Giving Ourselves a Break

The Peeps and I celebrated Easter 2010 with our usual family Easterly-type activities such as egg coloring, Easter egg hunting, attending mass and eating a home-cooked ham dinner with all of the fixings; that is, minus the green bean casserole Hubs and I forgot to make even though we purchased all of the ingredients the previous week. Like it was missed after all of the calories we consumed Easter Sunday, right? Exactly. In fact, we were having so much fun hanging out at the homestead enjoying a little bit of free time that green beans were never even mentioned once, a sure sign of a good time had by all.

So then what? Well, Peep Girlie made good on her promise to attend the weekly private cello lesson, during which time I caught up on some much needed reading of my favorite Chick Lit. Then it was time for SPRING BREAK to officially begin; and being all over the idea of sleeping in past 5:45 a.m. every morning for a week, I was almost first to begin the celebration by waking up promptly at 8:00 a.m. Monday morning. Now, if only the cat would've been clued in on my plan by not scratching LOUDLY at my bedroom door at 6:00 a.m. and again at 7:00 a.m., I would've found day 1 of Spring Break enjoyable. But no deal. So let me just say I was not amused with Smokie's antics and seriously considered a new plan called:

Sequestering the Cat Overnight Every Night for the Rest of Spring Break.

Still thinking on that one. Meanwhile, enjoy this fine photo of our Easter morning Krispy Kreme breakfast:

Bring on the Clowns, People

Here I sit in my lovely *cough* olive green Orchestra Mom Chair again, on a bittersweet day that is the final Youth Conservatory practice before the official concert, the one for which these fabulous musicians have been practicing since November 2009. The best part? Today is also Bring a Friend to Rehearsal Day/Final Celebration, so we're seeing all kinds of new faces in the group making it even more special. And being the mom who happens to care about the blessed youngsters' nutrition, I left a bag of cheddar Sun Chips on the food table. Chowing down to take place at half-time - let the excitement begin!

Now for the biggest unexpected news item of the week called Son Home from School Sick with Strep Throat. Poor guy made it through the school day on Monday, but then came home all feverish with a temperature of 102+ degrees. We monitored his temp, rotated Tylenol and Motrin every few hours, kept him home Tuesday, then took him to see the doctor on Wednesday where we found out he officially had a case of strep throat, surprising the doctor and me as we really just didn't think he had more than a flu-like virus. Then after unsuccessfully attempting to administer liquid antibiotics, son bravely opted for a penicillin shot nipping that illness in the bud at lightning speed. Hindsight is everything? Absolutely.

Hey, remember that circus field trip mentioned in my previous blog post? Well, yeah. Son just so happened to miss attending the Shrine Circus with fellow classmates, so I made good on my promise to take him on my own by heading out to the Civic Auditorium on Saturday. This plan worked out perfectly for all of us; because Hubs, who wasn't all that interested in going to the circus anyway, had to go out of town on business that day and Older Sis chose to hang out at home to exercise her newfound freedom to be without adult supervision. Meanwhile, Son and I had a blast bonding together. Heck, I even made a new buddy, Grandma/Retired Nurse, who sat beside me with her grandson critiquing the circus junk food and aerialist who, for safety purposes, should NOT have been hanging by her foot from a rope upside down like that.

You go, Grandma.

She's Lost It Completely

Hey cool! Got me a burnt-orange colored Orchestra Mom chair this week during rehearsal time as I blog, a vast improvement over last week's olive green-ness. Totally random, I know. So what happened this week? Hold on tight, because the stuff that happened upon us makes last week look like hopscotch, if that's even possible. Really it does, and what better time to get started than right now. Grab a cuppa something and get comfortable, this ramble could take awhile.

Presidents Day 2010 involved a major milestone for us called Leaving Kids Home Alone for the First Time. It had to happen eventually, so hubs and I loosened the parental reigns, juiced up the peeps' cell phones, then headed off for a sweet lil' lunch escape at our First Date Restaurant, aka Panda House. The weirdest part of our date was that even though we had "broken bread" (or rather fortune cookie) at this romantic spot for the first time over 18 years ago, nothing about the place has changed in all of those years. Not a thing, right on down to the pink and gray décor! There we ate our usual lunch entrees of sweet & sour chicken, almond chicken, steamed rice, crab rangoon and hot & spicy soup. Then soon after, because we couldn't think of anything else exciting to do other than shop at the book store or Lowe's, we returned home to find both peeps feeling a little more grown-up and ready for mom & dad to go on more dates. Alrighty then, it's a deal.

Ash Wednesday came and went with the family getting big fat ashy forehead smudges during mass, then eating at the parish Soup Supper afterward where the oldest peepster banked a few service hours by helping out at the supper with one of her CCD friends. The bad part of dinner? Our soup bowls were microscopic, almost the size of the palm of my HAND, which would've been acceptible if we'd known about the unlimited refill situation. (Who knew? At least post a sign for us clueless parishioners, people. *geez*) Practically starving by bedtime, we ditched the whole fasting idea and had ourselves a meatless snack of cheese Bagel Bites, Poppers and Chex Mix just to make it through the night. A Catholic has to do what a Catholic has to do - God is understanding that way.

Now on with the biggest surprise of the week and primary reason for me taking on a major housecleaning project Tuesday & Wednesday: Family in town for college swim meet. While we were unable to witness all of the swim events, we did manage to sneak in a few rounds on Friday night and Saturday morning and it was total chlorinated excitation, let me tell you. The peeps had never before seen their cousins swim competitively, let alone attend a swim meet, so watching was a pretty huge deal for both of them. Big into swimming themselves, who knows, maybe they will think about swim team in the future? We shall see. At any rate, we were just thrilled to see family and hope they'll consider visiting us in our hometown more often, possibly outside of swim events. I mean, it's not like we have cooties or anything. And hey, next time lunch at Spaghetti Works in the Old Market will be our treat.


Video of cousin (lane 3) taken by Girlie Peep

So what else? Oh yes, the usual cello lesson with our favorite professional cellist, another meeting with my newest client, and the weekly consulting work for the Sisters of Mercy. Next week: Volunteer time at Children's Respite Care Center, Shrine Circus field trip, and the possibility of that long lost thing called Me Day. Can't wait, especially for that last one... the anticipation is driving me bonkers.

Triple Stuff

You just never know what kind sugary snack you'll find in the Peep Household, and this one in particular doesn't disappoint. Nope, not in the least: