So, obviously, I have too much time on my hands.

I have had fun taking tons of blog quizzes this evening. Click on one. Have some fun yourself. And when you submit one, the options change to even more and more quizzes. Cool.

Say hello to my layouts!

Unfortunately, also say goodbye to them. They are for the CKU-A She group circle journals, and they will go off in the mail shortly. I might make color copies for me, but otherwise, they are gone to new owners, each with a theme the owner selected. In return, I'll get 14 layout and tag sets for my circle journal, the theme of which is "Why I scrapbook." Kinda neat, huh?

Hello

Just thought it was time to update, but not much new to say. First, thank you for all the supportive comments about the girls and life in general for us right now. It means a lot! Secondly, we're rocking along without really any updates. Time is passing so quickly. Looking into the transition to teaching is a bit of work, and I did find out that in Illinois, the alternative route program isn't the same as most other states. I was told they don't have a teacher shortage. Sheesh! So we got a copy of the husband's transcript so we'll have one, and now to talk to Iowa. Pt work is going pretty well though. I was told that I'm probably the best instructor this particular Archivers has had. That's pretty cool! It's based on the class evaluations and comments made by attendees.

Turns out we're staying in town this weekend. With the holiday travel clog, gas prices really shooting up, and everything else, we're not going to make it to the cousin's wedding. Hate it. Hate to miss significant family events, but it cannot be helped. Hopefully, the time will be useful here for us to get some housework and cleaning and strategizing done.

I've done a lot of scrapbooking, but none for me! I'm really trying to finish circle journals for CKU groups. The Heidi Swapp group cj is one where we have all the themes and do all the layouts at once, then send them in to be swapped out. Not as much creativity involved as when you can see the cj and get inspired by it, but a good way to insure no one loses a cj or holds it up. So that's 14 2-page 8x8 lo's and matching tags due this weekend. I have 2 more sets to do.

That's about it...worked all this past weekend. Thursday night, Saturday night, Sunday all day, and last night (Tuesday). Glad to be off tonight. We took the girls over to the park a bit before dinner, and that was fun.

More later!

So it's been a while

Sometimes, I just don't have the energy to blog. No, not that I cannot muster up the energy to literally type, but there are times I just don't want to think. Or, more likely, that the things I would blog about are themselves tiring or emotional, and the act of writing about them is tiring and emotional, which is where the energy comes in. But, stiff upper lip and all that, right?

It's been a busy time around here, but also a weird, good, bad, who knows kinda time. Busy because we've been researching some career options and other things like working on the house (finally painted the kitchen wall where the fridge used to be - and the previous homeowners didn't paint behind the fridge..sheesh, cheapos!). Busy finding info we need on the internet and sending off a few forms. Busy cause payday always brings bill-paying and such. Busy with some scrapbooking, trying to get through a circle journal group with all 14 layouts done at one time (UGH). Busy with two 3 1/2 year olds who don't mind and don't listen and are little hellions every day.

Here's the thing. My children are bad. I mean, yeah, they are wonderful, cute, fun, surprising gifts from God, but they are also awful. They are the same age, at the same age of development. They do not have an older sibbling to influence them on better behavior. They gang up on us. We do not have a house that offers a lot of options either. We started using a corner in the hallway for time-out. Sit here, alone, with nothing to play with sort of thing. But putting them both in time-out is really really impossible. Basically, that's because I can't literally hold them both down at the same time as they fight being in time-out, of course. So we moved time-out to their room. One day I took them both up there, made them put all the toys in their toybox, then I shoved the toybox into the guest room. I went back in, told them they were in time-out and were staying in their room, then I put a toddler handle on the inside of their door and left. I so needed that break. I was literally in tears with them, praying to God for guidance.

Unfortunately, when in their room against their will, they will sit against the door and rock back and forth against it - HARD - and have done something to the door or doorknob or both. The husband discovered that this morning. So, for now, I don't have their room for time-out.

It's hard to describe it this way and make it sound as bad as it is when they are "being bad." That particular day, they were spitting. Spitting on the floor, on the dog, on the furniture. Then they were hitting me, throwing blocks and things at me, and so on. They don't listen when I say stop. They don't listen to warnings. I just don't know what to do with them when they get wound up like this. Like now. Since I started typing this entry, I've chased them upstairs twice, given 4 spankings, taken their tv show away, and had to put the dog out where he doesn't want to be so they will leave him alone.

I try for quiet time, since they don't nap. I try for time-out. I try ignoring some things so as not to give them a reaction. I try chasing them and spanking (not hurting, just "spanking"). I try all kinds of tactics. Nothing works. Today, it literally occurred to me to take the shirt off Maddie's back and throw it in the garbage because she loves her kitty shirt so much (I can't even get her to take it off for the laundry). I need to get their attention, and I don't know how.

What I do know is that I am worn very very thin. Either I never should have tried to be a mom, I just don't know how to do it, I"m not mean enough, I"m too mean, I'm too easy, I"m too strict, I don't know. What I do know is that this is so hard. Every single day I fight them. I love them more than life itself, but they are wearing thin on my nerves these days. Someone tell me that it gets better! I hear often from friends, well, he/she gets it from his/her older brother/sister, and such. Well, I don't have that to work with. These two fight so much, egg each other on, it's ridiculous. They really FIGHT, too. They pinch, bite, hit, kick, spit. It's awful, and I don't know how to stop it.

So why haven't I blogged in 2 weeks? Well, it takes forever sometimes when referreeing the above-mentioned stuff. Also, it's hard. It's hard to talk about this stuff and not dredge the tears back up.

