A New Week. Without Naps.

As much as I hate Mondays, I'm glad for a new week. The 9yo has conquered the pukes and the 4yo seems to just be fighting off the remains of a cold. The last couple of days she's fallen asleep around 3-4pm and slept for an hour or so. Bedtime the last two nights has not gone well. Something like this maybe...

Moooooommmmm.

What.

I can't sleep.

Just rest your eyes and try.

Ok. (mom goes downstairs, settles into couch for blogging...)

Moooooommmmmm.

What.

I need my back rubbed.

Grrr. Ok (rub her back, pat pat, ok go to sleep)

3:30 am. Clunk. Sliiiidddee (imagine a sliding closet door, open....clunk. closed.)

(husband) What's she doing? (me) oh, just getting a new stuffed toy probably. at 3:30am.

Then I hear rustling very near our door. Ugh. I get up, and say 'go get back in bed'. I pick up the stuffed toys she's crafted into a bed. Head in to tuck her in again, at 3:30 am. Did I mention the time? She's wide eyed. Like I CANNOT POSSIBLY SLEEP WOMAN! Thankfully, she goes back to sleep.

NO MORE NAPS. Seriously, no more naps.

In other news, I can't wait to see Oh Dawn's new house. I hope there are loads of pictures. I may be moving vicariously through her move to a new house. 

The Hunger Games

Today I took myself to the movies. First I cleaned the basement tornado my children are incapable of NOT making. Seriously, how difficult is it to just put away your toy when you switch to another. Legos, EVERYWHERE, kitchen food and playthings, EVERYWHERE. Gah. But, it's clean now. I also finished filling the dishwasher, ran it, repeat...we had a lot of dishes. Then I took myself to the movies, to the 1:00 pm showing of The Hunger Games.

I read all three books, in very quick succession. I loved the books, although the last one is definitely NOT my favorite. For YA fiction, I expected a slightly more upbeat ending. But I still loved them all. So I was anxious to see the movie, but I couldn't really fit it in until now, and I went today because I was afraid if I waited any longer, it'd be out of the theaters and I'd have to wait for DirecTV to run it. The movie did not disappoint. I did notice the spots that were changed for time, like the mockingjay pin and the goodbyes. But otherwise I really loved how it was all portrayed. I'm not sure if I liked who they cast for Gale, but I thought everyone else was spot on. I loved Cinna and Haymitch the best I think, great casting there. I thought Peeta was pretty good too, and Katniss...now that I've seen it, she fits really well too. Stanley Tucci was excellent also and Sutherland is fine, I don't much care about those spots, they're side characters. I was in the theater with about twelve other people, only a couple talked a little too often for my liking, but it was ok. So I'm mostly glad I waited so long.

So, I'd say probably 4 out of 5 stars for a rating, only because I don't love story deviations. I really liked it though.

Also, I think I'm going to need a new laptop soon. This one is losing letters. See.

Lazy Liar

I lied. That was totally the only post for yesterday. Ha. When I checked my blog last night I remembered that I had posted that video..and said it wasn't my real post. And immediately decided it WAS indeed my post for the day. I'm lazy, and apparently, a liar. This week has just been a little too ridiculous with the sickness and other things. I just didn't want to post anything else, I had no new stories.

Today isn't much different. I went to Target. Alone. Blissfully alone. And tomorrow I'm hoping to go see The Hunger Games before it's out of theaters. The girls are doing better and I'd say they're at about 90%. The 4yo is coughing a bit, I think it's still drainage from the cold. I hope, she has until Monday to improve before I consult a pro.

So...until tomorrow peeps.

Filmmaker

I'm not considering this my real post for today, but I had to share. Adorable 4yo in adorable GAP sweatshirt singing Lazy Town song. Also, this was recorded on her vtech camera, so not the best quality but still super cute.

Everyone sleeps

Last night we turned a corner. The 4yo slept, no puke, just a little snoring...all night long. The 9yo thew up at 1130, but not again, and slept...all night long. I held her hair at 1130..and then I slept...all night long. Last night was borderline blissful. After getting through the newborn and sleep training years of small children, illnesses are the only time I lose out on sleep. My girls are such good sleepers, we can do pretty much whatever we want after their in bed. Now, to be honest, the 4yo does stall at bedtime and sometimes she makes me go up there to answer inane questions before she agrees to shut it and sleep. But overall they are the best sleepers ever. And, now that I think we'e in the clear for vomit, I get to sleep again as well.

So it seems we'll be all better for the weekend.

If I were a gambling woman...

So remember yesterday? when I said...

"Tonight is going to be a repeat of last night, I'd bet cash on it."

Well, I was right, but with a twist. Last night the 9yo spent most of her night in the bathroom, hugging the toilet. The 4yo did throw up to start, but I'm pretty sure that was snot/cold related. This one, is probably a stomach bug. So...it was a repeat..just with a different kid. And honestly, I much prefer when the 9yo has to puke vs the 4yo. The 9yo can run to the bathroom and make it (most of the time) into the toilet. No sheets to wash, no towels or precious blankets to wash. Just run, puke, rinse, sleep, repeat as necessary. She threw up around 7 times last night I think, each time with less results. She finally fully emptied her stomach at around 6:30 this morning. So that's something like 11:30 puke, 12:30 puke, 1:30 puke, 3:30 puke, 5:30 puke, 6:30 puke... and it's possible I've missed one in my recollection. The night was kind of a blur. I'm still working today though, because I have a particular project I want to get done, and the alternative is watching TV on the couch with the sickies..catching the sick.

