Happy New Year!

Well, only 11 minutes left until the new year. I'm setting an early resolution that I will post this before 2008. So that means I have to hurry and get this typed.

For all concerned about my general well-being, I'm happy to inform you that I've got a much better outlook on life today and I'm doing quite well at suppressing the angry feelings that were causing me to be so frustrated yesterday. Well, I suppose "suppressing" would be a bad choice of words here since that leaves the impression of shoving it under the rug for it to pop up later. Uhm........well, actually that may BE appropriate. LOL. Still, "working through" sounds much better, don't you think?

Yeah. I thought so, too.

N-E-Ways......yay, I got an email from Kat today. Somebody actually let me know they were here (*HINT HINT* for all you lurkers who aren't commenting these days....hahaha....although seriously I understand with the holidays and all, I've had a hard time leaving comments or emailing, too). Anywho, it was nice to hear from an old friend. Maybe someday we'll all get to get together again soon....since we haven't even got to meet their #2 yet. It'll probably be like their #1, we didn't meet her until she was like 2. *grin* I hate being so busy and so far away. It's nuts. (and by the way, I'll email ya back soon, Kat)

Kelly girl, thanks for the comment. Thanks for the message on my phone. And most definitely thanks for the prayers. Can I just tell you though, that I had a few moments yesterday of serious consideration of acting on your joking comments when I walked by a basket of clean laundry that was sitting up high and thought about putting it away......and not in the drawers......LOL!!!!! Anywho, I think play dates would DEFINITELY be a good thing for my sanity. Play dates that are run by the guys while us girls go out would be even better. HAH. J/k.
Uh oh....time's almost up.....so before I break my first resolution........

11:59.......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

What a ROTTEN Day!

I am definitely the grumpy of the seven dwarfs today. It's not been such a pleasant day to be in the Always Faith house.

Life has got to get better than this.

I don't know exactly how the words go, but this song has been on my mind....especially last night when I was......

Lyin awake at night, thinking of things beyond my control
Tempted to give up the fight, sometimes I don't think I'll ever win
That's when He says, you can't win without me
But in My strength alone, and thats when I begin, to trust more in Him,
And I rest peacefully.....

I can pray out loud or silently
I can pray standing tall, or on my knees
It really makes no difference, just that prayer is the key
Because prayer changes things, and it changes me.....

Me....no, "I'M".....Tired!!!!!!

Laundry: Overdue
Church Newsletter: WAY Overdue
Sleep: Overdue
Book to Mail For PB Swap: Overdue

Other probably overdue items that I'm overdue in checking on to make sure they're NOT overdue:

Bills
Library books
Mommy Attitude Adjustment
Cleaning the kitty box
Scrapping....no wait....I KNOW that's overdue.....

Oh well anyways.

That was my negative list. Now for the positives:

• PMS: Right on time (oh wait, that would be on the negative side....bwahahahaha.....)
• Mom's Christmas Present: finally arrived (only 4 days AFTER Christmas....hey that's not negative, just pointing out the FACTS here)
• Cat finally pooped in the LITTER BOX today. Changed the litter and that POSSIBLY seems to be helping. This doesn't quite make up for all 50 times that I've had to pick up and clean up the brown piles or the one time that KC stepped in it before I could get it cleaned up.....OR the laundry that I've had to wash that smelled like....non human urine.....but it's a start. Small, but still a start.
• Had a girls night in tonight at KR with all seven kids and us three moms. That was fairly quiet. Unless you count the dirty diapers I had to change....one from the baby and one from the potty trained one who wears panties. Who said to me, and I quote, "me did it on purpose." Oh and the bar of soap that same potty trained one lathered through her hair for no apparent reason.....this from the child who would rather NOT wash her hair and must be reasoned with daily to get this event to occur. Oops....I'm negative again. Anyways, it was fun to commiserate (errrr....I mean VISIT...yes, visit, of course) with two other sympathetic and understanding mothers (and wives) while corralling all our little.....um......miniature humans. Positive. Must. Be. Positive.
• Got the munchkin's room somewhat organized....it only took me two point five days and I still need to steam clean the carpets.
• Got the K-man's room finished. Keeping it that way is a different story but hey. And I'll worry about the closets later.

Oh wait, back to the negative things for a second....I messed up K-man's bedtime last night...put him to bed at 8:30 instead of 7:30 and as I might have predicted, he was still awake at 11. He finally went to sleep and then woke us up at around 1:30 and was awake and bouncing around his crib wanting to get up.....and then coughing and hacking until he gagged himself and then crying b/c he gagged himself and then coughing b/c the drainage going down his throat from crying.......and then going back to happy and bouncing around and calling out for "mommmmmyyyyyy......daddddyyyyyyyy.......mommmmy.......MOMMMY........dadddddddy...." Well, you get the picture. When I tried changing his diaper to see if that was his problem, he told me he was "seeepy" but did he go back to sleep? NOOOOooooo. Not till after four sometime. I was SOOOO tired when I got up this morning. Took him to the doc about the coughing b/c the cough meds didn't work last night for the coughing and the doc thinks he may have the beginnings of asthma and now we have to give him nebulizer treatments twice a day or more as needed to see if this will help clear things up. Woohoo....one more thing to add to my already stressed routine every morning and night before and after work. Then tonight at K's he ran a temp of 103.1, which is not good. Hopefully he's not going to run one again, but it's almost 1am which is around his magic hour, so I should go check his temp again. Not really any point of going to bed now since it's already time for him to get me up again. Lord, love him, I do love him, but I'm ready for him to give me a break already! He's wearing me out with this sick stuff. If he's got a bug, he's timed it just right....72 hours....that will knock me out of sunday services again. Why is it always on the weekends????????? UGH.

Sorry, I'm really complaining.....I don't mean to....KC says I'm too negative and I should stop getting frustrated. I'm just SOOOOO tired. My eyes are really droopy and I need to go check K-man's temp, so I'll get off here. No more grumping tonight.

Relieved? Discusted? Or are you already gone? LOL. Frankly, I don't blame you if you're all of the above. I'm pretty much feeling the same way, only I can't get away from me.

Later.

Random Quote of the evening: "Look, toe jam!"

LOL.....you don't want to know. Let's just say by the end of THAT little episode somebody got put in time out....and it wasn't one of mine for a change. LOL. Sure was funny though!

Oh and this one: "Hab a'It"

That one wasn't my kid either, but he was mimicking what I had just said.....it was hilarious....and in case you didn't get it, he was saying "Have AT it!" Ya had to be there I guess. *grin*

By the way, Ms. Negative Realist is RIGHT ON (again). It is now 12:58 and I just had to drop the computer and run into the bedroom and comfort the K-man....who is now sounding off again. No sleep again tonight I guess.

Later.

Awww sheeeeeesh.....

Is it time to go back to work yet? No, scratch that. I mean, is it time for me to go back to my REAL job yet??????

On That Survival Thing.....?

Well, so far so good. I guess.

Although if it hadn't been for my lovely wonderful parents wrapping fiendishly all the million and one gifts for the munchkin and k-man today while the subjects in question were napping and KC and I were sorting and putting stuff together to be wrapped, there is no way we would have gotten done in time. As it was, we were still late getting to the Christmas eve dinner at my cousin's for my side of the family. Oh well. It was a good day anyways.

Got to see my brother for the first time in awhile (Munchkin keeps calling him Bwuddda Na-fan instead of Unca Nafan -- I guess b/c I keep trying to explain to her that he's MOMMY'S brother and HER uncle Nafan.....oh well).

She is just hil-ARIOUS these days. Every time I turn around she's cracking me up! So much so that I can't even remember all of it to blog. *SIGHHHHHH*

Did ya'll catch that? I sighed.

So....as usual, I'm extremely tired, and the kidlets will for SURE be up early tomorrow, plus we have to go to to the in-laws tomorrow around 11, so it's going to be a busy morning.

And....like....it's eleven forty nine now and I'm not in bed. Bad thing. Very bad thing. I'm going to go fix that bad thing.

Oh yeah, and I just realized today was Monday, but my days are all mixed up from being off weird days and having the kids home all week and all that stuff....so I'll try to get going with that again later.

So....yeah.
Later.

MIA: Me

Or so my dear hubby informs me. It appears that he actually is missing my blog posts. Or at least that's what I THINK he meant by "Have you quit blogging?"

I'm going to stick with that assumption. Particularly since when I asked him if he liked reading them, his "of COURSE" sounded a bit facetious. LOL.

Oh well.

So where have I been? Surviving. Little else. I don't think the antibiotics the doc gave me a week and a half a go for the sinus infection have kicked it. I'm basing THAT assumption on the fact that I have one pill left and the sinuses have came roaring back to haunt me in the last two days. I highly doubt that the one LAST pill is going to be the kicker.

