They Should ALL Have An Off Switch

I've been at my parents house for over a week now and every morning my kids are up before the sun. We're talking between 5 & 5:30am folks. If you know me personally you know I am SO not the morning person - something my mom & I had in common. Even when the sun is up I would rather be sleeping. Of course I haven't had this kind of sleep for sometime now. Michael used to sleep in until 7/8 when he was Lydia's age and I really don't understand why she won't. So each day I've been more and more tired but still staying up late waiting to see if my hubby will be on the computer. This isn't good for a person's nerves, mood or immune system. Last night I was really seeing the affects not sleeping was having on me when I pooped out early scrapbooking. This is not me folks, I'm a night owl & have been known to stay up until the wee hours to scrap.

So around 5:20am when my daughter was screaming & my son {who had snuck into my bed} was covering his ears saying "mommy sissy's frying" - meaning crying {like I didn't know} I decided that was the end of early morning wake ups or stay ups at least. I got her out of the crib, changed her diaper, put her back in the crib, went downstairs to get her milk & after giving her the milk grabbed a blanket & Michael and said "good night" shutting the door behind me. I then told Michael to go back to the bed he was supposed to be sleeping in and lay down or read a book until the sun came up or I told him he could get up. I took my blanket downstairs, turned on the fireplace {literally, with a switch on the wall} and layed down on the couch.

I was feeling pretty good about my decision and hoping to fall back asleep quickly - I have always had issues with getting back to sleep after waking up. On my way to the couch from the fireplace I tripped over one of those floor toys that light up & make sounds, couldn't find the off switch - only volume control and stuck it over in a corner. I waited 5 minutes before the music stopped. The toy was mocking me in it's circus like tune "you thought you were going to sleep, but you're not, ha ha ha" and each time the songs {read: torture} would stop it really was just a pause and some other tune would start. Eventually I did fall asleep but it was broken sleep and after waking up I realized I should have tossed it in the closet. My dad said he would have thrown it outside. Oh and I did find an off switch, on the front of the toy - I had only looked on the back.

So it's up to you. What should have an off switch? Our children or their toys? I think at least kids should have a sleep timer and none should wake before 7am {and even that's early} unless of course you are up early and want chores started when the rooster crows. By the way, as the toy was taunting me and keeping me awake I was thinking about a title for this post.

Talk About Tuesday - fun & games

I was going to keep TAT about organizing my house, mostly as a motivator to get stuff done, but since I'm not at home to organize for a while I found something else to talk about. As my regular readers {who would have thought I'd have regular readers?} know I'm visiting family out of state until early January, it's about 6 weeks total. My family is an interesting one and I'll have to talk about that another time - maybe next Tuesday? Anyways, one thing my family likes doing together is playing games. My parents have a closet full of games and we usually play at least one a day. So far we've played Risk, Scrabble, Rat A Tat Cat, Yahtzee, Apples to Apples & Monopoly - some several times. I was very close to winning Risk but took a risk and was this close to winning but a few bad rolls of the dice and I lost. I did win Monopoly & am the current Yahtzee champion though. I also should have won Scrabble but my grandma got sneaky & put down a word that isn't a word on her last turn. I would have challenged her but it was late and my eyes were hardly staying open. After collecting our leftover points she won by 11, I was winning by 11 before then. What word did she play you ask? Ene, see I told you it wasn't a word. I don't know why my stepmom didn't challenge her, I think she was tired also. My 13 year old brother didn't challenge her because he already lost and didn't care anymore. My family has fun playing games but definitely gets competitive. I wouldn't play Risk with them for the longest time because they seemed to argue so much over it. The kids like playing games also. I've put some pictures below of some of them playing a couple games.

Does your family like playing games? What are some of your favorites? Are you competetive or do you play just for fun without keeping score? By the way, I don't see how you couldn't keep score. Thanks for visiting & check out the Lazy Organizer for more TAT.

