This is My Forties

First off I'd like to say that after I posted my Monopoly blog, I won every game HA!  Until today.  We were playing mostly every day since then though.  Noah's getting better, but hasn't won yet and is still not discouraged, which is good. Things going on with Noah:  OK so the kid had something similar to an Iowa test (CogAT in Maryland) and he scored in the upper 97th percentile nationwide for nonverbal reasoning skills, the other 2 categories he got a 50% and 65% LOL!  This means when it comes to manipulation of physical objects, our son is the king.  We knew that already, but it's nice that he tested well and was recognized by others so he can possibly get into better science or math next year... or maybe have different teaching techniques brought to the classroom for him.  In a classroom of 25 3rd graders with one teacher and no aide, I don't expect much.  That poor woman.  However, our school currently holds  awards for their Gi...

When the temperatures are dropping and winter starts rearing its ugly head I start hating water.  I can drink water all summer long and it tastes like a miraculous beverage created by God and his choir of chemistry geniuses.  In winter I feel like I'm drinking medicine brewed by evil goblins that are jealous of human taste buds.  Yeah, I know I'm supposed to have 10 glasses of water a day but it's just so... blech :P  Know what's awesome though?  Coffee.  Hot, delicious, diuretic, dehydration-causing coffee.  It warms me to my core, stops me from snacking all day long to put on winter weight, and it tastes of sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and miracles and fairy dust.  You can imagine why this would become a problem.  Every morning I wake up with swollen hands & feet and aching joints because I'm dehydrated and packed with sodium.  All which could be assuaged by drinking water , but... gross.  Why would you even suggest that...

Any parent who has been through toddlerhood knows that the most amazing/awful things can happen if they're left alone for any period of time. At all. Today was one of those days that reminded me that every toddler is an evil genius. Allow me to recount for you (and yes I took pictures this time). You all know Brennan, 2yrs old, talks a lot, gets into everything. Jamie's son Elias is 2 and a half, ridiculously cute, much quieter, gets into everything. Typical toddlers. When they are together it's love/hate. They incessantly fight over matchbox cars and everything else that can be held in a hand. We literally have a ginormous vat full of matchbox cars, but whatever 2 cars are in the other one's hands are the only cars worth playing with apparently. They snatch then pinch and slap and run and cry and tell and do it all over again. So, they're doing their normal hitting and teasing routine while Jamie and I are enjoying our morning coffee and "getting t...

I find it difficult to maintain my sanity at the end of the day. It always goes the same way... every... single... stinkin'... day. From the hours of 6-8pm I am having the "worst day ever", every day. Lemme break it down for you. All day long the kids are beating each other up, teasing, making messes, all the usual stuff. We get Noah from the bus stop, have a snack, and then the magic begins. It's 6pm, which means I need to start making dinner. It's like someone gave my children a combination rabies/caffeine/pure sugar IV drip. It's always worse when Josh is gone. They act out more and I don't have someone to "tag" for normal referee duties whilst I prepare our gourmet dinner (hahaha). Tristan and Brennan take turns beating up Noah, who makes it a point to wail like the widowed ghost in a crappy horror flick. Then Noah turns on them and starts fighting back and they in turn scream and cry and stomp their feet, taking small breaks to ...

Sometimes I get lost in the blog world and end up hating myself as a mother. I realize most bloggers keep a lot to themselves and won't admit they yelled practically all day at their kids. If they do it's done up with so much humor and sarcasm so it seems more like a joke than the truth. But, dammit I wish they would blog about it. Are we all just these endless fountains of patience and understanding?! We're not... we don't talk about our tempers and the reality of how difficult it is to deal with kids. Maybe if we would talk about it and accept our flaws poor Moms who are freakin' stressed the hell out would feel comfortable venting and confessing and have their patience renewed. Or even ask for help so they don't shake their babies... YES WE DO ALL NEED BREAKS, sweetie. Here... give me the screaming pink thing and go have a drink. Nope we're all perfect mommies aren't we. I wish our lack of motherly nurturing perfection wasn't such a tabo...

