Warmer Weather and Higher Spirits

These last couple of days have been SOOOOO nice weather-wise!! At least, compared to the last few weeks that have been so bitterly cold and miserable. The sound of snow melting is music to my ears!! I even walked around for awhile yesterday with no coat on which, for me, is a big thing since I H-A-T-E being cold.

Otherwise not a whole lot new went on this week. Talin stayed healthy all week this week...yay!! We go to the doctor to get his ankle checked tomorrow morning. Our taxes were deposited this week, and so we used most of that to pay off some bills. I can't wait for the day when we can take that sucker and do something fun with ALL of it!! Just once I'd like to be able to do that...just once!!

Bub became certified at work this week in his department, so he'll begin working the shift he was hired for next weekend, as well as working the required overtime every week. Hopefully things go smoothly for him during this transition. He saw his doctor Friday for a check-up on things, and all seems to be going well...YAY!!

We haven't done a whole lot more with the bathroom project this week. Tossed around a few ideas about things, but nothing much else. Hopefully one day this week or next weekend we'll be able to go out and look again and start making some decisions. A friend of mine & her husband gave their bathroom a face lift, and when I saw that it inspired me to keep pressing on, so I'm really looking forward to getting this project off the ground and start turning our crud cave into a relaxing retreat. I'm also hoping to have the dining room's face lift, not complete remodel but at least an updated look, done before this Christmas. Some different paint, flooring, curtains and trim, and some updated lighting and that room should be done, at least temporarily!!

For now though, I should get back to cleaning up what's still here. Happy Sunday to everyone, hope your week is wonderful!!

The Good Things

Like so many people, I often find myself complaining about all of the negative things around me, the frustrating things my kids do, the things I wish were different...the list is miles long I'm sure LOL Today is my husband's birthday, and in honor of that I'd like to take a moment to reflect on the things that made him "The One" for me :o)

First off, he's older than me LOL A primary requirement for me in any dating field. I've had lousy luck dating men my age and younger. To me, he is a handsome man with a tender smile and deep eyes that seem to be a one-way track straight to his soul. I love that he's a big man, I feel safe and protected when he's around, not to mention he's wonderful to cuddle with ;o) All of you muscular men out there...you're fantastic to look at, and I give you tons of credit for being able to maintain your physique, but there's just something about my guy that makes me melt into him. I love his eyes...the way they give EVERYTHING away LOL Every time I look into them there's always something there...a question, a concern, happiness, laughter, sadness, frustration, that "look" that's just for me...they're truly the windows to his soul, and about as transparent as any glass you'll ever look through.


I love his heart...how he sees people and wants to help, but there are times logic kicks in and says they'd do better helping themselves. He's got such a soft spot for kids (unless ours have acted up...then the soft spot kinda goes away LOL) and it's adorable to see him with them. I remember the first time I brought Talin to visit as a newborn baby (before we were dating), I was visiting his sister, and Trey was 2-1/2 years old. Trey saw Bub putting some chocolate milk away and asked me if he could have some. I told him it wasn't mine so he had to ask Bubba since it was his. Trey asked, Bub asked me if it was okay, I okayed it, and Bub shared his chocolate milk. Trey looked like he won the lottery...it was so cute!!

I remember how vigilant he was over Derrick while he was in the hospital, and how he still brags that he got to hold him before I did LOL He was so supportive of me during that time when we were both uncertain of what was to come, but he never let me think for one second that anything bad was going to happen. In fact, he was a major factor that our wedding even happened 11 days after Derrick was born LOL He convinced me to leave the hospital and finish the details that needed to be done, and even though I knew he was right it was still hard for both of us to be happy when we were so worried at the same time. He drove me to the hospital every day since I couldn't drive myself at that point, stayed the whole time with Derrick & me, and sometimes even left to get the other two and bring them to the hospital before bringing me home. I can't believe how big he looks...or how little babies look...when he holds them. Yes, he's not afraid to hold a baby LOL

He also has a big heart for animals. Me and my crazy ideas for pets, we've had three parakeets who have all left us, and one in particular that he got very attatched to that he spent a lot of time with and trained very well. We still miss Shiloh. The night one of the others died, he figured it must have been a heart attack, and the tenderness and sadness in his eyes was undeniable. We have two dogs who we adopted from shelters, and two cats, and he pets every one of them, scratches their ears, and even lets our 70 pound lab love on him since all of the rest of us are just kinda swallowed up if he tries it on us LOL

