Vida. Risa. Amor.

Decisions, decisions...that was basically the theme of my past couple of weeks.  To go, or not to go.  Sometimes when an opportunity comes along, if I ask myself, "when I'm 85, and look back on my life, won't I be glad to see that I atleast gave it a try?"  The right decision usually is when choosing the "wrong" one doesn't feel right.  So this time for me, staying home just didn't feel right.  Not only did I need to visit my sister and her family in Colorado, but I also needed to find out something...I just needed to see if I could do it.  The 12 hour drive with just me and my kids.  There and back.

Of course I played out all the worst-possible-case scenarios which of course included us being stranded in the middle of the miles and miles of farmlands in Colorado with a flat tire, or I'd run out of gas in the rain, or one of my kids could get lost at a rest stop, or the train table that I didn't bring would fly off the top of the van and flip a few cars behind us, or I'd lose my purse or cell phone, or UFO's would abduct us in New Mexico, or, or, or...

The truth is that if I make decisions not to do something out of the fear of something bad happening, I think I might spend most of my life at home, and spend most of my life just wondering: what if.  What if I had said yes instead of no. 

There were a lot of reasons I decided to make the trip.  The biggest reason was because I just wanted to:  my heart actually hurt sometimes at how much I miss my sister and her family, and my kids felt the same way.  The second reason was curiosity:  I just needed to see if I could even do it...800 miles isn't that far is it?  Everything else just worked out with timing:  we had nothing important on the calendar, we could afford the expense, and I was able to borrow my parents van while they were on their vacation.  Now that I'm home I realize that we most definately would not have been able to make it without a decent vehicle and I'm thinking I could get used to a newer van.  Dad's always have the cooler cars.

So the trip turned out to be well worth it.  The drive was a challenge, but not impossible.  2 words:  Portable DVD's.  The weather in Colorado in July actually let's kids play outside so they had a blast playing treasure hunts for hours in the backyard together.  We grilled and ate outside every night on their new deck, spent an afternoon pulling weeds for my sister's future gardening plans, and got "prettied up" to pose in a beautiful field for some amazing pictures that she took for all of us.  I don't remember the last time I had someone pick out my outfit, style my hair, and put make-up on for me...but I loved it.  There's something extremely hilarious about having someone put ten layers of mascara on you.  And it feels really good when you can actually fit into your younger sister's jeans.

My girls haven't seen me laugh hard in a while.  They both saw that I would drive over 800 miles to see my sister and so I hope that if anything they remember about this trip, that they would remember that I made the effort.  (Hopefully they will block out my anti-eat-anything-with-your-mouth-open rules and crazy babbling and arm dance moves to keep myself awake through the drive.)  So maybe in only 15 years or so when they have their own families someday, they remember that it's important to be there for each other...because a 12 hour drive is a short distance to travel for that quality time.  And a really, really good laugh. 

Most journeys are possible when you finally make up your mind to just get on the road.

When we first moved to Arizona, one of our first projects we tackled was figuring out how to add more green and color to our backyard.  The "steal of a deal package" we bought included 3 huge trees, and 15 shrubs, (or something like that), and all I had to do was stick a flag for each item in my yard labeling where I wanted them to plant what and where.  Well, seven years later, I now wish the tree planting people would have atleast offered me just a few words of advice.  A few things they might have thought to mention could have been that mexican fan palm trees pretty much have to be trimmed just about every two weeks and then eventually you won't have a ladder tall enough to cut the palms,...the spokes on pineapple palms will pop every soccer ball you buy the kids play with, (and stab you when you trim it),...half your shrubs will die, and a mesquite tree will grow and grow and grow.  And grow.  The dum-dum that I was, I had that mesquite planted on the very edge of my yard, and it now offers zero shade to my home and half of the branches hang over onto my neighbors side of the fence.  And those branches needed cutting...from both sides of the fence.

So I found something something out about myself today that I didn't think I could still do:  I can still climb a fence.  A stone wall even. 

It all started when my neighbors dogs woke me up around 7:23 or so and that was the first time I had ever heard them bark outside.  And since I was up and annoyed with the noise, I didn't think I had seen my neighbors at all that week....they must be on vacation!  No one was home...yet someone was feeding the dogs.  I think.  Maybe?  Yes, of course I hope.  My Nancy Drew skills were kicking in.  I had no time to lose.

Of course I did the honest approach first:  I rang the door bell....no answer.  Their side gate pretty well blocked  by a second fence so the 2 little dogs would never be able to escape...and any intruder attempting to break in through there would need some serious tools.  (I am not so handy, or patient with tools, so the sneakster that I was just decided to take the "easy" route by going over the fence through my side of the yard).

