Black out

Larry left his phone home on accident and I almost called him to tell him. lol. That would have been pretty funny. It's like when the power goes out so you can't watch TV and you think... "oh that's ok I'll just watch a movie. Oh no, wait, that won't work. Well, maybe I'll play the Wii. Oh... nope, can't do that. I'll go online. haha... nope. I guess I'll just cook dinner then. Nope...wrong again."

And then you start going too far, thinking you can't drive the car because the power is out. Or can't use the phone. "Will the toilet flush?" It's amazing how dependent we are on our modern conveniences. My poor little brain can't function if everything isn't "plugged in".

Maddy gets all freaked out by storms and I really don't know why. She is terrified that the power is going to go out. I don't know why she cares. I remember as a kid being all excited about the power going out. It's still exciting, except now I do have the side note of worry about when it's going to come back on.

We had a huge storm the other night. Our backyard had a good flood going. We had a few inches licking at the back door. Larry keeps a pair of flip flops on the back porch and they floated away. lol. Not far, but they were out in the yard. On the news they have to show all the damage. People's roof's being blown off and stuff. That's the last thing I need Maddy to see. Gosh.

Failures

I don't know if I mentioned this but I started school on Monday. Yes, this is two semesters in row! Anyways, so both my classes were online. My math class was kicking my butt, badly. I was spending like an hour on each question. But hey, I was up for it. I'm not against locking myself in a room for a few hours and digging in. But 24 hours of studying later I was only half way through the first assignment and I was supposed to do 3 assignments a week. I realized that I wasn't going to be able to keep up. (Notice this is all in past tense?) The problem is that I took the prerequisite for the class in 1997. Apparently I remember very little.

Let me pause that story for a second so that I can remind you that yesterday was Larry's birthday. And he had taken the day off to spend with us. Unpause.

So yesterday I dropped the class and called an adviser to see what she suggested that I take. She of course had no idea what I should take. I don't know why they call them adviser's since they can never advise you. So I figured I better go take a placement test to see where I belong. Turns out I need to take that class over again. I figured as much.

I called my wonderful husband and had him look online and find me a class to take. He found one but it started in one hour from then. Which meant that I wasn't going to be home for cake and ice cream. I had also missed Connor's nap dealing with all this B.S. so we didn't get to spend any quality time together then either.

I was pretty frustrated with the whole thing. I felt like I had failed at making Larry's birthday special because I was so busy failing my class. Blah.

Growing up

Ok, so all that drama about night time diapers and a big ole' Costco size box of Huggies and now Connor isn't even wearing diapers anymore. Grr.. I mean, that's awesome, but frustrating to spend $80 on diapers and wipes and then not need them. But I'm happy that I don't have to buy diapers anymore!!

I can't believe how quickly and efficiently he potty trained. He isn't 100%, he wears pull ups when we go out and a diaper to bed, but hardly ever uses either. It's more for my peace of mind than anything. He wakes up in the middle of the night and calls to me over the monitor that he has to pee. Which is amazing, and kind of a pain. Now if I could just get him into a toddler bed.

Oh, and as a side note: Why do little boys underwear have the hole in the front? I mean really?

And speaking of growing up... I read that tweens are between ages 7-12. What!! I'm going to have a tween?! I thought it was like ages 10-12. I'm not ready to be the mother of a tween.

A potty poem

My sweet little boy is growing so fast.
Diapers will soon be a thing of the past.

We race to the potty with great urgency.
He sits on his seat and we listen for pee.

Tinkles are greeted with a hoot and a holler.
A sticker is placed there just under his collar.

He is so proud of his big boy pants.
He just loves to do the potty dance.

But sometimes play can cause a distraction.
He doesn’t realize it’s time for action.

I ask and I ask “Do you need to go?:”
He shakes his head to respond with a “No”.

A smell fills the air and I see that he's pooped.
I can tell you, my friends, that I've just been duped.

