Vacation

The count down is on.  We are leaving in 10 days for our family vacation.  I cannot wait but it's snuck right up on me and now I'm in a panic to get meals planned and to make sure we have everything we need.

We go down to Lake of the Ozarks every year.  The first couple of years we went down we stayed at a family friendly resort. The owners of the resort are super nice people and we do miss going there.  But, then I found a great rental house that was perfect size for our family and a couple of friends with a washer and dryer which I don't know if I could live without now.  We are only there for a week but it's great coming home without a ton of laundry from the four of us so now I'm spoiled and won't stay anywhere without one.

The house we chose for our third year, as I said was perfect.  Unfortunately, the owners took the house off the rental program and sold the house the next year.  So the search was on for our 4th year down there for another rental home.  That year we had a lot of friends that wanted to join us.  Sounded like a great idea but let me tell you, trying to keep 4 other couples happy with their kids was the ruin of my vacation that year.  Some people just don't get what vacation is with a big group and I didn't enjoy playing cook and maid to everyone the entire week while one of  other women that went sat on her arse the entire week watching me. The house was beautiful though and the owner still sends me Christmas cards to this day which stinks as I'd love to rent from her again but all of her homes down there are 5+ bedrooms and not suited for two families of four. So, the next year I searched again for a smaller home but ended up getting asked by some friends if we wanted to stay with them so we did that.  It was a perfect house and we all loved our time there. They will be going down the same week we are again this year but have family staying with them so we are staying in our own house with 1 other couple and their kids.  This year we decided we wanted to stay back up towards the part of the lake we were familiar with so after endless searching, we found what we hope will be another perfect home to rent.   It will be our good friends with their kids that are almost the same ages as our kids staying with us. They also stayed with us last year at our other friend's place so I know we are on the same page as far as how vacation goes.

Meal ideas typically come easy to me but for some reason this year, I'm drawing a blank on easy, quick meals to prepare down there.  We of course will grill out a couple of nights but I'm at a loss on what to do the other nights.  Any suggestions would be welcome!

Catch Up Time

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I've complained written about something.  It's been a busy spring for our family and I cannot wait for school to get out.  We spend most of our evenings running from field to field, my house is a disaster and I think we've taken up residence in my Tahoe.  However, I can see the light at the end of the tunnel as I count down to vacation, only 20 days away.

My biggest issue this year with the running is we have no set schedule for one of our activities. Practices are announced the night before or day of and games are moved around in a couples days notices.  This is the son's team which he is enjoying so much this year so it's hard to really get too upset about it so I just keep my mouth shut and fire up the vehicle each time.

 I am coaching my daughter's team this year and I've learned that as I get older, my patience with other people's children is growing very thin. Let me rephrase that.  I can't be upset with a 7 - 8 year old for most of their actions because someone is allowing them to act like that for the other 164 hours per week that I don't spend with them. It's really the parents I should be faulting here isn't it?  In my years of coaching I've never had a group quite like this.  Anyway, her games are going well and my parents tell me she reminds them of me when I was her age. That makes this mama proud.

Moving on, the daughter is also in dance this year again so we spend one night a week in a neighboring town doing the dance thing. She has told me she's not sure if she wants to commit to dance again next year because it's taking up too much of her softball time this year.  She is and I think will always be my little tomboy. She'd much rather be sliding into home vs. having her hair curled and having to put on a cute little outfit to perform in. She asked me the other night if she could just quit dance and I told her that's not possible. We need to finish what we started and she only has 2 weeks left until the recital.  Something happened 3 weeks ago at dance that made her change her mind about it.  I haven't figured out what happened but since that practice, she hasn't wanted to go back.

So with all of that going on, and running almost every night, we did find time to get some much need projects done around the house in the last month which felt great!  Any other off time has been spent trying to keep piles of clothes going through the washer and dryer and trying to stop by the store to at least have a gallon of milk in the house at all times.  Only 3 more weeks though and this chick is taking some much needed time off!

Why There Should Be A Test or License to Be A Parent

It seems in the past few months, I've seen quite a few stories of terrible parents and wondered why is it we have to pass a test and get a license to drive a car but not to raise a child?

