Busy Bee

So, I can't resist. Here's our baby. Sickie has been up coughing with a gnarly head cold for the past three days. She looks so over everything in this photo.

Twins turn 5, twin parties!

This year we had the twins separate for friend birthday parties. Doodle took his boys to Home Depot for a building party (did you know they do kids parties for free?). Bean had a super girly tea party at home. Fun all around!

My oldest.

We've been struggling lately with my oldest boy. He is wicked smart, a nervous eater, and fidgety as a 9 year old boy can be. When Monkey grows up, he wants to be a fighter pilot, astronaut, and aeronautical engineer. And I honestly believe him! He's been talking about it since he was 2 1/2.

The past couple months have been mayhem. We started a renovation on our house that's still not finished, so all our stuff has been everywhere. In the middle of that we went on vacation. Husband is burned out and in the middle of interviewing with other jobs, which makes for a grumpy daddy at home.

We were called into the school to discuss Alex's slumping grades and behavior. He doesn't want to do the required work, and hasn't been listening to anyone lately.

Yesterday was a dark day for my baby. He ended up bringing home a written apology signed by his teacher due to poor behavior. Disrupting class, losing work.... I am so fed up with it at this point. I was goosing about in the kitchen after he gave me the note that it took me a few moments to realize he was standing by the table sobbing. Sobbing. I dropped my towel on the ground, wrapped my arms around him and and said what I know he needed to hear:"Everything's going to be okay."

Everything's going to be okay. Really? I don't know that for sure. My stress levels have been off the charts for the last year with all the ups and downs and not knowing where were going to be next Christmas. But I knew my son, my very tuned in to his surroundings son, needed to hear that everything's going to be okay.

I left a wet patch of my own tears on top of my boys fuzzy head. I held him for as long as he would let me, letting the kitchen sink water running mindlessly down the drain. But all that matters right now is having my children know that everything is going to be fine. Whether we are still here, moved to a foreign country or a new state. This transient life is starting to wear me down. I look and feel much older. Husband is actively looking for something else, as this job has been really hard on our family. But what can we say? What he does is important, yes. But for how long do we have to sacrifice our family's time and stability for our country?

I am not questioning our decision to be a part of the military. It is a noble calling for a family. But that moment in the kitchen, holding my heartbroken baby as he sobbed, made me want to move to a farm house far far away from everything so I can protect my babies as long as possible.

I want all my boys' dreams to come true. I want that for all my children. With each developing phase I am starting to see new batches of obstacles and challenges pop up that make every day life increasingly tricky.

Hence my reason for blogging again. I need to spend less time doing things that keep me and my kids from attaining our goals. For me, that means dropping Facebook for good, and Internet surfing less. It has been too easy to pick up my phone and dink around when I should have been changing Barbies with Beanie, or making paper airplanes with Monkey.

On that note, time to hop off the blog and take care of my babies. I'll keep tabs here on Monkeys progress. I have hope that the changes we made yesterday will help.

Cub Scouts and Paper Mâché

I'm the Bear Den leader for my sons Cub Scout pack. Currently we are preparing for the annual Blue and Gold banquet.... Of which I am chair(of course). So this year we are going with a Mexican fiesta theme, and the boys learned how to make piñatas and masks.

The day we did masks, I had less than half of the boys come. That means I had to make extra masks at home. Which I did. Messy process! When the balloons were dry enough I stacked them in a corner of my kitchen. Popping the balloons is super cool. They shrink slowly due to the flour paste all over.... Like a skin. So now I have 16 masks and one piñata to finish at our meeting tonight.

So you may be asking:"why in the world would you volunteer to be a den leader?" It was one week before they started, and my sons den leader had to back out. Fourteen boys with no leader. Scouting is important to me. It was a big part of my childhood and I had the chance to see it done wonderfully. I want the same thing for my sons! So I stepped up. Granted, this has been a hard year! Twins plus baby while trying to teach a group of rambunctious boys.... Ohhhhh boy. But we've had several moments with them that has made all the stress worth it.

Carol Channing, or Phyllis Diller?

This is Beans favorite Bearbie (homage to Bearenstein Bears). I think she looks awesome.

