My Day Off

I don't get many days off at the High School, primarily because I am off all summer and get the regularly scheduled days off the teachers get. I had today off since the boys are home on break. I had big thoughts of a day filled with boys and fun and laughter.

Here's what really happened.

*Daughter came home sick because her allergies are kicking in and she is just miserable. She looks miserable, acts miserable, you get the idea. I do feel for her. Too early in the season to feel this crappy.

*Took the boys shoe shopping as Middle child is ridiculously hard on his shoes (on the upside, it is because he is outside all the time). Usually Husband takes care of this task but again, I was feeling adventurous and was up for the task. With Youngest with DS in hand to keep him busy, we headed out. Drama ensued: nothing in his size, not the color he wants, too expensive, blah blah blah. Come on, it's just shoes!! Lots of tearing up on his part and we ended up going to three places before we found something he could "live with". Thank you, Kohl's!

*Next stop: grocery store. I generally don't bring them as it costs me more money and I like to go alone. They were doing well and I did let them pick out a treat because they were hanging in there and being silly. I parked them by the school supplies while I used the restroom. I come out, two minutes later, to hear Youngest screaming in pain. WTF?? I thought to myself. He managed to get his foot STUCK in the bottom of the cart. And at a really unnatural angle. Middle child was trying to get his foot out but Youngest kept screaming. I was able to get his shoe off and YANK his foot out but it was painful for all of us (as a side note: there were THREE employees not 2 feet away that did not bother to help or see what was wrong. You people suck.) He managed to limp his way thru the rest of the trip and declared "I don't want to do THAT again".

Me neither.

I go back to work tomorrow. Thank goodness!!

Cat

Trimming the Trim

Hi gang!
I am knee deep into week two out of four weeks of Spring Break. Daughter had a glorious week last week with weather and having fun with her friends. Week two has started out well with the boys: started painting the white trim (total pain in the butt but boy oh boy it looks great!), got the back forty mowed (thanks to hubby and middle child) and I took the boys to see The Lorax today. Nice afternoon with my two favorite boys. I work again tomorrow, more laundry and more painting, but that's ok. It is progress.

Next week is MY week off. And guess what?? My folks will be here the whole EIGHT days I am off. I was really looking forward to sleeping, working out and painting: at my leisure. My parents are pretty low key, but 8 days gets a little high maintenance. They are going to help me paint, take me to lunch, and we will spend some time doing stuff we don't get to do when the kids are home. I know it will be ok, but I was really looking forward to some time to myself. I suppose that's what summer is for??

Speaking of projects: We have a wooden playset in our backyard that looks like

It is about 7 years old, riddled with splinters, the swingset seats are about to give out and the monkey bars are rusting away. I would love to tear down the swingset part and build a bigger deck off the covered part. Something that the kids could spend the night on. Like a raised deck for the kids.

Or I would like to tear the whole thing down and be done with it.

Husband wants to keep the unsafe shelter. Hoarder.

My kids have spent the last couple years in the court playing but I see them taking a turn to a more enclosed space. Any ideas on fun stuff to put in the back yard for 8-14 year olds?  It is nice to have them enclosed and easy to watch.

I have been doing well with my 10 week/10 lb challenge. It is down to 9 weeks/9lbs and I am on track. I do find I do NOT move as much when I am home as I do at work. Summer will be a challenge.

I have some fun things coming up and I can't wait to tell you about them.

Thanks for reading!

Cat

My NEW kitchen favorite

I think by now we all now how much I like/love my kitchen gadgets. My $10 waffle maker has made more waffles in the short period of time I have had it than I think was ever intended.

Enter my new love..

Let me preface this purchase with a little frying pan history: every frying pan/skillet I own is warped (much like it's owner). One side is higher than the other so I either have to carefully wedge something under the low end or weigh down the high end. This becomes perilous since I am dealing with a hot stove.

That's my story.

 My boss came in to work today telling me that Kroger had a great deal on this griddle: it was on sale for $20 and you got a free box of Kroger waffle/pancake mix, free Kroger breakfast sausage, and free Kroger syrup. I was hesitant because I don't have a lot of storage space in my kitchen and I was worried if I stored it in the basement, it would never get used. Plus, I didn't really need one. But I went and checked it out and realized for as much as we have breakfast for breakfast and dinner, it may be a good investment. Like my lover, the waffle maker.

