• Gotta Get Goal #1 - I want, no need, to find my passion/talent. I know, all of you are screaming at your screen "COMEDY GIRL, thats your talent!" and to that I say, "yeah, I know, but it just don't pay" - ;-) j/k, mostly. Really though, I would love to find and cultivate what I am truly good at. Sure, I can make a mean Peach Upsidedown Cake, clean a stank butt, get myself and four kids out the door to school in less than an hour, oh AND make MILLIONS of people laugh every day (potentially - YOU DONT KNOW!). But at some point I will have to enter back into the work force and it would be nice to do something I LIKE, not just something to pay the bills.

• Go-Go Goal #2 - Take more time for myself. Too many of us mama's end up sacrificing our selves "for the sake of the kids" and that ends up being bad for us and inturn, bad for them. If we are not happy with ourselves, how can we make anyone else happy? I need time to be myself, to remember what makes me me. And that's not just good for me, its good for my marriage too. If I can't remember me, how will my husband? My kids need for DH and I to have a happy and strong marriage, after all they have been through they need to know that this family is something they can count on. They need to be able to look to us as what a healthy marriage and relationship should be. Not that any relationship is without its problems, but they need to see how you work things out, how you deal with problems, and how you treat the people you love - and mostly - how the people you love SHOULD treat you. We moms can't allow our lives to stop completely when we have kids, what happens when they leave? If we have raised them correctly they will go off into the world and make a life for themselves - then what do WE do?

• Gotta Go Goal #3 - Teach myself (hopefully DH too ;-) to handle stress a little better. I keep thinking "wow, things have been so stressful lately - I'll *instert activity here* later." But LIFE is stressful, something is always happening, I can't keep thinking I'll deal with things when life has calmed down, cause it probably won't - and then what? Like my goal #4 -

• Getta Great Goal #4 - Live, and eat, healthier. To successfully lose weight, you can't diet, you have to really change your life. At least if you expect to keep the weight off. Exercise can't be something I look at like a chore or a punishment. I have sooooo much trouble with that one! We actually eat pretty healthy around here. We rarely go for fast food. We get pizza on occasion if we're out or having company which doesn't happen too much lately. I have been cooking more lately too and I try to cook stuff with healthy ingredients, at least healthier ;-) I do have my vices though, Starbucks at 430 calories A POP(!) is one of them. I also have a love affair with brownie batter. I would eat an entire batch of brownie batter if my kids would let me I think. WOW, don't you love the personal accountability there! ;-)

• Go Girl Goal #5 - Ummmm...hmmmm...how bout four? OK SOUNDS GOOD! So there are my four Getting Great Goals I am working toward. Nothing too progressive or astounding, just important to me. But I guess that would be the whole premise behind Go Goal Getter so there ya go! Now I know everyone has been tagged by this thing already so I just say to those of you who have not thought about it or blogged about it - now you have a topic! GO - BLOG - GO BLOG NOW! :-D

So, until I am struck with a brilliant idea like Goals Getting Gotten - TNT!

Hehe - I took this picture that last time we went through when I took all the other pics. My hubby looked at me like I done lost my mind (thats how wes tawk now round dees parts ;-) when I sat down my cup and started setting up the lighting apropriately (sp?) to get the right blur effect in the background, but I LOVE IT! Just cute and kinda funny and escentially me.

So this weekend has had me on both ends of the spectrum. I started out pretty stressed and depressed actually. I kinda freak out about money since I usually handle everything and know when things are or are not working out. Well I worked out our budget for bills once we are in the house and went back through the last two months worth of bank statements with four dif colored highlighters to seperate EXACTLY what we spend our money on. I wanted to see how much money we should have left after bills are paid vs. what we are spending NOW beyond our bills. I was a little shocked and dismayed by what I saw. Not to say that all is lost or undoable (?) but it was hard to see in all its colorful glory. I talked to DH about it later that night (thurs) and he didn't seem the least bit fased by it. Could be because I always take care of things, money wise, I always make sure we are ok and can get what it is that we need. Not to toot my own horn or anything, but that is at least one thing I can say that I am good at.

For some reason though, his little 'we can do it!' attitude just wasn't workin on me. Then Friday I was just kinda in a funk about it still, which he is now starting to take personal. He just gets all defensive if I'm not jumping up and down cause I am still thinking ahead so as to avoid any speed bumps - thats right ladies and gentlemen - I am F - U - N! ;-)

So I thought getting outta here together alone would maybe help perk me up. So we called the MIL over and had her watch the heathens and we packed up our portable chess game and headed to Marie Calendars (the place we had our first non-official date) to get a piece of cheesecake, a drink, and a little piece of mind. It was nice, the cheesecake was great, drink was good, I won the first game (YAY ME!) but I just wasn't feeling any more uplifted about the whole thing. So we decided to take the kids to see our new digs...

