Oma's in town!

Oma (Dutch for Grandma) came all the way from Canada to visit us!
We have been having gorgeous weather and some good times.
The kids are well again and much happier. So is Mom.

I bought the kids a little playhouse for the backyard and they've been having a blast!



I know you can't hardly see him he is so camoflauged, but that's Holden on the couch. My big 8 month old boy! He loves to talk and play. He can feed himself finger foods and loves to eat. And he is trying trying to get his butt off the floor so he can crawl.


And today Sophie was "organizing" all of Oma's toiletries. Oma/Trudy and I were busy talking and looking at clothes. Meanwhile Sophie was very busy too. Lipsticks, lotions, earplugs, tissues, makeups, pantyliners, q-tips, bandaids, etc, etc. Her day in Heaven... dumped, organized, opened, sorted, shoved in drawers, squeezed, put in purses, taken back out, fingered, stuck in ears, squirted, hidden again...
...and then we turned around to see the masterpiece she created.

Brilliant.

I'm glad to know that Going Crazy is still cool

Thank you all for letting me know that I'm not the only one that goes crazy sometimes and it's even normal!
Weird thing is, today was about the exact opposite of what the last few weeks have been like.
Kids were well enough to go to their morning preschool, otherwise known as give-mommy-a break-time.
They both took long naps AT THE SAME TIME.
Rock on.
We had an entire dinner without whining or crying.
I can't even remember the last time that happened.

Hmmm, now I'm wondering if this is all too good to be true.

Oh well. Amen for today!

My White Trash Baby

My White Trash Baby
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

What else can I say...
no shirt, hanging out in underwear, pot belly sticking out, busted lip, crazy hair, red swollen eyes

A Big Fat Rant

So if you don't want to hear my bitching and whining then change the channel now.

It has been a horrible day. It has been a horrible three weeks. All I hear everyday is crying. Crying crying crying. Whining whining whining. From both of the children. They are both sick with colds that they've had on and off for the last three weeks. They both wake up at the crack of dawn these days since the stupid time change. I am crabby tired and FED UP with them everyday. But on top of that I feel horrible for even feeling that way.
Somedays (most days) I feel like shaking them and screaming "SHUT UP AND LEAVE MOMMY ALONE!" And then I cry because I don't want to feel like that. It's my choice to stay home with them and what kind of mother am I if I can't stand to be around them?!?
Somedays Sophie refuses to take a nap and she NEEDS a nap. Around 4:30-5:00 it is Melt Down City for her. Constant crying and whining. Dwayne and I keep checking our watches and ask each other "How early is too early to put her too bed?"
We try and hold out til at least 7.
Holden's really been a nightmare. He screams. Screams screams screams if you dare put him down for 6 seconds. But Holden I have to brush my teeth and I can't do that or go poop, or put on my shoes, or get dressed, or make my sandwich while I'm holding you. Why can't you understand that and just stop screaming!?!!
I wish I could keep it together but after hearing his screaming and crying for so long it grates on my nerves and I start to hate him.
And then I hate myself for even thinking that.

Of course I love them both.
But when is it going to get better around here? When are my nice children coming back?!?
I feel stretched out and worn thin and I don't like the mother I am when I feel this way.
Do other people's children act this way?

I hate those mothers that portray motherhood as a piece of cake. The ones that say they have easy babies, the ones with babies that never had problems sleeping, never screamed and cried for hours on end, and the ones that say they would like to have four more! What planet do they come from?? I hate those mothers and they make me feel like an incompetent parent.

So you know what would make me feel better?
Tell me your awful children stories. Tell me how much your children scream, cry, whine, don't sleep, and sometimes you just want to bang your head against the wall.
That would make me feel a whole lot better.

Oh oh oh, who's that kid with the Oreo cookie?

Oreo face
Originally uploaded by lucky lum.

Nothin cuter than an Oreo face

As if you needed another reason to love Target

Look at these cute cute humidifiers we got for the kids' rooms!


Froggie for Sophie's room


And Pin Pin for Holden.

