Cruise - The Yucky Part

Imagine, if you will, a 30-something couple happy as can be with snorkeling paraphernalia in hand stumbling into the great blue ocean. Focus in on the woman, 1st time snorkeler, as she simultaneously tries to adjust her too- small mask and put her flippers on. Notice the distance between the woman and the man widen as the enthusiastic, experienced snorkeler-man aims to see beautiful fish and take lots of pictures. See the inexperienced snorkeler-woman make great strides in pain, since the mask is on way too tight and compressing the bridge of her nose with a ton-o-pressure. But wait... what is that? Why is she rolling over on her back and making those weird noises? Why did she take her mask off? Why, oh why, is she drinking the salty water and flailing around?

Watch as the ever attentive man-husband-snorkel-expert arrives just in time for her to pause from hyper ventilating so she can 'feed the fish'. Watch as he drags her sorry butt over to a rest platform where she can sit comfortably and 'feed' more fish in the ocean and gross out the rest of the snorkeling enthusiasts milling around the platform.

Inexperienced-snorkeler-woman feels much better after puking but has turned a bit paler and feels wicked tired. She sends her snorkel-husband away to have fun in the ocean because she is convinced that she will eventually feel better. Hubby is easily convinced and leaves. Snorkel-hating woman suddenly takes a turn for the worse and her right hand contorts into a strange paralysis (think Edward Scissorhands, minus the blades). She stares at the vast ocean she couldn't possible traverse to the safety of the beach. She surrenders and waves down the lifeguard.

Deflated and disheveled and wishing she had not had such a large breakfast before hiking into the extremely choppy ocean, the inexperienced-snorkel-hating-woman carefully falls onto the waverider, behind a manly lifeguard with a reassuring British accent. Moments later they are on their way back to the beach. But the woman has not yet emptied the contents of her fish food stash and proceeds to puke not once, but three times onto the left leg and foot of her rescuer. The woman is feeling so much better now... well, until she looks up between her pukey dreadlocks and hears island music and sees the sea of beach chairs eyes lined up neatly on the beach ahead of her.

Oh the humility of it all.

12 of 12 - Because I like to do things out of order... and late

1. The family of 5 laundry pile up (approx. 8:20am)
2. Sammy with her favorite blanket trudging out to the van to take Hayden to Pre-K
3. Time to pick up Hayden! (I had already picked up Hayden at this point, but the snooze feature on my ever-so-smart-phone likes to assume that I didn't get the message)
4. Sammy being silly in the car
5. Hayden being silly in the car
6. The family of 5 laundry pile up (approx. 1pm) making a little progress!
7. A hand delivered invite to a birthday party! How fun! Sammy is so excited!
8. Amanda doing her homework.
9. It's what's for dinner.
10. Hayden really gets into his spaghetti!
11. Scout night for daddy. Otherwise known as the "eat and run night".
12. Amanda pointed out this beautiful sunset to me when I was about to lose my temper with the littles. Thank goodness for Amanda. Thank goodness for sunsets. We are all happier for them!


I'm linked up again with Amy's blog. You can check out tons more 12 of 12 posts in her link ups.

There's so much to tell...

You tell me: Pretty pictures and happy stories first? Or a personal, detailed story about why lifeguards should get gold medals and hefty retirement funds?

Comment below

cruise teaser

I have lots to tell about the cruise we went on but tons of laundry and housework and face time with the kiddos to catch up on first. So for now I'll leave you with this:

Lifeguards on resort beaches have the suckiest jobs on earth. Seriously. They should do a Dirty Jobs episode just about lifeguards and the crap they have to do with a smile on their face and a chipper voice. If I could take all the mandatory tips we had to give to random people on the ship and give them to one particular lifeguard in Coco Cay, I would - I soooo would.

I'll be back soon with details. And some pictures - if my hubby ever brings his laptop home with them.

:)

12 of 12 September

I can't believe it's been a whole month since I've blogged. I guess having two in school and one at home is keeping me busy enough... :) My goodness, I haven't even posted first day of school photos. What a bad mommy blogger I am.

Anywho - on to the main attraction: I present to you September 12th, 2011.


click here to view larger

I started off the day as usual, kissing Amanda goodbye, then Michael and then debating whether to drag my buttocks out of bed right then, or in another 5 minutes. (A morning person I am not). The littles had their own plans so I was not to have my extra 5 minutes. Breakfast, shower, everyone dressed and out the door to take Hayden to Pre-K. And that is when I remembered the date... but not my camera. I dropped off Hayden and got in the van only to get a phone call from the school nurse at Amanda's school.

