Nights off

I have a serious case of anxiety every time I leave my kids for more than just a trip to the store. I know they are in safe hands, and I know they have what they need, however I just can't but think that they will think I'm abandoning them, or that I will miss something. I have this feeling like my fun should not come before theirs. And I truthfully feel like I will have TONS of nights to my self when they are grown and out of the house. And that is a fact. I don't want to miss all the little things now for my own personal enjoyment. They are my kids, right?

However, with that being said , next weekend is Clynt's company Christmas party and I find myself more excited than ever to leave my kids with their grandparents. I mean I have a reason to dress up really nice, get to know Clynt's bosses (who asked us to sit at their table!), and to spend the night at the Hilton downtown where the party is at. I'm very proud of clynt and everything he has accomplished at his company and I feel like I know nothing about the people he works with and I am actually very excited (and nervous) to meet these people and be able to put a face with the names. I knew people at his last company but since he moved to this one, I know no one. So anyways!! I'm excited to have a night off and be in a pretty dress, fantastic new Stella and dot jewelry, and have my hubs in a sports coat and tie to match :)

But back to what I was talking about. I'm not one of those moms who leave their kids with grandparents every weekend to just go out, but I am trying to recognize that I do need a night off every once in a while. I'm on the clock 24/7, so a night a month off can't be bad for me, or the kids, right?

Imperfections

It's so easy with the world of Facebook and blogs to think that people are perfect and you are not. I know I see people that I think are perfect based on the posts on FB and/or their blog posts. I'm sure that people look at mine and think the same. However I and everyone else are not perfect, in fact, I am far from it.

The reality is that people (including me) don't run to Facebook and post everything bad or imperfect that they do. I sure as heck don't get on and post 'I just yelled at my kid for doing something wrong', or 'I actually sat on the bench instead of playing with Corbin at the park, because I was tired'. Those are just things that don't make it's way to my FB or my blog on a daily basis. I talk about the exciting and fun parts of my life, which is the other part of the time, like today, where the boys and I played chase for an hour at the park, or the days where I find my patience doing well and I don't have to get on to my kids at all.

My kids are not perfect or prodigies either, however I'm sure I don't say that very often on Facebook. And I don't see people post about how terrible their kids are very often either. In fact, every day on FB I see pictures and posts about kids doing phenomenal things that most kids their age don't do. I mean, they are our kids, so we have a tendency to brag and to have a bias. Which, why not? We love them! However, I do not have child prodigies and probably not many (or at all) of my friend's kids are either. So, I have to remember not to compare my kids to people's kids on FB. They are just kids !! Sweet, gorgeous ones, but kids all the same!

I find it so hard to look at other people's posts and not think how wonderful and perfect they are. It's really hard for me to realize that they are humans with real lives and real problems of their own. And I hope that none of my friends think that I am perfect either! Because, the reality is, that I am not. I lose my temper, I get into arguments with my husband, I yell at my kids at times, I allow too many electronics on days that I just don't feel like being on my 'a' game, and I don't always have my make up and fancy clothes on!

However, the reality is that it's my life, and I will always try to do better, but I know I will never be perfect. I love my life, and wouldn't change the people in it for the world. My husband can work to much and loose his tempter, my kids throw fits and don't always listen, and my family has drama. It's just life! So when things are going good, I will continue to share, and I still will not put all my drama and bad moments on FB however, you can know that I am not perfect and would never claim to be. And I will continue to try to remember to not compare my life and kids with those other people who have the same tendency to only post the perfect moments.

Well, it's over.

It has been a long few months for people that were passionate about the presidential election. I am not going to sit here and say that I was not one of those people. I have a Romney Ryan sign in my yard, I voted my RR ticket the first day of early voting and I have watched very closely And hopeful. And he did not win, period. I have lots of friends on Facebook that have said some really crazy things and have bashed either side. It's just ludicrous.

Do I think that the right decision for the state of this country was made? No, I honestly don't believe that we would continue in the same path that we have been going when it hasn't gotten us far. However, the president is our president and bashing him as a person is not Christian or moral. And the same goes for Romney. Do I think he would have been the solution to all of our problems? No, but I think that we need a change in the White House and having someone who has been successful with his own money and could help with the 16+ TRILLION dollar debt wouldn't be a bad thing. However, either way, people that bash him as a person are just wrong. And to do it on FB? What in the world goes through people's head. Here is another thing that I simply do not understand, why their are so many people talking crap about Romney on his FB page. I mean they would have to had to go and 'like' his page solely for the purpose of trash talking. Really?? I'm sure it's the same thing on Obama's page but since I am not a supporter of his I have not 'liked' his page and cannot see it.

I do not need to get into all the reasons why I do not think America made the right decision last night, but I will say that I am a Christian mother of two boys. I have Christian beliefs that I feel would have been (MUCH) better aligned with Gov. Romney and I also feel like my children stood a better chance at not being in a socialist society when they grow older.

I fear for our country, but I also pray for this country. It has mountains to climb no matter who won so I pray that we can work together to make stuff happen and turn this country back into the best country in the world.

Oh Halloween!

