I woke up in Silent Hill...........

I live in the South. Fog here is not a common sight, which is too bad because I LOVE it. Just as much as I love rain. I am just not at all into cold weather. My friend calls me the reptile do to my need to have it constantly warm.

For the past few weeks it has just been a little freezing rain and snow with a lot of ice. I want to make this clear for anyone not in the South. It is NOT the snow that shuts us down, but the ice underneath it. I believe we had a total of 200 wrecks in just a matter of a few days in the town I live in because of icy roads. Combine that with the fact that there is a plethora of idiotic drivers in this town and shit gets real, but I am digressing.

So after all this snow and ice I have been waking up to, we finally got fog this morning.

There are buildings and trees on the other side of that fence

It was Glorious

Ah! Another living soul!

I was enjoying every lovely, creepy minute of it.

I feel like something should be jumping out at me

I was wondering where this guy was though

http://marcoscapella.deviantart.com/art/Cosplay-Pyramid-Head-in-Santos-Brazil-377896690

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)

Naked Amtgard

Sorry I really haven't posted anything lately. Frankly I just hit a wall. It isn't that nothing has been happening but the opposite, so much has been happening that I am having issues filtering everything out and figuring out what to post about. We have been very heavy into Amtgard lately. I have been playing some of the new BO2 maps and of course working my tush off at work and at home with the kids. So I have to say one of the best days of my summer came this last weekend.

We caravaned with a ton of our friends to an Amtgard event up north of us. I wasn't really expecting to enjoy myself quite so much. Just let me interject here that I am an extremely lucky woman to have a husband who isn't controlling and only slightly possessive and jealous, I adore that man. We played our hearts out that entire day and when night came we partied it up a little. Unfortunately, someone slipped Mr. Fluffy some everclear and he went down for the count for a few hours. It is his kryptonite as he told me the next morning (yes, this was the first time in our 12 year marriage that I have seen my dear hubby shitfaced drunk).  After I made sure he wasn't in any danger of being stepped on or eaten alive, I went and hung out with our out of town friends and had a blast (because honestly I was a little upset that my husband was passed out drunk and not having a blast with me, so they were trying to cheer me up). A bunch of old farts acting like teenagers again in a highly comedic way. There was some tackling, some very raunchy jokes and a very entertaining game of truth or dare with plenty of naked racing ( not me, no one needs subjected to that). There is something that is truly liberating about just letting go of everything in a group of people that you can truly trust in. There was not one moment where I felt taken advantage of or compromised. It was like hanging out with a bunch of siblings.

Later when Mr. Fluffy had slept off the majority of the everclear, he came and joined us. Had it been any other man I would have been given no end of grief over it. The fact that he takes my craziness in stride and doesn't get all pissy about it makes me love that man more every day. I couldn't imagine being with a man who was so insecure about our relationship that they couldn't handle me doing some of those things. Our trust in each other is strong, and gets stronger every year. The fact that he understands me and knows that I can handle myself without him getting all macho over me makes me giddy. That is what made that trip the best I have had all summer, and the best part of the entire evening? Falling asleep in Mr. Fluffy's arms in our tiny tent at 5 am.

Best
Husband
In
The
World.

I love you Mr. Fluffy :)

Our date night turns strange

I know I haven't been on here much but that is ok........I do have a life.........somewhat. Truth is I have just been trying my hardest to enjoy the summer. My motherish parental unit stole all three of the destructobots (re: kids) for four full days. In parent language that is the equivalent to the freedom cry on Braveheart. To coincide with this fortuitous event, Mr. Fluffy received early birthday money (because we are all just lazy and cool like that in our big family) so we decided to have a movie date. Yippee!

Our city is cool enough to have a drive-in movie theater that is still operational. I absolutely adore it. It is a bit run down and the snack area has a smell that I still have been unable to completely identify, but I just think it is the coolest thing since toasted bread. Plus, for the price of a single movie at a fancy indoor theater, you get a double feature. Two movies for the price of one? Yes thank you please. The only problem is that we always seem to choose the worst weather to go watch movies in. Last time we decided to go while it was like 40 degrees outside, and forgot blankets. This time, it was about 90 out and we are having a plague of monster mosquitoes to boot so we couldn't roll down the windows.

