I am highly distractable

Don’t you think there should be like a “National Comment on Every Blog You Read Day?” I was just thinking about all the blogs I read (some of them for over three years), and there’s a ton of them that I never comment on. Not sure if it’s because I feel a big stalker-ish since a lot of them are people that I do not know in real life. Or if it’s just a time issue (I spend enough time on the internet as it is.) Maybe it’s both. At any rate, I’ve decided that I am going to leave at least one comment on every blog I read in the near future. If you read mine and don’t comment, I’d love for you to say hi! My blog stats tell me that there are more than 6 or 7 readers…

You know what else my blog stats tell me? The search query report. I had no idea there were so many descriptive words for bangs. Bangs. Side swept bangs. Side bangs. Cute bangs. Side sweep bangs. Cute side bangs. Bangs photos. Side swoop bangs. I also had no idea that my blog was such an authority on all things bang-related.

Other search queries that made me laugh: snot rocket, what the frak is going on (I can guarantee you that search pointed to Derek’s blog), ugly kid, and ugliest kid. I can guarantee you that search finds my blog because I put pictures like this on here

Hmmm…what sort of bangs are those??

Moving on…

I’m going to save the other blog in my head for tomorrow. Did you know that it’s been 13 years since Derek and I started dating? Just a few weeks ago, we had the 13th anniversary of our first date. We don’t really celebrate it or anything, but I always think of Meg and Derek, The Early Years, when August 14th rolls around. Anyway, I have loved reading everyones love stories and I think soon I’m going to start writing ours down. I saw this fun little question thing on another blog that I was going to do, but I got distracted thinking about how it’s on a blog that I never comment on but have read for about 3 years, and one thing led to another, and here we are. It was going to be the beginning of the story of us, and instead it’s the ugliest kid picture of all time.

I cried watching Armageddon tonight…

But I didn’t cry dropping Connor off at Kindergarten.  Somehow, it feels like the level of emotional-ness is directly related to the level of love.  Y’all know I love my boy…he is just ready for school and that makes sending him so much easier.

He came bouncing into our room at precisely 6:45 (which is the time our morning routine poster says to get up.)  He informed us that he woke up at 6:24 and watched the clock until 6:45.  By 7:15, he was completely ready to go and pretty excited.  Then came time for the traditional first day of school picture…

Can you tell he wasn’t in the mood for pictures?

Walking into the school, Connor was awfully quiet.  I wondered what he was thinking…what he was feeling.  In the car, he told us he was a little bit nervous and a little bit excited.  When we got to the school entrance, he informed us all that it was 105 steps from the car to the school.  That is so Connor.  When faced with an uncomfortable situation, just count.

Here he is, walking into his classroom.

Clearly a little unsure of all this kindergarten business.  He was quiet, just taking it all in.  We found his cubby and got him all situated in his seat.

Derek and I gave him a hug and a kiss (how many years will we get away with that in his classroom?)  I asked him if he was ready for us to go, and he calmly said yes.  With that, we walked out and I left my baby in the hands of a teacher named after a Muppet.  (Her name is Miss Rizzo, which I think is a really fun name.  I think she is going to be great.  She reminds me a lot of kindergarten teacher extraordinaire, Mrs. McCord.)  He didn’t even glance up as we walked out of his classroom.

Then came the most shocking part of the day.  I didn’t cry. I was very calm about the whole thing.  The only time I got a little choked up was when we got home and it was just so quiet without him here.

The best part of the day was definitely watching the big school bus pull up and my boy get off of it.  I was so nervous that I had somehow goofed and written down the wrong bus number.  Or that he wouldn’t know which street was his.  But there he was, and I was so happy to see him!

And he was pretty happy to see us, too.

