Mommy-Adapting

I hate depositing checks…it’s such an inconvenience. We have our paychecks directly deposited, and I do most of my banking and bill paying online. But once in a while we have checks to deposit, and since my husband won both of his fantasy football leagues, I had a check to deposit (the one league he won $375!!!) but I could never get to the bank. I have had in it my purse for a week now but I have never been near our bank. So last night I finally made it to the bank, in our rental van, which of course has nothing in it, and guess what? I pull up to the ATM and I.DON’T.HAVE.A.PEN. I couldn’t believe it. And the stubborn person that I am would not let me leave without depositing this check. So guess what the mom in me thought of? I have a diaper bag, and in that diaper bag are……………..crayons! So I filled out my deposit envelope in blue crayon. I am sure that the tellers in there this morning are having a great laugh at my little envelope :) Good thing I got a receipt in case they can’t read my lovely crayon-writing!

One of the benefits of moving to where we did is that we are now 5 minutes down the street from my sister-in-law and my nephew that is 11 months older than my daughter. Last night she invited us over for pizza and for the kids to play. Hubby was playing basketball, but we trucked ourselves over there and had a great time! It’s hubby’s sister, and she is the one that does all of our hair (she’s such a talented stylist!) and we had hung out with she and her husband when we were in college and they had first moved up to Columbus from our little hometown of Athens. I had a really good time last night and I know the kids did as well!

We sat and talked about our neighbors that are moving in within the next two weeks (we have two) and how interesting the people and their plans are. Our one set of neighbors (and our friends from our other neighborhood) plan to close on the house on Friday, and be comfortably settled by Saturday afternoon. I think they are freaking nuts, but hey, who am I to judge? I just did this a month ago :)

Here's a picture of hubby's family...the back row goes from the left: my daughter, hubby, me, my son, hubby's one sister, her husband, hubby's other sister (twins with the other sister and who does our hair), my nephew, my brother-in-law. Front row from the left: hubby's brother and hubby's parents.

I Was Denied!

Thanks for all of the comments on my posts…I’ll have to think about some more interesting topics to keep the action going :)

For now just a life update (boring, but the true purpose of this blog). Last night we went and signed up my daughter for a tumble class through the rec department of this wonderful new city that we live in. She is so excited! For some reason she loves going to classes and learning gymnastics from other people, but heaven forbid I or my sister, who were in gymnastics for our entire childhood and teen years try to teach her…she will have none of that.

Then we went to dinner and the most embarrassing thing happened (and I know this happens a lot, it just has never happened to me). We went to Culver’s which is a fast food type place, and we went to pay (with a line behind us, of course) and our credit card was declined. She ran it again and it was declined. I knew right away what the problem is, and as I tried to explain it, I just looked like one of those people that was trying to make an excuse so they didn’t look like an idiot. I wanted to scream…”I really have money, this isn’t just an excuse” but after my husband and I loudly conversed about it (hoping people behind us would hear and believe us) we just moved on and waited for our food (of course after paying with a different card).

Here’s what the problem was: Our wonderful bank (that really isn’t sarcastic, except for this dumb thing they decided to do I really do love them) decided that they wanted their ATM cards to be accepted at more places, so that did some agreement with some company yada, yada, yada, and the end result was that they had to issue us new cards. They told us to activate them and go about with life. The problem was that they had new expiration dates, and I had a bunch of automatic payments set up and current charges out there, that if I activated this new one (which in turn deactivates the old one) then all of my payments would be declined. So I ignored it and stuck the new cards away. Fast forward to about a month ago and I got a letter from the bank stating that they have noticed that I have not activated the cards yet, and to please do so because in January the old cards would automatically be deactivated. Guess what happened? So last night I’m rummaging through papers (our office still isn’t put together) trying to find the cards, and luckily, I find them. All is good again.

New topic: American Idol. I’m addicted. I’ve been addicted since about season 3. And my daughter would watch it with me every night when she was 1, and now she’s back into it with me. We love laughing at the bad singers…even my son will laugh along with us (even though I’m sure he has no idea why we’re laughing!) Although I’ve been disappointed because all of the “bad” singers are so staged, and it’s not the William-Hung-bad that I loved. Oh well, I will have the TV on that show in the background for the next couple of months so that I don’t miss any of the drama!

OK, I need to get to work…maybe something exciting will happen at work today…oh wait, I work in accounting, no it won’t.

This picture is from New Year's Eve. We all had a big sleepover in the play room with the projector as our TV (which = Huge Picture!). It was so much fun!

Working or Staying At Home?

