Reasons why I'm a good mom

The person mentioned in the post below said I wasn't acting like a good mom in the voice mail they left me. Now, I know that isn't true. But despite my best attempt, the comment has been bothering me all day. Therefore, in an effort to boost my own morale, I've decided to list some of the reasons why I am a good mom.

1-Everything I do is done with the best intentions of my children in mind.

2-I transport (& support) my kids to soccer, t-ball, baseball, and dance practices/games/recitals.

3-I set boundaries for my kids and enforce them.

4-I have high expectations for my children & I help them meet them.

5-I allow my kids to have their own opinion even though I might disagree with it.

6-When I ask my kids how their day was or what they did that day, I actually listen to the answer & follow up with questions.

7-I tell my kids "I love you" every day and I mean it.

8-I don't do the things I tell my kids not to do (most of the time :) )

9-I am involved in my child's education.

10-We have sit down family dinners as often as we can.

11-I am teaching my kids skills that are becoming a thing of the past (sewing, canning, gardening, etc.)

12-We have recently begun teaching our kids about money and responsibility by starting allowance and chores.

13-When my kids tell me they did something, I check to make sure they did. If they didn't, we talk about lying and why it's wrong.

14-I discipline my children when appropriate.

15-I'm teaching my children that family is the most important thing you have.

16-I don't smoke, drink or do drugs before, during or after my pregnancies.

17-I'm teaching my children about tolerance and diversity.

18-I'm instilling a good sense of self in each of my children each time I encourage them to do something on their own.

Drama

There are sooo many thoughts in my brain today. I'd like to write what is bothering me, but I think it's going to take me a bit to figure out how to word it correctly. So frustrating.

For five years I've been tolerating the behavior of a person in my family. It's always about the drama with this person. They insist on being the center of attention whether it's good attention or bad. The behavior of this 20 something yr old reminds me of a 15 yr old spoiled rotten brat (and that's really not too far off of how others have described it as well). I've tolerated this person and the behavior for so long because of the significant other and children involved. Everyone in the family keeps hoping the significant other will finally get out of the situation, but it hasn't happened yet and I seriously doubt it will any time soon. The thing that bothers me the most is how the children are being put right smack dab in the middle. I know everyone else in the family tolerates the behavior because of the kids too, but the other day, things went too far.

It's amazing to me how facebook has become such an integral part of so many people's lives. Some people use it the way it was intended - keeping in touch with others and making new friends. Others, like the person I'm talking about, use facebook in smear campaigns and to look for sympathy.

Here's what happened the other day:

1-There was an argument between the person & the significant other on Monday night.

2-On Tuesday morning there was a smear campaign on facebook. The smear campaign didn't just target the significant other (who isn't even on facebook at all), but rather, the entire family.

3-My husband tells the person (by commenting on one of the facebook posts) that s/he is no longer welcome in our home because s/he has taken things too far this time.

4-I ask the person (by commenting on one of the facebook posts) what my family has ever done to him/her.

5-My sister in law posts a comment on facebook.

6-Person deletes smear campaign from facebook.

7-I get a voicemail (I intentionally don't answer the phone call) that is partially for sympathy.

8-I vent a few times through the day to my siblings (both of who saw all comments of the smear campaign on facebook).

9-My brother writes a status update that does not in any way, shape, form, or color identify the person but if you know the situation, you know the status is a result of the person's actions.

10-I get a phone call this morning from the person (who I still don't want to talk to) so I hit ignore. This happens 2 more times before I just turn my phone completely off.

11-After 10 min. I turn my phone back on and receive a very explicit voicemail that calls me names, threatens me and makes false allegations. I save the voicemail for later reference.

This brings me to now. Here is my dilemma. Which of the following do I do?

1-Let it go because the person isn't worth the time of day.

2-Call the cops to report harassment, threatening me with violence and oh, did I mention, the person has a warrant out for their arrest.

3-Wait until the person calls, texts, emails or whatever me again & then go to the cop with 2 saved instances of harassment, threats, etc..

I know that no matter what choice I make, it's an unfortunate outcome for all. This person is going to be in the family forever because of the kids. I don't want to put the significant other in a bad position, but, since Travis has said the person isn't allowed in our home any more, it kind of already puts the significant other in a hard position. I've said for many years that if I was a good person, I'd call DCFS because this person is a terrible parent. There has been domestic violence in front of the children, there's child neglect, there's emotional abuse, there are drugs done in the house...the list goes on. I want to do the "right" thing, I'm just not sure what it is. I also want to be done with all the drama that's been happening for the last five years. I'd like to see the significant other leave the person because I think it would be the best outcome, but I'm not holding my breath on that one.

