Trouble on the Frontlines!

I gotta tell you I am getting pretty stinkin excited about having a kitchen again! We are so close, so close, I tell you I can almost smell the garlic cooking now! :-) The past couple of days have been both stressful and exciting as we finally see things coming together. I am going to take some pictures tonight and will attach later. The floors are beautiful, the cabinets are beautiful, and hopefully I will go home tonight to my new bright and shiny stainless steel appliances will be beautiful!

All of this has come at a cost. Bryan and I are snapping at each other like badgers. He threatened me to quit talking to the guy installing the cabinets last night because I was holding up the process then he proceeds to jabber in there for 30 minutes while all the kids are screaming bloody murder at bedtime last night....isnt that convenient? Wear me out! I wont digress into the other "conversations" we have had, but lets just suffice to say, we need to hurry up and get this done for the sake of restoring peace and harmony in our relationship.

On the family front, Cooper has started crawling! That little booger will do anything for a cheerio! He squirmed and wiggled his way across the family room floor when he saw me put one down for Gwyn! Finally he got up on all fours and did this funny little crawl until he was just about there then he collapsed and stretched out to retrieve his prize. Thank the Lord we have another week or so before he will be zooming around like Gwyn...by then we will have most of the construction dust and debris cleaned up.

Gwyn has turned into one of those children who puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, I have fished out pieces of sheet rock, paper, a penny, and a cheerio that was less than fresh out of her mouth here lately...good thing I had a new years "to do" to be cleaner! Ha!

We are loosing Heath to the TV monster. If its not Baby Einstein its Little Einsteins or Blues Clues or Miffy. Whatever the show, he feels like he NEEDS to watch it. I cant wait until I can kick him outside to go play. My kid is not going to be the fat kid who watches TV and plays video games all the time!

Gotta run...

2006 To Do's

So I am calling this a TO DO list because if its a 'resolution' its submarined before it even gets out of the gate. As many of you know in my past life I was a runner. Running takes time, you see, so that was one of the things that went the way of the Dodo when Heath Bar Crunch came along. BUT I have committed to doing the Run Downtown (5K) in a couple of weeks. Now it might be the "Walk" Downtown for me, but if I finish its an accomplishment.

On this TO DO list I have put a mini marathon...this consists of a 5K run, a swim (not sure how long its is but not far) and a bike for 5-10 miles. This is to occur in August. It will be interesting to see how this happens! The motivation? Well without going into too much detail, I have things on my body that are several inches below where they are really supposed to be. That just isnt right and let me tell you, the thought of getting into a bathing suit looking like this makes me want to vomit...so I KNOW it would make other people want to vomit too! So rather than going the MuMu route this summer, I am going to do something about it.

When am I going to train you ask? Mmm, that is to be determined, but Bryan is willing (for self serving reasons mind you-he is a good man, but not a saint) to help me work out a schedule when I can exercise. I will let you know how it goes...I would love to get the children involved when I get a bit stronger...I paid an insane amount of money for a double jogging stroller that really needs to be put to good use. We just need some light when I get home and some warmer weather to facilitate "runs" with Mommy.

Also this year on my TO DO list is get to work on time, try to be cleaner (not actually me but my desk/home...I DO shower regularly! :-), cook more (I damn well will have to after making this 40K kitchen!) and hold my children more. This last one is interesting because when you have 3 children...they all want you to hold them so you dont hold anyone so they dont get jealous...its really not a good thing. There it is in black and white.

Would love to hear what some of your new years resolutions are...please use the comments link below!

xoxox

Making a liar out of us...

First of all I have to say THE CABINETS ARE HERE! Ya hoo! Whoever the patron saint of cabinets is...he/she has it goin' on my friend! Ask and you shall receive! All that said, we still wont be able to put them in until we get the floors done, but at least we know they are shacked up in our carport waiting on us to go in their special little place in my kitchen. :-)

OK, about the lying thing...This has happened to us a couple of times and its getting quite funny. Bryan was at my SIL house bragging about how Heath has not worn a diaper in several weeks and how he is doing great. Bryan walks up stairs to get Heath and he is standing there with wet pants and says "I had to go potty" Great job, Heath, great job.

In my below blog I bitched and moaned about the "party" at night. Well the party is over, my friend because Gwyn has been sleeping through and Cooper has been waking up one time for a diminishing bottle (6 oz, then 4oz and now we are down to 2 oz) then goes right back to sleep. Projected full nights sleep with no getting up is in a week. Hallaleuiah! I am convinced I will have to lock Heath in his room...I put that booger back in his bed 2 times last night and woke up with a hand flung over my face this morning at 6am. He is sneaky, that one is!

