Thanks for the memories

My head is buzzing this evening, and not from any alcoholic induced state. I just feel as if time has flown by and my head and body are trying to play catch up with each other. This summer, although not too uneventful since I did have a nice little trip to Vegas last week, has really not been that joyful for me and the kids. I did have a great time today over at Melessa's house with our kids and friends, except for my littlest taking a bite out on her littlest. I think that is why I am all spaced. Time flew by so fast. I feel as if the friends I saw today I have known forever and will always know, but I am on the outside looking in. I am in such a daze as to what is really going on in everyone's lives. Being friends, they try to clue me in where they last left off, but I am so busy with my family's personal needs that I do not remember where we were last sometimes. I am not one for chit-chatting on the phone. I would really like to do this and I have tried with friends of mine in the past, but I know that the other party on the line does not enjoy hearing children screaming in the background nor hearing the constant interruptions being made as I try to have a social life on a telephone. I try typing, but generally I am only able to get on right before bed and my thoughts are not always the most coherent at this time. I am very thankful for facebook allowing me the opportunity to have glimpses of my friends in their daily lives, but this is again being on the outside looking in. I enjoy, more than anything, the personal face time I have with my friends. Every time we meet, I know I need more and more of this time. It is never enough for me. Thank you girls for trying to include me in the group, although for many, many years I have just been a bystander.

Caught in a conundrum

Jeez it has been a long time since I have written anything on this site. I look back and wonder why? I know why. Partly it is because I was feeling lazy, partly because I really didn't have anything to say and I didn't want to write anything that was negative, and partly because I was too dang tired. I would stay awake a lot of evenings, but find myself on facebook or playing mindless games because I just needed relief from my day-to-day actions with my children. The wee hours of the morning would be the time I would find myself finally being able to relax and I didn't want to spend my evenings reflecting anymore or writing about my daily chores. I just wanted to be done.

So, a quick update from my last post (which was who knows when), my baby has been baptized, had a birthday, and has cut another tooth. My oldest son's t-ball team scored 4th out of 31 teams. Pretty dang good for his first year of city league. I was happy for him, and happy that he was excited about the 4th place. The games were sometimes too intense, and I would find my husband reminding himself that his son is only 5 years old. This is not professional ball. Let them have fun! My daughter is still being a silly little girl, getting into my makeup, coloring her body and bathroom floor, and begging to do ballet (along with gymnastics and soccer). She is socially becoming a terror. She knows who is weak and is bossing them around school, getting other kids into trouble, while looking all sweet and innocent. A major manipulator. I am really trying hard to figure out how to break this habit before she starts Pre-K this fall.

Right now, we are in the middle of swim lessons. I signed the kids up for the last 2 sessions at Westwood and I am amazed at how much they are doing now. We have another 2 weeks to go, but part of me is tired of going swimming every night for 1-2 hours. Yes, the lessons are only 30 minutes, but we go earlier and stay a little later to get some extra practice time in. It is just wearing me out, as we do not have an evening meal. We snack before and after swimming. This is definitely not helping me maintain a diet.

Finally, I have basically started typing again today because I am so frustrated with my husband, my Dad, and my family. I love them all, but I cannot make them all happy. The problem is that my Dad has Parkinson's and is going in for the first of three surgeries the first week in August. This is the part of the deep brain stimulus where they drill the holes into the skull, add the electrodes, and thread the wires down his neck. Yes, it is a scary procedure. Yes, it will take 6-8 hours, but the good thing is that he should only be in the hospital for 1-2 days after the procedure.

But then there is my husband. He is wanting a vacation of just the 2 of us. He wanted to take me somewhere over New Year's, but after looking at various places, he was not happy with the prices he was seeing. Of course it is more expensive, it is the holiday season. So the opportunity has arisen the first week in August. The older two kids will be with his parents, the baby will just be starting daycare, that means that the children will be cared for during the day. The catch - we would have to leave the day after dad's surgery and come back 6 days later.

