Our Family Needs Your Prayers

If my writing doesn't make a whole lot of sense over the course of the next few days, you may want to know that it's because I've been struck with grief and loss. Our entire family has. A very close relative has died while supporting Operation Iraqi Freedom. You can read more here.

It is very surreal at the moment. Tragedy has struck almost 3,000 US families since this war began but you never think it will happen to someone in your family.

I ask that you please keep his wife & baby daughter, his parents, and all of our family & friends in your thoughts & prayers throughout this very difficult time.

My heart goes out to anyone who has lost someone from this war or any war. I'm not a very political person and I never have been, and I don't care at the moment who's right or who's wrong. I just think our troops should be brought home.

Life is very fragile. It can come and go in an instant. All I ask is that you take some time out of your day to wholeheartedly truly appreciate your life and your family.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Political Views Part 1

I remember the day I registered to vote. I registered the opposite of our very small town's political views for no other reason than to be different and I made sure everyone knew. At the time I didn't even know what either political party even stood for . I just knew what I knew from what I had experienced in that small town and like most teenagers I wanted to be removed from that small town and I wanted to be different so my being different was in the form of my voter registration card.

Up until recently and what few times I actually voted, I voted the way I had registered. Mainly due to my own ignorance of what each party REALLY stood for and because I wasn't very interested in really knowing about political views at all in my late teens and early twenties.

Fast forward to the last presedential election, I don't think I even voted but I leaned toward the Independent party.

Anyway, I'm not really sure where I am going with this except to say that I think I know where my affiliation lies now and it's not what I am registered as.

If in writing this, I lose readers than so be it. It doesn't matter to me. Maybe I should just shut up and blog but that doesn't make much sense now does it?

You should read part 2 for this to make more sense.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

TV Night For This Mom

Tonight's lineup for me (I'm taking a break).

Jericho (My review: I wonder how long this show will keep my interest)
Lost (a fav of mine)
The Nine ( My review: Pretty good so far but I dont know how long they can work on story lines with them just being involved in a bank robbery gone wrong)

and cereal for dinner

Don't worry the kids are well fed and having fun too! Plus bed time is soon!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Introducing The Scary Pumpkin Man Costume

We finally went Halloween costume shopping on Monday and since we live in such a small town our only option was Wal-mart. Luckily they had an assortment of cute stuff to make your own costumes with otherwise we would have ended up with one of the generic costumes again this year.

Our 5 year old decided he wanted to be something really scary so he went through the isles and picked out a scary pumpkin mask, an axe, a cape, and some orange hair coloring. He said this was the scary pumpkin man costume. So in keeping the scary theme, our 2 year old is going to be a vampire. And if things go as planned the hubs and I are dressing up too. I got some stuff for a witch costume and I got the hubs a scary mask. I'm probably going to have to force the hubs to wear his. Got any ideas as to what I'm going to have to threaten him with? LOL.

We aren't sure on where we are taking the kids trick or treating. Last year we went to the shopping centers (who majorly skimped on the candy) and a few neighborhoods since this was our first Halloween in this town. It took us the whole two hours driving around and the kids didnt get a whole lot of candy. I assumed for 2 hours worth of walking, driving, and battling the crowds that there should be more candy than there was. LOL. Because mommy needs candy too!

This year we want to either find a better neighborhood where our boys can just walk all around or take them to the hubs parents 2 hours away so they can trick or treat there.

Only 6 more days to Halloween. What are your little ones going to be?

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

It Could Be A Block

My 2 year old son and I were building blocks this morning and he looked at what I was building and said, "Is that a door?" (which he pronounces doo). I said to him, "Well, it could be". Then he said, "Well, it could be a block".

