Things I'm dying to share... another mish mosh post

Again I should be packing and I will go make some progress so that flyboy thinks I've been working hard. But I spent hours with two impatient kids at the hospital/clinic today so I deserve some me time dammit.

(By the way, dash-1 still kinda sick.)

So on to my list....
- I don't get the whole fake flowers outside thing. Really I don't get fake flowers inside but today I saw someone planting fake flowers in her yard. Yes, that's right, she was taking fake flowers out of the Mich@el's bag and putting them in holes she had dug in her yard.

And folks... she had a lot of them.

Maybe I'm just missing something. I mean I have a horrible brown thumb. Time and time again I thank goodness my children didn't come in pots with dirt cause they would have been toast a long time ago. But to actually dig a hole in your yard and put fake flowers in it?

Don't get it. At all.

- Flyboy the other day said I was getting "pregnant chick wide ass". He said it very matter of factly like it was some syndrome us knocked up folks get.

I forgot to put this in my other post and then when I remembered he told me not to post it. Apparently he is worried about what you all will think of him. And I can see why, this my friends, does not help his popularity now does it?

He claims he was kidding but it was hard to hear none the less. I blame pregnancy pants, compared wearing my usual low rise jeans I'm wearing pants that come up to my boobs. I get it, its not always a flattering look but really... now I have a wide ass?

Oh I'm a hot mess over here. And poor flyboy has to keep hearing me ask if I look fat in this... or that....

But frankly, that's his price to pay.

- I am a total tech idiot. I know most of you out there problem think I'm a computer wizard. I give off that impression (please note the sarcasm). I've been trying to figure out for as long as I've had this blog how to put the line thru my typing.

How in the world do some of you do that? I'm sure its right in front of my face. But if someone can clue me in I'd appreciate that.

- Sometimes I'm in awe of people who can go ape shit.

A woman today in the family practice clinic went nuts over how long the wait was and how they treat people down there. And I have to say, while I might not have had the balls to go berserk like her, she was spot on right.

Now I don't agree with the people who go crazy for no reason, I saw a lady lose it in Panera's once because she claimed some guy cut in front of her in line. I mean she was screaming and shouting at this poor guy and the kicker... she wasn't even in the line. And its pretty darn obvious since they have the cattle ropes up.

But the lady in the clinic was standing up for herself. Granted like I said she was a tad on the ape shit side of losing it but seeing as though I waited an hour for my appointment and then another 45 min at the pharmacy, I could really, really, feel her pain.

Me? I just sit there and take it. The doctor walks in and cracks a joke about running late and I just kinda smile instead of flipping out. The truth.... sometimes I just wish I had the balls to flip out. On someone.

This has taken me way longer to write since my peace and quiet of nap time (the only perk to the kids being sick) ended way to soon, so I should just cut the list here and go accomplish something. Like packing for vacation, lest we all want to run around the Magic Kingdom in our skivvies.

However that would clear out the park for us.

just so you know...

It's hot here. Like low 90's hot. You know the hot where you sweat behind the backs of your knees kinda hot. And we aren't stationed where its supposed to be this hot this early on.

Here's my beef with this: I'm all about the heat... in the summer. But it jumped from the low fifties to the high eighties overnight, or so it seemed. And I'm a little bitter. I had some cute long sleeve, 3/4 length sleeve shirts, and capri's that were just begging to be taken outside without an ugly jacket over top.

And I was not able to oblige. Now I'm sitting here in shorts and a tank top. Those shirts are lonely and sad, sitting upstairs in my drawer fearing they have lost their chance to be worn this season. Or possibly ever since they are maternity shirts.

The temps are supposed to break tomorrow but we hit the road for FL on Thursday and I'm going to go out on a limb and guess that it's going to be on the warm side down there. And I'm cool with that. It's Florida for goodness sakes and there will be a pool.

And central air.

Oh yeah, cause its 90 and we don't have central air.

I'm amazed at the number of people up here who don't. It's fairly obvious why in our case, we live in a farm house from the 1800's. Those poor saps didn't have a clue what they were missing out on. This poor sap does. And she misses it.

We have window units and they do cool but they are loud and in my humble opinion nothing is as wonderful as central air.

I'm amazed around here at how many houses don't have AC. Our landlord has three Ferrari's but yet he has window units. It came up in conversation once and he just figures its a waste to put it in. Putting it in can be expensive but personally, I'd sell a door to a ferrari and then sit in my underoo's on the couch enjoying my new AC. Flyboy sided with the landlord on this one, but seriously there are days I contemplate selling a kidney for central air.

Now I will give you we don't get really long heat waves up here, you get a couple days of miserable heat/humidity and then it breaks and you get a stretch of mid to high eighties. But still it gets hot here. And its hot now.

