BlogHer made me do it

I'm blogging today because my BlogHer ad contract dictates I must blog at least once a week. I sort of find this laughable because I've never received a check from BlogHer. I think my BlogHer ads have made about $1.29 in the entire time they've been running. And I can't even figure out how to login to their Open Ad Stream thing to figure that out.

But y'all don't care about all that, do you?

To tell you the honest truth, I haven't been blogging because I'm sad. And when I'm sad I don't want to talk much.

I'd like to say that things around my house are all rainbows and butterflies all the time but they're not. This month the kids have been out of school and they're driving me crazy like you can't believe. I am officially the meanest mom ever because I can't tolerate even a second more of the insanity and I snap at them constantly.

There is never a quiet moment in our house. They're either arguing with each other or they're running through the house like maniacs or the TV is on full blast. I want to shove my head under the covers and cry myself to sleep... but if I did that nothing would ever get done around here and I'd only wake up to things being worse.

I envision myself just driving away and not looking back. Is that normal? There's only so much stress a person can take without a prescription for Xanax.

And then there were 5

Things have been ever changing over here in the Spaz household. Friday The Teenager moved back in with her mom and dad. I am hoping that the 7 weeks she stayed with us have given her and her family the break they needed and that they can move forward in a positive direction from here. I love her very much, that Teenager... but I'm glad she's with her family now. I went through a whole lot of Crown and Diet Coke while she was here.

Bug is excited because he'll be able to take her room now... the room that was once my office... that was previously my sanctuary. However, The Man and I have told the boys that Bug won't be moving into the new room until the old room gets clean.

So that room will probably be empty until 2012.

Father's Day was wonderful. We spent the day at my parents house swimming, playing pool, eating grilled burgers and hot dogs, and relaxing. The fathers in our family really enjoyed themselves and that's what it was all about. :)

I've been busy getting my eBay business back in order after a bit of a hiatus. The past several months have been dedicated to liquidating inventory and I'm just starting to add new inventory recently. It's been a lot of work and taking up all of my time recently - so there hasn't been much time for blogging.

Hopefully I'll be able to get things a little more organized in the next few days and get back to the blog on a regular basis.

Day Seventy Seven

So... it's day 77 of my 100 day challenge and I pretty much have to say that my 100 day challenge was a big fat 100 day FAIL.

To be quite honest, I sort of threw out the whole thing somewhere around Day 7. Circumstances in my life went all haywire and I just kind of forgot about it.

Until today. Today I decided to make my Dream Board. About 76 days late... but hey, better late than never, right?

Here's to the next 23 days. :)

It's a Friday Wrap Up!

Monday morning I had the pleasure of escorting The Teenager to a doctor's appointment where we got to discuss painfully embarrassing subjects which involved much red faced giggling on The Teenager's part. Okay, I got a little red faced and giggly, too.

The fun part about the doctor's appointment was that the doctor decided that it would be a good idea to check The Teenagers hormone levels a bit and that, my friends, required about 8 vials of blood to be taken.

And The Teenager assured me that she had been down this road before and would have absolutely no problem with the blood giving thing.

So the nurse came in with her little hand held cart of blood taking stuff and placed it on a little table and The Teenager and the nurse held hands where holding hands means the nurse prodded The Teenager's arm to find a vein and The Teenager asked over and over again how much it would hurt.

While the nurse filled up vials of blood The Teenager watched and continued to say "Oh my gosh, please hurry up, oh my gosh" and the nurse continued to say "Breathe."

And then the vials were all filled up and the nurse started to wash her hands and The Teenager held a tissue to the little spot on her arm and then The Teenager said "I can't hear anything."

And then she passed out.

And The Teenager evidently doesn't pass out like most people do. Not that I'm an expert on people passing out or anything... but in my experience most people sort of go limp and crumple to the floor.

Not The Teenager. Nope... her body went RIGID and she violently kicked the little table and the nurse's little cart of stuff went flying and alcohol pads and band aids and little empty vials and tubey things all went flying.

