Sleep Problems

You might have sleep problems if . . .

• You fall asleep with a puppet over your muzzle.


• You have had mice this summer (get that, mice--as in plural!) and you had the bad experience of hearing them move around at night. So, you lay in bed all night every night for at least the past 6 weeks listening to see if you hear them, worrying if they've chewed up wires and a fire is going to break out, and terrified that one may get on your 4 yr old DD upstairs because of a horrifying experience you had as a child where a mouse got on your mom's head while she was reading you a story.


• On June 12, you caved and got satellite after 15 months of having only 6 channels and it's your first time with DVR and you record everything you have ever thought about wanting to watch and stay up all night watching TV and no matter what time you turn it off, you still lay awake listening for the above mice.


• After you are pretty darn sure all the mice are dead, you have nightmares about hearing or seeing one and it wakes you out of a dead sleep and keeps you awake for at least an hour.


• You have to go to the bathroom multiple times during the night.


• Your husband snores.


• Your DD gets up about 5 nights a week at 4:00 am to tell you she had a bad dream and comes and gets in bed with you while you are secretly wondering if the mice have been scurrying around in her room and that is what really woke her up.


• Every time you move, you wake up because your whole body hurts because your mattress is too darn old but your old house and the needs of the farm keep sucking up any money that could be used to by one.


• Or you have a night like we did last night where I actually, unbelievably fell asleep very easily around 10:30 only to have someone from second shift call for Rhett at 10:50 to tell of a problem on the line at the factory. After listening to Rhett talk about it til 11:30, he decides to go in and make the change on the computer. So, I am then forced to stay up because I'm convinced something terrible is going to happen to him on the drive there and back. While I'm up watching DVR-ed stuff, BFG wakes up at 12:45 am. I go upstairs to her room this time and drift off. Rhett comes home at 1:20 am. I wake up and come downstairs. BFG wakes back up at 4:00 am and I go back upstairs so that Rhett can get some rest. By 6:00 am, I am just miserable with BFG literally sleeping with her head on top of me. I bring her down stairs for us to sleep. At 6:30, Rhett wakes me up while he's leaving for work. At 6:55, somehow the alarm had been magically set (we rarely use an alarm) and goes off and it happens to be on Rhett's side of the bed. I leap over BFG to grab it, shut it off, and sleep til 8:30 with little feet kicking me. And throughout all of this, I seriously went to the bathroom at least 15 times. I don't even know how I had that much in me and think I may now possibly be dehydrated.

I'm starting to look forward to this polyp surgery because I least I can get some awesome, deep, much needed sleep!

Mama Said

Vacation Highlights: St. Auggie '08

Sorry this took me so long, guys & gals. We are still running on insane around here, but all that could give me about 4 other posts. Let's just say right now, I can't wait for morning so I can have big ol' steaming cup after cup of coffee!


Aaaaaah . . . vacation. I love it, treasure it, adore it, wouldn't miss it. And St. Augustine, FL is my favorite place to go (so far). But, of course, it wouldn't be a true Mama Said vacation if a few calamities didn't happen here and there. Mostly just minor stuff sprinkled with a few crazy things. So, I'll just give you a day-by-day blow-by-blow.

Saturday: We arrive after a long arduous 12 or so hour drive. I can't remember the drive being very eventful. Just the usual except that this is supposed to be a 10 hour drive. After we arrive, we hurriedly unload so we can make it to the Old City for the opening ceremony of the Nights of Lights (where they plug in the Christmas lights for the historic area). I don't really know what we were thinking. I guess we had some kind of fantasy that the city would hold this ceremony for just us or something. Of course, it was crazy, insane crowded. Now, Rhett and I both hate crowds. Why we went to this I'll never know. I would have hated this on a good day. Going after being in the car for 12 hours made it almost unbearable. And trying to leave was a nightmare! Rhett had the stroller and was just standing there as a thousand people rushed in front of him. I scream at him, "You just have to GO! You can't WAIT!" So, he did go. And rolled the stroller right over my foot. I screamed again about that and took over the stroller and proceeded to roll into two other people. Not fun.

