Just Poop Already!

I’m feeling like a bad mommy today…even though I know there’s only so much I can do. When I picked the kids up from the sitter’s yesterday, she told me that my son had gone through every pair of underwear I had packed him. She assured me that none of them were full blown accidents…he just had to poop and he wasn’t, and it was affecting him monitoring his pee!

Aren’t you glad you tuned in today? Keep reading for more of this exciting topic.

So we get home, and I know it’s been 2 days since he’s pooped, and it had been 2 days before we made him do it last time. He’s still in the beginning stages and he doesn’t want to poop on the potty (and I've offered him a diaper so he can poop in there and he refuses to put one on...we made him on Sunday and he still wouldn't go in it). So I had him in the bathroom for ½ hour last night right when we got home. I had a bowl of M&M’s in front of him that he could have as soon as he pooped; I told him we could go outside AS SOON AS HE POOPED!!!

Nothing worked.

Then hubby got home and he took over while I tried to figure out what we were having for dinner. He was in there with him for another ½ hour and he was screaming the whole time. They finally emerged and my son looked 10 times better. However, hubby informed me that he’s totally constipated. Great, so now not only does he not want to normally poop on the potty, but now he’s going to associate it with pain, so he’ll never want to go.

Needless to say dinner for the kids consisted of: apples, bananas, grapes and almonds along with juice that had some mineral oil in it. The kids were very confused about this “weird” dinner that they got to eat while watching Sesame Street in the family room.

I really hope this gets easier because I’m losing my patience really, really fast. But on a brighter note, hubby went to change my son this morning before taking him to the sitter only to find out he was dry! I’m not getting excited because I believe it could totally be a fluke, but it was still a nice surprise this morning!

And for those of you that made comments about cleaning up wet sheets…my secret has been these vinyl underwear thingies that we put over top of his underwear, so even when he goes, it doesn’t get on the bed or anything…it’s all contained! I got them at Babies R Us and they come in all sizes.

Tonight is trick-or-treating for us and the kids are ecstatic! You know I’ll be back tomorrow with lots of pictures!

Weekend Review

Friday night as soon as I got home from work we took my son’s diaper off, and it hasn’t been back on since! I have to brag that God gave us two very easy potty trainers! My son had an accident within minutes of having the diaper off (just like my daughter did), and after that, he got it! The only other accidents he had were when he was outside playing (that’s our fault…we were slacking in the “reminding” department) and then he had another one in the house, but he caught himself and finished in the potty. We used M&M’s like we did with our daughter and they worked great! He has been such a big boy!

The only are we’re having trouble is night time. He stays dry during his naps, but at night, he pees all over himself and it doesn’t even wake him up! So if any of you have any advice as to how to get him to even wake up when it happens, I’d love to hear it!

My spa day on Saturday was nice, but my manicure and pedicure really wasn’t that great. The girl didn’t know how to do a French manicure! It took her about 20 minutes to just paint on the white tips, and then when she put the top coat on, it separated, so it looked horrible. But I couldn’t have her redo the whole thing because as it is I was already late for my massage because she was 20 minutes late getting me in. So she just put on a solid color. Guess what? I took it off last night because it was chipping so badly. To say I’m upset is an understatement. But my massage was wonderful! The girl was good and it was so relaxing!

Sunday we were very relaxed (we didn’t chance going to church with potty training boy…but we did venture out to Giant Eagle and he did great!). We carved pumpkins…well, actually the kids started and then ran off to play with the neighbor girls and hubby and I finished :) But the pumpkins look nice and ready for tomorrow! We also had a really nice dinner with our good friends.

Last night was good because I came home and made some really good beef stew (which I have never made before) and while it was cooking, I poured myself a glass of wine and started reading the great magazine that Jill sent me from Who Could Ask For Anything More. Thank you so much! I’ve only gotten through a few pages but I love it!

FUN MONDAY - Don't Leave Home Without It

Karina over at Candid Karina is the host of today's Fun Monday, and her assignment is as follows:



"I want to see your security blankets. No, not the kind Linus carries around with him in the Charlie Brown cartoons, although, if you have one of those, by all means share it. What I want to see are the items you just cannot leave home without. What is it that if you leave your house without, you feel naked, incomplete, not quite right? This can be one thing or many things. And since most of us don't live in a clothing optional society, lets just assume we all leave the house fully dressed...I want to hear about those other things...the extras. The things that make women's purses so heavy and men's pockets so messy (I'm going to get grief for this one, aren't I?) What can't you leave home without? Show us pictures, tell us stories...have fun!"



So what can't I leave home without? See below!





This is what I can't leave home without on a typical workday. I have in the back my can of pop (I hate coffee and this Diet Pepsi Max actually keeps me awake!), and my wallet. In front of my pop I have my iPod so that I can watch a TV show during my lunch hour. In front of my wallet I have my work ID badge and my PDA which has my calendar and a ton of other cool things on it.

Behind my sunglasses is a thing of hair ties, because I have long hair and sometimes it needs pulled back. Then I have my gum and my keys and of course my cell phone. I also have my FAVORITE lip gloss ever (I really should do a review of it...I love it!) by L’Oreal.

Nothing too exciting, but I feel really naked if I don't have these items with me. And most of them (minus the iPod and the work badge go with me everywhere I go...not just to work).

