Craziness

Craziness is what sums up the last month or so since I last blogged. There was a lot of family drama that I won't get into but it got rough there for a little bit. I know every family has their drama but it seems like our family has more than a normal share. We do tend to get through it but it's not fun while it happens. Hopefully, it ends up good.

School is great. I got into that Accounting class that I needed to get into. It's taught by my adviser and also the Dean of the MBA school, so she knows that I absolutely have to pass to graduate school. Actually, I have to make a B, not just pass. This is the part that's hard. I have to make a B. Yikes. She sets up the class to make 13 quizzes, weekly. Then a final exam.  She drops 2 quiz grades. I have to drop 1 because Vincent and I have an anniversary cruise and I will miss class. I have had 3 quizzes- first 58, second 75, and last week I don't have the grade but I know I at least made an A, if not a 100. I bought 3 extra books to help study. Seriously, I have more than enough help to get me to pass. I just pray that I can pass and make a B. It's going to be really hard, folks. Really, really hard.

So, the wood flooring hasn't happened yet. Vincent is dragging his feet and we probably won't get it for awhile because now his car is broke and he has to have that fixed and who knows how much that will cost. But I have a feeling that we won't be able to sell our house without it. I can't stand the floors. Vincent refuses to take the dogs outside on a regular basis when he's watching football so they piss on the carpet. Grrrr. Makes me so frustrated. They're house broken UNLESS someone keeps them from going outside. Obviously. Don't get me started. Our carpets are disgusting. I will only allow certain people over because I'm so disgusted by it.

Speaking of dogs, we need someone to watch the dogs while we go on our cruise. Any takers? We go from 10/24-10/29. My friend Lauren always watches them because she's awesome but she has 3 big dogs and a cat and I can't ask her to watch them again. If anyone can do it, we would really appreciate it. They are good dogs, once they calm down. They get excited about new people but after they get used to them, they're fine. They are house broken and easy to take care of. Bailey will even go up to the door when she needs to go outside. Lilly won't do that but she holds her bladder better than Bailey so if she goes out with Bailey, she's good. Think about it  :)

So the latest around here was Tristan's surgery. He had surgery this last Tuesday on his eyes. He has really weak eye muscles and 1 eye was starting to wander. Since Vincent had this surgery at the same age, the doctor said that both eyes were weak and more than likely would need the surgery. If he didn't get the surgery then 1 eye would be lazy and lose all vision on it altogether. We decided to go ahead and get the surgery. It was nerve wrecking but passed by fast. It lasted about 1 hour from start to finish. We got breakfast, ate it, and went back into the waiting room as they were calling our names. His eyes were super swollen and that made me cry. But the swelling went down in a few hours and now his eyes are just red. That in itself is kinda freaky. Where the eyes should be white are red with blood. Every now and then he has a little bit of blood in his tears. The red eyes should only last 2 weeks at most. The pain from the eyes only lasted a day so he's good now. But the chance of infection is high so we have to make sure his hands are always clean and that he puts in special eye drops daily. Other than that, everything's good.

This last weekend we watched David and Becky's kid- Gideon. It was their anniversary- Happy Anniversary, David and Becky!! But we watched Gideon Friday and Saturday night. The kids loved it- all of them! Playing together wore them all out. Gideon was such a great influence because he can walk a lot better than Caleb so Caleb was totally trying to imitate him- I loved it! We had so much fun with him! I can't wait till we watch him again. I took a lot of pictures but they were moving so much that it was hard  :) Here are the good ones

Super cute bum pic, but I had to cut out the bums for obvious reasons

 Gideon tired of taking pictures, ready to take a bath  :)

 Playing together

 

Loving the bath!

 Playing on my leg

 Gideon, showing off his super cute onsie

 Dinner time!

I hate Grand Prairie

Sooooo we're trying to sell our house. Again. After we built Tristan's room, we put it back on the market- about 3 months ago. Not working. Now we have decided to put wood flooring in. Vincent wants to do it himself. I don't want to pay for labor but I also don't want Vincent to do it. Anyone know anyone good at it that can help my husband?? Also, anyone know where to get a good deal on wood flooring??

I hate Grand Prairie. I hate living here. I hate the city. It's gross and dirty. It's full of old and dirty houses. The grocery stores are dirty. The businesses are old and run down. I hate it. I do all of my shopping in Arlington. The only good thing about Grand Prairie is that my babysitter, who is the greatest ever, lives here. I want to move sooooooo bad. I sometimes get so frustrated that we can't move that it almost brings me to tears. I hate that my family lives near Little Elm and we have to drive forever to meet them to do anything. I want to move to Little Elm so bad. I know I need to be patient but I really really hate Grand Prairie. We have to drive up and down George Bush Turnpike to get to work- $16/day. Sucks. 45 minutes one way. Sucks. Little Elm is like 20 minutes and at most $1 in tolls.

