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Hello everyone! (Or should I say "both of you"--heehee) (Hey, two readers are better than none!)

Carly has been sick again today. I say again because she missed school on Friday of last week too. Last week she had a bad stomach ache off and on for several days. Friday morning was particularly bad, so I let her stay home to rest. It has been better the past couple of days, but this morning she woke up feeling nauseous (which is different) and has had diarrhea. She looks pale. There is definitely a stomach bug going around, so I didn't take her to the dr. yet. She just stayed home and rested. If she feels okay in a few hours, we need to get her Halloween costume. (Yes, we have waited until the last minute--mostly due to crazy schedules)

If she doesn't feel better, I don't know what we'll do. Richard and I are supposed to go to the Mavericks game tomorrow night (we got invited to a suite!) so that leaves us no time at all. Ugh.

SS 1 still won't talk (nicely) to us. I had a text exchange with him...just trying to figure out what is going on in his head. He said some incredibly mean things again: "I don't want your damn money and I gave u all a chance and u all blew it like I knew u would..now leave me alone and u people can go be cheap and mean somewhere else" and "...u all are pathetic and are a waste of my time". Isn't that sad??

I emailed his mom and asked for her help in this situation. I figure she could talk to him and reason with him. My God, if my kids even STARTED to talk to their dad that way, I would ground them until they got over their rudeness! She, of course, never even acknowledged my email. See, lately she has been incredibly rude to me. She shakes her head and scowls at me whenever she sees me....she talks about me--loudly--in public to other people, and she pulls the kids away from me any chance she gets. I really think the behavior of SS 1 has a lot to do with the way she treats me and/or us. I can't imagine she ever says anything nice about us to him. I've been researching Parental Alienation Syndrome and I really think this is happening here.

Well, another load of laundry is calling my name. Time to run. Have a great evening!!

It's been a nice day...of doing nothing.

Tomorrow I begin my career as a part-time substitute teacher again. I put it off for a while, so I could enjoy my time off, but I am now ready. I am only going to sub at my kids' schools. Mostly the Elementary school where I worked last year and OCCASIONALLY the middle school.

My first job, tomorrow, is for a 5th grade teacher. Should be fun considering these are my kids from last year. I pray they will be good for me even though I KNOW they will be excited!

The next day I am doing a half day (afternoon only) for Jake's 3rd grade teacher. I love 3rd grade! I'm excited to do this one. Next week I am subbing Wed, Thurs, and Fri for the same teacher. It's going to be weird being in Jake's classroom all this time.

As much as I miss teaching, I just don't know how I would be able to handle it this year. Our kids' extra curricular activities are much more time consuming this year and we run constantly with something to do every single weekday. Plus, I currently have all 3 of mine in orthodontic treatment, so those appointments take time. I wouldn't be able to foster a sweet boxer if I was working full time either....and I love that!

I forgot to post the following pics last week, but they are of Jake's golf class. He is participating in an after school program that teaches golf. He loves it!!


Richard and I might go watch the first game of the World Series tonight....although I must admit I would be very content to stay in and relax. Practices have been cancelled tonight and Richard's boys asked if they could stay with their mom to go to a birthday dinner for Matt with her...so we have a lot less than usual going on tonight. YAY!

Well...I am trying hard to stay in a semi-decent mood, but it isn't easy.  

Stepson 1 is being a selfish kid.  He is basically refusing to see us because his dad won't just buy him a car for his 16th birthday.  Can you believe that???  Spoiled much?  DJ turns 16 in a little over a month.  Can you imagine if we just bought each of them a car?  Sure....no problem, right?

We *did* go out and open each of them a savings account with a $2,000 in it.  Not too shabby of a gift IMO.  In fact....I was opposed to that amount....I thought it was too much.  Richard insisted.

So....SS 1 won't come over.  His exact words were, "I don't want a stupid $50 gift card for my birthday"  and  "I just asked you for one thing, and you won't get it for me."

Ugh.  I'm so frustrated.  

One guess where he gets this attitude....and it's not his father.   *rolls eyes*

I am not sure what is up with me, but I am so sleepy in the mornings lately. I get up at 6:20 to get the kids off to school. When they leave (by 8:00), I go back to bed. I usually read a little bit, but eventually I fall back to sleep. Yesterday I slept until NOON!!!! Today I *made myself* get up at 10:30. I hate being tired. I feel so lazy.

