1 Week!!

I have been counting down the days since October. Now, here we are, a mere 7 days away.

Exactly 1 week from now I will be somewhere over U.S. on my way to Houston. From Houston we will make our way to Orlando. We, being My Dear Nathan and I. Just the 2 of us. No kids. Nothing but us, for 12 glorious days!

We will have a 1 bedroom villa all to ourselves. We have nice dinner reservations. We will be attending the Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs. Pittsburgh Steelers game in Tampa. We will be attending Halloween events at both Walt Disney World and Universal Orlando.

I will shop. I will buy my kids nice presents to bring home to them. I will sit in (hopefully) some sunshine, which will be super extra nice after the piss poor excuse for a summer we had this year. I will drink nothing but Blue Moon and if I am lucky some of the seasonals that may be available.

I will spend my nights in a hot tub or on a balcony, reconnecting with my husband after a very long year of him not being home 85% of the time. My kids will be spending time with their Grandparents. This could be one of the last times for an extended visit like this since my parents intend on moving to Arizona.

1 more week. I can't wait. I still have so much to do but every minute gets me closer to my vacation and I can't be any more excited than I am!!

Weekend

Friday was good. My Dear Nathan finally made it home. We ordered some food, had our family over for drinks and just enjoyed his birthday.

Saturday was pretty lax. We watched a ton of shows on 9-11. I can't believe how vividly I still remember that day. I still find it hard to watch certain things, like people who chose to jump out of the buildings. I shudder to think that something like that can happen again. I am not entirely convinced it won't.

Sunday. Ahhhh, the Sunday that I have been waiting for since February. NFL regular season started again. It didn't get off to a great start as my team lost, quite spectacularly. Oh well, it gets the first loss out of the way.....now they just need to pick up their shorts and start playing the way they are expected too! My Dear Nathan started hockey tonight. I wanted to go but Darian decided to have a life instead of staying home with her siblings....how dare she lol!!

Busy week ahead. Laundry, packing, cleaning, organizing, mouse hunting and a bunch of school stuff for the kids too. It figures that their Meet the Teacher nights are on the same night. They go to different schools on different sides of the city....should be fun!!

Stupid Fucking......Grrrrrrrr

Today is not supposed to be this way.

My Dear Nathan was not supposed to still be working out of town but he is. Then he told me that he would be home on Thursdays for the next few weeks. GREAT!!! An extra day each weekend to be together. If only it worked out that way. Last week he didn't get home until 11:00 p.m. This week he isn't coming home Thursday at all. Some time tomorrow.....some time.

Tonight is kick off of this year's NFL season. NFL is my thing. I start counting down the days to the new season right after the Super Bowl. He was supposed to be home to watch with me. He was supposed to be home so that I could enjoy this night with a few beverages and not have to worry about driving Camryn to school tomorrow.

He was supposed to be home tonight because tomorrow is his birthday. I wanted to make him his favorite meal, which is an all day affair. I can't do that with no help to corral our little hellion. Not to mention all the other shit I have to deal with in this house right now.

To touch on the house situation.....uggggg....I am not real pleased with that either. In all my life I never have had to deal with what I have in the last 6 weeks. First, my daughter came home from a trip with lice. Only she didn't say anything and managed to spread it to just about everyone else in the house. Super awesome!! I have been washing laundry like fucking mad. I have been going through garbage bags like the crew on Hoarders and commercial lice treatments....well they are about as effective as wearing bikini in winter to keep you warm. I have picked lice and nits out of hair for 8 hours straight and many more after that.

I finally have the lice under control and discover not 2 days ago.......mice. Super duper awesome. I know that we have mice in our yard and garage and now the little fuckers have found their way into my house. My cats are useless. They are part of the catch and release program. Being that they catch them in the basement and release them in my kitchen!!

I have been cleaning out under my stairs, behind my huge ass appliances and where ever else I can think of in my basement. All while having to come back upstairs every few minutes to make sure that my son is not climbing on my tables, strangling my kitten, eating my plants, licking our shoes, hiding my remotes, banging on my computer, sticking things in electrical outlets (because he can pull the covers off and pulls out everything plugged in), coloring on our walls, chewing on Polly Pockets or crushing Roo.

Last night at 1:00 a.m. I was moving all our pantry food from cardboard to Tupperware, pulling out my fridge to see where they are coming from behind there, doing internet research on how to make DIY traps that don't spray mouse blood and guts everywhere, trying to see if I can figure out how they are getting in the house, getting rid of every crumb in every nook and cranny in my kitchen and willing myself to not drown all my sorrows in a big, ole bottle of Grey Goose.

