Okay, I was supposed to do this yesterday, but it seems that Sundays are just to busy to jump online to post anything.  *sigh*  For some reason, my husband thinks it’s fun to torture me with purchasing the DirecTV NFL Package each year (well, we split it with friends of ours), so we have people over every Sunday for the games.  I enjoy watching a little football, but sometimes I enjoy watching it in-between loads of laundry or getting other major things accomplished (bathrooms, posting articles, getting stuff ready for the workweek, etc.).  Since we have folks over from about 1pm until around 7 or 7:30pm, I don’t get a real jump on other things until after that time (and by then we are also trying to get the kids into bed).  Last season, I would just push a few things into the work week evenings, and it wasn’t a big deal.  But now that we’ve got two kids and Justin’s gone on weekday evenings until late, I can barely get Gavin (let alone me) fed and in bed.  By the time Cooper is in bed at 9 or 9:30pm, it’s a bit late to start a load of laundry, although I’ve been trying since Justin and Gavin aren’t too keen on wearing their underwear two days in a row (me, on the other-hand, after multiple trips to Victoria Secret’s “5 for $25″, have enough underwear for at least a month, yet I”m still wearing my maternity undies…*sigh*).  So now that we’ve got my whiney excuse(s) out of the way, here is the meme that I tagged myself for from Madame Queen.

4 Jobs I have had (Had?  I’m going with past tense, so…):

1. I was a reporting analyst for a subsidiary of Verizon
2. I was a stock-girl and cashier for Osco Drug stores…in more than one location in the state of Indiana
3. I was a cashier for Target
4. I was a waitress for 2 bars, 1 sports-bar (i.e. open for lunch), and 1 fine-dining restaurant, all owned by the same company, all at the same time. I would just float where needed.

4 Movies I love to watch over and over:

1. Rush Hour 1 and 2 (caught some of 2 last night…love the chemistry between Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker)
2. Oscar (Sylvester Stalone movie)
3. Spaceballs
4. The Indiana Jones trilogy
    

4 Places I have lived (again, I’m going with past tense):

1. Riverdale
2. Lansing
3. Muncie
4. Manassas 

4 TV Shows I enjoy watching:

1. Grey’s Anatomy
2. Dirty Sexy Money
3. Chuck
4. The Closer 

4 Places I have been:

1. Niagra Falls
2. Wall, SD (okay, really, I should put Mt. Rushmore or the Black Hills, but Wall Drug store in Wall is kinda cool)
3. The White House…and not just the free tour, either (yes, I’m boasting)
4. The Sears Tower (back when I was a really little kid…would love to go back and bring the boys someday) 

4 Websites I visit daily (and often lurk):

1. Amalah
2. Madame Queen
3. the Laurent Files
4. justinrummel.com 

4 Favorite foods:

1. steak
2. fetticcine alfredo
3. Olive Garden’s salad
4. tuna casserole 

4 Places I would rather be:

1. Chicago
2. a nice warm beach
3. Indianapolis (hey, we’ve got friends there and much closer to family)
4. my bed, enjoying a good book 

4 People I am tagging:  No one, since I also just tagged a handful of people.  Also, sorry for the crazy formatting (I’m a formatting freak, sometimes).  Wordpress just did some updates and I’m getting used to what they did.  Plus, I cheated and just copied/pasted from Madame Queen’s site in order to get the whole list of stuff.

