Scrapbooking, Lasik Update and Dallas game

A former workshop attendee invited me to a SU! (that's Stampin Up! for those not in the know). And guess what? I'm going. I am too excited!! Here's how bad it is--I don't even think I have any scrapbooking adhesive on hand. How pathetic is that?!?

It's a card WS and for $20 I can attend. Cool. Here's to hoping I can find the time to post pictures.

What's even better? I'm going with my BFF. We never get to hang out--in fact we hardly get to talk during the school year. She works as a special education aid. And she's super busy during the school year as well.

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After my checkup on Friday, my vision is 20/30 and 20/20. Which means I am legal to drive, but I still am not seeing as clearly as I was before the surgery (with glasses of course). I am way better than pre-surgery without glasses. It's due to my eyes being dry (from some of the drops and from the surgery too I guess). It should improve over the next few weeks. At least I certainly hope so. Because not seeing peoples faces across the room is waaaaay annoying.

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D is taking me to a real live Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving. I am beyond excited. It's to celebrate our ten year anniversary that's coming up December first. Little d is out of school for the week (I heart this school calendar) so I feel like it's okay if I'm away for a couple of days. We have never taken a vacation since the kiddos were born.

A quick funny. One of the school moms I'm friends with said in all seriousness (when she heard we were going without the kids) "What are y'all gonna do for two days? I guess you could shop..."

I thought to myself, 'Yeah. Two days in a private hotel room? Shop, yeah that's it. First grown up vacation since the kids were born? Shop, um hmm seems like the perfect choice. Celebrating ten years together? Yeah....shop, I mean since we'll have no interruptions or no listening for little feet steps?'

Out loud I said "Yeah I don't know." I didn't have the heart to tell her that shopping is not even my second choice...

Shall I actually start posting again?

So. I am really missing the old blogging me. I went back the other day and read a couple of old posts. I was so fun then. Or at least it seemed like I was. I threw in a few jokes, there were pictures to add to the stories, there was scrapbooking. Oh yes there was scrapbooking. (PS Blogger? If your listening...scrapbooking is a real word so stop underlining it in red squiggle.) Huh. "squiggle" passed the spell check.

The problem with all that is that it takes serious amounts of time. Editing photos. Re-working paragraphs. Finishing a complete thought.

The upside is that everything important gets captured.

I hate that I am missing so much. I mean if I wrote every day or every other day even I would be cataloging all the cute stories and milestones of the kiddos. All the crazy humorous crap that happens to us as a family.

But if you look at this blog over the last year, it's like we didn't move to a new house, it's like we fell off the planet. We didn't...by the way. We just got busy. Or rather I got busy.

So I am going to try to step it up. I am challenging myself to write more often. The posts may not be riveting or even worth reading to anyone else. And judging by the feedjit traffic it doesn't really matter, because no one is reading :)

To finish off this post I am going to attempt to give a brief timeline of my week.

Monday: Up at 530 get ready get little d ready get to school by 715 back home take care of kiddos hopefully get to go get groceries leave at 215 to pick up little d back home by 3 stop kids from fighting until bath time at 630 dinner and bed routine until 9 hopefully i get the other two asleep by 1030 so i can crash before 11.

Tuesday: same overall schedule except afterschool take little d to dance from 4 to 530

Wednesday: little m to dance from 4 to 5 then leave to take little d to CCD (where i also help with a class) at 6 and get home around 8

Thursday: try to get cleaning done and laundry and make sure little d has studied for spelling test

Friday: thank the Lord above that the week is over (except for girl scouts, birthday parties, inlaws requirements, church, and any other thing that comes along)

Of course I didn't list the stuff I do to assist with CCD, Girl Scouts, Room Mom, Cookbook Committee...

D was my own personal chauffeur this week as my vision was fuzzy. Around Wednesday (on the way to CCD) he said he couldn't get much done. I said what do you mean. He said I've been driving you all week. I said...now you have a taste of what I do all week...

:)

Lasik for dummies

Okay I don't know why I titled this what I did. Poor google-ers out there.