I am not sure how I would cope with this right now if it weren't for the fact that in 12 days I get to go on vacation. That is keeping me sane right now. Not even My Dear Nathan can make me feel better right now because I am so pissed at him for not being able to say no to anybody but his family. If he could, he would be home tonight.

Another September

Where has time gone?? September already. I am not entirely disappointed about this because I have been waiting for September for some time now. Only 20 more days and I am off to Florida with My Dear Nathan. Just the 2 of us. I am giddy just thinking about it.

I sent 2 of my daughters off to school this morning. One off to high school. I cannot believe it. I still remember like yesterday her 1st birthday. Grade 10. I still remember Grade 10. By Grade 10 I had known My Dear Nathan for a year already. It makes me shiver to think that Darian may already know the person that she will make her life with.....

I sent Camryn to Grade 6. Yikes!! Last year before junior high. I look at her and she is just so tiny and still such a little girl. A year from now I will be feeding her to the same wolves I fed Darian to. Where has time gone?

So now my days will be just my Roo and my Tiny Man. Hoping to be more productive around the house now that we will be on some sort of a schedule. Summer = no schedule for anyone (except my poor Dear Nathan). I am hoping that Kaiden will still take somewhat of a nap during the day. Momma loves him dearly but the boy wears me out!! Hell on wheels is how my Grandpa describes him and it suits him to a T.

Speaking of....I hear my boy. Short nap today. Darn!

Ouch!!!

Poor, poor neglected blog. Yet another thing that goes with minimal care taking. I apologize....from me at least. I can't apologize for those that think that I am some sort of mystical healing fountain in which to dump all their crap in.

I would love nothing more than to regale you with tales of my best mommy moments, moments from my millions of children's live's that I want more than ever to bottle, ready to take out and sniff from whenever my uterus hurts for a growing baby, moments of the absolute love and devotion that my husband shows to me, moments of my bliss.

I want so badly for that to happen. I neglect you because I fear that you will become my whipping boy. My rant place. My bad place. My unload all my shit onto place. I don't want that for you. I know that feeling. It sucks. :( I feel sorry already.

Kickin' It Old School

This is a screen shot (I just learned how to do this recently, I am so impressed with myself) from Google today. You can see that the banner is a Pacman game. It is cool because you can actually play Pacman in the banner.

Roo saw me playing it and wanted to play. I knew that laying around somewhere we had this plug and play game that had Ms. Pacman on it. Off to basement I went in search of Ms. Pacman. I found it and within 5 minutes Ms. Pacman was chowing down on her nemisisisiissssss Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Sue. I got the first try since I found it. I made it to level 4 even though I can't remember the last time I played. Now Roo is playing. She has never used a joystick in her little life. She is trying to get the hang of it and I have to say I am pretty impressed. She has been playing for only 10 minutes and already she can almost clear level 1. And she knows "all the dosts mames".

Roo is a little frustrated by the fact that she can't move about the room and play this game like she can with the Wii. Damn wires!! If only she knew the horrors us old people had to endure when we were kids. Wires on our video games. Remember when if you wanted to talk to your friends you actually had to call them, or god forbid, go knock on their doors.

Roo isn't the only one kickin' it though. Darian has been going back as well. Her iPod has kicked the bucket and she has had the spare one she had been using confiscated (that is another post for another day) so she has had to resort to using....wait for it....her portable CD player. GASP!! As I type this she is sitting at our dining room table, with her CD player, doing a puzzle! It is like she is 80 years old lol. She better behave herself because if she gets in trouble and loses her CD player I still have a yellow Sony Sport Walkman around here somewhere......and a Furnace Face tape to go with it.

Conversations with Roo

Scene: Kaiden is crying after having a door nip his finger tip.

Roo: What happened to Tiny Man?

Me: He hurt his finger in the door.

Roo: Was it his finger or his thumb?

Me: It wasn't his thumb, it was his finger.

Roo: Was it a short finger or a long finger?

Me: I am not sure. It was just one of his fingers. He will be ok.

Roo: Was it his left finger or his right finger?

Me: I am not sure. It was just one of his fingers.

By this time in the conversation Kaiden had long since stopped crying and was off onto the next thing.

These kinds of conversations take place regularly, although they usually involve poop. Did he poop or pee? Was it a big poop or a little poop? What color was it? Always an interesting conversation with Roo!!

