What are your days like?

Hi everyone, I'm doing something a little different today, so bear with me. This is going to be a log of a somewhat hectic but typical day for me. I'm sure most of you moms can relate. Weather you have one child or more... does this sound like you?

At 6:30 am I am woken up 30 minutes before my alarm goes off, to a crying like girl who can't find her bracelet. Most mornings I wonder why I even bother to set the alarm. My sons are up and fixing breakfast in the kitchen. Even though they know they can sleep in until 7am, they never do. They are all grumpy and irritating each other, as I walk in and grab a bowl for Olivia, who is at the television asking to watch Wreck-it-Ralph, and she would also like juice and milk please. By the time I find the movie, fix her breakfast, and get her dressed, the boys are ready to start school. I myself am hungry, but I'll eat later when things slow down.

I set down with Nathaniel and we go over his spelling words this week, while my older two work on their math. Ten minutes into this, I am interrupted by my three year old, who apparently needs help going to the bathroom. After following her upstairs however, I find that she doesn't need or even want my help at all, she just wants me to be there. This is when I notice my throat is dry and I have only enough time to grab a glass of water, before I am called back downstairs by Zachary, who needs help with a problem in math.

After helping Zachary with math, getting Nathaniel start on math, and taking the dog out (yeah almost forgot to do that), I go back upstairs (I should mention that our schoolroom is in the basement) to the kitchen. I'm about to get a bowl of cereal, when my three year old tells me that she would now like to watch Cinderella. So I put that on for her, but by that time Nathaniel needs me. So I decide to grab a glass of milk instead of fixing a bowl of cereal. I get Nathaniel back on track, and start the laundry. This is when Olivia comes to tell me that Zazzles (our new kitten) is in the Christmas tree again, and won't come out. All of this and it is only 9:30am. I pry Zazzles out of the tree, finally grab some breakfast, and sit down to grade some papers. Of course ten minutes into that, and the three year old has to use the bathroom again. She is refusing to go with out me there.

I hear the washer ding, and rush back downstairs to switch the load over to the dryer, and start a new one. This is when I notice that the cats are out of food. I look all over the laundry room, only to remember that the bag of food is upstairs in the kitchen (of course it is, because putting it up there made perfect sense at the time). While upstairs I notice Olivia has a different dress on, and ask her about it. Apparently her last dress wasn't as magical as this one. Okay whatever at least she has closes on.

After feeding the cats, I go back to my disk, to finish an e-mail to our homeschool supervisor about our progress last month. The dryer dings along with the washer, and it's back to the laundry. I hear my phone ding, reminding me to put on my eczema cream. It goes off everyday at 12pm, and the boys know that, so I hear them cheer and rush upstairs to get some lunch. After about a minute I yell up to them reminding them to help Olivia if she is hungry. This is when Darien tells me, that she has the box of Captain Crunch and has been snacking on that, so she may not be hungry. Yeah I know, that's not a meal. The boys are nice enough to fix her a sandwich and peel her half an orange anyways, and she eats half of both (yeah typical three year old).

At this time I have the laundry folded and sorted into piles. I call my sons downstairs to put away their share. By this time in the day, Darien and Nathaniel are already finished with their school, but Zachary has a few pages left. I walk upstairs in hopes of grabbing a book and having 30 minutes to myself when Olivia tells me she is hungry. "Well where is your lunch? Eat the rest of that." But she tells me she can't because the dog ate it. After getting her a snack, I notice the dishes need to be done, so I unload, and reload the dishwasher.

I finally sit down and I am so excited to start reading. YAY ME TIME! After fifteen minutes of reading bliss, Darien pops his head into my room to tell me that the dishwasher is leaking (yes ours is temperamental if it gets a little dirty it will clog and leak). I stop the dishwasher, mop up the puddle, and clean the whole thing out. Yes during all of this I am interrupted by Olivia needing another supervised bathroom break. After all of that Zachary tells me the dyer is finished, and he is also finished with his school work. Awesome! So it's back to folding and sorting.

Nathaniel finds me after I am finished with the laundry, and asks me if I would read his Nemo book with him, so he could play video games (we have a rule where you have to read for a set amount of time, before being allowed to play video games). We read together and I am very pleased with his progress. This is also when Darien tells me that he has also read, so he and Nathaniel start to play minecraft together. By this time I remember that I haven't had lunch, and it's almost 3pm... already...

