Cleaning Up Is Hard to Do . . .

Yesterday, M and E provided this little tidbit of entertainment . . .

E: We cleaned up P's room AGAIN.
M: Yeah. We cleaned it up before and they just messed it up again.
E: So we put the Legos up high where they can't reach them.
M: They can only play with them if they ask us first.

(side not from Me -- I have put most of M & E's toys on a shelf above their reach, so they have to ask for them. This is to help them learn to put one thing back before playing with the next. Otherwise their room turns into a disaster.)


E: We want her room to stay clean.

This is where I left the room, praising their effort and trying to stiffle my giggles.

Breaking Up is Hard to Do

It's been coming for a while now. I was less than excited about each week's meeting, but kept our weekly appointment out of loyalty and a strange desire see how things would work out.

I approached each meeting with the slightest bit of dread. Just enough to delay but not cancel our relationship, unsure if I really wanted things to end or if I was just tired.

But it seems fate has stepped in. Just hours before what was to be our final meeting I learned from a third party that this really would be the final episode in our story. Regardless of this evening's outcome there would be no new episodes.

I feel a small sense of loss, but am relieved that the decision was removed from my control. But I am also left with so many questions. We weren't allowed to properly end our relationship. There is no closure. I just would have liked answers to a few small questions . . .

What happens to Larkin now that Tom took her to the water? What about her baby? Is Zura really dead? What about all those pushed into the water? What about the pregnant women -- do they survive the delivery? What do the "babies" look like? Where did the lights in the water come from? Are they aliens?

It's Broken - or Maybe Not

Isabelle got stepped on yesterday at church. It was an accident, but she cried long enough (not usual for her) that we headed to the emergency room. We waited 3 hours before even being seen.

After spitting up her first dose of Tylenol with Codeine, which got her the cute hospital gown, Isabelle managed to keep down the second dose. She was quickly taken for x-rays. A combination of codeine and, I'm sure, angels helped keep her still for the x-rays. She was a real trooper.

The ER pediatrician announced definitively that it was broken, had her food splinted and then sent us home with instructions to follow up with her regular pediatrician in the morning for casting.

Her regular pediatrician concurred with the diagnosis and sent us on to an orthopedic, where Isabelle threw a gold-medal-winning tantrum. She calmed down the instant they began taking off the splint. The orthopedic decided that he didn't see anything on the x-ray that need to be casted. When Isabelle didn't flinch while he examined her foot and was able to walk without signs of pain, he decided to send her home. He said if she isn't running around like nothing happened by next Monday to bring her back. He does not expect to see us again.

Isabelle fell asleep as soon as the doctor left the room. She is still asleep now. We'll see how she feels and walks when she wakes up.

But isn't this an adorable picture?

Timeline of a Monday

12:39 am - crawl out of J's bed where I have been for about an hour because he woke up screaming
12:41 am - crawl back into my bed (no the house isn't that big, I stopped for a class of water)
1:12 am - retrieve J from his bed because he his crying and I'd rather sleep than force the "sleep in your own bed: issue)
1:13 am - deposit J in my bed after pushing The Husband's pillows back onto his side of the bed.
1:14 am - sleep
3:18 am - kick The Husband out of bed to go give P a new paci. Really I should let her figure it out herself, but again I'd rather sleep than force the "sleep through the night" issue.
4:15 am - push J back to the middle of the bed before I fall out of the bed.
5:17 am - repeat
6:15 am - snooze alarm
6:24 am - snooze alarm and then try to convince myself that it would be easier to get out of bed now than to try to get 3 kids out the door in less than 20 minutes.
6:30 am - get out of bed
6:31 am - wake C, realize he has no clean clothes in his closet, continue down hall to wake M and E and find that they don't have any clean clothes either
6:32 am - put away kids clean clothes while kids get dressed
6:35 am - do M & E's hair while they brush teeth
6:48 am - arrive in kitchen to feed M & E. Check C's teeth and send him back upstairs to try again (those darn braces).
6:50 am - start making lunches
6:55 am - recheck C's teeth and take matters into my own hands
6:58 am - kids put on shoes and chose #'s between 1 and 10 to see who gets on the bus first.
7:00 am - close door behinds kids and sit down to check email and blogs.
7:05 am - hear bedroom door open, J is awake. He wants koolaid for breakfast but it's gone so we settle on caffeine free Mountain Dew
7:07 am - continue checking blogs and email
7:25 am - kiss husband good bye and hear P waking up.
7:30 am - get P out of bed
7:32 am - J and P decide they want Oreos for breakfast, I give in because the crying and whining has already been too much this morning.
7:47 am - realize if I go to the gym an hour earlier than usual, I won't have to take the kids
7:48 am - okay this with my Mom (aka Nan) and head downstairs to get dressed
7:49 am - change P's diaper and take of her already dirty pj's (darn those Oreos)
7:50 am - change into workout clothes
7:51 am - pretend to try to fix my hair, realize it's hopeless without at least a shower and possibly a hair cut and give up.
7:52 am - tell Nan I'm leaving
7:53 am - spend 5 minutes trying to convince J that he didn't want to go play at the gym, that's why I'm going early. doesn't work, distract him by having Nan make koolaid
8:15 am - check in at gym and head for treadmills
9:00 am - leave gym (I know it was a short workout, but it was all there was time for)
9:15 am - arrive home in time for Nan to leave for her meeting
9:20 am - get in shower
9:25 am - turn of shower and dry off, realize I forgot to wash my hair and get back in shower
9:27 am - get back out of shower, hear J screaming, run through house naked to let him back in the house (don't lecture me, I don't know how he got out)
9:30 am - get dressed, try to do something with my hair
9:40 am - dress P and J
9:47 am - try to convince J that he does want to go out.
9:52 am - I win, if only because I have the power to carry him to the car.
10:00 am - get hair cut, ahhh I get to sit still for a few minutes. J and P are remarkably good considering the amount of crying and whining we've had this morning.
10:25 am - leave hair-cutting place (hey I have short hair, it doesn't take that long to cut)
10: 45 am - arrive at destination 2 - Home Depot, explain to J that it doesn't matter if he doesn't want to go to Home Depot, we are going. Again I win because I have the power to put him in a cart.
11:15 - load back up and head to restaurant for lunch with the girls. I'm first.
12:58 pm - Lunch was good, conversation was great. Leave restaurant covered in salsa.
1:05 pm - J and I arrive at Walmart (P went home with Nan whom we met at the restaurant)
2:00 pm - leave restaurant with another car for J, the laundry detergant we forgot on Sat and several other things we just couldn't live without including the Frogger plug-and-play game that I wanted for Christmas, but couldn't find.
2:20 pm - home. start this entry
2:52 pm - kids get off the bus
2:55 pm - start C painting his puppet for his book report that is due on Wed
3:11 pm - make hot chocolateloate for M -- still writing this entry.
3:18 pm - have to stop now because C needs to do research for a paper and I want him to be up here when I can be sure he's working.

