Checking things off....

Today was a crazy busy day.

I managed to get the entire front flowerbed weeded, which was more of a challenge than I had thought it was going to be - but it's done and shouldn't be completely overrun with weeds before we get back from vacation.

Hopefully at some point there will be more flowers in there than dirt, but until everything that I planted establishes itself, it's going to continue to look relatively pathetic.

After I got done with that and got a shower, I took Alex and Daniel into town for their very first official eye exams. I figured that since the older three kids now all wear glasses, I might as well get these guys checked out too.

Luckily, we escaped from that appointment without any new glasses - which actually disappointed the boys. I, however, did a happy dance on the way out the door.

We then ran a ton of errands - stopped at a paint store to pick up some paint chips for a friend, ran to the library to make a whole ton of copies of stuff for Scouts for a big recruitment thing this weekend, got the oil changed in the van, grabbed some (late) lunch, picked up a few things at the store, got gas, stopped and got a new air filter for the van, and then came home to keep working on clearing the fabric pile out of the garage.

Oh. The air filter.

The oil change place wanted $35 to put a new air filter in the van. I might have laughed at the poor kid who was working there when he told me the price. So I bought one (granted, it's still a stupid expensive filter) and changed it myself when we got home.

In the meantime, The Dude went to get the Scout trailer to bring it over here and stash it in my garage as we had planned. I was still out there going through the fabric and suddenly a thought came to me - I walked to the open garage door and reached up and touched the top of the opening with my hand without even stretching (and I'm short). I pulled up the pictures of the trailer on my phone and tried to judge the height of it.

My fear was right.

So now, the garage is cleaned out for a trailer that's sitting in my driveway. Because that's my luck. But the latch has been repaired and it's here and safe for the time being, and I'll work on going through all of the stuff over the next few days and get that all sorted out.

But.....other than balancing the checkbooks and washing the rest of the fabric (those are at the bottom of the list) I've gotten everything done that I set out to do today.

That means one thing - time to make tomorrow's list.

I'm so ready for vacation.....3000 miles in a vehicle with 5 kids will be a cake walk after this week.

Speedbumps

I'm not exactly sure what we did to deserve this.....

I blew out the head gasket in my van.
Then the water pump went out in The Dude's truck (while I was driving it).
My dishwasher crapped out on Mother's Day.
My lawnmower died the other day.

Then this evening, The Dude was out running a couple of errands, including picking up supper for us, and he called me to say that the truck had broken down. Again.

Anyway, it ended up being really minor. I took the boys, went and got him, we ran to the auto parts store and back to his house to get his tools, replaced the solenoid in the parking lot of the pizza place, and boom - back on our way again, all in less than an hour.

Still.... it's frustrating. It seems like just when we fix something - another thing breaks. Luckily this time, it was cheap and easy to fix. But I'm getting tired of fixing stuff. Besides the fact that it's generally really inconvenient, it's also getting really expensive.

We keep spending money on fixing stuff - and it's money that we're trying to put towards other stuff.

We're trying to figure out a way to make TMOART:13 happen (if you're new around here, that stands for The Mother Of All Road Trips: 2013 Edition) but at this rate - it looks like it might not. We want to rent a bigger van to do it so that the kids are more comfortable (and let's face it - if it's a rental and it breaks down, someone else has to pay to fix it) but from looking into that, a rental will easily tack another $1000-1500 to the total cost of the trip. We just might not be about to do it this year.

Even though we keep breaking stuff, we
have fun fixing it.

We're still trying to get moved so that we can have all of the kids in the same school district, and moving takes money too. Funny how that works.

But still, even though this is all so incredibly frustrating, we're still plugging along. We're still making plans (and adjusting them) and we're moving forward and we're looking into doing some other things that involve some really big steps (no, not THAT kind of a step) and all in all, no matter what, life is good. We might keep hitting speedbumps, but that's all they are - they might temporarily slow us down a bit, but they're not sending us off into some other direction.

I figure at this point that if we can deal with this much broken crap, we should be able to handle just about anything. We'll just keep going over the speedbumps, one by one.

We might lose what little bit of our minds that we have left.....but it'll just make the ride more interesting.

