Did I really go to Hawaii just a few weeks ago?  It seems like a different lifetime ago.  Motherhood came crashing down around my ears the moment I walked back into my house.  Two of the four kids were sick with colds and since the kids were split among three homes while we were gone, it was a tough week of learning how to get a long all over again.  It was like there was make-up mothering to do because of my time “off”. 

Thankfully, since things are settling down finally.  And to help me remember The-Vacation-That-Felt-Like-A-Dream, I’m posting some of my photos from our trip. 

Quick!  Go whip up a Mai Tai or a Pina Colada and throw on your flip-flops. 

Ready?  Alright.  You can scroll down now.

(Sorry, I know that was a lot of pictures… and I held back, let me tell you! )

Are you feeling as warm and relaxed as I am?  No?  Well then you need another Mai Tai.  =0)  Thanks for putting up with the show and tell.  And feel free to return and repeat this process as often as you need like.  I might just be here at the same time. 

Hubby and I had a chance to take a fantastic trip to Kauai a few weeks ago.  Most of our vacations are spent with family or with the kids.  We do manage to get away overnight on our anniversaries usually but an extended trip?  Nope.  We’re talking Blue Moon here.  Last time we went away like this was when Poppett was a baby.  That was almost 8 years ago.  We did have big plans for our 10th anniversary that included a week at a Jamaican resort.  But then Lil Blue surprised us and was due the same month we’d planned to get away.  We didn’t think it would be worth the citizenship hassle.  So to say we were excited about this trip is putting it mildly. 

I had beautiful dreams of blogging on the beach and blogging on the lanai (that’s a porch for all you non-hawaii-speaks) and blogging by the pool and blogging on a stool.. oops sorry.  Forget that last one.  The inner Dr. Seuss got the best of me. 

Point is, I just was having too much fun cavorting around the island to spend much time on the computer.  I barely even made contact with my own offspring who were left behind on the mainland.   I apologize for the neglect. 

We went with another couple which helped our budget immensely.  We picked up lunch and breakfast items at Costco on the way from the airport to the condo.  That way, we only ate out once a day for dinner and saved a bunch of money.   Splitting the cost of the two-bedroom, two-bath condo and the rental car was another money saver. 

Despite the fact that it rained almost the whole time we were there, we had a blast.  (does that word date me?  Oh well)  We made a lot of mad-dashes from the car to viewpoints but it didn’t really matter.  We were soaked in seconds most of the time.  You just learned to wear a hat (to keep the rain out of your face and keep the hair from under some form of control) and be comfortable with being wet.  Warm rain helped too. 

One day we drove around the island to the North Shore… in the pouring rain of course.  We stopped for some shave ice before heading home.  For those of you who haven’t had shave ice from Hawaii, let me just tell you, it’s NOTHING like a snow cone.  It’s super soft shavings of ice first of all, nothing like those snow cone ice chunks that end up forming together in a hard crust that you have then have use your bark-chewing-beaver-skills to get through.  Or in my case, give up and just drink up the syrup off the bottom and toss the rest because trying to eat the ice is frankly too much work, too messy and too attention grabbing when out in public.  Nothing like running into someone you know when you’re in the process of chipping a tooth on a snow cone and have syrup dripping off your cheeks, nose and chin and pooling up in a nice big stain on your shelf… for some of us, that shelf is made up of  “the girls” - post-babies (‘nuf said) and  for the rest of us, it’s our left-over baby-gut.  Neither shelf needs any more attention brought to it than it’s already bringing on its own.  AnyWHO, shave ice is not only as soft as eating snowflakes and flavored with all sorts of tropical delish-ish-ness, but the ice/snowflakes are surrounding a ball of ice cream, macadamia nut ice cream at that.  It truly is a beautiful thing my friends. 

