Happy Thanksgiving

It is evident that today is Thanksgiving, with my extended belly full of food, wanting to pass out at 3 o'clock in the afternoon, and trying to think of things that I'm truly thankful for this year. It's not really hard to think of things to be thankful for, but I feel I should look deep within myself instead of what comes naturally.

1. I'm thankful for my family. This is including everyone that is close to me and who I cherish. If I had to list everyone then it would take all day and I'd lose what little readers I actually had by name 10.

2. I'm thankful for my friends. They pick me up with I'm down, laugh when I need it, give advice that is usually better than my own, make me feel sane, and are the bestest friends anyone could ever ask for.

3. I'm thankful for Chase. We've had more ups than downs in our relationship. We've cried together and laughed together, he is my rock when I need it, he is my other half. I truly believe this will be the first of many Thanksgivings together.

4. I'm thankful for this blog and the ability to write. I've always felt that if I didn't have writing as an outlet, I would go insane. The bottled up feelings I carry with me would explode and probably at the most inappropriate time. This is the only place I can be myself. The only place I can tell everything too. It's my diary and I'm allowing everyone to read it.

5. I'm thankful for reality tv. Peeking into the lives of others makes me realize that my family isn't as dysfunctional as I once thought.

6. I'm thankful for all my past mistakes and failures. If I didn't make mistakes or have failures to learn from, I wouldn't be the person I am today. With every "wrong" choice I made, I became a stronger more intelligent woman.

I will end on that note. From our family to yours we hope you had a great Thanksgiving.

Ho-Hawk

Chase saves me about $60 bucks a month by cutting the boys hair. He does an awesome job. This month we are sporting "ho-hawks". I have to say, I'm loving it!

Trophies + Salvation = Baseball is OVER!

Yesterday morning was our last tee-ball game. I'm happy that I no longer have to wake up before the crack of dawn on a Saturday morning. Especially to sit on cold, wet, dirty bleachers. The only way to make those bleachers worth sitting on is if they installed heat warmers for my big rear end, hired someone to clean all the dirt off, and had comfy cushions so it felt like I was sitting at home watching a game. Yeah right!

This afternoon they handed out gold plastic trophies to the kiddos. All 3 boys were so excited and weren't in a big hurry to leave. I, on the other hand, couldn't wait to get out of there. Because we went with a church league the trophy cermony had a small devotional at the beginning. No problem. Then they started giving the whole speech on being saved. If you weren't saved, then say this prayer, raise your hand, and we will come talk to you.

My kids are all followers. Especially being 4, almost 5, and 5-1/2, they tend to jump off that bridge with everyone else. It's not that I don't want them to accept Jesus as their personal savior BUT I want them to do it on their own time. Not because the kid next to them raised their hand. We left without anyone professing they prayed for salvation. Amen!

Lorelai turns 2

My beautiful little neice turned 2 this week. Today we celebrated her birthday. The little booger knew when you wanted to take a picture of her. Instead of staying still and smiling, she kept running the other way. This is the only good picture I got of her.

Happy 2nd birthday dear Lorelai!!!

Twilight

The big buzz around here is the Twilight book series. My sister-in-law introduced me to the books maybe 2 weeks ago. After I read the first book, I was hooked. I guess it's a good thing I was sick and had the excuse to lay in bed, wearing only pjs, with a book constantly under my nose. I read through all 4 books in 10 days and only wish there were more. Maybe my family likes that I'm done so I can spend some time with them. If you were looking for something good, I highly recommend them.

MIA

This week I've been curled up in bed waiting for death. I highly doubt it was the flu, but rather just a wicked case of a cold brought on by cleaning the bathroom! No, I'm not joking. Every single time I clean the bathroom with chemicals, I get sick. I try my hardest to not breathe in the chemicals. I open the door, turn the vent on, take 50 million breaks, and wear a mask. All my precautions go unnoticed.

