Random

I don't really have enough stuff for a whole blog about any one thing, so you get a random blog tonight. Yippee!!

• Say what you will, I don't care. I'm getting an iPhone. It's time. We are eligible for an upgrade and I need a new phone. Mine schizzes out and shuts itself down. I had tossed around the idea of a Blackberry Torch, but the iPhone just makes sense with having iPods. Games, apps, and music would just transfer right over. The big girl would love that because she would get my iPod. Mine is bigger than hers and she cannot wait to get her grubby little paws all over it. And, big news along the lines of cell phones and the big girl. She got a cell phone today. She wanted one that she could get online with. Yeah, no, that is not happening, but thank you so much for asking. She does have unlimited texting and I have a little more piece of mind. Bonus!
• I have Pitbull playing on repeat on my iPod right now. Ever listen to Pitbull? The man's voice makes me feel like a twinkie- creamy in the middle. I have to say my favorite song is Pause. He is a dirty, dirty, dirty dog and I am OK with that.
• I go from Pitbull to church. Yeah, I did that. After having a conversation with someone at youth one night and stating that I always get what I want, I called myself a spoiled brat. I didn't make me spoiled, I just continued the tradition. The youth director looked at me and said, "That statement just explained a lot about you." He doesn't know the half of it. I was also raised by a single mom in the '70s when divorce still wasn't that common and was still frowned upon in certain circles. I was brought up to be strong, tenacious, and driven. I am loyal and friendly and funny and smart and beautiful and so much more than he will ever know. I was raised with a strong love and devotion for family. I just smiled and said, "You think?" If he only knew.
• Shame on me, but I have not been focused when it comes to my grocery shopping, menu, and food budget. We were horrible last week and ate out alot. I am embarrased about how many times we picked something up. Ugh! I'm supposed to be planning now but I'm blogging instead. I do know what we're having for dinner tomorrow. I have a beautiful pork roast that I'm putting in the crock pot with some fresh squeezed orange juice and apples. I haven't been couponing like I should. I've shopped the sales, but I haven't had the right coupons, or I let them expire instead of using them. I definitely need to get back on track. I don't like feeling like I'm throwing money away. Fine, I'm getting back on track (said while kicking the dirt).

 See, that's all I got. It looks right nice together.

Thank You, God!

I have made it a policy to never talk about whatever issues hubby and I may have with each other on a personal basis. My relationship with him is MY relationship with him. It works for us and whatever doesn't, we fix. When hubby and I were in the engagement era, we talked about what was important in a relationship. What were the deal breakers and the deal makers. The big issue for me was, is, and probably will always be communication. If we can't talk about something, we're done. We may not always agree, but we always talk about it. 

I have also been very vocal in the fact that God hand picked my husband for me. He put us in the right place at the right time with the right circumstances. He knew that the two of us desperately needed was each other. He knew that by bringing the two of us together, we would have an amazing life together. He was right.

Without going into too much detail, things have been strained around here to say the least. When the kids and I were in Texas, hubby worked every day except one. He may have had one other day off, but the important part here is that he worked almost 5 weeks straight. He took several days off to bring us home. I have never been happier to see someone than when we picked him up at the airport. He hasn't had a decent day off since we've been home. He may have had 2 full weekends off work, but that meant full weekends at home. all work and no play makes hubby a tired, snarky man.

When hubby works overtime, that means that I work overtime. And do not, for one second, think that I am doing nothing at home but cruising Facebook. First you have to catch me at home. When I am home, I'm working. And trying to snatch 10 minutes here and there to read. And teach the kids new chores. This week our new chore is laundry. I am happy about that. The kids not so much. I could go on and on. By 8 o'clock I am ready for my kids to go to bed. Now. Goodnight! Suffice it to say that all work and no play makes mama a tired, snarky woman.

Hubby's working so much overtime so we can pay off our debt. We wracked up a ton of it when he was contracting and we are trying, desperately sometimes, to have enough money to put gas in the vehicles and pay the bills. We hope and pray that we can have about 90% of our debt paid off in a year and a half. Right now, though, we are tired, we are snarky, and for awhile we weren't talking about the issue, but we were great at dancing around it.

The dam finally broke last night. Just one small whispered statement from hubby and we were able to talk about what's been happening, how damn tired we both are, how much we miss each other, and how glad we were that we were finally talking about it. It was like the weight of the world was gone. We weren't just talking, we were communicating.

I love that man. I love that he works hard for his family. I love that when he holds me his arms go all the way around me. I love that, no matter what, we can always talk about it. And I love that my man was hand picked for me. 

Letting Off Some Steam

Want to know what I like about having my own blog? One of the many reasons? I don't have to follow grammar rules if I don't want to. Crazy, I know. I used to want to be an English teacher. The English language is so confusing and if I can help just one student get through it. Ok, if I can help my 3 get through it and maybe a couple of their friends, that'll do. I don't teach grammar every year. I don't have to so that's a huge blessing. But sometimes, it rears it's ugly head. Anyway, ready for bullet points?

