this is for Jen

mainly because she is likely the ONLY human being that is checking this anymore.  What can I write about and what can I say…..

For starters I will tell you some things the kiddos are doing…

Ethan loves cold arms…yep, cold arms.  I have to wear tank tops at night because if I don’t he stretches out all of my long sleeve shirts trying to get to my cold arms.  He just lays his face on them….It is sweet (and sometimes annoying) Picture this I am cooking dinner and I have a four year old pulling on me to bend down so he can reach my cold arms.  Funny.  (but like I said sometimes annoying)

Reagan’s birthday is Friday….she is three….yep, three.  Did you forget Jen? 

Mom is making her a barbie doll cake the full gown kind with the doll parts at the top….(It looks like a real doll with a cake ball gown on) Reagan wants a ballerina cake….hope she is happy with this one, of course if she isn’t she will let us know. 

It hit me the other day that I am a mom….of preschoolers….the baby era is gone….the toddler era is days from being erased……..funny thing is I think I love them more now (which is hard to imagine) but they are so much fun.

Sorry Jen, this is the best  I got… I will keep this up and soon I will be full of it for you. 

good stuff

I know, I know.  Blog much lately.  Anyway needless to say my life has not been in the normal category for awhile.  However, with that said……I wanted to share this email I got from my baby sis.  She works in a very big city at a place that is male dominated.  She lives far from home and I miss her terribly (you will totally understand why when you read this)

Ready…..here goes.

I don’t feel like I’m good at being a girl.  I mean, I think I used to be good at it… I was in a sorority for Christ’s sake!  I’m so sick of having to act like a woman and work w/women.  Is it just me?  I don’t think I’m a dyke or anything… just not sure why I struggle at this.  

In the past two weeks I have had it out with two different female vendors and I’m convinced it’s b/c I didn’t start my email w/”Hey!  Hope your day is going well.” and end it w/”Merry Christmas!”  No.  I refuse.  The bitch messed up so I cut the fluff and told ‘em that.  Both of them, instead of acknowledging they dropped the ball and that I’m the unsatisfied client, tried to get pissy w/me!  Really?!  You wanna do this?!  I freakin’ bitch slapped ‘em both w/so many facts proving they’re dumbasses.  (I’m also convinced that if a male client sent the exact same email I sent… there would have been an effort to make good… not get emotional.) 

Whatever.

I guess what got me going today is that I just heard one of my Engineer’s in the hall make a comment about how the “last girl used to take care of us.”  (They gave out calendars a couple weeks ago and apparently I failed to pick up enough for them.)  I also used to hear about the “last girl used to bring in cupcakes every week.”  You know what, screw that, screw all of that.  I am not your mom.  I have absolutely no desire to win people over by giving them stuff.  I do not get paid to wipe your ass… I have a job and I do my job.  

I get it though, it’s a nice gesture, but I don’t see them complaining about their supervisor not picking up calendars or the director not baking cupcakes… no… it’s b/c I’m a woman and apparently that comes w/the territory.  I have to do my job- just like you- but you EXPECT me to spend my days running around the arena in heels picking up whatever free stuff I find around the building FOR YOU and my evenings putting frosting on baked goods!!!

Bite me.

Do you think there’s any room on WordPress for this cute little blog?  =)

Love you.  Thanks for listening.

Yes Jenni, this lil’ blog is totally WordPress material.  I love you too!

wanted to share

I liked this.  (If there is anybody still coming here to look) 

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.

Helen Keller
US blind & deaf educator (1880 – 1968)

update

I know I disappeared for a while and to be honest it may happen again.  (just a little FYI)  

On another note, look what I recieved today by email. This preschool is so wonderful!  I can’t even tell you how great it is and Ethan’s teacher is honest to goodness the best (as you will see in the following email)

Thank you so much for working with Ethan on drinking water. I really appreciated your support. I gave him just a small amount of water w/his snack and he drank it right away. Later I asked him if he would like some more and he said, “Yes please.” I couldn’t help but take a picture! Please tell him once again, that I am so proud of him and that I am glad he is giving his body what it needs to stay healthy.

here is the pic that she sent along with it. 

and I know you are dying to know the story on this.  Okay, my little guy is stubborn.  He refuses to drink water.  Only juice.  At school he gets water with his snack.  Ethan refused to drink it for 3 weeks. he didn’t care that he had been outside playing and was hot.  He didn’t care that he didn’t get to play until he took one sip.  He didn’t care that he didn’t get to do arts and crafts.  He wasn’t touching it.  Well the WONDERFUL teacher asked us to help her because it was breaking her heart, but she had to stick by her rules.  So after one day of nothing to drink but water ( eric and I did this to him) he caved.  and now he will drink it at school…….no where else, but he will school. 

get that paper bag handy

okay, it just hit me……

next week is my last full week with my little boy before he kisses toddlerhood goodbye and says hello to pre-school……………..

for the love of everything that is holy……….I CAN’T BREATHE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok you are laughing. I am okay with that.  I understand that this may be insane to you.  Let me paint a little picture for you.  Pre-baby I worked.  To say that I loved that work is an understatement.  I LOVED the people I worked with and for.  I was even climbing the ladder so to speak.  Then came baby boy.  My world did a 180.  Seriously.  I quit my job (that was hard).  I couldn’t do it.  I couldn’t leave that little boy.  I know and understand that pretty much every mom feels that way, but I didn’t have the strength to beat it.  Some may say that it borders on insane.  (as you are witnessing here)  I am good with dropping them off or leaving them for a couple of hours.  It’s all good.  Until I don’t know the person and I can’t call and check in on occassion.  Well, I guess technically I could, but you have to ask yourself are you willing to be THAT mom. Fortunately for Ethan, I am not.  (but I still have opportunity to change my mind at any time) 

One week and the path begins……the path of, mom can no longer control everything.  What’s next?  Getting a Porshe and driving off into the sunset into some faraway college.  Seriously, where did I put that paper bag…..I can’t breathe again…

ok, breathe in.  Breath out. 

just one question.  how did this

turn into this

so fast?

