Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Rum Cakes by Kelli – launched!
Legend Antiques onsite inventory and buying trip catalogs – launched!
Scitec, Inc – launched!
MA! motherhood with attitude redesign – launched!

4 sites launches… well, 2 full site launches, one catalog launch and one re-design, but still – it’s been a lot of work.

As I was making the final changes for the MA! redesign launch just a half an hour ago, Zander came in (way past his bed time).

“Mom, ” he began. “I think that you have been working enough today, ” he continued earnestly.

He wanted me to lay down with him for a few minutes – as the boys often do. I do often indulge them, for 5-10 minutes, and then promise to return when I’m done working/surfing/watching tv with dad. And my promise is always fulfilled, although sometimes not until 2 AM when I crawl into bed.

We still, somehow, have a family bed. Although there was a year or more that they slept in their own room, we all sleep together now. And, unlike many parents, I enjoy it. There’s nothing I like better than getting into bed and snuggling one boy under each arm.

But tonight, I had to say no. I did acknowledge how sweet he was, but told him I was in the middle of launching the site, and couldn’t lay down just yet. He looked appropriately disappointed, but didn’t go into full slump mode, so I knew we were okay.

Truth be told, I’m afraid there will be a snow day tomorrow, so I need to get as much done as I can tonight.

Hmmm… I wonder how the daycare works at Bally’s gym?

Yes, that’s right. The gym.

Thanks to the Discovery Health Challenge, May and I both have 30 day passes for Bally’s Fitness. I have been there 4 times a week since we started. I have been running on the dreadmill, lifting weights and swimming.

Yes, that’s right. Swimming.

I am regsitered for the Falcon Ground Speed sprint triathlon on May 9, 2009

Yes, that’s right. A triathlon!

Because the Pikes Peak Ascent, Disney World Marathon and Disneyland Half-Marathon weren’t enough of a milestone, at age 40, I will do my first triathlon. 825 yard (754.38m) length swim, 14.69 mile (23.64km) bike ride and 3.1 mile 5k run. I know I can do the run. I found out in the last two weeks that I can certainly do the swim. The bike part – well, I guess I’ll just have to start training now.

And to top it all off, tomorrow May and I start a two week diet regime to lose weight. Even with all this exercise, neither of us have managed to lose any weight or fit into any smaller sized clothing. So… tomorrow it begins. I need to work on my food choices and late day eating. She needs to work on her portion control. So two weeks of fully aware portions and healthier choices. Sigh.

Did I mention that I still have a lot of work projects as well? I’ve got Strangers In Paradise, CSG|Digital, Integrated Building Solutions and Telematrix on the horizon.

In these times, I’m not going to complain about having work to do, but it is a bit overwhelming.

Yesterday we had parent teacher conferences for both boys.

The first one was with Ms. Paula Strobl, Zevan’s teacher. Clearly she really enjoys having Zevan in her class.

Earlier this year she went out of her way to tell me how wonderful he was with helping introduce the classroom to the new students in his class this year, particularly the 3 year olds.

She said Zevan was very observant, and that is how he learns. He will watch her show another student a particular “work” and then he is able to do it himself, and even instruct others.

He is meticulous in his cutting work, excels in math work (teens board and golden bead work) and can read short vowel words and some sight words. He is much less aggressive than he was at the beginning of the school year All in all, she just raved about him, and thanked us for being good parents. What a wonderful thing to hear from your child’s teacher.

Then we went over to Zander’s class to speak with Ms. Catherine. She just gushed about him. His detailed drawings, his reading level, his math skills, his behavior this year. How he assisted one of the teachers’ aides in logging in the other children to the computer.

When we asked what we need to work on with him, she laughed and asked us what we did to get him at his level. He does need to work on his writing conventions – he uses all capital and one lower case letter when writing his name (ZANdER) and still writes some letters backwards. This was a big change from last year when he was unable to stay focused on task and repeatedly told us school was boring.

And he got his first report card.

Needless to say, we were really happy with the progress reports. I hope that we can continue on this path, and that they both continue to enjoy learning.

So, yay! I feel like a pretty good mom about now. I’ll try not to gloat.

