Yep, another meme

Remember when I said that Jill at Charming and Delightful tagged me for a meme? Well, here goes.

A. Attached or single? Attached. Together for 17 years, married for 10 next month.

B. Best friend? Auntie Nettie at Auntie Nettie's Attic. We met the very first day of college 18 years ago.

C. Cake or pie? Ooh, that depends on the time of year, but I'm always up for cake.

D. Day of Choice? Any day that my husband is home with me.

E. Essential Item? My cell phone (because I don't wear a watch anymore).

F. Favorite Color? Purple

G. Gummy Bears or Worms? Neither. Swedish fish

H. Hometown? Grew up in city in Maine, now living in the country in Maine.

I. Indulgences? Pedicures.

J. January or July? January. The girls (all 3) were born in January.

K. Kids? Four, ages 19 months (twins) to 7 1/2 years. One boy, age 3 1/2.

L. Life isn't complete without? My family.

M. Marriage Date? September 26th.

N. Number of Brothers & Sister? One brother.

O. Oranges or Apples? Apples

P. Phobias? Not really sure. I don't like snakes. Is there a phobia for that?

Q. Quotes? "Let's kill all the lawyers".

R. Reasons to smile? My kids on a good day. Good friends. Good food. Family.

S. Season of Choice? FALL

T. Tag Peeps: I just tagged people, I can't do it again.

U. Unknown facts about me? I'm a musician on hiatus. I used to be able to type 80 words a minute. I hate to fly.

V. Vegetables? Beets, sweet corn

W. Worst Habits? I'm messy.

X. X-ray or Ultrasound? Ultrasound; kept me sane with all those pregnancies.

Y. Your Favorite food? Fish.

Z. Zodiac sign? Cancer.

There. Anyone who wants to partake can.

That's what blogs are for, right?

First off, I know that Jill over at Charming and Delightful tagged me for a meme, and I will get to it, I promise. I just couldn't do two memes in a row.

I have been sick for a week. A nasty, lousy cold that has had me down and out. Which really stinks when my husband is on vacation. I've managed to get up and about and we've done a few things, but I'm still feeling pretty rotten. I wish it would up and go away now, ok, thanks.

It has occurred to me this week that I am not particularly happy these days. I am not enjoying my children like I should. Taking them places stresses me out, the amount of messes they make stresses me out, and I am just generally bitchy all the time. I do not want to feel this way all the time. I am inwardly FREAKING OUT over my husband being gone for 3 full days next week, because I am most certain that I will blow a gasket while he's gone. The twins are a royal handful these days; there is no way to contain them short of putting them in their cribs or high chairs. And while having them in bed all day might solve some of my stress, I'm pretty certain that is downright bad parenting. Bad I tell you. And Meg and Drew. Those two make me lose my shit at least once an hour. Drew is Megan's punching bag (and if I interfere, so am I); he is currently sporting a bruise on his right cheek from her throwing him to the floor, as well as a mark under his right eye from her smacking him in the car today. The spend the majority of their days screeching at each other and playing nicely together does not last long. With no husband to come home at lunch and soothe my nerves, and no husband to come home at night and tell me it's ok, I may certainly go bonkers. I would love to say that this is a relatively new phenomenon, but it isn't and I see no end in sight. I do not have any control in my house at all. I make rules, and they are mocked. I dole out punishments, and the same behavior happens again, almost immediately. In short, things here really blow and I'm so very tired of dealing with it.

There. I said it. I'm unhappy. I guess that doesn't really make me a good mom or wife, now does it? I'd love for it to go away, but it isn't going away. I haven't wanted to blog about it, because really who wants to hear me whine, even if it is my blog. Gah.

Anyway, I fried myself at the lake today. I sun screened everyone before we left, but forgot to pack it to do myself once we got there. I'm sure I'll be paying for it later.

And our Black Mamba is STILL living under our front porch. A call to the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Department confirmed what we already knew~leave it alone and educate the kids about it. It's baby time for the snakes, so we may have snake babies before too long. Oh lucky me (if you missed the story about the Black Mamba, go here).

Someone stole our road sign. A sign that we paid for. A sign on a very large metal post. They stole the post too. Bastards. Considering that we cannot be found on Mapquest or Google Maps because we are a private road, it makes getting people here just that much more difficult now. Bastards.

I just re-read my blog and despite the fact that I want to delete this post, I'm not going to. Instead, I'm going to find some tissues and blow my nose for the zillionth time today and rest my weary head.

