+Back to Reality...

Yes, it's back to reality for me. I've had quite a week re-acclimating to being mom again. I don't know if it's because we were gone or what, but since we've been home Miss Macie has taken to waking us up 12 times a night for whatever random reason she could think of. Desperate for some shut-eye Matt and I begged, pleaded, screamed, yelled, bargained, threatened and finally after she peed all the way down the hallway on the way to wake us up, yet again, we resulted to locking her in her room and listening to her scream and bang on the door from 2 to 4 am.

Talk about battle of wills! The worst part of all was laying there, listening to her and imagining all the emotional and psychological damage we were inflicting on her for locking her in her room. I ached to rescue her and make it all stop, but she's as stubborn as I am and we knew if we wanted to win the war, we had to fight this battle. After two grueling hours she wore herself out and finally fell asleep. In the morning I crept into her room anxious and worried about how she'd suffered, but I was totally taken back when she cheerfully said, "I'm sorry I woke you and daddy up mommy, but you know how I finally fell asleep? I started thinking about going to Chuck E Cheese!"

Phew! I breathed out a huge sigh of relief knowing that she wouldn't remember those few horrible nights and probably wouldn't need to see a shrink anytime soon. Later that day en route to pre-school, I spied this cold cutie and she made me laugh in spite of my wretched week. (You can't see it in this pic, but she was originally holding a sign that said "Hawaii or Bust!". By the time I was able to snap a pic, someone had come along and knocked it down.)I dropped Macie off and went home to enjoy an afternoon siesta filled with the delicious scent of coconut oil, warm breezes on my face and the sound of ocean waves washing all my cares away....well, for at least an hour or so!


XOXO
Lindsey

P.S.
Chuck E Cheese, here we come!

+ Remy Spies a Celebrity

There's something serendipitous about vacationing in tropical paradise. It's like everything you worry about - kids, work, the economy, what the heck you're going to make for dinner that night - just disappears and suddenly it's you frolicking in the sun like those lucky extras that scored an awesome gig making a commercial for Carnival Cruise Lines. So when we showed up to pick up our Luau tickets at the Polynesian Cultural Center last Saturday and they told us they were sold out, we were a little bummed...but no biggie. We're on vacation right! We're flexible, so we just bought tickets for Monday night instead and cruised into Haleiewa for some Mexican at Cholo's. No Luau, but Remy thought the shrimp tacos were super yummy!

Anyway, the hula gods must have been with us because tonight we showed up at the PCC for the Luau (pre-paid tickets in hand), were leied, seated & sipping strawberry smoothies from a pineapple when the MC announced that our very own David Archuleta was in our midst. Sure enough, there he was a few tables from ours and my heart went out to him as he was ambushed. Poor guy. There he was trying to be as inconspicuous as possible while he enjoyed some time with his family the MC outed him before he'd even finished his roast pig!


Remy was a little star struck, but there was absolutely no way was I going to allow him to scurry over and bug poor David. We watched from a distance as he shyly smiled and politely posed for pictures. I'm sure he's use to it by now and unfortunately it's the price he pays for being famous, but I seriously couldn't believe how rude people were. Some of them actually asked people in David's party to take pictures for them! I mean really - come on people! Be a little decent! Celebrities are people too. I wonder if David Archuleta, or any celebrity for that matter looks at regular people in boring commercials for Country Time Lemonade or Tide and wish they could take a vacation there because they want to take a break from their Carnival-Cruise Commercial lives. Normalcy and anonymity must seem like a pretty exotic vacation to them.




He did sing a song for us and we were lucky to record it, but the file is too big to upload from here, so if you want to see it you'll just have to check back. For now you'll just have to be satisfied with some pics.


