!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have officially lost my voice. I'm full of whispers and strained coughs today. Its so frustrating to not be able to talk. Do you know how difficult it is to get 2 kids ready in the morning when they can't hear you whisper at them? Zach was running around all crazy, throwing stuff in the floor and yelling. I don't know what his deal was this morning. It was like he was saying, "I can't hear you tell me NO, so it must be ok to do this." Needless to say, it was a crazy, hair-pulling, arms waving, finger-snapping morning. No, I wasn't dancing...waving my arms and snapping my fingers....that's the only way I can get them to look at me so I can shake my head at them.
My awesome thing actually comes from today, even though it hasn't happened yet. **Fundraisers** I'm having a 31 representative come to work today so we can buy her stuff. 20% of her sales will go toward our Relay goal. I've already got some orders from some of my clients. I hope the party goes well today. I handed out fliers to almost every floor in this 12 story building. I posted a filer in the main break room and at the hidden elevator. Last year we sold a little over $300 worth of 31 merchandise and I got $75 toward my Relay goal. I'm hoping to do more this year. I'm buying more from her this year. I'm getting Lilly an umbrella with butterflies on it and am going to have her name put on it. I'm getting both of us nail files and I'm getting a new purse. I'm hoping to get another 31 representative to come to the Relay even in June and set up her stuff in our booth/tent and sell there. If I do get her to come, there's stuff I'm going to buy from her. There's a cute coin purse that you can put kids on. I'd get that for grandma and then there's a drawstring bag that I want for my gym clothes. I said yesterday that I'd put the link on here so you guys can take a look at it, but our party isn't on her site yet. I'll ask her about it today when I see her. I was going to talk to her yesterday, but with hubby's mom's birthday and all...I kinda forgot.
Yeah, we went to the in-laws yesterday, grilled some hot dogs and burgers and had cake. The kids played baseball and then shot each other with their Nerf dart guns. There was another house up for sale yesterday and we went to take a look at it. I fell in love with it when I first saw it online. It was perfect. Big family room, big open space, nice deck in the back...but then we drove by it. It was straight up a hill. The driveway was about a block long and we had to almost look straight up when we were below it. Steep hill. That's all the yard was. One big steep hill in the front and more hill in the back. So... we're crossing that one off our list.
Hubby was talking about taking Lilly fishing at the 'farm' tomorrow. If he is, I don't think I'm going to go. My allergies are already bad and they only get worse when I got down there. Me and Zach can stay home and whisper at each other. Hmm...on second thought, maybe I should go. How else am I going to make sure Zach doens't get into too much trouble? Sunday I'm taking the kids to visit my family. I bought some stuff for us to make my mom and step dad Easter baskets. I did my step dads so Lilly could see how it was done. She did my mom's and it turned out way better. Then, we wrapped them up like gift baskets.
Lilly's going to spend the night with mee maw Sunday night and I'll get her Monday after work. Spring break is next week. Easter is just a week away and we still don't have anything to put in their baskets. Its hard to find time to go shopping for them when they are there.
Be sure to check out my flickr site to see some new pictures of my kids.
Ok, its time to make some hot tea. I don't really like tea, but I am in need of relief for my throat.

Cough.......Cough.....

I'm not going to write much today. I'm not feeling well and I'm so tired. My awesome thing for today's post is **cough drops** Yeah. That's right. I got such a sore throat yesterday and could only find relief in cough drops. I popped those things like candy. I lost my voice for a little bit last night, too. Cough drops. They come in all kinds of flavors. Of course mine is menthol. It seems to help me more than any other flavor. I've tried the cherry, the honey lemon, the strawberry...but menthol is the best.
Lilly has a doctors appointment today. Just her annual checkup. Make sure she's growing right and all that stuff. I'm curious to see how tall she is. She's already up to my shoulders. She'll be taller than me by the time she's 10 at this rate. Today is also hubby's mom's birthday. I gave Lilly a wooden rose to take to her at school today. I hope it makes it in one peice. I told hubby last night that today was her birthday.... of course he forgot. I have to remind him of everyone's birthday. So...he's going shopping today on his lunch hour and we'll go visit her today when we all get home.
31 party for work is yesterday. I was going to post the website today for all of you to look at and hopefully buy from...ya know...since it a fundraiser for the American Cancer Society... but our event isn't up on her site yet. I'll try again tomorrow.
Ok... I'm sorry this is so short..but I think I'm done. I'm ready to go back home. I really should have called off today.

