Emo.

It is so hot today. I am so unbelievably hot, that's all I can think of right now. 100 degrees in April... this is not a good sign for the upcoming months. Thank goodness I got my air conditioner fixed the other night, or I would probably be sleeping out on the trampoline. Fun times. My poor baby Bryn is just like Derek and me --- she hates this hot weather. She never whines or fusses and these couple of days that it has been hot, she is a wee bit pissy. Maybe she will adjust better to the heat. If not, looks like she will be spending her summer indoors.

Crossing my fingers and holding a massive nervous pit in my stomach, we are possibly, maybe, sorta, hoping to close on our house next week!! Yay!! No one can fully understand how excited and happy I will be. Everything here is pretty much packed, minus the stuff that can't be packed until the day of... hell, I even have most of the food packed up. For the most part, we pretty much survive off of bbq nachos anyways. This is why we cannot take a vacation in the summer-- we spend all our 'would-be-vacation-money' at the coolboose. Ahhh bbq nachos... if I wasn't so hot and miserable, I would so get off the couch and go, but instead, I think I'll just sit here and gripe about the heat.

Soooo I a getting a little bored with this whole stay at home thing, but for right now, with 3 kids that are not in school yet, it is almost impossible for me to work and actually make any money when you figure in daycare prices. I try to tell myself that I am lucky that I get to stay home with the kids, but I like working and making money, so I a itching for a job. I am also just bored. I miss being in school. I actually enjoyed college, and if it wasn't for the large student loan debt, I would definitely go back and finish my bachelors degree. Maybe someday. Until then, I will just settle for my pointless to have Associates degree.

Wow. This was the most pessimistic blog ever. The end.

Finally Friday

It's been way to long since my last post. The whole point of having a blog was so it would give me something to do in the evenings, but wow, I have been crazy busy since the last post. We are still in the process of buying our house. I am excited to announce that someone put a contract on our current home last night, so the stresses of worrying about whether or not we were going to end up making two house payments can now be rested. I will still be holding my breath about getting our new house until the papers are signed on both sides.

Cash went to Pre-K roundup earlier this week and he is beyond excited to start school. I am sure I will change my mind come August, but I am more happy for him than sad for him to go to school. I may be wrong, but I think he is beyond ready to start school and will love it. Now the first day of school I may bawl my eyes out and I'm sure he will too, but for now, happy thoughts.

In other news, our air conditioner is out. BLAH! It has been out for a few days, and I am miserable. We will be having it looked at hopefully this weekend, and I am hoping that it is the freon and not something that is thousands of dollars. Nothing like having to fix something for somewherIe you will only be living at for the next 2-3 weeks. I believe Wednesday night, even at 9 pm, my house was still around 85 degrees. Kill me. I am starting to like summer and what not, but when the inside is hotter than outside, I'm out.

My house is in that drive-me-nuts stage of packing and moving; there are boxes piled to the ceiling (not really) in Bryn's room and now my living room has boxes piled everywhere. I am pretty much done(ish) with packing until the day of, which is good, because I have been really good about keeping everything orgranized in its' own room. This is unlike me; in fact, this is the only organized move I have ever had and we have moved 7 different times. My packing usually starts out with good intentions and then ends up with like my shoes in the same box as the eggs are or the toothpaste in the cleaning products box. It's usually a bad deal. I, however, try to make light of a moving situation by marking humorous notes on my boxes, such as, "Breakable shit," "Break my stuff, I'll break your ass" "Bathroom Shit" "Derek's Crappy Junk", you know, friendly stuff ;)

Oh and I'm an old lady now. Yes, at 25 years old, I'm old. Within the past week I have crossed over from being young and hip(ish) to straight up OLD. I bought a riding lawn mower (for which I paid $300 and it is literally THE most ghetto lawn mower that has ever mowed) and have actually LIKED doing yard work this week. I believe in one of the past blogs I wrote about how I would rather be beat up than mow; I have changed. Wow. I also bought my first Crossword puzzle book and package of mechanical pencils. Next thing you know I will be buying the "Golden Girls" on DVD or something or crocheting.