After that lovely display of peace on earth and goodwill toward men (and let me tell ya,' the lights were NOT worth it!), we get back to the condo and realize it's freezing inside and turn on the heat. We do about and get BFG to bed. About an hour after turning on the heat, it smells like something is on fire. I mean really on fire. Now, I know what it smells like when you turn on the heat for the first time--kind of a burny smell that's gone after a few minutes. But this was an hour later and was a horrible, putrid smell. I am convinced the thing is on fire somewhere and turn it off. From this point, things got real ugly, real quick. I start screaming and moaning and groaning and complaining that we are either going to go up in flames or freeze during the night. Rhett was concerned, too but ol' boy just wanted to go to bed. I get the bright idea of calling the on-site maintenance man to come check it out or move us to another condo or something. Well, the phone in our condo doesn't work (Remember that for later). I have a prepaid cell phone and didn't have many minutes left. After more yelling and screaming, Rhett calls the maintenance guy and has to leave a voice mail. More yelling and screaming ensued. Mostly me, but Rhett was really mad which is highly unusual for him. We were trying to decide whether to go get a motel room somewhere or just freeze. Whenever one of us would pick, the other would start arguing the other option. We finally decided to stay and as soon as we get in the bed and Rhett falls asleep. Boom, boom, boom! The maintenance man is knocking on our door drunk. He says the smell was just from it being the first time turned on for the season and I guess he was right 'cause we didn't burn up. He was falling all over himself apologizing to Rhett. I thought he was going to hug him or something. Maybe he did. I was just listening from the bedroom. That whole deal was probably our second worst fight ever.

Sunday: I got stuck grocery shopping at Wal-Mart. Yuck! It's bad enough on a Sunday anyway but the one before Thanksgiving was terrible! We ate dinner out at a dive restaurant Sea Fair. It was really good. Of course, BFG refused to order anything because she wanted broccoli and they didn't have any. Are you kidding me? Since when does she want broccoli esp. over fries? Then we went to Winter Wonderland at the Amphitheatre. I had read about it online and was so excited. I knew there was a charge for the ice skating but that was okay 'cause I knew we wouldn't skate anyway. Oh my gosh! Rip off! We were so disappointed! There was a charge for almost everything. They had like school carnival type games for $2.00 a pop! They had a fire going and charged $4.00 for the supplies to make one s'more! I think Santa might have been free . . . if he'd been there! BFG was so bummed. She just kept walking around saying, "I hate Winter Wonderland!" And, now every Christmas song or commercial she hears with the words "winter wonderland" she says, "Why are they talking about Winter Wonderland? That place is awful!"


Monday: We went to the Fountain of Youth. That's were I took the peacock pic. Isn't he a beauty? The peacocks and squirrels ate peanuts right out of Rhett's and BFG's hands, too. We learned the hard way that those aren't the only animals living there though. We walk into the park and stop in the spring house on our way to the planetarium. The dude forces me to drink the water. I tried to get out of it. I have been drinking that water since I was a kid and it is yucky sulphur water. But he would not take no for an answer, shoved it in my hand and waited and watched while I drank it. I ended up having to drink mine and BFG's. I will say it was better than usual though since it was cooler weather.

Later, as we come out of the planetarium, we are looking around. BFG was enthralled with the goldfish pond and stuff. They start announcing on the loud speaker that the presentation in the spring house was going to start in a few minutes. Well, we weren't going. We just kept looking around. They kept coming on the loud speaker counting down the minutes and finally saying last chance to come. I notice we are the only people in the whole park that are not in the spring house. Whoops! But still, we didn't want to go. A final loud speaker message, "You need to go to the spring house now for the presentation!" We still didn't go. Ya'll, I kid you not, that same water guy comes out of the spring house and hollers at us to come in there. We went.

