The Case of the Missing Coupons (a.k.a "I Must be Losing My Mind")

Yesterday, in a very rare moment, I found approximately one extra minute of time in the mad rush to get J ready for school and out the door. So, in the interest of efficiency, I thought I would do a tiny bit of planning ahead and set aside the coupons I would need for my morning trip to Target. I went to grab my coupon file out of my purse and, lo and behold, it wasn't there. I looked around for a bit and it was no where to be found...not in my purse, not in the car, not in the hall closet where I hang my purse up.

By now, the one minute (along with a few others) is long gone and we're suddenly behind schedule, so I commence barking orders at the girls to get us going as soon as possible. I will admit, I threw a mini-tantrum in frustration over the missing coupons. As I'm yelling at the girls to get their shoes on and get in the car, what's really going through my head is "Why on earth can I not keep track of my stuff" or (even worse) "Why, oh why can't other people leave my stuff alone?"

I didn't find the coupons, we were late getting to school, and it was raining so I decided not to go to Target anyway. Grrrr.

Today, still no sign of them, and I am running out of places to look. I figure any of the following scenarios are possible:

-I left them at a store.

-I took them out of my purse to add a coupon, and forgot to put them back.

-The girls got them out and were playing with them.

-Craig saw them laying around somewhere and put them in a "safe" place for me.

-On my way to putting them away, I set them down in some random place which I can neither remember nor locate at this time.

Sadly, none of these scenarios is unlikely, which makes it all the more difficult to narrow them down to one or two possibilities.

After today's trip to Target (in which, couponless, I spent about $6 more than I should have had to) I re-started the search. In exasperation, I said out loud, "where are those coupons?"

Then Savanna gave me a nibble. "Julia put them in her bed." Seriously? "She had them in your room?" I asked. "Yes, she had them in her bed. Then she put them under my bed." I was a little skeptical, but what the heck. "If you help me find them," I told her, "I'll give you a dollar." A thorough search revealed that the coupons were not in Julia's bed, nor under Savanna's bed, nor anywhere in their room. By the time Savanna started suggesting that Alexa hid them, or a monster had taken them, I started figuring out that, cute and helpful though she is, she is not a reliable witness. "Do I get my dollar now?" Uh, negatory.

Just like the blanket saga, as much as I wish this story had a happy ending, the coupons remain at large. I figure by the time I get around to buying a new file and get stocked up on coupons again, they will show up somewhere like the garage freezer or under the bathroom sink (as of now, two of the only places that I haven't looked).

And for those of you out there in blog-land, if you happen to know where my coupons are, I'll give you a dollar for their safe return. Either that or your choice of 3 coupons totaling no more than $1.50. The choice is yours.

18 Holes is 14 Too Many

When my sister Cyndie and her family were here for New Year's, we went on a little trip to Amazing Jake's for some pizza buffet and arcade action. They had a mini-bowling alley that we wanted to try out, but the wait was pretty long so we opted for miniature golf instead.

We thought it would be fun. And it was. But with 5 adults and 4 kids playing, those 18 holes took forever. In fact, I'm pretty sure we are still playing right now...

Julia, Audrina, Zariah and Savanna,

gearing up for a never-ending adventure.

Not too much golf course etiquette going on here,but

we figured the doubling up would get us through faster.

It didn't really.

Julia having a Happy Gilmore moment.

Audrina in action.

It's all in the hips...

Savanna bringing up the rear.

Yes, Audrina, I know exactly how you feel.

The pink-jacketed little girl in the picture got tired of waiting for our large group and ended up cutting in front of us around hole 12, much to our chagrin. Then we got to wait for five kids instead of four. Yipp. Eee.

The Good and Bad of "The Grass is Greener" Syndrome

My sister, Laura, said something the other day that got me thinking. She was sitting on the couch getting ready to grade papers for a college class she teaches. (Can you believe I'm a sister to someone who teaches college? I must be old. Or maybe just she is. But I digress.) As she was sitting there, she said, "This is so funny. Anytime I sit down to grade papers, I start thinking about something else I'd rather be doing, like vacuuming. Only, I know that if I had to vacuum, I would think of something else better to do, like read."

I don't know about you, but I operate on this exact same level. I often fantasize about how much uninterrupted housework I could get done if my kids were gone, but once they aren't around, I do not want to spend my time cleaning the house. I'd much rather read or nap or go to the store by myself.

This is what I call "the grass is greener" syndrome. Anytime I am faced with a task I don't want to do, I think of something I'd rather do instead...so, about 40 percent of the time, I wander on over to a different task, and the other 60 percent I push through and finish whatever I am in the middle of. It's a blessing and a curse.

The curse part is obvious--operating this way is clearly a very inefficient way to get anything done.

You have to dig a little deeper for the blessing part.

As I was putting laundry away today, (a very un-fun task for a fun girl like me) I looked up at the shelves in my closet and thought how much I wished I could get them better organized, and how much I wished I were doing that instead of the task at hand. And then the wheels started turning, and I realized: the only reason I wanted to get at those closet shelves was because they were different than what I was doing right then. If I had set out to do some closet cleaning in the first place, surely I would have thought of a better alternative, like taking out the trash or wiping off the bathroom counters. And it sort of made me think about how many things I get done because they sound better than the thing I am doing at a given moment. There are actually specific jobs that I only get done when I'm bored with something else, like rotating bins of the girls' clothes (when I'm in the middle of putting laundry away), or cleaning out my kitchen cupboards (when I'm in the middle of emptying the dishwasher), or sorting pantry items (when I'm in the middle of putting away groceries), just to name a few. It's a good thing I never set out to do these tasks, because if I did, they would never actually get finished; instead, I have to wander into them when I'm supposed to be doing something else.

So, there you have it. As inefficient as it is to wrecklessly abandon certain tasks in order to start doing something completely unrelated, at least I know that there are a few things that have to be done that way, otherwise they don't get done at all.

And that's the strange, hidden blessing.

Meet Lincoln

This is Lincoln. He's my sister Cyndie's little guy. I love him. Like crazy. We got to hang out a lot over New Year's, but now, sadly he's back home in Utah, and I'm missing him a lot. He is such a fun, happy little guy, the one that puts the chill in chillax. He is all smiles, all the time. (Unless you are eating ice cream and not giving him any. Then he panics a little. Okay, a lot.)

For those of you who have not been fortunate enough to meet this happy, chunky boy (and for those of you have) please enjoy a tiny photo journey of his visit with us. One glimpse at that winning smile and those golden locks, and you'll know exactly why I miss him so much. All 31 glorious pounds of him.

Oh, baby, what's not to love?

Toothless Wonder

Julia just lost her third tooth yesterday morning (it popped out while Craig was helping her brush her teeth) and I realized that I forgot to document the first two tooth losses. Here they are in all their gummy glory.

Tooth # 1 lost on May 20, 2010

Tooth # 2 lost on June 13, 2010

Tooth # 3 lost on January 19, 2011

Mommy thinks that the Daddy Tooth Fairy is a little too generous, though...when I suggested a dollar for this recent loss, (4 times the amount that I ever got as a kid...more than enough to keep up with inflation) I should have known that he'd actually put two dollars there. (Welcome to trying to find the parenting balance between a Mommy who was raised with four other siblings, and a Daddy who was an only child.)

 Next time I'll suggest 50 cents.