Supermom........?

As I am sure all Mom's do, I feel this pressure to be supermom. We all know that woman, hair perfect all the time, so put together, so relaxed, kids so cutely dressed at all times, has the kids at the playground and when they go home, fresh cupcakes are waiting for them. After eating the cupcakes, they go play quietly in the other room while Mom makes a mouth watering dinner. Dad comes in, the kids run and hug him and they all sit down to a wonderful dinner, talking and laughing.......Right? Well, I hate to admit it but that is about as far from our life as you can get. Instead, I feel as if I constantly race this huge clock that ticks louder and louder the later it gets. At our house, Dad gets off first, goes and picks up the kids from school, brings them home, starts on homework and calls me. We figure out what we are going to make for dinner and he either cooks it or thaws out the meat for me to cook when I get home. We hurry through dinner, run up to take baths, read Kylie's books for school, fight them to get them both in bed at 8 and then collapse on the couch before we both start studying or doing whatever else we needed to get done that day before coming home to the whirlwind. Now, we even have a wrench thrown into our hectic routine and that is called Monday night dance class. So now, after dinner, we have to rush Kylie out the door to dance class and she doesn't even get home until almost 8 so we have just enough time to freshen her up and get her ready for bed. I am really glad that she is enjoying dance but I will admit, me and the other "dance" mom's don't have much in common (I know, go figure!). While, I do like my job and what I do, I really wish that I could leave at 4 instead of 5.......this would really make my nights easier, as I feel this pressure to cook and be home when my kids get home, somehow that is what I feel would make me supermom, though I know that is not true.

The crazy thing is Chad and I grew up in almost the scenario I opened with. We got home from school, did our homework and then went outside to the giant playground which was right across the street from our house. Dad got home at 5 everyday, and called us in for dinner. We ran in to dinner but unlike our taco's or spaghetti or crockpot, we had .......get this.....roast beef, real mashed potatoes, real gravy.....on a weekday!! That's weekend food at my house now! The other amazing thing is I don't remember nights going so fast. They seemed like we had so much time and it was so stress free. OK, so maybe a kid's perspective is entirely different and if it is, I would love to hear from either one of my parents ;).

I have talked to work about leaving at 4 but I don't think this will be able to happen. I am not going to push it too much as there are layoffs happening and I need my job if we want to be able to even enjoy taco's and spaghetti...LOL. BUT, the good news is, there are still small moments in our hectic evenings that I do feel like supermom. All it takes is an unexpected hug or kiss from one of the girls and occasionally, Kylie will say, You're the best mom ever.....and though I know I am the only one she knows....who am I to argue with that!!

Cereal Letdown

This morning I opened up a fresh box of Cheerios. At the very top of the box was a toy car wrapped in plastic sitting on top of the unopened bag of cereal. I find it tragic that the cereal manufacturer is robbing children of this memorable expereince. The whole fun of the "prize" in the cereal is the thrill of the chase. I remember my Mom always had the rule...."No digging through the cereal with your hands to find it". That prize would be buried on the bottom somewhere and we would have to keep eating and filling our bowl to get to it. Chad and I would eat more than one bowl not because we were hungry but because we wanted the prize....because in those days, there was no sharing the cereal prize, if you got to it first, it was yours. I can see us now, looking each other in the eye with our sly smiles reaching for the box to refill our bowl while the other one thought the themselves.....please don't get the prize, please don't get the prize. A huge sigh of relief when the prize didn't come. The next one would pick up the box and pour their cereal but would lean it real far in all different directions to see if they could get that prize to surface to the top somehow. There could only be one winner and that person was the luckiest kid in the world for that day as they blew the cereal dust off their prize and figured out what it was. I still remember the magic coin trick prize, I believe Chad beat me to that, it was so cool, you put a coin in and there was a secret slot on the bottom that the coin slid under as you said the magic words.......SIGH, the good old day!!

So, General Mills, Kellogg's and all the other cereal companies out there, Enough of this handing it to children on a silver platter, it is things like this that are making children soft and wimpy. Man up, bury that thing way down there and get rid of the sissy wrapping, a little cereal dust never hurt anyone!!

Snow Daze

Well, the south saw it's first snow storm this year.....if you can call it snow, it was really more of an ice storm. The big difference between here and Maryland is that it is now Monday and the last bit of precipitation happened mid day Saturday and I have yet to see a snow plow. The only melting has been compliments of the sun. Needless to say, schools were closed on Monday which meant I had to stay home. It honestly felt like I was playing hookie with my kids all day.

