The Stink Eye

People are just strange and they get stranger all the time. Today at work this parent dropping off their little one, before she even enters the room, totally gives me the stink eye. Some people would be offended and not continue to give this person the time of day, but not me. Huh uh, no way. In my eyes this is a golden opportunity to get to understand just exactly what their deal is and I don't care how weird they are. The weirder the better, I say. It's like a challenge for me,(how weird is that?) I have to peel back layers on people and let them know that regardless of their bizarre quirks that they are still valuable. That's right, I said it. So what. I'm a softy - I want to be everybody's friend,(not necessarily a bff, however) and the weird ones seems to be drawn to me anyway. So, in the words of the chick that sang that song in the movie Dreamgirls, "... and you and you and yooooou, you're gonna love meeeeee!"

Party of 4

Going to a restaurant with children is a brave undertaking. I am usually proud of the boys, (Matt included) but sometimes if the meal is taking an extra few minutes to arrive true chaos ensues and something is going down, usually some one's beverage.
My favorite thing (insert sarcasm) is when they seat you at a table & not a booth in the middle of the room for every one's entertainment. The tables are always smaller and they put so much stuff on the table, the sweetener box, the ketchup, the salt & pepper & of course no table would be complete without the small booklet of menu items that are already listed on the actual menu. The menus themselves are giant because they have to keep adding more "bad" yet delicious cholesterol inducing items in which to gorge ourselves with. I digress... so, everything that can be removed is set on the floor for the waiter/waitress to accidentally step on as they move around the table collecting the menus. Which is another awkward dining event - the menu return. I don't know why this is, but it's as if when presented with this seemingly simple task we just lose brain cells. Pass it to the person next to you or, er uh no give it to the waiter, oh no er, he's taking someone else's, give it to that person, no now he's reaching for it, ahhhh and done. Now we wait...
Ok, the waiter has brought us new drinks, cool... wait! Oh man he didn't take the old ones. Now we have more crap on the table. I need sweetener for my tea, oh great now I have all this freaking paper everywhere. Mmmmm, the chips and queso.. crunch, munch, crunch... oh great now we have empty glasses, paper and now the boys have dropped queso all the way from the bowl to their shirts. When is that waiter going to clue in that these empty glasses need to be taken? Queso's gone, we really mowed down those chips fast. Waiter is here, he's taking the empty plate but left this paper and the empty glasses! Oh, he's bringing Matt another drink, he takes his empty glasses but not mine. (Is there such a thing as table claustrophobia?) The boys are now asking us every second when the food will get there, regardless that we just stuffed our faces with queso and chips - they're STARVING! Now they are goofing around a little more, moving is never good. My cacophony of "sit still" begins and the moving continues a little more, uh oh and down goes the beverage all over the wrappers and napkins and laps. Cue the crying, cue Matt's growling that they should've listened to their mother, etc and so forth. The meals arrive on HUGE plates that barely fit on the table under good circumstances, need more napkins please, lots more. The waiter didn't bring our meals and now this person that I'm not familiar with and who is not familiar at all with our order is asking if everything looks ok. Well,of course it does and they leave... Oh, wait! Crap, I asked for cheese sauce instead of the red sauce - I forgot. Our waiter returns and asks the exact same question, yay, I can tell him it's WRONG. He's giving me a crazy look, never mind - this is great, everything couldn't be better. Kids eating, husband eating, me eating, and down goes another beverage all over a plate of food. WAITER! I think they should start announcing our arrival as the in house entertainment before seating this party of 4!

