and the ranting has stopped...

I am on the beach. It's amazing. So far today, I've slept till I woke up on my own, had breakfast and lunch that was made for me, not made my bed, not cleaned up anything, sat on the beach, had yummy drinks and snacks while sitting on the beach. And that's about it. This afternoon we have a sailing lesson, dinner reservations, and a show to go to. I know, busy busy busy.

I want to take a minute to brag on my husband. He is amazing. Really. So huge thanks to him for makng it possible for me to dit in the beach today thanks to his hard work. Also, a HUGE shoutout and thanks to the pollacks and my aprents for watching the kids. Last night, I as thinking of what we would do today and it took me several minutes to realize I don't have to plan around nap time. Well, the kids' naptime at least. So thank you.

So. I'm gonna go sit by the pool while I wait to go sailing. I'll try to post pictures tonight or r tomorrow from christa's iPod. Mine doesn't have a camera. But it is beautiful and so great to hang out with my bff and do nothing. Ahhhhhhhh.

bored + too much time + airports= rants

just a little ranting. Because I'm bored. First, when I am rich I am going to build an airport that has outdoor waiting areas. I have been in plains and airports since 6 am. Blech. Second, when I am rich, I'm gonna hire a travel agent to book all my awesome trips and their only job will be to fight with the airlines when they try to give me stupid iteneraries and layovers. I just feel like there is probably a more efficient way to get to the bahamas from little rock than three flights and seven hours in airports.

I survived the first two flights fine. The first plane was so loud. It as small but not that small. At one point, the captain started talking and you could barely hear him. The second flight was a little bumpy, but I avoided throwing up all over the little kid in front of me, so it was all good. At least I wasn't watching "lost" like I was the last time I was on a rough flight. Also, did you know they charge for snacks on planes now? Or at least on continental. The graciously gave us a complementry beverage and that was it. We could buy pretzels if we wanted. For like $3. Um, no thanks. It was probably better that way so I didn't lose it all when our pilot was attempting to "land".

what will you be when you grow up?

hiba and matthias went over to some friends' house this morning, which was a wonderful break. my friend, megan, and i swap kids each week and it is one of the best things in the world.

anyway, while they were there, they watched a dora movie. i was asking hiba about it at dinner tonight and she told me that it was called "job day" and talked about what you want to be when you grow up. so she asked me what i want to be when i grow up. and the rest of the conversation went like this.

hiba: mommy, i think you can be a lunch maker.

jason: what do you think i will be?

hiba: you can be a soccer player.

I love how she picked the two things that were most offensive to us.

little moments

sometimes i have bad days with my kids. i know, hard to believe, right? ha. anyway, it's true. it seems like hiba's new favorite thing to do is follow matthias around and take things from him so he'll scream. matthias' favorite thing to do is answer "no!" while shaking his finger at me and then react to a spank on the hand with an ear-splitting scream. this is what a lot of my days are filled with recently. fun times.

but every once in a while, there are those moments. moments when they love each other. moments when things we have been saying to them click. moments that make my heart melt.

last night, matthias went to bed at 7. he went without a fight, which is actually rare these days. but as eager as he was to go to bed, apparently he wasn't so eager to go to sleep. so when hiba's 8 o'clock bedtime rolled around, jason and i opted to go ahead and put her to bed in their room (they share a bedroom) and hope that they would fall asleep eventually.

well, they didn't go to sleep very quickly. they were getting pretty loud and it was getting annoying and i was about to get up to tell them to be quiet when jason called me back to stand outside their door. and what we heard was so sweet.

hiba was doing their bedtime routine with matthias so that he would go to sleep. this started with her saying The Lord's Prayer, which jason has been teaching her at bedtime. this was followed with her and matthias singing "Jesus loves me". matthias sings about every other word - and "word" is used in the loose sense here. then, hiba prayed and told matthias good night an to go to sleep. the whole time, she was talking sweetly to him and he was answering sweetly and they were just being so cute.

