1 AM Ramblings

I'm sitting in my new favorite spot in the house listening to the sounds of 4 children breathing, two of which are snoring.  I'm watching one of my all time favorite shows, Lie to Me, and simultaneously trying to decide which color of spray paint to buy tomorrow to paint my new favorite chair that I'm sitting in, in my new favorite spot.  I rearranged three spots in the house in the last two days, one of which I moved around four times before I settled.  I really do have issues.

Back to the snoring children...Graycie, Aubrey and Sophie are all asleep in my bed and Spencer is on the floor.  I think its Gray and Soph snoring but I can't tell for sure.  I'm sitting in a rocking chair next to my bed where I've been for the last couple of hours browsing the web, eating peanut m&m's, watching shows, and day dreaming of chippy painted old junk that I hope to find tomorrow to finish decorating my room.

What I'm not day dreaming about but should be?  My grocery list.  I can't decide what's worse, the grocery shopping or the trying to figure out what to buy for groceries.  Oh yeah, I'm also mentally lusting after the idea of google tv and a flat screen hanging on the wall opposite my bed.  Funny thing is, just a few months ago I was so sure that I loved not having a tv in my room.  Maybe I'll find an extra $500 lying around somewhere tomorrow to fulfill my dreams.

I really should be sleeping, where at I'm not sure, so that I can get up in the morning to snap a shot of the bodies sprawled out in my room but let's face it, there's no way I'm beating any of them out of bed in the morning.  In fact, the only motivation I'm gonna find in the morning to even get out of bed is the hopes of finding some treasures to hang on these blank white walls.  I have a feeling that my butt, this chair, and the laptop are going to be spending some quality time together and I need to provide myself a little scenery.  Thats if I can get over the creeped-out-ness that I experience every time I think about the fact that my bed is now directly under my bedroom window.  It seriously gives me the willies every time I think about it.  One more reason I don't watch scary movies, or the commercials for scary movies for that matter.

Does anyone call them commercials anymore?  I suppose they're really 'trailers' but I try to only use that word when I'm lovingly referring to my previous home.  I cannot believe how midgetty everyone seems now that I have regular sized ceilings and proportionate rooms.  Or should it be proportionate ceilings and regular sized rooms?  Speaking of rooms and ceilings, have I ever mentioned how obsessed I am with my current walls and ceilings?  I am in love and it's driving my family crazy.

You know what's really crazy though?  My husband is writing a book.  He's worked on it on and off for at least a year now and he's pretty deteremined to finish it.  I just read the first quarter or so of the story and was hooked, only to have him tell me that he thinks he's going to re-write almost the whole thing.  I'm devastated.  I keep telling him that I really want someone else to read it mainly to see if anyone else is as tripped out as I am that it really is written by him.  For some reason it surprises me every time.  He is one of the most non-verbal people I have ever met but yet he can fill an entire page describing the scenery or a character's appearance in an almost tangible way.  If you ask him how his day was?  You get 'good'.  How was dinner? "Good".  What do you think of my haircut?  "It's nice."  The man doesn't emit emotion until he writes it down.

Speaking of people writing things down, I'm super jealous of Rachael and her blog.  There.  I've said it.  I am and it's killing me.  Sometimes I daydream about her becoming rich and famous off her blogging and we go on a massive antique store/junk shopping adventure together where she buys me anything I want as a thank you for all the super cool stuff I find for her and make her pay for herself.  Nothing like turning everything back into a way to decorate my house, huh?  That's talent right there if I say so myself.    Obsession?  Yup.

I love listening to the change in snoring every time one of them shifts.  Now there's some nasally wheezing going on instead of full on snoring.  It's almost cute.  Too bad I won't think any of them are cute tomorrow, or rather later today.  I'll only have myself, this chair, the laptop and hulu to blame.

And on that note, I've got another episode or two to watch. 

And what's a random post without a random picture?  The only pics on the laptop are past beach pictures, surprise, surprise.  I mean really, what's a Landoni post without a beach picture?

