Just a note

For anyone that might care, I'm still alive and our Thanksgiving was wonderful! But, for now, I'm sort of out of commission with being able to keep up my blog & email habit. I'm having withdrawls, so I'm taking a quick second and using Michael's computer to simply post a note to let you all know that things are fine, I just don't have access to my computer for the time being!

Hope everyone had a spectacular holiday and ate way too much - so that I don't feel too guilty for eating myself to death! Hopefully I'll be back on-line within the next few days. I have stories to tell & pictures to post so I'm hoping so anyway :)

A Happy Wife

Imagine my surprise to find a card laying on my bathroom counter this morning! My hubby had not only remembered that today was my birthday (which didn't really surprise me because he's never forgotten it before), but that he had actually gone to the card shop, purchased a card, and left it for me to find as a surprise! It was a wonderful surprise :)

But, what I read inside was truly the best gift I could have possibly received today. I can think of nothing better than for a husband to make his wife so happy that she would cry. What he wrote truly touched me, and I'm very happy to say that he is my husband and that I love him!

"You are a beautiful and exceptional woman, wife and mommy".

Could there be a better compliment? So, for all of the complaining I do, the breakdowns I have on a fairly regular basis, and the times I feel like I could have done something better with my life...Michael, you made it all worth it by that one little sentence. Thank you!

And, So It Continues...

