Poor Ariel was just along for the ride. School was NOT delayed this morning, though everything was still all icy. This ice is kind of keeping us inside- Trevor and Rachael do ok. But it is damn slippery for me and I have a lot farther to fall. And Ariel can't walk on the ice to save her life. It's like watching a bad slapstick comedy or something. Ariel seriously falls like every second step, and then scrambles to get back up, only to fall two more steps down the ice. And by ice I mean snow under a nice crackly layer of ice that *I* can seem to break through, but Ariel doesn't. So I spend my time holding her hand for dear life and hauling her pitiful self back up while I waver between getting frustrated and laughing at her. "Can't you walk on the ice AT ALL, Ari?" Apparently not.

Right before I dropped the kids off at school, I went to the bathroom. Nothing awful, nothing clogging. But I flushed the toilet and it started overflowing everywhere. Gross. Trevor had gone and it got clogged and he didn't tell me. I threw the last of our clean towels over it and decided to deal with it later. So once I dropped the kids off at school I had to run to Whole Foods and Michaels. Ray needed poster board and markers for a Boy Scout meeting tonight. Came home long enough to put the groceries away and head back to school to help in the library and meet the kids for lunch. Came home and put Ariel down for a nap. I read my Lit assignment until 2:30ish, threw in some laundry and took the now awake Ariel to the grocery store for Swiffer stuff and some other various things I cannot get at Whole Foods. Picked the kids up. Came home read them their library books, and they had computer time and I finally got around to cleaning the bathroom, then cleaned the upstairs one, then washed lots more laundry and cleaned the kitchen and cooked dinner. Then Ray came home and asked me to write the Boy Scout posters out since I had neater handwriting. Did that (because I do have neater handwriting!). The girls took a bath and Ray, his friend visiting (John) and Trevor went to their meeting. Now I am sitting here and thinking I need to finish more laundry. And I would like to read my book.

It got all cloudy today and I TOTALLY was hoping for snow. But nothing. Not even rain. *sigh* SNOW!!!! I want some darn snow! Winter is so cold and BORING without snow. Believe me, I like cold. I love winter. I love winter with SNOW. and SLEDDING. and hot cider with stuff in it afterwards. Or hot cocoa. And SNOW. Did I say Snow? *sigh*

I got so much done today! OK. Well, a lot for ME. I vacuumed, washed a load of laundry AND cleaned all three bathrooms. That's like way a lot. I also played on Starfall and the Wall-E website with Ariel (hard to do Wall-E with no mouse), read books, put her down for a nap and read lots of MY book (yay!), read tons more books, listened to Rachael read many books to me and played a math game with Trevor.

I also made it out to buy cat food for the cats and picked up a santa hat and reindeer hat for them. Then I humiliated them and took pictures. They even LOOK pissed in the pics. I might have to post them. They are bad iphone pics, but I love torturing my cats.

Otherwise, it was a relaxing day. I never could coordinate with the chair lady. I am trying to buy two retro diner chairs that look just like the four I own. She has them for 75 bucks... a REALLY good price- half what I paid (actually my MOM paid) for each chair. But we are just playing email tag. She finally sent her phone # and said she is busy tomorrow but I can set up a time to come by. Argh.

Our car is fixed and we pick it up tomorrow. Turns out the car people who replaced all that radiator stuff when I ran over that twine on the road didn't tighten something on the cooling system, so coolant was leaking. So it's all fixed now. Grar.

It was another good busy day today. We sent off my mom's birthday cards this morning. Then we hit the library to reshelf books. It was actually fun! I told her I would come every Friday and help her out. She had TONS of books to go back on the shelves. When I got there Rachael was just finishing up at the library. I was a total distraction. heh. Rachael showed me her book and then like all her little friends were asking me who Ariel was, etc. When they all filed out of the library I was like "oops! I didn't realize Rachael would be in here!" The librarian didn't mind, though. So Ariel sat at the table and colored for a while, then she got a little overwhelmed when the older kids came in to check out books. So she joined me and held books while I shelved them and looked for books that were turned the wrong way around on the shelf and she put them right. She wass a great helper.

