Baby brother? What?

On the way to school this morning, Logan was talking about the differences between alligators and crocodiles. He went on to tell me that their babies come from eggs. Landry pipes in to say that baby Donald had a egg. I say, yep! That's right, ducks come from eggs to. Logan got quiet, and I thought..."Oh God! Please don't let him ask where he came from." It was one of those crazy, life flashing before your eyes, moments. This thought was on a super fast forward reel as well as different ways to explain this to a five year old mind. Then Logan spoke and I nearly swallowed my tongue. "Mommy, when am I going to get my baby brother?" Ummmmmm. Well hell! Totally not what I was expecting. I told him I didn't know if mommy was going to have another baby and that even if she did, there was no guarantee it would be a boy. I told him he had a baby sister and he would just have to love her with all his might bexause she was probably the only sibling he would have. "What's a sibling?" he asked. I explained a sibling is a brother or a sister. "I just wish I had a brother and a sister." Okay then! Didn't know what to say about that, so I started singing row, row, row your boat! Landry joined in, followed by Logan! Crisis averted...for now! Whew! Last night was Open House at Logan's school. It was actually exciting. His teacher is a 25 year old who is perpetually happy...Usually, super cheerful people annoy me, but as far as teaching Kindergarten, I'm pretty sure it's part of the job requirement. Plus, I would rather my kid have a cheerful teacher than a grump. Plus, when I mentioned that the "color" songs were great teaching tools...but starting to get on my nerves, she laughed and said, "tell me about it" she totally won me over. Logan showed us all his stuff, his cubby, where he sits, his class library (which is different than the school library - he informed us), he showed us all kinds of stuff. The kid is almost reading. Seriously, it is shocking how much he is learning each day! He sounds out everything to figure out which letters go where. It's really amazing. I know this is just the normal prgress of things, but I am just so amazed. 2 weeks ago, Logan came home and told JR that he had to move his chair. JR told me about it and said it was probably connected with bad behavior. I asked Logan, he said he moves during math, but its not his permanent chair. I asked if he got in trouble for talking, he said no, it was just where he sits. So, I asked his teacher last night, and she said it had nothing to do with behavior. She said she likes to move the kids around randomly so that they don't get annoyed with each other through out the school year. She also said that during certain times, such as math, and reading she moves kids around according to their skills. I will learn what those skills are Monday, October 8 whe I meet with her one on one to go over his evaluation. I am really excited to see what she thinks and where he is on the learning curve. I also asked how he was in class. She said he just started coming out of his shell over the last few weeks. She said the first two weeks he was very shy and got overwhelmed very easily, but he's figuring it all out and really interacting in the classroom. Yay!

