We're home and random trip tidbits

* We made it home! We left Monday afternoon and got home Tuesday around 4:30PM. The kids were as good as could be expected I guess, although it would be nice if they would sleep in the car!

* No sleep + a lot of car and movie time + high fructose corn syrup from Grandma = crabby, disobedient kids!

* I'm going to have to start taking my own food when we go on these trips. The small town they live near offers NO organic or natural anything and their idea of health food is aspartame laden, artificially flavored yogurt. I am not a food freak, I let my kids eat junk occasionally, after all, they're kids and I think a little is OK. However, I do not like them to eat that kind of food every day for several days in a row and then be guilted into taking it with us by grandparents and husband. I don't want to hurt people's feelings, but I'm not going to let them eat those HFCS filled fruit snacks, so I might as well leave them there!
Plus, that kind of food makes them BAD if they eat it on a regular basis, especially bad when we're embarking on a 16 hour road trip with not enough sleep under our belts.

* Liquid coffee creamer with an expiration date of December 2007 is no longer good, I don't care if you do think those dates are "just a suggestion." Those lumps? That's a bad sign.
Furthermore, ewwwwwww.

* What else are we eating that has had that "suggestion date" ignored? I'm scared.

* We saw lots of family and, in general, had a good time. The kids were well behaved except for our last day and they got to see my sister's girls and some second cousins as well. It was nice to see some of the older family members who might not be around next time we make it. Granny is about to turn 100 so we felt like we should really go before the baby was born and we were unable.

* The kids were lucky enough to see both sets of grandparents on this trip and they were in Heaven. Nothing like some grandparent spoiling!!

*

3 Old Posts

Just for fun, here are 3 old posts you might enjoy while I'm away!

A PAP smear and a toddler
One of the many lessons d was kind enough to teach me in my earlier days of parenting.

The blues
One of my post-partum funks.

Paranoia
I post I ironically wrote only about a month before our little surprise.

Enjoy!

Silent Sunday: My blessings in pictures

20 weeks

Sorry for the cruddy pictures, I gave up when I couldn't get a clear one. Next time I'll use the self timer!

See you next week!

I'm on "vacation" for 7 days so I won't be posting much. I've got a few posts pre-dated so they'll automatically post while I'm gone.





I'll be in one of those brown-ish areas. (AKA the desert.)

Tiger

I feel really bad for complaining about our vet bills yesterday because this morning we had to put Tiger to sleep. He was a good cat, and he was getting up there in age. We'd had him since before we got married and he's been our only cat for most of his life.

It's been a hard day already, trying to explain death to the kids and watching d cry as we buried Tiger in his special spot in the backyard. For the first time in 12 years, I saw my husband cry. Tiger was like his first baby.

It was a hard decision, and he will be greatly missed. He was a loud, hairy, purring machine. He let the kids lay on him, climb all over him and pull his hair without so much as a drawn claw. He accepted our growing family like a true gentleman, although I'm sure he mourned the loss of attention each time a crying bundle came home. He was low maintenance, preferring to lay out in the yard or chase a rabbit or mouse than be trapped in the house.

Tiger with Baby C

In our childless, apartment days, he amused himself with the printer.

d with Tiger.

We'll miss you Tiger.

Way back Whensday, random style

D & I, about 6 months after we met. I was 16. Me at about 4 years old. Excuse the buck teeth. I would go on to have 4 years of braces...

My dad, my older sister, my little brother and me (right). I was about 7.5 years old, my brother was a little over one and my sister was about 10.


Me, on our first home computer. I was 16.

I have nothing to say.

I want to blog but I feel like I have nothing good to say.

I could talk about the cat that is sick AGAIN although we spent $150 less than 2 weeks ago to make him feel better. I could talk about how we're about to go out of town for 7 days and now I'm wondering if the cat will be OK or if we'll have to spend another vet fee + a kenneling fee to make sure he's alright while we're gone.

I could talk about the $600 we're spending today to put new tires on my van and to fix the brakes before we go on this trip. I could talk about the other $500 we should be saving, but instead are going to spend on gas, food and hotel to take this trip that I don't want to take.

I could talk about how our renters didn't pay their last month's rent and how they painted the kitchen PURPLE without asking. I could talk about the fact that they are still living there despite the fact that they didn't pay their last month's rent and we need to sell that house but we can't do that till they MOVE OUT.

Or, I could talk about the fact that I've paid the bills and kept our budget for the last 5 years and my husband thinks that my main reason for not wanting to go on this trip is that I don't want to spend time with his parents.
Really, I just like to be able to pay our bills and eat. heh

See, nothing good to say.

Silent Sunday: My Blessings in Pictures

Beautiful summer weather!

Truthful Tuesday

- I'm exhausted and should really be laying down for a nap. Clearly, I don't know what's good for me.

