Grouchy and rambling

I'm grouchy. For reals. I don't know if it's hormones or some combination of being crazy busy and all that I feel I need to accomplish in the next few days, or too much "people time" and not enough "alone time".  I'm trying to get year-end wrapped up for the business so we can get tax stuff done, I'm hoping we can file our taxes early because we are expecting a refund for our adoptions and would like to be able to use that as part of our down payment on our house this summer!  I know sometimes it takes a while to get your refund when you are doing the adoption tax credit.  And once all that stuff is done it is time to start packing and really preparing for the baby to get here.  I need to find a dresser or something (I have some ideas!) and I need to finish all the stuff around the house, painting and filling nail holes and all of that kind of stuff. Never ending, I tell you!

D has been home on Christmas break and doesn't go back to school until Thursday.  He and I butt heads on a pretty regular basis, I don't know what it is or if he just tries to pick fights with me, but by about 10 a.m. this morning my brain was about to explode from D overload!  He asked if he could go to a friend's and it was all I could do to calmly say yes instead of shouting for joy.  In the morning he basically follows me around, stands in the bedroom while the kids get dressed (a 90 sq ft bedroom with a giant dresser, bunk beds, a crib, 3 little kids plus me...yeah it's very crowded), sits at the table with us, etc.  A few days ago I walked into the bathroom to pee (seriously, it takes what, 30 seconds?) and he started talking to me outside the door! Hello! I am peeing! Wait until I'm done!  It's funny looking back but uuggghhh.  I guess it's nice that he wants to spend time with me...?

I am so tired of a certain 2-year-old whining about EVERYTHING.  She can talk perfectly fine. She can string together 4-5 word sentences like nobody's business, but if anything is slightly wrong, cue very loud repetitive whining, not with words but "uuuuuhhhh! Mommmmmmyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy! uuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh!" or even just all out screaming/crying.  If you don't respond within, say, 10 seconds, the volume increases exponentially.  I think "Use your words!" is one of my most commonly used phrases right now. I know she is 2 and I know that this will end.  She is totally adorable when she is not whining.  I almost always can tell what is the matter without her having to say anything but please, please just tell me and stop with the whining!

Now I will stop with my own personal whining. :)

This morning I was helping Miss M get dressed. She can do a lot by herself but gets distracted so I just hang around to help keep her on track. I told her "Take of your pants and put them in the laundry" and she said "Not pants Mommy, they're jammies! Silly Mommy!"  Yes indeed, silly Mommy. :)  She is so funny and such a little character.  I'm hoping this whining phase will be over, like, next week. Ha ha ha!

She has also started calling me "Mama" a lot which I think is very sweet.  I wouldn't mind being Mama instead of Mommy but I let the boys pick what they wanted to call me and they decided Mommy was best.

I signed the 3 littles up for a swimming class. It cost an arm and a leg for reals, but it is 9 weeks long and I'm hoping by the end of it they will all be able to at least keep themselves afloat a little bit.  It goes from the beginning of January to the beginning of March, so hopefully they will be over before the baby comes (memo to baby: no exiting until mid-March at the earliest!). And they all 3 go to class at the same time which is totally awesome, even though they are in different classes.  They all love the water which is a big plus and hopefully it will be easy for them to learn.  And I think they are all old enough that I won't have to don my swimsuit to assist with classes. I have a swimsuit that MIGHT still fit me (it fit me 6 weeks ago when we were in Florida, but who knows now!), otherwise I'd be obliged to settle with a 2-piece and bare my very large belly.  Even I can't stand the thought of seeing that, much less the poor teachers and other parents!  Luckily I think my kids are still too young to be embarrassed by me. :)

I am looking into doing some kind of fitness class. I looked into water pilates, they have it at the same place the kids go for swimming class and it is much more affordable than their swimming lessons! But the stinky thing is they offer it at either 8:15 a.m. or 8:15 p.m.  That is it.  I normally don't drop the kids off until 9 a.m. so to be there at 8:15 a.m. I'd have to wake them all up early (nobody wants to wake up a bunch of toddlers earlier than they have to!), and by 8:15 p.m. I am pretty much sitting on the couch fighting sleep.  I looked at several other places around, they all start at either 8 a.m. or 8:15 a.m.!  It's frustrating.  I know it's mostly old people that take these classes so I guess that's why.  I might try the 8:15 p.m. class since you can try it once for free, the kids will all be in bed by then so it's not that big of a deal to go and if I am too tired afterwards then I guess I know I won't be paying to sign up! I just really need to start doing something, I'm hoping it could help with my back pain that I have been having and just make me feel better about myself. If that doesn't work out then I think we are going to move the treadmill and I'll just walk on that. I'm not going walking outside because it is icy!

I keep getting all these emails about races in the area; the 50K sign-up for next year is open now and I have a lot of friends doing races and signing up. Even my husband and D are signed up for a 1/2 marathon in May.  I am missing running and missing having a goal.  I do hope to start back at running once I get the OK from my doctor...the weather will (hopefully) be awesome and I would have enough time to get ready for a 5K or 10K in the fall, if I felt like it. Of course I might not have the energy, but I hope that I will.  I'm a member of a running forum and a lady with a 3 month old said that she wakes up at 5 a.m., pumps, heads out for a run, and if the baby wakes while she is gone then the dad can feed him the pumped milk, and if not then she feeds the baby when she gets back. Seems like a pretty good plan, assuming I can get my happy booty out of bed at 5 a.m. and assuming Brian doesn't mind getting up with the baby. :)

Long term I do still hope to complete a 50K, I'd say the earliest I can do that will be in 2014, but 2015 might be more reasonable depending.  Also someday I think it would be completely awesome to do the Disney World Race and a Half challenge...it is a half marathon on Saturday, then a full marathon on Sunday! How awesome would THAT be?  I even heard that they are adding a 10K next year so you can do all three races.  It's in January every year, so maybe I can talk hubby into a Walt Disney World vacation in January 2015 or 2016. ;)  Let's see, in 2015 we'd have a 1 (almost 2) year old, 4 year old, 5 year old, 6 year old, and a 15 year old.

It's so strange that we have never had a child under 12 months old or ages 5 to 10 and then of course 14+.  Kind of random, but true.  Most people don't have those kinds of gaps!

We looked at some houses online today in the area we want to live in. There are several elementary schools nearby. I'd love to live in walking distance of the school, then we can all just walk to and from school (at least when it's not crazy cold out, or raining or snowing).  We'll just drop whomever goes to school off then the rest of us will head back home, the ones that are big enough could maybe ride their bikes or something but we'd all stay together.  At some point we will have 4 children in elementary school, crazy right?  Then also we will hopefully live within a mile of the high school so D can just ride his bike to school.

This is the kind of junk that goes through my brain all day. Thanks for listening. :o)