Stitches

Part of the moving process is, of course, looking at houses. Like, I have said before, it is SO not my thing. I hate it. House hunting with kids, is even worse. My boys are quite.. rambunctious.. on a regular day. Add in taking them to a bunch of random empty houses and driving around for hours on end to the normal crazy and lets just say- its not pretty.

Last weekend, to try to help take some of the load off of me,  my mother offered to watch the boys while we went to look at a town home about half an hour away. I jumped on the chance with (possibly a little too much) enthusiasm and dropped the boys off with her the next morning for a little Nana time. They were excited about getting to play with a different set of toys, My mom was excited about playing with the boys, I was excited about looking in peace for a few hours. Win- win, right?

I met T at the town home, we looked around the neighborhood and checked out the place. It was nice but maybe too small. Close to his job but no yard. Yada, yada, back and forth. We eventually decided to get some lunch before we split up to go our separate ways. Him to work, me to get the kids. We sat and talked awhile about all the options we had seen so far, made lists, crossed things off. Ate our super delicious bar-b-que.

As I was finishing, my phone rang. It was my mother. I thought "Weird, she usually doesn't call me when I'm out like this".

As soon as I answered, my heart sank down to the pit of my stomach. All I could hear was K. Screaming his head off. Screaming his "I hate everything and you and this and that freaking hurt me WHYDIDYOUHURTME?!" scream in true hulk style.

All I could do was hold the phone away from my head and wait. Tommy and my eyes locked and he immediately asked for the check. I finally put the phone back to my ear and said loudly "what happened?".

"I don't know, he is bleeding like crazy! He won't hold still for me to help him! K hold still! I think he needs stitches but I can't tell!"

"Mom, try to settle him down and send me a picture. I'll be on my way in a minute."

Needless to say, she sent me a picture (of a calm, smiling monster) a few minutes later but I couldn't tell anything from it. He had a mark on his forehead but that was it. I took off back down to her house to assess the situation in person and check on my baby boy. About halfway down there, my mom called again and was totally downplaying it. About how she had put a bandaid on it and she thought it was okay. The only problem with this is, she is a bad liar. I sped up.

Once I got back to her house, I rushed inside and scooped up K. He had settled down but came running yelling "Mama, booooo booooo!" and jumped at me when he got with in arms reach. I sat him up on the counter and peeled away the bandage that my mother had put on him.

Yeah. Definitely needed stitches. A family first. I won't go into more detail so I don't run people off but it was deep. Small, but deep. I buckled him into his car seat and we hit the road to the emergency room. He was calm and singing the whole way there which did a huge service to my blood pressure.

Then, after we got checked in. We waited. And waited. And then? Waited. We waited for EIGHT. HOURS. Just sat. First in one room, then another. Sat and sat and played and tried our hardest to keep our 22 month old from literally scaling the walls. Tried being the key word there but in all reality after seven and a half hours, he was done. We all were. Exhausted and hungry and DONE.

Finally, I let my scary voice out on a nurse in the hallway and the doctor came in about five minutes later. He took a good look and said we should be able to glue it rather than stitch it. He also gave me the token lecture about how direly important vaccines are and how he would like to see him caught up. Having lost every ounce of patience I had left in my body hours before, I told him where to stuff his vaccines and focus on gluing up my kid. Not my proudest moment maybe but it was effective enough.

About ten minutes later, he came in with the supplies and we got down to business. Little K just laid there and looked up at the doctor. He never flinched, he never fussed. He laid there like a boss and let him fix his booboo. I was so proud. Not that I was surprised. He has always handled that kind of thing well. Even as a newborn, when they were taking blood from his heel every few hours, he never flinched or fussed. Tough kid. (We're in trouble).

Today is a week out. He has done great with the weirdness on his forehead. He doesn't even seem to realize its there. Bathing him has been... fun but doable. We had to turn down a trip to the pool this week too which was no fun for any of us considering this heat but hopefully by this time next week, he will be right as rain.

Changes

About this time every year I get itchy. Fall is my favorite time of the year and even more so now that the boys are around. We always have more fun during the fall than any other time of year. Of course, all the fun starts off with the marathon birthdays and celebrations in September. Tommy turns 30, D turns 4, K turns 2, and our marriage turns 7 all within 9 days in September. As crazy as that is, its also kind of nice. We just party all month. Party and spend way too much money. Justified though considering its onemonth and then we are done for the year.

