Independence Day

Today is my last day with Mark! I am so freaking happy about this! It will be really nice to sleep in a little next week. JR is working some crazy hours right now, so he isn't really around to help. He leaves the house at 1:30am and gets home around 3 in the afternoon, hangs out for about an hour maybe two, and goes to bed between 5 and 6. We are both exhausted. I had to go to court last night for my tickets. I plead not guilty so I will have to go back in the next month or so. Eh...whatever, just need to get some of the tickets taken care of. I talked to an attorney who said that if I can prove I did in fact stop at the stop sign, then I can get them to drop the other tickets because they wouldn't have had cause to pull me over in the first place. Honestly, I don't want to volunteer to pay money out the wazoo, but I feel like it's cheating. Sure, they didn't have a reason to pull me over, but I am still guilty of not having the kids in car seats. We were only 2 miles from home, but still, I know better, and I feel like a crappy mom - I just couldn't fit all three car seats in the car. Oh well, I did what I had to, that's all I can do. Can't feel guilty about yesterday, it's over - Just gotta do better today! (My new philosophy! LOL) Landry is becoming more and more independent each day. She doesn't want my help for ANYTHING! In a way, it's great, however, it's also dangerous! LOL She only asks me to help her go potty when she is tired, or wanting attention, but for the most part she is doing it all herself, including wiping and washing hands...although the washing hands thing requires her to stand on the edge of the toilet and lean over. DRIVES ME NUTS! I seriously have to by a stool for the bathroom. She also will NOT allow me to help her dress, or put her shoes on. Ughh! Another big move in her independence, is she is completely off the diapers. Last Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, she woke up me up in the night to tell me she needed to potty, so I got up with her, took her diaper off, let her pee, then put a diaper back on. The following mornings her diaper was still dry, so Monday night, she went without a diaper. She hasn't had a single accident (so far)! This is so exciting! My little girl is growing up! I am really proud of her - a whole week. It's been really nice to only buy diapers once a month since she only uses one at night time...but to know that we are done...no more diapers, its over - it's just so exciting! We were supposed to be going to a wedding this weekend. To be honest, I would have done nearly anything to get out of going...turns out - we really can't go, with JR's work schedule, we can't do anything right now. I can't drive yet, so it's not like I can take the kids and go myself. Oh well! I am filing a petition with the county court on Monday to get my drivers license. Ughhh...seriously, this has been such a headache, from the special insurance, to traffic court, to lawyers, fees, it's been an ongoing process, but I finally see a light at the end of the tunnel! Woohoo.

One more week!

I have a bunch of stuff to do today! Yuck. Most of it is making phone calls, but for you mom's out there, you understand how stressful it can be to try to be on the phone with 3 kids running around! On a good note, I have today, and then next week -- and I am done watching Mark! YAY! Another good little piece of news, Amber is done with her class, so she should be coming to pick him up around 2 every day. Of course, I figure she will probably go home and try to pack up some more stuff while she doesn't have Mark to distract her, but still maybe she will be able to get him around 3:30 or 4, but I am still hoping for 2! LOL I am really glad to get this second half of the summer with just my kiddos. It will be nice to be able to take them to the pool during the week, or go back to story time at the library. Or, just not be so exhausted all the time. For the 4th, JR bought a 10 lb. brisket, and smoked it. Yummy! Amber and Mark, and my mom and dad came over. We had the brisket, baked beans, baked potato salad, regular potato salad, grilled corn, and some cupcakes..plus the chips and dip. We sat out in the front yard while JR did a few fire works...JR called the city, but they couldn't give us a definitive answer on whether the fireworks were legal or not inside city limits...we found this incredibly strange. Our neighborhood watch guy came by and said we couldn't do the fireworks anymore...which was fine, since we had just popped off the final one. JR and I decided it would still be okay to let the kids do the sparklers...guess it wasn't. The neighborhood watch guy called the cops. The police officer was really cool, he was laughing with JR, so it wasn't that big of a deal. My mom was freaking out about the cops coming...it was funny. The cop told us if we wanted to continue with the sparklers or if we had fireworks, we could do them in the back yard. HUH??? Confusing right? First, let me say that fireworks were going off all through the neighborhood. Many people were popping them, apparently the cops had so many calls, that they weren't getting out of their cars to knock on doors. They were only stopping the people that were out walking around, kids doing the fireworks in parking lots, or people in their front yards. It was 10:00 when he came by about the sparklers, we decided just to head in and go to bed! My mom and dad even played a couple games of washers with JR and I. It really was a lot of fun! Tomorrow, my mom is keeping the kids for us. JR and I are heading to Dallas to go watch a Rangers game. JR seems to have a special talent for winning things on the radio. I think this is the 5th time he has won Rangers tickets. I have never been with him, opting to let him take a friend or Logan, but I think it would be nice to get away for a day with my husband. Baseball isn't exactly what I would have chosen, but - oh well, there you have it. I kind of wish we were going to sea world again, but maybe we can go on Sunday. I was hoping JR and I could go to Houston next weekend for a friend of ours turning 30, but we can't find a babysitter. His mom is working, my mom is working, and Amber is moving - not that I would really ask her to watch the kids over - night, but still. So frustrating! Plus, I have to go to a wedding. In Iowa Park, which is forever away. Trust me, if I could get a sitter, I would ditch the wedding, but, I do need to be there. I am just not looking forward to a 6.5 hour drive with the kids! Ughhhh Happy weekend everyone!

ups and downs!

