Differences

It seems that each day that passes shows me again just how different my kids are. Each of my children have their own idiosyncrasies that amazes me. Just how all three kids can be so different and come from the same parents? Even though Bryce and Belle both have brown hair and brown eyes, each have completely different shades of color. Brady's hair is blond that is getting darker each and every day and he has bluish colored eyes. The only thing that all of them consistently have are freckles and seeing how both Hubby and I have them I could only assume they were destined to have them.

Besides their physical differences, they each have their own completely different personalities. Bryce is a crier. Someone can look at him wrong and he'll bawl. I can't tell you how long I waited for him to outgrow the whiny stage for him to never outgrow it. Belle is my tattle-tell. If someone is doing something wrong, she's the one to share it with someone in charge. And Brady is the baby. I'm not saying that he acts like a baby but he is definitely the baby in the family. If you know a family or are a member of one with more than one child then you know exactly what I'm talking about. He almost always expects to get his way, even though he doesn't always get it. He is the one that has been trying to keep up with Bryce and Belle since he was born. Walked fast, talked fast, never seemed to walk but ran every where he went just trying to keep up with them.

School is different. It doesn't matter which teacher I talk to, the responses from them are almost always the same. They're great kids. They listen well, participate in class, great students. Know the saying that your children are better for other people than they are for you? Their teachers show this to me every time I go to a parent-teacher conference. Yesterday I got a letter that I've never received from school before, one that changes things.

Brady got off the bus yesterday talking about how he had to read and he had a letter. He never said the letter was for me so I didn't think anything of it when he said it over and over again. Until he handed it to me. Sealed with the school logo and addressed to the parents of Brady. Apparently Brady has impressed his teachers in class and with testing so much, that he has been placed in what they call the Primary Talent Pool at his school. Basically it says the teachers want to challenge him more in class and prepare him for formal testing for Gifted/Talented in 4th grade (he's in second now). I was never eligible for G/T when I was in school. I never realized that the school had that club until I looked up one day and certain students were leaving class to go to another. (Hubby didn't attend the local elementary schools here). Brady is the only of all three kids to be placed in this pool. He finally is no longer following Bryce and Belle. He's starting a path of his own. We couldn't be more proud.

Conspiracies

Someone is enjoying a laugh today at my expense. The last few days have been trying my patience to no end. First of all, Sophie has come into heat. And Cheech is not fixed either. Nor is the neighbors dog (Hi MA!). So for the last few days, I have been checking my yard before letting her outside to potty while keeping Cheech completely away from her as much as I can. If I haven't realized that he's wandered off, she lets me know it with the growl and snap that follows. The bad thing is while they are separated, Cheech will whine, cry and howl. Wait it out and he'll move on? Not this dog. She is like a mother to him, since she was here and set in her ways when we brought him home. Had to leave her at the vet last summer for a couple of nights and he whined the entire time she was gone. Liked to have drove me nuts! Have two dogs of the opposite sex who aren't fixed? Run to the nearest reputable vet and have one or both of them fixed! It will save your sanity!

Last night was a rough night. I went to bed about 10:30 and the pets made it difficult for me to get completely down. Cheech was whining from his crate. It took five times with "Hush!!!" before he finally stopped and went to sleep. Zeus decided that he needed to join Cheech in making the night a long one by going nuts. Whenever I went to adjust my comforter around my head, he would let out this long evil meow/growl. So I kept moving him back to the foot of the bed, where was actually supposed to be! After the third time, I went after my spray bottle. Three more of those meow/growls and three squirts at him to match, he finally went to the foot of the bed and stayed there for the night. By then it was 11.

