Happy News

Here is a happy change from the usual depressing, death-related, and evil-natured news we hear daily.

Go to HappyNews.com for a daily dose of what is good in the world.

Quote of the Day
"Three grand essentials to happiness in this life are something to do, something to love, and something to hope for."
– Joseph Addison

Stressed

We are making life more stressful for ourselves this week.

I called the bank.

Wait! You don't get how that makes life more stressful? Really? Just saying bank makes my blood pressure go through the roof.

Okay, let me explain.

We NEED to redo our roof. There are wood shingles under about 6 layers of asphalt singles. Yes a genius used to own our home. So, while it is not leaking, it needs to be redone. The first estimate I got was 16,000. Owie. The second was for 9200.00. *wince* The third guy I called for an estimate came and looked at our roof and said, "I am not getting up there." and he left.

Obviously with 5 kids and one income, coughing up 10,000 dollars is not going to happen. So Billy decided we should call the bank. Then, my husband in all his wisdom, decided if we were going to get a loan to do the roof, than we should also just add in the garage (he wants to build) at the same time. Okaaaaaayy. So he leaves me to call the bank.

So I called, yesterday. They called back and said we were pre-approved pending an appraisal of our house. Which is great. Except the appraisal part. We bought our house in 2002 for 14, 900 dollars. Yes, that is U.S. dollars. Real ones, not monopoly money or anything. It is a great old house. It is merely the location, location, location. I called a realtor to see if she could give us an idea on the value of our house. Well they haven't sold a house in our area since we bought ours 5 years ago so she has no idea. How on earth are they going to find a value for our house? I don't know. So we have to tell them what we want to do with the house and see if that makes it worth enough to give us the money for the roof and garage.

I have been on the phone with builders trying to get the quotes in writing to send to the bank all day today.

I am stressed. The unknown just gets to me. Aaaaaaaaaaaah!

CFC

Last year I watched Celebrity Fit Club and loved it! It was so much fun to watch and see the celebrities get fit and healthy and have fun at the same time. It was emotional to watch them struggle and painful to see them try so hard.

I watched the premier of this year's show this week. Blah! None of the celebrities are obese or hardly overweight for that matter. And they cast Dustin Diamond (aka Screech). Which, upon watching the commericals, I thought would be fine.

Come to find out Dustin Diamond is not very sane. Or nice. Or, well..... human. He feeds off of people's weaknesses to avoid letting them get to know the real him. And he is running scared on this show so he takes a lot of cheap shots at everyone.

They have turned a good show into a Jerry Springer wannabe. I am tuning out this year. I hope they come back with something better next year.

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And on another t.v. note: I am sad that Rosie is going. I know many people don't like her or her views. I do not agree 100% with everything she says or believes but I think her heart is in the right place and she takes action. She puts her money and time where her mouth is. I will miss her on The View.

Woooohooooo!

We are forecasting highs in the 80's this weekend! Woooohooooo! I am soooo looking forward to the heat! Bring it on!

And now for my PSA:

I was reading my Prevention Magazine this month and it had an article about whole wheat pastas. Now I have mentioned before how my Mom was a HUGE health nut as we were growing up. I was never NEVER allowed to eat "white" noodles. Everything we ate was whole wheat or spinach noodles. Never white. So when I got to be about 12 and went to a friends house for dinner I was given white noodles. They looked sooooo weird to me. They were okay.

Fast forward about 20 years. I have eaten only white noodles now for many many years. I tried buying some whole wheat ones a few years back and it tasted like paste. Nasty! I vowed not to do that again. But.....

In the Prevention magazine they had some recommendations on GOOD whole grain pastas. The one listed as the 'best' was Barilla Plus. So on my last trip to Walmart I grabbed a box. It is slightly more expensive than the regular noodles but really wasn't too bad. I made goulash for dinner last night (tomato sauce, hamburger, and noodles) and the kids devoured it. My husband was the big test. He hates anything good for him but he ate them and said he couldn't tell the difference. I couldn't either.

So if you are trying to find a healthy noodle but one that doesn't taste like glue, go for the Barilla Plus. It is healthy and yummy.

Baby Spacing

Swistle is talking babies. And I am never one to stay out of a conversation about babies.

Specifically she is talking about baby spacing and the desire to have them. (warning: this could get long...but hopefully not boring...)

Billy and I married in 1993. We were also brand spanking new freshman college students in a city 8 hours from home and family. Despite all of that it only took us one year to decide that we wanted to start our family. We spent many nights lying in bed talking about getting pregnant and having babies and raising kids. Oddly enough the topic of how many never came up. I guess we both kind of went into it with a "we'll see" attitude.

