What a day

Today started out how many of my mornings have been starting lately. I wake up to let the dog out, and she has had diarrhea all over the mud room. I feel bad that the dog is not well, but I'm thinking she has irritable bowel syndrome because we've had the dog for 8 months or so and she does this a few times a month. My husband tries to be helpful and pour me a cup of coffee but by the time I can drink it it's cold. He does get the kids cereal so I can tend to the poop patrol.

Today I had had it, so after an hour of cleaning up poop and neglecting my children, I bathe the dog and I'm off to the vet. On the way to the vet we pass a garage sale and I spot a bookshelf. I do a u-turn and head back. I have been looking for a small bookshelf for months and there is one for $10 and in decent shape.....score!! Then back in the car to and to the vet.

We drop her off and head to Target to get a few things. Well, two pretzels, and 3 apple juices later the kids are still acting terrible. I bribe them to behave and tell them they can go look at the toy section if they behave. So after I shop we go to the toy section, which is never good. They keep telling me what they want to buy (as if they have any money) and I keep repeating "you are not getting anything today, just looking". Apparently their hearing has gone bad because that didn't stop the constant begging. Ugh, we leave and go home.

Then we get here get settled and the vet called and said the dog could be picked up. Well a long morning, and $98 later, the dog has nothing wrong with her. They want me to give her antibiotics for a week just in case, but she seems fine. So I make the executive decision to change the dogs food to Purina's Lamb & Rice. It was good enough for our German Shepherd for 12 years, and it will be good enough for our miniature poodle. We've been feeding her this expensive overpriced stuff because she was eating that when we got her, but enough is enough! I think she has IBS and I'm taking matters into my own hands.

After this post I'm off to do more laundry, and attempt to clean up the play room, get the kids to Tae Kwon Do, and make dinner........ have I mentioned that I really want a maid!!!

When a Soldier Cries

I was on my way to visit one of my oldest and dearest friends who now lives in New Jersey. My husband took 5 days leave from work, and I was off to have a vacation from my crazy life and jump into my friends very exciting life for a week. So you can imagine my spirits were soaring as I'm waiting near my gate at the airport.

I saw several soldiers in uniform sitting with their wives. This means they are most likely headed back to a deployment in Iraq or Afghanistan somewhere. If they were on vacation with their wives, they wouldn't be in uniform. So in a moment I was taken back to my husbands 18 month deployment to Iraq in 2003-2005.

Being an Army wife, you feel connected to all of the other wives and family members of soldiers. It's hard to explain the connection, but you can actually look at them saying goodbye to their soldier, and you feel their pain. The soldiers board the plane first. And as I'm standing there watching the women hug their soldiers goodbye, I can hardly stand it. Here I am off to get a vacation from my family, and they have to say goodbye to theirs. It's a mixture of guilt, sadness, and sympathy.

After the soldiers give their boarding passes to the attendant, they turn around for one last look and wave. It's hard to see a soldier cry. They are tough, so to see them so fragile, so human makes everyone in the airport cry.

I am starting to tear up and I have to look away. I see the women crying as they turn to leave the airport. One woman had a toddler with her, and I wanted to run up and hug her. I almost did, but I thought I might really freak her out, or start to have my own PTSD moment and send her over the edge. I stood their silently looking at her and wanting to hug her and make it better for her.

One of the many sad things about having your soldier in a war zone, is that no one can make you feel better about that. Friends can try and offer support, and try to understand what you're going through, but when all is quiet at the dinner hour, and you are home alone, or with your children, you are just a lonely worried Army wife and mother.

I had a fantastic time on my vacation to New York, but I spent much of the time in the city reflecting on why we are in these wars in the first place. Being in New York City where it all started on United States soil, and seeing the affects it is still having on the families of the Military puts everything in my life in perspective. Hats off to our soldiers, and the families who love them!

This stuff really does happen to me!

