Brain break

Taking a break from my home to blog today! I have been going to college off and on for 12 years now, you would think I have had enough. I thought I had when I got my BA in October of 2010, I swore I was done I had obtained my goal. BUT, we got pregnant and I wanted to stay home with our beautiful baby girl so my choices were get a job or go back to school (the Army pays me to go to school, well technically the VA pays me) So, I chose school, figured I would go ahead and get a Masters degree. I became a working stay at home Mom who works from home. What a blessing to pull in an income that is more than some people who work 40 hours a week. Sometimes I really have to pinch myself, we are blessed in so many ways. Being a full time Mom and a full time college student is no joke though. Im currently just taking classes to bring up my GPA to be able to get into an MA program. Since I never thought I was going to go any further with school I basically just did the bare minimum to get my BA. No one asks you or really cares what your GPA was on an application/resume they just want a copy of your degree. So I worked hard enough to just obtain that degree. Sorta bitting me in the butt now but no worries I am just taking life one day at a time and try not to sweat the small stuff.

So we made it through another weekend with no Shawn. Sometimes I feel like he doesnt help a whole lot and I cant blame him he works 50 hours a week and wants to relax when hes home. But then he goes away for drill leaving me as a single parent for 3 days and I miss him terribly because I realize how much he DOES help. We have a ton of systems and a great routine in place but you cant always be prepared for everything. This weekends teachable moments are as follows:
Friday nights we put the kids to bed at 8:30 instead of 9pm so that we can settle in to watch Dateline together. So I am working on putting the kids to bed, the girls are so set in there schedules they are a snap. But C struggles with going to sleep sometimes... he doesnt want to (insert his pouty lip and whining) So hes freaking out on me when I said its bed time. I tell him hey we dont act like that, the girls didnt they are already sleeping, we all go to sleep EVERY night. I usually say this to him every other night. Not working so the genius that I am... I say hey C you wanna stay up and play then, he says yes (insert INSTANTLY shuts off the pouting and crying) So I say ok bud but I am going to bed cause thats what adults and kids do every night. So goodnight and have fun playing, see you in the morning. I then proceed to shut down the house turning all the lights off as if I was going to bed. I stood down the hall where he couldnt see me and in the pitch black he starts whaling like hes injured or something, tripping over toys to try and move to possible light. I was trying not to laugh because what did he think I was really going to let him play. Shawn and I have a strict rule of no giving in, we say something we follow thru. So I turn on the lights and say whats wrong bud I thought you wanted to play, he replies No bed please. LOL!! So I took him up stairs and he quietly went to bed!

Yesterdays moment was with our darling 1 year old daughter. Every once in a blue moon shes not in the mood to nap and can be heard on the baby monitor playing or even crying. Well yesterdays cry at one point turned into some serious whaling. I thought man shes tired shes gotta work thru this. It was not subsiding so I decided to go in and possibly rub or back or something to help her to sleep. At which time I came around the corner to her laying on her wet pillow. I was baffled as to how it got wet until I continued to take note of the surroundings. She had no diaper on, she had taken it off. Peed on her pillow and mattress, and pieces of poop were on the floor, all over the mattress and even under the crib. The thoughts in my head were you have got to be kidding me. I immediately took pictures to share this I cant believe this is happening moment with Shawn followed by clean up. I ditched the pillow and sheet because they were NOT going in my washing machine and I was not going to try and pick her mess off of them. There was no point in putting a diaper on her for only a few minutes I started the bath while cleaning up. As I am getting ready to put her in the tub she pees on the carpet in front of the tub. The genius who built this house with carpet in the bathroom is not a genius but an idiot and obviously doesnt have kids. Ripping up that carpet and putting heated tiles down is on my project list.

Needless to say it was a LONG weekend and we were all so happy to see Daddy when he walked thru the door last night. Me more than the kids I think. :-)

The week was a typical one, chores, keeping up with the kids, getting them to and from preschool, me attempting to keep up with my homework. I drink at least one cup of coffee a day and am at TWO small mocha frapps from Mc Donalds a week now to keep up. Some day I will win the lotto and I dont want fancy things just a maid, a part time Nanny, a part time Chef, and a lawn maintenance gardner guy!! Sometimes I climb into bed at night questioning my sanity and also wondering how the heck I continue to do it all. I am still not sure. My Sister usually comes over once a week and helps with the kids so that I can get some homework done and when the kids arent here its like a marathon to clean up the house. Week after week I do it. At times with 4 kids... I wonder how Octo Mom and the Duggars do it, I would love to observe there homes taking notes on what to do and what not to do. We have talked abut having 6 kids, no way am I going to give birth to 6 but thru adoption. Are we crazy?

The girls are a joy to watch grow. Miss D is going to be moving into her room upstairs this week into a twin bed (insert slight sniffles here) I cant believe shes such a big girl now. Norah will be moving out of the cradle and into the crib in our room. I have put a ton of sweat and hard work into the girls room to make it perfectly dreamy! The only thing its missing is the perfect white bunk bed, of course the one I want is insanely priced (Pottery Barn Kids) so I am in the process of saving up for it!! For now since it is slightly early to put D in a big girl bed we will just put a twin mattress on a boxspring on the floor. We will ofcourse baby gate her in her room, with a baby monitor and anything at her level will be cleared so she cant get into anything but a few toys. Here are some pictures of the girls room that has been a year in the works.

Top: framed posters Shawn bought me from ballet performances he took me to. Paper lanterns that we had as decorations for Norah's baby shower.

Bottom left: A cute sign I found at Ross, it had an ugly black ribbon thought that I replaced with some pink plaid ribbon I had. 

Bottom right: a wreath I made of fabric scraps, ribbon and toile. Its hanging on there door.

To the right of the ballet posters is this adorably cute wall decal.

This is the view to the right of the decal, as well as the view when you walk into the room.

I made the netting, the kid table is from Target and the chairs from Ikea. The white shelves are from Ikea too (love that place!) 

These are sewing hoops with material attached that I had laying around. I bought the little mirrors at Michaels and glued all the rhinestones on and ribbon too. They came out really cute for a cheap splash of color on the wall.

These are ballet prints I bought on a trip to England in 1997, they hung in my room all through high school and are now hanging in my girls room!

Dried roses from Shawn over the years hanging above the girls closet. Cute ceramic birds & a bunch of pictures of the girls, and champagne bottle we opened to celebrate a week of Norah's birth.

I couldnt be happier with the way there room turned out, they are going to have so many fun memories in it, together.

Some pictures of Norah from the week.

Happy Norah!

Some how I managed to do one tiny project this week. I made these fabric flowers to turn into hair pieces for the girls. They are all the rage and I keep buying them from various vendors but they are slightly pricy so I decided to try my hand at them to save money and have every color combo under the sun right at our finger tips lol! They came out great.

We got a 4 day old baby boy yesterday. This post is already long, so stay tuned for next weeks and all the stories. Thats 4 kids under the age of two now. We might be bordering crazy. So far its not so bad.