Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Did I mention my kids are out of school for the summer?

I am already feeling the effects of it too! The first few days seem to always go well then it sinks in and I realize I hate summer. They really should start thinking about year round school. We normally start our day with a few chores. The kids don't have to do huge chores but just enough so that our house doesn't look like animals live inside. Cody got mad at Charlie this morning and stabbed him with a fork and punctured the top of his hand. Blood was squirting everywhere and it made a huge mess. Cody was immediately sent to his room so that CPS was not going to have to come. If he had stuck around I would have beat him good. My gosh, kids piss me off. DAILY! I cleaned up the wound and stopped the bleeding with some tricks I've learned and now Charlie's all better. His hand, however, is swollen and puffed. Here's the deal, Charlie is the oldest and has always been able to irritate his brothers without consequences. NOW, they're all older and they don't put up with his crap like they used to. He was swatting Cody's head while he was trying to eat his breakfast and his tiny, little self got sick of Charlie and hucked a fork at him at him. Charlie left him alone after that! I guess he had to since he was bleeding like a stuck pig. I was just mad it made just a big mess all over the floor.

Another frustrating thing that happened today.....well, we are selling our house in Tennessee. We have it listed on a few websites and gets quite a few hits each day. I log onto my computer this morning to see that we had an offer! I was pretty excited but trying not to be too happy until the email was opened. As soo as I opened the email my elatedness turned to pissed! The idiot had offered us almost $40K less than what the house is even worth. We already have priced less than what it's worth and he comes in and offers even less than what we originally paid for it. MORON! Maybe we should just consider what other moochers in the country are doing with their mortgages....y'all could pay for it!

Does anyone remember the incident with my brother and his wife and me back in October? They were putting their nose in my business with all that stuff that happened with my mom. If anyone is interested just click on the posts from October. Anyway, they had my mother keep their kids while she went to the hospital to have a baby. This was about a week ago. Apparently, my mom was a little bugged that she had to keep their kids longer than anticipated. That is to be expected from my mom. Anyway, turns out she was mean to their kids just as she was to mine. I just remember my sister in law and brother defending my mother's actions when she acted in a terrible manner to my own kids. I recall them blaming my kids for all the things she had done. I wonder if they are defending my mother for the way she treated their kids....hmm.....isn't that interesting? KARMA! It happens, so people should really be careful with how they treat folks! Now don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not happy that those kids had to be subjected to her meanness, but after years of knowing how my mother acts they really should know better. :D Sad! I think that's all I have for now.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Happy Memorial Day.......

The best thing about Memorial Day is, hands down, the BBQ! We get to go cook out and swim with a family from our church today. They have a pool right in their backyard, along with half of this city. It seems like everyone has a pool. Except for us. But we do have a red-neck hot tub! It's pretty fun too!

I've had writer's block lately. I think because I've been so bugged about some things. Mostly because of my husband and kids. I leave in a week for Vegas, so that should do me some good. Do you ever just feel a little under appreciated? Well....I sure do. The thing is, you can't really stop doing stop doing the things you do that nobody appreciates because by the time you start doing them again your work load has tripled. Believe me, I know, I tried it after Mother's Day. I still have a little animosity over that holiday! Do you know they didn't even sing a Mother's Day song in church?!!

I leave in a week and couldn't be more ecstatic! The break will be so nice. I can't imagine sitting by a pool without having to look at someone jump in 150 times or someone telling me they need to poop or how hungry they are. We haven't decided yet if we are going to Thunder from Down Under or Chippendales! Hmmm....any recommendations? Just kidding...maybe!

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Summer's here.....

and that's good and bad. Good, because the end of the year means I am at the school all the time. They always have so much crap to attend at the end of the year. Everyone knows the BAD part about summer.....24/7 kids. Non-stop eating, fighting, messing and making me more nuts. As a matter of fact the messing started the minute they got home today. When school gets out for the summer it always reminds me of how fast life passes. My oldest will be in the 7th grade and my youngest will be in 1st. It's so hard to believe. It feels like they were just born a minute ago. I graduated and married 14 years ago. I still don't feel that old. It seems so weird to think of where my life has taken me. I'm in a good place though. I couldn't have picked a better life for myself, although, if I had my druthers, I would have made myself a little thinner. Anyway, just thinkin'!

The Arizona weather is cRaZy here today. It's about 60 degrees and rainy and cloudy. As a matter of fact it's been cloudy for about 3 days now.

