Pieces of Us...

Another Week Gone By.... - Thursday, July 27, 2006

Fellow blogger Jess suggested that I blog. So Jess, here you go.

I really don't have a whole lot to talk about. Of course the other day I said the same thing to Caroline. She hadn't blogged in quite a few weeks and I missed reading her posts. So she finally blogged and said she didn't have anything to talk about. Seven or eight paragraphs later I think she realized she had more to talk about than she thought. He he he I think I left her a comment that was probably longer than her post!

Anyway, so not much going on this way. Just lots of stress at home. You know what most everyone's problem is nowadays... Money. Daycare is absolutely killing us. And fellow blogger Jane says she hates to hear blogging mommies go on about money, so I'll just keep my mouth mum on the situation for now. I think we all have financial problems at one time or another. Jonathan and I have been through this before. We do really well, then something comes up and things go bad.

I will say one thing though, we are really lucky that Jonathan's client is letting us use his beach house for free, or there would be no vacation for us this summer. I called my parents today and told them that we would have to eat 99% of our meals at the house. We wouldn't be able to go out to dinner every night with them. So I guess we will have to pack lots of groceries! I'll also need to research some "economical" things for us to do while we are at the beach. Does anyone have any ideas on things to do "for free" at Myrtle Beach? Ha, thats a laugh isn't it? I'm sure we'll come up with some things. The beach is free at least and we will be spending lots of time there. But my mother can't really stay out in the sun very much, so I was hoping we could find some other things to maybe do in the evening or even a few things indoor.

We have decided to sell our boat and pay off both of our cars. We don't owe very much on either of them. But the two car payments together are $600 a month. So if we sold the boat, then that would be $600 a month off of our monthly budget. What a relief. I just hope and pray my van lasts us a few more years. Doesn't the old saying go, as soon as you pay something off, something goes wrong with it. I certainly hope not. Its a Honda and they are usually pretty reliable.

Ok, I just said I wasn't going to talk about money, so moving on. We had some passes to go to BounceU the other day, so we decided to take Chase. Jonathan had never been, so he was pretty surprised at how much fun it was. I think we got more exercise that night than we have had in the last 6 months. Chase was fearless. My only regret is I didn't take the camera. I used to keep the camera in the car and would have it ready for just such occasions. But I took it in a few months ago and keep forgetting to put it back out in the car.

I took Chase up the first large slide and slid down with him. He had never done anything like that before. Jonathan said I should have seen his face as he was coming down the slide. Another regret at not having the camera. The only problem is he isn't big enough to climb up the rope ladders and stuff to get to the top of the slide. And I could barely climb up it myself while holding onto him. He had so much fun. When we got home that night he was exhausted.

Skyler and I didn't do much of anything last weekend. Jonathan left on Friday to visit his buddy in Asheville. Then Saturday morning he got up to go to TN to pick up Chase. He spent Saturday afternoon at his grandmother's house helping her do some things around the house. Then Sunday he got up and went to my parents' house to pick Little Man up.

Skyler and I hung around the house most of the weekend. After three nights at Pump It Up and BounceU, I was pretty much exhausted. Things are so much quieter around the house when you only have one child. Skyler can pretty much take care of herself. She watches cartoons, plays with her Barbies or colors and draws. We played games, colored and just hung out. Its so much more peaceful when there is just one in the house.

As soon as Chase got home Sunday evening, things turned chaotic in the house. At least there wasn't any arguments between them that first evening. They were so excited to see each other. Lots of hugging and saying they missed each other. But come Monday afternoon....the fights begun. Does it ever get any better between siblings? I certainly hope so. My brother and I didn't fight and argue like that. Of course, there 11 years difference between us so I was pretty much a built in babysitter.

Lets see what else is going on.... The other night I watched Failure to Launch with Sarah Jessica Parker and Mathew McConaughey. It was pretty good. Not one of my favorite movies or anything. Then last night we watched She's the Man with Amanda Bynes. Now that movie was cute. Skyler started watching it with us and we ended up letting her stay up past her bedtime to finish watching it. She and I sat and snuggled on the recliner watching it. It was quite cute and funny.

We have absolutely no plans for this weekend. We are having to cut back on our spending and be thrifty. Medical bills have completely wiped us out. The good thing is we have water park season passes, so we can go to the water park. Its lots of fun and the kids really enjoy it. Can you believe summer is almost over with? Geeze it has like flown by this year.

