Therapeutic Weeding

It's spring break this week so I have all three kids around the house. I hadn't realized just how crazy it could become having Hayden back in the mix for just those couple hours in the morning. I attempted to go to the library like I usually do once a week. It was so crazy and out of control.

The kids didn't listen to me, Hadley wouldn't hold on like she usually does because Hayden would not. They kept trying to run onto a computer and play with it. Then, Hadley wanted to go potty so I took them in to go potty. They both went, but then Hadley wanted to go again and decided to lock me out of the stall. Hayden then thought it would be fun to join in. I told them that we were done and it was time to go and took them to the car.

When we finally got home, I was still miffed at them so I decided to put Addison in her crib for her nap and then make sandwiches. I put them on the table and had them eat lunch. I then decided to cool off by going out to my garage and clean up.

Our trash can had a leak and spilled some liquid all over the garbage can and floor underneath it so I washed and scrubbed the can. I then tried to get it off the ground, but it wouldn't budge since it was so sticky so I sprayed some goo gone and then went and checked on the kids. They were doing good so I went back out and tried to clean it off again. It still wasn't moving so I resorted to a spackle spatula to scrape it off. That worked great. Then I mopped and dried the area.

After that, I was still feeling upset a little so I proceeded to weed the front yard. It felt very relaxing and helped me finish cooling down. I am grateful for yard work and having a place to go away from the kids that is still nearby and I can think and just feel good about accomplishing something.

On that note, I do want to blog about my garden because I am proud. I seeded some more plants the passed couple weeks and my carrots and green onions have done great. I love being able to go to my yard and pluck what I need.

Our berry crop

My carrots and green onions

My biggest carrot ever!

The only sad part is that after I seeded more today and showed the kids carrots and what not, Hadley decided that while I was washing the carrots off, she would grab a shovel and start digging up the area just planted. Needless to say, I was disappointed in her. Hopefully, it didn't hurt the seeds to displace them too much. We'll see when the sprouts come up.

Scoop Day!

I love when there is free food and I have always loved Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream so I am way excited that today is Free Scoop Day where you can walk into any of their participating scoop shops and get a free cone. I am way excited and I definitely took advantage of this fun treat with the kids this afternoon. So good I can taste it :0)

Mommy and Hadley

I had grandma meet us there as part of the surprise outing

Poor Addy! So close to eating ice cream but still too early. Maybe next year.

Tandem Drive-Ups

Wow! I have had some weird luck with tandem drive-ups lately. I forgot to post this a while back, but I had gone to the drive up before pick-up at school and thought I had plenty of time to cash a check. I pulled up and was the first of 2 cars front to back being helped. I thought, no sweat. I am first so I will be in and out in no time.

Well, I was wrong. They started talking with the person behind me first and apparently, she had a lot of questions which kept the teller and supervisor occupied for a while. I was getting nervous as I watched the time keep ticking away. She finally greeted me and I answered her question about cashing my check and then she continued. She answered more questions, again, to the person BEHIND me and I continued to try to wait anxiously as I became late to pick up my son. Finally, I received my cash and pulled out.

When I got to school, Hayden's teacher was waiting there with Hayden at the gate. I ran up to him and apologized to the teacher and proceeded to explain my drive up woes. She re-buttled with some fun stories of her own which made me feel better. Who knew it would've taken that long to cash a check.

Which brings me to today's incident. I went yet again to cash a check like I have done so many times before and was the first one through the drive up again. She said Hi promptly and felt better like this would be easy. After sending my transaction through, she greeted the customer behind me and I thought all is well. After a little bit of not hearing anything, I heard, "Are you cashing this check?"

"Yes."

"I'm going to send it back because you need to endorse it."

Puzzled...I reply with, "It is endorsed."

"Yeah, but since you are the one cashing it, you need to sign it."

"Really? That's a new policy that I've never come across."

She sends it back with a pen and I sign and push send, as I do so, I realize that I didn't put the pen back and start saying, Oh shoot! I forgot to put it back in I'm sorry. I was apologizing to no one since I didn't ring the call button to explain that I had forgot.

A couple more minutes go by and then I hear, "Can I have the pen sent back please?"

I explain yes and that I forgot. She sent the can back and I placed it in and sent it while saying Wow because by this time, the person behind me had received their money and she would not send my money until I sent the pen back apparently since the can was empty.

Not sure what she had been doing all this time, but apparently, it took her a couple more minutes after that to withdraw and cash my check.

Seriously, it really takes that much time and effort? When did all of that change from the several times before this one. I go in the drive up because I don't want to unpack the kids, but lately, it seems like an easier and quicker time, just getting out of the car. I thought drive up was for convenience, not inconvenience!

St. Patty's Day What?

Ever since I was a teen, I have worn red every St. Patty's Day to sort of represent my heritage. I am a fourth generation Scottish American and my mom taught me that the Scottish wear red every St. Patty's Day. She also taught me that French people wear orange and I can't remember who wears blue. Has anyone else ever heard of this kind of tradition as well?

I enjoy it thoroughly. This year though, I decided to join the crowd partially by wearing a green long sleeve shirt under my red polo. I also did the right thing and dressed all of my kids in some green.

