why ruin a holiday with sleep?

Or "How our Thanksgiving Went"

We left Wednesday morning for PA to see Aunt L and Granny.  There was NO traffic.  It was like a scene out of a horror movie where everyone has disappeared!  It was stunning and wonderful to travel and HAVE NO TRAFFIC!

The kids loved being in PA.  Aunt L and her daughter (R) and her son (A) are fabulous w/the kids and man, do the kids love them to pieces!  Wednesday night went as follows: BabyT SCREAMED at the top of his lungs for TWO HOURS STRAIGHT.  BabyJ, just having started her anti-biotics would only sleep in our arms in the chair.  It was quite a lovely scene as you could imagine.

Turkey day was great - the kids played and had fun.  We had holiday soup for lunch and a fabulous 25 pound turkey for dinner!  Then that night - BabyJ was up on and off and BabyT only shrieked for a little bit.  Of course, BabyJ was up for the day at SIX AM.

Friday - also great, but included shopping at Kohl's for their sale!  The toys are always at a great price on Black Friday there.

Then Saturday, about 1, we headed home.  Again, traffic was very light, even on 95 which was still amazing!

the TV!

Oh my - but there is SO MUCH good tv on I can't stand it!  I love some TV time!  What I'm watching  now:

** Nip/Tuck.  Man this is awesome.  The show is so good I wish it was on more often. The storylines this season are GREAT!
** Survivor.  This season is also shaping up great!  I love the gravedigger guy!
** Dr. Phil.  He seems to have trashier topics this year.  I love it, nothing better than trashy-talk-reality shows!
** EVEREST!  This years trip to climb Everest.  It is awesome, except for the arrogant Tim and his graphics of the steel in his legs and back. Phurba the Sherpa is fantastic and I love that he gets to do something challenging even to him, though I hope they are paying him an entire lifetime salary to do it since his job is to help the client do it.  And he's doing it w/out guide/safety ropes. Awesome.
** Desperate Housewives.  Also awesome and trashy!

so that's WHY!

BabyT has a sinus infection AND bronchitis!  Which is why we aren't getting any sleep around my house!  A-ha!

still sick dammit

BabyT is STILL SICK.  This is 4 days of fever.  So he's still Mr. CrankySickPants.  And so much fun to be around.  The river of snot is also fun.  And the not sleeping.  That part is AWESOME.

ah, croup. You slay me!

Ok...so now we're into the runny river of snot/nasty cough/fever portion of croup.  WHICH SUCKS.  This portion is marked by LESS sleep than the croupy part because the fever keeps BabyT awake and uncomfortable and he won't take his medicines (all THREE of my children will vomit if you force them to take meds - strong gag reflex I guess).  So...my update is that we STILL aren't getting any sleep.

anyone?

anyone know how long croup lasts?

know what hurts?

We have a magnet we got from the Ripley's Aquarium in Myrtle Beach.  It is a shark magnet, where the shark is facing forward, not sideways.  Actually it's just a shark head.  Well, BabyT left it on the floor, shark mouth up.  So a pointy plastic shark head to the foot.  So far, that is more painful than

** lego block
** army man
** transformer pieces
** action figures

Beating lego block and army man (the little green ones) is a pretty good pain.

oh my!

we took babyJ to Potrait Innovations yesterday and MY GOD!  The photos!  They did a fantastic job and the pics look great.

We have a professional photographer we use for the pics at the house (considered art-worthy) but he is so expensive - $150 for an 8x10 to hand out is too much.  So we decided to try this place and see how it goes for pics to give people and MAN are we satisified!

They have a great deal - we got 14 poses for $100 - 3 sheets of each pose and a CD of all the pics.  Can't beat that!!!  I highly recommend them if you're looking to get pics done!

my day...

6:15 - Adamant "GET DOWN!" startles me awake.  I scramble to babyT's room to get him before his voice escalates and wakes other children.

6:20 - Inform BabyT that there will be no cartoons shown before 7 am.  He starts meltdown which wakes BabyJ.  Excellent.  Put on Scooby-doo so that he will not get into anything dangerous or messy while I go get BabyJ and change her.  Run into Son in hallway - tell him it's TOO EARLY to be up and go back to bed.  Yes, he may sleep in our bed instead.