I swear we have been passing around this cold/virus thingy for the last two-three weeks. Someone gets better, then the next person gets sick, and the next one, by the time they are feeling better the first person who got it is sick all over again.
Will it ever go away or will we just continue to pass it around and around like a merry-go-round?

Good Things

Good Things:
This wine...

...after this kind of day

(they look they same don't they?)

Back to good things...
Air conditioning, sweet love from Dwayne, getting your Christmas shopping done early, "A Million Little Pieces", sleeping children, iTunes, and the yummy dinner I made tonight.

It's the Great Outdoors Way Back Wednesday

If you've lived in Texas than you know how beautiful the Spring can be with miles and miles of wildflowers...fields and fields of bright blues, purples, pinks, whites, yellows, oranges, reds,...it is quite a magnificent sight!

This was my first spring experiencing the beautiful bluebonnet phenomenon. (1995)

As I have learned the tradition here is that you take your kids and throw them in the bluebonnets on the side of the road and take their picture every year.

This little stop in the bluebonnets was on the way back from a day at Enchanted Rock. We went hiking, rock climbing, and repelling. And here I am going down the side of a big rock.

And that my friends is a wonderful Texas Spring Day in the great outdoors!

Oh but I'm not done there.
Here's my Dwayne out four-wheeling in his Land Rover. (1999)

What's funny is that he used to go up these big hills for the fantastic views of Austin quite often. Little did he know 4 years later we'd own a house just on the other side of this big hill!

Happy Wednesday ya'll!

Did you know it's still hot here?

Today and for the last few days it's been high temp of 87 degrees or so. And our downstairs AC went out Friday evening. AND we can't open the windows in the kitchen to get a cross breeze because they have no screens. So it's more like 90 degres in the house. ARGH!!! I don't like it. It's hot and it's November and it shouldn't be this hot still in November. And the AC guy is supposed to be here BETWEEN 12 AND 8. 12 and 8?!?! Come on! I don't want to wait in this oven for 8 hours!
Now on the positive side, at least it didn't happen in the middle of summer.

I have nothing else nice or funny to say until my AC is fixed.

This might be the day Mom loses it

Ever since this bloody time change, my children have been waking up at 6AM. 6AM!
That's just entirely too early for me.
We have tried keeping their cranky, whiny, crying butts up later (that's a lot of fun let me tell you), but they still awoke at 6AM. So then we tried the sleep begets sleep theory and put them to bed earlier. Still 6AM awakening.
But this morning folks we had a change.
An unpleasant surprise at 5:20AM...
Sophie crying.
I told Dwayne we're not getting her. She's gotta learn to sleep in longer and we should stop getting her every morning.
We listened to her screaming for 5 minutes.
"Daaaaaadddddddyyyyyy! Daaaaaaddddyyyyyy!" over and over and over.
"Why can't she call your name?" Dwayne says
The Daddy theme song went on for another 5 minutes.
Then we hear, "Daaaadddyyy, I have big poo poo!"
Great. Now we have to go get her.
She was changed and came to our bed. At that point Holden had woken up also and was in our bed.
No one went back to sleep.

And so folks, I am asking for your help.
How how how can I get these kids to sleep in longer??!!??
I know for starters Dwayne and I need to go to bed earlier so we can at least get more sleep. But any ideas would greatly be appreciated!

Like, it's totally way back Wednesday!

The Kept Woman wanted us to drag out some pictures we've been dying to show as we've been rifling through our photos each week searching for our Way Back Wednesday digs.
I didn't have any I was particularly dying to show, but I have pulled out some of the classics.

I'll start with this one I found of Dwayner and I back in the dating days. I believe this was one of those times we were in the "off" position of our ongoing on-again-off-again dating but still friends (who do it sometimes) relationship.
We look gorgeous after a night of drinking... (but look, Dwayne has HAIR!)


And I couldn't pass this one up of cutie little Dwayne.

He was all dressed up (who picked out those clothes?!?) to be the ring bearer for his Uncle Bill's wedding. You can tell he was ecstatic about it.

Must of had something on my mind.


And for the grande finale...

It's me! Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow... If I'm in a bar and Janis comes on, you better believe I'll be jumpin up and belting out "Piece of My Heart" till I get kicked out!