Possiblities

Since school started, I've been supervising recess for 2 hours a day at one of our grade schools. I've really enjoyed it and look forward to it every day. They have a really great group of kids there.

I expressed an interest back at the beginning of the school year about being trained as a back up school secretary in our school district, in hopes of being able to sub for them and maybe even becoming one of them later on down the road when Ryan is in middle school.

I had kind of forgotten about it since nothing seemed to come of it, until this afternoon when the principal at the grade school that I work at called me and asked if I would be interested in covering for their secretary on Monday. I am so incredibly excited! I hung up the phone and actually squealed in delight!

This may just be a one time deal as their backup is probably unavailable, but maybe, just maybe this could be my chance. If I don't royally screw up answering phones, maybe they'll ask me to sub again. Maybe this could be the start of something promising.

I'm excited - so excited, but am going to have to go shop for a pair of khaki's or something this weekend as my whole wardrobe consists of jeans. Yippeeeeeee.......

Halloween 2008

Once upon a spooky Halloween, there was a stay at home mom (SAHM) who dreamed of becoming a princess mom. She wished upon a star for her fairy godmother to appear when her witchy friend from work/school showed up and POOF went the fairy godmother!

The SAHM made it through 2 hours of small children asking "What are you supposed to be for Halloween?" and then cruised across town in her minivan to her son's school and watched the annual Halloween Parade.

Clearly facing the wrong way in line, but oh so cute heroic looking.

Cuteness onstage for all to see.

School obligations completed and SAHM is happy to be home and out of those itchy velcro rollers. Could really use that fairy godmother to do something with this mop.


Still way too big, but camera does not show the full extent of bigness, thank goodness.


The kids got home from school and we headed outside to take pictures. Ryan is a brave Army Sargeant, Ashley is dressed up as Bacon (her friend whom she is going trick or treating with is the other half of her costume, Eggs. Bret thinks he's 10 again and makes a pretty sweet Viking.

Before the kids head out with friends tonight, we took them to trick or treat at Bret's Dad's house as well as a couple of his mom's close friends' houses.

Bret is now out with Ryan and Ashley caught up with her other half (eggs) and I'm left here to answer the door with two big overly excited dogs.

Just a little note to the hoodlums that came and wiped out our bowl of candy sitting on the porch while I was taking Ashley to her friend's house, RIGHT after my husband filled it - My witchy friend is coming for YOU!

Update: Oh my freaking hilarious! I was not expecting this when the door bell rang! This would be Bret and our neighbor Scott.

Week In Review

I apologize for disappearing this week, but things are now finally starting to slow down. Ashley's softball season is officially over. Her last game of the season was Wednesday night. Watching her games has been a lot of fun, but I'm ready for it to be over.

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Homework has been out of control now that school is back in full swing. It seems like once we're all home and done with dinner, we're spending the rest of our nights buried in homework. Ashley is doing excellent in school. No problems there. Ryan is struggling a little, but we expected that. While he has made tremendous progress - I'll never get tired of him reading a book to us - he still has some more catching up to his peers to do. Five years of undiagnosed hearing loss plus a possible learning disability will do that to you. We just have to stay patient, work with him and keep on top of the school.

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Homework time.

Earlier this week, Ryan brought home a short story that he wrote himself with no help. I was very proud and promptly hung it on our fridge. It had some spelling errors, but it showed promise. Being able to write an actual sentence was a challenge for him last year.

Also this week, I got my highlights redone and my hair cut. It's still very blonde right now, but it'll tone down in a week or so. I went for more layers this time around because I'm so tired of my hair just hanging there, doing absolutely nothing. I was amazed at how many of the little kids at school the next day noticed my hair.

The weather here has been horrible and depressing for the last couple of days. It has rained nonstop. Despite the constant rain, we went to the high school football game tonight. We made it through the first half and ended up leaving during halftime because of Ryan's boredom (his friends decided not to brave the rain), the obnoxiously loud parent behind us and because we looked and felt like drowned rats.

Ryan is ready for the football game.

Brings back memories of the good old days.

I didn't get any pictures of Ashley tonight. Once we walked through the gates, she was swallowed up by a group of her friends and gone. Seems to be becoming the norm these days. Sigh.

Schedule: Empty

As I went about preparing for my day this morning, I sat down and checked my calendar on my cute little smart phone. Let me just say that I am totally spoiled by this thing! Any moms (or dads for that matter) that have school aged children that are involved in what seems like every activity imaginable shouldn't have to live without one of these things. I'd love to snatch one up for my husband so that I can put my Outlook calendar on it for him. Then he'd never again be able to tell me that I didn't tell him that we had such and such planned tonight.