I hope the medicine the pediatricians prescribed for both of the kids sinus infections does a better job.

I must say, the first few days of our seventh year of marriage haven't been a bed of roses around this house. Mommy's grumpy cuz she don't feel good (among other things). Kids are whiny and grumpy cuz they don't feel good (among other things). Daddy is the perfect hubby and ever patient and thoughtful, which makes mommy feel worse. No, seriously.

So KC and I are having a lively discussion in the car today and we weren't being hateful or mad and I don't think it was even at each other, it was just a few moments of intense fellowship when we hear this from the back seat:

"Daddy, mommy, say SOWWEEE!"

"Um.....sorry for what???"

"Sowwee for sa-ing bad words!!!!!"

"WHAT bad words? We're not saying bad words!"

"Mommy, daddy, you KNOWW BEDDEW!!!! SAY SOWWEEE!!!!"

No, she didn't just say we know better. Yes, she did.

"Sorry, daddy!"

"Sorry, mommy!"

"Happy, munchkin???"

(Much quieter now) "You know beddew. Not do that 'gain"

"Yes, MA'AM!"

LOL. Funny little critter, that munchkin. The other day KC was doing something at the table and she was nagging him about a page that was ripped in her book and wanting him to fix it and he says to her (in one of those moments when his everlasting patience had reached the ever last) "There are 15 OTHER pages in the book that AREN'T ripped, read THOSE!!!"

"Gwumpy, GWUMPY!!!!" And she flips over to the other pages just as calmly as you please as if she'd never had an issue.

KC and I just looked at each other and busted out laughing. No, she didn't.

Yes. She did.

Crazy, that kid, Lord, love her. Riding in the car on the way home, this car was coming the other direction and KC had just passed this really slow car and it wasn't really a passing zone, and I said, that's not a cop coming toward us is it and KC says he hopes not. A few seconds later the backseat Dumbo (you know the little elephant with the GIANT EARS) is totally quiet and I turn around to see if she's asleep and she says "I'm waiting for the cop to come. Me say NOT TAZE ME." I was like, good grief.

Anyways, so yeah, I've been missing from the internet for the last little bit. Sorry to anyone whose blogs I read regularly....I'll try to get caught up soon. From the looks of the comments (or lack there-of) my usual faithful friends and commenters seem to be on break as well.

So my eyes REALLY are hurting and I need to go to bed. Did NOT get the presents wrapped tonight. NOT GOOD, ya'll, considering there are about 500 kids toys out in the garage that we need to wrap.

Was NOT expecting DSS to bring over 5 gigantic sacks full of really nice toys for the two kids. We are going to go through all the toys that we've bought and that DSS sent and pick a few things to save for later. The kids are going to be so overwhelmed on Christmas morning. And not to mention all the goodies they've gotten from both sides of the family and friends at church and all that. We will probably just go through and remove ALL their old toys to make room for the new ones.....YOW. Good problem to have, I guess, I know we're really blessed, so I can't complain, but really.....now we have to wrap all zillion of the goodies and there are approximately 24 hours left. YIiIIIIiiiIIIIIiIIIIIiiiiiIIIiiIiIiIIiIIIIiIIIIIIIIIIIIIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!!!!

Night.

A Very Quick Update & The 2007 Christmas Letter

I am E.X.H.A.U.S.T.E.D!!!!!!!!

Surprise: Biltmore House --- it is HUGE....massive.....very cool tour.....and I'm still sore from all the walking.....I did not wear the right shoes. But LOVE my sweet hubby!!!!! The candlelit christmas tour and I picked Texas Roadhouse for our dinner. (Yes I know, not exactly fancy grub, but I liked it)

Kids: Survived without us but seemed really excited to see us when we got back.

Anniversary: SWEET! ;-)

Mawmaw and Pawpaw: Called right after lunch today to find out when we could get back to pick up the kids. I think they (NOT THE KIDS) might have been just a little bit sleep-deprived and worn out. *ROFL*

Shopping: Did lots.

Tonight: Stayed up extreeeeeeemly late to get busy on the wrapping (of which we have an OVER abundance of items that need to be wrapped) and now my back is killing me from all the shopping, all the walking through gigantic houses, all the standing up to finish the christmas projects that have been sitting on my counter for weeks.....then wrapping till all hours.

And what am I doing here at 1am????? Updating the blog....which feels terribly neglected these last few days before christmas.

Oh yeah, in case I forgot: Court: Munchkin's case was continued until January b/c the "assumed biological father" has not had thirty full days to respond to DSS about his "presumed child" whom he has never seen in his life and claims that she isn't his. Why, I ask, are we even BOTHERING? URHG. Yes, I know. B/c it's the rules. Dumb rules.

Random Munchkin conversation:
Mom: What does green light mean?
Munchkin: GO!
Mom: What does red light mean?
Munchkin: STOP!
Mom: What does yellow light mean?
Munchkin: Go FASTTTTT!!!!!!

OOps.

-----------------------------------------------------

The 2007 Annual Christmas Letter

So, if you're here b/c you got a Christmas card from us and this is your first time visiting....welcome. I don't really know what to tell you except to consider yourself warned: KC's got a crazy wife and this place (while it does keep anyone interested up to date --mostly-- on life at our house) contains much evidence of her insanity.

This blog started out as "Random Insanity" and for the most part, was just an online journal (or brain dump, perhaps) and a place for me to write. After awhile, I started realizing that people I knew in real life were picking up on it and then b/c I didn't know who was reading and who wasn't, an average conversation about anything going on in our life, would begin like this: "Okay before I tell you this, do you read my blog? Cuz if you do, then you have probably already heard this." *smiles*

These days it's the best way to keep up, since we are insanely busy and hardly have time to catch up with anyone anymore. I changed the name to Always Faith a little while after we started foster care since it became a little less of random insanity, but still it's Always Faith and a lot about the family.

Occasionally it still ends up being a brain dump (okay, maybe more than occasionally) but you can consider yourself warned.

So if you're here from the Christmas Card, welcome. I'd like to direct you to a few links and after that, explore where you will.....but only if you want....or dare....or something like that.

Just remember, I know I'm nuts, so you don't have to worry about finding a way to tell me. LOL. Love ya'll!!! And Happy Holidays!!!!!

1. Statement of Intent
2. Content Disclaimer
3. A little explanation on the reasons behind the fact that we were just two last year and now we're a family of four and not only that, but the younglings are 2 and 3.5.

For more on #3, you can go down the sidebar to the Infamous Insanity section and read the last handful of links on the arrivals of the younglings.

PS My email is over in the sidebar as well, so please feel free to let us know you were here and update us on your lives as well. Seems like we only see some of you guys at weddings or funerals, so we'd welcome the chance to stay caught up with you outside of those two occasions.

Stayin' Alive.....

......Whether you're a brother
or whether you're a mother,
You're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Feel the city breakin' and everybody shakin,
And we're stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive, stayin' alive.
Ah, ha, ha, ha, stayin' alive.

Life goin' nowhere. somebody help me.
Somebody help me, yeah.
Life goin nowhere. somebody help me, yeah.
I'm stayin' alive......


So. Can I have a round of applause here? I made it through an entire church service. WHOA. Scratch that. I made it TO CHURCH. Unfortunately, I made it alone....well, me and the K-man, since Munchkin got home from school and actually went and crawled in bed. That and the very discusting hacky cough....well, I knew she had to be sick. I'd pretty much guarantee that she's got the same sinus infection that two of our four family members have been trying to kick out. So I'm not sure how I'm going to handle this...I have to go to court tomorrow to see what they're going to decide on her case, and KC can't get off work, so I guess I'll just take her to daycare until court is over and then go get her and take her to the doc so we can get some of the antibiotics for her, too. That will make THREE of four family members.

I'm just in a really down mood tonight. I think it started with K-man's meltdown about 10 minutes after we got to church. I took him back to one of the sunday school rooms and tried to talk to him and all he wanted to do was scream. Too bad the sunday school rooms don't have soundproof walls/doors. I held him and let him scream and just tried to muffle them with my hand, so it was cover and let go so he could draw his breath to scream again and then repeat. After about 20 minutes of that, mommy decided to just melt down with him. Strangely enough, once he realized mommy was crying with him while he screamed and fought, he did the breath and repeat a couple more times and then leaned against me and we sat there a few more minutes and then went back out and he was pretty much as good as I can ever expect for a two year old to be for the rest of the service. Of course, I did give in and let him get down in the floor....I just couldn't deal with another meltdown tonight. I just don't know how to get through to them sometimes. Other than melt down with them, which obviously has SOME kind of effect. I'm just so tired. And when I'm tired it is SO easy to have a pity party.

So I'm going to leave it at that. I'll keep my discusting negativity offline. Stayin' alive, people.....just stayin' alive.

And no matter how much sleep I get, it's not getting any better. Maybe. Just maybe. Being off for the next 14 days will help. I hope.

