क्नोच्क ओं वूड

The title really says "Knock on wood" so don't go thinking that I've gotten smart or knowledgable in another language that involves wingdings.

I've been kicking around a cold for the past four weeks that really ended two weeks ago, but this morning I am coughing up a lung like nobodies business.

But on another note, and the theme/subject of this post, is that my children have really reached a milestone in the past month or so of being quite loving and sweet... the majority of the time.
We have really come to a point as a family where we all have a great time with one another. Granted, we have all gotten along with one another, but this magnitude of the getting along has expanded. It started, I think, after I was away on a business trip for an entire week. The longest I had been away from the kids ever. And who knows, maybe, they really did miss me.
Little B is seriously growing like a weed and she is all cuddles and smiles and kisses and loves. She asked me last night while we were watching a movie, "Mom, can I come cuddle with you?" Like who would say no to that?
I am the one that wakes them up in the mornings now that the husband works earlier and I get to see their sweet baby-ness that lingers as they wake up. And B always asks me to carry her downstairs, which won't be something I can do for much longer, ha ha.
While they eat breakfast, I dry my hair on the kitchen heater vent (it's a curly-haired thing) and they tell me about random things. S tells us about her dreams which I think is the best. I love that she knows what a dream is and how to retell it. B is still at the I-think-I-had-a-dream-but-I'm-making-this-all-up stage.
S told us one about her uncle producing remote controlled horses from his magic coat and then her asking her dad where her uncle was and he told her he was in Wyoming, but no, he was standing next to him. So it's funny to hear, because I know she's not making this stuff up. B's dreams are about "ice cream, dogs and trampolines" ha ha!
I'm reading the "Happiness Project" book and it's giving me some goals and insight and I like that. It's a good reminder to work on being happy during good times to give yourself some power to help with happiness when hit with a bad or tragic time.
I'm also seeing a new therapist who I really like, so that is also helping me look at things in a different light and set some goals and help me get through extra anxious times. I've felt myself trying to drop into a low the past few days and I've been self-talking and writing to myself a lot and pushing myself to step back and look at things from a different perspective and that helps. Not always, but it helps in a different way.
Well, I figured I'd write this morning since I was to bed early last night as was up earlier this morning and I need to do the breakfast thing, work out with the husband and then off to Costco to brave the madness that is easter weekend. It is conference weekend too though, so I'm hoping if I go during the first session that it'll be less crazy. hahahahaha!

I'm sorry, but who gave you permission to grow up?

And I follow that last one up with....

I really love my husband.

I don't say that enough.

I can sure bitch and moan about people I work with and annoying driving habits of everyone, but myself, on the road. But I don't nearly spend enough time saying how much I love things.

The husband can surely get on my nerves at times, especially when I am lethally hungry, but for the majority of the time, I just watch him, doing what he does, and I. Love. Him.

I love my girls too. They keep doing the horrible growing up thing, but I continue to love them. I get adorable photos where I can catch them still looking like my babies, but I don't admit that to them, because if they knew that I could still catch them, then they'd make sure I didn't catch another one again.

My spunky B wanted (yes, wanted) to go on the scary carnie ferris-wheel last night and wanted to ride with her dad, and she was not scared for one second. S and I, on the otherhand, talked each other into riding together and held each other as close as one can hug one another on a rocking ferris-wheel without rocking it unnecessarily. We squealed together and when the ride stopped and then took us backwards S said "I don't know why I got on this thing!" and we both giggled nervously. B kept asking the husband if S was okay behind us and would even turn around to check on us. S and I barely moved. The mere thought of turning around made our stomachs hurt. Once we got off, we realized it was all good. We didn't die. The carnival ride held up to our wild ride. We are that much stronger now. A hurdle that we jumped with ease.

We got home far too late last night and we feel like we have a slight hangover, even though there was no booze involved. So we've been lounging around, playing with toys, doing laundry, watching really bad part two of the ongoing saga of the little orphan Annie. Oh, it's horrible. It's a good thing we only borrowed it from the library or we may have had to demand our money back.

It's been a breezy, overcast day with a few sprinkles and I adore weather like this. Too bad we feel like we've been beat, or we may be out on bikes or hiking. But, ah, one needs to lay around like a slug every once in a while, right?

One of those ball things with hair on it?

The husband and I just had a conversation about getting something to pull B's bangs back with....he is on his way home.

And he honestly says "One of those ball things with hairs on it"

What, in gawd's name is that supposed to be? I tried, desperately, to envision it, and came up with nothing. Nothing that should be put in anyone's hair on purpose.

Hairs?

And then he suggests a barrette with a Koosh on it.

Good hell, we don't need to add anymore chaos to the hair that's already going on up there.