Now go on over to Candid Karina and check out all the other participants!!!

The One We Like...And Other Stuff!

So I hope you all got a kick out of the wacko sitters I had to deal with the past two weeks :) Now I will tell you about the great one (I hope) that we found!

We were actually set on this one sitter, the only downside was that she was 10 minutes out of the way, each way. So once the last wacko was out of the picture, I was ready to let this other one know we were going with her. I had even started calling her references and e-mailed her to see what she thought (I usually don’t do this until I’m sure I want to go with them).

Then around 2:30 on Wednesday I get a response to my ad that I had placed. This lady sounded very nice, lived closer to me (and on the way to work), and I just had a “feeling.” So I called hubby and told him I thought we should check her out…it would be the last one, but I just had a feeling we shouldn’t dismiss her without meeting her first. So I called her, and since she knew we were in a hurry, she agreed to meet us that night! Right there, I thought that was so very nice and accommodating! We went over there, and right away I loved the location. Their neighborhood has the elementary school in it (like ours) and they had a newer home that had a lot of space. Her house was beautiful! Very nicely decorated and well-kept. I say this because we have really tried to teach our kids to respect things…I don’t believe that your house should be trashed just because you have kids. So to see this house, with a family of 4 kids, made me realize that my kids would have to act the same way there as they do at home, which is good!

She and her husband were there, and they have a 7 year-old boy, a 6 year-old girl, a 4 year-old girl (that’s 2 days younger than my daughter!!!) and a 9 month-old girl. They had to be the nicest people we have ever met! Her husband was so outgoing and friendly (so many times you get a husband that if he’s even there he barely talks). They took us down to their nicely finished basement (which = nice playroom!). And you know what they have a ton of??? Thomas stuff!!! My son was in heaven!

So we talked to them for a while and really, really liked them. They are Mormons, which although not our religion, they pray, which is what our kids do, and they are not afraid to talk about God and Jesus, which is so important to us!

The icing on the cake, which we tried not to take into consideration because it doesn’t influence who we pick (it actually had the opposite affect actually) is that she is cheaper than our previous sitter and the other one we were going to go with. We are excited about this because it allows us to do some really cool things with her if she does a good job with the kids (bonuses out of the blue, bigger Christmas bonus, supermarket gift cards, nice raises, etc.).

So there you have it! She’s going for her background check today and if all goes well we’ll start the kids on Monday!

Now for my exciting weekend news! I went to a new spa last week that just opened by my house to get my eyebrows waxed. When I was there, the girl told me that all services through October were 50% off!!!! So I told hubby that as my reward for going through all this stuff with the sitter, I was going to get pampered! So tomorrow, I will be getting a manicure, pedicure and a hot stone massage!!! I haven’t had a massage in a couple years so I’m really, really looking forward to it!

And because my life wouldn’t be “normal” without stress, we have decided to potty train my son…starting tonight! We’re hoping that this whole weekend will be enough…we’ll have to see! We did my daughter in a weekend (I know, I know, everyone says boys are harder). However, he’s gone on the potty a couple of times, and even last night he was next to me and looked up and said “I’m peeing.” Yep, time to get rid of those diapers!

I’ll let you know how the weekend went on Tuesday :)

Just One More....

OK, I promise this is the last one, but I got another doozy of a one yesterday!

I have been talking to this lady for 1 ½ weeks and for a couple days I never heard anything from her, so I thought she was rudely telling me she was no longer interested. Then I get the following e-mail from her:

“I was wondering if you could be so kind as to tell me why you did not want to pursue talking to me about child care? I feel I took the extra time to correspond with you and deserve a bit of respect to be told the reason why you were no longer interested.
Thanks”

So I e-mailed her right back (because she had not given me her phone number) a bunch of times hoping she would get one of them (because obviously she wasn’t getting my responses back to her). She then comes back and says she got all of my e-mails. And she gives me her phone number.

I call her, multiple times, and leave messages. I call her in the morning, afternoon, and evening. She calls me back at work one day and I miss it. She leaves a voicemail asking me to call her after 5:30 since she was getting into her busy time with parents picking kids up. So I called at 5:40, and then again at 8:00, and then again at 9:00. No freaking answer.

She finally e-mails me back on Tuesday and sets up and appointment for Thursday night (because she has something Tuesday and Wednesday nights). I e-mail her back on Tuesday evening (and try to call her) telling her that we 1.) can’t do that night because my daughter has gymnastics and hubby plays basketball and 2.) we don’t want to wait that long. I also tell her that I’m concerned about how hard it is to get in touch with her, and how would I be able to call her and talk to her if she was actually watching my kids?

I get the following response back:

“No, I cannot set up something for tonight. I make plans in the evenings also after hours.
I do get back in touch with the parents whose children I provide care for during the day if they have a concern but I do not make it a priority to take other calls- sorry, no offense. My parents know I don't like to talk on the phone and they trust me to know I will call if their is a problem.
If you are still interested in meeting let me know.”

