Where Have I Been?

Where have I been? Crazy-land, that's where! Trying to get the house cleaned so I don't come back to a huge mess, trying to find someone to take care of the dog while we're gone, trying to wash laundry with a halfway working dryer, trying to take care of the kids and keep them happy and entertained.....the list goes on and on. I feel like I'm doing a halfway job on everything, there's just not enough of me to go around. Whenever I have a free minute to myself, I find myself thinking, oh, I should be doing this or that, or cleaning this or that. I have to stop myself and just try and relax for a few minutes.


So for Motivate me Monday this week, my list is way too long to even think about. I'll just start with what I want to get done TODAY:

-clean kitchen and wash dishes from making 4 dozen cookies yesterday
-get kids clothes in the dresser and closet
-finish laundry (ha! this will be a miracle if it gets done today, but I'm going to try REALLY hard)
-wrap presents
clean out sewing/computer room-it has gotten very very messy, only because I tend to just throw stuff in there and close the door and not worry about it, lol
-start packing for trip to NY
-drink a few bottles of wine-KIDDING! Just seeing if you're paying attention :) Although it is pretty tempting right now....

So that's my list. We'll see how much of it gets done. I also want to make fortune cookies, but that's at the absolute bottom of my list. I found a neat recipe online to try here :

http://www.ywconnection.com/Refreshments/pageRfortunecookies.html

If I ever get to it, I'll post pics and opinions. I highly doubt that will happen though :p

Well, off to start on my list. We are leaving for NY the middle of this week, so wish me luck getting everything DONE!!!!!!!!

Ummm....

OK I need some major motivation today. Both kids are out of school, and it's not looking like a wonderful day. Ayden is feeling sick, the house is a wreck ALREADY, there's laundry, dishes, and who knows what else to do, and this mama is TIIIRED.

Thoughts

Wow, I'm doing pretty good at keeping up with this thing. Yay me!
I attended a really cool seminar today, it was about parental involvement in school. Ayden went with me, and while I went to two sessions of my choosing, he was well cared for by some wonderful ladies, free of charge. The first session I chose was called "We Serve Too", and it was about the specific challenges military children have when dealing with PCSs and deployments and how they affect your child's schoolwork and overall behavior at school. It was actually very eye openeing, and the lady who taught the seminar was very passionate about the subject because she spent her childhood moving from school to school due to AF life, and no one recognised the fact that military children have special circumstances when it comes to moving and making new friends. It got me thinking about my kids, and the challenges and difficulties we will be facing in the next few months. I'm optimistic about it, because I know my kids are resilient. It just hit me tonight, though, that I'm not really mentally prepared for this. Like any big life event, I really have to get into the mindset and be prepared. I tell people, "Oh, yeah, we'll be fine", but in my head, I'm thinking, "What in the world am I thinking? I am scared to death!"
Well, now it's too late to finish and I am exhausted, so I will finish this tomorrow.

What's Going On With Us You Ask? Well, here ya go!

So I can't sleep. Actually I haven't tried that hard :) There are so many more interesting things to do instead of sleep.....scrapbook, clean, you know....fun stuff! I'm really excited about our (well, mine and the kids, Adam has to work) trip next week. Every year Leah (my sister) and I, and our kiddos of course, get together for a "sisters" outing. The past 2 years have been at a KOA in Bristol/Kingsport TN, but this year, we were going to scrap it because of the fact neither one of us has any money. Well, my awesome sister went ahead and made reservations without asking me, and I am SOOO glad she did! This never would have happened if it weren't for her, so, Leah, you rock, I love you so much, you're the best sister in the entire world. Seriously.

We'll be going to a KOA in Harpers Ferry, WV. I don't think I've ever even stopped in WV, except maybe passing through to get gas or take a potty break. It should be really fun.

Adam should be getting his deployment orders anytime now, most of the guys in his shop got theirs this week, and he wasn't included in that group, but he says he expects to get them soon. He is really itching to go and have a new experience, which I can't say I'm happy about or agree with, but I CAN understand. He's the only person in his shop who hasn't deployed, and if it were me, I'd probably feel the same way. I know a lot of his family doesn't understand that, and that's ok, we just all have to be supportive (I guess!).

Anthony will be starting kindergarten in about 3 weeks, and he's getting really excited, he keeps asking, am I going to school TODAY? Ayden will start going to a program called Wee Wings for an hour or two ,two days a week, basically a mobile preschool classroom. He's not quite so excited, so keep your fingers crossed.....

Happy Birthday to Me A Day Early

Yay! Tomorrow is my birthday. I am almost 30. That scares the crap out of me :( I have already gotten some nice presents from people, the ones who didn't know not to send them to me before my birthday - lol! I'm saving the cards to open til tomorrow, though, I'm not a total birthday Grinch. Besides, I like it this way, it's like my birthday all month long! I'm so smart.....

