Thursday Thirteen....

Haven't done one of these in a while, so here it goes.....

Thirteen Things That I've Learned This Year

1.) I've Learned That Nursing Is A Magical Time Between Mommy and Baby- We quit nursing in May. Both of us were ready to quit. It was time. But now I look back and actually miss it. It's such a short period of time that you nurse. It's the one time where your baby is actually still and totally dependent on you. I loved that. Now I have a very defiant toddler that doesn't like to cuddle and won't stay on my lap for more than a few seconds. In fact, I just found her standing in the bathroom in the dark with the door closed. *sigh*

2.) I've Learned That It *Is* Possible To Take A Training And Pump At The Same Time- It was difficult and I was away for an entire weekend, but I survived. So did Maeve. We missed each other a lot though.

3.) I've Learned That It Is Possible For A Surgery To Get Cancelled- Richard went in for some nose surgery in March and walked right back out of there. They refused to do it because they found an even bigger problem.

4.) I've Learned That The Heart Is An Amazing Organ And What Can Be Done With It Is Even More Amazing- Richard's PFO wasn't a problem and was easily fixed. They put in a device that acted as an umbrella and fit right on his heart. It opened up and the heart tissue will grow around it. All of this was done through a catheter....no incisions at all. Technology is amazing.

5.) I've Learned That Kid #2 Can Be Entirely Different From Kid #1- That's usually the case, right? Well I'm learning this first hand. Maeve is a rambunctious toddler that is extremely hard headed (gee, I wonder who she gets that from?). Kyra was an easy going kid. She still is. I can't wait to see what the future holds.

6.) I've Learned That Kid #1 and Kid #2 Can Be Best Friends.....No Matter What The Age Difference- These girls have bonded. Kyra sticks up for Maeve. She helps her out. They play. They dance. Maeve yells Kyra's name at the dance studio when she sees her in the room before we pick her up. Maeve yells her name at the bus stop. It warms my heart.

7.) I've Learned That Kindergarten Is Completely Different From Preschool- What an adjustment! I had a harder time than Kyra did. All of a sudden, my child was riding the bus. She had homework. We had to be on time. She's eating the food in the cafeteria for lunch. She's making LOTS of friends. I have to attend a parent/teacher conference. She gets a report card. We're in the "big time" now.

8.) I've Learned That It's Going To Be A LONG TIME Before My House Is The Way I Want It- Between kids that make tons of messes, the walls that I want to paint, the floors that I want to get, and the new furniture that I want to get, I realize that it could be YEARS before it happens. But one can dream, right?

9.) I've Learned That I Can Be In Great Shape- Exercise-wise, I have never been in better shape. I'm doing 2 Body Step classes per week, doing/teaching Body Flow twice a week, and running over 4 miles 2-3 times per week. I absolutely love working out. It's an addiction. My body craves it. I love the feeling I get after an exhilarating workout. Now if I could just low carb it for a while and get my eating under control. Then I could lose that 10-15 lbs.

10.) I've Learned That There Are Some VERY WEIRD People Out There- Right, Jen? LOL! I'm not going to name names. That would be rude. ;)

11.) I've Learned That An Imagination Can Be A Beautiful, Beautiful Thing- Sorry, but I'm not going to elaborate here. I'll keep it to myself. :)

12.) I've Learned To Let Go- I'm not elaborating here either, but a select few know who I'm talking about.

13.) I've Learned That Life Is All About Family And Friends- I'm so thankful for my wonderful family. I love each and every one of them. I've made some new friends this year and reconnected with some old ones too. For that, I'm grateful. I thank you for letting me into your lives.

Well, she's *sort of* right.....

Here is a side-by-side shot of Elmo and Clifford The Big Red Dog. This morning, Maeve was "reading" a Clifford book and called him Elmo. I think I can see the resemblance. I'm kind of glad that Kyra wasn't here to correct her. At this age, Maeve can't really tell the difference anyway. She just knows that they both are red! LOL! Cute!

