...even though I can't get into details. *eh making promises for others selfish needs STINKS*
I just wanted to say that I'm alive and well. For the most part that is. ::smiles:: I'm still dealing with my endo pain daily, and the migraines come and go....but other than that I'm so blessed to be where I'm at right now. I'm sure theres at least ONE person whose reading this rolling his their eyes, but my life in the past .....end-feb, march, april and may...has taken a dramatic leap. I've moved. Let me rephrase, me and the children have moved. (won't say where) ;-) Along with some minor living adjustments I'm on a new road. I'm not sure day to day if it's gonna be good or bad from the reciprocating end....but I lift my hands up and just ask that we get through this as easily as possible.
I think this transition has been hardest on....him ME. The kids are absolutely in every way fine. More than fine b.c now that they know they can play both sides. ::snickering:: I'm teasing of course. Mason and Terri in whatever crowd, in whatever house, in whatever room are going to be loved. Regardless whats happening. THAT is my main purpose in life.
Don't get me wrong, boy they test me, because they CAN Like more than before. Children really do need a positive male role model in their life to help guide them. I've always said this and can't say it enough, WE as mothers are much too merciful on our children at times. When daddy, or paw-paw walk in a room all of a sudden its little halos back on top of their heads. Meanwhile I now that I'm the one thats with them 6 days a week and has to do the punishing. Oh what you thought I was going to say that I don't yell? psssft! W.E. !! I'm the queen. ha haa. I've always tried to do that whole I'm in charge voice tone. M & T don't even pause. .. .they're like yeah ::throw in boo boo face:: we'll get outta this trouble in ohhh.....5 seconds. grrrrrr... IF THEY weren't so darn CUTE!!!!
anywho. I'm here. alive and well! ;-)
most recent pic of the kids...
sitting in a river on our trip to Mt.Bervard.
Thursday
Time to Break the Silence!?!
Saturday
UPDATE on the Room SWAP!!!
ITs Saturday Night at 9:30....its only been one day and the kids are getinng along FAMOUSLY!!!
NOT gonna lie I'm hurting . . . but the fact that my kids are getting along so well, so worth it.
Mason even took the little table and chairs out of the "playroom" to put in their room so they could "enjoy a nice dinner alone tonight mommy" [while putting the chairs side by side to add!!!]
I'm only showing a couple pictures...given I'm only ONE WOMAN HERE!!
The paper drawing on the window is because the blinds broke during the transformation so I had to improvise. (don't want everyone peeping in the windows at night.) I decided to doodle on it today [mason helped] and it turned out kinda cute. Of course we'll eventually get blinds.....MAYBE. or we'll just keep drawing on the paper and replacing it.
Terris baby house/bookshelf is now a place for THEIR Littlest Pet Shop, Puzzles, school supplies, arts and crafts (SOME-the good stuff stays in my white cupboard), playdoh etc. and YES I so trust my 2 1/2 year old with playdoh at her level along with markers....she's THAT well trianed. She knows I'll kick her cute little butt if she messes with anything messy without permission!!
(I so thought Mason would have HATED the idea of sharing a room with his little sister, but I was WRONG) I used the fact that I shared a room with my big brother and we shared EVERYONE of our toys, and we LOVE each other now. . . and hes all about his uncle John John!!!
Friday
Eat it or plant it?
When mommies away . . .haha
yeah thats an onion. I bought a few onions the week before I went to Asheville...so around February 5th. I come home and say "EW the fridge stinks and whats in the pantry?" Clint said "I don't know, I didn't look." Ok CLINT WHAT DID YOU FEED THE BOY CHILD?
Well I did look and this is ONE of the things I found, along with a half cut onion in a Ziploc (BAD) and some slimy broccoli as well as some celery (double ew) Just wanna say that everything has been cleaned and all the funk is out of the kitchen. *Thanks Mason for all the help*
Wednesday
Webkins style Tetris
So Mason has accumulated a few Webkins. For those of you that don't know these are stuffed animals that you buys that have a tags on them that are virtual pets as well. You can go online and "adopt" your pet. Name it, give it a gender, decorate its home, buy it clothes, feed it, put it to bed.. and so on. You can get a "job" to earn cash, take quizes (in math, social studies and history; depending on your age which you have to do to get jobs) and you can also play games.
ONE of the games Masons loves is one of my old favorites from when I was his age, Tetris. I remember when we got the Game Boy. ahhh I remember it as if it were yesterday. [I'm not that old so its not been that long ago, well I gues its been 19 years HOLY COW!!!!] I can see it now... opening an empty package with my big brother Johnny to send us to another room to another empty package in ANOTHER room, until finally there it was beside the grandfather clock an old shoe box with ugly wrapping paper. We opened it to find Our (yes we shared-isn't it sweet.) Game Boy. With the Game Boy we got Castlevania (Johnny took this one over, I was fine with that.) and Tetris (oh so MINE!) I was the master. I couldn't be touched. My hand eye coordination was amazing after playing that game. But I had to focus....something SERIOUS!