But you know one good thing about the heat? You don't have to shovel it like you do with the snow.

A mish mosh post

* I found a purple shirt that meets the approval of the men (that term is used loosely when referring to someone in elmo underpants and someone in a Diego pull up, really the two of them make up a fraction of the testosterone in the house but I'll still lump them in to the men category for now) in the house.

However, I think it was done in vain. Dash-1 seems to have some virus or something and will probably be spending color day on my couch watching cartoons.

For the past few days he's been going back and forth spiking a nasty fever and being lethargic. Then a short time later begging to play outside. I'm clueless.

When the fever hit 103.8 last night (for the third night in a row) I figured I should take him down to the dr.'s today. Of course at the dr.'s he was cute and cuddly and just chitter chattering away. Four hours later he's laying limp on the couch.

Why do kids do this?! And how... is there a manual out there I'm missing out on?


*We leave for vacation in a few days. I keep telling flyboy we should start packing.... yet I'm sitting here.

I'm sure you can figure out how well I have all that vacation stuff under control.

I'm just hoping we actually get on the road with everyone healthy and don't spend our vacation checking out various rest stop/Disney bathrooms because we now all have the runs. good times good times.

But... silver lining, maybe Disney will be empty.


*My pelvis feels like its splitting in two as I walk. I'm only 22 weeks, I fear this child may actually fall out of me at 30 something weeks if I feel like this now. But then again this is number three, I guess the body just goes quicker.


*Speaking of pregnancy stuff. I feel like a beached whale. This is not helped by the fact that when I point this out to flyboy (yes I know why point it out to them) he often replies with, "yes but your pregnant."

NOT WHAT I WAS HOPING TO HEAR.

Also while cleaning out the car/changing the oil, dash-1 found his tape measure, side note anyone looking for a gift for a four year old a tape measure is a HUGE hit. But my dear sweet husband tells my dear sweet child who was looking for things to measure to measure mommy's butt.

And of course.... he obliged. Gleefully. And he chimed it with "Wow". I'm pretty sure he didn't even know what the numbers mean but still. Not helping right now.

But I will take some blame. I'm hungry dammit.

And as you can tell... I'm all over the place.

Purple is the new pink

Dash-1 has color day at school on Tuesday. The color is purple. Apparently purple is closely related to pink. At least in my son's opinion. He keeps telling me he's not wearing purple. I asked flyboy to talk to him. Flyboy agrees....

with him.

Right now its kind of a non issue, seeing as though I'm getting a late jump on finding a "cool" (that's dash-1's key word for something that is made for a boy just as "pretty" or "cute" is for a girl) purple shirt. And wouldn't you know the boy doesn't own one purple shirt.

If olive drab (you know Marine green) is next month's color selection we've got that one covered no problemo.

I didn't realize it would be so hard to find a friggin purple shirt... or that it would be so hard to get my son to wear one.

I've got two days to find something. Or I'm just putting a purple bow in his hair. And dammit he's gonna like it.

Guilty Pleasure

Can I just say... Real H@usewives of NYC!

Oh where to start, first you have Luanne, the Countess who (is about to be an ex-countess perhaps one should not be doling out dating advice) is so damn obnoxious about etiquette.

Then you have Simon and Alex who's kids are just crazy wild. I don't often think that parenting should be criticized but then again don't parade your family on tv if your kids don't listen to you. Unless your on that Nanny show looking for help.

And besides, Simon is just a little creepy. Although his whole tennis getup was a hoot! He earned "might be human" points with me on that one.

Jill goes on and on about how with the economy she isn't going to be spending a lot of money on her birthday gift but goes shopping for a 16k purse. On top of redoing her ENTIRE house. And going on and on about loving pp's (private planes, I guess that's the riches idea of humor)

Again, disclaimer, these people obviously have the money to live this lifestyle and one would have to figure that they either worked darn tootin hard to earn it or married very well. If you have it and want to spend it then more power to you. I suppose.

I can't say I have much of a take on Ramona. She's a bit off kilter somehow but I can't quite figure it out. And her husband is a little weird too.

Oh and Bethany. The show is real housewives but yet, she's not a wife and doesn't have a house. She's not even divorced. I'm confused.

Doh, I forgot one, that new one, Kelly. She actually doesn't bother me too much. I saw her actually discipline her kids and ya gotta respect that. Even if her skirts are always waaaaaaay short and her boobs are just flying free. But hey much like the money thing, if you've got the body for it GO FOR IT!

I realize that editing is what makes this show. And for that I thank, really from the bottom of my nitpicky heart, the editors. It's classic how on this show they inevitably get the gals doing one thing and saying another. I LOVE IT. And that's why I keep coming back.