Pics from Lilly's practice

Practice went better this time. Longer too. The coach played all the girls on almost every posistion. Lilly was on third, first, pitchers mound and outfield and got to bat 4 times. Zach was ok during practice. He got a little restless about halfway through so I was trying to chase him down while still watching Lilly. I think I did ok. Here's some pics from practice

Lilly did a good job. She was on top of that ball. She hit it every time when she was up to bat and caught it almost every time it was hit to her.
Last night me and hubby ate really late....which is also my awesome thing from yesterday. **Eating quick foods late at night** We ended up having spicy chicken wings and pepperoni rolls at 11:00 last night while watching Two and a Half Men. Hubby ran out to the store and we just heated this stuff up in the microwave. He didn't get home til late since he was at the fire station trying to clean up training files and I was too busy with the kids and what not. I fixed them dinner, did homework, bathed them (well... bathed Zach, Lilly can take a shower on her own), played for a few minutes and put them to bed. That's when hubby walks through the door. After eating that stuff for dinner, I woke up at 3 am with a horrible heartburn...
I was lucky enough to win 4 circus tickets off the radio yesterday. So... looks like Zach's going to his first circus next month!! We used to go every year to the Shriners circus every year because we got free tickets. Hubby's mom knows someone or something. 2 years ago, Lilly said that she was bored with it. They do the same stuff every year, with the same sound effects, with the same lighting... it is kind of boring after 4 straight years of it. So... this year we are mixing it up and going to Ringling Brothers circus. I haven't been to theirs since I was a little kid. I hope its different than the other one.

Family and work

I just realized that I haven't been putting my awesome things of the day on here. I wonder how I strayed away from that. So my awesome thing from yesterday is ** Dancing kids** I love it. They don't care what they look like. They move and groove and shake their little bodies. Arms start waving, legs start bouncing and soon enough they are laughing. Zach and Lilly both love to dance. I like to spontaneously burst out in dance from time to time. For Lilly's birthday, we got her Just Dance 3 for the Wii, she already had the first one. I've posted pictures of the kids dancing to that before. Its so cute. Last night I hooked it up and we just danced away. I gave Zach a Wii remote too and he went all out. He was jumping around and shaking his arms. He had me and Lilly laughing so hard, we couldn't dance. Very entertaining.
Lilly has ball practice today. I don't think its going to rain, so hopefully they'll actually get to do something. I'm sure I mentioned it before, but I'm not a big fan of the coach. I'm wondering if she even knows how to play the game.
I decided yesterday that I have got to find more time for my family... my mom, all my brothers, my step dad, my grandparents.... I miss them. I've drifted so far apart from them that it hurts. I'm not even sure how it happened. I moved away. As time goes on I visit less often, but for what reason? There should be no excuses. I'm going to visit my mom, her parents, my step dad and probably 2 (maybe 3) of my brothers on Sunday. The Saturday after that I'm going to visit my dad's parents one brother and probably try to go see my step mom and my other brother. I don't think my dad will be home. I never know when he's home. Its hard for me to believe that I've let this happen. Now don't get me wrong... I'm there if they need me. Whenever there's any kind of problem or even if someone just calls me up saying they want me to come down, I'm there. It just seems that with the distance and my own kids with their own things going on, its difficult to find enough time to make that drive.
I applied yesterday to work at one of the hospitals around here. I'm aiming for Medical Billing Clerk. I've got to make it down to take my typing test. I just can't take it here anymore. Its getting unbearable. They keep piling things on my 'to do' list and I just don't have the time. No one listens when I say I can't get it done. I try, but then whenever I do it wrong, I get put down and made to do it all over again, several times. I can't just up and quit. I need the income and I'm the provider of health insurance. I need something else, quick. Before I lose my mind. I've been looking every day for something else. The only problem is, I can't work weekends or late shifts and I would still like to have the major holidays off...for the kids. And the flexibility that comes with having kids too. If one of them is sick, I'd like to be able to leave to get them without any problem or be able to leave a few minutes early when there's ball practice or something. I'm afraid that I won't find another job like that. That is the only thing that I like about the job I have now. I can leave to be with my kids, no questions asked. Its just every thing else that I can't take. I worked 10 1/2 hours yesterday and I still wasn't done. I just finally left. I had enough.

