Personality...

...is not lacking around here. (Sorry all of my posts are pictures lately, you'd rather look at my cute kids than hear any of the boring drivel I could post though, anyways, right? :P)

BOO!!!

Trick or Treat, stinky feet....

And I absolutely could NOT resist taking this one earlier in the day (that's one for the teenage girlfriends, for sure)...:

I didn't dress up the littlest monkey. I had a feeling he'd hate it. A lot.

Happy Halloween!

Updating for you all, it's been a while.

Brenda is doing well in school, not as well at home. She is so mouthy I just wanna smack the mouth right off of her face sometimes (don't worry, her mouth is still attached where it's supposed to be). But we had a very long, very adult talk the other day about why mom gets mad and yells at her when I've told her for the 100th time to do something and have been ignored (I actually said to her, "how would you feel if the people you were around all day long just completely ignored everything you said to them?" I think she kind of gets why she needs to listen to me now... but that might not be the thing to say to a five year old. Oh well, she didn't come with a rule book to look things like that up). Lots of little girls calling all afternoon after school. She's a popular kid... who knew my kid would be popular? I was SO not. :O :)
Luke is cutting molars (as you can tell from the picture... his hands are always in his mouth lately) and being a crazy little butt. He takes his bed completely apart nearly every single day. I wish he'd learn to put it back together. His favorite foods are salad and candy and peanut butter-jelly right now... that's all he asks for. We're still working on potty training.. he hasn't gone poo in the potty yet, but he will try to make it to pee, and does almost half the time. Baby steps.
Rowen is a cute little monkey and I love to squish him. He is a boobie-boy and holds the boob with both hands while he eats. He hates it when you try to trick him into a bottle and when no one's holding him. He's got TONS of dark hair and blue blue eyes. The kids love him, surprisingly and thankfully. I wish he'd sleep more at night, it feels like he's got day and night cornfused. Aaaand, I just heard him poo from two rooms over. I'm scared to see what is in that diaper, but I'm not going to wake him up to change it. Instead I will go get coffee.

Happy Halloween, as well! (Ok, I finally got pics taken of the house, now I need to adjust them and put them up. I swear it'll happen before New Years.)

Dad and Luke's pumpkin (Scary Pumpkin)

Mom and Brenda's pumpkin (Happy Pumpkin)

Mom got to do an extra pumpkin this year. He's the Spit-Up Pumpkin, in honor of our newest family member, Mr. Pooker. :D

Rowen James Oakley...

Born September 19th, 2007 at 9:17 AM. 6 lb, 13 oz.

Mom is going crazy and has absolutely no time to blog or compute anymore. Here's some pics and hopefully going into more detail on life later... when I can find my head.

Miss me?

So, I decided my poor blog has been neglected as long as I could get away with. We are here, we are here, we are here! At the new house. Mostly unpacked, even. Impressive, I know. Very happy, comfortable and content here... well, for the most part. It's still a little freaky when I'm alone here at night. I promise pictures when I find my misplaced battery charger for the camera and charge it up. Promise!!

Sunday was Brenda's birthday party. Look at my boogerhead.... Brenda, age two (oh my god, that's how old Lucien is... no more growing!):

At her party the other day... (it was actually cold for once, but daddy bought a *SPIDERMAN* Slip-N-Slide, so it just HAD to be tried out:

Aaaaaand then, my camera died. Poo.

And this week, the girl has been going to Kindergarten Camp. I told her she's not allowed to get big and go to school, but she's not listening, for some reason. So sad. She's such a big girl.

On the baby front, I am 33 weeks now (or, in a couple days anyways). I have been having contractions, and some other stuff that tells me that Mr. Baby will not be waiting until his due date to join us. I had a fun trip to the hospital, where they sent me home and told me to drink water. Again. Seriously, if I hear my doctor tell me all of my symptoms can be cured with 10 glasses of water a day one more time, I might scream. Contractions? Drink water. Severe pelvic pain? Water. Dizziness? Water (oh, and don't forget to eat. Cuz that'll happen). High-ish blood pressure? Make sure you drink some water. Meanwhile, I've been practically drowning myself and it's not really doing the magic I've been being told it's supposed to. But it is making me have to run up and down our new stairs all night long to use the bathroom 20 times. Which, most likely, is NOT helping with the contractions. Argh. Well, Dr. said that if the baby can wait a week (a week and a half when I talked to her on Monday, actually), they won't stop my labor if I go early. So let's just wait until I'm 34 weeks, yes?