So around two this morning I awoke from a nice nightmare. Have you ever noticed that as an adult, your nightmares are more intense? Instead of running from a huge dinosaur that wants to eat you - a dinosaur that you know is not real and cannot possible chase you to eat you - you are staring into the face of a man with a knife that wants to order you to drive your car to places he wants to go. Anyway. I'm sure that dream had nothing to do with the fact that I watched Medium last night and a carjacking was discussed. The scenario on tv was absolutely nothing like what happened in my head. The show had just mentioned a carjacking. My dream actually had me hijacked. That left me trying to go back to sleep without the joys of being able to curl up next to Hubby for security. So I called him and he didn't hear the phone in the truck. I finally dozed off about 4:30 and less than an hour later he called. And I was up. I did what should've been the next logical thing. I put the kids on the bus and laid back down about a half hour later. Unfortunately I was proven wrong on this because I had to separate the dogs so that I didn't have to worry about what they were doing. I put Cheech in the front bathroom and let Sophie run the house. He whined and I told him to hush. And he whined some more. And more. Then the howling started. If I'm lucky, I may have gotten an hour worth of sleep during the three hours that I laid there.

I knew that my yard needed mowing and that I had really wanted to do it yesterday but I was so tired from the night before that I didn't bother. I got up from my "nap" this morning and changed clothes to get started. I filled up the push mower, pulled it out from it's resting place to my starting point and...

The darn thing refused to start. I tried four different times and it just would not start.

So I figured that I'd get the riding mower out and just mow as closely as I could to the trimming areas. It took me a couple of minutes to find the key to unlock the shed (since Hubby loves to hide things from the children on top of the fridge and forgets that us short people can't see up there without a chair). I unlocked the shed, moved the kids bikes out of the way, sat down on the seat and noticed that I was sitting funny. The mower wasn't level. Yep. The back tire is flat. No big deal. I'll air it back up. But Hubby has taken the cord off of his compressor and I can't find it. Thirty minutes after I stepped outside to mow, I walked back inside defeated. I gave up. Apparently, I was not supposed to mow today after all.

Anything else that I need to do today that someone doesn't want me to? Please warn me in advanced so I don't waste time trying to prepare for it. Thanks.

Update - I received a text message on my phone earlier asking me what I was doing from a number that I did not recognize. After sending back a message asking if I knew the person, they assured me I did but never offered their name. I let them know that I didn't have their number in my address book they said they must have a wrong number. Shortly after that, I received a call from a local business about a payment that I had due in their computer. A payment that I made at the beginning of the month. Almost as soon as I answered the phone, the lady on the other end realized that the payment was in their system and she had "overlooked" it. The check had cleared. How do you overlook that?

Obviously

This weekend Hubby got to come home early. He was home on Friday afternoon instead of Saturday or Sunday as he usually is. I requested that we go out to dinner on Friday night since I have cooked the last two weeks solid and could use the break. We chose to go to O'Charley's and eat something different than the fast food persuasion. After we ate, we drove by Dairy Queen and Bryce asked if we could have ice cream. Hubby gave our automatic "No!" that follows most questions that involve junk when I mumbled under my breath "Thought about it myself." We drove down to see the Ohio River and how much the water level had receded over the last few weeks when Hubby made the kids a deal. If they would behave on our trip home, he would go to DQ and get them ice cream. Of course they all agreed that they could behave while on the trip home. Instead of ordering my usual vanilla ice cream cone (not a fan of dipped cones), I ordered a blizzard. A chocolate extreme blizzard. It had chocolate brownie chunks, chocolate chunks and chocolate fudge. Need a chocolate fix? This blizzard can do that with the first couple of bites, the chocolate lovers dream.

Tonight Hubby decided that he wanted some ice cream after the kids went to bed. I had considered getting some when I was at the store but decided against it, so naturally we had none in the house. He offered to run and pick some up and I didn't decline. Then he asked what kind would I like. Chocolate, duh! And I thought he knew me.

Dreams

I did not realize, until early this morning, how much I was looking forward to Grey's Anatomy coming back this week with new shows. I had a dream this morning, and while it's not odd that I had one, it is odd that I actually remembered it when I woke up, but I was talking to my brother about something. If you know my brother, you know how odd it was to see him in a suit in my dream when he lives in mostly t-shirts and jeans but I'll move on. I happened to mentioned something being "enchanted" and the next thing I know he's telling me he can get me a ticket to see Patrick Dempsey speaking somewhere local here. I remember being all excited, getting the ticket, finding my seat around a bunch of people I didn't know and sitting down. They were announcing him to come out when....

