One time, at band camp...

For the past few days I have been reminded of memories. I don't usually dwell on the past or try to bring up old times; it's just not what I do. But this week, one crazy memory turned into another crazy memory and then every time I turned around something would remind me of a "once before", or someone was talking about their "once before". It's weird. It’s like when you buy a bright orange Dodge Challenger, because it's super cool and not many people in town have one, and then once you get it home suddenly four of your neighbors have one...it's like that. Memories are surrounding me this week.

It's odd to me the things I remember so vividly vs. the things I should remember but can't.

Like for instance:

When I was kid (side note: when I tell something from back-in-the-day, I always want to start my story off with, "One time, at band camp". Does everyone do that, or is it just me?) most of my memories where crazy fun stuff that almost always were at the hand of my sister. Like when she spit on a cricket and it jumped on her nose. It attached itself to her nose and wouldn't let go. She ran in circles screaming and swatting at it to try to get it off. Of course, I was laughing too hard to even think about helping her and besides where would the fun be in that? To do this day, she freaks out around bugs... insanely funny! Ooohh, I, also, remember the first time I got a nose bleed. A bunch of neighborhood kids and I were playing hide-and-seek in the dark and I ran smack dab into a tree. I can remember it like it was yesterday.

I, also, remember my first full-on crush. Matthew Wells, 3rd grade. He was beautiful, just beautiful. Every day during recess while playing four square, I would profess my undying love to him. I would tell him, "Matthew, you know I really want you to be my boyfriend" and he would just shake his head and say, "I know you do". He never would be my boyfriend. I think I was to forward for him. I still crushed on him for years...in fact, I think I still have a crush on him.

Of course, I remember tons of fun things from high school, but I can't remember things like prom or graduation (and no, it's not because of alcohol). I remember going to see the Janet Jackson concert with my bff, Joyann and her mom. Her mom was an algebra teacher at our high school. Her classes took on more of the "serious" vibe, so it was pretty awesome to go back to school and tell everyone that I danced it up with Mrs. Schalk at the Janet Jackson concert.

My years spent after high school are what I can't remember the most, and that bothers me. I'm sure there's good stuff to be remembered, but for reasons unknown to me I can't seem to draw them out. I know there was a "first love" and "first real heartbreak" during those years, but since both occurred within the same relationship, it sorda puts a damper on those memories. I do remember buying my first brand new car (not used) all by myself...that was cool and seemed like a very "grown-up" thing to do.

Then there are the memories of my wedding and the birth of my kids — those things are still very clear in my mind. I can't remember how much my kids weighed or their inches in length when they were born, my husband can, but I can't. I, also, can't remember the exact age they were when they walked. But, I can remember the first time each one had their first "bleeding" boo-boo and every stitch, sprain, and broken bone they ever had. Needless to say, those last three mentioned were all Jase.

It's fun to remember things from the past and to be able to share my "One time, at band camp" stories with people. I need to do a better job of remembering the things with my kiddos. Those are priceless and I would love to be able to share those band camp stories with them when they grow up. Maybe I will start keeping a memory journal.

bugs, bugs and more bugs

The theme of my day today was most definitely.... BUGS!!! I have been haunted by them all day in many different ways. It's not that I really mind bugs (my sister HATES bugs - funny story for another time), but today was just too much.

It all started around 1:00 a.m. when I heard my dog, Jack, up wandering around. He's pretty old and ALWAYS sleeps through the night, so the sound of the little bell on his collar woke me instantly. As I was looking for him, I noticed a horrible smell coming from our entry way. Since this area is next to Sophie's room, I immediately thought she had a massive poop explosion...boy, was I wrong. Apparently, Jack had eaten a colossal amount of june bugs to which made him very sick. His "sickness" was all over my hardwood floors, and man, it was horrible. Thirty-five paper towels and a splash of Pine-Sol later it was all cleaned up and all was good again.

I had decided to put Jack in the laundry room for the rest of the night...just in case. This turned out to be the best decision EVER, because when I woke this morning the entire house reeked of the "sickness"! He had gotten sick, what appeared to be, many times over in the laundry room...massive, disgusting, funky stank...yuuucckk. While cleaning it I dry heaved and almost lost it twice. Jase was heaving, too, but for some reason he stuck around to watch (must be a boy thing), and Bryce walked around holding her nose all morning. Sophie was watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, so she could care less about the chaos in the other room. I used an entire roll of paper towels, a sink full of Pine-Sol water, and mopped it twice to finally get it cleaned. However, the stank lingered. I had to keep the windows & doors open all day and burn my scentsy in every room to try to kill the funky stank. The house still reeks of funky stank, but eventually, all will be good again.

Since we don't have screens on our doors, when the doors are open, I use baby gates to keep the kids in and the critters out. Baby gates work well on kids and critters, but critters that fly...not so much. Which brings me to my second "bug attack"...grasshoppers! Two of those little suckers jumped right over the baby gate and into the living room, completely freaking Sophie out. It took awhile but I finally got them back outside and all was good again.

