I was off on Tuesday because we had to have a plumber come out. After Hudson made the giant mess in our bathroom the toilet just wasn't really flushing right. I was worried something must be stuck down in there. Saturday afternoon the toilet started leaking from the base - ugh! Thank goodness for our home warranty; a $55 service fee later, we have a non-leaking functioning toilet again! :) He found a lip gloss and a small eye shadow compact stuck in it. Thanks Hud!
Anyway, since I was off work I was able to walk over and pick up Nolan after school. I thought he would be excited to see me but instead I was greeted with "Where's Nana?". :( As we were walking back home he stopped and said "Hey mom watch this..." and then he just stood there with his eyes all buggy. I asked him what he was doing and he replied "Do you like my new super-power move? I can "stare"." What? What kind of super-power is that? It was hilarious because he was dead serious when he showed it to me. Ha ha!
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Day off with the hubby
Scott and I took off on a Friday a few weeks ago to spend the day together. We took Nolan to school and drop Hudson off with MiMi and headed out to Dallas. It was a great day. We went shopping all over uptown and then met up with Conner and Becca to go see the Bodies Exhibit. It was weird but cool. Then we ate dinner at this little place I have been wanting to try for a while called Twisted Root. It was super YUMMY! Burgers and all kind of good fried crap. :) We finished off the day with drinks. It was nice to have a day off and just relax.
Ryleigh's Slumber Party
Christi let Ryleigh have her first slumber party a few weeks ago for her 7th b-day. She asked me to come over and help and I was excited for the challenge! I LOVE slumber parties. My mom let me have one every year for my birthday from 1st grade all the way through high school. I am sad that I have two boys when it comes to things like that. I know that they have sleepovers too, but it's not the same. The girls were super cute and it was a good girly night complete with pedicures, decorating t-shirts and facials - which we "helped" them do. And then after we had worked like dogs, we sent them off to give each other makeovers. (Um all the little girls looked a bit like hookers but it was hilarious!) They then wanted to put on a fashion show and finished the night with a dance off. It was a super cute night! To be seven again!
Monday, January 25, 2010
So Hard, So Hard
I guess I just need to write a little post about this to get it off my chest. Scott and I had a serious talk about our marriage. We have been married for almost 10 years - we have been through everything together. He is my soulmate, my best friend, my everything - yet so many times the LAST on my list. Why is that? Why is it those we love most we take for granted. As he said it - I always give 110% to everything I do except for our marriage. That is the worst thing you can hear from your spouse. He knows I love him but he is tired of feeling last. It's true - I think that we are in such a "comfortable" place in our marriage that it is easy to overlook it. We are so busy doing for others - our kids, our family, our friends - we weren't focused on us. I felt so bad for not realizing that he was feeling like that. How could I do that? We went to dinner ALONE two weeks ago for the first time since August! Seriously? That is ridiculous. How did almost FIVE months go by? I realized with our talk that it is time to stop this situation and fix it. We need a vacation alone, we need date nights alone, we need to find each other again in this new place as parents of two very active boys. We resolved to start putting "us" first again. There are a lot of steps in fixing our situation.
1. Find a church home. We have been saying for years that we need to find a church and it is time to make that a priority.
2. Make time everyday to talk to each other. This sounds silly but there are a lot of days that we are so in the routine of the boys things and dinner, bath and chores around the house that we barely connect.
3. Make time for date nights. We are in a weird position with our parents - they watch our kids M-F all week. They of course will watch the boys for us on the weekends but it's not like it's something they really want to do. They see them all the time and they want their weekends off! :) It makes me feel guilty everytime we ask them to watch the boys for us. But we don't know a teenage girl and I'm not even sure I could actually leave the boys with someone else. When we do ask for the 'rents to babysit it's only when we have something that we *have* to do. Last year we "30th" b-day'd ourselves to death. Everyone turned 30 and there was a party every few weeks it seemed. So we used our sitters for other peoples big events instead of just having a night for us. We love going out with our friends but that's not the same as one on one time.
4. Stop going out without each other. The other part of the no babysitter issue is that when there are things that we want to do but don't have a sitter, just one of us will go. For me, this usually isn't a big deal cause a lot of times it will be a girls night type thing anyways, but for Scott it's typically a couples thing. I feel like that has sort of made him start to think of down time without the kids to also feel like down time from me. Not good.
