The kind of Mom who...

I want to be the kind of mom who can sit and blog about her warm cup of coffee and how many hours she will get to craft that day.  I am INSANELY jealous of mom's who get to do this, and whose children, I assume, sit for hours coloring and doing other creative and mind stimulating projects while they get to address their own inner needs.  And then they put on their aprons and make a ham and a cake for dinner every night, bathe the kids, then sit and darn socks while their husbands smoke a pipe and read the paper.

It will happen soon is not going to happen.

Right now I am about two loads behind in dishes, a week behind in mail, 7 loads behind in laundry, and about 2 inches behind in dust.  My arts and crafts projects consist of removing stickers from the wall and bedroom doors, and I keep in shape by kicking toys across the living room and doing squats to pick up left-over socks and cheerios.  Dinner for the kids most nights is some version of pasta (with orange powdered cheese or butter).  Jim and I attempt to eat a healthy dinner after Austin has gone to bed and we have bribed with girls with a TV show so they sit quietly for 15 minutes.  I want to be a gardener, and I pray for the new hydrangeas that I purchased hoping to beautify my back yard because I know that I will forget to water them and they will die.

But you know what...my kids go to bed every night (almost every night) peacefully.  Because they know they are safe.  And they know they are loved.  And because they know that they are the best things that I have ever grown. 

The End.

Did we do anything fun today?

Me:  Lilli, what was your favorite part of today?
Lilli:  We didn't do anything today.
Me: (mouth open) We didn't do anything?
Lilli:  Nope
Me:  We didn't have a yummy pancake breakfast with sausage made special by Daddy?
L: Oh, yeah
M: We didn't go to the zoo on the one nice day of the year and fight crowds and elevnty billion pregnant ladies to see the lions kissing?
L: Hmmm, well  we didn't see all the monkeys like I wanted.
M: We didn't get to ride on the Carousel?
L: Well.....
M: We didn't get a new* playset in the backyard for Austin?
L: (with total attitude) If it's new, then why's it got dirt?
M: (ignoring that comment) And Daddy didn't grill you your favorite chicken legs?
L:  I wanted pizza.
M:  So, we didn't do anything fun today?
L:  No.

This is Lilli not having fun at the zoo....

Or in the new/used playset

Abbi loved it!

So did Austin!

*A neighbor left a Little Tikes Kiddie slide and fort on the curb.  Of course I am going to take it.  Hence the dirt, but we cleaned it and it's just fine!  Oh, and I did let my kid run around outside in his diaper...and he loved it.

...just put it in the microwave

Have you ever had one of those conversations with a friend where you look at them afterwards and say, "I don't even know where to put you in my brain right now."  Yup, had one yesterday.

Allison and I were driving to get a cake for our boss' last day of work, and we saw a sign that said USED BOOK SALE, Grayslake Library. Here's the conversation

Alli:  I am so going there this weekend if I remember.  I know some people don't like used books, or used children's books, out you just put them in the microwave.
Me: (stares at her with that "Whatchu talkin' about Willis" face.)
A: You know, you but them in the microwave...(pause)...to kill the bugs.
(INSERT SILENCE)
A: (in a slightly panicking-trying-to-recover-voice) You know, book bugs.
Me:  There is no place in my head for you today.


And then she sent this to me today.   I stand corrected.

http://realbook.com/news/bedbugs-books

What song do you obsess over?

I love music.  It speaks where I cannot.  It explains what I cannot put into words.  I tend to obsess over songs.  I will hear it somewhere (usually Grey's or Glee), pay for the download, and then listen over and over and over until Jim rolls his eyes.  (OCD much?)

Last week it was Adele's version of Make You Feel My Love.  I am almost positive that I heard this on Parenthood and it instantly filled me with emotion.  $1.09 later, it's mine, and iTunes tells me I played it 13 times that first night.  Good times, good times.

My next song is below: 

I am listening to the Barbara Streisand version, because, well, it's Barbara.  I heart it.  A lot.  And I have never experienced heart ache like the song talks about, but it just pulls at you a little. 

What song do you obsess over? 