Well, I have a lot to look forward to in the next couple of weeks. First....Charles and ALL the kids are going on a father/son camp out tomorrow night. Can't wait to get rid of everyone for a night. Second....and this is better than the camp out....my sister and her kids are coming on the 1st of June and she and I are leaving on the 2nd for VEGAS... 8D! We get 3 kid free days. Charles is taking leave and watching all the kids for us. What a guy! Anyway, not too much has been happening around here so I haven't had too much to post about.

Oh and speaking of having a lot of stuff to attend at the end of the year....Ryan's "graduation" ceremony was today and my camera was out of battery juice. Didn't get any pictures of Josh's awards ceremony either. Mother of the year..... I've won it several times in my life. BUT...one thing I am good at....making sure my kids get to school. All 3 of the elementary kids got a certificate for not being absent any this school year. Well....at least since we've moved to Arizona. They will never have a problem with me not making sure my kids get to school. I like when school is in session. Especially now that they all attend. I like public school.

Friday, May 15, 2009

WELL......

my hiatus ended on Tuesday. I figured I was cutting my nose off to spite my face. In other words, if I didn't give in and take back over my duties, I was going to have 3 times as much to do by the time my "vacation" was over. Nobody said anything about it either. Ryan was glad I took the cooking duties back. Charles was afraid he was going to have to say the vacuuming wouldn't have gotten done unless I jumped in to do it. He was right because never once did any of them pick up the vacuum when there was 3 inches of desert dust at the back door. Through it all I at least know, I'm good enough, I'm smart enough and doggone it people like me :) AND... I do most of the crap, maid work around the house and this probably won't be the last time I am under appreciated. For now though, my house is at least clean. The good fairy got Charles though. Our swamp cooler blew about 2 days ago and he has been spending all of his time replacing it. He's almost done and will get paid for his efforts. Our landlord is going to pay him for labor. If I got paid for all the labor I perform around here I would make twice what he makes in a year.

I had to get a break from my family tonight. They stress me out and I had to get away from them. Well I did have Josh with me so it wasn't that much of a break. I took kids to get haircuts today and Josh left bawling because he thought his hair had been cut way too short. It is shorter that how he normally wears it. However, I like it because the last person to cut his hair gave him a gimp haircut. I haven't been able to take him serious since so I was thrilled to see that go. Anyway, that's why I took him with me, so he could go and pick out some cool styling products to fix his new "do".

Anyway, I have nothing else to report. I do have a busy day tomorrow and am excited for it to be over.

Monday, May 11, 2009

Mother's Day

Hmmm....can someone please remind me why we have a day set a side to make moms feel special? Why does it take a special day in the calendar year to do this? Why don't we (mamas) get a break on other days of the year? My highlight was getting a monster Cadbury caramello candy bar after sacrament meeting! I ate the entire thing without sharing one single bite! Oh and we did go to BBQ yesterday after church and it was fun. I was able to be around other moms, who also received not a single thing for Mother's Day:) Yep that's right, I've been married for 14 years and have given birth to 4 sons and not one thing for the big day. Oh, wait, my sweet, little 6 year old gave me an oven mitt with his tiny hand print on it and my 7 year old planted me a flower and painted the pot in which he put it! Both very nice gifts but they were so excited to give me their gifts, I received them on Friday when they got home from school. It's ok though, Father's Day is right around the corner. It just seems to me after you hit your 30's and you've been married for going on 2 decades you would have smart juice (as my sister so delicately put it) running through your veins by now. I mean I can't tell you how many times I have had this talk with my sweet, almost 34 year old husband. I mean, hell, I grew up with a haint of a mother and we still wanted to celebrate her EVERY Mother's Day. I KNOW I do more for my family than she ever did for hers and I didn't get crap. It's ok though, Father's Day is right around the corner:) SO....I'm on hiatus this week. Since my duties don't seem important or appreciated enough to be celebrated I ain't doing crap this week. We'll see how they like them apples! It's a man thing, I just know it. I mean, even my kids' teachers took the initiative to have the kids in class make something for their moms. Oh well, I did get the candy bar and a delicious piece of grilled chicken at the BBQ! Besides I shouldn't be too upset, I did receive the MOTHER of the YEAR award. Check out this link!

