36 hours

That is how long it took my kitchen to go from completely clean to totally trashed. Granted if I would do the dishes it would look a million times better, but dishes are Sean's job, and I'm feeling lazy since I've already done lots of other work today. I'm so tired of cleaning all the time.
Remember when I talked about hiring a cleaning lady? Well I found a girl who I thought was perfect and she was really affordable, so I decided to hire her. She came and met us and then got sick and had to put off the date she was going to come. The next week she called to say she'd be here Wednesday, but never showed. I guess that is God's way of telling me I don't need a cleaning lady and I can do it myself!

single parent

I'm a single parent...for the weekend at least. On the one hand, it's really no big deal since I do it all by myself every day, but it is odd at night time when there is no back-up for anything. Today was a really good day, until I was mopping the kitchen floor and Megan decided to throw a toy phone at Emma's head. I wish I knew why, but honestly it doesn't really matter, and Megan probably just decided to do it and wasn't really provoked in any way. Emma is generally really nice to Megan, and Megan is just mean. That sounds awful, but she really is just generally mean.
So, other than the head injury today was great. I actually have gotten a lot done too. I reorganized both linen closets, and am halfway through my closet. I've also cleaned the bathrooms and cleaned the kitchen and mopped the floor in there. Not to mention all the laundry I am constantly doing. Of course I still have a ton to do because by the time I get to the end of my list, the beginning things need to be done again. That's one part of being a single parent that really blows!

new tradition

I think we my have a new annual family tradition. This past weekend we went to Chicago to spend some time with my family and join them for their St. Patty's Day tradition. Evey year they head down to the South Side Irish parade to celebrate being Irish and my cousin's birthday. Her Birthday is on St. Patty's day, and what better way to celebrate it than with a bunch of drunk Irish people, and a bunch of drunk people pretending to be Irish. Yes, we took the kids, who had a blast with their cousins, and it was a beautiful day on top of being a ton of fun. All the adults with no kids went bar hopping after the parade, which sounds like a lot of fun until you see them come home after a day like that. lol! We had so much fun that we can't wait to go back next year, and maybe we'll get lucky and have a sitter so we can enjoy the "after party" as well.

WARNING: ONE OF THE PICTURES CONTAINS AN OBSCENE GESTURE!
the pipe and drum groups were my favorite part of the parade

The birthday girl with her sister boyfriend and friend

Sean, tell us how you really feel about that Miller Lite Truck in the parade...

month #3

Jackson is already 3 months old. How does time go so fast and feel like such a blur when you have a baby? I'm so sad that I can't slow down time to make this phase of life last a little longer, especially since I may never get to experience it again. I think it frightens Sean that I might want another baby now. It's a never ending cycle with me I guess.
Anyway, back to Jackson. He is such a sweet cuddly baby, and so happy. He is always smiling and "talking" to us. The other night I was holding him and he was talking so loudly I couldn't hear the tv at all. It is pretty funny to hear him go on and on. He has always been such a good sleeper, but this past week he has been sleeping like crap. I'm not sure if it's because of the time change, or because we went to a friends house on Saturday and he was up late, or maybe a little bit of both. Either way I hate it and want my old sleepy Jackson back. He really hasn't learned anything else yet. We are bad and don't do tummy time with him a lot which means he's not getting much of a chance to learn to roll, but I have a feeling that it won't take him long to figure it out as much as he moves around in his bed.
We are going to get family pictures taken later this month, and I'm going to go get his 3 month pictures done soon, so hopefully I will have lots of cuteness to share with everyone.