I helped for about an hour until it was time to meet the kids for lunch. Next week is Ray's turn to meet the kids and I will be able to help for longer and let her know that. They were showing a movie in the lunch room, which was a little irritating. It's difficult to have a conversation with your children when Ratatouille (hm) is playing in the background. Rachael said they have never had a movie before. So thankfully it's not a regular thing. Lunch was still fun. Ariel ended up staying with Rachael while I joined Trevor for lunch. LOTS of parents came to lunch and there was kind of a shortage of tables. heh.

Afterwards I took Ariel home and ate lunch myself (the school pizza is nasty) and Ariel and I were going to go get some halloween nail polish but she had this breakdown over something. I realized she was tired and took her up to bed instead. She was asleep in minutes. While she slept I worked on my cross stitch and read my book. When she woke up we made an attempt to get halloween nail polish but failed because there WAS NONE. Oh well. We did get glow in the dark polish. Trevor's LEGO Club meeting was today. So after I picked up Rachael, we just hung out on the playground and played. I set up a playdate with a friends kids tomorrow, the doctor called and said my records were ready (so I will take back my rant from yesterday, heh) and then we headed home!!! I cooked dinner, cleaned up from dinner, played with the kitties and we put the kids to bed. And... that's it. heh.

I attempted to wax my bikini line. Not that it has been warm enough to go swimming, but, well, just in case. I am sick of shaving it like every freakin day. I am a waxing virgin. I had no idea it would hurt that freakin bad! I'm all humming my little song in the bathroom as I apply the Veet wax strip. I moosh it all into place. I think it will probably feel like taking a bandaid off or something. I rip the strip off. Oh.My.God. It HURT! Especially when you're not expecting it to hurt quite that much! What do people do who get EVERYTHING waxed? Do they lidocaine your nether regions or something? Thankfully, it didn't hurt as much today when I did the other side. It hurts a bit less (but not much) when you are expecting the sensation. heh.

I am tired today. I have been going to bed at like 11:30, but getting up at my normal 6:30am. This is just not enough sleep for me. Must go to bed earlier tonight. Especially since I am still working out. Nothing like dragging yourself ut of bed to work out when you are tired.

I think we are going to the Air and Space Museum today. Trevor and Rachael are super bummed that grandpa had to go back home. Trevor wanted to visit the museum with him, but we just didn't get a chance. But I promised we would go today. Hopefully we have enough on the Smart cards for the Metro so I don't have to buy anything today.

Otherwise that is it. We went to Chuck E Cheese (ugh!) last night for dinner and stuff. Ray-dad wanted to spoil them his last night in town. The kids had a blast. Ariel loves the little car that also takes your photo. She must have gotten about 5 photos taken. Rachael loved talking on the phone to Chuckie Cheese. Trevor just played tons of video games. Everyone had fun, although it always seems to wear us adults out more than the kids. heh.

My huge weakness is time management.  I am HORRIBLE at managing my time and I rock at procrastinating.  But I think I did reasonably well yesterday. 

Woke, made breakfast and beds, swtched out the laundry
Finished Chapter 8 in Interpersonal communications (I seriously think this should be a required course in high school.  It is a little hokey, but awesome!), took the quiz and posted to the discussion board.
Played Go Fish with Miss Ari and Rachael.
Cleaned kitchen.
Went outside for a walk in the drizzle with the kids.  Looked at the streams and smelled the wonderful rainy smell of the woods. 
Came back in and put a worm in our worm habitat.
Made lunch
Read some books
Played Balloon Lagoon and Zingo with the seriously game addicted Ariel
Made frozen yogurt and..
Studied psychology while also answering some emails.
Went to the poool!  Played at the pool for a few hours.
Got home after 5.  Ray was not home for dinner.
Cooked dinner (egg sandwiches, watermelon and frozen yogurt for dessert)
Cleaned up the house and ran Roomba on the living level.
Watched Ace of Cakes with the kids.
Read some more of the Tale of Desperaux to the kids (this is an awesome book).
Put them in bed.  Ray got home like 9:30pm- he was at a dinner with work.

