My DVR Dilemma

Anybody who knows me really well, meaning they have lived with me such as my family or college roommates, knows that I have the ability to be addicted to TV. I don't want to say I am addicted to TV, because I can stop if I want to, but it's a horrible sight to watch. When I watch TV, you cannot talk to me. It doesn't matter what the show, I get completely engrossed. It could be Grey's Anatomy, Wizards of Waverly Place or Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (okay, maybe there I can multi-task), but if I am watching you are wasting your time trying to talk to me. Here's a conversation two of my roommates had in college (the wording may not be exactly the same, but you get the idea):

Shelly: I don't think Mary likes me.

Renee: Why?

Shelly: I was talking to her and she just ignored me. She wouldn't even answer.

Renee: Wait, was she watching TV? You know you can't talk to Mary when she's watching TV.

Obviously Shelly and I were not that good of friends, or else should would have known that. Renee knew and still mocks me to this day. It was pretty bad. If I was having a normal conversation with someone and someone else walked up and turned the TV on in the middle of a show I didn't even watch, I would slowly stop talking to the first person and get completely wrapped up in the storyline. The conversation was over and I was toast.

Over the years I'd like to say I've gotten a little better, but not that much. Luckily someone invented the DVR. Now I can pause my TV show, talk to whoever, and then pick up the show in the exact same place. I don't have to miss a single minute. This device has saved us from many arguments in my household. At least I know my weakness and am able and willing to hit pause.

Believe it or not, for at least the last six weeks I haven't been watching that much TV. How do I know it's been six weeks? Because I have at least six weeks of Gray's Anatomy, Glee, Private Practice and a few other shows on my DVR. I can occasionally fit in a 30-minute show here and there, so I have kept up with How I Met Your Mother and the wonderful Big Bang Theory, but the hour-long shows have gone unwatched. Which has caused my latest problem. My DVR is full. 100%. I have no more room to save anymore shows.

Last week I had to cancel a few shows that I hadn't seen yet. It almost killed me. It was a huge decision to decide which ones to keep and which ones to delete. Good-bye my friends. My only saving grace is that most of the season finales have just happened and they will show repeats all summer long. I will get a chance to see those shows I deleted after all, I just have a wait a month or two.

I'm not sure exactly what has happened. Why I've stopped watching so much TV. Oh, yes I do. You can chalk that up to having kiddo number 3. One more reason on Charlie's list of why we shouldn't have that third child. We will never find time to watch TV. Not that we couldn't. It's just that now when we finally get the kids to sleep there are other things we want to or need to do more. Most of them involve using the computer, which is why we are about to buy a second one so we don't have to fight over the one we have. TV has gone by the wayside. We just don't watch it that much. But I can't let go. I LOVE TV.

Luckily, as I said, all the seasons are just about over. Which means I have the whole summer to watch what is on my DVR and don't have any more pressure to clear off space for another new episode coming this week. We can take our time, watch our shows, and then gear up for the fall. Now all we have to do is not talk to anybody else who watches those shows or read anything in People or Entertainment Weekly, so our season finales don't get spoiled.

Kid Quote of the Day

"Girls are cootie machines. The only way to give them the Cheese Touch (if you've never heard of this then you need to read Diary of a Wimpy Kid) is with the force (you know, from Star Wars)."

-Andy, explaining how you would give the Cheese Touch to a girl without actually touching her.

Here Comes Trouble

I was going to write about how I'm not that excited about Amanda learning to crawl, but I realized I already did that one. She's not full speed yet, but she can get where she wants to go and that's all that really matters. So, I'll just leave this here for your viewing pleasure.

Proud Mama

Back in September, Andy's school started a reading challenge for the kids called "Read For The Gold". They tied it in with the Winter Olympics, which at this point in time seem like a million years ago, and had ten different stages that was each a different Olympic event. Each grade had a different level of qualification, but for the first grade it was read 125 pages and advance to the next stage. So, to finish the entire thing the average first grader needed to read 1,250 pages between September and May. They were all supposed to read 20 minutes a night anyway, so that should be easy enough.

