Oh, and for those demanding a new family pic, anytime I try to upload one out here at camp it takes too long so I just need to do it when in town. It’s coming, I promise!

We just got home from a wedding. I couldn’t wait to post these pics and was trying to narrow it down but there were literally too many to choose from. This might be quite a few posts.

Jody is doing a pretty awesome thing on her blog. To raise the last bit of funds for her kids, she’s having an online auction. Go check it out, the cute purses I mentioned in an earlier blog are back but with goodies inside that you can bid on. Believe me, I want everything!

Does it get any better than giving money to a good cause and getting goodies in return? Me thinks not!

My boys love the bike. So the other day we went to the bike path in Davenport complete with the whole fam, one bike, one wagon and one 120 lb lab. It was a lot of fun. Trysten is so weary of anything new. He wanted me to have a continuous hold on his bike/shirt so that he wouldn’t tip over, much to Zach’s dismay. He took some getting used to it and never really went downhill, just rode the break the whole time.

Then it was Tariku’s turn. I kept putting my hand on the bike downhill and he kept brushing it off, “No thanks, mommy.” And off he’d go with me hobbling behind him. It was pretty amazing.

Then Trysten decided he was brave too. 🙂 It will be very interesting to see how those different personalities take shape as the kids get older.

The Dutchess, as I’m sure you can guess, was just fine sitting and sunning in the wagon munching snacks and enjoying the scene.

Oh, and Zach is the master of rigging up various things in our house to make daily life a little easier. So he tried this harness, leash thing with Aristotle (our dog) pulling the kids but also attaching around his waist. This made for little to no effort on his part…in theory. He didn’t take various control issues into account like the fact that there were 400 dogs on the path and Stotle wanted none of walking in a straight line to pull 2 kids in a wagon. So most of the time Zach was just ticked at the dog and pulling him, fixing the rigging device, cussing, yelling at Stotle, etc, etc. I took quite a few pictures but Zach wasn’t really happy about it so none of those. 🙂

I’m off tonight. As a mostly stay-at-home mom we don’t really get vacation days do we? We don’t get time off for years of service or sick days. We get 24/7 365 full time work and work it is! So tonight is my night off. No cooking, no cleaning, no baths, no bedtime stories or prayers just off. I figure since I’ll be reminded of all the joys of motherhood on Sunday I should try to slip out and see if I still have “it”.

So I took a shower. A long shower, with no heads peaking around the corner, no inquisitive eyes looking places. A long, hot shower all by myself. I got dressed in my non-mom-jeans jeans, put on some jewelry (no toddlers trying to steal it!), heels (no kids to chase after) and walked out the door WITHOUT picking up first (the horror!).

I went the long way to Jimmy Johns (my favorite sub place) because there were no kids in the backseat encouraging me to get where we need to go quickly. I ate my sub by myself without cutting anything or wiping anything. I stopped by a karoke bar (okay not really, but I did put in my Regina Spektor CD and sing REALLY loud so it’s kind of the same) and then went to Borders where I currently am.

I’ve perused every shelf, weighed my options for mother’s day presents (is there a better gift than books?) and now sit to blog with no greasy fingers touching screen or keyboard. In just an hour or so I’ll hit up a movie (probably Baby Mama because it’s all about women tonight and who doesn’t love Tina Fey and Amy Poehler?).

I love being a mom, I really do; but sometimes I wonder if I can still go incognito. I wonder if I can go out in this world without my mom badge and not be blaringly obvious. Do I look like an imposter sitting here with little to do (comparatively)?

I like to think I can still go places sans kids and get accused of being a woman in the land of singledom. Though I would not wish that upon myself in a million years, it’s still so interesting to wonder.

And lest you think I’m hankering for a life with no husband or kids, all you must do is take a gander in my purse. The present contents are: a love note to Zach, 2 pacifiers, a baggie of goldfish, 26 pictures of the kids, coupons (that needs no further explanation), a billfold with 12 pictures of the kids. And other things that give me away? Bags under the eyes, stretch marks on the belly, ring I proudly wear on my finger, wrinkles, 6-month-old dye job, split ends and lingering looks at kids (kind of creepy but true nonetheless).

