Freddy is gone day 4ish...

So my hubby made it safely to Kuwait where he will wait for a day or two to find his assingment.  So yay for that I suppose, I mean it's hard to cheer something that will take my husband away from me, but at that point I guess the opposite would be he DIDN'T arrive safely in Kuwait and that would be far less amusing.  I digress...

So the rest of my school week progressed as usual, with a delightful little meeting on Thursday for 4 hours about ADEPT (the whole do you pass or fail at being a teacher deal)  This is my second year and thus my "formal evaluation".  They made us sit there and watch an hour long video about the new changes...OMG was it ever dull, it was an elderly gentleman and a woman sitting on a stage talking....no exciting backdrop, no video clips, just the two of them talking for an hour.  AHH, suddenly I knew how my students felt, I sat there debating sleep, or finding someone to reach out and text too, but in the end I figured I'd better buckle down and watch it because this is my whole future career and all.  Anyway, it was scheduled to end at 12, but instead ended at 11....sooo should I go staight back to school or play hookey for a while....now my instincts were to lay out till like 12:15 or so (you know to account for lunch)...but I was in a bind.  You see there was another teacher from my school there and I wasn't sure how she was going to play it.  Now you say, well gee why not ask her, or take her to lunch to ensure that she was out. BUT I was asked to stay late and chat with the assistant superintendant about Freddy being gone (EVERYONE wants to chat about it and thrown in support/offer help etc).  Anyway long story short I went home and did laundry and came in around 12.  I have yet to figure out what she did, but no one said anything to me so I guess I'm good :) .  That was my excitement of the week I'd say.

This morning we drove to the church in Due West and attended one of the 'Fun Days' that they throw each month for kids.  Only Georgia didn't think it was much fun and decided to spend the whole event on my lap repeating "I get out of here now".  That is until the food arrived and suddenly she was all good again.  One of the kid's dad's offered to hold Riley and I let him but felt guilty the whole time.  I think it makes me look weak when I allow others to help like that.  I want people to know that I can and DO take care of my kids fine on my own when Freddy's not here to help.  I dunno if that makes any sense, but it's something that I get defensive about, I know I can do this and I feel like I must prove it to everyone at all times that yes, I have three, and yes, there's only one of me, but I can handle it thanks for asking.  It's like at Ingles every week, the bagboys are offended that I refuse their carryout.  I can carry Riley, push my cart and guide two toddlers just fine thanks! 

The rest of my day involved cleaning laundry and kiddies, and now here I sit with two asleep and one watching a movie, eating my peaches and typing a blog.  That's not so hard is it?  I have to keep telling myself I can do it because I realized today after a conversation with someone that I really have no friends to fall back on.  I mean I have acquaintances and long distances counterparts, and people who are friends of Freddy's who treat me nicely, but if I needed help or if I needed someone to come over and talk, to save my sanity, who could I call.  Exactly.  Don't get me wrong, my family is semi-nearby, but lets face it they are busy folks too, and if there's one group of people to whom I DESPISE looking weak to it's them.  Soo it's good that I can do this on my own.  That was the whole point.

I swear I've got to get my camera fixed soon.  I missed a GREAT Kodak moment yesterday when Georgia doused herself in babypowder and ran around shreiking "I'm a SNOWMAN!"    It just occured to me that I need to get something by the end of the week for the Halloween pictures!  I also must find an opportunity to video one of Savannah's lectures on Self-Control.  She is a lil stickler, "mommy, you are driving too fast, you must learn to use your Self Control or the police man is going to get you."  "mommy you need to use your inside voice, you are always telling us not to yell, you need to use Self-Control"  I'm not making this up folks, how could I, she's seriously that crazy.  She also watched pieces of V is for Vendetta with me today and proclaimed that it was her favorite movie! (GOD I hope not, it wasn't very good)  Her favorite part was when they shaved Natilie Portman's head for prison--"Mommy Mommy!  They just turned that girl into a boy!  That was the best magic trick EVER!"  Nuts I tell you, I live with a bunch of Nuts.

Toodles!

Freddy is gone….day one.

So we took Freddy to the airport today.  Since he’s got military orders we got to go all the way to the gate.  It’s nice and all but I HATE having to go through security.  I mean the people who work there are just plain rude, and definitely not children people.  Back in February when Freddy was headed to California for training we went through, it was Savannah’s first time and they made her cry.  She kept touching the sides and setting it off and they are screaming at her to not touch the sides and to go back through like nine different times.  It was traumatic for me; I can’t imagine what she must have thought to have uniformed people screaming at her while the alarms wailed.    This time went a little better except that the girls tried to walk through together and so they had to get a lecture and go back through like 3 times before we finally got it right, one at a time.  Which was all stupidly negated when they let me carry Riley through…doesn’t that count for more than one person at a time?  Anyway, we got through security and walked Freddy to his gate then sat and watched until his plane took off.  Which was an experience in and of itself as I had to spend the whole time chatting with this oddly over-friendly airline employee who rapped for me.  No seriously, she preformed one of her raps for me about how soldiers are just like inmates.  It was CRAZY stuff. 

