Thoughts

• A week from today is my 37th birthday.  It occurred to me that I am officially going to be in my "late 30's" as opposed to my "mid 30's".  That's weird and I don't like it. 
• I have completed week 4 of Crossfit and I love it and I am significantly stronger (physically and mentally) because of it but due to the fact that I eat as hard as I work out, I haven't lost much.  That's also weird and I don't like it.
• Today was a high of 77* and since a week ago was 102* it feels like it's Alaska all of a sudden and I turned the heater on in my car this morning which was actually kind of ridiculous.
• My hair has been totally f'd by pregnancies, coloring these last two years, and age.  It's now naturally curly/80's hair band-ish but I straighten it so for all intensive purposes, I have straight hair.  Except for today.  I wore it right from the shower to William's soccer game.  In 17 years that we've been together I have never once worn my hair anything but straight.  I asked Chris if he noticed anything different.  He looked at me and said, "Is that a new sweatshirt?" about the sweatshirt I threw on at William's game that I've been wearing for the last 12 years. 

• It's Friday - again.  The weeks are flying by and I'm unsure if I like that.  I desperately want to get out of this fighting all the time stage but I don't want the years to go by so quickly like they seem to be.  I'd like to slow things down a bit.  I'm likely saying this because I have three silent sleeping kids at the moment...
• Today is the 3rd anniversary of this here little blog.  I am so grateful and appreciative of each reader.  I think I was born not only to be Drew, William, and Lauren's mom, but I was also born to be a Real Housewives junkie, a baker of crap that makes me have to do shit like Crossfit, and a writer without a publisher.  Couldn't be happier about any of that.  
• xoxo 

Blog Anniversary GIVEAWAY!

I started this blog on October 5, 2009.  I just sat down one day and started writing.  I knew my mom, my mother-in-law, and a few of my girlfriends would check in on it every once in a while so I figured, what the hell, during naps I'll sit and write a few things that I think moms SHOULD be talking about but often don't.  I am by no means an authority on parenting but I think it needs to be told like it is.  Result?  The Blog. 

Since then I've published 836 blog posts.  That is approximately 800 stories and thoughts that Chris didn't have to hear about and although he doesn't ever read the blog, I know he loves the blog for that very reason. 

SO! In celebration of this little blog's three year anniversary we're doing a GIVEAWAY!  It's the same giveaway prize I did last year at this time. It's so cute, why change?  With some blog giveaways you have to do 5 different things just to qualify and enter.  This one is so easy.  Ready?  You have to "like" my Peters Party of 5 facebook page. You have to "like" our giveaway boutique's facebook page, Misty's Cans and More. That's it. (You can click on both those purple links to get to the appropriate page, click like, and you're done!)

The goods:

Isn't it so cute? You can use this festive Fall decorated can as a vase, you can fill it with kitchen goodies and give it as a housewarming or a thank you gift, you can put your favorite recipe inside and give it to your child's teacher, the possibilites are endless, really.  And when you receive it, you'll likely find a little something special in it for YOU to get into a festive, Fall mood.

The giveaway will end and a winner will be chosen on the three year anniversary, Friday, October 5.

Remember, all you have to do is "like" Peters Party of 5 and "like" Misty's Cans and More.

Thanks for reading and checking in and for the feedback you provide. I'm proud to be a member of the Mommy Club and to be able to share my stories and in return hear about yours.

*BONUS- If you comment on Peters Party of 5's facebook page, your name will be entered twice!

Please be sure to "like" both pages to enter and pass this along to your friends!

*The can may differ slightly, depending on the Fall paper and ribbon that is available. It will be a Fall theme/colors.


xoxo!

I was hoping it would be getting better by now

I know I've written about William and his moods but I'm going to do it again.  It's still relevant and a daily issue here so therefore it's on my mind at the moment.

He turned 6 two weeks ago and although I didn't expect a magical transformation overnight, I think maybe I hoped for a magical transformation overnight. 

He's such a mixed bag.  He's incredibly sweet and curious, as smart as I was when I was probably 10, and has a sense of the world beyond what has been taught to him and seems to come from nowhere.  He also is as moody as a freaking 15 year old girl, is effected by the weather, his hunger, his sleep, and his familiarity with what is going on in the current situation.  William is not terribly hard to make happy but it's incredibly difficult to keep him happy.  He's always interested in what's next.  That's a bit hard to explain but it's the only way I can put it into words. 

Today we spent the afternoon at a beautiful park in the bay area for Chris's fire department's annual family picnic.  It's really geared for the kids and between the food, the sack race, the egg toss, the tug-of-rope, and the prizes, all three kids had a blast.  Until... we were headed home and William dropped one piece to one of the prize toys he'd won.  That's all it took for him to lose his shit.  That was about 30 minutes into our drive home.  Given another 20 minutes in the car I was ready to lose my shit, too.  The thing is that after all of this experience with him and his moods, I have learned there is a certain way to handle him.  He isn't beyond recovery if it's handled in a certain way.  Here is my issue with it all:  loving him out of these moods is effective sometimes but handling it any other way backfires every time.  It's such a fine line.  I won't tolerate enabling him or being all foo foo about it to then encourage the behavior but by doing the whole "knock it off" method seems to exacerbate it 10 fold. 

