Aussie Greatness

I'm really enjoying watching a TV show that ran for apparently eight years in Australia. It's called McLeod's Daughters. It takes place on a huge station called Drover's Run. Two sisters own it (they inherited it from their dad when he died) and they have an all female staff.

I order the DVD from Netflix, copy it onto my ipad and then enjoy an episode each night while Skip is in LA. It's a fun little indulgence that I've started.

Anyway, the scenry, storylines and everything is fascinating for me. It's real - no fluffy stuff here. Just real life - real work. However, I made a BIG mistake and read ahead about something that is going to happen in an upcoming episode and now I'm kind of not wanting to watch (one of my favorite characters is going to die).

I guess there's a message here. Like . . . if you knew what was going to happen in your life would you want to continue? Lol. If I knew what I was going to be dealing with now like five years ago would I really want to be here now? Answer: NO!

The Jerk

I just got home from Angel's Camp. The kids and I went up there for the weekend to visit with Demariea and to spend his day pass with him. We stayed at the condo that is in our time share.

I was pretty sick and, therefore, a wee bit cranky (okay, I was a witch!). It was Saturday night and the twins, Dani (Robbie's girlfriend) and I were sitting at the table playing a game. Next door it sounded like a 3-ring circus was going on. I could hear young kids running, pounding, screaming and slamming doors. It was out and out chaos (at least from my pounding headache perspective).

Finally, I had had enough. (This would surprise most peeps that know me because I am a notorious doormat). I went to the front door and ripped it open (I was gonna open a can of whoop ass on some kids, dog gone it!). About four little kids (around ages 4-6) froze and looked at me in horrified anticipation. Right then a mom popped her head out of the unit next door and said, "Oh, I'm so sorry. They are so excited to go to the pool and, really we were just leaving."

As I looked at these darling kids (one little girl had glasses on that reminded me of my Brian when he was little) my heart just melted in one big blob on the floor. I looked at the little girl and said, "Oooh, are you just so excited to go play?" She nodded her little head in the affirmative.

I looked at the mom and said, "No worries. I was just wondering if there was a party going on that I was missing out on. Have fun, guys!" They laughed and said, "Okay!"

I went back in feeling like the biggest jerk EVER! Dani and the twins just looked at me with a quizzical look and I said, "What can I say? They were just so dang cute and that little girl with her glasses on . . . how could I get mad?"

Dog Eats Homework and other news

Three months ago Courtney was given a HUGE project to complete for science. At the time, I remember thinking, "wow, how is SHE going to pull this one off." Of course, I helped her with the start and she also got some input from her teacher. Life took off and I eventually didn't give it much thought (bad mistake).

Today, as I was picking her up from school, she comes walking out with a HUGE 3-part poster board. When she got into the car I asked, "what's the poster board for?"

She replied, "My science project."
Hmmm. "So . . . your teacher gave all the students poster board to do their project?"
"No, just me."
"Oh, what's that about? Why just you?"
"Well, I told the teacher that we didn't have enough money to buy poster board. That's why I haven't been able to finish my project."

Wait a minute . . . did I hear that right? You said WHAT???

Needless to say, I was overly mortified. Wow.

So fast forward to later this evening when I informed her that homework and that project was going to be her life for this four day weekend of hers. She started randomly writing stuff on this poster board and I casually asked her what the "plan" was. She gave me a blank look. Okay, let me rephrase this . . . where's your research and where have you drawn up your master plan for what you're putting on this poster board.

"Well, I did all the research but someone took it. It's gone. I'm trying to remember what was in it so I can put it on the poster."
Screech!!! Halt! Back up!!!! "Hello, Sister Bear, I wasn't born yesterday. I know what you have been doing on homework every night and this project certainly wasn't in the line up. Guess what!! You get all day tomorrow to research this topic, Saturday to plan and create your poster, Sunday to do church and then Monday to put the finishing touches on. So long to your sleepover and other plans. Sorry!"

Needless to say, I have a very unhappy child tonight. I do have to give her credit, however, for attempting to come up with a story - however lame it may be.

Also, today I discovered a wonderful world of gluten free products at Vans. I'm in heaven! I can have pasta and bread and cookies! Yee! There is life after being told you are gluten intolerant!!! Happy is me!

