Changes

I mentioned to my mother last week that I felt like Thursday (of last week) was the first day of the rest of my life. A little dramatic, but I think its kinda true. See, last Thursday, Princess started Kindergarten. Big kid school, not just preschool anymore. On top of that, she started in a great school and is in the Spanish Immersion program. Yep, she's hot stuff! This will be her school for the next 6 years (and hopefully the Prince's too, when he is old enough!). Not only that, but the kids in her class will be her only class for the next 6 years. That means if she has problems with a kid, or I have problems with a parent, there is no getting away from each other! I am very excited and nervous about all of this. This school requires alot of dedication from both parents and kids and to tell you the truth, I am kinda overwhelmed. It has been exciting to know that my oldest is starting a new phase of her life.

One thing that also comes with this new phase, is a new schedule for the Prince and I. We are all getting up earlier, and it is back to just my boy and I at home during the day. It has been nice though, to run errands with only one child and to get to work more often. We are all still adjusting to getting up an hour earlier than we have been, so I have had some tired babies at my house lately. Ben started school last week also, so we have had lots of changes! Ben is going to school for his EMT Basic, which will make him much more desirable to Fire Departments in our area. I am so proud of him for doing this, because Ben doesn't do school. He is probably the most intelligent person I have ever known, but school is not his thing. Most schools and classes are not structured to keep his attention. Its a BIG deal that he is going back to school and I am bursting with pride!

We planned on spending our first weekend of the school year relaxing and prepping for a busy couple of months. We had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend. However, God had other plans. Ben and I ended up spending a good portion of the day on Saturday in the ER due to a very painful kidney stone that Ben had. Thankfully, it was not nearly as bad as his last kidney stone and he is feeling much better.

This week is the first full week of school for both Ben and our daughter. I have a feeling they will both be exhausted this week! I will be spending a day training for my new second job with FCS. I am excited to start this new opportunity and am thankful to be able to help contribute to our household.

All in all, I still feel like, at least this last week has been the start of a new life for us. We are all taking on new opportunities that will change our lives in different ways, all for the better. I am excited to see all of the different blessings these will bring into our lives!

Father's Day

Father's Day is always a bittersweet holiday for me. Since my dad was killed when I was a child, I only remember celebrating Father's Day for my grandpa. Its a day when I am reminded that my dad is not here. It always makes me sad, but as I have gotten older, it has become more wistful than actually sad. However, now that I have kids, I am sad for them for what they are missing out on. I don't have alot of memories of my dad, but I know he would have been an incredible grandfather. Thankfully, my kids have a wonderful grandpa in my father in law. In fact, my brother in law's father died before he and my sister in law got married, so their kids and our kids only have one grandpa. We have told him that he has to be the best grandpa ever since he is all both sets of kids have! And he is! But, on days like this, I really miss my dad and really wish he was still here on earth. It makes me think about how different my life would have been if he would have been around. I know that was never God's plan for my life, but I still wonder about it sometimes. I know its not up to me to understand God's timing. Its just hard not to wish things had been different. I have always believed that one of the reasons that Ben was the right person for me was because he has such a great dad, and God knew that I needed a father figure in my life. I am so thankful for him. I am also very thankful for my uncle CurCur (Curry) who was my father figure growing up. On this day, I hope that all of the wonderful fathers and surrogate fathers know they are loved and appreciate. And daddy, I love you and look forward to the day when I can see you again!

Dear So and So

I saw this on a blog I read and thought it sounded like a fun way to vent your frustrations. Lets try it out and see how it goes.

Dear lady at the Cricket store,
It was very un-cool of you to run in the minutes they opened the doors and get the coveted first in line spot, even though myself and 5 other people had been there waiting for 15 minutes longer than you had. You should learn some etiquette.
Thanks, woman with the boy in the pink stroller

Dear Princess,
When mommy is trying to nap on the couch, please refrain from continually taking the pillow off of my head (yes, I sleep with a pillow over my head!), and asking me questions I have already answered. No spongebob, no friends' house, just let mommy sleep!
Love, Mommy

Dear Mr. Wright,
You need a new sense of time. Please stop telling me that a quick errand will take one hour and then be gone for 3 hours. It makes me want to strangle you.
Love, your incredibly patient wife

Dear mom and sister,
Please stop putting me in the middle of your fights. You both confide in me and its too hard for me. Leave me out of it!
Love, Amber

That felt good! I may do that one again!