Derek will be home tonight and we are all so excited. Cash is the most excited one because opening day of Baseball starts tomorrow and he can't wait for Derek to watch him in the parade and be there for his game. Derek is excited about coming home but I think he's most excited about getting BBQ Nachos tomorrow afternoon. I usually go buy groceries before he comes home so I can cook a home cooked meal for him, but I have been texting him pictures of my nachos when I get them and he is pumped.

I am still on the hunt for a living room furniture set. Preferably leather and preferably something that isn't $10,00000000.

Oh, and is anyone else furious that their Cable One internet bill went up like $12!?!? I am. I will probably be shutting off our internet on Monday and will just get AT&T at the new house when we move, but I am NOT paying $64 for internet; not when we have paid $52 for the past 3 years. It's ridiculous. Any advice on internet providers around Fritch?

Easter Sunday.

Ahh Sunday evening; one of my favorite times of the week. My kids are all in bed, my house is somewhat clean, and some of my favorite shows are coming on. I hope everyone had a great long Easter weekend -- I know I did. Derek surprised us Thursday night by coming home and got to spend all weekend home. The kids love him being home and had a blast with him. Cash told him about 50 times that he loves him more than he loves me (HAHA) only Cash.

Even though my weekend was good, it sure didn't start that way. Thursday afternoon when I was coming home from our weekly Dumas trip, our banker Kenny called me, telling me they weren't going to be able to loan on that house! WTF?! Here I am packed and ready to go, and now we can't!?!?! My AWESOME realtor Konni (for which he had called her before he even called me) was already 2 steps ahead of me by the time I talked to her -- she had already called some lenders that would possibly be willing to work with us. I was so scared and upset that we weren't going to be able to get the house and all of our dreams would be dismissed. Anyways, by Friday at noon, I had already talked to the new lender David and he said as of right now everything is good to go. Of course, since it is with a different lender, and we are basically starting over, our new closing date gets pushed back AGAIN. Oh well, it is fine with me as long as we get that house. I will know more tomorrow, but David said on Friday that we are looking at the week of May 7th; technically not that long, but I am ready to move in NOW.

So the Easter Bunny brought the kids their goodies last night/this morning and they were so excited. Times like this (Easter Bunny, Santa Clause, Tooth Fairy...) are the things that I looked forward to the most before I had kids. I LOVE going all out for the kids. We planted the jelly beans last night and when they woke up, to their surprise, 2 chocolate bunnies on sticks happened to grow! They were so excited when they got to open up their goody baskets and see what all was in there.

Easter Dinner. Yummy. Delicious. Diet Ruiner. My meal turned out great! I was so proud of it. Of course, when I cook a dinner like this, I am like my mom: cook WAY too much food. So, I ate too much today, but tomorrow's another day, and I will start back on the diet. Blah. Hopefully the weather will be nice this week and we will be able to go to the park and let the kids play and I could get in some exercise. Which brings me to my next point: the MS Walk is next Saturday and I am so excited. I reached my goal of raising $225! Being apart of that makes my heart smile.

Everyone has their 'choice drink' and I believe I have found mine: lime twisted Gin. I'm in love. I tried a taste of it last weekend at a friends house and I thought it was pretty good, so I bought some yesterday and mixed it with some sugar free cherry limeade kool-aid and it was sooooooo good!!!! I can't wait to get moved into our new house and make my gin limeades and sit out on my patio and listen to the summer nights. Okay, that sounded pretty Hallmark card like, but that just shows how excited I am!

Ahh rainy day.

