August 23, 2013

{Im not over protective..I'm a mother}

I wasn't going to post about this for some unknown reason but I've decided to go ahead and let whomever reads this blog weigh in on what they think I should have done.

As you know today was the 2nd day of school. I was prepared for some tears and maybe a small melt down. I wasn't too worried about it though because I have confidence in Little Boys teacher. She got him to calm down the first day and he likes her. I knew she could handle it. I figured I would help him put away his things and then hug him goodbye. Just like I did yesterday. That is not how it went down and it set the tone for my whole day..and Little Boys too.

When I reached the Kindergarten hallway a teacher (the same teacher G had to help with his reading last year) stopped me and said that I had to say goodbye right there and I couldn't walk to the room with him. This was the first I'd heard about this policy. It wasn't in any hand out and it wasn't voiced at any time by anyone. I tried to get Little Boy to put on his backpack and walk down alone but he wouldnt. I tried to tell him it was OK and that he was going to see his teacher and everything would be fine. I would come pick him up after school just like the day before. But he was having none of it. He is not used to being without me and when he's upset I'm the one he wants. So I just took his hand and started walking down the hall...the teacher stopped me again and said I couldn't do that. I stood there for a good 10min before the principal (the same one that was completely rude to me the minute G became a problem for him last year) came over and offered to walk with him. Little Boy was still having none of it. He wanted me and that was it. It was another few minutes of standing there, and the principal pulling on him trying to get him to leave me (he must have thought I would just walk away and let him drag my kid down the hall...I think not) and telling me maybe I should just disappear. To which I said no and he tried to pull him again and that was when Little Boy let out a "someone is murdering me" scream. I couldn't handle it anymore. I picked him up and carried him to the room. The whole time the principal is behind me calling "ma'am" like that's going to stop me in my tracks. I just said "I can't" and walked in the room.

The minute his teacher saw me she got up and knew exactly what to do. How did she know? Because she did it yesterday and because he is warming up to her just fine. (I love his teacher by the way). I hugged him and let him go and I have no doubt that within 20min he was fine again. Just like the day before.

I was so upset that I cried the entire way back out the door and the entire way home and I was still crying later. Writing this I'm even starting to tear up. Little Boy has literally been with me or family his whole life. He has been with someone else twice and that was Wednesday and today. That's it. To just assume he was going to let go of me so quick is stupid. And I am not one of those mothers that is just going to let this shit happen and not be pissed off about it. Had someone told me that he would be expected to walk by himself on the 2nd day of school I would have prepared him for that. But to just stop parents at the door and say you can't go with them..don't they think that would cause more problems than it would help?? I mean really. What's the point of not letting them be walked by their parent? Its not hurting anyone at all. Is it to keep the traffic down? Probably not. I honestly feel like it was just them being assholes.

Now I've spoken with Little Boy about walking to the room tomorrow alone. I'm Hoping we can get there early enough that his teacher or her helper is there to walk with him. I suspect tears are just a part of it (from me and him) but a screaming fit can be avoided and should be at all costs.

I do not want this to be his memory of his first day of school. I do not want another kid that hates school and fights me on going every single day the way G did last year. I want Little Boy to love it or at least enjoy it. This is the year that he is going to decide if he hates it or not I don't want anyone ruining this for him.

So am I being over sensitive about this? What would you have done?

August 21, 2013

{One Day Down...how many until Christmas break?}

Right now in a town in central IL, there is a little 5yr old boy fast asleep. His mommy (that'd be me) went up to give him cuddles before he fell asleep and found him holding his Innotab (which was still playing Gnomeo & Juliet by the way) eyes shut tight. No doubt exhausted from the long day he had.

I saw this coming you see. When I picked up from school we had to run to walmart right quick to return a pair of pants D bought this morning. One minute he was telling me "I'm not tired mommy" and the next...


Yup. That's my little boy sleeping about 2 blocks from the house (I stopped at a stop sign and snapped this by the way). He is getting so big *sigh*. But I'm getting ahead of myself. 

The morning started out much like every first day of school. I woke up around 6:30am extremely tired from staying up half the night doing laundry, and began to pull myself out of bed. Mainly because I heard the dogs barking. Had they not been making such a racket I probably would have slept another 10min. 

G was already awake and ready by the time I got up. Why? I don't know. Probably excitement. He was already making himself some cereal and making sure he had everything in his book bag. I had him wake up the Drama Queen and I woke up the Little Boy.

Drama Queen tried her hardest to make the morning a complete disaster I think. It was a constant fight, as if she didn't know what she should be doing to get ready. I'll chalk it up to the first day brain deadness and the fact that she hasn't been getting up that early all summer. Little Boy got right up and got dressed though which I was surprised about since he is not a morning person.

