No Good, Very Bad, Ugly Kind of Days

Yes, THOSE kind of days. And, yes, I have had several of them this week. And, yes, I do realize today is only Wednesday and therefore, my whole week has been full of no good, very bad, ugly kind of days. I don't know why, but I have been in some funk this week. However, it seems to be wearing off this afternoon. This is good news for everyone!

I am now on two missions, both of which will help end my no good, very bad, ugly kind of days. I hope. Mission number one is to find a therapist or something. Maybe this person will be more than willing to listen to me vent my frustrations, especially since they will be getting paid lots of dough to do so! I am also hoping they will give me tools to relieve stress, stay somewhat organized, realize that not everything has to be perfect and get me through the craziness that is the holiday season and also the impending gloom of winter. I don't do well in winter. Where's my sunshine and decent weather?!

My second mission is to find a new gym. Yes, I think today was the last straw with my current gym. They first cut back playroom hours and then closed the playroom all together. With literally a day or two notice!! Then, we started going to the other location of the same gym and it's been everything but smooth sailing. They are way too particular about EVERYTHING and during my run this morning they came and told me that I had to take Graham home. Yes, my little Grammy got kicked out of the playroom! You see, he has this annoying little blocked tear duct that has to be surgically opened and stinted. This will hopefully take place in January. However, since it is blocked his eye is constantly goopy and his sinuses/nose do not drain properly. The result is yucky, yellow discharge. Gross, I know. But, it will be fixed and he is not sick or contagious. The people at the new playroom are not very understanding of this! They say it is in their "rules" that he cannot come in with "cloudy" discharge. But, he's going to have said "cloudy" discharge until the tear duct is opened and stinted and everything drains properly. And, I must add that the discharge is only "cloudy" the first few hours of the day until it all drains out, then it becomes clear again. But, such is life, I guess. And, I do have the choice to go to another gym all together. I WILL be doing this. I HIGHLY doubt that we will ever return to this said gym again. SO THERE!! I am taking my business of over 5 years elsewhere...Like they really care, but it makes me feel good to vent. Did I mention I'm looking to actually pay someone to listen to these rants?! :)

On to a positive event that happened today...I made two friends at preschool today!! YAY! GO ME! And yes, I said that I made two friends today, not one of the boys made two friends. Some of you other moms out there may know what I mean by this. Hopefully my new friends and I will continue to have playground chats after school while all the kiddos run off some energy. We'll see, I will keep you all posted...because I know you are all just dying at the thought of not hearing the end of my new friend experience. ;)

But anyway, off to finish some things around the house while all the animals are sleeping. Maybe I will end up sleeping myself, who knows?!

I Love Fall

I just love fall! There is something about this time of year that just makes me happy. The air is crisp and has a special 'fall scent' to it and the colors are just beautiful. And, there's also the whole football season thing, too! We have been trying to go outside and enjoy all that fall has to offer before winter is upon us. The boys have been having so much fun! Their new favorite activity is blowing and picking up leaves. They have yet to figure out that this is actually work, and I have no plans of telling them! I really can't wait until the ginko tree in our neighbor's yard drops all of it amazing yellow leaves becaue talk about a photo opportunity!! So, I understand I have posted a million leaf pics, but hey, it's what we been doing all day lately.

Graham taking his turn with the leaf blower.

My boys taking a break from picking up leaves
to see if Brutis is outside next door.
They just love that dog!



We walked around our yard and took some
pictures of the changing leaves.
Patrick really enjoys pointed out what color
they are turning. However, he is convinced
that some turn purple and blue.
We have yet to spot these leaves!




Pansies just make me happy :)

I just love the deep red color of fall!

Halloween Weekend Part III

Sunday night, after all of Halloween festivities, Robert and I had a date night! We went to see RENT at the Aronoff. I saw the show about 10 years ago on Broadway with some great friends and really loved it, so we decided to see it here in Cincinnati. It did not disappoint! If was kind of funny, though, because it was a little dated. The subject matter, music, etc. But, none the less, we had a great time and enjoyed our time out.

Look at us all dressed and ready to hit the town!

We clean up pretty good, eh?

First Crushes

It's official. Patrick has his first crush! And no, it's not on a little girl in his preschool class or even one of our babysitters. It's on TAYLOR SWIFT! Yes, the super famous country music star appears to be his first crush. He calls her "Taylor Taylor." When one of her songs comes on the radio he wants it louder and tonight when Robert and I came home from dinner the boys were having a dance party with the babysitter to one of her songs. Patrick was playing his little guitar and dancing his heart out. He was in heaven! After the sitter went home we sat in front of my laptop and watched, listened and danced to her videos on youtube. It was too funny! Graham and Marshall even did a little dancing and Patrick was kind enough to show off some of his break dancing moves. Where he learned these moves I do not know! So, I am thinking I will actually purchase one of her CD's. When was the last time I even purchased a CD?! I have no idea. Maybe I'll just download them onto our extra ipod so he can listen to her on his "running ears." If he's lucky he may even get a "Taylor Taylor" t-shirt or something from Santa. :)