I have this love/hate relationship with rainy days. Of course I love the rain and the cooler weather, but at the same time, for me, a rainy day is hell on a diet. My ideal rainy day consists of chilli, fritos, some sort of cake, a clean house, and movies galore. The reality of my day consisted of 5 loads of laundry, cleaning my kitchen and living room, packing a couple of boxes, ate a turkey hot dog, and watched cartoons. I know that for my kids, rainy days only cause 'cabin fever'; here it is almost 6 and they are wired and bored and there's not a thing I can do, except count the time down until bedtime. Again with the love/hate feeling, I know that we so need the rain, but all I can see is a future in yard work SOON; for which I despise doing.

I have been calling around trying to find a dumpster/trash receptacle (that's right -- breaking out the big words) for our new house and it is honestly ridiculous. A BFI dumpster costs $73 a month!!! INSANE. I called Amarillo Collections, and for 2 trash cans, it will be like $32 a month, so I guess that is what we will end up doing. I am also trying to find a cheaper internet provider. We have Cable One and pay about $55 a month (it's wireless), and if I can find a cheaper provider, even if I have to get a router to make it wireless that would be GREAT. Any suggestions would be great.

I plan on pulling another Pinterest experiment(?) The night before Easter Sunday, by letting the kids plant some jellybeans out in the front yard and in the morning when we get up, a couple of lollipops will have grown. I know they will think that is too cool. I have already told Cash we have to get some magical jelly beans to plant, and he is excited. I am also thinking of starting a new tradition with the Easter Bunny, like having him leave their presents on the front porch or something.... I don't know yet though.... I would hate to set their stuff out the night before and they get stole or some dog or cat come up and demolish them (LOL).

Another question or suggestion I need answered is a good carpet cleaning service. Before we move all our stuff into our house, I would like to get the carpets cleaned. At first I had wanted to get new carpet/flooring put in, but because we have little kids, that idea has been vetoed, so I just want to have the carpets cleaned. I have this weird phobia thing that I think unknown carpet grosses me out. So, if anyone can recommend a good carpet cleaning service that is not going to charge me an arm and a leg, that would be great. Thanks in advance.

Minus today because it is too cold, I am going to try and go walk a couple of miles everyday at the park. Note: the key word in that statement was TRY. I would love to be in some kind of shape, seeing how I am never going to have to worry about getting pregnant again, I want to have a good body and feel good about myself, so that is the plan. One good thing about going to the Fritch park is it is secluded so you really don't have to worry about getting run over or something happening to the kids. I make my kids a deal: we walk one whole lap around the park and then I let them play for 20 minutes or so, then walk again and so on. Yesterday we ended up walking 2 miles; which isn't much, but considering I never exercise- it's a start. I take my double stroller and Crue and Bryn ride, while Cash walks with my, and once Cash got tired, I let him set with Bryn. That was a workout just pushing the stroller with three kids in it; I figured the total weight I was pushing was around 90 pounds! I'm pretty much a badass.

I have to run to Amarillo to go to Sams to get some baby wipes and I just MAY have to sneak over to the Ruffled Cup to get a treat or 12. I got to have my sweets. I can go days without bread and stuff like that, but my sweets are the reason I breathe.

In closing for now, who put the bop in the bopshoowopshoowop, who put the ram in the ramalamadingdong?

Pinterest.

Pinterest. Pinterest. Pinterest. My addiction that, just like my children, I don't know how life was like before I started 'pinning'. Six out of seven days a week I either make something from a board I have pinned or make something that I have pinned. It's a serious condition. In fact, as of right now, I have my whole Easter Sunday dinner directly planned straight from Pinterest. Sad I know. However, due to my pinterest-ism, it has brought out this whole new crafty side of me, which even though I have always kind of made fun of crafty people, I am actually welcoming it with open arms. I am so excited to get moved into our new home, because I am going to set me up a craft corner in my bedroom (OMG I cannot believe 'craft corner' just came out of my mouth).