5. Separate ourselves from our roles as "mommy" and "daddy". We are both very hands on parents and it's hard to not just be the mom to everyone including Scott.
Since our talk I feel like we have both been making an effort to focus on us and it's better. But here's where it gets hard...I can't just drop my life and responsibilities to be his carefree girlfriend again. I feel like I'm torn no matter what I do. The truth is we ARE parents, working parents at that. I am away from my kids for over 9 hours everyday. I don't want to leave them at night ever. It's hard to make myself workout for two hours a week 'cause it cuts into my time with the boys. How can we break away and have these much needed date nights? I feel guilty asking for someone to babysit and I feel guilty for leaving the boys. I miss them when we go out without them. That's why we usually don't let them spend the night out and go get them or get up and get them first thing in the morning if they do. Then that makes me feel bad for feeling guilty because Scott doesn't. Maybe that's just a mom thing because he is fine with leaving them overnight. The other thing is that I am constantly screwing myself out of family time and alone time with Scott by over-committing myself to things. We run non-stop. We make it to every adult b-day party, kid b-day party, shower and any other event we are invited to. We have a big family and such great friends but at some point this lifestyle just can not continue. I have said it before but somehow we just get sucked right back in. I don't know what to do about it. I feel super guilty when I miss stuff. I have two examples of how this impacts our family. Last Sunday we had a kid b-day party at 3:30 in Keller. I needed to go to the grocery store but I went with Scott and the boys to the party instead. We didn't get back home until about 6:30. After dinner, bath and bedtime for the boys the last thing I wanted to do was go to the store at 8:30. Yet instead of just staying home and spending time with Scott, I went to the store and spent an hour and a half getting groceries. I am sick of shopping on work nights because it's the only time I can squeeze it in. I would have felt guilty if I had missed the party but then I am missing out on alone time with my hubby that night. The second example was today. Scott and I wanted to take Nolan and Hudson out to Dallas to a kid's film festival at the Angelika. They were showing "Curious George 2" which is something that will not be released to the movies but straight to DVD so this would be our only shot and seeing it on the big screen. We have never taken Hud to the movies before and this would be the perfect one for his first. He and Nolan are at such different stages and there are very few activities that we can really do as a family that will be exciting for both boys. We were invited to a birthday party that fell a little later in the day. Usually I would put the friend's event first and just not do the family thing. Today in trying to focus on my family first - we decided to take the boys to see the movie. It was great! Nolan and Hudson both LOVED it. The problem was that I had really hoped that we would get through in time to make it back for the party, but we didn't. Then I felt so guilty for missing it. Nolan was upset because we missed it and I ended up feeling like I made the wrong choice. Did I? I didn't go out with one group of friends last weekend and another group this past Friday to spend more time with Scott and the boys. I am glad that I did - yet I feel bad for missing the events. I feel like everyone will start to think I don't care about them, or that I never show up to their important things. Where's the balance? I just don't know how to stop feeling guilty about the choices I make even if they are the ones I want to make. I am sitting here crying just typing all this. I just don't know how to sort it out. We need our friends, we need our family, but we need our alone time too. I would love to do all of it, but it's just not possible. How do I make it all work and stop worrying about it?
1. Find a church home. We have been saying for years that we need to find a church and it is time to make that a priority.
2. Make time everyday to talk to each other. This sounds silly but there are a lot of days that we are so in the routine of the boys things and dinner, bath and chores around the house that we barely connect.
3. Make time for date nights. We are in a weird position with our parents - they watch our kids M-F all week. They of course will watch the boys for us on the weekends but it's not like it's something they really want to do. They see them all the time and they want their weekends off! :) It makes me feel guilty everytime we ask them to watch the boys for us. But we don't know a teenage girl and I'm not even sure I could actually leave the boys with someone else. When we do ask for the 'rents to babysit it's only when we have something that we *have* to do. Last year we "30th" b-day'd ourselves to death. Everyone turned 30 and there was a party every few weeks it seemed. So we used our sitters for other peoples big events instead of just having a night for us. We love going out with our friends but that's not the same as one on one time.
4. Stop going out without each other. The other part of the no babysitter issue is that when there are things that we want to do but don't have a sitter, just one of us will go. For me, this usually isn't a big deal cause a lot of times it will be a girls night type thing anyways, but for Scott it's typically a couples thing. I feel like that has sort of made him start to think of down time without the kids to also feel like down time from me. Not good.
