Dean has figured out how to add things on Amazon to my wish list.

I now wish for Power Rangers Cupcake Rings, Power Rangers books, and a Power Rangers Lunch box.

This was a rather quiet, but productive, weekend in the household.  

Friday was Addi’s birthday, and since it was a Friday, we just made it a joint celebration and celebrated my birthday as well. Mine was actually on Monday, March 14th. For the kids’ birthdays I let them choose whatever they want for dinner - no matter how weird it is.  One year Joe had Pumpkin pancakes and blueberry pancakes. This year Addi wanted buffalo chicken strips and tater tots.  I chose steak with roasted red potatoes, and Roy did up a few scallops for me.  (LOVE scallops!) And then it was time for the cake. Roy coaches for the youth football league in our town, and we know a local baker from the team. She does specialized cakes and cupcakes. The first one she did for us was Dean’s birthday cake based on Ni Hao, Kai Lan, a preschool show on Nick that he used to be in love with - he has moved on to the Power Rangers now. As shown in the picture posted here, it came out beautifully and Dean still talks about it. So for our joint celebration, Addi and I decided on a Zombie-themed cake. Since I didn’t want oozing brains, I asked our friend if she could look to the tv show, The Walking Dead, for inspiration. We weren’t disappointed, and you can see the finished product already posted here.  We got Addi a new mountain bike for his birthday, and he loves it!  Roy and I are just glad to see him getting out more and wanting to be active.

Saturday we were going to head down to Busch Gardens, but I just wasn’t up to it.  Addi’s allergies were going crazy, and truth be told, Roy seemed a bit out of sorts as well.  But the night before, I got it in my head that we would start our spring cleaning.  We decided, or rather I did and I made everyone help me, that we would tackle the family room first.  And as I sit here now, it looks great, if not a little empty, but more on that later.  So, we moved furniture, we dusted, we vacuumed, we repaired couch cushions - we cleaned.  And then we just relaxed.  Roy puttered around with the four wheeler - which he got working again. Addi and Hayden rode their bikes, I did laundry, and the older boys caught up on some homework.  That night we had family movie night - though the pick this time wasn’t really a family movie - Ninja Assassin.  My first thought was, this is a very bloody movie - and I have no problem with gore! But the more I watched the more I realized how cartoonish and over the top it was.  It was a fun, cheesy movie.

Sunday was tough, well for Roy at least. We got rid of our saltwater fish tank.  I told Roy it just seemed to come out of the blue, but I am sure it was something he had been thinking about for awhile. At least I hope it was, because we spent thousands of dollars collecting all of that stuff, and I don’t want to go through with it again.  Anyways, it was a beautiful tank.  Flowing corals, beautiful fish, but it was a lot of work. And truth be told, Roy was the only one that did anything.  Corey would take care of little things (feedings and water top offs) when Roy was out of town, and I helped (grudgingly) when asked, but for the most part the cleaning, the water changing, and the upkeep fell to Roy.  We have a lot going on, and I think he just got to the point where it was a lot for him to deal with (even with all the automation he added to the tank), and he felt it would be better off with someone that could enjoy it.  So he put up an ad and someone jumped on it - as they should because it was really a beautiful tank at a low price.  Yesterday, Roy spent a couple of hours helping the new owners break it down and pack it up.  Now, we have a big blank spot where the tank used to sit, and the family room seems really empty. 

See, like I said, a quiet, but productive weekend.

Why is it…

-that I have worked my butt off to lose these 13 pounds, but I am annoyed that my pants are now too big?

I am sure that Roy is right, and it is because we spent a lot of money on my clothes.  My favorite pair of pants is a denim trouser from he Gap that I spent about $70 on.  I don’t usually like to spend that much on a pair of pants, but they fit and looked really great, still do… but now they are too big!  But isn’t that what I wanted?  To lose the weight?  Oh well, I love these pants enough that I will probably take them to a tailor to see if something can be done.

-that people keep buying trampolines for their kids and thinking those big nets will protect them, but you always see these nets falling apart, or kids on them with the zippers wide open?

