For Today…June 13, 2010

Outside my window…it’s almost dark outside. And the weather doesn’t completely stink right now! It was a beautiful day, and we took advantage at the pool.

I am listening to…Baby Hulk yell for me. Soon I’ll be listening to the baby crying. Clearly, BH has no interest in sleeping right now.

I am wearing…black longhorn shorts and a white t-shirt.

I am thinking…about how hard it is to take the BH and Kobra to church sometimes. I’ve talked about Baby Hulk and his scream cries; it happened tonight at Mass. I literally had to put him outside the door and step inside so I could listen to the readings. Most people wouldn’t do that, but listening to him scream would have only made me mad. Then Kobra didn’t want to sit so he started fussing. When Lance would try and bring him back to sit with us, he would yell, “NO”. I am not a fan of nurseries for children because I think kids need to learn how to behave during Mass, but sometimes these two drive me crazy. Thankfully, these incidents don’t normally happen at Mass.

I am wondering…what is going to happen to UT. I’ve been going back and forth with my brother on this, and it’s stressing me out. I want to know if we’re moving to the PAC 10, (so not interested in going to play in Arizona!) or the Big 10 or staying put and possibly adding a couple of new teams to the Big 12. Hopefully, this week will offer answers and soon!

From the kitchen…lots of fresh fruit. I love summer fruits, and my fridge is packed with healthy snacks right now.

To be fit and happy…I’m fit, I work out five days a week, I just don’t look it. Oh well.

Around the house…I don’t know how it happened, but somehow we didn’t go through Squirt’s folders the last day of school. We ALWAYS do this at the end of each year. This way we don’t have a lot of crap and useless papers taking up space. Squirt and I carefully go over each subject and decide what to keep. He usually keeps a few more items than I would like, but we also go through “old” papers as well and he usually tosses a bunch wondering why he kept it in the first place. I am also getting rid of excess toys and clothing. Part of me wants to sell some stuff, but that really isn’t me. I will be making a huge run to the donation center this week.

I am praying for…all of my babies and for a relaxed summer.

I am thankful for…my amazing hubby and his values. His motto is to always ask himself if his kids would be ashamed to see him act a certain way. He is not perfect, but I never have to worry about him doing or saying something stupid when I’m not around.

From the learning rooms…you didn’t think Goose would get a break did you?! I took the Globe out today so we can check out where each team in the World Cup is on the globe. Kobra promptly took the “pen” that comes with it and we have no idea where it is. We’ll do a unit on Soccer and pick a country to study. We’re reading and doing some math as well. I am so excited to have my star pupil back home.

To live the liturgy…I haven’t hosted Super Saints in a few weeks. To be honest, I really needed the break, but the boys have asked the past two Mondays about their club so we are on this week. (Assuming I get it together and call everyone tonight.) This month is dedicated to the Sacred Heart of Jesus. We got our craft from last year out, and the boys were happy to them again. We’re learning about the 12 promises and discussing our favorites. We’ll also focus on St Anthony of Padua and Sts. Peter and Paul, my favorites, this month. I’ve also been trying to start “explaining” the Eucharist to Goose. We’ve found two really good books that he really likes.

Kobra this week…this kid can’t stop talking. He cracks me up. He is bossier than ever now that he knows his words!

One of my favorite things…old music. Since Lance was gone last night and the kids were asleep by 7 pm, I spent the night going through old CD’s.

A few plans for the rest of the week…

• Super Saints
• Moody Gardens in Galveston, I think
• swim lessons
• dr appt
• haircut, do I dare??
• pedicure
• lunch date
• Clint and Shea’s 40th birthday!

A picture thought I am sharing…

Why am I paying for swim lessons again when all he does is hold the wall???

Is it bad that I’m passing my stalking/snooping abilities down to the next generation? I feel like I’m a mentor these days! Not that my protege needs much help, but I do have a few tricks up my sleeve that she didn’t know about. I’ve been snooping since before you could type someone’s name in Google and come up with all their information. Spokeo: old news to me. Anyway, I must say this week has brought back so many memories for me, and I’ve loved it. Especially because it netted such great results. Nothing like stalking to make you feel like you are on top of the world. Of course, then there are those times when you searched a bit too much and found something you didn’t really want to find.

My stalking did have one really good result: meeting LZ.

So very happy to see big brother!

Nothing weird about reading with a mask on, right?

My surprise purchase this month…my fridge has never looked so bare!

I will never complain about roses from my Baby! Thank you, Lance!

We had a huge storm this morning and a large branch fell from the tree in the backyard. Since the trash is scheduled to be picked up today, I asked Squirt to throw it over the fence. He did. He threw it right into our neighbor’s yard. Nice.

Lance loves this blog because it’s another outlet for me to vent. He doesn’t have to hear all my complaints. All. Day. Long. Sometimes, I’ll be talking to a friend and say something about my blog and realize that they don’t even read it. “What’s the name again?” And I get all offended, but really, that just means I can talk about them behind their back. So here goes the newest annoyance that has been bothering me for weeks.

Lance has been invited to an out of town birthday party. He received the email with all the info, which included the cost of everything and an extra $50 for another gift. It didn’t say anything like “if you would like to contribute” or “he would like this, send what you can”. Nope, just a specific amount assuming that all parties can go out of town, pay for a hotel, meals, gas and an extra gift. I admit, I’m cheap, but not when it comes to gifts. I go ALL out. Our Christmas budget for others is $2000 and that doesn’t include gifts for each other. (We have kids, godchildren, friends, cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.) BUT…I think this is so freaking tacky and presumptuous. Maybe as tacky as me stating my Christmas budget.