Lydia's Birthday Round Two

My parents wanted to throw Lydia a second first birthday party since they couldn't come out for her first one so we celebrated her at 1 year 1 month. This theme was tinkerbell {fitting with her Halloween costume} and it was so cute. There will be plenty of years to have the pink princess birthdays and I had already done that so doing a different girly theme was fun. There were decorations, cake, party favors and a great dinner. Due to the sickness that had invaded the house there weren't any guests outside of immediately family - but the party wasn't lacking. For dinner we had tasty ribs & yummy sides. Lydia loved the ribs. She loved them so much that when it was time for cake and I cleaned her up from dinner she was *very* upset about losing her rib. The cake was no consolation and she didn't stop crying until rib was in hand. Then she showed some interest in the cake but didn't tear into it as we thought she might have. Cake & ice-cream was served and then she finally was interested in dessert - ice-cream first and then cake. After that she opened presents and though she still doesn't show much interest in the process her gifts were fun. Then we had a pinata, again little interest from her but fun for the other kids. By that time it was bedtime for all and we cleaned up house. We decided it was okay that there weren't any additional kids, seven under the age of 7 is enough stimulation thankyouverymuch. It was a fun party & I have some cute pictures - thanks to my parents' camera.

Thanks for visiting!

Sick Turkeys

Two days ago Michael threw up while laying on my parent's couch and twice more in the same 24 hour period. Yesterday my little sister Chloe threw up three times. Last night Hannah & Josiah each threw up in sleeping hours. Do you see a trend? So far Lydia, Caleb, Elijah, Christian, my parents & myself have been okay but there has been a kink in our plans for Thanksgiving dinner. We were supposed to go to my stepmom's parents house but it's not nice to share everything so we are going to quarantine ourselves here and have dinner together. We'll still have quite the full table. If you add up all the names you'll see that there are 11 of us under one roof (3 adults, 1 teenager & 7 kids seven years & younger). Plus my grandmother (dad's mom) and my other brother will be joining us so we have a full table & then some.

I hope you are all healthy, have safe travels & enjoy time with your families today (or yesterday if you're reading this on Friday). Take some time between dinner courses and reflect on what you are thankful for. I am thankful for the loving family I can spend the holidays with. I'm thankful for my loving & brave husband who works hard to provide for his family & serve his country. I'm thankful for my sweet kids who can make me smile. And I am thankful for the memories I have of my mom. It's important to remember what you have when it feels like you are missing so much.

Update: Lydia just got sick on the kitchen floor. My poor baby.

The time when I jumped off the blogosphere

Oh internet how I have ignored thee...

No, I am not stopping my blog. Just in case my long absense and/or the title made you think I was. Thanks for the encouragement for our travels. We arrived safely at my dad's house Saturday night. I ended up only stopping at one hotel because when I got to the second hotel in Amarillo it was only 5:00pm. Not only was I not tired but decided driving another four hours was the better option rather than trying to keep the kids entertained & go to sleep in a hotel room. Plus it saved me $40 and I'm all about saving cash when I can. The kids did great overall, much better than I had anticipated, and only had a few meltdowns/fits each. Here's a few random bits of what happened during our 18 hour (plus stops) drive. Notice there aren't too many exciting things, I'm find with little excitement (read: hair pulling chaos) on road trips with children.

• During the first hour a deer ran across a highway & about 2 seconds away from running into my car.
• A moment after reaching the other side of the road he (or she, can't remember if I saw antlers) ran back to where it had come from.
• I didn't realize deers knew how to make jokes or mock people.
• Every other (or more) radio stations along the way played country music.
• I mostly listened to my cd's as I'm not a big country fan.
• At the first stop for gas I was glad that I didn't bother cleaning out the car before making the trip.
• About 3 hours into the trip I started worrying I had missed my turn.
• About 10 minutes after that I found my turn.
• Having a bluetooth while in the car for long periods is great, esp while driving a stickshift.
• Toys, no matter how new & exciting, will only entertain children for very short periods of time - next time save some packing space and use the portable dvd player (loaned from a friend) the whole time.
• It's challenging to do 'good parenting' on a road trip.
• Just because you can hold it doesn't mean your kids diaper can.
• I found the lower part of the Canadian River! It's in Oklahoma under the name of "Southern Canadian River". Do I get some kind of reward?
• It's pointless to try keeping a car clean and/or organized while in it for so many hours of the day.
• Texas has two speed limits on their highway - 70mph during the day & 65mph at night.
• Texas is a very flat state.
• I want a laptop before my next road trip.
• And a new digital camera.
• Driving with two people (read: adults) is so much more fun & practical. It's tough being navigator, driver, picture taker, toy finder & food distrubutor all at once.
• I ♥ mobile instant messaging
• I'm no longer learning to drive a stick, I am a stick driver!