After that there are all the festivals and apple farms and cooler weather. Of course by cooler weather I mean 80s instead of 100s but hey, I'll take that. We make it a point to do one fun, fall thing every weekend throughout October and November. Its something we all enjoy doing together and we are going to take advantage of it until the kids eventually get to big to want to do these kinds of things. Its all about making memories, right?

I can't forget Halloween either. Oh, Halloween, I look forward to your coming all year long. Its a big thing in our house too. Every year we go all out decorating and baking cookies. This year, I hope will be no exception.

However, yet again, we are facing more changes during the fall months. Again this year, we are moving. Not of our own volition particularly but moving all the same. The reasons we are moving I can't really discuss But suffice it to say this: Our security was irrevocably shaken in our current place by our landlord. Leaving me in a place where I am having nasty nightmares nightly about things I should not even be concerned about. As soon as I am able (legally), I'll give you the whole story. Its a doozy.

The thing is, we don't know exactly when or how. That is the worst part for me. The unknown. We have spent the last week and a half looking at various places and spending hours driving around and around and freaking out and crying and raging against the rental machine. I swear we have looked at a million and two places and none of them just seemed quite right.

There are things I am unwilling to give up except in return for something exceptional in its place. Things like a place for the boys to play outside. I might give that up for a location that allowed us to walk to local to dos like we had in the place before this. We actually looked at a place with an indoor pool and that would be cool. The downside? Its a villa attached to: an apartment building.

In the meantime, I'm struggling. I'm struggling hardcore.

It wasn't supposed to be this way this time.

I shouldn't have allowed this to happen to my kids. We should have stayed in the apartment we were all so happy in before.

My D is not going to adjust well to moving again. He is very much a creature of habit and while we will keep as many things the same as we can, its not all possible. The mommy guilt is the worst.

I know it will all work out. I do. For now though, I just need to get myself up out of this funk and get packed and moving. I have to be able to pull myself up by the bootstraps and protect my family. I am sad it has come to this but hopefully it will all be for the best. Right?

Water Fun (WW)

Ze Bubbles!

Perfect Pairings

Yep, thats me. The freakishly large one.

Last week, I was lucky enough to be invited to join a group of bloggers here in Atlanta so we could trade out some stories, have a relaxing picnic and and of course share our favorite Summertime perfect pairings. There are a million perfect pairs out there. Sweet and salty is my particular favorite. Caramels and seat salt. Ice cream and Fritos. My favorite Summer combo though is peach salsa and Tostitos tortilla chips. A perfect blend of sweet, spice, and salt. So, of course that is what I brought to the picnic! Homemade peach salsa and some Tostitos Scoops (to make the plate to mouth delivery easier).

Never made your own Peach salsa? Never had peach salsa? That, my friends is a terrible shame. Its super easy and so good it will "make your tongue slap your brains out". Its also super easy and quick to prepare:

First, gather up the ingredients:

Mmmmmmm...

1lb peaches, chopped (make the chunks as big or small as you like)
1/2lb tomatoes, chopped
2 medium sized jalapenos, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (beginning to see a pattern here?)
1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
12 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
6 Tablespoon sherry vinegar
2 Tablespoon honey
1 Tablespoon lemon juice

Then, one more step: Mix it all in a bowl and eat with Tostitos.



See? I told you it was easy. You can add or subtract the jalapenos to suit your taste. Same with the cilantro. I personally like a tad bit more spice to mine so I usually end up adding another half a jalapeno or so. Easy peasy. I had also never tried the Tostitos Scoops before but I'll tell you this: they made eating this chunky salsa a lot easier and less messy. Always a plus when you have kids.

Don't like peaches? Or salsa? Frito Lay has you covered. There are a ton of awesome pairing recipes on their website.

What are some of your favorite "perfect pairings"?

Frito-Lay provided the Tostitos chips and ingredients to make my recipe. But my opinions are, of course,  all my own. Thank you to Frito Lay and the Motherhood for a wonderful picnic!