All suggestions are welcome at this point!

The things this kid says

I'm sitting at the computer uploading pix to the last post & facebook. Caleb is upstairs and is suppose to be downstairs in bed. He took a nap today so obviously that's way too much to expect.

Me: Caleb, come here. What are you doing?

Caleb: Just....being a dork.

Me: What? Why are you a dork?

Caleb: Because I just have 1 eye.

Me: What? Why do you have 1 eye? Where is the other one?

Caleb: It just popped out.

Me: Ok. Caleb, what time is it?

Caleb (with a rather large grin on his face): It's WAFFLE time! Mom, please make me a waffle?

Me: No Caleb, it's not waffle time, it's bed time. What time is it?

Caleb: It's Waffle time!

At least it was pretty dang funny & quite creative. Now, if I can just get the stinker to bed!

Phone Dump

So, I've had the cell phone I have now for quite awhile. Funny that I'm just now figuring out how to get the pictures I take on it onto my computer (no, I don't have an sd card in this phone like I did the last one). So, I've decided I should probably do a regular "phone dump" to get all my pictures from my phone to my computer so I don't lose any. You will notice there is a huge variety. Unfortunately, I've deleted some I wish I would've kept. These ones were my favorites though so they got to stay when the decision had to be made which ones to get rid of to make more room on my card! I can only imagine what my husband thinks goes on around here since this is how he sees his kids growing up (at least for the last 2 1/2 years anyway)!

Caleb & his "gogglers":

Caleb with awesome tub hair:

Nash in the tub (I had to edit the photo) pulling an awesome face for me:

Bob & her freakishly huge bow:

Nash & the fish he caught with Grandpa Larry:

Bob RIGHT after she was born (check out those cheeks! No wonder she got stuck, right?):

Trav & Caleb (the pic was so small on my phone I never noticed the face Caleb was pulling until I uploaded it onto the computer!):

Caleb:

Caleb again:

Nash:

Sam:

Look! Sam has 2 missing front teeth! Now this is what I call face painting! Pretty sure it was at Founder's Day in Wellsville when Caleb was just little:

Caleb making "cowboy cakes" with his dad (no wonder he wants to help cook when his dad goes back to work!):

Caleb the Mud monster:

Bob:

Bob pulling faces at Nash:

First time Nash got to see & hold Bob:

Bob just a few hours old:

Caleb painted one set of toenails green this week:

Caleb the dirt monster:

Hyrum Farmer's Market

Ok, so the first picture doesn't have anything to do with the Hyrum Farmer's Market. I took the kids down to my mom's house this past week and let the kids go swimming. Brooke was soo happy and smiley. I got about a half dozen pictures of her like this one, just grinning ear to ear. You can even see one of her dimples. I held her over the edge of the pool and let her put her piggies in the pool too. She loved it. I think she will be a water baby too, it just took a little while for her to warm up to the idea!

Hyrum has started a Farmer's Market on Thursday nights from 6-830 pm. You just pay the booth fee ($25) one time and then you can go as many weeks as you want to & don't have to pay again. I figured I'd give it a shot. Not only did I make my booth fee back, I sold a total of $43! That's the best I've done all summer long! $5 of it belonged to my mom, but the rest was mine. I told Sam & Nash I'd pay them if they'd help watch Caleb. Surprisingly, Nash was the better babysitter of the two this time! I gave Nash $3 and Sam $2 for helping. They were pretty happy with that (so was I).

They had free face painting while we were there, so of course the kids had to have that done. Nash got a mouse on his cheek:

There is a couple that lives in their camp trailer at my dad's shop. The wife, Summer, and her little girl, Sydney, came up and stayed with us at the market. Sydney is about 10 months old and is a cutie pie. Summer and I have been becoming friends and I invited her to come to the market with me because she has started crocheting the baby hats with ears. I hope she wasn't disappointed that she didn't sell any of her hats that first night. I told her I bet come Sept. they'll sell like crazy! Here is a picture of Sydney playing with Caleb's shoes:

Brooke was a good baby the whole time we were there. I pumped before we went so I had a bottle she could drink while we were gone. As long as she was being rocked in the carseat or bounced on a lap, she was a happy girl.