Some of the stories I've seen are listed below:

Florida Mom Scalds Baby  source: foxnews.com
Baby's Room Grow House  source: huffingtonpost.com
US Marshals Capture Des Moines Man accused of sexual abuse  source: desmoinesregister.com
Iowa mom accused of drowning 15 month old son  source: desmoinesregister.com
Woman Guilty of Child Abuse  source: 10news.com
Father killed three month old  source: dailymail.com

And this is just the tip of the iceberg.  There are so many other stories out there of innocent children, murdered or abused at the hands of their own parent(s).  I just don't get it. Why is there not a class that we have to take at least stating the obvious ways to keep our children safe? Why is there not a test we have to take showing that we understand that it's not ok to punish your children by putting them under scalding water?  Yes, these are all things we should know but we should all know to stop at the red octagon sign as well but we still have to take a test to prove we know it.

Ok, reality is, I know there will never be a test.  I know that there are always going to be bad parents and unfortunately, more children are going to be abused and/or killed by their irresponsible parents but what is the answer then?  We've had awareness groups for years and I whole-heartedly stand behind them rooting them on but it seems that's not working.  What else can we do?  Tougher penalties for offenders.  Tougher laws on the books not allowing these parents to have more children?  What's the answer?

The Ultimate Blog Party 2012

Check out the Ultimate Blog Party 2012 at 5minutesformom.com.  If you have linked here from their site, a big Welcome!

I am a mom of 2 great kids who try my patience at times but I don't know what I'd do without them.  I am fairly new to the blogging world but love being able to put my own thoughts out there.  I'd love to have more feedback whether it's positive or negative as I believe everyone should be able to use their voice.

Thanks for checking my blog out!

What a pill.

A few months ago, my son was prescribed a pill form of an antibiotic.  I didn't think anything of it as this was the first antibiotic he'd been prescribed since he was a toddler and at that age, they get the liquid form.  What a nightmare it turned out to be for him.

As I gave him the first pill to take that morning, he gagged, threw up a little and finally, after 20 minutes of this, got it down.  That night, we tried it again only to have him again gag and spit the water out of his mouth he was trying to take it with.  Again, after about 20 minutes, he finally got it down.  At this point I'm thinking that he's just over thinking this and psyching himself out.  He's taking a small pill for crying out loud. We continue doing this the rest of the weekend (with the same results) until it comes to Monday morning.  On this morning it's so bad that now the pill is starting to break down where it gets chalky and I know there is no way we are going to get much further now.  I kept chalking it up to him being stubborn and just not wanting to take it.

Not my son but the same look on  his face when I handed him the antibiotic.

Then I talked to some friends.  Apparently there are many people in the world that cannot take pills. I never knew this.  So my question is, what do teenagers and adults do that can't take pills?  Do doctor's prescribe liquid forms for headache relief, antibiotics, or any other medication that typically comes in pill form?  Is this problem something my 12 year old will grow out of?

Our Understated Birthday Party

So, my hubby finally started feeling better and we were able to have my son's birthday party last weekend (I know, bad mom it was a week late).  We let him choose 6 of his friends to have over and then let his little sis have a friend over to keep her out of the boys' hair. The day was such a success.

The kids all showed up around 1:00pm and after a short "rules" meeting headed up by my hubby, they were off on their 4-wheelers.  The girls on the other hand, decided they wanted to do other things not with the boys.  Perfect, my plan actually worked for once!

The boys rode for the rest of the afternoon and since they were doing so well following the rules my hubby decided to take them to a different farm that he said they'd have even more fun at.  Little did I know the translation for "even more fun" meant a 10' x 15' mud hole.  As the girls and I made our way down there we quickly discovered just how much more fun the boys were having.  Most were already covered in mud from their helmets to their boots.  Good thing I told the parents to send a change of clothes.  The 5 other dads that wanted to supervise this party were having just as much fun as the boys I think.  They were laughing uncontrollably every time one of the boys would hit the mud hole.  Yeah thanks jerks, are you laughing because they are having fun or that I'll be the one cleaning this shit up?   The girls decided they wanted to get involved and off they went so now I have 9 kids covered in mud.  This will be interesting when we get back to our house.  All went well though.  We all made it back to our house and the other dads helped the hubby spray most of the mud off the kids before they were instructed to head into the house, one at a time to jump in the shower.  After everyone had made it back into clean clothes (thank goodness they actually brought some), it was time to start feeding these hungry boys.  We always take the easy way out and grill hamburgers and hot dogs.  It gets the boys fed quickly and clean up is a breeze.

