Author: Angie

I’m running on about 4 hours of sleep, so forgive me if this post rambles and sounds dumb. I’m not in much of a mood to care. Oh yeah, I went there.

This week Jon is on a business trip. Gone for 5 days and somehow the universe decides to barf all over me and the kids. It’s in our hair, down our backs, and stinks really bad. Metaphorically speaking of course, because eww.

My oldest son fainted on Monday at school. Stopped, dropped, and rolled and hit his head. He didn’t even mean to. A bad of ice and an ambulance ride to the hospital later PLUS a $100 dollar ER co-pay he’s fine. I was not reachable by phone as this was all going down. Finally Jon was able to get a hold of me and tell me to meet him at the hospital. Dan became possessed when he had to be stuck twice with a needle. He threatened to kill the nurse and was and I quote, sure “they are trying to kill me”. Let’s just say, I needed some chocolate by the time that was over.

Then in a sick twist of fate, while picking up the other boy in my life (who is being observed for hyperactivity and ADHD) from the park at school, first boy locks my keys in the car while they are still in the ignition. And it was running. And the gas light was on. And my phone and purse were also in the locked car. Um yeah. Sucks! Universe is now up by 2 and I am about to lose my shit.

My dear friend who dropped everything to come pick up other boy while I get first boy out of the hospital, stayed with me until the Auto Rescue dude came, but not before I had to spend 15 min. trying to get a hold of the Roadside Assistance people from our insurance that was, you guessed it. ALSO in the running on empty, locked car.

Fast forward to later that night, I collapse in an exhausted heap and stay home with the first boy to “rest” (read: he totally could have gone to school since he was bored out of his mind staying at home) and did nothing.

While I did nothing, my Sister in several states away from me, had to have an emergency root canal, then her purse stolen out of the front seat of her running vehicle, and then missed a job interview that she so desperately needs. I cried for her and nodded my head in supportive misery, knowing the exhaustion I just endured the day before and what she must have been feeling. 

Universe 3 or 4 by now. Me: 0.

Today was added heartache.

My Dad’s cancer is growing again. He’s waiting to hear of a surgical option and if that doesn’t get approved, then it’s back to chemo. It could be worse, and it’s not the hardest thing he’s been through, but dangit! Can’t he be healed already? Is that too much to ask God? I know He can do what he says he can do, so why not heal my Daddy? I thank God for the extra time we have had with him, because I wasn’t ready to be without him 2 years ago, and I’m not ready now. So do what you need to do big Guy! You are a big and mighty God and I ask and expect big and mighty blessings from you.

So the universe or whatever has scored more points than we have and really, that’s ok. I have my faith, my family, and my friends. I can’t ask for more than that. I have nothing to be unhappy about. But those other things, those scary things that happen to us, I don’t like. Not one bit.

Here’s to an uneventful Thursday, ok? KThxbai.

I’ll just do a quick list with the good and not so good things that happened this month. It’s all been a giant jumble of one thing after another. I’m frankly surprised I’m still alive. (Dramatic much? Why yes, thank you.)

Good Stuff:

• I made the most amazing brownies. They were topped with a cookie dough type frosting. I blogged about it here and there.
• We watched a bunch of good movies. Old Dogs, Dear John, Shutter Island, and I’m sure there was one more, but I can’t remember because my brain melted in the triple digit temps we had this month.
• I was able to get on a pair of bright turquoise leggings I bought back in March as my 20 lb. goal/reward. They looked pretty cute if I do say so myself.
• Gelato. We discovered this place called Paciugo here in town. My favorite is the Mediterranean Sea Salt Caramel! OMG, so good. Not as good as the caramelo we had in Italy, but a close second.
• Cooked for Baseball Camp. It was fun but exhausting. I miss cooking in the kitchen at church, but don’t miss the aching that comes from it!
• IKEA! The boys killed their bunk-bed, so we went and did a crazy thing by not only buying the girls (boys got the old bunk-bed that they can’t break) new beds and redecorating their room for Lauren, but we spent all weekend painting it! All this because we didn’t want to take apart the old bunk-bed and move it! Boy are we LAZY!
• My Daddy came to visit us for a week! He bought us a new car battery! He bought the kids new school clothes and filled our fridge with food! He even took us bowling!! He put up with our shenanigans for 6 whole days. We enjoyed his visit. I’m not sure Penny was has happy to be here, but MJ sure was glad to see “his favorite dog”!
• While my Dad was here, I cooked two pretty yummy meals. I learned my Mom’s recipe for Lemon Pepper Chicken. It was so SO good. Then I made an awesome Lime marinated grilled steak. I was in love with the pineapple salsa. I may have considered leaving Jon for it. Then I changed my mind. Jon is a much better kisser.
• I’ll put it here on the “good stuff” list, but really, it was just “ok stuff”. School Clothes shopping. ‘Nuff said.

