How was your day?  Get anything good??  My day was lovely.  We all slept in late, had Tim Horton’s for breakfast, lazed around for awhile and then got to scrapbooking.  My wise and wonderful husband had control of the boys for the day and even took them grocery shopping to gather supplies for dinner and dessert.  Then, while they played, he made dinner - my favorite enchiladas!  In addition, he cleaned the kitchen AND the playroom that was a major disaster area.

As mothers, we often expect or want more for our day.  Some signs of appreciation for all that we do; some sort of acknowledgment of our hard work, long hours and lack of pay for being all things to our family.  Some show that we are needed and wanted; loved and adored.

Every year for the past 3 I have asked for the day to be by myself.  I need my alone time, and what better way to be the best mama I can than by taking my day to relax and do what I want.  This year was different in that I didn’t have anyone running upstairs crying and screaming for me; the boys were happy and didn’t need me this year.  From my desk chair I could hear them talking and laughing and playing; they were happy with daddy and I felt good about that.  I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a little disappointed that I didn’t even get homemade cards from the boys or a cheesy romantic/silly card from Mike.  But I didn’t.  Maybe next year. (Honey, please don’t feel guilty and get me flowers tomorrow or anything. Matt coming down to give me a happy mother’s day kiss and hug more than made up for a lack of cards.)

I got about 11 pages done, including the finishing up of my 2005 pages and made a decent dent in the 2006 pictures.  I know I’ll never be caught up, but every little bit helps.

Still trying to come up with a name for the new puppy.  Of course, we have about 4 weeks to come up with one, but feel free to chime in any time!!

Back to real life tomorrow.  Today has certainly been a nice break from responsibility; I even watched Desperate Housewives ‘live’, not from DVR.  (And now I’m kind of wishing I had stuck with this Brothers & Sisters show…).

Oh, and stay tuned, because I am about to be the ultimate mom and make some cupcakes for Matt to take to school on Wednesday for his birthday (of course, his birthday is in August, but since he’s not in school then, they’re celebrating this month).  And I’m making them from this book.  Go me!!

Even though we were in the car for like 47 hours today…

and even though we couldn’t find an outdoor fire pit for the deck…

and even though there were, at times, tremendous amounts of whining…

we had a nice day.

even though it took us forever to get out of town (which is not unusual around here)…

even though we had to deal with Matt crying about wanting to go to a town 40 minutes away in the complete opposite direction because he wanted to see a big fountain they have in the center of town…

and even though we took a really long detour

we still had a nice family day.

We met her: and put down our deposit. We get to bring her home in about 4 weeks. Squee!! Anyone want to help us choose a name for this sweet little girl??

My boys got awesome spiky-hair haircuts and look totally older and so damn handsome.

We got to go to Lakeshore and buy learning stuff (totally think I must have been a teacher in a previous life).

We got to grill out steaks and eat on the deck.

We got to play in the driveway and drink beer (me and Mike, not the boys - they drank juice). We played soccer and rode bikes and jeeps and made hopscotch with sidewalk chalk.

Now we’re winding down.

It was a nice day. Hope yours was too.

I watch them playing together and I am thrilled. I couldn’t ask for much more than for them to be friends. But then, I find myself getting frustrated with Matt and I say things like Please answer your brother. Your brother is talking to you! Matt! Please answer Preston! Preston has looked up to his big brother since birth. When Matt ignores him, my heart hurts. While Matt loves him immensely and seems to enjoy being with him, he’s also reaching the age where he realizes that Preston can’t do everything he can do. And maybe, just maybe, he’d rather be alone instead of with his baby brother.

I also see Matt getting bigger. He is mentally beyond his physical age - 4.5 going on 7 sometimes. Not to mention that he listens like a teenager - that is, not really at all.  And it’s our fault. They are spoiled.  And while they are pretty nearly always awesome in public, that doesn’t really make up for the non-awesomeness they display regularly at home.

I find myself saying STOP! and GUYS/BOYS! in increasing loudness until I just want to scream at the top of my lungs.  I’m sure I’ve mentioned before that they aren’t afraid of me at all, and while I don’t necessarily want them to be afraid of me 24/7, I would like to be able to give them a look or word that gets them to stop and shut up and start listening instantly.

Part of the problem is that I find them both to be hilarious.  And laughter by mom does not equal authority figure.

We have been wondering for quite awhile if Preston waking in the middle of the night is due to fear/loneliness.  Matt mentioned the other day feeling left out/lonely because of Preston coming to our bed, so the discussion of them sharing a bedroom to maybe ease those feelings started again and tonight, with excitement from both boys, we moved Preston’s bed into Matt’s room.

At about 7:40, they both came up and wanted to go to bed.  After reading book choices from each of them, all the while Preston being goofy and generally hyper, things started to go down hill fast.  I agreed to 2 more books, but P was either so excited to be near his big brother or not really sleepy or both, that he was a total goofball.  Matt was silly for a little while, but eventually calmed down and was ready for sleep.  Preston got increasingly more wound up, tossing pillows and blankets to the floor, singing loudly, jumping on the bed, etc. Matt and I tried to ignore him, but like I said, he’s quite hilarious and I was having a hell of a time keeping a straight face the 40th time I threw lay him down back in his bed. Over an hour after we started this bedtime “ritual”, he sat on the edge of the bed, kicking at me and the book I was reading.  When the book got shoved into my face, I stood up, said “That is it!!” and kicked him out of the room.

I finished reading Horton to Matt and left him to go to sleep, coming down to find Preston in the big bed with Mike - quiet! and nearly asleep!!