I was so fed and up and mad that I sent the following e-mail right back to her:

“Megan,
Dragging someone out this long is utterly rude and inconsiderate. I don’t understand why you applied to my ad (1 ½ weeks ago mind you) if you weren’t going to take this seriously. I have a very hectic, crazy life, but I never, ever let more than one day go by without returning a phone call or an e-mail (heck, I e-mail right back most of the time), it’s just plain rude. Offense was certainly taken by me not being a “priority,” you inquired about a job and that’s serious. Thank you for letting me see that you are too busy and obviously have too many kids that you are caring for to even get back to me. To act like you don’t have time in your day to make a phone call is just that, an act. I honestly just don’t understand…if you weren’t that interested, why on earth didn’t you just say so? My ad clearly said that we needed to find someone as soon as possible and 1 ½ weeks later is not as soon as possible…our temporary sitter ends this week!

Thankfully I have found a wonderful person…I was holding out because your one message to me sounded so nice, so I thought I would give it one final chance for us to meet, but obviously the job is not that important to you. Besides, I need to have a sitter than I can call during the day and know that if I don’t talk to her when I call, I will get a response back within a reasonable period of time!”

Seriously, where do these people come from????

We did meet with a fantastic person last night and I will tell you all about her tomorrow!

Yet Another One....

I thought I would highlight yet another “applicant” for our sitter position. (and by “applicant” I mean someone who responded to my ad on craigslist.com).

This lady lives in the next neighborhood over. We are very excited about her! Her son is the same age as my daughter and they will go to the same kindergarten next year.

So I e-mail her, and 2 days later she responds. We go back and forth a couple of times and I ask her if we can meet. A day later she responds saying she’d check with her family’s schedule and get back to me.

Since the first e-mail it has been about 1 week. Way too long given our situation (most respondents and I corresponded over a day or two and then met within the next couple of days). In one e-mail this lady tells me she’s sorry it’s taking her so long to get back to me, she’s been in bed with the “flew.” Now I’m willing to overlook the spelling mistake, but it did catch my eye.

So more days go by and she finally gets back to my with a phone number. I call – no answer so I leave a message. Nothing. I call one morning around 10:00 and it’s answered but then hung up. So I call again around 11:00, and a little kid answers the phone:

“Hello?”
“Hi, is Melissa there?”
“Who is this?”
“This is Happy Working Mom”
“What?”
(I say my name again)
“My mom’s asleep”
Silence
“Is your dad there?”
“no”
“Is anyone watching you?”
“no”
Silence
He says “good-bye”

So I e-mail the lady and told her about what happened and that I wasn’t able to get in touch with her and that I obviously couldn’t leave a message because her son answered the phone.

She e-mailed me back saying that the next night would be a good night for her to meet us because it would give her some time to get some things together for the interview. What “things” did she need 1 ½ days to get together? I think she probably had to clean her house.

She called me to confirm our meeting and I told her “no.” I didn’t feel like getting into it about how I talked to her son and he told me she was sleeping…I just wanted to be done dealing with her…waiting for her to respond was driving me crazy.

And just so you know, I really wrestled with this, because there have been times that I may have dozed off when I just have my daughter, or mornings that she’s awake before me and she watches TV in my bed while I might still be sleeping. BUT…if the phone rings, or if she moves from her spot, I’m instantly awake. There’s no way that she could have a phone conversation without me waking up. Unless she was in another room, which I don’t allow if I’m not 100% coherent. So my deductions were that this lady was soundly sleeping, and her son had free roam of the house while she was out. Not something I’m comfortable with.

Needless to say, we’re still looking.

Topic Jumping

OK, lots of topics to cover here, plus I’m SLAMMED at work right now (closing the books 3 days late = my work getting crunched into fewer days).

-Some people asked for pictures of my new fan and here it is! After looking at this picture I realized that we really, really need to paint our bedroom. However, I don’t see that happening in the near future.



-Some of you might be wondering how the search for childcare is going. To give you an idea, here’s the e-mail I got this morning at 6:24 from the lady we interviewed last night:

“Hi

This is really weird to write so I will keep i short. I know you hadnt made your decision wether or not to allow me to watch your children but it seems my husband has made my choice or me. He wasnt real keen on me watching 2 more to begin with, I guess that was my fault for thinking he didnt really care or mean it. Long story short I feel awful and I certainly wasnt trying to waste your time by any means, especially after the fiasco with your last care giver , and I am very very sorry. I honestly had no idea he wasnt happy with the idea and if I had I would not have proceded and used your time etc. I am sorry, your children would have been a pleasure to spend time with.”


So as you can see, it’s not going so well. We have interviewed some real duds. We have one lady we really, really like, it’s just that she’s 10 minutes the wrong way. So we’ll hopefully have one more interview and if that doesn’t go well we’ll go with this lady.


-Lastly, Amy over at A Family Story gave me this fantastic award:


She said “Happy Working Mom- I really, really need to meet this person!” And she is so right! Who knows when it will happen since she lives in beautiful country and I live in not-so beautiful country (at least right now anyway…raining non-stop and I’m all wet!). But someday it will! Anyway, head on over there and read her daily updates live from Disney World!!!

I would like to pass the award on to the following people:

Radioactive girl – She is so inspiring with all of her projects and being such a fun and great mom!
The House of Mis-Fits – She lifts me up everyday with her comments and e-mails. Whenever I’m down all I have to do is read something from her and I instantly feel better!

