Ugh

Not such a good day around here. I was woken up at 7:15am by a puke covered Little Man! Thankfully he only puked one more time after that, but did spend the day being a little more clingy than normal. I wouldn't have minded the clinginess, except I needed to finish cleaning the house up, and get laundry put away. I was able to get most of it done, but will have to spend a bit more time tomorrow finishing it off.

I am getting out Friday night! My Mom will be taking the boys for the night, and I am heading out with a friend. I'm just looking for a chance to unwind a little bit, relax, and have a good time. He gets to do whatever he wants over there, while I take care of life, our children, and this house. It really is not fair what he has done, but I will make the best of it. At least I get to spend all the time I want with my boys.

Feels like summer is finally on the way!!!

What a truly gorgeous day. After preparing the cookies, the boys and I headed out to the park. I did make the boys wear sweaters, but didn't bother with one myself... it was just too nice. The sun was shining, just a hint of a breeze, it really was wonderful. Hopefully this weather continues for the rest of the season, the Winter just seemed to keep dragging on.

The best news today though, is that Hubby will be home soon!!!!! I believe his flight gets in around 9pm, so he should be home before 10pm. I am so looking forward to seeing him tonight, and the boys all know that he will be here, so they should be bugging him first thing in the morning. At this point, he believes his next trip will be on the 20th to the UK. It's only a week home, but I will take it.

In other news. I have finally gotten back into using my cloth diapers this week. For the last few months their usage has been fairly spotty, but this week I have used them all day every day. Which means I am only using one disposable for nights. I have had most of these diapers since Monkey was only 4 months old, so they have gotten some excellent use over the years. Now to just make sure that I stay on top of the laundry so that I can keep this up. The next thing would be to get rid of Monkey & Bug's night diaper use. Monkey is dry maybe 1-2 nights a week, and Bug is usually dry 3-4 nights a week. I just don't feel that they are totally ready to take them away yet... oh well, in their own time.

Off to fold some laundry, and get ready to welcome Hubby home!

Scrubbed finger & Sore cheeks!

So, I scrubbed the stove top today... my poor index finger! It almost feels like I took my finger print off! I finally decided it was time to tackle the stove top, and give it a really good scrub. We have a gas stove, so it means taking it all apart. I used a metal scrubber, but still had to use a fair amount of elbow grease to get all the build up off. This is not to say that the parts were really, really gross, just that I don't often scrub like this. Usually I just give it a good wash with soap and water, using a washcloth. I must admit it does look much better, but I can still see a few spots that need work... but, they can wait until my finger pad grows back in LOL.

As for my cheeks LOL. I bought some white eggs today (I prefer to buy brown) so that we could colour them for Easter. I had really only planned on boiling them, but in the end decided to blow some out. I have not done this for many, many years. So, I got a good needle for the job, and poked the appropriate holes... and away I blew! I didn't make very big holes, so it was a lot of work to get the white & yolk out of the egg. In the end I managed to get six done, but not sure if my cheeks will ever feel the same LOL. The boys were not all that interested, except to see the initial egg white come out... then it was off to make a mess with play dough.

Tomorrow night Hubby will be home. I am so excited to see him, and to actually spend time with him. As disappointed as I was that he had to head down to New Mexico, it did have the bonus of allowing him to adjust to the time change (11.5 hours) before coming home. Which means I will have my evenings with him, instead of him crashing by 6pm. The only con is that he won't be up as early to be with the boys first thing in the morning, but at least he will be here. Monkey is getting very excited to see him, I suspect he will be in our room at first light looking for Hubby.

The boys will help me make some Easter cookies tomorrow, and hopefully we will have a chance to ice them as well. I already have egg dying scheduled for Saturday, and want to leave them lots of time to play with Hubby.

He is Home!!!!

Cheers... He is Home!!!! Hubby had a wonderful reception at the door when he got home LOL. Both Bug, and Monkey were there immediately for great big hugs. Little Man was a little slower, but he certainly made up for it in enthusiasm.... it was really sweet to hear, and see him come toddling over as fast as he could to Hubby. Of course, within a minute, Monkey looked at Hubby's suitcase, and asked what he was getting LOL. Hubby didn't get them much, they don't really need anything, but did get them some really cute London Bus Key Chains for their backpacks. He also brought a Hotel Card (Monkey collects them LOL), as well as the train ticket. Both are coveted items around here.

