Mucous Massage

For our birthdays, Lyndsay and I gave each other massage certificates! So we ditched the kids and off we went to the local spa. I don’t know if I was more excited about the massage or a WHOLE HOUR without kids, interruptions, and being pulled in 20 directions!! I probably would have been content to just sit in my car in peace in the driveway! But I was soon to find out that this was going to be much more thrilling!

Well I've had a horrible cold for the past 2 weeks that was gift wrapped in booger bubbles and sneezing spit spray and personally hand delivered to me by my lovely children. Consider it an early birthday present! I have tried all sorts of cold medicines and allergy pills; but to no avail. The faucet continues to drip incessantly.
Little did I realize, in advance, that lying face down for an hour in dark quiet solitude was probably not the best antidote for draining nasal cavities!! I was soon to learn the error of my ways. My Super Woman talents were obviously not superior to the Gravity Villian.
While we were retrieved by our therapists to our indiviual rooms, Lyndsay happened to notice the "couples room". Innocently she asked if we could have our massages together in that room; since we were sisters and it was for our birthdays. The therapists agreed and off we went to the romantic couples room. We were like giddy little girls as we prepped and waited for our massages to begin. Something about being in a quiet dark room with your sister in a slightly uncomfortable naked setting just makes you giggle like a 10 year old! Similar to how everything is 100 times funnier when you're in church and supposed to be quiet. Well the second I laid face down on my table with my arms down by my sides, I knew we had a serious problem! But by then it was too late to warn Lyndsay that she better run for her safety (and sanity). The therapists had emerged into the room, the massages had commenced and the nasal discharge had begun it's quick decent to the tip of my nose. Suddenly this "hour of peace" became the most uncomfortable count the next 3600 seconds until it's over experience! My head was racing of ways to resolve this dilemma. But I was stuck!! My only option was to see how long I could hold out before having to loudly snort the mucous back into my brain with it reverberating against my naval cavities all the way back up. Normally only one other person, the therapist, would have to be subjected to such horror. But oh no, we had to have the coveted frickin couples room. So three other innocent bystanders were now involved! The only silver ling in this situation is that there's a hole where your face rests....which enabled my dripping mucous to fall to the floor rather than puddle up in my face! How convenient! I'm sure it was designed just for that purpose. So I held out as long as I could before passing out due to the lack of oxygen. Then I humbly asked my therapist, in a voice not even my own due to the excess fluids resting in my nose, if she could retrieve me a tissue or even a towel to permanently shove up my nose. She graciously accepted my request and gladly escaped for a tissue. Well now the next problem ensued. My arms are supposed to be relaxed by my side. But now I had to keep one arm up by my face to continue to wipe my nose (the head rest hole came in handy again for easy under the table access to my nostrils!) So in short, the longest hour of my life went something like this. "polite sniff, polite sniff, wipe, wipe, polite sniff, screw it...SNORT! apology, polite sniff, polite sniff, DOUBLE SNORT!" I was so focused on the fluids escaping from my head that I have no idea if I even got a massage. By the time the wretched experience was over and the therapists left, I jumped off my table and grabbed the box of tissues and proceeded to ravage Lyndsay's ears with the longest blowing of the nose recorded in recent history! Guiness book of records has nothing on me! We laughed so hard that she even joined me in the snorting department. I'm sure our poor innocent therapists were out in the hallway puking and laughing as well. So next time you think a "couples massage" sounds fun....just remember all the things that could go embarassingly wrong! And last but not least, Happy Birthday Lyndsay...with a booger on top! I'm sure it's just what you wanted for your present! :-)

Lake 2009 Kick Off

We have officially kicked off the 2009 Lake Season! Since it's been in the 90s this week, we dusted off the boat (ok more like we had to FIND it in the garage underneath all the junk Jer had piled on it for a few months! You wouldn't believe the treasures we found in the process though!) and away we went! However just because it's 90 degree weather and you'll get sunburnt in an hour doesn't mean the water is balmy as well. One dip of our toes and we jumped back into the boat! Finally the "real men" were brave enough to enter the icy waters. Yes...Anden, myself and Lyndsay took a dangerous tube ride while the girls (aka Jeremy, Dad, Taylee) watched!