Anyone catch the snippets of the New Jersey version? WOW.

And I'm going out on a limb and say that I'm not the only one who takes pleasure in this show.... I know you all are sucked in as well.

how do babies come out?

Dash-1 is a tenacious kid, he gets that from his father of course. If he asks a question and I don't adequately answer it, it will be asked again. And again until the answer is sufficient enough for him.

And I know many of you out there are thinking "Geez he's four just sell him some line." Not that easy with him, he can smoke out bullshit like nobodies business. That he gets from his mother.

Lately he's been very into this whole baby situation. Most likely because I've popped and he also just found some baby book that was around the house with pictures of the baby in utero.

He's also a science geek so this intrigued him.

He gets that the baby is in mommy's tummy. He's bothered by how it got there and well flyboy and I haven't come up with an answer yet. He saw a picture of the cells so I played the whole "life starts as a ball of cells" card and he wanted to know where the cells came from.

Sticky eh?

Until this morning. He came up to me and asked how the baby will get out of my tummy once its ready.

Ummmm......

I looked at him and said, "That's a great question, I'll have to think about it and I'll get back to you."

He looked at me like I was an idiot, I told you he can sniff out BS, "But mommy, dash-2 and I came out so how did it work?"

Oh yeah, I forgot, I was there for that wasn't I? Shoot.

I'm not proud. I bribed him with candy and then emailed flyboy to give him a heads up that he better start thinking of something. I have a feeling this will be revisited again.

But then again I'm cool with just continuing to distract him with gummy worms.

Missing... again

Flyboy's little buddy is missing. Again. This is my husbands life line. He carries it EVERYWHERE and drinks what seem to be obscene amounts of water from it. And yes, it is water, I checked once in sheer disbelief that anyone could actually drink 10 giant bottles of water in one day.

This is the second water bottle to have disappeared in two weeks. And I had just replaced his old trusty one that looked like he dragged it behind his airplane with a brand spankin new cancer free one.

Only the best for my man.

To his defense the first one was most likely lifted while he was on the road, perhaps by someone he knows. I suggested he pounce on anyone who walks in with a rather new water bottle this week at work. He has declined. I don't have much going on in my life, but enough that while I thought about it, I'll pass up sitting all day in the parking lot to see if I see anyone walking in with it.

The second one just disappeared last night. Vanished. It was here one minute in his hands and then when he got home from running he couldn't find it. By that point the boys were asleep and I was certain one of them had "snagged it" and would show me where it was in the morning but so far no go.

Although dash-1 and I did have a five minute debate on the color. Is it gray or is it dirty blue? And dash-2 kept mooing like a cow. I doubt the cows had any involvement in this. But there is a shifty one down there....

Seriously though, where could this thing have gone? We checked everywhere. Under the boys bed, in their playroom, in the laundry room, the bathrooms, the pantry, EVERYWHERE.

All right he checked everywhere, I helped looking some and then stopped for some ice cream, but to my defense it was coffee ice cream folks. And I was having a little heartburn.

So despite my cheapness, ten dollars a bottle folk, and despite the fact that they aren't sticking around very long lately I'm off to get a new one for my dear. I mean really, last night he had to resort to drinking water out of a huge elmo cup with clown fish on it. And I mean they were clowns. It was embarrassing. And no I'm not sure why he couldn't use a regular cup, I guess he likes a lot at one time.

This time I'm going to craft a tether for his water bottle. He'll be so in style.

People say the damndest things... to kids

I meant to post about this when it happened a couple weeks ago but who knows, no doubt one of the dashes did something that made me forget about it. Until we went back to that store this weekend and as we were loading up the car I smacked my forehead and told flyboy I had totally forgotten my blog worthy story about S@m's club.

Or at least I think it's blog worthy but then again I control this little space now don't I?

I do so love S@m's club. It's like a toy store for adults. I mean you never know what in the world they are going to have in there. Usually I'm going for our household staples, bottled water, fruit (my boys, especially the grown one can pack that stuff away), you know boring stuff like that, but I still wonder around.

Oh and the GIANT 87 cent fountain coke that comes in a wonderfully delightful Styrofoam cup so that it doesn't sweat, insulates like a dream, and keeps the soda oh so fizzy. Seriously that's why I'm really there.

Anyways we were getting our cart checked out as we were leaving the store, because you know in warehouse stores people stealing 20 pound vats of mayo is a real problem so they need to check everyone, dash-1 was sitting in the back of the cart playing with an airplane glider toy of his.

Dash-1 shows it off to the guy checking our cart and starts talking about airplanes. The guy says this, "I don't do airplanes. I don't trust them. They fall out of the sky."

