Slow Down * Enjoy Life

I found 2 dimes yesterday.  Like they were put there on purpose.  So crazy.  Like I open the back of the car to put in some groceries and a midst the mess that is the back of the car sits a dime, like a bright light from the sky is shinning on only that small little spot.

Some family and friends came over last night.  The kids were up til 11:30 … yikes!  Totally goes against all my parenting morals 😉  But amazingly they did fine, and were really good with the kids that were over too.  And even this morning they slept until 9a and so far so good.

I kind of wish more people would have come over last night, however.  Even though it was really great to have those here who did make it.  I guess I’m just a little disappointed in those that didn’t make it.  Not those that were sick but particularly those who decided that a neighborhood holiday party was more important.  I don’t know … I would skip a neighborhood holiday party any day if my friends were getting together.  I guess maybe I would have rather just heard them lie and say they were sick.  Thinking about it, I probably would have accepted any excuse other than a neighborhood holiday party … maybe that’s just me and maybe that’s just me venting.  I’m certain you would have def yelled at them. 😉

I can’t remember the last time I had as lazy a day as I had today.  Although my definition of lazy is not the same as the pre-kid definition off lazy.  While I just wanted to sit on the couch all day I still had to make breakfast, lunch & dinner, entertain them a dozen different times throughout the day, and dissolve nearly as many he-hit-me, she-hit-me, i-want-it, she/he-took it near-disasters … we did however find time to make snowflakes, play multiple games and work on homework … oh, and a think I changed 3 lightbulbs and washed dishes – go me

So “lazy then” doesn’t equal “lazy today”.  Lazy today didn’t mean napping on the couch but it did involve lounging on the couch nearly every minute I wasn’t involved in any of the above-mentioned activities.

Last night I entered a chili cook-off.  Somehow I ended up being the only one of my friends to actually cook.  BTW, they gave away prizes from 1st to 5th place and I didn’t win one award.  I don’t know what that was all about.  I thought mine was actually pretty damn good.  I actually put real effort into it … even though I might have borrowed the recipe…turkey chili with multiple peppers, seasoning … I should have at least won something for the prettiest chili.  Besides my ultimate failure, a totally random thing happened at this little LGP event … one of my fraternity brothers unexpectedly walked in the door.  Totally random.  Although he’s from the area so doesn’t live around here any more.  He’s one of the same person we ran into at the super bowl in Miami back in ’07 when we were 2 days from having our little princess.  Anyways, it was pretty cool to see him.  Those random meetings do however tend to bring up certain topics of conversation… ugh

6 days til her birthday.  A few of us will probably get together.  It’s not the easiest day.  Especially for the kids. Birthday’s were her thing.  Plenty of memories.  Maybe we’ll have cake.

What a waste of a day today.  It’s kind of crazy that I have a december weekend with nothing to do.  That’s not so much the case next weekend, however.  Maybe we’ll be productive tomorrow.  I’m not totally looking forward to a trip to the mall with the kids but I might brave at least a store or two.

School & Parents … Is drama supposed to happen in kindergarten?  Are there supposed to be kindergarten parents that bitch constantly about the teacher or other kids or whatever happens to be twisting this particular parents mind on any particular morning.  Seriously.  I know there are crazies out there.  Those p’s that can never be happy.  Those people who I would never ever ever want to associate with.  But in kindergarten.  Seriously?  I have no problem moving schools to get away from it.  Not that I’m planning to, but it’s an option I consider every now and then … pretty much every time I see her and I overhear her complaining to whoever will listen … sometimes she just complains out loud perhaps hoping that someone is listening and actually wants to hear the shit, yes shit, flowing out of her mouth … I’m not one for drama, causing drama, hearing about drama, involving myself in drama, but I can’t help from complaining about this.  She must be a really really unhappy person.

Enough about that …

I should probably go to bed.  I can’t believe I’m still sitting on the couch

All the decorations are up and have been up for a couple weeks.  Christmas cards started going out this week.  I haven’t done all my shopping yet.  Maybe that’s what I should be working on … maybe tomorrow.

I signed up to be a parent volunteer in her class today.  She was so excited for me to be there.  It felt SO good.  It really made my day.  She told me last week that her teacher mentioned that I would be in today. She was already excited.  Then today I’m standing outside her classroom and I hear her ask the teacher if her daddy was here yet.  That’s when I walked into her class…all smiles!

I helped her and 3 other students work on a craft.  I can’t wait to do it again.

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I had another halloween party for the kids this past weekend.  Our first party at the new house.  It was a little bit of a house-warming party at the same time I guess, but it was mainly for the kids.  I counted 32 kids on the evite … YIKES.  Everyone came too.  The yard is smaller than the old yard so the jumpie was stuffed into a corner but it still worked.  I do miss the big yard but we have more space inside the house now and that matters a little more.

The kids were super excited for the party.  They both had multiple costumes.  He dressed as Captain America and later put on the Hulk costume.  She dressed as a mermaid.  They didn’t know I was going to dress up too.  I picked up a Hulk costume (kind of corny but I could only think of how excited he’d be when he saw me in it + the pictures would be cute).  And he was super excited.  I did make a few kids cry, however.  Oops!

