January Update

Wow--here we are at the end of January. I can't believe I've managed to post as often as I have--granted, I rambled here and there (OK, I ramble A LOT). But at least I'm out there and my friends and family (and you extended family, even total strangers) get some sort of glimpse into life at the Wrenn household. Anyhow, I figured I'd update everyone on the status of my New Year's Resolutions.

• More frequent blog updates--I think you can see that I've done more this month than in the entire life of this blog.
• Weekly meal plans/grocery list--I did very good the first two weeks. Last week I didn't have a good meal plan, but we still managed not to go crazy at the store.
• Starbucks reduction--again, I did great the first two weeks. Now that school is in full swing for me, I have reverted back to my old ways (hey, I'm stressed-out! Starbucks HELPS!)
• Game Night/Date Night--a total bust. School really wrecks my plans here--I must have been in a manic phase to think I could actually accomplish this during my final semester.
• More pictures--I remembered to take the camera to Pops' birthday. And Bryan bought another enabler--a digital camcorder. Now we just need to capture some of the crazy things our kids do--and share!

Well the Super Bowl is tomorrow, and I have never been this not excited.... I could care less about the Steelers, and I forgot the Cardinals were even an NFL team. Bryan doesn't watch football--he tolerates it as background noise. But we'll keep an eye out for this year's great commercials.

Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus!

We started our collection of funny children's books a few years ago with "How Do Dinosaurs Say Good-Night?"--bought at the La Brea Tar Pits, interestingly enough. Anyhow, our first-grader brought home a library book last week that totally cracked us all up. "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" is about a first-grader, I mean, pigeon who tries to con his way into driving the bus and throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way. It reminds Bryan and I so much of our little boys...and it turns out to be one in a series! Those of you with young children seriously need to check this pigeon out--yes, he's got his own website.

Deconstructing the Pagan Ritual Tree

OK, OK--after much ribbing, harassment, and neighborhood threats, I started taking down my Christmas decorations. Starting with my "pagan ritual tree", as my boss calls it.

First to come off were my sacred Wallace-Silversmith candy-cane ornaments, which me, my sister, and all my cousins on my father's side of the family collect yearly. The tradition began when my Great-Granny started giving them to us all as yearly Christmas presents. After she died, my grandparents carried on her tradition. These ornaments are treasured by my family--they are collectibles, but foremost, they remind us of our Great-Granny and the big family gatherings we used to have. I have not seen those cousins in years, since I left the Great Republic of Texas. We still send each other funny e-mails and Christmas cards, but I still miss seeing them all.

We gently removed the second set of important ornaments, hand-made by Nee-Nee (Bryan's grandmother). They are beautiful bead and sequin creations, and we cherish them. She and Bryan's deceased Grandaddy began the tradition years ago--together they made very ornate decorations than now hang on Nana & Pops' trees. She gives us new ones every year, and we hope to inherit the rest from Nana & Pops one day as well. Nee-Nee also hand-made two sets of sequin & felt stockings for the entire Wrenn family. One set hangs on Nana & Pops' fireplaces, while the other set hangs at the respective families' homes. These are the stockings in our family Christmas picture.

Well, I guess I should stop writing now and get back to work. Not that I'm in a rush to get this stuff put away--the house is so depressing without it.

The F-Bomb.

Brandon finally got interested enough in his new DS that he decided to play Mario Kart. He had a question about the game, so Bryan took it to figure out the answer. I heard an immediate *GASP* and "Go show this to your mother--DON'T LOOK AT IT, just take it to her." What the...? I looked and right there on the front of the car was an emblem that read, in bold capital letters, FUDGE. Only it wasn't "fudge". It was THE word, the big one, the queen mother of all dirty words. The F-dash-dash-dash-dash word! We bought this thing brand new, still wrapped up in the box. We bought the game used. Apparently, these cartridges keep some memory and this is how the former owner chose to turn it in to the store. In any other situation, kind of funny. For the parent of a first-grader who has excellent reading skills, not so funny. So Bryan re-customized the design of the car's logo and off he went.