It was just so nice to have him here, even though I know it won't be for long. The boys were having fun showing off for him, and getting snuggles whenever they could fit them in. Hubby was a bit amazed with Little Man, he didn't know about some of his new words, or sounds. All in all, it was a very nice end to the day.

Nothing too crazy happened around here today, other than cleaning, and organizing. With being sick last week, and especially this weekend, the house had taken a definite turn for the worse. It's nice to have it back on course, still not all done, but the big things dealt with. Tomorrow will be time enough to get if finished off.

I am going to relax a bit here tonight, hopefully something good is on to watch while I compile the grocery list (10% Tuesday tomorrow). I will be using my new Ipod Touch to do the grocery list this time, I hope it works as well as I think it should!

Hopefully we can have some good family time tomorrow before Hubby has to leave again.

A good day

So far, I would say today was an okay day... although finding out that Hubby is leaving for England tomorrow, for just shy of 2 weeks wasn't all that nice. We had plans to attend the RV Show this weekend, sans kids. That of course is now not going to happen, as well as my kid free time!!! My plan for his absence is to just survive... nothing fancy LOL.

Little Man was really paying attention to all the blowing out of candles from earlier this month. For the last week or so, he has been trying to blow the lights out! This of course has made us giggle. But last night at dinner time had has laughing! Hubby decided to dim the lights when Little Man tried to blow them out, his face was priceless when the light actually went out! He of course was doing his best to blow all the lights out today, some of which we obliged him, and turned off.

I had a nice time with Monkey and Bug working on letters and words after lunch. I decided that I need to start working with them every day, at the same time, to get us all in the right place to home school. It went much better than I would have thought! Bug did an excellent job tracing out the letters of his name. Monkey did very well tracing, as well as pronouncing words, and reading some basic sentences. I'm really looking forward to doing this more.

I worked with Monkey, and Bug for about a half hour, then sent Bug for his nap. I then worked with Monkey for another half hour, then let him play on the computer while I cleaned the bathrooms. Still can't get over how long (over one hour) it takes to clean the two upstairs bathrooms, as well as the powder room on the main floor. You would think that after one and a half years I would be used to it, but I guess not... and this did not include the downstairs bathroom!

I do get a small break tomorrow as Hubby needs to be out in Cochrane for the morning, so he will be taking Bug to school. At least I don't have to rush out the door with all 3 kids for one morning... although I have eight to do while Hubby is away.

Wish me Luck, and Sanity for the coming weeks!

Organization

I have made a small dent in the household disaster today, I can slowly see an end to the disorganization. I even got the balls to actually go through some of the toys, and pack it up. I will take another night (or two) to decide what I am going to do with it... and I'm sure there is more I can get rid of. I'll post some pics of the removed toys when I am done, should make for a much easier cleanup for the kidlets.

Tomorrow is Bug's 3rd birthday, I really wish he would slow down! Although I also wish he would hurry up, and grow up a little... he is just so wild some days that I don't know I get through it all. I really hope he calms down a little bit soon. Hubby is in San Francisco until late in the evening tomorrow, so we will be having Bug's Birthday dinner on the Thursday. And of course there is the Birthday Party Saturday afternoon. So far I only have 5 kids coming, but haven't heard from everyone yet either. It should be an interesting afternoon.

Post Christmas Let Down

It's always a little sad to take the Christmas stuff down and get it ready for storage... also sometimes makes me wonder why go to the trouble of putting it out for a month a year??? Now that the Christmas season is over, it will give me a chance to finally finish getting the house set up they way I want it to be. I would love to have it painted, but the expense is an issue... and just not sure I am up to the job myself.

I have curtains for two rooms (the master bedroom, and the front living room) to be completed, as well as finishing touches that need to be done. I am also going to be clearing out toys this week, they really don't need all that we have, and I hate the clutter it creates! Some of them I will sell, the rest will head off to goodwill.

It is also time that I started watching what I eat, it has been getting a little out of hand lately. With Little Man being 1, and no plans for anymore little ones, it is time to take back my body. I will start with small changes, and then progress through out the year to get where I want/need to be. I'm still working on setting up my weight loss blog, but should hopefully have it up and going by tomorrow. I should also have the house sorted out well enough in a few days to devote some time to exercise!!!!

