Sleeping Beauty

I don't get a lot of sleep. Having a 7 month old and three other children, it just seems like I NEVER EVER EVER get a good night's sleep. I'm pretty much exhausted every day and I'm seriously looking into getting a big rubber mallet to knock myself unconscious before bed.

Last night was an especially rough night. The baby has a cold, so he's congested and not sleeping well. Then the two year old has been having a hard time the last few nights as well, about midnight he started crying and snuck into our bed. (Yeah, yeah, I don't want to hear that the reason I don't get any sleep is because my kids sleep in my bed, I am too cranky to respond nicely.) So all night long we were squished and crying and not sleeping well. My two daughters get up WAY TOO early and such was the case this morning. It was my second daughter's birthday yesterday and she got a barbie doll that I told her I would open today. TWENTY minutes before my alarm was supposed to go off, guess who's in my face whispering "MOMMY?! MOMMMMY?!" Yes, that horrible child. I peek my eye open and she asks if I could open the barbie right now? AND I AM ANNNNGRY! I told her I was SLEEPING and to GET OUT. Not two minutes later, my oldest is in the room "But mommy can't you open it?!" Its getting to the point where I'm going to start screaming I was so tired and all I could think of was that she was ROBBING me of a precious TWENTY minutes of sleep!!

We had a little talk when I got up twenty minutes later.

After my oldest got off to school, I went back to sleep. Thats right, I did.

I'm still angry just thinking about this. I think I'm going to go in their room at midnight tonight and ask them to get me a snack or something, awwww sweet justice...

P.S. I had a very busy Thanksgiving weekend, I hope yours was full of family and friends and happiness and thanksgiving!

My Brain is Too Tired to Think of a Title

I'm feeling much better than I was last week. But instead of feeling depressed and hopeless, I feel anxious and overwhelmed. And mostly happy too. I've been laughing a lot more as well. Its nice.

The reason for the anxiousness and feeling overwhelmed is because did you guys realize that Thanksgiving is in three days?!?! And after that it'll be a blink of the eye and Christmas will be here! And I have about a million and fifty trillion things to get done from Thanksgiving to Christmas and it feels like it just snuck up on me and is pointing and laughing in my face now. And maybe kicked me in the ankle a couple times too.

Also, we're having a HUGE snow storm here right now. And by huge, I think we have like two inches. You see, when it snows in Washington it becomes a time to panic. To cancel school, to stay inside, to drive like a crazy person and freak out a lot, to write a million Facebook updates about it all. Its what you do. Picture people running around in circles, grabbing their faces and screaming WHY?!!? towards heaven. And cars sliding around and crashing into each other. And on the side lines, there's kids making snow angels, having snowball fights and building snowmen, laughing jollily and having the times of their lives. Also I think there's some explosions in there too.

So, tomorrow my daughter has no school and that would be fantastic if my husband didn't have to work either, but so far, he does. The best thing about a snow day, is sitting inside together all warm in blankets, drinking hot chocolate and watching movies. Or reading a book. I read three books this last week and I really want to read more but I can't get to the library because well, see the last paragraph.

I made a list today of all the things I need to get done. I feel less overwhelmed, but only a little. If I could get a car and a babysitter to watch my kids, THEN I'd be doing great. Also there's that weather thing, but what was I saying about that again?

I love the holidays...no really, I do. How about you? How do you handle the stress, the packed schedule, the crowds and the gimme gimme's your kids throw at you?

Make It Stop

I am a somewhat obsessive person. Or I have an addictive personality. Its like if there's something I like its ALL or nothing. If I have a new friend that I love I want to see them ALL the time. If there's an Italian Soda I like, I drink one every day. Until I realize I can't do that anymore.

Take blogging, I look at blogs ALL the time. I may not blog as often anymore but thats because my life sucks and is boring.

So anyway, the point is that I am wrapped up inside my own head ALL the time. I am constantly thinking about and obsessing over EVERY little thing. I can't turn my brain off for the life of me (or would that be the life of me if I did?) and sometimes it gets old. Sometimes I would like to just not care about every little thing. I would love to just stop thinking for five minutes. I'm telling you my mind is thinking about something and how I feel about it like every second of the day. I worry about my kids, I think about issues I'm having, could my baby be any cuter, what that person is wearing, how I shouldn't have yelled at my kids just then (yes, just now), what groceries do I need, why is this sweater so itchy, is my daughter okay at school without me, how I need to stop wasting so much time but really why since I have NOTHING TO DO ANYWAY, why is that person so annoying, why am I so annoying?!?!