Feeling the stress

Over the last few days, the stress of our current situation has really been creeping up on me. I think hotel living is hard enough, let alone when you add two children, 3 dogs and a cat to feed every day, driving all the way across town 2 and 3 times a day, etc. Here is how our last week has been.

The first part of the week was really not bad. I felt like I was getting a routine down and things were working. However, living with transition in my home and my job is still very hard, even when things are great. By Friday, I desperately needed to get out of the hotel and get away from my children! Because Henry goes to work with me, I usually have zero time by myself. Most of the time this is fine, but sometimes it gets to me and this was one of those days. I had some drama/stress to deal with at work, which made my pray this transition is over with as soon as possible (but the work transition is on hold until the house is finished!). My mother in law agreed to have KK and Henry spend the night, so we headed out to Bourbon Street for dinner, where we ran into a friend and neighbor and had dinner with them. After dinner, we met up with Rachel and Kathleen at a sports/karaoke venue (which is really not our type of place!), but we had a blast although we were all hoarse from yelling over the music all night.

Saturday morning Ben went to work and I picked up the kids and headed to Claremore for a play date with my long time friends Lindsay and Daniele and their kids. We each have two children, a boy and girl for each of us. KK is a full year older than their oldests but all our our second babies were born within a 2 month time span. The babies played by themselves, but interacted with each other a bit. The older kids played together and had fun and us mommies caught up. After that I went to my mom's to see my sister off to her first dance. Then we headed back to Tulsa and KK went to spend the night with her cousin Will.

Sunday, Ben, Henry and I headed to Home Depot to buy paint for KK's room. My poor daughter's bedroom was still the blue cars and trucks design that they boy who lived there before us had. As we were mixing her paint, we found an "OOps" can that was the exact color I wanted for our bedroom so we picked that up also. We had to apply two coats of Kilz to the bottom half of KK's room because it was bright, primary blue! My mother in law ended up watching all four grandbabies so my favorite sister in law could come help me paint. (Katie is my push behind getting KKs room done and even offered to do the whole thing herself!) We painted for almost 8 hours before both rooms were done! While we did this, Ben layed down the missing quarter round and did some little things that needed to be done.

So needless to say, we are all exhausted today. KK spent most of the weekend away from home, and playing and she was worn out. Henry missed a nap each day, which makes him miserable. We all had to get up and over to the house early this morning. Ben had to meet with the hardwood floor people and I wanted to be there when KK saw her room for the first time. Then the kids and I ran some errands and are back at the hotel. I think the kids and I have a touch of the stomach flu and we are exhausted, so we are trying to rest, or at least not leave the hotel today! Tomorrow starts the week (thankfully a short one), so there is always the typical "getting ready for the week stuff" to do. This was supposed to be the week we were moving home and moving my office home, but unfortunately due to some problems with the floors, it will probably be next week, which puts a wrench in my office and work schedule. I am trying not to stress about that today!

Thanks for reading, now I am off to try to take a nap while Henry is down.

Week & Weekend Review

Last week was a trying week. Ben was away for work and Henry, bless his heart, decided to give up sleeping through the night, which he had been doing no problem for 3-4 weeks. I was averaging 3-4 hours a night, sometimes less. I think (know) he is trying to get a tooth and that must have been keeping him up. On top of that, it was KK's first week of school and she was exhausted (aka cranky!) every night. It was one of those weeks that was not really awful, but just trying. Ben got home early and was able to pick KK up from school on Friday. All day at work on friday, I was having some horrific sinus pressure and feeling really crappy. So that evening I gladly stayed home while KK spent the night with Will & Bella and Ben went to listen to some music with a cousin he has not seen in 5 years.
On Saturday, I got up feeling better and went an got KK to run some errands and get some (facial) waxing done. We stopped at a garage sale where I found a brand new high chair for Henry. He has been eating 1st step baby food for a couple of weeks now and feeding him in the bouncy chair on the floor was just not cutting it. This chair also has toys to play with, so after he eats he usually plays in it for 20 minutes. It was a great investment. (No matter what I do, I can't seem to get the pictures to post where I want them, so the pictures is up above!). Then I got a call from my mom to go shopping at Plato's Closet and the mall. I went home and fed lunches and loaded us up. We ended up closing down the mall. I never go out South and only go to Woodland Hills Mall twice a year. But I love Plato's Closet, I love thrift and consignment stores in general. I don't usually buy new clothes any more for a couple of reasons: 1) I am cheap. It started out as necessity but became a way of living. 2) I am really not that trendy. Most of the clothes I like are pretty simple. Even when I do like the current trends, they don't usually look great on me. Most clothes designers are not designing for my body type, so I usually find more of a selection at second hand stores. 3) There always seems to be something better to spend my money on. Although I have recently realized how much I am lacking in my closet (especially dress clothes), so I am going to try to get some more stuff when we have the budget.
While at the mall, shopping in a junior's store that i frequented in high school, a sales clerk (maybe 17-18) stopped me and commented on how cute the baby was and asked how old he and KK were. She then said "And your pregnant again?" I wanted to melt into the wall. I know I don't look like I did 10 years ago, that's okay, I have had 3 pregnancies and 2 children in 4 years. And just to brag a bit, I only gained 10 pounds with Henry and lost 16 after his birth, so what I have left is simply extra skin. When I said, no, I'm not pregnant, she then replied, "Oh, its just the leftover?" Even though it really made me feel bad about my body, I can now find it a bit funny and know that she will probably never again ask someone if they are pregnant, at least until it is completely undeniable.
Sunday was a day spent playing catch up and helping Henry with his teeth. We were supposed to attend my cousin's 10th birthday party, but Henry was simply too fussy to make the trip to Claremore.
Here lately I have felt very behind on a lot of things. Laundry, money, relationships, etc. Feeling behind makes me feel out of control. I know we have had alot of changes in our life, but it is still frustrating. So I am trying very hard to get caught up. One of the things I used to do is couponing and price watching on grocery items. I am working on doing this again regularly, so I am sure you will here more about it. In the meantime, here is a great site that is actually run by my director's daughter in law.
www.tulsacouponqueen.com Check it out!