I can't belive Skyler will be starting kindergarten next year. When they say your kids grow up right before your eyes, they aren't kidding.

Since this post is already pretty long, I'll get more into that over the weekend. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

Another Week Gone By.... Monica; 1:55 PM 3 comments

BounceU, BounceMe, Bounce Everybody! - Thursday, July 20, 2006

Tuesday after work Skyler and I decided to try out the new BounceU. Its just like Pump It Up, except they have a few more inflatables. The place was PACKED! I'm talking wall-to-wall kids and parents.

The funny thing about this place was the parents were playing almost as much as the kids. They had the tug-o-war where you hook this harness around you and another person and each of you are pulling in opposite directions to try and put a ball in a goal. They had the monster boxing (see side picture).

Skyler decided she would try the boxing. Now mind you, the child has never learned how to punch. No surprise there since she is only 4. But she really wanted to try it. She got in the ring with another little girl who was a bit older than her. That little girl was punching right and left. Skyler took it all in stride, and even went another round with another little girl later.

BounceU was a lot of fun and even though they actually had more things to do there, I still think I enjoyed Pump It Up better. The rooms were much larger at PIU and they played music. Really good music for the kids. It wasn't half as crowded and the place even smelled better. BounceU is only open one evening a week for open bounce, so the crowd was horrendous. And the parents were horrible. So many parents were like practically pushing little kids out of the way to get to the top of a slide. It was pretty bad. You wonder about people sometimes.

So after I spoke with my brother the other night, he decided he wanted to go to Pump It Up. So here we are going again tonight so my 24 year old brother can go play to! Three nights this week at a bounce place has been too much

We are so lucky we have so many fun things for kids to do here. I try and think of fun things for the kids and I to do at least a couple of times a week. I'm a working mother, so sometimes I feel guilty I don't spend enough time with my kids. I'm sure most working moms feel like that at some point or another

Yesterday morning I told Skyler we were staying home for an evening. She was okay with that. We all need to rest and relax sometimes. So I picked her up from daycare and noticed that she had her name on the board for misbehaving. After speaking with the teacher, she informed me that out of the 17 kids in Skyler's class, only 4 didn't get their name put on the board for that day. So evidently it was a bad day all the way around.

So I asked the teacher what had happened and she explained that Skyler and another little girl had been arguing and yelling at each other. So I made Skyler apologize to the teacher and the other little girl. Skyler started to get upset and kept on saying, "Your going to be so made at me." I explained to her that I wasn't angry with her, I was just disappointed. I also made her call her daddy and tell her what had happened. Well when I said that all he-- broke loose. She commenced to crying and whimpering and snot was flying. She was saying, "I'm a bad girl. I'm a baby!!!". I'm thinking, "Where the he-- is this coming from?"

She went on her little tyrade for almost an entire hour! No amount of talking, coaxing or anything would get her to calm down. Finally I started losing it. We got home and I ended up yelling at her. Then I took away her television privileges for the night. I don't know what her problem was. It was the first time she has had a temper tantrum like that in quite some time. But it was a doozy.

Little Man seems to be doing pretty well camping with my parents. I called a couple of times each day to check on him. The only problem they seem to be is the mosquitos are eating him alive. He has my skin and for some reason bugs just think we taste delicious. She said his little legs are covered in bug bites. She is afraid to let him go outside and play because he has so many. Poor little guy, I know he will drive them insane if they keep him cooped up in the camper. He doesn't like to stay at home, much less be cooped up in a small space. He is just like his sister, the first thing he says in the morning when he opens his eyes is, "Bye-bye!"

Well I guess I should end for now. I was trying to post a short video of Skyler at BounceU, but for some reason Youtube is not cooperating! Dang it. I think it is getting as bad as myspace. Geeze. Anyway, the weekend is almost upon us. Hope every is having a great week!

BounceU, BounceMe, Bounce Everybody! Monica; 11:14 AM 3 comments

Pump It Up Baby! - Tuesday, July 18, 2006

I am really missing the Little Man right now. As I mentioned before, he is spending the week with Mamaw & Papaw. As a matter of a fact, they should be leaving for their camping trip about right now. I hope he isn't a mean little booger while they are camping.

When I talked to mom last night she said he had been awesome. Its like night and day when he and Skyler aren't together. I think siblings must just bring out the worst in each other or something.

We went home over the weekend to drop Chase off at my parents' house. Jonathan and I went out to dinner alone Friday evening. Its always nice when we go home to go out for a bit by ourselves. Its a treat we don't really get to do much of while we are at home. We have friends that would babysit, but sometimes it seems its more trouble than its worth.