Today has been a busy one. Every mother knows what it's like have a list a mile long, so my day started something like this.
I got Aubrey to a basketball camp at 9am, Ella's swim lessons at 9:50am, then down to Aubrey's school to get scrip for his uniforms. They were out of scrip....bummer......but they have a table of giveaways (clothes that other kids have outgrown) and I got a few items....score! Then we stop at the consignment shop I sell my tutu's at, and I find out I've sold all but one,....score! Then we go home, cram in lunch, get back in the car to go pick up Aubrey from camp at 1pm.

Oh I'm tired just writing this. Then Aubrey starts to tell me about the coach lady that made them do push ups on their elbows and knees because some kids were throwing their food around. He said "she called them suicide push ups", and then I told him that that meant you kill yourself, to which he replied "I know, she's trying to kill us". And then I replied, "son, then that would be murder".

He's tired because he went to bed too late last night but that's just not right. I mean this is NOT basic training here, this is a camp I paid money for so that my kid could have fun, and instead he's been traumatized. I try not to loose it because Ella and Ryan are so tired they're melting down too. We get home and I put the younger two down for a nap, and try and talk to Aubrey. He says he doesn't want to go back and then he gets invited to a neighbors house and he's out of here.

Then it's back in the car to a cub scout picnic at 5pm. Wyatt has to work late so I think to myself, "self this will be fun". We get there and haul all four chairs, sippy cups, my purse, and the kids and we get set up. They have a great time playing in the sand, and on the toys, and then they have a water balloon fight. Then the clouds start looking foreboding but hey there is pizza and watermelon and the kids are having fun. It starts to rain lightly so we continue to eat. Then it starts lightening, thundering, and pouring. And as if it couldn't get any worse the wind started kicking. We are all soaking wet and the car is so far away. So the 20 of us try and huddle under this pavilion that is quite small.

My poor sweet 23 month old Ryan is yelling, "done, done, all done". Ella is crying and hunkering by my legs and Aubrey is running around in the storm with his friends like maniacs. So we decide to run to the restrooms to hang out for a while until it passes. The bathroom has poop smeared all over the wall (I kid you not) and then a girl comes in to use it(it's a one stall), so needless to say we're back outside in the rain. Thank goodness for the kind people there to help me carry my chairs and Ella, while I'm carrying Ryan and the other chairs as we run through the mud and muck to the car.

Now it's drama central, there is crying, and "I'm cold", and all kinds of drama on the drive home. The radio says there is flash flooding going on in our area, no shit! I was driving through two feet of water much of the way home. Wyatt calls to tell me he is home and see if we are alright, to which I reply, "no we're not alright, we are soaking wet, the kids are crying and I've had it".

So we stripped everyone of their clothes and gave them all a bath and put them to bed, and now it's 8:30 and they are still getting out of bed saying their hungry! I swear motherhood is NOT for the weak! So I sit here on my computer enjoying a glass of wine and trying to laugh about all of this. After all I started this blog for therapy and today is one of those days I need therapy! Oh and we're out of milk so Wyatt went to the store...........HELP!

Our Family Trip to South Dakota

Well friends, my husband decided it would be a great idea to take a family trip to South Dakota, since we are only 8 hours away. And as he put it, "We probably won't be this close to Mt. Rushmore again." So even though I had nagging voices in my head saying "don't do it", we decided to proceed.

The trip there was relatively uneventful, we stopped often, had a picnic lunch somewhere in Wyoming, and overall the kids handled it pretty well. In two days we saw Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse Memorial, Rushmore Caves, Custer State Park, and a few other fun little places along the way.

Since we were touring around, the kids never got more than a 20 minute doze in the car, and they were up most nights until 9 or 10pm, so you can imagine that they were getting pretty tired. I decided to include in this post a few hilarious/exhausting moments:

1) We were driving along and Ella and Ryan took off their shoes in the car. Out of nowhere, Ella says "it smells like toe jam in here!". We busted out laughing!

2) Ryan waves at a helicopter and says "hi Gigi". It's so funny because my mom left a week and a half ago and he thinks she's still on an aircraft somewhere in the sky. Super cute for a kid that's not even two yet!