In fact, after a nightmare drive to a softball game that was an hour away with wrong directions on Wednesday night took me 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there -only to have the game end 5 minutes after I arrived - I decided to copy the directions from the school website for each away game left and put them on my phone. It was super convenient and I made it to yesterday's game that was 1 hour and 15 minutes away right on time - only to have the game called for lightning in the 4th inning! It's OK though - we were looking at a brutal loss.

So, now that I've gotten completely sidetracked (are you still there?) I'll come back to where I meant to go in the first place. I checked my phone this morning and was excited to find that other than working at school for 2 hours, my schedule is completely empty today! As soon as I get home from supervising 5 grade levels of recess, I'm going to finally be able to get something done around here. I'm so excited!

Guess Who?

Ryan made it on the front page of the local section of the Peoria Journal Star this morning! My interview, unfortunately made it on the 5:00 news and then was posted online today. Could they have zoomed in on my one handed hair and make up day head any more than they did? Yikes! We won't even go there in regards to someone being put on camera and having to come up with something intelligible to say at the last minute.

So. Anyway. Ryan graduated from his week long camp today and we've already been outside running behind his bike twice today. He's making the adjustment from the camp's bike to his own right now, so he's still a bit wobbly. He's riding in straight lines without help. We still need to practice turning as well as taking off and stopping on his own. Next week I'll take the kids out to Bicycle Safety Town and a big empty parking lot somewhere to get him some more practice.

OK, I can only type with one hand for so long. Going to go take a break.

Scorecard: Legos - 3, Me - 0

I've got a new project here at home. After breaking it to my mom that she is losing her "bedroom" downstairs to her Grandson's Legos, I've decided to redo both kids' bedrooms.

Ryan has had this bad habit of climbing into bed with us at night and you would think the three of us would fit in a king size bed, but no, we don't thanks to a certain 7 year old that seems to think he requires 2/3 of said king size bed.

You'd also think that we'd come to our senses and put him back in his own bed, but no, we don't thanks to a total lack of any functional brain cells at 3am. Instead I end up in his little twin size bed because it's easier than trying to get my husband to carry the kid back to his bed.

So my solution? Give me a bigger bed to escape to the kid the bigger bed (Ashley already has a bigger bed) from the bedroom downstairs and move the nightmare Lego mess to it's own room downstairs. My mom can take one of the kids' beds when she visits and we'll just move whatever kid is left me downstairs to the twin bed.

I did manage to find new bedding for both kids today. As soon as I get cracking I'll take before and after pictures. It's going to take awhile since painting is going to be called for and time is already at a minimum. I must have a screw lose in my brain to be adding more to the month of June, however the Lego situation has been driving me to the brink of insanity!

And hey! Guess who passed the six month mark of nonsmoking and didn't even realize it until she looked at the ticker to the left?

Chief's Game

While Ashley and I stayed in and rented a movie (don't bother) last night, Bret and Ryan took in a Peoria Chief's game. Ryan was really excited because he got there in time to win a Derek Lee Bobble Head. He must have played hard, because he was exhausted when he got home. However, the day must have been harder on me because I was in bed before all of them last night.

This morning I was up early and out the door before everyone else was awake. I thought I had a hair appointment for 9am, but realized it wasn't until noon so I spent the morning shopping and treated myself to lunch out at Panera Bread. I've never sat and eaten lunch by myself before, but it was oddly calming and relaxing.

By noon I was back for my appointment with Shawn and got the works done. It had been a year since I had last gotten highlights and I was much over do for a cut. My last haircut had been at one of those cheap places and I've found that it's usually either a hit or miss experience - my last one being a total miss.

So now I'm ready for summer and can tuck my awful ponytail holders into the back of my bathroom drawer.

No More Excuses

I have been a nonsmoker for 3 months and 1 week. It sure seems like it should be longer than that though - a good thing, I'm sure. I really don't keep track much anymore. The only reason I knew I had passed the 3 month mark is because the little ticker over there to the left told me so. I'm down to taking just one Chantix pill in the morning and am ready to go off. I still can't remember to take the darn things and I'm tired of the headaches, nausea, moodiness and being tired. It's time to get back to being myself again.

