Monday - Fund Drive Day 2

OH, I AM SO DEAD TIRED. Must be Monday. LOL.

So on to Monday Messages (The Fund Drive Edition)

Dear Wacky Phone Volunteer,
Yes...I am avoiding you. Don't call me. I might call you. I just haven't decided yet.
(sorry...nothin personal) LOL
Thanks, (but no thanks),
Phone Volunteer Coordinator

Dear Work,
Can I go home yet?
Sincerely,
Exhausted Employee

Dear friends who comment on my blog,
This is a PSA to say, please go to your blogger profile and in the second section (Identity), please put an email where you can be reached in question #2. If you don't want anyone to see your email address, go up to the first part (Privacy) and make sure that box #3 is unchecked. Entering an email address enables me to hit reply whenever I get an email showing your comments. If you do not have an email listed, it gives this no-reply @ blogger.com option which....obviously will not make it to you. This makes it really hard if I want to reply directly to your comment. So help me out a little, will ya?
THANKS ever so much!
Trying To Respond

Dear Kids,
Sheesh. How do you KNOW when I'm plumb exhausted and ready for you to NOT get on my last nerve??? I do my best not to let you know that, but you always seem to read my mind and just jump all up and down on....you know....my very last (and very frayed) nerve. STOP already.
Still love you,
Mom
PS I have one more question: How comes you could care less when mommy comes through the door when it's the most exciting thing in the WORLD for daddy to come through the door. My word, you even scream and get excited when he walks out to the garage to take out the trash and comes right back in again...can't you get a LITTLE excited to see me when I've been gone all day? Goodness! Make ME feel real good, why don't ya!?!

Dear 9:00,
I fear I will not spend much quality time with you tonight. I plan to not even SEE you, since my eyes are already drifting shut and it's only 8:28.
Maybe we'll hang out tomorrow. Doubtful, but one could always dream! Wait....that's exactly what I plan to do.....LOL
Miss you,
Sleepy Eyes

Dear Casey V,
I'll tell KC that if he can't handle things, to get with you and let you take the kids for a night. LOL. He'll probably be okay....*grin* Who am I to argue with him, right? HAHA. By the way, how was youth camp? Oh, and wanna volunteer for the fund drive? How does 7am hit ya? ROFL!!!! PS Make sure you read my little PSA above....since you were the most recent person I tried to reply to.....HEHEHE.
Love ya,
Faith

Dear Monday,
Good bye.
ME

So yeah....

I went in to work at 6am this morning (which means I left the house at 5:30am...OW) and I got off work at 6:30pm this evening. And since I didn't take a lunch, that would be 12.5 hours today. I needed to work longer since I didn't manage to get caught up before the end of the day came, but when I called home at 6:25, I heard cryin kids in the background and KC answered the phone with: "I HOPE YOU'RE ON YOUR WAY HOME!!!"

I figured I should just close up and get home since my day being 12.5 hours meant his day was at least 13 hours. LOL. I'm not laughing AT him, I'm laughing WITH him, but when I walked out of the building to hurry home, I had to make myself stop grinning....HAHA.

Oh and when I got home, I completely agreed with him...they were over the top with obnoxiousness.....so I put them to bed 15 minutes after I got home at 7:15. And it has been a peaceful night (generally speaking) ever since. They weren't asleep 15 minutes ago when I checked, so it's not messing up their sleep schedule for them to go to bed early, but they're quiet and that's the most important thing for this tired mommy and daddy. Besides, even if they DO fall asleep before 10, that's good since I have to be at work again at 7am in the morning which means we need to drop off the kids to daycare at 6:30. YOW.

Thank God for a good hubby. A hubby who got TWO dirty diapers today. (I'm laughing WITH him.....well...if he was laughing, I would be. HAHAHAHA) Anyways, I am so thankful for his help. Last fund drive when the K-man was delivered to our door, KC was out of town and I had to juggle the two kids with my crazy fund drive schedule all by myself. I am SO glad he's in town for this one.

Anyways, I told him now when he goes to work and wonders why I'm irritated when he comes home after I've been with them all day....he'll not just "understand" but he'll "KNOW EXACTLY" why!!!! HAHAHA. Not that he didn't "know" already, but you know.....nothing like 13 hours with 2 kids plus Shygirl (who ended up being at the house until 4:30 before S&N picked her up...although, according to KC, she couldn't have been better behaved....and she was well behaved Friday night, too...it was just OUR kids that had such a problem) to make a person go completely nuts. HAHA.

Anywho, it's only 9:26 but I'm exhausted and KC's exhausted so I'm going to bed now and I don't think I'll hear much protest from him about following me. LOL.

*grin* Sorry....i just can't help it. *wiping grin off my face now*

Goodnight.

Work...Work....Work

Can I count today as Monday since it's officially the first day of my workweek this week? *GRIN* Probably not, right?

So I'm sitting here at work....fund drive time again, and it's been hopping this morning. Kinda quiet right this minute but that's a good thing since I'm down to one volunteer, my daddy, and me....awww sweet daddy. He came in and folded shirts for us this morning. AWWW.

Only thing about things being quiet, is now I'm sitting here wondering how KC's morning went.....wonder if he made it to church in time with all three kids. LOL.

Shygirl is going back to S&N's this afternoon after church, so KC will be back down to two again....and it was probably nice that she was there this morning so she could help get Munchkin ready to go. I hope Shygirl did her hair b/c KC does SKARY girl hair. HAHAHAHA.

I had everything laid out, clothes, shoes, fully stocked diaper bag, even jackets, and I did their baths last night, so he had everything pretty much ready to go...hopefully he didn't have any drama.

Knowing munchkin, that would be a miracle. HAHA.

Here's some Munchkin funnies from here lately:

Yesterday while she was putting clothes in the dryer for me, K-man walks up and says to Munchkin, "What doin, "munchkin's name here"???
So she says, "I busy workin', jus' HUSH" (ROFL.....wonder where she's heard THAT????)

