Poop-a-thon still not over. I am still cranky. Less so than before but yes, still cranky. I miss blogging. I'm burnt out on school work. I still {heart} coffee. Sorry for no real post yet again. There is much laundry to be done. And yes, I hate this kind of non-post as much as you do. Sorry!

It's been a poop-a-palooza at our house these last few days and it seems there is no end in sight. Audrey has some kind of a bug that I am PRAYING the people who came to her party this weekend do not get! Easton is potty traning. And not very successfully, I might add. Yes, he realizes the difference between wet and dry (which is a huge step in the right direction) but we have to physically put him on the potty every 30 minutes and he screams and cries and carries on until it sounds like we are torturing him. He usually manages to pee but I think this is more luck than anything. It's not been a good few days. I have a long post about our NY trip to see Katy about halfway done, a paper to write, several projects unfinished and zero pictures of Audrey's birthday party. Needless to say, I am very cranky. I think I should stay away until I have something nice to say. That would not be today.

I need to go to the dentist. Like REALLY need to go to the dentist. I've had a tooth that's been bothering me off and on since February. I had my teeth cleaned in March and nothing showed up. No big deal. It really wasn't an all the time thing, just came and went every once in a while and that was something I could live with. I went to the oral surgeon because I thought it was my wisdom teeth. Nope. Thankfully, I just might skate by with not having to have my wisdom teeth out at al. Nice! But that tooth? Yeah...now it's really bothering me. Like all the time. I made a note to call my dentist on Monday (yesterday) and finally remembered at 4:45. I called and they were already closed for the day. Whoops! No big deal. I should have remembered to call earlier in the day. I called today at 8:30 when the office opened and they can see me today! Hooray! I was offered a choice of several times today and had to choose the latest one because I have no one to take care of the kids while I go. Jason will have to take off work early to meet me at the dentist. This is a really busy time for him right now because he'll be gone next week while we're on vacation. I am really wishing it wasn't so danged complicated just to get my sore tooth fixed! Now I am not at all complaining about my dentist. I love her, recommend her to people all the time and several members of her family read this blog. Heck, for all I know she might even read this blog. I don't think so but maybe. (Hi, Dr. Gibson.) I'm just griping because I'm frustrated that I have to be so far away from Oklahoma and all the people I know there who could watch my little ones in a case like this. Why does such a relatively simple thing like getting my tooth fixed have to be such a complicated ordeal?

And today is my anniversary and I have a paper to start writing tonight, 2 homework assignments to start so I can complete them and turn them in before our vacation and corn to vacuum up off of the carpet. Again.

You know, this whole post is just me venting about ridiculous stuff really. At least my house is safe and not flooded like those in Tennessee and hasn't been damaged by a tornado like those in Oklahoma. Really, what am I whining about after all?

Looking forward to vacation this weekend and then my mom coming to visit very soon. Maybe then I'll be less gripe-y. I hope so!

Eww, yuck! I should not leave such a "feeling sorry for myself" post up for so long without adding something new! Sorry! Some days are just like that. When I wrote that post I was exhausted. Nothing like a good night's sleep to make you see things from a new perspective. I'm feeling much better now. I'm in the last week of one of my classes and that means it's final paper time. 8-10 pages due tonight and I'm only halfway done. But I'm fine. Thanks for the emails and phone calls. Just crazy busy right now. After this paper is done, I'll be working on some projects for upcoming birthdays and starting to plan Audrey's birthday party. I can't believe how fast this year has flown by! I'll have more time to blog after this paper is submitted but for now I've got to get to work!

I have HAD IT with winter! Enough! 28 inches is a ridiculous amount of snow. And we're supposed to get another 5 inches or more (MORE!) on Tuesday. Come on! I am about to go insane here from being cooped up in the house. I haven't left the house in 5 days and am not planning on going anywhere tomorrow and probably not Tuesday either because it will most likely be snowing. The kids are crazy too. I am so ready for Spring! Give me clear roads, sunny days and warmer weather! I want to take the kids outside for a ride in the wagon or stroller. We need to get out and get some exercise! There's only so many times we can build a fort inside before it starts to lose its appeal. (Both to me AND to Easton.)

Blogger updated my photos in a weird order this time so it's just a jumble of pictures in no real order. Some inside looking out and some from outside at the end of the driveway. Our neighbors were nice enough to help Jason unbury our mailbox and Easton was helping too. He really had a fun time until his hands started hurting because he refused to wear his mittens!











It's official. I know what we should do with our tax refund. Hawaii trip!

This morning Easton pointed to my forehead and said "Booboo. Mama booboo." I looked in the mirror to see what he was talking about and OH MY HOLY HECK!!! Where did THAT come from?! Lines on my forehead so deep you could lose a small child in there.

Good thing I bought this last night.

And this.

But apparently if my two year old noticed it then I should have bought this or .this.