Anyways, it was a great day!  The weather was beyond perfect.  Nearly 70 degrees on Oct 21st … couldn’t have asked for any better.  Thanks Cari!

We had plenty of food, the kids were entertained the whole time … it was great.

We did, however, end up in the ER with another dislocated elbow.  Ugh.  He’s a champ thought.  That has to be painful.  MK drove us and I sat in the back seat of my car with him and held on tight.  He fell asleep in the car but woke crying as soon as I moved just a little when we arrived.  Fortunately we have connections at the hospital.  So even though we drove the 25 minutes extra to get to this hospital it was totally worth it.  It took them all but 5 seconds to pop it back in.  Then it took him another 3-4 minutes to figure out it didn’t hurt any more.  Poor guy!

Thanks to all the awesome people that cleaned up while I was dealing with that

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Today I was talking with another girls mom.  Her daughter and mine are super cute together.  We got to talking and she mentioned how she lost her finance and how she never wanted to marry again but then met her husband and can’t be happier.

What’s the odds that I’m surrounded so close by people who have experienced similar losses so early in life.

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“Daddy, guess what”

“What?”

“We carry Heaven in our Heart and we carry Mommy in our Heart”

“Right?”

“Right”

“And Papa and everyone else that died, and Jesus too”

“Grandma, Titi & Hauntie carry Papa in their Heart”

“Who told you that?”

“[My sister] did”

“What else do you know about Heaven”

“That’s all”

“I love you”

“I love you too!!!”

Where time goes …

It’s been a while since I’ve sat much in front of the TV, usually it’s just the computer these days.  But SOA is back on and I recently found Homeland.

I didn’t think SOA would keep me intrigued but I’m addicted.  I often find myself waking up at 10p on Tuesdays after falling asleep with the kids and making my way down to the basement to catch the current episode or the episode I might have missed the week before.  And before I know it it’s 1am and I can’t go to sleep because my adrenaline is pumping because of what I just watched.  I probably should have just stayed in bed.

Now I’m on Homeland.  On-Demand TV is pretty cool.  I caught a current episode for the new season and over the past week I’ve watched most of last season.  Even though I’m seriously, no absolutely, thinking about moving away from Comcast, their on demand feature is pretty cool.  Needless-to-say my “amazing” Saturday night was 4 episodes and a half bottle of pinot … I planning for a Tuesday night out so that should make up a little for tonight.

Now I’m sitting on my bed trying to find a spot where I won’t be kicked in the head all night as well as one where I won’t kick them either (btw, one of them is kicking me as I type)

Luci lost her spot on the bed.  Now she’s stuck fending for herself somewhere in one of the other rooms.  If she would stop pissing on the rugs she’d be great but I cannot stand how she just won’t go to the bathroom outside yet has no problem doing it in the house whenever she has the urge (that’s usually when we aren’t home but recently while we’re asleep too).

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It was probably 4 weeks ago now when I asked a neighbor friend if they knew about the kids mom.  They said no.

Shit

I guess they just avoided the topic.  I only told one neighbor and was hoping the word would spread but I guess not.

So I told them.

If anything it’s so that they can address it with their kids and “hopefully” limit the questions to mine.

School, however, was another challenge.

It didn’t take long for the topic to come up.

According to her teacher …

“I wanted to share with you what [E] shared during the class today.  We had just read the story Armadillo’s Orange where an armadillo gets lost and cant find his way home.  When I asked the class how the armadillo felt everyone agreed that he felt sad.  To make a feelings connection, I asked the whole class was there a time when you felt sad and how did you make yourself feel better.  [E] told the class she felt sad when her mom died but felt better when she hangs out with her dad.  Afterward a couple students asked [E] how her mom died and I could tell [E] was getting a little uncomfortable and sad so I pulled her away so we could have a chat.  She said that she was ok sharing that her mom died but she also wanted me to tell you about the conversation too.  I let her know that it was a brave thing to say and I am happy she feels good being with her dad and she did smile and laugh a little….”

🙁

I knew that the topic was eventually going to come up … I think she did amazing.  We talked about it later.  She didn’t come out and tell me about it but when I asked her a direct question about it she asked if the teacher had text’d me and I told her she e-mailed me.

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C now has 4 avenger costumes and he wears them just about every day.  If I would let him wear them to school he would.  He always has them on at the neighbors house.  He wore Iron Man to the Apple Farm and today wore the same costume to, ironically, the costume store (although we were only supposed to go to the craft store, the costume store was an afterthought and the same place he was able to get his 4th costume … it’s expensive there, costco is half the price).  In addition to iron man he has spider man, captain america and thor.  He REALLY wants the hulk.  He has so much fun with them!  She has her dresses and now he has his costumes.  It’s definitely better than him dressing up as a princess.  I’m glad we’re past that.

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She’s doing good learning how to read and is already pretty good with her numbers.  I have her multiplying now.  She’s really growing up … way to fast

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They made me give each of them two hugs and kisses at bed time tonight.  We had the whole day together today.  Except for a couple of breakdowns we did pretty good, especially since we were cooped up in the house most of the day because it was so chilly outside.  I love these two SO much.  They’re simply amazing!!!