What Say You?

I've been at a loss for a post topic (I know, really, me, with nothing to say!) and thankfully AndreAnna rescued me with a meme.

Finish the sentence.

Maybe I should call the doctor about this stupid cold I have. I think it morphed into a sinus infection.
I love the smell of bonfires and fresh cut grass.
People would say that I am a good friend.
I don’t understand why my children don't get along better.
I lost my sanity after the twins were born.
Life is hard but worth it.
My past is pretty tame. I'm kind of boring.
I get annoyed when I can't find something I know I put somewhere safe.
My idea of a good time is going out for dinner and drinks.
I wish I had more patience.
Twins are the best thing that ever happened to me, even if they make me insane.
Dust bunnies rule the roost here.
Tomorrow I’m going to spend time with my family on vacation.
I have low tolerance for the constant bickering of my older children.
I’m totally terrified of something happening to my husband or kids.
I wonder why I don't know how to relax.
Never in my life have I smoke a cigarette.
High school was the least favorite four years of my life.
When I’m nervous I talk too fast, too much and make an idiot out of myself.
One time at a family gathering my future brother-in-law made me too many fuzzy navels. I know hate peach Scnhaps.
Take my advice: Four kids is plenty.
Taking a good picture is my dream.
I’m almost always wishing I were a calmer, more sane person.
I’m addicted to coffee, blogging, scrapbooking, reading, hockey, baseball, my kids, my husband.
I want someone to send my family on an all-expense paid vacation somewhere (preferably Disney) so I can get it out of my system.

And now I'm tagging:

Astarte at The Muddle Sage
Creative Kerfuffle
Jennifer at The Laundry is Never Finished

Damn that Michael Phelps

Why did the Olympics have to be in Beijing? I mean really, a 12 hour time difference? I haven't been up until 11 or 12 pm since the twins were little, for crying out loud! But if I want to see Michael Phelps win some more gold, I have to stay up. All. Night. Long. Argh. It doesn't help that I have a horrible cold (and one sexy voice, let me tell you) that I've been battling since last week, but then having to stay up to watch all that swimming. I couldn't handle the gymnastics and slept thru pretty much all of it. Thankfully the swimming is all over, and now what is on? I have no idea.

So my weekend was pretty much a wash. I became good friends with my couch, napping here and there. Lira (the cat) and I even took a good snooze in bed. What a sorry way to spend the beginning of vacation. But considering how sick the kids were most of the summer, I think I got off pretty easy with the cold. I'll just take it as a sign that the kids finally got the best of me and I need to slow down a bit. Forced rest always helps.

We found a snake in the yard today that we've named Black Mamba. It's really a Black Racer snake, and they're endangered. Our little Black Mamba seemed quite healthy as he downed a frog that didn't hop away fast enough. Here he is under my back porch:

Don't you wish you had a Black Mamba too?

Tomorrow we're taking the kids back to Range Pond (pronounced "rang" for some ungodly reason). It's really more of a lake, but I guess calling it a pond makes it cuter or something. I'm thrilled that the weather is going to be nice while Doug is on vacation. I can use a few days of nice weather and time out of the old homestead, as the following week he goes to North Carolina for 3 days and LEAVES ME ALONE WITH FOUR CHILDREN. Send vodka, chocolate, or other sundries that will help me survive. Oh, and chloroform and duct tape. Did I mention he's LEAVING ME ALONE WITH FOUR CHILDREN? For 3 solid days and nights. Holy shit I don't know how I am going to manage. Whenever I think about it I get a nervous twitch and want to go cry in my closet. So that's where I'm heading now.

Friday Fun

Astarte tagged me for a fun little game. So, here goes.

8 TV Shows I love to Watch:
Heroes
Bones
NCIS
CSI (the original is still the best)
Deadliest Catch
(I can't come up with any more!)