My cat woke me up.

Zeus has decided for the last three mornings, at about 5:30 that he needs to look out my window and meow at the birds in the yard. In order to get to my window, he's got to get past me since the window is at the head of my bed. This morning, I was determined to teach him that he can't get up early and try to get in my window. It took me more than a half hour but he finally quit trying.

And I didn't even get to see Patrick Dempsey. This is a cruel, cruel cat.

Six or Twelve Pack

This has been an interesting week and it just keeps getting better. I mowed a neighbors yard and our backyard for the first time this season on Thursday (Hubby mowed our front yard a week ago today). The tops of my forearms and hands and the back of my neck are sunburned. Seriously sunburned. So much so that I put lotion on them earlier tonight just trying to ease the itch that came with it. It hasn't helped much.

Hubby got to come home early this week and was home early, early Saturday morning. Early as in 1:30am. And I was still awake. I am a sucker for chick flicks and sat up watching Mona Lisa Smile just because I paid $5 for it over a week before and still hadn't opened it yet. Once I put it in, I couldn't turn it off to go to bed, so I sat up and watched it. It went off literally ten minutes before he walked through our bedroom door. And then Dad called at 7:30. So much for sleep. Brady has been sick this weekend as well. He spent most of yesterday changing positions from sitting in front of the toilet to sitting on it. Yeah. Well today he is doing somewhat better. He is no longer sitting in front of the toilet but we had to get him medication to help ease his sitting on it. Unfortunately that meant I had to miss out on meeting my cousin's baby for the first time (she's here from Florida visiting), but I'd rather miss out than pass the bug along to one of them.

The kids begin their yearly school testing tomorrow and have been in bed for an hour now so that they can have their "good nights sleep." Yeah, right. Everyone one of them have been out of bed at least once twice since they've been in it. But I don't know anyone who could've honestly kept a straight face as Brady came up to me tonight to ask me if he has a six pack or a twelve pack while sucking in his stomach. I had the hardest time trying to keep a straight face and order him back to bed instead of stalling. I failed miserably. I snickered. Let me tell ya though, while I did not tell him that he has a six or a twelve pack, part of me envies that stomach, as it does have some serious muscle tone. Maybe I should start working on my "packs" so that I can ask him what I have. Maybe?

Earthquake

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/24195650

It's not often that we have earthquakes in this area. Even though we were roughly 150 miles from the epicenter, we still felt the quake here at my home. Something stirred me just before it hit and at first I thought someone was in my home when I heard something fall. I could hear the rumbling and then noticed my bed was shaking. I immediately thought that the cat was shaking the bed because he sleeps at my feet, but after realizing that he was just as stunned as I was, I figured it out. It woke Bryce, who sleeps in the top bunk, but Brady and Belle slept through it. It has been the thing to talk about and top news story. I honestly can't remember the last time I felt an earthquake. The last few we had were so small that I had no idea that it happened. I only hope that's the last one for quite some time.

Cruelty

It's no secret that kids can be cruel to each other. I think that most everyone can admit to being the victim of some act at the hand of another child when they were growing up. I know I was a time or two. My kids are no different. They have been the victim and they have been the instigator. When I catch them in the act or hear about them being involved in it, I let them know that it's wrong. That they should not stoop to the level of the person that has done things to them and while they listen to me with their ears, it doesn't always sink in. I fussed at them just this afternoon for yelling remarks at another child and stopped it. I am naive to expect it from other parents, but it seems more and more parents overlook the behavior of their children.