When we bought a little Bob the Builder play set for K-man for him to play with when we were in Ohio, Munchkin busts out with, "BOBBBB the BUILDER, can us FIX IT? YES, US CAN!!"
(my favorite part? "can US fix it?" hahahaha)

It's FRIDAY!!!

My friend *S* sent me this e-card today....I'm going to try to link it on here for a couple of days....it's hilarious....I laughed out loud. *GRIN*

ENJOY!

And HAPPY FRIDAY!

LOL

Finally....

Well...I don't really feel like posting after spending a whole day in court....

BUT....

the whole day wasn't just for K-man...I stuck around for the hearing for Shygirl (S & N's foster child) which was after lunch and it drug out forever. Totally nuts!

HOWEVER....the good news is, K-man's BioM didn't show up (said she was sick) but the judge was like...no way are we continuing this again. LOL. YAY for the judge!!! So....
his permanent plan is now Adoption. WOOHOO!

Gotta run now...kids need baths and bedtime...

Later!

Type Much?

Obviously, I type just a bit.....although on the site where I found this, some others had posted their results and they were up above the 120 mark....YOW. Unbelievable! You go try! Bet ya just can't do it once! This is actually my third try....first one was 59. LOL!

75 words

Speed test

Random Notes from Easter Sunday

Now before you get excited, don't worry, this isn't like some deep discussion on the death and resurrection of Christ. Just strictly noting things from Sunday for memories sake. That and the fact that I'm going to make a little mini book of the trip and I'll need to write the stuff down for journalling so I might as well do it here. *grin*

And a brief note on the whole Easter thing....it kinda goes along with all the other holidays...in my opinion. I celebrate the death and resurrection of Jesus EVERY day b/c he lives in my heart. Just like I celebrate his BIRTH every day and not just at Christmas. Most holidays, as we know them, originated from pagan celebrations, so technically I'm not sure Jesus would want to be connected to those dates anyways. Which is why we just celebrate those days as something "fun" and as a tradition kind of thing. Not that anyone really cares to know my opinion on the whole matter....anywho.

So Sunday morning we got up early in the hotel room (stayed at the Hampton Inn....LOVE that place...their beds and easy peasy wireless access in the rooms just ROCKS!) and got our stuff packed and got our showers and everything ready to check out. Then we went to get KC's mom for church. I'm going to skip the whole topic of church as well, except to say that it was great to see all the folks we haven't seen in ages. Oh, and must note that during church, K-man wet through his diaper TWICE....once it filled up KC's mom's lap and once he was on my hip and we were all standing up singing when I suddenly felt something really WARM running down me. UGH. And I don't understand what the deal was, since his diaper didn't really seem full when I changed it, plus he hadn't had that much to drink. Weird. And aggravating, too! Nothing like having your nice clothes reek of urine. LOVELY. Yet, I refused to change him b/c we hadn't yet gotten pictures of the kids all dressed up. HAHA. One of the good things about him wearing black dress pants that were very thin....they didn't show any wet spots. HA! Bad mommy. I know.

Got back to KC's grandma's and dropped his mom back off and we all changed clothes (AFTER pictures...LOL) and I gave the kids their Easter baskets with a very small amount of sugar included and then we hit the road.

Left at 2 and stopped 3 times for food/gas/potty breaks. Got home right at 10. I was pretty impressed with our time, since we were travelling with two small kids and still managed to drive pretty much straight thru and even came through a short area of one lane construction. Total stopped time was probably about 1/2 hour between all three stops and the kids did amazingly well. K-man got a teeny bit fussy during the very last half hour of the trip, but only b/c Munchkin had fallen asleep by that time and I turned the movie off in hopes that he would join his sister in ZZZ-land. It didn't work, but at least he didn't wake her up with his fussing. All in all, I'd say they traveled very well and I was appropriately impressed and not a little thankful....although at several points, I did think to myself....how in the world did people travel with small kids before they created personal dvd players?!? Hahah!

I posted some of the pictures on my Myspace page, so if you're friends with me, you can go check them out...LOL. They're pretty funny.

Home!

Exhausted, but home.

Going to bed now. Will update later.

Winding Down

Well, the end of the trip is almost here.

I have some theories on the kids behaviors....and in most cases, MISbehaviors, but I won't go into them here....LOL.

I do think one of the problems though, is that they do not do well when they are out of our home and regular familiar routines...in the car is not so bad....I guess b/c it's the same car as at home and they're used to riding alot, but the whole hotel room deal and all this stuff? NOT so good.

Anyways...I have other theories, too....

Changing the subject now.

GG's (great grandma's -- it's what munchkin calls her) birthday get together was today at her house so we were all over there. "ALL" meaning KC, the kids, and myself, along with a few of GG's kids and grandkids....won't go into that either....I don't really understand why only certain family members come and others don't. I never watched Family Feud, but I think maybe KC's family might be a fit for that term. LOL.

That's okay. My family has skeletons, too. Our skeletons tend to be buried in the graveyards though, not....you know.....hanging out in the back closet. LOL. (That was a joke, by the way)

While we were at GG's, we spent quite a bit of time entertaining the young ones...since we knew we'd be over there awhile, we made a pit stop at Target on our way over and picked up some kid friendly, but not too mess friendly, activities to occupy the younglings.

A couple of Paint with Water books and some little brushes were among the little things we bought. Can you guess which ones of these Yours Truly did? Of course, I had to do it with them....I LOVED these when I was a kid...LOL. I think I had more fun with it than did Munchkin, but it occupied them briefly.