I started an interesting topic yesterday and I think I’ll continue on with it…just because I’m a glutton for punishment. No, really, I like debates and my blog can be too sweet and nice and uck sometimes. So here we go……

Why do you work or stay at home? Honestly? I first want to start this by prefacing my thoughts so that no one gets the wrong idea. I have no opinions either way for any other family by my own. I personally believe that people choose to work or stay at home based on what’s best for themselves and for their families. And I truly believe that if you are secure in the choice that you have made for your family, you would not be knocking the other side. So if you are very secure in your decision to work (not saying you don’t have those days you change your mind) you have no reason to put down SAHMs, and visa versa. I have known some women that make off-handed comments to me about working, and are sure to make their points about how staying at home is better for the kids, but you can see in their eyes that they aren’t completely comfortable with the choices they have made for themselves…so they take it out on working moms.

I was this way for a while, only the opposite. I felt so guilty for working that I would think that SAHM had the easy life, and they were lazy, and every chance I got I would make some type of a comment to my husband or anyone that would listen about how much better it was for the kids to have the social learning and separation from parents because I worked. Then a couple of years ago it all clicked. I was very comfortable in my decision about working…I knew that it was best for my family. All of the hardness that I had in my heart for SAHMs disappeared, and I was able to appreciate all of the work that they do and the difficulties they encounter without feeling bitterly jealous.

I knew that I wanted to make my choice very carefully…no doing something just because, it had to be right. I always thought that I would stay home when I had kids…we started trying to have kids when I was at a job I hated (good old public accounting :) ). I got pregnant and thought all of my problems were solved…I would work until the baby was born and then quit and stay home! We had even purchased our first house on hubby’s salary knowing that I would stay home, so it wouldn’t have been a hard adjustment to live without my income. This is where God comes in with other plans. I had a miscarriage (I’m not in any way saying God did that, but the events that followed were led by Him). The whole process was absolutely devastating to me, and when I finally came out of my depression about losing the baby, I started to realize that my plans were messed up, and there was no way I could stay at this job any longer. So I started the process of looking for another job. I found a great one with McDonald’s/Chipotle. Right before I started working with them, I found out I was pregnant. I was so worried about telling this new job, “oh, by the way, I’ll be out for 12 weeks next spring”. But they were great! It was such a family friendly atmosphere and they were so supportive. So after I had my daughter I realized that I loved my job so much, and I had found a wonderful babysitter for her to go to everyday (she was the only one the babysitter was watching at the time). So that’s why I went back to work. When that job turned bad, I looked for another one, and now I work at a wonderful place with a boss that has two kids pretty close in age with mine, and her family is her top priority as well. And our controller (my boss’s boss) is a woman with 4 kids, so family is top on her list as well. I hardly ever work overtime…even during our busy time, and if I do, it’s at home on the computer that my company gave me so that I won’t miss out on any family time.

I look at it this way, for me, and thankfully I have a wonderfully supportive husband: I was me and working before my kids came along, and I’ll be me and working after they’ve left me. In my profession if I were to stop working for a long period of time it could end any career advancement I might have. So I compromise…I work, but my kids come way before any job or career, and I’m very comfortable in my decision.

So how about you ladies??? Why do you do what you do and how do you deal with yourself when you start questioning whether it’s the right decision or not?

Why Stay at Home if You Don't Want To?

WARNING!!!!! I’m about to go on a rant, so watch out!

I know a lot of the people that read my blog are working moms, but I also know that there are some SAHM. For you SAHMs, please don’t find this offensive or a soapbox on working women…it was just my personal observations that have led me to these questions.

I went to the store that I despise most of all stores yesterday during lunch…Wal-Mart. I do have to preface this by saying that the particular Wal-Mart that I went to is not in the best area of town. As I’m walking in the door, this is what I see: a lady in a t-shirt (we were only in the high 40s people) pushing a cart talking on a cell phone. Not bad, right? But then I hear her yell “come on”, and I see walking a little ways behind her (and they are all crossing the busy street at this point) two little kids holding hands. The boy had to be about 6 and the girl maybe 4? I seriously wanted to cry right then and there. Those poor kids were not important enough for this lady to stop talking to whomever she was talking to, and take their hands to make sure they safely got across the busy street where cars were in a hurry to get on with their errands. I also want to say here that going anywhere during my lunch hour is hard for me because I see kids everywhere and I wish at that moment that I could quit my job and run home to them. So what I saw didn’t help at all.

Then throughout the store I hear moms yelling at their kids, not paying attention to them, etc. However, I can tell that a lot of these moms are the moms that didn’t want to be moms in the first place (no wedding rings, shopping with a bunch of girlfriends talking about different men, parties they’re going to that night, looking barely over 23, etc.). But as I’m checking out, I’m behind this one lady and her two boys (I was behind them a long time because I was at Wal-Mart, and they don’t know how to have short lines). I personally thought that the boys were behaved…they were looking through magazines and asking questions, but that’s what kids do, isn’t it? And they both wanted to help her so much! They were unloading the cart and asking if they could push the cart out, etc. They were older, probably 10 and 7 maybe? But this lady looked like she hadn’t smiled in ages. This was a familiar scene to me as I have had my own children. The worn out mom (but the mom who wanted kids and is married), no smiling, snapping at her kids and just overall looked like she would rather be anywhere else but there with her kids.