Enough for now. I must go lay down. But first, pee. Always with the peeing. Also, if I hear another weird noise in this house where there's no one else here and awake but me, I'm going to freak myself out and not be able to sleep. Cheers.

How moving.

Ohkay, people. So I haven't lost my mind entirely yet. In about a day and a half, we will be moving into the new house and officially the **** out of here. (Although, maybe I should stop saying things like that, it seems to jinx us terribly every time I even think it....)
I don't even want to go through everything we've been through in the past three days to record it in the blog. Suffice it to say, it's been hell. Surprised that I haven't killed anyone, why yes I am. Even more surprised my husband hasn't.
This is my last blog post before we have no internets for a while, so hopefully everyone is all good, perhaps my next post will be about Brenda's fantastic birthday party in our new home, and all the new crafty stuff I've done with the place.
Wish me luck, it seems we've been needing it. Blargh.

Reunited and it feels SO good...

Daddy found the Ted. The kid next door stole him (grr, when are we moving again???), but must've left him outside on accident and now he's back! Yay! (He was very grimy, so I had to throw him in the washing machine after we found him, much to Luke's dismay.) I've never seen a kid love a bear as much as Lucien loves that nasty old thing. :D He's so happy Ted's back it makes me kind of teary.

On the house front, lots of drama and nonsense I'd rather not go through again, as it stresses me out. However, we should close on the original closing date (the 27th) and that's that. Well, that had BETTER be that or I might hurt someone. Meanwhile my house has been reduced to boxes of stuff and I have nothing to do but sit on the computer all day, or watch TV. It's gotten too hot to go outside again (well, muggy, pregnant-ladies-can't-breathe kind of weather, anyways), so I could clean, or nap, or play on the computer. This is going so slow... Friday is it. Hopefully (I say that a lot) we can get into the apartment this weekend? Please, universe? Stop messing with me for a few days and let me get into our new house?

Baby's been going crazy. He's decided my organs don't need the room, after all, and has taken up space where my lungs used to be. Three more months? I'm not sure about all that, he might get evicted before then.

We took Brenda to the store for some school shopping today. I guess that means she's really going, huh?

Good, I could use a couple of hours without her attitude. Where did my baby girl go and who is this small child that thinks she's a teenager? Slamming doors and being mouthy and whatnot. I used to be sad she was going to school, but lately I can't fricking wait, man. Lucien doesn't form sentences good enough to give me the kind of attitude she can. And the baby won't talk for a good year from now, at least.

Ending ramble. Maybe will go make some iced coffee... needing the caffiene today, but not the heat of regular coffee. Bye now.

When is my shift over, already?

