Toddler from Hell | Raising the Boys

You ever go to  a doctor's appointment and leave thinking, "Well that was the most pointless appointment in the world?"

Yeah, that just happened.

Let me set the scene:

4am - toddler wakes up and does NOT ... like NOPE ... want to go back to bed. 

415am - said toddler goes into brother's room "Pst! PST! You 'wake?"

430am - I hear said toddler shuffle up to my bed.

433am - I drag said toddler back into his room, him crying, and place him back in bed with a book.

5am - said toddler is quiet.

530am - said toddler is awake again, trying to get brother's attention

545am - both boys are awake and playing in brother's room

6am - (normal time to wake up for school but because we have a doctor's appt, we really don't have to be up until 645am) Big brother is bored and wants to go in front room.

605am - Me, "NO! stay in your room and be quiet!"

610am - Big brother, "but I'm hungry!"

615am - Boys are giggling in brother's room, and I don't care. Just as long as I get to sleep a little longer.

630am - Big brother, "Mom ... Mom ..."     Me, "go away. do you want me to be grumpy?"

635am - toddler screams, I get up and the chaos begins.

640am-715am - brother needs to dress, eat, take meds, clean the mess he and his brother made. Toddler needs fed, dressed and he too needs to pick up his room that he and his brother messed up. I am making snacks for the road trip.

725am - we get in car. head the 20 mins to hospital. But traffic occurs and I take the gateway instead, but that wasn't any quicker as EVERYONE was on the gateway because the highway was backed up. But not as bad as the gateway, so I should've just stayed behind the huge semi carrying 5 billion cars.

750am - I'm about 10 minutes away, and that's good because the appointment is in 10 mins.

758am - enter the hospital entrance just to be called out of the gate entrance for a "random" inspection. I express my frustrations to the MPs, they check the car after I open all doors, the trunk and the hood, and look up the insurance on the phone mobily. (if that's a word)

805am - enter hospital garage.

810am - walk down stairs because elevator is too slow. Enter hospital.

810am-818am - wander around the "first floor" trying to find said doctor office only to find out the floor we entered on (ground level) is actually level 3. So we go down one set of stairs ... wander, then another set (because we didn't know it was level three until we went down the first set of stairs. 

818am - finally get into the doctor office 18 minutes late. He takes us straight in. 

You'd think the story ends there. 

Welp. It doesn't.

Now, my eldest (who has ADHD) has been having other physical issues due to either his meds, diet, mental, .... whatever. So this appointment was to talk to a nutritionist about his diet. I thought it was a good idea and was referred to it by the regular medical doctor as an option.

I mean, if this doc can give some insight to what's going on with my eldest, shit, I'll take the advice.

All throughout the appointment, the doc only spoke to me. My eldest complained he was bored (even though he brought TWO Harry Potter books to read). The toddler touched every single piece of equipment the doctor had.

Every time I corrected the toddler, the toddler would scream. And not like a little shrill, no. Like a full blown scream that rattled the ear drums.

I gave in and gave the phone to the toddler to play games or watch movies. But nope, he kept pushing buttons that messed up the game or stopped the movie. Eldest would "try to help" but in reality he'd just play the game while his little brother screamed because he wanted the phone back.

After about 10 minutes of this, I took the phone away. Thus adding more screams, tears, and tantrums.

The doctor talked to me about proper nutrition, what he should and shouldn't be eating.

And that was it. I was out of the office within 15 minutes.

Guys.

I've heard this schpill 5 billion times already by the other 8 doctors my eldest has seen. The medical doctor. The psychiatrist. The psychologist. The behavior therapist. The GI. The nurse that took the blood pressure .... I mean. What was the point of this appointment?

I thought maybe it was to start a food diary. Or make a meal plan. Or do weekly check ins about meals.

SOMETHING.

But no, that was it.