While we were there, scarfing up shave ice, we met a delightful couple from the mainland who were also enjoying some shave ice, in the rain.  We chatted and quickly found out that they were both retired.  He from the Air Force and she from Mary Kay.  Now, I don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before or not, but I’m a MK consultant too.  Normally, in a situation like this, I would have immediately started talking shop with her and getting as many ideas from her as I could before she could pry my little hands off her arm and escape.  This time however, I just hoped to high heaven that everyone in my group was too absorbed with their treats to make any comment.  Alas, it was not to be.  My wonderful friend, “S” piped up, “Hey!  She’s Mary Kay too!”  The sweet retired Mary Kay wonder-woman turned to me and smiled… and I desperately looked for hole in the ground to open up that I could throw myself into.  Why? You might ask.  Well, remember, we’d been skipping around the island IN THE RAIN.  I didn’t have a lick of make-up on, I had a ratty boy’s baseball hat plastered to my head, a soaked bathing suit and cover up that were dripping off my body, and thanks to the sudden humidity of the island, a break out that rivaled any teenager’s raging hormonal case of acne anywhere on the face of the earth.  Yep, I was one perfect Mary Kay specimen.  I squashed the urge to kick my beautiful, well-meaning friend’s shins and instead tried to not sound desperate as I explained my very NON-Mary Kay appearance.  The Mary Kay wonder-woman very sweetly tried to make me feel better by patting her perfectly formed  hair and dry, CLEAR, make-up’d cheats and said she was sure she was sight too.  Um, yeah, not quite the same.  But she got Brownie points for trying to make me feel better. 

Of course, I vowed never to leave the condo again unless it was to see a waterfall, swim, hike, sit on the beach, shop, check out tide pools or eat.  I couldn’t risk being seen TWICE in that state after all. 

Stay tuned… pictures are coming.

That I know it’s Monday:

1. Child #3 woke up hacking

2. Today’s Field Trip is now in question because of said cough.  (Do I risk being shunned and forever banned by the other moms in light of the current Swine Flu hysteria?)

3. Outta milk and eggs.

4.  Decided to make Cinnamon Sugar Toast as a treat (didn’t tell the munchkins it was because of lack of milk and eggs) and then proceeded to burn the heck outta it.

5. Had to cut off outer edges of Cinnamon Sugar Toast to make it edible for munchkins.

6. House now smells like burned toast. Ugh.

7.  Everyone is yelling in order to be heard above the sound of the fan going full-blast to try and get rid of the lovely burned toast smell.

8. Fighting Jet Lag for the 7th morning in a row (more on that coming up)

9.  Round 2 for coffee…

10. It’s definitely a Monday because I couldn’t even think of another reason and therefore have not completed a perfect Top 10. 

Arrgggghhhh! 

Good Monday Morning Everyone!!

This week’s challenge is for “completely candid” shots.  I don’t know about other moms but having three boys and a very animated daughter, well, the hard part is NOT getting a candid sometimes. 

This picture is one of my all-time favorites.  The boys were just hanging out, munching on their morning apple snack.  I love Monkey’s laughing face and Tiger’s somewhat melancholy look, the dirty bottoms of feet, the animal cups and the skinned up knees.  Just seems to ooze boyhood and brothers to me.  I realize the bottoms of feet are usually a no-no in photography but I think this picture proves it’s not a hard and fast rule… sometimes the bottoms of feet can reveal the charm of the moment.

In this case that’s dirt.  

Go over to I ♥ Faces for more great candid photos.  Enjoy!

And it doesn’t get much sweeter than that my friends.  I visit several marvelous coupon bloggers on a daily basis and I’ve noticed that most of them belong to SwagBucks.  But it wasn’t until one of them actually wrote a post about it that I realized what it was (in their defense, I’m sure they have ALL written posts about SwagBucks, I just missed it).  And of course, as soon as I saw Starbucks I was sold…

“You had me at Starbucks”  (while batting eyes, fluffing hair and pouting lips)

Hmmm, that doesn’t have the same rhythm to it as the original…  but it’s just as heartfelt.

Anyway, the way it works is you install their header bar (fast and free) so that it’s always there right below your regular internet header bar.  Then all you do is start searching the internet using the SwagBucks search box and SwagBuck dollars come a rollin’ in!  That’s it!  SwagBucks rewards you with Swag BUCKS that you can then turn in for fantastic stuff.  Seriously, too much to list here but I’m personally drawn to the gift cards.  And a free Starbucks card during the Holiday Flavor season??!!  Music to my taste buds.

