What a Crock! Pot.

Mary Claire is home from school.  Her ear hurts. : (  She went upstairs to take a nap, and I hope she feels better soon!  I don't know if she'll feel like going to gymnastics today.  I made a roast beef in the crock pot, since I'm usually not home till 5:40 with her, and we are usually starving by then!
I had Mother's Day Out today, and did really well!  I was in and out of the grocery store in almost 30 minutes!  (my record?)  Then, home to brown some beef, cut up carrots and onion for the crock pot, put away groceries, and back out the door.  I had this great coupon for Banana Republic (30% off, only good today!), but when I got there, I realized it was only good from 5-9pm.  Who on Earth gets to shop between those hours?  Talk about limited.  I picked out some stuff that can "grow" with me, and they did a PreSell (took my card info, and will ring it up after 5pm).  I liked one sweater, but they didn't have the color in the right size, so they found it in Fayetteville, which means now I have to go back to both stores!  Maybe since we MiGhT miss gymnastics, I could go there??
Ethan did fine at MDO.  He's been screaming a lot lately for me and Ches.  I think it's a small attachment thing/phase.  I kinda got his mind onto other things (delivering girl scout cookies to the teachers!) so his attention was diverted.  It worked, and I picked him up a little early at the end.  Maybe if he sees I'm the first to be there, he'll be less nervous?  There is no perfect answer, but I need the time alone, and he needs time away from me.

Ps-punctuation matters, don't you think??

Please pray for all ladies you know that are pregnant.  It is not an easy time.  There are all kinds of things to worry about, and anything can happen.  Every day is an accomplishment.  I can understand that it's hard to just enjoy it.  I have friends that need your prayers, so if you have extra time..offer up some prayer! : )  Thank you~

A day of thinking...

I'm so tired, and so I won't make it long.  I always think Sundays are such easy, peasy lazy days.  They aren't.  They involve getting everyone to the same place at the same time in ironed, matching clothes.  That alone, is like Picture Stress!  Yes, some is self-imposed, but it's how I choose to live my life.  Matching.  Ironed.  Imagine the alternative-gross.

And then, I forgot it was Girl Scout World Thinking Day!  Right in the middle of cookie time!  I haven't even given out delivered all my cookies!  What a busy life a girl scout has!  It was overall a good program, but the beginning was a little slow.  It was lots of skits, songs, and presentations (for an hour and a half), then we finally got to travel around with our passports to all the countries.  There were some very creative backboards, give-aways, and great costumes!  I just think we didn't have enough time to read each country's info and time to process.  We kinda herded through like cattle, and when you give a girl a booklet to fill out, you've given her a mission!  Mary Claire was close to tears at the end when she didn't get to travel to all the countries (since we had to work the booth half the time!).  They were closing up, telling us to leave, and she was SO upset she didn't get to go to China (they had awesome stuff for sale for 10 cents-big folded paper things-very cool!).  She did get her name written in Chinese though, she got flags, hair sticks, cookies, toffee, juices, tea, pins, rice, a bracelet, necklace, coffee beans, etc.  Her blood sugar was 399 when we left there!  We'd been giving her insulin, but try counting foods you've never even seen before!  (like sweet potato cookies!)

I posted a few pictures from today, and one from a couple weeks ago-Ethan in the laser tag headset and a gun!  He just came down one morning in it after the kids were gone to school, I guess he planned to play by himself?  He just loves the electronic pow-pow it makes!

I'm still doing well-just really, really tired.  But still thankful.  I gave up Facebook for Lent, but I checked in today for a little while.  It can grab you, and hold on!  I have to turn it off when I go to bed tonight, so I won't start the checking again in the morning.  (Ok, it's closed.)  Alright, sending hugs your way!  G'night!

Italicize, it's good for you!