What a Week.....

Well, I am totally slacking on my posts. In my defense, this has been an incredibly trying week. Adam left for TDY 3:30 Monday morning. The next day, Sue and I and the boys had TONS of fun swimming at her hotel and hanging out all day - I am so lucky to have such a great MIL! But she and the lady she had driven down with left Tuesday morning, and that's when the fun began.....

Tuesday I decided to go to Sam's Club and stock up on some basics so I wouldn't have to drag both kids to the store as often. Cereal, pasta, flour, diapers, yogurt, ground beef.....etc, etc. That was all fine and dandy. On the way home I remembered I had stuff to drop off at Airman's Attic, so I stopped by there also. In the parking lot, I realized that my driver's side window, which was all the way down because of the beautiful sunny weather, was now STUCK all the way down, and there was a thunderstorm on its' way! I hurried into AA and got my stuff done, came out, and it had rained, hard. So, I figured, "I'm a trooper, no big deal" and set my jacket on the seat and drove home. I left the flour in the car because I was tired and frankly, didn't want to deal with it. By now, it was almost time to pick Anthony up from school, so we went inside for a potty break and got back in the car. I tried my window again, and lo and behold, got it to work a tiny bit, then pulled it up the rest of the way, where it now stays. Picked up Anthony from school, then needed to unload the flour and get it in the house. As soon as we pulled in the driveway, the neighbor kids wanted to come over and play. I started unloading the non refrigerated stuff, and the flour was last.....as I picked it up, the bag got caught on a metal piece sticking out of the stroller, and.....yup, you guessed it, half a 25 pound bag of flour, on the garage floor and in the back of my van. Then the kids and their friends started running around in it, creating a tornado/whirlwind of flour, spreading it all over the house, the garage, and the driveway. I sent their friends home and went inside and wanted to scream.

So that was Tuesday. On to Thursday.....

The kids were stir crazy in the afternoon, so I decided to let them run around outside while I sat on the back porch and tried to read. The dog kept trying to get out, so I closed the inside door so he couldn't push the outside door open. If only I had known Ayden had been playing with the push lock on the inside door earlier........I tried to open the door a few minutes later, only to find it locked. Yup. The front door was locked with the deadbolt, because I lock it as soon as I walk inside. The door from the garage to the house was locked because I was freaked out about someone being able to go in my van and use the garage door opener, then get into the house that way. And of course, safety-conscious me had gone around to all the windows the first night Adam was gone and made sure they were locked. So we were pretty much screwed. The only good thing was that I had my cell phone in my pocket. Oh, and I should mention, there was a thunderstorm coming, we were ALL barefoot, and Anthony was in his underwear-lovely!
I called Security Forces and explained what happened. The guy was probably thinking I was a moron...he asked me if I had my car keys so I could drive to meet someone at the housing office to get a spare key. No, I said, they were locked inside with my house key. How did you lock yourself out again, he asks? So I explained to him the craftiness of my two year old....I don't think he got it. But a few minutes later, while I was sitting in the rocker in the garage balling my eyes out, and the kids were strapped in their car seats in the van because they kept running down the street and I got tired of chasing them, a VERY nice, polite housing maintenance guy pulled up and introduced himself: Hi, I'm so and so (I wasn't listening to a word he said) from housing maintenance.....YAY! He saved the day. He was so nice, and he didn't even say anything about me crying, which was a GOOD THING, because I probably would have cried harder. He just said, it's alright, it happens all the time. So it was all over.

I know there was more stuff that happened this week, but I either can't remember, or I'm purposefully blocking it all out, lol. Those are just some of the things that really stuck out. Yesterday I ended up having BOTH kids at the CDC for a few hours, luckily the 2 year old class had a spot because somebody had cancelled, and I was RIGHT on top of that one! It was a welcome break, I got some housework done, and enjoyed a quiet house for a few hours. And it ended up only costing 12 dollars for 4 hours! I think that's a pretty sweet deal. I may just start doing that once a week.....

So today I'm waiting for a call back from a wildlife guy I called last night because some of the neighbor kids found a bird that was just a little bit older than a baby that had hurt it's foot. It's still sitting in a box outside on my back porch (don't worry, it's still alive). The dog keeps trying to figure out where that scrumptious smell is coming from every time I take him outside. It looks a little bit better today, but what do I know?? I'm just really hoping this guy doesn't stick me with a thousand dollar bill or something, for this bird somebody found on the ground. I love animals as much as the next guy, don't get me wrong, but I can't afford to save every baby bird who falls out of its' nest!

Well, on to see what today brings in this adventure called MILITARY LIFE.........