So there we are in our van enjoying the first movie, sweating buckets and ignoring the giant mosquitoes that were staring in the window at us, when I feel our van rock a little like someone had just bumped into really hard. Now, it doesn't take much for our van to do that. In fact, Mr. Fluffy had just leaned against it earlier and made it do the same thing. This time though, Mr. Fluffy was inside so there should be no reason for it to have done it. My first reaction was that someone was playing some kind of prank on us.

Me: Did you feel that?

Mr.Fluffy: What?

Me: The van just moved, I think someone bumped it.

Mr. Fluffy: *looking around* I don't see anyone.

Me: Maybe they are crouched down.

Mr. Fluffy: Ehh, maybe they are but I doubt it is anything to worry about.

So we went back to enjoying the movie. Fast forward about twenty minutes later and there is a flashlight being shined into my window. My first reaction was that someone thought we were doing something inappropriate or that they had figured out we had smuggled snacks in the van. Much to my surprise there were two cops outside my window. I was flabbergasted and then it dawned on me that two cops wouldn't come to tell us to turn over our contraband snacks.

Me: Can I help you officer?

Officer: You two haven't happened to see a man running through here in a white shirt have you?

Me: No, is everything ok? (I was a little worried, we had parked somewhat off to ourselves way up front)

Officer: Yeah, we got a call about that guy on the news tonight (dur Mr. Officer, I am at the movies not at home watching the local news). It seems someone called in that they saw him sneaking around out here.

*Now our drive-in is located out in a big field on the edge of town, so it does make sense someone hiding from the cops in this area would run through here to get to it*

Me: No, we haven't seen anyone but someone did bump our van earlier. We thought it was a prank.

Officer: Ok well we will keep on looking around, you folks enjoy your movie.

Me: Mr. Fluffy, lock the damn doors!

It seems that a man decided to rob one of our local elementary schools of their computers and had been found out. He went on the run the very same night we had decided to sit in the open and watch movies in the dark. It took them three days to catch this houdini of a man. They finally found him hiding out in a car in a parking lot. This was after he was found hiding in an attic and he fell through and escaped.

I am thoroughly convinced he was the one who bumped our van that night. I will be locking my doors every single time now....just sayin'

Face meet palm

At work and phone is ringing.

Me: Hello this is *_______* how can I help you?

Client: Um yeah I need to ask a question right?

Me: Ok, what is it that you need to know?

Client: So I am calling for my friend right?

Me: *silence*

Client: She can't speak English right?

Me: (Thinking about this time that neither can the person on the phone.)

Client: So I am calling about her daughter right? I think she needs shots right? But like they have never called her to remind her she does right?

Me: (this is just too much for me to deal with in my current mood) I am going to transfer you now, please hold.

*my head promptly met keyboard*

This is unfortunately not a rare occurrence at my job.

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.

It's my bubble...pop it and die

I have personal space issues. I know other people say that, but I really do. I am an introvert and I am not overly fond of physical contact with other people. It takes an awful lot of time for me to feel comfortable enough to let you touch me. I still have family members that I resist letting into my bubble. If you have a hard time understanding, read this. I know, if I am this bad how do I keep a blog? I don't have to see you or touch you so it's all good baby!

Knowing this, I got quite the shock the other day. We were out at the park and this lady who is apparently friends with everyone else came up, sat down beside me and just started talking non-stop to me. I smiled politely and kept up with some small talk and was doing pretty good in my honest opinion. We got up to say goodbye and she reaches over and hugs the crap out of me.

Have you ever grabbed a cat that didn't really want to be held? They do that whole going completely limp thing and then after a few minutes you get the ever living hell scratched out of you. I had a very hard time not panicking and not flailing out because she is sweet and I didn't want to scare her. When it was over and she left Mr. Fluffy came over with this huge grin on his face and I told him "Dude, she hugged me!" He of course laughed his ass off at me. He then proceeds to tell me that he is sorry he didn't warn me about her and that she is extremely "friendly".

