Let the boxing match begin!

I think we need to buy those blow up boxing gloves. Who are the contenders? In this corner weighing in at 30 pounds you have 3 1/2 year old Hunter and in this corner weighing in at a whopping 35 pounds you have 4 year old Aiden! They are the best of friends and the worst of enemies all at the same time. As soon as one of them wakes up in the morning or they are away from each other for any length of time, they are asking for each other. One of the last things Hunter tells me before he goes to bed is that when he wakes up he's going to play with Aiden. But most of the time, 5 minutes into their playing, the boxing starts. I'm convinced you can hear the screaming and yelling all the way back in Ohio! It usually starts over a toy and immediately leads to slapping, biting, punching, kicking, you name it, they do it. And unless you see it for yourself, you never really know who's at fault. Lately it gets so aggravating that we've started telling them if one of them is in trouble, they both get in trouble. We just started this like two days ago so I'm not really sure if it's working or not yet. On the highly likely chance that it doesn't work, anybody have any other ideas? The usual time out and talking to them about what they've done wrong just doesn't seem to be getting us anywhere.

More night time horrors

You may be curious about how things are going at night since the whole Night time horrors post. I wish they were going better! The next night I let Holly have one bottle to go to bed and after that I made her take a sippy cup instead. She screamed NO, threw herself down and screamed and kicked! I basically said 'Oh well and I love you. Night night" and walked out of the room. This went on off and on for about 2-3 hours. I would check on her in between to make sure she was ok and let her know I was still there. Somehow Hunter remained asleep through all of this.

I guess she got fed up eventually because the next time I went in to check on her she had removed her pants and her diaper and threw it across the room. Now here's the kicker. The diaper had nice little balls of shit in it! Nice, right? Yeah! So I'm using the light from my phone so I don't wake up Hunter, and baby wipes to look around her bed and the room trying to find all these pieces of shit. Not fun! And during this Miss Holly is just laughing and having a good ole time! I wish I knew exactly what she was thinking! It was probably along the lines of "Haha mommy, next time give me my damn bottle!"

Any ideas on how to go about this now? So far I'm just not having much luck!

Night time horrors

As much as I dearly love my children, it's nights like this that I'm just so freaking done! It's a little after 11pm. Hunter and Holly have been in bed since about 7:30pm. They took an average nap today, played a lot, and it's been a rainy day which always makes them extra tired. So why the hell are they still awake and tormenting me?!

Hunter has had countless hugs and kisses. Holly has had two diapers and is on her fifth, let me repeat FIFTH bottle! I can't decide if once the sun goes down they either hate me or love my company way too much! Now, you may be thinking that my precious little ones are just having a bad night right? Let me assure you, they're not! This is a nightly occurrence. Am I a sweet, caring, nurturing mommy who simply tucks them back into bed each and every time? Nope. Maybe the first two or three times one or two times, but after that I'm threatening spankings, no more bottles, and even calling Santa to come take their presents back. Yes, I am a mean mommy like that! This results in tears and promises to go to sleep like good little children. But they lie! Ten minutes later, if I'm that lucky even, Hunter has something he needs to tell me, needs another kiss and hug, or is crying because Holly threw her empty bottle right at his head. The bottle throwing usually happens at least twice a night.

I don't get what it is about night time that turns my little angels into screaming devils. They don't fight me this badly at nap time. Hunter goes potty, gets tucked in and goes right to sleep. Holly gets her diaper changed, gets ONE bottle and snuggles in with her blankie and panda's head (another post). So again I ask. Why do they hate me at night? When will this nightly ritual end? When will there be peace and quiet in the evenings? Nights like this, 18 just can't come soon enough. But then morning will come and my snugly little babies will be bright eyed and happy to see me and somehow I will manage to block out the horrors of the night before. Until the next bedtime that is!

The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life Book Review

I've really been falling behind on my reading lately which also means I've been slacking on my book reviews! So I figured I better get to it.

This time around I read The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life "How to get through life's holes without getting stuck in them!" By Judith A. Belmont, MS and Lora Shor, MSW.

The first thing that caught my interest about this book was definitely the title! Comparing our lives to swiss cheese with all it's many holes seemed like an intriguing metaphor. And very accurate too! Without the many holes of varying shapes and sizes, swiss simply would not be swiss.The same is true for each of us. It's the "holes" or challenges that we face that makes each of us unique.

We spend so much of our lives dwelling on the past and all of the woulda, shoulda, couldas that many times we fail to realize all of the amazing things that we do have in our lives or the things that we could have if we just let go of the past and paid attention. The Swiss Cheese Theory of Life uses different cheeses to relate to our lives, with all their many different tastes and textures. Filled with lots of quotes and handy little tips offered by The Swiss Wiz and The Swiss Cheese Fairy, this book is a wonderful and entertaining way to come to terms with life's many disappointments and also a guide to turning those roadblocks into successes!

"When one door closes another door opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."

-Alexander Graham Bell 

With chapters titled...

