Yet another snowstorm Round 17 =P

Okay I don't really know if we've had 17 snowstorms or not this winter but my god it feels like it! We are now being blessed with another up to 12 inches of this shit. =P And not that was not a typo..... 12 inches!!! Of course I am asking myself my usual question.... why do I choose to live in this godforsaken state. lol

So there goes my nice leisurely weekend of working on organizing closets etc. ( Remember I said there's nothing fun to do in Ohio so organizing is a highlight lol). Instead I will now spend hours bundling kids up to go out to play in the snow... only to come back in 5 minutes later. =P And for some reason I send out 3 kids but always 5 or 6 come back in. They just multiply out there. And when the first come in the door bundled from head to toe you're not real sure which kids are yours and which aren't. Doesn't really matter though... because they ALL end up here eventually. I'll have boots and snowpants and sopping wet mittens and hats strewn from one end of the kitchen to the other. I'll get out my beach towels to lay all this sopping wet stuff on to dry until they want to go out again 2 hours later. God knows I don't need my beach towels for anything else at this point so why not put them to good use. =P

It is March 7th though and daylight savings time is this weekend... and in my book that means it's time to get warm! Mother Nature is just not cooperating with me. =P I promise you the first day it hits 50 and it's sunny I will be out on my beloved lawn chair. Oh how I miss him. :( Of course I have to clean off the piles and piles of poop off the deck first because Buddy has decided that going out in the yard when it snows is just too much work. lol

On a happy note.... my cousin Joe and his wife are coming to visit. :) I can't wait to see them!! He asked me if I want him to being anything from Cali.... I had just one small request that I feel he should do if I'm going to put them up for 5 days. I asked him to bottle up some sun. lol It's the little things that would make us dreary Ohioans happy. =P

Hannah had her first band contest last Friday..... she got a 1. That's the higest rating. Extremely good for a 7th grader. She practiced hard and it payed off. I know her lessons teacher ( dad :) ) was very happy with her results. Poor thing was nervous beyond belief and hardly slept at all the night before. I know we'll have many more of these to follow so hopefully she'll get used to being in the spotlight. She also got to see her name in the paper for honor roll ( 4.0). For some reason they always forgot to add my name to that list. lol She's never had a B yet.... definitely gets that from me. haha

If you have a few minutes to spare please keep us in your thoughts during this difficult time.... we are greiving the loss of sunshine at this time. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to us.... we're setting up a fund to buy a tanning bed. haha

Hopefully by the next time I update this blog... yes I suck at keeping up with it.... we will have warmer weather. If not, it's going to be another long month of bitchy Jen. =P

Yeah I'm a blog slacker

Yes I realize I haven't updated this thing in over a month.... thanks for pointing it out Julie. =P So I'll do a quick catch up for the whole 3 of you who read this thing. =P

We went down to Florida at the end of the month to make sure that the sun does still exsist! It was sunny and 80.... and simply pure heaven! I can totally see myself spending my winters down there once the kids are grown. I don't care if I have to put a tent on the beach every night.... anything is better than this cold shit. I seriously loathe the winter months here. =P

Not much else has gone on the last few weeks. It's been cold and dreary pretty much everyday. I keep sniffing my sunscreen to remind myself that it WILL get warm again. Some people sniff glue.... I sniff sunscreen. LOL

And for your enjoyment I have a few lovely pictures of Drewetta. He seems to enjoy this whole cross dressing thing a bit too much. haha

Happy New Year

We had a wonderful Christmas and New year. But I'm hoping the first couple days of 2008 are not an omen for what's to come. =P

On Wednesday our garage door broke and trapped the Envoy in it! Couldn't get someone out until later today to get it fixed. On Thursday Hannah's cold started to get worse. She had to stay home from school... much to her dismay... and went to the dr. Turns out she has strep, 2 ear infections and a viral infection. She is NONE too thrilled about missing school. She definitely can't be my kid. lol She loves school and works very hard to maintain her straight A status. Once again... she can't be my kid. =P She's out again today since she's highly contagious... which means we'll probably all have this plague in the next few days. Groan!!

