{ Boogers, Blood and Cow Snot }

AKA ~ My weekend in a nutshell.

I took the kids to the MN State Fair on Saturday night. Pickleman was working at his booth (deep fried pickles) so we stole him away for an hour so he could hang with us. I know he misses the kids when he isn't with them so this was a great way for him to spend part of his Saturday. While we are divorcing, we are still close and want to keep doing things as a family for as long as we can.






I stopped at Walmart on my way down to the fair to buy a harness for Booger. Now before anyone chastises me for putting my kid in a harness, I will ask that you spend one hour with him in a crowded place and let me know if you can do it without a harness. I left the stroller at home on purpose as trying to navigate a stroller in the fairgrounds crowded with 165,000+ people is damn near impossible. Therefore, I went with the harness. He looked so damn cute in it too! I got many compliments from people, many asking where I got it and even kudos from a few St. Paul police officers. They have had way too many missing child reports during the last ten days of the fair and were very happy to see mine in a harness. So there. *sticks out tongue*

*wink*








We took the kids to the different animal barns ~ cattle, horses and sheep. The cow barn is my all time favorite. This particular visit ranks low due to a cantankerous cow blowing his cow snot all over myself and Thing 1.



Side note ~ I saw TONS of kids wearing Thing 1, Thing 2 and even Thing 3 tshirts. LOVED IT! Must get me some...

Back to the cow snot. Dude ~ It was effin' NASTY. Pickleman just laughed his nuts off at us. Thing 1 got the brunt of it due to her height. Regardless, I felt violated. And slimey.

The kids just loved seeing all the different cows. I made Pickleman take a pic of a calf nursing on his Mama. I thought it was so sweet. Cows are too cute!







The horse barn was super boring but we were lucky to see a few hours outside on the streets. Evan has never been this close to a horse before. He loved it but was also a tad scared by how big they are.





After an hour, Pickleman had to go back to the booth. I attempted the kiddie ride area and promptly failed. It sucked. The kids (excluding Booger) went on two rides and that's all I could handle. While they were on one ride, Booger tripped and fell, skinning his knees and getting one hell of a nasty bloody nose. He was crying and rubbing his nose which spread the blood everywhere.

I must say that I was most impressed with myself for I didn't panic. I just walked to the nearest bench (thank you to the couple who saw us coming and got me some paper towels) and took care of his bloody nose. Poor poonum. About 30 minutes later I noticed the blood all over myself. Nothing screams SEXY like blood.

I met Pickleman back at his booth around 9pm. While we were waiting for him to finish up, we snacked on some gourmet deep fried pickles. What constitutes them as gourmet, you ask?

There is cream cheese involved.

Oh hell yes. Gourmet all the way!

Anyways, Booger LOVES condiments. Since the pickles are served with ranch dressing, he only ate the ranch dressing. SO GROSS. What was even more disgusting was the fact that he kept putting his hand in the ranch dressing and then wiping it all over me. I had ranch dressing everywhere from the boobs on up.

As for Sunday, Booger lived up to his name. We were snuggled on the couch watching Thomas the Train when he picked his nose and wiped it on my lips.

Cue gag reflex!! I am very distraught over this. I'm wondering if I can get a lip replacement??

*wretch*


Looking at these photos from the fair, I'm reminded of one of my favorite photos of me, Thing 1 and Thing 2. It's from the MN State Fair in August 2004. It's funny what four years can do to you.

Then:




Now:




Sigh. I want to be skinny again.

~xoxo ~

Let my FIVE day weekend commence!!

My co-worker (and the only other person who can effectively do my job) is about to implode and give birth any day now which is why I took tomorrow and Friday off. I have absolutely loved watching her go through this pregnancy and being in her life at this awesome time. It makes me sad about the fact that I can never have another child of my own again. I can never feel those baby kicks, aches and pains again. *cue tears* This too, shall pass. :)

I had a VERY busy day yesterday. It was also one hell of an AWESOME day.

I worked at my FT job until 5:00pm. Amongst my usual job duties, I managed to start accumulating donations for our annual "Patient Appreciation Week" which is coming up at the end of September. I called ten different local eateries and ended up with 100% success on donations!

At 5:30pm I went across the street to the hospital where I now work as an ER Admitting Representative. It's a casual position and I'm still training for it so last night's shift was supposed to be shadowing. Well, I hate sitting on my ass watching other people do shit so I jumped right in. It was a busy night in the ER so I learned a lot. The question is...did I retain any of it??