Strawberries

The other day Connor wanted to wear his sunglasses. So in the spirit of togetherness I dug my sunglasses out from the bottom of my bag. They have been buried down there for gosh... months. Anyways, so I'm wearing them and every time I turn my head I smell a terrible smell. UG. My sunglasses stink! So I stick my face into my bag and OMG my bag smells like rotten milk. Which is too bad since I really like that bag. But obviously something is very wrong here. lol. Ever since then I can really smell it whenever I go out. So today I went shopping for a new one.

After my purse shopping excursion we went to Costco. We go there a lot. Anyways, the strawberries were really calling my name. Four pounds of huge beautiful strawberries for *only* $7. We got some lunch while we were there. I swear Connor can take longer to eat a piece of pizza than anyone in the world. We are sitting there and other families are coming, eating, and leaving and we are still sitting there. And he is eating. Pizza in hand, bite in mouth. He takes the smallest little bites. Can you bite off one molecule of pizza at time? If you can I think that's what he was doing. Eating his pizza molecule by molecule.

Anyways, so I'm sitting there waiting for him to finish and people watching. I notice like every third person who goes by has a pack of strawberries in their cart. So I guess I'm not alone there. I hear some lady behind me saying "You can't have a strawberry. No, Carter, we will have a strawberry later. No, sweetie, not now." And then a scream. I look over and there is Carter with a great big strawberry in hand and the cart is full of 4 lbs of loose berries. LOL. I guess Carter is going to have strawberry right now.

By the pool

I took Connor to the pool today. We were hanging out in the kiddie pool. Or the circle as Connor calls it. The big pool is the square of course. Anyways, this lady with like a perfect body comes in with her son. We chat a little and she mentions that she also has a daughter. A 5 week old daughter! I say "Well, you look amazing for just having a baby 5 weeks ago!" And she says "Oh, they are both adopted." lol. Gee, well in that case you just plain look amazing.

So you know that super relaxed feeling you have when you are done swimming. You just want to put your jammies on and watch a movie, still smelling like chlorine and sunscreen. I think they should make a candle that smells like that. I mean, really, is there a time when you feel more like vegging out? They could call it "by the pool". I think I'm going to suggest it to Yankee. Or maybe instead of a bleach smell they could use kind of a beach smell. (whoa... ever notice how close those words are... beach, bleach) That might be better. They could call it "by the sea" or "summer day". I'm just sayin....

Things I've seen

I saw something terrible today. Chipmunk suicide. Poor little guy. Killed by a Camry, rear passenger side tire. Roadkill. :( Happened right in front of me. I saw the whole thing.

Speaking of things I've seen, the other night was so gorgeous. We were getting ready for bed and Larry said he thought it was raining. Which I love to sit out on the back patio when it rains, so when I finished brushing my teeth I went downstairs. It wasn't raining, but it was windy. So I sat down to enjoy it. It was a full moon and there were huge puffy clouds. It looked so cool. There was a huge cloud right in front of the moon so it looked lit from within. I could see the shape of a Pegasus unicorn. And you could see the moonbeams shooing out from around the cloud. It was a like a Lisa Frank drawing or something. lol. I've added the unicorn pic so you can see what I'm talking about here. But it was really neat. We just sat there and enjoyed the cool breeze and watched the clouds go by the amazingly bright moon.

Training

The night time diapers are working well. So yay for that. Remember how I had said that once school started me and Connor would start hard core potty training? Well, we started on Monday. It's been going very well. So well in fact I returned a pack of diapers and switched it for a pack of pull ups. I have that huge box of Huggies from Costco I bought for overnights that didn't work, so I think the 140 diapers we have left from that will probably get us through til the end.

The end! The end of diapers! Wow. I may never have to buy a pack of diapers again. *sniff* *grin* *sniff*

We have yet to have poop in the potty. That one really sneaks up on him. He tells me while he's going, not before. Yesterday and today he told me a fraction of a second before he went. So we're getting there, I guess. It will happen someday.

