5 reasons i am blessed

although i am sure anyone reading this blog already knew we were expecting burch baby no. 4 in june, i thought i should make it official.  so there he or she is in a sweet little profile.  we are not finding out what we are having, so you will just have to wait until june 5th (or many, many days after that, as my babies love to cook extra long).  hurray for more babies!

the giving tree

several months ago i walked into the living room and lucy and finn were very sweetly snuggled on the couch together.  lucy was carefully reading the giving tree and finn was listening intently.  i decided to leave them be to enjoy their sweet moment.  just a few minutes later, finn came walking into the kitchen with huge tears streaming down his cheeks.  there had been no screaming, no fighting, i couldn't imagine how he could have been hurt, so i was somewhat confused.  "what's the matter?" i asked him.  "i...i...i... don't... like... that book!" he sobbed.  "what?  why not?"  (because i thought everyone loved the giving tree...).  finn tried to suck in the drool and fight through the tears to explain to me that, "it's too sad!  the boy just gets old and then he can't do anything!  he can't climb the tree or pick apples!  he's so old and he just sits there!"  poor finn.  to this day, he doesn't even like seeing that book lying around the house, it upsets him so much.  

then, my sister mary found this picture...

well, finn, at least tracy morgan can relate.

Lent - Pete post

So I figured since Emily was supposedly "back" and then quickly gone again, I would take over for a simple post. I will list our Lenten sacrifices, and then at the end of Lent I will give us grades / critiques / praises / awards. I know awards for Lent seems to be completely contrary to the Ash Wednesday reading of the Pharisees, but just assume there will be many more critiques than awards.....so it is ok.

Jack - gave up sweets and he is going to work harder on doing chores without being asked. He is also praying a decade of the rosary for someone each night (hopefully one of them is for me since i am going to ruthlessly critique his genuinely sweet Lenten sacrifices). We will see how he does with my grade at the end, but let's just say he already asked when we could go to confession because he and Emily "forgot" and had Christine's dessert of super soft cookies and ice cream over the weekend. In his defense, when we were young, we were allowed Sundays off, but Emily is super strict, so she won't allow that....but she will allow conveniently "forgetting"....which leads me to....

Emily - also gave up sweets and is going to work on not sleeping in (which is virtually impossible when hot pad Finn sneaks into our bed like a silent ninja every night and snuggles up next to you). She just got mad at me because she saw what I was writing about, and she did not like the idea of "praising ourselves for Lenten sacrifices"....trust me, she does not deserve praise. Assuming I grant her some pregnancy lenience with "forgetting" about the cookies and ice cream, there is no excuse for sharing my milk duds. A couple mornings ago, Lucy woke up and saw an empty box of milk duds on the coffee table and said to me, "what!! You ate all those by yourself??" She had bought them for me because she knows they are my favorite (what a sweetheart), but she was horrified that I went through them all in one night. I quickly shifted the blame and said, "it wasn't all me.....mom had some". Jack popped around the corner and said, "WHAT!!! SHE GAVE UP SWEETS!!!". Busted. And this time it was personal, because I gladly would have hoarded the whole box and not shared them with her.....but I shared them like a loving husband, not realizing that I was enabling her sinful ways.

Lucy - gave up cookies and ice cream (and no, she wasn't feeling good at Christine's house, so she wasn't even tempted). So far (I imply that this is an accomplishment even though we are only 1 week into Lent), she has been the only angel. At IKEA with GG and Emily, GG told her she would buy her an ice cream cone at the end, to which Goose replied, "oh no, I can not have that....I gave it up for Lent". she also said she would work on "not wineing to my mom and dad and I will pray a deckade of the rosary for Baabee". And I have the spelling because she wrote it on an index card. I have a feeling her grade will primarily be determined by her "wineing" and not as much on her cookies and milk sacrifice.

Finn - he gave up chocolate milk and he is going to work on not picking his nose (which for the record, would be like giving up blinking for me....not possible). In the car the other day, jack said, "wait, I gave up ALL sweets and Finn only gave up chocolate milk". To which, Emily responded, "but jack, Finn drinks chocolate milk almost every day, so it is a big sacrifice for him". And Finn followed that up with, "yeah, and I pick my nose EVERY day....like ALL the time, so that one is really hard too". Booyah. Apparently it is equally impossible for Finn. And although I have not caught him yet, I am sure he is failing when he is driving to work and there are no Kleenex in the car. Let's just say his grade will be based on my own speculation, which will be dead on accurate.

