5 and 8.

Time sure has this funny way of never moving the way you think it should. Sometimes it seems like it goes by so fast you have no idea it was passing you by, other times it feels like it just drags on forever.

Today is mine and John’s 5th year being married, and our 8th year since we started dating.

Can I just say “WOW!” ?
In a way it feels like we’ve been together so much longer. It’s just hard to think back on life without him always being here with me. In another way it just doesn’t seem possible that we’ve been together for eight years. We started dating our sophomore year of high school. True, we had some rough patches, and yes it’s also true I broke up with him right before I found out I was pregnant with Zach. (I blame the hormones and early warning signs of the hellish morning sickness I was to suffer through on that) But we’ve just stuck. Working our way through all sorts of problems, heartaches, surprises, and joys.

It’s such a weird thought to me that I’m only 24, yet I’ve been with the same person for so long.

No, it wasn’t love at first sight. I don’t think I could even pinpoint to you the exact moment that I did fall in love with him. I know I balked on the idea of marrying him all the way up until we already had two children together. It wasn’t him that made me hesitant. It was me. I just didn’t want to be that girl who got married fresh out of high school. Of course it didn’t matter to me the least bit that I was that girl who was graduating with an almost one year old and was pregnant with my second child. lol

Then John sat me down one day after we had Ryan to talk. My parents, who had always stood firm on the policy of just because he got me pregnant did not mean I had to marry him, had even said maybe, just maybe it was time to at least think about it since we’d been together close to three years at this point. But I’ll never forget what John said, “Baby, I love you, and you love me. We’ve already started a beautiful family with two sons, maybe it’s time actually got married and made it a real family.” And I knew then that I was going to marry him.

Once we’d finally made up our minds we didn’t want to waste any time. We gave our families two weeks notice that we were going to the court house to get married on March 28th. A few days later my parents surprised us and said they wanted us to get married at their house and with a minister. My mom and John’s grandmother managed to plan our whole wedding in under two weeks. We didn’t want anything fancy, since John and I aren’t the least bit fancy. I didn’t even wear a dress… or shoes. lol It was perfect for us.

Life hasn’t been perfect all these years. And it definitely hasn’t been easy. But it’s been right for us. And I couldn’t ask for a better husband.

Sunday Scrapbooking (3/27)

So technically I only got two pages done this week, I had high hopes for more, but some other stuff came up. BUT I have four pages to share since I got two done a week or two ago, but I couldn’t share them until last Tuesday so I can share them here now too. :o)

It’s pretty funny the way my pages feature the kiddos. Belly gets featured all the time since she’s home all day with me and getting new pictures of her isn’t that hard. But other than the pictures I get of the boys every Monday morning, getting pictures to use of the boys isn’t easy at all. Well, last week’s pages all featured Zach, this week’s all feature Ryan and Belly.

made with the Shabby Princess’ “Semi-Solids Paper Collection”, “detailS – Labels”, “detailS – Buttons”, “detailS - Stitched Swirls”, and “the Blossom Collection”

made with the Shabby Princess’ “Semi-Solids Paper Collection”, “detailS – Labels”, “detailS – Buttons”, “detailS - Stitched Swirls”, and “the Bounce Collection”

made with Krystal Hartley and Scrapkitchen Designs’ “The Very Thought of You” (retired), Zoe Pearn’s “Serenity,” tape letters from Zoe Pearn’s “Note to Self” stitching from different Bad Sewing Machine sets by Traci Reed

 
(awww…. a little vintage Ryan. he’s a little over two in that picture.)
made with Julie Billingsley’s “Wonderous” and Thaty Borges’ “Dooooodles (layered)”

Saturday Snapshots (3/26)

Well, someone sure has had her grumpy panties on.

I’ve been kinda grumpy on here almost all week, haven’t I? lol I promise, I’m not always so grumpy. My allergies are performing a slow and painful execution of me, and it’s just well, made me kinda short tempered.