XOXO
Lindsey

+ Remy's Hawaiian Vacation

Meet Remy, Macie's rat. Remy is a stowaway. I found him in my carry-on when we were half-way to Hawaii, so I told him if he was coming along he must be good and tell Macie all about his adventures. He told me he would and asked me if he could have something to nibble on...
We've been here at Turtle Bay in Oahu for three days so far and Remy has already made friends with some of the locals...

and soaked up some sun at Pounders Beach. He can't wait to go to a Luau tomorrow!





xoxo
Lindsey

+ Super Bowl Commercials

I missed a Super Bowl party because I was at home with sick kiddies this year. I really only really watch it for the commercials and half-time anyway, so I wasn't too sad. Instead I snuggled on the couch with my sick little Macie and watched "her" shows. I'll take quality time with her over football games any day!

I do have a favorite Super Bowl commercial though... it's got to be about 10 years old, but I've always remembered it because I thought it was so clever and funny. Plus I like cats. Meow!




XOXO
Lindsey

+ Vintage Valentines!

Nothing makes my day a little brighter than opening my mailbox and finding sweet surprises that I've subscribed to myself...one of my favorites: Hallmark Magazine! This month features one of my favorite collectables on the cover - Vintage Valentines. Here are some of mine that I've scooped up at yard sales, antique shows, and thrift stores...but some of my most favorite I found glued in my very own baby book! They are too cute not to enjoy & I love pulling them out every year for Valentine's Day.

- Dead Batteries

3:30 am
Imagine being ripped from your deep sleep by the shrill siren of your fire alarm, and jumping out of bed you think, "Everything is fine - the batteries are just dead...", and as your hubby rushes to make it stop, you go console your 4-year-old who is giving the alarm a run for it's money with all her shrieking.

3:45 am
To make it even worse, not one, but all the alarms were going off, and we couldn't figure out why or how to make them stop, so we thought it might be carbon monoxide. Matt called the fire department, and the dispatcher told us to leave the windows shut and go wait in our car until they arrived.

4:10 am
I about died when a police car, an ambulance and a firetruck pulled into our street with lights flashing (no sirens, thank goodness!) and I waited in the car with Macie (who much to my chagrin, was now bright eyed and bushy tailed and ready to play "pretend I'm your pet fox with a purple sparkly tail") while Matt, the sheriff and three sleepy firemen walked through our house with their equipment in the wee hours of the morning searching for any poisonous gases.

4:24 am
The good news is we're not dead and of course they found nothing, but we did learn that all the fire alarms are on the same circuit, so if one has dead batteries, it affects all of them - go figure! Once all our guests had left and the flashing lights had faded from our street, Matt loaded our pet fox in the car and headed to the store for new batteries while I put baby Finn back to bed.

4:45 am
Matt gets home and changes all the alarm batteries and then we celebrate with a scoop of Dreyer's Fully Loaded Mint Chip & Brownie ice cream (an early morning impulse buy).

5:00 am
After tucking Macie safely into her fox burrow, Matt & I headed off to bed wondering how we were ever going to survive the next day. We decided the first step was to turn off the alarm clock! Whew! What a night.

Note to self: schedule bi-annual battery check for fire alarms!

xoxo
Lindsey

+ this blog

I failed miserably at posting on my last blog. I have a list of valid excuses including that it is next to impossible to find time to do it with kids. Also I was pregnant and hated the idea of going downstairs to my basement office where my computer is because the musty unfinished basement smell made me sick and also I knew I would have to waddle back up the stairs again, a feat that seemed to equal to climbing Mt. Everest at the time. So after a year of hinting, and strategically placing the Dell catalog in the bathroom where I was sure my husband would look at it, I am proud to say that I have scored my own laptop which will allow me to blog whenever I have a few minutes.

Another thing I didn't like about my former blog is coming up with catchy titles for my posts. It's so annoying! That's why my first "Lindsey Loves..." goes to (drum roll please!) www.lindseyluvs.blogspot.com for eliminating the exasperating task of coming up snappy post titles.

Lindsey Loves is pretty much the title of every post all I add is a "+" sign and then what I love. That is unless I don't love something, and I'll make that more than clear when I do. So if you happen to stumble upon this site, welcome to Lindsey Loves...my little blog about all the stuff I love (and a few things...okay probably more than a few) that I don't.

XOXO
Lindsey