HAPPY HALLOWEEN

All that work, and the to-do list is no smaller.

I am soooo tired. I was ready for bed at about 3 p.m. today. Here was my day.

wake up at 7 a.m.
feed baby
wake kids
feed kids
change baby
take kids to school (8:30 a.m.)
feed, bathe, change baby over and over (except the bath, just one of those)
fold 4 loads of laundry that have been sitting on my couch all week
make and eat lunch
walk around park with baby while simultaneously calling insurance and doc offices to find an orthopaedic specialist that they cover (1 p.m.)
visit hospital to see about picking up x-rays
shop for dinner fixings
park and feed baby outside kids' school
pick up kids (3 p.m.)
help kids with homework
load up kids and go pick up new baby swing
reassemble old swing to prepare to give it away
finish helping kids with homework
make dinner (biscuits and sausage gravy...yum!)
eat fast and take Tiny to church activity (6:30 p.m.)
pick up visiting partner and visit with two ladies from church
come home and feed baby
go to grocery store for dinner fixings for dinner guests tomorrow
come home, feed baby and put him to sleep
plop down on couch with heavy eyelids, weary head, and a desire to not move again (and it's 9:47 p.m.)

I'm tired. And the next couple days will not slow down much. Tomorrow, I have to drop off Mister at school, take Tiny and Little Man to the hospital to pick up the x-rays, and then take Tiny to her orthopaedic appointment...all before 9:30 a.m. Pick up the kids at 3, pop the lasagna in the oven at 4, and have dinner guests at 5. Did I mention that the house is a mess and will need to be cleaned sometime before dinner? At 6, the kids' school Halloween carnival starts and they will need to be in costume. Friday night, trick or treating. Saturday night, H and I get to dine with some of the loveliest friends a girl could ask for and their wonderful husbands/fiancee at a bbq steakhouse. Oh, I'm sooo looking forward to that. Maybe I'll be able to breathe again on Sunday. Here's hoping.

I know that the long list of my day is a bit dull to read, but I think it helps me to see that even though I don't think I accomplished anything, it's evident that I ran my butt off today. I wish all of the above would burn calories like the walk did. Then I'd be in great shape in a matter of days.

A Halloween Quickie

As I speak (type?), there are art supplies all over the living room floor, laundry covering the couch, and pumpkin guts and seed all over the dining room. Welcome to my life. It's an exhaustive to-do list, a neverending "before" with rarely an "after". But at times like these, I force myself to think of the good parts of it all. My kids are happy and healthy enough to make a pumpkin mess, that's half the fun anyway. They are creative and always looking for something crafty to do. And we have the electricity and water to wash clothes clean and wear them each day, even if they are slightly wrinkled.

As you might have surmised, the kids got to carve pumpkins tonight. They sketched their own designs and then carved away. Tiny's is pretty traditional and Mister's is a bit avant garde.

Even Little Man got in on the action when H gave him a spoon.

I laughed so hard when I saw this. He's getting good at gripping things and also managing to get them into his mouth.

This weekend, we attended the fall carnival at church. All the kids were dressed up, and a few of the adults too.

Better be off...Little Man is paging me. Good night.

Tiny's not so tiny break.

Tiny broke her arm today at church. The kids were playing up on the stage in the auditorium and slippery dress shoes + slippery wood floor = Tiny falling down hard. I saw her crying quietly and showing her arm to Mister. I figured that she might have squished her finger in a door or something. But she told me about her fall and said that something popped in her arm. Looking down on her arm, I didn't really notice anything strange but she insisted that it was crooked. So, H and I looked at it, this time from another angle, and sure enough, it was bowed on the bottom of her forearm. We headed to the ER and had it x-rayed. While waiting for the doctor, her and Mister watched "The Addams Family Values" on tv and snacked. She was doing much better and said it didn't hurt that much after a while.

But it was definitely broken. She now has a splint and will see a specialist in a couple of days. The doc on call thought that since kids' bones are pretty rubbery that they might not need to set the bone. It is only broken about 3/4 of the way through one of the bones in the forearm. With kids, bones tend to mend easier and usually don't need setting with this type of break. But we will need to see if the specialist agrees with that. So, for now she is in a splint and sling (with teddy bears and balloons on it). She is also on motrin and in bed, resting. I'm so thankful that it wasn't a much worse injury and that it seems that it will heal fine on its own...we hope. So, prayers are appreciated.

I'm off to bed...a lot of excitement for one day.

I know when I've been beat.

I threw in the towel today. I have been planning to make the kids' costumes, like I do almost every year. Mister decided to be Boba Fett, Tiny was going to be R2D2, and Little Man was going to be Yoda. Cute, right? Well...not so fun when you only have a couple of days left before the first costumed Halloween party and you're not even halfway finished with the first costume. For the past few days, I've been one giant ball of stress, frustration, and ill temper. Trying to draw all the little doodads of R2D2's circuitry is not easy when you have a fussy 3 1/2 month old next to you, frustrated that you're not paying attention to him and he has decided that he will not nap for more than 15 minutes at a time...ALL DAY LONG!

