Intrusive?

So since Benjie and I went to Florida last weekend, we rearranged Dovi's night nurse's schedule to work the entire time we were gone. She works five nights per week, usually Monday through Friday.

Well what we had her do instead was work Thursday-Tuesday nights to give my in laws coverage and a full night's sleep while we were gone.

So that means that she did not work Wednesday and Thursday nights this week.

So while we are tired (correction:Benjie is tired. Dovi wants nothing to do with me at night. Or frankly during the day either. I am a poor, poor substitute for the All Powerful Oz Abba), I said something to Benjie last night:

"You know, it's kind of nice being just us in the house"

He agreed.

Now I must say that our nurse is MAGNIFICENT. We adore adore adore her. She adores Dovi. Dovi adores her. She has worked for us for almost two years. I have heard the nightmarish stories people have to tell about their nurses-no call no shows, drunk on the job (I kid you not. The child was total care. The mother is literally suffering from post traumatic stress disorder now from coming home and finding her nurse passed out on the floor next to her ventilated son. I'm not making that up), stealing, lying, etc etc etc. So I have a hearty appreciation for her nurse, her caring and respect for Dovi and our family.

But the bottom line? Have you been in my house? It is not big. It's actually rather small. I love it. It's cozy. Aside for the need for another bedroom (how much longer can Shana share with Elisha and Jacob? They are six. It's not good), I could not ask for more in my lovely home.

But five nights a week, we share our home with our nurse.

She is unobtrusive. Quiet. Kind. But she is also about ten feet away from my and Benjie's room. So we have lost a level of privacy.

So while we Benjie appreciate(s) the sleep that having our nurse gives us, it was nice, really a treat, to be just us overnight.

Although I'm not sure if Benjie still felt the same way while giving Dovi his meds and changing him and his linens at 4 am.

Lovin' the New Camera

So I'm loving my new camera, and today I'm sharing one of my latest crafts with you all.

If you're a blog-surfer, you might have noticed that one of the popular home decor items right now is silhouettes. ( Possibly one of the hardest words ever to spell, second only to diarrhea. So many superfluous letters!).
How freaking lovely is that? Imagine it in a kitchen...mmmmm.....more ideas abrewing. I did not make this. I got it from a free clip art blog I read. No mocking, please.

Well silhouettes are expensive.

I am cheap.

Soooo....here's what I did:

1. Since at the time of the craft, I was camera-less, I asked my lovely friend/neighbor Rebecca to take pictures of the hoodlums. We had them stand sideways against a plain wall. At dinner time. While Rebecca had to get HER hoodlums ready for swimming lessons. Immediate gratification issues, I know.
   
2. I then printed out the pictures of said hoodlums on my putey as an 8x10. Oh. After we spent like 20 minutes trying to email the files to me, until we realized, ya know, that I could just take Rebecca's camera home with me for a few minutes. Which I did.
   
3. Then, I took a very, very sharp pair of scissors and cut out the pictures.
4. (This was a many-stepped process) I then traced that cut out picture, slooooowwwwlllllyyyyy and carefully onto some black scrapbook paper I scrounged up from my scrapbooking days (Hi, Peta!!)
5. Then I cut that out.
6. Then, because I suffer from immediate gratification issues, I hopped in my car and drove to Michaels. I bought pretty scrapbook paper that was on sale for $.35 a sheet. I bought four. Because, ya'know, I have four little ungrateful hoodlums.
7. Drove home. In the snow. It was slippery. Remember, I need immediate gratification?
8. Then I used my kids' school glue sticks and very carefully centered and glued the black cut outs onto the pretty paper.
9. Then I needed frames.
10. Scrounged around in the scary slasher basement and found three black 8 x 10 frames from another previous craft. But that wouldn't work, because, remember? Four ungrateful hoodlums.
11. Remembered that Dovi had some pictures of him and his counselor Nuchie !who is getting married! on his wall. Ran upstairs. Removed a frame from the wall. What's my son's happiness at looking at his pictures when I have a project going???
12. Took said frame downstairs. Realized it was slightly different that the other three.
13. Decided to do two of each type.
14. Ran back up. Removed other picture from Dovi's wall.
15. Stuck picture of Dovi and Nuchie from now-spare-frame-from-three-from-scary-slasher-basement and ran back upstairs to at least give him one picture.
16. Put lovely silhouettes in four black frames.
17. Spent an hour measuring and making itty bitty holes in the wall to get them ever so evenly spaced.
18. Total Cost? $1.54.
19. Total time? Minimally two hours, all told.
    
20. Voila!
    

Here's the big question, though:

Can you tell who is who?

EDITED: I realize it looks like Shana's is a little higher than everyone else's. She isn't. Trust me. I've spent much quality time with my level to avoid that.

OK here we go....

On to the trip... (I'm going to write all the restaurants we went to for all my Orthodox food deprived friends. Maybe I'll even tell you what we ordered for maximum gastronomic fun)

THURSDAY

We left early early early on Thursday morning...here's Benjie half asleep at the airport. Poor guy, I tortured him with pictures this trip.


We crammed ourselves into our Spirit Airlines seats. Note to readers: If you are above 5 foot 3 inches, stay away from Spirit Airlines. It was. not. normal. Look at Benjie's legs!!


We got to Ft Lauderdale Airport right on time, good thing, because Benjie might have lost circulation in his legs.

Got the rental car, and as we were pulling out, the tire pressure light went on. So they switched us. To this. We felt ridiculous. But we had no problem finding it in parking lots! And have you ever heard that flashy cars get pulled over more often? It's true. But that's a story for Monday.



