Memories to last a lifetime

Yesterday we watched 2 of our best friends marry each other.  We were honored to not only be there, but to be a part of their celebration.  Scott was a groomsman and I was a bridesmaid.  It was a fantastic weekend, starting with pedicures for the gals on Friday then the rehearsal and dinner friday night, all the wedding festivities on Saturday and finally a brunch this morning.  We will be seeing them all again soon, as we have plans for wine nights, football viewing parties, tailgating, even going to our HS Homecoming game this year.  It is things like these that tell me that we made the right decision moving back home.  Spending time with people we've known over half our lives is wonderful.  We still miss our friends and family in Texas, don't get me wrong, but there's nothing better than spending time with old friends and knowing that despite the years, and the times apart, the friendships haven't changed a bit.

Some of my favorite moments of the weekend:

1. Seeing another friend from HS at the rehearsal dinner, even though she was there for a completely different reason.  Talk about a coincidence!  I was thrilled when I found out she was going to be there, the last time we'd seen each other was my wedding day!

2. The grooms great aunt telling her companion "I got the cute one" in Tagalog as Scott was walking her down the aisle.  She didn't realize Scott's mom is Phillipino and he understood her.

3.  When I saw them right after the ceremony, I said "Hi Mrs. D_____" to the bride.  The groom, who we've known since HS (he was our best man) said "that's my WIFE!" in a very giddy voice.  It was so sweet!

4.  Dancing with my hubby, kissing him, and having our other HS friend say "aww you two are still as in love now as you were Junior year."  We really are, if not more so. 

5. Seeing my hubby dressed as one of the village people doing the YMCA with the rest of the groomsman.

And then there is this:

High School, early 1998, at our Sadie Hawkin's dance.  My hubby is on the left, the groom is on the right.  Our good friend KJ is in the middle.

The same 3 guys, 12.5 years later.  Same poses, same guys, and funny enough, same song;  Gettin' Jiggy Wit it.  We were standing by the dance floor chatting and when that song came on, I said "I gotta get another shot like the one from HS!"  and they all very willingly, (I'm sure the alcohol helped) obliged. 

I'm thankful for all my friends, old and new.  I'm thankful to have such wonderful people in my life.

My King

My almost 7-year old son and I had the funniest conversation yesterday.  We were in the car and he says "When I grow up, I'm going to have a castle."

"Really, B?  What are you going to do with it?"

"I'm going to live in it, and I will be your king."

"You're going to be the king?  What will that make me?"

"You will all be [insert sweeping hand gesture] my humble servants."

At which point Meghan pipes up and asks "Can I be queen and help you build your castle?"

And he tells her "I'm not going to build it.  I'm going to buy it online."


Ahhhhh children are hilarious.  Hopefully my mom still thinks they are funny in 2 days when we get back.  We're in a wedding this week so she's holding down the fort.  Good luck, Mom!! 

an organized mess

my house is cluttered.  Always.  No matter that there's plenty of room for the 5 of us as well as all our various personal items, there's still stuff everywhere.  We may have 2 cabinets for the sole purpose of holding DVD's, but there are still DVDs crammed (without cases of course!) next to the DVD player, on top of the DVD player, on top of the speaker, and on the mantle where we've placed them after removing them from the steely grip of the baby, after finally managing to catch her as she ran down the hall with her prize, cackling all the way.  Of course, we could put them in the DVD binder, which has plenty of open slots, but nooooo.  they go on the mantle, where they will likely sit for weeks until one decides to look thru them, usually in an attempt to find the very movie they are, at that moment, desperately wanting to watch.  They will search for 30 minutes to find that ONE movie, ignoring the vast piles of movies sitting within reach because those aren't THE ONE.  I'm as guilty of this as the rest of my family. 

There's clothes spread throughout the house.  Now, I can at least say that none of them are mine or my husband's.  We do manage to keep our clothing in our room.  The children however, well that's a different story.  And the items I find make no sense.  I find my son's undies in the living room on a daily basis.  I have no idea why, since his room is downstairs and that's where he gets dressed, and I don't recall ever seeing him remove any undies in the living room, but there they are, stuffed under the end table, on the couch, or in the middle of the wide open floor.  WHY??  And it is usually only undies, occasionally a pair of PJ pants or somethig.

Of course there are toys.  There's 3 children in this house.  Enough said.

Try as I may, I don't think my house will ever be clean and stay clean for more than a few hours at a time, and I'm lucky if I get that long.  So I will settle for organized.  How can a messy house be organized, you ask?  Oh believe me, if it can be done, I'm the woman to do it.  Take my craft room for example.  I have an entire bookcase (7 foot tall by 3.5 foot wide I believe) and a 9 cube shelf all dedicated to yarn.  It looks like it is just thrown on there haphazardly,  but I assure you that is no the case.  I know almost to the skein exactly what yarns I have, at least by looks if not by name, and can grab it on the first try.  It is an organized mess.  Part of the reason it LOOKS messy is because some are skeins I pulled from the center and they are half used so they are flat and pulled apart, some are balls of yarn that have a hard time fitting on the shelf without rolling off, and some are small hanks or cakes that are hard to stack, but a knitter would know instantly that they are arranged by not only weight but fiber content and brand as well.  Some is even sorted by color (I have an entire cube devoted to purple sock yarn.). 

My closet is pretty messy, but I hope to tackle it tomorrow.  It shouldn't take long, I just need to redo the stacks and re-hang the clothes my 4 year old pulled off the hangers on the lower rack when she was trying to hide from her brother.  Even when it is organized, it doesn't look it because we have one shelf that runs the length of the wall right in the middle, and racks on top and below it.  Since we have an abundance of tshirts and jeans, they don't all fit in the drawers so they go on the shelf.  I have a stack for Scott's jeans, shorts, my tshirts, my long sleeved shirts, my tanks, my shorts, my jeans, and my "pants I swear I will fit back into as soon as I diet some more" (Ladies, you know what I'm talking about!)  Scot's tshirts and our pj/sweats etc go in the dresser.  barely.  He has 2 full drawers of tshirts, I think it is time to clean some of them out.  But once again, even though it looks messy, it isn't.

I'm terrible at cleaning.  I'm slow, I get distracted very easily (SQUIRREL!) and I usually end up leaving one task half done while I start working on another.  I'll be loading the dishwasher, notice a pair of boys undies on the kitchen floor (agan, WHY??) so I go to take them into the laundry room, where I remember the clothes I washed the night before, so I go to put them in the dryer, which is of course still full, so I take the clean clothes to our room to fold.  Meanwhile, the dishwasher is still open and half loaded and the washer is still full of wet clothes.  by then the baby is awake, so I forget all the chores I was working on to tend her.  Ahhh, a day in my life.  However, when it comes to organizing, it is a different story.  It may take me a while, mainly because I pause to look at things and sort things, but if I have the time I need without distractions from my family, I'm quite adept at organizing.  Meg's closet is an example, there's a drawer for everything and everything has it's place.  I spent over an hour in there last week, and she's managed so far to keep it clean. 

My favorite example of my organized mess is from High School.  I had forgotten a pom pom at home and needed it for the game that night, so Dad said he'd bring it if I told him where it was.  I told him it was under my red sweater, next to the big box, on the floor by the top right hand side of my bed, next to the green combat boot.  I could literally hear him rolling his eyes over the phone, but it was right where I said it was. 