Woohoo! It's over! Lol. Only kidding. My boys had a fantastic Halloween season. As I mentioned before I had a spiderman and a spider. I am going to totally over dose you on photos and since I'm on my iPad they will be in no particular order and can't have captions. Blogger should really fix that in their app. Any ways, the first set will be a few photos from the pumpkin patch! The boys always love love that. It's so sweet watching them pick out pumpkins and this year was extra fun bc we picked up almost 30 pumpkins! Which leads to more pictures that will be here. I'm Corbin's class mom and decided to decorate pumpkins with glitter and glue at his Halloween party. There are pictures of the decorating, eating cupcakes and reading books. May I just say I have no idea what his teacher's trick is but alllll 10 kids sat and listened to the book and sat in their chairs the whole time. I need to her hang out at my house a while for sure! And then the rest of the pictures of are from trick or treating. We had all 10 of the boys cousins here at the house for a little party and had a lot of fun visiting and walking around. Garrett leaked out of his diaper so he ended the night as a doctor instead of the spider. He and his cousin Sadie hung out in the wagon most of the night and Corbin participated in trick or treating. I was very pleasantly pleased in how well it went. He held my hand and would let go to walk up to the door, say trick or treat, and then get his candy and then said thank and came back to hold my hands and walk to the next house. It was a perfect night.

Hopefully all of that will give you an idea of what these pictures are all of!

Hour by hour

I'm sure some of you could care less about the busyness of my week, so you can ignore this blog post. I simply need to write it so I can come back to it when my sweet husband wants to know what I do all day. At the start of this week, I was in the process of planning 6 parties, yes 6. All of which are in the next two months. So, my brain started as mush because I'm having a very hard time planning everything and remembering to do anything. So on top of a mushy brain, my days are packed by the hour of to dos.

Monday-
8:45- drop Corbin off at school
9:00 drop Garrett of at dad's
9:15-11:15- Newborn photography session
11:30- pick up Garrett
11:40-1:40 put him down for nap and edit pictures from said newborn session
2:00 pick Corbin up from school
2:15-3:30 park time
3:30-5:15 pumpkin carving party with friends
5:30- come home, feed kids and entertain them until 8:00 when dad gets home. Then it's bed time.

Tuesday-
8:45- drop Corbin off
9:00- store to pick up stuff for Halloween party
10:30- go to Corbin's school to do his Halloween party (you guessed it, this mom is room mom!)
12:00- come home and let Garrett nap
12:00-1:30- cook dinner for a sweet friend who just had a baby.
2:00- take dinner to said friend. Then go to Walmart for more Halloween supplies
2:30- OT for Corbin
3:30- playgroup Halloween party
5:00- drop Corbin off for a movie date with clynt.
Come home- cook, clean, feed Garrett, laundry, cook and clean some more.

Wednesday-
Wake boys up, give baths
9:30- head to tumbling
10:45- SAMs club for yet again more Halloween stuff
11:30- lunch with lots of friends at Gringos
1:00- home, nap time for boys. Cleaning time for me.

Depending on the time my boys wake up, we have a couple more things to do before we host Clynt's family's Halloween party tonight! Then the rest of the week is a little more calm.

For a stay at home mom, staying at home is on the bottom of the list.

Mom's night out!

When I first became a stay at home mom, it was was far from entertaining. I've been in many moms groups since in order to meet other moms and kids for us to hang out with. It has been so much fun!

I have many moms that I can now call my friends. And many of them are people that I have so so much fun spending time with. It's like having co workers turned friends. You know, those people you see every day for a common interest and then you begin to become friends and go get lunch together and spend time together outside of work. That's what this is like. So last night, we all had sweet sweet husbands that hung out with our kiddos and out we went! What a fantastic night we had.

We went to a little burger place and sat there and immediately were talking about our children and how they would like this place. And then afterwards we headed to the new outlet mall in League City! Boy was it a fantastic night to be outside. It was stinking gorgeous! We all did a little shopping. I got some shirts at jcrew, a fantastic pair of grey boots, and some clothes for Corbin. (I know, it was a night out and I'm shopping for my kids.. Shame on me, but I couldn't resist!!). It was so much fun visiting and sharing and learning about each other without chasing kids around. Then we decided on coffee and walked into Starbucks, and while waiting in line decided that a drink at a sit down place would be much more enjoyable! So off to BJ's we went. I learned so much about the people that I see on a sometimes daily basis. One of the best parts is that we all have different views on politics, mothering styles, lifestyles and so much else but none of us judge anyone and we all love to hear about why and what others do (or at least I do!).

I feel so incredibly blessed to have met so many amazing people who have one main thing in common, WE LOVE OUR CHILDREN!! And I also feel so blessed to have a sweet husband who understands me needing a girls night out sometimes. I mean not to go clubbing or anything, but to enjoy time with other friends.

That will be a night I remember for a long time. Thank you ladies for always making times fantastic!!

Budget

It's is so hard to make a budget and live by it. We struggle so hard trying to make smart financial decisions. When I was a working mom, we really didn't have many fears in the world, but we did have debt. Credit cards, vehicles, medical bills and so on. Then we decided that being a working mom was not for me and so we started doing a financial peace study with our old small group. This study was very rewarding for us. We were able to become debt free within a few months and so I was able to quit my job and stay at home. However, then, we didn't make enough money to afford all of our bills and much fun. So it was all about our budget in order for us to make it happen as a one income family. I remember having to tell people that I couldn't go places because I had a gas budget and I really had to follow it. I am glad that we have been beyond blessed since then and things are not like that anymore. But still, even with a larger income, it's still important to budget and know what our money is going.

It's hard to not go buy everything that I want or a new car even though we probably can afford it. It hard to want to save vs spend. Spending seems so fun. Having shiny new things is fun. Dressing in the most stylish things is fun. Driving a new fancy car is fun. Unfortunately, if I have all of these things, then Im not saving all that money and one day will be disappointed. My children will need money when it's time for them to drive, go to college and move out of my house. Clynt and I will need money when we decide to retire, build our forever home, and so on. The now things are not going to do us any good in the future. But boy is it tempting!!

Even though income changes, it doesn't mean that expenses need to. This is what I'm trying to learn slowly and surely.

I'm so not writing this because I am good at saving, I'm writing what's on my mind and what I'm trying to teach myself! Budgeting is so important!