He had a good day.  He told us about it in bits and pieces throughout the evening.  They had PE today, which was his favorite part.  They got to play outside, and the teacher read them two books.  A boy named Mark had red Sketchers on, and he sat next to Brooklyn at lunch.  He didn’t get to have a job today.  Kindergarten is very long (8:15-3:15…it is long!).  Miss Rizzo wore and orange shirt.  He colored a picture and added in his own drawings of himself, Justin, and Super Star (one of his made up super heroes.)  He likes Kindergarten 3,000, and is looking forward to going again tomorrow.

One day of school down…about 2,339 to go.

He’s Home!

Derek was able to come home from Germany a few days early and got in this afternoon.  We were all so happy to see him!   Just seeing him and having him home is good enough, but the gifts he brings us are always nice.  He picked out this necklace for me, and I love it so much.  I think this is only the third necklace that Derek has bought for me.  The first was a little gold cross necklace he gave me when we were first dating.  I am sure that I wore it every single day.  The second was a sufer girl type beaded necklace that he gave me when I got home from a trip to Europe.  Again, I’m sure I wore it every day.  And now this one.  I’m not a super big jewelry person (which is probably why I can count on one hand the number of jewelry items he’s given me), but over the past year I’ve mentioned a few times that I would like some new jewelry.  He really picked out the perfect gift.  He is so good to me!

The boys (and girl) were so happy to see their dad.  Connor is thrilled that he will be here for the first day of school tomorrow.  The whole fam is going to drop him off in the morning and he is going to ride the bus home (those are both his requests.)  I still can’t believe my boy will be going to school all day, every day.  More on that tomorrow, with pictures I’m sure.

Overall, the kids and I had a really good week.  We missed Derek, or course, but I think the boys had fun and I didn’t curl up in a fetal position and cry even one time, so that’s a success in my book.  We kept super busy…the Children’s Museum, The Secret Playhouse (an indoor play area), the library, Chick-fil-a for playing and dinner, Fun Max (a bounce house place), and Space Center.  We maybe do one of those things a week, and we did it all!  I’m tired!

So I’m off to bed.  I’ve got to set an alarm in the morning to make sure we are up and at ’em on time for school. I don’t think I’ve used an alarm for about 6 years since I’ve had built in “mommy wake up” alarms.  Night!

Thank you dollar tree and other thoughts

Thanks to a $1 pirate costume, the boys were entertained nearly all afternoon. Captain Bonehead (Connor), Pirate Superman (Logan) and Miss Bonehead (me…all names given my Connor, of course) had a great adventure, complete with treasure, maps, and a pirate ship. We ended our pirate day with a trip to the library to check out some pirate books. Connor wore his pirate costume to bed and wants a pirate outfit to wear to his first day of kindergarten. When he gets into something, he really gets obsessed. You see that look on his face in the first picture? That’s pure intensity. He is fully in pirate mode. And you see that look on Logan’s face? That’s why there is a shortage of Logan pictures lately.
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Have you ever wondered how long a roach can live trapped under a cup? About 60 hours ago, I trapped one under a cup, thinking he would die and I could avoid smashing him and experiencing that awful roach crunch sound that makes my skin crawl. But he is still alive. I know I should just kill him…I know I could do it, but now I am curious to see how long he can live like that. And I’m secretly (or not so secretly) hoping that either a) my mom will take care of it when she gets here tomorrow or b) it can just stay there until Derek gets back in town. Now that I’ve typed this little story out, I realize how gross it is that I have a live roach trapped in a cup in my bathroom. (and, just for the record, I DO clean my bathroom. We just have roaches is Texas…it’s inevitable.)
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Tomorrow my baby will go to the elementary school and meet his teacher. I keep telling myself how ready he is, (and how ready I am…I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that I am looking forward to a bit of a break and some Camryn time since C will be in school every day and L will go two days a week), but I know I am going to be a mess on Monday morning. Gosh, I might just be a mess tomorrow! When I was reading to him tonight, he was all cuddled up next to me resting his head on my shoulder, and I couldn’t help but think how he’s going to be reading by himself soon and how he is slowly but surely not going to need me in the same way he does now. I can’t wait to see who he becomes and how God uses his gifts…but it’s still hard to think about my baby going to school. It’s such a big step in the whole growing up thing. But I know he’s ready and going to do great. Do you think they are ready for him?

