On strike

Amelia is on a napping strike. It started last week and has trickled into this week. Multiple times a day she will tell me

"no nap."

She is obsessed with having fun. I desperately need my down time especially in a house of four little people under the age of 8. I need her to nap like a frat house needs its beer bong. Naps are like crack. I neeeeeed them! It's when I get things done or when I get nothing at all done and sit on ass peacefully! For one whole hour, sometimes two, I get to relax for a moment uninterrupted from the dramatic pleas of two year olds. I love naps. Lehlahni, the little girl I baby-sit for almost always conks out for a nap without a problem as long as she has her two blankets and a pacifier. Amelia is much more challenging. She needs her pillow situated just so and her pink blanket not her purple one, and while I am at it her music box on, and her dog stuffed animal not her doll. While demanding all of these nap time essentials she looks at me like there is something seriously wrong with me. Like how could I have not known that today of all days she must have her black stuffed dog with the red collar. How stupid must I be for thinking her doll would suffice when clearly today she needs her dog! After all of that preparation she makes her way down stairs not 5 minutes after I have turned off her bedroom light. Casually she will say

"hey mom." She always has a cute little innocent smile on, along with that adorable bed tousled hair and will try to charm me with one of her toys by saying "I share with you."

She is one charming little manipulator. When I force her back up to her room there is always a big protest and crocodile tears.


After these little episodes she will take a fake nap for half an hour-45 minutes tops. Afterwards she has a severe case of the grouch. By the time 5 o'clock rolls around she is foaming at the mouth and has sprung a second head. Amelia is not cute without a nap. As result of the nap protest she lost it at the dinner table last night when I handed her a piece of bread instead of salad.

"Salad! Salad! I want salad, Saaaallllllllllllllaaaadddddddddd!!"

Our daughter is a psychopath. After the salad incident there was the shoe one, where I dared to put her shoes on her feet instead of allowing her to do it. Clearly that was the wrong thing to do.

Without her naps the girl is a wreck. At this rate she will be a frightening teen. When I envision my kids as teenagers I break out in a cold sweat. I was the most atrocious punk of a teen. I worry that I will be paid back in full with Amelia. She is two and already my teen years are looking good. I am in for it.

Camping again

This weekend we experienced the greatest camping trip of our lives. There were exactly three aspects that made it fantabulous.

1. The weather (beautiful)
2. Sammy (for being so funny and looking after the little ones)
3. The adventure

Camping with 8 children can have its ups and downs. There's the fighting, the name calling, the intake of way too many cookies and juice. There's the whining, the dirt and grim, the ganging up on one kid, and the temper tantrums. I think we have all finally gotten the swing of this camping thing. We have realized the importance of putting the kids to bed at a decent hour for some adult time. Most importantly we have learned that if given the oppurtunity all our kids can act like embarassing punks. We have finally gotten the hang of what kind of food to bring. The Lettows are good for their food, the Colts for Sammy (Amelia and Fletcher's adopted mommy) and the Braun's for our good looks and charm of course.




We surfed this weekend, we meaning the ladies, Nicole, Molly and I. It was a first for all of us. I think we were all kind of impressive for first timers. I was proud of myself for getting out there. I have this extreme fear of the ocean that wasn't helped by watching that frightening movie--Open Water, oh, and Jaws at the tender age of ten. I still sometimes hop into bed for fear that's jaws is underneath it trying to bit my ankles off.

There were a few moments out in the water where I thought I saw something swimming by me. I had to scream over to Aaron to stand by me and ask him if he thought I might be eaten alive by a man hungry shark. He thinks I'm crazy. I know that I am crazy. I think I am falling in love with surfing despite the whole shark thing.

roughing it

Last weekend we went on our first camping trip of the summer. Oddly enough we camped in Santee, just a quick drive down the 52 from where we live. The kids had a great time catching tad poles in the lake and running around like little holligans. On Saturday morning Aaron came up with the genius idea to figure out if we could find a hiking trail that led to our house. Sure enough we found one. Aaron, Steve, 6 boys under the age of 12, and I, set out on a mini adventure. In all it took about 2 hours to get to Tierrasanta where we were able to eat otter pops from our fridge and swim in our pool, now if that's not roughing it I don't know what is.

Here are some photo's from our adventure:

David by far was the greatest little hiker in our group. He will be a future athlete for sure

Jamie and big jake. They are old enough to find hiking tiresome amd boring. We nicknamed them the my little ponies. We are mean!

These guys were nicknamed the hardcore group (minus Andrew who hung back with the my little ponies) because they kept up with the grown ups and didn't complain.

Mr. Braun

juice break

Scary trantula that Nicole, Aaron, and Steve found on the hike home.

The single life

Aaron has been out on one of his dive trips since Monday. He was gone all of last week as well. I'm kind of over it. The kids started their summer break on Monday. Jake and Amelia are already at each others throats. Jake likes to play this game with her where he says,

"Your not Amelia, you're a ladybug, oh wait no you're a bee, or a ghost, no your a horse."