After my medicine finally kicked in this morning I came to the conclusion that I am not fit for public human interaction. What you might not know, readers, is that I have a bad, horrible, ugly temper. It’s really bad, which is why I try to not let things get to me. Well, everything has been getting to me all week. Generally, when I am in a mood being around other people helps, because as I said, I know I have a bad temper and I refuse to blow up on people. (well… except my siblings, parents, and John. lol)

I go to drop the boys off at school this morning and the lady working out there stopped Ryan, and brought him back to the van, and asked if I was aware of the school’s no holes policy. Zach’s been at this school for three years almost, so I’m very aware of it. BUT Ryan goes to school with holes in his pants all the time and they’ve never said anything about it, and since the K4 classes don’t have to follow the entire dress code I figured this was part of it. The boy is hard on his pant, and all his pants are Zach’s hand-me-downs. Yeah, they’re worn looking but not ratty and raggedy. The holes in them are tiny, probably silver dollar size at largest, and generally there’s just one in the knee. All of his pants have holes. Well, one thing led to another and I end up completely going off on this poor woman, cussing and everything. It wasn’t pretty and yeah, while it’s stupid not only of the school to try to enforce this so late in the game (most days we’re in shorts now, a cold front just came in last night), it was equally wrong of her to bring it up the way she did in front of Ryan and all the other parents dropping off kids; it was just as wrong for me to go off on her.

That was my wake up call on how grumpy I’ve been. So, we (I) need to work on bringing back happy-Trish, cause this grumpy-Trish act is getting old fast.

A poor wife’s (not so) empty threat.

“Baby, I’m going to ban Black Ops from our house.”

That statement came after listening to him moan, grumble, cuss, and yell at the tv for an hour because of Black Ops.

I. Hate. Black Ops.
Seriously.

The tone of our night time routines (after kids are in bed) revolves around how well or poor he does in that game, and I am just fed up with it. I’m sick of the yelling, cussing, anger, and all of it. I’m considering having an “accident” happen to it.

Of course John says it’s not his fault; it’s the servers, or his team, or a glitch. Anybody/thing other than him.

I told him I didn’t care. Either quit taking the game so darn seriously or it will go bye-bye.

The church fiasco.

So, I’ve dropped the boys off at church, then go back to eat dinner at my mom’s. This is our Wednesday ritual.

It starts like this:
12 – me and Belly go over to mom’s for lunch.
12:45 – leave Belly at my mom’s napping I go help in Zach’s class.
3 – get back to my mom’s with boys, we do homework, play, make dinner, hang out
6 – take boys, younger brother, and younger sister to church
6:20ish – step-dad arrives to work in the middle school class, drops John off with me, we both go to my mom’s to eat.
8:30ish – step-dad brings everyone to my mom’s, then we say goodbyes and go home.

That has been the schedule every Wednesday for the past few months. My step-dad decided to vary from that tonight, oh and so did my brother and sister. ((grumble face))

We’re late leaving the house because my brother and sister wait to tell me they aren’t going until after we’ve been waiting and waiting for them. Hurry and pack up the boys, then hurry to church because we’ll already be late. Drop boys off at church, look around for step-dad’s car. Look around some more.

No step-dad. Call step-dad ask where he is, apparently, he’s not coming. Doesn’t mention John, so I figure I’ll meet them at my mom’s. ((loud buzzing “YOU ARE WRONG” noise)) Nope. Apparently step-dad took John home… to our empty, messy (cause I didn’t have time to clean earlier) house where dinner is not.

7:45 rolls around I try to round up Belly so we can get the boys… it’s not happening. Belly doesn’t want to leave, but can’t do sleep over. Huge epic tantrum ensues. Finally get her ready to go, pick her up, and “Oh crap!” She’s undone one side of her diaper, peed, and now one leg of her pants are soaked. Have no spare pants. Change her and just remove pants. Pray we can find parking in drop off lane in front of where I get the boys she can stay in the van.