The whole way they do it is kind of strange, though. By pages. So, one kid could read books that average 10 words per page, we're talking about first grade here, while another could read books that average 100 words per page. Either way, it counts as one page. Although there were some books that Andy read that didn't have quite as many words per page as others, most of his books were chapter books that were pretty long. Not that I'm complaining or saying that my kid got the shaft, just making an observation about how quirky it is. I have no idea of a better way to do it.

Andy didn't really care how many pages he read or how many words were on each page. He just loves to read. Once he made it to the end and got his 1,250 pages he could care less about reporting his further progress. His mother, on the other hand, wanted to get credit for all of it. It brought out the little competitive streak that I never get to exhibit anymore. Each time the kids finished ten stages, they would start back at the beginning and a star would be added to their torch (the torch was what moved along the chart so you could see where everybody stood). In the end, Andy had five stars on his torch. That means he read over 6,250 pages this year (and those were only the pages I was recording, he read tons at school and never recorded them himself). He wasn't the top reader in the first grade, but I don't care and he didn't either. He was just happy to get his medal and certificate.

At this point I'd love to say that his laziness and mediocrity are beginning to show because he didn't care to be first. However, I can't. I'm glad he read past that 1,250 requirement not because he felt he had to, but because he wanted to. I'm also happy that he wasn't upset that he didn't come in first because he wanted to be the best. He may be a good loser yet. There were plenty of kids in the first grade that didn't make it to the end of stage ten. I don't know if it's because they didn't care or their parent's didn't care or just because they were too lazy to turn in their sheets. I'm just proud that my kid did and that smile on his face says it all.

Kid Quote of the Day

On our way home from picking Andy up from school:

Sarah: Mommy, can you hand me my microphone?

Me: I think you took it into the house.

Sarah: But Andy has his microphone.

Me: That's because he didn't take it into the house.

Sarah: PHOTOSYNTHESIS...

Unhappy with my answer she started singing as loud as she could (we were listening to They Might Be Giants Here Comes Science), so that she would drown out the sound of Andy on his microphone.

Kid Quote of the Day

Me: Sarah, go get your pajamas. I put them at the end of the bed.

Sarah: Mommy, why did you put them on the table?

Me: I didn't, maybe the cleaning lady moved them.

Sarah: The cleaning lady came all the way here?

Me: Not our cleaning lady. The hotel has their own cleaning lady.

No Sleep For The Stupid

The one parenting rule that Charlie and I have agreed upon and stuck firmly to ever since our first child was born was no kids in our bed. Occasionally, when Andy was little and sick we would let him sleep with us, or if we were on a family vacation, but we would nip that in the bud pretty quickly. We knew way too many people who had let their kids in and they never left. We did not want to be those people. Don't worry, there are plenty of other parenting rules we have blown completely out of the water.

Sometimes, when Charlie is out of town I will let one of the kids, usually Andy because he almost always asks, sleep with me if they have a bad dream or aren't feeling well. Most of time time when they ask I say no, but in those special circumstances when I think it will make them feel better and prevent me from having to get up numerous times to check on them in the middle of the night I will make an exception to our rule. Last night was one of those cases.

It started yesterday morning when Sarah decided on her own she was going to take a morning nap. I should have known right then something was wrong. Sarah never naps and hasn't since she was about two and a half. Not only that, she had put a coat on because she was cold and our air conditioner hasn't been working well so she was sleeping in her hot room with a coat and blankets. After she woke up I felt her head and it was warm, very warm. I took her temperature and it was over 100 degrees. Bummer. Amanda had had a temperature over 100 degrees the day before but seemed okay now, so I gave Sarah some Motrin and decided we'd just watch it throughout the day. However, when she told me her ears hurt I knew we needed to go to the doctor. I don't mess with ear infections, because Andy had them monthly when he was little and I still think he has some hearing loss as a result, and if my kids say their ears hurt we go.

