Good Grief!

Since I don't really want to clean at the moment... I decided to read my own blog. I went back from the beginning and read all my post until now. What I read made me cringe. Seriously. One of my pet peeves are parents that brag about their kids all the time while making them out to be perfect. And that is exactly how I came off in my blog. Sorry guys. I sooo don't want to be one of those people.

I have a friend that swears her kids never argue or bicker. All I have to say about that is BULL CRAP. I have never seen two (or more) kids live in the same house with out fighting. I believe her about that as much as I believe she is a real redhead. LOL.

I don't have much of a problem with Chase about fussing with his brothers. But man, Trey and Trevor will fight from the time they wake up until they go to sleep. I finally got so tired of it that I went a little bit psycho on them. One day when I picked them up from school, as soon as they got into the car, they started. It even came to blows in the back seat of the car. All because Trevor beat Trey to the right side of the back seat. They both always want the right side. I don't know why, but they do. So I went into psycho mom mode on them. When they came home, I made them go straight to bed. They had to stay there with no tv, games, or even books. And I kept checking on them so they wouldn't go to sleep. I told them that if they continued to act like that in life, they'd end up in jail someday. I wanted to get the point across at how very bad that would be, so I told them they were in kid prison for the rest of the day. At dinner time, all they got to eat was a bologna sandwich with water to drink. After dinner, they each got to take a 5 minute shower (I set a timer). And then it was back to bed with lights out at 7. The next morning, they didn't have one ill word to say to each other.

Until that afternoon when Trey beat Trevor to the right side of the car. I knew that something else had to be done. So enter the "days of Trey and Trev".

I bought a calendar to hang on my fridge. And on it, I wrote Trey's name on one day, then Trev's on the next. Then the next day goes back to Trey. On their day, they get to be the one to chose everything first. They get the first choice of where they'll sit in the car, they get to go last in showering at night, and so on. So far, it is working out really good. And having it in writing on the calendar, they can't say it's their day when it's not. I wish I would have thought of this sooner. Now, if I can figure out a way to make them hang their jacket up with out being told, I'll be on a roll.

Sickos

Everyone in my house is sick! Half of us have really bad colds and the other half has a stomach bug. Greg has missed work the last 2 days from the stomach bug. He NEVER misses work, so it has to be really bad for him to do that. Trevor also has the stomach bug. Chase and I had the really bad colds. We had a fever and the body aches were terrible! I'm finally getting over it now. I just can't seem to get rid of a headache. Trey came home from school today with a fever and a cough. So I guess it's his turn. :(

I haven't gotten any housework done in the past few days. I mean nothing. So I need to get to it now that I'm feeling better. I am going to run to the store to get some Lysol. I will spray anything and everything! And I am going to wash all the bedding. I also need to stop and get new toothbrushes for all of us.

Hopefully Trey will start feeling better soon. He has the Governor's Cup Competition on Saturday. If he is sick, I don't know what they'll do, he is the captain of the Academic Team. They rely on him to answer most of their questions. Plus, I hate to see my kids sick.

I'm off to get the Lysol. I hope to get all of the sickies out of here!

Photos anyone?

My friend Brittany just got her new camera last week. She quickly becoming a wonderful photographer, and she started a new photoblog. You would never know she is just starting out when you look at her work. She has even started selling her art work on this site. Check it out and buy something while you're there!

Picture Post

I can't wait until Spring!! As beautiful as the mountains are, they look so dead this time of year. I can't wait for green leaves and blue skies with big fluffy clouds. And in the last pic, I love that rock wall!! I wasn't posting a pic of my car, I was posting the wall. Just in case you were wondering why my car was on here. LOL

*Thanks Brittany for telling me how to post pics easier.

My blogger friends.

Recently, Nancy (who is my favorite West Coast girl!) and Bridgett did an entry about friendship. They each named me in their posts as being a friend. Which really touched me. I loved reading their posts. I remember back when I first started reading journals in j-land. I was more of a reader than a writer. Which is pretty much the same as I am today. I love to read about all your lives.... When the myspace thing became popular, is when I really got to know most of my good j-land friends. Some of my favorite times have been sitting around on a Friday night talking to all my j-land friends that bonded together on myspace through a group that Brittany started called the L.A. girls. (don't ask what that stands for lol!). Those were some good times.

I also 'met' Terri through j-land. I live in the same state as she does, and maybe one of these days we will be able to meet up and go do some bargain shopping together since she is so good at it!