Me - I gave up alcohol, except for when Pestritto is in town and on St. Patricks Day (my dad taught me the art of "exceptionally giving stuff up", which means giving up things with convenient exceptions....at least I "forget" in advance instead of the next day). And I am going to work on not sleeping in (by the way, I said I would work on this first and Emily just copied me....she is so unoriginal - I suggested that she should work on "coming up with her own ideas", but she decided she was ok in that category.....she was wrong). We will see how my grade goes, but I will admit my ability to wake up without hitting the snooze button 4 times is almost impossible (again, Finn's fault for being way too cozy). My grade will most likely be below average, but with plenty of caveats on why it is actually someone else's fault (but don't worry, I will throw in a compliment to avoid criticism....like Finn being cozy as my excuse for sleeping in....or Emily making such a great dinner that I must have a glass of wine with it....or Hazelwoods being such a great place that I must have a beer with Luke....or milk duds being so delicious that I must have a glass of scotch with them to bring out their delicious caramel flavor). I guess I can always resort to eating more milk duds instead of alcohol, which is funny, because it only tempts Emily, and she can't do it back to me with alcohol because she is pregnant and hates scotch......I truly am a loving husband.

Ok, that is about it for now. I am sure our three readers are eagerly awaiting the post-Lenten post

leap day

"nothing you do on leap day counts!  real life is for march!"

this episode of 30 rock made me laugh excessively.

if i had been more well prepared, i would have done something fun for leap day.

instead i was in court being questioned on the witness stand...

long story.

anyway, i will just have to start planning for 2016...

cousins and instagram

just a little outing with our cousins and some fun with instagram.  ruby and finn were having a lot of fun "doing the trees" on instagram to change all the different filters on the pictures.  finn declared he always liked the black and white (he's old school, like that) and ruby just insisted on seeing every single filter before choosing one at random when she was done.  my, it is fun to have cousins to grow up with.  and bagels.  it is good to have bagels in your life also.

old sweatshirts and embarrassing your kids

last week i went on a field trip with jack's class to the science center.

the morning of, i was getting lunches together and breakfast made while sporting my always stylish morning attire of pajama pants and one of pete's old baggy sweatshirts.

as i was finishing things up, jack walked up next to me and asked, "you are coming on our field trip today, right?"  "of course," i responded, not seeing where this was going.  he gently tugged at the elbow of my sweatshirt and in a very concerned, but sweet voice, asked, "you're not wearing this are you?"

oh, my.  

and so it has happened.  i have entered the days of my appearance mattering to my kids.  

part of me wanted to show up for the field trip still wearing at least the baggy sweatshirt...

*pictures are totally unrelated to the field trip.  just a few random snapshots from a family walk one weekend.

wednesdays at PAM

this afternoon we met up with our friends, the crosses, for some free museum action at the phoenix art museum.  my kids love going to this museum and i love that it is free on wednesday afternoons.  i really do love this museum, actually, not just when it is free.  they have an amazing frank lloyd wright exhibit there right now that we barely got to peek at since there is a lot my kids insist on seeing.  a nice quiet date night at the museum might be in order next time...

dissecting nursery rhymes

my kids (as all kids do) often bring up the most random topics of conversation.  they seem to be out of nowhere, but i am sure they follow some little train of thought in their own heads that i would love to be privy to.  yesterday morning finn and i went on a walk down to "the big trees" because he was hoping the mini canal that runs by it would be empty and maybe i would let him climb down in it (it was and i did).  on our way there we were talking about going to the grocery store when suddenly he started telling me about how two nights before he had a dream that he was in a boxing class with george and they had a boxing uniform that was blue shorts and a red shirt and they had boxing gloves and were practicing punching...  the story went on for a few minutes, then jumped right into the question, "in that one song, what does it mean when they say, 'pop goes the weasel'?"  uh?  weren't we just talking about boxing?  "you mean the song 'all around the mulberry bush?" i asked.  "ya.  does it mean that the weasel caught the monkey or, like, ate him or something?"  what?!  "i think it just means that he hid from the monkey who was chasing him and then popped out of the bush to scare the monkey as a joke."  are we seriously talking about this?  "no, mom.  it says, 'the monkey thought it was all in good fun,' so then when they say pop goes the weasel that means its something that's not fun."  are we really trying to dig to the deeper meaning of this?  i tried my last time.  "i think it just means that maybe the weasel wasn't having fun being chased, which the monkey thought was fun, so the weasel decided to have fun too by hiding from the monkey and then popping out and saying boo and i bet they both laughed and then they both had fun."  *sigh*  "no, mom."  clearly, i just wasn't getting it.  

