Opinions Wanted

What color do you like best?

Come On....Admit it, You're So Totally Jealous

Things I Am Tired of Hearing

Why do I HAVE to?

MOMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm NEVER playing with you again!!!

I was sitting there first!!!!

That's not MY job.....

Why do I always have to?

It's my turn to go with youuuu!!


And that was all said before noon today - Oh, Lucky me.....

My, How They Grow....

*Nathan as a newborn - and now...I don't know why he is so obsessed with baskets LOL!

*Free Glidden Paint*

I'm totally giddy about the free paint giveaway that Glidden is doing!! It's only a quart size container, but if you're looking for free paint samples, here's your chance to scoop one up.

Glidden Paint Giveaway

I have been on the lookout for the perfect color to paint my livingroom and hallways. I picked a yellow/creamy color which is really pretty, but it just doesn't go with the border and paper that I'm trying to match it to. Maybe if I try this sample thing, I'll be able to find just the right shade. I LOVE free stuff!

If you get confused by all the colors or if you're just not sure you want to pick a color off net, then head to your nearest Home Depot, pick the color and then order it on line.

Happy Painting!!

When did I turn into the enemy?

I try to do nice fun things with her (took her flip flop shopping).

I know I'm hard on her sometimes (I ask for her help alot - but then I do have to work and someone does need to help with the little ones, sometimes).

I try to be nice and let her go places (hang out with her friends, take her to the mall - heck I've had to chauffeur her friends an hour to and from to the mall almost every weekend about a month or so ago).

And yet, I'm public enemy all the time...I merely mention little things that I'm talking out loud and to myself most times and get jumped on - like I need to change the junk mail feature on my email (I wasn't accusing anyone of anything, just simply saying out loud in a normal voice - I need to change the....) and somebody jumped on me and said I DIDN'T TOUCH YOUR STUFF -

Was I talking to you??? What the heck?! Where did my sweet little girl go???




Someone, please tell me when she'll come back! Someone tell Sarah not to grow boobs or ever get hormones!!

Or maybe someone just knock me out for the next however many years until the teen thing is over and I'm not the enemy anymore!!!

In Honor of Father's Day.....

I love the dynamics children have with their parents. Sometimes you see some pretty awesome stuff. I think for me, I'm constantly watching and wanting to learn new things. I want to be the perfect parent, and I feel the failure on a daily basis. It's hard being a parent and a role model. Any parent is a role model in their child's eyes (at least at one point or another). Sure, I realize that my 16 year old daughter has more resentment than love towards me at this point in her life. Does that make me sad? Of course it does. I sure didn't think when I gave birth to that beautiful redheaded wonder that she would one day think I'm the meanest person on the planet.

There are so many different stages a parent/child relationship goes through. For me, it's difficult, because I don't have the best feelings towards my mother at this point in my life. I DO resent alot of things she did. It doesn't mean that I don't have great memories as a child growing up with my mom. It just means that now I realize where the problems came from. And I have been trying so hard not to be like that with my own children. And in doing that, I've created more problems than I know what to do with.

My point in saying this (and forgive me for getting long winded and off course a bit) is that I really hope that my children will remember the great times they had growing up and that the moments of resentfulness don't make the most or longest lasting memories. That they remember more of the fun things and less of the rockier times we've gone through. I love this new song (Watching You), the first time I heard it was when Rich and I had gone somewhere with Nathan. And when the song came on I turned around to see Nathan wearing Rich's baseball cap and it made me smile that Nathan wanted to wear his daddy's sweaty hat.

When Anthony was about 2 years old, he followed Rich everywhere and wanted to do all the things his daddy did. Once when Rich was fixing the roof on our house, Anthony followed Rich up the ladder. Rich heard Anthony say "Hey Dad you need some help" and turned around to see Anthony standing right there on the roof!! One other time, when Rich was babysitting he heard some pounding coming from the room he was remodeling. He went to investigate and found Anthony pounding nails into the floor. Anthony was so proud that he was "helping" his Dad.

Zachary went about another form of imitation. While Rich was working at the jail, he had to wear a tie to work (during the winter months). For months on end, Zachary wanted to wear ties everywhere he went. It didn't matter if he was wearing a nice button up shirt or a tee shirt, he had to wear a tie just like his Dad.

Nicholas also followed suit with clothing. During winter months, Rich will often wear two shirts (a Henley shirt with a long sleeve button up shirt over it), he gets cold easily since he has all that metal in his back. Nicholas went through a stage a year or two ago where all he wanted to do was wear two shirts as well.

