5 Question Friday

I've been absent so long it's been forever and a day since I've done 5 Question Friday. Usually by the time Friday rolls around the only thing my brain can do is answer random questions. I'm in desperate need of blog catch up and I hope to get that done very very soon but until then here's my Friday randomness!

1. Do you feel guilty spending money on yourself?


Horribly guilty! I have fun shopping and if I don't stop to think then I don't feel guilty until after I actually make my purchase and then I end up returning it. However if I stop to think while I'm looking I have an argument with myself right in the middle of the store. I hardly ever end up leaving with what I wanted. I am bad about it - when I get gifts for my birthday or something that are money I even have a tough time with that - 9 times out of 10 the money goes into our checking account to pay a bill or buy groceries or something like that. I can't remember the last time I actually spent it on myself. Crazy how we moms are like that!
2. How well do you know your neighbors?

Depends on who we're talking about. I know the people all around me with the exception of those on one side of me and I have no desire to know them any better than their loud obnoxious music and rude ways that they have - I really wish they'd take those and move them somewhere else along with all their belongings but they probably won't since that's what I want so I don't bother with them. The others around me are wonderful - we don't do block parties or anything but if we needed something we'd have somewhere to go.

3. What age are you looking forward to being?

Oh I'm bad about this. I'm scared of getting older - mostly because I'm more scared of the old old age and dying part. I want to age and stay healthy and fit and fun - if that happens then I'm all for it but I'd really like to stay where I'm at right now. I know - I'm a scaredy cat!
4. Do you get excited when the mail comes? Why?

If I'm expecting something then yes otherwise you can keep the bills! Especially the medical bills from deliveries and unexpected back issues that my husband had a few years ago that I never have the money to pay.
5. What is your earliest childhood memory?

It could be said I suppose that I have issues. I remember very little about my childhood. Honestly I can't remember when the first memory I have would have been - I believe it was around 4 or 5 - that's scary,isn't it? I hope my kids remember things before that - everything that is so important to us as parents when they are little they never remember.
Now you can head to Mama M's at My Little Life and play along too.

Wordless Wednesday-Kinda

I'm really not dead yet - just very very busy and sick. I'm trying to stay caught up but it becomes difficult while trying to fit it into my new schedule. I have to find a new time to blog now because I used to do it early in the morning before the kids got up - now they go to bed earlier and get up earlier and at night I'm busy doing other things I can't get done during the day. Guess I'm going to have to find a way to put a few more hours in my day!

Here's the first of many beach pictures that I have been very negligent in posting - love how this came out!!! Can you tell he was excited?

Wordless Wednesday "Sorta"

I've mentioned a couple of other times how my computer had to be restored to factory settings to fix a goof up that the Geek Squad from Best Buy did when I first got it. Thankfully I have an external hard drive so all of my pictures are safe!!! Really Thankfully - you would not want to be anywhere near me or have any contact with me whatsoever if all of my pictures were gone! So now I have basically a brand new computer and I have to get things loaded back on. I keep waiting because I'm not sure how I want it organized. That's where you come in :) How do all of you organize your pictures - what's your method? Do you double archive them? Mean an online storage site and discs or external hard drive plus do you print them all? How do you store them on your computer? Do you do it by month or child or event? Do you name all your pictures or just leave them after edited as the numbers that are assigned when we take them off our cameras? Told ya it wasn't really a wordless wednesday.

Makes Me Swoon

                                                          There is nothing in the world
                                                             that these two like more

                                                             
                                                                than riding their bikes.

                                                      
                                                         Okay well unless it's swinging

                                                 
                                                       but since those pictures aren't up

                                        
                                               since my computer is wiped completely clean

                                     
                                       and I haven't gotten around to getting things organized

                                           
                                                  these are the ones we're focusing on today.

                                                            
                                                              Aren't they precious?
                                                      Makes my heart go pitter patter!

It's been a bad morning. Neither Caleb nor Allie wanted to go to school and Caleb cried a couple of times. Allie - though oh my word. She broke my heart this morning. I'm not sure what to do right now and I'm very conflicted - I'm praying she adjusts well and enjoys it but right now my heart is in a million pieces.

Mouse Factor

Brace yourselves!!! It's a post with actual pictures although it may be some of which you'd rather not see :)

Let me start by saying I hate mice! I hate them - I'm terrified of them - It's bad! We've had a horrible mouse problem this summer at our house - unlike any other year or any other century probably! We set traps and then someone else has to get rid of them once they are in the traps - I can't do it. Seriously I can't do it! We caught one not long ago and noone checked it in the morning until I walked upon it when I went to do laundry. I almost had a heartattack - I'm kidding you not! I called David who couldn't get home right then and wasn't going to be able to for a couple more hours - I called my Dad's house and he was on his way to Atlanta - it was not looking good. I was shaking and clammy and could not make my body walk into the laundry room and get him. I finally talked Lucas into getting him out for me - thank goodness!!!! and I could breathe!

