Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Just Call Me Mrs. Grouch

Oh, man.

I almost forgot about the blog this morning, and the reason I almost forgot is because my brain is too tired to think straight.

Why is my brain too tired?

Thank you for asking.

My brain is exhausted because I haven't had more than a few hours of sleep for the last 4 out of 5 nights.

And why haven't I been sleeping, you ask again?

Thank you again. I'm happy to share.

My darling, wonderful, adorable, sweet, angelic little girl has been roaming the house at night, refusing to stay in bed, and waking me up every hour or so. I keep repeating how lovely my child is so I don't lose my mind and strap her to the bed to keep her in it.

And naps during the day . . . forget it. She's decided being able to escape from her bed and her room is way more fun than taking her nap.

Of course.

She slept for thirty minutes in the car yesterday while we were driving to pick up her brothers from school and while we waited.

She would have gone back to sleep after the boys got in the car if they would have left her alone, but NOOOOO!!

They couldn't stand letting her sleep. They picked and poked at her until she was wide awake and screaming her head off. Made the car ride home soooo much fun, and the twins are lucky I didn't lock them in a dungeon until puberty. My husband was quick to point out we don't have a dungeon, and I informed him that's what Home Depot and Lowe's are for. We'll build one.

And I think I'm getting a cold.

So now I'm done with my whining and off to make myself another cup of tea. Hope you all have a wonderful rest of your week, and I hope I manage to get some sleep in the next day or so, otherwise it won't be pretty.

Later.

Monday, September 28, 2009

The Princess' Birthday Bash

Hey, folks.

Whoa! Survived a big weekend involving lots of cleaning, a small birthday party, and children so hopped up on sugar we were peeling them off the ceiling every night to get them in bed. But once their heads hit the pillow, they crashed . . . hard.

But the Princess loved her presents from our family (THANK YOU, Mimi, Papa Max, Grandma Linda, Uncle Clint, and Auntie Misty.) She was wild for her new car (Princess Cozy Coupe from Little Tykes), her new shoes (sparkly silver and purple), and her new purse (hot pink and teal with Dora the Explorer on the side).

She sashayed through the house, climbed in her car, drove herself around the kitchen and living room, and made sure her purse was with her everywhere she went. And she repeated the process for about two hours.

Of course, after everyone was gone, she had more fun with her brothers in their new fort (the box the car came in), but she's been giving the car plenty of her attention, and she takes the purse and her new books to bed every night.

All in all it was a busy weekend, and we've got more coming up in the next few weeks. So I hope you all have a great week and I'll check in with you again on Wednesday.

Later.

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Good morning, all.

Sorry for the long silence on the blog. I've been in Denver and then came home to recover. The conference went great, the workshops were amazing, and I got an invitation to query a publisher, so it was good overall.

My good friend Lacy won the Historical Romance Category of the Genesis contest, which was awesome! She sooooo deserved it, she's a fantastic writer, and I'm looking forward to saying, "Yeah, I knew her way back when . . . "

And I got a mention from the stage, so yay me!

Plus the other REALLY BIG news is now I'm an aunt!

My brother and his wife adopted a bouncing baby BOY. He was born on Friday, and came home with them on Saturday.

About 500 strangers now know all about this child because I ran around the conference telling everyone who would listen about this precious little guy. And I wish I had a picture to show, but NO ONE has sent me any photos to post.

So someone needs to get on that. Not mentioning any names (Mom).

The boys are super excited about their new cousin and just love him. The Princess is a little uncertain. She likes "the baby" (said in a happy, whispery voice), but does NOT like the attention he gets from everyone in the room, and not getting picked up when she thinks she needs it.

This weekend we are celebrating the Princess's 2nd birthday. In fact, her b-day is actually tomorrow, so Happy Birthday, sweetheart. Mommy loves you!

The boys had a t-ball game Monday, which they won, and they have another tomorrow. We'll see how they do. This is a team they haven't played yet. But they are enjoying the season, and it'll be over in a few more weeks.

And I think that's it for now. So much going on, and I hope I covered it all. If I forgot something, I'll try to post about it on Friday. Enjoy the rest of your week.

Later.

Monday, September 14, 2009

Stuck Inside with the Kids

Good morning, everyone.

I think it's safe to say I have officially lost my mind. It rained all weekend, which meant our hyperactive, need-every-minute-they-can-get-outside-to-run-off-their-excess-energy kids didn't get to play much the last couple of days.

So they tried to make up for it by playing indoors. Wrestling. G.I. Joe. Spiderman climbing the walls. Fastest racers in the world sprinting through the house.

And the Princess took her cues from her brothers.

I thought Hubby was going to throw them all out in the rain, and pneumonia be danged. They drove us both to the edge of sanity, and I'm pretty sure I got bumped over the edge a couple of times.

And the Princess also discovered a "safe" way to crawl out of her crib. Since she is already tall enough to reach all the doorknobs in the house, plus most of the light switches, she was up in the middle of the night roaming the house.

I had no idea. I slept right through it. Which is unusual for me. I wake up at the slightest stir. But I must have been exhausted because I didn't hear a thing. Hubby said she came in, got him, and he sat up with her for an hour or so. Then he laid with her in the guest bedroom until she fell asleep again.