Guess WHO has it on their Webkins game now and loves it???
Thats right! My Peanut! Its called Bamboo Break but he loves it. After he gets all his homework done he gets 20 minutes or so of computer time before bath and this is right were he goes..... :-D
I'm shocked at how well he does on the trivia too. Hes moved up to the 8 year old trivia questions. He misses alot but he's already passed the 7 year old stuff. congrats to my baby! (reminder hes only 6)
Friday
Sneek Peak-The Shiner
I couldn't resist posting this picture. I really didn't want too bc. of TERRIS HEAD. BUT the kids were just so sweet I had too. (I started making hairbows and hairbow holders and Terri is my "tester"!)
Also notice Masons eye? The slight "shine"? THAT would be his first black eye in the making. Today on the playground the boychild and his buddy had a head on collision. Our conversation was so adorable when I went to get him from school. (purse loaded down with sweets and stickers of course)
He said "Mommy me and my friend cried."
did you? was everyone looking at you?
"I didn't care. I was hurting so bad. The other boy stopped but I just kept crying cause my face and heart hurt so bad."
Oh honey I'm so sorry. Does it feel okay now?
Yeah a little better ::holds icepack to his JAW instead of his eye::
I'm glad
Miss. _____ (insert teachers name) rubbed my back until the other teacher came to take me to the nurse office. She did it good like you mommy. She must be a great mommy too.
::holds heart DEEP breath::
God I love this child.
Good bye yesterday!
<--Mason with his "thinking cap" on. So yesterday definitely ended on a better note than it began. Clint came home mid-day to bring me some phenogram. (grand ol stuff...I keep a refill at the pharmacy just for days like yesterday)
After school, My father took Mason off after school for a while (loading him full of an ice cream sundae) then when he got here he had mounds of home work to do. You might think I'm exaggerating. "Hey he's only in kindergarten how much homework can he have?" WRONG. They've now added a weekly writing assignment on TOP of his already heavy load of work consisting of brainstorming (the little circles with the main idea and five topics); Tuesday night was SUPPOSED to be the drafting (but w/ the snow he stayed with Paw Paw) and thus he didn't get Tuesday or Wednesday done. SO the prewriting, editing, and revisions were all left on us to do last night. Six sentences doesn't sound like a lot, but when your just learning to sound out your words its tough! He got his first widdle writers cramp!
But the good news is that my dad offered to take the "beast" so that was that much less to deal with. While trying to do homework and pack for Asheville. Yeah still packing. Daddy finally got him around 8 and did Masons reading with him. or vis vs. and then he vacuumed and then I got to come to bed! ahhhh bed. I love my bed. Am I the only one that like LOVES my bed?
****Brownie Points for my Big Stupid****
My DSH (dear sweet hubby) took our Lhasa Apso to go get a loooooong overdue haircut and can I just say that EVERYONE loves a new hairdo. (no pictures cause the Big Stupid also took the camera to be fixed--but I DID add an old UNGROOMED picture of him and Deuce 2 years ago.) Can I add in how much we MISS our Boxer!!! :'-( Like really REALLY miss!!!
Louie is almost 6 years old and he's prancing around this house like a show dog its hilarious how he freaks out when he's groomed. (That is when hes not under my feet or curled up next to me cause he's FREEZING!!) Yeah I put clothes on my dog. say something! ha ha. I went from owning American Staffordshire and Rottweilers my entire life to owning a 15lb "fru fru"dog in a Harley sweater. haha I can tell you this though I don't care how big the dog is Louie has growled and "defended" me and the kids against all sizes...including my dads pit that wants him for an appetizer. Poor Louie has the little man complex.
Ohkaaay for reaaaal rambling now.
What to do today....ugh...pictures OFF THIS COMPUTER. I can't say how many I have on here cause my hubster reads my blog occasionally but its ALOT. I did get a CD FULL off last night. Edited and off. ;-) ::small pat on back::
k toodles!
Monday
Circus Act 3- whatever (end of the show)
Okay so no more individual clips....I added the entire rest of the circus in this one montage. IT TOOK TILL 5 AM for it to upload on ONETRUEMEDIA!! lol. Well at least thats when I got up and cut the computer off. So after this there should be NO more Circus posts. (so quit complaining D!) I have to remind you all that even though I love my readers (esp the ones that email me and say glad your back posting agin) but to those who are like nuff with the circus...we DON'T get the priviledge of taking our kids to do stuff like this hardly EVER. (esp. in these seats) and this blog is meant for them to look back and US to say awwwww.....in a few years...so suck it mmmk? lol
**Our seats in the Time Warner Arena (check em out) were in section 105 row M seats-10, 11, 12, & 13.**
So yeah if I was a kid I would be overwhelmed too.
