Coolest Concert Venue Ever!

Last night we went to Meramec Caverns to see Kutless, a post-grunge Christian band. It was cool. The concert was actually in the cave! I wish I had brought my camera because with all of us scrunched in the cave in the dark and all of the colored lights from the stage, it was AWESOME! Not so awesome was the fact that it was supposed to start at 6 pm. No one even came on stage until 7:30 pm and even that was just the opening bands. The openers played, then gave a World Vision speech, and then there was another "10 minute break" which actually turned into 15-20 minutes! So Kutless didn't start playing until 8:30 pm and guess what?! We had to leave at 9:15 pm to be home for the babysitters at 10 pm. How crappy! It was by far the coolest concert venue ever but it terms of organization, they really need some work! Especially since they didn't even apoligize for it! Maybe it was because the Caverns were recently flooded and they had a hard time getting things up and running...but still. Still trying to decide if I ever want to go back. Because it was pretty cool!

Glad We Have Family in Town!

The excitement never ends here. Oh yeah- I just keep looking forward to the next "adventure" (please don't misunderstand me, this sentence should be read in a very sarcastic tone). We were off to the city far, far away (Ballwin- so it's not actually that far but it is when you are talking about getting three kids two and under there by 9 o'clock in the morning). We were going to have a morning of fun. 1st stop- meeting my aunt Clemanne at McDonalds for breakfast and the indoor playground. 2nd stop- Once Upon a Child to look at a used triple stroller. (I have a hard time driving the Sam's shopping carts, but being bound to my house for the last three years with children has driven me to the brink of insanity, so I thought I'd try pushing a triple stroller around and see what happens!) 3rd stop- Kohl's because my lovely aunt was taking us on a shopping spree to get summer clothes for Anna, Naomi, and Abigail. I was actually looking forward to a nice morning outing. Everything started out great...we were up early. I had laid everyone's clothes out the night before (including my own!). We were even ready early...a concept completely unheard of in the Irwin household both PRE- and POST- kids. We headed out the door without breakfast since we were headed for McDonalds. If you live in St. Louis, you might know that we have had a lot of rain lately, even severe flooding. Yesterday was no exception and it was raining rather hard. About halfway through my drive, our windshield wipers started vascilating between fast and SLOOOOWWWW, with heavy emphasis on the SLOOOOWWWWW in case you missed that. I was starting to freak out because I couldn't see anything in front of me. At one point, I was driving on the highway and all I could see was rain on my windshield and red lights - I am assuming from the car in front of me. This means they were slowing down but we were on the highway so how was I supposed to know how much to slow down? I was constantly having to flip the windshield wipers back and forth so that they wouldn't turn off. This was another instance (besides have three kids) where I wish that I could instantaneously morph into an octupus with all eight tentacles. Apparently, with all eight tentacles or not, all four of our guardian angels were following us around yesterday so all accidents were avoided. I called Ryan saying I can't drive in this. I can't go home, I can't go meet Clemanne- you have to find a car repair shop near to me so I can take the car in. Since we only have one vehicle, it had to be fixed and soon otherwise we couldn't drive anywhere. Ryan found a shop for us to go to and we trekked over there and made it. Then Clemanne drove all the way across town to meet us. We crammed three car seats into the back of her car in the pouring rain (I was so suprised they all fit!). The car place said it was a complicated problem so it would definitely be several hours. This was not hopeful news as it was 9:45 and naptime was near. But there was nothing we could do so we all went to Kohls...in the pouring rain. We killed some time in there- got new wardrobes for the girls! (Thanks Clemanne!) and when they started running around the store like banchee children, we decided we needed to go. Meanwhile, the repair shop called saying there was indeed a problem (yes, I know!) and that it would be a couple more hours. We then decided to go to McDonalds since none of us had eaten yet. The food was well, you know, not really food. But was nonetheless, thrilling for the girls, particularly the kiddie sized ice cream cones. The disappointment: the playground was too old for the girls- they couldn't reach any of the steps to go up to the actual fun stuff so they just got to eat and stare at the playground. Also, Abby has had a SEVERE diaper wash to the extent that I have been giving her a baking soda bath every diaper change along with a paste of cornstarch and vaseline. I was dreading changing her diaper on all of these outings but decided to "take the plunge" in the McDonald's restroom. I was again disappointed- Why McDonalds doesn't have a diaper changing station OR a counter at their sink is WAY beyond me! So I changed Abby on the floor of a bathroom stall with my jar of vaseline and my big tub of cornstarch. Grrr. Ice cream made me a feel a LITTLE bit better. The fudge sauce made me even feel a more LITTLE bit better. With no where else to go and the girls getting T-I-R-E-D, I called my mom to ask her if we could seek refuge at her house. Of course she said yes. We actually have taken refuge there several times when things like this happen. We got everyone inside, changed, fed, and then the phone call came that our car was ready early!!! Happy news because otherwise, Clemanne had to leave and I was stuck there until 5 pm when my stepdad was going to take us to pick up our car. So we piled back into the car, drove to the car repair shop, and got our vehicle back....$350 later! :( It was 2:30 pm, with no naps to speak of, no more money, and a wet mom exhausted from hauling carseats and kids in and out of cars and stores in the pouring rain. But all in all, it was good- no accidents, our car was fixed, and I had family around to help us out...and we came home with lots of clothes! Not a horrible, no good, very bad day. But then not a thrilling one either. So I guess that means we have to go look at the triple bus (I mean stroller) next week- dun, dun, dun.

