HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my friend Michelle Miles!!! Who is my twin in more ways than I can count (and now, in age! heh heh!). Hope you have a wonderful day, Mik!!!

Can I Have Some Normal, Yet?

I was NOT happy yesterday. Today I'm over it. I guess that's how we are supposed to handle disappointment, right? Pull ourselves up, and get OVER it. Which I am. In a big way.

I got released from my calling at church, and this Sunday will be our last time attending the Waukesha Ward. (I'll be out of town the following Sunday, and we're moving before the next one.) I'm kind of sad!

But new beginnings are good. I'm hoping we just don't have any more of them for at least ten years. ;-)

I can't wait to get moved. Then I can get settled into unpacking and getting normalcy back, and WRITING again, which I haven't been able to do at all. Except to blog. So, I guess I've been writing after all!

Normal will be a very welcome thing, to be sure! Until then, I'll just have to go through a little craziness. Bring it on.

And Now It's Tuesday.

They didn't choose our house. They didn't choose the other house, either. They went with a completely different house altogether. Apparently the husband wanted our house, but the wife overruled him because our kitchen was "too small."

Granted, I will say that compared to the rest of our house, the kitchen is a tad small.

But it's very nice, (I think) and very convenient if you don't want to be jumping over a large island to get to your ingredients while cooking. However, look at the huge bar stools. They eat up space. So, I recently bought the kind that sits underneath the bar, and have no back. Even though we love the ginormous bar stools, they're now in the basement.

BUT, I have to admit, we didn't like the kitchen when we bought the house, either. We'd only had a weekend to buy a house, and we really loved the REST of the house. So, we settled with the kitchen.

HOWEVER, in this market where people can be as picky as all get out, our kitchen can lose us a sale. And it has. THREE stinking times. *Lara bangs head on desk*

Got up and went for a run at 5:30 this morning outside. Now I have a horrible headache. Weird. I've rented another dumpster, (not as big this time) and I'm going to fill it up before the weekend. One last-ditch effort at dejunking.

Gotta go take something for the headache. Happy Tuesday, everyone.

And...it's Monday...

Okay, totally weird: we had the showing on Saturday morning, and didn't hear anything. And didn't hear anything. Our realtor put a call into the other realtor, and NOTHING. Seriously. She called again Sunday morning.

As of this morning, we STILL haven't heard how the showing went. Naturally, we are assuming it is a "no," but we think the realtor (theirs, not ours) is kind of weird for not even calling back to give feedback.

Then again, maybe they're still deciding, and that's why we haven't heard. So, we could still be in the running. I'm not going to lose hope until the hope is GONE, you know what I mean?

Had a good weekend. Thing Three had a soccer game and after that we went to brunch. Sunday was HOTTER THAN HOT--a walloping 90 degrees! And today is the same. Of course the church air conditioning didn't catch up in time and by the last hour we were all DYING. There's nothing worse than doing your hair and makeup and dressing to the nines just to go and sit and MELT. It's--deflating somehow.

I know, I know I should get used to the hot, humid weather, because that's what we're in for in NC, but 90 degrees is too hot. Give me 80, but 90 is "inside" time. In the lovely air conditioning. Unless I'm at the pool. ;-)

Three weeks from today. That's all I have. Because in three weeks, the movers are coming. They told me three days to pack, two to load, and literally one truckload is going into storage. I've never had to do storage. I also have to decide what to PUT in storage. And we need to leave furniture behind, to stage our house. Not something we wanted to do, but leaving furniture behind beats paying thousands of dollars to stage or have renderings drawn.

Well, time to get cracking. CRAZY week ensuing...

I've Got A Lot Going On. And THOSE DARN BIRDS!!!!

Yeah, yeah, I know you're sick of hearing it. Trust me, I'm sick of writing it!

MAJOR showing tomorrow. If I believed in superstitions I wouldn't say anything, for fear of jinxing things, but I'm going to go out on a limb and ask for good thoughts--we had some people see our house a couple of weeks ago, and they narrowed their search down to a final two--us against some other house.

So, they are coming tomorrow morning to see our house again, and make an offer on either our house, or the other one. STRESS!!!!! I had the maid service and lawn service come yesterday, I got rid of my super awesome ginormous bar stools in the kitchen and replaced them with much smaller ones from World Market to open the kitchen up, and I'm going to have a blueberry cake Scentsy going and smell up the whole house. Please send some good thoughts my way!!!