So, I started this post this morning and I'm finishing it tonight. The 9yo threw up at least 4-5 more times today and rocked a fever of 101. It was down tonight but she's clearly not feeling well. Poor kid. We've worked hard the last 2-3 days on her very last Awana (church group) memorization. 32 verses, all said in a row. We were through 20 verses at least..and then she got sick and we couldn't finish and she didn't get to go. I'm so very proud of her, even without completing it. She was working so hard at it, and she's really good at memorizing. I don't think I could have done it. So she didn't eat at all today, and she drank some gatorade, but a bunch of that came back up.  Her stomach is just not happy with her right now and it sounds like there's a bug going around as well. So I tried to keep the 4yo separated from her, on the same couch..it's a very long couch..today, while they watched TV and rested. It went ok. The 4yo clearly feels better, she was playing and doing things and up and about more today. So my hope and prayer is that the 4yo finishes her cold, and doesn't catch the stomach bug the 9yo has. Ideally, the 9yo gets over hers after tomorrow also, AND the husband and I don't catch it. I'm not gonna hold my breath on either of those. We'll see how it goes.

So wish me luck, that Thursday is better than Wednesday..and Friday, oh sweet Friday, please be better than both of these last two days. Sorry, the only thing I have to talk about right now is not sleeping and catching puke. Sorry.

Ah motherhood

Parenting brings a lot of unexpected...happenings? consequences? ...STUFF.

I spent last night on the couch, catching the toddler's vomit every few hours. I have decided she's lactose intolerant. Maybe not 100% intolerant, but she definitely has a threshold. The nachos for dinner was not a good idea, the last time she had nachos, she also threw up, but I blamed a cold instead. She does have a cold now as well but I still think there's a lactose issue. So, no nachos and we'll lay off the dairy and milk products as much as possible. What do you feed a kid that only eats chicken nuggets and spaghetti and shredded cheddar cheese, when you have to cut out the cheese?

The strangest part about last night was that I could hear her start to throw up almost a half second before she realized that's what was happening. So I would FLY out of my spot, over to her end, pull her up and over the towel I set up to catch each episode. She doesn't do toilet or bucket puke yet, in time, in time. It's almost like the body has its own kid emergency receptors and I just flew into action almost involuntarily. I flew, its really the fastest I can move I think, if I could run a 5k as fast as I run to catch puke...well, I'd be winning some things.

Tonight is going to be a repeat of last night, I'd bet cash on it. While I was on the teadmill tonight she threw up her spaghetti dinner. I knew she would, her head is all congested and she can't breathe very well. Poor punkin. If I could just take it from her, I would. But the best I can do is cuddle her and let her sleep on the couch with me, so I can more easily catch the puke..and then let her rest and watch tv tomorrow while she recovers. Preschool has been one stupid cold after the other. I feel very very blessed not to have had to take her to the doctor much because of it. Last year we ended up in the hospital with dehydration..and preschool wasn't even involved. So..she's building an immunity. Right? RIGHT?!

Baby girls and laptop glare

Well, today was a little interesting. It's rare lately that I have work that keeps my interest so solidly. Ok, that's not that interesting. You're right. So...

I threw a baby shower this weekend for my sister-in-law. It was in Illinois at the great-grandparents house. She was coming into Chicago to take her Boards (Board Certification orals) and visiting the great-grandparents at the same time. So we took advantage and got as many family together as we could and planned her a baby shower. They live so far away that it's hard to see them very often and this new baby needed a shower. It was really great. It was great to see her and her little 7month basketball belly and it was great to see everyone that made the trip to see her for the shower.  She got a lot of really nice and super adorable gifts in addition to some that were sent directly to her from her amazon list and the cake was adorable and it all worked out really well. It made for a bit of a long weekend, but it was worth it and wonderful.

The cake

The spread

The cake and oreo cookie dessert with pacifier favors

It made today sort of difficult, since we did so much traveling and partying, having to get up for work the next day was a little bit ... torturous. It was really nice to be back in our own beds, but it would have been nice to have one more day to decompress. Oh well, and so it goes. There's not much else going on with us, we've made it through most of the wedding showers and baby showers and friends visiting and plans we've had and we're mostly in the clear for awhile. The weddings begin in May, then July, then September and hopefully we can do a whole lot of swimming in there as well.

Speaking of swimming, does anyone have a laptop screen glare thingy they'd recommend? I want to sit outside this summer while the girls swim and I need to be up on the deck with them in case I'm needed for rescuing or toy retrieval...and to tan myself of course. So I need to work outside, in the sun, which is very glarey. So I want to get something like this but I want one that will work at least well enough for me to get work done. The last couple summers I've been putting a beach towel over my head, which works..but it gets really really hot in there and I can't see the girls...so it's sort of...stupid. So..recs?

I gots nothing.

The hotspot was too spotty yesterday to post. And tonight I am just too tired to try. We went to Illinois to throw a baby shower for my sister-in-law, which was wonderful. But I'm tired, so tomorrow I'll come up with something wittier to post about. So later peeps.

So...hey.

Um. I don't have much tonight I guess. A few things happened today I suppose.

Today was Science Day at the 9yo's school. I had planned to drop over there around 1:30..and right when I was ready to go, I got an email that the school was on lockdown because of a shooting. Not as alarming as it sounds, they're very cautious and super protective of the kids, which I love. The shooting was at some local college apartments, where things tend to happen from time to time. Lockdown was less than an hour and I was able to get to Science Day after all. If I weren't so lazy, I'd put a picture here. She was re-exhibiting her Earthquakes research from an earlier earth sciences project. She didn't want to do a new experiment or project..because it was just 'too big' to do. Heh, I hear that.