So there you have it. It was a fairly mundane trip without too much excitement, perfect while travelling with little ones. And no, I didn't talk to any strangers (outside of the hotel clerk, fastfood & gas station workers) if you were worried.

What Am I Still Doing UP?

Does anything sound more exciting than driving a total of 18 hours 39 min (according to map*quest) plus stops with two children in diapers? No? I didn't think so. ;) There are quite a few things I can think of that would be more fun. But I can only think of one thing more fun than spending a couple months with family over the holidays - spending a couple months with my hubby over the holidays of course. Since my hubby isn't an option I'm excited about spending time with my family. I can't remember if I've shared the confusing puzzle that is my family before but maybe in a future post. Long story short I have siblings the same age as my kids. Which may be odd but is a lot of fun. I think the best part about it is I don't worry about my kids running around my dad's house & him getting cranky about it because more than likely one of his kids were running around also. He may not like it but it's not the same kind of cranky. Their house is already 'kid proof' (as much as mine is) and my kids will have 4-5 other kids to play with right there in the house. The visit will be well worth the long drive. I won't be around the net for a few days but will check in once I am and will likely post as much as I have been lately, twice a week or so. Oh the stories I'll have. I will be reading blogs as often as I can but definitely won't be on the computer as much as I am right now. I must say these are times I wish I had a laptop. And isn't it just perfect that I'm thinking about buying a laptop when we just got the desktop paid off? I don't recommend buying a computer (or any large item outside of a car) on credit. It's just not fun. I don't even want to think about how much extra we paid on top of the principal, the computer may just fly through the window. But we were young and didn't know better. As you can tell from my rambling I'm getting tired. It's been a long day & I've got a longer one ahead of me. The car is half packed (I am taking SO much stuff with us I may as well be moving in), bags are mostly packed and house is somewhat clean. So I've got a bit more to do tonight then it's off to bed so I'm well rested for the next day. I just thought I had something funny to say but now I can't remember. Maybe it wasn't all that funny anyway, or at least only to someone as tired as I am. Anyways, I will miss the blogosphere and promise to catch up on my memes as soon as I can. I'm sure the three days of driving will be quite the inspiration for randomness and stories to share. Thanks for visiting!

What's One More Thing On Your List?

Last week when I still had a full to-do list taunting me from the refrigerator I decided it would be a good idea to throw a baby shower. One of my new friends out here is expecting her second baby in December and there weren't any plans for a shower set yet. So a few of us pulled together to surprise her. It was so much fun and everything came together smoothly esp considering how little time we had had to pull it off. I decorated, bought a cake, made a diaper cake, prepared a couple of games & got the house ready for guests. Another friend brought sandwiches, drinks, chips & some supplies for games. The mommy to be left with lots of diapers and other baby goodies and we all had a great time.

To be honest I was nervous and a little overwhelmed for about a day. Not sure if we'd be able to pull it off, would guests come with such short notice, was I completely insane to take on such a task when my list was already so full? For all I knew it could have been a disaster. But you know what? I am SO glad that I didn't let any of those worries stop me from taking time out of my busy-ness to do something for a friend. Esp a friend who is always so willing to help others and be a support. Hosting the shower actually made me feel more like I was at home. Back home I'd have jumped on the opportunity to help plan an event - any event, I just love party planning. I didn't think that I would be doing that sort of thing out here. But in less than a year I've made friends, some who I really hope to keep in touch with no matter where the Army or life may take us, and have started to find my niche. I really am thankful for this time out of my comfort zone, it's stretching me and I'm learning a lot about myself. Of course I miss my family & friends but have learned to appreciate this time for growth and enjoy my new friends.

Are there any 'comfort zone' areas in your life that you have or want to step out of? If so I encourage you to give it a shot, you just may be surprised at the results. Thanks for visiting!

