My Life as a Rock Star

This was in my MOPS magazine this month (Momsense) and it made me laugh...so I thought I would share it here!

My Life as a Rock Star
::Written By Melinda Coats

I live the life of a rock star. It's true! I have wild hair and make-up with frequent costume changes.

Everywhere I go I have an entourage. People are constantly yelling my name. I look out into the crowd and they're actually crying for me, reaching for me.

I have no privacy. I'm watched when I shower, when I'm cooking, even when I use the restroom . . . for my own protection, I'm sure.

When I go places I must do so quickly before my fans get out of control and start a riot. Every night a different guy wants to sleep with me. Each of them seems genuinely hurt when I turn him away.

Occasionally I get dirty undergarments whirled at me with a whoop and a smile. It's even hard sometimes to walk through my own home without someone spotting me and trying to grab my legs or my clothing.

Oh, and don't forget about the stalkers! You know those crazed fans that follow you everywhere? Why, I can't even talk on the phone in the pantry without an eye or two peeping in at me.

Yes it's true --- I live the life of a rock star. And this goes out to my three biggest fans --Henry*, Jonah* and Bridget* --- thanks for making my debut so special!

*Names were changed to reflect MY rockstar status. :)

Blueberry Picking!

One of the (many, many, many!) reasons I love summer is all the fresh fruit. Since moving to Texas, I have discovered that there isn't much better than a beautiful, plump, juicy bluebery picked right off the bush. The picking season isn't very long, so the kids and I try to go at least once a week to enjoy this glorious berry at it's finest.

Here's one week's bounty. The bowls are to eat fresh and the rest for the freezer.
With three kids I have lots of 'help' with me, but as you can see here:

Henry is the only one who actually picks berries.
Jonah is getting better at picking more than he eats. He picked these ones all by himself, which is by far the most he has ever gotten IN the bucket. :) He accidentally dumped his bucket a time or two and re-filled it right off the ground, so Jonah's berries were kept separate so they could be washed and sorted a little better. Jonah likes to pick the reddish colored ones too, since he thinks they are the prettiest. The problem is they're still sour. Bridget eats pretty much non-stop while we're at the farm. She doesn't discriminate either....white, pink, blue.....picked right off the bush or grabbed off the ground. They all go straight into her mouth. She doesn't mind the sour ones a bit.

We're out of fresh blueberries at the moment, but we do have plans to go picking later this week. And this morning we enjoyed one of my favorite breakfast treats--blueberry pancakes!

A visit from Mom and Jim

My mom and Jim had a weekend off a few weeks back. That's a rare treat for them and they were gracious enough to fly to Texas and spend it with us! We had a lot of fun and the kids loved getting to spend time with their Grandma (formerly known as Grandma from Washington, but more recently known as Grandma from Arizona--very confusing for the boys!).

Bridget enjoyed showing off our kittens (who have since left to go to their new homes). She would get my mom to follow her and then head out to the shop, saying, "Kitties! Cuuuute."

Henry was finishing up his time at Grandkids Camp (more to come on that later!), so Jonah and Bridget got a little one-on-one time with them first, which was nice. They arrived on Friday afternoon and Sam took Jim golfing right away. My mom and I visited a while and then loaded the two kids up to drive out to the lake and visit with Henry at GKC. He played it cool and tried not to act too excited to see us, but he was pretty thrilled. :) It was adorable--he was trying hard not to smile(There were lots of older cousins to impress, you know!), but he just couldn't hold it in.

Saturday morning we spent out at the lake. It was Henry's last day at Grandkids Camp and they put on a great program and served us a wonderful lasagna lunch. We actually came early and swam a bit while the kids finished up their preparations for the program.

Mom and Jim were both goaded into jumping off the railing with Jonah. Jonah just recently started jumping off of there (a few weeks ago he would only jump from the side of the dock) and was feeling brave, so he had to show off a bit. :)

There was some sort of 'shark' in the water that day too. See it there behind them?

