Happy 6th!

Happy 6th Birthday

to my little cheerleader!

I had lots of help making the cake!


We had an all day celebration...

We invited the neighbor girls over to swim, party and decorate cupcakes.
(I know what you're thinking and no, I didn't coach her to hold her cupcakes like that.
It's just a happy bonus.)

Then we had our cousins and grandparents over to party some more.

I love you Ry!





How blessed I am to have you in my life,

even if you do choose cheerleading over sports!

Numbers

Ever since I had Brianna I feel like my life is spiraling out of control and I can't do a gosh darn thing to stop it.  My brain is complete mush...I've missed or been late to so many things I've lost count.  My house is a constant mess, I rarely get a good hot meal on the table, I don't even know who my friends are anymore it's been so long since I've hung out with them. 

But what I've come to find out is that I don't even necessarily have to be present for my life to be in shambles.  This can all be explained by the following numbers.

It all began with this first number....

6

The amount of days I was gone camping in South Dakota.

5

The number of messages waiting for me on my answering machine saying that my dog had been out.

10

Pretty sure this is how many times my dog had actually been out.

2

How many fires I had in my landscaping from fireworks while we were gone.

 Goodbye beautiful grass...






3

The number of times I've thanked (our new) neighbors for calling the fire department and saving our house from being burned down.

50

Probably close to the times I've thanked God for our house not burning down.

2

The number of times the police have been to my house in the last week. 

10

The level of embarrassment I experienced from the last police visit.

 (Our dog was out...again.  He was bringing her back.....again.  We had just gotten home from camping the day before.  I'd spent the previous night puking my guts out so Eric warned the girls NOT to wake their mom up in the morning.  A knock on the door.  A policeman.  "Is your mom there?"  He wanted to know.  Rylie was stuck between a rock and a hard place....should she disobey her father and wake me up? Or obey the police officer?  Well, she chose the police after they assured her it was an emergency.  Then I entered the picture in my pajamas, glasses, frizzy hair, and probably looking to him like I had one-too-many the night before.  He didn't seem too impressed with my mothering skills and informed me to mend my fence.)

100

The number of times I've wondered what he was thinking.

 500

The amount of times I've wanted to kill my dog.

Injustice

I'm convinced that one of life's biggest injustices is getting sick when you're a mother of young kids. Sick days are hard to come by for a mom.  Am I right? 

So a couple days ago, after being gone for a week of camping in South Dakota, I tried to scrounge up a healthy lunch for myself with old food in my fridge.  (For the last week I've pretty much had a steady diet of hot dogs, chips and Mt. Dew.  It was good while it lasted.)  What I made for lunch - 2 eggs and a cucumber, tomato, mozzarella salad - I would live to regret over and over that day and into the next.

Food poisoning.

Hit me like a ton a bricks.

I was laying on my deck in misery trying to keep an eye on the kids playing out back when I was forced to get up and sprint to the bathroom.  It's been a long time since I've had one of those "I don't think I'm gonna make it!" moments.  But, this was definitely one of them. 

I apparently disappeared so fast Austyn came in sobbing and said, "Mommy where did you go?  I thought somebody taked you!"

The first sprint was quickly followed by a second, during which Rylie tried to find me.  After she yelled "mom!" all over the house she finally found me with my head buried in the toilet.

"Ewwwww....you're throwing up.  Austyn, mom's throwing up don't come in here!"  Meanwhile she stands there just watching and gagging.  I'm way too messed up to care.

Then she gets impatient with me and says, "Mom, when are you going to be done? I want some juice."  Most likely this was the reason she was trying to find me in the first place.

Up next for Rylie, a lesson in compassion.

**************************

Quick text to my husband:

I need backup.

To which he replies:

I'm hurrying.

I want to text back something mean so he knows I'm in dire straits, but the good girl in me wins out.

**************************

Then, thank the Lord in Heaven, my mother-in-law calls and offers to take the girls.  Not sure how many times I've thanked the Lord for her over the last couple days.  I mean seriously, what would I do without her? 

And now that I'm feeling a little better....look what awaits me.

Injustice.  Chips and a Mt. Dew please...

Moving On

It's been almost 4 months since Bri's been born.  Can't really believe it.  Most days I find myself being a little sad it's going so fast, because she very well, might, maybe, may be my last.  So this week I was blubbering a bit about moving my little friend out of our room and into her own.