This is not ours but looks very similar to what we saw!

Once everyone got done eating the boys disappeared to the basement to play some pool and darts while the girls decided to head upstairs to do their own thing again.  I couldn't believe how easy this was.  Why don't we always just have all of the boys over at once instead of having one over every other weekend?  Then I remembered why.  There was very little sleeping at our house that night.  Two of the boys decided they were going to stay up all night and most of the others didn't actually go to sleep until the early morning hours.  I got up at my normal time of 5:30am expecting to have a room full of hungry boys within the hour.  Yep, that didn't happen.  So I started up load #2 of muddy clothes so everything would be washed and dried by the time the boys left.  Around 8:00am I could hear them start moving around upstairs and knew that was my cue to start breakfast.  Yep, I took the easy way out again and made them bacon, pancakes and eggs. Quick and easy to fix and fills them up.  The assembly line of boys came down and within minutes were scarfing down everything I had made. Have you ever fed 7 growing boys?  Dear lord, I think every one of them has a hollow leg.  Crap, I've got the girls to feed still so off I go to make up some more.

We made it through breakfast and as I'm cleaning up I look in the living room only to see 5 of the 7 boys looking like they had just got done eating a Thanksgiving meal and about ready for their nap. Yep boys, that's what staying up all night (for the most part) does to you.  We let them boys hang out for a few hours in the morning and decided to start rounding them up to take them home around 11:00am. Of course, nobody wanted to leave but at this point, I'm exhausted, my son is about ready to fall asleep and the hubby looks like he took the red eye flight home last night.  Fortunately, one of the dads shows back up in the morning to help us get the 4-wheelers hosed off and loaded and volunteers to take a couple of the boys home for us.  Everyone is delivered home by 11:30am and as the boy walks back into the house, he doesn't miss a beat taking off his shoes, heading to the living room and crashing right there on the couch.

All of this fun and I didn't get any cutesy decorations, didn't need a 3 tier cake, didn't bother with gift bags for the boys to go home with, and didn't have catered food in the shape of any animal or character.  What I did do was just let them have fun and all for less than $150 for 9 kids - overnight.

So:

Drinks for the boys:   $30.00

Food for the boys:     $55.00
Gas for 4 wheelers:    $35.00
Laundry Detergent:    $10.00
Knowing that they couldn't stop talking about the party all day yesterday at school:  Priceless.

When Two Is Enough

When does it ever end with family/friends.  I have two beautiful children who sometimes drive me up a wall but I love dearly.  My oldest just turned 12 and my youngest is 7.  Who in their right mind would think I would want to start all over and have a baby?

I really thought my hubby and I were past the point with family and friends and the lingering question of, "when are you going to have another"  but just recently the question reared it's ugly head once again.  Are these people serious?  So, here are my top ten reasons why I am not interested in having another child. Selfish as they may be.

1.  I didn't enjoy pregnancy and have no desire to have another tiny human in my body ever again.

2.  I didn't enjoy the infant stage. All they do is eat, sleep and poop.

3.  I'm glad to be done with daycare and to have more money to spend on actual fun time with my family vs. paying it to someone else to enjoy my children while I am at work.

4.  I enjoy my sleep.  I have no desire to start midnight feedings again nor do I miss changing crappy diapers in the middle of the night.

5.  I can go to a store without hauling around the dinosaur sized infant seat.

6.  I can take friends/family  in my car now without having to remove the car seats that, once they are in, are virtually impossible to get out.  Then you have to try to get them back in again.  Ugh!

7.  I don't have to climb over safety gates, worry about small decorations being down to low or worry about if I got the child safety latch back on the cupboard with the cleaning supplies on it.

8.  I don't have to lug a bag full of formula, diapers, burp cloths, etc. with me everywhere I go now.

9.  I like being able to talk to my children so I know what is wrong with them.  The guessing game before they could talk drove me batty.