I finally had Lasik done. On 11-11-11. Little d was off from school and it just worked out perfectly. I have to admit that it is a little freaky to know that a laser is searing flaps of your cornea off and then reshaping your eyes, but I made it through. It helps that my brother, husband and sister in law have all had it done. And my sister in law is the pre-op nurse.

And yes I can now see without my glasses. :)

Now I don't have superhuman eyesight, but I think things can still get better over the next weeks and months. The eyes seem to be healing wonderfully and I am dutifully following my post op orders. Friday I go back for a followup where they will check my vision.

Today I bought my first pair of sunglasses in at least 10 years. That was kinda a big deal for me. D was with me so that made it even more fun. Oh and they are total Dolce and Gabbana knockoffs. I mean I think they are...at $15. But they have fun rhinestones on the sides!

My new obsession by the way....Pinterest. Holy cow. I am on it all day. And because of it (or in some cases in addition to it) I am obsessed with cowboy boots, glitter nail polish, and food that is made cutesy.

I hear screaming. Must go attend to the littles.

Just gonna random type....

Just about two seconds from putting little d down for the night. So this is one of those i can't believe it's been almost two months since i posted no time for capitals posts...

All three kiddos did wonderful at the docs office today--d and md got checkups and all three got flu shots.

School year is rocking along. Both girls are in dance. Little d in ballet tap and jazz, m in ballet and tap. I promise you have not seen anything cuter. And one day I will post pictures--honest.

Went to the local chapter of the pink heals tour (pink fire trucks).

Fall festival was fun--or at least active. Girls both got their face painted by a professional--again pictures someday. I cringe at the thought of how close we probably came to contracting pink eye from the community makeup...

I am not only room mom, heritage cookbook commitee member and girl scout troup assistant leader, but also part time CCD teacher.

Which if you are keeping track means Thursday evening is my only real night off. AAAAAANNNNDDD that's stretching it.

"little d get your teeth brushed!!" for the 25th time.

This weekend I am:

Friday: field trip chaperone

Saturday: trip to inlaws

Sunday: cleaning entire house and making caramel apples...

Gosh. I need a break. I know--I'll go the Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving.

No seriously--I'm going to the Dallas Cowboy game on Thanksgiving. Fur Reals. Tickets bought and hotel booked.

Sigh. Off to the whirlwind again....

Busier than ever...

I have come to the rationalization that life will not slow down. There were some brief moments of slow during the summer, but now that school's back in session the hurry begins in earnest.

This lazy labor day weekend, we are fighting off the first set of sniffles for the new school year. All on the mend thankfully. Today is a birthday party for a school friend. Tomorrow cleaning for the week of Little d's birthday party.

And speaking of busy, Little md just made a present for me. The smelly kind. Hehehe.

Maybe I'll be back later with another post.

Demons

I guess we are all chased by some demons. Whether we let others know about it or not. Over the summer I faced a couple.

Since Little d was about nine months old she's been getting carsick. I've posted about it before, so I won't belabor the details. But it changed my life. Instead of David and I travelling to long distance birthday parties or weddings or whatevers, we stayed close to home. Or one of us would go and leave Little d at home. I made enemies with my ex-sister in law and my mother in law over it. Which to be perfectly honest, probably would have happened anyway.

I've spent hours and hours stressing over how to get her to and from things. Over calculating minutes in the car and sleeping times and dozens of other things that no one else ever gives a thought to. I know carsickness is not the end of the world, but somehow it became my arch nemises, my own personal demon. And I spent countless hours making sure it didn't happen--not on my watch! D seemed much more nonchalant about it, but he was a good sport to humor my fanaticism.

Then last year I bought a box of Dramamine--chewable for kids. I thought that it was for kids 6 and up and finally Little d was old enough. Imagine my surprise to read the label that had dosing for kids 2-6 also. Anyway. There never seemed to be a right time to use it. Until this summer. Our POC trip.

The arrangement was this. I would drive down with Little d and Little m. (Little m has absolutely no problems in the car.) D would drive down with my mom and Little md--whom we have yet to test out on car trips while awake. I waited until after lunch to give Little d her tablet. Then exactly one hour later we set out. She was sleepy before we left which I took as a good sign that the medicine was in her system. After about 15 minutes of driving she would look like she was dosing off, and then she would wake herself and say "mom turn on the radio" or "mom sing Twinkle Twinkle" as if to keep herself awake. She had asked repeatedly if she would get sick if she stayed awake and I told her that I was very sure the medicine would help her even if she was awake.

