Crazy-palooza

Today I spent some time at the amazing Comicpalooza comic convention in Houston.  I was supposed to skate, but straining my groin in the warmups (like my second lap) meant just taking photos.  Boo!  The good side of that?  Sooo many things to take photos of!

 Storm troopers!

 More Stars Wars.

 Jedi training.  Saw would have loved this, but he missed it!

 Skater Flyon Maiden represents the Star Trek part of the population.

 I don't get this at all.

 What goes well with comics?  Skates!

 Hot Assets from the Valkyries jamming in a blur.  These floors are SO slippery.

 Um...terrifying!  The jaws moved when the guy talked.

 How YOU doin?

 I don't know what this is.

 Motherly comic book love.

 Grrrl Friday jamming for the Knockouts.

 Apparently, Papa Smurf winked at her when she came back to the bench.

 Ring wraith!  Feast on his flesh...

 Linc and Saw showed up for a few minutes and got to meet Spidey and the Hulk.

 Linc didn't really know what he was supposed to do.  Also? He's wearing superhero pajamas.

Spidey wouldn't pose, so we have this awkward shot of Saw with Spidey's rear.  Rob's comment:  "Spidey has, uh, let himself go a little bit."

 We ran into Papa Smurf again on the way out.

This photo is both cute and creepy!

If you ever get a chance to check out Comicpalooza, it's pretty rad!  I got to hear snippets of a Q&A from the man who played Winston in the Ghostbusters movies, and apparently George Takei was there today!  Tomorrow there are more derby games and a ton more events, so head on down to the George R. Brown!  (That rhymed.)

Prayer: The Musical

Today Sawyer started something new.  When we asked if he wanted to pray the blessing after we sang our traditional "Oh the Lord Is Good to Me" song, Sawyer continued the singing theme.  It went something like this.  Imagine melody.

S:  Dear Lord we thank you for this wonDERful DAAAAAAY!  And for fooood and for JEEEEEsus and MOMmy and DADdy!  And for our foooooooooood....A-MENNNNNN!

Would it be sacrilegious somehow to take a video? I think I might have to. It's pretty fabulous.

The Turk

I snapped this cute photo of Saw and Grandpa Turkey last night while they were babysitting.  I'm thankful daily for the fact that both sets of grandparents live within 20 minutes!

Attack of the Nap

After giving up his nap a year ago, Sawyer has napped two days in a row--crashing right in the middle of play time, as you can see by the toys clutched in his hand.  He still has a sweet baby face while sleeping, despite being all big boy when he's awake.

ER Antics

Surprise! I'm not the one that needed to go to the ER last night, but you'd never know it from this photo.  This is really and truly a photo where I was making a funny face with my eye half shut and half crossed.  Add in a weird filter on one of those photo apps and you get me looking like I'm totally messed up.

There was also some confusions as I had this photo up and posts about the ER last night.  My face is fine, but my teammate Shocker broke her leg at practice.  You'd never know it by her chipper attitude, but Shocker was in a lot of pain and is at the ortho now figuring out what it will take to get her back together again.  I hate derby injuries!

Shank, Blindside, and I made the best of the 6-hour visit last night by cracking jokes and singing and eating from the vending machine that took CREDIT CARDS.  Amazing idea.  Funyuns can definitely take the edge off. So can warming blankets, Bossy chap capes, and Baby Shark. I don't think we helped the healing, but we did help Shocker take her mind off the pain a bit.  Plus we bought her candy named after her.  You've got to make the best of the ER if you're in there.

 Making capes from our last game (which I brought in to use as blankets because it was cold--until we found the warming blankets) into chaps.

Doing the Baby Shark song, specifically the CPR part.  If you know this song, holla!

See? You'd never know that she was in intense pain.  Just like her pro-westler heroes, Shocker is a fighter!  And for the record, those candies are super sour.  That's what inspired my face up top.  Heal up soon, Shocker!

