so i asked the husband what his bucket list would be.

he thought for a moment and then said, "i'm living my bucket list."

you know what? except for the beach vacation and swimming with dolphins (which could totally be combined) i'm pretty much living mine too.

how's that for ridiculously simple?

it has not been big J's week. first the whole Playground Dual thing. then yesterday he comes home with a note from his teacher that basically said, "He spent from 2:45 until 3:15 laying on the floor behind the bookshelves doing nothing."

he told me wasn't actually laying there doing nothing. he was looking under the bookshelves for his spelling words.

um. yeah. whatever.

so he gets in trouble from me, loses his DS for an unannounced period of time and is told to suck it up, act like a man and be more responsible. i also made him write an apology to his teacher.

while he was at it, he took it upon himself to write a note to his dad (which i secretly applauded as a genius move, dad loves that kind of stuff).

anyway. the note said, "Dear Dad. Today I was not listening in class. i got in major trouble. I just decided to suck it up and write you this so you don't have to deal with it."

two things: i realize i should be careful about the way i phrase things. the words "suck it up" were probably not the right ones to use on an impressionable young mind. second, i thoroughly enjoyed the "so you don't have to deal with it" portion of the letter. again, have to give the kid kudos for his attempts at avoiding Dad's Big Lecture.

the best part is, the ploy actually worked. i am thinking that the next time i screw up, i will write the husband a nice letter telling him he doesn't have to deal with it. i'll let you know you it goes.

update to the exciting saga below (read the exciting saga before you read this)

the husband decided to go have lunch with the boys at school today since he is off.

he said he walked into the lunchroom and noticed big j sitting right next to the girl.
and during lunch, one of her little buddies peeped up with "j kissed k today"

i guess that's how he decided to solve the problem.

and you thought this stuff only happened when they were teenagers...

so last night i hear from big j's best buddy that big j is scheduled to fight another boy over a girl, today at lunch recess. this happens to be the girl that big j has proclaimed as his "girlfriend" since kindergarten. apparently, another dude is making his move, and big j challenged him to a dual.

i tell big j that i heard about the fight. i told him that if he does fight, he will be in huge trouble at school and at home. i also gave him all the talk about girls being just friends and not worth fighting over and it's her choice who she likes, yadda yadda.

when i went in to tell him to hurry up with the shower, he's bawling his eyes out. he tells me in a tragic voice, "you have ruined my life, mom. thanks. now i'll lose my girlfriend forever!"

it was all i could do not to giggle, but i held it together and decided that this was a father/son kind of conversation. i told the husband he needed to help the little guy get it together.

i put little j to bed and could not help but listen to the deep conversation coming from the next room. the husband told big j that this was ultimately his choice, but that he needed to weigh the bads against the goods. together, they listed all the bad things that would happen if there was a fight at school: trouble at school, trouble at home, loss of DS, possible injury, the girl might not like him anyway, etc.

big j listened to all the negatives but still proclaimed that the choice was hard. he said, "dad, i think maybe you just don't understand about this kind of stuff." then he said, "we live in a small town. there are only 7 girls in my class. if i don't get the one i want, i will never get married." the husband told him that he had plenty of time to find a wife, and that he'd probably find her when he went off to college. the conversation went on and on, and big j was still in turmoil. finally, he decided to sleep on it.

this morning he told me that he had made the decision not to fight, but that he still would not lose the girl. he looked pretty determined. i'm not real sure what his plan is, but as i looked at my son with his jaw set, i felt my heart take a dive. his teenage years are going to be PAINFUL ones. get ready for some drama, people.

so on sunday i decided to go into sioux falls to find some desperately needed jeans. i was determined to go it alone, a woman on a mission. i literally had to fight the steering wheel to turn into the dreaded mall. i really just wanted to go to scheels, but decided that enough fleece is enough (or is it?) besides, i needed jeans. and i was determined to purchase them in a store that didn't also sell kayaks.

so. first stop was the gap, which is usually my go-to store for jeans. they make 'em tall. but apparently, they also make them at buttcrack level.

onto the next store.

and the next.

you know, i've never really had trouble buying jeans until this stupid low rider trend came along.

and the next.

and the next.

i hate this mall and i hate jeans and i am going to just wear nothing but sweats forever more.

and the next.

and i am so outa there.

i came home jeanless but happy to jump into my faithful under armour sweats.

fast-forward to tonite. i had to go into SF for a few things, and decided to make my mandatory stop at (AH!) scheels. and there they were. totally folded up in my size, super dooper cute and covering up every inch of my buttcrack. the jeans. at scheels. purchased in less than 10 minutes.