Boy oh boy did I have fun with my griddle at dinner!! I made two kinds of pancakes, toast (oh yes, you can toast bread on it), bacon, sausage, and kept warm some hash browns I made. I am able to make a TON of food on it at one time and that is really helpful when you have a family that eats a ton. I plan on doing eggs, grilled cheese, quesadillas, maybe even burgers and chicken.

Kitchen gadgets make me happy.

So does this weather. I am sitting on my front porch watching the kids play, enjoying how gorgeous it is out here. Rain coming, but that's ok. Hoping to get the yard mowed this weekend and start painting the trim tomorrow night (I bought all the supplies. Yay me!!)

Tonight the Buckeyes play late and the Bobcats play at a more reasonable time tomorrow. Hoping to have the game on and get some painting done at the same time.

I hope things are well for all of you. Before we know it, summer will be upon us. And I must say, I can't wait.

I bid you peace.

Cat

Dear God.....

God, I know you like football as you gave us The Bears and Tim Tebow. Please do what's best for everyone and let the Bear's get Tebow.

Amen.


On another HGTV note: All of today's shows were about renting. This last one I am watching is making me chuckle for two reasons: this couple is worried that a 900 square foot apartment is NOT big enough for their cat. And two: being a half hour away from his parent's is too far away. I am 12 hours from my parents and I think that is too close sometimes.

Hope you all are doing well. Gorgeous week here again. And you will all be happy to know I am FINALLY buying trim paint to get on the white trim in the house. Nothing like a deadline of my folks coming for Easter to get my butt in gear. I work well under pressure.

Be well my friends.

Cat

I survived the (no) sleepover weekend!

I am happy to report that we all survived the sleepover weekend. The girls were asleep Friday night by 11pm, but the boys sleepover was a different story. They went to bed at 5am Sunday morning, only because I made them. Then I got to gleefully get them up at 9:30am. Sometimes being a parent is a little bit of evil fun.

Been watching a lot of HGTV lately in an effort to NOT watch Foodnetwork. I find House Hunters and Property Virgins particularly entertaining. Today on Property Virgins, a married couple with small kids were looking for their first home in the Bronx. On their wish list was a pool. Huh? Surely he meant a pool table? Who would want a pool while living out East? Well this dude did. And I was surprised by how many homes they saw with an above ground pool. They settled on one without the pool, good move.

I have about 10 weeks left of my work schedule. I am going to lose 10 lbs in 10 weeks. I have several friends on board and that would get us in great shape for the summer. My boss and co-worker are on board, too, so that helps. Husband is on board, too. I am feeling good about this.

By the way, Go Bobcats!!

Stay well my friends.

Cat

Soo..not much has been going on..

It is nice to report that there has not much going on over here. The weather is fantastic and it is so nice to be outside walking, cleaning up the yard a little, and watching the kids play.

I don't eat out a lot: primarily because I am cheap, the food never tastes as good as I think it will, and eating out is how I packed on a lot of weight. However, every now and then Husband and I go to lunch together. A nice little day time date for us. Today we went to Red Robin. I really can't say this about many places I have eaten, but their burgers can bring me to tears! I could not stop making yummy noises the whole time I was eating. I made the mistake of looking up the nutritional info on what I had for lunch. But, I got over the staggering numbers quickly when I thought back to my yummy burger. I won't need to eat for days.

This nice weather (and spending way too much time on Pinterest) is giving me the itch to work on the house and yard.  I have some good ideas for the front porch and Husband and I agreed we need a fire pit in the backyard. We are finally at a point where we can get back to working on the house and yard without worrying about what the kids are doing. And they can even help with some of the projects.

There is not much time left before school is out for the summer. I have set a goal for myself to lose 10 lbs before school is out. I am getting back into the bad habit of eating at work and I need to start packing my lunch so I am not killing it on the breaded chicken patties. Swimsuit is coming too fast to dilly dally anymore.

Middle child will be 10 on Sunday. Stop and wish him a Happy Birthday if you see him. I am remaining positive about him turning a year older instead of letting it get me down.

Speaking of Middle Child: he, Husband and my work Husband are ALL about March Madness. Sigh. I really don't care much past my OU Bobcats being in it but we all did brackets. Daughter and I are not doing well and that's ok. Middle Child and Husband are doing well so far, but it is still early. I will be glad when it is over.

Youngest seems to be doing well with his vitamins. I added E to the mix as it is supposed to help with the clumsiness. We just started that this week so I am not sure how long it will be until we see any difference, if we will see any difference. Fingers crossed.

