Sorry for the long absence

So yeah I haven't done this in a while now lol. The only excuse I can give is that I have been extra super busy with my local Amtgard chapter for the past 9 months. I took over a position that no one else wanted and have been slaving away since. My last term is up in July so hopefully at that time I will be able to be more active on here.

Other than working my rear off for Amtgard, I have been catching up on my gaming. I forced Mr. Fluffy to finish Borderlands with me so I could play the second one I got for Christmas.  He finished that one and got about 3/4 of the way through the second one before abandoning me. He thinks it's a boring game. Really? This is coming from the man who will play Skyrim and Fallout for days without pause doing the most mundane thing in the game and yet, Borderlands 2 is too boring. Whatever.

The munchkins are getting bigger. Currently gearing up Little Man for middle school. He decided to take band as his elective ( Insert giggly happy mother face, YES BAND NERD!) We have also been dealing with the onset of that most heinous of monsters, puberty. He pretty much sounds like a squeaky toy 24-7 much to his distress and my great amusement. This has unfortunately (or fortunately) led to that most awkward of talks......S-E-X. Oh dear, I wasn't ready for it. Mr. Fluffy on the other hand was all kinds of Mr. Informative to him. I am dealing with it, but my heart cried about losing my son's innocence.

Well that about sums up my time away. Until the next post (whenever that may be)

The mystery of the urine scent

Do you ever have those times where you know you can smell something but no one else does? I do, all the time. I have a really weird heightened sense of smell. Of course, this only came about after I became a mom. I can smell puke rooms away and if a diaper needs to be changed from across the house. I am sure many of you developed this unfortunate superpower also. Sometimes this ultra shnoz comes in useful, but most of the time I wish I didn't have it (like every time I pass my son's bathroom). 

A few days ago I am sitting in my living room with a friend and we are playing Black Ops 2, just relaxing the day away by shooting digital men in the groin. All of a sudden, I get a faint whiff of  parfum de pee-pee. I immediately chalk it up to the boys not flushing their toilet again and tell them they need to do that pronto. On we go about our business and everything is fine for about thirty minutes when I catch the scent again. I go and check the boys bathroom, because you know, they do everything I ask the first time *insert eye roll here*. Surprisingly, the toilet is clear and there is nothing in there that smells. Ok strange, but I just decided it must have been left over toilet smelly. 

Ten minutes later, I smell it again. This time I go on a manhunt. I check the laundry. Smelly but nothing that smells like urine. I check my son's bed (we are fighting a bed wetting problem, it has gotten much better) to see if it was wet. I checked to see if the kids had dropped dirty clothes on the way to the laundry room. I checked everything.........or so I thought. 

Two days later and I am still smelling it. I have asked everyone else and no one seems to smell it. I belatedly realize late that day, that the only time I smell it is when I am in my computer desk chair. I am searching around my desk when it suddenly becomes overpowering. The one and only thing near me is my tiny little waste basket. Now just a little back tracking here. I used to have a waste basket in my son's bathroom but do to two little boys playing "let's see who can fill it with pee faster" I have taken it away from them. So with this in mind, I think "Oh no, no trash can is safe. I am going to maim them." I call (read: yell) them down from their rooms and start demanding to know who peed in my trash can in the living room where we entertain our family and friends. Both boys are adamantly denying their involvement, saying they learned their lesson from the bathroom stunt when I see this tiny hand being held up behind them. 

Yes, it was my dainty, girly little daughter. 

My mouth just dropped open and everyone fell silent. Mr. Fluffy trying to hide his giggling brought me out of my shock and I proceeded to ask the question all mothers fear...........why. She tells me that about a week ago (yes.....a week.......pee was in my living room for a week) she was downstairs watching her cartoons and felt the need to pee come on her. For some reason none of us will ever know, she spied my trash can and thought to herself  "I can just squat over that and then I won't have to walk upstairs to the bathroom, no one will ever know." She was surprised to learn that two inches of pee in there would start to stink after a little while. Her punishment was having to clean it out. She has sworn never to do it again. 

Let's hope she sticks to that

Brotherly love?

I get so tickled at my boys. I can honestly say, I didn't know what to expect when I had two sons. I grew up with three sisters and two brothers but one didn't live with us (complicated story lol) so I was never really exposed to brotherly bonding. My boys have shared a room since Smarty Pants was born. I never felt anything wrong with it seeing as how I had shared a room with my sister up through high school. It just felt like the natural thing to do.