This led me to a question: Why do moms stay home with their kids if they don’t want to? Now don’t get me wrong, I know everyone has bad days. However, I can’t think of a time that I have been with my kids that someone would not see me smile, even once. I then started thinking of my friends. I definitely have friends that I think maybe should be working instead of staying home…all they do is whine about their kids, and all the crappy things they had to do that day because of them. I like to think that I do very little whining about my kids. Like the other night when I got only 4 hours of sleep? I only complained about it here, because that’s what this blog is for – venting and support. I love my kids too much to even think about complaining to anyone else about them. After all, they are just being kids, and kids sometimes wake up multiple times per night for no reason at all.

This also brings up another question…is quality time better than the quantity of time? In this case (and my case as well) I would have to say “yes”.

Don’t get me wrong…I know that there are SAHMs out there that are doing exactly what they should be doing! I have some other friends that are that way, and when I hear all of the stuff they do with their kids each day, I get exhausted! And they have nothing but good things to say about their kids. Those are the moms that should be staying home!

So what are your thoughts? Why do you think moms stay home if they would much rather be anywhere but there? Just like I couldn’t imagine working if I would rather be at home with the kids (although I totally understand that there are mommies out there that have to for various reasons).

If nothing else working mommies…this is the conversation that plays out in my head when I’m feeling guilty about choosing to work rather than staying home with my kids.

Oh, and I had this conversation with my daughter last week:

Me: Are you excited about going to Miss Connie’s tomorrow? (her babysitter)
Daughter: Noooo, I don’t want to go to Miss Connie’s tomorrow!
Me: Why not (I’m always concerned when I hear her say that she doesn’t want to go
there)
Daughter: Because I like you better
Me: Good, that’s the way it should be. But mommy went to school for a lot of years,
and took a really hard test, just so that she could go out and use everything she
learned everyday, which is what she wants to do. Some day you will do the same thing!
Quizzical look on daughter’s face
Me: How about when you have a job and are working, can I come and watch your kids
for you?
Big smile on daughter’s face
Daughter: Yes, that would be a great idea!

Going On 4 Hours of Sleep

Wow, another fabulous weekend! Friday night hubby went to the grocery store, after picking up the kids, and picked up everything we needed to make tacos. After dinner I went over to a friend’s to scrapbook, until midnight.

Friday night was bad…my son was up a lot, and finally ended up in our bed. Saturday hubby took my daughter into work with him while I got to sleep in for a little while. Then I got up and did some work in bed while my cute little boy slept. When he woke up he had a big smile on his face…we went downstairs and ate breakfast…he wanted oatmeal and he wanted to eat it by himself. Half of it ended up on his shirt, and he kept wanting me to clean his messy hands, but I would tell him he had to wait until he was done. Finally he told me “all done” and I stripped him and led him to the bathroom where he stood on the stool and played in the water. You know what he did next? Typical of my boy, he told me “Buckeyes, moon, paci”. Yep, he went back to bed for a two hour nap! This was around 10:30. I think he gets so hungry that he wakes up, but his body is not done sleeping yet, so he wants to go right back to bed after he eats.

So then I worked some more and then hubby called and said that he and my daughter were coming to pick us up to run some errands. Then we went to eat, and then we came home and worked around the house and played.

I will win mother of the year because of this:

OK, so I will win by votes cast by my kids, not the actual adult panel…since we ate lunch so late (3:30), we weren’t really hungry for dinner, so at 8:00 when the kids were hungry, we made milkshakes and popcorn. They worked on the ice cream for a good 10 minutes until finally my daughter asked me to take over :)

At 12:00 I fall into bed with both kids asleep. Until 3:30. My son wakes up and my daughter wakes up. So hubby and I are back at trying to get them to go to sleep. I rock my son, and he finally calms down and I lay him in the crib and get all the way back to my room, and then he starts crying again. So I get him and bring him back to our room where he falls asleep. Then he wakes up screaming…it scares me to death. I give him some Motrin and ask him if he wants my room or his room, and he tells me “Joshie’s room”. So I take him up there, he takes a drink of water, and I finally get back into bed around 4:30 (did I mention that my alarm goes off at 5:30?)

I’m really surprised that I’m even functioning right now…however it is 8:45 and I have yet to do any real work. I need to start it since I’m so busy and I have to leave here at 4:30 so that my dad can get home for poker night :)

Here are some pictures we took yesterday afternoon:

I just happened to be reviewing my profile, and for some reason, it had my age as "250". Wow, where did the time go?