The pink slip is back.....

Yep, the pink slip means only one thing. Kyra got hurt. My first thought was, "Oh lord, what now?"

Before I could even read the nurse's pass, Kyra explained to me that she was running at recess and tripped and fell (so what else is new?) and got some sand in her eyes. She went to the nurse's office and the nurse put some drops in her eyes. She also gave her some ice.

OMG, I'm convinced that my child LOVES the nurse. I think she's been at least a handful of times since school began.

I told Richard that I might just have to get the nurse a Christmas gift too! LOL!

Someone please enlighten me.....

Today I went to the mall and saw a sign with an arrow for Valet Parking. WTF? At the mall? I didn't see where it was though (because Barton Creek is so freakin big anyway and I didn't want to drive all the way around). Why bother Valet Parking at the mall? Your car isn't getting a special spot and while you think that you are saving some steps, you aren't. You're going to have to walk the mall anyway while you shop, right? What's a few extra steps? Newsflash: It's probably GOOD for you to park and walk YOURSELF! It's called EXERCISE people!

Rant over. Now back to your regularly scheduled program.

Pardon the mess.....

I know, I know. It's different. No, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. I don't know if I'll keep it though. It'll have to grow on me. So far it looks pretty good though and seems pretty easy to read. I like that.

I might try to play around with links, etc. so if something looks funny for a long period of time, then let me know.

Why even bother.....

I just read this.

Makes me wonder why celebs even bother to get married. You know that Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes aren't going to last either. Then that 3.5 million dollar hoopla of a celebration will have been a waste of time. But then again, everything those two do is a waste of time.

We survived.....

I got to see my babies after making a short trip to my sister's yesterday. They were fine. Maeve clung to my BIL which in itself is pretty funny because she's NEVER done that before. Kyra had stories to tell about Thanksgiving and how she got to make S'mores the night before. Kyra also showed me her newest accessory.....a big ol black eye from tripping somewhere on Thanksgiving Day. Nice. Poor kid. She's as graceful as her mother. LOL! We had a nice visit with my aunt and uncle last night, had a terrific dinner (thanks for the wings Nate!), and retired to bed pretty early.

We came home today around noon. My dad is here with us and he'll leave in the morning. Hopefully then things will return to normal a bit. Richard also gets off in the morning. I'm thinking about making him a "honey do" list. Lists work better than nagging around here. He probably won't like it, but he needs to realize that if he doesn't follow through with his jobs, he'll have to answer to not me, but to Sargeant Kyra. She's always on his case more than I am. *sigh*

I have so much to do this week. I need to start wrapping Christmas gifts and I need to start thinking about Christmas cards. We are leaving next Friday again for Victoria. Richard wants to fish/flounder all weekend. I need to get all of the rest that I can this week.

Hope your Thanksgiving was a great one! I was sick, but I text messaged back and forth all day with a few friends. That was nice. It was nice to be thought of! :)

Geez times have changed.....

So I've been parked on the sofa most of the day and have seen just about every Black Friday commercial known to man. Yeah, we get it! Tomorrow *is* a big shopping day and tomorrow *all* stores open early. Just how early tends to boggle my mind. Really.

Garden Ridge has been open since this morning.....yeah, since Thanksgiving morning! They are staying open for something like 87 hours straight! WTF?

I've heard that the outlet malls in the area are opening at midnight tonight. Crazy. I thought the people getting to the stores at 5 am were crazy. Not anymore. These are the times when you must sleep on Thanksgiving day so that you can shop all night. Again, WTF?

The funniest moment happened yesterday (Wednesday) when Richard woke up later in the morning and asked why Kyra was home. LMAO! He thought that she had school yesterday! But really, I remember not getting out of school till noon on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Now everyone gets out that Tuesday. Heck, some schools have had off all week. It's NOT Spring Break people!