3) We are at a park when Ella runs to swing on her stomach, and goes over the swing and does a nose dive into some pea gravel. Needless to say she is scraped up on her nose, upper lip and chin. She is bawling and bleeding everywhere. We tell Aubrey (7) and Ryan (23 months) that we need to go because Ella is hurt. Aubrey says, "what, we've only been here like 5 minutes". That didn't go over very well since we were all exhausted, and Ella was hurt! So the next day I told Aubrey to look at his sisters face, and that's why we had to go home, to which he replied, "I hate myself for it". And he was serious, Hilarious!

4)The last night we were there we went to Mt. Rushmore for the night time ceremony which meant we didn't get back to the hotel until 10:30. Everyone was borderline delirious and Aubrey was acting so horrible. I finally told him to stop acting like a jerk. I know, I win mother of the year for that, but he was acting like one. So we all go to bed and I had forgotten all about that remark I made, but Aubrey didn't. He told me the next day that he forgave me for saying that. All I could do was laugh and explain that we all say things we don't mean sometimes. Talk about humility!

So that about covers it, we had a good time but came home exhausted. We have great pictures to prove to the kids that we did take them to South Dakota because I'm sure Aubrey is the only one who will remember it. So needless to say it will be a while before we willingly take another road trip, but I'm glad we did it!

A great husband

On June 30 2010, my sweet husband Wyatt had the day off. The movie Eclipse was coming out and, for those of you under a rock, it's the third installment in the Twlight Saga. Well you could say I'm slightly obsessed. I read the books a few years ago and now have seen all of the movies out so far.

Sorry, I digress. I wanted to go see the showing at midnight on eve of the 29th, but they were sold out so I bought tickets online for the 10am showing on the 30th. Wyatt had the day off and my mom was still in town, so I asked Wyatt to go with me. He not only said he would go with me, but waited in line for over an hour while we waited to get in to the theater.

Needless to say I was much more excited about the movie than Wyatt, but the point is, he went with me and didn't even complain. I love you husband!

Upon further reflection I have humored him a time or two. Take the time I was 8 months pregnant with my oldest, and living in South Carolina. He drug me to a Bad Company concert outside in August! I was battling hypertension, and my ankles were, well, cankles! While he was hooting and hollering I was sitting in a chair hot as heck and making lots of trips to the not so clean bathrooms. And then there was the time that we went to a Metallica concert because they gave free tickets to the military. Not only was I wearing ear plugs and still it was too loud, but all of the husbands there said, "oh my wife refused to come". Great!

So while I don't want to take away Wyatt's kudos for accompanying me to the movie Eclipse, I guess all is fair in love and war!

My daughter said what??

My mom is in town for a couple of weeks which is so fabulous! It's like having a wife, she cooks, she cleans, she changes diapers and plays with the kids. Yesterday my sweet, newly turned 4 year old daughter Ella was full of vinegar.

It seemed like it was going to be quite a day with Ella. She started off the day by getting frustrated that she couldn't cram 10 things into her small makeup case. She uttered this sentence, "I can't close the damn thing"! I told her that she couldn't say that word, and helped her fix the problem with the makeup case. Then my mom told me Ella couldn't open up something in the play room, so she said "what the Hell?". My mom told her that was a bad word, to which she replied "I didn't know Hell was a bad word".

We all went to Target yesterday afternoon and my mom bought each of the kids a $5 gift at Target, much to my dismay, but none the less. So on the drive home Ella kept teasing her brother with her doll, and poking him with it. After the 5th time of asking her to stop teasing Ryan, I grabbed the doll and tossed it on the floor by my mom's feet. Well, Ella was ticked after that and she decided to take her anger out on her Gigi (my mom).

Here is what happened next. Ella says out of nowhere, "Gigi, I hate your shirt". My mom didn't miss a beat, and said "oh thank you". Then Ella said, "no, I said I hate your shirt", and Gigi said again, "I know, thank you".