I know what some people think of this reaction in me. I get a lot of questions asking if I was abused when I was younger. I can honestly tell them, I was never physically abused as a child. I was dreadfully shy though. I hated meeting new people and whenever my mother would introduce me to anyone I usually just hid behind her and tried to not see them and forcing me to say hi to them or shake their hands would usually result in me crying and screaming. I know somehow this being touched thing comes from that. I was able to start controlling myself around new people and not be as shy as I used to be. I can say hi and carry on some small chat even, but once you touch me the gambit is up and I freak out just a little. You may not see it, but those familiar with me will. They know the difference between my "I frigin LOVE you" hugs and my "Do we really have to touch?" hugs.

All innocence is lost on the Internet

So sometimes, where I work, my Partner-in-crime (front desk cronnie) and I have to find things to keep us from falling asleep. Usually we are very busy and running around like crazy, but every once in a while we have one of those days were it just seems nothing can keep our interest too long and everything is just dragging. Those are the days we usually have the most interesting conversations. Yesterday just so happened to be one of those days. This is what happened when we decided to browse the internet for a few minutes while waiting for the day to end.

Me: Do you ever wonder if you would recognize anyone on the Craigslist  male seeking female or vise versa?

PIC: No, really hadn't occurred to me.

(both decide to log onto our local Craigslist and browse)

Me: Did I just see that?!

PIC: Oh my god! What is that?

Me: (Quickly closing the browser) I don't think we should have that up. That is wrong on soooo many levels.

PIC: Did you see what I saw?

Me: Most likely, I thought it was fake at first then I realized........Oh My God! Why? My eyes burn now!

PIC: Was the one you saw.........black?

Me: Yep.

PIC: I don't think I am ever going to look in that section again.

Me: Why? Someone tell me why would you put a picture of that up on there? They seriously need some help. I think I was just mind raped.......oh my...oh my......

PIC: Oh look! It's time to go home!

Please people, Don't put pictures of your genitalia on Craigslist. You might be mentally scarring someone.

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 :)

Whistle of Doom

Where I work I see plenty of things to make your toes curl. I can't go into gory details because alot of it is from our clients and well there is that whole HIPPA thing and stuff. What it all boils down to is that with all the freaked out crazy things we see on a day to day basis, the one thing in our day that makes us want to curl up under our desks and weep silent tears of horror is a simple whistle.

The way we are set up, me and my partner in crime (co- front desk goonie) face the one and only elevator in our building. we have a full service lab upstairs so all day long we have several couriers coming in and out. Two months ago, our last courier of the day switched people on us. We didn't think to much on it when the new guy walked in and without saying one word, walked into the elevator and pushed the button. That is when the whistling began. 

This isn't your normal everyday whistle of some funky or uplifting song. That of course would just annoy us. No this is on par with the creepy whistle song from Kill Bill. Here is a snippet for those of you who have yet to be exposed to it. 

Yeah, that one. Except a little slower. 

This man walks in quietly never saying one word and strolls his way to the elevator, patiently waits until it opens to allow him entrance. He then slowly turns around and waits until the door has closed halfway then he starts with the whistling. He whistles loud enough that we can hear him after the door has closed and the elevator has started moving. One of two things is going on here. First, he thinks he is whistling a dandy little tune to himself in a receptacle worthy of his fine skill and is unaware of just how creepy he is being or he has in his deranged psyche figured out just how unnerving his ditty is to us and plans to keep doing it to wear us down into a complete mental breakdown before he unveils his evil plan.  

I prefer to think it is the former one and that he isn't patiently planning our demise in some presentation worthy of a B rated horror flick. 

Hi there, let me entertain you :)

So I know I have been away from the blog for a week but I wanted my family to have my undivided attention for the time that they were here. After they left Mr. Fluffy and I were cleaning our hall closet to make room for some stuff we had acquired and needed to store.

Mr. Fluffy: Ok almost done, what else do we have?

Me: I want this box put in there, I packed all our PC game boxes away.

Mr. Fluffy : ok bring it over.

(I grab the box which had been sitting against a wall for 2 weeks and lugged it over to him)

Mr. Fluffy: (eyebrows raised and giggling) wow.

Me: (setting box down for him) What? Why are you laughing at me?