Okay, I finally got my act together to write this post after being tagged by Marcy at the Upstate Update, who was tagged by Anne at Archie’s Room, and if I read everything correctly, are participating in the Bring it Down 31 for 21.  I kept trying to figure out what I’d write, especially since all the blogs I went back through this tag-line were mothers of children with Down Syndrome.  My two boys will most likely never have some of the same sorts of challenges as their children…and (this is a sad state of our society), will probably not be pre-judged by their appearance in the same manner as their children.  So I’ve been at a loss on what to write since, well, okay…I’m just going to end up writing myself into a circle so I hope all of you out there understand how weird I am and how weird I’m being and maybe have a slight understanding of why.  Now I’ll just shut-up and get on with the real meat of this post:

What I’ve Learned

As a mother of a three year old and a three month old, I’ve learned that I just.cannot.do.it.all.  When I only had Gavin, I thought I was busy-busy-so busy with a kid and a full-time job and a commute and a husband to love and pets to feed once in a while.  When I was pregnant with Cooper, and was larger than life (I actually looked like I had a gigantic nursery incubator attached to the front of me), I still managed to take care of Gavin, take care of Justin, take care of both dogs, and all four cats (including one slowly dying of cancer), work full-time, have a ridiculous 3-hour per day commute, have a jewelry business on the side, and somehow still have time to shower and moan about how uncomfortable I was (since feisty Cooper liked to punch and seemingly scratch the inside of the bottom of my uterus…yes, scratch…you weren’t in there with him so you don’t know…although I was so big, you might’ve been in there with him, so if you know what he was doing, please let me know since the docs wouldn’t let me get a sonogram just to see what he was doing in there). 

Now?  Well, now I’ve had to relinquish a lot of Gavin’s care to Justin (and he’s been doing a fantastic job, too) because I’ve got Cooper-duty full-time, I’ve been doing a poor job of taking care of Justin (believe me, I’m trying, Honey!), I still have full-time care of the animals (although we are now minus-one cat), my jewelry business has been tanking (although, in my defense, I have been trying…sorta…*sigh*), I’m still working full-time with that awful commute (that gives me material), and I’m happy if I can get a shower every-other day.  Hard to believe that adding one very little person (well, not that little, he was 14 lbs and 24 inches this past Wednesday) makes such a HUGE difference.  I was totally not expecting that.

I’m a bit of a control-freak (that wishes she was a clean-freak instead) that has had a hard time giving up things.  I know that it will be easier once Cooper is a little older and (hopefully) less colicky and sensitive to new experiences, but it’s hard to wait.  Plus, my house is a perpetual mess and my husband is a perpetual nag about the mess (hi there…I love you) and since he’s been taking a class (and studying like crazy so he’s not home much), Gavin and I have resorted to eating anything that takes 5 minutes or less in the microwave for dinner.  I usually eat a few bites of this so-called dinner with Gavin while I nurse Cooper and make sure Gavin eats the barely-nutritious food I’ve given him.  It’s not been easy.  So I’ve learned that I need to let these things go a bit since the situation I’m in is temporary (well, not the two kids, I hope…they’re permanent…but the whole stupid-busy with hardly a husband right now is temporary).  I also learned that I need to let things be handled by someone else and I’ve learned to ask for help (thanks again, Kari and Dave, for watching Cooper while I ran willy-nilly to the vet on Saturday with Gavin and Ginger). 

What I Wish

What do I wish for my boys?  Well, I wish for them to have compassion and empathy for others.  I wish for them to be kind to everyone they meet, but to also be strong enough to deal properly with those that might try to take advantage of their kind hearts.  I wish for them to NOT have my temper, but hope that they get some of my sense of humor (as lame as it may be, it’s kind of nice and sugary to be as easily amused as I am) and some of their dad’s sense of humor (though maybe not all of it, since he is weird and warped and I love him…heh!…and I’d hate to think of either of my kids using the term “POOT” anywhere near my presence).  I wish for them to be bright and clever and to not be too shy.  Finally, I really wish for them to be happy…to know that Justin and I “raised them right” and that they don’t hate us and spend thousands of dollars in therapy due to our parenting.