So since it was a "cold snap" (hahahahahahahaha) in Miami that day and only 65 degrees...horrors! We went to Tea for Two for lunch (yummmmmmmm), walked around Lincoln Road, and went to The Frieze for sorbet. Then we went to the boardwalk by 41st and Collins and walked and read books. Us and the 80 year old Bubbies and Zaydes. I kid you not. I also watched people jog the boardwalk and got increasingly worried about Sunday. Here's Benjie at the boardwalk.


Then, to continue our reign as Bubbies and Zaydes, we went to dinner at Grill Time. At 5:45 pm. Yes, 5:45. No, we did not have kids with us. But it was either that or 9:30, and we were sleeping at my friend Steph's house that night and wanted to get there earlier rather than later. So we went at 5:45 with the Bubbies, Zaydes, and families with small children. No matter, it was YUM!

Then we took the drive over to Steph and Mary's and had a lovely evening. I bought clothing for my new nephew Yitziey from her neighbor that bought an insane amount of boy's clothing to resell as an investment, we drank Italian Martinis Margaritas, and they mocked me wearing flip flops and I mocked them wearing winter coats. In 65 degree weather. I mixed up her daughters' names. I am still embarrassed. They were gracious about it.

We went to sleep. Day One of vacay...over.

FRIDAY

Steph and the kiddies left at like 8ish. We got up, drank the lovely coffee they left us in their very fancy Grind and Brew coffeemaker (note to BENJIE: This would make an excellent gift to your lovely wife), and we headed out to the hotel.

Got to the hotel at 11:30. They told us we couldn't check in until 4. I was not nice. Benjie said I was rude, I say I was merely persistent. Whatevs. We went to lunch at Jerusalem Pizza with Avi and Rachel (their picture will show up later on in the post marathon pics), then we ran to Publix to buy yummy yogurt and other snackies for Shabbos, and got back to the hotel about 1:30, when we were able to check in "early". Benjie says for sure they spit in our glasses and wanted to short sheet our bed. Ha ha.

We then spent the rest of the day...at the pool. Ahhh bliss. I {heart} the pool. Really really really.


Awww aren't we cute? This picture is actually from Monday but go with it.
It's suuuch a nice pool. It has that infinity edge and looks out over the bay. Divine. We went up at about 5:15 to get ready for Shabbos which was at 5:38-amazing how fast you can get ready with no kiddies! Then we went back to the pool, where we hung out with various people (Hi Raphi!) after dinner. We had some really ummm..quality? beverages courtesy of the Camp Simcha Guys. All I can say is that it is just wrong to be mixing neon drinks in Team Lifeline water bottles.

SHABBOS/SATURDAY

Benjie went to services in the morning, I sat by the pool. We ate lunch. We sat by the pool. Rinse. Repeat.

Small world? We sat with a woman at lunch who carpooled last year with my sister in law Tamar. Who would've thought?

Then Saturday night was the pre-race pasta party. It was nice. There was a nice video. A mom spoke. I spoke last year, remember? It was inspirational.

We went to sleep early-ish. Because Sunday was....

RACE DAY!

4:00 am wakeup...I was up from 3 am on.
Ate my normal breakfast of champions pre-race...Drakes Cakes. Don't knock it until you've tried it.
And let me tell you, it worked! I ROCKED THE MARATHON! I couldn't believe it. I really hadn't trained anywhere near as much as I should have, and I just plugged along!

Oh wait, backtrack. I got interviewed by the ING people pre-race. Moshe (head of Team Lifeline, my old Chai Lifeline Midwest director) asked me if I could be interviewed. And to say "Team Lifeline/Chai Lifeline" as much as possible. Now I thought I was being interviewed for a Team Lifeline video. Nope. I was interviewed, along with a Crohns/Colitis guy (Team In Training?) by an ING guy. I sounded like a bumbling idiot. Sorry, Mo. Crohns Guy? Very smooth. Lots of numbers. I was all like "I run the marathon on Team Lifeline, because, ya know, my son goes to Camp Simcha, we have 230 runners and have raised over a million dollars, etc etc". But I sounded like an idiot. What I wanted to say is: "Crohns guy? Hah! You've got stomach ailments? We've got sick and dying kids! Top that!" Well I can say that because, well, I am a parent of said sick kid.

Back to the run. I really rocked it! Shocking. I plugged along, running the whole time, until mile 7 or 8. I ran up to mile 6 with Rachel and Avi. Hi guys!



Don't they look cute? Well, being as Avi did not train, he did awesome. Ran up to mile 6. When I left them in my dust. Haha. Oh no! The picture is gone. Will reload it tomorrow at work. OK it's back.

Then I ran with another girl up to mile 8 or so (walked a little bit). Then from mile 9 to the end I ran with another girl. Which was good because I was kinda...tired. My time was good. I think it might be better than they gave me. So I sent them a dispute form. Will update as events warrant.

Benjie was waiting for me at mile 11. Here are some pics of random runners.



Hi Ari! Hi Malky! The Benschers have been running on Team Lifeline since its inception 4 years ago. Malky is a speed walker. She speed walked the full marathon. This year she just went for a leisurely jog with her hubby.

Random guy. But aren't us Team Lifeliners sporty?

Another random guy. If you recognize who it is, anyone, let me know!


Oh look! It's me! Post marathon. That's Raphi and another camp guy behind me. I was very sad. I thought I beat Raphi. But alas, he is 21 and young, and I am 31 and old. He beat me. But then again, he did cheat and start in an A corral where there was no congestion. So maybe I beat you, Raphi, because I didn't cheat?? :)

We were back at the hotel by 11 am.

