My name is Kasey and I'm addicted

So, another week has passed in the blink of an eye and I'm just getting around to posting a new blog entry. 'Cause you know I'm not busy at all, what with three kids and a house to maintain. *insert eyeroll* Time just seems to get away from me. But I did do something this week that was probably in my best interest. I gave up the stupid Facebook games. Oh yes, I did. Most of you that know me know that I love those games, but can become somewhat, shall we say, enamored with them. I wasn't neglecting the children (much) and the housework got done (mostly) and I limited my time on the computer (I promise!) But this week something unthinkable happened. I accidentally clicked the wrong thing and set the game back pretty much to the beginning. After wiping the tears away, I picked myself up off the floor and recognized the addiction for what it was. Yes, folks, my name is Kasey and I'm addicted to Frontierville. And Farmville. And Farmtown. Sad, isn't it? But I walked away from the games this week. Cold turkey, might I add. I really haven't had the desire to go back that I thought I would have. I'm guessing that means that I'm not as addicted as I thought, right? I did get alot done this week. Amazing how the computer sucks you in and before you know it, its been three hours and dinner's burned, the kids are surviving on cereal from between the couch cushions and the baby is drinking toilet water. So glad that's never happened to me!

My glamorous life

I had to make a run to the PX this afternoon. (Post Exchange for you lay persons.) I told the kids if everyone was good, we could stop at the food court on the way out and we'd all get something to drink. That seemed to bribe them well, so they agreed to behave. All expect N, who looked at me as only a 15 month old can and seemed to say, "Wanna bet?" So, we all trudge in to the PX amongst every single person who could possibly be on Fort Hood at that exact same moment. (Need I mention how Fort Hood is one of the largest posts in the US and one of the smallest PX's?) I tell S that we need to make a potty run prior to entering the store since there is only one bathroom right before the entrance. She said she's good, despite my many efforts to convince her otherwise. Off we go! I should probably mention that going to the PX is a bit like an amusement park -- waaaayyy too many people, lines everywhere, and employees who don't seem to do alot of anything at all. We get one of the things on our list right away. Score! I decide to take the long way around the store since I wanna window shop the aisle sales. Mistake number one. N tries to pull every single thing within pawing distance right off the shelves. I start walking faster and stop at the shoe department where they are having a big sale. J wants to measure his shoe size, so I concede. I glance down as I'm browsing and notice that I have had my 5 year old son is the wrong size shoe!! Again!! Oh yes, I've done this before. He was wearing a size 11 and his foot was a 13. Sheesh! So I tell him, "Let's pick out a pair of shoes." Mistake number 2. He only wants every shoe in there that costs an arm and a leg. The whole time S is shouting, "Oh Momma, look at these! They are Tinkerbell, princess, etc," as she pulls every single pair of girl shoes out of the containers. N has several random shoes in the basket with him by now. Sigh. We settle on a pair of black knock-off converse brand shoes that are remarkably cheap. Best part of it, S got a pair of pink ones as well, so no fits! On to the health and beauty section. I nearly mow down a lady with a baby in my attempt to squeeze past the employee with a line of carts just hanging out in the middle of the aisle, chit chatting. I get a few more items on my list and we're done. Of course, the kids spy the toy section in the distance and start asking to go see them. I tell them we aren't buying toys today and they start asking if they can just pet them. Oh for pete's sake!! Poor neglected children, right? I move my basket at the speed of light to the checkout counter, children whinig the whole way about not petting the toys. I score a register with no one at it and get checked out with no fanfare! Hallelujiah! So, at this point I need some caffeine in a bad way, so we stop at the food court to get something to drink. I get the cups and go over to the drink machine. No ice in it. Sigh. Go to the next drink machine. No ice. Double sigh. Finally at the third machine, there is ice. Thank you, God. I get the kids lemonades and go to get my DDP. Nothing comes out. In my brain, there is a loud roaring. WHERE IS THE DIET DR PEPPER?? I eventually settle for something, but I couldn't tell you if it was coke, water or a big pile of crap. As long as I got out of there. So, I tell the kids we are done and let's go home. As we are walking out, J drops his drink. I ask him if he hates me. He says no and we go get some paper towels to clean it up and refill his drink -- halfway this time. By now, N is ready to get out of the basket, so I bribe him with some M&M's to get him through the next couple of minutes. (Hey, don't judge me!) We finally make it back to the exit door and S pipes up, "I need to go pee pee." I ask her if she hates me. She says no and we head to the restroom. Of course, its being cleaned. So we wait. We get in and out in record time and as we are leaving I see N bent over backwards trying to reach something in the basket, all the while there is red M&M drool dropping straight into my lovely pink bag. Sigh. We get to the van, load everyone up and start to head home. Look at the gas gauge and see the little light go off. Oh goody, another stop. ;)

