Life Recently

- I am falling back into my fulltime working routine well. I am adjusting well and the kids seem to be as well. Whew.....

- I registered Sam for preschool...again this year. I had originally registered him for the 2 year class for this past fall but I just really didn't feel that he was ready and with losing my job we really didn't have the extra money....but he is definately ready for the 3 year old class next fall. He will be one of the older children in the class and with him being a boy I don't think that is a bad thing. I am very excited for him but I am going to be heartbroken when I take my baby to school for the first time I am sure. Knowing that we are not having any more children makes him my baby forever.

- Riley will be in Kindergarden next year!!!! She is so excited about going to kindergarden...they are working really hard in her pre-k class to make them all "Kindergarden Rock Stars" next year and she is pumped about next year....may that last! :-) So, between taking her to "big" school for the first time and Sam going to preschool for the first time I am already going to plan on taking that day off because I will probably be a blubbering sentimental MESS that day!!!!

- I have got so much that I would like to get done around here...so much in fact that everytime I think about it or make a list I just want to take a nap. :-) I love naps!!!!! I think more clearly at night after everyone else is in the bed and I can actually hear my own thoughts and that is when I make my lists and get things organized in my mind and on paper but when day breaks I do not have the same clarity of mind, mental motivation or physical muster to get it done. I have always said that my body works better on 2nd or 3rd shift. I wonder if the neighbors would think it was weird if I had a big ass garage sale at midnight???? Probably. Drat!

I better go....the more I type the more sleepy I get and I have way too much to do before bed!

Later Gaters!

Crazy Picture Scanning Fool.....

I have been scanning like a mad woman for the past two hours....here are a few....random.....raise your hand if you were also baptised in a deacon's swimming pool???? Anybody? :0)

(My cousin Laura was jealous because she was baptised a couple of years before by the same pastor in the same church but hers took place in a creek/pond thingy.)

Gonna Be Up To My Ears In Pictures

Our scanner is working again and over the next few days I am going to take on the monumentous task of scanning all of my pictures from my 35mm days. It will take a while but I think it will be well worth it.

I am also going to see if my mom wants me to scan in hers so that we will have a backup of them. They are all so very precious that if there were to be a fire or flood it would be absolutely heartbreaking if they were lost forever. It will also be nice to have a copy of all of those old pictures for my own personal collection and to make copies for my brothers and my nephews if they want themat some point down the road. (I cannot wait to get the ones of my grandparents scanned in and posted. My Paw Paw looked JUST like Elvis in his younger days and my grandmother was a beauty.)

Because you have to start somewhere I decided to post one on this entry. The very beginning of me...when I was brand new.

Later Gaters!!!!

Why Can't You Finish A Bottle Of Water?????

Jamey has a very big pet peeve. I NEVER EVER finish a bottle of water. He will always pick up my long forgotten room temperature 3/4ths full bottles and even chase me down if need be to remind me that I did not finish it. He will also ask me, "Why can't you ever finish a bottle of water?" I usually just shrug take it from him and turn it up and finish it before his very eyes to make him happy so that I can finish what I was doing before he came into the room with my bottle of water.

Let me start by saying I had a really crazy day today! We got up earlier than normal, took Riley to the dentist at 8:00, McDonalds for a reward afterward, took both kids for haircuts, delivered kids to MIL's house, got to work at 11:00, took both kids to Riley's gymnastics class, and a drive thru for dinner.

After all of the normal hecticness of getting home later than normal after gymnastics I got the kids bathed and I finally got them settled for a little quiet time before bedtime I grabbed a wonderful ice cold bottle of water from the fridge and plopped down in the recliner for 20 minutes of rest and refreshment....or so I thought.....

