Coming soon…

Fall is approaching Kentucky, and I couldn’t be happier.  Fall means cooler weather, a change in the decorations in the house, and fewer and fewer months for the husband to be working.  As much as his job frustrates me at times, I am always glad that he gets to be off in the winter.  He misses so much at home when he’s working, so the winter months give him a chance to get caught up around the house and with the kids.

Vacation will be coming soon, too!  We’re all going (all of my hoodlums, Megan, Scotty, Mom and Collin) to Gulf Shores in January.  This will be Emily Frances and Christian’s first trip to the beach, and Emily thinks that she’s going to swim in the ocean.  I have tried preparing her for the trip by telling her that it’ll be cold in the ocean, so I think she’ll be content to stick her feet in the water and play in the sand.  This means we’ll be home at Thanksgiving, so I’m not sure what that will entail.  Thanksgiving 07 was spent at Lake Barkley Lodge, preparing for Megan’s wedding, and last year we went to Pigeon Forge.  I don’t care what we do, as long as I get a pumpkin pie.

Emily has started preschool again this year, and is doing well.  She has suddenly started fussing about going, so I tell her that she can stay home all day and never go back to preschool.  Apparently, she doesn’t like that idea, as she keeps going despite all the complaining.  I want her to have a good experience with preschool, so that when she has to go to kindergarten all day long next year, she’ll be ready to go in the mornings and won’t whine about it.  I’m sure I couldn’t be so lucky. =)

Christian is growing like a weed.  He’s not crawling yet, but he manages to get on his belly and get into EVERYTHING in the living room.  When he flops on his back, he smacks his head against the floor so loud that I cringe.  He never complains about it hurting, though.  He babbles all day long, sleeps all night long (in his OWN bed), and threatens to eat us out of house and home.  We just have to start weaning him from this constant need to be held.  It makes getting anything done impossible, because I have a fat and squirmy baby in my arms all the time.

Ah, life.  It’s a little hectic, and very unpredictable, but I enjoy every day of it!

The End of Summer

It is official - the end of summer (as I am accustomed to it) is nigh.  Evander left a day early to return to Wisconsin with Danny, Lisa, and their kids.  Emily Frances starts school again in 17 days, and Christian is already six months old.  Where has this year gone?

Our visit with Evander went really well.  School has helped him tremendously, and he is such a joy to be around.  Emily adores him and follows him around like a little lost puppy, and Christian gets such a big smile on his face when his big brother plays with him.  Dustin is heartbroken that he is gone, so I will prepare myself for a weekend of silence and sadness from him.  Emily still doesn’t understand that Evander can’t stay with us all the time, and she is missing him today as well.

But as all good things must come to an end, so must this summer and this post.  Ever since the new Walmart supercenter opened in town, I have been frequenting it like it’s my job.  It’s hands down the nicest Walmart I’ve ever been in, and I can’t believe my tiny town rated one like it!  So tonight it’s off to the Walmart for the third time this week, for baby food (Christian eats me out of house and home) and whatever else strikes my fancy.

Oooh, and next week is phone upgrade time!  I’m really leaning towards a Motorola Karma - anyone have any good suggestions for me?  I’m not paying for an iPhone, and I don’t do anything but call and text on my phone, so I don’t need anything super fancy.

Restless

For whatever reason, summer makes me restless.  I feel like I need to run away, hide under the covers - I just don’t know.  I am always like this.  Summer makes me nervous and hot.  I like being cold, the world being blank.  Maybe because everything is alive, I feel that it eats up all my air.  Who knows?  I’ve just never been a summer kind of girl.

This summer is going by quickly, I have found.  Every day at the house, Christian is doing something cute and new, like eating baby food (he’s a real pig about it), Emily and Evander spend most days at Dustin’s parents’ house, and I can’t get enough sleep to save my life.  I cook, I straighten the house, I feed a baby, I rock a baby, I wait for Dustin to get home from work, I go to bed.  Being a housewife is rewarding, but in some ways I feel like I’m losing myself in the process.  It is just a phase, I am assured…..this too shall pass.

