Yea! It is over!

The major golf tournament that I dread every year ended yesterday. I did better this year because I took on the mindset that Chuck was out of town on business all week. Chuck went into work Monday through Sunday of last week from 4:30am until 8:30pm every day. Needless to say, he was completely exhausted. I am so glad it is over and we have him back!

In other news...while putting away the dishes on Friday, I broke a glass on the counter top by the sink. The garbage disposal side of the sink. I cleaned up all of the glass (or so I thought). What a surprise when I heard glass breaking in the disposal later that day. Really, you say? Again? It only gets worse. Fast forward to Saturday morning when Patrick and I were making peanut butter cookies. He wanted to eat some peanut butter chips before I put them in, so I sprinkled some on the cutting board for him to eat. All of a sudden, he is freaking out about something sharp in his mouth and spitting the peanut butter chips out. After copious amounts of floss, I pull out a small piece of glass from his back molar. Mom of the Year Award? Yeah, right.

Confessions of a Bad Housewife...Oops I did it again...

For the second time this month, I unknowingly let a glass baby food jar go down the garbage disposal and then proceeded to turn the garbage disposal on. For any of you that have not tried this before, I do not suggest it. The first time it happened, I knew it went down there and I couldn't get it out. My parents came over soon after to watch the boys and I forgot to tell them it was in there and they turned on the disposal not knowing. This jammed it up and Chuck had to remove the whole thing and clean it out. The second time (Monday night), I had no idea it had slipped down there and cringed when I heard the chopping of glass. That night, my very understanding husband came home after a long day of Byron Nelson prep and removed and cleaned out the disposal again. I sweetly told him I was sorry and I promised it would never happen again and he just smiled and said, "yes, it will". Why are there glass baby food jars in the sink in the first place, you ask? Because I am a recycling freak. Yes, I know, the strainer side of the sink is where I should be washing them out. Hopefully I will not make this mistake again.

Nicholas has had an ear infection. I could not figure out why he is still so snotty after a week and why we still have so much antibiotic. I have a dropper that measures teaspoons and ml side by side. I have been giving him 1 ml instead of 1 tsp many times through out the last week. There have been some times that I have given his medicine out of the dose spoon, so he has gotten the right dose some of the time. The sad thing is that the last time he had an infection, I did the exact same thing! Ugh! I am such a space case!!!

On another note, Nicholas starting crawling forwards on Sunday (he has been crawling backwards for awhile). He is so proud of himself!

C*nfessions of a B*red Housewife...A day in the life...

I started working full time at 17 and never really developed hobbies. I like to oil paint and read and garden, but the painting involves space, time and set-up/clean-up. In the last year of staying home with Nicholas, I find myself relieved of not having to wake-up and go to work, but yet lost in my house trying to figure out what to do with myself. Chuck leaves at 8:45am and is home anywhere between 8-10pm. I know there must be more things I can be doing to help other people or better myself, but what? I find joy in life through the moments of play with Nicholas and reading books or playing games with Patrick. The rest of the day is monotonous cleaning, errands, cooking and laundry. When I worked, I had everything scheduled and seemed busy all of the time. Now, I am sitting around waiting...waiting to feed Nicholas, change a diaper, put him down for a nap. Waiting to pick up my little buddy from school. I find myself way too dependent sometimes on Patrick as a 'friend' instead of Patrick as my son. It is 9:01 pm now. Chuck just called and is on his way home. He is the first adult I have talked to all day. It was raining today, so we didn't go to the park after school where I usually talk with the other moms. Here is a typical day for me...I'll try and not bore you to tears.

7:15 am - Wake up Patrick and get him dressed for breakfast that his awesome dad has prepared.
8:00 am - Feed Nicholas breakfast.
8:15-9:30 am - Playtime with Nicholas
9:30-12:00 pm - nap time for both of us
12:00-12:15 pm - Lunch
12:15-1:00 pm - unload the dishwasher, vacuum, tidy up
1:00-2:00 pm - walk at the mall or run an errand
2:15-3:00 pm - pick up Patrick from school and proceed to park
3:00 pm - 5:00 pm - prepare dinner if we don't have left overs from Chuck's days off, Nicholas nap time, Patrick reading/game/sports/TV time
5:00 pm - Bike ride with Patrick by the lake or in the neighborhood
6:00 pm - eat dinner with boys
6:30 pm - Patrick shower
7:00 pm - Patrick watches Power Rangers while Nicholas takes a bath
7:30 pm - story time for both boys and bottle for Nicholas
8:00 pm - watch TV, read or continue to clean up from the day (I constantly clean or do laundry - it is kind of an obsession)
11:30 pm - bed

Wow. There you have it. 24 hours of me.

I Love...by Nicholas (continued)

I love my Nana & DaDa. This picture was in Switzerland (Patrick called it sweat island) last year. They are getting ready to embark on a seven week journey starting tomorrow with a 19 day trans-Atlantic cruise. They are then off to the Netherlands to participate in Let's Start Talking. They have already had 30 people sign up. Then they will be in Spain at a timeshare. It will be a long 7 weeks for us here at home. We will miss them and we pray for a safe return.

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend starting with an Easter egg hunt at church on Saturday. Patrick was proud of his 29 eggs and Nicholas enjoyed the balloons. We then went to see my grandmother. We never take pictures with my side of the family anymore. I guess because we see each other often, so I made a special point to bring my camera and get a snap shot of the boys with Guinea (she chose this name many years ago over Grandma). She has a very busy schedule at her retirement center and thanks the Lord that she found such a wonderful Christian place to live. We are glad she is so happy there.

Oh, and by the way...Patrick does have more clothing besides the fishing lures shirt. It seems that every picture from every holiday this year, he is wearing that shirt. It even made its way onto the Christmas postcards we sent out. All I can say is that we have one picky shopper on our hands, who will only wear about five things in his closet. He has gotten into Gymboree lately because he and Nicholas can match, but he still has to pick out what they will wear.

Sunday after church we attempted an Easter picture with just the boys, but one boy wouldn't stop being silly and the other boy would not stop eating grass. As you can see, the picture still ended up a little silly with Patrick having an azalea in his mouth. We then had another Easter egg hunt in our backyard for just my enjoyment I guess, because Patrick seemed over it all by then. We also reminisced with my parents about the Easter they brought home a live duckling. What a disaster. Ducks do not make good pets.

Spring

I love Spring. I am so excited by the blooming of the Red Buds, Bradford Pears and all of the beautiful wild flowers. I love the sweet smell of the jasmine that grows over our mailbox and on our walks by the lake. It is awesome to see our magnificent maples come back to life and provide a canopy of shade for the upcoming months. Patrick and I delight in planting our garden and all of our flowers from seed. This year I let him talk me into planting pumpkin. This is completely ridiculous because Chuck will definitely not approve of a pumpkin patch (for those of you that don't already know, Chuck is very much a perfectionist about our yard). So now I have six pumpkin plants and I haven't a clue what to do with them. Pumpkin grows really fast, by the way. It was kind of a surprise. I thought I would have more time to figure this out. Here are some recent pictures....

Nicholas and Daddy reading the mail together after work