Saturday, November 29, 2008

Things heard around the Hood...

Abs is still grounded from the tv. She came out while the other kids were watching tv, and I told her she needed to find something else to do.
Abs: I found something else to do.
Me: What's that?
Abs: I'm just going to sit out here and look at you because you are so beautiful. I won't even need to watch tv, because of your beauty.
Me: Thanks, now go find something to do.
Abs: It was worth a shot, but you are pretty.

A quick kiss and she was on her way.

The Day After

My friend Mel showed up at my house bright and early on Thanksgiving Day (6:30 am) while I was trying to hook up the DVD player in the car. I think I was missing a wire, so I abandoned that plan. The kids were up, dressed, and packed. We loaded the car and off we went...down the street. I forgot to feed the kids breakfast, so we stopped off at Jack in the box.

So now are headed off to my mom's house, with 2 adults and 3 kiddos. We end up in Georgetown where my sisters and mom are running around getting last minute things together. They load up their car and then all 12 of us head down the road. We were going my aunt and uncle's house for Thanksgiving dinner. We arrive just in time to eat, and spend time talking. My brother and his wife and son met us there, along with a bunch of other people I ad never laid eyes on, but somehow was related to in one way or another. My mom has a huge family.

Lunch was great, but I got tired of chasing Junior so Mel and I and three kids headed to the hotel. We stayed at the Drury Inn, and the staff was so nice! They had happy hour from 5:30-7 with three free drinks, so we made plans to go down there. My mom and sisters and kiddos arrive shortly after and we all headed down to happy hour.

My mom pulled out some leftover turkey and ham, but I couldn't bring myself to eat it since I knew it had not been refrigerated and it had been out of the oven for hours. My mom was less than pleased with us not eating. Luckily happy hour and food and we feasted.

After happy hour we decided to head down to the Christmas tree lighting in Post Oak. We got into our pajamas and started walking. We saw the fireworks and kept going even after we saw crowds or people returning to their cars and houses. We were quite a spectacle with all of us in pajamas moving along the busy streets. We wandered around for a little while and then headed back to the hotel. And then the fun began....

My mom kept my girls and Mel and I just had Junior. We were just about to go to sleep and then he puked. I went down stairs and the staff got me sheets, towels and blankets. I came back to find Mel changing Junior's clothes since he puked again. This went on all night, with many visits to the front desk for more supplies. We both got little to no sleep. At one point, Junior was hurling and my weak stomach couldn't take it anymore and I started to join him. Mel kicked me out to the bathroom and took care of Junior. Talk about a friend!

The next morning, Junior was fine, and so far so good, so are the rest of us. We spent yesterday at my brother's house eating leftovers and talking and talking and talking. Throw in 8 grandchildren and the house was busy.

The drive back was uneventful and today I am cleaning, organizing and getting ready to head over to my mom's to celebrate my sister's birthday. I have so much to do to get ready for school on Monday. Three more weeks till Christmas vacation!!!!

Friday, November 28, 2008

We're outnumbered by two

5 adults. 7 children.

Mel gets awarded friend of the year since she spent last night with me in a small hotel room and a barfy kid. Yep, leave it to Junior to get sick on this trip.

More later, but in true Gunner family style, we have left our mark.

More to follow....

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are off on the road to head to Houston for two days of togetherness. That might be all I can handle.

Dinner wasn't anything special. It was thrown together, and last minute. The time with my BIL was nice, he's a nice guy. Junior was wanting juice and strawberries and his Oma was catering to his every whim. I just let him fuss and eat my dinner, and he tried to tell her the same thing, but it fell on deaf ears. Welcome to my world.

Tom did say that Junior is the spitting image of Gunner and acts just like him too. Now if only Gunner were around to enjoy this time too. He missed the age from 2-3 with Abs too. Good thing we quit while we were ahead or I would be doing this again and again and again and he would strategically arrange it so he wasn't around for the terrible two's with each of them.

Anyway, my inlaws have a long way to go with the house, but my MIL admitted to me that she doesn't like having so many dogs. Ya think? I told her that when she said she was going to keep 4 of the puppies. Insane.

Anyway here are some of the things I am thankful for:

Gunner
Em, Abs and Junior
My family
My friends
And this crazy life that is my own. Who could ask for anything more?

And the hits just keep coming

So my inlaws never showed up. Big surprise. So I loaded the kids up to take to the gym with me.

Stopped to get gas. Pumped gas all over me and the car. Leave there and go back by the house to get cleaned up and leave the check for the maid, which I had carried out of the house.

Had a great workout--I am way too competitive.

Took the kids to Blimpie because the maid was still cleaning. Had a nice lunch with no fighting.

Came home and put Junior down for a nap.

I just sat down to relax and I get a call from daycare. Junior's not even there today, but they want to let me know that his benadryl for his egg allergy is expired and I need to get him a new prescription in order for him to go to daycare. ARE YOU KIDDING ME????? It is Wednesday afternoon, I am getting ready to go out of town, I am a teacher and work from sunup till sundown, have three kids and a husband who is deployed and you are telling me now that my son will be denied care on Monday????