Maddy seems to be liking school a lot better lately. I've learned not to ask how her day was because she gives the standard "horrible!" response. But I ask her what she did and she goes on and on about fun stuff. So I think she is having a good time. I went to curriculum night last night. I went to Maddy's school and the teacher told us all about what they will be learning this year. It's amazing what they do with the kids. She gave us a list of 100 words to learn before Christmas. And a whole huge stack of addition problems to go through too. Also a form to fill out when we read a book. She is supposed to read 100 books by the end of the year. Which sounds like a lot, but it's really not. We read at least one book every night, so it should be no problem at all.

Dry nights ahead

A few weeks ago I talked about how Connor was waking up wet in the morning and how I was bummed that Huggies doesn't make overnight diapers in size 6. So I bought a big Costco size of regular Huggies in size 6 hoping that would hold him. It didn't.

First we tried to cut down on liquids an hour before bed. Which worked on the days we were able to do it, but it's really hard. How can you deny the kid water? I mean really. Plus if we had been outside at all after dinner it's just down right mean. Maybe even harmful. So it's really not a very good solution.

I finally had enough. He was waking early because he was wet. Sometimes even in the middle of the night. And, you know, I don't really like that. So Larry went on an online hunt. According to the Huggies website they do make a size 6 in the overnights. They listed about 6 stores that carried them. Toys R Us, Babies R Us, Albertsons, Osco, some other ones. Anyways, we look and find nothing. I can't find them. There were some people online who said their local Walmart carries them. But I've never seen them there. And Walmart is where I normally buy diapers. Anyways, one lady said that Pampers size 6 are bigger than Huggies size 6 and work well for the those babies who pee a lot at night. Which is apparently what we have.

Ok fine. Pampers it is then. So off to Walmart I go. And guess what I find? Yup! Huggies overnights size 6!! Yay! There was only one pack so I grabbed it up. So we are set for a month anyways.

Shhh

So far not so good. Maddy still isn't feeling first grade. She thinks her teacher is mean. Which we definitely got the feeling she is stern at meet the teacher night. So I think she just isn't used to that. I feel for her.

She was complaining that Kaleea, Nathan, Jacob, Ethan, and Madeline all got to pick a prize from the treasure box for being quiet.
"I was being quiet!" Maddy said. "It's not fair! I was being very quiet!"
I tried to console her with "It's ok honey, I'm sure you will get to pick from the treasure box someday." Then I asked. "When did you have to be quiet?"
"During our work time." She said. "I was talking to Nikki very quietly!"
LOL!!
"Well, honey, if you were talking then you weren't being quiet."
"I was being quiet. I was whispering."
"Sweetie. Being quiet means not talking. It doesn't mean talking quietly."

That girl! I really hope something happens soon that makes her like first grade. I think part of her problem is that she is exhausted. She's at her dad's this weekend which isn't going to help matters. I hope she gets a nap while she is there.

The first day of first grade.

"Hey sweetie! How was your first day of school?!"
"Horrible!" she said with tears in her eyes.
"What! Why?"
"We didn't do anything! We only read two books, had recess, went to P.E., and did two centers."
"Well, that seems like a lot."

We went over different versions of that conversation about 4 times during the night. I never could pin point exactly what the problem was. I can only make two assumptions. One being that there wasn't enough ceremony for her. I think anything less than a parade in her honor was going to be a disappointment. Secondly, that the day ended too quickly. She kept saying that she hopes today doesn't go so quick.

It's too bad that she had a perfectly fun and reasonable first day and yet she still comes home crying that it was horrible. grrr...

One thing that was frustrating her was that there is a boy in her class that she doesn't like. I guess he has some behavior problems and got in trouble a lot during class. And the teacher is an older no nonsense kind of teacher, so she spoke harshly to him and that bothered Maddy.

