Random Shiznit

Because I'm so awful about posting sh%t on time. We did have a wonderful Christmas. My Dad is a Supervisor at the Fort Worth plant of the Post Office. I love to do arts and crafts. So, in addition to some other things I made him... I made him a clipboard (he always carries around a clipboard at the plant) so I printed out some pictures that I loved and decoupaged the pictures onto the clipboard so he could always have pix of the boys whenever he wanted them. Anyway, some of the pix I chose had photos of my hubby with them but none of me. My husband made a comment about that before I gave it to my father. And then my father said some of his co-workers had the same sentiment. So, last weekend I actually did my hair and went over to my Dad's house so we could take some pictures with me in them. I think they turned out pretty cute. Especially the one of the family which I've put as the header on my Blog. I also got some really good shots of Dakota.









Those are just a couple of the shots I got of Dakota. Ofcourse the little goober had boogers all over the world when I was doing his photo shoot. Wonder how much he'll hate me later on for those shots.

Last night I spent with the boys was a lot of fun. After struggling with Dustin to get him to do his flashcards I started tickling him in between every card he got right. WOW! You'd be amazed at how tickling improved his memory. Holy canoly. He got like 90% of the cards right. His vocabulary is really improving in leaps and bounds. I'm quite impressed with my little man. I didn't get any good photos from Dustin last weekend but I have so many pix of him I'm sure he won't mind that I focused primarily on Dakota.

Then last night, when I was trying to pay specific attention to Dakota after I had spent the majority of the night playing flash cards with Dustin I started tossing Dakota on the couch and tickling him. He likes be bounced up and down as well and was giggling uncontrollably. It was absolutely hysterical. Of course Dustin got jealous and wanted me to throw him up onto the couch as well. He's too heavy to be lifting up and down like that for any significant period of time. Although he likes to lay on the couch next to Dakota and then be tickled at the same time so they are both laughing together. What can I draw from this experience? The knowledge that both of my children are sadistic. I HATE BEING TICKLED! I hate it! So, since my children love being tickled they must be twisted. Obviously I'm twisted in other areas, so it's not hard to imagine where they got it from.

My hubby has started working as an Assistant Manager at another one of the locations of his previous employer's restaurant chain. While that's the good news... the bad news is that he's hourly... so he's worked WAY less hours in the past week than we are used to. So, that could be detrimental financially later on down the line. But, I guess for today I have a roof over my head, food in my tummy, and all that other jazz... so I can't really change or freak out too much about what's going to happen tomorrow. I mean I can but it won't change it. So, I'll just sort of let things happen as they go. Plus, I'm kind of tired today, so worrying about that crap seem sort of mentally exhausting and I'm really not willing to expend my energy in that direction. Maybe tomorrow.... but not today. Today is Friday. It's a good day!

A Rocky 2010

Well, it looks like things might be off to a rocky start for 2010. While I'm grateful for 2009 to be done, I'm interested to see what the new year brings. Last night I spent time with my husband and boys. After midnight I went and grabbed Dakota accidentally waking him up. I had to kiss in the New Year with someone afterall. He was more than happy to oblige me and was excited about the extra bottle he got out of the deal. While he was still all smiles I put him back to bed. I figured since I was pregnant with him last year it would be fitting that he be the first one I spend New Year's with. However, Dustin must have radar because he woke up from a nightmare and needed Mommy to help him get back to sleep so he got his New Year's kisses early as well. After awhile and when both boys were nestled in their beds I trodded off to bed.
Of course the rocky part of 2010 came this morning when Darrell got home really early from work. He got laid off. Hmmmm.... He's pretty raw from this experience and I could tell. Luckily I'm pretty sure he was expecting me to freak out. Instead I had the opposite reaction. Things will be okay. It's time for me to step up to the plate. I'm a good fixer. So, if Darrell is going to be home with the boys during the day for awhile then we should be able to swing the bills. Luckily, I'm now allowed to work overtime. So, with all that said there are a lot of things that go wrong in this life. However, when you are a family you have people in the boat with you. So, when the storms start raging you have those closest to you to weather the storm with you. That's the good news. This is going to be a rocky time and the boat will rock but with God's help it won't capsize. I'm grateful that we all have each other and will be there for one another. I love my hubby and especially my little boys. With God's help we'll pull together and collectively work together to pull through.