We're prepping to entertain some family this weekend, so I may be unable to post tomorrow night, depending on how things go and where we are exactly. But I will try. I'm throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Tonight we went around town picking up some last minute things. I found the most adorable Hawkeye dress at Target tonight. We went all the way across town to Von Maur to look for something, but they had nothing, not a single hawkeye thing. Target..came through. It's so adorable, I kind of want to buy it in a bunch of sizes so I can just send them periodically for the baby to wear all the time. I'll have to take a picture of it next time I'm there...I've already bagged it up for her so...yes, I'm lazy. Anyway, I'm excited for her baby, and her shower, and for the people that are driving quite a ways to come to it. It's fun, and exciting and I hope it goes well.

We took the girls for a SURPRISE tonight after all our shopping and dinner. Took them to Orange Leaf for the first time. They liked it, but they weren't as excited as maybe I thought they'd be. The 9yo had a pain in her leg, so I think that was really distracting her, and the 4yo..is particular about things. She really just wanted the toppings, which was fine, but they were touching the yogurt she didn't love, so I helped her eat some of that. The pineapple froyo is so good, I could eat a whole bowl, and the toppings bar is really a test of my willpower. So..many..good...things.

I should be able to post again on Sunday, if I can't tomorrow. I will try though of course.

I am Random. Weak. Tired.

I've wondered this morning if mommybloggers have friends. Are they real people that can get along with other people? Do they have a 'type' of friend like the rest of us? I'm just curious. Mostly because I think I'd really love to be friends with Linda (www.sundrymourning.com) and Amy (www.amalah.com). Of course, they live on east and west coasts and I'm smack in the middle, so it'll never ever happen. But. I'm curious. Mostly I wonder if a real friendship with them comes with all the same snark in their writing. Because that would be a requirement for me, I require the snark.

I am Weak. Every morning, after the kid or kids are in school I make hot cider. And..even though I've already had breakfast...I have donuts with the hot cider. Too many donuts. It is NOT a surprise I cannot drop ten pounds. Even though I run most week nights on the treadmill, I eat whatever I run off earlier in the day. It's sad and weak. I need a personal trainer and chef and nutritionist and to win the lottery to pay all those people.

I am Tired. Last night I played Horde mode on GoW3 for the first time in probably three weeks. Man I missed it. Both of my brothers came to play and another friend as well, it's great with at least 4. We quit at 11:15 or so, so we wouldn't be losing too much sleep. It was great fun and I hope to do it again next wednesday night. Usually I'd play on the weekend, but this weekend we'll be busy with baby showers and whatnot. Anyway. I'm still kinda tired today. I wasn't up any later than any other night, but I think the excitement and frenzy of the game makes me wired. I had a slight headache today too, but that might be unrelated. I'll have to retest next week when the additional factors are gone. I think part of me is also tired from worrying about the 4yo and whether she really was fighting a cold and won the fight, or if she was maybe catching something else and what does she mean when she says her throat hurts (it looks fine and she only does it seemingly when I'm asking her to do something she'd rather not). She's super playful again and no more puke for a couple days now. I think we're in the clear, but I still worry. Which keeps me awake..and makes me tired.

Things I Love, or Like

See, I'm not just a negative nelly. I like stuff...look at all this stuff I like.

• The word DYSFUNCTIONAL. Sure, you don't want to hear it when someone talks about you, or your family, or your job, but it's a neat word. So anti-...so complex and yet not. And so fun to say. 
• Green Mountain Hot Apple Cider K-Cups. Seriously, help me, I'm addicted.
• Gears of War 3: Horde mode. I'm playing tonight.
• Diet Dr. Pepper
• Berry Pomegranate Mio (water flavoring)
• Babies...that are not mine that I can cuddle and hand back when they get loud.
• Cheesecake
• The stories the 4yo makes up, sometimes just to trick or rile her sister. Last night she convinced her that we were going to Target for pretzels. We were so not, but the 9yo was fully suckered. She's a pistol, that preschooler.
• Baby showers and wedding showers. I just went to the nicest shower for a friend and it was so lovely and touching. Can't wait to go to that wedding.
• Weddings. I love the celebration of love, and the dressing up, and the party afterwards.
• Aruba
• Maui
• The Mall of America in Bloomington, MN. I love it because I love to shop and now also because my girls love going there on spring break to shop a little and play a lot.
• Words with Friends
• I LOVE that the 9yo loves to read and write and that she does both really well. She writes stories all the time and she's discovering all kinds of great books at the school library and our local city library. I rediscovered the library with both girls and it's been really great. We go nearly every Saturday and swap out books. 
• Troubleshooting. A lot of what I do at work involves troubleshooting. Digging into the code to see what's happening where and why X is happening and why isn't Y happening and fixing whatever needs to be fixed. I love it. I think it's because I can start, research, poke, fix and accomplish something with each task. It's nice. 
• LISTS! I LOVE LISTS! 

Stuff I don't like.

Or maybe Stuff That Bugs Me would be a better title. I dunno. I want to make a list, so I am.

