Monday, April 9, 2012

Baskets Overflowith

I am not sure how anyone else feels, but I was raised that for Easter, you don't get a whole lot. Mom may have spent at most $10 on each of us kids. We got a toothbrush, one sees candy Bordeaux egg, a toy of some sort, and a book. Of course there was an egg hunt that was filled with candy and quarters, but really Easter wasn't about getting a lot of toys. When buying Easter baskets for my kids, I tried not to get something too big, cause if it was too big, one has to fill it right?

I am totally judging others, so WTF is with the gigantic Easter gifts? I mean, little Jimmy and sweet Tammy do not need $100 worth of gifts. Nothing you give should be too big to fit in their basket. I have seen pictures of little Jimmy in front of a bike. I've tried to stick to no more than $25 per kid. I've learned from Christmas that this year my girls needed exactly the same things. While color could be different, the items had to be the same. I have been pretty on top of gift giving for them lately, so when I saw certain things on sale, I bought them.

Each girl this year got the following: 1. favorite barbie size prince (bought on clearance at the Disney store. They were seriously only $5) 2. A my little pony ($5) 2. A book ($3) 3. Gardening gloves, a shovel, and a rake ($5) 4. Reese's chocolate bunny ($1) 4. Toothbrush ($2) 5. Skittles Egg ($1) 6.Egg Hunt filled with spare change and one bag of Hersey's Chocolate eggs ($2). Give or take a dollar and some change I did pretty good.

My kids are spoiled don't get me wrong. They have way too many toys, and my hubby will go out and buy more Christmas gifts if he things we don't have the "WOW" factor he is looking for. But in general, I try to instill a little bit of restraint. I can and do take my kids to Toys R Us and Target to "window shop" toys. We rarely buy anything, and my kids know better than to ask or beg. I made Cookie contribute the money my Brother In Law gave to her when we were in California to her upcoming birthday gift. Really, it wasn't mean of me, weeks before he had given both kids a wad of dough each! So I told her if she wanted that Disney magic princess castle, she'd have to contribute, cause it was way too expensive. And now just to be extra mean, I ordered it to make sure we could get it, in time for her birthday, plus it was on sale and I had a coupon. UPS delivered it to the door unwrapped with the picture of the castle bright as day on the box, so now she has to sit and look at it for a month before her birthday. I won't let her open it. Torture I know.

Anyway, no baskets are overflowing here.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Voyeur

I know it's been forever since I have even thought about posting. There was a few months of deciding that birth control might help control some hormonal imbalances and help me drop some weight, since nothing else was working real well.

Instead I became a basket case and had horrible visions of bashing my sweet Cookie's head against the wall. Thankfully we were in our extended time in California, I was close to Mom, and I could run home for hel
p. Cause it all came to a head while Hubby was away at a conference. I needed serious help. Like, "Mom, you need to watch me and the kids because I think I am going to hurt one of them." For the first time in my life I really understood women whose post pardon was so bad they could seriously hurt their own child. I broke down. The last time I was in such a mess was the first time I tried birth control. Even after giving birth to Cookie, I was never that bad.

I dro
pped the pill and by day three off of it, I felt my head clear. I should have known better. It was the same feeling I had soon after I stopped nursing Cookie. Hormones are no joke and those idiots in Washington who want to tell women that birth control is wrong haven't a clue. Some women need it to balance their otherwise crazy hormones, I've learned to stay the hell away from it.

It is finally A
pril, we are back in Colorado, my house is finally in order. Some big changes are coming, and NO I am not pregnant! Stop thinking that! We are going to get a puppy the beginning of May. A beautiful Chocolate Lab puppy. So in a sense, another baby....but one I can leave at home alone, one I can kennel, one who can't talk back. But still cries at night, pees on the floor, and tears my house apart.

When we bought our house 6 years ago, we looked at another one down the street. It was a ranch style, which in retros
pect would have been nice, but I knew I wanted kids and the two bedrooms that would have been future children's were in the front of the house. The giant windows facing the street, where any boy or girl could crawl through or sneak out of or in. That so never happened in my front facing window as a teen. Nope never. One of the things I hated about our house was the layout of our Master Bedroom and bath. It has this huge open area to the bathroom from the bedroom. No door just a giant opening. The shower, is small, in a corner and is glass on three sides, basically you are exposed. It is also carpeted. I was not a huge fan and had visions of redoing the room. Well, I still do, but not because of the carpet or the huge opening. I actually now love how open the room is. I can actually take a shower every morning because I can see the kids. They can play in my room and I can see them. Unfortunately, they can see me. This morning while I showered Cookie decided that she was going to camp out right in front of the door, looking at me shower. She brought in a pillow and a blanket and creepily watched me wash. AWKWARD. She is almost five, and now asks questions like, "When am I going to have hair on my bottom? Why do you get hair on your bottom?" My Voyeuristic daughter continues to make me laugh, which is a good thing, cause a month ago I was so in a different place.