These kind of conversations happen fairly often. Today I had two interesting topics to deal with.

Zander: Mom, I can’t wear denim jackets to school.

Me: (very concerned) Oh, why not?

Zander: Because there are people who wear them – I forget what they are called – but they have guns and they hurt people.

Me:

Do you mean gangs? (suppressing smile now)

Zander: Yes, gangs!

Me: Did your teacher tell you this?

Zander: No, E.S. did.

Me: Well, sweetie, not everyone who wears a denim jacket is in a gang. It’s okay to wear one.

Zander: But E.S. said…

Me: I understand, but maybe his mom doesn’t want him to wear one. But I think it’s okay if you do.

Zander: (still unsure) Okay…

Fast-forward 2 hours – we’re in a dressing room in Sears with my mom. She’s buying Zander some shirts and he’s trying them on.

Zevan: My weenie itches.

Zander: (loudly, echoing in the fitting room) You mean, your penis?

This is the first time I hear them use the correct term – we usually use “weenie.”

Zevan: Yes! My penis! (equally loudly)

The shocked look on my mom’s face is flippin priceless.

So I’m wondering, did they talk about penis at school already?

Me: Zander, where did you learn that word?

Zander: From E.W.

Another loud exchange in which each boy says “penis.”

Me: (trying not to laugh) Okay boys, that’s enough. That’s a private word. Let’s use that when we talk to the doctor or at home with mom and and dad.

Zander: So we should just say penis at home?

My mom blanches some more.

Me: Yes, that would be appropriate.

Zander: Okay. (pause) Hey, Zevan – look at my butt!

Sigh. This is my life – the mom of two boys.

I should interject here that I still haven’t figure out what word to use for girl parts. It doesn’t come up very often, and I usually just kind of skirt around the issue. After this experience, I’m not sure I need to introduce “vagina” into their vocabulary.

I’m kind of leaning towards the “va-jay-jay” a la Bailey on Grey’s Anatomy. Or perhaps just “vj” Cripes. I’m totally floundering on this one.

Which reminds me of a blog post from Janalee – VAGINA MONO-BLOG – mother of two girls.

From RT’s blog

Here are the instructions:

1. Pick up the nearest book.
2. Open to page 123
3. Find the 5th sentence
4. Post the next three sentences
5. Tag five people, and acknowledge who tagged you.
(I don’t tag/forward/chain mail anyone, even if it means my imminent demise. I’m still here, limbs intact, BTW.)

Sparks burst and then vanished. “I’m asking you how far you are willing to go to achieve that.”

     He’ll tell us what he knows, ” I repeated, after a moment.

That’s from Patriot Acts by Greg Rucka.

EARTH HOUR
Saturday, March 29, 2008
8 p.m. regardless of your time zone.

Sign up for Earth Hour with me by visiting http://www.earthhour.org/sign-up and join the movement.

On March 29, 2008 at 8 p.m., join millions of people around the world in making a statement about climate change by turning off your lights for Earth Hour, an event created by the World Wildlife Fund.

Earth Hour was created by WWF in Sydney, Australia in 2007, and in one year has grown from an event in one city to a global movement. In 2008, millions of people, businesses, governments and civic organizations in nearly 200 cities around the globe will turn out for Earth Hour. More than 100 cities across North America will participate, including the US flagships–Atlanta, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco and Ottawa, Montreal, Toronto and Vancouver.

We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

What will you do when the lights are off? We have lots of ideas.

Join people all around the world in showing that you care about our planet and want to play a part in helping to fight climate change. Don’t forget to sign up and let us know you want to join Earth Hour.

One hour, America. Earth Hour. Turn out for Earth Hour!

We hosted our annual Superbowl shindig today. It was a good time – lots of good food and friends and laughter.

The kids did pretty well together, considering how many of them they were – and the age range – 11 kids – 10 mos, 15 mos, 19 mos, nearly 3, 3, 3, 3.5, 4, 4, 5 and 7

See how many around 3 years old? That’s trouble!

Zevan and Alexa had the most issues together. They like to hit each other. And the Rokenbok was a big point of contention, particularly for the older boys. Zander enjoyed taking control of the monorail over Elijah and Paxton. Sigh.