Hayden fell off a trampoline about six months ago and broke his arm.  Roy went over to the house to check out the trampoline, and there were concrete blocks around it.  He came home and told me that we are lucky all Hayden did was break his arm.  I am sure the nets can help, but not if they are falling apart, and not if the kids don’t know to zip up the zipper that is the door.  Accidents happen, but as far as I am concerned at this point, a trampoline is inviting an accident to walk right up and bite you on the butt.  No thanks!  We don’t have one, and we don’t allow the boys on them anymore - without our close supervision if at all.

-that no matter how much time has passed, no matter how much special effects have improved, the Power Rangers is still as cheesy as ever?

With five boys ranging in age from 16 to 3 we have watched numerous different versions of the Power Rangers - PW Turbo, PW Jungle Fury, PW Lost Galaxy, PW Dino Thunder, you get the picture… and then there is this latest one - Power Ranger Samurai.  Dean saw it one day on Nick and just loved it!  So I sat down to watch it with him - still cheesy.  The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came out almost 20 years ago.  20 years to improve the look of the monsters… and no dice!  What gives?  Roy is convinced that it is a camp thing, and they don’t do it because the true fans would cry foul… really?  There are people that have followed the Power Rangers for 20 years?  I just kind of figured it was for kids, and are they really gonna care if the monsters actually look cool as opposed to cheesy?  

-that no matter how long I have the same basic routine - I try to do my grocery shopping on Thursday to avoid the weekend rush - the kids never seem to get that, and they ALWAYS wait until Friday to tell me they really need something?

And no, I am not talking about Hayden, our six year old.  I am talking specifically about Corey and Joe, our 16 and 15 year olds.  You would think they would know better, but no… they always do that.  KIDS!

I am sure I will think of some more pressing questions as the day goes on… STAY TUNED!

If you know anything about video games, you should know that Marvel vs. Capcom 3 came out a few days (weeks? I don’t know much about video games, so I don’t know!) ago.  And since Target had a rockin’ deal - spend $60 on this game, and you get a free action figure worth… wait for it… $6! - we decided to buy the game.

It’s pretty cool, from what I have seen.  And I enjoyed playing it, though Dean in all his three year old bad assness whipped up on me pretty badly. 

But from the title of this post, you can guess who is in the game, right?  Come on… you can do it… DING! DING!  Yep, it’s Iron Man (Readers of this site know that Dean’s name for Iron Man is Man Now).  Dean noticed him on the cover right away when we were in GameStop on  Friday.  How many games does the store have?  I don’t know… hundreds maybe?  But, of course, his Iron Man Radar was up and pinging, and he found the game.  Of course we did not buy it at GameStop, because how can you pass up Target’s awesome deal?  But the next day we did head out to the store, and Roy and I did plunk down our $62 for the game - no wait, I think we used our credit card… anyways, we paid for the game and came home to try it out.

Now, me personally, I like these types of games.  You need no special video game skills or knowledge to play, which is good because I possess none.  You can just push buttons, and you WILL get lucky as onscreen your character will do some wildly amazing move that annihilates your opponent.  And yes, I get a small thrill out of doing so, even when I am playing with my three year old… because I am just rotten like that! 

But it is wildly obvious to me that once again, my five boys are all possessed of some secret video game gene that they did NOT get from me.  In the case of the older boys, they must have absorbed it by simply being near Roy, while the younger three got it through genetics, but again, it isn’t from me.  I mean how else do you account for the fact that a three year old can beat me at the game, and yes I was actually trying?!

However, I realize, it might not actually be a video game gene in Dean’s case, but rather the love of Iron Man.  EVERYTIME Dean plays this game, he is Iron Man… Red, blue, silver, whatever.  He doesn’t care about the other two people on his team - you play three on three - though he does like some girl named Morrigan, perhaps because her boobs are just crazy big and the boys all giggle when she is on screen.  But, when Dean is Iron Man, he actually puts up a good fight, even against his older brothers.

This is just another reason why Iron Man is magical to our son.  He plays this video game, and plays as Iron Man, and suddenly he is on par with his older brothers.

