Ditch work

If you have talked to me recently you have heard my complaining about the ditch work being done on my street. I thought I would finally get around to sharing a few of the pictures from the oh so wonderful ditch work being done!

Let me tell you this is fun stuff...............

First Dance

On Friday, Ashley had her first school dance. There was much drama involved of course. First finding "the right dress". Then "the right shoes". After many stores and mom hours later. We learn two days before the dance OH YEAH it's a sports theme dance so come dressed in your favorite sports team colors..........uuuuuhhhh right so this is what we ended up with hehe

It gets more depressing with each passing year of how quickly time goes by. She said she had a great time and danced "tons" ........."but not with the boys mom so don't worry" haha. Oh how she knows her mother.

Is it possible for clean rooms?

I have had a battle with my oldest and her room since Kindergarten. I have tried many many things to attempt to keep her room clean. I have done it myself only to have it a mess as soon as she is home 20 minutes from school.

I have taken away every item she owns leaving an almost empty dresser and a bed. Seriously she didn't care. She had one outfit to her name and didn't care. I even went so far as have a friend purchase the ugliest dress at a garage sale she could find and Ashley loved it.

I know with out a doubt that it's my lack of consistency. I know that its my fault that when I took everything away, my child KNEW me well enough to know that I did not throw it all away like I said I was going to. When I think about throwing it out I visualize Dollar Bills laying in the garbage cans outside.

Well the day has come. I am done wheeling and dealing for a clean house. Today is the day that those Nike tennis shoes that the children leave in the entry way blocking the front door and being tossed outside.

What has brought this on you may be asking? Well I asked Ashley to clean her room yesterday when she got home from Show Choir yesterday at 5 pm. I got the usual tears and rants and raves but then I also got the shocking "If you wouldn't have forced me to go to Show Choir practice, I would have had time to clean it."

Ok well this sent off so many red flags I can't name them all. But firstly what popped into my head was the way that check for ONE of my payments for show choir in the amount of $250!! Next was a vision of the red purse I have been eyeing in the dollar amount of $34 that I can never envision spending on myself for a purse. Let alone that really expensive one I have dreamed of one day buying and know that day will never come because I could never justify it. The next vision I had was of the bag of clothing I just bought Friday for her from Aeropostale of the amount of $75!! $75 I spent just so she would look cute. And what thanks do I get? Granted I was going to have to exchange for different sizes, but they are still sitting in the bag. She currently has clothing strewn from one end of the room to the other not taking into account the Piles all over the floor that doesn't get vacuumed because you can't get in there. Here is a picture of it right now as I type this:

She was told to clean her pig pen last night as I said. I went in two hours later and she was watching tv. So I am done. The bag of clothing is going back. Not to be exchanged but to go back. Get my money back. I will no longer be purchasing items for my oldest daughter. I know that sounds harsh but I have decided I will start giving her allowance (we sometimes give it sometimes don't) I think I will go $10 a week so give her $40 on the first of the month and she will have to use that for clothing she needs, school supplies, her lunch if she wants to buy or anything else that comes up like supplies for her show choir such as makeup , hair rollers, pantyhose. I think she needs to really understand the value of a buck. She needs to understand how hard her father and I have to work so she can have the things she needs.

My neighbor just happened to have seen the room yesterday while over and said in the news paper was a great article about messy rooms so I wanted to share it to anyone else who maybe is having similar problems but not on such a large scale. It was by John Rosemond.

I will keep everyone posted on how it goes today

I am a mean dog owner

So sign me up for dog abuse.

In our cozy house, we have two beautiful (when properly groomed) male Shelties. Anyone who knows the breed knows how they are herding dogs. So of course they herd. And of course along with the herding...... comes the barking.

Now I don't believe in debarking. I firmly believe dogs should bark when feeling threatened or in the need to protect their family and such.

However if you have ever come to my house, or called my house, you would know that MY SHELTIES bark.... at..... EVERYTHING.
The wind changes direction, we bark.
A leaf falls from a tree, we bark.
A car goes down the road 3 streets away, we bark.
You open the dvd player, we bark.