Oh my gosh, wait!  This picture totally reminded me that I forgot to blog about the best part of my day.  So, after listening to my children scream at each other this morning like they were fending off vicious attacks from horrendous predators, I decided that I had finally had enough.  Mind you, we're not really talking normal kid fighting here, ask any of my family.  We're talking about children who scream more often than they speak in a day.  It's seriously become second nature for them to open their mouths and have shrill, high pitched shrieking come out.  I AM NOT EXAGGERATING, this time.  I'm not.  So, I sat them all down and showed them a tube of toothpaste.  My toothpaste.  I asked them if they've ever tried it before and of course they all replied no.  I then proceeded to instill a deep rooted fear of 'grown-up' toothpaste in them that will hopefully be reversible someday.  I told them it was hot and disgusting and if I heard them scream they were going to get some on their tongue.  Mean?  Hmmm....I don't think so, and if you were here for more than an hour with them, you wouldn't think so either.  Sophie came close enough one time today to having to taste some, like so close it was on my finger but once I saw the fear on her face I knew it would be cruel if I went through with it. Like how I feel about being held down and tickled, or  walking under a spider, or flying, or....Yeah, I understand fear too well to have gone through with it.  I'm a much happier mom when there is no screaming going on. 

Alright, back to the beach pictures....

 

His Unexpected Vacation

I had a grown-up, big girl moment last week and decided to pull Spencer from school until he was switched to a new first grade class, or a new school.  The reasons are far too many and I'm kinda tired of rehashing it but it's not been good since he switched schools in November when we moved.  I've been volunteering for the last few weeks and quickly realized that the environment created by his teacher was not a positive one in the least bit.  Especially for my kid.  Spencer is super sensitive and needs and loves lots of positive attention/reinforcement (Rachael and Lisa, stop laughing, I know it's all my fault!).  So while he was never 'in trouble', the change in his attitude due to the negativity of his teacher was overwhelming.  I randomly stopped by Friday afternoon and spent the last hour of school with him and decided right then that he would not be returning to his class.  After a few meetings with the principal during this whole experience, I finally got the call today that he'll be starting a new class on Monday.

I NEED HIM TO GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

With that said, I had a pretty awesome Monday afternoon with him.  I wish I had the discipline to have spent Tuesday and today the same way but I didn't.  I know, I'm a loser.

While I was on my "I just pulled my kid from school in order to protect him so I better teach him something at home to make up for it" kick we spent some time in the kitchen.

 "I made jello with my mom.  It was fun.  Cause I did it by myself.  We learned two things.  Hot water boils and cold water freezes."  He was especially pleased with himself when he drew a person out of the o from 'jello'.  He seriously couldn't stop talking about it!

 We managed to cover reading, writing, problem solving, math, and science out of one small activity.

 I suppose there is still time to sneak in some 'learning' today.
 Maybe him and I will see if we can figure out a way to make his little brother disappear.

Her Two Extremes

Important background info-  Sophie has always had imaginary somethings...her friends Lemme, Commie, and Lemonade.  Her other mom and dad, grandma or grandpa, etc. Her other preschool, "Shining Preschool".

This morning, getting ready for preschool:

"At my Shining Preschool my dog got killed.  He was my favorite dog.  Alicia (the spanish pronunciation, like in the cartoon Go, Diego, Go), Alicia stabbed him.  He was my favorite dog, I called him Lemme..."

Uhhhh, what?  I have no idea how she's knows about 'stabbing'.

Driving home from Rachael's:

"Mom, I'm tired of being a real person."

"Well, what do you want to be?"

" I want to be a real princess."

We may have to change her nickname from Bo to Bipolar Bo.

Today I was...

=impressed when I read Spencer's writing journal at school.  We've been playing games to help him remember how to write fluent stories.  He's doing great.

=pampered while I hung out at Rachael's.  She made me some awesome nachos for lunch and cookie dough for a treat.

=grossed out making Jason's french toast for dinner.  He has me butter and syrup the leftovers, wrap them in saran wrap and refrigerate them.  The thought of the soggy bread is too much for me.

=disappointed that Ms Collins took so long instructing Spencer's class today.  It didn't leave any time for me to help kids before I had to leave.

=hopeful that my dining room may be close to decorated soon.  I think I'm gonna love it.