A glimpse inside my head.

...and it's kind of a messy place to be right now.

Ever have one of those days when you just have so much stuff on your mind that you can't even make any sense out of it whatsoever?

That's me today. This is the 4th attempt at writing this post.

I don't even know where to begin.

I'm tired. I'm cranky. Actually, I'm just downright exhausted, and everything keeps piling up on top of me higher and higher and I'm getting really tired of it.

Between not having my van, and dealing with the recent breakdown of The Dude's truck, and working more hours at work, and him not working because of his injured shoulder, and trying to handle the normal household stuff, and still trying to figure out how to get us and The Dude moved into one house, and our newest project of trying to get him into school in the fall (I'll be dating a college student - how weird is that?), and handling the kids' attitudes, and preparing for summer vacation, and trying to plan a weekend getaway for me and him - I'm pretty sure that I'm about to lose my mind.

Not that there's much of it left.

To be completely honest with you, I had a bit of a meltdown (or three or four) on him tonight. Sometimes the stress just gets to be too much and I lose it, and I take it out on him. And I hate when I do that and I feel horrible about it - yet he just takes it all in stride. I kind of freaked out on him because there was no way that I could plan anything for this evening, because anything that we wanted to do was contingent upon other people deciding what they were going to do - and I snapped. What was the subject of my snapping?

World peace? Global warming? The economy?

No. It was what to make for supper.

And how did he handle it? He got up and starting digging through the fridge and freezer, and he made supper for us and the kids.

What did I do? I let him have control. I walked out of the kitchen and went and stretched out on my bed and I fell asleep. I have no idea how long I napped, but I did it.

I still don't know why he puts up with me - and I told him that again tonight. Whatever the reason is, I'm thankful for it and I don't know what I would do without him. I know that we're going to get through all of this BS at some point in time.....but I really wish that it would happen sooner rather than later.

At some point, we need to catch a break. But at the same time, at least we know that we can handle the rough stuff - because we've sure been through a bunch of it already - and we still kinda' like each other.

Can't really complain about that.

Broken down

Today has been rough. Actually, the past couple of months have been.

When I was thinking about what I wanted to write about tonight, I started out thinking that it was going to be a total rant-fest, with me doing nothing but complaining about everything that is going wrong in my life - because honestly, right now, there's a lot of garbage that is going wrong. I seriously spent hours today crying my eyes out. I'm talking full-blown sobbing, snot bubbles, drooling, gasping-for-air ugly crying. For hours. I truly felt like I was having a nervous breakdown or something, because I just couldn't take it anymore.

But as I started to calm down and think more and more about it, I realized that yes - things kind of suck right now - but at the same time, there's still a lot of good stuff too. And I need to think about that or else I'm going to lose what little bit of my mind I have left.

There's been a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff going on that has been incredibly stressful on me, and honestly no one but The Dude knows all of it. I haven't even told my best friends about all of it and I know that I've been pushing them away because I don't want to talk about it yet. It's been so hard, and he's been amazing through all of it (as usual).

He hurt his shoulder a few weeks ago. Badly. He really can't do much of anything right now. The MRI is scheduled for Monday and then we'll have a better idea of how much damage there is and what the next step will be. Until then, a lot of extra stuff is falling on me. I had to drag my mower over there the other night to take care of their yard, even though I was tired and cranky and irritable - but you know what? I like to mow. I was glad I was able to do it. And I got a workout. And it's one less thing for him and his mother to have to worry about getting done. Win x4.

My van. Ugh. Blown head gasket. The garage wanted $2300 to fix it. Ha. Instead, The Dude talked to his friend who talked to his buddy and bargaining was done and deals were made and parts were ordered and it should be fixed within the next couple of weeks for about 1/5th of that quote. I can't complain about that.

The Dude's truck. It's been my temporary set of wheels for the past few days - until this morning when it started to overheat and spew coolant out of the engine. Fearing the worst, The Dude took it and dealt with it while I was at work. Although I ended up having to do an unexpected 3-mile sprint really fast walk to get the boys from school, he was somehow able to replace the thermostat by himself (with one arm) for a grand total of about $9.