Like this recipe? Pin It

These Days

These days are the ones I wish would last forever. The days we spend just the four of us, doing what we do best. Which of course is nothing. We spend our time sitting and relaxing. Enjoying each others company and playing until we collapse.  We partake in the air conditioner of our favorite haunts and then we spend the evening playing hard at the park and blowing off all that pent up energy that seems so endless.

These. These are the days I cherish most.

Hair

I am blessed. I have a head full of thick, healthy, strong hair. It is wavy by nature and a dark, chocolate brown with weird lighter brown highlights (Oh, and some gray mixed in but I don't like to talk about that..). Its the kind of hair that people are always commenting on. How much of it there is and how pretty and blah blah blah. Heres the thing. Its hot and its impossible to style. Its long and thick but that is not as good a thing as people might think. Kind of like being tall. Don't ever tell a girl over 5' 11' you wish you were as tall as her. You really don't. Really. Thats a rant for another day though. This is about my hair. Shut up, I'm awesome.

I have been on the eternal search for the perfect hair cut/ style/ length since I hit puberty. Too long and it hurts my neck and back. Too short and it gets out of control puffy. I can't win.

I will say though, that are a lot of options with this much hair. I can wear it up easily, which I do quite often. Ask anyone that has known me very long at all and they will probably tell you they can't remember seeing me with my hair down in the last year or so. I wear it up that much. So you can imagine my excitement when I won a gift certificate this week to a store on Etsy that sells pretty hair type accessories.  I was so excited. I needed some grown up type stuff to put in my hair. So, I picked out my pretties and met her to pick them up this morning. These hair pretties are even more gorgeous in person than they were on Etsy. I got these and a couple others but  I especially love the peacock headband (which I am fairly sure is made for little kids but its mine and you can't have it!). You can't really tell but the circle part of the end of the feathers is a gorgeous sparkly, beaded thing that makes my heart happy. You should all go check out the shop if you have little girls or are a girl. No really. Bella Tu Designs.

Anyway, I also, rarely dry my hair out and wear it straightened. I don't do this often though because it literally takes over two hours to dry and straighten my hair and lets face it, I don't have time to do that with the boys running around causing chaos in the house. Don't tell me I should get up early and do it either because that just isn't going to happen. Plus, there is the added snafu that when I wear it down like that, its hot. So, I end up sweating all out of control and pulling it back into a ponytail anyway. Two hours wasted and I'm a sweaty mess. Yeah, no.


This week though, I came across a tutorial that boasted gorgeous curls in 5 minutes. I was skeptical. I watched the video from YouTube though and it looked super easy. The kind of idiot proof type thing I can usually manage. So, of course I immediately pinned it to Pinterest and decided I would try it with my still- damp- from- the- morning's- shower- hair. So, I did the twisty thing and slept on it like I was supposed to (watch the video people!) and when I woke up early, I took it cautiously pulled the rubber band from my hair and eased my eyes open.

(See that errant grey hair? GAH! Stop looking!)

Not bad for 5 minute hair, huh? It really is pretty gorgeous. There are a couple of things I would do differently, like do it in two layers because my hair is so thick it really was hard to wrap around in smaller strands. I also sprayed the heck out of it with hair spray before and after taking it down but I probably should have just put some hair gel of some sort in before letting air dry to the point I did. Still, though, I was happy with the results and that says a lot.

I plan to make an appointment at the Aveda institute here in the ATL soon to get a few thousand pounds of hair chopped off but I intend on keeping the curly trick and my new pretties close at hand as part of my mama makeover.


What are some of your favorite hair tips and tricks? Anything you want to share with the class? Or me? Please?

Mommy Confessions

Confession time. We all have them. I have decided (again) its time to stop keeping them to myself in hopes that other mommies will realize that none of us are perfect. Here are my dirty little secrets for the week in hopes it will encourage me to be better. What are yours?

~ K is obsessed with my purse. If he sees it with in reach, which I try to avoid, he gets into it and scatters the contents as fast as he can. On Monday, he found a little ramekin of M&Ms I had stashed in there for emergencies and bust it open ninja baby style, spilling the M&Ms all over the floor. Like the awesome mother I am, I not only let K eat them off the floor, but I called D over to help him eat the candy off the floor. Go me.

