The comings and goings of the fab four

But I sure do love my friends! It was for *that* reason, and not the health of my mind, that I decided to venture over to Gulf Shores, AL to visit my friend Christy from Texas, along with her family – Shawn, Gray & Parker, and her mom, Grandma Honey. It is about 7 hours out there, straight down I-10, and about an hour off of the highway. The plan was to drive out on Sunday morning, leaving early (which is the best time to travel with kids, in my opinion), and arrive midday. We’d enjoy the rest of that day, Monday and then leave either later on Tuesday, or get up super early on Wednesday and leave from there. The ride out was not too bad – we got up and left at 5:30am, and arrived around 1:30 (they’re on central time, so we gained an hour). And let me say, Gulf Shores is stunning. Seriously, people, it is absolutely AMAZING there. The beaches are so long, and the sand is like white sugar. The water is clear green – I was standing waist deep and could see my toes, clearly. It’s dazzling. I was dazzled, at least. The sun was bright and beautiful. Wow. So I immediately was able to black out any glitches we might have had in the ride. Not to mention how exciting it was to see Christy & the gang. The kids had gotten so big! I was thinking about it, and I didn’t feel out of touch with Christy at all – we are both stay at home moms, and we chit chat on instant messenger pretty much all day every day. I am probably more in touch with her than anyone else, but it was nice to see her pretty face. So the days were great fun – we went to the beach and the pool, and hung out a lot. However, Tuesday morning when we got up, my kids were really just off the wall. They had created more ruckus by about 6:30am than I thought was worth the stress – so I decided we’d leave that day. By this time I had no recollection of the drive out because of said dazzling… so we went to the pool that morning, and left about 12:00. We made it to Tallahassee for dinner (which is about 2 1/2 hours from our house) and Miles really started screaming. It was pretty much an intermittent screamfest from then on. It was awful, and those two bad hours made it probably the worst car ride we’ve taken, yet. And unfortunately I don’t have gorgeous, beautiful sand and clear green water to erase the memory, so I am still kind of reeling and trying to get over it. But it was worth it to see our friends.

We are so excited about the next few weeks – we have so many fun visits coming up. Our friends Kerri & Eric from TX are coming out with their son, Nathan, who is just a few months older than Miles, next weekend. They’re staying about a week, so we can’t wait to see them! That next weekend, mom, dad, Emily & I think Kevin are coming down. Robert is going on a boys golf trip that weekend, so they are going to keep me company! I can’t wait. Our friends Emily & Alan, also from Texas are also planning a trip out sometime this summer with their little guy, Jack. Emily is my cloth diapering mentor, although she wouldn’t be proud of me these days.

Lydia’s school program is tomorrow, with her last day being next Wednesday. She has some fun things lined up for the summer- two separate weeks of morning camp at The Little Gym, and I’m going to try to find a Bible school somewhere. It would probably be helpful if we found a church we really liked – it’s on our to-do list. We have a trip up to NC planned at the end of July, probably coinciding with Emily Ferguson’s bachelorette party. We are going on a family beach trip for a week in September, I will stay in town the next week with the kids for Emily & Thomas’s wedding – we are getting excited, but hate we’re missing out on all the fun parties and showers! I can’t believe it will be June in a few days – the last year has zoomed by in a quick little blink. Hopefully by the next big wedding that rolls around, we’ll be settled comfortably into a new house in NC!

The kids are doing great – Miles is starting to differentiate his grunts – a pig’s “oink” is a much deeper sounding grunt than a bird’s “peep” or a dog’s “woof”. He shakes his head for “no” when he doesn’t want something, and will kind of point when he wants something. He is FINALLY waving bye bye when he’s in the mood. He has stopped hitting SO much, he’s a little more receptive to directions. He will go and “fetch” things – “Miles, go get your paci”, “Miles, go get X,Y or Z”. He also likes things to be in their place – he will pick things up, like the remote, and hand them to me. He just picked up Lydia’s dress and handed it to her. He seems to like order and routine. Lydia is big and smart and still not missing anything. Lots of whining, and still lots of the “I can do it”. Last night she got mad at me because I was singing with her yahoo CD. She said it was HER CD, so SHE could sing. She’s a bossy little thing. I wonder where she gets it from?

