Talking To A Brick

Hate.

2010-09-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

I am mentally drained.

Potty training sucks. And latex gloves are my best friend. But Lexi is getting it...it's just taking forever.

DH started the 30 Day Shred again yesterday. He told me last night he forgot how hard it kicks his a**. Lol.

Aspergers. I hate it. I hate the overwhelming, yet lacking, amount of information that is (or isn't) out there. I hate that, being the mom, I'm the one responsible for finding solutions. (Not that DH isn't involved...he's more of the "tell me what I can/need to do" kind of guy. Yeah, I think we need to work on that.) I hate reading "symptoms" and thinking, "But she does the opposite!". I ~~hate~~ strongly dislike her clingy friends who think Tay should be there to help them with their teeny tiny problems when she is struggling herself. Most of all, I hate seeing it. Tay will post a simple and sometimes funny status update on FB and it NEVER fails, one particularly clingy friend will post, "R u there?", meaning she wants to chat. And she'll keep posting it. Or this friend will criticize herself on Tay's status comments. She's looking for attention. I feel sorry for her, I really do. I know that she is lonely, but I also know she has issues her mom (dad is MIA) needs to address. We had an incident over the summer that resulted in DH and I calling 911 over this friend. She was looking for Tay and we think she faked an attack. We called 911 to be on the safe side. She has issues and it's driving me 10 different kids of crazy that she clings to Tay all.the.time looking for her counsel. Not friendship. Attention, advice, adoration, etc. She can be very draining and short of advising Tay to lengthen the cord a bit, there isn't much I can do about it. The school is aware of the situation, especially the teachers that work with Tay on her social skills. She's drawn to the one who need love, help, etc. Then they suck her dry. Ugh.

My treadmill misses me I'm sure.

2010-09-03T14:00:00.000-05:00

That sounds so bad, like I've been sitting on my butt all.the.live.long.day and not doing a thing, lol. In reality I have been doing a lot! It's just not standard workout material.

At the beginning of the summer, I had 3 big goals:

Build a patio below our deck
Clean out our little shed and put shelves in to organize things
Empty our sandbox, lay down landscape fabric (to stop weeds), refill with sand (and more sand!).

I am very happy to say that all 3 of those things actually happened! The only one that is totally complete is the sandbox. The shed is cleaned out with shelves in it and we can get our bikes in and out without a hassle, whoo-hoo! We still need to get rid of the broken junk that had gotten tossed in there though. Right now it's in an unattractive pile in front of the shed.

As for that patio....what a pain! I wanted a larger entertaining area to place our portable fire pit and our deck was getting crowded with a swing, grill, kids picnic table, water/sand table and our table and chairs on top of that firepit. All summer it kept getting delayed and last Friday I up and decided to get going on it. By Monday night everything had been dug, the landscaping fabric had been laid, the sand had been spread/leveled and the block had been laid. Now we just need some more sand to fill the cracks, dirt packed around the edge, and general cleanup around the deck area. Another big bonus is that I finally found a new swing for our swing frame! Our cats destroyed our previous swing by shredding the cushioned seats and it's been 2 years since we've been able to use it. The new swing arrived this morning, I assembled it and it's up:)

So, lots and lots of activity (and blisters!). My treadmill will see me again...just after the yardwork is done:)

And then you blink!

2010-08-15T23:11:00.000-05:00

I knew that it had been a while, but geez. February? Sad thing is, I'm on the computer. A lot. Wouldn't kill me to swing by once in a while:)

So. No longer doing the Shred. I have moved on..literally. Back in January I had gotten clearance from my doctor to give the world of running a try. Problem is, in Minnesota a nice day for a run is a toss-up. Plus, it's too easy to say "It's hot out". Or my most often used excuse, "I can't leave the kids". Which is true. When Tay is gone, I don't have anyone to watch the wee ones. So I'd occasionally run up and down our driveway for 30 minutes. Then....we got a treadmill.

Now most husbands do the whole "Oh hell no!" when they wife requests a treadmill. They figure they are walking into a trap. They surprise the wife with a treadmill, she thinks he's calling her fat, and he winds up on the couch. I assured my husband that wouldn't happen. We wound up winning one on a local on-line auction site. My mom and I drove the couple hours to pick it up and since then (July 16th), I have no more excuses. Whether it's a quick run for some speed or a lengthy run to clear my head, I get something done on there. And I like it:)

Dear brownies, you suck.

2010-02-24T19:05:00.001-06:00

Just sayin'. But it's okay now, they're gone. And they were also made with applesauce instead of vegetable oil...still good, but...weird. Apple brownies. I have used applesauce and Diet Coke to replace the vegetable oil in cakes before so we tried it with brownies. Yep. Just weird. I also used them for inspiration on the past few days of the Shred. When I am doing my oblique twists I imagine I am kneeing/pushing the brownies away. The things a girl will do to push through the last few moves, lol.

Anyway today was Level 2, Day 7. Gotta say, I'm looking forward to Level 3. It has GOT to be the one that I remember was a little "easier".

Today was just tough overall. I slept like crap last night. A whopping 3 hours! I figured that I'd get another precious hour after Tay went off to school...yeah right. Life is what happens when you're making other plans, right? Cole was up a full *2* hours before he usually is. That would be fine except....he woke Lexi up as well. :::sigh::: Both of them ran around like crazy hyped up puppies before Cole screeched to a stop and said, "We should still be sleeping!". Pardon my french, but no sh*t Sherlock. I briefly considered skipping my workout today, but figured it may be the jolt of energy I needed. Well, it got me through lunch, lol.

Being wrong...

2010-02-18T22:13:00.000-06:00

sucks.

Level 2 isn't easier. It kicked my a**. Holy cardio. Jillian talked about gargling my heart and wanting to die. Yeah, I felt both of those, lol. The upside is that I felt it afterward, meaning I was working different muscles. Feeling it like that makes me feel like I'm making progress. Measurement and scale wise, nothing much has changed, but it has only been 10 days. I'll keep chugging along and if after 30 days there is no change, then I'll whine a bit, lol.

Speaking of change, today I woke up at 7am to get Tay going for school....and I stayed up. I think it helps that it is no longer dark, the sun is up and it looks like daylight. I want to stay up, move around, start my day. I won't lie, it is still tempting to crawl back into my warm bed for another hour, especially when DH is still in there (winter hours for him). But it was nice to stay up, work out, shower and be ready for the day, all by 9am. Someone else thought that too...

It's 7:15am, I'm dress to kick my own a**, and what do I hear over the monitor? Lexi whimpering about something, not sure what. I open her door and she hops out of bed, all ready to start her day, lol. A full 1-2 hours earlier than usual. I gave her a sippy, settled her with some Arthur and went to work out. She joined me later, trying to follow along and all. It's hard to breathe during your work out when you're giggling so hard;)

Level 2, here I come.

2010-02-17T21:55:00.000-06:00

Today was Level 1, Day 10. Today was also the day I discovered that DH bought my *favorite* Easter candy: Cadbury chocolate mini eggs. Damn. I'm not sure if he was being sweet (he says he likes them too) or if it is sabotage, lol. I won't lie, I had some. A few really. Um, handfuls. But I'm done now and even made DH take the bag with him to watch his show on the computer downstairs. "Finish the bag" is what I told him.

Anyway, Level 1, Day 10. Still breaking a sweat. If I remember correctly, I believe Level 2 is easier. Or maybe I just like those moves better. Who knows. Either way, I have done this before and I will finish it again. 20 more days. That's nothing:)

In other areas of life, my house is a disaster. Lexi's room is finished, except for a few touchups. Painting textured walls s.u.c.k.s. It looks good, then the paint dries and "stretches" so you see little patches of specks of white (or whatever color you painted over). Ugh. Pain in my a**. I'm still waiting for my sconces and jewelry armoire to arrive, hopefully tomorrow. I'm just ready to be done redoing rooms.

Mmmmm....cake:)

2010-02-14T22:48:00.000-06:00

Yep, it's been one of those days. A "bad" day. Or I'm going to call it my one "super cheat day" because the list of what I ate today is NOT good, lol. A lot of junk, just because it sounded good. Oy. And DH just made a german chocolate cake that I snuck a piece of before he frosts it. Once that walnut and coconut frosting is on, I won't touch it as I don't like that kind of frosting. Saved!:)

Why the "super cheat day"? Well, we went to a local annual festival that is compared to a German mardi gras. We drank. A lot. And did I have any water in between those beers? Um...no. I did drink a lot of water yesterday and today, but wow. Today I have a case of the "Wow, I'm hungry and a salad won't cut it." We stayed in a hotel last night, woke up and went to a restaurant for lunch (yes, I missed breakfast. I don't do that. I'm big on breakfast.) since we knew we wouldn't get out for dinner tonight with all the other couples celebrating Valentine's day. Then I had a Hostess cupcake. And a (small) bowl of ice cream. A couple of Weight Watcher's snack cakes. A tootsie roll pop. And now some cake. Yikes. Oh well, day is done. Tomorrow is a new one.

And I did my 30 Day Shred as well. I said I would do the workout 30 days in a row and I will stick to it! Tomorrow is Day 8 and I can bet it will be an easier workout than today's was, lol.

Still kickin'.

2010-02-12T14:41:00.000-06:00

I was going to update on day 3, but I after the kids went to bed I popped in a movie and folded my laundry (really the only way I can get through it...such a boring task!). By the time I remembered, I had powered down the laptop already.

Today was day 5 and while I'm still looking for my ambition, I am holding to my 30 day commitment. I *will* finish this 30 days and in a row. No skipping. Anyway, so far so good. The only thing I really hate at the beginning of working out is that the results don't happen overnight. So it's hard to stay motivated when you don't see change right.now.

But, I'm still doing it. I do the 30 Day Shred, some ab work some from cards I tore out of a magazine (roughly 5-6 minutes worth), and then I hop on the stationary bike for 20 minutes. Every 5 minutes I up the intensity a quarter turn on the dial for 60 seconds. They are small enough workouts where I'm not standing in the same spot forever. Plus when I'm on the bike I can listen to my Ipod or watch some tv, it all depends on the time of day I work out. I try and do it when one of my shows is on, then I feel like I'm multi-tasking, I get my workout in and entertain myself at the same time:)

Day 2.

2010-02-09T18:53:00.000-06:00

I made it through day 2:)

It helped a lot that Tay had a snow day today. She kept an eye on the little ones and I fit in my 20 minutes, some ab work, and 20 minutes on the stationary bike before lunch! I used 5 pound weights yesterday because I figured, "It's 20 minutes, I should be able to handle the 5 pounders." Eh. Today for some of the moves I used the 5 pounds, some of them I used my 3 pound weights. It may be 20 minutes, but there is *very* little rest in there.

I love when I can get my workout in early in the day. It inspires me to see what else I can get done. Today I washed the sheets on our bed, balanced the checkbook, ran some errands, and I'm on my first load of towels. Now, I just need to quit ignoring the dishwasher....

Commitment.

2010-02-08T20:01:00.000-06:00

Today was Day 1.

Day 1. Level 1.

Back in July I needed a swift kick in the (workout) ass so I enlisted the help of Jillian Michaels and her 30 Day Shred. I did it. All 30 days with one "hiccup". We went camping with DH's family from Thursday to Sunday so I had to skip Friday and Saturday (I walked around the campground and swam instead). I did complete it though, just not entirely in a consecutive 30 day stretch:) While I didn't lose a lot (1-2 pounds) that wasn't my goal. My goal was to firm some areas and tone up. Oh, and it was a springboard into working out again. 30 days is nothing without a challenge. The 30DS is tough, and I welcomed the challenge.