I got Emily registered for preschool today, so that’s one less thing I have to worry about.  I hated having that as a huge loose end, and I wasn’t sure if I was going to enroll her at her old preschool or send her to the public one.   But I know that the teachers at her preschool love her very much, and they spoil her with attention (which is bad sometimes, but she’s little and she blooms with all that extra love).  This year they’ve bought her a set of kindergarten books to accompany her 4 year old books, so I’m hoping between the two sets that she comes away from this year ready for kindergarten and then some.

Evander has been a ray of sunshine in our house this summer.  School has done wonders for him, as far as his attention and manners.  Of course, we’re still working on some things, like sitting still, eating at the dinner table like a human being, and not talking so much.  These things will probably still be goals to work on for summers to come.  But at least our vacation isn’t spent trying to get him under control up until the last week.  I think he appreciates the stability and consistency that this house affords him, and it does him good to know that he has boundaries and rules to follow.

I found out today that my best friend is having a baby girl - congratulations, Melissa!  Anyone else have exciting news?

Things are crazy!

So, in my little piece of the earth, life is about to get crazy busy.

1.  I’m selling Scentsy now!  I’m getting ready to place my first order - if you or anyone you know loves candles and FREE STUFF, let me know if you’d like to host a party!

2.  Evander comes tomorrow!  He’s staying with us for six weeks, and I hope it’s a good summer and we all have a good time.  I hope that we get to do a lot of swimming while he’s here, and I hope that he gets to make a good bond with Christian.  This will be the first time he’s seen his brother since Christian was born, so they have a lot of catching up to do.

3.  We’re going to Holiday World!  My brother-in-law is coming through with some tickets for us and babysitting for Christian, so we can take Emily and Evander and enjoy the day without keeping up with a small baby.  I’ve never been there, so I’m hoping to have a good time.  Everyone who’s been says it’s great, and I hope I feel the same way!

Life is still good - I need to go into work this weekend and work on some ads (I’m still kinda “freelance” at work - I help with advertising and marketing), and then I’ll work a little next week.  It’s been so rainy and blah around here that I haven’t felt like going, but if we get home at a decent time tomorrow, I’m planning on going in after the kids are in bed.

Anyone doing anything fabulous this summer?

Hectic!

Where has this week gone? I am absolutely flabbergasted that it is almost 8 on Friday night! I haven’t really done much of anything this week and I’m worn out and worn down.

So far this week, I have grocery shopped at a big Walmart (this is always the highlight of any week). The only reason I wanted to go to a big Walmart was to purchase some Fruit Chillers in peach. Our local Walmart only carries them in strawberry, and I’ve always been really lucky to find them in peach when I go to a Supercenter. Imagine my dismay when I found out that the Benton Walmart only had strawberry and raspberry! I was terribly heartbroken….so no peach sorbet this week for me. Boo.

I got my hair did (thanks, Codie!) and I feel much better. The back of my hair always grows faster than the front/sides of my hair, and I was getting a Carol Brady mullet flip in the worst way. So Codie chopped off the back, thinned out the sides, and made me feel like a new woman. Codie is also having a basket party for Scentsy, so when you’re in Eddyville, hit her up at Let’s Roll and get a fabulous do AND some Scentsy!

Speaking of Scentsy, I am now an official Independent Consultant with Scentsy! If you want more information, visit my Scentsy site or email me.

Next week my stepson comes for the summer - our house is getting ready to explode! I’m sure that updates will be even more scarce than they have been at the moment, so yeah. My summer is about to kick into way high gear……

Summer is here, I think….

…..and it’s officially too hot for me.  I am just not meant for days that see over 72 degrees, people.  I like cool weather.  Fall.  Long sleeves.  Pants.  Boots.  I mean, have you seen my skin?  I am whiter than that bluish white paint that used to be on my bedroom walls.  W-H-I-T-E.  And since my former doctor put the fear of God on me, I do not go to tanning beds or lay out in the sun.  I simply celebrate my white legs and laugh to myself about how many wrinkles I WON’T have when I’m older.

