From braces to siblings

T got her bottom braces off yesterday! Yeah! The Dr. office gave her an empty water bottle filled with all the candy you can't eat with braces. Of course, it is the same candy that you can't eat if you want to prevent cavities, but apparently orthodontists don't talk to dentists. She got starbursts, twizzlers, blow pops, juicy fruit and airheads. She was extremely happy!

She is pretty busy these days. Lets see, for PR purposes....She volunteers at the library, belongs to the bowling club, the swim club, the drama club and the chess club. She is taking art classes and doing an online math program. She is very involved in her church and is rehearsing to be one of the speakers in an upcoming service. She is about to join the 4-H club and is signed up to do an overnight at the liberty science center and learn all about weather.

Pretty darn impressive if you ask me. But the big news....she is going to have a sister who is one year younger than her. That's right, you heard it here first, we are officially INSANE, but she is ecstatic! We are beginning the process (that we are assuming will take two years) to bring another child home from Haiti. We are accepting donations of any amount!

BTW, Sammy said to Johnley today, "You are from Haiti. I will always love you and always take care of you." So I guess we are doing something right!

Out with the old, in with the new

This weekend Nick and I were supposed to go to a wedding in Atlantic City and stay over. It was a very big deal. We had a babysitter for overnight, my girlfriend lent me some things to use. I headed out on Friday to get my nails done and my hair done (and let me tell you, THAT'S a big deal). And then my car died. That was the first bad sign. It wasn't enough that my dryer had called it quits on Tuesday and the part never came in. But for the car (that we knew was on the way out) had actually bite the dust was a little overwhelming. But no worries, we were still going. I would just have to go out on Sat and get my hair done.



Then Sammy got sick. He woke up in the middle of the night on Friday unable to breath. As any mother of a child with asthma can tell you, there is nothing like the helpless feeling of your child not being able to breath. He was still struggling on Saturday and we decided not to go. It so sucks to not go to a wedding when they are expecting you, but Nick couldn't go and leave me with no car on the chance that I had to take Sammy to the hospital. The wedding, btw, was for someone at Nicks work (he really needs to just decline these invites). So we didn't go. (Just to let you know how big a deal this was, I got 4 phone calls on Monday to see how my weekend was!)



So that the weekend wasn't a total bust, we bought a car! Yes that's right, we (and when I say we, I mean Nick) went to a car dealer and came home with a car. That's the only way to do it. I say, the sooner you realize the dealer is going to rip you off and just accept it, the better off you will be. So I found a used car on the Internet and liked the price and bought it. They actually gave us 500 for our car, can you believe it?



So here is a picture of the new beauty. I love it, love it, love it. Sammy is better now, my dryer is fixed, and all is right with the world.


Out with the old....


and in with the new....
Isn't she purdy?

Learning to say thank you.

This is a post I typed last week. I thought I posted it, but apparently I didn't. So here it is.

Sometimes people come into your life for the very reason to show you how NOT to be. Yesterday I gave someone a belated Xmas present, a calendar with my kids pictures in it. I got one for Xmas and sat down with the person to examine every photo, oohing and aahing with delight. My sister got one and did the same thing. This person said, "Do you know, last year you didn't give me one, and this year I got 6 calendars. One from the Chinese restaurant, one from the realtor, blah, blah and now yours." CAN'T YOU JUST SAY THANK YOU?????? (And don't think I didn't notice that you were comparing pictures of my kids to a Chinese calendar!)



On the lighter side, Sammy asked me if Erin's new baby was going to be grey like me and Owen, or brown like him! So not only are my children not black, but I am not white. I have always known that my children weren't black. When T was 4 or 5 I talked to her about how some people have preconceived beliefs about black people, and she said to me, "Who's black, Mommy, I'm brown?" and I realized that black is a silly term. But I had no idea I was GREY! I could see if he was talking about my hair, but he was talking about my skin! I need to get outside more!

Random thoughts

I'm watching Dr. Laura and she says that couples should spend 15 minutes a day MINIMUM fooling around. 15 minutes a day. hmmmm. The first problem with this is that I am watching Dr. Laura. Well its 4 am and I turned on CNN and she is on Larry King. And yesterday I had a very interesting conversation with someone I like very much whos views could not be more different than mine. Actually it is the second such incident in the past 7 days. While it is very unsettling, it is also liberating. I tend to get stuck with my views because I'm stubborn. So I've decided that I have room for improvement (shocking, I know) and that I will be open to other views. Of course, none of this applies to Dr. Laura, because she is a STUPID BITCH! but that is just my opinion!
Anyway, back to the 15 minutes a day. Man, Nick is lucky if he gets 15 minutes a week! But flylady says that you can do anything for 15 minutes! I wonder if Dr. Laura is flylady?

Yesterday my friend gave Johnley an umbrella to play with and I wish I had taken a picture. It was a brightly colored flowered umbrella, and he looked so adorable. He kept saying he was hot, so he needed the umbrella up. No matter that I told him a hundred times the umbrella is to keep you dry, he kept saying he was hot. She also gave him a very colorful harmonica. He was in heaven! Just as an aside, Sammy was SHOCKED to find out that Johnley got a harmonica and there was nothing for him!
Sammy wasn't there because he was at Aunt Teri's house. Apparently he was naughty while he was there. Teri says she doesn't know if she wants him back. I don't believe her, but she was annoyed. I asked Sammy later what was going on and he said that he thought he was being funny but he guesses it wasn't funny. I wonder if he had an epiphany or is he just telling me what I want to hear? Probably just telling me what I want to hear, but because he is my son, I will believe that he had an epiphany. And that is why the mother is always so surprised to find out that something is wrong with her son!
Last night Sammy climbed into bed with us, but instead of getting between us, he just climbed in next to me. Of course I pushed him out of bed! He fell, Nick jumped up and ran in the boys room, going "What's wrong, what happened?" I yelled, he is in here. Johnley woke up and then we all climbed back into one bed and went to sleep. What fun!