Anyway, on my 3rd cookie (M&M....mmm....) today, I wondered whether I was going to go for the 4th or do something else about it. The 30 Day Shred is 20 minutes. You can't even excuse that away. I have 20 minutes to plant my fields in Farmville but I can't fit in a workout? BS.

So today was Day 1.

Changes.

2010-02-06T19:03:00.000-06:00

Do you know the best time to get an idea and run with it? Well, it most definitely is not at 2am, lol. At first I wanted to paint our room. Then I imagined the decor that I'd put on the walls. How I would rearrange the furniture. What would stay, what would go. How this would help with Lexi's room. Yeah, I didn't get a lot of sleep!

Basically what we are doing is updating our room to a grown-up room. No more white walls and necklaces dangling from a shelf. No more cluttered dresser top. I ordered a jewelry armoire to hide all the boxes and random hanging jewelry in our room. I also moved the glider from Lexi's room to our room. She needs the space and I want the comfy place to read, surf the web, etc. Sometime soon we will paint our room a color called "sufficient" and to me it is. It's a warm color that will make our bedroom seem cozy. Sleep inducing. Maybe-dare I say it-relaxing?

Lexi's room will be painted a shade of lavender. We'll move her dresser and give her a little more room for larger toys that seem to overwhelm her room at the moment. We'll also take the oppurtunity to finally change her crib into a toddler bed. *sob* Oh well, change is good!

Holy funk.

2010-02-02T18:24:00.000-06:00

This nasty depressing weather has GOT to go. I need green grass and warm temps. I need the sun to rise earlier in the morning so when I get up to get Tay going for school I can stay up and work out, read, chill, etc. Anything that is just mine until the other two hellions rise for the day, lol. For now as soon as she's on the bus, I'm back in bed. ::sigh:: I enjoy my sleep, it's the quietest time of the day. No one asking for juice or yelling that someone touched/poked/looked at them.

I worked out yesterday but I so didn't want to. I'm in a vacation funk. Everyone seems to be hopping on planes and heading to warmer locations for downtime. I want some of that:( We're taking the kids to Florida in late March but let's face it: that is NOT a vacation. Driving our ancient motorhome 1500 miles only to wear ourselves out visiting Disney World, Sea World, Univeral Studios, etc. before we drive back home. Fun? Sure. Relaxing? Oh hell no. My mother-in-law and both of DH's sisters flew to Cozumel yesterday. Granted these trips were part of gifts to us in place of physical gifts to open on the last 2 Christmases and birthdays. DH's brother and his wife went to the Dominican Republic last week. Now his mom and sisters are on their trip. It was my understanding that we could do whatever we wanted for our trips and DH and his mom decided we'd do Florida. Um...thanks? I love my kids, but my word I need a break from them. We take them camping during the summer. We don't get out a whole lot on our own either.

In the last 5 years, DH and I haven't had a vacation that was just us with no household/parental/work responsibilities. No picking up hauling/snow plowing equipment for our business. No driving all day to stop at 10pm only to get up at 6am and start again. I want a few days of just relaxing. Sure, we can still have some activities in there, but on our own. No wondering if the kids can do it too. Meals where it's just us and no kids (at our table. I'm cool with kids on vacation, just as long as I don't have to watch/discipline/clean them up;). Just a few days. A little recharging. I need that.

Anyway...about that working out. I did my workout, but I didn't like it. I was bummed everyone is going to warmer climates and I wanted to sulk. I figured that a workout might do me some good. Eh. At least I did it. I didn't today. Today I got my hair trimmed and that made the day a little better. Perhaps tomorrow will have a different attitude where I won't scowl at my stationary bike!

Helping Superman.

2010-01-30T16:14:00.000-06:00

DS has an old Halloween costume in which he was Superman. Funny kid still fits into it and some days he has the urge to be Superman so he throws it on and plays hero for the day, lol. Well, the hero just needed to use the bathroom and needed his "uniform" tied in the back when he was done. It's too small for him so it's funny to see the waistband of his Wall-E underwear sticking out over the opening in the back.

All week I have worked out one way or another. I have watched what I ate and with the exception of last night and today, I think I did pretty well. I'm skipping working out today simple because I drank last night (little dehydration going on here) and I'm tired. Soooo tired...

Last night I got together with two of my closest friends to have a "slumber" party. Basically a mom's night where we didn't have to be moms! No kids, no husbands. Just wine, snacks, movies, and good conversation. We didn't crash until 3am so I think tonight is going to be an early one, lol.

Downtime.

2010-01-25T12:02:00.000-06:00

That word can have many different meanings.

Last night's game. It is a sad day to be a Vikings fan. Bad calls, horrible decisions, and complete disbelief over the team that rocked it all year only to biff it so bad in the end. Even if they had won, they would not have deserved it. With that being said, I cannot fully express my disappointment over the lack of...well....fairness. I know the refs are suppose to do their best to be their own brand of Switzerland, but no control over the ball + seeing it on the ground does not equal a complete catch in anyone's book. When that type of call works in your team's favor, you can't help but feel a little guilt under your thrill, knowing that something wasn't right there. When that type of call doesn't work in your team's favor, you can't help but feel helpless knowing that you were cheated and the chances of the other team confessing their error are zero. And for all the hype over Favre and his "skills", he threw the ball when a run (and the resulting field goal) would have worked and he forced overtime. It was a sloppy game.
I need to get back on the work out wagon. Along with taking care of our home, children and all that goes with it, some days I feel like a hamster running on a wheel. Too bad the scale isn't showing that;) Every day it's a different excuse: it's too chilly downstairs, my workout area is a mess, I don't have time (that one is the biggest piece of BS of all). It's just a couple of pounds, but I am approaching a number that I haven't seen in 6 months. A number that I wanted to be done with. A number that I refuse to see on the scale again.
With holidays and birthdays finally done, I need some downtime. To get things organized, finish some long ago started projects, and to not plan anything big for a while.

Closer to normal.

2009-12-29T17:47:00.000-06:00

The bags are thrown out, same goes for the boxes. I have my closet back again (I was hiding the gifts in there). Oh, and 15-some inches of snow have been plowed and hauled. What a mess!

DH wasn't around much for Christmas this year and that was disappointing. He was home for Christmas morning, but they went out to do some clean-up around 11am and he was gone the entire day. So, guess who played elf? Assembling baby doll strollers, high chairs, and Lexi's play kitchen. Oy. By 3pm I was e.x.h.a.u.s.t.e.d. Due to the weather, we were stuck at home. My grandparents postponed their Christmas celebration and had it this past Sunday, so that was nice. I was bummed about possibly missing it. The decorations are still up, but I don't plan on taking them down for a while. It takes too long to decorate to take them done already, lol. They'll be down by Lexi's birthday party (Jan. 16th) though, we'll need the room.

Change.

2009-12-19T20:35:00.000-06:00

I can deal with it most times. A new cell phone. A new way of organizing. Even working on a laptop vs. a desktop. Except that printing thing...more on that later.

Today we exchanged one family "member" for another:

We recently had the opportunity to upgrade to a dining set that seated more than 4, however when you have the highchair in there it gets a little crowded. The highchair has officially been packed away and has been replaced with a booster seat. While I am loving the new room, it's a little sad knowing that we are packing away just one more sign of a baby being here.

I am loving the laptop. The portability. Windows 7 (suck it Vista!). The nice keyboard. Now, if only I could print. After much trial and error, our no-longer-with-us printer was not going to do the job. We need wireless. Sooooo....we passed our printer onto my mom since she needed a new one that was compatible with Win7. We'll look at purchasing a new all-in-one that can cater to my laptop as well. I don't know about anyone else, but I hate setting up new electronics. Especially computer stuff. Now I have to learn a new printer and how to get it and my laptop to get along. Oh, and throw in our desktop as well. I'm sure it will go just fine, but it's a headache until everything is running the way it should be!

Stuart Bean has been great at keeping up with the naughty kids. Like me. It has been over a week since I worked out. And honestly, I really don't care. Don't get me wrong, I miss working out and I'm kicking myself that I'm not, but I just can't find the ambition to. When we went through the bout of no heat, I was pretty sure I was NOT going to dress down to work out only to freeze my tail off. Hell no. Then we ran into busy times and here we are. The scale isn't going up too much, but I have to quit the snacking or there's going to be trouble!

Fun! And not so fun!

2009-12-09T23:26:00.003-06:00

For the last few days I have been faithfully stalking the UPS website, tracking the whereabouts of my new laptop. My excitement when it switched from a delivery date of 12/10 to 12/9 was like Christmas morning. One day closer to some freedom with moving about the house and yet still getting online. I can check my messages and guard my Christmas tree at the same time. Whoo-hoo! And then....

The weather. Oh my word, the weather. 6-12 inches. 30-50pmh winds. It all shut down schools and half the city on...the day my beloved new toy was expected to arrive. That meant massive drifts in our yard. No one to plow it until the guys were done for the day. How, oh how, would the UPS truck make it through? :::sigh::: Turns out that was the least of my problems...

I woke up this morning and the very first thing I did was turn off my fan. That's odd for me. I love the air circulation and the steady noise it brings (yes, I'm one of those that hears every.little.noise. our house makes and it keeps me up wondering what it is!). The thing is, I was FREEZING. I walked out into our living room walked across the frigid floor and checked the thermostat. 63 degrees. Ouch. Turns out the gas tank wasn't full like we thought it was and it picked today of all days to completely empty. DH was out plowing and we had no heat, no hot water, and no oven (gas operated) to bake mountains of cookies to warm the house. We did, however, have our fireplace so I tried my hand at making a fire and I gotta say I didn't do too bad! We closed the doors to the other rooms to contain the heat to the living room, dining room and kitchen. We dressed in layers. And I spent the majority of the day hooking up the wireless network for the laptop my awesome UPS guy delivered! While Tay was gathering wood (right outside the house, she brought it in while I started the fire), the UPS truck pulled in and Tay ran through the drifts (ahhh, to be 13 and have energy like that!) to retrieve the package so the poor guy wouldn't get stuck in our driveway.

So, after a little bit of charging, decrapifying (new favorite word) the stuff I don't need on here, and setting up my wireless router, I have been having a hell of a time doing other stuff around here, lol. Oh well, tomorrow will be warmer (in the house at least), the wind is suppose to die down, and I get to have my hair done and hopefully get a little more Christmas shopping done:)

Bean. Stuart Bean.

2009-12-06T11:31:00.000-06:00

It's not the best photo, but it's hard to grab a good shot when the elf hangs out on a ceiling fan! Doesn't help that I really haven't picked up my camera for some fun shots in a while. I haven't replace my tripod either. :::hangs head in shame::: New Years resolution? Yeah, I think so!

This guy entered our family for a couple reasons this year.

Cole is being a pain. A huge pain. It startles me because Tay was an e.a.s.y. kid. You could tell her it's wrong/naughty and she'd listen. Cole is the opposite. He's along the lines of "Oh, you don't want me to do that? Okaaayyyyy...." and before I know it the white bathroom door is covered in black permanent marker and he's hauling Tide laundry with his loaders (yep, thinking about hiding all the chairs). I'm fast, but he's faster. A LOT faster. I'm a little afraid to use the bathroom sometimes, that kid can make a lot happen in 20 seconds! Enter Stuart Bean. Cole has a little faith in this guy. I mean, he reports to the big guy in the North Pole and all. He made me read the book that came with Stuart Bean 3 or 4 times..I think he wanted to get the rules down. Find a couple of loopholes or something.

