You know you're married to a perfectionist if...

At dinner my 11 year old announced to all that he ran 5 laps at recess. I considered this a wonderful announcement as we've been trying to encourage him to add more exercise within his daily activities. Also, my son, EJ got up at 6 a.m. this morning and went to the pool with my husband and did some swimming. Anyway, my husband had to ask, "Well how far is a lap?" "How many yards do you think that is? Where are you running at the park?" I'm thinking, "Can't you just acept this as good news and move on? Do we have to spoil the sharing with attempting to understand the logisitcs?" So, EJ got up and drew a picture of the park on the kitchen white board. My husband then gets up and says that he can't understand my son's map. He wanted a different view and explained to my son that his view was hard to understand. My husband proceeds to draw his version of the park map. By now, EJ has given up and retreated from the dinner table and kitchen. My hubby now has our other son at the white board trying to ask a 9 year old how many yards in length the park might be. YIKES! My husband with the help of our son, Zach, draws his map, estimates the measurements, then plots my son's laps which he then insists are not laps and a lap must go in a circular motion and this was just running from point A to point B and back...not a lap. My husband works with Zach and they estimate the distance and determine that EJ ran approximately 1/4 mile during recess. My husband then tells EJ that he would need to run 20 "laps" total to run 1 mile. Do you think EJ will ever report again about running at recess? Another adventure in the life of the Midlife Mocha Mama.

4 Year Old Needs Witness Protection Program

Oh my gosh! Katie, my just turned 4 year old found some silly putty, opened it and then proceeded to stick it on the surface of her brothers' drum set that goes with their Rock Band Wii game! Luckily her brothers are still at school or else her life could have been in danger. Isn't it amazing as I had just finished telling her, "Don't stick the silly putty on your clothes or carpet." Obviously, I did not mention drum sets for Wii games. So I tried getting it off with my fingers and it was really stuck on. I checked on-line for silly putty removal tips. I tried putting an ice pack on the putty to try to harden it and then scrape it off. Not so successful. Then I tried using rubbing alcohol. However, I couldn't find any cotton balls, so I put rubbing alcohol on a super maxi feminine pad and then applied it to the drum surface. It worked! So, Katie is still alive and I will hope that the drum set will still work! So long for now! Another adventure in the life of the Midlife Mocha Mama.

"Meat" in the Parking lot

A couple of weeks before Christmas I went to pick my boys up from school. My middle child was wanting me to go to a coffee shop for an after school treat. Usually I would give in to this, but most likely I'd had a couple of coffees already. (Sorry going from memory here! My guess is I probably had a couple of coffees or I would have stopped.) So after much misery in the "Mom Van" I decided to give in and head to my local drive through. Problem...machine broken down! So I went against my best judgement and headed to Starbucks inside the local Safeway. My daughter was asleep and I once again went against better judgement and left the kids in the van and ran in and placed their drink order. Then I ran back out and waited with them in the van and then ran back in. Here comes the detour. I happened to notice a small refrigerated truck that said "Iowa Steaks". Something pulled at me to inquire with the two young steak guys as I am an Iowa girl...born and raised. I had never heard of "Iowa Steaks", at least not heard of the kind that are sold out of the back of a truck! So I inquired and found 2 lost Iowa Steak delivery guys smelling a possible sale in me! One guy started his sales pitch. I realized I needed to get back into Starbucks and more importantly get back to my kids. I was parked about 3 cars away. I excused myself, ran in, got the kids' drinks, and checked in with them and for some reason headed back to the steak truck. Next thing I know the guy is pulling a huge box of meat out of the back of the truck and putting steaks out for me to see. I'm learning that one cannot just buy a couple of steaks for dinner, but must buy a $400 box of meat! I'm such a rookie! I kept trying to leave. The sales pitch began..."today only...I'll let you have this entire box for $2o0." I try to leave again as I know my husband will absolutely blow a gasket over a huge $200 box of meat! If not mentioned earlier, he's a healthy nut...not much of a red meat kind of guy. Finally the price is down to $150...at this point I'm actually considering it! It was a lot of meat and apparently has a connection to the famous "Omaha Steak" company. Then an older lady comes out of nowhere just going postal! The steak guys were parked in a handicapped parking spot. Postal starts yelling at the steak guys for being in a handicapped spot. They said they would move right away and were only there getting directions. She insisted that they were conducting business in the Safeway parking lot in a handicapped spot and if they didn't move immediately she would call 911. She was serious. She was correct. They should not have been there, but the postal manner she went about it was just ridiculous. I exited stage left without my drastically reduced meat. Moral of the story...dont' buy meat in a parking lot from two Iowa Steak guys that really don't look like good Iowa boys.

My son had been home from school yesterday with a questionable illness. He was too sick to go to school, but well enough to go outside to play basketball in 20 degree weather. However, last night he did have a low grade fever again...darn it. This morning, no fever but the school has a policy that your child should be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school. So, I kept him home this morning, he seemed fine. I gave him a choice...you either come with me and hang out while I get my hair cut and colored this afternoon or return to school at lunchtime. He chose school. So why can't I just keep my mouth shut? Not sure... Thankfully the Headmaster of our wonderful little private school set in a wonderful little town quite similar to Mayberry was at a conference today. I walked into school and dropped him off and should have just left, but did I? No! I waited for the sweetest teacher to come over and I explained I had given my son the choice of going with me to get my hair done or going to school and he chose school. She asked me if it had been 24 hours since he had a fever and I said, "Almost". What an idiot I am! So my daughter and I headed out to get our hair done...and maybe take care of that mustache this particular son thinks I'm growing.

Earlier today, I dropped my oldest son off at school. Same place I was just describing above. The Headmaster's birthday is Friday and he was out today, so a staff member was asking parents to sign a card for him and for some reason I decided to place a "XXOOXXO" with my signature.

So, I'm calling myself the Midlife Mocha Mama. Can't believe I'm actually midlife. Isn't that what other people are? Isn't midlife older than 41? Maybe I'm still pre-midlife. I'm a Mama as I'm a mother of 3. Two boys ages 10 and 9 and a daughter who will be 4 next week. I'm a Mocha Mama as I have a coffee addiction. Never had a coffee addiction until my 3rd child. Never really craved coffee...I had an occasional latte...but not a habit. When my daughter was a baby I pulled through a drive through local coffee stand and asked if they had something similar to a Starbucks frapaccino. That got me hooked. Now I'm a grande non-fat iced mocha or sometimes a iced grande non-fat vanilla latte. I've developed relationships with my coffee friends. Today it was about 13 degrees so I was a grande non-fat vanilla latte. It's such a social thing for me. Problem is I'm married to a wonderful man with no bad habits, no vices. When asked about any possible bad habits the best thing he could come up with was that his "anti-aging" vitamins were a little pricey. So as you may be able to tell, I have a little problem here. I need to operate in a cash only system with my coffee girls. (Coffee girls said with the utmost respect...they are wonderful women and small business owners.)