They actually had a great time. You may be wondering where the HECK are your pics chick? But I was so distracted that I really didn't think to take any! We got there and four kids running around the models was a lot to tend to. We did a few tests including the upstairs noise test (stomp around in one room and run down the hall to the other room and stomp there) as you can imagine, they looked at us like we done lost our minds! I think they thought it was a trick question or something cause the hesitated and said "Um...really?" We also conducted the sound transmission test (Mom goes next door and you kids yell and scream as loud as you want) again the hesitation, but they did it and scared the poor baby half to death! We also had to measure A BUNCH of stuff and keep the kids from falling down the stairs and knocking the baby down the stairs cause I think they might get a little cranky if the stairs get blood on them before they open ;-) It was fun though, they loved the place!

Then on our way out we let them run up and down the bike trail next to our house while we changed the baby, then showed them the park a few blocks away. We let em out and they had so much fun! I spent the whole time running after Mad who wanted more to run toward the street than anything else. Then they wanted to roll down the hill before we left and of course, due to the recent wet weather, came back covered in mud they had landed in at the bottom - that part was kinda funny ;-) After that, we found a little pizza place in town and stopped for a late lunch. The pizza was GREAT! I think that may end up being one of our hang outs. It was a nice afternoon.

We came home and I was tired, tried to lay down baby but she said "NO", rather persistantly, so I tried to close my eyes just for a minute on the couch. Only to be jolted back to reality when she took her little mini computer laptop thingy and slammed it down on my forehead. It hurt...real bad. Then she threw her cup at me. When I told her 'No more juice' because she had had 3 cups already, she threw at my head again! RUDE! So I left. I told DH that I feared for my safety and needed to wake up so I was going to get a coffee.

I guess I'm feeling a little better about the whole thing. I know we can do this, the whole buying part. Its just the sticking to the budget without playing mean mommy to my hubby part that worries me. I am excited, I just stress on it a little I guess. The kids loved the place and are all excited about the move so that should help. I'm excited too, just a little stressed. I'll get over it I suppose, cause what else am I gonna do right? RIIIIIIGHT...

OK /end boring entry - TNT!

I'd like to thank all the little people ;-)


My little 'sis' Rebecca bestowed the award of the Thinker Blogger to me the other day and I will be paying it forward. I had an eloquent/funny speach planned but she laughed the pants off me so now all you poor people get the left over crap :-D I was so pleased to have been awarded the award, however, I really don't know that I am so much the thinker that I or you think I think I am. I like to think that I think a lot, but do you think I think a lot? And if you do, do you think I think too much? And if you do, do you think I think I think too much? I think that to be a "Thinker" you have to have thinkable thoughts, not just bloggable thoughts, and I think I might not. - Have I lost you yet - HEHE - just kidding!


Seriously though, or my version of serious anyway, I don't know that I think too much on here. I think I go more for the laugh, that is true of me in life in general though. I am an entertainer, I'm a story teller, I'm always looking for the laugh. I don't have ANY idea why that is, I only know that it is. I actually have more in depth thoughts than I put on here. I am actually kinda scared to write what I think sometimes. For three reasons:

1) You might run screaming from the computer frightened by the utter nonsense you just read;
2) You might wonder what the HELL is wrong with me; or
3) You might not agree with me


I think reason 3 scares me the most! I'm always a little scared I'll offend someone, someone I know or don't know even. There are other bloggers out there who just say what they think and put up with the backlash, I really enjoy reading RockStarMommys blog for that reason. I love that she just puts it out and gives people something to talk about, good or bad, agree or disagree. However, a lot of the people who comment on her topics are people who only know her blog persona. They aren't her friends or people she talks to everyday personally. Some are, and it seems they either share her opinions or at least don't flog her for them on her site. I admire that fuck-it attitude sometimes. What's funny is I usually have that attitude, I just can't seem to put it out here. There are all kinds of thinks I think that I don't share maybe I'll use that as an entry one day. One day when I have NOTHING to say but feel the need to say SOMETHING. I can't bore (sp?) you all with the house EVERY day, I'll alienate people and then I'll be talking to myself, but talking to myself online and that would be weird so ... ya know.


So without further adoo - MY BLOGGY AWARDS!