~ D shoved a kid twice his age and I totally looked the other way. Totally shoved him to the ground. The big kid kept jumping in front of him and grabbing the candy that the floats were throwing during the 4 of July parade. I did my best to draw the kid's parents attention to his rude behavior but they paid no mind. So I let D take it into his own hands. Big kid didn't bother him again.

~ I am way behind on my blogging. I know this. I accept this. Well, I don't know about accept it. Thing is, I have been spending a lot more time with the boys in the last few weeks. We have been playing outside and going to the pool. Not the kind of thing I can take the laptop and blog while they do it. I don't apologize for it either. It has been weighing on my mind though.

~ I can't stop sneaking ice cream. Its calling to me. I can hear it all over my house and even sometimes when I am not here. Thing is, I don't even like ice cream. Its there though. Its just sitting in my freezer and its calling my name. I have eaten a pint of it, bite by bite over the last three days. I don't know what has come over me! Someone help!

Believe it or not, that is all I can think of this week. I don't feel like I have been a super mommy this week. Maybe its all that ice cream clogging my brain?

4th Fun (WW)

Buzz Kill

The 4th of July in our family is kind of a big thing. We always have a huge cookout and arrive early to get the best seat in the house for fireworks. For the last 4 years, we have gone to the fireworks in our old town. Tradition.

This year was to be no exception. By the holiday being on a Monday, T was supposed to be off for three whole days. Saturday, Sunday, Monday. So we made lofty plans. We were going to do this and go there and visit so and so. We planned the weekend to the max. It was to be grand.

Then.. it all fell apart. See, that is also kind of a family tradition of sorts for our family. Something always goes wrong. This get interesting. Every. Single. Time.

It started out on Saturday when T's boss called him in to work. Tommy's understanding was that since he met his "goal" for the week, he was going to be off. Wrong. They called him in and he did a half day's work before coming home to a nap ready family. We managed to have a little fun just hanging around and then had a late nap before he had to go to his second job. We knew about that one but it was a shift he had tried to get rid of all week.

Sunday was not a happy day for D. Sunday morning, we got up and got all packed up for the parties we had lined up. In- laws then nap then my besties. We called the in laws as we left the house to find out they weren't even home so we couldn't actually come over. It would be at least another hour before we could start the party. Ok, fine. Except when they say an hour its more like 2 hours so we ended up getting there majorly late.

Of course while we were there, D got in a tussle with the dog in the mud and I did not have any spare clothes. Go figure. So he had to wear the swim suit we had packed for later which caused a yelling match between him and his little brother because K was scared we were going to play in the water without him and of course once K mentioned it, D thought he was getting left out of the water and he started whinning. Both boys ended up in time out for yelling and then again for refusing to eat their lunch until they got to go play in the mythical water that they had convinced each other was going to happen.

When we got out to the van, it wouldn't start. Once we finally got it jumped off and headed towards the second party, I got a text that everyone had just left, no point in coming. Which ended in another yelling match because D wanted to go see his girlfriend. I finally was able to coax him into going to my mother's and visiting the pool instead. His favorite. And hey, he was already dressed for it.

We ended up just staying the night at my mother's rather than coming back the next day. We showed up to the parade, on time and ready for a more uneventful day. Then, there was a choir that was singing so loud and so out of tune with each other, I got a migraine. Then, we all got hot and sweaty. Then, the parade started an hour late for no apparent reason. Then, D shoved a kid to the ground for being a jerk. Then, the pool wasn't open when we got back. So much for uneventful.

We had our cookout though and all was well. We all took an amazing nap and woke up to an even more amazing thunderstorm. We packed up and headed to the fireworks location anyway thinking maybe it would clear up by fireworks time and knowing if we didn't go then, we would be out of luck on a spot later. We got our spot just in time for the news to come out that they had canceled the fireworks. So then us and the other thousand cars in the parking lot jockeyed for pole position on leaving the parking lot for an hour and a half.

We got back to my mothers exhausted, wet and with two disappointed kids just in time to head back to our house for the night. Today, we go back to Woodstock looking for fireworks. I guess I can say with honesty, it can't get worse, right?