I am an addict. I need help but don't want it.

No it's not something illegal. It's not even something harmful unless you consider the possibility of throwing out a hip or getting tennis elbow.

Hi, my name is Michelle and I'm a Wii Addict! (all together now "Hi Michelle")

Brandy got a Wii for her family for Christmas. Amber and I both wanted one but didn't "need" one. Well the tax returns came in and at the top of the list was a Wii! I'm pretty certain I have a form of OCD. I get so hooked on things and go buck wild with it! I will decide I need new pants and I end up with 10 new pairs of jeans but not one single shirt to match. Or I buy 4 new pairs of shoes because one had to be thrown away. Well the Wii is no exception. I couldn't just get a game or two and call it a day. Nope I had to buy out the whole selection of games and the accessories to boot! (not really but close)

I love Mario Kart and I love that the girls and I can play it online from our own houses against one another. And I never would have thought I'd be any good or even enjoy Rockband but I love love love it! It's good music and it's so fun to play!

We're going away this weekend for a spouses retreat sponsored by our husbands battalion. We'll go through some classes on marriage and what to expect with the guys coming home. And then they will set us free to enjoy some much needed chill time. They even provide childcare for the kids while we're in classes!

This sounds great but I'm a little concerned about not being able to get my Wii fix all weekend. Do you think they make a pill for this? Like a Wii supplement? Something I can mix in a bottle of water would be okay.

My name's Michelle and I'm an addict....

MaNiC MoMMy™ ... THeRe'S a MeTHoD To HeR MaNiC: SuNDaY BLooDY SuNDaY, FeB. 22

MaNiC MoMMy™ ... <br>THeRe'S a MeTHoD To HeR MaNiC: SuNDaY BLooDY SuNDaY, FeB. 22

Well I donated my blood, I entered the contest and I'm hoping to win the trip to Florida. Manic still has one more week of blood donating time to enter her contest for tons of great things including the trip to Florida. But since I'm gonna win that I'm sure you'll enjoy one of the other prizes. One pint of blood can save 3 lives or 5 babies lives. And our bodies make more all the time so why not share?

The Bitterness of Defeat

I have lost the power struggle.

They have learned to defeat me and use it to their fullest abilities!!

I put them to bed at nine. They stay in bed until I'm fully engrossed in a Wii game and then next thing I know they are circling me like vultures!! "I'm hungry, my leg hurts, my ear hurts, I'm bleeding, I'm hearing voices, I see dead people, my leg just fell off and got flushed down the toilet....."

I'm too into my game to turn it off right then. I tell them to wait a second. Seconds turn to minutes that are filled with "good job mom, get him, you're a good player, what's over there? How did you do that?" And on and on until I realized an hour has passed. They have won and now its time for us all to go to bed!

Must devise a plan! An earnings chart to trade chores and school work for Wii time! Also need to invest in some duct tape..... Brilliant!

True Story!

What's in Your Refrigerator? Bet Ya can't Beat This!

Chocolate Milk Incognito

Ugly Pants Lady

I have been so crazy busy! I had my van in the shop this week, that was interesting.



I walked into the shop to give Dave my keys and let them get started and I had to wait in line behind this woman. This woman who had short spikey hair one big earring in one ear and one stud in the other. She also had on huge, baggy, stone washed jeans with the hideous ugly white bleached out looking areas all down the front. And of course her shirt was tucked in. I hate tucked in shirts just to put that out there. Not that her outfit and lack of any sense of style had to do with anything but it was ..... interesting.



I stood there and lost about 10 minutes of my life that I will never get back. I feel cheated out of valuable time as I listened to her talk. She was quite concerned that she didn't know how long the car had to idle before she could drive it. She must have asked the same thing over and over just in different ways. Eventually the manager, Dave sent her off with Kenny who I assume drew the short straw and got stuck with this assignment.



"So you're telling me I can just get right in and drive?" She exclaimed in her most astonished voice, I'm certain. I cracked up laughing. Kenny tells her that she can let it run to let the oil circulate through the engine for a minute or two if she feels she must. She then replied "so if I get in, start it up, listen to one song on the radio, then I can drive it?" Kenny just let it go at that.



