Lowes is on a hot streak

Lowes fire truck VLast night I blogged a bit about Lowes. Today, that store gets my full attention.

I seem to be finding myself in Lowe’s with my three four-year-old boys quite a lot lately. In my efforts to build the perfect lemonade stand as well as outfit our new music room with important items like mirrored disco balls (!) that must be installed in the ceiling, I have been frequenting the home improvement store. Saturday was no exception. That time, I brought the entire family with me, for it was the day for the Lowe’s Build and Grow program’s fire truck-building project. I was as excited as my four men. We scrambled into the van nearly giddy with anticipation thanks to all the fun we had building buses and drums, but little did we know what was in store for us Read More…

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Triplets: The Preschooler Years

Risk Management

Pink Lemonade Project banner standI bet it would hurt to have one’s hamstring impaled by an 18-foot length of 3/4-inch PVC pipe. Or at least, that’s what I was thinking last week as my three small men marched through Lowe’s home improvement store carrying the materials for my Pink Lemonade Project banner stand. The sweet boys wanted to help in the stand-making so badly that I couldn’t say no when they offered (read: begged to the point of tears) to lug the PVC pipes up to the cash registers. The good thing was, this activity gave them a mission, and a mission always keeps them focused and out of mischief in stores. The bad thing was, this mission could have proven fatal to our fellow Lowe’s shoppers.

It was a risk I chose to take. Read More…

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3-Day Walk, Triplets: The Preschooler Years

The Price of Serenity

boys with ears coveredIt’s not easy to talk to three people at once. And yet, over the past 4.5 years, I’ve come as close as one might get to perfecting that ability. Much like typing, wherein my fingers move at the speed of my thoughts without me even considering which letter key is where, I can field the questions, comments, complaints, and demands of three little men simultaneously without giving the act any conscious thought. It’s only when we are around another adult who is under simultaneous assault by the Smurfy voices of my little men that I am conscious of just how good I’ve gotten at it. A lady on the bus in Lowestoft, England, comes to mind. ASDA Kelly, we called her, after the Walmart-like store ASDA where we met her. The first time we shared a bus ride with ASDA Kelly, the boys bombarded her with stories and questions as she sat next to them, each little man talking and questioning right over his brothers. I watched from my seat across the aisle as Kelly’s head turned left, right, center, left, right, center, leftrightcenterleftrightcenter…. and as her eyes flicked left, right, center, left, right, center, leftrightcenterleftrightcenter…. Those eyes and that head were not in sync, which was quite entertaining for me, so I must admit Read More…

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Triplets: The Preschooler Years

Did YOU Know Pirates Love Pink Lemonade?

Pink_V with signToday was national ‘Talk Like a Pirate Day.’ I was reminded of that when a 3-foot-tall pirate walked up to our Pink Lemonade Project lemonade stand at Seaport Village and said, “Arrgh! Gimme a tankard of the pink grog, wench. Arrgh!” Then he brandished a vicious plastic sword near my belly button. That pirate had his tankard of pink grog within seconds. I don’t mess with pirates.

Even with the presence of feisty, sword-wielding pirates—or perhaps because of it—my Breast Cancer 3-Day walking team’s very first Pink Lemonade Project stand was so fun and so successful that we’re going to do it one more time—tomorrow, Sunday, September 20, from 10:30 to 3pm, again at Seaport Village. San Diego’s heat wave isn’t done, so Read More…

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3-Day Walk, Triplets: The Preschooler Years

Thirsty?

Pink Lemonade Project logo with url_smallYou are? Well then, how about a cup of pink lemonade? San Diego is heading into another heat wave, after all, and there’s no sweeter way to cool off. Best of all, as you down that cold cup of pink sweetness, you will be sticking it to cancer, big time.

I and the four other triplet moms on my “Breast Cancer 3-Day” walking team are launching the Pink Lemonade Project this weekend. Check out this awesome website, www.PinkLemonadeProject.com, and see for yourself. The jist of it is, Read More…

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3-Day Walk, Events, News

Mommy, Why Is That Woman Whipping Herself?

SophiaWesternI have a long, nasty red welt on my left hip. I have a matching one on my right. And I’m not sure, but I think I’ve got several on my hind end. The thing is, I inflicted them all myself—while jumping rope. Not that it’s always my fault. Okay, yes, sometimes I do trip up on the rope, snapping it against my lower extremities like a taught rubber band. But four separate times in the last four months my speed ropes have literally snapped in two while I was mid-jump, and the nylon ends whiplashed my thighs. Pwap! Jumpin Jehosophat! Talk about pain.

Yes, I’ve taken up jump roping. And why not? Tripping over a rope you’ve just swung at your own feet is a jolly pastime. Read More…

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3-Day Walk, Triplets: The Preschooler Years

The Bully Pulpit

Brothers huggingI’m sitting in a room with three four-year-olds who are playing peacefully with each other. I’ve got misbehaving grownups on my mind.

Kanye West, for one. Two nights ago he stormed onto the stage at the internationally televised MTV awards, ripped the microphone from a nineteen-year-old’s hand during her acceptance speech, and hollered that the better music video was Beyonce’s. That’s the second time West has jumped on stage to trash someone’s moment. He also hijacked the microphone from a European group called Justice and Simian at the MTV Europe Music Awards in 2006, that time filling his much longer tirade with expletives. Read More…

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Adventures in Writing

Don’t Blame Me

easter island smiling frowningIf my kids end up with really weird senses of humor, can I be held legally responsible? Can they sue me for that when they grow up? Can their spouses? I am their primary adult contact during the day, after all, so a lawyer might have a valid argument in pinning that crime on me.

What makes me so worried about my future? Easter Island, that’s what. Read More…

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Triplets: The Preschooler Years

Speaking in Bloghand

blog-image.jpgWhen two people have a common background or a shared experience, they can develop a communication shorthand that really makes life easy. Like with married couples who can finish each other’s sentences; that’s the kind of shorthand I mean. Well, I found out yesterday that two friends who are avid bloggers can develop a similar condition that I’ll call ‘bloghand.

My friend, neighbor, and fellow triplet mom Jenna and I both Read More…

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3-Day Walk

No Chocolate, But Still a Worthy Cause

3-day-logo-djh.jpgI’m in. A bunch of my triplet mom friends have formed a team to walk in the “Breast Cancer 3-Day,” a 60-mile walk over the course of three days to raise money for breast cancer research, and I just signed on to hoof it with them. I’m still in a bit of shock about it. You see, when I was twelve, I quit Girl Scouts because I hated going door-to-door selling cookies. COOKIES. And now here I go, asking people for money without handing them a box of Thin Mints in return. It’s not easy for me, that’s for sure… but no one ever said curing cancer was easy. Read More…

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3-Day Walk, Events, News

Water Rescue

flower-bed_d_2009.jpgWe’re having a heat wave. And in case you didn’t know, there’s an unspoken understanding in San Diego that a person cannot be held responsible for their mood during a heat wave. (Yes, as a matter of fact, I am the one who invented that understanding. Hey, I’m a writer, I’m good at making up stuff that works to my advantage.) Anyway, this is how I explain the murderous rampages I’ve been exploding into. My targets? Read More…

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Triplets: The Preschooler Years