This blog has some awesome photos and the best adventures of their own little elf, Bob. He's a little wilder than Stuart Bean;) Great entertainment and so neat to see the fun they (kids and the adults!) have with it!

The name. ::sigh:: It's a life changing event you know;) A couple of names were thrown around. Charlie? Nope. Elfie? Nah. Even Crawl (Pauly Shore anyone?). Finally, Cole races to our movie cabinet, pulls out "Stuart Little" and exclaims that we should name him Stuart! Tay thought that it should be a cool name like Bean. So, he became Stuart Bean the Elf. Lexi didn't care either way. I'm pretty sure she thinks the elf rules don't apply to her, after all, being that damn cute(and the last baby of the family) is a pretty big card to show!

Stalking the UPS man.

2009-12-05T13:23:00.002-06:00

Or woman. Doesn't matter, as long as they bring me my fun stuff:) Lately our FedEx delivery person has been a woman and I told DH that we've become good friends with all the phone stuff (2 new ones and then accessories) being delivered to our house lately, lol.

My new blender arrived and so far so good. I do miss having the "wand" to stir stuff with as it's blending....my smoothie maker had one and it was nice. Oh well, the important thing is that it works! I also ordered a new smoothie cup, it has a lid, a straw, and it's not ginormous like other mugs with a lid and straw are. It's handy for not spilling my precious fruit:) I was kind of surprised at how hard it was to find one though. Everything "to-go" these days is for coffee or working out. They all have lids, but no straw opening. I looked everywhere and finally found one online.

My inbox is going nuts with notifications that things are being shipped to our home, or are ready for pickup at our local store (free site-to-store shipping rocks!). I didn't venture out on Black Friday, but I took advantage of a few deals online. So while I'm not done with shopping, I am a lot further ahead than I was last year and that feels nice. Not rushed or running around, doing it as it works. Same goes for decorating, a little bit each day. Slow and steady is working for me!

The most important email notification of a shipment: my laptop! While it was backordered and wasn't suppose to be shipped for a week or 2, it shipped on Thursday, 4 days after I ordered it. Every day I log on to see what city it's in, lol. I also scored a "folding" mouse for half price on Amazon. I saw them in the stores and thought they were neat, but a little too pricey. Enter Amazon and I ordered it for way cheaper. Now it's a race to see what gets here first, the mouse or the laptop! All I need now is a case for them, a wireless router and a video creation program. I have my eye on a certain one for both the router and the video program, just waiting for a sale or maybe a gift card.

It's like they planned it.

2009-12-01T19:14:00.005-06:00

My cell phone, oven, dishwasher, blender and water heater/gas.

One by one, they failed or bailed, lol.

First, my phone. After years of never really having an issue with my cell phone, this one decides to be the one to cause a problem. Darn thing turns itself off. Charged battery and all. So, I go in to get an exchange as it's under a year, new one arrived on Friday. I got my contacts switched over, but I forgot about the events I had scheduled in it. Oops. I'm upgrading in January and Tay will get this phone, she's pysched because it has a qwerty keyboard. I'll be sure to write down my events before then, lol.

Next, the blender. While making a smoothie Thanksgiving morning, the "pitcher" hopped up and shredded the gears. Super. DH was able to finagle a few screws into the gears to mash the bananas, strawberries and yogurt in there, but the thing was shot after that. Ordered a new one, arrived today. So far, so good.

Saturday afternoon, making lunch and our oven charred the french fries in less than 18 minutes. Wth? DH thinks it was a gas surge (?!!!!). Okaayyyy. Either way, the damn thing wouldn't turn off and there is NO way it was only at 425 degrees! I had to turn off the gas and my brother came over to move the stove so we could unplug it and turn off the valve to it (so we could turn the gas on for other things, like warm water and heat!). Oh, and this stuff only happens when DH is out of town!

The gas. We switched tanks and needed a new gas line (hence the oven issue). DH does it today, all is hooked up. I workout (yoga and biking, go me!), put up our tree (just lights and the star right now), and decide to shower. Freezing cold water. I try to light the pilot light, nothing. So I figure I'll start supper. I light the burner to boil water, lights up fine. Well, there must have been a hiccup of air in the line and the flame when out. ::sigh:: DH says he fixed it all now...yeah, when I'm clean from warm water and eating a meal, I'll believe him:)

The dishwasher. I have many beefs with that thing. For one it's called a "QuietPartner II". The hell if that thing is quiet! The main beef is that it doesn't wash the dishes very well, no matter what setting it's on. Hard water, soft water (which we have), doesn't matter. It's ONE job is to wash dishes and it fails miserably.

On the upside (and downside) to things, I have finally ordered my laptop! Whoo-hoo! The upside is that we finally ordered it, the downside is that we paid more than we planned as they upped the price on it. Boo to them. Either way, it means I can get my videos from the Handycam onto discs. Message people from the main floor. Maybe update this a little more often. Who knows, the possibilities are endless:)

The decision.

2009-11-12T10:26:00.000-06:00

Every night DH and I go to bed before or around midnight. It's just the way we roll. He gets home later in the evenings, plays with the kids, we put them to bed and then we can have adult-conversation-without-an-interruption-time:) However, I *need* 7 hours of sleep. 8 is almost too much and 6 isn't enough. The problem is, I often fail to actually acknowledge that. I will get up in the morning at 6:50am, make sure Tay is on her way to getting out the door for school and then I will go.back.to.bed. It's *rare* that I'm actually sleeping by 12am, so I'm usually still tired and I sleep for another hour pushing me past that 8 hour time limit. Sometimes I'm just lazy and want my cozy bed for another hour. :::sigh:::

Once upon a time, I would get up at 7:15am, get Tay off to school, dress in my workout clothes and head downstairs to the family room where I would proceed to kick my own a** for a hour. Then she changed schools with 6th grade and her bus started arriving to pick her up more than a half an hour earlier. Oy.

This morning I awoke at 6:50am and proceeded to sit in the recliner while trying to decide how tired I was. I *knew* I wasn't that tired. I could get dressed and workout. So I did. A whole workout without having to move a child out of the way (so cute when Lexi tries to "workout" as well, but she does it right.next.to.me, lol). One big thing already checked off of my to-do list by the time the little ones rolled out of bed.

It was nice. I should do that more often.

A whole month.

2009-11-06T23:45:00.003-06:00

I skipped a whole month of writing on here. So, either October didn't happen or I suck at blogging. I'm going to go with the latter, even though it felt like the former!

I also discovered that I suck at taking things out of our pantry. I reached for a can of soup and started an avalanche of canned goods that dropped, one by one. One by one, I narrowly escaped the crushing blow of the chicken noodles, cream of mushrooms, and vegetable beefs as they rained around my dancing feet. Missing the cream of chicken however, did not happen. Right on my middle toe of my left foot. Holy hell. It's not broken, but there's a good chance the nail will go:( It has been almost two weeks and it still hurts once in a while. Mostly notably when a small child uses my foot as a little step to get 1/2 inch taller!

#3 on the list of things I suck at: Working out. :::sigh::: I was doing SO good until that toe injury incident. For real, the first few days I was lucky to walk without a limp. By day 3 I could put a shoe on without wincing in pain. Then this past Monday I decided I was going to power through. Work through the pain. Quit my bitching. Yeah, I ate a huge lunch and an hour later I let Jillian Michaels whoop my tail with her "Banish Fat, Boost Metabolism" dvd. Good. God. So dumb, especially since I know better. Tator tot hotdish is NOT a light meal. Combine that with chugging water throughout my workout and the burps that followed were not that pleasant when I was gasping for air. I powered through though and I felt back on track. Um, it's been 5 days and I haven't moved onto the second (of four) disc in my workout lineup yet. I have, however, been taking advantage of the rare great weather and getting active with cleaning up inside the house and outside. So, I'm moving...Jillain just isn't the one cracking the whip;)

I have a problem.

2009-09-26T11:18:00.002-05:00

And it's called Farmville. It's this farming application on Facebook and it's addicting. Can't really figure out why, but I think it's because I can organize my land, house, animals any way I want to and they STAY that way, lol.

I'm getting that way with the house too. Slowing chiseling away at the clutter, slow and steady. We haven't had the giant pile up with school papers like I was expecting, so that is nice!

With Tay starting jr. high, I figured it was time to look into getting a laptop. She is involved with yearbook this year and they can work on their pages online. Between that, homework and her own online downtime, I can't see me getting the desk top a whole lot, lol. Plus I'd like to start putting video from our HandyCam on to discs, that project is WELL overdue! The only problem to that is there are a lot of little clips and they would take HOURS to burn versus the time it would take for one longer video to burn (each clip has to prep, record and finalize). With a laptop, I could do my videos on there. Plus it would take the place of our portable dvd player that kicked the bucket. However, after days and hours of research and finally narrowing it down to a laptop I like, it has disappeared from the online retailer's site:( I emailed both the retailer and the manufacturer and I have received the runaround as to the status of this laptop. It's not an older one, in fact some sites don't even have a review for it yet. I know the retailer's store has it, I saw it there 2 days ago. I was hoping to wait until later in October, but maybe we'll have to push that up a bit to get it!

Tired.

2009-09-06T16:57:00.003-05:00

So tired....and ready for some normal!

Originally we didn't have anything planned for this weekend and that was a nice change of pace. Then my mom called mid-week and wanted to get everyone together to grill and hang out. So we went there on Friday night and stayed over since it's a longer drive to our house and DH and I both drank. Around the same time my mom called, an old friend text DH about a housewarming campout at his lake house. So mom kept the kids yesterday/last night and we hung out at the lake with some old friends and crashed in our motorhome. I'm looking forward to my own bed tonight!

Taylor starts school on Thursday and while I'm ready for it, I'm not. Homework. Conferences. Boys. Dramatic girlfriends. :::sigh::: I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

And.....done!

2009-09-01T20:48:00.003-05:00

We did it. The crazy is finally done and I survived! :)

The zoo (and the only monkeys I came home with are the ones that were always mine, lol). Cole was so psyched to see those giraffes and they didn't disappoint! The only downside was the weather. We did things backwards....we did the indoor stuff first and the outdoor stuff last. By the time we got outside the clouds had rolled in and it was chilly!
MOA with Nickelodeon Universe and Underwater World. Lots of walking, and a lot of riding, but a good time was had by all. The neatest thing was Cole getting to meet SpongeBob Squarepants and Diego. It was like he was meeting his heroes, lol. Just in awe and with big smiles. So glad I caught in on camera and that they were nice enough to let me take pictures. Some places that take their own pictures won't let you do that with your own camera and then they charge you for one picture:( Their employees even hammed it up so the kids would look my way and I could get a good shot, that was really nice and appreciated!
Junior High orientation. Oy. It was long and it was a zoo, but everything is done. Bus pass, lunch pin number, health forms, and I'm signed up for their "Parent Portal" where I can check Tay's grades, attendance, etc. online. THAT will be nice! No more emails from the teacher or waiting until the report card to find out assignments are missing. There was so much running around that by the time we found that last thing we needed, I joked that I should get a sticker for successfully completing the scavenger hunt!