(This picture of him just cracks me up and I had to work it into the blog somehow!)

Operation: Keep Kids Busy

With Derek being gone and it being the last week of summer, I have decided to pack every day full of fun stuff this week. Mostly, it’s for self-preservation. Busy is good right now. The boys get bored at home and they are all over each other. It drives me nuts! Anyway, today we headed up the Children’s Museum and met up with Tricia and her kiddos. It was fun, but the museum was insanely packed! I feel like I barely got to catch up with Tricia and I definitely left with a headache and two overstimulated kids. Overall, it was fun…but I’m looking forward to meeting up with Tricia again once school starts and places aren’t overrun with day camp kids. After a bit of down time for everyone, we spent the rest of the day outside. The boys did a great job with our bedtime routine (it’s the hardest part of the day to me…especially when D isn’t here. He usually does most of the bath/story/tuck-in stuff.) Anyway, they did a great job and everything was just peachy. Camryn was fussy so we settled in on the couch and I promptly fell asleep. I woke up with Logan standing over me, needing more ice in his water. It frustrates me so much when my kids play hard all day with barely any down time and then proceed to flop around in bed for over an hour. Ugh. Seriously one of my biggest pet peeves. It just starts this downward spiral of overtiredness, which leads to all sorts of issues. The last thing I need is to start this week on my own off with two overtired kids. Now I’m just in a rotten mood. My house is still a disaster area, the kitchen is still messy with dinner stuff, there is wet laundry in the washer and several loads to be folded. Ugh.

On a cuter note, Logan wanted to sing to Camryn tonight and I overheard him singing a rendition of “Rockabye Baby” only he was singing “Rock the bible….go to sleep baby…rock the bible…go to sleep baby…” So cute. Oh, and on Sunday, after five weeks of life with his sister, he finally called her Camryn! Up until then, he called her either baby, anybody, or Madison. Goofy kid!

Okay, I think I am going to go look at my boys and remember how sweet they are and how much I love them. Because, by golly, they better be asleep now since it’s been 2 hours since they went to bed! Then I am going to put on my ipod, listen to some good tunes, and speed clean the house. Everything looks brighter when you have a nice, picked up home and peaceful, sleeping kids.

(I know that picture has absolutely nothing to do with this post, but I have all these pictures edited and resized for the blog and I’m just going to put at least one on there every time I blog, whether it goes with the topic or not. And since Camryn is my most cooperative model these days, most of them will be of her. In fact, I’m probably creating some middle child syndrome because I have tons of pictures of Camryn and a good number of Connor and only about two with Logan in them. For the record, it’s because he runs away when he sees the camera.)

The Plight of the Third Born

This is what happens when the mama is busy cleaning up the house and the papa is busy entertaining two busy boys. Poor baby girl…she was being so quiet and was so content. Who knows how long she slept like that!

The one that was supposed to happen yesterday

Thank you all so very much for your kind words and support and prayers.  I know we all have bad days, and it really feels good to know that I am not alone.  Being a mom is hands down the most difficult yet most rewarding job in the world!  If y’all could pray for me next week, I would really appreciate it.  Derek has go to out of town for 10 days, and I admit I am freaking out a little bit about being on my and managing it all.  Derek does more for us all than I ever give him credit for, and the kids and I are all going to miss him next week, that’s for sure!

Today is much better, well, except for the fact that my air conditioner is broken and it’s 85 degrees in my house and climbing.  Yikes!  But everyone is in much happier spirits.  It does help that Connor is at a day camp today, and since Logan woke up super early, I’m pretty much counting on a nice, quiet afternoon.