=exhausted so I took an hour nap.  I so needed it!

=excited that I was asked to sub in Sophie's preschool next year!

=entertained by Sophie dancing and singing to her fav song Party in the USA.  Her chubby little body rockin' out is awesome.  

=nervous that I let Spencer walk home from the bus.

=introduced to GrooveShark.  I'm addicted.

=shocked when Aubrey, who is a year older than Sophie, still can't wear the rain boots Sophie has outgrown.  Seriously, I'm not sure her infantile feet have ever grown. 

=amused every time I thought about Carson trying to take all his 'lammies' to my moms last night.  Regular kids take toys, blankets, stuffed animals.  Carson wanted his jammies.

=in love with the sight and sound of my kids playing legos together before bed

Fulfilling a Request

So my mom requested that I blog again since it had been a few days...or a week or something like that.  It's all a blur to me.  I'm not sure what's even been going on around here and at this very moment I'm too busy telling my three-year-old daughter that I won't talk to her anymore since I've been trying to get her to sleep for over an hour.  You think she'd be exhausted by now after all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but nope, she's still going at it.

Now she's yelling, "My mom is so mean to me!  WAAAAHHHHHHHH!  OH MY GOSH!  WAAAAHHHH!"

Earlier she told me, "I will not love you when you be mean to me and if you be nice then I will love you."

I think she's gonna have to stand in line behind a few other people that already think the same thing.  Like her dad.

Jason and I spent most of the weekend fighting.  Not the yelling, arguing, battle-it-out-therapeutically kind, more of the I'm going to pretend like your not here kind.  The latter is so much more exhausting for me.  I like to spew it all out and get it over with.  It's all good now, mostly.  I'm sure I'll be back to myself by morning.  Poor guy, I think life may actually be a lot easier on him when I'm not asking him every 10 seconds to help me out.

Moving on...Let's see...highlights from the last few days...

Spencer has a neighborhood friend!  Yahoo!  He's been super excited.  Jared lives just a few houses down, is in second grade, and it's  been great.

He came home on Friday super excited about getting "515%" on his spelling test.  He's awfully proud of the pencil he got for getting such a high score and that only him and his friend Angel got the bonus word, Climate, right.  It's pretty much all he talked about.

We went to the movies Friday night with Katie and saw Tangled for the second time.  It was Carson's first trip to the theater and he did surprisingly well.  After the show they got to get a few things from the vending machine.  Spencer got a mustache and loved 'tricking' Mallary at Barnes and Noble by lowering his voice and asking if he could order a coffee.  I loved watching him try to come up with the different lines he could use, he was laughing so hard. 

Sophie and Carson have been fighting too much and taking way too long to go to bed at night so I'm not feeling much blogging love for them right now.  Just last week they were doing great...That's how it always goes, right?  Just when I think it can't get any worse, they'll snap out of it.  I'm hoping for a miracle tonight.

Speaking of Sophie, twenty minutes have gone by since I started this post with her screaming at my side as I snapped my finger and pointed for her to go to her room.  She just came out and said this:

"You know that you don't even love me the most...
You know how you love Spencer like a million times and you dont even love me and Spencers bad and that's not good for you to like Spencer and not like me if you like Spencer and not like me then I won't like you.  If you not like Spencer and like me then I will like you.  Mom!  Talk to me!  Talk to me!
But you really love Spencer the most, you don't love me the most but I'm really hot in my own bed and everywhere and I'm hot when I sit down and where can I lay if I'm hot in my bed?"

I'm gonna have to end on that note.  I mean really, what's there left to say?

And again, following in my sisters footsteps, I leave you with a random picture....See that kid in the middle?  He's apparently the one I love 'like a million times'.

I know it isn't as cute as this, but this arrangement hangs over my couch in between two windows and though it's random, I am smitten with it.

A Poopy Day

Both literally and figuratively.

There was not enough snow on the ground for my taste this morning.  If it's gonna be cold and snowy, then it should be massively snowy.  Not barely, melting by 2pm.