Also, remember the good ol days when school used to start after Labor Day? I hear they are trying to bring that back. Honestly, I'm ready for school to start mid-August though. The kids get restless and just need to get back to driving their teachers crazy! ;)

I could ramble on and on, but I need to go to bed. I need sleep. I feel better, but I'm still tired. The kids had a blast today. I'm glad. I miss my little rugrats though. Hopefully I'll be well enough to drive to join them at my sister's tomorrow.

Oh, and the big rivalry (UT vs. A&M) is on tomorrow. That's always fun to watch.

Well that sucks.....

I laid down at 11 last night. Between that time and 3:30 this morning, I felt sick as a dog. I dry heaved a few times. It was horrible. I called Richard to come home from work, because I knew that things just weren't right. I finally got to sleep around 4 and slept till 7. Kyra and Maeve woke up. We called my dad and he suggested that we stay put. I agreed since I'm so tired right now. But Kyra was visibly upset that she wouldn't be able to go today. So Richard just left with the kids (God Bless him) and he's meeting my sister halfway and she's taking the kids today to my aunt's house. He'll come home, sleep, and then go to work tonight because it's a holiday and he makes the mega bucks on those days.

As for me, I'm going to try to take a nap this morning. I figure that I'll wake up later and see how I feel. I'm drinking some Sprite and am trying to eat something. I don't know what was wrong. If I feel better later, then I might drive to where they are this afternoon/evening. If not, then I'll stay home and rest and drive to my sister's in the morning.

So much for a Happy Thanksgiving. I felt horrible sending my kids away this morning. I wanted to be with them so bad. :(

Happy Thanksgiving!

I want to take a moment to wish all of my friends and family and wonderful, safe Thanksgiving! I feel so blessed this year in particular. I have so much to be thankful for. If you've kept up with my blog and my life, thank you. It's definitely chaotic at times, but definitely worth every moment!

I'm about to leave in a bit to teach Body Flow downtown. It's the last class there before Thanksgiving. Since people tend to leave work early, I hope somebody shows up. I really want to do this release today!

I'll be packing and cooking later today. Then the girls and I are heading out in the morning. Mia will stay here with Richard. Richard works Wed.-Sat. nights this week. We will be at my aunt and uncle's house tomorrow in the Schulenburg area and then we are staying two nights with my sister in La Grange. We'll be back on Saturday.

So, be safe, be happy and be FULL from all of the goodies! ;) You deserve it!

Liver and Cheese.....

This was too cute not to pass along......

Three handsome male dogs are walking down the street when they see a beautiful, enticing, female Poodle.

The three male dogs fall all over themselves in an effort to be the one to reach her first, but end up arriving in front of her at the same time.

The males are speechless before her beauty, slobbering on themselves and hoping for just a glance from her in return.

Aware of her charms and her obvious effect on the three suitors, she decides to be kind and tells them, "The first one who can use the words 'liver' and 'cheese' together in an imaginative, intelligent sentence can go out with me."

Shadow, the sturdy, muscular black Lab speaks up quickly and says, "I love liver and cheese." "Oh, how childish," said the Poodle. "That shows no imagination or intelligence whatsoever."

She turns to Dozer, the tall, shiny Golden Retriever and says "How well can you do?"

"Um. I HATE liver and cheese," blurts Dozer. "My, my," said the Poodle. "I guess it's hopeless. That's just as dumb as Shadow's sentence."

She then turns to the last of the three dogs and says, "How about you, little guy?"

The last of the three, tiny in stature but big in fame and finesse, is a Chihuahua. He gives her a smile, a sly wink, turns to the Shadow and Dozer, and says,"Liver alone, cheese mine!"

I've had it.....

If there's a hole to crawl into, I want in it. Now.

Stress already?!

