Road Trip Journal

3:30am-Time to go to sleep! Exhausted but having trouble shutting off my brain!
7am- Ugh, the alarm's going off. Snooze button pressed x2. Oooo cuddles, yay! Short lived, Howard is jumping in the shower.
7:30am- Just got a text from Howard telling me he loves me and I need to get moving. Um, brr..it's cold in here. That's...weird. Ahh, thanks TS Don for the overcast skies!
8am- Howard's waking the kids up, God help us! They're not cranky-SCORE! They're cold too, little ones are in a snuggie with Daddy.
8:50am- Leaving the house to go get my mom. Parker went nuts when Howard and the girls were loading the van.
9am- Picking up my mom and breakfast. Aaaaaand Howard just dropped the portable high chair down the stairs. Awesome, I give it a 3.2
9:05am- First tears of the day, Maddie shook her orange juice and it splattered EVERYWHERE.
9:50am- First stop of the day, Elgin, Tx. Drinks, Potty Break and WOOHOO FREE POPCORN!
10:10am- Maddie has now misplaced her paci (I know, I know...) She is pissed but will have to wait until we stop again.
10:56am- HALF WAY MARK! Brenham, Tx. 69 miles to Houston.
11:18am- Second stop of the day, found the Paci...potty break!
11:45am-IN HOUSTON, YAY!
1:00pm- we're 2 miles from our exit off the major highways. Something smells...off.
1:08pm- Code Brown repeat we have a CODE BROWN!! Parker has exploded out of his diaper, shorts and the leather driver seat is not covered!
1:55pm- we're dressed, madeup, cleaned up, hair did and ready to go. We also stopped at McDonalds to grab a snack.
2:17pm- we're here...but no one else is. Hmm :/
2:19pm- HA! Grandparents are here! Omg my grandmother is SO skinny! :(
2:49pm- All childrens in the pool. Parker's pissed that I'm not in there, but me and a bathing suit...not a good combo.
3:40pm- All the fam is here except for my cousin Shari and her family. Rightfully so too, she's a busy girl, her husband was traded to the Arizona Diamondbacks from the Seattle Mariners...this happened late Friday night. Sheesh! Parker was falling asleep in the pool so I'm going to clean him up and see if I can get him to sleep.
4:25pm-HE PEED ON ME! The brat peed all over my pants, so now it looks like I peed on myself. He is being so bad, 2 tantrums. Sheesh, still trying to get him down.
5:05pm- Thank you GOD he's asleep! Nap time for bubs, Nanny's going to nap with him so break time for Mommy!
6:20pm- Dinner's ready! Gourmet sandwiches...yum-o! Oh and Parker's up now.
6:35pm- sitting on the floor trying to feed Parker, so not happening! Dum, Dums for dinner it is!
7:58pm- Time to leave. Saying goodbye to everyone! It was so good seeing them all. My cousin stopped me to talk about my dad. Is it bad that I told her that I'd have to email her. Meh.
8:27pm- @Walmart to get gasoline and off we go! Getting onto major highways again.
9:17pm- 2nd stop at Sonic for yummy drinks and a small snack for Little Mr. I didn't eat my dinner.
10pm- 3rd stop @Loves Truck Stop for my hubby to get coffee, potty break and snacks for the girls. Their snack of choice: Tereyaki beef jerky and pork rinds. My kids are redneck ya'll.
10:17pm- We left Loves 4 minutes ago, 24oz Loves 'Bold Blend' coffee...GONE!
10:45pm- Half way point! Parker is almost asleep thanks to my singing. Oh hey, he is asleep!
10:55pm- Maddie lost her paci...again. Why do we have a paci clip on it if she doesn't use it?!
11:37pm- 37 miles to Austin. Parker's sleeping good, as is Mack. My mom is having restless legs like a big dog. She can't get comfortable. :( Maddie is awake and asking every 2 minutes or so if we're almost there and how many miles we have left. Howard has heartburn and I'm...hungry?
12:26am- just dropped my mom off at home, now time to head home ourselves!
12:36am-HOME!
2:40am- kids and husband are in bed, my turn!


I hope you all enjoyed this, thought it would be fun!
♥ Kristin

Hey, hey it's her birthday!

Today is my mother's birthday.

