can't wait to experience the intensity of pain that this work is going to cause. The cherry on top was my dentist's surprise when I spoke of the type of pain I have been having, leading him to mention the "R" word...root canal. WHAT?!?!?!? I simply came in for a checkup a few weeks ago, and now I have signed up for 2 crowns and a possible root canal? I'll bet at least a bit of this is my fault for waiting so long. Let this be a lesson to all of you who have not visited your own dentist in a while!

Before subjecting myself to the above mentioned tortures this morning, I bathed Thomas twice (I think he's having intestinal reactions to his antibiotic shot), successfully planned a spontaneous birthday party for Crispy with his friends for tomorrow, and managed to get a shower in for myself. It was quite the productive morning! After the appointment, the kids and I got to enjoy some nice time visiting with Grandma C. We even reserved seats for my birthday dinner on Saturday.....this is an impressive thing, as it is with great difficulty with which I am able to make a decision these days. For fun, the kids were introduced to my new method of cleaning which arrived in the mail today: a designated bin for "Put Away", "Throw Away", and "Give Away"(visit www.flylady.net). Crispy got the hang of it right away, but to his dismay, Laura had her own ideas, and had plenty of rationales why everything should be added to the "Throw Away" bin. At one point, she took a toy from Thomas saying, "Sorry, Thomas. I don't like toys.'" and proceeded to "throw away" all of his toys too. She was so funny with her words....my mom and I got a good dose of laughing medicine this afternoon. I may have some tweaking to do with this system.

I cooked up wonderful chicken and steak fajitas for dinner tonight, and realized that we had had 4 nights of home cooked meals in a row without resorting to leftovers and "punting" for food. Wow! That is exciting, and makes me feel great to be eating certainly healthier for almost one week. I love to cook and am looking forward to meal planning again and shopping ahead of time like I use to make time to do. It really does make a difference, and probably saves us a bit of money too!

A Nice Escape

Today I did something that I rarely ever do....I went to another mom's house to just hang out, have tea, and chat! My Alex and her son are friends.....in fact, it is her son who got Alex involved in the youth group he attends. This is another mom in town with 8 kids, and runs a daycare in her home composed of 4 little toddlers. So when it comes to understanding what it is like being at home everyday with a houseful of kids, this lady really gets it!

It was so great just to sit at her table, sipping tea, while my baby played happily and quietly on the floor next to me, and all of her little daycare cuties slept peacefully in the next room. We got to share laughs over the challenges of daily life, as well as parental worries about our older kids. Our kids are all quite similar in age, so we really have a lot in common. This family is also a wonderful Christian family....it was so nice to talk about real things instead of glossing over stuff that doesn't even matter.

When I reluctantly left her house to return to my own real world waiting for me back at home, I came across something a bit disturbing. My truck that I had parked at the top of the rather steep hill next to their house was not where I had left it. My truck was now 300 feet away, at the bottom of the hill, parking brake and emergency brake still engaged. Interesting......I know that my tires are bad since many of the treads are worn, and the kids have enjoyed some creative driving on icy days. But why did the truck not show signs of slippage when I first parked it? Maybe it is the brakes? I'm not sure. I am glad that it stopped and that there was a snowbank blocking its passage down the next hill that would have led it straight into lake Waconia!

Tiny Tubby

Tubby had his regular 9 month well-visit today (yes, it is a little late...he is almost 10 months old). He is still just a little dude, coming in at only 25% for height and 30% for weight. All of our other boys were 90% and over! I really think that he may have Grandpa Z's height genes! Thomas is a perfect 20 pounds, and is doing well.

The doctor also found a surprise "nasty-looking" ear infection in his left ear. Poor baby! That explains some of his more recent squirrliness at night. He actually was a bit challenging when we were at the hotel over the weekend, but I had figured that it was just because we were away from home. This time, he was given 2 shots of Rocephin(antibiotic) since he refuses to swallow anything. He also was given some numbing ear drops to help him feel more comfortable.

We picked up (gross) McDonald's for lunch before getting Crispy at the bus stop....it was a treat for Laura for her very good behavior at the doctor's office. She actually allowed me to have a conversation with our doctor today without constant interruptions. I also had a horrible headache, and the thought of making food for the kids made me nauseous(even more so than the thought of McDonalds, I guess). When I picked up Alex at 5:45, we stopped at the grocery store (still with a monster headache), to pick up Tubby's medicine and to find something quick to make at home involving REAL food. I got enough stuff for 2 large separate meals, but the funny thing was, when we got home, I ended up making a yummy tator-tot hotdish from stuff I had already in the house. I hadn't made this in 15 years....back when we lived in an apartment. Jonny found a recipe online as I was cooking the meat, and it turned out great! And now I have a dinner plan for Wednesday and Thursday!