• Not knowing what's wrong when a kid gets sick
• inconsistent weather (I know, I know..move to [insert somewhere always hot here])
• really bad kid shows like Barney, Tuff Puppy, I just cannot sit through that crap
• not showering. I don't shower Tues/Thurs mornings because I can't fit it in with all the school junk, I shower after my evening workout. But when I also don't shower on Monday...wow. I don't like it.
• when I accidentally change the channel and end up overwriting something I was recording. Oops, hope I can catch the rest of you later Candace Tells All
• The judges decisions on The Voice right now
• when the iPad crashes, which is ALL THE TIME
• when my brain knows what to do but my hands can't figure out how
• feeling like I'm never going to catch up on sleep
• not playing GoW3: Horde for two weeks, I'm having withdrawal symptoms
• my inability to NOT EAT JUNK
• my inability to motivate myself to work out more
• running. I do it and I like it some of the time, but it's soooo dull.
• my inability to cook
• my inability (and I really don't want to do this) to get up early to accomplish more during the day, it seems like it'd be awesome but I love my sleep
• my dogs snorting and wrestling at 7am
• dog #1 eating her poop
• dog #2 eating everything else
• The fact that everyone everywhere isn't listening and doing what I say. I guess the fact that I'm not the boss of everyone.

For the record, there are many many more things I don't like, but I'm not going to be that honest here. Ha.

Tomorrow..perhaps a list of things I love :) I've run out of pre-thunk ideas, so I'm making things up as I go now.

So. Tired.

Wow. So I took a sick day today because I knew I couldn't function on the little sleep I got. So the kid and I hung out on the couch today. I tried to nap, but every time I would doze off she'd start talking to me.

Can I have more juice?

What's on tv next?

She went to bed fine, but around 9pm we heard odd coughing and then whining. That was the puke. So cleanup, cuddling on the couch and then we all headed to bed at 11ish. Then she whined off and on every hour or so until 3am. So I'm asleep, listening...then whine, check on her, back to bed...wait, whine, repeat. Oy. So at 3am I brought her down to the couch. Set up sleeping spots on the couch and slept until 430 when she threw up again. This little tummy of hers cannot handle any amount of snot. None. Vomit every time. Slept off and on until 645 when the husband headed to work, and the napped until 730 when I got the other one up for school. Somehow the toddler slept through all the school prep and we went to sleep until 1030. The rest of the day was fine, and I just put her to bed....and heard the dreaded coughing again. Ugh, so we'll see how tonight goes.

Update: She threw up again last night at 9:30ish..but then slept all the way through, so I think we're on the way out. She went to preschool today and I'm working again.

Aw crap

Toddler vomit thwarted my plans for posting last night. So I've screwed up my attempt at NaBloPoMo. I will keep at it with a post today. Sorry.

What is wrong with...

Ok. So the 9yo came down after her shower tonight and asked me if there's really a boy that goes around on Friday the 13th killing people. I was...surprised. I said no, it's just a movie, don't worry about it, it's not real. She says a girl in her class saw the movie and told her about it. She's pretty concerned about it, but I think I convinced her to go to sleep and think about other things. I can only hope she won't wake up freaked out about what her classmate said.

What parent lets their 8/9yo watch Friday the 13th!? I have never seen it, because I know what kind of movie it is and I don't want to see that. I'm not a fan of horror movies and I doubt my kids will be either. They frighten easily. But ok, it's not my business what you let your kids watch..but is it too much to ask that you counsel your child NOT to scare the other kids at school, maybe you say this was a special thing, watching this movie, and something we don't need to talk about with everyone else. I know that's asking a lot of a child, to keep something to themselves, but it can be done.

Am I wrong? Are 8/9 year olds watching these movies now? Am I delusional thinking parents can do better?  I don't believe in telling anyone how to parent, because we all have our own methods and our children are all different and respond in different ways to different things...but come on. Is it not a generally good idea not to let young children watch horror movies? Hmmph. I'm not pleased.

Video Games

How about a post about my video game obsession?  Do you know how often I get onto XBOX Live and start a game like Halo or Black Ops or Gears (of War 3) and hear...YOU'RE A GIRL? It's absurd. I'm a girl...woman to be exact..and I LOVE me some xbox FPS. I also really enjoy the lego games. All of them. I think the first batman was my favorite but I like playing all of them. Right now my obsession is Gears of War 3. Horde mode. I cannot get enough horde. I have stayed up until 2am trying to beat wave 50 and succeeded...and also stayed up until 2am trying and failing. I play with my youngest brother, which is part of why I love it. He lives far enough away I don't get to see or talk to him in person that often, so this is a really excellent way for us to catch up, make fun of other players, and have a great time.

As I've discovered, I also play video games to release some aggression. Well the FPS games anyway. Horde specifically. It's fun to chase the badguys around and shoot 'em up and it's a great way to ... get my feelings out... about things going on in my life that aren't as awesome as maybe they could be.  Anyway. It's fun. You should try it.

School stuff

Whew. Tonight was a bit of a marathon. Tonight was Sophie's school musical program. She's been working on it for awhile now and tonight was the night. We got to also check out the school's new Concert Hall which was really nice and had comfy chairs. In years past we've had to sit in the elementary school gym on bleachers...not so comfy. The musical was "A Kid's Life" and it was really cute. She had a great time and Lexi enjoyed watching it. Grandpa came too (the girlfriend is out of town or I'm sure she would have been there, too). The best part is that this school knows what it's doing. Everything about it is run smoothly including the musical programs. They're always on a Thursday night, so there's very little reason for any student not to be able to make it. And they're short. Thirty to forty-five minutes at most. It's pretty awesome. I'll have videos to post tomorrow, it's too late tonight to convert and wait..so, tomorrow.

Theme song: A Kid's Life


Let The Games Begin


Ghost Story

Jump Rope Rock

So we went to McDonald's immediately after the husband got home from work so we could eat and then off to the program and then we headed to DQ afterwards for some 'hey, good job' ice cream.

