Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Mom

It is conference time. It is Book Fair time. During school hours the kids are lucky enough to go into the book fair and make a "Wish List" to bring home to mom and dad. I love the book fair, I get to do some Christmas shopping and support the school. I have seen their "Wish Lists" and I have take the proper steps to get the books with out their knowledge. However I have been dubbed "A Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Mom" because I won't buy the much wanted books.

I actually dubbed myself with this title a long time ago when the kids threw a fit and asked "Why?" for whatever they weren't getting and it has stuck. I got it from this book (one of my favorites):

You can find it HERE! It is a great book and my kids love it. Yours will too, I am sure of it.

Anyway, back to the heart of the matter. I took them in to the Book Fair because I forgot which one Adam wanted......his writing on his "Wish List" was illegible. The boys bombarded me with books they wanted. Once I found out what Adam wanted I asked the boys to leave the building and wait outside. I then, very stealthily, handed the books to a friend of mine who runs the show and asked her to put them away until tomorrow and I would pay for them and then hide them at home.

The entire ride home from school was a bundle of tears from two of the boys and a string of curses. I am mean. I am a jerk. I am unfair. In essence, I am a Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Mom and I. LOVE. IT!

A long time coming....

When we moved into our house we didn't have a dining room table and chairs. My mom gave us her yard sale find which was great! But as the years went on we outgrew it. Jeff was accustomed to having his meals "family style", so all the food was brought to the table. Well with 3 kids, plates, cups, silverware, AND the food we quickly ran out of room. Not to mention the family gatherings at Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. It took us about 3 years to find a table and chairs we could agree on. I like things to be a bit more rustic than dear, loving hubby so everything I showed him he shot down. But this is what we were able to agree on......FINALLY!

The chair. I would have loved wooden seats, spills are a lot easier to clean up.

The trusses.

A little bit of rustic.

The table top.

I am so glad we finally found something we could agree on. It is nice to finally have enough space for the dinner, and for family when we have dinner here at the holidays. This Thanksgiving won't be quite so cramped.

It's a Friday Fill-In Kind of Day

I am joining Friday Fill-Ins. Want to join? Go HERE!

And...here we go!

1. Plans and schedules can be overwhelming .

2. I'm happy when things are organized and straitened up (must work on this) .

3. The last thing I drank was water .

4. One of the most valuable things in my life is my family .

5. I like pepperoni and pineapple on my pizza.

6. Dear November, please hold off on the rain til I get a new roof up .

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to curling up on the couch and catching up on some shows, tomorrow my plans include working out and Sunday, I want to go play soccer!

The Night Stalker Lives Here

A wisp of smoke or vapor lurks in every corner and crevice of my home. You can't see it, but know when it has struck. It waits til night fall before it strikes. Even better, it waits til the dead of night before it works it's wily ways on me and my family.

I feel as if it strikes every night sometimes twice a night. This is my tormentor of the evening and I think it relishes in it. It has a little bit of control over our nocturnal activities.....sleep. All is well when it's time to sleep, but in the deepest, darkest part of the night The Night Stalker strikes! It finds the one person in my family that has a deep attachment to his dog and steals it away, just out of his reach where he can't seem to find it.

When The Night Stalker has struck I hear about it and sometimes so does the rest of my family. Said child is in great peril and won't go back to sleep until his precious dog has been found and is safely in his arms. As I lay awake listening to the frantic search for the dog I can almost hear the laughter and snickers of The Night Stalker. When the dog is not found my boy will give a little whimper and creep into my room to ask for help. I think he knows that The Night Stalker exists, he has told me he thinks he hears or sees something in the hallway, the space between my room and his. Other times when he is truly panicking he will scream from his room "I CAN'T FIND MY DOG!" with great sadness and trepidation. These are the nights the rest of the family gets a taste of the smoke or vapor that lurks and laughs when it has created a bit of misery.

I know during the day it is watching, planning, and waiting for the part of night where everyone is immersed in dreams of happiness and comfort. It is then that The Night Stalker seeps out of the corners and crvices of my home. It likes chaos, it likes to be disruptive, it likes watching misery. It is The Night Stalker.

The Great Land of Aus

A little less than 2 years ago I took my family to Australia for my sister's wedding. We didn't do a lot of the touristy thing because we had a wedding to prepare for and attend. It was a great time.

Once the wedding was over we had the opportunity to see some sights. On one of our excursions we came across this.

Here is a close up of the little pictures on the left hand side of the sign.

They even have rules of etiquette!

We didn't actually go out to the beach and check things out, we couldn't we had 3 young impressionable boys with us who would have broken every one of the rules of etiquette. But they did get a good laugh at the naked butts on the sign.