I made appointments for both the girls since neither one of them seemed to feel really well. That was the third trip to the doctor we'd taken in less than two weeks. Another $40 down the drain. After the nurse practitioner looked at Sarah's ears, nose and throat she determined it wasn't an ear infection. It was hand, foot and mouth disease. Basically, it's a horrible sore throat that is covered with little sores kind of like cold sores. Based on what several people have told me, it is probably worse than strep throat. Both girls had it. Oh joy! Even better, since it's a virus there is nothing we can give them and we just have to wait it out. She said their throats would be sore for about eight more days. Unbelievable!

The evening started out with Sarah in her bed. However, she woke around 8:30p and wanted me to lie with her. I compromised and told her she could sleep in my bed if she promised not to cry until I got there. Charlie was out of town for the evening so it wasn't a big deal to let her sleep with me and I knew she would sleep much better if I was next to her. She agreed and happily went to sleep in Charlie's spot. My first mistake.

When it was time to put Andy to bed, I knew he wouldn't want to go to sleep in his bed without Sarah in the room (as I've said before, they share a room and don't really like to sleep without each other). So, I offered another compromise and told him he could sleep on the futon in our room. We generally only let them sleep there if we have company that needs to use their room or if they keep waking up at night, but I was trying to prevent a problem so I got him all set up and tucked him in. My second mistake.

My third mistake was that I went to bed way too late. I have a bad habit of doing that when Charlie is out of town. Mostly because I get my second wind after the kids go to sleep and really enjoy the time to myself, but also because when Charlie is home he badgers me to go to bed. Of course he only does this because he loves me so I don't get too upset. I didn't get in bed until after midnight and when I did I sort of woke up Sarah. She would have gone back to bed, but she felt really hot so I took her to the bathroom and gave her some more Motrin before getting into bed for good. Sounds reasonable, but it really just woke her up more. She'd already been sleeping for six hours, so why would she want to go back to sleep? It wasn't too bad until my fourth and final mistake of the evening.

About an hour later, Andy got into bed with us. I was too tired to fight with him and didn't even ask what his problem was, I just rolled over to make room. Sarah was a hot box, her fever hadn't broken yet, and Andy kept rolling over to get close to me. Sarah started whining because she was still sort of awake and couldn't get back to sleep, I had no room, and it was hot. All I could think of was the little amount of sleep I was going to get and how uncomfortable it was to sleep between two little kids, even if we were in a king sized bed.

In the end, I survived. Luckily I have had lots of training in little to no sleep thanks to Amanda and she hasn't been sleeping through the night long enough for me to get out of the habit. I do remember, however, why we are so strict about our no kids in our bed rule, and don't think I will be making anymore exception any time soon.

Kid Quote of the Day

"Sarah, do you want to sit with Mommy The Fun or Daddy The Boring?"

-Andy, trying to convince Sarah she should sit with me on the plane so Andy could sit with Charlie.

Kid Quote of the Day

Sarah: Mommy, next time can I get the Tinkerbell autograph book and fill it with pictures?

Me: Maybe next time you can bring your own money and buy it.

Sarah: Are you even allowed to bring money on vacation?

The Happiest Place on Earth

Once again I'm sorry it has been awhile since I've written, but last week we were out of town. I was going to post that we were going out of town, but my dad warned me about giving the people on the internet too much information and was worried that we might get robbed or something. So, to humor him I kept it quiet. If he really knew the truth, that Melanie is the only person locally who reads my blog and she is too busy tearing up her own home to do anything to mine, and all my long-distance friends would pay more in airfare than they would get from selling off our stuff, he really wouldn't have to worry. However, you can never be too safe.

So, back to my story. Charlie had a conference in Orlando, and it was my birthday, so he asked if I would like to come along and bring the kids. Bring the kids to Orlando, meaning Disney World, one of my absolute favorite places? Um, yeah! We left on Wednesday and almost as soon as we got to the hotel Charlie had to go off to meetings and a dinner and anything else he could find to get away from us. Aww, I'm joking here, but it was pretty much all me with the kids for the first 48 hours.