Some people struggle getting their children into pajamas, not me.  I can be heard hollering at Carson 7,000 times a day "You are NOT going to wear your pajamas!  Put your clothes back on, NOW!"  It's like an obsession/compulsion to him.  It may be my fault since I rarely change him out of his p.j.'s but as soon as I do, he finds a pair somewhere, usually dirty, and starts putting them on.  He can be wearing pajamas and see another pair and change.  We're seriously talking multiple times a day.

This afternoon Sophie, Carson and I were all in the main bathroom with poop on our hands.  It was great.  Most fun I've had in years.  How you wonder?  I know you're dying for the details.  I'll spare you.  Consider it my gift.

As I was washing the dishes this afternoon, I decided to water my house plants.  I lined them up on the window sill in the kitchen window and spilled a little water as I poured it in.  I decided to wipe it all up after I was done with the dishes, cleaning the backsplash/sill at the same time.  Problem?
There's these funky raised marks now in the shape of the spilled water and the bottom of the pots.  I really don't get it.  Too bad this isn't the first weird issue I've had with that window.  Good thing I've still not painted over the last one.

Carson is trying to break himself of naps.  It's not working for this mama.  I've now resorted to sitting with him to get him to sleep.  It sucks.  Mainly because I get all sleepy sitting in there and it breaks any small streak of energy/cleaning I'm experiencing.  Rachael called today while I was putting him down and I yelled the whole time.  At him, about myself, etc.  It was great fun and highly counter productive.  She hasn't answered any of my calls since...I don't blame her.


I've been using a kid size toothbrush for a week or more now, ever since mine went missing.  I keep forgetting to buy a new one.  Today, while brushing my teeth, I made a mad dash for the phone and spit/dropped the toothbrush in the sink once I realized it was someone from U of Phoenix for Jason.  I just found it while doing the third load of dishes today.  Guess Jason's going to Walmart again tonight...I just washed my hands in that sink after the whole poop experience.

But hey, I made myself cupcakes w/ cream cheese frosting last night and Jason brought home a 12 pack of diet coke and my order of beadboard wallpaper finally came in after I ordered it two weeks ago, so maybe, just maybe, my dining room will be finished soon.  At least the lower half of the walls.

And since everythings better with a picture....

Here's the least favorite chair I've been sitting in which happens to be sportin' the random pillow I made that I love for now...And for the few of you that may notice that is Jason's PC that he randomly stuck the apple icon on.  It makes me laugh all the time.  I don't know why.

Oreo Cookies and Kitchen Curtains

In my third attempt to find the right curtains for my sliding door in the dining room, I bought a pair that remind me of oreo cookies.

While on the subject of oreo's, Jason brought home regular oreo's and I was so disappointed.  If you can't find holiday ones, you gotta go with the double stuff.  I'm a recent double stuff convert and there's no going back.  And by the way, I don't dunk my oreo's.  Who wants to eat a soggy oreo?  Not me.  I'm more of a eat one, drink milk, eat one, drink milk kinda gal.  About three oreos to a full glass of milk.

Since we're talking about milk, I cannot believe how we've been flying through the gallons around here.  It may have to do with the massive stock of cereal we have, or it may have to do with my current addiction to oreos.  It's almost the only time I drink milk.  Either way, I think every three days I'm sending Jason to the store to re-stock the two gallons we've been going through.

Speaking of re-stocking milk, I refuse to drink from a gallon that has an unknown open date.  If I'm not sure how long it's been open, I'm not drinking it.  I also have a serious aversion to a milk jug that is down to a 1/4 or so of a gallon.  I swear to you it just doesn't look right, like the coloring of all the little milk drops hanging off the walls of the jug have changed to the nasty, spoiled color of milk.

I've been eating oreos and drinking milk while I was writing this, staring at my not-quite-right oreo curtains that I'll be returning and I'm down to one cookie and I've got no milk left in my glass.  I hate this dilemma.  Do I refill both?  Do I toss the cookie?  Do I chance pouring the exact amount of milk I need to polish off just one cookie?  Because if I end up with left over milk, then the dilemma starts all over again.

And they're not even the good ones, the cookies, or the curtains.

Jason defended his purchase of regular oreo's earlier today by telling me that he's "just trying to keep me from getting double-stuffed."  Nice right?  Nice.