I took a picture of the stand with all my pillowcase dresses on it. I've also put a few of my mom's reversible aprons on it as well. I was surprised it was as full as it was! Guess I have more dresses done than I thought I did! Guess when I finish the 11 I have left I'll have a full rack for a little while!

Sam had a pink & purple puppy painted on her face:

Caleb got the same mouse as Nash did, but on his hand. It was so cute because he came up to me and held out his hand & said, "There's a mouse in the house!" He was stuck on the mouse in the house for the rest of the night! No idea where he picked that up from!

My dad came up while we were up there (mom was working until close). I had apricots from their apricot tree to sell for them & he brought up more. I ended up getting demoted from apricot seller because I apparently did not have them placed in a good enough location for them to sell. So, dad gave all the apricots to the stand next to me to sell. Nice. Thanks dad. While he was there, Sam conned him into buying her these lime green flip flops with taffeta tied on them. They were only a dollar, but still! Of course, once he bought something for Sam, he had to buy something for Nash. Nash got a grab bag thing with a big ball and car in it along with some of those rubber band bracelets. Dad told them they'd have to clean at the shop to earn that dollar. Sure they will. We'll see how that goes! I have no idea how he got out of buying Caleb something. I think Caleb was playing with some other kids & didn't know what was going on! My Relay for Life team has actually talked about making these flip flops to sell at our booth next year for part of our fundraising. I don't know that I'd sell them for $1 though! The flip flops at JoAnns are still about $1.60 right now & it's the end of the season!

My sister stopped by the other day to drop off an Avon order. Avon has this new line Tiny Tillia that has a bunch of super cute baby stuff. I ordered way too much for Brooke (piggy hooded towel, wash clothes, bath book, bath wash, lotion). We put the girls on the floor next to each other. For some reason every time we do Brooke gets sad. I don't know if it's because we're being goofy over them, trying to get them to smile or what! At least Sunny was happy! I think Sunny looks so much older than Brooke & they're only 2 months & 1 day apart!

The other night Sam & Nash had been watching movies down in the boys' room. Caleb fell asleep & their movie was over so of course they came upstairs. After about 20 minutes I looked over and saw this. I had to giggle. I wonder if Sam could smell Nash's feet! I didn't even move them before I went to bed. I figured they'd move on their own eventually!

Yesterday I got slammed with something - pretty sure it's mastitis. Going to have to call the dr. tomorrow. It totally kicked my butt today. I went to bed at 10 pm last night (that hasn't happened in ages!) because my mom kept the older 3 over night. I stayed in bed until about 2 pm today and was only up for about an hour and then went back to bed. I stayed in bed again until about 7 pm. Mom brought the kids home shortly after that. She took them to Bear Lake today and they had a blast. We haven't been over there since about Labor Day last year and they've asked a few times to go. It's almost 11 pm & I'm starting to feel a little better. My fever broke earlier and I've gotten in the tub 2 times today. I did have Brooke with me all day & I'm sure glad she's such a good baby. She either slept with me in my bed while we snuggled or we laid in my bed & she just grinned and talked to me.

Next week we are going to head to Lake Powell for part of the week. We haven't been for about 2 years so it should be interesting. We didn't have too good of a time last time we went & Travis swore we wouldn't go back without our own boat. It's him pushing to go this year, which surprises me, but, we'll see how it goes. At least we get to stop in Manti & see Grandpa & Grandma Bown on our way down.

Nash's 1st grade teacher is doing a home visit tomorrow. That should be fun. I know who she is, but I haven't officially met her yet. Plus, I'll be able to send supplies from the "donation list" with her. I hate those lists - especially when I have my own classroom to furnish. What really irks me about 1st grade though is that they want every parent in the class to send a snack/treat EVERY SINGLE MONTH ALL YEAR LONG! I'm sorry, the kindergarten teachers didn't ask us to do that. We could send birthday treats if we wanted to, but that was all they asked for. They say that it's because they're now in school all day and they get hungry throughout the day so they need a snack. Ok, Sam went to kindergarten full day & she was fine! I didn't have to send treats with her then. I was really irked when I had to send them with her. I guess my feeling is that my kid eats breakfast at home and then eats lunch at school. It's only a few hours between breakfast & lunch & lunch & the time they come home. Either the school can provide treats/snacks or they kid can wait til they get home! Is that awful of me to feel that way?