Tay gets her haircut tomorrow, but then I'm looking forward to a few days of NOTHING. We have offers to go up north for the weekend or to camp out for a housewarming party, but I'm content to hang out at home. Get caught up on some stuff. Find normal!

Crazy busy!

2009-08-11T22:01:00.002-05:00

All summer long our weekends have been occupied with something or another, but August somehow gets the brunt of it all. Fitting in stuff we somehow couldn't find room for in the earlier months. The zoo. The amusement park. The large aquarium I know Cole will love.

Tomorrow is the last day before all hell breaks loose for a week. Thursday is appointments: Tay for her ears and me for my hair (whoo-hoo!!). Then I need to shop for Tay's birthday as she turns 13 on Monday *sob*. I'm not ready to have a teenager! Friday afternoon we leave to travel to Iowa for my brother's wedding on Saturday. DH and Cole need to be there early to try on their tuxes. I'm super excited that I got my dress on clearance and I LOVE it. I've been working out like mad and I know it will look good. I'm bummed I'm not included in the wedding party and this wedding has been a lot of drama, but I'm happy knowing I'll look good and have a great time with my cousin. We never get to hang together so we're excited :)

We'll come home on Sunday and DH will leave for a trip to Kansas to pick up a tank or two. The next day is Tay's birthday and she opted for a sleepover. Send good thoughts, I'll need them! Tuesday we will *finally* hit the amusement park. My mom is watching the little ones so we can go and have a good time without worrying about changing diapers or finding a restroom *right now*.

Later this month we have a weekend for the zoo and that aquarium (one on Saturday and the other on Monday). I say it every year, but next year I'll mean it : I'm planning this stuff earlier! :)

Tomorrow, last day of the Shred! I haven't seen a big loss, but I'm okay with that. I was looking to tone and I have so I'm happy with that. I think I just need to come to terms with the fact that this just might be the weight my body is happy with and it's healthy, so I can live with it.

August. Wth?

2009-07-26T23:52:00.003-05:00

I can't believe it. August is *wait, I'm checking the calendar on my computer* 6 days away. Yikes. Where is the summer going? Busy weekends have made the months fly by. While I love having things to do, it makes the time go by so much quicker.

Well, at least I haven't been sitting on my butt, lol. We have hit the Relay for Life this year...my first time ever! I have purchased luminaries in the past, but this year the kids and I went out to visit my sister's employers Relay team. What a great experience. I think it was very eye-opening for Taylor to see all those luminaries lining the track and all those that walked the entire time we were there. Cancer has touched us through friends and family but she was too young to understand when those times happened. Our family had 9 luminaries lit that night: 3 "In Memory" and 6 "In Honor". One of my favorite pics from the night:

It was a great night....the weather was a little cool for it and we didn't stay all night, but I'd love to go again!!

Speaking of great weather, this weekend weather was awesome. Not hot July weather we're use to, but perfect for being active outside or relaxing on the deck at night. We leaving for DH's family's annual camping trip this Thursday so I hope we get lucky with the weather again!

I talked about not sitting on my butt earlier, and boy, if that isn't the truth! I started Jillian Michael's "30 Day Shred" and w.o.w. The workouts are only 20 minutes long, but she whomps on you for those 20 minutes! You do Level 1 for 10 days, Level 2 for 10 days and Level 3 for 10 days. As of today (Sunday) I'm on Level 2, Day 5. I'm just looking to tone up and lose some baggage upfront, but the 20 minutes is enough to make me feel good and hopefully I'll keep on working out when the 30 days is done.

When the world is passing you by...

2009-07-12T15:46:00.002-05:00

You just have to wonder, what the hell am I waiting for?

Today on Facebook I received a group invitation from my sister. An invitation to a group she created to help promote a new "business" of hers. It's photography, scrapbooking, video editing, etc. That is the second or third person lately who is just off and running with a new project. I feel very left behind, lol. I guess I feel that way because we own 2 businesses and all I do for them is paperwork. Sure, someone has to do it, but it's not very exciting or anything. Nobody sees my "talents" of balancing books. Whoo-hoo. Even a friend started a scrapbooking business where she made enough money to buy a Kindle DX. Now I'm jealous because we *should * be able to afford one as well (I'm running out of room for my collection of books), but things are kind of icky right now. Anyway....

This September we have a truck show we go to every year...there are hundreds of trucks (semi), some big and new, some small and shiny. Of course, ours get the special treatment to look it's best as well. In the past, I have seen "boards" next to a truck, showing the progression from a not-so-fancy state to pretty darn nice looking! I thought that would be a great thing for ours...it looks NOTHING like it did when we first got it. I mentioned it to DH and he was all, "Eh." Oh well, maybe I'll do it for ourselves and he'll like it enough to take it with.

I think I just feel a little low because despite all the hard work being done, we have very little fun to go with it. DH works a lot, and the trucks are running.... it's just that the time it's taking some of these construction companies to pay us is insane. We are owed a lot of money and it's depressing to wait for it when our bills aren't exactly taking a hiatus or anything. :::sigh:::

In other news, I briefly abandoned my pity party for an a** whoopin' today. After reading some posts on a SAHM board where they were talking about "shredding", I was intrigued. Long story short, I received my Jillian Michaels 30 Day Shred yesterday and started it today. Wow. Each level is 20 minutes and there are 3 levels. You do each level for 10 days and then move to the next one. I checked out the reviews and most of them were very positive, so I figured I'd give it a whirl. What have I got to lose? Oh yeah, the baggage upfront...forgot about that;)

Terrifying.

2009-06-28T17:59:00.002-05:00

The motion.

The scream.

The helplessness.

That is our motorhome and Cole, the reason our motorhome is where it is.

We had a graduation party for DH's cousin this weekend and chose to stay over since it's a 2 hour drive. We also wanted to spent the night and visit with family into the later hours. We parked the motorhome up by the garage so the kids could crash early and we could still hear them. This morning DH and I were in bed, he was sleeping and I was listening to Lexi chatter away in her playpen. I had just heard the door open and close so I figured that Cole stepped out to answer the call of nature (we don't use our bathroom in the motorhome unless we are camping). Moments later I felt a jolt...we were moving. Backwards. Downhill. Things from there are a terrifying blur...DH sat up, I heard a scream (and it sounded like a kid), and we braced ourselves. We couldn't get out of our bed, we could only ride it out and wait for the crash because we were going to hit something.

We finally "crash" and DH bolts out of bed to check on the kids. I was focusing on the scream and nearly hysterical thinking we ran Cole over. Turns out, Cole was in the driver's seat (the scream was my sister-in-law or her daughter, they witnessed it happen). Lexi was in her playpen and fine. Despite being at the angle we were, her playpen barely shifted. What I thought was the door opening/closing was Cole shifting the motorhome into neutral. Back in 1985 the makers of Chevy must not have thought to have a locking mechanism on the gear shift when there are no keys in the ignition (we hide them from the kids while using the motorhome).

Thankfully, no one was hurt. Cole had actually latched our door open (as you can see in the pic) so DH's phone and my (new!) camera fell out since they had been sitting on the kitchenette counter. We took out a pine tree that DH's uncle had talked about moving anyway! The motorhome itself has some dents and the pipe for the generator bent something awful, but we drove it home with no problems.

I'm sure in the future we'll laugh...in fact, we all shared some chuckles this morning after the dust settled and everyone could see we were okay. Cole has been banned from sitting in ANY driver's seats for the next 20 years and the next time we use that motorhome there won't be enough brakes and blocks in the world to secure that beast.

Plans

2009-06-17T11:36:00.003-05:00

I have a lot of them this summer:

Take the kids to a zoo. The other day we saw an advertisement for the zoo and it featured a giraffe. Cole hopped to his feet all excited and said, "I have to see one of those!"
Valley Fair. We didn't make it last year. We WILL make it this year before Taylor decides we're not cool enough to join her and her friends, lol.
Underwater World at MOA. My new camera has an aquarium setting that I would love to try out. Cole has also really been into fish lately. Loves them!
Not give a flying rat's patoot about what my flaky and fake SIL does. After some thinking, I feel sorry for her. I have the great husband, nice house (which we can pay for), and the awesome friends. I can live without drama, she can't survive without it.
Find my storage room. I'm so excited for this!!! We are finally getting a shed *knocking on wood* so the tools, saws, etc. are getting out of my house. The day will finally come when I can say, "Oh, that it's in the storage room" and I will be able to find it. Decorating for holidays will be easy because while it's already organized, I'll be able to reach it! Whoo-hoo!
Go to the park a lot. We live 2 miles from a small town with a few parks. The best thing? The paved bike trail right next to us leads us there. Fun for the kids, exercise for mom:)

The sun will come out...

2009-06-15T14:15:00.002-05:00

and then go back behind the clouds. Yuck. Oh well, we had SUPER weather this weekend. The kind of weather where if you could hug it, you would. After days of rain (well needed) it was so nice to sit outside for graduation parties this weekend. Loved it! While it's not raining right now, we're suppose to get a good storm tonight and our yard needs the water something awful.

A solution may have been found as to what my issue is with being so damn tired all the time. At least, that is what I am hoping for. DH mentioned vitamins and how he feels "off" when he isn't taking them. I do have vitamins, I just rarely take them. Just basic over-the-counter womens vitamins that I'm suppose to take with food. For some reason I find that to be an inconvenience. For the last few days I have been taking special care to prepare breakfast, take my vitamin and then eat. It has only been a few days but I'm not struggling today, which is so nice. Such an awesome change of pace and I'm really hoping that swallowing a giant pill each day will be worth it in the long run!

Now I'm hoping this newfound non-tiredness will help me get back in gear with working out. I miss it, but I don't ya know? I prefer to work out in the morning with no distractions, just me and the Wii Fitness Coach or me and my Ipod with the exercise bike. Either way, it's June. And I recall that back in March I was hell-bent on not getting to June and wondering why I didn't start whooping my butt into shape back in March. :::sigh::: Oh well. Hop back on the bike (literally!) again!

If yawning were a sport.

2009-06-02T15:29:00.002-05:00

I would score a gold medal, no problem.

After dealing with irritating video monitors that constantly have LOUD "blips" of static, I had enough Friday morning and looked for a new one. Last week was so busy however, that I wanted to stay home for a day. DH said if I found one I liked (online) he'd stop in and get it on his way home. Now mind you, I wasn't replacing those damn video monitors. We received them as gifts when Cole and Lexi were born, I just wanted something that worked and that wasn't too expensive. That all brought me to the wonder that is shopping. Why on Earth are 95% of the products only available online? Little tidbit of info to you giant chain stores...you want my business? Let me have it NOW. Not 5-7 days from now. And certainly not $6+ more for shipping and handling. While I really liked one (but would have to order it), I found one that would work and we could buy it right away, yippy! It had one review, but it was good. Yeah, I gave the opposite opinion earlier today. It worked great for 2 nights. 3am this morning? Same damn "blipping" noises! Ugh. We have checked this house all over, tested unplugging things while the monitor is on, moved the monitor, etc. We're rural and our nearest neighbor is down the road so I don't think we're crossing any wires with them. Just frustrating. Why work great for 2 nights and then stop? I wanted a plain monitor to check on Lexi until she's in a toddler bed..almost a year or less from now. So, I ordered the one I really wanted but at the cost of $6 shipping and handling and an arrival window of sometime NEXT week.