Get to van, get Belly in van… and wait. Person is behind me talking to step-dad and mom and just NOT getting the message I need to leave. Look at clock, make grumble face and cussing noises. It’s now 8, church gets out at 8, I’m still in my mom’s driveway.

Five minutes later, finally get to leave, speed most of the way to church. Get to church. Have to park far from doors, thus, I must take pant-less, grimey Belly with me into the church to get the boys, whom I am 20 minutes late getting.

Ladies in church just laugh and say no it’s fine. I’m desperately trying to keep Belly’s shirt covering her diaper-only no-pants bottom. Failing at that. Especially when she tries to wiggle out of my arms to get her “Eye-an” and “A-chy.” Much embarrassment all around.

Get home, notice house smells good. Oh crap, John cleaned. Means John noticed and minded the mess enough to get frustrated enough to clean. Give him his share of dinner. Eats a few bites then tells me it’s gross. I decide not to mention I made dinner.

Fun, fun times.

Not.

Feel the hate broccoli, feel the hate.

Hater #1 – Zach
“Um, eww. Mom, what is this?”
”It’s broccoli and cheese, eat it, you like it.”
”No, no I don’t. Can I put it back in the pan and just get more meat and noodles?”
(Look at clock, see he now has 10 minutes to eat before having to leave for Cub Scouts.)
”Fine Zach, do whatever you want.”

Hater #2 – John
“Baby, what’s this green blob?”
(sigh) “Broccoli and cheese. Eat it.”
”Uh… no. This is broccoli and cheese soup with some chunks. Where’s the rest of the broccoli?”
”(Dang)it John! Just eat it. That is what homemade broccoli and cheese looks like!”
”Nuh-uh. My grandmother’s broccoli and cheese did not look like this.”
”That’s because she made frozen broccoli and cheese!”
”Liar. You take that back now.”
(glare across room at him)

Hater #3 – Belly
“Ewww! Mommy, eww!”
(look over and see her lifting up her bread and pointing to broccoli and cheese in her bowl)

(Screw) it. Broccoli and cheese – you were an epic fail.

Sunday Scrapbooking (3/20)

I’ve been wondering how to go about adding a little about scrapping on my blog. I don’t want to turn it into a blog about scrapbooking, but it’s also a big part of who I am, so I’ve been wanting to find a way to include it some. One of my friends suggested a Saturday Scrapbooking weekly post, but as you, my readers, know I do my weekly snapshots on Saturday, so I decided to go with Sunday Scrapbooking where I can share a few of my favorite pages from the week. If you want more information on my scrapbooking you can click the tab about scrapbooking at the top of the blog under the header.
Now… lets show you this week’s pages! (Which are the only two I can show at the moment lol)

made with Heather Roselli and Lauren Grier's 'You Make My World Go Round' (retired) and Kristen Cronin-Barrow's 'Get Krafty' papers (freebie – no longer available)
font - DJB Coffee Shop Espresso

made with Dani Mogstad and Shawna Clingerman's On the Loose

Saturday Snapshots (3/19)

Field Trip Day!!

The day Zach has been waiting for all month has finally arrived.

Field trip day!

I went with his class on the field trip today. We went to the Children’s Museum and then for pizza afterwards. There were so many parents who came to help that it was split up into two groups of three girls with two parents (only 6 girls in his class) and three parents with their kid plus another, then everyone else went with their own parent.
Zach had sooo much fun. I, well I didn’t hate it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was be, but I spent a nice chunk being mad at my sister’s camera I borrowed to take on it.  I'm kinda kicking myself cause I took my sister's camera so it could easily go in my pocket while not being used since I didn't want to haul a purse around all day... yeah it sucked. Like epically. And on top of that the photos are SMALL – like web sized small. And it didn't matter how I messed with her settings the pictures just blew. I took 250 photos... I ended up with only 93 ones semi-salvageable, and they still suck. I guess I'll just chalk it up to a lesson learned.
But yeah, it was fun. This was my first time going on a school field trip with one of the boys. Usually my mom goes since I'm always going into the class to help and do parties. But she said she'd much rather stay home and play with Belly than go with close to 50 1st grades to kid-mayhem central.

