Today I Am Glad

On this cool, clear, sunny Sunday morning.... I am glad.

Not angry that there are heaps of laundry, but GLAD that there are five people in my house that have clothes to wear.

Not angry that my room is full of kids' clutter, but GLAD that I have three beautiful, healthy children to whom that clutter belongs.
Not angry that my house is never as clean as I'd like, but GLAD that I have a big, comfortable house that's warm for us to live in.
Not angry that I go back to work tomorrow, but GLAD that I have a job.

I'm not the least bit frustrated that our credit cards have balances again, but CALM knowing that we have the resources to pay them off. (Again :) )
Not upset with my husband for any number of trivial, ridiculous things that he did or did not do... but THANKFUL that there is no doubt that he loves me and our children and would do anything for us.
Not overwhelmed with the amount of responsibility that parenthood and being a wife presents on a daily, if not hourly basis... but THRILLED that I have the opportunity to be a mother and a wife.
Not bummed because I need to go grocery shopping... but THANKFUL that I have a nice car to drive there, the money to buy what we need, and a healthy body to carry out the task.

Not super-anxious about the possibility of Mike's new awesome job, but SATISFIED knowing that he is well-qualified for it and any other job he cares to apply for. (Okay, that's a little bit of a lie. I'm SUPER-ANXIOUS to know!!)
I'm ecstatic to know that whether he gets the job or not, that we'll be PERFECTLY FINE.

I'm not frustrated that the girls need new clothes, again, because I'm GLAD to know that they're healthy and growing fast.
I'm not sad that they're growing up so quickly, but EXCITED about the new opportunities and milestones that they reach every day.
I'm not exhausted from the busy schedules and activities, but overwhelmed with PRIDE at the successes they have in these activities.
Not the least bit mad that they misbehave or sneak candy or find creative ways to do exactly whatever it is I said not to do... but in AWE of how smart they are. (It's creepy, really.)


Not the least bit ashamed, disappointed, or angry with whatever life has sent my way... but GLAD.

Fashion-forward...or not

If you know me, you also know that I do not dabble in the fashion industry. I don't even peep, I mean, pop a toe (hee hee.. PEEP-TOE!!) in the ocean that is fashion.

My wardrobe consists of comfortable, sensible work-appropriate clothes and an impressive collection of jeans and t-shirts. There's probably no need to discuss my sports bra obsession or choice of underwear that is specifically and meticulously chosen for its ability to stay OUT of my rear. I mean, no need after this one little discussion, of course.

Anyway, I have a point. Or at least there is a point to there not being a point. Whatever.

I am a relatively intelligent person, or so I like to think... but when it comes to the terminology used in the fashion world, said world regularly hands me a large piece of "you're a moron" pie. Rather, it may be more accurate to say that it throws the whole pie in my shiny, make-up free face.

For example. I realize that these were in and out of style a few years ago, but indulge me for a minute. Kitten heels. Seriously? I am not so behind the evolutionary times of women that I don't realize these are shoes. I just didn't realize that small furry kittens wore them! Or...yikes...are they specially made for stomping on said furry kittens??? Either way, I will be forever grateful that they didn't last long. Oh, never mind - my personal satisfaction from this fact has been swiftly replaced by the extreme disappointment at the new stiletto fad. At least I had a minute chance of not breaking my ankle before. Sheesh.

And... something a bit more "with the times"... the "maxi" dress? Really? Are we so at a loss for names for fashion elements that we had to steal from hygiene products?

And don't get me started on all the different names we have for different lengths of dresses. Google produced these: micro-mini, mini, moxi, tea length, ballerina length, full length, midi, maxi. (Reminds me of the name game. "Mini, mini, micro-mini, banana fanna moe moxi, fi fie foe midi... mini!" See, this is why they shouldn't let me out in public.) Presumably, these are in order from shortest to longest (now the maxi thing is making a little more sense, but I still picture the "extra long with wings"). Now, I'm a tall girl, and it is possible that there would be a noticeable distinction in each of these lengths on someone of my height. But, since the average woman is say, 5'5, I venture to guess that these minor variations would be lost. "Oh, for shame... she's wearing a "moxi" length dress at a "tea length" event.. the horror! Her family will be forever shamed." Riiiiiiight.