My daughter and I talked and visited the entire trip down. One whole hour with her in the car and awake and not throwing up. By the time we reached POC I was ecstatic. In fact beside myself with joy! This was a day that I had waited for for so long. I pointed out landmarks and got to hear--for the first time--"mom, are we there yet??" And I loved every minute of it. Little m fell asleep and drooled the whole way down...

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Something else that I conquered in POC was going to Memaw's house. I haven't been in the house since she passed away. My grandfather lives with my mom and dad, and we needed to go get a recliner out of the house for him while we were in POC. I went up with D to load it up. It was kind of weird to be there, but not as emotional as I thought. Of course here I am writing about it a month later, so the feelings aren't as strong as they were.

I had a dream about her the other night. She was playing the piano at a wedding and I was desperately searching for a camera to take a picture. I was so happy to see her again and to get a second chance to see her play the piano. I kept thinking I need to take a picture of this because I never did it when she was alive. I woke up with a mix of happy and sad.

I still haven't been in Grandma Hawes' house. I think that may be hard too. I probably won't find out until Christmas...

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I have a new demon now though. I'll have to write a post about that soon.

Swing of Things

Namely the swing of my toe against the door frame leading to a "beautiful job" of breaking my toe. That was over two weeks ago and my foot still swells, hurts and is purple in places. Supposedly it will be healed by week three and I can stop taping my toes together everyday.

So you shoulda seen me shopping the mall for Little d's school clothes last week. Or doing laundry. Or stepping over the baby gate and hearing (and feeling) my toe pop again.

This post is going to be like all the rest of late. (Like the entire last year.) Meaning--rambling and not even remotely entertaining. But I need to document somehow and goodness knows I'm not scrapbooking. (I mean, how could I? When the office is still not set up.)

We came back from POC. I tackled not one, but two demons on that trip. In fact I started a whole post for it....which is still in editing.

We finally got a new table and chairs for the kitchen. Now we can all sit around the table together. And it's glass topped so I can clean fingerprints--and let's be honest, faceprints--off of it several times a day. But it was my pick and I do love the way it looks in the kitchen. Wait---I may have a picture for you.... well no. I guess I don't have one on the computer. Anyway.

School is starting soon. In 10 days to be exact. I am so depressed about it. Little being gone again. I hope and pray that her classmates and teacher are good matches again this year. We were so blessed last year.

Little m is completely potty trained. I am not sure if I mentioned this before, but I guess it still amazes me that it ended up being so easy.

Little md is growing like a weed. He eats big folks food now, rarely does he eat baby food. And he's even started sporadically sleeping through the night. Wish I could say the same for the girls. Little m does better than Little d--can you imagine??

Last night we celebrated my parents 40th anniversary here at the house by cooking a Thankgiving style dinner. It was delicious. Mom and Dad had to go back to POC with Poppy, but my bro and his little family stayed to swim. {We bought one of those little above ground pools when we got back from POC this summer and it really is nice because all of the kids can stand up in it, and the grownups fit too!}

I am spending my time this last week of summer cleaning and organizing the house. I need in the most desperate way to be able to start this year of school differently than last year. Last year was a completely chaotic mess, with us out here at an unfinished house and D working nights. Just miserable. This year we are at least all together and secure in our home. But it would be nice if the dining room was not filled with tons of leftover stuff from our old house, and office was set up and organized so I had room for paperwork and scrapbooking. Paperwork-so the kitchen counters weren't filled and scrapbooking-so I could find a little de-stressing this school year.

I started back on WW again. This first week I'm down three pounds, so I'm feeling energized about that. I'm hoping my foot heals so I can do some working out as well--although housework counts too.

D is off this week. Yeah!! His job is going through a changeup and I am hoping everything works out. He works for Dow Chemical Company and the unit he works at was bought by a Brazillian company. So technically he'll be working for Braskem. I think that's how it's spelled--anyway--we don't know how this change will effect his 401K, or insurance. Hopefully they will get that info to us before the changover in September--or whenever it happens.