• I don't watch The View. I absolutely cannot stand to listen to the mostly liberal panel spout nonsense. Joy Behar and evolution are two topics that should never go together. She said at one point that evolution should be taught to every child because it had been proven a fact and to not teach it was the same as child abuse. No, it's still a theory because it's never been proven. Even Darwin said he was wrong. Keep up, people. There I go off topic again. Michael Moore was on ranting and raving about who knows what. I only caught the clip on the internet of him squabbling with Elisabeth. I think what set me off was that he wanted Osama Bin Laden brought back to the states and tried instead of killed. I'm afraid I agree with Elisabeth. I don't think so. He said something along the lines of we needed to show the world that if you attack us, we will hunt you down and bring you to trial and punish you to the fullest extent of the law. Dumb ass!! Frankly, I like being part of a country that if you attack us we will hunt you down and kill you. Until you're dead. And instead of dumping the body in the ocean, we hang it high for all his friends to see. Then he said the war was over. Is that why our soldiers are still there? Is that why we still have men and women dying over there? Is that why thousands of families are seperated, some permanently? Because if the war is over, they can come home now.
• Our illustrious leader has a jobs plan. How's that working for you and where was it three years ago when you took office? First you give half a billion dollars (it looks like this: $500,000,000) to a company that is supposed to produce solar panels. Instead they declared bankruptcy. Then they got additional money and still failed. It must be great to be a friend and political supporter of the person who sits in the White House. Maybe that's my problem. I should start saying nice things about him and he'll give me money. Yeah, I'll take my chances, but I appreciate the offer. Green jobs, remember the prediction about that? Only about 3500 have been created. Thousands went to China, though. Wait how does that help us? And then, to promote the jobs bill that he so eloquently hyped, he goes to a production company in NC. A company that just opened a factory in Costa Rica so it could save money on employee costs. A company that shipped jobs over seas. One day, he'll get it. Not today apparently, but I have hope. Of course, he may be out of office by then.
• Political correctness is killing this country. Everyone should have a piece of the pie. Let's not hurt anyone's feelings. Shut up, shut up, shut up. We are making excuses for behavior that is unacceptable. We are coddling our future generations, raising them with a feeling of entitlement. We shouldn't hurt each other's feelings. We probably shouldn't. Tact is a great thing. But that doesn't mean we shouldn't tell it like it is and get over it. We are all Americans, why do we have to identify each other by our ethnic background? Isn't it illegal to discriminate because of that? Then why does it matter? There isn't a block for stupid or not stupid. That should be more important. Grow a pair, people, and use them.
• Big debate on arsenic in our apple juice. Did Dr. Oz scare the American public into not drinking apple juice? Considering they can use 48 different pesticides on as apple, I think arsenic is the least of our worries. The FDA allows more arsenic in apple juice than water. Want to know why? Because we drink more water than apple juice. Exposure to arsenic through apple juice is less likely to happen than exposure by drinking water. That's just stupid. Who's drinking apple juice? Children are. Smaller bodies should be exposed to smaller amounts of arsenic. Arsenic is naturally occuring, but not as a poison or pesticide that can kill you. Did you know that most potato growers grow their own, seperate crop of potatoes? Too many pesticides used on potatoes that go to the general public. Think about that next time you open a bag of potato chips. Just don't serve them with apples or apple juice. Inform yourselves. 

Break the cycle of stupid. Please, for my sake, for your sake, for our chidren and future generations. Or, really, just for me. Whatever works.   

Super Woman

I started this blog last night, but it morphed into something else. I don't like when that happens.

Now that public school is back in session, my kids stand out a little more. Ok. A lot more. We get the "Is school out today?" I don't know. Is it? "Got your helpers today." Just today, though. When we get home, I'm going to hang them back on the hook in the pantry. Crazy people. The question I get most often is "How do you do it all?" One step at a time. And for the record, there are a ton of things that don't get done at all. You should see my poor, unmopped floors I keep saying I'll get to. Or the boxes that I still need to tape up and get out to the shed and out of my kitchen. Or the closets that still need to be rearranged. Or the myriad of other things that aren't done. But what I usually say is "I'm Super Woman."

Some days it's more about what I can get done as opposed to getting it all done. Yesterday, we only did part of our school work. I needed to take a nap. By "needed", I mean that I sat down on the couch and fell asleep. When I got up, I wasn't in the mood to school. Keep in mind we had activities in the morning and didn't make it back home until after 12. The kids did their math and language arts, we just didn't do our together stuff. Lovely. That means we have to try to get it done today. Which would be great if we didn't need to go to the dance store and get shoes for my kids that they need for class. Tomorrow. Nothing like waiting until the last minute. Then we're headed to my BIL's to see his new house. We don't have any other time to do that. If we wait until we have time, it'll be next month and that's just rude. So when is all that school work going to get done? When it gets done is the best answer I have right now. I'll manage to squeeze it in. 

I need to sit and make a menu for the next two weeks. I had nothing on the menu for last night. I'm not sure why, but that's the way it was. I couldn't figure out what in the world I was going to make for dinner. Hubby picked up Chinese. Some days I just cannot get my stuff together. Yesterday was apparently that day. So sometime between now and Saturday when my current menu "expires", I have to do that and plan the grocery trip. And search all the ads. And print all the coupons. It'll get done.

My house is constantly untidy. Ok, ok, it's a mess. I see things I need to get done. It took me almost a week and a half to get my bathroom cleaned from when I originally said it needed to be done. And it still isn't done. I need to sweep, mop and clean the tub. The shower is mostly clean. There are parts that are hard for me to reach so hubby has to clean those. Good luck with that. My poor kitchen floors. We won't go there. The next part of handing off the chores is the laundry. I need to teach the big girl how to do that. And put laundry baskets in the kids' rooms so I can stop hollerin' about the laundry not being in the hamper. My list gets longer and longer.

And when do I get me time? And when do I get hubby time? I have to be wife/mother/lover/friend/teacher/chef/chauffer/maid/housekeeper/woman and how many more hats can I wear at one time. None, really. Too much hair. I want a big, floppy, straw, beach hat. I can just put the labels around the brim. Hubby must think I've forgotten his name. Hell, half the time I can't remember my own name. So, in answer to the original question, I don't do it all. I do what I can in a day and hope I don't forget the important stuff, like telling my family I love them. I may not be Super Woman, but I am a great gal!