Daughter did not make the softball team but they offered her the Team Manager position and she said yes. She seems to be enjoying it so far.

So all is well over here. I hope you are doing well and are having the same nice weather we are. I am not foolish enough to think it will last until summer but I will enjoy it as much as I can while we have it!!

Cat

Babies, zoo and the plants

Hi gang! I hope you are fortunate enough to live in the midwest and was able to enjoy the freakishly nice weekend we just had. I am happy to report that a lot of cleaning happened in this house as did going thru Daughter's clothing.  We did manage to sneak some fun into our weekend too.

(But first I need to digress a moment...every now and then I have these incredibly strong pangs of "we should have had one more child". The pangs are happening less the older I get but every now and then, I really wish we had just one more. Now, both neighbors on either side of me have multiple kids: the youngest of each set is either about 7 months and the other one is just about 15 months. I know they are calling me a crack head right now for wishing we had a small one in the house. Clearly I am so far removed from the sleeplessness nights and the spitup that I am not thinking like a rational person.)

Back to my story. We picked up Daughter's friend on Sat and we all went to the zoo. It was a beautiful day, though a tiny bit chilly, but the zoo is one of my all time favorite places, so chilly or not, I was loving it! Plus, it is always nice to do family stuff. I must admit that I gooed and gaaaed at all the babies in strollers and front/back packs. They were so cute with their hats and Baby Uggs (seriously though, that is just a stupid waste of cash). We headed to the Aquarium part of the zoo and after about the 9th frazzled mom/dad that ran into me with their stroller, I was over the baby thing. I was over packing luggage for an afternoon at the zoo, over the sippy cups, over the bottles. As Husband and I sat on the wall and watched all four (ok, I know only three are mine but I treat everyone else's kid as one of mine) of our kids quietly sit on the ground watching the fish, laughing with each other and just being the kids they are, I thought 'Wow. We have finally made it". I am not clear on what "it" is exactly, but at that moment, I was there.

Sunday afternoon, Daughter and I ran some errands and she patiently went with me on my search for plants for my kitchen window sill. I really wanted some fun succulents and was able to find some at our Lowe's store (note to local people, The Scioto Darby creek nursery does not carry many house plants or succulents. The nice lady there told me to go to Lowe's). Then I wanted to find something unusual to put them in. A trip to our New Uses store proved very helpful. Daughter picked out a pair of blue glass balls (insert joke here, as she and I did!) that are candle holders, weigh about 5 lbs a piece, but were cool. And cheap. Here is the final product:

I am really happy with how they look and can't wait to find some more cool containers to put more plants in. Spring is in the air...

Hope you guys are doing well!!

Cat

The flight of the Egg

Middle Child had his Science Olympiad this afternoon. He and his teammate's task were to drop an egg from 30 feet up while: hitting a target, having long hang time, and not cracking the egg. Let me state for the record that I am just thrilled that he wanted to so something academic outside of the classroom.

A small crowd of parents gathered to watch their kids and mine was last to go. It was simple construction of a dixie cup, string, and three plastic grocery bags. There were rules to the whole thing but I won't bore you with them.

I thought Middle Child and his teammate did well. When the winners were announced (only first and second place go on the "regionals"), Middle Child was not in the mix. Ok, we thought, that's ok. The two GIRL teams that won had some really cool designs. But Middle Child made the mistake of looking at the scoring: his team was 1/2 a point away from second place. He was devastated, took one look and me and started crying. I tried to help him hold it together in front of his school mates but he buried his head in my shoulder for a bit.

Youngest assured Middle that we still love him no matter how he placed and that our family was much better than any Egg Drop competition.

When we got home, Middle Child smiled at me and told me he had fun with the project.

I live for these moments.

Cat

Progress Report

It seems that all of my research, badgering my friends, and trying different things have finally paid off for Youngest. Seems his new vitamin regimen along with a less processed food diet is finally working. He is MUCH calmer, can focus better, and argues much less. He still has his moments but they are few and far between. The last piece of the puzzle I have to add is some liquid Vitamin E. That is supposed to greatly help with his "clumziness". Will be getting some on the next grocery trip.

It seems my persistence has finally paid off. I am not foolish enough to think that this is the be all end all of solutions for him, but it gives me hope that the more I research, the more help I can be to him.