Here's how I planned it:  Climb up the step ladder.  Sit on the top of the fence.  Grab the ladder while sitting on the fence and then place the ladder on the other side.  Step down to the other side.  Piece of cake.

Well.  I did not plan for when I dropped to the other side for one of my shoes to decide to get stuck on the top of the fence in mid-air, while the other was placed in rotten tomato plants on the other side.  My flexibility has major limits right now and my envisioned quiet-as-a-panther-land turned into something quite loud and pathetic.  I think I felt a few of those bricks wobbling after I let go and I'm pretty sure the dogs didn't quite know what to think of the crazy-mad woman running up and down a ladder in their backyard and hacking off branches and tossing them over the fence at hyper speed.  They looked well fed, yet confused.

"Mission Cut the Branches and Get Out" was eventually accomplished, and I figured out how to get back into my yard again okay....(even though the ladder fell on my side of the fence coming back).  Both sides of my tree were evenly trimmed.  My world made sense again. 

Sometimes it's the littlest accomplishments that can make your days exciting.  Climb a fence and you'll know.

What do you want to do?
I don't know....what do you want to do?...
I don't care, you pick.
Come on,  you decide this time....

Yeah, so sometimes when my man has a day off we kind of don't know what we want to do with ourselves.  We want to do something, (yeah that too), but not exactly sure what. 

July does not provide hiking weather.  Our kids won't sit still in restaurants.  Malls are lame.  We've seen every other movie.  The more you Kohls, the more they know you... and I'd honestly rather shove bamboo shoots up my fingernails than hang out in Best Buy one more time.

Our kids have actually begged us to just go out on a date already.  The last thing a kitchen manager wants to do is cook on his day off and the last thing a mother of 4 wants to do is prepare one more meal and have to clean up after it, so we go out to lunch.  We're even pretty thrifty about it too...we have found many "buy one/get one free" deals in the junk-mail throughout the week and set them aside for later, so we almost always check the coupon book first for ideas of where to go.

My husband and I would make the best restaurant critics.  Between the two of us we have over 30 years of restaurant work experience and 10 more if you count all my childhood days of growing up with my Dad as a director of operations in a chain of ice-cream restaurants.  Since I was 9, I probably ate half of my meals in those restaurants, and had it engraved in my brain to know what was acceptable for quality/temperatures of food, plate appearance, ticket times, and the overall service of each visit.  My husband and I also know ice-cream...we met while working together back in 1992.  It's true....Ice-cream brought us together...(more on that story another day)...

So with all that said, it is next to impossible for us to sit through a meal in a restaurant and not notice details.  How the restaurant looks outside, how the hostess greets us, the server's personality, specials, the portions, the silverware, the salt shakers, the value, the quality, the everything.  Sure we're supposed to be on a date, but this is actually fun for us.  We can't help it and it actually makes us laugh when something is so outrageously wrong.  Like an $8 lunch salad served in a soup bowl, or a servers pants pulled halfway up, or nachos with 3 pieces of meat on them, or when the server just walks up and looks at you without saying a word while running their fingers through their hair...

So I don't think my husband and I have very high standards when it comes to going out to eat, but it almost seems as if people just don't care as much about their customers. Hospitality seems to be foreign to most places in Arizona, and we have yet to be amazed with decent service and great food, (although we do have a few places we go regularly anyway). 

Sometimes we go out for the place.  Sometimes we go out for the food.  Sometimes we just show up and try something new.....but we always go out to lunch to be together.  I don't believe going out to lunch was meant to be eaten alone, and  I love that my man takes me out to lunch....(no pun intended).

So summer break has already passed the halfway mark and it's hard to believe how fast it's going!  We've really gotten good use out of our gym membership and it's been great for me to be able to have time for myself and get a good work out in and then after just hang out with my boys around the pool there.  While we're gone, my girls prefer to sleep in and have the house to themselves for a few hours so it has really worked out for all of us to have a little space from each other throughout the day. 

Exercise has always been a big part of my life.  Since the first pair of Zips running shoes I had it in my mind to run fast.  I'll never forget from 5th grade, the field-day when I won against David Zeitz and Brent Wenberg in the 50 yard dash.  Soccer was my all-time favorite game to play, but I stopped playing when I went in to Jr. High...(a decision I sometimes wish I could go back and change).  And though my Jr. high days were a little awkward, my parents made me try every sport the school had to offer.  I basically discovered I was unable to figure out how to spike a volleyball, was too nervous to play basketball in front of boys, and tennis just gets your teeth chipped.  I also remember skipping track practice to go to Dairy Queen with my friends instead...and getting caught.  But if I am most thankful for anything I learned from my high-school days, (besides learning to type), it is for the training I went through on my track team.  Being on a team taught me so many things...but the two things I'll remember the most are discipline and learning how to push myself harder.