All that stress, and I don't feel any closer to a solution than I did when I first started this journey. And really, my son didn't need to miss school for this. I had to wait a month to see this doctor, take the kid outta school, and for what? Nothing.

Because of the move, this "issue" that my son has been having has had to restart with everything because each doctor doesn't want to call up the other to ask about progress or what has been going on to deter the issue already. I have offered phone numbers multiple times. Each wants to make their own diagnostic and be the hero.

When in reality, all I want is a solution.

Shit. It took 2 flipping months for my son to finally get prescribed the ADHD meds he needs to focus in school. In which he's been going to school without meds because .... ahem ... military healthcare insurance is great because it's "free" BUT it takes flipping forever to get anything accomplished.

Sigh.

I want to pull my hair out.

I want to go to bed, pull the sheets over my head, and go to sleep ...

for like a MONTH.

Sleeping Beauty had it right. I should prick my finger on the sewing machine I'm pulling out today to make the kids Halloween costumes and fall into a slumber for a month.

Shit, I'll take 10 hours. 

I'll put a note taped to my forehead to my husband that says, "don't kiss me awake until Oct 1."

That'd be the life huh?

But then I'd miss all the giggles, all the hugs and kisses. All the important moments in growing up and all the love they share with me.

It truly is, a catch 20.

Good luck y'all ... and remember there's always chocolate.

You Are What Your Mind Is | 'Werkit' Out Wednesday

Today sucked. 


I woke up too tired. I woke up to grumpy. I didn't want to do anything. 

However, since I started the Strolling Eagles group (part of TeamRWB El Paso), I knew I had to get out of the house and get up with them to do our weekly Wednesday 5K. 

Now, I've been having issues with my stroller keeping air in it's tires. I don't know if it's the desert out here, the heat or if it's just my luck. I have horrible luck with tires. Ask anyone of my friends. I'm always changing a tire on the car, the truck, or pumping air into my stroller. 

The best lesson in life that my dad ever gave me was how to change a tire on the car. Fathers out there ... Make sure you teach your daughter  (or son) how to change a tire. 

It's a very important life lesson. 

Anyways, I did not want to work out today at all, so the fact that I had to put air in the tire again, get my butt all the way to Fort Bliss, and still have to put on a happy face when I see the ladies  ... because actually, I am happy to see them, I just don't want to run. 

By the time I got to Fort Bliss, I was ready to run and get it over. However, we waited, out of courtesy for another woman, who was running a little late. 

Face it,

We know what happens when you have little kids and you're trying to get out the door ... I mean look at me. I really didn't want to come out. 

Either way, we waited 10 minutes and I think that's what got me. My body was like, "Well you're here but you're not running ... so let's just go and be more grumpy."


We finally stepped out on foot through the trail. The trail is dirt, but it's like a graded dirt. It's still hard on a stroller ... pushing a 26 pound child ... and with freshly watered from sprinklers. Not to mention that the tired I just pumped up is now going flat. 

Yeah. 

I was not happy. 

Totally wasn't feeling it, was getting tired, and the sun was hot. It just didn't feel right. My brain was definitely beating my body. 

Luckily, the women that I run with are very supportive and when someone would pass me, they would cheer me on. One lady walked with me for a little bit. But the whole fact is that my brain beat me. 

The brain is the most powerful muscle in your body and if it says it's not going to do something, it's not going to do something. You have to trick it , and tell it that it's not in charge right now. 

Now, we don't want it to totally stop working because we all know what happens when people don't use their brains. However, if we make it work for us and make it think what we want it to think ,we can accomplish anything. 

That's in an any life situation. 

When you're running and you don't want to or you're trying to get to that extra mile you don't want to or if you're trying to get that job and it just seems too out of reach or if you can't reach that promotion that you been trying to get. 

You really have to believe in yourself.

If it's something you really want to accomplish, you're going to accomplish it and you've got to find a way to how to. Whether that's tricking your brain into thinking that you can do it or excepting defeat and try again. 

