I'm the Reigning Queen

So here's the thing--

I say I will never do a lot of things.  And when I say I will never do those things, I mean it...with all my heart.  I will NEVER do it.  And then I do them.

I will never have a baby without an epidural.
I had 3 of my 4 without an epidural.

I will never have a baby at home.
I had my last two babies at home.

I will never have a minivan.
I have a minivan.

When I have kids, I'll never yelll.
hahahahaaahahahaaahaa!

I will never live in Manassas.
I live in Manassas.

I will never wear skinny jeans.
I wear skinny jeans.  I'm still in denial about it, though.

I will never buy kids music CDs for them to listen to in the car.
Our 6 disk changer in the car is almost fully loaded with kids music.

I will never join a gym.
I joined a gym.  Sadly, that was years ago, but if juC would let me, I would have already joined another one.

There's no need to continue the list.  Just know that there's a lot and I say it all to lead up to this one.

I will never move my family to Utah.  Never.  Never ever.  Never ever ever ever never ever never.
And here we are...right in the midst of getting our house ready to sell because juC has accepted a job in Utah.
And that is why I am THE Queen of Doing Everything I Say I Will Never Do.  Don't even try, the crown is mine!

A couple years ago, while visiting Utah, I took the above picture.  We were at a park.  It was a lovely park with slides and jungle gyms and water shooting up out of the ground (on purpose) and a big green hill for the kids to run up.  The sky was beautifully blue, the clouds in the distance were wonderfully fluffy, and the mountains were sitting there all majestically without even trying.  I sat there thinking, Utah sure is pretty!  And I couldn't help but snap picture after beautiful picturesque picture.

Over the last several weeks as this whole Utah thing has come to fruition, I keep thinking about that day at the park.

And living in Utah will come with other perks too aside from beautiful picturesque mountainous view parks.  We'll be close to family.  Lots and lots of family.  All over.  juC will have consistent hours at work that (hopefully) won't require phone calls on Saturdays and Sundays for leaky pipes at buildings, and having to go clean up messes at 10:00 at night.  The kids will be in schools that are NOT the school they are in now (huge bonus!)  And did I mention we'll be close to tons of family!?

So Utah.  I'm sorry I never wanted to move my family to you.  But I'm excited about the move after all.  So get ready for us.  And be good to us.  You've got approximately a month to prepare for our arrival.  Use your time well.

Meanwhile, I'll continue to say a lot of "I will nevers..." that I will end up doing, so that I can remain the queen.

P.S.  Virginia.  Oh dear, sweet, Virginia.  Please don't take offense to this.  I will forever and ever love you.  But I'll save that for a post just about you.

Living Life With Purpose

You guys!  The other night, I was looking for a specific picture.  I could remember posting this picture on my other blog (the private one that only important people were invited to read).  I couldn't find it with all my pictures so I set off to find it on the other blog, and I ended up taking a lovely, emotional stroll down memory lane.  Back when my kids were wittle, and sweet, and cute, and frustrating.  Oh wait, they're still at that stage, huh?
As I read through these posts filled with pictures of my kids and silly stories, I couldn't help but fall even more in love with them.  And I couldn't help being reminded of the struggles I had during my first couple of years of parenting, and the struggles (STRUGGLES!!!!) I had adjusting to 2 kids.  It was hard!  (It's soooo easy now, though!)(By easy I mean, so completely hard for different reasons and I know that will keep happening as they keep growing.)
Also, as I read through these posts, I was so thankful for them because I have been horrible...HORRIBLE at keeping a journal since becoming a mother.  If it weren't for those posts, I'd have nothing to look back on but 3.5 million pictures, with no stories to fill in the gaps.  And I thought...I need to blog!  Truly, I NEED to.  Blogging is what got me through things.  It's what helped me add a twist of humor to the struggles I had.  I may not be good at much.  And what I'm good at may not be that good.  But I do feel like I'm relatively good at writing and it helps me focus.  It helps me express my thoughts, and come to conclusions, and focus on humor.