I kept telling her that this boy will learn the rules eventually, and that she can't judge first grade by the first day. That she needs to keep a positive attitude. But she cried and said she wants to go back to Kindergarten. :(

Buy three get one free

I am now the proud owner of four shiny new fillings. It was only supposed to be three but one tooth had twins. My dentist is very nice and went ahead and filled the fourth one for free. Awww... He said it was a little one and since I was there and numb he just went ahead with it. What a good guy. :) What stinks is that he is telling me this with both hands in my mouth so I couldn't even say thank you.

School starts tomorrow. Maddy is just a bundle of nervous energy. I feel for her. I would be too. But we went to meet her teacher last night and there are two kids in her class she knows for sure. One was in her class last year and one she knows from the bus stop. I'm sure there are others too. So she's super excited to get back. It's going to be really weird to send her off to the bus stop in the morning. It hasn't really sunk in for me yet. It's tomorrow! I can't believe it. I'm just going to keep typing it, maybe that will make it sink in. It's Tomorrow!

Time Travels

When I was pregnant with Connor I worked til 10 pm. When I came home I always went in to Maddy's room to give her a kiss before I went to bed. I would sneak in and she would be laying there, asleep. All cozy with her bear and blanket. I would give her a kiss and she would wake up just enough to acknowledge me. I would say "I love you." and she wouldn't respond. But if I said "You are so beautiful." or something like that she would always nod. lol. That made me laugh.

On my way out I would quietly close the door and stand in the dark hall, belly out to kingdom come. I would imagine having two kids. Having a baby sleeping in the, then empty, room to my right. It was all ready for our baby, sex unknown. I would close my eyes and try to feel another baby sleeping in there. When I felt like I could really see it, I would walk into the nursery. I would go over to the crib and peek in. Empty. But I knew someday the baby that was sleeping in my belly would be sleeping in that crib.

Nowadays, I don't check on the kids while they are sleeping too often. And when I do I usually check on Connor first. But once in a while I go through the old routine. I'll go kiss Maddy good night and then stand in the hall and picture a newborn baby sleeping in Connor's crib. I'll stand there for as long as need be until I've traveled back in time. Til I'm completely expecting a baby to be in that crib. Then I step in, silently walk over to the crib, and peek in. Only now, it's not empty. In fact, its shockingly full. Where did my baby go? Did I miss it? Was it only my imagination? Because here in this crib is not a baby... but a very big boy.

A girl named Horse

It's fricken hot! Oh my good lordy is it hot. Low of 95 yesterday. Low of 95. Larry was working late so I purposely made plans to run errands in the afternoon, so that we aren't just sitting around here driving ourselves crazy. Anyways, I had to go to Walmart and return some light bulbs and then go to Costco. It was an unwritten plan that we would also have dinner there.

First off, on my way to Walmart I realized it's not very cost effective to drive 5 miles out of my way to return a pack of light bulbs that only cost $2.50 to begin with. But hey, I was already half way there so might as well finish it. I found the closest parking spot I could but I was still melting by the time we got inside. It wasn't a long enough errand to get cooled off so by the time we all got back out to the car I was about to explode. I put Connor in his seat, sun soaking my back, and he says "Where's my cup?" and I have an instant image of it sitting on the customer service counter. But I swear, it wasn't worth the dollar to walk all the way back into Walmart. So I was willing to forgo the cup. But it was extra irritating that this trip that was supposed to get me $2.50 now got me nothing but a soaking wet t-shirt.

So we head off to Costco. I make the rounds and when I go to pay I found Connor's cup in my bag. I was so happy! It wasn't a useless trip. So anyways, we are sitting at our table, pizza in hand, and Maddy and I have the following conversation...

Her: "My friend Autumn's eyes change color."
Me: "Oh, maybe that's why they named her Autumn."
Her: *confused look*
Me: "Autumn is another name for Fall. And what happens in the Fall?"
Her: "The leaves change color!"
Me: "Right, so maybe they named her Autumn because her eyes change color like the leaves."
Her: "You should have named me Horse."

LOL!! I'm sure she would have loved being named Horse. I really missed an opportunity there!

