Vida. Risa. Amor.

You know when you have to sit down in the shower it's been a long weekend.  It wasn't a bad weekend at all actually, but I'll admit I'm a little exhausted....and nervous about keeping up with the rest of this week.  Right now I'm just telling myself to just take one day at a time.  (So this post was written mostly for myself to remember to take the time to soak up those slow-sitting-in-the-air-conditioning-days in July before September swings around)...

Friday:  Cousins slept over!  (I just love them.)  The boys entertained themselves for hours with Star Wars light sabers, Wii, and a new DSI.   I spent part of the evening discussing Halloween costumes over bowls of ice cream with my neice.  She has decided to be a lovely peacock and now I just can't wait to see how her Mom designs the costume.  For my costume, she suggested Lolly from candyland, Dorothy from Wizard of Oz, a doctor, or (my favorite),  a witch.  A good witch though.  She's convinced I'd make an excellent witch.  She has no idea of course...but I think her Mom knows.   ;)

Saturday:  Made sure to get Chemo up at 6:45 a.m. to take Josie and a couple teammates for the 2 hour drive to Tucson for a 10 a.m. game.  Made cinnamon rolls for the kids.  Went back to bed then got up to get Aydan ready for his 10 a.m. football game.  They lost. :(  Little Caesars rocks for a quick lunch.  Cleaned up the house.  Read a little.  My boys worked out with me to my "firm-fanny-lifter" workout.  Hilarious.  Hair cuts for boys.  Leftovers for dinner.  Mowed the lawn.  Cleaned up cowboy stuff in the living room...and got Josie to clean up the T.P from the trees her "friends" left in the front yard.  Watched Robin Hood again once the kids went to bed.  Chemo came home from work at midnight.  Love him.

Sunday:  Killed ants in kitchen.  Gross.  9 a.m. church....back at 11:30 for the girls.  Inhaled lunch and picked up 2 teammates at 12:15 for a 2 p.m. game.  Packed tons of ice-water and spray bottles and dragged pop up "tent", umbrella, chair, and cooler to the field in 105 degrees...(ride home a little stinkier on the way back).  6:30 p.m drop off girls to Superchick concert.  Groceries.  Laundry.  Coupons.  Shower.  Sleep.  ooops...back to pick girls up at 9:30.  Made girls clean their rooms before bed.  Remembered it's my sister's birthday.  Love her.

Monday:  7:30 wakeup for school.  8:15 drop kids off.  Wakeup Rylan.  8:45 preschool drop off.  Scheduled appointments.  No idea what to blog so blogged this blog.  Dreamt of new blog templates.  Stared at new pictures on facebook.  Texted Colorado sister on my new phone.  Love her too.  Jogged 3 miles on the treadmill.  Still wondering why that felt hard.  Laundry.  Looked for lost camera.  11:15 picked up Rylan in his dinosaur mask he made.  Stood on roof of my van to get last traces of toilet paper of my roof.  Made Chili.  2:00 boys to dentist.  5-7 Lanie to softball....and need to bring tons of ice water. Heat warning. Again.  7:30-9 Josie to soccer.  Check other kids homework.

Tuesday:  Run outside before the sun rises.  Same morning schedule as before.  Return library movies and books.  Chemo has the day off...Yay!  Lanie has student council meeting.  Aydan 5-6:15 football.  Josie 7:30-9 soccer.  Family dinner possible? Watch a movie with Chemo when the kids go to bed. ?  maybe.

Wednesday:  Half day for kids at school.  Take neighbor to airport.  Firm workout.  3:40 girls to dentist.  Lanie to softball.  Josie to small groups.  Me to my Revelation bible study.

Thursday:  Get up and run before the sun shines in my face.  Chemo's day off again...yay!  Field trip with Rylan's preschool to the Riparian.  Aydan to football.  Josie get's booster shot.  Family dinner before Josie goes to soccer...we should try to make this important.  Catch up on Grey's anatomy....this is really important.  Kind of.

Friday:  aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah. 
I'm assuming I made it.  I plan to spend most of the day putting finishing touches of my fall decorations around the house for a fun evening with friends for a Heritage Makers demonstration I'm hosting for my super cool Mom.  Can't wait.  Hoping to eventually find more time to put together my 2010 digital scrapbook, calendar, swatchbook for the football coaches, and a personal cookbook since my recipe organization skills are a disaster.

Breathe...
Because I'm going to have to do it all over again next week...which is another reason why I just love the song "Marchin On" by One Republic.  Check it out on my playlist:

We broke a record this month....our electricity bill came to $450.  Thank you August for triple heat temperatures...and Wii, computers, T.V. and curling irons.  Sigh.  Saving $$ this time of year is more challenging than ever.  Double sigh.  Preschool.Sports.Braces.  Triple sigh...

So "finding a deal" has become my middle name and now that I have 7 1/2 hours of free time/3 mornings a week, I've been able to use that time to find some amazing deals.

It's great when certain grocery stores accept all competitor coupons and quadruple coupons.  I have managed to save an average of 65% on groceries each time and don't remember the last time I actually had to pay for toothpaste.  I cringe when people in front of me buy a dozen things that they could have cut coupons for out of the Sunday paper to save $1 off each item.  Sure it takes a little time to read the ads and cut the coupons, but it's not that hard.

