A Day in the Life Part Deux

You can call this one a "day in the life part two", or "a day in the life of a stay at home mom during the Christmas season!" whatever you like...ok..here goes.

6:00am, You hear the little one cooing and doing her high pitched happy scream thru the monitor. You go in her room give her the binky and she goes back to sleep for a bit.

7:00am Up and at it. Feed baby cereal, watch her try and eat the bib instead of her food

7:15am Go holler at the older kids and try and convince them to get out of bed.

7:30am Yell at the older kids to get out of bed and get dressed and get breakfast.

8:00 Holler at your son to get his shoes and socks on. This is a morning ritual with him. Your husband kisses you goodbye and leaves for work.

8:15am Feed baby bottle. Tell your son once again to get his dang shoes and socks on.

8:30am Change baby, put clothes on her bundle her up while starting to get the kids out the door, tell them to brush their teeth, get backpacks on etc...you have to start about 20 minutes early with them

8:45am Finally walking out the door, your oldest daughter is mortified because mom is taking them to school in a robe and slippers. Your son starts to do his morning ritual of "what can I bring to school with me" and the 5 minute process of him getting his dang coat on.

8:48am You are in the car, baby in car seat, daughter with seat belt on waiting for your boy to come out of the house. You are starting to get very angry.

8:49am Your son emerges from the house and takes his sweet time getting in the car.

8:50am You drop the kids of at school barely in time

9:00am Start sorting the mounds of laundry in the house, starting with the baby's clothes, she was on her last outfit yesterday and wearing hideous gold socks...moral of the story...laundry NEEDS done.

9:30am Laundry sorted and started now you start working on the kitchen while the little one is down for a nap. After that you plan on getting in the shower.

10:00am What the crap? Only a 45 minute nap? Baby is up, mom's shower is bye bye. Play with baby for a while, balance the checkbook and do more laundry.

10:30am You are starving. Heat up leftover roast beef from night before. It's close enough to lunch right?

11:00am Feed baby her lunch. Set her down to play while you fold more laundry. You start planning your day in your head, you will make some calls, go to Hobby Lobby, Wal-Mart and Alltel store for a new phone and maybe try Game X Change for a PS2. It will be a lovely afternoon.

12:00pm After doing more laundry you put the baby back down for a try again at a nap and take a shower, do make up and get dressed. It's been a pretty relaxing easy morning so far, not too bad of a day.

12:45pm Order more Christmas cards at Wal-Mart one hour photo. Plan to go pick them up in a while.

1:00pm Call Game X Change here on my side of town to see if they have Play Station 2. See kids want Guitar Hero (thanks to my nephews) and Dance Dance Revolution (for Myah). We currently have an X Box, but I figured with a trade in of games it may just be possible to make this happen.

1:15pm You have called 4 Game X Change across OKC area. None of them have PS2 and they can't tell you how much they can give you for the XBOX until you bring it in. Edmond has one, you talk with your hubby and decide to go for it.

1:30pm You pack the baby's bag and disconnect the XBOX and pack up all the games, wires and controllers. In a mad dash you are out of the house quickly.

1:45pm You stop by the bank, deposit Christmas money check (we did a special savings account fund at Jamin's work for Christmas), get gas in the car and you are on your way. You are worried about time, but heck, you don't have to pick up the kids until 3:25 so you are ok. You figure you will make the game store about 2:15, and be back in plenty of time.

2:15pm You followed the directions to a tee...Santa Fe and 2nd st in Edmond, but this is a residential neighborhood! What the heck? You are starting to panic a little bit. You decide to go the opposite direction and cross Broadway EXT once again. You get stuck in a sea of awful traffic and are sitting behind a stupid trolley.

2:30pm You pull into a Blockbuster Video to ask for directions. You now have a screaming baby in the back seat who has pooped her pants. The girl has no clue where this store is at. You ask for a yellow pages and you are regretting not going and getting your new cell phone first. You find the address and it is indeed Santa Fe and 2nd. What the heck???

2:35pm You are back in the car. The baby is still crying in the back seat. You break your rule of smoking in the car, but hang your head out of the window like a dog looking like some crazed maniac. Either smoke in the car or veer your car off into a brick building due to the stress of this situation.