My worst procrastination is at night.  It's like the kids go to bed and I officially am wiped.  I ran around so much in the water carrying kids that I was a little sore, too.  I end up sitting online reading message boards, blogs, etc.  Really, I could be spending the time studying.  I think what I need to do is shut the laptop when the kids go to bed and work on school.  It's just so difficult!  It's all about starting a new routine, which is always hard until it becomes habit.  It's my habit to spend a couple hours doing absolutely nothing, at least until Ray comes downstairs (he sits with the kids while they fall asleep).  I know I can do it... I mean, I "trained" myself to wake at 6:30am.  Now I wake without an alarm, without even the clock being plugged in.  One of the kids unplugged it two days ago and I haven't even really thought about plugging it back in and I have woken up at 6:30 almost on hte sot both days.  Isn't that weird?  I also expect to work out during the week, I've gotten into that habit.  My only habit left to break (besides knawing my fingers) is my internet addiction at night.  That will be tough.  Bleh.

Sunday Ariel got the barfs. Thankfully they only lasted the evening and part of the night. We thought maybe she had gotten the same bug Ray had (but worse because Ray had stomach cramps but not throwing up). But then we read in Ray's Men's Health that a lot of bacteria live on the shore of the beach and it's easy to pick up sickness if you hang out there a lot. So I wonder, since Ariel was NOT thrilled with going in the water, if hanging out on the shore had her picking up some little bug or something. I'm glad she was better yesterday and no one else got sick.

Not much has been happening lately, beyond Trevor's birthday. I sent in my Johari Window assignment and got an A on it. I got an A on my psych paper, but I have yet to take exam one. I'm hoping to take it this Saturday morning. I need to take the first speech exam, too.

Today I hope to make it to the library and I don't know what else I will do. The kids are perfectly happy doing whatever during the day. Trevor has been building his new Speed Racer guys and playing Wii Indiana Jones.. though I swear it requires my touch to play it. Even when Ray is playing with Trevor, they SUCK at strategy. I need to be there to say "Um, You need to take that big box and put it on that platform with you or else it won't go up." or something to that effect. Yesterday I was upstairs cleaning up and Ray and Trevor were playing and I came downstairs and Ray says "Oh, good, mommy's here. We're stuck."

My period still hasn't started and it is driving me crazy. Just the achy joints, bloated feeling, tired. Hello, period, PMS should just start like 2 days before my period-- TOPS.. not a week!

OK.. Trevor wants to play his new card game before I open the books, so I am going to play. He is also finally learning chess, which thrills him and frustrates his instant gratification side immensely.

It was a pretty productive day. We're still slowly working through issues with independence, attitude, etc, with everyone. I'm sure it will be ongoing. Go me, I didn't get frustrated or raise my voice today. Because I like looking back on what my day was like...

I got up, skipped working out because it's an off day. Made breakfast (egg for Trevor, bagels for the girls, toast for me)
I also skipped a shower. The kids got dressed then watched Speed Racer episodes (2- 40 minutes total for both) while I finished chapter 4 of my speech class.
Kids did the dishes and played happily while I did the corresponding assignment and quiz for the chapter. Yay! Finished Chapter four before the end of the week!
I filled the dishwasher, started a load of laundry and scooped the cat box and vacuumed the living level.
Kids were still playing so I started planning out next homeschool year.
Got kids a snack (well, helped them get a snack).
Went outside for a nature walk, looked at billions of busy ants running around everywhere.
Came in and made lunch- peanut butter toastwiches (ok, when the bread starts to get stale, we end up just toasting it for sandwiches), grilled cheese for Ariel and Tuna melt for me.
Put Rachael and Ariel down for a nap because I think that's why they have been so grouchy lately.
While they were falling asleep, Trevor built with legos while I worked on my short story for English class.
Girls were sleeping and I finished another page of it and then Trevor and I played a few games of Stratego.
Read Trevor my story and he decided to write his own (will be posted to my homeschooling blog soon as it was pretty good!)
Girls woke up. We ate a popsicle/freezie and played in the wading pool a bit (the wading pool was sooo warm, like bathwater. Our heat index was 105 today).
Ray came home early!!!!! But then he got paged- boo! We got ready to go the the pool.
Waited for Ray to finish working and I finished my story and Trevor finished his. Kids ate trail mix for snack.
Read the girls from Rachael's chapter book.
Went to the pooool! Had fun for about an hour.
Got ice cream on the way home.
Ate dinner (even with getting ice cream, Trevor still ate two helpings of ravioli, two slices of buffalo mozzarella and cucumber slices).
Kids played outside, I cleaned the kitchen and then sat outside with Ray for a few moments.
Now the kids are in bed and I am trying to decide between studying for my psych test, starting the one page paper or continuing to plan for the following homeschool year. I'm hearing some good rolls of thunder.. maybe we'll have a big storm. It is wonderfully cool outside right now and breezy.