The last couple of days, I've been thinking about my kids, and their purpose in life.  I swear, there are some things that they do that I'm convinced someone sat down with them before they were born and said "Your purpose in life is to ______."  And they were given a specific list, and they are determined to do it, and take it very seriously!

jC's Purposes in Life
-His single most important purposes in life are to dance and to play tickle monster.  Everything else are things he just feels obligated to fulfill, but if given the chance, he'd do nothing but dance and play tickle monster all the day long!
-Second, though, is to ask for things to have or do that he knows we will say no to, just so he has a reason to whine.  I swear he does it on purpose.
-Oh wait, I just thought of another thing that should be among the most important in his purposes with dancing and tickle monster.  If he could do those two things, while simultaneously lying under a soft fuzzy blanket in nothing but his underwear, he'd be ALL about it!  He loves, LOVES him some soft blankets.  And the joy of a soft, fuzzy blanket with no clothes to stand between the two of them is pure joy.
-Less important on the list of his purposes is his need to stay up late, no matter how tired he may be.
-His purpose in life is to also be very sensitive to the feelings of others.  (well, he often takes exception to his siblings when he is choosing to be mean to them.)  But if someone is hurt, he hurts.  If someone is sad, he's sad.  He wants them to be better...ASAP.

luC's Purposes in Life
-For a while there I was convinced that luC's only purpose in life was to scream...about everything!  Not a baby screaming, but a toddler, who just likes to scream, if any possible reason is given (or no possible reason is given) to scream.  I have since learned that she does have other purposes.  It's just hard to see them some times, due to all the screaming.
-luC's purpose in life is to tell me she loves me, daily, multiple times.  When I'm saying multiple times, I don't mean 4 or 5 or even 6 or 10.  I mean 239 times.
-Her purpose in life is to do what others do.  If she sees jC doing something she's not doing, she has to do it.  If she sees cC doing something she's not doing, she has to do it.  If she says anyone in her radar doing something she's not doing, she has to do it.  Luckily (so very luckily) this does not include having meltdowns and freak outs.  Not that she doesn't do those things, but when others do it, she doesn't let it influence her.
-Her other purpose in life is to be the wiggliest human being on the face of the planet when she's sitting in your lap.  She fulfills this purpose to perfection.  And since she loves to sit in laps, she has many opportunities to fulfill and continue to perfection this purpose in life.
-And last, but not least is her hugging.  She hugs like there is no tomorrow and they just might be the best hugs I've ever experienced.  The hugging coupled with the almost constant declarations of love are probably the only things that get me through some days.

cC's Purposes in Life
-cC is just a little guy, but he has some very clear purposes in his life.  #1 on the list, the very top, very most important purpose in his life is to pull luC's hair.  And pull it.  And pull it.  And pull it some more.  Which totally helps luC fulfill her purpose of screaming.  So they were clearly meant to be siblings. Oh, the joy he finds in pulling her hair.  Oh, the determination.
-cC has done really well in his purpose of staying bald.  All of my babies came out baldies.  But cC...well he has gone the extra mile.  By this age, jC and luC had hair.  cC?  He's going for a record.
-cC also was apparently told to be the funniest kid around.  I don't know how kids his age can have such a sense of humor, but he's got one.
-There's this one purpose in life he has that's really throwing me off.  And that is having a pacifier in his mouth at all times.  Now, you may be thinking this is totally normal for a kid his age, but jC and luC were well before 1 when we removed theirs from their mouth never to return it again.  cC, though, he is addicted.  Addicted, I tell you!
-Last on his list, but certainly not least is fulfilling his experiment to see how much he can get by using no words at all, but simply grunting and yelling.  I fear he is being so successful in his purpose that he will never have the desire to get what he wants by any other means.

Now if only I could figure out my purpose in life, we'd be good to go.

All about ME!

I feel like I am surrounded by talented people.  So many of my family and friends are so talented.  And it's like they are all greedy with their talents because it's not just a couple of things that they are really good at, but a whole slew of things.  It hardly seems fair.  And it makes me feel inadequate.  So many things other people are good at that I'm not.  Then I thought "Hey, instead of focusing on that, I should focus on the things I am good at!" And then I decided I might as well make a list.  Because there were so many talents I do have once I really thought about it, I didn't have anymore room on the mental list I was using.  So here is a hard copy of my talent list.  (I thought I'd share it with everyone in case you, too, were thinking I didn't have any talents and want to know what things I'm actually good at.)

--I'm super talented at putting my foot in my mouth.  In fact, I'm so good at it that I don't usually notice it's in there until half of my leg has worked it's way in there, too.

--When it comes to laundry my talents are varied!  1.  I'm good at waiting until the last possible day to get laundry done.  2.  I'm awesome at putting clothes in the dryer then forgetting to start the dryer.  3.  I'm amazing at putting clean clothes in a laundry basket and never putting them away.  AND 4.  I'm great at not ironing wrinkly clothes.

