Through The Darkness Comes ...

Top Heavy

Well, the top floor of my house is clean.

I made my oldest vacuum and then had both kids help me dust.  I also managed to get both bathroom floors washed, which is something I hate, HATE, to do.

Today I need to do the downstairs and I also need to wash the floor downstairs so we can walk in a straight line without trying to avoid all the sticky spots.  I'm assuming they are drips from Popsicles. 

I also need to bake the rhubarb that I picked at my parents a couple of days ago.  My youngest is chomping at the bit to have it.  I need to make it crystal clear to my husband that it is for my parents and not his since the last time I made it (for my family) he went and offered it to his parents to take home.  Luckily they forgot and I didn't need to explain to my dad why I didn't have any of his rhubarb crumble for him.

I guess I should stop procrastinating and get this done.  I also promised my oldest I would take them swimming if it ever stops raining.

Maybe Today?

Maybe today I will clean my house.

By the time we got everything together and made it to the library yesterday it was noon.  We did our library day. The kids officially finished the reading program the week before, but they are still able to earn raffle tickets towards prizes until the program ends in August so I'm encouraging them to do that.  I'm still finishing up the adult reading program, I started my last book last night.

After checking out books at the library we headed over to the park next to the library.  The park is great -it has lots of wonderful equipment and a  covered pavilion  with picnic benches to sit at.  Best of all it doesn't seem like to many middle schoolers or high school kids hang out there. In fact, I haven't seen one yet. From 12:30 - 1:30 they do art in the park and kids can choose from different projects that range from .75 -$3.  My kids each did a project and played a little at the park and then we headed home because of the heat. 

 My oldest wanted to go swimming at the health club but the youngest didn't.  I would have pushed the issue except I have a little visitor this month and it was the middle of the afternoon. By the time we got there it would have been time to come right back home.  My husband was taking my youngest to the peanut free day at the ballpark.  Since my oldest didn't want to go with them we went to a movie.  We saw  Indiana Jones and then we also stopped at Best Buy to check out some digital cameras for my parents who are in the market for their first one. Any suggestions?  I'm leaning towards a Sony Cybershot.

Today we had Gymnastics this morning and then I took the kids for McDonald's.  Now we're home.  Still NOT cleaning my house!

Half Way There

We are half way through the summer. I was doing so well, going outside everyday, the house was relatively clean, we were going places.  In the last week we have done practically nothing, my house is a mess, and  all the kids want to do is stay inside and play video games.

I'm not sure if this is because the temperatures have finally made it past ninety here in the Midwest or if we are all just bored with the summer.  I know I have been staying up way to late reading or watching TV and sleeping in  and then not getting going in the morning.

Last week I thought I had a kidney stone or a gallbladder problem it lasted about four days and the problem seems to have resolved itself but in the mean time my house looks like a tornado hit it and I truly don't feel like cleaning it.  I suppose I should since we'll probably be hosting a birthday party for my MIL here on Sunday.

I suppose I should get dressed and get the kids ready for the day.  It's library day and if we go to the park by the library between 12:30 and 1:30 they do art in the park.  We discovered that last week while we were there.

Dream State

Last night I had the strangest dream. I dreamt that my parents came back from a vacation and handed me two checks. One I can remember quite clearly was for $100,000.  The other, while I can't remember the amount was for the kids and only the kids. There were other odd things in the dream, odd as only dreams can be.  To make a long story short my parents had won some kind of lottery while they had been on their trip and where sharing their winnings with all of their kids, meaning me and my two brothers.

 Getting this money was a godsend because we could pay off not only all our credit card debt but our home equity loan as well plus have money left over. In the dream I can remember actually depositing the check into our checking account  and telling my husband about the money but sadly I woke up before I wrote out the checks to pay off the bills.

To me this whole dream is weird and I wonder what it means.  The waking up before actually paying off the bills., I mean.  I think I've mentioned before that my husband is working on a new project.  One that if when it is successful should allow us to pay off all our debt. Everyday he comes closer to realizing his dream. I have been cautiously optimistic when it comes to this project, almost afraid to hope so I hope that this dream means something positive instead of negative. I promise when I can share the details I will.  Any idea what the dream meant?

Ireland , The End

We still got up fairly early even thought there was no crashing around downstairs.  We wanted to get an early start so we could make the most of the day in Dublin once we got there.  I got a horrible nights sleep.  I was was worried about our oldest son and his earache.  I was really dreading having to take him to a doctor if we needed to.  I was also worried because when we were packing up the night before the one thing I couldn't find was his camera.  It turns out he was sleeping on top of it! He also felt much better that morning.