Actually, it's been quite busy but I didn't get up until close to 8am. I always feel a bit bad, getting up so late. Ray has to get up at 5am. he goes to bed at the same time as me. So I kind of feel a bit guilty, a bit luxurious, that I have the freedom to sleep late. And it's not like I am waking all night with nursing babies or anything anymore. So it really is extra sleep I am getting while poor Ray drags himself up at 5.

but I did get up and make eggs for breakfast, taking a day off from oatmeal/cream of wheat. Then we did what we do every couple weeks.. we went through each level and found toys out of place and put them back in their correct spots. After a few weeks of only tidying up, we end up with toys neatly put everywhere- kitchen stuff is under the kids beds while the toy kitchen is downstairs; legoes are in the car bin, hotwheels are all over the place, etc etc. So we start at the top level and work our way down. Now everything has its place and is in its place and the house will be neat for the weekend. I vacuumed the upstairs with the regular vacuum and stuck roomba in the basement to vacuum. I also am trying to wade my way through ALL our laundry today. If I can get it all washed, I'll fold it all tomorrow. Then we can take Rachae to gymnastics and go to the library and the house will be clean for the weekend. I hate a diosorganized house. I'm no neat freak- not much of a duster, things tend to stack up in corners, bookshelves after a while.. but I can't stand toys not in their proper places or not being able to vacuum my floor because toys are laying in the middle of it. But I am not hardcore about things, as long as it looks presentable enough. I've already gotten the dishes washed and put away, too.. AND done phonics for both kids, math for Trevor and the kids have had webkinz time. I have also made a couple scrabble moves and posted to the homeschooling board and caught up on that email stuff. I'm about to think about lunch and then chemistry for Trevor. We get to make chemical reactions today by mixing ordinary household things like vinegar, milk, baking soda, lemon juice, etc.

I am debating whether or not to go anywhere today. We saw many friends yesterday- friends in the morning, Daniel stopping by in the afternoon and Ryan with his kids in the evening while i was in class. So maybe we'll chill today.

Woke at 7.. I stayed up way too late playing mario Galaxy with Ray. We opened up the final Bowser level but haven't played it yet. Trevor would be really bummed if we beat bowser without him. Anyway.. this morning I worked out
Ate breakfast, cleaned kitchen
showered, dressed, "motivated" kids to get dressed (Get DRESSSSSED!!!!! Or we'll be late! Wait, we're already late! Get dressed!)
wandered house for 10 minutes looking for my travel coffee mug, called Ray who didn't know where it was either. Finally put coffee in regular mug- which is not really safe while driving. Contemplated picking up mass quantities counters, measuring things, math stuff that Ariel had played with and not put up. But we were late!
Made it to jelazakazone's house and the kids happily played for a couple hours. Actually, Ariel spent most of that time sitting on the kitchen floor eating Goldfish crackers.
Ate lunch at friend's house (yummy Chipotle meatballs. I'm glad she makes enough for a small army at a time! heh)
Came home and kids ate yogurt. Sat online for a few minutes doing whatever, I don't even remember. OH-- I put dinner in the crockpot on high.
Did phonics with Rachael. Then Phonics with Trevor and then math. Ariel did Starfall and Rachael did webkinz while Trevor and I worked. Talked about the Fertile Crescent with Trevor and early people.
Trevor did Webkinz while I studied psychology for a long time (procrastination is biting me in the ass this week). The girls played picnic with their neighs.
Played Zingo with Ariel and Rachael. Helped Rachael do half the Hello Kitty puzzle before she lost motivation.
Made a couple scrabble moves at the table with the kids while they played with playdough.