I walked up to Dave and asked if I get a discount if I promise not to ask stupid questions. He laughed and said I definately should. When she finally took her ugly ass jeans and stupid questions out the door I had to talk to Kenny.



"Hey if I let my van run for 45 minutes will that be long enough and it will be ready to drive?" I asked.



Kenny caught on quick and said "you're going to need to let that run for at least an hour because it's bigger!"



From then on I referred to her as ugly jeans lady. When I picked up my van I asked them how long it needed to run now that it was all fixed up and Kenny told me he saw her at the gas station. She was coming out as he was going in. He got two hot dogs and a drink and came out and she was still sitting there obviously listening to her one song on the radio before she'd drive even though she had only turned it off to go into the gas station.



This puzzles me. I know that I'm always in a rush to get no where fast but I don't have time for that! I can't waste 5 or 10 or even 3 minutes every single time I start my car up waiting for the oil to warm up through the engine! What the heck did she learn to drive in? An old crank up car? Geesh! Now if it's cold out that's a different story. Then I'll give it 10 minutes but only so that the engine will be warm enough to blow hot air out the heater for my own comfort!



Too many minutes of my life lost to stupid questions being asked repeatedly. I'm mean I know. I'm okay with that....

The Skinny on the Flat

We're home from our visit in Michigan. It was a great time with a few flaws. There wasn't enough time to see everyone I would have liked to see and spend time with. It was cold as all get out! We arrived and it was -15 degrees and wind chills of -35! My boys ended up sick and now we brought it home with us. I spent too much money but I'm okay with that.

We had a great time getting to know my three year old nephew who is absolutely adorable and I am pretty sure everyone who meets him falls in love immediately!

My younger sister loaned me her raised twin size air bed with a pump built in. It was super comfy until that one night. The one night that I woke up with my butt sagging down to the floor as I was sucked inside the vinyl and nearly suffocated! I spent the rest of the night turning on the pump to air it back up every hour or two! We got a patch kit and patched it up and I went to sleep that night feeling confident that I have mad rubber patching skillz!

I slept fine right up until I started to sink and nearly rolled off the heap-of-rubber-hatred onto the floor below which was covered in hot wheels cars and rescue heroes. It was then that I heard it. The evil hissing sound! It was not the air coming out of my bed but the muffled laughter of my brother! He was standing there slowly letting the air out of my bed and waiting for me to fall off and plunge to the depths of the toys below!

Very funny David!

I'm so grateful that my brother and sister in law let us stay with them and have our belongings strewn from one end to the other of their home for so long. Love you guys!

Planning For His Future

Korbin has had a really difficult day. He got to talk to his daddy on the phone today and ever since then he started acting a little on the crazy, sad, and whiny side.

He's having a hard time falling asleep so I went to lay down with him for a few minutes. He heard my brother and sister in law playing video games in the living room and said that he wanted to play too. I told him that only grown ups were playing because kids needed to go to bed. Korbin said "but you're a kid and so are they." I asked him why I was a kid and he said "because you have a mom and dad! Remember? I met them!" It was as if all this time I'd been pretending to not have parents and he just discovered something new.

Then we had a conversation in which he informed me that he doesn't want to have kids ever, just dogs. And then he decided he would have cats too.

I asked him why he didn't want to have kids. He said "because they will act crazy!" I guess he doesn't want kids that are just like him!

He then went on to tell me that he would have one boy kid. That way whenever he felt like wrestling he would be able to!

He has a plan....

He Didn't Know Who I Was

I haven't seen the man in just over a year.

It's only been a year.

I haven't changed that much.

In fact the only thing different is my hair color is a bit darker. No big deal right. You'd think that someone who'd known me for 29 years would know who I was right?

We decided to surprise him at work. We showed up and he was gone. Go figure! Men! We got drinks and decided to go do some other errands. The man at the counter shouted "he just pulled in hold on a second".

We waited. I ran over to the door that he was going to come in. He walked in and shouted to the man at the counter "hey my apron is frozen!" I was about 6 foot from him and I replied "then throw it in the dryer!" He looked at me. He thought I was waiting on him to go by so I could get to the door. He said "I'm going this way and started to walk past.

I was amused. Shocked. I said "Dad!"