Funny story? There were TEAM LIFELINE shuttles. You know, coach buses with a big Team Lifeline sign in the window?? So we take the whole 45 minute ride back to the hotel. Actually, it was more like an hour due to the bus driver being unable to use his GPS taking us on the scenic route. So we pull up. We're all getting off. This guy looks up at me: "Is this the last stop for the shuttle?" I say to him "This is a TEAM LIFELINE shuttle! Not an ING shuttle" He looks perplexed. I continue: "This is the ONLY stop! But you can ride it all the way back!" Can you imagine running a half marathon and then having to sit on a bus for almost two hours for nothing????? Yikes.

I was showered and in the hot tub by noon.

Where I stayed for the next two hours.

Until the post race victory party, where I ate my body weight in food. I was. so. freaking. famished.

Returned to the pool/hot tub area for another few hours.

Then we went upstairs to the room and snoozed and watched some true crimes show on MSNBC until we went out to Bissalah for dinner.

I had a fatout. No clue what it was. It was a pile of fried dough/feta/mozzarella/black olive/mushroom goodness. And it was good. And soooooooo bad for me. Along with my smoothie made with whole milk. But heck, I'd just run a half marathon. And if I couldn't eat it then, when else could I?

I was asleep by 10:30. And I was wiped.

MONDAY

Woke up 8:30ish. Went down to pool.

Stayed there till 2 pm.

Went to lunch at JP Bistro. YUMMY!

Went to CVS because Shosh told me that they had kid's toothpaste was on sale for $.19. They didn't have any. Boo hoo.

Then we went to the beach. Hi Benjie at the beach!


oh yes...the pulled over story.

We were tootling down Hallendale Beach Blvd or whatever it's called. Next thing we know, a police man is standing in the middle of the road holding a radar gun and waving us over. Benjie looks at me, perplexed. We honestly had not a clue what we'd done. It seems that we were in a school zone. Speed limit 15. We were going 30. We looked around and noticed that everyone was going....15. As in crawling down the street. We told him we were from out of town and he took pity on us and let us go. It was that bright yellow car, I tell ya!

So after the beach we went to the airport and returned the the freaking frozen tundra of Chicago. What is wrong with us? Why do we live here? We're idiots.

And that, my dears, was Sara and Benjie's big marathon adventure.

I am proud to report that, aside for the 2:37:31 that I was running the marathon, I wore my Fit Flops. The entire time.

Oh and Benjie said I should have split this up over a few posts. But I love y'all and figured I'd give it all to you at once. But I'm not sure if I'm posting tomorrow!

I Promise!

I'll update tonight.

Much to tell you.

Fun pictures to upload.

No time at work.

So I've set this post to auto-publish

Because as it does,

I WILL BE ON THE PLANE TO MIAMI!!!!


Talk to you all on Tuesday when we get home.

If my camera comes today I'll have lots of nice pictures for you.

Hello My Pretties

Look! Look! Look!

I just packed for Florida.

Look what I packed!!

My fit flops.

My heart is happy.

Very happy.

Insanely, inappropriately happy.

Is it unreasonable that I kissed them?

Benjie said I need to be committed, but I swear, as I got them out from the summer shoe box under my bed, my heart was aflutter.

Why, oh why? do we live in Chicago? It is cold. And snowy. And you cannot wear Fit Flops year round in this stinky cold city.

Ahhhh....my pretties.

We shall meet again soon.

And I apologize. I tried to be snazzy with various-ly sized type. But obviously I'm a spaz and cannot do this correctly and now it looks all ridiculous.

Edited again. It seems my work computer likes to let me be snazzy, and my home one does not. So now it looks normal.

A Whole Bunch of Randomness

So I just realized that it's like 2 in the afternoon and I have abandoned all my lovely bloggy friends today.

I really don't have much to say.

Shana has strep. WOOHOO!!! Strep is possibly the best childhood illness ever. Why, you ask? They are fine within one or two doses. In Shana's case, she is generally fine within two hours of the first dose. And yesterday proved to be no exception. She got her first dose at 12:30pm ,and was feeling better by 2pm. I kid you not. It's insanity.

And btw her doctor appointment was at 10:45, and she didn't have her antibiotics until 12:30. Why? Because I had to go to two different stores. Why? Because the first store (Walgreens) did not honor my competitor's coupon for a gift card with a new prescription. And darn it, I wanted that freaking gift card! So I called my pediatrician's office back and they so nicely called it in to CVS for me. So it took forever. But between Benjie last week and Shana this week, I have $60 in CVS gift cards!!! WOOHOO!!


Jakie came home from school on Friday with only one sneaker:

"I don't know what happened, Mommy. I went to school with both sneakers in my bag but whenI opened my backpack when I got to school there was only one! It was like magic"

Sure. Whatever.

So yesterday was open school day (that's a topic for another day. Soooo bad for working moms). I stopped into the office on the way out, and EUREKA! his sneaker was sitting there in the lost and found. Wonders never cease.


Lastly, I'm getting really, really excited for my Florida Marathon trip! Benjie and I leave on Thursday morning and are coming home Monday night...I cannot wait! So much sun to sit in and yummy kosher restaurants to eat at. If you've been recently and there are any new ones we need to check out, please let me know!

I just checked the weather forecast...where are the 80 degree days? :( :( it's only going to be in the 70s...but it's not supposed to rain. Watch it pour. But I suppose 70 is better than the 15 it currently is here in Chicago.


Still waiting on the new camera...much to show you all.

Not Me! Monday

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Sooooo....what happened in Casa P this week?

I would never have noticed as I was getting ready to leave the house that I was wearing navy blue tights with a black skirt and black boots.

I would never have just continued on my way out the door, figuring that my boots were tall enough that no one would notice the tights.


On Sunday, I did NOT have my nieces over for a two three hour craft marathon.

I did not keep my cool the entire time.

They were not adorable.