And thanks to my kids I also need to add this, and this. Crap. Welcome to thirty something. While I'm shopping, maybe I'll buy this and this. Or maybe not but it's nice to dream, right? :)

Boy, it is really feeling more like WINTER than Fall here lately! I'm glad I get to wear my red wool coat but not at all glad that it's cold. That makes no sense but I do love that red coat. :) I'm freezing. We're supposed to get our first freeze tonight. Down to around 31!!! Holy cow, that's cold! My hands are like icicles as I'm trying to type this. I think I need some hot tea and a warm bath to warm up.

In other news, it's apple butter time around here. I've already made (and blogged about????) one batch of apple butter. I'm proud I (mostly) got over my fear of canning. All that hot water and glass and boiling apple butter...yikes!!! But I did it and it turned out great so I'm going to get together with two of my friends and make about a bushel's worth of apples into apple buttter. Should be an all day deal but I'm really looking forward to it.

I got an A in my Nutrition for Education class. I got the maximum amount of points on my final Power Poing presentation and got a 99% in the class! Do I wish I'd gotten that one extra point so I could have had 100? Heck, no! I was just thrilled to get what I did! Only 10 more classes to go til graduation!!! Hmmm...maybe I could get a new car for graduation! Our Malibu will be paid off around then and we DO need a bigger car now that we've got 2 little ones. What do you say, honey? :)

Today Easton decided to take the straw out of a cup of water he was drinking out of and play with it. He ended up scratching his eye with the straw. Now it's really red and irritated and he keeps blinking his eyes and rubbing at it. I'm easily grossed out about eye things because of all the gross eye stuff I've been through so I could barely look at it without feeling like I was gonna throw up. Poor baby! Audrey's got a check up tomorrow and I might call ahead and ask if the doctor can take a look at E's eye just to be safe.

Audrey's getting shots tomorrow. I HATE taking my kids to get shots!!! I made Jason go with me and hold Easton down one time just to see how awful it is. Not very nice of me I know but should I get to have all the fun? He was coming with me to the appointment already anyways so I just thought I'd share. You're welcome, honey. Now he knows why I am all teary-eyed when I come home from the doctor's appointments. Ugh! I hate that!

Today we did about 5 loads of laundry. Who knew it could take so stinkin long to fold a load of kid's clothes?!?!

That's about it for us. Nothing too exciting. Gotta get off of here and make some tea. I'm FREEZING!!!

(Santa, if you read my blog I could sure use some soft, fuzzy socks and a new pair of warm houseshoes, OK? All my fuzzy socks are really getting worn out and I had to trash my slippers because I'd worn a hole right through the bottom of both of them. Thanks! P.S. Sorry I didn't keep my house as clean as I wanted to but I'm sure with all those elves you understand, right?)

If I could just muster up a portion of the enthusiasm for my homework as I have for shopping online, life would be good. Seriously. I know I said when I started these classes that I can do anything for 5 1/2 weeks but bleh! This ethics class I'm in just totally does not do it for me.

Sociology was just as boring and I escaped with a C+. I'm disappointed about that grade but that was one class I was just glad to be done with. Plus, I was sick as a dog for most of it and I think I just did the bare minimum just to get by. But I made up for it the next class with an A so all is good. Right now I'm taking "Philosophy of Human Conduct". Next up is "Intro to Ethics and Social Responsibility". ZZZZZzzzzzzzzz!!!!!! Come on! This is basically just a repeat of what I read about in sociology!

Can't I take some fun classes yet? Intro to Early Childhood Ed? Children's Literature? Language Devlopment? Something, ANYTHING but more sociology/ethics/philosophy classes! And in each class you have to do a minimum of one research paper per class. This class I have to do two papers. So every 2-5 weeks I'm doing a research paper. Even the times I don't wait until the last minute I still dread writing these papers about as much as I dread going to the dentist.

Oh man. I can't finish this boring stuff fast enough. I'd really much rather be doing anything other than writing an essay today but off I go. Wish me luck. I'm gonna need it.

What am I doing today? Trying to get up the nerve to face the mountain of clothes that is waiting for me in my bedroom. No, not dirty laundry. Clothes that are hanging in my closet that I can no longer fit into. Some I haven't been able to wear in over 2 years. I really, REALLY want these clothes to be boxed up, labeled and put somewhere I can't see them every single day. But do I want to do that myself? Uh, NO! I want the clean-out-the-closet fairy to swoop down, wave her pink, sparkly magic wand and POOF! It's done. (Didn't know her wand was pink and sparkly? Me neither til just now.)

Seriously. I have at least 3 sizes of regular clothes and probably two or three sizes of maternity clothes that don't fit right now. I'm glad to have been given so many maternity clothes but most of them are too small or the wrong season. UGH!!! Anybody want to help me? I think I could muster up enough willpower to dive right on in if this ordeal did not involve me trying on many, many clothes just to find that they DON'T FIT!

Now what to do? Keep these clothes and hope I'll eventually fit into the smallest sizes? (Probably not very good for my iffy self-esteem/body image right now.) Donate all but a very small portion to Goodwill? (Oooh, think of the tax-write off and all that extra space in my closet!)

It's hard being pregnant! Nothing fits right!!! Even the maternity clothes that "fit" don't exactly fit right and if they do, it's not for long!