I've been lazy today, though, that's for sure. I've done very little, but read blogs and take care of my dogs.

Jake had a half day today, so he and his buddies from next door have been playing. Luckily they have been playing outside as opposed to the usual which is playing in our house. (I don't know what it is about our house, but oh well...). I was enjoying the peace and quiet until Jake yelled at me from the door....

"Mom, we have a problem!"

Ugh. Words no mother likes to hear.

I run outside and THIS is what I found.

Yeah...small problem. Those are balls...about 6 maybe? All stuck up in the gutter of our roof--way up high!












My question to the boys was...."WHY??" I mean, I understand ONE ball getting stuck up there...then maybe throwing another ball up to try to knock the first ball down maybe...but SIX???? At some point around the 2nd or 3rd ball wouldn't one think that maybe, just maybe this plan isn't quite working?!
Ugh.
Richard is NOT going to be happy. I have a ladder, but I am not about to climb up it as I am terrified of heights. As much as I'd love to protect my youngest child from the wrath of his stepdad, I just can't do it.

Jake has a football scrimmage tonight, then no school tomorrow for my kiddos. I will be going to a parent-teacher conference with Jake's teacher tomorrow morning at 8:40. After that, I might take Carly to buy a new outfit as she is going a bar mitzvah this weekend.

Hope everyone is doing well. I'm really enjoying getting to know you all through your blogs.

Praying for RAIN......I usually don't like rain, but let's just say that Jake not having lacrosse practice today wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.  Richard is working late and a quiet dinner with my kids sounds much better.  We have something EVERY night...EVERY day...I swear.  A break would be very welcomed by the whole family.  

Jake was sick yesterday...and his stomach still hurts "a little", so maybe it would be better to let him take it easy tonight.  

Am I a bad mom?

A "mommy" wouldn't do that, right?

Anyway....today I took my first One To One class.  It was pretty informative.  I've had my MacBook for a while now (about 2 months, I guess), but there are still things I don't really know and haven't quite gotten used to.  These classes are great as you can just ask whatever you want about any apple product/program.  I had a couple of questions about syncing my iPhone calendar with my MacBook calendar, etc.  

I have had a couple of really productive days.  This is good for me as I've been struggling a bit with my depression/social anxiety (self-diagnosed).  Lately there have been more days than not that I have wanted to do NOTHING and see or talk to ANYONE.  It is nice not to feel that way right now.  I hope it continues.  

Speaking of productive....I guess I'd better go fold clothes.  ALWAYS have laundry to do in the "Brady" household!  *wink*

Have a SUPER day!!!

This is so weird. I woke up this morning feeling like something really bad was going to happen. I was depressed and anxious at the same time. I tried to explain it to Richard, but it was difficult to do.

Well, I just received a phone call that my kids' dad just got laid off. It was completely unexpected. Not good at all.

Needless to say, we are keeping the kids this weekend, while he deals with this problem. They don't have any savings..in fact they are behind on their bills already. They are only giving him 2 weeks severance.

Other than that...it was a decent day. Jake had his first student council meeting this morning. He was so excited and proud. He had to be at school early and that was not a problem as he was ready to go 30 minutes before we even had to walk out the door! So cute.

I am leaving to pick him up in a few minutes as he also had his first after-school golf lesson today. They offered this cool program for the kids at our school and I jumped on signing Jake up. His dad is a big golfer and I figured it would be cool for him to learn at least the basics. I can't imagine he will learn a lot, but we'll see.

It was supposed to be a kidless weekend...and we were going to do some OU/Texas celebrating/watching....but we'll still have fun. I am so thankful for Richard being understanding in the need to keep the kids here this weekend. Our alone weekends are very special and important to us, but sometimes we have to give up that time.

I've really been enjoying reading people's blogs around here. I feel very inadequate compared to most, but hopefully I will learn. I've got to learn to budget my time, so to speak, so I don't neglect my household chores to read blogs. Hehe. It's been happening....can you believe that?!?!?!

I'll leave you with important words....BOOMER SOONER!!!