It's not an issue to accept defeat because sometimes our goals maybe unattainable at the moment. You can't beat yourself up if you don't make it, you try, try again. 

That's one big thing in my family. We never say we can't do something. 

We always try and if we don't succeed, we'll try again or will try to do it a different way. 

I know I won't be the best runner out there. However, if I can be my own personal last timed event, Then I have succeeded in something. 

There's always going to be someone better than you, no matter what you might succeed in. You may succeed in one thing but fail in another. Or you might not succeed in anything but you might just reach that standard and that's okay. 

That's you.

I'm sort of talking in circles right now but the whole fact is that you have to believe in yourself and you have to change your mindset on how you want to achieve your goals or achieve the day. 

If you want to be grumpy all day long, then be grumpy all day long. That's fine. Just understand that if you're grumpy all day long, then your kids will be grumpy all day long, your spouse will be grumpy all day long, whoever you encounter will be grumpy because you're setting off that vibe to everyone. 

Try, just try, to see the good in whatever situation arises. Don't mask it just realize there is a good to a bad. 

I didn't want to go out today and the pharmacy wouldn't fill my sons prescription (a whole other stupid story),  now I have to go to the doctor and do a whole new prescription for him. Blah blah blah.... BUT I still went to that run and I let out that anger on the track ...even though it wasn't my best run.

Not even close.

Though, I can see that if I had gone home and sulked, it would've been a lazy, lazy day and I wouldn't have accomplished anything.

And I would be completely MISERABLE. 

Today's going to be busy, but I've set my mind to accomplish what I need to accomplish today and we'll see how it goes.

Good Luck y'all!

You be YOU!

PCS?! What the What?! Part 5 | My Hot Mess

PART 5 -- if you're behind Check out PART 1, PART 2,  PART 3 & PART 4 using the links.

 

The movers have arrived.

UnPacking ....

Blah. 

Okay, okay, so the packers offered to unpack for me ... but honestly, who really knows where you want to put shit when you have tons of shit wrapped in paper and boxes?! I mean, unless you did what I suggested you to do in Part 4 -- STALKING THE PACKERS TO ENSURE EACH ROOM HAS A BOX. You don't know WHAT you're going to find in each box.

Even if labeled "Kitchen" you may just find a pair of dirty underwear in it as well.

Or a ladle in the box labeled "Bathroom."

Or the crockpot bottom in the "Kitchen" box and the lid in the "Garage" box and the ceramic piece in the box labeled, "master bedroom."

So, again, I suggest you be on those packers super close ... like so close you can smell what they had for breakfast. 

Seriously.

Ya'll the unpackers were quick. They had the truck unloaded by lunch time. 

I labeled each room in the house with the first letter of the person's name who would be sleeping there. This made it super simple to say which boxes went to which room

Again, not all the boxes were labeled properly, or had multiple rooms worth of stuff in it ... I either made the executive decision in which room it would go in, or it would stay in the garage until I was ready to unpack it.

It was easy to say, "Oh baby room, that goes in the 'G' room." or "Master box? Goes in 'M' room." Ect. And I mean, the unpackers were pretty smart, boxes labeled kitchen or glassware would go in the kitchen and knew the TVs go in the living rooms ... I mean, gotta give them SOME credit.

Once all the boxes and furniture was unloaded, the unpackers headed to lunch. Where in which I just stared at the boxes until they returned because I was starting to stress about unpacking. LOL

Luckily, the boys were still with grandparents and not running amok around the boxes and breakables. Again, I HIGHLY recommend the children (and/or pets) stay with someone while you pack, move, and unpack!

Once the unpackers returned, they offered to unpack boxes but when I realized the packers packed oddly, I just wanted these guys to put together the furniture and move them around to where I wanted it in the rooms. That was it, and they seemed pleased with that decision. LOL

The next 6 days, I would go box to box unpacking things; floating around in a sea of package paper and with my trusty knife on my side. 