Target's my favorite this week.  I wasn't on the hunt for new bedding, but if I was, I could have redecorated each of my kids beds for only $7.50 each, thanks to college clearance stuff.  I had to pull myself away...there was a King size comforter only $25 on clearance from $100!  I found backpacks for next year for only $3 each.  Their end racks are famous for clearance hair products and since my girls go through conditioner like water around here I was able to stock up on a bunch for mere dollars, thanks to more coupons.  Target is also discontinuing all of their home/gardens by the end of September so everything out there is also 75% off.  I could have bought a lovely fountain for my backyard for only $75 originally $500, but decided to just go with the set of 3 huge pots for only $5.  I did buy a few shirts on the clearance racks for my girls for only $2.50...and shoes for less than $5.  Gotta love it.  And when Target is ready to clearance out toys, man, they really drop the price.  I found a Toy Story 3 Woody toy that came with a cool cowboy belt for only $3, originally $15...(You can never have too many bribes available when you need a certain 4 year old to behave during errands!)

Ross is our second favorite.  I say "our", because my husband actually likes to go here.  It's a great place to find good shoes.  He found shoes for work on sale for $25, originally $100, and I found Josie some Adidas soccer cleats for only $20, originally $80.  They also have inexpensive Barca shirts for our entire family here!  (Barca is the name of Josie's soccer team, and so it is rare to ever find "fan-wear" of any kind of this team anywhere!)  Rylan loves the toy section of course...he found some Batman Boxing gloves that he absolutely couldn't depart with.  We had to talk him out of the musical guitar.  He still calls Ross "that place with the guitar".

And last, but not least, (because it's secretly my favorite), is Kohls.  There are dozens of 80% off clearance racks:  shoes, bedding, earrings, clothes, underwear, swimsuits....it's amazing.  I've been able to stock up on next years clothes for the boys for a fraction of their original prices.  And with 15% coupons you can use on everything in the store, you just can't beat that.

Life has it's "price-tag" some seasons, and I love when I can save money on things that my family needs.  Because what Mom doesn't "need" a new $2 pair of earrings "once in a while"?

...just call me "Katie the deal finding lady." 

Or not.

I picked up my daughter at her high school's first football game the other night, and wow, was that a little flashback moment...only every other kid was wearing skinny jeans instead of rolling them up like we used to back then.  We had poofier hair then too, and nowadays the girls really like to wear their hair straight.  The hot season here seems like it's almost on it's way out, and there's that cozy feeling of "community" when you're at a high school football game.  There's the bright lights, the band playing in the bleachers, the cheerleaders, the players, kids grouped in their little "click's" wandering around everywhere, (besides paying attention to the game)....and then there was my daughter... 

I watched her for a minute before I let her see me.  She makes me smile.  I was having the same moment as the Dad had in the movie Father of the Bride when he remembers his daughter standing there in her sweet little 5 year old braids.  Now my girl is in high-school.  She's growing up so fast.  That night she was wearing a new Jags t-shirt, (for jaguars), that she earned for helping out at the game, and was smiling at everyone around her.  I can tell she's very well liked.  She looked great.  I'm also still trying to get used to her having a boyfriend.  She was walking next to him with their hands locked together.  He plays basketball and seems nice.  It's hard to try and figure out how to be a "cool Mom" while keeping an inconspicuous eye on what's going on...and that sometimes means having to check texts.  I know, I know, I'm the only Mom on the planet that does this, and she doesn't always like it, but she does show me.  It's our attempt at trying to have a "no secrets home".  I tell her I check because I care. 

I never thought this far ahead for what it would be like to have Josie be in high school but I'll admit I like it a ton more than Jr. high.  I still have flashbacks where I see her in braids with scuffs on her knees from playing on her bike all day...and when she used to line her American Girl dolls up in rows.

And she's really become an amazing girl.  I just love her.  Here's a few fun notes she wrote for me today:  (she was trying to earn her cell phone back...and drew me a picture of what she looks like when she has to do the dishes....and then I also made her give me a list of meals that would be "acceptable" for her since she's not a fan of what's in our pantry lately...She makes me laugh.

So I'm the oldest of 4 siblings...after me comes Jen, then Bets, then Josh.  The coolest part of being the oldest is that, besides my own parents, I've known all of them the longest of anyone in their lives.  I win.  (he-he).

So Jen has been in my life for about 33 years now.  I know I haven't always been the nicest big sister, but for some reason she has always looked up to me.  Well, maybe not always, but for as long as I've known her, she pretty much does anything I ever ask her to do...