5. Separate ourselves from our roles as "mommy" and "daddy". We are both very hands on parents and it's hard to not just be the mom to everyone including Scott.
Since our talk I feel like we have both been making an effort to focus on us and it's better. But here's where it gets hard...I can't just drop my life and responsibilities to be his carefree girlfriend again. I feel like I'm torn no matter what I do. The truth is we ARE parents, working parents at that. I am away from my kids for over 9 hours everyday. I don't want to leave them at night ever. It's hard to make myself workout for two hours a week 'cause it cuts into my time with the boys. How can we break away and have these much needed date nights? I feel guilty asking for someone to babysit and I feel guilty for leaving the boys. I miss them when we go out without them. That's why we usually don't let them spend the night out and go get them or get up and get them first thing in the morning if they do. Then that makes me feel bad for feeling guilty because Scott doesn't. Maybe that's just a mom thing because he is fine with leaving them overnight. The other thing is that I am constantly screwing myself out of family time and alone time with Scott by over-committing myself to things. We run non-stop. We make it to every adult b-day party, kid b-day party, shower and any other event we are invited to. We have a big family and such great friends but at some point this lifestyle just can not continue. I have said it before but somehow we just get sucked right back in. I don't know what to do about it. I feel super guilty when I miss stuff. I have two examples of how this impacts our family. Last Sunday we had a kid b-day party at 3:30 in Keller. I needed to go to the grocery store but I went with Scott and the boys to the party instead. We didn't get back home until about 6:30. After dinner, bath and bedtime for the boys the last thing I wanted to do was go to the store at 8:30. Yet instead of just staying home and spending time with Scott, I went to the store and spent an hour and a half getting groceries. I am sick of shopping on work nights because it's the only time I can squeeze it in. I would have felt guilty if I had missed the party but then I am missing out on alone time with my hubby that night. The second example was today. Scott and I wanted to take Nolan and Hudson out to Dallas to a kid's film festival at the Angelika. They were showing "Curious George 2" which is something that will not be released to the movies but straight to DVD so this would be our only shot and seeing it on the big screen. We have never taken Hud to the movies before and this would be the perfect one for his first. He and Nolan are at such different stages and there are very few activities that we can really do as a family that will be exciting for both boys. We were invited to a birthday party that fell a little later in the day. Usually I would put the friend's event first and just not do the family thing. Today in trying to focus on my family first - we decided to take the boys to see the movie. It was great! Nolan and Hudson both LOVED it. The problem was that I had really hoped that we would get through in time to make it back for the party, but we didn't. Then I felt so guilty for missing it. Nolan was upset because we missed it and I ended up feeling like I made the wrong choice. Did I? I didn't go out with one group of friends last weekend and another group this past Friday to spend more time with Scott and the boys. I am glad that I did - yet I feel bad for missing the events. I feel like everyone will start to think I don't care about them, or that I never show up to their important things. Where's the balance? I just don't know how to stop feeling guilty about the choices I make even if they are the ones I want to make. I am sitting here crying just typing all this. I just don't know how to sort it out. We need our friends, we need our family, but we need our alone time too. I would love to do all of it, but it's just not possible. How do I make it all work and stop worrying about it?
Thursday, January 21, 2010
The BIGGEST mess EVER!