I don't think I've mentioned this yet, but Jonathan has decided to go on a diet. We both need to diet and I have been trying right along with him, but I haven't had the success he has had so far. We have both stopped drinking sodas all together and we are only drinking water. We have cut out all junk food and sugar and major carbs. Jonathan has been eating lots of grilled chicken and vegetables and snacking frequently on fruits. We started this last Monday and as of yesterday (one week), Jonathan had lost 16 pounds in one week! Me, I've only lost 4 pounds. But I knew Jonathan would lost weight much faster than me anyway.

Please wish us luck. The weight loss is going to help Jonathan's health tremendously. I can tell he is really excited and he is going at it with 100% commitment. Me, I don't have the willpower that Jonathan has. I think I like my food too much. But I am at least going to give it a try.

I had plans of doing some things around the house while Little Man was gone. It seems I can never get anything accomplished with him the house. He is Mr. Destroyer. He pulls out every toy in the house and the house always looks like a cyclone ran through it. When its just Skyler, the house stays clean and neat. She picks up her own toys, puts her dirty clothes away, helps me pick up, etc. I had plans of cleaning out my nasty closet; of getting some of the kids' old clothes together and taking them to the consignment. I had lots of plans. But you know how that goes... Plans just get kicked to the curb sometimes.

Instead I decided that Skyler and I would have a fun filled week of doing new stuff. So our agenda for yesterday was going to a place called Pump it Up. I'd heard about it before. I knew it was a place to holds kids' birthday parties and what not. But they also have open "bounce days." I have just one thing to say about Pump It Up. It was awesome! Skyler and I both had a blast. Its this huge building with a bunch of those blow up bouncy castles, slides, obstacle courses, fighting rings, etc. Skyler had herself a time. I even got involved and slid down the slide a few times, bounced in the HUGE bouncy castle a bit and even bravely did the obstacle course one time. I hate I didn't take my camera.

It was a two hour session. Skyler and I were the first ones in the building at exactly 5:30 when the session began. You had to watch this safety video on things you can and cannot do in the arena and then we were off. We stayed almost the entire time. With about 15 minutes in the session to go, I see Skyler coming down the slide with blood pouring out of her knee and crying like a banshee. I jump up and run over to her and ask her what happened. Now only my child could do this, but she hit her knee on her tooth. Yes her knee on her tooth. Don't ask me how, but that's what happened.

So I took Skyler out to the front of the building and we asked for some band-aids. I then took her in the bathroom and get her cleaned and bandaged up and away she went. No complaining about the knee injury or anything while it was play time. But afterwards when we left, the complaining commenced.

"Oh mommy my knee is killing me. I can't stand it mommy, it hurts sooooo bad!" Sniff, sniff, cry, cry.....

Oh the agony and angst of a four year old girl with a boo-boo. No sir, it didn't bother her a bit while it was play time but when its time to sit down and have a nice dinner, thats when the pain begins. So I politely told her if it hurt that badly then I guess she wouldn't be able to do swimming lessons with her daycare the next day. That shut her up real fast. She was still cranky and what not, but the uncontrollable whining at least ended for a bit.

So today we are going to go to a similar place like Pump It Up. Its a new place that just opened and I don't know anyone that has been there. Its called BounceU. So we will compare the two and see which one is best. I think Little Man will have a blast at one of these places. The only bad thing is when they have "open bounce" they mix the itty bitty kids with the big kids. They have special times and days set aside for preschoolers, but guess what? Of course its on stay at home mommy time. A week day in the morning.

Do companies not realize that working mothers have preschoolers to? Hello people! Not everyone has the pleasure of staying home full time with their child. That was always the problem in trying to find a mother's group. There are no mommy groups that meet in the evenings. Very far and few between anyway. I was finally lucky enough to find a MOPS meeting that met in the evenings very close to where I live. I LOVE it. I wish there were more things like that for working moms.

Anyway, so I have rambled on long enough. Hope everyone is doing well. Its almost hump day! The weekend is just around the corner. Yippee!

Pump It Up Baby! Monica; 11:09 AM 3 comments

The Puke Parade - Thursday, July 13, 2006

Oh yesterday was a doozy. I'm lucky (knock on wood), I've never had a cavity, root canal, etc. My teeth are still 100% mine. No fillings, etc. Anyway, now that I'm getting older, my teeth like the rest of my family's have started to spread a bit. Once upon a time my front teeth were perfectly shaped with no space between them. But now I have a slight space between them and another tooth is starting to creep behind my front tooth. So after a recent visit to the doctor, I asked about getting a retainer or something I could sleep in to keep my teeth from spreading any further.

