Diary of a Drama Mama: March 2009

I've finally found a few spare minutes to write today. I have recently come to the conclusion that I need to purchase myself some type of voice recorder. One that I can wear around my neck or clipped to my belt loop (might as well be used for something, Lord knows I don't dare put a belt through there!) I blog in my head EVERY day, several times a day, but can hardly ever find the time to write them down here. And then once the thoughts have gone through my head, they vanish, never to be conjured up again. Where do they go? Who knows. Probably to that large area of my brain that was paralyzed the moment I gave birth to a third child. It has become a storehouse of important information and things I need to remember that doesn't function anymore and also severely affects my ability to think clearly, speak logically, and act rationally. Now what was I talking about again?

So since I've obviously NOT been blogging (you've let me know so through all those emails) what in the world have I been doing with all my time lately? I wake up in the morning and the next thing I know, It's 11 pm and I'm passing out again. Does that happen to you too? My days go by so quickly. I have so many things I WANT to do during the day, like blogging, scrapbooking a few pages, etc...but after I do the things that have to be done, the day's over and I'm exhausted. I know you're busy too and you know where I'm coming from so I won't bore you with the details of day. So here's what's going on with us.

Nathan is staying busy with his new job. He has to travel A LOT! His territory that he covers is Mississippi, Alabama and and panhandle of FL. (I suddenly feel like I've blogged this before. If I have just ignore me or indulge me and keep reading.) ANYWAY, he has been gone about 3 weeks out of the month. If not to his territory to work, then to Houston or Tulsa to his company's main offices for meetings and trainings. He is home just for the weekend now, but he has had drill yesterday and today so he's gone until 5:00pm. He leaves again tomorrow for another week in Texas and also in Oklahoma too. He enjoys his job but wishes he didn't have to be gone from home so much.

So, we decided a few weeks ago to put our house up for sale and move closer to his job so that hopefully he will not have to be away from home so much. It's a scary thing to try to sell a house in this market right now. We just keep praying about it and are leaving it in God's hands and letting him take care of everything.

So far we've shown the house three times. I have been spending a lot of my time trying to keep it cleaned and picked up just in case a realtor calls and wants to show it. ~I don't even have to tell you what an impossible job that is! The first time we showed the house, I got up that morning and looked at my house and thought "Okay, this is probably the worst it has ever been." There was "stuff" everywhere, bathrooms needed scrubbing, floors needed to be vacuumed and mopped, the dust bunnies had become mobile and were running circles around us. Wouldn't you know it, THAT'S the morning we get the call...someone wanting to see our house. How ironic, I thought as I stood there holding the phone, a wild, glazed over look in my eyes. We had two hours to get it presentable and get out. Thank God Nathan was home that day. As soon as I got off the phone with the realtor, we started running. It was madness! Two hours later, we had it spic and span! We put the kids, still in their pajamas, in the van and took off. We couldn't go anywhere though because I too was still in my pajamas with makeup from the day before under my eyes and my unbrushed hair half falling out of a sloppy pony tail. We had bribed the kids into helping us clean so we owed them the whole toy section at Wal-Mart. A McDonald's happy meal had to do for the time being since we could drive through and no one had to see the shape we were in. So we got happy meals and found an empty parking lot not far from home to sit in. It's times like these that we're so thankful for DVD players in the car!

We've not had any offers yet but hopefully we'll have something soon. As far as moving is concerned, Nathan's bosses told him that there is a chance that they will not want him to move to Mississippi but will want him either in the Tulsa area or Houston area. (I'm really pulling for Tulsa! -much closer to AR than Houston.) So say a prayer for us that everything will work out according to God's will for us and that we'll be able to accept whatever happens.

Taylor is doing well. She is really growing up fast. She is such a great help with Addison. She loves her so much and can't get enough of her. She holds her and plays with her all the time. Every morning when Taylor wakes up she goes straight to Addison's bed to see if she's awake. If she is, Taylor will stand over her talking & cooing to her, making her smile. It's so sweet. She is still taking piano lessons and is doing well with that. She is beginning to play songs that require both hands! Her first recital is coming up in April and she's been practicing hard on her recital piece. We don't have a piano, we just have a keyboard that is about half the size of a regular piano. It has worked for her up until now. Her recital piece and songs that she'll be learning in her new books uses notes that are not on her keyboard. So we've started looking for a good, used piano for her. School is going well also. She is far more interested in socializing than in reading or math (especially) but she manages to get pretty good grades.

Emma is really growing up fast too. She's still a little mess. She keeps me on my toes...all the time. Addison is still not too sure about her. Where Taylor gets smiles from her, Emma gets a crazy look like "What are you?" Mostly because she doesn't talk calmly and sweetly to her, but rather yells "Hey baby!" to her and runs off. She's like the cartoon Tasmanian devil. Her voice has but one volume, LOUD. We're working on that...daily! She can be really sweet too though. She likes to make cards and draw pictures for me all the time. I have found that she is the best when Taylor is not here. When Taylor is at school, she is so calm and just plays so sweetly by herself. She sits and watches TV and will entertain herself a lot of the time. The minute we pick Taylor up from school, her demeanor changes. She becomes a wild child. Still can't quite figure this out. She still loves preschool. She is learning so much. She has started writing a lot lately and will sound out words and try to spell phonetically. Last week she made a card for her friend Owen and on it she wrote "To Oin". I was so impressed with her!

Addison is growing like a weed! It's unbelievable how big she has gotten. Last week she had her 4 month well checkup. She was over 15 lbs and was 26 3/4 in. long! She is wearing 6 month size clothing now. She is the sweetest little thing. She smiles and squeals all the time. She loves her swing and will spend a couple of hours at a time in it. She is pretty good with our busy schedule and doesn't mind being in and out of her car seat several times a day. For the past week, she has been sleeping through the night. She goes to sleep between 8:30-9:00 and doesn't wake up until around 7:30 the next morning. It has been so nice!! She is a big Mama's baby. She always has been. She watches me everywhere I go when I put her down. When Nathan or Taylor is holding her she watches me and looks for me. I haven't left her in the nursery at church or MOPS yet. I haven't been ready to be away from her yet.

Last night Nathan and I got to go out to eat by ourselves for the first time in months! Our friends Hope and Mike have been offering to keep the girls for us and we finally took them up on it. Taylor and Emma were so excited to get to go to their house. They've been begging to go for weeks now. They had a great time...they got to make homemade pizzas and play with their little dog. Addison was not happy about me leaving her at first but she finally settled down. It was hard for me to leave her but I knew she was in good hands and would be fine. Nathan and I didn't know what to do with ourselves! I kept feeling like I was forgetting something and feeling the need to say "Don't smack your food!" or "Sit down!" He finally quit smacking and sat down. :) They took some pictures of the girls and emailed them to me last night. Here they are. They didn't send one of Emma-probably couldn't get her to sit still long enough. :)