The kids have been playing together this morning and I just walked out and heard Christopher say, "Slam! I closed the door Sophie, we're at church now. Let's go." I just pretended that I didn't hear them b/c I was afraid they would stop playing. Then Sophie follows me into the kitchen and says, "We playin' a car, Mommy!" Then Christopher yells, "We're pretending to go to church, Mommy!" I told them I was so glad b/c that was a good place to go.

I've also learned in the last day or two that if I ignore them when they are fighting, they will usually get over it or eventually start playing together. So ignoring them I will! Right now, Christopher is laughing and chasing Sophie down the hall yelling, "I love you, Sophie!!" and she's saying, "no love you." Followed by her telling me, "My little bit grumpy, Mommy." Crazy kids.

Does anyone have one of those speaker things that you put an iPod touch or an iPhone in? My computer is pretty shot after being used for over 10 years. I really miss using it to listen to things like Pandora and my favorite two fat guys, Rick & Bubba. I figure that thing has got to cost a heck of a lot cheaper than a new computer. If you have one that you like and has a good sound please let me know. I'm over buying the cheapest thing out there and having to replace it later or it just being low grade. Supper is ready and it's hard to type this much on a phone. I don't know how those silly teenagers do it! I'm going to need bifocals soon if I keep this up!

We are finally back home. The kids and I have been gone for 2 weeks and it's nice to be back. Not in a dirty house or with a pile of laundry or beds that need to be changed, but it's nice to be back. I started a post about our trip but it's really long and I'm working on editing it. Also, I have no pictures to post b/c they are all on the laptop that is with Brandon. Hopefully I will find time to tackle the post soon.

The only thing that happened while we were gone was some animal found my little shop vac and decided to chew off the hose. I told Brandon at least it wasn't the cord b/c I'm thinking a plastic hose can cost you that much. And I'm a little afraid that Brick may have fleas. He's scratching and I've never seen him scratch before. My mother-in-law has me paranoid b/c a bug was on her in the van yesterday and she thought it was a flea. I checked him, but didn't see anything. Ok, I found two of the tiniest little bug on his fur, but I was checking him while he was lying in the grass so I wasn't sure if they were just your typical bugs you find outside or something worse. Maybe it's b/c he just spent the majority of two weeks outside and he only goes outside at our house to pee. Who knows, I'm just praying really, really hard that it's not fleas. I'm not sure that I'm up for that. I better go and try to tackle cleaning the house b/c it's making me feel gross.

I'll be back soon!

Sophie is potty trained! It took much longer than I thought it would, but probably b/c everyone told me "girls are always potty trained in just a day or two," or "girls potty train in less than a week." Not my Sophie. But that's fine. It's done now. We were so close when it was time to leave on our trip and then the loose poop hit us. We had to go back to diapers. And then we were going to be in the car for 2 days straight and I didn't want any accidents so I made her wear a diaper. But by the time we got to D.C. I had Brandon take us back to panties again and Sophie was happy to be wearing them. (He's always more positive about potty training than I am, but I think it's just b/c he wasn't at home cleaning up the messes.) We had one accident one day and a few tiny leaks, but when we start making it all week with only 1-2 accidents THAT'S when I consider it done. She's been sleeping without a diaper much sooner than Christopher did when we potty trained him and done great with it. It feels so good to know that I'm done with buying diapers. Money in the bank. Well, maybe towards our new cell phone bill. But I thought those were a great reward. Don't you?

we are back. we had fun. we had lots and lots of crazy things happen. i don't have any photos and i'm trying to figure out the fastest way to post about our trip without it taking 3 hours to read about it. i'm working on it. finding time to do it is hard though. kids don't really like you to do things you like to do. i guess it's just payback for all the times we did that to our parents. i'll be back soon!

I was browsing my blog list today and saw another giveaway on there. I sign up for these most of the time, but I never win things. Ever. Ok, I won't something once, but they were trying to get rid of them anyway and didn't know wheat else to do. (If I had a circus-themed room in my house I would have been in luck.)

I feel bad about my last post. Probably b/c a friend that I haven't talked to in over a year called to check on me. I love her for that! She was someone who was always there to listen to you when you were frustrated. Then we moved away from her and it's been hard to stay in touch. Just know (and I'm sure you do) that I just needed to vent. And why I feel like you needed to be on the receiving end of it I'm not sure. Probably b/c there was no other person around except for the two little ones that had driven me to that point. But those little silly heads who later on colored their bodies blue and green with markers and called themselves superheros are now fast asleep in their beds dreaming of playing at the lake. I'm sure they will have me up bright and early begging to leave right now. I decided that I'm just going to lock them out of the kitchen so I can load our stuff up without them running circles around my feet.

