I found these

On my computer at work....so I thought I'd share...

Ryan at about 2 1/2

Ryan & Olivia....Ryan is five here. She is probably six or seven months old, maybe older.

Ryan & Kate Halloween. Kate is not quite 1 1/2

Ryan & Kate...check our her ears!

Ryan & Kate

Ryan's first day of Kindergarten I'm thinking...Kate's first day of preschool.

Ryan at daycare...

Kate checking out my baby belly while pregnant with Olivia. I think I'm about 38 weeks here...

Mom guilt

First of all I have been reading all of your posts, but I can't comment from work. I am writing this in between dinner and a baseball game...but I read them and want to!

Let me tell you a little about mom guilt. I have it. I have a lot of it. Much of it stems from being a working mom. Being a teacher is great, but needing to run and see your kid do something for a half hour or an hour is no easy feat. At least not for me.

So in the last couple weeks I have missed: Ryan's track meet, Kate's program, Ryan's program, Kate's track meet, and Ryan's first baseball game. Oh and to top it off, I almost sent my dad to Skateland when her party was actually at a bowling alley.

One thing I hate about being a working parent is that I can't drop everything every time I want to in order to support my children. It makes me sad. My kids and what they do mean the world to me. When we decided to have four children I obviously hadn't realized that I can't be in four places at once. Too often I have missed an important hockey game because Brady is napping. Maybe I should schlepp him wherever I go, but I can't do that. It's not fair to him.

So as school is winding down, I am feeling ready to be done. Only I'm not done. I have a seminar the first week of vacation. Then I am traveling with my grant group across the south. It's going to be the best.trip.ever, but again, I'm missing out on being a mom.

Do dad's have dad guilt? No one expects them to stay home and be superdad do they? Can you tell I am emotionally spent? I am. This has been one hell of a stressful school year. I am ready to put the last nine months behind me. I am ready for summer. I am ready to be a mom. I am ready to be super irritated by my fighting kids. I am ready to want to go back to school in the fall..but I'm not there yet. Heck I have an even more stressful year ahead of me next school year.

Maybe I just need a pedicure? Massage? Spa day? Trip to Disney World?

Ryan had his end of the year orchestra concert Monday night. I didn't realize it was the entire orchestra from grades 5-12. The gym at the high school was packed...and it was hot. Very hot.
Get this--they had some numbers that caught my eye. In 1993 there were 199 kids in orchestra in that spread of grades. This year there were almost 750.
Needless to say it's a huge program, and the teachers are the reason why.
.
Ryan got a haircut--very much against his wishes. He refused to speak to me for quite awhile. I did get a smile from him when he asked to get ice cream after his concert. I said that I wanted a nice picture in return. It all worked out, because I was really craving ice cream.

Brady having fun as usual....

Someone mad in our house as usual...you never know who it will be. Tonight it was Olivia. I can't remember why, and frankly, I didn't give her an ounce of attention for it.

Some pictures from the last few weeks...

My trip to Arizona with these two lovely ladies...we hit the pool immediately!

Got to see Camie & the adorable Eric!

And yes we got up and watched the wedding...and ate a grand breakfast. And got teary eyed. And loved every minute of it...including all the hats.

I even took a picture of the tv. I'm a loser, but these girls love me for it. :)

Melissa & me out to lunch....

I took a picture of my family on Mother's Day.

Brady wore a Zumba skirt while the girls danced on Olivia's birthday.

The girlies. The old hag is me!

A few reasons why my kids are weird

1. Kate's desktop picture on our computer is of some kid with a huge cold sore on his mouth. Who does that?
2. Brady only plays with kitchen stuff and sports stuff. Say what?
3. Olivia gets out of the tub and then tells me her butt hurts.
4. Kate keeps asking me about sex and menstruation. She recently told me that since I got my period around 13 and a half, she better put a tampon in her backpack now to be ready. Huh??
5. Is it only my six year old who says she hates a meal she's never tried without even seeing it? I told her tonight what I was making, and she said she hated it instantly.
6. Kate went to the park to play soccer today. She's decided she needs to take up soccer. So when she came home from the park, all she talked about was how they dug up clay from the ground. And she brought it home to prove it. Again wth?
7. I came home from running errands yesterday and Brady was on the floor with Kate's Barbie CD player in front of him. He had his hands on his cheeks blasting Crazy Train. He was in heaven. Not Abcs, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, but Crazy Train.
--Note Ryan's weird too, but he's never home for me to see it. As my dad would say, they come by it honestly.

Happy Birthday Miss Olivia

Olivia was one happy SIX year old today. She brought these adorable cookies to school to share with her classmates.

She had these beautiful cupcakes to look forward to after supper....

Then I took her and some girls to Zumbatomic (Zumba class for kids). I took the cutest picture of the girls, but when I tried to get it from my phone, to email, to this, it won't work. It saved as a zip file....what? I'll probably put it on facebook.
Then we went to Space Aliens. This poor boy (the little one that is) skinned his knee walking to the bus stop to get Olivia from kindergarten. Then when we left Jo's, he fell again and skinned his other knee. Then when we got out of the car for Zumba, he was running and skinned his knee again! After we came home....you guessed it...another skinned knee.
But look at this photo....

Not the best photo, but she was so happy all day. And it shows.

After dinner we came home, played outside, and she crashed promptly at 8pm.

It's been awhile

Dang I guess I've been abandoning my blog, not that very many people read it. Here's what's been going on:
1. Work. I have a big thing going on at work this week. It's really too much to explain, but it will involve professional videographers in my class all week. I've also been told The Forum might be there. Uh lovely.
2. Vacation. Last weekend I went to Phoenix to spend a lovely weekend with my two dear friends, Elli and Melissa. We watched the Royal Wedding--yes we cared about it! We layed by and in the pool, drank a bit, hiked a bit, ate a lot, played Mexican Train, and shopped a bit. True to staying in relaxation mode, I showered only once.
3. Mother's Day. I have to admit I got teary this morning when only my two girls gave me cards and plants they made at school. Ryan pulled through though by giving me a nice card he also made at school. That kid does NOT like to share anything with me. At all. I made him tell me he loved me, but he couldn't look me in the eye.
The rest of the day was spent painting. I touched up the walls in our house, Thad painted my bathroom, and I painted our two front doors. I have never really painted. I was proud, but it looked like crap. Thad had to go over it again. I guess I didn't use enough paint. Live and learn. He was gracious about it.
4. Prom. Last night I chaperoned Prom. The kids were told they could NOT grind this year. There were strict rules. I left after grand march so I didn't have to deal with it. I think it's funny that us adults don't understand grinding, and the kids don't know how to dance otherwise. I took the angle of "do you really want to see your teachers grind?" Dumb Bonnie...they said, "Yes that would be great!" Uh no thanks. I don't need some dude essentially masturbating against me for four hours straight. Ewwww.
5. Thad. Thad is going to AZ this weekend. My friend and I surprised our husbands with a golf weekend. He is excited to get away and play a lot of golf.
6. Olivia. Olivia turns the big 6 on Tuesday. Of course I am most excited about the treats I've ordered for her. Kris thank you! I can't wait to share photos. Where has the time gone?