He's very loyal and does what he can for his family and friends, be it listen, talk some sense into them, help them out or be there for them. I recall two years in a row when I worked in the office, he brought a former co-worker of mine some things for Valentine's Day since she was single and he didn't want her to feel lonely, as most of the rest of us were married or had significant others. It was important to him that she didn't feel left out since he knew what that felt like. He's stuck by me, even when I've made dumb decisions (like I ever do that! LOL), made him mad, and there's probably countless other things. He always comes back and loves me anyway :o)

He's intelligent with a good sense of logic. In the fall of 2005, at 32 years old, he enrolled himself into the tech college here, and in May of 2007 he graduated, on time, in two years, with his associates degree in computer networking and a 3.1 GPA, while maintaining part time employment throughout his schooling to help provide for me and our three boys. He provided for all of us to the best of his ability while doing his best to fulfil his dream of getting an IT degree, and to achieve our family's future goals and dreams. He installed our water heater when it puked. He's primed the furnace I don't know how many times LOL He does a lot of the work on our cars...oil changes, pulley changes, belts and hoses, lots of different things. He was even patient enough to show me how to do an oil change last year, or at least the basics anyway ;o) He's looking forward to passing all of that knowledge and much more on to our little guys as they grow.

He's helpful around the house and with the kids, and gives me a break when I need it. This past weekend I was down hardcore for three days with a viral illness, and so was Talin. Bub wasn't feeling 100% himself since he has a sinus infection, he was maybe about 50% or 60%, but he made sure that all of us were taken care of. He made me countless cups of tea, served us hot, healthy meals (yes, that includes chicken noodle soup! LOL) including veggies (even broccoli one night!!), and made sure we were comfy and got meds if we needed them. He's got the same sense of humor that I do most of the time. He can have a romantic side sometimes. He's almost always thinking of his family. He's tender and tactful, but not afraid to speak his mind when he sees something that isn't right.

Happy birthday hun...you're a wonderful man, a devoted husband and father, a loyal friend, a steadfast companion, and I'm thankful every day that you picked me to be your wife ;o) Now and forever, you're my soule mate :ox

Finally Friday...Weekend's Here!

TGIF never sounded SOOO good! And what a Friday it was! It started at 6:07 AM, when Trey came into our room, woke me up and announced that he was all ready for school. He was dressed, ate breakfast, brushed his teeth, took his pill, even fed the fish! Just as some inside info, I set my kids' alarms for 6 AM, and I'm usually am happy if they are ready to go out to the bus stop by 7. So for Trey to be completely ready by 6:07 AM, it brought on the question, "What time did you get up?" He told me he'd been up since 5 AM! As happy as I am to have a morning kid, considering Talin and Derrick are NOT, I told him to please not do that again unless he's going to go to bed earlier because his body needs sleep to keep him awake in school, and healthy and strong to fight off colds and stuff (tis the season!). I don't think he liked the idea, but he agreed. Talin actually got ready for school pretty well too, which helped since Derrick was NOT at all willing to have a happy morning. I woke up exhausted from having brought Bubba in to the ER Thursday night (he was really, really sick, I thought maybe it had something to do with his diabetes, but it turns out it was just a really wicked virus that's making its way around from home to home, and decided to bite Bubba HARD), so I was grateful for only one crabby baby.

I worked my usual shift, Talin came home and asked to go to a neighbor's house, which was fine with me since he lives across the road and down the hill. He likes riding his scooter down the hill because he A: Goes fast, and B: Winds up almost at the other end of the block by the time he slows down enough to stop. I had asked him to please be home at 5, so when 5:30 came around I figured I'd better go get him. I walked, figuring he'd brought his scooter. Silly me...he used his roller blades instead! Luckily he remembered to carry them so he didn't run around barefoot outside the whole time he was playing! Though he did manage to leave his blades and his jacket at another friend's house. So we went to that home, collected his belongings, and he wanted to blade home. Fine with me. He put his blades on and then scootched on his butt down the grassy incline to the sidewalk! All I could think about was "How am I gonna get those stains out!?" Then I asked him if he'd brought anything else with, which he had...his football. Okay, where's that? At the first friend's house, down the aforementioned hill. Remembering seeing the kids break downhill skiing time records going down that hill on scooters and bikes, I realized that I would have probably needed to get stains out of the back of Talin's pants regardless of whether he'd gotten grass stains or scared himself rollerblading down the hill.

Saturday we did nothing. Trey & Talin went to a birthday party for a few hours. I went out with a friend of mine Saturday night, which was fun! We played pool & darts at one place, we checked out another that usually has a band, but no luck that night. Then we found a little place that had a LOT of cars at it, so we decided to check it out! Turns out there was a DJ there, who played pretty good music, so we danced some. Then there was a wet T-shirt contest, something my friend and I had never seen before, so we stuck around for that! One girl one, and all of the T-shirts were lost by the end of the night! We called it a night after that.