You get the picture. This doesn't include the time they bark where its to be expected like the Mail lady, the door bell, someone going outside w/out them, things like that.

So after 7 years .....yes 7 (I can be a bit slow sometimes and am known for giving many many chances to correct behavior on its own) long bark filled years , we purchased a bark collar.

And after 3 "tickles" as we call it for the kids. My house is silent. And this is with only one dog wearing the collar. The younger dog is confused why the bigger one yelped those 3 times , he is just plain terrified of anything right now.

Now as proof of this miracle quiet maker, yesterday (actual full day one with collar) we had about 10 men next to our house removing a tree. I am talking chain saws, cranes, trucks, chippers, the whole bit and never a bark. I have a set of windows that was right next to the action and the dogs stood and watched but never a bark.

I love being mean. I love the quiet. I am now in heaven.

Whats for Dinner

On Tuesday, we had a very busy night. So of course it was crock-pot night!

We had
Crock pot Enchiladas and Peach Pie

Ashley loved all but tortillas
Hannah loved the beans
Mark refused to look at the tortillas for confusion of thinking it was pasta (I must be an evil pasta shove down the throat kind of wife?)

And the pie was a hit. I had went to our Farmers Market on Saturday and found some decent peaches. So by Tues. they had ripened to perfection. I will not share the recipe however because it wasn't perfect haha. I will keep trying till I find just the right one.

What's for Dinner

Awhile ago I was going to post our dinner menu from time to time and didn't do to well at keeping up with it.

Now that school is going again , I thought I would try one more time.

So last night's menu was.........

Bruschetta
Salad
Chicken Parmesan
Rotini Pasta with Alfredo sauce
and for dessert we had Chocolate Molten Cake

Of course we had very mixed reviews.

Mark, not liking pasta only ate the chicken... after he scrapped off all sauce and breading and only ate the bread portion of the Bruschetta. The cake, he didn't like at all because, 1) he isn't a desert fan, 2) since it was semi sweet, it wasn't sweet enough for him therefore I put arsenic in it and was trying to kill him.

Hannah, doesn't like chicken so she only ate pasta but loved the cake and offered to eat daddy's

Ashley loved everything but the pasta because she only like red sauce and not white (her words) She had 4 pieces of Brushetta.

Me I loved it all even the cake until I just not looked at nutrition value and will never make again because I have 3 cakes left and have to now give them away or I will gain 20 lbs by eating just one more........

(now, cooking notes)
if you make the Brushetta, I learned that you can enjoy the next day also but if any leftover bread is now soft, toss in toaster!!

Chicken Parmesan Jamie's way,
drag chicken breast in whipped egg, dip in Italian bread crumbs with a bit of Parmesan cheese. Repeat again.
Place Chicken on foil lined cookie sheet. Cook in oven for 20 min. in 450 degree oven.
Transfer chicken to baking dish. Add one jar of spaghetti sauce top with mozzarella cheese and sprinkle of Parmesan cheese. Bake 10 more minutes.

Can we say Cheater?

A peek into a Jamie-Hannah conversation.

As I go thru Hannah's Friday folder I notice that as they practiced making the letter S this week all of Hannah's papers are marked with "Keep Practicing". So I say,

"Hannah, tomorrow we will go to Target and buy school paper to practice our letter S."

Hannah responds with crying and "no I don't want to practice, I don't want homework, I know how to make the letter S, see!! (as she points to the paper)

so I negotiate with "we can get a Starbucks at Target then come home and you and me both will make the letter S together I will help you ok?"

And of course to this she responds happily with " ok lets do that only you don't tell my teacher you did them and I will tell her I made the S's ok mom??"

ummm did I miss something here or did I just give my daughter the impression that not only am I taking her shopping and for Starbucks but I am also going to write a bunch of S's down on paper for her to turn into her teacher as her own??

Who am I?