Love, Family and Life – She just moved, started a new job, and has an adorable little girl…I always look forward to updates from her!

A happier girl – She cracks me up!!! She tells it like it is and always has me laughing…at her I think (but I’d like to think that looking back at her “adventures” with the kids she’s laughing too, so hopefully I’m laughing with her).

Who Could Ask For Anything More – Jill is so sweet and nice and every time I go there I feel so calmed by her! And I promise, this has nothing to do with the fact that I just won a magazine from her!

So go and visit these wonderful ladies…they, along with everyone else that I read, keep me laughing and give me so much support!

A Weekend Review In Bullet Points:

-I had an appointment to get my eyebrows waxed Friday at 5:30. I talked to hubby at 4:00 and told him about it and he informed me he had to work until 7:00. So I asked my neighbor and friend (who we were actually watching their kids that night) to watch my kids for 15 minutes. What a mistake! My friend (the wife) was on a church retreat, so it was just “the guy” and when I came to pick up my kids? He was sleeping on the couch!!! Now my daughter is almost 4 ½, and she was playing with his older girls, so I wasn’t really worried about her as much as I was my 2 year-old!!! He could have stuck his finger in an un-protected outlet or something!

And this guy seriously has always given me grief because we never ask them to watch our kids…I wonder why???

-Saturday we interviewed another sitter and she was really great, except that she’s 10 minutes the wrong way. Not a deal breaker by any means, but we were hoping to find someone at least on the way to work.

-I also got all of my bulbs planted (all 75 of them) with the HUGE help of hubby! He bought this attachment that went on his drill and he drilled all the holes for my while I did everything else (which pretty much entailed putting the bulb in the hole :) ). I love flowers, but I really don’t like gardening. Not a good match.

-Yesterday we went and picked out the pumpkins! We’re going to wait to carve them until next weekend, but we got them and we also got “face” stickers so the kids put those on the little pumpkins. I have been reading them “The Littlest Pumpkin” and so my daughter had already decided what type of pumpkin she wanted and my son wanted a “uttle” pumpkin (a little one).

-We finally found a fan/light for our bedroom! We had ceiling fans roughed into each of the rooms in the house, and since we moved in, hubby and I have been looking for the perfect one (we have antique bronze door handles and hinges, so our fan options were fairly limited). We got a great deal on it, and last night at 7:00 he decided to install it :) I had to run back to Home Depot once and then he had to run to get different light bulbs after that. However, it is in and looks fabulous!

-We have more sitter interviews this week, so hopefully we decide on one and are happy by the end of this week!

-Happy Monday!

Homecoming Pictures

I'm pretty busy at work, and I don't have much to say, so I'll give you some pictures! These are from last weekend when we went down for homecoming. I'm constantly amazed at how pretty the campus is!

This area was not here when we went to school here. When I look at it, I long to grab a book and sit on a bench and just enjoy the peacefulness!

It started OK, and then it just went downhill.....

First of all, thanks for all of the support regarding the anonymous comments. I know who is posting some of them, which I think is what bothers me the most. But I don’t want to lose good comments, so as Daddy Dan pointed out, I will leave the anonymous comments available and just immediately delete ones I don’t think are appropriate. It will take more time on my part, but I do value the “real” comments that people leave.

So anyway, last night we had our first permanent sitter interview. I was so pumped about this lady…she’s a Christian, and all of her references had nothing but great things to say about her! After talking to her on the phone for 45 minutes, I seriously thought that we would sign her up right then and there.

We pull up to her house and it’s all decorated for Halloween. Very cute and the kids really got a kick out of it (spider webs in the bushes, ghosts hanging from the trees, etc.). We go in and she shows us where the kids play. It’s pretty much the kitchen, eating area, and family room. She says she puts a gate up that blocks them from the other part of the house and she doesn’t let them go down in the basement because she is paranoid about the stairs (she thinks one of the kids will fall down them). I was a little hesitant because it seemed like such a small area for them to be confined to all day.

So then we went in to the family room and just started talking to her…man she was a talker! And things were going OK…her husband came in and hung out and was a nice guy and her two youngest kids (8 and 6) played with my kids the whole time. She also has two teenagers. We talked about how we like to bring the kids in asleep and let them keep sleeping (the number one reason we don’t want them in daycare – I keep them up so late). She informed us that her kids are so loud in the morning that she’s sure there’s no way the kids would stay sleeping. She also told me that her kids are so rough that they’re not getting any new furniture until they’re gone because they’re “kids.” I’m not a big fan of this theory – kids are the way you let them be (for the most part) and if you teach them to respect the furniture and treat it well, they will (at least at those ages they should!).

But we were getting past all of this stuff, I mean her references had nothing bad to say about her! So then we ask her if she would be willing to have a background check. She said yes, but she told us that we would find something. And this is where the story gets shady…her son failed 10th grade (not liking this so far) and according to her, he and they did not know he failed until he went to get his student ID card. I guess when they got home he went crazy and started yelling. A neighbor supposedly called the cops on a domestic dispute and the cops came. She claims that they told her if the cops are called on anything domestic, they have to take somebody in (hubby will check out this story on his next visit with the police department), so she wanted it to be her rather than her son. So on her record she has a domestic misdemeanor of some sort. It just seemed so far-fetched!