But I sure do love my friends! It was for *that* reason, and not the health of my mind, that I decided to venture over to Gulf Shores, AL to visit my friend Christy from Texas, along with her family – Shawn, Gray & Parker, and her mom, Grandma Honey. It is about 7 hours out there, straight down I-10, and about an hour off of the highway. The plan was to drive out on Sunday morning, leaving early (which is the best time to travel with kids, in my opinion), and arrive midday. We’d enjoy the rest of that day, Monday and then leave either later on Tuesday, or get up super early on Wednesday and leave from there. The ride out was not too bad – we got up and left at 5:30am, and arrived around 1:30 (they’re on central time, so we gained an hour). And let me say, Gulf Shores is stunning. Seriously, people, it is absolutely AMAZING there. The beaches are so long, and the sand is like white sugar. The water is clear green – I was standing waist deep and could see my toes, clearly. It’s dazzling. I was dazzled, at least. The sun was bright and beautiful. Wow. So I immediately was able to black out any glitches we might have had in the ride. Not to mention how exciting it was to see Christy & the gang. The kids had gotten so big! I was thinking about it, and I didn’t feel out of touch with Christy at all – we are both stay at home moms, and we chit chat on instant messenger pretty much all day every day. I am probably more in touch with her than anyone else, but it was nice to see her pretty face. So the days were great fun – we went to the beach and the pool, and hung out a lot. However, Tuesday morning when we got up, my kids were really just off the wall. They had created more ruckus by about 6:30am than I thought was worth the stress – so I decided we’d leave that day. By this time I had no recollection of the drive out because of said dazzling… so we went to the pool that morning, and left about 12:00. We made it to Tallahassee for dinner (which is about 2 1/2 hours from our house) and Miles really started screaming. It was pretty much an intermittent screamfest from then on. It was awful, and those two bad hours made it probably the worst car ride we’ve taken, yet. And unfortunately I don’t have gorgeous, beautiful sand and clear green water to erase the memory, so I am still kind of reeling and trying to get over it. But it was worth it to see our friends.

We are so excited about the next few weeks – we have so many fun visits coming up. Our friends Kerri & Eric from TX are coming out with their son, Nathan, who is just a few months older than Miles, next weekend. They’re staying about a week, so we can’t wait to see them! That next weekend, mom, dad, Emily & I think Kevin are coming down. Robert is going on a boys golf trip that weekend, so they are going to keep me company! I can’t wait. Our friends Emily & Alan, also from Texas are also planning a trip out sometime this summer with their little guy, Jack. Emily is my cloth diapering mentor, although she wouldn’t be proud of me these days.

Lydia’s school program is tomorrow, with her last day being next Wednesday. She has some fun things lined up for the summer- two separate weeks of morning camp at The Little Gym, and I’m going to try to find a Bible school somewhere. It would probably be helpful if we found a church we really liked – it’s on our to-do list. We have a trip up to NC planned at the end of July, probably coinciding with Emily Ferguson’s bachelorette party. We are going on a family beach trip for a week in September, I will stay in town the next week with the kids for Emily & Thomas’s wedding – we are getting excited, but hate we’re missing out on all the fun parties and showers! I can’t believe it will be June in a few days – the last year has zoomed by in a quick little blink. Hopefully by the next big wedding that rolls around, we’ll be settled comfortably into a new house in NC!

The kids are doing great – Miles is starting to differentiate his grunts – a pig’s “oink” is a much deeper sounding grunt than a bird’s “peep” or a dog’s “woof”. He shakes his head for “no” when he doesn’t want something, and will kind of point when he wants something. He is FINALLY waving bye bye when he’s in the mood. He has stopped hitting SO much, he’s a little more receptive to directions. He will go and “fetch” things – “Miles, go get your paci”, “Miles, go get X,Y or Z”. He also likes things to be in their place – he will pick things up, like the remote, and hand them to me. He just picked up Lydia’s dress and handed it to her. He seems to like order and routine. Lydia is big and smart and still not missing anything. Lots of whining, and still lots of the “I can do it”. Last night she got mad at me because I was singing with her yahoo CD. She said it was HER CD, so SHE could sing. She’s a bossy little thing. I wonder where she gets it from?

The kids and I, that is. I’ll do a real blog tomorrow, but for anyone who doesn’t know where we’ve been, here’s a little hint.

The kids and I, that is. I’ll do a real blog tomorrow, but for anyone who doesn’t know where we’ve been, here’s a little hint.

I’ve been putting my sewing machine to good use. Here are this week’s projects:

This week was one of those twilighty weeks where I can’t tell if I’m pissed off because the kids are acting insane, or if they’re acting insane because I am in such a funk. Whatever it was, it was no good. Miles was whiny and fussy, pitching fit after fit, throwing himself all over the place, and hitting and kicking everything in his path. Lydia was backtalking and making demands left and right. She also pitched her share of fits. Miles kicked up his screaming, and Lydia, having picked up that screaming equals attention, had started her own version of screaming. I told someone this week that it used to be that if Lydia had a bad day (and it was always bad day – singular), I could almost guarantee that the next day would be spectacular, and I would feel better about life and having children and everything else. Now, we’ll have several bad days in a row, and there’s no guarantee that we’ll have a super day to follow, sometimes it will level out, sometimes it will drag out. Is it the age? I don’t know. Is it the fact that there are two of them? Maybe. Am I burnt out? Very possible. Whatever it is, I have absolutely zero control over it. I think that a change of scenery this weekend will help. We are all getting excited! The kids have also had two pretty good days, so that has made life a lot easier, and more enjoyable!