i will never ever stray again.

ok, so we all know how sucky the weather has been. -22 is just plain stupid. but, i've been noticing something about things that make me frustrated, like really ridiculously cold weather and broken ford explorers.

when they are back to normal, i am SO HAPPY.

today i took little j to junior kindergarten at 11, got out of the newly fixed and oh-so-high-off-the-ground explorer and seriously basked in the 9 degree sunshine. really. can life get any better than a temperature above zero, sunshine, white snow and a vehicle that isn't a 1999 grand am?

i think not.

ok, this post is for all you with front load washing machines. ours has been having a tough time draining. then two days ago, water started pouring out of the closed door all over the floor.

the husband fixed it last night, courtesy of my brother.

my brother told us that when their front load stopped draining, they took off a panel (ours is the big panel along the bottom of the washer, i think some of them are up by where you put in the detergent) and inside that panel was the drain pipe. he said we would find all kinds of good stuff in there.

i totally wish i would have taken a picture of the treasures that came out of this thing. money, jewelry, paper, tape, the padding inside one of my swim suits, a pen, rubber bands, big globs of lint, buttons, you name it. it was nasty. but now i'm running a load of laundry and it is working like a charm.

so, before you take the ax to your machine or call a repairman, check the drain pipe!

somebody in this house is pretty psyched that the steelers made it to the play-offs next weekend.

if they make the superbowl, he said he's throwing a party with his own money.

so that bag of chips ought to taste pretty good. :)

go steelers!

monday morning i woke up to a present wrapped in christmas paper on my dresser. it was from the husband. i opened it and found an ipod nano and an armband so i could wear it while i run.
i loved the gift, of course, but felt really bad about getting it. see, i gave the husband a lot of crap for his christmas shopping skills. on christmas eve i opened a cross necklace and some cross earrings...and then another cross necklace...and some more earrings... then a picture frame with a bible verse on it...and then i realized (and said outloud in front of everyone) "did you buy my presents at the hospital gift shop?"

he had. seriously, the guy had been burning the candle at both ends for weeks and the gift shop was right there at work. and the gifts were nice. you can never be too religious, right? but i had to ride him about it. and ride him about it. and giggle and poke fun. and now i feel bad.

the ipod is great, but it's a guilt gift and i'm not sure i'll ever be able to use it without remembering why i got it.

that's what i get for making fun of too many cross necklaces.

sorry God.

ok, i am ready to get my life back on track. the last few weeks have been just nuts. we went from having company straight into a ski trip and then straight into a weekend hockey tournament. my weird need to hermit at least a few times a week has been totally knocked off kilter. i'm dying for a day alone to totally get organized and caught up and worked out and.... really, i just need to exhale.

i've been reading a lot of resolutions. i don't really have any. there are plenty of things i need to work on--the same things i vow to work on every year. i really think my big thing this year is to try to be a better karen. if you know my karen at all, you know what i mean. i need to keep in better touch with people, think about others more, do things for others, listen better, talk less, call more. i'm so blessed to have such awesome friends, i just need to not let those friendships be on cruise control all the time. having chris here for thanksgiving was a big reminder of that.

at any rate, i guess many of YOU are my resolution. if you haven't heard from me in awhile (rani, it's ridiculous that we live in the same town and i see you so little) feel free to kick me in the butt. thanks.

well, the ski trip and new years eve were really fun...unfortunately, i did not take any pictures. BUT, i did happen to snap this little shot of the trip home. yep, that's the explorer, getting hauled into murdo, south dakota on the back of the tow truck. our alternator conked out on us on the way home.. in the end, it wasn't so bad. our neighbors were right behind us, so we piled into their big rig and got a ride home...eight of us plus all our ski gear and all our luggage and all our ds games beeping and singing for three hours. good times. we get to go back to the lovely town of murdo next week to retrieve the ride. the year is sure starting out on a high note.

now back to the skiing. the first day we battled 50 mph winds up there. it was kinda crazy, but we made the best of it. the next day was really pretty, and we had a blast. by the end of day two and we were hard pressed to keep up with the two littlest ones, grace and josh. they were suicide bombers.

new years eve was spent at a huge indoor waterpark where we all got to go "down the toilet" on a waterslide that shot you out of a dark tunnel into a bowl that sucked you back down into another dark tunnel. after a long day of skiing and a night of water, my crew was in bed by 11. i actually think the kids would have stayed to ring in the new year, but the husband and i were done. we just aren't the rock stars we used to be :)

happy new year.