The day turned out to be nice weather and I got so hot that I changed my clothes before dinner and so my hubby came home and started pinching me because I had no green on any more. Just a bland gray shirt. Oh well, it happens. I still had my traditional corned beef dinner which was good as well.

Saving Grace

One saving grace through my day filled with pee and poop accidents as well as headaches, disobedient children and a scratchy throat that makes my voice sound funny is the fact that since it is St. Patrick's Day, I have had dinner in the slow cooker getting ready by itself all day long.

Ahh...the pure awesomeness of slow cookers and not having to juggle all of that with making dinner. It is MY saving grace today.

Too Sick To Care

This weekend, I started to feel kinda crumby. The wind has been wicked here and that has kicked up a whole lot of allergies. My eyes have been watery, my throat scratchy and now, my nose is a leaky faucet. I've been taking medicine, but there are times when it wears off and I just feel lousy.

On that note, I started my day off finding Addison in her bucket with a very soaked and poopy diaper. This was discovered about the time I usually leave to bring Hayden to school. While cleaning that mess up, I noticed Hadley decided to pee herself so after tending to the one mess and switching car seats to be set to transport to school, I had to clean and change her.

I used the Kiss and Go Lane today since Hadley was screaming in the car since she didn't want to get in the car to leave and we were about a minute to the bell anyways.

We went to the store to replenish our ever dwindling tissue supply right now and a couple of other things. Hadley had to pee in Wal-Mart so I took her to their family bathroom. I then spent the next 15 minutes trying to convince her to pee in the toilet which ensued more yelling and screaming at mommy.

Finally, after putting her horse in the bag where she couldn't get it, she went and I couldn't be happier. We finished up and I went to check out and the lines were few and long. I decided to pick one and while wrestling with Hadley to stay in the cart, I looked up and noticed three more lines had opened around me and people rushed to fill them.

So, there I was stuck and committed. I continued wrestling Hadley as I waited around 15-20 minutes to pay for things. Finally, I had my turn and when the price matching came for the corned beef I had picked out, she told me there was only a 1 limit.

I said, I have a flier for two here.

She then went, okay and then proceeded. Then she looked at it and noticed it said Safeway Brand and said she couldn't price match it because it wasn't the same brand (To my understanding, you can price match as long as it is an equivalent brand).

Kinda mad, I re-buttled with okay, here's the Albertsons flier that doesn't have a brand listed. She said fine and then said that covers one.

I then grabbed my Smiths add to match for 1.49 a lb. instead which was still decent and she up and refused that one since it had Kroger listed as the brand. Miffed at her by this point, I said, fine. I am too sick to care at this point. She went to put the other two off to the side and I stopped her and said I am taking them anyways (Maybe it would have been different if I had gone to a different cashier).

Then, I went to pick up Hayden early and they were out playing on the play ground. They were called in line and walking in and I noticed that Hayden was dancing. I became nervous as he moved inside. A moment later, I had the room mom call out, "Is Hayden's mommy here?"

I replied with yes and she motioned me to come here. She spoke softly that Hayden peed himself and I told her that I would get the change of clothes from the car. To make it short, I ran back to the car, got the clothes and met him in the bathroom to get him cleaned up.

Now you know, I'm just too sick to care. What a mess! Is it quiet time yet?

Three Beans

Hayden doesn't look very happy in this photo, but he really was having fun. Just thought I'd post a new picture of my three beans. Life is life. Things are going good. Wrote experiences for their one private journal to remember. Maybe I'll have another good story tomorrow. For now, its back to laundry and other chores.

New Haircut

Jared gave Hadley a new haircut the other day because her hair was getting so long that it was getting in her food while eating. She got a cute little haircut and then the other day, I mentioned how cute it was to Jared and how I like that shorter length towards the front. He responded with "What shorter length?"

Confounded, we went to investigate. He looked at her and said, "I did not do that. I cut it even."

He asked her what happened to her hair and she responded with, "I cut it."

He asked, "How did you cut it?"

"With the scissors."

"Where's your hair?"

"In my bed."

"Show me."

We proceeded up the stairs and she showed us the clump of hair on the floor between her bed and the wall.

He asked, "Where did you get the scissors?"

"In the box."

She showed him right where they were and removed them from it.

Needless to say, she cut her hair on her own and her curious ways seemed to not turn out disastrous, but we hid the scissors out of the box just to be safe.

You Shouldn't Play With Fans

What can I say? Other than, we don't play with fans.

I was downstairs getting some things together and all of a sudden I hear crying and "Help!"

Hayden then reports to me that Hadley's hair is caught on something and they need my help. She comes around the corner and walks down to show me this. She was playing with my portable fan that she found in the upstairs drawers and held it a little too close to her hair.

That baby was wound on there good and tight. It took me a while to free the hair from the actual fan and then even more time spent detangling the massive mess. She kept complaining that it hurt as I combed it out and I kept asking her, "Do we play with fans?"

The answer was always, "No, mommy!" with tears streaming down her face. Lesson learned, I hope.

Where's Hadley?