Hope you have a super Memorial Day Weekend!

Tonight when we were making dinner for the kids chili (or, chee-ow-lee to Lydia), I had run out of corelle bowls, so I was defrosting the chili in a glass bowl and transferring it to plastic to feed to Miles. Robert just saw the plastic bowl, and said, “you aren’t using that in the microwave, are you? Aren’t you supposed to be using glass?”. My sweet little Republican is worried about PBC’s! All of my rants are not for nothing! He hasn’t complained about the new bath products (including “natural” deodorant I bought for him)! I’ll have him driving a hybrid by the time he’s 40. I have to say, he really does roll with whatever new idea I’m integrating into our family. He even cloth diapers! He’s awesome.

A few minutes ago I was reading something about John McCain’s health, and I asked Robert, “how old IS John McCain, anyway?” He said (and I am not EVEN lying), “Who is John McCain?”. What? I asked him again and he gave the same response. Ha! I said, you know, the Republican Presidential Nominee? He said, “Who cares!”. This might be one year when our votes don’t cancel each other out! Robert cracks me up.

To Pam, Adam and Alex on the arrival of their baby girl this morning!!!!

Robert bought 3 pounds of Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough from someone at work… he brought it home tonight and Lydia asked what it was – we said, it’s something for mommy and daddy. I told him that the timing was good, because the Grey’s Anatomy season finale is tonight. Fast forward to when Robert is getting her ready for bed. She asks him, “what happened to the cookies?”. “What cookies?” “The cookies you put in the freezer that you and mommy are going to eat tonight when you’re watching lots of tv.” Really? REALLY? Did you really figure that out just from that conversation? The words cookie and lots of tv were never mentioned.

In other news, we had a fantastic day today. We went to the gym, then came home long enough for me to shower, then we dropped off shirts, and went to the library to get videos and cd’s for us to watch/listen to on the way to the beach to see my dear darling wonderful friend Christy, along with Shawn and Gray and Park and Grandma Honey on Sunday. I am so excited. We got home, both kids ate lunch, and went down for a nap (and both of them actually slept!), I watched last night’s Top Chef and folded about 40 loads of laundry while the kids were sleeping – I also had the time and energy to pick up, and make the bed. When the kids woke up, our friends Jenifer, Holly & Ben were here, and we played until it was time for dinner. These are the days that are my reward for very, very rough days prior to today. It was like everything kind of fell into place. The house is relatively clean, there are 3 pounds of cookie dough in the freezer, and a 2 hour Grey’s Anatomy on tonight. I am seeing one of my best friends on the Earth in 3 days, and life is good. Thank you GOD! I really needed this!

Robert bought 3 pounds of Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough from someone at work… he brought it home tonight and Lydia asked what it was – we said, it’s something for mommy and daddy. I told him that the timing was good, because the Grey’s Anatomy season finale is tonight. Fast forward to when Robert is getting her ready for bed. She asks him, “what happened to the cookies?”. “What cookies?” “The cookies you put in the freezer that you and mommy are going to eat tonight when you’re watching lots of tv.” Really? REALLY? Did you really figure that out just from that conversation? The words cookie and lots of tv were never mentioned.

In other news, we had a fantastic day today. We went to the gym, then came home long enough for me to shower, then we dropped off shirts, and went to the library to get videos and cd’s for us to watch/listen to on the way to the beach to see my dear darling wonderful friend Christy, along with Shawn and Gray and Park and Grandma Honey on Sunday. I am so excited. We got home, both kids ate lunch, and went down for a nap (and both of them actually slept!), I watched last night’s Top Chef and folded about 40 loads of laundry while the kids were sleeping – I also had the time and energy to pick up, and make the bed. When the kids woke up, our friends Jenifer, Holly & Ben were here, and we played until it was time for dinner. These are the days that are my reward for very, very rough days prior to today. It was like everything kind of fell into place. The house is relatively clean, there are 3 pounds of cookie dough in the freezer, and a 2 hour Grey’s Anatomy on tonight. I am seeing one of my best friends on the Earth in 3 days, and life is good. Thank you GOD! I really needed this!

It’s been a rough week, I’ll do a real post another time. For now I am laughing at www.planethiltron.com – they take funny pictures and photoshop celebrity photos into them. Funnnnny stuff. (Don’t worry, we are DVRing Idol)

My Favorite