Do Over

Can I get a do over? or better yet, can I get the chance to forget that today has ever happened?

It's been a day of Keegan not sleeping well all night long, until he finally settled down at 3:30 this morning; heartburn all night long that TUMS has nothing on; smoke alarms going off at 6 a.m. (apparently that's what happens when AJ and a 13 1/2 year old boy make breakfast that early in the morning); laptops falling and ruining the screen (and no, it wasn't ours and I'm pretty sure it's no longer covered under any kind of warranty...like I needed one more thing to have to get fixed, and it's even worse since it isn't ours, and I'm the one that wasn't paying attention so that it did fall in the first place because both of the babies were crying); being cooped up in the house for most of the day since the two babies aren't on the same nap schedule and as soon as one woke up the other went down for their nap shortly after and AJ was gone the majority of the day with the scouts on a hike, which meant I was alone for 3/4 of the day with 5 very bored kids; Keegan falling off the trampoline (at least this one wasn't my fault since I wasn't the one outside watching him at the time, AJ was); whacking Keegan's head into the door frame as I was taking him into the bathroom for his bath (only partially my fault since he decided, for whatever reason, to launch himself off to the side as I was going through the door); and plenty of tears on my part, the two 15-month-old babies parts, and the rest of the kids (not so much the two older ones, but definitely the two younger ones).

Seriously, it's been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day here in San Diego. I think I'll move to Australia.

Good Idea/Bad Idea

Good Idea: wanting to help some good friends out as a way of saying thanks for all the times they've helped us.

Bad Idea: when that help consists of watching 5 children who are not your own, or related to you in some way and who range in age from 15 months to 13 1/2, while their parents are away for 2 weeks in Brazil. What were we thinking? (thankfully we only have them for the first week and their Aunt is coming for the second).

Needless to say...it's been a crazy past few days and we still have a few more to go, hence why the lack of blogging. I have a newfound respect for anyone out there who has more than 2 kids, and who has ever had twins or more (seriously, Becky, how do you keep your sanity and keep on smiling?). I'd post pictures, but I have none and really, I think my hair is all gone.

I think next time we'll just offer to drive them to the airport. :)

P.S. I really do need to point out that they are very well -behaved kids who pretty much do as they are told and who are in bed by 8:30 at night at the latest. It's just that we aren't their parents, their schedule is totally different than ours, and I really miss my own house. It's just been stressful having more than just my boys and myself to worry about and take care of.

*on a side note, they have a gigantic trampoline which Keegan is LOVING. Seriously, he asks to "jump, jump, jump" every 5 minutes or so when we aren't outside. You can't really call what he does jumping, per se, but it's so stinking cute and he's having a blast (which makes one of us).

Reading Rainbow

While I was busy cleaning up Keegan's room today, he decided that in the midst of helping me, he needed to take a quick story break. Mind you, this was right after I had just finished putting all of his books away in their tub and he had to take them all out before he settled on "Put Me in the Zoo". He then proceeded to tell me that he wanted to sit in the rocking chair and then he read his story to me while I finished vacuuming and dusting his room. I have to say, it was pretty stinkin' cute.

It's no surprise that I love to read. It's kind of a Leach family thing I think...we all grew up seeing my mom read books and reading books ourselves, and borrowing books from the library and the book mobile (do they even still have those?). Needless to say, I'm grateful that I have a little boy that loves his books as well. He already has his favorites and they usually go into his crib with him at naptime and we end up reading them a dozen times a day. It's one of my favorite things to do with him, because he snuggles right up to my side and just sits with me (it's one of the rare times that he isn't moving during the day).

Reading, I have discovered of late, can be a very expensive habit, however. This is why I have re-discovered the joy of borrowing books from the library. It started when I had library access while working at SDSU and has continued now at the public libraries in San Diego. Seriously, my library card is one of the most well-used cards in my wallet (second only to my debit card). Keegan and I go there at least 3 times a month, sometimes as often as once a week. I can get a whole bunch of new books for him to "read" and I can explore a whole bunch of different books for me, and all for free. I love it, especially with summer coming and more time at the beach and at the park and just outside with Keegan. Plus with a week of camping at the beach coming up, I am definitely going to need some reading material for the "me" that I'm hoping to have.

So, I'm throwing a question out to all of my readers (that's right all 6 or so of you)...what's on your nightstand? What are you currently reading, or what have you recently read that you would recommend? I'm up for anything and everything, so send them all.

And I Would Walk 500 Miles....

Well, okay, not really, because let's be honest....500 miles is a really long way to walk, but it brings up something that has made me wonder lately.

Just a little background before I get to the main point of this post. The Focus has been out of commission for a few days...actually, 10 or so to be exact and it has been a good practice run on whether AJ and I could really just be a one car family or not. I think that the past week has shown that for now, we really aren't cut out to be just a one car family...mostly because AJ is nowhere near being on a regular schedule, and it's really hard to wake up a sleepy little 15-month old at 6:45 in the morning to take his dada to work, drive to the doctor's where he got 2 shots and a TB test and then drive back to work to give the car back to dad, who had to drive to the hospital for a couple of surgeries. Needless to say, until AJ has a strictly 9 to 5-type schedule we will have to keep both cars running as best we can (thank goodness for a father-in-law who was a mechanic for who knows how many years, specializing up until recently in Ford's exclusively). But I digress...