It only took us three months to get pregnant once I went off the pill. We were ecstatic. And then 8 weeks later I miscarried. We bounced back pretty easily as I was only 19. I knew we could do it again. What I didn't count on was that it would take 9 months to do it. It was a long long nine months watching my panties every single time I sat on the toilet to see if anything had changed. I started searching the internet for baby related websites. And finally it happened. I got pregnant again. I was due January 14, 1996. By the end of my pregnancy, I couldn't fit in the college desks. Well, I could as long as I didn't put the top down. Thank goodness Christmas break came at that point. As a big Christmas surprise, Becca decided to be born the day after Christmas. We were so in love with our little girl.

I KNEW right away after I had Becca that I wanted to have another baby ASAP! Billy agreed. Since it took us nine months to get pregnant with Becca we decided we should start trying right after Becca stopped nursing. She gave it up at 8 months old. And I got pregnant the next month. No waiting that time. I was due June 10, 1997. Megan was born one week late on June 17. We were in love with our little blue-eyed blond haired girl. So Becca and Megan are 18 months apart.

After Megan, we decided we were done. Or rather, Billy declared two was good. We had a rummage sale and sold off all of our baby stuff when Megan was 18 months old. We moved to Colorado with our two little girls. I just felt I wasn't done. And I wasn't. After some yelling, crying, talking, and negotiating we got pregnant again. Megan was 2 years old by then. I was due November 4, 1999. Miss Cassie made her debut October 17, 1999. She was the littlest most precious bundle of joy. We were both in love, again. Then Billy declared we were done. Again. In my heart I knew I was not done.

After Cassie turned three I said "Just one more." Billy, due to a class in college where they said three kids is not good, agreed. He didn't want it to be two kids against one so we would have four. It only took four months for us to bet pregnant this time. I was due July 4, 2002. It was such a relief as I hunched over the toilet knowing I would never have to do this again. Mr. Bill made his debut a little early on June 21, 2002. I didn't think I would know what to do with a boy but I loved him. He is such a little heartbreaker.

(Of course we threw our adopted daughter in the mix and she and Cassie are only 8 months apart in age.)

And now Mr. Bill is four and we are done. My heart and mind both agree. Although sometimes my uterus will whisper at me. It is getting easier to ignore as the years go by and my mind can usually reason with my uterus. We are out of the baby stage, pregnancy for me really sucks, puking for 4 months and then the hip pain for the other four, labor hurts A-LOT, babies are cute but they grow up quickly, etc..... I can usually talk myself out of it. It is a kind of grieving process but I work through it one step at a time.

My husband is very much done and okay with it.

So God-willing, we are done. I think every woman has her point where she knows enough is enough. Logically I am there. I just have to convince my hormones to agree.

My little speller, part two

Do you think Mr. Bill can spell O-C-D?

Last night he fell asleep on the floor watching t.v. at about 7 p.m. Too much fun this weekend I guess.

So we put him on the couch with a pillow and blanket. We watched the news and then went to bed ourselves.

Sometime in the middle of the night he woke up. Instead of waking us he snuck into his room and got some pajamas on and then came to bed with us.

This is normal for him. Anytime he falls asleep in his clothes and he wakes up it doesn't matter if it is 6 a.m., he goes and puts pajamas on.

Back

I called the dentist this morning. I can't stand the pain anymore. Last night I almost started crying the pain was so bad. Took some Motrin and finally 10 minutes before bed the pain subsided.

So Monday I go back. I am scared. I know they will do something besides look. Pain.

And my sister will be gone tomorrow so tonight we are going to play. Yeah!

Have a great weekend.

In Hiding

There have been so many bad things going on in the world lately. Well actually, there aren't more. It is just that I have been allowing myself to pay attention to them.

As a kid you don't know about war, school shootings, and people dying. You are invincible and nothing affects you emotionally. Unless you just broke up with your boyfriend.

I like that comfortable and naive world. The older I get and the more I start reading and watching the more that wall of safety and ignorance gets chipped away.

This week we have seen over 30 students get killed because of a student who obviously has issues. Some people around me suspect he has RAD. The same diagnosis Marea has. In the end it doesn't matter does it? What matters is our safety is forever changed. And we know it. One more hole in that wall around us.

