Mistakes in Motherhood

Just wanted to share some pics with you of this morning from over on my Flickr page. Venture over there if you want to see more.

Sophie showing off her GADs diaper.

She’s just now learning to balance enough to sit, she’s still pretty wobbly.

I am not sure what made her make this face, but it sure is funny!

She REALLY wants to start crawling.

I wish this one had been more in focus, I have a ton of pics of her crawling on the cat but I think the angle I was sitting at made the auto focus think I wanted the bed to be the center of attention, not the cat-eating baby.

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Photography, Sophia. | #

Bobby leaves for an interview in DC, I was prepping Matthew by telling him that tomorrow night, daddy would be sleeping at work, not at home, and that he was going to ride an airplane to Washington DC. Matthew asks “To my grandma’s house in Washington??” and I said “No, grandma lives in Washington state, this is Washington DC”. He gives me his silly little grin and says, “Oh, I know, he is going to Barrack Obama’s house!” I had a little giggle and I told him he was right, that is where the Obamas will be living. I then showed him a map of the US and WA State vs. DC., and then we read Five Little Monkeys and I tucked him in bed. He is so cute sometimes.

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Announcements, Bobby, Family, Matthew. | #

My friend Gina shared with me a revolutionary new tradition she was going to do that really got me thinking, we spend WAY too much money of Christmas, and by the 3rd of 4th gift the kids are on autopilot opening things they will never play with. Case in point, Austin got a $100 fly pen last year that has never even been used.

So Gina’s told me that this year they plan to get “Something you want, something you need, something to wear, something to read”. I have taken it a step farther, I am striving for a 75%+ rate of used gifts. Either from eBay, thrift stores, or regifting. We are also doing one big gift, which will cost us nothing because daddy is giving the kids his old xbox that has been in our room. Bobby and I are exchanging time instead of gifts, since that is what I need most of all.

Best of all, I have presented this idea to the kids and they LOVE it, they had so much fun making their gift lists because they really had to think about what they wanted or needed most of all.

Check out this neat vid my friend Terri shared with me:

What a neat reminder of how little it takes to make a big impact. What if you take only 10% of your Christmas budget and give it to someone in need? That is such a small percent to you, but it could make a huge difference. What if everyone gave 10%, can you imagine how we could change the world? One tiny drop in the bucket multiplied by millions of other drops can flood the buckets and alter the world like we know it.

So what are you doing this year to make a difference??

3 Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Advocacy, Family, Holidays, Memories. | #

Here is my pecan pie, first time I made the crust myself and I cannot wait to try it… YUM!

I hope you all are doing better than you deserve this year, I know I for one feel like I have truly been blessed this year and I feel like one day of thanks just is not enough.

No Comments | In: This is how I roll | tags: Domestic Diva, Holidays. | #

Blah, I hate this time of year… it never fails someone gets a bug and is nice enough to share it with the rest of the bunch. I was the lucky one who got sick first, it was horrible, two days in the bathroom wishing I could just puke and feel better. Finally about 24 hours later, my fever broke and I almost felt human again. Last night, we pulled up to FPU (Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University classes, taught through a local church) and Matthew throws up multiple times in the parking lot. So Bobby tells me to go on into class, take the baby and Austin to the daycare, and he heads home with Matthew and Christopher. Matthew is crying, he wants to go play with his 28 new friends at the church daycare, Christopher has forgotten how to listen in the confusion, and I am trying to juggle my workbooks, a baby and comfort Matthew. Thankfully he seems to bounce back quickly, about 30-40 minutes after he throws up, Bobby reports he is bouncing off the walls.

Last night, after only about 3 hours of sleep, Bobby wakes up feeling puny. Matthew has since joined us in our bed, and Sophie seems to think the offer of nursing on demand means she should demand it at 4:05, 4:15, 4:30 and again at 4:45… you get my drift. Matthew also seems to think that he is the cover king… he rules the heat level in the bed… first he wanted all the covers, and I got none… then he decided he was hot, laid on the covers and again, I got none. So now 4 of us are in the bed, Matthew is the only one actually sleeping. Sophie finally drifts back off, and Bobby gives up trying to sleep and gets up to shower… he has an interview today for a local job, more pay, ok benefits, but there is not a lot of room to move up in the company. The job he interviews for next week in D.C. is within his same company, awesome benefits, awesome pay, tons of opportunity, and did I mention is in our nations capitol??

So Bobby is now up, and dressed, he’s looking spiffy in his new sport coat, & wearing a tie, he comes in to hug me goodbye, even though he has no plans on leaving for another 30 minutes, because he is hoping I can go back to sleep with the kids. Well, right before he has to leave, he comes back in and goes to the bathroom to throw up. He later told me he had to hold his tie to keep it clean. Poor Bobby, we have been married for 11 years, together for 12 and in that time he has only thrown up three times, once after bad pizza, once after another stomach bug we all shared as a family, and today. Thankfully he is the type to get the 24 hour flu for 4 hours, and he said once he threw up, he felt so much better. I just hope he continues to feel fine and has a good interview. I also hope Austin and Christopher are spared, as they were not exposed to me as much as Matthew & Bobby, and I REALLY hope Sophie does not get it, but my experience, my nurslings tend to not catch whatever I get.