The more Christmas stuff I see out, the more my stress level skyrockets. I'm soooo not ready for it yet. I know that this week is Thanksgiving and granted I have a lot of things done, but there's so much to do yet. AND with Richard working overtime, a very fiesty toddler, and a planned fishing trip in 2 weeks, I don't know when I'm going to have time to shop. I have a lot of things bought already and I guess I should be thankful for that. But there are still people to shop for....mainly my kiddos! I have no idea what to get them this year. I ordered something for Kyra online today and I pray that it gets here before Christmas. I'm trying to talk Richard into getting the Christmas decorations down from the attic tomorrow so I can set things up and teach Maeve what "no touching" means. That will be hard. She's very "hands on" and has to touch everything.

On a brighter note, Kyra got a perfect report card today. Her teacher said that she's a "joy to have in class." I'm so proud of her. Her Papoo said that he'd give her money if she had a good report card, so she got on the phone tonight and told him to "Pay up!" LOL!

I'm sitting here in silence. Thank God my kids are worn out by 7pm and go to bed early. There's no alarm to set in the morning either, but Miss Kyra's internal "alarm" will wake me up much earlier than I want, I'm sure. Ugh.

We'll see just how much gets accomplished this weekend. Richard is working on Sunday during the day, so I'll have to get in gear and do a lot of it myself.

You're welcome.....

If you're brave enough to shop on Black Friday, check this out.

Randomness.....

-My child just loves the nurse at school.....so much that she's been to the nurse's office about 4 times in two weeks. She's bumped her head on the monkey bars, bumped her head on a table in her classroom, and "scratched" her knee (although I saw no evidence of a scratch....just a cute band-aid). Ugh. At least they probably know her name. LOL!

-I'm tired of the toddler meltdowns. There are so many in a day that I can't even keep up. The words that continue to plague me are, "I need a drink." Today I saw her throw her cup across the room. I immediately got some "deja vu" thoughts because I've seen her daddy get so mad that he's thrown something so many times. Like father, like daughter, huh?

-Richard worked a day of overtime this week. YAY! Money! Too bad this day was the hardest of the week. I took Maeve to the doctor. Sure enough, she's on the verge of an ear infection. So she's on antibiotics. I just want her well before next week.

-Anybody want to come and clean my house? I'm so tired of having children that DO NOT clean up after themselves, so I end up doing it. Ugh. Will I ever have a clean house again?

-Emmitt Smith just won "Dancing With The Stars". Thank God. If Mario would have won, I would have demanded a recount. Mario looked genuinely pissed. Good.

-I'm watching my taped "Friday Night Lights". I adore this show. If you've never seen it, you need to watch it. It's good.

-Kyra gets her first report card this Friday. I can't wait to see it. She's been reading so much lately and I'm completely floored at her ability to pick up a book that she's never read before and read it. It's amazing. She's come a long way in just a few short months. I'm going with her class on a field trip next Tuesday. Actually, all of the Kindergarten classes are going. We are going in buses to the Austin Children's Museum. This ought to be really interesting. Expect a full update about that.

-Thanksgiving is next week. Next week? Already? WTF? I'm already freaking out because of all of the Christmas hype. I'm sooooo not ready. And I have to put up a tree. This is going to be difficult this year. Explaining "No, don't touch that" to a defiant toddler is going to be a chore. Her hands must touch everything.

-I still am not used to this Beta Blogger thing. I've tried posting on blogs, but have had none of my posts show up. So just know that I am reading. I know that they are still working on things. Hopefully everything will be ironed out soon.

These kids and their fingers.....

This is a recent pic of Maeve. Notice she sucks her two middle fingers. She did this completely on her own. People laugh because they think she's making the Longhorn sign on purpose. She's not though. ;) She sucks on these fingers when she's tired and wants to go to sleep, or she wants to be comforted.

This is Kyra when she was probably about Maeve's age. She STILL sucks on this(index) finger when going to sleep.

For Emily....

Em, I don't know if you're out there scanning blogs or not,

but I miss you. I hope everything is ok. Keep me posted.

Hopefully this put a smile on your face. When I saw Richard

do this for Kyra, I had to grab my camera.