Catharsis

Catharsis; Webster's dictionary defines as an act of purging or purification; cleansing. How poingnant this word is for me right now. Writing is one way I purge and maybe I should be purging more often and start up my blogging again. I am a word nut, I have gained this obsession because I like to win at Scrabble, so I looked up catharis in my thesaurus (I have an actual thesaurus, not just the one in the Word program.). it says "see purification", the opposite of purification turns out to be contamination. Really, CONTAMINATION? Beacuse that is how I saw it- CONTAMINATION in bold capital letters.
Such an ugly word, but that is how I have felt and the irony is that when something is contaminated (if not treated) will spread eventually, contaminating everything around it. I will absolutely NOT let that happen any longer. Maybe I should write more on my blog. Maybe I need to get busy and take action purging, purifying, cleansing. I'm not a constant complainer and I know things can be worse but right now things SUCK! (Ahhhh, that was cathardic) Satan has been chipping away at my resolve (as he does with all of humanity), when things go wrong he throws more and more into the pot hoping eventually you will fall away from God. Why would God want all these bad things to happen, right? This is not going to work on me and I sometimes wonder why satan even bothers with me at all, I will only draw closer to God through difficult times. I have become quite stagnant, however, allowing this funk of contamination to envelope me until somedays I find it hard to breathe. Praying, check. Hoping, check. Praying harder, check. Getting up and doing something to purify and cleanse this junk off of me... well, I missed that one. How many ways can I be cathardic? Writing, laughing, crying, reading, exercising, cleaning my house, going over my goals, enjoying my kids, going on a date with my husband, just putting one foot in front of the other so that the contaminates don't have a chance to cling on to me. Get thee behind me satan, I'm leaving this funk back there with you where it belongs.

"Yours to Complete"

I got this one from Grannie Annie at "Fools Rush In" and thought it was a cute idea. She got it from a friend who got it from a friend, etc. If your reading this, feel free to complete the sentence with your own answers.



1.] How come I can never find: My husband in the grocery store. We go in together, and when I turn around he's disappeared. SO frustrating, especially if I have my hands full of something ready to place in the basket and he's absconded with it.

2.] I wish I'd never started: Watching reality tv. I get too caught up in these crazy people's lives.

3.] I wonder why: People text each other constantly even when they are in the company of others.

4.] Mama always told me: How much she loved me.

5.] There's this one thing in my closet that I just can't seem to get rid of: My Hooters costume. YEARS ago I was hired to work there and stayed for 2 days of training. When they told me I would have to debone chicken wings and work out everyday, I didn't return. I keep thinking I'll dress up as a Hillbilly Hooters girl for Halloween.

6.] My favorite guilty pleasure is: Eating alone without my kids around to ask me for a bite.

7.] I always forget to: put my cell phone where I can find it.

8.] I have never: had any desire to water-ski and I live in a state full of lakes.

9.] I'm obsessed with: running and getting in shape.

10.] One of my favorite memories is: Our family vacation last year in OKC. It was just so much fun.

Oldies but Goodies

Tim from Fort Thompson has started a new item for us bloggers called "Oldies but Goodies". I am to find an old post and repost it for any of you who haven't seen it. I chose "Not the Shy Sweet One" because I will be waking my little monsters up again for school soon and will inevitably be dealing with this at some point. It makes me laugh to remember this one, hope you get a smile from it too!






I know why parents lose their minds. I understand how the elderly get Alzheimer's, alert the scientists everywhere! If they can find a cure for their children so that they refrain from throwing temper tantrums and becoming possessed by unseen forces, then I'm sure that mental illness and old age mind loss will be a thing of the past. I'm starting to think that Alzheimer's is really just the parents way of getting back at their kids. (I realize this isn't the case and that it is actually a very serious disease, so don't write me about it... it's an attempt at humor)