Saturday I tried my first Sangria recipe. Honestly, I do not know why I made it because I HATE wine and wine accessories. I was so excited to make it though; I wrote down my ingredients (from off of one of my Pinterest boards), however, once I got to United, I realized that I would have to buy real fresh fruit for this. Me. Pick out fresh fruit. Hmm. Puzzling. I am a girl that does not eat fruit unless it is in a pie, cobbler, or chocolate covered. I found a very helpful produce man and he helped me out tremendously. Everyone knows how expensive fruit is; $21000 later, I was ready to make Sangria. The funny thing about this is that the fruit cost a whole lot more than the $4 bottle of wine (all of which will get poured out tomorrow). I threw everything together, let it set for a couple of hours and tasted it; it was ho-hum. Not good. Okay, it was yucky. I can't get over the 'wine' aspect of it. I'm not a classy wine drinker, I like margaritas and daquiris in foam cups.

Grocery shopping with 3 kids under 5 is extremely exhausting. I guess all the excitement of buying all the expensive fruit to pair with my cheap wine had me distracted at the check-out and I did not realize until all the kids were in their seats, buckled up, that I had forgot my cell phone in the store. Shit. I was already wore out from the whole day, the shopping experience, and the fact that it was like 95 outside, I could have said, 'screw it, cell phones are overrated'. Buuuut I didn't; I unbuckled kids, carried the heavy infant seat in, and thankfully the lady instantly took my phone up to customer service, so no one stole it, but the whole ordeal took like 5 minutes.

This blog is going to run pretty short -- mostly because I have to pee and once I get up, I don't plan on sitting back down just to type. I am thinking about allowing my blog to be open to the public.

Saturday.

It's been a few days since I have written. Sick kids and a sick momma will put a kink in your blogging world. My kids were just starting to slide into home and woooom I woke up with the stomach bug Thursday morning. Nice. Nothing like feeling like you would like to crawl under a rock and die and still having to take care of 3 kids. We made it through the 24 hour bug and in fact, I welcomed the stomach to me, and just kind of called it a weight loss bonus (LOL). Anyways, we are all good to go this morning (knock on wood) and plan on getting out of the house today. I did not win the lotto last night, which sucks considering I was already planning on it and had magazine pages dog eared on all the good crap I was going to buy. Not really; that would make for a sad, sad life. As I am drinking my first Herbalife shake since Wednesday morning, it is going down rather hard, but I'm going to do it.

Can anyone guess how many boxes I got packed this week? If you guessed zero, you would be right! I have already packed a bunch up and it is to that point that almost the rest of the house has to be packed the day of moving day. I know I have said it before, but I am so friggin excited about getting a new house!!! For the first time in many years, I will have a porch and for the first time EVER, we will have a FENCED yard for the kids!!! The fenced yard was a must considering our Middleton Crue (what we call Crue since he's the middle kid.. not Kate) runs away. Yes, he's a runner; not long ago we were packing and Cash and I were playing a joke on Crue and he got mad at us and left... I watched out the door where he was going and he went across the street to the Lucero's, knocked on the door and hollered, "Robin, help me!" hahahaha I was literally LMFAO as he was doing this. No one was home, but he was convinced he was NOT coming home; we took the trash to the dumpster and Crue had made himself at home, just sitting on their porch. It took some bribing, but we got him to come home. Needless to say, this is why our Middleton has to be in a fenced perimeter.

My crazy girl Bryn is rolling all over the place now. We have surpassed that point where she can just lay on the couch and be a 'good baby'; now she has to lay in the floor because as soon as I lay her down she just gets to rolling! By the way she is wiggling around once she gets on her belly, I am guessing crawling is going to be sooner rather than later. She is still 4 months old; well she will be 5 months old next Friday, but still, to me she is still a tee tiny baby.