such a great little moment.

and then they woke up this morning....

all about me

i like weekends that are all about me.

like this last weekend. jason and the kiddos did an excellent job of pampering me for mother's day. it started on saturday morning, where jason got up with the kids and took them garage-saleing (not really sure how to spell that....). they had a great time and i got to sleep to my hearts content and wake up to an empty, clean house. bliss. i don't know the last time that happened. jason does a great job of letting me sleep in one weekend day each week, but i always get woken up by the screams of joy from our little friends. but not this week. i got to wake up to pure silence.

and it just got better from there. while the kids were napping, we got some yard work done (which might not sound too fun, but our yard is a complete wreck, so it was nice to see some progress). then we took the kids to jason's parents house for the night.

jason told me that we could go eat anywhere i wanted or we could make whatever i wanted. i really love cooking, especially with jason, and especially with no kids, so we opted to stay home and cook. which turned out to be an excellent choice. we made lemon chicken ravioli with tomato artichoke sauce. which was every bit as wonderful as it sounds. we made whole-wheat pasta from scratch and used all fresh ingredients (well, the artichoke hearts were canned), and it was delish. add a great bottle of sauvignon blanc and you have one meal to die for.

the pampering continued on sunday. it started with a yummy omelet stuffed full of my favorite things - bacon, feta cheese, and spinach. and it just kept getting better from there. i think i changed one diaper all day and didn't wash a single dish. we had jason's mom, brother, and sister for lunch and they all cooked while his mom and i sat on the couch. we had steak, baked potatoes, and grilled veggies - another wonderful meal (there seems to be a theme developing....).

i love my kids, but sometimes i need a break. and this weekend was one of those times. it was so fun to hang out with jason, relax, not have a to-do list. i think the gift of rest is sometimes overlooked, and we feel like we need to get stuff - cards, teddy bears, flowers, chocolate. and while i will take any of those things, i loved my restful weekend.

things i love

i love the weather these days. not too hot, not too cold, not too humid. we are soaking it up while we can.

i love that my kids love watching tv, but that they don't watch a lot so it's still a treat. and it totally captures their attention, which allows me to drink coffee, blog, and check facebook.

i love that matthias and hiba are best friends. hiba likes doing things alone a little bit, but if matthias and i go somewhere without hiba (which happens almost never), he just stresses out the whole time about where hiba is. and then they greet each other with huge hugs when we get back.

i love that matthias is trying to talk. even though i think my theory about him being quiet because hiba talks so much is going to be proven false. he is talking so much. and repeating himself so much. and doing this very loudly. but it's cute.

i love that my kids love books. hiba memorizes them and "reads" them to matthias. i have tried to get a video of this, but every time i pull out the camera, they stop being cute and start being goofy. i need to be more sneaky.

i love that my husband likes it when the kids get up before he leaves for work (well, unless he leaves at like 6. then no one likes it). this morning he said he was about to leave and was sad that he didn't get to see them, but then they woke up, so he stayed so he could get them up (which lucky for me includes changing diapers) and see them. this meant that i was awakened by jason coming sweetly in to my room, followed by hiba and matthias who were excited to see me, instead of being awakened by their cries, screaming, and/or wet diapers.

i love cooking. now that jason is done with rugby, we have dinner a lot more evenings, so i've been cooking a lot more. it's fun. and yummy. and since both adults are home, we try to make hiba and matthias eat what we're eating. maybe one day they will learn to appreciate the wonderfulness that is the food i make.

i love that i finally decided to start lifting weights instead of just doing cardio for my workouts. i like to think it's working well.

i love that matthias likes to sing "Jesus loves me" and pray before he goes to bed. he tries to sing along - by singing "Jesus" and "bible" the whole time - and he always starts praying by saying "dear Jesus, zuzu", meaning "dear Jesus, thank you for matthias". it is so sweet and precious.