(What can I say, lycra leggings aren't coming back any time soon, but atleast they made up for the really short shorts!!)  And Asics, in my opinion, are still the best running shoes.  Next to Zips.

So I actually can't remember the last time I went longer than a week without working out....(well, except for a "few weeks" in college and maybe when I had each of my kids).  Of course I sometimes go through seasons where I basically run the same distance and work out the same routines and so I kind of know my body doesn't get super challenged...but atleast I have the satisfaction of knowing I'm making the effort.  I've been bored of doing my usual "treadmill at the gym/weights at home workout" so I decided today to take the gym's total body conditioning class...and I'm trying to remember how I used to take that class 3 times a week last summer.  Oh. My. Gosh.  My body will be screaming at me in the morning.  I don't care though because I love this class.  It is fun to be in a class setting and be around a bunch of other women close to my age sweating and burning our booties off...(while secretly trying to lunge, squat, and lift faster than they all are!)  This class kind of reminds me of the same torture of the days of racing miles of circles around a track competing with a bunch of high-school girls....except that I guess we're about 18 years older.  Sigh.

When it comes to exercise, age is just a number, but the reality is I know I'm not getting any younger!...which is one reason why I'll always keep myself moving.  Another reason is because I'm in a "Biggest Loser" competition with my family, and I'd like to see if I can actually lose 15 pounds.  I like a good challenge, so bring it on!

The Arizona desert sure has a way of forcing us inside this time of year.  I see my kids a lot.  My kids are home every day and  I spend a lot of time around my kids.  All 5 of us are around each other sometimes....but a lot though.  Summer break means we're together more.  Arizona summers are a strange twisted version of cabin fever for Illinois winters.  Summer is here.

So with 2 girls and 2 boys around they each have a unique way of keeping our home interesting: (Disney channel / Superhero cartoons)...(Hair styling / action figures)...(Facebook / Club Penguin)...(Fashion disasters / Fist fights)...

And as we knew these freakishly hot temperatures of 110 degrees or higher would eventually come, the reality is it's painfully hot outside.  Dry your eye-balls hot.  Make you tired and mad hot.  Why bother to go out hot.  So with extra "quality" time for all 5 of us to spend together, we've found that there are about 3 things that work for my kids and I to keep cool and make it through the day happily:

Go to a pool, watch movies, or stay home and watch TV and play endless hours on the Wii and computers.
Or a 4th option:
The kids stay home and Mom goes shopping...or finds a project.

So, in an attempt to feel productive and spice up my home-decorating skills, I decided to finish painting my bedroom today.  My life makes sense when all my rooms are painted and have furniture that matches...(thank-you Ikea).  I guess our internet was disconnected, so the kids seemed to suffer from Club Penguin and Facebook withdrawal, and were a little confused as to what else to do.  Someone seemed to have figured out how to make patriotic chocolate covered pretzils though, (is that holiday really tommorrow?), while the rest of them quit on the couch and sat through Zach and Grody re-runs.  I know how to fix the sprinkler system, shovel barrels of dirt into my caravan, or cut in the finest edge of paint next to the high-vaulted ceilings standing on the top rung of a ladder, but I am definately the wrong parent to ask to reconnect, download, upload, or rewire a computer.  The kids were extra happy to see Daddy come home from work today.  My room looks nice though.

My favorite time-filler-upper and a great way to blast the energy out of my kids is spending the afternoons at the Lifetime fitness center.  I can get a great air-conditioned work-out in while they play in the child center...(which puts all child care centers to shame....they love it there).  After that, we go to the pool and cool off for a few hours so when we get home I am pretty much guaranteed a few hours of silence and calm.  On the days we don't go here the boys jump all over the furniture and whip their toys all around the house while the girls start pulling each other's hair...and then mine starts to fall out.  Lifetime fitness:  Best energy blaster place ever.

We've also seen a lot of good movies, and summer brings out the best ones!  If we're not renting movies from the library or the Redbox we're always thinking about the ones we want to go see next at the theater.  So far we've gone out to see Shrek #4, The Prince of Persia, Karate Kid, Robin Hood, Toy Story 3, The A-Team, The Prince of Persia, (again), and the long-awaited Eclipse!  It's fun to be entertained!  And bring on the popcorn!

For our family summertime is for staying up late, and sleeping in.  Playing more, scheduling less.  Parties, Camps, Get-togethers, Ice-cream & Popsicles.  Splashing, tanning, dancing.  Worrying less, laughing more.

            Summer break usually means we're all together more...