24

The past 24 hours or so in a nutshell

-baby boy seems to either have teeth coming in or reflux issues acting up because sleep is non existent. Sunday night he didn't go down till after 11 and proceeded to wake up about 45 mins later, then 2 hours, then an 1 hr, then 2, you get the point.

He started to do the same thing last night so I just brought him into bed with me, since flyboy's away and we got a king bed last year there is plenty of room.

I learned something last night, despite diapering for the past 5 1/2 years nonstop, one can not accurately put on a diaper in the dark at 2 am.

He peed all over the bed. All over flyboy's side thankfully.

However, the great bed we got? A really nice sleep number that despite paying 2k for I balked at spending the 50 bucks for the mattress protector and keep putting it off.

And now the baby has christened our bed.

Lesson learned.... buy a bed protector and turn on a damn light to put on a damn diaper.

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-Dash-1 and dash-2 played nicely yesterday in the front yard for quite a bit of time. Only when I went in for a closer look did I realize they were attempting to dig to China. Several small holes at a time. With our nice dinner spoons.

And what hole to China is complete without filling them with bottled water to make expensive mud.

In case you're wondering I do pay attention to my kids.

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-Dash-1 proceeded to tell someone in the line at Target that his dad likes to empty soda bottles so that he can blow them up over the house in the front yard while he helps.

Panic in the old ladies face would have been an understatement.

Oh he also told her that his dad wacks him in the face with his sword.

What he left out was mildly important.... you know that the soda bottles were perfectly safe water rockets, empty soda bottle, bike pump, water, and a stopper and you're good to go.

And the sword? Nerf. Cause if it's nerf we have it. Thankfully he didn't tell her that daddy shoots him in the face with his belt fed nerf machine gun. No doubt he wouldn't get that one out right.

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-Back to dash-3's reflux, he was making weird sounds yesterday so I picked him up and wouldn't you know he up chucked all over me. Well less all over me and more right down my shirt.

Into my bra.

Delightful.

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-We have exterminators coming tomorrow to blast thru a wall in our basement and suck out a giant honeybee hive. When they first came out they said this could go easy or difficult. I just laughed and told him to start figuring out the difficult plan.

Sure enough, we have a whole friggin colony in the wall. You can't just kill the bees, you have to open up the wall, remove the comb, get out the honey and the queen.

Little did the queen bee know that there is only room for one bitch in this house and she'd be me.

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-Attended a meeting today to go over dash-2's speech evaluation report. Shocker, he does need some speech for articulation.

Another shocker, when they told me that the downside of really smart kids is that they can be tough to manage. You don't say?

Let's we forget I have holes to China in my front yard.

New to Blue Bird Crafting

I just uploaded some super cute things to my mom's etsy store

{I'm the tech brains behind the operations.... kinda scary huh?}

Anything here strike your fancy?

And everything comes, in very nice packaging and ships {usually} within 24 hrs.

Oh and don't forget these gems.....

Favor

I have a favor to ask.... who here would like a dash boy to raise as their own?

I kid, I kid. I'm well aware that giving my kids away as a giveaway would land me in hot water 10 times over. Never mind that its only 10:20 am, I have a headache, flyboy just left for a vacay a trip, and it's going to be in the 90's up here in the land of window units.

Anywho, a friend of mine Penny Lane nominated me to get my little bloggy interviewed, as part of the interview she asks what are some of my favorite post. In case you all were unaware I suck at making decisions.

Wiping butts, grocery shopping with three kids, blowing up balloons while in the shower I am an expert at, narrowing anything down, not so much.

So I was hoping maybe y'all could help me out. If you have one, and you're feeling so kind, could you let me know which post has been your favorite. Serious, funny, whatever it maybe I'd much appreciate it.

And if you're interested in a dash boy... I'm just sayin....

Pet peeves 1-4

I have a few pet peeves to share. I worry sometimes blogging about this kinda stuff cause I don't want to seem like I'm a grumpy, nasty human being but then again, I am who I am and I'm bothered by things.

Pet peeve #1 - Activia commercials. You know the one where a supposed real person films themselves for 14 days to take the Activia Challenge to see if it changes their bowels or what not. Yeah, that one.

It bothers me. A lot.

Here's why. You aren't really showing me anything.

I'm not saying I want to look at your poo, but like they say the proof is in the pudding and your talking to a camera saying your tummy feels great. I want proof. Hard solid proof.

Again, I don't want to see some strangers poo {although I'm a mom of three, all I look at is poo, I'm desensitized to it by now} but I hate commercials like this because at the end of the day I think it means the company thinks us buyers out there are stupid enough to fall for it.

"Oooooh Mary in Idaho said it works! It must work! Sure its a national ad campaign but I'm sure Mary is a real person like me not some paid actor who is just supposed to look like she's filming herself!"