i don't know if i was a stupid kid, but i certainly don't remember taking things for more than face value as a kid.  especially at 4.  or even 10.  a song was just a series of words strung together to a catchy tune that you can sing along to.  who cares what the words mean.  or in the movie seven brides for seven brothers you are just supposed to accept that it is ok for seven brothers from the back woods to sneak into town and kidnap women from their homes at night to take back to their secluded cabin and marry.  you are not supposed to question this as strange or bad.  apparently my kids didn't get that memo either...

rock-n-roll marathon

this weekend was the rock'n'roll marathon in phoenix, so we got up yesterday and headed down the street to watch some of the runners go by.  our neighbor dina was in the marathon, so lucy and finn wanted to make her signs to hold up as she ran by us.  lucy got a little impatient waiting for her to come by, but the boys seemed to enjoy the ordeal of it all.  jack decided to see how many people he could get to high five him as they ran by and finn enjoyed anyone who was dressed funny or doing something out of the ordinary, like dribbling a basketball while running.  i just love being out early this time of year with my family, going on a walk and sipping our coffee.  might fine, indeed.

and, yes, all my boys are in desperate need of haircuts...

mindy kaling

for christmas this year i was the very lucky recipient of two fantastic gifts (ok, i also got a milk frother and a new blender and some other goodies, but these two seem to be at the top of my list at the moment...  ok, really the milk frother is amazing).  anyway, i received an i-phone and mindy kaling's new book.  the phone is rad, obviously.  no need to elaborate on that one.  but, this book is fantastic.  i laughed out loud excessively and finally had to walk out of the room so as to not continue to read excerpts aloud to pete.  like when she goes on a mini-rant about how, for some reason, everyone seems to know all the words to the song "jack and diane" without ever having chosen to learn them.  and she can't help but wonder why these kids aren't at home doing homework, or helping with chores around their house.  she suggests a new song, a little ditty about "nguyen and ari," as a new song to inspire the youth of america.  i love it.  i loved this whole book.  let me know if you want to borrow it.  or you can just come over for coffee and i will be one of those annoying people who tells you so many different parts of the book (and in not nearly a funny enough re-telling) that you will finally get frustrated and say, "looks like i don't have to read that book myself now."  but seriously, pick up a copy and enjoy yourself.

instagram

for christmas, i was the lucky recipient of an i-phone.  it is extremely wonderful in general, but really what i love the very most of all is the app, instagram.  if you have an i-phone get this app.  then tell me you are on instagram so i can follow your photos and know where you are at all minutes of the day like a good stalker...
and, yes, i went to california right after receiving my new phone, hence the excessive balboa pictures.

ten years

pete and i have been married for ten years today.

crazy to think everyone was ok with letting these two little kids get married.

or at least nice enough to keep their mouths shut or whisper about it behind our backs...

anyway.

life is good.  very, very good, indeed.

i love you, pete.

i also came across this picture of pete and i in high school.

i think we were 16.

since we met when we were 15, 

i now have known pete longer than i have not known him.

if that makes sense. 

anyway, yes, i had braces. 

and, yes, i have lots of "i am very self-concious about my braces and

 therefore, smile awkwardly with my mouth closed" photos from high school.

i also noticed how very pale i look in this picture.  

apparently, i knew being paste-y white and sickly looking was cool long before twilight...

we're back... kind of.

we're going to try and make a comeback.  

no catching up on the 6 months we missed, just planning to jump in from here.  

this is for those 7 people who have been harassing me about the lack of posts.  

(erin, kim... you all know who you are...).

its a new year, so we'll see if i can stick with it...

road trip 2011 - dallas

our last major stop for the trip was dallas.  dallas is one of my very favorite places because it is home to some of my very favorite people.  we still have tons of friends in dallas from college, but two of my very closest friends and their families live there and it makes me sad we don't get to see them more often...  but we'll take it when we can get it.  we went on walks, played with our friends, rode bikes, swam, ate meals together, stayed up late drinking and chatting into the wee hours...  it is really great to have good friends.  (oh, and if you are wondering what happened to finn's eye, he fell and split it open in our hotel in chicago, the one night i didn't have pete with me - he probably should have had stitches, but there was no way i was taking all three kids in a cab to whatever downtown hospital we were closest to at 10 at night.  so, now he has quite a scar.  scars on boys are cool, though, right?  in case you can't tell, i'm still not over it...)  also, while in dallas, jack had another top 3 moment when he got to spend the night at jon and katie's house all by himself.  in jack's world, you really don't get any cooler than jon bird.  take that and throw in a sleep over and star wars wii, and you have the makings for the best night ever.  jack has also been super close to katie ever since he was a baby, so our usually hesitant child didn't even bat an eye at being away from his parents for the night.  and once again, lucy and eva acted as though they had never been apart.  i hope those little friends will be able to maintain their friendship despite their distance...  we miss you already, simeks and birds.