I admit that ever since Lance has received this invite, I have been bitching nonstop. Then came the final details email which upped the price of the contribution by five bucks. I almost wrecked the car when Lance told me. Of course, he’ll contribute, we love this friend (and he isn’t the one who made these arrangements so I’m not complaining about him) and after this weekend, I’ll stop bitching. I promise. However, this weekend does screw over some key people with birthdays coming up. Sorry guys, your birthday money will all be spent this weekend. This would be Clint, Shea, the twins and my Godson. Maybe they should have sent me an invite with specific money requests.

Do I feel better about venting about this? Actually, I felt better last week at dinner when two of the guys who are also going and NOT CHEAP at all said the exact same thing without any prompting from me! Here’s hoping LZ’s friends don’t read this blog.

With four boys, there are A LOT of hand me downs in this house, so in theory I’m not against hand me downs. BUT…I draw the line at stained clothing and rusted out toys. I’ve done laundry at least twice a week since I got married so I will never run out of clean clothes. There is never a reason for people to give me stained onesies because I might run out with a newborn. I promise, I won’t. When the boys outgrow their clothes, I sort through them, fold and organize them according to size and place them in the attic. When I finally pass these clothes on, if somebody wants them, they will be neat. I can’t stand organizing clothes someone else didn’t care enough about to organize. It’s more work for me. Yesterday, I received dried out play dough and rusted lawn chairs. They went in the trash. Why do people think they are doing me a favor by giving me crap they don’t want in their house anymore?

Our Host

My boys loved their cousins!

Who doesn’t love Ice Cream?!

My beautiful crew at the greenbelt.

He wasn’t sure if he liked getting his feet wet.

I have a three year old who is the most loving, sweet, stubborn, caring, and emotionally volatile child I know. He can go from happy to freak out screaming fits if you tear a small piece off his sandwich or if a stick breaks. For the first three years of his life, he would cry for five minutes every time I left him at the gym. In fact, he still does this about once every ten days. And he not only cries, he screams/cries in a very high pitch. It is insane and drives me crazy.

To be clear, I hate criers. Yet I have always been surrounded by them from friends to guys I dated to my kids. I don’t understand it, I want to shout, “HOLD IT TOGETHER!!!” Maybe I scoffed at some of the guys I dated, and sometimes I will tell Squirt to grow up, but I can’t really do that with the Baby Hulk. Yesterday was a particularly hard day for him and his hysteria was in high gear. And I had a lot to do, some that could wait like blog reading and folding clothes and others that were more important like getting food for the rest of the family. But something told me as he was crying at my legs to stop and just hold him. It didn’t make him stop crying, but he did hold on for dear life. I managed to get food for the rest of the family and we sat and hugged. Finally, he calmed down enough to sit and eat. All day long he kept wanting me to hold him and hug him.

Later, when I did have the chance to read a blog, I read the following: “Embrace him. He is empty and unsure of your permanence, for whatever reason, and the more you resist, the more unsure he gets. The more unsure he gets, the more he will cling. Embrace him every time he wants you to, for as long as he wants you to. Don’t let go until he does. Eventually he will.”

What amazing advice and one that is particularly hard for me to always follow. I am so glad I found that quote yesterday because I would have been very tempted to stop the hugs after an hour or so. I have to remember that regardless of what I want to do, my children’s needs come first. There is nothing wrong with making my arms their safe haven. Even if it means I have loads of laundry to finish after they go to bed.

Have you heard there is a Census going on in this country? Like a good citizen, I completed my form the first time it arrived. And thought of the wasted paper when the same form arrived again. There was a deadline, and I responded within that time frame. Turns out they didn’t receive our form. SO…they came knocking on our door. Despite having a babysitter and people waiting for us, my wonderful husband answered each question while the lady filled out the paperwork very slowly. Again. Me, I wouldn’t have done it again because I had already filled it out once before. (Lance is way nicer than me.) Last week, we received a phone call every night of the week about some of his answers. Who knows, maybe slow writer screwed it up. I told Lance to call, but he never did. SO…they came knocking again…

Only this time, we were out of town. And since they couldn’t harass us, they decided to go with my neighbor instead. While my sweet little Jessica is very mature, she is clearly a MINOR. But did that stop the Census man from asking her to complete the form for us? NO. And yes, the guy knew she didn’t live in this house. And when I was yelling at him on Monday evening, a holiday no less, he admitted he knew she was a minor at that time too.

I came home from a great weekend to another message from this guy, telling us he saw our car in the driveway and we weren’t answering the door. We had been home for less than thirty minutes, and he was at the door. I couldn’t wait to talk to this guy. Yes, I am the type of person who loves to complain or write letters. I rarely have the chance to follow through, but this time would be different. He would indeed be sorry he bothered my sweet neighbor and that he was messing with bedtime. I admit I was rather harsh, but I think he got the point about not asking neighbors to help out with a government form.

In the end, he got what he wanted. Lance refused to let me send him away. (And I had to be the obedient wife and let him answer the questions for the third time.) The man could never explain what information they needed despite me asking over and over. I did get his name so I could complain to a supervisor.