And a good time was had by all! :)

Hmm....

"Anger, jealousy and bitterness are the poisons I drink expecting someone else to die." - Author Unknown

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday

Why does Sunday always seem to get here so fast? This weekend has been nothing like I planned but yet so much fun! Friday night J came over to shop in my closet for a wedding she had the next day and A and fam came over for dinner and ended up staying the night. We all hung out and watched TV and ate. Watched the dancing baby video..ADORABLE!

Saturday I made breakfast and we hung out some more...more eating, more TV and some nail painting. Very little cleaning, very little working, no dog bath, LOTS of kids. :) S came over for the afternoon and hung out with us for a few hours so we had 5 kids total. My dad stopped by to fix my sprinkler only to learn I had not gone to Home Depot yet. He surveyed the damage that was my house and beat a hasty retreat. :) Not before telling me he tormented my ex-BIL...I love my dad and his "get away from my daughters mentality!". Laid back is never a word I have associated with my dad. Later that day we went out to Sting Rayz and watched the Blues Houndz perform. AWESOME fun had by all. E said on the way home that "Papa is the best singer EVER!". On the way home the boys and I made a quick stop at Big Spoon - who cares that it was after 9 and I was feeding my kids frozen yogurt! I did limit them to only four toppings.

Today we got up and ate and showered and hit Toys R Us so N could spend his birthday money...that took a LONG time but he and E had lots of fun. We ran a couple other errands and hit Starbucks on the way home. The Steelers are up by 10 at the moment, my house is a DISASTER of epic portions - I feel moments away from a Clean House intervention and my dog is a big ball of stink. We are going out to an early dinner with gang in a couple of hours so bathing him now is not in the agenda, cleaning and working just keep getting pushed aside. I am protesting both for no good reason! Especially since they have no other means of completion. It's no like procrastination will make someone else come along and do it. AND - tonight is DEXTER! I can't wait. Just a few short hours until the Season 4 premier. Later this week are my silly MTV reality shows and I LOVED The Good Wife - it has been added to the Tivo rotation (PLEASE don't cancel it!). I have last nights SNL premier to watch too. I hope it's good. I loved Casey Wilson and was sad to see her go and I am not a huge Megan Fox fan so I didn't stay up to watch it. Tuesday is family skate night for the boys school and J and I swore to get back on the gym bandwagon after falling (or intentionally jumping) off last week. When will the house get cleaned, the dog bathed or all my work done between that and all the TV watching? I have no idea! Oh well, I only have to wash jeans for next week since we get to wear them EVERYDAY next week in the office...WOOHOO! It is so the little things. :)

I love home!

I hate business travel. Not really. I actually like the travel, its the being away from home that I don't really care for. I miss my babies and my bed. I will give it up for the hotel...that bed was AMAZING! And G picked this awesome restaurant for us to have dinner in. We normally have to eat at those places that charge you $$$ to pick between three things on the menu you don't really like. The wine is always good....especially at those places. I do love a good glass of wine but if given a choice between a restaurant that actually serves bones as an appetizer and good wine or some kick ass mexican in the hood with great margaritas....I will take the hood every dang day of the week! Last night the food was very good and normal and the wine was good too. I refrained from too much since I had to be up early to host our meeting and so that some how made me the DD. What? I had no kids and still had to be the DD...WTF? :) So not a big deal. We had a presentation at a hotel and after I am flying home and G is off to another event so he asks if I can take our projector back with me. I already have my suitcase and my "personal item" that is the size of a small country with my reading materials, purse, IPOD...but I said I thought I could figure it out. SO, after the meeting I go up to my room and try and fit this in my suitcase so I don't have to check my bags. (Our IT guy doesn't think it should be checked...damages and all.) HA! It was comical. In the end, I make it work. It requires some interesting configurations and shoes in places they don't really belong but hey it worked so off to the airport we go. What does the very nice TSA employee tell me? "Sorry Miss., we consider anything of this nature to be the same as a laptop. I am going to have to open it up." Good luck to you sir. Let me know what high heel is the one that takes out your eye as it goes flying out of my overstuffed bag! ALL of my bag was unpacked and I was left to try and cram it all back in while standing in the middle of the airport. That was certainly a highlight of my trip!

Today I got off the plan and got my babies. We went to dinner and then came home and did a puzzle together and then watched a new movie N got for his birthday. HEAVEN! I understand the human kids were good but A didn't have a great time with WallE. I don't have all the details but I am guessing it has something to do with his unwillingness to share his side of the bed? :) I am so grateful she and N were able to come over and watch all three of my babies for me. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!

