I caught that lovely new virus that's been going around (it kind of mimics the flu, but when tested you don't have the flu). It sucks. PLUS I get loverly spring allergies ONTOP of it all. Right now, I'm just miserable.
Plus I work at a place that has heavy smokers (oh yeh...my least favorite thing in the world cigarette smoke...remind me again why I am working there? Oh yes, because IT'S A JOB). Thank goodness for allergy medicine that helps me fumble through my allergy filled day just a little bit.
Also been TRYING to prepare for my sweet twins' sixth birthday party that is this weekend. Like, SUNDAY (usually the party is on Saturday but they have soccer games and stuff that day). I haven't got a dog gone thing done. I have plenty of ideas. But I am painfully falling short. The worst part? I didn't even get around to INVITING anyone to their party!
WORST.
MOM.
EVER.
(yeh remember one of my previous blogs about sometimes winning and losing at this whole "MOM" thing...well this would fall under I AM OBVIOUSLY FAILING PRETTY HARD CORE RIGHT NOW).
In good news, my husband and I DID remember to go get the boys a birthday present. We DID get the cake ordered (Um, my husband ordered AND designed the cake...and I hope he listened to what the boys and I told him....so this should be interesting). We DO have party decorations too. I also DO have a few game ideas too. That is, however about the extent of the prep that I have done. OH yes, that's how I slack a lack around here.
Oh not to mention it looks like a tornado, volcano, hurricane, bomb and end of the world all started and evolved in my house. I'm not even sure how I'm looking at my computer screen right now as my desk is a complete disaster zone. If my desk were a state or a town in a state it would likely be getting FEMA attention.
Items I can see on my desk right now?
A well "loved" stuffed bunny that one of my sons packs around everywhere as he REALLY loves baby bunnies. An apple (hey an apple a day keeps the doctor away right? But I guess that only works if you actually EAT the apple?) an egg timer or whatever the heck you call them, it's a timer anyway! There is numerous sheets of paper from my children's back packs (graded papers that they insist I keep for ever and ever, when frankly....I'd rather pitch them. Not because I don't care, because I DO, and I put their very best work up on the fridge and our "art wall" as well, I just seriously cannot keep EVERY piece of paper they bring home!) There is a can of frosting with sprinkles (sorry make that two cans). Don't ask, I have no idea why they are there. They are neon purple if that helps any? A notepad, a can of perfume I hastily tossed on the desk this morning as I was getting ready for work in a rush (I'd rather smell my perfume all day than smell like cigarette smoke!!), a bottle of children's Tylenol and a bottle of children's allergy medicine because my kids have been dealing with the crud lately too and from sinus headaches and runny noses and misery!) A q tip?? WhY?? That's probably a question for my husband, I have no idea why. There are sheets of foam craft paper, that are for a HOPEFUL Lego themed craft project we will be doing for the boys' birthday party, complete with colorful popsicle sticks cluttering up my desk. A note pad. Three snap on insect repellant wrist band thing a ma jigs we bought on sale at the store tonight so hopefully the kids won't get bit by mosquitos while playing soccer!! Some assorted pencils, pens, markers, crayons, dry erase markers, push pins, paper clips, Oh hey I found a $5 bill! Rock on! Oh speaking of rocks here's a handful of gravel for my drive way...erm I mean a handful of VERY pretty rocks my daughter oh so lovingly gave me. That's just the crap I can see laying directly on top of my desk, don't ask me what's UNDER all of that. Somewhere down under all that is my desk calendar. Somewhere. I'm not diving under all that right now to find it. OH hey I did find my battery charger though, kind of need that so I can charge my camera battery for the soccer games tomorrow. (Kind of couldn't take pics of their last game because the battery died, oopsies).
My desk is the 'catch all' space in my house, and unfortunately it sits right in the middle of my dining room/living room area so EVERYONE sees my messy desk. It's kind of become a laughing point at my house. Everything else in my home will be clean and tidy and organized...cept my desk. My desk is like that giant white elephant at a party that EVERYONE notices but no one talks about (until lately because well, it's become a big joke).