The Week in Pee

I haven't been at the computer much, which is a sure sign that my kids are out of school.  Plus, with more sun outside, they are going to bed later and getting up earlier, so I am often torn between blogging and napping at nap time, since I'm getting less done and sleeping less with their sleep habits and full days at home. I do actually kind of enjoy when they aren't in school (caveat: for brief periods!!) so that I can establish a routine that's every day of the week, not just a few.  We go to the gym, we hang out, we go to playgrounds.  It's nice.  But it definitely means I'm more tired and have less Kiki-time, so often more stressed.

As for potty training, we are making tiny strides.  As in, today Lincoln hasn't peed in the floor.  He also hasn't peed in the toilet.

He IS still using the bathroom, but I think it's like during bath time, or when we are out and about in his diaper.  The reason I say tiny steps at all even with no pee in the toilet is that he is becoming more aware.  He isn't peeing in the floor so much as he did the first day or two, and his diapers are dryer.  Which means when he DOES pee, it's like gallons. I think he is just having a harder time understanding when he needs to pee, and how to relax enough to pee on the toilet.  He's not opposed to it, and happily sits up there. So we will press on, but be a little more lax about it. I'm trying not to feel pressure or put pressure on him, but encourage him to sit and sit often, even if he just tries to go.

Tricks I've tried to get him to go:

-saying "ready, aim, fire!" which really worked with Saw
-running water in the bathroom so he hears the sound of water
-putting his hand in warm water
-pouring warm water over him

Yeah.  Nothing's really working yet. I haven't tried the Cheerios trick people mentioned (boys love having a target, apparently) but with him not really able to fully release pee yet, I think that's getting ahead. Plus we don't have any Cheerios.

We'll get there!  But just like everything else, our boys are different and the ways they do things are also different.  Why am I ever surprised by this?

Sawyer On: Dinner

R:  Sawyer, who do we thank for making this dinner?
S:  God!
R:  Well.  Yes. God created the food that made our dinner, but who MADE our dinner?
S:  Jesus!
R: Okay, yes.  But who stood over there in the kitchen and COOKED the dinner that you're eating?
S:  Mommy!

Finally, I get some credit around here. Pretty tough to make a good meal when I'm competing with Jesus.

Learning Parenthood Lessons...from Roller Derby

This weekend we had our third bout.  It's been a tough season for my team and this was our third loss.  Third and most painful, perhaps, because it took us out of contention for first or second place. This will be the first time in (I believe) seven years that our team has not been in the fight for first place.  Ugh!

On a personal note, though, I am really seeing it all come together for me as a skater.  I skated basically almost every other jam, sometimes two to three in a row.  While I had no luck jamming (thanks to that amazing four-wall of Brawl!), I felt comfortable and effective in my blocking, and in communicating and working with my team.  I am still sore from all the hard hits and maybe still need to catch up on some sleep.  But during the game I was reminded of something really important that relates to real life and especially parenting.

During halftime, one of our teammates who wasn't skating gave me some amazing constructive criticism. (Thanks, Chainsaw!)  She said that I looked tired, like I had given up the fight.

I was surprised, because I didn't FEEL like I had given up.  I didn't realize that my face showed weariness.  While I was exhausted in some ways from going in so much, I WANTED to be in that much.  I relish every jam that I get to skate.  Every one.  So the fact that it might look to people watching like I wasn't having a blast out there--it really struck me.  Every time I came off the track and immediately went back on the hot bench, right behind me were faces of girls on the team who maybe weren't getting as much play time.

While we all want to win and skaters generally understand that tough games may mean we don't all get equal play, it still stinks to sit on the bench.  I've been there on that bench my rookie season and I remember. We practice three times a week (or more).  We pay money every month in dues and for our gear.  No one wants to sacrifice that much and not skate.  I would hate for anyone to see me playing so much and think that I didn't want to skate, or that I was too tired.  That's even more of a slap in the face--to have someone who is playing a lot seem ungrateful for that time.

