RIP RUNNIN & ROARIN

This is just an outlet for me, to be able to get my thoughts out! I am a Woman, Wife and Mommy that also works outside the home! Just me trying to make it all work for the best for my family and myself! Just my journey!

Monday, September 27, 2010

FREAKIN' OUT

So, I'm totally freakin' out!  I've been planning my 20 year high school reunion with about eight other girls!  It's been in the process for about 1 year and 10 months!  Might I add, that this is our FIRST REUNION EVER!!  We have finally reached 100 guests and I am amazed!  This has to go well!  It has to go right!  The "STUFF" isn't done yet!  I have so much more to do, to make it right!!  I'm totally excited, I'm totally stressed!! It's going to happen, done or undone!  This is where the "rubber meets the road"!  I decide what's important enough to stress about and what's not important enough, so I can let go of it!

List:
 Important:
Classmates get together (we have a place)
They have an ice-breaker (We have speech's, memorabilia, and a  bar)
We have worked very hard
there are over 75 classmates showing up!!!
I'm excited and so are the rest of the girls on the committee!  (I think our support groups are too)!

Unimportant:
Doesn't matter!!  We've covered the important.  Anything else is "over the top"!

The part that bother's be most:
We haven't been able to contact everyone!  (no changing that)  We've worked hard at finding everyone and have made every effort!  (gotta let it go, but it's still gonna bother me)!!

Thanks for letting me share, because I have been able to remind myself of what's important!

Saturday, September 25, 2010

God Did Something Right...........AGAIN

I jump up!  Wake up my Adam and then head back to my bed, not to fall asleep but to pretend to!  I yell from my bed "are you up?".  He moves around a bit and finally answers (in THAT teenage voice) "yes Mom, I'm up"!
I hug and try to kiss him good bye a few moments later and if I don't, he comes to my room and makes sure to tell me good bye and maybe a hug and possibly a kiss!  I think here, in this moment MAYBE, JUST MAYBE, we did something right!!!  Thank God we are not left to our own devices of raising children and that He isn't afraid of raising teenagers, cause God has done amazing things right in this kiddos heart!  He is PASSIONATE!!

Friday, September 24, 2010

CHOICES

I get up very early, by choice and I work very late, by choice!
I wake up my kiddos, one-by-one, for school and I get to enjoy a moment with each one of them alone in the morning!  I'll take that and I'll thank God for every moment I am right in front of them to discipline, guide, listen, hug, hold, kiss, correct and lead!
Some days my body chooses to stay asleep and I fight it......"this is the only time you will see them today"!
I definitely get up!
After they have left for school......I have more choices!
Gym or sleep?  No brainer......I pick the GYM!!  I have to, without the gym (workout), I'm fried and I should just turn in the towel and be a sobbing lunatic all day!! So most days, I pick the gym!  Occasionally, I chose the bed again.  When I chose my bed again, it's because my body is screaming louder than my brain!!
After the gym, I have this crazy routine, in order to make sure dinner is made for my kiddos!!  Daddy comes home from work far too tired to make dinner, he just wants to relax!!
Sometimes the routine is a lil different but it is always multi-tasking!!
I throw in a load of laundry and then go start pulling ingredients out of the fridge!
I fold the laundry I just pulled out and then start chopping!
I start another load of laundry and then I finish chopping.
I put on a pan and usually have to heat the oil/butter, so I run through the living room/computer room and pick up!
I throw something in the pan (usually the ingredient that has to cook the longest).
I run up the stairs and start my shower
Run back down the stairs to check the pan.......lower the heat
run back up the stairs and scrub my funky butt as fast as I can!
Jump out of the shower and semi dry off and wrap that towel around me and run downstairs to check on the pan!
This routine continues, up, down, up, down, dressed,  not dressed, dressed,  half dressed, up, down!
Finally, I am dressed and dinner is complete (usually)!
Strap on the boots, cover the dinner, make sure  I haven't forgotten anything for work, make a mental note of the chores that still need to be completed in the house and what each one of the kiddos can handle and then BLAST out the door!
It's going so fast and life seems to go faster now!  I have choices in front of me every day and I try to chose what's right for me and for them!
But some days the choice is back to bed, a long shower and an ordered pizza!!
Good thing is:  The kiddos enjoy these days of different choices!!
I love having choices and choosing right for me and for my family!!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

