Nothing to eat?

Things have been tight around here lately, so I have been trying to cut back on the grocery bill. I can't get out of the store for less than $300 when it's a big trip. And when it's a little trip I usually end up with at least $50 worth of stuff. We do eat it all eventually, but I've decided that I need to be better about bargain shopping and coupons, blah, blah. I have been buying less of the pre-packaged junk, mostly because of the size of my behind. If it's in the cabinet, I WILL eat it, so I'm just not gonna buy it anymore. I still keep a few snacks for the kids of course, and I occasionally buy Oreos for Master V, but I really don't eat that stuff so it's okay. I did think it was funny the other day when my husband was complaining about there being nothing in this house to eat. Actually there is plenty, but it's mostly fresh stuff or things you have to actually cook on the stove so it doesn't appeal to him. Gosh, I see what he means. There is NOTHING here to eat! The fridge is pretty empty, but that's just because I just cleaned out all the leftovers that no one ever finished. Sam doesn't seem to have trouble finding things to eat. As a matter of fact, when I came out of the bathroom a little while ago, he was standing on the counter so that he could reach the lollipops. There were a few left over after we did Audrey's class valentines. Sam found them. I thought I put them up high enough that he couldn't reach them. I was wrong. He pushed a chair over there and climbed onto the counter. He had two in his mouth already, another in his hand and had another at the ready, just waiting to be unwrapped. Sugar rush, anyone? I'm sure that's good on his sickly stomach. He started with diarrhea yesterday and then started puking. I'm just waiting for the next kid to start. So much for a Super Bowl party. If we miss out on a party tomorrow, we might all starve to death!

Lazy Daze

The kids and I are having a lazy day today and have decided that we are way too good at this
lazy thing! I was planning on running today, but instead I slept in (if you can call 8:00 sleeping late) and kinda found myself marooned on the couch watching a What Not To Wear marathon. Now it's almost supper time and I still have only accomplished cleaning out the microwave and doing a couple loads of laundry. It still needs to be folded. Go figure. Oh, well. There's always tomorrow, right? I still haven't put a bra on. Sheesh! I AM good at this lazy thing!

Sam's black eye is gone finally. It took about 10 days for it to fade completely. I only had to tell the story a million times, but that's okay. You all know how much I love to repeat myself. He's had this nasty cold lately. Ever since he had RSV last year, when he gets a cold it really settles in to stay. Mainly in his chest. He coughs like an 85 year old smoker. Poor kid. And to add to his misery, last night I was folding clothes and had the coffee table and ottoman pushed together to place my folded piles on. He was trying to come around them with a giant glass of water in his hands (the little thief!) and tripped over the dumbells that were strategically placed directly in his path. I got blamed for that since I had used them earlier, but I put them up against the wall where no one would be walking normally-thank you very much. He whacked his noggin on one of the dumbells and literally dented his head. When he came up screaming I could tell that he was really hurt and saw the dent. Good Lord. It's not dented anymore and I did keep checking on him, especially after he went to bed to make sure that he was okay. He seems fine. THEN, this morning after I stumbled out of bed in my pre-coffee haze I smelled something foul and picked him up to change him. I was trying to get through the passage into the hallway and slammed his head into the wall. I swear. It would be funny if my laughter didn't count against me in the quickly accumulating evidence of my horrible parenting skills. Vince looked at me like I did it on purpose. As if I didn't feel bad enough already. I'm definitely looking into a crash helmet for this kid.

