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!

Memorial Day

I'm supposed to finishing up a business plan right now.  But I got writer's block and decided to check my emails.  Someone sent me the link to the video included in this post.  It touched my heart.  Because I know people who  have served in the military and who have fought during wartime. 

My maternal grandfather and my maternal step-grandfather both fought in WWII.  Apparently it caused an intense amount of stress and pain for my maternal grandfatherSo much so that he locked himself in a room for an entire year due to depression.  We now know his kind of suffering better as post-traumatic stress disorder.  My grandmother left him several years later.  I have never met the man.  I only hear a few stories.  I also hear he has a huge scrapbook of sorts that chronicles his experiences during the war.  I hope one day I get to see it.  I'm still deciding if I want to see him.  His "issues" left a big scar on the rest of his family, including my mother, who was one of the recipients of his anger and depression.

My step-grandfather is actually quite the opposite. He's a pretty positive person, no matter what's going on around him.  He came through the situation pretty much emotionally intact and moved on with his life.    He met and married my grandmother at the VA where they both worked and he never really talked about his experiences in combat, but every once in awhile he would get out his albums and go through them with us.  Then Saving Private Ryan came out.  I asked him if he was going to see it.  He stated simply, "I already lived it.  One tour through Hell was enough for me."  That was the first time he had hinted that it might have been difficult for him.  Then he was asked to write some of his story for a reporter.  He talked about the day they landed on Omaha Beach and some of the horrific things he saw and endured.  And that was it.  He's never really talked about it again. 

So it's Memorial Day weekend and I think of these two men.  And I think of others like them who became soldiers.  Some of them are old now.  Some of them are young and still trying to make a life for themselves.  All of them made sacrifices for their country that either changed their lives forever or took their lives from them.  And there is nothing I can say that would pay them back adequately for their efforts.  So I will simply thank those who lost their lives in the line of duty, along with their families, for making the ultimate sacrifice.  My family will try to ensure that your life was not given in vain as we struggle to hold on to our precious freedoms and heritage. 

And I will also take the time to thank the living who have served and who are still serving their fellow citizens as VOLUNTEERS in our military.  People like you are the reason our country is great.  Thank you for your valor and courage.  You are loved and appreciated. 

FUNundrum Circus Ticket Giveaway!!

This is the last giveaway celebrating my 2 year blogoversary!  Woot woot!  How much fun have I had over the last 2 years with my blog?  More fun than a person should be allowed to have.  It has really been a life changing experience.  I have met so many cool people and I have come to know myself and my family on a much deeper level.  AND...I have had the privelege of working with some great companies to offer some really great stuff to my readers!  I feel very blessed to work with such great sponsors.  

On that note, let's give away the last prize of the month - Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey FUNundrum Tickets!!!!  This is gonna be a quick giveaway because the tickets ore for the evening of June 23rd, so we need to give everyone time to coordinate.  Also, this giveaway is LOCAL, for Phoenix residents only.  Sorry to all my non-local readers!  

WANNA WIN IT?!  Win 4 tickets to FUNundrum on June 23rd!  Check out the Ringling Brothers Barnum Bailey website, click on Meet the Stars and leave a comment telling me which performer (s) you think will be most interesting.  Contest will end at 12 midnight PST on June 1st!!.  LOCAL PHOENIX residents only.  

If you want extra entries, help me advertise the contest!  You can:

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  Tweet this contest
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  Post it on your Facebook Page
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  Put it on a Mr. Linky somewhere on the internet
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  Email your friends and family!  

And don't forget,  if you don't win you can still get a family 4-pack of 4 tickets for only $44 through ticketmaster.com- good to all performances (excludes Circus Celebrity, Front Row and VIP seats). I KNOW! Sweet deal, right? You can purchase additional tickets for $11 each.  Just use code MOM online or over the phone to get your discount.

Light up Cars/BioGaia Giveaway Winners!

I have a little Giveaway Housekeeping to do today, so let's get this show on the road!  Starting with the BioGai Probiotics giveaway...

Congrats to Miss Hope for her win, I hope this helps!!!

Now on to the Marble Cars!!

Congrats to the Watsons on their win, I hope the boys enjoy the cars!  They really are cool at night with all the lights turned off! 

Thanks to everyone who left comments and thanks to the sponsors (BioGaia, Skullduggery and MomSelect)  for offering such great product giveaways!