10.  I'm almost 38 years old and my hubby is over 40.  Enough said.

Don't get me wrong.  I enjoy other people's babies for a limited amount of time but don't think my old, tired body is ready for another one of my own.

Money, Money, Money

I have went to the same doctor's office now for the past 18 years.  When I married my husband almost 14 years ago, he started going to this office as well.  When each of my children were born, both of  them immediately started going to the same office so we've known the doctors here for quite some time.  My husband and the kids see a different doctor then I do and mine recently decided to start a practice in another nearby town.

I continually got calls from our regular clinic that it was time for an annual physical and I called the clinic to tell them that I'd decided to see my regular doctor (that moved) for that type of appointments.  I just feel more comfortable with him. I thought I'd continue to use him at his new location (because it's close to my work) and if I was home sick at any point (rarely happens) I'd try to get an appointment with our regular clinic because it's closer to home.  (Every time I go to the doctor I usually hear, "we haven't seen you for quite a while".)  As I said, I just don't get sick.

Anyway, I recently called up my regular clinic to schedule my shot that I receive every 3 months.  When I got to the office, I was asked for a copy of my medical card.  No big deal, I hadn't been there for myself for a while even though both kids had just had their annual physicals.  I got everything squared away and waited to be called into the exam room.

After what seemed like forever (I'm only getting a shot for crying out loud), I was finally called back by the nurse.  As we entered an exam room she put the needle down on the counter and said we need to talk before she could give me my shot.  I thought, strange, but ok.  What came out of her mouth next floored me.  She said, "Are you going to continue to use this office or go to Dr. X (my doctor that moved). "   I responded, "I don't know what I'm going to do."  Then she said, "well you need to make a decision if you are going to see him or us.  We do not make money off people that come in here for injections.  It's been over a year, it's about time for you to make up your mind."  "I cannot give you this shot unless you decide you are going to use a doctor here." 

As I picked my jaw up off the floor I quickly agreed to see one of the doctors at this clinic thinking to myself the entire time, these are the people I trust my children with.  Ones that are more worried about making a dollar vs. providing care for their patients.  Are you f'ing kidding me here lady?  I seriously was waiting for someone to come out with a camera because I couldn't believe this wasn't a joke.  

I have stewed about this encounter all week.  My first thought was to call up the main doctor at this clinic and ask him if this is really how they want to be represented.  Then I thought, screw them, I'll call the other doctors office, get my prescription moved to the new clinic and call it good.  Two problems with both scenarios, 1st, my husband has been really sick all week and using our regular clinic to treat him.  If I complain are they going to give him substandard care?  I wouldn't think so as I trust his doctor there but in the back of my mind I keep reliving the "money talk" the nurse gave me which was completely unethical and disgusting and wondering if this is how this is now how they are going to do business.  Also, #2 my children still go there. 

I've talked to my mom about this and she thinks I am crazy for not already moving the kids out of there. I've talked to one of my good friends and she thinks the same thing....RUN.  This is such a hard decision to make. As I said, I love my kids' and my husband's doctor and think he's wonderful. Do I blame an entire clinic of doctors for something a nurse said to me?  Did I just catch a nurse having a bad day?  I have to believe someone told this nurse to tell me this but who?

The Drive Thru Nightmare

What in the world was I thinking.

I've finally woke up from the worst nightmare I think I've ever had.  Two weeks ago was the start of Lent and I decided I was giving up fast food.  Shouldn't be too hard right?  Well, for the past 6 months before Lent, I had been putting my body through hell by eating fast food garbage at least once if not twice a day, 3 or 4 days a week.

It started one morning back in 2011 when I was pressed for time and didn't have a chance to pack breakfast or lunch for the day.  Then the next day, I forgot to bring the breakfast and lunch I'd packed and it snowballed from there. It was so much easier for me to not have to worry about it and just hit a drive thru on my way to work and at lunch time. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

The day before Lent I decided enough is enough and thought giving up fast food was the way to go so I did it. The first week was pretty easy and I decided to go back on Weight Watchers Online to track what I was eating and hold me accountable for it.  Week 2 has been a little more difficult.  It's like I am now going through fast food withdrawals.  Is that even possible? Why is it so much harder this week vs. the first week?