I would fend off paper cuts, oddly wrapped utensils, cuss out the packers for putting dirty underwear in with the kitchen goods and search the endless piles of paper to ensure I had everything out of the boxes before tearing them down. 

This was the hard part. Once the box was empty, I had tons of paper and no where to put it. So I stuffed some boxes with the paper and broke down other boxes and put into other boxes. It was hard making room for everything when you still have empty boxes laying around. 

By the end of the first day of unpacking, I had nothing accomplished except for the refrigerator magnets. Even though there were boxes EVERYWHERE, at least it became home with the pictures of loved ones and the magnets of the places we've been and things we've accomplished.

Guys, seriously. 

Take your time unpacking.

Not everything has to be done in one day. 

It was just me unpacking for 6 days because my husband had to return to work. I literally took it room by room. And even though boxes had multiple rooms in them, I just opened the box, unwrapped the piece of paper, put the item somewhere in the room, and repeated until the box was empty.

The first room completely unpacked was the baby's room. I think sole because he doesn't have much. LOL.

Plus, I made the boys' rooms priority since I knew they'd be coming home within 7 days. 

Next, once the boxes were unpacked, and things placed SOMEWHERE in the room; I would begin to set up the room. I made beds, I placed items on shelves, bookshelves, drawers, and began to hang pictures on walls. 

Though I will admit, the pictures were last to be hung. Since after all, that's what completes a room! 

6 days ya'll. SIX.

Some say that's fast some would say why so long. But I was on a deadline. I needed the house put together before the grandparents brought the boys home.  And I did it. 

It wasn't perfect, but it was done.

My husband and I would also take the weekends to figure out places to take the boys. I can tell ya, my husband ONLY unpacked his clothes because I figured since I was home anyway, I should take that time to unpack and not waste the weekends. 

We took a walking tour around El Paso to see the murals ... sorta drove around ... ;)

Took advantage of the free concerts in the canyon to see Billy Townes and Marachi bands. And have a few margaritas. It was nice to have "Us" time. Especially after unpacking all day.

We also drove around the Concordia Cemetery (full of history) since we knew the kids would think it was "creepy." We also checked out the farmers' market and a little town that had a gunslingers show. Y'all, take time to SEE and ENJOY your new location. After all, you're going to be there for however long and that's where you're going to say where you're coming from when you leave. You better KNOW the place.

And y'all ... I still have unpacked boxes in the garage. 

I can't tell ya whats in them. Other than what it says on the labels but the house is as put together as it needs to be at the moment.

We are also working with less space in this house than the other and that was the frustrating part. Trying to figure out where everything would go. 

A lot of trips to Goodwill happened. 

I thought I had purged a lot before moving but when I got here and saw that there wasn't much storage, I really started to rethink things I saved and why would someone need two irons and that sweat stained sweater anyway. 

The trash men must've loved pulling up to our house and seeing the overflowing garbage can ... and the multiple boxes and trash bags. I know Goodwill loved me showing up every day with another 3 boxes of stuff to donate. 

Tips I wish I had done or did that you SHOULD do:

1) Follow the packers around when they filled boxes to ensure that each box was just ONE room. If it wasn't a full box, just had them fill it with paper. Multiple rooms in one box is unnecessary stress.

2) (because you would have done tip #1) Have the unpackers unpack your boxes. You may not know exactly how you want a room set up but at least you knew what was in the boxes and saved time unpacking since everything would have been unwrapped. Side note: also labeling the rooms with a letter to tell the unpackers where to put the boxes was super helpful, because saying, "the second room to the left." 5 billions times sucks.

3) Never underestimate the power of help from anyone who is willing to watch your kids or animals while moving or unpacking.