2:45pm You are back in this same stinkin area you were before. This store is obviously not here. You pull into a hole in the wall car repair shop and tell the guy where you are headed. He said "Oh, its about two miles west of here on Santa Fe" I said "I thought this was Santa Fe!" He said "This is Santa Fe Dr you want Santa Fe St" My head is literally about to explode and he says "There are three Santa Fe's here in Edmond"

2:55pm You arrive at the destination finally. You grab your sad little tear stained face of a baby and head in the store.

3:00pm You are changing your baby on the floor of a Game X Change on top of a canvas bag that you brought the XBOX in with. She is happy now.

3:10pm You are sweating profusely. Your stress level is through the roof. You are supposed to pick up your kids on the other side of town in like 10 minutes. These people are taking absolutely FOREVER to test everything. They are taking their sweet time. You finally get your trade and you only pay $18 for a Play Station 2. You are too stressed and irritated to actually relish in this moment. You grab your stuff and leave.

3:14pm You are back in your car and the baby is once again screaming. You manage to drive and make a bottle at the same time.

3:25pm You are back on the freeway. You have your left hand on the steering wheel and the other arm reached into the back seat feeding the baby her bottle. You realize you are almost a contortionist.

3:35pm You get off the freeway and head into your neighborhood. Somehow you managed to get from Edmond to my side of town in 20 minutes. You have done the impossible. You are a female version of Mario Andretti.

3:40pm You pull into the school. You are only 15 minutes late, but the principal is not happy with you. You explain you got stuck in Edmond and were in a panic. You get your kids and head home. Your perfect afternoon of shopping was an absolute stressful mess.

3:45pm You check folders, explain to the kids the XBOX is "broken" and in for repairs. Yes, you shouldn't lie, but this is one of the circumstances I believe it is ok to tell a fib or two.

4:00pm You are pricing DDR controller pads and Guitar controllers. You realize it will be cheaper to find the game used and buy new controllers from Wal-Mart. You are back on the phone with Game X Change and IM'ing your hubby.

4:20pm You find a Game X Change that has both DDR and Guitar Hero. You send hubby there after work. You calculate how much this will cost, and total for Guitar Hero, Dance Dance Revolution, Controllers and PS2 after your trade you will stay within your $100 budget. You ROCK! You are super mom!

4:30pm Your kids start screaming from the other room "MOM!" they yell. I run in there thinking someone is hurt but hear water running and them saying "The toilet is overflowing" I pull up my jeans and wade thru the wet poopy mess turn off the water to the toilet and begin cleaning it up and clearing out the clog.

4:40pm Baby is crying she is poopy. Geesh I'm up to my ears in poopy messes.

4:50pm Get poop situation under control, clean myself up and go on the porch where it is quiet and have a smoke. AHHHHHHHH.

5:00pm Feed baby dinner, make dinner for me and kids, (hubby will be late).

5:45pm Hubby calls he wants to go to Alltel and get phones, fine with me but I'm eating without him for sure now.

6:00pm You and the kiddos sit down and eat some taco salad. You clean up and get baby settled.

6:30pm Husband comes home with two brand new Motorola Razr phones! Buy one get one free deal and with mail in rebate only cost you $30 for two sweet phones! YAY!

7:00pm Bring baby in bedroom to sit on bed with you while you mess with new phone. She pukes all over you. You clean up puke and realize that she is tired.

7:15pm Put Baby to bed, send kids off to play for a while, so Mommy and Daddy can play with their new phones.

8:30pm Send older kids to bed

9:00pm Head out to the store for some cigarettes (FYI we are trying Chantix in January! We HAVE to quit!). Come back home and add contacts to phone, get Bluetooth set up etc...you know how it is when you get a new phone and have to set up EVERYTHING

11:15pm Mom gets back to town. She made the drive from Phoenix in one day. She stops by to pick up her keys so she can get in her house.

11:30pm You turn around from the computer and realize your hubby is asleep and you should do the same thing.

11:45pm Wash face, brush teeth and head off to bed. ZZZZZZZZZZZZ

The things you will suffer through for your kids

As a teenager I lived with my brother for a period of time. My nephew, Chris, then two at the time LOVED Barney. To say love was an understatement. We watched that stinkin "Barney Live In Concert Video" so much I can still remember all the lyrics to "Sally the Camel". I swore as a parent I would never subject myself to that again.

