Procrastinating

I have a super wonderfully craptastic project that I need to do for the PTA for Kori's school. I get to trim 1000+ labels collected during the recent label drive. They get money for each label collected so it's for a good cause but it's soooooo boring. I did 2500 in the fall. Now I have two gallon sized Ziplock bags awaiting me. I've had them since Tuesday of last week. I need to just do it and get it over with. Easier said than done.

Today I ran in the book fair at Kori's school and got her a couple of books, a book for the girls, a book for my niece Mallory and three books from Kori's teachers wish list for their class. One of the other mom's told me that one of the other mom's (did I lose you yet???) was going to be getting in contact with me. Oh goody I thought. What awesome (insert sarcasm here) project am I going to get now. Apparently she just found out she's expecting twins and wants advice from me. Would it sound strange if I told her immediately after the birth she should run like hell and never look back??? Hmmmm...better not say that. As much as I feel like it somedays, it might not sound so good.

Today as I was leaving to go to the book fair and to pick up Kori, Kamryn and I were in the middle of a tiff. It's just one of many over the last few days. The girls have been super grumpy, whiny, mean to one another, it's been FUN! NOT!! Well today Kamryn didn't like the pants I picked out for her after her nap. She was wearing a red Old Navy shirt with a flag on it. I knew they were going out to play so I didn't want anything nice to get all dirtied up so I set out some black pants. Uh, that was an no go chief. She was NOT having it. So she finally picked out her own pants. Did I mention they were purple plaid??? Oh she looked like a HOT MESS!!!

I have had a headache the last two days. I woke up with it on Monday and it hung out all day. Went to bed with it and surprise, surprise, it was here again when I woke up today. **Sigh** I have some sinus issues working so I am hoping it's sinus related. Trying not to get all paranoid in thinking its the swine flu. Kidding, but dang if that doesn't give me another germ to worry about!

Well I guess I better get to trimming. I've put it off long enough. **Sigh**

A Valuable Lesson

My sister commented on my lack of blogging as of late. So here I am! Lucky you guys huh?

Jason had a "guys weekend" with his buddies from high school. They came down in honor of the NFL Draft (zzzzzzz.....) which is really nothing more than a glorified excuse to consume alcohol and relive their "glory days". (zzzzzzz....) So it was all mom, all weekend. What else is new huh? I have determined that in my next life I am coming back as a man, preferably one like my husband who has such an awesome wife and mother to his children.

Okay, enough of that. Today I was a bonehead. There's really no other way to say it. I cooked a big breakfast for Jason's step-brother Brock (he was down for the Beer Fest, uh I mean NFL Draft get-together) and was heading back to Iowa this morning. So I cooked breakfast before he left. After that the girls got dressed and ready to go outside. Jason was going to do yardwork today before more rain moved in. I decided there were some things I wanted to piddle around with as well. So I did some stuff and then decided that there were some grassy issues in between our landscaping rocks that were bothering me. Sooooooo...I fired up the weedeater. No problem! It's not my first weed-eating rodeo. I've used one before. I should have known that God was sending me a "your wearing improper footwear signal" when a piece of the string broke off and wacked me on the top of my foot. I had to have Jason fix the spool and he pointed out my poor choice of footwear too. I assured him I was fine, that I was just doing a spot or two and all was well. Dumb move! So I'm a weed eating fool and all was going well until...I got my big toe on my left foot. Oh man it hurt soooooooooo bad! I thought I was going to pass out so I quick turned off the weedeater and set it down. Then I was afraid to look down at my foot for fear that I would see my toe missing and thrown somewhere across the yard. I managed to sneak a peek and was relieved to see it still attached with the other toes. I was not thrilled to see it looked like something out of a Freddie Krueger Nightmare on Elm Street movie scene. It's all hacked up. Not good, especially now that flip flop season is underway. So it's been cleaned and bandaged. I have learned a valuable lesson. No weedeating in flip flops! They just don't mix!

My children played outside for six hours straight today. They didn't nap. You'd thing at bedtime they'd just give up and to go sleep right? Nope. Kamryn gave up sooner than the other two. They were still goofing off. I was talking to my mom on the phone when all of a sudden it got very quiet. Further inspection of their bedroom premises revealed this:



Of course before moving them I had to grab the camera and take a picture or two. I took a picture with my camera phone and sent it to Jason at work and he commented that they looked like drunks that had passed out. Well I'm sure they felt like it too. They woke up at 9am, 6 1/2 hours outside, no naps, I'm surprise they made it as long as they did. I think it kind of resembles a crime scene photo or something similar. Silly kids!