If I don't kill myself trying to get everything done first.

Oh, but I just remembered something......i have the best hubby in the world. poor thing doesn't deserve to be stuck with me but----oops...sorry....negative. Anyways, he has got something special planned for our sixth anniversary on Friday and it's some big secret. All I know is I have to dress nice and pack for an overnight stay and he even took care of arranging for the kidlets to be taken care of while we're gone. I'm sure it can't be far since it's only overnight and we can't leave until 4:30 on Friday afternoon, but I'm really excited. He's such a doll. I am soooo lucky.

I could cry. No. Wait. I already did that tonight. My next cry is on the schedule sometime next year. No more til then. Okay, so I know what I could do....I could go google events that happen on this friday night and see if any of them are within a couple of hours or less from us....hehehehehe. No, I won't do that. I like surprises. Even if it's killing me to wait until friday. I'm sure I'll have enough to keep me occupied so the time will fly by. If I don't, I could always sleep.....*grin*

I'm actually going to do that now.

I think I might put sleep on my list of new years resolutions. Along with only salads to eat for the month of january due to all this fudge I'm eating in the month of december which is only making my 142 pound weight problem an even bigger issue. YOW.

Night.

Monday Messages (The Insane Edition)

Dear blog readers,
Hey....I got pictures....this is like twice in a month. Ain'cha proud? Just thought I'd point that out.....in case you decide to leave before ya get down to see the pictures. Hehe.
Sincerely Yours,
Always.Faith


Dear nearest mental facility,
I fear that it may soon be necessary for me to make an extended.....visit. I am sorely afraid that I am losing my mind. Perhaps my most recent clue to this upsetting thought is the fact that I misplaced my car in the parking lot. Not only that, but before I realized I had lost my car, I walked straight to one just like it in the next row over and actually thought to myself, Hmmmm, I don't remember putting black horse decals on the back. And who washed my car? Wait. this isn't right. Where's my Ohio State magnet? You idiot! This isn't your car. Where's my car? Then I proceeded to walk back up the aisle, and one over, still didn't see my car, turned around and it was on the other side of the mistaken Pilot. Seriously, like, as a heart attack, I REALLY DID think that before I gave myself a mental kick and thought about where people whose minds are haywire get to go.....I have concluded that I will never judge those little old ladies who wander around parking lots looking for their car. But please, I'm only 24.
Sincerely,
Would Like Stay on This Side of the Barred Windows.


Dear Children,
You are children. Not animals. Although if you MUST take on beastly characteristics, could you please be kittens instead of lions and tigers? Now I understand you are both feeling a bit under the weather, but really.....fits over the fact that I wanted you to LOOK at me when I'm talking to you are really quite unneccessary. Just thought I'd tell ya. Love ya anyways.
Mommy


Dear Sinus Infection,
When I told you to get away from me, I meant like, FAR AWAY. Out of my house. Not for you to go to one or both of my kids. HEL-LO!!!! You are making them miserable and subsequently that is causing ME to be miserable. And you know, since it's all about me....NOT.....anyways.....get out. NOW! Or I'm going to put you in time-out. Forever.
NOT LOVE,
Mommy


Dear Non-Existent Homeowners Association,
I'm sorry, but this is the HEIGHTH of TACKY.
I'm VERY thankful that these people are not my neighbors, but for the sake of the poor innocent people who must pass by on a regular basis, could you DO SOMETHING about this? At least let them know that seeing puddles of red, white, and green fabric which at some point may have been inflated does not lend itself to the Christmas Spirit ONE LITTLE BIT. Not counting the fact that they are running out of yard for the hideous monstrosities of the INflated and DEflated species. It's bad enough that the yard and porch is chock-full of junk (much like our garage, but at least we have the class to hide it) but to overflow the yard with such tackiness is beyond sickening.

Sincerely,

The lady down the road (but you can call me Mrs. Grinch)





Dear Peabody (or more appropriately PEEbody, formerly known as Jango or FatCat),
STOP IT ALREADY!!!!! YOU ARE MAKING ME MAD!!!!!! I absolutely refuse to get rid of you and you are making it extremely difficult for me to convince KC of your worth. I don't know how much longer I can plead your cause if you don't cease and desist with the potty breaks in places other than your litter box. GOT IT? And by the way, don't think I'm not watching you and that mischievous look in your eyes. You better straighten up and toe the line, mister, or you're gonna wind up banished to the garage, regardless of my sincere efforts to defend you.
Love,
Your Discusted Mommy


Dear Hubby,
Okay....are you satisfied? She finds this book in one of the piles of kids books that I've stockpiled away for if we get older kids and ecstatically runs out to the living room to open to the middle where the pictures are so that she can show you Dar Aider.....without either one of us prompting her as to who "Darth Vader" is. Not only that, but she proceeded to spend the rest of her time before bed poring over those pictures in the middle of the book. One of us, she truly is. Especially given that she's not seen any of the Star Wars movies. LOL. Congratulations on your young padwan, daddy!!!!
Love, Still chuckling


Dear K-man,
Will you try to time it so that your being sick does NOT fall on Sundays when it takes at least 8 times longer to get prescriptions filled due to the wait for the pharmacy to open and then the fact that our regular drive through one is closed when we need it and we wind up going to one that takes an hour and a half to fill the crazy prescription. Yeah. If you MUST be sick, how bout doing it on a workday.....so I can call in and stay home with you without missing church. I'm sure people at church will need to be re-introduced to me when I finally get to go again since it's been so long....you're gonna have to shape up, too, little guy. And yeah, I guess I forgive ya for being sick on Sunday....given that you didn't really have much of a choice yourself.
Love you, buddy, and I hope you feel better soon b/c I miss your cheerful sweetness which has been replaced by a mini Munchkin 'tude.
Lovingly,
Mommy


Dear Self....
Perk up dearie and get over it. Oh and while you're at it....get a grip on that tongue of yours. Silence is golden, don'cha know.
Seriously shutting up now,
Me

Thursday Thirteen (random picture edition)

Thirteen Random Pictures from the Crazy Lady in November/December:

1. November. Driving home. Ahhhhhh.....fall. Pretty colors.

2. Old barn. Thought it looked kinda cool....and a little lonely...sitting out there in the middle of the field by itself.

3 & 4. My delightful finds at the thrift store at the end of November. Wooohoo. Best part? Half price sale....if I remember correctly I wound up paying a buck fifty each. Both are fisher price and one is the little people house that makes sounds. Munchkin is getting these for Christmas. I'll probably buy her a couple of little people to go with it. They looked like new after I took the clorox wipes to them.

5. Me with the two big babies on my lap. Nappy time....

6. Fun with mirrors....

7. "Take my picture and die."

8. Things I didn't actually intentionally capture....
1. Hey, it's what was in the sideview mirror again....out the front winshield this time....
2. Buckle up reminder.
3. Driver obviously missed the reminder.
4. The doorhandle that sliced the finger, requiring first aid
5. Lovely first aid.

9. They upgraded....and apparently found someone a little less smarty pants to do the lettering.

10a. Is that a cat climbing the wall there?

10b. why, no.....that's a coon!

10c. Dude, what are ya'll gawkin at. I'm just checking the caulkin on yar winda's here. Yep, looks like you're up for some repairs pretty soon if you want to save sum money on yar heat bill.

10d. No, wait....don't call animal control. Noooooooo......11. Replaced the dead flowers (again). Don't these look beautiful? I had to get the kind you don't have to water. LOL. These will last forever. Ain't that great?
12. awwwww.

13.....well, maybe I'll get to it later. I'm really tired and its 11:30. *sigh* Again.

Later.

God, Are You Trying To Tell Me Something?

You know, it couldn't have been more perfect.

Of all the days that I double check with KC to make sure he's got a set of keys before I lock the door and pull it shut behind me on our way out.......

Tonight I didn't.

For the first time in several weeks, I was going to try to get myself and the two kidlets to church on a Wednesday night. Some people probably think I'm some kind'a backslidden sinner for this, but after all the church drama with the kids, I decided I would get more encouragement if I stayed at home, kept the kids on their schedule and routine, and just work on some bible/studying after they were in bed. We tried to take them both to church, but it was just totally defeating the purpose b/c after about 7:30, both of them start getting cranky and if they're not in the middle of the bedtime routine about then, it is one un-happy family we got on our hands. Making them sit quietly in church or trying to get them to fall asleep in the middle of all that excitement is just generally useless and we end up spending all of our time at church sitting in time out in the nursery. Now I have two options: let them do as they please during service just to keep them pacified or alter the schedule so that their bedtime routine is not interrupted. Okay, so I'm just gonna tell ya, think what you want, but letting them do as they please or pacifying their every whim is not an option b/c we pay for it many times over in the days following. So. Since sitting in the nursery was getting us nowhere, I decided we'd try the other option. It's worked great. I've had Wednesday evenings to work on the church newsletter a little at a time, (and since I do a lot of proofing before I send it out for the final proof, I get to really think about and study a lot of articles) do some devotional reading, etc, and the kids are kept on schedule, bath, bedtime routines, and all that without any extraordinary amount of fussing,. and if I'm REALLY doing good, I might even get a load of laundry thrown in there as a bonus while I'm studying. The last few weeks I've been sick or had to work for my job though, so I haven't had the bonus of laundry.

