Life's Little Pleasures

Today Anna Mary, Caleb, and I spent the day playing. Jacob is spending a few days with Grandad and Gramma Lou, so I figured WE needed to have some fun, too.
We went to a cool new pet store called PetLand. They have these cool little cubicles that you can go into, and they will let you play with any pet you want...well, except the ones my kids chose the first two times. "Well, these puppies have an upper respiratory infection....Um, these have diarrhea...Do you mind if I just choose a couple of puppies FOR you?" To which I said, "No prob."
Anna and Caleb had a blast playing with puppies, hamsters, watching ferrets sleep on their heads (see pic below), trying to catch the guinea pig and parakeets.

Next we were off to a little feed store/gas station in Bernalillo (that's Burn-a-lee-yo). It's run by a local New Mexican family, and although all of their dry goods look a little dusty, they always have baby chicks and ducks and birds to hold/buy in the back of the store. They just keep them in these big troughs, and the chicks and ducks get so excited when you come to pick them up. Today we were thrilled to also hold bunnies!
After that we were hungry so we stopped at good ol' McD's. After three more stops, we got home, and oh, how good it feels to take my shoes off and relax. I am on vacation until Saturday, and I am loving every minute of it!
Jacob is having a blast with my parents, and is sooo enjoying the time away from pesky siblings. haha. We all need that time, don't we?

Birthdays

Well, it arrived. You know, birthdays don't seem to wait until the day is "perfect" anymore. Growing up, every birthday was one that I counted down from a month or two earlier, getting more anxious every day, and making sure everyone in my house remembered it was getting closer.
And now? This week I remembered that, "Oh yeah, my birthday is Friday." Well, the days leading up to it were somehow not as exciting as they used to be. First of all, my kiddos are out of school for the month of April (year-round school). Wednesday, Jacob came down with Strep Throat, so I had to call out of work that night (hooray for me, boo-hoo for Jacob) to take him to Urgent Care. About 1am my sweet Anna Mary ran in the door with her grandparents from their trip to Florida! We didn't get to bed until 2am. So, yesterday Jarrod was a zombie at work, and the kids and I were zombies at home. I stayed home from work again because none of the kids felt well (again, hooray for me). Today I woke up and remembered it was my birthday. My two youngest kids have fought all morning, Jacob is still feeling crummy, and my house? Well, let's just say that...the kids are out of school.
You see, tonight we were all supposed to go out to the dinner of my choice (NOT Chuck E. Cheese!!), because I was actually given the night of off work for my birthday. We even planned for it in our new and improved budget. But, Anna is now spending the night at her cousin's house, which is good because she and Caleb won't be able to fight. Jacob is still sick, and it's no fun to go to dinner with a sick kid. I had grand plans for Anna and me to bake a magnificent cake just for the fun of it. Oh well. It's not been a BAD day. I'm just waiting for Jarrod to get off of work, and then we'll decide what to do. We can always go out another time. Who needs to celebrate 37 anyway?

You know? Chuck E. Cheese might not be a bad idea after all. At least Jarrod and I would get some "quality time alone" while the kids are playing games. heehee.

Where in the World is Anna Mary Flaming?

Do you remember the show, "Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?". That tune is ringing in my head this morning. Friday morning, Jarrod and I watched our 9 year old daughter fly off to Florida with my parents for 6 glorious days!! They invited her to spend the week with her cousin, Emily, who lives in Tampa. Since Anna Mary is the only girl, and always surrounded by boys, we thought it would be such a great adventure for her. I miss her terribly, but I am so excited for her!
I remember growing up here in Albuquerque, and nearly every Summer and Christmas break my parents would put my sisters and me on the GREYHOUND BUS and send us up to Santa Fe for a week or three to spend time with MY grandparents. ( Can you even imagine putting your child on a public bus alone these days?!?!) I always loved my time up there because my Grandad would take me with him to the post office, and to his office at the Santa Fe Railway. Gramma Brown was the director of the Santa Fe Girls' Club, so during the Summer I was surrounded by tons of girls in this great old "mansion" that had been converted. It had secret rooms, trails in the hills, and....a COKE machine. Since I was the Director's Grandaughter, I got a free Coke!! Ah, the perks.
I hope that Anna Mary has wonderful memories from this trip that she will remember as fondly as I do.
And the boys? Well, suffice it to say, they are a little jealous of her, yet they understand that my parents couldn't take all of them. They will get to do some camping and fishing up in the Sangre de Cristo mountains with Grandad Doug next month! They are loving having an all-boy time, especially when I am at work. I don't know WHAT they do, and prefer it that way. All I know is that when I come home they are still alive, and the house is still standing. Growing up in a house with all girls, this is a good thing.

Melissa and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Morning

Boy, sure makes you want to read on, huh? If you don't want to, no prob. But I just have to dump it all out there.
First of all, yesterday was April Fool's Day, of course. I've never been much for the prank thing, but my kids, who definitely take after their father, ARE. So, yesterday morning at breakfast, Jacob goes to fill his cup with water at the sink and my sweet little Anna Mary had rubber-banded the sprayer and water shot across the kitchen onto my newly baked muffins, the floor, the stove, etc. (sigh). But I had to chuckle, because that is so unlike her. Then, in the afternoon during piano lessons, my Jacob was upstairs (supposedly doing homework). After lessons ended, I had to quickly get supper going, play a quick round of tetherball with Caleb, who is too cute to say "No" to, and then rush to get dressed for work. As I reach my room, Jacob says, "April Fool's Mom!! That's a good one, huh?" I look again, and he has taken my bedroom door OFF THE HINGES and put the door in the bathroom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Does that even qualify as an April Fool's joke?!?! Needless to say, I just left it there for Jarrod to fix...I couldn't deal!

So, this morning I woke up late from having bad dreams that my teeth were falling out, and that this lady I work with was yelling at me.
6:20am- Caleb comes down the stairs and informs me that his "In the News" paper still needs to be done, so I grab my coffee and head to the computer to print out a paper on birds. I won't mention any names, but at...

6:38am- my cell phone rings, and it's a family member (not Jarrod) wanting to ask me several questions that could wait until at least 8 o'clock.

6:51am- As I rush to get dressed, this person calls again to tell me that they found something they thought was lost! I hang up, jump in the shower, throw on clothes, yell downstairs for EVERYBODY to make sure they have ALLof their proper school clothes on, as if they've never gotten ready for school before...

7:25am--"ring,ring"...it's this person AGAIN! This time I hit IGNORE, because I am really running behind. And I'm REALLY burning up inside.

7:29am--Out the door, forgetting everyone's meds, my stuff that I need for all my errands, MY COFFEE, etc.

I did manage to get the kids to school on time. Because I couldn't find a pen to write a check for school stuff, I went to Caleb's class to finish it, only to find out that I completely forgot a VERY important meeting yesterday at 10am with his speech teacher and several other important people for his annual review! So, I went to the lady's office to "touch base" with her. I ended up having to go through about 20 pages (no joke) of "stuff" such as, "What are the goals you have for your child's future? What do you envision for him as he becomes an adult?" I'm thinking, "He's SIX, people!!" My main goal for this kid is that he makes it to age SEVEN!!! ugh. So I signed my life away, and headed out 30 minutes later to run my errands before another day of piano lessons begins.

After 2 hours, I got home with all of my errands done for the day. I sat down and read a friends' blog about her losing her mother and I just began to cry. It HAS been a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad morning for me. But there are others who would trade me for their heartaches in an instant. I think I'll go take a little nap and think about that.