Do you know How LUCKY I AM?~ let me just tell you.

Honestly. This is going to sound soo cheesy, but I'm the luckiest person in the world (or the most blessed, or the most pittied) either way...you ought to be jealous.

Seriously. I have the greatest friends a girl could EVER have. I don't have to worry about letting them get too close...because I won't be judged. I don't have to worry about losing their trust...because they've got mine. My friends (and you know DAMN WELL who you are!!) make my world complete. I can e-mail you simply to say my mom's "best friend" is a horrible human being, sign off with ON THAT NOTE, I love you! and not worry about what I just wrote. I can call you simply to ask you to jump online and look up a phone number for me because I'm driving around town, and though you are 2,000 miles away--you still do it. And I don't have to feel guilty that that was the extent of our conversation. I can call and leave you a voicemail to let you know I miss you and ramble on about some insignificant details of my day...and not worry that you are going to think I just wasted three minutes of your time talking about scrubbing the toilets and walking to the mailbox in 107 degree heat because it's hotter than HELL down here...

and for those of you who can read this post and not judge me for being a total spaz are right up there with the best of them! I love my girlfriends.

YOU MAKE ME HAPPY.

Hmmm...

I had a good post.
I looked forward to blogging
once my munchkins went to bed.
Then...my mind went blank.

BLANK! nuthin' here.

nada.

where'd she go?!
where'd who go?!

*where the hell did I get that from?

On Becoming a Mother

"...my point is that I haven’t been the mother I always wanted to be. I’ve been overwhelmed by my emotions through these early years. I’ve often felt like I was treading water, biding my time until the waters weren’t as rough so I could finally swim towards shore where I could touch bottom and catch my breath. This week, I’ve begun to notice a change in the current. The water hasn’t been as choppy–or perhaps, I’ve finally built up the endurance to handle it."

-Sleeping Mommy

I can soo relate to this quote! (sleeping mommy, I love you!) Since returning home from our summer vacation, I have been working incredibly hard at becoming the mom I "want to be"-- TRYING to have family dinners together, TRYING not to lose my patience every 5 minutes, TRYING to embrace my children's silly behaviors and LAUGH more often...
I'm sure my children getting older has provided new freedoms, but at the same time, I also feel like I'm better at what I do because I've had years of practice. I truly feel I can handle my CREW with a certain degree of confidence, and you know what? I'm really proud of my little family.

Remind me of this post on days I feel I'm losing it, OK?

On the other hand, who can blame me if I drop the ball completely?? I mean, c'mon, I had a CRASH COURSE in becoming a mother!! 3 kids in under 3 years--wth were we thinking?! Other (sane) moms out there give themselves time to adjust to motherhood-- space them out a bit to ease into their new job but NO, NOT US!--those of us who didn't think that far into the future ended up with a litter
(insert: paid advertisement for birth control!- you're welcome)

p.s. did anyone notice NOT US can be rearranged: NUTSO?!
hmmph. I'm sure there's a reason for that.

Is This Goodbye?

Oh, I have been dreading this moment. It happened so suddenly and without warning. I'm just still not sure I'm truly ready to say goodbye...

It all started 11 days ago when my stomach was attacked by
some unknown virus. This evil bug has caused cramping, vomiting, and
diarrhea for days on end, making it damn near impossible (or simply not worth it) to
eat or drink much of anything.

As a result, my Coke Zero intake completely diminished, as
did my other fave, Diet Dr. Pepper. Today is the first "normal" day I've
had in 11 days...now the big question. I have neglected my caffeine
addiction for 11 days, suffered through headaches and irritability, late nights
and lack of sleep, and drowsiness throughout
every.single.day.

Having gone this long without ANY caffeine, do I simply say goodbye and allow only memories of the good ole days to get me through those early mornings and late nights?

Or do I stock up on fridge packs of Coke Zero and DDP and make up for lost time??!!

THAT IS THE QUESTION.

Travel Hangover

Well folks, we made it. We actually got on the plane this time and made it through Houston (stopping 3 times to use the bathroom but hey-I'm getting pretty familiar with the back of bathroom door stalls- remember in middle school? how they use to put ads on the back of doors? Like the school news and adds for tampons? whatever happened to such great advertising?) Anyway, I bought the munchkins a new toy before we left. And can I just tell you it was the best $15 ever spent?! Sweetie got a new horse, Bud-duh got some new dinosaurs, and Tiny got new Polly Pocket girls--kept them entertained for HOURS. Hey-I am sooo not past bribery! Anyway, I am thrilled to be back home. Even damn dog was so excited to see us last night that she kept falling over! I totally have travel hangover but at least it's better than the twilight zone that was my life--being stuck in Utah with sick kids and no luggage. My only saving grace was having Loralee and Jenn come to my rescue Monday night to celebrate my birthday--though once again I saw the back of bathroom doors more times than I care to see ever again--we still had a good time. Good chick flick, yummy food, cute pics (we are still camera whores after all).

Life is sooo not fair.

We slept well last night, the alarm went off at 5 a.m. No puking, no pooping, no worries. Right?Checked in online, began printing our boarding passes. Tiny PUKES in the living room.

Cleaned up, let's get in the car anyway because I.have.just.checked.in!
Not even five minutes later, Sweetie is running a fever and crying. Then she too PUKES in the living room.

Nevertheless, we push on...because
I have already checked in!

We make it to the airport, walk up to the ticket counter, Tiny PUKES all over and I have to drop everything and RUN to the garbage can. Meanwhile Bud-duh is crying because mommy left, Sweetie is asleep on the floor, and a nice man from the next line over is busy trying to clean up my purse and things strewn everywhere from the ticket counter to the garbage can.

