We Bid You Adieu

Yesterday evening, Bob, our beloved betta fish, swam his last swim. He has left our humble house for that great fish bowl in the sky. He was a good fish. Always there to greet the day. He had a good life, full of adventure (once again...see the Super Bob posting) and was a good addition to the family. In honor of Bob, all toilet flushings today will be in honor of him. There will never be another quite like him. Here's to you Bob...you'll be missed.

One of Those Weeks...

So it's going to be one of those weeks that everything seems to be against you. Those kind of weeks wear the body and mind very thin and sometimes it seems that those kind of weeks...let me rephrase that. THESE kind of weeks are the kind that makes it very difficult not to want to punch a fist through a wall. What? You've never felt like punching a fist through a wall? Oh...well perhaps that is one of those 'how you were raised' situations. It was not all too uncommon to see fist-sized holes littering the thin walling of our mobile home. Four kids, one bathroom and angry, hot-headed teenage years. Did I mention that three of the four of us were red-heads? Maybe that changes things. Don't go judging me. I'm non-violent for the most part. Just hot-headed.

So let's get on to the week at hand. Apparently Josh is never going to work again. Okay, so that's a bit of an exaggeration. I'd love to blame it on the economy, but who's to know for certain. So he has gotten a whopping 8 hours of work. The upside is that he was home to help shovel the 17 tons of rock around our driveway. There are still about 2 tons, if I could guesstimate, left to haul. It's amazing that between the two of us, we will have lifted around 15 tons of rock. Who needs weightlifting right? What the heck...it builds character...and blisters...and muscle spasms...and a large ibuprofen bill.

Next up, we have the craptacular allergy season in full swing. Alex has been a wreck. Naturally, with the sun shining ever brightly, he wants to be outside all day. How can I begrudge him that? I'm an outdoors person anyway. Unfortunately he either has a massive allergy fit or an awful asthma cough that he can't shake without the joyous world of medicine. The allergens even killed our play-date with Wesley. We had to rush home to get him dosed up before he coughed himself into unconsciousness. Lovely eh?

And to add insult to injury, Bob, (Click here to read about Bob)my beloved beta is looking as though he is on his deathbed. I'm not sure how much longer he will hold on. My prayers go out to him. Apparently, I found out that the betas you buy in the store are more than likely to be over one year old already and they have a whopping long lifespan of 3 to five years in the best conditions. He lives in a one gallon tank with goldfish food (he chose the food seeing as how it was the only kind he would gobble-up). He was originally Alex's fish. Alex lost interest fairly fast. Seeing as how fate has given my son animal allergies, and how I'm an animal lover who needs multiple animals to care for, my family is doomed to animal restriction. So I took it upon myself to care for the little guy. Naturally I've grown quite fond of his fishy little face. He always greets me so eagerly for his meals. He's a good fish and I hope he pulls through. I will indeed shed a tear for him if I am forced to give him the traditional flushing funeral. Poor Bob.

So can the week get worse? Well, duh...of course it can. Anyone would be stupid to say otherwise. But it does seem to suck when a week has more downs than ups. I'm sure you've all been there. So for now, I will control my hot-headed urge to swiss cheese my walls. I shall wait and see what tomorrow brings. For the weekend is the beginning of the next week.

Stuck in the Mud

ROCK HAULING PARTY...
My driveway...
bring a shovel.

Too many times, I've woken up to Josh sitting on the couch on a perfectly good work day, waiting for a tow truck to come haul his van out of yet another sticky predicament. Even on the days when he doesn't have to call in the pros, his tires will spin their way slowly out of the massive mud-holes that have been created in thier well-worn mud pits. Naturally, the massive and constant flow of rain, as of late, has not aided in the remedying of this situation. So...I've had it. No more, will I hear the angry cussing of Josh's frustrating situations. Yesterday, we had a load of the cheapest possible rock delivered to our house. 17 tons, to be precise. Have you ever seen 17 tons of rock? No? well, it makes for a very large pile of rocks. Alex was thrilled to see the humongous dump truck back into the perfect spot and dump it's load. I must admit, that it was impressive from my stand point as well. Kudos to the people who drive and operate those things. It's a bit intimidating. So, as Josh was yet again out of work for the day, (stupid freakin' economy...grumble, grumble) we all went outside to have a rock-haulin' good time. And of course, by 'good time' I really mean back-breaking-give-yourself-a-heart-attack-from-shoveling good time. (if that's your idea of a good time, at least). Abby was the lucky one, snoring away in the bedroom. Two shovels, two wheelbarrows, and two people. The progress was not impressive. Every car that drove by, gave us a nice look. The rock is about two inches from the road and pretty much blocking almost all access out or in to our driveway. We even had a sheriff stop by and tell us how much he did SO not envy us. I told him he was more than welcome to grab a shovel and join in the fun. He didn't take me up on the offer.