10:39PM - Crawl into bed and pull the covers up over my head; pray for a decent night's sleep as I drift off to dream land
12:02AM - Wake up to the sounds of a crying baby and try to figure out where I am and why said baby is crying
12:23 - Lay in bed listening to the baby cry off & on, and pray to God that he will just go back to sleep
2:46 - Wake up to the sounds of a crying baby (again) and wish to God that he'd just stay asleep
3:12 - Get out of bed and trudge upstairs to give baby some Motrin and hold him for a few minutes while trying not to fall alseep in the standing position while holding the baby
3:21 - Crawl back in to bed and hope for the best - but not expect it
5:49 - Wake up for the 3rd time to the cries of a baby and realize that he REALLY doesn't feel good; Make a cup of warm milk and head upstairs to change his diaper; bring him back downstairs to the rocker and hope he'll drink and go back to sleep
6:12 - Crawl back into bed and wait for the God-blessed alarm clock to go off on hubby's side of the bed
6:18 - Voila - alarm clock is in working order and goes off until I kick hubby as hard as I can to get him to turn the stupid thing off
7:15 - Wake up to the sounds of an alarm clock and realize that it's mine; hit the snooze and fall right back to sleep
7:24 - Hit the snooze button again, harder this time in hopes of breaking it
7:33 - Find out that I didn't hit the snooze button hard enough and decide to give up on the fable of sleep
7:34 - Go upstairs, get wide-awake baby from his bed, give him Tylenol, and wake up big brother; have a fight with big brother who tries to escape getting up and dressed for school by claiming to be sick.
8:12 - After feeding all 3 kids, making a lunch for 1, I get big brother out the door in time for the school bus; Realize it's freaking cold outside and make a mental note to stay home today, at all costs...
8:45ish - Find out that I should have kept my thoughts to myself because it's going to be impossible to stay home today; Baby has fallen and blood is pouring from his mouth; Have major fight with baby to try to get the bleeding to stop, only realizing that you have to know where the blood is coming (specifically) to apply the appropriate pressure; fight with baby more to try to absorb the blood that is literally dripping from his mouth until I soak through the 3rd napkin; call sister-in-law in a panic and ask her to forgo getting to work on time because I need help getting myself and the kids dressed and can't because the bleeding won't stop in the baby's mouth; call the children's dentist and ask about taking the baby in right away, find out they're booked until 4PM and receive obvious directions to help stop bleeding - apply pressure; finally get the bleeding to stop, see dangling skin inside baby's mouth, and hope to God it's nothing serious.
8:55 - Call sister-in-law back and tell her to go on to work because super-mommy has things under control for the time being.
8:56 - Call Pediatrician and request an appt since baby is still running a fever, coughing up a lung, and has now damaged his mouth in some way.
9:00 - Run upstairs, get big sister dressed, brush her teeth and fix her hair; decide that baby must have a bath before being dressed because he has dried blood all over himself; throw him into the tub, scrub him clean, dress him, but forgo brushing his teeth so as not upset the poor thing since his mouth is so tender.
9:45 - Realize that I'm not going to get the 10AM appt I scheduled with the doctor, but rush around anyway to get myself dressed; decide to forgo makeup since the day doesn't seem to be worth fixing myself up for.
9:55 - Run out the door with 2 children, 1 diaper bag, 1 purse, and 1 empty box of a prescription that must be refilled today since the expiration for refills shows 11/16/05.
10:03 - On the way to the doctor's office, get pulled over for the expired inspection sticker on my windshield; apologize profusely to policeman and promise to get the car inspected when hubby - who just started a new job - gets his next paycheck; also apologize to him after he points out that you were reading something while driving and didn't notice he was behind you - explain that I wasn't reading while driving, I waited until I was at the stop light, but still didn't notice he was behind me or would have been paying more attention. Get off with a written warning and thank God that He really is watching out for me :)
10:25 - Arrive at the Pediatrician's office; see doctor and find out that the baby has a double ear infection, as well as bronchiolitis - a common ailment amongst my kiddos; give baby a breathing treatment and wait to see doctor again to obtain prescriptions.
11:10 - Leave the Pediatrician's office and head for pharmacy to drop off 3 new prescriptions!
11:25 - Remember that I needed to stop by Office Depot to get some decorative paper for dinner party invitations; browse around a bit, then make purchase
12:05 - Drop off prescriptions and head home
12:15 - Get home and work on getting lunch to everyone - including myself
1:05 - Get baby & big sister down for their naps; clean kitchen from lunch mess; go to office and begin working on new business venture
2:15 - Remember that I was supposed to fax a letter to Big Brother's school alerting them that I'd be picking him up early today because of baby's dental appointment.
2:45 - Wake up baby & big sister; redress big sister and re-do her hair; change baby's diaper, put on his shoes; head downstairs and get out the door to the van
3:10 - Pull out of driveway and head to Big Brother's school where Big Brother is waiting patiently for me to get him.
3:11 - Answer 20 questions from Big Brother as to why he had to leave early, why we're going to the dentist, why baby fell down and what he hit, how much blood was there, etc.
3:15 - Arrive at bank and make deposit
3:27 - Leave bank irritated that it took so long to deposit money and head to dentist
3:55 - Arrive at dentist and sign-in; wait around for 10 minutes until Big Brother & Big Sister announce that they need to go potty
4:12 - Arrive at the dentist's office again (after group potty break) and attempt to take x-rays of baby's mouth; find out that baby doesn't like the big lead apron he must wear, so hold him down to take the x-ray as quickly as possible
4:25 - Find out that there is no obvious damage to baby's teeth, but the muscle that holds his top lip to his gum has been severed; find out that it's no big deal and that the muscle should retract into the lip, but if it doesn't, they'll cut it when he's older; try not to vomit at the thought of cutting the muscle; Leave.
4:55 - Arrive home and race upstairs with Big Brother to get him dressed for gymnastics
5:25 - Leave for gymnastics class and arrive 2 minutes late; get reprimanded by coach for being late, and leave Big Brother to take the heat for being late.
5:35 - Talk to hubby and get him to agree to pizza tonight for dinner; decide a little later that it would be best to have it delivered because Big Sister and baby aren't being very cooperative and I don't feel like fighting them in public tonight.
6:55 - Go get Big Brother from gym; arrive home and inhale pizza
7:35 - Get everyone into the tub and dressed for bed
8:35 - Get Big Brother to bed and realize that I have a conference call in exactly 25 mintues.
10:06 - Finish this blog entry and collapse from shear exhaustion...