We need to get these wood floors in fast and sell this house. I'm about to lose it. That's it. Just a rant.  :)

I'm not dying

So for all those concerned.....I'm not dying. I know my Aunt El was one of those concerned- thanks ;)  But I found out that I'm lactose intolerant along with something else. Something else being "We'll have to do another biopsy that costs you another $2000" so I think I'll wait. Yeah, my insurance is terrible if I haven't said that before. It's awful. I work for an insurance company and we have the worst insurance coverage EVER. So, we'll be waiting to figure out what's really wrong with me until we can just throw away another $2000. Until then, no more dairy products....

Last week was the end of classes. Niiiiiiiice. I can breath again. Oh wait, I go to register for Fall classes the day after it opens up and my terrible dreaded Accounting class is FULL. SERIOUSLY??? The last class that I have to take to graduate is full on the 2nd day of registration??? Unbelievably. I contacted the professor who said that she can't make an exception for me but told me to try on the day that grades from the Summer come out because a lot of people get dropped by the system if they didn't pass their Summer classes and to try on the day that payments are due for the same reason. I can't believe my f-ing luck. I thought the only obstacle for graduating in December was being able to pass Accounting. Boy was I wrong. Seriously this crap is getting old. I have already registered for my back up classes in case I can't take Accounting and they look really interesting and insightful. So maybe I'll learn something new that will change my world. Doubtful.

The kids are getting bigger by the day. When did it happen? Caleb is my bundle of joy- literally. He smiles at everything. He gets hurt and starts to cry but if I look at him and he sees me looking, he starts smiling through the tears. How did I get such a happy baby?? Tristan, on the other hand, is 2. Please. kill. me. I have never heard the word "no" so much in my life. That kid is driving me bananas. But he definitely has a sense of humor. He got the humor from me and the crankiness from Vincent ;) Just kidding- they're probably both from me. I have been taking the kids to the pool every weekend and Tristan loves it. Of course we had a scary moment the other weekend when I went to my friend Lauren's community pool. We were in like 1 1/2 foot deep water and Tristan was jumping around. Well he falls face forward in the water as I'm holding Caleb. I crab crawl as fast as I could with Caleb in my arms and grab him up. Well, as he's balancing his feet he falls again. Since I taught swim lessons for years, I knew this was a make/break moment. So I started clapping and saying "Yeah, you swam all by yourself". I saw the panic drain from his eyes and a big smile light up his face and he started clapping too. I know that I got some crazy looks from the lifeguards but I'll be damned if I have a kid scared of the water. Just not going to happen.

In celebration of my end of school days, I went to go see Ke$ha in concert last week. I love me some Ke$ha. Yeah, yeah, so does every 14 year-old but I don't care. I think she rocks. My friend Rachel and I dressed up and I went all out. I bought a glitter head wrap, made a t-shirt, and painted my face like Ke$ha. It was so much fun. The minute that Rachel and I got into the venue, each and every 14 year-old complimented my make-up. I really was proud of myself. And the concert was awesome. Ke$ha is great at performing. It was thoroughly entertaining.  Rachel and I drank a lot and we had to be picked up like the rest of the 14 year-olds there :)  I don't care. It was a blast. My goal for next time- closer seats.

Vincent surprised me a couple of weeks ago and told me what we are doing for our anniversary this year. Yeah, it's not for another 2 months but Vincent can't keep a secret to save his life. He's taking me on a 7 day cruise in the Caribbean.  I'm so pumped. I have never been on a cruise. Well, I went on a cruise in Greece but it was a day cruise so I don't count it. Anyway Vincent felt bad about ruining the surprise 2 months before so he said he was going to pay for a bunch of excursions and keep those a secret. We'll see.

Also, in other news, I have officially started writing my book. I have no idea what will happen with it- maybe nothing, maybe something. But I wanted to wait until I was completely confident in my writing skills. I am there. I think I got there because I have reached a new phase in my life- I don't compare myself anymore. Up until recently it was so easy for me to look at other women and their lives and envy it and then try to figure out how I could imitate them. I'm done with that crap. I've finally learned that everyone is unhappy with something. The pretty women that have perfect clothes and bodies hate their husbands. The ones that look like they have great marriages have daddy issues. Ugh. I'm done comparing. I think I'm pretty awesome and I think my family is even more awesome. I'm not saying that every now and then I won't wish some things might be another way- I'm still human. But I've stopped writing with other people in mind. I'm writing for myself. I'm not P.C. Trying to make everyone else happy can lead to living someone else's life. Dunzo. So, I think my book will now have a better chance of going somewhere. Or maybe it will just be entertainment for Vincent and my kids. We'll see.

Here's some pictures from the last couple of weeks.

He did not want to leave the pool

My little angel

Collage I made for Facebook....all things needed for a Ke$ha concert

 Rachel and I 

 

Fourth of July Fanatics

So this last weekend was so much fun but busy, as usual. Saturday night we helped do a photo booth event for my brother and it was for an Asian wedding. I am not kidding when I say that this wedding was probably about $100,000, easily. They had about 600 guests and a bottle of Hennessy and Champagne on every table. There was a guy that was making balloon animals for the kids and there were not 1 but 2 photography companies there. It was crazy. So everyone had to sit down and eat together and no one could be up walking around. So we definitely took advantage of that and ate our hearts out. It was delish. Vincent took a picture of the menu and I took a picture of the food. Yummy. Needless to say that we had a great time. We were kid free for the night so it was kinda like a fake date but work at the same time. After we got home we rented The Adjustment Bureau. It was pretty good. It was one of those movies that messed with your head a little and then had a good ending.

