Mar. 31: My summary of March

Wow, that month went kinda fast. Yikes.

Special days I celebrated this month and how:

There were no major holidays for us this month, but we did go on vacation for the first time in eleventy years, so that was a pretty big celebration.

We spent six days in Southern California, three of them at the Disneyland Resort. Katie and Jack hadn’t been there since 2006, so this was a completely different vacation than we’d had with them before. There were new attractions to experience, and both kids were older/taller, allowing them to try rides they hadn’t been able to in earlier visits.

One HUGE step was that Victor and I actually separated from the kids a couple times and went off to do the too-scary-for-our-weeeener-kids rides (Tower of Terror and California Screamin’) ourselves. We were proud of them for being conscientious—they quickly responded when we texted them—and for Jack allowing Katie to be in charge for brief moments. However, we’re still a long way from leaving them on their own OUTSIDE a Disney park.

Cars Land, the newest area of California Adventure, definitely lived up to the hype—it was like walking through a set of the movie! The refurb of it’s a small world was very cute. Vic and Katie loved World of Color (Jack and I napped at the hotel instead). I’ll write up a more thorough trip report when I get the chance, but for now I’ll just say that *almost* start-to-finish, this was one of the best vacations we’ve ever been on.

Books I read this month:

• Disney travel books, mostly.
• The new book by my favorite Crappy Blogger, Parenting: Illustrated with Crappy Pictures. Very funny.
• My attention span is still frustratingly short and although I’ve started reading several books, I haven’t finished much. During April we run a reading incentive program at school, and I plan to participate along with the kids, so hopefully April’s month-in-review post will be more book-y.

Movies and TV shows worth mentioning:

• Wreck-It Ralph was way cuter than I expected.
• United 93. You forget about the intense emotions of that day in 2001 until you watch this kind of movie, this very dramatic, incredibly sad story, and then everything comes flooding back. It took a Disney vacation to get me out of the funk—I don’t mean to make light of it at all, but for me, it requires a complete removal from normal life to get 9/11 out of the very front of my mind.
• I know I watched other movies and TV shows in March, but the fact that I can’t remember them now probably means they weren’t worth mentioning.

New recipes or restaurants I tried:

• I’ve eaten at In-N-Out Burger in the past, but we tried it again on vacation and I had forgotten how tasty those burgers are! Yum. Why the company prints Bible verses on all their paper goods, though, I do not know.
• California Adventure has a new beverage that we thought was surprisingly delicious: Red’s Apple Freeze. It’s apple-flavored with a hint of toasted marshmallow and fruity foamy topping. Sounds gross, but it wasn’t.

Special or unusual purchases I made:

• A cape. Yes, this was an unusual purchase. Do you buy a cape every month? Katie needed one for Super Hero Day at school, and we’ll all need them for Relay for Life this summer, which is super hero-themed, so I’ll be ordering a bunch more soon. Yay!
• This phone case for Vic, possibly one of my favorite etsy finds ever:

• A dog bowl. I know, super exciting, huh? Lucy tends to inhale her food, and sometimes that makes her sick but mostly it makes her want MORE FOOD RIGHT NOW I MEAN IT, and that’s annoying. I found these fancy dog bowls with big raised sections in the bottom that supposedly make dogs eat more slowly, but I knew they wouldn’t work for Lucy because they are plastic and she thinks plastic equals chew toy. Fortunately, I was able to find a stainless steel bowl that promises the same slow-eating effect. It was ridiculously expensive, but Lucy is eating more slowly now and not being quite so demanding. S’good.

This month’s disappointments:

• I found out that I didn’t actually have all the dental work I needed done last month. I could have SWORN they said “You need a root canal. [blah blah blah…] We’ll do that for you today if you’d like.” Apparently they just did the prep, so I go in next week to have the actual root canal done. Grrr…
• We saw Nicole Richie and Joel Madden with their kids in California Adventure. Here’s the disappointing part: why no Lionel?
• I was absolutely exhausted just two days into our trip. At home I feel like my energy level has improved so much since going through my zapping chemo regimen, but trips like this—the go-go-go kind—remind me that I’m still not back to normal. Or maybe I’m just old and feeble. Either way, bummer.
• I came home with several blisters on my feet and a bad sunburn. (And yet, totally worth it.)
• Still no pony.

My accomplishments:

• I take no credit for this myself, but the kids had dental exams and OMG, no cavities! Considering the fact that Jack’s dental hygiene techniques are typical of an 11-year-old boy (when he says that YES, he brushed his teeth, we have to ask a follow-up: “TODAY???”), this is very good news and an accomplishment to be celebrated. With Pixy sticks and cotton candy, obvy.
• Another accomplishment I cannot take credit for is the fundraising we did for a new baseball field at the school, inspired by a sweet first grade boy who died on Dec. 31. We raised $2,000 easily—having a great cause certainly made all the difference.
• I always try to clean thoroughly before we leave home for any length of time because it’s so nice to come home to a neat house. In the end, though, the rush to get packed and out the door means lots of cleaning tasks are often left undone. Not this time! We managed to do all the laundry in the house, scrub the floors, straighten bedrooms, clean the kitchen, and leave the house virtually spotless. Coming home from vacation has rarely been so lovely.

Anything else noteworthy:

Just a few things that gave me chuckles…

That’s all I got. Later, doods.

I’m not even gonna try to pretend this month-in-review was on time. I changed the post date so it would stay in March where it belongs, but I actually wrote it on April 3. I know this matters to no one.