:)

I Need A New Design

I'm a little depressed...everyone seems to be changing their blogs into these pretty designs full of personality and creativeness. Mine is still plain and boring (maybe I can blame that on the lack of comments lately?? I like that better than blaming on my sucky and boring writing. I need to redo my blog, but I kind of refuse to pay for it, so I'm stuck. See hubby works in computers, so I know if I talk to him about this he'll set me up with everything I need to do to have a pretty blog. But then I feel like I don't have time for that, because the time he would be spending teaching me what to do, we could be playing with the kids. So then I'm back to square 1. I need to do some more thinking. I also have no idea what I would want this thing to look like, so even if I was going to start, or pay someone to do it for me, I have no idea where I would start.

At least I'm enjoying reading all of the new pretty blogs that everyone else is putting up :)

It was a long night....

So at 1:30 this morning my daughter came down to our bedroom crying and it turns out that she fell out of her bed and hit her head on her nightstand. Poor little thing. It was all downhill from there…I snuggled with her, and then took her up to her room where she seemed asleep. Then, because I’m a stinking mom, I go in to check on my son, who’s coming down with a cold. He’s all tangled in his blanket (no where near his head of course) so the mom in me tries to pull him out without waking him up. Do you think that happens? No, he wakes up and cries for “Daddy”. I tell him that daddy is sleeping, then he says “Sissy”, and I tell him that sissy is sleeping. I tell him it’s night-night time and he says “no”. So I try to rock him, but he keeps crying, and I’m afraid that he’s going to wake up my daughter, so I take him down to our room. I lay him down in our bed and he’s happy - hubby snuggles with him (this is where I don't tell him that I am actually the one that woke him up). But then I hear my daughter’s door open, so I come out of my room and ask her what’s wrong and she tells me she wants more water, so I get her some more water. She lies down and looks like she’s going to sleep (ha!).

I got back to my room and my son is now sitting up whining and saying “juice”. I tell him I’ll get him water, but since he’s brushed his teeth he can’t have juice. He wails at this. So I tell him I’ll put ice in his water and he liked that idea. So I go down and get him some ice water. He drank that so fast! So then I tell him it’s time to go back to his bed with his water and he says “OK” (have I bragged lately about how really good my son is with bed time and sleeping and how spoiled I am??) I hear movement in my daughter’s room so I go in there and she is on the floor picking up all of her stuffed animals and putting them back in her bed. She looks at me with a very sad face and says “I’m having lots of bad dreams mommy”. My heart breaks! So we climb into her bed, but then she says that she’s getting too hot in her pajamas, so we change them, but then she has to go potty. Then she wants me to put socks on her so that when hubby takes her to the sitter’s her feet aren’t cold. I grab the wrong socks. “I want Jo-Jo socks mommy”. I put Jo-Jo socks on. Finally we climb into bed and she falls asleep and I go down to my room. No 30 minutes later I hear her in my room, so I pull her into my bed…I’d had enough. Around 5:30, right before my alarm goes off I wake up and take her back to her bed.

I’m really tired now (I feel your pains Amy W!). I’m so glad that it’s Thursday, and almost Friday!

Guess what? My company has brought us lunch in everyday this week so far…it’s been so nice! We had Donatos on Monday and Tuesday – pizza on Monday and subs on Tuesday, we had Chipotle yesterday (for those of you that have never had Chipotle it is amazing! I actually used to work there before where I am now…I miss the business a lot – I don’t miss the people!) and then today they’re bringing in Panera for us. It is year-end and I know the accountants are working their tails off, and I will be working my tail off as soon as they close the books! I will probably have to work Saturday, which really sucks (I know, all you people that are in public are like “what? I have to work every Saturday from now until April…but in my job I rarely work over 40 hours, very rarely, so a Saturday is a big deal!). I’m going to try to do it from home; it all depends on what I’m working on.

OK, time to take a nap...err I mean get back to work.

My Windows Look Great!

THE.WINDOWS.LOOK.FANTASTIC! I can’t get over how good they look (ok, they really should look this good for what I paid for them). The kids’ rooms look amazing! I meant to take pictures but completely forgot. My daughter’s princess blinds look so great! And my son’s Buckeye blinds look fabulous too – I actually did two different designs on his because he has two windows, and I was worried how it would look but they look wonderful. Our room looks very classy. We put these in our room http://www.hunterdouglas.com/hdg_product_detail.jsp?id=1 and then these in our bathroom above our Jacuzzi http://www.hunterdouglas.com/hdg_product_detail.jsp?id=6 see how you can raise them up or push them down? It’s great because we leave them about half down all the time so that light can come in but no one can see us since we’re on the second floor.