I was wrong.

Unfortunately by the time I had Myah something more annoying than Barney came along. Teletubbies. This had to be the most mind numbing show that I had ever seen, but for some reason the child LOVED it. The problem is that once I saw her giggle, coo and laugh at the show and saw how much it pleased her, I was sucked in.

Fortunately we got through the days of Dora, Barney, Teletubbies and the Wiggles and our kids graduated onto Toy Story and Shrek, things that I could live with.

My brother gave me the unfortunate news that they were "back into Barney" when I came to town because of my new niece Charity. Sitting there once again watching Barney made me want to gouge my eyes out and plug my ears. Nothing is worse than a purple dinosuar. Actually let me re-phrase that. Nothing is worse than a purple dinosaur in a goofy little hat, well Baby Bop comes in a close second.

Anyhow, today I'm flipping through channels and I notice Teletubbies are on. Don't ask me what possessed me to stop, but I did. Evie lit up. She kicked, squealed, smiled and giggled. It was the cutest thing ever. So I guess we are back in the days of Teletubbies once again.

I think Dr. Cox on "Scrubs" said it best...


Dr. Cox: Newbie, the point is, when that kid comes, you...you'll start seeing the world a whole lot differently.

Turk: You'll develop patience.

Dr. Cox: You're going to forgive easier.

Turk:If you got baby poop on your thumb, it's no big deal you can just wipe it off on your jeans like that.

Dr. Cox: I've seen the Wiggles live in concert. Twice.

Turk: Did they perform Big Red Car?

Dr. Cox: They opened and closed the show with it. It was...awesome.

In the Blink of an Eye

It just seemed like yesterday when I held her in my arms, so little, so tiny. How did she grow up so fast?

Myah is 8 and a half now, and not only has she physically gotten bigger, she is changing in all kinds of ways. She no longer watches "Dora the explorer" but has graduated to "The Suite Life of Zack and Cody". She squeals in the store when she sees a poster of Hannah Montana (who I'm learning is the daughter of Billy Ray Cyrus...) then squeals some more when she sees a picture of Zac Efron. She runs around the house all day squeaking out songs from High School Musical. (I was hoping we raised her to be cooler than that but...)

She gets on the phone with all her little friends from school and I just have to tune her out or I will go bezerk listening to the "like oh my God's" and "nuh uh's".

I knew this day in time was coming when she began to care less and less about barbies and lullabies, and much more about boys and lip gloss.

I want so bad to teach her not to be boy crazy. I want to teach her not to date until she is out of high school. I want her to know how meaningless it is to even date until you find the one that God has planned for you. I want her to not have all the drama and heartache that I experienced.

I sit here and pray, and wonder. How do I teach her all this while not suppressing who she is? Did my parents go as crazy as we are now when I started putting posters of Kirk Cameron, Luke Perry, and many many more on my wall? Did they just grin and bear it while I recorded every episode of the Mickey Mouse Club (yes I'm a dork) just so I could watch them over and over again to see the cute boys?

I guess the most that I can do is instill in her the proper values, and a love for Christ. She still may drool when she sees a poster of Zac Effron, but in her heart I can trust that she has her priorities straight.

Train a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not turn from it.

Proverbs 22:6

The Soundtrack to my Life

I was watching music videos yesterday and I started to think about all the wonderful music that is out there, and about all the songs that have impacted me (lyrically). So, I thought it would be interesting to write about these songs and what each one of them means to me. I'm going to try and go back as far as I can remember and start there, and work up until present day. If there was a soundtrack to my life, this is what it would be (the year is the year the song effected me, not the actual year it was written).

1996 - Newsboys "Lost the Plot"

lies. Let's be blunt. We're a little unfaithful. What do you want? Are you still listening? 'Cause we're obviously not. We've forgotten our first love. We have lost the plot. And why are you still calling? You forgave, we forgot. We're such experts at stalling, that we've lost the plot.

I get such a vivid mental picture when I hear this song. I see flashes of images in my head of all the horrible awful things in this world, if I was to ever make a music video this would be the one I would do because this song brings such vivid imagery to my head.