I feel my agitation with everything escalating lately. I woke up in a good mood, but it quickly went downhill from there as my son systematically tried to mess up every single room in the house. Between his awful whine when anything is even slightly frustrating to being followed around so close I could trip if I lost a step... to just constant shrieking and fighting between the two of them... to having to decide whether I should follow them around picking up toys, or let my house become a known disaster area... or even just trying to keep THEM clean (I think tattoos are in Lucien's future, as he feels coloring all over himself in marker is the best way to spend his "color time")... and then there's Brenda, with her rapid-fire questions to which she already KNOWS the answer... I feel like if I hear the word "momma" one more time today my head will explode.. I put him in bed and asked Brenda as nicely as I possibly could muster at this moment to be very quiet, so instead of her constant out-loud monologue to herself she's doing a whisper. I feel like smashing my own brains in to get some peace and quiet lately. I am guessing it's because I am with them from the time I wake up until pretty much the time I go to bed every day all day long without having had a break from them or even like a nap (as Luke has decided he doesn't want to sleep alone and Brenda thinks naps are for babies) or shower (well, not as true, I had a shower all by myself yesterday and it was like heaven... but usually, I have at least one if not both of them with me) without them in, I'm going to say... pretty much MONTHS. I'm not even allowed to close the door when I go pee, or Luke yells outside and tries to open the door until I'm done. I need a break. Seriously, health insurance should pay for mothers of young children to get a babysitter. For mental health reasons. And it seems the longer it goes without me getting a break, the more they won't listen to a word I say unless I yell. I haven't been the best mom ever lately, and I feel a bit guilty about it, but my GOD I need someone else to take over for a little while. Please??? (Yeah, not likely.)
I know it sounds ridiculous coming from someone who doesn't have a job, but I need a vacation. Bad.
Aaaaaand, since the bank thinks it's fun to keep telling us they'll be done and then not being done when they say they'll be, we're still in the hole of an apartment when we should be in our nice new house. Which I'm sure isn't helping my aggravation.
I need a drink and a Valium lately, but I guess I could settle for laying in bed for a whole day without anything needing to be done by me. And no one yelling "mommy" at me, either.
Also not likely.

End rant.

A picture is worth 1,000 guilt trips.

Guess what they're staring at so intently? Yeah... mom's tired. Times like these, I thank the sweet baby Jesus for Spongebob. For real.

Still, OH, the guilt... look how sucked in they are! I can almost HEAR it melting their brains... sigh.

16 days and counting....

Note to self, get off my ass and start packing our crap. Seriously, I was on a roll for a while, then Tim decided he's too cool to go get boxes so I ran out of steam. Not like he actually has to PACK anything... just get the fricking boxes. Ahem.

We went to the farmer's market today. You're jealous, I know. I got yellow and zucchini squash, and pretty cherries, and apples, one of which is about the size of a deer's heart (yeah, eww. Like you've never seen one. Come on.... well, that's what you get for living in the country your whole life, I guess). Today it is raining, hopefully it'll get cool enough to cook finally and I will make stuffed zucchini, zucchini bread and maybe some lasagna for dinners/lunches this week. I'm not sure what else to do with the rest of my squash, I'll probably just freeze what i don't use.

Today is my boy's birthday, he's two. Sniffle. I am sad about it, he's way too big already.

Look at how little... he was brand new...

Then, a picture of when he was one (what? 1 is the legal drinking age in any Irish family, didn't you know?) (And also, why is my husband's hairy leg in every picture of my son... hmm..):

And now he's like me... he's so old that he passes out on his birthday before he even gets the chance to drink.

Stinky head. Happy birthday Widgey-Widge, Mr. McSir and all the other stupid little names you don't care about now but will be pissed when I call you them in front of your friends. Ha!

Happy birthday to my little mans... (well, on the 11th, but his party was yesterday). It was exhausting. Too many kids, no sleep and it was HOT. But Lucien seemed to enjoy himself, got some cool toys and new clothes, I'm a little sad I didn't take a picture of his cake, it was awesome, but for some reason every time it's important, I lose my camera... so I have one picture of his birthday. This one:

Sigh. Oh well... anyways, the cake looked something like this, but I put gummy worms on top for added effect, and the truck was WAY cooler (a giant metal Tonka that he can fit into... to credit my husband, I did say that he has about 400 toy cars and trucks, but he said Tonka is different and bought it anyways. It's a cool truck. Don't tell him I said that, though, cuz I'm always right). It was a hit regardless, I wish I had a picture of the cake. Lots of messy faces and cake crumbs abound yesterday (glad we bombed for ants last week, or they'd be invading again for sure). Brenda went for a sleepover at my cousin's house, so Lucien and I are partaking in a chocolate cake breakfast. My tummy hurts.

In other news, the chick that lived in our house before we bought it is OUTOUTOUT, hooray, so we're just waiting for the loan to close (which should be the 27th). 18 DAYS, everyone. I suddenly feel as though I have nothing packed and need to get going. Crap. Why am I on the computer again!?!

Baby is fine, 7 months, 2 months (3 if you believe that I'm going to be full term, I don't believe it for a second) to go. Things are moving right along around here. I am going crazy with the 5,000,000 things that need to be done *rightnow*. Oh well. Later....