The past few days, he has been digging on the new Power Rangers show - a show that has been a big draw for all of the boys growing up.  He even got a few Power Rangers action figures, but when I watch him play, it is still Iron Man that always saves the day. 

I think that certain obsessions can be healthy. As long as you aren’t peeping in someone’s bathroom, or incessantly stalking someone on Myspace or Facebook, obsessions are a part of life.

I will start with my husband. Over the course of our marriage, he has gone through phases. For awhile it was some online game called Counterstrike. He would play into the wee hours of the night with his friends, then he would go to work the next day with those same friends and I am guessing they would talk about the game they played the night before. I married a geek, what can I say? I often tease my husband that if he wasn’t so good looking, he would fall into the whole “Revenge of the Nerds” persona. On the other hand, he was young when we married, only 22, so perhaps I am lucky that he was only into video games. I have one girlfriend who married soon out of high school, and her husband was into cocaine and strippers. Guess who is still married? (Not her!)

There was a (very) short foray into oil painting. I think he only did two paintings, but we spent a few hundred dollars, so if he had wanted to do more we certainly had the supplies (still have them too, did I mention Roy likes to keep things… EVERYTHING!) After his painting, he took a break from his “hobbies” (that is what I call all our little obsessions). I was pregnant with Hayden, and we were getting ready to move, so no big deal. Well, then we moved and it took us some time to get the house in order. (If I am being honest, it still needs some work.) So again, Roy’s hobbies fell to the back burner.

Then in 2005, he decided to get a fish tank. Ok, whatever… the kids will like it, and I read somewhere that people that watched fish for even just a few minutes a day reported lower stress levels. And trust me, my stress levels are probably off the charts. We started with a little 10 gallon tank. It was cute, but I knew it wouldn’t last long. That tank developed into a 44 gallon tank. I liked this one… it was sort of an elongated cube, with a cool stand… but, alas, that still wasn’t enough. So, Roy decides to upgrade to a 75 gallon tank. It came with a perfectly good stand, but he found plans and built his own… this HUGE monstrosity, that once finished was great looking, but moving it into the house was hell. It took Roy, Corey and I 30 minutes of grunting, groaning, pushing and pulling. I am pretty sure the reason my back hurts every morning is because of this little endeavor. So anyways, that worked for awhile, but he soon got restless. He began changing up the configurations of junk in the tank… we had pebbles, sand, black sand. Plants and little ornaments, no plant and no ornaments. You name it, we had it. And we had my two fish… Oscar and Omar. We got them as babies, and they grew into monsters, but Roy was still bored. So, he decides to “upgrade” (I say it like that because all it means to me is more expensive and less hearty) to a saltwater tank. Again, we started with a little 10 gallon… and knowing my husband, I knew this would be a short lived endeavor.

“I think I want a biocube.” He says to me one day while I am cooking dinner.

It sounded expensive and time consuming to me, “Ok… what’s that?”

“It’s a fish tank. I think I want the 29 gallon one.”

“I assume this is for saltwater stuff, right?” I asked, and to my credit I made a valiant effort NOT to roll my eyes.

“Yeah. It’s cool, it has pretty much…”

“HOW MUCH?” I interrupted him and did my best imitation of Bill Cosby.

“It isn’t too bad. I mean, we’ll save a lot of money.”

“HOW MUCH?” I asked again.

Again, Roy tried to justify his desire, and again I cut him off. I just want to know how much the thing is, so I can budget for it. I don’t care what color it is, or what it looks like. How much is the damn thing?

“It’s about $350.” He finally answered.

“Fine, whatever.”