When I was done there at 9:00pm, I stopped and had a beer or two with a friend near my house. I was falling asleep by the time the 2nd beer came so I went home and cashed out until this morning.

There is another major reason as to why I was so crazy busy yesterday...

I started GRAD SCHOOL!!! It was my first day. I'm doing it all online at the University of Phoenix. I am getting my MBA in Healthcare Administration. Yesterday was my first official day. :)

I called my parents last night to tell them the good news and I think I really took them by surprise. My Mom sounded so happy and so proud of me. It was so reassuring to hear. Back in January, when I told my parents that I was leaving Mister Hunzer, they were not too pleased with me. Needless to say, these last eight months have been very hard on me because I feel like I'm this huge disappointment to my parents. Hearing my Mom and Dad saying that they are so proud of me and hearing how excited they were for me just made my entire day. I love them so much and only want them to know that I'm doing fine and will obtain this degree with everything that I've got.

As for tonight, I finished my first two assignments for my class. It feels good to be back in school. That part of my brain that just absorbs education needs to be woken up so that my next assignment isn't so hard.

All three babies are asleep and I'm headed there shortly myself. I have tomorrow and Friday off. I plan to catch up on some sleep, clean, do some laundry, study, etc,

I'm just so happy right now. Just full of smiles.

~ XoXo

Picture Update and Weekend Highlights

I took these on Saturday afternoon. You can see just how "smoothly" everything went. Having a toddler in tow craps on the best laid plans. *wink*




















Weekend Highlights:

~ A co-worker got married on Friday night. I headed to her reception after work with The Boyfriend. She looked absolutely BEAUTIFUL. I knew she would as she is just thing tiny young blond thang. I was pretty mellow from the night before (STAIND CONCERT!!!) I just laid low and did my own thing until we left at midnight.

~ Saturday consisted of a trip to Menards for mini-blinds for my basement and a storm door for the front door. My basement was finished a few months ago minus the door and closet door to Thing 1's bedroom. She doesn't sleep down there yet because of that and because there are no blinds on her windows. The contractor that was working on my basement is in prison for cocaine so I have a new guy coming over in the morning to finish things. He's even installing the storm door and mini-blinds for me.

~ Saturday also consisted of the trip from HELL to Target. Why hell?

Two words:

SCHOOL SUPPLIES

I hate shopping for school supplies. It's a GIANT pain in my GIANT ass. Gotta do it though. The kids loved helping me find everything on their list. It's like a f*cking treasure hunt the way the shit is laid out in that section. I managed to stay sane while hunting down the elusive 15 pack of pencil cap erasers and the clear pencil bag with three holes punched in the side all the while hearing "MOM...MOM...MOM" from Booger.

~ Speaking of Booger, he is absolutely IN LOVE with trains. His Dad took him and his brothers and sister to Frazee, MN a few weeks ago to visit with family for a week. Pickleman (formerly known as Mister Hunzer) has a sister in Lake Tahoe, CA who flew in for the same week of Family Fun Time.

Apparently their cabin was by some train tracks so trains were a daily annoyance, err, occurance. Booger would just go apesh*t when he would hear one coming. He even makes the little "choo choo" sounds. It's so cute.

Not realizing this, I had bought Booger a Thomas the Train shirt a while ago. I found it yesterday and asked him if he wanted to wear it.

He couldn't get in the thing fast enough. Kept saying "Choo choo!" over and over again! When we were at Target yesterday for the school supplies, I bought him two Thomas the Train books that nearly blew his mind! The kid is crizzAZZZY!!

~Sunday was pretty laid back. Kids played outside for a bit. Booger and I played catch on the kitchen floor with one of his favorite toys (balls). We did to go Target and by drapes for my bedroom, Thing 1's room and a valance for the boys' room. Tonight I hung the miniblinds with help from Pickleman. However, I hung the curtain rods and drapes by myself. YAY Thing 1's room is looking most AWESOME if you ask me. :) The new contractor can do the rest of the blinds and draps for me when he gets here tomorrow.

Goodnight loves...

~xoxo~

For the LOVE of all that is HOLY...

someone give me a Xanax!!

Why?

I introduce you to Booger (formerly known as the Baby Boy Child).




Pretty damn cute, ain't he? Lemme tell you a little story about Booger. He is very delayed in his speech due to chronic ear infections. I don't know if the fact that he was six weeks early plays a part or not but it could. So could the fact that he is the third child and everybody speaks for him.