***and if that doesn’t bring a tear to your eye……you are stone cold……………..

look mommy a gator!!!

okay when you first hear those words you may be a little jumpy especially if you watch Bindi the Jungle Girl as much as we do.  But when you turn your head to see what your lil’ boy is pointing at…….you see this….

you remember that you need to slow down.  You need to take some time to stop and look at the clouds.  You never know what you might find.

just call me Ms. Greenthumb

Okay the title is a little misleading, but I did tell Eric what plants I wanted and where…..so that counts right?  I thought so. 

Anyway, on our back deck where the stairs are I wanted climbing roses…..and lookie here

they are so pink that they hurt your eyes a little, don’t they?  I love them, there are about 7 roses right now….and then there is the ivy on the porch.  honestly I can’t take all the credit (to be honest I don’t know if it is really ivy or not), but I did tell Eric I wanted a plant that hung over the edge and grew real full….VOILA!

and just because here is a pic of the kiddos, doing what they love to do…..watching bugs…..sometimes I wonder who these children really belong to……..but nonetheless they take cute pictures.

I actually made something

I know did you just spit your tea, coke, or water all over the computer screen?

Seriously, I use to love scrapbooking.  i loved everything about it.  Then one day…….I stopped.  I lost it.  I lost any desire to do it.  I still take pictures.  I still write down the stories in a journal (on in the photo album) but as for making something with them….it just hasn’t been in me.

Now on that note, when you see what I made.  #1 don’t laugh.  #2 it doesn’t involve pictures.  I have recently been obsessed with decorating our living room (cost effectively) in a nice way.  To put it mildly, I was extremely embarrassed to have people come in my house. It was bad………now not so much.  I really like it. 

Anyway, as I mentioned I am doing it as cost effectively as I can.  If you can think back, you will remember my post of my Goodwill furniture and the painting that we did of our old furniture.  So I had inspiration on Friday and after talking with Gretchen I decided it was good.  (gretchen it is not the phrases we discussed….the words were too big, and I didn’t have the right rub-ons)

This is what I put together

and this is what it looks like from the front….I think I hung them a tad bit too high… it is bothering me to no end….but Eric says, “get over it, I am NOT putting more holes in the wall.”

So I am working on getting over it……….I have a feeling, I will be grabbing a hammer and some wall putty soon

that vase with the sticks looks way darker than it actually is…it has a rust color to it….it is cool, I got that and the sticks on clearance at Wal-Mart…….pretty cool for Wal-Mart, huh? and those pictures are not my fav’s but I put them there in an attempt to get over the fact that I hung those frames too high……ps those are my dollar store frames………..seriously, I could own a million of them!!! Is it just me?

the orange wall is still in progress, when it is 100% I will share that too……

9 years today

yep I am quickly approaching the world of, ‘old married woman.’  Today is the day that I married this guy. I know! Isn’t he the LUCKIEST guy in the world?!

Nine years.  WOW, it honestly seems like we were just teenagers hanging out with our friends, riding around and having a few drinks…..come on, I live in small town USA like it or not that is what happened back in the day.  (Notice I say back in the day because the mere thought of my children doing some of the things that I have done in the forementioned small town makes me grab for that brown paper bag)  Anyway, I digress.  We have been together since I was 17.  I didn’t like him at first.  I went out with him as a favor to my bestest friend……so she wouldn’t have to go on a date alone with his friend.  Who knew?  We have been together ever since……

He is pretty terrific and I wouldn’t change a thing except maybe those LONG stories he tells.

could’ve, should’ve, would’ve

I think if I should have thought things through a little more in college.  I didn’t want to be a doctor, nurse or pharmacist…..come on, have you seen how much math and chemistry those courses took?  It was not my thing…..

wanna know how I picked out my major….I chose the most interesting classes with the least amount of math and chemistry………

now I am a mom, and would give my left toe (pick one, I don’t care) to have the skills and the knowledge of the above mentioned professions…….seriously

my little guy has poison ivy.  no big deal in the scheme of things. I understand this.  However, I got to thinking of my some of my lucky friends who became nurses and that one brilliant pharmacist and I was envious.  As I was trying to sort through the cremes and medicines that the doctor prescribed and dealing with a sad face of that little three year old.  I was lost.  I didn’t know how to make it better other than do what the doctor, nurse and pharmacist said to do.  And then the ‘what if this happens’, or ‘what if that happens’…..and you know it did……..but it was a holiday……so I really wish I had planned ahead a little more.  oh well….thank goodness that I have friends that did think ahead, cause I will be calling on them.