Dreamer

I had a dream the other night that my friend Jennifer, her sister, and her daughter in law all bought a house together. I was there and notice the house has huge cockroaches. But they weren't cockroaches, they were turtles, but they were the cockroaches... if you know what I'm sayin'. So I point it out and Jennifer says "oh, that's ok, we have the duck." And this duck walks over to one of the turtle/cockroaches and tries to eat it. But of course it can't cause ducks don't eat turtles!

Then we are in the back yard and notice over on the side of the house is this fallen dead tree. No leaves, just and old dead tree laying there. But on the branches are tons of the turtle/ cockroaches hanging upside down like bats. We realize this is where they are coming from and Jennifer's daughter in law takes out a red match. (The fact that it was red was very important for some reason) and lights it and throws it on the dead tree. Then everyone goes inside. Which totally freaks me out since they just lit a huge fire in the back yard. I thought someone might want to stay outside and keep an eye on it. Then I notice that their babies are sleeping like two feet from the fire so I go and scoop up a baby in each arm. Then I notice that Connor is there too, sleeping in this white wire basket. Not really a basket, more like a frame. It actually looked like the thing you hang from your shower head to put your shampoo and stuff on. Anyways, so I take the babies I'm already holding inside....

And then I woke up. But I know I did save Connor, even though it wasn't part of the dream

quick updates

Maddy's dr took her off her meds!! Yay! So now we just have to keep an eye on her as far as asthma attacks but hopefully she will be fine. We'll see how it goes.

I almost missed the appointment. I was sitting here surfing, and I read something about it being Friday. And I was like Hmm.... Friday. There's something important about Friday.... what is it? OH! Maddy's appointment! It was 9:05 and her appointment was at 9:20. And I was still in my jammies. I bolted upstairs, threw on the first thing I saw, stuffed a pair of Connor's socks in my pocket, picked Connor up, grabbed his shoes, and ran out of the house. Thankfully, the kids were already dressed or I would have been in real trouble. We made it right on time. It's hard to turn that off, when your rushing. I get to the drs office and there was someone at the desk ahead of me, but I was in super rushing mode and I could hardly stand to have to wait my turn. "Oh My Gosh People! Can't You See I'm In A Hurry... And You Have The Nerve To Be Ahead Of Me. UG!"

Oh, and the microwave is pretty much unusable. I tried to cook some Pizza Rolls and I put them in for 30 seconds. It started beeping and when I looked back it had over 6 minutes on it. It just has a mind of it's own. I will have to start the timer on the oven just to microwave something.

The slow death of our microwave

My microwave is possessed! Last night dinner was in the oven, I was on the phone in the living room, Maddy was watching TV, Connor and Larry were at the store... all was as it should be. Then Maddy came into the room and stood at the end of the couch. I hate to admit this... but I shooed her away. But as soon as she left I realized she had a very odd look on her face. So I get up and go into the family room. Before I can even ask her what she wanted to say I notice the microwave is going. I go over and it's on defrost and has over 4 minutes left to go. I turn it off.

Me: "Did you turn on the microwave?"
Her: "No."
Me: "You didn't touch the microwave?"
Her:"No."

Now, she isn't one to lie so I guess I believed her. What I really thought was that she did it on accident and maybe didn't realize it. That's an awful lot of buttons to push on accident. But like I said, she doesn't normally lie so I just let it go.

So then like 5 minutes later I'm getting plates made for everyone and the microwave just turns on all by itself. I was totally freaked out. So I unplugged it and made the plan that if it turns on while it's unplugged I'm outta here.

This isn't the first time the microwave has misbehaved. Last winter it would get real hot for no reason whatsoever. Even without being used the outside would be hot to the touch. We left it unplugged for about week and then it seemed fine. And I kinda forgot all about it.

So needless to say I'm looking into a new one now. As of this moment we will leave it unplugged unless we're using it, but we're in the market for a new one. Something is not right with it.