B wants to grow her bangs out. I said:

Do you want it long, like S's?

No. I want it big, like S's.

You mean, long hair.

No. Big hair.

huuuhhhmmmm.

Do we have a future prom queen on our hands? Because we most certainly have a present day drama queen.

The girls were eating Fat Boys in a bowl last night because due to the size of said FB's, they can't seem to eat more than three bites before they fall on the floor for the dogs to consume.
Well, S managed to inhale a piece of chocolate and I whacked her on the back and she survived.

Not seconds later, B reaches over, picks up the piece of chocolate that was just lodged in S's throat, and eats it.

You guys are going to kill yourselves

Words of Wisdom from a seven year old while her mom and dad attempt to dance to the "Expert" level on Dance Dance Revolution.

Yes, we suck. But, DAMN, we are breaking a sweat and laughing HARD.

The lake effect

When we get snow storms that blow directly from west to east of the Great Salt Lake, we get a lot of snow.....
It's been snowing all morning, and not little fluffs of snow either, big, fat flakes that made their way down the backs of a couple of girls who braved the outdoors a few hours ago.

The husband and I are waiting for it to stop before we even bother with the shoveling part.





And S told me that she wants to be a veterinarian when she grows up, which would be helpful now since Sherman is yelping whenever we move him like he is in deathly pain. Poor little guy.

Seriously, I've been busy

I am such a drag lately. All of these fun-loving people doing Nablapopog-somethinglikethat and I'm not doing a thing.

I've been working hard at trying not to flip out every night after the sun descends and it's only 5:30, and trying not to snap at the kids for absolutely destroying the house with their toys and crafts and coats and shoes and socks and crayons and empty candy wrappers and the list goes on. It's like a landfill of things that will never, ever decompose and not nearly enough Zoloft to combat the mess.

I can say that the four-year old stage is taking me perilously close to the edge of insanity though.

B is killing me. Absolutely, menacingly, deliriously killing me. Slow and pain-like.

She is in to everything, her ears are on constant plugged mode, she is so naughty, and as sweet and loving as she is for about 5% of the time is not making up for the other 95% = hellish time.

I know five years is no cake walk, but I do remember it being a teensy bit better than four. Like being somewhat rational maybe 10% of the time.

The weather is beautiful in Utah. So very unlike November. I have walked at lunch every day this week and have just reveled in the sights and smells of an actual, real fall. Most of the time we go from ultra-wicked-hot, to one week of 70-60 degree weather and then BAM, it is full-fledged winter with snow, ice and freezing. I mean, my kids got warm in their fleecy halloween costumes this year. B was stripping off her top half of her cat costume. It reminded me of the first year we took S out. It was TWELVE degrees. Hideous!

The husband had received some unsettling news yesterday at work that has us worried. We are okay, but it's the type of news that hits too close and shows you how vunerable we are and how quickly we can be turned upside down. Okay, let me rephrase that. I am okay. I am not sure about the husband. He was upset about it last night. And it's kind of one of those things you just really don't want to talk about in the hopes that maybe the conversation won't have to come up again.

Time will tell.

The shed has a roof and is fully shingled. That husband and I make a good team, we really do, and it makes me smile to know this as a fact and how much fun we have had (along with the pains) in our home projects these past 10 years in this house.

He is making Gin and Tonics and he asked if there was tonic downstairs and I said yes. And then I said "I only want a splash of tonic" He repeated that in a utter disbelief sort of way. "Oh yes" I forgot to say "I want the remainder to be Club Soda"

I am watching those extra calories you know.

Lazy Sunday

Look at me, posting a photo. ha ha

I could post more, but it looks like the only current thing on iPhoto are the photos I just uploaded from my camera. After we copied everything off the old computer, everything else is saved on the external hard drive or copied to DVD's. Oh well. I certainly don't have that sort of time on my hands.

This was S's first day of school. B had been back in school for a few weeks at this point.

BUT. Better late than never, right?

I really had to come on here to clear my memory card since we are going up into the mountains and might have some good photo ops.

Punishment

I am a complete glutton for punishment.

I sit here, somewhat hiding, in the computer room while my darling children cry and fight and howl and disembowel the sofa of its cushions and I think to myself why. Why do I even bother?

Why do i set myself up for something that is just going to piss me off?

I signed them up for dance classes tonight, and the way the times are set up, I'm going to spend my Tuesdays and Thursdays just shuffling kids to dance lessons. Ugh.

And then are completely rotten right now. They are tired, tired, and mad at me for not looking for the television remotes. Instead, I go out and find the cushions off the sofa and they cry when I said I'm done looking.

So S is spewing her normal tiredness crap at me and I'm sick of it all.

The husband is going to be late.

I'm off to get their princess meltdowns to bed before I scream.