Alltosay, it's exhausting.  I'm tired of it.  I feel badly for him that he gets that way.  I pray for continued patience because it's getting harder for me to love him out of these moods as he gets older.

I feel like, as his mom and his ultimate teacher, I have done a good job of giving him the tools to deal with his emotions.  By that I mean I've done what I know how to do.  I am confident  that at this stage in his life that his toolbox is full.  I also think that Chris and I have done (and continue to do) a good job of teaching him how to use those tools when we are not around.  God forbid he get hungry, hot, frustrated, bored, or angry with something while away from us.  Good luck, my friend!  People aren't going to put up with that bullshit behavior/attitude.  I have explained all of that to him and he gets it.  I'm just not sure that his 6 years of emotional maturity can handle it all yet. 

It's a process.  A daily process.  I'll continue to provide him the tools and the ways in which he can use them to help him deal with his moods but the process of doing so is beyond draining.

I just want my smart, sweet boy to be happy and to be able to remain happy despite any outside influences.  It doesn't really sound like too much to ask but it's an impossible wish to be granted at this point.  We'll continue to work on it.

I haven't dressed up for Halloween in years. Not intentionally, anyway.

Bwahahahaha!

Wait.  Are you talking to me?

It's that time again! Or is it??

I'm one of the people who is all like, "Oh, my gosh.  It's August and Costco has their Halloween candy, their Fall wreaths, and their snowmen out.  What idiots." 

Then here's me at home:

While outside it's this:

So, it begs the question - what determines Decorating Time?  If I went by the weather, and for some reason I feel like I should, I wouldn't decorate for Fall until late October.  But that's too late for me.  Should we use the calendar?  Is it just a feeling?  Is it the fact that by 7:30pm it's pretty much dark as opposed to the 9:00pm sunset we're used to all summer?  Whatever it is, it struck me yesterday and I've decorated for Fall.  Now, if the weather would just cooperate I would feel as if it's really ok.

Social experiment WIN

Tonight when I put William to bed, I sat down next to him and said, "Today while you and Drew were at school I took Lauren to the park.  There was a little boy there, he was probably about 5 years old.  He was being really mean to Lauren.  He started by laughing at her, then he pushed her, called her stupid, and made her cry."  William sat up, looked really distressed, and said, "I'd kick his butt if I saw him."  I said, "I asked him to stop and he didn't.  Then I told him in a stern tone to stop it, that she is only 3 years old and it was really mean to talk to another person that way."  William said, "Where was his mom?"  I told him that she was over on another bench not paying attention.  He said, "Well that's terrible and that little boy should get in trouble and apologize to Lauren.  He's lucky I wasn't there."

Then I said, "You know what?  I totally just made that story up."

William laid down while smiling and staring at me and he said, "That little boy is me, isn't it?" 

We then talked about how it makes Lauren feel and how as a big brother his job is to protect her and care for her, just as he would if it had been another kid treating her that way.

He got it.

Now, I'm not delusional.  I fully expect tomorrow to be a normal day, full of refereeing, but I feel like I can forever fall back on this little story.  The Boy Who Forgets Nothing will be able to draw upon those feelings he had while I was telling him the story.

Mission accomplished.

We got screwed. Big time.

We left our little married house more than 7 years ago.  That is the first house Chris bought, I moved in before we got married, we brought Drew home from the hospital there.  It is and will forever be our little married house.  It's where we started.

When we left and moved here, we kept it as a rental.  It was difficult to have someone else living in my house but it was just how it was and within a few years I kind of got over it.  It was a huge priority to us that the house was well taken care of and maintained.  We were lucky to have 2 good renters in those first few years.

We just kicked our 3rd set of renters out.

As landlords, we still have lessons to learn, mainly that people can't be trusted.  Isn't that awful?  It shouldn't be that way in life, but in the landlord world it almost has to be.  We took him for his word, and that was our fault.  I don't take responsibility for the damage he caused to our little married house but I do take responsibility for not knowing it was happening. 

And I do not take responsibility for the fact that he is an enormous asshole and took advantage of us.

There are a lot of things that took place that I can't even emotionally go into but the underlying theme of it all was that we gave a man a second chance when he fell on hard times and we got completely screwed.

Drew's baby room in our little married house, us

Drew's baby room in our little married house, asshole renter

Our backyard in our little married house, us

(sporting my 20 week belly)

Our backyard in our little married house, asshole renter

This is the tip of the iceberg and we're devastated.  An insurance adjuster is coming on Monday and we'll see what is considered "vandalism" and what's not, in other words, what will be covered by our insurance and what won't be.  It's all such bullshit, I just can't believe it.  And not just because we were so generous and kind to this man, but because there are people who really care that little about things and are willing to treat people this way.  We're going to exhaust all of our resources to be compensated, don't you worry.  But truthfully, for me, the damage has been done. 

I'm sad.  I'm sick about it.  And I'm starting to get pissed.  I'm waiting to see what action is going to be taken before I put his name on blast.  Not that he has enough class to read my blog but, ya know.