All kinds of Awesome

I may have figured out a night of sleep without the alarm going off. The night after the 0530 wake-up, he did it AGAIN, this time at 1200. I really did think someone had broken in that time, since I never heard him bark, but woke up to the alarm. Nice. I put his ass in the laundry room and shut the door for the rest of that night. Last night I did it again. All was fine.

Except...

I watched True Blood before bed and all I could hear in my sleep was Bill saying "Sookie" in that sweet Louisiana accent and I kept waking up. Maybe no campy/scary vampire flicks before bed....yeah, right. It's too good to resist.

The better news is that Blake's arms are fine and not one twin is terrified of Lancelot like I thought they would be. Hell, they were both in his face just last night giggling like idiots. I told Haydon if he couldn't be nice and gentle to the dog, he would have to find a new home.

Haydon, that is.

Happy Friday!

One day at a time

Other than my apathetic demeanor, the morning started out like this yesterday

Lunchtime, Haydon gets gnawed on by the dog

Dinnertime, Blake had rolled his sleeves up so tightly that his right bicep was twice the normal size, look closely, you can see the bulge and the red stripes are the marks from his shirt that did not go away for hours

Before the dog incident, which Haydon provoked, because I saw him startle/hurt/scare the dog, I was baking for some therapy. It worked. I didn't worry about the laundry or toys or organization and just baked. It was nice. After I put the kids to bed I relaxed and gave myself a pedi during the newest episode of 'glee' and felt awesome when I went to bed.

All this was shot to hell when the house alarm went off at 5:30am. I'm pretty sure the dog barked and set off the 'window break' alarm because of the echo the living room makes.

All my girlfriends better get ready for many phone calls, since I cannot call my husband in theatre if I have a kid/dog/home invasion-freak out.

Apathy

I cannot seem to shake myself of the impending doom of deployment. My house is a wreck, my skin is a wreck, my eating habits are...crap. And, so, I feel like crap. I have some weird need to organize absolutely everything before Shawn leaves so I don't turn into the mom who forgets. Which is just laughable, since I forget everything now.

Pictures will follow soon showing my efforts in organization of the kids' closets, but child services would be called anonymously if I put those up now. I do not know where to begin with any cleaning endeavor, so I have enlisted a very nice lady to come clean my house on Saturday. I feel like a complete and total loser because of this, but also I am chomping at the bit and cannot wait for her to come.

The only control I feel I have in life right now is food. Yesterday I started Paleo again with a vengeance and vow to keep it up. Hopefully if I get my eating back on track I can find some piece of mind. I guess I never realized what an a crazy control freak I am. Huh.

BS

We are getting our taxes back soon and with Shawn's deployment, I want to get us on a budget and pay off our debt. So I goggled Dave Ramsey.

I signed up for the 7 day trial period and got started. The website is pretty user friendly, but after I entered my debts, there was no tutorial to tell me HOW to get out of debt. Such as, with what extra money do I use to pay extra on the credit card bill? Actually, I take that back. There were many stories of people never eating out and people getting second jobs. Um....no?

Am I seriously SUPPOSED TO ASK MY DEPLOYING HUSBAND TO GET A SECOND JOB?! Or, am I, with children in school, supposed to get a job? How is paying for daycare going to get me out of debt? Basically, I thought the whole thing was a crock.

There was one story of a man who got a second job AND miraculously "found" $500 extra in his account to send toward his debt, and he was debt free in 27 months. WTF?! His credit cards, his car, his student loan. Nope, not kidding. Also, he gave up everything and stopped eating out.

We do eat out many times, at about $25 a pop, since I refuse to pay expensive prices for my picky kids who won't even eat at McDonald's. Let me rephrase: they WANT to go there, but just for the toy. Furthermore, with my husband GONE FOR A YEAR, I know I will not cook 21 times a week. I'm sure good ole Dave would tell me to give up the gym and take my kids out of gymnastics, too, so we can all not exercise and eat cheap processed food and be more like what many Americans look like. But, hey, maybe I'd be debt free and fat by 2015.

Girl time

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1354727/Why-lunch-girls-beats-night-man.html

This article is so true~women friends are awesome and make us feel great. I just shared a much-needed girl's night out with some close friends and it was awesome! We all love our husbands, but sometimes girl time is what you need. Thanks girls.