Benjie and I are not sitting on the couch (it's currently Sunday night as I'm typing) watching Ocean's Eleven for the eight millionth time. And the second time. Tonight.


I am not very very very very excited for my upcoming trip to Miami on Thursday to walk run the Miami Marathon with Chai Lifeline on Team Lifeline.

Benjie and I have not spent a good chunk of time discussing all the places we want to eat.


I certainly was not reprimanded by the mean appliance repair man for the stinky state of my broken dishwasher.

He did not tell me that "he would fix it today but he will never work on this dishwasher again if it smells like this" (umm hello...it smelled so bad because it STOPPED WORKING mid-cycle-heck, be glad I baled out all the stinky water!)

Because I am not such a wimp, I most certainly did not apologize profusely to him for making him work in such a stench...


I did not order my new CAMERA!

I am not extremely excited for it to arrive so I can take pictures of my haul from the epic cereal endeavor of last week.

I do not also have lovely plans for a pictorial tour of my "P for Dummies" binder.


I was not insanely excited that Benjie was sick and needing antibiotics.

I was not so excited because I had a coupon for a $30 CVS gift card with a new prescription pick up.

When the first set of antibiotics did not help my virus-ridden hubby, I did not consider asking if he needed MORE antibiotics so as to procure more gift cards. This time to Walgreens.

Oh well he got well without them.


I did not bundle up all the kiddies-snow pants and all! and walk (we don't drive on Saturdays) a mile each way to a dear friend's son's Bar Mitzvah on Saturday morning.

I did not feel as if I was herding a group of very naughty sheep as we slogged through the snow.

Shana did not stop three blocks from home and proclaim that she was finished walking.

I did not completely ignore her and keep on going.

She did not change her mind and begin walking again!

I did not Thank G-d that it was Saturday and a balmy 14 degrees instead of Thursday and a frigid -6 degrees.


I did not eat Tater Tots (the kosher version, no worries) for dinner on Sunday night.


I did not learn the hard way that it is not a good idea to mention people who comment on my blog, because I managed to insult no less than four other regular commentors whom I love so much by not mentioning them.
I do love you all.


What about you?
What didn't you do this week?

Apologies to Estie

She comments.

Bring me the lemon mousse, woman!

So this morning

I'm noticing that I start a lot of my blog posts with "so". I'm trying to figure out why. I *think* it might be that because I know like 99% of my bloggy readers-my mom, my sister-the-mother-of-five-boys-may-the-lord-have-mercy-on-her-and-her-home, my inlaws, Steph, Shosh, Elisha, Chaviva, who I don't know in real life but we'll go with it b/c she knows Rach, and Rach, and occasionally Amy. So I kind of feel like I'm chatting with my friends. So I say...so....like we're just picking up our conversation where we left off last.

So...

this morning as I as walking running back into the house from taking Dovi to the bus in my pajamas, salt encrusted Uggs (HELP! How do I clean them and get them back to their previously pristine black-ness?), and Benjie's dress coat (the only thing long enough to cover my pajama pants), and his winter hat and gloves, I noticed some yellow spots on the snow covered ground that had been so lovingly shoveled by ME thanks to Benjie's unfortunate illness this week. We are NOT going to discuss men and illness. But suffice it to say that it has been a long week at Casa P. And all you wives know what I mean.

Back to the yellow spots.

I was like:

"OH CRAP! Why the heck did someone let their dog pee all over my nicely shoveled sidewalk?"

Then I looked a little closer. The little yellow-ish droplet like spots went all the way up to my house. And in the door. And on the front hall floor.

To which you all are not thinking that my lovely son peed the whole way to the bus and is now sitting in pish-sodden clothing which is possibly freezing to his body due to the unfathomable cold that has gripped Chicago.

Then I realized. It was not pish. It was formula. Which meant one of a few possible options had occurred:

1. Dovi's g-tube had popped, his button had come out of his body (so not a big deal, chickadees. Happens a few times a year.), and his feeding pump was now feeding the floor of the bus through the now-deflated-out-of-Dovi's-tummy-button which was dangling from the end. And Dovi now had a small hole in his stomach which needed to be addressed ASAP lest the whole close up and we would get to spend the morning in the ER.
2. There was some type of hole in the tubing. Doubtful but possible.
3. The med port of the extension (that just sounded like a whole bunch of blahblahblahblah to most of you. Much like what the car repair man/appliance repair man says to me) had opened. So no big deal, we just need to close it. Otherwise, like option 1, we are feeding the bus
4. The extension tubing has detached from the bag tubing (the whole blahblahblahblah thing again. Go with it.), feeding the bus again.

Any way you look at it, it was messy and not good. So I ran to the kitchen, still in said coat and hat, and grabbed my trusty "P for Dummies" binder (we can discuss the P for Dummies binder at a later date. Yes, I have issues. But it makes our lives much, much, much easier. I need to update it, though), paged quickly to the Dovi section, found the bus company phone number, and breathlessly explained to them that they needed to call Dovi's bus to come back home. She was all like "They can't". To which I told her that I realized that my son's feeding tubing was malfunctioning. She sounded a bit scared and confused, but a minute later, Elisha, who had been dispatched to the front window to watch for the bus, called me that they were back.

I grabbed a kitchen towel and ran out there. Luckily, it was only option 4. The two parts of the tubing had detached. I reattached. I kissed the boy. I ran inside the house.

This has taken me no less than 20 minutes to recount for you all, but the entire event was over in less that five minutes.

IT'S A BOY!!

Just want to wish my lovely twin sister Rebecca a HUGE Mazal Tov on the birth of her FIFTH BOY!!!!

My she's outnumbered.