Katie said something funny a while back. I was telling her to go do something and she looked at me and goes, "Mom, can I have a little compassion here?". Yeah, sure kid. Just as soon as you do what you've been told to do. She's been throwing an awful lot of temper tantrums lately. She just falls to her knees weeping like it's the second coming of Christ. Except with a lot more drama. I'm so tired of trying to get through to her. Just another example of my lack of skills. If I try praising her, she doesn't care. If I try punishing her, she doesn't care. If I try taking a toy or fun activity away from her, she doesn't care. I give up. Maybe I should just let Audrey be in charge. She thinks she's the boss anyway. She tried to put Sam in time out today for getting into her stuff. When I brought up the fact that if she had put away her art box after she was done with it, he would not have gotten into it, she looked at me like I was an idiot. Of course that's not the point, silly Mother. I think I may be in way over my head with these 3! And I was having a little case of baby fever earlier this week after holding a sweet tiny little boy at the YMCA! Ha! They don't stay sweet for long. Or little. Audrey has already outgrown the jeans I got for her at the beginning of the school year. Her 6's are too short. Her 6 slims are too slim and her 6x's are too big in the waist and too short in the legs. I gave up and went to our new Goodwill store for some 7's. I love Goodwill. I got 2 pair of jeans, one brand new with the tags still on them and one that look like new, both brand name and super cute for $2.50 each. What a steal! And my son, bless his pretty little black and blue head, is now outgrowing his 2T things. I can't keep up. If he keeps growing like this, he's gonna be 6'7" and 350 pounds by the time he's in Kindergarten. His favorite word right now (besides "NO!") is "cheese". As in, "Woman, I need a string cheese in the next 2 seconds or I'm going to perish of malnutrition. NOW!" Maybe lots of cheese will help stop him up a little. I'm really ready for him to be potty trained. He does sit on the edge and say "potty", but any time I put him up there for real, he freaks out. So, we wait. This morning when I smelled him before I saw him and took him to be changed, the poop had run down into the legs of his jammies. I wonder how long my husband was going to let him stew in his own juices before giving in and either waking me up or actually changing him with his own hands? Maybe that's why he wasn't making the kids be particularly quiet this morning while I was trying to sleep in? Hmmm, thoughts to ponder, people.

Here's another funny from Audrey. We were playing on their Webkinz sites and Audrey was teasing Katie that she gave her pet a funny name. Katie named her monkey Flower. Audrey kept telling her that wasn't a real name. You wanna know what Audrey named her Webkinz? It's a dragon named-what else?-Dragony Dragon. LOL! She didn't like me much when I pointed out the fact that Katie's name was probably closer to a "real" name than hers was. I'm laughing just picturing her face! Soooo not looking forward to the teenage years!

One thing I know...

...life is never boring at our house. We've had a little excitement here. One day in particular will live in infamy. The day started out well. We actually got Audrey to school on time with little fuss. I came home and ran on the treadmill and then got everyone ready to go out. Picked up Audrey and headed for Target. It was lunchtime and the kids were STARVING so we went to McDonald's for lunch. The playland was closed for remodeling so we had to sit way in the back of the restaurant. I asked Audrey to watch Sam for me while I went to grab our food. I was filling up my drink when I heard a scream and then wailing. It was Sam of course. I ran back there and Audrey was holding an extremely upset and red-faced baby. People were staring. I grabbed him and sat down trying to calm him. I thought he was just upset because I walked away. Then I saw his eye. His entire left eyebrow was one huge lump and it was white. His cheek was mottled red with one white area extending down from the lump. He was still screaming at the top of his lungs and people were still staring so I told everyone to pack it up and get back in the car. I was worried about this nasty bump, so I drove to the Urgent Care Clinic while calling Vince to explain what was happening. I asked Audrey how it happened. She said Sam was standing on the bench seat and she was holding onto the back of his shirt. He was crying because she wouldn't let go, so she did. He stumbled forward and fell face first onto the tile floor. OMG! After a few jokes from the nurse--who apparently recognized us. Never a good sign.--we saw the doctor who thought that there was no concussion or serious injury, just a nasty black eye for a while. Boy, was he right! The first picture is from the day it happened and the last 2 are from 2 days later.


He must have hit his head hard! Poor thing! So, we got home and I put the kids down for their nap. I took one too. When I woke up, I went to Sam's room to check on him and couldn't get in his door. He had locked it. And it requires a key to get in. I tried every key in this house. No go. By this time, he had woken up and was quite upset. Vince walked in the door as I was reaching for a steak knife to try and pry it open. Nope. Then I tried a credit card. Nope. Vince tried. Nope. It came down to either breaking down the door or calling a locksmith. We went with the locksmith. Cheaper in the long run. He ended up having to drill out the lock while Sammy screamed. Finally! It was a long day. This kid is either going to kill me with worry or drive me to drink. Vince says if we have to take him to the ER again, they're going to start questioning us! My mother-in-love just reminds me that Vince and his brother had reserved seats in their hometown ER. I'm not kidding. They had their names on them. So, I guess it just runs in the family. He's all boy and chicks dig scars, right?