Unfortunately, it was one of those storms that was too icy and hard for the kids to play outside so Kylie was disappointed. Another one of those "No fair" moments in the tragic life of a 6 year old. She now wants to get her ears pierced again which is fine except for the drama that accompanies this desire. Everything is based around the fact that earrings make people pretty and she just wants to be pretty again.......I am really not ready for her as a teenager, please everyone start praying for me now, I will need all I can get! Though it would be nice if earrings were all people needed, right?

Now for the good news of the week!!! We booked our first ever cruise to the Bahamas!!! The Johannes' and the Jarrett's will be going on a 5 day cruise to the Bahamas in September! I am already thinking of what I am going to wear ;). We tried to talk the Basham unit into coming with us, but with sea sickness being a factor, we will try another type of vacation with them!

That is all for now! I need to post pictures of my jewelry I have made, and will do that soon!

What a crazy weekend!!

As this past weekend was approaching, I had high hopes, the Ravens were playing and it was a three day weekend. Doesn't get any better than that, right? Wrong!! Saturday morning, Chip took my car to get new tires and get the "check engine" light checked out and of course it can't be a simple switch, it has to come out with all of this work needing to be done and none of it is cheap. To make it worse, it has to be done right now because down here in NC, you have to get your car inspected every year!! And if that isn't crazy enough, it has to pass inspection before they will give you your new tag. Now, I can understand emissions test because if your car is putting pollutants in the air, you are potentially effecting everyone around you, but why an inspection? If my rack and pinion is bad, how does that affect anyone else, why should they care?? OK, enough of that. So that was bad news number 1.

We did have a great break that day though! We went to a neighbors for dinner and had a great time, the kids got to play, I got to talk crafty stuff and have adult talk, it was wonderful.

Now onto bad news #2, the Ravens didn't even bother to show up for the game!! They not only lost, they were embarassed! I mean Ray Ray can only do so much and then offense needs to help out a little!!

Sunday, we spent the day running around. Kylie went to the movies with her grandmother and Kiersten and Chip and I took G-ma to lunch and then did some shopping (nothing exciting, just diapers and the usual...). I actually have no complaints about Sunday at all. Went to bed so happy I had a whole other day to spend!!

Monday, woke up and started cleaning when I heard loud banging going on. Being a mom, I jump to the conclusion that the kids are doing something wrong, so I run out of the bathroom I was cleaning, and there are two kids sitting on the playroom floor playing tea party like perfect angels. Relieved, but then confused, I go to the top of the stairs and to my horror I see Jake slamming into the wall. I run down and his eyes are in the back of his head and he is just sausage rolling all over the place and his poor head would hit the wall. I yelled for Chip and we kept his head from hitting and waited till the seizing stopped. When it finally stopped, Jake tried to stand up, but walked completely sideways. Chip took him outside for a little bit and when he came back in, he went to lay down, only to start again but this time it was even worse. He actually bit his tongue so not only was he flailing around but blood was flying everywhere. It was absolutely awful, I have never felt so helpless. After about two hours at the vet, he was released and we have no idea why or what caused it, only several speculations. Kylie was so upset as she thought Jake would never come home (I had a bad feeling myself). Just to show how a 6 year old mind works, through tear stained eyes, she asked..."sniff.....Mommy, if Jake doesn't come home, I am going to be really sad, but I am sure I could feel better with two kitty cats".. I had to laugh at her thought process but am so glad my boy is home and doing well today!!

I know the day will come when he will have to leave us, but I am not ready for that! He has been there through so much and is such a part of the family. Everyone can learn something from their dogs! Take life easy, appreciate the small things like the sun shining through the window, a breeze through a window and rolling in the grass. And most importantly a treat is a "treat" no matter how big or small!!

As usual when it rains, it pours, but I feel lucky nonetheless!

Bittersweet Back to School!!!

Well, this was our first week back in our normal routine and I have not been able to eat breakfast yet!! Here is the normal routine, Chip gets up, takes shower, wakes me up and then goes to wake up the girls, I take a shower and then we all eat breakfast together and then I get Kiersten dressed and her and Chip go on their merry way. Kylie goes upstairs and brushes her teeth and then watches "Imagination Movers" while I finish getting ready. We come down, pack up and go. Sounds great, right!

