Lunch Lady Land

Today I had lunchroom duty. I do have to admit I really like it. The employees are a lot of fun. I use to workout with two of them so I fit right in and don't feel stupid being the new kid on the job. I feel like I'm hanging out with friends at a loud birthday party with small interruptions. The kids raise their hands and I walk over to them and open their milk, ice cream, thermos, or whatever else they need(tattle tailing). We usually go in two's because one of us is talking and the other does the work. You can get some great gossip from the lunchroom!!!
Mostly the kids are sweet but I've done lunch duty enough that the ones that get on my nerves, I pretend I don't see their hands up:-) I know that's horrible to say but some of the kids I wanna smack and ask them if they talk to their parents like that. Yes, my kids talk back to me but if they talk to a stranger rudely, it's different. Kids now a days really need some manners!
I never tell the Kaleb and Austin when I have lunch duty because I love seeing their faces light up when they see me with my lunch basket. Even their classmates are excited and run up and give me hugs. Nothing like that warm fuzzy feeling because you opened their milk or thermos. I do have to admit I really appreciate the small things in life! I am so thankful Brian has the job he has so I can stay at home and do mine. I wouldn't trade it for the world even if I am the lunch lady!

L.O.V.E.

I got off Facebook because I wanted more time with my family. Sadly, Pinterest has taken it's place. I am not a crafty person but I follow directions really well. I could never come up with the cute things but can totally recreate them. I made several things for Christmas but this is my first Valentine's craft. I haven't finished the E because I had to wait for the top and bottom to dry but you get the drift.

I'm spelling the word LOVE and am going to put the letters on ribbon to hang. The L and the V are going to be spray painted red and the O and E are white glitter as you can see. I started working on this tonight since Brian's gone and I have no one to talk too. I watched an episode of The Parenthood and glittered away. At least it kept me busy for about 15 minutes;-)

Deep and Wide

The boys and I took Brian to the airport Monday morning so he could fly off to his annual Vegas trip for work. He has to be at a conference on Friday in Phoenix so he's leaving Vegas Thursday night and flying over there. Whew, he's a busy man this week.

Brian and I NEVER let the kids in bed with us no matter what. Last night at 1:30 I woke up to Austin tapping me on the arm saying Mom, Mom, Mom. No telling how long he'd been standing there. I've always been a very good sleeper;-) I asked what was wrong and he said he wet the bed. Seriously? Ugh, that's the worst. I hate changing sheets in the middle of the night. Plus, since Brian's out of town I stay up way too late watching my TV shows. I didn't fall asleep until around 12:20 so I had just really gotten comfortable. I told him to go get new pj's then come back downstairs and let me know when he was done. He had a confused look on his face but then took off running upstairs and did as he was told.

He came into our bedroom and told me he was done. He nervously asked why aren't you going upstairs and changing my sheets. I guess he thought I was going to make him sleep in pee. I told him in a second but he had to go wash his hands. When he came out of the bathroom I had Brian's side of the bed all ready for him and told him to hop in. The look on his face was priceless. You would have thought I gave him a million bucks! All he kept saying was really, really, I get to sleep with you, really. It was so cute.

He did great sleeping with me. He stayed on his side and I stayed on mine. I did wake up and check on him a couple of times and the only thing I found was his head completely under the covers. I'm sure he had to do that to get warm. It's freezing in our bedroom.
My alarm this morning was suppose to go off at 6:40 but at 6:30 my Austin alarm went off. There's nothing like waking up to a child singing the song "Deep and Wide". It was way better than the car horn I usually hear even though it was 10 minutes early. His Sunday school class sang it Sunday and he's been singing it ever since. I told him he could get up and play but he didn't want too (probably because it was freezing out of the covers.) He said he wanted to lay and snuggle with me a little bit so we did. Next thing you know Kaleb figured out that Austin was in my bed and the fight began. What was I thinking?

AR catch up

I had a meeting with Kaleb's teacher last Thursday and she said he was a little behind on his Accelerated Reader points. Over the past weekend/holiday we read 4 books which will give him a total of 2 points. He needs around 12 points so at a half a point a book, that's a lot of reading. He has been such a trouper though. He loves to read and gets really excited about the books and new things he learns. I always hated reading but Kaleb really does like it. He loves the one on one time that I give him more than anything else. It's nice to be able to spend that quality time with your child. It's truly something they will never forget.