I will likely spend part of my day organizing tomorrow, since my room is starting to annoy me, and I need to find a spot for all the paperback books that are littering the house.  Just like the DVD's, they are everywhere.

books and being self sufficient

Not that those 2 things are related.  In fact, they are two completely different topics at least for this blog post.  What can I say, I'm lazy and didn't feel like creating two separate posts :)

So, reading.  Are you the type that reads a book once, then moves on?  do you regularly try new authors, or do you stick to your faves?  I will admit I am stuck in a rut, but happily so.  I read a lot of Nora Roberts, the Twilight series, and, well, that's about it.  When I do branch out, I read contemporary romance, not the historical stuff, not the mystery romance, nothing with bad guys.  Just simple girl meets boy, they fight, they fall in love, they fight some more, and they live happily ever after.  I do try to read other things.  I downloaded the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo because a lot of my friends reccomend it, but I haven't gotten past the first chapter.  I don't like books with lots of characters to keep track of, or with twisting plots that confuse me.  I know I'm making myself sound stupid, but really, I'm not.  I just read for relaxation and to me if a book is overly complicated, it is more like school than relaxation.  Take the Outlander series, for example;  Yes, it had a great plot, but there were so may charactes and so many bad things that happened to the characters I liked (I like happy endings, happy middles, happy everything!) that I had a hard time.  I finally gave up in like the 4th or 5th book (I'm amazed I made it that far) after the author spend 500 pages on ONE DAY.   So I put the book back on my shelf and went back to my trusted Nora Roberts.  I mean, I'm so picky I don't even like the stuff she wrote as JD Robb, too much mystery and crime etc.  My faves are her series books, the trilogies etc.  I have htem al on paperback and am slowly accumulating them on my Kindle as well, since I re-read things multiple times.  And some of them, no matter how many times I read them, never fail to make me cry.  I'm a sucker for a happy ending.

OK, different topic.  I finally made coffee for the first time today.  How awful is that?  Scott always makes it.  I also have been cooking more.  I've begun to realize that I am not a very self sufficient woman, and that is completely ridiculous at my age.  I'm very blessed to have a wonderful husband who is a helpmate in everything, but I think I've gotten to the point where I'm letting him do too much because it is easy.  He does all the cooking because he's better at it, but he's been working a lot and I don't think it is fair to ask him to cook every night on top of everything, so I've been trying to take over that.  And I usually get up and around before he does, so why on Earth can't I handle making the coffee??  I had him show me how he makes it yesterday so that I couldn't use the excuse of  "I don't know how" anymore.  Plus, he was so happy he had coffee when he got up that he agreed to load the dishwasher.  WIN!  :-D  My biggest challenge though is this weekend.  Friends of ours are getting married soon, and the bachelor party is this weekend.  The bachelorette party was a couple weekends ago, and he handled the kids all weekend while I was gone, so I keep telling myself if he can do it, so can I.  I will admit though, I'm so used to having him arounnd to help me (especially since he works from home) that the task is a bit daunting.  For example, I'm going to have to take all 3 kids to the grocery store BY MYSELF!  GASP!  :-)  Neither one of us ever does that.  We'll take one or sometimes 2, or all 5 of us will go together.  I considered trying to go before he leaves, but there's no room in the fridge for more milk even though I know we'll run out probably Saturday, and I realized tht millions of women handle grocery shopping with multiple kids all the time.  So can I, right?  I need to work on being more sure of my capabilities!!  They're just kids, how hard can it be??

if you don't hear from me in a week, send a search party.  The kids will have probably tied me up and stuffed me in a closet so they could eat all the cookies  they want.

Notme strikes again!

Anyone with younger kids knows of their friend "Notme".  This is the little pain in the ass imaginary friend that takes everything and makes all the messes.  I know this because whenever I ask my kids who is at fault, they insist "Notme!"  Well, yesterday I'm pretty sure Notme took my new iPod touch that I got for my 30th 25th birthday.  We still can't find it a day later.  I had it in my pocket and 45 min later I noticed it wasn't there.  The best we can figure after retracing my steps (I didn't leave the house) is that it must have fallen out of my pocket maybe on the couch and SOMEONE (Notme!) took it.  That's what I get for putting kids games on it I guess.  We suspect the 4 year old but she's got a memory like a wet noodle.  We tried getting information out of her today and she finally said "well, it was on the couch, then on the counter, then in Liberty Hill. .  ." Considering we haven't been to Liberty Hill since March, I think maybe she's confused about the chain of events.  SIGH.  The bottom line is that my new iPod is missing and no one knows where it went.  Well, except for Notme of course.

In other news, we got the baby's ears pierced.  She is 15 mos old and when we were in a store the other day a blind gentleman said "awww he's so cute."  SHE was wearing a white outfit with pink flowers all over it.  It's not her fault she has no hair.  Well, I'll amend that.  She has hair, it's just in the form of a mullet.  It is so short on the top that I can't get a bow in it, but long enough in the back for a ponytail.  Poor kid!  At least the earrings make her look more feminine.  I got her little amethyst ones, even though that isn't her birthstone, because I dress her in a lot of purple and they are pretty.  She did great!  I had given her a sucker before they started so she had something to distract her.  She sad on my lap while they did it, and she fussed a bit but as soon as I stood up, she realized it was over and stopped crying.  While we were there (we went to Claire's) I offered, repeatedly, to buy new earrings for the 4 year old who's been wearing the same earrings for 9 months.  She stubbornly refused.  She said I could buy some but she wouldn't wear them.  Um, no thanks, not gonna waste my money!  So we got home and started talking to her and I kind of got the idea that she thought it would hurt if I took out her earrings, so while she was distracted I just took one out real fast, and she realized that gee, it doesn't hurt.  Then all of a sudden she thought oohh, now I can have new ones.  She's been bugging me ever since to take her back to the earring store.  :::::sigh:::::  I should have just left the old ones in!

Off to do more laundry (the bane of my existence) and look for my ipod.  I told the kids if I find it in a spot that makes it look like it was one of them, I'm taking all the kids games off it and they won't be able to play with it anymore.

Fireflies!

Tonight we got to do yet another thing I've been looking forward to since we moved back home.  We took the kids out to hunt for fireflies!  It was hilarious, Scott and I trying to chase (or hobble, in my case) after these suckers while the kids tried coming up with strategies.  Brendan even gave us a pep talk when we suggested we try another night.  "No, tonight is the night!  The most important night ever.  We can do this.  WE WON'T GIVE UP!  All we need now is. . . Armor."  I half expected him to run into the house, paint his face blue, and strip down to his undies before running back out!  Then he tried coming up with a battle plan, telling us "OK, I'm the general.  Let's split up!  Momma, you go that way.  Daddy, you go down there.  Meg and I will go to K___'s house.  Let's go!"  We nixed that idea because we didn't want them running all over the block, but we did continue to hunt in and around our backyard.  Finally Scott managed to snag one, but we weren't able to get it in the jar before it flew away.  I promised the kids we wouldn't give up, we'd try all summer until we manage to catch a couple. 

I felt like a kid again chasing after them.  It was a little trickier than I remember, but that could be due to the fact that I'm almost 30, have worse vision than I used to, especially at night, and have a messed up knee.  However, I certainly don't remember them being this hard to catch!  Those suckers are FAST.  I won't give up though.  I want my kids to remember the times they spent catching jars full of fireflies with their mom and dad.  I have fond memories of running all over the neighborhood with my friends catching them on warm summer evenings.  It makes me happy knowing my kids will have the same type of memories.