Alex was pulling his weight. The rock pile is a huge hit for the kid. He climbed it. Slid down it. Helped us shovel with his mini-shovel and mini-wheelbarrow. He threw rocks into the mud pits. He had a blast. It kept him so busy and entertained that my totally irrational part of the brain thought that keeping a rock pile in my backyard would be fun. (It's a good thing the rational part of my brain works harder) So here are some pictures of the giant pile of rocks. We're gonna be busy for awhile.

Blogging

Alrighty. So I did have this elaborately written blog entry, full of a plethora of interesting information that was cleverly worded so as to entertain you for at least a good 2 minutes of joy-joy reading time...but the fan-freakin-tastic internet company we have decided to have a core meltdown as soon as I hit the 'publish post' button. Go figure. So, nevertheless, I am utterly annoyed at the pathetic excuse for a company that is responsible for this trivial bit of annoyance to my day. It was down for about two hours. And during this two hours was my only spare bit of kid-free time. So perhaps tomorrow, I will be agitation-free enough to attempt to recapture that very special blogging moment. And would you like me to leave you with a bit of irony? Yes? Well, the title of the blog was supposed to be "Bald by 40". The purpose of the entry, you ask? To explain the very things that have been wearing on my much-too-thin nerves, resulting in the pulling out of my own hair. Someone remind me to buy some earmuffs for the kids, cuz mama needs to cuss.

Happy Mother's Day!

To all my fellow Mama's...



A special shout out to my very own mother-dearest. I love ya mom! Thanks for everything you've done for me and taught me over the years. I hope I can be as great a mom as you are. In fear of forgetting someone, I really don't want to list the names. But, if i know you and you are a mom too, this blog's for you!

Attack of Psycho Cleany Mom

I don't know if it is because of the spring or if it is because my kid's allergies are going bananas, but I have become obsessed with making this stinking house clean (literally...it smells bad). Over the last week or so, I've been performing a cleaning exorcism on anything I can reach. And for those things that I can't reach, aka the deeper carpet and ductwork, I hire a professional. That's right folks. You heard me. I hired someone to come clean my carpets this week. And for a very reasonable price, this guy also did a nice little number on the ventilation system. I did some research about unhealthy houses and one of the things I read a lot about was the air ducts in your house. Apparently they can be a comfortable little home for all sorts of nasties. Falling under the 'nasties' category would be dirt, dust, bugs, cobwebs, allergens, mold, and various other things that I'd rather not know about. This guy said that when the hoses get clogged, a number of times it is some form of dead animal that crawled up there to die. (hmm...so that might explain the smell) If you want to be thoroughly disgusted by your home, then get your ducts cleaned. All I can really say is...blech! It was like he stuck the vacuum into a box of cat food or litter and just started sucking away. And that was with each vent he did. Not all of them combined. He showed me a before and after of one of the vents and it was shocking. He also treated each vent duct with an anti-microbial treatment that is supposed to help kill off bacteria, viruses and allergens before they reach your air for a year. I'm hoping that this will change Alex's allergies/asthma for the better. I am also very proud to say that my carpets now look spectacular! I no longer fear the bacteria that my children pick up with every fallen cheerio they decide to eat. He also did a nice little allergen treatment on the carpet too. So here's hoping that we are on the road to recovery as far as detoxing the house goes. This weekend is for redoing the moldy siding outside. And next weekend we tackle the dreaded moldy wall in the bedroom. Sometimes it really sucks having an older house. If ever there was a time I wanted to move soon, that time would be now. Ugh...

Candy + Toddler = Potty Training

Candy, Candy, Candy. It's ALL about the stinkin' candy. What is it with kids and sugar, huh? As you may remember, I've been having bouts of potty training success. Granted, the success seems to be totally related to the candy I serve up as a tasty treat in the wonderful world of reward programs. I started out with smarties. Alex didn't fare to well with those. They were great for a day or two, but he never quite enjoyed them enough to use the toilet. So we moved on. Keep in mind that it is not that easy to find a plethora of candy types to quench his desire for the sugary snacks. Due to the joy joy milk allergy he has been dealt, chocolate is out. So the all-time favorite potty treat of M&M's are out. So we moved on to Twizzlers. They worked. For about a week. Then it became old hat and his interest in using the potty dwindled. So I tried Dum-dums. They were an enormous hit. We even had our first poop on the pot with that little treat. But I couldn't stand giving him ten suckers a day so it had to stop. So it was on to Skittles. Another temporary hit. Jelly beans...hit...potty strike. Sweet-tarts...hit...potty strike. Turns out that the key must be variety. He can't stand to be bored with his treat jar so it's time to mix it up. We found Gummy Bears and Gummy worms. Party mints and past tried and true candies. They all will be plaguing my house until this kid is finally potty-trained. It's a darn good thing I have massive self control when it comes to candy, otherwise I'd be in big trouble (and by big, i mean fat).

And for good measure, here are a couple pics for your viewing pleasure:

It's official, Abby truly does have the monkey genes that Alex was blessed with. Looks like it's hereditary.

Alex loves being cheezy for the camera now.

And look what we have here! Are those little, tiny pony tails I see on miss Abby? Why yes they are! Her hair is finally growing.