Hudson Cole is a messer! This is a term we use around our house often to describe someone who gets into things or makes a mess. Last Sunday was a busy day for us, we ran around all day and Hud didn't get a nap. After bathtime, both boys went straight to bed without a fight. They were exhausted! I usually go in and out of their rooms multiple times after they are asleep. Ya know like to put up laundry, toys or shoes. I guess I never walked back into their rooms that night. Scott and I were snuggled on the couch watching TV at about 10:10 (two hours after we put them to bed!) and Scott asked if I heard a weird sound. I paused the TV and we could hear running water. We jumped up and ran into our bathroom to find Hudson standing on top of the counter soaking wet with make-up ALL over his face. I immediately shrieked and grabbed him off the counter. He instantly started saying "I SO sorry Mommy! I SO cold and tired. I SO sorry Mommy!" The whole bathroom was covered in a layer of water and Clinique facial cleanser - the whole big bottle that was full was empty! He had dumped half of the jewelry out of my jewelry box into the sink of running water. My wedding ring was laying right on top of the pile! My jewelry box which looked okay at first glace was actually FULL of water and soap. He had opened up my new make-up case from Ulta (one of those cases with all of the prefilled make-up) and had dug his little fingers into all of the blushes, glosses, eye shadows and foundations and smeared it all over the place - the mirror, the floor, the cabinets, the walls and the rugs. There was make-up all in the white grout on the floor. He then proceeded to pull out a couple of the containers and dump them into the toilet along with my hairspray, floss, hairbrush and toothpaste. Oh and before we threw the toothpaste into the toilet, he had opened it and squirted it onto the big mirror and make-up case and finger painted with it. He had taken a lip liner and drew all over the tile floor and all over his face. It was the most out of control situation I had ever encountered as a parent. Scott and I just looked at each other and started to laugh. It was SO bad and just SO unbelievable it was funny for a split second. We tag teamed the mess and Scott took Hud to the other bathroom to give him a bath and I went get the camera (which I only got a few pics and they do not really show how trashed the bathroom was!) and a trash bag to start throwing out everything that was now destroyed. By the time I got back to Hudson - he was happy as a clam in the other bathroom. I wish I had got a picture of his face before Scott had washed him. Scott put him to bed and he was sound asleep in like 30 seconds. The kid was down right delirious. I don't know how he did that for TWO HOURS without us hearing him. It took us about two hours to clean everything up. I had to wash and dry all of my jewelry since it was covered in soap. In the end, we were just grateful that he didn't slip off the counter and get really hurt or get something in his eyes or eat something that could have been poisonous. It's scary when you realize that they are getting that big and that smart. I have a feeling that Hud is going to give us a little payback for our own childhood stunts!
Dave and Busters with Aunt B
Aunt B took the boys to D&B as a treat for Nolan doing so good in school. Nolan drank a "beer" and Hudson literally drank the ranch - sick! We had a great time chasing the boys around and playing the games. They liked the Dance Dance Revolution Game which was really hard. Of course Becca and I got sucked into winning tickets...at the end we had a ridiculous amount of tickets - like 500 or something crazy like that. You know what it "bought" in the little store? Um, a few ring pops and jelly beans. Seriously?
Sophie
We kept the Self's sweet puppy Sophie over New Years weekend since David took Christi to NYC for her 30th b-day. My boys love "So-So" and totally give that puppy a run for her money when she comes to play at our house! Here are a few pics of how I found them one morning...
Okies
Scott's aunt and uncle and cousins came for a visit a few weeks ago and I wanted to post a few pics. It's so much fun when they come down cause then the boys have more cousins to play with!
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Made in China
Last week Nolan asked me if the North Pole was in China. Random. I told him no and went through the basic location of the two places. I then asked why. He told me that he had just noticed that ALL of the toys that Santa brought said "Made in China" on them and then pointed to it on the bottom of a monster truck. Seriously? What am I doing to do with this kid? Like I would have ever noticed that when I was little! I then had to think fast and explain that the elves don't know how to make plastic so they must order the parts from China and then build the toys. He stopped and thought about it for a minute and then his eyes lit up and he said "OH! That makes sense; they only know how to make things out of wood like on all the Christmas movies!" I just agreed and he walked back out of the kitchen satisfied. I think things are about to get really interesting around here with our new little reader! Ha Ha!
Wednesday, January 6, 2010
My change for 2010
I have been thinking about my resolutions for 2010. I love my life. It's full of fun, love and joy; but with that also comes stress and the constant need for more time and money to have all that fun! I started thinking about what really makes life fun. It's not all the places we go, the things we buy or the food we eat. It's spending time with our friends and family and enjoying their company. I knew I wanted my resolution to be focused on change. I want to be spiritually stronger, I want to be healthier and I want to be more financially settled and secure. I want these things for my family, I want them for myself. I read a blog about making your resolution one word. A simple word that you can repeat and think of each time you need encouragement or a reminder of your goal. What a good idea...seriously, the BEST idea ever! I love the idea of having a "mantra" of sorts, something to keep me grounded in what I want, not what others want of me. It is hard as a mother, wife and friend to remember what I want all the time. I sorta get lost in the details of others' "wants". I think that my word will be CHANGE. I want to change myself - inside and out! I want to change my reactions, change my perceptions and change my focus. I plan to talk to Scott and Nolan about this tonight at the dinner table and encourage them to also think of their word for 2010. A new focus for our family - a change.
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