--I'm a talented driver...back seat driver.  Just ask juC.

--I am so, so, so, so, sososososo talented at eating.  I mean really.  I can eat anywhere, anytime, anyhow.  I can eat fast.  I can eat slow.  I can eat cold things or hot things.  Sweet things or savory things.  You show me some food, and I will show you the best way to eat it.

--Some talents took becoming a mother to develop.  Like being mean to kids was a talent I never had until my children came along.  I'm still perfecting this talent, but my kids think I'm a master at it.

--I have a great talent in avoiding people.

--I am amazingly talented at sitting on the couch doing nothing when the house needs to be cleaned without feeling an inch of guilt about it.  It's one of my favorite talents.

--juC probably wouldn't want me to admit this, but I am so dang good at making him feel guilty.  It's a talent I've really tried to perfect over the years.  I'm not sure if I've mastered it yet, I'll have to ask him.

--You know how there are some talents that you try to hide because if people knew you had them, they'd always be asking you questions about it?  This is one of them.  I have an inhuman ability to wear nothing but pajamas and stay in my house for DAYS.  I've considered trying to set a world record for most consecutive days wearing pajamas while remaining inside, but jC starting school really threw me off my game.

--I have a very special talent in hearing what people say and twisting it into what I want to hear.  This talent can be used for both good and evil.

--I am top notch when it comes to not making goals.

I could go on, but I have a messy kitchen and a couch I need to go sit on while I look at the messy kitchen.  I highly suggest if you are feeling overwhelmed by your supposed lack of talent compared to everyone else's plethora of talent, to sit down and make a list of your own.

Parents: Those Whose Purpose In Life Is To Torture Children

I remember when I was young thinking that my parents must truly enjoy torturing me since they seemed to do it so often.  Then I grew a little older and thought that I surely must have been wrong.  Parents must love their children too much to torture them.  And then I had children of my own and quickly learned that parents, indeed, have one purpose only--to torture their children.

I have countless examples of how my husband and I personally torture our own children.  This might be good for parents looking for some variety for their own children.

--First we trick our children into saying we are going somewhere fun.  Then we throw some torture in.  "Get your shoes."  Oh, the torture!!  The great part is, it never fails.  No matter how many times you go somewhere, and how many times they have to get their shoes on, it never fails to torture them.

--Going along with the first example, you say you are going somewhere fun.  Then you do the unthinkable.  "Go potty before we go."  WHAT!!??  How dare we make such a request.  Pure torture!

--Also along those same lines.  Once again, going somewhere fun.  Then that part comes where you have to get in the car...and the car seat.  YES!!  I said it!  You HAVE to get in YOUR CAR SEAT!!  Haha!  Tortured again!!

--And then comes the whole reason why you took them to somewhere fun.  "Yes, I took you to Chik-fil-A.  Yes, I got you a meal.  Then a cookie.  THEN I had the audacity to let you play in the playground, all for the soul purpose to fulfill my evil plan to MAKE YOU LEAVE!"  I find this form of torture to be among my favorites.

--There's always going to bed.  This one works better on some kids than others.  But I love the way it takes some by surprise every night.  The look of "You expect me to go to sleep AGAIN!?  How dare you?!"  Well, we know the reason...to torture them!

--Another one that works on some better than others.  The dreaded bath.  Nothing screams torture louder than requesting your child to get clean at any regular interval.  Tortured again!

--I'm not sure about your kids, but one way that I torture them once a week is by clipping their fingernails.  I look forward to that day each week with giddy anticipation.  The look of horror on their faces when I announce that today is the day nails need to be trimmed is well worth being a parent!

--One that stands the test of time is one that gives me pleasure in spite of having to spend money to inflict the torture.  Family picture time!!  The screams and cries of torture are music to our ears.

--When winter rolls around, one of the best forms of torture is to ask your child to wear a coat to keep warm outside.  It screams to your child "I'm so desperate to torture you that I want you to put on yet ANOTHER piece of clothing!"

--I really get the warm fuzzies when I torture my kids by actually wanting to comb their hair.  Torture, torture, torture.

--"What's this meal you call dinner that you expect me to sit and eat every night?"  That's basically how it goes every night for dinner.  The fact that I expect them to eat a meal?  Pure, crazy, torture!

--One of the BEST parts about taking kids to the store is the joy I find in saying "no" when they ask for every toy they see or every treat they see.  I love their cries and fits of rage from that one little word.