Oh, and about the birds. We have two red-breasted robins, who have decided, come hell or high water, they are going to build a nest above our front door on the shelf that runs the length of it, whether we like it or not. For TWO stinkin' weeks now, I have been waking up in the morning, and tearing a nest down. I've stuck assorted cleaners on the shelves (risking complete ridicule and mockery from people driving by) and THAT hasn't worked. They stopped getting scared off and built nests in between the products. This morning, it was the worst. Every ten minutes, I had to go outside and tear mud and grass off the shelf. They just WON'T give up!

SO, I am now playing hardball. I lined the entire shelf with cereal boxes (don't laugh, this is serious, we have a SHOWING tomorrow and we don't need a big old nest and bird poop galore above the door!) And now my lovely front door looks like this:

Yeah, I know. Ha ha ha ha. Very funny looking. But you know what? I haven't seen a bird in two hours!

TRIUMPH!!!!!!!

I will take the boxes down right before the showing. Hopefully they won't get here and have a big old mud pie sitting on top of the door. Maybe you can all cross your fingers about that, too.

Wish us luck!!!!!!

Facts of My Life.

Really short post today, as I am crazy crazy crazy. As in busy, not a state of mind. Although a crazy state of mind might be following soon!

Fact One: I have a three-year old who wants potato chips for breakfast.

Fact Two: I stepped on a melted chocolate chip somehow in the kitchen, and unaware of the brown goo on my foot, proceeded to walk directly to the master bedroom, where there is VERY light carpet...

Fact Three: I just cleaned my house before the maid service comes today. Does that make me strange?

Fact Four: Said Three-year old is not potty trained yet, and he currently has diarrhea.

Fact Five: I filled a construction grade 30-yard dumpster to the brim with household junk, and I am about to order ANOTHER one.

Fact Six: I'm still in my PJs.

This is shaping up to be an interesting day.

Back to Life, Back to Reality...

Ugh. I stayed up way too late last night. Of all things...watching a movie on my iPad! I mean, talk about a colossal waste of time!!! But it was fun, and I was feeling selfish.

Now I have to pay. I sat myself down last night and wrote out a "to do" list of things I need to get done before the move.

It was two pages. Ouch.

My birthday was nice. The kids woke up early and made breakfast for me (Hubby is in Charlotte until the 28th) and then the doorbell rang at 8:30 and it was FedEx, with my birthday present! A shiny new iPad. I am loving it. I spent a few hours playing and loading apps on it, and I have to say, I'm enamored!

Went to lunch (Panera, yum!) and came home, put Thing Four down for a nap (he'd fallen asleep in the car), read a friends ms for a while, piddlyfarted around and read some more and went to dinner with the kids later on. Then we went down to the movie theater and watched National Treasure 2 and had cake and ice cream. It was a nice, relaxing day.

Now it's back to work, and cleaning my sty of a house (amazing how four kids can destroy a house when I'm not getting on them to clean it!) and laundry and 94364 other things.

But yesterday was fun. Thanks for all the birthday wishes!!

It's cloudy today? Of course it is. But at least it will be sunny every day this week BESIDES today. :-)

So, I'm freaking out a little. We are officially, OFFICIAL and moving! The moving crew are coming to pack us up and load up (two!) trucks on June 7-11, and we are flying out to Charlotte for good that weekend! Aaaack!!! Which means I have very little time and really need to get moving on the final de-junk of the house. And of course, once I get there, I am going to exhaust myself getting everything unpacked and settled in the new house, because I'm just that kind of person. I'm the person who stays up until three the first morning getting my pictures on the walls. Yeah, I'm weird. ;-)

I'm excited because my Mother's Day/Birthday gift arrives today! Hubby got me an iPad. He ordered it on May 2nd, and we've been tracking it ever since. They are sold out everywhere, so it's been worth the wait. Although at one point, my iPad went from Connecticut to Anchorage, Alaska for some reason, which makes zero sense to me, since Wisconsin isn't that far from CT. Well, not as far as ALASKA. So, you know how they say anticipation is 90% of the fun?

Not in this case, people! Not in this case!!! ;-)

Today I'm going to pretty much do what I want to do. I know that sounds selfish, but I guess one day a year isn't a bad track record. Birthdays are kind of like that. ;-) I'm getting taken to lunch today, and I may even go to dinner with the kids. I have a few errands to run, and a friend's manuscript read to finish up (which is super good and I'm enjoying!) and you know what? I may even buy and EAT some gummy bears!