Baby Boy Spirn (who will get his name at his circumcision at eight days of age) was born today at 1something this afternoon, weighing 8 pounds 3 ounces!

MAZAL TOV!!!!

Triplets = Handicapped Parking Spot??????

So I'm about to write about an issue that really ticks me off. It also has been discussed and is currently being discussed, ad nauseum, on a triplet bulletin board that I sometimes read.


The issue is parents of triplets wanting handicapped parking placards.


Now most people who don't have multiples are probably like, "What on earth? Why in the world would having triplets qualify you for a handicapped parking placard?"

And you are right. But there are some mothers in the HOM (higher order multiples) world who believe that since you have three babies, and an enormous stroller to unload, that it would be "unsafe" to unload the children into a stroller in a regular parking spot. Therefore, they should qualify for a handicapped parking placard.

That logic so soooooo flawed, on so many levels:

• Handicapped parking placards are for handicapped people. And their caregivers who are transporting them, of course.
• Why is it "unsafe" to unload the children into a stroller in a regular parking spot? Because it will be a tight fit? So what? Tight does not = unsafe.
  
• Triplets are not a disability. Yes, I fully agree, that toting around infant triplets is a royal PITB. The stroller is enormous. There is tons upon tons of crap to tote. But why does that make you any more disabled than a mother with a 3 year old, 2 year old, and baby? A PITB is not a disability. It's a PITB.
  

When you go out with your infant triplets, is it not possible to park farther back in the lot, where there are fewer vehicles, and thus have more room to "safely unload"? Why must it be the handicapped space? Why not park right next to the cart corral, which takes up part of a parking space in the lot, but has some room on the sides?

To me, this screams of:

• laziness
• the whole "I have HOM so I deserve special treatment" attitude
  
• a sense of entitlement

Because something is a PITB does not mean that you can therefore use something that you are not entitled to to alleviate your PITB situation. Handicapped placards are not a "convenience". They are a program for people who medically qualify for them. Not to simply make it easier.


I have a handicapped placard in my car. For Dovi. Not for Elisha, Shana, and Jacob. I have never used it for them. It's fraud, plain and simple. One time, when the triplets were in the NICU and I was going to see them after dark, there were no spaces close to the entrance in the parking garage. But there were, on the fourth floor of the parking deck, no less than 15 empty handicapped spots. It was like 8 pm. I was alone. So I used my placard to park immediately adjacent to the door and went in. But let me tell you, I was so guilt ridden. Yes, I could have used the argument that I had recently given birth. But the bottom line was that I used Dovi's placard fraudulently.


There are some women, who while pregnant with their triplets, get a temporary disability placard. That makes a lot of sense to me. When you are pregnant with HOM, you simply cannot walk far. It's that whole 80 extra pounds of baby/placenta/fluid thing kicking in. It's hard to walk. Some women aren't actually allowed to. They use wheelchairs to get around.

If your triplets have medical issues, that's a whole other story. They have a bunch of monitors, oxygen etc? Bring on the placard. You need it. You need the ease of getting your medically fragile child in and out in a safe and dignified manner, and the ability to park close to keep the baby out of the elements, especially in the winter. And you qualify.

But if your children are, Thank G-d HEALTHY, why in heaven's name would you want something that SICK PEOPLE get?

And people who use their family member's placard regularly to park in handicapped spots, even when the handicapped person is not with them? Bad.

And don't even get me going on people who park in handicapped spots without a placard. I leave them evil notes. And call the police.

Don't mess with me.

RIP

The list of dead items today in Casa P:


Do you know what that is? It's our ice maker. It's been dead since the summer. I am too cheap to pay the repairman to come out to deal with just a dead ice maker. But now, we have another dead appliance:


The dairy dishwasher is not working. And that, my dears, is tragic. It's a portable one that we hook up to the sink at night. And it's not draining. I jinxed myself-my sister wanted a recommendation for a new portable dishwasher, and I'm all like "We've had ours for six years and never had a problem", all cocky like. Not two months later, the sucker isn't draining. So the repairman is in my kitchen dealing with it. And he's then going to figure out the ice maker issue. We don't mess around with dishwashers here. For those of you who have the space, and keep kosher, thus needing two dishwashers, I still highly recommend this one. It was not expensive at all, and in my typical immediate gratification way, bought it at Abt and had them load it in the back of my van, and made Benjie and his dad drag it up the stairs after I backed the van onto the front lawn and up to the front steps. Which also brings to mind when I drove the enormous green beast as opposed to my civilized little Sienna and put a sofa in the back. And then my friend Karen and I, all Lucy and Ethel like, dragged that sucker into the house. It only got stuck in the front door for a short period of time.





What is this dead item, you may ask? Why, it's Dovi's extremely expensive feeding pump. Why is it dead (or currently temporarily dead, we're hoping it revives itself, lest I have to call for service on it) you wonder? Lesson to learn: It is not a good idea to forget the delicately calibrated feeding pump in the car overnight. When it is below zero outside. The pump will not be happy. It's currently wrapped in a kitchen towel trying to revive itself.





Uh oh....yes, Finny Two seems to have met the same untimely death as Finny. Like Elisha said, Finny was a good fish. He always listened. He did seem to be slightly less agoraphobic than the original Finny, but he was very naughty when it was time to change his water. He is currently lying in state in his little tank, covered in a kitchen towel, stinking up my kitchen, waiting for Benjie to come home to flush him down the toilet run a Finny Two Memorial Service for the children.

Don't come here. It's not safe for anyone.

But on a happier note, I paid $4.49 at Jewel for my groceries. Thanks to my insane cereal endeavor last week. Anyone who mocked me, top that.

Joe

I just heard the saddest news.