I made pancakes. 

The older 2 got on the bus around 8am.



Little Boy didn't have to be there until 8:20 so we were able to hang out at home for a little while before he had to walk out the door. I took that opportunity to shower lol.

The only picture I got of Little Boy that morning was this one..


He was fine walking into the school. He was fine when we got to his class room. But when he realized I was actually going to leave him (like I'd warned him about), he was not a happy camper. I tell you what ladies it broke my heart. I literally thought I was going to die right there in a Kindergarten class room. I helped him put his book bag up and showed him where to sit. But then I hugged him and set him down and left him in the capable hands of his teacher, who assured me he would be OK. I cried all the way back to the car and off and on for most of the day. I hate seeing my kids upset. I can not handle it. I become a blubbering idiot without fail every single time.

I knew it had to be done though and I had confidence in his teacher who had given us a chance to write out something we thought she should know about the kids at meet your teacher night. I'd expressed my concern with her about him not being away from me before. She understood. I thank her for that.

She later (around noon) called me to let me know he was OK and she even text me a picture of him :)

I picked him up in the afternoon and I was so excited to see him I cried. I had no idea how much I depend on him for my entertainment through out the day. But he was so excited to tell me all about what happened :).
He didn't see me at first. I had to yell his name :)


And so we wrapped up the day with dinner and sleep :). Since the small people are snoring away up stairs I suppose I should get to bed too. Good night ya'll :)

August 20, 2013

{It's That Time Again!}

As of Wednesday this week I will be the mother of a 6th grader, a 4th grader, and a Kindergartner. The first two I'm fine with but the third is freaking me out. I'm just not ready. I know I have to let go, but I can't handle losing my baby. Once they're in school they're gone. They go from 8am to 3pm, that leaves a few hours in a day where they're home and being parented by their parents. *sigh* I'm going to miss having him here with me all day. I know it'll be better for my sanity though too. I can get my cleaning done, run my errands, and maybe get in a work out some time. Even though I know all that, I'm still not looking forward to him leaving me.

With all that said, they are all 3 ready for school. I got the drama queen and little boys supplies and my grandma got G's. And I gotta say, that Cartwheel app that Target has, is awesome.

We have book bags.




We have lunch boxes. Drama Queen decided she wants to buy her lunch this year.


I picked these up too. I'm hoping to be able to send good stuff with them instead of just sandwiches and Lunchables. 


And we have a ridiculous amount of paper, pencils, and tissue (excuse the state of my rug. Why I thought white was a good idea, I have no clue. It clearly was a bad choice).


 The bags have been stuffed and are ready for tomorrows meet your teacher night :)


And today we picked up the last of Little boys supplies, 2 pairs of jeans, and new shoes! He's pretty friggin' excited about 'em :) He thought it was pretty hilarious that he had to wear that stocking to try on the shoes lol.

Stay tuned for tomorrows post with a ridiculous amount of pictures from meet your teacher night ;)

August 4, 2013

{Pick it up Before I Do if You Want to Keep it}

When I was a kid my grandma used to go through the house and anything laying around (that we weren't coming right back to obviously) was thrown into a garbage bag. Depending on what it was she would either throw it away, give it to Goodwill, or just put it up until we earned it back. So that is what I do with my kids. Mainly the older ones but I've done it to Little Boy too more than once. I'm not your maid. I'm your mother. And if your stuff doesn't mean enough to you to keep it off my floor and put where it goes, then you obviously don't want it bad enough.

I have recently implemented the "chore for an item" rule. If I have to pick up whatever you're leaving around, it goes up (usually in my room) and you can do a chore to earn it back. I keep it in there a couple days. If you don't 1. ask about it or 2. just decide not to do the chore, it goes in the garbage or to Goodwill whichever I see fit to send it to. There's no second chances. There's nothing I won't get rid of (except electronics of course, those will just stay in my room until you do the chore). If you make the choice to not earn it back, that's on you not me. And that's it. If it means something to you, you'll get your ass up and do what you need to to earn it back.

The Teenager decided to test this a couple months ago by leaving her iphone charger on the bathroom floor. I picked it up and told her that if she wanted it back she could do the dishes for it. She laughed and said it was her ex boyfriends so she didn't care and I could do as I wanted with it. She had another charger that she brought with her to use. Fast forward to now and she asks me where the charger is because it wasn't hers it was her mothers. I got rid of it. I wasn't kidding and I don't make exceptions just because she's not here full time. She was pretty pissed about it, as was her mom. D said it was the Teenagers problem though because she could have gotten it back within 10min. (I asked her to do the dishes to earn it back) and she refused. She was pissed, I didn't care. And I still don't. Of course he later went and got her one of those universal cheap things you pick up in line at Wal-greens because her phone and her ipad both went dead. But she went a whole day all kinds of pissed off about it. I bet she doesn't leave her charger lay around again. Of course, the backpack and video game she left in the living room tonight were a test for me also, I warned her and I told her it's the only warning I'll be delivering. Next time I'll pick it up myself and she'll have to earn it back.

