First day of school!

My kids are so cute.  JJ was the first one up this morning because he wanted to shower, dress nice and look "hot" for school.  He is so adorable I can't stand it.  I made a big breakfast for the kids to start their day off right and about 730 James and I headed up to the schools with the kids.

We got to the school and JJ went off to his class.  Gone are the days where he wants me to be with him or even give him kisses!  I told him I would sing the Barney song if he did not let me give him a kiss and he said he would make a joke about it. Typical JJ.

J1 was very shy.  He didn't even want to say hello to the principal, who knows him.  He hid his head as we walked in the classroom.  I have emailed the teacher to see how he did today and have not yet heard back from her.  That is a little unsettling considering she and the special ed teacher both told me they would email me letting me know how he was doing.  

We then took S to school.  I took her in to help her get her locker opened since she had not managed that yet and then left her there.  She looked very pretty today, I am so proud of her.

I had some errands to run this morning and then I had a lunch thing with some ladies in the neighborhood.  We were celebrating two of their birthday's as well as the kids starting school.  The food was very good and the mimosas were great.  I think mimosas are one of my favorite drinks.

Finally, I got home and the kids got home from school.  The kids had a great day.  JJ and J1 were happy to be home and brought home good reports.  S finally got home and had a great day.  We ordered Chinese for dinner and then the bedtime started. 

Now it is time to start relaxing.

Journey

A little over a week ago James sent me a text stating that Journey was here, in concert, on the 25th.  I looked up tickets, thinking getting a good seat would be impossible.  To my surprise there were two, front row seats available.  I bought them.  Also on the schedule for the night was Loverboy and Pat Benatar.



The evening started out really fun.  James and I met his brother at Blue Fish on Greenville Ave in Dallas for dinner/snack before the show.  They don't get together often so when we can do something like that it is a lot of fun.  We left the restaurant and got to the venue about the time Loverboy started.  It  was SO loud sitting in the front row.  Add that to the fact that I personally did not know who Loverboy was, didn't make the first half hour very enjoyable.  It was clear though that I was probably the ONLY one who did not know who Loverboy was.  I had heard their one big song, Working For The Weekend, but it certainly is not in my music library and I could not have told you who sang it if someone asked.  Thank God I am able to read lips enough that I could tell what the lead singer was singing, even though I could not hear the words.

Next up was Pat Benatar who was fantastic.  It was clear that her lead guitarist and husband of 34 years was her rock.  She has an amazing voice and I was actually able to make out the words!  Yes, she sang some songs I didn't know, but most of them I knew.



After about a 30 minute intermission Journey finally took the stage.  James and I watched a documentary at some point about how Journey came to pick their new lead vocalist, a young, Japanese man.  Seeing this guy perform was a real treat.  Not only is his voice amazing and could he hold all those notes, but he interacted incredibly well with the fans and the band mates.  It really looked like the entire band was having a blast.



Journey played for at least an hour and a half.  Maybe two hours.  It was definitely worth the money we spent on the tickets to get to the concert and the seats.  There were SOOOO many people there.  It was packed, all the way to the back wall.  It was really amazing to see it.  This was definitely not like the Bette Midler and Celine Dion concerts I had been too.



Getting out of the parking lot was a nightmare.  We ended up taking a route even James had never been.  A little scary considering the neighborhood.  We ended the night back with James' brother at a little Vietnamese Pho place that had good food.  James and I were both hungry and had headaches.  The menu said, "comfort food" and last night it really was.  Of course we were still almost 45 minutes from home.  That was a hard drive as I was very tired.  We finally got home about 115.  Thankfully the sitter we have is amazing.  Definitely not enough sleep last night since the boys had us up at 630.  Overall it was a great evening and one we will both remember.  Probably not one we are likely to repeat anytime soon though.  I for one am getting too old to stay out all night.

Back to school shopping

This is tax free weekend here in Texas.  Normally sales will be better the weekends surrounding tax free weekend so that all you really save on the weekend is the tax.  But sometimes you can find good deals.

This is my least favorite weekend of the year.  We spend Saturday out shopping with all five kids trying to find clothes, shoes, etc.  It is a frenzy and exhausting.  Yesterday started off with IHOP for breakfast and then we headed to Kohls.  I had a 20% off, they had some decent sales, and were giving Kohl's cash.  We got all the clothes we needed there, including backpacks and lunch boxes.  I ended up with $130 Kohls cash that I can go back and spend after the kids go back to school on whatever I want.  Not a clue what I will buy yet, but I doubt it will be for the kids.  Good thing about Kohl's cash is that you buy something with it, don't want it, return it and get a gift card that never expires, whereas the Kohls Cash expires in a few days.

I hate though the whole process of going out, with everyone else, corralling the kids, just to save a few bucks.  I am ALWAYS glad when it is done, but it seems like such a chore.  I prefer just to go buy the kids clothes on my own.  Much easier.