So this morning I wake up with the intent that I'm going to actually make breakfast for everyone (in honor that my husband has the weekend off, very rare this time of year). I decide on blueberry muffins, because who doesn't like blueberry muffins? Well I'll try to reenact the morning:
Logan (the 9 yr old) is already awake and peacefully watching Saturday morning cartoons. I let the dog back in and she runs into Holden's room and I go in there because I was afraid she would wake him up.. too late, he's awake! Aw, my precious baby has his arms out to me and wants a hug to which I gladly give him. (sidenote: since he could talk, the 1st thing he has always said to us in the morning is "I'm hungry" ) So I gently pull him from his bed and I'm holding him when the inevitable is said: "I'm hungry". Well, since I actually have a plan for breakfast already I happily respond with "Mommy's making blueberry muffins!"
Holden: "I don't WAAAAAAAAAAnt blueberry muffins! I WAAAAAAAAAAnt something else"
Me: (calmly) "Well, that's what mommy's making."
Holden: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Me: (not as calmly) "Holden, that is what I'm making, you like blueberry muffins."
Holden: "NOOOOO IIIIIII DOOOOOOOON"T!"
Me: (Putting him down and walking out of his room) "I'm not listening to this, you get what you get and you don't throw a fit!"
Holden: (running after me and draping himself on my legs so I can't move) " I WAAAAAAAnt something else"
Me: (Yanking him off of me and sprinting into the living room) "Holden, you can't even tell me what you want and it doesn't matter because I'm making muffins."
Holden: " WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"
Me: (trying to ignore the tantrum but because I have pms I'm getting very annoyed and don't want to beat the child)
I begin to make the muffins...
Holden: "I don't waaaaaaant muffins, I waaaaaaant something else!"
Me: "If you keep this up we are not going to be able to get you signed up for t-ball."
Holden: (immediately the tears dry up and he perks up, looks to his brother who is enmeshed in the tv and is successfully blocking his little brother out)"Brother, I'm going to play t-ball! Brother... Brother..."
Me: "Answer HIM!"
Holden: (turning to me after he was satisfied with his brother's attention)"Please can I have something else?"
Me: "WHAT?"
Holden: "I want to show you."
Me: (taking a deep breath and giving in, why? Because I have pms and I need him to be quiet) "Holden, if you eat something else then you cannot have a muffin later." (I still have to enforce some sort of rule, right?)
Holden: (shows me he wants Golden Grahams)
I finish making the muffins while Holden happily eats his cereal. (or so I thought)
Muffins are done.
Holden: "Mom, I want a muffin."
I walk into where he's eating and only the milk is gone from the cereal.
Me: "I told you no muffin, go eat your cereal."
Holden: "I WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAnt a muffin!"

The story ends with sweet little Holden sitting on his bed in his room to think about how he treats his mother and me enjoying my blueberry muffins as God intended.
Holden still hasn't eaten the cereal or a muffin, so I can't wait to hear how hungry he'll be for lunch.

Oh, what to do?

I don't know what to do today, doo dah, doo dah, I don't know what to do today, oh a doo dah daaaaaay!

I'm running out of things to do with my children! School is starting VERY soon and I want to savor every minute with my kids before we have to go back to the real world. School starting means waking up at the break of dawn, exercising, getting lunches together, getting myself in the shower and getting all gussied up (for what?), waking up the kidlets, getting their breakfast and nagging them to eat and then nagging them to get dressed and brush their teeth. Making sure they have their all their school stuff, making sure I don't forget the car keys (which includes the house key because I don't know anything about getting us locked out of the house). Driving to school, going to work (which is another type of school- preschool) where I teach (babysit) 2 yr olds all day. Picking up from school, which means sitting in a friggin line 3 miles long because too many people live here. Homework (oh the horror!), dinner, clean up, showers, bedtime... and good lord - repeat the next day, etc and so on!
You see, I'm not too good at all that. I prefer the LAZY days of summer... wake up whenever the kids make me wake up. Fall out of bed, make their breakfast (if they eat, they eat if not they'll eat something else later) exercise (if I get around to it) do absoluetly nothing for a bit and then have fun with the kids the rest of the day. Well, we have been busy but it's an UNSCHEDULED kind of busy. Just a few more days of unscheduled bliss and then back to the ickiness of reality.
I really feel blessed to be able to spend time with my little guys and happy for all of it - I just don't want it to end... that's all!

True Friendship

I had the pleasure of going and visiting my best friend of 25 years over the weekend. 25 years! How can that be when I still feel like that teenager that just met her. Her name is Chelle and she is wonderful. I left there with an understanding of what true friendship means and not because we've known each other so long but because we truly love each other. You can know someone for years and not have a bond with them. A true friend is someone who, regardless of what they get out of it, wants the other's happiness as much as their own. Seeing Chelle and her home, her husband and her children made me over the moon happy for her. Seeing how creative she is, sewing and decorating her home doesn't make me jealous... it makes me proud to know her. When I tell people about her and how long we've been friends, they often ask how we managed to remain so close. My answer - because neither of us has any expectation of the other except to just be who they are. We accept each other and wouldn't dream of changing a thing. (We're both pretty cool the way we are!)
Chell, if you happen to get this, thank you so much for everything... food and of course - your company. I love you!