I didn't have any.

I'm back to tracking my calories. I clearly have no self control.

No Video Games

So because of the recent headaches I've stopped playing xbox. I'm trying to give my brain a break, if its the games/TV/late nights...I wanted to eliminate all those things to test my theory. It took a few days for the headache to really fully go away. It's gone now. I'm really hopeful that it was just a migraine trying to eat my brain and that it wasn't related to anything really. I miss my video games.

It's been a week. Thank GOD for Words With Friends and DrawSomething.

I don't have much news. Tonight was church night (Awana) for the 9yo, which she loves. So I don't have to run (yay) and I feel like the night is mine. Without video games..I'm at a loss. So it's been words with friends and I've started reading Bossypants by Tina Fey.  So far, so good, but I've been interrupted so much I hope I'm not missing anything hilarious. The 4yo came with me to take the other to church, cuz daddy was golfing. Then we came home to swing a bit before it got dark and cold outside. She loves to swing so much. I soooo much want her to learn to pump and swing herself soon. I love pushing her, but it's super boring. What?  I'm sorry, its boring just pushing a kid on a swing. I could be DOING things during that. Reading, WWF, writing this. Come on. Mama gots things to do.

Perhaps tomorrow something exciting will happen. Or I'll win my battle with eZPublish. Both highly unlikely.

Babysitters

I was having some trouble coming up with what to write about today. Yesterday evening wasn't that great and not much happened today, so...hmmm. This weekend we have friends coming to visit and we'll be headed out to dinner. My girls are really great, really well behaved, but I know that we're going to want to relax and take our time, and talk for awhile when we're out. And the girls will eventually get bored...and vocal about that boredom. So, we need a babysitter.

Awhile back I joined care.com ($35/month yikes) for a couple months, to find some local reputable babysitters. It turns out most of the sitters on there are college students or day care women. So we picked a couple and tried them out, and the girls loved them. Today I called the first one, and her phone is no longer her phone...so..I guess she's out. So I tried the second, and while luckily her phone is still her phone..she's unavailable for this weekend. So...I'll be calling grandpa later tonight, to see if he's available.

I'm always torn when I call my dad to babysit. I know he loves the girls and would do anything for them, but I also know he has his own life. And girlfriend. She's wonderful by the way, and awesome with the girls. But I feel like I'm using him when he babysits, I couldn't pay him, it'd take a wrestling match to get him to let anyone pay for dinner, let alone pay him to watch his precious grandchildren. And I feel like maybe they had better plans (that he wouldn't tell me about) that I'm preventing him from. Sigh. Anyway, I'll call, he'll say yes - even if he previously had other plans - and hopefully we'll be all set.

The other thing is that babysitters are EXPENSIVE. Most of them say anywhere from $7-$15 per hour. If I recall, I babysat A LOT in high school, and I made somewhere between $2 and $5 per hour, never more than that. And the $5/hour people..those were the "rich" people and you hoped they'd call you again. I'm not complaining really, well sort of...shouldn't I be glad to pay ANY amount for the care of my precious cherubs? Turns out not. So we limit the paid babysitter to a rare occasion and use the grandparents as much as possible otherwise. Another great reason for the in-laws to move to town..another grandparent set to rotate in :)

Perhaps tomorrow I'll have a better post idea. Or something dramatic will happen! Ooooo! Unlikely.

My five

(A really long time ago) @Chookooloonks tweeted this question: "5 best decisions of my adult life so far: go to law school, move to London, marry @marzjennings, adopt Alex, quit law. What are your 5 best?"

My five:

1. Getting married at 19 to my highschool sweetheart. Everyone always says it was young, but I don't see it that way. We were old enough legally, mature enough (mostly) and we had it planned out. So it worked for us, perhaps it wouldn't have for you, but it worked for us.

2. Having babies after being married for awhile (and stopping after two). Waiting to have kids until we'd been married at least 5 years was great. We were able to do a little traveling, have our own interests and time and do things on the fly, when we wanted, however we wanted. Kids throw a giant wrench into all that, which we knew, so we didn't want to jump into that too soon. I think we waited the perfect amount of time to have kids, and between our two kids (nearly 5 years).

3. Taking my current position which meant being able to work from home, doing work I really enjoy. It was a risk, what if it didn't work out, what if I was awful at working from home, what if my old job wouldn't take me back (they no longer exist)...so many what ifs. I'm glad I went for it, best career decision so far I think.

4. Savings. Saving in a 401k started early for both of us, saving with Edward Jones IRA accounts. Planning what we spend, and buy and do, so we can retire when we're ready and not when we can or have to.

5.  I don't know. I can't think of anything right now...I'm sure I will eventually. Right now though, all I can think of are all the things I'd like to do still, like the things on my life list and the organization things my house needs. some day.

I guess these would be my five SO FAR. I hope I make other great decisions in the future. Although, I think #1 and #2 will stay on whatever future lists I make.

Easter

Happy Easter everyone. Today turned out to be a pretty great day. The girls woke up and found their baskets and were thrilled about the dry erase boards and decorative foam stickers for those.  They had fun hunting for the plastic easter eggs that I hid filled with m&ms and then we kind of just hunt out for awhile. Got a text or two from my brothers and headed to lunch at dad's house (he and his girlfriend, whom I love, prepared everything). Pork chops were delicious. DELICIOUS. And steamed veggies were excellent, I started smelling broccoli and my mouth watered..so good. And then PIE that my brother brought. It was really fun, visiting, and the kids played with their cousin and we hung out, and some of us napped and we watched the Masters which turned out to be a bit more interesting than we thought it might be. The girls really really had fun running outside with my brother and brother in law and playing hide and seek. And it turns out that the 4yo is much more cunning and crafty than her 8 and 9yo cousin and sister :) She's a wily one, that's for sure.