♥

Talk About Tuesday - my mary kay

So call this a shameless plug if you'd like but it's my blog so I can do a plug - shameless or not. ;) I haven't done a TAT post in a couple of weeks so let's try that today. My last Mary Kay order came to my house last week & I was really excited. Not only so I could deliver products to my great customers but because I had some goodies waiting for me also. The one I was most excited about was the travel roll up bag. It's one place for all of my skin care & make up that I can use at home or while traveling. No more scrambling to find plastic baggies to store products in or rummaging through my suitcase looking for my moisturizer. And more importantly less storage space is used under my bathroom sink and everything is at my fingertips. As you can see there are four compartments. Knowing me & my OCDness you know that I've got them divided into categories. The top two are for skin care products I use on my face. The top compartment has my TimeWise Skin care (combo to oily), acne treatment (yes I need acne treatment at 25) and my satin lips. These are products I use daily, though my face wash is usually in the shower but I put it in here for photo sake. The second compartment is skin care products I don't use daily. Right now it just has my microdermabrasion 2 step process. If you haven't tried this you really should. It's so simple (massage in refiner, rinse off, massage in replenisher) and my skin feels SO good afterwards. I use this 2-3 times a week as directed on the bottles. The third compartment is make up (and my eye make up remover because it fit better). I still want to get my custom compact and other products but for now I have my foundation, eye primer, mascara, lipstick & lip gloss. I have another order coming with lip & eye liner, age defying lip primer. The bottom compartment has my body skin care products. I have my 2 in 1 wash & shave, and my travel sized cellu-shape contouring system. This nifty organizer doesn't have to hang, the hook snaps down in place & the whole thing rolls up into itself. Plus, each compartment is attached with velcro so you can take just one piece with you or pull parts of it off as you go through your morning routine. Now here's the shameless plug part ;) if you are interested in these or any other Mary Kay products you can check out my website. There you will find great products, make up tips & fun quizzes. And of course for more talk click the TAT button above.

Obediance Training

I'm starting to hit the wall with this deployment. It's been about two months since hubby left and I am ready for him to come home. Unfortunately as you can see in the ticker on my sidebar I've still got quite a bit of time until he's back, and that is only for his two week R&R. Most things aren't such a big deal, I'm used to taking care of housework on my own and am getting help with things like yard work when needed {like when it took me two hours to mow half the lawn because the mower kept stopping on me and I was this close to smashing the mower to bits}.

One thing that I {and the kids I'm sure} am having trouble adjusting to is Shawn not coming home in the evenings, lunch breaks or being home on the weekends. Each day around dinner time is the most challenging. Both kids want my attention, we're all hungry & I'm usually trying to figure out what to make at 5:00 rather than already having it planned out or using the crock pot. It's not such a pretty sight. The other day I had to take Lydia to the doctor for her check up and long story short we were there over an hour {before we saw the doctor} and it ended with two of us in tears - Lydia got her shots and I was losing my mind. Did I mention that the doctor threatened to report me to Social Services if I delayed getting her shots? I wish I were joking. I'm not talking about my refusing to ever give my daughter shots, {though a parent can delay shots for a couple of years or until the child starts daycare/school} only putting it off a week or two because like I said we were there for over an hour. Michael wasn't listening to me, both kids were getting tired, I was already tired & not feeling well and just wanted to go home.

After getting home & putting the kids down for a nap {which is a crapshoot with Michael these days} I was thinking that they should have obedience training, but for kids. You know, like you bring your dog in and the trainer teaches them basic commands like sit, stay, speak, roll over, etc.? Like that but with kids and a trainer teaching them basic commands like no, sit, stay, sleep, pick up your toys, eat your dinner, etc. And then it hit me - I'm the trainer. Well technically my husband & I are the trainers, it's a team effort and let me tell you, I miss my teammate. I miss the kids playing with him while I cook dinner, I miss the way Michael immediately follows instruction while it takes him 2 hours to pick up his toys when I ask. With me everything is a fight - I find myself either negotiating with my three year old or turning into 'mean mommy' {I hate being mean mommy} all too often.

Don't get me wrong, I love my kids and all that comes with being a mommy {well except stuff like getting boogers wiped on my clothes} . But it's very hard without the daddy around. I have a great respect for single moms who do this day in & day out without having a 'return date' to look at least forward to. Being a married single mom is a season in my life and I believe the Lord will use it to teach & grow me - I just wish there could be less growing pains in the process.

Thanks for visiting & 'listening',

♥

Evolution of Dance

Wow, I haven't posted since Saturday?!? I have nothing but writer's blogger's block to blame. The other day, not sure exactly which one, I had a post all but written out but within 20 minutes couldn't remember what the topic was even about. {note to self: you have a rotten memory, write everything down, esp if you'll need to write it out anyways} And it happened again yesterday & earlier today. I'm sure I'll remember my thoughts eventually like at 1:00am when I'm trying to fall stay asleep or when I'm in the shower & really can't write anything down. My thoughts often escape me but they usually return so when they do I'll share them with you. Until then here's something I found entertaining. You may have already seen it, he's quite popular - even featured on Op*rah earlier this week - yes I watch Op*rah & Dr*Phil, but I don't eat bonbons {only because I don't keep them in the house}. So enjoy this while I go back to either trying to check off my long list of things to do before going on vacation or sleeping {depending on what time it is when/where you are reading this from}.