Back to Monday

Left work at noon on Friday so I could rush home and clean a little before my bff showed up. We went to the kiosk and got our movie, to Taco Bell to get our tacos then to the gas station to get Choco Tacos. Back at home, we start Breaking Dawn Part 1 and crunch on our tacos. Dorito Loco taco was awesome! How could this not have been a thing already? Why was I not the one to think of it? Crazy stuff. Then our movie starts skipping, it is scratched. So we drop our tacos and rush back out to the kiosk to get another.
Hubby ends up coming home an hour early and interrupting our hang out time. Seriously! I only get to see her once a month. How much would it suck if you got to see your only real friend just once a month for a couple hours at a time? Now, how much would it suck even more if someone kept intruding on your time with your best friend? Exactly!
Anyway.. we really weren't that impressed with the movie. It took 2 hours to badly tell a story that could've really took 20 mins. The makeup sometimes was so bad we were laughing at it. This is a great example of how the books were way better than the movie.
She went with me to get the kids. Lilly had ball practice so I got to pick her up. Then my bff headed out. We ordered pizza. It started to rain and Lilly started to cry. She was really wanting to go to practice. I told her she'll probably still have it as long as it doesn't storm. We get to practice and her father is there waiting. I tell him about the crappy coach. Within 5 mins of practice, he doesn't like her either. They only practice for about 15 mins. It starts raining harder so we all head out. The coach decided on maroon outfits with pink lettering and pink socks. I bet that's going to look bad.
I spent most of Saturday at the in-laws. Hubby was changing the oil and rotating the tires on both our cars. It was nice outside. I played with Zach and ran around and wore him out. Here's him sliding down his little slide at their house.

 Sunday we spent at the fire station for family day. It was Mexican themed. We ate Mexican food and played some games. Zach ran around like crazy and played with all the kids. When it was all over, hubby was helping clean up. Zach was tired, so I put him in his stroller and went for a walk and look what I found!

A five leaf clover! Its real. I'm not kidding! It looked like 2 had grown together because there was 2 stems stuck together. Are 5 leaves lucky?

TGIF

The awesome thing on my daily awesome calendar for today is "When you know all the buttons to speed through the automated telephone system." I laughed. I do this everyday. I have 2 desks at work and I have to move my phones extention whenever I switch desks. I push the 'voicemail' button, enter my extention, enter my password followed by #, push 7, push 3, push 1 and hang up.
I am leaving work early today to hang out with my bff. She's meeting me at my house, we're going to Taco Bell to try out the new Dorito taco and then we head back to my house to watch Breaking Dawn Part 1. Yeah, as I've mentioned before I am a Twilight geek. Although, ever since I've read the Hunger Games, I've been a little obsessed. The Hunger Games movie came out today and I'm dying to see it. I can't wait. Its going to be great! I'm just having problems finding someone to go to the theater with me. Hubby isn't really interested even though I think he'd really like it. My bff doesn't really want to go, but she said she would. I don't think it'll be her cup of tea. I want her to read the books first so see if she'll like it. I told hubby's sister what it was about and she's not interested although her oldest son is. I might end up taking him. Maybe I'll call up my little bro and see is he wants to go.
I left work 1/2 an hour early yesterday so I could go buy Lilly a balloon and take it to her. I found a butterfly balloon that said "Happy Birthday" on it and I got a balloon weight that looked like a present. I rushed to the Y and surprised her with it. She told me she found her card from me and didn't know what it was at first. She was excited about the card and the balloon. But when I was leaving, she told me to take the balloon home with me because she didn't want to take it to her father's. I told her that was the whole reason I gave it to her, she has other balloons at the house from her party. She insisted, so I took it home with me.
My boss was doing a new fundraiser for Relay, she was selling wooden flowers at an equipment expo. Ya know... with construction equipment and stuff. Apparently a lot of the guys there thought the flowers were such a great idea, she raised $970 in 2 days! For anyone looking for a fundraiser, look for some wooden flowers. They come in all kinds of colors and they never die.
My Relay fundraiser is coming up next week. I'm having a 31 representative come to my work to sell 31 products. It was a big hit last year. I'll post the website up here later so if any of you are interested, you can get a nice purse and help contribute to American Cancer Society. The rep will open an account on her website and the sells from that too will go toward Relay. I'd love it if you'd help out. And you'll get a little something for yourself, or a loved one, in return. If you spend $31 you get a purse for 1/2 off! Anyway..I'll post all that later.