Then we hear daily about more soldiers and more people involved in the war have died from a car bomb or a shooting. Rosie is shouting because she thinks there is not enough coverage of the war and the deaths. I don't know what she reads and see but I hear it everyday. Everyday the news tell us how many more have died while we were sleeping. Another piece of that wall gets chipped away as we face the truths of the day.

And then another blogging Mommy is diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumor. A Mom with an unbelievable faith in God. A Mom with three kids who has already been challenged with so much. A Mom who could be any of us. ANY OF US. We take it all for granted but today it could all be taken away in one swift motion. A huge chunk of that wall around me just tumbled down.

It is too much to bear. I long for the days when life was carefree. You could walk out in the sunshine on a fine spring day and contemplate the activities of the day. You felt light in heart and spirit. Now those feelings are intermingled with fear, anger, depression, and the weight of the world.

Today, I want to put that wall back together and hide inside.

Playing pretend

Mr. Bill and Cassie were cooking me some (pretend) food today. I ordered a chicken salad, glazed baby carrots, and a water. Mr. Bill took my order and "wrote" it all down on his notepad.

First he delivered my salad. I 'gobbled' it up and handed him back the empty plate. Then he brought my carrots. I ate them too. Satisfied he took my dishes and went back to Cassie who was cooking.

I yelled, "Waiter!!!! Where is my water! I want my water!"

He yells back, "I put it right there. It is right in front of you!"

I looked in front of me at my pretend water and yell back, "I drank it all already! I want more!"

Looking at me rather exasperated he says quite calmly, "No you didn't. It is full."

"No it is not!" I tell him.

"Yes it is!" he responds.

"No it is not. I want it refilled." I tell him again.

He hangs his head and walks away.

Tired of arguing with me he whispers to Cassie, "You go tell her her water is full."

Just stopping by

My sister is going to be here all week and my husband has flown off to Vegas so I don't know how much I will be in here this week.

I will be back...

Our little speller

Mr. Bill frequently plays on the internet after he gets home from school. Last week he hopped on the computer and clicked on the homepage (which is set to noggin.com).

He was quiet for awhile and I assumed he had found a game and was playing. I looked up and saw he was typing something in the address bar.

I asked him what he was doing.

He replied, "How do you spell kids.org?"

"Why? What are you trying to type?" I asked.

"I want to go to pbskids.org."

"Well you have to type pbs first." I said.

His reply, "I know how to spell P-B-S! How do you spell kids.org!?"

Friday Updates

It finally stopped snowing on Thursday morning. Some of it even melted yesterday as it got into the 30's here. The rest should be gone by this weekend as it is warming into the 40's and 50's now. Finally spring has sprung, now that all my flowers are dead.

My mouth is still killing me. It is mostly from my teeth being super oversensitive. I have been living on Motrin for the last week. Hopefully my nerves will adjust and stop freaking everytime I put something cold in my mouth. Even room temp water makes my whole jaw hurt for hours. Dumb dumb teeth. The bill arrived in the mail yesterday too. 3000 bucks. Too much! Too much! At least now my teeth are fixed. At least that is what I keep telling myself. I just have to make sure I go get them cleaned every six months now to maintain.

We are on the last stretch of school now. About a month left and so all the field trips, activities, big projects, etc. are coming due. Which also means a lot of money will be flying out of my bank account. Such is the life of a family of 7.

Went grocery shopping yesterday. I spent 220.00 and the receipt was as long as Mr. Bill is tall. That is some good bargain shopping. (And wise food choices). It should feed us for about 3 weeks. I bought some new whole wheat pasta too (but that is another post). As I was walking around the store with two carts overflowing with kids and groceries, I wondered how many people probably assumed we were eating off of welfare/food stamps. We buy ALL of our food with our hard-earned money and DAMN it feels good. We have one income and five kids and we are self-sufficient. It made me feel sort of smug as I walked through the store. he he he

My husband's schedule is returning to a somewhat normal time frame. I had to giggle at your comment Andrea, since I have tried chewing my husband out over and over and over. He just doesn't get it. This time around we actually talked and I told him how it feels like he forgets we exsist when he is never here. And although I realize his workload is huge on weeks like this, he needs to realize so is mine because now there is no one here to help with the kids. I think you could call it a lightbulb moment for both of us.

And finally a picture to show that April snow does have some good in it. Although Megan was rather upset when she found a piece of grass in her snow cone. LOL

Excitement

LATE START FOR SCHOOL SINCE WE HAVE 8 INCHES OF SNOW! IT IS APRIL RIGHT?!