Then there was the doctor kit....I'm not sure why she was working on mawmaw's TEETH, however I did cringe a bit to see her sticking that "instrument" in a mouth....knowing that moments before it was in someone else's nose. EWWWW. I did tell mawmaw, but she's got what I call "grandparent-itis" in which nothing matters but the children's ultimate happiness and joy, not even the safety and wellbeing of one's own person.....as you will notice from the next picture, which is another FINE example of this disease......
Here's a picture of the snow we saw today on the way over to GG's. We saw a lot of snow blowing, but not any on the ground (much to the relief of the Ohio people, I'm sure). Speaking of the pictures, I'm doing really bad at taking them, but it's kinda not my fault...well, I mean, it IS my fault, but.... Well, okay. So the story is: I left my good camera at home. Oops. Left the video camera at home, too. Oops again. No biggie, I've got my little point and shoot....but OOPS. Left the extra battery AND the charger at home....and it's not the kind of camera that takes AA batteries....no. It takes a special order $$$$ kind of battery. Figures. So I've been pulling the camera out MUCH more sparingly. *sigh* I'll maybe post the few that I've got once I get home.

We really haven't had a whole lot of down time (being such a short trip) to be spending any on the computer, so I haven't done much more than check my mail and blog a couple of times. And it's just too much effort to crawl off the bed and go get my camera and card out of my purse to upload pictures right now. *EDITED ON 3/24 TO ADD PICTURES*

Speaking of right now....the kids are asleep. Both of them. Fell asleep. In the same room. In less than 15 minutes. Yes. I'm serious. I'm a witness....miracles DO still happen.

well....it looks like KC's already gone to sleep. I'm packing up the computer now and going to bed myself....

Later!

I Been Thinking....

(LOL....and I know what YOU'RE thinking about that title, but I won't say it)

So I been thinking....I said last post "...I wouldn't trade'm. And sure, I'd take more if they called us."

But now....I'm thinking, sure, I'd take more....but just not on trips. Actually, right this minute I'm still kinda het up at the kids for being such royal pain about going to bed. It's just cuz they're tired. I know that. But I'm tired, too, and you don't see ME being completely defiant of all rules and refusing to comply even with very nicely put requests from understanding parents.

UGH. TERRORS. Ya know. I can't say the B word, but I'd have to say "terror" is quite accurate, too.

We DEFINITELY paid for last night's 11:00 bedtime and the rough night the K-man had with sleeping somewhere besides his familiar crib. And the fact that they didn't do so well napping today since we were in the car during naptime and they decided to nap in shifts, which meant that the one that wasn't sleeping didn't let the one that was sleeping....ya know....SLEEP. Or at least not sleep for longer than a half hour.

I didn't stress over cuz I thought....ya know...maybe it will be enough.

Well. Turns out.....maybe I should have stressed. HAHA.

This is the first 'long' trip that we've taken with both of the kids. Munchkin? Well, she's an old pro at it now....the hotel rooms, bathroom stops, naps....she can go with the flow....but I think maybe the K-man being along has thrown a wrench in her "flow" (along with ours). LOL. After all, now when one doesn't go to sleep like they're supposed to...in the car OR the hotel room.....well....neither does the other.....and of course, it goes without saying, but I'll say it anyways....neither do mom and dad. Haha.

It'll get better. Munchkin was horrific on the first trip we took with her....can't expect K-man to be any less of an adjustment.

Well....now that I've complained a bit, I'm going to go get some rest....I have a feeling I may *NEED* it before this trip is over....and while they're both asleep....this is as good a time as any. HAHA.

Later!

PS Do you think it would be reasonable to consider the work on the "love chapter" on hold until we're all back home again? *wry grin* Um. Cuz....well....I haven't done so good with it on the trip...something about being confined inside a medium sized SUV or a one room hotel unit for the last two days just makes it rather....um....difficult. LOL.

Still Alive & Kickin'

Although the "kickin" part is definitely debatable. LOL!

Tuesday was MUCH better than Monday. Today was pretty decent, too. Except that I'm plumb whupped from trying to get everything done today. Work is WAY behind, and the two days I just took off b/c of all the appointments, errands, and such, haven't helped that at ALL. I had SEVENTEEN new voicemails when I went in this morning. SHEEEESH. Plus, I've got SO much to get done before our super quick trip to Ohio for KC's grandma's birthday and it never fails to amaze me how much more complicated it is to pack -- even on just day trips -- when you have two little ones. I have to admire those who are blessed with more. I know you just do what you gotta do, but goodness. I just don't see how, sometimes.

It was way easier with just one. One feels like a vacation now. But I wouldn't trade'm for nothin. And sure....I'd take more if they called us. LOL.

I am so exhausted. I'm going to head on to bed, but I just wanted to pop on, in case it happens to be a little bit before I have another chance.

Till next time....

Have I EVER mentioned....

.......that I have a horrid dislike of Mondays. Actually, it's not so much the day as it is the things that always seem to happen on these days that just gets me.

Today? I took the day off work. K-man had a followup with the allergist, and then after I got him back to school, I had a dentist appointment in the little town about half an hour from where I live.

Now, I KNOW what you're thinking right now. So I'm just gonna go ahead and tell ya. I ain't no dummy. It's Monday. Do you REALLY think I was going to speed? HA. NO. I left 10 minutes ahead of schedule EXACTLY so I would not be in any hurry. I also kept the speedometer well below my usual 7-9mph over the limit. It's Monday, people. I've learned my lesson. No Speedy Gonzales biz-ness on Mondays.

Remind me, when I finish this story, to come back to the whole "unfairness of life" and "speeding" topics....

Okay...so of course, there was road construction, and I had to wait a coon's age to get through to the dentists office. I expected that. It is Monday, after all. But I had 10 minutes extra and I was in no hurry. So I get to the dentist's office and go in....and they don't even call me back for about 20 minutes, so even if I HAD been late, it would have been no big deal....and you know, I was EVEN prepared for that and took my big fat 490 page book (of which I'm on page 185) and I was perfectly unruffled through the entire wait.