I was cleaning up after dinner last night and I heard the kids playing really well together so I got out the video camera and snuck downstairs. I have to sneak because as soon as they see it they start “performing” instead of doing the cute things I was trying to record in the first place. I got some good video, but my son saw me sooner than I wanted him to. I ran out of tape shortly thereafter and I rewound part of it to show hubby. The kids loved watching it, so I rewound the whole thing and we started watching it. Then I realized that we still have hubby’s projector from work (he brings it home so that we can watch tv and movies on the wall in the basement, it’s huge!) so I hooked it up to that and we watched home movies for an hour. What amazed me the most was that my 18-month son sat and watched the whole thing on my lap. He was in awe…and I think he had a hard time figuring out why he was on the wall, and why he wasn’t able to walk or talk. I did see something that made me realize I have to be very careful from now on…there was a lot more video of my son than my daughter. Now of course, there’s a lot of video from when she was a baby, but she didn’t see that. And it is hard, because he’s at the age where he’s doing a lot of cute things and she just acts all crazy when the camera is on her. But from now on I will make sure I get just as much of her as I do of him. She kept asking me last night “where am I?” I felt horrible!

My dad’s watching them today so I get to call home and check up on them :) My son was awake and crying this morning, until he saw Pappaw…then he was fine sitting with him on the couch, eating Cheerios, watching The Doodlebops (yes, my son is part of the cult as well).

Weekend Update

What a great weekend we had and we really didn’t even do anything! Friday night we went to Wal-Mart (have I mentioned how much I hate that store, and yet, we are always drawn there :) ). I got stuff to make homemade pizza, recipe courteous of this wonderful chef http://www.smittenkitchen.com/, and if you ever have extra time in the kitchen, which of course, I know most of us are moms and don’t, but if you do, she has some FABULOUS recipes.

Saturday hubby let me sleep in a little which was just what I needed! Then we spent the day organizing/playing with the kids. We’d rotate on and off…when they wanted someone to play with them, we would, and then when they were happily doing something on their own, we’d do some of our work. The day lasted forever! I can’t remember the last time I stayed in all day on a Saturday…it felt so good. Our old neighbors, soon-to-be new neighbors stopped in to borrow some boxes and they ended up staying most of the day, which was great because he helped hubby do some cabling and their 5 year-old played with my daughter most of the day. After they left I made the pizza and it turned out wonderful! I made a cheese and black olive one for the kids, and then for hubby and me I added spices to the dough and then on top before baking, and added pepperoni and mushrooms. I was so proud of myself for making a pizza that tasted better (only because it was a little more gourmet) than any delivery service. However, hubby and I agree that Pizza Hut is still our favorite.

Sunday we went to church and then came home and tried to take a nap. The problem is that my dad came over so I couldn’t really sleep (even though he’s my dad I feel rude sleeping while he’s there. Once he lives next door I won’t feel so rude anymore). Then we spent some more time cleaning and organizing while my dad played with the kids. They absolutely adore him! We had some friends from college come over to watch our great Alma Mater www.ohiou.edu play in their bowl game and were thoroughly embarrassed. Our friends actually left during the third quarter because it was so bad. And they brought this wonderful dessert (pudding, cool whip, peppermint patties, brownies, all layered) in this really neat dish. When they were leaving she told me the dish was mine to keep as a housewarming present. I was so excited because when I had seen it I had actually thought to myself “wow, that’s cute and I don’t have anything like that, I should get one”. I thanked her profusely because of course there was no need for a gift!

Then last night…oh last night. The disappointment; the sadness. You really would think someone important died by the way this city is acting. Why Buckeyes? Why did you have to let us down? We cheer you on all season; we defend you; we travel hundreds of miles without a ticket to the game just to share in your game. I really don’t like football, but I really like the Buckeyes, and after the opening drive and a touchdown by us in the first 16 seconds of the game I really thought we had it. But alas I was mistaken. I couldn’t take it anymore so I went upstairs and watched “the bad kids” (super nanny) with my daughter.

That’s about it…nothing too exciting. It finally feels like winter here…cold and snowy (still no accumulation though). Oh, we had all of the window treatments for the upstairs installed today…I can’t wait to get home and see what they look like! Especially the kids’ mural ones!!!

I know everyone else is saying this, so I will too - delurk yourselves all you lurkers! I know I have more people reading this that don’t comment :)

Fun Night!

What a fun night! Jerry (the cleaning guy) did not come over. I re-scheduled him to come over next week. Instead, hubby invited one of his friends to play basketball with him last night, so his wife and 3 kids came over to the house while they played. We had a great time! I cooked dinner, and then the kids played and played while I got to talk to my friend. She has two girls that are almost 5 and almost 3, so they play very well with my daughter who’s 3 ½, and then she has a son that’s almost 1. Unfortunately my 18 month-old son wanted to play with the big girls, or by himself. It was about 10:45 by the time they left and I swear it felt like they had only been there an hour. It’s nice to have another family that doesn’t worry about putting their kids to bed early and working on things and are able to just sit back and relax with friends.

This weekend we really don’t have any plans. We have to unpack our room and office, but other than that I want to catch up on my sleep! Maybe we’ll go over to the YMCA and reinstate our membership so that we can get back to working out. We teach Sunday school on Sunday and I’m sure we’ll be going to the grocery store at some point.

Wow, that’s a pretty boring post. I wish I had something more exciting to talk about…maybe something exciting will happen while I’m at work that I can post about (yeah right).