So far, my last "bug encounter" was when it was time to pick Jase up from school. This morning the "stank" from the massive attack on the laundry room, which opens to the garage, had made it's way into my car - at least to my nose it had. I left the windows down and parked it in the drive-way to let it air out. Getting in the car to go get Jase, I saw that in my car was a another flipping grasshopper. I spent a few minutes looking like a crazy person trying to shoo the dang thing out. Finally it worked, and all was good again.

Told ya....today was all about the bugs!

P.S. Bryce, who hates her name and is constantly re-naming herself, declared today that her new name would be Charlotte. As in, Charlotte's Web, the movie that has been playing in our car for the past 2 months. Charlotte was a spider...and there's another bug.

Zombies, Shoes and Carseats

I'm not a morning person. I wasn't a morning person as a kid. I wasn't a morning person as a teenager. I'm not a morning person as an adult, and I'm DEFINATELY not a morning person as a MOM.

I would say I'm more of a grumpy, don't talk to me, Zombie kinda morning person. It sucks for my kids because I'm grumpy, but since I'm in full-on Zombie mode they could pretty much get by with anything and I wouldn't notice...which is actually pretty AWESOME for them!

Case in point, as a walking Zombie this morning:

• I barely noticed when I woke Jase for school that he had slept in his school clothes last night. "So I can be the first one at school today", was his reasoning for this. Apparently, he overlooked the fact that his mom was in Zombie mode, thus, doing things at a Zombie pace. Much to his disappointment, he arrived at school with just minutes to spare. (sidenote: I wouldn't be surprised if he attempts the whole sleeping in his clothes thing again tomorrow)
• Also, it wasn't until Bryce was crying in pain that I realized I was cramming her feet into Sophie's shoes. My quick fix to this was to let her go barefoot. In her true Diva fashion, barefoot was unacceptable. Instead we dug her shoes out of the dirty clothes hamper (don't ask, I didn't) and this time the glass slipper fit perfectly.
• The Zombie moment I'm troubled with the most, is when we were all in the car and driving down the driveway.  The kids were in the backseat giggling profusely. When I turned to the backseat to see what was so funny... apparently, I had forgotten to put Sophie in her carseat. (can you say, Zombie?) It wasn't that bad, it's not like I forgot to put her in the car. Jase and Bryce thought this was a great funny mom moment, and Sophie probably thought she had pulled off the greatest sneak of all time.

Can a not-morning person ever become a morning person? You tell me.

blank paper as the new wall decor?

I spend so much of my day talking to myself, therefore; in a desperate effort to not feel like a crazy person, I have decided to channel my ramblings into a blog for the whole world to hear. Well, at least what few I can get to read it anyway.

My posts will mostly be about the crazy things my kids do and, on the rare occasion they actually act sane that day, I may post about the crazy things I did as a kid (probably more of what my sister did - she was the crazy one) AND since I tend to get super excited or put off by lots of things I will most likely post about those, as well. Oh yeah, also, all the things that I think are truely AWESOME and deserve some recognition. (see I'm rambling)  Basically, I plan to entertain you with my crazy world!!

So first things first, introduction to my kids:

• Jase - boy, 7 years old:  aka, "the destroyer". Most of the horror stories will most likely be about him. He loves to get into things he's not supposed to and gets a kick out of tearing things apart. He keeps me on my toes and I swear ages me in dog years.
• Bryce - girl, 5 years old: aka, "bossy flossy". Super sweet and says some of the funniest things EVER. She's quite the Diva and extremely bossy. Talking is her favorite pass-time and I find myself channeling my mother when I beg her for 5 minutes of "no talking" time.
• Sophie - girl, 2 years old: aka, "monkey". She's a mini-Jase but, also, is very funny and very snugglie & lovie. Being sneaky is her favorite game to play and she has already mastered the "oh man" response when she finds herself busted.

 Today was a normal Monday - I like to refer to it as "Potty Training & Laundry Day" since this is the day to which the entire day is dedicated to getting the week's laundry done and potty training Sophie. She basically runs around in nothing but a pull-up all day, pees in the potty a couple of times and the other million times in the pull-up...it's a work in progress.

My Jase moment today came at 7:00 a.m. when I went to his room to wake him for school. I found that at some point last night he had taken ALL the pictures, that were hanging on his walls, down. He re-used the nails to hang pieces of blank notebook paper on his walls. I'm not sure why he decided to "re-decorate" his room in blank paper....maybe, future abstract artist? Who knows. As for now, I have removed the blank paper and re-hung the original Lighten McQueen & football pictures. I think the originals pull the room together much better.

That's pretty much all the excitement of my day and I really want to go watch tonight's episode of  Mike & Molly (truely the funniest show on tv)...so I think I will end my post here.

Thanks for listening!