- I live in Alabama and it's my favorite place, of all the places I've lived. (Granted, I've only lived in 4 states.) I hate it when people cringe or make jokes when I tell them I live in Alabama. Guess what? I shop at Wal-Mart too, it's true, we're all rednecks. ha! They then look shocked when they ask what my husband does and I tell them he's a rocket scientist. Open your mind people.

- The last month, but especially the last week or so, has been incredibly stressful on a personal level. I will never understand why some grown women actually enjoy creating drama. If that's your thing, fine, but stay the hell away from me. Life's too short.

- Did you know that on facebook you can add someone to your blocked list? When you do this, you can no longer see things they post, EVEN on your friend's walls/status updates. It's like they don't exist! Why didn't someone tell me about this feature a long time ago?

- I've promised myself that I'm going to spend 20 minutes on the Wii Fit today. I'm too embarrassed to even say how long it's been since I used it last. Let's just say... I'm almost 19 weeks pregnant and haven't even turned it on since I saw that + on the hpt.

- I had 3 sips of wine the other day. 3 SMALL SIPS, and I still felt a little guilty. Oh, but it was goooood. Then I remembered WHY I don't take sips of wine during pregnancy.
I always want more.

- My sister in law had surgery yesterday and I'm a little worried about her. She is the sweetest person in the world and she's in pain. If you guys could send up a little prayer for her, I would truly appreciate it.

- I've been lonely lately. I have lots of friends, but I think... I think I miss my husband. He's right here. I have got to get on that babysitter thing.

Silent Sunday: My Blessings in Pictures

My sweet sister in law, who is having a birthday today and could also use your prayers!


(ps - M - I hope you don't mind me using your picture!)

Fun Fact Friday

* The kids were right. 100 paperback books strewn on the floor actually DO make a pretty good slide.

* Being a landlord sucks donkey balls and I will never, never, never, EVAH do it again. (Not that this was by choice in the first place...)

* Giving a cat a haircut is not much fun for you, or the cat. Also, I am glad that he's not a show cat, he looks pretty terrible.

* We have an appointment at the vet today, I think the cat has a kidney infection. I would bet $5 that I come out of there at LEAST $200 poorer. Why is vet care so expensive?

* I'm not letting my husband take the cat to the vet for 2 reasons.
1 - He will FLIP at the cost of the bill.
2 - The cat crying in the car on the 20+ minute drive sounds like a better option than staying home with the kids. I can tune out cat crying much better than child screaming, incessant questions, and baby shrieking.

* I'm very irritable with the children's behavior this week. Are they being more bad than normal or am I just more moody than normal? I think we need a break from each other. Actually, I think *I* need a vacation. Too bad this is the absolute worst time to spend some fun money.

* Our "fun" money is actually "second mortgage payment" money. Good thing we don't do much fun stuff, or we wouldn't have any "second mortgage payment" money saved up! I guess it pays to be boring sometimes.

* Do you watch Big Brother? Jesse is back, and I couldn't STAND that guy last season. Also, it's all about cliques this season, which is speaking to my real life in a very familiar, not-so funny way.

* When people don't use paragraphs or a lot of spacing, my mind simply turns off. I can't read things that are formatted in that way! I need spaces!

Attitude

My 4 year old is driving me nuts! He's All Attitude - All the Time, lately. He bosses everyone around! He whines and screams and throws an all out, 2 year old like tantrum when he doesn't get his way. It's driving me KER-azy!
The 2 year old does better with going potty than he does lately! He has gotten soooo lazy about it, and he just doesn't want to do WHATEVER I ask him. It makes me yell-y and crabby.

Then, the next minute, he's all sweet and loving and helpful and the child I know he can be. Frustrating and exhausting.

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The 2 year old is doing well with learning the potty. We're not quite there yet, but he's doing well. We've even been able to have several outings with underwear and no need for pull-ups. We're definitely on our way!

He's thriving with all the extra positive attention too. It makes me realize how much he really needs some extra one on one time. It's hard to carve that out with 3 demanding little ones.

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The 1 year old is no longer walking, but running full speed at every chance he gets. He's pretty laid back, and a very happy guy - unless it comes to food. If you have food and he wants it; watch out!

He's got the ability to swing from happy to seriously ticked off in less than 2 seconds flat, and then back again just as quickly.

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One of the nice things about these ages is that they're all old enough to play together, although the baby does sometimes get left out. The best thing though, is that they all sleep through the night most of the time. About 5 nights a week there are no wake up calls!