And then The Teenager sort of woke up and asked if she'd had a seizure... and then she asked us if she was peeing in her pants (she wasn't) and then she told us all that she had to go to the doctor today.

She was a little confused.

Tuesday disappeared. I don't know where it went or what happened. Sorry, Tuesday.

Wednesday The Man and I had a date at Publix. Cause we're romantic like that. It originally started with us just taking a break from the kiddos to do some grocery shopping and get a prescription filled. And then we got almost completely done with the shopping and I realized I had never turned in the prescription.

So I brought the prescription to the window and the pharmacist was all "It'll be at least 45 minutes, ma'am" and I was all "When the heck did I turn into a ma'am??!" and then I was all "So... what do we do now?"

So we decided to put all the freezer and cold stuff back and get ourselves some yummy Publix subs from the deli and have a date. At Publix. By ourselves.

And yanno what y'all? It was pretty nice.

Thursday we debated homeschooling the kids next year. Because we're sort of crazy. And there's this really great program with our state that has real teachers and assistance for home schooled kids and allows kids to advance as quickly as they want to and it would probably be really great for our kids. I even attended an online seminar about it.

And then we decided we'd never be able to give the kids the amount of attention they would need from us at this point. So we're putting that idea on the back burner for another year at least.

Today the kids are cleaning their rooms. Munchkin and The Teenager pretty much are done with their rooms Goober and Bug are wailing and crying as though I have asked them to perform such an impossible task that we may as well just bomb their rooms instead. It'll be a long day.

Where the heck is that soapbox?

I was reading something today from another blogger who feels her identity has shifted due to changes in her life. Is she still a "mommy blogger" if her blog doesn't focus primarily on being a mom? Or if she now has to share custody of her kids? Or if she made decisions that the "mommy blogging community" may look down upon?

And I say who gives a rat's ass?

I mean, really... when I started this blog I didn't really know what it was going to be. Obviously I fit it into the "mommy blog" category since I named it what I did. But over time it has evolved. I have evolved.

And I really think my blog has helped me to do so.

While I realize that a large majority of my life is defined as being a mother, I'm still me. I'm still the person I was before I had children and I won't just disappear when they don't need me anymore. I don't have to revolve my life around my children.

My job is to keep them safe, to raise them to be good people with good judgment and good character. My job is to prepare them to go out into the world on their own and be strong and self-sufficient.

And though that is the most demanding and time consuming job I've ever had, it's okay for there to be times in my life when raising them and providing for them is not my focus. It's okay to be selfish and it's okay to be carefree. And it's okay to think about things that don't involve my children one little bit.

I've never been the type of person who tells other people that "everything I do, I do for my children" or "they're the reason I wake up in the morning" or anything else to that effect. Because seriously? I woke up every morning before they came along and I had a purpose. And if some horrible tragedy happened tomorrow that took my children from me, I would still have a purpose and a life to live.

That doesn't make me any less of a mom - but it certainly does make me more of who I want to be.

I'm only posting because my mommy told me to

That's right - I received an email from my mom (it was sent to my two sisters as well) chastising us for not updating our blogs enough. So here's to you, Mom!

It's another hodge podge... and without pictures, too, because I'm waiting on Aunt M to send me a bunch of pictures. I am a classic camera forgeter.

So Friday I woke up to take Goober to his very last day of preschool. We rushed out of the house and I dropped him off in his footed fleece pajamas (it was pajama day) in 93 degree weather. I did make sure to pack him a change of clothes in case he overheated and passed out at some point during the day.

When I got home after dropping him off I went potty. Aren't you glad I told you that? Then I flushed. Cause my mommy brought me up right.

But nothing happened.

Since I didn't want to wake The Man from his peaceful slumber, I lifted the toilet tank lid myself and was shocked to find there was no water in it. So I jiggled the handle a few times and still nothing happened.

Then I tried to wash my hands. And no water came out.

So I went outside to where our water pump is (we're on a well out here in the boonies, by the way) and I kicked the pump a few times. The pump didn't make a peep. So I called my sister.

Cause that's what everyone should do when they have no water, right?