Anyways, Booger got tubes in his ears in February at the age of sixteen months. Since then his speech hasn't improved by much. However, he is learning to sign and uses the signs for "more", "please" and "thank you" pretty regularly. He does have a small vocabulary which consists of "hi", "bye", "dada", "mom", "momma", "ma" and "no".

See all the forms of "mom" that he uses? Well, he uses them CONSTANTLY. Not just constantly but LOUDLY. I guarantee you that he has said "MOM" about 25 times since I started writing this post. No, I'm not ignoring him. He's thoroughly entertained at the moment but just loves to hear himself say MOM over and over and over again.

A few weeks ago I took the kids out to dinner with my parents and my brothers. They couldn't believe how often Booger said "mom". In fact, my brothers nicknamed him "Little Stewie".

Why?

Watch and learn.


Click to see Stewie Annoys Lois Video


I kid you not, this is EXACTLY what Booger does to me on a daily basis. I am NOT exaggerating. In fact, when I played that clip, he started up again. The kid is insane!!

I am definitely glad he is using his words but OH MAH GAWD...Xanax would be nice right now.

~ xoxo ~

It finally happened.

I sneezed and a litte pee came out.

~ Sigh ~

*wink*

My love affair with Aaron Lewis is still going strong!!

I know I said I would finish my thoughts on anxiety...and I will...but I need to interrupt this program for two HUGE reasons.

#1 ~ Staind released their new album, Illusion of Progress, today!!! I loved their new single "Believe" and pre-ordered the album so I could get the extra goodies today.

#2 ~ I am going to see Staind in TWO FUCKING DAYS!!! WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! No meet and greets this time though. ~ Sigh ~ Hinder is opening, then Staind will perform and then I will be in an Aaron-Lewis-induced trance throughout the 3 Doors Down portion of the concert.

Have I mentioned that I *heart* Aaron?

I leave you now with the video to their new single, "Believe". I'm telling you...I could listen to Aaron Lewis sing ALL EFFIN' DAY. Lovehimlovehimlovehimlovehimlovehim.



~ xoxo ~

~ Anxiety ~

a.k.a. "Panic attacks" and "freak outs".

I call them weekly blips in my day-to-day life.

Others call them a moment of weakness, a cop-out and a made-up disease.

Franky I'm tired of them (the attacks) and them (the attackers who seem to think anxiety can be easily controlled). Damn ~ sorry for the bad grammar there. I'm too tired to fix it.

I've dealt with anxiety problems for my entire life. My first anxiety attacks that I can remember started when I was a kid, maybe 7 or 8 years old. We had just gone through a fire safety course at school. When I went to bed that night, I started worry about my parents and scared that they would die in a fire. Then it was just being scared that they would die at any moment and leave us totally alone. I can remember just SOBBING in to my pillow every night for however long this went on. I don't recall if my parents reacted at all. I just remember the sheer fear that I felt over the potential of losing my parents.

I remember another panic attack that hit me back in the summer of 1994. I was in Sevilla, Spain with a couple of high school girlfriends for our Spanish trip. It was super hot that day and we found some crazy spanish boys that were jumping off a bridge into the water below to cool off. My girlfriends and I wanted to try it. They all jumped off with no problems but when it came my turn to jump, I froze. I couldn't do it. I was sick to my stomach and had to slowly back away from the edge of the bridge. I was shaking and trying my best not to cry.

Here I am now, fourteen years later with much more to say on the topic and many more experiences to share when it comes to AnXiety. I will leave it like this for now as I am exhausted and need to go to bed.

Later Sugars!

~xoxo~

*snicker*

I just went outside to throw out some garbage. We got a nice hard rain tonight so the ground was nice and wet.

I see a frog. (see frog post below)

The Boyfriend is laying on my couch watching TV.

I recall The Boyfriend is afraid of frogs.

I pick up the frog.

I go inside and put the frog right in front of him on the couch.

I giggle as The Boyfriend screams, jumps off the couch and says "get it outta here!!!"

I think to myself that it was a good move not to put the frog on his leg as I would have splattered frog guts on my wall. He would have lauched that mo'fo.

I bring Sir Frogness McLeapster back outside and set him free in the cool wet grass.

I scold myself for not videotaping The Boyfriend's reaction.


Wuss.


*wink*