Over the last few weeks, the cruelty has been going to new levels. Bryce has fallen victim to a "joke" that was no laughing matter. The pain that we have gone through and that he is still going through because of the "joke" hurts and causes me to see so much red. I know that I should be walking the christian walk, but it's hard when your child has fallen victim to a prank as bad as this one was. Belle has been at odds with the neighbor child that she played with often. Over most of the last week, Belle has been whispered about, ignored, and made of fun. Because of an issue that occurred yesterday on the bus, I let her know that if she was uncomfortable sitting with the child on the bus (they have an assigned seat together) that she should mention it to the driver or monitor so they could move one of them. They moved Belle this afternoon after she mentioned what happened yesterday. Of course, the other child failed to mention to her parents that she blocked Belle from getting off the bus. It should have been no surprise when her step-dad knocked on my door this afternoon wanting to know if I had said something to my daughter. He had a chip on his shoulder (something that I've known about from previous encounters) and acted as if she was perfect and could have never blocked Belle from getting off the bus. Mind you that he was kind of stumped when I mentioned the incident as if he didn't have a clue that it had happened. Said he just wanted to know if "I knew about it." Yes, I did know about it. Well before he did. He's lucky that all that happened is that Belle changed seats on the bus. I could've mentioned it to the driver. Hubby has been wanting to speak with the child about what has been going on because we have told her (and our own kids) before that we won't tolerate this backstabbing thing, that has happened more than once. Am I wrong to want to protect my children? I know things like this are going to happen, but when a parent knocks on my door acting as if his child is the victim when it was my child that moved? I could understand if they had moved her from her seat but that was not the case. Belle's seat was changed. Their child is not the one who has been subjected to ridicule, whispers and remarks like "I should've farted in Belle's face." My child was and I'm sure they have not been informed of that remark. But the parent is one that seldom allows me to finish a sentence before he interrupts. So informing him of how my child has become victim to his step child was impossible. So I'm frustrated beyond belief.

This frustration is compounded by the fact that Brady is exhausted. He has pitched 8 different fits tonight, most of them with tears, for many different reasons. It's been a long afternoon even though they've only been home about 5 hours now. I can only hope tomorrow will improve.

More of the Same

The kids are gone. Again. Mom called earlier tonight and asked if we wanted to come over for grilled burgers. I hardly ever turn down a night to not cook. Belle immediately piped up, "Can we stay the night???"

So here I am, alone without Hubby or kids. And I needed it after a long week of them being on spring break. We've been through sleepovers, a board game, grocery shopping today, as well as a bout of strong spring storms last night. It's not often that I get to have a night to myself, and two weekends in a row is virtually unheard of. I am going to take advantage of it.

We did receive a good tidbit of news today from our health insurance company. They were nice enough to send us an explanation of benefits saying they were paying for Bryce's visit in December, even though they didn't have him listed until this month despite the fact we had been with this company for over two years now. The is same visit that I received a bill for lab work because they denied the claim. Maybe now the hospital will refile the claim for the lab work and it will all work itself out.

I got a small baby fix today. My neighbor had her baby the end of January, maybe February, and she brought him by today for me to see. And hold. And smell. Oh my gosh, how I miss that! He let me hold him, grinned at me and talked to me. I got to see his precious little dimples. How my heart ached for another one. Even when his sweet little face wrinkled up as he tuned up and almost cried. Brady was also impressed. He thinks we need another one too. Maybe soon I'll get another fix.

Everyone's a Winner

The kids are still recovering from their long night. And so am I. Have you ever had to walk someone through a computer program after being up until 3am? No? I don't recommend it. Especially if the program you are walking through is a program you have never laid eyes on. Kinda hard to focus on the task at hand when your thoughts resemble scrambled eggs and the thinking process takes more effort than it should ever have to take.

The boys were in bed by 9pm. Belle did not make it through her sleep over last night. She called me just after 11, not long after I had gone to bed, to let me know she wanted to come home. The friend's mother offered to bring her home so that I didn't have to wake the boys to come pick her up. She came in and went right to bed. I wish I could say I did the same. I was up until after 1am (in bed, tossing) but that's a whole other topic. The kids all slept fairly well as far as time. Not one of them came into my room before 9am and I don't recall hearing any of them before 8:30 (about the time I woke up). They all had a pretty rough day yesterday, with attitudes and tempers flaring because they were so tired. I hoped today would be better.