HOWEVER. I completely did NOT even put it together that perhaps a dental cleaning and x-rays should have been scheduled on a day OTHER than Monday until it got down the the last part of the cleaning and the dentist dude is looking at my x-rays and saying..."teeth look good,....but there's two little spots over here we're gonna have to fix." And then it hit me. You big dummy. Today's Monday. Of COURSE they'll find a cavity or two. (In my case....it was the latter)

My next cleaning? Is scheduled for a Tuesday. Thank you very much. (So are the fillings, not that it will matter much.....of course, it might matter...if I did it on Monday, they would probably start drilling and realize they were going to have to do a root canal or something instead....or they would somehow glue my tongue to my teeth....which actually doesn't sound like that bad of an idea! HA! Hush your mouth, KC....LOL.)

Needless to say, Monday's are dreadfully expensive days for me. *sigh*

Okay......oh, what's that you say? Oh yeah, of course, I didn't forget. Back to "speediness" and "the unfairness of life"....

Let's just talk some more about my most recent driving "indiscretions."

I have to say it. It is NOT MY DRIVING. It is NOT MY CAR. It's just that life is TOTALLY NOT FAIR. Okay. I TOTALLY sounded like Munchkin there. Sorry. I'm going to interrupt myself again and insert this thought before I forget it....should we just abandon all efforts to treat our kids fairly b/c hello, then they'll grow up and realize that they were LIVING IN A DREAM WORLD when real life SMACKS them in the face!!!!!! Sorry again.

Back to my original topic. So a couple of days after my most recent ticket, we are all in the car, driving to church, running a wee bit late, KC's driving, we're in the SAME vehicle that I was driving at the time of my ticket, and we're on interstate. Speed limit on interstate is 70. We're in the fast lane, couple cars in front of us doing the speed limit, right lane is empty for several car lengths ahead. KC gets impatient and gets in the right lane and proceeds to go around (he says he was doing 90....HE SAID IT....NOT ME!).

Okay, are you with me? He's zipping around and PASSING ON THE RIGHT.....doing 90 in a 70. Okay. Now, he suddenly looks in his rear view mirror and I feel the car immediately slow and he's going "oh no, I'm so dead....he's got me, I'm so dead." I didn't even have to look. I was inwardly doing the victory dance cuz it's not that I want him to get a ticket, but he shouldn't get mad at my driving when he's doing the same thing, right?

Now I'm sure ya'll probably know where I'm going with this, since I started it out with "life's not fair" but I'll just tell ya anyways. Mr. State Trooper dude who was right behind him and saw the whole thing????????????????? (and may I also note that it was a State Trooper who wrote MY ticket....although not the same one....this one was MUCH lighter skinned) DROVE RIGHT ON BY WITHOUT SO MUCH AS A "BY YOUR LEAVE."

DUM DA DA DUMMMMMMMMM!

And. I took the class 2 years and 2 months ago. You can only take the class once every three years. THAT stinks. I should have told the officer that I would happily take the ticket, but could he please just wait 10 more months and THEN pull me and give it to me????

Oh well. I did think it was RATHER humorous that the same day I called to find out when I last took that class....I got home and found, in that day's mail, not one, but FOUR different advertisements from local lawyers who wanted to represent me in court. One of them even included a copy of my ticket. Like I wouldn't remember getting it or something. LOL. Least I can laugh about it all. Haha.

In other news. Remember how I was talking about this a couple of posts back? Well, today was a great start on it. I mean, for being a Monday an all. I was very patient today. So much so that a couple of times after I walked away from the situation, I marveled at myself. LOL. Well, you know, God helped me....so I guess it would be more appropriate to say that I marveled at God. *GRIN* Or that I marveled at the fact that God could even do anything with me at all. ROFL. Or that I just like using the word "marvel." BWAHAHAHA.

Unfortunately, I think just by writing the above paragraph, I might be failing in the "______ does not boast, _____ is not proud." categories. But I did better in the "______ is not easily angered" one. And then by posting about KC's little speeding and not getting a ticket for it, I would have to say I probably failed the very next one, which is "______ keeps no record of wrongs." HAHAHA.

Well, guess I can't expect to win them all in one day. Especially if that one day is a Monday. LOL. We'll just try again tomorrow. *Grin*

And now, I'll just leave you with this JEWEL of a website that was forwarded to me....*HUGE MISCHIEVOUS GRIN HERE*

The Speed Trap Exchange - Sharing the favorite hiding spots of your friendly neighborhood blue lights with all overweight-feet people across the country.

ENJOY.

Later! =)

PS Amy....how did you do on the love chapter today? Better than me, I hope! *grin* And I'd LOVE to do a header for ya...you'll just have to know that you're the reason behind another day of my procrastination....LOL. So just tell me three things: Do you want anything written besides the title and if so, what? Give me a couple or three of your favorite colors. And three, what's your style? (like: girly, techy, straight lines, frou frou, or what?) Oh wait, let's make that four...you prefer like a landscape photography header or the scrappy headers? And I can't charge for headers....if I did that, I'd have to buy commercial use rights for the stuff I use.....LOL. I prefer to just do it for my friends anyways. =)

Fat Lips and other fun stuff

Well.


I'm sure you're wondering what I mean by "fat lips."


Munchkin? Well, to make a long story short, munchkin and k-man were playing on the couch on top of KC and me, who had just woke up from a short nap and munchkin was up on her knees and threw her entire body flat on me....and the back of her head connected with my mouth.


I saw her coming but I could do nothing to stop it. It actually made my eyes water uncontrollably. (Okay....sue me. I kinda cried. I couldn't help it....it was one of those reflex things....she hit me with pretty much her full weight). My right front tooth is loose and I have a good size knot on my upper and lower lips. I put ice on it when no one was looking (b/c munchkin was feeling kinda bad about it...strangely enough, her head wasn't hurt a bit....which just proves my point that her head is hard as rock) so hopefully it won't be like, black in the morning or anything (my lip, I mean....rocks don't turn black. HAHA).