We also had a mix up with our health insurance. We got new ins. starting Jan 1st and went to take Drew to the dentist and he's not on it! Guess they forgot about him. Um hello... of all kids not to have on the insurance he is not the one! This is the kid that's sick constantly and is also quite the daredevil so god only knows when the next broken bone or set of stitches will occur. =P Fortunately we already got that fixed so now he's free to continue to jump off the refrigerater. lol

And it's cold as hell here right now. Beyond cold.... downright miserable! You know when you go outside it's so cold that you can see your breath if you open your mouth... well right now you can't even open your mouth because your lips are frozen shut the second you step outside. Not to mention that you can't breathe out your nose either because your nose hairs are frozen too. =P This shit sucks! I have to keep opening the suntan lotion bottle and taking a big wiff to remind myself that it will get warm again.... of course not for probably another 4 months. =P I would go out and rub the lawn chair and let him know I will be back as soon as I can.... but I can't find him under the big snow drift on my deck. Poor thing probably thinks I've abandoned him.

On a good note.... tomorrow is Brooke's 9th birthday! 9 whole years since that little girl came kicking and screaming into the world. And remember... she screamed NONSTOP for the first 3 months!!! Good thing is she has outgrown that... for the most part. lol She didn't want to have a friends party because then her friends would look at her... well duh that's what a party is for! =P She instead requested that we take her to Dave and Busters. I just can't wait to chase Drew all over that place. =P

2 1/2 hours!!!

2 1/2 hours! That's how long it took me to get Drew to sleep last night!

Because Drew is just like his father and thinks he's the next Evil Keneivel (sp) he not only was climbing in and out of his crib.... he was flinging himself clear across the room from the top of his crib! And being that I really don't need anymore trips to the hospital for cracked skulls, broken bones etc. we decided it would be best to take down the crib.

We were supposed to pick up his bed at Julie's house this past weekend... but being that we had yet another snowstowm we couldn't get it. And now Matt has a really severe case of strep and is doing everything he can to stay out of the hospital ( yea he's that sick again!!) I decided to wait until next weekend to get the bed.

Matt feels that this will be the end all to Drew's lack of sleeping. I knew damn well that this would just give this kid even more opportunity to get into shit. =P

So we did the redneck thing last night.... we threw a mattress on the floor and called it done for now. lol He was so excited to sleep in his "big boy" bed (aka the mattress on the floor) that he went up by himself and said he wanted to go to bed. So I tucked him in and shut the door.... and then waited for the fun that lay ahead. A mere 5 seconds after I tucked him in I see the door knob turning and out he comes. Okay... I see that I will probably need to lay in here with him. So I lay down next to him ( even though I have a million things that still need to be done before I can go to bed) and he proceeds to tell me that I can sleep in his bed and he's going to go sleep in mine. This goes on for another 2 hours. We go back and forth between our room and his. He even goes into the girls' rooms and says he's going to sleep with them. Um no. I have threatened him by telling him Santa's not coming ( he could care less), told him he'll get a spanking( just laughed at that one) and even told him there were snakes on the floor so he can't get off the bed. He promptly tells me he likes snakes. =P By this point I have dealt with this little monster for 15 hours.... the last 2 1/2 trying to get him to go to sleep! I have no patience left and I've come to the conclusion that he's NEVER going to sleep again! When finally he starts to doze off. In his bed, with me laying beside him rubbing his back. =P

I crawl back into my bed after I'm sure that the demon spawn is fast asleep. He actually slept a whole 4 hours before waking up and realizing he couldn't get out of his room... thanks to those nifty little doorknob holders... hehe! I didn't have the energy to start that whole fiasco over again so I gave up and brought him into bed with me.