I probably should password protect this post since I'm sure I'll get criticized for feeling that way, but oh well.

Anywho, although I decided upon that course of action through much prayer (maybe I should have added fasting, since the scales have recently started provoking me....but I digress) and felt that God was giving me the okay for that, it was not my intentions to make it a permanent arrangement. As such, I've been very carefully working toward extending their bedtimes little by little and at the same time keeping their routine very steady, so that they would hopefully be able to stay out later without having behavior issues. It's been going well.

Granted, church is not the only reason for this.....I have several other reasons....like getting them to start sleeping a little later in the mornings.....and...well, you know--stuff like that. And come on....seriously, have you any idea how difficult it is to go shopping after work for the pagan holidays (I'm laughing here, okay?) or anything else and go to the big town half an hour away and still get home and get the kids in bed before the "witching hour" (which at our house is around 7-7:30)??? And you can laugh, but it's really frustrating. I work 40+ hours a week, KC works at least 55+ hours a week and by the time we get home and get their routine finished for the night, we're exhausted ourselves. Forget doing anything like going grocery shopping. Or heaven forbid straightening up the house. I've gotten to where I have to take a day off work while the kids are at school if I need to get anything done. Saturdays are as full as any other day and you've got the kids to watch then on top of it all. Anyways, it's been somewhat of a priority for me to work on getting the kids schedules to more closely match ours.

But all that aside, last night we took them to the foster family/social services christmas party at the local skating rink and were out later than we've been, as a family, since I started keeping them at home on Wednesday nights. We were home sometime around 8:15 and the K-man was in bed and asleep by 8:30. Munchkin....well, she didn't do so well, but still it wasn't as terrible as some nights.

So tonight, I thought, hey....last night was bearable, I think we'll try again to take all four of us out to church tonight and if it comes down to it, we'll just leave a little early so I can still get them in bed before 9.

I wonder sometimes if their being foster kids has anything to do with their desperate need for a steady and predictable routine. I don't see many normal parents having these kinds of difficulties with their kids' routines. I tend to think it might, simply for the fact that they've had all the "knowns" (however terrible they may have been) ripped away from them and now any "unknowns" in their schedules just freaks them out.

For example, the other day I picked up Munchkin from school and K-man had been picked up earlier by his social worker for play therapy and she was just going to drop him off at home when it was over since it would be after school. Munchkin and I got halfway down the walkway when she stopped dead in her tracks and wailed, "Where my bruderrrrrr???? Mommy, my bruder, we have to go get him. HE GONE!!! WHERE K-MAN!!!!!" And when I told her that his SW had picked him up for play therapy and would drop him off at the house when it was over and not to worry, he'll be back later, she very sadly said, "maybe not." She moped all the way home and didn't cheer up until he got home. And I think those attachment issues may have some part of why she doesn't let us out of her sight. Daddy gone to the garage? She has to go look out and make sure he's still there. Let her stay up a little later to finish whatever she's doing? She will have at least two tantrums to thank you for it before you can get her in bed. Try to rush up a routine, she'll kick and scream and take twice as long. K-man is the same way, only less stubborn and vocal about it. You can rush up his routine and he won't like it, but the worst he'll do is fight sleep and cry and be grumpy.

*HUGE SIGH*

ANYWHO!!!!!!! Sheesh. Where was I going with this? Oh yeah. So tonight? We've got the kids buckled in, we're climbing in ourselves and KC says, you got the keys, honey. I was like, whoa, wait just a minute. YOU DON'T HAVE THE KEYS????? Oh dear heavens. He looked at me (with a rather panicked look) and said, "Stop being dumb, honey, and give me the keys."

"I'm not being DUMB! I DON'T HAVE THE KEYS. See? All I have is my work keys. I thought you had the keys since you were already out and ready to go!"

"I thought you GOT the keys!"

"I thought YOU got the keys."

"You really don't have any keys."

"Oh, great. Just great."

So, my wonderful and very capable hunny proceeded to attempt to break in through the side door in the garage (thankfully we hadn't shut the garage yet) and after all attempts to pick the lock failed, dug out his drill and drilled a hole through the doorknob, while HIS wonderful and very capable (although decidedly forgetful) hunny proceeded to attempt to entertain and keep two active kids out of the way of the break-in attempts for the next hour and a half. About the time I finally got the brilliant idea to cut some windows in the cadillac stroller box and let them play in that for awhile, KC drilled through. Then he replaced the doorknob with a spare we had sitting around (maybe from the last time he had to break in that same door for the same reason) and putty-ed the holes back up AND hid a spare key. In a secure place of which I will not reveal. Duh.

Needless to say, we didn't quite make it to church.

So, tell me, God, are you trying to tell me something? B/c if it was just the devil throwing up a roadblock, wouldn't there have been a way around it? Frankly, I don't much see how there would have been any way around this one since KC worked as fast as he could to get back in the house to get the keys which would give us the capability to drive the vehicle. *sigh*

Anyways, the kids were off the charts tonight, so it would have probably been another nursery night anyways, but if I couldn't go to church, I sure would druther have done other things besides safely entertain kids in a decidedly un-kidfriendly garage while breaking into our own house. For an hour and a half.

This has turned into quite the long post. If you made it this far and if you have a decidedly negative opinion of me now, based on my statements in this post, please tell it to God and love me anyways. Remember, ya have to ta go to heaven....*grin*.

Love ya anyways.
Me

Dear God,
Thanks for your help the last few days. As much as I laugh and kid, I'm being totally serious when I say thanks. Thanks for the ability to joke and have a good time. Thanks for helping me to feel the lightness even when I feel weighed down. Is that what you're talking about when you said your yoke is easy and your burden is light? But thanks for that. I know I'll never understand it all, and more than all that, I'll never understand why you love me. Crazy, nutty, moody, forgetful, and mistake-makin me. But all I can say is thanks. Thanks for the kids. Thanks for my hubby and my family. Thanks for loving me and for being there when no one else is, and just for helping me through another day.
Love, Always.Faith

My Elf Self

The only version of me that can actually do some decent dance moves: My Elf Self
(P.S. Thanks, Susan. HEHE)

Whooo---EEEEE

It has been a day.

Where do I start? The beginning is so far back, I hate to think about covering all that ground.

Anywho, called in sick to work today and went to the doc instead. Acute sinusitis. Lovely. Said to take the antibiotics and they should kick it out in no time. Heavens, but I hope so. I'm sick o' bein' sick. Doc also said that the achy body I've had for the last few days is related to the infection and it should be going away soon, too. Please, God, let it be so. I slept in the recliner for a good couple of hours after I got back from the doc. I wasn't hungry at lunch, so I skipped and just slept instead. Of course, part of the reason I wasn't very hungry might have had something to do with the fact that I had this conversation with the nurse:

Nurse: "Alright, hop up on the scales there, missy. Here, let me take your purse......whoa (nurse gasping at the weight of it)."

Me: (laughing) "Yeah, that would add at least 10 pounds to my weight." (watching nurse adjust the weights on the scales......adjusting.....adjusting....stopping at 142) "Oooooooh. I've gained a bit of weight." (uhoh)

Nurse: "Come over here to the other scale, that can't be right, you ain't no bigger than a pea, let's try this one." (adjusting.....adjusting.....stopping at 142) "Well, you sure don't look it, you skinny little thing, you make me sick." (have to add here that this is my favorite nurse and she's always teasing and joking around....)

Me: (still laughing) "Whatever."

I know I'm tall, and I know I'm not fat, but I've always been a 129 kind of girl. 142 just makes me cringe when it's me standing on the scales.

Anywho, needless to say, there may have been a good reason I lost my appetite at lunch today....a good reason besides being sleepy. Ha. Not that being sleepy isn't a good reason, too.

Whatever. Hopefully I'll get through with this medicine....all of it...and be my normally happy and non-medicated self again soon. Hopefully.

Oh, and let's add in there, 129. My normally happy and non-medicated 129lb self. Heh.