I am going to talk about one member of the family I have yet to talk about: Charlie Dog Hayes. He is half chihuahua half boston terrier; looks more like Derek. He is almost 5 years old and he is our oldest kid. Derek surprised me with him when I was pregnant with Cash. I remember that day so well because Derek had called on his way home from work saying he had gotten me a surprise. Well, knowing Derek, I knew that it had to be a dog, so when he pulled up to the house and got out holding this tiny puppy I got kind of excited for just a second until I realized the puppy was a BOY. I immediately started bawling, saying, "He's a boy!" I was so upset that Derek had got me a male dog. I don't know why; must have been the large quantities of pregnancy hormones, or that fact that I never wanted a male dog. Anyways, 5 years later and Charlie is still around, fatter than ever, and literally the BEST dog a family could have for kids. The first morning after we had brought Cash home from the hospital, Char jumped up on the couch, dropped a ball at Cash's feet, ready to play. He sleeps with the boys every night. He's a good dog, and even though I always say he annoys me, I will be sad and cry worse than the day I got him whenever he dies. I can't wait until the day I walk into Bryn's room and she has Char all dressed up in doll clothes and has her bows on him.

If I wasn't in kind of a time crunch, I would totally write a story this morning. I am in a total story writing mood, but the washing machine just finished and the shower is calling my name. However, I am not going to promise anything, but I may sit down tonight and write a story. All my stories are fiction and have no relation to my life, I just LOVE writing stories. I have folders and folders of stories that I wrote from whenever I was a kid.

Tuesday Schmoosday

Yesterday Cash had his first t-ball practice. Wow. For me it leaves me with this bittersweet feeling; I am so happy for him to be old enough to make friends and 'have a life' outside of this house, but in the same I am completely saddened that he is old enough for any of this--why do kids grow up so fast?! Seems like it was yesterday that he was a little baby and it was just me and him during the day.... Now it is him, Crue, Bryn, and me! Anyways.... he absolutely LOVED t-ball!! Knowing how Cash is, I figured he would totally back out and not go through with it, but he totally surprised me by loving it and keeps asking when he gets to go back!!! Yay!!! As I sat in my skinny van yesterday watching him play and 'be a kid', I found myself smiling like an idiot. I am sure if people that were driving by saw me they were probably thinking I was a creeper or something haha.

Today I signed up to participate in the MS Walk in Amarillo in a couple of weeks. I am so excited to take my kids and be a part of that. My goal is to raise $225 in donations so I am hoping I can reach my goal by then! By signing up and taking my kids along with me, I hope to start a tradition of teaching them to help out organizations and just to generally become better citizens.

In other exciting, yet pointless news the new 16 & Pregnant starts tonight and I am so excited!!! Am I a total loser for looking forward to new shows coming on? Yes. Another one of my favorite shows started last night -- Secret Life of An American Teenager. I was so excited for it to come on and I put all the kids in bed, set down and turned it on and it SUCKED! Hopefully it gets better or I may have to stop watching it.

What else to talk about?? I ordered myself some stuff (which I NEVER do; I never buy anything for myself), which included a new purse and the Pioneer Woman's cookbooks, and I am sooo excited to start reading them! I absolutely love her!

My diet is going really good. I have been able to put up my new jeans I bought last month due to them being too big already! Go me! Don't get me wrong, there are so many times, like today, that I could make me some eggless cookie dough, prop my ass on the couch, turn on a movie, and veg out... BUT instead, I ate a couple fish sticks for lunch with a side of some zucchini patty cake things and will have my other shake for supper tonight. As nice as it is outside I may decide to go walking this evening too.. (MAY being the key word ;)).

As I look out the window I see my weeds (no grass... the weeds have overtaken the grass) growing as I watch.. Yard work is one of the most hated things that I have to do. I would rather eat doo doo than do yard work. That is hatred. I could always hire it done, but then I would not have anything to bitch about, so where would the fun be in it? Maybe I will not mind yard work once we get moved into our new house, considering we will have an actual fenced yard where the kids can play and we can sit outside and hang out. Which brings me to my next point - - as of right now we are scheduled to close on our new house on April 27... so a month from TODAY! WOOT!!! However, I know exactly what April 27 could mean -- it could mean that day or 12121 weeks from then. Either way.. I am beyond excited to move to a different house and start our life there.