Anyways, other fun stuff, her behavior still stinks, but I'm not putting up with it. I've laid down the law. If she orders me around, she automatically doesn't get whatever it was she wanted. She has to ask nicely and then, when appropriate, whatever she wanted MAY happen. I usually don't have to worry about it though b/c she hasn't got the picture yet that you don't say "Get me chocolate MILK," and expect mommy to comply. We never did right when she ordered, but we did kinda let it slide and then when we got ready, we'd do whatever, but now it's over. You TELL me to do something and if it's something I was already doing, you will go to time out, if it is something for you, it just won't happen. End of conversation. You throw a fit about it, you go to your room cause we don't want to see it. You continue rebellion and don't do as told, you get the carseat time out in your room (buckled up and unable to get out....haahaha). It's been lively here this weekend. Mommy's fed up with this behavior problem.


I've also been working on collecting some of my design stuff on a new blog so it will all be in one place. So of course, I had to design a blog for that...hahaha. After all, a design blog with a boring ol header would be absolutely discusting of me. LOL.

I really need to spend some time on the church newsletter, but I'm procrastinating. Designing blog headers is much more fun. LOL. I need to find some more friends who want me to do one for them. Haha....it's very addicting....you can do so many totally different things with them. I LUV it.

Let's see...I also cleaned off my camera and edited a few of the pictures for web use....I guess I can go see if I can post any here since it's been awhile since I posted pix. Eh....not really any I can use in this post, but there are a few from my birthday, so I'll go back to my birthday post and post them there. If you want to see them you can click here. The rest of the recent pictures are on myspace since it's private. LOL.

Ummmm....I think that's about it. I can't think of anything else right now. So....

Catch ya'll later. By the way, thanks for the comments on the last post....if you missed it or didn't leave me any words of advice, sympathy, or wisdom, by all means, go here now (whoa....sorry...I'm picking up bad trix from munchkin. What I meant to say was, WOULD you please go here now?) and help a poor pitiful mother out. Kay? Great. Thanks! LOL.

Love ya'll peeps. =) Fat Lip Out.

Love Is.....Tough.

And I don't mean that in the "Tough Love" sense....I mean in the sense that "loving" is hard work and I have SO far to go.

I read this devotion over at Proverbs 31 Ministries a few days ago (actually it was the devotion on March 5th) and it has been percolating in my brain ever since.

It was on the love chapter in Corinthians:
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.”

This was the part that got me:
Here’s an idea to help to flesh this out in real life. Make a copy of the love chapter on your computer. However, wherever the word love is used (or its pronoun ‘it’) leave a blank. Then try over the next week or so to be able to write your name in the blank when you have a chance to exhibit this quality in real life. Were you patient at the doctor’s office today and, instead of grumbling while sitting in the waiting room, you quietly thanked God for the extra time and then used it to pray for others? Write your name on the “________ is patient” line. Did you and another family member get into a heated discussion and you were tempted to bring up a wrong from the past but, with great restraint, held your tongue? Bravo! Write your name on the “________ keeps no record of wrongs” line. Were you kind to the grumpy cashier instead of being rude right back? Get out that pen and write away!

Not that it's done me much good, since it still seems to be a major undertaking that I just can't quite get ahold of....and I seriously hesitated to even talk about it on here, because somehow, saying it out loud means I'm accountable to more than just meself about it. LOL. Anywho. I decided to write it down anyways.

“______ is patient, _______ is kind. _____ does not envy, ______ does not boast, _____ is not proud. ______ is not rude, ______ is not self-seeking, ______ is not easily angered, ______ keeps no record of wrongs. ______ does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. _____ always protects, ______ always trusts, ______ always hopes, ______ always perseveres. _____ never fails.”

Unfortunately, my name doesn't fit in any of those for today. Well, maybe the "does not envy" and "is not proud"....but I'm pretty sure that would only be because I don't recall my love being tested in either of those areas today. *sigh*

No, today I was definitely impatient and easily angered....oh and I also poked one of those infuriating statements that KC has used on me, back at him today, when I was aggravated with him. I'm pretty sure that would fall in the "keeping record of wrongs" category with a big fat red F.

Overall, the "never fails" that sums up that verse, just doesn't fit me very well. That in itself, is enough to make me cranky. Why is it that I have such a hard time with these things? As much as I'd like to make an excuse, "being human" is all I can come up with and it's pretty flimsy at best.

Strangely enough, I seem to be in the same boat as the author of that devotion when she said on her personal blog:

"I can hold it together when the dry cleaners ruins my new sweater, someone cuts me off in traffic, or a friend goofs up my latte order. But if my husband or one of the darlin’ little dependents does something that ruffles my feathers—watch out!!"

That's so true...I get ruffled faster with the people inside my home than I do with the girl at the drive thru who was rude and messed up my order or the guy who pulled out in front of me when I was already running late. Why?

Anyways, those are just some thoughts. I'll just have to admit, I've failed the first week and the whole idea was just in my head...now that I've said it out loud, maybe I'll pass the tests next week.

I'll let ya know how it goes.

Oh, and anyone who cares to join me in this challenge, please let me know....I'd love some company on my quest to be more loving. =)

UGH.

I am so aggravated at the little...ahem....terrors.....who are at this moment BOTH fighting bedtime.

One of those little terrors (the one who is talking somewhat coherent "human" these days--as opposed to the one who speaks mainly "monkey") told her speech therapist today all kind of tales, just out of the blue. The therapist called me and was quite amused. Ya know how ya never know what they will come up with next (like in the last post)....well....the story that the therapist got was that munchkin's daddy rubbed (or whupped....i'm not sure which was actually said) mommy's....ahem....rear. Not only that, but munchkin's...ahem....rear....hurt today b/c mommy rubbed it with hot stuff last night. WHAAAAAA????? Where do they come UP with this stuff? I let the social worker know just in case anything came up, and she didn't sound concerned about it at all (which was a relief) but we are going to put her back in play therapy for a little while again and we've had some long conversations tonight about telling stories and making up lies. I don't know what is up with her these days. Also tonight, she came out of the bathroom and said she had washed her hands and something in the way she said it made me hesitate and check her hands (which is something I never do) and they were completely dry, so I walked her back to the sink, which was also totally dry and I pointed those two facts out to her and explained to her that her story could not possibly be true and asked her why she lied about it. She said, I'm sorry, mommy. It's okay. I'm washing them now. I was like, hello, that's NOT the point. The point is, you told me a lie about it. "That's okay," she says, with a calmness that infuriates the fire out of me. UGHHHHHH.