They make me crazy, but I'm crazy about them.

I've had more than enough of my kids the last two days. They are making me so crazy!!! They are constantly saying, "Watch this!" and they move a finger. (wow.) "Watch this!" and they pick up a blanket. (seriously.) "Mommy, Sophie said no at me!" "Mommy, I want to sleep with you tonight." "Mommy, I don't want to sleep by myself. I don't like sleeping by myself." "Mommy, Sophie said poo poo." "Mommy, Sophie got two more cookies." "Mommy, if Sophie goes to the potty can I get candy?" All the while Sophie is just yelling, "WAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!" or crying "HOLD ME!!!!!!!!!!!!" and trying to climb on top of me. Not just in my lap. She will sit on my arms when I'm at the computer.

What do you do when your children fight and nag and whine all day, BUT you are potty training one of them and you don't want to take away the reward yet b/c you are afraid they will backtrack? But they fight over the candy. They whine over the candy. I hate candy. This is why I don't give my children candy. And yes, if you ever give/send my children candy, I give them one or two pieces and throw the rest of it away. That is how much I hate the stuff. It turns them into evil, mean, and very loud little people that I start to strongly dislike.

I think that Christopher is finally old enough to pick up on my frustrations b/c he will come and apologize to me and will even be specific about what he did that frustrated me. But it doesn't stop him from talking any less. He's really becoming quite the tattle tale.

My head hurts this afternoon. My ears hurt too.

We went to a birthday party and I was so excited about having some sort of conversation with other adults. Did it happen? No, b/c my kids were the only ones who wanted to go in the water and it wasn't next to the party area. Which I didn't really mind b/c it was there tempting them and it is kind of hot out, but I was the only mom in a swim suit and that's never fun. Nobody else even brought bathing suits for their kids. We were fully prepared with life jackets and all. I finally got them to go back up to the party to have cake and again later to watch the little boy open his presents.

I think what is making me panic is that one day Brandon will deploy and I will be by myself for months on end. Right now he's usually gone about twice a year for a week or two at a time. The good thing is, I'm definitely over feeling guilty about not wanting more children. (I used to want 5 and felt bad after having Sophie and decided that I was going to stop at 2 when everyone else was wanting more.) But like I said, that guilt has past and it doesn't bother me one bit.

I love my children. I know that I do. I'm just tired of this right now. Everyone hits this point some time and then you wake up one day and you are loving it. I'll get there. I'm just very thankful my parents are letting us come visit a day early. I'd leave right now, but we'd get there late tonight and I don't want to do that. I am really looking forward to going on a trip with my Mom and seeing my grandpa and finally seeing Brandon. Mom even offered to keep the kids one night so we can have a date night. I talked to Brandon this morning and he was going to a spy museum. I am SO going there!!!!!!!!!! I love anything and everything spy. Go ahead and laugh. But I do. Here's a story for you:

Last summer when our MOPS steering team had their meeting to plan the year we started the day by playing a game to get to know each other a little better. You picked up different pieces of candy and then they told us each piece represented something we had to tell about ourselves. Almost everyone picked up the same piece and the question that went with it was, "What is your dream job?" Of course it took me all of 5 seconds to come up with my answer and I was at the end of the groups and anxious to hear what these women I didn't know had to say. Guess what they all said.... "Well, actually I'm doing my dream job, being a mom is the best job I've ever had." And when it came around to me I said, "I've always wanted to be a spy. But only if I never married or had children b/c then I'd feel torn and I'd want to be totally focused. I'm not smart enough to be one, b/c you have to be really smart to do it, and I'm probably too small too. Has anyone ever seen Burn Notice? Yeah, I'd be Fiona." They all stared at me. I think a few people laughed. But I've actually thought about this a little more lately, now that Burn Notice is back on, and I realized, I wouldn't want any of that in real life, so what I've really dreamed about is just playing one on screen. But the hilarious part is (yeah, in case everything I've just said isn't funny enough) that I have absolutely zero desire to be on screen, on stage or in front of people ever.

Can you tell that I haven't talked to a single adult all week? I'm all over the place with this post! My best friend Tiffany just called me and I feel better. I miss her. I think I'm realizing this year is going to be harder than I thought. Well, maybe just this week. I'm not planning on everyone I know being sick, having company or being out of town all at the same time. I better go before I start digging around for some Zoloft. Talk to you again soon!!!