There have been bumps in the road, to hear it from them you would think sharing a room was the ultimate in un-coolness. They never can agree whose clothes belong to who. They are forever touching each others toys. They constantly pull pranks on each other and heaven forbid if one of them dares to encroach upon the other's bed. I am constantly bombarded by the demand of  "Why can't (enter name here) just sleep out in the hall? Then I could have my own room!" "Why is it fair that Little Miss has her own room but we don't!?" "Mooooom! He is staring at my side of the rooooom!"

For all of this though, I can tell that they actually enjoy each other's company. Every night at bed time, there are the secretive whispers and giggles. When one of them isn't there you would think they had died by the way the other acts. They will complain about how silent and boring their room is when the other is gone. They will seek out me or their sister because "It's just too lonely in there without (enter name)." It is at times like these I realize, through all the bluffing and posturing and knock-down-drag-out fights that they really do care for each other. With sisters it was easier, we knew we loved each other and we stuck together like glue. My boys kept me wondering though, I was down right positive they detested each other. I just hope one day  they realize just how important they are to each other. I know I can see it, but if you ask them they will flat out deny it.

Rant about my kid's school

Can I just say how much I hate dealing with my children's school?  I have fairly smart children. They aren't genius kids or anything but they are not walking around with air between their ears either. Our school district loves to hire "new" teachers or promote someone from one thing (my daughter's teacher was the school librarian until this year) to a teaching position. While I understand that these people have to start somewhere in their teaching careers, I just wish my kids wouldn't get them every single year. With Little Man, they never know how to handle his hair trigger temper. Sassy Pants always seems to get the teachers who have never in their entire lives dealt with a head strong kid before, and Little Miss is learning this year that she can't just get by on how cute she is. Sassy Pants teacher and I just are butting heads this year. Talking to that man is like beating your head against a brick wall. Not going to get anything out of it but a splitting headache. Sassy Pants talks. Anytime he can have his mouth running it is. He is a non stop chatter box. I warned his teacher of this. When they line up to go anywhere, the teacher tells them to be quiet and not talk, so of course my son has to talk. They have a color system for when they are in trouble.

Purple - excellent day!
Blue - Great day!
Green- good but not anything to brag about (this is where my kids thrive)
Yellow - not bad but had to be warned once
Orange - getting worse, second warning
Red - basically your screwed. We will call and email both your parents and you are possibly getting ISS (in school suspension)

So yesterday Sassy Pant's teacher decides that he isn't going to give him any warnings anymore. If he gets in trouble for the littlest thing he will automatically go from where ever he was on the list to red. If he gets red he gets grounded at home. His teacher knows this and has decided to use it against my son as a sort of blackmail. Be extremely good or I will put you on red! WTF?! Really? You are going to emotionally blackmail my son into behaving a little better so you don't have to stop being lazy and deal with him? You can't tell me in that whole class of 21 kids that my son is the worst. I know he loves to talk and will most likely be named class clown but he isn't violent or anything. Then, he calls Mr. Fluffy, who just happened to be taking a test and forgot to silence his phone so he automatically failed the test, just to tell him that Sassy Pants had not been turning in homework for three weeks. Really? Why didn't you tell us sooner?! This man has both of our email addresses and phone numbers so there is no reason why he could not reach us sooner than this. Why wait three damn weeks to say anything at all? I am so frustrated with their school that I just want to scream. They refuse to keep us in the loop on anything then cry about it when we don't know what is going on.

Random rubbish I did over the weekend

What to write! Gah! There are so many little things going through my brain right now but the question is, what do I share?

First off, the entire weekend was just great. I needed some much deserved mommy down time and so I shipped the kids off to Grandma's house. It was also good for them, they needed time away from me just as much as I needed time from them and were actually excited to see me when I picked them up.

Friday night after we had pawned the children off with my parental, we pretty much just vegged on the couch. We played CoD, watched some TV, and munched our munchies in our pj's.

Saturday, we spent the morning zoning out and getting ready to go out to the Amtgard field. We had been expecting visitors from another field and it turned out to be a very fun day. I saw some old friends and met some new. Our brothers in arms brought our fledgling group some much needed items and when it was all over no one wanted to say goodbye.