Finally Covered

Yay, our pool was finally covered today. I'm so tired of pulling leaves out of the skimmers and Polaris. No matter how warm the weather is, the water is freezing!!! I'm numb every time I come inside. Our backyard is finally COMPLETE. I'll try and catch-up with whats been going on back there but as you can see we now have a water slide and all new landscaping.

Incredible Pizza

I've dreaded going to this place.
I get so stressed out taking the kids to stuff like this because Kaleb just walks off and does his own thing. I've seriously considered making him one of those leash kids. I have to admit it wasn't as bad as I thought. I couldn't have done it without my Mom and Sister coming along though.

We ate first then headed to Laser tag. The boys LOVED it. What I liked about it was how sweaty they got. Hey, at least they got some exercise.

Next thing was bumper cars.
Evan and Reagan did their own things
Then we did go carts but I didn't get pictures of that. Mom was watching Reagan, Kaleb drove by himself, and Shawn and I drove the little ones. The break didn't work on my car and right at the end Kaleb was in front of me and we had to stop. I screamed at the guy letting him know he had to stop me. All I could think was I'm about to takeout my own kid! He grabbed Austin and my car and stopped us just in time. . Whew, that was a close call. It scared me to death. Needless to say, my nerves were shot and I was ready to go. Too bad we still had 45 minutes left. The kids played games and Kaleb kept running off. Luckily, my Mom went with Kaleb and Reagan, I had Austin, and Shawn had Evan.

Places like this are so much work for adults. Add a high strung person in the mix and they need to sell alcohol:-)

We also sorta played mini golf. I stress the word sorta because the kids just ran to whatever hole they wanted to go to and started playing. It was a free for all!

Church

The boys and I have faithfully started going to Central Church. I've been wanting to get involved but have always missed 2 or 3 weeks then just quit going for some reason. One of my many "New Years" resolutions is to keep going no matter what. I have several acquaintances that I do pickup with every afternoon that go, so I always have a familiar face to sit with.

During the service there is usually a time where you greet the people that sit around you. I don't really like that part but I usually talk to my acquaintances and I'm fine. Today was a little different. We didn't do the greeting like usual and I wondered why. At the very end of the service, our Preacher told us to hold the hand of the stranger beside you and pray for them. Talk about humbling. I was sitting in between an older couple which I didn't know and person's husband that I had just met. Of coarse both of them turn to their wives and I'm standing there all alone.
All I could think about was why am I feeling sorry for myself that I have no one to pray for. I have Jesus standing with me and I am not alone. I'm becoming so much stronger in the Lord and with every visit I feel my heart opening up and his word soaking like a sponge into the boys and my heart. I was crying thanking God for giving me the courage to do this by myself when I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was my dear friend Amy that was sitting behind me. I'm not sure if she felt sorry for me standing all alone but I turned around with tears in my eyes and she grabbed my hand and started praying. I'm not really sure what she said but I was thankful for the prayer. Everyone needs them.

In moments like those you realize that you can change peoples lives one prayer at a time. I changed mine by knowing that no matter what, I am never alone. God is ALWAYS with me. I should feel sorry for the people who didn't hear God's message and not for myself who soaked in every word and am passing God's love down to my children. I am so humbled and thankful for this amazing start to the year.

New Bedroom

Brian's finally working on the inside of the house. He started painting our bedroom today and just the cut in looks amazing:-) I'm so ready for any other color than yellow!

This is what the boys did.

Were lucky to have Brian painting so we can be lazy:-) I'm extremely messy and got fired from painting in our last house. I swear I spill, and drip everywhere. I'll post more pictures when he gets closer to being done.

Indoor Swimming

After an amazing continental breakfast, we headed up stairs, kissed Dad goodbye, then headed to the pool. Our friends joined us for a couple of hours and the kids swam and ate their little hearts out.

After a couple of hours of swimming, we headed over to their house. I wanted to leave by 3:00 but we didn't hit the road until around 4:00. My truck has been in the shop since Monday and I had hoped to have it back by Friday so I could drive it to Nashville. Of coarse nothing ever goes as planned. We ended up driving Brian's Lexus because its safer than the Jeep.

I'm not sure how well a lot of you know Brian but he is not a good sharer. I was a nervous wreck for the kids to ride in that car(I've only driven it twice and he's had it for 3 years). I promised him I wouldn't let the kids eat in the car but I couldn't withhold my promise. I folded and let them eat some chips so they would stop whinning. I figured I would get up early Sunday and clean it out before he even knew. What was I thinking?