SHE'S 7

I know I'm a little later than usual on my posting today. I couldn't help it. My morning was hectic and I was just so tired. I was up last night from 1-4 with Zach. He had a nightmare and wouldn't go back to sleep. At least I figured he had a bad dream from the way he woke up screaming trying to climb out of his bed.
Lilly is 7 today! I hid her birthday card from me in her backpack in her snack pocket so she'll find it around snack time today. I'm going to leave work 1/2 an hour early to make sure I can make it to the Y in time to give her a balloon. I hope she doesn't get picked up early today. I gave her 3 wooden roses yesterday and she loved them.
We went yesterday to the wake of hubby's friend's brother that had passed away Monday. I didn't really get to meet with the family much, I was running after Zach. He was not very happy. His tummy knew it was dinner time and nothing else mattered. Lilly was well behaved. A lot of people did show up.... a lot of fire fighters from across the county as well as ambulance drivers and EMT's. The funeral was today. Hubby took the day off, he was a pall bearer.
I actually don't think I'm going to work out today. I didn't yesterday because of the wake. I went Tuesday and lifted weights for an hour, but I think I'm going to skip the rest of the week. The weather's been nice and I've been outside more, walking and playing with the kids, so that helps. I think I just really need a break. I'll continue with it next week on Tuesday. Hubby kind of needs me home. He's not taking the passing of this one very well. I'm not too sure how well hubby knew him. I know he was on the fire station as an EMT/first responder, but hubby never talked about him. I don't know. He was really wanting me there last night for him, and I was even though it was only for an hour and he thanked me for going. He was up last night with weird dreams. He never called them nightmares, just weird. I didn't press further. I figured if he wanted me to know, he'd tell me. Death is a very touchy issue with him. No one really wants to talk about it, but its unavoidable. When Lilly has questions, I try my best to answer them and make sure my answers aren't too complicated or morbid. She was asking me yesterday about Heaven. She even asked me that when I die if I would come back and leave her a note telling her how Heaven was. I told her I would. She asked about where we'd live up there and I told her that we all get our own mansions. We've had several discussions about Heaven and death and she's being able to deal with it better. She used to spontaniously start crying saying she didn't want to die. She doesn't do that anymore.
Well........ I only have a little over an hour before I go get a balloon. Watch.. she'll already be gone from the Y when I get there.

Tomorrow is her birthday!

Another house came up for sale yesterday and the picture and discription looked promising so we went to drive by it to take a look. The picture was very deceiving! This house was not well taken care of at all. There are holes in the siding and mold growing all around it. There is no yard. The little bit of grass that comes with the house is all hill and not even enough hill to sleigh ride down during the winter. So... this one is a NO. The drove by the other house that we looked at Friday to walk through the yard. It seemed fine. I told hubby he gets until next week to either give me the green light or not to start working on our loan. Our pre-approval expired so I have to do that all over again. I do like this house. Its roomy, but not too spacious. The yard is a good size, but not too big where I wouldn't want to go mow the grass. Its just... almost perfect. I don't really like being able to see a house out of every window of our house, but there's really not much I can do about that. At least they are all nice houses.
My little girl turns 7 tomorrow! I haven't really gotten to do all the things for her birthday that I wanted to. I was wanting to take her to a movie and we were going to go out to eat at her favorite place tonight, but one of hubby's friends brother passed away the other day and the wake is tonight. He was an ambulance driver and a volunteer fire fighter. I still have the birthday card to put in her backpack tomorrow for her to find later in the day and I bought her some wooden roses of her favorite colors for today. We can go out to eat for her birthday next week. Or maybe I we can take her Friday before ball practice. She has practice at 6:45, so that's plenty of time to go out. When its her father's days to have her, but she has practice or a game, I pick her up and feed her and get her ready and then he meets us there.
Ok, ok... if I don't stop now, I'll ramble on forever.