And now for something completely different...

I know I was working on my son's birthday present, but how can someone call themselves a Gemini without having 2500 unfinished projects laying about? :P

I am currently working on this... I was cleaning up the crap in my house for impending garage sale, and I decided instead of throwing away that yucky old cookie sheet, I'd make something out of it. Now it's a magnetic calendar.

And the back holds all of the magnets I'm not using on the calendar this month:

I'm excited about it. It never goes obsolete, all of the months, days and numbers are interchangeable, and I can add whatever words I want... even the picture can be changed. I will add some marble magnets to hold appointment cards, etc., and maybe some more picture magnets. But otherwise, it's pretty much done. Very cool. And recycled!

Wedding Pictures (Finally)....

I know they've been vastly anticipated, so nearly 3 months later here's a sneak peek into our teeny tiny wedding. :) :) :)

I know, they're not the greatest... but since I took pictures of actual photos with my digital camera, I think they turned out ok. Yay, pictures!

Fakey Food...

So I started working on Luke's birthday presents... he's been really interested in the felt food set I made the kids for Christmas, so I decided to make some additions to the set....

We have his favorite, 'Za 'Za....

Another favorite. Ice cream cone (strawberry, and chocolate) with some whipped cream on top. No room for a cherry, oops... maybe next time.

What I had made previously, for Christmas...

We have breakfast (egg, sausage, bacon and toast with butter)...

Lunch (the bread used previously for breakfast, with sandwich fixin's, pictured better below; watermelon and a carrot, yum)...

And dinner (chicken drumstick, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans with butter).

Everything set out... from top to bottom, (row 1) watermelon, cake, bread, peanut butter, ham, (row 2) egg, cherry danish, bread again, jelly, cheese, (bottom) bacon, sausage, butter, carrot, tomato slice, lettuce, mashed potatoes and gravy, chicken, green beans, and at the very end a cucumber slice.



Now for the birthday, I have the pizza and ice cream... trying to think of what else to make? I think I'll be doing some chocolate chip cookies, a strawberry, maybe a banana... a few more lettuce leaves so there can be pretend salad, and I was considering the makings of a taco... yellow corn tortilla, meat blob, sour cream, cheese shreds. They already have the veggies for it!

I know I'm not the first person ever to do this, but it's something I"m super proud of and hope my kids keep until they have kids and my grandkids can play with it... that's why I want to add to it. I was considering making sushi, too... maybe... hmm.

I am a dork. Isn't it awesome? :P

When Ants Attack!!!

&$#$#^&!!!!!!! Seriously. Ants. Everywhere in my kitchen, all day long... just all of a sudden, today. None yesterday, dozens when we woke up. I've killed at least 100 of them throughout the day, no exaggerating. MY HOUSE IS NOT DIRTY!!! I freaked out midday and got down on my hands and knees in the kitchen with a bucket of bleach water and soap, a scrub brush no bigger than one you scrub your nails with, and a drying towel and scrubbed every inch of the floor, square tile by square tile. Seriously. It took an hour. It seemed to work for a couple of hours, but now they're back again. I'm going to seriously, seriously lose it. I hate bugs, I hate bugs in my kitchen, I hate VAST QUANTITIES of bugs in my kitchen, and I hate not being able to do anything about it. I am itchy from knowing that there's ants everywhere and I can't get rid of them. Every time I go into my kitchen I have to kill like 10 of them. It's so sick, and so frustrating. ARGH! Waaahhh!!!

Can I say it again, I can't WAIT until we move. 34 days. That's all. Until then, I have to pray the sugar ants don't eat us in our sleep. Eww.

Meanwhile, it's been too hot to pack, so I'm not getting anything done. Sigh.

Hopefully better news tomorrow.

Packing!

