Another song I'm hooked on...

Lady Gaga's weird, but she's got some catchy songs.

Wasn't a huge fan of the actual music video, so I thought I'd go with one that just has the lyrics.

"You and I"... even though we all know that correct grammar would be "you and me" ;)

Mean girls in my head

This isn't gonna be nearly the heavy post that the title implies. I promise. :)

We've all seen Mean Girls, right? Here's one of the scenes between Rachel McAdams (Regina) and Lindsay Lohan (Cady). --------->

[after learning Cady is home-schooled]

Regina: But you're, like, really pretty.

Cady: Thank you.

Regina: So you agree?

Cady: What?

Regina: You think you're really pretty?

Cady: Oh... I don't know.

................................................

Conversations like that one-- which really do happen-- whether a Regina-type person says it out loud, behind your back, or in her head-- are exactly why I'm bad at accepting compliments, even when other moms are complimenting my kids.

Variations in my head go...

Other mom: Jack's a really good reader.

Me: Thanks.

Other mom: So you agree?

Me: What?

Other mom: You think he's a good reader? So you think your kid is smart? Smarter than mine?

Me: No... I don't know.

...................................

OR... this one...
...................................

Other mom: Your kids are sweet.

Me: Thanks.

Other mom: So you agree?

Me: What?

Other mom: You think your kids are sweet? You think you're a good mom?

Me: Oh... I don't know.

..................................................

Has any mom ever said that back to me? No. Of course not. But I'm afraid that's what they're thinking. So instead-- if I get a "Your kids are smart" compliment, I say, "Well, they're not athletic at all and we don't do much other than school stuff. We're kinda nerds."

If I get a "Your kids are sweet" compliment, I say, "Not when they were babies. They were terrible babies. We've come a long way."

I think, though, I need to be better about accepting the compliment. It's, after all, a compliment to my kids, not me.

And I need to teach them to accept nice things being said about them. I don't need to point out their negative traits, in hopes of somehow seeming humble. I'm afraid the kids will hear me one day, pointing out the negative when someone else is pointing out a positive. That's a recipe for disaster and low self worth.

I just need to say "Thank you." Accepting a compliment is not the same thing as bragging. It's just not. :)

Ohh... Kelly Clarkson!

I love her!

I voted for her on American Idol... laugh if you want. I bought her first 2 CDs. I sing loudly in the car when she's on the radio.

I liked her duet with Jason Aldean. I think country music suits her well.

But "Mr. Know It All" is the one I'm currently belting out horribly off key.

Open Hizzouse

I'm so tired tonight but determined to blog this quick post. And I guess fatigue translates into my using "urban" slang. Fo shizzle.

Tonight was Jack's Open House. Love, love, love hurriedly eating dinner and then rushing up to school for things like this. ;)

But seriously, I'm always glad to see Jack's friends and what he's been doing for the last month. And he was excited to show us.

I looked at his work...

The kids played...

Kids played some more because I talked for a long time to other moms. Imagine that...

Jack's All About Me poster...

Mrs. Carol... We love Mrs. Carol. She's great!

And that was my night. Happy Open House!

Goodnight :)

Goodbye to texas university....

The song takes on a whole new meaning since it's been confirmed that Texas A&M will be moving to the SEC.

This move sparked frustration and debate (about whether A&M should be allowed to go and whether some schools wanted to find a different conference themselves) among the members of the Big 12.

I agree that it's kinda sad to see rivalries broken up. The funny thing to me, though, has ALWAYS been that most universities don't have mutual rivalries anymore.

Texas hates OU, and the feeling is mutual. But A&M hates Texas, and Texas really doesn't care about us anymore... not like they do about OU anyway.

Baylor hates A&M, but the Aggies don't consider them to be their rival.

OSU and OU. How does that work? I don't know. But I bet one hates the other more.

Texas Tech hates... who?... A&M, I know-- at least when Jason was at Tech-- but I feel like really everyone else hates Tech because-- well, for Aggies, they usually beat us-- BADLY... and for Longhorns, Texas could be having a perfect season and Tech is that wild card that they can never count on breezing by. Red Raiders fight hard and usually run up the score, if given the chance. So, because they're tough to beat, I think the rest of the Big 12, in general, would consider them rivals.

So it is sad to see that the good-natured fun breaking up. (Although, as a daughter of DIE HARD Texas fans and a wife of a Tech fan, I'm kinda glad that we're switching conferences. It'll make it easier to cheer for the other teams.)