1. Her throat didn't look any redder than it does in this black and white photo.
2. And she felt well enough to play a game of "oh my toes" (or whatever it's called).
3. The music we've been listening to in the van.
4. The "sick" child watching tv ever so quietly...ehhem.
5. On our way out again to pick Hayden up from school.
6. M is for Mouse! or Emers the Mouse as Amanda misheard me say.
7. Awww, they love each other! Sharing the love, sharing the germs. yay!
8. First signs of Florida Love Bug arrival... yuckers.
9. My lunch. Chicken nuggets and toast with blueberry jam - I know, sooo nutritious! If you look closely you'll see that one of my nuggets has a wing. or a nose.
10. Off to the library to pick up a book that's been on the hold list for at least 3 weeks.
11. Finally! The Help is in my hands,
12. Hubby came home early today 'cause he's sick. No really. He's gonna cough up a lung soon. Not like the other "sick" child in the house.

12 of 12 August

This was an awesome day for the 12 of 12 project! My hubby took the day off from work without telling anyone (but me) about it. Michael and I spent the night before packing up the van and hiding stuff under the seats so they wouldn't have a clue where we were going. Early the next morning Michael told the kids that his car wouldn't start so mommy was gonna have to drive him to work - and of course, they would have to come with us. We all got dressed and took a very, very long drive to "daddy's work". Around 2 hours later Hayden told us that we were going the wrong way to work. :) Another hour later we arrived at our destination: Anna Maria Island!

1. On the local bus to check out the island.
2. Samantha waiting for the bus.
3. Walking up the pier to the restaurant/popular fishing spot.
4. The wood planks of the pier
5. Pelican (they were amazing and eating quite well)
6. We saw lots of dolphins and a few up close!
7. a fish we saw a young boy catch - they threw it back for obvious reasons :)
8. Can't help but take pictures of this girl - love her eyes!
(didn't bring my camera to the beach and the camera phone pictures were kind of ehhh...)
9.- 12.  Stopped for ice cream before we left the island.

1 vehicle, 2 adults, 3 kids

For a while it was all cool. We scheduled our plans around having the van or driving daddy to and from work. We felt sort of efficient and a little more likely to get up and get dressed in the morning (all of us). But now that it's hot and the middle of summer vacation, it sort of stinks. And an inexpensive quick fix to the 91 Volvo sitting in our driveway is on the top of my prayer list.

What's on the top of yours?

Got tons on my mind lately. Our family has been coping with illness, automobile-money-pits, life-changing decision making, balding tires that sent us off-road and the summer blues just to name a few. I sure hope things take a turn for the better in the next couple of weeks! We could use some positive changes around here!

12 of 12 July!

Another less-eventful day in the Gove home

.

1. Goodmorning Amanda! 2-3. Samantha is potty-training (nearly there! She only wears a diaper at night). Though this has led to lots of running around in just her underwear declaring that she is "Potteee-Twained" whilst doing a hula hoop like dance with her hand on her hips. It's priceless... and a little disturbing, hee-hee! 4. Hayden, ever the nudist... he sees no reason to wear clothes unless we are "going somewhere". sigh. 5. Making homemade blueberry waffles 6. Just about to eat them! 7-8. Making 2 kinds of fries... daddy likes the thin ones 9. Hayden redecorating the backyard 10. It's a jungle out there! 11-12. Hayden showing daddy all his hard work on the "treehouse".

Summertime

I don't have the problem most moms have with their kids when school lets out for the summer. I have yet to hear, "Mom, I'm BORED!" from any of them. However, they keep pretty busy destroying the house, and silence is a rare occurrence.

I decided between the hours of Disney garbage, swimming in the pool and fart noise contests (yes, all three of them participate...sigh), I should try to throw in at least one educational activity per week of summer vacation. Since we have like ZERO dinero for fun stuff, let alone a family vacation I thought this would ease my oldest daughters' fear of having "the worst summer E.V.E.R.!!!!".

So far we have gone to the Science Center (we have still have a month left of membership), Grown Marigolds in a pot (still in progress of course), visited PetSmart to check out the rats, guinea pigs, snakes, frogs, fish, snails, grasshoppers, birds, cats and dogs. My kids especially love watching the dogs being groomed and saying "awww! she's so cuuuute!" to every cat in every cage. Yesterday I took them to IKEA. Not gonna try and stretch that into an educational experience. The best thing about IKEA this time was that Samantha was tall enough and potty-trained (enough for an hour) so she and Hayden were able to go to the play center they have there and Amanda and I were able to shop together without having to chase down any Gove's Gone Rogue. 
It was nice to get in there and get what I needed to get without having to yell at anyone not to jump on the beds or play 'catch me if you can' among the glassware.  

Today the kids are hounding me to take them to Menchies for yogurt. I'm making them work for it though. Clean rooms and bathroom or NO FRO-YO! So there! 

I have a feeling the van will be staying in the driveway all day.