--And my absolute favorite form of torturing my kids?  Cleaning!!  "You mean you actually want me to PICK up and PUT AWAY the toys I took out and have been playing with all day!  You're CRAZY!!"  That one just never gets old.

I cannot wait until my kids are older and my ability to torture them widens!

The Ugly Truth

 This has become our kitchen more often than not.  Why is it so impossible to keep the kitchen clean?  It gets to the point that it is so much that I don't even want to deal with it.  So I don't.  That's kind of the way the rest of our house has gotten as well.  It's too overwhelming so I do nothing.  The last couple of months of my pregnancy with cC, I somehow found an enormous amount of energy to get some major cleaning and organizing done in our house.  So maybe the answer to this problem is to have another baby already?

hahahahaaaahahaaahaha.


Today I needed to go to Target for diapers.  What I got was yet another dose of reality that jC would be starting kindergarten soon and that it depresses me immensely.  He saw the backpacks and lunch boxes and wanted to pick his out.  He was excited, I was holding back tears.

I know a lot of people think that all day kindergarten is better than anything, EVER.  I am not one of those people.  jC has school from 8:20 to 3:35.  (That's not including travel time if he takes the bus)  Am I really one of the few people in this world that feel like my 5 year old being away from home almost as long as my 35 year old husband during the day is not even close to normal??  The thought alone makes me want to puke.  Don't get me wrong, I think school will be great for him, and I look forward to slightly more peace for a portion of the day.  But 4 hours or so would be plenty!  School starts September 4, and in my personal opinion, that day is coming way too soon.

hahahahahahaaahahaa.
(Sorry, still laughing about the having another baby now comment.)

A True Story of Courage

If you know me, you will understand why this story is one of true courage.  If you don't know me, perhaps you should.  Or you should just know that the fear I have of the intruder mentioned in this story is a fear like no other I've known before.

Last week was a week just like any other.  No, that's not true.  Last week, for the first time in my life as a mother, I had to have us up and ready every day of the week to get jC off to his day camp that we'd signed him up for.  (You'd think it wouldn't be that much more difficult than getting us all up and ready for preschool when he was going 3 days a week.  You'd be wrong.)  (Have I mentioned how much I am NOT looking forward to jC starting kindergarten in September and having to do it every day for months on end?)

We were up.  We were ready.  We were running a few minutes late.  No big deal.

We were just moments away from being able to walk out of the door.  I placed cC in the car seat that was sitting atop the kitchen island.  I began to put the straps on him.  And that's when things got scary.

As I was about to put the second strap on cC's shoulder, I saw it.  There it was...RIGHT THERE.  It was walking right along the handle of the car seat that was pushed back flush with the seat itself.  It was right by my poor, defenseless babies head (and right by my poor defenseless arm, might I add.)

A quiet squeal escaped my mouth, alarming my other children to the immanent danger.  jC, being the scarediest of us all could not hide his fear.  I put on a brave face and assured him that I would protect my sweet little children from this unwanted evil intruder that had come into our home.

In the face of danger, I pulled myself together and acted quickly.  In a matter of seconds, I had poor helpless cC out of the car seat and safely on the floor.  jC was impressed by my fast acting, life saving maneuver.  I was, too.  But there was no time for celebrating cC's new found safety.  There was still an evil being to rid our home of.

So I did what any other person in my situation would do.

I grabbed a sturdy, easily held box that was on the kitchen island, and threw it at the car seat.  My aim was bad given my mental state.  I picked the box up again.  I pulled myself together and gave myself a brief pep talk.  Then I aimed the box at the demon and threw again.  My aim was better and it knocked it down onto the floor.  (Don't worry, my children were safely away from the battle ground.)

I was in the zone.  I had my 3 dear children to protect and this was the moment of truth.

I grabbed the box for one more go at it.  With precision like no other, I dropped the box on this spawn of Satan, and heroically put my foot on the box, squishing the contents underneath to smithereens.

That monstrous spider messed with me on the wrong day!  When evil tries to come between a mom and her 3 dear children (no matter how scared the mom may be of the evil), evil will fail!!

How do you know?

How does a wife know that her husband really loves her?

Some women need to get jewelry from their husbands to know. Some women need to be wined and dined to know. Some might need a car or two to know that their husband does, indeed, love them.

While some women only need a smile, a kiss, and a tender whisper of loving words in their ear to know that their husband loves them.

Me? What do I need to know that my husband loves me?