I know I'm not the only mother out there that gets tired of having to tell people to pick up their stuff. My house isn't super clean and the table is always piled with stuff, but I can leave whatever I want lay around because it's my house and I clean it. When they have their own places they can do as they please with their stuff and live in filth if they want to lol.

It's not happening in my house.

{Backstreets Back Alright!! #InaWorldLikeThisTour }

On Thursday night I was so exhausted/excited that I went to bed at 10:30pm. For those who follow me on facebook/twitter you know this is highly unusual for me. And honestly I thought there was no way I was going to be able to sleep the night before. But I did, until 4am. *sigh* I got up and proceeded to start my day after I laid in bed for an hour trying to go back to sleep. I'd wanted to get all the running done Friday morning so I wouldn't have anything to do today (Saturday) except veg out.

As it turns out, I got my running done except I was running late by the time I was done. D wanted to leave at 1:30 and I pulled up to the house after dropping the kids off with my grandparents at 1:30. Luckily I could do my hair in the car and I'd already showered and everything lol. So I was good to go. We picked up my mom and were on the road by 2pm.


We made amazing time until we got to Joliet. It literally took us an hour to get 4 miles. Ridiculous. And there was no construction. The cones were out but the road wasn't torn up or anything. Both lanes could have been open. I suspect this is done regularly to keep traffic under control.

When we got through that I started searching for everything I needed to take. Tickets and phone were both visible, as was my camera. What was missing was the SD card! When we stopped for a bathroom break I searched the gas station hoping to find one with no luck :(. Upside, just as we were entering Chicago I spotted a Target! D ran in and got me one, saving the day :).

We got to the venue, FirstMerit Bank Pavilion and parked. That was where D was going to wait while we were at the show. We road the trolly to where we were supposed to enter and I kinda started freaking out lol. I was so excited!!

We stood in line for Merchandise right off the bat cause I didn't want to chance them not having everything after the show. Which it was a good thing we did that (you'll find out why in a minute). We stood in line forever and I needed up with a t-shirt and a canvas bag :). I'm super happy with where my $95 went. Yeah. A little expensive right? I wasn't really shocked though, I'm a veteran concert goer ;).


And at the Merchandise booth is where we found out this was not going to be smooth sailing. A girl in line next to us was saying that she paid for VIP passes (to get into rehearsals and such). They had to wait 3 hours to get in because the fire marshal wouldn't let them open. For real. If I'd paid that kind of money I would have been pissed. Then she said they (either the pavilion or the fire marshal) wanted them to end the VIP part early. Like really?? Ugh.

We took our seats which were pretty damn good if you ask me. And proceeded to wait.

At 8pm a little boy came on stage, we all knew exactly who it was right away! Baylee!! Brians son :) He is so friggin' cute I can't even handle it lol. He sang Fantasy by Mariah Carey and another song that I can't remember lol.

After him was Pauly D.

And then Jesse McCartney. He wasn't too bad. I'm not a fan but I understood why they would want him to open for them :).

And then it was time! The moment we had all been waiting for. And it was GLORIOUS!! 












A video played while they did a wardrobe change.









 Another wardrobe change and another video.


Just as they were finishing The One the lights came on. We all thought it was part of the show but it wasn't. Kevin said that the city of Chicago was shutting them down because it was 11pm and it was curfew!! The boys were PISSED as were all the fans. They tried to get them to let them do one more song, but they refused. They threatened jail time and a hefty fine if they didn't leave the stage and get all the fans out right now. We didn't even get the full effing show!! I didn't get a video of all this but I found one on youtube :).

I am still so pissed off about it that I could punch someone. For real. Complete friggin' BS. But what's really shitty is even if they do do another date in Chicago I can't afford tickets. So I'm hoping that if you got a ticket for this show that it'll work for another date. Cause that is BS. I found the set list, they were supposed to do 5 more songs!! FIVE!! They didn't even get to perform In a World Like This! BULLSHIT!!!

And just so Chicago knows, you can kiss my ass. Unless the above happens, I won't be setting foot in that city EVER again.

Over all though, until they shut it down cause they're douche bags, it was uh-may-zing!! :) BSB never disappoints :)