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Seriously, we have GOT to find a regular babysitter. It's so frustrating to never have anyone to call when we want to have a date night! We have never used a babysitter who wasn't a close friend or family and even then it's only been a handful of times. (which is why we average about 2 dates a year, maybe...) But, as we all know, the kids are so demanding and we don't get any time together unless they're in bed. And lately, I've been so tired that *I* just want to be in bed. Since it doesn't look like I'm going to convince any of my family to move down here anytime soon (or ever) I guess I should just bite the bullet.

I know there are websites, people I could ask, and services - but how do I get over my fear of having a terrible babysitter?! I don't trust a lot of people until I KNOW them and that is a problem in a situation like this.

_______________

I've been thinking about the possibility of having a girl more realistically since yesterday, it's something I've thought briefly of in the past but never really dwelled on it since I didn't know if it would ever happen. I still don't know if I really believe the test, there's a lot of controversy over tests like this. Some claim they're just a hoax, and some believe in them wholeheartedly. I'm somewhere in the middle.
I don't believe it enough to BELIEVE it, but I don't disbelieve it enough to call it a scam. In any case, that's neither here nor there.

Since I've been thinking about what it would really be like to have a girl, I'm a little nervous. I mean, yay! Cute, girly clothes! Not being completely outnumbered - yay!
But, I know boys. I know boy clothes, toys, etc - it's just a world that I'm very comfortable in. I'd *almost* been thinking that I'd prefer another little brother for my guys.

I guess I don't really know what I want. I suppose that's a good thing, since that means I'll be happy either way, right?

The results are in!

Intelligender review*:
The Intelligender test came in a neat little box with everything you need to take the test. It had very clear, very specific instructions for use. I followed the instructions to the letter, but somehow still felt like I could have done it wrong.
I think when there's a test with multiple steps, there is just more room for doubt. In any case, I'm 99% sure that I performed the test correctly. Somehow, I still don't really believe it though...

The box and website say that it's proven over 90% accurate in laboratory tests, and about 82% accurate in the real world. Those are pretty good odds, but not good enough that I'm going to buy that adorable Banana fish Bedding just yet!

On one hand, the test has given me a little glimmer of hope that it could actually be a girl! I had mostly believed that I would never have a girl, and was OK with that.
On the other hand, if it's wrong, now my hopes are a litttttttle bit raised so that kind of sucks.

My ultrasound is on August 4th @ 10 AM so we'll know then as long as baby cooperates!


* No one asked me to review this product, nor do I get anything from any company for reviewing this product. This is just my opinion based on my one time use of this product.

A few months ago

A few months ago, this silly mommy decided to try to teach her *almost* 2 year old to use the potty. Everything she'd read said that 22 months was the PERFECT time for potty training, but you had to go at it full force. (Meaning, get rid of the diapers!) Her little boy was 23 months, so surely he was ready!

Now, this mommy knew better, but she got caught up in the dream of not having 2 in diapers anymore, and was propelled by the terror of having 3 in diapers in the not so distant future. Despite the fact that his older brother was 3 before he was potty trained, the mommy and the little boy gave all his diapers to his baby brother and bought Elmo underwear. Then we, er... they lived in H*ll for about a week. Then the mommy threw up her hands and said "Never mind!"

This is when another problem arose. The little boy had decided he didn't want to wear diapers, since his mommy had been so successful in convincing him that they were for babies. He didn't want to use the potty either, and, since he had had basically NO success in over a week, the mommy knew he wasn't ready. So, pull ups reigned supreme.

Now, this mommy got pretty sick of buying pull ups month after month. The little boy refused diapers and refused the potty. The mommy stopped asking and just let him wear pull ups with no mention of the potty. The mommy thought she was a dummy for somehow getting backed into this corner.

Then, last week, the mommy decided she would buy pull ups no more. Four months had passed since the first attempt at potty training and she wasn't prepared to push it but she was prepared to either go back to diapers or go forward with underwear.
The little boy was very upset when his mommy told him that pull ups were all gone and he had to wear diapers or underwear. He could chose whatever he wanted, but whatever he chose was IT. Much to his mommy's surprise, he picked underwear!

It's only been 4 and a half days, and there have been failures, but there have been a LOT of successes too. The mommy isn't prepared to say that he is potty trained, but she is cautiously optimistic that they are on their way.

Happy Independence Day!

and Silent Sunday, one day early...

update post

- Remember that mole thing I was worried about? My OB said she had no idea and gave me a name of a dermatologist. Helpful...

- U/S is scheduled for August 4th. A whole month away!!!

- Our renters decided not to buy and are moving out instead. They also haven't given us July's rent, which makes me nervous since they've always paid RIGHT on time before. So, now we're putting it back on the market and hoping it sells.

- I've decided that there is no way on Earth that a large group of grown women can get along without a few cat fights along the way. I didn't understand it in high school and I don't understand it now!

- The dog still smells like skunk. Does that smell ever go away?!