Ode to my son

My boy. My little man. Growing so fast. I can't believe how much you've grown already. It breaks my heart and makes my heart sing at the same time. You are such a boy and I love it. Trucks, dinos, balls, cars all littering my house. It's such a change from the girliness that we've been living in for so long. When you growl or roar or putter it makes me laugh. I love when I ask for a kiss and you pucker up a mile away, walk all the way over to plant one on me and then at the last minute stop and say "nooo" through your puckered lips. I could do without all the poopy diapers, but it's part of you, so I'll take it. At least we are recycling those plastic sacks. I love that you are a mama's boy and run to Daddy with open arms until you spot me and then run right past him into my arms. I'm secretly jealous on those days when Daddy gets more attention than I do. I wait with baited breath for those little toothy grins that you sometimes bless us with. I love your little cotton candy hair when you wake up and your duck tail curls after your bath. I like playing stinky feet with you just to hear your deep, hearty belly laugh. I enjoy seeing how fiercely protective your sisters are of you and how much you love them for it. It cracks me up that you start hollering for Audrey if I'm not responding quickly enough. Poor thing, you'll probably never have any alone time in your entire life if we women have anything to say about it! I love how when you point at something with your pudgy little finger, it's usually so sticky that it has fuzz all over it no matter how many times I wash your hands. I may complain about some of the things you and your sisters do, but know that I love you so very much and I cherish every moment that I have with you, my son. I'm so happy you're mine.

Home, sweet, home

Back to the grind. Loud children trapped inside a very messy house that's not nearly big enough when it's -11 outside. How did my house get so messy so fast? It's insane how fast it goes from picked up to tornado-ish. We've been home for 2 days and it already looks like vagrants have moved in. At least my neighbors didn't have to call the cops this time. When we were gone to Denver for Thanksgiving, my neighbors thought they saw something suspicious in our house so they called the police to come check it out. He had just had all of his stuff stolen out of his car, so I don't blame him for calling just in case. Anyway, they came over and he let them in with his key. The place was trashed. Stuff everywhere. It looked like the place had been tossed! Then my neighbor just explained that our house always looks like that. There was nothing amiss, thank God. I'm just embarrassed. I could make a statement along the lines of--I will never let my house look like that again so that I don't have to be embarrassed again. But we all know it would be a lie. So I won't bother. I'm not fooling anyone. I recover from my shame pretty quickly.

I should be unpacking right now since I still have bags that have not been touched since Vince brought them in from the car, but this is much more fun and way more cathartic. Also, my kids have things from Christmas that they haven't had a chance to play with yet, so they are just out everywhere until they play with it a few times and then we find a place to stuff it. Most of their new stuff stays packed in the car until we get home so that we are not losing pieces along the way. We got home late Wednesday and jumped right into school and YMCA on Thursday so they literally have not been able to play much at all. We had a great time though. We got to see V's brother, his wife and their daughter and his parents, then we headed south to Texas until we were stopped by the blizzard in El Reno, OK just outside of Oklahoma City. It was nasty. Who would have thought that we'd go south to get into cold weather? We were forced to stop over Christmas Eve. By the morning, the hotel was full with other stranded motorists. Vince tried to go across the street to get us some food for lunch, dinner, and breakfast, but he couldn't even make it that far. We were told that there was one Chinese restaurant still delivering, the crazy bastards!, so we ordered LOTS of food before it was too late. Fa, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra, ra!! I would post the one picture that I got to take before my camera died of my kids waking up on Christmas morning in the hotel, but I haven't seen my camera since then. I'm sure it's here somewhere. Then we had to wait until later the next morning to leave because the interstates were still closed in some places and were horribly messy. We saw over 100 cars in the ditches along the way and could only travel below 45 MPH the entire trip. It was awful. But we finally made it and were able to spend some time with my parents and brothers and their kids and all my mom's siblings and children. It was really nice. Then we headed back to Oklahoma to see V's sister and nephew that we haven't seen in at least 2 years. We also spent some time with his Uncle and his family at the family farm and met up with his cousin and wife at one of our favorite restaurants in Canadian, TX. Here's my shameless plug--if you're ever out that way you HAVE GOT TO STOP THERE! It's called The Cattle Exchange. Their ribeyes are to die for. www.cookya.com is the website. I was also able to spend some time with good friends that I went to high school with and some people that I used to work with at Northwestern Oklahoma State University. All in all it was a nice holiday for us, aside from the weather that blew in. When we got home, we immediately started shoveling because there were 4' drifts blocking in his work truck. Ugh! It's been so cold everywhere it seems like. Even my parents said that it's supposed to get down to 4 degrees tonight down there. V and I are a little tired of all this cold. Maybe it's time for a move south?

