on stage...or, in the family room, i guess

It's that time of year again...auditions for OnStage! Ryan's audition piece this year is a monologue called "Girl Crazy." Which is a little amusing to me because it may or may not be true. (Hint: It is. I mean, substitute another name for Kelly and we will have actually almost had this exact conversation.) And he may or may not be mortified that I'm telling you that. (Hint: He totally will be, but maybe next time he'll think about that before he slams me.)

He did give me permission to record and post his audition practice, so here you go!

(Apparently, I needed more light, but at least the camera is stationary and you don't need to be immune to motion sickness to watch it this time, so there's that...)

the things he leaves behind

I used to be pretty obsessive about picking up toys. Well, about making sure all the toys were put away like they were supposed to be put away. Unfortunately, this is not a trait I have passed along to any of my children. Jackson has a Little People garage that came with two little cars and two little people. Back when it was new, he played with it almost every day. So every day when he had finished playing with it, I would find the cars and the people and put them with the garage. One day I couldn't find one of the cars. I looked all day and couldn't find it...it drove me crazy. The next day, I opened up one of the cabinets in the kitchen and found the little car inside my set of nesting mixing bowls. And so it began. A Hot Wheels car in the pantry. Some Legos in the laundry hamper. And so on...and so on. Now, don't get me wrong. He will pick up his toys if he's asked. Sometimes even without crying hysterically. And not to get all psychoanalytical or anything, but I really do think that he leaves things around as if to make sure we all remember that he lives here too. (As if we could forget...I mean, seriously, he absolutely has no "inside voice!!") As the third of four children, sometimes his needs aren't always the first to be addressed. He has to wait for his apple juice more times than not. And he gets dragged all over the city to the activities of his older siblings.

So, I cut him a little slack and I've learned to not obsess over the things he leaves behind. Or maybe I just don't have the energy to be so crazy-obsessive over toys now. Either way, I kind of look forward to finding his little surprises. Like the crusts of his toast every single time he has toast for breakfast:

And Obi Wan Kenobi hiding out in Emily's jacket:

And the Space Lego dudes, reminding me to refill the napkin holder:

And my personal favorite...I guess the Lego Star Wars guy has a problem with gorillas, but it was an amusing scene to find when I came to sit down at the computer one morning after dropping the kids off at school:

Jack is growing up...against my wishes, I might add. He's reading now. Actual books. And last night he had his first sleepover. He was so excited...he pulled out his Transformers backpack and we packed it together and then he carried it and his sleeping bag around for almost an hour before it was time to leave. I don't know what tugged at my heart more...the fact that he was so excited to go and was practically horrified when Doug teasingly suggested he would go to the sleepover with Jack. Or how disturbingly quiet the house was after he left. Shortly after Doug left with Jack, Ryan and I were sitting on the couch watching TV.

Ryan: Did Jack leave for his sleepover yet?

Me: Yep. Why? Because it's so quiet?

Ryan: Um, no. Because his Transformers backpack is right over there.

Yes, he's growing up. But it's nice to know some things aren't going to change.

dinner tonight

Eye of Round Roast from our favorite local farm. The roast is rubbed with a little olive oil and then seasoned with salt and pepper, garlic, onion, and rosemary. The liquid is beef broth, water, Worcestershire sauce and a dash of Pickapeppa Sauce. Low and slow for about 10 hours.

I'll let you know...

Update: Yum! The flavors were great, but it was just a little on the dry side. When I bought the roast at the Farmer's Market, I was told that 10 hours on low in the crock pot would be about right...I think 8 would have done it. But the pan juices made excellent gravy and I served creamy garlic spinach and whole wheat couscous as sides. The leftover meat will make excellent BBQ Beef sandwiches later this week!!

i'm pretty sure i just got slammed

So. Right. Teenagers are so much fun. And not at all damaging to my ego. Take, for example, the conversation I just had with Ryan. We were watching The Amazing Race and some sort of pet commercial came on...it may have had dogs or cats or, I don't know, maybe even ferrets or something. But whatever it was, Ryan and Emily completely jumped on it...