As soon as I sat down and barely had time to take a tiny sip my dog started staring at the back door...that means she needs to go out....she knows how to scratch on the door but will only do it when she wants back in from going out. If you don't hop up pretty quickly she will pee in the kitchen floor sooooo....I set my bottle to the side and hopped up to let her out. I kind of hung out in the kitchen straightening up and waiting on her to reappear outside our glass door, she didn't come back after several minutes so I went back and sat down and grabbed my water. I didn't have time to do sip my water because Penny reappeared and wanted back inside. After letting her back in Sam decided he wanted to watch Thomas the Train for his last few minutes before bed so I jumped up to put in the DVD. Riley came in and asked if she could watch T.V. in our bed for a few minutes before bed so I had to go in there to get all comfy snuggly in my bed. I came back into the living room but didn't get sat down before Riley decided she would rather have me read her a book in my room so away I went to do that. Sam came in and told me that the movie didn't start so I ran back to the living room before I read to Riley to start his movie bypassing my drink totally. I then dashed back into my room to read to Riley. After I finished up the book I came back into the living room and sat back down in the recliner thus returning back to my water. After a sip or two Penny started kicking her food bowl around demanding more food to be placed therein so I popped back up to fill her bowl. I returned once again and sat down for one little second before I looked at the time and realized that it was time to get Riley and Sam's teeth brushed so away I went. After the teeth were taken care of I snuggled Sam up with his blanket and carried him upstairs to bed. After we went through our bedtime routine in his room I skipped downstairs to collect Riley and her blanket and up the stairs we trod. After coming back downstairs I realized I hadn't used the restroom since being home, picked up the clothes, towels, etc from the bathroom floor or cleaned up all of the bath toys so off to the bathroom I went to take care of all of that. After bathroom cleanup/duty I remembered that I wanted to go through some of the bags of the kid's outgrown clothes in the basement to give to a coworker for the children her sister is going to help care for/possibly get guardianship/custody of....so to the basement I went to dig through 5 or 6 trash bags of clothes looking for a specific sizes. After going through all of the clothes I trudged back up the stairs with an impressive amount of clothes to rebag and deliver tomorrow. After baggging them I ran outside and tossed them into my car so that I wouldn't run off and leave them in the morning. When I got back inside I decided to go ahead and get Riley's backback ready for school in the morning including writing Ms. Mary a note to explain that Riley missed school today because she had a dentist appointment to get her crown placed. After taking care of Riley's school stuff I went ahead and picked up all of the toys that littered the living room floor....I don't like to do this right after the kids go to bed because if they hear their toys they seem to think we are down here playing without them....funny. After that was taken care of I went back into our room to change into comfy p.j.s and when I got back into the living room Jamey asked me why I didn't finish my water. I didn't say a word, I just took the bottle from him and gulped it down..........

Damaged Tooth and Vacation

When Riley finished up at Gymnastics Tuesday night she was coming up the stairs to where I wait and took a pretty bad fall up the steps. She hurt her fingers and had a nasty scrape under her chin. She is a pretty tough cookie but she was SCREAMING bloody murder by the time I finally pushed through the other parents that were waiting on their daughters to come up the stairs. After I soothed her it appeared that she only had the fingers and chin injury but now it appears she may have damaged one of her back teeth. She started complaining about her tooth hurting beginning on Wednesday and with each day she says it hurts worse. The way she described her pain at first I thought she may have bit the inside of her cheek or I would have taken her earlier....MOTHER OF THE YEAR HERE!!!!! We have an appointment with her dentist in the morning to see if maybe it is just a painful cavity (I have only ever had one cavity and I don't recall it hurting...I didn't know I had it until the x-ray was done) or if her tooth is cracked or something.....yikes.

Planning a vacation S.U.C.K.S....unless you get to do all of the planning....that would probably be fun. Jamey and I have never really gone on "vacation". We took a few weekend trips when we first got married and we have gone to St. Mary's often but that was just us visiting and staying with his family....no planning really involved there. Planning this trip is much different. We will be traveling to a destination with two small children, staying in a condo (because Jamey decided we were going to do that instead of where I had planned), visiting Disney World and visiting Sea World....both of which require detailed planning in order to not get overwhelmed with choices and decisions once you are there. You don't want to go all that way and spend all of that money just to keep saying to each other "Whadda you wanna do? I dunno, whadda you wanna do?"