I had made Mr. Fluffy promise to take me on his bike later after everything was done. I told him "I don't care where just ride!" Sounded romantic at the time but the temperature wound up dropping dramatically while we were on said "ride". He decided to take a pit stop at a local "gaming" store that recently opened up and I hadn't seen yet and to show me the awesome flyer that had been made for our amtgard group. Don't get me wrong, I love all kinds of gaming and gamers I just don't do well at roleplaying games like D&D. I enjoy watching people play it but I am just not very good at it myself. This place happens to cater to this type of gamer. Wooo! I love that I really do. So while I was waiting on Mr. Fluffy (he had gone to say hi to some friends) I was at the front counter looking at their wares. A man (who I am going to assume is the owner) came up to me and started a conversation about gaming. He politely asked if I gamed, I told him that yes I did. He then asked what my poison was, I kind of stammered because I mean where do you start? I was shyly trying to name off some games when he was all "Magic? D&D? hmmm?" I told him "Oh, I don't do very well at those, I mainly stick to PC and console games" You would have thought that I had spilled grape juice on white carpet with the look that came over his face. He quickly got himself together and said "Oh a video gamer" as if he was mentioning something filthy. I on the other hand quickly got over my surprise and was trying hard not to guffaw in this fellow's face, because honestly he seemed like a pretty cool guy even if he doesn't like us video gamers. Soon after that we rode over to a very pretty park to scout out an area for a gathering we are going to be hosting in a month. It's very pretty and I am hoping the weather will be nice.

Sunday was pretty relaxed. I worked on making the ugliest bag in history to hold our new treasures. Mr. Fluffy calls it the "Santa Bag", I told him it was more like "The ugly bag of shame." I also posted some pictures of me in "Garb" (term used to signify our medieval dress) so that our new people could see examples.

I was really frakin cold. Thus the smile of "hurry the frack up!"

Yep that is me. Freezin my butt off while Mr. Fluffy took his time using my phone to take the picture.He insisted that we couldn't take the picture in the house "Because they wouldn't be able to see the details" and also he kept having to adjust my hood because at one point I looked like a headless monk from Doctor Who. I think he was just having fun seeing me freeze. There are some other things, but like I said earlier, I am still struggling with if I should or should not share them :)

Having a mini-me isn't always flowers and sunshine

You know what no one tells you when you get pregnant with your first child? How hard it is going to be when you two fight. Let me tell you, Little Man and I fight alot. Don't get me wrong, I adore my son. I love him beyond anything in this world. When he smiles and looks at me with his giant chocolate colored eyes and eyelashes any girl would kill to have makes my heart positively soar. He is the black sheep of our children, but he is the apple of his mother's eye. Someday, some girl is going to have a problem with how much of a mamma's boy he is, but I can deal with that later. The problem now is that he is too much like myself. While I can see all the good things about myself in him, I see all my flaws as well. I want so badly for my son to be a better person than I that it leads to some awful arguments between us.

I see in him the debilitating shyness I always endured. Except, whereas I would shutdown emotionally and hide when I felt "cornered" by other people, he reacts with aggression. I cannot tell you how many times Mr. Fluffy and I have been called to the school because he hit another student. I see the temper that I inherited from my own father in him. Both my father and I are quick to anger, though we don't usually hurt anyone physically. I try very hard to be a good example for him, to show him how to effectively deal with his anger so he doesn't hurt anyone else and even put him in counseling. I see in him the same way that I react to something that seems insurmountable. When I feel overwhelmed I usually break down and rebel against it. He does the same thing.

I want my son to be a better person than me. I see in him the ability to be better and do better than me. This is where many of our arguments start.

This week has been a test of my ability to cope with someone so similar to myself. Last weekend my son decided that he wanted to fight in Amtgard. Mr. Fluffy and I set down two rules. He wanted Little Man to keep up on his chores, I wanted one week without him getting in trouble at school. The first day at school, he gets his phone (it's for emergencies only) taken up at school, because instead of listening to his teacher he decided that his phone was more interesting and took it out of his backpack and had it in his desk. We told him that he would have to earn back his phone since I have to pay them to return it to me. I was willing to let that slide as to the getting in trouble at school rule. What was his reaction when we told him all this? He immediately told us how unfair we were being and then stoutly refused to do any chores at all all week long. I let his father deal with the chore issue because I just wasn't up to arguing about it. Then yesterday, I got a call from his teacher informing me that the rebellion had continued at school. She said that all week long, my son had only completed one assignment of his homework and schoolwork. Feeling like a failure of a mother  for trusting my eleven year old to not lie to me and not hovering over him every minute until he had finished his homework, I resolutely told her to send everything he didn't get done that day home and I would make sure he got every bit of it done. Needless to say he was not very happy with me. I then proceeded to call my mother and inform her that she needed the kids there this weekend or she was going to end up without a daughter.