Of course, when it’s this warm and sunny, Emily Frances is dying to go outside.  People, I simply cannot muster the energy to even THINK about going out side when it’s 90+.  She received a beach ball sprinkler for her birthday and she’s desperate to break it in.  Now, normally I would be right up in that sprinkler with her, but with Christian having to go outside too, I’m really not wanting to drag him out there and put him in a stroller where he’ll just sit and get miserable.  When Christian is miserable, we are ALL miserable.  So Emily Frances has been put on the back burner for the moment - when it is not so hot outside, I have promised her a sprinkler filled afternoon.

This week consists of the following tasks:

• Take the children to the health department (Done, and I’ll talk about that in another post)
• Get my hair cut…I have a Carol Brady mullet flip going on in the back of my head
• Go grocery shopping at a “big Walmart” aka Supercenter
• Ship Emily Frances off to the inlaws for a night (which is happening tomorrow)

That actually sounds like I could accomplish it, right?  I’m also helping Mom and Megan look for a vacation house along the coast of North Carolina/South Carolina/Georgia for a Thanksgiving vacation this year.  They want to go somewhere again, but I said, “NO MOUNTAINS!!!”  Once you’ve seen one, you feel like you’ve seen them all.  I want the beach, people!  I know you can’t really get in the water, but Emily’s never been to a beach ANYWHERE and she needs to go.  Beaches are always fantastic destinations, especially for the seafood.  Yum!

By the way, for those of you who might possibly be interested, I’m having a Scentsy basket party!  Go HERE and order from my party - I have all the testers with me, so if you want to smell before you buy, just give me a call or email and I’ll be glad to bring them to you!  I heart their warmers and some of their scents are just TOO good, like Orange Dreamsicle and Pomegranate Grapefruit.  Yes, they smell as good as they sound!

Inspiration vs. Motivation

I have decided that I have plenty of inspiration for a LOT of things I’d like to do, but no motivation.  I need to be motivated, people!  It’s gotten to be that I only clean my house if I know people are coming over.  Shameful, I know.  I should like the idea of a continually clean house, so that I can look rested and relaxed whenever people come over - NOT like a sweating pig who has obviously been flying around the house trying to straighten.  Alas, it will come one day….I know it will.

I found lots of neat ideas for jewelry making, and now I just have to get myself to a Hobby Lobby to realize my crafty dreams.  Who knew that Etsy would be such a godsend of ideas?? It is also so amazing that there are so many crafty people out in the world - there truly is nothing new under the sun, it seems.

Today’s agenda is blissfully simple - Christian needs a bath, I need a shower, and Emily needs to clean her room.  You can’t get much better than that.  I also need to do another quick straightening round on the house, and perhaps this afternoon will find the kids and I out in the driveway trying Emily’s new 3D sidewalk chalk.  I must also get outside and check my flowers for activity.  We planted seeds on Easter Sunday, and rumor has it that they’re FINALLY making their way up to the sky.  I would also like to plant my sunflower seeds - they are red and orange sunflowers, and I want to plant them where a lot of people will see them.

What are your plans for today and the rest of the week?  Anything exciting going on?

Getting crafty!

ETA: I think I’m going to try my hand at a couple of bracelets, a couple of ID holders, and maybe some magnets and see which one keeps my interest long enough.  I think the bracelets/holders will emerge as winners, but we’ll see.

So, as if keeping up with two kids all day isn’t enough to keep me busy, I’ve decided I need a crafting project.  I thought about making jewelry, but that seems like such a huge investment with such minimal payoff.  Then I thought about painting picture frames and putting different pieces of fabric inside.  I don’t know of a better way to describe it, but I’m sure you’ll probably get the point.  Then I think to myself, “Why make that stuff?  I don’t have anywhere to hang it and I’m not sure anyone would buy any of it.”