My original hope for today was to go to church. Honestly, that's my hope for every Sunday, but it just doesn't seem to work or happen for us. We like to sleep in and catch up on sleep from the work week and getting up for church prevents that. Also, the 4yo in particular hasn't been a fan of Sunday school (nor is the husband really), so I've ended up taking the 9yo to Sunday school and the husband brings the 4yo later for big church, and both girls sit in there with us for that. It's an ok arrangement, but I do wish the 4yo would agree to Sunday school and the nursery so I could focus a little better during the sermon. I also really really do not want to be easter, christmas attendees, where we only show up for holidays when we think God is watching. I'm not that person. I believe EVERY day, not just holidays.

Honestly, I haven't been a huge fan of the Sunday school classes I've attended either. I think what I'm looking for may not exist. And I'm a little hesitant to find a new church or anything, because we like this church, we believe what they believe and we were married there, same pastor even. In fact, his daughter is whose shower I'll be attending next weekend...small world. I guess what I'd like from my Sunday school, and I'm probably not being fair here..is to come out of it with clues about how to get through the week. How do I respond to X and do I have to forgive X and what about forgetting X and I guess...real life situations that I struggle with every day. And maybe I just haven't attended enough, or the right class to find that. They do seem to offer more focused classes at Sunday evenings. Maybe I'll keep an eye out for something that fits me in that time slot. Look at that, sorta solved things a little myself.

My future fears about not attending church are for my girls. Not only their spiritual futures, but also for their personal futures. Will they meet the right man for themselves if they aren't regularly involved in a place filled with men that believe what they believe? I met my husband at church...so it's a match I'd sort of like for them to make as well.

Ok enough of that...I exhaust myself sometimes.

I woke up at 6 with a charlie horse in my calf as well. Holy mother of all that is holy...OW. I've sort of changed my running technique lately, to run more on the balls of my feet, it was feeling like less work and less impact than the heel toe stomp. Maybe my calves just aren't ready for that, but I am going to keep trying it. I really need to start doing longer runs so I can make sure I'm ready for my 5k in July.

You know what else is funny...or interesting. At the same that I hope people read my blog, and like what and how I write it, I also hope no one reads it, because its a great way to just blurt and ramble and get what I'm feeling out of me. Huh.

Random thoughts

So far blogging every day hasn't been so bad. Other than the day a migraine tried to thwart me, it's going pretty well. I'm not even using all the pre-started posts I've got yet. Today is nothing special so my plan is to ramble until I'm done rambling.

Random thing I love: our pop can box from the Can Shed. We used to save up all our empty pop cans and take them to the store to return and get our deposit when we could no longer get past the boxes of cans in the garage. Typically about $12 worth. Over spring break this year the husband decided we should just get this box from the can shed. It's like the ones you see at the grocery store, fill it up, return it for $$ and get a new empty one. Genius. I'm not kidding, it's genius, we love tossing our cans in it so much we may be drinking more just so we can. It's so much better than hoarding all those 12-packs and hauling them back.

My headache: I'm headache free at the moment,I've taken 9 ibuprofen a day the last couple days. Today, none so far. I'm staying away from video games for a little bit, a week or so, and I'm trying hard not to stay up so late that I don't get a decent amount of sleep. I had trouble this morning sleeping past 8 after going to sleep at 11:30. But I did get up and get my running time in before anyone was up, which was really nice, since I take Sunday off from running, I'm done for the weekend.

I think maybe this headache thing was a combination of late nights with video games ( looking at you gears of war 3 horde), an attempt from a migraine to eat my brain and trying to keep track of all the weddings, shows and school things coming up. So hopefully, this restful week will help and I can play my new Lego Harry Potter game soon.

 We've got four wedding invites this spring/summer. Two are on the same day so we have to choose and there are showers for all of them of course. I've squared away one gift, mailed it today because I can't make the shower. I wrapped up another gift for a shower next weekend and I'm throwing my sister in law a baby shower at the end of the month so I'm workin' on making sure all those details are worked out.

Sophie also has her school musical and school spring pictures next week as well as some MAP testing I need to make sure she gets enough rest for. I'm sure it'll super storm the night before. Today I finished grabbing a few things for Easter baskets, although I could kick myself for not picking up the new baskets I saw at the dollar store earlier this week. They're long gone today of course. Since grandma and grandpa already brought them a bunch of candy I went with dry erase boards for their bedroom doors, foam sticky things for them to decorate those with, two candy items only, dry erase markers, and little notebooks, and two pair of Easter socks for each of them. Next year I'll get new baskets...or maybe just one if the oldest figures out the sham this bunny laying egg hiding thing is. Please let her figure that out....

Update:  Sorry about no picture of the genius can box and the no paragraph breaks prior to now. Apparently posting from the iPad means no breaks.

Deal? Deal!

So a few nights ago, we tucked the girls in bed at regular time. I grabbed my workout stuff so I could head to the treadmill. We came down to the kitchen and found this on the fridge.

This is from the 9yo 3rd grader. She's getting up in years and has become smart, talkative, and resistant to trickery and tom-foolery. Usually each summer I make a chore chart, one for each kid. It contains things they should do on their own, but don't, and a few things they should do because I want them to and because they I want them to be responsible adults, right? Making your bed, brushing your own hair and teeth, it's not asking to much. It is not. Don't argue with me. I believe this is the 9yo's way of saying she disagrees.