Blue Moon

On our recent trip to Arizona I was so excited that I was going to be able to bring home some beer. My favorite beer is called Blue Moon. It is sooooo yummy!! Being that we were driving in an RV with a bunch of crap that was staying in Arizona I thought to fill up all that space with large amounts of cheap U.S. alcohol.

We have been enjoying our Blue Moon here and there since being home. Have I mentioned how I love this beer? No? Well, I love it. I also love my iPhone. I love that I have many apps on it. One of which is called ibeer. It is just a silly little app that when used makes your screen appear as though it is full of beer. If you tip the phone it makes the beer disappear, like you were drinking it.

For some reason Roo loves this app. It is really cute when in the middle of Walmart she takes my phone and yells "look!! I am drinking beer!!". Even better is that you can have it set so that the phone makes loud, obnoxious belching noises after the beer is "done".

Yesterday I realized just how much my love for Blue Moon has been noticed around here. While playing with her ipod (which also includes the ibeer app) Roo offered Camryn a "beer". When Camryn laughed at Roo she must have had a look on her face that said "ok....I'll drink your beer....whatever..." To which Roo replied, almost insulted by her sister's reaction "hey, it's a Blue Moon!!"

My daughter. If she is going to serve you a fake beer at least it is going to be the best of a fake beer.

Procrastination

Short and sweet today.

Procrastination = leaving for 10 day trip in less than 48 hours. Still have not packed for myself or 2 tiny children. Should be an interesting day tomorrow. Ugggg....why do I do this to myself?

Exciting Things

This week has seen some exciting things happen....

My Tiny Man started to take his first steps. He is getting braver by the second. He tries to walk and then must figure out that it is just faster to crawl so down to hands and knees he goes. He will take about 5 or 6 steps at a time. I can't believe he is growing so fast. He has 4 teeth now as well. I am sure that he is going to get more real quick as the whole lower half of his face is covered with a rash. Poor boy, he always looks like he got beat up.

Darian brought home a report card that shows she is putting effort into school. There are still things that need to be worked on (gym for one) but I am seeing improvement in what matters to me (not gym). Camryn should be getting hers this week. I am sure all will be good. :)

I booked our flights to Orlando. I can't wait. All I have to do now is buy our park tickets and any extra tickets (Cirque Du Soleil and Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party). Our room has been booked for some time already but the flights....the flights mean we are actually getting there! I found a good price (as far as I know) through Expedia with good arrival and departure times and to top it all off I got some Airmiles.

Counseling session went well. Just talked mainly about how I would like to improve my relationship with my older daughters. I have been given some reading materials and find that as I read through them that I really am not doing EVERYTHING wrong, just need to change some approaches. I will work on the parenting part of me and continue to journal and get some things off my chest for the me part of me. I will take Darian into the counselor when we (and the counselor) return from holidays. I hope that she will take some good from it as well. She is a great kid who is just testing the water and making some not so great choices but I want her to know that she doesn't need to make some of the mistakes she is making in order to live her life.

I bought some new lamps for my living room. May not seem exciting but at least now I can see things in my house at night. I am excited about that. I also moved a gigantic chair out of our living room and into Roo's room. Now she has somewhere comfy to sit when she watches her movies. With the chair gone it also gives Kaiden more room to practice his new skill.

We are now just a little over a week away from our big trip to Phoenix. It should be fun. I am a little nervous about the 30-something hour trip to get there but I am sure that we will manage. I am extra excited about it because it snowed here again today and the temperature is supposed to dip right when I am arriving to sunshine and +30 weather. I can't wait!!!

Thursday

Finally.....this week seems to be taking forever to get through. I have been extra busy doing some research on what is looking like our next big family adventure. I will fill you in when final decisions have been made. It is a big one though.

There has been lots of big things addressed around here lately. The biggest for me being that I am going to start counseling next week. I am finding that I am not communicating with my older kids. I need to fix that. I am also realizing that I have some issues that need to be sorted out. I am nervously excited about going. I have known for some time that this is something that I should do but never actively took the steps to make it happen.

I have a feeling that there will be some major changes in our family. All in the hopes of making things better. Don't get me wrong, things are ok but I know that there is room for improvement. I am starting to really grasp what is important to me for my family and am tired of just sitting on my ass thinking about all the changes that I should be making.

I am even going to schedule an appointment with the trainer at the gym in an effort to get my fat ass out the door. Another thing that I am tired of having, as I have previously mentioned, is a fat ass. I am working on it though. I am trying not to get discouraged by set backs that I am having at Weight Watchers. I am still going even when I suspect it will not be a good week.