Babysitters

Since we no longer live near the kids' grandparents, we've started looking for babysitters.  Scary for us, since we've never actually needed to hire one before.  I'm a little nervous about leaving the kids with someone they don't know very well, but lets face it, Mom and Dad really need some US time away from the kids!  We try to sneak out sometimes, I'll join him while he's fishing on the dock, or we'll try to have a glass of wine on the deck after we've put the kids to bed, but more often than not the kids end up joining us.  The past week or so we've ended up staying up until almost 2 every night, just trying to catch up on our shows and with each other, since the kids have been fighting bedtime (it gets darker later here than in TX and it has royally messed up our kids' bedtime routines!) and not going to sleep until 9:30 or 10 every night.  Last night we ended up staying up until like 2:30 just talking and catching up with each other.  While I do cherish the fact that after almost 10 years of marriage, we still have that much to say to each other, I DO have 3 kids to take care of as well as laundry and houswork etc, and I DO need some sleep!  LOL.  The great news is that we live in an AWESOME community with tons of available sitters.  I put an ad out on our neighborhood email list and within 2 days had like 15 possible sitters.  Some I think might be a bit too young (a few 13 and 14 year olds) to take care of all 3, but they might work if I just need someone to watch Erin while we take the other 2 to a movie or something.  I know I started babysitting when I was 12 and didn't have any problems, but then again I grew up with my mom running a home day care so I had taken care of kids for years.  There were also several high school and even college kids that responded, and almost all of them have taken a red cross babysitting course that seems to be a big thing now.  We met with one gal who was really nice, got along great with the kids, (even Erin, who tends to be very shy, warmed up to her after only about 30 minutes) and is a trained lifeguard so I know during the summer if the kids want to swim while she's here, they will be in good hands.  Our shorefront is pretty shallow though too, so I don't need to worry too much.  We're going to give her a chance on Saturday night, it is my Grandma's birthday so we're going to take her out for dinner. 

I know my mom thinks I'm a little rediculous when it comes to sitters for my kids, and the fact that I've never hired one.  But then again there never was a need to, whenever we mentioned possibly hiring a teenager, my MIL offered to watch them, and we didn't really know many teenagers anyway.  We did hire my brother a few times but that's it. 

In August though, I'm going to be in a wedding (we think Scott is too, according to the bride, but as the groom hasn't manned up yet and actually asked him, Scott is not making definite plans yet LOL).  Between the rehersal dinner on Friday night, then the wedding and reception and aftermath on Saturday we're going to need a sitter for quite a bit of time.  Since we may stay overnight on Saturday rather than drive home late at night (and quite possibly a bit drunk) we decided to beg my mom to fly up instead of leaving the kids with a teenager or even a college kid.  We offered to pay for the ticket even, and thankfully she said yes as long as she can get the time off.

Yes, true, part of it is that I worry that a teenager won't take as good of care of them as a grandparent would.  That's a big concern, but an even bigger concern is that my children will go crazy and the babysitter will run from our house screaming in terrror.  At least I don't have to worry (much) about that happening with my mom.  I'm honestly very glad I have a long list of sitters because I'm terrified that my children will be the Dennis the Menace of the neighborhood, and when the sitters see our number on the caller ID they will ignore our calls!  I love my kids dearly, but they are a total handful!  I plan to meet with a few others on our list and introduce them to the kids and give them a try.  I remember sitting for some terrors because their parents paid well, hopefully if we pay well we'll get some good sitters to agree to watch our monsters LOL. 

For all you parents out there who have hired sitters, any advice?  I'm only going from my perspective as a former sitter, and if truth be told, a damn good one at that.  I'd hire me in a second.  I never talked on the phone or had people over, I followed the parents rules, I played with the kids, I cleaned up any messes, I was awesome.  I hope I can find a sitter who is that good.  :-)

2 hours. 2 freaking hours.

That is how long it took me to get my little darlings to sleep tonight.  Part of the problem is that here it stays light later, so at 8:30 when we say it is bedtime, the sun is still setting.  In Texas the rule was you go to bed when the sun goes down.  The last couple weeks they have been going to bed pretty late as we all adjust to the time change and our routine here, but the last few nights we've been trying to get them on a better bedtime schedule.  It is NOT working.  Last night bed time was 8:30 but since they horsed around so much we said that tonight they had to go to bed at 8.  By the time teeth were brushed, cups had ice, stories were read, itch creme was put on (B is still having rash issues.  Will have to take him to a dermatologist I think.)  Teddy bears and blankets were found and kids were tucked in, it was almost 8:30.  By the time I had sent them back to bed with etra hugs and kisses and told a certain little girl that no, she couldn't have a "popscible" before bed and dealt with the ensuing tantrum, it was almost 9.  Scott had gone down to the boat to put the new gas tank in and when I looked outside he was fishing from the boat (while it was tied to the dock LOL).  I was annoyed for a minute then I realized I couldn't blame him for trying to calm down after the ordeal of bedtime.  Thinking that the children were nestled all snug in their beds, I left the screen door open so I could hear them and went to join them. We were able to peacefully enjoy the sunset over the lake, but of course it couldn't last; about 20 minutes after I had gone down there, I heard the unmistakable sounds of arguing coming from the house.  Since Meg's room is upstairs and Brendan's is downstairs, I figured I needed to investigate.  As soon as I headed up to the house I saw them darting around downstairs.  It took us until 10:00 to finally get them settled and sleeping. 

I dread bedtime as much as I look forward to it every day.  I'm so tired of the fights and threats and arguments and pleading and begging (both by me and the kids!).  I'm so tired of being so tired, that by the time we finally get them settled we're too tired to watch our shows.  Our DVR is backing up and we have tons of shows to catch up on, but we're just mentally and physically drained.

I know I probably need Nanny 911 but she'd spend an hour with my kids and run away screaming.  I look forward to Wednesday nights all week because it is the one night that I don't have to deal with bedtime (that is my knitting night when I go to my knitting group and Scott deals with the monkeys.) 

Since I haven't heard a peep from either one in about 10 minutes, I'm hoping that means it is time for us to watch some TV. . .if we can manage to sit thru a whole show without falling asleep!

It's all fun and games until someone needs stitches.

Our dock was installed this morning.  Of course the kids wanted to play in the water and fish and everything right away. The fact that it was only 65 degrees apparently didn't bother them at all @@.  I let them play on the sand and wade in the water a bit because I'm nice like that, and because I had a friend coming over that I haven't seen in 10 years and wanted to talk to.  I did say no going on the dock without me and I will say I was pleasantly surprised by how well they did at following that rule!  My son begged me to let them go fishing because Daddy had set up their poles, but I have a hard fast rule--Momma doesn't touch fish.  EVER.  So they had to wait for Daddy.  Well by the time he was done with work, they were chomping at the bit to fish so I sat up on the deck with my friend while the 3 of them sat on the dock and fished.  The baby was asleep.  Of course Meg got too excited and tried to jump or something and started screaming because she cut her knee.  Got her up to me and there was a tiny little scrape, barely bleeding.  I got a bandaid and a wet paper towel to clean it and was doing just that when I noticed there was blood on the ends of her hair. . .and dripping down her chin.  WTF?!?  Turns out she must have hit the post at the end of the dock when she fel,l, the post Scott hadn't capped yet b/c his children were clammoring to fish.  Of course she's more concerned about the knee and didn't even notice the gash on her jawline.  After mopping up the blood, and of course after applying a bandaid to the booboo on her knee, I decided that this would need some medical attention.  It was a pretty good sized gash.  Of course Scott (the same man who fixed a huge cut of his own with a paper towel and duct tape) said Naw, just stick a butterfly closure on it and it'll be fine.  Well, I know my daughter and I know if I did that, she'd peel it off an hour later and say she was fine, so I unfortunately had to cut my visit short and take her to urgent care.  I mean, for crying out loud, we don't even have a pediatrician picked out yet and I'm already having to take her in! 