Are you tired yet. I still have to take M & E to a doctor's appt, attend a Homeowner's Association board meeting, get the kids in bed and watch Prison Break and 24.

A Little Bit of This and a Little Bit of That

In February I photographed the contestants of for a local High School scholarship pageant. A few days after mailing off a re-order, I received a call from the contestants mother. She very nicely stated that she was not happy with the pictures and could I replace them. Of course (and when I looked at them again, she was right they were too dark). Anyway, she sent them all back (now that I think about it I should have told her to just trash them) and now I have them. Pictures I don't need. I can't get a refund from the processing company because it was my fault - I gave them a bad picture and they state right on their page that they don't adjust, they just print what you send them (part of the reason I use them). I know I should just shred them (I'll probably hang on to the 8x10 for my portfolio - it's not really bad, just not as good as it should be) but I just can't do it. But I will.


Conversation with a nearly 6 year old --
M (as she's watching me try to use hem tape on a project) -- What's that?

Me -- what's what? The fabric?

M -- no the thing your using?

Me -- an iron

(No I don't iron much. Truthfully, do you?)



Conversation with a client's mother before a Senior pictures session

Mother - Do you have an ironing board I could use? I need to knock a few wrinkles out of her blouse.

Me - I don't own an ironing board.

(my mother would be mortified. Oh wait, my mother sends her ironing out so she has no room to judge.)



I have been to the gym two days in a row (thanks for asking, April). J and P go to the child care center while I'm working out. Yesterday, P cried when I picked her up after my work out. Today she whined/cried the whole time I was working out. She sat with her back to the door and refused to be consoled by anything. I cut my workout a few minutes short to put her out of her misery. Hopefully she gets the hang of this soon. J, on the other hand, had a grand time.

You Know It's HOT When . . .

1. the air conditioning must run continually to keep the house at a tolerable (but not really comfortable) 78 degrees.

2. the chocolate in the cupboard is soft, semi-melted.

3. the kids are camped out over the air vents.

4. you're tempted to drive aimlessly (yes, even at these gas prices) just to feel cold for a few minutes.

And it's only April.

Come y'all give me your best.

Of Bottles and Gyms

We have run out of bottle liners for P's bottles. Oh the dilemma. Do we take this opportunity to ditch the bottle forever? Do we buy more liners knowing full well that the bottle is really a crutch the parental units in the house and that P, right now, could probably take it or leave it, but in a few months may be more vocal about her need for a bottle. My brain says get rid of the bottle and celebrate. My hearts says keep the bottle rather than be forced to accept the undeniable fact that my last baby is growing up way too fast. I suppose we meet in the middle somewhere -- mourning the loss of my last baby and celebrating the arrival of my last toddler.

Excuse me while I break for a brief moment of silence and a short cry. . . .



Okay, I'm back.

As for the gym, I have joined one! I have gone over to the dark side. But how do you turn down a "free" 3 year membership? (Yes there is a small maintenance fee that amounts to less than $10 a month, but is anything really free anymore?).

So I will now be attending the gym 4 mornings a week. My goal is to get back to my wedding weight.

Feel free to check up on me. I'll keep you posted on my progress.