Thankfullness

It is the night before Thanksgiving. All is good. We were ins Wisconsin Dells from Sunday until Tuesday afternoon. This was the first time I had been there since I was 9 and Tony and the kids had never been there. We stayed at the Great Wolf Lodge and did a lot of swimming. We went with my sister and her family and two families that are her neighbors. I am not a fan of swimming since I have weight issues but we all had a great time -even me. Will was very cute when we asked him the first morning if we should go to McD's for breakfast -he refused to go because his Papa would not be with him. Can't have breakfast at McD's without his Papa. It was so cool to take the kids there and have such fun.

Today I had my first Chiropractor appointment -I am sore and still skeptical. I have 3 appointments next week I am keeping my fingers crossed. It would be nice to wake up in the morning and be free of pain.

Tony was off work today also -it was very nice to have him home.

I am feeling very blessed and am so thankful for a nice home -good jobs for both of us and decent cars.

I am thankful for our healthy beautiful children and a husband who is the best.

I am thankful for my parents and my siblings and their families. I am also thankful for our friends.

May you all have a blessed holiday.

A Long Day

It is 11pm central time and it has been a long day. I worked for my dad this morning. I was up at 6:30 to get the girls off to school and Will I off to work at the mall. I am now here working at the hospital, thank goodness I have only 1 hour left to go. I can not wait to crawl into bed and watch TV.

I have to tell a cute Will story. I was getting him dressed the other morning and it was a tad chilly in the house. I pulled his shirt off and he told me he had horns while he pointed to his nipples. It was hard not to laugh while I explained the proper term for his 'horns'. Today at the mall he lifted his shirt and said he could not find his horns (it was not chilly in the mall). Could he be any cuter?;)

Another weekend bites the dust

The kids had no school Friday and Tony and I were both off work. We spent all day Friday and most of Saturday cleaning the house. UGH! Than early evening Saturday was our birthday party for Will. He turned 4 November 1 -but we were unable to have the party until this weekend. All went well and Will really enjoed himself. he was greeting everyone at the door with "Happy Birthday!" -too cute!

My niece Lexie stayed the night last night so the girls and I took her home today. Than we joined my sister and Lexie and Jory and we went to see Mary Poppins Christmas display at Macy's downtown Mpls. It was nice to see -I am sure that soon these displays will be something that the girls will not be interested in soon.

So here it is Sunday night -Addie and Will are sleeping and hopefully Kenny will be soon as well. I am in bed watching TV and Tony is downstairs watching football. It has been a good weekend and I am not looking forward to going to work tomorrow. I work at the hospital this week and that means long nights and I will see very little of my family until the weekend.

I am struggling with a couple of things lately. The first and always foremost is money -man I have major money issues. I am also struggling with the decision of returning to school this next semester. The last issue is my weight. I need to do something about all 3 -but I am lazy and weak and do what I can to avoid all. Oh, wait one other and probably the most important of all is whether or not I am being the best parent I can be and I guess to go along with that is am I good wife? These thoughts plague me daily...

Friday

Been up since early this morning and I have gotten a lot done. I wish I was this productive everyday. It is now evening and we are sitting around watching Planets funniest Animals. I love listening to the kids giggle. Kenny is a at a friend's home for a birthday sleepover. So it is just the 4 of us tonight.
I am feeling down this week -possibly from PMS... Sure wish it would go away -when I get like this I just want to sleep sleep sleep.
Tomorrow we leave to go to St. Cloud and Watkins for my cousin Danielle's wedding and Sunday is my Grandparent's 65 wedding anniversary. We are all gathering for a brunch on Sunday to honor them. I have all the laundry done and the ironing -but I have yet to pack. It is so much preparation to get all 5 of us to go away for 1 night -it is ridiculous. Of course I am an overpacker as well -I always have to bring clothes for the kids for 3 days not just one -I irritate myself. Thank goodness Tony is understanding and never says a word.
Yesterday Kenny brought home an F on a math test. Our first F experience with our children. I was calm about it and told her we would have to do some work at home and Tony suggested maybe reading a bit less and practicing math more. Her teacher had also written on the test that Kenny should come see her about it -of course Kenny did not do that. We told her last night to be sure and speak to her about it today -but she forgot. I was so angry with her. I am also terrible at punishment. Maybe I should have not let her go to her party tonight I don't know. I told her that on Sunday when we get home she will be redoing each problem she missed and that on Monday I will be taking her to school and we will go in and talk to her teacher together. I will than later decide if we need to do more in the punishment department later.