So in the second half I made sure that every time I went out in the second half I had a great time and showed it, even while fighting my hardest for our team.  I really do love every jam.  EVEN my least favorite, when I'm being batted around as a jammer.  I love this sport, and I know I can't do it forever.  To really enjoy it, I need to sometimes have that slap-in-the-face mental reminder like Chainsaw's words to me, where I wake up and realize that I am living my life every moment.  Every moment is one I can't get back.  I want to live in that moment--THIS moment--and have every person who looks at me knowing that I am glad to be alive.

The same lesson is true in parenting.  Remember my favorite phrase:  Embrace the Chaos?

Same principle.  Yesterday I woke up at 5:50 with two little boys itching to start the day, when all I wanted was a few more hours of sleep.  I was cranky all day long, with them and with everyone.  It was a total case of the Mondays.  In the afternoon, I realized that I was living my day just like it seemed I was playing the first half of my game Saturday: just wishing for the next thing to come along.

Every moment we don't embrace our life is a moment gone.  I don't know about you, but I see these moments just flying by these days.  I don't want to lose a one!  Being ungrateful or wishing away even the hardest times (and believe me, there are some hard ones) means that I have in some ways wasted those moments.  That's not how I want to live!

Now I will say that on the flip side, there are real challenges and hurts and heartaches in life, and I don't want to seem flippant about them.  I have been in some myself, and the last thing I felt like doing or felt able to do was embrace those moments.  Don't feel like I'm downplaying that--in some of those moments, you may not be able to embrace anything.  (Except maybe Jesus, who definitely can carry you through.)  Please don't feel that I'm adding some kind of pressure to your hard day with your toddlers or with your husband or with your joblessness or singleness or sickness.

I do hope in my own life I can live like it's the last jam.  Carpe diem.  Who knows how long our lives will be or what might come tomorrow?  There may only be this moment, this day, and I certainly don't want people looking at my life to think that I'm not grateful for everything I have.

So thanks to derby (and Chainsaw) for a big reminder about how I want to be living this day, this moment, this SECOND.

This is your life, your day, your moment--do you need a slap-in-the-face reminder to really live it?  If nothing else, I'm good for a slap in the face.  Just ask my teammates. :)

Corn! Glorious Corn!

Summer is coming.  And with it:  CORN.

Okay, that's maybe not the first thing on my list, but it's definitely there.  I remember being a kid and eating boiled corn with butter, and using little corn shaped holders that we'd spear into the sides of the cob. (What ever happened to those, Mom??)  In Texas, it's more about roasting and seasoning, which I LOVE.  I always say my favorite thing about Schlitterbahn (which is like the best water park in the country) is the roasted corn. And I'm not even kidding.

Here are some husks being husky from tonight's dinner.  I only bought five ears and should have know to allot for at least two each.  The boys went corn crazy and had kernels dripping from their chins.  Lincoln ate part of the cob itself.  And then:  "More?"

One of my favorite ways to eat corn is roasted in the husk on the grill. The hardest part is removing the hot husks so you can eat the corn while it's still warm without burning your fingers to pieces.  Then you butter it and dump fajita seasoning and Tony Chachere's (my have corn combo) all over the place so your lips end up burning and buttery.  Mmmmmm...

Tonight I tried cooking in the oven, something I saw on Pinterest that came from HERE.  You basically stick it in the oven with the husk on for 35 minutes at 350. Ta da!  Tonight I tried it with roasted garlic, but definitely didn't put enough garlic on.  I roasted the garlic in the oven for about as long as the corn, and with a bit of olive oil in foil.  Then I squeezed each clove out and basically smeared them all over the corn with the butter.  Good, but again--I definitely didn't have enough garlic.

Next up, I'm trying this Mexican Street corn, again found on Pinterest.  You can see the original link HERE.  This sounds totally amazing, and I'm all ready to branch out with my favorite summer food!

Sawyer On: Star Wars Meets Heaven

S:  If Lincoln has a light saber, then he can be in the Lord's army. But if he doesn't have a light saber, he can't be in the Lord's army.  He has to have a light saber.