Halloween Weekend Part II

Okay, Halloween Weekend Part II. The actual day of Halloween!!! We headed out to do some trick-or-treating after an early dinner. The boys had been begging to go all day. Marshall kept saying, "I want to go trick-my-treat!" Cracked my up every time. After going to several houses on our street we headed to the famous annual Cryer Ave. block party. The boys enjoyed lots of candy, playing with friends and trying to give mommy and daddy a heart attack by getting too close to the fire pit! We herded the boys back inside and to bed around 8pm so that we could head back out to the block party child-free. I think we all had a fabulous Halloween and thank goodness the boys decided to sleep later (probably due to the time change) because mommy and daddy stayed up WAY past their bedtime!

Our sweet family just before heading out to trick-or-treat.

Sweet Grammy! He had to pop a squat on every house's steps that he got candy from.
I guess he just didn't want to take candy and run, he felt he needed to visit a little, too!

And the dragons are off to get some candy!
The cutest little dragons, in my unbiased opinion. :)

So, I tried to plant one on my loving hubby at the block party
and this is the response I got. I'm going to remember this one, honey!

All done trick-or-treating and headed to the block party.

I think Graham may just be in heaven! Two fun size Starbursts AND

a 3 Musketeer's. All the kids pretty much planted themselves at this table.

Maybe because the big, orange bowl of candy sitting on top of it?!

A group of our fabulous neighbors. We live on the greatest street!

Should've Been a Dentist...

In my next life I am definitely going to be a dentist!! Especially if I have three children. We finally finished Patrick's dental work earlier this week just in time for Marshall to have to go back in today. Last night at dinner I noticed that his teeth looked kind of brown and this morning they were even worse. I called our dentist and had to bring him in today. We found out that he definitely has trauma to his two front teeth, but they are okay for now. We have to check them daily to make sure things don't get worse, because if they do she will extract his two front teeth. Poor Marshy!!! He would be toothless for quite some time since the permanent teeth don't come in until 6-8yrs old.

So, now I have Patrick with 4 fillings and Marshall with two brown front teeth! We did get lucky at Patrick's visit this week, however. She was thinking he was going to have to have a pulpectomy and crown, but this was avoided and the tooth was simply filled. Whew! Patrick was such a trooper through all of his dental work and I am hoping the worst is over for him. A note to all parents of children with severe reflux issues- watch their teeth!!! The reflux is the cause of Patrick's issues and had I been made aware of how serious this could be for their teeth I would have been even more of a dental hygiene nut than I already am!! Live and learn, I guess.

Graham has spared us massive dental bills, thus far. I kind of think he is saving up for orthodontist bills, though. His baby teeth are SO close together!! Our dentist has said all I can do is keep flossing them to prevent decay and that only time will tell with him. Like I said, I'm thinking I should have gone into dentistry instead of nursing. :)

Halloween Weekend Part I

We kicked off our Halloween a little early in the Carraway house!! Friday after lunch we headed outside to play in our dragon costumes and pick up leaves. (I was pretty desperate to find something that would burn off their wild boy energy!) Instead of bagging our piled up leaves (that would just be plain boring!) we decided to pile them at the bottom of the slide and have some fun. The big boys LOVED going down the slide and crashing into the leaves. Graham, however, was a little less thrilled by the whole thing.

Here comes Marshall!!

Patrick crashing into the pile of leaves.

Marshall looks so happy :)

Momma and Graham.

Grammy making his debut!

I don't think he could be out of those leaves

and that crazy costume fast enough.

The afternoon of playing in the leaves ended rather eventful, as most things in the Carraway house! I turned around to see Patrick out of his costume with NO underwear on, only his undershirt, coming down the slide. What?!? When I asked him what in the world he was doing he explained to me that he had wet his pants because he forgot to go inside to use the potty. I guess stripping down to only his undershirt made perfect sense to him, I don't know. But, as usual, Marshall was quick to follow Patrick's lead. Next thing I know, both of my children are running around the yard, playing in leaves and going down the slide bare bottomed. Awesome! Not really...I herded them all inside to get dressed and go down for a nap. Thank goodness Graham doesn't yet know how to take his clothes off!!

After nap we headed back outside to play in the leaves again with Daddy and carve our pumpkin. The boys were SO excited that Robert made it home early to play and carve a pumpkin with them! This time, we actually bagged up all the leaves. All three boys were great helpers. I knew there was a reason I had three sons- manual labor!! :) Once our leaves were bagged the carving adventure began...

REALLY big knife- check.

Big spoon to scoop out seeds- check.

Two little boys ready to get their hands inside that pumpkin- check.

The finished product!

Not too shabby, if I say so myself!

Momma and her boys with all of our pumpkins

My four amazing boys with their works of art