But the clincher was when my daughter came into the room crying! The lady asked her what was wrong, and she said the one boy called her “the D word” (which in our house is “dumb”). The lady didn’t seem too upset, went and got her son and brought him in the room (mind you, he’s 8) and said exactly “he’s sorry.” That’s right, the little boy didn’t even have to do the actual apologizing, she did it for him!

So we left, and I’m so disappointed. I’m so worried about this…I just want to find someone good!

FUN MONDAY - BETTER LATE THAN NEVER!!!

OK, so it’s a day late, but Janet over at From The Planet Of Janet was the host and her assignment was:

“Describe your meeting with your spouse/significant other. I especially want to hear "meet cute" stories. And it doesn't have to be your actual current sig/other. Perhaps the "meet cute" story is a former boy/girlfriend... or even a best friend. Illustrate with photos, of course.”

When I was a Junior in high school my parents decided it was a good idea to move from a big city down to a tiny little college town. I went from a very sheltered private school to the local public schools with a graduation rate of 60% I think. My sister and I were shocked at what came out of people’s mouths and the awful smells that surrounded us as we walked the halls of our new school.

I met a guy fairly soon after arriving (his dad was an attorney, so definitely not one of my in-bred classmates) and we dated for a year. When we broke up I was kind of lost…his friends were the only friends I had since I had just moved there. The only thing I knew how to do was just start dating other guys. At one time I was dating three guys at once, but none of them were what I wanted, so I started looking for another one.

I thought about this guy that had been in my math class last year and I kept seeing him around in what was now my senior year. I thought he was really cute. For some reason, I got really bold and told a mutual friend of this cute guy’s and mine that I thought he was cute (you know, the high school way of getting a boyfriend). So she told him, and the next morning he comes up to my locker and just closes it on me! Now we had the lockers that had locks built into them, so I had to redo the combination and that really annoyed me! And the next morning he did the same thing to me!

On March 3, 1997 he asked me “to go out with him” and we have been together ever since. We went to our senior prom together. We went to college together. We’ve gone through tons of ups and downs together. He proposed in the summer of 1999 and we were married August 12, 2000 right before our senior year in college. He always makes me laugh. He’s my best friend in the whole world!

Now, almost 10 ½ years later I love him more than I did on that first date (which was a trip to a basketball game to find his wallet and then over to Dairy Queen for ice cream).

Here’s our prom picture:




And here we are at the Bellagio in Las Vegas about nine months before we had my daughter :)

Update.....

So I spent all of yesterday trying to find new permanent sitters and lining up a temporary one for the next couple of weeks. Our families are awesome and I have had so many volunteers to watch the kids over the next couple of days (thank you so much!!!!). The temporary sitter we have starting tomorrow seems awesome...she will come to our house and she will bring her 5 year-old daughter, which my daughter is ecstatic about!!!

I sent the old sitter an e-mail that was firm, but not cruel. I wanted to know when I would get the money back and when I could get my stuff. Her response came back yesterday at 4:41 PM:

"I am at home now - I will get everything packed up/ ready for you guys. I apologize to have put you guys through this. We are trying to work things out - will probably go to counseling...I'm just emotionally/physically exhausted right now and my life is a mess. Again, I'm sorry and you are welcome to come over any time."

So apparently nothing huge happened, I think she just went pyscho and forgot that she had responsibilities to us.

Hubby and I look at it as a sign from God that we were not supposed to have our children there any longer!

Not Exactly Fun Monday, But Interesting

OK everyone, I know that I’m supposed to do Fun Monday, and I will, I promise (I even scanned in prom photos – that makes you want to come back, doesn’t it??), but this is much juicer and you all can live though my misery.

I had a hair appointment with my sister-in-law at 6:30 this morning. At 7:10 my cell phone rang and by the ring I knew it was hubby. It was weird that he was calling me (he knew I was getting my hair done) so I answered it. He wanted the phone number of the sitter because he had been outside her house for 20 minutes knocking and ringing the doorbell. I gave him the numbers and he called me back saying that no one answered the home number and her cell went straight to voicemail. He asked if she had sent me any e-mails, and I told him not through Friday, and we all know (including the sitter) that my other one is a work e-mail address and I don’t check that on the weekends. Luckily my sister-in-law had a laptop and I got in and checked my e-mail. This is what I found:

"Hello

I am sorry to email to tell you this...but I am getting a divorce. I will be spending this week in with my mom, trying to get my life together. I really don't feel like talking to anyone right now, just trying to make my life as normal as possible for the kids. I am very sorry to do this to you guys...but I don't believe your children should be put in the middle of the mess going on at my house right now.

Thanks..."

She didn’t even have the freaking courtesy to call me and tell me she couldn’t watch the kids anymore. And you know what time she sent the e-mail??? Sunday at 4:35 PM!!!!
Soooo….WE HAVE NOBODY TO WATCH THE KIDS!!!! Luckily hubby’s parents were coming up to watch our nephew tomorrow, so they’re on their way up to watch our kids this afternoon and tomorrow as well. But I have no idea what we’ll do for Wednesday. And of course I’m into super busy mode with work and cannot take any time off – I will just be working at home if I absolutely have to.