Mr. Fluffy: There is a huge spider on that box.

Me: WHAT!? And you let me touch it?

Mr. Fluffy: I didn't want you dropping it. (setting box up against the wall in the closet)

Me: I think you are pulling my leg, where is this monster spider?

Mr. Fluffy: On the side against the wall, see the leg sticking out?

Me: (kicks the box against the wall, sees offending leg twitch) Squish, squish. I killed it

Mr. Fluffy: You spider murderer!

He knew I would kill it. Spiders and I get along fine as long as they stay out of my territory. If they wander into my territory they are free game.

Attack of the Slime!

I bet some of you think I chose the name Little Gamer Mommy to be cute. Well I was being quite literal. I'm not little as in toothpick proportions, I am short. 5'3" to be exact. Being short has its pros and cons. Such as, I can't reach things on the top shelf of the cabinet, but I don't have to worry about knocking my head on a door frame. I don't like heights, so being short is a blessing. Sometimes though, being short can be a real bummer, as I learned this morning.

We have two TV sets set up at our entrances at work. They have been showing people how to put on a mask for months now.

This thing is like three feet taller than I am. The top of my head comes to the bottom of the TV

My boss has tasked me with making sure these are running every morning. The DVD player is in the back behind the TV  This presents a problem as I have to scroll through some stuff to choose the right program so i need to see the TV as well as point the remote at the DVD player. You can probably see where this is going. See that white thing on the side? That is an automatic hand sanitizer dispenser. You stick your hand under and get a handful of gloopy sanitizer in your palm. My usual routine in the mornings is to use my left hand to point at the DVD player while precariously balancing around so I can see the screen of the TV. This morning however, I just wasn't getting a good look so I leaned in a bit towards the whole set up. 

The first thing I heard was the mechanical fart sound of the dispenser. My brain however, still being caffeine deprived this early, didn't register what this actually meant until I felt a cold, wet slime puddle in the crook of my elbow and start sliding down my arm. I had hugged so close to the dispenser that I had actually put my arm under the sensor and set it off. 

Now I know that it was just hand sanitizer and that it wasn't going to hurt me, but I dare you to glob a handful of that in the crook of your elbow first thing in the morning and see how well you deal with it. My reaction was to cry out in surprise and then let out a very fluent string of curse words while my boss sat back and giggled his butt off. Don't worry, I will get him back for that. He knows it too, that is why he is now avoiding me. Oh and yes, it did occur to me afterwards that I could just roll it away from the wall and go around the other side, but you know it's that whole path of least resistance thing.

P.S. There is nothing that can cheer you up like seeing a big burly biker come in and have to use one of your frilly rose pens to fill out his forms. : )

Trolls should stay in fairy tales people

When I was a little girl reading all the nice little fairy tales that society thinks girls should be forced to read the one I would always skip over was the story about the troll and the bridge. I always hated the fact that the troll would bully whoever came along no matter what. So I would skip the story so that I wouldn't feel that rage. I was a bullied little girl, so why would I want to read about them? If I was that person in the story I would have kicked the troll in the junk and crossed that damn bridge with a perk in my step. Just because he tried bullying me.

I have always been a quiet, reserved and a leave-them-alone-if-they-leave-you-alone kinda person. I was painfully shy as a child not to mention small. This led to more aggressive kids thinking I was an easy target. Little did they know, if they pushed me too far I would kick them in the gonads. After awhile, they all learned that it was in their best interest to just leave me be. So when I see a bully, my first instinct is to hit them where it hurts.

As I have gotten older and the internet has evolved to where it is today, I once again have been subjected to people thinking I am an easy target. Sorry, but I can still kick you where it hurts. The latest "troll" in my life is someone I am unfortunately related to but only just met. We friended each other on our personal Facebook pages hoping that we could get to know each other and like each other because of a mutual person we share in our lives. I soon started to notice this person would troll people for the fun of it. Someone will post something innocuous and they will feel the need to get their troll on. I don't think this person actually realizes that what they are doing can actually harm someone. They may actually think they are just having fun and games, but internet bullying has led to so many unfortunate deaths. I find myself glad for that time in my life that toughened me up against the verbally abusive.