Our beloved barber, Joe, passed away unexpectedly on Friday. He was always patient and caring, especially with Dovi, who has a very hard time with haircuts.

We were supposed to go tomorrow at 4:45! It sounds kinda silly that this was so upsetting, but he was an institution. He gave Benjie his first haircut.

He was such a wonderful man.

A Public Service Announcement

This is a public service announcement for everyone who lives in Chicago and ever goes to the professional building at Old Orchard.



You might read this and be like "OMG Sara is such a flake! How did she not know this?" But here we go.

Did you know that the Professional Building at Old Orchard has underground parking?

As in, go down a driveway, park underground, go in the door, and take an elevator up to your doctor's office?

If you didn't know, your jaw has surely dropped open. If you did know, you can't believe my incredible flakiness that I have lived in Chicago for seventeen years and did not know this.

Do you know how life changing it is? Previously, I would park in the Bloomingdales lot and either have to put Dovi in his stroller or drag him across the mall. Now, zoom down, park, and go in.

How do you get to this miraculous driveway, you may ask?

Pull around the north side of the mall-off of Old Orchard Road. It's little, itty bitty driveway that is right by the Toms Price customer pickup. You need to be driving south down the parking lane to access it easily. So I usually turn down Golf, take it to the mall entrance past the Nordstrom lot, and take that road all the way past Bloomingdales. Then I make a right. The drieway will be on your right. It goes down underground. It's kinda curvy.

It will change your life.

It's the little things, I swear.

Not Me! Monday...Edited For Maximum Embarrassment...

This past week:

I would never have been too lazy to actually go downstairs to tell Benjie something. I would never have called his cell phone from the home phone while lying in bed. I am not sloth-like.

I did not call my sister, who is due any day now, on Thursday night and demand of her: "Are you in labor?" because I got this premonition (btw I never have premonitions. And when I do they are always false, obviously) that she was. She wasn't. She was eating dinner.

I would never have worn Benjie's undershirt under a cardigan on Friday. All my white tee shirts are, for some reason, either (a) stretched out or (b) dirty. But I wanted to wear this cute cardigan I have. And I needed a white t shirt. So I wore one of Benjie's undershirts.


I did not buy 75 90 120 boxes of cereal at Jewel last week. Because every time I bought 7, I made $5.

I did not collect over $60 toward this week's shopping (YEEHA!).

I do not feel compelled to print coupons/stop at Jewel every time I leave my house.


I did not bathe my kids and blow dry Shana's hair because we had to go to lice check. I did not do this because I do not want the lice check ladies to talk about how dirty my kids are. And believe me, they do talk about the dirty hair of the kids they check.


I did not buy my husband a defective pair of Ugg slippers for his birthday.

He does not now need to go back to Nordstrom so as to get a new pair with shearling covering the whole bottom. As opposed to the current pair. Which only have shearling covering approximately 90%.


My children did not behave like adorable little angels when we went out to dinner for Benjie's birthday.

Jacob did not drink about 50% of my nana tea.

I did not eat until I was ever so slightly ill.

It was not absolutely lovely.


On Friday, while making cholent (this nasty stew like concoction we eat at lunch on Saturdays), I did not accidentally dump in half a bag of brown rice instead of barley.

This did not upset me because it was the wrong ingredient. Rather, it upset me because brown rice costs like six times what barley does.

I then did not just leave it there because I am sloth-like. and lazy.

I did not then just dump a little barley on top.

My family did not merely eat their cholent for lunch and compliment me on how delicious it is.

I am not considering switching to brown rice anyway because it is much healthier (at least I think)

I did not just realize that I have just told Benjie that I used brown rice instead of barley.


On Sunday while at the car dealership for the 4th time trying to pick up the correct seat belt extenders, my car did not then get stuck inside the dealership garage because the Bobcat they were using to clear the eighteen million feet of snow did not stall out and die in the only driveway out.

My kids were not wigging out in the car as a "3 minute stop on the way home from lice check" became a 45 minute nightmare.

The boys were not SCREAMING on the top of their lungs that they were missing the beginning of the football game.

Shana did not complain and moan to me that she was bored in the snotty little voice that I despise and makes me want to shut her in her room until puberty. Which will probably be a living nightmare in my house.

I did not then tell the guys working in the garage that "I was going to have a nervous breakdown if they didn't get me out of the garage in two minutes" (and yes, that is a direct quote. I told them I was going to have a nervous breakdown)

They did not then back up like six cars to let me out.

They have not now stamped my vehicle file as:
Sara P, 2005 Sienna. Insane.

I do not want to wish Happy Birthday again to my wonderful, amazing, hot husband, who is the most incredible man, husband and father I have ever met. (ok that was a little cheesy, even for me. But c'mon, folks! Those of you who know him in real life know I speak the truth about Benjie. He is (a) wonderful (b) amazing (c) hot (d) an awesome husband (he's currently folding the laundry as I blog!) (e) a fabulous father. So I will indulge my cheesiness just this once.)


What about you? What didn't you do this past week?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BENJIE!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY WONDERFUL AMAZING HUSBAND

BENJIE!


I love you!

I'm not sure it was the best idea...and a random group of thoughts :)

To go to work today.

There is A LOT of snow! It is falling fast. Shabbos starts at 4:30. I'm not sure of my wisdom here...

But here I am, snug as a bug at my desk in my Uggs with my space heater BLASTING at me drinking a coffee. What could be bad? (Well, getting home might be...) Shabbos is cooked, laundry is in the dryer, table is set, candles are ready. All is well in the (P family) world.


So I've decided that this weekend will be crafty weekend. I've got a lot of odds and ends floating around my house and I need to figure out what I can create with them. I've got paper, a few trays, some plaques, maybe a few letters, paint, my hot glue gun, and some ribbon. I wonder what I'll end up with.