I am so torn. My Dad, of course, wants me there the whole time with him while he is recovering. He is scared and very anxious about this first procedure. He gathers everyone around him when he gets like this and I totally understand and get it. IF anything went wrong, I would want my family with me as well. We are prepared for this, it is called travel insurance. I would have no qualms about not being able to go, if it meant that my Dad really needed me there. But, there is my husband. I married him to love and support. He is really wanting to go on a vacation and has been obsessed with Disney World ever since we got back in February. He has been planning out this whole thing, arranging care for the kids, he just forgot that Dad's surgery was the same time. Thus, the leaving the day after the surgery. He is understanding and willing to stay home as well if there is a need. He feels that this is also an elective surgery, not life or death. True. This is a procedure by choice because Dad is at the end of relief that the medicine can provide for him. Dad didn't get to pick the surgery date, the doctor did. Jeff's parent's also picked the time that they were best available for taking the older two kids for a trip. If his parents could take the kids the 2nd week in August, then there would be no problem, but we do not have that option. I want to go on the trip. I want to be with my Dad. I really want to spend time with my husband, but I feel responsible for supporting my father.

In the end, I see my future as being I will be wearing myself out trying to see my Dad as much as possible before the surgery. I'll spend all day at the hospital with him until I am kicked out. Then I'll go with my husband to make him happy, while sneaking calls back home. I'll also go and see Dad the day after we return. Also note, that my older kids will be so disappointed that we went again without them, that we will be buying some pretty big guilt gifts for leaving them behind. I've got enough guilt going on about this whole thing, I have filled a cauldron.

OK... I'm done with this tantrum.

Fashionista

I do not know where my daughter gets it from, but she is a little fashionista. I seriously think that my sister was meant to have 2 daughters, and I was meant to have 3 boys. But somewhere in the chaos of the universe, I have one of her daughters and she has one of my sons. My sister and niece love to shop, do girly things, and LOVE shoes. My daughter loves to shop, is a major girly-girl, and LOVES shoes. The only problem is I think my daughter was born a couple of decades too late, as she is the epitomy of "Punky Brewster" (minus the striped leggings and high tops). But she does her best with the items she has. As the pictures depict so well. (Note on Picture on the Left: It is hard to see in this shot, but she is wearing her pink and white Cowboys jersey, pink/white tie-dyed shorts, and white stockings with pink/red hearts along the sides. At least she was trying to stay in the same color palette)

The Pink Room

The Pink Room. It makes me think of an upside down strawberry ice cream cone. God I hate it. But my daughter loves it. I do not think it matters what shade of pink you choose, it will probably always seem to come out reminding me of Pepto-Bismal. Ugh.

What Mother's Day?

No - really, I did have a Mother's Day. It is just a day that both my DH and I wish would disappear. Well, the bad parts anyways.

Not only was it Mother's Day, but it was my DH's birthday as well. Now how do you go about celebrating that? You can argue that he gets Father's Day too - well, I have a birthday as well. So, we looked at where we could compromise. He got to play golf all day on Saturday with his buddies (and I mean all day - gone from 7am to almost 9pm). He got to sleep in a little on Sunday (I was up at 5:45am with the baby, he was up at 7:45am). Don't worry - my birthday is this month as well and I will get to sleep in on my day (on Father's Day, DH plays golf and is gone at the crack of dawn).

We met my Mom and Step-Dad for lunch. This was one of the best parts of the whole day - it was a really delicious and relaxing meal. The unfortunate thing is that when DH was getting dressed for lunch, he realized the carpet in the closet was wet. The ball valve in our closet had somehow split along the brass. Now how this happened, even he doesn't have a clue and he is a plumber. So he turns off the water, stops up the area with towels, and we go to lunch. It wasn't until we stopped off at Home Depot after lunch that he was kicking himself for not shutting the water off at the main because the ball valve would probably still be leaking from the brass. And it was. I don't blame him for this plumber's error. He was in a rush to try to get out for our lunch reservation.

1 1/2 hours later, a new ball valve is on, along with a larger hole in my closet, the carpet and padding is completely ripped out and in the garage and my DH and I had about 15 minutes to get ready for the babysitter as we had a date night at the Warren Theater in the balcony for dinner and a movie. We saw Star Trek and consumed large amounts of adult beverages. That was a great ending to our day.

It is now 5 days later and my slab in the closet is finally dried (yes, it was that wet). Now I am wondering how many Mother's Days will come and go before the numerous holes in my bathroom and closet are patched and painted, as well as re-flooring the closet? I never blogged last month about the 3 other holes that DH had to cut into the sheetrock in our bathroom because a screw rusted out on our shower valve and was leaking into our closet. After two soakings, you can now understand why the carpet had to go.

Already 1/3 and more of the way done

Where has the time gone? We are already into the middle of May! Can you believe that a little more than 1/3 of 2009 is already come and gone? I feel as if time has moved too fast and I have missed something. I do not know when I even posted my last blog. So, here is a quick update of things.