I have a love-hate relationship with my pillows.  They are feather-filled, and angst-causing.  I don't like synthetic pillows (no, not really biased, I just like to squish and contort my pillow when I sleep-you know, sleep-on-my-face, and cause as many wrinkles as possible, but oh, I sleep well..), so I live with pokey feathers.  The problem is they slowly creep out, and POKE ME!  Ouch.  I just had one stab my back as I sat down to write.  Yes, I'm in bed.  It's Ches' fault.  He got me this great new laptop, and it's so much warmer and cozier in bed.  Except for the pillows.  Err..I mean the feathers!
If you can imagine, there are a few areas of my life that I don't write about, and they got a little haywire today.  So just imagine..if you know all the crazy stuff, imagine what you don't know! : )  Consider yourself lucky!
Other than that, I got lots done.  I finished cleaning my desk, paid bills, and got my tax stuff ready! (this is alone a HUGE accomplishment! I have to tell you, so you'll know.)  I normally don't have much to do with our taxes.  I print out tons of reports and do all the fun chart-making, etc. but Ches does the actual prep work.  But, this year our accountant (yeah, we go back and forth with even having one, but this is our second year with this one, believe me, we need one now!  It gets hairier every year!) and he sent us a packet (small book) full of questions and blanks to fill out, and I did pretty well.  Only had to ask Ches a few questions, but we did it.  What a massive relief.  I have been dreading it, but I can sleep well tonight.
I have figured out (in the desk cleaning) that I have triple-booked appointments this Friday morning, and double booked appointments on March 8th.  I have got to get it together!  My brain is fried. (or boiled?)  Speaking of, I'm eating eggs every day now.  MMmm, good!  Two egg whites, "fried" (in Pam spray) on toast.  Yum.  I know my cereal has 100% of almost 20 vitamins and minerals (Multigrain Cheerios), but eggs are...yummy!  Polka-dotted with pepper like crazy, of course.  Anyway, I've got to make some calls on Monday morning to get all my appts straightened out!  I want to be at ALL of them, but I don't have a brain calendar.  (Note to self: get a brain calendar)
Mary Claire got almost mauled by a pit bull today.  It was not full-grown, maybe 6 or 7 months old, but it jumped up so high, it scratched her neck, and clawed at her shirt, and caused shear panic!  She ran back to Mom's house, cried, and was so scared!  It was okay, and you can't see the marks now, so all better, but so scary!  The sheriff came out to check it out, as they do with all pit bull cases, and long story... If it's out again, they'll take it away, but the lady had it out as soon as he left!  I think she's just pushing her luck.  Sometimes the dogs have the character of their owners (same with parents' children?), and the owners have gotten specific breeds because of their character. (see how I learned how to italicize, and I am not afraid to use it?)  I think pit bull owners want you to stay away, be afraid of them, and aren't so much social people.  Ok, this is totally biased, and yes, it's my opinion.  Take a look at the people you know with pets, and do a little analysis yourself! (such a fun Saturday activity!)
Tomorrow is back to family time.  PRE, church (will he or won't he go to the nursery??), lunch out, deliver some cookies to lucky buyers, and I'm thinking I just may have a meeting at the church tomorrow for Mary Claire's first communion that I just this instant remembered.  Oh, to take it as it comes.  I'm trying!  I've got to use my calendar more. (as much as I use the italics button?)

ps-if you were wondering, Target is STILL sold out of Zhu Zhu pets.  You can still get the tunnels, but oh, so boring if you don't have a little fake hamster to run around inside them.

Commercial Baby = Cleaning Accomplished. Good or Bad?

Every day I think it can't get any busier.  I just like to prove myself wrong so I don't get a big head.  Today the kids were home from school, so we had fun. We got around kinda late, had a big breakfast (eggs, toast, juice, AND cereal-big for us!), then headed out to run some errands.

We went by the church to get new envelopes for the kids-we've been out for a while now.. Then we stopped in and had lunch at Tim's Pizza with Ches, then on to haircuts!  Ethan had promised to be a big boy (and not cry, scream, and generally get hair bits stuck in his tears and snot), but backed down when we got there. : (  I did the Mommy Thing (that makes the other kids jealous) and bribed him with a toy from Target (you know, his FaVoRiTe!), and it worked!!  He was really good, only freaked a couple times, but good.  Then we went to Collier's to pick up more supplies for Mary Claire, then to get some shoes for Clay and Mary Claire (and Ethan picked out those ugly shoes with car pictures on them, and I just Couldn't), then to Target to get the aforementioned Toy.  I had said I'd get the Chuck the Truck, that he wanted from tv, but that fancy toy was $34.99!  I didn't know what I'd said!  It was almost as much as the boys' haircuts.  He held it, but moved onto other things (thank you, God!).  He ended up with a portable-ish fire station, and is very happy with it-even hours later!  Then we moved onto Wal-Mart for groceries and then home for me to crash.

I could take no more.  That was a busy day for my tired bones.  I was even craving a coke from a bottle (ick-no ice or straw!), so I was getting desperate.
I called Ches and he was on his way home, so he said he'd put the groceries away (again, thank you, God!).  The kids played around outside, packed up their stuff, for they were going to GIGI's!  THey were excited, and so excited, they took off with Clay still in his new shoes!  They had to come back, since we knew he'd play outside (and ruin the new shoes, for he's a BoY!).  Then we forgot to take a bunch of Splenda to Mom's for their tea party, so we were running 0-2.

I napped for a little while Ches ran the kids to Mom's house, then we got back in the van to pick up our girl scout cookies.  They're Here!  and they are SO GooD.  I had to open some Samoas (remember, the caramel delites?).  Oh, and you can't eat just one.  Happiness in My Mouth.  Did you remember to order yours!?  Delivery starts tomorrow!  If you need a few more, we have some extras, so order fast.  They only come once a year.  Sound like a girl scout? heehee

My little sweetie is sound asleep in bed-he had a long day too: lots of running, haircut, cookie, puzzles and books.  What a great day!  So, thanks Springdale Schools for this day-cation! : )

Random Information: Ethan's new phrase is: Don't Get Mad, Get Glad!  I have a short video from Ches' phone I'll try to post.  It's so funny!! Especially if you say the word Mad, it comes right out of his mouth.  Gee..think my baby watches too much tv when I'm getting all that cleaning done?