NOT SURE WHERE THE TIME GOES

I can't believe it has been 3 months since I last posted. My oldest did make it home from summer camp alive and happy. August was crazy -we went to South Dakota for 5 days. We convoyed out there with my sister and her family and my parents. Neither my sister or my parents had never been to S.D. before. We rented campers for 3 nights and had a blast. The only bad thing was that it was to dry to have campfires:( School started in September -even Will started preschool- which he is very much enjoying.
Today when I went to pick Will up his teacher motioned for me to come into the classroom so that I could see the little girl who Will had been playing with and holding hands with for the whole 2.5 hours he was there! The teacher of course thought it was soooooo cute- me- meh - I am not so sure... He is almost 4 -but geesh -a bit young for the girl thing isn't it? He has been a girl stalker since he was 2. I would take him with to pick up the girls from Quarry Hill (nature camp) and while we waited for the girls he would follow any cute little girl passing by until I made him leave. I would have to try and distract him so that I would not get evil looks from the girl's moms! Than this summer he would continually point out girls he liked -girls in toy catalogs -girls in advertisements -from 40 years old to 2 years old. He always comments on how pretty they are! Of course, dear husband thinks this is fine -that his 'boy' is on the right track. Myself, being the mom of 2 older girls and no boy raising experience -it worries me.
The one good thing I have going for me is that Will is not potty trained YET! Yes, he will be 4 years old in 2 weeks and not potty trained. I am the worst mom in the world. I am trying the patience card -that eventually -hopefully before he is 18 and an adult he will have discoverd that going on the potty is much better than wearing a diaper. If he is not trained by 18 -I am positive there will be no girls returning his interest.
Saturday is Tony and my anniversary -we will be maried 11 years. 11 YEARS! I do not feel old -yet we are clearly headed toward 50 years of age. To celebrate we are staying at a hotel in Mpls. Can you believe it -we will actually get to sleep in a bed -just the 2 of us -a whole night. No little boy inbetween us. No girls waking us and telling us they are scared and sleeping on the floor by the side of our bed. And we get to sleep until we ourselves wake up. No one crying or fighting. It will be our version of heaven.

Day 4 of 6

I am blue -I was sure we would get mail from our daughter today. Nope. If one more person tells me she is fine -I will explode! I KNOW she is fine -I would just like to hear from her. I should learn to keep my mouth shut as well. Grrr...

I am back at work tonight -and in 3 weeks -not a darn thing changed. The residents (doctors) are still stupid and clueless. I have now earned my 2 year AA Science degree -but there are no jobs to apply for. Figures. I will keep plugging away at both my AA Liberal Arts degree and getting a new job.

Addie had a dental appointment today that went very well. I still help her brush her teeth (she is 7) and I had noticed some staining on her molars. I had thought they might be cavities -but fortunately they are not. Yeah, Addie!

Will developed a cold last evening. He is very stuffy and did not sleep well.

Tuesday done -3 days to go

It has been a long day today. In order to conserve gas -we stayed home today. I am not sure it was worth it or not. A whole day inside with my 7 and 3 year old -argh what was I thinking? It was so darn hot and humid today -had to stay in the house. I am crabby and tired. I got nothing done and tomorrow I start back to work. How depressing.
3 days until we pick up our 9 year old from her first week long camp stay. I am missing her terribly. We are not allowed to call and she can not call us. I have sent an email to her daily as well as 2 letters snail mail. We have not rec'd a letter from her yet and she is not allowed to email. I just wish we knew how she was doing. Tomorrow I expect we will get a letter -but I have to have Addie in Rochester for her dental appointment in the morning and than I have to work so I won't even get to see it until after I get home from work (1 am)-Awwwwww!
I made some effort with Will in the potty training area -did not go well- again!
Bah humbug!
I went with a girlfriend last night to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2. I thought it was a great movie! I love Johnny Depp -easy on the eyes and a great actor.
I think my antidepressant is not working well these days. I know I am pms'ing as well -but I am just so down and tired. I have not made a doc appt. -I really do no want to go through a changing of meds. Guess I should suck it up and go.

Been a long time

Since my last entry. Just been busy with life I guess. Dropped off my oldest at camp today. This is her first extended amount of time away from home. I am confident it is a great camp and she will have a wonderful time -BUT -I am missing her terribly. I am an introvert and I love having my time at home -but even more I love having my family at home with me. Having her gone is very hard for me. It is all part of parenting though I guess -it is almost worse than having colicky babies -I didn't think anything would top that- live and learn I guess... Even more heartbreaking is my 7 year old already talking about how she will be going to camp as well next year! ARGH!
We still have not managed to get Will out of diapers yet and time is closing in on me. He is to start preschool this fall and they request that the children be trained. I am at my wits end. This child has no Achilles heal. He does not like candy and bribery with a new vehicle placed before him just does not work. I hate to force the deal after our experience with forcing Kenny. She ended up constipated for 2 weeks and we gave her an enema and the stubborn little girl held that enema in for 5 hours! We then gave her Miralax daily and told her she had to poop in a pull up and clean herself afterwards. It worked -but it took her umm I think 6 months before she gave up the pull-up. Ack!
Addie was a breeze to train -not sure why -she is definitely not my easiest child -but I love her anyways:)
So... We are allowed to email Kenny at camp -but it is a 1.00 an email. It comes out of her camp account. I already emailed her when we got home and I am sooo wishing I could email her again -but I don't want to put her in camp bankruptcy. We are not allowed phone calls either. How do parents do this? Send off their children to camp and live to tell about it? I have 2 other kids here at home and yet I still have time to pine away for my oldest baby girl. I have started a new book and am trying to watch TV but nothing can keep my mind off my first time camper. Clearly I am getting a taste of what 'empty nest syndrome' is all about!