Three Very Separate Topics in One Post

I am so tired I can barely keep my eyes open…for real. I keep nodding off while I’m trying to read something. I’m scared to death my boss is going to walk by and see me sleeping. I have no idea why I’m so tired…it must be just getting used to the routine again…actually getting up at 6:30 as opposed to 8:30. I was good and went to bed at 10:30 last night, but it must not have been enough. I’m also seriously lacking energy. I went to Whole Foods last night and got some energy pills…we’ll see if they work. I need something…do any of you take any certain vitamin that boosts your energy? I was really good with the kids though…as much as I wanted to lie on the couch, I didn’t give in…my daughter and I played in the play room for a long time but after she was in bed, I crashed. I tried to pick up the house a little and do some dishes, but it definitely took a lot longer than it should have just because I was so worn out.

I’m excited because our cleaning guy (yes, guy) is coming over to the new house tonight to give us an estimate. I know that it will go way up since the house is bigger, so we might have him come every three weeks as opposed to every two, or we might have him clean only the kitchen and the bathrooms. I was reading an article about how to decide if you should hire someone to do something or do it yourself. The first thing they said is to figure out your hourly rate when you work outside the home, because let’s face it…your time is money. Then compare that to how long the task would take, and then how much it would cost to have someone come in and do it. It made us really realize that first of all, it was cheaper to have someone else come in and do it, but also that our time with our kids on the weekend was worth far more than the money spent to have the house cleaned. And it was definitely confirmed when I got my raise…it’s going to Jerry (our totally awesome cleaning guy).

Here’s a question for all you moms out there: My daughter has cradle cap, and she’s 3 ½. She got it a lot as a baby, and ever since then she’s gotten it about once or twice a year. Everything that I’ve researched says that only babies get it, but I know it’s cradle cap by 1.) the face that every description of it I read matches what she has and 2.) when I use the cradle cap kit it cures it. I don’t think it will hurt her…I definitely plan on asking her doctor about it at her 4 year check-up, but that’s not until May. I never thought anything of it until someone commented that they thought only babies got that, so now I’m concerned. Have any of you heard about toddlers getting it too? Or do you think it’s concerning enough to call the ped.’s office or just wait until the well visit? I really hate calling the office unless it’s something I’m really concerned about.

Thanks!

I Forgot.....

I forgot to talk about how the kids did with Christmas this year. Our daughter didn’t wake us up until about 9:30 (yeah!!) and she opened her stocking on our bed with us. I took a quick shower and got ready while she and hubby went downstairs and looked at the tree. After I was ready my son and everyone else that was there was up and ready to open presents (of course there was still way too much tension to really enjoy everything). My daughter ripped through things and pushed them aside. She lingered on the Baby Alive doll, but even that got pushed aside because there were more boxes wrapped in wrapping paper. My son on the other hand opened one present and told us to “open” the box. He was done. He was happy with the one toy he opened. I can’t even remember what it was! I think my daughter finally finished opening his presents for him on the Wednesday after Christmas. After all of her presents were opened my daughter had a lot of fun playing with them…she loved the pooping doll! She fed her and then changed her diaper. We then hung out until we started cooking dinner around 3:00. We had prime rib and it was the best one I had ever had! It was such a great meal! I think we only have a couple of the leftovers left, and let me tell you how sick of them I am! I’m not a leftover person to begin with (unless it’s from a restaurant), so the last week has been absolute torture – I could never throw the food away, but I’m just not creative enough to come up with different meals to make out of the leftovers.

I promise to try to post pictures soon…we got our professional pictures back and they look amazing! But hubby needs to order us our new computer so that we can hook the scanner up (he’s trying to wheel and deal with his Dell rep to give him a better price – good thing he’s in the computer business!)

Very Strange

For some reason, I'm now able to blog at work again. I will not complain, but I really don't understand our IT department. They've done this before...some things are blocked and then all of a sudden, they're fine. Oh well, more hours of unproductiveness.

So Freakin' Tired!

Stressed does not even begin to explain the emotions that I have been feeling the last two weeks. I can’t even really put it into words, which I think is subconsciously why I haven’t posted. But enough of that! It’s now 2007 and time to post more!

We closed on the house and got right to work on painting and moving. The painting took a lot longer than I had thought it would, but the results are amazing! I definitely need to take pictures of it to post. My son’s room is a Buckeye’s theme and he is so cute when he’s tired because he says “Buckeye’s”, which means he wants to go to his room and go to sleep. My daughter’s princess room turned out beautiful! I think any little girl would love to have it! We ordered them blinds like these: http://www.3day.com/Collections/dis/DisCollectionDetail.aspx?licId=1&Sort=square&PageButtonId=6 (it’s the one in the middle of the top row) and http://www.3day.com/Collections/coll/CollCollectionDetail.aspx?licID=226 (the last two). So when those are up I’ll take pictures to show all of you their beautiful rooms!