I need to come home on a Saturday afternoon, after spending the morning shopping with little luC to find some boxes, with a little note....


The contents of the box being a dozen cupcakes (minus one that little jC ate) from Georgetown Cupcakes (aka DC Cupcakes from the TLC show)

And then I know, with out a shadow of a doubt, that my husband loves me with every fiber of his being!

Heart Day

I know I promised my next post would be about the old ads hanging in the upstairs bathroom, and I know you are going to be super upset by this...but, I'm not going to post them yet. It's Valentine's Day, which means I need to post about gushy lovey dovey stuff.

I had every intention of posting about my dear, sweet husband who I love with ever fiber of my being. I mean, how could I not love this guy?

And about my dear, mostly sweet kids.

But let's be honest, you know how much I love them and how great they are, so why not post about what comes second on my list of loves...chocolate.

I knew this Valentine's Day had every possibility of being amazing...I just didn't know how amazing. And then a friend posted a picture on her Facebook of a box of cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes (from the series DC Cupcakes on TLC) that her husband got her.

My hopes of an amazing Valentine's Day went down the drain. Nothing could compare to what she got. And I let her know just how jealous I was.

And then, just a few hours later, there was a knock on my door. And there my friend was, standing there. Standing there at my door. Standing there at my door with this...

The most amazingly delicious cupcake known to man. I loved it with every fiber of my being. And it loved me back. It made me feel good about myself. It told me I was the only one. It promised me that all the calories would be worth it.

And let me tell you something: Georgetown Cupcakes don't lie!

Woah!

The day of loooOOOOOoooove is almst upon us. Which means I still have a little time to share some of the things I love about juC.

juC isn't the best at planning romantic dates and such. It's ok. I just plan them and then give him a hard time for not planning them himself. But the thing that I love is that he's a good sport about the things I plan. I mean, he's surely not super excited about going on a house tour of an old mansion at night, but he does it happily anyways.

We've been able to go on a lot of dates lately. The house tour date was particularly romantic. It's like "Woah, this is romantic." Thus becoming "woahmantic". We went to the house tour, then went and ate at Red Hot and Blue, then did some Christmas shopping. See? Can't get more woahmantic than that.

So as this Valentines Day approaches, I encourage all of you to plan something woahmantic for your loved one. (juC)

I've also been thinking a lot about our love story, since my sister LoW posted hers.

So here is a condensed version of ours:

I first eyed juC in 2003, and I didn't know if he was just off a mission or pre-mission. He was driving a grandpa car that I was sure he must be borrowing from his dad to get around. And he looked young, so it was hard to know.

My assumptions were wrong. He'd just graduated college, and it was in fact, his car. I had my eye on him, but I was dating someone else.

Then I got engaged. Then that ended.

I dated around a little bit, until I finally got the opportunity to talk to juC, the guy I'd been eyeing for a while. I'd wanted to talk to him many times, but chickened out. So when I had the chance to do it online (in the year 2005, about 2 years after first eyeing him), I took the (lame) opportunity. Following the online introduction, I saw him at church and spoke to him. Then he finally responded to my online introduction.

We emailed back and forth for a couple weeks. Then we spent some time together at a Halloween dance, where we had our first dance together.

The next night we had our first date. We made cookies then went to a movie.

I invited him one time to go to a place called Great Falls Park, but he couldn't. Then the next week, he invited me to go. It really was woahmantic. We ended up spending the entire day together. First the park, then dinner, then going to a church activity, then watching a movie at his apartment. It was at that point that I knew he must like me. He even held my hand for about 5 mintues during the movie.

A month and a half later we had our first kiss. As little as it was I thought it was sweet that he was so nervous about it.

We broke up 4 months after our first date. And continued to break up and get back together for the next year. We were super mature.

Then in January of 2007 we decided to get married. He proposed in February, and we got married in May.

And now we are currently living happily ever after.

Thus concludes the super condensed woahmantic version of our love story.

fuzzy wuzzy

even my eyebrows aren't recession proof.

i'd like to think i'm not high maintainence. however, every month or two, i like to go get my eyebrows waxed. there was a lovely nail salon across the street that meet my eyebrow monthly maintainence needs. 10 bucks did the job.

unfortunately, i went one day, and it was nothing but an empty building.

i was forced to venture a little further. i found myself another nail salon that did the job for 10 bucks.

i drove by last week. it's nothing but an empty building.

my eyebrows current state are proof that this economy affects everything.