 

Sunday we decided to take the kids to Kaboom Town in Addison. I found out it's rated the #3 fireworks show in the nation. It was REALLY REALLY hot. It took about 45 minutes to actually exit the highway and then another 30 minutes to park. We get there and every line for every snow cone or refreshing beverage stand was at least 30 minutes long. Luckily I used our cool new backpacks/coolers and packed watermelon, strawberries, water, Powerade, sandwiches, and chips. And I brought a blanket. So we just sat on the blanket in the grass in the shade, still sweating and eating. Tristan was good up until about 15 minutes into the fireworks show. Then he got really cranky and fast. We had to make a run for it. So we missed the fireworks finale. Oh well. The fireworks were pretty cool. You know what wasn't cool? Waiting 2 hours to get out of the parking lot!!! That ruined the whole experience for me. It looks like we will never actually go there again. Maybe somewhere in viewing distance, but never in there again. It got awkward when I had to go pee and we were still in the parking lot.......Not fun. But both Caleb and Tristan loved fireworks. And they looked adorable dressed in 4th of July attire.

 

Then on Monday we decided to go to the pool since we had the day off. There is a pool near our house in Arlington that was designed for kids 7 years old and under. It's like a playground but with water everywhere. There's all these water guns and a tunnel that is half under water and 2 slides. Tristan loved it. We brought a floatie for Caleb since the water was about a foot and a half deep and let him float around. He loved it. All I could think about was how disgusting the water was. I mean, kids in a pool? Pee, poop, and whatever else they stick their grubby little hands in (my kids included) has floated into that pool. Gross. But we let Tristan swim for awhile, then he devoured watermelon and then went swimming again. He loves swimming.

Once again, my body has decided to fail again. 2 Saturdays ago I ate a bowl of cereal and about 30 minutes later I threw up every last bit of it. Then I had severe cramps for about 3 hours. It was awful. My first thought was pregnancy but it is not that, THANK GOD. Then it happened again on that Sunday. So I went and saw a gastroenterologist. He said there was something definitely going on and it could be linked to having Lupus. I had a biopsy done this last Tuesday but I don't find out the results for another couple of weeks. I would really like to know what's been going on with my stomach for all these years. I have always had issues with my stomach and throwing up randomly. I never went to the doctor for it because it was always just throwing up. Then in the last 6 months it's gotten worse with cramps. So it scares me but at the same time, it would be nice to figure it out. We'll see.......

In order to not end this blog on a dark note, I will share my day today. It's been one of those days where I tell myself there will be no more kids, for sure. It started with going to the doctor this morning. I had to take the kids by myself because Vincent wanted to stay home and clean the house (better him than me). We got in the elevator and Caleb starting going nuts. Crying, kicking, screaming, and trying to jump out of my arms. At that very moment Tristan slammed the emergency call button. I heard it dialing and then a lady started talking. As soon as Tristan heard her he was screaming into the speaker "NOOOOO" over and over again. He would give her a good 3 seconds to talk and then start in again with a no. Meanwhile, I'm wrestling Caleb from committing suicide from my arms and yelling at Tristan and trying to talk to the lady. Tristan gets more and more angry that the woman is still talking and I am talking to her so then he just hits the emergency call button over and over again like he's trying to hang up on her all the while shouting "NOOOOO". It was the longest 45 seconds ever. We finally get to our floor and are exiting and I hear the lady ask "Son, are you okay?" like she was really concerned for his safety. I almost laughed because if she had seen me and how frazzled I looked she would have asked me that question instead. Then I got home and Vincent said he had to run a couple of errands. Well, the kids needed a bath so I decided to go ahead and do that. So I put them both in the bath, with Caleb on his Bumbo seat. I scrub them down and then pull Tristan out first and then Caleb. I have Caleb in my arms and go to grab a towel. No towels hanging. Look in the linen closet. No towels. So I grab Caleb and turn him with his wiener facing out and tell Tristan to stay there. I start walking to my bedroom to grab a towel. The dogs follow me, of course. All of a sudden the dogs are jumping up besides me and Caleb is giggling at them. I look down and Caleb is peeing and the dogs are jumping in the air trying to drink it. I'm appalled. I try to walk fast but the dogs keep up. I hate to say it but they got a good portion of the pee down their gullets. Ugh. So after that I grabbed 2 towels and wrapped Caleb in 1 of them. I walk towards their bathroom and out of the corner of my eye, I see Tristan in his room. Still naked. And of course he had to pee. And poop. So he had stood in place while peeing and then squatted to poop. So there were 2 nice neat piles of pee and poop. Fantastic. Luckily Tristan didn't try playing with his poop this time. After that the kids went to bed nice and early and I had a nice big glass of wine. Or two.

Yeah, 2 kids is enough........

Just in case you missed it.....

I posted a post about the below pictures at the very end of the pictures. In case you missed the blog before I posted the pictures   ;)