Here are a few pictures:

And how Zach rocked his St. Patty’s Day green since we had to wear red:

Germs.

"Momma, bend down."
(lean over and look at Ryan)

"No, like sit on the floor on your knees."
(sit on my knees) "OK... what do you want?"

"This..."
He reaches up and kisses my forehead.
"Oh, thank you Ryan!" (lean to kiss him)

"No."
He kisses each cheek, my chin, my ears, my shoulder, my nose.

"I can't kiss your lips Momma. Lips have germs."

Recipe: Crock Pot Pork Chops

Yummm…

What you need:

2 butterfly pork chops	2 cans golden mushroom soup
1 can sliced potatoes	1 tbsp flour
1 cup water	1 tbsp cooking oil

1. Heat your oil in a skillet on medium heat. While oil heats separate the halves of the butterfly pork chops, sprinkle with pepper, garlic powder, and onion powder.
2. Brown both sides of your pork chops until they are golden (insides will not be cooked). The time it takes to do this will depend on the size of the pork chops. Remove pan from heat, but don’t mess with it after that!!
3. Cut the pork chops into smaller pieces (I cut each into 6 pieces, you can do more or less depending on the size you want the meat to be) then place them in the crock pot.
4. Whisk your water and flour together until there are no clumps at all. Pour the water/flour into the pan you cooked the pork chops and turn the heat to medium again. Continue whisking until the bottom of the pan feels clear. Add the two cans of soup and whisk until mixed. Heat to boiling.
5. Pour all of the stuff in the pan into the crock pot with the pork, stir until it covers all the meat.
6. About 30 minutes before you are ready to eat add the potatoes and stir until they are coated.
You can cook it on low for all day, or high for about 4 hours. I cooked it on high for 2 hours and then on low for another 3.
Enjoy.


(You can find more recipes and other handmade stuff here:)

A bad day at Black Rock.

Apparently I did not hold the exclusive rights to having a bad day yesterday in my house.

Zach had a bad day at school yesterday. He didn’t get in trouble or anything, but when he was walking to the van when I went to pick him up he had his “woe-is-me” face on. So, when he was in and buckled I asked what was wrong and this is what I was told.

“I only have one friend at school.”

“Uh, no you don’t Zach. You have at least 3, because you’ve been friends with two boys in your class since K4.”

“No Mom. I have one. See, it started when we got to class after breakfast. My friends were doing stuff they shouldn’t, and I told them to stop or they would get in trouble. Then Ms. (teacher) saw them and they all moved their clips. They say it’s all my fault and don’t want to be my friend cause I’m a tattle tale, but I didn’t tattle on them!”

“I’m sorry buddy. I’m sure they’ll forget about it by tomorrow. Did all your friends blame you?”

“No; Austin, Kayden, and Nick would still play with me. But now Kayden and Nick say me and Austin can’t be their friends either.”

“Well why not? What did you and Austin do?”

“We told them that it couldn’t be a three way tie when obviously two of them lost the race. And they did Mom, they were slow and they lost bad.”

“Surely, you, Zachary Evan, were not rude enough to tell them that?”

“Um… maybe.”

“Then tomorrow you better take your butt to Kayden and Nick and apologize and ask if they’ll be your friends again.”

“There’s a problem… I can’t.”

“Why?”

“Austin and I created the ‘We’re Cool and Everyone Else is Losers’ Club. So now everyone is even madder.”

((big sigh and head shake from me)) “Zach, it’s a little early in the school game to making clubs like that. Apologize to your friends tomorrow, that’s the end of it.”