So of course I can't relax now. I called the daycare back to talk to the director, who is out on vacation, I hope she is able to relax. I asked for the assistant who told me that he wouldn't be able to come if he didn't have a prescription benadryl. I reminded her that it is an OTC medication and the only reason that one had the information on there was because I got it from a military doctor and all OTC medications are free. I told her I was upset because I am being notified at 2 o'clock on a Wednesday before a holiday about this and being told that my son can't receive care. She said sometimes they make extensions so I might be able to take him in Monday morning and then it would be okay. I told her again that I was a teacher and didn't have the luxury of just taking off whenever I wanted (especially with the rate we get sick around here). I told her that I needed more notice than this, etc. She gave me the number of the community health nurse.

So I call her, get her voice mail, and leave a message. Then I called back to the main number, explained my predicament and how I needed to know if I could take a bottle from the store and swap them out because if he was with a civilian doctor that is what I would have to do. They aren't sure, but they think so. They said that they will track down an answer for me. Let's hope so, because if I show up Monday morning and Junior is denied care I am going to lose it.

The girl called back and everyone is gone, enjoying their holidays. My MIL works on Mondays so that option is out. Since one virus can knock out 4 sick days alone, I can't really justify taking time off and then not being there when I am needed. I'll buy a bottle of benadryl and hope for the best.

I think I prefer overflowing toilets and exploding diapers over dealing with incompetent daycare people and crap like this.

And to think now I get to go have Turkey Day with the outlaws that stood my kids up earlier. They texted me to tell me to bring dessert if my kids wanted any. They don't, we'll have our Turkey Day tomorrow with all the trimmings. I am just hoping that they cleaned and I won't get sick!

Boring?

I was just telling my mom that I have had nothing to blog about because my life is so boring.

I spoke too soon.

Junior exploded all over himself, the floor, the world. How can one little boy make so much poop? It was awful. Gunner owes me.

The outlaws are coming to get the kids, so I decided I better make sure that my hooptie was cleaned out. I went out there, and it looked good minus a few odds and ends. I opened up the trunk to get a few things out and there it was. In the little recessed area in the trunk, a gigantic bottle of antifreeze had come open and filled it. Of course there was stuff in there. So I got my favorite cleaning supply next to towels--papertowels. I can now say I know how many paper towels it takes to clean up a mess like that. And bounty is not a very quick picker upper.

So I finally get all of that cleaned up and throw it away, but then the bag I dragged out to the car was heavy, so I decided to continue dragging it. Yep, trash all over the yard. I buy the ones that never seem to break, till now. So I clean up all the trash, come in, and notice a rash all over my arms from the antifreeze.

I did what any normal person would do and called my mom. She told me to read the bottle, but that seemed like more trouble to go back out through the trash, not to mention gross, so I declined and took a shower. So much for the gym. So the rash seems to be doing better once I got out of the shower, thank goodness as a trip to the er doesn't fit into my plans. I am getting dressed and decide to clean my ears. I do the first one with no problems, then lose the qtip part of the second one in my ear. (Yes, I know you shouldn't put qtips in your ears, but I like clean ears!) So now what do I do? Abs just took a look and didn't see anything. Em didn't see anything, and Junior was searching in the wrong ear but wanted to get in on the action. It kind of hurts now. I don't know if it is from the qtip or the kids smushing my "ear knob" to get a better view.


It's only 9:30 am.

Update: Abs was eating breakfast and came out of the kitchen with her shirt stuffed. I hated to ask, but I had to. She spilled applesauce on her shirt and didn't want it to get her sticky or wet, so she unrolled papertowels and folded them nicely to stuff up her shirt. I asked her why she didn't just change her shirt. Her response "I just didn't think of that".

Yesterday she was telling me about how much faster it was to travel in a straight line vs a curvy line. She showed me a real life example, then thought about it a while and declared "But a curvy line is much more fun". That it is Abs.

It never fails....

...the one day I can sleep in and Junior wakes up at 5. He didn't cry but played for about half an hour till he fell asleep again. I am wide awake.

...the one day I want to go to the gym and I can't find any of my sports bras. Is this a sign?

...the one day a week that the housekeeper comes and I am cleaning like a crazy woman.

...the one day I have off and I am going to go into school to work on stuff...maybe....

My friend Mel came over last night to hang out for a while and decompress. Her husband is deployed and she has no kids. I am not sure how hanging out at my house with three kids is decompressing. Junior loved her and climbed up in her lap to be read to with a bicycle helmet on. She just went with the flow and pretended that kids everywhere wear bicycle helmets for fun.

We are going to the outlaws tonight for Thanksgiving dinner. I am hoping that the dogs aren't around. Call me cold, but I have no desire for a pet of any kind. I have children that slobber on me, cough on me, barf on me, and poop on me. I clean up shampoo poured on the floor, flooded bathrooms and the dining room after the girls have been "creating". I've dealt with overflowing toilets, messy rooms, and hundreds of trips to the er. Who wants to add to the craziness?

Gunner called the other day--two days in a row, I almost died from the shock of it--and I asked him to send me 20 pictures of himself or something since it had been a while. The boy sent me a couple pictures of himself and then.......flies? I have a great shot of a flystrip with a 24 hour catch and a closeup of it all. I HATE flies, so I am still trying to figure out what he thinks I need with this. There were a couple of other things, but this meals looks great. Much better than the microwave meal I scrounged up and the ramen and leftovers I fed the kids!

I think I hear the rumblings from a certain Abs which means once she is up the whole house is up within seconds.....