Fun things - had a great dinner with friends the other night. The downside (well, other than that the dinner made me really really sick) is that the dinner was a going-away dinner for Tina. I hate that Tina is moving. HATE IT!!!! You don't make a really good connection often, and I feel like I have that with Tina. We became pretty good friends pretty fast, and I think that is because we have a lot in common. Sometimes you think you are friends with people, then they turn out to be totally not who they purport to be or even who THEY think they are.....don't you wish sometimes those people could see how full of shit they are? Anyway, back to Tina. Love Tina. My girls love Tina. My dh even loves Tina. And now Tina is leaving. Contact will remain, but it won't be the same. No last-minute calls to get together. No play dates. No MNO. I guess we'll just have to see what's what as time goes. Bye, Tina.

Serious things - been doing lots of talking with the husband about our future. Since the job has turned out to be something that sucks for lots of reasons, definitely not what we planned for when moving here all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in August 2004, we're considering other options. The husband has near-complete academic credentials for teaching, and the notion of falling back on that is looking really good to us. Considering possible relocation to Illinois where the family lives. I'd love for the girls to have more time with their Opa and Oma, as well as their cousins and aunts and uncles and everybody. Wouldn't hurt us either. Sis in law's visit really meant so much to the girls and to us. Would love to be able to do that more. The Champaign area is pretty nice, a good size, and probably good-living and home prices for us, too. We requested transcripts and have other calls being made and forms printed out. I've talked to the State Department of Education in Illinois, but have also printed out the Iowa info. Good thing I worked for the Dept of Ed for 10 years back home! I know my way around this stuff. The husband is only lacking student teaching, and early word is that it might be possible for him to get that WHILE teaching with a regular certificate. We'll see! As we've talked about this and all, I see that he definitely has a spark for teaching; he loves kids of all ages; he's just enough of a goof to be a good teacher, too. You need to not take yourself too seriously in order to relate well to the kids, I've found. Of course, figuring out how to live with that kinda pay cut? YIPES, not sure. Parttime work in our future, for a while anyway!

What else? Well, hell. That's enough for now. OH, Tori! I haven't done much emailing either, but love ya, girlie, and miss you!!!!!!

Busy week

It's been a busy week for us round the ol' R-ranch here. Last weekend, we were thrilled to have Tori come to stay with us Friday through Sunday evening. I had to work some, but because the store wasn't busy, I got off a bit early both times to spend with the family. We had fun at Fudruckers on Saturday afternoon, then the husband worked for a couple of hours Saturday evening, but Sunday we just hung around and visited, dug through my scrapbook stuff, and had fun. The girls didn't want Aunt Tori to leave, and Maddie at first refused to say goodbye. Precious girls love their Aunt Tori! I took not a single photo. Bad scrapbooker, bad!

I taught a class at A's on Tuesday, worked last night, and been cleaning up some here. Slowly but surely. Hopefully more tomorrow when I'm not working or husband isn't. Gotta come up with a "reward" chart for the girls this weekend. They have developed a bad habit of not taking the time to go potty, and I am tired of wet panties! Being harsh about it hasn't worked. So, in addition to telling them to go more often (instead of asking if they need to), I bought some clearance ladybug stickers at the store, and am going to try getting them to "earn" them with dry panties for a day, etc. We'll see!

Found out that our friends are moving away. Sad for me, and it's gonna be tough getting the girls to understand, but Aunt Tori's visit helped them realize there are other people in their lives than those here, so that's a good thing.

Husband grilled last night while I was at work, and I can't wait to have it for dinner tonight. When we're busy working and running around, it's hard to have a good dinner often. Hoping to scrapbook some this weekend, too, but we'll see how much else gets done first. Guess I better get to it!

What the hell....

It's time for a new post! Not too much to add except that I've been scrappin'!! Really, it's that the girls want to go to the playroom in the basement every day after lunch, and I can scrapbook while they play. They also like to work with me, so their Little Tikes table and chairs is also in my scrap room so they can color or stamp. I have to watch them like a hawk though, or they slip away with crayons and color walls. Yeah. We've got some WD-40 in our future to clean up those walls we had recently painted!

But scrapbooking ~ ahhh, that's the life. Sweep floors? vacuum? change beds? Nah. That's no fun. Finally completing 6 more pages in a mini About Me book I started last fall? Priceless! Just 5 more topics to cover. It's from an article in a Simple Scrapbooks magazine from last summer. The layout in the entry below is for it as well. I've also done a couple of pages in my Heidi Swapp 'She' album, thanks to an impromptu visit to Tina and Scott's on Monday for helping them out and Memorial day fun. The husbands painted and we scrapbooked and cooked and such. Pretty fun for all. Kids got to play on a big, borrowed water slide. The girls did great, though at first the big plunging slide was a shock to them!
Also did this layout for a post-CKU-A She group circle journal. The topic was "Heisms," words and phrases about your dh or sig other. I had fun with the handwriting, but it took forever!

That's about it really. Oh, got a fun new round, drop-leaf table to scrap on. The handy-dandy husband saw some people down the street putting it on the curb with a "free" sign, and he stopped to talk to them. Cute round traditional table to dress up the scrap space a little. How cool is that?

Ok, I've got to get lunch for the hellions. They have been so BAD today! They have gotten this notion the past week that their stuffed lab puppy needs, of all things, a BATH!!! So they take their little teacups and fill them with water in the bathroom and bring them to their puppy to bathe. UGH. Then, they seem to be fond of saying "no" to us, so that's not good. But, after lunch, they will want to go to the playroom (having already lost tv privileges up here in the family room - HELLOOOOO HGTV!!), and I have a better chance of good behavior. We'll see though. They are cut off from treats today, too, and that will get old with them, then the whining starts. Ahhhh, parenthood. I read in someone's message board siggy that "raising children is like being pecked to death by a duck." So true that one.