I just feel like I’m not crafty anymore, and I want something to make and create, even if it’s not very clever or flashy.  I don’t really enjoy scrapbooking, and everything I think to do, it seems like there’s a million other people doing it.  Blah.  Anyone have any good ideas?  I really liked the idea of making mother’s bracelets for people.  All the ones I find are really expensive, and I know I could make them cheaper.

Why is it so hard to be crafty and creative when you really want to be??

Come on, get down with the sickness.

As it turns out, I have finally gotten sick from Emily Frances and Christian (I think - we could all have swine flu and just not know it).  Emily has been fighting a cough and runny nose for the last week.  I had been convinced that it was merely allergies and not anything more serious, but after a long weekend full of nose blowing incessantly, I brought up her symptoms to her doctor on Monday during her well-child checkup.

BRONCHITIS!!!  Well, no one is saying that for sure, but we certainly don’t want it to become that.  So in hopes of persuading whatever it is that Emily has to leave quickly, we are now giving her Claritin, Robitussin, and an antibiotic (whenever I go to pick it up - I missed the pick up time yesterday and didn’t leave the house today).  Christian is still a little wheezy, but he’s not running a fever or being AS snotty as before, so I think he might just survive.  I, however, now have a perma-headache and a tickle in my throat that is only quelled by coughing.  I feel wretched and sound like a man.

We also went for Emily’s four year old immunizations yesterday at the local health department.  TWO HOURS LATER…..we emerged somewhat unscathed.  I was very proud of Emily - she didn’t cry during the procedure (although Christian more than made up for it), and even got a jump rope when she was all done.  However, I have found out today that while the girls at the health department were adding her new immunizations to her record, they found that two of them were given to her too early.  No one has called me back about this development, but I have a feeling that she’s going to have to get those two again.

So, while perusing the internet, I find that I feel very out of place.  I don’t know of many sites out there that have anything interesting on them, and all the ones I used to visit are mostly defunct and/or boring.  Leave me links, people - I need some new places to visit!  The ones I find to be really great will be added to my blogroll to the right.

Weekend Recap

What a great weekend!  I really don’t remember what we did Saturday (did we do anything Saturday??), but Sunday, also known as Mother’s Day, was a great day.

Emily Frances had a conniption trying to get me awake Sunday morning, because she was very excited about her culinary prowress and decided that I just had to know about it RIGHT AWAY!  Dustin helped her make biscuits, gravy and bacon for breakfast.  I also had to open my presents immediately, as she had been busting at the seams since Friday to tell me what she had gotten for me.  I got a very nice hanging basket of pink and white flowers, a cookbook from preschool, some crafts that Emily had made at preschool, and a couple of cards.  She even made me one and wrote all over it.  Her handwriting and grasp of language really amazes me every day.

Then we went to see my mommy and spent the rest of the afternoon with her.  Dustin helped Collin (my brother) clean some fish - I don’t think either of them knew what they were doing, and Dustin ended up with crap all over his shirt.  He was made to ride home so he didn’t get fishy guts all over my seatbelt.  It was a great Mother’s Day….very relaxing and I got to spend it with my babies.

Now we’re in the homestretch this week for Emily’s birthday party.  I got her invitations delivered yesterday at preschool, and so far, we have one confirmed coming.  Eep.  But at the very least, I know there will be a few kiddos there, and she really won’t care who comes as long as she gets to swing at the park.  After all her birthday fun, she has two appointments on Monday - one for her 4 year old checkup, and one for her 4 year old shots.  Ewww.  I really dread this, but as she just got her ears pierced yesterday and just cried her tiny tears, I think that she might be alright with it.

Today I’m on a mission to find a shepherd’s hook (possibly two or three).  I have my hanging basket that needs to go up, some windchimes that need a permanent place, and I might want another hanging basket.  I’m also thinking about buying some flowers to plant in my bare patches in the yard, or maybe an azalea bush.  So after I finish putting my face on and pack Christian’s bag for the day, we’re off to Akridge’s in Eddyville for some flower shopping.

It’s a beautiful week, no matter what!