1997 - Third Day "Who I Am"

But do you know who I am? Have you seen the things I've done?

This was a time in my life where I was doing everything wrong, and this song spoke to the innermost part of my soul. This was my cry to God.

2002 - Pink "Just Like A Pill"

Your just like a pill, instead of making me better, you're making me ill

For those of you who knew what was going on in my life at this time, you totally understand this one.

2003 - Dave Matthews Band "Grey Street"

Theres an emptiness inside her and she'd do anything to fill it in and though it's red blood bleeding from her now it's more like cold blue ice in her heart. She feels like kicking out all the windows and setting fire to this life. She could change everything about her using colors bold and bright, but all the colors mix together to grey and it breaks her heart to grey.

This song maybe hit me at the most horrible time in my life. I so deeply related to this song and this particular lyric I just could sit there and cry. It was like this song was written for me. But I did just that, I sat fire to my life and painted it bold and bright colors.

2004 - Bush "Letting the Cables Sleep"

You in a sea, on a decline, breaking the waves, watching the lights go down letting the cables sleep...Whatever you say it's allright, whatever you do it's all good

This spoke to me at a time when I was in love, actually it spoke to both Jamin and I. This was a proclamation of how we were going to live our lives, let the lights go down, turn off the TV, and just talk about everything. This song basically explains intimacy.

2004 - Alanis Morisette "Everything"

You see everything, you see every part, you see all my light and you love my dark. You dig everything of which time change, theres not anything to that you cannot relate, and you're still here

I heard this song about a month before I met Jamin, and I listened and I said to myself, if I ever fall in love again, if I ever get married, this is how the man I marry will feel about me. He will love everything about me, the good and the bad, and it was just so, when I met Jamin I knew he was it. I knew this was the song that I would walk down to in our wedding.

2005 - Sia "Breathe Me"

Be my friend hold me, wrap me up, unfold me, I am small and needy. Warm me up and breathe me

I love this song. I never get sick of hearing it. The music and the lyrics flow together so beautifully. The very first time I heard it (on the show Six Feet Under) I can't explain completely what this song means to me and how it deeply effects me, I can just say that it does. To go into any more detail would be far too personal.

2005 - Newsboys "Kissing Your Cares Goodbye"

And they all fall like a million rain drops falling from the blue sky kissing your cares goodbye

I wouldn't say this one deeply effected me, this is my happy song. Whenever I'm feeling down I can play this and it makes me smile for some reason.

2006 - Casting Crowns "Praise You In This Storm"

And I'll praise you in this storm, and I will lift my hands, for you are who you are, no matter where I am, and every tear I've cried you hold in your hands, you've never left my side and though my heart is torn, I will praise you in this storm

The first time I heard this song we were coming back from Shawnee and we just found out that I had a miscarriage. Everything in our lives seemed so turned upside down at this point, but this song spoke great things to me, that God was with us, and had not left our side.

Ok, that's about it. I'm sure there are a zillion more songs, and much "cooler" songs, but these are the ones that I can think about right now.

Payback

When I first had the kids (Myah and Brett) I was concerned about getting payback for how much of a picky eater that I was. Surprisingly though, both Myah and Brett never really put up too much of a fuss with meals. They tried to as they got older, but now they will pretty much eat anything. Salad, veggies, you name it, they will eat it.

All I could do was just thank God that he is not vengeful and he truly blessed me with such wonderful eaters.

God does however have a sense of humor. He was laughing because he knew Evie was coming. He just waited until I was older and more patient to deal with it.

She will cry through whatever it is she doesn't like, until she gets what she does like (sweets). Green Beans, Peas, anything with meat in it, even Mac N Cheese she hates. She only likes the sweet veggies (carrots, squash, sweet potatoes) and bananas and applesauce. Hates pears, peaches, will sometimes eat prunes depending on her mood. I tried Mac n cheese for the first time tonight. She screamed through it, so I gave up. I then went to peas. She ate it but she sure put up a fuss until they were done (this one she would at least swallow and not gag on). Once I busted out the applesauce for dessert she was just fine.




A photo of my picky eater.

"I'll eat it but I won't like it."