Merry Xmas

WoW! Talk about a fun Xmas. Seriously, it was a blast. My house got trashed in record time. It was amazing. We had my step son over in addition to my two boys and they wrecked the house in about fifteen minutes. My Dad brought over a home cooked turkey he had been working on all day and we opened presents at three o'clock. Not before Dustin had begun opening some other people's presents. It was fun to watch Dustin. He opened everyone's presents. He wasn't very discerning or discriminatory. At one point he opened a stuffed animal for Dakota provided by Barb (my boss) and Dustin took one look at it and tossed it over his shoulder. So obviously if it didn't interest him he moved onto the next project. He was hilarious. Luckily he got some Bobots and other action figures which amused him greatly. I'm so thankful that I have such a wonderful family and was able to share that special day with them. And to top it off it snowed on Christmas Eve so we enjoyed a white Christmas. It was a fabulous day.

Pre-Xmas Craze

Well, this is the calm before the storm. We aren't actually doing Xmas until 3:00 p.m. I'm so freaking excited it's ridiculous. I can't wait to see Dustin's face when he opens some of his presents. Although he has opened two presents.... first he opened a Transformer costume and wore it until his love of running around in his underpants finally won out. I went to put him down for a nap and discovered that his blanket was in less than sleepable conditions. So, I decided to let him open a second present which was a brand new blanket ready for napping. Of course Dustin wanted to get up and open more presents. He even half opened one of Dakota's presents before Mommy got to him. I don't think Dakota will mind. After Dustin had opened the Bobot costume Dakota was playing with the wrapping paper. I like to think that Dakota was practicing for later. I am such a lucky woman to have both of my kids today and presents under the tree. I've tidied up half the house and should be finishing up the rest of it. It's amazing how five days can create such a ruckus with the rest of the house.

The Holidays

Well, the holidays are officially in full swing and I'd love to say I've been completely on the ball. The boys, Darrell, and I have all been fighting a hell of a cold/flu bug for TWO weeks. I'm so disgusted with the whole ordeal. Staying up till 2-3 o'clock in the morning listening to your babies hack and hack and hack is so heartwrenching. Missing 2.5 days of work sucked as well. The first part of this month could have gone better. My car died on my way home from work two weeks ago and then my phone just died on the following Monday. I went through withdraw as I was carless and phoneless for the better part of a week. Luckily for me the car is fixed, got a new phone, and it seems that we are finally kicking the colds. I've been home for awhile now and my kids aren't coughing as they lay in bed. What a relief!
I spent the evening over at my Dad's house wrapping presents for the kids. I thought Dustin barely had any presents and that I'd have to go on a mad dash for more stuff for him before the holiday. Boy am I glad I wrapped presents before I did that. Turns out he's got a ton of stuff. But, there are a few special things I want to get for him despite what my Dad says. :)
At work, we seem to be having a good collections month despite the fact that I was out for half the week. That's good news after we struggled with every hospital all over the country to get them to pay for their operating room equipment last month. Literally, it was like pulling teeth. Luckily our efforts from last month are bearing fruit this month. For that I'm greatful. We really need to keep this ball rolling into the new year. I'd love to see some consistency going on for the next few months. If I'm ever going to move into general accounting then my team needs to be on the top of their game before I take the exit. Not from the company obviously, but from the team I've been a member of for the better part of 4 years. In March it'll have been four years. I love my team and we do great work together. I'll miss that but would enjoy learning more about other areas of accounting. Eventually I'd like to get my CPA (I think) and having a more general accounting background would be useful. Although, I finish my Masters in Business Administration in March and I have to say that I'm really looking forward to being done for awhile. Especially since it seems that DustBug needs my immediate attention and his education also needs it.
I went to the speech therapist again earlier this week to finish up testing for Dustin. Might I begin by saying that Dustin's actual participation during the testing was pretty minimal to non-existant. We've known for awile that his speech isn't as advanced as it could be. But, I'm pretty sure that he flunked with flying colors due to his non-participation. Even stuff he knew because he verbalizes it with me everyday. On Monday, she asked him to say "Momma," and he wouldn't even do that. Seriously Dustin? But, this has spurned my husband and I into action in terms of working with him more on a one on one basis with flash cards and reading. So, that's a good thing. It gets frustrating when you are the only one working on things. I got discouraged awhile ago and have been neglectful on this front. I hate admitting that but it's the truth. Dustin is so bright and I know he is, he just needs more special attention from both of us. The speech therapist said she hoped to get him into a special PreK program in January if they have an opening. He's only 3.5 so hopefully with a year and half in that program he'll be where he needs to be. There's nothing more devastating than being told there is a problem with your child. You feel so guilty and helpless at the same time. What'd I do wrong? Blah, blah, blah. But, it's not the time for pity parties and it's time for action. So, with that said, that's just what we'll do. We've been working with him almost every day this week. Darrell slacked off a day but the days I've been home with I've worked with him. Bribery works well in this situation. Getting him to do what I want for a reward is definitely my method of choice. Now, I must say that I do not agree with bribery to get a child to behave... like if you are good now I'll give you X,Y,Z... but in order to get them to participate in activities they normally find boring I'm all for that. Maybe there's no difference, who knows? Obviously I don't. This is the first time I've ever had a 3.5 year old. So, I'm kind of winging it. Plus, with me learning and school as always come so easy it's ridiculous. Darrell struggles a lot with that which is why he's not the one in school. It's so foreign to me and that's probably why I'm having to go through this with Dustin. I have to learn to understand. Probably one of those master plans and designs someone has for me that I'm just finding out about.
Anyway, I guess this wasn't much of a post about the holidays... but there you go... it'd been awhile since I posted and figured I'd blurt out all of my random thoughts here.