One Thing to Cross Off My List

...so this wasn't on my list of things to do/see before I die BUT-

the other day we were driving and saw lightning actually strike! About 50 feet in front of us, the ground was actually smoking. It was fascinating. As soon as I saw it I thought...that should have been on my list.

Ryan and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

So it wasn't a good sign when on Saturday at midnight we arrived to pick up our kids from my mom's and Anna and Naomi were still awake! This would be the first omen for how the next 24 hours would go because any parent knows if our children don't sleep, we pay for it the next day. Then, in the car on the way home, at about 12:30 am, Abby threw up repeatedly. Yuck! We put everyone to bed around 1 am and everyone slept until about 9:30 am (a good thing!). The morning and afternoon weren't so bad, just little things happened to Ryan which were annoyances and just got progressively worse. Ryan, who says he has hardly ever cut himself shaving, cut himself twice. Then there was his three hours of free time (another good thing!) when he worked at getting a higher rank on his xbox 360 and somehow forgot to save it, meaning no promotions for him. Later in the day, he decided to make dinner for all of us and needed to thaw some chicken. So he put some chicken under running water in the sink, checking on it frequently to make sure the sink was not overflowing. Naomi had a dirty diaper that needed some attention, the chicken was forgotten...and the sink overflowed and there was nasty chicken water EVERYWHERE (and lots of it)! So he cleaned up that mess and then finished cooking dinner. Unfortunately, and not suprisingly considering his day, the chicken ended up burnt, something he hardly EVER does. You see, he is anal about almost everything! This was clearly not his day. When the girls went to bed, he had to stop by a twelve unit apartment building that we are in the process of cleaning to pick up some things. He came back a half hour later in a mad dash for the phone, calling my stepdad to make sure that the police won't come when the alarm goes off because you guessed it, the alarm went off when he went in and the keypad had been moved. So after being reassured that the most harm done was probably unhappy neighbors, he got off the phone and we settled down to watch a tv show and then got up to go to the bedroom but first I had to get something from the cabinet. So upon opening it, discovered that the chicken water had also leaked inside the cabinet and over LOTS AND LOTS of things, including all our various medicines (which since we get sick so much you can just imagine how many bottles that was!), makeup, feminine products, etc. etc. By this time it was 11:30 pm. So we began the long process of starting to clean up all of the things, rinse them off, and let the cabinet air out. We are still waiting, but it seems like the base of the cabinet is warped. Prior to this, Ryan was talking about how bad of a day he was having. All of the sudden, while cleaning medicine bottles, it finally hit me! I just started laughing hysterically and couldn't stop. You see, as I said before, Ryan is INCREDIBLY anal about everything he does. If you don't believe me, just ask him about his ten step laundry process! I am usually the one to do dumb things. Just a small sampling of my resume includes sitting on our computer, losing a $100 bill, leaving my purse in Hannibal, MO, constantly losing my keys and misplacing things, frequently not having all of the ingredients for a recipe, driving down the street with 10 brand new CDs on the roof of our car, etc. (I could go on and on!) But here was Ryan who had done lots of stupid things which he NEVER does, all in one day. I just could not stop laughing. I still can't really. After cleaning up cabinet mess, I told him we must go directly to bed so nothing else can happen to him (or me!). So we did. Ryan leaves for work in the morning before any of us are awake but he always comes to kiss me goodbye. This morning I told him that I hoped he had a better day today. He said "well, I opened up my backpack this morning and a banana had exploded all over the inside." I hope it doesn't turn into the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week because tomorrow is his birthday! I guess he just decided to make up for the last twenty six years all in a couple of days.