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Pet peeve #2- Idiots in the parking lot who expect me to move at the speed of light with three kids.

I know I've touched on this before, but it just happened to me again the other day and everytime it happens it pisses me off. And kinda makes me laugh. I'm a complex person like that.

I'm loading the kids in the car, it's like 90 degrees with 90% humidity. It's hot. You pull up as I'm walking up to my car and unlocking it, you already look pissy that I don't just fling myself, my kids, and my bags on top of the car and somehow activate a remote control so the car will fly out of the parking spot.

Here's what I don't get.... you see I have, lets count together, one, two, three kids who are ALL IN CAR SEATS. I mean I'd love to let the three year old just sit up in the front seat with me but the cops kinda frown on that.

So that means I have, lets count again, one, two, three kids in car seats to buckle in. And there is, ONE, of me. Trust me, I wish car seats were simpler. Even though dash-1 is in a booster seat with a buckle I still have to make sure he's in, remind him, and wait for his slow ass to move along. {He drifts around like his father sometimes}

Then I have bags to load.

Then I have myself to get into the car, turn the car on, maybe even put my purse in the passenger seat so I can actually steer.

Lord forbid I just sit for a minute and collect myself since I just went shopping with THREE SMALL KIDS.

Do you really think sitting in your air conditioned car and scowling at me is going to make me move faster? Especially when I notice that you don't have any kids in the car with you so your car is QUIET! No, no its not.

Actually if you really scowl and sigh I'm probably going to pull out my cell phone and just start calling random people cause I'm kinda a bitch like that.

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Pet Peeve # 3 - Unsolicited parenting advice. {Actually lets throw the "I'm a parenting expert now despite the fact that I have cardboard boxes older then my kid.}

I'm not against all parenting advice, hardly, I probably seek it out 4 or 5 times a day from my mom, my mil, friends, hell strangers via here and twitter, but unsolicited parenting advice from people either a. childless or b. with just one small kid annoys me.

I'm pretty sure the childless thing is self explanatory, but here is why the other bothers me.

When your kids are small, they are cute. When they get older, they are still cute but they are obnoxious.

Yeah you read that right, consider this an honest mommy moment.... NEWSFLASH!!! Your adorable kiddo will one day be obnoxious.


And if you're reading this saying, my 12mth old can be sassy. k's;ldksgfdsgfd Sorry that was my head hitting the keyboard laughing.

Yes, yes they can indeed be sassy but just wait. Just wait till they slap you or you tell them no or something and they scream about how your the worstest mom ever. And they do this at the commissary. In front of people your husband works with.

And before you say, that will never happen, just wait. We all think that.

I value the advice that I've been given. Just yesterday I had a lovely conversation with an older couple about kids and sibling rivalry, lots of good advice. So I'm really not against advice I'm just against the advice from the people who, well, don't really know much of what they are talking about.

The same thing goes for me. I wouldn't offer advice to one of my favorite blogger ABW. We are both in the trenches of motherhood, we have the same number of kids, our kids are kinda of.... quirky, but her older two are older then mine.

I haven't gotten to some of the fun that she's got under her belt. God help me. We are both in the trenches side by side, but her trench is a little more filled with stuff then mine.

Moms all have the same desire, to raise happy, healthy kids, and a lot of mommydom is the same for all of us, but then again, there is a lot that is different that you don't get until it's different for you.

One kid is different then three kids {God bless those of you out there with more then three!} an 18 mth old is different then a 5 year old {God bless those of you in the teenage years!}.

Its one thing when I ask you for advice {because I will ask people for advice, even if they don't have kids yet, cause different people see situations differently, I routinely solicit for advice here and I love to read what you guys have to say} but unsolicited advice from dope at the playground with her one baby in a stroller, or the expert attitude, annoys me.

And you know it would annoy you too. Admit it. You all are as cranky as me.

And no one can accuse me of having an expert attitude... I'll freely admit I haven't a clue what I'm doing.

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Pet peeve #4- The commissary being closed on Mondays. You know one of the real reasons that this bothers me?

Besides the fact that I drive about 40 min to the base and I had to take dash-3 for an apt there on Monday and now I don't want to drive back down to go grocery shopping because I was just there but when I was there is was closed?

The real peeve here? No one can tell me why its closed on mondays. I just wanna know why!

I hate when I don't understand why.


There ya go.... four simple pet peeves. I realize I probably look like a bitter angry person but well, things just annoy me.

What's your top pet peeves? {I'm hoping it's not bloggers who hate Activia Commercials.....}

And the blue star winner is.........

are you curious?

its......


lola!

Lola thank Random.org for popping up your number. I thought I had figured out how to show the image of the number generator but alas.... technology has beaten me yet again.