Home with the sickie

Will woke up in the middle of the night vomiting. He was ok by 6 am. But of course, I stayed home with him today. Tony had to go to an uncle's funeral this morning. His parents flew home for the funeral -so this evening they are going out to dinner. I sent Tony and the girls to have fun with them. Kenny was so sweet when she left -she asked Tony if she had grown since last summer and if Grandma and Grandpa would remember her. We have not seen them since they went home to Arizona last September. Addie was concerned that she did not remember what they looked like.
Will is sleeping right now on the couch. I am debating if I should wake him or not -it is 6:30pm. Ack, I hate it when he does this. If I wake him he will be crabby -if I let him sleep -who knows what time he will go to bed tonight.
I went to my first Weight Watcher meeting yesterday. I have not started on 'the diet' yet. I need to do some shopping first and have not had a chance yet.
Tomorrow I get to go shopping with mom and my sister! Woohoo -we have not done anything together since November.

Last night of work -and off for 9 days!

I am excited. I have worked every weekend since January with only one day off a week. I am now returning to my original schedule after tonight. I will be at home with my family for the next 9 nights. I am excited.
Kenny has her first orthodontic appointment tomorrow to start the process of braces. We will be writing our first check to pay for braces. Her smile in the end -I know will be worth it.
Addie is going for a play date at a friend's home. I am going to MAKE Will sit on the potty chair tomorrow for the first time. I gave him warning and told him that we would try tomorrow. I know he is ready -but he is stubborn. Wish us luck.
Tony and I actually had a few conversations this weekend -some with interruption -some not. It was good. I wish he had the day off with us tomorrow but his company is in a planned outage so no time off the months of March and April.
I have so much planned for myself to actually accomplish this week. I am sure I will never get it all done -but I have good intentions.

Not much going on...

I was up early to get the girls off to school today. After they left I never sat down, I was busy cleaning and doing laundry. My best friend came over for a chat and we went and had a quick lunch. We live in a small town of 2000 and the only kid friendly place to eat is Dairy Queen. It gets old after 3 years:( but the conversation was good:)
After M and I parted ways -it was back home to paying bills and getting ready for work. Will watched his favorite show Dora The Explorer, I love to hear him shout out the answers before Dora does. I also love to hear him sing the songs and do his version of the Dora dance.
I can not wait to get home and crawl into bed tonight. Tomorrow we will all be home as a family and no school means sleeping at least past 6:30 am. I will actually get to see the husband. When I work evenings -we only see each other for a minute or two while we swap child possesion. I hate working opposite shifts.

It has been a long day

Worked both jobs today 14 hours, I am tired. Good news is that I am almost done with day 2 of 5 that I have to work this week. After my 5 days is up -I will be off from the hospital for 9 days. I can NOT wait! I have been working full-time the last 3 months -every weekend- does not help family life when dh works straight days -weekdays.
Tomorrow morning my best friend is coming over for a visit in the morning. I am excited -it has been awhile since we have just been able to sit and chat. I also need to balance checkbook and write out bills and do laundry -these things I actually enjoy. I could do the SAHM thing real well. I love cleaning and all that wifely -mom stuff.
Haven't blogged in quite a long time -I am still debating if this is something I want to do or not. I have decided to just keep plugging away at it -maybe I will discover what it is I am trying to do.
I have been feeling very down recently, I have a co-worker that just had a double mastectomy -breast cancer. She has now found she has bone cancer as well as a shadow found on her liver via MRI. My mom is a breast cancer survivor. Thank you Lord. It gets depressing working in a hospital and seeing so much pain and anguish. Especially in my job position -we do not see the good outcomes -only the bad.
I feel overwhelmed with all the death and crap going on in this world. It scares me to be raising my kids -I fear for their future.

Could have been better day

My first day off in 5 days and it sucked. I was exhausted this morning. I was up and sleeping in Will's bed twice last night -not good. He has a twin size bed and it just doesn't work to have an adult and a 3 year old in that size of bed. Needless to say I got very little sleep. I layed down on the couch after I got the girls off to school. I did not get up until 10:30. Makes for a very short day taking naps like that.

