Note to Self

It is NOT a good idea to pack candles in the attic.

Yeah, next year, I’ll be sure my Christmas candles stay away from the 150 degree hot box.  Smooth move, Meg.  Smooth move.

Back to Christmas decorating.  I’m feeling it today.  That has a lot do to with our trip to the Christmas tree farm yesterday to cut down our very own Christmas tree.  So fun, and it’s sure to be a new Thurman family tradition.

Pictures and more to come…Happy Sunday!

Under Construction

Take one wife who has a hard time sleeping when hubby is gone.

Add in a few diet dr. peppers.

And sprinkle in just a bit of obsessiveness.

What do you get? A blog that is under construction. It’s a little nutty right now, but I have to tell you that I feel a bit like a css/html superstar figuring it all out.

(of course, this is only pertinent to those who actually come to the blog to read.  I don’t know about y’all, but google reader is the greatest time saver of all time.)

The kids and I ended up having a really nice night together, despite my bad attitude.  Connor needed some new shoes, so we went to Academy.  They had fun, and were relatively well behaved.  Connor was occupied finding the perfect pair of shoes, Logan hopped and flitted about (but not too disruptively), and Camryn just chilled.  I only got one “wow, you’re really brave shopping by yourself with three kids” comment.  Then we went to Chick-Fil-A for dinner and some playtime.  We got home and they all went right to bed.  And now, 4.5 hours later, I’m still up to my eyeballs in my blog make-over.  Clearly, I need to call it a night.  Tomorrow (well, today technically) will start in 6ish hours.  I’m going to be hurting in the morning….I’m hoping my friend Saturday Morning Cartoons will help me out until Derek gets home.

Cozy

It was cold this morning. Well, Houston cold, which means it was in the 40s and the high is only in the 50s. Luckily I have this little cuddle bug to make us all feel warm and fuzzy!

Those cheeks are just about my favorite thing in the world.  They are the softest, mushiest, happiest little cheeks.

And another picture from yesterday, just for good measure.


Onto other things….

I’m having a really blah day. A really blah week, to be exact. We are all still getting over the snot crud, which means that I’m not sleeping as well mostly because the princess is not sleeping as well. And when I get tired, I tend to get ugly. Derek had to work really late Tuesday night, then left super early Wednesday for a business trip. He got in late last night, and won’t be home tonight because of his company Christmas party. He’s the head of the party committee. (Any of you who know Derek in real life are probably laughing right now. But it’s true. He’s in charge of the Christmas party.) He gets to stay in the hotel, and the plan was for me to go and for us to have a night away. Didn’t work out. It’s a lot to ask someone to watch 3 kids, especially when the littlest doesn’t necessarily sleep all night long. So I’m home with the kids alone for the 4th night this week, and Derek is at a party that he probably wouldn’t be going to unless he had to, especially without me. Big fat bummer.

When Derek is gone, I get flustered and overwhelmed which means I eat more junk which means that I’ve gained back 3 of the 6 pounds I lost, which then makes me feel like a failure, and I just spiral down into a pit of self-loathing, which I hate because I know I shouldn’t feel that way about myself, I know that I am a beautiful woman of God, but the you’re just not good enough voice in my head is loud this week.

My house is a mess.  I want to want to decorate for Christmas, but all I’ve managed to do is have D drag the boxes out of the attic, which just makes the house even messier and more cluttered.  It’s a lot of work, the whole decorating thing, because it’s not just decorating, it’s also dusting.  And at the end of every day, all I do sit and waste time on the computer or watching tv because that is all I have the energy to do.

In conclusion, I declare myself an official grinch this week.

(p.s. did you see my new blog look?  I am thinking of some other ways to tweak it, but for now, the new look makes me happy.)

7 Things: Logan

This is Logan Bennett

1. He is one tough kid.  Seriously, he is constantly getting hurt and I don’t even find out about it until later.  Like the bruise across his face from yesterday.  I *think* he got nailed during a light saber fight with the neighborhood kids.  The details are sketchy, but in typical little brother fashion, he tried to blame his big brother.  More than once, he’s fallen, cried, stopped crying very quickly, I brush it off, only to find out later that he chipped a few teeth or has a massive bruised knot on his head or a black eye.

2. He is a total love bug. He gives at least 20 hugs and kisses every single day.  It’s the best!  He is a little choosey about who is on the receiving end of his affection.  He won’t kiss and hug strangers, and sometimes it’s even tough to get him to hug grandparents or aunts and uncles.  But he is affectionate to his mama, and sometimes his daddy.  In fact, last night he wandered into my room in the middle of the night for a hug and a kiss.  So sweet.

3.  He sleeps with his blankie, a Webkinz lion, a blue dog, a dalmation dog, a little brown bear, and a Webkinz pink poodle.  The all have names except the blue dog.  Sleep Noah (not to be confused with his bff, Noah), 1001 dominations dog, night night bear, and Sonic.