Thanks to everyone who entered!

But don't forget if you want a blue star of your own {and who doesn't?} head over to ma's shop Blue Bird Crafting and get one of your own! They come in two sizes, one fits in an 8x10 frame and the other in an 11 x14 {frame them without the mats!}

Ma's getting back from a little time in hot-lanta and she's going to be putting lots of new stuff up, some new burp cloths, a purse/tote or two, and if you all show the love, more service stars.

Quick and Easy Pork Marinade

I wish I sat down to meal plan and write out a detailed list before I go to the commissary but I have three kids {and little boys at that!} and live a life of pretty much constant chaos so I don't.

There is little rhyme or reason to me at the store, I am a zealot about coupons but other then that I just grab what I think I'll need.

After all, with 3 boys and a husband everything will eventually get eaten right? Right.

So when I go meat is no different, I just go thru the meat section and grab a bunch. A couple things of ground turkey, some chicken breast, maybe a flank steak if I'm feeling spendy, pork chops, maybe a pork loin.... you get the idea, I just grab something and figure out what to do with it later.

And that we like meat. {This afternoon dash2 looked up at me and informed me he wanted meat for dinner. When I asked him what kind he looked at me, quite seriously and said "just meat, I want meat"}

Last week I grabbed a pork loin and when it came up in the dinner rotation I wasn't sure what to do with it. Usually I just smear on some bbq sauce and call it a day. If I'm feeling spiffy I'll stuff it with artichoke hearts, some ricotta cheese, and spinach, very yummy.

But I didn't want either one of those. And I didn't know what I wanted. So I did a little goggling and I found this marinade:

2 tbl seasoning salt
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil

Dissolve the seasoning salt in the balsamic vinegar {this doesn't take but a few minutes}. Mix the vinegar and the olive oil. Place the pork loin in ziploc bag and then pour in the marinade in, squeeze out as much air as possible.

Let the pork sit anywhere from 2 hours to overnight.

Holy Crap, it was delicious. Ah-maz-ing. Quick easy and everything that I already had in the pantry. I would have taken a picture but it didn't last long enough, maybe next time....

To fly away or not?

I am used to my husband coming home from work and telling me that he's going somewhere, I'm used to him telling me that he's going to places that I myself would like to visit, I'm used to many things in regards to my husband and travel....

I was not prepared when he came home the other night and told me that his friend who recently got engaged would be having his bachelor party in Dublin.

Ireland.

Not Dublin, Ohio. Dublin, Ireland. The other side of the pond.

A bachelor party in Dublin?! What no flights to Las Vegas? Or is that too over done?

I'm sure Guinness really does taste better while drinking it in St. Jame's Gate and Dublin does seem like a kick ass place to go, but lets be honest, these boys are just gonna get wasted and why not get wasted where it'll be cheaper. In Boston. Where the groom is from.

And where we don't have to pay to fly flyboy across the ocean to get there.

I'm not going to lie, I'm bothered about a lot about this. The cost, in airfare, hotels, BEER, BOOZE, you know those kinda things. Even done on the cheap that's a lot of money to spend on a bachelor party, in the wedding or not. We've NEVER been on a trip like that.

How about if one flies to a fantastic vacation spot they take their wife with them! Or their kids and leave their wife in a quiet house. I'd be cool with that.

He said he asked if he could take me but no old ladies allowed. What I loved the most was that he said it to me in a way that I think I was supposed to be touched he asked about me and then say "oh well in that case go" and smile. Instead I laughed.

Cause the whole thing is kinda funny to me.

Is he really going to go? Surely my husband is waaaaaaaay more practical then that.

Now he says this is all going to go down next June, a year away, so I'm not getting my panties in too big of a bunch about it. I'd take 50-50 odds that it fizzles out and they end up doing something much more reasonable.

That being said I'm not going full out into putting my foot down mode. Also as anyone who is married knows you can't really ever put your foot down, it does have to be a mutual agreement. Should he actually get to buying a plane ticket it could get ugly around here.

But I'm reallllly curious.... what's your take on this?

Would you give your blessing? Does having kids or not having kids make a difference in what your answer would be?

And if you'd really like to go all in, what's your husbands opinion? Would he vote for flyboy to go?

I'm waiting with bated breath to hear y'alls answers.

****EDIT FROM FLYBOY***

Talk about panties in a crucnch, flyboy is all worked up. He wants me to clarify a couple things.

This friend was the best man at our wedding, 8 yrs ago. He also threw flyboy his bachelor party, that if I remember correctly was a stripper and some beer at the house they rented.

A far cry from Dublin their house was.

F.A.R.

Ummmm I think that's it. Oh and the friend is aware that this will affect how many people come.