Now I need to finish the gravy for the crockpot stuff and boil noodles (it was some german roast recipe in my crockpot recipe book. Hopefully it will be good.) Then we'll eat and I will head to class until some obscene hour (actually just close to ten, which is late for me to be awake and listening to a lecture!). Then I'll come home and catch up with Ray and go to bed.

I feel like the day has passed really quickly.

Today I have accomplished quite a bit. Including reading books, celebrating the win of Trevor's stuffed webkinz dogs in his "dog show" he put on, run roomba, put clothes in dryer, taught phonics to two children and math and chemistry with Trevor.

Trevor is amazed by atoms. In fact, all the kids are. We're walking through Safeway and my children, who have not actually STOPPED talking since we left the house over an hour ago, are pointing to everything we see and exclaiming "And THAT'S made of atoms, mommy!" It's cute to hear Trevor and Rachael say it.. it's adorable to hear ariel say it. Not that I don't think my kids are reasonably intelligent, but it brings it to like new levels when your not quite three year old is jabbering nonstop about atoms. heh. Especially when there's me, tired mom, pushing the cart and intoning "uh huh" every once in a while in a bored voice because I hear chatter about atoms CONSTANTLY.

I waited all day for it to snow and it never did. It's so warm out- like 45, I feel like it would rain instead of snow. even though today, when it won't snow, I went out and there are the salt/sand trucks out for once.. waiting for it to snow.

I totally made a 37 point word in scrabble without even trying. That rocks.

safeway had some sort of party nut mixture on sale and i bought it- it has like cinnamon pecans, maple almonds etc in it. It was an impulse buy. Speaking of nuts..

Whenever I take Rachael to gymnastics there is this Usborne book there about a squirrel. The squirrel is, no joke, missing his NUTS and the whole book involves him asking various other woodland animals where his nuts are. I cannot even listen to other moms read the book to the kids without cracking up. I mean, two things here: mainly.. it was totally a practical joke on the author's part to write that book, right? I mean, they couldn't have said "acorns"? And two, am I the only mom who changes it to acorns because I can't actually read the book with a straight face?

Anyway.. that's it from here. Our HD went out again because comcast should be renamed "We suck but are your only HD TIVO option so we'll treat you like shit and take forever to fix your cable when it goes out". I hate comcast. They are supposed to come tonight to fix it. Ray said he's holding the guy here until it is fixed. Grar.

Class was crazily not cancelled last night, despite it snowing and there being snow all over the roads and it being slippery out there. BUT-- the good part about that was I got my much anxiety producing presentation of my report done. Public speaking? Yea, i guess I can do that ok, it doesn't produce that much anxiety. But my lack of practice in it? yea, that sucks. I know enough about what I wrote that i shouldve been able to just get up and talk about it, but i got up there and just just "um" a lot. Glad I wrote everything out I wanted to say. Glad my report is finally turned in and I have that out of my mind. Just two finals to study for now. Should be ok.

Anyway... we still had much good snow on the ground this morning. I slept in until almost 8am and still feel tired. i have a splitting headache probably because i wasn't up at 6am and starting the caffeine drip into my veins. Aspirin took the edge off, but it's not gone. But since we still had snow we went out sledding for an hour this morning and had great fun, got thoroughly wet and butt numbed. heh. Even Ariel went sledding this time. I have pictures from yesterday on my homeschooling blog.

