Back to reality...

Ahhhh... and I'm back to work. I've been snapped back into the real world, unfortunately. I worked a grand total of four days between July 22 and September 9 but now I'm getting back into the swing of things. I've recovered fully from my surgery and I feel great. We went to the beach last weekend and it was amazing. I always have such a fun, relaxing time at Tybee. It might have something to do with all the margaritas but I'd like to think it's just the island in general.
So picture this: Patrick has had two (yes, I said only two) rum runners on the beach and he's what I would call pretty inebriated. He tried to warn us. He told us if he had two of them, he'd be "belligerent" (his words, not mine). He was SOOOO funny the whole afternoon. He lost a lense on his sunglasses in the ocean but continued to wear them anyway. We finally decided to pack up our stuff and head back to the beach house and Patrick takes off way ahead of us. I probably should have been concerned but I felt sure he'd make it back to the house at some point. As we approach a cross walk, Lacey elbows me and says "Hey Manda, do you see Patrick anywhere?" I thought "oh shit, he's gone... we'll never find him" so I start looking around frantically and - out of the corner of my eye - I see the top of a head in a hotel swimming pool. I think I should stop here and say it was a hotel swimming pool that was fenced in and behind a gate that was clearly for guests only. I look closer and who is it? Why, it's Patrick of course. The second I lock eyes with him, he slowly raises his index finger over his mouth and says "Shhhhhhhhhh!" It was hilarious. So hilarious that I was laughing too hard to even think to take a picture. Man, he thought he was SO sneaky. He talked about it the rest of the night.

We had a really great time. Now we're home and I have tons of stuff coming up over the next several weeks to look forward to. My sister will be here in a bit so we can have some quality sister time. Next weekend, I get to be the maid of honor in my best friend's wedding. The weekend after that, I get to go to New York City. I love always having something coming up. It makes the work week not seem so bad. :-)

Off to the beach...

Ahhh, we're leaving tomorrow afternoon for Tybee Island. I'm soooo excited. We haven't gone since April when I took Patrick for his birthday. This time we're going with some other people and I think it's going to be a blast. Plus, I've bought myself a few bikinis and this is going to be my big reveal of the new me. :) It only took me over 6 years to get back (almost) to my pre-baby body but I've gotten there and I'm thrilled about it.

My kids are going to spend the weekend with their Uncle Tyler and Aunt Stacy. It's the first time they've kept them and I hope so much that my children behave themselves. I know Addyson will love having them there, I just hope my two choose to get along with eachother. I also hope that Hunter keeps at least his underwear on at all times. I never imagined when I was pregnant with a boy that I'd have so much trouble getting him to stop being so fascinated with his penis. I had to literally BEG him to put on underwear for bed last night and then he still ran around the living room for 20 minutes naked before he went upstairs. When I finally went up to check on him before I went to bed, he was laying there asleep in his old karate pants so I carefully peeked under the waistline - still no undies. Imagine that. It must be a boy thing.

I met with my nursing advisor today at U of L. I should be all set to finish school with my Master's Degree and be a Nurse Practitioner in 2012-2013ish. It all depends on if I want to go ahead into the whole Doctorate thing (which is a new requirement starting in a few years). I'm sure I will. I wonder how that works... what do you call a nurse with a doctorate degree?

Anyway... I really do need to go clean the house up some. We have some realtors coming to look at it tonight. We want to sell it and Patrick wants to pack us up and move out west. I'd be happy moving across town to Lake Forest. We'll see how our luck goes with trying to sell this time around.

Oh, the pain...

I'm really slacking on this blog lately. It seems my life has been going 100mph since we left for our vacation a month ago. While we were gone on vacation I turned 26. I now feel like I am officially on the slippery slope toward 30 and that's somewhat depressing. It's all downhill from there, right? ;) We came back from vacation and the kids started school. Now I have a kindergartner and a 1st grader. Hunter is SO excited about kindergarten that he has woken me up before the sun comes up on two occasions asking me if he could get dressed. He has a girlfriend named Skylar. And, good news, Katelyn and her on/off boyfriend Shane have decided "to give it another shot". Thank goodness for that. What would we do if two six year olds couldn't make it work?

I managed to go back to work for 4 days after vacation and then I had surgery. Nothing huge, just some woman issues I've been having but the recovery has proven to be quite painful. I can't go back to work for three weeks and I'm stuck in the recliner until my one week followup. Patrick has been wonderful. I kind of like having him wait on me. I might have to be confined to a chair more often if this is the kind of treatment I get. He's out buying me magazines to read as I type this. I've been getting a lot of attention.

Speaking of attention, Hunter HATES it when I get attention from Patrick. My son has the worst Oedipus complex I have ever seen. If Patrick hugs me, kisses me or really even touches me Hunter freaks out and yells at him. He made a new rule on vacation that it is Patrick's turn to cuddle me and love me on "every tomorrow". Clever, huh? He's only 5 but he has the logic to know that as long as daddy's day is every tomorrow then it's never really his day today. :) Funny. Now whenever Patrick touches me Hunter just tells him that it's not his day.