The perfect mother

T is a better mother than I am. Yesterday was the day I start my new life. So first thing in the am I sent T into do her work! I even checked on her a few times and helped her. Then I had a talk with her about career choices. Apparently that all I was capable of! I spent the rest of the morning on the phone and listening to my friend's top ten songs! T, meanwhile, took the boys outside, played with them inside and read to them. I finally got outside after lunch and started working on the yard. I helped Sammy build an obstacle course for he and Johnley to take turns with the automatic car. I had to explain the difference between an obstacle course and a blockade! Last night in bed Sammy said to me, "Mom, we didn't do school today!" (He really needs to stop listening to my conversations with other people). So I told him, school today was the obstacle course -- Its all about the PR!
Anyway here is a video of tubing -- I strongly recommend it! See if you can hear Sammy laughing towards the end.

New Rules

From now on, every time the boys say a bad word (even if it's in Creole and I don't know what it means) or they hit or push or throw something at each other, they lose a toy. It might be a game, or a game boy or a stuffed animal, or a favorite article of clothing. It goes in the big garbage bag in the dining room. In a week, I am either going to have two well behaved boys, or no more mess to clean up ever! I am so sick of them yelling at each other. We threaten spanking and soap in the mouth, but we never really do it. So this morning I made up this plan. Of course, Johnley yelled something to Sammy in creole and lost his Nerf gun, and I felt bad because I don't think he understood and anyway, everyone gets a warning first, so he got it back! And to top it off, he pouted for 30 minutes because I hurt his feelings, so I had to make it up to him! Yes, this is definitely going to work!
I'm bored. I took down all the Christmas stuff. It's all in the dining room. Every other room in the house is Christmas free and back to normal, but I don't feel like putting it all away. I'm bored because I have nothing to look forward to. And depressed because Christmas was enough for me to look forward to and keep me busy. That's pathetic. Is that what my life has become? I'm okay as long as I have Christmas or vacation or a birthday party to distract me. Ugh!
It must be January because I am bored with my life.
So, if I could do anything, what would it be? Well, if I wanted to matter and feel like I was doing something with my life, I would have to get involved in improving the world in some way, but that is way too much work and commitment. If money wasn't an object I would travel all over the world with the kids, adventure after adventure. And I think I would feel like their education would be covered what with all the world experience. So short of saving the world and traveling the world, what to do? I need a passion. I've never had one. I've always been too busy trying to live. Wow, has this post become all about me, or what! Ah, well. The kids are with their father and I'm going to watch Transformers. Again!

Starting on Wednesday

Wow. Today is already Jan.2. According to my plans, this would be the day that we start back to school. But that's crazy! Who starts anything on a Wednesday? We will have to wait till Monday! Whew, there's a weight off!

First day of Jan.

Dear Diary, today is the first day of the new year and I missed it! I slept until 3:30 pm. I think my body was trying to tell me something! Of course, now it is past 11 and I am wide awake, which doesn't bode well for tomorrow!
I have discovered something about myself recently. I don't like drinking anymore. I think I haven't liked it for some time but I did it anyway, I'm a little slow on the uptake. Now I don't do it so I don't smoke and I realize that I don't miss it. I have no desire to drink. That is not to say I have no desire to have my mind altered, because that part I have always liked, I just don't like to drink. I am such a victim of peer pressure, tho, that I will probably continue to drink when everyone else is, but I could see myself never drinking again. This probably is not that big of a deal to some people, but almost everyone I know drinks and the main ingredient in the majority of my get-togethers with people is alcohol. And people that drink really don't like it when everyone is not drinking. Why is that?
I went to a party last night and most everyone was drinking. It was very interesting to be one of the few that was not. No one was very drunk, but I guess that is why people want you to drink, so there are no sober witnesses!
Ah, well, on to better things.
Johnley and I are really struggling. He is constantly testing me and I am not amused. I keep wondering what he was like in his own environment. The only thing that we were told about him is that he is very stubborn and to just wait him out and he will come around. I have noticed in the pictures that we have from the village before Nick went down, he is pouting in alot of them. He initially says no to everything. And as soon as he sees he is not going to get us mad, and he might lose out, he says ok. He is not in some of my Christmas pictures because of that. I had a tough time with the pictures I took of the three of them because if he was upset, there was no talking him out of it, like I could with Sammy.
It is also interesting that he is not afraid of Sammy. The two of them were playing tonight and chasing and wrestling each other and he was just having fun, not at all worried that he might get hurt. I'm not explaining this right, but it struck both Nick and I that it was unusual.
I know he is just trying to find his way. Tonight when I was reading them a story, I read from the one Johnley picked first and he said he didn't want Sammy looking at his book. I told him that was mean and I was reading to both of them. He got mad and turned away. I kept on reading and he begrudgingly rolled back over to look. But when I was done, he wouldn't say good night to Sammy! Of course they both passed out in 10 seconds because they were up till 1 am last night!
He made me laugh earlier tho. We put the bunk beds back up in their room to make more space, and Johnley sleeps on the bottom. Last night our bed was too crowded so I slept in Johnleys bed. This evening for whatever reason, they decided to straighten their covers and Johnley starts mumbling about how he doesn't want Mommy to sleep in his bed any more, that she should sleep in Sammys!! I cracked up, told him, how about if I sleep in MY bed?

Oh well, Sammy just woke up and is looking for me, I must go. Good night.

Happy Happy New Year!!!!