And the more traditional terms... is it just me, or do they all sound like obscenities (with some sort of accent)? Aw, SMOCK! What the FROCK?! She is such a pain in the ASCOT.

Peep-toe - a toe with voyeuristic tendencies? Probably doesn't refer to the hole in the big toe portion my socks. Furry boots with miniskirts, because our need for warm feet is only slightly more than our need to have our rear ends hanging out in thirty-degree weather (it's not like tights are THAT warm). Or, alternatively, perhaps it's that our need to not have ridiculously sweaty feet is slightly less than our need to be "cool, hip, and with-it. Either way it's lost on me.

And as a personal aside... I'm not sure the fashion industry is so smart anyway. Hello... the 80's called and wants its neon, baggy, ripped, striped, big-haired trends back. They were horrible then. Nobody I know looks back at their high school photos from that period of time and says "Wow, we were so hot!"

Wearing scarves when it's 90 degrees outside. I suppose you don't need me to explain that one. Although, I must admit I put one of Hannah's scarves on after I picked it up out of the floor, and it was kinda fun to fiddle with.

Skinny jeans. I spit in your general direction. They should be called "please only wear me if you're extremely skinny" jeans. Or "please don't even try to squeeze any amount of actual hip or thigh into something this skinny" jeans.

JUST SAY NO to ultra-low-rise pants. From what I can gather, this is the reverse effect of the super-short shorts that were so cool this year. Instead of the inseam covering two inches of your, AHEM, you know... these pants now stylishly show two inches of your, AHEM, crack...

Okay, okay. I'm done.

It's no wonder that "What Not To Wear" is so fiendishly popular.

Catching up

Sorry, I've been on an extended blog-vacation. No reason, just got addicted to Facebook and now spend most of my computer time on there. The rest of that time is spent on extremely interesting things like online bill paying and household budgeting. Such a freak!

What's been going on with us:

Abby can ride her bike without training wheels, too. She actually learned two weekends after Ryley did. The girls also spend a lot of time using their SmartCar as a street luge. Our house is on a corner, and the lot slopes down from the front corner, making a really nice street luge course out of our sidewalk. It's scary to watch, but nobody's been turned into hamburger yet.

The girls spent most of their summer hanging out with Granny and Papa, with some intermittent time at Nana & Papaw's and in Harrisburg with Papa. It went by entirely too fast, and I cannot believe that fall is here already. I'm still wondering where April went.

Hannah started the fourth grade. She's close to five feet tall. She's headed swiftly into the age of braces on the teeth (probably next year), boys (hopefully not), and caring what other people think about her. I'm seeing some pre-PMS behavior too. Yikes. She's going to be a level 6 gymnast this year, which means more flips and more practices. She's still got abs of steel.

Ryley started Kindergarten. She was so excited, asked to go every day from the moment we registered her in June... made it a whole week before she decided going to school every day wasn't as cool as she thought, because now she can't have Granny days. She lost her first tooth a few weeks ago, and is very close to losing another one. She will likely change from recreational gymnastics to competitive this year (developmental team - level 4). She's also huge. I forget that she's only five (almost 6) a LOT.

Abigail has entered a new stage of her life - life without Ryley. She's flying solo at preschool now, and honestly it was pretty hard on her for a week or two. Granted, those two are only 15 months apart, and have been together virtually 24/7 since she was born. I did think it was rather funny since those two bicker most of the time they're together anyway. She still remains the most likely one of our children to be featured on a "COPS" episode at some point in her adult life. She is a busy, sneaky, wiley little girl. Earlier this week, her trifling let to the third call to Poison Control in our parenting history after she (likely) ingested seven children's cold and cough medicine dissolving strips and hid the evidence under the (cool) iron in our bathroom. Scary part is we didn't find them until the next day. Apparently seven is well within an acceptable range of cold and cough strips. I then question why the dosage on the back says one strip for her weight??