Yessir!! Ima changin'!!! Hope it stays this way and it all works out. I feel optimistic and I like it.

Monday

Here it is, another start to the week. Hoping for a good start and an even better week.

We had a very long weekend here. I am not going to get into it here just know that there are things that need to be worked on and that the necessary steps have been taken (if you care).

We enjoyed a quiet weekend. We needed to buy our boy a new car seat. He has outgrown his bucket seat and is now riding in style in a brand new 5 point convertible car seat. He has sprouted his 3rd tooth, 1st on the top. His teeth are coming in like his sister's teeth did (except Camryn, she was "normal"), where his first top teeth are not the ones in the middle but the ones on either side. He will look like a vampire. :)

Roo came down with a cold this weekend but is taking it like a trooper. She is sniffly and coughing but is still her funny little self.

Darian and Camryn both spent the weekend in trouble. I am not real impressed with my older daughters at the time so we will move on.

We watched some movies this weekend, had a bbq thanks to our beautiful weather and My Dear Nathan went to a concert. One of the tires on our stroller went flat during our walk and will need to be repaired. Glad it happened when My Dear Nathan was with me instead of earlier this week while Roo, Kaiden and I were out for a walk.

I am happy that I am now officially under 200 days from my vacation. It is very important to me and some days is all that I think of and is the only thing keeping me sane. My Dear Nathan is excited about it too. We went over menus this weekend to decide where we would like to try to eat while we are there.

I am hoping that this week is an improvement from the last.

So Pissed....

I have received my cell phone bill for the month. Since the beginning of the year I have paid over $750.00 in cell phone bills. Of that total $250.00 of it is for my iphone. The other $500.00????? My daughter. My daughter who is in so much trouble right now that I can barely look at her.

Yes I have taken it away from her. I took it away from her weeks ago. Still in those few days that she had the phone since my last bill she managed to send and receive 3000 text messages!!! What the fuck do kids have to say that is so important that within a span of 2 weeks they need to send and receive 3000 text messages!!!

Me thinks my daughter will be looking for a job. And the first $500.00 of her pay......going right in my pocket. I am so pissed off right now I could breath fire! She has had a cell phone for more than 2 years already, this is the first time that she totally didn't give a shit about it costing us money. I have raised a selfish, self-involved teenager........I fail :(

Kid-Free Weekend

I had a childless weekend and it was spectacular!!! I drove to my parents Thursday night, arriving around 11 pm. I decided to drive that night as I wasn't tired and being that I am never guaranteed a good night sleep I thought I better go while I knew I would stay awake.

Friday morning I just hung out, had lunch with my Mom and then away I went. I drove home, all alone, listening to my music nice and loud and basking in the sunshine. I got home just in time to change my clothes and pick up My Dear Nathan from work.

We came home and decided to head to a local casino that we have never been to before. We had Nathan's brother and a good friend of mine join us for the evening. It was all sorts of fun. We ate at the sports bar in the casino. It was ok, but nothing worth writing any more about. We were treated to watching Jon Montgomery win a gold medal in the Men's Skeleton while we ate. It was so exciting.

We gambled a little, didn't win anything though. Being there just made me want to go back to Vegas in a bad way.

We slept in on Saturday. I didn't get out of bed until 3:30 in the afternoon. I loved every second of it. I needed some good, uninterrupted sleep. I feel so much better, even after a weekend of late nights.

Saturday night was our night at our neighbourhood pub. We invited some friends along to help celebrate my birthday. While not everyone we invited showed up we were joined by a handful of awesome people! I thank every single one of you that showed up. Especially Leanne, Marty and Monique who came despite only having met me once or not at all! :) Thanks again. I had a great time.

At the end of the night we just came home, made some fancy pomegranate drinks with the Grey Goose that My Dear Nathan bought me (I love that he indulges my expensive tastes :D), listened to some music and eventually, at some crazy early hour, decided to go to bed.

We met my parents half way at 5:00, picked up my babies, who I missed like crazy and came home. And now begins another week. I dropped off My Dear Nathan for work this morning, have sent one kid off to school and am getting the other ready. I have some major house work to catch up on after my lazy weekend.

I have another weekend to look forward to as well. This Saturday is my Spa day from the kids, Ladies night and hopefully a birthday meal with my family.

Family Day

Family Day was pretty uneventful around here. It involved sleep and the Olympics. Our whole weekend involved the Olympics. Since they have started we have not watched anything else. It is so exciting to see our athletes doing well and hey, look at us with 4 medals already!! Go Canada Go!