And we all know our Family Motto is "Never Give Up".

Persist on, readers!!

Cat

Math

I hate math. Other than the basics, I suck at math and have my entire life.

This poses a problem when Daughter brings home homework that looks like this:

WHY????? Why does anyone, other than the upcoming physicists, need to know this??? I tried to help her as best I could (which involved me telling her I think there are rainbows and unicorns involved in finding out what X is. Oh and sprinkles, too). We even watched a tutorial given by a woman that I am fairly sure lives alone with a lot of cats. Still, we couldn't figure it out. She is still working on it, getting more frustrated by the minute.

This was the second math nightmare of the day. Middle child came home with math homework involving adding fractions with different denominators. I am fairly sure he saw the fear in my eyes. Thankfully, there was an example on his paper and some of it came back to me. At least I was able to help one of my kids tonight.

I have been walking with my Lunchlady Man after work this week. We don't walk fast but at least I am moving more than I have been. Still doing weights, too.

Let's hope we all get a break from Math tomorrow. What are the odds of that? 4X+25-6t= Not likely.

Have a good evening!

Cat

Hiatus

Hi gang!
I am sorry I have been absent from my blog the last couple days. Sick kids and three kids in three different school districts is taking it's toll on me and my gas mileage. Things are going well but I am trying to figure out how I can make my "I am doing my best" into "that's the best I can do". I feel I am falling short.

On a funny note, I went to get my haircut this weekend. I am really impulsive when it comes to this and this is a good example. I called my usual place and they had a 45 minute wait. I called a place I never tried and surprise!! There was no wait. Normally, I would go to my usual and wait but I needed to get out of the house and went to the other place.

I got a hair cut at the other place and while it was just an ok cut, the whole experience sucked. You know you are in trouble when the gal cutting your hair asks " Do you curl your bangs?". On lord, we are back in the 80's.

I am trying to stay on the bright side and walked with my two co-workers today. I have another week of Daughter doing softball and the boys of having stuff at school. I am frazzled by trying to be every thing to every one.

We persist, right??

Cat

Yowza, what a week!

I am happy to report that after three and a half days home, Youngest finally went back to school today! He made it thru the day but came home really tired and not at all hungry. Hopefully he will get a good night's sleep and feel even better tomorrow.

Daughter has had softball conditioning all week this week and last week. She cracks me up about all the work she has to do. "Why do we have to run so much?" "Why do we have to practice so much catching"? Umm...you are trying out for a school sport, it is a lot of work. This is the same kid that declared she wanted to join the High School swim team in the fall. My Lunchlady Man laughed when I told him and asked "She knows Swim team ISN'T just laying by the pool, right??". I think after this softball experience, she will change her High School sports goals. I am just excited that I get to get my Crazy Sports Mom on with the Middle school set. My Ex is pretty reserved so it will be fun to be the nutso parent on the sideline. Throw Husband into that mix and I am sure we will be ban from her games :)

Middle Child turns 10 in about two weeks. I am trying to keep my positive mind set and not get all sad and weepy when it is his birthday. Even though he is heading into double digits, even though that means I only have one kid left in single digits...trying to keep positive. Middle child has changed a lot this year and I have to say I am really proud of the boy/young man he is. He and Husband worked our church Fish Fry last week and he made $10 in tips. Without being prompted, he donated all the money back to the church. Wow, weepy moment for me. They are working it again tonight and I have no doubt he did a great job.

Husband and I are doing well with our workouts and trying to eat well. He is a snacker and I try not to be so I get a little irritated when I hear him in the pantry all the time. "Get out of there!!" is yelled quite a bit in the evenings.

For my ladies: question: short hair or long (right now my hair is the longest it has been in awhile, debating about a trim or drastic cut), and underwire or not for a bra. Time to get a correct size, tired of shifting myself around all the time!

My boss made some Weight Watchers soup at home last weekend. She gave me a container so I wouldn't have to cook tonight since I have been sick most of the week, too. She is an awesome boss. Roughly here are the ingredients: cabbage, carrots, celery, onions, zucchini, a couple cups of beef stock and a can of tomatoes. I don't know what kind of spices she put into it but it had a mild heat. It was AWESOME!! I will get the recipe and be sure to make it. It would be really good with shrimp in it, too.

Thankfully we have nothing planned for this weekend. More laundry and cleaning involved, but that's ok. It will be nice to get things back to "normal". Have a good weekend!!

Cat