They fall out of the sky.

I swear dash-1 looked like someone had just kicked him in the balls. His eyes were HUGE. And for once he was speechless.

Just staring at this ginormous guy (really he was like 300 pounds) with his eyes wide and his mouth hanging open digesting what he had just said.

The checker guy is kinda wondering why this kid is staring him this way I'm sure so I just politely took my receipt and explained that my husband flies for a living. A lot.

To which he replied again, "I don't get why kids don't like me." I guess dash-1's starring wide eyed with a gaping mouth was getting to him. Which he was still doing.

But really, your wondering why my kids haven't taken to you? You just told a kid playing with an airplane that they fall out of the sky. Yowza. Talk about a conversation killer.

And the worst part.... I must admit. I found this whole exchange kinda funny. Ya know in a "people say the strangest thing to total strangers"-"awkward silence and strange facial reaction" kinda way. Really. Trust me, it was kinda funny.

And then when dash-1 came to his senses later in the car and shoot back with maybe that man's plane falls out of the sky "cause he's a REALLY REALLY big". Even funnier.

All I want...

for Mother's day, after much deliberation and thinking, are children who listen.

I mean REALLY listen. No mani/pedi necessary for me (although it would be nice if your reading this flyboy) just a day where I say things one time and one time ONLY.

However, I'm a realist. That and flyboy keeps telling me that I'm getting a Disney vacation so I might as well give up on the listening kids. In that case I'll settle for a card.

But a small word of wisdom for all of you with moms out there, for her one day a year, just listen to her. If you're out at lunch and she tells you to sit up, don't roll your eyes just do it and smile. Hell just do it, we moms don' t care if you smile we just want you to listen.

Just once a year.

I have a new love

And my husband dislikes it.

I found these while shopping in Target with my mother in law and she talked me into getting them. She wanted to buy me a couple of maternity things and she swore the leggings would be comfy.

Holy crap. She was right. I'm wearing them right now and I might not ever take them off.

Why hasn't this legging craze taken over? Or has it? I'm hardly a fashionista so what the hell do I know. But really these things are amazing. I tried them on and to quote dash-1 I was like "Oh snap!".

(Yes I taught him that in jest. Come on its hilarious to hear a four year old say that. And his father hates that too so it just fuels my fire.)

But back to the leggings, I modeled them for flyboy last night and perhaps hate is a strong word to use but he did tell me not to leave the house in them. And I'll try to oblige, but they are that comfy folks. Really I might contemplate leaving him for these pants. I'm hoping I can find a cute long shirt to wear with them and hide my ever expanding derriere and then he too will be on the bandwagon. Maybe he'll even want a pair.

Why is it whenever you find awesome pants or skirt and you are just in need of an equally awesome shirt you can't find it?

And who else out there is on the leggings bandwagon?

Did you check who you sent this too?

First let me just say a GIANT pet peeve of mine is when people hit reply to all on an email. It's often not the case that everyone on said email list needs to read the reply.

People, check, double check that your not hitting reply all.

Especially when your hitting reply all to an invitation to the monthly coffee hosted by the CO's wife and your calling her out on when she scheduled it and some other "drama" issues around the base. And you just aired all your dirty laundry and predisposition to be "the base" crazy wife to any and all wives on that list.

And no it was not me that hit reply all. I'm just sitting on the sidelines wondering what the heck is going on that I obviously know nothing about!

And shoot, maybe I'll actually go to this month's coffee.

But again, lets just go over this one more time. Check, recheck, and recheck again that you did not just hit reply to all.

It is offical now...

Come the end of August/beginning of September I will in fact be the mother of THREE boys.

We had the big 20 week ultrasound today, actually I had it, flyboy accompanied me but I was the only one who had to drink obscene amounts of water and then hold my pee to the point where I didn't think I'd be able to actually walk to the ultrasound room from the waiting room.

Seriously folks, I asked flyboy to just drag the chair I was sitting in down the hall but he just gave me the look. You know, very similar to when I asked him for cake at 9:30 pm awhile back.

Any who, it would appear that we are in fact the proud parents of yet another little boy. And a stubborn one who didn't want to cooperate, but then again, the two we have already are pretty stubborn too so its to be expected.

I am curious if anyone has any good name suggestions. Since this is our third boy we're running low on boy names. I like Thomas, flyboy likes Seamus. Yeah hard to believe I'm not jumping on board with that one isn't it?

Any suggestions? We tend to go with the classic type names, we just aren't trendy people. But at this point any and all suggestions will be taken. I mean flyboy thinks that Seamus is still on the list.

And don't worry, this one will also be known as dash-3. Who would I be to mess up a good thing. I think I'm even going to make up a bloggy announcement with all our "names" on it. Cause I'm a dork like that.