So who am I tagging?  I think I will be really bold and tag Maya at the Laurent Files since this seems to be something she would enjoy writing (she writes beautiful letters to her adorable son, Zane, and she’s lovely and reads my rantings & ravings), I’ll tag Leandra at Madame Queen since she is so wonderful as to read and comment as well (and I’m tagging myself from her meme…look for it hopefully tomorrow), and I will tag Tricia at Unringing the Bell since it doesn’t look like anyone else tagged her for this assignment (and she’s the originator of 31 for 21).  I’d tag my husband, but he’d probably drop f-bombs about it and whine and complain that he is creatively tapped-out (hi Honey, still reading?  I still LOVE you!).

Dear Teeny-Bopper in the Orange Roller Skate:

I know you are very excited with your new driver’s license and your new little orange car (I know it’s yours because what self-respecting woman over 20 years old would have a car that color…although no offense to those of you women out there over 20 years old who have a car that is that color orange). But it would be good if you put your new driving skills to the test and actually DRIVE your car instead of leaning way overto the side to mess with something while your vehicle is hurtling down a residential side street at nearly 40 mph and into oncoming traffic (ME!). Meanwhile, other drivers (ME again!) are calmly minding their business as they commute to work, carrying precious cargo (Dunkin’ Donuts Munchkins!!!!!). So those drivers may feel compelled to honk their horns politely at you to request that you sit up properly and quit trying to hit them head-on. The appropriate response to such a situation would be to sit up quickly and smile sheepishly in an omigosh-I’m-so-sorry-you-saved-me-from-getting-killed-in-a-head-on-collision kind of way…not scowl at your fellow drivers and flip them the bird. Next time it happens, though, some drivers (ME!) will be quite tempted to let you hit them head-on since most of us are better insured and would not be at fault since you crossed the center line. Hopefully my airbag will protect my box of Munchkins.

Regards,

A Concerned (about my breakfast) Driver

Dear Fellow Dulles Tollroad Drivers:

I’ll be brief. GET.A.FRIGGIN’.SMART TAG!!!!

Honestly, people…it doesn’t cost you anything to have a Smart Tag in your car…in fact, it saves you time and aggravation because then you can just ziiiip right through the tollbooth. If you even think you might be on the tollroad once or twice per year, then get a Smart Tag. It even has the added bonus of being accepted in various other states in the Midwest and East Coast (11 states, total). But mostly, I just want you out of my way because nothing ticks me off faster than to go through the “Exact Change/Smart Tag” lane, just to have some smarty not figure out how to toss the correct amount of change into the machine. Which brings me to my next point…

If you’re not going to be smart enough to get a Smart Tag, then please, please, PLEASE, for the love of all that is sacred and holy, put your stinkin’ slow change-throwin’ butts in the “Full Service” lane, where all the rest of the slowpokes and backwards nincompoops go.

Sincerely Yours,

A Tired (of Commuting with Knuckleheads) Driver

p.s. Happy Belated Birthday to the Madame Queen!

I totally have been up to my elbows in poop. Literally. Cooper has had a long-drawn-out case of the ‘rhea. About 2 1/2 weeks to be exact. So I’ve had to fill up four stool sample cups with his poop. His watery poop. He wasn’t real keen on me taping any of the cups to his butt, so instead I’ve had to harvest it from his inside-out diapers (because that’s less absorbent and so much more fun and messy!). So my apologies to 31 for 21 for stinkin’ like poop. To make up for missing out on a posting yesterday, please view the following video that pretty much sums up what each of my cats does to me nearly every night.

Did y’all know we missed National Grouch Day yesterday?  Or that I goofed again and didn’t post?  I do have a good excuse this time…I had work to do at work.  And at home.  And I still do, but I’m taking a quick break to talk to all you fine folks out there in Internet Land.

So yesterday was National Grouch Day.  Seems fitting that it would’ve been George’s tenth birthday.  Anyone who met my cat George would see the funny coincidence that my tough, grouchy cat was born on National Grouch Day.   He was a punk, wouldn’t put up with anyone’s crap, and, like most grouches out there, was a real softy if he let you get to know him.  Man, I miss that cat.  **sniff**