READ THIS!
I made my own chore chart. If I do them all, I get two dollars. If I do some, I get one. If I don't do any, I get zero. So, Deal?

P.S. I'm starting the chores next week, cause it's in the midle of this week already. Deal? Deal!

Clearly she believes we've struck a deal. I couldn't even see the chores she'd selected for herself, they're so small on her chart. And her use of this notebook paper makes me feel like it's pretty unlikely she'll duplicate the process next week. Part of me is inclined to let her try this, or maybe I should have her help me make her chart in a more repeatable format. Of course, my printer doesn't work right now...so...she may be on to something.

The other part of this is how funny she is. She's not trying to be funny, she's serious most of the time if its not an obvious playtime activity. She knows chore chart time is coming (summer) and she's trying to head it off with easier chores like make bed, brush hair, brush teeth, nice to sis, kind to dogs, help family. I think it might be time to add in some slightly more difficult tasks. Empty and reload dishwasher, wash windows. I love that she's left off 'clean room'. She's hilarious and smart and beautiful and I wish she's stop growing up already. I'm not ready for ten...or twelve...or...or...teenager years.

Half assed

Sorry, I'm not feeling that well at the moment so this post is a litt half-assed. Today started out awesome. I took the day off so I could go to a tailor with a couple dresses. Took the kid to preschool first, so after the tailor I got stuff done at target and the dollar store. Picked up the kid and went to get a couple bridal shower gifts across town. Came home, had lunch, fixed a work thing....and got a headache. Tuesday I'm pretty sure a migraine tried to eat me, so I'm a little afraid its still trying. So my plans for laundry and organization went out the window and I took a nap, sort of. Someone kept asking me if she could get me anything, or play the computer, or go outside, or, or, shhhh mommy is resting. She was sweet though, I'm not complaining. I did manage to finish most of the laundry, and the rest will work out later. Tomorrow I promise a better post.

Working from Home

I started this post months ago, after I read a dooce.com post about her making a video about working from home. I hadn't watched it yet, and honestly, I can't remember if I ever did. Oh, hold on, let me go refresh my memory, so my opinions make sense.

Ok. I'm back.

Considering she works with her husband (or did until the separation), has an actual assistant and I believe she also has child care at least part of the time...it's really more like she has an office in her house. Working from home means something different to me. Obviously she faces the same child/time management issues, at least part of the time, but working FOR someone FROM home is very different. I should make a video. But I'm not going to, because I'm NEVER ALONE.

So, I agree with several of her points and have a few of my own.

First, it's important to set a schedule and stick to it. My schedule starts with getting the oldest ready for school. While she eats breakfast, I take the stupid dogs out. They're cute, so I'm allowed to declare them stupid. Once she's on the bus, I'm at my laptop, working. The younger one gets up later unless its a preschool day (which won't matter next year because woohoo for afternoon preschool).

Second, I think its important to shower/cleanup and get dressed. In something other than yoga pants or pajamas. I typically shower before I get the second kid up, get her up, feed her breakfast and then back to work. I don't shower right now on preschool days. I just don't have the time to get one kid up, on the bus, shower, feed the second one (who is the slowest eater on the planet) and get her to preschool, not on time anyway. So those days...I shower after my nightly exercise instead. I don't love it, but it's what I have to do. Next year she's going to afternoon preschool, so it won't be a problem.

The video recommends a separate space..but that just isn't possible for me. I don't have child care for the preschooler and I can't leave her alone anywhere in the house, so I work at our family desk, and she plays. Both of my kids (nearly 5 years apart) have been great about mommy working during the day and they self entertain really really well. And yes, I turn on the TV sometimes, in the afternoon because she's so great at playing and she's ready for a rest so the TV is on, with something appropriate. LazyTown, Olivia, or Max & Ruby. Hmm I'm not sure how appropriate Max & Ruby is...where are the parents? Anyway...I would love my own space to focus and work, but once the preschooler starts Kindergarten, I'll have that, so for now, this works for us.

An assistant. I'm not even going to address this because I don't think I'll ever make enough to hire my own assistant, since I work for someone else right now. I also don't need one, a nanny or maid, yes, but an assistant for work, no. So I'm sure its necessary if you work for yourself at home and travel a lot and have a lot going on, but for me, not so much.

I also workout after the kids are in bed. I don't have the motivation to do it in the morning (except some rare saturdays when I want my weekend free) so I do it at 830 at night M,T,Th,F,Sat. It works for me.

The other part of working from home are the perks. There are plenty. The refrigerator is RIGHT THERE! It's too close, but also, yay, it's close. I don't spend anything on vending machine food or soda, I have my own. I'm here when the oldest gets home from school, and I'm able to get the youngest to and from preschool. My bosses have been great and the company is very flexible about schedules. I also feel a little bit more pressure to perform and complete work in a timely manner. I keep very close record of what I do and when so that I know I'm delivering what I need to be since no one is hovering over my shoulder. My biggest pet peeve is when people hear that I work from home and assume I eat candy and surf the web all day. I get paid to do actual work, and I work hard at it. Sure, my schedule is flexible, but I am WORKING.

I guess that's it. That was quite a ramble. Whew.