Absence makes the heart grow fonder

I am sure all of you have been dying to read another blog from me. Well, the suspense is over! I am back! As most of you know, I went back home to see family for about a week and they are pretty close to the dark ages there and one actually has to go to a library to access the internet. Gasp! With three kids under 6 in tow, I decided 'twas better to be internet-free for a few days.

My mini-vacation was pretty great! I stayed with my sister this time, which is a bit of a change and we really did have a wonderful time. I don't usually get to spend so much time with her and it meant alot to me to get to catch up again and let our kids spend as much time as possible together. Seeing as how we are moving soon, I really wanted to get some quality family time in and I did.

Funny story for the trip home. The night before I left, my brother-in-law was getting my neice's carseat out of my car and accidentally left the car door open all night. Well, the car started fine, but my immediate worry was what had crawled in and spent the night. I checked the car when I left and all was well. I get about 3/4 of the way home and I start to feel like something is crawling on my legs. Now, in the back of my mind I am thinking its probably my imagination. (Or hoping!) My sister and her husband live on 5 acres in the middle of nowhere. Okay, its somewhere, but nowhere is right down the road. So they have alot of little creepy crawly critters, hence the need for checking the van when we left. Anywhosie, I keep getting the feeling that something is crawling on me the whole way home. We pull in the drive and J jumps to the front of the van and points and says, "Look Mom!" And there on the dash is the biggest grasshopper I have ever seen. Mind you, grasshoppers do not bother me. I've helped J catch them numerous times. I think this one could have caught me though! Nothing like bringing part of your vacation home, huh?

Mission: Preserves

Well, I accomplished my mission. I made the preserves. And they turned out quite yummy if I do say so myself. I doubted myself the whole way and felt sure that I had screwed it up multiple times, but in the end they were a success! And today I made another batch and even tried my hand at plumcot preserves. Ever heard of a plumcot, by the way? Its a hybrid fruit -- plums and apricots, in case you hadn't already figured it out. Now, I know you are thinking the same thing I am right now. Imagine a plum tree sneaking across the orchard to the apricot tree and whispering in its ear before they sneak off to behind the barn, right? Hmm, not what you were thinking huh? Don't tell me you didn't laugh! Anyway, enough chit chat. I got some peach preserves with my name on them!

This and that

I figured it was about time to post a new blog, so I am posting. Not a whole lot going on. I turned 30 last Saturday. Sigh. I'm okay with it. Just can't believe I'm 30. Sounds so cliche, but where did the time go? I swear I was just 16 and making out with Cory in his truck on a Saturday night. Now I'm 30 and haven't made out with my husband in who knows how long!!! I've got 3 kids, a mortgage, responsibilities, and living much too far from family. But to tell the truth, I am so happy with how the last 30 years have turned out. The Lord has blessed me with the most supportive and loving husband a woman could ask for and three of the loudest and most cuddlesome children in the universe! I've got wonderful family that I wouldn't trade for the world and some of the best friends I could dream of. So, all in all, yeah, I'm pretty good with being 30. Look what I am surrounded by! Who wouldn't want to celebrate another birthday like that, right?

What else is going on here? My neighbors moved down the street. They sold their house and are renting a house down the street until the Army tells them where they are headed. I'm so grateful that they are still within shouting distance, but I can longer spy on them. What ever will I do with all my extra time now? I suppose I could start spying on the pot smoking neighbors now. Or maybe clean my house. Hmmm. Pot smoking neighbors it is!

I got the kiddos a pool for the backyard. One of those that the top ring is inflatable and the bottom looks like a bell. It was a bitch putting it up. Our ground is slightly unlevel. In the directions it stresses how important a level ground is. What it does not stress is that the ground needs to be perfectly level to within 1/2000th of an inch! It took me two days and lots of blood, sweat and tears to put up a stupid easy set pool. But I did it and we are loving it. The kids are great about it too -- every time we get in, they spout off the rules one by one. Rule number 1: No peeing in the pool. Rule number 2: No leaning on the side. Rule number 3: No peeing in the pool. Rule number 4: No dunking. Rule number 5: No peeing in the pool. See a pattern here?