Doing Better

Today is only day 3 of my gluten free diet and already I am feeling so much better. Usually, I just drink coffee and Dr. Pepper throughout the day and then have dinner as my only meal. This is completely unhealthy...I know. I have never been much of a breakfast person. I can remember being in middle school and eating breakfast and the first thing I would do when I got to school was race to the bathroom. After a while, I just gave up on the whole breakfast thing. If I was super hungry in the morning, I would eat some apple sauce or maybe a banana if we had them at the house, but for the most part, I would just drink a soda to curb my appetite until lunch time. Anyway, the first day, I had a Kefir berry smoothie, the kefir is 99% lactose free, and I had a little bit of stomach grumbling and very mild discomfort, but no sweats, no doubling over in pain, no race to the bathroom! Halleluiah! Yesterday, I had yogurt, granola (I had to switch from my usual kind because it had wheat and barley in it :(, but I found one that is tasty and gluten free! YAY!) and a handful of grapes and some strawberries. Again, no pain! This morning I made the smoothie again, and nothing...no grumbling, not even moderate discomfort. NOTHING! I started thinking...geez, I wonder if this is what normal people feel like? Anyway, we are doing the 17 day diet plan again, because JR has put on some weight in the last two years and wants to drop it again. If you remember he lost nearly 100 pounds 2 years ago. Since then he has gained back about 25...which isn't terrible in 2 years, but he doesn't like it, so he wanted to start the 17 day diet again, and to help me...any recipe ingredient that contains gluten is swapped out for a gluten free product. I will say that on both say one and day two I had one Dr. Pepper, but now they are all gone and I am going to try to go the day without it. I figure since I dont have them in the house anymore I wont be tempted! I usually drink 4-5 a day so, going without them is a little hard. Because of giving up the soda, I have dropped 3.6 pounds already. It could be what I am eating, but I am pretty sure the intial weight loss is due to not drinking the sodas. I weighed myself this morning and was at 131.4. The diet calls for three meals a day plus a snack. I have not yet been able to eat the snack. I think it is because my body is still adjusting to eating 3 meals a day instead of just one and I am hoping to eat it today...but I really dont want to eat if I am not hungry. It's hard enough to force myself to eat breakfast when I am not really hungry. I will say my appetite has increased. Maybe it's because eating healthier has increased my metabolism. Maybe its because eating 3 meals a day has increased my metabolism. Or maybe its all in my head, and since I am not in pain after eating, it is more appealing to me now! Who knows...all I can say is that I feel much better, and I am proud of myself for finally taking matters into my own hands. I can't believe I let myself get so bad. The one thing I am concerned about is that I started a new app that I have heard about from friends called My Fitness Pal. I decided to do it just so I could track what I was eating...kind of like a food journal. the app calculates your calorie intake and I was a little shocked to see I only consumed 1020 calories yesterday. I dont think that is very healthy either, but I am being optimistic that I will increase that over the next week as my body adjusts a little more. I can add another 300 by simply eating my snack, and not every meal will have so few calories. Eventually, I want to get out there and start running again. I used to love it, but my knees dont handle it very well, so I am going to try some yoga for a couple of weeks before trying to run. Plus, Logan started this program at school where they encourage the kids to walk a marathon throughout the school year. So we are going to start walking after dinner as a family. obviously, walking with a 2 and a 5 year old isn't a strenous activity, but it gets us all up and on our feet! I think it will be a great thing for all of us! Before I start any activity though I want to consume more calories. I don't think it would be healthy to start any type of work out right now. The few calories I did consume were mainly from vegetables, fruit, and chicken so it already takes my body quite a few calories just to digest the food. Anyway, so that is how I am going so far, I am hoping to continue feeling good!!!