Unplanned Craziness

This morning I woke Jacob up for school at 6:00 a.m. He got dressed, made his bed, ate breakfast while I made his lunch, brushed his teeth and grabbed his sweater in preparation for school. Just like every other school day.

Jacob's bus arrives approximately 6:35 a.m. to pick him up for school every morning. This morning, Jacob was ready to go and so I just let him chill in the front room while I wrote my daily letter to Demariea. I really didn't give much thought to much else as I became engrossed in what I was doing. I happened to glance up at the clock and was alarmed to see that it was 7:04 a.m. (time to wake up Courtney) and Jacob's bus still hadn't arrived. I said (mostly to myself), "I wonder why your bus is so late this morning."

At that point Jacob casually said, "Oh, I don't have school today, Mom. It's a day off for me. I got the paper from school on Friday."

Are you freaking kidding me? Like you let me wake you up unnecessarily early for no good reason? You are home with me all day today when I already had my day planned? OMG!!! Any of my other kids would have given me the "what for" if I had even THOUGHT of waking them up on their day off from school. But not Jacob. Nnnnoooo!

So, yeah, there it went. There my whole day went. Jacob has been amped all day long. I've had Ava and, at one point, he had her running around so much that she came in the house and threw up (she's been sick and this made her cough like crazy). Right now he's in the shower yelling and being crazy while I'm trying to get dinner on the table. Sounds like it's going to be a looonnnnggg night! (Sigh).

Tomorrow? Oh heck yeah! He's back in school and I have my life back. Thank heavens!

New Digs

At this point it's no secret that Skip has an apartment in LA. He is working on a job down there for the next 18 months and has a pretty sweet apartment near his job site. Since he's not able to make it home very much lately, we've decided that at least once a month I would come down and spend some time with him. Danielle has been awesome in agreeing to tend the twins and Rob while I'm away. This weekend is my first time here.

I feel like I'm having a relationship with a new guy and I've just walked into his place for the first time. It's a total bachelor pad and it clearly belongs to an overly anal person (ahem, that would be my husband). It's taken a bit to get used to the fact that I'm married to this guy and I should just make myself at home. It was a weird feeling at first. I almost felt like I had to ask permission to use anything. I think I'm finally beginning to settle in a bit.

It's small and quiet and conveniently close to EVERYTHING. If you know anything about my life you'll know that I live anything but close to anything. It's very odd to be able to walk just downstairs and there's a Whole Foods kind of store a block away and a coffee shop just downstairs. It's pretty sweet. I know I mentioned in FB status that I could stay here for forever but my friends wisely commented that I would get bored. They're correct. However, it would be nice to stay for a bit longer than this weekend. My life is busy, stressful and very high energy. It's pretty sweet to just chill.

I know it's nothing new for most but for us that live in the country with lots of stuff going on, this is a novelty at best. So while I miss my man at home, it's pretty nifty that I get to have the opportunity to come down here and spend some alone time with my love in a fairly serene setting.

Turn Around Day!

Today I had an, uh, appointment, shall we say, to go somewhere that I hate to go (no, not the gyno - although I do HATE that place too, lol). I was dreading it. The appointment was with one of my offspring and I knew that this child was going to be a pistol throughout the ordeal. However, go we did.

There was an extremely unpleasant situation that occurred. We were scheduled for 8:45 a.m. and by 11:30 it was clear that they had forgotten about us. When we approached the person in charge of shuttling us to where we were supposed to be, she giggled and said, "oh, my bad! We will have to reschedule you." Well, that child of mine went NUTS! This young person said some things and behaved in a most undesireable way. I calmly watched the "show". I, in the meantime, rescheduled the appointment for 2:00.

We then got in the car and I proceeded to drive to where we could get lunch that I could enjoy (yeah, I'm a bit high maintenance in this department). Halfway there, my child said, "It's okay, Mom, I'm beginning to calm down now." As soon as those words were out I began to engage in conversation. By the time the 2:00 appointment time had arrived we were laughing and having the best time together. The appointment came and went (with all of it's unpleasantness) and we drove back to our town together.