Louisiana

Over the weekend, we made our annual trek down to Shreveport, LA. Ben's Uncle Johnny has a cabin that has been in the family for years on Caddo Lake and we started making the trip with the younger generations about 4 years ago. This year we carpooled with Katie, Bella, and Will for the trip to save money on gas. Driving 6 hours with 4 kids under 4 sounds scary, but it wasn't bad at all. We arrived on Thursday afternoon and were able to spend a couple of hours getting settled before Candace and Josh arrived. We then got to spend the evening with just the two of them. It was very nice because we only see Candace once a year since she lives in LA and Josh about 3x a year since he is currently working in Canada. Ben also caught two catfish that day. The next day three more groups arrived, but all at separate times, so we were able to enjoy everyone before it got too big. Saturday we spent another day of hanging out, fishing, sleeping. The kids played in a small inflatable pool and helped fish. On Sunday, we headed out to the Mudbug festival which we do every year. Before we left, I got stung by a wasp which has never happened to me and by the way hurts like hell! This year it was hotter than ever. We stayed long enough to eat (Ben had crocodile and I had catfish), let KK make one of those sand jars they always have at the fair, the kids played on some inflatible toys and then we were out of there. It was too hot!

One the way home, Katie and I ran into a local Wal-mart and found some really great deals on clothes for the kids. When we got up to check out, we stood in line for 30 minutes (I kid you not!). We then headed home to rinse off and relax for our last evening. We had a fish fry with the fish that had been caught during the trip and just enjoyed everyone. The next morning we packed up to head home and this time the car ride was more eventful. When we were ready to stop for lunch, we pulled up to a DQ and waited in line to order for 10 minutes. When we got to actually order, we were told there would be no food for 20 minutes. The best part was this DQ had a sign that said "Fastest Drive Thru in Town". Seriously? So we opted to find another drive through. Poor Henry was overly tired and cried for a good portion of the car ride. About two hours from home, I checked his pants to discover a poop explosion. KK was in a foul mood for most of the ride because she had had no down time throughout the trip and was cranky to all of us, especially poor Will seated next to her. And Bella is learning how to us her lungs and had a period of time where out of no where she would just yell really loud. We were all ready to get out of the car when we got home!


The next day was thankfully my day off, so I was able to stay home and try to get the laundry done and get the house picked up. Unfortunately, most of that did not happen because poor Henry is not a good day time sleeper (which we are working on). That evening we went to dinner at Rib Crib with some of Ben's family to celebrate his birthday, which was the day before. He is 27!!!

Now the end of the week is here and our weekend consists of:
Going to see Sex and the City tonight with Katie
Cadence's dance rehearsal and recital
Hopefully bathing the dogs
Recovering from the short week
And continuing to get Henry on the 90 minute sleep cycle. I stuck with it yesterday and he actually took 3 45 min naps and went down at 9 pm and slept in his crib till 1:30 am. This may not sound like alot, but it is for him. He never sleeps during the day!

Have a great weekend!