::::sigh::::

I just need sleep. We're thinking that is why I'm so tired all the time. While I eventually fall asleep, I think the "blips" from the monitor keep me from the deep sleep I need. For now we'll use the intercom (also ruled out as the cause) to hear her at night. What a pain.

In other news...literally...Cole, Lexi and I will make our local paper debut sometime this week. Sadly, on Saturday a teenager was killed crossing the road we live on while riding the bike trail. Having seen cars driving way too fast and bike riders repeatedlyblow their own stop sign, I dreaded that day. I contacted the local news station and the local paper asking them to please bring attention to this story as a reminder to all that safety measures count EVERYWHERE. This morning the local paper showed up to interview me as they planned to run a follow-up story on the trail and this accident. A photographer showed up later to take pics of me, Cole and Lexi walking with our wagon on the trail. Tay will be bummed, but she was in school at the time. I'm just glad attention is being brought to this problem. It's so great to use this trail, it's paved, long, and goes through/near little towns. We like to sit outside and watch families bike by and little old couples make their way for a little walk. Thankfully we didn't witness the accident, but somehow we missed the commotion as Lexi was napping at the time.

A newfound love...

2009-05-25T11:31:00.002-05:00

Ebay.

What a wonderful thing:)

The pain-in-my-a**, always blurry pictures, can't-find-a-setting-that-works camera is GONE. Well, it hasn't been shipped yet, but I no longer own it. I now own a Canon SD790 IS that I love so far! I bought it yesterday and haven't had a lot of time to play with it yet, but I was able to figure the basics and get some awesome photos yesterday. Photos that I don't have to fix on my photo program. Photos with great colors. Photos with clear subjects. Photos that I didn't have to delete 6 disappointments and keep 1 good one.

As for Ebay, I found that selling stuff is almost more exciting than buying stuff, lol. I'm getting rid of something I don't need and getting paid for it without having to organize a garage sale. I've been searching my house seeing what else I can unload!

Yesterday we had an impromptu get-together with some family and friends. It was low-key with a low turnout, but we still had a great time!

I did it.

2009-05-18T18:24:00.002-05:00

I finally had enough. After blurry shots, fiddling with settings, and missing great photo opprutunities, I put my evil camera up for sale on Ebay. It's my first time selling an item on Ebay. I have purchased items before, but not sold.

I have to give DH credit though. I just bought this camera in December and to buy another one is just plain silly to him (yet buying 10 versions of the same kind of tool makes sense? :::sigh:::). He said that he wouldn't be okay with a new camera until he saw the current one listed on Ebay. I put that sucker up in 30 minutes and sent a screen shot (proof!) to DH via text message:) Nothing like a little motivation, lol.

I haven't seen the best reviews for this camera (after I bought it of course!) and the last straw was this weekend....my sister got married and while some pictures look great, most look fuzzy, bad coloring, etc. I am NOT happy. It's a simple point and shoot with a well-known name, who knew? The thing that makes me super annoyed is that I researched and researched before I bought it. Why do the bad reviews come out of the woodwork after my card is swiped? I have a bigger play-with-the-settings camera and I like it, but taking it to bars, events, etc. sucks if I'm just hanging out. I wanted a nice, little, not-going-to-break-the-bank camera that took quality photos that I didn't have to fix just to put on Facebook.

I'm crossing my fingers this time with the new camera....it has gotten great reviews. It's compact. It's a different brand than evil camera.

And the dr says....

2009-05-07T22:48:00.002-05:00

There is no cure for me. If there was, someone would be getting rich off of it. Going to get a little TMI here for a moment.

DH wants sex. I don't. Not even a little bit. There is ZERO desire. Now, DH is a hot guy. He's a great husband too (for the most part...he has his days, lol.). I'm not stressed. Things are good. We're surviving the economy just fine. I'm also a little tired lately. I'm ready to crash the moment the word "bed" is spoken and I'd sleep until noon if the kids or my alarm didn't wake me. My first thought? Depression. Well, I spoke to our doctor today (Lexi had her 15 month checkup) and he ruled out depression. He also said many women experience this and there really isn't much they can do. However, he ordered lab to draw some blood and check my thyroid. I'm not holding out a lot of hope as with the exception of one abnormal pap (which the retest came back normal), every single medical test I have ever had done on me has come back normal. I'm thrilled with that, yet now I'm looking for something to be wrong.

Over the last how many months, DH and I have tried e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g to "fix" the problem. My head (and heart) say, YES. My body? Yeah, not so much. :::sigh::: Here I thought no BCP and having my tubes tied would give me sexual freedom- whoo-hoo! Except the whoo-hoo is missing. DH has been great with it and really thought he was doing something wrong. I had to give the "It's not you, it's me" speech numerous times. Ya know, for a pretty confident guy he sure thought he was screwing something up, lol. Poor guy....7 years ago when he said, "I want that one", he didn't realize he was picking up a defective model;)

And time is a flyin'.....

2009-04-19T20:14:00.003-05:00

I'm over the baby stuff going. Really, I am. Okay, I'm not, but it took over a month to post that. Yikes.

It's turning green outside! Whoo-hoo!! I took advantage of the awesome weather this last week and spent 4 days doing everything and anything outside to get our yard looking nice. Basically, DH's "honey-do" list began my "just-get-it-done" list, lol.

Busy. Busy. Busy.

We took a road trip in mid-March that included a stop at Bristol Motor Speedway which was AWESOME. Would love to go back!
I have finally been heard. Tay has some issues with school. ADD or ADHD. I had an inkling, but her dad refused to believe anything could be "wrong" with his daughter so I agreed to give it a little time. Conferences last month had us in the counselor's office echoing the very things I wanted to address. She is VERY smart and VERY bright. She just can't harness it all to get the grades she deserves. A meeting this Wednesday will get the ball rolling.
I love my Fitness Coach. I really do. But it's been too damn nice out to touch it. I'm staying active, I promise! Scale and I came to an agreement: it stays in a certain range and I'll step on it more often. So far so good.
Easter came and went. I dread the same with happen with summer. :::sigh::::
4 graduation parties and 5 weddings this year. Yikes.
I can't wait to go camping. DH actually relaxes and it's so nice to decide on a Thursday "Hey, let's throw some stuff in the motorhome and go." And we do it!

My heart hurts:(

2009-03-07T21:29:00.002-06:00

Today, we took the changing table out of Lexi's room and replaced it with a bookshelf. That means I had to go through baby stuff on the table and in the closet and pack it away to *gulp* get rid of it. No more burp cloths. No more Bumbo. No more bottles. No more bassinet. While some of this is reason to celebrate, it's bittersweet as she is our last baby.

I had so much fun with her as a baby (and well, now, too). When Taylor was born I was 18 and couldn't afford to buy her a lot of stuff. She also grew up to be a tomboy, lol. She'll throw on some lipgloss but she wouldn't dare be caught in pink. After Lexi was born and we knew for sure that she was a girl, I wound up buying yet another diaper bag just because it was fashionably pink and so sweet looking. Taylor had a neutral one. Cole had a neutral one. Even Lexi's was neutral until I saw that pink one.

We are definitely done with having more kids and I knew that when Lexi was born. Therefore, I sucked up every single moment with her knowing that they grow way too fast. 3am feedings weren't a burden. They were quiet moments with her..... smelling her baby smell and feeling her warm little body snuggle closer. Tay and Cole were tough babies. Cleft palate. Gas. Acid reflux. Lexi was/is such a treat. Laid back. Chill. I can honestly say I'm glad to end on a baby like her, I feel like it's the reward for the tough times the first two gave us!

On Monday DH will pack up the baby stuff and bring it in to one of the baby shops to sell it. I can't do it. I just can't. It would be like leaving memories at the store and I'd bawl. The first time we put her in the Bumbo and she bobbled back and forth with a smile on her face. Picking out that bassinet (the one we used for Taylor and Cole went to my sister) and putting the pink ribbons on, just hoping and praying that the ultrasound wasn't wrong.

I'm happy that each day one of my babies does something new. It's getting through that tough stuff parting with so many things that accompanied them in joining our family.

Why I'm doing this.

2009-03-06T20:33:00.003-06:00

Today I worked out with 'Maya', my trainer on My Fitness Coach for the Wii. Today was workout #9. It was cardio.

Good God.

15 minutes in, huffing and puffing, just waiting (okay, begging!) for that wonderful, wonderful scrolling bar to bring on the "Rest" section. Not sure why, but some workouts give you a 15 second rest period after each set. Cardio and Flexibility aren't those workouts. Upper Body, sure. Lower Body, you bet. Core? But of course! I haven't done the yoga yet, so I'll have to get back to you on that. Cardio and Flexibility can whoop your tail and then say, "Oh, are you going to collapse? Okay, you can stop for 5 seconds.....1..2..5 and back to it!"

About that cardio....in those 15 minutes I had to plenty of time to think as breathing hard was taking on a life of it's own. With each huff came a word.....Why *huff* am *puff* I *huff* doing *puff* this *huff* to *puff* myself?

Because every June I kick it into gear to get swimsuit/shorts ready. Every June I wonder why I didn't start working out in March so that I'm ready for swimsuits/shorts before it's actually time for them. Why do I wait until the last "minute"? By the time I really feel fit it's late August and that swimsuit is going back in the drawer for the off-season. So I buffed myself to be covered in long sleeves and jeans. Yep. That makes sense.

This year I'm doing it the right way. As tired as I am, as lazy as I feel, I *will* workout and I will enjoy it, knowing that come June, I'll be glad I did.

I.Need.To.See.Some.Green.

2009-03-04T14:00:00.002-06:00

Money. Grass. Leaves. Any of those will do, lol.

I am so sick of winter, I'm willing to pack it all up and move someplace warm permanently. 5 degrees? Wth? And just when you think it's starting to warm up and spring is on it's way, Mother Nature dumps ANOTHER 4-5 inches. Yuck. The sun is shining today and I'd love to get out, but the idea of wrangling two kids into clothes, coats, shoes, etc. and then buckling them into the car just exhausts me. Can't wait for the days when I can open the patio door and send them all outside...getting tired of being cooped up.

Tired. That is an understatement. I worked out this morning (the scale and I are NOT getting along) and I've been wiped out ever since. I also got 8 hours of sleep last night. So I'm convinced that there is some medical study that is WRONG. Sleep and exercise? Sugar really IS what keeps people going;)

I'm also convinced that all chairs in the house have sensors on them....the moment I sit, someone needs something from me. Every time. Same goes for the keyboard on this computer. My fingers start typing and I'm surrounded by Chicken Littles making a falling sky out of an acorn.

Time outs.

2009-02-17T22:43:00.004-06:00

I needed one today. BIG TIME.

Cole is driving me nuts. Just nuts. I'm ready to call Supernanny on just him. I had to call DH to come and take him for the rest of the day so I could think. Spend time with Lexi (Tay had school). Work out. Let my brain rest. After DH took him I refused to look at one thing involving Cole, including his room, which he destroyed during a time out.

Working out went well, my Ipod even worked, yay me! Darn thing has been sprouting lines across the screen. Researching the problem has been giving me the idea that I think it's on the way out:( Today it fired up no problem. Wish I could say my leg did the same! Just got into a good song, "jogging" away on the Wii and sharp pain up the left knee...ugh. That's not even my problem knee (right-old injury). I think I just worked it too hard, so I moved onto something else instead of stopping altogether which I really wanted to do! I think it was the sheer fear of that number on the scale...up about 2 pounds. Yuck. Feeling the need to get outside and move...need nicer weather!!