The kids and I went to the grocery store, their favorite place in the world (yes, I am being sarcastic here), to get snacks and baby food for Amanda, and then had a delicious and healthy dinner at Denny's. Afterwards we went swimming in the fabulous pool at the JW Marriott which has a lazy river and a zero grade entry area. Perfect for little kids. I was hoping to get the kids to bed early so they wouldn't be tired for our first day at Disney, but of course they didn't go to bed until around 10p.

Thursday was my birthday. I thought, what better place to be on your birthday than the happiest place on Earth? Right. Well, I still stand by that thought, but maybe not when you are dragging three kids along with you. I confirmed that day what I have always believed, I never, ever, EVER want to be a single parent. It's not that it's not doable, because it is, it just sucks. It's really hard to do it all yourself and not have anybody to help you. Multiply that by 365 and throw in school and activities and everything else, no way. I applaud anybody who can do it.

Anyway, by the time we left the hotel, had a wonderful and healthy (that really is the theme here, isn't it?) breakfast at McDonald's, got to the Magic Kingdom, parked and took the tram to the Transportation Center, it was 11a. Unfortunately there were issues with the monorail so we didn't get into the Magic Kingdom until around noon. Not the best way to start the day, but we had been there before and we weren't going to rush and I wasn't going to let anything spoil my day. I got a Happy Birthday button for my shirt and every single cast member I passed or talked to told me happy birthday. It was pretty cool and in a crazy way actually made me feel special on my birthday in a way I hadn't felt since I was a little kid. All the messages from facebook coming in my email all day helped too.

We've been to Disney many times with Andy. For people who don't live in Florida it's almost an embarrassing number of times. Sarah has been a few times as well, but she doesn't really remember going. So this trip I talked to Andy and told him I wanted to do more things for Sarah since it was kind of like her first time. He was actually pretty cool about it, and didn't complain very much about what we did. Instead of going straight for the rides, we went to story time with Belle, from Beauty and the Beast, watched a dance party/parade in front of the castle, watched a princess/Mickey dream show at the castle, and waited in line to see Mickey and Minnie, Cinderella, Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) and Belle, and Tinker Bell and Iradessa (one of the fairies from Pixie Hollow). Finally around 5p we went on some rides.

The kids were pretty good and we had a great time. I did have to threaten to go back to the hotel a couple of times, but overall we survived. The hardest part was going to the bathroom. Each time we went I had to have Andy hold Amanda while I went to the bathroom. He did it, but not without complaining how heavy she was and groaning that he was going to drop her (and then almost doing it). I tried hard not to mention that I was carrying her most of the day and he could do it for a minute or two. The kid just loves to complain.

The kids were bummed that we didn't stay for the fireworks, but I knew if we did we would never get home before midnight and the next morning we were scheduled for a princess breakfast at Epcot, which was cool but not really worth the price. Charlie and some of our friends joined us Friday afternoon and for the weekend and we all had a great time, despite the heat and the lines and the heat (did I mention the heat?).

Charlie doesn't love Disney as much as I do. I would hate to say that he's not a fan, because that's sacrilege, but I know the reason he goes is because he loves me and wants to make me happy. Some times it's very frustrating because the kids just don't really appreciate it. Of course they don't really appreciate anything at this age, except when you take them to Sonic or something that costs like $8. For example, once we flew out to California and took Andy to Disneyland. The next morning, on our way to Knotts Berry Farm for more theme park enjoyment, we went to McDonald's for breakfast. He thanked us profusely for the $10 breakfast. We decided we could have skipped Disneyland and Knotts Berry Farm and just taken him to the McDonald's down the street from our house and saved several hundred dollars. I digress. It can be frustrating, but it's also fun to be able to do this for our kids. Someday, when they are parents, hopefully they will look back on these trips with fond memories and realize what we did for them and with them. It's unfortunate that we will have to wait that long before they truly gain that appreciation and understanding, but that's okay. For now I'll just try to enjoy the ride.