Chase swears that he will be the one to clean the bathrooms from now on. My evil mind is working on overdrive now. How can I make myself sick from doing the laundry? Maybe the chemicals in Dawn will prevent me from doing the dishes. The dust in the vacuum cleaner makes my nose runny. HMMMMM!

The honeymoon is over

Good morning kiddos! Today I'm going to talk about flatulence. Yes that means gas, farting, tuning up your butt trumpet, whatever you want to call it. It's been 1 year and 4 months that Chase and I have been together and in that time I've never let one go in front of him. That's a LONG time to hold in a fart and my tummy hurts now. Let it be known that yesterday was the end of our honeymoon because I ripped ass in front of him. He laughed it off until I couldn't stop. Then as nicely as he could he says, "Damn babe". Hey what do you expect to happen when it's been held for over a year? It's like eating potato chips.....once you pop you just can't stop.

Ok, now I'm laughing because that was funny!

I thought it ended at 2

I thought the terrible two's ended at some point. You know, I'm envisioning the big 3rd birthday party and magically all the trantrums, the screaming, the whining, the fighting, the everything goes away. They are 4 and 5 and it is just getting worse. Everyday I go to bed wishing that things would be different the next day. The kids would get over their funk. And everyday I wake up to same thing. And everyday I scream and yell. And everyday I am the "mean mommy". And everyday I feel like crying until I can't cry anymore. And everyday I said I've had enough.

And everyday I wonder what I've done wrong.

Merry Maid at your service

Today I got a new vacuum cleaner and I'm in love. The other two we had just pushed the dirt around the room. Sure it made it look like the room was vacuumed when you see the back and forth lines, but it still felt dirty. This is the first time I was enthusiastic about cleaning just to see what my new "toy" would pick up.

To my surprise, I made probably 15 trips to the trash so I could dump out all of the dirt. Some rooms took 3 trips!! Everytime I marched to the kitchen I made it a point to show Chase. "Look, this is what was in the carpet!" I'm sure he was over it by the 2nd time I showed him my treasures. It took my shoes off to feel what a clean carpet felt like. It's amazing! Once Gen picks up her puppy, it's time for a good steam clean. YIPPEE!

Does anybody need their house vacuumed? Just call me Merry Maid.

The puppies are gone

Roly Poly fighting with Chase

Before Nessa even gave birth to the puppies our friends and family said "I want a girl/boy". All the puppies were gone before they were even born. That was way to easy! When we started calling people asking to come pick up puppies, they backed out one by one. Only 2 people have stayed true to their commitment.

So, this past week I have slowly found new homes for all the puppies. Today I watched Roly Poly (the last girl) go to a new family and once I was in the house I cried like a baby. You see, Roly was MY puppy. She was the only one I attached myself to because I thought we were keeping her. It was so hard to watch her leave. I know she is going to a great family BUT it's still hard. Hopefully, the family stays in contact with me so I can watch her grow up.

We have one puppy left, Scrappy CoCo. He is leaving next week with Gen when she gets back from Germany. The house is going to be way to quiet. I would never imagine that I would miss taking care of 5 puppies, 1 momma dog, 1 pissed off cat, and 3 kids.

Admitting when your wrong

My parents threw a dinner party on Saturday and the featured guests were my Aunt and husband (my Mom's sister). I figured it would have been awkward after the surprise dinner for Grandma and the fact we haven't talked in almost 8 years. Dinner was ok but awkward in a different way. They both talked horrible about my cousins (her 3 children). Everything they did wrong growing up, what they are doing wrong now, and how they were fed up with it. Nothing was positive!

Today my dad and I emailed back and forth about the weekend. I asked if he and mom talked so horrible about us to their friends. If everything they had to say about us was a bad memory. His response was surprising. See below...

