Love/Hate with the 5 senses

I love the:

SIGHT of undisturbed nature
SMELL of a summer rain in the heat of the summer
TASTE of Cadbury chocolate (from Ireland) as it melts on you tongue
SOUND of my family laughing and my kids having a conversation

I hate the:

SIGHT of neglected children and animals
SMELL of newly laid asphalt and cigarettes
TASTE of cooked spinach
SOUND of criticism, whether it is of me or anyone else
FEEL of sand in places I ddin't know existed

Oh, the tales I could tell...

Since I have been receiving harassing e-mails and chats on my blog, I figured it was time to update. As I have yet to receive any challenges, I will have to just wing it.

I had really been looking forward to some "me time" and scrapbooking with my friends, when I lost my mind and invited not one, but two children to my house for a sleepover. Since I didn't want to win the worst mom/wife of the year, I decided to stick with the sleepover plan and missed the scrapbook night. My husband, man that he is, actually offered to stay with the four, count them four, children. I very graciously declined, not wanting to find the children bound and gagged with duct tape, the dog missing and my husband in the fetal position muttering indistinguishable words.

Chaos ensued. Never, I repeat never, get two big brothers together with two younger sisters, it is never a good combination. The boys harassed the girls and the girls harassed the boys. Actually, it was only MY children harassing each other and trying to show off for their guests. Then as things were starting to calm down, I get this very strange, however appropriate, phone call from the above mentioned friends (all of whom shall read this!!! :) ) having a grand ole time. To be fair, I am really glad they had fun, just really jealous that I wasn't there. That will teach me to not write things down in my calendar. "If it's not in my calendar, it doesn't exist." That's my motto. Sometimes, even when it is in the calendar, it doesn't exist, them I blame it on the kids. Somehow or other, it's always the kids faults. (That will certainly get me "Mother of the Year" - What "mother" I'm not quite sure.)

So as I sit here trying to do the program for church tomorrow (notice it's 11pm) I will leave you with this thought:

"Depression is merely anger without enthusiasm."

Now the pain begins...

Okay, now that I've started this blog it seems that I will now be obsessing about one thing or another. At this moment in time, my obsession are my braces. They were doing okay until last night and today. Apparently, the inside of my mouth is much more sensitive that I first thought. On Friday, the braces were not sharp at all and I wasn't sure of all the hullabaloo. Literally, they have sharpened themselves overnight and my mouth is beginning to resemble chopped liver. Thank heavens for wax. It has taken up residence on my brackets.

Now, I will be attempting to post some pictures. Of course, being the scrapbooker that I am, I took over 350, but will only highlight the trip. ... Well, that was a bust. The bad thing about having a camera that takes 10 megapixel pictures, is that they are too big to upload. I will have to consult my technical support (ie. my husband) to see what the problem is. Anyway, will still highlight.

Monaco was nice, but the people (being French) were a little stuffy. We had a blast and saw how "the other half" lives. We ate lots of "tiny" food and it was wonderful. We also did a tour of Eze. Eze is a medieval village perched like an eagles nest on a narrow rocky peak overlooking the Mediterranean sea. There were many steps and I got most of the way up.

Ireland was very nice and a lot more relaxed. We went to County Cork and saw the Blarney Stone. We did NOT kiss the Blarney Stone, because how many lips have actually been on the Blarney Stone?!?!?! It was a great time and glad we did it without the kids. But we were very happy to come home.

I'm way too old for this...

Looking at the times my friends commented on my last blog, I not only feel inadequate, I also feel very old. I was fast asleep when everyone was looking at my blog. It's been tough coming back from my vacation, but I'm still not up at 5am, even on my best days.

The last week has been interesting to say the least. The highlight, well at least the most interesting, being getting braces. Yes, on Friday I "bit the bullet" (no pun intended) and got braces to fix my bite, and hopefully save my molars from impending doom. My friends and family have had a good ole' time with this one. Funny enough though, the ones that are the most sympathizing are not the ones who have had braces. I have been called train tracks, metal mouth, tin grin to name a few, most from my loving and "understanding" husband who, in his prime, had braces. Even some kids in Andrew's class have jumped on the band wagon, not to mention any names (Lauren) !!! It's all in good fun (I think) . This regression into teenagedom has not had quite the effect I was looking for. I was hoping that this would be a great, if not an expensive, weight loss program. Much to my dismay, I still am eating, just not as enthusiastically, as I once did. I have to stay away from some of the healthier foods such as any raw vegtable, hard candy and gooy stuff. I didn't know how tough teenagers had it when faced with braces. No wonder they are all the size they are!!

Pictures of my trip are coming. I just need to get the camera and computer in the same room. But rest assured, that there will be NO pictures of my new and yet to be improved smile. So much for those lovely 40th birthday pictures next year. Gee I bet eveyone is upset about that!!

My first therapy session...

Upon the suggestion of a friend, I am going to try blogging my life with my children and husband.

My husband and I returned from Europe (Monaco and Ireland, specifically) two days ago. We had a wonderful time, however, we came home to one less in our family. Our 13 year old Australian Shepard passed away while we were gone. My dad had to deal with the death of our dog and the children, along with all the questions associated with losing a pet. Lindsey seems to be taking this rather well, but Andrew is going through the normal stages of grief. He seems to be better now, but I will be waiting with baited breath.

In Monaco, we attended a lot of company functions. We were there with Bob's company for "club". Every year, the company rewards the sales people with a trip. This year was to Europe. On the return trip, we stopped in Ireland and spent the weekend there. We stayed in Dublin and then traveled to County Cork for the weekend. the shopping was wonderful and scenery beautiful. The weather was better than expected, supposedly, the best spring the UK has had in 300 years. That is not normal for us, normally we expect the worst.

Getting back into the swing of things had been a challenge. School and kids has helped get me back on track. Teacher appreciation came upon us quickly, so we have been scrambling to get things done. We'll see how it goes next week.