A Day in the Life of a Stay at Home Mom

A day in the life as a stay at home mom...

6:00am grunts and groans thru the baby monitor...please pleeease go back to sleep...grunts become screams and cries, mom is up baby attached to her boob

6:30am baby is back in bed, cool Mom can go get some more rest

7:00 alarm goes off...damn damn damn have to take husband to work this morning because your car is broken down.

7:10am Maybe you can not take him in, you don't need a car today, you can just stay at home all day. Crap you realize you MUST go to store and run errands today, moan, groan, get out of bed, shower etc...

7:30 Out of the shower, your oldest is still in bed. You tell her for the second time to get out of bed and get dressed.

7:45 Your oldest is still not out of bed yet, time to send Dad into the room to wake her up. Baby is now awake and needs changed, Dad can handle that one for now.

8:00am In the car and ready to go...grab some gas and coffee from 7-11 and get hubby to work

8:30am Drop husband off at work. Realize it is really quiet with your middle child (son) at Grandma's house. Glad to no longer be listening to talk radio.

9:00am Arrive at city office to try and change date for permit on garage sale, due to death in family last week that we could not have. Why this stupid city requires a permit for a yard sale is beyond me. Dang it I forgot the permit, go back home and get it to come back later.

9:30am Arrive at home again, baby is attached to boob again. Good thing mom is on tap.

9:45am Call the school to find out information on enrollment. Decide to go to Wal-Mart to get school supplies, and print out some photos to mail them to family. Do some laundry before you leave the house.

10:45am Arrive at Wal-Mart with school supply list in hand. Your daughter puts things in the cart that are not even on the list. Sift thru cart and remove all items that are un neccicary. Geesh, can't she see there is a method to your madness?

11:45am Go and pick up printed photos. They are all pixelated. The ladys at the photo department swear that it must be my resolution on my camera. Not wanting to make any waves I walk away. There is only one register open. This is normal for Wal Mart in the mornings and I hate it. I curse under my breath...I hate Wal-Mart, hate it, hate it, hate it, but darn it their prices are so low. My rage rises as I get to the counter why should I pay for these photographs when they are crap. After checkout I return to the photo counter where I finally decide that I'm not paying for them. I return the photos.

12:30pm Finally arrive home, I'm starving, but come into the computer to IM the hubby and let him know I'm home. He has been researching insurance all morning. He is making a spreadsheet for us to go over the data later..fun stuff.

12:45pm Time to feed the baby again. Yes, I am a milk bar.

1:00pm Your mother in law calls, she is bringing home your son, thought he was staying with her until tomorrow, but that is no problem because you were starting to miss the total chaos in your house.

1:15pm Finally mom can eat lunch, oh crap, must feed child. Throw some corn dogs in the microwave..healthy no, quick yes. Make yourself a pastrami sandwich, sit down to eat, realize that you forgot the corn dogs, get up, feed the kid, then eat some more.

1:30pm Mother in law arrives with son. He is chattering about what he did at grandmas. We talk about our church and apple pie. We then eat some apple pie.

2:00pm Do some more laundry. Great fun. Go in to check the IM again. The Hyundai dealership called, now the price of the car is up to $800, what the F*&^! How did that happen. You can feel your ears getting hot with rage...you are ready to go and just lay into these people. Your husband tells you he is getting off work early to stop by the dealership. Baby is crying, she is poopy. You take her to change her diaper. She tries to grab her poo. This is something she has not done before...interesting.

2:30pm Try and pick up the house a little...you feel as if you have been so busy all day yet got absolutely nothing accomplished. You are still VERY angry about the car. You play about 10 minutes of Tony Hawk on the XBOX to blow off some steam.

2:50 You start feeding the baby again. Your husband calls, the electricity is off on the whole block at his work, he may get off work even earlier.

3:00pm The dog is going nuts, running in the back yard barking at something, but you have a baby attached to your boob, so you can't go check. 3 minutes later there is a knock at your door which makes the dog go nuts again. You have no shirt on so you yell thru the door "who is it?." It is your husband's cousin coming to pick up their air matress. Luckily I was at home...had no clue he was coming by. Quickly put on a shirt and put down baby. You pass off the air matress and cousin is gone and now you are back to feeding baby again.

