One grouchy mother

This is going to be one of those blogs where I'm just gonna real. There is no sense in trying to play if off like I had a good Mother's Day because I didn't! My first clue that things were not going to go well happened about two days ago when I asked Mike if he had taken the boys to get me anything. His response was, "When have I had time?" To his credit, he has a point. He's frantically trying to build my office for my new job. But I was a little disappointed. This morning when I got up both boys gave me their crafts they made at school - which I did enjoy and since I try to find the humor in everything I did get a chuckle over the keychain Jay gave me spelled, "Grate Job." After the gift giving, it was all down hill. Jay was irritated that I was making him go to church on Mother's Day - heaven forbid. It was the same ole song and dance - I'm the worst mother because I make him go to church and he hates going to church anyway, blah, blah, blah. I was just hoping to avoid the same song and dance because it was Mother's Day. We get to church and during a few of the hymns I see Jay - out of the corner of my eyes - putting his hands over his ears, laying his head down on the next pew - Oh Yeah, it was really delightful, however I choose to ignore his ridiculous behavior because he was at least being quiet and sitting sit. I ditched my "lovely" children after church and head to brunch with my mom and sister which I was looking forward to. Turns out my sister's Mother's Day morning wasn't any better than mine. When she arrived for brunch I asked her how her morning went and it was like lighting a fire. At one point during the bruch while my sister was going off about her bad Mother's Day, my mom pointed to herself as if to say....."Hello, you two girls are ruining my Mother's Day now." We didn't stop though, we kept up our ranting! So once it was all said and done my sister and I basically ruined the brunch my mom was really looking forward to and I could tell she was annoyed with us. She forgave us but like she said, "it wasn't exactly what she had envisioned." After brunch I spent my day being a total grouch and "thanking" Jay for his lovely behavior that morning that put me in a bad mood which in turn made his nana annoyed with me. Now that the day has ended I just have to shake my head. I'm ready for a new day tomorrow and I apologized to my mom for being such a brunch time grouch. Better luck next Mother's Day.

Desserts Galore

On Nick's birthday we had breakfast at the restaurant at our hotel. When our waitress found out it was Nick's 5th birthday she brought him a chocolate cake to celebrate - for breakfast and all. Jay and Nick LOVED it. These next few pictures are Nick's reaction to getting the cake.

There is a really funny story behind the picture above. Nick had literally stuffed himself for his birthday dinner with the biggest lobster you have ever seen (Yes, his favorite food is lobster, crazy!). When the dessert tray came Nick could hardly bring himself to look at the tray, let alone eat dessert.

But then when dessert arrived as a big chocolate dome Nick somehow was all smiles and made room in his lobster stuffed tummy.

Wait for it

I was going to post more St. Louis pictures tonight but instead Jay gave me a good blog title. I'll post more pictures this weekend. I know I have written this before but Jay's former daycare provider, Christy Kelson (we love Christy!!) once said that Jay's unsolicitated displays of affection got you everytime and it's so true. You never know when Jay is going to "dish it out" but when he does, you just melt. With Jay you really have to wait for it. This week at dinner when I told my family I had given my boss my resignation (my boss whom I'm worked for for 13 years) Jay asked me how she took the news. I replied she seemed shocked, supportive and sad all at the same time. Jay said, "I can see that mom, if you worked for me and you were leaving, I'd be sad too." Once again, you have to understand, Jay also could have said, "Well why the heck would she be sad?" Then tonight he and Nick were fretting over what to do for me for Mother's Day. I told both boys to not sweat it. I suggested Jay write me a note with the reasons he loves me. I fully expected a lot of eye rolling but instead he said, "That would take me too long, mom, because I'd have pages and pages of reasons why I love you." He said it so sincerely and I was truly touched. I pray that Jay one day finds a woman who gets him and appreciates his quiet nature. Jay is so much like his dad. I remember once my mother in law told me that Mike is not going to go on and on and gush all over me but that he's loyal to the bone. Mike and Jay have taught me that as long as I wait for it, they come through everytime.

The big announcement

I have worked for the same company for 16 years. In one week I'll be 37 years old and during the last six months I just haven't felt the right fit with my company. However, that being said I've been a loyal employee for 16 years. This is the company that not only gave me my first professional job right out of college but hired me while I was in college to work part time, truly a blessing. Bottom line, this company has been good to me. But today I resigned. My last day with the company will be May 20. If you would have told me even six months ago that I would do something like this I would have told you you had a screw lose. Now don't worry I didn't resign from a job without another job. Last week I accepted a position with another company doing the exact same job but there is one major perk to this whole scenerio, I will be working full time from my home. Life sure comes full circle because this is truly a blessing as well. I am excited for this opportunity and have done my homework. My brother in law use to work for this company and spoke very highly of it. Additionally, he still has friends who work there who also speak highly of the company. The last three weeks have been a whirlwind but never has there been a doubt that I was doing the right thing. I prayed the Lord would make it crystal clear what I should do and every door continued to open for me so I walked through them. I am proud of myself for "stepping out of my box" and getting this opportunity. I am excited to be an employee of this company and I am sad to be leaving my current company, especially the amazing group of women I work with. Stay tuned, more to come......

Nick, penguins and giraffes, OH MY!!!

Since Jay turned 5, we have done something special for his birthday. Since this was Nick's 5th birthday and he has an April birthday and he LOVES penguins and giraffes I figured it would be perfect to go to the St. Louis Zoo on his birthday. He loved it and I have to say the penguin exhibit at the zoo was incredible. It made me fall in love with penguins. When we were there I mentioned to Nick that penguins really are the perfect animal and he couldn't have picked a more perfect animal to love and his response was simple, "Yes, I know!"

This picture cracks me up. Let me tell you the story behind it. We were having a terrible time finding the giraffes. We had made a huge circle and kept coming back to where we started. We knew the giraffes were there but we were getting frustrated. The picture above is Nick sulking because he thinks we are never going to find the giraffes.

But Wa-La, we found the giraffes and I had a very happy 5 year old!

Happy 5th birthday, Nick

I vividly remember feeling kind of sad when Jay turned 5 but I have to admit, I haven't been that sad with Nick turning 5 but track me down on his first day of kindergarten and it might be a different story. We did quite a celebration for Nick's 5th so perhaps I haven't had time to be sad. I'll post many more pictures this week. We took a trip to St. Louis and it was a mini-vacation my entire family enjoyed. The picture above is Nick standing by the number 5 in his pre-k class. He finally got to move his picture to the number 5, truly a proud moment for Nick.

Enjoying his cupcakes with his classmates. He was very specific, he wanted white cupcakes with blue sprinkles.

Another very specific request with Nick. He wanted a white "stacked" cake with a giraffe and a prisoner on it. My sister picked the cake up for me and called me laughing - only Nick would pick out a cake like that.

The Birthday Boy in his birthday hat from his Pre-K teacher. Thanks Mrs. Brutlag! P.S. Did you notice his T-shirt? It has a giraffe on it - big surprise.

Easter pictures

The four of us - ready for church - jeans and all! The Lord doesn't care what you wear, all that matters is that you show up.

My sweet boys! I thought they looked so handsome!

Sweet Lauren! I thought she looked so cute in her Easter dress!

And Lukie makes four! I love these four little munchkins.