Because our lives did not stop

After much deliberation, I have decided to continue to post here. The point of this blog was for me to have a way to document my children's lives, especially considering how horrible I am at scrap-booking and please don't mention the baby books.

So while our lives changed, they did not stop.

And thanks to the back dating option in blogger, I will be able to go back and fill in the blanks.

Continued thanks to all of you who stop by here on a regular basis and who have been supportive/patient as we define our new normal.

Update on the non-updates

1) I work a lot.

2) I am lazy.

3) I may be dealing with a pinch of depression.

Bundle it all together, and you get my lame excuse for the lack of posts.

The kids are great and as soon as I can put together a coherent post, I'll update. Right now it is a wicked routine of get up early, drive kids to two separate schools, race to get to work on time, work, race to get home, pick kids up from two separate schools, pretend to make something worthy of being called dinner, put kids to bed, crash. Repeat.

I have decided to branch off and keep a separate blog to talk about the weight loss. There is a bunch going on in my head the contribute to points 2 and 3 above. I'm hoping writing it down will be a coping mechanism for me. The update on the progress in that department is that I have continued to enjoy my 44 ounces of the sweet nectar known as Dr. Pepper daily. You do the math.

We are off for a busy day. I hope to post more this weekend.

Tiggie update

Thank you to the Disney Store for not messing up the shipping on getting new Tiggie to us as quick as possible. And just in time too, because a certain someone pee'd all over old Tiggie during nap time.

Can you tell which is which?

Dog for sale - real cheap.

It has been a rough week at our house, thus the lack of posts. The kids have both been sick at separate times, this was A.'s long week for working overnights, the dogs are on my last nerve and work is work.

The straw that broke my back this week just happened this afternoon when a small congested four year old boy let out a shriek that a dog had attacked his tiggie.


I may have at one point said to the dog "I will CUT you!"
Please don't call PETA.

For those of you who have spent anytime with Baby Bear, you understand how much he adores his Tiggie. He does not go to sleep with out him. He takes him to school and keeps him in his cubbie all day long, everyday. This is actually Tiggie #2 as the first one had to be retired several months ago because he had made one too many trips through the washing machine. And Tiggie is always laying within reach of one of the three dogs. Why they decided today was the day Tiggie was going down is beyond me.

In case you were wondering, Tiggie #3 has already been ordered. And I will gladly ship you dog #3 in the container once it arrives.

An update, but only so Aimee will still be my friend

There is nothing going on, but at the same time things are a little chaotic.

The kids - They are great. Moo is settling nicely into school. She comes home daily to tell me about her new friends and then proceeds to roll her eyes when I ask their names. Apparently, she is not one to get bogged down by those details. She is also motivated by rewards. Last week, she came home and insisted that she learn her phone number immediately so that she could get this FABULOUS ribbon. She then spent the next ten minutes recounting the details of the colors, pattern, and size of said ribbon. (Maybe if her friends wore more vibrant clothing, she could recall their names.)

The boy has been moderately traumatized because his best buddy has not been at school for the past two weeks. Each day he gets in the van and asks if she will be back today. I think the economy has taken a toll on her family and they have elected to have her out of the school for a bit. Hopefully, she will be back soon because his big sad eyes just break my heart everyday.

The job - Well, it's officially over. Fortunately, I am only technically unemployed today. Tomorrow, I start a temporary position through the end of the year. Not the ideal situation, but I am not going to complain (I spent Saturday feeling sorry for myself and now I'm over it.)

And that's about it. Life is full of surprises, but at the end of the day I've got an amazing family and that's all that matters to me.

Guessing game

Take a look at these pictures and guess where we were this morning.



You may also notice that Baby Bear now has even shorter hair than he had two SHORT weeks ago.


You get one guess.

I was laid off from work on Tuesday (everything is going to be fine - I'll post about that later) and had a better reaction to that than the one I had when the school called to say come pick up your dirties children.

But, the visit to the doctor said we are clear for at least another 10 days.

YAY for parenthood!

There ain't no bugs on me

At least for now...