The pre-holiday jitters

Tomorrow is valentines day. Do you know what that means? Parents scrambling to make 72 valentines for their children's classmates, plus gifts for teachers. Don't forget the pink milk and heart shaped pancakes for breakfast, followed by the special lunch packed with a heart shaped note. Off to decorate the dining room with 23,750 hearts and prepare a themey dinner for the kids. Oh, crap. It's valentines day. Run back to Crap Mart to buy husband something... Card? Motor oil? And try to find a sitter far too late in the game.

So, that's what I call the pre-holiday jitters. Trying to make everything perfect for everyone, and in the process making yourself miserable and anyone within a ten foot radius of your crafting trajectory. Tomorrow, as per tradition, husband and I will go to our reservation... With Jon our tax guy. He even files them in pink files for the occasion. That's our thing. No Kay Jeweler moment, reservations at Les Halles followed by a romantic romp at the Marriott. We do our taxes and get burgers.

I personally am so tired of trying to turn every holiday or day named after a patron saint into a day worthy of pennant flags, centerpieces, and overly complicated food. Maybe this year is the year of take out and caterers for me. Seriously! Perhaps I could spend more time playing with my kids rather than trying to find the perfect smelling candle to enhance the holiday atmosphere(guilty).

Right now I am laying down with Busy while she nurses. Boob naps are the only naps she will take. Admittedly it's only when she needs a nap that I stop moving and schlepping around my six thousand to-do lists. Why do I always have a friggin project? Two hours ago I was that person making home crafted valentines for my sons classmates followed by taping up 50 red doily hearts all over the kitchen walls. I think I'm going to stop project-ing myself and go put together puzzles with the twins.

Playing Buggy

Today we had dental appointments. Then on the spur of the moment we decided to play buggy(that's Davies for "play hookey") and do the aquarium. Life's too short. They won't be this little for very long, nor will they want to hang out with me like this in years to come. So, today we are playing buggy and making the most of it! Time to go play shark puppets with the twins.

Check it... I'm Baaaaaack!

I'm going to pretend like you don't know anything about us. Or that you are like my husband, and everything I say to you goes in one ear and out the other (oh, snap!).  I am convinced I sound like Charlie Brown's muffled-trumpet teacher.  No one listens to me.  So Check it! I got a forum where things I write will STICK. STAY PUT. LIKE.... A RECORD. Sweet.

I've got a hardly-home husband and four of the craziest, energetic, ovely smart and rambunctious kids on the planet.  They suck the life out of me.  All five of em.  (See what I did there? Eh?) But I wicked crazy love them and don't want to forget a moment in this time of our lives.  I'm gonna do it. Use nicknames.  It's habit, OPSEC, and the right thing to do.  My husband has a name, I swear, but I always call him husband. No Joke.  He is the most exasperating, gregarious, brilliant, annoying, loving, athletic, ambitious, lazy, wild, boring, amazing man I have ever met in my life.  That's why I married him almost 12 years ago.  We've both had phases where we acted like jackasses.  But through an eternal perspective we keep on. Almost nine years ago I gave birth reluctantly to my boy, Monkey. He wants to be an aeronautical engineer when he grows up, and already carries a healthy obession for flight with him everywhere he goes.  Obsession is an understatement.  Next I willingly had a c-section for my twins, Doodle and Bean.  Let me tell you, hosptials and c-sections are the way to go.  I would not be here, nor my kids, if it weren't for modern medicine.  I would be that one character who dies in childbirth on Downton Abbey or any given Austen novel.  Yay drugs!  Then, excitedly, I had a c-section for my final baby, Busy.  She is as busy as they come.  Sleep is not an option for this baby-- there's too much to do!

Speaking of Busy, I just found her dancing, spinning, shaking, and spinning again in the living room.  So fun to watch.  It's those moments right there when I remember why I wanted to be June Cleaver: a full time mom and wife.  There are days... in fact I had two days this past week that made me question my very sanity, but I wouldn't want to do anything else.  This is where I want to be.  In the middle of the chaos at home.

SO.... I am sure I don't need to explain my title, unless you are completely daft.  My children, my life, the unsure nature of being married to the warrior class, those are my hurricanes.  Life ain't easy.  It certainly isn't simple.  Things get so complicated in a hurry with this line of business.  But I find happiness in the little things. More to come... I have to go separate the twins and change a diaper.