Our plans for today include having lunch with my sister and her beautiful kiddos and I am going to get my Mom's nails done and I may possibly get a pedicure. Why do I say possibly? Well, I am the Queen of Buyers Remorse. I constantly regret spending any money on myself, so justifying a pedicure...oh what the hell am I kidding? Pedicures are necessary, especially as of late so...I got one. Eep.
My mom's birthday did not start off well. She is having a really hard time with my Dad who has been diagnosed with an extremely advanced stage of Dementia. My parents live together, although they've been divorced since 1998. They are best friends and love each other very much, just not in a romantic way anymore. However, he was still the love of her lifetime and seeing him deteriorate so quickly and having him be so out of character is literally breaking her heart. It's frustrating for her and very hard to deal with especially because she has so many issues of her own.
When she got in my car she was a blubbering mess, well that just couldn't do. So I spent the next 20 minutes while waiting for my sister to arrive at the restaurant (she was at the doctor with my niece who was feeling under the weather) I did everything I could to put her in a better mood, which I am happy to say worked. Then we had an awesome lunch with both her daughters and grandchildren around...it just made her feel great. The margarita may have helped a little too.

Bubbers trying on Nanny's new glasses, which are just too cute

My sister, Stacie, The Birthday girl and Parker trying to share his grilled cheese

The Birthday girl and her Bubs.

After lunch we headed to drop the kids off and went in search for a place to get pampered. And no, I didn't make appointments like I should of, it's been a while since we went to a nail salon and I wasn't sure which one we were going to. On the way there, her phone was blowing up with phone calls with 'Happy Birthday' wishes. I told her to start answering her phone saying "Hey, hey it's my birthday, what do you want?" She didn't do it...killjoy.
Finally we found a place that had an awesome staff, reasonable prices and no wait. So we started, and we chatted the entire time. My mom got a phone call from her sister teasing her that she was getting awfully close to 60. But basically we chit chatted and just relaxed and enjoyed being pampered.

I KNOW she needed this!

We were kinda talking to each other from across the room, but it worked, our voices carry.

And...the finished products...

GORGEOUS! I'm so jealous!

My pretty toes! The birthday girl picked out the color.

It was a great day, I love my mom.

♥ Kristin

The sand man abandoned me

The past few weeks have been horribly crazy.
I am off of all anxiety and anti depression medicines and it certainly doesn't help things.
In the past few weeks I've been suffering horribly from insomnia, sometimes not sleeping for 40+ hours at a time. Parker's sleep schedule has been insane because of the teeth issues mentioned in the last entry and our overall unruly summer schedule. The girls are also having sleep issues because they have been sleeping in the living room for most of the summer. Yes, I am pushover and have been letting them sleep on the couches so they can sleep together and also watch TV. Ugh, hello Mom, meet bad habits.
So, for the past 10 days I have been trying to get them back in a regular schedule, and I've managed it...for about half of the time. The other half of the time Maddie is INSISTING on sleeping with her sister, which Mack isn't thrilled about but doesn't usually say no.
So, work in progress, especially with the countdown for school starting in a big way.

Busy weekend up ahead...
Tomorrow is my Mom's 57th Birthday
Saturday we are heading to the Kemah area for a family gathering and we're going down and coming back on the same day. Yes, yes we are insane.

♥ Kristin

Hello July!

Well it looks like the Uninvited Guests realized they had wore out their welcome.

Thank God!

The past few weeks have been a little hectic. Last week Parker spent the entire week absolutely miserable in pain because of cutting his canine teeth. He wouldn't sleep or eat. He was just impossible to console. Finally around Friday those little boogers started to actually surface from the gum which made him a lot happier and he has been steadily getting back to normal.
I've been having a ton of anxiety issues lately. It seems like my control of them is steadily slipping away, which is a scary thing. I actually found myself crying a lot more, which is also not a good thing. I'm hoping I can get a grip on my anxiety soon, but how to do that, I'm not quite sure. Medicine, new doctor, Therapy...I dunno. I will explore my options and figure something out because that is my only option.
Because of a local burn ban there were no fireworks in our area this year. I was pretty bummed because I would love to see Parker's reaction and of course the girls love fireworks (who doesn't?!). So, we decided to throw a party!
We served: cheeseburgers, hot dogs, Linda's taco salad (which doesn't taste anything like a taco), oven roasted corn on the cob, watermelon, salad and a variety of chips.

We had close to 20 friends, family members and neighbors over for our little get together. We had a full house to say the least. I thought it would of drove me crazy having all those people in my house, but I LOVED IT! I didn't take a single picture, which I sincerely regret but I can't wait to do it again.

Want a recipe?

LINDA'S TACO SALAD

Ingredients:
-2 cans of large black olives, sliced
-Whole head of lettuce, chopped into bite size pieces
-6 green onions, chopped
-2 cans of pinto beans, drained and rinsed
-Whole bag of tortilla chips, crumbled
-Large Bottle of Catalina Dressing

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Then add Catalina starting with a half of the bottle, and increase to taste. We usually use about 3/4 of a large bottle.
Serve immediately, or if you aren't serving this right away, wait to add both the chips and the Catalina to avoid the salad getting soggy.

Other things you can add to the recipe are halved grape tomatoes, chunks of avocado, green olives, shredded cheese or anything else that fancies you.

Enjoy!

♥ Kristin