When we parted ways, there was a kiss, an "I love you" and I'll talk to you later, Mom. I drove away with the biggest smile on my face and the biggest amount of love in my heart for my child. Yes, great things can grow from a pile of crap!

Taking Care of Business

Monday and Tuesday of this week I didn't have Ava. She's been really sick. Today she's back with me. Poor little tike, she was sitting and playing on my ipad and just fell asleep right there in the middle of her game. I'm so not used to sick children. My kids hardly ever miss school. Oh, yeah, Jacob missed a week for his chicken pox but I'm here to tell you that boy was NOT sick!!! Nope, he just had "pops" (Ava's word for the funny spots all over Jacob). Courtney has only missed one day in the last three years from school for being sick. This is quite an adjustment for me. I will say, however, that things are pretty quiet around here right now. I mean, look at me! I'm sitting here actually blogging (notice how I've not been doing that lately with my little charge).

Also, I'm pretty excited that I get to go visit Skip in LA on Friday. Robbie comes home this afternoon from there where he's been helping his dad move into his new apartment. Skip appears pretty excited about his new digs. I'm curious to go and see what all the fuss is about (maybe it's just getting to live away from the kids and I, lol).

Yesterday morning I woke up to hear that awful howling wind. I rolled over and said to myself, "go back to sleep, little princess, you will be riding your horse later and walking with your friend. You don't need to get up and run at this early hour (it was 4:30 a.m.) today." I was obedient to that little voice in my head and trusted it with all my heart. BAD IDEA!! I went out to the ranch to ride my beautiful, gorgeous black steed. My trainer arrived and declared it too windy to ride safely. Oh-oh!! I then immediately called my buddy to see if that 7-1/2 mile walk was still in the cards and she, too, informed me that the wind was miserable and she was NOT going out today. I'm screwed. Yup, no exercise for this chickadee. I was crabby bear by the time evening had rolled around.

Well, this morning was a different story. I forced myself up (in spite of that wind and nagging voice) and had a pretty sweet run on that treadmill of mine, I then had a pretty wonderful yoga practice which has prepared me to be loving a patient and kind to Ava while she's getting better from being sick. Oh, and a bonus? Yeah, my yoga teacher shouted out a pretty wonderful sounding recipe that I'm going to make tonight (well, this afternoon since I have 6:15 drill practice and need to have everyone fed and happy before I leave). If it's good, I'll be posting it on my "NaturallyJode" blog. Cross you fingers!

Poser

Today is the twins' birthday. They are 13! They were both bouncing around the house this morning going on and on and on about how it's their day! I'm a little under the weather emotionally so I'm really forcing myself to stay on board with the magnitude of this day. I mean, AHHHHH!!! I have two more teenagers now!!!

So . . . I came home from taking Court to school. I chose to blow off my riding lesson today and do something really responsible like wrap their gifts. Yesterday while I was snooping around on Brandiln's blog I noticed that she did 'econo-wrap' for a gift for David. Dug on it! Well, I'm NEVER too old to learn from my child so . . .

Yea, I dug out the newspapers and just wrapped those little puppies right up. The twins are just gonna rip the wrap off and chuck aside so why spend another $20 on more wrap, right?

I'm pretty proud of myself and grateful for Brandilyn and all her wonderful thrifty ideas. As for that $20? Well, I realized that Courtney has one more gift than Jacob. I think I might pop into Big 5 and see if I can find a little treasure the young lad might enjoy. Sound good?

Sailin

Last night I got the wind taken out of my sails. I mean REALLY!! One of my, ahem, offspring really pulled a boner. I'm pretty upset with this child of mine and I finally had my good cry about it this morning as I was out bonding with my horses at 5:30 a.m. They got to hear all about what went down.

I was so dang sure that 2011 was going to be MY year. Stuff was just going to turn around and get great like it used to be when I didn't appreciate it. Maybe it still is. Maybe it's just a temporary setback - you know, like . . . Aha! You weren't paying attention, now were you! Just checking!!! Hahahaha!!!

Well, I'm not digging on this joke. It's cruel and it hurts and I want it to go away. Except it's not going away - well, not anytime soon.

Meanwhile, I'm going to reset my course and keep on sailing cuz that's what you're supposed to do, right?