Emily: Awww...

Ryan: See, Mom! We need a pet!

Emily: Yes, we totally need a pet! It could be anything...I mean a dog, a cat, a fish, a bird...it could even be a pet rock, Mom!

Me: Well, we could have a pet squirrel!

Ryan: Yes!

Me: Of course, it would have to be an outdoor pet.

Ryan: (eyeroll) Oh, come on...We NEED a dog!!

Me: What would you do with a pet?

Ryan: Um, play with it...I need some company!!

Me: There are six people in this house...what do you mean you need some company?

Ryan: I just really want the company of someone I would like to be around...

Me: ...

Ryan: Oh, I mean, someone other than you, of course...

Wow. Really.

And before you take his side and are all like, "Aww. Poor thing. He totally needs a dog!" This is the part where I say that we used to have a dog. A beautiful, if not completely gaseous, dog named Belle. Love her. But she made Emily look like she had been punched in the eyes (ALLERGIES!). And then we moved to a 900 sq. ft. condo in Myrtle Beach. So Belle now leads a wonderfully fabulous life full of people who love her to pieces...and a trombone. And the last time we saw Belle, Jackson needed Benedryl after spending about 3 minutes with her (ALLERGIES!). So, yeah, dogs are pretty much out of the question for us. So you can go back to being all...Ugh! Teenagers!!

more snow and a tasty treat

More snow last weekend. This time it was real snow! Like, for snowmen, and snow angels, and sledding, and snowball fights!

And the best part about coming in and warming up with some hot chocolate was also introducing Ainsley to Nutella on graham crackers...

Mmmm...Nutella. If you've never had it, I dare you to not try it after seeing these pictures...

she has a bit of a cold, but it doesn't stop her from hitting those notes...

the great snowstorm of 2010...and a winner.

Friday night was our annual "blizzard!" I had only heard reports of flurries in our area, and couldn't believe how crowded all the stores were on Friday! Then I remembered I live in the South. The first flakes fell around 6:00pm and this is what we woke up to on Saturday morning...

Looks innocent enough, but there was some ice under this dusting...and instead of falling in nice, big flakes, most of this "snow" was actually tiny, little ice pellets. The temperature never rose above freezing on Saturday and wasn't much warmer on Sunday, so most of this stuff was still around on Monday, resulting in...you guessed it! A SNOW DAY! Which was great, because we really needed another day stuck in the house! We needed a project...so, we decided to build a sled with our Bendaroos and slide down the back hill while we still had a bit of snow on the ground!

No, we didn't really. We (um, Jack and Emily) played entirely too much Wii, and we (um, Ryan, Emily and I) watched way too many old episodes of Lost. But that would have been a nice segue way into announcing the contest winner, wouldn't it??

Anyway, last week I held my very first giveaway here on this website. I had big plans of going to random.org to generate my random number to determine the winner. But of the 5 comments I received, only 3 of them were actual entries, and of those 3, 2 were in the same household. So, for whatever reason, most likely because I have cabin fever, I'm going to send Bendaroos to the Q's and to Owen. Thanks for playing, guys!!

ainsley sings her abc's - the fully clothed edition

Ainsley has recently adopted a "clothing-optional" attitude. Meaning, if she knows we are going to be home, she wears only her diaper. And if I do make her leave the house, like to go pick up the other kids from school, she walks two steps inside the door when we get home and takes her clothes off in either the kitchen or the hallway next to the bathroom. We've all kind of gotten used to it, and to be honest, I didn't even think of it the first time I had her sit next to me on the couch and sing her ABC's for the webcam on my netbook. And then I played it back and went, "Crap. She's naked." I briefly thought about posting it anyway, because she wasn't really exposing anything the way she was sitting, but thought better of it. I was hopeful I could get her to sing it again. It took about a week, but I did...