Firsts, Lasts and Other Horrendous Moments

Well, first things first, Sarah is officially potty-trained. FINALLY!!! She went a whole week without wearing diapers, so on Saturday, we took her to pick out panties and a treat. Out of all the toys in the toy isle, she picked stickers; not just any stickers though, a huge box of teeny, tiny stickers that are now everywhere. I had them all over the house including in my bed and bathroom, in the kitchen, on most of the surfaces and doors, which landed her in a whole heap of trouble and even one stray sticker on her little pink bum. However, Brady is thrilled to have no diapers. I am not! It is so obnoxious to have a full cart and hear, " Mommy, I have to go potty!" Or be miles from anywhere and have to figure it out. Two year olds have no bladder control so you can't just ask them to hold it either. Sarah also took the cake this week for pushing Mommy to the bitter ends of her patience. She decided she had a special project that required special scissors, so she went upstairs and found the hair scissors and that's right.....CUT HER HAIR!!! I have plenty of nieces and nephews even , who have cut their hair and it always grew back, but I was so mad! Luckily, she actually did a really good job and only cut herself some additional bangs, for which, I am so grateful. The worst though happened today. We had some errands to run, one of which involved a bank in Walmart. The girls were so good, I took them to look at the toys. On our way back out the girls admired some very garish key chains. I told them both no and we moved on. Well Cat did not move on. She stuck one in her pocket. I went to another bank, a store and got almost home before it was made manifest to me. The girls had been arguing about "keys" and I could not figure out what they were talking about until Sarah stole the key chain from Cat, which brought about World War 3 and had me turning around trying to stop it. I saw the stupid thing and was so mortified I could hardly stand it. I turned into a parking lot and proceeded to get the whole story. She wanted it, I said "no", she decided that her want was more than her desire to do the right thing and it ended up in her pocket in our van...that's the short version. I didn't yell, I was very restrained. We turned around and went all the way back. When I told the two ladies at the register we had something that didn't belong to us and demanded she apologize they look at me like I had beaten her and were so rude to me. I return their stupid, ugly," I Love Boys" key chain and they get mad at me. I didn't want it either! They told her it was okay, and that is when I grabbed my kids and stomped out like Momzilla. Grrrrr!!!!! Stinkin Walmart! The last time I go there for a long time! On a bright note, we made Halloween decorations last week for school and I finally broke down and got my kids scissors (and look where it got me). We bought little kits to make yarn pom-pom cats, and chinese lantern that we decorated to look like a pumpkin, ghost and witch. We cut out pumpkins from construction paper and made a chain to count down the "sleeps" as Cat calls them until we go to Grammie and Grampy's house. We also got out the decorations and put them up. No new news on my mysterious illness. The cough is mostly gone, but the upheaval continues. Frustrating! I am very glad to be even a little better. We are happy to have it finally below 100 and staying there. The nights are cool enough for us to go to the playground now and the girls love it! I love it when Brady takes them and I have a couple minutes to clean in peace. I am so excited because right before we leave for Washington, the elementary school by our house is having a book fair! I love the book fair. Oh, I also got to order from the Scholastic book thing that we all had in elementary school. I babysit in the mornings for a teacher and she is slipping me the good stuff. We love books and it is so much cheaper, which enables me to buy more books! Hooray! I am also very excited because soon I will have a garden and a painted living room. Our stake has broken down the church's provident living ideas into monthly themes for our ward. They feel it will better help us heed the counsel of the prophets and make it accessible and easier to manage instead of feeling overwhelmed. We have already done water storage and gardens and this month is focused on getting your 3 month supply in order, which luckily I already had done, so it is giving us more time to get our garden built and planted, plus we have to do the drip system at the same time that we do sprinklers, so we have to wait until we are ready to do them. I am so grateful for all the blessings that we have. It is so nice to have a job that enables us to not stress. Granted, my husband works 6 days a week, but he is a good husband and works so hard to give us the things we want like gardens, sprinklers, paint and a very fun bouncy castle with a ball pit that he found on slick deals for cheap. I am so blessed and happy. So all my grumbling aside, I really do appreciate and see all that I have. I am finally caught up for a while, so until next time, hope you are all well!