I could talk about politics, but really things kind of speak for themselves don't they? I mean if the economy wasn't so far in the toilet it would be comical, right? Spend more than you make and then just get a bigger credit card?? Makes perfect sense to me!

I haven't been on the computer much these days--three kids require a lot of time!! :) But this morning I sat (to rest my swollen foot) and I happened to click on this blog I've read since before Little d was born. It first intrigued me because the blogger and I share a first name, but she writes so well, I was hooked. I check in every once in a while and over the summer I have maybe looked in once. She slowed way down on updating so I didnt' check that often.

Anyway-today I looked and am shocked beyond belief. Her family was in a head on collision in July and her husband was killed instantly. I felt it in my gut to read the story. She suffered broken ribs and one of her small sons has a broken leg. It horrifies me. It makes me want to hold on to D and never let go. I am not strong enough to cope with that. I mean I guess I would have to be, but how on earth?

In honor of my Mom and Dad's 40th anniversary (tomorrow), here's a picture of them last May at a wedding. I am so proud to call them my parents.

Have a good weekend!

Vacation!!

Tomorrow we are bound for POC. I know it's going to be a blast. I don't know how we are going to fit all of our crap into two, yes two, vehicles! Should prove fun...

In other news I found a swimsuit in--get this--a size 8. That's practically skinny. Or at least it fakes not bulge-y with strategically placed ruching. (That sentence wore me out--I hope it's easier to read than it was to write.)

Okay I have too much to do to get ready...can't hang out here!

Pilates for Dummies

I am back on WW for real. I have got to get back to my normal size. Bathing suit shopping=horror of horrors! I decided to step it up and start exercising also. I did the treadmill once, and then I've been DVRing a Pilates workout. It is hard folks. Not for the beginner.

I am thinking about going back to free weights and my own toning, and then do the treadmill too. I just don't have the strength for Pilates yet. Although I have to say working out with Little d and Little m is too fun! They are better at it than I am! Little md tho--he mostly tries to sit on our back and bounce or throw toys at us.

Our summer is strolling along. Swimming in the kiddie pool in the evenings, s'mores, grilling, being lazy. And on Friday we're heading to POC. I can't wait!! We haven't been down since before I was pregnant with Little md! I have big plans for our week there. Swimming in the 'rents pool, beach, ice cream shop, eating stuffed crabs, (did I say I was back on the diet??) reading, vegging out, loving the smell of salt air, fireworks, picnic at the church with the whole big Hawes clan, generally being back home...I can NOT wait!! I'm like the little kid "I'm too excited to sleep!!"

Gotta go--duty calls!

Extreme Couponing NOT!

Much as I would like to be one of those crazy endorphin loving coupon clipping lovelies...I am not. For multiple reasons. And here they are in no particular order.

• I will not be diving into ANY dumpsters to retrieve a coupon (or hundred) for a product my finicky eaters may or may not eat.
• There are no stores here that have double coupon days. At all.
• Every coupon I've ever seen has DO NOT DOUBLE.
• Every store I've ever shopped at or seen a sale for says LIMIT ONE PER CUSTOMER.

Today I went to my two regular grocery stores. Sam's Club and Walmart. At five o'clock. Because I'm a glutton for punishment.

I think all total we spent close to $700 dollars. Now some of that was not grocery. Like the charcoal and lighter fluid, and the printer ink cartridges. But still. Groceries are getting higher and higher.

Ah, but I did have two coupons. I saved a grand total of...drumroll, please...$2.00. Yes two dollars!! It covered the tax on our Whataburger dinner.

Beat that TLC.

Cheery Cherry!

I don't think I've ever worn four inch heels before. And I'm not sure how well I'll wear these, but I am going to do my best-est! You know what's really crazy--aside from wanted to buy an entire wardrobe around these shoes--they make me want to create a card. Something summery with cute little cherries!

Summertime!

I don't recall loving the summer season so much even when I was a kid in school, but having the summer off now seems utterly blissful!

Little d graduated!! From Kindergarten, of course. It was a great day! I didn't even get all blubbery and cry through the three minute ceremony. I kept it together. But I am just so proud of her. She learned so much this year and accomplished so much. She became a little lady who can go hours in a new surrounding and do just fine without me.