By the way, my mother in law is in town for a few days so my commenting and posting might be lacking. But fear not I'll be back in full form in a few days.

All right people, get thinking, I can't call this kid Seamus.

Happy Easter!

Hope everyone in blog world has a happy and blessed Easter!

Talking in circles

I was going to post about this last night and then I thought hmmm flyboy will read this and wonder why I ever say more then I need to. Why you ask? Because its a sickness. Sometimes my mouth moves faster then my brain, or rather it just moves in spite of it.

Last night the phone rang and it was an out of state call, I only answered it because I didn't want to wake the boys and last time I tried turning the ringer off mid call I accidentally answered it and well, lets just say it was an awkward time to be answering the phone. (flyboy was home wink wink)

So I answer and as soon as I say hello I hear this deep voice rattle off that he was calling from (insert the squadron's info here). First I should say that over this past trip most of what flyboy was doing was night missions, had I not just talked with flyboy on yahoo for a few minutes I might have passed out. The squadron doesn't call often and its hard not to let your mind jump when you get what sounds like an official call. (I know I know they come to the door but still, minds jump)

The call was probably not the highlight of the young Lance Corporal's night.

him. "I am verifying that this is the contact information for (insert flyboys rank and name here)."

me. "Yes" and then I felt the need to expand. Why? Again because my mind moves without consulting my brain. So I continue, "But this really isn't the best number to get him at, do you all have his cell phone number? He's always on the road, I mean he's not at this number now he's on the road."

(This was why I didn't blog about this last night I thought flyboy would crap a brick if he knew I offered his cell phone number to the command, but really they all have it anyways.)

him, sounding puzzled "Ma'am I don't need to contact him now, I just need to verify that this is the best way to get a hold of him."

me "Oh I understand that, I'm just saying that really this isn't the best number to get him that his cell is because well, he's always with that and spends a lot of time away from this number."

I should explain too that I am not always a hundred percent sure of where he is and what his schedule is so the theory that they can call here doesn't make sense, it seems like a giant waste of time. Just remove the middle man. I'm guessing that if the squadron needs to get him, well then they need him ASAP.

I'm sensing that this is not going anywhere, honestly, probably best not to argue my point with a Lance Corporal who got stuck with verifying info at 8:30 on a Thursday night. So I let it go.

me. "Yes this is the best number to get him at.

him. "And (repeating our address) is the address that he is located at right now."

Right about now is when I thought my head might explode. "Well yes. Except you know when you guys send him somewhere else. Like he is now."

And that ended that.

I didn't bring this up to flyboy when I talked to him today. I thought he would be peeved that I couldn't just keep my answers to yes and no. But apparently another wife was a bit miffed about the call and while she too had talked to her husband he told her that they were just about to go flying and then she gets a call an hour later just asking to verify her address. Again the mind wonders folks.

This is the problem with squadrons. You think squadrons and you think that everyone is living the flying lifestyle. Hardly. The percentage is tiny of those doing the bag drag.

I think next time around the squadron needs to a. not do the calls at 8:30 pm when my husband is out doing night flying and b. take into account that there will be some people getting this call while their hubs are away and change the speech a tad right off the bat.

But primarily, don't call at 8:30 pm. Note to the squadron.... this does not make for happy wives.

Oh the Places You'll Go

When I graduated from college my aunts gave me, along with some other things, a copy of Dr. Seuss's Oh the Places You'll Go. I must admit, I never looked at it. I put it on my shelf with other books but it sat unopened for a few years.

Years later I wasn't even the one who would open it, flyboy found it and wanted to know why we hadn't put it with the other kids books. He is a Dr. Seuss fan, me, eh I can take it or leave it. He started reading that book as often as dash-1 would let him. He'll kill me for typing this but there is a point, sometimes I would see him put the book away and I would swear to you his eyes had tears in them.

The night before last dash-2 picked out his book that he wanted read and sure enough it was the old fave, "Oh the Places You'll Go". Last night something was different I really heard the words that I was reading. Actually I didn't just hear them I felt them and understood them in a different way.

You have brains in your head.
You have feet in your shoes
You can steer yourself
any direction you choose.
You're on your own. And you know what you know.

And YOU are the guy who'll decide where to go

That little passage is in the first few pages of the book. And that's what snapped me to attention.

Something is missing these days. Personal responsibility or whatever you want to call it. The willingness and ability to stand up and say, I am going to go about making life better for myself, I am responsible for me. This book is preaching that.

Not every path leads to a rosy outcome. Not every choice we make leads to lollipops and candy canes. You stumble, you fall, but ultimately you learn from it.

