Trying not to lose my shit over here.

I don't mean to belittle the emotional angst teens go through, god knows that it really wasn't that long ago that I was composing lyrics baring my jealous heart and glaring at everyone through my dyed black hair.


Thinking that nobody could ever understand what went on inside my head and shut up stupid adult trying to tell me how to live my life. I'll be a loser who doesn't go to University if I want to, it's my future to do whatever I want with.


The only people who got it were my peers, lets go smoke a joint in the field across the street from school/get drunk on wine from the parents cellar and steal the car while they're out of town/drop acid and trip out looking at all the gum squished into the pavement downtown.


I would sit there as my mother lectured me for the 4th time that week, sitting on the edge of her water bed and rolling my eyes so hard, letting it all go in one ear and out the other. Sure mom, lets sign another contract promising that I'll try harder in school. Pfft.


Being on the other side is infinitely more complex and humbling. Ya, those adults actually did know what they were talking about.


Try telling that to a 16 year old who knows it all and doesn't care anyway. I didn't listen. He won't listen. They all do whatever they want, and all we can do is throw consequences at them, watch them not stick, and cross our fingers they figure it out before it's too late.


And then they can go through it with their own asshole teenager.


Ultimate revenge.

I could go on and on and on...

Disclaimer: most of you will probably find this to be the most uninteresting post I've ever made.

But fellow Whovians will get it. 

So I just wrapped up watching the new series of Doctor Who. Seven seasons crammed into roughly a month, with all the Christmas specials, some of the mini-episodes and of course the 50th Anniversary Special. 

Whoa, did the Anniversary Special blow my mind. Perfect in every way. 

And of course, like everyone that has become emotionally invested in this show-the fandom in MASSIVE yo-I have many thoughts that are just itching to get out. And nobody in my immediate circle that I can talk about it with. I tried to get Liam to watch with me but he said no. Jeff is insisting that IF he watches it, then he wants to start at the beginning. Nicholas and Joshua, well they will watch with me sometimes, but try having an intelligent conversation about the T.A.R.D.I.S. with a 4 year old. Yeah.

That leaves here, where I can bullet my thoughts and interpretations for only about 10 of you to actually care about. Good enough for me! Let's start from the beginning, shall we?

• Rose is my absolute favourite companion. She and the 9th Doctor had such a perfect friendship and it totally sucked me in. If I had started with 10 and say, Martha, I don't think I would have become so crazy about the show.
• Mickey's progression was bang on. Very believable counterpoint to Rose and the Doctor. And I love that he married Martha. 
• And our resident omni-sexual, Captain Jack. Love him so so so much. Next show to watch, Torchwood!
• Even though it was 9 that sucked me in, the 10th Doctor is my favourite. From the tearjerker that was Doomsday (OMG), to the kiss that made Martha fall in love with him, to being John Smith and showing him as a human, to his utterly and completely platonic relationship with Donna. It was romantic and cold at the same time. Weirdly, that made it perfect. I didn't want him to go either. 
• And speaking of, Doctor Donna? Best scenes of the whole series right there. I could watch that entire episode from start to finish a million times. My dream is that they fix Donna and her head and bring her back. 
• I like that Rose got her closure with the Meta-Crisis Doctor. 
• I'll come clean. I have very conflicting emotions and opinions about the 11th Doctor. On the one hand, I really liked him. And on the other hand, I found him incredibly difficult to watch. 
• But I loved the Ponds. The Centurion. Amy and 11's best friendship. Amy following Rory. Only thing was, I was expecting to be more moved by the goodbye and I wasn't. I can't help but think they're not over yet.
• And River Song. Again, I think I was expecting more than I got here. I thought I was going to love her, and I did. Her character was flashy and campy and entertaining but I never bought into her and the Doctor until their last episode. 
• Which brings me to Clara. If not for Rose, she'd be my favourite. Ultimate sacrifice and just awesome the way they wove her into the entire fabric of the show. And that scene revealing Trenzalore with the Doctor crying? Loved the emotion. 
• Oh, and I can't forget Vastra and Strax and Jenny. These ones kinda came out of nowhere for me. I'm positive there's a mini about how they came about somewhere but I haven't found it yet. Not that I've looked super hard. And I'm not too concerned either, because they exist perfectly for me without explanation. 
• The Anniversary Special...can we all just agree that it was everything we ever dreamt it would be? Tying it all together into a perfect present. 
• And 11's departure. Sad, but it was time. And no tears for me, I suppose because I never really connected with him. Unlike probably most of the rest of the universe. 
• I'm very excited to see what the 12th Doctor is like. And him and Clara together, well I'm just very very curious. The eyebrows make me think he's going to be a little more serious and contained, which will be welcome for me after the elasticity of 11. But we will see.