My mom's xmas gift came in the mail yesterday so now I can check off mom and the kids. I need to get Ray something and my dad. But for right now I actually forget what I was really going to blog about so I should do my history homework. bleh

I am losing my voice! I joked to my mom last night, how will I yell at and nag my children with no voice! heh. Really, I feel ok, a little tired because I didn't sleep well last night. But my ears are all clogged and I can't raise my voice above a normal level. And that normal level feels like I have been yelling if I speak too long. This sucks only when my kids are asking me a question from downstairs. I have to trek downstairs to answer. Or, if I am vacuuming and I hear banging and laughing upstairs, I can't actually say "What's going on?!!!" I have to WALK upstairs to see. Oh, the tragedy. heh. I hope this is the only cold I get this winter because I'm all done being sick thankyouverymuch.

It is rainy and breezy and such a gorgeous fall day today. I opened up the house for a while because I was sick of it being stuffy and 70 in here. Since I feel OK, I just sound crappy, I made buttermilk pancakes for breakfast with some buttermilk I forgot I bought and was about to hit the date. Then I did some laundry and tidied the upstairs, which was looking a little disasterous. Vacuumed, etc. I currently have buttermilk bread in the breadmaker, using up more of the buttermilk (lol. I almost forgot the "er" in buttermilk!).

The kids are currently playing Jump Start Animal Explorers while I should be checking my school mail to see if my psychology professor emailed me back. So I guess I should do that now. Nothing huge happening around here! Ray starts at XM tomorrow. He's very excited. I am too!!

I'm very happy it is still raining. The rain just makes it feel like fall. I actually remembered Rachael's gymnastics this morning (I completely forgot it until late afternoon last week) so we made it there this morning. We were a bit late, but Rachie had lots of fun. She LOVES gynastics. As much as she lets on, anyway. She's very unsure of herself. I think I will keep her in for another term through the parks and rec.

Then Trevor had speech. His speech teacher was impressed and could tell we had been working at home on things. So I was happy about that, too. I saw his teacher from last year and we talked for a few minutes.

This weekend we have a date with our house. We MUST get this place organized and tidied up. Our storage room is looking very cluttered and I mention to Ray that I want to get out fall stuff, xmas is coming soon and we need to reorg so everything is within reach. Our closet also looks like a clothing store threw up in it. Old clothes, out of season ones, etc that don't fit the kids all found their way to our coset floor. We're also going to go through toys and try and get rid off stuff. It's tough, but it needs to be done.

Today Trevor goes to a friend's house for dinner and Ray will be gone out with a friend. So I am just with the girls. Haven't decided what we will do.

Honestly, it's fun having a break from the kids in the evening when Ray gets home. But it SUCKS in the morning. Thing is, I don't really want to organize toys, or do deep cleaning or really do anything housework related that would be difficult to do with the kids around. I would still rather eat slimey worms than do above and beyond normal housework with the kids gone. Plus, I tend to slip quickly into a mild blues-type depression very easily when the house is quiet like this. Thing is- I am a stay at home mom- my outlets are usually playgroups, getting together with friends who have children, etc. I have put aside many hobbies from lack of time, my day tends to focus on my children. So when they are gone, well, I told Ray that if they were gone two weeks I could start to get used to it- spend a week moping and feel restlessly unmotivated and then the next week doing things. But it's only a week so I haven't adjusted. PLUS- Once again it is that waiting game. I wish my classes for college had started. I could do SO.MUCH school work right now. As it is, they aren't even added to Blackboard yet so I can't start. I'm not really bored (there's no such thing! heh) I'm just unmotivated. I want my kids! Ray and I were talking last night and I told him I wasn't going to do this again unless we were going on vacation. I did fine going to Vegas. I missed the kids, but we were in fucking VEGAS, BABY! It was fun! So next year maybe we can plan a three or four day cruise or something that starts in FL, we'll drive down and drop the kids off and go on a cruise. Then they can have a blast with grandma and grandpa and we can go on a cruise (where I will be perpetually scared we'll sink, but I guess I can get over that phobia). Maybe we'll just go to the keys or something not involving really deep water and an obscenely huge boat.

