Mom of the year today

We have had 4 days without school. My kids did not sleep in on any of those days.
It is Monday here. Guess who is still in bed at 7:25 (school starts at 7:40)? Both my kids. My logic for letting them sleep so long - Katy had a bad night because her stomach has been hurting. (She doesn't act sick but it sounds like it intermittently is causing her pain.) So I am thinking, we will just have pop tarts for breakfast and have a mad dash to get to school.
Cody gets up and gets ready and eats his pop tart. (mom of the year 1)Katy, well, let me digress here for a minute. As a mom, you think "I can get them ready in 10 minutes. Dressed, shoes, pop tart, hot lunch today, out the door. Totally do-able." What us moms forget is that these angelic children have wills of their own.
I forgot to anticipate the attitude and refusal I would get from Katy on pretty much everything I asked her to do. I even tried to dress her myself. You know, they can sure produce impressive maneuvers when they really don't want you to do something. So Katy says her stomach is still hurting, she isn't moving and says she wants to stay home from school. My rule is that if you stay home from school you get no TV privileges and have to lay in your bed all day. Surprisingly she agreed to that. Then I became suspicious.
I took Cody to school late and forgot the juice drinks that I was supposed to take for snack. (Mom of the year 2)
I took Katy to the school nurse who had a line of sick kids at 7:45 in the morning - must have been an awesome Thanksgiving weekend for everyone else too. She looked at Katy and said that her stomach is distended. (I am not even sure that is the right word, nor do I know what that means.) She pushed on her lower abdomen and said to keep an eye on it. It is either constipation or could be appendix related. She has no fever and she didn't seem like she was in much pain so I just said I would keep her home and give her some laxatives.
So that was our morning. Cody had a birthday party to go to after school. We headed to that and both kids played there. Cody wanted to go on the zip line thing they had, so I lift him up and Katy decides to push him. Once it hits the end it ricochets backwards. Because Katy is pushing him, Cody hits that end too quickly and he drops off of it onto an uneven ground with a bar in the middle. I admit that I wanted to be mad at Katy and I may have even swore...quietly. (mom of the year 3) That is going to leave a mark. I think the wind got knocked out of him, too. After that, the kids got balloons to take with them and we left the party.

The kids are hungry so we go to lunch at a sub sandwich place. Cody starts to act tired and lays on my lap. He ends up hitting his face pretty hard on the table when I tried to make him stand up as we were leaving. (mom of the year 4)
I need a new taillight so I stop at the Napa Auto Parts store here and get one. As we are getting back in the car both kids take their time getting into their doors and the balloons fly out. Tears were shed, people. They also tried to blame me for not grabbing them. (Have you ever tried to grab a balloon that has just been set free?) (moty5)
After I got my calm mommy sense back I suggested that we go to the slushy place. Grandma Rachel (our former neighbor) sent us some money to go get a treat and the kids love this place. Here are our happy faces at the slushy place.

I also want to take a minute and point out something. Guam has an issue with it's budget. They don't have one, not that that is uncommon these days. There is a lot of corruption and little oversight and as we were standing outside a government vehicle pulled up in the background. There were three people in it. On the side of the car is written "Government of Guam For Official Use Only". I am certain that only official business was transacted at the Slushy shop today.

We shipped off our Christmas cards and then came home. I pulled out our not-so-awesome leftovers from last night/Thanksgiving (It is a mashed potato casserole with the leftover potatoes, ham, peas and corn. We had the potatoes and ham on Thanksgiving originally and the casserole last night as well.) With this in mind, I knew I would have to change my approach. Picnic in the living room! They thought that was awesome...until they took a bite of the casserole again. I think 3rd time was not a charm tonight. I had to spoon feed them and they drank a lot of water but the casserole was not wasted! (It is gone now.)(also, moty6) I feel kind of bad because if Jeremy were here he wouldn't have stood for that and we probably would have ordered pizza. However, I am over my "dining out" budget this month, so maybe cereal.
The whole point of this journal entry is to remind myself that some days I get to be a supermom. Today was not one of those days.

On the other hand, I did get almost all of the Christmas packages done. Here is what is going to the post office tomorrow: I had a lot of fun shopping for my family and I hope you all like your presents.

Whew! Now I can work on Jeremy's presents. And then someday I might be able to read my books again or have some fun, maybe.

As a side note, my 23 year old brother is very sick and they aren't sure what is wrong with him. He is over 6 feet tall and has dropped to 137 pounds, his heart is racing at over 123 bpm, and who sleeps all the time. He was doing body building not too long ago and was quite healthy so this is quite a dramatic change. He will hopefully get the results from an MRI tomorrow. Potential tumor on the Pituitary gland is the current diagnosis. I did get to speak to him on Sunday, though, so tonight all our prayers and thoughts are going to him. Love you, Nate.