Not so Good Stuff:

• Car battery died. Over and over and over again.
• Bunk-bed broke.
• Paint fumes made me sick.
• Eating 5 lbs of veggies made me sick in another way. Note to self: go easy on the veggies, your gut can’t take it.
• Frustration with the boys. Back talk, defiance, and down right nastiness. I hope puberty doesn’t kill me.
• Heat index. The most stifling, oppressive heat we’ve had in…well I guess a year. Triple digit temps for like 21 days + ( I lost count after 19) in a row. Our windows don’t keep the heat out and our air conditioner could only handle so much, so most days it was at least 80 in the house. I was kind of cranky.
• My favorite KEEN sandals fell apart. (I guess I walked the heck out of them in Europe?) The sole started to come away and I returned them to REI for a refund. Turns out they don’t sell them anymore and the KEEN website has only one left in stock in my size and Zappos is also sold out in the size and color I wanted. I can still get another black pair, but they turn my feet black. Oh well. Live and learn.
• Jon had/has to travel this month for work. Tomorrow he leaves for 5 more days. He has been gone 7 days so far. I’m all alone with the kids and some days I cried. No details necessary.
• My wallet died from having to pay out money for school supplies. Good thing we like ramen noodles! Just kidding. We like hot dogs too.
• I’ve had a tension headache for like 4 days now. I know it’s from like tension. What I don’t get is the chills and cold sweat, the pressure, and nausea. Sleep makes it better, but I can only do so much of that. Also, food and caffeine make it better for a while, but then it comes back. Hmm. Mystery.

I tried to keep the good to not so good ratio even. I don’t want my blog to be a place I bore people to death with my complaining. Everyone has times where they want to pull their hair out. This month was one of those months, but a lot has to do with finances.

Without the help of my parents, I don’t know where we would be. Thanks Mom and Dad! You mean more to me than all the money in the world! I’m so grateful for their love and support. I am truly blessed.

I hope next month will be better! It has to be, because we are celebrating 3 THREE birthdays this month! My precious Brenna will be 14 in exactly one week (OMG!) and my best friend/Sister  will be 29 (+11) in 10 days and I get to go see her for 5 days! I’m going to hug her a lot while I’m there. And then my youngest son and cutest (shhh don’t tell the others) will be 8!! Wasn’t he just born?

I have lots of cakes to buy and tables to decorate so they celebrate their special day. I can’t wait!

Love and cupcakes,

If my Sister can direct her readers here so she doesn’t have to blog about our trip, then I can steal her random confessions and put some of my strange thoughts on “paper”. So here goes…

• I really want a pair of cowboy boots. To wear with a cute little dress like this one below. (Except I want to wear mine with a chunky coral necklace and maybe a leather belt. Who knows, I’ll be skinny then, so I could totally pull it off!) So cute huh??

                         
                        via Mighty Girl                                                 via Chictopia

•  
• I really need to hang up some curtains in  my craft room/playroom/office/crap holder. The sun is just brutal in the mornings and I want to hang a flag banner I bought in Amsterdam. The one I want to hang is polka dots, but I have this one too:

• I am completely out of nail polish remover, so I am one of those women who I look at and think, “Goodness girl, ever heard of a manicure?!” ( I don’t really think that about other women, just myself. Anyone want to get me a manicure for my anniversary? Inquire here. )
• I told you they were random thoughts!
• I have lost 22.6 lbs since I started my get healthy journey in March. I celebrated on Facebook with all my friends and family, but I came to realize that losing over twenty pounds means my jeans look HECKA better on me than ever! I don’t have that post baby (yes I know my youngest is almost 8, but it’s still a fact!) tummy hang over anymore! (at least when I’m standing and isn’t that what’s important here people?)
• I like to use a lot of parenthesis to emphasize rationalize my weird and random thoughts. Don’t judge.
• I really dislike when I insert a picture on my blog, live writer decides that I can’t make a numbered list anymore and starts my next entry at 1. again. Grrr…then I have to put it in bullet form. A techno geek I am not. Guess I don’t care that much or else I would know how to get around that. (Should that have gone in parenthesis?) Parenthesis paranoia, it’s real. Look it up.
• I really love mashed potatoes. I’m serious. I don’t eat a lot of desserts (hard to believe I know, as much as I talk about chocolate) but I could eat me a whole bucket of mashed taters. In fact  I ate the last of the mashed potatoes tonight for dinner. I am sad.
• When ever I look over at my box of HAPPYDENT gum that I got in Florence, I smile. It’s all in Italian, I love that.  And it’s supposed to make my teeth white, but in Italian.
• I want to write notes to people. Thank you notes. Not sure what I want to thank everyone for, but I’ll come up with something. Send me your address and I’ll thank you. For sending me your address, but with a card. Deep no?
• After two weeks of recovering from two weeks of walking EVERYWHERE, I think I’m ready to get back in the gym. (Mom if you are reading this, you may or may not have had an influence on my decision. I’m just sayin’, maybe it was you telling me to get my ass to the gym, maybe not. I’ll never tell. ;o) )
• I bought stuff to make chocolate chip cookies. I may or may not eat any. I’ll never tell.
• I have no idea what I will do with myself for 6 whole hours a day for 5 WHOLE days next week during the kids Mission Kids Day Camp. Any suggestions? Anyone who mentions going to the gym will be asked to leave the premises immediately! NO BLOG FOR YOU!
• I read my Oprah magazine cover to cover and enjoyed an hour and a half of “me” time. I was only interrupted 7 times. That’s a new worlds record for least number of buggings during “me” time. Good job kids! Mama feels brand new.
• I want to make some cards (maybe thank you notes) but I’m out of adhesive. You’re welcome, I knew you wanted to know that. Feel free to send me some. I like the Hermafix brand.