This morning we both got up and eyeballed each other. Who would be the first to make a move? Who was going to bring up this weekend first (I hadn't informed him at this point he was spending it at grandma's house)? Then the sword to my heart was delivered with these words "I'm really really looking forward to fighting on the field this weekend mom!" How do I deal with that? So I slowly looked at him and said "You are going to Grandma's this weekend with the other two." All hell broke loose. The tears came from both of us and the claims of how unfair it all was tore my heart apart. I knew that if I backed down for one minute I would fall apart and he would never learn the lesson I was trying to teach him. Eventually he stormed off to his room and cried to his brother about their cruel, cruel mother. I patiently waited until I couldn't hear anymore sorrowful pleas of understanding and instead heard them giggling. I called him back downstairs. He slowly walked down and gave me that look that said he was pretty sure I was going to send him to a remote island. I calmly asked him if he understood why he was being denied the privilege of getting to go out his weekend and if he understood that it wasn't anyone's fault but his own. He said he did realize that it was his fault he was in trouble, he shouldn't have played with his phone and he understood how important his schoolwork is. You see, he wants to be a game designer when he grows up (squee!) and he is smart enough to do so. I also believe that with his proclivity to be alone it would be a career that would suit him perfectly. We hugged, we cried a little more and then I sent him on his way to school. I know this won't be our last fight as it certainly wasn't our first. What I do know is that as much as it hurts for us to fight, I can't back down because I am making him a better person than I am and someday all the tears and hurt feelings will pay off. In the meantime, all I can do is stand my ground while making sure he knows I love him.

Hostess with the (NOT)Mostess

I share a bond with two very beautiful women I call my sisters. In all actuality they are my step-sisters, but our parents married when we were all very young so we have grown up together like any normal siblings do. These two gorgeous ladies couldn't possible mean more to me even if we had the same blood in our veins and not just tied together through marriage.

 A few months ago I talked to my older sister about her and her brood coming to my house for Spring Break. We had the usual banter about what days, what we could possibly do and how many times we would need to duct tape our children to the walls. She comes down often enough that I don't stress too much about the little details. I bugged her and bugged her for weeks for the exact days she would be here (I'm a planner, I NEED this information) before finally giving up and texting her that I had taken the entire week of Spring Break off.  A few minutes later I get a text saying "oh great! I will ask Dad and Mom if they wanna come too!" 

O.o

Now I love my dad and his wife, but I don't have a large house. I live in a townhouse. There is enough room in my kids rooms to bunk a few more kids and my living room and be re-situated to make a sleeping pallet on the floor. But I don't have enough room for a whole lot of people. My couch sits 2 and my table sits 5 on a good day. At my best of times I am a decent hostess, at my worst I am terrible. So now, I am trying to figure out stuff that we can all do that doesn't involve us just staring at each other. My dad told me that he will bring some stuff to grill and we can do that. I have a basketball court and a park directly behind my house, so I plan on doing alot of stuff outside. For the most part I am going to try my best not to freak out (the planner in me is just dying right now) and enjoy having my family invade my house for a few days. I'm sure everything will work out for the best and I will probably sleep for days after everyone is gone. 

Independent kids can be a blessing

I am so very grateful I have children old enough to manage things by themselves. I had a different post planned today. I was going to write about pms and feminism but that is just going to have to wait. I had it all planned out in my head last night while vainly trying to sleep. You see, when mother nature strikes along with all the other horrible stuff  I outlined, I become an insomniac as well. I have not been able to sleep more than 3 to 4 hours a night all week long.

 

I 

am 

exhausted

Last night was no exception. I laid awake reading my book late into the night hoping that would make me drowsy enough to fall asleep. I gave up after about 2 hours and forced myself to just lie there with my eyes closed and hope for the best. The next thing I knew I heard a door slamming. I jerked awake certain that we were being robbed, just to realize that it was 7:30 in the morning. My very loud alarm is set for 6 am. My children's alarms are set for 6 am. They are the nosiest children getting ready in the morning. They argue, scream, and sometimes even throw things. I slept through every single bit of it. The door I heard was them leaving for the bus. I jumped up, ran down stairs and yanked the door open so I could yell to them that I loved them and to have a good day all while feeling like the crappiest mother on earth and embarrassing them in front of their friends in my t-shirt and underwear (yeah, I'm so classy). I was devastated. Today, I am so exhausted I can't even think straight. Hopefully things are going to get back to normal soon. In the meantime, I am grateful that my husband and I had the foresight to drill into our kids the importance of being able to do things for themselves. 

