Not The Outcome I Was Expecting

My mom and I took the two younger boys out to lunch today. The plan was to grab lunch then check out the local nursery after. We were on the hunt for white wave petunias. For those of you who don't do the whole gardening thing there is a certain kind of petunia that spreads out like crazy. You commonly see them in purple, pink and red - for some reason white isn't readily available...

After learning that they do in fact have a white wave petunia (even though Lowe's a place that rhymes with Moe's said that there isn't such a thing) we headed out of the nursery. We were almost home free - not one thing trampled on, nothing broken and nobody crying - the very nice lady that had helpfully explained that our first mistake had been asking a Moe's employee any question stopped us at the gate.

Very Nice Lady: Can I give them (the boys) something?
Me: Sure?

VNL then offers to carry Liam (hope she had a back brace on) and gets Luc to follow her:

VNL: I've got kids of my own. I'm not a crazy.
Me: Ok.

Mom and I follow her inside to find that she has left the boys by a little fountain and has gone into a back room. VNL returns with 2 packets.
Me: (Thinking- how cool she's giving them seed packets or something)
VNL: Now they're starting to wake up, but if you take them home and put them in the refrigerator you can take them out for 1/2 an hour and release them into your yard this evening after dinner.
Me: (after taking a closer look) Ladybugs! How cool is that guys!

Boys are entranced and I have to grab them before Liam makes ladybug squishies.

Luc: (pulling out a nickel he had found on the ground) Mom can I use it?
Me: It's only a nickel buddy, it's not enough.
VNL: Let me have it and I'll get you one that will work.

She took Luc's nickel and traded it for a quarter so that he could get something out of the candy machine in the office.

Needless to say the boys were extremely pleased with their outing with Gramma and Mom.

My mom and I talked about that being a surefire way to get people to come back to your business again. It was awesome and so generous and it made my kids day.

So this evening we unleashed the beasts...

You can't quite see in the picture but the label says "1/3 cup of ladybugs approximately 1500".

Anxiously waiting

The calm before the storm (Liam really didn't care for the ladybugs outside of their little mesh bag. He eventually touched one with one finger. I consider that progress.)

Hopefully where they will do the most good.

Luc wasn't nearly as concerned over the bugs touching him...

All of the kids were involved and had a great time unleashing approximately 3000 ladybugs into gramma's garden.

Personally, I have never had the pleasure of releasing ladybugs like that. It was an interesting experience shaking them out of the bag into the kids hands and have the escapees crawling up my arms.

Hypothetical Question

We took the kids out to "do something special" the other night. It was way too windy to do anything out of doors. Ice Cream was out. The kids turned their collective noses in the air at Jamba Juice. So we settled on churros at Rubio's. Best fast food churros around.

We've been toying on letting the government take us to Disneyland, using some of that mad economic stimulus money. While sitting in Rubio's I threw out the idea of giving the kids a choice and seeing what they would do. Does money talk? We were about to soon discover the answer to this question and many others. Well, not really. Just that first question.

So on our way home we decided to throw a hypothetical question at the kids. After explaining what hypothetical means - numerous times, we got down to the nitty gritty.

Us: Would you rather have a day at Disneyland or $50 in your pocket to spend on whatever you want?
Lach: That's too hard.
Laren: I just don't know.
Lucas: DISNEYLAND!!!!
Liam: Look! I have a booger!

In a moment of brilliance Jon gave them an idea of what fifty smackaroos could buy.

Jon: You could buy an ipod shuffle with 50 bucks. Like what A-1,2, & 3 have.
Lach: Aw man! Did you have to say that?
Laren: I just don't know.
Lucas: DISNEYLAND!!!
Liam: I ate it.
Liam: ...
Liam: On accident.

I decide to get on Luc's level.

Me: That would buy a lot of Hubba Bubba, Luc.
Lucas: HUBBA BUBBA! Lots and lots of Hubba Bubba! I'd want the money!

Me to Jon: We could have offered him 5 bucks and gotten off a whole lot cheaper.

The workings of a 5 year old mind.

Toxic

I now can't think that word without having Britney Spears singing in my head. For those who don't know what I am talking about, well, we can find you a nice quiet place to sit and listen to some nice Barry (the White one or Manilow). Whenever I have Britney singing that song in my head it's the same line that I hear. Over and over again it's "You're toxic, I'm slipping under". You'd think I could come up with more of it. Then again I'm not exactly a spring chicken.

I was laying in bed last night, with my husband snoring dozing beside me, pondering a choice I have recently made. (Britney was totally there, singing in my head) I've completely cut "something/s" out of my life. Wasn't that nice and vague? I'm not going to be extremely specific because enough of the people who do actually visit this blog know me in the real world and I don't need any grief*. I was clinging to - you know what? I'm just going to make up a name and insert it in the place of "something/s". That'll be way easier. I shall call it "Broken & Repressed". Let me begin anew with the next paragraph.

So there I was, clinging to Broken & Repressed. I've been hanging on to Broken & Repressed for a while now. I looked at Broken & Repressed as some kind of a comfort, a life line. Finally last year there was an "ah ha" moment and I started to take a number of steps to start making the break. As the break got more distance and I got more perspective I started to see the wisdom of my decision. I made a drastic improvement with my depression. I started functioning more like a person and less like a robot. With my mind clearing of the depression I was able to start living and actually became social enough again to start talking to my friends again.

With my renewed friendships came enlightenment. I realized that I wasn't the only person that had invited Broken & Repressed into my life. I realized that there were more people out there trying to recover from the time that their lives intersected with Broken & Repressed. I was able to talk with people who knew what I was talking about and I was reassured that my husband and I hadn't imagined it. It added to my healing, but I still hadn't had the strength to cut the line.

That ended last week. I made the decision, grabbed a knife and cut the line. As I floated to the surface I realized that the line that attached me to Broken & Repressed hadn't been pulling me to shore, it had been anchored to the ocean floor dragging me down. I feel so much more buoyant and happy amazing effervescent. I never thought that I would use that word to describe the way I feel, but there it is.

Be it eating Tillamook Mudslide ice cream every night, shopping when the money isn't even there, or maintaining relationships with people we know don't have what's best for us in mind - we continue with a behavior that we know is destructive.

How many of us do that?

*As I get more distance from all of this I might write about it again and be a little bit more clear and in depth - but for now vague will have to do.

Stop Running in the House!

These are a few of the things I have Seen and Heard around here lately (aside from "Stop running in the house!!"):

"Can I have more inniejoneslemalems?"
(Liam requesting more Indiana Jones M&M's)

"Wah wah-wah wah wah"
(Lach requesting more Webkinz time)

"I'll eat that"
(Lucas requesting whatever is left on my plate after clearing his own)

"Want me to rub your shoulders?"
(Laren after realizing that Mom wasn't feeling so good)

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It was a busy weekend and I almost had the whole thing written up yesterday before disaster struck in the form of a small child's hands on the keyboard...

I might write it again or you might just get a really long picture post.

My kids: Sometimes exasperating, sometimes amazingly sweet.

My Boys

A slightly different take on poppy pictures...