I fix myself a sandwich and settle back down in my room, and begin to read again. I get a hour, a whole hour of reading bliss (it was wonderful), then it's time to start on dinner.

Yes I'm going to stop there, because I'm sure you can imagine what the rest of the night was like, with the fixing of dinner, Jeremy coming home, more dishes to do, and baths to be given (well just to Olivia, I'm so glad the boys a very self sufficient). I sure a lot of you moms can relate weather you work, or stay at home, weather you send them to school, or teach them at home, weather you have one child or ten, yeah you know the feeling. ;)

Why do I not remember?

Do you have a bad memory? Well I didn't think I did, but after today, I'm not so sure anymore. Maybe my biggest problem is I sugar coat everything in my mind, and try to make myself believe that I had a good time, or that things will always turn out great, even though they won't, and haven't in the past. You know what I mean? Okay I'll tell you about it.

My husband gets home yesterday, and says that there is an office picnic tomorrow. Now my husband works at a Meps station in the Navy office, now a lot of people work there, a lot of people Jeremy doesn't know, because he stays in the Navy office. So this was no small picnic.

My reaction was "Great can families come?" "Yeah everyone is going to bring there family" "Great we should go, picnics are great."

See I was thinking of the positives... Nice sunny day, Free good food, happy people, and the park has a play ground (that the kids already love, because we have been there before). What I forgot was the negatives... Heat wave on the east coast right now, bugs, the free good food at these events always takes forever, and trying to control a 17 month old little girl (who has a mind of her own). See I forgot that I really don't get a chance to enjoy my food at these things because I'm chasing her. My poor sweet husband even offers to hold her, and look after her, but I still can't enjoy myself, because I not feel bad for him... What is wrong with me?

So anyways, forgetting all of the bad things of past picnics, we set out, and I'm looking forward to it. The picnic was going to start at 11am, so we get there at 11am (forgetting that it wouldn't be time for food until later). No one is there at he knew, so we walk to the playground to wait. It was HOT. The east coat is going through this crazy heat wave right now. It was 100 outside, but because of the humidity it felt like 115 (yikes). So after playing for only a few minutes the kids were done. We ended up going to the car and waiting in the AC. At 12pm Jeremy spotted a few of his friends and we went over to the picnic area. He took Olivia and showed her around, and I sat at a table trying to enjoy the little breeze. That was great until the flies came. They were biting my legs like crazy (ouch)... and my kids legs (poor things). Yes I picked a great day to wear a dress. :( ... and I was also the one who told the kids to wear shorts (it was going to be really hot), Jeremy who was in pants wasn't bitten at all.

Pushing the fast forward button -> -> The food was served at 1pm. This was just in-time because I was suggesting to Jeremy that we just go home, and get food on the way. We did show up, and that should be good enough, especially on a day this hot. I get in line with the boys, and Jeremy keeps an eye on Olivia. The boys and I sit down, I take Olivia, and Jeremy gets his food (yes all of you parents of small ones know, this is how it has to happen). Okay bear with me, because this is how it was... I had one fork to my name, and she takes it, she doesn't want to eat, but she wants my fork. Then she picks up my drumstick and starts hammering on my plate with it. All the while the bugs are still biting me, and I was trying to eat fast before Olivia did something crazy. Poor Jeremy he thought I was going crazy... "No, Olivia please don't take that... Ouch these dang-on bugs... Olivia give me that... did anyone get a napkin?... Where is Olivia's cup?... No, Olivia don't throw that." Yeah... thats how it was... Is that how things go for you too? Okay well I'm going to remember this, and I am waiting at least 2 years before going to another picnic.

Have a nice day, and thank you for reading :)

Zachary's birthday, Mommy relief, and my week so far...

This is going to be a 3 part post, so bear with me.


Happy Birthday Zachary!

Zachary's 7th birthday was Saturday! Yay for Zach. I can't believe how big he is getting.

Yes I know once again, I didn't post on his birthday. I think the problem is, it's harder for me to find time to post on a weekend. Yes I'm blaming it on the calender. :) My kids are getting so big... why are they doing that?