Fall Television

It's happening people! The end of September has arrived and with it great television. So it's time for some break down...Dancing with the Stars Fabulous, it's an all-star season, so there are so many of my favorites from previous seasons, so this makes it very exciting! New Girl OMG!! This is one of those shows that I feel slighty crazy when watching. I can literally being crying one second, then burst out laughing the next. I am constantly going back and forth between laughs and tears, which actually works out because I laugh so hard that I am in tears, so when I do cry my tear ducts are already in work mode. Seriously, I think about shows that I watch or have watched, The Office, Parks and Rec, Saturday Night Live...even stand up acts, and I can honestly say that no other show has EVER made me laugh so hard. I LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE "New Girl" Two Broke Girls is another show that usually has me laughing. I really like the show, but I would put it in the same category as the "The office" There are some LOL moments, but I wouldn't cry if I accidentally forgot to set my DVR and missed an episode. There are some new shows I am trying out this year..."Ben and Kate" and "The Mindy Project" I haven't watched these yet, so I can't critique them...I will have to let you know. Moving on to drama. Private Practice aired last night! They have a new format going this year that takes you through the episode with each character's own story. I like it. It's new, it's different, but I like it. I love this show. I have heard many people say it's a terrible spin off from Grey's Anatomy (coming back tomorrow!!!! YIKES, so excited), but this show has made it 6 seasons, and I am a huge fan! The season premiere has started with a bang, so I can only imagine what comes next. This show keeps me in tears as well as feel good moments. It's another emotional roller coaster kind of show. Love IT! Parenthood Whew...Love this show. I feel like I spend more time crying than laughing. It is definitely a drama series. There is just something about this show that pulls you in. Modern Family This show continues to win Emmy's, and why not? It is a comedy, but you get so attached to the characters. It comes back tonight, so we will see what they have in store for us this season! Blue Bloods starts on Friday. This is a show that I have not watched previously, but have caught a few of the re-runs and have decided to give it a shot. I will let you know what I think! Elementary This is a modern Sherlock Holmes show that starts tomorrow. I love Lucy Lu (don't know how to spell her last name) It looks interesting! The Good Wife coming back on Sunday! This is one of those shows that JR and I watch together. We both love it, so that makes it really special. Especially because during this time of year, we are usually fighting over the TV. This is when all the shows come back, and it's football season - so you can see the issue! White Collar This one has been on for a bit, in fact; we are almost to the season finale...it's more of a summer show, but I wanted to throw it in there because it is also a show that JR and I watch together. Partners a show that looks interesting, but because I have too many things being recorded on Monday, I am unable to watch it...It might be a computer watch kind of thing. Same goes for Vegas it looks good, but I have too much going on Tuesdays, and I am just not willing to give up a show I love already to try something new...because of this The Voice only gets watched on Mondays. Two other shows worth mentioning that I will probably watch online tonight are Animal Practice and Guys with Kids. I will have to see if they are dvr worthy and if so, do I have the space to do so? Revenge oh, I am so looking forwards to seeing what comes next!!! If you didn't watch the first season, tune in tonight on ABC. They will recap the first season and give a peek at season 2. Totally worth watching! It looks like Revenge has been moved to Sundays! This is really going to mess up my schedule! Grey's Anatomy as I mentioned before comes back tomorrow night! We will finally learn what happens after the plane crash. Oh, the suspense is already killing me. We already know Lexi Grey died in the season finale of last season...so what will happen to the rest of these guys?? Scandal comes on right afterward...again another interesting looking show, but will probably be watched online. I feel like I am leaving something out...but for now I can't really remember! Anyway! Enjoy! What are your favorite shows??

Going Gluten free

Today is day one of my gluten free diet. Please, don't read too much into the word diet. No I am not starving myself, no I am not exercising to the point of exhaustion (or at all for that matter. This is a test run. I go back to the gastro doc in 4 weeks, so I am going gluten free for that time. I have been miserable for a little of 6 weeks straight now. The other night I told JR that I was done. I was either going to have to try going gluten free or I was going to become anorexic. The pain and everything that comes with it was just too much to bear. It got to a point where I was only eating a small meal twice a day, sometimes only once a day. My big push to get started (other than the bathroom issues and stomach cramping) was that I have started losing circulation in my legs. From my calves to my toes I feel like I have ice water in my veins. They are so cold. At night, I have had to start sleeping on my back because if I am on my left side, my left leg goes numb. If I am on my right side, my right leg goes numb. It's ridiculous. I feel crappy all the time. I feel weak, I have no energy. I finally just said enough is enough. This morning I had a Kefir smoothie with strawberries, blackberries, and blueberries. It was actually pretty good! I was really scared though because I don't handle milk very well. Not really how to explain what Kefir is, so you will just have to look it up. I have never had it before, but let me just say...when I poured it into the blender, I was REALLY worried. It reminded me of what curdled milk. Anyway, my stomach is rumbling away, but so far no trip to the bathroom, and no cramps. YAY! Anyway, that's what's up right now. Really hoping this solves some issues. It will be interesting! I weighed 135 this morning. I'm almost 5'9", so I am by no means over weight...but the fact that my stomach is always distended and bloated and I'm always in pain or just very uncomfortable is a little hard to take. My doctor said that I may lose weight in the first couple of weeks, but as long as it's not more than 10 pounds, I'll be okay. All I could think was...GREAT! Now my face will get even more sunken in, and what little boobs I have left will all but disintegrate, but my belly and butt and thighs will still be there! OH, YEAH! Anyway, wish me luck! BY THE WAY...after all that talk about JR and his crazy betting, his friend placed a 40 to 1 odds bet on golf and won $16,000 in Vegas! INSANE...seriously, seriously, seriously Crazy. He placed a $200 bet for JR on the Seahawks last night. So JR won some more money, but we both agreed, that while the ending of the game worked in his favor, he got incredibly lucky the "replacement refs" were so terrible. Seriously, if you are not watching NFL, there is just mayhem going on. I couldn't believe what I saw last night. I really hope they can work something out with the refs soon.

accidents and craziness and learning!