Some highlights from our time in Des Moines.

So me and the three amigos packed up and headed to my parents house last night. We’re only here until tomorrow but are able to see my cousin who is in from Alabama tonight so I’m excited for that! Here are a few reasons I like being at the ‘rents, in no particular order.

1) Cake brownies. Zach likes fudgie brownies so that’s all we ever have at home. Zach doesn’t like cake much but loves fudgie brownies. I like cake. When we come to my parents house sans Zach I get cake brownies and they are deeelicious (when I come with Zach, he still somehow gets his brownies and eats them too…get it).

2) They genuinely enjoy seeing us. That sounds silly but whether it’s been a day or a month they tell us they’ve missed us and seem to mean it.

3) Cable TV. I’m not going to lie to you, I was a little gunshy this morning when I went to try to find the Today Show. Since we only have 4 channels out at camp (well really just one, the others are a bit fuzzy) I had the darndest time finding the right channel. The good news is I found 500 other channels I’ll peruse after this blog while the kids are down for naps.

4) Chocolate. My parents have always had candy laying everywhere. For some reason when I was younger I rarely partook and now I can’t stay away from the stuff. I hid the candy basket “from Dailah” in hopes that I wouldn’t be tempted by it either but no such luck. There is very little that could seperate me and my Butterfingers.

5) Good food. My mom is a great cook and she’s always doing it and I’m always eating it and always smiling. I’m starting to sense a theme here…

6) New toys. The kids have a land of toys they haven’t seen in awhile here so there’s more playing, less fighting and even less asking mom what else we could pretend that toy is used for. Ahhh, sweet.

7) Seeing my brother. Tonight we’ll get to see him waiting tables at a local restaurant. That will be so very interesting.

8) Target. It’s close by instead of 25 minutes away. Already been once, will probably go again.

9) Spending some QT with the ‘rents. Since we live a couple hours away it seems like we’re always meeting halfway for the day to say hi. Intense bonding happens right here in their home and I love it.

Off to sneak another frosted cake brownie and see what kind of mischief I can find on this little thing they call “cable”.

So we live at camp..in a house..on site. Today we were getting home around 12:30 from the Y. Upon entering our driveway I see random people on our front porch. As I get closer to the house I see they are playing Zach’s guitars (One of which is 100 years old) which is not only odd, but just impossible as he makes people sign their lives away before they can touch them.

So I walk up and they say, “Is this your house?” “Um, yes, obviously.” So camp had a group out and these 3 adults were the bus drivers who trespassed into our house, got out Zach’s guitars and proceeded to play them on our front porch. When I asked in what world they thought that would be okay, they said when they went to camp (30 some years ago) this building was a commons area.

Now, pre-renovations I could understand the confusion. BUT post-renovations they would’ve seen our wedding pictures, pictures of the kids, a toy room, couches and a TV before getting to the guitars. Do I look like I was born yesterday? (Relatively speaking, I was born yesterday but I’m smarter than I look). Isn’t that just weird? So we’re putting up a private residence sign with Zach flexing and a little bubble making him sound very life-threatening.

Now that’s just crazy, I don’t care who you are. As if that wasn’t odd enough, even after I lectured them on the laws of trespassing they had the audacity to try and sit on my front porch just shootin the shit. No shit will be shot my friends, tally ho off this front porch before I pump your tookasses right off here.

Jeesch. I may sound all cool and everything but I was scared poopless. I walked around our house for a good hour making sure nothing was taken (it wasn’t) and that there weren’t surprise bombs (there aren’t) or surprises puddles of urine (there were but I’m fairly certain that was compliments of my newest son pre-break-in).

Moral to the story, lock your doors even when hubby is on grounds and look intimidating no matter your age.

Just a quick montage for this Tuesday morn.

And more pictures…

The first picture is of the cousins. Oliver, Trysten, Tariku, Dailah and Eli. All Klipschs, all beautiful.

Then it’s just more cuteness really. And don’t I look like an amazing mom getting a picture of all 3 kids reading during “read time” which typically (by typically I mean sometimes and by sometimes I mean rarely) falls after baths and before bed.