So I'm a teeny, itty bit concerned about Dovi's mouth. He still has the sore from his brackets. His teeth are moving miraculously (I guess our small fortune paid to the orthodontist IS doing something!) where they are supposed to be. So that's good. But the sore is still there. It's kinda gross. And gives him bad breath. Raunchy bad. But what is concerning me is that his cheeks feel kinda...thick. I think it could be swelling from the sores? Or it could be some type of callous type formation from the braces? I really have no idea what to think. But he sees the orthodontist on Tuesday morning for a quick check so we'll see then.

Anyone with a kid with braces have any ideas about this?


I don't usually post on the weekends but look for a special post on Sunday!


For all you who were wondering, my nasty disgusting infection is almost 100% gone. Now I just have a little hole in my leg that needs to heal. Much better.

Why I Love it That My Kids are Still Young

1) They still like school. Correction: They still LOVE school. School is fun! They skip out the door, excited to go every morning.

2) I can still pull the "I don't think you can clean up the den/bedroom/living room by yourselves before I come in there" trick-and they run, screaming at me not to come in yet. And make the darned room spotless. I've even gotten them to stop shoving everything under the bed/couch.

3) They still say to me, "Mommy, you're the best mommy ever. Thank you for making such yummy food for us." Or, Dovi's favorite, " You're the best mommy-in-the-whole-wide-I-ever-ever-had"

4) They are still..nice. I'm not the hugest fan of kids age 8-12. I think they are just a little mean. Maybe it's those pre-pubescent hormones kicking in or something, but I am nervous for those years.

5) Homework is not yet a battle. Need I say more?

6) Shana still lets me choose her clothes. Thank G-d.

7) They still want to hug and kiss me. Although they have requested that I stop pinching their cute little tushies. I suppose I should oblige them, but they are just so delectable. One day I'll tell you all about my insane, insatiable desire to bite my children. They are soooo yummy. I just want one tiny nibble. But that's for another day.

I'll add more if I think of anything.

What about you? What do you love about your kids?

Sara's Spectacular Shopping Days

OK everyone, I'm so darned proud of my recent shopping endeavors that you all need to read about them.

This will be HIGHLY boring for all my trusty camp counselor readers. But all you married women, enjoy. Mostly Shosh, who is my trusty partner in crime.

Ready? Set? OK here we go...


JEWEL

Jewel is running a promo-buy $30 in P&G products, get $15 in catalina coupons for a future purpose, plus if you spend $25 in baby products you get another $5-for a total of $20 in catalinas.

Yesterday, I bought like 8 boxes of Gushers (pushover mom that I am), 2 packs of wipes, a bottle of Pantene, and a bottle of Dawn. Paid $26 (after coupons), got $15.

Today, bought 6 packs of wipes, got it down to $29 with coupons (wipes have bad coupons), used my $15 from yesterday, so I paid $16 out of pocket (tax was $3!!) and got back $20 in catalinas. In other words, today, Jewel paid me $4 to buy 6 packages of wipes. Which I would have bought anyway.

TARGET

Remember my $10 gift card that I got for my antibiotic purchase (which btw cost me $4)so I used it tonight.

I bought:

4 bottles of Suave shampoo (2 on sale for $.89, 2 for $1.77)
2 Johnsons Buddies Soaps ($.97 each)
1 20 ct Electrosol tabs ($3.25)
1 Eye Drop for Dovi ($10.49-ouch!-hidden cost of Dovi again...)

Coupons:
2 $.75/2 Suave shampoos
2 $1/1 Johnsons coupons
1 $2.50/1 Electrosol coupon
1 $1.50 Genteal coupon
$10 gift card

I paid $4 out of pocket!
Not bad considering that Dovi needs eye drops...

WALGREENS (now this is the awesome part...)

OK I transferred a prescription there because I wanted to take advantage of the $25 gift card offer with a transferred prescription. Do this. Often. I got $25 at CVS last month.

So I paid $10 for my prescription that I needed anyway and got $25 to spend. Yay.

First I bought:

2 Maalox tabs, on sale $2/10 and get a $5 catalina coupon toward your next purchase.
I had a $4/2 coupon. The lovely cashier was like "Ooh ooh I have a $3 coupon here! Let's see if it works". It did. I paid $3.23 on my gift card and got back $5.

Then I bought:

6 Quaker instant oatmeals (Shana's favorite breakfast) @ $1.99 each
6 Hunts tomato sauces @ $1/3
4 boxes of tissues @ $.89 each
1 Revlon eye shadow @4.99
1 Garnier shampoo @ $.99
2 Garnier gels (for Benjie's luscious locks) @ $.99 each
2 boxes of Splenda @ $2.99 each
4 Reeses's Whipps bars @ $1/2
1 Electrosol @ $3.49

I used the following coupons:

6 $1 Quaker
2 $1/3 Hunts
1 $1 Revlon
3 $1 Garnier
2 $3 Splenda
2 $1/2 Reeses Whipps
1 $2.50 Electrosol

Total paid on my gift card? $11.98. Of which I will get back $8.50 from Walgreens mail in rebates for the eye shadow and the Electrosol. So let's say I spent $3.50.

Then I went back again and bought

6 more Hunts
4 more Garnier shampoos
2 more Splendas

used same coupons, paid $1.32 on the gift card. That was less than tax!

So yes, Amy, mock me. But Shana is set for her oatmeal for the next few months. And it was free.

Speaking of which I need to find another Walgreens with the oatmeal in stock so I can get 3 boxes for $1 (I have 3 more $1 off coupons, and I got a catalina for another $2/3 boxes...)

And I still have $8 left on my gift card!