I feel like JR and I have been fighting for the last week and a half. I finally just stopped talking to him. 1) It seemed we couldn't get through a single conversation without it ending in a fight, and 2) I didn't really have anything nice to say to him. Obviously there were some underlying issues that had to be worked out, but man I hate when he gets in those moods. He can be so mean, and he twists everything around...which just causes me to be mean. Plus, now that it's all worked out and over, I can't help but think back and laugh at ourselves. We try really hard not to fight in front of the kids, so each time we got into an arguement we had to keep taking time outs because one of the kids would interrupt. LOL Saturday we stayed home...this caused yet another arguement...Gah! JR wanted to get out of the house and do something, so I told him to go. He said he wanted to do something with the kids, I said great, have a good time. He got mad because I didn't want to do anything. I told him we were having a family day on Sunday when we went to Sea World, but I just didn't want to go do anything. He turned it around to say that I just didn't want to see my kids on the weekends! Ughhh. I tried to point out that he can't get mad just because someone doesn't want to do what he wants them to do...he didn't seem to get it. Ughhhh! On Sunday, we went to Sea World. My sister, Vanessa, and her boyfriend, Kyle, were able to meet up with us. They live right next to Sea World, but they work so much that it is hard to get together with them. After leaving the park, I told JR that something really awesome about getting the season passes is 1) they have already paid for themselves since we have gone twice...it's amazing that if we would have paid for single day admission, two times, we would have paid more than what we paid for the season passes. 2) We were there 9 hours last weekend and 6 hours this weekend, and it was like going to a completely different place. Last weekend we watched the Sea Lion show called "Cannery Row Caper", "Shamu Rocks" The Orca show, plus we did some rides, including the "Shamu Epxpress" which is a smaller roller coaster for kids. Logan is actually tall enough for the big coasters, but I am too scared to put him on one...obviously JR or I would go with him, but I'm scared to put him on one - maybe by the end of summer! Then we spent time in Aquatica (the waterpark), the kids got to pet sting rays, then we went to the wave pool, and a splash pad, then a smaller pool with a couple of smaller slides for Landry. JR and Logan went off to ride some of the big slides, then we went on a huge four person tube ride called "stingray falls". It's the only ride Landry is tall enough for, and it is so awesome. So that was all last week, and when we left, Landry was a little upset she didn't get to see dolphins. Yesterday, we went to Aquatica to get our locker. While I went to get the locker, JR took the kids back over to pet the sting rays. They have feeding times, so JR bought some fish and let the kids feed the sting rays. I don't know if we will do it this year, maybe next year - but I really want to do some of the interaction programs. They let you put on wet suits and get in with the Beluga whales, you can feed and pet the dolphins and the sea lions and they have a penguin interaction. They also have a deal where you get into the water with the stingrays....anyway, we might do the begula whales at some point. Anyway, sfter feeding the stingrays, we met up with Vanessa and Kyle and took off for the dolphins and sharks. The dolphins were AWESOME. Again, we bought some fish so the kids could feed the dolphins, Logan kind of just threw it out in the water...he liked seeing them, but he didn't really want to pet them or get too close...I think he saw the teeath and got a little concerned. Landry on the other hand, we were pretty much having to hold her against the wall other wise I think she would have jumped in with the dolphins. She loved it. Sharks came next....basically it's just an Aquarium. But Landry is really into "Finding Nemo" right now, so it was funny to watch her get excited about "Dory" and "Nemo". Next, we went to the gift shop - well one of them, and bought these souvenir cups. We chose to get a Large one, because you can get refills all through the park for $1...BEST IDEA EVER. I think we filled it 3 times! Next stop, The Pacific white sided dolphins and beluga whales show called "Azul" This show was AWESOME. Both kids enjoyed it. There was suynchronized swimming, divers, Parrots flying...some other types of birds, there was some cirque stuff going on with a lady doing the acrobatic dance and trapeze artists, and then of course the actual dolphins and belugas...it was great. After the show, we did a roller coaster, then went to Aquatica for some water play. It was so much fun. Something I should also mention is that the Orca's have another show caled "One Ocean" that goes on through the day - "Shamu Rocks" is their night time show. The dolphins and Belugas do "Azul" throughout the day and have a totally different show called, "The Beluga Story" which shows at 7:30, and the sea lions do a night time show called "Sea Lions Tonight", but during the day have the "Cannery Row Caper". So you can see the same animals doing different shows..not to mentio the 4 different sesame street shows and 4D Pirate movie, and a daredevil ski show. So it is really awesome to think that there is still so much we haven't done. So much to look forward to! It feels like we went to a completely new, exciting place than we did last week! I'm loving it! Can't wait to go back next weekend (hopefully). Only 2 more week to watch Mark! YAY! Plus, I get Wednesday off because of July 4th! Hooray!