Fee free to now be thankful that you are not me :)

Which Housewife Are You?

I used to be totally addicted to TV. I would watch it every night and was always up to date on the latest shows. Then I had my kids and I hardly ever watch TV anymore.

I was fine with being out of the loop when it came to the new shows, and what was going on with the old shows…I really didn’t care. And then I discovered iTunes, and the fact that I could watch TV during my lunch hour every day. So for the past week I’ve caught up on the 4 episodes of Desperate Housewives that I hadn’t watched from last season and the first one from this season.

I love that show…it makes me laugh and it makes me cry. I really get caught up in the drama. I always try to figure out which one I’m like. I really thought I was a cross between Lynette and Susan, but after I finished watching the first episode from this season, I realized I’m totally Lynette.

My first roles in life are wife and mother. No matter what, those are my first priorities. And no matter what crazy ideas or thoughts hubby has, I will stick by him and support him (and most of his “crazy” ideas are actually very good ones!). I’m strong…I don’t like to get help from people for fear of being a burden to anyone. I will very rarely, if ever, ask for help. I will do everything myself until I come crashing down. But I will try to do everything, and if there’s a friend that needs something, I’ll be the first to volunteer to help and add more to my plate. I don’t say “no” to people because I hate being told “no.”

And while I might seem like I’m running a million miles a minute, I love every second of it. And in the midst of being a mom, I long to feel young and energetic and sexy at the same time.

Definitely Lynette.

So tell me, which housewife are you most like? Or, if you’re a guy or don’t watch the show, what are some key characteristics that make up who you are?

Dancing With My Stars!

So you know how there’s a part of you that wants to dance your little heart out when an upbeat song comes on? You know, that little part of you that wishes you could dance like Brittany Spears? No? OK, then it’s just me :)

When I was in college I would have MTV on and when Brittany Spears’ video for “Oops I Did It Again” came on I would work my butt off trying to imitate every move she made. Not only was it fun, but it was such a great workout too! See I was a gymnast, and I was a dancer, so moving and dancing just came very naturally to me. As the years have gone by I haven’t really had an excuse to dance like that anymore. I mean come on, I’m a responsible adult now…I can’t just go dance crazy in the middle of my living room anymore. Or can I????

The other night my daughter wanted to go up to our computer room and listen to the “Annie” soundtrack. So we took her up there and played it really loud, and pretty soon the entire family was dancing around like fools. We were doing tricks and turns and just absolutely being silly! I have not had that much fun being silly with them in a long time! After the “Annie” soundtrack was done we put in the “Evan Almighty” soundtrack and danced to that. My son’s dancing consisted pretty much of running and hopping in circles while holding my hand, and my daughter’s was anything from doing cartwheels and handstands to having her daddy flip her in the air. It was a fantastic time.

And I woke up extremely sore yesterday. So not only did I have a blast with the fam…I also got in a great workout!

Very Annoying!

Here is my schedule from yesterday morning:

5:50 AM: Wake up and get ready
6:50 AM: Take kids to sitter’s house
7:10 AM: Leave sitter’s house with son crying and sitter trying to calm him down
7:30 AM: Arrive at work
7:50 AM: E-mail from sitter comes in. E-mail says sitter’s kids are sick, come get kids.

What???? Is there a reason she couldn’t have told me that she wouldn’t be able to watch the kids when I was there?? So that I wouldn’t have to drive all the way to work??***

So I picked the kids up and all day tried to explain to them that even though I was home, that didn’t mean that I could play with them all day…I had to get some work done (we’re in our very busy time). Now don’t get me wrong, we played a lot…it was just there were times that I had to work too.

On a brighter note, Heather over at Shibby Shabby has graciously given me this award:




I’m so glad that I make someone smile! Thank you so much Heather!


***Edited to add that in her e-mail she had said that her one son and she had been sick since last week, and her other son had woken up sick (the one I saw walking around when I got there).

Weekend Review Part II

So after our nice morning at the North Market, my dad, the kids and I headed over to Whole Foods to stock up on some groceries. We also ran a couple of other errands and the kids were amazing the whole time.

When we got home the kids went down for a nap and I started preparing for dinner. We were having our neighbors, our old neighbors, and my parents over for dinner and a movie. I was going to order pizza, but my neighbor said we should cook, and he would provide all the hard stuff. So he brought over meat loaf, mashed potatoes and green beans, and then I prepared corn, bread with dipping oil, and an apple pizza pie for dessert. I got out all the china for the adults and then we set up a little table for the kids. It was the best dinner I’ve had in a long time! The conversation was great and the kids were wonderful! Here’s a picture…I took it from another room because I didn’t want them all to think I was weird taking a picture of us eating dinner :)

After dinner we set the kids up in the playroom with the projector and they watched Evan Almighty. The adults stayed upstairs to watch Wild Hogs. We kept checking on the kids and they were so adorable all sitting their looking up at the huge picture! It was just a very fun night with everyone!

On Sunday we went to my niece’s dedication. The bad part was that we got their late and had to keep my son with us in the service the whole time. When it comes to church, I have no worries whatsoever about my kids being in nursery/Sunday school. So even when we go to new churches, I never hesitate to put them in their…it’s just too much of a pain for me to try to keep them quiet during the service, and then I never end up hearing anything, so what was the point of me going anyway? But we got through that and had a nice lunch at my sister-in-law’s house. We didn’t end up getting home until 2:00, and then the kids took naps while I cleaned up a little and then just sat! We finished the day with a nice bike ride to a park.