During the presentation, a woman notices . . . (Oh my gosh! This still makes me so sick!) . . . a RAT! Again, I am not kidding. I saw it. A freakin' rat right there living in the spring house hanging out by the mannequins and climbing on the rafters. I would say he was over 12 inches long NOT counting his tail. Well, just where do you suppose that rat goes to get a drink when he's thirsty?!?!?!?!?!? Uuuggghhh! And the water man knew it too. His little joke when the woman pointed it out was just too rehearsed. I cannot believe we drank that water! Rats carry diseases! Yuck!

Later, we went out to lunch. Yes, I was actually able to eat after that. Rhett had on our local hockey team's t-shirt and as we are leaving, this kind of rough guy stops us and says he's from the same area. We chit chat. His girlfriend comes up. He tells her and she asks us to take their picture. We do. Here is how the rest of the conversation went:
Rhett: Well, maybe we'll see you around.
Man: Oh, yeah, you'll see me. Just watch the news. I've been all over the news. I'm the guy who got attacked by elephants in China.
Me: Really?
Man: Yeah, the Discovery Channel is doing a special on me.
Me: Wow, that's cool. (as we are trying to get the heck out of dodge)
Is that crazy or what? How do we run into these people? Is his claim even true? Either way, the situation is just hilarious to me. How many people go on vacation and run into someone from home who claims to have been attacked by wild elephants in China?

Tuesday: Disney Day! We had a blast (mostly)! It was pretty crowded, but we stayed til almost 11:00 pm so BFG got in alot of stuff. She even rode Splash Mountain 3 times! I'm too scared to ride it 1 time! LOL! In this pic, Aladdin was asking her to pinkie swear and I guess I've never done it with her 'cause she didn't know what it was and she's trying to get her fingers out. It was so cute! I can't think of anything thing major happening just small stuff like buying her a chocolate covered Mickey ice cream and some chocolate falling in her stroller and melting making her look like she'd had a po*pie accident all day. And being on It's a Small World with the one person in the universe who knew what remote country each detail represented, which is funny since even the creators didn't. They just made a general representation or so I've read.

Anyway,BFG hung in there all the way through the 10:00 night parade. It was fabulous! And my favorite part was the show where they lit up Cinderella's castle with Christmas lights. It was seriously one of the prettiest man-made things I've ever seen. If you ever get the chance to go see this, GO!

Wednesday brought the realization the bank had cut off our debit card. Fabulous. And of course on the day I went shopping. And of course, I couldn't call them. Remember? The phone in the condo didn't work and I didn't have enough cell phone minutes to call and couldn't even buy cell phone minutes and put them on my phone 'cause the phone in the condo didn't work. Yeah, fun. Luckily, I had moved money for Disney over to our other account. That debit card did work. And praise the Lord, it got us home . . . right before they cut it off too. Yes, I am truly grateful we made it home. Turns out they saw the out of state purchases and couldn't get a hold of us so they froze the cards. Which is really good news if they are actually stolen. Only they weren't. And we were counting on the debit cards for our gas home.

Thursday: We spent Thanksgiving going fishing off the lighthouse pier and going to the beach and eating steak. It was an absolutely gorgeous day! Missed our family though . . . kinda.

Friday: Nothing big happened at all except for Rhett walking around all day in the Old City with his shirt inside out. Even after I told him. Many, many times. Oh, and BFG spilled a cup of hot chocolate on the nicest piece of furniture in the condo--a cream-colored chair with matching ottoman. That was fun to clean up. And we had to get the stain out. Somehow, when a little one is watching you and you are the example, flipping over the cushion just isn't an option like in the days of youthful irresponsibility. Oh, and did I tell you she broke a clock too on the first or second day? Yeah, we still haven't got the deposit check back yet, but we're really hoping a plastic clock wasn't worth $300.

Saturday: The Ride Home

Still glad to be home and still seriously contemplating never riding with Rhett again through Atlanta,

Mama Said

Addendum to Jazzercise Diva

Oh, I forgot to put this little added story to my jazzercise diva post and I think it's too funny to miss out on.