Ok, I did my first official foot zone the other day and had a great experience. Remember the school I did back in 2008 and went to the graduation and had all the problems with my mom when she came to "help" out? Well, I'm finally getting able to do it. It's going well. I don't blab about it to too many people since you have to be open minded to want to even have a zone done. But the lady I work on is a midwife and you have to be open minded to work in that field. She is actually THE perfect person to send me referrals.

Anyone interested about the baby chicks, they are doing great. They are no longer cute fuzzballs but birdie looking chickens. They're ugly actually. They are also too big for the coop we have them in. Charles is in the process of building a bigger coop with nesting boxes built right in. He may not be the best when it comes to Mother's Day but the man is SMART and can do, fix or make anything he puts his mind to. Plus....he is cute. A ding dong at times, but cute. Plus he's manly. I'm not so much into girlie men and Charles definitely falls into the extremely masculine category. Don't get me wrong, he still pisses me off at times. I'm just wondering how this paragraph went from ugly chickens to my masculine husband. I guess that's the good thing about a blog, you get to talk about whatever the hell you want!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

:D

Today has been a good day! It started out a little disheartening but turned out to be so much better. Does anyone remember my idiot brother? Well he tried to ruin my day but he didn't get too. I think he is still mad about the ball foxing I pulled over on him way back in October. I don't think he likes for anyone to get one up on him. Like I've said before....I'm super nice till you piss me off and then the big guns come out.

Anyway, Charles and I rode the bike loop tonight and I was able to shave about 5 minutes off my regular time. Fat girl can ride!

Have you ever smelled a swamp cooler? This smell brings so many memories to my mind. We have lived in Arizona at different times throughout our marriage. Of course, we've been at a different place in our lives every time we've been here. My first experience with a swamp cooler was when Charles and I first got married and we moved to Arizona and lived in a one bedroom, roach infested military house. That house was a dump and we had crappy, ghetto furniture. It was solid black couches and glass top, gold and black lacquer tables. We were as happy as a puppy with 2 peters though! We thought our house made us look rich! Then we left for about a year and came back with a baby and I got knocked up again shortly after moving back the 2nd time. This time our house was way better and we had gotten some white people furniture. It was much better the 2nd time around but not so good that we wanted to stay long. We left again and came back about 2 1/2 years later. Two kids the 3rd time around and knocked up with number 3! Once again we lived in a 1200 sq ft D-U-M-P! It was such a crap hole they condemned it and tore it down when we moved out of it. We stayed the 3rd time around almost 3 years and had baby number 4 here as well. One thing we are for sure good at is making cute babies. I remember moving back for the 3rd time and I just bawled my eyes out. I did not want to be back here. We grew to like it and left in 2004 for Ft. Campbell. Glad to get to Ft. Campbell until around September 2005. Now, here we are again and I couldn't be happier. And...that swamp cooler smell is the very same as all of the other times. It's a fishy smell that I can't explain. Almost like when you're driving by an ocean. Now we have 4 kids and the youngest is 6. I am out of the baby days and I have almost 14 years of marriage under my belt. I have learned a thing or 2 since the first time I ever smelled a blowing swamp cooler. It's definitely an acquired smell. I am rather fond of it now, because of all the memories that come to mind when I smell it. It's strange to think of my life before it got full and crazy with all these kids and the chaos. I am in a much better place than I ever have been and I like it a lot. Actually....I love it. My marrie dlife started right here in this town. Our first house has been torn down and the 3rd one has too! And Sheila, the bitchy lady at the housing office is still here too! Some things never change :D

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

I love sugar :-|

I think chocolate no bake cookies might be the tastiest thing on earth.....next to Ben & Jerry's of course! I can eat so healthy for so long but I am a sucker for those cookies every dang time, dadgumit. I made some for a friend tonight and I just couldn't resist! I had 2 of them and they were delicious. I don't know why people say food doesn't cure all things. I guess they've never had no bake cookies or Ben & Jerry's :) I won a miraclesuit on ebay today so I should be ok!

Ericka and I are down to our last few weeks before Vegas :) I cannot friggin' wait! I've had lots on my mind lately and at times I forget I get a vacation soon. We've got our Tennessee house on the market and I've been a little puckered about it getting sold. Today, though, we got 2 people that emailed and inquired about it. Who knows what will come of it but that at least gives us hope. We also got a tax statement in the mail today and it appraised for 17K more this year than it did last year. That was pretty freakin' exciting!