Once we finally got called back to the exam room, the nurse took one look at the gash and relocated us to the surgical room.  I'd like to say Meghan was a calm brave girl, but that wasn't the case.  I had to physically restrain her so that the doctor could numb it without accidentally jamming the needle thru her cheek when she thrashed, then suture it shut.  Meghan screamed thru the first 2 stitches, at which point she finally just calmed down.  I thought maybe she'd passed out or something, it was really weird.  Lucky I went and not Scott, he would have passed out or puked because my face was like  6 inches from the wound, and I watched her stitch it up.  I'm a Mom, things like that don't gross me out.  Plus I think as a Mom, you just enter this state of mind where you just suck it up and do what needs to be done, and freak out later.  That's how a mom can sit still and hold a baby while they're puking all over you (because you know if you try to run them to the toilet, they're just going to get puke on the carpet that you're going to have to clean up later, and they've already got puke on you, might as well let them finish), you just go into what I like to call "mom-mode".  I didn't cry or freak out or anything, I just spoke calmly to her and tried to distract her while the doctor stitched her up.  She got 4 stitches by the way.  Afterwards, when it was all over and she had her boo-boo bag and was ready to go (she got a bag full of goodies, 2 beanie babies, a coloring book and crayons, a couple of little books, and a mini chalkboard) I started feeling pretty shaky.  I'm not sure if it was from the adrenaline or the effort of holding her down (she is STRONG) or what, but I was pretty wobbly.  Still am.  I still feel like I could use a good crying jag too, but no time for it right now.  :)  I am really proud of my baby girl though, she did pretty well.  I somehow knew she'd be the first of my kids to get stitches.  She has inherited my grace, or lack therof.  She can trip walking thru an empty room. 

As a treat, her daddy took her to McDonalds when we got home, and they are on their way back so I need to sign off and get ready for dinner.  I just hope it doesn't start hurting her too much later, I hate when my kids are in pain. 

RIP, Tuck. You were a good turtle.

Yesterday started off horrible wonderful and just kept getting better.  First, we were having a land line installed, since we can't get reception on either of our phones and Scott needs a phone for work.  The guy was supposed to be here between 8-10 so Scott got up at about 7:30 and said he was going to take a shower before the guy got here.  Of course 2 minutes after he gets in the shower, the doorbell rang and I was still in bed, in my jammies.  Yay.  So I threw some clothes on and ran to open the door.  Of course the dogs barked at him, so I asked Brendan to let them out.  I should have known better, but I can't do 2 things at once, usually.  Well, when I took the phone guy downstairs to show him where the cables and stuff were, I noticed that the dogs were loose.  Brendan hadn't put them on their chains, and we don't have a fence.  So I went out there and wrestled with 2 dogs, trying to keep them from bolting while I found the clip ends of their cables and hooked them.  Well, come to find out, I had hooked them to each other by accident because one of the cords wasn't attatched to the post!  I found this out an hour later when I looked outside and saw them running loose again.  I was on the phone trying very hard to have a conversation with my mom (which had to be interrupted every 2 minutes by the kids!) so I told Brendan to tell Scott and have him take care of it.  Then a minute later Meg comes up and says that Tuck is missing.  Tuck is our turtle, he lived in our pond in Texas and we hadn't gotten an enclosure for him yet here so he was living in a rubbermaid container outside where he could get some sun.  "What do you mean Tuck is missing, Meg?  He can't get out of that thing!"  Then Scott hollers up that someone dumped the bowl.

 "Great, fine whatever, I'm trying to talk to my mom!  Give me a minute and I'll be down".  So I try to continue my conversation, and a minute later I hear wailing from Brendan.  He's coming up the stairs having a complete meltdown.

 "What happened now?"

 He wails "The dogs ate Tuck!!  He's bleeding and dead!!"  O.M.G.

 "Mom, I have to let you go, apparently the dogs just ate the turtle".  yay.  Yep, they tried to make a snack of the turtle.  His shell was pretty damaged and there was a good sized gash in his side.  He was still swimming but things didn't look good, and Brendan was bawling his eyes out.  I didn't know how to put a turtle out of his misery, so we decided to put him in the lake and let the fish let nature take it's course.  We told Brendan that he might not live, but that if he did, he would be with other turtles.  Well, last evening we went to the waters edge so the kids could play on the beach, and there was Tuck washed up on shore.  We quickly removed him so the kids didn't see.  Yeah, I know, we could have told Brendan but I fugured let him wonder, and think that maybe Tuck is still out there.  Poor kid has been thru a lot lately.  No need to traumatize him further. 

Of course my dear darling hubby thinks it is the perfect opportunity to get the bearded dragon he's always wanted.  For the boy, of course.  @@.  We did a lot of research and they look like a pretty decent pet, we've had lizards before so we know how to care for them, but we decided to wait for at least a couple weeks.  I'm not keen on adding another animal to this house right now, and I don't want a kneejerk reaction to a dead pet by replacing it right away. 

One thing I'll say, Life is never dull at our house.

Healthy meals can be a challenge

My son, as much as I love him, is a complete pain in the ass when it comes to mealtimes.  He's the pickiest eater I've ever met!  I used to think, when he was 2 and 3, that it was just a phase he'd grow out of.  Now he's 6 1/2 and still refusing to eat anything that isn't chicken or peanut butter related.  He has a very small list of food he'll eat, like cheese pizza, mac n cheese, scrambled eggs, and, well, that's pretty much it.  Oh, tomato soup, but that's only because we call it "red soup" and not tomato soup.  I have to hide the cans from him now that he can read lest he figures out that there's :::GASP::::  vegetables in it!

Since I don't want him to come down with scurvy or something, I have to get creative.  Plus, while weight isn't an issue for him right now, I don't want it to become an issue in the future, so I have to limit the pizza and things. 

Our old neighbor showed me a book, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld.  While it may be full of cook-from-scratch recipies that I'm not capable of (I'm a TERRIBLE cook!) the principal of the book is brilliant.  Mix in small amounts of pureed veggies into your kids' favorite foods and they'll never know!  For example, the other night the kids wanted mac n cheese.  I got velveeta shells and cheese because it is creamier that Kraft (easier to blend veggies) and they have a 2% milk variety that is lower in fat and calories.  I got a can of northern beans and pureed it then mixed a few spoonfuls in a bowl with the cheese sauce before dumping the noodles in, that way the beans were mixed in completely.  It added a protien and potassium boost to the food and the kids were happy. 

Some other ideas for picky eaters and moms who can't cook (AHEM, me, AHEM)
1. If you don't have time to cook and puree and freeze your own veggies, buy baby food.  One jar is usually the perfect amount for adding to a dish!  I did the cook/puree/freeze thing myself as the cookbook suggested, but it took a good 2-3 hours and I had to do it after the kids went to bed so they didn't wonder why I was doing that.  Didn't want them to figure it out!  When Erin, my youngest, started on baby food, I realized it was the same thing.  better, maybe, because it was pureed better than mine was!  Plus the kids never wondered why I was buying so many jars of carrots and squash.  Now that she's on table foods, it is a little trickier but just slip the jars in the cart when they aren't looking.