I know that I am lucky. I've had a very nice life. I am not naive in knowing this, but I really do believe that no one out there is so stuck in a ditch that they can't find their way out. Will the way out be easy? Will there be big bumps in the road? Yes but ultimately the choice is ours. Be it joining the military, learning some trade, taking classes at a community college and working towards a degree. There are options out there. I'm not saying everyone out there has to be a doctor or hold some fancy degree. But to be able to provide for themselves, to be able to stand on their own.

You can get so confused
that you'll start in to race
down long wiggled roads at a break-necking pace
and grind on for miles across weirdish wild space,
headed, I fear, toward a most useless place.
The Waiting Place...

...for people just waiting.
Waiting for a train to go
or a bus to come, or a plane to go
or the mail to come, or the rain to go
or the phone to ring, or the snow to snow
or waiting around for a Yes or a No
or waiting for their hair to grow.
Everyone is just waiting.

Waiting for the fish to bite
or waiting for wind to fly a kite
or waiting around for Friday night
or waiting, perhaps, for their Uncle Jake
or a pot to boil, or a Better Break
or a sting of pearls, or a pair of pants
or a wig with curls, or Another Chance.
Everyone is just waiting.

NO!
That's not for you!

Somehow you'll escape
all that waiting and staying.
You'll find the bright places
where Boom Bands are playing.

I hate how there is an attitude of "something is owed to me" in this country. And this isn't a political thing, to me its a cultural problem and its fast becoming an epidemic. People are content to wait, wait for someone to step in and fix the problem for them instead of grabbing themselves by the bootstraps and doing it themselves. But that's not how it should work. Do people need a helping hand at times, yes of course, but they shouldn't be raised to depend on it.

Every child should be read this book from the time they are the dashes age. They should be read this book every night, until the idea that they deserve more then just waiting becomes some kind of second nature thinking. That they are good enough, smart enough, to tackle not only the paths that are clear but the ones that are scary. That when they get lost they will find themselves.

Every parent should read this book to their kids, with tears in their eyes, because they believe in their child and their child's potential. Because they know that life will not always be easy or clear cut, but that they are lessons that must be learned. And most importantly that it will be up to them to make their destiny.

And just so you know, really, I'm not naive, I don't think that reading this book will solve all the country's let alone the world's problems, I just wish it would.

Tax day tea party anyone?

I don't often get political on here, usually its puke or poop stories, and I'm not going to delve too deep into it here. I know that there are some who don't see I to eye with me on politics who read this, I don't agree with everyone on their politics, so let's agree to disagree.

However, with April 15th fast approaching there is more talk about the grassroots Tea Parties that are springing up all over. I suppose I mean if your listening to talk radio and fox news, I don't know how much coverage they are getting in the rest of the media. Some more info here and even more here (plus you can find a party near you).

Flyboy will be home for the 15th and he had mentioned going to the one close to us, I must admit I'm curious to go and see what other folks have to say. We'll see what's up with the kiddos and if my mother in law is tired of them yet!

To bad we aren't close to the Alamo, Glenn Beck will be at that one and Sean Hannity will be down in Atlanta. That one isn't close to us either. Darn.

But I am curious, is anyone out there planning on attending one?

Coming to me for help?

Someone found my blog by searching for "help overcoming irrational fears".

Something tells me they didn't find what they were looking for. Sorry about that. And I hope they didn't have a fear of their trunk flying open while driving or the postman reading their magazines in the loo.

I'd hate to think that they came here looking for a solution and left with yet another irrational fear.

My drive for a deal has come to this

I wrote a post back in August about buying a camera. I knew exactly which one I wanted, in all the searching I wasn't looking for the best camera, I was looking for the best price. I went in circles and made myself crazy and dragged my feet at the money.

Well I did it again. And this time I am feeling shame for what it was. Nothing frilly or something that you could brush off as something unnecessary.

No it was an allergy alert bracelet for dash-1. Yes, I am THAT BAD. I am hanging my head in shame over here. What mother puts off buying that?

Of course, what mom then goes on to blog about it, but that's neither here nor there....

To my defense, he's four, he's not really striking it out in the big bad world by himself, I was buying it for vacation in case he got lost in Disney. I have some time. But still, that's a weak defense I know.

I am spilling all this tonight because I was finally going to take the plunge and buy it. I found him the perfect one, it wasn't girly or sissy and it had a super cool strap that he picked out. I filled out the order and since I've spilled this much, I did kind of hiccup at the price and couldn't figure out the exchange rate stuff (its from a small company in Australia or New Zealand, somewhere out in that part of some ocean) so I put it off.

Again to recap, I put off ordering my son's allergy bracelet. Oh God, I can hear child services coming.

