big fat mother buzzer

 If you missed a little fun fact about me, I don't do well with bees or anything else in the bee family. I think I've come a long way BUT I'm still terrified when I hear buzzing and my go to action is to panic and flee. But what do you do when you're in the car and there's a giant black killer bee trying to hitch a ride with you and your children to school? Exactly. I know at least half of you would panic. And that I did. 

It happened last week. I'm not quite sure how it got in our car. Either in the hour or so that one of the kids left the van door open the day before, or in the 20 minutes it took for the kids to get into the car that morning with all of their backpacks and cellos etc. It doesn't really matter though. What matters is how I got it out. 

I'm not really sure who heard the buzzing first. Maybe Mya. I turned down the radio to make sure I wasn't imagining things. I mistake lawn mowers in the distance for bees in my car on a pretty regular basis. That's something I'm not too proud of. So I turned down the radio and we heard it again. BZZZZ!!! BZZZZ!!! 

I yelled WHAT IS THAT?! Winter was brave enough to look down into the crack between my seat and the center console. She jumped back and screamed "It's a black bee thing!"  I yelled, "Okay don't freak out!" as I totally freaked out and squeeled as I pulled over as soon as possible. The kids and I jumped out and shook off our heebie jeebies. 

My inner thoughts went something like this: This isn't happening. I hate being a mom sometimes. Is there anyone else that can get this bee out?! Ugh, I don't want to do this. The kids are going to be late for school. I physically cannot remove this bee from my car. I'm too scared. Ugh I hate being a mom sometimes. I'm the adult here. I have no choice.

I yelled to the kids to get a big stick while I looked for the bee. I checked under the seats and all around where Winter spotted it. It wasn't anywhere. I had to get it out of the car before we could all get back in.

The kids spotted an exterminator truck not too far down the street and the guy was walking toward it. The kids yelled, "Look mom, a bug guy! Bug guy, come over here!" To which I responded, "No, no, no leave him alone. I don't need a bug guy to rescue me from a bee in the car." Though it was a tempting thought.

Mya said, "Mom, we need to pull the mats out." I love that she's so calm in an emergency. (Yes this qualified as an emergency) I often can see why God gave me Mya first. She's my lieutenant and often the one who keeps me in check and going the right direction. Literally. She's the one who reminds me that I'm going to Costco when I'm headed to Trader Joe's.

I responded, "Yeah, okay, let's pull the mats out." First, my driver's side mat. Nothing. Then the middle giant mat. I whined "Ahhhhh, there it is! Ugh!" Mya handed me the giant stick she found on the side of the road. I jabbed it at the bee in a repeated insane mad scared motion. Then I raked it out of the car. I kicked it to the other side of the road in case I didn't all the way kill it and it decided to fly back into the car. 

I yelled to the kids, "Hurry get in!" It lay upside down on the side of the road but I wasn't trusting that it was dead enough. 

Can we just take a minute and appreciate how brave I was? What is your worst fear? Spiders? Snakes? Imagine that one of those was in your car. I wish there was a snake in the car, or a spider. I have no beef with either of those creatures. The kids made it to school on time and my heartbeat eventually calmed down. Quite the adventure. Now, every time we get in the car, I listen for buzzing and look around to make sure there are no tiny passengers. 

In other news, we went to visit our best friends, the Higerd Fam in Capo Beach. Mari caught the reunion on video. (And took lots of the pics below) Although there are more Higerds than Wags, so many of them are besties and I love it so much. 

Winter loves seeing her BFF Grace but she also loves that the Higerds have a baby, a bearded dragon lizard, a snake and turtles. She dreams that they will adopt her one day.

And they have a trampoline.

And a pool. Yeah, it's pretty fun there. 

Addie is still older than Rosie, no matter how much taller Rosie gets. 💕

Nelly isn't super happy that Angus is cooking in her kitchen.

These two eldests share a special bond. 💗

Mya earned a 4.0 for the entire school year. She received a plaque and everything. There was a drive-by award ceremony. Parents were encouraged to decorate their cars and make lots of noise as they drove through the school parking lot. I had it marked on the calendar for Wednesday. Turns out we missed it and it was Tuesday. So, I took the kids out for ice cream to celebrate. Mya wasn't disappointed. She has sadly come to expect things like that to happen. She's always forgiving and understanding that when you have four kids, things fall through the cracks. She was happy to get ice cream instead. And of course everyone else was too. Once again, depriving them of sweets on a regular basis paid off.

                             

I keep forgetting that Angus is lactose intolerant. It's relatively new. We've purchased the fake butter and he doesn't drink milk anymore but I forget little things like, he can't have ice cream. After he ate half of his ice cream, Winter asked, "Wait, is Angus supposed to eat ice cream?" I replied, "Ugh, darn it! Oh well. Sorry Angus, your tummy's gonna hurt tonight." He replied, "Worth it."