4.  Speaking of sleep, he falls asleep the minute he is still.  Some nights it’s literally less than 5 minutes from tuck in time to hard core asleep time.  He is wiped at the end of every day.  He plays hard.  He rarely walks, always runs.  He doesn’t nap anymore, which suits me fine because he crashes every night about 7:30.

5.  It’s all about the orange juice and chocolate milk.  He rarely drinks anything else.  (I know…bad mom should make him drink more water…)  Except at bedtime he takes a sippy cup of ice water and drinks about three sips before falling asleep. But he won’t fall asleep without that ice water.

6.  His favorite two shows are Franklin and Max and Ruby, which are both totally age appropriate.  But he  loves to play Batman, Spiderman, Superman, and Star Wars because of the older brother (and older neighborhood kid) influence.  Right now, there are six kids, ages 3-10, outside having the best time playing Star Wars.  It’s quite an intense game!

**Sidenote: We have no fences right now.  Ike ruined them and they are in the process of being replaced.  It’s the greatest!  The two kids behind us are 10 and and are so sweet to Logan and play well with Connor.  The ones next to them are 5 and 8.  The kids have been outside, playing in the 3 backyards for 2.5 hours.  I wish our fences were always down!**

7.  Logan uses the word “even” all the time, and usually with great emphasis.  “That’s not even fair.”  “I don’t even like this.” “I had a job today.  Even I was line leader.”  Derek and I have started talking like Logan.  I catch both of us saying “I don’t even like that!”

(This is the face he makes when he doesn’t even like something.)

7 things about yours truly

So since I was tagged by Danielle, Carrie, and Julie in the past 24 hours, I decided to play along.  I’m still going to complete the things about the kids, plus I took a video tonight that is blog worthy, plus I just have a few stories upstairs that need to be told.  Should be some good blogging over the next week!

So, I’m sure you have all seen this one….write 7 random things about yourself and tag 7 other people.  Here we go…

1.) I am terrified of getting a paper cut on my tongue, so when I lick envelopes, I lick them vertically rather than horizontally.  I look sort of like an animal drinking when I lick envelopes.  Weird, I know.  But I’ll never get a paper cut on my tongue!

2.) Speaking of terrified, I am scared of roaches.  I don’t just mean I don’t like them, I think I have an actual phobia of them.  Just writing this, thinking about them, my heart is pounding, my skin is crawling, and I feel a little bit nauseous.  I know it’s irrational, but it’s there.  I can handle pretty much any other bug, but something about roaches causes fight or flight, and I choose flight every single time.

**Side note: I googled “fear of roaches” to see if there is a technical name for it, and found this urban legend.

“I have a co-worker who states that his wife (who is a nurse) witnessed a situation involving someone who licked an envelope and then “hatched” a cockroach from her tongue. Supposedly while licking an egg-infested glue strip on an envelope, she got a paper cut. This then got “infected” but when she went to the hospital to have it examined, the doctor made an incision to release the pus and a roach crawled out.”

I knew my fear of tongue paper cuts was a rational one!

For the record, I think that is the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever read.  But I have worried about roaches in my ears or nose.**

3.) I really love to read, although I don’t do it as much as I did when I was a kid.  I was always reading a book when I was younger.  My favorites were The Baby Sitters Club.  I’ve thought about reading them again just because I loved them so much!

4.) I’ve never had a “real” job before.  In high school, I was a baby-sitter, a meal server at a retirement community, and a video clerk, and a day care worker.  In college, I worked in a daycare, worked as a counselor at summer camp, was an assistant preschool teacher, a baby-sitter, an office worker for a lawyer, and a volleyball coach.  Then I had Connor and became a stay at home mom. ((I found out I was pregnant 2 weeks after graduating from Azusa Pacific University).  I coached junior varsity volleyball 4 months out of the year, and worked for about 6 months in the customer service department of a furniture store.  Oh, and I sold Mary Kay for awhile.  I’ve never worked full time, except for the semester I took off during my junior year of college.

5.) I hate green peas with every fiber of my being.  Except I will eat fresh, raw, sugar snap peas and snow peas in stir fry.  But those basic green peas?  Forget it.  Even the smell makes me gag.  I never make them.  My kids could probably count on one hand the number of times they’ve eaten peas.

6.) Unlike most moms, I am really not a good multi-tasker.  I get this from my dad.  It’s difficult for me to cook and talk on the phone.  I am constantly not finishing things because I get distracted by something else and never go back to the first thing.  I get really flustered when there is a lot going on or a lot that needs to be done at the same time.  When it’s time to get everyone ready to leave the house, I have to very consciously do one thing at a time, and finish one thing before starting the next, even if it’s not time efficient.  The worst is shopping and talking on the phone.  I can’t do it.  I end up wandering aimlessly around the store, completely forgetting what I was there for.

7.) I really like bags.  I love a cute diaper bag, beach bag, purse, etc.  I’m not into designer bags at all, but I love fun bags.  I browse Etsy all the time for cute bags.  Noel just gave me a cute one for my birthday, and it was the perfect gift.  I don’t indulge in my love of bags too much (well, not in my opinion anyway…Derek may beg to differ…) Some women love shoes or jewelry.  I love bags.