The horror stories that I have read all confirm that you are not completely out of the woods for a good three weeks. Until that time, all of the toys will remained quarantined; carpets, beds and furniture will be vacuumed nightly; sheets will be washed daily.

I took the kids in on Thursday morning to get doctor approval for them to return to school. I'm really not 100% sure the doctor didn't just give us clearance because I slipped her the extra cash to write that note was pleading for her to make them just go away. Regardless, they are clear and I have not had to pick bugs for the past 24 hours.

This has by far been the worst thing I have had to deal with since becoming a parent. Seriously, give me the labor with no drugs again, just don't make me have to dig bugs out of my kid's hair for hours on end. (And yes, I not so selfish to not recognize that if THIS is the worst I've had to deal with, then I'm actually pretty blessed. I have two amazing healthy smart kids, so things are really good.)

But I still hate the lice.

They won't leave

The thing about lice is they don't just go away.

They are still here.

I'm so sick of doing laundry, I want to scream.

My hands are burnt from using the lice kill shampoo.

Mooka is the only one who still has them and for a kid who has very little hair, it still takes 2.5 hours to comb through each strand. And speaking of combs, they don't work on fine kid hair. That would be 2.5 hours picking them out with my finger nails.

Seriously, I would welcome underwear full of poo or a lap of vomit over this experience.

We went to the doctor yesterday. She just looked at me compassionately and said, sometimes they can be hard to get rid of. I was hoping for her to pull out a laser gun and zap the kid's head, but she just said, the prescription is the same as what you can buy over the shelf. You'll just have to go hair by hair and pick them out.

really.

REALLY.

So, I went and got Baby Bear's head shaved. I really like the super short hair cut look on guys and it's summer, so no harm.

I would be lying if I said I didn't think about plopping the girl up in the chair next to him and giving her a Sinead 'do.

After 2.5 hours, I felt accomplished and confident that we would get up today, able to go back to the doc and get the all clear.

7 a.m. - bug check.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHERE DO THEY KEEP COMING FROM?!??!?!?!

I found a tip on the internet today that said to put fresh rosemary in the pillow cases and sleep on it. We'll be doing that later (AFTER THE PILLOWS AND PILLOW CASES FINISH WASHING).

If you can pray against lice, I need it.

Llamas, Boas and Babies O, My!

The title is the summary of our weekend.

We spent Friday just watching the neighbors grazing and enjoying the rare cool summer evening.

Saturday, we got to go to my Chicago BFF's baby shower. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a cuter pregnant lady!

Before we headed out for the shower, I was on a mad dash to find a coloring book. Story telling tangent - Jenny (from over here) had this great idea at her baby shower. All of the guests colored sheets from the Charlie Harper coloring book while they were waiting for the actual shower to begin. I thought it was a fantastic idea and tried to replicate for this weekend's shower. However, my attempt was a complete failure that left me scrambling hours before the big event trying to find something that would work. Note to self, don't buy something off of the interwebs and count on having it when you need it.

Back to the other story...so when we drove up to the store, there was this guy walking down the street carrying a giant yellow boa constrictor. Like any responsible mom would do, I drove up and asked if he would take a picture with my kid. I expected her to just stand off to the side, but no, she asked if she could hold it!

More avoiding the task at hand

Again last night, rather than unpack, I decided it would be fun to hang out in my freshly painted furniture outside and read a book.

While I was reading, I noticed the little things kept running back into the woods and returning with sticks. After about 5 trips, they went in and got some marshmallows. They set up their chairs and had a pretend camp fire. It was so cute.



I also took some time to take outside shots of the new house.



To finish it off, I took a shot of Mooka's newest pose. She LOVES to do this when she is getting in trouble. And yes, I've already caught myself saying 'Don't do that or your eyes will stay that way.' Completely unsuccessful.

Note: the marshmallow on her face makes this one extra special.

How to avoid unpacking 101

This weekend I found plenty of ways to avoid unpacking. At this point, everyone has enough underwear for seven days straight and a decent rotation of clothing for during the week, so I figure we are in good shape.