Now back to our regularly scheduled programming....
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A few weeks back I started a new tradition at our house.

After the dinner prayer has been said and we are all happily eating (or grouchingly pushing our food around our plates) I ask the kids what the most exciting thing they did today was. Then we go around the table and each kid tells what they thought the most exciting part of their day was.

I have to admit is was a sneaky way to get the kids to eat instead of playing and/or talking. What I have found though is now that they are used to doing this at the table the kids are coming home excited because they have something "reealllllllly exciting" to share at dinner time.

In fact the other day we ate dinner in front of the t.v. because the table was buried and Billy was working all night again and this momma was tired. Becca was soooo bummed after dinner that we never got to share our exciting things. So we did our exciting event of the day around the sink while the kids brushed their teeth before bed.

What are your dinner traditions?

Grumpy!

I am grumpy today.

It is snowing. Cold blowing windy SNOW all day and well into tomorrow.

My husband is working too many hours and doesn't want to hear it when I try to tell him so.

My kids are gone at school all day.

I can't keep the house clean like I want it to be.

My teeth and jaw are still throbbing from my dental procedure. This is normal for me and the reason why I don't go to the dentist. I did take some motrin this morning so hopefully I will feel better soon.

I am babysitting today and I don't want to.

I went to bed cranky and had bad dreams all night. So I am tired too.

Blah!

So tempting

It is inevitable. I have to accept it.

My baby boy is not a baby. The other day we were at the store and he was drooling over Ben 10 toys and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

And yesterday I realized it was time to start a new pack of bcp pills but I had forgotten to go to the pharmacy and pick them up. About 20 times it ran through my head to just stop taking them altogether and try for another baby. A baby. Who likes pacifiers, and reading books, and snuggling.

In the end, I took a pill from a partial pack I keep for a spare (long story) and went to bed.

It was so tempting....

Hoppy Easter To You

Have a happy Easter

filled with lots of

wiggles and giggles

and chocolate.

I am back

I am awake, alive, and almost pain-free.

I took my first pill at 7:00 a.m. yesterday. I was feeling lightheaded and dizzy by 7:20. It was good timing since I had to leave to get to the dentist right then. Billy drove me per the instruction the dentist gave me. I WAS NOT to drive myself.

I got there at 8 and got settled in a chair. They covered me with a couple of blankets and then the dentist came in and gave me some really nasty stuff to drink. GAG! And that is where my memories end.

I vaguely remember waking up a couple of times during the procedure (especially when they were doing the shots) but other than that I was out.

I woke up at 5:30 pm at home and I have no idea how I got here. :) I went to bed at 9 last night and slept all night. So nice.

My jaw is a tad sore today and I can feel some of the spots where they gave me the shots but it is not even bad enough for motrin. This is definitely the way to go for dental procedures. Not that I want to do it again.

Book Reviews

Since I am (hopefully) comfortably sedated and sleeping while the dentist is drilling away at my teeth right now I thought I would give you some book reviews of books I have read lately.

Sex Lives of Wives, Reigniting the Passion by Holly H. Hollenbeck

I was a little leery of this book up front but hey, anything that offers the promise of better sex is worth checking out. First off let me just say the author of this book totally gets it. She knows it is hard to be a mother, wife, and woman and maintain a regular sex life. But she also knows women need intimacy. She talks to real people and quotes them in her book so you see you are not alone. The main concept of the book is going on a "passion quest". She relates a passion quest to a vacation trip. In one section she talks about what to pack for a passion quest and what to leave behind. Here is a snippet of her list:

Leave Behind: "I better hurry and get to sleep before he comes to bed"

Bring Instead: "I better hurry and get into my sexy nightie and light the candles before he comes to bed"

Leave Behind: All your mental to-do lists

Bring Instead: Mental fixation on the sensation

Leave Behind: Wishes that things were better

Bring Instead: Plans for making things better

I think this author has it figured out and fortunately she wrote it all down for us. A lot of her concepts focus on thinking positive instead of looking for the negative. Check it out, you won't regret it.

How to Speak Your Spouse's Language by H. Norman Wright

Another self-help book. Let me just say this book did not help me with the situation mentioned here. (Which of course makes chapter 5 "I married an alien-but from what planet?" all the more relevant.)

Anyway, back to my review. This book gives us 10 steps to help us learn to communicate with our significant others. I found chapter 6 the most relavant to me. It is titled, "Who's Listening?" I am not the best listener. I am seriously gulity of planning what I am going to say while the other person is talking so I am not hearing what they are saying. Of course that topic is totally covered in the book.