Well, last night, I had an inkling that I may have taken on something much larger than myself and my sanity. So, at about 5 p.m. tonight, I told the kids to put their shoes on and load into the truck. I explained that I did not have the time, energy or sanity to complete their costumes as planned and that we would need to buy some instead. Initially, they were a bit disappointed that they would not be able to carry out their Star Wars theme. However, they were quickly over it when they chose to be black-hooded executioners, complete with double-sided axes and face paint. And tomorrow, I will set out to find Little Man a cute costume of his own. I found this online:

Unfortunately, it is not in any store within 100 miles of us, according to the Wal-Mart locator. So sad. He would have looked perfect in it.

Yeah, I felt bad about giving up on the costumes for about 5 minutes. Then I realized that I wouldn't be trying to finish three very difficult costumes before Saturday and I also wouldn't be biting everyone's heads off in the process. Nice trade-off, I'd say. We can't all be Supermom, not even for Halloween.

Much more than you bargained for.

A few little known things about me:

I have a desire to join the Air Force.

Most of the men in my family have served in some branch of the military and I have always felt proud of them for doing it. And I always pictured myself joining. When I was in junior high, a friend and I had the plan to join the military and let it fund our way through college. I wanted to be a lawyer back then. Well, pregnant at 16 and married at 19 changed the plans a bit. She ended up joining the Army and hated it. (FYI, Army and AF...two very different branches of the military. 'Nuff said.) Anyway, I still think about joining regularly and the appeal has not diminished much over the years.

I can eat intimidating amounts of chocolate and baked goods.

It's amazing that I am not 200 lbs. However, I do notice that the older I get, the less forgiving my body is of it.

I drink an insane amount of water each day.

Which is supposed to be excellent for you and your complexion. Well, not so sure it's helped with that much. But I do know that I am so used to drinking it that five minutes without a tall glass of water in sight leaves me completely parched.

I am going to force myself to write a book one day.

It'll happen. I can feel the book, somewhere inside of me just waiting to come together. I may need to submit myself to NaNoWriMo...as insane as it is.

I like DIY shows and have a desire to obtain all the DIY and tool knowledge and skills I can.

There's something about the idea of being able to tear down a wall with the ferocity of an animal (and a hammer) and redo it into something beautiful and functional. Not to mention that all the tools are really cool too.

So, I now challenge you to leave a comment containing a little known nugget about yourself. Let's see who can come up with something really unique/funny/embarassing.

Happiness in Hard Times

Where to begin? I have a rare moment this morning. Little Man is snoozing upstairs with H and the kids are at school. I almost feel like I should just sit on the floor and meditate. Maybe that would clear out some of the things cluttering my mind.

H is looking for a side job since real estate is so slow. Now is not the best time for the profession. Thankfully, we have a lot of support around us, we are really blessed. But, like millions of others, these are some hard times we're experiencing.

I read on the news yesterday of a lot of people that are so downtrodden by the economy and financial crisis that they are taking their lives and the lives of others. This stunned me. Maybe it's because I am so blessed with a loving family, great friends and so much support that it's hard for me to think that life would ever be so hard that I would feel like there is nothing left for me here. There's so much more to life. I told H that even if we were completely broke and living with our parents again, no job, no money...we would still have so much. We are healthy, we have each other...that is a lot. I hope others feel that way too. So, to all my family and friends, I hope you all know just how loved you are and how much it means to me to have you in my life.

On to happier things, Little Man is growing so big. Even on the hard days, he's a joy. And, boy, he loves his brother and sister.

That smile warms my heart. And I look forward to each breathy laugh. How could I ever dwell on the negative when I have such a handsome pick-me-up every day?

I could post more, my life is so full right now, but I better start the day. Have a blessed day!

My girls.

Oh, those girls I love. I wish we could rewind life sometimes and relive the best moments.

Our hostel rocked.

Bree falling off the log right when I was taking the pic at Warwick Castle.

Bree!!! It's our lesbian wedding picture! (sorry, inside joke)
I still can't believe you talked me into driving in Ireland.
The best friends a girl could have.
Ponchos with Shakesperean quotes...can't get much nerdier than us.
That bloody pizza.
Is Liz sticking it up her nose? And what was Whit doing?

DIYdiva

I came across a new blog today that I loved so much, I read every archived post. It is DIYdiva and I now have tool-envy. I really want this girl's skills and her tools, especially her newly-acquired Makita drill. Anyways, besides working construction and redoing her homes, she also makes these awesome brooms. Yeah, I said brooms. Check these out.

How awesome are those?!? I want the one in the middle really bad, but for $65, I will need to wait for that indulgence. I would love to hang out with this chica and pick her brain for all the DIY expertise she has stored in there. Check her out.

I Did Something Stupid: Part Deux

This may become an ongoing theme. I decided to rearrange the livingroom furniture today, something I do only 1 or 2 times a year. If you've ever seen my furniture, you know that we're not talking about dinky, light IKEA furniture here. Nope, big and sturdy. After changing my mind on the layout three times and moving almost every piece around four times, my back was feeling the burn. Sure enough, an hour after I was done and was finally relaxing on the couch, I adjusted myself slightly and felt that familiar twinge run from my lower back to the middle. Yep, I tweaked my back...again. This has become a semi-regular occurrence in the last few years. I remember once trying to pull a hangar out from under a door where it was stuck, and I actually felt something pop in my lower back. So, I now anticipate that I will be quite sore tomorrow and will be walking funny (think along the lines of a strutting rooster). It usually only last a day or two, just enough time to appreciate my back when it's not tweaked out. Hope you're faring better than I.