Well... my magazines have arrived. I'm going to skip my pain medicine for long enough to read a little. Otherwise all I get accomplished is sleeping and not remembering anything.

Backpacks & Lunchboxes

Well... we're back from vacation clearly. It was a nice trip and, of course, it was action filled as are most days in the Collins household. On one of the last days of the trip, we were talking about going to a bookstore to get a coffee and use the wireless and this conversation happened:

Me: No, let's skip it because I just bought the kids an expensive book yesterday and I don't want them to ask for more today.
Katelyn: I won't, Mommy! I promise I won't ask for anything!
** long pause while Hunter contemplates the situation **
Hunter: Uhhh... I will.

At least he's honest and wasn't putting up any fronts about it, huh? Yes, as a matter of fact, I WILL ask for something. So there. Love my kids. :)

Since then, I have been to Lewis County for a few days visiting. I stayed with my sister one night at her apartment in Morehead and that was... really something. It made me feel incredibly old but also let me know that my sister cannot hang with me even when she is making up the rules to some card game I've never heard of.

At the end of my quiet and relaxing weekend, I got a phone call from Patrick. As soon as I answered the phone I heard Katelyn in the background "I didn't mean to! It was an accident! I didn't do it on purpose!". Great. That sounds promising. If you are a follower of my blog, you're aware of the fact that some months ago Katelyn knocked one of Hunter's front teeth loose and he later pulled it out. Well... guess what? He now has no front teeth, hence all the "it was an accident" crying coming from my dear daughter when I answered the phone. Hunter, for some unknown reason, was chewing on a baseball cap and she took it upon herself to rip it from his mouth and with it came his remaining front tooth. So he's down to zero out of two. He's 5. He will probably have no teeth for two years.

And here's where I do some shameless promoting of a blog that I follow. Not long ago, I sent my mother a link to a website http://www.monogramchick.com and she ordered the kids each a monogrammed lunchbox. We got them in the mail while we were gone on vacation and the kids were so excited to open them that they fought over the package. They turned out absolutely adorable and they LOVE them. Thanks to Sarah at monogramchick.blogspot.com!

That's all... the kids start school Thursday. My baby starts kindergarten and it's just gonna be me and the dog during the day time. I'm kind of sad. I also start back at work on Thursday and I'm not entirely sure I'll remember how to do my job. We'll see, I guess. :)

How I'm missing my wireless!!

Picture this: You are sitting in a nice pizza and pasta restaurant on your wonderful three week family vacation. Everyone found something they want on the menu – even your two picky children who eat the same things over and over. Dinner arrives and it tastes heavenly and everyone is enjoying one another’s company. All is well. You feel generous, so you share your fabulous calzone with your child. Well, karma hates you. The next thing you know, your daughter is clutching her throat and your husband is all but shoving you out of your chair (you… the nurse) in order to do the Heimlich Maneuver because your darling daughter was a little over-zealous and choked on some cheese. It turns out that she’s fine and the adrenaline rush dies down. You pay for your dinner and you get up to leave. Wait… hubby and son need to go to the bathroom. Hubby and son take a ridiculously long time in said bathroom so you call hubby’s cell phone and this is what you hear “Hunter peed his pants. There’s pee everywhere. We’ll be right out.” Wonderful. I know, I know… you’re all dying to know how you, too, can get in on such a wonderful experience. So allow me to let you in on a little secret: Just follow me around for a while. Trust me, it’s a laugh a minute. You won’t be disappointed. Promise.

So here we are in Carbondale, Colorado. We just had that dinner adventure at a little place called White House Pizza. Luckily, we are still operating on Kentucky time and we went to dinner at 5pm. As it turns out, 5pm = Happy Hour and Happy Hour = 2.99 margaritas. Nothing is too overwhelming after two margaritas. We have been in Colorado since yesterday. I LOVE Colorado. There’s nothing that compares to the Rocky Mountains coming into view on the horizon. It’s the end of July and some of the peaks are still snow capped. Amazing. I can’t wait to move here. I know it will happen eventually. Patrick and I are both in love with this area. It just doesn’t seem to be happening fast enough.

Since the last time I managed to blog we have been to Mount Rushmore. It was incredible. You can spot it from the road but it is absolutely worth the $10 parking fee to go in and actually see it up close. It’s not something I can describe, really. I’m so glad that we went and that our kids got to see it. The attention to detail in the sculptures is amazing. It took 13 years to finish and you can tell the sculptor put his heart into it. That’s not the best part, though. The best part is that Patrick took the kids up some trail and disappeared for 20 minutes only to come back with two kids who had handfuls of what appeared to be a hairball that was possibly coughed up be a very large cat… with really coarse fur. Apparently, they scraped a buffalo hyde and got to keep the disgusting results…? I don’t know. I’ve just been trying to avoid touching the things since then.

And here I sit… I just finished sweeping out the camper for the 1436th time. Thank god for camping out in the mud. If I couldn’t do housework on my vacation, I would just be lost. Check back, though, I’m sure I’ll have more to report within the next two weeks!