Mike and I have been working, mostly, and chasing the girls around. We're home about three hours a day during the week, during which time homework, supper, and baths must be scrunched. That really is about all we do. Weekends are reserved for the highly entertaining tasks of laundry, general cleaning, and/or sleeping. We're a fascinating bunch, I know.

Next up: Adult trip to New Orleans, just for the heck of it. Should be exhausting, but a lot of fun!

The Great Baking Soda Debacle of 2009... and other mayhem

Really. It WAS quite a debacle.

THIS is the first thing I see as I walk out the back door...

Then this...Then there was this...
Not even the firepit escaped...Nor did the dog bowl...

Yet she still gives the impression that she's totally innocent...

This little event wasn't the only fun part about this week, no sir..

There was also the "pants in the toilet" gala - where I went to use the restroom (in MY bathroom, I might add) and found a small pair of pajama pants floating in my toilet. I already know from experience that Abby is the guilty party, so I called her in and questioned her motives... and got the following response.

"I couldn't reach the toilet paper."

And here I was hoping that the pants were merely placed in the toilet out of mischievousness. Nope, there were certain needs to be met, and met they were, in an astounding case of resourcefulness. I'll let you guess what was floating UNDER the pants.

The really sad part? They were Ryley's pants.

And last, but certainly least... there was the "Notorious Theft of Starburst from a certain Movie Rental Establishment". It was a dark and stormy night (okay, perfect and sunny...whatever!) and the girls and I went to rent movies to ease our pains from missing Daddy. You may also recall this is the fateful night where Marley and Me forever ruined our Saturday night. Well, turns out we came home with a little more than a depressing movie... my youngest daughter has begun what is surely to lead to a lifetime of crime.

I'm thinking of having her fingerprinted now, to save a lot of heartache and policework later on.

MMMMMIIIIIKKKKKKKEEEEEE!!!!!

Another milestone already??

That's right... Ryley begged and begged to have the training wheels taken off her bicycle today, so we did. And then she hopped right on and took off. She's a little wobbly on takeoff, but otherwise looks like an old pro!

This was immediately followed by Abby begging and begging to have the training wheels removed from HER bicycle... which we may try this afternoon, and may hold off until next weekend. I want to make sure Ryley gets her time to shine. Plus, Mommy's poor heart can only take so much growing up in one day... One milestone per family, per day please.

No more Marley and Me

It's the end of week one without Mike, who's in China on a business trip. He'll be gone next week too. He's been several times, but most of those were when the girls were much smaller. This time they're much more aware of his absence and it's obvious they're a little freaked out by it. The kids are acting out more often and I've noticed them yelling at each other quite a bit today. I can tell my patience is wearing thin, too, because I then yell at them for yelling at each other. It's (not) very effective.

They made it through the week okay. Today must have really hit home ... no school or gymnastics to distract them. We passed the morning by picking up our horrifically messy living room and kitchen, then had lunch, napped, and decided to go rent movies to take our minds off missing Daddy.

Seemed like such a good idea at the time. Hannah picked a Scooby-doo compilation, Ryley chose the sequel to Narnia, and Abby chose Marley and Me. I'm guessing it's the giant picture of a Labrador puppy on the front that grabbed her interest. I vaguely recalled seeing the book but didn't read it, and after a quick reading of the back of the movie cover decided it was pretty harmless. Some of Hannah's friends had seen it already and told her it was sad, but we're not particularly emotional people about movies so I figured we'd be okay. We even KNEW the dog was going to die at the end.