Hope everyone has a happy Monday!

Oops...

Slept in this morning. I haven't done that in a while. I have been waking up at 5:30 every morning for a jog on the treadmill (don't get all excited, I've only been doing it since Tuesday) and this morning I turned my alarm off at 5:20 (gives me ten minutes to get into my workout gear) and I decided to lay back and close my eyes. Just for a minute.

Then suddenly I'm snapping awake, and it's 7am. In the blink of an eye. Just like that.

I jumped out of bed and got the kids up, and of course they were all mad at me because I slept in and disrupted the "routine" of the morning. Up at 6am, breakfast, teeth, clothes, and then whatever until the bus comes. Well, this morning it was runlikehellgulpdownapieceoftoastandflylikethewindtogetdressedand packlunch.

They didn't care for that much. But I was nice and drove them to school.

I guess my body is just tired. I blame the storms all last night. I couldn't sleep, and the wind and rain against the windows was really loud at times. Kept waking me up.

Thing One has her volleyball tournament starting today, into the weekend. If I didn't have a three year old, I'd be so stoked. But since I DO have a three year old, hanging out at a school for six hours at a pop is NOT my idea of fun. We might have to do some creative coming-and-going.

It's still raining. Everything is waterlogged. And the stupid birds are back trying to build a nest above our front door. They LOVE that place. Granted, it really is perfect for a nest, but with all the comings and goings and the front door opening all the time, we know they'll get spooked and eventually abandon their babies. So, I have to stick a bottle of windex on the ledge above my doorway. I know, TACKY. But it scares the birds away and keeps them from building nests.

Thing Four is upstairs growling in frustration at his toy soldiers so I'd better go intervene...

Headache.

Gotta love those mornings when you wake up with one of these:

Life.

Conversation between me and Thing Two yesterday:

Me: (Driving) Wow, look at those turkeys in that field! Look at them! They're all fluffed up!

Thing Two: That's because they're trying to impress a female so she'll mate with them, Mom.

Fact of Life: Kids grow up. We may not want them to, but they do. And we grow old. It's just the way things go.

Yep, I'm about to have a birthday. And yesterday was the birth day of two of my boys: Things Two and Four, who are now 11 and 3, respectively.

Birthdays all around. May is a busy month!

And no, I'm not dead, thanks for wondering. I got frantic messages from my mom on Saturday to the effect of "Well, you didn't blog on Friday, and I'm worried about you!" So, the reason I've been an "absentee" blogger is I've just been plain crazy. Hubby was home on Friday (he left yesterday afternoon) and frankly, when he comes home for visits, they become "Let's See How Much We Can Accomplish/Knock Out On Our To-do-List" Visits. So, we run. Like crazy.

I'm tired. It's raining fishhooks and hammer handles right now, and rain always makes me tired. But I got up at 5:30 this morning, and logged 30 minutes on the elliptical. And tonight it's Yoga. I've noticed that when I do Yoga at night, after the kids are in bed, I sleep MUCH better.

I hope everyone had a happy Mother's Day! Now it's back to Reality/The Grind, right?

:-)

Is It Thursday Already??

Wow. Speedy Week. Today is no exception. I've already been to the school book fair, a field trip drop off, the bank (to close our account here, *sniff*) the car dealership and now home. Whew. And I need to do some serious weed pulling which irks me to no end because I have OTHER things to do.

But I'm happy! We found a house! Granted, it's temporary because we are building and we haven't sold our house here, yet, but it's a GREAT house. And it's brand new. Hubby signed the papers yesterday with the builder. WOO!!!

Things are looking up. Now that we actually have a place to stay, I can go forward with moving plans. FINALLY.

Okay I so need to stop typing and get MOVING!!! Happy Thursday, all!

I'm Weak.

Especially when it comes to lust. For anything Apple. ;-)

Can you blame me?

In other news, I am sick over current events. Oil slicks, terrorist attacks (although this latest attempt was botched thank heaven), the housing market, etc. etc. etc. Sometimes I just stay away from the news, because I have really been down lately about this whole moving thing, and how difficult it has proven to be. I won't go into detail, but let's just say NOTHING is working out with the house situation, either here, or in Charlotte. It's frustrating and trying, and couple that with me freaking out because I have a birthday coming up (I loathe them now, LOATHE them!) and all the stress of being a single parent because my husband is working four states away, and one kid who continually is unwell, and well, I've not been doing "so hot."

