Slacker

I promised myself that when I started this blog I would post something once a week. That didn't last. April has been a crazy month both at home and at work. It has been a struggle for me and my students to stay focused at school. It's been a long ride since Christmas vacation and we were all ready for a break. Somehow we made it and now we only have 4 weeks until the kids take their End-Of-Course tests.

At home, life has been as crazy as a mad hatter tea party. My husband and I have been working nonstop to try and prep our house for the market. We repaired all the broken items I listed on a previous post, steam cleaned carpets, packed up clutter, packed up items we weren't using, cleaned walls, replaced window screens, painted trim, and added a little curb appeal.

Our flower bed was in bad shape. Oh it was ugly. I know I should have done something about it a long time ago but I'm a little scared when it comes to plants. Give me the chance and I could kill a rock garden.

However, I took the plunge and planted lavender foxgloves with ground cover ivy in between each one. It looks beautiful! The storms today made a lot of the flowers fall off but hopefully they will grow back soon.

Now let's hope I can keep them alive......

This month my family also celebrated a very special day. Matthew turned 4 April 20th. Time is passing so fast. I feel like it was just yesterday that Jacob helped me change Matthew's first diaper. Might I add that this was the first diaper I had ever changed.



He was such a beautiful baby....I know all parents say that about their child but seriously he was gorgeous. And he was always so calm. Matthew only cried when he was hungry or needed to be changed.

When I was pregnant with Matthew people would always tell me to enjoy every moment because they grow up so fast. I get it now. My little baby is now a little boy. He talks like a little boy, plays sports like a little boy and next year he will start kindergarten.

Happy Birthday Matthew! Mommy and daddy love you so much and enjoy watching you grow into a little man ♥♥



And please accept our apology for planning your actual birthday party in May instead of in April. What can I say? Life takes over and sometimes when you finally get a chance to plan a party everything's booked for the month.

~cheryl

Mama's Tappin' Out!

I finally hit it. I hit the critical point where trying to be supermom simply becomes overwhelming. It doesn't matter if you are a stay at home mom, a working mom, a military mom or a civilian mom. We all have a level where our full cup of patience spills and then breaks. My patience was gone and I was starting to have a stinky attitude towards everything and everyone. One afternoon my son, Matthew, came up and said, "Look mom! Look what I got for you!".

I'm not sure what it was about the flower but it got me thinking. Matthew was focused on me for at least 1 second while he was picking it and look how excited he was. Maybe I would be happier if I stopped and narrowed my focus back to my children.

Call it what you want; yelling for mercy, screaming uncle, tapping out, giving up, or whatever but something had to give. I realized I can't do it all nor do I want to try. So I made a list of things I could do to help bring my focus back to Nicholas and Matthew.

#1. Do not bring work home: no one benefits from this. I try to get work done, ignore my kids, and then get frustrated when they keep interrupting.

#2. Lighten up: so what if Matthew isn't always playing with an educational toy or learning how to write his name. So what if Nicholas is more interested in eating a flower than learning how to walk.

Just don't take his flower away.

♥I had such a great time watching him. This little man makes me laugh aloud everyday ♥

And it's OK if he wants to play with a DVD as long as it came from Target's $5 bin.

#3. Accept the fact that my house looks like Toys R Us: I quit trying to put the toys up in their proper place every night. It's spring, we're not using the fireplace, let's just store them there. I mean really. They're just going to be dragged back out anyways.

Yes, that's the elf on the shelf. Somehow he's become a permanent part of our living room decor.

#4. Enjoy every moment of my weekend: I finally stopped cramming so many activities into Saturday and Sunday. We usually have so much stuff going on that I get frustrated because we're always running late. Matthew's friend had a birthday party and it was so nice to go and enjoy it without being hard pressed for time.

#5. When I don't know what to say, just laugh: if I'm speechless that means my emotions could go either way. Laughter or anger, laughter or anger. Time to start choosing laughter.

Like when Matthew decided to get into a fight with a bottle of Anti-Monkey Butt diaper powder after 10pm on a work night.