7 a.m. (on the dot!) Son emerges from my room as he knows this is when I have deemed it acceptable time for him to be up.  Catches me eating my morning cereal bar.

7:30 feed BabyJ oatmeal, then bottle.

8 - feed BabyT and Son each 1 banana, chocolate milk and a donut as a surprise!  Wander aimlessly around house holding baby so she doesn't spit up breakfast.

9 - my mother arrives, thank GOD.  I shower myself and BabyT.  Fold laundry while he draws in shower.  Make him 89,000 cups of bubbles.

10 am talk babyT into going upstairs so I can clean.  Realize I need to make Son's lunch (yes, he eats at 10 because of kindergarten schedule) and get him dressed.  50 minutes is NOT enough time to do all of that.  BabyT has meltdown becuase he was excited to go upstairs and play.  Damn.

10:10 Son starts eating 1/2 sandwich.
10:15 BabyJ wants bottle.  Harass Son to eat faster.  Start laundry.
10:20 BabyT needs snack.
10:30 Inform Son he needs to kick it if he wants to be on bus.

Good lord, I'm tired of typing already and only up to 10:30!  Good grief,

whew! Hard at work!

my first day of work is Nov 12,   but wait!!

That is apparently a holiday!  So I have a day off already!  Isn't that great!!!!!

dear cashier at Wendy's drive thru...

I watched you try and fit three different lids on my soda.  you gave up and handed it to me thru the drive-thru window STILL w/a lid that didn't fit right.  And seemed STUNNED when I asked you to please put on a lid that was't mis-shapen.  Like I am supposed to ignore that and drive around w/a full soda and no lid?

AND don't look all "puuuu-llleeeeaaasseee" when I check each and every cheeseburger to be sure there is no mayo, lettuce, tomato, etc. hiding on there.  You guys at Wendy's (and this one in particular) always get the burgers wrong when I don't check right away.  And I will not pull forward to check, because then what would I do?  Come in to have the problem fixed?  I am NOT getting all three kids in and out of the car to go in and fix your mistake (and then, of course, stand there w/all three kids while you make new burgers?  I don't think so).  SO I will sit at the window and check them, thank you very much.

oh, and by the way

And today I think the time change was even dumber than I did yesterday.  BOTH babies were up at 5 a.m.  Since hubby is STILL out of town (we're on 35 days now of him gone) I'm ready to shoot myself.  My 5 year old is now whining because I've declared that I'm taking a nap today when the babies do, which means so is HE!

donating money to the school...

Son started Kindergarten - so far we have "donated" (or been asked to donate or purchase)

** $82 worth of wrapping paper (we bought it, we did not ask co-workers and family to do so.  We bought an amt we thought he'd possibly sell.)
** $20 for the Fall Festival (the "Not Halloween" party they had on Oct 31)
** $25 for an Entertainment coupon book
** $15 to buy the library a new book in honor of Son for his birthday
** $50 at the school bookfair
** $15 to buy items for the class gift basket to be auctioned off at the Winter Festival

Seriously -for eight weeks worth of school, this much money already?

We also spent $64 on school pictures which came out BLURRY, with the WRONG background color and where Son is not freaking-centered in the picture!

time change...

man, I hate the time change!  babyT and babyJ are quite adamant that they goto bed on time - 8 p.m. for babyT and 8:30 p.m. for BabyJ.  Well, what the hell do I do now?  BabyJ also got up at 5 a.m. (the old 6 a.m.) for some reason today.  Why do we have to do this ridiculous practice.   It doesn't ACTUALLY create more daylight- we're just fooling ourselves by moving the clocks around.  Stupid.

working sucks

as I get closer to my "return to work" (Nov 12, btw.  But only part time) I get REALLY angry.  Why is it that people (ie. Britney Spears) get the resources (time and money) to spend UNLIMITED amounts of time and energy on their kids, but DON'T and other really wonderful moms have to goto work to make ends meet, when they WANT to spend time w/their kids.  Life is so unfair.  And then when I see her making a total ass out of herself, I just want to smack her.  Or other moms who don't work, yet feel the need to have a nanny?

Don't get me wrong, I'd LOVE help.  Were I to be so lucky, I would employ a full-time cleaning person, chef, etc.  But NOT a nanny.  The kids could be my only responsibility around the house.  Let someone else cook, clean and organize!

 
oh my, the cuteness! Evil doesn't stand a chance!