No, we do not talk shit about our children. We all 4 had our own problems. Any problems we had with you and Robert were mostly me and moms fault. We were too busy worrying about our own shit, our own problems, or our jobs, and we pretty much didn’t pay much attention to much else. That is the fault of the parents. And I admit it. learn from that with your own children. That once you turn your back on your kid, especially a teenager, than you are in for trouble. I did that to my parents because they didn’t care, mom did it to her mom, and you did it to us. Fair is fair. *end of email*

If you knew anything about my dad or the relationship we had while I was a teenager you would be shocked and surprised that he admitted doing something wrong. I'm going to learn from his mistakes and take his words of wisdom to heart. I think this is first piece of advice he has ever given and I'm thankful!

Happy Halloween

I didn't think we were going to have the kiddos this Halloween since it falls on the other parent's weekend. Neither of the ex's wanted to pay for costumes or take the boys trick-or-treating, so it was up to Chase and myself. Garrett was Bumblebee from the Transformers movie, Devin was Batman, and Jacob was Superman. We went around one big block in about 45 minutes and the boys came home with a bag FULL of candy. They hit the jackpot. The next day they went to the other parents on a sugar high. We are evil!!!!

I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween.

Happy Halloween from the super heroes.

Trick or Treat!

Chase's true feelings about Halloween

Parent/Teacher Conference

I had my first parent/teacher conference today at school. Because of Garrett's previous Autism scare I was nervous how he was doing. You always want your children to excel and I was praying he was.

The positives first:
He is excellent in math and art! He loves to count the blocks and is doing well adding and subtracting. Where he got this quality from, I have no clue. I was horrible in math! When the other kids are having problems with math, he helps them. I love that! His art is amazing. He is such a creative little booger; he did get that quality from me. :) He is making friends and is a delight in the classroom.

The not so goods:
He needs work on creating or making up a story. He has an imagination but for some reason he can't draw a picture and tell a story about it when asked. All the children were tested on the alphabet and he only recognized 20 letters. That seems odd because he does well at home. We also have to work on his rhyming skills.

The teacher showed an example of what Garrett would have to read before being able to move up to 1st grade. HOLY CRAP! You are kidding me. When I was in Kindergarten we were able to move up just by being able to color inside the lines and use a pair of scissors. It's amazing how much it's changed just in 20+ years.

All in all, it was a positive meeting. He is doing well in some areas and need works in others. Not surprising. Garrett really likes going to school and I'm glad he has a great teacher.

Kids say the darnest things

Today Garrett was in my room telling me about his day while I was changing clothes. My pants and shirt are balled up on the floor and I feel his hands on my "spare tire". He then says quite happily, "Momma, you have a big belly. It's so so so so so big." Thank you son! I appreciate you telling me this.

Then my bra comes off and I hear the gasp. Boy, you better keep your mouth shut! What was I thinking? "Momma, this boobie is big. This boobie is small." As he points to my uneven boobs. Can I slap him? Please?

That is the LAST time he is in the room with me while I undress. Maybe I need a tape with Ohhhs and Ahhhs to play everytime I stand before the mirror naked. That will be my confidence booster. LOL.

Moving on

Today I helped my cousin pack her belongings and leave her husband. She has been toying with the idea for quite some time and finally made the decision to leave. She hired a lawyer and is preparing documents for a divorce. Her only reason for staying was because of their daughter. Not because she loved her husband, wanted to work things out, or felt guilty about leaving him. It was purely the guilt of her daughter not have a mother and father in the same house.

Is that really a life to live? Is that really what is best for her daughter? To see her mom and dad fight constantly. To see the unhappiness between them instead of love. Doesn't she deserve a happy mom and a happy home? Is divorce or seperation really going to mess her up for the rest of her life?

It's hard not to give my 2 cents because I don't want to force her into a decision she isn't ready to make. I had to make that decision on my own and for some reason it was quite easy. I'm not saying the road to divorce was easy (because it was the hardest thing I've had to do), but the actual decision was easy for me.

For now, I'm standing by whatever decision she makes. Whether it is to go through the divorce or go back to her husband. Do I want to see her go back? NO! But she is family and one of my best friends. All I want is her to happy.