Veteran's Day

I love this photo gallery that is displayed in my parents' bedroom.  At the top is my great-grandpa who served in World War I.  The next two down are my paternal and maternal grandpas who served in World War II.  My dad is on the lower left; he was medically discharged from the Air Force Academy. I don't know if that makes him a veteran, per se, but he does have the picture. He even gets a very small disability stipend.  The lower right is my mom's brother who served in the Army. I feel like I should add more details to that, but I just know he works on airplanes.  And at the very bottom is my oldest brother, David.  When he joined the Army to help pay for med school, he never imagined the U.S. would go to war.  But then 9/11 happened and everything changed.  He has left his family to serve as an army doctor in several countries, the last being Afghanistan.  Even though he long since met his time commitment to the Army, he keeps renewing and is currently a Lieutenant Colonel.  I type that like I have any idea what it means. I actually had to look up how to spell it.  Anyway, he is an officer, but he spends his days drugging people for surgery.

Happy Veteran's Day.

NaBloPoMo Woes

This posting every day is killing me.  I have nothing to write about. Here is what is swirling around my brain today:

• We have family pictures this weekend. I have no idea what we are wearing or what the color scheme is. When you are spending this much money, the pressure is on to make them good. 
• Jack's babysitter can't drive him home from preschool so I have another mom doing it. Problem is, she keeps not being able to do it. The logistics of this are driving me crazy, but I am still loving our new childcare arrangement. 
• Saturdays are my cleaning day, but we have been gone the past several Saturdays. My house is a disaster and it stresses me out. I just need a Saturday at home to blast some music and knock this mess out. 
• Ellie's school had a book fair tonight. The checkout line was crazy long so I told her to go pick out two books while I waited in line. She picked a book about sharks and a Minecraft book. I kind of wish I had perused the books with her and steered her in a different direction. I hate Minecraft. 

My brain is boring. Hopefully I will have something to write about tomorrow...

Sunday Best: Keeping it real

We all know that social media can paint such a pretty picture of the lives of others.  Sometimes it seems like everyone is always taking fabulous vacations, making creative things, and having a blast with their friends. I understand that social media isn't the place to air your dirty laundry or constantly complain, but sometimes I feel like I need to keep it real so I like to blog and instagram and facebook the hard moments, too. I feel like it helps me look at those moments with a sense of humor and keep things in perspective.

This morning when I was posting my #sundaybest picture, I realized how ridiculous it was.  My kids looked so cute and happy when in reality we had been having a really rough morning.  So, I decided to document that, too.

Why I can't go anywhere

OK, so I may not have been in the best frame of mine when I wrote that last post.  Honestly, this morning was not much better.  Tom's stopwatches started beeping at like 4:30am.  I say stopwatches plural because he wears three of them around his neck at meets.  What a weirdo. But I digress. So when I finally was dozing off again, jack wakes up to use the bathroom and, of course, he slams the bathroom door which wakes up Sam.  Sam starts screaming and I jump out of bed to calm him because I feel like we already tortured the neighboring room enough the night before.  Needless to say, all the kids were up and demanding to be fed at 6:00am even though we didn't need to be at the meet til noon.  Tom may have yelled something about us ruining the state experience for him, but I am trying to forgive him for it.

6:00 AM

To get out of Tom's hair, I took all three kids downstairs for the free hotel breakfast.  Haha, I just realized I said Tom's hair which is funny because he doesn't have any. Anyway, I got down there only to find it packed with millions of runners.  Ellie was a life-saver because she kept running back and forth fetching food for her brothers and herself while I tried to keep Sam from freaking out about all the people eating food that he wasn't eating.


I then loaded the kids up and drove to the over-priced parking which was miles from the actual meet. Not to worry, they were shuttling people over to the park on school buses (yellow dogging it, as Tom likes to say). Well, that is all fine and dandy except try and climb those steps carrying a 35 pound toddler, a diaper bag, and a huge stroller.  I couldn't so Ellie hauled Sam up the stairs even though he is practically as big as she is.  By the time we got to the park, I really had to pee so I waited in this long line for the nasty, nasty port-a-potties and then did my business WHILE HOLDING SAM.  Who is huge.  And not very cooperative.  I am just not one of those moms can go places with her kids and make it look effortless.  Anyone watching me probably thought I was the childless aunt helping out for the day.  Whatever, by the time the race started, all three kids were happy and eating a healthy snack of Goldfish.


Sam was so worn out that he actually fell asleep with his hand in the Goldfish bag.


In the end, Tom's team placed 10th which is kind of awesome for a huge state like Texas.  Here they are jumping for joy.  I felt like jumping for joy, too, but mainly because cross country season was finally over and I could have my husband back.  At least until track season, anyway.

SOS

Sam goes to bed by 6pm every night. So, when Tom told me dinner with his team was at 7:45, I opted out thinking I would hang back at the hotel and get the kids in bed.  For those who have yet to experience it, I can't even begin to describe how awful it is to be trapped in a hotel room with a toddler who won't sleep. I can't let him cry it out because I don't want to disturb the neighbors. I can't let him roam free because he can open the bathroom door and he keeps playing with the toilet and/or toilet paper. It is over 3 hours past his bedtime and it is like he is possessed. Even Ellie and Jack gave up and passed out an hour ago.  I'm not gonna lie, tears have been shed and unkind words have been spoken.  Tom's team better kill it tomorrow at the state meet to make this trip worth it.