1 Year

I walked by these photos last night and it stopped me in my tracks!!  These pics are from ONE year ago!!
 These photos are a little more recent!  I know they are growing fast and have changed so much, but it was last night, after coming in from work, I walked by their school photos from last year and WOW!  Such a difference in just one year!
Other Changes for this kiddo, include make-up and alot more time into her daily appearance (thank God for a late start to school for this one)! She comes bouncing down the stairs in the morning once she's ready, but don't interrupt her getting ready, STAY OUT OF HER WAY!!  She is more involvement in school and school activities!  She's way more social and outgoing!  I love it! 

This kiddo appears to be finding himself!  It's not an easy journey!  Freshman year was so difficult for me, I wish it wasn't that way for him, but I think it's that way with everyone!  It appears it's a year we DECIDE who and what we want to be and be about!  He's doing just that!!  He cares about his appearance more than ever!  Spends time doing his hair just right!  He cares more about school and is into it!  I think he has found what he enjoys in school (FINALLY)!  I am amazed at his change of perspective at exercise, he really enjoys it (I see a future workout buddy)!!

Other changes, have happened in a year!  Like this kiddo who wouldn't touch his own fish!  He is now baiting his own hook and taking his own fish off!  Woot!  This means that fishing for me is now HANDS OFF and for a woman that doesn't enjoy fishing, this means I need a better lawn chair and more good books!!  Maybe the fishing will help him to relax and stop stressing so badly!  He's still a little boy and doesn't care about his appearance and has to be reminded (told) to take a shower and brush his teeth, but I know it's only around the corner to where he'll be like the other two and my Mommy job of reminding (telling) will change to a different thing!

Such a difference a year makes!!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Dishin' Dirt

So much going on, so much I can post about......
My MIL has had back surgery and is recovering!  She is not recovering as quickly as she would like to, but she is recovering!  God has had her hand (body) right from the start!  I've HEARD, I haven't talked to her, that her check-up today went well and everything is where it needs to be!  Wow, that's OUR GOD!!  He guides us and holds us and leads us to where we need to be!  He holds our bodies (when we allow Him) and brings us to where we need to be!  It's all a matter or trusting that He has created us and has done so WONDERFULLY AND FEARFULLY!  From the top our head to the tip of our toes!  And He has and MIL does trust that He has been there and has had  the CONTROL all the way!  Pray with me that God continues to bless her with awesome healing and my MIL is up and where she wants to be shortly!
I could be posting on REAL DIRT!  But that is said and done!  Whew!  The biggest thing is that we are in COMPLIANCE and back on track!  I could tell you that I used my connections and my connections didn't realize it until we were back in compliance!  Yep, God is GOOD!
Right now, the dirt is that my anxiety is overboard..........concerned about my MIL, upset with my neighbor (land rights owner, not real owner), WORK, I love being in compliance and it brings me to the edge (I have been told I have done wrong and it was never my intention)!
I am always worried about not being the best parent I can be!  It brings tons and tons of anxiety when I look around at my friends and it appears their children are so compliant and do so well (I want the same for my kiddos) it makes me feel like a failure whenever they fail!  Whenever they bicker, whenever they miss a homework assignment or tell a lie or when they are not compliant in any way!
It stresses me out to realize that I'm not the most supportive wife or that I'm not the most understanding or that I may put my feelings before his!  BECAUSE THAT STUPID ANXIETY OVERTAKES!
My 20 year reunion is right around the corner and I am afraid not everyone will be represented, I really think we were all so close (there was less than 200 in my class)!  If it weren't for all these people, amazing people, I wouldn't be where I am today and I desperately want the chance to thank them!  Many will be there, many will represented during the reunion.....but my worry is that not ALL of them will be there or at lest represented!  Call me selfish if you want!  But I want everyone represented!  I want the chance to thank everyone!  I want the chance to hug everyone and celebrate everyone!
STUPID DIRT!  BRINGS OUT THE BEST AND THE WORST IN ALL OF US!!  It's my real dirt right now, without detail.......this is just a taste of my stupid dirt!!!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Always Remember

I remember where I was on 9-11-01
I was at church, just finished up exercise and I had my kiddos with me!  I had just picked them up from the childcare.  I had Mitchy in his stroller and Adam and Windy were right at my side!  I heard

someone say that we were under attack. I called my husband Grabbed my kiddos and headed toward HOME!
The kids and I arrived home, turned on the television and watched in horror and sadness.