By doing this I was saying goodbye to my "newborn" and hello to my big baby girl.  While I should be and am excited to get our room back, I can't help but be a little down in the dumps about it.  But it's clearly time to move on.

So goodbye my little love. 

I will miss having you near and seeing your little bassinet at the end of our bed.

Say hello to your new room and to your first taste of independence from momma.  Hopefully you deal better with it than I am....

Why in the world would I ever think I wanted a boy?

First Impression

We have some new neighbors moving in next door.  And we heard from our old neighbors, Karen and Jim, that the newbie's are really excited to meet us because they think we'll be friends.  Apparently they've seen us out and about.  Which is quite frankly, a little scary.  Not scary as in, they're spying on us but scary as in, what were we doing when they were observing us? 

There's about a 90% chance it involved some, if not all, of these things....sweatpants, non-brushed hair, fighting children, yelling mom, crying and more crying.  But, then again, if they were looking forward to meeting us maybe we were having one of those rare and wonderful days where everything is going great.

So I had been kind of excited about meeting our potential new friends....but on my terms.  You know, the whole neighborly bringing over cookies and having myself, husband and kids all shiny and polished up and on our best behavior. But, nothing quite turns out like you have pictured in your mind, does it?

Setting the scene:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We had just gotten home from the pool.

Brianna was hungry and fussing.

I quickly pulled my swim top off and threw on a T-shirt (only by the grace of God, because I had briefly considered just nursing without a shirt on.)

Turned on the bath water for the girls.

Told them to get in the bath.

They didn't obey so I told them again....very loudly.

I sat down on the couch to nurse Bri.

The doorbell rang.

Uh. Oh.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Austyn, see who's at the door,"  I said, praying that it was the neighbor kids.  Not only was I nursing, I didn't have a blanket in sight to throw over me.  Plus, I was sitting in plain view of all the windows so whoever was at the door probably got the pleasure of seeing Bri latch on. 

Austyn, who had her swimsuit down around her waist, went to the door.  And she just stood there staring through the glass. "Well, Aussie who is it?"  Nothing.  Just staring and standing there in all her naked glory.

Oh, geez, she doesn't recognize whoever it is...I have to stop nursing and get the door.  Bri is going to freak.  Who the heck is it?!  Probably the Schwan's man, he always comes at the most inconvenient times...

"Hi," I said. Hmmm...she's a cute girl who looks like she's never had a bad hair day. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap this must be our new neighbor! My house is a mess!  Did she hear me yelling at the girls?  Oh, no!  Did she see my boobs?

"Hi, I'm Janie, we are moving in next door and I saw you guys just got home so I wanted to come and introduce myself."

Janie's Got a Gun, da da da da da...Karen said the new neighbors were "our age," she's totally still in her twenties.  Early to mid twenties for sure.  And shoot, I am still wearing my swim skirt!  It's so uncool. She going to think I'm so uncool.  Hopefully she'll put two and two together...I just had a baby, do you see that's why I had to wear a swim skirt!  Please see that!  Oh my cellulite is so out of control.  Is she looking at it?

"Hi, I'm Tami, been looking forward to meeting you!"  I said with a little too much enthusiasm.  Why did I choose not to wear makeup today?  I didn't even give myself a fighting chance.

"She must be hungry." 

"What?  Oh ya, she is."  ...oh ya, I have a baby in my arms and she's crying.  I better look like I'm a concerned mother.  Wish I wouldn't have put the ugly outfit on her today.  I need to do laundry.  She knew I was nursing, she totally saw my boobs.

"So you have three girls, right?" 

"Yep, do you guys have any kids?" Karen already said that they don't so why did I ask? 

"No, not yet, but we want to!"

Don't do it!  Your lives will be over!  Enjoy your freedom!

"...Ya, they're a lot of fun.  So, where are you guys moving from?"  She's just so cute and sweet...it would be fun if we did become friends.

"Manhattan."

We can never be friends.  Darn Wildcats.


We had a few more minutes of chit chat.  And I closed the door, sat down to finish nursing my bawling baby and went over our first meeting.  And this was my conclusive thought.

With all the nakedness, messiness, crying and yelling, she definitely thinks we're white trash.

When talking to Eric later that evening I relayed how the scene and conversation played out.  And the first words out of his mouth were,

"So, she thinks we're white trash."

"Yes."

So much for a good first impression.