Here are a few snapshots of the rest of the trip....
Mason got a new clown Mason so of course we ALL had to have one!
Daddy deleted his picture. PUNK!
Mason and Daddy by the last act....
(Terri was in almost zzzz land on my lap)
Terri, Jaiden, and Mason waiting for the light rail to go by.
(we did NOT ride it today b/c it was SOOO packed.)
As soon as we got in the car Terri found her "bubbys" hat that paw-paw gave him. Since bubby rode with Jaiden its ALL HERS NOW!!
too cute!
Sunday
for those of you who care. . .
. . . . to know what I was talking about on TWITTER last night....
mason I thought had been abducted and I panicked for a few minutes and had a BAD anxiety attack turns out he was hiding the entire time. Clint and myself looked all around for him and then NOTHING. WORST NIGHTMARE IN A PUBLIC PLACE AS A PARENT!!!!!
(no he didn't get spanked. I couldn't breathe when I got in the car all I could do was hold him. I was so distraught. I don't remember the car ride home.) We sat him down this morning and talked about all the stuff that "bad ppl" do and he was scared to walk out the FRONT DOOR by himself today.
Last night he came in here and wrapped his arms around me and hugged me and gave me a big kiss and told me how sorry he was. (he saw how sad I was...and he felt terrible) I was up till 2 am. I couldn't go to sleep I stayed in this chair for hours. every time I layed down I felt sick. ugh.
ok. back to the circus. I don't wanna think about it anymore! happy thoughts!!!!!
Circus Videos Part 2
Thursday
HOLIDAY EATING TIPS
2. Drink as much eggnog as you can. And quickly. It's rare ... you cannot find it any other time of year but now. So drink up! Who cares that it has 10,000 calories in every sip? It's not as if you're going to turn into an eggnog-alcoholic or something. It's a treat. Enjoy it. Have one for me. Have two. It's later than you think. ;-)
It's Christmas! HELLOOOOO You won't be doing this ON INDEPENDENCE DAY PPL!
3. If something comes with gravy, use it. That's the whole point of gravy. Gravy does not stand alone. Pour it on. Make a volcano out of your mashed potatoes. Fill it with gravy. Eat the volcano. Repeat process!!
4. As for those mashed potatoes.... always ask if they're made with skim milk or whole milk. If it's skim, pass. Why bother? It's like buying a sports car with an automatic transmission. Go next door to the rum ball house!! (I personally use lots and lots of butter or "COUNTRY CROCK" margarine & Dukes mayo in mine right along with that whole milk). :-P
5. Do not have a snack before going to a party in an effort to control your eating. The whole point of going to a Christmas party is to eat other people's food for free. Lots of it.
Hello!?!
6. Under no circumstances should you exercise between now and New Year's. You can do that in January when you have nothing else to do. This is the time for long naps, which you'll need after circling the buffet table while carrying a 10-pound plate of food and that vat of eggnog.
7. If you come across something really good at a buffet table, like frosted Christmas cookies in the shape and size of Santa position yourself near them and don't budge. Have as many as you can before becoming the center of attention. They're like a beautiful pair of shoes. If you leave them behind, you're never going to see them again.
8. .....Same for pies. Apple, Pumpkin, Mincemeat. Have a slice of each. Or if you donʼt like mincemeat, have two apples and one pumpkin. Always have three.
When else do you get to have more than one dessert? Labor Day?
9. Did someone mention fruitcake? Granted, it's loaded with the mandatory celebratory calories, but avoid it at all cost. I mean, have some standards. ;-) ahh ha! I got cha!
10. One final tip: If you don't feel terrible when you leave the party or get up from the table, you haven't been paying attention. Re-read tips; start over, but hurry, January is just around the corner.
Remember this motto to live by:
"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, martini in hand, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOO HOO what a ride!"
Ya'll know I'm full of laughs...so don't take this too seriously but DO enjoy your EATING! Because I know I will!!!
Have a great holiday season
*That picture was taken after the first picture was BLURRY and I screamed that my arms were gonna fall OFF!*
NOTE that mommy has been pretty much house/bed ridden for 2 months and that I shouldn't be holding kids! (OR outside) SO YES today and yesterday my arms feel as if they're gonna FALL OFF!
Sunday
They say its your birthday.....