I would like to award the BEST Thinker Blogger Award to My Magic Harpstings http://sherrynicahl.blogspot.com, my friend Sherry's blog. She has so much to think about and she shares it with everyone. She really gives you something to think about when you come away from her site. She lets everyone into her world and you feel like family. I love how her strength comes across in her writting and you come away feeling like someone out there has tough times too but she is working her way through it and you can too! She is a real THINKER!

I would like to award the BEST Family Blogger Award to A Not So Desperate Housewife http://portersfour.blogspot.com, to my friend Rebecca. She is very honest and very funny. She is a great mom and a great wife and I love that she shares her life with everyone. I love the pictures and the topics and the humor. I also love all the little do-dads she has going on on the sides. Its fun and she always has something new even when she doesn't ;-)

I would like to award the BEST Parenting Blogger Award to That Mommy http://momblejomble.blogspot.com/, I found her through a friend of mine's link. She has such great entries and I love her attitude towards parenting in general and her kids and that she is so funny while doing it! I actually think all us parent bloggers are the best though!

I would like to award the BEST Pop-Culture Blogger Award to Rock Star Mommy http://www.rockstarmommy.com. I just happened upon this site one night and laughed so hard I cried. She writes about EVERYTHING! Kids, family, politics, nonsense, you name it. I call her pop culture not just because she write about it on occasion but because she seems to have become part of it in the bloggy world! Everyone I know has started reading her after I referred them over. Whether I agree with her or not, I respect that she says what she thinks and doesn't back down unless she honestly feels she has made a mistake, that takes guts.

I would also like to give the BEST LOST Blogger Award to A Single Dad in his Daughters World http://hopesandpromises.spaces.live.com I would like to thank this guy for his recap of my favorite show. Every Thursday I run to his site and constantly refresh until his recap of LOOOOOOOOST comes up and he tells me what the HELL I just watched last night! He is actually quite funny and talks about being a single dad of three little girls, check him out sometime.

I would now like to award the BEST Humor Blogger Award to My Connection to the Outside World http://christinesconnection.blogspot.com :-D This chick is just plain FUNNY! I laugh everytime I read it ;-) She has a sometimes off beat sense of humor but I can relate to most of what she says. She really tries to be honest and put it all out there, hoping it will entertain people, make them laugh, make em smile, SOMETHING. She's a giver :-D She really just wants so badly to feel a part of things and to help herself deal with things by turning it all into humor. Who else would tell the entire world about her troubles with her mother in law who is a crazy cat woman? So I think she deserves the award for Best Humor Blog, as well as Best Parenting Blog, Best Blog in general and of course Hottest Mom Blogger ;-)


So there ya go. A snippette of my Bloggy Community in this new Bloggy World. Hope you feel enlightened, entertained or at least amused. TNT!

This is our bedroom window view upstairs. That building in the front is the pool, spa and patio area. Beyond that there will be another building but won't block all of our view. There is a big grass area that is so far a soccer field but will later be developed into a park!




These are the models. They told us today that this will be our color scheme too and all the rock and window shutters are standard. Our floor plan is the one on the end!




We went into the model to scout things out again and take some notes since we just ran through last time. This is the view through the front door of the living room and dinning room. One porch is off of the dinning room to the right.




This is the view of the dinning room into the kitchen. I LOVE the bar! Just enough room for the three kids to eat breakfast! It really makes the whole thing seem so much more open. We are putting in the rest of the green/gold/black granite we have and the backsplash is going to be tumbled stone with dots of the granite like you see there. The undercab lights really make a difference and they come standard!




This is the master bedroom with the window overlooking the pool and the park. I can't wait to see it with my stuff in here!




This is our bathroom - aaaaahhhhhhh...I can not WAIT to get in this jet tub! So pretty, and all the fixtures are standard, the lighting is standard, even the countertop - standard!




This is going to be M's room. It looks pretty big and should fit him just right. There are two small windows up high so they let in A LOT of light, plus another window. The girls room was under construction so I didn't get to check that out. Their bathroom is cool too, I am loving the seperated potty and tub from the sinks - perfect for the kids!





So we got out of there in pretty good shape I think. She really wasn't pushy with the upgrades at all and that made the whole experience a lot smoother. We upgraded a few things, but they give you $5000 worth of upgrades anyway, and that is just a little more than we spent. Mostly it was the jet tub, but that was just a must! So, things are going great and moving right along! Thanks for checkin in! TNT!

So by popular demand...I am blogging some scrapbooking stuff. This is a paperbag album that I made for my sweet hubby's birthday. He loves duck hunting, I think I may have mentioned that before ;-) so I found some embelishments and papers for hunting!