First, I will start with the accidents...Landry has been completely out of diapers or pull-ups since about April. There were a few accidents in the beginning, as expected, but she quickly learned to get up in the night or just hold (I guess). Over the last 2 months, we haven't had a single accident..until Saturday. She peed in the bed Saturday AND Sunday night! Ughhh. So I am washing bed sheets again today. I think it's because she has been drinking right before bed. I usually try to limit their fluid intake after 7 since they go to bed at 8:30, but we got off schedule this weekend and they stayed up late each night. She cried and cried because she was "SO TURSTY." (Yes, I know I spelled that wrong...but that's how she says it.) I am hoping we can get back on schedule and not have any more accidents...I am tired of washing the sheets. (I still can't get my blog to actually show any spacing...I hit ENTER, and it shows up while I am blogging, but doesn't actually show on the post...so until I figure it out, I will just do this to show I am starting a new paragraph!) Craziness...JR is nuts! We booked out Vegas trip for January 16. We are both really excited. We were hoping to go in November or December, but it's too close to Christmas and we decided to wait until AFTER the holidays to go...of course this may have been a bad idea too, since who knows if we will have any money AFTER Christmas, but oh well. The flight and hotel is already booked, so we will just have to work it out. We have been saving a little bit here and there, but now that we know we are REALLY going, we will have to step up the saving. Which brings me to the crazy that is my husband! About a month ago JR went to Houston for a guys get together. The played golf and did lots of gambling at his friends house (with Monopoly money, of course;) wink wink!) JR, apparently got on a roll and ended up winning some "monopoly money" His friend, Brendan owed him $300, and his friend Desmond owes him $100. Well, Desmond still has to send the money, and Brendan is supposed to send $100, but JR told Brendan to keep $200 and place a bet on the Houston Texans game, hypothetically; of course. Let's just say, he won the bet and placed a few more. On Sunday, he got OUT OF CONTROL and ended up betting $450 dollars...his excuse is that is was for 4 separate games, but I said it was INSANE and that he was out of control. He bet $200 on the Texans, and won $100 on the Steelers/Raiders game and lost, $100 on the Patriots/Ravens game and lost and $50 on some other game and lost...so in the end he lost $50, which he says "It's only $50" to which I replied, it had the potential to be $-450. I feel like I am pretty lenient, if he wants to "hypothetically" bet on football games, sure - go ahead...$100 a week, even on the games he bets $200...that kind of stresses me out, but I keep my mouth shut....but $450 dollars in one freaking day....not okay with that. He says I am being unreasonable, because he turned his initial $200 into $600 so he is still ahead of the game...to which I say that he turned his initial $200 into $1000, but it's now DOWN to $600 because he is getting out of hand. His response is, YOU WIN SOME YOU LOSE SOME. He says the whole reason he is doing this is so we will have more money to spend in Vegas...UGHHH It is soooooo frustrating. He makes me feel like I am the only wife in the world that would have a problem with this, that I am being a harpy, bitchy wife, that I am the crazy one for making a big deal about him spending so much. I feel like I am being more than reasonable, more than fair to say, sure go ahead and spend $100 - $200 a week on gambling (when really you could put the $200/week aside and have PLENTY of money to spend in Vegas) I mean, geez. $200/week for the next 13 weeks = $2600 pretty sure that would be plenty to spend in 3 days in Vegas, not to mention the $200 he won in his Fantasy baseball league! Ughhh So, am I being crazy and unreasonable? I don't think so, but maybe I am too close to the issue. Do me a favor, tell me what you think. The kids are surprising me daily! Logan is learning so much at school and I am constantly impressed with him. The do a little 25 minute reading work shop Monday -Thursday each week in school. They do it in groups of 5, so that each kid gets special one on one time. I feel like everything they do is in song, because he keeps singing things. All the numbers have a song, then last week they learned RED, which has a song that goes