I haven't been doing anything different except cutting out the fast food and I have lost 10 lbs. in two weeks. That is unbelievable to me and such a great incentive to fight the drive thru urges I've been having this week.  Which leads me to the question, what in the world was I thinking for the past 6 months?

Children's Birthdays

Since this topic came up on another blog that I religiously read, I wanted to put my own 2 cents worth in on the subject.

Kids birthday parties should be about what your kids want.  Lately, some of the parties I've seen online are completely over the top and more wedding like if anything.  Maybe it's just how we are in my neck of the woods but I can't think of one of my kids' friends that care if I spend a ton of money on cutesy decorations, have the local baker build them a 3 tier birthday cake, or provide them with a goody bag or any type of gift just for attending.  Aren't the kids attending because they like your child and shouldn't we teach our children that they don't need a gift for everything they do in life and it's not always about them?

This falls under the same category as having parties for everything our children do.  Are we not just setting them up for disappointment when they are out on their own and are not getting a reward for doing their laundry or showing up to work everyday?

I know, I know, it's just a kid's party but I think some parents are going to have a rude awaking when their little Johnny and Susie get older.

Things that make me smile.

My last post, Things That Piss Me Off was written after having a really bad week. This week hasn't been so bad so I decided I would follow up with a list of things that make me smile.

 1. My kids. They never cease to amaze me and make me really proud. I love watching them in their activities, I love watching them just hang out together, and I love that they have such big hearts. There is nothing I wouldn't do for either of them.

 2. My husband. He is such a great man. He puts up with my crap and loves me unconditionally. We don't always see eye to eye on things and we've had a couple rough patches but in the end, I think we were meant to be together.

 3. My parents. Let me start off by saying, I am an only child. Every move I make in my life is watched like a hawk by my parents and I don't always make the moves they believe I should but regardless, they would do anything for me and love me anyways.

 4. My friends. I've always been told that it's not how many friends you have, it's how many true friends you have. Someone that you could call and they'd be right there for you. Someone who doesn't expect something in return when they do you a favor. Someone that doesn't keep tally of what they've done for vs. what you've done for them. In the past few years I've found my true friends and cleaned house of the other type of friend.

 5. My job. I know, crazy right. Even on the bad days I'm still thankful for my job. I have worked my tail off for 12 years and my boss rewards me all of the time for my hard work and lets me know how much he appreciates the job I'm doing.

 6. When elderly people tell me stories. I love the fact that their eyes light up when they are telling stories of the crazy things they did in the past.

 7. Fun blogs. I've only recently started exploring the blog world and I cannot believe what I was missing. This started with a friend posting a link on FB to the blog, People I Want To Punch In The Throat .  If you haven't checked this blog out, I highly suggest it. After you get done laughing your arse off, check out some of the other blogs I have listed on my page. There are some seriously funny people out there!

 8. Vacations with my family. For the last 5 years we have spent a week down at the Lake of the Ozarks. We have such a great time down there. I've asked the kids if they'd rather go somewhere else but they always say no. The past few years we've been vacationing with the same family that also have 2 kids and they all love being able to bunk together, fish together, ride in the paddle boat or just searching for turtles. We've already got our place booked for our vacation this year and we cannot wait.

 9. My Fridays off. I love when I am able to take my kids to school in the morning and pick them up after school in the afternoon. I love that I can go to the store when most people are at work and not have to dodge people just to get around or wait in a check out line for what seems like an eternity. I love that I can spend time with one of my true friends that also is off and we can do our shopping together or just hang out. I love that I can schedule all of my appointments on a day and not feel guilty about missing work.

 10. My Life. After reviewing this list I can honestly say that I'm a pretty lucky person. I need to look at this list on my bad days to give myself a reminder that it's really not so bad.

Things That Piss Me Off

I am getting less and less tolerant of people it seems as I get older. Lots of things have come up in the past few weeks so I decided to jot some down and get them off my chest.