The Diary of a Sick Mommy

For those of us that, pre-mommy-hood, worked in the REAL world, I'm sure you remember the days of feeling not-so-wonderful, and being able to pick up the phone to call in sick for the day. After making the phone call, and praying that you'd reach your boss's voice mail, you could simply curl up in bed and sleep the day, and hopefully the germs, away. Upon waking up at 4PM, just in time to catch Oprah, you could lay around, still in your pajamas, on the couch and wait for hubby to bring home take-out - assuming you were up to eating that evening.

Oh how I longed for those days today! Not the calling in sick part, but the ability to simply go back to bed, sleep the day away or lounge around on the couch. Sadly, those days are long gone!!!

After being woken up by my youngest at 2:23AM this morning, then again at 5:46AM, because he simply wasn't feeling well and needed the comfort of his mommy's arms - along with a dose of Motrin, then Tylenol a bit later, for the 101.9 degree temp he had - the God-blessed alarm starting buzzing at 6AM. Not mine, my husbands. He can sleep through just about anything, including the alarm clock, so at every 9 minute interval, I found myself kicking him so that he'd reach over and hit the snooze button. After a little more than an hour of this, my alarm clock started buzzing at 7:15, at which point, said husband finally crawled out of bed and headed toward the shower. At about that same time, my youngest decided he was ready to be awake, and would make sure that I, along with the rest of the house, knew he was up. He started screaming at the top of his lungs, which caused him to start coughing, which, I thought, would produce a lung! It didn't thankfully, but the deep-throated, deep-chested cough only upset him more, causing him to scream louder.

It was at this moment that I decided that I didn't want to be a mommy today! The sun had only been up for an hour, I had been up 3 times since going to bed at 11PM, and my head felt like it would explode at any given moment. If only I had a substitute mommy I could ring up. But, that thought lasted only for a second, when I realized that if I didn't quickly respond to my screaming child, I would surely find a lung on the floor, so I dragged myself out bed and trudged up the stairs. About half-way up said stairs, I started to cough, and realized that if I didn't stop, my lung would soon be on the floor next to my child's! By the time I got to the top of the stairs, I was light-headed and praying that if I fell down, I'd fall forward toward the wall, versus backward toward the stairs! Thankfully neither occurred, and I made it to the boy's bedroom without having any accidents along the way. After retrieving the youngest from his crib, I had to then wake up our oldest, who sleeps as hard as his father. Ten minutes later, and much yelling, then coughing, then yelling, he finally sat up and informed me that he'd like toast for breakfast - in between sniffs & coughs.

From the boy's room, I headed up the hallway to my daughter's room, where I was greeted with a request for a "Pot Tot" for "bwefst". Since today was a school day for her too, I had to work at getting her to agree to something else - this was something I just wasn't up for, but my mommy-responsibility was strong and I just couldn't send her to school with a tummy full of processed fruit & sugar - we settled on a cereal bar. Hmmm...now that I think about it, I guess the processed fruit & sugar in the cereal bar wasn't much better than the Pot Tot she originally asked for. Oh well!!!

How I got down the stairs with the baby in hand, and still light-headed, is a blur, but I managed it somehow - must be my super-mommy powers!

After allot of yelling from the kids, crying from the sick baby, and coughing from mommy and baby, we managed to get out the door and off to the appropriate schools. After a quick drive through my favorite fast-food breakfast spot, baby & mommy headed home. When I pulled into the driveway, I noticed that Ian had fallen asleep, so it was obvious to me that he wasn't feeling well at all - he takes 1 nap a day, and it's never only 2 short hours after waking up! Anyway, I decided to allow him an early nap, in hopes of catching a nap myself. It didn't happen, but it was a nice thought. Ian got a nice 2 hour nap, while I sat on the couch and shivered under a blanket - I obviously had the fever that Ian had had last night. Great! What's a sick mommy to do? Contact daddy - via Instant Message. But to my great dismay, daddy was too busy to leave his job, so it was up to me to muster all of my strength and 'get through' the day.

