My name is Stacy and...

I'm addicted to sleep.

My kids are trying their hardest to break me of that addiction, but it's so hard.

Some days, it's all I can think about.  I obsess over whether or not I can sneak in a nap, fight the heavy eyes that inevitably arrive around 5pm, and swear every day that this will be the night that I'm going to bed as soon as the kids do.

The cravings  for sleep become especially bad around 5:30 am, when my bright sunny baby boy takes the "break mom from her sleeping habit" shift and keeps me awake until it's time to get ready for the day, at which time Ian gets to go back to bed and the other kids take over.

Nice of Ian to be pulling his weight, right?

Things went especially well last Friday, when Ian's wakeup call came at 5am courtesy of a wet diaper soaked to his armpits.  Once I changed him, he was all kicks and grins.  I groaned, realizing I was done sleeping for the night, and hauled downstairs so the other four people snoring upstairs could continue sleeping in peace.  (And yes, I did shoot daggers at all of them as I went downstairs.) By 6:30, the other kids were stirring and Ian was ready to go back to bed.  All I wanted was to close my eyes for a few minutes.  I told the girls to watch Max and went back upstairs.  Just as I had drifted back into my oh-so-peaceful slumber, I was awoken by the shrieking of the smoke detector.

Do you have any idea how alarming (yes, pun intended,) that is?

Abby had decided to make eggs for breakfast. 

Needless to say, she is no longer allowed to use the stove without an adult present, and our house smelled like burned eggs for the rest of the day.  (Yummy!)

I don't think I've actually slept through the night since somewhere around 2006.   I don't think my poor body knows how to sleep that long anymore.

So like I said, I'm obviously an addict.  If they have a 12 step program, sign me up.  Just think how much I could get done if I didn't have to sleep every day! 

Naps are wasted on the young.  They never appreciate them.

We went to Hawaii, did you know?

 I know you all want to hear all about it.  I've decided that blogging about vacations has become the virtual equivalent of strapping someone down and forcing them to watch your slide show.   

We managed to leave 3 out of 4 kids with Grandma and Grandpa.  Everyone said "Oh, I'm so sorry you had to take your baby."  I wasn't.  First of all, easy is always one less than you currently have.  So taking one out of four?  Piece of cake.  And second, Ian and I are pretty attached.  Literally. So Ian became our interpid little traveler.  And he really only hated the first flight, so that was something.

Our first day was tourist day, and when we were hungry we decided to sample some of the local eats.  It was my goal to eat my way through Hawaii. 

 A local delicacy, apparently.  Rice, seaweed, eggs, and spam.  Really, it wasn't nearly as revolting as it sounds.

We were obedient little diners.  That may just have been the best shrimp I have ever eaten. 

We loved to see the temple.

We headed over to the Polynesian Cultural Center where I managed to get myself tatooed,

Tom threw spears,

Ian ate camera straps,

And charmed everyone he came into contact with.

We hit the beach, where Ian ate sand and adventured into the ocean.  He didn't like it much.

We also sampled some of Honolulu's night life, where we got suckered into holding two giant parrots and then were expected to give a giant tip.

And Ian learned to sleep everywhere, including his stroller.

After a few days on Oahu, we left our hotel and our glorius view of the beach,

And flew to Maui, where we found oursleves in another spectacular hotel, with a magnificent view, that only looks like a postcard.

It turns out the Celestial Kingdom has been hiding on Maui all along.  Who knew?  It had a much different feel than Oahu, and we loved it there.  We're already scheming a way to get back.

I love this picutre.  We had just gotten done swimming, (when I said Ian could fall asleep anywhere, Iw asn't kidding.  He fell asleep in the swimming pool!) and he was curled up asleep on me.  I had a book, and was just setttling in when this wonderful woman appeared out of nowhere and asked me what she could get me to drink.  I asked her what they had and she told me she could get me anything I wanted.  So the nice magic lady brought me a raspberry smoothie, a container of gourmet chips, and I was in heaven.  Beach?  check.  Sleeping baby?  Check.  Warm sun? Check.  Fruity drink?  Check.  The only thing missing was someone fanning me with palm fronds.  We snorkeled with sea turtles, people!  Sea turtles!  Hands down, one fo the coolest things I've ever done in my life.