In other news.....K-man did some water in the potty tonight. WOOOHOOO. After he stood next to the tub and peed on the rug right after I took off his diaper for his bath for two nights in a row, I decided maybe he was ready to start doing it on the potty. So I brought out his little potty and when I took off his diaper tonight, I sat him on it and waited. No bribes, no begging....not that I'm above that by no means, but for now I'm okay with him doing it on his own time. Anyways, I waited and suddenly he started going....only he wasn't sitting right and it was going UP instead of DOWN, however I very quickly (while avoiding the shower) showed him how to fix that and he finished in the potty on his own. YIPPEEE. Then I just praised and praised and praised....and cleaned up the floor (we'll work on that part later...or maybe DADDY will work on that part later....haha....sounds like a great idea to me!!!!). And then on with the bath routine as usual. Love that boy. He's so cuddly right out of the bath....I have to RUSH to get him dried off before he throws himself and the towel into my arms and cuddles up and then I can't get the towel (or him) unwrapped enough to finish drying him. HAHA.

Let's see. That was a good bit of today. I had a couple of other things I wanted to write about, but I guess I'll save them for another day since they're kinda older thoughts anyways and a few more days won't hurt.

Skipping the Monday messages for this week. Since I've already almost finished this post before I thought about it and I don't want to go back and rewrite all that into Monday Messages. So anyways. I'm off for now.....munchkin is fighting the sleepy monster tonight and I need to go check on her.

Oh yeah, and she watched Beauty and The Beast tonight. She was HYSTERICAL to watch....when beauty and the beast were dancing, she was swaying back and forth and saying beauty and the beast with the song....ehhehee. it was cute. and then at the end, when belle was crying over the beast and he died, she was like "oh no, he killed, oh no. awwwwww. OH?!? beast getting up!!! awww they kissin!!!!" and she just kept tilting her head and she was soo into it. It was FUNNY. And after it was over, she kept talking about it. It was cute.

Alright. Going now. Later!

UGH.

Ever get so behind that you are about ready to give up trying to catch up?

"Just keep swimming, just keep swimming......"

My motto these days.

So much funny stuff, so much crazy stuff, good times, cool (and more importantly, SUCCESSFUL) projects, laundry, short trips....I just am behind on blogging about it all and b/c I'm so behind, I just find myself not wanting to blog at all. I hate that. Oh yeah, and the worst part is I'm (still) sick and feeling yucky. I think if I wake up in the morning and still don't feel good, I think I'm going to call in sick to work and go pay my dear doc a visit. And I'm talking about the kind of doc that has an MD or some other similar term at the end of his name, not the kind of doc that has 23 flavors in the can. Although I'll probably have some one on one time with him tomorrow, too.

I'm exhausted. KC's parents have season passes to Dollywood and got us free tickets to go with them, so we all went there yesterday morning and came back today. Short trip. Sick. Rain to drive in. Grumpy, napless kids. Pretty lights and fun parade in Dollywood. Two kids crashing at exactly the same time just as we came through the big town up the hill on our way home today and slept all the way down the mountain and didn't wake up until we had gotten everything unloaded. That instant knockout of two kids at the exact same time shocked Daddy and Mommy speechless. Well. Almost speechless. Okay. Just shocked. Anywho.

Bought a cadilac of a stroller (a double stroller) for the trip. Dear heavens, but that was a lifesaver. Beats the umbrella strollers by a mile. I LOVE that I can push it with one hand....I can put my drink in the holder. I can store all the bags underneath the kids. It holds both of them. They can even recline and put THEIR drinks and snacks in THEIR holders. Best of all, tall people like us don't have to bend over to push it and thereby breaking our backs as we do when we have to use the umbrella strollers. We've decided, as handy as the umbrella strollers are, they were definitely made by short people. Probably with the intent of torture for the tall people. It works. EH. Nothing against you shorties out there.

So. That pretty much sums up the weekend. I've got a couple of things I still need to get recorded, but not tonight. I'm tired, gonna finish catchin up on here a bit and then I'm headin to bed. *sigh*

La. er. oops. t. Later.

Hair today, gone tomorrow.

Well. Gone today, actually, but it didn't sound right to say it that way.

*PLEASE NOTE --- GIRL TALK BELOW, GUYS JUST CLICK HERE TO GO AWAY*

Ahhhh.....got home early this afternoon and decided to use that hour without kids to pamper myself with a nice loooooong hot shower. So sad how things like using a razor just don't make it to the top of the priority list as often once you have kids......*sigh* Since the K-man is usually banging on the sides of his crib and crying to get his diaper changed at dark-thirty in the morning, I'm typically doing the 'spit and run through it' kind of shower so I can throw on some clothes and get the kids ready for school.....and the evening shower doesn't actually include removing my clothes, it's usually taken on the side of the bathtub while trying to keep the K-man from either tinkling on me or in the tub and/or splashing water on every last square inch of dry places on my person. Yeah. Anyways. I feel like a girl again. Nice feeling, that.

As you can see, I have nothin of importance to talk about, so I'm going to hop off here and go to bed. Just needed to get on here and say SUMPIN since I haven't posted in several days. YOW. If you'd like some humor, you might find a laugh or two in the comments section of my last post....hehe. Love that hubby of mine. *smiles*

Tay. I'm going away now.

Later.

Reaching a New Low

Well. For one of the only times in my life that I can recall...I don't really feel like writing. I wish I did. Specially since this is Monday Messages day....but unfortunately, I'm just not into it today. Probably b/c my thoughts are so scattered that it would be complete nonsense (as opposed to mostly nonsense....LOL) if I wrote anything vaguely important.

And b/c it is ten o'clock, I'm sick, I went to work anyways today, and I'll probably wake up in the morning feeling crummy again, and likely will be up at least once in the night.....and then have to get up and go to work again tomorrow.....I think I shall get off of here and go to bed.

But first. I am going to finish my glass of Dr. Pepper. The only thing that is keeping me even remotely resembling a sane person these days.

So here's the monday message....

Dear Dr. Pepper and my bed,
I love you. I love you. I love you. I never, ever, ever want to leave you. Please let's just tie the knot so we can be together forever, okay?
Yours truly,
Addicted

See what I mean by "a new low"?????

Later!

SHEESH.

If it ain't one thing, it's half a zillion others. *sigh*

Wally asked me the other day if I had a "hot key" for that *sigh* thing. No, I sure don't, but I use it so often, it would save me at least 50 keystrokes per blog entry if I did. End of sentence. Press F7. Write another paragraph, insert F7.

LOL. (Need a hot key for that one, too, haha!)

So what are these half a dozen...er...zillion....others? Well, I'm sure you don't have the time to listen to all half zillion, so I'll just sum it up to say that K-man came down with some kind of virus Friday morning when he woke up, so KC and I juggled work times so that one of us would be with him all day. And I had to take him to the doctor. Figures that the only two times he puked???? On the way to the doctor's office. On the way back from the doctor's office. Bless his little heart. I had to pull off the road and try to take care of him.....made me a few minutes late to the doc, too. F7. (LOL) He was so pitiful. You KNEW he was sick....he was quiet all day and slept most of the time. Oh yeah, and figures that I had cleaned the car out and forgot to replace the spare set of clothes.

Thank you, KC, for spraying out the car seat when I got home. You're a doll!

By the way, back to the F7 thing....I just have to say that every time you see this: *sigh* I actually AM sighing. The general procedure is that I'll finish typing the sentence, *sigh* and then pause, and while I'm thinking of what to say next, I just go ahead and type that so that my fingers don't stop.

Cuz around here?

You stop, you don't get started again.

I do my best not to stop.

Speaking of not stopping....although really I'm not sure how I'm going to tie this in....this is a lousy segue....let's just stop and I'll move on to the next topic abruptly. *sigh*

Ooops. I stopped and now I lost my thought. See what I mean?

My head hurts.

I think my sinus infection is still hanging around. I took some sinus meds, but not really noticing any difference.

Hopefully I'll get to sleep tonight. I slept on the couch last night. It was easier to get off the couch and go to K-man than to crawl out of my cozy bed and go to him. He was really restless and had a rough time all night long. Ran a fever most of the night, so I kept trying to comfort him and get his fever down. I did get a couple of hours of sleep in between hopping up to take care of him. And bless my mom, she was going to come help me with the kids so we could go to the scrapbook day, but when K-man got sick and I decided I'd better stay home with him instead of taking him, mom came on anyways and played with the kids in their room for awhile so I could get some rest. It was so nice.

Munchkin had a bit of a rough start this morning. Decided she didn't want to wear boombooms and wanted to throw a fit over it, so I told her I was going to go play and when she was ready to get dressed she could come out. I went back in a few minutes later when she didn't come out and she was jumping on the bed, nekkid as a jaybird. The little turkey. So I pulled the clothes out from where she'd put them back in the drawers and put them on her, with her kicking and screaming and trying to undo my work the whole time. Then I, very calmly, said we don't run around without our clothes on, and if you want to continue this fit, then we'll do it outside. Then I gently, but very firmly, took her hand and led her out to the garage (which is attached to the house and the only way she can reach to get out is through the door back into the house). I told her when she finished her fit, she could come back inside. I figured it would be chilly enough out there that she'd not take her clothes off during the fit. I was right. She beat on the door and screamed a few more minutes and then KC opened it and asked her if she was ready to apologize and be nice. The first time he asked, she just screamed at him. So he shut the door. A few minutes later, she decided to apologize when he asked. After that, she had a fairly decent day, and we didn't have too much difficulty out of her for the rest of the morning and afternoon....all the way down to bedtime. *sigh* Good thing. I don't know if I would have been able to handle it very well....particularly since I've not been feeling so hot myself.