Watch Out, Mia Hamm

Warm-Ups.  Lilli is second from right, Abbi is third.

Watch out, Mia, the Mueller Girls are ready to take over the soccer field!  Today was the first day of Pee-Wee Spring (Winter) Soccer.  And can you say COLD!  The girls were freezing, but they had a great time!  Lilli is in her second season with this coach, and stopped three goal attempts today!  She was so proud of herself.  Abigail is getting adjusted to the field and "big kid" soccer, but promising things are in her future.  Bring in some good weather, and we will have an enjoyable weekend activity!

Of course....I took pictures of all of it...
(Click on any picture to make it bigger)

Abbi kicking and Lilli...well...being Lilli

So ready to play!

 

Just a reminder that this....

Changes to this way too fast....less than 4 years.



They were wrong

I admire the medical profession.  They work hard.  They are WAY WAY smarter than I am or will ever hope to be.  And they can deal with blood.  That wins, hands down. 

However, a certain hospital, which rymes with Butheran Heneral, has now screwed me 2/2.  The first was about 2 months ago when we took Austin to the doctor with a fever and in pain, and they said it was a cold.  Follow up appointment the next morning with our regular peditrician, I mean less than 20 hours later, and it was really a major ear infection.  Ugg...

And now this one...see previous post about me nearly meeting our Maker.  Now fast forward two days where my headaches and chills are still not gone.  I don't want to pay for the ER again, so I decide to do the Walgreens Take Care Clinic.  The nurse runs down a list of my symptoms, same as the ER people did.  (it's like they were all trained the same or something.).  Then she runs down a list of tests they did.

Pretty Nurse:  Blood Work?
Me:  Yes, it was all fine
PN : Urine?
Me:  Yes, dehydrated, but fine
PN: Strep Test
Me:  Huh?
PN:  Did they do a strep test?
Me: No.
PN: No?
Me: (worried) No, I was pretty drugged, but I would have rememebered a giant q-tip in my throat.
PN:  You told them you had a fever, chills, headache, vomitting, sore throat, and they didn't do a culture?
Me: No.
PN:  (stares at me)

5 minutes later

PN:  Your test is postive
Me:  I've heard that one before  (FYI...she so didn't get that one...)

So...that makes 2/2 that Butheran Heneral has given the wrong diagnosis.  I wonder if they think because people are coming to the ER that it will automatically be something big and dramatic.  I will certainly make sure to note this on my survey.

PS  I really really do love medical people.  I am just slightly frustrated that twice now I have had to pay double for medical bills....

For the love of morphine

I seriously thought I was dying.  Dying.  My insides were being pulled out by through throat and my head was about to explode.  But I am tough, right?  I am the warrior who endured three C-sections, not even needing pain killers after leaving the hospital.  I was reduced to a sobbing big old cry baby begging for any type of drug that would make the pain go away......

It started on Sunday.  I woke up not feeling great, but having the day planned out, I wanted to keep to my schedule.  Breakfast, cleaning, lunch, baths, girls to the Children's Museum, dinner, then teaching.  Well, we made it to the Children's Museum, and then I crashed.  I could feel the flu coming on.  Didn't surprise me, Lilli had a small flu bug on Friday and she just wanted me to hold her.  Every breath she breathed on me, I knew the little germies where partying their way from her body to mine.  Monday morning Jim took the kids to school and I was left to be miserable without having anyone to take care of.  Then the vomiting started.  Gross, I know.  And the WORST pain EVER imaginable.  EVER.  Around 11:30 I called Jim to tell him to get his butt in the car and come get me to a doctor.  An IV, a dose of morphine, a dose of zofran, and a dose of dilaudid later and I could finally breath.  The doctor's first thoughts of a blockage were unfounded, and I was released to my bed and another day of relaxation.  I have managed to keep down 4 pieces of toast and a lot of ginger ale.  Both my work and personal e-mail are overflowing, and I don't really care.  I have about 5 episodes of old school Grey's Anatomy to watch, and a lot of time planned with my pillow....

Here's to a better tomorrow.....