I hate my desk. *sigh*
I still have to bake cupcakes for the birthday party Sunday (yeh see what I did there, subject change! I shall not dwell on the messy scary desk!) Cupcakes, yeh...cupcakes are nice.
We have spent the past two evenings outside after the kids did their home work. The kids love to be outside and we're more than happy to encourage that. They swing on the swing set, play soccer, ride bikes, play imaginary games and make up imaginary stories (today they were a family of circus performers who traveled the world in their circus train and they only woke up at night because they were part vampire and they would wake up and do all of their acts and then eat waffles and omelets and get back on their train and go to the next destination. ) I have creative children.
Their circus acts were pretty entertaining too.
One son was a juggler, the other held up the hula hoop so a "tiger" could jump through it. My daughter did tricks on her bike, and bossed her brothers around on what tricks THEY should try.
All in all, yep, it was pretty entertaining to watch! I love sitting outside and just watching and listening to my kids play.
The saying usually goes "Not my monkey's not my circus", well for me? These ARE my little monkey's and this IS my circus, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Speaking of Circus, we DID actually go to the circus over a week ago. My kids (husband, and mother in law), had all never been to the circus before (well my daughter had but she was just a toddler at the time and didn't remember anything). So they all had a fantastic time watching all of the acts, and I'm so glad that they did (Well minus the ANIMAL acts which almost ended in a small riot from my children who DID NOT like the animal acts AT ALL, I am raising mini animal activists and I'm ok with that).
The tiger act that nearly had my daughter rushing down there to knock the trainer in the face (the trainer kept poking the tigers in the face with his stick/whip thing and it was not only pissing the tigers off but SEVERAL people in the audience including my daughter were about ready to go down there and see how THAT GUY liked getting poked in the face with a stick and forced to jump through a hoop, that was on fire. I admire the tigers for not eating the trainer and having the guts to go through with the act, but it breaks my heart.
This was one of the clowns, he did a balancing act, and also a juggling act. Here he's balancing a ladder on his FACE. Ow.
They put like 4 dirt bikes inside of this iron sphere and they drove around in crazy circles and stuff, sounded like a huge hive of really ticked of bee's. It was cool though, my sons loved it.
The elephant act had my kids upset, they said the elephants looked sad, and I agree with them. I hate watching animal acts at the circus. This circus had three animal acts (tigers, elephants, and some Spanish horses).
These two girls came out and did a really cool acrobatics routine that was very impressive. I don't think my body would have EVER been able to bend and twist like that and hold the positions that they did!
This group came out and they were actually from the Chicago, IL area. They were some kind of acrobatic act. Here they got some kids from the audience and then lined them up, one guy took a running start jumped off a trampoline and did flips over all the kids and the rest of his team. It was pretty cool, though I really liked their jump rope act the best! (below). They were doing all KINDS of crazy cool things with those jump ropes!
There was also a Romanian acrobatics team (above and below), they were pretty awesome, they used a simple catapult to continually fling this tiny little lady through the air, they did lots of tricks, and they did really good.
There were the trapeze acts who came out and performed. This guy in the above pic spent his whole act standing on his head on that bar upside down, or pushing himself up on one arm like in the photo here. One of my sons was INCREDIBLY worried about this guy and was so sure the guy was going to fall and get hurt. There were also several females up there performing on hula hoop things, and the trapeze swings, and ropes, and those long scarves that they do acts from. It was super cool. And no, no one got hurt. The girl in the below photo is actually hanging from a hula hoop thingy by her ankles/legs. A few seconds before this she was hanging from her NECK on the hula hoop. I think my eyes almost bugged out of my head when she did that. I was like oh my gosh, she's a gonner, crazy girl.
However, I honestly just think the cotton candy was the biggest highlight of their night. Mmm cotton candy.