Is this going to work? Who knows.  We’ll give it the weekend and see what happens.  Preston may still want/need us and we might be quick to bring him to our bed just to keep Matt from waking up.  Or it might work out really well.

Anyway, I’m working on responsibility charts for both boys.  It’s time to kick this parenting thing up a notch and make them understand that we’re not doing everything for them forever.  Yes, they’ll be age appropriate.  :-)  My goal, honestly?  To teach them to be helpful and caring and considerate.  And to let the dog in or out when we ask instead of saying “Um, can you do it?”.

• Women’s feminine product commercials give me the heebie-jeebies.
• My garage is SPOTLESS.  (oh my aching back!) Yes, I cleaned it. Yes, I rock.
• Matt & I had one of those days where we just did not get along.  At one point we talked about it and decided to forget the earlier part of the day and move on. About an hour later, he reverted to being a whiny, cranky butt head to me.  And then? Wanted me to read to him (which of course, I did).  SIGH. I hate it when we don’t get along.  What am I going to do when he is a teenager??
• I felt like the epitome of motherhood when I took a basket of clean clothes into Matt’s room while he was asleep.
• Watching a new show on HGTV in which people are allowed to go in and sleep over at the house they might want to buy. Can’t decide if it’s cool or freaky.
• Looking forward to pulling weeds, re-mulching, and planting some new bushes and hopefully a veggie garden soon.
• Also looking forward to going to the big scrapbook shopping thing this week.
• Freaked out by hearing the same Meatloaf song twice within 2 minutes on tv. Eek!
• My dreams the last couple of nights have been super vivid and freaking weird. I had a dream that I was invited to hollywood by some studio guy because he wanted me to write the screenplay for the book I wrote (!), but I didn’t know which studio and it was this big secret because of the competition. I was to fly out the next morning, but when I told Mike about it, he said no. LOL.
• My cousin just asked me what is keeping me from training for that half-marathon we’re doing in January.  I haven’t answered yet because I really don’t have a good answer.  I’ve been doing better with my junk food intake and my water intake is up while my coke intake is down, so I’ve got that going for me…but why I’m not training yet? I. don’t. know.  The program I’m going to follow is for 3 days a week. 3 out of 7 and I still can’t get going. What IS keeping me from doing it? Armchair psychologists, feel free to chime in!!
• I’ve been beading like crazy over the past few days. It started as a mission to make a bracelet for my mom for mother’s day, but has spread to making a ton of new eyeglass chains for the office. I can’t stop!!! I’ve also created a new logo and new tags for my stuff. Now, to find the time to update that website (even though I’m sure it hasn’t had a visitor in forever! I actually forgot what it looked like! lol)
• There’s some kind of meme going around about songs you’re embarrassed to admit you like.  Think I might have to do this one some day.

That is all my friend(s).  More soon.

In the past week, I’ve stayed awake later than intended a few times.  But there were two specific times that it was worth the sleepiness in the morning.

Last night I finished this book.  It was really good.  Here’s the synopsis for you from Amazon:

From Publishers Weekly
When Kamryn Ryn Matika gets a call from college friend Adele Del Brannon, she reluctantly heads to the hospital where Adele is dying of cancer. The two had been odd couple friends (working-class Ryn is black, posh Adele is white) while attending Leeds University, but their friendship did not survive Del’s admission of an affair with Ryn’s fiancé Nate Turner, which also ended Ryn’s relationship with Nate. The affair did result, however, in the now-five-year-old Tegan, and Del has called Ryn to ask her to adopt the adorable girl. Ryn agrees, but must face down Del’s stepmother, Muriel, to do it. She finds surprising help from new boss Luke Wiseman, who, after meeting her unceremoniously, loves Tegan (and eventually Ryn, too), but the return of Nate, who doesn’t know Tegan is his daughter, promises to reopen old wounds. Koomson’s U.S. debut is a three-hankie delight. (Mar.) 

First, I have to say that there wasn’t much to be said about the race “issue” in the book; in fact during the one part where the author specifically makes a comment about Kamryn being black and Tegan being white, I was actually confused for a moment because it had been such a non-issue.  It just doesn’t really matter. 

Second, I cried. A number of times during the reading of this book.  I read it in one day. (Yes, I read that fast.  Also, I was up until 1:30 am to finish it).  

Third, I would recommend it. In general, I am loathe to recommend things for fear that someone will come back to me and say something like “Dude! What were you thinking? That totally sucked!” But this one, I will chance it.  

The other thing totally worth staying up for was the movie Juno.  Admittedly, I was a little annoyed when Mike turned it on in the bedroom the other night.  I wanted to see it, but not right at that moment. But from the opening monologue, I was totally sucked in.  I really, really enjoyed it.  I loved the way she talked, I loved the way her parents talked, and I loved how smart and young and goofy she was.  It reminded me of the good ol days of Aaron Sorkin shoes - witty dialogue, smart people, sarcasm.  I really liked this movie.  

BUT, I do have to say, the writer? The former stripped done good? I did some reading up on her after, wondering if I might want to read her book.  Um, no.  Her myspace page, her blog, just her way of talking there and in interviews leads me to feel like she’s completely insincere and I don’t know - I just don’t really like the her I’ve read.  Certainly, she wouldn’t like me either, but after seeing her myspace page? I just felt kind of disappointed.  I mean, good for her doing so well, but she seems pretty bitter and angry.  IMHO. 

Alas, none of that takes away from how I liked the movie, and by the end, I even found myself almost enjoying the very quirky music that went with it.  

So, do yourself a favor, a see it.  

And if you don’t like the book or the movie, please don’t tell me.  Especially if you read/saw it on my recommendation.  :)

If you did see or read, please tell me your thoughts!!