It was a great weekend, and I always hate when those are over!

Here are some pictures of the kids at their cousin’s house:

And for this one, my daughter was so mad that I didn't bring any clothes for her to change into, so my sister-in-law took her upstairs and got her one of her shirts (and safety pinned it in the back) and these pants are my niece's 12-month pants!!! My stinking daughter's waist is that little (although they were a little snug!).

Weekend Review Part I

Friday after I got home we left to go apple picking. I’ve never done this before, but I thought it would be a fun thing for us to do as a family, and seeing as how we all love apples, it made sense. So we headed out for the 45 minute drive. My son fell asleep, finally, and got about a 20 minute nap, but my daughter didn’t nap at all, and we were hoping that they would have both fallen asleep right away and would get in a 45 minute nap.

When we got there the people were really nice and told us exactly what to do and where to go. The weather was absolutely gorgeous, but a little on the hot side. I started snapping pictures as soon as the kids got out. They were gorgeous pictures! The air was so clear and the apples were so green and so red! After about the 10th picture I looked at my camera and saw that something kept coming up on the screen after each picture. So I took another one just to read what it was saying, and you know what it said? “No memory card.” I seriously wanted to cry. I didn’t bring my other camera, so I didn’t get any of the gorgeous pictures :(

Once I got over that we had a blast picking apples. The kids were great and really enjoyed picking out which apples they wanted to get off the tree. They also enjoyed the apple snacks they had as they were picking :) After we had filled out bag, we headed to the big tent and got a bunch of things like a spaghetti squash, fresh apple cider, peach cider, tomatoes, zucchini, and a peach cider slushy. As we were driving home we realized we were beat, but we had such a great time together!

On Saturday morning we took the kids to get their flu shots. My daughter actually really surprised me and kept telling us that she was a big girl and that she wanted to go first to get her shot. I was still skeptical. When we were walking in a mom came out with a baby and a boy about 3 and he was crying. Hubby and I just looked at each other and thought that my daughter would start whining at any minute. But she didn’t.

When we got in the waiting room it was empty, which really surprised me as this was a flu shot “clinic” at the pediatrician’s office and I thought for sure it would be slammed. So the kids got called back right away, and sure enough, my daughter volunteered to go first. We had a fabulous nurse, and my daughter didn’t cry one.single.tear. I was absolutely speechless! My son on the other hand cried a little, but he is only 2 :)

After that we headed to the North Market, and the whole way there my daughter kept asking “aren’t you so proud of me for not crying when I got my shot?” And she told anyone that would listen that she got a flu shot didn’t cry one bit. Of course we kept telling her over and over again that she was such a big girl and we were so very proud of her!

The festival aspect of the market was ridiculously disappointing. But nonetheless we were able to get our normal veggies and stuff. My parents met us there (again, we were expecting this great festival) and it was nice to go through the market with them.

Here are some pictures of the market:

We stopped at a very nice, very expensive candy booth and the kids each got to pick out two pieces of candy (they both wanted a chocolate covered pretzel and a chocolate covered oreo) and hubby and I picked out about 5 pieces of candy. Our total was $12, but it was totally worth it…the chocolate was awesome! Here are some pictures of the kids eating their candy:

And here’s a picture of my daughter and me:

OK…this is too long. I’ll finish up the rest of the weekend tomorrow :)

A Fun Night and Good Weekend Plans!

Last night turned out to be a fun night…

I had a really stressful day at work and actually made myself a margarita as soon as I got home. I started our steak marinating and headed outside to play with the kids. One of my daughter’s friends came out immediately to play with her and I just parked my chair by the swing set and watched them all play. The girl’s mom came over and we talked for a while as we waited for our hubbies to come home.

Once her hubby came home, they started having the dinner conversation. They couldn’t think of what to eat, so I offered for them to have dinner with us, I thought there should be enough. So we gathered at their house and had a total smorgasbord of food: steak, veggies, grapes, oranges, rice, salad and pineapple. Then we had brownies and ice cream for dessert. It was a fun little spontaneous dinner with friends.

When we came home, I put the kids in the bathtub and they wanted to play for a while. So I whipped out my magazine and started reading it while they played. I watched them for a while and noticed that they were on opposite sides of the tub playing completely separate games. My son was playing with the washcloth and pretending to make “buberries and stawberries” while my daughter was “cleaning” the bathtub and telling someone how to make a bath tub. I actually watched them for a while totally entertained!

This weekend will be fun…today I’m leaving work at lunch and we’re going apple picking. Then tomorrow morning the kids are getting their flu shots (they are not happy about this!) and then we’re heading over to the North Market for the Harvest Festival. My parents are coming up and meeting us there as well. Then tomorrow night we are having our friends that live two doors down and their girls over, along with a couple we all used to live by in our old house, and we’re going to have movie night! We’ll set up the projector in the playroom for the kids to watch a movie, and then the adults are going to watch Wild Hogs upstairs. Then on Sunday we have my niece’s dedication to go to. It’s going to be a very filled, but very fun weekend.

