Flight of the Flighty

I've always been a little bit on the flighty side. As in my thoughts, focus and direction can be fleeting. As in all sense of logical order and general get-the-job-done-ness can migrate away from me for a season. I'm even known to leave the key words out of my _______. So most days end up going something like this:

Wake up and wander into the kitchen to get morning essentials like milk or cereal or chips and salsa. Notice the dirty dishes in the sink, so I start emptying the dishwasher until I hear, "Mama you forgot my chawkwet milk". Get the milk, and realize we need more from the freezer.

That means the freezer needs to be cleared off. While doing so I find the credit card bill from yesterday that I didn't pay because I was distracted by something at the time, so I decide I need to pay it now before I forget again. When that's done, I see the open dishwasher and go back to emptying and dish-washing.

When I'm painfully hungry I realize I haven't eaten anything yet and grab a grapefruit from the back-room. As I walk back into the main house someone needs to go potty or smells funky or has sticky hands, etc. so I help them. I wander back to the kitchen because that's where I came from and see the dog standing there begging me with her eyes to go out. I come back in, remember I'm hungry and get a yogurt out of the fridge. I look at the clock and realize story-hour is in one hour and resolve to shower after the yogurt.

When the yogurt is half gone I remember the grapefruit! Grapefruit, how could I have forgotten you? You're just so tart and juicy and big. Speaking of big, I saw this the other day:

Can you see the big moose? It was like 40 feet in front of me eating someone's young, decorative tree. The people inside the house were just doing their dishes and going on with life like nothing awesome was standing right outside their window... Umm, where was I?

Hey look at that crazy-hair!

Florida Part Deux

Nana and Pop-Pop W rented an incredible place for our family to come together and stay.

See the two windows on the top left?

Mine and Ben's room.

We fell asleep to the lulling sounds of waves crashing to the beach.

We awoke to a beautiful sunrise reflecting off the water, just outside.

Countless hours spent on the beach searching for hidden treasures, burying new treasures, flying kites, tossing a frisbee fancily, racing the remote-control truck against golf carts and even swimming brought our liveliness out of hibernation.

I surprised Ben with an evening out to see Cirque du Soleil in Orlando.

I felt like such a rebel without cause for snapping these photos.

I told Ben it was such a rush to get in trouble.

("No photos please, Ma'am")

Ughh.. Yeah, I know!

Then we went to my new hamburger heaven.

~*(5 GUYS!)*~

We did plenty of touristy activities too.

St. Augustine

What else would anyone do with giant cannons?

Maybe we even put the crazies inside them... maybe.

Also hit: The Alligator Farm, Orlando Science Center and many delectable houses of gluttany.

I may have consumed an entire 27 oz. t-bone...

Ok, I definitely did - and wanted more

(And may have made some inappropriate sounds while devouring the mooing goodness.)

For pure rediculousness, check out this sorry bunch.


Family gatherings are for i-everythings.

You can tell we love eachother because we each have our own.

(photo courtesy Schmeg's i-Phone)

Cover your ears Alaska.

"Until next time my mistress"

Positive Update

Things are going well so far with our little system.

Russ got his first reward this morning. He chose the classic movie and popcorn... for breakfast. But hey, he earned it!


A few bumps in the road:
1. Almost every time he moves a magnet skyward, he turns and asks, "Can I have some chocolate milk, pllllleeeaase" and whips out a devilish little grin. I fell for it at first, got the milk, and Russ says he was just kidding, he didn't want it. Gasp! The clever little fox. So now it goes like this, {Insert sigh} "You can't ask for something nicely just to get a magnet, you have to actually want it".


2. I caught him trying to sneak a magnet up without doing a charming little deed to earn it. Double gasp! "No cheating" I tell him and I wonder if he even knows what that means, so I add "it's not good to be sneaky to be naughty". He had to move a magnet he had earned back down. I hope he doesn't try that one again

Overall I'm one proud and happy Megan-Mama.

The Real City and Things I Learned

We started out with a starkly beautiful winter's drive.

With Benjamin at the wheel and my babes soundly sleeping in the back of the beast, I had some sorely needed time for peace and reflection.

I mended my relationship with Alaska after not speaking for 20 days following my mistress, Florida. As I felt my heart swell with contentment, my thoughts turned to myself.

I realized once again the I need to write. Whether it's my journal, my prayers, or my blog, writing gives me the chance to reflect and make sense of a nonsensical world. I may not be the most eloquent or beautiful writer, but it's something I need to do. And right now at least, you're all in on the inner workings of my soul.

Then we arrived in the city: Anchorage. In all fairness, it is a real city after all.

I met up with my friend and her children when we promptly took off for the mall {a mall?! what's that?} I began driving the beast {who you will all meet soon} up the ramp to the parking garage when I looked up and read "Clearance 6'7"" and STOPPED. To make a story short, I forced two people to back down a ramp, into a city street with traffic. And I had to do the same with the beast. Then drive around to find parking while realizing I had no quarters for meters nor cash for a lot. Somehow I miraculously found a meter that takes credit cards!

I learned that I can deal with stressful situations a whole heck of a lot better than I used to. That I can choose to keep my cool. And that I can back up. In a beast. This was all a monumental accomplishment for the girl who backed into the curb not once, but twice during my driver's test and was able to pass it off on the torrential rain when really it wouldn't have made a difference.