The rest of my day went as follows:
12:30 - get baby up from his nap to find that baby feels cool and seems to be feeling better.
12:35 - change dirty diaper and head downstairs for lunch - baby's not mine!
12:55-2:05 - play with baby and keep him occupied until it's time to leave to go get big sister
2:06 - head out the door to get big sister and discover that a thunderstorm is on it's way
2:07-2:28 - drive through cloud bursts and arrive at school where it has apparently already rained
2:29-2:34 - get big sister from her class and race back to the car to beat the next downpour of rain already starting
2:35-3:05 - drive really slowly home because I cannot see out of the front windshield due to the buckets of rain being released from the clouds above
3:06-4:01 - sit on couch and attempt to stay awake and alert until big brother's bus drives passed house
4:02-4:05 - stand outside and yell at big brother to please hurry up, walk faster, run, and get into the house because it's beginning to sprinkle again!
4:07-4:20 - chat online with daddy and ask if he'd be willing to bring home take-out for dinner; daddy says no; mommy reluctantly agrees to cook dinner.
4:21-5:05 - prep dinner and hope I don't pass out
5:06-5:35 - get dinner in the oven and microwave (I'm not Martha Stewart and never claimed to be!)
5:45-6:05 - sit down to dinner with the entire family and hope that no one spills anything.
6:06 - 6:33 - clean kitchen
6:34-now - blog about my day and how utterly awful I feel

So, that's the diary of a sick mommy. It's now 7:26 and I'm getting ready to go get the kids dressed for bed. Daddy has agreed to help - actually, it's understood that he will in fact dress at least 1 child and brush said child's teeth - then it will be a joint effort on mommy & daddy's part to say prayers and get all 3 kids to their appropriate bed. Once that task has been completed, I think I'm going to go soak my achy body in a bath full of bubbles and hope for a miraculous healing because I do not think I can get through another day feeling like I do now.

8 Things you never thought you'd say...

Can you believe, 2 posts in 1 day?!?

Actually, this has nothing to do with Chaotic Adventures or Life Lessons, but I thought it was really funny :) I am an avid reader of 2 magazines, People & Parenting. One has absolutely nothing to do with the other, but both are what I'd consider my basic necessities in life...one has great advice & beautifully written stories from other mothers; one has great stories about absolutely nothing and makes a great read during my occassional bubble baths :)

So, that said, the below statements come from the better of the 2 magazines and I could identify with almost all of them. The title of this particular article was "Things you swore you'd never do":

• "Where's the #*?%! epidural?" - Sadly, this was definitely me!
  
• "I love my new breast pump!" - This is one of those that I don't recall ever saying!
  
• "And then what did the princess say?" - Has someone bugged our house?!?
  
• "If you behave, you can have a lollipop." - Hmmm...someone's giving away my secrets!
  
• "Go ahead, no one's looking--you can pee in the bushes." - Ok, so I've said this too. Sue me!
  
• "A little dog drool never hurt anyone." - This is another one that wouldn't escape my mouth - Yuck!!!
  
• "Can I have one of your chicken nuggets?" - Michael? Sound familiar, dear?
  
• "Horray! You're wearing undies!" - in our case it was "big girl panties".

Are you speaking English?!?

Do you ever wonder that of your little ones? I mean, I know they are TRYING to speak English, but trying to figure out a simple request can be almost as grueling as mopping my kitchen floors!!! If my 2 year old is unusually chatty, I'm sure to end up with a headache by the end of the afternoon. And, now that I have a one year old chatter box, I'm considering purchasing stock in Ibuprofen products :)

I'm convinced that my daughter Morgann has devised her own language. My mother-in-law refers to it as Morgannese. She can prattle off a sentence and then simply sit and stare at you, awaiting your response. Mine is usually, "What?" She'll say it again, the exact same way, and stare at me, yet again! "What?!? Mommy can't understand you!" So, again, she'll say the exact same sentence, the exact same way, but a bit slower. I guess she figures that speaking slowly will help her mommy, since mommy tends to be a bit slow sometimes :) Unfortunately, this tactic doesn't work either, so mommy is forced to admit, "I'm sorry sweetie. Mommy just doesn't understand you. Can you show me?" Sometimes she can, but other times, she just gets teary eyed and walks away. Can you say "Total Heartbreak"? How awful she must feel when her own mommy cannot understand her?