So now with 3 months under my belt, it's time to stop making excuses for gaining weight and not taking care of myself. I've put on 15 pounds (and trust me, I didn't need it to begin with) since I quit smoking. It's been forever since my last visit to the darn gym. Between sick kids, school carnivals, time changes and being sick myself, it's time to go back. Body Step tomorrow morning at 9am. No excuses.

To give myself a little jump start and some motivation, I dragged out the stack of Weight Watchers books from the back of my kitchen cabinet, dusted them off and recorded my points for today. I've been watching what I've been eating today and was pretty excited to see how I was doing. Apparently, not so well. I have 3 points left for dinner. Not good.

$1.75, But It's Not My Fault!

Ok, it is my fault. I agreed to pay myself a quarter every time I say a bad word, but at the time I didn't know that I would soon be dealing with the effects of winter and my own stupidity. *Sigh* My minivan is sitting in the middle of a parking lot right now, waiting to be towed to the car dealer.

At 10am this morning, the snow started coming down and I thought I could get up to school in time to collect the dinner ticket money before it got really bad outside. I loaded Chloe into the van and away we went - until I wrecked the van going a wimpy 20 miles an hour. Just kidding - I didn't "wreck" it, but I slid making a turn and we nailed a curb. The wheel and rim were dented, but it seemed fine, so I continued on to school.

Ten minutes later, I was leaving school and noticed that alignment was way off and there was a rubbing (I'd say grinding - but it wasn't that loud) noise coming from that area of the car. I pulled over into a parking lot and called my husband. (I am so in the dog house right now!) Remembering that the warranty included road side assistance, I called GM and put in a request for help. I probably could have driven on it, but with my luck the wheel would have fallen off and we'd be *#$@ a creek. Or in a ditch.

So, I'm sitting in a parking lot with an 18 month old in the car who is crying and unhappy while I'm trying to figure all of this out. I have no car seat to transfer over to another car because she is in the car's child integrated seat, so requesting a loaner is not an option. (We don't have coverage for that anyway.) I have no diaper bag - because I'm an idiot - so all I have to bribe her with is my iPod. This makes her happy for awhile and we sit and wait for my friend, Teri, to grab a car seat and diaper bag from my house and pick our butts up. The tow truck wait is 3 hours and I am so not sitting there for that long with a toddler who hasn't had lunch or a nap yet.

We're home now and I'm really wishing that school would dismiss early because it's getting considerably worse outside. I should receive a phone call when the tow truck gets there. Hopefully the van will still be there since I had to leave a key inside. I'm really not looking forward to getting the bill for this.

Potty Mouth

It's recently come to my attention that I have a potty mouth. I never thought too much about it, but over the last week, I've noticed that Chloe is starting to repeat words I say. Since neither of her parents use that kind of language, I better get it under control. I'm sure that in a matter of days she'll be repeating everything I say and the last thing I need is for her to go home and drop the F Bomb. I'm kidding. That's the one word I rarely use. I just thought it sounded good.

So, I will now be paying myself a quarter for every naughty word that comes out of my mouth. (Creepy googlers are going to go nuts with that one.)

No more bad words that start with D, S or H.

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My cough that I picked up over the course of today has gone from midly irritating to downright annoying. I'm starting to feel it in my chest and back. I'm hoping it's just my asthma and suffucating fog that's doing it, but we'll have to wait and see.

For now, here's a picture of what I had to (dumbly) brave to go get toilet paper and cough syrup tonight. I swear it's just getting worse out there.

I Get To Be A Big Girl Today

I feel I deserve some time for me. I'm taking Ashley and her friend Danielle to see 27 Dresses this afternoon. I can't remember the last time I went and saw a non G rated movie, and since I can't find the time to escape into a good book, I'll have to settle for 2 hours of escape this way. Besides, the mountain of laundry and messy house aren't going anywhere anytime soon.

I Am So Regretting That Nap

Earlier tonight, I wasn't feeling very well. All of a sudden I was just wiped out and really sick to my stomach. I hadn't taken my second Chantix yet, so I really didn't think it was that, even though it has been messing up my stomach again lately. I also skipped lunch and had my blood sugar take a dive in the middle of grocery shopping at Kroger late this afternoon. That's my best guess as to what happened.

I feel better now, but pretty much passed out on the couch while we were all just kind of hanging out watching TV. I was so cold that I couldn't warm up for anything and my body felt like it was being weighed down. The last thing I remembered was talking to my friend Teri on the phone and then waking up.

The problem now? I was passed out for 2 1/2 hours. Now I'm the furthest thing from tired and it's 11:15pm. I have to be up at 6am so I can shower and get Ashley to school for Volleyball practice in the morning - and then be functional enough to take care of two babies.