Oh, if only I had known... an hour and a half later, as all four of us sat bawling our eyes out... Ryley declares "That is the worst movie EVER!!!" In the midst of my tears, I looked at our pitiful bunch and started to giggle. Somewhere in all of our misery I figured most women don't consider crying at movies to be odd and, in fact, probably rent movies like Marley on purpose.

As for us, we WON'T be watching that movie again. Certainly NOT after a whole week of no Daddy. Thankfully Mike called us shortly after the movie had ended (while we were drowning our sorrows in some Pop-Ice popscicles) and the girls cheered up a little. Some after-dark bike-riding in the driveway helped too. Marley has been replaced in its cover and safely stowed until its return to the video store.

Maybe I should go ahead and ban Where the Red Fern Grows just for the heck of it. I'm still traumatized after our fourth-grade viewing of it back in '89.

Another milestone in kid-raising

Ryley successfully completed her kindergarten wellness exam and last round of shots today. SIGH. She did great, and didn't even cry when they gave her the shots.

Of course, now her legs are sore so she required me to wash her hair in the bathtub AND lift her out of it... think somebody might be milking the situation much???

I'm not that mom that cries hysterically when her children go to school (but I am totally NOT judging if you are). I'm excited for her and she is excited to be a "big girl". I think she was ready last year, but as her birthday falls after the age cutoff, she'll now be one of the older ones in her class. And probably one of the tallest.

This should be very handy for her in high school... as one of the first to have her driver's license. Yikes.

Anyway, she's very healthy, with good vision, eating habits, and spine alignment (seriously). We were lectured momentarily on the importance of bike helmets. What horrible parents we must seem to be... I'm all for carseats and sunscreen, but the bike helmet I just can't get excited about. Perhaps my feelings will change once the training wheels come off and top speed reaches higher than my jog. And people, my jog is SLOW.

And guess what? Abby will enter Kindergarten NEXT YEAR. If I'd thought about it for more than 5 seconds we would have just done all her doctor stuff at the same time.

I wonder what it will be like when they're all in school? I plan to change my work hours again so that I can either drop them off or pick them up more often. I'm trying to convince Mike that he needs to become a VP, like FAST, so that I can stay home. Yes, I'm that lady that waits until her kids are in SCHOOL to stay home with them :) and I am not ashamed. I love those girls but sometimes I need to love them when they're somewhere else, and they need that too.

Okay, so I've gone all random now. Anyway, just wanted to share the milestone with you. Anybody got a new baby I can hold for a minute? Mine seem to have time-warped out of that stage straight into the teens.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder...

at least I tell myself that's why I haven't posted in so long. In actuality, it's been a very hectic last month or so, and I simply have chosen to let the blog go in favor of more important things... sleep for example.
The last two months at work have been very, very busy. I've had several large cases come to major decision points around the same time, and paired with my already busy workload, makes for a very cranky and stressed-out Courtney. I am happy to say that these cases have since either been closed or are very close to closing.
If you've forgotten what I do for a living... I handle about a third of the audits that are conducted routinely by the 46 states with a corporate income tax. (Hooray for those four states without one!) And, seeing how I work for the world's largest retailer, we are audited by most of the other 46 states on a regular basis. I work on a team with three other great people who all do the same thing. We have split the 46 states among us in as close to a "fair" way as we could, but sometimes the workload shifts depending on what's going on in those particular states at that moment. These last few months have been my moment.
Anyway, I have spent many hours at the office and at home dealing with all the many moving parts involved in closing a large audit. As expected, there are always a few people that make the process painful and I have many times been quite frustrated with those people. Some days I wish that my job really was only about the numbers. Wow - I really am a nerd!
I learned that I don't deal well with stress any more. I think I used to - but that's been so long ago! Apparently I have some physical stress symptoms - lovely rashes and two separate bouts of sinus infections/bronchitis. I also haven't been the most enjoyable person to be around either. I know, it's a shocker.