Seeing Red for V-day

I let my kids dress themselves, which has rendered me criticism for awhile. I really don’t care what other moms think about how my kids are dressed. That they actually have clothes ON is an amazing feat, plus the fact that we are out in public because I have managed to get them out of the house. This is one of my battles to not fight. Even though Maren’s hair usually looks like a rat’s nest, I would take a rat’s nest over a screaming tantrum any day. These same people who say shit about how my daughter is dressed in mis-matched clothes or how her twin brother wears a paper-thin Spiderman costume in the middle of winter are one and the same with the exact look when I say “tantrum”. I realize some children do need a good spanking, but not over what they want to wear that day.

I used to spank, then went off spanking, then spanked again for awhile. Spanking can get out of control fast if the parent is out of control, and that is why I don’t do it anymore. That and the fact that it doesn’t work. Especially if you spank a lot. Blake once had a pre-school director who told me she never spanked with her hands because they were for loving, so she spanked her kids with a kitchen spoon. I’m no shrink, but I did take Psych 101, and that seems a little off to me, just a smidgen. This is the same woman who couldn’t figure out why Blake (at 2 years old) was in time-out everyday, at the feet of a beautiful, heavy-breasted, long-legged, twentysomething blond. Uh-huh.

Back to the spanking. I realized years ago when the twins were babies that I would see red every time Blake did a toddler thing that pissed me off. Once, instead of laying my hands on him (to put him in time-out), I walked away, almost tripped over a kid chair, which I promptly kicked to the wall. Yep, nice chunk out of the wall. Shawn was out of town and has been pretty much ever since, and I decided that something had to change with me (Thank-yew, Thank-yew, Psych 101).

Now I count (like Tinkerbell) and do really crazy shit to calm myself down, such as tell Blake that I am going to be angry if he doesn’t listen. It actually works. One twin gets it, but usually I am too late to talk her down, and by then I have to take an extra 5 minutes to stop the tears if her feelings have been hurt by her bitch of a mother. Yes, 5 minutes to talk to my kid...I could totally have watched a youtube video in that time.

Twin A, on the other hand, is the worst. He doesn’t listen and is unpunishable (like his older brother was at that age). I did put him in time-out the other day and he cried and cried. Then he got up and ALMOST did the same thing AGAIN that I had put him in time-out for. ALMOST. I asked him (not very nicely) if he wanted a repeat and he slunk off, seemingly defeated, but no worse for wear.

My life is stressful enough with my husband gone and about to be gone for an even longer time. Maren walks around town in fushia skirts and camo tights. Haydon doesn’t have shoes on half the time we leave the house. Blake is pretty much self-sufficient, which is good, since he can feed his brother and sister in the morning if I get distracted while watching old ‘glee’ episodes. He’s only 8, but he’s going to have a lot of responsibility when Shawn leaves. I probably do expect too much out of him, but, really, I am raising a man, not a boy. He gets to do plenty of boy things, like stay up until almost 9pm making block robots with his brother. Yes, the third time I climbed the stairs to read the riot act I was seeing red...until I witnessed them creating robots out of legos under the covers (like I wouldn’t be able to hear their hysterical giggles through the comforter). My red anger vision turned to red hearts, like the crack of a whip, as they were silent when they saw me. I tucked them back in, muttering empty threats about losing TV time, since I am a total follow-through-er. As I left the room I heard Haydon say to Blake, “We can just make more robots after school, we don’t need TV.” I smiled all the way downstairs, happy that none of their brain cells have been spanked out with a wooden spoon.

Maren's Valentine's Day outfit she picked out herself

the shirt says "Believe in Love"

she can't read, so I'm sure she picked it b'c of the hearts

My Poor Betsy

A Day in February

Things that happened to me today, not in this particular order:

• Watched a play in a different language that my daughter was in with her class
• Ran a 8:27 min. mile
• Cleaned up dog poop smeared into carpet
• Found out that the judge accepted my excusal for jury duty
• Tried to fix my thermostat, to no avail
• Almost cried on the phone to my oldest child's teacher for being an idiot
• Almost cried to my husband on the phone because the house was freezing and I couldn't get the heat to come on
• Did cry to my husband when I got into a car accident
• Got into a car accident

Everyone is okay with the accident. The van's right side is in pretty bad shape, but no injuries to humans. And, no, I was NOT texting or reading or talking on the phone while driving. Blake actually had my phone in the back, playing a game. Apparently, it is NM law to call an accident in, although according to my insurance company, you don't have to call if no one is injured. Good thing it is drill weekend and my hubby works with a lot of police men. Just a side note, the police officer who came to the house for the report was super nice and nothing at all like those meanies I met 11 years ago when I was arrested.

