Locked Out

So, today started out abruptly. Nick woke me up at 6:15 to see if I could take him to work. The tires are bald on his car and he didn't want to drive it in the snow...me being the wonderful wife that I am....I rolled over and went back to sleep. He bundled up the kids. I finally peeled myself out of bed and took Nick to work. It was kind of nice being up before the usual scheduled time, Chloe and Ethan were ready to go to school early. So, we bundled up again and I dropped the kids off at school. I decided I needed to get the Christmas presents out of the van and wrap them while the kids were at school. Bailey and I ran to the store, bought some wrapping paper and made it back home. I grabbed the three rolls of paper and the bags full of presents....Bailey, in the meantime, had pulled off her hat and mittens and was out of the van playing in the snow! I locked the van and struggled with all the bags to the door. Bailey then started to cry because her hands were hurting from being too cold....I rambled off something about "that's what you get when you leave your mittens in the van" but really, I'm starting to panic...where are my keys? I check my pockets, no keys. I drop the bags and go back to the van....locked.....no keys on the ground....oh no....it can't be....I go back to the front of the house.....Bailey's still crying, I swoop her up and look in all the bags, check my pockets again and no keys! What the heck am I going to do? Now, remember, I drove Nick to work, he can't come home and let me in....Luckily, my brother has a spare key....I called him at work and he laughed at me and said he would be on his way.....So, I decided that Bay and I need to go to the garage since she has no hat or mittens (neither did I, but that's what you get for leaving them in the van). We stomp down the sloping yard and both fall flat on our backs.....now we're all wet, head to toe......we make it through the gate and then to the shed.....I'm looking through the Halloween tubs to find a Halloween blanket, can't find it so a table cloth will have to do....Bailey and I finally make it to the garage. We cuddled up in a patio chair with a Halloween table cloth to comfort us and told each other stories....probably 20 minutes later, Super Luke arrived, he let us in and we were safe-the first thing Bay said when we walked through the door was, can we get ice cream? Really? Anyway, still haven't found my keys....ugh! Tomorrow is a snow day! We are not going anywhere!!!

I Love Me Some Dollar Tree

"Works For Me Wednesday" is a themed edition today.....do it yourself gift ideas...head on over and check it out. This is only my second time contributing, however, I don't have any homemade gift ideas, but I'm offering a gift tradition that involves Dollar Tree. I L-O-V-E Dollar Tree. Why? Because everything's a dollar silly! One of our family traditions is to take the kids Christmas shopping there. They each get to pick out a gift for each member of the family. They can get anything in the entire store, obviously it's only $1. It gives them such a huge choice and they get to put a lot of thoughtfulness into their decision without any limitations. It has been a great tradition. You never know what you're going to get. I have received gum, toy trucks, little figurines and stuffed animals......it's priceless to see the look on your child's face when you open your $1 gift because they got to pick it out themselves!

Mornings Bite

Mornings at the Shepherd house can get pretty ugly. I am not a morning person. Every morning is a battle! It's a fight for me to peel myself out of bed.....then the dreadful walk up the stairs.....first is Ethan, piece of cake! He's up, he's starving, he wants cereal......2 or 3 bowls of cereal. Next is my bed head, Chloe.....I start off kind and sweet even though I want to go back to bed myself....ugh, she won't budge.....she won't open her eyes.....then I move on to "my stern voice", nothing....then the threats come.....1/2 hour earlier bed time, no dsi, no tv time, no computer time (I switch them up each day)...... Slowly but surely she emerges from the stairs.....Ethan has already eaten, gotten dressed and moved on to his chores. Breakfast for Chloe is always a battle....she's not hungry in the morning...she hates all cereal. I've tried making bacon or eggs or sausage, which she loves, just not right when she wakes up. I make her gag something down and then she's off to get dressed......where her clothes are even laid out for her....she then lays on the couch staring off into space.....once again, I move on to "my stern voice", nothing....then the threats come.....1/2 hour earlier bed time, no dsi, no tv time, no computer time...... I give her five minutes to get dressed.... Finally she's dressed, barely brushes her teeth, (her hair is another story that I wont get into) there's no time for chores (she has those to look forward to after school). Her behavior has put me into many rages of screaming and yelling, then guilt while she's at school feeling bad for the way we left each other...until recently I realized she's just like me in the morning! Duh. I should be more understanding.....not wanting to get out of bed, not hungry in the morning, tired, just plain tired....eventually, we come out of our morning funk and go about our day....it's not that big of a deal. Once I realized she's not always being defiant, this is just how she is, things have gotten better. She's always been this way, she would sleep until 10am when she was an infant and toddler (which I loved) We're night owls and not morning people...However, this morning, privileges were lost because she didn't get dressed in five minutes, well, not even ten minutes, but I only lost it a little bit.....it's definitely a work in progress!