this the "Are you sleeping, Are you sleeping brother John..." except it goes "R-E-D red, R-E-D red, I can spell red. I can spell red. Fire trucks are red. Stop signs are red too. R-E-D. R-E-D." While I admit, this is cute, and spectacular that he is learning...I AM SO SICK OF THIS SONG!!! Apparently, they learned the song for Yellow and Orange as well, but he couldn't remember orange. I tried to teach him how to spell it, but he said I was WRONG..he was quite emphatic that orange does NOT start with an O...so I gave up. When he was doing the Yellow song, he kept spelling it Y-E-L-L-W...so I tried to correct him and remind about the "o"...he just got mad at me and argued. He said he learned it at school, and I was wrong. I tried explaining that I know how to spell, and maybe he just forgot...but he wasn't getting it, so I just quit trying. He was in tears and so frustrated with me, so it just wasn't worth it. He will learn it at school and his teacher can correct him. Anyway, he has started adding. He gets it a little confused...he will ask, "what plus 3 equals 4?" JR and I will answer, "1." Then he will look at us, count on his fingers, and say "No, it's 7." So we try to correct him...OHHHHH, you mean what is 3 plus 4. 3+4 = 7. He says it the right way about half the time...again, he will learn. Another thing they do, is each day they learn about a different kid. Every practices writing that kid's name, and the child tells the class about themselves. Favorite food, favorite color...etc. Landry is picking up things as well. Right now, she is totally infatuated with the Nintendo DS and Team Umi Zoomi. For those of you that don't know, Umi Zoomi is a kids math show. It's fun, but it's all about numbers and shapes, which is nice because at least she learns from it. We have the Umi Zoomi game for the DS, which is really the only one she plays, so for her birthday we are going to give her Logan's DS and maybe get her a Dora and Barbie game. Looking into some educational games that feature barbie and Dora. We are going to buy a Nintendo 3DS for Logan and one game...then for Christmas he can get the other 3 that he is wanting. JR isn't to thrilled with this plan because he doesn't think Logan should get a gift for Landry's birthday and he should wait until Christmas to get the 3DS...I agree to some extent, but Landry REALLY wants a DS and it wouldn't be fair for her to share...and trust me it doesn't work. They are constantly fighting over it! They do pretty well, I just have to tell them 5 more minutes and then switch and usually they do really well with that...hmmm, maybe I will make them share until Christmas. yeah, I will think about that, it will teach them the importance of sharing...I think I am liking this plan more and more, and really, we can still buy Landry the games, so it's not like she wont be getting a gift. Wow, I think I just convinced myself, I guess writing it out and saying it out loud makes me feel a little ridiculous for actually considering buying Logan the 3DS and a game now instead of waiting until Christmas! SILLY ME! I still can NOT convince Landry that she is 2. She continues to tell us she is 4 and when people ask her, she tells them she is four as well. We always correct her, but she gets so mad and insists she is 4. We try to tell her she will be 3 in less than a month, but she is NOT having it. She says she will be 5! Ughhhh, it's not really worth the argument, but it drives me nuts. She is becoming so independent. She will ask for a drink, but she wants to get her own cup, she wants to open the refridgerator herself and get the drink and close the fridge and bring me the drink. Which means I have to stand behind her and either lift her up so she can reach or just put the drink on the lower shelf and let her do it herself. When we load up in the truck, she want to do everthing herself, she wants to climb in and get in her seat, and put her arms through the car seat restraints AND she wants to shut the door herself...but she cant reach it once she's in the car seat, so this usually causes problems. When we get out of the car, she HAS to get out on her own...no helping her. Really, this is great...but the truck is high off the ground and sometimes it takes her forever which just annoys me when I am in hurry! I guess it's all part of growing up! It's a little bitter sweet. I am happy to see my kids thriving and learning and becoming independent, but it means they need me less and less which is a little sad!