Yesterday the girls didn't nap either. We played outside in the afternoon for several hours, and they had been out earlier in the day with the sitter (Jason and I went to a wedding) so they were pooped. I was talking to my mom on the phone and noticed Kamryn missing. I called for her and she didn't answer right away like she usually does, especially if she's doing something she's not supposed to. So I did some investigating. I found her asleep in her bed. Apparently she'd had enough and put herself to bed at about 7:45. She then slept until 9:30 this morning. Silly girl! So cute though!

Kori had a school program last week. It was a mini-musical and was very cute! Here's a picture of my sweet girl:



She was rehearsing for the musical in her room the night before the big performance. I couldn't help but giggle as I heard coming from her room, "My country disagree". So funny!

Okay, so in a nutshell that's been our life for a while. My dad is having health issues which is causing me great stress and anxiety, but I'll safe that for another day. It's bedtime!

Alive

I am here, and we are alive. The weather here has been so nice and we've been outside a lot.

Things of course are crazy busy as usual. My dad's health has been giving him issues, so there's been added stress with that.

I will update (hopefully Sunday) and add some pictures too!

Donuts And Milk

Sounds harmless right? Well to normal people in the normal world, yes it does. In my crazy chaotic world, not so much.

This morning the girls had powdered sugar donuts and milk for breakfast. While not the most nutritious breakfast I know, they like them so they have them every now and then. They eat enough veggies and such, and are generall good eaters, that I don't fret over this kind of stuff in moderation.

At any rate, I set everyone up with their breakfast and then went down the hall to Kori's room. I take Kori's sheets off her bed, put on new ones and put her old ones into the washer, start the dryer for clothes that were still drying and return to the kitchen.

What do I find there you ask? Three red headed two-year olds with milk in their hair. Apparently it was a GREAT idea to take their sippy cups full of milk and shake them on their head. So little drops at a time they now have milk covered heads.

So after not even being awake for 40-minutes, it's bathtime already.

Hope today isn't going to be one of "those" days.

I have Easter pics I need to post, maybe later. For now I'm off to wage battle with the two year olds and keep them under control. It's a never ending battle by the way!

Good thing you can pick your friends...

since you can't pick your family. Whew, somedays family can be exhausting. I guess my husband mailed out an email he got the other day.

(Here is the text of it)

Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law, St. Paul , Minnesota ,
points out some interesting facts concerning the Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Democrats: 19 Republicans: 29
Square miles of land won by: Democrats: 580,000 Republicans: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Democrats: 127 million Republicans: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Democrats: 13.2 Republicans: 2.1
Professor Olson adds: "In aggregate, the map of the territory Republican won was mostly the land
owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country. Democrat territory mostly encompassed
those citizens living in government-owned tenements and living off various forms of government welfare..."

Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the "complacency and apathy"
phase of Professor Tyler's definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation's
population already having reached the "governmental dependency" phase.

If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegals
and they vote, then we can say goodbye to the USA in fewer than five years. If you are in
favor of this, then by all means, delete this message.

If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake,
knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.


My husband is a Republican by the way. While I tend to vote Republican, I don't always 100% agree with everything in the party lines, politics really isn't "my thing". It was received from him as a forward from someone else. Jason sent the email on to several people including his brother and sister-in-law. I skimmed through it and deleted it. It wasn't super interesting to me so I didn't dwell on it.

I hadn't given it a 2nd thought until I had an email this morning from Eric that was bashing us for sending the email to them. Stating "you guys" "your views" "idiotic and misinformed" etc. etc. etc. Whoa, wait a minute. I didn't have ANYTHING to do with the email. Jason and I maintain separate email accounts, we don't share. It boiled down to they didn't appreciate the email (apparently they are Democrat and VERY Liberal) and please stop sending that kind of "crap" to their email. It went on to state that the email was borderline "racist and hill billy". WTF? Huh? I may be from the midwest but I'm not hill billy, nor a racist. Grrrrrr! I was not happy.

I sent off an email making sure they know that I didn't have anything to do with it. I find that family isn't the place for discussions on religion or politics. Jason is in law enforcement his brother is a public defender...it makes for some interesting conversations to say the least. I am totally okay with agreeing to disagree on most things and leave it at that. I didn't like being lumped in along with idiots, the misinformed, hill billy's or racists. It stung.

The email I received in return was that "The reference to "you guys" was to Jason and the people who e-mail him these e-mails" and the fact that he doesn't want to receive these types of email from "those people" anymore. Uh okay. But what if the group of "those people" just get them as forwards just like I did, and they did for that matter, and they chose to delete them instead of calling people names? Now you've offended a whole group of people? **Sigh**

So I guess it's a good thing that they live in Las Vegas and we're here in Hillbilly-ville. I would hate to hear the heated discussion that would have resulted.

