17 days

Only 17 days until Tom and I fly out to CA! I'm hoping that we can find something nice, preferably to buy, but I have a feeling that we won't get enough money to do that. We'll see though. Otherwise I hope we can find something to rent that won't be available until the middle of Oct or beginning of Nov.

I had high hopes for base housing until I remembered that you can't run a business out of your house if you live on base. So, the whole photography business thing would be a no-go unless I pulled some money from who knows where to get office space - and that wouldn't be cheap.

We've got just over 2 months until Tom checks out, I can't believe it's August already! Anthony has a meeting to be "tested" for kindergarten on the 7th, Tom has duty on the 9th (gee, how nice, another Saturday duty), and the boys go to MI on the 16th. Next week there are a bunch of places that we need to call to double check on things, TMO for moving, Soccer Association for information on Tommy's uniform, USAA for insurance stuff and once we have a pack up date we have to call our loverly landlord and tell him. We have a long list of things to take care of while the boys are gone too, we'll have a couple of days that Tom will be off work and the boys still gone so hopefully we'll get most of it taken care of instead of sitting around playing games. lol

a talking fool

It always amazes me when I realize how fast the boys are growing up. Since coming back from MI Alex has just been talking so much. It's obvious that he's trying to repeat you, he repeats almost everything that we say to him. Once again I realize how nice it is to have him tell me cup, chicken, or cheese when he wants something.

We've been going for nightly walks (except for tonight) and he loves it. He likes to get a piggy back ride from me, but that is only possible when Tom is out with us since lil man likes to not hang on and lean back alot.

I've been neglecting my camera lately. I don't like it, but I can't find the time or inspiration with all the stress. My MIL and FIL come in this weekend to get J. They want to go up to DC to a museum or something on Saturday so I'm hoping the humidity isn't bad. It's been pretty miserable here the past few weeks, with the odd nice day here and there. I feel bad because I get miserable in the heat and humidity so I don't want to take the kids outside. Besides, there's always something that needs to be done. I neglect the laundry or dishes for a day and they take over the house.

So, I haven't done anything in the way of scrapping. I have a layout partially finished sitting open & unfinished in photoshop, really shouldn't do that to myself, I need to remember to save these things. I would like to finish it, but I just can't see the final couple of things that it needs to be done. Besides, I haven't quite finished the journaling on it. Only a few more days and then I get my family back for 2 weeks. Then my boys go to MI for 2 weeks. I hope that while they are there they don't become disrespectful brats like the one that is visiting here is. I'm so tired of the attitude and unwillingness to cooperate and listen, it just gets old.

Well, it's time to try to get lil man to bed.

no more games

That is what it has come down to in my house. I tried to be nice today and set up the Wii with the old Gamecube controllers so that they could play a gamecube game. I made them promise me that there would be no fighting and that they were promising to be good the rest of the night and tomorrow (a buddy of Tom's wants to take them swimming). A bit after beginning to play I hear J tell Anthony that he doesn't like him anymore (or it might've been he hated him, regardless) so I yelled down the hall to turn off the games. I asked and they just stared at me like I was speaking a foreign language. So, no more games today or tomorrow. I needed a minute to cool off from the whole thing so I sat my lazy but in front of my computer for a bit.

I listed some more old games on ebay. I want to scrap but have no motivation to. I think this whole disrespect from J is really getting to me. I'm in awe that he acts the way he does. He comes from an entirely different home environment and I try to remind myself of that, but some of this is just ridiculous. If either of my boys looked at me, talked to me or treated me the way he does I think I would just haul off and slap them and lock them in their rooms. Of course I can't do that with J because he just sits in the room anyway (I wouldn't be able to bring myself to smack him) missing his mom and being sad that he can't go home yet.

I have this strange feeling in the pit of my stomach that they are going to come back from 2 weeks in MI with little attitudes. And right before school starts too, nothing like a new routine, lack of sleep from staying up so late, and new school year jitters to content with along with some newly acquired attitude changes. Just what I want to deal with the first couple days of school. I'm almost hoping that Anthony will have an orientation with his teacher, an open house or something that week so she can bring them home early. As much as I'm going to try to get a ton of stuff done while they are gone, having them be good kids is much more important. The two older boys will be in school this fall so it'll only be me and Alex. I might be able to get some things accomplished.

Ok, well, enough venting for me...I've got to go take away the game systems before little hands gets on the Wii or it's bed time. What a wonderful night this will be.

so happy it's Friday

I am so glad the weekend is here. It has been a long week with all 4 boys here. I can't wait for next weekend though. Then I'll have 2 weeks to spend with just my boys.

Our internet was out through most of yesterday & last night from a storm that went through the night before. Of course my phone was fine until I was talking to Kathy (it's all your fault!) and around 12/12:30 it just cut out. Then my internet stopped working. We finally figured it was time to call about 6 or so and we were told it was estimated to be back running on Monday. I was so irritated. It turned back on sometime after 12 I think and then at 6 Tom received a text from Verizon saying the problem has been resolved. Gee, thanks for the notice.

Poor Tom has duty tomorrow so we are trying to make the best of tonight. The kids have been nearly impossible since about 1:30 though, so it's been interesting to say the least.

Well, I'd love to ramble some more but there is a 2 year old on my lap that is threatening to knock my laptop onto the ground or rip off more keys.

{frustration!}

So, I think that I'm really not cut out to have 4 kids. lol These past few days with my nephw here have just been near horrible. He's a good kid, most of the time. My SIL doesn't push him on a lot of things so he skates by on a lot of things he shouldn't do. There have been quite a few times this week that I just wanted to smack the smug, disgusted look off his face. I try to remind myself multiple times a day that he's used to it only being him & his mom, but then I see how he acts when we tell him to do things and the way he treats Tommy, Anthony and Alex.

I had a blow up this morning and had to call Kathy. I was so close to running outside to smoke. I haven't been able to do things I want, let alone need to do because I constantly have to be on their cases about not sitting and watching tv all day. No matter if it's a show they probably don't like they will sit there for the sake of sitting there.

I know most kids do this, but J seems to have a knack for it. My boys do on occasion too, I know full well that they are far from angels. lol The difference is when I tell them to go do something productive for a bit they go and play. They go to the toy room & get their nerf guns and battle their stuff animals, they play with the army guys, they go down in the basement and make up games and play in the tent. When I suggested the past 2 days for them to go do something productive, J went and laid on Tommy's bed. He's a part of the family until he goes home, how can I accept him doing that but not my own kids? I can't . It's so hot here that I can't stand it, so we don't go outside like we should. Last night, however we went for a walk at 7:30 and since it was decent out Tom and I began to tackle the jungle that is our backyard. The boys, well they sat on the deck.

I'm at a loss as to what to do. We don't have enough money to be running around doing stuff everyday. I took them to the library on Sunday. I'm ready to go back, but I don't know if they are. We will probably go tomorrow regardless though. I bought a paper craft magazine and showed them all the cool stuff they could make and they started in on it, and that lasted about 20 minutes. I don't expect them to do it all day.

After the blow up this morning, which obviously didn't phase any of them because I've gotte n3 requests to play games. I said that they were disrespectful, spoiled brats this morning. Maybe not the bed choice of words, I'm sure the yelling didn't help, but I couldn't help it. For the second day in a row I offered something for lunch and it was disrespectfully rejected. I had had enough. My boys don't act like that and I will be damned if they learn it from J.

So, I think I'm going to find a good movie to watch and chill out in my room for a bit.