Accident=bad. Hubby came home early because of accident=good.

The Ugly Truth

I used to bitch and complain about parents who never read the newsletter I sent home, since news would be repeated for weeks at a time and then students would come to school without their book report they were supposed to have been working on for 6 weeks, or not come to school with their party supplies for the Christmas party, on the DAY OF THE PARTY.

Karma is a bitch. Today I am that parent. Blake's Valentine Party is today, this afternoon. I did not send him to school with his valentine's because I misread the newsletter his teacher sent home and just assumed the party was Monday. I have all the supplies to make cards this weekend with all the kids. We've been talking about it all week AND I even talked to Blake's teacher about it on Tuesday, like I COMPLETELY understood what was happening.

What is going to happen when Shawn really leaves? I'll tell you what. All three teachers of my kids will think I am the biggest loser as a parent, because if I can do this shit WITH Shawn in country, wtf will happen with him not?

I DID IT!

Wahoo! I quit facebook! After checking to see how many new responses everyone had today and getting NOTHING done, I finally just quit it!

I feel really good and hope that tomorrow and everyday after that is totally productive!

YES!

I CAN DO THIS!

Today all I did was one measly load of laundry, which I didn't even get put away before my husband came home. I did not clean the kitchen or anything else for that matter. Honestly, I do not know what I did. I know that I took a shower and brushed my teeth and went to the gym. 'Bout it. The rest of the hours of the day were spent creepily staring into the lives of others. I'm done. Shawn came home and could barely get to our bedroom due to the piles of laundry in the hallway. Yep, it's over! I probably still won't be the best housewife, or even a mediocre one, but I'll be a present one. Go team!

UGH!!!

Apparently while Blake and Haydon were playing oh so nicely this afternoon, one of Blake's drawers got broken. Under his bed. The one that is only held together by staples. Seriously? I can't get a straight story and Shawn is pissed.

For punishment, we decided to give Maren the room, just a go, really, to see how she likes it and make Blake squirm. Nada. Haydon was so excited at the prospect of sharing the bunk bed with Blake that he started moving toys, books, and all the shit he could carry.

I explained that this was a trial. Maren understands, and she was read the riot act about taking care of a big girl bed.

Basically, what we thought was punishment backfired. Now, I will be punished because I will have to paint a friggin' girl's room AND a boy's room. Oh, yeah. Haydon was already talking about how he could have monster trucks on his walls and Maren could have "those butterflies". Nice. Real effing nice.

SNOW DAY!!

Per my last post, we have been a tad under the weather. Blake has been the strong one, with many years of immunities! I am just back to feeling like myself and now Shawn is in the doldrums. Ah, winter. No better way to spend sick days at home than with a SNOW DAY!

I did not get any pictures of the beautiful snow in the front because I am a mom of three and am addicted to facebook. Also, I had some stuff I had to get into to Shawn's boss, so, alas, no pictures of outside.

I did, however, get a few pictures inside!

The kids dancing like Gru.

After dancing and some light cleaning, the kids asked me to make play-doh. I totally did. Are you proud?! I did something motherly! I am soooo proud. They played for about an hour and it was awesome.

There was one catalyst. See the creature in the middle of the floor?

Me: Whatever you do, you cannot let Lancelot have any play-doh. It will make him sick.

All kids: OKAY!

Me: What did I say?

Maren: Don't eat play-doh, it's gross.

Haydon: Yeah.

Blake: No, you sillies. Don't feed it to the dog!

Maren: Oh, right.

There is a blue spot (the color of the play-doh) of vomit that I have been trying to get out of the office carpet since this afternoon. He took it like a champ, though. He seems fine.