Much to my disappointment, Rhett did not dress up this year. His mullet wig from last year would have been great! But, even better, my brother-in-law came up with the idea of Rhett being Richard Simmons. Now, Rhett is a big, really tall guy so the thoughts of this has me rolling on the floor. Now, ol' Rhett can be pretty wild sometimes in yelling out embarrassing stuff and so forth. But he draws the line at dressing like Richard Simmons. No shorty shorts for him no matter how funny it would be.

So, I'm telling the idea to his mom on the phone. And she starts dying laughing saying, "Did I ever tell you when his dad met Richard Simmons?" No, she hadn't!!!!! "Well, he doesn't really like to talk about it," she said. Now, keep in mind for those of you that know us, Rhett's dad is just like Rhett except he's shorter, is really into cars, and dresses spiffier.

Here's the story:
About 10 years ago, my mother-in-law's sister passed away. Shortly after that, there was a women's show that is a huge deal in our area. My MIL asked my FIL to take her to help cheer her up and get her mind off of her grief. He obliged and they went. They were standing in a crowd of oh, I don't know maybe thousands of women watching Richard Simmons on stage. I am not kidding, Richard Simmons gets Rhett's dad up on stage!!! He got four or so other men, too and made them have an exercise dance contest!!!! My MIL said that Richard had them shaking ALL parts of the body if ya' know what I mean. Unfortunately, my FIL did not win the contest. But, my MIL said that she laughed and laughed until she cried. I say the good Lord knew she needed a chuckle after all she went through with her sister's death and I'd say the Lord was laughing, too. I know I am!

Mama Said

Missing In Action

Whew! Alot has been going on lately and keeping me away from my 'puter. I've been trying to reinstate a couple of things back into my crazy life since I'm almost at a point with the house where I am stopping for the winter. I'm trying to get back into doing coupons to restock. My dad gave me loads of back issue coupons and I've been cutting my little heart out. I'm also trying to start up my Stampin' Up! classes again. I had my first class this past Saturday. My first one in over a year. It was fun, but it seriously is sooo much work.

Let's see . . . Oh, my neck/shoulder muscle is just on the absolute fritz since I painted the dining room. So, I spent last week strung out on muscle relaxers trying my best to get it well. It's not and I've had to quit the muscle relaxers in preparation for my laparoscopy.

Laparoscopy? Yup, on Friday. I'll go into that more on another post. But I'm scrambling trying to get things prepared for the family to run without me for a few days. You know, food that can be nuked and served. I'd like to eat during my recovery. And some things for me, library books, washing the sheets, making sure a decent pair of und*es is clean for Fri. and stuff. I absolutely hate sheets with crumbs and refuse to lay in them for 3 days straight and ya'll know how it goes with me and doctors. I've got to make sure everything is tip-top since I will probably be in some cringingly embarrassing situation.

What else . . .Oh, took BFG for her first official dental cleaning! She did great! She was perfect! And her teeth were perfect, which is really weird considering how often we forget to brush her teeth and all that candy she eats every day. But still, it was a good I'm-doing-something-right-as-a-mother day! Of course, MY teeth that I brush twice a day without fail were not so perfect. I'm the one with the cavity! How did that happen? And I mentioned how my front teeth hurt (all of them) because I'm pretty sure I'm clenching my jaw and pressing my bottom teeth into them. But, no. They do a whole head scan x-ray thingy (I'm sure that will be cheap!) and said my sinus cavity is cloudy and I might have a sinus polyp. Who? What? Are you kidding me? I have the weirdest stuff to happen to my twiddle-aged body. Sigh.

I guess that's about it. TTFN!
Mama Said

Vacation Countdown!

Yea! Our vacation is almost here! We leave on Saturday for a week of sun and fun and one day @ Disney! Reality check: Hurricane Hannah is headed right to our vacation destination and with mine and Rhett's vacation record---it will probably rain the entire time we are there. I'm hopeful it will hit and move on before we get there. But I'm tellin' ya do not be surprised if they have to evacuate Florida on Friday and we miss our entire trip.