About 50 miles from home, Kaleb's nose started bleeding. I had no napkins so blood was going everywhere. We stopped at the next exit but by then the car was a bloody, chippy mess. Really, just my luck. I text Brian letting him know we were gonna be delayed a little due to the extra stop not really thinking about it. I knew he would want to know what was going on and that his son was bleeding.

The next morning when I got up, he had already taken the car to the car wash and gotten a full detail. I totally got busted on the chips. Crap! I don't like rules and that car has way too many. I'll take my nasty Tahoo any day over that cream colored carpet, non DVD playing, low rider car! I'm so ready for next week so I can get the Tahoo back!

Early Checkout

I checked the boys out of school today at 1:30 so we could hit the road and head to Franklin, TN to visit some friends. I put my truck in the shop on Monday hoping I would have it back by today but they never called to say it was ready. What a bummer! So the kids and I had to take Brian's Lexus which he is a total freak about. We can't eat, drink, touch anything in that car. What a nightmare to spend 4 hours with the kids each way. Plus it has no TV. Luckily Brian won a lot of free personal DVD players when he worked in Finance so we just took those.

After checking them out we went home, dropped off their backpacks, then hit the road. I really wanted to make it before rush hour in Nashville. We only made one stop about 30 miles outside of Nashville and the kids were starving. I bought them a bag of chips but was worried they would mess up Brian's car so I only let them eat a few. I knew he would kill me if they made a huge mess. We got into Nashville right at 5:00 so the afternoon traffic wasn't so bad. We met at a place called Monkey Joe's. It had tons of bouncy houses and arcade games so the kids could burn off a lot of energy. The kids were so excited to see each other and picked up exactly where they left off. Their Mom Alley and I did exactly the same. Joey the little boy was in Austin's Kindergarten class from August until October. They also went to the same preschool and played together every M,W,F and Alley and I usually did something together on T, Th so our kids saw each other almost everyday. We were devastated when they moved.

On the bright side, Brian's work opened a dealership in Murfressboro which is only 30 minutes away from them. He has to go up there every other week so the kids and I have a free place to stay! Nothing like the word "free" right:-)

We left Monkey Joes around 7:30 then headed to our hotel. The boys have never stayed in a hotel so they didn't really know what to expect. Brian was already there so I text him when we were in the parking lot and he came down to meet us. He had to help us carry all of the CRAP the boys have to take out of town. It's so rediculous! We cleaned out the car then headed up to the room. If you have ever been to the Embassy Suietes on Ridgeway, this Embassy Suites is the exact same way. As soon as the automatic doors opened Kaleb said at the top of his voice "Wow, this is so fancy". I whispered to him "than act fancy".

We made it to the glass elevater suspended in water then headed up to the 7th floor. Once arriving at our room the kids ran straight to the bedroom and said "here's our room where are y'all sleeping." Brian and I laughed and said no, that's our room and y'all are sleeping on the couch. You should have seen their faces. We're sleeping on the couch? What??? Brian took the cushions off and told them to get there jammies on. I packed them on top because I knew we would need them first. They stripped down and had clothes all over the place within about 10 seconds flat. We weren't in the room 5 minutes before the room was trashed. How do kids do that?

I made them pickup there clothes and Kaleb said "Okay, where's the laundry shoot". Brian and I just looked at each other like what the crap. We told him there was no laundry shoot and he said "I thought we had maids in hotels". I laughed and said put it in the bag so I can take it home and wash it. I'm the maid! Then he wanted some water so he could drink out of the fancy glass cups in the bathroom. The first thing he asked for was where's the refridgerator with the icemaker. I told him there was a sink and he could drink tap water with no ice. Then Austin noticed there was only one bathroom. He said " Oh my goodness, do we all have to share the same one". They are spoiled brats! Brian and I were laughing so hard at them. Can you imagine if we took them camping! They have got it way too easy.