Unfortunately, while the sealant on the new part cures, it can't be driven for 24 hours, so I missed the girls' band concert tonight. And I thought that I was going to miss the CF walk tomorrow, but thanks to a dear friend offering me a ride (which involves her going WAY out of her way) I will be there. I will be wearing a horrible outfit, but I will be there.

I got this part-time job a few weeks ago, only planning to work a few hours here and there for some extra spending money - but with everything else that is happening (and costing us money) I quickly realized that I need to work more hours. I talked to my boss about it and she is willing to give me more hours AND work around my availability - and until The Dude goes back to work, he'll be able to help me with the kids in order to make all of this happen.

There's a lot of other smaller things going on at the same time - but I always find it amazing how all of the big crap decides to go wrong at the same time - and it's so easy to get sucked into the horribleness of it and forget that there's still good stuff happening too. I know that we're going to get through all of this at some point - we'll get my van fixed and get his van running and get his shoulder fixed and find our dream house and pay off all of our bills and life will be better than it is now - but I just have to be patient and keep working toward that, one day at a time.

Thanks, universe. I think.

At least it was pretty outside today.

I have had this van for almost 2 years now.

At the moment, I have a very tenuous love/hate relationship with it - but leaning more toward the 'hate' side of things. There are some things going wrong with it that are starting to make me nervous, and we're beginning to think about maybe getting rid of it a bit sooner than we had initially thought.

But one of the things about it that I've always enjoyed was the fact that the windshield was intact. The Escort that I had way-back-when had a cracked windshield. The Mom-Mobile that I got after that one had a cracked windshield. The She-Beast (surprise) had a cracked windshield. I have done everything in my power - even dodged flying boulders - to avoid having a cracked windshield on this one.

But it happened today. We were cruising along the highway and *smack* a rock hit the windshield, right in front of The Dude's face. I looked over and might have let out a slightly-louder-than-necessary expletive or two when I saw it. Of course at that point there was nothing that I could do, other than to keep driving.

I dropped The Dude and his mother back off at their house and went straight to the windshield place. I could tell just from looking at it that if I don't do something about it relatively quickly, the cracks are going to spread and I'm going to have to replace the whole thing.

Of course. I was all excited about having a little bit of extra money this month. Not much, but a little. Thanks, universe.

The guy could have fixed it today. I had the money and the time, and he was sitting in his shop, bored. Then he realized that he left his repair kit in his truck. At home. Thirty miles away from the shop. Thanks, universe.

So I'll take it back tomorrow, and hope that the cracks don't increase between now and then because of the cold weather and having to do the 30-mile run to get the kids to school in the morning. Oh, and if you look closely enough, you'll see that there are actually two chips - not just one. Tack an extra $5 onto the charge and about an extra 15-30 minutes onto the repair time for that one because they're a fraction of an inch too far apart to be considered one chip. Thanks, universe.

Great. Now I have to kill an hour sitting in a repair shop in the morning, when I have so many other things to do. Thanks, universe.

Hey, wait. I have an hour to kill. An hour of time where I will have nothing to do and no kids because they'll all be in school. Remember my 70 day plan? Well, it's now down to 67 days - and I now have an hour tomorrow to put toward it.

Hey, thanks, universe!

Perspective. Sometimes we just need to change it.

It was a sew-fest

So (sew?) for whatever reason, this weekend apparently became the official sewing weekend in this house.

I finished up my row to add to the rows that now get sent on to the next person...and I've already received the next set of rows that I have to add another row to and then send it off, but it can wait for a while because it's not "due" yet.

And I have to get my sewing machine serviced. Like, NOW.

But, while I was working on this, the girls decided that they wanted to sew too. I've tried to get them to do it before and they had absolutely no interest - but suddenly, the urge hit them.

And I had to fight to use my own sewing machine for the rest of the weekend.

But I really can't complain too much. They really focused on what they were working on, and even though they were using their own "techniques" at least they are showing an interest - and starting to learn the basics of using the sewing machine.

