No one?

No thoughts on Epic Vom 2012?

FINE.

We can all go back to pretending these two perfect creatures don't secrete one OUNCE of bodily fluid of any kind.  Or whine.  EVER.  

Headless parenting- where it's at.

Images by Cara Beth Buie.  (http://www.carabethstudio.com/)

a friday of epic VOM

Look, I realize I talk about throw up on this blog way too much.  I threw up often during my pregnancy with Nora Kate and was very vocal about it on the blog.  (I had METHODS.) 

Last Friday, I was in the car, cruising down the interstate with Lisa Loeb (what? it was on the radio!) blaring, signing along loudly (and POORLY) with my friend Elizabeth. 

This Friday, in the car, cruising down the highway, hear the UNMISTAKABLE sound of VOMIT coming from the backseat. 

(What a difference a week makes.)   

Somehow, in 4.5 years of parenting there is ONE PLACE that has remained vomit-less.  My car.  And Karl's as well.  I don't know HOW.   But it's true. 

Friday, the world decided to remedy that.  Not once, my friends, but TWO TIMES.  Once from the babe, once from the big kid. We must DO IT RIGHT in the Hills family. 

The AM occurrence, Victim 1: Nora Kate 
As is par for the course, Nora Kate threw up like a champ and was all smiles mere minutes later.   She never had another symptom and seemed to be just fine all weekend long. 

The PM occurrence:  Victim 2: Nate 
Nate, on the other hand, FREAKING OUT.  He was literally trying to use his hand to shove the vomit back in his mouth like that would stop it (If you are wondering, yes, that DID make it way worse from a velocity and overall coverage standpoint.)  It was HORRIFYING.  I made him take all his clothes off and ride home in his underwear.  (His vomit in response to a medication he was taking for a respiratory infection; he was non-vom sick the remainder of the weekend.) 

What?  Your Friday night doesn't include trying to get clean car seat covers back on?   Those things are tricky. 




And THAT, my friends, is me, keeping it real. 

Dallas. It's in Texas.

My friend Kristen moved to Dallas this past summer.  She and her husband bought their first house and she got her first nursing job in Plano (She went back to nursing school).  I miss her desperately.

This is her:

Wine tasting at World Market.  Want. A. World. Market.

This past weekend the stars aligned and NOT ONLY was I available but ALL THESE PRETTY LADIES were able to get together and head to Texas: 

Sadly, this was our one group photo.  Not the greatest.

 We greeted our two Texan friends with these There's No Place Like Home AR t-shirts.  


 Melissa greeted us with these (super classy) girls weekend koozies:



Like a good girl, I packed these guys:

We found the most ridiculous things to do:

So many confusing things were happening on this boat.

Who cares as long as it says TEXAS!!

On Saturday, we hit up good old IKEA where I pretended to perform an episode of IKEA Heights (Seriously hilarious - shot entirely in the Burbank California Ikea Store without the store knowing.  I don't know why things like this make me so happy.)  

One night out on the town was enough for us so we spent Saturday evening cuddled up in pj pants and sweatshirts on Kristen's back porch playing cards, screaming obscenities at each other and drinking beer.  My abs = sore from laughing.  

Also (and I realize this will be funny to none of you) I made an EPIC come back in our Phase 10 game.  (I was melodramatically throwing cards and threatening to forfeit towards the beginning of the game when the other girls were slaughtering me.)

Here is my totally sober victory picture:

There was SO MUCH yelling. 

It was a nice break from the norm and Karl took on the kiddos for the whole weekend solo (seriously no small feat). 

We made it home early on Sunday and I settled in to an evening of dishes and laundry.   Oddly, they felt like welcome chores after a weekend away.  Returning to norm.   

all eyez on me

On Thursday, a day I don’t normally work, I gave a presentation to some of our IMPORTANT clients.  (Capslock for them – that’s how special they are.)   The presentation was web-related so I wasn’t nervous about it until they dimmed all the lights in the conference room and BAM! – spotlight on my face.   It took me a second to squint out at everyone and begin.  I knew it was going well when my co-worker Meredith texted me “This rocks” mid-presentation.  (And, yes, I saw it.  This mama always has her phone during work hours.  JUST IN CASE.)  

Further, work is going great. I feel like I could be there full time plus and still have work to do at home.   When I’m there, I think “I could totally do that – work full time, have both the kids in school.”  Then I leave at 2:30 and have long, lovely park afternoons with the kids and think “NEVER.  I’m NEVER WORKING AGAIN!”  Aaaand repeat.  Three days a week.   Plus some hours outside of that – increasingly more lately; we are ramping up to our busy time of year. 

