Mold

Here we are, living in Oxford Suites. Been here 1 week. 5 people crammed in to a hotel room.

A few weeks ago we started smelling really strong mold in our Master Bathroom. Kept getting stronger and stronger. Started noticing it in the hall closet (which shares 2 walls with the bathroom). Didn't know what to do about it. So someone said our Insurance should cover mold. So we called our Insurance, they came out did a couple inspections, had a couple plumbers do inspections and yep, deemed it un-liveable. So happy since we were all suffering from terrible headaches, sore throats and coughs.

We got here last Monday. They told us that day that we'd be back in a week....one week later, they haven't even started on our house yet! Which is ok, we're having a great time! The first few days here I was so depressed. Didn't want to be out of my home, felt so unsettled, not sure what to do, where to go. But Thursday of last week I decided I'm gonna take advantage of where we are. We're here. We're being paid to be here. All our meals paid for. Hot breakfast every morning. I leave the room and hang a "maid service" sign and come back to a clean room. That in itself is worth it!! Anyay, I just feel like this is Gods way of telling me to slow down, focus on my kids and my family, and ENJOY it!! Rest. No housework! No cooking! TONS of family time. Time to hang with my kids, play with them, crack down on discipining. I have no distractions. My whole day is dedicated to them. I find myself actually wanting to just hang in the room, just chill. I am so thankful for this time.

Oh yah, and by the way, we get a brand new Master bathroom and hall closet out of it! Completely taken care of by our insurance!

SURPRISE!!

I pulled off the greatest feat last week. Surprising Sean. Its never been done. Literally. Can't even surprise the darn guy on gifts, he guessess his presents on his birthday AND christmas EVERY year. Even when i wrap it in a crazy box with rocks, he still knows. Its always bafelled me. He is way too smart, which drives me UP THE WALL. So this year, for his 30th, I attempted the unattemtable. Didn't think in a million years that I was actually gonna be able to do it. I was confident in someone (ah hem, his Dad) ruining the whole shabang, but to all of our surprise, he did so well! I, on the other hand was an absolute nervous wreck. For two weeks. I've literally never been more nervous. My stomach was in constant knots, i've never visited the ladies room so many times in a day, every day. Somewhere between ALL the lying I was having to do, and ALL the planning, I almost had a nervous breakdown.

Timeline: (i'm into these lately)

Thurs: Do all the shopping and food prep at my moms. Lie to sean 50 times in one day.
Thursday night: Seans WHOLE family drives up from Baks and stay with my parents.
Fri morning:
7:30-8:30-act as cool and nonchelant as possible while Sean takes his sweet precious time getting ready, hanging with the kids, texting, hanging. All the while i'm screaming at him in my head to get the heck out of the house!
8:31-watch Sean pull out of the driveway, call seans family to all come over, and go into super speed mode packing, getting kids (6 in all) set up with babysitter for the ENTIRE day, surprise the kids that ALL thier cousins are here!.
8:40-seans fam pulls in, babysitter arrives
8:55- We're all out the door and headed for the lake
9:00-pull in to Dutch Bros and stare down the dude cause i have no idea whats happening
9:05-hit i-5 and drive all the way to Bride Bay Resort cause i don' have one shred of awareness as to what i'm doing, turn around and head back to oasis (cause thats where Jones Valley is)
9:40-get to Jones Valley. Park. Unload. Find our double decker Patio boat with slide, woot woot. Decorate patio boat. Wait for friends and fam to arrive at dock.
10:15 get the text from Dan that he's picking up Sean (who thinks he's coming out to check out houseboats for his birthday in 2 weeks....yep, he saw the freakin confirmation letter from freakin houseboats.com in the mail....had to let him in on a little bit, but not really)
10:45-Sean and Dan come walking down dock with a sea of houseboats on either side of them (ours is in a row of about 20), and SURPRISE!!!!!

TOTAL AND COMPLETE SHOCK. SPEECHLESS. Which for Sean is another first.

11:15am-9:00pm-Ahhhhh, enjoy an encredible day out at the lake with great family, great friends, and shocked husband for the day....it really couldn't have been ANY better!!!

Humble Mom

I had to go run a couple arrends yesterday. Sean was home with the kids, so i was out alone. I rarely take the kids to things like Jamba Juice, it just ends up being so expensive. So I was out, alone, saw Jamba Juice and pulled in. Spontaneous, I know. So I'm standing in line behind a family of four. I LOVE to people watch. So I'm watching this family. Mom, Dad, and 2 daughters, one daughter probably in Jr. High, the other in early High Schoolish. They were such a sweet looking family. The girls just had a sweet and innocent air to them. The parents seemed happy. But I ended up watching the mom the most. She was beautiful. And not typical outward beauty(which she was), but it was as if I could feel her inward beauty radiating out. I was so enthrawled with them. I watched them all order their drinks and the Jr. High(ish) daughter walk forward to pay for all of them. The mom very sweetly went behind her after she got done paying, put her arm around her, kissed the top of her head and thanked her. Such a simple trasaction, but for some reason spoke volumes to me. I saw a daughter putting her own agenda aside and so generously paying for her and her families Jambas....but what seemed to stand out the most was that moms humility. I saw a strong woman standing in front of me, with 2 strong, selfless daughters...and I envied them.
How do i quietly lead my family? How do I humbly yet firmly discipline my children? How do I train them up in the way they should go? without getting angry, without losing my temper, without yelling all the time, without being an absent mom? How do I know that anything I am doing now is going to have an impact on them down the road? How can I be sure that how I mother isn't screwing them up for the rest of their lives?
Its so silly, but all I want is my Jr. High daughter to someday want to be with her family, and want to buy us all Jamba Juices. Because she WANTS to. Because i've done SOMETHING right.

