A Selfish Rant

I need to take this brief moment to be a little selfish.  This is about a friend of mine, whom will remain nameless so that she doesn't get embarrassed.  Her name rhymes with Manielle and starts with a "D," but I will not utter her name.  She has come to be a very good friend of mine and technically we are related (her husband and my husband are first cousins). 

I found out at the beginning of summer that her and her family will  be moving.  Now normally I would be upset about this anyway, but they are moving halfway across the country and I'm a little upset by it.  Now don't get me wrong, I am very happy for her and her family!  I know first-hand how much Iowa winters suck here and have many times hoped that we lived somewhere where the temperatures don't go down to negative numbers and it doesn't snow.  But at the same time I've very upset by the fact that someone who has become such a good friend of mine will soon be leaving.  And one of the worst parts of the situation is that she and I don't know when she will be leaving.  It could be in a week, it could be in 2 months.  I don't know if it would be better to know for sure when she is leaving or not, but it still sucks that the whole date issue is up in the air. 

And even worse yet is that I have so few friends with children.  I mean, I have a lot of friends, but most of them are just newlyweds, not nearly close enough to having children.  And my friends who do have children only have like one, compared to my three.  She not only has children, but both of her kids are within 6 months in age to two of my kids.  This makes play dates extra special and extra fun.  People with children know that there is a special bond between them and other people with kids.  People without children don't understand or get the tantrums, the whining, the spoiling, the bad table manners, and anything else that goes along with having children.  She just gets me.  She understands what I go through on a daily basis being a stay-at-home mom.  She gets when I want to pull out my hair and scream, or cry out of happiness.  She can sympathize with me when the kids are acting out or can feel happy for me when something good happens.  We are a lot alike and enjoy a lot of the same things.  In fact, we've even talked about how we want to get pg again at the same time. 

And our boys are quickly becoming best friends.  Every time we get together they pretty much don't leave each other's side.  And it is so stinking adorable.  Konner has met a few kids before in his short life, but he has never had a connection with anyone like he does with Caden.  He asks for him all the time and when they come over to our house to visit, they spend hours up in his room watching movies and playing.  In fact, they came over last night for dinner and a visit and Konner and Caden spent the entire time we didn't have dinner up in his room.  He even wanted Caden to spend the night with him and he cried when they had to finally go home.  It's going to break my heart when I have to explain to him that his best friend has moved across the country and they won't be able to play together anymore. 

If only we had met each other sooner.  We've been in the same family for years, but never really got a chance to meet or realize that we lived so close to each other.  We finally met a year and a half ago at Greg's grandfather's funeral.  As sad as a time that was for everyone involved, it turned into something really great.  We met, talked and found out that we were both pg.  Heath turned out to be born about a month and a half before her daughter.  He loves her to death, but we constantly remind them that they can't date because they are related.  :-)  Maybe I'm so upset because I've had such a short amount of time to be able to hang out with her.  I wish we had known each other years ago, maybe then her leaving wouldn't be so hard.  ...Well, who am I kidding?  I'm sure her leaving would be even harder then.  But no matter how much fun we have together I can't help but be a little sad every time we hang out because I know that these good times can't be had forever, that eventually she will leave and their will be no more play dates or family get-togethers. 

I am grateful for the amount of time that we have gotten to know each other and hang out.  I'm grateful that she was able to come into my life and her son was able to come into Konner's.  Whether they leave next week or 2 months from now, we will miss them like crazy!  The pictures will remind us of the happy times we had together and I guess we will always be related, right?  At least Greg and I (and maybe the kids) have a place to vacation now, when we go visit them in their new home.  And maybe we can convince them to come back and visit us every now and then.  I wish them nothing but the best of luck in their future endeavors and the enjoyment of hot summer days and warm winter months.  I will be jealous of their year-round warm climate, their palm trees and their view of the mountains.  I will be less jealous of their constant need for sunscreen and their poisonous snakes, spiders and scorpions.  I try not to be too selfish in life, but in this instance I can't help it.  We will miss you guys!  But more importantly, I WILL MISS YOU!  I treasure your friendship Manielle with a "D!"

Kids Say The Darndest Things....

So I've decided to start a post where I can add all the the funny things my kids say. One day I may want to threaten them with bringing these up in front of their friends or use them as part of my toast on their wedding day. Plus, they are just funny to go back and read. Either way, they will come in very handy. So, have fun reading....if you have kids, you probably have heard similar things, if not, this is what you have to look forward to one day. After all, kids do say the darndest things!


Natalli to her little brothers who were making her mad: "I'm not gonna be your big sister anymore!"
My response: "I don't really think you get a choice in that matter sweetheart."
Her response to me: "Oh yes I do!"