She was doing wonderful about bedtime since sometime in December, she would read for about half an hour, and then put away the book and go to sleep without having to fight with her about it. Well, the last couple of weeks, she has not put down the books until like 11 or 11:30 and I kinda let it go b/c I didn't want to fight about it, but she's looking awful and has terribly tired eyes, so I have started going in to make sure she puts the book away earlier, and also started putting her to bed earlier so that she can still have time to read before sleep. Well, she's made it a huge fight and every night so far, the book will go away and then she'll climb around the bed and play with her animals and blabber to herself until 11 or 11:30 and I have to keep going in there and telling her to go to sleep. So tonight I turned the bright nightlights off and just left one little dim one on in there to discourage playtime. I gave her plenty of warning that it was going to happen if she didn't go to sleep and she didn't listen. So I did it and she screamed and pitched a fit and everything else....it's now 10 and she's been in bed since 8:30. But at least she's now quiet. I am SO aggravated with her. Is this considered regression when they've made serious improvements and then gone back to the rebellious hateful behaviors??? I wonder if this has anything to do with the whole "other mommy" thing that has also been popping up in the last few weeks.

UGH. UGH. UGH.

And then K-man has been whiny and not wanting to go to sleep tonight, too. And he's usually my good sleeper. I think it's a conspiracy to drive me over the edge. Don't tell them, but I think it's working. EEEEEK. LOL.

So, I have a burning question for any of you experienced "mommies" who read this blog....

Is it a "must" to make a child aware of what the consequence for misbehavior will be before the misbehavior occurs or before you enforce the consequence? In other words, to say that you can't take away a privilege or give a consequence without letting them know ahead of time what the result will be if the behavior continues.

For example:
Child knows that XXXX behavior is prohibited. Does the behavior anyways. Do you:

A) Remove a favorite toy or tell them that the behavior they just performed cost them the treat they were going to get later or other terrible consequence and then proceed to move on without any further attention to the misbehavior or the fit they're now throwing (other than to provide more consequences if the fit results in more misbehavior) or

B) Let them know what the consequence will be if the behavior is performed again even though they are already aware that the behavior is not allowed and then wait until they perform the misbehavior again (and they will) before socking them with the consequence that you've told them will be coming OR

C) something completely different (in which case, I must ask you to please explain....LOL)

This is a hot topic in our household. I won't tell you which category I fall in (A or B) but I will tell you this, my momma didn't warn me of what the consequence would be when I did something I wasn't supposed to be doing and knew it. If I did it, I got the consequences. That's what I knew. And I didn't have to do it twice to get the consequences. And sometimes I wonder if they don't do things just to see what kind of consequence we'll come up with...I'm telling you, it's a conspiracy. LOL. And you could probably figure out, from everything I just said, which party I am in agreement with on that. LOL!

So come on. Give me some feedback....

A Kid's View of the Bible.....

(Author unknown)
One of my favorite jobs has been leading junior church. We try to do more than baby sit our church's beloved little ankle-biters during their time in our special junior church facility. We aim to give them a solid background in Biblical history.
At the end of each year, we give them pencils and paper and ask them to chronicle what they have learned. This assignment never fails to elicit some intriguing responses. In case you're a little foggy on your Biblical history, let our junior church students help you with their complete overview of the Bible, compiled from their essays:

In the beginning, which occurred near the start, there was nothing but God, darkness, and some gas. The Bible says, "The Lord thy God is one," but I think He must be a lot older than that.
Anyway God said, "Give me a light!" and someone did. Then God made the world. He split the Adam and made Eve. Adam and Eve were naked, but they weren't embarrassed because mirrors hadn't been invented yet.
Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating one bad apple, so they were driven from the Garden of Eden. I'm not sure what they were driven in though, because they didn't have cars. Adam and Eve had a son, Cain, who hated his brother as long as he was Abel.
Pretty soon all of the early people died off, except for Methuselah,who lived to be like a million or something.
One of the next important people was Noah, who was a good guy; but one of his kids was kind of a ham. Noah built a large boat and put his family and some animals on it. He asked some other people to join him, but they said they would have to take a rain check.
After Noah came Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jacob was more famous than his brother, Esau, because Esau sold Jacob his birthmark in exchange for some pot roast. Jacob had a son named Joseph, who wore a really loud sports coat.
Another important Bible guy is Moses, whose real name was Charlton Heston. Moses led the Israel Lights out of Egypt and away from the evil Pharaoh, after God sent ten plagues on Pharaoh's people. These plagues included frogs, mice, lice, bowels, and no cable. God fed the Israel Lights every day with manicotti. Then He gave them His top ten commandments. These include don't lie, cheat, smoke, dance, or covet your neighbor's bottom (The Bible uses a bad word for bottom that I'm not supposed to say. But my Dad uses it sometimes when he talks about the President). Oh, yeah, I just thought of one more: Humor thy father and thy mother.
One of Moses' best helpers was Joshua, who was the first Bible guy to use spies. Joshua fought the battle of Geritol and the fence fell over on the town.
After Joshua came David. He got to be king by killing a giant with a slingshot. He had a son named Solomon who had about 300 wives and 500 porcupines. My teacher says he was wise, but that doesn't sound very wise to me.
After Solomon there were a bunch of major league prophets. One of these was Jonah, who was swallowed by a big whale and then barfed up on the shore. There were also some minor league prophets, but I guess we don't have to worry about them.
After the Old Testament came the New Testament. Jesus is the star of the New Testament. He was born in Bethlehem in a barn. (I wish I had been born in a barn, too, because my mom is always saying to me, "Close the door, was you born in a barn?") It would be nice to say, "As a matter of fact, I was."
During His life, Jesus had many arguments with sinners like the Pharisees and the Republicans. Jesus also had twelve opossums. The worst one was Judas Asparagus. Judas was so evil that they named a terrible vegetable after him. Jesus was a great man. He healed many leopards and even preached to some Germans on the Mount.
But the Republicans and all those guys put Jesus on trial before Pontius the Pilot. Pilot didn't stick up for Jesus. He just washed his hands instead. Anyway Jesus died for our sins, then came back to life again. He went up to Heaven, but will be back at the end of the Aluminum. His return is foretold in the book of Revolution.