By the way don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Blue Star Giveaway from Blue BirdCrafting!

It's time for a giveaway!

And this one is, in my opinion, a kick ass one, perfect for anyone with a family member in the military.

{I'm just realizing that I say that all my giveaways are kick ass, but this one, this one REALLY is}

It's a beautiful blue star service banner!
If you aren't familiar with a service banner, you can read up here.

I keep mine hanging in the entry hallway at all times. Some people keep them up only during deployments, I'm in the school of thought of keeping it up 24/7 since he serves 24/7, so they aren't just for deployments!

Many thanks to my mother's brand new Etsy store Blue Bird Crafting

The one you can win {along with the ones on my mom's etsy site} are unframed, shipping a framed one is just too expensive over 30 bucks.

It seems a little silly to sell you a frame and charge close to 35 bucks for shipping, when you can go to Target or Walmart {or elsewhere} and pick up a frame for a fraction of what we would charge.

There are smaller ones on her site that fit perfectly in an 8x10 frame (without the mat) and this large one fits in an 11x14 {again without the mat}.

By the way speaking of her store she's not just a service star factory.

She's got some really cute stuff, all of it made with great quality materials so you know you're getting a quality product {those of you who have received some of her items as past giveaways can attest to that!}

I love her bags. Call it what you want, a tote... a purse... shoot a diaper bag. It's a catch all! I use mine for everyday stuff and the best part about it? Not only does it fit everything, but its machine washable. Just the other day a very cute someone put a juice box in there without my knowledge, I'm sure you can figure out how that ended. No problem, just got home dumped everything out and tossed it in the washer. PERFECT!

And in my purse, I always have one or two of these bags crammed full of who knows what. Diapers, wipes, medicine, papers, toys, snacks. Anything and everything. They fit a TON of stuff.

A few months ago she was playing around with scraps from dash3's baby quilt and she made him some adorable burp cloths, him and I tried them out, put them thru the ringer and they passed the test. Now you can find them over there as well.

They are totally unique burp cloths, almost like little quilts for your shoulder!

Fun fabrics on one side and super soft flannel on the other. But they are SUPER absorbent and come thru the regular wash just fine. These would be an adorable little baby gift, get a set tie a cute little ribbon around it along with a couple other feeding items and there ya go.

But back to the giveaway!
To enter: {and each entry needs a separate comment}

-Leave a comment let me know if the service star is for you, or if you're giving it to someone {they make excellent gifts for instance, your hard to buy for MIL who's very proud of her son who's serving} AND who you're hanging for.

-For a second entry, stop by and visit ma' s store, let me know what you like!

-For a third entry blog about this on your blog. I'd really like to get the word out there to as many military moms and military wives as possible.

-For a fourth entry put a tweet out there that I'm having is having an awesome military giveaway and to check out ma's etsy store! {I'm on twitter mrs_flyboy}

The giveaway will be open until Tuesday June 22 at 6pm. good luck!

Reason #426 we are demented parents

Sometimes flyboy and I wonder what's wrong with our kids, cause well, our kids can be kinda weird sometimes.

And then we take a step back and realize.... we could have a little something something to do with it.

Or a lot.

Last night dash-2 did not want to go to bed. He wanted to jump and play and basically create mayhem in his room. So we did what all parents would do, sent him into the playroom to sleep.

You would have thought this would have been his dream but noooooooooo, he screamed. He cried. He kicked his feet. He sceamed, cried, and kicked his feet simultaneously. {He's very talented like that}

He did eventually fell asleep on the couch in there.

And then there stood flyboy and I, looking at our sleeping little demon boy. He was sleeping so peacefully, his little blanket rising and falling as he was breathing, his blond hair sticking up every so slightly, sigh, every parent knows how sweet a sleeping child is.

But.

Then.

We thought of it.

I'm not sure who suggested it first, I think we were both thinking it, one of us said it and the other jumped at the idea with excitement. Because while flyboy and I have our differences we are equally twisted.

The idea you ask?

It involved this.

A giant robot dinosaur. You may not be able to tell from the picture but he's big, big enough the boys can both sit on him and big enough that he was just above dash-2's eye level while he was sleeping on the couch.

So the plan was to drag the giant robot dinosaur from the corner of the play room and place it RIGHT in front of his face and the turn it on, let it roar, or sing, or crunch on its leaf, and watch the reaction of our 3 year old.

And I know your thinking, who does that?!

Ummm.... we do?

We were quite disappointed, he basically just rolled over. But we still laughed our asses off. And besides children who listen, laughter is what's needed to make parent's sane.

And flyboy, at least we have laughter.

Who's right? Gift or no gift

Please ladies, help me on this one.