It may be a long night...

Losing My Mind

It's been a pretty busy day over here today. I got myself all riled up about smoking bans in my earlier post, been obsessed with this game that I heard about over at Busy Mom and working on plans for the school carnival. Let's just say I've been in computer mode. Bret asked me tonight if I still needed an item that I had on our shopping list and I told him, "No, you can delete that." He's still laughing at me.

Must. Get. Warm.

Our power was only out for three hours this morning, but it has yet to warm up in here. The thermostat reads 69, but it lies! My toes are like ice and I'm just plain cold.

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I had my appointment to get re-established with our old doctor from 3 years ago and was rather disappointed. I don't find him good looking anymore. Stop laughing - that's not what I was really going to say. While he's not quite so eye candyish anymore, that's not really the problem.

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I was a bit put off by his not so great bedside manner. The kids and I loved him 3 years ago and were crushed when we had to change doctors. We thought he was great. But today he didn't seem very friendly. He seemed stressed out, unfriendly and kept asking me the same questions repeatedly. Isn't your doctor suppose to be smarter than you?! No, for the second time - I don't need any refills. And no, for the 3rd time - I'm not having any problems. (Or does he have me confused with a different patient with short term memory loss and chronic problems?) (Quiet now, Bret.) Anyway, I was disappointed.

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I kept trying to talk to him about how I quit smoking and am taking Chantix and he couldn't keep the number of days I have been quit straight either. He also told me that I can only take it for 12 weeks. When I asked him about weening off of it, he said that usually people just stop taking it. Um, that's not what I've heard. Sigh. I was really hoping to stay on it for a bit longer than 3 months, but we'll see. It was my OB/GYN that actually prescribed it and I have my yearly appointment (sorry, TMI) in two weeks, so I'll bring it up with her instead.

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So, is my new (actually old) doctor on drugs or maybe he was just not feeling well? He did seem a little congested. But, seriously? He wasn't even really laughing at my jokes and I'm funny. Really, I am.

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Both Ashley and Ryan have their appointments with him tomorrow. Hopefully, I'll get a better impression then. Maybe it's just me he doesn't like. Humph. My little innocent crush is so over.

Meet My New Baby

Happy Birthday to me! Okay, so my birthday isn't actually until next Saturday so that only makes it my "birth week", but we celebrated it today with Bret's side of the family. I had been hinting to everyone that I wanted Kohl's gift cards to add to the one I've been saving so that I could get the Kitchen aid Artesian Mixer that I've been drooling over for the past year. It happened to go on sale today with a $20 off rebate and a 15% off coupon, so I got it for $100 less than it's normal retail price. Isn't it beautiful? So now if you'll excuse me, I've got to go whip up a mean batch of boxed brownies...

It's All Over Now

I found my first strand of grey hair last night and I'm not even 31 yet. I knew life was going to be over after I turned 30! I called my mom last night at 11pm after I found it, horrified. She thought the dog had died and started laughing hysterically at me when I told her what was really wrong.

I'm calling Shawn for a hair appointment tomorrow because where there is one, there's sure to be more. I'm over due anyway to have my highlights fixed.

But I'm Only 30!

You're in a mid life crisis

Your ears aren't what they once were and you have resorted to doing online hearing tests. The highest pitched ultrasonic mosquito ringtone that I can hear is 12kHz

Find out which ringtones you can hear!

So according to the above results (an idea from Crazy Busy and Lovin It), my suspicions have been confirmed. My son is not the only one who can't hear.

How is your hearing?

Um, Uh Oh?

I washed the kitchen floor today. Got down on my hands and knees and scrubbed it by hand. Looks pretty good, if I say so myself. But then I made a huge mistake. When I went to dump the bucket of dirty water down the toilet, the wash rag that I used to clean the floor went down the toilet, too. Um, is that really bad?

Tooting My Own Horn

I've never been one to toot my own horn (those of you that know me can stop laughing now), but I'm quite the genius. This toy has been sitting in a shopping bag in the storage closet downstairs for a couple of years ever since we lost the instructions on how to put it together. Ryan decided he wanted to play with it and so with dread, I found an (unfortunately small) picture of it assembled on the internet and managed to put it together. And it only took me an hour and a half. I still have yet to figure out how to get it out of the living room in one piece before the toddlers I'm watching get here in the morning. Pure genius, right?

Up Next...

One crazy night in Iowa with Emily and friends tonight. Be back in the morning.