Now I just need to get my old one fixed and my new one serviced, and then it'll just be 3 people fighting over two machines instead of a single one - that got interesting a few times, especially in this tiny little sewing area.

But they had fun, there was a minimal amount of bickering, and they're learning a good skill. Whether or not they continue to use it will be totally up to them, but at least they'll have an idea of the basics.

 Sarah actually came up with some really cute ideas, so maybe she'll turn out to be the quilt designer of the family. I could handle that.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He spoils me.

In other news, because The Dude is so incredibly wonderful and awesome, he spent most of his weekend off under the hood of the van - yet again. I've been having some issues with it and we I thought that it needed a new thermostat. He took my word for it and starting trying to replace it, which was not as easy as it should have been. Long story short, after some more investigating, we he fixed it - or so we hope. Tomorrow morning will be the moment of truth.

And we're going to start shopping for a new van. I don't want to, but I think the time is coming - sooner than I'd like it to, darn it.

Anyway.....tomorrow, the two younger boys have school (yes, it's a holiday. yes, they have school.) but the older 3 don't - so I'm taking the two to school, and then taking Emily and Jared over to their father's house and then Sarah and I are going to spend the day together - no one else, just the two of us. We haven't decided what we're going to do yet, but there might be a run involved, and lunch somewhere (her choice). I don't get to spend nearly enough time with her, so I'm really looking forward to it. I think it'll be good for both of us at this point.

One of those days...

It's been one of THOSE days. You know the kind.

First off, the weather was AMAZING. Beyond amazing. 70+ degrees worth of amazing. Of course it didn't start out quite that warm first thing this morning, but it was still nice enough that I finally forced myself outside and managed to get in a 3 mile walk.

Seriously. 70 degrees. In Kansas. In January.

Crazy stuff.

The Dude had to do some work on his truck today, and he needed my hacksaw (don't ask) to do it - not to mention that it's easier to do it in my yard than it is to do it in his, so he came over this afternoon.

We got to spend a little bit of time together before I had to go and get the boys from school.

It was so nice outside that I basically told the boys that they were NOT allowed to come back inside until I had supper ready and on the table. It's so rare to have days like this, and they needed to be outside to burn off some energy and get some exercise.

I was working on supper and was standing at the kitchen sink doing some dishes, and I looked out the window. The view was so incredibly amazing, and I realized just how awesome my life really is - even though I don't always admit it.

I mean really - right there, outside the window - there it is. The love of my life, working on his truck while the kids played nearby. Granted, it would have been better with all of the kids here (and if he wasn't working on that blasted truck) but still - it honestly took my breath away and I just stood there and watched and smiled. And when supper was ready, they all came inside and we sat down and we ate... and then The Dude went home and I got the boys in the tub and ready for bed.

It's definitely not the life that I had planned on having. It's crazy and chaotic and there's a lot of drama and stress at times. But it's my life, and I love it.

It's been one of those days.....that shows me just how lucky I really am.

We need to turn it around...

I went into the beginning of this new year full of hope and excitement. I really do think that there are going to be some wonderful things happening for me and my family this year. I was anxious to get this year started for so many positive reasons.

But then the new year started - and it didn't start well at all.

I found out on the second day of the year that one of my friends was going through a personal hell, and as a mother, it hit home for me.

On the third day, we got more devastating news that again, hit me so incredibly hard.

The Dude has been having problems with his truck. My "service engine" light was on. He has to get two teeth pulled tomorrow afternoon.

It just hasn't been a stellar start to the year. But at the same time I know that it could always be worse.

We spent part of the afternoon today working on his truck. Although we didn't get it fixed, we have now narrowed down the problem and are about 98% sure that we know what's wrong with it. He can drive it for now, for short distances, but it needs to be fixed. Of course that doesn't come for free, but we can get it taken care of in the next couple of weeks.

My "service engine" light? I had a sneaking suspicion desperate hope that it was something stupid - and it was. Turns out the gas cap wasn't on tight enough to make it happy. Stupid thing. But the light's off now, so it's good.