Poor Dustbug

Well, Dustin my oldest son who I also call bug or Dustbug has some sort of nasty something. Not sure if it's the flu but it sure isn't a cold. He was throwing up on Sunday, Saturday Dakota seemed under the weather but now seems fine. By Monday morning Dustin seemed fine so he went to school. Same thing Tuesday morning. However, this afternoon at 3:30 I got a call stating that he had a 103 fever. By the time I got there and I felt him he sure didn't feel like he had a 103 fever. So, the only thing I can figure is that when he was taking a nap and sleeping with his fleece blanket must've compounded the fever. Dustin's fever has been hovering in between 99-100 degrees since I brought him home. He's alternated between seeming semi normal to acting sick. Like asking to go night-night at 6:30. Then when I check on him 45 minutes later wanting to get up and hang out. So, then when he got up around 7 he had explosive poop. GROSS! Seriously, all over the couch. Got that cleaned up. So, he asked to go to bed again and I let him to go to sleep. I check on him around 9:30 and he had explosive poop all over the bed (luckily there's a mattress cover). He had fallen asleep at the foot of his bed attempting to avoid the puddle. Absolutely disgusting. So, I woke him out a dead sleep and put him in the shower to clean him off. He was screaming with discontent but the number of baby wipes I would've had to use to clean him off would've been all five packages we have in the house and would've been just as much of a shock to his sleeping system. So, after I got him all cleaned up I put him to bed on the loveseat thinking I would sleep out in the living room as well so he wouldn't be alone. He just woke up ten minutes ago and had explosive poop again. I'm not a rocket scientist but I'm pretty sure that I'll be working from home tomorrow. I can't in good conscience let my little bug go to school when his stomach is wreaking such havoc on his system. I'll admit it is completely gross though. Hopefully it's all out of his system so he can sleep peacefully and let me get some zzzz's. I went and bought a bunch of gatorade so I can rehydrate him tomorrow. However, his fever is at a steady 99 at this point. Not really high enough to cause great concern but his other symptoms are definitely alarming. At least he was nice enough to wake up and stand up and then explosive poop in his diaper instead of all over the couch. Much easier to contain that way and get rid of. Then he wanted to go back to bed. So, now he's back there probably back asleep. I left the door open and will be sleeping on the couch so he can run out here and grab me if he has any problems. Poor little guy looked super disoriented when he got off the couch from a dead sleep to react to his stomach. I had to tell him 3x that I was across the room. Anyway, that's my gross story. The messes we get to clean up when we are Mom's... definitely something we don't earn medals for and something that definitely makes our stomach made of iron.

Halloween

Halloween was a lot of fun. Dustin of course dressed up like a Bobot. And we had Dakota dressed up like a pumpkin. I can't wait to see the pictures my Dad took. We went over to my Dad's house and took the boys trick or treating and handed out candy there. So, we obviously were a disappointment in the candy-giving department to the kids in our neighborhood. Although normally we do give out candy here so I think they could survive one year without us.
Dustin had a ton of fun. I'm not really sure who had more fun, him or me. Dakota was in his stroller being pushed by my husband so he passed out during the 'walk'. It was a lot of fun. Then when we got back to Dad's house Dustin had fun helping passing out candy to the other kids. I'm glad he got to experience both sides of the equation. At about 9:00 Dad watched the boys for 2.5 hours and Darrell and I went and saw the movie "Paranormal Activity." I loved it. I thought it was awesome. It was the perfect end to a Halloween. Last Halloween I was working really late, so I'm so glad I got to spend this Halloween with my family. It was so much fun!