It sucks being back at work today, but we’re in our super busy time (so please forgive me if the posts are short or spread out; again) and I love it! I love it when I’m working and look at the clock and it’s already 5:00. I also got a raise today! I work for a wonderful team and our controller decided to have HR do a market study and decided that my salary was not at the market level! What a great way to start the new year!

I hope all of you had wonderful Christmases and New Years!!!!

OK, so no blogging at work really sucks...I haven't been on here in forever! As for house updates, we had our walk-through this morning and it looks fabulous! I can't believe that it's actually going to be ours tomorrow! The kids are doing great down at my parents', and now, before I spend too much time online I need to get this apartment packed up!

I hope the few readers I have will stay with me during this horrible transition period! We get road runner installed on Friday, so hopefully I will be back on a little more regularly.

:)

No More Bloggin At Work!!!

OK, so I can no longer access the blogs at work. Which completely and totally sucks! And we don’t have internet at our crazy little apartment. But we get to move into our new house in 5 days!!!! I’m so excited! Here’s the timeline of my next week:

Sunday Evening: Kids go with my dad down to my parents’ house
Monday Morning: Get up and pack a little
Monday Afternoon: Go into work
Tuesday Morning: Walk through the new house with the construction supervisor
Tuesday Afternoon: Pack up the apartment
Wednesday Morning: Go to work and enjoy office Christmas party
Wednesday 2:00: Close on new house!!!!!
Wednesday Evening: Paint kids’ rooms
Thursday All Day: Mover’s bring all boxes and furniture to the house; sister and I
unpack while hubby runs cable to rooms it’s not in yet and put in
pantry shelves
Friday All Day: Unpack boxes and get house ready for kids
Friday Night: Go and pick up kids and bring them to the new house
Saturday: Finish Christmas shopping and wrapping and celebrate Christmas with
hubby’s family
Sunday: Bake Christmas cookies, go to church, hang out with kids and relax!
Monday: My whole family comes over and celebrates our first Christmas in the new
house!!


Phew! I think it’s doable, don’t you?

Last Saturday we went and did pictures…what a nightmare! The family ones turned out great, but we had a bad photographer and the kids’ ones were horrible! So they let us come back in on Tuesday and re-do their pictures. The two photographers that did them were fantastic! We had so many great pictures it was hard to choose. I pick them up Monday night, so I’ll scan them in and put them up so that everyone can see my adorable kids!

That’s about it…I have no idea when I’m even going to be able to get this post up, but we get road runner at the new house a week from today, so at least I’ll be able to post from home in a week!

Random Updates

OK, so who wants to come and help me? Panicking still, but I know I have no choice but to accept it and move on. We’re starting to put together an action plan, which will help, and I’m actually taking people up on their offers to help (so anyone reading this that would like to help, don’t offer unless you really mean it because I’ll say “OK” :) ).

I have bought the following items for my son's room: http://www.buckeyesportsstuff.com/buckeyes-helmet-mural-kit.html (it’s OK if I cheat a little bit, right?)

And

http://www.sportskids.com/superstore/Bedding/NCAA/Ohio+State/p/395478.html (very cute!)

I’m about to go on and order my daughter’s princess bedding and stuff, so hopefully their rooms will be all set for them when they come home. This brings up a little problem I have…I put my son down for bed last night (usually very easy, he just rolls over and goes to sleep) and he sits up and starts crying. I ask him what’s wrong and he says “sissy”. He was mad because my daughter hadn’t come to bed yet. And sure enough the minute I brought her in he turned over and went to sleep. What am I going to do when they have their own rooms again? Here I was worried they wouldn’t be able to share a room!

Last night we did a fun thing…we went to Chuck E. Cheeses, because our apartment/hotel is practically attached to it! But really it wasn’t crowded, and hubby had fed the kids before hand (I had dinner with a friend that is moving far away (crying :( ), and the whole 1 ½ hours of fun only cost us $20. It really should have only cost us $10, but hubby and I were having fun winning tickets for the kids :)

We have our Christmas family pictures tomorrow, and of course the kids have been sick :( This stinks because whenever my son gets sick his upper lip gets all red and chapped, so all week I’ve been drowning it in Aquafora (is that right?) every night before he goes to bed. That stuff is amazing! His lip is not bad at all…nothing a little concealer can’t fix :)

OK, now for my announcement: I think that I will win mother of the year award this year! Know why? Because I have managed to get my daughter Baby Alive and my son TMX Elmo…and I didn’t spend more than the normal price for Baby Alive and only $10 more than the retail price for Elmo. Yes, you can all give up the fight, the award is mine this year…better luck next year :) But honestly…the fact that I am doing this for my 3 and 1 year-old is insane!!! This should not happen until they are at least 5!

OK, I need to get back to work now. We will be at the house this weekend, of course, so I will try to remember my camera so that I can show you pictures of the house that we will be moving into in 12 days!!!