Ok so I must be honest with myself. I haven't been doing well at posting. I am avoiding the computer. SHH........ I think I might be suffering from a touch of depression.

Or..... can you get baby blues....... when your baby is almost 6?

I know so many of my friends are going thru some similar feelings right now. I suppose this is what happens when all of our wee ones are so close in age.

My heart breaks for all of us for our own individual dilemma's. OK what is she talking about you may be asking? With back to school time came....... the actual action of sending the kids back to school. This means our babies are being sent off to school. I mean us moms we thought about it with glee but did we really think about the actual part of doing it? I for one didn't. I had this dream scenario of get up , go to work, the kids run off to school, I come home, pick up a few things around the house, on days Mark was off stay home and actually spend time as a couple. Rediscovering each other (no not in a sexual way you perverts!!) but going to breakfast or lunch and talking, doing some sort of activity together, working on house projects together you know what I mean. Then going back to work finish up the day with cooking for family and all sharing stories of the day. On days Mark works, well then I would pick up extra work when I felt like it or just spend the day reading, or working on some hobby. Umm yeah well life is not like my dream idea of a day well spent. Therefore.........Well....... I think I should pull Hannah out of Kindergarten. I am not ready. Can I do that?? Can I hold her back for my own selfish reasons?

I am a wee bit jealous that she is loving it. It brings tears to my eyes seeing the excitement in her eyes at the end of every day. It hurts that she no longer needs me to walk her to her bus. How did she separate herself from me so quickly. And what does this say about me for not being able to move on. My baby is growing up. In fact she is no longer a baby but a little girl. No longer the toddler. Now just a kid.

Isn't it odd that leading up to this point it's always been, "boy I can't wait till the kids grow up and go to school then I have the day to myself." Now that time has come and I have no clue how to fill my day. We give up so much of ourselves for our children that we end up hollow shells of our former selves.

How much of who we are now as seasoned parents is who we were before embarking on the journey of parenthood? My afternoons are so quiet. I now realize I don't like the quiet. My house is staying picked up. I don't like a clean house. The dogs are now spending the days lying on the kids beds and you can hear their sad sighs thru the house. The cats ..... well you know Pebbles just spends the day freely chasing KiKi. (not much change there) Mark....... is doing spans of working 9 day in a row not much help there. And when he is home not so into being my playmate for the day. Asks me what the problem is this is what I have wanted for the past 3 years.

So anyway the point of all my babble is........ Who am I? What do I like? What do I enjoy? These are the new questions I have been asking myself and I honest to goodness can't answer. I can tell you what I did pre-kids. (Work and party and get drunk haha) I can tell you what I did in toddler stages (mommy and me classes, play dates, zoo's, museum's, story times, talk on phone for endless hours with other mommies about what it will be like when they go to school all day and how much fun we will have)

I don't remember it being this hard when Ashley went to school. I would go to the Y, work out, a few days a week I would babysit twins for 1/2 the day, come home clean, and then go pick her up. Maybe this means I lost more of myself over the past 7 years?

What are your experiences in this? When your children jumped from the nest, what did you do to fill the void? How do you find yourself?

I'm Sorry You Have The Wrong Number...

Typically , that's what you hear when you dial the wrong digits and do not connect to who your trying to chat with.

But Alas this is me and nothing I do is normal.

Rewind to this afternoon. I got home from work, and after doing a 5 min run thru of the house putting away all things my children distribute in the minutes before school, decided to just plain chill and get back in bed and spend the morning catching up on my reading.

Well of course because my bed is so comfy, I fell asleep. Until I heard the earth shake. I laid in bed dazed thinking of all the things that crash could have been when it sounded again. Oh no..... what makes that crash sound twice? Did ADM just explode again? ( yes it has happened and knocked pictures off our walls before) CRASH there it goes again. So I hop up and peek out the bedroom window and see nothing. I go to the living room and this is what I find.