Long, busy week

It has been a long week, and yet, because I have been so busy it seems to have gone by quickly. I worked on my house..did some deep cleaning and now just trying to maintain it. I really was going to paint my bathroom, but I need a few more supplies, and with everything else going on, I didn't get a chance to go to Lowe's. I was going to go today, but I am so sore and tired, that I am going to put it off. I am taking the day off and doing nothing! Wednesday and Thursday I went to my mom's to help paint. Geez! I took the extension ladder with me, and we started on her stair way...let's just say it was quite an experience. There was only one major scare that I really thought we would be heading to the hospital, but I was able to get off the ladder without getting hurt. Afterwards we took a 10 minute break to try to calm our nerves. Mom was laughing hysterically after she finally finished shaking. I was laughing too because I always find it strange when my mother and I have the same reaction to something. Most of the time I would tell you that my mother and I couldn't be more different...but the thing is we are a lot alike in many ways. Anyway, we worked on her house for two days, and I will probably go back this coming Wed. and Thurs. to keep helping her out. We got one room almost completely done! We painted the walls, ceiling, closet, and all the trim. Plus, we removed the carpet. Between climbing 15 feet up a ladder over and over and climbing stairs 200 times a day, my legs are so sore. My arms and shoulders are sore from all the painting and my hands are sore from yanking on carpet! The good news is we got one whole room almost done, plus the big wall on the stair way. We still have the rest of the hallway, the bathroom, another room, and some trim in another room, plus the removal of all the carpet in each room and on the stairs! Monday and Tuesday I will have people here at my house to remove and replace some drywall in my kitchen! Ughhh. I guess I will try to get to Lowe's this weekend and get the stuff to paint my bathroom.

Tonight we are headed to La Vernia for the football game. Right now we are 1-2, losing the last two games has been rough, especially coming off an undefeated State Championship win, but the group is young and hopefully will improve over the season and come back better next year. Today is the last day of week 4 in school (only 8 more months to go! LOL). Logan is learning new things every day. I don't know why, but it surprises me how much he learns and how quickly he picks things up. Last night he was doing addition, which was pretty surprising. I am so proud of him! Well, that's about it! Have a great weekend everyone!

Slacker!