Amelia will scream and yell about how she is not any of those things she's Amelia! She gets really mad and kicks her little legs and crosses her arms. Jake loves it. There is nothing more enjoyable to him then making her freak out. As a result, Amelia will come up to me several times a day, for no reason at all just to let me know "I am Amelia." She will stand there patiently waiting for me to agree that she is in fact Amelia. Sometimes, because I have a mean streak, I will say something like "are you sure your Amelia, or are you a butterfly." This does not make her happy. I am a little bit evil.


I am not at all adjusted to life with the boys being around 24/7. My quiet house is filled with the loudness that two boys bring to a home. This afternoon I walked into the kitchen to find Jacob forcefully shoving popcorn into Amelia's tiny mouth.

"She wouldn't stop asking me for some of my popcorn so I decided to give her a lot."

I never thought I would ever have a conversation with him about overdosing his sister on popcorn. Jacob makes things interesting around here. He keeps me on my toes.

I feel like the boys constantly want to eat. They are always hanging out by the fridge looking to scarf something down. The other day Andrew told me he was so hungry he could eat Jacobs head.



I have not made a single dinner since the departure of Mr. Braun. On Monday we walked to the local Chinese joint. Its two blocks away and Andrew begged me to drive

"but its sooooooo far." he whined

If you strain your neck in our living room you can literally see it, it's not sooooo far!


The lady working the night shift seemed pretty put out when I said "for here" instead of to go. She snatched up all but one set of chopsticks from the table saying

"I don't want them", while motioning towards the boys, "sticking these up their noses."

Andrew was pretty outraged that she implied he would stick anything up his nose. Jacob thought it was downright hilarious. Because Andrew is 8 and can basically get away with saying anything that suits him in the moment he said very matter of factly

"why would someone stick chop sticks up their nose?"

Our waitress ignored him. I was wondering the same thing. I went ahead and assumed that perhaps our waitress had witnessed an extremely traumatic chop stick nostril moment. Maybe she has been marred by the experience leaving her to flinch at the very sight of chop sticks in little boy's hands.

When our food came the boys were pretty bummed out about not being able to eat with chop sticks. They always eat Chinese food with chopsticks. That's the fun in Chinese food. I motioned the waitress over and asked her to bring two more sets of chop sticks. She was annoyed and let out a irratated sigh.

I didn't care. I was glad that I was assertive enough to ask because I never am. Normally I would have just let her go on believing that all little boys shove chopsticks up their noses. Maybe I taught her a valuable lesson!


I only have one more day as a single parent. I'm looking forward to Aaron being back home so I can regain my sanity!

My little knuckle heads:

virtually me

This is what I spent about an hour doing last night. Hilarious!

This is Texan Siobhan:

The funny thing is that for my sisters wedding the hairstylist did a practice style that looked almost identical minus the bleach blonde hair. My dad would not stop laughing to the point that it was irratating

Me with brown hair, not cute!

The me that would wear acid washed jeans, fake nails, and tube tops

This is newscaster me

Mom by day, seedy lounge singer by night

PTA, Tupperware selling, sweater set wearing, me

With Jennifer Aniston hair:

Jessica simpson hair:

Some what normal:

DIY hair cut

Reason #1 why I should never, ever take it upon myself to cut my kid's hair:

The look on her face is priceless it's as if she is saying "why did you do this to me!"

My sister's wedding

I lost my voice the day before my sisters wedding. There was much speculation as to how it happened; allergies from the new climate, the abnormally late night out we had the Thursday before the wedding filled with drinking and smoking, nerves, all the stress of helping to put on the wedding, or just a common case of laryngitis. In all honesty I don't know how it happened, perhaps a combination of all those things. All I know is that not being able to speak above a whisper is really, really, annoying! At least I served as some comical relief for our family and friends, that and they were all spared my karaoke rendition of girls just want to have fun!

The wedding was amazing and perfect, one of the most special experiences of my life. The days leading up to it were chaotic and stressful but it was worth it because the wedding was a blast! I loved being able to spend time with my family, Chicago friends, and getting to know my brother in law a ton better. I adore my family. I couldn't ask for a more charmingly flawed group of individuals to share my slice of life with. My favorite moments included waking up in the morning to see my mom and Andrew collecting shells on the beach through one of the big bay windows, swimming in the ocean with aunt Anna and my uncle Pat, Getting to know my cousin Sean better, seeing how excited my brother is over Desiree's pregnancy, watching Aaron be amazing with my family, hearing Roger Jordan sing dancing queen, the way Roger and Aaron worked so hard to make sure Michelle's wedding was flawless, seeing how much Jacob adores Desiree (my sister in law), and dancing with wild Amelia at the reception.

Here are some pictures from our trip:

Me, michelle, and Desi (my bro's wife)

The three most important men in my life: My Dad, Aaron, and my Grandpa

Dad with Michelle

Me and Michelle (look how huge my chin is, I could knock someone out with that thing!)

Jacob is being a bit of a basket case about people looking at him, ha!

My good looking siblings (doesn't Roger look like Will Ferrell?)

My mom (in the white and green) with her sisters and one daughter

Just married!

The wedding party

Aaron and I

The whole family, we are pale and proud!