I just had to share this since it was so cute.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Motherhood Fears

Last night the boys and I went to bed early and I fell asleep crying from watching Terms of Endearment. It seems like these days everything I read or watch ends up making me cry. I don't know if its hormones or the age thing or what. It just seems like so many bad things happen to good people. When you turn on the news you hear about a child being murdered by it's parents or someone killing innocent school children. Then I read stories of young moms battling cancer and I think what if this happened to me? How would I deal with it? Who would take care of my children if something happened to me or the hubs? What if they didn't know what my children loved or what their favorite things were? No one knows them like I do and no one else knows their routines as well as I do and I just could not imagine them ever being without me. Seriously, am I being irrational for thinking these thoughts?

Becoming a mother (and getting older) has made me realize more fears than I ever thought I would have but even with these crazy thoughts and feelings, motherhood is the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have a love that I never thought was possible.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Shameless Promotion: Check out what is posted today from our Halloween Theme Blogging at OurSmartBaby.com especially if your kids like Spongebob.

I also wanted to mention that two of my fellow work at home moms have put together a Halloween Costumes E-book. Check it out. Click here! They are also having a Halloween Costumes Idea contest where you can submit your ideas and win prizes!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Stop This Train

"So scared of getting older
I'm only good at being young
So I play the numbers game
To find a way to say that life has just begun"...

From Stop This Train by John Mayer Continuum.

This song's worth checking out. I think we've all had thoughts like this especially as we approach our late twenties or um, thirties... Yeah. Seriously. I'm fine. :)


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Check out the OurSmartBaby.com Halloween blogging from today till Halloween.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

This Sure Boosts A Girl's Confidence...

This was written by my hubs inside my birthday card and Salon gift certificate...



This included too:




I had a wonderful rest of the day... Thanks for all the happy birthday wishes. They were very much appreciated!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

It's My 30th Birthday!

Today is the big 30 and surprisingly I feel fine. It feels like any other day.

My two year old sang, "Happy birthday cake to you! Happy birthday cake to you!" and My 5 year old asked me if today was when I would start getting all those old people "brown spots" on me. What more could I ask for?

People said I would cry on this day but I'm definitely NOT. I'm not sad. I'm enjoying this beautiful and wonderful family that I have.

And how could I be sad when I get to eat more guilt-free chocolate cake & ice cream two days in a row? And since the hubs bought such a big cake probably 3 or 4 days in a row...

------------------------------------
Oh, and non blog related, I just put together a big list of Free Halloween Coloring pages, printables, and activities for kids right in time for the Halloween holiday. Print some out for your kids!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Photos To Your Right

Photos of our recent trip have been uploaded to my flickr account as promised. I'll be uploading more very soon. You can go to the right sidebar to view them if you wish.

Tommorow is my 30th birthday. We had my store-made birthday cake today after dinner since our 2 year old saw it and went nearly wild trying to get a piece of it. The hubs and our two boys sung happy birthday to me early then tore into the cake. It was Yummo!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

I Hope This Is NOT An Indication OF What 30 Will Be Like...

My emotions are all over the place and I know it physically does not have to do with me turning 30 years old in 2 days (Thursday is my birthday! Hint!Hint!) But obviously it has a lot to do with how I feel emotionally because, um, their emotions.

If you were to ask me right now how I am feeling, I would tell you that I am nauseous, nervous, scatterbrained, Wishy-washy not knowing what direction to take, and overall just an oversensitive weird mess. I still have "that" feeling of wanting a baby. I don't know why because for the past 2 years I have had the opposite feeling.

Do we really want a third child? I've even been looking at baby names. Am I going crazy? I'm not even pregnant and I'm looking at baby names and I already have names picked out. Yes, I think I'm going crazy. When and if my family read this very supposed-to-be private matter, they will be going crazy. They will be telling me to wait or they will wonder why I would ever want another child since we already have two boys.

I just really hope that all these crazies that I am feeling inside is NOT an indication of what being 30 will feel like. Tell me you have felt this way too...

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Being Absent

We got back home from our vacation early this morning and you know what I realized, I realized that I enjoyed being absent from blogging and from my computer immensely. I enjoyed being disconnected so much that I wish I never had to do this again. Well, not really, but sometimes blogging's just not fun when I have to force myself to think of something to write about during the week. I'm sure everyone knows what I'm talking about.