Tonight, however.....tonight was hard. As I mentioned the other day, a little boy who was the son of one of Sarah's mentors was killed in a horrible accident last week. As a mother, I can't even begin to imagine the impact of losing a child. I just can't wrap my head around it. After the kids got home from school and basketball practice tonight, Sarah announced that she wanted to go to the boy's viewing. I wasn't sure that it was a good idea, but she and I talked about it and she really wanted to go. I told her she would have to check with her father, since she was supposed to go to church with him tonight. He agreed that she could go, but only if I went with her. So plans quickly changed, Ex1 came and got Emily and Jared, I took Alex and Daniel over to The Dude's house, and Sarah and I went to the viewing.

It was so hard. So incredibly hard. Seeing the little boy's parents and sisters there, and the other mourners...looking at the pictures and the videos from his short little life....my heart shattered so many times tonight. Seeing the pain in his mother's eyes as she hugged me and thanked me for coming....I have tears running down my face as I'm typing this.

All I've been able to think for the past few days is "something's got to give" - there has been too much bad stuff to start off a new year. Way too much. It needs to change, and somehow we need to turn it around. So I started thinking - always dangerous for me to do.

Tomorrow, January 10, 2013 is my 2 year blogiversary. It's been 2 years since I started this crazy thing.  And Sunday, January 13, is both my 42nd birthday and the 2nd anniversary of the day that my 2nd divorce became final.

I need to celebrate. I want to celebrate. I want to be happy. While I can't forget about the bad stuff, I can't focus on it - and I don't want anyone else to focus on the bad stuff either.

So what do we do?

I know what I'm going to do. I've always been a huge fan of the "Pay it Forward" movement (as is my good friend over at Mom-troversial) and I'm going to start making a really conscious effort to pay it forward as much as I can and in as many ways as I can. I have a pile of stuff sitting by my front door already that needs to be donated - and it's going to go out this week. We have toys that the kids have outgrown or they don't like or whatever. Guess what? They're going out the door too.

I've made up my mind that I am going to do as much as I can for two of my favorite local organizations too - our homeless shelter and our women's safe house. I have my own personal reasons for choosing those two in particular, but they're going to be getting some of my time, my money, and any of my "stuff" that they can use.

So - for my blogiversary and for my birthday, this is the best gift that anyone could give to me (*cough* along with a pair of warm fuzzy slippers so that I don't have to keep wearing The Dude's that are 18 sizes too big for me *cough*). Go out and do something for someone. Donate something somewhere. Be nice to someone. Donate something that you don't need anymore instead of selling it. Volunteer your time. If you have the cash, make a donation to a local organization that needs it. There are so many ways that we can make someone else's life just a little bit easier, but we overlook those things so often in our hurry to deal with our own lives. Pay it forward, people. Please.

So go and do it, and tell me what you did. Leave it in a comment here, post it on my facebook wall, send me an email, whatever. Tell the world that you did it, and maybe you'll inspire someone else to do the same thing.

I guess it's over.

Christmas, that is.

Usually I leave my tree up longer than this, but to be quite honest - it was annoying me. The boys all got remote control cars for Christmas *shoots dirty look toward The Dude* and they have been running them all. day. long. And of course, there's nothing more fun and exciting than to run them into the tree.

The dead tree, no less.

That has a lot of breakable ornaments on it.

And it's dead.

Needless to say, every time anything bumped into the tree, needles started falling everywhere. So it was time. I was going to wait until the kids went to bed to take it down, but once I get an idea in my head I tend to rush right into it (not always a good thing) and so I got to work. It took a few hours, as usual - mainly because I am extremely anal about how the ornaments get put away. But still, I got it done.

And then of course I had the joy of dragging it outside and tossing it to the curb. Literally. It's now sitting out there, waiting to be picked up and turned into mulch by the city. At least I don't have to deal with actually getting rid of it by myself.

Once I got the tree out of the house, I started cleaning up the living room and re-rearranging it to get the furniture back where it belonged. That was another reason why I really just wanted to get the tree out of here - with the "holiday arrangement" of the furniture, we had no choice but to sit on the loveseat to watch movies - and I *hate* the loveseat. OK, maybe not hate - but it's really not comfortable for both me and The Dude to sit on at the same time, because I usually end up stretched out with my feet in his lap while we watch movies. And the loveseat just didn't work for that. So now, we can watch movies comfortably again. It's the little things in life.