Of course, we all ended up with a stomach bug. It never fails. When we travel someone ends up puking. At least this time it wasn't in the car. 4 of us woke up one morning with stomach troubles and that night, the kids all started with it. I think Vince was the only one who escaped unscathed, but that just meant that he was the chosen one to watch all the kids, including the visiting niece. Let me tell you, he was NOT happy! Luckily it was just a 24 hour thing. I almost wish it would have lasted a little longer. I needed to purge a few more of these holiday pounds that are following me around! I said almost, okay? I'll just get back into my workout routine to get rid of these hitchhikers. I don't think that Chelada that I just downed is going to help though. Maybe I'm a lost cause. I did do my new workout video today. It's the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Boot Camp video. They're good. Talk about motivation! I would do squats until my legs fell off if my ass would look like that when I was done. Wow. My problem is not the working out part surprisingly. It's the eat-it-all-until-it's-gone part that I can't make myself give up. I inherited that from my dad. We eat anything. And we eat it until it's all gone. Even if it's something that we don't really like. I need a food counselor!

So, I have a funny story about Katie and my nephew Grayson. They were playing and Katie said to Grayson, "Hey, you wanna chase me?" But in Katie-speak it sounded a lot like, "Hey, you wanna taste me?" So he did. He licked her face and then looked up with a huge grin! She just stood there with a look that said, "Uhhhh, what just happened?" It was too funny! Grayson is one busy little boy. He wears me out just watching him. I told Vince that I hoped Sam was not that busy and he replied that he already is. He's right. It's just that Grayson is bigger and able to get into more stuff. Gee, I can't wait!

Well, the kids are in bed and I think I will go watch some mindless TV for a while before I hit the hay too. My bed is the warmest thing in this house. The heater can't seem to keep up when it's so cold out. Time to snuggle in! Goodnight.

Vacay

Well, we made it! Back to Oklahoma and man is it warm here. I was outside today in my capris and a t-shirt with no shoes and it felt nice. My kids were able to run freely without being bundled up like little snowmen. We did the trip differently this year and left the night before, drove for a few hours, stopped to sleep and the trip the next day was much, much more managable. I hate that 14 hour drive. Too long. It was nice that we broke it up a little. And now we have been warmly welcomed at Grandma and Grandpa's house where I can ignore my children more than usual because Grandma is here. I love it! Oh, and I am in a much better mood than I was the last time I posted. Sorry bout that. I guess I was just having one of those days. I am especially happy because my Cowboys beat the New Orleans Saints last night. It was a nail-biter there at the end, but they pulled it off. We needed it. Whew! You should have seen my happy dance! It was a doozy.

There was little to no excitement for the trip down for which I am extremely thankful. The only time I got a little flustered was when my children had to pee at some dinky, filthy, convenience store bathroom. There was no changing table of course so I was trying to change Sam standing up and the diaper broke. Audrey was already on the potty and Katie was unbuttoning her pants, so I ran out to the car to grab another diaper quick. When I got back, Sam was standing in the corner with his pants around his ankles peeing into the middle of the floor. Geez! Then Audrey freaked out about how gross this was and how she didn't want to accidentally step in it on the way to wash her hands. She had a little meltdown which created a tiny furor amongst all of us lukcy enough to be trapped together. By the time Vince knocked on the door to make sure we were okay, I was ready to bite someone's head off. Namely, his. It was his fault after all, right? We finally made it out of the bathroom and back on the road without further incident.

