Tired...Cranky....and Tired

Usually being tired and cranky is reserved for my kids, but today that describes me perfectly. I am tired, just plain stinking tired. I stayed up way to late (because I had caffeine past 9PM. Oh the horror of getting old!) and did not go to bed until after 11:30PM. That is WAY past bed time for me. And we, as a family are so busy during this time of year. We have baseball and softball games and practice just about every night. Which means that my family is not eating supper until well after 8:00 every night, which pushes bath times and bed times back past the normal, which makes for a very short, tempered grouchy mommy. But I really wouldn't have it any other way. I LOVE watching my kids play sports and watching our high school baseball team, for whom my DH is one of the coaches, play. Our high school team is made up of such a great group of young men. Young men who so far are making good choices, unlike some of their other schoolmates. And my boy is going to be playing first base this year! Can a get Whoot Whoot! This is a very big deal as this is his first promotion to the infield from being designated to the outfield since he started playing baseball as a 4 year old. And like he said, he is almost 8 now, and it is his turn to be one of the "older" kids.

Let's see what else is going on....oh yeah! My house. My house is an absolute wreak and is about to be condemned anytime. Why you ask? Because of the above mentioned crazy a** schedule! In addition to being out of the house every night, I am working full time and taking two online classes, one of which is Biology and is by far the hardest freaking class I have ever taken!! Even my DH, who teaches Biology mind you, admits that what I am being asked to remember is far beyond what basic Biology is. Crazy I tell you!!! So, the housework is sadly taking a backseat to, oh I don't know, feeding my children. But, my mom and my aunts will be here in one week to visit, so I better get on the ball and at least locate the kitchen table underneath all of the stuff so we at least have a place to sit down and eat dinner together. Plus, it's my mom y'all! I can't have her seeing my house look like this! How embarrassing!

And that...well, that is about it. Happy Easter Y'all!

Madeline Alice Spohr

I am not an eloquent writer. I have a difficult time choosing my words on days when my heart isn't heavy with sorrow.

Madeline Alice Spohr passed away on April 7, 2007. She was only 17 months old. I have followed the journey of her life through her mom Heather's blog and smiled daily at the angelic face that would look out at you each day. In fact, a picture of Madeline's sweet face is what drew me in to begin with and from then on I was hooked.

I can not imagine the heartache of this family nor will I pretend that I understand what they are going through. They fought so hard for Maddie and I know this is not the path they were expecting, not now. Not ever.

Please hold Maddie's family in your prayers and if it is in your ability, donate to the March of Dimes in memory of Maddie.

And most of all, hold your kids a little tighter...a little longer. I know I did.

Bless you Madeline. Fly with the angels.

Tragic Loss....Almost

Yesterday afternoon Sassy Girl called me on her and her brothers daily afternoon walk home. She is limited to 200 minutes a month, so it is very rare that she wastes any of those minutes on her mother, so I knew whatever it was, it was big.

Me: "Hello Sassy Girl. What's up?

SG: "Momma, Boy child is crying hysterically because he lost his shark necklace and he won't stop."

Yes, people the same shark necklace that he was soooo very excited about just days before. I could here the poor child sobbing in the background.

Me: "Give boy child the phone, please. And be nice!"

Boy child: "H-H-H-Hello."

Me: "Hi baby. What's wrong?"

Boy child: "I lost my necklace and now it's going to get run over!!!" (Be sure and say this while crying and hiccupping.)

Me: "It's okay baby. When I get home we will walk back to the school, the same way you came home, and look for it."

Boy child: "Ohhhkaaayyy"

Me: "We may not be able to find it but if we can't we will order a new one off the innernet. So stop crying baby and give your sister the phone."

I then promptly texted Sassy Girl and told her to be nice to her brother! She was not being very sisterly and she needed to tell him it was going to be okay, that we would look for the necklaces. She in turn, promptly texted back "Fine. But the whole car line can hear him." Ahhh, sibling love. You gotta love it.

The poor child was heartbroken. He had to take the necklace off during PE class (cause you know that shark tooth might hurt someone and all.) and his teacher had put his necklaces with his sweatshirt. As he was walking home, it had slipped out of his sweatshirt. He called agian once they reached the house and insisted I come home right then so we could look for his necklace. I did not of course but he was waiting for me at the door when I got home from work.

We began the walk back to the school, taking the same path he and his sister took, looking on the ground starting at the point where he realized he had lost it, all the while talking about his prized necklace.

Me: "You know, we may not be able to find your necklaces. Someone else may have found them and picked them up. You need to be prepared if we can not find them."

Boy child: " I know. I already told myself in my head that I am never going to wear something special to school again."

How stinkin' cute is that?!!!!