That girl....she's definitely got the "reaction buttons" memorized. She can sure push my buttons in a heartbeat. And a lot of times, I'll react without even thinking about it and knowing all along that's what she's doing. That, in itself, is one of my buttons, b/c I hate that and knowing that I've given her the reaction she's looking for just makes me madder. UGH. Not a pleasant cycle. I'm working on it though. Today was a good day.

In other news, Shutterfly is my new favorite thing. I LOVE all the photo stuff you can do on there and the prices are pretty reasonable on top of it. I am afraid I'm going to spend a fortune there before this is all over. YIKES!

And while we're on that, I'm going to get going here and get over to Shutterfly to place my order before the really good sale goes off at midnight! Why do I always procrastinate right down to the last minute???? UGH!

Later.

Post # 501 -- Disappointed

*SIGH*

Well, I was all set to like the judge....she nailed this one bio parent who was very obviously making excuses....and she seemed to be a reasonable person in all the cases I heard up to K-man's......

You know where this is goin, right?

Yeah.

BioM requested that she be given more time b/c she couldn't get everything done in the last three months. Never mind the fact that she just started working on it THIS week. Never mind all the things in the record against her, AND never mind the recommendations of the GAL & DSS for a cease of re-unification immediately and move him straight to permanency planning.

So judge lady gave her two more months to work her case plan. And at the same time said OUT LOUD in the court room, I feel that Ms. ____ is never going to be capable of parenting this child appropriately and I do not believe that it is going to make any difference if she has more time, but we will review this again in January. UGH. Hello.

Which made them happy and they decided to push their luck and request visitation be re-opened.....from what I could understand, the judge said no way, no how. Which is at least one smart decision. I think the judge said (although I can't be certain....i couldn't hear so well) that the reason BioM was giving that the visits should be started again was not the reason they were discontinued in the first place.

Which makes ME think that if the reason visits were discontinued in the first place was because poor K-man went BALLISTIC whenever he saw his BioM and wouldn't let her get near him and then had night terrors for days afterwards, and if that is reason enough for the visits to remain discontinued, then how could you ever THINK of making him go back to her?

I have to say. BioM and two of her family members sat in front of me in court and I was not impressed at all. To say the least. I would not feel one bit good about K-man going back to her OR going to live with her family. I'm not really snotty about stuff, but seriously....we are in the 21st century and there are these crazy convenient things in our world called SHOWERS that almost EVERYONE has access to, even if you don't OWN one......and it might help if you saw the inside of one every now and then. I'm also not really keen (okay, make that not at all keen) on guys who have long hair, who don't wash it, and then tie it back in a greasy ponytail. The fact that I could smell them when they came in and sat down, but I was far enough away that I couldn't hear what they were whispering to each other is pretty telling, too.

God, please.....I was pretty sure we were the best place for the K-man, but now I'm positive. PLEASE don't let him leave us. He's so happy here. Please don't let him go back to that. Amen.

Post # 500 - A Positive Note

Yay....I'm glad I have something really nice to record for the five hundredth post.

DSS visit went well tonight....our social worker told us this evening that some of the social workers/guardian ad litems were talking about our household today and how many openings we have left in our home and how many more they could stick in here, and our social worker said we only had one spot left and she was going to fight to get one of her kids in it. LOL. They apparently are really impressed with how well the kids in our care are doing and how much improvement they are showing.

Which, of course, it's not us, it's God, b/c I realize a bit more every day how big my failings are....still, it was really encouraging to hear that.

And then, the same GAL mentioned above spoke with KC several days ago and mentioned to him that she had been very concerned over where the K-man would get placed when he had to be moved from his original placement, but when she found out that he was coming to our house, she was very happy. She also told KC that in her conversations with DSS, she's learned that they think very highly of us as a foster family.

Top it all off, the Child Development guy who heads up the under three speech and development therapy programs came to the daycare yesterday or today to visit with K-man and I guess see how he was doing and he saw Munchkin, who was in their program until she turned three (which was shortly after she came to us). He told our social worker that he was completely AMAZED at her and how far she's come. I mean, we've heard all this before, but it never ceases to make me extremely thankful every time we hear it.

So court is tomorrow. I'm a little nervous. I'm trying to think if there is some kind of work I can take with me to stay busy while I wait for the case to be heard for K-man. Apparently based on the things that DSS is going to ask for, it could be a longer case and our social worker says that the longer cases are usually heard after the shorter cases....which means I could be sitting for awhile. *sigh*

The good news is that DSS, the GAL, AND K-man's play therapist are all recommending that under no circumstances should his placement OR caregivers change....which means that unless the judge just makes some crazy decision, and I'm SO praying that he won't, K-man should get to stay with us. I won't count on it until it's final though.

Okay. So that's 500 posts.

Sheesh. I talk a lot. Thanks for listening, ya'll.

Love,
Always.Faith

My Crazy Little Life

I am absolutely a total nut case. Who in the world would put themselves through this kind of torture willingly?

*Throwing hand up in the air*

ME!

For starters, I'm not getting enough sleep. I keep doing dumb things like starting really good books and not being able to put them down after the kids go to bed and then in the middle of the night when the K-man wakes up crying, I have to get up and stumble around to try to get to him and comfort him until he falls back asleep. Knowing this will happen, I really should get to sleep earlier.

Speaking of the sleep thing, I've been having REALLY crazy dreams lately. The kind that leave such deep impressions in your brain that you think about them all day the next day. Last night? A guy I "dated" many, many moons ago who now I guess would be considered a very distant friend was killed tragically in another country and I found out about it through myspace. When I saw the gruesome pictures of his death posted in his pics, along with the details of how he died. I'm not sure if this was due to the suspense in the book I was reading before bed or not, but after I cried my eyes out for him and his family and totally flipped out at the horror of someone I used to know dying in such a way, then I went to some kind of party....I think it was a scrapbook thing or something but I had to walk up this HUGE hill to get to this extremely large house and we (myself and the family members I generally scrapbook with) walked into it through a little bitty windown on the very top floor (the 12th floor) and the party was on the third floor, so we had to go down and then back up a million stairs and they were blue carpet and the staircase was really wide. Then we went to the party and I crushed the desert b/c I thought it was supposed to be melted and it turned out that it was too melted or something and I felt terrible about it, so I went to get some more ice and I ran out of cash and took the elevator down to the ground floor and suddenly the town we were in was Las Vegas and it was one of those gargantuan hotels....only this one was built into some kind of mountain or something since when you went up to the top you could go outside and it was like a different area or something. Ca-RA-ZY!!!!! It is definitely one of the nuttiest dreams I've had in a long time. And all I had for supper was a pb&j sandwich and chips. Not exactly wild dream creating material.

It was one of the kinds of dreams that makes you wonder if there is a meaning behind it.

Anywho, then there is the home visit tonight from DSS for the K-man. Tomorrow is court. Friday is another home visit, this one for Munchkin. Today I had to be at work by seven, which meant I was up at 5:30 and getting the house moving and everyone ready so that KC could take them to daycare. Today I had to work a really long day, I'm still "working" although technically right now I'm blogging. I am waiting for the printer to finish....matter of fact, I should go start the next batch of print. Anyway, by the time I leave today, I will have put in a solid 10 hours of work.

I have GOT to get busy on the homemade gifts. I've got several large projects that need to be done so that I can get them shipped and all in time for Christmas (or the love holiday or the worship of the three-toed tree goddess....or whatever you might celebrate during the month of December). There is like only 3 weeks till Christmas.....AHHHHHHH.

I am going to HAVE to take extra time off before Christmas. I'm just going to HAVE to. Time when the kids will be in daycare and I can wrap EVERYTHING UP.

hold on a minute. I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed.

OH yeah, and I have put my finger on the exact description of that buzzing that happens in my head kind of like a dizzy feeling that I had at Thanksgiving and again yesterday and today. Have you ever put one of those 9volt batteries on your tongue?? You know that zap it gives you if it's got juice? Well, that is exactly the kind of zap that my head feels whenever I'm experiencing that "dizzy feeling" in my head. It zaps and then takes a couple of minutes to calm down again. VERY WEIRD. I'm about to decide it's time for a visit with my doc. This is creeping me out.

