Chocolate Cheerios

My couch has had just about anything and everything you could possibly imagine dropped in it, on it, saturated through it... I am, you see, a mother of a child or three.



I just love the self feeding stage. It means less requirement of the parent to hold spoon to mouth and be completely relied upon for the giving of nourishment. It also means you need to invest in a dang good vacuum cleaner. Mine is specifically for "pets and children". I always found that humourous... now I just find it fantastic. That thing sucks up rocks, pasta and hot dogs like nothing I've ever seen!!



This morning I gave Sophie Cheerios in her high chair while she watched whatever kids show about building words was on AFN Family... I am, after all, all for the educational benefits of tv with breakfast... This seems like a simple enough thing, no? Well, yes, I would have thought so, too. She decided she wanted down, she was done, so I (foolishly) believed this must be so and removed the restraints. Sophers cleaned off her tray and then proceeded to find the box, pull the bag out of the box and swing it above her head at frightening speeds. Cheerios sound pretty neat when flying around that fast... kinda like when you used to put playing cards in your bicycle tires. I suppose thats all part of the appeal.



I'm pretty sure there was only a half a box of Chocolate Cheerios in the box to start with, so she must have found a way to clone what was in the box or is really good at spreading them across the floor in such a way as to optically increase their numbers. Either way, I'm down a box of cereal, but up one happy baby girl.



So now she's hanging out on the couch, a Cheerio stuck to her chin, another to her thigh, a few hangin' out on the diaper... picking up one stray circle at a time popping it into her mouth and occasionally sharing a soggy, prechewed one with mommy. (My little philanthropist.)



Sometimes I wonder if she's in cahoots with the vacuum... there are days it eats better than the rest of us.

Air Conditioning.

It's hot. Like, devil strip sown to your drawers hot. And now, at the end of July (when the weatherman says the weather will start to take a cooler turn...) I have two Italian A/C guys upstairs drilling holes into my concrete house to put in air conditioning which may or may not trip my breaker on an hourly basis. Sigh.



The funny thing is, I did all this "hurry up and clean" crap so that they could walk unimpeded through the upstairs of my house (since I have had this unlucky streak of cleaning out closets with no Goodwill to bestow my wares upon) and they come in and push every last bit of anything that may have been in the floor (to include the 5 boxes of clothing, etc sitting in my upstairs foyer) over to anywhere that was previously, uh, not with stuff there. Oh, well.



At least they're here, right? I mean, 5 1/2 hours is at least still today and not, as is fairly typical, domani. Always domani...



So on the downside... if I can't use my washer and dryer simultaneously... what on earth makes anyone think I will be able to use, oh, two, three, however many units they decide to mount on my walls?? But I digress. Maybe I won't need to use the washer and dryer quite so often if everyone in the family isn't constantly weeping salt from their pores.



On the upside? Air. Glorious air. Conditioned air. Air conditioned to be cool. Yes. Now THAT, THAT is an upside. Who cares if they ARE up there drilling concrete dust into every room I just spent a week cleaning? (Well, I do... but thats not the point. It was rhetorical.)



And in less than 3 hours I ought to have a husband home who can take over the children while I nap for, oh, say, til morning... in an air conditioned bedroom.

What cleaning can teach you...

So I felt the motivation streamin through me this morning (or was it the Red Bull) and decided to finally get around to that messy pile of clothing hanging out upstairs in my bedroom. And then I decided it would be just GREAT to go through the clothes in my kids' room! Wow, man, what was I THINKING??

Well, here's what I learned. (And a few decisions that I made...)

I learned that clean clothes are no longer clean when they happen to be "folded" and placed in the floor... ANYwhere in the floor...

I learned that when I open my (second floor) bedroom window and there are lizards gunning to join the party... I should just deal with the stagnant air in the room. (Okay, so this has nothing to do with the clothing I went through... but I promise it IS relevant to my day.)

I learned that the dog peed... or maybe Sophie did... but only on one thing. *sigh* Stupid dog. Sophie woulda wet the entire bedroom.

I learned where a few pieces of cute outfits that Sophie has now outgrown were hiding.

I learned that my husband has way too many t-shirts that I wash a dozen times a year but have never in our married career seen him wear. Alright, so I already knew that... I was just totally reminded.

I learned where the bug I swatted the other day ended up.

I learned that I will never wear some underwear I've been keeping, even IF I were to be that cute, small and sexy again. I mean, I'm so over lacy thongs.

I learned that I have more jeans that DON'T fit than ones that do... I separated them by sizes and decided that if I don't fit into the next size down in a month, I am passing the smallest sized ones on to someone whose rump does them justice.

I learned that I have nowhere in my room to set a drink. Geez. We so need a bedroom suit.

