~ Friday Smack Down ~

So it's been a crazy week. The kids have all been sick at one time or another. Which means they've been home from school, which means I haven't gotten a lot done. This isn't the best week for that as I'm pretty swamped with work. Plus, as many of you know, I've not had the best mommy week. I don't consider myself the greatest mother ever, but this week has been particularly bad. A combination of sleep deprivation from those sick kids, and other stresses in my life all hitting me at one time. There have been some apologies as I try to not scar them for life.

So I was reading Joanne's blog, my super fab cousin that I mega love....and she wrote some great stuff this week....so I'm following suit. She wrote 13 things, I'll be happy to come up with half that.

I have the greatest friends. I laugh with them, cry with them and generally act stupid when we need a little break from our lives. So my one friend D had a big let down yesterday and was in the dumps. After talking to her for a while and letting her vent it out....I just thought she needed a little more. It was already after 9 at night...but who cares. So I called up another friend K, we picked up a couple treats and headed over. The tears in her eyes when she saw us at the door....that was the best.

• Running is becoming an addiction.....I don't get out every day, sometimes not even every other day, but when I do I love it. For me it does so much. Gets me out of the house, pounds my stresses out on the pavement, causing the scale to show smaller numbers and lets me know every time that if you set a goal, you can achieve it. I have another race this weekend. I don't race to win, I race to finish. No one cares what my time is, no one cares what it took to get me at the starting line. But I know that it's taken a lot to be able to complete a 5k race...post 4 babies, post 5 pregnancies, post 1 traumatic birth, post everything. The body is not what is used to be....will never be what it used to be...but the jeans are fitting and the abs are tighter. My mom has always looked good and worked hard to look good, I guess I just want to be like that. I'll embarass my kids enough with everything else I do, I don't want them to be embarassed by how I look.


• Raising my children is the biggest challenge of my life. I am not a patient person. I get frustrated and irritated easily. I want things to be my way, I want well behaved children. That pretty well never happens. Not that I don't have great kids....I have really great kids. But day to day is a challenge for me as I try and be the mom I think they deserve.


• I wish I had more time to be crafty. I like to make things, and give them away. I'm going to set aside a time per week to make some of the gifts I have in mind. Maybe, if I have time, perhaps when I catch up on work, or on my scripture study, maybe at night when they're in bed. Hmmmm...


• I love where I live. We've been here for 3 years now. We don't have a fancy house, but it's our home. We're home-bodies. We just like to be at home. My kids walk to school and I never worry about them. They play out on our street and it's no problem. The school is close, the church is close, everything and everyone is close.


• I love to wake board. When we were out for a fun day with a bunch of friends a couple weeks ago I was riding in the boat. Not to do anything, just going for the ride and watching everyone ski. The one guy was done and they looked at me and said, " You want to try wake boarding". I was holding Jack who had fallen asleep in the boat (on the water in the sun is the best baby sleeping machine ever). No no, I don't need to...you guys keep going. They wouldn't take no for an answer. So they take Jack and say, you get in or we throw you in....it's your choice. So I strapped on the board and was rolling my eyes that it was going to take forever for me to get up, and they shouldn't waste their time. Well it seems that wake boarding is not as hard and water skiing...you pop up pretty fast. So later in the day when I jumped on the chance to go out one more time...they teased me that I was honing my skills for the Pro Waking Boarding Tour....mommy version.


• My Mr. O says funny things. Some of his words are a little mixed up, but we don't correct him because we think it's cute.
  

  
  

  
  

  For example...he says lasterday. Which can mean today or yesterday, it's interchangable.

  
  

  "Mom did we go to the park lasterday"

  
  

  
  

  Lately he's been using 'seven years ago'. I don't know where this came from, but it's applicable to anything he says.
  Dad: Hey buddy did you have Preschool today?

O: No dad, Preschool was seven years ago.

Dad: Oh, well do you have preschool again this week.

O: (rolling eyes) Daaaaaaad, preschool is on Thursday seven years ago.

Dad looks at me and walks away very confused.

• If I had to pick one thing about myself that I like, it would be my hands. Weird I know...but I like them.

• I love little stinky feet. From the minute they're born until they won't let me do it anymore, I kiss the bottom's of my kids feet. Sometimes it's just kisses, sometimes it's a big production of how stinky they are...even if they're not

• The other morning I was changing Jack and, of course, kissing his feet. I wasn't making any sounds just kissing them and looking at him. He's started being vocal...he's got Mamama, and Dadadaaada down...he also has something that sort of sounds like Hi. So I'm kissing away and playing with him and he says.... 'Ewwwww'. Which is usually what I do when I'm making a big deal about the stinkyness.
  
• Brian is a pretty good guy and I think I'll let him stick around : )
  Sometimes I wonder why the guy keeps coming home everyday...as I said I'm easily irritated and stressed out. But everyday he walks in the door. Everyday he's a phenomanal Daddy, everyday he still looks at me at says I'm pretty cute.

• I love clothes. I love to buy clothes for me and for my family. I have to watch this otherwise my children end up with way more than they need, especially Miss S. I don't necassarily have the best wardrobe ever, combination of availble funds and losing weight. No use in buying a bunch of stuff that will be too big in a couple months. So I keep wearing the same old stuff as I trim down to the size that I'd like and then hope to get a couple cute things. One of my top favorite things to do....shop with Terra. Hope to go to take my annual trip to her house again next year and stock up on my wardrobe.
  
• Cooking is pretty fun and I enjoy it. It stresses me out when there isn't any food in our house. Which is ridiculous because there is always plenty of food in our house. So I guess is stresses me when the fresh stuff is low. I get this free Kraft Kitchen magazine every couple months. It has great receips and I pour over it and put sticky tabs on all the pages of the ones I want to try. I don't have to make pretty dishes, like those people on TV. I just like yummy ones.

• I love to travel, thanks to parents who took us places. Between now and next summer I'll be on four different trips. Some with kids, some without...one all on my own. Yippee!!
  

Wow...that's 13...guess I did have a couple things to say. So just because I'm a major over achiever, I'll beat Joanne at her game. = ) Love ya Jo.

• I'm messy. Hi my name is Tiffany and I'm a terrible housekeeper. I know it, and it's for sure that anyone that comes to my house unannounced knows it. So why is that? It's not that I don't like my house clean, and not that I'm not capable of keeping it clean...I just don't make it a priority every day. I get busy with my life and stuff piles up. Plus I have so much going on in my head, that if I'm not looking at it then I forget about it. So the kids homework and school papers have to be out on the counter, my calendar is constantly open with the long list of things I need to do. My office has piles of stuff...don't touch it I know where everything is that I need. So don't judge me, just love me. The house isn't dirty it's messy. It does get cleaned right down to the bones every week...but within an hour stuff starts piling up...whatever. It's not life ending, I'll pick it up tomorrow.