So yesterday was my appointment to go back to the dentist to be fitted for my retainer. Now mind you, I am a gagger. And when I say gagger I mean GAGGER. I cannot stand anything in my mouth. It takes forever to get my x-rays because I keep gagging. I know the old rule, "Keep breathing through your nose." But for me, it just doesn't work.

So when I went in for my appointment I warned the technician,

"This is my first time ever having anything done to my teeth. And I want to warn you, I'm a really bad gagger."

She said, "No problem, I'm sure you'll be fine."

I'm like, "No seriously, I have some really bad gag reflexes."

So she shoves this huge piece of metal into mouth and says, "Yes, that should fit." I'm like on no it doesn't! It was huge. Then she commences to applying this nasty paste onto the metal thingy. And then she places it in my mouth and tells me to bite down hard. Oh the agony! That was the nastiest thing I have ever tasted in my life. So I do really good for about 15 seconds and then the gagging begins. Meanwhile I am gagging and the lady has a death grip on my mouth. She will not let me open my mouth for the life of me. I'm humming and hawing and gagging and trying to get her to take it out of my mouth. But she says, "Trust me, you won't want to do this again. It will be over in about 30 seconds." But I can't hack it. Unfortunately, I had a late lunch of vegetable soup and it is not wanting to stay down.

So after a few more seconds and chickie is still not letting me open my mouth, my lunch came up. Yuck! And what does the technician do? Does she release my mouth so I can spew my lunch all over her? Oh heck no! She still keeps my mouth closed in her death-like vice grip! Luckily it was only a teaspoon full and not a full spewing load or anything. But oh the embarrassment.

Chase has been doing the weirdest thing here lately. For some reason Mr. Muscleman thinks its fun to move the couch and play behind it. How many 2 year olds do you know who can move the couch 2 1/2 feet out from the wall? It is driving me absolutely bonkers. He will even try and move the couch with me sitting on it. His cars keep on rolling under the couch and instead of laying down on the floor and trying to reach under the couch, he just pushes the couch out to reach his cars. He is so funny.

Last night was a bad night for Chase. For some reason he woke up at about 12:30 a.m. and thought it was time to get up. He kept hollering at me, "Momma lets go bye-bye!" My son is a go go go boy, just like my daughter is. I went in there 3 times and told him to lay back down, that it was still dark outside and it wasn't time to get up. I have no idea what his problem was. He has been so good about going to bed and sleeping through the night. I really hope he isn't changing his sleeping habits. Skyler was really good about going to bed and sleeping until she hit about 3 years old. After that it was like 1 1/2 years of pure hell. We'll keep our fingers crossed that it was just a one time deal and not going to be a habit.

Tomorrow we are going back to Tennessee to pick up the boat and drop Chase off at my parents' house. They are taking Chase camping with them to Pigeon Forge for a week. I kind of feel bad because they aren't taking Skyler. I know she is going to be upset that we are leaving her "Bubbie" behind. If she knew they were going camping, she would absolutely have a hissy fit. But she has been camping with them several times before and they really can't handle both of them at the same time while they are camping. So she isn't going this time. I promised her we would do lots of girl things like shopping, going to the water park, going to the movies, etc. She seemed to be satisfied with that for now. But I don't know what she will say when it comes Sunday and we are pulling out of the driveway without Bubbie. We'll keep our fingers crossed.

Last weekend Jonathan went down to Myrtle Beach with the guy who is going to let us use his beach house. So by the time he came back on Sunday I was ready for a break to get away for the kids for a few moments. So my friend Sam and I went to see Pirates of the Caribbean - Dead Man's Chest. It was really a great movie, but the ending sucked. It definitely was a "To Be Continued" kind of movie. So much so that it actually kind of ticked me off. The special effects in the movie were mind boggling and the characters were awesome. But it definitely isn't a movie to take the little ones to see. Some of those characters even freaked me out. Skyler wanted to see the movie, but I know she would have nightmares for weeks if she saw it. So no pirates for Punk.

It was great just to get out of the house for awhile. Jonathan bathed and fed the kids that night so Sam and I could go out to dinner and the movies. Its nice to get out and have an adult night out without the kiddies every once in awhile.