My kids still manage to awe me

I am such a proud little mommy today. A little while back, Mr. Fluffy and I decided to put both of our boys in Boy Scouts. We figured Smarty Pants would benefit from all the social interaction (he is the kid most would call "class clown") and Little Man would finally learn how to interact socially at all. I worried my little introvert would be in shell shock at his first few meetings but his father kept insisting he was doing well. I attended a meeting myself with him to calm my nerves and was pleasantly surprised to see him getting along with many of the boys his age. You see, he is a loner by nature. He doesn't like many children his age and it doesn't help that he has a bit of an anger issue (he has been to counseling). So for a while I just sat back and enjoyed it. Then, I began to question if they were actually learning any "scout" stuff. Yesterday I got my answer.

Two weeks ago we bought all the kids new bikes because theirs had been stolen last year. Little Man, Smarty Pants and one of the neighbor kids were riding the bikes yesterday when Smarty Pants lost control, hit a fence, and got caught under his bike. The usual reaction for Little Man would be to panic right along with his brother or to completely ignore him. I am a paranoid mother, so I keep the back door open when they play outside so I can hear them. I had already heard the crash and the crying and to my shock and awe I heard my Little Man telling his brother to "Breathe slowly, calm down so you don't hurt yourself more. Hey (the the other kid) stay with him and keep him calm while I go get our mom. Don't let him move, he could be very hurt.It's going to be ok Smarty Pants." It took a minute for me to grasp that this was my kid talking. My Little Man who would usually freak out was being absolutely calm and putting what he had learned to use. My heart swelled and as soon as Mr. Fluffy came back home I was bragging all I could. My little boy is growing into such a man. I'm glad I am around to see it happen :)

It's the little things

Sitting on the couch watching a Heroes marathon;

Mr. Fluffy: Oh, just for your information, one of our children has gotten very good at forging your signature on his homework.

Me: Really? Which one?

Mr. Fluffy: Smarty Pants

Me: Oh well, at least his handwriting has improved.

Yeah, I am convinced Smarty Pants is my only hope for a child with pretty handwriting. His older brother is a lefty so his writing always looks like a kindergartner attacked his homework and his younger sister refuses to practice her handwriting. So, I am happier at this moment that since he is doing good enough to copy me then maybe I have hope. We can deal with the forging bit later.........let me have this one thing :)

I'm an old fashioned mother (sort of)

I am finally starting to get back to being healthy again. There is still a lingering cough, but much better than it was. So I will try to get back to being on here more.

I often wonder at how different things are now then when I was a kid. Not things like technology, I expect technology to change. It is the way people act. When I was a kid, a good parent knew where their child was, who their friends were and the phone numbers of said friends parents. There was such things as calling before you went over to make sure it was ok and calling your parents to let them know if you were going somewhere else. Mr. Fluffy and I have tried very hard to instill that kind of thinking in our own children. The boys had a particular friend that vexed me at every turn. This young child would come over almost every day at supper time and want our boys to go play at his house. Every single day we would remind him that it was a weekday, we were about to eat and no the boys would be unavailable to go play at his house because they would be getting ready for baths and bed soon. We would remind him everyday to try to come over earlier. It never happened. It would be no surprise to go stand on our porch and see this young boy's mother wandering around looking for him and knocking on everyone's door to see if he was there. I may be old fashioned, but in my books that would be reason enough for grounding him. I like to know where my children are at all times. Call it overprotective if you want, but I would rather that then have them missing. The most unfortunate thing is, I find myself a rarity in our neighborhood. Many parents here just let their children go wherever and find nothing at all odd with not knowing where they are.

So, knowing all that, it was a rare treat to finally meet another mother who felt as I did. She is a very nice lady who is quite a bit older than most of the mothers around here, but she was given a blessing late in life and that little blessing has just firmly staked a best friend claim on my daughter. I couldn't be more thrilled with this. Her daughter is very well behaved, and very nice. Her mother insisted on exchanging phone numbers with me before allowing our daughters to have play dates so that we could both keep tabs on them. She will call me and ask my permission before taking my daughter elsewhere or giving her something. Today, I surprised her. My daughter wanted to go play with hers, so I made Little Miss dial her number and ask permission herself. I don't feel the need to do every tiny thing for my children, I like them learning for themselves. Of course the other mother loved this. We live only about 200 yards from each other. I sat on my porch and watched my daughter walk down the street to her house. As soon as she walked in the door my phone rang. Her friend's mother was letting me know she got there alright.

