New House And Semi New Children

We finally did it...after two months of searching we finally found a house!! It took us four incredibly tiring days to move everything....I had forgot how much work moving is and I hope to not have to remember for a LOOOONNNGGG time! I was on autopilot the whole time with no inconceivable notion of a schedule of any kind....barely stopping to eat and just falling down to sleep for a few hours before starting all over again...but we finally got everything moved and the house in some sort of livable order....now we are on to the fun part that is putting everything away. This house has 6 bedrooms so we have a place for everything and then some, but the actual process of getting things were they go seems like it just might take the rest of my lifetime. I swear sometimes I wonder why I wanted to quit my job...I work a million times harder now then I ever even thought about working when I was actually working! I am enjoying having my own space again...decorating the way I want.....having an actual office where I can get things done without interruptions.....BUT what I am enjoying the absolute most is......MY CHILDREN (well at least I think these are MY children)....for the last year Paige has stayed up all hours of the night watching tv until she fell asleep and Brooke has stayed up until we have gone to bed because she slept most nights on a pallet on our floor...but since we have been here....they have both slept in their OWN beds....ALL NIGHT.....and...are you ready for this....AT A BEDTIME!!! And my little no nap taking Paige has even been taking a nap in her bed during the days. They each have a bedroom and they also have a play room so they are not constantly under my feet and on my nerves....AND they are getting along (well for the most part anyway)....things are SO right in my world again. Now I am sure as soon as I publish this post they will inevitably revert back to their old ways of fighting...arguing...and flat out driving me crazy, but it has been oh so nice to at least have a few days of peace and some sort of normalcy in my life....and having my own house again isn't half bad either!

What Really Matters

I sat at Women of Faith this year and listened to Karen James tell her heartbreaking story of loss. I cried my eyes out when she told how she came to spend a week at the bottom of a mountain while a full force rescue was under way. Her husband and the love of her life, Kelly James, was stuck somewhere on that mountain and all she could do was pray that he would be found. I should of had a box of kleenex devoted for this very occasion so when a friend of mine asked me this past week if I would like to borrow Karen's book (Holding Fast) that she wrote after she had to bury her husband I said yes even though I knew (and told my friend) it was going to make me cry. Whelp...I was oh so right and of course the only time I really have to read is in the parent pick up line at Brooke's school so who knows what those other parents think of the crazy chick crying in the pick up line. I just finished the book tonight and if you haven't read it I can highly recommend it (don't let the crying scare you)....she bravely details the tragic events that played out in her life and the lives of her step children when her husband (and two of his friends) went for a "quick" climb and never made it down. She depicted how God reveled himself to her through this tragedy. The book makes you think about the things in life that really matter and how much time we waste on what doesn't. It makes you see that God never leaves us (even in the darkest imaginable times) and there are no coincidences in this life, we are all part of His master plan. As I read the last few pages of the book I began to take comfort in the fact that God has already read the end of MY book....he knows the whole plan and sees the whole picture...which ultimately frees me up to just live.....which means I have time to enjoy what really matters in this life. With thanks to my friend Tracey for letting me borrow the book, to Karen James for putting her feelings into words for the world to read, and to God for allowing me to enjoy the little things that matter so dearly.