Hiding.

2009-02-15T21:25:00.003-06:00

Sometimes I go into our lower level (finished basement) and leave all the lights off. I can be on the computer and unless the house is completely quiet (which it NEVER is), you can't hear my typing. It's a nice place to escape kids. If I'm really lucky, I get 10 minutes before they find me. Don't worry, DH is around when I do "escape".

I want to understand the mind of a 3 year old boy. I really do. I want to know why spreading lotion on toys or electronics is neat. Or why throwing paper clips everywhere is fun. Soaking the carpet with water...why? DESTROYING things. That was just today and that was just ONE 3 year old.

Last night my sister and brother-in-law came over and they brought their almost-3-year old son. Put one 3 year old with an almost 3 year old and very little good stuff can come from that. I witnessed it myself. While us adults played cards upstairs, we let them play downstairs where most of the toys are. Toys GALORE. Given that we have an open staircase and the table is right next to it, we could hear most everything. Note that key word: most. Notice that it's not "everything". Like:

Taking the Monopoly game completely apart
Clearing an entire windowsill of all the pictures and decorations on it and to get to that windowsill, you have to climb a cabinet.
Actually breaking a wooden train-set play table because one of them stood in it.
Going into big tubs and taking EVERYTHING out of them. I had pictures scattered everywhere:(

Why? All of those toys and instead they chose to destroy. It doesn't happen with one 3 year old. Needless to say, big measures will be taken this week to organize our storage room AGAIN to see if I can get some room for things that obviously can't stay out if we have anymore playdates here.

I'm frustrated. I clean so much and to have to clean out-of-the-ordinary messes on top of what I already do is just disheartening when I'm already exhausted. I KNOW he's a good kid. I also know that the next person to tell me that I don't do anything as a stay-at-home-mom is looking for a swift, SWIFT kick in their a**.

Confessions

2009-02-06T14:43:00.004-06:00

Today I did the entire yoga section of my WiiFit. I'm pretty proud of myself for sticking with it and I'm wondering why I thought the last few poses (unlocked, but never used) would be so tough. They weren't. I guess I've always been of the mind that if I'm not jumping like a maniac, I'm not doing much good when it comes to exercise. Yoga always sounded boring, but things feel better. My back has been bugging me lately and I actually felt parts of it stretch and feel some relief. Maybe I'll stick with it...

In my post yesterday, I fibbed a bit. About that Lexi being such an easy baby thing. Don't get me wrong, she is the easiest one we've had but lately, that little girl is out to make a liar out of me. Two nights in a row now, she's gotten up between 3-4am. No idea why. Diaper isn't very wet. Sippy of warm milk doesn't get emptied. She will lounge on my lap with her eyes open just looking around at our living room. She knows she shouldn't be up. After 15-20 minutes, I'll lay her down and she goes back to sleep. The super neat part? It has to be *me* that she sits with. :::sigh::: DH knew that I was exhausted, so he got up with her last night. He did exactly as I do, but when he laid her down, she pitched a fit. Being as the monitor is right next to my head, I couldn't sleep. So I got up with her AGAIN. Same as before: warm sippy, sit in chair, lay her down, right to sleep. That's great and all, but then I'm wide awake even though I'm exhausted:( I'm glad it's not every night, but good grief. I'm on 3 nights of crappy sleep. I also can't nap during the day or I can't sleep at night. Super.

Can't wait until my kids are all teenagers...Saturday morning. 6am. Me banging pots and pans. You get my idea.

Just a couple of things...

2009-02-05T14:44:00.003-06:00

1. I suck at blogging. I'm just gonna put that out there since it's the big ol' elephant in the room. I have all these thoughts, pearls of wisdom, etc. and I am just too lazy to blog it. I'm too busy dinking around on Facebook trying to find items on Scavenger Hunt.

2. Raising a boy is HARD. Taylor as a youngster, pretty easy. Lexi, the most easy going baby ever. Cole? The boy will drive me to drink. Picks on his sisters. Picks up EVERY smart a** comment DH makes. Today during lunch, he told me that his "people" said I should "shush". Um, WHAT? Now, when DH says it, it's when I tell him he's misinformed, being a dork, etc. His response (joking around) is always, "My people told me otherwise" or something goofy like that. I follow up with " I am your people."

3. Working out. Ugh. Lately I LOVE sleep. Once I am working out, I'm having a good time, feeling the burn, all pain with hopefully no gain (ha, ha, get it?), yada, yada, yada. While the scale has gone up just a bit (a pound or two), I really need to work out. I just do. My back has been killing me lately and I think it's because my core went to mush. I'm not exactly sitting on my arse all day, but my body really needs a whooping. My hair needs some help. My skin looks horribly old. Can't wait for spring...I need fresh air where I don't need to dress up like an eskimo to enjoy it.

4. I got a new phone and I LOVE it. I research the heck out of everything. I got my parents a new toaster for Christmas as they needed one. When I told them I researched the reviews and could report it makes excellent toast, I think they wondered where they had gone wrong in raising me, lol. Anyway, I have wanted a blackberry for f.o.r.e.v.e.r. All my friends seem to have one. Both of my brothers have one. I felt left out. However, the SmartChoice plan required to own a blackberry was NOT favorable to us with 3 lines, a buttload of texting, and a preteen with friends who call to report how they got home from school that day. So, I got the Motorola Hint. Ugly as sin, but fun. We could keep our family plan and we just tacked on the $6 or so for the internet access for my line. Taylor got my "old" phone, the Samsung Muse. Great phone, I needed a qwerty keyboard though. I'm a texter. Hate talking on the phone. Anyway, she has a camera phone now, I have my fun phone with the good plan, and I'm looking forward to when Facebook mobile will bail my silly self out of a boring situation!

Bursting a bubble

2009-01-28T22:37:00.004-06:00

And that would be the bubble of the weatherman. He just sounded WAY too happy about January being the first month since the 1800's that we haven't reached above freezing for a day. There's a chance, a chance that we might hit the 30's on Saturday. I was so excited when I saw that I nearly did a little dance in the middle of lunch!

Someone had a birthday around here....
Look at that sweet face. It's the face of a 1 year old little diva princess with an ear infection for her first birthday:( The day before she crap-napped and woke up with a 104 temperature. Poor baby. Being as it was a Friday, DH and I took both Cole (whining about his ear bugging him too) and Lexi in to the doctor. She had the ear infection, he was borderline. :::sigh::: Oh well. Both were given prescriptions for Amoxicillin and recommendations for Motrin to kick the fever. By Saturday morning she had smiles:) Another problem arose later however (more on that in a bit)

Diva Lexi (who needs her morning milk room temperature) had fun at her party. Given her illness, we kept it short: lunch, cake, gifts and naptime (for her!). Then the adults could visit a bit. She was such a trouper, but wanted little to do with that yummy cake. She got some on her hands and wasn't entirely thrilled!

Then there's Cole. Sunday morning we were hanging around and when I saw him reach for a toy, I spotted something that made my heart drop. Spots. On his hand. Dark pink spots. I unzipped his jammies and he was COVERED. Our first thought: chicken pox. I ran to WebMD..most signs pointed to yes. The contagious period to keep him home? 10 days. And that's for one kid. I was crushed. It's been below zero for DAYS. If it's above zero, the windchill has no problem kicking us below that. Cabin fever is ambundant around here. The idea of being forced to stay home? Ugh. To top it off, Lexi would be screwed as she was exposed before she got the vaccine. Fortunately, a few calls determined that it was a rash from the Amoxicillin. *whew* It's not an allergic reaction, some kids get it and it will disappear as quickly as it pops up. I'm happy to say I can't really play connect the dots on him anymore!:)

Last week I worked out. I worked out so much I couldn't work out this week (yet). I got into our Wiifit a lot...mostly running, which I love. Throw on the Ipod and go. I also received the Jillian Michael's workout for the Wii. It's okay. The workout is great, but the sensors don't catch alot of what you do. So if you're content not seeing progress on the screen then it's not much of a problem. I adapted and now my thighs hurt!

A bare wall

2009-01-13T15:25:00.002-06:00

I have one! It's so neat. There used to be a big tree there. A tree that -amazingly- survived a 3 year old and an 11 month old for a couple weeks. Anyway, it came down yesterday. DH took Cole for the day so I could work at it. It only took 5 hours, lol. I have a lot of ornaments that go in their own boxes so that takes some time, but it was so much easier without Cole unpacking what I already packed.

7 Christmases and we are finally done as of this past Sunday. ::::giant sigh:::: That is a LOT of family and a lot of running around to see everyone. Kids had fun, we had fun, but I'm ready for some normal now!

On a happy/sad note, Lexi turns ONE on Saturday!!! Happy because she's such a sweet baby and so much fun. Everything she does is just precious. Sad because she's our last:( I knew that when we decided to have her....every milestone has been "Oh, this is the last first time, blah, blah, blah" Lol. Yesterday I went through a lot of her baby stuff that she's outgrown and it was just sad. No more tiny baby:( All this baby stuff we have no use for anymore and it's mocking me because I know we'll never need it. ANYWAY......:) I ordered her cake today with a princess theme. We plan on immediate family and a few close friends but that's still a lot of people given that my sibling count jumped by 4 this past year, lol. Should be fun:)

Bah humbug.

2008-12-06T21:07:00.002-06:00

I'm cheating on my photo people. Oops! Normally I take our Christmas card pictures, upload them to Kodak and order our cards from there. Not this year, I just don't have time. I'll take them tomorrow night, upload them to a local store's website, design, order, and pick them up later this week. Not sure if it's cheaper, but it'll be faster!

Last weekend I was in the mood to decorate. It takes me forever to put up our tree and decorate our house as I'm an ornament freak. I have SO many! I honestly think we'll need a bigger tree pretty soon... Anyway, what was suppose to be my weekend to decorate wound up being overtaken by a remodel project at IL's house :::sigh::: Both of my sisters-in-law planned it while IL's were on vacation. IL's knew about it and were paying for it, SIL's were just going to take care of it. Yeah. Right. Of course, they bailed (saying that DH and I planned it) and DH and I had to haul ass and take care of it. 6+ days of my life, morning to night, working on that house. WHILE we're running our own business. We're suppose to go there for Christmas this year. Uh, nope. Too soon for me. Anyway, my mother-in-law LOVES the results and is none too happy with either SIL. I took over 80 pictures of the project and put them in an album so they can see what all happened. MIL seems pretty excited about that:)

So, all that work and I am exhausted. Took a 3 hour nap today. I have ZERO ambition to decorate and frankly, I'm pretty upset about that. Our next few weekends are full, so I'm hoping I feel better tomorrow and can find the excitement to decorate. Normally I love it because our house looks awesome during Christmas. Plus, there's all those memory making things and crap;)

Tiiiiiiired.

2008-11-26T20:49:00.004-06:00

That's me!

I had all four wisdom teeth taken out last wednesday. Right before Thanksgiving...smart, I know. They weren't hurting me, but they had issues and my dentist has highly recommended their removal for the last 2 years. It was put off for my pregnancy with Lexi and let's face it, I'm not getting any younger and they weren't going to fall out on their own. However, they had an opening a week before Thanksgiving and I grabbed it to get-r-done. Who wants to Christmas shop when their mouth hurts like hell?