He looked puzzled! Then it was like you see a little light come on as he realized this his daughter was standing in front of him.

Then he said "you colored your hair!" Yeah like that's his excuse. It could be that he didn't know I was in town yet and thought I was in Missouri still.

My Dad didn't know who I was and I thought it was funny!

Freezing in Michigan

Just thought I'd let all three of my regular readers know that I might not be around much the next couple weeks.

I've been planning a trip to Michigan for about three months now. First I was going to head home for Thanksgiving. Instead I had a much better November when my husband came home for his two week visit!

So I decided that I would go ahead and go home for Christmas instead. Well that plan got shuffled around and I decided to wait until January. I wanted to come last week because it was my WAY older brothers birthday. Then I got my oil changed. Those jerks decided my tires sucks because, well, they did. They sucked so bad I had to get new ones because mine didn't meet state minimum requirements and I had to sign an "I Suck" acknowledgement stating that I knew they sucked and therefore I suck and if I crash it's my own damn fault.

I decided to get tires. They of course had to be ordered because no one carries my size! Grrrr! Then I got my tires put on and realized I am a complete moron and lost my damn debit card! I had to go to the bank, cancel the one I lost, order a new one that will take 7-10 days to arrive at my house in Missouri and THEN get a temporary ATM card until I get my new debit card!

I was pretty sure the stars were not lining up for this trip but I left anyhow. We drove almost 500 miles today to arrive safe and sound in about 8.5 hours. We only stopped two times which is a major accomplishment considering it was just me, two dogs and a five and seven year old! Woohoo! Both of our stops were during daylight hours.

I rock! Go ahead and tell me!

Did I mention it was 2 degrees in Missouri? And did I mention it's quite below zero here. As a matter of fact it currently says -15 and "feels like" -36.

When I said I was going home to visit I meant my hometown of Coldwater, MI. Not the boys hometown of Fort Wainwright, Alaska. Holy freezing my ass off in Michigan!

We Discovered the Center

First of all this girl and I decided we'd meet up with this family to go to this place.

We left an hour later than we planned....ok we left two hours later than we planned. Who's counting? This girl said they opened at 10am. They opened at 1. We got there at 1:15 thanks to me thinking I saw the route on the map on Brandy's iPhone sure I can remember how to get there how hard can it be so I said "nah let's just go with it"! (after my crappy navigator offered to program my navigation system)

We drove and we drove and we turned around a couple times. We attempted to find directions from my google map in my cell phone. That was super......not so much. Then we tried to program Maggie, my navigation system. I figured she would have learned to do the right thing after being tossed out last time but I guess not. She was so off on her GPS locating it wasn't even funny. She has us 212 miles to our destination but we were in Springfield!! It was actually less than 10. We found it and here's some of what we did.

Korbin built his own Arch and stood under it. I guess I was supposed to take a picture from the front not the side, oops. Thanks for pointing that out Damama!

The kids dug for dinosaur bones and actually found some! We hung out of a giant nose. That's me and Korbin the little bugger!

Korbin learned how to float!


Brandys favorite soldier can float too!


The kids hung out in some tornado's!

Korbin had the puppy in most of his pictures! He loves his stuffed dogs!

My little Tayton who couldn't stand to touch other kids or stand younger kids is here touching and helping Cassidy to make sure that she is safe! It was a huge moment for him!

We got to run in a giant hamster wheel! The boys kept running up the front side!

Amber stopped and the wheel kept going!

It was so much fun! In fact if I had one of these in the house I might just get off my butt and exercise! Maybe...

The boys did some work. They used pulleys to lift, pull and push weighted blocks.

They worked really well together!

(see the puppy)

Korbin did some reading and of course the puppy was nearby.

Then we go to the good stuff. I got felt up by a college guy named Chris. It was great but had nothing on Max!

This is the High Wire Bike from the bottom floor. You're supposed to rock back and forth and stuff. He's not falling.

Here was my turn after getting felt up by the college kid! I tried and I tried

and I could not get the bike to lean far enough to reach the wire with my hand.

I had a good time trying but I used muscles I never thought I'd use riding a bike. Shifting your

weight against the 250 pound counter weight is tough.And more bad pictures from my cell phone.