We had a wonderful time at the beach and this was the best early birthday present I could have asked for. We spent alot of time talking about where we wanted to live in the next few years, what we wanted to do and the possibility of adding to our family during our 10 hour trip there and 10 hour trip back.

Yes, you heard that right even though you've heard me say a thousand times that I didn't want to have any more kids BUT I can't get rid of this feeling inside of wanting another child to make our family complete. Maybe that feeling will pass or maybe it wont. All I know is that this time there will be a plan or atleast a plan for a plan... I keep going back and forth with what I want and how I feel and fear is the biggest issue. A part of me just wants this feeling to go away completely and make me feel the way I felt a week ago never wanting anymore kids so that I don't even have to worry about it. You just don't know how much this feeling has consumed me.

Anyway, this is it for now. I'll share some photos of our trip tomorow on flickr.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

And We're Off...

We are leaving early this morning for our mini-vacation/fall break, which at the moment, our plans are the beach almost 10 hours away and yes we are driving with two kids. We will be back Sunday night and we may or may not have internet access. If we do have access, you will hear from me. If not, I'll be here next monday.

Have a great week!

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Obsessions of a 5 Year old

I wanted to write a sentimental post today about my 5 year old son but everything that entered my mind was another one of his weird obsessions.

Another blogger, sunshine scribe, talked about her son's quirkiness not so long ago and that made me think more into my son's obessions, quirks, or whatever you want to call them. These things make me realize how much he is like me when everyone around us says he is just like his daddy.

And now I'd like to randomly present to you some of his obsessions:

1.) Living In a Video Game

On most days my son acts like he is in a game. For example, yesterday he was eating cheez-its(reduced fat) and every time he would put one of the crackers in his mouth he was talking to himself about going to a different level in the game by eating another cracker. He did this the entire time he was eating. I sat back and watched him and it seriously cracked me up. He was in his own little world. And, no, he doesn't spend too much time playing xbox or PS2.

2.) Anatomy

The boy loves the body and everything about it. He carries around a college-level anatomy book and questions it daily. He draws pictures of the body. He is very knowledgeable when it comes to parts of the body and what each one does. A few days ago we were in a store looking at Halloween decorations and there were those gooey body parts for sale. They had bloody ears, fingers, brains, livers,etc. Can you guess which ones he wanted to buy? Yep. He bought the brain and the liver and he is AMAZED by them.

3.) The Food Network

Every night before bedtime we watch the food network. Sometimes we watch Iron Chef (which I've mentioned here before) and sometimes we watch $40 a day with Rachel Ray or just whatever is on. He loves cooking and new recipes.

4.) Spongebob

I know lots of kids are addicted to Spongebob and mine is no exception!

5.) Geography

Memorizing, drawing, googling and collecting books & puzzles of states and countries is another one of his quirky hobbies.

Do your kids have any weird hobbies, obsessions or quirks?

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Young Lookin' Mamma

After the disastrous soccer game yesterday evening we took the kids to get an ice cream. Well, actually the hubs was the one who wanted the ice cream.

Anyway, as the lady was handing the hubs the ice cream she looked directly at me and said, "Oh. Is that too big? Would you like a smaller one?" And I could do nothing but burst out laughing and then she said to the hubs, "Well I saw how your daughter was looking at the cone and I thought maybe she wanted a smaller one". And here I was looking around thinking where's our daughter? Oh, right, we don't HAVE a daughter. You, lady, are talking about ME. I'm the mommy. The hubs was kind of in shock from embarassment even though he said he wasn't. He just told her no and we drove off all the while I was laughing.

I've said this before and I'll say it again. Do I really look that young? Does the hubs look that old? WTF people? And I think that is what brought on the discussion of why we have got to get out of KY. That and all the freakin uneducated/unaware/ non-involved parents running around here.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Things I Never Expected To Hear From My Husband

Today my husband cleaned the kitchen very thoroughly meaning he also mopped the floor & cleaned our stove. It even smelled good in the kitchen.