Sadly, the Schwartzes were missed. Poor Megan was in the ER again, this time with Anna’s 105.5 fever, who turned out to have a double ear infection and the beginning stages of pneumonia! How much is a mom supposed to take??? Kurt is staying the night again at the hospital, so hopefully Meg can rest with her girls tonight before having to take care of Kurt at home.

The game was a bit of a dud other than early in the first quarter, and then the last 6 minutes of the game. While I would normally not root for either team, I chose the Giants because of my dislike for Tom Brady. So, those last 6 minutes were AWESOME!

A cool, rainy day. I mean, it was actually raining this morning while we ate breakfast.

So, I already know that the Play House Disney part of the park is under renovation. Which is a HUGE bummer, because that would have been perfect for the boys at this age.

When we got to the park, I decided to bite the bullet and rent a stroller. After all, it was Day 5, and the boys had been walking a lot this week. They spent enough time yesterday trying to ride in Jen’s stroller…

If you rent for multiple days, you get a decent discount, so I decided to go ahead and pay for 2 days, so that we’d have a stroller tomorrow, too. They are those really good strollers, too – low to the ground, easy to push and for them to get in and out of – just like the ones we have at our own Cheyenne Mountain Zoo.

We got a later start than usual, and got to park closer to 11 AM. It was still drizzly, misty weather, so the stroller offered shelter from that for them.

The first thing we went to was The Voyage of the Little Mermaid musical show. Just like the Nemo show, it was a condensed 17 minute musical version of the movie, and also had bubbles from the ceiling near the end of the show.

After that we split up – Jen & her kids went to see Magic of Disney Animation, and we went over to where the Play House Disney area is. Zevan and I got our photo taken with June and Quincy from The Little Einsteins. They had an activity table with activity pages from The Little Einsteins, as well as a princess-themed page. The boys enjoyed doing the activities – mazes, connect the dots, etc. And for a short time, Quincy and June were coloring with us. That was pretty cute.

We took the boys on the Disney/MGM Studios backlot tour while Jennifer and her kids watched Beauty and the Beast: Live Onstage.

We all met up again for lunch at the ABC Commissary, where dishes were named from shows like Grey’s Anatomy and Desperate Housewives. Interestingly, the burgers were not as good as the ones in the Magic Kingdom.

After lunch we went on The Great Movie Ride and watched Muppet*Vision 3D.

Elliott fell asleep in the stroller, so I took him and Zevan to the Honey I Shrunk the Kids Movie Set Adventure playground while Zander, Maya, Doug and Jennifer went on the Star Tours (Star Wars flight simulator) ride. They came over to the playground when they were done, and played for a while. Then I got to go with Maya back on the Star Tours ride. She was so cute. I was watching the “safety video” before the ride, and she asked me what I was doing. I told her I was watching the Safety Video. She informed me, “Oh, you don’t have to watch that. I already know what to do – just follow me!”

At one point, it really started raining hard. We got under cover, and happened to be right next to a full bar that also served smoothies. The kids got their frozen concoctions, and I got mine – a traffic light margarita. Jennifer and Doug got beers, and we all sat around having a nice little cocktail in the middle of the afternoon.

We went to see Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen. Zander had a mini-tantrum at this point, and I briefly got angry with him, but we just continued on until he got over it. Zevan and I had our photos taken with Tow Mater and Lightning McQueen.

We all went over to watch the day’s last showing of Indiana Jones Epic Stunt Spectacular together. Doug went to find an Indiana Jones action figure for our employee, Ariff, while the rest of us went back to shop for Maya’s coveted Ariel doll. Jennifer took her kids the Voyage of the Little Mermaid again, while the boys and I reconnected with Doug, got some snacks and headed towards the stadium to get seats for Fantasmic.

Fantasmic is this park’s multimedia fireworks/lightshow theatrical extravanza. Holy cow! It was amazing, and some parts were actually quite scary and intense. It’s basically Mickey fighting evil. It was really good, though.

Another long day with the kiddos…but a fun one, too. We thought about going out to eat for dinner, but the kids fell asleep in the car on the way home.