And then there is Tricia... She is pregnant with her 3rd child and lives far away from her family. I relate so much to that because I was in her shoes 9 years ago. So when I read some of her posts about being homesick I really know what she is going through. She is a great mom and I am happy that I have found her through our mutual j-land friends.

I am so happy to call all you girls friends. I hope we stay in contact for many many years to come!

**NOTE**
I would have put the cute little 'friendship award' graphic in this post, but it wouldn't let me add pics. I always have a hard time adding pics to this blog for some reason. IDK, maybe it's something I'm doing wrong?

Valentine Day hits and misses

Do you remember the 30 cupcakes I had to make for the V-day party on Friday? Well, I seriously hate baking. I mean really hate it. I don't care to cook at all if it doesn't involve baking. I just stink at it. So I wasn't happy at all when I had to make the cupcakes. I told the boys to NEVER volunteer me for cupcakes again. I will make anything else but those. I don't know why I have an aversion to baking cupcakes. I wish I felt the same about eating them. LOL. They turned out kinda messy looking. I had planned on bringing out my cake decorating kit and making them really pretty. But I was running so behind on Friday morning (which is when I made them. I should have done it on Thur night) I didn't have enough time to decorate them like I wanted. I ended up just throwing on the icing and then putting on sprinkles. The sprinkles were cute though. I love sprinkles. I always buy seasonal sprinkles.

I made about 75 of the marshmallow pops. They were a huge success. The kids loved them! They were all impressed with them. They were pretty easy to make and it was fast once I got going. Those will probably be my signature treat from now on. LOL. I can already see doing them for the Easter party. I'll dip them in yellow chocolate and use pastel sprinkles.

I took pics of them. Don't laugh at the cupcake mess. I tried. Oh, and even if they were ugly, the kids still ate them. hah!

Tonight was the play at school that Chase's class has been working on for about 3 weeks. They did such a good job. I will write about that later and post a few pics. I also have some pics Greg and I took on our Valentines 'date'. We stopped on the side of the road and took some pics of the mountains. I tell ya, I live in a beautiful place. Just wait... When you see the pics, you'll think I do too. :) I can't wait until the trees get leaves back on them. I'll take pics then too.

I have all these plans for future posts. But I always get busy and end up not posting. I really want to get in the habit of regular posting here. I would love to be able to look back on past entries to read some of these post to bring back memories. I wish I would have migrated my AOL journal over here. I know I didn't post much there, but I would have liked to have had it here anyway. Sigh..... Lesson learned I guess.

W-O-W!!

I am quite possibly the proudest momma ever! :) :) :)

Chase's basketball team played their last ball game of the year last night. It was very sad to see Chase play his last game ever for that team. He will go on to high school next year. But his last game ended on a GREAT note. He was voted by the radio station as player of the game!!! He only scored 2 points in the game last night, but he played his butt off on defense. Greg didn't get to go to the game, but he did listen to it on the radio. He said the sports commenter said this about Chase "That kid might not put a lot of points up every game, but you won't find a better defense player in this whole county". Man, talk about being proud of a kid. He was so excited. He wouldn't show much excitement at the game, but he couldn't stop talking about it once he got in the car. He was trying to act all cool about it in front of his friends. LOL

I am kicking my own butt over and over because I forgot my camera! Uggh!

Our kids have been learning about the Civil War for the past several weeks at school. Chase's class put on a play for the whole school. You know how hard it is for 8th grade boys to want to be in a play, but the teacher made it part of their grade. So they were all trying their best. They worked hard to make their play a good one. Chase and his best friend had to get into a fight in one scene. It was so realistic that Trevor got scared while we were watching it because he thought that they were really starting to fight. LOL. Chase also got shot in one scene. It was such a good play! And guess what? Once again, I forgot my camera! But luckily, they will be doing it for the public again on Monday night. Yesterday's performance was just for the school, it was kinda of a dress rehearsal for the "big night". I will definitely take my camera on Monday.

I can't believe how fast this school year is flying by! It seems like it was just yesterday that they started school. It will be the last year all my kids are in the same school. I love the school they go to, I'm glad Trevor and Trey have several more years there.

Trey is preparing to compete in the Governor's Cup competition. It's a competition for the Academic teams to compete against each other. Plus, they have individual test for the students to take. You have to be chosen by your teachers to get to compete in it. It is a very prestigious thing to be chosen to represent your school. Trey gets to do it every year. This year, he is testing in Science and Language Arts. I am very proud of him for working so hard and getting chosen again this year to compete.