Yes it's lovely. A sure sign they are finally going to do the ditch work they planned out 3 years ago. So I use the camera phone and take a picture and send to dh and A to CALL ME

Right away my phone rings, I glance at the number think its odd that the actual number and not the persons name popped up on caller id but commence to chatting right away anyway. I even mention that it was odd that the number showed up and not the name. I discovered thru conversation that my phone companion had just awoken from a nap as well that's why her voice was froggie and didn't we hate how that happens. It's so gross all the phlegm and such. What was up at my house? I explained all the details of the crash and even included my sound effects. I explained how this now meant I was trapped in the bed room if I had any hopes for sanity, you know how the dogs bark when they see anything of interest going on in the neighborhood. Yada Yada, after 35 minutes of talking, we doled our goodbyes and I said go back to your nap, and I would call you later after work. Give the kids hugs when they get home from school. Yada , Yada

Later during route, I get a message from A asking if I had been eaten at work. How odd. I assured her no and why was she asking. Her response was because I never called her. OK I was thinking did you bonk your head. Was your nap of COMA proportions? DID our conversation not mean a thing.

So when done with work I called A and said what the hell? We talked what are you talking about remember the picture, the sound effects, the peeing together (ok gross I know but hey when you wake up from a nap you got to pee and I apologized like I always do)

But no to my dismay I find out that I never spoke to A. I looked at caller ID and to my shock and horror I realized I mixed up the last two numbers. Who was my afternoon phone companion. Was her life so bland as mine that she didn't mind conversing with a stranger? Did she humor me to not hurt my feelings? Or did she wonder if one day we could be long lost friends. (We already have shared private things!)

Should I call and apologize and explain, and thank her for letting me chat her time away? What is proper etiquette for wrong number conversations?? Anyone??

School Updates

Holy Cow does life get busy quick!!

To sum it up in short text, we have joined the busy family club.

Ashley is now in Show Choir. What a commitment that's going to be. She has it for one of her daily classes, along with one Saturday a month all day practice and every Monday after school practice. Add to that the once a month Booster meeting and all the fundraisers and things I am sure to come on that and that alone fills up the schedule.

Hannah starts up gymnastics again tonight so that's another evening of running around.

Add to that any appointments, events, or other daily things along with work and the extra work that will soon be filling up the day time and I am about to go bonkers.
Those who know me well know that I live a very calm (haha) scheduled (sort of) life. Not a whole lot of activity up to this point.

Oh well so goes life right?
But other than that , Hannah is adjusting ok to school. She doesn't enjoy the fact that she can't come home with me. And getting her to her bus is very frustrating. Lots of tears are shed.

Ashley is getting over the adjustment of changing classes all day and they already had homework. So that's adding another element to the house again to keep mom and dad on their toes.

But we will survive and I know when it's all said and done, the year will fly by.

Vacation Day Two

Things you can do in the Charlotte NC area:











See Chinese Elvis singing at a Car Lot,

Get frightened by a Dead Bear

Stick your hand in the middle of a Tornado

See Huge Bugs, (foresight into visit to the Jacobs house yet to come)

And see nasty eels covered in glow in the dark green slime!

You can also visit Grandma Denise who is working there currently. We had a great time for short period we were there.

Vacation Day One

As we sped thru many states, when we hit the beautiful yet tedious mountain side I told the girls lets do something very un us for lunch. Let's go to a real authentic mom and pop restaurant. They were game. At the bottom of a real doozie of a mt, we saw the signs. It looked like a good place to try so onto the exit ramp we go. The scenery was gorgeous. The signs said River view dining. Yippee what could be better. But alas its us Frederick girls and as we all know, things do not go as planned. Heaven forbid a restaurant be open on a Friday. So instead of eating here:

we got to eat here:












yes yes, it was a gas station. No river view, no mt. view. Oh no instead the view was of a 90+ year old man with no teeth staring into space as they called his number repeatedly over a span of 15 minutes, there was the 250+ lb man with about $70 in scratch lotto tickets with no shirt. Then there was the occasional dirty guy with or with out shirt and or shoes. So instead we got pictures like this:

Note the beer case behind Hannah!! What a variety!!

