I'M FREE!! (Kind Of!!)

It’s 11:27 PM on Saturday night, March 14, and I couldn’t be happier!! I have all of next week off, and I’m so PSYCHED!! The last time I had any substantial amount of time off from work was when Derrick was born 3-1/2 years ago, and while I wasn’t at my place of employment working, I certainly wasn’t relaxing!! Between Derrick in the hospital, getting married, Derrick coming home from the hospital, doctor visits, and just basic infant care all by itself, relaxation wasn’t exactly on the "To Do" list at that point. Not that it really is this time around either, but at least the OPTION is available should I care to indulge myself a little bit...and I just might!!

Before all that relaxing though, I have plans to whip this place into shape. I won’t have the kids underfoot to get in my way, Bub will be either working or sleeping most of the time, and Derrick will have a TON more fun at daycare playing with his friends than he will staying home watching mommy clean house. And when I say clean, I mean CLEAN!! Walls are getting wiped down, lights and fans are getting cleaned, appliances are being washed up, cupboards & closets are being organized and sorted through, floors are getting scrubbed. I plan on tackling one room a day...the kitchen, living room and our bedroom (the kids’ rooms go through this twice a year...once in the summer and once closer to Christmas).

Then comes my Everest...my mission...THE DINING ROOM!! Bub and I have picked a color we want to paint the walls, a color we want to paint the ceiling, we have chosen the flooring we hope to put in, we found some baseboard trim we both like, and I have my eye out for some curtains and lights that will pull the whole thing together. If things go as planned, and they probably won’t...because do they ever?? LOL...I should have the dining room done in three to four days. The only thing left to do in there then will be to replace the exterior door, and that will happen when the weather is a little warmer than 35 to 40 degrees on a GOOD day LOL I can’t WAIT to see it once it’s all done...I’ll be sure to post before and after pics!!

The other big thing is that I will be a Godmother again on Sunday to my friend’s baby boy...and I’m super excuted for that!! My other friend’s sister, who I wrote about in my last blog, is doing REMARKABLY better, though she’ll likely still be in the hospital for awhile yet while she continues healing and regaining her strength. Thank you to everyone who prayed for them!! Ummmm....no big plans for Easter this year...probably just church and then maybe brunch or something. Of course we’ll have baskets for the kids though But yeah, my big hope is to have this place weeded out and whipped into shape, and the dining room’s face lift done before returning to work on the 24th. Wish me luck!!

Holy Cow, A WEEK?!?

I can't believe that it's been a week since I've blogged!! Well, I guess I've been busy!! Between work, kids, keeping up shop, Bub starting a new job, dentist appointments, church, and just the normal hum-drum other stuff, I guess a week slipping by isn't SUCH a big thing LOL

So, the first few are pretty self explanatory. Trey has been practicing really hard the last week at swimming for his first swim meet this weekend. YAY!! Bub goes for orientation for his new job tomorrow. He'll be working three 12-hour shifts a week, which will hopefully help me around here, too. Trey & Talin had another dentist appointment on Wednesday, where Trey had some fillings done, and Talin had a tooth pulled. The tooth fairy forgot to come, so brought his 50 cents with her when she went to wake him up in the morning for school. I couldn't find the tooth!! So of course Talin wakes up, sees me standing there, turns and grabs his tooth, which was laying right by his cheek, and I'm standing there with this money going "Okay, NOW what do I do??" Thankfully, no one is at their sharpest first thing in the morning, so I quick slipped the change under his pillow, which he found shortly after I placed it, and he couldn't figure out why his tooth was still there and he STILL got the money!! So then he thought that since it was still there and it was a school day, it'd be a GREAT idea to bring it to school and show his friends. Talking this kid out of anything is difficult...it's easier to just help him "forget" about it LOL He got so distracted getting ready for school and packing his own lunch that he seemed to have left the idea of his show and tell tooth upstairs! Ahhh...gotta love kids!

The last few weeks at church the kids in Sunday School have been having a food drive. Next week is the last week of it, so I convinced the pastor to let the kids walk down the aisle with him at the beginning of the service pushing the shopping cart with the stuff the kids have donated so he can acknowledge their efforts to the church. Then after the service we'll all count up the final donations, and the team who wins gets a prize. It should be a really good time!!

Today I decided to do something insane. I raked leaves. Now normally, a house in town wouldn't have a TON of leaves, but our house is surrounded by trees that rival red woods. The biggest tree is only half bare, and the rest have let go of pretty much all of their leaves. I had some help from the kids, until they decided to take a break. Six different times. I had one pile that was nearly as tall as I am!! When all was said and done, about a dozen 55-gallon bags were filled as full as they could be with squashed down, crumpled up leaves. It's only been a few hours, and I can already feel my muscles carrying out their revenge. My biceps have that trademark ache to them, like I just did 100 pushups. My back isn't as supportive as it usually is...like a sports bra with no elastic left in it. My legs have decided that moving half-speed is fast enough for them. A snail could beat me in a foot race right now. And, to top it off, I'm too exhausted to get up and do much about it, like stretch. So, ibuprofen will once again come to my rescue. I hope.

This week should be much less hectic. Looking forward to my two days off from work next week, so hopefully that will help keep me focused this week. Okay, you're right, who am I kidding?? LOL Have a great one, and I SWEAR I'll get back on here before another week's up!

Gumball As Big As My Hand!!

That pretty well sums it up! Trey and I were at Wal-Mart the other night, and on the way out there was a machine with gumballs literally as big as the palm of my hand!! I couldn't resist...I had to find out if this was a real deal or if it was just an enormous piece of candy. To my utter amazement, there is a gumball big enough to not be able to fit into my mouth! (Now THAT'S big!!) I had to suck on the candy coating (thank goodness I like the taste of apple!) and soften it up a bit, because the first time I tried to bite into it I think my dentist heard the sound of staying in business loud and clear!! There's GOT to be more sugar in that one piece of candy than in the entire bag of candy I bought for Halloween this year!! I could only chew half of it and then I had to give the other half to Trey, because my jaw was starting to ache from working so hard at sucking, chewing and biting!! Trey even had a hard time biting into just half of it!

So that was the interesting part of the weekend. I worked Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Saturday evening my husband and I went out on a date together. We went out to a nice supper club for dinner, and then met friends at a local bowling alley, bowled a few games, had a few drinks. Tonight was just a low-key night, the regular routine of getting everything ready for school tomorrow. Of course, this was the weekend Talin lost his reading book for school, so he'll have to look for it tomorrow before he goes outside to play with all of his little friends. I'm off tomorrow, so out of habit I'll probably wind up looking for it anyway, just to save myself the $$ for having to pay for a new one. In a way, it's like a treasure hunt...look for something so you don't have to pay for it! LOL

Today I normally would have been at church, helping the kids with the food drive we have going on. But, I worked. I hope the director got things a little organized! I should call her... hmm...

Tomorrow my goal is to get the kids' pumpkins carved. You KNOW I'm gonna have pictures of that up! LOL Always fun to watch the kids dig out "pumpkin brains!" Gotta get that done before Wednesday night!!

Sorry so short tonight...but really not much going on since I worked. Tomorrow I'll be outside, if the weather is nice, raking up the leaves that fell off of the enormous tree in the back yard. I swear, if we got a penny a leaf, we'd be set for a LONG time! Have a great week!!

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!