There are additional ways to earn SwagBucks… like referrals.  Hence the widget on the left of my blog.  With WordPress’ lovely disapproval of 99.3% of the wigdets out there, I’m not sure if this widget will give me credit when people sign up through it.  You can always use my link at the bottom of this post instead.  That will ensure my credit.  You get 3 SwagBucks just for signing up! I’ve been SwagBuck-ing for a week now and have acquired 32 SwagBucks through searches only.  (hmmm, Starbucks… I’m getting closer!) 

So far it’s been safe and easy.  I’m very gun-shy when it comes to installing things on my computer off the internet and anything requiring it but since the coupon bloggers (who had all been using it for some time and still highly recommended it… and let us in on their fantastic prizes they’ve already held in their thrifty little hands and used too) were singing it’s praises I felt better about it.

So try it out!  It’s a quick, free registration, an easy and safe download and you’re off!  If you could do me a teensy-weensy favor and let me know that you signed up I’d love it!  Here’s my referer link that will get you right where you need to go:  http://www.swagbucks.com/refer/Runningamuck

Happy searching!

This week I missed the photo contest but they have a “For Fun” Pet Photo Entry.  Lucky for me, I have a plethra of pet photos… in fact, it’s hard to choose one.  But alas, I must. 

This was from late spring/early summer.  She loved to play in the water from the hose (still does).  But being a baby, she’d poop out after awhile and go find a warm spot in the sun for a nap. 

Go check their website for more great pet photos

Our sweet 11 month old boxer, Lucy, got her first taste of hunting the other night.  I heard her barking playfully outside and making a big commotion so I went out to investigate.  She’d caught a baby possum. 

Everybody join me in my “BLEH!!”

It wasn’t a tiny baby, more like an adolescent.  Big enough to be out on his own and making his own trouble.  Since Lucy’s an adolescent of sorts herself, Hubby had to “assist” in the kill.  It was damaged pretty banged up from Lucy’s playing.  Rest assured, no matter how ugly you may be of an animal, no matter how closely you resemble something spewed forth from the pit of hell, and no matter how grossed out we get at the sight of you, at the Runningamuck home,  we still won’t leave you to suffer. 

We’re regular animal heros, aren’t we?!

Seriously though, let’s do a little comparison here:

Possum from Australia:

Possum from America:

Once again:

Australia:

And America:

I think the fact that I couldn’t even find a picture online ANYWHERE of the American Possum with a child even remotely near it is pretty telling.

Why can’t we have the cute one?!  Hubby has a hilarious story about a possum that was run over on our college campus when he worked public safety.  It lived even though half of his face was scraped off and bone was showing.  Hilarious because students would catch him in their headlights while he crossed the road every now and then and he would greet them with the typical “Raarrrrrr” face that the possums in the pictures above are showing.  Needless to say, Hubby got lots of calls about the phantom possum that stalked the college campus. 

I’m just hoping Lucy keeps them OUT of our yard instead of letting them in for a play date.

Double “BLEH!!”

that I’ve come within a stone’s throw of completely abandoning you.  I promise, I’m still here.  Just overwhelmed with the end of summer, camping trips, school lessons to plan, school starting and said lesson plans to put into practice. 

PHEW! 

But I’m here.  In fact, because of a certain childhood virus, I’m homebound for the next 10 days. 

I’m guessing somewhere in there I’ll have plenty of time to write up all my random, bizzare, insightful, pointless and if you’re lucky, funny posts that have been buzzing around my head for the last month. 

I’ve missed you.

I just read a fabulous post over on Pioneer Woman’s website that you need to go read.  It’s from her homeschooling section.  I feel it hits the nail on the head and is funny in the process.  But then, Mrs. G. (her guest homeschool post-er), usually is. 

So while you mourn the lack of posts from me, go read hers. 