3:15pm Baby is finally done eating. She just played around for a while. You begin to get things ready to leave the house.

3:25pm After a frantic search through the house for a missing flip flop you leave the house to go pick up your husband from work.

4:00pm You arrive at your husband's work to pick him up, then head for the dealership to sort out the car problem.

4:30pm Arrive at the dealership (after your husband was on the phone to Hyundai consumer affairs all the way there - which by the way did absolutely no good). You talk to the greasy mechanic, and realize there was a mis-understanding and the price was not what he thought it was, you sort it out realize that you can bring in some parts to the dealership from Auto Zone to cut costs

4:45pm Begin driving all over to Auto Zone, Napa and Pep Boys looking for imported Hyundai parts, find some and return to the dealership. Sit in the car with kids while husbby runs in the store. Listen to kids giggle and baby cry because car is not moving. Your son tells you that he lost 18 pounds today. Interesting. You are regreting letting them have a soda.

5:30pm Arrive home, change into work out clothes then feed baby once again. Think of several excuses not to work out but realize that you need to...

5:50pm Arrive at gym, dang it I forgot my IPOD. Login to fitlinx to see how many points I have. 460! Whoo hoo I'm beating Jamin nanny nanny nanny! Spend first ten minutes on treadmill wishing I was dead, spend last 20 minutes on treadmill, thinking this isn't that bad...

6:30pm Cool down, drink water, try not to pass out from exhaustion. Login to fitlinx. Only 170 calories burned and 150 points...dang it dang it dang it...tomorrow I'm doing aerobics again, screw the treadmil.

6:45pm Arrive home eat dinner chicken burritos your hubby made while you were at the gym. Spend 30 minutes trying to get a DVD to play on three different DVD players...none of them worked...darn Netflix CD all scratched up. Oh well, I didn't want to see that movie anyway so it worked out.

7:15pm Grandma and Uncle Aaron were here to watch the movie, but it didn't work. Baby is acting hungry again, even after grandma fed her a bottle, time to pop out the boobie again. Watch recorded TV show.

8:30pm Come in bedroom to blog for a while and have a moment alone. After 10 minutes your husband is sending in the kids to tickle and bug you saying things like we have 12 elephants in our backyard...never a moments peace...

9:00pm Play around the house with the kids, singing silly songs and stuff...that was fun. Your son sang "dog breath" and "baby got back"...we are horrible horrible people...

10:00pm Think about the mounds of laundry and everything you SHOULD have got done today, but are too tired to care now. Try to wake up the baby to feed her but she just plays around and falls asleep...you know she will be up at 3am in the morning. Put kids to bed, wash face, brush teeth, crawl into bed and watch tome you tube with your hubby.

11:00pm Thinking you should go to sleep, however with the kids in bed the house is so peaceful...you lay on the bed with hubby and listen to some music on ITunes for about 5 minutes, then turn on the TV.

11:35pm Seinfield comes on. It is the BO episode where they can't get rid of the stench...funny stuff.

12:05pm lights out go to sleep and begin it all again tomorrow.

I Quit!

Ok, so I did it. After much thought, and stress, and thought, and stress I decided to follow my heart and leave my job to stay at home with the kids.

It was really hard for me to go full time once I came to Oklahoma after working part time for so long, but I did it in hopes that one day they would eventually offer part time at Cox, however that has not happened. After the birth of Evie, I just really started to think about my priorities, and what was important to me.

A year ago, I had stars in my eyes moving to Oklahoma. I was greedy and materialistic, and driven by my desires for a home and pretty things. I thought moving here would give us that. God has taken us down an unusual path over the past year, and I think that was a learning process for me to find out what exactly was important. Ginger put it best to me and said when I stand before God will he say "Great job at Cox."? No, he won't.

I've learned that I don't have to go to the movies every weekend to make my kids happy, that a walk up to the park and a push on the swings does much more. I've learned that prosperity is not the amount of money that I have, but the quality of life that my family has. I've learned that it's not the TV sets, or the XBOX that make the kids happy, but sitting down with the TV off playing a game of Monopoly with them.

I'm scared to death. Can we make it on one income? Please pray for us on this new endeavor.