At what point...

does someone playing with your hair while saying, "So pretty," become incredibly annoying?
Answer: At 2am when that someone is your two year old daughter who has decided that she's just not going to sleep at all, and it is imperative that you also don't sleep. I really think it was at least 2:30 if not later before she finally fell asleep. Keep in mind she was put in bed at 8pm, but I heard her playing in there all night and finally got brought her into our room around 12 so she wouldn't bother Emma. This is just more proof that Megan is the crappiest sleeper in our house.

license office adventures

So today I had to go to the license office not once, but twice. I just loooooove the license office. What with their long lines, long wait times, and super strict guidelines, what's not to love? I had to go pay sales tax on Sean's bike and get plates for it. So he went and got it inspected today and then I drove to his office to pick that up and go take care of things. Luckily Nathan was at school then, so I only had three kids, but it was still a pain to drag everyone out of the car to go stand in line for 10 minutes only to discover Sean either had to come do the license himself or I had to take a form to him that he needed to sign and then I could go back to the license office to do everything myself. For whatever reason the kids were ridiculously well behaved while we were there. Sadly the same could not be said for the two boys in line with their mom behind us. I think she wanted to kill me since I was the mom with the annoyingly well behaved children today, but we all know that was just a fluke.
Of course by then it was almost time for Nathan to be picked up so I came home for 45 minutes, then picked him up and headed to Sean's office again. After Sean signed the form I headed back to the license office, now with four kids in tow. The line this time was slightly shorter, but now I was accompanied by an antsy 4 year old boy, and a 2 year old with no nap, and an almost 3 month old who was hungry. Fun times! When it was finally my turn Nathan found a chair nearby and decided he should sit there. "Good idea," I told him, but then Megan decided she wanted to sit there and started beating Nathan in the head. Emma, ever the good big sister, decided to try to help smooth things over, but Megan just started beating on her too. The kids were actually being somewhat quiet through all that, but then Jackson started crying. Thankfully I was pretty calm today and I just kind of rolled with it, but I'm sure everyone in there was thrilled when we left.
It's amazing how kids can turn running errands into such a bigger task than you ever thought they could be.

welcome over

Welcome over to the new address. Like I said, I will probably only leave the old address up for a few days. Sorry for the inconvenience!

confession time

I'm not nearly as frugal as I could be, probably not even half, but I feel like it's time to start changing that. I know everyone is talking about the bad economy right now, but honestly we have not really been affected by it. Sure our health insurance costs a little more this year, and our copays did go up, but Sean still has his job, and he didn't take a pay cut this year, so we are really doing ok. Even though we have been so lucky, I'm beginning to realize how stupid I've been by not doing a little extra work to save a lot of money. Groceries are getting more and more expensive, and as the kids get older they are eating more as well, so I think it's time for me to get off my lazy butt and do more to save on everything. This could prove to be interesting since I've never done it, but I'm ready to commit if it means cutting our grocery bills in half. I'll be sure to post an update on how successful, or not, I am with this. I plan to do lots of online coupon hunting, so if anyone has any tips or websites to share I'd love them.

What's your "Happy Weight"?

Ever since having kids I've found myself on a constant quest to lose weight. Unfortunately for me, this was pretty much uncharted territory to me, so I had/have no clue how to pick a weight that is right for me. According to the bmi scale I should weigh between 112 pounds (yeah right!) and 149 pounds. That is a big range and I know it's unrealistic to expect that I'll even weigh 112 pounds again. Even at my smallest my senior year in high school I weighed 125 and was a size 1. I can't imagine how sick I'd look if I tried to lose 13 more pounds. I also don't even feel like 125 is even an attainable goal anymore. Having four kids has so drastically changed my body I just don't think being that small is possible, or desirable really.
Anyway, I stumbled across a link to Self magazines What's your happy weight? calculator. This calculator takes things into account like your frame size, mine is large which surprised me, and whether you have kids, and other factors like that that the bmi calculator ignores. Here is a page that talk about why their formula works. I was pleasantly surprised that the weight it suggested for me was 8 pounds more than I thought I needed to weigh.
I think as women we all feel the need to be stick thin, and make ourselves completely miserable trying to attain that goal. I am tired of that and plan to embrace my 8 extra pounds. That just means I get to eat and enjoy a couple cookies now and then right?!