Friday night was a lot of fun.  James and I went to a place called Kirin Court.  Authentic Chinese food. I have come to realize that the Chinese food I love down the road, and all the other little Chinese places, are very Americanized.  This was real Chinese food.  Things I would never think of eating.  We had some dim sum which was very good.  The place was not expensive either so we definitely plan on going back.  There was a wedding reception there that night as well.  Because of the reception there was a Chinese dragon show.  I am sure there is a technical name for this, but I couldn't tell you what it is.  It is really a very awesome show.  It is that type of culture I really want the kids to see.  Afterwards we stopped by outlets and did a little shopping ourselves.  Got the kids some shoes, may have gotten something else but I don't remember.  We were both really tired and simply wanted to go home to bed.

Ended up going to church last night instead of this morning.  It was nice and meant that we did not have to go anywhere today.  Just had a quiet day here at the house and I am now counting down the minutes until bed for the kids.  I so enjoy my time in the evening after they go to bed.  It is a good thing I am a night person.

This week has a lot of activity.  Tomorrow I get to meet J1's teacher and talk to the principal for a bit.  I am looking forward to it and I am taking him with me.  Hopefully that will make him a little more comfortable.  One more week till school starts and I can only hope that it flies by.  All of us are ready for it.

Milestones

G just pee'd in the potty for the first time by herself.  She went into our guest bathroom, shut the door, took off her diaper and sat on the baby potty.  I was shocked to say the least.  She then ran upstairs.  I brought her baby potty out where I can see it, put her diaper back on her and told her to come downstairs if she needed to go again.  We have carpet upstairs.  Cleaning up pee from the carpet is not the highlight of my day.  Hopefully this was not a fluke and she will do it again.  It would be nice to not have to buy anymore diapers since we just bought a huge box from Costco.

My baby girl is growing up.  I am so ready for it though.  I can't keep her tiny forever.  Hopefully as she grows up she will stay out of my stuff.  I am spending a fortune on make up these days.

Spaghetti for dinner.  J1 requested it.  I already have the sauce cooking.  At least my house will smell good.  Dinner should taste good.  Maybe we will try for the pool tonight.

One of those days

I can feel it and I am trying to snap out of it.  But today is going to be one of those days.  Three of the kids are home with me as J1 did not want to go to karate camp today.  I can not force him as it would cause a meltdown that is not worth it.  I will pick up the other two at one and then we will all be here.  All afternoon.

I have hamburger out to cook for spaghetti and I am having a hard time getting started.  I am so not interested in cooking spaghetti tonight, but J1 asked for it and last night it sounded good.  Right this second, not so much.  I just want to sit here and pout.  Why do I want to pout?  Hell if I know.  It is just one of those days....

I refuse to tiptoe!

Seriously.  I will not bow down around my neighbors.  I will not tip toe.  I will not watch what I say for  fear someone won't like me.  I don't really give a crap who likes me and who doesn't.  I am tired of all of the immature and high schoolish behavior in this neighborhood.  Everyone needs to grow up.

Months ago I pissed off people by posting a warning on our FB page about a babysitter who instructed my kids to lie to me about having a boy over.  They said I was slandering her and I shouldn't have posted it.  Um, if someone else had that experience with a babysitter I also used, I would want to know.    Any responsible parent would.  Clearly the ones who were pissed really did not have their children's best interests at heart.  Use the girl!  Let her tell your kids to lie.  See if I care.  Then one of the residents that got pissed, decided that HER daughter would no longer babysit for us.  Clearly she thought it was ok for someone to tell kids to lie to their parents so her daughter probably would have done it as well.  I definitely don't want her daughter babysitting if that is the case.

Then there was the case of the "family potluck" that we were told we would have to pay for a babysitter if we wanted to come too.  Everyone supposedly paid one of the girls in the paragraph above to babysit their kids while they did the "family potluck".  Um, if I am going to pay for a sitter it is going to be to go out with my HUSBAND, not hang out with self rightous snobs.

Then there is the group of women who clearly think they are better than me.  Why, because their kids are on the swim team?  They are part of the PTA?  Because they get together and talk crap about those in the neighborhood that are not as good as them?  These women stick their nose up at us, turn their heads as we walk by, tell their kids not to play with ours.  That is real good people.  Teach your kids to be as judgmental as you are!

One of these women, who has never said a word to me and refuses to get to know me, has a husband who may run for the neighborhood HOA board.  A friend of mine said that the couple was "really very nice" and that I should vote for him.  I told her hell no.  He has never said a word to me either.  He is purposely rude anytime we are in the same room.  I have never done anything to him.  I guess James upset him at a poker game because James took all his money.  So that gives him the right to treat me like crap?  James is him.  I am me.  We are not the same person.  And if you, or anyone else, expects me to vote for you when you treat me like crap, you have another thing coming.  Do not judge me if you don't get to know me.