I guess worse things could happen. Brandon could have taken the time to read what was written, but thankfully was too busy trying to play the game. We know it's just a matter of time before he, or one of the other kids, picks up on some choice words that Mommy & Daddy let slip sometimes. And when that happens, I'll let you all know about it!

Nana to the Rescue!

If any of you have been following my Facebook status, you'd know that our house has been hit by the Vomit Fairy. I suspect my friend, Mother of Mayhem over at Hunter & Maisie's Spot, somehow had something to do with this (I have to place blame somewhere!) Anyhow, I panicked because Bryan was working evenings this past week and I had no help with chasing a barfing 2-year-old and his ornery brothers, and I wan't feeling too hot myself. So, thankyou thankyou thankyou Nana for coming down and helping out, even though the situation wasn't nearly as bad as I was forecasting. Nick didn't throw up any more after Nana arrived, but she stayed and took care of him the next day so the rest of us could go to school & work. However, right as Nick got over his bug, Brandon came home with it--and he had it way worse than his brother. You know the other day when we cleaned all the downstairs carpets because of pee? Well, now all our linoleum floors are scrubbed due to puke. Brandon actually slept on the bathroom floor next to the toilet last night because he felt so bad (hey, it was his idea, not mine). Now that Brandon is okay, I'm waiting to see who's next in line. Hopefully next time you hear from us, we'll have banished the Vomit Fairy from thsi house and moved on to better things.

Out With the Old, In With the New

Yesterday was a historic day for our family, particularly Bryan and I. We had been anticipating this day for a while, and hope that this new “era” fills our hopes and needs. Aw, I’m not talking about the handoff of the American Presidency—I’m talking about vehicles!

Bryan has been driving an old Honda Accord for years—it has easily paid for itself in gas mileage and ran like a champ. After 300,000 miles, it finally started having some trouble. And sometime yesterday during the wee morning hours, it finally passed on. Bryan found it stone cold—wouldn’t so much as turn over. We knew it was coming—we just didn’t know exactly when. So rather than sinking more money into life support for a dead vehicle (or purchasing matching Obama tattoos), we decided to invest in a new vehicle. Introducing our new 2009 Volkswagen Jetta Turbo-diesel:

What’s that, you say? We have gone with a girly, non-American, non-gas-guzzling, non-powerful vehicle? While we have been known to love our high-octane, high-horsepower sports cars, our beat-up redneck trucks and our giant gas-guzzling American SUVs, we also know that we will never own a real gas-guzzling, super-high-horsepower Ferarri without making some sensible choices in our lives (or without winning the lottery or taking out a wealthy relative). We have done our research, and this little turbo-diesel gets better gas mileage than a Prius while producing 236 ft-lbs of torque (meaning the car will get up and GO when the gas pedal is pushed--it's been rated against a BMW 850i!) Now who’s girly?

Yeah, Bryan looks kinda funny in the driver’s seat of this thing (it is his car). But he’ll be the one laughing all the way to the bank this summer when gas prices skyrocket again. And we will own our Ferarri one day…

Bryan's Quest

I am trying to update my theme for Valentine's Day, but can't change the font color of previous posts en-masse to show up easier against the new background. So I apologize in advance for my lack of bloggie-knowledge and the strain on your eyes.

Bryan is on a quest to indoctrinate our oldest son into the gaming world. Today, he traded in a bunch of his old Game Cube games for a new Nintendo DS. For you non-gaming-geeks, this is like the Game Boy, a portable video game system. I question who will be playing this thing more--Brandon or Daddy. Granted, Brandon's cousin Berkeley has one and some rotten kids at his school bring them to daycare, but Brandon likes to watch instead of participate. He is content with his little V-Smile in his room, where no one will see him lose. When Bryan fires up the PS3, Brandon will sit for hours watching, giving constant unsolicited advice for winning the most complex battles. But he won't take the controller for fear of losing in front of his Daddy. As I write this, Bryan has the stylus for the DS hanging from his lip like a cigarette, with headphones plugged in--playing Mario Kart. And Brandon is upstairs practicing the games he knows he can win. Perhaps someday he can come downstairs and have a gaming showdown with his father--nothing would make Bryan more proud.