Thanks for visiting!

♥

SMARTy Pants

I almost forgot about SHS, in fact I almost forgot it was Saturday. I just can't keep my days straight lately. Last month went by so quickly and this past week was a blur of pumpkins, costumes & candy. I did get a few other things accomplished the last couple of days. Remember this goal? Well I was successful! I managed to enter all of the contests that really interested me. They were all fun giveaways but some things I really don't have need for like a nursing cover - weaning the baby! and I decided not to enter for any books, well except a couple for this cookbook because I have a bookshelf full of books that I have yet to read. That was SMART of me wasn't it? Not bringing in any more clutter or things I won't get to. I just found out this morning that I won a drawing for a year's subscription to the Family Fun magazine. My first step in that will be to figure out a way to keep my favorite articles without keeping stacks of magazines. I see binders, page protectors & color coded dividers in my future...how exiting!

So last week I decided to completely restart my SMARTness. It's going pretty well so far. I did a quick clean in the kitchen all but two nights, if I remember correctly, maybe three. But not a bad start. So I'll continue doing that this week. I also want to get back into organizing a space - whatever size - each day. I have stacks of scrappy magazines that I need to go through, a random box in the corner by the back door & I'm not sure what's in there along with a bedroom that is just a disaster. In fact it's so bad that there will be before & after pictures involved and it will be entered into a contest. Having an organized & clean room is a reward in itself but winning prizes are always fun too.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you are having a SMART week. Click on the button for more SMARTy pants.

♥

Where Did October Go?

I hope you all enjoyed your Halloween! We had a great time. In the morning we got all dressed up - yes myself included - and met with some friends at the coffee shop down the street. All of the kids were so cute all dressed up. In the afternoon we had a party to go to that was with my stay at home moms group. Michael & Lydia had fun playing with other kids, eating and hearing mommy say "look at the camera & smile" about 324956 times. I'm still crossing my fingers {><} that they turn out well. Have I mentioned that I am looking forward to getting a new digital camera?? After the party we came home to nap and then went out trick or treating. Michael picked up on that idea really quickly. His little pumpkin bucket was almost full by the end of the night. We also went to my hubby's Battalion office was passing out candy & took pictures of the kids to post on our company's website so that the daddy's can see. Lydia enjoyed her free ride & was in a great mood - smiling & laughing, not always sure what she was so happy about but she was happy and that's all that matters.

So October is gone until next year. What else did I do? A quick browse through "my past" and it looks like I mostly unpacked, organized & decorated. Of course we also had Lydia's first birthday, my husband turned 27 {and started getting some gray hairs - isn't that cute? seriously!} and I scrapped for the first time in months. Well I did get out of the house some. I took the kids to a fall festival a couple weeks ago. They had a lot of fun. Each of them got cute little pumpkins - Michael thought his was the biggest of them all, we took a group photo, Michael got to sit in some firetrucks, ride a big horse & bounce around on fun bouncy toys. Lydia 'helped' paint a pumpkin and got a free ride in the stroller. ;) Sadly there are no photos because my digital is on the fritz so I've been using disposable cameras until I can buy a new one. And of course they aren't developed yet, but it was all cute - trust me. I skipped another festival that was going on at a park in my community. I would say that we already had other exciting plans that day but then I'd be lying. Honestly, I just didn't feel up to going so we didn't go. Turns out they had a lot of fun activities like making scarecrows, games & food. I had some 'bad mommy' guilt for a few minutes but the kids didn't know what we missed out on & I got over it. I also found out about this really fun Halloween activity to do. I was Booed! Have you been booed? One day my doorbell rang and the above pumpkin bucket was sitting on my porch. Isn't that cute? Of course everything was inside the pumpkin but I pulled it out for you all to see. The way it works is someone {either a friend or neighbor or complete stranger} drops off a 'boo' basket/bag full of Halloween goodies. Then you go & boo three other people. I know this has been around for quite sometime but I'd never heard of it before. Also, I meant to post about this sooner so you all could do some of your own booing but there's always next year. Or you can use the same idea to go 'turkey' or 'frost' some people.