4) Definitely purge before packers pack your house. My mantra was that I'd figure it out in Texas. Bad idea, it was more of a pain while unpacking trying to figure out if the item was needed or could be donated/trashed. You WILL need to purge without a heart. Things have less value to them when you're not attached to them. If you haven't used it within the last 6 months, trash/donate.  

5) Have the unpackers return to pickup empty boxes. Our trash men/recycle men were not too helpful if the stuff was outside the cans. They would just take the stuff from the cans. So I would have to wait a whole other week to throw the rest of the stuff away. Having the unpackers pick up my boxes a month later was FANTASTIC. Though it did take up a lot of space in the garage and I still can't put my car in the garage.

6) If you are lucky enough to have someone who stays home during the week, let them unpack everything because it sucks having to waste your weekends unpacking. If you HAVE to unpack on the weekends, only unpack one day of that and then enjoy the rest of your weekend. Guys, the house will eventually get unpacked. Why stress yourselves out trying to do it in a hurry?

7) We are still contemplating this, but get a small storage unit for the military gear. My husband and I have so much shit for the military and we have a smaller garage than last house. So everything is taking up the garage and we can't use the garage for what it's intended for. To house the cars. We need a garage, especially with this heat here.  My only thing is, if we have the unit, I may put more stuff in it and why pay for storage for stuff you don't use anyway?

Hope this helps you out a tad ... I know a few of you are going through this right now and hopefully this provides some sort of insight for y'all. Because I was going in blindly and had no clue what to expect! Stay tuned, I have one more part this series (figuring out your location)!

So hang in there and Good Luck! 

PCS? What the WHAT?! Part 4 | Having Fun While Moving | My Hot Mess

PART 4 -- if you're behind Check out PART 1, PART 2, & PART 3 using the links.

Y'all, once the movers were gone. Hubby and I were STRESSED THE 'F' OUT. Not only did we have nothing in our house for a week, we also had the boys with NOTHING TO DO in the house for half a week.

You must be thinking to yourselves, "Four days aint bad ..."

But you're WRONG.

I'm sorry, but you are. LOL When you have two anxious little boys with only an iMac to keep them busy and a few small toys ... bickering, nit-picking, antagonizing, and arguing seemed to follow them like the plague.

Luckily, we did do a few "last things in Fayetteville," before they headed to grandparents for the summer.

Daddy took Nini and the boys to the beach one last time.

We made sure we said goodbye to the Librarians who helped teach the boys since birth (and say bye to "mr. bobo.")

And we took a final picture in front of the infamous "Market Square."

After all was said and done. The time finally came for the boys and Nini (gramma) to head on a plane to Colorado for two weeks (which then for another 2 weeks they'd head to Nevada for the other grandparents. We said our goodbyes and had some kisses and hugs and they were off.

And Mom and Dad just stood there.

In complete SILENCE! 

It was amazing!

At the airport saying goodbye.

A few more days in the hotel (with the dogs ... our other children) and then we hit the road. We knew we wanted to make the most of the long drive to Texas so we planned on stopping in certain places. We kinda played it by ear but knew we wanted to make this hassle of a PCS a vacation as much as possible. Especially since we didn't have the kids.

We could be US again.

Before handing over the keys of house to the new owners, I left them some of my plants as house warming gifts because a) it's nice to do and b) face it y'all I have a black thumb. Those things would've died in a heart beat with all the traveling

We would've left sooner but I had a business obligation on the 3rd of July and we decided to also stay for the 4th for one last hoorah! We hitched the trailer, with minor difficulties ... ISH... and we loaded up the animals for our great adventure to the mid-west.

Our free roaming cat DID NOT enjoy his leash. LOL He said "Nope."

So, the plan was to have the animals under a tarp (with lots of airflow) in the back of the pickup for the drive. But not more than an hour in and it was raining. So I had to sacrifice and put my iMac in the trailer, in the HUMIDITY, so that we didn't kill the animals. Guys ... I think animals are worse than children in the back seat for about two days worth of traveling! These guys were so anxious. Shivering, panting, and the cat was NOT happy about the crate. LOL I suggest getting Thundershirts to help with the anxiety ... or drugs. Drugs are cool too. (I kid ...)