Today Natalli and Konner were fighting and I hear this from the other room:
Konner to Natalli: "Take that stupid girl!"
Natalli to Konner: "Bring it on!'

The other day before we left the house I wanted Konner to go to the bathroom so that he didn't say on the ride over that he had to go.
Konner to me: "I don't have to pee or poop mommy"
Me to Konner: "That's fine, but I think we should at least sit down and try to go before we leave"
Konner to me: "But I don't need to go"
Me to Konner: "That's fine, but we are gonna try"
We go in and sit down on the potty and he starts to go pee, to which he says: "Nevermind mommy, I had to go pee."

Whenever the kids whine a lot saying "I need......" and I tell them to hold on and they continue to whine, usually my response is "well, I want a million dollars, but that's not gonna happen right now either." So the other day Konner was whining that he was sooo thirsty and I wanted some water. Well, I was in the middle of something and told him that he had to wait. Now, Konner is extremely impatient and says that he doesn't want to wait. To which Natalli says...
"Well, I want 20 dollars and 30 cents, but I'm not gonna get that either."

My mom was over watching the kids while I went to the dentist office. When I got home she told me about a conversation that ensued between her and Konner.
Konner farted long and loud, so Grami said: "Don't you think you should say 'excuse me'?"
Konner to Grami: "NO! I didn't burp, I FARTED!"

Natalli was being whiny and rude in the car one night, so Daddy said to her when we were 3 miles from home: "If you don't knock it off, I'm gonna pull over and you can walk the rest of the way home."
Natalli to daddy: "O.k."
Daddy to Natalli: "O.k. what?"
Natalli to daddy: "Pull over."
Daddy to Natalli: "What? I'm not gonna pull over."
Natalli to daddy: "Pull over, I wanna get out and walk."
Daddy to Natalli: "I'm not gonna pull over and let you walk home."
Natalli to daddy: "Yes you are! I wanna walk home. Now pull over!"
Daddy to Natalli: "Too bad, I'm not letting you walk home."
To which Natalli was pissed the rest of the way home. Who knew that the real punishment would be that we didn't pull over and let her walk the rest of the way home.

A Blast From The Past

I remember going to Living History Farms as a child, it was one of my favorite places to visit. Sometimes I wonder if I had a previous life in the 1800s, I feel so at home there. The old buildings, the old clothing, the smell, everything is so exciting to me. My dad used to take me there when my brother and I were little for Christmas, we would walk around making Christmas ornaments and taffy, hear Christmas stories and sing Christmas carols. I remember one specific year when we walked around with dad and visited the wood-working building and the wood-worked make me a heart out of wood. I kept that thing for the longest time!

I've been trying to get the kids out of the house more often this summer than I have in past years. They are growing up so fast, I feel like I am missing out on doing things with them in the prime of their youth. Sure, they might be too young to remember specific details, but this is the time when family traditions are started. So this week, my good friend Danielle and I took our kids to go walk around Living History Farms. I hadn't been there in years!

Fabrics

Threads and bobbins

When I first told Natalli where we were going, she asked me if that was the place where Grandma Besch kicked the chickens into trees (oh, funny girl), so I had to explain to her that was indeed not where we were going. I, however, thought this childish question was worth telling Grandma Besch, to which she laughed so hard I thought milk was gonna come out of her nose!

I wasn't sure how the kids would receive the experience. They had never done anything like that before. The most they've ever walked in one day was at the zoo, and honestly, that doesn't require that much walking here. To my pleasant surprise they really seemed to love it! Besides the fact that we picked like the hottest day of the summer to go (we seem to have bad luck in that department) and we thought it would be a good idea to go with 6 kids (she had two, I had the other four, although one of them was the baby I nanny for), we had a really, really good time! We walked around the old 1875 town, the kids got to see the outfits that were "in" back in the day, what old buildings looked like and what kids did for fun. We got to walk through an old bank, printing house, lawyer's office, church, Dr's office, wood-working building, broom-maker, an old schoolhouse, an old farmhouse, and lots more. Konner and Natalli got to try their hands at making an official "Iowa" seal to go on official lawyer documents and Natalli go to use the printing press to make a sheet like they would newspapers (which took over 24 hours to dry)! We had lunch on some picnic tables and took numerous trips to the bathrooms, luckily they were not port-a-potties!