2. When in doubt, add some shredded cheese.  The mac n cheese had a slightly different texture the other day, so I threw a bit of cheese on top and it masked it.  I do the same for tomato soup; instead of adding the whole can of water, I add half a can of V8 and half of water.  Sometimes I'll throw in a jar of baby food carrots too, to sweeten it.  The V8 does change the flavor a bit, so I just toss a spoonful of cheese on top.  I also let the kids drink their soup thru a straw, so the novelty of it causes them not to think too much about the taste.

3. Everyday foods can be fixed up this way.  Brendan likes to take spaghetti o's in his lunch for school.  I mix them with a jar of baby food carrots and microwave them for 45 seconds before putting them in his thermos.  Gerber carrots are actually pretty sweet (yes, I tasted them.  If I'm going to feed them to my kids, I want to know what they taste like!) so he's never noticed, and I get a jar of carrots into him 3x a week. 

The book also had things like carrot cake from scratch, which i'm not capable of.  I bought a box mix and did it that way, added a full cup of pureed carrots and a half cup of cauliflower.  Spread a tiny bit of frosting on the top and the kids thought I was the best mom ever because I was letting them have cake for breakfast.  Sure, there was sugar in it, but there's sugar in syrup too and waffles don't have veggies! 

Green veggies are a little harder to hide, because they change the color of everything.  Pizza sauce is a good one for them, instead of buying frozen pizza or Dominoes, make your own..  You can get the pre-made crusts and the jars of sauce, then just sneak in some baby food green beans or some pureed broccoli.  Be careful not to put too much, but the spices in the sauce mask them pretty well.  The kids get a kick out of making their own pizza, it's healthier than other pizzas, and they're getting veggies!

The biggest trick is to make sure they don't know you're doing this.  I'll probably tell Brendan eventually.  Like when he's a dad with his own picky eaters!  My mom loves to tell the story of when she snuck spinach into lasagna for my brother and while he was eating he asked what the green stuff was.  I didn't know he hated spinach so I told him.  He refused to eat another bite, even though he had loved it before I told him.  So make sure to give a heads up to people who know your secrets!

Hope this gives some of you some tips for picky eaters.  Do you have any tips?  Please share them!

isn't she too old for this??

Meg will be 4 in just a couple weeks. I don't remember Brendan throwing tantrums at that age or older, at least not very often.  With Meg, it is several times a day.  Anytime I tell her no, such as "No, Meg, you can't have popsicles for breakfast" or "no, meg, your fish can't join you in the bathtub" she freaks out.  she starts screaming and whining and yelling "please!  Please momma!" as if that will get her what she wants.  It has never worked before, I don't know why she thinks it will work now, but whatever.  Crazy child.  At home I usually just say "go to your room until you calm down" or spank her butt if necessary, but sometimes she does this out in public.  Yesterday we were out at the grocery store and the kids had already picked out what they wanted to get with their allowance.  They each only had about $5 but the idea of saving and waiting a week was too much for them, so Brendan managed to find a toy that was originally $10 on sale for $5, and Meg picked out a small Littlest Pet Shop thing.  Well, all the way thru the store she kept grabbing stuff saying "I want this!  PLEASE MOMMA!" (no, I'm not buying you that.  It is a dishtowel.) we finally had enough and told her if she didn't knock it off, she wasn't getting her toy.  OMG you would have thought we killed her puppy or something.  She screamed the whole way thru the store.  And the whole way home, mainly because I flat out refused to answer her.  I have an amazing ability to ignore and tune out noise.  :-)  Scott, not so much.  He was gripping the steering wheel so tight that if he had been a Cullen, it would have snapped.  LOL.  But anyway, when we got home I calmly got her out of the car, told her to go inside, spanked her little rear end and put her in her room.  I told her she was there until dinner (about 40 min) and did it all without yelling, so I was proud of myself.  She stayed there too, which really surprised me.  I think she dozed off, she sat up when I came in to tell her dinner was ready but she looked pretty groggy.

Now, I'll bet you're wondering, did she get the toy.  Well, it went on top of the fridge (I had planned to take it out of the cart and not buy it but in the chaos of stopping B from grabbing candy from the impulse isle and keeping Erin from climbing out of the cart even with the seatbelt and Meg crying, I forgot.).  I did give it to her before bed, and I know that is kind of caving but after thinking about it, I think the tantrum was as much my fault as it was hers.  She's a lot like me, she needs a lot of sleep.  She will still take naps, even though her brother stopped when he was 2.  However, I don't always put her down for a nap.  Yesterday it was beautiful outside and after lunch Brendan asked if he could go down to our beach and build a sandcastle.  She heard him and wanted to go too, and I didn't feel like being a really mean mommy and telling her no.  I know how much I loved to play in the sand as a kid and didn't want to make her stay inside on a beautiful day.  I should have known better, because when she doesnt nap she gets crabby as hell.  So, I paid for being a nice mommy by having a monster on my hands.  She rested in her room when we got home from the store and ate her dinner without complaints or problems, then played pretty nicely with her brother for the evening and took a bath without complaining, and since she didn't ask about the toy or whine for it, I thought I'd be nice and give it to her.  Plus I used it as a bribe to get her to go to bed.  :-)  Hey, whatever works.

Gotta go get my baby girl out of her high chair.  she's super crabby too, her top 2 teeth finally came in, both this week, so she's got awful diaper rash from the wonderful symptoms of teething.  yay.  the joys of parenthood.

N-n-n-o, I'm n-n-n-ot c-c-c-c-old. . .

My children are crazy.  If you've met them, you know I'm telling the truth.  But seriously, I question their mental stability. 

We're at our new home in Michigan.  We live on a lake which is wonderful in so many ways.  I'm really looking forward to swimming---in the summer.  My children seem to think waiting for summer is for sissies.  I let them play down by the water today, building sand castles in the small beach area.  Brendan wanted to stick his toes in the water.  Sure son, go ahead.  Mind you, the air may be 75 but the water is still around 45-50 degrees.  Well, he stuck his feet in.  The bottoms of his pants got wet but no biggie.  Then Meg wanted to do the same thing.  Then Brendan wanted to wade in to his ankles, and I said no because his pants would get wet.  He said "Oh don't worry, I've got an idea!" I knew he what he was planning on doing but didn't stop him.  Sure enough he came back down wearing his swim trunks.  I just rolled my eyes, figuring as soon as he got into the water he'd realize it was freezing and stop.  Apparently I underestimated his tolerance for cold.  This is the child that complains when the temp in the house drops below 73, yet he waded in almost to his knees without complaining.  Next thing I knew he was running down the backyard and jumping.  Landing on his feet, but still in water past his knees.  Of course before I knew it, Meghan, who has to do everything her brother does, had pushed her pant legs up over her knees and was running and jumping.  She has unfortunately inherited my gracefulness, so she landed on her butt.  Within 5 minutes they were both soaked and wading up to their waists.  I told them not to go any further 'cause I didn't want to have to jump in the frigid water to save them!  Meg even tripped at one point and landed face first in the water, and came up laughing and wanting to do it again.  She got out at one point and was shivering so much she could barely talk, so I tried insisting that she go inside and she said "n-n-n-ooo, I'm n-n-n-ot c-c-c-cold."  I told her "but baby, you're shivering!" and she said "Thatj-j-j-just means i n-n-n-n-eed to g-g-g-o b-b-b-ack in!" and she jumped back in.  I finally bribed them to come in by offering them hot cocoa, and hubby helped me give them both showers to warm them up. 