Nine more schools days and my children are free (well, sort of) for summer. I am diligently trying to get activities scheduled for them, so that I can try to have some time for me. I am determined to get some scrapbooking and knitting done, so that when I do start back to work, I feel as if I have got something accomplished for myself. Selfish, I know, but a much needed time to release my creativity and work my brain.

As it is, JT is doing t-ball in the evenings until the end of June. That is if the rain doesn't keep canceling his games so that the league has to reschedule them for 9pm or later. Why the league thinks it is okay, or even appropriate, to schedule 5/6 year-olds for this time I do not know. But hey, they are not the ones having to deal with the tired, cranky kids the next morning. JT is going to be doing gymnastics again this summer. We had the opportunity to do a Level 4 Rec at Bart Conner's, but that is more for kids who are looking at gymnastics being their main sport of focus. JT wants to still try and play everything, so we are putting him in Beginner Boy's. Now to decide if he will do it for 1 or 2 days a week. He is also signed up for 2 days at Gymboree for play and activity time, and swimming in July.

KD is doing Gymboree and swimming with her brother, her gymnastics is 1 time a week, and now we are looking at adding dance. If we do not get her into dance this summer, she will definitely be starting it this fall. She is an active little girl, but not as high energy as her brother, so she has the lighter schedule.

Ry-Ry will now be referred to as Bulldozer, or Dozer for short. That is because that is all he does is just plow through everything and get into everything. He is a constant little man in motion, but thankfully not walking or running without assistance. He can toddle while holding onto one finger, but he knows he can book it on all fours and still prefers this mode (unless he is cruising around holding onto the furniture). I have yet to figure out a place for him. It would be ideal to have him in a MDO program the 2 days the kids are in Gymboree, so that I can work in my DH's office, or get things done sans kiddos. But then again, I will probably be driving a kid here, driving another one there, and not having anytime to myself. So, unless something just falls on my lap with him, I guess he and I will be cruising the streets together (and caging him in his playpen when I do need to fold laundry).

I hope to have updates over the summer of fun activities, sayings, and events. As it is, my biggest excitement is this Sunday. I am going to go to Kayne's house for a "Fashion with Heart" event. I am a whirlwind of emotions. I really support Go Red for Women and the American Heart Association, since my Sorority's Philanthropy is for Cardiac Care and Research. But the biggest buzz is that it is at his house! Now what to wear? What to wear? What to wear? Dang - I've got to get into my closet, get dressed up, take a picture, change, take a picture, etc. till I find the right outfit. Too bad my birthday hasn't already come along so that I would have new clothes. Too bad either that I haven't lost all of my baby weight. Oh well - this fat mama, will just have to be a sassy mama instead!

I hate spring... not really but it's not good for my family

It's spring in Oklahoma..... that means anything goes. It could be freezing in the morning, then sweltering in the evening. You can have beautiful, clear skies with warm weather, and a severe thunderstorm and/or tornado that night.

I love the constant change of spring weather in Oklahoma, but what I do not like is its effects on the animal life. Primarily, the life of insects and arachnids. When the flies and gnats start swarming early in spring, a blessed cold front to kill them off is always a plus. But when the weather starts turning warmer and wetter, the nastiest spiders seem to creep into my house and take shelter in my son's room. Of course, it would be his room because he is the one that is allergic to everything. You know, it is like the theory of cats. Cats only want to cuddle with the people they know despise them the most. The same seems to be true of the brown recluse spider that is better known as the fiddleback spider.

If you know me, I completely despise spiders. I do respect them, especially those that are beneficial to a gardener like the Daddy Long Legs. But since I do not garden, I prefer all those that enter my house to be dead. Especially, when they are hanging around above my son's bed.

He was already bitten once by a fiddleback last year. Of course, it was in his bedroom. The bite started off looking like a little pimple, but within a few hours it got larger, pussier, and by the next day started pitting in the middle. It was healed within a week, but not something anyone wants to see or have their 4-year-old experience.

His room is not a mess. In fact, he is the one that is most likely to have his room organized (including his closet). Everything has a place in his room and he will tell you where things go. It just so happens that his room is the only one that stays dark all day long and maintains the same constant temperature. It is the perfect environment for the fiddleback spider.

I called and left a message with the pest control company that we use late last night. They called me before hours this morning and I am expecting them come Monday. Hopefully, it will be a one and done treatment to protect his space, but if not, at least I am not charged for everytime they have to come and spray.