But I'm carrying on with the vacation planning. This is probably my favorite part anyway. I love to plan what to pack, what has to be done before we leave, what we are going to do in the car, where we are going to eat on the trip, what activities are we going to do, what toys to take to keep BFG occupied while we lounge around, etc. I LOVE planning! It never works out the way I plan and then I get mad. But C'est le vie! (sp?) And the more I plan, the more I pack which makes Rhett an unhappy hubby. In his mind, we could all make it through the entire trip as long as we each had our swimsuits and a white T-shirt. I'm serious. If I said, "Everyone, put on their swimsuits and a white T-shirt. We're leaving.", Rhett would be so, so happy and would leave for our trip that way. Honest truth. No kidding. He started in on me weeks ago about what I didn't need to take and what we could get by with. He does it in a jokey, hint-hint nice way. But I know what he really means. But, no one worry. I usually win this one (minus a float or beach chair unless I supervise the packing of the car). Of course, now we only have ONE beach chair, HIS, because MINE is now lying in a ditch somewhere because Rhett used it to weigh down a tarp covering the truck bed and of course once we hit oh say 15 mph, the beach chair flew OFF never to be seen again despite prolonged searching! But that's another story and I'm over it. No hard feelings. I hope whoever snatched it from the side of the road before we could get back home to look for it is having fun sitting in it considering we live no where near the beach. And I hope Rhett has fun sitting in the sand this year.

Anyway, I am having a really tough time deciding on whether or not to bring BFG's big stroller. Our umbrella stroller is not worth bringing. I hate it. I think I'll put up a survey and y'all weigh in for me. Here's the details: BFG is a few months shy of being 4 yrs. old. The big stroller will take up half of the backseat. We can rent one the day we are at Disney. The town we are visiting has trolleys in the sightseeing district, but the pricey tickets are only good for 3 days out of the 7 we'll be there. We should spend more time at the beach than walking around, shouldn't we? There may be a hurricane in which we will not be walking around outside, but may have more inside walking around if we go to malls, museums, etc. The more she walks, the more she naps, maybe?

Please help! And pray Hannah will hurry up and get over with or even better break up and never hit!!!!
Mama Said

My Sizzlin' Summer Vacation

Kristen at We are THAT Family is hosting a summer vacation memory spectacular today complete with door prizes! Check it out!

Since we haven't been on our vacation yet for this year, I decided to go with my most memorable vacation moment. I thought and thought about which vacation memory stood out the most. There's alot of them 'cause just saying the word "vacation" invokes strange happenings to my family. Let's see . . . should I write about when one June, Rhett and I went to Florida for the first time and it rained 4 inches per day EVERY day we were there, which left us stuck in a hotel room with a broken air conditioner. Or what about last year when we took BFG to Disney and had the absolute BEST day ever as a family. Or what about when Rhett walked down to the beach with a diaper stuck to his backside and he was clueless as it flapped in the ocean breeze and people were pointing and laughing and I was barely able to walk 'cause I was laughing so hard.

I guess I'll settle on a vacation memory that has stood the test of time (20 yrs) and is brought up at almost every major holiday even by family members that weren't present when it happened. Well, one year when I was about 10, my dad took our family plus my cousin to Universal Studios back when it first opened. We went the week of July 4th. So, it was blazing hot and the lines were loooooong. Plus, you have to understand how my dad vacations. It can really be explained in one word: CHEAP! Therefore, all we had eaten that day was an ice cream cone from a gas station on our way to the Universal. While we were in a supercrowded lobby waiting for the Ghostbuster ride, I passed out. Yup, completely blacked out and fell to the floor. You should have seen it. It was like the parting of the Red Sea. Swoosh! The crowd just whooshed away from us. So, there is the five of us with me on the floor. My dad helps me up and is trying to hold me up. But I slithered down to the floor again. Why, you ask? Because my mom had forgotten to pack my dad's deodorant that year and he is so stubborn he went the whole week without wearing any. He smelled so bad when he was trying to hold me up that I blacked out again. I am not joking. It was that bad. I made it onto the ride and cooled off and felt a little better. And believe it or not, I actually got to get a coke afterward. (Getting an overpriced coke at a theme park was a HUGE deal in my family.) None us really know why I passed out and I guess we never will. Later on in my youth, I passed out at another theme park as well. But the first time at Universal, my friends, is what made that vacation a family legend.

