Used to Be

I used to be obsessed with fixing Jace's hair. You never saw her "out" with her hair just down.

This summer, I lost all desire to worry over her hair. It was kind of a nice break.

I'm tired of it though and it's time to get back on the wagon. The problem is she'd rather not join me!

All that time off got her out of the habbit of daily tangle sessions and sitting still. Hummm.....

What's a Mom to do?

I've been perusing hair blogs and have decided to borrow an idea.

A Hair Book!

I've tried to get Jacey excited about "her hair book" by explaining just how fun and exciting it will be!

We started today. I thought it was going to be great.... until she told me,
"Just ONE pony Mom, right here, no flippies Mom."

I think we're gonna have to take it slow.

One of Those Days...

Today was one of those super-busy-jam-packed-what-was-I-thinking-should've-spaced-it-out-over-a-week kinda days. Usually these days leave me feeling totally overwhelmed and exhausted at the end of the day. Today however I am left with a feeling of really being satisfied with what I do.

Just yesterday I was feeling the desire to go find a part time job. I guess I have just gotten so used to helping provide financially for our family that without doing so feel guilty. Maybe I'm just bored. Who knows really, but long story short, today I am perfectly content with choosing to be a stay at home Mom. In many ways it's harder than being a working Mom. Working Mom's lives are always busy, always schedualed, and very predictable. Stay at home Mom's face added difficulties.

We have to be able to be content with being home all week, nothing to do but maybe make a run to the grocery store. We have the challenge of entertaining our bored children, who feel it's the job when bored to annoy the heck out of us. We then have to be able to shift into super-mom mode when need be. It's quite a challenge when you're not used to the ups and downs.

Yesterday I:
Did the dishes
did some laundry
cooked
made desert
watched too much TV

Today I:
Got up early
fixed Jacey's hair
Made sure the boys were dressed
Took Gavin to his new school to enroll him
Came home and filled out too much paperwork
Took Gavin and Logan back to turn in said paperwork
Got lost on the way to Logan's school
picked up his enrollment paperwork
Came home and filled it out
Took Logan to his first appointment with the endocrinologist
Took Logan for xrays
tried to get a copy of his shot records
came home and finnished enrollment papers
visited with friends
made dinner for us and friends
went to the grocery store
made home made caramel corn
got Logan, Gavin, and Dustin's hair cut
Did more visiting with friends
cleaned up bloody kids
packed Gav for an over-the-night
Snuggled my baby to sleep

You see how days can change so dramaticly?

If I was rude... I'd take a picture

Right now there are about ten maitenence men wearing button down shirts and kahki pants, in my front yard, gagging, and knee deep in.... feces.

They've carried away a few garbage cans full of the lovely stuff.

I, am sitting right infront of an open window. Although the stinch is hardly bearable- the comments coming out of them is well worth any stinch.

I laughed out loud as they emptied the box of gloves, and I'm pretty sure they know I'm eaves dropping now.

Like I said.... if I was rude enough- there'd be a picture here.

Choices...

I need to make a big one here... and I'm not sure how to proceed.

You see we've had a visitor at our house for a couple weeks now.

With the arrival of this visitor, our old much more annoying and messy last visitor has disappeared. (not a fan of racoons)

I do like this new visitor, and would love for her to stay.... one one hand.

She is very loveable and friendly.

On the other to do so would be irresponsible, since I have no desire to take full responsibility for her.



We already have a cat! I realize the benefit to raising children with animals. That's why we have a cat. Daphne is an inside cat only. She hasn't been fixed yet and I do NOT want kittens- she's never ever been outside, and will be spayed soon.

Boots.... I couldn't stop the kids from naming her, is an awesome cat. She can't be more than 9 months old, and I'm fairly certain she hasn't been spayed. By the permanant residence she's established in our yard I'm assuming her owner's moved and left her. (not that I blame them... PCS'ing with our cat was a nightmare)

I really don't think I want the added financial responsibility either. I am a good pet owner and our cat is vaccinated and all that. We spent almost $200. to board her while we moved here and waited for housing- because- I think it is wrong to teach children that animals are expendable and can be replaced.

I like having this cat outdoors though. Like I said, since she's shown up the racoons have stopped destroying our yard on a nightly basis. I've let the kids have their way with her and she still runs right to them willingly. I thought that by not feeding her she'd move on; instead she licks up little crumbs the kids drop. It's sad. I can tell she's gotten thinner.

Jacey however believes this cat is pregnant, wich I guess is all together possible. This evening while Jace and I were laying on the hammock, boots at our side I asked her why she liked boots.

"Cause she loves me Mommy". How do you argue with that? This cat does love her- stupid cat!

Layz Weekend

Sometimes I love a lazy weekend. It gives me a chance to clean the whole house, and work on some projects that have been neglected.

This weekend my project was to sleep, and I think I did plenty of that! I got more sleep this weekend than I did in the last three weeks.

My only problem is that sleeping and being lazy does nothing to nurture my creative side. My photography class begins tomorrow and I have no new pictures to bring with me. I'll have to work on that today.

I'm really considering going back to school to actually finnish my degree. There is funding for school that I can qualify for, if it's working toward a "specific job". I don't think any of the jobs I'm interested in qualify but I'll try and find out.

I would really like to learn enough about photography to make a career out of taking pictures. I love the whole process, the planning, the shoot, the finnishing touches on the computer, editing, and providing people with beautiful art of things they love. I also love that I can set my own schedual- what working Mom doesn't love that?

I just have to decide that I am motivated enough to persue a four year degree. I know there are photographers out there who have no formal training. What they lack in education they make up for with sheer talent and a lot of experience. I just don't think I am one of those people!

Keep your fingers crossed- classes begin in one month!