Pee All Over the House

I thought that when we banished our dogs to the backyard that we'd be done cleaning up these sorts accidents around the house, with exception of sick kids. Ooooh noooo. And it wasn't the 2.5-year old little monster that caused this one. Nope, it was the 4-year old who knows better. He may as well have whipped it out and ran all over the house, peeing down the hall and up the stairs, when this was all over with.

The older boys have had a belt fetish lately (not across their rears, though we've contemplated that a few times). It all began when I started buying jeans that were slightly too big, so they'd grow into them and thus wear them a little longer. And belts became standard issue to keep them from falling down. So, in usual fashion, our little Tyler waited until the last possible second to dash into the bathroom to go pee. In his zeal, he couldn't get his belt undone fast enough and ended up letting loose all over himself in the bathroom. No big deal--it happens. However, when he yelled for Mommy & Daddy to come rescue him, Mommy & Daddy didn't hear him. Why, you ask? Because Rock God Bryan had a 1-man concert raging in his man-cave, and it was so friggin' loud that the Russian cosmonauts could hear him. I was doing woman-work upstairs (laundry--Bryan is forbidden from touching it--another story), so next thing I know a sopping wet little Tyler is sulking at the top of the stairs. Fully clothed and sopping, soaking wet with pee. Socks and all. The magnitude of what this meant didn't sink in until after I had cleaned him up and started my way back downstairs. Squish--I stepped on a wet spot on our carpeted stairs. Next step, same thing. A little trail of wet steps on my new carpet all the way to the downstairs bathroom. I started screeching several choice words, none that the kids should have heard, and finally the Rock God emerged from his noisy cocoon to see what the commotion was. Needless to say, I was so beside myself with rage at this point that I was speaking in tongues, leaving Bryan in charge of cleanup. He pulled out our trusty mega-carpet-scrubber-vacuum-cleaner thing (which has saved our carpet from doggie accidents on several occasions), and proceeded to scrub and clean the carpet. The story does not quite end here--after deciding to go ahead and clean all the high-traffic areas while he's at it (and thus avoid his anger-crazed wife), Bryan realizes the suction is not working on our whamidyne machine, and we are left with soaking wet carpets everywhere. But I guess that's better than pee-soaked carpet, so I'm not complaining. And I have calmed down a bit...until next time.

Shout Out to Allison

I have added a link to "Barking Mad" on my sidebar, which I discovered through Allison's blog. So Thank You Allison for sharing this site, because it always has me in tears, both happy and sad! I can only hope to be able to express myself and my family's life in such a funny, descriptive way.

Grease Monkey

I was tagged in some pictures from my undergrad college days on Facebook, and I have received several inquiries about them from high school friends and people who don’t really know about my undergrad college life. So, I figured I may as well explain them here—and for those of you who haven’t had the luxury of seeing these pictures, I’ll try to post them here when I get my hands on them. No, they aren’t pictures of exotic dancing.

As many of you know, I set out to be a marine biologist after high school. The best school around for this was Texas A&M at Galveston, so that’s where I applied for my undergrad studies. They have a program where entering freshmen can go to sea on their training ship during the summer between high school graduation and the Fall semester, and earn college credit for taking a couple of classes—note, this is not a cruise liner, but a working ship and everyone pitches in. Texas A&M’s Galveston campus also has a Maritime Academy to train students as licensed officers on commercial ships—which is why they have this training ship. Anyhow, I went on the freshman “cruise” and talked a lot to the upperclassmen—found out that there wasn’t much money in marine biology, but there was a whole lot of money in operating commercial ships. Then I had to decide if I wanted to be a deck officer (ocean-going career path to a Captain), or an engine officer (ocean-going career path to a Chief Engineer). At that time, there were hardly any women engineers, and the only one at the school had a reputation for enjoying the fact that she was the only female engineer (I’m not talking sexually—I’m talking about bragging rights and clout). I had some ornery friends with me on that ship (some who are reading this now), and they dared me to announce my major in Marine Engineering—just to bust that bubble. With nothing to lose, I accepted the challenge and did it. And you know what?—turns I was sort of good at it and I really enjoyed it, so I stuck with it (and this girl was not such a b!@#$ after all). So as part of our training to be ocean-going officers, we had to work at sea on our training ship. Where I learned hands-on about oil-water separators, desalinators, engines, reduction gears, boilers, compressors, and lots of other more disgusting things. And I learned to weld. So that is why there are pictures of me, dressed in dingy, oily torn-up coveralls, grease on my face and sweat all over me—me and the girls who chose the same path sweating our butts off in 120-degree engine room heat.