Besides the fact that we're probably gonna have our butts handed to us at first, my big concern about switching conferences (if you wanna call it a concern) is the 12th Man. One of the things that makes going to Aggie games so fun for me is the student section. The standing. The yells. All of that stuff that other schools don't understand and don't like about us. ;)

And as a member of the Big 12, it was VERY easy to travel to out of town games. Making the long haul to Lubbock was a pain in the neck, but once you got there, you always had friends you could stay with. You had friends in Austin. Friends in Waco. The drives weren't unreasonable and it was a great weekend of rivalries and hanging out/ going out with old friends that you may not have seen since graduation.

Who's gonna drive to Tennessee? Alabama? South Carolina?

Granted-- some of those drives aren't much further than from College Station to Lubbock-- (the state of Texas is so freakin' huge)-- And, for me personally, I was born in Tennessee and we lived in Alabama after that-- so if I were a student, I'd have family friends to stay with so I wouldn't have to pay for a hotel. But for everyone else, will they go?

I guess they will. It'll just be more expensive (gas and cost of hotels) and a longer drive. And it won't be to see old friends, most likely. Will that be as much fun? Maybe so.

I definitely can see alumni going to the games. Aggies are everywhere, and those that don't live in Alabama or Tennessee or South Carolina can probably afford to fly if they really want to go.

I just hope that, despite the move, we're still well represented at the games. I want to hear the whoopin' and the yells and see maroon covering the visitor's section. Because, as a fan of any team, that's what's fun.

Rhett

Jamie called a couple of weeks ago because she knew her babysitter would be out of town and asked me to keep Rhett while she was at work today.

Rhett is almost 17 months old and was the sweetest kid in the world. He cried for maybe 90 seconds when his dad dropped him off and off and on for about 5 minutes when he went down for his napS... yeah, napS-- plural-- he took 2. UNBELIEVABLE! :)

Our day in pics...

He went shopping...

Watched a little TV... (Our TV is above our mantle. Hence his looking up.)

Played with the trains in Jack's room...

And the airplane. He worked the remote himself and was so proud. He literally watched this thing for half an hour..

Played with Jack's tool bench...

Checked on Jack who was on the computer....

Wanted to help me sweep after lunch. He's very neat and tidy. Very much a spawn of Jamie...

After lunch we went around the neighborhood in the wagon...

And when Sarah got home from school, she played with him too...

I really didn't expect today to go as well as it did. It was great! (Although I realized Jack has a lot of baby-ish toys in his room.)

And it made me be a better mom to Caroline. I was the mom who sat on the floor and did the puzzles and played with blocks with Jack and Sarah. But with Caroline, I make her adapt more to me or the big kids. She runs errands with me. She plays by herself while I fold laundry. I've unintentionally treated her differently. She was jealous of the attention Rhett got at times, but I know she was glad I slowed down and played on her level today.

I'm glad it went as well as it did.... It DOES NOT make me want to have a 4th though. Don't worry. It'd take a really hard blow to the head to want another one. 1 day is a lot different than 18 years. ;) I know my limit. I feel good about the way I parent 3, minus the normal guilt trips. No need to push it.

I contained myself

I made a very quick run to The Container Store for calendar inserts and I bought other stuff too. Why? Because that's what you do at The Container Store. Almost everything in there seems like a solution to all of my clutter.

Let me show you what I got....

Wire baskets for the plastic kid stuff.

It's not a major inconvenience to move their plates to get to mine, but I like the baskets. They do simplify things.

And for those of you who are looking at these pictures and are thinking, "Ya know, you could move that glass and those measuring cups and just put the plastic bowls and plates on that shelf," I say, "HUSH! I'm proud of my basket find and you're ruining it!" ;)

I also got this handy dandy spice organizer. Really it's just a stair-step shelf for my spices. I don't know why I have so many spices. Really all I need is garlic powder, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper for savory dishes. And cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and powder, vanilla extract, and the occasional cream of tartar for desserts. But whatever.

Do you see the big protein shake tub on the counter? Need to remember to choke the rest of that junk down so I can throw that container away. And the Double Stuf Oreos in the fruit bowl. Niiiiice.

And please excuse the fact that the cabinet doors have been hung awkwardly by the builders in 1990. I understand the cabinet on the left is nearest the stove, but when the doors are side by side like that, shouldn't the one on the left open on the other side???!!

(That's not the only place it's like that. Add that to the long list of things you don't notice about a house until you buy it.)

There you have it. My start to organization. It's not much. I know. But it's something. Gotta start somewhere.

Gone again

If you've checked my blog yesterday or today then you know that I've had some posts deleted. Ugh.

I found out what's happening. This has happened before, if you remember.

