All I want to do right now is take a hot bath; get into my pajamas and watch T.V. Only there’s nothing good even on tonight for me to watch because, you know, I refuse to watch dumb-ole American Idol because of how mean they were to those kids. Anyways…today was not my greatest day as a mom. I’m ready for Chad to be home. I guess I’m not handling it as well as I thought…on account of losing it with the boys tonight at bedtime. I feel that my patience has been running thin ever since last night, and I think that the boys would agree. It’s hard to not expect too much out of them. Like last night, when I had to count to 10 and let out several huffy breaths after Colton spilled his just poured bowl of cereal and milk on the kitchen floor that I had just finished moopping. And then, when I had to count to 10 again and let out several more huffy breaths after Colton dropped his little medicine cup with purple medicine in it all over the floor upstairs…not knowing how much of it he had drank. (By the looks of the floor, it had not been much.) Then on account of making a “mad face”, as Colton calls it, when I was tucking him in tonight because I found evidence on his good pillow case that he had a nose bleed last night and I didn’t know it. There were a few little “aggravations” earlier…like finding Colton stretching his bubble gum from his mouth to the carpet, and Chase punching Colton in the stomach for eating his cereal bar…but the kicker was when I found them scrubbing out their sink with their toothbrushes. They were using toothpaste as cleaner. That’s when I lost it. That’s when I actually told them to, “COME ON…GROW UP!” Can you believe it? I said to grow up. To a 6 and 4 year old!! That’s not fair. That’s not even what I want. I love their ages and I am terrified of the day that I look back and wonder where the time went. I don’t want to be the person saying to the young mom with toddlers, “Enjoy it now honey, because it goes by so fast…and then you’ll wish they were little again.” I wish they were little now…and they are.

Something’s happening here. What it is, aint exactly clear. All of a sudden, I can’t post pictures on the blog. Frustrating…because I had a picture that I was going to post for a friend. It was a picture of her daughter, and after I browse and select it and click upload, it pops up that I am not connected to the webpage. Weird. I have done everything I know to do, which is not much. Mainly just clicking on different things while pretending I know what I’m doing, only to get tired of the facade and make a mental note to ask Chad the next time he calls…whenever that will be. He can’t call too often and I never know when that will be. And, it generally is not the best connection. And, half the time is spent letting the kids talk to him anyway. Oh well. Maybe pictures will just have to wait another 8 days until he gets home. On the upside, my mom is coming to stay with us tomorrow night…and then Chad’s mom and sister and my 2 nieces will fly in…and then my best friend Ami and her husband Robbie will get here with their 3 girls. So, fun is definitely in the future. I went to a wedding this afternoon. Seeing as Chad was out of the country, I took my friend Ian. It was fun, and Chad appreciated him coming with me so that I didn’t have to sit all by myself at the reception. I was going to take Colton, but then decided that it may be too “boring” for him. He would have appreciated the wedding cake however. But none the less, Ian and I had fun, and Colton had fun staying at Granna and Grandaddy’s house with Chase and Aiden. So, I guess I’ll retire to my post on the couch. I need to get out of this dress and into some comfy pj’s and settle in for some good T.V. watching before bed. I have quit eating ice cream every night…due to just getting tired of it. It will come back around though. I just needed a little break. Now, I eat fun dip every night. I used to LOVE this stuff, when I was little. I re-discovered it a couple of weeks ago…along with pixie sticks, big league chew, and bubble tape. I have a huge ziplock stashed in the pantry that I go to nightly!! I gravitate toward the fun dip though. I just love it. I have not introduced the kids to it as I can not even begin to imagine the mess they would make. I need to be more mentally prepared for that than I am right now. Well, I hear the fun dip calling my name. As Chad would say…”I’m out.”