See? A whole bunch of nonsense of you non-Whovians. But if you Doctor Who virgins were to ask me which episode I'd recommend you to watch, to get your interest piqued? Either 'Blink' or 'Vincent And The Doctor'. You'll never look at a statue or a Van Gogh the same way again. 

I feel so much better for having gotten some of this out! 

Also, one last thing. Fucking Daleks. I don't understand how they just. don't. die. They're like Stefano from Days Of Our Lives. And the Cybermen too, but really. Daleks. 

Sneaky Sneaky

We're on the one week countdown to Mexico, where we're going to celebrate the marriage of a totally awesome couple. It's also the first time Jeff and I have ever been anywhere tropical, either together OR separately.

This is a trip sans kids. Well, sans OUR kids, which is just as well because if other people want to wake up at the crack of who-the-hell-knows with kids wanting to play in the ocean, all the more power to them. No, we've been lucky enough to have my sister offer to watch the little monsters.

(As we inch closer to the time, she's highly regretting it I'm sure. Her kids compared to mine are like angel children compared to the little bastards from Lord Of The Flies.)

(I'm exaggerating of course)

But anyway, I have been throwing shit into my suitcase for about a week now. People laughed at me because I'm doing it so early BUT if I had waited like a normal person then I wouldn't have realised that there's, um, not quite enough room for all the crap I NEED to take.

You ladies will understand. I need clothes for during the day and dresses for the night time too. I need bathing suits and cover-ups, and sandals that will work with all that. I need to bring my runners JUST IN CASE I feel so inclined. So I also need a set of workout clothing. Accessories, makeup, hair crap.

Feel free to message me if I'm forgetting something essential. Like Imodium, I'm told to make sure that's in the suitcase.

Point being, more than will fit in one suitcase which is where having time to think of this has paid off.

I'm going to take all of mine and Jeff's stuff, divide it out equally between our two cases, and pack them that way. This works for a couple reasons: if one of our pieces gets lost then we still have stuff in the other. The other plus is I get away with more stuff since he's FOR SURE not taking as much crap as me.

It's quite brilliant really. Not quite as brilliant was blabbing my super secret plan on my blog but I'm sure my husband just wants me to be happy. Right.

2014

It's been almost 7 months to the day since I've dusted off this old thing. Many times I've thought of it and just as many times I've brushed off that urge. See, I rarely fire up the 'ol laptop anymore and blogging from the iPad? No thanks.

But what the hell, it's a new year! What better impetus to get this started? And plus, it's been in the back of my head since my grandma told me she loves to hear my take on our crazy life and family. I love that she enjoys my words :)

I'm pretty sure I had some goals for the past year but damned if I can remember them. Go back and look them up in the blog, you say? Hmm, if a girl is too lazy to open her laptop (that lives 5 feet away from where she plants her ass on a daily basis), do you REALLY think she's going to go to the trouble of looking up archives. Really.

But for THIS year, here's what I've got.