I thought of you. ;)

Poor guy.....

I'm really wondering if the neighbor across the street from us is due for some bad karma or something. A few months ago, I noticed a HUGE moving van in front of the house. I assumed that his wife and his baby were moving out. It happened during the day when he wasn't there and I haven't seen them since.

Fast forward to this afternoon. The little boy from next door knocked on ours and wanted Richard to come outside. Our next door neighbor (his dad) wanted Richard to help him cut off this guy's water. There was water seeping out of his front door. You could see water on all sides of the house. I don't know what happened, but Richard said that if it was "that bad", then the entire house would probably have to be gutted. Ugh.

I just looked out the window and the guy is finally home. I don't know if he was gone all weekend or what. It looks like he's got every light in the house on. He'll be busy for a while. He's probably on the phone right now with his insurance company.

I wonder what happened. I'm sure we'll get the scoop from the folks next door. They know everything. ;)

I guess having some bent blinds (courtesy of Maeve) isn't so bad afterall. This guy's problem is much, much worse.

It's not just mudslinging in the ads.....

It happens for real! This is so bizarre! This happened in our county.

The guy charged lost in 2002! His anger comes out 4 years later? WTF?

Kyra funnies.....

This morning I voted. I got a few stickers that said, "I voted". Maeve ruined one (of course) and the rest were saved for Kyra. She got home from school and I gave them to her.

Kyra: "That's the American flag! What does this say?"

Me: "It says, 'I voted'".

Kyra: "So mommy, you won?"

PIMP! I'd like to know just what it was that I was running for! ;)

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And another gem....

Kyra: "Mommy, the stores think that it's Christmas."

Me: "I know."

Kyra: "Is it still October?"

Me: "No Kyra, it's November."

Kyra: "You mean it's not even December?"

Me: "No, it's November."

Kyra: "Then why do they have all of the Christmas stuff out if it hasn't even been Thanksgiving yet?"

LOL! She's such an observant kid. :)

Holy sh*t!

So I'm watching the CMAs (Country Music Awards) and George Strait is singing and he's wearing black slacks! WTF? Where's my Wranglers, George?

At least he's still got the Stetson hat. :)

Oh yeah! It's that time of year again!

Wurstfest is here! It's the two week festival dedicated to sausage and it's in New Braunfels! SWEET! And Kyra, my dad, and I are going on Saturday night!

If you've never been, then what the heck are you waiting for? It's a blast and the food there is awesome. They have different foods to accomodate everyone's taste buds. But there's nothing like a good ol bratwurst and some saurkraut! YUM! Oh, and there's plenty of beer too! ;)

We're going to hear some tunes from my cousins, The Dujka Brothers. Plus my brother-in-law is turning 30 on the 20th, so we'll be celebrating that too. Good times! :)

What I did this weekend without the kids....

This is what I did this weekend! LOL! Kyra has to make turkeys this week for school for their turkey farm. They have to be 3-D and be able to fit in a shoebox. So I did my research online and this is what I came up with. I practiced making them today and Kyra will help me make more this week. I figure the least we can do is give some to her friends or some of our family if we don't use all of them. I think they are rather cute. Of course, my fingers are cursing me right now because it's been a long time since I've used a hot glue gun. Let's just say that I have a few blisters on them. :(

"Early" voting.....

So I've tried Early Voting twice already and still haven't cast my vote. The lines have been super, duper long. Ugh. It's funny how people always say to vote early to avoid the long lines and then Early Voting days are busier than Election Day!

I'm usually not so passionate about voting, but since this is on the ballot and it directly affects Kyra's school, I feel like I MUST vote.

Oh, and I wish that all of those running for office would freakin move away from the curb and quit waving at me. Chances are that if I see you name on the ballot, I won't vote for you because you're making such an a$$ out of yourself. I bet others feel the same way. It's costing you votes, not helping you get votes.

Guess I'll try again on Tuesday. I bet there won't be any lines then. :)