The best thing about having a birthday and being a mommy is waking up with your five year old kissing you and saying
"Its time to sing you Happy Birthday Mommy"
When I got up he told me to go into his room an
"WELAX till sissy gets up"Then he gave me my card that he had made an envelope for. ALL while I was sleeping. He came in the room....got an envelope out of the drawer, went back to his room and got his construction paper and crayons out and made it all for me. WITHOUT making a sound. :-D He is so grown up. I can't believe he'll turn 6 next week!! He also put some of his change in the envelope so I could buy myself something nice. :-D
...THEN when Terri got up he went and let her crib down so she could get out....THEN he went and got her and juice box while I started breakfast...
THEN (yes he went on all day pampering mommy) he washed the dishes for me....
THEN while I took my shower he got the scotch tape and four sheets of contruction paper and wrapped my present. (which was the mommy and baby gorilla set I got him when we went to Knoxville Zoo 2 1/2 years ago.) :-D
Daddy cleaned today while mommy and the kids lounged around like bums. (I had a sore throat)
Then he snuck off to the store and picked up some hamburger meat and THIS CAKE. Yes that is REALLY what my cake said. (NO Mason can't read yet.) ...and Yes we call each other stupid.
Tuesday
Where do these kids get these faces from?
Thursday
Masons First Day in Kindergarten.
Monday
A five year old Photographer?
Mason is wearing his jam-ies he got from MybabyPajamas a few weeks ago. (He lives in his pjs!)
I reviewed them over at Simple!!!
Carowinds w/ my boyfriend.
Can I just say that two -2 year olds and a 5 year old (even with 2 grown ups) is WORK!
Saturday
Yardsale Extravaganza!
All of this for less than 40 dollars! YEP! Thats including lunch for the day.
One of my best finds was THIS for $4.00!! Thats a $60+ value! whoo hoo!
So I snuck off and picked out....THIS lit'l beauty. (Sleeping on her back ...too cute!) Surprise Mason! :o) He named her Molly. Molly MO!
Nicholas was happy with all my great finds too!
Later on we headed to my next door neighbors church outreach. Fun. Lots of...fun. Food, games and I won a DVD player! :o)
Clint kept Terri so Mandie and myself only had...1,2....3, 4, 5...yeah 5 kids. (Tookie was with his Daddy too)
Tuesday
The Last Day ::sniff sniff::
Something soon to fill the empty void. CLINTS PROMISE!
to be continued.....
Monday
Daddy Daycare volume 2
I ran out to the grocery store while the kids napped. I come home to find 3 kids awake and one daddy asleep. :-( poor sleepy (kidney stone having) daddy.
Terri Jade and Mason were both in TERRIS CRIB (daddys orders) and Kristopher was sitting down "reading". I'm just lucky our kids like to watch movies and don't play with matches. JOKING...BUT NOT REALLY! ;-)
143 in an ART CLASS?
so WHERE do you want me to squat?
ahhh haa
I did sign Mason up for a 3 day art class at our church. It isn't affiliated with our church however. I found this out upon arriving. WHEN THE I NOTICED that there weren't any parking spaces left. I was only 6 minutes late! All I have to say is that HOMESCHOOL MOMS are something ferocious about maintaining their daily schedule. I guess it hasn't quite rubbed off yet. SO I'm walking up to a LINE 6 minutes after I'm supposed to be at the church and see a good friend. I then ask "so exactly WHO are all these ppl?" after a moment of stunned staring exchanged between the two of us. Her reply "so yeah I just found out that this is for ALL the moms of kids in CHARLOTTE that wanted to come"
WHAT?
Can our fellowship hall hold 143 students...NOT COUNTING moms?
answer: YES (like sardines)
This is a picture of a THIRD of the kids.
Don't you like how the mom in the teal is doing her sons work? ::snickering:: I am pretty sure I helped Mason out a bit too but I at least held his hand while helping. :-P
I am actually quite impressed with the first days learned curriculum. Mason is doing his assigned work here in just a few moments....
But this is what he did today.
Here he is MIXING some paint:
Here is the SMILE on his face while painting!
"DON'T TAKE THE PICTURE TIL I'M DONE"
Then he does the big reveal...
TA DAAAAAH!
I am so proud. As always. Even when our children make mistakes, its okay as long as they try their best and have fun and hopefully learn something in the process!!
I am working with Mason on this right now with his reading, and writing. He gets very frustrated that Mommy can write so pretty or can read so much. I try to explain that it will come with patience and practice, but for a 5YO this can be tough. I constantly reassure him that in life there will be things that he won't be the best at and that as long as he keeps trying he will keep improving. ahhh patience.
Here is the work on the refrigerator tonight. PLEASE click to check out the detail that Mason put into his work! (Even though he can't read my blog YET he will see the pictures and know that mommy is always proud of his work!!)
This is the back. They learned some drawing techniques and shading as well.