I don't know what tonight has in store for me.....maybe he'll go to sleep a little quicker or maybe I'll just give up again and he'll sleep with me. For now it works for him just to crawl inbetween us and sleep. But I imagine the beds going to get a little crowded when he's 18. =P

First Snow!

Yesterday we had our first snow of the year.... and I can't wait for it all to melt. lol I was all warm in bed when kids started pouncing on me saying they had a 2 hour delay. Great... now go back to bed! Then 20 minutes later they're running through the house saying NO SCHOOL! Just lovely...there goes my day! ( grumble grumble). They've awoken Drew by this point and he's now standing at the front door saying "WOOHOO it's nowing out". Now he probably doesn't even remember snow but the girls hve got him all riled up anyways. I tell them I'll make them all a nice hot breakfast and they quickly announce to me that they all want to go play in the snow.... NOW! WHAT???? It's 8am! They're running around finding snow pants, boots, etc. They have dumped 2 boxes of crap all over the kitchen looking for stuff. Thank... guess who gets to clean that up later!! =P Drew can't even move by the time I get him all bundled so I realize I'm going to have to go out too.... groan! I am a Cali girl by heart ( even though I've never lived there lol) and I can't stand the cold... let alone the cold with blowing freezing snow! I dust off my boots and throw on a coat, hat and gloves and out I go with all of them. I pull out the sleds and the girls quickly wake up the rest of the neighborhood for them to come out and play too. I haul Drew up and down the street and up and down a few hills until he announces to me it's cold. No shit kiddo but you're the one that begged to come out here. By this time I've lost my gloves to Brooke because her's are now wet... duh the snow is wet! And I can see that I'm going to lose my hat to Drew because his keeps falling off. Hannah's starting to complain that her boots are too small and is hinting that maybe she should wear mine. Hell no.... It's not my fault you grew!

We stay outside for a few more minutes and Drew is done... thank god! I bring him back in and begin the 1/2 hour process of taking off all the layers and thawing out.

The girls continue to play with all the neighbor kids for the next hour or so and then I hear the door open.... and not only do my 2 girls come in.... they've invited half the neighborhood in for hot chocolate. Just lovely! So I lay out even more towels by the front door to lay all their sopping wet stuff on. They all start throwing boots. gloves, hats etc. in a million different directions and run downstairs to go play. I finally get that mess all cleaned up only to turn around and hear Hannah say that everyone would like to stay for lunch. Alright then. I now have 9 or 10 kids running through here ( it doesn't really matter once you get past 5 if you count or not because you're beyond mass chaos by that point!) I tell them that they can all stay for lunch but afterwards they have to go home because I have to get a few things done( ie: drink a bottle of vodka!).

Some people love to hear the words Snow Day.... they think of relaxing by the fire, sipping hot cocoa and reading a good book. I think I would much rather hear the word Tornado.... atleast then I could blame the huge mess on something else. =P

My oh so lovely fall pics

I decided to take advantage of the last bit of nice weather here last weekend and take some fall pics of the kids. I spent 2 hours washing and straightening hair, ironing clothes and making sure their shoes were spotless. Why I cared about the shoes god only knows. lol

Matt asks if I want him to go with me and I said this will only take a few minutes so don't worry about it. I mean... how long can it take to line 3 kids up and take a nice picture.