When I had first gotten my drivers liscence, we had a long distance to drive for a family vacation, so she took the wheel for me when I put it on cruise control so I could rest...and I think she even sat in the drivers seat for me.  She would let me style her hair and wouldn't cry too hard when I burned her with a curling iron or cut her bangs too short.  When I pushed Betsy too hard on a skinny skateboard down a hill and scaped up her legs, I begged Jen to take the blame...and she did.  Once we tricked a neighbor together into thinking there was an ice-cream truck coming around with our Mom's bell and hid in our front tree to watch.  We built forts in our trees together with huge pieces of foam and jump-ropes and used Betsy to test them out.  She'd always "let" me sit in the front and ate every bite of my crunchy macaroni and cheese dinners.  She didn't get mad at me when I got us lost in search for the Chicago Beach together in my smurf truck....and she tolerated my music.

I also love that she is famous for being random and unpredictable.  When she was little, she scared all of us after we searched for hours only to find her napping by the window upstairs.  Of all of us, she's the one with the most scrapes and bumps, and at one of my Dad's softball games she cut her lip so bad she had to have stitches.  I was fascinated when she turned the mixers on her own hand once...but I cried for her when she had to have eye surgery...and we probably ran over 3 pairs of her glasses with the lawn mower. And if she's snoring, she won't care if you shake her 15 times from the bottom of the triple bunk beds to make her stop...(this is where the names Ke-we, Je-we, & Bessy were invented by the way).

She's always been there...through birthdays, school, church, sports, vacations, college, weddings, and babies.  She's quick to forgive, loves to laugh loud, is generously optimistic, and is always ready to listen.

So now that we're in our 30's, I have found that our roles have kind of taken a little switch.  Instead, I find myself looking up more and more to her.  She amazes me with her wisdom and advice and takes me as I am.  She knows me better than I know myself sometimes...even when I can't put my thoughts into words. 

She created this lovely blog for me and is the only one who knows how to change my boring songs on my playlist.  (hint, hint.) 


The other day she offered to style up my hair and jazz me up in makeup, big earrings and cowboy boots for a super fun photoshoot that, so far, has been the highlight of my month.

She's an amazing friend and photographer.  She's forever my Je-we.  Check her out at Kreatid.com

I just wrote this and now I don't know why.  This is more of an expanded version of my facebook status today.  Oh well.

Do you ever wonder if you're secretly being video taped on one of those reality shows where they try and find out how you would react in a bizarre situation?  Like just before they reveal to you it's all a prank and you were actually surrounded by actors, they say, "smile, you're on candid camera!"...and you get to breathe that big sigh of relief and everything becomes quite laughable again...

Well I wish this morning was just a "candid camera" moment.  I probably shouldn't mention this all happened at church this morning, but maybe that's what makes it even more wierd for me.  (On a side note:  I love my church, and know there's no such thing as a "perfect church", but I seem to have noticed that there have been a lot of interesting people hanging out in the back row)...and yes, I realize all back rows anywhere are notorious for "questionable behavior"... 

So I sit in the back row for the main reason that I don't like to freeze under the air conditioning vents in the middle and have found that has been the only location that keeps me comfortable temperature-wise.  I realize that's a little ironic considering it's usually 110 degrees outside and cold air might feel wonderful to most people, but after you've lived in Arizona a while, it basically feels as if you're walking from an oven to a freezer all day long.

After about 15 minutes into the service, two teenage girls squeezed past me, in a hurry for some reason, and sat themselves in the two chairs beside me.  They both had their cell phones in their laps for the whole service and I was forced to listen to the constant tic, tic, tic, tic, tic of their unending text messaging....or the random slurpy sips they'd take of their coffee drinks that they'd keep dropping back into their cupholders over and over again.  And it wasn't like they tried to put their cups back in the holders nicely either...it was always a clunky thud noise when they'd drop them.  At one point I heard one of them tearing something and saw her ripping a cupholder apart...(that thing that wraps around the cup so you don't burn your hand off)...because that's real fun to rip.  In church.  Two chairs next to these girls was a high school couple that decided to remove the armrest out of the way so they could sit together in a permanent embrace for the entire service.  I gave them a serious staredown.  The girl was like "what?" and I just shook my head and rolled my eyes.  Where were these kids parents??

As all this was going on, a lady in front of me decided to dig up a candy in the depths of her purse that was wrapped in an award winning tightest-plastic-wrapped-candy-of-all times and opened it as slowly as she possibly could.  In front of her was another couple massaging each other's necks.   The college guy in front of me was going to town on his hangnails.  A few seats next to him was a Mom with her newborn and her 2 year old that got up and down SIX, not even kidding, times.  My heart went into my throat when I thought she was going to trip down the stairs with her newborn in her arms.  And her 2 year old didn't have the slightest clue as to how to whisper either and liked climbing stairs.  There's like 20 steps up to where they were sitting.  I counted.

I really was trying to listen...but being at church today just kind of felt like I was on a page of a "Where's Waldo" book.  Only maybe we could rename it:  "Where's the Wierdo's". 

But Jesus loves all of us wierdos.  I try to remember that.  (Cringe).

So my daughters tease me that if we ever have a pet someday we should name him "Peeve" since I have so many pet peeves in life.  But I seriously don't think sitting in back rows at church should leave me feeling so "peeved".  The closing worship song was pretty appropriate:  "I'll fly away".  

Next week maybe I should just bring my winter coat and try to sit in the front row....or maybe I'll try and find a quiet place in the desert instead.