Well I guess I should end for now and get a few things done around the house. Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend.

The Puke Parade Monica; 12:39 PM 1 comments

Taking a Break... - Tuesday, July 11, 2006

I know, I totally blow. I think I just decided to take a small break from blogging for awhile. I'm so bad, I haven't even read any blogs. But summer is always busy for most people. The kids are out of school, there are so many things to do and see. Oh the excuses, the excuses....

Seriously though, things have been going okay. It just seems we have been so busy this summer, it is making my head spin! The good thing is I'm not real busy at work. Now that I only work in the Legal Dept. and not Events, things are pretty slow in the summer. I know, I complain because I am too busy and now I'm complaining because I'm not busy enough. Typical woman, you can never please em.

I am making a promise to try and sit down this week and get caught up on all my blogs. I miss reading them. If I were a "slacker" I'd just read them from work. But you don't want to anger the employer Gods or anything. I'm lucky that I even work at a place that has Internet access and doesn't monitor the heck out of you. I know a lot of people, including my husband, don't have that pleasure. At least I can ocassionally check my personal email and read a bit of news or something in the mornings.

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July. We went home for about 5 days to Tennessee. We took the boat with us and took it out on the lake a couple of times. Some friends of ours came down from Knoxville and went with us. We took Skyler and they have a 3 year old son. We had a great time, but everyone (except the kids) got pretty sunburned. At least I have enough common sense to put sunblock on the kids, but not myself. Other than that, we didn't really do much but sleep in and relax and play for the 4th.

I have some great news on the vacation front though. We are going to take our first official "Family Vacation" next month. We are so bad. We've taken several cruises without the kids, but never officially been on a family vacation. Little Man is just so wild and he is so young he probably doesn't know the difference anyway. But we are lucky that Jonathan has a client who has a 4 bedroom house in North Myrtle Beach and he is going to let us use it FOR FREE!!! You can't beat that can you?

Jonathan actually went down with the guy last weekend so he could show him how to turn on the electricity & water, charge up the golf cart, etc. He doesn't rent his property out, he uses it for business purposes and his family and he is very particular about how it is cleaned. He is going to give Jonathan like a 3 pages of things that needs to be cleaned and straightened before we leave. We are just so excited and appreciative that he is allowing us to use his home. Otherwise, we would never be able to afford to go to the beach. I mean have you looked at the cost of hotels at the beach here lately? Your average American family can't afford to even go. $160 a night to stay at the Days Inn. Are they crazy!

Since its such a huge house, we decided to take my parents along with us. They don't really enjoy the beach very much, but it will be nice to have the whole family together. The kids have never really been to the beach. Skyler has been a couple of times to Atlantic Beach, but it was too cold to swim. And even when we went on the cruise and were in the Bahamas back in February, it was really too cold to swim. So this will be their first real experience at the beach.

I haven't been to Myrtle Beach (other than for a day or so) since Sun Fun Week 1988. God, that really ages me doesn't it? Myrtle Beach was where all the high schoolers went when they graduated. I remember we stayed at a hotel right on the beach for $35 a night. So from $35 a night to $160 a night for a cheap motel. Somebody somewhere is sure as heck getting rich.

I was also just reading the other day that they are closing down the Myrtle Beach Pavilion to build condos! How sad is that. The Pavilion has been there for over 50 years! I remember being a young teenager and going to The Attic. It was a teen club for kids under 18. My cousin and I would go and we thought we were hot stuff! Oh the memories. Its sad to see something like that disappear.

A few weeks ago I finally got permission from my boss to go to the national meeting in New Orleans. We will have 35,000 members going to New Orleans at once. We will be the biggest group to return to New Orleans since Katrina. It should be interesting. I have been trying to talk Jonathan into going with me. All he would have to pay for would be his ticket and his food. New Orleans is such a great city. I know it will be sad to see some of the outlying areas so devestated.

Before I end for the day, I found this on Special K's blog. I thought it was pretty cool. I've pretty much been all over the U.S. thanks to a 3 week road trip I took with my dad, stepsister and stepmom back when I was younger out West. Not to mention all the small trips we have taken since then.

create your own visited states map
or check out these Google Hacks.

Well I guess I should end for now. I'm hoping to catch up on some blogs this week. Hope everyone is having a good summer.

Taking a Break... Monica; 10:13 AM 2 comments

about me
name: Monica
Home: Somewhere in NC
About: The life and times of a working mom with two kids who needs a break!

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