And then I started the searching around to make sure I was getting the best price. And now I can't find the original. I can't believe I forgot to save the link. Or remember the store name. DOH!

So I felt that I should share this with all of you, while simultaneously searching the Internet high and low for this bracelet. Should anyone from the Mother of the Year award committee be reading this email me so I can send you my address. You know for the big award and all.

*Update* Thanks for those of you who had suggestions of where to look. In my searching last night I found the bracelet and a US company that sells it. Now I just have to figure out the wording.... severe allergy to peanuts/eggs or anaphylaxis reaction to eggs/peanuts? Is anaphylaxis a common enough term? I'm starting to think I just make things difficult....

Thankful

I am thankful.

I am thankful for my sweet and loving husband, who despite having to be away so much always thinks of us at home. No matter where he is, what he is doing, even in the times that the Marine Corps must come first, we are always first in his heart. I know this and I am thankful for him.

I am thankful for my sweet little boys. Try my nerves as they might, they bring love and joy into my life. With them I get to see life the way it should be, I get to stop to examine the grass, lay on my back and watch the clouds float by, and debate the finer points of peach applesauce or sour apple applesauce. Without them I wouldn't get to be a mama, I wouldn't know what it's like to love truly and wholly, I wouldn't know what a true laugh sounds like, or what a true smile looked like.

I am thankful for my parents. Now that I am one I feel like I should apologize and bow to them at the same time! They are always there for me to lean on, turn to, or call on. They raised me right, put me thru college, and now they are willing to babysit whenever they are able. I know the raising was tough and college cost a lot but lately I'm more thankful for the free babysitting when your around.

I am thankful for the roof over our head and the security of flyboy's job. At times it may suck but thank goodness its there!

I am thankful for our health (and on that note our health insurance). We may deal with some blips here and there with dash-1 but nothing we can't easily manage compared to some of the heartache and pain others have to face. Nuisance? Yes. But really, nothing more then that. And trust me, for that I am so thankful.

I am thankful for the little things in life. Pink lemonade, watching Phineas and Ferb with the boys, coca cola, easy bedtimes, phone calls or emails from flyboy in the middle of the day, comments to post (yeah I'm not gonna lie), nice weather, a good pedicure, flip flops.... the list goes on.

I. Am. Thankful.

its a whine!

Today is shaping up to be one of those days.

(In case you can't tell this is a little bit of a whiney post. I'm in one of those moods I wont lie. Just so I cover my bases, yes I love my kids, yes I love my husband, and yes I realize we choose this "lifestyle" and it could be worse. Now can I go on?)

We are back from our little adventure. My friend was saying that play dates should last about 2 1/2 hours. There is a reason for that.

Towards the end of their time together they couldn't help to get snippy... about everything. This makes for stressed out mommies. Especially when both daddies are away and we know we still have about a week of solo time. But all in all it was a fun time and nice to get a little break from the loneliness when flyboy is away.

The house is a mess, the kids aren't listening. I just want to lay on the couch. But really, the house is a mess and my mother in law is coming in seven days. Trust me, it will take that long to make ANY progress. So there is laundry to do, decluttering to the tenth degree, vacuuming, bathrooms to clean, dishes to unload, a playroom to .... I don't even know what could be done to that room, bedrooms to pick up.

Really I don't know how the house gets like this. Ah that's right, the cleanest one of all is away. That probably has a lot to do with it. (Read : everything to do with it)

And of course, the boys are experiencing selective hearing today. Severe selective hearing.

Ohhh and there is shoe shopping to be done. The stride r!te sale ends today and it makes more sense to by the shoes when they are on sale vs. when they aren't. But in case you aren't aware, kids shoe shopping is not as exciting (nor ever as easy) as shopping some cute sandals.

Especially boys. It would seem that our taste are a tad opposite.

And of course, flyboy has the day off. That's sticking in my craw a bit, I'm not going to lie. He's getting a day of peace and I'm feeling a tad at the end of my rope. (I know I know he's away from us, missing us terribly, blah blah blah. I get it...)

**update - I called flyboy and despite being a little groggy, he very patiently listened to me ramble then I sat the boys down for a lecture with their father via speaker phone. It worked for 5 mins and then the selective hearing kicked in. But a. kudos to flyboy for the help and b. I feel better knowing that the little one doesn't care to listen to either of us, just not me. **

All right enough whining and enough time wasting. I shall pick up my mopey arse and start getting something, ANYTHING, done. And perhaps I shall treat myself to a tuna sub for dinner tonight.

mmmmmmmm... tuna salad.......pardon me while I dream about my craving of the moment.....

ew

I just threw up and it splashed back into my eye and now my eye is stinging.