You know, I dont think I am the best parent in the world by a longshot, but one thing that would be nice is for my kids to not make me a liar! If thats the case then I am going to walk around talking about how awful they are so they can prove me wrong! I can play that reverse psychology crap with the best of them! "Heath, DONT take your plate to the sink! Dont you do it!" That is the best way in the world to get them to do what you want, dont I know it.

I have to say Heath has been unusually sweet and talkative. He has voiced concerns over Lions being in his room or coming into house at night. Hopefully our conversations on where Lions tend to live (far away/Africa or the Zoo) cleared that little issue up. Then he has been stating that only Mommys and Daddys can drive, that he cant drive until 'later'. While that is a true observation, I am thinking that 'later' is a lot sooner to him than it really is...not sure his mind can grasp he has (gulp) 13 years to go. Lastly, we have been struggling over the TV lately. He states that its "his turn" when he feels like he needs to see Blues Clues or Little Einsteins. While I am all about the 'turn' thing at school or with his brother and sister, how do I explain that parents trump the whole "turn" concept by virtue of the checkbook and paying for the TV, cable, food on the table, etc. That conversation is coming, soon.

The plan is to move out January 27th for 3 or 4 days. The sad thing is after January 18th we will have nothing but a sink in the kitchen...I think we might try to move the fridge to the hallway. Microwave will go in the bathroom. Nice. BUT come Feb 1st we should be in good shape. I will post pics of course! Until then!

XOXO,

Those Little Gifts from God....WHATEVER!

This is a cruel joke...When looking at this pic of Gwyn you might say..."Oh, what a little angel," or as one lady here at work said, "What a little gift from God." Well let me tell you what this gift from God did last night and see if you agree.

It really became a joke around 2:30 am...Gwyn went to bed at 8pm and proceeded to wake up at 9:30, 11, 12:20, 1:05, 2:10, 2:30 (am mind you!), 2:45, 3:22, 4:20, and after that I lost count b/c Bryan took over and took her into the den to sleep on the floor. Our house has turned into a regular party at night with various sundry family members joining us in our bed at various times in the night. I will wake up with one or two kids in bed with me...put them back in their own beds and wake up an hour later to attend to a screaming baby and find that Heath is wedged in between Bryan and I. Heath has a tendency to dig his feet into your side or legs while he is sleeping which doesn't bother me at all (because I do/did it too) but makes Bryan crazy. I digress.

Anyway...its really getting out of hand. We have blamed it on teeth, or illness which we have had our fair share of...but now its just getting down right ridiculous. So, what do we do? Resort to drugs of course! A nurse suggested we give them Benedryl and that might help them sleep...whatever, it makes my children crack babies that are climbing the walls. Another nurse suggested Robotussin DM which Gwyn got a dose of last night and from the above discussion, you see what happened.

One of the (many) problems with having 3 children is not being willing to let someone "cry it out" until they fall asleep b/c that wakes everyone else up. We had to do this with Heath a few times and it really worked but was sort of hard to do. Now we are down to two options...duct tape or earplugs. Will let you know which one we go with.

On another note...Heath gave his Mommy the best Christmas present EVER...no more diapers! We potty trained him over the 4 day weekend and he has done amazingly well...That's not just a Mom talking, either, his teachers are really impressed. I could take credit for it but he really made the decision he wasn't wearing diapers anymore and we just facilitated that decision with asking him if he had to go potty every 5 minutes for 4 days until he got the picture.

Also, Gwyn started crawling a couple of days before Christmas. She is on the move and like a new puppy is hot on our heals if we leave the room. She will not be left alone if she has to learn to crawl to prevent it from happening! So much for buying a nice big house to "have more room in" Gwyn would have been happy in a studio apartment where she can see us at all times!

Cooper is...well Cooper. He hasn't offered to crawl, loves to eat, has had a cold, usually in good spirits and has a new found love for rough housing with Daddy and big brother Heath. Its amazing how happy little boys can be rolling around on the floor with their Dad.

On the house front we have found out we will probably have to move into an extended stay place for a week for them to finish. Its a long story that I don't want to go into here, but they want to go ahead and tear out the old kitchen so they can put up sheet rock and put in and refinish the hard wood floor in there and redo the adjoining hardwoods so they will somewhat match. At this point I just want it over with. Cabinets are to arrive the week of Jan 19th so if there is a patron saint of cabinents here is my little offering of prayer that they come early!

Lastly, Bryan moved up a step with his businesses and got some office space. He has been working out of our home and toying with this idea since we had the twins. He got an offer of space that he couldn't refuse and learned he could expense it (key point in the choice to do this if any of you know how cheap Bryan is!) so there you have it. The projection of part time working for me is June. It was going to be last June but lets not go there either. The goal is to make Bob Jones tuition for the children so they have a place to go during the day if we need it, but they will hang out with me a lot more. Will let you know how that is going.

Well that is enough for now...I am bordering on boring right now. Hope all is well and Happy 2006!