Yeah, I had to keep mentally telling myself to laugh as I was cleaning up the mess. Although technically is was my fault. I should have been paying more attention to Matthew and not Army Wives.

#6. Constantly remind myself that they're still little kids: it's so easy to get frustrated when they don't stay focused, make a mess eating, throw their tantrums, are slow getting dressed or keeping up with you in a store. When it comes to Matthew, I catch myself forgetting that he is only 4 years old.

So every time I start to feel myself lose it, I think about my list. I'm sure it probably sounds lame to others but it's been working pretty well so far. I feel like I'm more enjoyable to be around. And thank goodness for that! I really didn't want my husband to come home to a grouchy wife.

That's right. Jacob's home! We were fortunate that this deployment was so short. I know there will be a time in the future where he will have to go again and probably for a long period of time. But for now our family is together and we are enjoying every moment.

It was rainy and cold the day Jacob's flight came in, but Matthew refused to wait in the warm car.

He was too small to see around the cars so he wanted to go wait on the curb where he would have a better view.

Of course the baby had to wait in the car.

And then we saw Jacob's van coming around the curb

It was wonderful to watch my 2 boys hug

And the feeling of having my family back together is too wonderful for words.

With my new attitude and family back together, I can honestly say that life is good!

The Deployment Gods...Nasty Little Buggers

My husband and I took extra care trying to get things in order right before he left for Afghanistan. We made sure most home repairs were completed, had our cars serviced, got our finances straight and hired a lawn man who actually cleans gutters and bags the freshly cut grass. We felt that life was squared away and hoped things were set up to run smoothly during his absence. Right. I was asking a little too much.

See, there are these entities called The Deployment Gods and they are NOT nice. Oh they are vicious, nasty little buggers that find it humorous to make my life a freaking nightmare while my husband is gone. It never fails, they do it every time!

So this is how they work. They only give you three options. Number 1: the kids will act like terrors the moment your husband gets on the bus. Number 2: anything and everything expensive will break and need to be repaired or replaced. And if they are feeling especially nasty, you might get option number 3: bad kids and broken crap. I know it sounds a little on the dramatic side but I've yet to come across someone say otherwise. Ask anyone whose husband has just deployed and they will give you one of those scenarios listed above. I promise.

Thankfully I was spared option number 3. A double whammy is no fun. However, they decided to bestow upon me their blessing of stuff breaking and needing to be repaired/replaced. And trust me, I think their timing was cruelly calculated. Our taxes are filed, Jacob and I planned how much we were going to put into savings and talked about the new purchases we were going to make. Like replacing our two box TVs. That's right, no flat screens in this house and it looks like we won't have one anytime soon. The tax money will go to repairs.

So here is this list:

Number 1: A tree infested with carpenter ants. Supposedly insurance won't cover us if it falls.

$$ to hire someone to cut it down $$

Number 2: Broken fixture. I'm sure it's something I could probably fix but I won't due to a past experience.

me + metal + live wire = entire downstairs without power + a healthy fear of electricity

I'll leave it to an expert:

$$ to replace a fixture $$

Number 3: stems to master bedroom faucets need to be replaced and can only be done by someone pulling out the toilet, sink vanity and cutting into walls. My husband tried to temporarily patch the problem so excuse the caulking:)

$$ to replace stems inside the wall $$

Number 4: the stems in the boys bathroom also need to be replaced which will require someone cutting into another wall.

$$ to replace the boys bathroom fixtures $$

Number 5: My cat wanted out real bad so she made her own exit.

$$ to replace 1 window screen $$

Number 6: My cat wanted IN real bad. So she tried to claw her way through another window screen.

$$ to replace 2nd window screen $$

Number 7: My cat wanted out again. So she made herself another exit through another window.

$$ to replace a 3rd window screen $$

Number 8: I'm almost done I promise. See that hole in the above picture, in the lower right corner? Yes, as I was taking this picture I heard a plastic plop sound. As I saw the dryer vent fall from the wall I couldn't help but get a mental picture of The Deployment Gods dropping a small cherry on this iced, crumbling piece of cake.

$$ to replace dryer vent $$

Thanks guys. I appreciate this.