This was Taylee's first trip to the lake, well other than hours before she was born she was at the lake in my tummy! :-) We all joked about that. In fact, Dad and Lyndsay were there with us that time too! As you can see, Taylee was overcome with excitement with this inaugural lake experience!

We basically took a leisurely approach to this lake trip as to not disrupt the icebergs that were still floating out there. So instead of crazy "on the water" antics, we filled the day with rock throwing, relaxing, and just cruising around.

It was a great day! There was only one minor mishap. Let's just say ONE of us ended up looking like this!

Word of advice for those "Idahoans" that don't believe in sunscreen....It REALLY does prevent wearing white sunglasses for the next week! :-)

Addictions

So which one of us thinks we're the baby? Try not to let the binky/blanky give it away...or even the big box of diapers for the 2.5 yr old!

No worries! We'll be breaking these habits soon enough!

Maybe it's Mommy that doesn't want to part with the binky/blanky! As for the diapers, it just feels seriously wrong changing a 2 yr old after changing an infant!

It's probably similar to changing Adults Depends.

Sharing with Sissy

So Taylee's now old enough to really cramp Anden's style. Some days he's not too thrilled about the competition for his toys. Basically she's now become target practice for his football, baseball, hockey puck, soccer ball, karate chops, anything he can make into a sword, or my favorite of running and hurdling over her while she's sitting (his success rate of clearly the hurdle, aka her head, is about 75%).

Today we took them on their first shared bike ride. It was such a loving moment.

Anden: "What?! Sissy no come! This my bike! No share with Sissy! Both my handles! Sissy get off!"

Parents: "Anden! Be nice to her!! It'll be fun! She gets to ride with you"

Anden: "No take her out!"

Taylee: (thinking) "If he won't give me some room, then I'll just bite his arm!"

We eventually talked him (ok bribed him) into realizing this would be a fun event!

The rest of the ride went smoothly! We all had a great time! Until things were a bit too quiet. We're still wondering what mischievous thing Anden did to her....

Somewhere in the back of my mind I hear my mom singing "And we are a happy family!"

Some days do you wonder how you managed to kick yourself in the head?

NBA All Star Weekend

We love sports! So we were more than thrilled that All Star Weekend was in Phoenix this year! (especially helped to temporarily lick our Suns wounds from Steve Kerr destroying our team!) Because we're season ticket holders, we were some of the lucky few that actually were able to buy tickets to the events! Oh and how convenient for Jeremy that it also fell on Valentine's Day! His present to me was easily solved. So romantic huh?! It was definitely a quiet night alone...ok not even close!

This is Dwight Howard dunking on his own taller hoop he had wheeled in for the Slam Dunk Competition! I would just be happy if I could jump and actually touch the bottom of the net!

This is at the Block Party across the street from the Arena. TNT was broadcasting from here all weekend and this year set up their own court for different events.

Although we go to basketball games often, this was definitely a cool experience! We figured it might be the only time we ever make it to an All Star event.

NBA Jam Session

We decided to pack up the kids and take them to the NBA Jam Session. It was at the Phoenix Convention Center in conjunction with All Star Weekend. They had a special free night for season ticket holders. So we figured we couldn't pass it up! It was definitely a Basketball Disneyland! We all had a blast...especially Anden!!


They had a huge Kids Zone! There were all sorts of bouncy house/mazes, mini basketball courts, shooting games, bouncing basetballs, etc. He loved this section the best!






But he especially loved it when he figured out that if you held on tight you could do a front flip and the ball would become one with you; whipping over you as you crashed into an innocent bystander, the floor, the wall. The other parents were thrilled our son taught their kids his new found guaranteed to cause an injury skill.














Taylee even got to join in on the action! She patiently and enviously waited her turn!

Finally, her moment to shine arrived!
And then the masked sibling came around and stole her limelight!


We had an action packed time at the NBA Jam Session! Then it was regretfully time to go home. We love our little precious boy and his TIGHT GRIP!