Awesome!

I am wondering if a dog can have Pica? Isn't that the eating disorder where you eat non-food items? I know puppies are supposed to chew things, but I was thinking like shoes.
Caleb decided he wanted Atticus, the puppy, to sleep with him the other night. I wasn't sure about messing with the sleeping routine that was already working for us, where Atticus is down stairs locked behind many baby gates, but whatever.
Well, sometime in the wee hours Atticus showed up at my bedside and to prevent having to walk myself through the cold house, find the baby gates, let the pup out to do his tinkle I hoisted the now 25lb pup into my bed.
Fast forward about an hour. Atticus woke up doing that 'pups gonna puke' thing. I was already on high-alert for pukage because of my son's stomach issues early in the week. So I sprung from bed grabbed the pup and ran for the stairs. At this point I knew he was going to puke so I put him down and encouraged him to keep on running.
He stopped once and hacked up what in the wee hours in my half-stupor seemed like puppy bile. Awesome. Like I don't already have enough to do in the morning.
Anyways, we made it through the night and Atticus slept through until morning safe behind the gates. However, upon closer inspection, the 'bile' was not just 'bile'.
(yes, I left it until the morning because I just did not have it in me to care at that moment) It was in fact very large pieces of mulch, rocks, polly pocket's hot pants and some kind of material.
WTH. Rocks? Really?
This is a well fed dog. He is not out scrounging for food. Needless to say I have him under my watchful eye and I am not allowing him the spend too much time outside unattended where he can eat weird things.
I am hoping this is a strange puppy behavior that will pass.
Also, I must mention that my husband slept through all of this and was totally unaware of the dog's eating disorder issues.

Milking the System.

My oldest son Caleb has found a way to make himself some money.
He came to me like he does at least once a week to complain about our obvious lack of concern for his well-being which is illustrated through our refusal to buy him whatever he wants at any given moment.
This week it was more Bakugans. Some insane toy that starts as ball and when thrown pops open to show a score. My husband says Bakugan translates roughly to 'Americans will buy anything'.
Anyway. After our usual exchange where he proclaims abuse and neglect and I proclaim a serious lack of funds. (Do you think your Dad drives drunks around every weekend in the limo just for shits and giggles kid?). He tells me that at least he is getting his $2.50 a week.
Huh? $2.50? What is this all about? I don't give him an allowance. Unfortunately for him, irritating the younger siblings and whipping everyone into a crazy frenzy doesn't pay.
So I ask him where he is getting his money. Apparently, there are a lot of kids at his school who don't drink the milk that comes with their school lunch. The duty aides, annoyed by all of the waste, started having the kids who won't drink their milk set it on a table for other kids who will drink the milk to take for themselves.
My son takes a packed lunch, but also takes .50 cents a day for milk. He figured why should he let all of that cast off milk go to waste when he could drink as much of it as he wanted and save his .50cents a day.
I couldn't decide whether or not I was irritated, but really with all the thought he put to it I couldn't be mad. So, he gets to keep his $2.50 a week now with the understanding that if there is no 'free' milk available he is to use his .50 cents to buy some.
I don't think I would have ever been that smart at his age. I would have been too embarassed to take the 'free' milk. Now, I am proud that he found a bargin for himself. That's my boy.

Also, I wanted to mention after rereading my last post. I guess I tend to cuss some. Please try not to be offended. Rest assured that while I could probably make a trucker blush, I don't ever cuss in front of my kids. I even teach Sunday school. Seriously. I don't cuss there either.