We got him a dart gun, and the game Operation. We took him to Subway for lunch, and made Pizza for dinner. He picked chocolate cupcakes with strawberry for his cake. YUM!











Down in the Mommy dumps?

Does this ever happen to you? You are busy, your husband is busy, you haven't been able to see any of your friends for a while, and you can't seem to find any time for yourself? ... Yeah I think this happens to all of us, and yes that means me. See last week was kind of a ruff week. I was busy with house work and starting the kids on some summer school work. Jeremy was extra busy at work, doing the things he needs to do. I had been missing church do to my busyness, and in turn I didn't get to see anyone. Also, not to mention, now that summer is almost here I have started to wear my summer clothes and have noticed that I put on a couple of pounds during the long crazy winter, and that didn't make me feel much better. Do you ever put something on and ask yourself... "Hey didn't this use to fit better?" Yeah I'm so with you there, and it's just not fair. So I was feeling a little lonely, because I missed my friends (including the ones that live so far away... Why did we have to leave each other :(... it's just not fair), and my husband (working late is not fun). I was also feeling down, because of the extra pounds, and because of the lack of time to myself. My kids are awesome! I think they are the best kids a mom could ever have, but they do keep me busy, and I'm only human (I have to tell myself this to make me feel better).

So on Thursday night Jeremy noticed that I wasn't myself, and after the kids went to bed, he confronted me about it... Long story short, he let me cry on his shoulder (which was very nice of him). He just listed to my troubles and told me that I was not fat, and that things will slow down soon.

Friday night the church was having this Lady's night in. We were going to watch a movie, eat pizza, and just hang out. It was just what I needed. I took my friend Trudy, and we both had a really good time...
I get home and husband had a couple surprises for me...

1. His mother wants to take the boys for the week (nice!)
2. He planed a weekend trip for the two of us (only), to take in August, to Ocean City (his mom is going to watch them again... Yeah super nice!)

Gotta hand to him, he hears my problems and he solved them. :)... How cool is that?



My week without the boys


Well so far it has been really quiet (thank you so much Jeremy's Mom). I have been catching up on Laundry (mostly washing sheets). When nap times come around I get a chance to read, and watch movies. This morning however I did have a nice little surprise waiting for me. Olivia thought it was a good idea to take her diaper off, and poop in her crib (it was lovely). So first thing this morning she got a bath, and I had to wash her sheets again. So far though that has been the only eventful thing... I like this... Yeah I'm just living it up right now... No worries by the end of the week, I'll miss the boys, and want them back :).

Thanks for reading.

This is the stuff...

Okay just a little warning before reading this post... This is a completely honest post, and I don't mean to make anyone feel bad. Lets just say I was a little upset a few days ago, (more like yesterday) but I am over now... never the less I feel like if I don't say anything, or just sugar coat it (like I do everything else), than I'm just not being truthful and I shouldn't write anything at all. So if you don't want to read than you can just stop right now, and I won't care. I just feel like a lot of us moms have gone through this, and I know how they feel, and no, they are not the only ones.

So last week I went on vacation... Remember that vacation I was waiting for and excited about? Well it wasn't a total bust and I did have fun, but wow... I think it was more work then worth (if you know what I mean by that). Okay so I'll tell you about it.

Sunday (day 1), Getting there...

I woke up around 6:30, so get the kids ready. We had a sleeping beauty on our couch (Jeremy's sister Christen), she had stayed the night, so we could get an early start (we were going to meet Jeremy Parents at the house we were renting). I must say though that this sleeping beauty can really sleep through anything. Once everyone was up, it was kind of noisy in the house (everyone was really excited to go), and that didn't wake her up.

Everyone was ready to go at 8:30, so off we were. It wasn't a very eventful ride, and that can be a really good thing. Apparently our list of both Jeremy and Randi approved music was getting old. Jeremy and I have different taste in music. There are songs we both like, but the list is small. When you have a music library of 1000+ songs, and you can only come up with a list of 97 that you both can agree on, than your road trip may be dull. So we ended up playing a few made-up game (this all started in Norfolk). My sister in-law wanted to know why she kept seeing mermaids in Norfolk. So we told her that, that's just the way Norfolk is, they like mermaids... My guess is that, that's their mascot, but I've never thought or cared to look it up. So we made a game of who could spot the most Mermaids, and I think Christen ended up winning this one. Yes but that game only lasted through Norfolk, and we were bored again. Once in North Carolina, we thought of another game. We kept seeing these No Olf signs, and had no idea what they meant at the time (yeah I did find out later, and there is a link, if you are curious), but we did make a game of who could spot the most.

