...with a husband and 5 sons, I am truly outnumbered....stories and thoughts on life from a mom in a houseful of little men!

Saturday, March 21, 2009

Toilets and Other Hazzards

Being a mom of boys comes with its hazzards--the first of which to be addressed is: toilets. Had I known I'd share life with so many boys, we'd have gone the extra mile and had industrial-strength thrones installed. No toilet-in-a-box is going to do it for this household. Uh-uh, no way. I had never seen so many clogs in my life prior to living with so many boys. Seems to be a regular part of life in this home. It truly is amazing. So if it's "old news", what spurred this blog topic tonight? A few minutes ago, Eaglet came running upstairs yelling, "Mommy, Daddy! Something REALLY bad just happened!" (Tony puts down book, I quit writing e-mail...) "There was no toilet paper, and so I used..." (Right about now I knew this was going to be bad. Tony's and my horrified eyes met and locked...) "...the thingy and I forgot and I accidentally threw it in the toilet and now it's in the toilet and I can't get it out and how are we going to get it out?!" At this point I was seeking clarification as to what the "thingy" was. I decided not to draw things out, and just head down for an inspection. Tony chuckled deviously, apparently because I was on stage for this particular emergency. My response to him was to casually bring to his attention that the upstairs toilet was also clogged and needed tending to! Anyway, turned out Eaglet had decided to use the cardboard roll in lieu of grabbing a new roll of paper out of the bathroom closet. (?) Not quite as bad as I'd imagined. I had been thinking there was a nasty washcloth 1/2 way flushed down the bowl. Supermom was I....I retrieved the cardboard roll and deposited it into a recycled Wal-Mart bag...sealed it shut and wallah! Catastrophe averted. Those million-and-one bags really do come in handy. Eaglet and I gave a humble round of applause and we moved on with the evening. I'll have to address other hazzards in a different post...time to check on how my dear husband is getting along upstairs with the plunger...

Saturday, March 07, 2009

Hawaii Take 2!

It happened. We took the 2nd trip in our "2-for-1". On our way to Hawaii, Mom and I were bumped off a flight last year (by choice) and received voucher tickets to fly free to anywhere Alaska Airlines flies. So....back to Hawaii we went...and this time, with Little Mister in tow! It was beautiful and green. Good times. Good friends. Good food. Good memories. My little Keiki Honu was a trooper! He didn't cry on either flight, and made great friends with the flight attendants and pilots. He even got to go in the cockpit! He spent a good part of the trip sleeping...there aren't many pictures of him with his eyes open. I sure loved having that special time to bond more with him and get to know him better. And of course, I also loved having special time with my mom. She is one special and fun lady. Together, we can laugh at everything or nothing at all. Once again, we were blessed to stay with our friends Walt and Betty up on the North Shore. They are the sweetest couple and totally took us in as family. My favorite memories of this trip are simple things, like dinners by tiki torch on the patio nearly every night, pineapple ice tea at an outdoor bar, shave ice, shave ice, shave ice, brunch on my birthday in Haleiewa, and of course taking in the sight and sound of the waves. This trip was a lot more laid-back than last year. It was really fun to have already seen most of the island and done most of the things we'd wanted to do there. We were free to just relax and do "whatever" (like eat lots of shave ice.) Now all I have to do is figure out how to make it back next year...