So the truth is, Hawaii is all its cracked up to be.  We loved every minute of it.  Okay, except for the four flights and four airports it took to get us home.  But you can bet we'll be making our way back there as soon as possible.  Because seriously folks, it doesn't get much better than Maui. 

Extreme Violining: Year 15 (And a Winner!)

I have a winner for the mymemories.com software giveaway! Sorry it's late- I've moved into my parents' house for the week and am computerless. Well, except for my trusty phone, which I'm learning is super annoying to write a blog post on.

Anyway, the winner as chosen by random.org is commenter #11- Shar! Shar, send me an email and I'll let you know what you need to do.

So this week, we're once again at our favorite violin institute. For the uninitiated, it's basically an intense week-long violin camp. Today I think Abby clocked roughly 6 hours of playing, and then another 1.5 of practice outside of her classes. It's a long week. Add to that major jet lag, a vacation hangover, and a baby whose sleep schedule has been shot all to Hell, and you get the recipe for what we had today: epic meltdowns from all three kiddos. (And no, I didn't miscount, Ashlynn was lucky enough to escape the madness this year and stay home with Dad.)

In all fairness, we love our institute. Abby is more driven than she's ever been before, and is having a ball. I'm trying to keep the baby happy, and chatting it up with all my violin friends. Max is hanging in the day care, and Ian is convinced that he can't possibly sleep more than two hours in a shot. I figured out today that this is my 15th or 16th year at ISSI, and while it's a lot of work, it's also an amazing experience for her and for me.

And I do have Hawaii pics. And I know you all want to see them and hear about how the Celestial Kingdom has been hiding on Maui all this time. But all I have is an iPhone, and I'm pretty convinced I couldn't find a power cord to my camera if I tried, so you'll just have to wait.

In the meantime, listen to about 367 versions of Twinkle and then you can feel like you're right her with me!

Paradise Found

This is the view from my hotel balcony, taken about 5 minutes ago.

This too.  We have a really big balcony.

So far, we've eaten ourselves sick, spent the day at the Polynesian Cutural Center, and taken the baby to the beach.  He loved the sand, but the waves in his face weren't his favorite.

It's paradise.

Right now, my husband is at his convention, the baby is taking a long-overdue nap, and I'm going to go enjoy a fruity drink, a novel, and the sound of waves crashing on the beach. 

A confession and a GIVEAWAY!!!

OK folks, I have a confession to make.

Are you ready?

I'm a Mormon Mommy Blogger

AND

I don't scrapbook.

I know.  I can hear the gasps from here.  It's practically written into my religion isn't it?  Every good Mormon mom must make funeral potatoes, have big hair, and scrapboook.

I've just never gotten into it.

Don't get me wrong.  I think scrapbooks are awesome.  I love looking at the layouts other people do, and admiring the creativity and hours of painstaking work that must have gone into every page.  My sister does amazing scrapbooks, and I've often joked that I would hire her in a heartbeat to put ours together.  Problem is, I don't know that I actually have that kind of money!

BUT.

I had a chance to review an awesome digital scrapbook program.  Now this, this is something I could really get into.  Sitting at the computer?  Check.  Pressing a button to choose all the cute page layouts, decorations, fonts, and none of it involving scissors or whatever that fancy little paper-cutting machine is called?  Check.  Idiot proof?  Hey, if I can make it work, anyone can.

So check this out.  Within an hour of downloading the program for their site, (which was incredibly easy,) I was creating scrapbook pages.  They have album after album of layouts you can choose, and everything you could ask for was at the click of the mouse.