There! Now you understand it, the whole Bible, I mean. Don't you?

Lovely Language

Word of the Day
Tuesday March 11, 2008

assuage \uh-SWAYJ\, verb:
1. To make milder or less severe; to reduce the intensity of; to ease; to relieve.
2. To appease; to satisfy.
3. To soothe or calm; to pacify.

Saw this when I went to look up a word replacement for "brat" (since *someone* thinks I use it much too often when referring to the wildly irritating behaviors of the younglings). While I'm on this subject, the *b* word will now be replaced with one of the following: monkey, whippersnapper, rascal, little terror, or moppet....all of which mean generally the same thing.

Anyways, back to "word of the day"....I thought it an interesting word. Particularly since I've been mispronouncing it all my life and didn't really even know the EXACT meaning of it (just the general sense of the word). You're probably wondering how I pronounced it, but the more I tickle it with my tongue, the more twisted it gets and now I'm having problems saying the *right* way....hahaha.

But it's easy to use in typing....i just can't say it in regular conversation. So here it is in a sentence (well....paragraph):

It was a Monday night. Monday's are the days in which all things become "Murphy'fied" so it should have been no surprise that Murphy could not assuage my dislike of Mondays by letting me by with a peaceful Monday. No, instead, when I thought I was in the home stretch, the kids were in bed and blissfully (and one, not so blissfully) sleeping, I was thisclose to heading to bed myself, when suddenly, from down the hall, I hear a strange cough--somewhat of a cross between a gurgle and a cough. When I hear it a second time, my uh-oh antenae was going up and I hurried into the K-man's room, where I was smacked in the face by an intensely TERRIBLE odor. I didn't even need to turn the lights on to figure out what was going on.

Needless to say, I spent the rest of the night doing all kinds of assuage-ing (LOL).....I assuaged the horrific smell (definition 1), I assuaged his upset stomach with sprite and crackers......and I spent the rest of the night doing more of the same.

I extremely dislike Mondays. Today was Tuesday. Today was much better. He hasn't thrown up at all today and so far, has done okay on eating. Today was not Monday.

Here's my Tuesday Message to Mondays:

Garfield's got it right! PHHHHHHHHHTTTTT on you, Mondays!!!!!!

I Love Garfield.

We have SO much in common. LOL.

Happy Birthday To Me

Quarter of a century....or if I go by my previous idea....half a century and moving backwards from there. LOL.

So...this day in history (besides the fact that I was born), here's a few other fun facts for you that I dug up on the internet.


140,945 People

And now for a few LESS morbid things....

Oh wait, a couple more morbid ones first....

Did you know that TWO US Presidents died on March 8th in various years?

And Baseball Hall of Famer Joe DiMaggio died on March 8th 1999.

Okay....and now some happy thoughts:

People who share my birthday: Regina Sanders (ya'll never heard of her??? LOL...oh yeah, she's famous in these here parts....ya'll might have seen her in the Horse Mask on my blog a few months back), Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Freddie Prinze Jr., & Aidan Quinn. So for all ONE of you guys that read this blog, Happy Birthday!!! =) =)

Some very random stuff:

On the day I was born, President Reagan called the U.S.S.R. an "Evil Empire" in some apparently famous speech. Same president also married Nancy Davis on this day in 1952. Coincidentally, my mother-in-law was also a Nancy Davis at the point of her life when she was changing my husband's diapers (which WASN'T in 1952...I'm not even sure that SHE was in diapers in 1952, but I'm going to stop talking here before I stick my foot in it). Anyways, all that was totally irrelevant, but just because I like random goofy stuff, I thought I'd say it anyways. LOL.

March 8, 1973 -- Eisenhower Tunnel, world's highest/U.S. longest, opens.

And here's another completely off the wall fact...in 1418 on this day, Jacoba van Bayern married her cousin John IV van Brabant. Now who they are, I have no clue, I just thought it was interesting that it was listed on one of those "THIS DAY IN HISTORY" sites as some important fact. ROFL.

Strangely enough, the day of my arrival on Planet Earth, IBM was releasing PC DOS version 2.0.

I think one of them Monkees people was born on this day, or had something to do with this day...i don't remember what it was.

Interestingly enough, a lot of the March 8th birthdays were sports related (which I know absolutely nothing about....okay well, I know a little....but not much) so that makes me wonder if it's something about people who are born around this time that they have a sports personality. Maybe that's why I hate watching sports and why I'd rather be involved....LOL. Ya never know. Oh well anyways.

These are the balloons that showed up in my office at work today. They were very nearly bigger than my office. LOL. Sweet. =)

It was quite difficult getting them home...LOL.

So it's like really really late and we just got back from the town down the road (we had a night out without kids...just us and a couple of friends....partied hard, let me tell ya. HAH. JUST KIDDING.) but anyways, I'm going to post this and go to bed now.

An no, we weren't drinking....just diet coke and fake pepper (otherwise known as mr pibb...GAG...LOL)

Happy birthday, me.