And what Joy Ashley is showing as she stared at yet another no shoe , no shirt guy. The girls were quite confused about this. Now I must say the food was great. And look at those portion sized. But for lunch for bbq, a burger and chicken tenders at a gas station restaurant it was a bit pricey at $25 after drinks were added to the meals. But the experience they got was priceless. The best part was when I asked where we could find the river views, she said up the road less than 5 miles but there was no water there today. They haven't released the water, but it will be there tomorrow. Thanks but no thanks not so into waiting a day for water views.
As we continued on,(by route of wrong road) we came upon Chimney Rock.

It was beautiful and definitely a place I would like to go back and spend a day or two getting familiar with. They had little shops everywhere, cabins, even a lake with a beach with what appeared to be water rides. Very cool.

False Alarm

I don't know I guess I must have been bonkers. I searched and searched and searched all pets and found not a single flea nor evidence of any flea's on anybody. Maybe it was a vision of things to come? Haha oh well no harm no foul. I had a tube of frontline in the drawer from when we go to my moms house so I just put a dab on everyone just in case. Kiki was the worst to deal with because of her loving fabulous personality haha NOT.

OH CRAP

ok I was just about to post about the first day of school and the end of the world is coming. As I sat here waiting for the page to load, KiKi ( the white devil cat) is laying across the keyboard and ....................

a flea jumped on me.

HELP!!!!!

where oh were did princess get a flea, is there other fleas, great now I have 2 dogs and 2 cats to inspect and figure out how to deal sigh ok other update post will have to come later I am now going to waste my first free momma day looking for flea shit on pets.

Wordless Wednesday..... First Day

Tomorrow's the Big Day

Yes yes. Tomorrow the kids and I go back to school. It will definitely be a bittersweet moment.

A BIG day for all for sure.

My innocent Ashley will be starting 7th Grade this year. I have visions of her being eaten by sharks. Not sure what that's about.

And my baby Hannah will be starting Kindergarten this year. Sigh so much to say on this. This is the year they grow their independent wings. No more will she need me to teach her the little things I have always taken for granted. Now she will have someone else teaching and doing exciting "cool" things with her. Now she will realize there are people out there much smarter than her parents. Now she will be making her own friends that she picks and not just the children of my friends whom she is always around and so that's who her friends are. I know Nan is VERY outgoing and will not have problems in this area but it still makes me sad and worried.

Back to Ashley....... I remember my first days starting at Cerro Gordo. I started 7th grade there and I wasn't exactly the first day of the school year. I don't remember for sure when it was but I felt like such the odd ball. All the kids there had been classmates since Kindergarten. And here I was the "city girl" with my "city clothes" that they had never ever seen let alone wear or own. It was a struggle for the first couple weeks to find my "click". When I finally did, it was friendships that I still have to this day.

So for sure the friends you make in middle school are some of the important ones. My loving husband has assured me that Ash will be fine and it's not a big deal but I honestly feel like I have bigger knots in my stomach about tomorrow than she does. What if she gets lost, goes to the wrong class, falls on her face going down the stairs. And the worst part is I won't be able to give her a big hug, make her a special breakfast and send her off with a good luck girl. Sometimes I wonder why I am working? But I guess it wouldn't make sense to stay home to be there for the one important day. I will have to come up with a creative way to show her I love her and will be thinking about her. We will have to go have a special lunch after our half day to share the events.

I have to say a very good thing is that she is going to be in show choir as an elective class. Apparently at the school, this is a VERY VERY BIG thing. 75% of the middle school kids are in this is what I was told. It will be a very big commitment for Ash but with class every day and her first Saturday practice this Sat, it will give her a great opportunity to make friends quick and they will have something very important to school life in common.

Ok with all my rambling I will close. Thanks to all who read thru all this........

With that said wish all us Frederick girls good luck on our First Day and pictures will be posted with updates tomorrow.