We received an invitation to an engagement party yesterday for next month {a pool party, great 4 wks to drop 10 lbs.} oh and my frienemy maybe there and well, this was how the last time we saw each other went, 2yrs ago, a raging success.

So you can tell I'm thrilled about this.

But that's neither here nor there {but if you're a new reader go read up on the frienemy, she's a nut job, its good for a laugh}. Anyways when I checked out the couples webpage under registry it says "The presence of our friends and family is truly a gift in itself, but for those who wish, we are currently registered at Crate and Barrel."

Now here's the thing, is that for the engagement party or the wedding?

Here are a couple facts in case you need them to make up your mind....
-most of the info on the webpage is about the engagement party not the wedding
-the wedding isn't until the fall of 2011 {although what's with the long engagement they are living together, have been for a while and she has kids..... why not just get hitched?}
-the engagement party is out of town for us and apparently quite a few others as there is travel info up on the webpage

I say, the gift info is for the engagement party, flyboy says its for the wedding. He actually said, "that has to be for the wedding, they can't think I'm getting them a gift for both" {in the car as we were turning the corner near the ball field dear in case you don't remember}.

Who is right?

I know they say being right doesn't matter... but it does.

So what do you say... was that no gift necessary for the wedding or engagement? And if your traveling and getting a hotel does that effect your "level" of gift?

Again the disclaimer, flyboy is in the wedding {how bad is it that he didn't even know till I checked the website, proof he needs to return phone calls more often} so I'll get a gift regardless, I'm just curious on who's right.

To pay or not to pay?

That is the question.

That little spoof on Shakespeare concludes the extent of my knowledge on the man and his works. A fine student of the classics I am not.

But anyways.

When I posted a couple nights ago about the ideal number of kids {and thanks for all the comments, they were all so different and all soooo interesting! I love hear what you guys are thinking or doing.} I touched briefly on the fact that money was a contributing factor to coming up with our ideal number. And again let me just reiterate, its only a contributing factor, honestly one of the biggest factors for me would probably have to be our lifestyle.

Not living near family and single parenting WAYYY more then I'd like, is tough. Very tough.

And really, until one has walked a mile as the role of mom, dad, plumber, nurse, maid, cook, electrician, bug catcher, and everything else under the sun for any longer then 2 weeks {without the help of family nearby} while your spouse is off somewhere doing God knows what, don't judge.

It's hard. There are days that I'm amazed military family's procreate at all. And then there are days when I think I can take it on and keep on taking it on. Its a fickle thing. But its tough for us.

But before I went on that tangent the question was to pay for college or not.

I am very lucky. My parents foot the bill for my college education.

{which has proved to be very useful, today I used my BA to change a couple diapers, make some cookies, do laundry, color, and read some Bernstein Books. Looks like you got your moneys worth mom and dad}.

Just to clarify, my parents wrote a check, they didn't take out a loan, had they not been in the position to pay outright we were going to be on our own.

There were some stipulations, you had to help some, my sister got a ton of little scholarships {those little ones add up!} and work.

I decided that for the first two years I would stay at home and go to community college. I saved a ton of money going that route and with the combination of that and AP credits I was able to graduate from a semester early when I did transfer to the university I went to.

The other part of the deal was no credit cards. At. All. You had to live on the money that you had and since we had low paying campus jobs that would be not a lot.

{Although my brother had a great scam, my mom would give him gift certificate for the local grocery store and he would buy one or two little things and keep the change. And he now that I think about it, he went to school in Myrtle Beach where they might have sold beer at the grocery store. And he convinced them to send him to school, paid for, to MYRTLE BEACH! Damn he had a racket going on.}

And we had to have jobs and have decent grades. College wasn't so much a big party time for me, I was there to get in and get out. I knew that I was lucky, my parents were paying but I owed them and myself.

I didn't really understand all that they were doing for me at the time, they were allowing me to get out of college without the burden of debt. What an amazing gift that was. I didn't have to worry about making X amount to pay off X amount of loans on top of living expenses. Which turned out to be a good thing because, well, my first job paid crap.

Come to think of it all my jobs have paid crap.....hmmm....

I'm not even sure I'd be a stay at home mom now if I had college loans to pay for. I know a couple of people for whom that's a factor in the whole baby/stay home discussion. Living on one income is tough, if we had a chunk of loans to send money too it'd be even tougher, maybe even not possible.

So my parents really set me up. I want to be able to help my kids out like that as well. I want to help set them up to start life with all doors open and without feeling a weight and burden of debt on their backs.

Does this mean that they need to go to wicked expensive Ivy league schools? Nope.

Well, actually that's a bit of a debate with flyboy and I, he feels if they are really driven and get into some wicked awesome, wicked expensive school we should make it happen. But there is time to work thru that one, not to mention see where the kiddos end up. Someone got a cookie piece shoved up their nose the other day. I think we can put MIT on the back burner for now.