Fondue can never turn back into a block of cheese...

No whine with the cheese, please!...

Living whole despite the holes!...

Smile and say cheese!...

Just to name a few, this book is a must read for anybody!



Seriously Thursday!?

I've been missing for awhile so I'm not really sure if anybody is still doing Seriously Thursday with From Mrs.To Mama but I have PLENTY of things that have made me go SERIOUSLY!? lately.

Seriously...can my 3 year old Hunter and my room mates 4 year old ever go one day without fighting and arguing with each other???? They start asking for each other as soon as they wake up or if they have to spend a few hours without each other, but then when you put them together it's fighting, biting, punishing, kicking, toy stealing...you name it, they do it! Is this like dogs trying to establish who is the Alpha male? Whatever it is, I seriously wish they would stop!

Seriously...I think this has officially been the longest week in the history of the world!!!!!! You name it and it's gone wrong this week. It's been nothing but one emotional roller coaster after another. As I type this there is more screaming from the mini alpha males....calgon take me away!

Seriously...Why does Hunter spend the 2 hours before dinner asking to be fed, like he's really just wasting away, then when it's actually time to sit down and eat he decides he's not really hungry.

Seriously...On a positive note, Monday was my birthday and a bunch of amazing made the whole weekend awesome and very special for me. I seriously love you guys!

Seriously...My room mates are completely awesome too. I've had a few melt downs this week and they have seriously helped me to de-stress lately. Much love you guys!

Seriously...I am so happy to be back to blogging again!!!!!!!!!!

Birthday Cookout

Well tomorrow is my 29th birthday, generally I'm claiming to be 25 still. Don't judge, I'm sure you've done it at some point too! So last night we had a birthday cookout. Sooo much fun! I have truly amazing friends who always manage to make things not only special but also highly entertaining! I'd have to say one of the highlights of the evening was the unwrapping of my gift. Now if you know me at all then you know that I hate to be the center of attention. This is something that I try to avoid at all cost! Do my friends know this about me? Yep! Do they care? Nope! So after using every possible excuse I could come up with to not go outside and be put in the spotlight, my lovely friends decide to bring the present, wrapped in Justin Bieber paper, (my payback from Christmas! Thanks Shannon!) inside where I could no longer hide. I will admit to cheating though. I enlisted the help of about 7 kids! And it's a good damn thing too cause this thing was sealed up tighter than Alcatraz! It was wrapped, and boxed, and duct taped I don't know how many times! Again, a little bit of payback for my Christmas wrapping this year! Due to some technical difficulties, there are no videos of this! Thank goodness! So the end result? This cute little netbook that I am now blogging on! I am so excited! I haven't really been able to do much writing lately since the computer is in the bedroom and there are 6 kids in this house. Kinda hard to make sure nobody is trying to burn the house down when I'm at the back of the house! So now, thanks to my awesome, amazing, fantastic friends, I can blog again!!!!

I'm still here!!!!!

I am such a bad bad blogger! Do they give out awards for being M.I.A, for way too long? The only real excuse I have is that I can't write openly and honestly right now. I will tell you that from previous writings, a lot of you will be oh so proud of me. Hubby and I are separated. Ok, let's not get carried away with the cheering! lol. We've been separated for close to a month now. The kids and I are still staying with some friends and we are still in Arizona. Hubby sees and/or talks to the kids just about every day. Actually he gets a little stalkerish at times. Is that even a word? I don't know but it is now! Things are still a little difficult right now, dealing with things and trying to figure out the right path I should be on, but all in all, I'm very happy and so are the kids. We have wonderful friends and a pretty busy social life. There's still a bit too much arguing between hubby and me but the difference is I don't have to put up with it now. I can hang up, stop texting, or tell him to leave. And another great thing that's happened as a result of all of this, I'm losing weight. Without even trying! Yes, keep the cheering coming! I will try to get back into blogging soon. You have no idea how much I miss it! It's just really difficult when everything you do, say or write gets dissected and flipped around. But soon, soon I will have my life back. Please don't forget about me in the blogging world, I am still here.

The Greyhound Experience

I really suck at blogging lately don't I? I'm sorry. Everything has just been so crazy since the cross country move. We went from being a family of 5 to a family of 10! I can hear many of you screaming in horror, but it's actually not so bad. More on that in a later post though. 

Today you came to hear about our greyhound trip. Let me just start by telling you that it was the LONGEST TWO DAYS OF MY LIFE!!!!!! I never ever want to have a repeat of those days. And whoever is reading this and thinking "Aww, it couldn't have been that bad." should be shot! Just kidding...maybe!

So we get to the bus station at around 6:30pm for a 7:30 bus. This is after spending the weekend visiting in-laws and trying to say our good-byes. Not an easy feat. Especially since Miss Holly has been sick all weekend. Kind of sucks the joy out of visiting when you have a cranky baby constantly screaming. Anyways, about 8pm our bus finally leaves. Holly still isn't too happy. Hunter is tired and keeps saying he doesn't want to go to Arizona anymore he just wants to go home. And Jordyn, as much as I love her, is as clueless as ever and getting on our nerves. Our first stop was only an hour or so away and wouldn't you know it, Holly stays awake the hole time until about ten minutes before we get there. Add more crankiness to the mix now.