Fifteen Seconds With Fame

Andy and I have been reading the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. There are five total and we are on the fourth book. They are fabulous books. I have been reading them to him before bed. Not that he can't read them himself, because he is an excellent reader, but the vocabulary is pretty big and he really enjoys when I read to him. I think it lets him concentrate on building a picture in his mind instead of focusing on the words.

About two weeks ago my friend told me that the author, Rick Riordan, was coming to our local Barnes and Noble to do a book signing. I was so excited to take Andy, because he loves the books and recently wrote something in his homework about Riordan being his favorite author. We had to get wrist bands on Monday morning for the Thursday signing, and I had an appointment with the kids so had to have a friend get them for me. Then Andy had a baseball game at the same time the signing started. I cheered extra hard at the game so one team would mercy the other and we could get out of there and to the signing faster. Amazingly it worked.

By the time we got to the book store they were already through the wrist bands and working the line of people who weren't able to get wrist bands. Unfortunately our unused wrist bands didn't get us any clout and we had to wait at the end of the line. We waited for about 30-40 minutes. I also brought one of Andy's friends and they were great. They waited very patiently and didn't whine or complain at all.

When we finally got to the front of the line and it was our turn, the encounter lasted all of 15 seconds. He signed our books, asked Andy if he had had a baseball game (he was still in his uniform) and then we were on our way. I had warned Andy this might be the case, so he quickly got in "I have all of your books and we are on the fourth one and they are AWESOME!". Despite the quick encounter, both boys were very excited about the whole experience.

We went to another book signing three days later for a man who lives in our town and his daughter goes to Sarah's preschool. There was no line, no wait, and he talked to us for about five minutes. We could have talked to him longer except that we hadn't read the book yet and did have much more to talk about. Nonetheless, it was cool. Just an average, local guy, writing a book. April, you could do that.

Both experiences were cool in their own way. What I liked best, however, was that my seven-year-old son was even interested in going to a book signing and meeting an author. He likes book and reading so much that he wants to see the people who put the words down on paper and that he admires them. That makes it all worth it.

Kid Quote of the Day

"I would totally die of bordyism (bored-e-ism)."

-Andy, I don't remember what he was talking about, but he was trying to say he would die of boredom.

Kid Quote of the Day

"The pink one smells like strawberry."

-Sarah, smelling the roses that Charlie gave me for Mother's Day.

The Beginning Of The End

To the four people that read this blog, sorry it has been so long since I've written. It has been a very crazy, hectic week. My mother-in-law and parents came in for the weekend to celebrate Sarah's birthday, that's right people she is officially four, and I've been trying to organize Teacher Appreciation Week at Sarah's school. On top of that the kids actually want me to pay attention to them, crazy! Anyway, hopefully I can get back on track with my entries. Except of course, that it's almost summer, and then I'm never going to get time by myself to write.

Yesterday was Sarah's last day of Nature School. As I was strapping her into her car seat and saying "have a nice summer" to some of the other parents, it hit me. School is really almost over. Summer is minutes away. Most people would be happy about that. No more fighting with your kids about going to school, dragging them out of bed and forcing them to get dressed and eat breakfast before sending them out the door. I am not most people.

I love my kids more than anything, but we work better when we don't spend so much time together. The thought of spending all day every day with them in the summer scares me. My husband is gone from 8:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. most days. That's a lot of time to spend with the kids without reinforcements. Don't get me wrong, I'm keeping them pretty busy this summer. They are signed up for lots of camps. There are few weeks where we have nothing to do. It will be okay. But I like the consistency of school. The schedule. Knowing that we aren't going to spend hour after hour in front of the tv either watching or playing Wii.

On school days Andy is so easy. He wakes up on his own, usually before we do, gets himself dressed, makes himself breakfast, and then watches tv until it's time to go to school. I don't even have to drive him, Charlie does it. His only flaw is that he doesn't pack his own lunch, but in a year or two I wouldn't be surprised if he starts doing that too.