I. AM. NUTS.

Dear God, HELP! And please could you lay off on the crazy dreams??? That is unless you're planning to send a Joseph to give me an interpretation. And at that, if I recall correctly, Joseph gave some pretty dire interpretations....I'm not sure I even want to know. EEEEEEEK.
Love,
Going Crazy....no....GONE......

A Bit of "Eavesdropping"....

On an email conversation between several cat owners.....
(MIL wanted us to see the article at the bottom I think, so she forwarded it to me and I was laughing out loud at the conversation that went on between her and her sisters (G & C) and daughter (A).....Gotta love the humor on the hubby's side of the family....LOL!)

From: A
Subject: LOLOLOLOL!

THINGS A CAT MUST REMEMBER
My human will never let me eat her pet hamster, and I am at peace with that.

I will not puff my entire body to twice its size for no reason after my human has finished watching a horror movie.

I will not slurp fish food from the surface of the aquarium.

I must not help myself to Q-tips, and I must certainly not proceed to stuff them down the sink's drain.

I will not eat large numbers of assorted bugs, then come home and puke them up so the humans can see that I'm getting plenty of roughage.

I will not use the bathtub to store live mice for late-night snacks.

I will not drag dirty socks up from the basement in the middle of the night, deposit them on the bed and yell at the top of my lungs so that my human can admire my "kill."

I will not perch on my human's chest in the middle of the night and stare into her eyes until she wakes up.

We will not play Herd of Thundering Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Plains of the Serengeti over any humans' bed while they're trying to sleep.

I will not intrude on my human's candle-lit bubble bath and singe my bottom.

I will not stick my paw into any container to see if there is something in it. If I do, I will not hiss and scratch when my human has to shave me to get the rubber cement out of my fur.

When it rains, it will be raining on all sides of the house. It is not necessary to check every door.

I will not swat my human's head repeatedly when she's on the family room floor trying to do sit ups.

When my human is typing at the computer, her forearms are *not* a hammock.

Computer and TV screens do not exist to backlight my lovely tail.

The goldfish likes living in water and should be allowed to remain in its bowl.

A warm pepperoni pizza is not a good place for a nap.


From: MIL
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

Only a cat-lover can appreciate the truth in all of this!


From: A
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

I know!! I particularly almost peed myself over the "wildabeast stampede"!! Hahaha!!
Yeah, I have a 13 pound cat that gallops when he "runs".... which is mostly at 4am when he goes jogging around the apartment!


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

Very funny. With two cats, I can completely relate to the "wildebeest stampede" . . . . . . . There should have been something in there about depositing hairballs next a human's head on the bed.


From: G
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

eeeeeeeeeewwwwwwwwwwwww..................................have your cats done that????????????????


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

Yes, Mike has taken to sleeping between my head and R's. Over the course of the last month - he has thrown up three times right in between our heads on the sheet. It's a lovely sound to wake up to - and it's entirely too late to try and get him off the bed before he does it.


From: G
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

OMG!!!!! Truman has irritable bowel syndrome, and I can hear him pooping a lot of times because he is passing gas at the same time!!! poor little guy!!!!!! he poops 3 or 4 times a day............but, he keeps eating, so it apparently doesn't bother him any, and he seems to maintain his weight.


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

If Mike or Mia ever start passing gas . . . . . . it's the "gas chamber" for them . . . . . LOL.


From: G
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

you are so cruel!!!!!!!!! lol


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

I know - but like do you really think I would carry out the threat? Nah - I'd wear a gas mask first. Mike's breath stinks to high heaven sometimes - I think he has halitosis or something . . . . yuck!


From: G
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

well, I'm not sure since you did it to Murphy!


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

Well, after giving Murphy 3 years to clean up his act, we didn't have a choice when we discovered he had ruined the guest bedroom mattress and then had moved onto the living room furniture . . . . .


From: A
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

This is quite the email chain to read after being in a meeting for an hour!!! LOL!

Shadow insists on puking on my clothes, socks, sofa, and anywhere on the direct path from my bed to the toilet so I can step barefoot in a cold pile of vomit on my nightly trip to pee!!!


From: MIL
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

All the more reason to have cats "outside" where they belong! No more cat hair, no more puke!


From: C
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

You are so right about that!!!!!! Please tell my husband that though.


***I'm not sure if I missed part of the conversation here or not, b/c it seems disconnected, but I think this is the article that MIL wanted us to see***


From: G
Subject: RE: LOLOLOLOL!

Why do cats eat grass?

by Drew Pilton
The eating of grass followed by regurgitation is a perfectly natural behavior for all cats.
Some cat owners make the mistake of preventing their cat from eating grass. Oftentimes people think it might make their cat ill or that it could upset their stomach. This is an incorrect assumption. The eating of grass followed by regurgitation is a perfectly natural behavior for all cats. Cats do not possess the ability to separate meat from fur and bones or feathers before eating - like we do - so they have to eat the digestible parts along with the indigestible parts. When the cat has finished digesting what he can the rest has to be removed from the system. To try and pass this through the digestive tract could cause obstruction and severe illness - this is where grass eating comes in. The habit of eating grass triggers the natural process of regurgitation of indigestible foods including its own fur balls - which would otherwise obstruct the system. This can appear to us humans as if the cat is violently ill but it is actually very beneficial to the cat.

What about other plants and vegetables? Cats cannot produce the enzymes needed to break down plant matter. Even when pureed or powdered, vegetables simply pass through the digestive tract without leaving any of their nutritional content. This alone is not harmful to your cat, but when undigested plant matter mixes with highly digestible food such as meat, indigestion and other complications may occur. Grass is an exception however; some cats compulsively eat grass when you leave them outdoors. This will cause them to regurgitate the indigestible matter, including raw vegetables. If your cat is unable to get access to grass he may attempt to eat your house plants instead. This could be dangerous because some house plants and flowers are toxic to cats. If you have a house cat you should provide a regular supply of potted grass to prevent him or her from looking elsewhere.

One of the most important things to remember: do not discipline your cat for regurgitating on your carpet or floor. They will never understand why they are being punished. Regurgitation is an involuntary action of your cat's stomach. Cleaning up afterwards should be an accepted part of being a loving cat owner.

- Drew Pilton is the author of "The Complete Ragdoll Cat Keepers Handbook."

Monday Messages - The Headache Edition

Dear Blog,
Woohoo, this is post #497. I have almost put you over the 500 post mark. Are you excited yet? Hehe...I didn't think so.
Love,
AlwaysFaith


Dear K-man's potential birth dad,
Please don't be his dad, please don't want him, please don't take him. I know foster parents are supposed to support re-unification, but you've never been in his life to start with, so how can it be better for him to go to you instead of staying with us. Please don't let this pan out.
Sincerely,
Praying he'll be ours


Dear Rest of the people who want the K-man,
Look, I understand why you want him, he's a great kid, but can't you see how great he's doing here? We love him and I know this makes me a terrible foster parent, but personally, I think this is the best place for him. Please don't try to take him.
Sincerely,
Praying he'll be ours


Dear hubby,
Don't let it get you down, I know you are the bomb and you know you are a genious at what you do. Don't let those people who don't know what they're talking about get you down. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming, swimming, swimming.......
Love always,
Your Dory


Dear Munchkin,
*SIGHHHHHH*
Love,
Mom


Dear Headache,
GO AWAY. You are making my head hurt. Oh. Right. Yeah, that's what you're S'POSED to do. *sigh* Well, I'm not liking it, so could you stop? Thanks.
The head


Dear body,
STOP FALLING APART. You are only 24, for crying out loud. At this rate, you won't survive to see 50. Better start taking those vitamins that your dad swears by....LOL.
Love,
Your brain


Dear Cookies in a Jar,
You are a lot harder to make than it sounded like on the instructions. I think you are the cause of my headache. I sure hope whoever gets these for Christmas appreciates the backbreaking two hours I spent putting them together. LOL. And if anyone who reads this blog gets one of you, then they better do two things....act surprised and be very thankful for my effort. I know you're not finished yet, so just be patient until I can get the rest of the supplies and get you taken care of. Thankfully, you are much more quieter while you wait than the kids. *grin*
Love,
Your creator


Dear Bed,
Is it just my imagination or are you screaming extra loud for me to join you tonight??? Me thinks if you get much louder, you're going to wake the kids, and you know we don't want THAT to happen, so I guess I will get off of here and go appease you. *smiles*
Love,
Sleepy & Tired


Dear Expensive Self Cleaning Litter Box,
You better do your job. The cats have started going elsewhere again. I will be very mad if you have lost your appeal this fast after we spent that rediculous amount of money on you so that the kitty kats would quit urinating and defecating in places that do not contain litter. Don't make me hurt you! I'm mean, you know.
Very seriously,
Not kidding


Dear Self,
Go NOW. BEFORE THE BED WAKES UP THE KIDS with it's screaming at you!!!
Love,
The extremely tired You