I really wish that more parents from my generation were like this lovely lady. I may be more lax in certain areas regarding my children, but I don't believe manners and common courtesy ever go out of style.

The worst part of bronchitis as a mom of three

      You know what the worst part of having bronchitis has been? It wasn't the coughing that kept me up all night long. It wasn't the feeling of being stabbed in the chest every time I started hacking away. It wasn't even when I started coughing up blood. I just shrugged my shoulders at all of that, got myself to a doctor and moved on. The absolute worst part?

 Mom bladder

     Yep, every time I would start uncontrollably coughing, I would cross my legs and pray that this would be the one time I didn't pee myself. Mr. Fluffy even started calling me Leaky Lady. After having three kids your body starts to turn on you. Sneezing, coughing,  sometimes even laughing too hard can be a reminder of how weak your bladder has become. Forget about taking long trips. When we plan a trip that is going to be over an hour long, there has to be frequent pee stops or the upholstery in the car would be ruined. When working out, I have to make extra sure that I pottied right before any jumping jacks or running of any kind for fear that I will suddenly lose control and wet myself in front of everyone. Or even the dreaded stomach virus. Bent in supplication to the porcelain god, offering up your sacrifice of breakfast, lunch and dinner only to feel the warm sensation of urine running down your leg. Of all the things motherhood took from my body, I lament the loss of my bladder the most. 

Thank goodness the bronchitis is starting to clear up. The coughing fits are coming farther and fewer now with less force. Looks like I won't be Leaky Lady for too much longer.

Geeky household conversations

Every Saturday night we have family night. We either play a board game or watch a movie together as a family. Last night we chose Star Trek: Nemesis..........the following conversation ensued.


Smarty Pants (as the Enterprise floats by on the screen): What ship is that?

Mr.Fluffy: I think it might be the Titan

Me: What are you smoking? That is the Enterprise!

Mr.Fluffy: No, that is not the Enterprise.

Me: What?!

Mr.Fluffy (completely changing the subject): The next generation show had an Enterprise D, That is an E.

Me: Who the heck do you think is piloting it? That is Picard so that makes it the next generation's Enterprise.

Mr.Fluffy: But it is not a D, it is an E.

Me: Does that even matter? They have an E now.

Mr. Fluffy: Wanna bet?

Me: Bet what? That is the Enterprise (rewinding movie back to part that CLEARLY shows USS Enterprise on the hull). Fine, loser does laundry tomorrow.

Mr. Fluffy: (pulls up image on internet) See, they had a D on the show.

Me: Yeah but they wrecked it in Generations. They had to get a new one. You lose

Mr.Fluffy: How did I lose?

Me: You said it was the Titan, I bet you it was the Enterprise therefore I won.

Mr.Fluffy: (Glares at me)

Little Miss: Can you two stop arguing and play the movie now?

These types of conversations happen often at our house. Plus I got to be the know it all when I proved Shinzon is Bane..........

Why I might seem a little cookoo

I thought that today I would discuss my children. I won’t go into specifics but I will talk about their personalities a bit.

Little Man is my oldest. He is my momma's boy. I call him little man because he worries about the most adult things. He has actually started worrying about our family budget. I find it endearing, but at the same time I tell him to enjoy being a kid and don’t worry about if we can afford this or that, daddy and I will always find a way. The little part is, well, he is pretty darn short. He should be at least half a foot taller for his age but he just isn't growing much. When he talked to the doctor about this, one of the first words to come up was dwarfism. My son’s first worry? “Mom will I have to work in a mine?” I admit, I laughed then I told him that no we would just give him a battle ax and let him grow an awesome beard. He liked that much better.