Jonny had his second basketball practice tonight, and he was so excited. It is nice to see him looking forward to something! He feels very comfortable getting rebounds and is a good defense-man with his height. He gets to play his first games next weekend while we are at another hockey tournament. This time the girls will be going with us and the Grandmas are going to take turns taking him to his games....Jonny will enjoy the special treatment!

I am now happy to have made it through the long day despite a killer headache....time just doesn't stop when you are a mommy, regardless of how much it seems like you can not possibly go on. I have a friend (you know who you are!) who takes a nap nearly every single day AND gets to go exercise too.....I can't imagine the luxury of either of those things, much less both...it truly seems impossible, and I have no idea how she does it! My wonderful husband is massaging my neck while I lay here on the couch feeding the baby and watching American Idol that Jonny recorded while we were at basketball. Things aren't that bad afterall.

His Father's Son

What is it about the male species and the remote control? I honestly do not understand it. If it is missing, rather, misplaced under the likes of a couch cushion or pillow, my husband goes nuts. It is the first thing that my boys grab when they enter the room, and the first thing that they usually drop on the floor (and subsequently leave on the floor). The remote is quite the hot commodity in our home filled with boys. I would prefer the absence of both remote and tv, but unfortunately, I have been greatly outvoted.

Tonight, Tubby inducted himself into the remote control club. I let him hold one for the first time as he was fussing before bed. As he grabbed it, you could hear and see him sigh with contentment. How does he already know of it's magical powers??? He held onto it with both hands as he began to drift off to sleep in my lap. At one point, Bob took it out of his hands to change the channel. Thomas sat up like a shot and tantrummed, he was so upset! Bob quickly gave it back to him, and the remote's soothing powers worked like a charm as they had the first time he held it. The baby then easily and happily drifted off to dreamland, the precious remote control held tightly in his tiny little boy hands. I guess it is just a guy thing!

Weekend's End

The tourney is over, and we ended in fourth place after a tough loss against Minnetonka. It was such a loss, that after a 9 point lead, they did not bother to keep score of additional goals. I guess it was a way to help us save face? No matter. We were all very proud of our boys......they are all such good sports. The defeat was OK for them, even if it was not their first choice of events! The difference with the loss today was that Minnetonka beat us fair and square and cleanly...no ugliness on the ice....just pure and simple hockey. They all were fantastic skaters, and we could learn a lot from the hockey program they run.

We ended the weekend on a positive note with a stop at La Casita, with a few of the other families, before heading back home. The boys , and us adults too, enjoyed our time, and appreciated some of the fun stories passed back and forth making us laugh. Bob & I had actually gotten to enjoy this restaurant yesterday also, as we stole away for a quiet lunch with our baby. It was a great way to end our time together.

We met up with our cute little girls and Alex at church. Laura gives the best hugs when she's missed you! They seemed to have enjoyed their "sleepovers" in the library with Grandma, and Alex had been a great kid-sitter too: even making meals for the girls. It was nice to be back together as a family again. And it only took 2 minutes in the car together before they were back to fighting!!

Sartell Hockey Tournament Update

OK....we lost the second game. We were pummelled unmercifully. The refs were letting everything slide (on both sides) and Farmington was brutal. They were very good skaters, and could have beat us with that alone, but the awful thing was that they played extremely dirty hockey, anyway. Our kids were too ethical to stoop to that level, but with the refs being so lax, basically all rules were thrown out the window. It was a bit scary, actually. We had two players go down, lying eerily still, both after having their heads slammed into the boards. Our smaller players were actually pushed vertically downwards, collapsing like accordions. If it weren't for Michael being one of the forces on our team fighting back, I would have been tempted to pull him off the ice for his own safety. A very disturbing hour of hockey. I am thankful that all the kids now seem OK.

We had a celebratory dinner for our earlier win at the restaurant across the parking lot. The hockey boys have been busy running from room to room playing various video games. Jonny and Crispy have been enjoying some extended time in the pool.....FINALLY! The baby.....well, I think he is ready to go back home. He has had enough of this interrupted schedule, and misses his toys and sisters. We play our last game tomorrow at noon.....we will be leaving here with a third or fourth place trophy. That will be a nice thing for the boys to come away with for all of their efforts!