Seriously Someone Tell Me Why

Why? Does this go back to the fishing pole tenth anniversary thing?

And who knew that a five year old boy could fit into a tiny "up to 25 pound" dog carrier? Cassidy and Korbin of course!

I hate Blogger!

Now that I've said that my whole blog is probably gonna disappear and I'll lose everything I've ever posted. Not that it matters because the first 150 pictures ever to be seen on my blog are now GONE!

That's right, gone forever. Stupid Picasa web albums said that I didnt have room for my Relay For Life album that I needed to upload for my friend who has been waiting to see the 150 pictures that were taken with my Camera last Relay. I thought I'd be nice and upload them to picasa so that she could get them all at one time instead of trying to send them by email handfulls at a time.

I decided to go ahead and delete an album cause I didn't need to have it on Picasa. I started to delete pictures large groups a time. Then I caught a glimpse of the "warning deleting these items can not be reversed". It was followed with "these pictures will no longer appear on your blog".

I thought it was just your normal "do you really want to do this" warning. I didn't realize that Picasa had jack to do with my damn blog. Stupid stupid stupid blogger!

I'm so mad!

Just thought you should know this.

Today Was A Sad Day

Today we took our good friends hubby back to the airport so he could return to duty in Iraq after his 18 days of R&R. We were supposed to be leaving at 6:30am to make the drive. It was just over 2 hours and I knew we'd be pushing it on their timeline but I went with it because, well it wasn't my decision to make.

I DO NOT LOVE MORNINGS!

I hope that's clear. But I will do pretty much everything for these two girls I spend most days with. She wanted me to go along and that was okay with me. I set my 3 alarm clocks, because as I said before mornings aren't my best friend. I was determined not to let my friend down by over sleeping and making her and her two girls through the day on their own.

My first alarm went off and I popped up out of bed and headed off to brush my teeth and get ready. The two blonde boys were in my room because we had a rough night. I didn't even flinch when the second alarm sounded. I turned it off and got dressed before waking the boys. The third alarm went off and I would normally be smashing it into wall by this point but I was proud to be up and ready to get the boys up. I woke them up, had them dressed and ready to go by 6:20am.

We sat downstairs waiting for our friends to pick us up with jackets on and shoes tied and bags in our laps. We waited. And waited. And waited some more. I tried to text message the friend. I sent her some IM's and tried to call her cell phone. No answers. It was 7am before I decided to call her house phone and risk waking up her mother who lives with her to find out what was going on.

Now we are a group of 3 girlfriends who are all in this damn deployment boat together and we do everything together. This particular friend is "the responsible one". The other girl and I are the often late and always impulsive ones.

Ok back to the story, I called the house phone and the mom answers. I asked her if my friend was still home because I thought maybe she decided to brave this horrible day on her own in bad judgement (I can say that because it was a bad choice two months ago when I made that bad choice). The mom tells me that the van is still there so they haven't left. She asked me if she should wake her up. I explain that we were supposed to be leaving a half hour ago so she woke up my friend who had "over slept".

They jumped up rushed around then they decided to call and switch his flight. They got it moved back an hour and a half and I quote "we'll be there to get you guys in a little bit". This meant no going back to sleep for me. So we waited, and waited, and waited. Around 830-845am they showed up to get us. (I sooo could have gotten a good hours sleep in!) It was around 9 by the time we finally got on the road to St Louis.

The soldier had to call to re-reschedule his flight because we were still not going to make it on time. I wish I had been that smart when my soldier had to go back after R&R to get a couple extra hours! Brilliant! Next time tell your friend who doesn't love mornings to go ahead and sleep another, okay?

Good!

I'm glad I got to go with and be supportive of my friend her family and keep them moving to make the day go by smoothly!

The pictures from our afternoon at the The St Louis Science Center tomorrow!

**I chose not to give the names of my friend in the post because I don't want to make her look bad or anything, hehehe!**

**It's not my fault if you click on the linky name thingys right? LMAO**

Let Me Tell You A Little Story

Part I:

Let me tell you a little story.

Once upon a time there was this Mom who had two bratty naughty little blond boys that insisted on making their Mom crazy. One night the mom read the boys a very long book (a Spiderwick mini book, LOVED IT) and tucked them into bed in their very own loft beds complete with rope lights. It was around 9pm that the boys were kissed, hugged and tucked into bed with threats on their life if they were caught out of bed sweet words of love and happiness.