So, yesterday, my girl turned one month old!  It baffles me how the last month of pregnancy goes by so slowly and the first month of babyhood goes by so quickly.  She is seriously such a good baby.  I am enjoying her newborn phase so much, which is actually different for me.  Newborns are so sweet and little and miraculous, but it’s just really not my favorite.  I’ve never been one of those people who just wants to hold a baby all day and stare at him or her.  And the fussing…the constant eating…not knowing what they need…etc, etc, etc.  But with Camryn, it’s different.  It definitely helps that she is the easiest, most laid back baby I’ve had.  She is an amazing sleeper (she slept from 9:15 p.m. until 6:00 a.m. last night!  Her norm is 9:00-5:00 which is amazing!)  If she fusses, she is either hungry, has to burp, or has poop, and with her, it’s very easy to figure out which it is.  She’s easy to console, and calms down quickly which definitely makes my life so much easier!  She’s content to just hang out in her bouncy seat and watch the activity, except in the late evening when she wants to be cuddled and held.  We just chill out together on the couch and watch the Olympics and she’s happy.   She smiles at us all, and obviously has a lot to say with her “talking”.  I promise I’m not sugar coating this…she really is just an easy, sweet baby!  (I have to write this down, because from what I hear, the emotions and drama start early with girls…I’m sure she won’t always be as sweet and easy as she is right now!)

I am going to do a picture every month with the bow.  If I remember. 🙂

In that second one, she started smiling SO big while I was fiddling with my camera.  I took the picture as quickly as I could, and it’s just really not a good angle.  But I love her big, fat smile!

How sweet is that?  Connor loves Camryn, and she loves him right back.

Happy one month birthday, baby girl!

(p.s. in the time it took me to write this post, the temperature went from 85 to 87.  I hope the ac people call soon!  Thank goodness I’m not pregnant anymore!)

real

Today was rough.  I took this picture this morning (and despite how it may look, they asked me to take it.)  It pretty much sums up this day.  In a word, it sucked.

Let’s just say that one of my lovely children kicked a hole in the wall during a tantrum.  That’s when you know you’ve had a bad day.  That was just one of many, many ugly outbursts today, and I’ll be honest, I had a handful of ugly outbursts myself.  Ugh.  I just want to erase this day.

Sometimes I debate whether or not I should put the crappy stuff on my blog or just keep it all happy.  But then I feel fake because it sure isn’t sunshine and roses every day.  I had this whole plan to blog about Camryn being a month old and post a few cute picture.  I was going to leave out the part where Derek came home from work to find me in tears, locked in my room with two of the three kids while the other was banished to his room.  Some of the tears were because of  the kids, and some were because my pot roast was not good and the potatoes I pulled out of the fridge to cook were rotten and I felt like dinner (the first dinner I’ve cooked in forever) was ruined.  And then when I have a bad day, every negative thing anyone has ever said to me runs through my mind on repeat, and as hard as I try to not believe it, and as much as I tell myself satan is just trying to get me where he knows he can by filling me with insecurity, I can’t get it to stop.  I’m a bad mom.  I’m failing at this.  It’s my fault.  People don’t like me.  People don’t like my kids.  And on and on it goes.  The insecurity is stifling.

I wonder if it will ever go away.

(Confession: Sometimes I write blogs like this and then don’t publish them because I feel naked, and I worry about what people are going to think of me.  I must be feeling brave tonight.)

My teeth hurt from all the Jr. Mints

The other night, Derek decided that we needed to do a fire drill with the kids. We started at dinner with a conversation about it. Derek asked the boys what they would do if there was a fire. What would happen? Both boys looked thoughtfully at us. Logan was the first to throw an idea out. With great passion, he exclaimed “I think a superhero will come rescue us!”  Love it.

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Connor finally decided he wanted to take the training wheels off his bike yesterday. For about 6 months, they’ve been bent and didn’t even touch the ground. But, they offered him a sense of security, and any time we suggested taking them off, he freaked out. Yesterday, he just decided he was ready. Derek took them off, and he zipped right down the driveway. So typically Connor!