High Expectations

I went to bed last night with high expectations for today. I knew that the kids and the husband would not have school. The closings had already been posted. We would eat breakfast, try some of the crafts I saw on another blog, work on our puzzle, maybe squeeze in some Wii bowling. Just have a cozy day at home. I went to sleep with warm fuzzies.
Then I woke up. My son was standing naked by my bed.
"I get in shower Mom. Mom get up, I get in shower"
This means one thing. He leaked through his super-sized, night-time diaper. Again. Wet sheets. More laundry. Urine smell.
Not too bad. I can totally do this. I am used to changing his bedsheets 4-5 times a week. He is totally potty trained, but can't seem to get the night thing down.
Moving on to breakfast. Still in a pretty good mood. Warm fuzzies holding. It is snowing, the big flakes that are all stuck together. Cozy.
Since it is a 'special' day the kiddos want blueberry pancakes. Totally on it.
Shit. I need a new pan. The one I have is old and warped and sits funny on the burner. The pancakes are sticking. The kids are whining. My warm fuzzies are melting.
Still moving forward. Although by now I am irritated. Fucking pan.
I then make the mistake of mentioning the craft idea to the kids. Before I am prepared to start it. More whining, more arguing, more of me wanting to go back to bed and try again later.
Wait. I am genius. Bright idea. There is snow. Send the kids and the husband outside into the snow. Much better.
Watch the kids through the window and wonder why I always feel so crappy. Think happy thoughts. Better. Somewhat.
Wash urine soaked sheets, re-make the bed. Clean up the house. Ready the craft.
The kids come in from the snow. The craft is no-longer on their list of things to do.
Whatever.
Try to work puzzle with the husband, but life calls. More laundry, wet snow-suit clean up, blah, blah, blah.
Warm fuzzies gone. Secretly hoping everyone has school again tomorrow.
WTF. What is the screaming coming from the basement all about? Did someone cut off an arm? Oh, no. Miles didn't get to bowl first. Screaming, drooling, flapping. Restart game. Miles first.
Warm fuzzies are now cold pricklies. Shit. Is it bed time yet?
It is. The kids are bathed. Thank you husband.
They sit and have their snack and talk about how great the snow is. Wondering if they will have school tomorrow. I hope not. The warm fuzzies are coming back. Slowly.

Some pictures so that I feel less lonely.

My Stella. Serious, Sassy, Knows what she wants and how to get it. Love her. My Caleb. Creative, Funny, Thinker. Love him.

My Miles. Kind, beautiful, complicated, love him.

These three people are three of my most favorite people in the world. They would have to be my favorites or I would have ran away along time ago. They put me to the test on a daily basis. Yet, we all show up the next day ready to do it all again.

Awkward.

So I am thinking that so far this feels a bit awkward, posting to let's see, zero readers. I am surprisingly okay with that. Usually I am saying all this stuff in my head, so I guess writing it down might make me appear a smidgen saner.
So, today one of the three is home sick. He started with the vomiting around 3a.m. My youngest is home by default. I wasn't about to load the vomiter up in the van to drive the youngest to preschool. She pretended to be upset by this situation for about an hour this morning. Following me around proclaiming the injustice of it all.
In the end we settled on me creating some homework for her so that she would not 'miss-out' on anything. She wrote out her ABC's and her numbers 1-10 and felt okay about having missed what could have been a very important day in preschool.
I assured her that I would talk to her teacher and make certain she did not miss anything of too much importance.
I am going to spend some time now trying to figure out the the basics of this blog-world. Photos, links and such. Maybe I will feel less awkward if at least I have some photos posted. I will see what I can do.
Wish me luck.

To Blog or not to Blog?

I was not entirely sure if or when I was going to start blogging.
Then, I discovered the blog of a long lost friend and reading about her day to day life made my heart go 'pitter-patter'. I was so excited to discover that there are other ladies/women/moms out there, who are just like me. Reading her stories made me laugh and cry and not feel so horrible about occasionally wanting to walk out of my house and not come back.
I linked onto several other blogs and was just loving everything that I read. Other people finding humor in the same day to day sometimes mind-numbing, sometimes gut-wrenching, sometimes so simply wonderful, life experiences that we are all going through.
I also, hope that someday my kids will read this and know me a little better. They will have an insight into who I was that they might not otherwise have an opportunity to see.
So, while I am here, Stuck in the Suburbs, I am going to make the most of it and I would love to share some of my experiences with you.