It just never ends, and if it bothers me so much, it has to bug other people right? My constant analyzing and talking and sharing how I feel. It gets old right?

But you guys, I don't know how to stop! How do you stop your brain from thinking? How do you change the way you react to things when you've been reacting that way for like ever? I really honestly try so hard to let things go, not worry what other people are doing because who cares, and just be happy; but eventually I fall back into obsessing about everything.

Do you think they medicate for this sort of thing? Don't worry, I'll just be obsessing over here while I wait for your answers. :)

Surprise In a Diaper!

My baby is at the point now where he's mobile and whenever he finds something on the floor, it goes straight in his mouth. And because of this "eating everything he comes in contact with" every day is an adventure.

A treasure hunt of sorts.

Oh not for him--for ME. You see, every time I change one of his poopy diapers its a surprise of what I will find in there. For real. EVERY diaper.

Its mostly paper or stickers, thats the joy of having little girls who like to draw pictures all the time. They leave pieces of things left on the floor that the baby will find. Oh, he will find them.

It makes me crazy, I am constantly picking up and yelling at the kids to keep stuff off the floor. But inevitably someone forgets or the baby finds some secret hiding spot and there it is, evidenced in the poop.

He'll have a strong stomach right? Like you would need to read this post?

And that is my life right now. Crazy cleaning and poop diapers. Yay for me.

And Now, A Letter

Dear Nephew,

I had a dream the other night that we were at Thanksgiving dinner. All the family was there, yes including you, and you decided you were going to eat off everyone's plate. I know that you are a strapping thirteen year old, and you are constantly hungry, but I have to admit when you got to my plate and started eating MY MASHED POTATOES, I yelled. And then promptly your mom yelled at me for getting after you. And I felt super bad--in my dream. Now that I'm awake and have time to assess this dream, I'm a little perturbed that I was the one who got in trouble. Also, I know that it was a dream and didn't actually happen, but I must say that somewhere in my subconscious I could see this very thing happening. So, let this letter be a warning to you: DO NOT EAT MY MASHED POTATOES. Ever. Obviously, they are important to me.

Just letting you know because I love ya!

~Aunt Melinda

Link Time

I honestly feel like I have nothing to blog about.

Its not that I don't have a million things swirling around in my head, its just that a. it'll take too much effort to really put into words what I'm thinking and b. none of them are funny.

I've been reading a bunch of blogs like Single Dad Laughing and (Gay) Mormon Guy and Kandee Johnson and they're all so uplifting and trying to help people. It makes me feel like I'm reading self help books every day.

So when I sit down to blog I either want to write out some big inspiring post or I want to say I'm not going to blog because I should be spending my time with my kids and doing uplifting things.

Its confusing I know.

So although this post is a total dud, you can click on those links and hopefully find something that will lift you up instead!

What did You do This Weekend?

These pictures are all backwards but we'll just have to deal! We went to a trunk or treat Saturday night and got very soggy. It was pretty wet out, but still fun. We did a Ghostbuster theme this year--me, Dave and Maddie were Ghostbusters. Bethany was a ghost. Sam was the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and Kimball was Slimer. It was a LOT of fun!

On Friday we did a fun little party at my parents' house. I dressed up like Betty Boop that night but I couldn't take a picture of myself in the mirror very well, this is the best I've got:

I know it sucks. Taking a picture of yourself in a mirror is harder than you think!

The night was filled with fun halloween food and lots of fun games for the kids, they had a blast!

Kristie's costume was the best! She dressed up as Timmy and it was hysterical! When we first drove up we saw her through the kitchen window and were like "Is that dad? I don't think so...Is it Timmy? No, they're too short...WHO IS THAT?!" Well, it was Kristie. Every time I'd see her out of the corner of my eye, I'd have to do a double take! haha

This is her cheesy Timmy grin--spot on!

She's holding up her finger because Timmy smashed his finger a few weeks ago and its all bruised on the end, so she even made her finger looked bruised to match! Clever girl!

This is Timmy's reaction to seeing her the first time, it was awesome!

We also went to Dave's parents for dinner Sunday with lots of yummy food and treats, like caramel apples and homemade peppermint patties! It was a crazy and busy weekend but we had such a good time, made out like robbers on the candy and enjoyed having fun with our family most of all! Hope you had a very fun Halloween as well!