This last week was one for the books. My friend Heather came to visit from Atlanta with her two girls…(one is 2 1/2 years old and one is 3 months). They were to arrive at 12:30 on Monday, and at 8:30 Sunday night, we noticed that Aiden had a fever. She had a fever virus. When they got here, Heather and Elli (2 1/2) had colds that had developed during traveling. Elli started coughing on the plane and proceeded to get worse throughout the week. She had a runny nose and a wet, chesty cough. 2 kids down…3 to go. Wednesday morning, I got Colton off to school and we started our day. Aiden was still not feeling good, and at 10:00, Chase layed down on the couch and asked me to come sit by him. As soon as I saw him, I knew. He had fever. Luckily, Heather was feeling better by this point, and I joked to her that I would be getting a call from the school saying that they had Colton in the nurses office with a fever, and at 1:00, that call came. He had a fever of 103. I went to pick him up and he and Chase slept the rest of the afternoon. Ava, (the 3 month old) had begun spitting up and having “bad” diapers at this point. Now, I don’t do stomach viruses. She was on her own!! All 5 down. At this point, we decided to quarantine the house and set up beds in the living room. Heather then began feeling like she had fever and was going to “pass out”. This was when I had multiple children in the bath tub, trying to bring down fevers, clean them, keep them occupied, etc. etc. etc. (At one point, I looked up and saw a sopping wet rag fly across the bathroom. Colton thought he could make it from the tub into my sink…a “basket” if you will.) I felt her forehead, said she was fine, and told her to look alive. Chad said that he did not feel good and that’s when I sincerely wished that I had Haz Mat suits somewhere in the house. Somehow we managed to still have a really nice visit. They left on Friday morning, the fevers had passed and I came home and disenfected the house…door knobs, light switches, floors, and everything in between. Last night, my highschool basketball team was playing in the playoffs to go to the district championships. I was planning on taking Colton to the game with my dad. I went to get him dressed, and noticed he looked terrible. I felt of him and the fever was back. 102. So, medicine, bath, and pj’s it was for all three of them…and off to bed. I was upset about missing the game, but figured Chad and I could eat dinner together and settle in for a night of 24 together. We had 2 episodes left on season 3. As soon as we sit down on the couch to watch, Aiden wakes up crying. OF COURSE!! We managed to get her back down and finished season 3, two seconds before Chase walked downstairs because he woke up and realized his blankie was missing…a nice finale to the week. Actually, the finale was when I came upon Chase trying to paint Aiden’s toenails with bright pink nail polish. She just happened to be sitting on our nice lazy boy recliner. Needless to say, bright pink drips smeared down the front of the sage green chair is not the added touch to the living room that I was hoping for. And, the bright pink splotches on the carpet in front of the chair don’t really help to tie it all together. I really need next week to get here, although Chad leaves for ukraine and I am on my own for 10 days. Let’s change the subject to something more uplifting.

Lake won the game, and they play this afternoon at 4:00 for the district championship. If they win, they go to state. We are going to try to go, and then we will go straight to the Houston Rockets game tonight. I’ll keep you posted.

So, I have this weekly planner that I live by that is kept by the phone at all times. When the kids say or do something funny, I record it in there so that I will remember it. I used to have a calendar for each kid, but they were hard to keep handy enough to be able to jot things down really fast when they happened. I would find myself saying, “now what was I supposed to remember to write?” Thus…the use of the weekly planner for these little humerous tidbits arised. Lately, it seems all of my recordings are from Chase. Here are some of Chaser’s antics…

At dinner, they have to ask to be excused before they can get down from the table. This is to cut down on the up and down, up and down, up and down throughout every meal. Aiden was in the highchair and the rest of us were sitting around the table at dinner. Chase all of a sudden said, “Mommy…Aiden say I’m excused.” Now I could be wrong, but seeing as Aiden only uses small words one at a time, I doubt she took the liberty of excusing Chase.

Chase uses the term “very, very” to emphasize ANYTHING. For example…”It very, very hurts.” Or, when he built a tall block tower the other day, “It’s a very, very tower.”

If you ask him a question that he is either unsure of, or doesn’t want to answer…such as, “What did you do to your sister?”…he answers very politely, “I don’t know. You tell me.”

He either loves something or doesn’t love something. “I love pizza.” If it’s something he does not want to eat, he’ll say, “I don’t love that.”

