Fairy Tales

A young girl's life is full of romantic mythical fairy tales where fair maidens search for their Prince Charming, but are wrought with devilish creatures, wicked witches, and evil siblings that plot to tempt and destroy their search for happiness.

And while, at times, Prince Charming may not appear to be what she was expecting, she must learn to follow her heart, and see beyond the exterior to find the beauty waiting on the inside.

And when in doubt, there is a tried and try way to know if He is Her Prince Charming.

Pucker Up


But sometimes, Prince Charming is just a frog.

Ribbit, ribbit.

3 6

So, with everything else going on this week, what, Madilyn's surgery, me, Donny and Philip with strep throat, missing a whole week of work, Colin getting a new addition to his facial features (more on that later), Ole Blue failing emissions three times!, and the wonderful dreary weather, the celebration of Donny's 36th birthday did not get recorded.


I "surprised" Donny with his cake - and it wasn't much of a surprise since Philip apparantly has a hard time keeping a secret. But none the less, we did have cake, at least we got one piece before the strep took over our throats, taste buds, and all around desire to live. So the kids got to enjoy the rest of the cake.

We aren't big gift givers in our house. We are more of the instant gratification type, no waiting around for special occasions for something we want, let's go get it now, like my beauty of a badly needed new computer I just got that should have been both of our birthday presents.

But Donny has been wanting this little beauty, and since I had some great coupons for it to get a really good deal, I couldn't resist.


Happy birthday Dog!


Now get busy cleaning those floors!

Home Again, Home Again

If I could, I would do the jig.

Madilyn had another surgery today and all went well. She is doing great, and feeling okay. She does not respond well to anesthesia, but other than some bad nauseou, she is really doing good. Dr. Fabregas said the inside of her bone looked good and clean, so now we will just wait and see if it heals itself.

They checked her SED rate and it was down to 31, which is much better than two weeks ago when it was 79.

She has follow-up visits with both doctors in two weeks, and so until then, she will just continue on and hopefully start some healing.

But, as is always the way of my life, Donny and I both have strep throat right now. Imagine that. Life is grand!

I woke up yesterday feeling bad, and only went to work for a few hours, and by about 6:00 last night I knew it was strep. If you have ever had strep, you know how you feel when you have it, and nothing else feels like that. So, this morning, Donny woke up and he had fever, so I told him he needed to skip the hospital and go to the doctor. My mom is here, so she went with me and Madilyn to the hospital. It was a long day, and I feel like absolute crap. And it really stinks when you are in a hospital full of doctors, and none of them can write you a prescription. Hopefully, I will make it to the doctor tomorrow. Good thing Mom is here. She is my lifesaver today!

And, to top it all off, today is Donny's birthday.

I told you life is grand!

Productive Punishment

Have you ever read my blog before?

Well, if you have, then you know that I have a son.

Colin is his name.

And believe me when I say that He is the ONE

Which one?

THE ONE

The one that challenges me down to the fiber of my very being.

The one that literally makes me question every decision I have ever made leading up to this point.

The one that can bring me to my breaking point with just one look of his face.

Ever been around Colin?

Then you know the face.

If you haven't been the lucky recipient of the face, count your blessings!

It ain't pretty people, this I tell you!

Over the years I have tried just about every form of discipline imaginable to mankind to help deal with this kid. Some work, some don't.

So after a long week of dealing with Colin and his "problem", I channeled my inner Super Nanny in search of something that could help me punish this kid without sending me to prison. It wasn't easy, mark my words, But Colin spent his whole day yesterday meeting up with that thing we have been warning him about - "One day, this is all going catch up to you" -





I now have very clean cabinets, doors, baseboards, appliances, stairwells, bathrooms, and floors, all compliments of Colin.

And let me tell you, Colin has been the best behaved child in the house today.

Good thing my house gets dirty alot.

Pray with me Forrest

Dear God,

Make me bird, so I can fly far,

far far away.

Stone Mountain Torture

At what point as a parent do you stop trying to make your children happy, because for some unknown reason, nothing you do ever seems to make them happy. I just don't understand where my children come from and why they act the way they do sometimes.

In an effort to have a fun and memorable Labor Day, we decided to go to Stone Mountain. Now, most normal children would be thrilled with such a decision being made on their behalf. But my children must not be normal. My children associate family fun with some type of ancient torture ritual where they are forced to try and have fun and be happy.

And believe me, we don't often venture out in an attempt at fun activities, and after yesterday, I remember why. So it's not like this is an every weekend kind of thing where we are dragging them around the country forcing fun family time on them.