You know, I say I question their sanity, but Scott says he questions MINE, since I was allowing them to do that.  Well, what can I say?  When I was their age, I was the same way.  I remember going to Lake Huron or Lake Michigan and the water was freezing but it didn't stop me.  I'm a little older and wiser now, but I still wish I had youthful exuberance to blame so I could have jumped in there with them!

down to the wire!

Packers are coming bright and early tomorrow.  The loaders are coming in the afternoon.  Truck was already delivered.  I feel like I've got a giant countdown clock ticking away above my head. 

We haven't stressed too much over the packing, we've packed what we could easily do, and stuff we weren't using we packed over the course of the last few weeks, but I haven't touched my craft closet and there's plenty of stuff in the kitchen etc that they'll pack for us, as well as some of the pictures on the wall and all the electronics stuff.  We did spend a lot of time the last few weeks cleaning out drawers and cubbards and throwing a bunch of crap away.  Scott has really been busting his butt this past week with me being unable to do much.  He's so wonderful!  I'm just glad I'm able to walk around now, slow but at least I'm moving and can carry stuff.  Today I'm working on packing everything for the trip.  I've got 3 suitcases, one for the last few days here, one for on the road, and one for once we get to MI before the rest of our stuff arrives.  The logistics of the move are the most stressful, trying to make sure I have everything we need for the kids and dogs.  Need to find leashes, blankies, beloved toys and teddy bears, sippy cups, etc.  And that's just for the car ride!  LOL.  We bought the pre-mixed formula for Erin for the trip so that we can just dump a can of it into her sippy cup rather than dealing with powder and water and all that in the car.  She's 10.5 mos old and not allergic to milk, but she still needs the formula to supplement her nutrition in between solids.  We've given her milk a couple of times like when we were at Grandma's and didn't have formula on hand, but for the most part she still gets formula.  Too bad she isn't just a couple months older!  We also give her dilluted juice but only a little each day.  I tried the pre-mixed formula on her this morning to make sure (even though it is the same Enfamil Premium we always use, I just wanted to be sure she would drink it) and she was happy with it.  She gets a kick out of the sippy cup. 

Anyway, back to the packing.  I'm trying to make it so that we don't have to haul a bunch of suitcases every place we stop, but I'm terrified I'm not going to have enough of something in each one, and Meg will have to wear a dirty shirt or something.  I ALWAYS way overpack.  Scott and I went on a 3 day cruise one time.  He brought a carry on suitcase.  I brought 2 large suitcases.  Now that we have kids I'm wayyyyyyy worse.  I pack twice as many clothes as I think they'll need to make sure that when they spill something on their shirt or fall down in mud I have back up clothes.  And I'll probably pack tons of PJ's even though Meg usually insists on sleeping in her clothes (hey, pick your battles.  Besides, it means less laundry for me!) because I know if I don't pack PJs she'll insist she NEEDS them and it will mean a hissy fit. 

Well, Erin is up for her nap so I need to deal with her.  Thanks for reading! 

Good news and bad news

I had an MRI done of my knee yesterday to determine exactly what is wrong with it and how to fix it.  The good news is that I can now walk, sort of.  They gave me a walking locking brace for my knee so I can hobble.  I've been using one crutch at the same time because my knee still feels unstable, but at least I can do things like carry a milk jug or my own purse.  I am not comfortable carrying the baby around but I'll be more up to that maybe in a day or two. 

The bad news is that they said it looks like I tore my ACL.  The doc said they usually wait a few weeks to repair them, so I can have it done in Michigan after we get settled and things.  Plus we'll be close enough to go to the U of M hospital, one of the best in the country (of course it is, GO BLUE!) so I'll be in good hands.  Not totally thrilled about it, but it could have been worse. 

I called my dad after I left the doctor, and he laughed.  LAUGHED.  I haven't heard him laugh that hard in a while.  Gee, glad I amuse ya!  :-)  He mocked me too, said "Hold ma beer n watch me do this!" @@. 

I can only hope that my children have inherited more physical grace and intelligence than I have. 

uh, something popped. That can't be good.

Went to my doc today to get my knee re-checked.  She asked if I was able to put any weight on it and I said that I hadn't tried b/c they told me not to for a few days.  So I kinda leaned a bit on it and that wasn't too terrible, so she asked me to get up on the table and lie face down so she could bend my knee.  Well while trying to get up on the table I kinda put more weight on it, and something popped and my knee completely buckled under me.  Hurt like hell too.  So, yeah, she said absolutely do not put any weight on it, and I have to get an MRI done as soon as they get my insurance to approve it.  She thinks it could be a really bad sprain but she's worried I might have torn something.  If that's the case, she said they'll get it diagnosed here, but that any treatment would obviously have to be done in MI. 

This sucks.  This completely and totally sucks.  Yeah it may sound nice that I get to sit and knit and watch New Moon, but I feel awful that I can't carry the baby or help with the packin and cleaning or anything.  Poor Scott has been given a bunch of new responsibilities at work in addition to his old ones, and on top of that he's been trying to get extra stuff done so that he can deal with moving next week.  Now he has to do all that AND take care of me and the baby and everything.  I can't carry stuff with crutches, so he has to wait on me and bring me ice and food and all that.  He's pissed, not at me but just in general.  I guess I don't blame him, but his attitude is making me feel worse even though that isn't his intention.  So sorry babe, I didn't mean to be a complete idiot.  Today when the nurse asked me what happened, I said "well, 29 years ago my Grandma dropped me on my head.  I think it must have impaired my judgement." 

I'm trying to convince Scott to ask his mom to help out with Erin.  I know he doesn't want to burden her, but I'm sure since we're leaving soon she'll be happy to spend some extra time with E.  I was really hoping that the doc could do something like give me some sort of stabilizing brace that I could walk with, but that was before I realized that my knee couldn't handle any weight.  That pop scared the hell out of me.  God, what if I have to have surgery or rehab or something??  What completely shitty timing.  I'm a moron.  I willnever ever ever attempt a bike stunt again. 

On top of all this, now Scott is freaking out about how we're getting to MI.  We had planned to drive his truck so he could take the boat and his folks were going to drive our van next month.  Well, I don't know if I can get up into the truck, since the bottom of the door is higher than my waist.  I told him we could try it with a step stool but that might be tricky with crutches.  Yeah, this is gonna be so freaking much fun.  If I can't get into the truck I have no idea what we're going to do.  His folks can't drive the truck with the boat.  The only thing I can think of is if they come up with us right away and I ride in the van, but I don't know. 

This is a nightmare.  What the hell was I thinking when I got on that bike?????

Wish us luck please.  ::::::sigh::::::

comments fixed. Sort of. I think.