*Edited to add....this is the OTHER apron my mummy made me for my birthday...it's reversible...the other side has froggies on it....LOL. I LUVS it.*

Now I'm going to give myself the gift of going to bed. LOL.

Later!

Insert Intelligent Sounding Title Here

I am SO. Tired.

I do not have a clue what is wrong with me, but I have gone to bed like way early almost every night this week. Actually, tonight is the latest I've been up...it's like 11 now. And I could have so easily gone to bed at 8:30 tonight without complaining one little bit. *sigh* What is UP with that? And all that and I've still had a hard time getting up every morning this week.

And today....day 4 without my medication that makes me not want to kill people.....I'm totally feeling the zappin in my brain....it is difficult to come up with an accurate description of this feeling, but being that I think about it every time I get buzzed, I think I've decided that the closest description would be biting down on a raw electric current and feeling it zap through your teeth and fading out to random nerve endings from the top of your head down through the end of your fingers. Bizarre. It's very disorienting.....and aggravating. I'm thinking maybe this is why the bed has called my name so early every night. I don't buzz when I'm sleeping. LOL.

Anywho, still....that does not explain why I'm still tired when I get up. What's really bad is that we're getting more sleep now than we have in all the time we have had two kids under four in the house. I updated all of my labels on my posts and I was reading through some of the posts when I was working on that, and I was like....wow....Munchkin's really improved. And....so has K-man....he woke up last night around 4 and I just patted his rear and shushed him and went back to bed....and that was the first time he hasn't slept through the night in like a week...maybe even two now. I'm totally loving this. And yet, I don't understand why I'm tired'er now than I have been in AGES.

*sigh*

Anywho, so....in case anyone has possibly (although not likely) missed me here in the last couple of days, just wanted to let you know I'm not dead....just sleeping. Like Lazarus. LOL.

Speaking of....(sleeping, not Lazarus).....

I'm going there now.
so.
Later!

For a Limited Time ONLY

Enjoy these little blurbs of k-man cracking up. You can't really see his face very much, but I'll still take them off in a couple of days.

Oh and you'll have to turn off the other music down there to hear them.....

So there was some kind of problems with blogger and for some reason those videos randomly show unavailable (I'm not sure what the problem is). Maybe these will work:

Alright...limited time is up. =) If you missed them, they're still available on Ringo if you're on my friend list there. =)

And on the 8th day....

God said, "This is too perfect." So He created Murphy. And He decided that it was no coincidence that He had created Murphy on the day following Sunday....which happens to be a Monday.
-Genesis 2:3(b) (QFV --- that's Queen Faith Version, for those of you who aren't familiar with that one)

More ######'s and too much $$$$$

Reason #93,279 why I should have stayed in bed this morning:

I wouldn't have been on a very long and very straight stretch of highway that was 55mph while trying to get back home from work after delivering that oh-so-important check that was holding up a great deal of progress on a project at work.


Reason #93,280 why I should have stayed in bed this morning:

I wouldn't have met an unmarked state trooper, on that previously mentioned stretch of highway, who had his lights on before I even got to him b/c I didn't realize how fast I was going.


Reason #93,281 why I should have stayed in bed this morning:

I happened to meet a trooper who asked absolutely no questions except to hand over the license and registration and was completely unaffected by every pathetic tear that dribbled down my face. I didn't do that intentionally, being pulled was just icing on the cake after the day I've had so far and I couldn't help it, but it would have sure been nice if it HAD softened his heart a little bit.


I am SO not laughing. Quite the opposite actually. Now I get to explain this to KC. Joy. Hopefully he will have more pity on me than the trooper. I just want to go back to bed and start the day over again. No, actually, I want to go back to bed and wake up tomorrow. On a day that ISN'T a Monday.

Scenario #593 of the Locked Out Chronicles

Get ready for work, get the kids ready, scoot everybody out the door.

Look into the key basket on the back of the door and see your keys.

Reach into the basket and grab keys.

Lock the door behind you and go to the car and help each kid in and buckle them.

Climb in the driver's seat and attempt to start the car.

Realize that the Honda key you're holding is NOT the Honda that you're driving and realize that you grabbed the spare vehicle keys (which coincidentally ALSO has a Honda key that feels MUCH the same as the one you were SUPPOSED to grab) instead of your own keychain which has the HOUSE KEY on it.

Instead, your HOUSE key is still in the basket INSIDE the house.

Don't panic.

Go back into the garage (because thankfully, you do drive the car which has the garage door opener on it and said car is not locked) and go to the place where the spare key is supposed to be hidden. Do a thorough search. Don't find it.

Go to the cold car where the kids are waiting.

Dig in purse for cell phone.

Don't find it. Don't remember taking it out, but assume it must be somewhere in the house.

Sit there for about 10 seconds wondering why you got out of bed in the first place.

Unbuckle the kids and move them to the spare vehicle and haul them to school where you borrow a phone to call your husband and ask him if he's SURE he put the spare key back in the spare key place the last time he used it. He says he's sure.

Go back home and look again. Call him back using borrowed cell phone and tell him it's not there.
Return borrowed cell phone to friend at school while waiting on dear husband to come home and let you in.

Take all the garbage to the dump while waiting.

Come back home and sit on the comfortable (yet seriously CHILLED) couch stored in the garage and clean out purse.

Pause for a moment to give thanks that you decided to go ahead and put a heavier jacket on this morning even though it's supposed to be warm again later today.

Pay a bill.

Look again for the key.

Sweep the garage.

Find the back of KC's cell phone that fell off and disappeared.

Begin breaking down some cardboard to go to the dump next trip and then watch husband pull up in the driveway and bring his keys to unlock your door.

Look in key basket and get the CORRECT keys out of it. Also, get the spare keys (BOTH OF THEM) out of the bottom of the basket and put back in the garage in the secure location.

****************

I can see that I'm going to need a new blog category JUST for this. *sigh*