8 Restaurants I love:
Ribollita
Flatbread Pizza
(apparently I don't get out much)

8 Things That Happened Today:
I had a migraine
I changed 10 diapers
I got lots of hugs
I fell asleep on the couch
I didn't do any laundry
I posted on my blog
I talked with my friend Angie
I was up at 2 am and posted on Twitter (how sad)

8 Things I am Looking Forward to:
Fall
Taking the kids to Pumpkinland
School starting
Feeling better so I can get back on my treadmill
Buying some clothes
Scrapbooking
Going to the Red Sox game next month
My 10th anniversary

8 Things I love about Summer:
Slowing down
Taking the kids to the pond
Flowers
Doug's vacations
Knowing that fall is on its way
(I don't love summer)

8 Olympic Events I want to see:
Ice Hockey
Swimming
Gymnastics
Beach Volleyball
Skating
Softball
Diving
Curling (no, not really, but that was funny)

8 Things on my Wish List:
A new camera~SLR
A trip to Disney for my family
A weekend away with my husband
More time to myself
Kids that don't constantly fight
To sell the other house
To lose weight
Window treatments in the dining and living rooms

8 People I want to do the same thing:

Oh, anyone who wants to participate. Really. It's that simple

Mom Gone Mad?

I am sitting at my kitchen table using my piece of junk laptop. The ONLY sounds are the twins having lunch, and the click click of my fingernails on the keyboard. My older kids have gone for a playdate/sleepover with my in-laws. So riddle me this~why do I feel sort of sad that they're gone? I KNOW, right? Usually I'm bitching because they are too loud/messy/rude, but the minute they're gone, I miss them. And that my friends is the dichotomy of being a parent.

I am sure you're nodding your head in agreement, right? RIGHT? I am sure I'm not the only one who has days when you want to duct tape your children to the wall and chloroform them just for a moment's peace (or am I really the only one? Please don't call CDS if I am, thanks). And then your kids are gone, either to school or a playdate or something else, and you miss them like mad and want them home again ASAP thank-you-very-much. It's a strange sort of balance, being a parent. You want to take care of your children, but also want them to learn to think for themselves. You want them to go off to school to learn things, then lament the non-educational things they come home and teach you (like how to do a monkey bite). You dread telling them about the birds and the bees or smoking, but would rather they be informed than ignorant. You want to hold them close, but know you have to learn to set them free so they can grow into the person you know they can be.

It is amazing how much we can love, and loathe, our children at the same time. How they can make us cry, or laugh, or smile, by sometimes just a simple glance. So I'm going to miss Meg and Drew for the rest of today, and look forward to their arrival home tomorrow. And then I'm sure they'll be home for a few minutes and I'll be searching around for my duct tape.

Non-Sequitor Sunday

Sunday night. The Olympics are on in the background. The tv has been on for pretty much two days straight. I love the Olympics. We watched most of the opening ceremony Friday night, but had it on DVR for the kids to watch. We're glued to the basketball, swimming, beach volleyball, and in another week, the diving. We are huge winter Olympic fans, what with two ice hockey players in the family, but the summer is just as fun. But really, how did table tennis and badminton become Olympic sports? And if anyone can explain fencing to me, I'll be forever grateful. I just don't get it.

The sun finally returned this weekend. Except for Tuesday, it rained every other day this week. And by rain, I mean downpours all day long, with dark skies and thunderstorms. As you can imagine, we were all CRAZY by Friday. And by crazy I mean we put the kids to bed at 6:30 Friday night (all 4 of them) because I seriously couldn't look at them ONE.MORE.MINUTE or I would have gone right off the deep end. That is such a short walk for me these days that I figured them in their rooms was better than me in lockup. Ha. So, having the sun out yesterday was heaven. I went for a pedicure with friends yesterday and then all afternoon the kids played outside. Doug and I even got out for a quick dinner (thank you mommy and daddy!) without the kids. Of course the weather channel is predicting more ()*$#( rain for this week.

It's only 4 weeks until school starts again. We still don't have any idea who Meg has for a teacher. Her placement letter that came in June said "Teacher TBA". I know the school system had to hire a kindergarten, first and second grade teacher at her school (it is only a K-2 school), but I was hoping we'd know by now. We are required to provide quite a bit of her school supplies, but we have to wait for the letter from the unknown teacher. I HATE waiting until the last minute to do such things, and because I have to shop at WalMart (argh) to get our supplies (please Target, I beg you, come closer to my house), it's usually picked over by the time we know what they need. I really hope we hear this week.

While I'm sad the weekend is over, it means that I'm one week closer to having Doug home for vacation again. It's his last vacation until the end of the year. I don't think we're going to be as busy this vacation, as we need to get stuff ready for back to school, and I truly need a rest. This has been a long and arduous summer, with the kids being so sick, and the horrible weather. I always hoped that summers would be my kids outside, having loads of fun and me enjoying it all. This summer hasn't lived up to those dreams. So, I am looking forward to a little vacation week and maybe I'll do something for myself. Suggestions?