I have 30 cupcakes to make for the Valentines Day party at school. I didn't even know until late last night that I had to do it. I HATE to bake. Even something simple as cupcakes. I love to decorate the cupcakes, but I hate the actual baking. This year, I am going to attempt to make the marshmallow lollipops for Trey and Trevor's classes. I got the idea from the Grace Violet blog. You can go here to see what they are.

Well, I'm off to take the boys to school and then I have to come back and get busy making all this stuff for their parties. Wish me luck on the cupcakes. LOL

Oh yeah, Happy Friday the 13th!

2 posts in 1 day... A rare thing from me....

I just found a new blog I wanted to alert everyone to. I found this blog about Veyiah and her struggle with a heart defect. She had an identical twin sister that died in the womb. You should go read about her here. If you are the praying kind, please pray for this baby.

Random facts about me

*I hate fruit pies.
*I was a cheerleader for 5 years.
*I ate my first bite of beef in over 3 years on vacation 2008.
*I walk my husband to the door every time he leaves.
*I have done this since we've been married.
*I've only NOT done it about 4 times in the last 17 years.
*I would rather read about doing something rather than actually doing it.
*For example, I have tons of books about cleaning and organizing the home.
*I also collect cook books.
*And I don't really like to cook.
*My favorite cookbook is titled "Quickies in the kitchen".
*I used to hardly watch any tv at all.
*But lately, I find myself watching often.
*The shows I watch are:
Jon & Kate plus 8
The Real Housewives of Orange County
American Idol
Big Love
The United States of Tara
Entourage
*But I usually have to catch Re-runs of these shows (except AI) Because I'm never home.
*My kids have been studying the Civil War for the past month in school.
*They had 2 days of activities and plays at the school this week
*Local TV stations and Newspapers were there.
*I was running late to get there by the time the teacher wanted me there(I was asked to help out) so I wore a sports tee and jeans and my Nike shox.
*I NEVER go out looking like that.
* And I ended up being both on TV and in the paper.. GAH!
*I recently learned that Mary Todd Lincoln had seances in the White House.
*In high school my class had to do a family tree. I found out I was related to the teacher.
*We were also related to Jesse James.
* I love to play DVD board games.
*I am a sports fanatic
*My love of reading started in 4th grade when our teacher read Pippy Longstocking out loud to us every day.
*I am not an animal lover.
*But my kids are.
*They would love to have a pet, but 3 of us have allergies that prevent it.
*My first pregnancy lasted 5 months.
*My baby died and they had to induce my labor.
*It was so hard to go through that pain knowing I wouldn't be rewarded with a healthy baby at the end of it.
*His name is Cole and he would have been almost 16.
*I can't imagine how different life would have been had that not happened.
*I think I am a better mother because of it.
* I just quit my job in January.
*I am still happy that I quit,
*but I want to start in school in August.
*I am going to the college to talk to the advisor sometime this month.
*I plan on going back to major in Nursing again.
*I was in Nursing school before, but I ran out of money for school when Greg got laid off from work.
* I didn't want to take out student loans.
* I still don't want to go down the loan route.
*I love the Shopaholic series of books.
*But the movie doesn't seem to be much like the book.
*But I plan on watching it anyway.
*I also loved the Twilight series.
*But I didn't really much like the movie
*I was raised in a very religious home.
*But I rarely attend church these days.
*Just because I don't practice religion doesn't mean I don't believe
*I do pray every night.
*It makes me feel peaceful.
*I like to thank God for all the blessings I have in my life.
* We always have season passes to Dollywood every year.
*I used to love roller coasters.
*But since I was in a car accident, I can't ride them like I used to.
*It hurts my neck for days when I ride them
*I really really want to go to NYC someday.
*Someday soon.
*I'm going back to Myrtle Beach SC again this year for vaca.
*I didn't think I would be able to come up with many random things about me
*I guess I was wrong.

FINALLY!!!

I'm finally back! My computer cord broke (again, I'm on cord #3!!). And my battery ran down so I have been unable to get online. I was about to go crazy! We had a snow storm and my kids were out of school for A. WEEK. I had read every book in this house 5 times. LOL. So I was quite bored last week.

Thanks for all the b-day wishes. I had a great day. I got all that I wanted. So I'm a happy girl. :)

My birthday is coming up. My sister, Mom, and husband have been driving me batty asking me what I want. At first, I couldn't think of anything. But I started thinking about it. So I got on Amazon and made a wish list. Once I got started, I kept adding to it and adding to it! I think I got carried away. LOL

Anyway, I suggest that all of you go and make a wish list on Amazon. It feels good to do some "shopping" sometimes. Even if you don't actually buy all the things you've picked out.

Click here if you want to see what is on my list. :)