So much drama. Way more drama than I have time for. I have four kids, three that are very busy two-year olds, laundry to wash/dry/fold/put away, meals to prepare/clean up from, a house to clean, errands to run and other things. Way too little free time on my part for this. Next time I'd just like to be excluded from it all thank you very much.

Oh well, tomorrow is a new day. Hopefully it will be sunny and politics free.

Trouble

In the event anything ever happens to me, my kids are in TROUBLE! Of course I've always know this, but sometimes I get some more proof. :-) On Tuesday I left the girls with Jason for a bit so that I could go to my nephews high school baseball game. It wasn't until almost five o'clock and it wasn't super warm that day. I knew it would only get cooler so I didn't want to risk the girls getting sick from sitting out in the cool air. So Jason said he'd mind the store. I picked up my mom and off we went. So nice to get away alone for a bit. It's a rare thing, especially if I'm not going to the store or doing boring errands like that.

At any rate, before I went I got the fixings together for Jason to make some meatball subs for dinner. Easy peasy right? Wrong! I had pre-made meatballs, jarred sauced, hoagie rolls and grated mozzarella cheese. I also had some smiley faced fries that the girls love. No problem! **Sigh**

I should add that my cell phone broke a couple of weeks ago. Jason needed a new MP3 player and was waiting for our cell contract to be up later this summer as he was going to get a cell phone with a built-in MP3 player. Well since mine broke, I told him I'd just take his phone and we'd switch my number to it and he could get a new phone/MP3 player thing. (I know, I'm a super nice wife). So I'm not used to the ringer he has and I haven't switched it or downloaded a new one. I guess he called a few times with questions about dinner. He left me FIVE voice mails before I even realized he'd called. The voice mails were hysterical! In the 2nd or 3rd one he started just talking and saying, "Hey voice mail, it's me again. Haven't talked to you in a few minutes". Stuff like that. Do I use both jars of sauce? Do I use all the bags of meat balls (there were 3 -- they weren't huge), what kind of cheese do I use? Do I put them in the oven to melt the cheese? Holy cow! I left an easy dinner and he had to call me five times to figure it out? My poor children. At any rate, they survived and had dinner so that was good.

I kept the voice mails for a bit because they are too funny! I was listening to them as I was driving and they were totally cracking me up. He thinks he's funnier than he is most of the time. This time though he was pretty entertaining.

A Blah Week

Dang if I haven't been in a blah mood this week. So very uninspired. Not like me, but this is how it's been. There were a couple days it was gray and cool and rainy, definitely not good for dealing with the blahs, but I could not convince the three youngest members of my family that napping in bed all day was as GREAT of an idea as I was making it out to be.

Today was sunny and warmer, thank goodness. While it didn't help my mood much, it was nice to see the sun shining. tomorrow it's supposed to be even better. Then Sunday more cold, more rain, more snow possible. Seriously? Really? Hey Mother Nature...IT'S APRIL!!!! Oh well, maybe this means we'll have a nice mild summer. A girl can dream huh? I remember the summer of 2005 so well. I think we only had a couple of days all summer that it got above 90. It was HEAVENLY! Keeping my fingers crossed for a repeat of that year.

Jason and I did some quick math the other day and figured that we've bought diapers for approximately 5 years and 4 months of our lives as parents. We are thrilled beyond belief to not have to buy them any more. I think I will start going pull-up-less at nap time and then hopefully at bedtime before too long. They are pretty much always dry after naps. Probably in a weeks time there are 1-2 wet pull-ups after bedtime, not too shabby! We celebrated our diaperless lifestyle on Monday by taking the girls and going to Texas Roadhouse for a celebratory steak dinner. It was yummy!

Kori is spending the night with Becky and her family tonight. They are going to see Disney On Ice tomorrow afternoon. I hope she behaves and they have fun. She was excited to go, must be time for a break from the chaos here.

Other than that, not too much happening. I have been doing some reading lately. A lot actually. I have read TWO books this week! Woo hoo! One was easy, it was Disney On A Dime, in preparation for our upcoming Disney trip in June. Thought I'd see if there were any money savers I didn't already know about. There wasn't. Then I read "Between Sundays" by Karen Kingsbury. It was VERY good and went very fast. I am currently reading Multiple Blessings by Kate Gosselin (you know Jon and Kate+8). It's pretty good too. Better her than me.

So that's about it from the Rusley Ranch. I leave you with a few pictures. First will be Kamryn, Morgan, then Alexis. The group shots of all 3...from LtoR in those pictures it's Alexis, Kamryn and Morgan. Enjoy!