Thanks for playing along. This concludes the random thoughts/confessions portion of the blog. Please stay tuned for the next episode of The Harms Family Globetrotters, coming to Sweetbippy.com any day now. I must go eat some chocolate chips.  Or not.

Tootles,

When I last checked in with you, I was coming to you live from the air!! In a plane! Over Canada/the Atlantic somewhere…

That plane ride was seriously the longest I’ve ever been in a seat, but we made it safe and sound and touched down in Amsterdam at 7:45am. That’s a 7 hour difference between Texas and there. It was 12:45am at home! Just about the time I would be going to bed.

I mentioned breakfast (that was pretty lame and tasted worse the “second” time I tasted it if you know what I mean) on the plane. We were not impressed, but I think they were just ready to get us off the plane and on our way.

We made it to baggage claim and gathered all our bags, hit the bathrooms (which had orange toilet paper! I thought that was pretty darn weird, so I took a picture of it. Later I was told it was because of the World Cup and Holland’s color is orange)

and after going through customs, we headed out to the “mall” area of the airport. These aren’t even a tiny portion of what is there. I snapped these two photos as we were walking out to the taxi’s. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I wanted to go shopping!

Out side of the Schiphol Airport is a whole network of transportation. Buses, taxi’s, and cars picking up and taking you anywhere you need to go.

Below Dad and I as we all met at our gate in Detroit. Fresh as a daisy! Ready to fly the friendly skies! The next picture is in the taxi in Amsterdam, a little worse for wear! Nine hours in a plane will do that to you!!

We found our taxi and all piled in! It was a weird van ride to the hotel. We must have taken the scenic route because we went through a lot of trees, and lots of canals. After we took a bunch of strange turns and I saw an ALDI grocery store near our Hotel, we arrived!

Dad and I shared a room on the 7th floor. It was a suite that had 2 twin beds and a sitting area with windows on each wall. The curtains and lights were controlled by a remote, so you didn’t have to get out of bed to turn off the lights. It was all very fancy-schmancy! I felt like a celebrity (because deep down inside you know I am- in my own fantasy world)!

Here is the view from our room. Gorgeous canal view with rooftops as far as the eye can see. It was really cool to look out at the people riding their bikes and boats along the canal. The whole time we were there the cottonwood trees were releasing their seeds and it was flying through the air like snowflakes! It was quite a strange site!

After we got settled in our rooms, we went downstairs to view and coordinate the set up for the Conference/Trade Show with Reverse Logistics Associations (who so graciously allowed my Dad and I to be a World Travelers with their company).

We walked down Ferdinand Bol Straat (straat is dutch for street) and took a look around the local neighborhood. Most of the shops were closed. They close at 6pm daily and all day Sunday. The sun rises at 5:15am and sets just after 10pm there, so needless to day, my body was sure turned around as far as when to wake up and especially when to eat!  This night we found a Sicilian Pizza place and had a great meal.

Here, Dad, Leslie, and I are posing in front of the canal by our Hotel. It was about 7 or 8pm at night. Crazy huh? It’s still light outside!!

Here is a horrible google map street view of the restaurant we found for dinner. I didn’t really know it’s name and I don’t think it does either. So we’ll call it Sicilia, the Pizza Place. They were sort of friendly and the food was really good. Cheap too. Only 34 Euro for dinner.

In Europe, if you want a Diet Coke, you have to ask for a Coca Cola LIGHT. If you say Diet Coke, they look at you strange. Everything in Amsterdam came in tiny wee glass bottles. I loved the little drinking glasses. They were so European! (I’m a dork, I know!)

Here are the three of us waiting patiently on our Italian dinner. I guess we couldn’t wait to get to Italy to have Italian food! I had a pasta dish with anchovies and capers in it (which didn’t taste anything like it had anchovies in it, but whatever, it was good), Leslie had tortellini with pesto cream sauce, and Dad had a prosciutto and anchovy pizza I think. I was so tired I forgot to take pictures! But I got pictures of my two favorite traveling companions!

We enjoyed our dinner, stuffed ourselves silly, and had a nice walk back to the Hotel. Fascinated by all the canals, I stopped to take one last picture before heading back to our room. It’s 9:30pm here and if I didn’t know any better, I’d say it was 4 in the afternoon! What a mind bend! Lovely view though, don’t you think?

All in all, we had a good but long day of travel. This was the start of a hard week of work and tension, but one experience I wouldn’t have traded for anything. I knew this was going to be a vacation of a lifetime!

Stay tuned for the upcoming installments of The Harms Family Globetrotters take on Europe!