Practice

Lilly's first practice went ok. I didn't get any pictures on my phone. I was too busy taking pictures of her on her camera. She asked me to. We were the first ones there besides the coach. Lilly went to warm up with coach's daughter. Is there never going to be a year when the coach has a kid or family member on the team? I hate it. Her daughter ended up playing first base and pitcher the entire time. Lilly was in the outfield. Never moved. When they were taking turns batting, the coach was taking 2 kids at a time to get ready to bat and the rest stayed in the field. She then started on third base, took that kid to bat and replaced her with a kid that just batted. She said she was going to go clockwise, which woulda put Lilly as 4th batter. She ended up switching is up right before Lilly so her own kid could go bat. Lilly was the last one to get to go. Then at the end of practice she hands me a paper that the league had lost. It was medical information on Lilly that I had already filled out, but since it was lost, I had to do it again. She told me to fill it out before I leave. So I go to my car to get a pen and the insurance card and I'm not even halfway done....when the coach gets in her car and leaves.
She told the kids that they were all going to learn to play every position, but Lilly was the only kid that never moved from outfield. She's a great player. She can throw further than most of the girls on her team. She can catch better and pays attention, but she was out there where she didn't get to do anything. She was very upset. I know it was the first practice, but you don't need to be like that. The coach needs to be equally fair with each kid. If you're saying that one kid is next to bat, you can't change your mind at the last minute. If you say that you want the kids to practice on every spot on the field, then do it. I felt so bad for her. There she was, out there, watching, not getting to participate. So... I'm not too much of a fan of the coach just yet. And then there was these 2 guys, I'm guessing the dad and grandpa to a girl named Hadley... who wouldn't pay much attention and just threw the ball wherever she wanted. (when they get the ball after its been hit, they are supposed to throw it to first, every time, but this girl was throwing it to home plate, to third and a few times toward the dugout which isn't even in the same direction as first) anyway.. these 2 guys kept yelling at her to go get the ball when it wasn't even nowhere near her. She started out between first and second base and whenever the ball was hit toward third base, they'd yell at her to go get it.... and she'd take off running only to be in the way. I felt bad for her.
One of Lilly's friends from school showed up for practice, but only to tell the coach that they were quitting. Lilly was so excited to see her and then her poor little heart was crushed when they took off. She couldn't play because she is enrolled in soccer, 4H and ballet already. Don't you think that's a little too much for a 6 or 7 year old to be doing all at once? I kinda wanted to slap the mom. I made Lilly chose between soccer and softball. I wouldn't let her do both. Next year though, I'm going to let her enroll in Girl Scouts, but that's completely different. Its not like if she misses a meeting she'll be bad during a game or not taught a 'play', ya know. So now Lilly is back to not knowing any of the girls on her team, which really isn't too much of a bad thing. It just makes the first couple of practices awkward for her until she gets to know them.

The Party

None of Lilly's friends from school showed up to her party. It didn't really seem to bother her much. I'm sure with ball practice starting up some were actually busy.
We got to the building around 11:30 to start decorating and it only took us about an hour to do it all. We were moving fast. I thought it looked real good. Hubby's sister was there with her daughter helping us out. Then, they left to get lunch and took Zach with them. I had packed my kids sandwiches that they ate almost as soon as we got there. Me and Lilly hung out. Took pictures. Put some more decorations up. Sat by the pond. It was nice.
About 2:30 people started showing up. Hubby got there and put together her soccer net and all the kids were outside playing. I had soccer, volleyball, baseball, football, bouncy balls, basketballs and frisbees out there. The kids were having a blast.
We opened gifts and she loved them all. She loved all her clothes, did some kind of evil laugh when she opened her Nerf dart gun, screamed when she opened her camera and almost fell out of her chair when she opened her guitar. She was very comical to watch. I got some great pictures on my camera of her face. She was excited over every single gift...even chapstick.
My bff showed up in the middle of gift opening and she brought her neice that's around Lilly's age. They ended up playing real well together.
The cake was good. Zach took a nap. The kids played some more. Then it rained. Lilly was upset because she was really wanting to go fishing. We started to clean up, which really didn't take that long. It was trying to fit everything in my car that was the hard part.
So, she had lots of fun, Zach was wore out and she loved all her stuff. Here's some pics

.

Here's my bff with some poppy ball toy things in her eyes.

Lilly just hit the ball. See it right above her head?

Little man playing

Zach playing soccer

Lilly taking a picture of me with my camera before people started showing up

Lilly's cake. Half was soccer and half was softball

Some of her balloons

How cool is this candy?

Lilly taking pictures with my camera before the party

Zach had a long day. I'm glad I brought the blanket and pillow

Here's Lilly camera

Here's her guitar

It really was a good party. Everyone wore green since it was St. Paticks Day. I had bought green beaded necklaces in case someone showed up not wearing green.
Her first softball practice of the season is today. She's super excited about it.
We went to look at a house on Friday, too. It was nice. Real nice. 3 bedrooms upstairs, one downstairs. One full bath and 2 half baths. One car garage with extra storage. Kitchen has lots of cabinets and counter space. The yard is a good size, new roof... it was nice. The bathroom fixtures were a really ugly yellow though, which isn't a big deal and the yard was super squishy. Hubbys thinking there might be a spring in the yard, but its been raining a lot lately. I told him we'll wait until it hasn't rained a few days and we'll go back and look. Hubby wasn't impressed with the bedroom sizes or the layout of the kitchen. I thought it was fine. We don't need a huge bedroom and I'll be the one spending the most time in the kitchen. I liked it. After we look at the yard again, we might make an offer. Its way out of our price range, but we can at least try. They might take our offer, ya never know. Told hubby we need to go in super low just to see what they counter with. He's always wanting to go in with all we got and then we don't have any room to wriggle when they want more money. BUT... this might be the house. There's even some nice furniture that they are willing to sell with the house, but the only thing we are interested in is the dining room set. Real nice.