Natalli printing a piece of paper



Me with Konner and Natalli




Konner and Caden playing in the water fountain

Heath relaxing in the stroller



Konner making the seal of Iowa



Konner and Natalli in the schoolhouse

 


We spend 4 long hours there and didn't even get to finish everything. We made it all the way through town, but we didn't get a chance to visit all the old farmsteads (which we would have had to take a tractor to get to). By the end of the day the two babies were sleeping and Natalli was complaining every 5 minutes that she wanted to ride in one of the strollers. 3 year old Konner and 2 1/2 year old Caden were perfectly happy walking all day long, but the 5 year old needed a place to sit down. But I turned into bad mommy and made her walk the whole time! Gasp! How dare I make her get some exercise on a nice day! By the time we left everyone was tired, walked out and the weather was actually a lot nicer; go figure. One day we will have to go back and visit again so that we can finish our tour. Hopefully we will pick a day that's a little less sunny, a little less humid and a little less hot. Hopefully we can make it back before Danielle and her family move so that we can go back with them. We had the best time! And so let the memories, and the family traditions begin!

A little spoiling goes a long way

I always told myself when I had children that I wouldn't spoil them so they didn't grow up to be spoiled little brats. Easy, right? That was, of course, before I had any children. Three children later and my viewpoint on that has changed just a little bit.

Nothing makes me happier than seeing the faces of my children light up and nothing makes me sadder than seeing my children pout and cry. Every now and then, you just have to spoil them. It won't make them rotten, I hope, and it makes them happy. There is nothing I want to do more than make them happy. I can't explain how I feel when I see the look of joy on their faces. Their little eyes get big and light up, their mouths open and gasp in delight, they run and give you the biggest hug and then they say the three little words that make your heart melt, "thank you mommy!"

The other day we were walking the mall and decided to walk through Build-A-Bear, just to see what new things they may have in there....what were we thinking? That was a terrible idea! They had a Woody costume, which of course Konner fell in love with! And then there it was....Natalli spotted the purple bear with sparkly hair, which just so happened to be an iCarly bear. The look on her face was priceless. She was in love....and then we had to break it to her, we were not buying it. Her happy, joyful face suddenly turned to a look of devastation and sadness. She cried all the way out of the mall. It broke my heart how upset she was. There is nothing worse than making your child cry. Now, not saying that you should always say "yes" to them, there are times where "no" is needed. But when it came to the bear, I felt horrible telling her "no." So we decided that we would go back and get the kids a Build-A-Bear. Not only would it be fun to do together as a family, but also something they could cuddle with at night and love.

Natalli chose the iCarly purple, sparkly bear, with the iCarly outfit and the rock star tennis shoes. She named her bear Carly, I know, real original right? Well, she is 5 after all, to her, it is original and practical. :-) Konner decided on a wolf, very Konnerish. And of course, he needed to get his wolf the Woody outfit, because the kid cannot go anywhere without his Woody. The outfit is complete with cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. He named his wolf Wolfie....again, I know, original, but easy for a 3 year old to remember. And we couldn't leave out poor Heath. Of course he's not old enough to tell us what he wants, but it just wouldn't be right if we let the older two get one and didn't also get one for Heath. So we chose him the cutest, softest teddy bear. He's kind of old-school looking, which is neat. We decided on black high-top tennis shoes with jeans and a white shirt and black vest. He is very hip and rock-n-roll looking. Greg and I named him Cuddles.

They got to step on the peddle to get their animals stuffed and then they got to pick out each of their animals a heart. Which they had to rub to warm up, jump up and down to get it pumping and then they had to kiss before they stuck it inside their animal. Then they got to take them to the "wash" area to get them all "clean" before we took them to the dressing area to get them dressed in their new outfits.

They carried their little animals out to the car in their little "homes" and had to hold them in the car all the way home. They are now currently cuddling with them in bed while they are sleeping. They were so excited to go get them and I was so excited to see the look on their face when they got them. It makes my heart happy knowing that I could do something, something so little and easy, to make them so happy. Makes me melt when they smile, I am currently now a puddle of goo. A very, very big puddle of goo and I can go to bed tonight happy and knowing that I could do something to make the lives of my children a little brighter tonight. Spoiling isn't always bad. :-)

Newbie

Well, here goes. My very first blog attempt. I've been wanting to start a blog for awhile, for various reasons, one being that I love to write, but I had been putting it aside for a long time. Then recently I was having a chat with my friend Danielle and we were talking about her blogging and she told me that I should start one, and I was like, well, why not? I do have a degree in English, but this blog will probably not end up being very special. I have a tendency to use run-on sentences and big, long paragraphs when I'm writing in this sort of format. I apologize in advance for that. I'm hoping that I can use my blog as a place to write down my feelings, frustrations and memories. Maybe someone will find it helpful, interesting, or even funny to read. If not, at least I have it for myself, and one day, for my children to read and look back on.