Today they mostly lounged around but got a little rambunctious from time to time. The weather radio alarm went off this morning, to the tune of tornado watches until 5pm. The kids don't understand the concept of a watch. No matter how many times I explain that it's just a watch, does not mean that we will actually have a tornado, they still panic. They were kinda iffy on going out to play because of the high winds after that, so I didn't really argue that they didn't spend much time out today. They behaved pretty well when an couple of people came around selling cancer insurance. I had no intention on taking out a policy, but for every 50 people they spoke with, they would donate money to "Wigs for Kids" (I think, one of those companies) so I couldn't turn that down. Bryce started complaining about supper time that he didn't feel very well. I knew then that I would be putting them to bed at an earlier time tonight. The fact that ER had a a new episode airing tonight had absolutely nothing to do with it and I in no way warned them in advanced that they were going to be in bed by 9 so that I could watch it. Never happened. Yeah.

They have been bugging me to have a family game night but it just hasn't worked out with sleepovers. So tonight after I got the dishes washed and table cleaned they chose their game. The new "updated" version of Monopoly. The one were Boardwalk square is no longer Boardwalk and instead of costing $400 it now costs $4,000,000. Try to explain to a seven year old that he owes his sister $220,000 for rent on Disneyworld. Makes for an interesting time. The rules have a "quick game" version (about an hour or so) that has the banker mixing the property cards and randomly dealing three pieces of property to each player at no cost. This is the game we played (keeping an eye on 9pm). At 8:30, Bryce and Belle were laying down across chairs because "I'm tired" or "I'm bored". So I started making trades on property, buying up houses and encouraging them to buy houses in order to start bankrupting people. When they started to get on each others nerves and stepping on each others toes I declared the game over and it to be bed time. (ER had nothing to do with that. Ahem.) By now it is 9pm. Bryce asks the all important question, "Who won?"

"We all won. No one ran out of money."

Not one complaint was made that the game wasn't completely over and there was not one person angry because they lost. They were all happy that they weren't the loser that they all got up, brushed their teeth and made their way to bed. And I settled in my chair to watch my show. Now if I could get to sleep.

Spring Break

My kids are on spring break this week. Oh. My. Gosh. This weekend was fairly uneventful, but Hubby was home. Because he drives night shift, he usually will stay up on Sunday nights so that he can sleep on Monday and get on schedule. Sunday he laid down after giving the kids night and good-bye hugs so that he could nap. It was almost midnight before I made it to bed and he got up. I woke at six, remembering that our new trash man (our old one sold out to a company I despise) would be picking up at seven am and that I had forgotten to have Bryce take it down to the end of the driveway. So I got up and had Hubby do it. By the time I got back to sleep it was after 7:30 and I got up at 9. Belle was just getting up and I had to wake Brady at 9:30 (Bryce got up before Hubby left at 8). My odd sleeping pattern left me with a headache that progressively got worse throughout the day. So I drugged myself. About suppertime, I took two Tylenol and a benedryl to help my aching head. I have a love/hate relationship with allergy/sinus products, especially benedryl. I love the fact that it can ease some of my headaches (except my migraines). It took care of my headache Monday with in no time. But. (There's always a but.) It makes me so. darn. sleepy. One benedryl can move me to the point that it's all I can do to keep my eyes open. It amazes me that this little pink pill can make me want to sleep so badly. Belle wanted two kids from the neighborhood to stay with us Monday night, but there was no way possible that I had the energy for that. I talked with Hubby at 9 and by 10, I was to the point of no return. I went to bed just after 10 and within five minutes I was out. Cold.

I got up Tuesday morning feeling much better. My head didn't hurt and I slept soundly. I encouraged the kids to play outside because rain was in the forecast (along with a cold front) and I didn't know when it would be here or how cold it was going to get. At some point during the afternoon, they got to playing with a few of the neighborhood kids again. Bryce and Brady wanted the boy they were playing with to stay last night. So I said fine. The Belle calls to ask if his little sister can stay too. Well you know I can pick and choose between siblings. I have three kids and we've been through it. So she stayed as well. It was 3am before they finally quit.