The author said, "Listening to your partner means letting go of your concerns, wants, and investments in your own position long enough to consider his or hers. When you're doing the talking, you're usually not learning. When you're listening, you are."

Ouch. Lesson learned. I am trying really hard to be a better listener because really who wants to talk to someone who is not actually listening? Our preschool teacher is very very bad about this. I hardly say three words and she is nodding and mmmm-hmmmming and moving on to the next subject. It is frustrating because I feel like she is not getting what I am saying. How could she when I only said three words?

It is a slow process but in the end if I can communicate better it will be worth it. I sort of feel like I am back in speech class. Think before you speak. :)

I Like You by Amy Sedaris Hospitality Under The Influence

This book is ummmmmm, odd?

It is sort of a "How-to" for entertaining.

Sort of.

There are a few recipes scattered throughout the book. Lots of pictures that usually do not have anything to do with the text on the page. And some odd suggestions for parties with your friends like setting up a table near your door with items you would like to get rid of for a quarter each. I don't know but I don't think I would appreciate going to a friend's for dinner to find them operating a rummage sale at the same time. I don't know.

And the pictures of the author are um..... not kid friendly. The one with her holding drug paraphenlia seems very out of place to me. And the inside of the cover has a picture of her quite nude sans the frosting and sprinkles. This is not the kind of book I expect to see that in.

I think if she were on a comedy stage performing the material in her book this would be amusing. But since it is written in a book it is hard to make it funny as you read.

Not a coffee table book.

Now speak quietly amongst yourselves. Don't wake me.

Tomorrow is the day...

Cue the horror movie music now.

I am off to the dentist tomorrow for 8 hours of teeth repair. Fortunately I opted for being put under so I don't have to be awake for any of it.

Of course that doesn't stop me from being all nervous and anxious and scared to death!

Social Reject

I have managed to kill the one thing that keeps people from feeling totally and completely awkward when thrown in with a group of people they have never met. MOVIES! Everyone can talk about the latest movie they have seen. It is a sure-fire conversation starter right? Well yes, if you are not me.

The conversation goes something like this:

"Jodi this is Sarah. Sarah this is Jodi. She has five kids."

Our hostess walks away while Sarah stares at me with her mouth hanging open.

J: "Do you have any kids?"

S: mumbles something and shakes her head

J: "Are you married?"

S: shakes her head and looks at others around the room.

Okaaaaaay then. I have run out of things to talk about. Clearly this gal and I have nothing in common. As I am getting ready to cut and run Sarah hears a couple of ladies next to me talking about a movie they had recently seen. Her eyes light up and she laughs and asks me,

"Have you seen this movie? It is hilarious. I laughed through the whole thing. Well at least when I wasn't crying. I didn't want it to end!"

I smile and nod. Smile and nod.

S: "Oh and I saw this other movie* last week that was soooo boring. I mean really what were the producers thinking hiring HER for an actress. She couldn't get the part down at all. I wanted to leave right after it started!"

J: Smile and nod.

Sarah turns to the gals beside us and starts talking about the movie she loved leaving me standing there, alone.

And I wonder why I never leave home.

*she did name the movie but I can't remember what she said.

Booty Call

My husband has been working 20 hour days all week. I see him for 10 minutes as he puts his lunch together in the morning before he heads back off to work.

Friday night he came home early (if you consider 9 p.m. early). Not that he really left work, he just worked on the laptop from home. So I watched CSI and then headed off to bed. He followed me up the stairs with that boyish grin. I knew what he was up too.

I informed him I was not a booty call. Plus I hadn't seen him alllllll week. I need some cuddle time. So he rolls his eyes and says, "I might as well have stayed at work then."

It is nice to know I have some value to him. ***ROLLING MY EYES***

Men are NOT from Mars. They are from some unknown obscure planet where they all walk around with their feet in their mouths. It is the only way to keep them from saying something stupid.

I been critiqued

I submitted my blog over at Critique My Blog and here is what he had to say about my blog:

Is there really such a thing as organized chaos? Well when you have 5 kids there is plenty of material for your blog and this one is full of material. Started in 2004, it's fun to watch this story unfold and I've always liked to see how blogs began and how they transform over the years and kind of fall into their niche. This blog is definitely worth the visit with down to earth writing and a magic that makes you want to keep reading.

Of course if the review was bad I was just going to ignore it and pretend I never submitted it but since it is fairly nice I posted it for you to read.

Go on over and ask him to critique your blog. :)