The kids. Specifically Jack. Clicking around on my "favorites". It's pretty amazing what he can open and do. Note to self: Monitor him better.

Anyway, the posts that were deleted didn't say much, so oh well... you're not missing much.

Just wanted you to know that you're not crazy if you remember posts being on the blog that are no longer there. :)

I'm actually looking forward to Monday---

because this weekend was BUSY.


Friday:

Jason left at 9:00 AM to go to Meridian to take his dad hunting. (BIG mistake. Didn't go well. Jason's still not back yet as I type this Sunday evening. I truthfully thought it wasn't a good idea from the beginning, but that's another post for another day.)

Sarah had a normal day at school. I had a normal day at home with Jack and Caroline.

Sarah got home at 3:00 and she has a ticket to get in free to the Plano Balloon Festival on Friday night only. So we decided that will be fun to do. A good way to pass the time without Daddy here.

We invited my parents to go along with us. We picked them up at 6:00 and head to eat at Country Burger. As we're throwing away our trash and heading to the bathroom before we head out to the festival, it started to rain.

Maybe it had been raining for a while other places, but that's the first time I had seen it. Sarah's ticket said "Plano Balloon Festival. Rain or Shine". So I thought that meant we should go on and see if they're still having the festivities. Perhaps the rain will let up.

We drove on out to the event (which is about 20 - 25 minutes from our house depending on stop lights) and lightning starts lighting up the sky. It's pretty clear this thing ain't happenin'.

Feeling guilty that I had gotten the kids all excited about seeing the balloons glow (and driven across town in the rain with them), I took them to Braums. Then we took my folks home and stopped by Blockbuster to rent a Wii game or two and a movie for me. ("Just Go With It" with Adam Sandler and Jen Aniston. Have you seen it?)

Guilt is a powerful thing. I promised we'd try again on Saturday. Caroline didn't go to bed til 9:00. Jack and Sarah were in bed closer to 10:00. I was exhausted and didn't watch my movie... even thought I KNEW it was due back the next day.


Saturday:

We all woke up as usual. Had our breakfast and morning routines. Mom said she'd take the kids for me for a couple of hours, starting at 10:00 so I could clean. (I think it's dang near impossible to have the time to scrub toilets and tubs and mop, etc. with the kids in the house. Usually Jason watches them for me, but that wasn't an option this weekend.)

Looking around, I realized I had A LOT more work to do than 2 hours would allow, so I started cleaning around 8:30.

Mom picked the kids up at 10:00.

From 10- noon, I cleaned the house, showered, made a grocery list, and went to the grocery store. I realized that I wouldn't be able to get home and unload my car and still pick up the kids by noon, so I called my parents and told them I'd be a little late.

I had the kids in the van by 12:30 and remembered that TaeKwonDo starts at 1:15 and no one's had lunch. So we ran through a drive-thru and I threw food at them basically as soon as we got home. I had them change into their uniforms and sighed as their "regular" clothes were now in a pile on my freshly cleaned floors and Chick-fil-A was stinking up my clean-smelling home.

We barely made it to class on time and were there til 1:45.

We get home around 2:00. The kids get on the Wii. I get on the computer to figure out what time to go back to the balloon festival. The Balloon glow starts at 8:00. No good. We need to eat and shower and be in bed on time because we have church on Sunday morning. So we'll get there at 5:00. Do the Launch at 6:00. Leave by 7:00. Eat, shower, bed. PERFECT!

So I sat to watch my movie in this little 2 hour window of time that I had. I was about 20 mins into it (although I had to pause it several times because the kids needed me) when my mom called. Ann Taylor was having a one day only sale of 40% off everything in the store. My birthday is coming up, so she offered to keep the kids so I could go. She said she'd buy me a few things as an early present.

I was conflicted over the movie or shopping, but I did the right thing... and chose shopping! :)

So I was gone from about 3:00 - 4:00. Picked out some cute things. Put them on hold under my name. Went home. Relieved my mom from babysitting and she went to the mall to pay for my stuff, and then brought them over to me.

But by the time she brought my stuff to me and I showed her how cute it all was :) it was time to load up and head to the festival.

We get there, park about 1/2 mile away from the event. I didn't bring a stroller because I had no idea what to expect and thought it would be hard to maneuver in crowds or through fields. Caroline walks VERY slowly sometimes so I carried her for that 1/2 mile.

It's 6:00 once we get to the field and I found out that the Launch had been cancelled. Are you kidding? They didn't even have balloons inflated. Nothing. Kill me now.