1. People who drive like they have no where to be and at least 10 mph under the speed limit. It never fails. When I'm running late in the morning or trying to get home to take or drop a kid off at something, it seems like I always encounter the guy/gal that apparently is out for their Sunday drive on the wrong day. Last night I followed someone on my way home from work and they clearly didn't understand that the road they were on was a 55mph zone. They drifted between 40 and 50 for most of the drive and slowed to 35-40 when they came to a curve in the road. Not some sharp oh shit curve, just a nice easy curve in the road. I have to wonder if this type of driver should actually be behind the wheel at all.

2. The overachieving mom that believes her kid should be in every activity out there when the child clearly has no desire to be. Let your kid be a kid for goodness sake. You don't need to relive your childhood through your obviously uninterested child. You are only making him/her miserable.

3. Needy people. I have 2 kids and their activities/plans take priority over your life. That's just the way it is. Please don't act like a 2 year old when you don't get your way. Please don't tell me you feel left out because I've been running my kids around for the last 2 weeks and haven't "made time for you". I have many other friends who understand this concept and don't whine about it. P.S. Maybe the reason you haven't seen me is because I'm tired of your needy shit so when I do have time, you aren't the one I'm going to call.

4. People who think people owe them something. My hubby and I do many things for people and never once have we expected anything in return. We live in a small town and that is just how it is. However, there are a few people in the town that don't understand that and feel like others owe them for nice things they have done for them. To me that's completely tacky and to tell other people how much you've done for someone else just makes you an attention seeking idiot searching for a pat on the back.

5. Kids on FB that post totally inappropriate things. Don't these kids realize that their future employers will see this garbage? Don't they realize they might not even get a job because of their disgusting posts on FB? And the absolute worst posts are when they take a picture of themselves in the mirror with the "hooker" lips. What is with that?

6. People that pull up to fast food drive ups with 5 people in their vehicle and they need each order rang up separate. Can these people really not get the bill and figure it out when they get back to wherever they are eating the food?

7. Telemarketers. Enough said.

8. Political Ads - Why do candidates spend tons of money only to bash another candidate. Do people really get swayed by a 30 second ad that rips another person apart? Most people I know just get a lower opinion of any candidate that resorts to this garbage. Instead, I suggest to all politicians running for office to make one, 2 minute ad telling everyone what you plan to do if elected and leave any other candidate out of it. Take the money you save on the multiple slander ads and donate it to a worthy cause.

9. People who constantly have to one up you. For example, during a casual conversation with another mom I mentioned that I was just wiped out because we'd had a really busy week running around. No sooner did I finish the sentence did she say, "You think your week was busy, listen to my last 3 weeks." Then she proceeded to go into detail about every stop her minivan had made in the last three weeks. Like I gave a shit.

10. People who take their children to the doctor for every little sniffle. If my child is running a low grade fever or have a stomach ache, they stay home from school, I give them chicken soup and make them rest all day. I can count on one hand how many times I've ran either of my kids directly to the doctor because they were sick. However, I hear many moms that say that as soon as they get the call from the school they rush their kid(s) to the doctor so they can get them on antibiotics right away so they can say they are antibiotics and send them back to school the next day. It seems like doctors are handing out antibiotics like candy anymore.

Valentine's Day

Ah Valentine's Day. A day that lovers proclaim their love for one another. The day that card companies salivate for. The day that flower shops and jewelry stores live for. I, on the other hand, am already ready for it to be done.

Last night I stopped by the local store to pick up cards and small gifts for the kids and the hubby. The place was packed full of others who, like me, decided to wait until the last minute. I saw all of the Valentine's "stuff" out during my other 5 trips to the store in the last 2 weeks but just kept thinking I didn't want to get anything too early. Dumb me. There I was, lost in a sea of people coming and going all around me. I am not a crowd person whatsoever. I quickly found the less busy section of the store and picked out all of my cards and got the heck out of there. I was going to hit the candy in that aisle but thought to myself, why would I pay more money for it to be in a pretty red box (special packaging for the day) when the kids don't care what it's in as long as they get it, so off to the check out I went to see what they had sitting up there. Yes, it's my lazy way out. I was surprised with the selections they had in the check out line and pleased that I could snag a couple packages and get out of the madness.