Tomorrow is FRIDAY! I have enough work to keep me at my desk from now until the end of time but I am still glad for Friday. Maybe D and I will hang out tomorrow? Saturday I am taking N to spend his birthday loot at Toys R Us. I need to visit my new favorite store - my local hardware store. For a small town store it has a crazy amount of things. I need a new sprinkler head, weed-eater twine....OMG! I might expire from the excitement of it all. No matter, my babies will be here.

Can I finish a sentence? A thought? A.....anything?

This weekend was all the crazy it promised to be with a little extra thrown in! Friday was final prep work for our Tuesday morning meeting - this consisted of eleventeen meetings/conference calls/side conference calls/training and some errand running. After work the boys and I ran some much needed errands and then home to make sure everyone got to bed early.

Saturday morning was our Team Maddie Grace walk. My niece was born with CHD and we do the heart walk every year. This year she wore the most adorable outfit EVER! After that we came home to get our house ready for N's party on Sunday. First, a closet catastrophe. The wooden rod broke and clothes were all over the floor. So I said some curse words and got out the wood glue and went to work on my home repair. (Yes, I totally consider that task worthy of the moniker of home repair!) Closet puzzle resolved and so I go out to hit the yard work before it gets much hotter. As earlier mentioned, my lawn mower HATES me. It was really mad at me on Saturday and decided to break. I gave up and went next door to pay the neighbor kid $10 to mow but he wasn't home. SOOO...I came back and reviewed the issue and was actually able to fix it with some more cursing, lots of anger and some new screws. Lawn mowed! Weed eater - out of string half way through...LOVELY! At this point my BIL rescues me by coming over just in time to watch the five alarm fire breakout entirely too close to my house. BIL and I decided we need to get a better look to determine if we should be more than just mildly concerned. We spend the next hour watching field after field and structure after structure burn to the ground. Lucky for me the wind was blowing the fire and embers away from my house. Not so lucky for those in the line of fire. After that it was back home to clean and run some errands.

Sunday started at 5:00 am...YES! UGH. N's party wasn't until 2 and yet I couldn't sleep so I got up and finished getting some stuff ready. The bouncy house came, the people came, the pizza and cake came and a good time was had by all. N is a great present person. He responds with such enthusiasm for everything, even the clothes. After the party we went to A's house for dinner. YUM - Nachos. :) Delicious.

Yesterday was a true Monday. I made it to work all day and then came home and CRASHED. I made the boys grilled cheese for dinner - for dinner? Seriously! We then stopped the ice cream man for what is likely the last time this summer. E is still getting over his bug so he fell asleep early so N and I watched the game (the only reason to ever love Monday) and did some I Spy books (love them!).

I had a big meeting today and when I got back I found out my grandma's sister passed away. :( My grandma is the oldest of 8 kids and now she is the only one still alive. She was sad and I had already canceled my concert plans due to my trip tomorrow (Hi Ladies - hope you are enjoying The Killers..sorry I missed i!) so the boys and I took her out to dinner and then to the store just to get her out of the house. She is an adorable grandma and we love her so much. UGH - I am still sad I missed the show tonight but I am glad A was able to use the ticket. I LOVE The Killers and they kept playing them on the radio today. I just felt so terrible about the thought of having the boys with a sitter two nights in a row...even if one was work related...it just didn't seem right and plus, I will miss them tomorrow while I am in LA. I know that A and N will take great care of all three of my boys. They are going to have a good fight on their hands with WallE - he is going to kick one of them off his side of the bed. :) I almost wish I could be here to see who wins. HA!

If I make it to this weekend it should be decidedly less insane and possibly even include a moment or two of peace...maybe, just maybe!

I should so be packing and/or working and/or cleaning right now. Think I will go play with the kids instead. Happy Not Monday!

Welcome to the middle of the week!

I'm bored! Seriously!!!! I am overstimulated and bored...again! Work, homework, housework, yardwork, more workwork, workout, and on and on! Wow, I guess I should say I am boring instead of bored - YIKES! Maybe more entertaining things could be renamed to include work so I can find time to "work" them in - shoppingwork? sexwork? bookreadingwork? moviewatchingwork? Maybe if I submit them to Webster's it will happen - yeah, I'll get right on that!