This doesn’t explain the pictures of the crazy get-up of me and my surroundings out on deck. That, my non-mariner and non-Navy friends, is a Shellback ceremony. A test and indoctrination to sailor-hood: crossing the equator for the first time. I was already a Shellback for these pictures—I was administering truth serum to the poor Pollywogs. But that’s a whole other story.

Goodbye Evenings, Hello School

Well my semester started a week earlier than I thought, so I will become scarce now. Thankfully, this is my last semester and I graduate in May--Woo hoo!! I am so excited. Commencement is held on the Ellipse (yes, in front of the White House). My parents are coming in from Texas, and we'll be taking the boys--at least the older two. But first things first--I have to concentrate on making the grades. I am taking two classes: Risk Management and the program's Capstone course, where everything we've learned is tied together in a semester-long project. My last week of school will be spent on campus in D.C. giving presentations to the faculty and rest of the class on this big project.

So my evenings will now be spent trying to juggle kids, husband and school. I will put every effort into updating this blog every now and then, just to let everyone know we're still alive.

Happy Birthday, Pops!

Yes, I am posting as much as I can right now. It's because I will become non-existant after January 19, when my final semester begins for grad school.

Anyhow, we celebrated Pops' birthday yesterday (Bryan's father), so I have changed out the slide show pictures above. Bryan's parents served the family lunch in courses, starting with homemade minestrone soup. Everyone knows I am a super-picky eater, and I may have never had minestrone soup before in my life. So I tried something new and it was very good! Next course was a spring salad with a creamy raspberry-vinagerette dressing, also delicious. Then came the baked spaghetti with Italian sausage, always good. Somewhere in there I snuck in four glasses of sangria. I have never really liked sangria, but this was really good--I need the recipe. Bryan's dad always makes excellent mixed drinks... For dessert we had chocolate cake with sundaes. The kids got to grab whatever toppings they wanted, complete with whipped cream and a cherry on top.

We decided to put some effort into dressing the boys up, since they received matching clothes from Nana & Pops and their cousins always outdress us for these occasions.They actually managed to get no spaghetti on themselves, though you can see some red mustaches from their raspberry drinks in the slide pictures. We had a good time and the kids behaved. Bryan even managed to get in a trip to his guitar stores before we headed home.

Anyhow, many thanks to Pops for serving us on his own birthday!

Pumpkin Pecan Pancakes

In my attempt to be more domesticated, I made these yummy pancakes from scratch this morning:

3 Tbs melted butter
4 Tbs brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp allspice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1 cup canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans (I actually used more than this)

Mix all the dry ingredients in one bowl, except pecans; mix all the wet ingredients in another bowl. Combine the two mixtures together until just blended, then add the pecans. Spoon 1/4 cup of batter per pancake into a medium-hot skillet, and cook about 2 minutes on each side (enough to be golden brown). I kept the pancakes warm in a 200-degree oven until everyone was ready to eat. Serve them with butter & syrup--top with more pecans. I'm getting hungry just thinking about this...might try a waffle version later. Enjoy!

Back to Work, Back to School

Well, the first week back at work (parents) and school (kids) has been sort of uneventful—and this is a good thing. Brandon managed to go the whole week without getting any “cubes” from his teachers. A “cube” is a block of time at recess that he doesn’t get to play, and for a while he seemed to get them every day. Brandon is doing great academically, but he is a normal little boy in that he’s got some excitement & self control issues that he has to outgrow. So we work daily on this at home, and luckily he has supposedly the strictest teacher to help nip this in the bud at school. He did, however, get in trouble with the bus driver on the school bus for smacking the back of the kids' seatback in front of his (not a huge offense--he has done far worse before). Nick brought home his first "bad note" from daycare--he was dragging little girls across the room by their hair, then shrieking at his teacher when told to stop. As I said in the Christmas Letter, he is the family bully. Tyler, ironically, has been the model child this week (not normal). He did good on all his pre-school working papers, meaning he's paying attention during story-time, etc. Last weekend he was learning to play his video games that he got for Christmas. Big brother Brandon is always at his side to coach him through the hard spots and even completely take over upon request. And sometimes when not requested…but that's how older siblings operate.