I have been a complete slacker on my blogging! You would think I would have more time to write now that Logan is in school, but that hasn't really been the case. Well, maybe I do have more time, but I have been busy doing one thing or another over the past few weeks! I won't lie and say I have been busy non-stop, because I haven't. I admit that a few days over the past weeks I have done nothing but sit back and read. Of course, with Landry around I don't get to just lay back all day, but still it's been nice to take advantage of her naps and just do nothing! So, let's see...the last two weeks I have put together the play room. I still need to do a few things, but at least everything is put in it's proper place. I finished up Logan's room except for finding some things for his walls to finish up the decorating. His book area is a constant mess, and I am so tired of putting it back together only to have Landry destroy it within 10 minutes. I keep telling her to leave it alone and if she needs a book, she needs to tell me so that I can get it without knocking all the books over. Grrr. Landry's room is alson put together, except for wall decorations. I still need to get some photos printed for my stairway wall. I am so proud of Logan and really impressed with his learning. We all seem to be getting into the routine of getting to school. The first couple of weeks, Logan didn't really have much to say about school and I was really frustrated because I had no idea what he was doing all day. Now, we get a little informative paper every Friday about what they will be learning in the coming week. I love this, because I can ask him about certain things and I am not just taking a stab in the dark. A few weeks ago they learned about the importance of washing hands to avoid tranferring germs. He came home and talked and talked and talked about germs and getting sick and washing hands! It was pretty cute. During that week they learned how to write the numbers 0-1-2 Each number has a little song that goes with it..."make a circle like and O, then you have a ZERO!" Last week they learned 3,4,5 and this week they are doing 6,7,and 8. I was really worried about the number thing because he is a little advanced with numbers...but really, it's great because they are tying together simple mathmatics with writing skills. Over the weekend Logan wrote all his numbers from 0-100 out on the side walk with chalk. Since he didn't know how to write 6,7,8, or 9, he found them in his little math cards. He traced the number with his finger then ran back outside to write it! GENIUS! Last night was his first homework night. He has an assignment folder that tells us what to do. Turns out, we've been doing "homework" since he was still in my belly. Ha! He is supposed to read for 20 minutes every night. This is where I am so stoked about all our books and the large quantity we got from my mom. First, let me explain that Isabella and Isaiah lived with my parents for most of their lives. My mom was an English teacher and I get my love for reading from her. Randi Beth missed this gene. I'm pretty sure she had/has a learning disorder similar to dyslexia, but was never diagnosed. This passed to Isabella. She was and is still behind in her reading so my mom bought a lot of books to help Izzy with her reading skills. I now have all these books, so last night we picked out two of those and a phonics book to read. Logan caught on pretty quickly and I was teaching him how to sound out letters to make words. After we read those 3, we read a toy story book. Landry loves my Buzz lightyear voice! LOL I wonder if Landry will be smarter for getting to sit through all these "lessons" with her brother??? I won't say Landry is advanced for her age, because I am pretty sure she is on a normal learning curve, but it's just funny because she is so much further along than Logan was at her age. Anyway, it's been a pretty exciting time with the kids. Over the weekend, I worked on cleaning house. Not just the normal "pick-up" but more like a deep clean. We had our 6 month inspection on the house yesterday and I wanted to make sure the house was in tip top shape. I can't believe we have lived here for 6 months! Time has flown by. I didn't get everything done that I wanted to, so I worked on that yesterday and will continue today. Yesterday was the downstairs baseboards! geez! It is amazing how much dust, hair, and dead skin accumulate on baseboards..and lets not even discuss what baseboards look like in the bathroom! YUCK! I also cleaned all the doors. Again, amazing how dirty they can be. You don't really think about it when you're cleaning up your house, but all those hands pushing open a door makes for some heavy cleaning...especially with kids! Today I am going to get the upstairs doors and baseboards, and hopefully get my master bathroom painted...HA! 6 months and I still haven't done it. The thing is, Wed.-Fri. I will be at my mom's painting at her house, so I might as well get mine done too! LOL I went and help her paint last week. I feel bad for her...there is so much to do at her house. First, let me explain that (as I said earlier) My niece and nephew lived with my parents for quite a while. My sister and her husband moved in while She was pregnant with Isabella...that was over 10 years ago. At the time Vanessa was still in Jr. High and I lived there too...so it was a full house. I moved out right before Isaella turned 1. My sister and her husband moved out when Isablla was a little over two. Then my sister and her husband got divorced and my sister moved back in with the kids when Isaiah was 2 and Izzy was 5, they lived there for over three years, before my scum of a sister disappeared and abandonded her children. Now they live with their dad full time, but spend a lot of time at my parents house during the summer and on long weekends and holidays! My sister has been M.I.A since May 2011. It's been over a year and half, but it's hard on my mom. For a long time she left everything as it was. I guess we all thought Randi would show back up. Especially since she left everything, but I guess if you dont care about leaving your kids behind then you probably dont mind leaving any of your other wordly goods! At the beginning of the year my mom decided to remodel her room. I guess it's important to state that my parent's each have their own bedrooms. So, mom re-did the floor in her room, painted it, cleaned it out and gave it a new look. Then she started on the upstairs. One room was Randi's, one was the kids room that they shared, and the other room was a play room, which was actually Isabella's room when she was first born. After ten years, that room is still sporting Winnie the Pooh border and decals! LOL You also have to understand that Randi is a hoarder...this isn't a funny comment about someone who just has a lot of stuff...I am serious. My parent's garage is FILLED with Randi's stuff. Half of the playroom is Randi's mounds and mounds and mounds of STUFF, plus her entire bedroom. So slowly but surely my mom has been working through the rooms to get rid of everything. The problem is that she can only go through it for so long....it fills her with hurt, and pain, and anger until she gets consumed by depression and has to stop for a while for her own sanity. She takes a month long break then goes back at it. She has made so many trips to goodwill, it isn't funny, and she still has about half way to go. So, I am going this week to help her remove some of the "stuff" and to paint. We have to get the bathroom done as well, and then some time in the coming weeks we will replace all the carpeting upstairs. It's over ten years old, and with Randi, two dogs, and two kids..plus the age, lets just say - the carpet has to GO! So...that's whats going on in my world! Oh yeah, and We are booking our Vegas trip today! SO wooooohooo!