Chase was pulling my good throw blanket, (which is off limits to kids) across the living room. I said, “No Chase. Don’t pull my good blanket across the room.” He held up the ninja turtle he was holding and said, “The ninja turtle did it.”

Whenever he hurts something, he says kiss it mommy. Some areas I just don’t particularly want to kiss. I’ll pretend, or get close…but he always says “no…right here.” the other day, he hurt his “bobbom.” (that’s what he calls it.) you get the drift!!

Little Chaser…one in a buzzilion!

Chase’s first dance with his first crush…Kylee

Chase and Mommy dancing

Aiden and Mommy dancing

Colton and his cutie-pie friend Anna Marie dancing

Colton…a.k.a…”The Stud” and his date…Anna Marie

(are they a cute pair, or what?)

Last Thursday night, Colton’s school had a sock hop. It was soooo fun! It was the day after Valentine’s day and love was in the air!! We had Anna Marie’s family over for dinner and then they got to go to the dance together. Chase was thrilled to meet up with Kylee (a little girl in Colton’s class who Chase is smitten with) once we got there, and Aiden hung with me the whole time. I was super excited to get to wear my poodle skirt, which I had from when I was in the musical Grease. So, it was a very fun night. I was so proud of Colton. He really got into character, which I’m sure you can tell from the pictures. He did not give a rip about what people thought and danced his little heart out all night long. I had to drag him off the middle of the dance floor when it was time to go. So cute!!

NEW YEARS 2007

Colton: Our Little Punkin…Valentine’s 07

Chase: Our Love Bug…Valentine’s 07

Aiden Annee-Grace: Our Sugar Plum…Valentine’s 07

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!! I LOVE Valentine’s day. It makes me happy…always has. This morning started off with a bang! Colton and Chase opened their Ninja Turtles; Aiden opened her new “pretty” dress; Chad opened the 24: Season Four box set; and Chad surprised me with the best gift. He got me a mp3 player, which I have never had, and found my list of favorite songs from my lifetime in a journal from about 3 1/2 years ago. My plan was to eventually make a “Mindy’s favorite hits” CD but had not ever done it. He downloaded all of those songs on the mp3 player before I opened it and I was so happy!! How thoughtful and sweet and so one of the reasons I love him. Happy Valentine’s Day my love! I will list some of the songs on my player, and will list them ALL at another time.

Mindy’s Favorite Hits (birth – 32 years & not in order)

• Jive Talkin (Bee Gees & my very 1st favorite song ever…i would stand up in the back seat of the car and dance!!)
• Baby It’s Cold Outside
• Beat It
• Beautiful Day (U2)
• Bless The Broken Road (Selah version)
• Canon in D
• Clocks (Coldplay)
• Elevation (U2)
• God Blessed Texas (Little Texas)
• Hey Mickey (The Riplets)
• I Got You Babe (Sonny & Cher…this is our family song!!)
• I’ll Fly Away (My Grandpa’s version…He would play the guitar and we would sing this together when I was little)
• Kryptonite (3 Doors Down)
• Last Date (Floyd Kramer)
• Leaving Town (Dexter Freebish)
• Moon River (from Breakfast at Tiffany’s)
• Music Box Dancer
• Queen of Hearts (Juice Newton)
• Rythym of the Falling Rain
• Somewhere Over the Rainbow
• Son of A Preacher Man (Dusty Springfield)
• Tennesee Flat Top Box
• The Longest Time (Billy Joel)
• The Space Between (Dave Matthews)
• You Got It (The Right Stuff)…(NKOTB)

That’s enough for now, but sometime I will list every one!

So, Chad has made up these versions of real songs that he sings to the kids in certain situations…which is really funny when you realize his vocal ability. He started when Colton was a baby, and the tradition has continued for Chase and Aiden. Whenever they are throwing a fit…he starts singing, “Pout; Pout…Let it all out…these are the things I can do without. (I believe this is from a Tears fo Fears song, if I am remembering correctly. It really goes, “shout, shout, let it all out…”. Then if one of them has a “poopie”, as we like to call it, he sings, “POOP, there it is…POOP, there it is.” It really is quite funny. There are a couple more that I can’t recall at the moment, and I’ll spare you the words to read.

