Not Me! Monday

Here's it is, Monday again and time for the ONLY good thing about the beginning of the week! Please join me in cleansing of our conciouses of all the things we certainly did NOT do in the past week. Oh, and don't forget to link up with MckMama at www.mycharmingkids.net to share your NOT dirty laundry with all the rest of her beloved "wolverines".

This past week I most certainly did not spend far too much money shopping for things I "needed" for a trip to Chicago for a wedding.

One of those items was certainly not a new lightweight Chicco stroller, which I adore!



I also did NOT beg and plead with my husband to stop and get a hotel room on the way home from said trip out of sheer exhaustion, even though we were less than 3 hours away from our destination. I was also NOT the passenger making my level of exhaustion a moot point in the argument.

I was not in total awe of the creatures we saw at the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, definitely not even more so than my children.





I also did NOT upon seeing Nicholas' first tooth poking through his tender gums proceed to take multiple photos of the lower portion of his face.



I of course did not think that these photos are just adorable and wonder if it would be odd to frame one of them.

Those are just a few of the things I did NOT do last week. Join in the fun - I promise it feels really good to get rid of some of that dirty laundry!

3 1/2 year old adult

Braden is currently soaking in a tub after a long day at the zoo. He is completely exhausted after our busy end of week/weekend and in rare form.

A moment ago he got in trouble for dumping water on the floor and I took away his bowl, ladle and 2 cups he plays with in the tub. When I returned to his eyesight he said to me - if you don't give me those back I am going to cry! He then counted to 3 and when I did not in fact return his things he said "Now I will continue to cry" I couldn't help but laugh... but I did try to hide it as best I could.

Now he is requesting to call his Nana so she can come get me and he will stay here and take care of Nick.

Oh my... :)

Frustration!

I just need to blow off a little steam for a minute... I am so incredibly aggravated with my husband today. I'm not sure if he's truly being as inconsiderate and thoughtless as I feel like he is or if I am just stressed out and exaggerating the situation. Therefore I am trying my hardest not to argue with him but grrrrrrrrrrrr!.

As I mentioned before - I have been flying around like a (insert really fast bird here) trying to get everyone in our family ready to head to the Chicago area tomorrow morning. This morning when everyone got up it seemed like no one had energy left. The boys and I lazed around the living room watching movies, cuddling and snoozing for a few hours and Mike slugged off to the garage to... do whatever he does out there.

Once I was a bit more rejuvenated I got into the swing of my plans for the day which included lots of laundry, a few errands, a quick once over of the entire house (because I hate leaving and coming home to a dirty house) and tons of packing. Mike wandered in an out a few times dropping his signature "I'll be back in a little bit" line each time. This in and of itself makes me crazy. That's great honey, I now know that you are leaving however I have no clue where you are going, when you'll be back or if you are taking either of our children with you (which you should because you're not working and I could really use some help getting things together around here)! And even when pressed with questions the answers I recieve are less than what I desire for a response. For example:
Mike - I'll be back in a little bit.
Me - Where are you going?
Mike - Oh, by Johnny's shop for a little bit.
Me - Ok, why?
Mike - I'm going to help him do something and then we're going to go by a junkyard that someone he knows owns and look for a 3rd row seat and console for the Expedition.
Me - (thinking why is this a priority TODAY?) Ok, how long are you going to be? (read - I really need you here but I'm not going to be the one to TELL you what to do).
Mike - I don't know.

And that's the end of the conversation because he walks out the door. I know he's a man and I do try to give him the a bit of leniency because of that but honestly...

Then when he DOES finally come back home I run out leaving the kids with him to do my last minute errands because it's SO much faster and easier that way and what does he do? He proceeds to CALL ME 3 times in the 90 minutes I am gone bugging me about when I'll be back and where I am, what I'm doing and why. For goodness sake! Can I not get 2 hours to myself to just DO something without hiring someone to watch OUR children. Oh yes, I said OUR children? you had a part in making them, it will not kill you to take care of them for a little bit! And when I do return from my errands he is waiting for me on the porch and as soon as I start up the steps I get "I'll be back..." GRRRRRRRRR!

So he proceeds to go in and out for the next 2 1/2 hours doing whatever in the world he feels the need to do while I try and organize, pack, clean and get kids bathed and in bed. Of course during bath time we have a major melt-down. Both boys are crying and I can only be in one place at a time and I am frustrated from the day's happening as it is so I pick up my phone and call him to find out where the heck he is and when he's coming home to help me and he gives ME attitude - snapping at me with an "I'll be there in a minute" Again - GRRRRRR!