After breakfast of whatever was leftover in the fridge we packed up the car and headed off the Dublin.  We stopped a couple of times along the way and tried to top up our minutes on our cell phone but that turned out to be a lost cause.  If we ever go back we will definitly do the cell phone thing again but next time we will be experts in how to do it.

We arrived in Dublin mid afternoon.  The kids mostly played their games in the car and I read my book when I wasn't helping my husband navigate.  By some miracle and the help of a cab driver we found our hotel and when we got there our room wasn't ready so we waited in the hotel restaurant until it was. My husband wanted to go explore Dublin but I really wanted to relax at the hotel but since they didn't have a pool I got talked into walking to downtown Dublin.  It was supposed to be a 10 minute walk but it was more like 30 minutes.

 

Buy the time we got to the down town area it pored rain for about twenty minutes so we ducked into a tourist shop and did some last minute shopping and then after that we found a book store and got the magazines the kids had been looking for. 

 Then we walked another 20 minutes to Thornton's for Chocolate for ME! YUM!  We tried finding a restaurant for dinner but nothing looked appealing so we took a cab back to the hotel and ate at the restaurant there and then went and relaxed in our room and bathed the kids before bed.  I read more of my book and we went to bed fairly early.

The next morning we got up early so we got get to the airport  on time we also needed to get gas for the car. Can you believe that we could not find a gas station near the airport? My husband was furious that we had to pay the price of turning in the car at the airport with the car not topped off.  Usually he cleans the car out and gets it washed too but after they screwed us out of the mini van we should have gotten when we first arrived he didn't care what it looked like when we gave it back to them.

We finally made it to the actual airport and through security.  It was a joke buy the time we actually got on the plane how many times we had to show them our passports and tickets.

 Right up until we actually boarded th plane! Usually flying doesn't make me nervous but this flight made me extremely nervous, I was literally almost having a panic attack it was that bad.  I had all kinds of horrible thoughts going through my head.

Mostly I read my book, which I finished.  I would highly recommend  any of the books I read. We also ate.  the food was horrible on this flight.  The last meal was cheese and mushroom pizza.  Seriously, do you think everybody loves mushrooms?  There were lots of kids on the flight too.  Most kids don't like mushrooms.

Needless to say I was very relieved to be home.  I can't believe it's taken me  a little over three month's to write this all up!

Getting There... Ireland, Day 9

I'm almost done, I promise.  After this post the last two days go very quickly! So day 9 begins with my husband getting up extremely early to drive my IL's to Galway so that they can catch a bus to Dublin because they are flying to Scotland that day.  I did wake up because everything was echoing but because they weren't down there very long I was able to go back to sleep for a while.

I woke up again around 7:30 and read in bed for a while.  When the kids woke up I got up and we all started getting ready for the day.  I think my husband came back soon after that.  Around 10:30 we left the cottage.  Our plans for the day were to do anything we wanted to do that we hadn't done yet within a reasonable driving distance.  This was going to be our last night in the cottage, the next day we were driving to Dublin to spend part of the day there and the last night in a hotel before flying home the next day.

So we headed out around 10:30 and leisurely drove around the area close to the cottage so I could get all the pictures of sheep I wanted.  The day was sunny and clear so I was able to get more pictures of the cottage itself.

We drove to one of the nearest villages that we had driven though a million times but never stopped in except for the castle. First, we stopped at the castle and made plans for the kids to go horseback riding later in the day.  Our plan was for all of us to go riding but they wouldn't let the ponies go out with the big horses so we settled for letting the kids go. We made an appointment for later in the day and set off to enjoy the day. Next, we stopped at the Abbey in the town.  WOW! I couldn't believe that we had driven through this town almost everyday and missed this beautiful Abbey. When we first approached the abbey we were greeted by the most charming calico cat.  It followed us around for most of our visit winding its way in and out of our legs and wanted to be petted. We then made our way down a path to the stone fishing cottage.  This place was full of photo opportunities! We spent at least an hour here.

We walked around the town.  This was the town were they filmed The Quiet Man so that is what it is best known for. We ate lunch at a pub there. The food was pretty good and it was nice to be just the four of us. After lunch we walked around the town some more and then set off for a drive through the country side.  I finished my book (Forever After) in the car.

We drove back tho the castle for our horseback riding.  The kids had a great time riding.  The ride lasted about an hour and the got to go all over the castle grounds and even all the way up to the castle. If you ever go to Ireland and have mega bucks that castle would be the place to stay!