As for us parents, we survived the work week. I am so friggin' happy to be able to sleep in tomorrow, and I know Bryan is. Poor Bryan wakes up at 4 am to go into work when he's on day shift. He doesn't need much sleep to operate anyway, but it still takes a toll.

We hope all you worker-bees out there had a good first week back, even those of you who work at home taking care of the kids.

Accountability

Heads up: This is not about my family—rather; I end up on my soapbox about the state of our economy. Don’t say I didn’t warn you. --Jennifer

I don’t know how many of you have read this book, or ever even heard of it, but Jack Welch’s “Winning” is the best book on management I’ve ever read. (disclaimer: I’ve only read 4 management/leadership books)

I am in middle management at work, and I strongly agree with many of Welch’s points. I recently pulled this book out to let one of my employees have a read, and before I gave it to him, I opened it up to have a quick glance. Right there on the page are these paragraphs on the relationship between companies, the government, and the economy:

“Obviously, the government is a vital part of society. First and foremost, it does nothing less than protect us all from the insidious and persistent challenges to national security that are with us now and for the foreseeable future. But government provides much more: the justice system, education, police and fire protection, highways and ports, welfare and hospitals. The list could go on and on.

But even with the virtues of government, it is crucial to remember that all of its services come from some form of tax revenues. Government makes no money of its own. And in that way, government is the support for the engine of the economy, is it not the engine itself.

Winning companies and the people who work for them are the engine of a healthy economy, and in providing the revenues for government, they are the foundation of a free and domestic society.”

I wonder what he would have to say about the government’s gargantuan bailout of the banks and automakers? I am dangerously close to stepping on my soapbox, so I’ll just say a few things: I don’t think it’s a bailout at all—I think it’s postponing the inevitable. And where is the accountability for the stupid decisions these companies have made over the years? What about the irresponsible people to agreed to ludicrous loans to live way beyond their means? Nobody is holding anyone accountable, and we are feeding the monster with more money—delaying the inevitable. And that’s all I’ll say about that…I don’t want to come across as one of those weird conspiracy-theory, gloom & doom, anti-government and anti-media people. I just thought it was strange to open a book written well before we were aware of today’s economic crisis and see that written on the page. Oh, and I did get on my box and preach to some poor unsuspecting folks about this at work yesterday. Sorry, guys…

Precious Moments

We all have little bonding moments with our kids, but in our hectic lives how often do we really reflect on them? Bryan called me on his way home from work today for our usual how-was-your-day chat, and he went out of his way to tell me about a father-son moment he had with Tyler last night. Tyler has an infectious smile and laugh—he is a major flirt and clown. Anyhow, he and Bryan have a night-time ritual of reading a book snuggled in our bed, while Brandon practices his reading with me in another room. Apparently last night the book slipped out of Bryan’s hand and smacked him in the nose. They both started laughing, and that just got the ball of laughter rolling. It was sweet because they were genuinely laughing together hysterically at something funny--nothing staged, nothing fake, just pure enjoyment of the situation at hand. Bryan and Tyler already share a special bond, just like Brandon and I do (Nick is the evil conqueror of the world, kind of like Stewie from Family Guy). I don’t recall many stories like this even though I know we've had many of them, so I thought it was worth noting here.

SAHM

So me, forever having blonde moments, could not figure out what SAHM stood for. Several of my friends are SAHMs and I am no stranger to acronyms, since I work for the U.S. Navy. After thinking about this and reading several related blogs, I finally figured out that it stands for "Stay At Home Mom". OMG--DUH!