Our first overnight stop was Montgomery, Alabama. We spent the night, stopped at the Capital and MLK's house and then we headed out. It was quick but at least we got to see some sights before hitting the road to our next destination.

Like I said above, we really didn't have a plan. We just kinda drove. I believe we decided to go down to New Orleans while we were in Alabama. 

Guys, my husband is a planner (ish) and I'm .... like not. LOL! 

My tip to you would be to plan a route. We did a lot of "Well, what do you want to do?" "I dunno, what do you wanna do?" We sounded like the damn vultures from the Jungle Book, until finally I said, "F it! It's my birthday weekend, we're doing what I wanna do!"

So? Whatcha Wanna Do? SEE VIDEO HERE

So onto New Orleans we headed! We wanted to do the tourists thing, but not like TOTAL tourist. We wanted to be more adventurous since we didn't have kids to worry about their safety or age restrictions sooooooo......

Okay, okay .... I mean... what else would you do childless?? ;)

We took in the sights of Bourbon Street and ate at a REAL adult restaurant and get this

TRIED GATOR!

That's a big deal for me cause I'm not food adventurous at all. LOL! And my hubby got his shrimp and of course had to stop by Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. where we had a drink before our haunted tour around the city.

 We ate some of this ... I can't remember the name but it's basically fried dough and it's amazing.

 
 
   

The following day we took a morning bike tour from Free Wheeling Bike Tours. Guys. YOU HAVE TO TAKE THESE TOURS!

Not only do you get to see parts of the city that many don't, you get an awesome tour guide that lives in, breaths in, and studies the city up and down. Like, they know their shit y'all! PLUS, they're a veteran owned business. I mean, HELLO?! Check 'em out for sure!

 After the tour, we headed on the road again! Next stop,  Starbucks ... I mean it was my birthday after all and just because we are traveling doesn't mean I don't get my
FREE BIRTHDAY TREAT!

But really, we were headed to San Antonio. I had been there numerous times, but my hubby never had been and he wanted to see the sights.

The Alamo!

Here we took a bus tour just so we could see all the tourist sites in the little amount of time we had.  We got slurpees to cool off with (we haven't had a 7Eleven in years) and got a Margarita to get us in the Mexican mind set at a fabulous restaurant. We didn't do much that would be labeled "cool adult stuff" BUT we did find an awesome Irish Pub, "Durty Nellys," on the Riverwalk and we hung out there and relaxed for a little bit.

After San Antonio, we really didn't know what we wanted to do. We thought about stopping at another place but we also just wanted to get to the house we are renting in El Paso too ... so we decided to play it by ear and see how we felt as we drove the final 8-9hours to our new home.

There is literally NOTHING between San Antonio and El Paso. We did see Fort Stockton on the map and thought, "hm, could be interesting." We even thought about staying over night.

But we were literally probably the ONLY customers this place had that day ... or like the whole month of July. LOL  Learn about Fort Stockton HERE.

Being a history buff, I thought it was interesting.

It was cool to see, to learn about it and check it out. But definitely not a place worth staying over night ... especially with the animals. We stretched our legs and then we decided to drive the remaining 4 hours to El Paso.

And then y'all .... we were finally HOME.

I definitely recommend you taking your time across the country when traveling. Make it a vacation of sorts because lord only know if we would have made it alive driving 2 days straight through. Either the dogs or we wouldn't have made it.

Also, HIGHLY recommend have the kids travel by plane and visit people (family or friends) while you get situated. That helped us out tremendously and we were able to be a couple again. It was nice. We missed the buggers ... but it was nice.

Next time, learn what were the first things we did when we got to our new home. Believe it or not, there ARE lists of what to do and what not to do!

Stay tuned!