And, realistically, this presentation was outside of “normal” work hours for me so I had to find NK a sitter for Thursday in order to give this presentation.    That's not always going to work.  My boss covered the sitter fee (I know; I do realize how lucky I am) for this event but that is not always the case.  I have to say NO often (which is not in my nature when it comes to office life).   Still, I hold strong to my I’M ONLY PART TIME position and pray I’m giving enough attention all around. 

beer festival. cornbread festival. MOVE TO AR :: we have festivals!

This weekend was semi-calm in the storm of what's to come from now until the New Year.   I've been a bit shy about putting stuff out in the world lately.  Insecurity?  Exhaustion?  I think when I started blogging way back in the day, a lot of it was about just our daily life and routines (what we did that weekend, what we ate, taking all those drugs back in '05) and I think I lost a little of that in this weird MUST. WRITE. IMPRESSIVE. BLOG. POSTS. frenzy.  So, I'm trying to get back to my roots, drop the hesitation and just type some nitty gritty boring details (in a hopefully entertaining way). Click away if you must. 

Theme of this weekend:  Festivals! 

Karl went to a Craft Beer Festival (in Argenta Arts Distrtict) on Friday night with some friends.  As expected, he did not take any photos nor did he actually taste any of the beer. He DRANK the beer but proclaimed he could taste nothing b/c of his allergies/sinus drainage. (Someday in the future I will tell you ALL about how I don't believe in allergies.)  He DID, however, come home (mostly) sober and before 11.  Score.

What did I do?  I stayed home and met the kids ENDLESS requests for food and beverage.

Resting up for a pretzel stick from the floor:  



A little booty shaking at the dinner table.  Seriously, I promise to stop blogging about Nate's  bum-shaking.  He would be embarrassed if he knew I told y'all about it.  (Seriously though when do you have to ask your kids permission to blog about them?  Or do you take it all down when they start reading and caring?  I'm SO CONFUSED ABOUT THIS.) 



Saturday started off bright and early with OUR FINAL SOCCER GAME of the season.   Insert mixed emotions here.  Coaching was seriously fun.  I EVEN think I might do it again.  All my players and parents = fantastic.  Most of the teams we played = fantastic.  I have ZERO frame of reference but I just want it to keep being fun.... so maybe I'll coach until then? Or until Nate loses interest in soccer?

My favorite part of the season (other than OBLITERATING every single team we played?  Oh.  Wait.  Fun!  Fun!  Dammit.  Well, winning is fun, right?) was that Nate consistently called me "Coach Kat" on the field.  (As in "Coach Kat, can I go in and play?  Coach Kat, is it my turn to kick the ball?")  





After the game (and naps for everyone but Nate), we headed to the Arkansas Cornbread Festival.

We let Nate mainline a little snocone sugar:


And bounce house with his classmate Olive:
 
Thankfully, it was a gorgeous day and there was beer.  Since mostly we, uh, didn't see any cornbread.  Just the bounce house area.   (SUPER nice bounce houses at the Cornbread Festival. HA.  Much better than the ones at the Cheese Dip Festival from last weekend.) 



Sunday, Nora Kate learned how to use the snack trap thingey - THANK GOD. SHE DOESN"T HAVE TO EAT PRETZELS OFF THE FLOOR ANYMORE.  I'm sure several of you were concerned.  She barely eats food at all (though definitely a big fan of Saturday morning biscuits and gravy) so anything we can get her to try - any method - I am all for it. 



Additionally, we had the added bonus of "celebrating" Day Lights Savings (also known as THE LONGEST DAY EVER) time so my Sunday went something like this:

5:30 a.m.  Nate: Can we get up now?  When can we get up?  I think it's time to get up Mommy.
6:00 a.m. Nora: I think I'll join this party.  (She speaks in complete sentences now that's she's 1.)
8:45 a.m. Nora: WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA.  (Nap time.  AT NINE AM.  She's on the 1 post-lunch nap schedule so this is NOT best case scenario for the rest of the day.)
10:00 a.m. Nahcos for, uh, lunch?!  WHAT? We were hungry.

And then the day went on and on and on until a gloriously early bedtime (Karl included)!

I finally finished up Nora Kate's thank you notes from her birthday and made a list to start soccer thank you notes!  (Constantly writing thank you notes - you should too. Snail mail rules.)  


 And now?  Well, now I'm just lounging on the couch with my lap top blogging with you people.   GLORIOUS WEEKEND.  Off to close the tippy tappy machine and read a book with pages until i pass out.


Have a great week!