Around 11pm the Mom of these two rotten little boys decides to go to bed since it was going to be an early morning. When she rounded the corner to head up the stairs she heard it! The sound was enough to make the mom want to jump out the window except that she was still on the first floor so there was no point.

The lights were on at the top of the stairs in the first little blonde boys room. They were in there. Both of them. Laughing. The sound that the mom had hoped to hear was far from laughter with the lights on! The mom tip-toed into the room to catch them in the act before they threw themselves onto the lump of blankets and pretended to be sleeping!

The oldest boy said to the little boy "Korbin get out of my room and turn my light back off". Like the mom was going to believe that tale! This mom was crafty though. No spankings and yelling this time. No demanding they get back in bed. Not.this.time! Too easy!

She ordered the boys into her room and placed them each in a time out area to stand. The mom went ahead with her bedtime routine of brushing her teeth, washing her face and taking her medication. She probably needs a higher dose! The mom climbed into bed and was going to send her hubby, the daddy of previously mentioned naughty little blonde boys, an email. When suddenly the tables had turned.

One little blonde boys starts to beg the mom to let him please go to his bed. By this time they had been standing there for maybe 5 minutes. "Mom can we please go to bed now?" says one. "I'm so tired mommy", says another!

The mom typed a real fast email and then turned the volume way up on her phone and started to play bejewelled as she told the boys "you're the ones who didn't want to sleep so I'm letting you stay up". Cruel? So be it! Funny.....I think so!

Then I the mom turned off the light and pretended like she was going to go to sleep. Little blonde boys did not love that one bit! The mom felt as though her point was made so she let the little boys go to bed.

That mom won! This time......... Maybe she'll get a night or two without protest at bedtime.......maybe.

Part II coming soon.......

So Much For That Plan

I have always had to kid proof my house because I have two of the grabby-hand-having-est kids of all time! They have always been into everything! Most traditional kid proofing only worked until they were mobile then I was screwed. The boys were masters at figuring out child locks and helping our adult visitors figure them out as well.

Lately I just try to hide the things they shouldn't have and go on about my business. Until today. I went to get something off the top of the fridge and found that the boys also like my hiding spot. They had stashed a couple of "least likely to share" toys and some candy on top of the fridge.

Now what?

Sunshine and Lemonade: Weekend Winners: Greatest Hits

Sunshine and Lemonade: Weekend Winners: Greatest Hits

This is the giveaway of all giveaways! Seriously she's giving away tons of stuff to this weeks winner. I think she had too much eggnog? Or she's just super generous. Either way check it out. You have until Friday, January 9th to enter!

But if you win because I sent you over you have to let me pick one item from you winnings.....sounds fair to me!

Did I Really Hear That?

***Please note that what you're about to read was not said about or to me he was just chatting to himself and I overheard and here's what happened!***

I heard Tayton say something but I knew I must be mistaken. He was standing in the laundry room doorway right off of the living room when he said it. I was shocked, confused and even speechless for a minute.





I called him over to me. I said "what did you just say?" He laughed and said "I was just being funny mom".





I asked him to say it again and in his best fake deep voice my 7 year old said:





"Hey you sexy lady!"





I tried not to laugh as I explained that it's not really appropriate for a 7 yr old to run around saying......

Tayton's Question of the Day

Tayton just asked:

"Mom can people who have been married for ten years have a fishing pole hung on any wall in their house and not just the bathroom walls?"

I'm not sure what this means. I believe he wants to hang up his first fishing pole in his bedroom. He says Brandy had one hanging in her bathroom two years ago when we met her. We have no fishing poles hung anywhere in our house. Strange.

I'm really disappointed because I thought the ten year anniversary brought more than a fishing pole hung on my walls....

Korbin is so Korbin

Korbin is so overdramatic. He should take up acting!

Sunshine and Lemonade: Weekend Winners: Games people play

Every week Kat gives great stuff away. The only reason I'm telling you is because I want an extra entry I am a sharer of good things!

Sunshine and Lemonade: Weekend Winners: Games people play