When we arrived, Grandma brought out an early gift for Sam. One of those little push-around popper toys. You know the ones. They should have been outlawed many years ago, but for some reason continue to exist, much to the delight of grandparents who love to exact revenge on their children. I'm going to be sure to take that to my Dad's house, who used to go crazy over those stupid toys when I was a kid because of all the racket my brothers and I made with ours. This is the same man who used to get together with his cousins and friends and a few beers and bet on which animal the see-n-say would stop on. "The cow says, Moooooooooo." Which sounds like a pretty good idea now that I have kids and our beer pong table has long since been put away. Shoot, any kind of activity that involves adult beverages sounds like a winner to me. I think there's some rum upstairs and some diet coke too. Anyone in?

Have a Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year too. We'll get together later to melt down all those popper toys when I get back home.

Poor Crock Pot

I killed my Crock-Pot today. I'm such a bird-brain sometimes. Got the roast all set to go, plugged it in, turned it on, and walked away. About an hour later I went to warm something in the microwave and noticed that something had flipped the breaker. That happens a lot with the microwave. If I try to use it at the same time as something else, it pops the breaker. The problem was that I hadn't used the microwave so something else had popped it. I looked at the Crock-Pot and it was off so I investigated and found that I had apparently gotten the cord stuck between the crock and the outside wall and it melted through the cord. Ruined my nice, big Crock-Pot, dangit. I loved that thing. I finished the roast in the oven. It turned out pretty good, if a little dry.

We are getting ready for our annual trip to Oklahoma and Texas for the holidays. I'm ready, but I'm not. It just takes so much out of us to travel that far. I'm really not looking forward to the drive. Sam gets really upset because he's a little monkey and hates to be strapped down. He just screams sometimes and there's nothing I can do but listen. The girls do a little better, especially now that they each have their own DVD player. Not to mention the amount of money that it takes to get us there and back. We are a little strapped right now. We just had so much happen all at once that it really took any extra that we had. At least we had that extra I guess. We'd be that much more behind if we hadn't. But I promised my mom. She's hosting for all of her siblings and their kids. There will be lots of people there. Some that I haven't seen in a while. We are trying to buy a camper before we get down there so that we don't have to stay in a hotel. I did just say we were broke, didn't I? The camper we are looking at is a small, 15 year old toy hauler. The amount that we pay for a hotel will just about pay for a third of the camper. And we do like to camp, so we would use it quite a bit. Anyway, we'll see if we end up getting it.

Not much else going on lately. Just getting ready for Christmas. I was done buying gifts early, so I feel ahead of the game a little bit. The problem with that is, I see stuff that I know the kids would like and want to get it, but have to keep reminding myself that I am done and they don't need anything else. I want to buy things because they are on sale and because there are so many kids that don't have anything and I want to get them things too. I can't afford to keep buying things just to give them away, but I can't help it sometimes.

Katie told Vince the other day that her left hand was allergic. As in, her right hand was hurting, but she couldn't finish because her left hand is allergic. Oookay. She has said many more hilarious things, but I can't remember them of course. She's so dramatic. Sheesh! I can hardly stand another complete and total temper tantrum over nothing. Ridiculous. She's having another as I type. Over clothing. She was dressed, now she's not for some unknown (even to her, apparently) reason and I asked her to get dressed again because she has AWANA tonight. Insert meltdown here--"But I'm TI-EHRD." Yeah, me too kid. Me too. I'm really not in the mood. I'm really close to just putting them to bed right now and skipping AWANA and taking out these STUPID, BARKING, PEEING ON MY JUST-CLEANED-CARPET $#^@^$% BEAGLES with my bare hands!!! Can you tell I'm not in a good mood? Maybe I should stop for now. I think there's some ice cream in the freezer calling my name. Actually, AWANA sounds pretty good right now. 2 hours without 2 of my kids. Yeah, I'm all about that at this point. I wonder if they take beagles?