I've been going insane since Friday packing up crap and throwing stuff away... it seems as though the "we're moving, must pack" factor is combining with the nesting instinct of late pregnancy to create the perfect storm of energy to get stuff OUT, NOW. We're even doing a yard sale (eek!) next Wednesday (Fourth of July). Maybe Thursday too. So not looking forward, but if it'll get stuff out of our apartment and maybe make a few bucks too, I'm willing to expend that much energy. Hopefully people buy our junk... one girl's trash is supposedly another old lady's treasure, right?
Besides that, I've been packing up the stuff we DO want to keep, but aren't using at this moment, into boxes (which I've run out of, must find more). And to top it all off, today is garbage day, we have 5 bags of garbage (FIVE!) already PLUS recycling, and I haven't even gone through the whole house yet.

HOW DID WE AQUIRE SO MUCH CRAP?!?!

Who knows, but it's not all coming with us to our pretty new house. I will make sure of it... single-handedly, if I must (and it seems as though that's how it's gonna be).

To Do Today:

• Go through junk room's closet (the scariest part of the junk room, by far).
• Go through miscellaneous appliances and pots/pans in bottom kitchen counters.
• Go through all jewelry, untangle and organize accordingly, pack away jewelry box.
• Throw away good amount of bottles/cannisters/etc. in bathroom. Pack the rest we want but don't need soon.
• Pack kids' VHS movies, put others into sale box.
• Vaccuum.
• Sweep.
• (Mop?).
• Dust around top of rooms (eww, you should see some of the dust. I didn't notice...)
• Junk drawers cleaned out (2 in kitchen).
• Clean off top of refridgerator.

As well as making dinner, parenting, bathtimes, perhaps a nap! Doubtful though, I wanted one of those yesterday and worked right through Luke's naptime anyways. Duh.

Wish me luck... must go do some coffee!

Oh yeah!

I forgot to mention, Miss Brenda's tooth "fell" out that night (actually, daddy pulled it out "on accident". Yeah. It WAS really loose, though). She was very happy to put the tooth under her pillow (in a little box, so the tooth fairy didn't have to search around in the dark for a teeny tooth), and in the morning she was going to buy us all breakfast with the dollar she got from that old fairy. :) Cute little monkey. She's currently trying to learn to whistle through the gap in her teeth.

What a face.

No title, too braindead...

So it's been a bit, and although I don't have anything to say, I wanted to pop in to say hi to anyone who thinks I've died or gone into labor already. We are fine, very bored, waiting to get into the new house. We went to look at it again yesterday and the woman that lives there said she will most likely be out by August 1st, if not sooner... so that's almost two whole weeks before we thought! Hooray!
This whole month has been a crazy whirlwind of doctors' appointments, must to my dismay (and my wallet's dismay, as well. Argh). Now in physical therapy, my "therapist" is some old hardass that thinks he knows all about me because he has a 22 year old kid. Yeah, well, you don't know me. Don't keep me waiting for 1/2 an hour on top of my wait in the waiting room, then act like a jerk to me because I've had too much on my mind to call my fricking insurance company to see if they'll pay for a brace that, even if they DO pay for, I can't afford the co-pay anyways. Yes, I know you want my money. However, I don't have any. And then the OB, they're very dismissive of me and anything I think is wrong. It's all very frustrating. Next week I have three(!) appointments... Wednesday (PT),Thursday (regular doctor for my hips), Friday (OB). How. Annoying. And expensive. It costs an awful lot of money for them to tell me nothing. I hope they don't charge extra when they actually find SOMETHING.
So, in the process of moving, I thought it may be a good idea to have a yard sale. Because deep down, I'm a masochist at heart. That needs planning, probably will do on the 4th of July (which is a Wednesday) or the 18th. Scary.
So, that's about it for now, I have nothing at all to say. Need to clean my house and use up the bananas getting brown on the table (most likely banana bread, and freeze the rest for smoothies). I feel like I'm going to get a lot of throwing-away done today. I'm feeling the need to purge.
Ta, blog.

Memememe....

I am bored so I stole a Meme off of Jen's blog. Let's try it.

The game is SCATTERGORIES…it’s harder than it looks! Here are the rules: Use the 1st letter of your name to answer each of the following. They MUST be real places, names, things…NOTHING made up! If you can’t think of anything, skip it. Try to use different answers if the person before you had the same 1st initial. You CAN’T use your name for the boy/girl name question.

