Monday, June 28, 2010

Dear Naptime -- I miss you.

Nap time has become a complete nightmare in our household. I absolutely dread nap time. Oh God, it's 12:30, I need to lay Pey down...

Nap time was not a problem while Blythe and Jonah were at school. School has been out for a while now, and we still haven't worked out a schedule. The older two just cannot sit down and shut their traps for a merely hour or hour and a half. They would explode.

And let me tell you, mommy would like a nap too. But that's so not going to happen either, not even after finally get everyone settled down and Pey asleep. Because with all four of us here pretty much 24/7, his nap time and after they all go to bed in my only real time to get anything done. But I'm so tired and completely run down. No energy what-so-ever, I could fall asleep sitting here now... zzzzz...

Oh, sorry, like I was saying. I tired. The kids are driving me up the wall. The house looks like a bomb went off. I just cannot keep up. Looks, it's either I feed and bathe the children, or clean the house. They can't both be perfect (oh who am I kidding, Blythe's hair looks like a rat nest, Jonah's shirt doesn't match his shorts, and peyton.... well, he doesn't have any clothes on at all. Which is dangerous considering that he now takes his dirty diapers off and puts them in the trash. At least he puts them in the trash!!) I'm failing at the housewife gig a little more everyday.

And to top it all off, Joey starts a new job in a few weeks. Which requires him to be gone. A lot. And when he's home, he's pretty much on call, so we'll never know when he's leaving again. The new company told him that the first three months, they'll keep him away from home as much as they can, to make sure he can take it. That's just lovely.

I was telling a friend of mine about this whole he'll be gone for three months, and she asked, "So, when do the kids go back to school?"..... About three months. So, after I picked myself up off the floor from my fit I was throwing, I started searching for a babysitter. Just someone to keep the kids once a week so I can go pay bills, buy groceries.....

... oh who am I kidding, I'm going to come back home and take a nap.

Friday, June 25, 2010

Anissa

Wow.

I'm reading over here, and I'm amazed. I've been reading this blog for the past two days. It just seems like too much for one family to deal with. A two year old with cancer, beating it, and then the wife and mother has a stroke. I want to cry as I'm reading the words that her husband has wrote while trying to keep everything together. But! It's a story with a happy ending. And that's the best thing ever.

And I've decided that I really need to work on my organization skills. Anissa's husband said in one post "Saturday was bill day, because having the power turned off now would really kinda suck. I think I figured out her filing system and found some paperwork." Joey would never be able to figure out my "filing system" (HA HA HA HA), so he and the children would probably be sitting in the dark without running water. I worry about these things all the time. Seriously, what would he do without me? How would the bills get paid? He doesn't know how to run a household, to plan menus, grocery shopping, exactly how each kids likes their sandwich. I worry about it all the time.

I really need to work on my don't-worry-so-much skills too. *deep breath*

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I'm meeeelting...

Remember when I told you about how Joey caught the kitchen on fire once?

Well, it ruined the blinds in the kitchen and dining room, so we tossed them out, you know, going to get new ones. That was a year and a half ago. And still no blinds.

It is some kind of hot in the great south, let me tell you. The rest of the house is OK during the day. With the blinds shut. And the curtains closed. And the ceiling fan on high. But the kitchen is a killer, without trying to cook. It's seriously 80 degrees in my kitchen RIGHT NOW. The rest of the house is around 75. It's just too hot for the central unit to keep up.

Anyway, the kitchen and the no blinds problem. There are four windows and two doors that are mostly windows. The windows have curtains, but they're doing no good, what so ever. It's a green house in here. So this weekend, I'm going to The City (an hour away, the nearest place with a mall and a Lowe's and a Target and and IHOP, all of my favorite things in the world) and I'm going to fix this green house kitchen.

It's either blinds, or I'm pulling out the tin foil.

(I'm joking! I promise!)

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

It doesn't take much to make this girl happy

I'm already slacking at this blogging business. Geez.

Today was the best day ever, I swear.

Joey has a honey-do list that has been ignored. He mows the yard, what more do I want from him?! (I don't know, put your dirty clothes, IN the dirty clothes closet? Put the dishes NEAR the sink? Take the trash out when you notice it's over flowing? I love the man, I really do. Hey, he DOES put the toilet seat down.) The crown molding to go in Blythe's room has been laying on her bedroom floor for almost a year now. A YEAR. He started to put it up once, got the tools out, looked up some info on his iPhone, made one cut, and then I guess he saw something shiny and the project was dropped. So the crown molding laid there for a year. At one point I asked a contractor what he would charge to come out and put up molding in ONE room ($200. It's a small room. We're talking 13x13 I think) So it continued to lay there.