ANYWAY-- yesterday I did nothing all day except buy a bread machine. OMG! Stop me now! The kids also can't go away because I end up spending way too much money. But, I was sick of buying grocery store bread and I like oven baked bread but I often am not around enough or lack the motivation to make it. Now I can use the bread machine. Yes. I'm a natural mom cheater. But it made a decent loaf of bread yesterday. Ray and I hung at home because I felt guilty about spending so much money (we spent a fortune the night before going out). We had corn and caprese salad for dinner (tomatoes, mozzerella, forgot the basil, olive oil and balsamic vinegar) and watched Big Brother, The Soup. Then we had, um, fun.. and fell asleep. So full of excitement!

We called the kids and they are having a blast. Rachael was so funny. They had gone to the pool the day before- it's like a water park with a lazy river and everything. Rachael is talking about it and I asked her if she swam with the life vest on (she can't swim yet). She proceeds to tell me that she didn't swim but they went in the lazy river and she says "All of a sudden, I was under the water! And my eyes were open and I drank some of the water! But grandma came over to me so quickly and got me out of the water!" LOL. Pam is in the background trying to get in that Rachael was fine and she just fell off the inner tube. But it was so funny that out of the whole fun time they had that day, like the first thing out of her mouth is how she fell in the lazy river. She was fine, though, and I'm sure Pam was right there with her and Rachael wasn't under water for as long as she made it sound. They went to see the free movies yesterday and saw Hoot which they all liked. They've been eating fast food and watching Pink Panther on DVD, which they also love. So I know they are having a blast. It's fun talking to them on the phone and I felt a bit better last night after talking to them. There's nothing better than hearing your two year old say "I love you up to the moon and back mommy!" OMG, I miss them!

To do today:
Send NOI for homeschooling
Check out k12 page since I should have lesson plans there by now
Pay bills since Ray got paid
Ray and I organizing toys tonight
I might make some tomato sauce. Can I freeze tomato sauce? since I don't think I have enough to can?
I might go get my hair cut
I will get offline!!!!
We shall go to a movie tonight and hang out somewhere, maybe CarPool?

Yesterday was salvaged. I did spend Way WAY too much time online. Hobbies? What are they? heh. BUT-- I did meet Ray and Brett for lunch and we went to a Pho place and ate really good food. I wish I had been a bit hungier. I know why I was so much skinnier before I had kids (not that I am not skinny now but I used to be thinner) and it was because I lived off coffee and was hardly ever hungry and was on my feet all day working. Something about the kids eating incessantly makes me hungry at fairly regular intervals. Anyway, after that I went to TJMaxx and browsed; found a Tshirt, a new Tao Bo two DVD set for only 10 bucks (I wish I could have found a good yoga one to try!), a dino dominoes game for the kids and a few new bras that were desperately needed. It was nice to browse the store and not have to worry about kids getting restless because, at TJMaxx (which is a discount name brand store-like last seasons stuff really cheap) you really have to dig sometimes to find things. If I had needed winter clothes at that moment I would have bought some.. they have some really cute sweaters, sweatshirts, etc for really good prices but I couldn't justify spending the money at the time.

When Ray got home we were a little paralyzed over what we should do. Once upon a time we would have found lots of do. But we're a little out of practice. We ended up going to the coffee shop right past Tysons. It's a cool place and it has the CD Cellar next to it- used CDs. Picked up an eclectic mix. They were a little short on any techno/trance I had on my list of wants but I did pick up older favourites like Beastie Boys Ill Communication, NIN Further down the Spiral and I picked up Incubus but I can't remember the name. Ray bought Ice Cube and Ween (We picked up Bare Naked Ladies for Trevor because he likes them a lot) and then subjected me to rap in the car. I swear Ray was a black gangsta in another life. His full name I won't give online but he is the third of his family with that name so his whole family calls him Trey. So I jokingly call him Ice Trey and told him he totally needs to get a tattoo of an ice cube tray on him in some sort of graffiti style. It would be so nerdy but so inside joke and kind of cool. lol. I don't think he's convinced yet, though. Aftwards we went to Strike in Bethesda. We've been wanting to go for a while. It's bowling, but 21+ after 9pm and they play loud music and it's dark and very neat. We suck at bowling, but after a few beers and no dinner it was pretty cheesy fun. We had a blast. Came home and watched Starship Troopers but didn't make it all the way through because Ray got tired (he had to work today. Poor baby). Tonight we pretty much have to hang here.. we might go to the pool and we rented the Wii Brain academy game and we'll play video games.