Anyway, an hour or so later he walks in there and says, "hmmm. You can't even tell that I cleaned the kitchen today" And I'm like (in my mind anyway) sucks, doesn't it?

And then in the car on the way home from a soccer game he says to me, "We've got to get out of Kentucky".

And those things are two things I never expected to hear from my hubs.

Got anything you want to share?

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

McSteamy A Regular?

It looks like McSteamy(AKA Dr. Mark Sloan or in real life, Eric Dane) is going to be a regular for this season of Grey's Anatomy. Is anyone upset? I didn't think so. For the full story and a photo go here.

Now, who to pick? Mirror Mirror on the wall who's the hottest of them all? McDreamy? McSteamy? McVet? McDreamy? McSteamy? McVet?

It's obvious that McSteamy has the best body of them all but sometimes perfect physical features aren't everything as evidenced in discussions over here.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

People Googling Each Other

You know what’s funny (or not so funny if you think about it) about blogging is that with blogging a person just gets a glimpse of your life with each post. And, you get to choose what they read. You get to choose what part of you they get to know. In real life it’s not really like that. With blogging, it’s kind of like your readers really get to know the person inside your head. They get to read what you are thinking. I’m more outgoing on my blog than in real life but aren’t we all? After all we are not face to face with anyone as we write what we do. But we do have to have the courage to at least publish it and that means something.

Lately I’ve been thinking about what people that don’t blog think about my blog. Did you know that such people really exist? Yep they do and they read our blogs. The non-bloggers probably think the personal bloggers are off their rockers. And, with this blog, I have NEVER been anonymous and you know what, that’s scary. Anyone at anytime can read my thoughts. I also noticed that my name was searched for over 130+ times last month alone and when you type that name in google you find me. You find this blog. WTF? And, I’m kind of hoping they aren’t looking for me. I’m hoping that I’ve just got a common name.

Sometimes I write things and then I’m like well what if I’m having dinner with my family and what if they read my blog before we come over for dinner. And then I’m like Oh God everyone is looking at me because what if they read my blog and they know via the blog that I just had some crazy hot sex last night or they read that I’m currently anti-public school or that I’m really a lesbian (but I’m not folks. Seriously. I’m just sayin’ for the sake of this post) or whatever. That’s where some serious awkwardness comes in. One can only hope that some people stay dumb and never find out what the Internet is. Gosh, blogging brings up some seriously weird issues for those of us that are read not only by others on the Internet but by our friends, families, colleagues, and co-workers (I don’t have any but my hubs does) Can you imagine?

Sometimes I wonder if old friends are reading this or gosh possibly old boyfriends or what if that new couple that we just met googled me and started reading what I wrote. Because, yes, people google each other nowadays. I know I do. If I meet you, I’ll google you because that’s what we crazy people do. And what if when my kids get older their friends google me or google this and use it too tease them? This blogging business is getting to me. I've just got to get a handle on it.

Ok and no more talk about blogging for a while because, yes, I'm thinking too much into it.

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage

Haunted By A Dream

I'm sure we've all woken up from a bad dream and it lingers for a bit but today mine is sticking with me. For some reason I can't shake the feeling and emotional pain from the dream. I've had a few of these type of dreams lately. I don't know what it means but that dream is haunting me.

Well, actually I think I do know what it means. It's probably because I've been watching so many scary movies lately combined with lots of junk food. And, the sad part is that these movies really haven't been scary. They've just been BAAAAADDDDD. Seriously. They are lame. Who comes up with this crap? I have found myself actually laughing in the last 2 supposedly scary movies that I have watched.

And you know what? It's October! Which means I'm going to be subjected to a whole month's worth of bad scary movies. Well, no ones going to be holding a gun to my head forcing me to watch but chances are that I'm going to curl up on the couch once the kids are in the bed and watch them anyway. Are you?

Why can't they make movies like The Shining anymore? How about the original Halloween? Now that was scary. What's your favorite scary movie? Any recommendations on what I should watch?

>Go to the Mom blog Homepage