Larbo came home from work and we continued to watch the news all day long!  We stayed home and close to each other as a family!  We prayed for the people who were in the midst of the attacks, we prayed for it to stop and we thanked God for one another and our friends and family!  We prayed for people we didn't even know their names, but we prayed!
I felt a sense of pride in the US!  People were coming together helping others, they didn't even know!  The USA became more UNITED!

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Some View it As a Vacation...

A couple times of year, I am required to go out of time for my position.
My coworkers congratulate me on my "vacation" every time.  I always respond, "it's still for work and I'm stuck in the classroom all day and head directly back to the hotel room."  The guys always tell me, that it is sort of a vacation, because I am getting away from the day-to-day responsibilities.
I see things very differently! 
Although, it is time away from the day-to-day, it is time away from my day-to-day with my family!  This makes it difficult.  It is a good opportunity for me to network and learn new things that I can apply to my job and that I enjoy.  So it is a situation of good and bad.
There is such a difference in the perception of leaving for a work trip.  It is one of those that the "grass is always greener".  Until you have to do it, it looks great!
I pack and I'm excited and concerned!
I prepare the family as much as I can and it does get easier each time.....mostly because the kiddos get older and are more self-sufficient.  It appears my family is used to my leaving for work and I am not.
 I do what I do and it BY NO MEANS feels like a vacation to me!
My bags are packed by the front door, all the reservations are in place and it's time for me to leave.  I've sent the kiddos off to school this morning and I have kissed hubby  goodbye on his way out the door to work.  I have a little time to get a few more things done around the house and I grow more concerned about my leaving with every moment.  Finally, it is time for me to leave to catch my flight.  
I arrive my destination and call home to check-in, only to find that everyone is doing fine!  That's a good thing, but I miss them and can't wait for the return flight home!
It really isn't a vacation.....it's stressful and leaves my heart aching! 

REAL VACATION IS JUST AROUND THE  CORNER....I CAN'T WAIT!!!

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

A Family Affair

I received a text!  I stopped to purchase the TP on my way home from work!  
We prepared!  Funny, I never remember preparing to TP when I was a kid.......
We bug sprayed each one of the kiddos!
Made sure the missing family members, really didn't want to join us!  The reply was:
"I am not going to be involved in any criminal activity!" I put that line in because it was quoted many times that night!  
(I don't think it was meant mean, just sarcastic and funny!)
 
We stepped back and enjoyed our finished product!  Well done!!  Before I knew it......5 kiddos were booking it down the street!  Like they all of a sudden realized they could get caught!!  The adults in our group laughed!  If those kiddos realized how loud they were the entire time, they wouldn't be running so fast!!!
We drove by a couple of times to enjoy our finished product!! 
Good Memories!  Everyone was safe and no one was arrested!  The receivers (sorta) found the humor in it!!  Their trees are fine and nothing was damaged!!  
All in good fun!!

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

First Day

The first day of school has come and gone.  It was bittersweet, for all of us.  The kids were ready to go back but not ready to give up summer yet, Larbo and I were ready for a routine for the kiddos and not ready for a morning routine for them.
They packed up their backpacks and sorted school supplies, they need less of our help preparing for school these days.  They do need a little guidance, but not nearly what they used to need.  It's working as it is supposed to.  There's joy and sadness in this process.
As we woke up for school and I checked beds to make sure each one was moving and shaking at the right time, each one's independence showed through a little more.
The first day of school isn't like when I went to school, my children put on their everyday clothes that they had all summer long----they never have put on brand new school clothes for the first day (I ALWAYS wore new clothes the first day).  I pushed a little and they quickly shot me down and went to school with the clothes they had picked out!
I shot a few pictures and said good bye to each one.
I am impressed by the transformation that has taken place in each one of them.
It leaves me wondering.........
Will we ever have a first day of school where the dog doesn't run out to get on the bus with the kiddos?