Back To School, OH, Back To School

When I quite my job I did so because I wanted to spend time with my girls of course, but I was also on a mission to finish my degree I started before I decided to have those lovely little life changers. I was rocking right along until this summer when I spent a hellish semester with what I like to consider the world's worst professor that actually made question my ability to complete not only that class but any class there after. After that wonderful experience I decided I needed a semester off which I so graciously took and every single day has flown by faster than the last! Today was the first day of registration for the spring and I have never been one to register early......I usually just log on when ever and take what ever happens to be left...no wonder I ended up with the last guy!!...so anyway this time I spent hours...LITERALLY...hours on ratemyprofessor.com doing my very best to choose my professors wisely this time around (just for the record I looked up the "worlds worst professors" rating and on a scale from 1-5 Mr. Awesome was a 1...lesson learned.) So...I found the most highly rated professors and compiled my list and left my computer on because I set my alarm for midnight and jumped out of bed and ran to my computer thinking I would hit "submit" and then I could go right back to sleep....ummmmm....it didn't quite work out like that....no wonder I never register early...these people are vultures....I hit submit and quickly got kicked out of the site...I then spent the next hour trying to log on sitting at my computer nodding in and out of sleep feeling like I was up feeding a newborn again ...then finally at 1:15 just as I was getting ready to throw in the towel and crawl back to bed I was able to submit and register for every class that was on my list so with any luck this time I will have much better professors (although he is not hard to beat). I am attempting 13 hours this semester...so things are about to get really fun, interesting and crazy at my house!! I have never been so ready for a semester to start...I am sure I will regret that thinking half way through it...but as of right now I am ready for it to start and ready for it to be over all at the same time.

Potty Training, Computer Viruses And The Cost of Health Care

The only thing that these three things have in common is each one of them at this very moment is frustrating me beyond comprehension...matter of fact they all make me want to get in bed pull the covers over my head and pretend the world does not exist....if solely for a minute. Let us first start with potty training (the lesser of the frustrates)....okay so Paige is 2 1/2 now and we have been attempting potty training for a while...she will go potty all day long as long as you physically take her and put her on the potty, but she hasn't quite mastered the whole telling me when she needs to go potty...that is unless we are out somewhere with no potty in sight THEN all of a sudden she knows how to tell me. I was spoiled with Brooke....I am not ashamed to admit...because she was in day care....you would be surprised what day care teaches your child that you don't even think about....thanks to daycare I just remember her one day waking up fully potty trained...is it selfish to put Paige in daycare just until she is potty trained....okay...okay....well I guess she can't be in diapers forever (can she?) I imagine one day she will figure it out....so lets move on to computer viruses.....first let me just say UGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!! My computer has come down with a virus and I have spent ALL day...no JOKE ALL day.....and $200 to try to fix it and let me just say it is not any closer to being fixed. I was too cheap to go and spend $400 on a new desktop, but apparently not too cheap to spend $200 on nothing....I am pure genius and (to put it very nicely) I am not happy about it at all. Which brings us to the last and probably most frustrating point (although that stupid virus is right on up there) the cost of health care.....oh the cost of health care...my husband just brought home the enrollment package for the new health care that his company has and to cover a family it is $250.73 A WEEK....THAT'S RIGHT A WEEK...that is OVER $1000 a month.....is it just me or is that completely and utterly insane?!?!?!???!!! Why oh why can't we live in a world where babies are potty trained, computer viruses are extinct and health care is free or at least a whole lot cheaper...that shouldn't be too much to ask for.

What's In A Good Day Anyway

Facebook is a funny tool if you think about it. Thanks to facebook I can generally see who has had a good day and who has had a not so good day which is funny in itself because it has had me wondering what really constitutes a "good day". I can tell you that when I was working I "knew" a good day from a bad day. A good day was classified as overall problem free and at the end of the day all of my work was finished and I had a clean slate, so to speak, to start the next day....now THAT was a good day!! Well since I started staying home I think I have lost my concept of what actually makes a good day. When your job is taking care of two other little souls under the age of five there is NO such thing as a problem free day...no way...no how...SOMETHING always happens and NOTHING goes according to plan....and on top of that my work is NEVER done...being a mom is a 24 hour job and my slate is never clean. I recently asked Brooke what a mom's job was to which she replied: to drive us places, take care of babies, cook us food and clean the house. SO basically I am a chauffeur, nanny, chef and a maid all without pay...how does that make any day good?! Well as I read status updates on facebook I have realized I have been in need of a "good day attitude adjustment" and that it is not lack of problems or completed tasks that make (or have ever made for that matter) a day good. MY day is GOOD because I woke up with a breath in my lungs to two healthy children who count on me to drive them places, take care of them, cook them food and clean their house...now THAT is a good day!!!