Today I will probably hit the library and the grocery store. It's still quiet, but not so forboding as yesterday. I keep hearing a big dog barking that I don't normally hear. I wonder if our new neighbours (replacing the lady with the yappy JRTs) have a dog? I met them, they are wonderful but not moved in yet- slowing bringing stuff over. I didn't ask them if they had a dog. Hm.

It is so quiet here right now. As an update, my ankle feels better. It actually feels about 90% better, as long as I dont twist it too far either direction.

Our trip yesterday took FOREVER. Traffic in VA is slowly progressing to a level that makes us hate travelling. Because everyone has moved out to Fredericksburg, the traffic on 95- a major travelling thoroughfare for not just commuting virginians, is reaching epic proportions. It is AWFUL. Think- it took us fucking 2 hours to travel 17 miles. It took us 4 hours to LEAVE virginia yesterday. It reminded us why we leave for my parents in NC at 5am at the lastest and get to their place at 11am. They would much rather we got in later... but if we leave later, we get stuck in traffic going through Fredericksburg and then again going through Richmond. This happens on weekends and during non peak hours (ie: rush hour). I'm sure it happens suring the summer because there are lots of people travelling to FL, etc for vacations. Come on VA road building people! I'm not into politics, I know nothing about road building.. but it sure seems to me that, if there is not going to be any good metro rail line that goes anywhere useful (like out to suburbs in our area where people LIVE!), couldn't they add a couple lanes to 95 to help the traffic? There is one area in Richmond where three highways merge in together (something like that) but like 5 lanes of traffic becomes 2 or 3. It's not enough and it causes such a backup they have a permanent sign out there saying "delays at exit 86". Same with Fredericksburg. It truly makes travelling SUCK. So we got on the road at noon for SC and didn't actually get to SC until after 9pm. By the end of the trip we were all short on patience, my ankle hurt, the kids were maniacs from being cooped in the car for so long and Ray was grumpy from sitting in traffic.

But it was better the next morning. We ate a leisurely breakfast with the kids. They had eaten the really awful free breakfast at the hotel, which us adults and Ariel- who had slept in- hadn't eaten. So we ate at Cracker Barrel. Trevor and Rachael were wonderful there, considering they didn't eat and just sat with us. Then we said goodbye and I got all teary eyed. We drove home in.. hey hey! traffic! Stopped in Fredericksburg and ate at a Brick oven pizza place and came the rest of the way home. Went to see "Stardust" which was a WONDERFUL movie. Totally worth the 21 bucks it costs to get into a freakin movie nowadays. I joked to Ray that Trevor wouldn't be able to afford to take anyone on a date because movies would be 100 bucks by the time he was older. But Stardust was a must see.

It is soooo quiet here this morning. I was a little down last night. I don't know if I will do this again for a while. Last year I had Ariel here to distract me. But there was no Ariel in our bed last night, and it's just quiet here this morning. No kids playing, no asking me to read books. I suppose I will get offline in a few. Ray made me breakfast this morning, which was nice. I can read our Sunday paper from yesterday without interuption, that will be a complete pleasure. I'll probably do my normal Monday "chores", then write a NOI to the state for homeschooling, which I have been procrastinating on. Maybe meet Ray for lunch.

Oh.. and I missed the best night for viewing the meteor shower last night! I am SO BUMMED! I thought tonight was the best night. *sigh* We were sick of driving, so I don't think we would have felt like driving all the way to Bluemont to see them. Grrr!