So in the last week there was a thread on our FB page about a possible grocery store going in on a corner that is slated for apartments from a huge development.  I had posted that I emailed the company that owned the development and was waiting for an answer.  Today I posted the response which was simply that they would love to have a grocery store but could not confirm anything at this time.  The original posters wife came back almost immediately and posted a very rude response to me about her husband already giving us all that info.  Um, ok.  I responded nicely that I was giving info from the builder and without people like her husband in the neighborhood we would not know some of this information and have stuff to be excited about.  Then I complemented her on her newborn who really is  very cute.  I will just chalk it up to new mommy hormones.  Can't imagine there is yet another brat living in this neighborhood.  I think we are at our limit.

Wait? Don't we have a fence?

Yep, it happened, just as I suspected.  Despite our precaution of replacing broken posts so that our fence would not fall if there was a strong wind, it fell!  Last night started with me putting the kids to bed and then standing in the office talking to James.  The wind started up and it was clearly strong.  I looked out and discovered one of our cypress trees were about to come out of the ground.  Thankfully it is still attached to a stake so James was able to get a mallet and resecure it into the ground.  Neither of us thought to check the fence since we just had those posts replaced 6 weeks ago and all the rest were secure.

A little while later my neighbor called us to let us know that our dog was at her front door.  I figured she ran out of the gate when JJ was putting out trashcans.  At this point it was really raining so I sent Jay with a leash and umbrella to get the dog.  A second later he came in yelling, "Mom!  It's an emergency!"  We have told the kids that if it is a true emergency and they need our attention immediately to tell us that.  They never have before.  Instinctively I knew what the emergency was before JJ even telling me.

James and I went out and two of our panels were laying outside of our yard, nail side up.  The post between the two had snapped in half.  We flipped them over into our yard so no one would get hurt and checked the other posts to discover that several are now broken in the ground.

I was a bit concerned that our trash cans would not be where JJ left them last night and that we could be missing shingles off our roof as this has happened to several neighbors.  Thankfully this morning there was no more damage to our property.

It is all good.  I am not that upset about the fence as I expected it to happen even though we hoped it wouldn't by being proactive.  If anything upsets me it is that we WERE proactive and the fence still broke.  I guess you can't win them all.

The best part is we got A LOT of rain last night.  It rained all night long and more rain is expected for today.  What a difference a year makes since last summer we didn't see a drop of rain for 3 or 4 months and the temps did not get below 100 for 60 or 70 days I think.  That could be off but it was a LONG HOT summer that dried up all the fingers of the lake around us.

Definitely won't be complaining about rain.

Wondeful adventures of baby G

So I mentioned how sweet and loving and so totally two that baby G is the other day. She is also funny and extremely smart.  She is definitely all girl.  Her favorite thing to do is pick out shoes and hair accessories to go with her clothes while her favorite way to get into trouble is by getting in my make up.  To date I have lost three tubes of mascara, numerous eye shadows, lipsticks and a tube of concealer.  Not to be forgotten is the nearly full bottle of perfume that she broke and the bottle of eye serum that she dumped out into my bottle of eye make up remover.  Her most recent escaped included painting her face with my mascara.  Not just ANY mascara but my waterproof mascara.  Oy vey.

G also loves to run around naked, if I would let her.  She always wants to sit on the potty, even though she doesn't do anything on it.  Her favorite game on the iPod is her Elmo Potty Time.  She always asks to play "Melmo".  Today I put her on the bed next to me and she proceeded to make herself comfortable while she listened to the very addicting soundtrack.

My baby girl is completely sweet and makes me laugh on a daily basis.  She is the answer to my prayers and my gift from God for everything I went through before she came, and everything we have gone through since.  Don't let the photo at the top fool you.  She is lucky she is so darn cute.

Long couple of days

Really a long few weeks!  As the summer winds up it seems to be going super slow.  S, JJ and J1 are all at karate camp this week which even J1 normally loves.  However he gave us some issues going today.  Hopefully this is just a passing thing and not an indication that his medicine is not working right anymore seeing as I just got new prescriptions filled yesterday.

S is growing up so much.  Yesterday I took her out to buy her makeup and a razor to shave her legs.  Over the weekend she got contacts.  I wish she would slow down.  Friday is middle school orientation. And just to think, I have to go through this four more times.  Well, hopefully not the makeup part.

Willpower...

G is a super easy baby. She is 21 months and just starting to hit some of the terrible two phases, but overall is very sweet.

Two days ago I bought her a mattress and sheets and put them on the floor in her room. The first night she had a little difficulty but was asleep by 830.  Two naps and one more night of sleep later she seemed fine and well adjusted to sleeping in a big girl bed.