Y'all have a blessed weekend!
Mama Said

What's For Dinner?

Now, no one else may think this is funny. But I just laughed and laughed. My parents are retired. They are only like 57 or something, but they act like they are 80. Now, when my mom retired, my dad promised her that he would buy all the groceries. And he is buying groceries, but he doesn't buy any staples for her pantry so there is nothing for her to put together a meal. They do have a freezer full of beef from buying a cow, but my dad is having problems with his jaw so he can't chew any of it and won't let my mom fix it. Oh, FYI, my dad has the money to buy the groceries. So, it's not like they are poor and starving.

So, last night, I'm talking to my mom on the phone and she is just griping away about all of the above and that her health is so bad she can't go to the grocery herself. She said that it has gotten so bad (meaning they are so low on food) that for dinner my dad fixed Ramen noodles with hot dogs cut up in it. My mom: "I just told him, 'You can have the whole entree; I'll eat a bag of popcorn!' " That just got me so tickled! My dad is like a bakery/deli snob. He'll buy $4-5 loaf of bread from Publix bakery and only eat on it for one day before he deems it stale. But he's eating Ramen noodles with cut-up hot dogs!!! Plus, he keeps buying Rotel tomatoes. My mom said she has a whole shelf in her pantry filled with Rotel tomatoes and nothing she cooks calls for them. Except of course for Rotel dip which she used to make once a year five years ago! (They stopped hosting the event she used to make it for.) Isn't that a riot?

It's so ridiculous that I don't know who I feel sorry for more. So, I just have to laugh about it.
Getting my laughs and giggles,
Mama Said

Busy Week . . . Again

Whew! This has been a crazy week already! I totally missed Muffin Tin Monday this week. I've been running around here with one little crisis after another. Nothing big just enough to keep me hopping.
Here's an update on our week:

-The window company is finally coming to put in our windows on Thursday. Gulp! That's tomorrow! Okay, major panic attack! I have to move everything away from the windows. I don't even think our bed will fit in the room 2 ft away from the windows. How is that going to work? Plus, all the junk and boxes and stuff I've never got around to are guess where? You got it! Piled up by the windows.

-I've spent 2 days trying to find those furniture slider things. You know, the discs you put under the furniture to make it slide like butter across the floor. I thought these were quite popular and would be rather easy to find without going into the "big town." Wrong! I guess once again I'm behind the times. So, ended up at "big town" at Wal-Mart of course. And, what's the magic number to spend at Wal-Mart? $80. I can never get out of there without spending $80 dollars! My total was $78.11. What the heck? It amazes me how they do that. Rhett was like "Well, they did their job. You went in for one thing and spent $80." He doesn't see how this is possible. My response is he shouldn't have made the furniture sliders my responsibility. Otherwise, I would never have been in Wal-Mart yesterday. And, of course, I really needed all the stuff I bought. He'll see.

-My other major panic attack has been that a few months ago I came up with this big plan for my grandmother's birthday. I wanted me, my sis, my mom, and my aunt to all go to my grandmother's and go shopping, out to eat, and stay up late and spend the night all with no husbands or kids. You know, so it would be like it was when I was little. Plain ol' girl fun. I know my grandmother will love it. But, whoops! My mom and aunt wrote it down and have been making big plans and I totally forgot about it. I mean I totally forgot about it. To the point where I had come up with a whole new set of plans for her birthday. I tried to play it off to my mom like I hadn't forgotten. But I felt too guilty and had to confess that I hadn't thought about it in a really long time. I can't believe I forgot it! I think I'm going to blame it on the Clomid. I think I'm going to divide my life into before Clomid, during Clomid, and after Clomid. I can't be accountable for anything I said or did before or during. We'll see about after. :) Oh, uh, did I mention her birthday is this Saturday? Eeeek!