Today was my last day to help out in the kindergarten class. I was kind of excited about that :-| I mean, I love my kids but I just don't love spending all my free time in their classes. Besides, have you ever sat and listened to kindergartners read for an hour. Hmm, you should try it sometime. MY WORD!

Oh yeah, I almost forgot.....we had an exciting night last night! Our swamp cooler hadn't been turned on and it has been so hot in this house. Charles went on the roof one night to turn it on and realized the pump was broken. I went yesterday to buy a new pump and he got up there, again, last night and fixed it. It had been in the 80's in our house and it was just miserable. It was so nice last night actually needing covers in the bed. I love that man! He can fix and figure anything out. Plus, he's just so dadgum good looking. I like him! Another exciting thing....I won a miraclesuit on ebay today. My sister won hers too! Anyone out there interested in knowing what one is, just google it. You can lose 10 pounds in 10 minutes. We're pretty sanc happy about our wins. It was such a good deal and we got them for so cheap. I'm not so good at the ebay thing because it stresses me out so much. Plus, I hate to think that someone is going to beat me out of a good deal. Anyway, I gotta get so I can put dinner away! G'night :D

Monday, May 4, 2009

Boys are slobs.....

and my house proves it. My kids are so messy. Josh and Cody ALWAYS have crap shoved under their bed and Ryan's room constantly smells like fart and dirty clothes. Charlie is pretty clean but wants to get paid for cleaning his own mess. Love that kid! I spent the majority of my morning cleaning our pig sty and then......I rode that 5 mile loop! It's been a while since I have ridden it since there is always tornado winds around here. Today I decided to go ahead and give it another whirl. I actually rode more than half of it in 3rd gear! Then the winds kicked in as I was going uphill and there was no way I go do all that in 3rd gear. It still hasn't gotten easy for me but doing it in 3rd gear is pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'm still chubby though. All things in time!

Ok, so, Mother's day is this weekend. As most of us know, our wards always do something for the moms, right? Right. Well, Charles asked my input and I gave him an idea and they settled on a poem wrapped around a candy bar. I thought this idea was great and they have been trying to organize how to put it together. Well, of course all the men thought it would be a great idea if the young women put all the poems and candy bars together! Here's my question....why didn't anyone think to ask the young men or here's an idea....the elder's quorum!! I think just about every ward we've been in home teaching is around 25%, so since they aren't too busy why can't they wrap the bars around the poem? What else will they be doing? My point is...well can't you see? It's that the women seem to always get stuck doing EVERYTHING! Now we have to wrap our own mother's day gift! Has anyone else ever noticed this? I have....a lot. I have been in the relief society presidency twice and I have seen all the stuff that gets dumped upon us. I wonder if the young women ever think of it that way!! HMMM, I would love to know! Trisha?

Men will never really get it. They do get so much better with age but they can never truly understand. It's ok though, we get to have experiences they will never get. But do we really want those experiences? Yeah, I think so.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

We're old....

but we're still the youngest couple in the high priests group! Charles and I attended a high priests social last night and we were the only people in attendance that were under the age of 50:) I felt a little out of place but everyone was super nice. I think we were the only ones that still had children living with us. Well... maybe there was one other couple that had gotten a late start that still had kids at home. I only say late start because Charles and I started having kids the minute we were legal! I'm glad about that now though since I'll be barely 40 when my kids are almost all grown :)

Speaking of kids....summer is right around the corner. That means I'll have a few weeks with kids all day long. Don't get me wrong...I love my kids...a lot. BUT.... that's a lot of time to be around my kids. It's always nice when school first ends but around the 4th week of summer I'm dying for school to resume. My kids bug me..... as a matter of fact Ryan is bugging me as I type. I need another female in the house to understand where I come from. Charlie has been bugging us to death lately about how he needs a raise. The problem is, he wants money for doing nothing. We don't pay our kids for regular chores. However, Charlie wants to be paid for wiping his butt. In our house there are chores that you are required to do just because we pay their way. It's the price of having clothes to wear, food to eat and a bed to sleep in. Anything extra, that takes the burden off of Charles and me is a way to earn money. The problem with this though, is that Charlie wants to only do the chores that earn him money. If his regular chores aren't done though, he won't earn money for the money earning chores. I love being a parent :) I especially can't wait to be a grandparent and watch my grand kids bug their parents and tear all their stuff up :D

Anyway, I can't think of anything else for tonight!