Anyway, I was sedated (awesome stuff!), tucked in, prepared and they went to work. I swear I didn't fall asleep, but I don't remember a darn thing. Next thing I know the dentist is putting something (gauze) in my mouth and they sat me up. I was able to ask (as well as one can with gauze in their mouth!) how it went and they said very good. Simple yanking, no issues. Super! DH took me home and I conked out on the couch. I wasn't really that tired, but when I tried to watch the episode of Y&R I had taped, I kept seeing double of everyone. One Victor is enough for me, so I gave up and fell asleep instead! It's been a week and while I'm still on the Tylenol/Advil every 2-3 hours as needed, I'm not doing too bad. Rinsing after eating sucks though. Makes me think about every food choice. Do I really want that cookie/cheeto bad enough to go into the bathroom to syringe and rinse afterwards? Nope. Too lazy.

DH left for Pennsylvania Monday night to pick up a loader. His buddy Joey went with so they could trade off driving and sleeping. Plan was to be home late this afternoon. Yeah, that didn't happen. The guy we bought the loader from didn't realize how big a semi truck is so they need a wrecker to come in and get the loader out and onto the trailer. Conveniently, there was a spill last night so both wreckers in the area were tending to that. So, DH and Joey spent the night at a Super 8 and got the loader this morning. Last I heard they were entering Indiana and that was a few hours ago. "Lola" (our GPS) claims they'll be home around 6am. Yep, that's going to be one tired DH for Thanksgiving Day!

Here's to hoping I can chew tomorrow and that DH can stay awake to chew at all:)! Happy Thanksgiving!

Been a while!

2008-11-11T14:58:00.004-06:00

First of all, I'm so tired. Part of me thinks it's the weather as today it is super crummy outside. Icy, chilly, and a little bit of snow. Kids are thrilled, me, not so much. On the upside, we're out of laundry detergent and I'm not packing up little kids to run to the store (we're rural) just to do something I'm really not all that crazy about, lol. Anyway, I'm tired and it's really starting to bug me so when I see my doctor in a few weeks, I think we'll have a chat. I have NO ambition to work out. I did that one workout and while it felt great, we got busy after that. Little kids are exhausting!

Cole turned 3 a couple of weeks ago and what a ham. It's not so much the things he will say, it's how he says them. A few of my favorites:

"Oh.....yes" It's just so matter-of-fact.
"That's niiiiice!"
"You're making supper? What a good idea!"

The best is when he spends the day with DH and comes home to tell me all about it. The kid just loves life!

And Lexi learned to army crawl. Oh my. Despite the fear that may strike in some parents, that kid has never been more entertained! She'll scan the room looking for her next object, check to make sure no one is going to catch her, and then she just goes with such gusto it's funny to watch. She had her 9 months appt at the end of October and everything looks great, although she does have eczema. Bummer. Oh well, DH and Cole have it as well, so we know the drill! Anyway, you know the questions the doctor asks about the things you child can/cannot do? He asked about Lexi sitting up on her own and pulling herself up. I had to answer no as I hadn't seen any of either. He didn't seem too concerned but wanted us to keep an eye on her. Well, lo and behold, just like a problem car that only acts up when NO ONE else is around, she did both in the next 2 days, lol. I went in her room after naptime, and there she sat! My mom watched them the next night and she had pulled herself up there as well. Silly baby!

Halloween went well..the kids went as characters from Toy Story 2: Jessie the cowgirl, BuzzLightyear, and Wheezie the penguin. What a crew! :)

Pigs that fly!

2008-10-28T12:13:00.002-05:00

So, this morning I actually stayed up after Taylor got on the bus...yay me! Lately DH and I go to bed so late (harvest) that I'll crash again after she's off to school. Today I thought, "Hmmmmm, 2 hours before the little ones get up. What should I do?" Okay, we all know what I should do: work out. I've stayed pretty steady on my weight and I'm happy about that, but I need to work out. Toning, to help my sleeping, time for myself, etc. I found a workout in my Redbook magazine that seemed pretty lowkey. I thought I'd try so I suited up and went to work!

Yeah, I got my a** handed to me in the form of realizing just how out of shape I am! I could barely balance on one leg for some of the moves without tipping over. The good news is, I didn't hate it and I actually broke a little sweat. I just might do it again tomorrow:)

Look what I caught!!

2008-10-12T15:42:00.006-05:00

Never fails, fall rolls around and before I can get the kids out for pictures with the pretty leaves, Mother Nature gives us a round of crappy, rainy, windy days that make all the trees bare and the leaves completely scattered. Ha, ha, not this year!!:)

Well, that was short lived!

2008-10-05T21:41:00.002-05:00

Remember that nesting thing I was "struggling" with last week? Yep, that's gone! It made a brief appearance earlier this evening after the kids and I got back from my (half) sister's house. Her house is newer, and while it wasn't huge, it was nice, so clean and very homey! Really made me want to clean the house, light up the fireplace (she didn't have one, but our fireplace feels homey), and finish putting up my decorations. Yeah, I straightened a few things and then the recliner and I joined forces and watched Desperate Housewives together. Ahhhh, it was like 2 buddies who have spent too much time apart. Neither of us faulted the other, we just enjoyed being together again:)

I'm in holiday decoration limbo. For me, it's a little too early for Halloween yet, but I don't want to put up all my fall stuff as some of it gets replaced with Halloween items anyway. So a strand of "leaves" that grace the mantel of my homey (yet, unlit) fireplace is it for now. :::sigh:::

If anyone has seen my ambition, please send it home...I miss it:(

Just 10 months too late....

2008-10-01T21:24:00.004-05:00

Nesting.

I just can't get enough projects to do.

**I also want you to know that lately, I must proofread and proofread everything I type, no matter where I type it. I've been skipping words, forgetting "s" to pluralize (is that even a word?), and generally not making much sense when I'm done! My fingers and my brain need to have lunch and figure that crap out. Until then, if my posts seem screwed up, well, they just are!**

Anyway, the house that is mine is always known to be messy. Not gross messy, but "Hey, do you even know how to put anything away?!" messy. Mail stacked on the table, laundry in baskets (but clean!), groceries still on the counter (hey, they're easier to get to right?). Lately however, junk mail goes right to the garbage, even if I might want to order the collectible figurines of the Seven Wonders of the World. I can't have dishes on the counter, they must go in the dishwasher. I must admit, it's awesome to find a clean cereal bowl the next morning....go me! The hamper for towels can't be full. My washing machine is begging for a day off. If there's crumbs on the floor after I just swept, heaven help the person who put them there. I may not be working out, but I certainly am not sitting on my butt doing nothing! Unless I'm at the computer editing and printing pictures to go in frames I suddenly decided I desperately need to fill.

About that working out...yep, still not happening. But I haven't gained, I've stayed active, and I forgot to weigh in and measure today (crap!). Oh well. Printing off another picture will burn a few calories right?

Hells yeah....

2008-09-27T00:47:00.003-05:00

It's been a good day.

I met with Michelle, my half-sister, for lunch today. I'm not gonna lie, I was nervous. So very nervous. Then I get there and....I swear, it's like those 20 years had never happened. Totally natural. We talked about our kids, the Sperm Donor (she calls him that too!!!), and why she contacted me after so many years. She just felt something was missing and after seeing me so many times (by her job in the local mall, and at our state fair 90 miles away with thousands of people a day, and nevermind it was my first time ever there!) . Well, that state fair thing sealed the deal, she felt it was an omen. She had to contact me and her sister supported that idea. She looked me up on FB, and there I was.... After our lunch today I wound up going to the mall with my mom and sisters so we swung over to where Michelle worked and said "hi"! Despite the situation, they all talked like we have known each other for years. Michelle (well, me too I guess as we all have the same sperm donor!) has another sister, and 2 brothers. Funny thing is, we're so similar it's scary and I guess we look a lot alike too. Her ( I guess "our") sister, Rachel, wanted to join us for lunch, but Michelle felt it might be too much at one time for me, so we'll all get together some other time soon:) My questions were answered (and I still have my kidneys!), my nerves are settled, and I feel so much better about it! I didn't know what to expect and was comforted to see her excitement and eagerness to meet my kids and to talk about our past. Here's to hoping it stays that way...some reunions don't end well, but I'm hoping the best for this one!:)

Swift kick and some deep sh*t

2008-09-20T18:56:00.007-05:00

You know how you're walking along, things are great, the sun is shining, your bills are paid and everything is just...fine? Suddenly, out of the sky drops an anvil courtesy of your very own coyote named "The Past".

Last week I was contacted by my half-sister who I haven't heard from or spoke to in over 20 years. We share genetic material from a man I call "The Sperm Donor" (SD). He and my mom dated, she got pg, and he took off. Classy guy;) Well, he went on to marry and have 4 kids (my mom had me, married and had my four siblings). He treated his family like crap, he and the wife divorced, and none of them speak to him now. I met his oldest in private school one day at the ripe ol' age of 8. I've always known SD's name as it's written in my baby book and my new friend shared the same last name as him. Two and two together = we were half-sisters. We stayed friends until she was sent to public school the next year and we lost contact. Living in a small town, I heard bits and pieces about their family, but nothing ever came of it.

Fast forward to last week when she requested to be my friend on Facebook. They made computer chairs for a reason...so when your past swings by to say "Hi", you're sitting down! I accepted her right away, sent her my usual-new-FB-friend-wall-post: "Hey, how you doing? What's new with you?" and mulled over this situation for 3 days. To say I was confused would be an understatement. So many questions...what does she want? Why now? What brought this about? I mean, how did I know that she didn't just have a few glasses of chardonnay one night and do some drunk friend requesting? OMG, I know that girl, she was such a bitch in high school and always dissed my clothing, friends, ideas...hey, I wonder if she wants to be my friend? My wonderful supportive husband kept saying, "Maybe she needs a kidney" :::rolling eyes:::

Well, as luck would have it, turns out we have a mutual, very to-the-point FB friend who came out and asked me "How do you feel about this as she (and her sister) just wants to get to know you?" Finally! A motive! I'm very open to that as it's not our fault things turned out this way. So after 3 days of lost sleep, making sure my family was okay with this contact (my mom is fine with it and my sister is intrigued, no word on my bros yet), and hearing why this was happening, the shock has finally worn off. We've made plans to have lunch, catch up (20 years is going to need a long lunch hour!), and my regularly scheduled programming has resumed.

Amazes me how an instant can change you life and you never know when that instant will come...

Tired.

2008-09-12T21:29:00.006-05:00

I've always prided myself on having polite children. The ones that can talk say "Please", "Thank you", "Bless you", etc. You hold the door for the person behind you, you don't interrupt and you chew with your mouth closed. Well, one out of three ain't bad, right? Right? ::::crickets chirping::::

Tay is doing well, yet she's at the preteen age so most everything we've taught her has been transformed into knowing the littlest details of the Jonas brother's lives. Super. I can't get her to swallow her chicken before she tells me about her day, but I know who Joe (or is it Nick? Maybe it's the other one...) is dating. Then there's Cole. Oh. Good. God. He'll dump jello on his stir fry and politely ask for more with a sweet angelic smile and a "thank you" when you oblige (and why do I do that?). When we had Lexi I contemplated asking for a receipt before we left the hospital, just in case!