OK I think I have the comments fixed, sort of.  If you click on the title of the post it will pull up the individual post and at the bottom of it is the comments box.  You can't post comments on the main page of the blog still for some reason, but on the individual pages you can.  Make sense?  I'm still working on it to figure out why you can't post comments from the main page where it shows all the recent posts, but at least I found a way to post them for now.  Sorry for any inconvience!  :-)

Reason for visit to ER? "I'm a dumbass"

My husband built Brendan a bike ramp yesterday out of a few pieces of spare lumber.  B was having a blast but was going very slow over it.  I think  must have had an alien controling my mind, or I must have gone temporarily insane or something, because I had the words "that's not how you do it.  Let Momma show you how it's done." come out of my mouth.  What the hell was I thinking?!?!  Scott got me a new bike last week and it is a montain bike so I thought that gave me magical bike powers.  So I hop on my new (hot pink!) bike, complete with baby seat on the back (which probably doesn't help my already precarious balance!) and tried the jump.  TRIED.  DID NOT SUCCEED.  Bike landed off balance and being the idiot that I am, I tried to stop myself from falling.  Twisted the hell out of my knee and landed in a heap.  Luckily the knee was the only thing on me that got hurt.  The bike now needs a bit of straightening too apparently.  So there I was laying on the ground, wimpering (well, OK, crying) and asking for a pillow because I didn't want to get up and the ground was hard.  Brendan was standing over me saying "Momma come on, you have to get up and try again".  Scott was complaining because he hadn't figured out the video function on my phone in time.  He got me in the house and then had to go to the store.  Erin had already been buckled in the car to go with him when I had my not-so-brilliant brainstorm to try a death defying stunt.  I called my mom to tell her what an idiot I am and she said I should get it checked out and that she would take me so Scott didn't have to drag the kids.  the ER here is never busy so I got in pretty quick, they did an xray and said it was probably just a bad sprain and that I need to keep it immobilized and stay on crutches for a few days until I have a follow up visit with an ortho.  Scott wasn't happy about that, since with crutches I can't carry the baby or anything and he has to work and take care of kids, but when I yelled at him and told him he was being a complete ass, and his parents (who were here) agreed with me, he calmed down and apologized.  He's been a big help, brought me breakfast and coffee and meds this am, got B ready and off to school and has taken care of the girls all morning.  Meanwhile I'm on the couch with my foot up, trying to avoid moving too much since navagating the house with all the boxes and kids' crap on crutches is not very easy.  plus my knee hurts like hell.  I stilll can't believe I did that.  What the hell was I thinking??  I've never been very coordinated.  I still can't believe I managed to make the cheerleading squad in high school since I've always been a complete klutz.  the nurse yesterday handed me my crutches and asked "do you know how to use these?"  I said "Oh yea, I'm a pro" and took off down the hall.  I even beat mom to the door.  Hell, I think this is like the 8th time I've been on crutches thanks to things like weak ankles and idiocy.  I was even on crutches for my HS graduation because I tripped a few days before.  I wanted to just limp but the doc insisted I had to use crutches.  I had planned to ditch them behind a tree anyway, but I think my parents figured that because Dad walked me right up to the line.  Talk about mortifying! 

Hopefully when I see the ortho in a few days he says I can start using my leg again, since I can't drive or anything (it is my right leg).  Scott is going to take me to my knitting night since it is the last chance I get to go.  Thank God we have movers to do the packing since I don't think I'm going to get much else packed this week.  I'm an idiot.  I'm a moron.  I'm a klutz.  ::::;sigh::::::

queen of messes

Still can't figure out the comments.  I have all the settings set the same way as my other blog and it isn't working, so who knows.  Hubby said he will look tomorrow at the HTML and see if something is screwy there.  Me trying to read HTML is like me trying to read Hebrew.

Anyway, I had a slightly better day today.  Brendan behaved a bit better and I tried very hard not to yell.  only had to raise my voice a couple of times.  I did get stressed and annoyed at the end of the day because I was feeling overworked and underappreciated so I told Scott "I'm going to take a walk until I cool off!"  It took a 20 minute power walk with some fast tempo music blaring thru my headphones, but it worked.  We all have moments like that.  The bonus was that when I got home, hubby had cleaned the living room and kitchen for me.  He DOES listen!  :-)  I think the reason I was at my wit's end today was because alllllll day long I was cleaning one thing after another, and most of the messes were caused by the Queen of all messes, Meg.  OMG she's like a tornado, leaving a path of distruction wherever she goes.  First it was the sugar all over the kitchen floor from where she decided to stick a spoon in the sugar container.  I think she must have learned to leviate or something because I had put that container where I was SURE it was out of her reach.  And I can't figure out how the sugar got all over the whole kitchen floor, or why it was wet which caused it not to be sucked up by the vaccum.  Thankfully my dogs are back from the trainer, so Thunder cleaned up the sugar before I had even found the broom.  He's my little hoover.  They spent a few days at the trainers getting groomed and giving us a chance to pack without them around.  I never realized how much those dogs clean up--I had to actually sweep every time I fed Erin while they were gone.  When they're here, the mess is gone before Erin is even out of the high chair!  LOL.  But I digress.  Anyway, after I got the sugar cleaned up, I realized Meg had been in the bathroom "washing" her hands an awful long time.  Yep, another soap cake.  she likes baking soap cakes.  What is a soap cake, you ask?  well, it is a cake made out of wet toilet paper, frosted with my nice smelling bath and body works lotion soap.  Luckily I got it in one of their "buy one get 6 free" type sales that they seem to have every other day.  Sometimes she even gets fancy and decorates her cake with toothpaste.  SO much fun.

Speaking of the devil, we let her and Brendan have a sleepover tonight.  It is 3:30 and I'm up with heartburn (stress and a burger from Mickey D's) and I can hear voices coming from her room.  Why are they awake??  [a couple minutes later] OK apparently she woke up and couldn't find the dora cup.  You know, the cup that she insists she MUST have every time she goes to bed, and it has to have ice in it every single time.  then she takes one sip and leaves it in the pocket in her tent.  She's not even thirsty, she just needs to know it is there.  She's even demanded ice in the middle of the night before, because she had woken up and the ice was melted.  I made her get it herself.  :-)

So anyway, where was I?  Oh yeah, the yummy soap cake.  Sent her to her room while I cleaned up that and the rest of the sugar, and then she came out and asked for a snack.  Sure, whatever.  A few minutes later I come into the kitchen and there's a puddle of red crystal light on the table and dripping on to the floor.  Did she even bother to tell me she had spilled?  No, of course not.  She was outside at this point so I cleaned it up and then took the wrapper from her granola bar away from the dog.  We've lived here for 2 years and she still can't find the trash can apparently. 

I am not the neatest person in the world.  I leave yarn all over the place, I can completely ignore clutter, and I usually have laundry (dirty and clean, folded and unfolded) all over the house.  However, my mess queen puts me to shame.  I pity my future son in law.  Hopefully she'll get better at cleaning by that point, or hopefully they have enough money to hire a housekeeper. 

All is finally quiet, including my heartburn.  I think I'll try to get some sleep now.  Gotta rest up for the messes I'm sure she'll make tomorrow!  Or, rather, today!

Comments??

OK apparently this blog is not letting people post comments.  I've gone thru all the settings for this and even compared it to my other blog (http://jensknitsandknonsense.blogspot.com/) which does allow comments, and I can't figure out what is wrong.  Does anyone have any clue?  If it isn't on an easy "click here" button, I'm pretty helpless.  I'm not much of a computer wiz.  I would say, if you know, post a comment, but, well, that wouldn't work.  hmmmmmm.  I guess if you know the answer, please email me at iffer0624@gmail.com and hopefully I can get that fixed.  Thanks!

You must write "I will not color on my sister" 10 times.