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Stinking circus is CRAZY expensive though. Thank goodness for those 'free' tickets allowing one kid per paying adult to get in free (if the kid is under 12 years of age that is). So thankfully my mother in law was able to pay her way in so all three of my kids got in free and I just had to pay a total of $36 for the husband and I to get in. The kids were lucky we let them share a bag of popcorn ($5, and we ended up with TWO things of cotton candy...that's $10 total there) because MOM didn't understand dad correctly and she ate her daughter's second portion of cotton candy that I was SUPPOSED to hand down to my daughter....poor daughter had ended up sharing her first portion of cotton candy with her Grandma to be a nice sharing child (like we always raise them to be), and then Mommy goes and does a bone head move by eating the last of the cotton candy that was supposed to go to someone else, oops! Communication breakdown that night, ok? Ha! So the husband felt guilty and bought another batch of cotton candy (and this time MOM didn't eat any of it *sigh*)
This weekend I am thrilled that I get two days off, normally I only get one day off a week, which isn't that bad but in some ways it kind of stinks. However we work around it. Today though was my last day under my old boss, and so then on Monday when I go back in I will be working for my new boss. So that should be interesting. I've only been there since the end of December so to me, it's not TOO big of a deal, but to the other employees that HAVE been there for years and years, it's a big change for them, and I can see why they would be sentimental about it all. I'm looking forward to the change and to see how it goes, but am still looking forward to working with everyone I was before. I don't hate change per say, I like it when it's planned out. Sudden change, now that bothers me! If I'm prepared for it (or at least no it's coming and I can get in a better mind state for it or whatever, then I'm cool with it). I like my job so that's a good thing. Some days, yes are frustrating but that's going to happen no matter where you work. You just have to go with it and move along.
This spring is shaping up to be Soccer, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, and end of the school year stuff. FUN! For the most part.
The kids have a Spring Fling coming up at their school this week and I always love going to those with them. Not to mention soccer practice this week, and the boys' ACTUAL birthday is on Monday. Lots of busy busy going on this week.
Just trying to keep it all together. Trying.
One of these days I'll have a day where I can JUST sleep in (hoping tomorrow morning is one of those days! Since we don't have a 9am soccer game).
Yesterday my husband was mowing the yard and one of my sons asked to "help" him mow the lawn, so he got to carefully help my husband push the mower across the yard several times and he absolutely loved it, he was a happy kid and he felt like he was so grown up. (I started mowing the grass at MY house when I was 8 years old, and we had a HUUUUUGE yard with many crazy hills, I hated mowing my yard with a burning passion I lost count of how many times I slipped on a hill and almost got my foot chopped off!! It literally took ALL DAY to mow my yard when I was a child, and I would sob and sob and sob until I threw up when I was told to mow the yard. I hated it.) To me, it was torture. Now I don't mind mowing the yard, it's calming. BUT our yard is MUCH smaller and FLAT. I don't mow on hills. Nope. I'll pass. I am glad that my husband and son got to have a little bit of bonding time and my son was so happy about getting to 'help'. We make yard work a FAMILY job not just one person. While one person is mowing or weed whacking (our weed eater thing a ma jig is not working at the moment which is HIGHLY frustrating so we have to pass on getting the yard weed ate at the moment, boo!!) Others are picking up sticks, toys, trash, and moving yard furniture and stuff out of the way so that area can be mowed in a few moments. No one gets stuck with the WHOLE job, it's broke down to many different little jobs that we all pitch in to do.
Cruddy photo, taken with my cell phone, but that's one of my little dudes helping Dad push the mower. Pardon the ugly ditch in the back ground it's awful and we've been wanting to cut it back further for quite awhile, and ew, ignore the trash bag caught in the ditch. We always get the neighborhood garbage blown into our yard, yay fun times. I'm always picking up other people's trash out of my yard and it drives me batty!
I guess it's time to hit the hay so I can hopefully have enough energy to clean house, go to soccer games, and bake cupcakes tomorrow!
Here's hoping, ha!
Mom Circus