As much as I could go for a beer, I fear I'm too tired to drink the whole thing and then I'd have to yell at myself for wasting it. I'm a can freak. If you leave a pop can around and there is warm liquid in it, you better look for someone else to blame if you want another in the near future. I hate yelling at myself because I'm such a smarta** so I never really win the argument anyway.

Cole just informed me that he had a dream in which a cow bit him. On the back. He's almost 3, has seen cows 5 times in his life, and found this dream to be funny. It would not surprise me if he thanked the cow afterwards....

I suck.

2008-09-09T21:14:00.006-05:00

Just wanted to put that out there.

Before I got pregnant with our last baby (whoo hoo! and *sob*), I busted my ass to lose the last ten pounds from Cole. With the help of Sparkpeople, a couple of blogs (<-----Sarah's is one of my favorites), and sheer determination (no alchohol? Whaaaat?!), I finally did it and then some. The scale and I finally liked each other, yay!! Lo and behold, dear loving DH takes that glorious moment and says "Now that you've perfected that, let's wreck it again." :::sigh::: With Taylor and Cole I sat on my ever-widening butt and got big. Gained 40+ pounds. Sooooo......

I took my newfound knowledge of fitness, eating right, portion sizes and marched into my first trimester. Fortunately, I had no morning sickness (I know, I know, I'm one of those) so eating smaller portions and healthier stuff worked with me. Onto the second trimester. I exercised 5 days a week with permission from my doctor and kept it up until two weeks before I delivered. Unfortunately, my thighs, butt, arms, neck, etc. didn't get that memo. I *still* gained 40+. WTH? At least I was in good shape so I got clearance to start working out (lightly) at 2 weeks postpartum. At 6 weeks I could go full steam ahead, yay me! It's been almost 8 months since Lexi joined us and 2 weeks ago, I hit the magic number: pre-pg me!!!! Since then? I haven't worked out a lick (well, except that ice cream the other night....).

Talk about discouraging. I LOVE working out. Seriously. I feel good afterwards and things fit me better. I think it's the end of summer (bummer), the start of school, and this chilly air surrounding us. I've stayed active for the most part, but it's not the same and I'm 2 pounds up.

HELLO BODY!! WRONG DIRECTION!!! My scale has been scowling and my WiiFit board is going to yell at me for taking so long to visit (*ahem* again, it's been 2 weeks...and some days).

If anyone has seen my ambition, please let it know that I'm looking for it. Oh, and it's in big trouble for staying out so late!

***I decided that the former design was kind of harsh for the reading eyes with it's black background so I'm experimenting. I know, I could have just changed the color, but that look really didn't float my boat. We'll see how this works....***

Shopping with men.

2008-09-08T17:32:00.005-05:00

What the hell was I thinking?

Cole needed his stitches out today. Everytime we run any kind of errands it takes me 4 hours to prepare, physically (do I have everything? Where'd Cole's pants go now?) and mentally (Ok, my kids will not be the only crazy ones there...). I like to bring reinforcements, aka DH or Taylor. Well, Tay had school and DH was just laying around watching Stargate SG-1 on dvd (can of worms I opened with Father's Day). His hauling got called off so I guilted him into coming with us. Yeah, I asked for it.

Hospital went well and we didn't even wait long. For some reason our local ER (where we were instructed to take him) takes forever and I have no idea why. We could be the only people in there and we'll wait for an hour. We'll get to an exam room and see doctors and nurses galore, but no other patients. Anyway, stitches are out and all is good. The pain came in our next stop: the mall.

I wanted new pj bottoms bearing the logo of my boys (MN Vikings). Mine were well worn and we can't look shabby for Monday night football can we?;) Also saw a super cute "Baby's 1st Halloween" outfit for Lexi at a department store. The best part? They had her size!! They actually don't follow the belief that every baby celebrating their first Halloween is only 0-3 months (ahem, local big box chain stores?). So off to get that. I had a mission and fulfilled it in minutes. Lost the men for a bit so I wandered to the clearance and got Lexi a sweet little sweater for the chilly weather that suddenly descended upon us. All is good, and we go to pay. Now, this store has 5 billion registers (okay about 10) and only one was staffed. She, however, had been dealing with the same people for 15 minutes. So, off to find another. At the next one, that lady had NO clue that *paying* customers were waiting to be helped so she chatted with a woman that had question after question. :::sigh::: We finally found one with a employee and still had to wait for her to find something and she passed us off to another employee! We paid and got the hell out of there. Dealing with that was bad enough, but I have DH whining about it as well. Yes dear, I know their service sucks and that's why I shop elsewhere but they had Lexi's outfit, so get over it! Ugh. Next time he tells me we should stop in at Victoria's Secret and pick something out, I'm going stomp my feet in protest and demand a toy instead. Okay, not really as Vicki and are good buddies, but still.

What a week.....

2008-09-07T21:44:00.005-05:00

We went to the state fair on Labor Day and while it was Lexi's first time at the age of 7 months, it was my first time at the age of 30! First time for everything I guess! It was a lot of walking as that place was huge, but we had fun. Cole got to be a little farmer, Taylor got to go on some rides, and Lexi got to be cute:) She wore a little bonnet and so many passersby said, "Oh, what a cute baby". Here they are watching the parade...

As for the rest of the week...

About those stitches, Cole had his story and he stuck to it. It's was "up ladder and on book!". Turns out Tay was in the bathroom, Cole climbed up her ladder (to her lofted bed) and somehow his chin got caught on a super-hard-to-see screwhead on the side. He then fell on a book. As soon as he showed us, the screw was removed immediately and we checked for more. You kid proof and kid proof but they will *still* find something:( He's been a great sport and the stitches come out tomorrow!

Taylor had her first day at her new school on Thursday and she LOVED it. She made a few new friends, she likes her teacher, and I really like some of the things they do. Their required-to-purchase-from-the-school-planners have a super easy layout (for the super tired mom who has to check it!)and her teacher has great ideas for his classroom with organization for the students. Hoping it rubs off on her as her room is a been declared a hazardous zone. Thursday night she says to me, "I can't wait to go to school tomorrow!" Ah..I was hoping that day would come;)

We attended a truck show this weekend but could only stay one night as we had our friend's 5 year anniversary party Saturday night. DH worked hard on preparing the truck: washing her up, polishing, relettering the tires, etc. and it looked SO nice. Last year so many people stopped and took pictures of it. This year he wasn't even to the actual show yet and some guy at a fuel station asked him to hold up a minute so he could take a picture! We saw a LOT of trucks, hung out with some fun friends and froze our butts off in our tent that night. Good times:) Last night we celebrated with our friends and while it was rainy, we still had a good time. We were smart and brought our motorhome, parked it in their yard and crashed in there. No DUIs and a lot warmer than a tent!

It was a busy week and I'm ready for a break!

3 kids. 2 in pain.

2008-09-02T22:01:00.005-05:00

Taylor had 3 teeth pulled today in preparation for her braces in few weeks. Two were baby teeth that had no plans of ever leaving and the third was a permanent tooth with no room to be there. So, out they went! She was rough at first, but is doing better tonight. I think she is just glad it's done. Me too!

And Cole. Oh, that boy. He truly is his father's son. It's kind of a running joke that my husband should have his own coffee cup at the local ER. A barrel to the head, a hole punched in his finger from a dropped engine, oil in the eyes, etc. All from his job as a mechanic! Don't get me wrong, the man is not a klutz. He's very careful with what he does, but this stuff just happens to him. Tonight, we're not sure what Cole was doing. He was downstairs with his sister and she went into her room for something. He's always tumbling, jumping, and throwing himself around, so when he came in her room crying she thought he just bumped his head. Well his chin was cut and he was bleeding. For the life of us, we can't figure out what he did if she didn't hear anything. So Cole went to the ER with daddy and got 7 stitches. He's home now and in good spirits (McDonalds, as they missed dinner, and a new truck for sitting still while being stitched up will do that!)

As for Lexi, her biggest issue today was being completely covered in chicken noodle dinner and loving every minute of it!:)

We have nothing planned for tomorrow and I'm loving that:)

Annoying things...

2008-08-31T17:39:00.005-05:00

Something strange and not so neat happened with our computer today. I was surfing along, enjoying some downtime, when I started to see double-underlined links. Put my cursor over one to discover an ad. An annoying, nothing-of-interest-to-me ad. So I do what anyone would do. I Google them! After some finagling (sp?), I took care of some of them, but geez. Brand new computer, starting out fresh and that stuff comes up? Yuck.

Took a few pictures of my sweet little girl today and I'll be darned if she didn't avoid looking at the camera on purpose. However, I was able to catch this one...what a funny baby:)

Now that we have this new computer, I really want to use my pictures more. I catch funny stuff and it sits on my memory card like that commercial where all the people (fisherman, a bride and groom, etc.) worry about who's getting deleted next. No one gets deleted from my card, they just get uploaded to the 'puter, get put on a disc, and they....well, sit there. It's purely a hobby, but I have loads of pictures and I'm anal about them all. Must be labeled, must be protected, must have a backup. Guess I need to add: must be displayed/have something fun done with it!

The wonder that is me.

2008-08-30T22:21:00.006-05:00

A little introduction I suppose....

First off, I am not a writer so I'm just warning you now. Often times the funny things I say or think are never as funny in writing...not sure how that happens.

Anyway, I'm a SAHM (stay-at-home-mom), with one husband and 3 kids. I've never really had a big plan for life, just kind of going with the flow and docking wherever life leads me. My house is NEVER clean, my kids aren't always well-behaved, and life is never boring.

My husband and I have been married for almost 4 years and while he's like a 4th kid, I wouldn't trade him for anything. He keep things interesting and is a great husband and dad. I don't complain about him often because I've been divorced and he is an awesome upgrade:)

My kids...
There's Taylor, my daughter from a previous relationship. She's 12 and definitely in the preteen stage. Phone ringing, Jonas Brothers/Hannah Montana loving, boy-crazy preteen stage. God help me. She lives primarily with us and even shares our last name (yep, she's a hypenated kid!). She's a great big sister!

Cole is our son who is almost 3. This kid is an exact replica of my husband when he was young and there are many days where I want to ask my mother-in-law how she made it out alive (and had 3 more kids!!). He's learning so much and can be such a hoot I think we should build a stage and charge admission to pay for his college.

And Lexi. Sweet, sweet, precious Lexi. She was born this past January and has been such a super baby. I firmly believe she is our reward for dealing with the first two (cleft palate, acid reflux, gas, eczema, braces, drawing on skin with permanent markers....). She's our last as I was shut down (by choice) during my c-section with her. We achived perfection, we're done:)

Change.

2008-08-30T22:07:00.005-05:00

So the other day we got a new computer, complete with my fear of moving to Vista. Yikes. Now, I'm not one that is big on change, but I'll adapt after awhile and soon discover that the change really wasn't that bad. And then I discover just how wrong I am.

Today I spent 8 hours trying to manuever the wonder that is my Ipod and it's fellow program. By the time I finally got it figured out, I felt like just turning on the radio. The computer wasn't the problem and neither was Vista. It was just one machine trying to converse with the other and somehow my innocent self got caught in the crossfire. Ugly.

In all of that, all 3 of my children took that oppurtunity to request everything they possibly could need. A drink. A snack. A toy fixed. The secret to life. Tomorrow when I have nothing to figure out, they won't want anything to do with me. I wonder what I can break/screw up to keep myself entertained....