So I still have a few more things to put away in the living room, but for the most part it's clean. Or it's clean enough. I do want to mop the floor, but that'll wait until tomorrow. Or maybe the next day. We'll see.

We won't even talk about what the kitchen looks like right now, thankyouverymuch. I'll deal with that tomorrow, without a doubt. I'm not even sure how I'm going to get in there to make breakfast yet - so I might end up cleaning up in there yet tonight. 

In other news, this is never a good sight. 

I knew that The Dude had left for work, because he had sent me a message on facebook telling me he was leaving. And then about 15 minutes later, his boss called here looking for him. He's been having issues with his truck, so I loaded up the kids and took off. We found him about a block from his house, where the truck had died (again). However, we think we figured out what's wrong with it, we were able to get it started and get it back to his house, and I got him to work (although he was late). So tomorrow we work on fixing that - but it looks like it's going to be a really cheap and easy fix *crosses fingers*. The last thing we need right now is more unexpected expenses, since he's now dealing with a broken tooth and is most likely going to be making a trip to the oral surgeon, just like I did. Hopefully his visit goes smoother than mine did though.

Speaking of which, I need to balance the checkbooks and consult with the notebook to make sure that I'm still on track. I am bound and determined to stick with my plan.

Christmas, Part I. And stuff.

The older 4 kids have been gone for a couple of days, so it was just me and Daniel for calendar-Christmas. He and I went to church last night...but not before he fell asleep on the floor after his bath. I got him back up and took him to church, where he proceeded to sleep through about 95% of the service.

I made special arrangements with Santa this year. He stopped by last night and dropped off just a couple of small presents for Daniel to open this morning, and then he's coming back tonight to bring EVERYTHING and to fill the stockings so that when all of the kids come home tomorrow, we can have our family Christmas.

Then Daniel and I went out to a friend's house and hung out with her for the afternoon. It was just a totally relaxed, laid-back day......but it's cold outside!

Along with being incredibly cold outside, it's almost as cold in my laundry room. From what I can tell, it used to be a porch and someone just slapped some drywall on the inside and some siding on the outside and called it a laundry room - but neglected to put insulation in the walls. It gets bitter cold in there in the wintertime, to the point that it is almost unbearable to walk across the floor without shoes on - which for me is horrible, since I hate to wear shoes.

Out of curiosity tonight, I grabbed the only thermometer that I have and I put it on the floor in there for a few minutes.

Yeah. It's that cold in there.

Next project? Adding to the bottom of the curtain across the laundry room doorway to keep that cold air from pouring across the kitchen floor. That might even be done tonight. Like, in the next hour.

At the moment, however, I'm waiting for The Dude to come back over. He got here a bit ago - on foot - because his truck died a few blocks away from my house. So he took my van to go back and try to figure out what's going on with it and to see if he can at least get it parked somewhere safe if he can't move it. Then we are getting up early early early in the morning to finish shopping for the kids before they get back home.

Sleep is definitely overrated at this point.

Busy day...

...but what else is new?

I dropped the boys off at school and then got a text from Ex1 asking me if I was coming to Sarah's honor roll assembly this morning. Which was happening in 20 minutes. 15 miles away.

So as I attempted to hightail it out of town to get there even remotely close to on time, I got stuck in the traffic (traffic? this town never has traffic!) from not one, but TWO accidents that happened within a block of each other. I took off and whipped (carefully) through some residential neighborhoods to get around the idiots traffic and got on my way again, only to get caught behind a bike that was pulling a buggy. Seriously. It was a bike. A regular old 10-speed type bike. With a buggy. And a guy who looked like he was really really tired who was pedaling along on his merry little way in front of me.

Needless to say, that didn't last long. I got around him as quickly as I could and took off again.

I made it to the school just as they called Sarah's name and she walked across the stage. Granted, I might have been wearing the clothes that I slept in last night (plus a sweatshirt over top) and I might have looked like absolute crap, but at least I did brush my teeth before I left the house and I did put some deodorant on (I think). And at least I was wearing sweats, and not pajama pants. And I was there.