Panic Attacks

I seriously think I’m having a ton of little panic attacks. We are officially closing on our new house on December 20th, and I feel like there are 10,000 things that need to be accomplished before and after this. I need to make sure our appliances get there (I ordered them myself because I get an awesome GE discount since I work for the builder, and if I would have ordered them with the house they would have cost me 3 times as much). I have an awesome construction supervisor that is letting me get my appliances in before we close (this is normally absolutely not allowed if you are doing your own appliances), so I need to make sure that they are delivered at the correct time so that I am not holding him up in any way because he has to let them into the house. I also need to decide on my financing…that’s right, still haven’t locked my rate. I have to do that today. And then of course I need to pack up our little apartment-thingy. While this doesn’t seem like a whole lot, there’s more, and I know I’m inflicting this on myself, but like I’ve said before, I have a plan, and you can’t mess with my plan. My plan is to have Christmas in my new house. Or at least to be able to enjoy my week off with the kids not doing anything. So this means that we have three and a half days to move everything in, unpack, and pain the kids’ bedrooms. Even as I type this my heart rate is accelerating and I’m breathing heavier and I have this very heavy feeling in my stomach…but I really want my kids to come home on Christmas Eve and to spend the whole day backing cookies and decorating the tree. So now beforehand I have to decide how I’m going to paint their rooms…my daughter’s room will be fairly easy…I’m painting each wall a different pastel color and then putting up Disney Princess wall stickers. My son’s on the other hand will be a little more difficult – it will be a Buckeye theme, so we’re thinking about painting the walls to look like a Buckeye helmet.

I know that I can do this…even if I get very little sleep. And moving will be so much easier this time because we are at the end result…this beautiful new house that has a gigantic kitchen so I can do all the cooking I want! And all of the kids toys can come out of storage! Which by the way I’m totally using to my advantage and as an excuse for a light Christmas this year for the kids (don’t worry, by “light” I still mean a ton of presents…I usually go way overboard).

Alright…I need to stop writing now and get back to getting everything for the house organized and what else am I supposed to be doing? Oh yeah, working.

How to Get My Daughter to Eat

So last night OU played Central Michigan for the MAC championship (I think?) Clearly I did not watch the game…I was in the basement watching Grey’s Anatomy. We went over to my uncle’s house, and OU graduate, and all four of my cousins were there, all OU graduates as well, and then you have hubby and me, who graduated from there as well. Believe it or not there are many more OU graduates in my family that were not present…I think we’ve supported OU for the past 50 years! Anyway, we stopped and got pizza and I watched the first half with everyone. Guess what? My daughter ate tons and tons of pizza and fried cauliflower. Too bad I’m not the nicest mom in the world and will only give her pizza from now on. Nope, not so nice.

This is kind of a boring post because nothing else really went on. We went and looked at the new house last night…floors look beautiful! It’s looking so nice! They’re patching up the walls so that they will be ready for the final coat of paint. I just can’t wait to get in there!

The dentist appointment went great! I love this new dentist, and it’s 2 minutes from our new house. And my daughter did fabulous! She sat in the chair and let them clean her teeth, check her teeth and put vitamins on them (it was this foam stuff that she put on her teeth with a Q-tip-looking thing). I was so proud of her! My appointment was fine, I got through it ok and it didn’t hurt! My hygienist was so gentle and nice!

OK really, how boring can I be that I’m posting about our dentist appointment? I wish I had something deep to post about and make everyone think, but my brain is so fried right now from lack of sleep and moving and working really hard. I’ve got this huge project at work that I’ve been working on for months, and I’ve been working even harder on it lately. For the accountants out there: The SEC is sending comment letters to all the major homebuilders regarding how they are reporting their segments. They’ve had to restate and it’s just a whole mess. We have been planning on re-doing our segments, so that has been my project, and it’s not easy! You would think that it would be, but it’s not. It’s draining.

This weekend we are going to a festival in our new little city that will have Santa and a mini-Polar Express train (http://www.cityofpowell.us/docs/special%20events/HIP%20Detailed%20Schedule%20of%20Events.pdf), and then Saturday night hubby and I are going to a formal Christmas party for one of his clients. I hope to relax the rest of the weekend! I have to go and buy the kids their Christmas outfits because our pictures are next Saturday at this place: http://www.flashportraits.com/ If any of you have one of these close by go there! I love them! They aren’t too expensive and they so such a fabulous job with the kids.

OK, enough of my rambling and back to my work! Oh, and this morning started off horribly because these huge storms are coming through the Midwest http://www.weather.com/weather/local/43219?lswe=43219&lwsa=WeatherLocalUndeclared&from=whatwhere and as soon as I stepped out of my car it was a monsoon! I had an umbrella but I was absolutely drenched. And the worst part is that it’s Friday, so I’m wearing jeans, and they take the longest to dry. I’ve been here since 7:25 and at 9:30 I’m just now about dry. At least it’s Friday!