I was a little shocked at her nastiness to her Gigi and I asked her why she would say something like that and she said "Ryan told me to". Ryan is not quite two years old yet, and although he can say many words, he could never say that!

Then my mom said "Ella why would you say you hate my shirt"? to which Ella replied "because I hate you". At this point I had no words, it was clearly a case of her trying to shock us and it was kind of funny, but so inappropriate that I had to address it.

My mom then said "Ella, what you should do is say that you are sorry for being rude to Gigi". Ella then replied "I'm not going to say that". At this point I told her she was going to time out when we got home. After the time out I told her that it was NOT okay to talk to people like that and asked her what she should say to Gigi instead. She replied "tell her I'm sorry". I told her that was a good idea but she ignored the advice and didn't say anything. So after a few minutes I had to force her into it! AHHHH!

So we had quite a day yesterday. To follow up, she did get up this morning and tell Gigi that she didn't hate her shirt. What will the high school years bring? I guess one day I'll look back and laugh at all of this.....I hope.......oh and my mom just informed me that Aubrey said the other day he was half Italian and half Southern.....does it ever stop?

Tae Kwon Do

I haven't blogged in a while and it is NOT for lack of material but lack of time. There is so much I could talk about, our flights to and from Mississippi for our family reunion.....lots of material there. All the sicknesses we've had over the past two months, or all the craziness that surrounds our weeks, but I've decided to skip ahead of all that to this past Friday.

It was a busy day, Aubrey was in cub scout camp all week from 9-4 which sounds like heaven, but it's an hour and a half round trip drive, and that alone is painful when Ella and Ryan are so over it! The back story for Tae Kwon Do is that the kids have been taking lessons since April. You are supposed to attend class at least two times a week. Well, I went and lost my mind the day I signed them up and paid all that money. With baseball, cub scouts, summer camps, swim lessons etc. we don't have the time to get them there twice a week. So after cub scout camp all last week and baseball two nights that week I thought that we should try and get them there for Friday's class.

I make a, not so nutritious meal, get them dressed in their outfits, and have Wyatt come home from work early to get them there by 6:15. Some little voice in the back of my head told me to double check the schedule...........to what do my wondering eyes do appear?? The schedule says that on Fridays it starts at 5:35. At this point it's 5:40, so we missed that class! Ugh!

Then I decide to get them to the North school which is about a half and hour away on Saturday morning. I had it all planned out, Aubrey has a baseball game at the Air Academy, (same direction as the Tae Kwon Do center), so we get breakfast early and head out the door at 8:30am. We get there with extra clothes for everyone because it's raining, cold and nasty and Aubrey's baseball game starts at noon.

We pull in the parking lot and there is only one car. I figure something is wrong here because the lot should be full. Wyatt looks at the note on the door and it says there is no class today because there is a black belt spectacular event. I just sit there wondering if I should laugh or cry, all I can do is throw my hands up and say, "come on"! We are now on attempt number 2 to get them to class, my intentions are good and I just can't seem to make it happen!

We are a half an hour from home and three hours away from the start of Aubrey's game, and I have to pee. So my husband decides to makes lemonade out of the lemons. "Let's just go up to the air academy and tour the chapel". It's a good idea since we haven't seen it, and even though it's crappy weather I decide it's probably the best option.

So we end up touring it with the kids, stopping by Burger King (only option on base), and off to Aubrey's game to freeze our buns off! All in all it turned out pretty well, but I've discovered that with three kids, less is more. I really need to stop over extending us. I guess this frustration is just life and as long as we have three kids at home and are involved in activities, this is our life! So today I welcome it with open arms. I will take a day at a time, and today is My sweet Ella's 4th birthday and I will enjoy this day! Now we're off to swim lessons, home to make brownies, decorate, and then her party is here at 4.......it never ends! At least gigi ( my mom) is coming for a visit on Wednesday and I will have some extra help! woot woot!