Here is how it has gone this week. Chip gets up, takes shower, wakes me up which also wakes up Kiersten since she is right in the middle of us with a mound of stuffed animals and blankets that she brought in with her about midnight. She whines she does not want to go downstairs so we put the TV on for her and she watches that in our room while I take my shower. Meanwhile in Kylie's room, a storm is brewing because a grouchy child is dragging her feet and not wanting to wear anything in her closet and an impatient Dad is standing over her watching the time tick away. I get out of the shower, try to get Kiersten downstairs which is easier said than done. If you've ever seen the cartoons where the cat latches onto the end of the bucket because he doesn't want to get dipped in the water, that is me trying to pry her off the recliner and drag her downstairs kicking and screaming. By the time this has happened, I have no time to eat. Then Chip has to come and help me hold her down as she screams and kicks...NO NO!! We finally get her dressed and she is carried to the foyer to get her coat on. Apparently this foyer possesses magical powers, because the minute her feet hit it, her crying stops, a smile appears and she runs over tackles me with a hug and says Bye, like nothing ever happened!!
So now, I am confused, exhausted and hungry but no time for me to eat, so I have to run up get ready and then fight with Kylie over how she is going to wear her hair.....man, she is such a girl!

I am anxious to get back to "normal" whatever that means!! Next year, we are waking those girls up every day at normal time........okay probably not but it is a good thought for now!

Girl Talk

New Years Eve morning Kylie and I woke up and were laying in my bed just talking and relaxing. It was great, we had a day of cleaning ahead of us but for the time being, we were perfectly content to just lay there. I said, hey let's have some girl talk, she smiled real big.....OK! So we talked about our trip to Maryland, christmas and everything else that had taken place over the past two weeks, highlighting our favorite parts. Then, there was a moment of silence........Ummmm, Mom, I thought you said we were going to have girl talk, that wasn't girl talk... I paused....and got a little nervous to hear the answer to my next question.....gulp, Well what is girl talk then. Well, she replied, that is when you talk about butterflies and flowers and stuff. Shew!!! I breathed a sigh of relief. I know that girl talk will not mean that forever, but I am so glad that is what it is now. I am not ready for real girl talk!!

We did manage to get the house cleaned and had a great time with Chip's family playing games. Kylie even made it to midnight. Kiersten, despite a great effort, gave up and fell asleep on the couch about 11pm. You would think, wow, that is late for her, she probably really slept in then. That is what we thought too, but WRONG!! 6am, and she was up and ready to go........Chip and I, not so much. I let Chip sleep about another 2 hours and then I woke him up and begged for another 1 1/2 myself. It is amazing how you can go to sleep feeling so good and wake up feeling so bad.... ;).

We look forward to 2010 and all that it holds for us and our families and friends. Here is to the journey ahead of us and the many stops along the way!

I know, it's about time.....

So much happens when you have two kids, especially two active and semi-dramatic girls, that I thought it was about time I start a blog so that our families and friends can enjoy my chaos and I don't leave people out of my ever so exciting stories! At least they are exciting to me, and that is what really counts, right?

We had a wonderful christmas this year!! We got to go to Maryland to spend time with all of them right before christmas and of course frolic in the mere 2 FEET of snow! Now, had it done that down here, we would still be stuck in our house with no power probably but there, the next day we were bundled up at the Ravens's stadium where we had a blast with Chad and Holly!! We headed back to the south on Tuesday evening and had our best friends who abandoned us for even further south to the sunny state of Florida (we miss them very much but are really happy that they have found somewhere that they love!) come visit us all day Wednesday. Of course, as always we had a great time!

Christmas Eve was chaotic and crazy as present after present piled around us like we were trying to build a fort, you couldn't even see over it at one point. I still have no idea where everything is going to go, I just know it needs to get somewhere soon because I am itching to get the house back in order. For those of you that know me, you know that I can be pretty laid back to a point and then something in me just needs it done NOW!! Christmas day was spent just hanging out in the PJ's which may sound boring but it was a much needed break and we got to spend lots of quality time listening to the girls fight all day ;).

My mom came down to spend the night and watch the girls so we could go back to work (always the worst part of the holidays). She left yesterday and the girls of course miss her. They have now started calling our office/guest room "Na-ma's room". Yesterday I had one of those , wow I am such a parent moments.....My cell phone rings while I am at work, so I answer it and on the other end, I hear Kiersten...."Hi, Mommy........I went poo poo in the potty!", Years ago, had you told me that i would be excited to hear my child announced her bowel movements, I would not have believed you, but let me tell you all day that was some big news right there!!