-The laugh of the week so far has been Rhett's new driver's license picture. He looks like a pumpkin head! His words, not mine. But it's true. I don't know what happened to the boy. How do you walk in there normal and come out normal but with a picture in between that looks like you have a pumpkin for a head? Was it the orange shirt? Was it cause they get so close? Was it the lack of a hair cut? I don't get it. But at least we'll get to laugh for the next 5 years.

Well, gotta get crack-a-lackin' on moving all that stuff!
Mama Said

Sleep Attempt

Sometimes I wonder why I even try to sleep. I outta just stay up all night and get stuff done. But, alas, every night I try and try again to sleep. Every single night I have to get up to use the restroom at least once. Some nights, it's 2 or 3 times. Crazy, isn't it? I think I need some of that "I gotta go, gotta go, gotta go right now" medicine. Last night, I was up and down for hours running to the restroom 'cause of my irritable bowel syndrome. But I try not to complain about that 'cause I feel blessed that is all I have wrong with me after my crazy ordeal last year (which I'll explain in an upcoming post in July).

But the night before last, the reasons I didn't sleep were just ridiculous! I know I can't be the only mama out there that goes through this kind of stuff. Here's a run down of my night:

11:00ish--Went to sleep
1:30--Eyes fly open, wide awake with the realization that I did not pay our storage units this month. (Thanks, Lord, for letting me realize this!) Of course, I just couldn't believe that I had completely forgotten this for 2 weeks. So, I leap out of bed and double check my checkbook. Nope, nada. I had not paid. Resolved to go the next day and apologize profusely and pay. But I lay there thinking about how they had no way to contact us because I procured the units before we moved. All the wrong stuff was on our file. So, I tried to sleep with visions of 2/3 of all our material possessions be pilfered through and sold. Finally drifted off.
3:00--Rhett had to get up and leave for work to teach a training to 2nd shift. I don't know what happened to the boy, but he was SO loud getting dressed. The armoire doors kept slamming. Aaagh! I was not happy. I mumbled "What's your problem?" and drifted back off.
3:10--Rhett is still here?!?! He's pilfering through his little pile on the dresser. He flings open his wallet and is pulling out all the cards and such in there. Clearly even in my daze, I knew he had lost something. I ask and he's lost his ID badge to get in his work building. I suggest looking in his car. He tromps out and finds it. What would he do without me? I think as a drift off once again.
3:23--My eyes fly open as I realize Rhett is gone and it's pitch black outside and the past two mornings, he has left the door unlocked. Being the paranoid person I am, I had to get up and go check the door. It was locked. I guess my paranoid lecture the night before on the virtues of locking the door had gotten through to him. Aaaah! Time to sleep!
5:45--I hear BFG upstairs banging her drawers in search of something to change into. Apparently, today was Get Dressed As Loud As You Can Day and no one had told me. Of course, why she is waking up early every morning and changing into a nightgown is still a mystery. It's kind of become a problem this week. I asked her why on the first day she did it and she said, "Mama, you know I've been thinking and thinking that I didn't want to wear that shirt anymore." All righty then! I have realized "Hey, wouldn't it be a great idea if I just put her to bed in one of her nightgowns?" But, alas, due to my lack of sleep, I haven't had to energy to follow through on this thought.
5:48--BFG joins me in bed and starts talking and asking questions. This has been a problem this week, too. What is the deal? I'm sorry, BFG, but I didn't really need to know that Old Mr. Guinea Hen got up early this morning. In fact, I can still hear him squawking. I tell her it's too early to talk and to go to sleep. We both drift off. Or so I think.
6:15--BFG wakes me up to tell me she left E-yah upstairs and she needs him. (E-yah is her blankie. And, yes, she can say blankie. E-yah is it's name and has been since she could talk. My niece's blankie is named Mo-unt. So, apparently, they both inherited some freak genetic code.) I trudge up stairs and get E-yah for her. Finally, finally, I think gleefully. I can get some sleep!
7:03--I get up for the day.

So, you see my friend, why bother?
Off to chug-a-lug my coffee,
Mama Said

Aaaaah . . . Family.