This weekend is going to be nothing but crazy and I am unprepared. We have eleventeen things to do on Saturday - Heart walk, three birthday parties, two cheer games, two soccer games and getting the house/yard ready for N's party on Sunday and then having N's party on Sunday. I finally ordered his cake and bounce house and now I need to get decorations and decide what we should eat. Since it is late afternoon and well before dinner I am leaning towards no "meal" food and more snacks. You know, the cheaper route! :) He decided on a Dora party. How much do I love that he could care less what others think and isn't afraid to show is Dora love. It is awesome.

D and I decided to start bringing our lunch to save on time and money (mostly $$$) but it is so boring to sit on our lunchroom. Not to mention she is ditching me for three work days...come on! :) Where is the love? G introduced me to an agent today and mentioned we had lots in common. What may you ask? She is getting the big D! Seriously, am I the only person in the world to have gotten divorced? I know that isn't the case - half our company has but for some reason I was singled out as being in the know. I guess I am now the Divorced-Single Mother-UW Manager. Wonder if that will fit on my business card? :) So not my first choice....oh the suggestions. I do so love G and he does nothing with malice so all is forgiven.

On a less whiny note, on our way home from the gym J and I stopped at a video store that is going out of business. I got two seasons of Dexter on DVD. I LOVE that show and now I own it. It's always On Demand but still - this is better! See how easily impresses/distracted I am. Oh, is that something shiny? HA! So easily I forget all the fun we had this summer that wasn't work related. Good think I probably blogged about it and can quit my whining and go read about it all.

Happy Birthday Baby!

My baby is 6! I can hardly believe it. I asked him, begged him to stay 5 and he said "why would I ever want to do that?" :) That kid is so funny. I can remember everything about the day he was born. I told him about it again today and he thought it was great that he was very blue when he came out. I did not find it at all funny! I remember my mom screaming about it and freaking out. The only reason I didn't jump off the table was my sister W was in the room too and she wasn't freaking out (she knew if she did I would have lost it!). The cord was wrapped tightly around baby N's neck and he couldn't breath. Once they got it taken care of he screamed like crazy and pinked right up.

I knew he would be my last. I loved being pregnant and having babies but D and I agreed two healthy boys was plenty. Little did I know we would not be raising our babies together. I know my "age" would allow me to have more but I am most certainly done. I love my boys like crazy and they are enough. BUT, it is going by way too fast. I spent too much time while they were growing up dealing with the "end" of relationships - wasting time on things that aren't worth it. No more of that! This last year has been such an awakening for me.

Today N wanted brownies for his class so I made them last night. Finished just in time to realize E still wasn't ok. Fever all day and just all around blah! We picked N up from school and came home and did some of his homework. Birthday boy picked dinner - homemade cheeseburgers, BBQ chips, root beer and more brownies. Poor E took a couple of bites and is now throwing up again. :( This is when I hate the guilt of being a single working mother. I want to be able to keep him home as long as he needs without wishing he could go to school because I NEED to go to work. I can do some from home but I really need to be in the office. It is a terrible thing to balance the needs of your children and the financial needs of having a job! I hate that he is sick and I hate needing him to get better just as much as I want him too. I am praying HARD that the rest of us do not get it. PLEASE! My parents are still sick so I hate to ask them to come sit with him and PDT is useless to even try. Not to mention E just wants me to sit next to him on the couch ALL of the time or he cries. I have watched a lot of Disney channel today.

I did get to go outside and play Moon Sand with N for a little while. That was his birthday gift today. He loved it. I think he had a great day and bearing any future disasters Sunday will be his little party at our house. Our first party in our new house. :)

My Poor Baby!

E is sick! :( We had H at our house until around 1:00 this morning and all was great. I fell asleep around 2ish and E woke up barfing @ 5:30. I think it was mostly because of a stuffy yucky nose but still! Now he is laying on the couch with a headache. Nana called to come over for the second time and we had to cancel :( Tomorrow is N's birthday and picture day at school...I hope everyone is all better.

N is one of those kids who doesn't change much when he is sick. He does not understand the concept of being still or quiet so he runs around like nothing is out of the ordinary. My poor E is not so lucky (or I should say I'm not so lucky) he is a total man, I mean baby when it comes to being sick. He whines a lot, requires constant contact and personal maid service. His Sprite doesn't taste right, he needs a new pillow, N is "moving". It is going to be a looonnnnggg day at the W's house! No nap in sight.