Three. I started winding them down at 1am. Before it was all said and done, Bryce and Brady had begun arguing about sleeping arrangements among other things. Finally, the friend slept in the top bunk, Bryce slept in Brady's bottom bunk and Brady slept in my bed. Belle and her buddy slept on an air mattress in the living room. It has been a very long time since one of my kids have slept in the bed with me. Hubby and I prided ourselves on the fact that we didn't allow our children to begin sleeping in our bed with us. I didn't sleep much. Bryce and Brady are currently exhausted, though they won't admit that. Belle is as well, but had been invited earlier (before the three am crash) to spend the night with another friend tonight and she is at her house. I warned friend's step-dad about last nights bedtime and that if they were ready to wind them down feel free to put Belle to bed. She needed it. And hopefully it will make their night a little easier. Mine will be. As soon as the boys finish supper and go to bed, long before midnight.

"Hit'im Mom!!"

A few weeks ago, I picked up another Guitar Hero for my sister-in-law, because she couldn't find one where she lives. She has yet to come pick it up and doesn't know when she will be able to make it. Hubby told her he was going to borrow it so that we could compete against each other. (We're looking into buying just another guitar to do this regularly). We had our first round last night.

Brady was so excited as Hubby and I battled it out, that he kept hollering "Hit'im Mom!!" each and every time that I received "battle stars" to do so. You earn battle stars when they show up on the notes and you proceed to play the notes correctly. Then you can use those stars to attack the other player, resulting in them (usually) playing worse and their popularity going down. Bryce finally got so excited about the game, he yells "Hit'im like an old man!" Don't know where he got it, but the damage was done. We were laughing so hard by that point that neither of us were hitting too many correct notes. Never a dull moment here.

Childless

Occasionally, there are rare nights that I have no children at home. Tonight is one of those nights. The kids are officially on spring break. For the next week, they will be terrorizing me with requests to watch movies, play the Wii and computer games. But for tonight, they are spending the night with Memaw and Pepaw. That's right, I have no one here tonight (Hubby's not home yet) except for my fur kids and I have no idea what I am going to do. Outside of my husband, I have no real friends that I can call up and say, "Hey kids are gone. Wanna go shopping?" Instead I come home to a (mostly) empty house, watch some tv or a movie, maybe read or work on a craft. Decisions. I'll be sure to let you know what doesn't evolve out of tonight.

April Fools

April Fools is a horrible holiday. One that I probably enjoyed as a child but now know how my parents felt. I had forgotten what day it was until I read an article on the top ten pranks. Then I went about my day and forgot it again. Until the kids got home. Brady tried immediately to get me to fall for a prank. After a few minutes, the pranks fell off and we went about our afternoon of homework and playtime until we picked Bryce up from violin practice. We had a couple more pranks in the car on the way home and they stopped. Completely. Some days I'm glad of their short memory spans.


I have a routine that I go through every night before I go to bed and part of that routine is checking on the kids. I do this to make sure they are still under their blankets, that they are not too warm or cold, and to make sure they are still in their beds. I have this irrational fear someone may take them from me when my guard is down (bedtime). When I checked on the boys, I almost fussed at Brady for still being up. Until my mind kicked in enough to realize that Brady was not as big as the figure I was looking at and fear crept into my heart. That is until I actually paid attention to what I was looking at.

Now this picture does not do the effect justice. This picture was taken this morning after the kids had left for school and does not give the impression of what I saw last night. Notice the night light just past the dog's right paw. Imagine, just for a moment, seeing a figure's shape illuminated by that light and dark from behind. Yep. That's exactly what I saw. A shadowy figure. A few seconds later, after my mind had run through all of the worst case scenarios that it could muster, I started to notice that the shape looked familiar. Very familiar. And then it hit me what I was actually looking at. Brady had decided to play some before going to sleep.You could almost see the look of accomplishment when I told him this morning he almost gave me a heart attack. He pulled off the ultimate April Fool's joke and didn't even know it.