Speaking of pouting…Aiden has started throwing tantrums. Now, this is a first for me. Neither Colton or Chase were big tantrum throwers. I’m glad that she is my third, otherwise I would be less likely to just stare at her and laugh. It’s not the tantrum itself that is so humerous, but the way that she throws it. She is very systematic in her tantrum throwing tactics. She is a pretty cautious individual…similar to Colton and the opposite of Chase. So, just hap-hazardly throwing herself on the floor is way too dangerous. She really doesn’t want to hurt herself…her point is not that important to her, I guess. So, she very carefully gets on to the floor and slowly positions herself into the tantrum throwing position and then begins to kick and scream. It really is quite funny. The boys and I just watch her, and they kind of look at me with this, “is she serious?” look on their faces. She’ll look up every now and then to see if we are watching. After I walk away, she gets up, dusts herself off, and comes to find me. Normally, it’s over by this point. I’m waiting for it to happen in public. That should be fun.

A winning combination, really. My coffee every morning consists of Folgers Smooth Decaf coffee with peppermint mocha creamer and 3 small spoons of sugar. I really love it when I remember to buy sugar cubes, and I can ask myself, “One lump or two?” I always pick two. The new smooth coffee is the way to go. It is for people who have acid reflux or stomach ulcers like myself. Well, technically I don’t have an ulcer anymore, but I did…and let’s just say, I don’t want another one. So, I follow a “ulcer diet” that I made up myself with the help of the gastroenterologist that found the first ulcer by way of endoscopy…(not fun!) Anyways, it consists of no caffeine (so hard); no processed tomato products (kills me); no chocolate (totally cheat on this one); no spicy foods; no pepper; no high fat foods (please…it’s not gonna happen); no citrus; and easy on the stress…(a.k.a…worry and anxiety). I’m really not supposed to have decaf coffee either because of the high acidity, but I just make sure I drink a lot of milk. Oh yeah…I take acifex too, which stops the acid pumps in the stomach from…well…pumping acid. So there. That’s my story and I’m stickin to it. However, this does put a damper on my use of my starbucks mug collection. I drink and eat as much as possible out of mugs. My philosophy is that everything tastes better in a mug. Such as…coffee, of course; ice cream (Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla with 3 York peppermint patties crushed up in it); soup; ice cold milk; and hot chocolate or hot tea. So, the mugs are getting good use. So far, I have Alaska, Atlanta, Austin, Houston, and New York. I want Seattle (specifically from the first starbucks), Iowa, South Carolina, San Antonio, Dallas, North Carolina (Chad and I had some special dates in North Carolina), Oklahoma, San Fransisco, LA, Colorado ( I would love it if they made them from all the places I’v been skiing…but I’m sure they don’t), and I think that is it so far. I will have to go more places to add to it! We’ll see.

In other news…last Thursday night, John and Lindsey were getting in from South Carolina for a visit and I had some quick errands to run. I wanted to get out of the house quick and get them done, and Chase and Aiden both had colds, and Colton was being a little attitudy for my liking, so I just wanted to make something that I knew they would all eat without complaining. I decided on whole wheat frozen pancakes and fresh strawberries. Fast…Good…Just what the doctor ordered for me to get out fast. So, I had all the frozen pancakes set out on 5 plates…3 plastic and 2 regular for Chad and I. The kids were running around the kitchen and doing a victory dance because it seemed that I had given up on the healthy, veggie, yucky meal combination that was put in front of them most nights. There were 3 pancakes on each plate and I was quickly popping them in and out of the microwave. When I went to get one out of the microwave and put another one in, I noticed one plastic plate was missing from the cabinet. I did a double take…counted again…and then looked around. There was Aiden, on the floor, eating what she assumed to be HER pancakes. She was about half way through. Now, the most notable part of the story is that they were still frozen. That’s right. Hard as a brick bat. I don’t know how she managed to bite them, or much less chew them, but there she was…happy as a clam…enjoying her frozen pancakes. What does this say about my cooking?