T minus 13 days until Kindergarten. We have started transitioning into school mode this week. Connor needs lot and lots of time to adjust to anything new, and he needs lots and lots of structure. Last week I made two posters, a morning routine one and a bedtime routine one. I’m hoping this (along with picking out his clothes for the week on Sunday) help this next big transition he’s facing. Change and the C-Man have not always meshed very well…and starting school is definitely going to be a big change.

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I’m loving the Olympics. Go USA!

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And, to wrap this random post up, a few pictures of the Cami-Girl.

I wonder if her eyes are going to stay blue?

It’s exhausting being a baby!

Queen Bow Head

Discovering her hand. She spends a good portion of her awake hours staring at her hands.

Has anyone seen it?

My self-control, that is.

It seems to be missing. I keep thinking I will find it in the bottom of one of these boxes.

But so far, it’s not there.  I cannot stop eating frozen junior mints.  (Yes, they have to be frozen.)  I blame my mom (don’t we all point the finger at our parents for our issues?)  It all started with a package of Chocolate Twizzlers.  They had been in my pantry for quite some time, and my mom found them while she was here.  During a trip to the store, I tried to buy some more Twizzlers for her, but I couldn’t find them.  Being such a good daughter, I bought her a box of Junior Mints instead, which she promptly placed in the freezer.  And with that, an obsession was born.  I’m averaging a box day…and not the little box, the big box.  I am completely o.o.c.

I do this with food.  I get completely obsessed with one item.  Eventually I get sick of it, but I’m going on week 4 of the Great Junior Mint Obsession of 2008 with no end in sight.

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I took all 3 kids to the store for the first time today, and it was a success!  It helps that it was Target, which we all love.  And it helps that almost all of the items on my list had to do with the kids (like some new art project stuff, backpack and lunchbox for Logan, etc.)  Oh, and the promise of a new superhero toy always helps, too.  Next obstacle…the grocery store.

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So Logan got to pick out a new backpack and lunchbox today.  The first backpack he chose was a pretty pink Princess one.  If you remember, Logan has a thing for princess stuff, which makes me laugh because he is such a boy. So anyway, he picks up this princess backpack and I am faced with the ageold gender stereotype dilemma.  Do I tell him it’s for girls?  Do I let him get it?  Do I try to gently point him in another direction?  I chose to gently point him to the other backpacks.  “Logan, that princess one sure is pretty, but I’m worried you might not like it for the whole year.” That was totally code for “the other boys are going to point and laugh and you are going to want a different bag after the first week of school.”  His next choice was a Tinkerbell bag.  I wasn’t sure he was going to give up on Tinkerbell, but in the end, with encouragement from Connor, he settled on the Hulk bag.  Now it was time for a new lunchbox.  Guess which one he wanted.  Yup, the princess one.  There was no changing his mind this time, and, quite honestly, it doesn’t bother me that he wants some princess stuff.  I mean, they are really pretty, and I just look at it like my boy like pretty girls. So Logan is now the proud owner of a Hulk backpack and a Princess lunchbox.  We’ll see if he really carries it all year.  We do have several other lunchboxes he can use, and I just figured we will have on for Camryn in a few years if he changes his mind.

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I did a little scrapbooking this week!  Connor and I have been having “art time” in the afternoon while Logan sleeps (well, rests on his bed.  The actual sleeping days are getting fewer and farther between.)  Anyway, here are two pages I’ve done this week.

Actually, here are some more, while I am sharing pages.  I never got around to putting these on the blog.  They are all made using Paper Trunk’s newest line of papers, Wrangler.

This blog has officially taken me forever to finish, in between feeding Camryn, feeding the boys, cleaning up spilled apple juice, refereeing a couple of fights, and of course, eating 8,432 frozen junior mints.  All in a days work.