And maybe there’ll be something here for ya when you get back…

So read slow… reaalllll slllooooowwwwww…..

Oldest One in the Book

About a week ago, I can home with a 25 lb box of beautiful Roma tomatoes from our food co-op/ministry.  We’d had a plethora, and I mean plethora, of tomatoes that week and I just couldn’t stand to see them go to waste.  Besides, my friend “P” had pointed out that she was going to take a box home and make marinara sauce for the freezer.  Being the competitive person that I am, I hastily decided I could/should do it to.   See that Band Wagon rollin’ by??  Watch me jump right on!

Yes, this good ol competitive nature of mine gets me into trouble all the time.  Let’s just say I’m a huge work in progress and leave it at that, shall we?

Anywho… I love P, I loved her idea and I loved the prospect of being a thrifty provider of sorts for my family.   But I don’t think I fully realized the magnitude of marinara sauce that 25 lbs of tomatoes was going to make until I started chopping.  See, added to the whole time issue (good marinara sauce has to simmer for hours folks… hours!), I don’t have a food processor.  My hand-me-down processor from my sweet mother-in-law broke about a year ago and I’m just too cheap to go spend $50+ on another one.  I have hands and a nice big knife after all. 

However, eeeoons  a couple hours later,  after only getting about a third of the tomatoes chopped, I realized I was in trouble.  Not quite like sinking-of-the-Titanic-kind-of-trouble but trouble none the less.  Thankfully, my dear friend A dropped her processor off at my house and saved my sanity the day.  Thanks again A!

I now have many, many, many ziplocs full of marinara sauce in my freezer and I feel prepared for the end of the World.  Or for an army of hungry Italians… which ever comes first.

All that to say, try my Marinara Sauce recipe!  It’s actually my Mom’s recipe for her Lasagna sauce with a few tweaks and additions.  Like onions.  Onions and my Mother are mortal enemies, like they are with a lot people, and so we grew up, for the most part, with onions always omitted from recipes.  I can attest that this recipe is still delish without the onions.  But if you have a not-so-secret love affair with onions like I do, throw those bad boys in and live it up!  

The recipe is listed on the left side of this page, under “Cooking”, or on my Cooking page (click on the “Cooking” header at the top of this page) or you can save yourself the hassle and just click right here. 

Let me know what you think. 

My mom’s Lasagna recipe to follow soon…

The braces are off my friends!!!

And all I can think about is how badly I want them back ON.

Pathetic isn’t it?!

Retainers aren’t all they are cracked up to be, let me tell you.  My ortho tweaked the bottom one because of a slightly wayward tooth that he wanted to fix.  So the bottom retainer is really tight.  It hurts so bad to pop it off and on that I seriously consider whether or not I need to eat at meal time.  I mean, how hungry am I really?!  And how important is it that I brush my teeth with the retainers off?

I’m kidding, I’m kidding!  I know I have to eat (otherwise I wouldn’t be able to take the Advil that’s pumping through my veins right now without getting sick) and I know I have to brush everything in my mouth separately… I just don’t want to.

At least with braces I could still talk. 

All of a sudden, I have a lisp, I can’t enunciate and no one can understand me.  I feel the need to explain to everyone I talk to, especially complete strangers, the reason “forth whyth I thpeakth the wayth I amth”.

To top it off… gulp! I’m so embarrassed to tell you…

I’ve even whistled a few times while speaking! We’re talking, a mid-sentence, totally loud WHISTLE resounding from my retainer.

Isn’t that horrifying?!  When it happens, I don’t know whether to laugh or cry.  Maybe I should just immediately stop and holler out over my shoulder, “Train’s a comin’! Get outta the way!!” and then calmly turn back around to the person I was talking to and continue my sentence.

Think that’ll distract from the random retainer-whistle or draw more attention?! lol.  Course, it’d sound more like this:

“Twainth a comin’!! Geth outtha wayth!!”

The absolute cherry on the top of all this is I get to wear these babies, 24/7 for a whole year!  Then I get to go to just at night time. 

Oh glory days.