Alright. I get it. We are supposed to be trapped in Utah HELL. We are all suppose to suffer from horrible tummy cramps, puking and pooping until we are all too weak to stand up, AND we are to be trapped here until Tuesday afternoon (without any luggage, I might add)! This is great. Freakin' wonderful (after all, I am in Utah--what did you expect? The F bomb? Heck no!)

$#@$%**&^%$#@@#&!

And you want to know the worst part? My birthday is Monday and as fate would have it, I'll still be puking up everything I eat!! This is supposed to be my BIG birthday, the one I've looked forward to all my life. And I don't even get to be home to celebrate it!

No, I'm not turning 21, I don't care if I can drink or not.
No, I'm not turning 25, I don't care if I can rent a car.
No, I'm not turning 30, I don't give a rat's ass
about being three decades old!

I am turning 29-- the age I will be for the rest of my life! I will be forever 29 and what do I have to show for it? A bucket of puke, sharted underwear, and cranky sick kids who miss their daddy almost as much as I do!!!

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to run to the bathroom before this rant REALLY gets ugly.

Up a creek without a paddle (or a suitcase or underwear or toothbrushes)

Headed to the airport today only to have our flight home delayed by 45 minutes. And not only was it late taking off but they wanted us to BOARD the plane. and sit on the runway. the. entire. "delayed" 45 minutes. until weather cleared up in Houston---(um, insert fave quote here: Houston, we have a problem!)

With only an hour layover in Houston, that left very little time for a mom traveling alone with three little rotten, screaming, crying, tired, ornery, fighting, cute munchkins to make their connecting flight. And I will NOT be stuck in Houston. Alone. With 3 kids! Do I want to take that risk?! Um...Negative Ghostwriter the pattern is full.

So I will now be headed home Saturday morning at the ass crack of dawn, and our luggage will be sitting in lockup at the airport until then. Good times!

UPDATE:

Sweetie woke up at 3 a.m. barfing into the sink!! Then she spent the rest of the morning on the toilet--now my stomach is all crampy and I am hating life!! If the younger two get this virus, then someone PLEASE just shoot me, ok? I cannot do this.

My stomach HATES me.

I have a headache, fever, and chills.

And I fly out tomorrow morning at the ass crack of dawn.

Did I mention my life SUCKS right now?!

don't read this--

RECAP at Loralee's!!

She did such a fabulous job posting about our weekend getaway...wait, it was only one night-- and a Tuesday night at that! Oh well. It was fun. Wish you all could have been there. I'll post my set of pics as soon as I can get them off my memory card--

As I tried to fall asleep last night, I had images of GREAT blog posts dancing in my head--only I was too damn tired to remember any of them the morning after. So there you go.

Off to Looney Tunes, my friends! MWAH.

p.s. don't forget to check out the sideblog-- the funniest ringtone EVAh.

Ring, ring ring!! LMAOOOO!!

When I was in college, I always prayed to marry the man I love. Years later I learned to pray to love the man that I married.

Can I just say how lucky I am to have my husband? Someone who is faithful. Loves me unconditionally. Puts up with my moods. Loves our children as much as I do, would give his life for any one of them. Trusts me with all his heart. Brags about me to his coworkers (and uses me as perfect examples when teaching psychology to undergrads--but we'll just skip over that part!). He loves me! And I love him so much that thinking about him now gives me butterflies in my stomach!

But you know what?-- that love doesn't come naturally, and you're a fool if you think it does! It takes practice. It takes patience. And you have to be humble, lose the pride and recognize how good you really have it!

Because I do.

OVERLOAD!

This past week has been a frantic one as I tried to get everything ready for our trip out west. Packing. Laundry. Cleaning. Shopping.

Want to know what I've accomplished thus far? Laundry (some), Cleaning (some), Shopping (some), Packing (NONE), Haircuts and Makeovers (CHECK), Photoshop to leave my fellow bloggers with some fantastic pics? (CHECK).

So here you go. My friend cut my hair a couple nights ago (after getting makeovers, VERY fun night) but I didn't get any decent pics. So (of course) I spent my midnight hour taking self photographs in the mirror then photoshopping the crap out of them so they look decent.

Also about an hour before getting the haircut, we tweezed my eyebrows! (ouch) I'm not like Erika who has a set of tweezers in her SUV and is OBSESSED with tweezing her brows! However, after our little makeover it was suggested and voted upon by all in attendance that there is a reason one should become obsessed with thin eyebrows!!

*I'm reminded of A League of Their Own when the girls are at charm school and the Mademoiselle looks at one of the players and says, "eyebrows! thin and separate!" or "there should be two, not one!"

And thus the tweezing began...what do you think?

There was hair EVERYWHERE! Ick.

WHY do I get myself into these things??

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Speaking of haircuts...take a look at what Tiny did to herself--

I know, it could have been worse...but the little imp said "it was too long", and I only found out because there was CHUNKS of hair all over the house! T I N E E E E Y ! ! !

*************************

I hate being gone for nearly a month. It's hard on the kids, it's hard on me. Worst of All, daddy has to stay home due to unforeseen work complications. I HATE it when I have to separate N8 from the munchkins, it breaks my heart...

which explains why last night when I came to bed my heart simply melted:


Sigh...another trip home without my husband.

At least he'll have Damn Dog to keep him company!

**************************

Hope you have a SILLY JULY and

miss us TONS!!!

**********************

Aaah--I almost forgot--

Reva Reva BoBeva, BananaFana fo Feva...

we are HOTT and
DAMN I'm gonna miss you!!

And to my girlfriends in Utah--

I CAN'T WAIT to come and play!!

see ya on the flip side.