Today started off fine. Kids were up at 5am which ended up being good since my alarm clocks morphed into a dream about my computer being stuck on a blue screen, shrieking at me... I tried to shut it down completely, even unplugged it, but the noise never stopped! Noah nudged me awake and I finally heard the alarms as alarms. Brennan was still passed out next to me. He was up at 5 also, but went back to sleep in my bed with me. So... we had plenty of time to get breakfast, get dressed, and get off to the bus stop. No rushing. Wonderful. Great. OK. Up until an hour ago. All of a sudden my power went out AGAIN!!! This happens so often in this neighborhood it just makes me crazy. Fine. I turn it back on ::CHUK:: flips right back off. So I have to go through one-by-one turning off and flipping back on all the breakers to see where the problem lies. The rooms affected? The PLAYROOM and the LIVING ROOM... which means no movies and no internet. I flipped every switch and u...

I've been religiously reading Rants From Mommyland for a month now and this last post had my head spinning with my own questions.  So... here we go.  Five questions for my beloved boys. 1.) Why is it that as soon as the phone hits my ear you go into a major meltdown?  God forbid I talk to an adult for any stretch of time while in your presence.  Most of my friends have grown accustomed to the background screaming, but I tire of having to lock myself in the bathroom to make a business related phone call, which really makes the screaming worse anyway and includes the added bonus of door pounding.  I don't understand why I have to hold your hand or hug you just because I'm on the phone.  It makes no sense. 2.) Why do I have to order you to relieve yourselves when we're at home, but as soon as we get to a store... no no... as soon as we get as far away from the bathroom in the store you suddenly have to "go" or you'll explode?  I have made you utilize...

This is our last weekend with Josh before he goes TDY for a month. I'm mad at him. I know I shouldn't be, but I am. He's just going to up and leave me here with 3 kids, a house, and a dog to take care of alone. I'm nervous and I don't want him to leave. Will I be fine? Of course. I always am... but I want to punch a wall and scream, and maybe kick a few things. Basically I want to throw a temper tantrum because I'm not getting my way. I thought I could just talk myself out of this, but then I realized I don't want to... I'm pissed. We have a lot to do this weekend before he leaves, but I have a feeling nothing is going to get done. Every tiny thing that has ever bothered me about him is bothering me at least ten times worse than usual. Picking up his dirty clothes from all rooms of the house, for example. Or cleaning off his bed-side table since God knows he will never do it himself. Looking at the pile of clean/dirty clothes in his corne...

I've compiled a list of little things that annoy me in any given day. In no particular order. The suction in the trash can that holds onto the bag for what seems like hours. The dust left in a bag of cereal from all the smashed corpses of the nuggets that didn't make it (especially shredded wheat grrr). When you go to throw something away and it hits the lid and falls out of the can instead of making it into the bag. Going to make cookies or some other deliciousness only to find out that although you remembered to preheat the oven, you forgot to buy eggs or butter. Backing the car into the garage to make unloading groceries easier only to find that you didn't go in far enough and now can't get the baby out of the back seat. Getting the bills ready to ship out, but forgetting to mail them... again. Doing dishes yet again. Going grocery shopping yet again. Laundry... again. Trying to figure out what's clean and what's dirty in the hubby's pile of cl...

I was noticing Josh's pay was a little short the past few months. I thought maybe it was because he wasn't getting the hazard pay and whatnot for being deployed anymore. Then it got worse. I got online and we checked his paystubs and saw they haven't been giving him family separation pay since he got back from Iraq. They automatically shut it off, without even looking! But wait there's more! They've been taking $290 a month from him since August, again without consulting him... while he was deployed. He is repaying a debt to the government for a bonus he received when he joined the Air Force. This issue has been addressed multiple times with finance and every person in his chain of command and others... he DOES NOT HAVE TO PAY THE BONUS BACK!!! He shouldn't be punished for transferring to the Army from the AF. It was established by the Department of Defense that individuals like him DO NOT have to repay bonuses for "early severance" of their ...