Back from Vacation

We got back late Wednesday evening. Of course we have busy bee's trying to get everything together for school starting the following Wednesday. I think we are done (knock on wood) but I am now having major jet lag. But I wanted to share a small sample of pictures to come. These are from W. Virginia somewhere lol I know that sounds bad but on the way home we were weaving in and out of Maryland, Pennsylvania, and W. Virgina so it was a bit confusing. Anyway, for some reason at 8 am this struck me as some of the most beautiful scenery I have seen in forever. It was a cool 54 degrees at the time and I had just come from over 100 degree days so I was shivering my butt off to take these but well wort it.

Possible Answer to Prayers?

OK I had to blog this. Did you know you can take pictures and actually look thinner? Now any of you who know me, I positively hate having my picture taken. I look and them and think , OH Crap when did I turn into a blimp?? Now don't get me wrong , I know when and how (it was the cheese cake, ice cream, pasta, ok anything I put in my mouth that I know I shouldn't). I am not in denial I know how I got this way and I know how to change it.

That being said you rarely see pictures of me but the short term answer to my prayers has finally come!! They now make camera's with a slimming feature!! I am not kidding I couldn't make this up. HP has many camera's with this. You have to check it out.

But with technology comes down sides. I would know that just because a person looked thinner in the picture , they would still not be thin. But most importantly, what would this do to the online dating community?? You hear horror stories of people who "fall in love" online only to meet in person and the other be a much much larger version of who they described themselves as or even sending someone else's picture. But what if you were sent a picture where the person made them selves slimmer with the camera tools. It is a picture of them........ sort of.

What do you all think of this??

Updates

Last week we had our good friends from NC come to visit for 5 days. It was so nice to see them again and the kids got along just like they used to. (haha hugs, and fighting it was just like last year when we all had to part ways)

We got to go to 6 flags St. Louis with them which was a real treat because as we realized we actually never did anything fun and big like that with all the kids. Our last attempt ended in a mugging and riding cement horses at the police station. It absolutely was a wonderful day. The kids were well behaved, the weather perfect, and the lines not long. I hand picked it just for Alexis just like she ordered the dolphins when I came to her house and we went to the beach one day.

It was sad to see them leave but it made me realize that no matter how much time goes by between our visits, she will always be like my sister I never had and it will be like we just left each other yesterday and we pick up right where we left off. Hannah and Sam will always be the best of girlfriend and I see lots of long distance phone calls between them too in a few years.

As for my house and all the work I have been doing, well I got most of it done. I know that I need to post pictures so those will be up in the next day I promise. And to sweeten the deal I will post before and after so you can really see the difference. I think the kitchen will wait a few more weeks before I get to work on that. I am still having aches and pains from all the work I did in the living-room. I think rolling the paint and doing the texture I developed Carpel Tunnel Syndrome haha is that even possible? I guess though for me anything is possible right?

This Friday the girls and I are packing up and heading East. We will first go to Charlotte to visit my mom for the weekend. Then pop north-west to see Alexis in Funky Vagina (oops that's not really its name but had to say it cause I can!!) for a few days and then from there go North a bit more and go see Brigitte in her new digs. She ( the lucky ducky) is building a new house which won't be done for a couple months yet so the daring woman will be living in an apartment for the time between. So adding us the the group of 6 will be very interesting to say the least. Brig, I will bring the wine!!

So that's all the new stuff.

One room down

So... busy, busy, busy is the name of the game. I haven't gotten dressed in days but the living room is nearing the end!! I am learning patience with all this work but that's good right? Last night I wanted to sleep on the couch so I could keep looking at my fab walls going ,I think I like this.

On the heels of all my work, I am taking today off and Ashley and I are going to take a free day and go to Six Flags just the two of us and blow off some steam. (thru work, they are taking a bus and since we have the season passes it only cost us $2 per person for bus fare (haha) and then the cost of what ever we spend while there so fits in the budget nicely.) Then Wednesday its back to work. So much to do and my time off is dwindling down. I have no idea where my summer has gone.

But with our good friends from NC coming to visit next week, I can't wait for them to see the difference I have made in house. I am very excited to share!!