Alright I know I shouldn't brag but I have to share, I know I know its just a number but the mama pride in me is exploding right now.

The genius who stuck the cookie piece up his nose really is almost a genius.

Wouldn't you know he got an comprehensive IQ test as part of a speech eval for his articulation and holy shit the kids IQ is in the 95%percentile with superior intelligence. Who would have thought it?! So maybe if cookies aren't in the entrance exams and whatnot, MIT could be an option.

And you know what, we might not be able to help them pay for it all, we probably wont, after all we are doing this on one income for now, but we want to help as much as we can. If that means instate schools or sometime in a community college, not to mention AP classes and what not, then those are all options. Because that's really what its about. Having options.

I realize too that the military is there. You can't deny that with three boys, of whom would be fourth generation military, the military option will probably be on the table. Statistically it's a probability for one of them {ugh that pulls on my mama heart}. Either they enlist and use the GI Bill or go to an academy.

I want loans to be the last possible option. THE LAST. Right before just observing class outside from the window. Especially if the government is the last one in the game. Thanks but no thanks.

Or maybe they don't even go to college. I really hope they do. And that could be another whole post.

I've heard from a lot of people that if you don't pay for your own college you don't appreciate it. Far from it in my experience.

A lot of my roommates were going to school on subsided loans from the govt and used quite a bit of that money to "live on". We all know what constitutes living in college. Lots of drinking. they were "paying" for it and certainly took their sweet time getting thru. And hey, so long as they are paying for their loans now whats it to me?

My college was paid for but I was damn appreciative. My parents were quite serious, you got four years. That was it. F it up and you were screwed. And trust me those same conditions will be there.

Bottom line, it may not be possible, we may not be able to help out as much as we'd like but dammit if we aren't going to try.

And so that's where we stand. Where do you stand? To pay or not to pay?

And if you've made it to the end congrats. This gives new meaning to long winded.

*a ps sidenote. I hope I havent offended anyone, it's certainly not my intention. I'm not against those who don't go to college, its not for everyone, I'm not against those who take loans, and I certainly don't think those who take out loans don't appreciate or party too much. I was just countering the argument that I've heard about getting it paid for and not appreciating it.

Ohh and who thinks I should tackle whether or not your pay check should dictate the size of your family. I have a LOT to say on that one.

What I love about you

I love how you see the world.

How you want to learn more about everything.

I love how you always have a plan.

I love your fuzzy head of hair that always seems to need a buzz.

I love how perfectly your hand fits in mine.

I love when you give me the drive by kiss as you run into school.

I love how you make me laugh.

How your smile gives way to a twinkle in your eye that lets me know you're up to something.

I love how you call me your "best girl".

I love how you play so nicely by yourself, how you can just fall into your own little world.

I love how you point to your cheek and say, in that gravely voice of yours, "right here, right here" when you want a kiss.

I love how you call me mama.

I love to snuggle with you.

How when we lay together in bed you curl up into a little ball and snuggle perfectly against my chest.

I love the sound of your laughter.

I love the smell of you after your bath and how your hair is the softest thing in the world at that moment.

I love to hear your chitter chatter, anxiously awaiting a "ma ma".

I love when you put your head on my shoulder, relax, and sigh.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

I love you all, my three little boys.

Each different little beings, imperfect in a perfect sorta way.

No matter how old you get, how tall you grow, what amazing things you each accomplish you'll always be my babies.

Forever and always.

New meanings in life

Since I've had kids my definition for certain things has changed, take for instance....

Love- I love me my babies. Nuff said.

Eerie- rolling over at 3 am to find a small little one {oh say 3 years old, that's just the right height to be just eye level with you} staring you RIGHT in the FACE, watching you sleep.

Disgusting- I thought it would be explosive poo, or maybe a wicked nasty spit up, no no, projectile vomit INTO my mouth. NOTHING so far has topped that and I'm honestly fearful of what will.

Tired- I had run on little sleep before, but holy poop, back then I didn't have three leeches kids depending on me. Sleeping for an hour or two at a time for a couple nights, rolled into caring for three little ones allllllllllll day {and night} makes my former all nighters laughable.

Fear- overhearing your adventourous 5 yr old say to his 3 yr old brother, in the next room, "Trust me. I know what I'm doing."

Silence- Silence is great. However since having kids, it has extenuating circumstances, silence between the hours of 8am-7:30pm is SCARY, from 7:30pm-8am its just downright friggin delightful.

High Power flush- the ability to flush elmo underpants down the toilet

Peace - taking a shower or going to the bathroom with the door closed

Gratitude- the feeling I have when someone is willing to watch all three boys. At the same time. And then offers to do it again! Also, the feeling when someone manages to puke in the toilet or puke buck and not on my floor. {Sadly i haven't had that feeling yet today}

Those of you with kids, am I missing anything?