One thing I know is, life is better once you quit your job. The grass is greener, the air smells sweeter...

Potty Mouth

Ok, so my son has had a cursing problem the past few days. We were watching Bruce Almighty with Gwen and the kids the other day (fast forwarding thru the bad scene with him and Jen Aniston)...anyhow he heard a few words on there that he repeated. Now, I gave him the benefit of the doubt, but took him in the bathroom and threatened to wash his mouth out with soap if he didn't watch his mouth. I explained to him which words are naughty words and what not to say.

So, we were watching Legally Blonde today, not a bad movie at all but he heard the word dumb ass.

He said, "I'm not going to say that word, cuz mom will wash my mouth out with soap."

Aaron turned around and said "what?"

He then in turn said, "I was going to say that word, but I'm not going to say the word dumbass because mom will wash my mouth out with soap."

Ok, so at that point the way he said it was so cute, Aaron and I started laughing and couldn't help it. Right there went all the authority that I had the other day.

You're an angry elf.

 

Your kids will ALWAYS say something to embarrass you. Let me start by saying that.

Here is the "back story" on what happened:

Several months ago Jamin was taking the kids to Walgreens shopping. There is a little person that works the cash register at the Walgreens by our house. He looks very much like the guy from the movie Elf. As you can see, this is a disaster waiting to happen. Jamin gets up to the register and he sees the kids begin to snicker and giggle. Their faces are turning red with amusement and excitement. Jamin turns around and quietly tells the kids to stop it and be quiet. You hear Bubby go "but Dad..." Jamin is praying silently in his head right now that the kids keep their composure, but of course as they begin to leave the register you hear them yell, "but Dad! That is the guy from Elf." At this point Jamin is mortified. The only thing he could do is apologize to the poor guy for our childrens ill mannered behavior. The guy did not seem too happy about it, but he said "that's ok, I get it all the time." (Obviously, he was an angry elf, and very upset with my kids.) Honestly though my son was just REALLY excited and truly thought this guy was REALLY the guy from the movie elf.

You would think that was bad enough, but it gets worse.

So, last night I decided to go to Walgreens. I needed shampoo and stuff, so I asked if Myah wanted to go. Of course, Brett wanted to come too. I really wanted to just get in and out and kind of make it a girls thing, and I really didn't want him to go. I think it was my mothers instinct telling me not to let him go, but reluctantly I gave in and said he could come.

Bubby is off about ten feet behind the register when I walk up to check out and there he is the same checkout guy. My face immediately flushes because I'm totally afraid of what my kids will do. Brett comes over and immediately gets this HUGE grin on his face. Oh God, I think here he goes he is going to say something to embarrass me for sure.

Bubby begins to snicker, I turn around and give him a stern look. I hear him look at Myah and say something about "ugly." Of course I wasn't thinking that he could POSSIBLY be talking about the guy behind the counter and I blurted out, "did you just call your sister ugly?" I thought maybe him getting in trouble for calling his sister ugly would distract him from the little man behind the counter and he wouldn't call him the guy from "Elf" again. Bubby shakes his head no. Myah then chimes in with "oh, he was talking about the guy." Oh my Lord, can I please just get my stuff and pay now because I need to get to the parking lot and slaughter my children. So we get in the car and I go off, I start talking about how it is bad to make fun of people etc..I think I was a bit harsh, but I was pretty upset. I come home throw my bags on the couch, and walk into the bedroom, completely and totally humiliated.

All I have to say to Jamin is "guess who was my checkout person at Walgreens?" and he came back with a big "Nooooooo...." Oh yes he was. Now I decide that I need to go talk to Brett because he was crying when we came in the house. I open his door and he is nowhere to be found. He is hiding under his bed crying because he felt pretty bad for making fun of the guy.

Ok, so yeah, I was a little harsh, but I was REALLY appalled at my kids behavior.  I REALLY thought I'd raised them better than that.

Jamin and I sit him down and have a talk about how God made everyone and loves us all, and how it is not nice to call people ugly, or appropriate to be rude and cruel. We give him hugs and tell him he is ok, and not in trouble (this time). I do hope they have learned their lesson though. However next time I go to Walgreens I think I will leave the kids at home.