And guess what? We found the necklaces and I had a very happy little boy.

It's still warm!

My parents went to Florida for their February break ('cause in the north they get to have a break in February AND in April! Lucky dogs.) and picked up the kids and I a few cool little trinkets while they were there. As always, boxes from Mamie are full of surprises, you just never know what she is going to have thrown in there!

For the sassy girl, she sent this incredibly tacky, incredibly awesome picture frame with pink fur on the the top and lounging pink flamingos on it. Totally gift shop tacky and it was great! For the boy child she sent a necklace with a sharks tooth on it, which every 7 yr old boy will tell you "rocks".

But the best part, the absolute best part, was when the boy child opened the necklace and took it out of it's little package and exclaimed "It's still warm from Florida!" with pure delight. I didn't have the heart to tell him it was warm from sitting in the box, inside the car all afternoon with the sun beating down on it. I"m not above messing with his head, but I am not into smashing my baby's joy with the truth.

And me you ask? What did I get? Well, I got me some fingernail polish that changes color in the sun! It is so cool! I have already had to hide the bottles from sassy girl. Cause if I don't they will disappear into the cave she calls a room!

New Name

I have decided to come up with a new name for my site...the problem is what name I want exactly. When I search for the name of my blog, it pulls up a WHOLE bunch of hits leading directly to Hannah Montana. Which ironicly is where I got the name to begin with. I was watching the show with my daughter and that phrase came out of Hannah Montana's mouth and I thought "Hmmmm, I kinda like that."

Only I wasn't thinking of it in the terms of frustration as Miley Cyrus' character was but more in the terms that life hands you little bits of sweetness each and every day, little niblets...get it?

But now I'm not liking it. I have to come up with something sassy, something unique..something that is all ME. I will consult with the trolls that live under my stairs. They always have good ideas.

Teeth

I have received two phone calls so far today from the boy child's school. Why you ask? Well it seems that boy child's teeth hurt. Yes, his teeth. Even I have to admit that this is a new one. And no he doesn't have braces, he's 7. And he does not remember being hit in the mouth or anything weird like that. I should also mention that I also got a call from the school nurse yesterday because the boy child was in the nurses office because his knee hurt so the sympathy card has already been played out. Since this was his third visit to the office today (before lunch had even hit) I brought him up some children's motrin. Being the good mom that I am, I signed into the office, put the lime green visitors badge on my shirt so as not to be acosted by the hallway police as I was an "official" visitor and I had the sticker to prove it and walked down the cafeteria where the boy child was eating lunch.

Oh and I had totally forgotten what boy child wore to school this morning!!! I couldn't find him anywhere among all the other little 2nd grade heads eating lunch! I had to ask a girl in his class where he was. That probably loses points for the mom of the year.

So anywho, after locating the boy child, I shook out two purple pills, handed them over with a smile and told him in my best mommy voice "Take these and do not go to the office again today unless your teeth fall out of your head, there is blood or a bone is showing." I'm thinking he got the message. Please don't call the child authorities on me, he was smiling when I left.

I'm Baaakk.....

Even with my promises to myself that I would try and blog everyday, it didn't happen. It didn't even happen once a month for pete's sake. (What does that mean anyway, for pete's sake? Who is Pete? My grandmother use to say it and I never did understand it.) One of the reasons I do not post is because I honestly do not think that my life is interesting, even to myself.

Things have not been the greatest in the land of Josie but I am happy to report, things are much, much better. Other than the fact that I may not have a job for long, things are going well. It seems like the company that I just starting working for about a month ago, is not happy with the business at my location. Of course, business at said location would be better if our main location would provide the support needed to boost sales. A salesman would be a great place to start! But I digress... Each day I come to work not knowing if it is "the" day they decide to close our doors. In anticipation of said day, I have filled out my FAFSA papers with the hopes that I can get enough financial aid to go to school full time. Keep your fingers and toes crossed that they feel I am as poor as I do and give me the money!

It is important to have a Plan B, especially in times of such economic uncertainty don't you think? Even with our presidents grand plans, Plan B and even a Plan C, D and E are a must for all of us. Will Plan B be easy? Hell no, but at least it is a plan.

For the past two nights, we have been entertained by my youngest's shower concerts. For some reason, this kid has always loved to sing in the shower! And he sings loud I tell ya, for the entire block to hear! Last night it was a short concert, just a few lines from Kid Rock's "All Summer Long" sang a few hundred times. But the night before, oh the night before, he put on a concert worthy of American Idol! His song of choice that night was "Take me out to the ballpark" Why that song you ask? I have no idea! But his performance was enough to even make his older sister, who thinks he is the worlds most annoying brother EVER, take note and record him on her cell phone to share with her friends. That's love I tell you, pure love.