Now my issue is that my usual course of action with an internet bully on my personal Facebook page would be to unfriend and block them.You know, a virtual internet foot to the crotch move. Unfortunately in this case, if I do that I may cause a shit storm with that person we share contact with. I have several times posted on my page that I don't appreciate drama and will delete those who start it. Don't attack me, my other friends, or my family. This person has done all three. I had honestly hoped to get past this because we share a common person in our lives and we have many of the same interests. I just can't get past the bullying nature of this person. How they will troll someone just for the fun of it. It isn't always fun for the person you are trolling. The drawback to the internet is that we don't have to ability to see facial expressions and voice tone inflection. All we see are the words and we have to interpret those for ourselves. So if a person with low self esteem or very easily hurt feelings can't tell that you just are having fun, you can cause tremendous damage to them. If you disagree with something someone says, that doesn't mean you need to constantly attack them about it with negativity. In fact, you can keep your asinine comments to yourself. I will never understand the inability for some people to just let things be. Just know that if you continue your troll ways, someday you will run into someone alot like me and it won't be pretty.


So a little forewarning,  if I wanna cross that bridge, then you had damn well better get outta my way troll, because come hell or high water I am going to do it. Even if I have to kick a few gonads on the way across.

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 :)

Hell yeah! Got my roses! Happy Valentine's Day

HA!

I guess you could even say a Monkey Man delivered them too since it was Mr. Fluffy :)  I  have to admit though, I have a very sweet man. My boss lost her husband a few years back so he bought her roses as well. That just might have been a tad sweeter than him bringing them for me..............almost :P

Have a Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

P.S. This isn't my actual gift yet. He hasn't quite finished that yet. 

Rain, Rain

It's raining here and I am super excited about it! I know that may sound a bit strange but I'm southern if that helps you understand a little bit. I get very down in the dumps about constant sunshine. Give me a gloomy, rainy day and I'm a happy girl.

Speaking of rain and sunshine, the hubs was introducing me to Heroes not long ago. Yes, I know I missed that whole bandwagon when it was cool but I don't mind. While I absolutely loved the show I did get very irritated at parts of it. As you guys may know, the cheerleader is supposedly from Texas. More specifically, Odessa Texas. Let me let some of you in on something. Odessa does NOT look like that. I know, I spent at least 18 years of my life within an hour driving distance from there.

And we have monster snakes as well :)

 There are no giant mountains and no spanning canyons. We had dirt, dirt, mesquite trees and tiny hills. Mostly a bunch of flat, dry dirt. Have you ever watched Carnivale? Yeah, it looks alot like that. So, I ranted at the hubs a bit about how stupid that was and how apparently they didn't do any research at all. Then I let it go (with a few irritated noises everytime I saw something off), or so I thought. A couple of seasons in this character moves to California. Woooo! At on point the father comes in and makes a sarcastic quip about liking this "85 days of constant sunshine."

Really?

You are from Texas! That is very highly normal here. I grew up in the Permian basin (where Odessa is located fyi) and what very little rain we got was few and far between. I admit, this sent me off on another rant at the hubs. He wisely just nodded his head and threw in a few "I know right!" in for good measure. After I was calmed down he said, "Hun, you know this is just a show right?"

Yes, I know that it is just a show. My beef with Hollywood is they do not do any research at all on us down here. The one and only time I ever saw anything in a movie or show that even looked like the area they were trying to portray was The Rookie. That opening scene of them driving through plains of mesquite and oil rigs? Yep that is very accurate. I have actually driven that exact road many times myself.

Well I am done with my little rant. I am going to stare out at the wonderful rain outside and enjoy it while I can before it goes away.

I'm still alive

I'm still here! I have just been so incredibly busy. We bought a new bed this weekend and a whole bunch of other stuff we had been putting off. I have been home mainly to just eat and sleep. I did decide to share something pretty awesome with you though :)

BAM! Isn't that a beauty!

My very own dragon egg!

With this "late christmas" present my husband got himself assaulted with hugs and kisses and then ignored for 2 hours. I have been informed my valentines present is still a secret. Let's hope it's as awesome as this :)

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 :)