A++ for Effort

I should have known that it was going to be one of those days. I don't know why on earth we didn't just call it off when we realized that Munchkin was going to be in one of those moods all day where she threw a fit over everything. Defiant, backtalking.....total monster child. Let me tell ya, I stayed far away from her teeth. And I don't think I lost my patience once through all the tantrums. I just kept my calm and let her scream it out in her room until she finished. I even gritted my teeth and didn't get my panties in a wad over the fact that while she was screaming in her room it sounded like she was in a highly destructive mood (banging on the door and kicking the walls and who knows what else). I'm not going to let it bother me. Fighting with her over it just makes her more defiant. She ended up not getting to go with her daddy to the store b/c she (very sassy-like) told me that I couldn't tell her what to do (complete with the head shake). I said, oh yes, I can. You're three and I'm mommy and you will not backtalk me. I would have still let her go, except that daddy made her sit in timeout because she backtalked and then when she was doing everything BUT sit in the timeout chair as we asked her to, daddy said that if she couldn't listen then she couldn't go with him. And since that didn't help her sit in the chair and complete the timeout any better without screaming or kicking, I just told KC to go on. So he did. OH, she had a cow over THAT! I just very calmly told her that she'd lost her chance to go with Daddy b/c that was the consequences of not listening. Then she screamed and growled and howled at me (and I'm so not kidding....) so that was when I made her go to her room to have her fit b/c I wasn't interested in seeing or hearing it, and when she finally calmed down and came out, I think she got the point that not listening and throwing a fit to get her way has consequences that she's not going to like.

.....so we're mean, but at least we're consistent! I refuse to raise a spoiled brat. Not if I can help it anyways!

And I know it was bad today b/c KC actually said out loud, "Is it my imagination, or is she being an absolute BEAR today?" I was like, oh, you are SO not imagining things. Now for ME to say something like that is one thing, but for KC (Mr. Honey Remember, She's Only Three) to say that, well....that's HUGE!. LOL. At least twice today I, in a sugary sweet tone of voice, said, "Honey, remember, she's only THREE!"

BWAHAHAHAHA. Maybe that's wrong, but me and her are always butting heads and KC? She's so wrapped around his finger and he's always getting on me for getting irritated with her for some of her behaviors with me, so it was nice to see her butting heads with someone besides me for a change. HAHA.

Then, too, the K-man, my little sunshine baby, has been the super grumpy bear for the last two days and we think maybe he's got a tummy ache or something (although there's been no fever or abnormal coughing or anything) but it's just not like him to be so grumpy.....

yeah.....so needless to say, between the two grumpsters, we got a lot of THIS:

Some of it was over THIS: (One Elmo, Two Kids, Zero Sharing, NUFF SAID)do ya think there would be any chance that more than one person could look at the camera at a time? NAWWWW. And I have never seen more UNCOOPERATIVE AND SQUIRMY kids! It was like wrestling greased pigs and trying to look like you were not grimacing while doing it. ROFL!!!!! And this picture pretty much sums up the whole kettle of soup.....not to mention the fact that it's a pretty accurate portrayal of us as a family on any typical day.....at any given moment....LOL. KC looks rather possessed....ahhaa....I look like I'm on something really strong (to be smiling that big in such a situation...) and the kids are typical....K-man on the move and Munchkin pouting!

And then there were a lot of THESE kinds of pictures (which are on the passworded picture site...let me know if you want access)......

And through all that, there were several halfway decent ones....that maybe, JUST MAYBE....if I chop a few heads and cut and paste here and there, I might be able to come up with a pretty family portrait to go in the christmas/holiday/love season/three toed tree goddess worship.....or whatever it is you want to call the celebrations which take place in the month of december.....card.

Anyways. I'm pretty tired and although I haven't done a blessed thing today (well, except organize the outfits for the family picture, do laundry, mop the floors [while trying to corral children and keep them from playing in the areas I just mopped and listening to tantrum child], organize and clean out the coffee table, put down a new rug in the living room, cook lunch, get the kids down for naps, sew on the ribbons and roses to Munchkin's dress so that she will be coordinating with the other outfits, get my shower, get myself and the kids ready for pictures, hook up with CV -- who came to the house to help me take the pictures, take the pictures, upload the pics so we can have a hearty laugh, bake cookies while we wait for the pizza to be delivered, eat pizza, get the kids baths, clean up the kitchen from the cookie mess, put the kids to bed, come back in here and post on the lovely blog) I have no idea why I feel tired.

Or why I look like I'm gritting my teeth in this picture and KC has exasperation lines on his forehead.....oh wait, perhaps it was the fact that the munchkin is off to the side of this picture throwing a fit b/c she's not doing whatever it was that she wanted to do instead of what we suggested she do while she wait on us to get a picture. No, I'm sure that wouldn't have been it. Not at all. Couldn't have been.

Well.....goodnight. I'm off to rest my tired eyes. Before one of the kids wakes up and needs me.

This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass. This, too, shall pass. This, too................

HA! Pictures!

Just to prove I'm still capable of posting pictures....hehehe......
here are the leaves in our backyard....well, now of course all these are on the ground. This was taken before they fell off the trees a few weeks ago. LOL.
And this is me and the honey at my cousin's sweet sixteen birthday party. I finally got those pictures wrapped up today. I am SO close to getting the pictures that have been hanging over my head all caught up, but not quite there yet. *sigh*
I look strange. eh, well, looks aren't deceiving in this case. BWAHAHA.

So....let's see...what's new?

The kids are good....well, I think. We let Munchkin go visit her little bio aunt (who is really more like a sissy in their ages) this morning and she seemed to enjoy that. Did a little shopping while she was playing with BioA and then went back and picked her up and got the kids home and down for naps....then woke them up and went to KC's parents for dinner. It was yummy. Kids did fairly well considering they were both tired. K-man upchucked on himself and Munchkin while Pawpaw was swinging them out on the porch swing....oops. Not sure where that came from, but changed everyone's clothes and then Munchkin didn't make it to the bathroom in time and we still ended up without enough changes of clothes. Lovely thing, having kids. Amazing at how much 'stuff' you carry around with you and STILL end up feeling unprepared. *sigh* I love it. Really. Haha.

I think the K-man may not be feeling good....he doesn't feel warm at all, but he cried himself to sleep and keeps on crying every now and then in his sleep. This could be a very long night.

Mawmaw had a teddy bear that Munchkin discovered a switch on the back of tonight. The bear makes heartbeat sounds.....very sleep inducing....even for adults. KC fell asleep rocking munchkin and heartbeat bear tonight (b/c of course Mawmaw sent it home with us) and both him an the munchkin were soundly sleeping an hour later when I went and carried Munchkin to bed. *GRIN* Now we have to find another heartbeat bear for K-man since they cried all the way home b/c they both wanted it and there was only one. *sigh* *again* =)

Well, it does not feel like we've been off for two days already. It feels like we have a million things left to do and not enough time left to do it all in. ARGH. YIKES. It also feels strange to have this many "Saturdays" in a row. I'm getting all turned around. It doesn't take much, you know.

Tomorrow, I think we're going to try to do our Christmas pictures. I asked a friend to come over to be my extended arm to take pictures with me in them....LOL. My arm isn't quite long enough to hold two kids still and snap the picture of us, too. *smiles* We'll see how they turn out. I've got my fingers crossed....I feel slightly unprepared in that I haven't gotten Munchkin's dress altered yet, nor do I have the adult portion of the coordinating outfits picked out. Not to mention the fact that I really wanted to get more done on the house during the time off and....well....let's put it this way....the Flylady isn't happy with me these days. *sigh*

Has anyone besides me noticed that all my paragraphs are ending in *sighs*? Hum. This is maybe not good.

That's one of the munchkin's favorite sayings lately: "MAYbe not"

Geesh. My memory is getting AWFUL. Munchkin is saying all kinds of hilarious things that I'm just totally forgetting by the midnight when I get to finally sit down and post. *SIGH* See there I go again....got to stop!

Let's see. This is very random isn't it? Well, that's exactly what is going on in my head these days.....

Oh, random KC quote today:
riding in the car to his parents for dinner (phones are in my purse)
Interrupts himself midsentence with: "HONEY, the phone."
I dig around in the purse and find the phone and check the screen. No calls. Check mine, same thing...no calls. "Uh, no, honey....they're not ringing."
"Oh. Sorry. Must have been the voices in my head."
"LOL, don't say that too loud, hon, somebody might put you in the place where all the people go who hear voices."

Anyways, guess that's it for today....I'm reading a new favorite book (God Is Closer Than You Think) which I will probably talk about later....since it's pretty deep for just a shallow post such as this....anyways...and I'm gonna see if I can figure out how to start a book list over in the sidebar of stuff I'm reading.....we'll see. Anywho.....happy Black Friday.

Later!