Finally we get there, (to the happy crab in Duck, NC) and after a bit of unpacking, and checking out the awesome house...

We decided to walk to the beach (just down the street and over the dunes). The beach was beautiful and mostly empty (only one other family was there). We found some great shells, and walked back.

We had dinner, and it got late and I went to bed early that night.






Monday (day 2) Beach, pool, and sunburn...

Monday was going to be a warm day,  so it was perfect for the beach. I was woken up a 5:59 by Olivia (she was sharing a room with us), and had no choice but to get up. After getting her up and feed and the kids up and feed, I ended up waiting until 8am for everyone else to get up (this was the not so fun part, and most morning were like that). Once everyone was up and feed, I began to put sunblock on me and the kids. Everyone sat there and watched me do it, and yet they didn't think to put some on themselves (remember this, because I'll talk more about it later).

The beach was great. The sand was warm and the water was cold, the kids had a blast, and Olivia loved both the sand and the water (yay for me).

After coming back from the beach we got in the pool (water is good). We ended up playing with the beach ball as if it was a volley ball in the pool. We also ended up getting in the hot tub.

Okay now I know what you are thinking... "So far Randi your vacation sounds great. What is the problem?"

Just keep reading okay (if you dare).

After coming inside everyone (everyone but the kids and me), noticed they had some serious sun burn (yup). And I had the pleasure of listening to them all complain about it. Yes the complaining lasted for the full week (yes all week long). I'm sorry to say that I didn't have much sympathy for them, after all they did watch me put sunblock on the kids, and myself, and I did mention that they should do the same (the whole I told you so is running through my mind). Needless to say, I was really tired of hearing about it.

That night we had hamburgers and hot dogs. We were going to cook them on the grill, but the grill wasn't working (something wrong with the lighter), so we ended up broiling them in the stove.


Tuesday (day 3) Festival park, and the Lost colony...

The day started at 6am again. Jeremy got up with me this time. He was having trouble sleeping anyways because of his sunburn, and couldn't wait for morning (he was tossing and turning all night and looking at the clock). Once again no one else was up until after 8am, and no one else was ready to go until 10am. Yes I know, this is a vacation your suppose to sleep in on vacation. It's just because I had to get up early, it was very boring for me. At lest Jeremy was up with me this time.

We finally get to Roanoke island, and finally to Festival park. The park was great they had a ship to tour, a colony style village, and a museum...

We went to lunch at McDonalds where Jeremy announces that if he see another hamburger he's going to puke.

After lunch we went to Fort Raleigh, where the first America colony was (the one that was lost, and no one knows what happened).

It was just leftovers that night which didn't make everyone happy. (Jeremy really didn't want another hamburger). After Olivia was in bed, Jeremy, Christen, and I went out to shop at the little shops in the town of Duck. This was when Jeremy bought the boys 3 coins that looked like gold doubloons (this will come into play later).

After getting back we (the three of us), got in the hot tub. That was nice until we had to get out. See it was about to storm so the temperature had dropped and it was windy. "burr!"


Wednesday (day 4) Early day, Rain, and shopping...

This day started super early for me, because Olivia woke up at 2:30 and started crying. Jeremy wasn't sleeping well, because of his sun burn, so after 10 min of helping me, he gave up and went to go sleep on the couch (... I don't need to type what I'm thinking in here because I'm sure you all know). I tried milk and rocking her, and nothing was working. Finally 2 hours later she throw up (oh so that's what was wrong). Yeah she was fine after that. She still ended up waking up early 6:30 this time. Since we knew it was going to rain this day we planed on shopping that day. It wasn't until after 10:30, that everyone was ready to go, and beings that it was almost lunch it, we just decided to stick around the house until after lunch.