Sarah is harder. She is not a morning person. Okay, she's not an afternoon or an evening person either, she's cranky most of the time. We don't have to wake her up, but she is not happy in the mornings. It is a daily struggle to get her dressed and she never knows what she wants for breakfast. Everyday she says "what are my choices?" and everyday I give her the same choices. She never wants to go to school and always says she wants to "be with you". Nice in concept, as I've written here before, but when she says it in a whiny, clingy way it just makes me want to kick her out the door faster. Not spend the day with her.

On the weekends or a day off it's totally different. The kids are still up early, but they don't do anything. It's impossible to get Andy out of his pajamas and all he wants to do is watch tv or play Wii or play on the computer. It's very easy to never leave the house, but that gets old and claustrophobic. Even worse in the summer, it's too hot to do anything. If you go to the park after 10 a.m. the equipment is too hot to play on and the kids don't feel like running around anyway. Even the pool gets too warm by the end of July. It starts to feel like warm bath water, which doesn't feel that good when it's 100+ degrees outside.

So everything is starting to wind down. Spanish class ended a couple of weeks ago, Nature School this week, next week is the last week of swimming. Slowly but surely, it's all coming to an end. While my friends are cheering the end of the school year and are excited about spending the summer with their kids, I'm quietly moping around wondering when I'll get a little time for myself and hoping we don't all kill each other. I'm also trying to get everything done before the kids are home all the time and I can get nothing done.

Just wait, though. About six weeks into summer, maybe sooner, my friends will start looking forward to fall and the start of school and wonder why they were so excited about summer. That's the time when I just smile and say to myself, "told you so".

Kid Quote of the Day

"Do you think marriage will ruin Kevin's craziness to rock out?"

-Andy, referring to Kevin Jonas, of the Jonas Brothers, who got married in December.

Kid Quote of the Day

"I don't want Daddy to get too lazy."

-Andy, on why he doesn't want us (my parents and me) to go through the drive-thru and bring him lunch when we go have lunch with him at school tomorrow, and instead wants Charlie to make his lunch.

One Step Forward Two Steps Back

Amanda is officially mobile. But not necessarily the way you think. Instead of moving forward, she moves backward. It's pretty common for babies to do that, but still funny to watch. You can sit her in front of a bunch of toys, walk away for a bit (no honey, I never walk away from the baby and leave her by herself, I'm just saying that for explanation purposes) and when you come back she's now five feet behind her toys. Generally she can get where she wants to be, it's just slow moving. She uses a combination of rolling and sitting up and rotating around the room until she finds what she's looking for. Occasionally you'll find her stuck under some furniture or in between a few things or even in a corner, but we take care of that quickly because, you know, nobody puts baby in the corner.

Right now she's not moving too quickly, but soon she'll be crawling all over the place. How do I feel about this? Well, from a milestones perspective I'm ecstatic that she's doing what she's doing when she's supposed to be doing it. Sarah didn't crawl until well after her first birthday (I think, I'm too lazy to get up and go look it up), and then continued to miss milestones. Amanda has none of that, so I'm very happy. That's about where my happiness ends. When she starts crawling, she'll be into everything. Andy and Sarah weren't really get into everything kind of kids. Andy because he just took everything in and did everything with such purpose and thought, and Sarah because she couldn't. She was a little more like that when she got older, but you could explain things to her better then.

Amanda isn't like that. She puts anything and everything in her mouth. She is determined to get it into that pie hole. The other day she spit out a small piece of the rug that had been in her mouth. She must have had to pull really hard to get that detached from the rest of the rug. She won't give up. So having her into everything doesn't sound like a lot of fun. We could put gates everywhere, but that's no good for anybody, especially the people who have to climb over the gates all the time.