N is driving his lego car over WallE's back at the moment. I don't know if WallE realizes he isn't getting a massage but is actually being turned into a race track! E is calling....

What just happened?

This last week was NUTS! It started last weekend. I cleaned house, painted walls, tables and the grass (accidentally) and did major yard work. Top that off with taking my ex-husband to the ER!?! Yeah, I still can't wrap my head around that one! Monday we snuggled down in our clean house and slept the day away before our crazy week started.

Tuesday our audit began at work. Lots of people, computers and drama followed. Smack in the middle was Back to School night (fun!) It's odd to use a word like drama when talking about work but that is the best word I can think of. I made for a long week! Thursday was of course the season opener of the NFL and my man was on TV. Not just the sidelines but actually playing. I do so love to watch him play. We had to take the audit team to dinner so I missed the live game. :( I recorded it to watch later and randomly checked the score on my Blackberry. Most of the audit team were male so they thought it hilarious that the one girl in the group was the one checking the score.

D and I decided we should cap the strangeness off with margarita madness on Friday. IT WAS AWESOME! WHY? Well margaritas were had by all but I got carded! It was hilarious! I am WELL over the legal drinking age and I look it. After I ran some errands and picked out N's b-day present. How is my baby a few short days from 6!

I guess in light of the crazy week I didn't realize that Friday was 9/11. I mentioned before how obsessed with that event I was/am. It still makes me cry to think of it. When I got home last night I watched the "As It Happened" special on MSNBC. It's strange to think that I didn't realize it was coming. It made me a little sad to think I almost forgot what a horrible, striking day in our history that was. I feel so sorry for those left to deal with the aftermath of that day. I wonder what it would be like to live in NYC or DC and see the reminder ever day.

Today we went grocery shopping and my friends daughter H is over at our house while they attend the Blink 182 concert here in town. She has the best giggle in the entire world....not to mention she is adorable. After all my hard work last weekend, our house is a mess.

I am officially the oldest living single 32 year old in history!

It's Friday, the audit is over, the Steelers win. I got nothing else!

Gym Tonight?

Ever try to be a good friend even if you hate doing something? You do it because you think the other person likes it? Tuesday's J and I do our normal workout routine and on Thursday's we do a yoga class. I hate yoga! I don't sweat, I don't get the whole "meditation" thing, the room is dark AND I can't talk! Have you met me? :) So tonight we are running late and by the time we get to class it has started. We only where flip flops on yoga day so that meant we really couldn't do anything else so we decided to sign the kids out and just take them to dinner - productive, I know! I'm not sure how it came up but I mentioned to J that I didn't mind doing the class since she liked it but that I hated it! Guess what? SHE DOES TOO! She thought I liked it...it was so funny. So we quit! No more yoga. We will just go back to our normal workout on both days. I am so happy. I can sweat my ass off on the elliptical and weights and listen to my blaringly loud IPOD for an hour. At the end my aggression is usually gone and I have sweated out my issues.

The gym became my outlet while I was getting divorced. I decided I could sit home and bawl my face off or scream and cry but I didn't want the boys to see me like that and I knew I had to be strong for all of us so I hit the gym instead. At that point it was five days a week, it really kept me going. I would be so tired after that I didn't need to cry - I had a lot of anger to work out on. It served it purpose for me. Now I usually just have some every day issues to work out (not to mention my bat wings and back fat are back in full force after baseball season!) and J and I get to hang out and complain about our day for a little while. I go to the gym now because I like it and not because I have to just to deal with life. I know it could have been worse, I could have picked a destructive (like lots of shopping (retail therapy) and margaritas (only when I didn't have the boys) habit to avoid dealing with my feelings but it was still just a crutch and now it isn't! I simply go for me - thankfully, most things in my life are like that now. :)

The boys and S love the kid club so we are all motivated to go. 3 days a week would be better but it's hard with the homework and all. I get some extra exercise cleaning, doing yard work and chasing my dinosaur dog!