I called my sister because my brother-in-law is a plumber. He plumbs.

And I love him.

I love him because he came out that afternoon and deciphered that the motor on our well pump had died. And then he and The Man drove way way far away to get the parts to fix our pump. And then they came back.

And then they realized they had the wrong parts.

And the well pump motor store was closed.

So the kids and I packed up to go to my mom and dad's house where the kids swam and I showered (because swimming is like a shower for kids, right?) and played a few games of pool and drank some beer and pretended all was fine at my house.

And then Saturday morning my brother-in-law came back over with the right parts for our pump and gave us water.

As The Man and my wonderful brother-in-law were fixing our pump, the kids and I were getting ready to go to a little local water park for a day of fun with Munchkin's Brownie troop. Right as we were walking out the door, The Man came in all grimy and dirty and threw on his bathing suit to come along with us. Because water parks are as good as showers, right?

We had a wonderful day of fun in the sun which equals sunburn even though we were all sprayed liberally with SPF 70 which evidently washed off immediately upon entering any sort of water. There was sliding, there was splashing, there was diving, and there was lounging. It was an all around day of wet fun.

Until the South Florida sky lit up with electricity and we all decided to get the heck out of there before we turned into electric eels.

Saturday night I got to spend an evening out with one of my best friends at a karaoke bar. And when we walked in to the bar I was unexpectedly greeted with my mother-in-law singing La Isla Bonita on the stage.

And I quickly ordered a beer or five.

And it was all good.

Emotion and a little levity

Tonight I decided to read a few blogs before bed. It's been a few days since I stopped and read any so I'm a wee bit behind.

I read Jason's post about his mother and I had to share it with my readers. If you don't read Jason's blog you should. He's honest and open and warm and funny and understanding and he's one of my favorite bloggers. The kind of blogger that I click on first in my reader when it says he's got a new post. And this post shot straight to the heart...

Jason, your words are like poetry.

On a completely different note, I've been asked how Sudo is doing since I haven't written about him lately.

He's doing fine. Spoiled and loved as ever. He has ridden with us almost every morning to take the kids to school. I'm sure he's going to miss it now that summer is here.

He's all grown up... okay, not really.

Tuesday was all about Goober.

At 7:00 Tuesday night, Goober officially graduated from pre-k.

But first I had to pry him away from the new Hot Wheels Shark Set that his Aunt B1 purchased for him the night before in an attempt to alleviate the guilt she felt for being unable to attend his graduation ceremony.

Goober was okay with that trade.

We gathered in the cafeteria of Munchkin's elementary school to watch Goober perform and accept his diploma and it was one of the cutest little events you ever did see.

And it made me cry just a little bit.

But no one saw... so it was okay.

After the performance, we all went out to Friendly's for ice cream to celebrate our little guy's transition. My dad ordered a root beer float. When it arrived the waitress said "Whatever you do, don't touch that. I'm serious."

And then she walked away.

And we looked at each other questioningly. What the heck?

Then she returned and put a bowl underneath it.

Evidently root beer floats at Friendly's can explode if you touch them. Who knew?

It was a happy night. :)

Summer Shmummer

As we're nearing the end of the school year (tomorrow is their last day!) I'm having a bit of anxiety. I have nothing planned for this summer. I did this last year and I sort of remember being ready to pull my hair out by the middle of July.

I think I may have even uttered the words "never again" at some point.

This year we have the addition of The Teenager to the mix and the possibility of The Man going back to work which will make it probably a little more hairy in here. So I definitely need to get some ideas on how we're going to spend the next 10 1/2 long weeks and I haven't got a clue.

At least the last month or so will be spent running around like a maniac to prepare them for the next school year (back to school supplies, shoes, clothes, and more) so that wipes out a little bit of time. But I'd like to make sure this summer is somewhat memorable so I need to make some plans.

As soon as I get a minute.

Soon.

Tonight Goober is graduating from pre-school (in a cap and gown!) so we're gearing up for that excitement. And next year he's officially going to the big school. Where did the time go?