HOMEWORK

I absolutely hate homework. I picked the kids up from school at 4:00, came straight home, and dug my heals in. We didn't get done until 7:15! I did spelling words with Kaleb, while Austin helped me cook dinner. Then spelling words with Austin while we ate dinner. I'm so sick of spelling words I could scream!!!
With both of them bringing stuff home, its tough to fit it all in. The hard part is being a single parent at this stage in the kids life. They need a parent to sit with them the entire time their doing homework. Don't get me wrong, I am married but Brian doesn't get home till 7:30 so all the homework/enrichment is on my plate. The kids go to bed at 8:00 so I want them done with everything by at least 7. Kaleb's homework gets harder every week and I've found that I now have to Google some answers and he's only in second grade. Plus since Austin tested second grade reading, his enrichment has gone through the roof! I'm so thankful he's excelling but its a lot of responsibility. Of coarse you want to do whats best for your child but then again it makes you feel sorry for the kid. Since he's "advanced" he has to work harder and has double the homework the other kids have. What happened to playing outside and actually having a life? He has to read at least one book every night(which I don't thinks bad). Sometimes we both just want a night of pizza, movies, and snuggles. Ugh, why can't both of them be back in preschool:-(

Of coarse being a stay at home Mom is so easy. I seriously want to punch people in the face that say that.

Go Tigers!!

Brian and I have awesome season tickets to the University of Memphis basketball games. Tonight they played Tennessee and it was completely packed. I've NEVER seen that many people at a game, ever! It was crazy. Hardly any Tennessee fans were there but 2 of the minute few had to sit behind us. Just our luck! Oh well, at least we kicked their butts:-) I thought we would get ours kicked but the Tigers finally showed up. I'm so grateful that my parents watch the kids so I get to do fun things like this. It actually makes me feel young. Who would have thought:-)

Back to school with new clothes

This morning I finally ironed some of their new "Christmas" clothes. I took both of them shopping on Christmas break and let them pick out what they wanted. Stressing that the clothes were from Mom and Dad because they always say we never get them anything for Christmas. Too bad the man with the big beard and belly gets all the credit:-)

I've never done that and I have to tell you, it was a lot of fun! I always get what I want and never let them have an opinion. They were all sassy about their clothes and wanted to dress like the mannequins. Austin wore 3 shirts today! Apparently layering is the "in" thing. All I could think about was how much laundry I'm gonna have to do! Who wears 3 shirts to school? I do have to admit though, they were sooooo handsome!!!!!!!!

Facebook

I've decided to cancel my Facebook account. I spend way too much time on it worrying about everyone else and not enough time worrying about my family and home. I did not drop all of you as friends, I just decided to take a break. Until I get my house the way I want it, I will not be getting back on. Have fun playing in the drama without me:-)

Back to Reality

Today was the kids first day back to school from Christmas break. I truly enjoyed them being home and hated to see them go this morning. They were in good spirits and excited to see all their friends. We walked into school with three of our neighbors so it wasn't so bad.

I had great intentions of getting my bedroom and bathroom cleaned today but that didn't happen. One of my friends called and I was on the phone for an hour, then Brian came home for lunch. Before I knew it, it was 2:00 and I still hadn't worked out or gone to the grocery. Whew, I guess I'll try again tomorrow. I'm so ready to be productive. I did get a path cleared so if I have to get up in the middle of the night, I at least won't trip over anything.

After school I took the kiddos to the gym. It was so cold outside and we had nothing else to do. If we go straight home from school, the kids just want to play Wii or watch TV. I'm so tired of them being lazy. At least at the gym they get to play inside with their friends. But I do hate leaving them again.......

I should've checked their backpacks before we went to the gym. Both of them had about 45 minutes of homework and Brian had a dinner to go to. I have to sit with each of them the entire time so it’s a LONG hour and a half for me. I do Kaleb's first because it’s the hardest, but my goodness. I wish the stories he has to read weren't so long and boring. I do know everything about George Washington Carver though. Plus, every page he reads he has to check to see how many pages he has left. If he spent more time reading than worrying about when he will be done he would save at least 10 minutes.

2nd go at it

I took the boys rollar skating for the first time on 12/27 and they had an absolute blast! They've never shown any interest in it before but when one of my really good friends invited us to go, I said yes. Since then they have not stopped talking about it. I knew I had to take them one more time before school started back so I decided to take them today. I asked some friends to join us and it turned out to be like a party. The wives took the kids skating then we went home, got the husbands, and all of us went to La Hacienda for some margaritas. We let the kids have a table to themselves and they thought that was the coolest thing. It's the little things in life that make you feel special. I know all of our kids did today and thats what life is all about.