March 17 of this year I started repainting the living room. I did really well, thought I was going to get it done in a reasonable amount of time. HA HA HA HA. It went great until I ran out of paint. At this time, our WalMart was remodeling also. For a while the paint section was gone all together while they moved things around. Then when it finally came back, there were always so many people there and, Hey, I'm a busy person, I don't have time to sit around!! Or, I couldn't find anyone to mix the paint because they were all busy helping move stuff around. And then the paint machine broke one time... yes, I'm full of excuses, I know. Why didn't I just go to the next town over? I don't know, that thought never even crossed my mind. SO. That's why three walls were the great awesome **NEW** color, and one wall still looked like crap.

This week I got more paint, and I guess since I was busy making the house beautiful and doing projects, Joey felt like he needed to also. The crown molding it up, people! He also fixed the threshold from the kitchen to the hall, which has also been on the to do list for about a year now. After I finished painting, he put my curtains back up and my pictures and all. It looks awesome, I've got to take pictures to share. And, we got all of this done in one day.

So, just to recap:
Joey's projects, from start to finish -- One year.
Jenna's projects from start to finish -- three months.

I win.

Sunday, June 6, 2010

1:30 AM

*poke poke*
Joey- baby. baby. did you hear that too?
me- OH GOD WHAT IS IT ARE WE GOING TO DIE IS SOMEONE BREAKING INTO THE HOUSE?! WE'RE GONNA DIIIIIIE.
Joey- I think I heard a puppy.

The man wakes me up to ask if I heard a puppy. Seriously.

Friday, June 4, 2010

T-ball season 2010

T-ball is a very stressful sport. I know, right? It's freaking t-ball. But when you have two playing, a boy and a girl, and the boy's field is on one side of town, and the girl's park is on the other... whew. Which this year wasn't too bad. Blythe played Mondays and Thursdays, and Jonah played Tuesday and Friday. So we were at the ball park 4 days a week.

And then, some REALLY smart person said, "Hey! How about we start the last game of the night at 7:50!" I nearly died. Our kids go to bed at 8! How are we going to survive?! Well, we made it through the season. Blythe's last game was yesterday, and was supposed to have closing ceremony that night, but the closing ceremony was called off because the bottom fell out of a huge rain cloud. So that's been moved to Monday night. Jonah still has two more make up games, and after the last game there will be closing ceremonies.

The girls t-ball is totally different from the boys. The girls keep score, and if you get out, well, you're out, go back to the dug out, but everyone gets to bat. The boys do not keep score, if you get out, you still get to run the bases. Which Jonah refuses to do. He's been to Blythe's game and he understands that when you're out, you're out. That and he totally hates ball. With a passion. We have to fight him to stay on the field, to stand up while he's on the field, so go after the ball... ugh. It's just been a fight 100% of the time.

We quit karate when ball started, because I couldn't handle both playing ball, Blythe with dance recital coming up, and him in karate. He's now begging to go back to karate, please, when can I go back?! The funny thing is, when he was going to karate, he hated it, had to fight him to stay on the mat, fight him to get dressed... are you seeing the pattern here? But I guess we'll give karate another chance, maybe he now knows what he was missing.

I just hope that he doesn't notice that all the other little boys in his group has moved up a belt color and he missed out. You just can't win at this parenting stuff, I swear.

I going to have a shirt made. "I survived t-ball season 2010"

Thursday, June 3, 2010

"The House That Built Me," Part Two - The House

We lived in the death trap, er, I mean The Trailer, for almost four years. A year and a half after we brought Blythe Anne home to The Trailer, we brought our first baby boy, Jonah home to it too.

I lovingly call it the death trap, because DUH, it was a death trap waiting to happen. I had an electrician on speed dial. I just knew that we were all going to die in the death trap, not that I'm all over dramatic or anything. Half of the trailer was on one breaker, and if you're not aware, THAT'S NOT GOOD. Had some wires BURN UP IN THE WALL. Of course, while Joey was at work, because that's the only way for these things to work. This is when I started to ask to buy a house. But all my dear husband could say is, but this place is PAID for! Ugh. Then, there was some kind of malfunction, and my drier caught on fire. But it wasn't really the drier, the wiring of the house did it. Asked again, please, lets buy a house, and still all I heard was, but this place is paid for! And the drier still works, so no harm! Except for every time this stupid crap happens, I have a mini heart attack, and it's taking years off of my life expectancy!

