I am a 36 year old Stay at home Mom. This is my journal of (hopefully)self improvement. There are many things I feel the need to change about myself. I will also have some average, run of the mill rants and raves thrown in for fun.
Yesterday was a busy busy day. Good news!! Michael will probably have his braces off in a few months. He has had them for 4 years, so this is Big news. Bad news ~ He has to wear rubberbands on his braces for the next month. Hopefully they won't be as painful as they are right now for the whole month. Andrew had a terrific time at the orthodontists office. Usually there aren't any other little kids there but yesterday there were 2 others his age. They had a terrific time playing and it made the wait for Michael a little more bearable.
After the orthodonstist we came home long enough to change clothes and head out to Aunt Janets house. We had a great time there. Michael and Andrew were in the pool for hours. Their Godmother MaryAnn was there too with her kids. Also our cousin Kathy and her 2 boys. The pool was full and everyone had a blast. We stayed for dinner (fried fish and assorted goodies) and had the strawberry pizza that I brought for dessert. yummy! We got home around 8:00 and I could tell Andrew was wiped out but he insisted on seeing a few fireworks before going to sleep. So after getting his jammies on we sat outside and lit a couple of small fountains. After they were finished we came back inside, Andrew snuggled on my lap and was out in minutes.
We just about have the bathroom finished now. Everything is in and I am just adding the finishing touches. I bought a cool rectangular mirror with hooks across the bottom of it today. It looks great in there and I hung a few towels from the hooks. It fills the wall pretty nicely but I still think I will try to find a few tub pictures of Michael (when he was much younger) and Andrew and print them out in black and white (or sepia) and put them in a rectangular frame above the mirror or maybe 3 smaller frames. I will see if I can find any cute ones to scan of Michael. I have some great pics of Andrew in the tub that will be adorable in there.
I have web space and I really want to put something fun up but I just can't think of what to put there. If Bryan can figure it out I will be linking our security cams online on it so that should fill some space. I think I will do a little bit about both of the boys but what else should I do? I will eventually link this to the site too but not sure if I will link the site to this. Does that make sense? A link from here to there so those who are welcomed here can go there but not from there to here because I am not sure that I want everyone who gets to see that to come and see here.
so-so today. I accomplished everything but not sure how much fun Andrew had today. He didn't have a bad day but we didn't do anything special either. Tomorrow we are going swimming at Aunt Janets so he should definitely have fun there. I plan to take the camera along to get some good pictures of the kids in the water.
Yesterday I heard from my friend Elizabeth. The one who's number I had lost and I wrote the letter to. I didn't get the letter mailed until Tuesday and she got it yesterday. She called while I was out and then she only had a few minutes when I called her back. She had sad/happy news. In April she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. She has had a total hysterectomy now and is cancer free. but she is going through Chemo at the moment to just make sure that if there are any lone cancer cells floating around in her body that they are killed. I feel so horrible that I haven't been there for her through this. I am so happy that she is going to be ok but sad that she had to go through this at all. She is so lucky to have caught it early. She told her Dr. at her yearly exam that her stomach hurt when her boys would jump on it. Thankfully he took the complaint seriously and felt around then ordered an ultrasound. It is just so scary to me. She has 2 young boys, and she is just such a wonderful mother. I am so glad she caught it early. This should be a huge neon warning sign to every woman. Be proactive about your health.
I just have a few minutes here. Andrew is awake but he is in playing with his Daddy so I might get something down here before he comes to me and I have to shut this down. All in all I am calling yesterday a success. I got the important stuff accomplished at least. Today I will
1)make dinner.
2)not take away Andrew time for computer time.
3)finish cleaning the kitchen and also clean the bathroom.
4)Do fun stuff with Andrew.
5)Include Michael in above fun stuff if he allows it.
I sometimes forget to make time for Michael, thinking he will seek me out when he needs me. I also hate the rejection of trying to do stuff with him and being blown off but I think it is important I keep trying and so I will.
My progress report. I accomplished all goals except thoroughly cleaning one room. I got the kitchen partially cleaned but not thorougly. Andrew and I made water balloon yoyo's this afternoon and they were a hit.
He just woke up so I have to cut this short. I got very sad news today, I will elaborate tomorrow.
** edited to add these pictures of Andrew with his balloon yo yo.
Tomorrow is a new day. Here are some things I would like to work on tomorrow.
1) spend more fun time with Andrew.
2) clean one room in my house thoroughly.
3) Make dinner.
4) limit my computer time to Andrews non-waking hours.
I am up to this challenge. I have hit The Idea Box and have some fun activities/crafts to do. I have Water aerobics tomorrow morning so Andrew will have some fun at Wee Care. Then I have a couple errands to run. After that we will come home and do something fun then clean a little and start dinner. I think I will do roast tomorrow. I can have that cook all day and be ready. Andrew has swimming lessons at 4:30 so I should be able to come home and have dinner ready. Then I can use the leftovers for enchiladas on Thursday.