Anyway, so Freddy was gone, and the kiddies and I had the rest of the day to kill soooo we drove up to Hendersonville to go to the apple orchard.  I haven’t been to the area since that summer I worked in Bonclarken but DAMN has it ever exploded, like there is a Mexican store (TIENDA!) on every block and expensive golf course old folk communities in between.  Crazy.  I took the kids to Gatti Town for lunch (remember that from our yearly Music Conference Trip all you DWARPers?)  That was an adventure itself because I had my first experience of two toddlers one baby, no help, gotta feed all of them, AND make continuous trips to the bathroom with one or both of the elders.  I mean I feel like a real classy mom when I say “Savannah watch your brother while I take Georgia to the bathroom” (yes 4 year old, please watch my 8 month old)  But I figure it’s better for him to be semi-watched in his high chair rather than having to sit on the bathroom floor while I help Georgia.

Again Anyway we get to the orchard (we went to SkyTop Orchard in FlatRock) threw Riley in the stroller, got our baskets and set off.  One of the employees advised me before we left the barn “if you can see the tree from here, it’s already been picked clean” So we had to walk up over a couple of hills and down to the last few trees on the row, but we finally found some apples still on the tree AND low enough for the girls to pick.  Didn’t matter to Georgia anyway, she’d been picking up the grossest apples off the ground the whole way so by the time we got to the good ones she had a full basket.  I kept having to periodically sift through her apples because she was very much an ‘anything goes’ apple picker.  After we filled up the basket (which I then had to carry back) we went over and visited with the goats.  I swear goats will eat ANYTHING, well except apples, apparently these goats had developed a taste aversion to the constant offer of an apple, but they would eat any piece of grass you stuck in there.  We finished up the visit with a fresh apple spice doughnut and apple cider slush mmmmm except for the lil bees that kept trying to have a bite/lick/whatever it is bees do to sweet things.

So that was day one in a nutshell, I’m gonna do my best to keep at least semi-regularly updating since it’s the best way to share it all with my hubby.  Sorry I don’t have any pictures of the apple picking, but my camera is in limbo with a dead battery and a missing battery charger.  Later Gators!

Overheard in the Toy Room

So Savannah and Georgia had my broom out playing with it....they started off "sweeping" then placed it precariously between two chairs and used it as a tightrope with not so good results and finally from my hideaway in the study I overheard this lil gem.

Savannah:  Ok broom, it's time to fly!  ABRACADABRA! UP BROOM UP! .......(slight pause)..............please?!

Haha, she remembers the OTHER magic word

Long Time No Write Huh

So not only has it been a long time since I posted, it's also been a long time since I posted any actual words.  So I thought I'd take a moment or two to put something down.  I considered updating everything and all the crap we/ve done since April (my last post) but I've got housework and husbands to do. So instead I figured I'd break it down by family member and just see what I can come up with for each.  (seriously did you catch that a sentence back? )  AND HEY, this way if there's a family member from our cast of characters that you really just don't like you can skip their section all together! No seriously you'd better like EVERYONE especially me.

Riley--everyone's favorite 4 1/2 month old

Riley is doing well, he's 12lbs (10 pounds more than he started at) he's smiling and laughing now (see above) which means he's right on schedule for a 2 month old (which is how old he suppose to be).  It's soo hard for me not to be disapointed that he's going on 5 months and can't roll over yet, but as EVERYONE likes to remind me he's only the size/development of his actual age, so I guess I've got a few months to wait.  He's a very pleasant baby, he sleeps through the night and as long as you keep him fed he pretty much takes care of himself.  Unfortunately, he can't hear--Freddy likes to tell him Helen Keller jokes (though thankfully his eyes are fine).  We knew that he couldn't hear out of the right ear, but at his last appointment I got the exciting news that he can't hear much of anything out of the left ear either!  It explains a lot, I mean his sisters will be having a cat fight right next to him and he doesnt' even flutter an eyelid.  I was starting to think he was autistic because you'll be talking to him and he will look everywhere else but at you.  So it was actually a relief to find out that he simply doesn't know we're talking to him.  Does it seem odd to you that I'm not worried he's deaf?  See the rest of the story is, that the Doctors think it is perfectly fixable with surgery.  The only probably is that my lil booboo isn't fat enough yet--he's gotta be at least 14lbs, so I'm thinking it will be around September or October before we'll have that option. 