So now it's 11:00 at night and I'm buzzing around trying to get stuff done and he makes a couple sandwiches for the road tomorrow and then turns and heads for the living room. So I stop him and ask where he's going. He says, in here to sit down, why? I say, I was hoping you would help me get these dishes put away and load the dirty ones up in the dishwasher so I can get the kitchen clean. He says, Maybe in a minute. Oh right, in a minute... when I'm done with it!

*sigh* I don't know if writing all of this out helped or made it worse... In any case its done... I've retreated to the basement to wait for my next load of laundry and it sounds like it has just finished so I'm off to throw another one in, fold and put away what's coming out, pack and get cleaned up so I can hopefully get some sleep before we hit the road in the morning as I'm sure I'll be doing most of the driving...

I think I need a drink... Maybe I'll pull some of the rum from Renee's batchelorette party out of my freezer and make myself a rum and coke... well, pepsi because we don't have coke...

A State of Exhaustion

If there was such a place I think I would be a permanant resident there this week. I am absolutely wiped out! I have been running around like a headless chicken since Monday morning wrapping up work, trying to get the house cleaned up and laundry done so we can pack and head to Illinois on Thursday morning for Renee and Bill's wedding.

My work load this week is much larger than normal due to an INSANELY busy week last week. That's the way it goes in this business... the guys work like dogs for a few days and then they have down time while I slave away behind my computer. Unfortunately my laptop batter has lost it's mojo in the past few weeks and I now only last approximately 30 minutes without my trusty plug. This throws a hitch in my usual pattern of working outside on the patio or at the park, at least for any extended period of time.

Outside of work I have accomplished a good portion of tasks that I set out to do, including 3 seperate trips to JCPenney to purchase, exchange and then return clothes for Mike which he refused to go shopping with me for, trips to 2 different Burlington Coat Factories to purchase a suit coat for Mike, because he does not own one, hasn't worn one in his adult life and AGAIN wouldn't go shopping with me. I used a very scientific method to determine his jacket size. First, Becky went through full suits and found one that had pants his size and saw what size the jacket was and then I proceeded to try on jackets of varying sizes and lengths to find one that was just a bit too large for me hoping that it would fit him. I also picked up Braden's tux, my dress, made 2 bank runs, got my nails done and a pedicure, stopped by the post office to mail a package, dropped my rings off at the jewelers for some TLC and sizing for the mother's ring I got for Christmas - and that was just today! Whew! No wonder I'm exhausted!

Tomorrow's agenda includes wrapping up billing for any work that has been completed before we head out of town, pray that we don't get hit with too much work, laundry, laundry, pack, laundry, pack, laundry, laundry. Of course the standard household and wifely duties, picking up my rings from the jewelwers and maybe running by Walmart to get a sleeping bag for Braden - because I promised.

For now it's off to get tomorrow's route together so I can get to bed BEFORE 2 am tonight... I could really use a good night's sleep.

Not Me! Monday

This week I decided to take part in MckMama's "Not Me! Monday" blog carnival after many, many weeks and months of reading. I always get a tickle out of reading other people's posts so hopefully 1 or 2 of you will get a kick out of mine!

This past week, I certainly did NONE of the following...

I would never arm my 3 year old with a hose and a bucket of soapy water and "let" him wash the patio furniture knowing full well that he would wind up soaking wet and nothing would actually get clean in order to just keep him occupied in one place for a while.

I most certainly did not sit up until the wee hours of the early morning listening for sounds coming from the baby as he spent his first night in the crib in the boys' newly shared bedroom.

I definitely did not catch myself on a late night cleaning frenzy and stop to realize that I am becoming more and more like my Mother every day. I love my Mother, I would never think that!

I did not bribe Bubba into the bathtub with a popsicle and then allow him to eat said popsicle in the tub so he would be easily cleaned, nor did I give Peanut Brother his first taste of mexican food at the 4th of July carnival. Even if it WAS just a smidge of refried beans he has certainly not been introduced to table food yet and that would be a totally inappropriate first food!

Finally, it did NOT totally depress me as I folded Peanut Brother's clothes into a bag for the salvation army instead of his dresser because he has once again outgrown them. That would just be silly... Babies are supposed to grow bigger and I should relish the fact that our once tiny baby is growing into such a big guy!

Now, won't you please share a few of the thing you did NOT do this week? Trust me, it's fun AND it makes you feel a little better to air your dirty laundry... Well, if you had done any of those things that is...

Leave me a comment with your Not Me! Monday's or post your own blog and leave me the link so I can read all about it!