Our basement is a walk-out with a very old door. An old door with a big window that would allow you to see straight in and given my families love for "being free" it just wasn't working for me. I bought this stuff at Home Depot and loved it. Typically when I start a project, I want immediate results. The beauty of this stuff is that it took about 20 minutes from start to finish to complete.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



The second way I avoided unpacking was by re-painting my outdoor furniture. This, however, was not a project that I loved. It took entirely too long and who knew it would take 7 cans of spray paint to complete. I had purchased three cans thinking that would be more than enough, so the project was not completed in one sitting. AND it hurt my finger (queue violins) to have to spray that much paint. AND, those spray can nozzle holder things that they sell are junk. AND, truth be told, I probably could use a couple more cans, but have completely lost interest in this project.

BEFORE:



AFTER:



Even with my lack of commitment to the project, I think it looks 100 times better. I still want to get an outdoor rug and paint the concrete, but it will take me a couple weeks to make nice with the furniture.

My next project is to purify the little swamp area next to my outdoor room. Also, please note, if you have kids, having a garden pond is the worst.idea.ever. Mine are using it as a carnival game in which they toss peaches from the tree into it to see who can make the biggest splash.

We unpacked the children

The move is done and yes, we did bring the children.

See, I took a picture of them last night in their giant over-sized bathroom.



Seriously, their bathroom is like a little condo. It's crazy.

The move was long and painful, but we have all of our junk out of the old house.

I went out Monday, bought a book on organizing and have enlisted the help of a friend to sort through it all.

Bottom line, we have WAY too much stuff. I've been able to get my living room and dining room set up. I haven't put anything on the walls, no knick-knacks on the tables and you know what, I love it! I'm definitely moving towards the minimalist approach. So if you need any home decor, come by my place every Wednesday morning as it will be sitting out for the trash guys to take away.

As I get rooms done, I will post pictures, but don't expect anything anytime soon :)

Thank you to all of you (and your spouses) who spent countless hours helping with the process. Thank you to my parents who helped watch the crazies children while I attempted to work, get things packed, and tend to life while A. was out of town.

Meet the neighbors

This is Stella. She lives across the street. She has a family of about 100.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my new place?



Sorry, if you already caught this yesterday on Facebook. I have zero motivation right now to come up with original material.

Light week

Before I start to get hate mail from Aimee and my sister, I'm just going to throw it out there that I'm not going to post much of anything this week. Life here is in a moderate state of chaos and I can't be expected to write it all down.

If you need to be updated, just reread this post.

My house looks like a bomb went off.



We've collected way too much junk during our 10 years of being together.

My advice to new parents is to just give your child a new cardboard box every three months. You will save thousands and three months is the average life cycle for all of the junk the baby industry insists will make your life easier if you own it.

The heat finally moved out of our area (THANK GOD) so this place is no longer like a sauna.

I cannot STAND moving.

Yesterday, after packing for a good couple of hours, Mooka came into the room, make up kit in tow and said, "You know, you might look a little better with some lip gloss."

I just stopped an starred at her.

After getting spruced up, she stood back and looked at me, "There, now you look like a princess."

How did I end up with such a girlie girl?!

Less and more

Today's lesson will be about opposites.

MORE



and LESS



Dear Time,

Please slow down.

K?

Thanks!

Weary Mommy

All because of some oranges

In keeping with the never ending quest to ruin my children's lives, I made them eat their oranges tonight for dinner.

Full blown on the floor crying...


It made her even madder when I grabbed the camera so she resorted to holding her breath...


What the boy was doing during this fiasco...


And finally, not to let a little chaos interrupt her dinner, who actually ate the oranges...

Please let this week end

This has been one of those dreadful weeks where you just cannot wait for the weekend and the small hope that you will be able to just pull the covers up over your head to avoid the rest of the world.

Monday started with the revelation that my already bogus drive to work would be compounded by additional road construction. What had been taking a half hour to conquer took over an hour.