Now, I think that's about all I learned in my own room... But it was interesting to see what my kids had hanging out in theirs.

I learned that Katy simply moved all her outgrown "favorite" clothes into Kenzie's closet instead of getting rid of them even though Kenz takes one look at them and sticks her tongue out and makes noises unflattering to a young lady.

I learned that there are, like, no panties in the panty drawer... they are all SOMEwhere else... your guess is probably right on par with mine.

I learned that even after nearly 2 months without feet in them, some shoes still have such an impact on the senses that they must be bagged by themselves and disposed of where they will not harm the wildlife.

I learned that the drawers vomiting clothing are totally capable of containing said clothing... but apparently its something only mom can accomplish.

I learned that when I tell my kid to bring down her dirty laundry... this clearly does not include the 4 dirty towels strewn across the middle of her room. Why?? Because they "aren't hers". Yes. Good logic. Now grab the towels.

I learned not to have Kenz go get the baby when she awakens from a nap. Baby cries. Me: "Why is she crying?" Kenz: "Because she wacked her head on the door" Me: "You mean YOU wacked her head on the door?" Kenz: "Yeah."

I also learned that after all is said and done, I have to come back downstairs and see that I still have a whole 'nother half a house. I've learned that sucks.

Oh, well. After frozen pizza, Kraft mac & cheese and two games of Candyland (which I've learned must be rigged) I have more work to do. Me and Mr. Vacuum are gonna go tackle all that open space in the kids' room.

Anyone want 4 boxes of clothes?

An Intro To Me...

My name is Tori. I turned 28 on Friday. I'm slowly marching towards old age. Just like the rest of you. (Whether you admit it or not.) :)

I have three kids. All girls. Yeah, I'll take your prayers... I mean, had I realized (and I mean REALLY realized) that preteen would show up with such a dominance... wow. Katy, my oldest, she will be 11 next month. It's okay, you can do the math... I'm so over it. Kenzie, my 7 year old, well, she's a bit of a nut. People call her a "character". That she is. That she is. Sophie, the newest addition to the family, is 13 months. She's also mommy's little home gym... which baffles me as to why I'm still carrying around these extra pounds! Well, I'm not REALLY baffled... I do likes the cookies... But I've been doing better lately and have really started to make an effort towards shaping myself back into the person I see before I browse pictures of me on the beach. I've lost 15 lbs this month. That's right, cheer me on!

My husband, Philip, he's in the Air Force. He's a mental health tech... which leads me to believe he has all the coping skills necessary to dealing with the 4 women in his household at his fingertips... ya know, mandatory training and all. Because of this decision of his to join up, re-up and serve til Uncle Sam disowns him, we are a military family. I happen to like this fact. It gives me pride and it gives me benefits.

We are living in Italy right now... if you start to follow me, you ought to know when that changes, as it will be pretty blog worthy. I'm just getting started on this overseas living thing... All I know is that no matter how pretty it is, I still can't use my washer and dryer at the same time. *sigh* It's one of those things I'm sure I'll expand on later. But we typically have clean underwear, so its all good. (Okay, so we always have clean underwear, but maybe not socks.)

I was born and raised in North Carolina... A nice place to grow up, but not one I plan on returning to for any length of time. Because of my upbringing, I speak with a little more of an accent than I like to admit and other folks from 'round those parts can pick me out of a crowd. It also means that I have a tinge of Southern hospitality running through my veins, but not enough to make me a worthy hostess. That's alright... it's the thought that counts, right?? And I THINK about entertaining, like, ALL the time. I prefer good manners, though I've come to realize that other parents aren't quite as concerned about instilling these in their own kids, and as tempted as I am to teach them myself (and do when my nerves get rubbed raw) , I just can't save the world, ya know? As a little bit of a turnabout on my roots, I am pretty irritated by bad grammar... though I tend to use it to get my point across sometimes... others just 'cause I wanna... so don't judge me, kay?

I found out that living with the assistance of God is SO much better than trying to do it on my own, I urge you to try it, but I promise that my typical thought process when typing a blog is not to overwhelm. I like to write about what comes to my mind, sometimes that just ain't Godly... theres that grammar... and so again... don't hate. :) I will, however, either very rarely or (hopefully) never utilize the potty mouth I perfected in my late teens/early twenties... you're welcome, hubby. (After all... I can't punish the kids for what they repeat from me, right?)

I'm pretty laid back, but I can be rather, uh, not laid back, too. I like the laid back me, so does most everyone else... but, sorry, folks, this alter ego is a superhero!

So I guess that's a pretty comprehensive overview of me... I mean, it's more than the guy doing surgery on you would write in your chart, so it much be just about all you need to know to get started! We'll see how this whole blogging thing goes... Welcome to my mind!!