So anyway, I left the school and headed back towards town, intent on getting stuff done that I really needed to do....

....oh look! My favorite bull was close to the road this time! Yes, I had to stop and take his picture again - but he wouldn't moooove out from behind the gate. *snicker*

(Speaking of this gorgeous guy, did you see the cover photo on my facebook page?)

I got back to town, and I did my civic duty.

And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Notice the shirt? What a goober.

And then The Dude came over and took me out to lunch (wait, wasn't I supposed to be getting stuff done around the house today?) and .....

.... there are so many stories that I could tell about that lunch. But, I'm going to save some of them. There are stories about snorting whiz, peepee hands, having a keeper, and Vegas - but not necessarily in that order. One of the things that I love about him is that we laugh together. Constantly. We laugh with each other and at each other on a regular basis - and it's awesome.

After lunch, we got the oil changed in my van, which resulted in more fun - but truth be told I am just so thankful that he is willing and able to do this kind of stuff for me. And it's not even like he does it for me - we do this stuff together. And it's fun.


Did I mention that he always makes me laugh?

The last thing of the day was going to Sarah's first Scholar's Bowl. The Dude kept Alex and Daniel here at the house so that I could go by myself since I wasn't really sure what to expect - and it's a good thing too because they never would have stayed quiet for that long.

The kids on her team did well, but not as good as they needed to in order to win. But, this was their first time out and it was obvious that they were nervous, especially at the beginning. As the evening progressed, I could see their confidence building. I can't wait to see how well they do as the season (do they call it a season?) continues.

After I got home, The Dude took off to his place, I got the boys in bed, did a little bit of cleaning, and then set the mousetraps in the kitchen. I can hear something out there messing around, but I refuse to move from my spot until I hear a trap snap - which will hopefully be soon. The Dude actually witnessed the mouse stroll out of the laundry room and cruise around the kitchen for a few minutes before strolling back into the laundry room - so not only is he in my house uninvited, but he's brazen too. That will end, and it will not end in a good way for the mouse.

Craziness...

So while recovering from the migraine from you-know-where that I had yesterday, I didn't do much of anything today. I had lots of plans of things to do - you know, laundry and cleaning and stuff (go figure) but I didn't really get much of it done.

Then the boys and I went to Alex's Scout meeting tonight and got all of the stuff that he needs to start selling popcorn later this week. I still haven't gone through all of it yet, but it doesn't look that horrible. His pack is setting up a table at a local business this weekend to sell it, and so I'm going to take him there so that he can participate in that a bit and get more sales.

The rest of the week is just chaotic. I'm judging for Blogger Idol this week (which I just noticed I forgot to put on my calendar). Sarah's basketball practice started today, and that's every day after school - which means that on the days that the older 3 come here after school, they won't be here until almost 6pm. We have parent/teacher conferences tomorrow for the older 3, plus a basketball parents meeting after practice. Alex can start selling his popcorn on Thursday, the older 3 are off school on Friday, Emily has a sleepover at a friend's house Friday night, the older 3 have a dinner thing with Ex1's inlaws on Saturday, we have trick-or-treat Saturday evening, a ballet at our church later Saturday evening, church on Sunday morning...and it just keeps going. Plus, I'm trying to make more of an effort to get out and walk/jog during the week when I  have time to myself (and I've been failing miserably at that) so it just seems like no matter what I do, I'm not getting ahead. At all.

Oh, and of course this is the week that I get money so I have to sit down and do my meal planning for the next month, and then get to the grocery store on Wednesday. I also have to figure out a time when The Dude and I can get the oil changed in my van, before the glaring light on my dash causes it to self-destruct or something.

Did I mention that I have a craft show at my church in about 2 weeks? So I have to get a ton of stuff ready for that too? No? Probably not - because I forgot about it. But of course I can't get half of the stuff done that I need to get done until I get at least one of my sewing machines working again, which probably won't be until this coming weekend. No pressure there.

And tonight I still have to go through the stuff for Alex and Daniel's fundraisers that they had for school. All of that stuff has to be turned in tomorrow, and of course I haven't even looked at it yet. Oops.