Sunday we went to church and Sunday School. Our Sunday School food drive is off to a great start! Hopefully I don't bomb for the kids! Then we came home and cleaned up the house. Mostly. I wound up passed out on the couch for a few hours, as did Derrick! I guess we were both really tired! Talin realized he'd lost another book from school, so we spent about half an hour looking for this thing, no luck. What I did find, though, was how Talin managed to keep his room so clean most of the time. The underside of his bed was CRAMMED full of clothes, toys, cards, puzzle pieces, stuffed animals, and goodness only knows what else! I figured he might as well clean that out and see if his book managed to find any friends under there! Unfortunately the book is still MIA. UGH! I think I'm gonna have to teach that kid that books are like money...keep them WAY out of reach of anyone who might just walk off with it and leave it somewhere strange! LOL

Memory Of A Fish

Last night was another example of the everyday chaos that seems to haunt this family on occasion, regardless of the fact that yesterday was our anniversary. We decided we would treat the kids to dinner and treat ourselves to avoiding the work of cleaning up. Of course, 15 minutes before I got done with work Derrick fell asleep for a nap he should have taken about 3 hours beforehand. So Bub stayed with him while I took Talin with me to get Trey from swimming practice, swung by the clinic to pick up their prescriptions (both are on Adderall for ADHD), drove across town to drop those off to be filled, drove across town home, woke Derrick up from his nap, got him ready to go, and the five of us went to a restaurant we all like. Derrick was very insistant that he wanted cheeseburgers LOL It's so cute, he's starting to assert his preferences :o) He'll say "cheesy-burgers and french fries!" My mother-in-law burst out laughing last weekend the first time he told her that's what he wanted to eat! After dinner we went to the grocery store so we didn't need to eat out for the rest of the week. I had gone over what we needed with Bubba probably three times before we left the house, and when I asked him again in the restaurant before we left, he looked at me and said "You have the memory of a fish!" I about peed myself laughing!

Tonight is DEFINITELY a full moon! The kids were all running around, being wild little creatures. Derrick was not content with anything. Talin was extra whiney and saw exceptional injustice in just about everything tonight. Trey had a rather odd complaint that I can't repeat on here, but it just seemed to fit in with the night's peculiar events. Even I feel a bit restless, but I'm so tired the only place I wanna be is in bed. The call of the wild becons though...tame the dishwashing dragon, demolish the laundry leprechaun who keeps adding to the neverending piles, destroy the dust bunnies...Mmuuuuuuuuuha ha ha ha ha!!! FEEL THE BEAST!! Okay, nevermind. Night night!

Which Of These Is Different?

Here's an age-old kids game that never seems to lose it's allure...which one of these is not like the other? Ready? Here's the first picture:




Got it? Okay, now here's the other picture:



LOL This doesn't happen on a regular basis, so don't worry. I begged Bub to pose for this pic so I could have some fun with Derrick getting the last little bit of strawberry milk out of the carton, bypassing the trouble of getting a cuppy! LOL

We had a rather uneventful night last night, which was a nice change from the afternoon! While the two older boys were playing outside yesterday with a friend and I was inside working, these young Einsteins decide to use the push-button trunk release in our car to pop the trunk. This is apparently a ton of fun, and to add to the festivities, they decided to shut themselves in the trunk two at a time, so one was left to push the button and let them out. This fun did NOT last long, because as soon as I realized what was going on, I went outside, popped the trunk, yelled at the boys, shut the glove compartment, locked the doors (made sure the keys were out first!) and scolded them again about how dangerous that could have been. Then I went in the house to continue working, smirking to myself because I could totally see myself doing something like that when I was their age! LOL

Bubba treated us to China Buffet last night, since we hadn't been out as a family for awhile, and neither of us really felt like cooking by the time he got home. One of our baby sitters and her family walked in while we were eating, so it was nice to see them and chat for a little bit :o) She's one of the few who hasn't run screaming for the hills after 15 minutes alone with all three boys LOL She's actually considering sitting with the boys for us in a couple of weeks, so Bubba and I can get some adult time in away from the kids. Yay!! If this actually happens, I'm considering having the event added to the list of rare events in history! LOL

Today is Derrick's birthday, he's officially 3 now. It seems like he shouldn't be 3, he should be turning 1 or something...how can he possibly be 3??? So we'll be having spaghetti for supper tonight, Derrick's favorite! I'll be sure to take pictures and post them tomorrow! Three years old...wow!

Have a great Friday...and thank goodness for it!