Some of this is such a blur that I don't remember all of it, but here's something I do remember. The bus station in Nashville, Tennessee freaking sucks and so does one certain employee!!!!! We get there just before 3am. Our bus driver gives us our reboarding pass and tells us to line back up at 3:15. So that's exactly what we do. Now add in an employee on a power trip who doesn't know how to speak clearly over the PA. We go to the door to get back on the bus, along with another couple and one other guy. Mr. Power trip tells us the bus is full and we have to wait three hours for the next bus! I tried explaining to him what the driver told us and show him our reboarding passes but he kept interrupting me. So we ended up sitting there for three more hours with tired, sick, crying children. And have I mentioned just how grumpy the hubby gets when it comes to moving or traveling? It's NOT a pretty sight!

A lot of the details are a little foggy for me now, I must be repressing the memories! But I can tell you that I now hate any state that begins with the letter T. My ass went numb from having Holly on my lap or in my arms for so long. I don't think once inch of my shirt didn't have Holly's snot on it somewhere. And passing Hunter off as just under two years old to save money on a ticket may not have been worth it. I don't know, you'd have to ask hubby that since he was stuck with the older two kids. HeeHee! I also know that by the end of this trip I had sore muscles that I never even knew existed from holding a 30 pound baby almost non stop!

Finally, at about 8pm Tuesday night we finally got to the bus station in Tucson. And our luggage wasn't there to meet us. Yep. Doesn't that just figure?! Luckily it showed up the next day. So there's a summary of what our cross country bus ride was like. Doesn't it just make you want to take a trip like it too? 

 

Hunter in Nashville

 

Jordyn in Columbus

 

Holly in Nashville

 

Going Home

I hope that everybody has at least noticed that I've been missing the past month or so. It's defiantly been a CRAZY time! Where should I begin even? Well, as you all know the hubby and I had been looking for what feels like forever for a bigger place to live, hopefully before the lease ran out where we were already at. Do things like that usually go in our favor? Nope. So did things magically change this time? Nope. We ended up spending months weeks sorting and packing all of our belongings, putting the majority of it in storage, and then moving the 5 of us into a tiny, pay by the week, 1 bedroom apartment in not the greatest area. Let me repeat...5 of us in a 1 bedroom! Crazy right? I know! But we tried to keep thinking positively and remember that it was just temporary until we could find something better. In our second week there, hubby got laid off! Does the craziness never end?!

Okay, lets backtrack for just a second. I grew up mostly in Tucson, Arizona. Even though I've spent more of my life in Ohio, where I'm actually from, Tucson is home to me. I wanted to go back so badly. I have so many true blue best friends in the world in Arizona. These are friends that are better than any family members because you actually get to choose them and you're not just stuck with whatever you were born with. Friends that would go to the very ends of the earth for you and vise versa. That's what made me want to go home again. It wasn't so much the place as it was who was there.

Well, hubby wasn't so keen on the idea. I got him to go to Tucson once for about 6 months when Hunter was a year old. To say he wasn't impressed would be putting it mildly! He says everything there wants to either stab you, poke you or eat you! Our first week there we got in an argument cause he wanted to leave Hell as he calls it and go back to Ohio. He went for a walk and in his anger he kicked a jumping cholla! Anybody familiar with this? It's a cactus that has barbs on it and when you get too close to it, it actually jumps out and sticks you! I was picking those things out of his foot and leg forever! I had warned him before we got there not to touch anything he didn't recognize but obviously he's hard headed. He also says there's no real trees, grass or bodies of water to go fishing in. Sum it up that he did not want to go back to Arizona.

Back to the 1 bedroom in Ohio. After finding out about being layed off and knowing that we couldn't pay another weeks rent and still afford all the other things we needed to live, hubby made some off hand comment about moving back to Arizona. I jumped on it! I told him if he was serious I could make it happen really quick. He agreed though I don't think he really believed me. In the span of a week our bags were packed, my awesome friends pitched in together for the bus tickets and we were off!

Check back with me for a post on the Greyhound experience!

Blogging Pet Peeve

Just a short vent here. I've discovered a new pet peeve. I absolutley hate it when people leave comments only saying that they are  new follower and asking for a follow back! I love finding new blogs to follow, and it seriously makes my day each and every time I get a new follower. But please, offer a little more of a comment! I know it's difficult sometimes finding something meaningful to say especially if you've been leaving comments and following a lot of different blogs that day. I have been guilty of this before too. But I try to find something insightful or encouraging to say. It's even worse when you have multiple blogs that you do, and you see the exact same comment, word for word, from the same person, on all of them! I'm not trying to be rude or offend, but seeing this makes me go from excited, to depressed to really irritated very quickly! Please, a little equiette here!