This week could very well be the week that I finally lose what's left of my mind.

Making progress

Today was officially "Get The Van Ready For TMOART:12 Day" - and it was a long day, to say the least.

The boys and I started by getting up early to go get the new tires for the van. I had gotten 2 new ones last spring before we went to Texas, but we really needed to get 2 more. So we went.





Alex had fun playing with Luke, the shop cat. And then both boys were just tickled to be able to watch the men putting the new tires on the van.

After we got done with the tires, we came back home and I finished cleaning and scrubbing out the chest freezer and got that all done. And of course, worked on some laundry and cleaning and all of that fun stuff. Then we went and got The Dude and ran a couple of errands before we started on the next project - changing the air filter and the oil in the van. That....was an experience.



The air filter was a nightmare. I have no idea how long we wrestled with that thing, but we finally got it changed. It took both of us, several improperly used tools, a lot of 4 letter words, and lots of sweat to get it done. (I admit it - changing it was my idea - I mean really, if we're changing the oil, why don't we go ahead and do the air filter too? It can't be that hard, can it? *snort*)

After that The Dude pretty much took over and changed the oil and oil filter, which really took no time at all. While he went inside to clean up and get a shower, I finally got around to tying up my tomato plants - I just have them planted in buckets on my front steps with a couple of jalapeno plants - and I was thrilled to see these....





When we finally got done with all of that fun stuff, we took the old oil back to the store (love that we can do that) and bought the new bulb for my brake light that we forgot the first time around and then stopped to grab some food.





After we ate, we took The Dude back home and hung out there for a little while before the boys and I came back home. It was still daylight so I decided to go ahead and change the burned out bulb in my brake light...again. I just changed it about a month ago, so I was already annoyed.





With Alex's help to test the lights, I found out that apparently, it's not the bulb after all. For whatever reason, that light just. won't. work. So, that just adds something else to the list of things to figure out before we leave.

At least once I figure that out, and then clean out the van - it will be officially ready to hit the road on Thursday.

I hope I'm ready by then.

Pictures from the weekend

We got up early Saturday morning and headed down to my friend's house in Oklahoma for her wedding reception. We stopped for a quick lunch at Braum's in Stillwater on our way, got to her house, unloaded the van, helped get stuff ready for the reception, and then headed out to the lake for the party.

We had a great time. It was cold, but the kids wanted to get into the water so I finally relented and let them go in. I waded in until my toes got wet and bolted back out to dry land as fast as I could - that water was frigid! But they had fun. We ate and then played football, volleyball, and horseshoes for a few hours before we went back to her house for a bit and then came back home.

On Sunday, The Dude and I decided on the spur of the moment to take the kids out to the lake (here) for a few hours. It was much warmer here, but the water was still frigid. I got in up to my knees this time and then decided that I was done and just hung out on the blanket taking pictures and watching the kids. He got out in the water and played with them - but he's way braver than I am!

After we got done at the lake and got showered and changed, we decided to go to Burger King for supper before taking the older 3 kids back to their father's house. That was all fun and games, until we walked outside and found the flat tire on the van. The Dude put the spare on, found out that it was *almost* flat, and took it and got it aired up, then we drove very slowly to drop them off and come back into town.

I took the tire to get it repaired this morning, and then we went back and picked it up this afternoon and he put it back on the van for me so that I wouldn't have to keep driving on that horrendous donut.

Daniel and I walked Alex to school this morning before we got the tire repaired. I've had people ask me why I take my camera everywhere with me - and this is a perfect example of why I do. We were walking back along the creek that runs through town, and I saw something bobbing in the water right at the edge. We walked over and found this guy...

Of course, Daniel wanted to bring him home - I put a stop to that idea rather quickly!

So now, it's back to normal for a little while. Daniel has 2 more days of school left, and the other kids get out next week so the chaos of the summer is about to start. We need to put the finishing touches on the plans for the road trip in June and come up with a little bit more money since now I really think we should get a couple of new tires on the van - but we'll figure it all out one way or another. Somehow it always manages to come together, even if it's at the last minute!