Marriage Advice

So I started out thinking I'd write about divorce since it seems to be going around a lot..not the discussion, just lots of people seem to be heading down that road. I kinda think everyone that gets a divorce should have to tell someone/everyone why they're divorcing. Irreconcilable differences doesn't do it for me. I imagine my parents would say something like... Mom: I drove my car to crazytown and stayed there (with some details about letting her journal run her life and convincing herself of many things that don't warrant bolting from her life). Dad: I didn't take steps to prevent her drive (not that I believe she would have done what he asked to fix her mental issues).  Totally possible I'm biased in this situation.

They're both at fault, perhaps in different ways, but they both have responsibility. Also, what do I know..I wasn't in their marriage. I was just a bystander, and collateral damage when it went kaboom. And I also haven't been through a divorce and I don't anticipate I will, so I'll never have first hand knowledge of what it's like.

So many bloggers I've noticed recently are splitting up. And I'm aware that its completely none of my business...but blogging about it sort of seems like you don't mind if it becomes your readers business. So give us the facts.

---

Maybe because it's none of my business I should talk about marriage and/or weddings instead. I'm attending a bridal shower very soon for the daughter of the pastor that married us. She's a wonderful girl and I've known her since she was around 2yo. Part of the shower includes writing a recipe or a piece of advice for a soon to be married woman. They've not lived together and have only lived in dorms, so it's a true new beginning. I am also a horrible cook. What advice do i give?

Here are my thoughts. And I don't necessarily follow this advice myself, for many reasons, but I still think it's great advice.
1. Be honest. Always. Don't sugar coat anything and then let it grow to anger because you weren't honest.
2. Do not keep a journal unless you're a writer. A journal of grievances a horrible idea for a marriage.
3. Have your own time. You are still individuals and it's important to do the things you still love that don't involve each other.
4. Talk about everything. Everything, and yes, I know sometimes we glaze over and nod off..but do it anyway. Sometimes the only purpose of talking about everything is just so you get to say it, whatever it is.

What advice would you give?

Organize! Go!

I think I might be addicted to purging and organizing. I don't have a lot of time to do it right now, but I do love to sit and daydream about cleaning out closets and donating toys and throwing away all those mcdonalds toys. Pfft they're not toys, they're junk. And I just this second realized I could maybe use BASKETS in my linen closet to make it a less stupid place. Oh it's stupid. See.

Messy triangle shaped linen closet

Top of triangle closet

I saw some baskets when looking through OrgJunkie's 'spring into organization' week features. Delightful Order to be specific. My linen closet is triangular...TRIANGLE SHAPED! WHA?! I know, right? How does one fit large square/rectangle items into a triangular shelf. NOT WELL. Maybe baskets will help. I could roll up towels into the baskets, and use a lower basket on the bottom to hold the sheet sets. It doesn't have to be beautiful, but this makes me feel like I'm the worst housekeeper ever.

see. triangle shelf.

We moved into this house without choosing any of the finishes. We didn't build it ourselves, but it was brand new, so I probably shouldn't complain so much. But who wants weirdly shaped closets? The main floor coat closet is also triangular. It's not a big deal there, because it just holds coats and the vacuum. But still, little weird. I believe the missing corner is where a lot of venting occurs.

After that, I want to tackle the basement storage room. A lot of things in this room are things we need to keep, but it's probably close to 50% that we don't.

I'm trying to craigslist that comforter (Garden Nights King from BB&B) but we could really use a sort and purge in here. The freezer has to stay obviously, but the new bike for the 9yo can go in the garage, some of the toys can probably be donated also. We just don't need Littlest Pet Shop, Dollhouses, Polly Pockets, Barbies, Squinkies, ZhuZhu Pets...need I go on? Oy, so much junk. I need the husbands help to sort it all though, a large part of these things are his, from back when we ran our own servers and he regularly built and rebuilt computers. We don't do that so much anymore, so I'm betting that four drawer thing full of PC parts can just go directly in a dumpster. Shhhh I wouldn't do that without telling him.

Anyway, I'm hoping to make one of my spring goals this year "CLEAN OUT CRAP". It's been really easy to do it in other rooms, and I'm hoping my daily visits to orgjunkie and her organizationally spectacular friends will help inspire me and find new ways to organize and get the most out of our space.

We'll see how it goes :)

April Fools!

I used to think it would be funny to leave a fake positive pregnancy test for my husband on April Fool's day. Perhaps it was funny a few years ago, but since we've decided not to have any more kids and taken steps to prevent it, I don't think we'd find it as funny as much as terrifying. Our kids are getting to the ages that they're a little bit self sufficient, fun to talk to and have their own great little personalities. It's really difficult to imagine starting over. So...fake positive pregnancy test...not so funny anymore. I never actually did it of course, that'd take research and planning and ...work. Not such a fan of those either.

In other sort of related news, I'm super super excited that my sister in law is having a baby. A baby girl even! I'm so very excited about it, it's a little bit ridiculous. I can't wait to see her in about a month and see her little baby belly and throw her the baby shower she deserves. I am at the same time super pleased they decided to have kids (ok, one kid to start) and also super super excited that IT'S NOT ME! WOO! I always wondered if we'd regret not having more or not leaving the option open...but I. DO. NOT. The Hubs doesn't either.

So...I'm pregnant. April Fools!

After I typed that..I felt wrong..somehow like I'm just ASKING for some miraculous conception to spite me and my happiness with my growing children. So here's a little more..to distract the universe from my mockery.

This also starts my commitment to  NaBloPoMo for April 2012..I'm really going to do this, even if I have to schedule posts ahead of time or write something at 11:59pm some nights. I WILL DO THIS. I have a few conceptual posts already saved and waiting for some fleshing. out. So...here we go!