I guess I am a bad parent because I refuse to buy them 25 drinks a piece, 10 bags of cotton candy, 5 boxes of popcorn, 100 pieces of candy, 2,000,000 different kinds of toys or sourvenirs, make them wait in line for their turn, walk from one place to the next, make them carry their own drinks (yes, believe it or not, I didn't make them go without SOMETHING to drink), made them stay together with us and not run off wherever they wanted to go, made them take turns going and doing what each one of them wanted to do, didn't constantly have food for them to shove in their mouths every five seconds, didn't make them shoot off silent fireworks at the Laser Show, and couldn't do anything about how hot of a day it was or how crowded the park was.

I am so ashamed of myself.

But despite quite a bit of time looking like this . .


and even more time acting like this . . .


I somehow managed to capture the rare moments when they forgot their sole purpose on earth is to make Donny and I question everything we are as people and parents, got sidetracked, and actually had a small amount of fun.



















Here is Donny wondering how we ended up living on a different planet with these alien children of ours


And to say the park was crowded is an understatement.


Somehow we all survived the torteous day and lived to tell about it.

But for the record, let me clarify for her that Madilyn did have fun and did not complain and was being good. Maybe 1 out of 3 ain't so bad.

And can you believe they had the nerve to ask me later if we are still going to Six Flags next month?

Little Masochists

Sweetest

Moments in time that must be documented



This was actually on my birthday, but we won't talk about the fact that I am, once again, another year older.

Sobbing, sobbing.

One Month, Already?

In honor of school being back in session for exactly one month, I will now share with you the classic first day back to school pictures.





Now, clearly, I was continually interrupting Colin during his morning prayers in order to snap these lovely shots. Wonder what he was so intent on praying about this year?

Madilyn is in 5th grade this year, her last year in elementary school. Don't even get me started on how I feel about that.

Colin is in 3rd grade.

And Philip started Pre-K. He didn't get in the Pre-K program at the school (stupid bad luck I have!) so instead he is going to the program at his daycare, which is the same program, just at a daycare, instead of the school.

Now we thought Philip was so excited to start school. He asked us all summer long how much longer till school started. And he was so happy that morning before we left, but this is how I left Philip at school on Day 1


No tears (thank goodness), but I ask you, does this look like the face of a happy boy? Aahhh, motherhood, isn't it really just the best! Of course, it could have been worse, like the two little twin girls, clinging to their mother's leg, screaming and begging her not to leave them! Been there, done that, never want to do that again!

But school is off to a good start, fall is just around the corner, and we are all looking forward to Thanksgiving break, because as of 11/27, I will be officially retired from my job, and can go back to being a full-time Mom! Even Tux, the giant dog, is looking forward to that!

Hot Diggity Dog

Donny took the boys on a Father-Son campout. The boys were very happy about that. No Mom around to tell them to get out of the dirt, or go wash their hands, or stop peeing in the bushes, or use some manners, please. Glad I didn't have to be around to witness any of it.





Now, my boys are no strangers to the fire-side cook-out. They got that down.

But fishing, well, good thing this campout provided them with a chance to learn a little there.




Yes, folks, your eyes are not deceiving you. Colin caught a turtle, within seconds of casting his line for the first time. That's my boy! I think. . .

Philip had no problem getting the hang of the whole fishing thing. He is such a cute little fisherman!


And Colin eventually started catching fish, too


And for some reason, they were shocked that I wanted them in the shower as soon as they got home. Imagine that. And that was even before I learned Colin had fallen in the lovely sanitary river. I think I am going to make him go take another shower, just for good effect!

Making up for my Neglect

Yeah, this blog has been a little Madilyn heavy lately, so I figured I should update you on what has been going on with other people in this family.

Colin is a Cub Scout now. He is very excited about that. He has been looking forward to joining Cub Scouts for so long, and has been having fun and working hard already to get started.


Donny and I are the Den leaders, so that makes this whole Cub Scout thing a little tricky, since Colin seems to have issues with understanding that he has to behave for us, too. Other adults think Colin is a very well behaved child. Come spend some time at my house, behind the scenes, and see what you think then! But it should fun, and seeing as how I am a control freak, at least I know things are being done right this way. Colin earned his Bobcat really quick, and went topsy turvey over his new rank!



Now if I can just get all those dang patches sewn on, he'll be ready to go. Anyone out there willing to do that for me?

Yeah, didn't think so. Guess that is part of having a Scout in the house. Now where is that sewing machine?