I'm HOME again!! For a few weeks anyway...

I made it!  My Census job is done and while I am sad at how the whole "ending" thing went down, I can honestly say that I am completely relieved to be done with the drive and the 2nd shift schedule.  Sometime I will go into detail about the pros and cons of working at the Census.  Right now, none of that matters.  What matters is that I am back home and have had 3 glorious days of time with my family.  Kind of.  Actually, my husband has been working the entire weekend, so I haven't seen him much, but the work is good, because it is the first real job his demolition business has had since he started it a few months ago.  YAY!!!  Whoo-hoo!! 

And the weekend hasn't necessarily been glorious.  It has been...well...it's life.  Injured kids, housework, bills.  All that stuff that makes work seem like a good place to be some days.  So maybe glorious is the wrong word. I'm not sure I have the right word to explain how I have felt the last few days, as I fold clothes and load the dishwasher.  I just know I'm home. You know that feeling?  The one that makes you feel like you are right where you should be, even if your circumstances are chaotic and stressful?  That's what my weekend felt like. 

I have to be truthful though...it took me a few hours to get to the point where I was glad to be home.  When I woke up Friday morning it was the most awesome feeling in the world...no work today!  Then I opened my eyes.  The house looks like a bomb hit it.  There are dishes and clothes everywhere.  I don't have a clue what's dirty and clean with the clothes, so I'm spending hours rewashing and folding and putting things away.  The bathrooms are seriously in need of a major hosing down.  Like with a fire hose. 

But inspite of all the extra housework I have to do, along with finding a new job?  It feels so nice to be here and to be needed.  My house needs my attention.  My kids need my attention.  My husband needs my attention.  I feel like I have worth and value as a wife and stay-at-home mom that I never felt before.  My people actually appreciate me!  My kids hug me...like all day long.  For no reason.  They just walk up and hug me and tell me they love me.  My husband thanks me for trying so hard to get the house back into shape.  (Funny, it was never in that great of shape to begin with, but it really looks bad now!)  Everyone is so excited that I went grocery shopping and that there is actually food in the house again!   

Now I'm not stupid.  I know the appreciation won't last.  My being home all day again is still new.  In about a week (maybe two if I work really hard to stretch it out) I will no longer be a novelty in our house and things will go back to the normal lack of attention and proper appreciation.  But a woman can hope, can't she?  And in the meantime, I am going to suck up all of the praise and glory I can from my male family members and remind them constantly about how lucky they are that I have a few weeks off between jobs to nag and complain at them and make them do chores care for them and nurture them and teach them. 

So...I'm back home.  For a few weeks.  And the house is a wreck and my kids need haircuts and my husband is working 2 jobs and life is...normal again.  I'm kinda diggin' on that.   

School's OUT! And We Get to Keep CoCo! Yay...

Oh my FREAKING HECK this was a long school year!  The boys just got out yesterday (YES!  June 10th!  I KNOW!!!!!)  and we were ecstatic that  we were finally, finally done for the year.  So I have to say, as much as I love our school, I am kind of getting done with the year round thing.  I guess I am going to have to start going to the PTO meetings when they decide this stuff so I can air my grievances!  Really, all they need to do is chop a week off of our 3 week Winter break and let the kids out a week earlier at the end of the year.  Three weeks is too long and the boys get bored anyway.  I'm just sayin'.

The boys had awesome teachers this year though and they were happy.  And bless her heart, Little Man's teacher let him bring home the class pet for the summer so he wouldn't be lonely.  I'm not sure exactly how I feel about that, because I was kind of done with the class pet.  The class pet is a gecko, which requires food.  Live food.  Like mealworms and crickets.  So then I have to buy bugs and gross things to feed the gecko.  Do you understand how weird it is to buy crickets, then have to worry about making sure they have nourishment so they can stay alive to be fed to a gecko?  I am trying to keep insects alive, people!  It is completely counterintuitive!  Not to mention that I have to spend money to buy the dang things!  You get the point.

So anyway...we have the gecko for the summer.  His name is CoCo.  Before you ask, I don't know how the name came about.  It was a bunch of 2nd graders who named him.  'Nuff said, right?  CoCo is cool though.  Sometimes he gets all ninja and uses his mouth to pull his little water bowl up to the cave thing he hides in.  He's pretty strong.  What?  How do I know it's a male?  Oh...glad you asked.  Now I can lay some gecko knowledge on you.  His tail is how I know. Male geckos store fat in their tail so when there is a low food supply, he can live off of the fat.  My body does not work the same way as CoCo's body.  My rear end seems to store even MORE fat when the food supply gets low and I don't eat.  I think it is unfair that a gecko gets the cool weight loss tool and I do not.  Just sayin'.

Here's what a leopard gecko looks like.  This is not CoCo.  But it looks just like him.  He's extremely handsome, yes? 

I'll post some pics tomorrow with some more about CoCo that I think you will all enjoy.  In the meantime, I have to go to PetSmart...I recently ran out of bugs. 

Silk Pure Almond Milk Winner!!!

Oops!  I forgot to choose a winner for the Silk Pure Almond Milk giveaway!  My Bad!  You people need to let me know when I'm forgetting stuff like this!  I've told you I have no short term memory, right? 

So anyway...Let's get a winner, shall we?

Congrats to Cheryl F (The Lucky Ladybug)!  The milk coupons will be in the mail shortly!

Winner of the FUNundrum Circus Tickets!

Here is the result of the circus ticket giveaway....

Looks like Art Couture is the winner!  Congrats, we'll see you at the circus!  Hope the motorcycle cage guys are all you hoped for!