The girls have been really good, though. They're getting older, and as they do we're trying to get them out of the house to do more things as a family. This new initiative has made for some very interesting times, but overall they've done really well. We have a "family allowance" for going out to eat or the movies or whatever, but sometimes we just stay home and roast hot dogs over a fire, too. I've noticed a marked difference in mainly the little girls' behavior out in public and also at home.
This weekend, for example, we went to the park, out to eat at Chili's, and to the Razorback Lady Gymnast Regional Meet. I was nicely surprised that even though the Chili's event and the gym meet were both fairly late in the evening, all were nicely behaved (even Mike!). Okay, so there was a lot of wiggling and fidgeting, but hey, that was all me.
Hannah wrapped up her gymnastics season in the fine town of Pine Bluff (yikes, people) and did fine. It's nice to have some free weekends now, although I will miss seeing her perform....not so much the other 99 girls that don't belong to me. If you haven't experienced a gymnastics meet for youngsters, congratulations... they average five hours with awards and your gymnast performs for less than four minutes of that time...yes, you heard me right. And lest you hope that those four minutes are consecutive...nope, one minute every hour or so. How did I not see this and advocate for soccer or softball?? We had some issues with her goofing off this year, but we had a serious discussion about doing our best all the time and we'll see where that gets us. She is, after all, only nine. But, I got the impression she thought she HAD to do gymnastics, which is not and never has been the case. So, hopefully we've cleared all that up and she'll learn something about work ethic in the meantime.

Ryley will be starting Kindergarten this fall. She's been learning sight words and can read a little bit. She's also grown about a foot and weighs a ton. She's my cuddly, people-pleasing, super-sensitive sweetpea. Lately she's been struggling with the "big-girl" complex and of course since she is not one yet, life isn't fair. She's at an awkward age where she can't do the things that Hannah does yet, but she's capable of more than Abby. It's been tough to balance that and I plan to spend some alone time with her in hopes of alleviating the "not fair" issues.

Abigail will move up to the last year of preschool this year and will go to Kindergarten next year. She's all about keeping up with the Hannahs and the Ryleys, so she's trying to learn Ryley's sight words too. Well, only when there's jellybeans involved, anyway. She's my spunky kid (AKA "rotten") with a rebellious streak a mile long. We've finally (for the most part) conquered the potty training problem... and I do mean FINALLY. She was a tough one. We have regular bed-wetting issues, but that comes with the territory. Tasmanian devils apparently sleep really hard and thus don't wake up to go potty. Since she does sleep so well, I don't sweat the bed-wetting. I mean, I NEVER wet the bed... (cough)

Mike and I are also exploring what our life together looks like when we're so busy. Neither of us are happy with our jobs and so we've been pretty snotty to each other lately. The good news is that we're big enough to realize WHY, and haven't gotten really upset over it. We struggle to find time together, and I find that when we do, it's so foreign that sometimes we struggle for conversation. It's a bit like seeing an old friend after a long absence - there were a million things you wanted to tell them but they escape you at the moment you're together. It's an odd place but we're doing okay with it. The family outings have helped a little, and we find time when we can. I'm sure it's nothing out of the ordinary for any busy family. We're not really stressed about it most of the time.

Well, there you go. That's the Martin world for the last few months. It was a long post, but since I've kept all of you waiting I felt I owed you some serious content. Either way, at least you got a nice nap in.

Can you do this?

Sometimes you just don't ask why...

And I didn't. I just grabbed the camera. She was supposed to be in the shower.

And I didn't. She was asleep on the couch, which is microfiber and apparently does crazy things to hair.
Love this kid.

Fire and ice

A quick snapshot from the car on the way to Wal-Mart
The frozen tundra (well, it's as close as I'll ever be, anyway)

Today, however, it was a balmy 65 degrees. We took advantage of the nice weather and burned up all our poor tree parts that rained down during the ice storm. We then took advantage of the burning tree parts to cook hot dogs. All in the circle of life.

One of my favorite pics. I love fire!