Of course another reason I don't want her crawling is that it means she's getting bigger. She doesn't need Mommy as much and soon with like Daddy better. I'm telling you, the day is coming. I never should have let him give her a bath last night, I should hog her all to myself. She's my baby, my last baby, I want her to stay that way for awhile. Now I know why my parents still introduce me to people as their baby, even as I get closer and closer to the big 4-0. It's because you never really want to let go of your baby, and you certainly don't want them crawling away.

Kid Quote of the Day

-Amanda, it sounds like she is saying "Mama", but really she is saying "MumMum", her absolute favorite rice cracker. Of course, what she's really saying is, "lady, I'd like to eat something, anything, RIGHT NOW!".

Kid's Quote of the Day

This is a conversation I have at least once a week with Sarah's friend, Helena, 4.

Helena: Miss Mary, how old is Amanda?

Me: She's eight months old.

Helena: Is she one or is she zero?

Me: Zero. She's still zero.

Cleaning for the Cleaning Lady

My wonderful, supportive, caring, loving, adoring husband (Yes, he really is all those things about 90% of the time - the other 10%? Well, nobody's perfect.) got me a cleaning lady for Mother's Day. Better yet, she's not just coming one time for Mother's Day, she's my year-round Mother's Day present. BEST. GIFT. EVER.

I have struggled with cleaning for years. It's not that I can't do it, I just don't like to. Pretty much, I hate it. I wish I was one of those people that loved to clean and whenever they got stressed or upset they grabbed a mop or a sponge, but that is so not me. I am the exact opposite. I will put off cleaning as long as humanly possible. So much so that we always joke we need to invite people over to our house more often because it makes us clean up.

I'm not a total slob. I like the house picked up, I'm just not good at the deep clean. If you looked quickly inside my house you would think it looks pretty good. I rarely have dishes in the sink, the counters are reasonably clean, and most things are in their place or in neat piles. If you looked closer, however, you would see there is a lot of dust and grime and crumbs and other unknowns lying about. If I had to describe it, I would say my house is picked up, it's just not deep clean.

Up until lately it hasn't bothered me that much. It's become more of a stress, knowing that I needed to clean, but having no will or desire to do it. It's kind of like exercising. I say that I don't have time to do it, but it's more like I don't make the time to do it. If I really wanted to do it, I could. I just don't really want to.

So, when I finally found someone who would clean my house and she said she would come today, I realized I needed to clean the house before she could come. I know, it sounds crazy. Why clean for someone who is coming to clean? But I didn't really say it correctly. I needed to pick up and purge a whole bunch of stuff to make room for the cleaning lady to actually clean. I had to put things away, get rid of the piles, condense, consolidate, whatever, so they could get to the stuff that needed to be deep cleaned.

I probably spent 5-6 hours working on it this weekend. After I got up to nurse Amanda at 6:15a on Sunday I stayed in her room and reorganized, stacked, packed, and unpacked until 8:00a. Amazing what you can get done so early in the morning, and I always waste that time on sleep! Moving on to the rest of the house I filled an enormous bag with Halloween, Valentine and Easter candy for Charlie to take to work. My kids love to receive candy, but they forget about it and never eat it. I eat most of it, which is not good, and we still have a ton. Then I threw away all those little toys that the kids get from Happy Meals and birthday party goody bags that they play with for a couple of hours and then they sit around for months. I recycled home work and art projects, expired coupons and old mail. Did I mention that Charlie and I are pack rats? I could go on, but you get the idea. When I was finally done the house didn't look too bad. If only I had done it sooner.

The cleaning lady came today. Actually, it was cleaning ladies. Two sisters working together. It took them four hours to clean my house and when they were done it looked fabulous and smelled like cleaning products. I love it. Charlie loves it. The stress is melting away. One less thing I have to worry about that makes me a little happier mommy. Thanks Honey, you really are the best!

Kid Quote of the Day

We went to visit our friends Mike and Bren and their kids Morgan, 11, and Max, 7, yesterday. Sarah asked Bren if she wanted to play with her.

Sarah: Do you want to play family?

Bren: How do you play family?

Sarah: You follow my rules!