This week is going to be a short week. On Friday I will be driving my kids to my parents house where they will spend the weekend. Which means that we will be kid-free this weekend. Which is exciting. So. Very. Exciting. I am in great need of a kid-free weekend. The only thing that would make it even better is not having to get up and pump an ounce of milk. That will not happen but at least I can nap whenever I want to.

We are also going out on Saturday night for my birthday and we will be going out on Friday to celebrate a late Valentine's Day. I hope that Saturday is fun. We are going to our neighbourhood pub, which is almost always a good time. They have free popcorn and peanuts. And you get to throw peanut shells on the floor. :) And there are no kids there.....and even if there were....none of them would be mine! Yessirree I am some excited for this weekend.

Saturday will also mark only 1 more week until my day at the spa, which my children gave to me for Christmas. This is another day that I have been looking forward to for some time.

I am excited for this week. Olympics to watch, nice weather (which hopefully will involve the sunshine), only 3 nights away from My Dear Nathan and then a blissful 3 hour drive home from my parents, sans children to start my weekend!!!

I also have to add that it is only just after 7 am and the sun is starting to come up!! :)

Another Yay!

I forgot to mention.....I had so much food for Super Bowl Sunday....like enough to feed an army. With cheese. And bacon. And fattening in it.

At my WW meeting last Tuesday I identified this Sunday as being a struggle that I would have to get through for the week. I made the decision to be happy to not gain any weight for the week. I was going to enjoy my game and try to be good. I am not sure that I would call Sunday a success or not as I ate so much that I felt sick for a better part of the night.

Tuesday arrives. I seriously consider not going to WW, not wanting to see what kind of damage I had done. But I went, because I have learned that when you want to run is exactly the time when you need to be there.

I am pleased to say that through all the bacon, cheese and fattening stuff of the weekend I managed to lose 0.6 lbs. I couldn't believe it. I actually yelled "you're kidding me?!?!?!" at the poor lady who was weighing me in. I got a sticker :)

Yay!

We have a tooth finally! I may not be saying yay the first time Kaiden decides to try out his little chomper on me but for now we are happy that it has finally arrived.

If Ever....Now...

I just want you to tell me what you think....

Human beings are not good or bad... they are running, forever changing compositions of the life experience(s) that influences them. The "quality" of a human being ( if there was such a thing ) is directly related to the upbringing and thus belief systems they have been conditioned into.

I need to know what you think about this statement.......

Woo Hoo Friday!!

I loves me some Fridays, yes I does!!!

Only a mere 90 minutes until My Dear Nathan comes home. Have the kids almost all settled in with instructions on how to order and pay for pizza while Mommy and Daddy have some alone time over a jug of Gunther's at Brewsters.

There are important things for us to discuss, such as what kinds of food to serve at our Superbowl Festivities on Sunday (naturally). I am so 'scited!!! My Colts (of course they are mine, I own them) are playing against the Saints of Narlins. Should be interesting because my brother in law is a Saints fan. I am going to make a jello that I made for the last Superbowl the Colts played in, which they won. Isn't it cute...

We even made a tiny Peyton Manning to go on the jello field. (Note the ugly blue kitchen I had at the time....blech!) My only wish is that I could have found a Colts jersey for my Tiny Man to wear. I did find a Jaguars one in the Value Village today but that will just not do!! Heres hoping for a big ole' win on Sunday.

Happy Friday y'all!!!

Ubma

This is how Roo insists that her Daddy told her how to spell bunny. She will hear no part of b-u-n-n-y.....her Daddy said ubma!

Why are we talking about ubmas? Because Roo has taken to playing all of the Facebook games. She plays Petville, Yoville, Fishville and Happy Pets. Just in case you were all wondering why I am constantly on Facebook. It isn't me. It is Roo. Every time I turn around she is on my computer. I already bought her an iPod Touch so that she would lay off my phone. I do not think that she will be getting her own laptop anytime soon. Maybe her own Facebook profile though.

Her name would simply be "roo". She knows that spells Roo. That is her name, after Ryleigh of course.

Me: "What is your name?"

Her: "Ryleigh-roo."

Me: "How do you spell it?"

Her: "One r and two o's."

Me: "OK that spells Roo. Do you know how you spell Ryleigh?"

Her: "I tole' you....one r and two o's."

Me: "No it is R-Y-L-E-I-G-H. Ryleigh."

Her: (Hands on hips, getting mad at me) "No....it is ONE R AND TWO O'S I TOLE' YOU!!!"

I give up.....Roo enjoy your ubma :)