Anyone else have plans for the weekend? If not, feel free to come on over for movie night on Saturday :)

The Other "Me"

Last night I got to go to dinner with some friends. We didn’t go just anywhere for dinner, we went downtown for dinner.

We met early and went to the North Market to browse sans kiddos. Hubby and I take the kids there every Saturday, but I never get to walk around and just look at things because my daughter always wants something and my son is trying to get himself out of the stroller. So last night I got to look at plates, and flowers, and pastries, and candies.

After the market we walked to our restaurant. I felt like a completely different person! There were no kids downtown last night, so it was so easy to remember back to when hubby and I had just moved here and went out together and just enjoyed the city together. The ladies I was with also happened to be moms and were feeling the same type of things that I was feeling.

We ate at a very loud restaurant that had a strange philosophy of sharing plates with each other but were smaller than a normal entrée at another restaurant. I didn’t get it, but we did it and it was nice to try all kinds of different things. We were there for 2 hours! Just catching up and enjoying the atmosphere.

When we left, it was dark and absolutely gorgeous out! The temperature was perfect for a nice walk and there were tons of people out and about. We decided that we needed to do a dinner out together on a Friday night and really enjoy the night together.

I would never, ever trade my awesome family life to go back to that younger and carefree life, but it’s so nice, every once in a while, to remember that I am a young and vibrant girl with a unique personality….I’m not just “mom.”

Look at this....

In my September 11th post I mentioned that our court had painted a giant flag. I found a picture of it thanks to google!!!

http://www.satellite-sightseer.com/id/14279/United_States/Ohio/Hilliard/Court_Flag__USA__

A Bad Night Turned Into a Good Night

When I got home from work yesterday, hubby was going crazy because he had misplaced a piece of paper that he had been working on over the weekend. This paper included some of his clients and what he needed to bill them for work the past month. I was about to start making dinner (and I was looking forward to it too…a nice flank steak with pepper jack cheese in it with cilantro-buttered veggies. YUM!) when he said he wanted to go back to the office to look for this paper.

So we all piled in the car and made the 20 minute drive back downtown and hung out in his office while he searched and searched. He couldn’t find it, so we gave up and went to Hoggy’s for dinner. I have never been there before and it tasted amazing! Plus, we got there at 6:50 and they had half-price appetizers from 4:00 – 7:00, so we go a great deal! Oh yeah, drinks were on sale too, so I got a very nice margarita as well :)

On our way back, we approached a stop light and people were all over the road. We saw someone lying in the road and hubby immediately stopped at got out to go help. I was going to call my doctor sister to find out exactly what we should do, but the ambulance was very responsive and pulled up right away (I guess the accident had just happened). I looked around and realized the guy on the ground had been riding a motorcycle.

I took this opportunity to talk to the kids…they had obviously seen everything and were asking tons of questions…my son just kept saying “that man fell off the motorcycle.” I told them that we could pray and ask God to help heal him and make him OK. The kids loved that and I think it made them feel a whole lot better.

Hubby came back fairly quickly as there wasn’t much he could do once the paramedics got there. He said the guy was in bad shape, but he was breathing, and when hubby asked him to squeeze his finger, he was able to do that. He had not been wearing his helmet. Another great lesson taught to the kids…my daughter even said “if you want to ride your bike, and you don’t have a helmet, well, you just have to get one.”

When we got home we set up the projector and all piled down in the playroom to watch Evan Almighty (very appropriate as we had spent a good portion of the night talking about God). My daughter loved it! Hubby and I had seen it when it was in theaters and we thought it was so funny! Even my son did great…he would watch a little and then play with his toys a little. It was neat – we pulled out the air mattress and loaded it with blankets and pillows had a fabulous little bed there while we watched. The kids didn’t get to bed until 10:45, but it was well worth it!

I’m still praying the man is alright – my daughter asked me on the way to the sitter’s this morning if he had gone home yet, and I told her he’s probably still in the hospital. Even though it was a bad thing that happened, I’m glad my kids got to see their dad rush to help someone and then us do what we could. It really brought up some great conversations.

Oh, and hubby found his paper as soon as we got home.

Randomness

- Last night we got to register for the next session of gymnastics for my daughter. The class she’s currently in is for 3 ½ - 4 ½ year-olds. Then the next class is for 4 ½ - 5 ½ year-olds. I was very excited that my daughter’s teacher recommended that she move up to the next class next session, even though she won’t be 4 ½ yet.

- In the next couple weeks I will be very busy at work, which excites me, because I’ve been kind of bored lately since I haven’t had a ton to do.

- We are actually staying home this weekend! No trips! And hopefully we’ll visit an apple orchard and get some great apples so that I can make some great desserts!

- Is it bad I’m talking about the weekend and it’s only Tuesday morning???

- The kids had a rough night last night – my son kept waking up, so I brought him into my bed with me and just held him like I used to when he was very little. He fell asleep and slept through the night. My daughter on the other hand kept waking up, so finally I made her a little bed on the floor by my bed and she slept for 3 hours (since it was 3:30 AM when I brought her in!!).

- I made an awesome dessert last night – mini chocolate chip pecan tartlets. They were yummy!

- I really wish I had more interesting things to tell you about :)