When I got home it was time to help my son with his gift for his special friend. I call her his special friend because I think he's way too young to have any sort of girlfriend at this point. He's 11, almost 12. I know, I know, other boys in his class have "girlfriends" but really, what do they do to make them their girlfriend except spend money on them each holiday? They are too young to go anywhere, they don't meet up after school to talk or have a pop together so what's with the girlfriend title? Ok, so maybe it's just me not wanting my youngest to grow up yet. Yeah, that's probably it.

So, my mom owns a bakery and thankfully she helped me out by making a huge heart shaped cookie for him to give to his special friend and also made me 30 cookies for my daughter to take for her Valentine's Party. She also sent down some of her decorating tools she uses at home and a tub full of frosting. Yeah, I know, she is the hero on any of the kids' parties that involve baked goods. We are complete opposites when it comes to the kitchen. She can bake circles around me and I can cook circles around her. When I met my hubby and his family around 16 years ago, I had no idea there was chili that didn't come out of a can, had no idea what potato salad was, and salmon was the stuff that came out of a can that had crushed crackers and eggs in it. I am proud to say that throughout the last 14 years I've expanded my palette and knowledge of food and the hubby says I'm a great cook. Well, when I have time to be.

Back to the cookies. We proceeded to get my son's cookie done for his special friend, then on to my daughter's cookies. At this point I'm looking at the frosting, the 7 bottles of cookies decorations and the huge Tupperware container full of cookies and thinking, "I signed up for this why?" and thinking that while the hubby is contently laying on the couch with a stomach full from supper. After about 18 cookies, he finally decided to help us out which made things go so much faster. What a guy! After finishing them we dove into the Valentine store bought cards that she had for each of her classmates. Who makes these things? I didn't realize when I'd picked out the ICarly cards that they were covered in glitter and that apparently it's all supposed to fall off before you actually give them to anyone. Now not only was the table covered in little tiny glitter, the rest of us were too. Including my 11 year old that is horrified it will stick to him forever! I asked my daughter where her class list was. She said they didn't get a list of students names this year. I'm thinking to myself, are you kidding me? How am I or my daughter (a 2nd grader) supposed to remember the names of 26 kids? Fortunately, the conference schedule was handed out this week so at least we had last names to go off of. Then I found out that there are only 18 kids on the conference list and I know there are 27 total in the class. Did the other 9 kids not have conferences? My daughter then informs me that some people in her class go to another teacher for part of the day so they have conferences with that teacher. Perfect, we'll just go through that conference list as well. Not that easy. Some of the kids that go to the other class are from the other 2nd grade class (confused yet, I know I was). There are 3, 2nd grade classes in the morning and 2 in the afternoon. The kids from the 3rd, 2nd grade class go back to the other 2 classes in the afternoon. Anyway, none of this helped us figure out who the missing child was that we hadn't made a Valentine for so I sent a blank one with her and emailed her teacher this morning to give her a heads up about what happened. At that point I didn't know what else to do. We finally got done about a half hour before the kids' bedtime and I was ready to unwind for the day.

This morning, I got the kids up and they gave their Valentine cards to their dad and I left mine for him on the table next to them. He thanked both of them and me and whispered in my ear...you'll get yours tonight. Translation: I forgot to get you anything from me or the kids so I'll scramble today to figure something out.

We all went about our morning ritual of getting ready, grabbing breakfast and just as we are about out the door my daughter does one of those, "oh no's". I ask her what she forgot and she proceeds to tell me that she was supposed to bring a decorated box for her Valentines to go into. Stupid me assumed they'd made them in class because we were supposed to send them to school with a shoe box about a week ago. Guess it wasn't for that. So, as I'm searching around for an empty shoe box, my son yells to me from the living room, "got one mom." What a kid! I dug into my stash of tissue paper, bows, and gift decorations and couldn't believe I found pink and silver tissue paper and a pink and white (store bought) curly bow. Lucked out on this one. I took the supplies to the table and we all started working on the box. It really didn't turn out too bad but as I looked at the clock, I realized I've got 10 minutes to make it to work which is 25 minutes away. Crap! Oh well, it is what it is. My daughter was happy when we left, my son couldn't wait to get to school to give his special friend her gift and my hubby...well, I'm sure his day will suck as he's scrambling around last minute to try to cover his tracks and get me at least a card. Poor hubby...yeah, right.