So we went to the Kid Korner because I paid $15 for the 4 of us to get in so let's stick around for a little while. (Plus they saw the giant slides from afar and wanted to go.)

I didn't know that you need tickets for those things. So we stood in a long line to buy tickets to slide on the slides. And for $18, I got 9 tickets. That's it.

Then the kids can't wear shoes on the inflatables, so my kids were walking around in their sock feet and I'm lugging my purse, Caroline, and 6 shoes everywhere we go and I'm starting to sweat at this point.

Some slides were toddler sized. Some were Sarah and Jack sized. I am only one person. Can't be at 2 places at once. So we'd wait in a reeeeeaaaalllly long line for a Caroline slide and then have to wait in a reeeeeeaaaallllly long line for a Sarah/ Jack slide. It was a nightmare.

Before I knew it we had been in line for 2 hours, using up these 9 tickets. Balloons are starting to inflate and they're getting ready for the glow. The glow that I had decided was too late for us because it started at 8:00.

WHAT?! What time is it??

7:35. We have one more ticket to use and we haven't eaten and we're 30 minutes from home. Are you joking?

So by the time we got our shoes back on, and trekked all the way back to the van, and got in, it was after 8:00. I had no juice for anyone. I had no snacks. (I refused to wait in more lines and spend more ridiculous money at the event.) So I called Pizza Hut and ordered a pizza and said I'd be there in 20 mins.

We headed home, grabbed the pizza, and everyone was eating dinner by 8:30. Which is bedtime and we hadn't showered yet.

I think Caroline was in bed by 9:15 (and she hadn't napped all day) and the big kids were in bed shortly thereafter. Not bad for how much we had to cram in.

BUT I still hadn't watched my movie and it was due! So I watched it and returned it by 10:30 PM. (Yes I left the kids sleeping, but Blockbuster's not far. I didn't want to pay the fine. And I just wanted to be done.)


Sunday:

We're up and at 'em and dressed for church. We were there at 9:15 and I worked Preschool at 11:00. I sweat my butt off on the playground and was annoyed because I had a bridal shower to go to at 2:00 this afternoon. I went sweaty and that's irritating. But oh well. I had on different clothes. I just felt like my hair looked bad.

Then when I got home from the shower, I realized that Jason had called and that he wasn't on his way home. He was on his way to the doctor with his mom and dad. Jim's not doing well and had a bad weekend and he's not sure when he'll be home tonight. If at all.

I got a phone call from a friend, asking if I was going to a benefit concert tonight at the church. NO! I am not. I want to stay still for tonight.

Right now Sarah is doing some of her weekend homework and I'll be making dinner soon. I'm ready for this hectic weekend to be done!


What I learned:

I don't like being too busy. I can't take on so much when Jason's gone. He's helpful to have around. I especially don't need to do something as crowded as the Plano Balloon Festival without another set of hands and eyes. It was scary at some points because I wasn't sure where they all were. I will do it again ( the kids had a BLAST) but not alone.

Anyway, it wasn't a bad weekend. I made some of it harder than it needed to be. I can see that now. But it wasn't a restful weekend either. I'm ready to relax!

The Dallas World Aquarium

Just before Jack started school this month, my dad took him to the aquarium.

I give Jack a hard time on this blog sometimes (always intended as playful) for acting more like his sisters than a rough-and-tumble boy. So let me brag on him for a quick second. That boy is smart! We have conversations that blow my mind. I try to introduce him to something and he's already read about it somewhere. Either in a book or on the computer.

Dad pointed out a mushroom that was growing in his yard after the rain, and Jack said, "That's a fungus, you know."

He's fun to be with, especially when what you're doing is educational. He loves learning. And he is a sponge when it comes to new information.

So this is their trip to see the animals.

Cheeeeese...

Some of the animals...

Pointing to the animal in the tree...

Waterfall on his head....

Shark overhead..

Having fun with reflections...

I love this one. Can't tell if his face is pressed against the glass and that's why his smile is a little "off" or if he's scared out of his mind.

I know these pics are small so his expressions might not be clear. He had a lot of fun, and I know he loves getting special one-on-one time.

Fun with KK and Papalu

(My parents. "KK" for "Karen". "Papalu" is longer story. I won't get into it.)

The kids LOVE going to their house to play.

They have toys and games, and they sit on the floor or at a table and play with them.

(Not sure about the sombreros. But I do know Caroline is wearing Sarah's old dance recital costume.)

Now that the kids are getting older and are comfortable with the computer, they think it's super cool to use Paplu's laptop.

Dad's a good sport to always hand it over.

Concentration.... (or confusion... tough to tell)