Now it's interesting to see Nathan watching Rich. He likes to do all the things Rich does. He likes to drink soda, and eat pudding with "cream" (cool whip) on top. He likes to "steal" Rich's hats and wear them around the house. He doesn't like wearing his own cap or his brother's - he wants to wear his dad's. He likes to sing along to the music in the car.

It's fun to watch these things. Kids idolize their parents in one way or another, at some point in their lives. It's usually when they are little and before the parents turn into meanies. But, I guess the lesson is that you should never let your guard down, because you never know who is watching or listening to you....they see and hear it all - the bad stuff and the good.

New Pics On My Photography Blog

Check them out......and don't forget to leave some comment love- Love comments (doesn't everybody?)!

By the way....

The music is back!!

Mirror Mirror on the Wall

After having to stop at numerous gas stations on the way to my mother's, I've been thinking about the person who designed them. I want to know who's bright idea it was to put a mirror on the opposite side of the toilet so that when you are taking your pants off you get a nice (or not so nice) look at your rear end. I mean who really wants to look at yourself while your using the toilet. Unless you are a man and you are checking yourself out (and we all know that men do exactly that any chance they get), why on God's green earth do you need to have a mirror placed at that exact angle? Who is the idiot that thought that was a good idea?

I mean, really?

Adventures from Grandma's House

I decided to let the kids spend some time with my mother this summer. Mostly, I just wanted a break from the kids really bad. Based on the fact that she doesn't have a car big enough to hold all the kids, we decided to just take a few kids at a time. We figured with Amanda and Anthony's schedules this summer it would be best to let them go first. So.......

I drove the three plus hours to my mother's house and had to spend the night (I also took Nathan and Nicholas with me), since we got there at 10:30 at night. We got to the house okay, despite a few potty breaks and a 20 minute trip (to and fro) in the wrong direction.

I was fine with them going, I was actually pretty excited about them going. I was thinking to myself how great it was going to be without having two mouthy, bratty teenagers in the house. There would be less fighting, less screaming. How wonderful that would be to enjoy for a week?!

But as I was leaving the next morning, I couldn't believe the overwhelming sense that I was missing them - I didn't even drive five minutes before I wanted to cry. When did I get to be so emotional?

Then of course the little boys made up for it by screaming and fighting with each other. And I started second guessing myself - maybe I should have let them stay with Grandma too.

The screaming continued on the way home, to the point that I got lost, again. I drove a good half hour in the wrong direction, before I turned around and backtracked to where I took the wrong turn. Fortunately by this point Nathan had fallen asleep and while I was driving around lost and panicking a little - okay, alot. I asked out loud "what should I do?" When this little voice from the back seat said "Why don't you call Grandma and ask her to help?" Thanks Nicholas! I'm glad he seems to have his father's level-headedness!!


So, back on the road an hour later, we finally found a gas station with a restroom. You wouldn't believe the number of gas stations that don't have restrooms! What the hell is up with that anyway!?! I dreaded having to wake Nathan up to run to the potty, but a girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do, if you know what I mean. Of course that meant that both boys were awake and fighting again. I just don't understand how you can have two of the same color cups, two of the same drinks, with the same kind of snacks and they still find a way to fight over which one had the better thing. It's beyond me!!


All I kept thinking about on the way home was how unprepared I was for this little adventure. I just hopped in the car and went on my merry way, without thinking ahead about taking a map with me.....Here I was with two little kids in the car, lost as could be, so lost in fact that my mother's husband who lived in that area all his life didn't have a clue where I was. And I didn't even have a map that I could look at (not that I can read a map anyway) to help me. I kept hearing Rich's voice bouncing in my head "You never think before you do anything, you just jump in with both feet and you don't think. And then when you get in trouble, you don't know how to get out of it"

It's so true! I guess I'm a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl, I never think of the consequences! I just throw myself into to something without thinking and it always leads to Rich having to bail me out. You would think that a 37 year old woman with six kids would have more sense than that! Geesh!

Only two more days until I get to do it all over again.....go me!

I have come to realize....

I realized something while I was taking my computer break. I don't really have any friends. I mean, I have friends, but not friend friends - know what I mean? Like, Rich has a really good buddy he goes out to dinner with once in awhile, and another one that he eats lunch with every other month or so. Another one that he goes fishing with and watches football games with...and a friend that he just stops by once or twice or sometimes three times a week and just hangs out at his kitchen table and talks to. And while he doesn't think of them as "best" friends, they are friends that he sees on a regular basis.