Does anyone else have this problem is it just me? And, does anyone have a dictionary that is designed to look up words based on how they sound?

Usually when I sit & think long and hard about what she's saying, using my phoenetic capabilities, I can come up with a few suggestions, and I even get it right sometimes! When I land on the right answer, I receive much praise & applause from my little princess. It's even better when she's asking me a question and she receives the answer that she's looking for. It's always an exciting moment when she can communicate to us and we can respond in kind without having to ask her 3 or 4 times to repeat herself. After all, I know how irritated I get when I have to constantly repeat myself to my children - or husband - but that's usually due to a lack of listening on their part. Morgann has to repeat herself because we just don't speak Morgannese in this house, and it's frustrating to all!

So, as my youngest, Ian, is learning the basics in life - to take small bites rather stuffing the whole piece of whatever he's eating into his mouth, to drink from the correct side of the sippy cup because the liquid will actually come out without having to lean his head back so far it causes him to fall over, and to stand up, and yes, take a step or 2 before falling over and, inevitably, bumping his head on something - I simply cringe when Morgann & he begin to carry on a conversation with each - and then apparently understand what the other has just said. I love the fact that he's learning from his older brother & sister, and that the kids all seem to play very well together - most of the time anyway! But, the thought of my precious little boy learning to speak Morgannese before he learns English is almost enough to send this mother of 3 over the edge!

I've heard of multiples (twins, triplets, etc.) having their own language that they speak to each other, but they generally speak in their native tongue when trying to be understood by others. The 'special language' is usually reserved for the other speaker of the same tongue. In my case, I beginning to think that I need a translator. I've considered taking my daughter to a speech therapist, just to see if she might need a bit of help, but just when I've decided that this would be the approrpriate thing to do, we have an entire day when she seems to be speak fluent English, and I understand every word she says! But, we, of course, always digress again back to Morgannese, and I find myself frustraiting my daughter & myself into headache-ville once again.

So, I'm trying to decide how to handle teaching Ian to speak properly when he spends most of his time conversing with his older sister, who speaks her own language. I guess what's got me concerned right now is that his favorite phrase is "Oh, Uh". Yes, I'm sure it's totally normal for a 1 year old to say things backwards, but should this trend continue, I'm in really BIG trouble. I have a hard enough time speaking as a grown-up should when in the presence of other grown-ups, but learning to speak backwards is sure to send me straight to the looney bin!!!

The Quiet Times

Well, I'm sure that by simply posting this early in the day, I am probably going to jinx myself!

My current train of thought is that it's unusually quiet around here this morning. We're not rushing to get dressed to get out the door to go run one or several errands, we're not on a mission to get to & from the grocery store without losing our cool (their's or mine), and I'm not in a hurry to get Morgann off to school. In fact, I have absolutely nothing on my agenda for today! I have completed the laundry, cleaned the house, and paid all the bills that my checking account will allow until the next pay-day. All in all, I can see this being a very boring day!

It could also turn out that my original statement is true, and that all Hell is likely to break loose at any given moment!

But, for now, I plan to sit around in my jammies, drink the smoothie that I'm planing to make shortly - on my quest to lose a few pounds - and to simply PLAY :) There hasn't been much time for PLAYING lately, so I think that's become my new mission.

So, here I go! Well, after I hug & kiss on the one year old that just fell face first off of the ottoman sitting next to my desk :)