And while we are on a Zach note, though I’m not doing project 52 (intentionally) this year I did decide to play along with a few groups on Flickr and added this photo of Zach to two groups, which both do themes. One group is doing the themes of “Power” or “Up” this week. The other is doing the theme “Darks and Lights.”

You should go check out all the awesome photos posted. :)

The stressing point.

I’m at breaking point for stress.

And this time it’s not because of a bratty Belly, a frustrating Zachy, or a misbehaving Ryan.
I need happy music. ((goes and turns on happy music))

Some of my readers know about the rocky relationship I have with my father and step-mother. And I always feel horrible enough about it without my father “joking” about it in front of the boys. I love my father more than anything, I always have. I was willing to put up with so much disappointment, broken promises, and careless neglect from him when it came to me, but I just can’t allow that for the kiddos. (Mainly the boys since Belly really doesn’t know them) It’s not like they don’t care about the kids, they do. They love them so much, and try so hard to be good grandparents, but at a point you just have to say no. And the boys love them soooo much too.

There were several reasons that led us to no longer send the boys over there, I won’t say what they all were, but one was my father’s alcoholism. The very sad part is that my father is a much nicer man drunk than he is sober so nobody (including my brother and I) has ever gave him any reason not to drink. But I (and John) don’t want the boys seeing that and thinking that it’s OK. I don’t want them growing up knowing that about their grandfather, not at this age where they are old enough to pick up on it.

My step-mother called me today wanting the kiddos to come out for the weekend. The kids already have plans so I don’t feel bad saying no. But I felt bad enough to suggest maybe we could come to dinner on Sunday instead.

You’re probably wondering what’s so bad about that.

My father may not be drunk when we get there, but he’ll probably already be working his way to it. He’ll make comments in front of, and to, the boys about how it’s my fault they never come over anymore and how I’m just a mean mommy – in a “joking” way of course. I can’t stand these comments. They make me feel horrible. Like depressed horrible for days. Because I love my father, my father loves the boys, the boys love him and miss him. I want  them to spend more time with him, but I just can’t, and he refuses to see that. He refuses to see all the times I tried and tried to make it work and then have to watch the disappointment and hurt the boys would feel when he never showed up. This is going to set off the same reaction every holiday does. The boys will start asking and begging to go do sleepover again, and since I can’t tell them all the reasons why not, I get to be the bad guy and just say no. Stupidly, I’m going to be happy the whole time. I’m going to bask in getting to see my dad. I’m going to believe him when he says he wishes he got to see me more. Then I’m also going to be hurt and disappointed when I get home and remember I can’t. I can’t put myself constantly through this anymore. No that’s a lie, I could. I can’t keep putting the kids through it though.

Now I get to worry and stress about this all week, but I can’t let it show, or let John know or John will say no, we aren’t going. And I really do want to see my Daddy.

Saturday Snapshots (3/12) + Update

Oh… what to say about this week.

I had to play a ton of catch up on housework from having us sick most of the week before. This included washing everyone’s bedding, main stuffed animals, and doing a full disinfecting of the bathroom. Not to mention a ton of laundry since only puked on stuff got washed the sick week.

Zach had a friend from school come over one day. It was wonderful watching him play with a friend from school. It was his first no-reason-to-come-over time having a friend at the house.

Belly has been beyond bratty. No idea why. Though she was very good today for a change.

Ryan got in trouble at school every single blessed day last week, which led to a melt-down this morning when we told him we felt he had not done anything to deserve ice cream money today.

The boys and I finished reading Ramona the Pest last night. We were supposed to start Ramona and Beezus tonight (we didn’t realize when we started Ramona the Pest that it was the second book) but poor Ryan fell asleep before we got to reading.

Today was a beautiful 64 degrees and sunny, so once the boys got home we spent most of the day playing in the backyard.

Well, I guess that’s it. Fingers crossed next week is completely back to normal so I can get back to blogging!

Saturday Snapshots (3/5)

(in case anyone is wondering why I haven’t posted all week, my house has had a stomach bug going through it all week, which is finally gone)