I am just so happy to not have to "center my being with the universe" that I could do the happy dance! AND, tomorrow is Friday. I get off early so I get to pick up my babies from school and we get three days to do whatever we want! I have some projects around the house to take care of and I want to get crackin on my book club book. Not to mention a Dexter Season 3 marathon. I must re-watch it before Season 4 starts. I LOVE THAT SHOW! :)

Defeated

That is the best word to describe my day. I was defeated by 8:20 this morning, no doubt about it. I am the so called "manager" of my department and apparently I'm not very good at it. No, I am not fired...yet. So how does one convince someone else to care about their job, care about the jobs of those around them? Explain to them how to "get it"? I have no idea...yep, more defeat! I care about my job, how well I do, how I present myself, how my company looks to others. I don't know any other way to be so I can't relate to those who don't. My department is the money maker for our company. No, we are not the most important but if we don't do our job it directly impacts the rest of the entire organization. If we don't meet our goals we don't need as many people in our department or the other support departments. I really felt the weight of the world on my shoulders today. (I know...so over dramatic but it is what it is.) I had to be the heavy, I had to paint the picture and I don't think I did a very good job. I am now at a total loss. What to do next? I feel like I am letting a lot of people down. D, D2 and G mostly...blah!

On top of the worst day ever? I got nothing but meetings accomplished today (5 in one day) and all next week will be spent in an audit...AGAIN! So here I am preaching "productivity instead of busy work" and I became the biggest offender. That really helped me feel better about the overall situation. Yeah, me!

I did get to have lunch with DC today...WOOHOO! I miss her and can't wait for baby L to be born. She is a great friend to talk with. I got so used to seeing her three times a week it seemed like forever since we got together.

Once the kiddo's get settled in for the night I am taking this pity party to the bathtub with my IPOD and a lovely glass of wine. If I am going to wallow in my self imposed drama I am going to make it as enjoyable as possible. Now, if I come up with a solution or two all the better. Oh yeah, that is totally going to happen. I am actually really glad tomorrow is gym day...I always feel better about anything after I burn some of it out at the gym. GRRR!

Compromise

I have decided that I can totally compromise. If Big Ben decides that living in Pittsburgh and playing football SOMEHOW sounds move fun than moving to sunny Cal to be my baby daddy then I can consider a compromise. I will instead take the drummer from Nickelback! OMG, he is lovely. :) I seem to really have a thing for drummers - I wonder how that came about? Ok, not so much the No Doubt drummer, while very entertaining and an awesome drummer, I find I can't live with the tutu.

Last night I extended my birthday fun an extra day with the Nickelback concert. My sister bought us tickets for our birthdays. We didn't realize that it started so early (on a MONDAY!) so it took a little last minute scrambling and me leaving work early (darn the bad luck) but in the end it was totally worth it. All four bands were really good live. Saving Abel opened first and then Hinder - oh that man's voice. It doesn't seem to fit his appearance at all but I could listen to it forever. Papa Roach followed - GREAT live and then Nickelback. The pyrotechnics were amazing. I don't think I have been to a concert that over the top before. The crazies were out in full force and I even took a video of one on my Blackberry. Too bad it is charging in the other room (why doesn't that battery last very long?). My sister was nice enough to watch the boys too and did so at our house so they could go to bed on time and all that back-to-school jazz. We didn't get home until after midnight and then it takes time to come off that concert high. Needless to say, my 5:30 alarm came way too soon! Of course that meant I bailed on the gym tonight...but Thursday is another chance and I am sure J also can't wait for another rousing yoga class.

Sunday's circus was so much fun. We had great seats and the boys and I loved it. E loved the cannon and the dog show. N couldn't pick a favorite but did really like the dogs too. I think the circus was a great way to spend my birthday. I did not however get any cotton candy. I know - shocking. IT WAS $12 - ARE YOU KIDDING ME?! After we grabbed some lunch and ran a couple of errands before heading over to have YUMMY b-day dinner with A and the fam. A cooked the menu I requested and made me cupcakes and all the kids made me presents. They were so adorable. T made me a three dimensional sack puppet (complete with breasts), A made me a card and H made me LOTS of things and included a treasure hunt to go with it. It was so special. Nana and Papa gave me a Starbucks card (and so did D, M and my sister - I must be so predictable.). You can never have too much pre-paid Starbucks!

Today is WallE's 2nd birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY WALLE! I went on the West Coast Mastiff rescue site today and they have so many large breed dogs that need homes. Doesn't everyone want a WallE of their own? I would take them all if I could.

Nana (otherwise known as A's mom) said she didn't understand why people blog. A mentioned she only reads it to see if I say nice things about her. A - insert lots of nice things...ha! I don't write it for others to read, I like it when people read it and sometimes comment but I write it for me to read and remember all the really good and the not so great. I hope I can look back and laugh more than I cry. I want to read it one day and remember how funny I thought something the kids said or how lucky I was to get to spend the day with "insert name". That's how I roll! :)