I'm a little pleased.

In Which Sara is a Freaking Idiot

So for those of you (all 4 of you, I believe) who are not Orthodox, I will preface this post by saying that today is a Fast Day.

As in, we eat nothing, from sunup to sundown. Just adults, not kids, no worries.

No, I cannot explain to you why not eating or drinking (yes, it's in italics. It's important-you'll see why in a moment) makes you remember the siege of Jerusalem a bunch of centuries ago. But it does, so I fast. Go with it.

Soooo.....many of you know that I am kinda...cheap. I don't like spending money if I don't have to. Hence, I brew my own coffee at home. It irks me to pay Dunkin Donuts (I hate Starbucks coffee-it's waaay to strong for me)$2 to serve me literally the exact same coffee I can brew at home for like $.02. Plus my coffeemaker has a timer, so I can wake up to the nirvana-inducing smell of the blessed coffee wafting up my stairs. Mmmmmm......

OK. So this morning, my coffeemaker was not set. Why? Because it's a fast day, silly.

I dropped the kids off at school, and was driving to the highway to go to my internet surfing blog writing desk work, and I saw it. The Dunkin Donuts. And I had clipped a $.99 latte coupon on Sunday. And I am cheap. And it was soooo cold. And I am also evidently, very very forgetful.

It took some effort-I had to turn left across a busy street. And turn off my car. And dig up the coupon from my enormous purse that is so big that one of my children could hide in it. And walk inside. And order it.

But when did I remember that it is a fast day and I cannot drink my latte? As I was literally walking out the door from Dunkin Donuts, savoring the happy smell of my skim latte, no sugar please.

RIP, dear, dear cheap latte.

I seem to be suffering from some bad timing karma recently.

Not Me! Monday! (Didja miss me?) EDITED to add pictures

Did you? Did you? C'mon, you can admit it, I know you've been counting down the days until Monday when I was coming back
(hahahahahahaha I amuse myself)


OK...onto Not Me! Monday

These past 2 weeks I did not...


I would never have ignored a nasty repulsive infection on my right leg until it got so big and bulgy that my aunt asked me when I developed varicose veins.

And then, being asked that question, I would have never hit up my cousin who just so happens to be a second year pediatrics resident to call in a prescription to Target for me.

Because I am not waaaaay to lazy to actually, y'know, get it seen? Because, after all, I am the mom, and unless we are d.y.i.n.g. we just ignore it?

And I would never have been inappropriately excited to pick up said prescription, not because, well, my huge bulgy infection would go away. No, no, I was inappropriately excited to pick up the prescription
because I had a coupon for a $10 Target gift card with a new prescription.

That does not ever so slightly make me cringe to admit my new coupon obsession.


On the topic of that obsession, I was not inappropriately excited that there were 5 circulars in the paper on Sunday.

I did not send Benjie to his brother's house to steal take their paper from their porch because they are out of town.

Because I did not want more coupons.

That is not embarrassing yet again.



This past week, I did not notice that my laundry sink was not draining well.

This did not vex me because I had recently replaced the lint trap.

I did not then ignore the nasty water in my laundry sink for a few days.

When I finally decided to investigate, I did not find out that the cause of the clog was a small, formerly white sock that belonged to one of my kids, wedged into the drain.

When I found said sock, I did not just throw it out rather than washing the repulsiveness.



When my mother came to visit over New Years, we did not eat out 4 times in 5 days.

That would be excessive.

I also did not take major advantage of my mom in Target...who would sneak entire jog suits into the shopping cart? Oh and a purse too...hey-what else are moms for?



I also am not inappropriately excited for my children's impending return to school tomorrow.

We did not have a lovely vacation.

We did not: go to Coco Key, bowling, to a hotel for the weekend, Garfield Park Conservatory (if you live in Chicago, GO! It's fun and free), watch many movies, and generally enjoy our time together.

I was not amazed by how overall cooperative the little monkeys were.



Dovi did not fall down the entire flight of steps on Sunday morning.

We did not immediately begin examining his entire body for signs of break. (Thank G-d, he was just fine)

But as I ran to him, the first thing that crossed my mind was NOT that he looked like a flipped over turtle lying there on the floor.

And I did not giggle a little inside. That would be really (a) mean and (b) dysfunctional to laugh at your extremely disabled child after he potentially broke many bones. Which HE DID NOT. (and that is not a Not Me! Monday double negative)



I did not! run 8 miles on Sunday!!!!!!

I am not getting very pumped for going to warm Miami the marathon.

I certainly DID NOT feel very old while running with two verrrrry speedy mommas who are 4 and 6 years younger than me, respectively.

I am really not sure how it happened that I got this old.

I am not asking you all to go here to Team Lifeline to support me for the marathon...I'm only $100 short as of today!



Dovi did not have YET ANOTHER visit from another awesome Camp Simcha Special counselor today...

He does not look scarily (is that a word) like Captain Jack Sparrow.

See.



Well in Not Me! Fashion, you can't see. Stinky Snapfish has caught on to my right-clicking ways and is now CHARGING $.25 per photo copy.

This does not irk me.

I am not now hoping that either Raphi or DJ will email me said photo so I can show you all how much DJ looks like Captain Jack.

Raphi took care of me. Enjoy you all-and doesn't DJ look JUST like him? And to give Raphi credit, that's him on the right being Spongebob. No idea who Batman is. Just another day at camp.


OK that's all.


What did you NOT do over the past two weeks?

OK I'm officially going to call it.

My mom is here.

My kids are home.

My hubby is home.

Much shopping to do (mom)

Much cleaning up to do (kids and hubby)


Talk to you all on Monday (no worries, I've got some great Not Me!s for ya....)