Smarty pants is our middle child. He has the classic middle child syndrome which is no end of aggravation, but he is also my sweetest child. Just the other day in a store, we were walking by and one of the employees dropped something and he ran over and picked it up for her since her arms were full. He randomly does things like this. It makes my heart swell. So why call him Smarty Pants? This is why; he is helping do laundry one day. He comes up to me with one of my shirts and says “Mom, this shirt is too little for Little Miss.” I reply back that the shirt is indeed not Little Miss’s shirt, but mine. His response, “Well then, this shirt is too little for you.” Then he runs off cackling to his room. His first day of school he walks up to his teacher and informs him that he isn't there to learn, he is there to have fun. Needless to say this teacher has been no end of grief for Mr. Fluffy and I. He does this constantly. Everyday is a battle between being proud of my son for how sweet and considerate he can be and wanting to lock him in his room for his smarty pants ways.

Little Miss is my little princess. She is the epitome of girlishness. Her room is bedecked in pink and glitter from ceiling to floor. Her closet is mounds of pink fluff and glitter and she has nearly everyone she meets wrapped around her finger. Beautiful blonde haired, blue eyed girl with dimples you can drown in and within minutes of walking into a room she can have everyone waiting on her hand and foot. She also is short like her oldest brother but she isn't bothered by this, it adds to her boundless charm. Much to my chagrin, she has been spoiled since birth. You see we tried to have a girl for a long time. When we finally got pregnant with her, it wasn't at the best of times and I told my husband that either way, boy or girl, this was to be our last pregnancy (I hated being pregnant and had been having some bad female issues at the time). So, lo and behold, we had our much anticipated little girl and right off she was very sickly. She got every little illness that a baby wasn't supposed to get. She spent much of her first 3 years in and out of emergency rooms and on breathing treatments. She has since grown out of much of it but we did spoil her rotten during that time. Thank goodness she didn't turn out to be much of a brat. She loves to help do chores and if her brothers do something, she insists that she be allowed also.

My children are my life line. They make me crazy and yet keep me going on. I can’t wait to see how they turn out as they grow older. 

Cough cough, ugh

Doing this kinda late today.

      I was sent home from work sick. It was kinda horrible because I didn't feel sick but I apparently have bronchitis. Yay. So I sat home all day (what little of it wasn't spent in a drugged stupor) feeling guilty because I felt that I should be at work. I was brought up that if you are well enough to get out of bed then you are well enough to go to work. True enough that I was coughing up blood this morning, But hey, I didn't have a fever so all good right? Not according to my bosses. Did I happen to mention I work for the Health Department? Yeah, having a hacking woman wearing a mask around would not have sent a good message to the public. 

    On a cooler note, my son came to me yesterday and talked to me about "this girl" in class. I could barely contain myself with joy while simultaneously freaking out. On the one hand it means Little Man is growing up and following the natural order (I had my doubts that he would ever be interested in anyone,boys or girls) but it also means he will soon be moving out of the I-love-to-snuggle-with-my-mommy stage. See, Little Man is my first born. He is a momma's boy and I am totally cool with that. Up until now I cherished the fact that he was still cool with holding mom's hand and letting her hug and kiss him in public. But now there is a girl involved. Soon it will all be about her and what she did and likes and he won't be cool with public mommy hugs and kisses. At the same time, I am totally psyched about his first crush and that he came to me about it, not his dad or his brother or even his few friends.....me. Excuse me while I do a happy dance. 

       Ok back to my drugged stupor. Thanks and good night everyone :)

Hello my loves :)

      This is my first blog and first blog post. 

      Now that I have that out of the way, I am a first time blogger and this is just something I have thought of doing for some time now. Let me introduce myself. My name is Cassie. I will leave out my last name because I am just a bit paranoid that way. When I get more comfortable with all of this I will eventually share more info. I love to game. I play MMOs, FPS, just about any console game, and I used to roleplay (not the dirty kind people, the nerdy kind).I also do the occasional crafty thing. I have three children, I shall refer to them as Little Miss, Smarty Pants, and Little Man. I have been married for 11 years to my wonderful husband, who I shall refer to as Mr. Fluffy or the hubs. I call him Mr. Fluffy because since we have been together he has turned from a sleek and handsome guy into a sleek and handsome Sasquatch. I still love him though, even if sometimes he makes me contemplate if I could live with maiming him.

     I would welcome and appreciate input into how I am doing and helpful criticisms. I don't want a ton of drama or trolling as this is to be my outlet. A place for me to put out into the wide world all my random thoughts and musings. I will try to keep things lighthearted, but as I do have a condition that makes me emotionally volatile, I might have the occasional rant or depressing post.

    Aaand now we have gotten through with that, HI! Hello to all of you and I look forward to our journey together.