Then we got to tonight. It is now after 10 and G is finally quiet. For over 2 hours she desperately fought going to bed. I am scared to go check on her for fear that she is not asleep and having her start crying again.

It has really been a battle of wills. Whose willpower is stronger? Hers to fight sleep or mine to (mostly) ignore her?

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After I finished writing this, I thought she went to sleep so I went in to check on her, only to find S in there trying to get her to go to sleep.  I told S she had to stay out, that G had to get herself to sleep.  Finally, about midnight, G fell asleep.  I had gone in there again, got her some stuffed animals, and told her to stay put.  I think really at that point she was just exhausted.  REALLY hoping tonight is much easier.

At least she is cute...

Whose daughter is she anyway?

As a kid I wasn't concerned about what was "in", what other kids were wearing, or what I should be wearing to make friends.  Maybe that explains why I didn't have a whole lot of friends in jr high and high school.  However, the friends I had, I still have to this day.

Well, there was the time I wanted to wear these tight legging type pants with a "long" sweater over it.  That was the "in" thing.  It didn't go over well with my grandparents...or my dad.  But I regress....

S must not be my daughter.  She is so obsessed with what is "in", what the other kids are wearing and what she HAS to have.  If not, after all, she won't have any friends.  Kids already tease her she says.  She wants so desperately to be part of the popular crowd.  No matter what I tell her, I can't convince her that it isn't worth it.  Many members of the "popular crowd" have mom's from the "goody too-shoes" crowd, who don't like me either.  That is probably why their kids don't like her.  Not all of them now.  There are some popular kids in S's school who are really sweet, and have really sweet parents.  But the majority of them, sadly, do not qualify.

So what did I just do?  The motherly thing of course.  I just spent $100 buying S a pair of Miss Me jeans that she wanted and a pair of Osiris shoes that she wanted because "everyone wears them" and if she doesn't have them "no one will like her".  Did I do the right thing?  Not a clue.  I don't want to support the idea of having to have all the same things her friends do to be popular.  But I also don't want her feeling bad about herself or feeling like an outcast.  I definitely know how that feels and still feel like that today.



And what is so special about these items of clothing?  I don't have a clue.  But I am also not an 11 year old little girl.  At least she can never say, "You ruined my life because you didn't buy me Miss Me jeans and Osiris's!"

"She told me to!"

That is what I just heard from JJ as he was attempting to climb our fence.  "She told me too!"  "She" being S, his most loving and protective big sister.

So I asked, "If she told you to jump in front of a train would you?"

"Yes!" he exclaimed, albeit sarcastically.

All this occurred no more than five minutes after I heard someone screaming outside.  Since all five kids were outside I went running to the door.  Asked who screamed.

S exclaims that it was her.  "G screamed at me so I screamed at her!"

Um, dear S, you are almost 12...she is ONE.  Sigh.

It is only 9am.  Today is going soooooo slow already.  3 hours till nap.  2 weeks till school starts.

5 am, you are not my friend

I am so tired of the boys getting up at 5am.  J1 and J2 won't sleep in, no matter what time we put them to bed.  ONCE this summer they actually slept till 730.  Many days we are lucky if they sleep till 5.  John is potty trained now but once in a while he wakes up and has pee'd in his bed.  This was one of those mornings.  It is now 538, we are out of milk, the boys are watching TV, James is asleep on the couch and I am counting down the hours till bed.  Coffee you are my friend....

Been a long time!

Wow!  It has been a long time!  The kids are doing and saying so many funny things and there is so much I want to chronicle, that I want to start this back up.  We have been in our house 3 years now.  We are once again just 2 weeks from the start of school.  S is going into middle school, 6th grade. JJ is going into 4th and J1 into 1st.  J2 just turned three.  He is so cute and so funny.  We also have another new addition.  G was born on November 1, 2010.  She is a joy and absolutely wonderful.

This has been the longest summer yet.  J1 is a sweet, wonderful loving boy.  However, we are dealing with a few different mood issues with him.  I am very hopeful that now, finally, with summer almost over, that we have gotten him on the right track.  I pray he will have a successful school year.  Boy, I can not wait till that first day of school however.  The above picture was taken at my cousin Mindy's wedding.  S and JJ were both in the wedding they looked so awesome.  I wanted to get some pictures of all the kids so I tried to dress them kind of alike.  I love that I found a matching dress for G!

J2 is going to a 5 day a week preschool this year at a local church.  He absolutely LOVES school.  He starts a week after the rest on September 4th.  At that point it will only be G home with me during the day.  And James when he is in town and not traveling.  Will be quiet and nice.

Here are some updated pictures.

Cutie pie J1

Goofy boy J2

4th Of July parade

4th Of July

Smooth little man, Mindy's wedding

Dancing J2

All dressed up

JJ and G