Chilly night ramblings

It is so hard dealing with things right when hubby leaves on a trip... I just find it very hard to focus. Hubby left mid morning for Germany, thankfully he will be back Wednesday night, but that is still 5 days with the kids on my own! I at least have gotten some house work completed, but there is still a lot to do. The last two weeks all my spare time has been taken up reading the Twilight series of books. It is an excellent read, which in some ways was the problem! I found I didn't want to put the books down at all, so the house was a little neglected.

Not a whole lot planned for the duration of hubby's trip, although I am planning to take advantage of Safeway's 10% Tuesday this week. Figure it makes sense to get as much of my Christmas food shopping done early, and at a reduced price! Now if I could just convince hubby that we need a chest or upright freezer!

Speaking of purchases, we might be close to buying a vehicle to haul a trailer with. The trailer that we want to get could be hauled with my van, but it would put us at the top end of the weight restrictions. Hubby has found a number of 2004/2005 Dodge Durango's for between $10,000 and $12,000. The price is low enough that it wouldn't hurt at all to purchase one... in some ways the economic down turn is a bonus for us! We aren't hurting financially, and don't expect to, but it is allowing us to purchase things at reduced prices.

It has arrived....

We were without the kidlets this weekend, a very nice break... in some ways longer would have been okay, but I like having them home in their own beds. Sunday while having a late breakfast/lunch, I wasn't able to keep all of my food down... not really the most wonderful experience!! We figured that I most likely had food poisoning, but didn't know for sure.

Well, it looks like it is the stomach flu! Bug puked Saturday night in bed, my Mom found him asleep in it at 2am. Then Monkey puked late Sunday afternoon, just before we went to collect the kids. I wasn't too worried, as he ate just fine, and wasn't complaining about his tummy.

About 1 hour ago, I woke up to Monkey crying say 'Ow'. I ran to his room, to find that he puked all over his bed and himself. Luckily he missed his friends, but I think I will still wash them tomorrow. So, there I am cleaning him up at 2:30 in the morning, giving him a bath, changing his bed... all the while doing my best to not puke myself. And of course Little Man is crying away, took Hubby forever to get out of bed and deal with him.

The bed sheets and clothes are in the washer, and I'm sitting here at the computer trying to keep my tummy calm so that I too can go back to bed soon. Some days/nights the joys of parenting are very hard to handle. We dealt with 4 stomach flu's the year we lived in England, and none last year. The only consolation is that I have a washer that is large enough to handle all the puke infested items at once!!! In England it would take up to a week to finally get it all washed and cleaned... we had a very good, but very small washer there.

I think I will now try to go and lay down, hopefully there are no more interruptions to this night... what is left of it anyways.

The new Vacuum

Well, the day has come... I was excited and happy that my dear darling hubby bought me a new vacuum!!!!! LOL Still can't get over how happy I was that Hubby bought me a new vacuum, a Dyson no less!!! Now, I have been after a new vacuum for a very long time... was pretty much resigned to using the one we have (older central vac with very, very few attachments) for a lot longer, but lo and behold, he comes home from an errand this afternoon with this new gadget.

Even better was that he then proceeded to vacuum the house for me!!!!

Still can't believe that I got so excited for a ..... vacuum!!!!!!!

Walking and cleaning.

So, the time has come where nothing will be safe in the house... Little Man took his first steps last night!!!!! Truthfully nothing has been safe since he started crawling and cruising, but it always feels like it gets worse after they walk LOL. Being that it was only the first steps, I at least have a little longer to enjoy before he is all out walking. It's at moments like this that I wish we had a smaller house, especially a bungalow!

On one of the boards that I frequent, there was a thread asking to see pics of houses that are bigger than 3000 sq ft. It really amazed me how many people have larger houses, and yes, I am one of them! I do like this house, but for the stage of life we are in right now... it is a bit big and has rooms that we really don't utilize very much. Hmm.... guess I should plan some dinner parties or something... actually get some good use of the dinning room LOL.

It is the most dreaded time of day around here..... CLEAN UP TIME!!! It drives me nuts that I have to become a dictator to the boys to actually get anything done. So, tonight things will be a little different... oh the poor unsuspecting children! I am taking the bins, once they are full of the toys, and they are being put into the sewing room (which is kept locked). They will then be allowed one bin at a time, and will not get something different until the first is picked up. This should put a stop to the hour long, soul destroying, heart wrenching, time of clean up!!! Or so I can dream LOL.