Okay, so as promised, I have a funny story - with picture - from Saturday. We were on our way home from the caverns and we stopped at this little drive up and get out type place in Lockeford. Now first...a little background...


Mad has this thing where when she is done with a certain food she takes whatever is left of it and throws it on the floor or tucks it into her high chair. She knows that I usually don't give her something different until she finishes what she has. I'm not all nazi about it or anything, I just know that she won't eat her green beans if she has yogurt on her tray too. So this is her thing, eat n chuck.


So we were eating at this little drive up place and she is enjoying her chicken nuggets then DH gives her a french fry instead. She takes a bite and seems to be alright with it. A few seconds later R says "Mad, WHAT are you doing? - NO Mad! Don't put your fry in my pocket!" - Mad had decided she didn't want her fry anymore so had to hide it to get her chicken nuggets back - so she tried to put it in R's back pocket! ;-)


It was pretty funny. So she finished her nuggets and then DH gave her another fry. Well, appearently that was more fry than she wanted cause yet again "MOM! Mad is stuffing her fry in my back pocket again!" Hehe - man she cracks me out - as B would say ;-)

Yes I am back again, hehe more pictures ;-) I would like to try to blog more actually. I usually only write when I have either pictures or a funny story to tell. I get into a mood when I'm upset and I don't want to talk to anyone about it until I have things figured out. I don't know if that helps or not so I think I will stop being so introverted and extrovert myself :-) Maybe it will help, maybe it will help someone else, maybe it won't do anything besides take a lot of time - whatever! I also realized something earlier today - I talk to myself WAY TOO MUCH...so maybe I should blog more ;-) There are things that go through my mind that I might have a full on conversation with myself over and I think that may be a big step on becoming the crazy cat woman so ... HOPEFULLY I will be posting more :-) Even if that is the ONLY thing that this helps with . . . YAY ME!

So our Easter started out ok, baby was kinda cranky but there's nothing new there. The kids got up and loved their baskets! I had totally forgotten about the basket thing until Saturday night on our way home from the Caverns! This is the first year in at least 3 years that I/we have had our kids on Easter so I'm a bit outta practice. So I had to leave and go to Target (my second home it seems like) and get some filler. I feel bad about giving them candy only because we never let them have much (FOUR kids on candy is way too much chaos for me) so we dish it out for desert and it usually lasts until the next holiday! I just feel bad if they get tons of candy and can't have too much and DH and I end up eating most of it because I am way more disciplined with my kids than I am with myself :-/





The baskets were cute though and the kids loved em. Almost all dollar isle stuff from Target - LOVE IT!









While they were getting into stuff I sat down to blog about the caverns (OH - I forgot a funny story - I think that will part of tomorrows blog - woohoo!) and DH got kinda pissy at me about being on the computer. So I made the kids breakfast and then HE got on the computer. So when the kids were done and BEGGING to go outside we got into an argument about it - that started the drama. The kids were driving me nuts - whining about going outside - what to wear (pictures) - and whatever was pissing Mad off - so I was getting more pissy. The pissyness escalated from there cause when I asked him if we could go outside to egg hunt he got pissy too! Drama. We eventually did make it outside and the hunt began.




Mad had NO IDEA what was going on but boy she looked cute! We kept having to tell the kids not to take the easy ones so she could - so I'm telling them "DON'T - leave that for Mad!" like 3 times in a row while we are trying to get Mad to catch on before they are all gone! Then B comes over and starts crying because the older two are getting all the eggs so I have to go tell them not to but they don't get it and then run back and try to get a picture of

Mad FINALLY picking up the pink egg in the middle of the grass that started all the drama.

After the egg hunt was over we were both completely stressed out. With each other, with the kids and life in general. It got worse. Then he had to do something we have NOT been looking forward to, getting the our boat ready to sell. We actually have sold it, but were concerned about it starting because it has been sitting for awhile. So we loaded it up and took it out to launch and test drive. Fun right? Hehe


THANK GOD we brought his friend Jim. We get the boat in the water and it sounds ok. We get it just outside of the 5 mph zone and it starts dying. So he has Jim open the in board motor only to find that a plug had come out and WE WERE SINKING! The boat was already filling with water and had been the WHOLE TIME! The swim deck was already underwater, and no deck in sight. So on a wing and a prayer we coasted back toward the docks by turning the motor on and it dying but giving us just enough power to coast a few more feet. We did make it back but that boat dumped water for a good 15 minutes after we got it out! The men folk thought maybe that was the problem so they plugged the hole and we tried it again. This time we didn't even leave the dock because the engine started smelling like burning oil and there were REALLY BAD sounding noises coming from the bottom. After hauling her out for the second time we found a chewed up peice of rope that may or may not have been a problem. Either way, she is in BAD shape. So we hauled her to a boat fixer guy and left her behind.