It started raining at the end of the ride and on the way back to the cottage.  Also on the way back our oldest started complaining of an earache.  Luckily I had brought some vicodin syrup from home but he had to wait until we got back to the cottage to have it.  He took some and slept through the night. 

The rest of us had sandwiches made out of the leftover food in the fridge.  We packed and the watched TV.  I edited pictures on my camera.  We also met with the lady who owned the cottage and settle the bill on the heat and the electric. Wow, we set a record for the gas. I also started a new book; Shoot the Moon.  I really wanted to achieve my goal of finishing all the books I brought before the trip ended.

Summer

Ahh, summer. I felt I should post something about summer instead of Ireland before the summer was over, LOL! 

 The last couple of weeks have flown by, we've been really busy.  If we had wi-fi I could be blogging from my garage but instead I sit out there and read and watch my youngest son ride his bike or scooter.  I pick at my flowers or sometimes visit with my neighbors.  Sometimes I even end up babysitting  watching all the kids.  I wouldn't mind so much if they would return the favor but all the little ones like coming here for some reason, I can't figure out why, it's not like we have anything fun to do here except bubbles, bikes, and chalk.  My oldest seems to be a hit with his four square ball and a couple of tennis rackets. I'm just glad he seems to be getting along with the kids this year.  There have been some spats but for the most part he has been able to find someone to play with everyday.

The first week of summer we stayed around the house and the kids played with their friends and we did the activities described above. We also signed up to do the summer reading program at the library. Last week the kids had swimming lessons.  This was the first time either one of them have taken them so I was a little nervous about the older one being in the beginning group but it turned out to be fine because there was another boy his size and age just starting also. We went bowling with one of the kids from my oldest sons bowling team last year just to keep their progress up.  It was nice for the kids to get together and it was nice to see the dads again.  Swimming lessons continued into this week and ended yesterday.  This week my oldest also had basketball camp all week.  My youngest is doing gymnastics once a week  every week all summer. After this week we don't have any other activities "planned" until the third week of July when we have VBS at our church.  Both kids will go and I'm volunteering all week.

I have to say that I've really enjoyed having the kids in all the activities.  We're up and out of the house everyday.  Plus we see people we know with the prospect of getting together with people in the future. There were two other activities I had wanted to sign my kids up for but all that came to a screeching halt yesterday.

Usually I never know how much money we have.  I only spend money when I go grocery shopping or when I go to walmart every two weeks.  Sometimes I need things in between but usually my husband will have told me we have a certain amount so we need to be careful or I just judge his mood.  Things have been tight the past couple of years so if I need some new clothes or the kids need some new things I usually am able to finagle my walmart budget and include the things I need into that and leave out toilet paper and paper towel that I tend to stock up on.

This month we had some extra money so I was able to get some new summer clothes ( I spent around $60) and I got some things for my husband.  We also had Fathers day and my husbands birthday, my husband also restocked his liquor cabinet.

So, yesterday the phone started ringing again, you know, THAT kind of ringing. I don't know why I answered it but I did and I pulled out a couple of bills and started looking at them.  I paid a few that needed to be paid right way (even though my husband takes care of them).  Then I noticed that our on line banking statement says that one of our loans is 3 months behind (not our mortgage).  My husband swears it's not and it must not be because the phone hasn't been ringing that much.  It started yesterday and it hasn't rung today at all.

I breached the subject of the tennis camp I wanted to sign my oldest up for  because we have to pay for it by Monday and of course he said no.  I'm really disappointed because I know how much he would enjoy it.  The other class I think I can still do because it's later in the summer and I can have the money scrapped together by then. I just want it to be fair for each of them.

Summer=Expensive

Plodding Along... Ireland Day 8

As I mentioned it stormed all night.  Boy, did it storm. Like, house shaking wind, horizontal rain type storm.  It was still raining in the morning when we all got up, although it was just regular old rain by that time.  We determined that horseback riding would be out for the day because the ground was soaked. 

My husband convinced his parents to come with us to an Abbey that used to be a castle were everything is supposed to be made by the Nuns that live there.  Since my IL's are very C@tholicand are very into this kind of thing, my husband used this to his advantage to get them to come along. 

I wasn't convinced how much fun it would be and it was still raining when we got there.  We sat in the car a while and finally had to make a run for it because the rain made no signs of letting up.  Luckily we had umbrellas with us!  We stopped in the Welcome Center/restaurant first. Everybody had scones and clotted cream.  Because of the nut allergy with our youngest, he and I split an apple/blackberry pie.  This was one of the most delicious pieces of pie I have ever had.  I wish I had taken a picture of it although a picture wouldn't have convened the taste.