Your Name: Ashlee

1. Famous Singer/Band: Ani Difranco

2. 4 letter word: Ammo

3. Street: Ashford Hollow Road

4. Color: Auburn

5. Gifts/Presents: Anything! (it's the thought that counts... :P)

6. Vehicle: Altima

7. Things in a Souvenir Shop: Atlas

8. Boy Name: Andrew

9. Girl Name: Anne

10. Movie Title: American Beauty

11. Drink: Appletini

12. Occupation: Artist

13. Celebrity: Angelina Jolie

14. Magazine: Allure

15. U.S. City: Albany, NY

16. Pro Sports Teams: Atlanta Falcons

18. Reason for Being Late for Work: Always late for everything.

19. Something You Throw Away: Ashes

20. Things You Shout: ARGH!

21. Cartoon Character: Ariel (the little mermaid)


That was harder than I thought it'd be! (That's probably why it says that at the beginning, huh? Duh.)

Oh yeah. Brenda's tooth is ok. It's still loose, but it doesn't hurt and she's actually excited about it. Someone must've told her about the tooth fairy already.

How simple.

Right now, my daughter is reading (!) a book to her brother. He is following along loudly, yelling the words a second after she does into a paper towel tube. Then he says, "Bee-da, 'nor boook?" It is so sweet. It's actually quiet for a second, and I am considering coffee for the first time this morning. Lucien slept in my bed last night, so I didn't get much sleep as his favorite part of sleeping with mama is kicking me in the face every hour or so. I didn't have the energy last night to make him sleep in his own bed.

Today is the 6 year anniversary of my grandmother's death. I feel weird about it. I can't believe it was that long ago already, but I counted and I was 16 at the time, so it must be true. So much is different, and I wish she knew *I* am different, too. I for sure wasn't much to be proud of at 16.

It's very surreal. I'm not very good at handling things like this anymore... I'm actually not good at handling anything very well anymore, since then, probably. I've gotten a harder exterior, but my insides have been mush since 6 years ago, today. You would think time would make things easier. It hasn't, not really.

On a different (and quite a bit less depressing) note, I think we might be going to see the new Fantastic 4 movie tonight. Brenda wants to see it really bad, and Tim generally wants to see that type of movie... I'm not as excited, but I think it's cool that Brenda likes something so much that's not princesses or frills or squishy bunnies. She needs to develop her tomboyish side a little more, in my opinion... her girly side is fully developed and flourishing. Besides, how else is she going to survive in a house with two little brothers?

That being said.. I don't wanna go. I want to soak in a bubble bath, do my nails, and maybe sew/crochet a bit. Some tomboy-role model I am, huh? And along those lines... I wonder what 15 year old me would think of me now. She'd probably shake her head at me pitifully and demand I make some food. She'd try to talk me into believing that motherhood, and being a stay-at-home-mom, is a rediculous waste of time you could be free to do whatever makes you awesome. I think I'm pretty awesome, and I'd be kind of scared to know what she thinks is a good time, anymore. So. There's that.

And I must go now, as Luke has seemed to have knocked one of Brenda's front teeth loose. There's no crying or blood, but holy crap, it's way too early for her to be getting loose teeth.

Friday Morning.

I promised pictures of Brenda in the dress, so here they are...





Even a picture of the offensive back of the dress. Well... it offended me, until I saw it on her, then I stopped caring so much:

And Lucien needed to get in on the action, too, once he saw the camera. He's such a ham..

Baby doctor appointment is today at 10. Not looking forward. I've become very skeptical of the whole office.... but there's really no one else for me to go to. However, it's the first time I'm seeing *my* doctor in months, so hopefully I get some answers, or really, anything that's not, "You aren't eating enough; all women are uncomfortable when their pregnant," when I ask why I get dizzy and feel like I'm going to faint, and why I have back spasms and pain in my hips/legs that is bad enough to put me out of work. Man, I never want to see THAT woman again.

Hoping I don't have to walk up there, too. That would make the rest of the day be all laying on the couch recuperating, and I don't have time for that today.