-continue with the running and get some bigger numbers in this year.
-sign up and run half-marathons in May, August, and tentatively October.
-commit to a racing series called 5 Peaks (quite excited for this one!)
-put myself in more time-outs so that I can be more patient with the kids.
-paint all the rooms in the top level of our house by the end of the year (heyyyy Jeff, SURPRISE!!)
-STOP worrying about what I'll look like on the beach in Mexico because I'm pretty sure I'll be too drunk to give a shit.

So there's the list, half running-obsessed, mixed with a bit of vanity, bloggy manipulation, and hopeful self-improvement.

With that said, I'm off to start on that first resolution!

Mr. Sensitive

I write a lot about how wild my kids can be, I'm sure at times I paint a picture of these hooligans who run around unchecked and uncaring of things and people around them. So I thought I'd share what happened tonight.

It was time to come in and I called out the window for the boys to start cleaning up their toys and then it was bath time. As usual, Josh zipped around the yard hauling all the crap to the shed while Nicky kept on playing on his scooter. 

I decided that it was time to reward Josh's good behavior with a little treat. Who knows if that's good parenting or not, we go on instinct over here. 

So I took the treat outside and crouched down in front of Josh and thanked him for putting the toys away and here's a treat and blah blah blah. As you can guess, immediate tears on Nicks part. 

Obviously I explained to him that I asked them both to put the toys away and only Josh listened and that's why Josh got a chocolate. I told him that if he helped next time then he'd get a treat too. I don't think he really heard me though, over his tears. 

Well, as we come inside what does Josh do but break his little chocolate in half and give some to Nicky. When did this kid get so compassionate? 

Either way, I'd consider that a parenting win. And hopefully next time they're both asked to help, the memory of his disappointment is enough to prompt a certain someone to pitch in.

The Wiggles.

A benefit to having small kids is that they're the perfect weight for walking on your back. C'mon we all do it right? Force our children into being makeshift deep-tissue masseuses. You know it.

Anyway, today I was trying my best to cajole Josh into walking on my back. Hell, I even gave him permission to jump! I EVEN tried to play him and Nicky against each other. 

Me: Oh that's fine Josh, Nicky will be the good boy and walk on mommy's back.

Nicky: Um no, I don't want to.

.......

Sonofabitch. 

Anyway, so I asked them why they always walked on daddy's back but they never wanted to walk on mine. They were brutally honest.

Josh: Your legs are wiggly. Your bum is wiggly too. I fall over like this (demonstrating walking on a waterbed)

Nicky: Ya and your back is wiggly too!

Thanks kid, I suppose I can add BACK FAT onto my list of flaws?

In other, totally unrelated news, we're 26 days away from the big move. Last time I posted we were 52 days out. Time is going so so fast, less than 4 weeks to go!

50 days countdown.

There it is, our new house! Isn't it pretty? 

This whole house selling/buying process has gone pretty fast once I think about it. We got an offer on our house after 24 days on the market, we went and looked at houses the following week and made our own offer right away. This was the third house we looked at (although not the last).

I really didn't think that we'd end up with a newer house. I've always been drawn to older houses with loads of character but unfortunately the community we're moving to just does not have that kind of market in our price range. The ONE house we looked at that was more than 10 years old was a dump. For real. 

But this house grabbed both of us even before we knew it was the house we were looking at, when we were across the street at the 7-11. I would have been devastated if this deal had fallen through. It has more of a personality than any other house we looked at, with neat details that make it unique to us. 

We're all very excited to move. Our little house has seen a lot of life lived in it over the last 6 years and it was perfect for us when we bought it. Family with one kid? Ideal. Family with 3 kids? We've maxed out our space big time. We're bursting at the seams! 

So the countdown is on! Knowing that it's ours is making bumping into each other at the kitchen counter a bit easier to bear. It's making listening to the kids fighting alldaylong a bit more 'musical'. It's making running down to the pantry in the basement because there's not enough room upstairs, no big deal. Having my clothes in the kids closet because there's no room in ours? Soon enough we'll have a walk in closet. 

I can hardly wait!!!