Georgia--the two year old terror

Georgia is now officially potty trained!  (two down one to go)  It seems like it took FOREVER but something finally clicked and she decided she was "a big girl" and now she's all panties all the time.  With Savannah I let her wear pull-ups at night for a good while into potty training just so she'd feel comfortable, but lil Miss Georgia ever so politely informed me that diapers were for BABIES and she was no longer one of those so now I've got 3/4 full bag of princess pullups and no one to wear them. (See that's upsetting because those things are EXPENSIVE)  Georgia is such a little mother, Savannah likes to play with Riley, but Georgia likes to be his mama.  She covers him with blankets even in 90degree heat (kind of like his grandma does), she will come tell me when it's time to feed him, she picks him up and cuddles him every chance she gets (aka, everytime mommy leaves the room or is in the shower etc).  Her favorite phrases of the moment are "NO, NOT YOU, MOMMY!" and "Nana Do It" (whenever you ask her to do her chores (Nana is what she calles her sis)  and "DON"T LEAVE ME" anytime she even remotely perceives that you might be getting ahead of her or doing something w/o her.  Other than that she's pretty much the same as ever, she's SUPER manipulative and spoiled--but she's also the cuddliest and easiest to get to say she's sorry (Savannahs' a subborn lil donkey).

Savannah--The 4 Year Old Grown Up

Savannah is growing up so fast.  She starts school in August--she is SOOO excited, not a day goes by that she doesn't ask me how much longer till she gets to go to school.  She's finally out of her "WHY" stage (THANK GOD) I got SO tired of playing 3000000 questions every time we came across something new or interesting.  She can write her name now (give her some slack she's got a hell of a lot of letters in her name) and a handful of other words so we're fast heading towards reading--I'll be SOO happy to get a break from reading baby books all the time then SHE can read them to her sister.  Savannah has lately become Miss Independent, she likes to do things on her own and comes up with some of the oddest games you can think of.  She also has an imaginary friend now--Sherry.  Sherry lives next door and has a reserved spot in my new car where Savannah buckles her up at.  Thankfully Sherry volunteered to house/stuffed animal sit for us while we were on vacation   Savannh is also my little singer, she is rarely found not humming or singing some song typically of her creation.  She is still as observant and sharp as she was as a baby.  She notices the oddest things and often points out things you were trying to hide from her. Her sense of direction is uncanny, she can direct you to pretty much anywhere from her house and be dead on.  We'll pull up to intersections and she can tell you exactly what is down each road. She loves having a little brother and spends a majority of her day attempting to include him in the games that she and Georgia are playing.

Freddy and Sara--5 years together and they've never had a fight!

Lets see--first off I got a new car back in May it's a Honda Pilot--we had to move on up in the world so that we could actually fit 3 car seats into a vehicle.  The only downside is that the girls insist on sitting all the way in the back row, right where I can't reach them if something spills or they need something handed to them.  They treat it like their own lil clubhouse and so far so good.  I really LOVE it even if my Bro-In-Law thinks it looks like a mini-van.  IT'S NOT; IT'S an SYT!  (that's what savannah called it for about the first week we owned it until I finally sat her down and clarified it SLOWLY S-U-V)

So to go along with a new car I got a new job! I'm now gonna be teaching at Abbeville High School--not only is it going to shorten my commute by 25mins every day, it's nice raise in pay (YAY for money!)  Not quite sure what I'm going to be teaching yet, either Global Studies  or Sociology/Psych  either way doesnt' matter I've taught them both.  I'm the extra teacher brought in to handle the new Calhoun Falls students who will potentially be forced to relocate there.

Freddy is same old same old, constantly in a blur of movement.  He works a LOT, on his two days off a week he goes to class or works on homework, and any extra time he is off doing military crap to prepare for their potential deployment next spring.  Seriously the girls think it's like a special holiday or vacation when they get to see their daddy--he's that busy.  I probably get to see him more then they do because I get to see him every night after they are asleep.  We've found a new show that we LOVE to watch together.  It's Candian (yah i know, who knew they made sitcoms) called Corner Gas--it comes on WGN, but for some reason they only play it at like midnight so it's always a struggle for us to actually stay up that late (we're old). 

Ok I've got to go watch the girls apparently I'm expected to be a guest at their "fashion show"  I hope I can bring Riley as my date!  For more and better pictures you should check out my various albums on Facebook.  Toodles!

A friendly update through pictures

Things we've been up to....

Savannah has been practicing her best meth addict mug shot....

Georgia has been working on wrapping even more men around her lil pudgy fingers...

Freddy got a new grill for his big cookout...

Riley did a lot of sleeping...

And working on his "look how cute and tiny I am" look...

Working on his "nana boo boo" face here...

And then yawning again to prepare for more sleep..

Oh yes, and we've been hard at work on our horse riding skills....

LATER GATORS!