I am very excited and even more giddy for the kids. They are going to love this trip...if their parents do not strangle each other during the planning stages. Jamey's idea of "helping" is letting me spend tons and tons of painstaking time planning everything by myself and then he looks everything over before we finalize it and picks it completely apart down the the very last detail. He did have some really great ideas but come on man!!!!!! Jump on board from the beginning if you want to "help"....don't go undoing all of my doing!!!! I am pretty much over my frustration with him from the other night because we are getting to go and we are going to have a blast and that is the most important thing.

Yep, this is why I call my blog Joy's Therapy.....sometimes I need a little therapy!!!!!!

Later Gaters!!!!!

Almost Re-employed....

Since October I have been working for my former employer in a limited/permanent part time capacity. Well, today I had a meeting with one of the owners and discussed me coming aboard on a permanent full time basis again. I will be in a different position than I was before, which is a GREAT thing. the new position has about 1/5 of the stress of the position I held before. At this point in my life I need a job with a low stress level. My family deserves for me to be "free" of work when I am not at work. It is not fair to be with my family physically but be at work mentally and to carry that stress and tension around with me all of the time.

Anyway, I am supposed to get a formal offer letter tomorrow and I guess I will go from there.

I am excited for several reasons: financially I really have to work, I already know the job, love the people, the job is less stressful, good pay, comprehensive benefit coverage, located across the street from my kids school making pick up and drop offs a breeze and did I say LESS STRESS THAN BEFORE??????

New Year Resolution Report

Okay so today is January 4th and I am happy to report that I am doing okay on my resolution list.

Our whole family braved the COLD weather on Sunday and off to church we went!!!! My main resolution is to attend church every Sunday unless someone is sick....and even if someone is sick maybe only that person and/or that little person and one parent will miss.

I brown bagged it for lunch today which is an accomplishment for me. I love going out to lunch with the girls for the food and socialization but today I warmed up my soup....a great day for soup I might add and since I worked and ate at the same time at my desk I was paid for my lunch hour as well!!!! So I saved the money I would have spent and made my hourly rate...double plus!!!! :-)

Another resolution was to do more things that I enjoy and make more time for friends and I am disappointed to say that I turned down an invitation to a girl's night out this Wednesday. (I am sorry April.) The reason is because weeknights are CRAZY enough around here even with me getting home from work at a normal time and being here constantly until bedtime. This week is especially bad for asking Jamey to handle an evening on his own because he basically works outside (I consider a warehouse with no heat to be "outside".) When he gets home after days that are as cold as the days are going to be this week he is wiped out. He wants to shed all of those layers of clothes, take a hot shower, eat a hot meal and bask in the warmth of our house. I wouldn't dream of asking him if he minded me going out for ladies night after a day like that. I was literally only out in the cold for the time it took to walk to my car twice today and that was too much for me. Weekends are much better for me to get away for a few hours or more. He actually enjoys hanging out with the kids on the weekends for me to go and do things...it is just rare that I have plans with anyone...reference my other entry regarding needing a bestie! :-)

I think I have also succeeded in trying to have more patience. Does silently mouthing comments that I would normally vocalize count? If so then I am doing REALLY great with that one.

I have not had a soft drink since December 17th!!!!!!!!!! Man I was really addicted to my daily Cokes and or Dr. Peppers. Being sick for like a week and a half really helped kick my addiction. (That is the reason I can remember the exact date I had my last one. I remember that is the date I got so sick.) I have had an occasional hot chocolate and glass of tea but those have been rare...water and juice all the way for me. White grape cherry cocktail is my favorite for the moment.

I have done a pretty good job at keeping my house clean since the marathon cleaning my grandmother in law helped me with the other day. If a neighbor knocked on the door right now I would not make Jamey keep them on the porch...they would be more than welcome to come on in and that is saying a lot for me! They could even go into other rooms if they so wished and that IS saying a lot.

Well, I guess that is all of the boring updates for now. I was proud so I thought I would share.

Throw an extra log on the fire, an extra blanket on the bed and pull that special someone extra close on this cold winter's night!!!!

Later Gaters!