Tired.

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!

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!

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.

And time is a flyin'.....

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!
  

Been a while!

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! :)

Look what I caught!!

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!!:)

Tired.

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....

What a week.....

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.

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:)

The wonder that is me.

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:)