One of the podcasts I listen to recommended these pens. Apparently, Conan Obrien uses them. I bought them because I love a good pen recommendation and they're awesome. They're my new favorites. They're so smooth and bold like it says in the name.

Amazon.com : PILOT Precise Grip Liquid Ink Rolling Ball Stick Pens, Bold Point, Black Ink, 12-Pack (28901) : Pilot Precise Grip Pens : Office Products

I wish you all a lovely long weekend as we honor those who served our nation and are no longer with us. 

wag campin' 2021

We went camping last weekend! It was a successful trip. Everyone had fun and wants to go back. I liked the campground, complete with bathrooms and showers. It can get crowded on the weekends but it's clean and everyone was pretty nice. Here's the website below if you want to check it out. It's about 3 hours up north in Kern County. I found more pics on Yelp and Instagram. We booked 3 weeks in advance so I think it's pretty easy to get a reservation.

Home | Rivernook Campground

Two cars. Two tents. One big family 😊

Angus: Going pee on the tree! (pees on tree) That was amazing!

Addie's rock family.

Otter went swimming. She was supposed to be retrieving her toy that Dan threw in the water but changed her mind and went after some ducklings in the deeper part of the river. We all realized the current was too much for her so we had to fish her out. And by we, I mean Mya and Dan. So that was exciting. I'm sure she would have just kept going after the ducks and drowned. Her heart is 4 but her body is almost 13. 💗

Angus: Ummm I need a boat.

Dan made an awesome dinner on the fire. I made some salads ahead of time. 

I accidentally shrunk one of Dan's favorite hats. But now it fits Angus perfectly.

There's a town just down the street from the campsite so we went out to dinner for Mother's Day.

Angus could sense that this was kind of a fancy place so he asked, "Mom, where do I fart?"

Angus and Addie loved playing with all of their toys in the dirt and making rock families with a sharpie. We went fishing, rode bikes, explored the river, chased squirrels, roasted marshmallows, looked at millions of stars (something we don't get to see here in Azusa) and ate a ton of snacks. That's probably the kids' favorite part of camping; the junk food they have full access to all day long.

Happy belated Mom's day to all you mommas out there! 

And a happy Tuesday to you all.

bananas, cut-offs and runnin' like forest gump

I love May. The weather is lovely and the kids are still in school. What's not to love?

Heard around here:

Angus's teacher: Bye Angus! Have a great weekend!

Angus: Bye cutie!

Me: 

Why is there a strawberry in the bathroom? 

Why is there a truck in my sink? 

Where's my brush?

Where's the tape?

Where's the good scissors?

Where's my phone? 

Where are my good sunglasses?

Angus: (instead of for pete's sake) For piece of cake!

Angus: Mommy, is water underwater?

Me: Ummm yeah.

Angus: WOW

I like to remind the kids to enjoy being children. When Angus is 35 it may be unacceptable to sit on a toy fire engine in his underwear eating a banana... depending on who his wife is.

I'm proud of myself for saving a ton of money by taking all of Addie's pants and turning them into cut-offs for the summer. Every single one of them had giant knee holes because she's been wearing them for 3 years. She grows at an incredibly slow rate.

"Mom, I got an award!" Obviously, he's not reading yet. His teacher handed this to him and told him to give it to his mom. I guess he assumed the best. I love that about him.

Dan ran 13 miles! It's a half marathon. Actually like 13.3 miles. He's 45. It's a big deal. Go honey. Prouda you 💓

This guy is 6. It happened fast and slow as most of motherhood has been. I feel like I've reached the next level of being a mom. I'm 40 and my kids are 6 and up. Looking forward to the next decade.

Angus is a fun dude to give gifts to. He's very appreciative no matter what the gift. 

He asked for policeman accessories. One of them was a badge like Dad's.

Yesterday, I woke up and blew up balloons at 5AM, Dan got donuts on his way home from work, Angus got to choose lunch (lunchables) and dinner (Chick Fil-A) and he picked out his cake at Vons. It was an easy day and Angus felt special. I wish all the birthdays could be like this forever.

I ordered Chinese tonight. Yeah, we still have the birthday table cloth on the table. The girls were happy. They love them some orange chicken. Angus silently protested with his banana.

I do not consider myself a Type-A person AT ALL. But I have a few type-A tendencies. This is one of them. I have to take out eggs from the carton symmetrically. Is it just me?

I shared my recommendation for this street corn dip from Costco last post. Well. If you wanna take it up a notch and also make it last longer, go ahead and mix it with Trader Joe's corn and chile salsa. 

Happy May!