We came home and let the kids have naps, but then Sam was itching to get out and DO something. So we went and saw a movie (Up) and enjoyed it quite a bit. Although the best part may have been the 3-D glasses. :)

The boys rocked their glasses . . . .

. . . . and so did the girls! :)

After the movie we headed to Taco Bueno (mmmm!) for dinner and then stopped by Andy's for ice cream. It was a really fun night!

Sunday we all went to church together and then had lunch at home and hung out for a while until it was time for Mom and Jim to head to the airport.

It was such a blessing to have them here to spend some quality time with Sam and I and the kids, and we can't wait to see them again!

Thanks, guys. We appreciate you making the trip out here! :)

The Rose Garden

Henry, with his beloved Bella

A city near us has an amazing public rose garden that I love to visit. For a long while it was Henry's number one choice if he got to pick where we would go for a fun adventure. We have been so busy with other things that we haven't been to the rose garden in over a year!

The week after school got out, my friend Kim and I packed up a picnic lunch and loaded all the kids in the car for an afternoon at the rose garden. We arrived right around lunch time. The kids were getting giddy as I flipped the car around to park alongside the curb.

That's when it happened.

I ran right into the curb. It was a nice loud thump, so the kids all got quiet and asked what had happened. Sheepishly, I continued parking the van and hopped out to take a look. It is a tall curb, and I figured I had dented the fender near the front tire, as it sits pretty low.

No such luck. I had actually scraped the tire right along the curb, which put a nice long scratch/hole in the side of the tire.

No problem, I've changed tires before. In fact, I'm pretty good at it!

But I hadn't ever changed a tire on my van before. Do you think I knew where to find the spare tire....or the jack for that matter?

Nope.

So I called my husband at work. He answered right away, but said, "I'm on the other line. I'll call you back."

Hmmm....

Kim called her husband at his work (which was thankfully only a few blocks from where we were!). He came right over and found the tire AND the jack (which were in completely different areas of the car!) and changed the tire for me.

The boys enjoyed the show:

THANKS, CHRIS! YOU SAVED OUR DAY! :)

If it wasn't already embarrassing enough, I had just picked up some leftover garage sale items to drop off at Goodwill. They were in the way when we were looking for the spare, so they got put out on the curb....and then spread around by my really helpful daughter. There will not be a picture of that. ;)

The kids were actually quite patient throughout that whole ordeal, but they were quite hungry by the time it was finished! We went in and had a nice picnic, let the kids run around a bit, and then headed out to finish dealing with the tire.

What's that? You thought it was over? Um...no.

The spare was almost completely flat.

So I had to limp the car to the nearest service station and have air put in the tire.

And Sam had finally gotten back to me. He had somewhat recently bought tires for the van and wanted the replacement tire to match. He had bought them from a distributor further on into the city. A distributor which, by the way, does not install tires.

So we went and bought the new tire and then drove across town again to have it installed at the least expensive place.

The kids and I didn't get home until almost six that night.

Good thing Sam doesn't mind pizza for dinner! :)

New Bikes and Henry's Cowboy Party

Summer is here, and we are having fun! In fact, we're having so much fun we haven't had much time to spend here blogging...but I'd like to get caught up a little.

For Henry's birthday, Grandma and Jim sent money to pick out a BRAND NEW BIKE! Henry was thrilled and really enjoyed getting to choose his own bike. He has had plenty of bikes/trikes/and such over the last three years, but this is the first new bike he has had. After Henry picked the super-cool Spiderman bike, we realized we'd have a little money left over. So we agreed that Jonah should get a new bike too! He was maybe even more excited than Henry and has ridden his bike every single day since he got it.

The Saturday after Henry's birthday, we had a cowboy birthday party. Quite a few cowboys and cowgirls showed up and we all had a rootin' tootin' good time. The weather was absolutely perfect!

We played a few games (herd the balloons cattle , water balloon toss, target shoot with squirt guns), let the kids put each other in jail, enjoyed some cowboy boot cake,

and played with the newborn baby goat that our neighbor brought over.

Of course there were presents too! :)

It was a memorable party for our little cowboy and everyone had a great time.