Then we flooded.

I know, right?! What's next people? Can it get any worse than having to move in with in laws while we fix the death trap?

Yes. Yes it can.

We fixed the flood damage, we moved back in. I come home one day, and my husband has taken a wall down. Because wires were popping in the wall. Oh my God, I quit! I told him I was buying a house, and if he would like to, he could move too or stay in the death trap.

And then I found The House. It was perfect, three bed rooms, two baths, 3 acres, and lots of trees (The Trailer had no trees.) We bought it, painted every room in the house just the way I wanted it (have you ever wondered how long it would take to paint a 1500 sq ft house by your self while going to school full time? Almost four weeks.) We ripped out all the carpet because Jonah has asthma. It was perfect.

Two months later we found out that we were going to have another baby. After squalling in the doctors office because, "I can't have another baby, I don't have rooooom for another one!" we were very excited about this new little person.

We found room for the little guy, and now Jonah and Peyton are roomies. They love it for now.

When Pey was 6 months old, Joey managed to catch the kitchen on fire while I left him unattended and unsupervised (another time we had to move in with the in laws while a house was being fixed). But out of the mess I got new counter tops, a new stove, a new over the stove microwave, a new pretty white sink, a whole new wall of cabinets and replaced all the cabinet knobs. I'll have to post pictures some time, they're great. Joey is no longer allowed to cook in the house any more. Or out side when I'm not home. Because ANOTHER time, he melted the siding on the house with the grill. Because he was unsupervised. Geez.

Mama cut out pictures of houses for years.
From 'Better Homes and Garden' magazines.
Plans were drawn, concrete poured,
and nail by nail and board by board
Daddy gave life to mama's dream.


Joey might not have built this house nail by nail, but he still gave life to my dream. I love our little house, and I want to stay here forever, with rocking chairs on the front porch when we're old and grey. I want this to be the safe place for my children to come home to. When I was a kid, we lived in so many different places, that when I think of my childhood home, I come up with nothing. There's no one place that was just Home. I want this to be Home.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

"The House That Built Me," Part One - The Trailer

Our first home was a year older than my husband. That's not a big deal when you're talking about a house. But when you're talking about a mobile home, yes, a trailer, that's just ridiculous.

My husband was born in 1984. The trailer was built in 1983. We bought it October 2003. My husband was 19, The Trailer was 20, and I was a mere 16. And I was about 5 months pregnant with Blythe Anne. After (finally) telling his mom that we were expecting a baby (when I was 5 months along), a lot happened.

First, she demanded that we get married, ASAP. I refused, I loved Joey, and I knew that one day we would get married, but I never wanted anyone to be able to say that the only reason we got married was because I was pregnant. Sure, they could still say we only got married because we had a child together, but I took away one lie that people could say about us. Joey's mom realized that arguing with a pregnant teen was useless, and moved on to other, more productive things. She helped Joey get a new truck, to go along with the new job that she pulled strings for him to get to support his new family. She also found The Trailer.

For $3,500, we had a home.

With a lot of bleach, some paint on the walls, and after ripping out the funky carpet, we settled in. The job that Joey had then, which lasted for 3 years, he was gone for a month, and only home for two weeks. Most of the time when Joey was gone, I stayed at my mom's. I wasn't used to staying by my self and every little noise freaked me out.

On December 22, 2003, my washer broke. It was one of the few times that I decided to stay at our house by my self while Joey was at work. I loaded the wet towels in the truck, and went to my mom's, because obviously, I had no business staying by my self.

On Decemer 23, 2003, my water broke.

When my mom called Joey's mom to tell her, Mrs Sue started telling my mom to go turn the water off to The Trailer, that Joey's dad, Mr Vernon, would be there shortly to fix it.

I was 7 months pregnant, she never imagined that my mom meant that MY water broke, not The Trailer's water.

After laying flat on a hospital bed for two weeks, we had Blythe Anne at 34 weeks. She had to go the NICU because she was 6 weeks early, but she didn't need to. There were never any set backs, no breathing problems, nothing. She stayed for a week, just to make sure and gain a little weight.

And we brought her home to The Trailer.

About Me

My photo
I have three kids:
Blythe Anne, 8
Jonah, 7
Peyton, 4

My husband and I have been married for 6 years, and I spend my days being a stay at home mom while he's a driller on a land rig. So for six months of the year (he works a week on, a week off), I'm raising these kids by myself. I would write more, but I hear children screaming :)

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