Abby's Fourth Birthday

After the make-over, complete with tattoos on foreheads and the neon pink blush which is all the rage in the preschool scene, I hear

Hannah and Ryley wear every item of dress-up clothes they own... all at the same time!!!

Grrr.

Sassy-pants on our actual birthday-day, aren't we?!? For the record, Hannah said something to me today, and I answered with "DUH..."

Sweetie on the birthday party-day (not so much the birthday-day)

Poop in a "sink hole"

Yes, I really titled my post that. Because it's true.

A few nights ago I went into Abby's room to kiss her goodnight. There was a distinct and strong smell of Abby-poop in the room. I do not mean to imply that I can distinguish my children's poop from each other or from anyone else (not a talent I'd broadcast if I could!!) but that we do have several animals, and human poop definitely smells different than animal poop. Maybe that's not a talent to shout from rooftops either... and again I digress.

Anyway, back to the poop smell. There are two restrooms less than 5 feet away from Abby's room, so I did consider that someone could have used the toilet and not flushed. It happens a lot in our house of three girls, oddly. But, on a whim, I said to Abby, "It smells like poop in here. Did you poop?"

Abby is four years old. She hasn't pooped in her pants in two years probably, so I would have been surprised if she had, but honestly she's going through a mean streak lately so who knows??

Well, there are a few telltale signs that Abby has done whatever you just accused her of: 1) she answers with "it wasn't me" before you finish the sentence; 2) she runs away and hides; or 3) she tucks her chin in against her head like a turtle, peers up at you, and gives a fake smile. That evening her response to the poop question was option #3. Busted.

Question #2: "You pooped in here?" Answer: Option #3, more pronounced

Question #3: "WHERE, ABBY?"

She pointed in the general direction of the play kitchen. I walk over there and sure enough, the smell is stronger. But I don't actually see anything... so she gets up and points into the plastic tub that is the "sink" of the kitchen. I still don't see anything. Then I remember that the sink is removable, and sits down in a tub-sized hole. Sigh. I do the obvious... I pick up the tub and peer down into the hole.

There, on the shelf under the hole, neatly sits two small poop pieces as well as a small puddle.

Do I need to mention the close proximity of the TWO bathrooms again?

Stifling giggles, I sternly remind Abby that this is very gross and germy and never to do it again. I remove the offending poop and puddle, clorox-wipe the whole thing down, and run to tell Mike all about it.

His response? "Yeah, I smelled it too but couldn't find it." Apparently he was very concerned because he was playing on the computer when I found him. Maybe I can get Abby to poop in his sink next time!

Yes, I just posted a blog with some version of the word "poop" used THIRTEEN TIMES.

Our week...

We live in Northwest Arkansas. NOT Northern Michigan or any other very, very cold place.

Needless to say, this weather came as a bit of a surprise. This is what we have had this week:

It started raining on Monday afternoon. It looked like this by Tuesday morning.











This is our grass. Looks like a coral reef. Ice literally coated every blade.











Poor dogwood tree. It's like something out of the ice age.











This is some dead decorative grass I never got around to planting :P


















The view from (under) our deck railing












It was a rough week. Our power went out Tuesday afternoon around 3 and finally came back on tonight (Friday). We "roughed" it for a few days and then headed to stay with some family. The girls thought it was pretty fun running around with flashlights in footies with hot chocolate for about 24 hours... then disconnection syndrome from TV and computer-land set in. Wait. That was me... Internet access has just now been regained. Mike was very excited that Superbowl Sunday is still on. Which, ironically, is also Abby's 4th birthday. A true test of fatherhood :) as to which one he picks. Who am I kidding - I would never put him in that position!!! (We all know he would choose wisely... he's really a great, great daddy and husband.)
Here's hoping you're warm and toasty wherever you are.

Still here

No, I haven't dropped of the face of the Earth. The Earth has just been spinning too fast for me to stop and blog. I'll be back in the swing of blogging soon.