A huge weight lifted off of me as we drove home from her graduation. The realization that we have about ten weeks of sweet freedom was amazing! No more worrying about her for hours a day. No more worrying about getting her to school on time or what she was eating for lunch or if she was going to get a stomachache from not going to the bathroom on schedule. Ahhh--sweet freedom. (Oh don't be mistaken--I still will find plenty of things to worry about.)

Things are blooming around here. Despite the lack of rain. And guess, just guess, who is potty trained?? That's right. Little m. I woke her up the first day of summer vacay (that's how those in the know say it) and said 'Guess what? It's summer time that means no more diapers! Except for night night time of course.' And she took to it no problem. And we've had very few accidents. Most of which are right in front of the toilet because she couldn't quite make it in time. So I am thrilled with this little summer development as well.

Little md is eating more solid food. He's a good chewer. I love to watch his little mouth crunch and munch! He likes cereals and graham crackers and noodles and, without a doubt, cookies! Oh and grapes (peeled and cut) and strawberries. He doesn't talk much, but he can understand so much and get his point across pretty effectively.

I personally am going to call this the Summer of My Dentist Vacation. I've discussed my teeth to death on here, so the why is obvious, but not only am I doing my periodic tooth fixin', now my daughter is doing it as well. Little d's mouth has several cavities. A couple big enough to need caps. I can't even discuss how upset I am about this. I find little consolation in the fact that the dentist said we were 'doing a good job of cleaning them.' Genetics do suck sometimes...

On a lighter note I just ordered these. How lovely are they??

I am way into heeled sandals with shorts right now. I'm letting my hair grow out. I am hooked on OPI nail polish. I am not losing weight fast enough. I want so badly to be 112 pounds again. Or 115, I'm not choosey with it. I thought that next week I would be setting up my scrapbook room, but now D is working 5 days of overtime, so...no.

You know what else...the mirrors are finally hung. It only took nine months. Thanks Dad!

Huh...I do still have a blog.

Last night they announced Osama was killed. I think he deserves what he got, but I don't think he had much power. Who knows? I wish it would have happened under Bush's watch. THAT would have been fun. As it is now, Obama is taking credit for it. Which is hilarious considering it's the only thing he's taken credit for during his presidency. Everything else is Bush's fault.

Let's talk about local news. How 'bout those gas prices??

Okay NOW let's talk about local news.

We are renting our other house to one of my cousin's who really wants to buy it in one to two years and I am soooo thrilled to be done with that. (And by done I mean mad clearing and cleaning for the next two weeks so they can start moving their stuff in.)

23 days left of school. Or is it 22. Either way BOO YA! So happy to be in the home stretch!

Weather. Wind. Wind wind wind wind wind. And that's all folks. No rain in sight. My garden is getting more and more whipped.

Mitchell turned the big ONE. I made a most cute cake. See? I totally found the idea online.

And I have a most cute son. See?

We saw the pink fire truck.

One of our friend's from the local fire department started a chapter of the Guardians of the Ribbon. Check out the national website here. This is a picture of me with a grumpy Little m, a sun blinded Little md, my parents and my poppy. Unfortunately, Little d was in school on the day they did the debut.

Off to take care of .... everything! Oh and Little md is giving KISSES now!! TOO CUTE!

Speaking of circling the drain...

Well the kids had all recovered from their pre-Spring Break ear infection/coughing junk. So I thought we would have a few weeks reprieve. And we did. Two weeks to be exact. Then the respiratory crap started again.

Little d was treated for flu after her strep and flu tests came back negative. PS Tamiflu upsets her stomach, turns out. So then we had the whole anti-nausea suppository fun as an appetizer to the dose of Tamiflu twice a day. Thankfully she stopped running fever in four days and finally started wanting to do something other than just lay quietly on the couch.

Little m had a light case of whatever it was.

But Little md. Saturday night we had to take him to the ER because he sounded so horrible. The doc diagnosed viral croup. He got a dose of oral steroid and breathing treatments. But Monday our pediatrician looked at his chest xray and said he had a touch of pneumonia. So now he's on antibiotics too. He is doing better. Still sleeping alot and not eating as much as normal, but he's fever free and his cough is no longer so deep in his chest. And no more of that horrible breathing that makes me ever so thankful my kids don't have asthma!!