As you can imagine, since our house is riding on this boat sale, we were pretty damn stressed out. We got home and things unfortunately did not get better. DH went outside and pouted and wanted to be alone so they kids had to play upstairs. They were up there for a good 15-20 minutes when I heard B crying, then a loud bang, then the baby crying. So we both head up there and B had stepped on a toy and hurt her foot and the baby had fallen off the ladder for R's bunk bed. Now, the TWO rules we have for letting the baby go upstairs, which they WANT, is that the bunk bed ladder HAS to be up on the top bunk and the bathroom door must be closed. Both were not done and the room was such a mess that you LITERALLY could not see the floor, and their room is the biggest room in the house. So when I asked why the ladder was down, R says "Well I didn't have time to put it up" - I says "You have all been up here for 15 minutes" - she says "Well i know but..." and I went on to explain that there was no buts, you should have put it up, she says "Well I know but she's never tried to climb it before!" - I almost lost it. There were so many things about that that made me mad. The back talking me, not admitting she was wrong, backtalking me, leaving it down before enough to tell me that Mad doesn't try to climb it usually, and the back talking - I have an issue with that.


So they were told to get the rooms clean. They were up there for the rest of the day. At one point they were playing a game and not really cleaning so I told them no games cause you aren't getting anything done. I heard them again playing and R says "we're playing AND cleaning" and I told her that I had told her not to that earlier. THE SAME EXACT thing happened TWICE MORE. I was so mad and so stressed out that I was just at my wits end. They constantly came down telling on each other for not cleaning, back talking AGAIN, playin around, and just being naughty. I can't explain it now very well, but I was just in tears last night. It is so hard when all four of them are disobeying at the same time. I just don't know what to do about it. I get so damn stressed out that I have to be mean mommy and yell because NO ONE IS LISTENING! DH was helping as much as he could but would tell me what my kid was doing and then I would say what HIS kid was doing, and if we don't nip that in the bud it gets VERY BAD for us both. We don't mean to do that, but when we feel one is picked on, it's hard not to. Even at dinner they were being naughty. It was just HOURS of it and it was pissin me off. On top of the boat/house drama, it was a bad bad night.


So after a talking to, talking not yelling, we put their little butts to bed. For some reason, I felt better this morning. I was actually in a good mood once I had my coffee and I woke up. Sigh...and now it is time to go and get one from preschool. So I guess I will blog more tomorrow! I hope - TNT!

My little man turned 8 on Thursday! You may be wondering why I'm blogging on Easter morning. Short answer...waiting for coffee and kids to finish eating breakfast so the festivities can begin. So I might actually have more than one blog in a week! YAY HOLIDAYS! Anywho~

The caves were really neat! They actually have 3 big LAKES in the bottom! During the rainy season they have to cut the tour into two parts because the water level is so high that some of the passage ways are full of water! It's hard to see in the pictures but there are railings that lead right into a big area of water...kinda creepy actually!


Mad did pretty well suprisingly. She walked when we could let her down and REALLY liked the echo! Most of the time poor DH had to hold her and keep her quiet with goldfish ;-) relatively quiet anyway.


After the tour, about an hour of walking and crowching and slipping and more walking, we ate a little picnic lunch. Their set up was pretty neat actually. They had a little gold/gem panning area for the kids and BOY were they entertained!




They give you a big bag of sand and crap and let you go for it. The kids put handfuls of sand in the panner thingy and came up with tons of little and not so little gems! Emeralds, Ruby, Pyrite, there were like 12 different gems and they all four came out with a bag full of jewels. It kept them busy for over an HOUR! EVEN MAD! Long enough for me to take one kid at a time into the gift shop to pick out a souvenier - a WAY BETTER PLAN THAN DISNEYLAND - when we all went in the store together and it was utter CHAOS!


So we had a great time. I think all the kids said it was "THE BEST DAY EVER!" at least twice each. And the outting continue to get easier so that makes me feel better about doing it, not perfect, as you can see by the look on my face, but better. We almost left Mad at home for fear that she wouldn't enjoy herself, and make the trip tough on ALL of us, but I am SO GLAD we took her.


Okay, time to find the purple and green eggs that the Easter Bunny left in the yard - weird...but whatever. Hope you are enjoying your Easter/Weekend! TNT