To Springfield Again!

Well, I was off on another adventure to Springfield a weekend or two ago, only this time with my dear friend Wendy!

So my review of Springfield, after having been there twice in a matter of months, is mixed. I have had a lot of fun in Springfield but also a lot of memorable (not the good kind of memorable) experiences.

One not so good memorable moment from the first trip as you may recall was the bad tourist brochure with an inaccurate map. This time around I still got lost numerous times. I thought Missouri roads were bad but really I think Illinios is not doing much better!

Our main horrible memorable moment this time was the hotel we stayed in. If staying in Springfield, do NOT stay in the Travellodge. There were numerous things wrong with this hotel like having no locks on the windows and the floor actually vibrating until 3 in the morning due to a party downstairs. But really, the worst part of it can be summed up in two words- "NO AIR CONDITIONING!" Can you believe that a hotel in this century doesn't have AC!!!??? Mental note, look for AC under the amenities section from now on when booking your hotel. Also, the alarm clock could only be set for times ending in :30! We wanted to get up at 6:00 am but could only set the alarm for 6:30 (or 5:30 but like I ever even considered that!)

Okay, now for the good moments...

The Scrapbooking Store in Springfield is great! We spent lots of time there, agonizing over which pretty papers to buy! I was looking for paper to make placemats for the girls. They turned out so cute! The people at the store were really nice and very helpful. Wendy had to wait forever for me to finally decide on what I was getting. Gee, that's hard to believe. She kept muttering something about making her fetus starve!

We had Chinese for dinner and went to see The Bucket List. Good and I cried. If only I could meet a Jack Nicholson type to take me around the world to sit on the Pyramids and attempt to climb mountains in the Himalayas! Any takers?

Then we went back to the AWFUL hotel, got no sleep, and woke up early to head to our conference for mom's. It was a fun day filled with laughter and lots of information. I attended workshops on marriage, spiritually nurturing my kids, and having contentment. The day ended with the hilariously funny Ken Davis, a comic and speaker. My favorite story of his was his introduction. He said he loves to go out on his motorcycle, winding through the mountains. He pulls off to the side of the road, pulls out a hairdryer and just sits and waits for people to drive by and points it at them. He said the funniest thing is to see the reactions of the men and women. The men always ask their wives should I pull over and the wives are always like no, you idiot, he is on a moped!

And to top off the weekend, we stopped at Outback Steakhouse for what else, but steak!

It was my first trip with Wendy, usually we are talking in broken English and drinking tea with Afghans but this weekend it was just us yacking it away in woman jibberish! What fun! Can't wait for next year. Kevin Leman's coming to Hearts at Home! So are we!

Always a Messie but...

I'm a mess! My house is a mess!