Because I've been that humble mom.

Ikea

Spent the day at Ikea yesterday.

Sean comes home the other day and says "We're going to Ikea, I've got to buy 128 bowls for a wedding, and theirs are on sale"...so we went for it! Hoped in the car a couple days later, had a list, 3 kids, snacks, everyone else's lists, Lance's behind us (with their 3 kids)...ROAD TRIP. Get to Sac around noon, eat lunch at a surf place, get the kids frisbees and we hit Ikea.

1:30-walk into Ikea, heads held high, excitement in the air, 6 energetic kids at our feet.

1:35-Amazing Kids play area (day care) tell us they can't take our kids for another hour.

1:45-head up the escalator. Start browsing, still excitement energy running through us (well, me and the kids, at least)

1:50-6 kids jumping on chairs, couches, swinging around on chairs, jumping from one cart to the next...

1:52-excitement energy slowly draining with complete realization that WE'RE IN A PACKED GINORMOUS STORE WITH ALL KINDS OF BREAKABLE THINGS WITH 6 KIDS...WHAT WERE WE THINKING??!!!!

1:53-pull it together, pull the kids together, pep talk. Shop.

2:15-screw another hour, Sean and Dan take the stinkin kids back down to the day care place

2:15-3:30-Pick out bed

3:30-crap,kids are back...what just happened to that hour?!

4:00 frantically running around Ikea throwing random stuff into 5 carts Sean, Alyssa, Dan and I are all hauling (filled with JUST stuff for us)...kids are melting down

4:30-check out. Get kids ice cream and get the h*#% out of Ikea!!!

Crazy day, but all in all SUPER fun. I kinda love and thrive in chaos!! Thanks Lances for taggin along and being so patient while I took over an hour to pick out a freaking bed, which by the way, ended up being a twin. Awesome, now we get to go all the way back and re-get a bed....

Poor guy was so tired, he literally fell asleep IN the cart.....

Headaches

I get headaches. Everyday. Always have since I can remember. My mom ran the gammot of tests when I was in HS...never figured out why. Its wierd for me now NOT to have a headache. They are just part of my days. I wake up with them and go to bed with them. I'm fine with it....it is what it is.

So lately I've been feeling like I need to give up caffiene and sugar. I've been drinking so much (for me-2 cups a day), thats a ton. So i cut it out cold turkey a few days ago. And what irks me about my headaches is cutting out the caffiene=crazy bad headache for 3 days (to be expected). So now heres my predicament....I'm actually feeling good today, regular headache, but not bad like its been. But I know if I were to have a cup of coffee at some point in my future (which is destined to be sooner, rather than later) It'll give me a HUGE headache. If I have the littlest bite of sugar, HUGE headache. When I cut things out, and then add them back in.....always gives me a ridiculous headache.....WHAT THE HECK!! And taking them out, Ridicuous aches....hmph, trying to be good is just painful...

Last day

Last day of school: Party!! Below: Sky and her sweet teacher, Mrs. Adams

Skylar woke up excited and actually wanting to go to school today, since it was the last day. Couldn't have every day the last few months have been like this morning?? Its been such a rough couple of months for miss Skylar girl. I don't know what happened, what made her go from loving school to despising it, but I'm hoping 1st grade redeems itself for her. She suffers from chronic stomach aches, which what has made our mornings so miserable. Every night and every evening she complains of horrible pain. Been to the Dr, tried removing milk from her diet.....maybe its has just been nerves. At any rate, I'm SO happy its summer! No more getting up and having to be ready and out by 7:30! No more fighting in the mornings. No more waking up Ryder from his nap to go pick up Skylar. So happy. However, on the flip side of not rushing comes more arguing, boredom, more arguing, fighting....so my mission this summer is to get us on a schedule. Maybe breakfast, walk, craft, lunch, swim.....I'll work out the kinks....

Happy SUMMER!

Month in Review

April.

Ryder-22 mo.

-Fully submerge 2 whole rolls of toilet paper in toilet

-Dump out entire contents of Cream of Wheat all over kitchen and draw in it

-Color walls (with washable markers, various colors)

-Color his whole body (non-washable marker)

-Attempt to flush hair brush, toothbrushes, make-up, down toilet

-Flush rubberbands and bobby pins down toilet

-Dump out muliple glasses of water/milk/juice

-Dump out entire 1 gallon of apple juice all over kitchen floor

-Clog Toilet

-Replace old toilet

-Color on walls, once again

-Empty out contents of of Skylars RED paint all over my carpet

-Dump out Skylars nail polish on my floor

-Take 1/2 and 1/2 off counter and emtpy onto my floor

.....and this is just stuff off the top of my head.

He definitely gets plenty of spankens, however, doesn't seem to phase the darn kid...

Its a good thing, he's so stinkin cute!