I have some real respect for SAHMs--I can barely keep up with my kids first for a few hours of the day, let alone the weekends. My husband and I both have full-time jobs, so our kids go to daycare. The oldest is in first grade, but catches & returns on his school bus to daycare because we commute 40 minutes to work. I sometimes have "mommy guilt"--guilt about not being able to spend all day with my little ones, but I think they learn a lot about relationships and social skills at daycare. However, since reluctantly returning to work after the holiday break, I have done a lot of thinking about becoming a SAHM. (Don't worry, Bryan--the Ferarri is too appealing for me to quit my job this instant!) But because my two older boys are in school (if preschool counts), would that really make me a true SAHM? Would that be considered cheating? Maybe I should just have a part-time job (think: Starbucks), then I could take the boys to Water Country & Busch Gardens, just like all their friends.

I think I'm just jealous of all you moms out there who have the luxury of scooping your kids up and doing anything without worrying about taking time off work. Yes, I know there's an awful lot of work involved, but I'm sure it's worth it!

What's the Rush?

In speaking and reading up on everyone's goings on these last few days, it seems that everyone is taking down their Christmas decorations. I say, "What's the rush?" We are heading, in my opinion, into the most depressing time of the year. The winter stretch between New Year's and Spring Break is dreary. Maybe it's because we live in a place where cold rain, rather than either warm sun or dry snow, keeps us indoors much of the time. And since we're indoors, why not keep those decorations up a while longer--enjoy some light and some sparkle? At least keep the stuff up through the end of the bowl games (Super Bowl included).

On another note, I made waffles for the very first time today. Yes, the kids have enjoyed many a homemade waffle--but it's always been the sets of gradparents in charge of making them. Since Bryan & I received a waffle maker from his parents this year, I figured it was my turn to take over the duties. And you know what--it wasn't nearly as messy or complicated as I thought! Some of you might be shaking your heads at me now, but I am not a domestic goddess. I can't keep the house clean, we eat Mac & Cheese and Hamburger Helper for supper, and we all wear wrinkled clothes. So, conquering the waffle-maker is a big deal for me. And they go great with Starbucks coffee.

Starbucks

I am a Starbucks junkie. Yes, I know it's an expensive habit--especially since I drink the ritzy $4 espresso drinks, but I am addicted and there's not a darn thing anyone can do about it. Friends, family and co-workers have all expressed their concerns, but they have given up on me--they even encourage my addiction by giving me gift cards, knowing what I'm like without my daily fill of Starbucks caffeine.

And that brings me to what happened this morning at my beloved Starbucks. Bryan and I had just dropped the kids off at daycare to enjoy our last day off from work for the holidays, and we headed to the nearest Starbucks for morning coffee. Knowing I had recently received gift cards for Christmas, Bryan asked if I was buying. Which I promptly said NO--I closely guard my free Starbucks money because I get flak for spending so much there. Now, looking back I can see why his feelings were hurt that I couldn't offer $2 of my money to pay for his drip coffee. What you don't know is the rounds and rounds of talks and arguments we've had in the past over my Starbucks spending habits. As far as I'm concerned, my coffee gift cards are my sole property for spending on myself and no one else, especially on someone who gives me such a hard time with every penny I spend there. To make the story short, I paid for his coffee and now I'm hearing for the rest of the day how petty and selfish I am for not wanting to buy $2 coffee for my husband. Again, Starbucks is my cocaine and I guard it with my life--all the way down to $2. And I'm sure by the end of the day we will be laughing about this and making fun of the situation.

Happy New Year!

Well, I actually managed to stay up until midnight last night! And Bryan christened our new ceiling with the champagne bottle cork...

Anyhow, I ususally refrain from making new year's resolutions, but maybe that's why my life seems so out of control these last few years? So, here's what I think I'll work on this year:

• Maintain regular blog entries (to help remind me and everyone else of how wonderful life is)


• Make weekly meal plans and stick to them on the grocery list (saves money, forces better eating habits)


• Pare down on Starbucks (so I can actually sleep)


• Institute game night with the kids, and date night with hubby (family bonding)


• Take more pictures of the family (they're growing up too fast!)

Notice that none of these has anything to do with work or my job. I will finish my master's program in May, but I have come to accept that I cannot conquer both the corporate world and be Super Mom at the same time. I think it's time for me to let go of trying so hard to climb the ladder at work and start focusing on what really matters--family and friends. And with that, I hope everyone had a good 2008 and wish for the best in 2009!