After shopping that whole day at lots of stores and the outlets, all I had brought were some books (this coming from a girl who loves to shop). Lets just say the outlets were horrible, and shopping with a man who can't wait for you to be done, is no fun. I mean nothing agents Jeremy, but he really doesn't like clothing shopping, and it shows when we are in the stores, and it makes me feel bad, so I just don't end up getting anything. That's why I like to go by myself if possible.

We ate at Applebees for dinner, we were going to have sea food at Captain George's (Jeremy and my treat), but after every grumping about sea food and the price, we just said forget about it. Olivia was really grumpy (that was so much fun), and despite Jeremy helping me out with her, it was still really stressful for me. Not to mention when it came it for dessert I didn't get what I wanted.

Once we got back Jeremy set the boys on a treasure hunt. He had buried the three coins (the ones he bought for the boys), and made a map.

That night Jeremy and I did get our walk on the beach. The tide was in though, and we got wetter than expected. We only wanted to walk and hunt for cool things that the storm may have washed up, but yeah the waves got us anyways.


Thursday (day 5) Morning walk, and afternoon nap...

I woke up Thursday determined to get out of the house before 8am. Needless to say I was tired of waiting for everyone, and I wanted to hit the beach. I decided that if they wanted to wake up later than they could just meet the kids and me down there (when ever they wanted). After being at the beach for about 10 mins, Jeremy and his mom did meet us and we took a long walk (way to long if you ask me, I had Olivia in the sling), mom was determined to find a conch shell, and ended up leaving us in the dust.

Once we got back I was tired and Olivia was grumpy. Everyone else wanted to go play mini golf, so I told them to go ahead, and I would stay home (yeah that was nice). I took an hour nap, and once Olivia got up, we swung on the swing that they had on the deck.

<- this is what they did...
  ...and this is what I did ->







Once everyone was back, they all wanted to go out to eat. Once again Olivia was grumpy, and when Jeremy asked me why I looked so shell shocked, I told him that we need to stop eating out, because it was becoming way to stressful for me.


Friday (day 6) a whole lot of nothing...

This day was full of nothing really. I think we just hung out at the pool and in the house all day. I didn't mind though, because it wasn't stressful, but once again I was up at 6am (thank you so much Olivia).


Saturday (day 7) A little bit of shopping, and a lot of re-packing...

At about 10am we went to shop in the town of Duck again, I wanted to get the kids each a t-shirt, to remember the trip. We ate pizza, and came home to re-pack. This is when Jeremy and Olivia both fell asleep and slept for over 2 hours. Because of that Jeremy wasn't able to sleep that night, and he just stayed up and put everything in the van.


Sunday (day 8) Sorry to say, but lousy mothers day (*cry*)...

So I wake up a 4am, because we wanted to get a really early start (I was ready to go home). All of us were in the van by 5am, and off to home.

Because Jeremy was up all night he was tired, so once we got to Norfolk I took over with the driving. I ended driving for over 2 hours, and everyone else was asleep for most of that.

My plan for getting home was to order food (I really didn't feel like cooking). Letting the kids play some video games (to make them happy). Turning on Star Trek (on our spare computer), and Playing Warcraft with my husband (that was my perfect idea of mothers day, because I knew that everyone was tired). I really didn't think it was to much to ask for. *sniff, sniff*...

Okay to make a long story short, after ordering the food, and eating. Jeremy and his Sister fell asleep on the couch (they ended up asleep the whole rest of the day away), and the kids ended up watching tv, and I ended up unpacking everything (yes that was my day). It also didn't help that all of my facebook friends were having wonderful days, and not afraid to say so (yeah that wasn't their fault, but it just made things worse). The ended with no Warcraft and no Star Trek (I was very sad).



Well there you have it. The worst part about it all was the having to wake up early (thank you Olivia), and having to wait hours for everyone else to wake up and get ready. It was just very lonely. Not to mention that my mother's day was just icing on the cake.

Like I said, I don't mean to hurt any ones feelings, and I am over it now, but I'm just being truthful. I know a lot of us moms feel like this on vacation, we end up doing so much, and just end up getting stressed out.

So I was feeling really down yesterday until I heard this song. I forget that even though I had a bad week that I'm still really blessed, and God loves me, and there will be other vacations and other Mothers days...

Thanks for reading...