Just Me!!

My baby, She's a Senior. We are busy rushing to and fro for Senior pictures, trying to meet deadlines, school senior meetings, paying for announcements, class rings, scholarship applications, ACT testing, College Applications, volunteering, all the while she is still keeping up with her 4 APclasses-homework. It is busy. Being busy is really not my strong suite. The stress of it all came crashing down yesterday when I came home to dishes in the sink at 7pm. I look back now and laugh. I wasn't laughing last night. I was yelling. Oops, super mom fail! Ethan got the most of it....a lengthy lecture on how he needs to take responsibility for himself and his homework. He wasn't doing himself a favor last night when he decided to wait till 7pm to do his homework that we had talked about at 330pm. The minute I left the house to take Valerie to Aldonza's apartment for some makeup tips, he decided it was xbox with dad time. I had to apologize to Mark later for my outburst and told...

                    We had a chance to spend time with Tina and David this weekend. I spent Friday night playing Bingo with my mom, brother, Kat, Tina, David and then on Saturday we spent more time with the extended family at Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium. It was fun getting to know David. He is quiet so maybe drinks with him and Tina alone might be a better venue for getting to know each other. The Zoo was fun though. The girls had a blast, and Charlie had a great time playing with her cousins Callen and Caleb. She brought along a pen and paper so she could draw all of the exciting animals she was seeing. We missed out on the Polar bears, but we have a plan to catch them next time. 

I've always loved the theater. I remember going to several plays with my Grandma Nagel, and I loved it. I did theater in college also. I had a roll in two plays my freshman year. I wasn't the star of the show but I did love the roles I received. I liked being a part of the theater group. It's where I felt safe, loved, and cherished for my witty personality. I've been thinking about this lately and talking to Mark about how much I miss it. Funny thing was, he thought I meant like AMC theater. I told him I wanted our family to take up the arts again and get a subscription to Seattle Rep Theater or something of that nature. Although we like the idea, we haven't chosen where to begin (mainly because expenses are tight, college deadlines are already hitting our pocket books hard...to the tune of 700.00 that I can count from the top of my head;which will be minor compared to this time next year). Tonight though we went to a "pay what you can" showing (which was ...

  I love these moments. Everyone is done with dinner and we are all sitting at the table while our kids are doing their homework. I love this time of year. Ethan is struggling with getting stuff in on time so I told him that if this continues to be an issue I will sell his xbox. I have to remember I am not their friend, I am their parent. I want them to be successful. I want them to be able to take care of themselves in a few years. I love them to pieces so it makes it hard to not have friendship as my goal;) I believe we've done a great job so far, and the kids are awesome. We enjoy spending time with them so much that we forget to find time to be alone too. They are our lives, we are so amazed by the individuals they are becoming....best thing about parenting! Nearly every night we get a piece of graduation information with early deadlines and it makes me realize things are about to change. Who is going to make apple cinnamon bread for us next year, laugh about memes, play family...

         Mark and I enjoyed another day at the Washington State Fair grounds. We went again on Multicare's dime and spent three hours eating more yummy food, looking at commercial booths the kids didn't want to look at, and made it over to the Ag Center. We had a relaxing day, almost bought some dehydrated salsa seasonings, and purchased our retirement yurt. Bahaha. Although Mark is celebrating a birthday, we aren't quite close enough to purchase that yurt;) Happy 44th honey! Thanks for hanging in their with me all these years. For his birthday we bought him a ammunitions case and filled it with loot. When he decides where he wants to put his first geocache we will all go and place it with him! I'm sure he has some places in mind already. Valerie cooked him his favorite meal, enchiladas! I gave him a body massage....

  The kids love their after school fun. Charlie almost always goes outside and plays with Audry or Alina. The girls like to play wrestle, practice dancing, riding bikes, or standing guard for the ice cream man. Ethan loves to play basketball with whoever shows up...he totally reminds me of my brother! Valerie usually does homework, plays on her phone, or chats with her friends about how she would love to have a pet duck or the Silkie Chicken she saw at the fair. None of my kids are alike...makes life so exciting.  Saturday Multicare gave us a day at the fair so Val and Ethan chose to hang out with their friends for half a day and us the other half(we still got IT). We pretty much do the same things every year except for this year we saw more performances and that was a lot of fun. We went to the Draft Horse performance, mutton busting (hilarious), and of course Roberto the Magnificient (his act isn't as good as it used to be). We saw every animal we could, except for the baby ...

I'm off! Hallelujah! It has been so busy at work for the past 5 months that I'm now thinking this is the new normal. Normal, is not what our patients have been either. Normal deliveries are gone, and now we are left with people with multiple disease processes. Complicated people, complicated pregnancies, and complicated deliveries. I'm lucky to have a job though! I need to work more, make more, earn more so that these next few years won't be so hard financially. My brother came by today and we discussed money. I'm tired of being happy only if we can buy this or that...I am practicing happiness every day. I'm staying home. Reading, spending time with family. Hunkering down for the winter. Love me some winter!! I'm still planning on Our Halloween Bash though probably the week before Halloween, the 23rd. It will be crazy hard to celebrate any holiday with a piece of our family missing. The kids need it though. Today I stayed home, had morning coffee with my man...