What's your ideal number?

I come from a family of three kids {I'm the forgotten middle child *sigh* woohoo is me}. Flyboy comes from a family of two kids {you would think he'd be the type A first child but shockingly, he's the baby}.

We, obviously, have three kids. And in case your new, they are 5, 3 1/2, and 9 mths. All boys. ALL BOYS!

We had always talked about having three kids, ironically shortly before getting pregnant with dash3 I was starting to think that maybe two was a nice number. Dash 1 was getting to be a big boy, dash 2 was a full on toddler and I could see the light at the end of the baby stage tunnel, maybe our family was complete with 2 little ones.

And then I had a miscarriage and realized that we weren't so complete. Something just seemed missing.

Darling dash-3, and his sweet little dimpled left cheek, fills that spot.

But.

There is a little dissension among the ranks around here between flyboy and I. More specifically, sometimes I think maybe, just maaayybe one more baby would be kinda nice.

Flyboy's answer? I can have as many babies as I'd like .... with my next husband. As far as kids with him? He's done. Done done. {Yet not done enough to schedule his vasectomy. I'm just sayin.}

Three kids is a lot, especially in a military family where dad is here one day and gone the next. Not to mention the money involved in child rearing. In case your wondering... kids.... not so cheap, especially as they get older. Shoot babies are cheap, school age... not so much.

Flyboy's concern is college. Heavens knows how much that's gonna cost by the time the kids are college age and we want to do our best to help our kids out. If our boys can and want to get into MIT, then dammit, we want to have the savings there to help them out.

I am at least able to stand back and realize that part of my waffling on the number of kids is due largely to hormones {a joy of breastfeeding is that your hormones can still play around with you some} and how fast babies seem to leave that sweet baby stage.

I'm pretty sure in time I'll come around and realize that flyboy's right. I was talking with my military bestie yesterday and we were both lamenting that our husband's were right and well meaning when they both have said that we probably {both} couldn't handle anymore.

So this leads me to the title question, what's your ideal number? How many kids do you want? Have you already reached that number?

And, what I'm most interested in if you don't mind me asking, how did you reach that number? Is money a factor, time, space, sanity {that's a big factor round these parts}, plans to return to work, what is it for you?


ps. don't forget to stop by etsy, check out the service stars, and give mama some love. k? thanks!

the little moments

Mommydom includes a lot of things.

Spills to be cleaned up, wash to be done, poo, poo, and more poo, meals to be made, noses to be wiped, diapers to be changed, shoes to be tied.

Work is never, ever, done.

Sometimes all the tedious, monotenous things that make up the days can also get ya a little lost. Lost in moving from one thing to another, from one spill to fetching a spoon, to tieing a shoe, buckeling a car seat. And the little moments sometimes get lost.

Not last night.

Last night my baby boy and I stopped and well, just that, we stopped. We enjoyed the little moments.

The big boys were out with daddy on the four wheeler searching for frogs and snapping turtles {in case your wondering, no frogs found but the pond did yield a snapping turtle}. Sweet dash-3 and I just sat in the front yard, under a big oak tree, and did nothing.

Well, that's not really true, we smiled and cuddled, we put forehead to forehead and laughed, thats hardly nothing.

My little dash-3 grabbed at the grass and pulled, he clapped his hands together, as if he thought he could catch a bird when a flock flew overhead, he shrieked and giggled when he heard the birds singing, he sat p.e.r.f.e.c.t.l.y. still when the horses came out, when the breeze would blow his soft blond hair would fly around and he would blink as the air hit his face.

He was taking delight in all the little moments that so often get lost.

Smart kid.

I wonder who he gets that from.....

Devil dogs for everyone

Do you all hear that sound?

That's the scrapping of my soapbox as I drag it over here. Yup, that's right. I'm climbing up on my soapbox to rant. Really what else is a soapbox good for?

The boyos and I just returned from a trip to mama's favorite store, S@m's Club. Really, that store is like a toy store for adults. I'm not sure if it's the extra large carts, the warehouse feel, the free samples, the knowledge that you never EVER know what you'll find in there, or the cheap fountain cokes but something about that store makes my lil heart happy.

Until I get to the checkout portion, that is always a hot mess.

Today was actually rather smooth in the check out department. Probably because they had more then two checkout lanes open.

{Hats off to the person in management who just put two and two together, you know that on a weekend a store with 20 checkout lanes should *probably* have more then 2 open. Really give that person a raise for doing their job.}

Anyways the couple in front of me, a rather rotund couple {this has to do with the story} informed the cashier that they wanted to pay for their purchases two ways. One set of items with their food stamps and the others with cash.