No Comments | In: Frugal, not cheap!, People, Places & Things | tags: Bobby, Family, Health, Me, Ramblings, Sleep Deprivation. | #

This is a true ad that I found the other day while surfing the net, I have removed the information identifying the product or website, but I just had to share this screen-shot with you guys.

Wow, what an amazing product where your “before” can be that an overweight black woman, and your after can be an overweight white woman… LOL Were they in such a rush they did not proof the pic to make sure they were not using two before pictures before using a lookalike to claim to be an “after” of the first person??

Normally, this is how they look, with the before image looking nothing like the after.

Oh wow, it really must work!

Quick PSA recap…. if you are going to try to sell us bull, at least pay attention to your ad before you pay someone to advertise it!

No Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Humor, Lame-o, Public Service Announcements. | #

Last night, I was getting the house closed up for the night, and as I was walking Sophie to her bed, I noticed Matthew’s light was on. Normally I just reach in and turn off the switch, he cries and goes to sleep. Last night though, I felt the need to go into his room and look at him, good thing too… he was crying before I could turn off the light because somehow he managed to get his head stuck under his toddler bed. Not sure why Bobby did not hear him from his office (the next room over), but I could not hear him from the downstairs, so he either just got stuck, or was not being loud.

Austin is pretty innocent, he is not the kind of kid to use words he does not know, and does not swear (in our presence at least, I am pretty sure he does around his friends since he is at that age), and one of the deals I made with him is if he ever hears a word he thinks might be bad, I will tell him the meaning and if it is appropriate to use… so today my kiddo comes to me and asks if a word he heard at school was OK, or a bad word. I ask him what the word is and he says “douche bag”… now let me tell you, being put on the spot like that, I kind of panicked. LOL So I said, that word is not something you use, and it is a bad word, thank you for asking first. When I told Bobby he said “well, did you tell him WHAT it meant?” and I said I had not, and he was welcome to… I told Austin to go ask his dad what it meant if he wanted to know… Austin walked into the office and Bobby said if you don’t want to know the meaning, just leave now, otherwise I will tell you but its gross. He spun on his heels and almost RAN away…LOL I was about his age when I learned about said feminine hygiene product, and it was pretty gross to me, and I am a female… poor kid might be traumatized for life had he found the meaning.

2 Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Austin, Controversey, Family, Lame-o, Matthew, Parenting, Silliness. | #

Tonight I was cooking dinner and in the other room I hear the boys watching one of our Indiana Jones movies… Matthew says in a sad voice “he is sad” so I ask him “who is sad honey?” and he says “Indy Indy Jones is sad mommy, his monkey at poison and died”. I was trying to be compassionate while giggling inside. Indy Indy Jones?? *giggle snort* so I ask him again “whose monkey was it Matthew” and again he says “Indy Indy Jones’ monkey”. I called Bobby down to listen and he corrected him, and I told him “no, that’s too cute, don’t change it” and he popped me on the back of the head playfully and told me to quit encouraging bad habits. Well, at least I have my memories!

1 Comment | In: People, Places & Things | tags: Matthew, Me, Silliness. | #

Christopher is a smart cookie, I know that, but he is also a very trying child because he borderlines on obsessive, and is always spouting off useless facts. Remember Jerry Maguire? Did you know the human brain weighs 8 pounds?

Well, a few weeks back, Christopher’s teacher sent a permission slip to allow testing for the gifted program, of course we consented, but I expected similar results to last time he was testes… one very high score, and low scores in literature/composition. Today the results came back… 73rd percentile for verbal, which was not bad… but in quantitative and reasoning he scored 92nd and 91st respectively and has officially been identified as gifted and qualified to receive gifted services. HOLY SMOKES! I did not expect that! This makes me wonder how he did so poorly on the entrance test to the charter school we applied for (he did not get in), but then explains how his standardized testing (thanks NCLB*tongue in cheek*) was above average and advanced.

I am not sure yet how these results will affect his curriculum yet, but I will call in the morning and ask questions. I am now curious how these results compare to his last test.

3 Comments | In: Uncategorized | tags: Christopher, Family, School. | #

We finished baby step one! For those of you who are not Dave Ramsey nuts, baby step one is $1,000 in a savings account as a baby emergency fund. Well, the same day we set up the emergency fund, our $33 oil change morphed into a $400 brake (and fluid) emergency, one we were able to authorize without much thought, because we had our Murphy Repellent in place. No credit card necessary!

The next day we started Financial Peace University and I got to share with the class how excited we were to have found Dave. What a fun class, I urge EVERYONE who can to attend at your local church. Common sense information that is not so common anymore in an entertaining setting.

In other news, all of our referrals came through today, so hopefully we will have answers soon. Sophie goes to the cardiologist next week, the rheumotologist next month, and the dermotologist the month after. I go to the rheumotologist in January, MUCH sooner than the next available appointment in JUNE! Someone canceled right before they called me, what luck! Now I don’t have to wait so long to get answers about my irregular blood work and spend less time hoping I do not have Lupus before I get answers.

Lots of other positives in the financial and career world for Bobby, but I don’t want to count my chickens before they hatch, so just send some positive vibes my way that those chickens start popping out of their shells so I can share with you!

No Comments | In: Frugal, not cheap! | tags: Family, Finances, Health, Me, Sophia. | #