What is HAPPENING?!

Dude. It isn't even 11am and I am ready for this day to be over.

Our school district is striking, today is the first day of no school. So of course I want to sleep in. Do the kids get the memo? Of course not.

I'm laying in bed, and my one year old climbs up to me, and promptly throws his tiny bowling ball hard head right into my closed eye. There was a flash of light, I'm surprised I didn't have a vision or something.

I decide to kick him out and stay in bed and read to recover. He comes up again and promptly throws one of those hard cardboard baby books. RIGHT AT THAT SAME FREAKING EYE. I have a big old lump there and it hurts to blink. I've never had a black eye before, we'll see if my very first is caused by a one year old baby. Kristina, maybe you are right.

I decide to go downstairs in an attempt to not be mauled anymore. The kids are fighting, they are screaming. Besides being tired, hurt, annoyed and frustrated, Aunt Flo came to visit yesterday, so I'm also an evil witch.

Then the phone rings. Its the dentist office, wondering if we're going to make our appointment that started 10 minutes before. Uhhhhhh, I thought it was tomorrow. I had to have told her "I am so sorry!!" fifteen times and she never once said it was okay, she was mad at me. I feel like crap.

I'm cramping. My face hurts. My kids are being crazy, wild animals. One of my children screams at least every two minutes on cue. Someone please make it stop...

Oh Yeah, I DO Have a Blog

Hey guys! Remember how my husband's in the army? And remember how last year he was gone for six months? Yeah. Dark time for me. I didn't blog a lot then either.

Well, I haven't blogged this month because he was in Korea. It wasn't nearly as hard this time because 1) I wasn't pregnant 2) I wasn't post-partum 3) It wasn't six months and 4) We've had some fantastic weather and that really helps me feel happy :)

So he got home Saturday and now some of the pressure I've had this month is lifted and I can think of other things besides: FEED CHILDREN-- PAY BILLS-- DON'T FREAK OUT-- FEED CHILDREN-- PAY MORE FLIPPING BILLS-- BREATH-- etc. etc. and so forth

At least I THINK I can think past that, here's hoping.

We went to the beach today. We've had great weather, but today was a little cooler and overcast, still really nice though so I won't complain because it wasn't raining. We had a little picnic lunch and played in the water and I'm trying to hold on to these last couple days before school starts and I have to have a normal schedule. Good luck with that Melinda...

So I have dinner to do right now but I'm going to leave you with this fantastic picture:

It never fails when I'm trying to get a good shot of her that somehow she ends up coming up with something crazy like this. She's great.

Until next time my friends!

Boy oh Boy

I have four children. My first two were girls, my second two: BOYS.

Boys. Boys, boys, boys, boys...boys. Boys are a whole other creature I tell you!

From the very beginning they smell worse than girls. I'm serious! Boys like to play in the garbage can. They like to run in circles for half an hour straight. They're rough and loud and curious and have so much energy I wish I could channel it to use some myself. Reverse psychology doesn't work on them at all. If I told my girls to go take a bath and they whine about it, all I would have to say is "Fine. Then you CAN'T take a bath!" and they would be begging me to take a bath. Boys? Not one bit. I can threaten my son, "Do you need a TIME OUT?!" (my girls would be quaking) and he would be "Yes. I DO want a time out! PLEASE GIVE ME A TIME OUT!!" (yelled in the middle of church), its exasperating.

Probably the worst thing about boys though? Their boy parts. Yes. You read that right. Their boy parts. They are like OBSESSED with them. Potty training my son has been like living in a nudist resort. And I'm gonna be honest, I just don't want to see wiener's like...ever. Even if they are just my little boy's. I feel like I'm being visually assaulted all the time. I'm thinking boys' think its like their own personally handle of some sort, just something to hang on to constantly. Goodness sakes Son, its not a toy!

My younger son is eight months old now and I see him doing the exact same things as my older son. He's walking now and he is into EVERYTHING. He just learned how to open all the cupboards in the kitchen, and do you think he wants to play in the cupboard with pots and pans? NO, he wants the cupboard with dangerous chemicals that should probably be up high anyway! What is wrong with him?!

But you know what? Boys are so awesome too. And I love mine more than anything. Ya know what I just thought of--boys are like puppies! So cute and adorable and lovable and so destructive...

Stuff

My poor little baby has his first "illness". He has a fever and threw up this morning. He's been sleeping a lot and isn't rolling around and trying to crawl like he usually does. Makes me so sad. Isn't baby sicks the worst?

So since I'm sitting around with him I thought I'd just share a project I recently finished. I made this blanket that I saw at Aesthetic Nest. I loved hers and was way excited when I realized I had just about everything already to make it myself! Here's how it turned out:

And I just had to add this picture:

It makes me happy. I wish I could sleep so soundly.

And thats it. See ya next time.

Watch Out for My Broom!

Kids have a lot of toys. I'm fairly positive that toys breed, because I never buy toys, but when I go in my kids room, there are TONS of toys. Its insane. Where did they come from? Why don't they leave? Don't they know they aren't welcome here?

The other problem with the millions of toys, is that my kids can't/won't possibly put them all away. So they're everywhere, all the time. I hate it.

My solution? Whenever I sweep up the floor, whatever's on the floor goes in the trash can. You should see my kids scramble when I bring the broom out, all of a sudden they're diving to the floor trying to save their favorite toys before mom can sweep them into oblivion. Its awesome. A two in one, the toys get put away and my kids get some excercise.

So, how do you keep your kid's toys in check?

How Do You Get a Laugh?

I work at a daycare. I mostly just teach preschool, Tuesday's and Thursday's I do office work, otherwise I fill in where I'm needed every once in awhile. Today was a day I was filling in--making lunch.

It was then, down in the kitchen of the daycare, I could hear my Oldest Daughter upstairs playing, that I discovered something. To my rude awakening great pleasure, I discovered Oldest has turned into one of those kids.

You know the type.

The obnoxious ones.

The ones who think "bathroom" words are funny.

Oh yeah, thats my daughter.

It doesn't happen very often when you get to peek in on your kids when they don't know you can hear them. You really hope that when you do get that chance that they'll really impress you, that it will be one of those really proud moments.

Not so much.

Yeah, I can hear her running amuck, being loud and all of a sudden yelling "ACK! I have to go PEE PEE!! HEHEHEHEHEHE!" She didn't have to go "pee pee", she just has finally discovered that using bathroom words gets ya a good laugh. I don't know how she hasn't discovered this sooner, since saying fart is a definite laugh-getter in our house.

Gotta love six year olds.

*UPDATE ON THE NOSE FLARING: So I talked to the Young Men's Pres. yesterday at church, and they totally DID see me making faces!! :S He said his wife was all "Hey, look there's Melinda! She's been making faces at us for a while, maybe she's being funny?!" After much more face making. "Uh, what is she doing?!" More face making by me. Drive by and honk. Look of utter terror/embarassment. Oh, but we had a good laugh about it... *