Tuesday was met with Baby Bear REFUSING to use the toilet in the morning. He literally laid down, nekkid, in front of the commode and cried because he did not want to go potty. Given his history with this issue, I wasn't budging. Had it been as amusing at 6 a.m. as it is now, I would have grabbed the camera. And then there was the ever so welcome call from the school - Mrs. O? Mooka has a fever of 102, we are going to need you to come get her.

Thank God for Mom who rescued us on Wednesday to stay at home with Mooka. But the second she left me alone with them after work, Mooka broke out in the most bizarre case of hives. So of course, before my mom had even made it to the interstate, I was on the phone with her in a complete state of panic. She once again, saved the day and we were able to regain composure.

Last night, I was feeling like my head had been run over by a truck and someone was stabbing me in the throat so I hit the door and headed for bed. Only to wake up this morning and realize I had left my purse in the van. So I go out to get my purse and...

SURPRISE - someone else found my purse before I did and busted out the window on the van to get to it.

The police were so nice this morning and must have felt my pain, because they went easy on the lecture about how irresponsible it was for me to leave my purse in the car.

The kids were great and entertained themselves nicely by playing what appeared to be some underground Halloween candy poker game in the middle of the living room while I worked to clean glass from the driveway.

Next week just has to be better.

Traveling mom

With my new amazing job, I got the opportunity to travel to NYC this week. For a sheltered mid-western gal, this is a big deal. It's only my second trip ever to the city.

I desperately hate leaving the kids behind and always get a little weepy eyed when I call in to check on them. At the same time, I also love the taste of freedom that comes from traveling sans family. Part of me starts to feel bad about loving the freedom and the other part just gets giddy about not having to put anyone to bed for a solid three days.

In my free time this week, I have been able to enjoy things that I don't get to do during my normal life...

Bikram yoga: LOVE IT. Got up yesterday and went to a class at 6:30 a.m. That's right, ninety minutes of yoga in a 110 degree studio. It's amazing the energy I have when I wake up and don't have to chase around kids and dogs. I think about how in the world I would be able to incorporate this into my schedule and it's just not possible. Ninety minutes alone to do anything in my house is simply not an option.

Dinner in a nice restaurant: Bonus points with this one, conversation with a grown up that didn't involve talking about kids. Double bonus points: No one in the restaurant stared at us with the look of death because we weren't being too loud, throwing our food on the ground, spitting on each other, rubbing butter in our hair, going the bathroom every three minutes, etc.

Drinks at a piano bar following dinner: Granted we had Blossom (circa early 90's) as our waitress (complete with big hat and flower.) She kept telling us to be quiet and then at one point moved us to the back room so we could talk. And the kicker on this one, it turned out to be a gay piano bar. Somehow we didn't pick up on that little tid bit until the very end.

Point is, there were no commitments, no bed times, no cleaning up after someone and it was just nice. I feel horrible saying how much I enjoyed it, but I think sometimes you just need a break from being a parent.

The house of crazy

The other night during one of our twenty weekly stops at Target, we noticed this lovely Halloween gingerbread house kit. Given my love for baking and creating in the kitchen, we just had to have it.



It was nice because the house comes fully assembled, all we had to do was mix up the icing and add the candies.



Some of us just wanted to eat the icing...



Our version was not quite as manicured as the house pictured on the box. Ours looked a little more like a house of crazy.

Where we've been

Yesterday, I started a new job at an absolutely amazing company. I have spent the past few days wrapping up at the old job and mentally preparing to come to the new place, so I have not had time to share the latest antics.

While the new job is super cool and fantastic, I had to make a trade off and acquired a miserable commute. Granted, I have been extremely spoiled for the past 3 years with a seven mile commute so the 35 minutes that it takes to get to the new job is treachery. The new commute also equals an earlier wake up time at Maison d'O.

We have been trying to follow FlyLady rules and prepping the night before which so far is working out fabulously. The kids are both too tired when they get to school in the morning so I have also escaped the morning "Mommy, why are you abandoning me?" fiasco.

All in all, everyone is adjusting nicely (but it is only day 2) and I promise to start doing stuff with my kids again once the dust settles.