Now, being as I'm a scrapbooking novice, to be honest, I didn't know what half the buttons and options were for.  But that's what makes this program great- if I can use it, then certainly anyone can, whether you have a lot or no experience!  The bonus is, if I made a mistake or it was something I didn't like, I just clicked the little "undo" arrow- there was no re-cutting, re-gluing, or saying naughty words and throwing the ruined page in the trash.  In fact, I'm really excited to put my girls in front of it and see what they can do.  Maybe they should make their own baby books!

Here's the fun part:  I get to give a copy of this away, totally free!  (And it's my first ever giveaway, so I'm super excited!)  It's a digital download, so you'll be creating in no time.  Here's the rules:  (you could probably all recite them by now!)

**One entry for hopping on over to mymemories.com and telling me what your favorite was.

**A second entry for following me.  (Gotta stroke my ego somehow!)  Let me know if you already do- that counts too!

That's it folks.  That's all there is to it!  Contest will run until next Monday, June 13th, at 9 pm or whenever I manage to get on the computer.

OH!  And the folks at mymemories.com are giving a $10 discount if you order the software with this coupon code: STMMMS32773.  Go check it out.  I promise its cool.

And with that, I'm boarding a plane with my husband and baby son, who is too little to leave, (I don't have anyone who loves me enough to keep a 6 month old exclusively breastfeeding baby for a week.  I can't blame them!) for a week in Hawaii.  Here's the best part: because it's a working trip for my husband, everything, including my airfare is free! And, he works in "destination management" which means we're going to be staying in five star resort hotels.  I may never come home.  Whee!

Disclosure: While I was given a free copy of the software to review, all the opinions are mine.

Three for Thursday

1. Three of my favorite Pandora.com stations:
-Glee!  This one has been on a lot lately.  What can I say?  Ian likes it when I sing showtunes at the top of my lungs! 
- Lily Allen, Regina Spektor, Coldplay.  Love it!
- Mormon Tabernacle Choir.

2. Three lessons learned since I have graduated from high school:
- Being the grownup isn't all the fun and freedom that you thought it was.
- You might not ever actually feel like the grownup.
- People are more important than things.  (Still working on this one.)

3. Three people I was remembering on Memorial Day:
- Both my grandmas, one who passed away about three years ago, and one recently.
- My two brothers who died almost three years ago.
- My sister, who lives too stinkin' far away!


4. Three favorite Youtube videos:
-This one.  But be warned, it's a little dirty.  And not at all appropriate for kiddos.  But it's really funny.
-This one has been making the rounds on Facebook.  It makes me smile because I don't remember the last time I slept without at least one little person next to me.
-There are lots of homebirth videos on Youtube, and I probably watched hundreds when I was pregnant.  Love this one.

5. Three bad habits
- Staying up too late when I have to teach lessons at 6:15 am.
- Playing too much on the iPhone.
- Eating just because it's there.

6. Three foods I will NEVER put in my mouth
- Olives
- Cottage Cheese  (I literally just shuddered thinking about it!)
- Shark/squid/eel  I love seafood, but for some reason, that just takes it a little bit too far!

7. Three things that sounded like a good idea at the time
- Buying a tiny townhome in 2008, thinking it was just going to be for a year and a half, two tops.
- Taking Max to Chick-fil-a.
- Taking the kids on a trip when my husband was in Germany.

8. Three things that make me a “mean mom” (aka a GOOD mom)
- Consistent Bedtimes. 
- Teaching responsibility through chores and music practicing.
- Letting them learn some things the hard way.


9.  Three Pictures:

 Ian, helping Mom fold the laundry.  The shot could also be called "Look at my cute dimple!"

 He was supposed to be sleeping.  He didn't get the memo.

This was a house in my neighborhood a few days ago.  Things that make you go "huh?"

10. Three things I'm supposed to do today:
- Teach lots of violin lessons.
- Fold laundry so that we all have clean undies to wear tomorrow.
- Start checking off my "to-do before we leave for Hawaii" list.  It's a long list.  But it's Hawaii.  I can work with a long to-do list.



OK, that was fun.  I got the idea from Wonderwoman, who got the idea from Evelyn, where I'm linking up.  Happy Thursday!