We headed over to the Englewood Dam and I drove around to find the perfect spot for our pics. I go to get Drew out of the carseat only to find he must've swiped a tootsie roll on the way out the door. He's covered in chocolate! But always prepared I wipe him off and am thankful that's he's not wearing white... the chocolate all over his sleeves won't show up much. We head out into this pretty meadow covered in leaves. I brought a blanket for them to sit on because it was still a little damp out. Lay the blanket out and Brooke and Drew proceed to start rolling and jumping all over it. Damn! Now Brooke's hair is a mess. So I trek back to the car to get the hairbrush. Okay no big deal... hair is fixed. I try to pose them in a variety of ways and they're just rolling all over each other, throwing leaves at each other and the blanket is now covereds in mud. Okay plan B. Obviously taking a nice shot sitting down is not going to work so let's find another spot. We walk a little bit and find a big tree. Perfect! I can stand them by the tree and I'll nice shots. I line them up and run back to take the picture. In that split second Brooke has decided to push Hannah into the tree and Drew is flinging mud with his feet! I'm thankful that the park is empty so I can have the opportunity to yell at them for being little shits. I compose myself ( and them) all over again and proceed to take a series of really bad shots with really shitty grins, half opened eyes and kids moving everywhere. Okay plan C now!! I will give up on a group shot and take some nice individual shots. Can't be that hard to take a quick shot of them individually right? I start with Drew because he's quickly losing patience and wants to run everywhere. I stand him next to the tree and he decides he wants to sit instead. Fine! So I now have a shot of him scrunched up next to the tree, covered in mud and chocolate. Oh well... he's 2 and that's how it is with 2 year olds. The girls will be much easier. So onto Brooke. I stand her next to the tree and she proceeds to start climbing the damn thing. Now damnit... just stand still so I can ge a quick shot of you. She's gives me a little smirk and off she goes to play in the mud with Drew. Oh well.... Hannah's next and she'll be easy. I decide to take my time with Hannah ( since the other 2 are quite content at rolling in the mud and leaves anyways). I try getting her to pose in a variety of ways and with each pose she decided to adapt it how she sees fit. I tell her to lean this way... and she tells me that looks stupid. I tell her to turn her head that way... and she tells me that looks stupid. Fine this miss smarty pants... stand there however the hell you please and just smile ( and by the way I can hear what you are calling me under your breath!) I get a couple decent shots of her and then she proceeds to tell me she's done and stomps off to the car. Just lovely! I round up the other 2 hoodlums and we stomp off behind her.

We drive home in complete silence with the exception of them asking me if we can get McDonalds for lunch. I calmly told them that I will not be feeding them today because they are rotten!

Next time I will leave the photography to Bob!

Giving up soda

Well I've finally taken the plunge at giving up my drug of choice.... soda! I need to have diet mountain dew like a crack addict needs crack. I've been drinking waaay too much of it lately. First thing in the morning I pop open a can, then finish another by lunch, then another by afternoon and easily 2 or 3 by bedtime. I think it's making my reflux flare up and I don't even want to begin to think of what all that aspertame is doing to the 3 brain cells I have left.

This is especially hard for me because I don't drink milk, juice, lemonade, ice tea. etc. I do like wine but I think trading soda for alcohol kind of defeats the purpose. =P So I'm stuck drinking water and that's about it. And I hate water like I hate winter so this is gonne be tough. And I won't save a dime because our water here I swear is like sewer water so I'm just going to have to buy bottled water instead.


So I quit cold turkey on Monday. By Tuesday morning I could hardly keep my eyes open due to the major lack of caffeine. By Wednesday morning my head was pounding and I felt like I had a major hangover. By Thursday just hearing the kids talk was enough to make me want to lock myself in a closet. I think it would've been easier had I just entered myself into the nearest rehab center. Atleast there I could've had a lovely support group to talk me through kicking my addiction. But instead I had the girls popping open a can every day after school, the refreshing Pepsi ads on tv and the 20 or so cans I have left of my drug calling me in my sleep saying "you know you want me" lol

But here it is on Friday.... day 5 of my drug free life. I have drank more water then I have in the last 5 years. I haven't had any issues with my refulx all week. I'm falling asleep a little easier. Used to take me easily 2 hours to fall asleep... wonder if that had anything to do with the whole can I would drink right before going to bed. =P I'm still craving the sweetness of my soda.... but no worries there... .I have enough Halloween candy to take care of that for the next year. lol

So I think I can truly kick this addiction permanently. But you bet your ass if my reflux comes back and my headaches don't go away I'll be right back at it. :)