The first claim is true but thank goodness I don't have to be perfect. I can be a mess but am still loved by and can still be used by God. As to the second claim, I have been trying to work on this for the past several years. I am a perpetual "Messie" as popular author Sandra Felton terms it. (This is opposed to being a "Cleanie"). Last year I went garage saleing. I happened to be at the house of a professional organizer. She was weeding out her books so there was a large quantity of books on organizing and getting rid of clutter. Now, even though I am a Messie, I gravitate towards learning about anything and everything organizational. You could call it a secret obsession. It excites me but at the same time makes me feel sick because it is so hard for me to implement! SO, back to the garage sale, of course I saw the books and was SO excited. I even stumbled upon two more of Sandra Felton's books! So what did I do??? I came home with four, yes FOUR, books on how to eliminate clutter from my home!!!! :)

After reading all of these, I got another great book on cleaning and organizing called The House that Cleans Itself by Mindy Starns Clark. This has set me on a quest to finally get my house semi organized FOR GOOD! I'm tired of organizing things and reorganizing them again, only to have everything still be a mess. I have gained a lot of good tips and insights from the book. A couple of tips that have impacted my life thus far...

- if you're life is chaotic (I feel like mine classifies!) then figure out which area of your home,when cleaned, brings you the most contentment and satisfaction. For example, mine is my living room floor. I have to have all the toys picked up and everything somewhat straightened before I can sit down and relax. If there are things all over the floor, I feel unrestful, kind of frantic, and overwhelmed with the mess. When my living room floor is picked up, I can handle some of the other mess because I am not so overwhelmed. The Fly Lady's space she needs clean is her kitchen sink. The author of The House that Cleans Itself must have under her bed and the inside of her closet floor straightened in order to feel sane!

- Rather than continuing to get frustrated with your lack of organization, embrace it. Work with your tendencies. Example: I am scatterbrained. I lose everything. I have to ask Ryan multiple times a day where my keys, my brush, the girl's sippe cups, bottles, etc. are. So in my first attempt at organization, I put a small basket on the counter to hold our keys and wallets in. The problem: it is about 15 feet from the door. So my keys, being the lazy kind, would never quite go the distance. Most books on organization would say you just need to suck it up and walk the extra few feet. The approach that Mindy Starns Clark takes in her book says find another way that works. So I did! When you first walk in our back door, immediately to your left is our refrigerator SO...I purchased magnetic hooks. And guess what?! My keys are there 75% of the time! (This may sound like a rather low percentage but if you realize that before about 99% percent of the time I could not locate them in under 2 minutes, 75% saves me a lot of time and a lot of grief!

- She suggests letting your house get messy for a day or two and then observing what kinds of messes you have. For instance, our diaper changing table was a hub for stuff, lots and lots of stuff- mail, diaper bags, papers, anything. So we eliminated it. We couldn't use it with things on it anyway. So we got a cabinet with doors that closed! So nothing can just be put down there with out purposely having to go about opening the doors and having it placed there. When dealing with paperwork, this tip is particularly helpful. You can begin to notice what type of paperwork tends to get left out and then find a solution to store it instead.

- Trashcan in every room. Sounds simple but I didn't have enough trashcans. Shorter trips to the trashbin means more picking up with easy disposal.

Those are just a few that I thought I would share. But really, I have learned so much more through all of the books. I didn't know organizing and household stuff was a skill but it is. And it can be learned! So far, our sunroom and our bedroom have gone through the House That Cleans Itself system of purging. How liberating it is. They are still a mess about 25% of the time. But, hey, I am happy with 75% of clean!

Oh, and by the way I'm famous! Mindy answered one of my questions on the House that Cleans Itself blog. If you'd like to visit it, you can go to http://thehousethatcleansitself.com/ and read the March 14th posting.

One last thing-
In heaven, I don't care if I get a mansion, I just want a housekeeper!

SNOW!!!

With the 8 inches of snow yesterday, Ryan insisted we all go outside and make the girl's first snowman (or snowGIRL in our case!). Here are some pics...

Apparently Abby doesn't like snow angels

Our "work of art" - which was immediately eaten (the mouth was made of M&Ms and the eyes were Girl Scout cookies) by Sadie and then consequently knocked over by Sadie. Not that it matters anyway... the snow is mostly melted. I haven't looked at it today but I am guessing there are just a bunch of toys laying in our backyard now! My favorite are the shoes!