Just a bunch of craziness all around.

So anyway. I'll be off to Denver in a couple of days, so I'll try to post before I leave on Wednesday, but I won't have anything on Friday.

Hope you all have a great week.

Later.

Friday, September 11, 2009

Fall T-Ball

Hello, all.

Yay, it's Friday!

We don't have a lot of plans for the weekend, but most likely it will involve kids and cleaning.

Last night the twins played their first t-ball game of the fall season. The team they played was their biggest rival during the spring and summer.

The first inning our team played very well, and we were ahead 6-3.

The second inning our team lost all focus, and since the kids are ages 4, 5, & 6, this isn't a major shock. The other team shot ahead of us 9-6.

I took the princess to the car to change her diaper at the beginning of the third inning while our team was on the field. I expected to get back to the other team scoring all kinds of runs. But our boys got their focus back and it was three up, three down, just like that.

Now it was the bottom of the third and our team was at bat. We got runners on the bases and got the score tied at 9-9.

Twin A had gotten on base and was at third.

Twin B was at bat.

I was in the stands having a heart attack. This exact thing happened last summer, but it was reversed who was on base and who was at bat. I decided it was time to talk to the coaches about switching up the batting order. I don't want to go through another nerve-wracking moment of will one son get the game winning hit, and will the other get the game winning run?

Twin B hit the ball right down the third base line, right where the coach told him to. Twin A sprinted home.

Score!

We won the game, 10-9.

I got home with a severe tension headache, and vowed to take some sort of tranquilizer before the next game so I don't get quite so worked up.

And that was our first game. Can't imagine what the next 8 weeks will be like.

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend.

Later.

Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Battle in the 'Burbs

Hey folks.

Sorry there was no post on Monday. It was a busy weekend.

One of the more eventful happenings was a throwdown in our neighborhood between two of the residents.

We live on a cul-de-sac in a planned neighborhood out in the middle of nowhere. We're a good 2-3 miles from town, but have lots of people in our area.

On the end of our street are 6 houses, including ours. 5 of the 6 residences have young, married couples. 4 of the 6 have young children.

On the corner is a lone bachelor . . . older . . . and unfortunately, very strange.

Refuses to acknowledge when anyone waves at him, says hello, or makes any sort of friendly gesture. Mutters at the neighbors when they are in their yard. Stares at everyone if they are outside talking in their driveways.

So apparently, the old guy's muttering and mumbling at people was getting on a lot of nerves. We could hear him making fun of the kids one day because they found a frog and were excited to watch it hop across the concrete.

Very passive-aggressive, antagonistic kind of stuff.

And even though we haven't been around for all the incidents, I guess the old guy's had more run-ins with the others in the neighborhood. So one of the neighbors, probably the newest to the area, finally had enough after the lone bachelor guy muttered something rude about his wife and infant son the day before.

The night of the big "brawl" the two guys met up at the end of their driveways with lots of yelling and cursing. And of course, we were all out on our driveways to see what the deal was. We kept expecting the police to show up because the confrontation seemed to be getting pretty heated.

Another neighbor stepped in to mediate the argument and see if there was any common ground between the two divided factions (all of us vs. the old guy). We hoped there might be some chance of making peace with this man.

After an hour and a half of getting nowhere trying to reason with this odd man, and finally determining he isn't playing with a full deck of cards, one of the wives went inside and called the police.

Ten minutes later the cops showed up, everyone went back to their houses, and the police got just a small dose of the strange man's personal brand of crazy.

So there will probably be more patrols in the area, and we'll see what happens with our unusual neighbor.

I hope you all have a good week.

Later.

Friday, September 4, 2009

Good morning.

This will be my 200th post. Hard to believe I have rambled on for 200 blog posts, but there you have it.

No celebrations or anything, just going to hang out and fold laundry. I wish I could say I have exciting plans for the day, or for the weekend, but it should be pretty uneventful. I think we're just going to stay here and work around the house.

I'm also thinking about shopping for a new blouse for my upcoming conference. I've had some money saved up for it, so I might as well pick it up now, since the conference is only a couple of weeks away.

Hope you all have a great Labor Day weekend and enjoy the extra day off.

Later.

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Howdy, y'all.

Going with my cowgirl accent this morning. So, anyway . . .

Another fine day. The boys are at school, the girl is sleeping late (woohoo!), and I am enjoying a few moments of silence before the rest of my day begins.

I will be headed for a writer's conference in a couple of weeks, and I am just getting to the point of putting my "stuff" together for the trip. This includes a LOT of things: clothes, conference notebook (which includes even more "stuff"), copies of the manuscript to use during workshops, arrangements while I'm at the conference, etc.

It's just a lot of planning, and then I also need back-ups for certain parts of the plan in case there are changes along the way. This is just how I roll when I travel. Plans and back-up plans.

Maybe I've watched too many spy movies.

Or maybe I've just traveled with too many goof-balls in my time (mainly myself!) and know that if it's possible to go wrong on a trip, it will.

So I will be spending the next several days preparing, making out my schedule, and looking over alternatives in case the schedule falls apart.

I'll see you again on Friday.

Later.