But now's a good time to do it...Easton and Jason are taking a nap and the house is quiet. What I really want to do is go find somewhere to get my hair done but it's FREEZING outside and I don't want to get out. Maybe getting my hair done will be my reward for getting this closet cleaned out. And my homework done. And the dishes done. And the laundry. Bleh!

I've not been doing much blogging lately because looking at my messed up blog template makes me very cranky. I tried (again) unsuccessfully to change my template and lost a lot of features of my blog. You'd think I would have learned my lesson the last time. I hate computers.

Also, today I defrosted a whole chicken to make beer-butt chicken. (Gross sounding name but it's delicious!) When I unwrapped it and took the disgusting gizzards out, I found what looks like a huge WORM inside! I am too grossed out for words. It could be part of the innards of the chicken but it looks like a huge earthworm. Gag!

Should I scrap the whole thing? I don't feel much "like chicken tonight" after this gross discovery. I was tempted to take a picture and add it to this post but even thinking about it makes me almost gag. I didn't think you wanted me to share that with you.

Now what am I going to have for dinner? I think maybe a bowl of cereal sounds good. No bugs or worms, I hope! GROSS!!!

Update: Jason came home and looked at the disgusting thing in my kitchen sink and said "Eww gross. Yep. That looks like a worm." NASTY!! We threw it out and had soup. I don't think I can ever EVER buy another whole chicken ever again. They grossed me out before this but now? BLEH!!!

Itchy, itchy
Scratchy, scratchy
Ooh I've got one down my back-y
Beat that big bad bug with the bug spray!
SSSSHHHHH!!!!!

I'm sure there are more words to this silly little song I remember from grade school but that's all I know now. Mrs. Smith had a million funny little songs like this that I loved when I was in her music class. Boy, I'd love to have a copy of her songbook! That would come in so handy in my resource file for teaching!

Anyway, I digress. Why I posted that song is Jason and I are COVERED with mosquito bites! And when I say covered I mean they are EVERYWHERE! I think I counted 21 on myself last night. And one or two or even three or four I can totally handle. But 21 makes you feel like your whole body is one big itchy mosquito bite! I'm ok during the day but I wake myself up scratching. We've gone through almost an entire bottle of itch relief spray between the two of us. Thankfully Easton doesn't even have a single bite. We've been outside a lot lately and have no idea where all these bug bites came from but you can be sure we'll be carrying around the OFF! spray! YUCK!

I was about to feed E today when I realized I didn't have a bib. I put down his yogurt/banana/cereal mixture I had just made and went to his room to get a bib. While I was back there, I thought to myself "Hmmm...did I just put that bowl..." SPLAT! I ran back into the dining room and sure enough...I put the bowl on the highchair tray and E decided he wanted to feed himself. He grabbed the spoon and knocked the bowl in the floor. All over our tan carpet. Now I want to know which genius decided that carpet is a good idea in a dining room. And I cannot believe I made that rookie mistake and left that bowl within arm's reach. Now it looks like I'll be having a hot date with the steam-vac so my house doesn't end up smelling like yogurt. GROSS! And I used to work at a daycare; you'd think I'd know better. HA! We'll just blame it on the fact that I hadn't had my morning pot cup of coffee. YUCK! Carpet, banana yogurt, and an independent boy do not mix. But on the bright side...at least he wants to feed himself! YAY! He'll get the hang of it eventually. But for now we all need a bath and so does the carpet. Think I'll invest in a mess mat to put under his highchair. Who knew yogurt could fly so far!

Oh man, I just totally yelled at Jason for trying to help me. I was having trouble with a project so I asked for his help. I guess I expect him to just understand what I want but apparently he didn't. He made a suggestion about the project and I totally yelled at him that he should just do what I want and let me worry about how it turns out. Crap. I hate when I do that kind of stuff. He was only trying to help because I asked him to and now he feels like I was blaming him for the project not turning out how I wanted it to. Why can't I just be more patient? Patience never has been my strong suit but now that I'm trying (with my doctor's approval) to slowly taper off of the Zoloft, my patience is at an all time low. How do I determine whether or not it's just a side effect of coming off of the meds or if my being really iritable and snappy is an indication that I should stay on them? I really dislike taking them and my doctor encouraged me to slowly decrease my dosage so that I could stop taking them but if I'm gonna keep acting like this then I'd rather keep taking it. Plus, the last few weeks I have been having horrible nightmares and very vivid dreams. I wake up feeling exhausted which probably doesn't help with the crabbiness. I keep telling myself that all these yucky side effects will diminish and gradually go away altogether as my body gets used to being off of the medication but I just don't know. This sucks. Today was going so well until I started working on this project. Now I feel like a total jerk and am more confused than ever about whether or not going off these meds is a good idea or not. Guess I'll wait and see and if it gets too bad then I can always start taking it again. I've apologized to Jason about snapping at him but it doesn't undo it. Sigh. Man, I feel awful! And today was going so great before that! Guess I'll just take a bath and go to bed. Maybe things will be better tomorrow.