be a better mom

In our little community they are having an evening celebration of Kids and dogs along the main avenue… of course Frozen Custard will be procured ;o)

We have arrived at the age of board games – yippee!!!

Santa Clause brought us 2 board games and my oldest cherub just loves them. She’s miraculously won at both, but I’ve loved the time with her and her younger sister.

Thank you Santa :o)

Had a great time at my oldest cherub’s school for International Night.

Her dad came and her grandmother sent this beautiful dress direct from Mexico. We had a booth and gave out information all about Mexico, gave Mexican cookies and had everyone dance to Vincente Fernandez songs.

They had about 25 booths of different countries represented in the cultures of the school and it was really neat to see everyone’s pride in their heritage.

So out of the 6 teeth my daughter has lost

~ The first 2 went as planned. Tooth fell out, put under pillow and cherub found a golden dollar under her pillow in the morning.

~ #3 fell out at her dad’s house. Even though I told him it was imminent and to stop by a bank to pick up the golden coin, he didn’t and put a TEN DOLLAR bill underneath the pillow!!!

~ #4 I bought into the guilt of doing what dad had done and put a $10 under her pillow and she was thrilled.

~ #5 fell out a few days later and was put under the pillow and I totally forgot about it. Well, she woke up miffed ~ the tooth was gone and there wasn’t any money under her pillow. Later I found the tooth on the floor, but then forgot about it and so I didn’t bring it up.

~ #6 fell out unexpectidly and I slept through the night, only remembering in the morning. I didn’t have anything other than a $20, so I slid that under her pillow… AND SHE WOKE UP! (I mumbled something about saving her pillow from falling down) and she looked under her pillow and was so excited to see the $20 AND, then with a confused look on her face said “why didn’t she take my tooth?”

She figured out that the Tooth Fairy left the $20 to make up for last tooth, but she still hasn’t figured out why she didn’t take the tooth.

OMG! I need to go back to Mom Training 101 …

Yesterday morning as I’m snuggling in bed with my cherubs, I want just a little more time to “rest my eyes” (as my mother would always say).

So, my older cherub says “let’s play the Quiet Game”. “Ohhh great idea!”

Out of 10+/- games, it was determined that based on giggling, whispering or full-on talking ~ that yep – Mommy wins!

and I didn’t really want to…LOL!

Had a great time with my cherubs at my older girls afterschool Rec Center’s Thanksgiving Party.

The staff was soooo sweet and it was nice meeting some of the other kids and parents.

Plus, dinner was nice, a good primer for next week.

Of course we brought cupcakes & they were a hit :o)

Had a fun weekend with the Cherubs!

Saturday – a lazy morning & the Bee Movie in the afternoon ^{(although I don’t recommend it to anyone who is old enough to have a driver’s license or above)}

Sunday – Giving the dog a bath, then a trip to the Smithsonian Natural History Museum & The National Gallery of Art’s outdoor Sculpture Garden.

The girls favorite part? The gift shop and ice cream! (of course, why did I even have to ask… LOL)

The cherubs and I went on our every-other Friday night date again last night.

I so really enjoy this time with them. The only thing that could be better is if I could find a restaurant that I like, that they actually enjoy and will eat the food. Lately we’ve been choosing TGIFridays, just because my money isn’t wasted there… but hey, if it works….

Last night we has such a wonderful time talking and laughing and just being silly.

When we got home, we had a tea party with some of the Halloween candy. Jessie cut a reeces peanut butter cup like a pie and served us with M&Ms.

Then we read 4 books and went off to bed

This weekend my best friend and I popped into Bloomies because she had to pick up something at the mall. Between us we dragged 4 kids (2 princesses and 2 princes) on what we anticipated would be an ordinary errand.

Almost as soon as we enter we are bombarded by the perfume ladies who are offering spritzes and samples.

Well, the look of delight that overtook all the kids faces was soooo joyous! Then, as each of them got their very own spray of something pretty (or handsome), they had such proud and happy looks on their faces. 20 minutes, lots of samples, lots of scents, lots of happy chortles later we were finally able to pry our gaggle out of there.

Who knew you could get such an amazing experience at Bloomingdales for free!

;o)

So Wednesday I’m talking to my ex-h about our children. There was a schedule change with daycare because of a funeral that they had to go to and would be closed 1/2 day Thursday and all day Friday and I’ve called him to see if he can help me out so I don’t have to take off of work the entire time.

He reams me out that I’ve given him short notice.

(Short Notice! I unfortunately had not been made aware that relatives of my daycare provider would be dying this week, but had I known, I certainly would have informed him earlier…)

He says, “can’t help you, sorry, I’m not your babysitter”. I was surprisingly level headed and informed him that in our custody arrangement he is responsible for 1/2 of situations like this (that he hasn’t ponied up for yet). He then informs me “well, that’s why I give you child support. Because you fought for full physical custody, this is what you wanted – to be responsible for them all the time. Now you’re seeing you can’t handle it?”

Of course my blood has past boiled at this point and is now leaking from my ears and nails all over my desk, on to the floor, past my office door. By the grace of God however, I am still remaining calm (at this point…)

So I start to say, “No, I requested full physical custody for the same reason I divorced you. The Judge saw your side and my side and agreed with me, of what would be in the best interest of the children. You, do however, have joint legal custody that requires you to help in other situations. You requested that and were granted that.”

He then goes on and on about 50 million reasons why I am wrong in life covering a variety of subjects.

The last straw was just before he hung up on me, he says “Sorry, again, can’t help. I’ll be picking up the kids on Friday night and dropping off the kids at 9:00am on Saturday”. SLAM

The reason this is HISTERICAL is because – it’s supposed to be his weekend with the kids!!! However, his girlfriend has a friend getting married this weekend, 10 miles from his house and he asked me 2 weeks ago to watch the kids on Saturday – from 9am until Sunday at noon.

So, as calmly as my bloodied fingers could type, I sent him an email saying “Fine – you can’t help me, I can’t help you buddy, find alternate arrangements”.

He didn’t see the email yesterday because he was out in the field.

Not surprisingly this morning, I get a chipper ex-h calling me. “I’m soooo sorry, you just know how to push my buttons. You know how crazy I get…. Hahahaha”

When I don’t fall for it, and tell him I’m tired of the lack of respect he shows me consistently, he goes off on me again. This time I hang up the phone.

He calls back within 30 seconds. “You’re right, you’re right. Hey, we’re going to need each other, I’m sorry I wasn’t being level headed. PLEASE can you help me out……….

He’s is such an @$$ I could scream!!!!