Tony went to a friend's home to help set up his computer and was there for a lot longer than he said he would be. We did not get to spend any time together. I was very angry with him and chewed him out when he got home. I never did get to go shopping at all. I did however get my lists made and the bills paid and checkbook balanced.

Than came more bad news -my best friend's husband received a job offer that would move them. It sounds serious. This is the 3rd time they have considered moving in the as many years. I think they are going to take it and it makes me incredibly sad. I am happy for them -but feeling sorry for myself and my loss of her being so close. I have had better days.

Still debating

I am still toying with the idea of keeping this blog or not. I can be very reclusive and private -yet I like the blogs I see out there and would like to write as well. Maybe I keep thinking this will improve my writing skills -maybe not.

Things have been crazy this week. I started my full-time hours at the hospital which I will be working until they find a replacement for my job-share partner -this could be months! I had 2 girl scout meetings earlier in the week and tonight was cookie kick-off night which I could not attend because of work. We finally got Will to sleep in his own bed as of Weds. night -prior to this he was coming into our bed. He is a sweet little boy -but I can not stand sleeping with him. He is only 3 but he can take up more room in a bed than a grown man.

I am currently working -I will be here until midnight at least and I start my math class at 8 am tomorrow. What was I thinking taking a Saturday morning class?

This morning Addie started crying right before she was to go out and wait for the bus. She was upset because the morning before she and Kennedy had to sit on the floor of the bus. She said the bus was crowded and the one seat that had only one occupant -the girl did not let them sit with her! I kept Addie home and drove her to school later -Kennedy wanted to go on the bus. Tony called the bus company this afternoon and they agreed that the incident should not have occurred, and that they would talk to the driver etc. This is the part I have about raising kids -the part where you see them get hurt. Addie is a challenge to raise and sometimes I would like to adopt her out -but to see her cry that way -it made my heart hurt.

Monday Monday

Kind of a Lazy day today. My sister drove down to spend a few hours with us. She has 2 girls that are close in age to ours and they all have a blast when they get together. Robyn and I just vegged on the couch chatting. She did not stay long though -we had to take our girls for a dental appt.
Dental appt. went well -Thursday Kenny has an orthodontic appt. Last time we saw the ortho he said Kenny would probably start with her braces in Jan. -her teeth are growing better than the last time we saw him so I am not sure what his verdict will be this time around. Later is always better if you ask me -I am not looking forward to orthodontic bills!
Robyn and I are going to take the kids up to my Grandma's this next Saturday. I have not seen her since August when she had her hip replaced. It is a 3 hour drive -long enough without kids -so it is not a trip I like to take. Tony is going to stay home and paint Addie's room. Woohoo!
Tomorrow we pick up Will's bed. He is 3 years old and I have yet to potty train him -get rid of his pacifier and get him to sleep in a room that is not ours. He is currently crying because we would not let him sleep in Addie's bed. Hmm -I just now relented and told him he could sleep in Addie's bed -I am pretty sure it won't last long -sure would be nice though.
This may be my last week home for quite awhile. I would like to get him sleeping in Addie's room before I go back to work full-time.

New Year

First day of the new year... Will had us out of bed at 8am. He got into our bed at about 7am. We were so tired -did not get home from a friends home until 1:30 am and stayed up when we got home for awhile. We went to see King Kong last night-ugh I did not want to see it in the first place -but being the good friend that I am to my husband I humored him. Tony did not like it either and he is a very big King Kong fan... he is forever watching the original when he sees it on tv. After the movie we went to a friends home for a couple beers. It was a nice evening except for the paying of the sitter. She is 20 y.o. and I work with her at OJ -so I told her I would pay her 6.00 an hour -plus extra for having to drive 25 miles from Rochester to our home. I paid her 70.00... probably way too much but I have to work with her and I felt guilty for staying out so late. Live and learn I guess.

So this morning I tried napping on the couch for awhile -did not work well. First my brother called than Robyn and than mom. I finally got off the couch and in the shower. After I took all our Christmas decorations down and the tree with help from the girls and Tony. I hauled it all downstairs but have yet to put it away. Than we all went into Rochester and had some McD's for lunch and went shopping for a new vaccum. Found one! Finally! Our old vaccum was a monster! I think I vaccumed for an hour once Tony got it put together! Tony says the carpet seems much cleaner! It is nice to have the house cleaned up!

For some dorky reason I was convinced that the girls went back to school tomorrow. I was aware that it was a federal holiday -but thought the school board had screwed up and had the kids coming back tomorrow! I took a look at their lunch menu and realized that they have another day at home yet -not sure if that is a good thing or not! Regardless now I can get some more wash done a be a bit more prepared for back to school on Tuesday.

Well it getting to be bath time here and than bedtime! Hooray! I can't wait to sit in front of the tv and veg out!