I have lots of "friends" on the computer. My little invis-a-friends. Ones that I can chat with and ask advice, but no one that I see on a regular basis. Heck, half of those "friends" are people I will never, ever meet. I have a few "real life" friends that I hang out with once in a blue moon (like Rich's football/fishing buddy's wife). I see Terri on a semi regular basis and I consider her a pretty good friend. I can tell her almost anything and I see her at work on the days we have the same schedule. But, we don't really hang out together. We don't do "girl's night out" or anything like that.

And I have some friends like my sister in law, Kristen. I consider Kristen a friend, but we don't do many friendly things. We don't go shopping together or see chick flicks or anything like that. It's mostly just hanging out and talking. And don't get me wrong, I am grateful that I have people like that that I can talk too, but I think I really miss just having a friend that I can do fun stuff with. I realized when I didn't have the computer, that I was feeling pretty lonely. I'd like to have a friend that I can hang out with and do fun stuff with. I'm not looking for someone to run around with all the time. And I don't want someone that ties me down to the phone all day. I once had a friend that I talked to on the phone for hours. I didn't mind it so much once a week or so, but when you're talking everyday and it gets to the point where they are holding other conversations with other people in their house while they are supposedly talking to you, it gets to be a little much.

I just want to have someone that if I'm having a bad week and they are having a bad week, we can get together, have a drink and see a movie or window shop. It's not like I would be able to do that all the time anyway, since I have a 24/7 shadow named Nathan, but once or twice a month might be kind of fun. I miss having a good/best friend. I'm sure Rich would be all too happy to have someone else listen to my endless babble of blahs instead of me constantly babbling to him all the time.

I'm not even sure how to go about starting a friendship like that. I am fairly shy, especially around new people and believe it or not, I'm actually a pretty quiet person (not that Rich would agree, but he's getting all the convos and other junk that I share because I don't have anyone else to really share it with). But I realize that I need a friend, at least one really good one, maybe two, I don't know. I don't want to have this lonely feeling anymore. I don't want to be so clingy to my husband or computer friends, that I don't make any real ones. What if I didn't have a computer or if something (God forbid) happened to Rich? Who would I talk to then? And while I'm sure Rich doesn't mind my endless antics, he is afterall a man, and they just don't listen as well as a woman does. Don't get me wrong, I love hanging out with my hubby and I would like to do more fun things with him, I just think it would be fun to hang out with some friends of my own.

Ahhh, maybe one of these days I'll find my Ethel (Lucy) or Shirley (Laverne), who knows......

It's been awhile since I've been here...

I didn't realize how long it's been since I've been on here. I took a much needed break (actually it was more like an intervention). As much as I hate posting this, because people might see my husband as some sort of mean controlling person, I'm posting it because I think I need to. A month or so ago, Rich unhooked the computer and took it off of me (he basically grounded me from it). That might seem a little extreme, but it goes without saying that I needed to have it done. I never would have been able to quit getting on the computer on my own. I was turning into a complete Internet junkie!! And I needed an intervention.

I literally, without realizing it most of the time, would spend all day on the computer. It wasn't like I was even doing anything useful with it (like homework, and research), I was just getting on and feeding a fix. It was terrible and my house was disgusting because of it. Not only that but I started to neglect my kids, as much as I'm ashamed to admit it. I hated having to get off the computer long enough to take them to their activities. And it was a struggle dragging myself away long enough to make dinner most nights - I guess I had it realllly bad!!

Once the computer was gone, I think I actually went through withdrawals. How bad is that?! So even though it took something drastic and maybe archaic in some people's opinions, to break me from my habit, I feel it was exactly what I needed. I may not be cured, but I do realize that my life doesn't revolve around the computer anymore. I feel happier about the way things are going in my life, and I really like the new direction it's taking me. Life might not be perfect, but it can be a lot better when you focus on the important things instead of what you're "friends" are doing at any/every second of the day. I feel refreshed and my kids now have a mom that makes dinner (most) nights, and spends more time with them. And my house (and I think Rich would agree) is starting to look nicer too.

So, even though some people might see Rich as some sort of controlling mean husband for taking the computer away - I see him as a very loving, caring man. He realized that I had a major problem and that I wasn't capable of handling it on my own. I'm glad he "intervened" when he did. My life isn't based on the computer anymore and I'm so happy about that.