After the mid morning snack we hit the gift shop (of course)  before braving the weather for a tour of the castle and grounds. 

The above pictures were taken inside the Welcome Center/ Gift Shop / Restaurant.  We were waiting for the IL's to come out of the gift shop.

The castle itself was beautiful; one of the most beautiful things we saw while we were in Ireland.  If the weather had been clear it would have been amazing and I cannot imagine what it is like in summer when everything is in full bloom.  The rain never stopped but kept a steady  light drizzle the whole time we were there picking up to a light rain here and there.  My IL's were racing ahead with our oldest.  We were never sure why.  My husband and I took our time with our youngest stopping wherever we wanted to see sights and take pictures.

 At the end we found my IL's back and the restaurant with our oldest getting lunch (or another snack) however, they got soup with cream in it and our oldest couldn't have it because it had dairy in it.  He would have eaten it if we wouldn't have shown up when we did and then we would have had to listen to how much his stomach hurt from eating the dairy.

There was really nothing else on the agenda for the day because of the weather so we drove to a town that my husband had read about that was supposed to have good shopping.  We stopped and had a proper lunch.  We had trouble deciding on a place because they were all so expensive, even for lunch. Finally we found one with a kids menu and reasonable prices for lunch.  It turned out to be a good choice because my husband said it was the best fish breading he's ever had. I had potato leek soup and we talked our youngest into having pasta instead of chicken nuggets (yay!!!!)

After lunch, we walked around the town, luckily the weather cleared up, and we did some souvenir shopping.  I got some things for teachers and the kids classes, shirts for the kids, earrings for my mom, and a pair for myself.

About this time my FIL started not feel well and spent alot of time going into stores to find bathrooms.  We decided it was time to go because it was starting to drive my husband crazy.  This is a problem my FIL has had for years and refuses to take care of.

We stopped at a butcher and got meat for dinner and headed back to the cottage to make dinner there for my IL's last night with us.  They were heading to Scotland the next day.  When we got back to the cottage I went upstairs and read, edited pictures, and played with the kids until dinner was ready.  For some reason my stomach was bothering me and I still hadn't started my period.  Basically I just needed a break from everybody, I was PMS-ing big time!

We had dinner, it was okay, but it's hard to cook in a kitchen your not used to.  My husband and MIl made lamb chops, mashed potatos, some wierd vegetable thing my FIL picked out at the store that not even he would eat.  I can't even remember what else there was I just remember everybody being disappointed how it came out for a "last" meal together.

We put the kids to bed and we got ready for bed early so my IL's could finish packing and get to bed early for their trip the next morning.

Why My Best Posts Never Get Published

A variety of things happen during the course of the day. Some of the things that happen to me would make very funny blog posts but I never write about them.  I do compose long, drawn out posts in my mind, usually at the end of the day in the shower when I'm reviewing everything that happened to me over the course of the last twelve hours or so.  It's funny how I methodically go over everything in my minds eye as if I were actually writing it down.  I always think I will write it down the next morning but I rarely do and if I do it never gets typed up the way it was brilliantly composed in my mind the night before in the shower.  If only I had a waterproof laptop in there with me...

Finding My Passion

A couple of weeks ago my husband had a reading done by a Medium who is a friend of his.  This Medium is part of something that is my husband new passion in life and something that I will talk about soon, but not now.

Anyway, in the reading she mentioned that one of the people that was coming forward to talk to my husband expressed some things specifically about me.  Some of them were right on, others I think this medium could have gleaned from meeting me but the thing that stuck me as odd was that this person said that I should get back to my passion in life.  The other thing that the Medium said was that she could she another child waiting to come into our lives, a girl.  I'm sure my husband would have never told me this part but he taped the reading so I heard every word this Medium said.

The day after the reading my husband asked me what I thought the passion was that I needed to get back to. I told him I had no idea, since all I've really ever wanted to be was a mom.  He looked at me and said, "Oh no, don't even think about that." To tell you the truth I wasn't even thinking about the child she said was supposed to come into our lives, I really have only ever wanted to be a mom and and a wife. Sure, I have been good at things over the years but I get bored with them after awhile.  I was really good at my job and totally immersed in it before I met my husband, but once I met him I totally lost interest in that. I taught aerobics for 13 years but after I became a mom that became boring to me.  The only things I've wanted to be since I was little were a mom, a wife, and a princess. Yeah,  I've totally got to get back to that Princess thing!