After a few days of not having a car I was going a little stir crazy, and I had some errands that I needed to run which I had put off for quite some time. More specifically, I had to go shopping at WalMart, which has to be one of my least favorite stores to go to. I'd so much rather shop at Target, but since they have torn down the old Target that was literally just up the street from us, in order to put in a much larger and better Target that will open in October, I had to go to WalMart. Not wanting to take the car from AJ (since he had hospital cases and I really didn't want to just have it for the morning and then have to go back to his work in the afternoon) and feeling particularly "exercisey" the other day, I decided that it wouldn't be a big deal for Keegan and I to make the 6-mile round trip trek from our house to WalMart. I mean, Keegan would be outside, I would have a chance to get in some much needed exercise and I'd get my shopping done. Yeah, right...best laid plans and all, right?

To be honest...it really wasn't that bad of a walk. It actually was good to break up the trip and have a little "downtime" halfway through while I meandered through the store, not because I needed to, but because the weather decided to be lame and drop 40 degrees from Sunday to Wednesday and it had started to mist right as we got to WalMart and I wasn't about to walk back home in the rain (thankfully, there was no rain). Plus, on the way there I was able to stop by our library and return our library books (there is a whole other post about how I have rediscovered the joy of borrowing books from the library...so start thinking of book recommendations...I need some new reading material, people).

Anyway, as I continue to digress..the whole reason for this post was not to talk about how I walked 6 miles, or the crazy weather we have had, but to discuss the stigma that seems to be associated with walking anywhere simply for the purpose of walking. I mean, people walk for exercise and it's not a big deal, and yet it seems to me at least that if you willingly choose to walk to the store/park/library/anywhere instead of getting into your car and driving there, you must have something wrong with you. When did this all change?

We used to walk everywhere when I was younger...or at least that's what it seemed like to me. I mean, the kids that I know of now wouldn't be caught dead walking to school and yet, that's what we always did. The only reason why we didn't walk to high school was because it was too far away...but we were only driven to elementary school and middle school when it rained. Other than that, we had to walk (remember cutting through those orange trees on occasion?). When I went up to BYU-Idaho we walked everywhere, including the grocery store (because there was a nice store that would deliver your groceries for free so that you didn't have to lug them home) and it wasn't a big deal. We were all college students and that's just what you did. And then suddenly it changed...and maybe it just changed because I no longer lived close to where I was going to school, but suddenly it wasn't ok to walk to where I needed to go. Is it just me? Is it just because I happen to live in an area where things are so spread out, or unsafe that walking isn't an option anymore? Do people really look at a pregnant woman, pushing a stroller up the street and think "Oh, how sad, she is too poor to afford a car and has to walk", or do they think "Hey, good for her, she's getting exercise and saving gas." Granted, it's the first (and probably last time for now, at least) time that I will walk to WalMart, but it's not the first time that I have walked to where I needed to run my errands rather than getting in the car and driving. I mean, the library is literally a mile away. There is a Ralph's, a Von's, a Henry's, a Long's, and come October, a Target no more than a mile and a half away. There is a Jamba Juice, a Michael's, a CVS pharmacy, a movie theatre and a Marshall's no more than 3 miles round trip from my house, and I have walked to all of them. Keegan does great in his stroller (both his single and now his double that we now have in preparation for the arrival of Jelly Bean #2), and Jamba Juice is a great treat for both of us when I decide to walk and make the trek there.

I hate that there seems to be such a stigma attached to having to walk. I don't want my kids growing up and thinking that you have to drive everywhere. Honestly, once we no longer have church at 9 a.m., I want to start walking to church on occasion, especially since it is only 1.7 miles away (just over 3 miles total). I think it would be a great break from driving, and it's a great way to save money if the gas prices keep going up like they say that they will, and I can't think of a better way to help me get the post-baby weight off. That's how a lady in my ward lost all of her weight after she had twins, so why can't I do the same thing? And while I can't promise that I will make it every week, I am certainly going to try my hardest to make sure we walk at least once or twice a month.

I mean, if we lived in New York, or pretty much anywhere in Europe, it would be weird for us to not be walking. People can't usually afford the luxury of one car, let alone 2 in those places. I've been through parts of Europe and they have such wonderful public transportation there really isn't a need to have a car, and nobody cares if you are riding the bus or not. So why is it such a weird thing here? Why do so many people think that it's "horrible" if you have to take the bus? or am I the only one that seems to think people seem ashamed of having to wait for a bus (and am I just projecting how I would feel if people saw me waiting at a bus stop?). Is it just a California-type stigma, or do you deal with it where you live too?

*That having been said...I am grateful that I now have my car back...mainly so that Keegan and I can now go to the zoo again, and the beach, and Sea World, and the pool because those places really are just way too far to walk.