Now off to bed with me. Wish me success at being a better Mommy tomorrow.
ugh this week is sucking big time. Friday was my Aunts first visit for her radiation (or so I thought) My Mother and I decided to send her some flowers. I was 2 minutes too late to get my order same day delivered. So I settled for Saturday delivery. she didn't get the flowers on Saturday, She didn't get them on Sunday and she didn't get them on Monday. I was out Monday when FTD.com called to inform me the flowers hadn't been delievered and they would like to deliver them with a free upgrade and an apology. Unfortunately I didn't get home until too late for same day delivery. I think she got them today. Her number was on the caller ID when I got home but there was no message. I just called my Mom and she said that she talked to her and she did get them and they are very nice. Unfortunately she wasn't feeling very well today. yesterday having the mask made she had to hold her head a certain way and it made her neck stiff and now she has a headache. I don't want her to hurt at all. I really hate this. I guess I got ahead of my story though. She has her first treatment tomorrow. She had to go watch a film on Friday and then yesterday she had to go have a mask made. I hope tomorrow isn't horrible for her.
More fun, My dream car has become a money pit. We knew the oil pressure wasn't right when we bought it the owner acted as if this was a new thing and we were hoping it was just the sensor. After driving it a couple days we noticed something not right with the Tansmission. we took it in to have it checked out yesterday morning. When I dropped it off I left my number and Bryan's. I specifically told them that my number was strictly to come pick it up, if they had questions pertaining to work on the car they were to call Bryan. When I got home there was a message on my recorder from them as well as FTD. They had checked the sensor and it was ok, they needed our ok to check further. They didn't bother calling Bryan just left the message on our machine. Well of course by then it was too late in the day to get to it so they had to keep it overnight. Not a huge deal except Andrew's only usable car seat was in it. So flash forward to this morning Bryan calls me and tells me that they determined the oil pump is bad and they will replace it for a mere $600. Then he proceeds to tell me how much it will be to have the transmission rebuilt, the estimates range from $1200 to $1800. I wanted to puke. We just don't have the money for this. Bryan told me we would just pick it up ($140 just to pinpoint the problem) and have another guy we know do the pump then we would worry about the tranny. Bryan also told me that one of the places he called about the transmission said they thought it might be electrical and not a bad transmission. They can check it out for $50. I think we will go that way before just having it rebuilt. Any vibes for an easy economical fix would be appreciated. Back to the mechanic we know. He is a great mechanic but super duper unreliable. Later when I talked to Bryan he had talked to our neighbor and they were going to do the oil pump. Woo hoo Martin is a great mechanic and the price is ultra alright. The parts were $101. That beats $600 by a long shot. I am just hoping that nothing more comes up. Now I am just hoping that we can find that kind of solution for the transmission. When I went to pick up the car, I walked in and told him I was there to pick up the Lincoln. He says "Oh that car needs a whole lot of work." "Did you say you just got the car? That oil sending unit has just recently been replaced." "That Transmission is shot. I wouldn't drive that car too far if I were you. It will leave you stranded on the side of the road." "I am not sure how you can drive that car." I assured him that I was only driving the car straight home. paid the $140 with a forced smile then bolted for the door. I drove the car home on the verge of tears but resisted the urge to call Bryan and bawl over what the guy had said to me.
I get home, My mom who had taken me to pick up the car had followed me home. She had Andrew in her car. I go to open his door to get him out and he starts crying "no I don't want to go." "I go to Grandma's house." "I don't like my house." I just lost it. I started crying. My Mom was telling him "I am sorry honey you have been at Grandma's house the last 3 days. Grandma is tired, you can't come down." I felt so bad. I am obviously not a fun mom. He has been telling me regularly that he wants to go to Grandmas house. I think I am going to have to cut computer out of my day. I catch myself sitting on here and him wanting me to do anything but. I am going to have to limit my online time to his non waking hours. I think I am going to try to schedule myself and plan some fun thing to do every day. I will be the fun Mom if it kills me. I also need to get a handle on myself. I have been yelling far too much and even swatted his butt twice yesterday. I am so ashamed of my parenting. I have got to turn my life around. How do I start?
We had a busy weekend. Bryan redid our bathroom this weekend. well actually we are still in the process of it but he worked hard on it all day yesterday. I am taking before after and during pictures. I am totally exhausted and cannot believe I am up at this indescent hour with a tummy ache. I was trying to sleep through it but after Drew came into the big bed with us that was virtually impossible. he loves me well and wants to lay right on top of me. normally I don't mind but with my stomach hurting it was very uncomfortable. I finally just slid out of bed and thought I would sit up for a while. It doesn't seem to be getting any better at this point so I might try going in to lay down again. I am going to be dead tomorrow and I have a full day. Well I had all these things in my mind to put down here but now that I am here my mind has fogged. I suppose I need to go try sleeping a bit more and hopefully I will rmember some of this stuff in the morning.