However they wouldn't stop - we have multiple ones I think. We fixed the dryer vent that we originally thought was the problem and they still got in. I cleaned out the bottom of the pantry because that's where I store boxes of things I get from Sam's or wherever else and made sure there was nothing there they could get into. I started putting up dog food at night because they were getting that and taking it piece by piece under the stove or the sink - it was bad! YUCK!

Finally one day I heard something scratching behind the wall/vanity in my bathroom. It freaked me out at first because I thought it was going to come out of the vanity at me - really people I know it sounds like it but we don't live in the country!!!! It stopped and then I heard it the very next morning too. After that I didn't hear it anymore - well that was until I smelled something a couple of days later. I told my husband and mom that I smelled something but noone believed me for a couple of days. Of course they didn't have to be here during the day when it was 90 degrees and smelling it too. That was unlike anything I can describe! Finally someone smelled it and the search was on! The first night we put 3 holes in the bathroom wall where we smelled it - yes you heard me right holes in the wall. Nothing! So my husband went to work the next day and got a camera that they use to look inside ductwork and brought it home. Put another hole in the wall of our closet and what do we see? A wee little dead mouse staring at me! UGH!!!!! Really - they are out to get me - who else gets dead mice in their walls and their bedroom for that!

It's hard to see in this picture but it's in the upper right hand corner and it gives me chills just looking at it!

That was bad enough until about a week later I smelled the same smell in the kitchen - yep as I dreaded it and somehow lived through it for two days we looked for it! I knew exactly where this one was and one hole and it was out. It's horrid! I'm done with mice - DONE!

Starting Over

I feel like I can't grab hold of my life right now and it's so frustrating! As I was finally getting in the schedule of Lucas and Jacob back in school Caleb and Allie were scheduled to start. They are in preschool for two days a week three hours per day and that's been a major adjustment. You'd think with the two of them gone that I would have tons and tons of time to get things done and I'd be as relaxed as I could possibly be. It's the total opposite though - I'm crazy when they're gone. I'm either at school busy there from the moment I drop them off until the time to pick them up or I'm running around somewhere else. I find that I'm further behind than ever!!! At least when they were home I could get stuff done around the house and accomplish things on my to do list - when I'm gone I don't accomplish a single thing. This week has been difficult - I've felt lost in the shuffle.

I feel like I can't keep up with the four of them right now. With the younger two at preschool and the new worries that come with that I am constatly talking to a teacher or worried about something with someone. I have no idea how this is going to work - I think I might have been a little too confidant in my ability to handle four of them in school and involved in activities. Allie and Caleb are adjusting to school or at least I hope they are. I'll have to post more about that in a day or so with pictures - believe it or not I actually do still have pictures and tons and tons to blog about. I have just been completely out of it-forgive me please.

On top of that my computer has been messed up since I got it at Christmas time. The Geek Squad at Best Buy told us to delete something on it the day we opened it up out of the box that totally screwed me over. I couldn't watch videos or listen to music for the last 8 months. Wednesday I had to restore my computer to factory settings and therefore had to get rid of everything. In doing that I can listen to music and watch videos now but it's been a huge process. Thankfully I have my external hard drive so all of my pictures are on there along with the majority of my documents. I forgot to save my email contacts though so I lost all of those. If I had your email then I've lost it so if you haven't sent it to me yet please email it to me. :) Right now my computer is like it was the day I took it out of the box - not a single thing on it. I figure if I'm having to put everything back on I might as well start out organized so at some point I'll figure out a system for how I want things and I'll get them all back on - the thousands upon thousands upon thousands of pictures. Makes me tired just thinking about it!

Totally Out Of It

I've been in a major rut this week! Lucas and Jacob started school on Monday and I was majorly down for the first part of the week and for the remainder - well I've just felt blah. No motivation to do anything at all and what I have accomplished I have had to make myself do it.

I've had not a single desire to get out of the bed each day - and when I convince myself that I absolutely have to get up each morning the "dumps" start. It's been a major adjustment to the kids starting school this year - I don't know why. We got in our own "schedule" if you will and we all operated pretty well together on it. I had no desire at all for summer to end. I miss the ability to spend the time with them all day and do things together - I miss being able to keep them up late and then them sleep half the morning away. I miss having all the noise around my house day in and day out. Crazy I know!

Caleb and Allie start at a local preschool next week for two days a week 3 hrs each time. I plan to use that time working at the school - I think they need that time to socialize with other kids and to eventually prepare for kindergarten but I can't come home and sit on my rump while they are there - I'd go insane! That's another panic induced situation for me - leaving them. I pray they do well!

So with this week - I'm way behind on everything. I convinced myself to clean the bathrooms this afternoon and I've semi kept up on my laundry but other than that it's all waiting on me. Allie having a cold and coughing all night long last night didn't help my Friday today either. I have tons to blog on and lots of pictures to share from our beach trip and school starting so hopefully I'll be back in the groove in the coming days. Hopefully!