Annika Deseree Stine
had some trouble discerning the line
her Faux pas occured
when she tried to secure
someone's beau for her own valentine

I had a good week. I would love to write more about it, but I am a little groggy and a little distracted. I am way behind on laundry and if I don't catch up, I'll be running around pants free. Nobody wants that. Pants on the ground...nah...I won't go there.

I had one of those really long days yesterday. Most of it was good...just very, very long. I took Owen to school and then took Ivan and Aron with me to the dentist office. Ivan and I got our teeth cleaned and Aron watched PBS on the little TV in the room with me. I hate that my kids seem to go into a sort of television coma when there's any sort of cartoon or children's program on, but it is helpful in situations like yesterday. We left there smiling through our very slick and shiny teeth and went straight to the Mazda dealership in Hickory Hollow. It was time for our 60,000 mile service on the MPV and though I knew it would take a while, I didn't realize that 60,000 miles is one of the BIG check-ups. I did bring lunch for the boys with me and that helped tremendously. I'm always so proud of my kids in those situations. As frustrating as it is to wait so long in a small space with energetic boys, they seem to entertain themselves and find ways to make me smile. They were well behaved and I didn't have to do a lot of reprimanding or disciplining. Considering the situation it was all very smooth. When the van was finished it was almost time to go get Owen from school. I had not had anything to eat since my small breakfast of two eggs scrambled at 7:30. I was hungry. I drove through the drive-through at Chick-fil-a and got a sandwich and water to ease the pain.

From there we picked up Owen at school and drove home to brush the Valentine party induced, thick coating of sugar from his teeth before going back to the dentist for his checkup. He was in and out without incident and I was relieved to hear that they are doing pretty well at keeping their teeth clean. I let them brush on their own for the most part and I worry about how quickly they are done most days. I will often go in behind to scrub a little harder but I don't always have time to do that in the chaos of getting them ready in the morning or into bed at night.

From there we went home and had a nutritious dinner of mini-corn dogs from a box in the freezer. They loved it...I looked away. My goal was speed and ease. I was tired. I don't typically even have things like that in the house, but last week Kris and I went out to dinner and a hockey game sort of last minute. There was a babysitter at the house, so I picked up a box of not so healthy food items that would be easy for the babysitter to handle and in all honesty...I was glad I still had them last night. I had been invited to a little get together with some of the ladies in our neighborhood last night also. We have a new neighbor and she wanted to get to know more of us. I had coffee with her the other day but wanted to go and spend more time with her as well. It was so pleasant to sit down with those gals and relax without children for an hour. Despite how much I enjoyed it, I was the first one to leave. I missed my Kris. I wanted to get home and sit on the couch with him and share a blanket and watch TV. So that's what I did.

Owen is home for a long weekend. He had his Valentine's Day party at school yesterday and came home with bags of candy and goodies. Why do all these holidays that used to be simple occasions become candy and goody fests? I don't get it. I sent Owen to school with a bag of homemade gingersnap cookies for the party and a little Disney valentine for each of his classmates and his teacher. He came home with literally two bags of stuff. He's got toys, pencils, little tablets and oodles and oodles of candy. I'm really not upset by it or anything...who would complain about a little excess chocolate in the house...I just have no desire to keep up. In all honesty, my motivation would be nothing more than to not look bad in comparison to the other moms. If I start down that road I'll never find an end to it, so...nah. I suppose I just gotta be me and keep it simple. I looked through all of it yesterday afternoon and it's all very cute and fun. I know the kids love it which makes me feel bad for a short minute. Then I look at my Owen and I think...is he really missing out on something if I don't do this? I don't think so.

It's probably good that I don't have girls.