Well, I don't know about ya'll, but I am familied out! Now, I love, love, love my extended family. But I can only take so much before I need to be alone. I have been so busy this weekend. I went to two homeschool curriculum sales (one Friday and one Sat.). We went to my grandmother's on Sat. evening and spent the night and stayed all day Sunday to visit with my aunt who is in from out-of-state. We were home Monday by ourselves and I used that time to finish painting the first coat on the floor of the never-ending room. Then, today my aunt, grandmother, my mom and dad, and my sister and her kids were all here most of the day. The funny thing is that the things that annoy me about my family are the same ways in which I am most like them: the loud, excited talking, the too-strong opinions, the trying to prove your way is right, the worrying way too much about things that don't matter or that will more than likely not come to fruition, the same old stories told over and over and over again, etc. I guess BFG will be complaining one day about the same things about me that I complain about now in my relatives. Plus, there is just always drama. Every year, my dad pulls some crap which gets us all upset and fighting before we ever even get there. Then, this year one of my cousins is separated and more than likely getting a divorce. The catch is the entire town where they live knows about it, but for some odd reason none of the family is supposed to know. So, that was tense and awkward since we all do know and we know most of the gory details. Weird.
You wanna know what the best part is? We get to go back on Friday for my other cousin's wedding and spend another weekend doing the same thing! Ooooh, it makes me tired just thinking about it. And poor Rhett. His family is the calmest family I know and very small. If nothing else, I know he loves me based on the fact he's willing to deal with all our craziness.

Mama Said

Sunday Mornings

Man, Sunday mornings are just terrible for me. I'm wondering, am I the only one? It starts off with me getting up just about 15 minutes too late and then I probably spend just a little too long in the bathtub. (But, hey, if I had a shower, maybe I could speed that up a bit. Ha!) Then, it falls apart from there. Rhett is trying to get BFG ready and she's basically screaming for me. This has been going on since she was about 3 months old. I just do not understand why I can give her a bath and get her dressed with her being all smiles and when Rhett does it, she screams bloody murder. Then, I get mad and start screaming, I just don't understand why you can't just one time get her ready without making her cry!!!!! Then, as he gets her ready, I have to keep stopping my getting ready process to answer questions or go get something because for whatever reason, I am the only person on the planet who knows where anything is in this house although the stuff is in the same place as always. Then, I'm screaming, can ya'll just leave me alone for five minutes? After Rhett gets BFG dressed, he sees we are going to be late and is mad and he sits down in the recliner, which totally peeves me because can't he be up doing something to make this process move along like fix BFG's cup and what not? So, every Sunday I yell at him to do something. Then, I somehow get my five minutes and I'm just about ready and eyeing the clock know we have about two minutes before we have to walk out the door and I start feeling pretty pleased, a little lipstick and squirt of perfume, turn to leave and BAM! I see BFG and remember I have to fix her hair. Somehow, I always forget that I have to do this task on Sundays and I sometimes have to redress her because Rhett still hasn't learned that the buttons on dresses usually go in the back and he still hasn't mastered putting on fancy socks. So, then it's a mad dash to brush BFG's hair and get us out the door and to church late as usual. The whole drive to church I'm saying I'm sorry to Rhett and go into a whole pity party thing of how I'm just such a terrible wife. See, Rhett was always at least 15 minutes early to everything before he met me. Now, we are 15 minutes late to everything and I know he hates it so much.

The thing is I really am being a bad wife and mother. It is ridiculous to put my family through this every Sunday. And, yes, I 've read all that stuff about how if you're yelling at your family getting ready for church then you are negating the point of going and may as well not go. This makes me feel more guilty about it although I think it's a little extreme. I mean, come on, I can't get any benefit out of going? That's a little silly. Anyway, I've just been getting a little disgusted with myself lately and how chaotic and disorganized my household is. I want it to be so, so different. I've really got to do something. I'm not sure where to start though. Any ideas? I think one thing would be to start getting up earlier on a daily basis and to quit staying up until 11:00 or 11:30 every night.

Gotta hit the laundry, girls.
Mama Said