Poppy is in the hospital--blood in the urine. Hopefully he'll be out before the weekend. My mom is getting over her terrible cough after a second dose of (stronger) antibiotics. She may have had a touch of pneumonia too. And me and D, pulling up the rear with irritated throats and annoying coughs.

I have decided to do a farm theme for Little md's birthday. I can hardly believe he's almost one. Just two weeks away. He's been walking for so long now, he's nearly running. I have to mention the cutest story.

He loves to dance. Bobbing his head and bending his knees in time to the music. The other night Dancing with the Stars was on and he watched intently as the professionals did their exhibition noting, apparently, the dips. Then when the singer came back on he resumed his dancing, but this time he would lean way over as if he was dipping as well. So adorable! I just love him! (Oh and today I swear he said 'moo cow'!)

Guess who's not potty trained yet?? That's right. Still a diaper girl our Little m. But also still a book reading fiend. As in "read this to me read this to me read this to me read this to me..."

Little d is doing so well in school. (You know when she's not home running fever.) She got an award for meeting her 50% goal with the AR program. I'm not even sure what that means, but she got a book to keep and was super excited! In her class they are hatching REAL! chicken eggs and about to have cocoons to watch as well. You all know my obsession with raising chickens, so I'm thrilled and quite a bit jealous that Little d gets to watch eggs hatch! A story about her... One morning we were driving to school and discussing how dirty boys bathrooms were...I don't know why...and I offered an explanation.

"You know little boys sometimes aren't very careful with where they are aiming when they pee."

She thought for a moment. "What, are they...guessing??"

A true LOL moment. "Yes maybe they are!"

On the Weight Watcher front. I have not had the time to track lately, but the last few weeks have gone something like this...0, 0, -3, +2, -1.

Off to do laundry---

Must go take care of laundry.

Circle the Drain

One of my favorite songs by Katy Perry is Circle the Drain. Okay I have no idea what the title is, but that's the jest of it. So after my little conversation with the Close to My Heart rep today I thought...I think this company is circling the drain.

Several weeks ago I got an email stating that if I didn't order something by the end of February I was going to be dropped from the company. Now to begin with I had already been dropped to Junior Consultant because I wasn't ordering $300 worth of stuff every quarter. I stopped ordering enough to keep up when my sales dropped so much and attendance was way down at my workshops. I chalked most of that up to two of my regulars becoming consultants under me and hard economic times.

Anyway, I thought it over and decided maybe I would go ahead and order one thing to remain with the company. I thought maybe I'll just keep the options open in case life settles down enough for me to start up the workshops again. I mean now I have the space to do them at my own house! I then literally forgot to make the order and remember on March first. I thought, oh well, moving on. I was a little sad, but then I thought--you know what my life is full to the brim right now, so I'll focus on that.

But surprise! I got another email from the company on March 4th that said I had until March 31st to make a purchase. And I started to consider it. On March 15th I got an email that said--and I'm paraphrasing here--"toodles, seeya, we don't want any more money from you!!" Or something to that effect.

Yesterday, I thought about it as I was packing up my scrap room at the old house. I was boxing up paper and stamps, scrapbooks and projects and I thought, you know. I ought to go ahead and place an order. Why not? I could just order one thing and see what happens.

So I tried to log in this morning. No go.

I called the consultant number and found out that she 'didn't know why I got that second email' because 'only the first one was valid' and she's 'heard of this happening before.'

Really? You have a flaw in your system, but you won't honor your email offer to me. That pretty much sums up my entire experience with CTMH. So my closing words to her (after she offered for me to send a copy of that email to headquarters to see what they would do after telling me in a previous case they sided with the company not the consultant) were....

"No, I am totally done with this company. Thanks."

And I have to say....and I mean no disrespect to other consultants and wish them all the best...after seeing the last catalog, and the competition on the internet in this industry, I don't think CTMH is going to be around a lot longer. I think that most of their business is consultants buying as a hobby. I could be way off, but I think they may be about to circle the drain...