A dear friend sent me cookies yesterday, and really made my day. (And my kids' day, ha ha!) I just need to pull myself out from under the mountain and keep climbing it. I'll reach the top eventually. It just takes time. Thanks for all the well wishes. I'll get there.

Thing Three had his sutures out yesterday, and he is ROARING to play soccer. I am hesitant to let him, because he has horrible seasonal allergies and he's just getting over his pneumonia, so running around a grassy field might not be the best idea. I told him we would "wait and see" how things went on Saturday, because I don't want to burst his bubble. I just don't think his lungs are strong enough. I don't need him collapsing on the field. If he runs up the stairs at this point, he has to stop and wait a minute for his breathing to return to normal. I don't know what to do. Another dear friend suggested Yoga (and its beneficial breathing exercises) to help, and I'm looking into that. But I also feel like the best way to get his lungs back to normal is let him run around. Dilemma.

Happy Cinco de Mayo, everyone! I still can't believe it's already May.

Postum Woes.

Those of you who know me, know how much I loved Postum, before it went defunct. Heck, my web address for this blog has "postum drinker" in the title, for Pete's sake. So, at the advice of friends and family, I have taken up drinking Pero, which is a weaker version of Postum.

It's not the same. Nothing is like Postum. I know, I need to get over it, but I do hold out hope that one day Kraft will sell their Postum recipe to a solid manufacturer (Nestle??) who could bring Postum back.

One can hope.

Busy day today. Seriously. I am completely overwhelmed at the sheer magnitude of STUFF I have to do, beginning at 9am. I won't bother to list it, I'll just say that I probably won't have a minute to myself until 9pm tonight. CRAZINESS.

Happy Tuesday, everyone!

Pneumonia and The Beatles.

I've had better weekends. We were limited to around the house because Thing Three has pneumonia again. At this point, I'm ordering a plastic bubble to put him in. He's missing the entire soccer season! And here we were, thinking he was doing great. He was running around the field, each practice he was getting less and less winded, and getting his lungs stronger. Right now, he can't walk up the stairs without having to stop and pant for air.

Enough already! Someone Upstairs needs to give the kid a break. He needs a good, long, pneumonia-free stretch (heck I'd settle for three months at this point!) where he can get his lungs healthy and strong. This Pneumonia-Every-Six-Weeks Crap is for the birds. But he doesn't have asthma. Which is weird. You would think he would. But he doesn't. Knock on wood.

I inadvertently found out what I'm getting for Mother's Day, and can I say OH. MY. GOSH??? I won't divulge it here, because you guys are going to start thinking I'm spoiled. But I am VERY excited!

Hubby is coming up this weekend, because the boys' birthdays are May 10th. Yes, two of my sons (Things Two and Four) were born on the same day. I remember when I was pregnant with Thing Four, and I was worried this would happen. Well, I was due April 30th with him, but nothing happened. And nothing happened. Finally, May 9th rolled around, and I was ten days overdue with him, and the OB told me they could induce me on the 10th, or I could wait a week. Hmmm, let me think about that one...NOT. At that point I didn't care if they had to induce me on a cargo plane at 40,000 feet with green pygmies assisting in the delivery. I wanted the baby OUT.

So, I have two boys born on May 10th. And yes, I've actually baked a birthday cake with a line down the middle before, as a joke, for both of them. As they get older, we'll probably celebrate on the 9th and 10th. Unless they don't care. I mean, there IS an eight-year difference between them.

I downloaded all my favorite BEATLES songs onto a playlist for my iPod. I went through every single album. It took hours. But I stayed up late and did it. I've always been kind of mad that you can't get "real" Beatles songs on iTunes. So, this box set is perfect. It was funny, I listened to them all in chronological order, and they started out so young and fresh-faced, and then they hit the 70's. Their music, although brilliant, was pretty interesting sometimes. I have to say, even though I was born in the 70's (did I really just admit that out loud?) the 70's are probably my LEAST favorite decade. Everything was just...weird, then. And I'm not just talking about my dad's hair and ties. ;-)

Okay, I've rambled enough. Time to get going!

ROFLMAO

'Nuff said.