My Favorite Forgivers

Before I even made it downstairs to apologize to my little munchkins, they came up the stairs with this...

"Mommy!  We made you a snack because we LOVE you!!"  Fruit snacks, cold water (they know I like it cold!) in a dirty with old chocolate milk cup, and a wet towelette on a ceramic kid size tray.  :)  I don't like fruit snacks or chocolate water, or wet towelettes (that were apparently only used a "little bit" to clean up pee.)  But they sat and watched me eat and drink the entire lot!  And I did it with a smile.  :)  Even shared a few fruit snacks, or all of them.    (Pics are with my phone so....yeah, they suck.)

Emma apparently has LOTS of boo boo's today.

Maddy wanted her "belly to pop out."

My favorite forgivers.  :)  I love you so much!!!

BAD Parent

I yell at my kids.

Two weeks ago, I left Avery coloring in the family room while I went to the kitchen to make coffee. Exactly 90 seconds later, I returned to find her limbs covered in ballpoint pen -- as was our beige sofa. I snapped, snatched a sponge, and scolded her loudly enough for the neighbors to hear. As her face crumpled into tears, I immediately felt awful too. She'll be scarred for life, I thought, especially if that black ink doesn't come off her arms. (It did.)

GIVE UP THE GUILT "We all lose our temper with our children from time to time," says Michael Thompson, Ph.D., a psychologist in Arlington, Massachusetts, and author of It's a Boy! Understanding Your Son's Development From Birth to Age 18. The good news? Blowing your stack once in a while can actually be a good thing: "Children need to see that parents aren't perfect," says Dr. Thompson. Yay to that!

MAKE IT BETTER "If you do lose your temper, give your child an apology and a brief explanation later," says Nell Gibbon, a psychotherapist and founder of Village Parenting and Counseling, in New York City. Going forward, try to stop things from escalating by allowing yourself a brief time-out. If possible, close your eyes and take slow, cleansing breaths for a minute -- not only will you feel calmer, you'll also be modeling self-soothing for your child. If she sees you deal with your anger this way, she'll start to use it as a technique when she feels mad or frustrated.

http://www.parents.com/parenting/better-parenting/common-mom-mistakes/?page=4

This is my life today.  It's been a rough day.  It's no secret that my rock of a marriage has been falling a bit short lately.  Being homeless and having your pay cut in half (then having the other half mistakenly taken from you!) can take it's tole. I'd like to think we've done pretty good so far.  It was rough for awhile.  I got pretty depressed with no friends, no home, no money, and no way to entertain the munchkins and probably did a bit more yelling than I should have.  Well, I've finally found amazing friends, and a semi decent routine (yes, our furniture has been here for a few weeks now) but the stress has shifted.  The finances aren't getting easier, if people would quit making mistakes in his pay I may not be so stressed out; and the ones getting yelled at are mommy and daddy.  To the point of packing up and driving to St Louis to get away from the stress.  Of course I would never leave my husband and quickly retracted that.  The girls are fully aware of the situation we are in lately.  They hear Tom and I screaming at each other about it ALL the time.  :(  We've never fought like this before.  Especially not in front of our kids.  So now what?  Get the pay fixed first of all, eat the overdrafts, and go apologize to my girls.  They deserve better than this.  Be better tomorrow, move on and trust in the Lord.  

Say a little prayer for me as I got apologize to a 2 and 4 yr old.  : /    Wow, I'm such a good example.  

Unfortunately, I'm still clueless on the marriage portion.  We are in serious need of a date night and the temple I think.  

:(

Unfinished Business

I strongly dislike unfinished business.  I'm NOT a procrastinator and I don't do well with things left un-done. Every time I think of something I want to write about, I can't do it because I still haven't finished writing about the move.  So...long story longer, here's a summary so I can move on.  And since no one actually reads this, and I KNOW what happened, I can sum it up.  

We got to the new house in Orange Grove (Gulfport, MS) and it was pretty much gutted.  No window seals,  8 ft hole in the ceiling, roofing shingles in the front yard (not on the roof), no flooring, no counter tops, and the appliances were in the middle of the kitchen.  Needless to say, we got our deposit back and were homeless.  Moved into the Marriott by the airport.  Looked at over 65 rentals in a weekend, nothing worked out.  Got approved for a loan to just buy a house.  Looked at heaven only knows how many houses to purchase.  Did NOT like our Realtor.  (In hindsight, there are a LOT of things I would have done differently but that doesn't matter now.)  Found the perfect house.  Put in an offer, offer got accepted so we went up to Arkansas to drop me off at the inlaws with the girls while we waited for the house to close.  Got to my inlaws (10+ hour drive) and, let's just say it didn't work out.  Back in the car with the girls less than 24 hours later for the 5ish hour drive to St Louis.  We stayed with Tom's Aunt Margie and Uncle Dan (the most amazing aunt and uncle in laws EVER!) for about 3 weeks until we were able to get temporary lodging on Keesler AFB.  Stayed there for a few weeks while pouring money into the new house only to have the sellers pull it a week before closing saying they "couldn't afford to sell it."  Yay!  Homeless again.

Keesler AFB Housing office was able to bump us up on the list and get us a house fairly quickly.  We moved the girls over and then a couple weeks later our household goods arrived.  We finally had a house and started to get settled.  Then housing decided it would be just super fun to accidentally take our entire pay check causing hundred of $$ in non-refundable overdraft fees and no access to $.  That brings us up to today!  Oh, and we ran over a screw and can't they can't get our tires so we have to buy 4 tires.  $1000+.  :)

I promise I'm not complaining.  To be honest, I don't really care.  We have found great friends at church, we pay our tithing and I know everything will be alright.  But at the same time, there are bumps in the road.  Things are not always 100% and that's OK.  Bumps are what makes life interesting.  I am who I am today because of my bumps in the road and as long as we have faith a keep going, it will be alright.  It will be alright in the end, so if it's not alright, it's not the end.  More than anything, I want a record for my kids.  When they are older and have families of their own, they can look back and see the challenges we face every day and make us the hopefully good parents we are.