Tomorrow I am trying my hand at homemade peach preserves. I'm so excited! Suzy Homemaker, move the crap over! Here I come. I'm sure there will be more blood, sweat and tears, but I will persevere. Wish me luck and I will update soon!

Grocery store trip

I have been told in the past that I am a highly unapproachable person. I've been told this in nice ways and not-so-nice ways. I suppose I can be a bit stand-offish, but its mostly because I am a shy person and not because I am a rude person. But I tend to take my "stand-offish" personality to heart when I am in the grocery store. Most of the time I have at least one kid with me and most of the time I have all three of them. So I mean business in the store. In and out, wham, bam, thank you ma'am. I'm not trying to homestead here, people. Today I needed to run in to the store for butter and chicken and vanilla. That's it. I passed a lady that had four children, God bless her, and I smiled at her because I felt we had a sort of understanding -- you know, lots of kids by ourselves and all that jazz. Weeellllll, I am leaving the store and getting the kids buckled in the van and I turn around and BOO! she's standing right there next to me. I'm startled and I say "Yes?" She proceeds to inform me that J's booster seat is not appropriate for rear facing because it hasn't been tested that way. I explain that technically the booster seat is forward facing, the actual seat of the van is rear facing. (We have one of those cool swivel seats in the second row.) She says, "Oh I know, but the booster seat is safest forward facing and don't we want to be safest?" I blink at her and really want to be snarky at this point. So I point out that don't all the car seat techs promote how safe it is to be rear facing as long as possible? And she says, "Yes, but not in this instance." Sigh. I held my tongue like the good christian woman I am and thanked her for the info and would give it some consideration. I don't know if she is correct or if I will ever be able to keep up with the car seat laws. I probably need to be in a car seat myself. I mean, isn't that the safest??? Anyway, all that being said, what made her think it was okay to approach me like that? Maybe wait until I was done strapping them in and then I would see her standing in front of the car and we could talk that way. But no, she gets all up in my personal space. She stood as close as my own husband stands to me. Not okay in my book. Not to mention the horrible luck I have had with a vagrant in the grocery store parking lot. I am already a bit gun shy about strangers approaching me. I guess the whole thing just irked me a bit. My kids are in weight appropriate car seats and installed correctly. I even held off on the booster seat for J until he was almost 5 because he was so small. I guess that's what I get for being so approachable today. Again, sigh.

**I am putting this in here for anyone who is a certified car seat tech and wants to get rabid about this post -- I am by no means putting my children at risk and don't intend to ignore car seat laws.**

Lucky number nine

Soooo, I have been running a few months now. Just got serious about it last month when I did the 5K. While I was getting ready for that I was running a whole bunch. Tapered off a bit after the race and concentrated on other things -- like life! Anyway, I've been feeling the itch again. Got up Monday morning and went for a little jog with my little man and the neighbor. Did some sprints (uphill, thankyouverymuch!) and it was nice. So I decide to get on the treadmill and see how fast I can do one mile today. Nine minutes!! Nine freakin' minutes! PR! (That's short for "personal record" for those of you not in the know!) Go me, go me, go me! *Doin' the embarrassing booty shake* Woosh! What was that, you say? That was me, running circles around you. Oh yes I did.

OK, enough already. Some of you may be saying, "Wow, nine minutes. I can WALK a mile faster than that!" Well, those of you who are saying that can go find another blog right now because this one is about me. ;) But seriously, what the crap are you people thinking? Yep, those ones out there that run nine minute miles and those that do it faster? I wanted to die! I got off the treadmill and drug my limp-noodle body to the kitchen floor and proceeded to drink a half a gallon of water. And my legs are sore now! I don't know how you guys keep it up. And the worst thing of all? There's no going back now, as my illustrious sister pointed out today. Once you cross that mark, you can't go back. Its not the way it works. But, alas, I have no one to blame but myself. I was perfectly happy puttering along at my 12 minute mile, then an 11 minute mile. Now I've gone and done it. I did see a pretty awesome t-shirt today that really was my mind-frame this morning. It said "In my mind, I'm Kenyan" And today I was.