He looked at me and walked away. I adore my husband, but from what I read, saltwater means twice as much work, money, and the stuff seems to die A LOT quicker. But I want him to be happy. A few weeks later, he got his Biocube, and I got some fish. He is very sweet about it all, letting me pick out fish or coral. Right now, I have a little skunk shrimp named Pepe, and we have two clown fish that I have yet to name. I don’t like getting too attached to the clown fish as we have already lost 6 of them. The Biocube is nice… but, alas, it still wasn’t enough. He took $150 and bought another tank from some guy. A good deal, or so he says, but anyways… it sat in the garage for awhile, and at one point, he even put it out at one of my annual yard sales. It didn’t sell, and he decided to give it a shot and set it up. He did some touching up on the stand, built a hood for it, and it now sits in our family room. I admit it is beautiful. Roy bought an anemone, and I love it. It sits in one corner of the tank, the tentacles just flowing in the slight current, and the clown fish swimming in and out. There are some other corals and fish in there, but I usually watch Pepe (yep, he is still swimming around almost three years later!) and the anemone. All in all, we have spent thousands of dollars and many hours on his fish tanks. Now, he justifies that by telling me that some of the people on this forum he participates in spend upwards of 10k on their tanks. Which is awesome for them, but I don’t live with those people, so why would I care what they do with their fish? Now, you might think I am bitter about this, that I am not a fish person. Not the case. As long as we have the money, no problem. But I have to tell you… fish stores are BORING.

Each of the boys has their own little “thing” as well. In the past, we have seen Power Rangers, Ninja Turtles, Bakugan, Pokemon, Yu-Gi-Oh… you name it, we’ve seen it.

Right now, Corey is probably obsessed with Glee and Pink. No, not the color, the singer. She rocks though, so I’m cool with that. Glee is hilarious, so again, cool with that.

For Joe, it’s his Xbox and World War II. He has read countless books on WWII, watched movies, looked at websites, but it’s educational so I’m not complaining. His video games are another story. He saved his money and bought the Xbox on his own, with the understanding that if grades fall, I will still take it away. There was a bit of an issue at the end of last year, but after a stern talking to and stricter limits set and enforced, I think he got back on track. He earned some money and recently bought StarCraft 2, apparently it’s the coolest thing ever, so we’ll see how long that lasts.

Addi is very much like Joe. He loves video games, and Counterstrike is “the thing” for him right now. Addi gets over stimulated easily, so we have to really watch him when he plays certain games, and depending on his mood, there are times we don’t even let him play at all. It’s just too much for him, but that is the nature of ADHD. Children with ADHD can have trouble focusing, but if they are interested in the topic, they can become obsessive. I will say he is getting better at understanding the limits we try to set, and though he gets upset when we say no, it is a learning process for him, and he is slowly learning.

Hayden flips and flops with his little obsessions. Right now, it’s probably going outside to play with his friends, so I won’t complain. He has a number of little friends in the neighborhood. Right on our block there are probably eight or nine little boys that all play together in some form or fashion. He has a “best” friend that he plays with almost daily, and the boy and his little sister are sweethearts. They live with their mom and grandparents, and they are also so nice. I love that he comes over to our house, sits on our couch, eats with us, and just hangs out. But Hayden also goes through toy obsessions as well. I would say right now his thing are Lego Bionicles. He LOVES them! The only issue is putting them together can be challenging, so he spends time yelling for his brothers, his dad, or, in a pinch, me to help him… PLEASE!

And then we have our baby, little Dean and Iron Man. To be honest, I’m not sure how it got started. I think it was a rainy afternoon, and the boys decided to watch “Iron Man” on Blu-Ray. Ever since then Dean has been all about “Man, Now.” He prefers to only wear Iron Man clothing, and that includes pajamas. He knows exactly where Walmart and Target have their Iron Man toys, and I admit it’s so cute to watch that we occasionally indulge him. I think we have every Iron Man action figure at this point.

I have my own thing as well - and my tastes change and evolve. Right now, I play a game called Farm Frenzy. It’s silly, and really has no point, but I like it, and it helps me relax… except for that one friggin’ level that I can’t get a Silver Star on, no matter how many times I try, how many tricks I use, or what strategy I take. Never mind, I guess it isn’t relaxing… but it’s a lot of fun!

The point is we all have our hobbies - some are expensive, some are cheap, some are educational, some aren’t - but we try to look for something positive in regards to these little obsessions the kids (and Roy and I) garner.