Ahhhhhhh what a day it has been.  Brendan has taken not listening to a whole new level.  Is Spring Break over yet???  My friend came over with her son, who is Brendan's age.  While us moms sat and knit, the boys and Meg went out to play.  They were told to stay in the backyard, which they know is the usual rule--stay where I can see you.  Usually I go out with them but I opened the window and since they were supposed to be in the backyard, it SHOULD have been OK.  Well, my dear darling son decided to instead lead them down the road to the houses that are being built in our cul de sac.  I looked out the back window and no kids.  I looked out the front and no kids.  I looked in the driveway and no kids.  I hollered for them and no kids.  Great, so not only did I lose MY kids, but I also lost my friend's kid too.  Wow, I deserve mom of the year.  I finally spotted them when I went into the front yard and saw them down the street.  My friend was getting ready to leave anyway so they left and my kids got sent to their rooms after a swat on the butt and a bit of yelling a lecture.  ("I thought you'd been kidnapped!  You could have gotten hurt or killed!  You embarassed me in front of Auntie C!  What on Earth were you thinking?!?!").  Meg fell asleep during her time out, no surprise as she hadn't napped.  B spent most of his time out trying to talk his way OUT of time out.  ::::sigh::::  So anyway, after his time out he came to me and asked if he could do his art project for school that is due on monday.  He has to decorate cowboy boots for Rodeo week.  (Yeah, I'm gonna miss Texas!  LOL).  I said yes, let me get the markers, and he said "I already have the black one.  The little one."  Oh, my sharpie??  The one I specifically told you NOT to touch???  Yeah, I don't think so, kiddo.  So I go into the kitchen to take it away and get him the washable-kid-friendly markers, and what do I see?  Big X's and lines drawn on my kitchen cubbard doors.  IN PERMANENT MARKER.  OMG.  I thought by 6 he would have grown out of the color-on-everything-but-paper thing.  Apparently not.  I took about 50 deep breaths to keep from killing him, and yelled "Go to your room!!!  RIGHT NOW!!"  Hubby came out to see what was going on, and he spotted the baby.  "Hon, what's that on Erin's head?"  Oh, lovely.  It is a nice large line down the middle of her forehead.  Yes, again, in permanent marker.  At this point he got another spanking and told to stay in his room until he dies until we tell him to come out.  We let him come out after a little over an hour, and after we discovered that thankfully non-acetone nail polish remover takes sharpie off both finished cubbards and baby foreheads.  I washed Erin's head right away afterward and it didn't appear to bother her skin.  I was so worried, I thought we'd have to replace the cubbard doors or something before we put the house on the market. 

While we were cleaning the mess, Scott and I were discussing different ways that we might try to change his behavior.  One of the ideas we decided to try was the old method schools used to use.  Yep, we made him write an apology letter to us and then write "I will not color on my sister" 10 times.  I'm saving that paper to show his future bride.  :-)

Does anyone know if there is a military school that offers Kindergarten? 

Getting ready to MOVE, in more ways than one.

Everyone is moving around here, including my baby girl, who took her FIRST STEPS today!  I sort of got photos, my 6 year old took some for me because Scott was on a conference call, but of course I can't find the camera cord.  Oh well.  I promise to post them soon.  :-)

We've been working on packing up kids toys today while Meg was at the inlaws'. I packed most of her stuff but left out all her little pet shop toys since that's what she plays the most. Brendan however insisted that ALL of his toys must be packed. We reminded him that we aren't moving for like 2 weeks, but I think he is worried that his toys won't make it if they don't get packed now LOL. I labeled Meg's boxes and he asked if he could label his. Sure, no problem, right? HA. One box says "Fuz buntons toys", one says "Booommmmmm's toys", one says "I love you" and the last one he just checked off every single room. (UHaul boxes come pre-labeled, you just check the room the box belongs in.) Should be interesting when the movers get here! 

We also took B to see "Alice in Wonderland" today while my inlaws watched the girls.  Pretty good movie, a little long but he stayed interested, so I know he liked it.  It didn't scare him either, which I was a little concerned about, but then again he's watched both Transformer movies about a hundred times.  However, the Little Mermaid and Finding Nemo scare him.  He has a thing with big scary animated fish I guess LOL. 

Well, got to go unload the dishwasher and throw some laundry in.  Man, I wish there was a laundry fairy.  I can never catch up!!  Everytime I think I am making some headway on the laundry pile, I find a stash of dirty clothes in one of the kids' rooms or something!  YIKES.

Change is a-comin'

After living on the face of the sun, er, I mean, Texas for 10 years, my husband and I are moving with our children and our 2 dogs and the bunny and the turtle back to our native Michigan.  We're homesick, and when the opportunity arose in his company to move him to the northern reigon, it was an easy decision.  Thus far it has also been a relatively easy move, comparitively.  We've moved a lot, for a variety of reasons and in various financial situations.  This time we're able to afford the things we need to help ease the stress of moving, such as movers who do some of the packing, and we've had well over a month to prepare.  For once, moving is not stressing me out or raising my blood pressure!  What a blessing!  I think part of it is the fact that this move is RIGHT for us.  Have you ever made a major decision and just knew, in your heart, that you were making the right choice?  That is how this one felt for us.  The educational system is better, there's no allergies, so my son won't need the nebulizer and his eczema should hopefully clear up not to mention the fact that he won't need 4 other meds to keep him healthy.  My baby girl has terrible allergies too and we've had to use the neb on her a few times plus she's on zyrtec already.  I won't miss THAT!  Then there's the wonderful summer weather (in comparison to the 100+ degrees here!), the fact that we still have a lot of friends up there, etc.  The list could go on and on.  There's some downsides too, mainly all the friends and family we're leaving here in Texas, but overall this is a really great move for us.

My favorite part is that we're going to live on a lake.  We found a house that is lakefront, much bigger than this house, just as nice, (even nicer in some aspects, like wood flooring instead of carpet), and cheaper than what we're paying now.  Can't beat that!  I can't wait to sit out on my deck looking out at the water.  That's been a dream of mine for as long as I can remember.

This weekend we're going to spend some time packing.  The dogs are going out to the trainer for the weekend, for grooming and to give us a break from at least 2 of the creatures in our house.  Plus, the puppy needs a bit more training.  I'm beginning to worry that he's going to start responding to "little fucker", since that's what my hubby calls him every time he [the puppy!] poops in the house.  Anyway, we're going to get one of those dumpster things from Lowes and work on cleaning stuff out, there's a lot of junk in the garage to get rid of that isn't even worthy of craigslist, a fallen tree in our backyard, some old lumber. . .  fun.  Going to get that all cleaned up, maybe pack the framed pictures on the walls, some of the kids' junk, etc.  Stuff we won't need for a few weeks.  The movers will be doing whatever packing we don't get done, so I don't have to bust ass and try to pack everything while taking care of 3 kids, but whatever we get packed ourselves will save us time and money when the movers arrive. 

Well, off to get ready to get going for the day.  The kids actually slept in quite a bit today, Meg didn't wake up until 7:45, Erin got up about 8:30, and Brendan didn't get up until 9.  It was nice not having to get up and rush, but my body still woke up by 7:30.  I remember wayyyyy back when I used to sleep until 9:30 or 10.  ahhhh those were the days!

My husband is completely geeked about being able to park the boat in the lake behind our house and just go out and fish in the mornings.  We're driving to Michigan, and the kids have DVDs to keep them entertained, I have my laptop with DVDs and my ipod, so I suggested that he download an audible book or something for his ipod to keep himself entertained on the trip, lest he get bored.  He said "bored?  I won't be bored!  My mind will be going over all the fishing trips I plan to do this summer!"  He's got an almost photographic mind and can remember each and every fish he ever caught in MI, where he caught it, what time of day etc.  I think we're going to spend most of the summer reliving our youths with our children.  I, for one, can't wait to take them to Ludington, where I spent many vacations with my mom and grandparents.  Happy times!