On time!

Whew, so glad we didn't have a repeat of yesterday. I made sure to wake Logan up at 6:45. All I had to do was say his name. He said, okay, I'm awake. He asked if it was a school day, I said yes and that was that. I let JR deal with Landry...she was in a mood. We all got dressed and went to the donut shop for breakfast...yeah, that's how early we were! JR left for work from there, and I took Logan to school. He got there about 7:25, and was really good about getting out of the truck and getting his backpack by himself. I even got an I love you, mom! I guess he's getting into the swing of things. We have started putting the kids to bed at 8:30...Logan is usually just starting to drift off around 9:30. Oh well...we still haven't gotten past him coming home from school and taking a nap, but - hey, school is hard!

Working Hard or Hardly Working...

There is so much to do around my house. Last week I worked on Logan's room. I am 95% finished with it..just a few more things to do, and I have to re-do the book shelf since Landry has destroyed it. The problem with that is she is constantly getting books out and causing all the books to collapse. I really need to get some book ends. So, on the list for his room are book ends and wall hangings to decorate the room. Also, I am trying to decide whether or not to move his computer up there. I go back and forth on that, because if it is in his room, I can't really monitor his usage, and I don't want him to play on it at night...so, it's debateable. This week I am working on the play room. JR and I got the bunk bed put together last night, so now I am washing all the bedding., and then I will work on getting everything set up. I somehow, have a ton of laundry to do AGAIN! This stuff just keeps piling up! I will admit that 2 days last week, I did absolutely nothing. I mean, of course I took care of Landry, but I didn't really work around the house. Oh well, what's done is done. Friday night was my dad's first football game of the season. We travelled to Llano, which is nearly a 2 hour drive from home. JR and I agreed that if it was a blow out we would leave the game early. JR had to go to work that morning at 2 am, so he was pretty tired, and he was getting up Saturday and leaving for Houston at 5:30. Well...it was NOT a blow out. It was a fun, exciting, stressful game. Luckily we won 27-26, coming down to just seconds left in the game. It was great. The team this year is no where near as good as last year's so I doubt we will be going to the state championship again this year:( Who knows though. There are a lot of things they need to work on, but luckily, the season just began! Saturday, JR left for Houston for a friends birthday/boys weekend. We agreed that he would go Saturday and come home Sunday afternoon. I guess he had fun...apparently he won some money, but then placed a $200 dollar bet on the Texans (Houston) game this coming week. His whole defense is that it's free money since he didn't have it to begin with. If he loses the bet, it doesn't matter because he doesn't come out behind..if he wins, he doubles the money and gets $400. This logic makes some sense..but to me, I would have bet $100 and kept $100...what ever! He had a good time, so that's good. Monday was spent doing yard work and some overdue house work. Today, Logan started week 2. It wasn't a great start to the week, Logan was a little late getting to school! UGHH. I had a hard time getting him up, but once he got up, he was great. We got on the road at 7:25 and got stuck in traffic. Grr...We pulled through the drop off area at 7:39 - there were no teachers outside so I got out and walked him to the doors...which were locked, but luckily another parent was on her way out, so I sent Logan in. Hope he found his way to his class room:( OOPS! They are supposed to be in the classroom by 7:40, soooo obviously he was tardy. Gotta get on the road by 7:15 from now on! Grrr. Oh well, it is what it is!