Now here me out, I acknowledge the need for social welfare programs like food stamps, WIC, housing assistance, etc. There does need to be a safety net to catch the people who could very easily fall between the cracks.

And then I see crap like today and it makes me want to vote to end everything.

The people in front of me, with their food stamps, purchased a giant vat of coffee creamer and 2 giant boxes of Drake's devil dogs. Really?!

My taxpaying dollars had to go for that?!

I'm willing to let the coffee creamer slide, although if I was accepting money from the government for food I think I could just suck it up and drink black coffee.

Not a fruit or vegetable in the cart. And S@m's has some great produce. And I'm pretty sure most of the produce is cheaper then 2 giant boxes of Devil Dogs. Not to mention healthier annd not a total waste of government dollars.

Surely there has to be a better way to run this program. I'm not saying that people who accept food stamps should be denied the pleasures of life. {I'm pretty sure devil dogs count as a pleasure, while I've never had one they do look mighty delicious} But here is the way I understand it, food stamps are to help people afford food because food, as we all know, is a necessity of life.

Correct me if I'm wrong but devil dogs are not so much a necessity. Especially if someone else is paying for them.

I like Coca Cola. To me, its a necessity, but then again, I'm paying for it, not the kind taxpayers of America.

On that same token, I'm a taxpayer and I like to think of myself as kind, but this is not the first time I've seen this bull shit and I'm not feeling so kind anymore. In fact I'm kinda pissed off.

And I made sure to call flyboy, who has to work today, to let him know that he better be working hard cause he just bought someone some devil dogs.

And the winner.....

of an American flag or military flag of her choice is #15 ..... AFwifey!

Congrats! Email me your info and I can get the ball rolling... or the flag flying.

Thanks to everyone for entering and a BIG thanks to CVS flags! I have another giveaway, or 2 coming up so stay tuned. And maybe even an actual blog post. Wouldn't that be a novel idea?

I'm curious a question about Mr & Mrs

Actually I'm curious about a lotta things. I'm kinda know for just randomly throwing out my curiosities in the middle of either an unrelated conversation or just out of the blue during silence.

So much so that my husband has developed his own response to me. He yells out "Barcalounger!" that's his way of telling me I'm coming out of left field. Little does he know that no matter how many times he yells "Barcalounger!" I'll always ask about my random curiosities.

Now all that aside, I have a question that you folks are the perfect folks to ask. Short of asking random strangers at the PX where else do I have such access to mil-spouses?

How do you prefer your mail to be addressed?

Not to you specifically but to you and your lovey as a couple. Do you just go for the usual Mr. & Mrs. so and so or do you prefer the rank, Capt. & Mrs. or SSgt. & Mrs.?

Here's what brings this on in case your curious.... {because sometimes flyboy likes me to retrace what brought on said random question} we recently received a wedding invitation from a guy who used to work for flyboy. I was a bit surprised, him knowing flyboy in the professional capacity that the invitation was addressed to Mr & Mrs. rather then with his rank.

Here is my take on this, when I'm sending mail to someone whom I know is retired or still in {and I'm certain of their rank} I send it with the rank.

I don't know why, I really don't. I blame my grandmother. My uncle is a retired full bird in the Marine Corps and she always stressed that it was more proper to send things to them as {whatever his rank was at the time} & Mrs. and well, it's stuck.

My aunt {the one I just mentioned} is a classy lady and when she sends us mail she does the same. Shoot when she sends mail to the boys she addresses it Master Dash whatever. Well she uses their names. But nothing is as cute as a 9 mth old getting mail as a Master. So I'm thinking if she does it then I've got to be on the right track.... of course maybe she does it to our mail because I do it to her mail.....

I think I'm rambling again.

Anyways I asked flyboy his take on it and he said he actually prefers Mr. & Mrs. I thought he would like the recognition of his rank, again in my thinking, he's worked damn hard for it and much as he doesn't always like to think so it is part of who he is. But he likes to fly under the radar and having his rank on his mail doesn't fit the bill.

And just to go on clear it up, I don't need his rank on my mail, for that I settle for Mrs.

What do you think? How do you prefer your mail?

lookie lookie

Someone's Etsy store is open!

And in case you're kinda new, its my mom, not mind. I'm not nearly as crafty as her.

It's in the beginning stages {and by that I mean there are some other nifty things that I have yet to upload} but I'm pretty excited!

I have a giveaway planned to tie into my mom's store once I get everything uploaded but for now, check it out here.

Last day to win a flag!

Today is the last day to enter the giveaway for a beautiful 3x5 American flag or a military flag of your choice!

If you haven't entered do it now here!

Sigh.... I love a flag and I love something free. It's the best of both worlds.