The highlights of the weekend were swimming in the pool and Bouncing Bears. I was hesitant to pay for both boys at Bouncing Bears, because my little Russ' moods can be volatile and his social skills are but new-born babes, if not generally lacking.

But, I learned I should have more fun with my family on a regular basis, cuz we had a BLAST.

So much fun that we just had to love on eachother.
And I ate it right up.

A Little Positive Reinforcement

So, I borrowed an idea from "The Beginning Farmer's Wife" for disciplining Russ on all the little things - you know, saying "No" to Mom or asking for things nicely and listening to Mom and Dad the FIRST time.

Originally we had 4 of those cute animal magnets {pictured below} on one sheet of paper above the line and every time he did something I didn't like he would have to move one magnet below the line. When they all went below the line, he would get a consequence {I like to give my kids a few tries anyway}.


Now this was exciting for me {and Russ as you can see} because it was elevated far beyond my wing-it, reactionary and generally uncontrollable previous methods... not to mention inconsistent.

But then my school psych husband came home and like always, made it even better. "Make it positive!" he says. And as usual I'm all like, "Uhh.. How do I do that?" And Ben proceeds to spell it out for me...

The result is lots of magnets below the line and everytime he does something the right way he gets to move a magnet above the line. When they all make it above the line, then he will get a reward! And as he gets better at it, we can add more magnets so he has to be even better to get the next reward.

AND... Russel and I had a great time making the magnets! They are just those foam stickers stuck to a piece of cardstock stuck to some magnetic tape. So far so good, I'll let y'all know how it goes.

What do you do for your unruly toddlers?

The City

And I'm not talking about the MTV show... So don't worry.

No, actually we are headed up to the bright lights, big city (aka Anchorage aka probably the same size as your town)
Benji (he loves it when I call him that) has a conference for work so we all get to stay in a hotel ( on the school district's bill!)
The best part for me is that my friend's husband has to go too, so you know, my friend gets to go too... Totally awesome.

Some plans:
1. Red Robin
2. Pool
3. Work out room!
4. Bouncings Bears where the crazies can bounce their lights out (the kids too)
5. Free zoo (the pet store don't ya know)
6. Pool!
7. Work out room!
8. Costco, Sportsman's, Wally World, Tarjay... All the musts

Woo-hoo!! Now here's to hoping we don't crash along the way.

Florida Part 1

Yes, we did actually go on our rumored trip to Florida. And yes, I actually have proof. I haven't been avoiding you all because I was bluffing. Just recovering from post-Florida blues.

You would have them too, I'm pretty sure.

One of the first things we did was go to Blue Springs State Park (a.k.a. Never Never Land)

It was the most beautiful place to lay my eyes on at the time. The sun filtered through the palms and Spanish moss to the crystally waters where manatee floated by aimlessly.

The park consisted of boardwalks lining the manatee laden river

and an old plantation house from my dreams.

Did I mention the Spanish moss?

Now, I know my home Alaska is like to-die-for beautiful, but so was this place. Especially coming from Alaska to this in December. I mean, come on.

And it was oh so good to be with my parents and my boys!

(Hey Dad, your eyes are closed, can you even read this? It's so tiny)

Do I look happy or what? And check out the short-sleeves. I'd been used to wearing about 12 layers. Goose-bumps or no, I was determined.

Oh, and Tucker's crazy.

Christmas (or Dec.11th to the rest of the world)

So, Santa came special for us so we could go on a trip during the real Christmas. What a nice fellow, wouldn't you say? Santa even has a special tradition at our house where he hangs snowflakes for us. Boy he sure loves Russ & Tuck, huh? Good thing he wasn't around to hear all the "why are those up there?"s and the "well, I'm going to rip them down"s. Good thing. But in all fairness Russ wasn't feeling very well and was generally grumpy at times and that's ok! I know I sure thought it looked neat-o!


As I mentioned, Russ wasn't in peak physical condition, so when he woke up he was a grump. We said, "Did anyone come last night?" Russ says, "No one came last niiiIIIGGHHTT WAAAHH!". We said, "Look around silly!" After a few seconds longer than it should have taken, he says "There's stuff hanging on the ceilin'!" Oh boy... But then he saw the really good stuff and the rest of the day was golden!

We always start with the stockings.

I'm pretty sure that Russ was involved in the opening of nearly every present and none of us minded. I'm not so sure that will be the case next year though...

The aftermath! AAAHH! Me on Christmas morning! AAAHH!

'Twas a great day.

Tucker's Birthday Party

I have a lot of catching up to do, so here goes:

We had a quiet birthday party for Tucker with just us and it was fun.

He got a special Elmo balloon

and colored with his tongue sticking out (he's concentrating)

Russel helped him blow out his sparkler candles...
...on his Blue's Clues cake!

Tucker loves Blue's Clues.

On a side note, Russel was so cute and helped get everything ready for Tucker's party while the B-day boy was napping. He is quite the helper.

He kept holding his hand up like a pawprint whenever he saw the cake.

Not pictured (our camera was on the setting for all pictures to be pitch black?!):

Opening fun presents

Getting scared silly by Santa at a Christmas party at the SeaLife Center

And he got some cutie outfits from Gramma