If you are familiar with past posts, this question is asked every so often due to her spirited and no boundaries type of personality.

If you weren't told in advance, you probably would've never known I have three kids on windy cold days at the kindergarten playground because my daughter likes to crawl inside the basket undercarriage of the stroller and cuddle up there. I have no complaints for this behavior due to the fact that I don't have to fight or chase her to the car. I have never taken a picture of her doing it, but today, I got her in the background of a picture so I am posting this picture and saying, "Where's Hadley?"

"Do you see her yet?"

Here's a hint: She's in yellow and pink.

Dr. Suess' Birthday - March 2nd

This week, Hayden's school has been celebrating Dr. Suess' birthday by doing activities all week long. I took some pictures to document the fun.

Mixed-up Monday - Wear mixed-up clothing (sorry, I didn't remember to take a picture. I had him in khakis with a plaid polo over a striped t-shirt and swimming trunks on top of the khakis.) Hayden really enjoyed wearing it.

Top Hat Tuesday - Wear a silly "Suessy" kind of hat. I have to put this little bit in about the hat. We do not own any type of silly hats in our house let alone top hats so I became my psychotic self and decided I would take some strips of felt the morning of and sew a top hat real quick. I thought I did an amazing job under a time crunch like that :0)

Wacky Wednesday - Wear silly socks. We only had christmas socks to wear which was still silly.

Twin Thursday - Thing "One" and Thing "Two" day. Dress as a twin with another friend. Hayden chose to be a triplet with his friends Owen and Jackson. Three times the fun.

H & O

J & H

Funny Food Friday- Wear lots of green for Green Eggs and Ham.

She Didn't Make It :(

I feel like we have made some huge strides with Hadley and going potty in the toilet. I trust her a whole lot when out and about since she finally accepts using public bathrooms now. Today, I am partially to blame for the accident though.

I usually have her go potty before leaving the house but for some reason, I forgot to remind her and decided to go food shopping after drop-off of Hayden. Everything was going great and I then asked her to go potty. She said, "Yeah, I have to go potty," and decided to walk down to the front of the store to go. I had a cart full of things since I was close to being done and we tried to go in the family bathroom, but it was occupied. We waited since I heard them finishing up. I kept growing more and more concerned in my gut because I wasn't too sure if Hadley could truly hold it for much longer. I debated going in the women's room, but wondered how to shuffle kids and cart in there and figured they'd be out in the same amount of time.

Thirty seconds before the door opened, I hear and noticed trickling coming from her bottom down the cart and into a puddle on the floor. I was beside myself and felt like I had let her down. What made my blood boil was that the person coming out of that "family bathroom" that we so desperately needed to use, was none other than an employee of the store.

REALLY?!!

She couldn't have used the women's room? She walked on by and I started to wonder how the heck I was going to clean the mess up. I looked for paper towels and there were none in any of the bathrooms. I looked down the area and no associates were present to flag down, to help clean up this possibly preventable accident. I went a couple paces away from my girls in the cart and leaned over the pharmacy counter to ask them to page for assistance in a clean up. I waited and waited and still nothing. I poked my head around the corner again and an employee walking by asked if I needed anything. I finally explained that my daughter had an accident and needed paper towels to wipe things dry (particularly the cart and my daughter).

The employee reassured me it was okay and went to get paper towels for me. She returned and I started to salvage things. I removed Hadley's socks and shoes all soaked in pee and placed paper towels underneath her. The guy came to help clean up and I was told to go finish shopping. I completed my task and checked out and went to leave for the car.

We stopped at the door to get a receipt checked and Hadley told the lady she peed her pants. The lady said, "Oh no. Did you do your potty dance?"

She then proceeded to ask if I had seen the potty dance on TV.

I smirked and said, "Yes, I think so," and then proceeded to think in my mind instead of say out loud that I knew she needed to go potty and got her to the potty, but it was occupied by the employee standing 2 feet to the right of you. I figured that would be inappropriate and not very Christ-like.

I proceeded with a smile saying thank you and walked to the car. I unloaded everything and left Hadley for last. Luckily, my supply of clothes and things were stocked in the car and I proceeded to clean her off and change her.

To make matters more frustrating, I needed to get some more gas and stopped at a nearby station. I pulled up to the first pump and got out. I ran my card and went to select the right grade of gas and it wasn't responding or registering. I hit cancel and then backed up to the one behind me. I did the same thing and that one flashed a screen saying "See cashier inside for authorization."

Seriously! At that point, my baby was screaming in the car and I had no motive to unload both kids and go inside to get permission to pump gas for my car. Fed up, I got back in my car after canceling yet another transaction and went to the next closest gas station. After I pulled up to a pump, a worker approached me and asked if I wanted him to pump the gas for me. I just chuckled and said, "No thanks. I've got it."

There was no way I was letting him do it for me so I could sit in a car listening to screaming baby while he did it for me. I didn't know if I had to tip him either so why not circumvent that whole situation all together.

Kind of frustrating to experience all that at once and felt a little done after that. I was very proud of one thing though. I never once screamed at Hadley and lost my cool. It truly wasn't totally her fault and I am glad I kept reminding myself that to help her learn better.