This is a definite low point.

I have survived the day

Despite where we are stationed, I have never, ever, ventured near the "city". Now don't get all excited and think I grew a pair or anything I'm not in "the city". But I am in one of the boroughs.

And my friend tells me that its the most suburban of them all. I'd shoot myself if I had live this close to people. It took us 45 mins to make it home 15 miles. And that was good time apparently.

Her husband is away just like mine, she's frazzled just like me, her kids are climbing off the walls just like mine, she had zero plans for this weekend like me, and the kids really miss each other, so here we are. I made it down in one piece and thanks to the GPS my dad got me for Christmas, that I swore I would have no reason to use, I made not one wrong turn.

The kids got along famously, I mean one or two fights here and there but we started with four kids and we are ending the night with four kids.

The only downside of the day was dash-1 turning down his first marriage proposal. Apparently marriage does not seem fun enough for the young lad to commit himself just yet.

I'm not sure what tomorrow holds but today's adventure has turned out just fine. And now we are going to enjoy kid free peace and something that this state does extremely well... pizza. Actually its "The worlds best pizza" I shall report back to you all on that.

I know your on the edge of your seat on that one aren't you?

I knew it!

Erika left this comment about the postman post, "My step mom's People magazine used to get read by the post people too. She once found food stuck to her magazine. The post person must have had used it for reading material during lunch break. Some people have a lot of nerve!!"

I just wanted to let you all know I am now officially paranoid. If its read during a lunch break... why not in the bathroom? I'm cringing folks. CRINGING over here.

But thank you Erika for validating my worst fear of what maybe happening to my mail. Without you all my husband would just think I was just being nuts, apparently I have a tendency to sometimes go off the deep end with certain far fetched things. Like car trunks flying open as you are driving.

Hard to believe right?

But now, now I have corroboration. In writing.

no husband bashing here

I hate husband bashing. I've said this before on here, I just don't see the need for it and quite frankly I think its horribly disrespectful to your spouse and to your marriage.

Now, I do think the occasional funny husband tid bit or talk of what they do that drives us crazy is ok. In fact I think both make great blog material when handled in a funny, none hateful way. But the bashing is to me just disgusting.

I found a mommy board online for the local area. I thought it would be a place to trade parenting tips, cute stories, and find playgroups. I found the board before I had started blogging and honestly I thought I would find the community there that I have found here. It was ok at first, but then again ever notice how crazy people always seem normal at first?

I've pretty much stopped posting or expecting to get anything out of that board. I did meet one very lovely person on the board who has kids oh so close to my kids age and her husband is also military. Well Coast Guard but potatoe/potato (I'm only kidding brie, she also reads this now so no coastie jokes). Finding her was nice, finally my kids had someone else who understood that daddies go away and I had a military spouse friend.

Anyways I still do check in on the boards to see what people have posted. It's like a sickness, I guess its some form of voyerism. But all they do is husband bash. And I'm talking some NASTY stuff.

And let me tell you how that board was lit up on valentines day. One woman was pissed because her husband bought her a box of nice chocolates and she had just lost some weight. And just an fyi she was ripping into how stupid he was and I believe the a hole word was used. Sweet Jesus cut the poor guy some slack or hey, hears an idea, appreciate that he's home with you. Perhaps he was a little clueless but maybe just maybe he was really trying.

Wanna make a bet her appreciative ass isn't going to get anything next year!

All these women do is complain about their lives and their husbands. They do everything, they cook, they clean, they alone take care of the kids.

Ummm what's funny is their exaggeration really is our life isn't it folks!

It hit me some tonight when I was talking to brie and we were talking about how much our kids miss their dads and how much we "ask" of them (and how they were driving us crazy but that's not really crucial to this story). Small example, Dash-1 is so excited, he is bursting because when flyboy comes home he will be home for an entire week.

Awkard moment, flyboy isn't a 100% sure of his schedule so lets home that he can pull this one off.

I always wonder when I read these hating husband post, how much of it is that their lives really suck or how much is just the woe is me syndrome that we all fall into. Can I just say I want to post "Get over yourselves bitches" so bad. So bad.

But I'm not an idiot I know how that would go over.

I don't want to make it seem like I'm using the "my life is harder because of the military" card. I hate to make it seem like I think I have it worse then these women. That would make me no better then them. And the last thing I want is that! I have a great life, I'm blessed with my beautiful boys whom I get to raise, I have a wonderfully solid marriage, and I'm lucky to have a husband who would move heaven and earth for me.

And best of all, I realize that.

And like someone said in a comment a couple days ago, perspective is everything. These woman need to get some perspective.

Hmmm, this was supposed to be a much funnier post, it took a turn somewhere...