Excuse Me Whilst I Bore You With The Details Of My Life

Anybody notice I've been gone? 

My blog is supposed to be the journal of my insane life ... I'm not doing such a great job with the "blog" part, hopefully the "mom" part is measuring up ... but really, I fear the "insane" part is getting the upper hand.

I think I'm still patting myself on the back for having 3 kids under the age of 2 for 9 months and living to talk about it.  I'm using that as an excuse to explain why my life still seems out of control ...  I've never been able to catch up.  Just as I seem to be getting the upper hand, the whole situation seems to change.  (Could I use the word "seem" more in one paragraph?  Seems I need me a thesaurus).

Just as I was starting to think I could manage  ... there was the whole move from California to Texas thing ... with a 2 year old and TWO 1 year olds ... I can't tell you how much fun it was to take that drive. 

That first month in Texas forever clouded my view of life there and pretty much made me HATE Texas.  The drive, the first month there in an apartment, the constant freezing rain that first month.

And yes, I'm going to continue on ...

Every friggin time I left the apartment to run an errand I had to load up the double stroller with kids and baby gear, then I'd get to the car unload everything ... IN THE EFFING COLD RAIN ... and I would always forget something ... forgetting something means getting everyone out of their car seats and back in the stroller for a trip back to the apartment ... IN THE EFFING COLD RAIN ... then back to the car ... AGAIN.  Then repeat again once we got to the destination (usually the grocery store) ... pull the double stroller and a shopping cart through the store ... try to smile at everyone who wants to stop you just to tell you ... "They are such a blessing" or "You really have your hands full" ... when what you really want to say is "Shut up ... you're an idiot ... I didn't say they weren't a blessing ... but this is really hard and if you don't get your smiling face out of here, I'm going to punch it" ...

So you get the drift ... that first month was awful. 

But then we moved in to our new house and things continued to spiral out of control.  We moved into the house January 2, 2008.  The day was cold (what else?).  The kids and hubby had to stay locked in the master bedroom with a space heater to keep them all warm because the front door had to remain open while the movers brought our stuff in. 

Such fun stories to remember for later ... and yes the saga continues ...

I spent much of that January trying to unpack.  February finally got here and the house was still clogged with boxes of crap and after 6 weeks in the house, I cried UNCLE and we hauled everything to a storage facility.  I could no longer stand it.  The boxes were a constant reminder of all the stuff I couldn't get done ... but really, if we had managed to exist without that "stuff" for over 2 months, did we need it?   (For the record, it turns out we did not.  When I started my "2010 Purge" in January, almost every item, in every box, was either tossed or donated.  But we paid storage on the crap for almost 2 years.  Hopefully that is a lesson learned).

Then, amidst all the chaos, a bit of hope appeared ... all the kiddos started to nap at the same time. 

There I was one morning, just trying to get through my day, when it hit me that the twins were making it until lunch without a nap ... OH MY GOD !!  I thought ... could I possibly get them all to nap at the same time?  I tried not to think about it too much ... I was afraid that it would go away ... but there they all were happily eating lunch.  So at noon I took everyone upstairs placed them all in their cribs, turned on their music, closed the doors, went downstairs ... and waited ... and listened to the baby monitors ...

Within 10 minutes .... EVERYONE WAS ASLEEP.  I can still remember the feeling ... total paralysis ... I was afraid that if I even breathed that the moment would go away. 

But above everything else ... I didn't know what to do with myself.  I had so many things that needed to be done that I couldn't decide what to do.  Finally, I determined what I needed the most was rest.  I sat on the couch ... curled in the corner in my usual position  ... and I truly could not remember the last time I'd done that ... it was such a relief to get off of my feet.  There had been many days that I'd sit on the bed at night and it would occur to me that I hadn't sat down the entire day.

I grabbed the remote for the TV and decided to watch something on the DVR that I had recorded.  I turned it on softly ... I kept having to strain to hear ... but there was no way I was going to chance waking the kids. 

I can distinctly remember being annoyed at one point that the rain and the thunder were louder than the TV and it was really annoying to have to try to hear over it ... then I heard a noise ... what the heck is that ???

I got up to figure out what it was ... it sounded like it was outside ... okay, emergency vehicle ... only ... maybe not ... it sounded a little strange ... like when I went to live in England and noticed that phones rang differently and the emergency vehicles sound different ...

I opened the back door ... and it suddenly hit me ... TORNADO SIRENS.  I raced to the TV ... signal is out ... I turned on the radio and this is what I hear, "If you live in XYZ you should be sheltering immediately ... this is a fast moving storm ... you need to be in an interior room .... blah blah blah... "

All I could think about was, OMG that's us ... where am I supposed to go?  What am I supposed to do?

You see, my husband and his father had me convinced that my research on this area was wrong.  I had asked about being in "Tornado Alley" and what exactly it meant.  How do we prepare?  What do we do?  And, I was told by both of them that it was mostly the insurance companies trying to get more money out of people living in the area.

So there I was, mentally running around trying to figure out what to do first.  The room that was center most in the house was our guest bath.  I ran to the stairs, over the baby gate, scooped up one sleeping kid, then the second ... ok now what?  Arms full of two crying, disoriented babies, and I still have a third kid sleeping.

Can I leave the third kid upstairs while I take the other two down to safety?  What if the tornado hits the house, the two I took to safety downstairs make it, but the one I left upstairs for the second trip doesn't make it?  Will the two in the downstairs bathroom be ok while I leave them alone to get the third?

This was all happening in seconds but somewhere in all this I had time to make a call to my husband that went something like this ... " The tornado sirens are going off ... what the heck am I supposed to do?  You are a stupid idiot.  I'll never listen to you again"  ... ahem ... something like that.  I'm not sure of the exact words.  I know I was crying in frustration and yelling at him and I hung up on him.

Afterwards, I made a mental note to myself ... Never, never let someone convince me to be unprepared for an emergency.  I'm the queen of being prepared.  I grew up in California.  It is drilled into our heads to be prepared to exist for 3 days without help of any kind.  We live in an area where natural disasters are likely to happen ... be prepared.  (I've always wondered why the folks in Louisiana were never given the same advice and warnings).

This was my first 2-1/2 months in Texas.  If you add to this the fact that my cars navigation system didn't work properly there, you can see my constant frustration with that state.  The addition of being lost over and over again, with kids in the car, was not endearing me to Texas. 

I didn't care what went wrong ... I figured out a way to blame Texas.  If nothing else I can be totally pissed off at the stupid Tornado Sirens ruining my first moment of relaxation since October of 2006 by waking up my kids.  The whining and crying lasted for hours ... mine and the kiddos.

I figure this is enough for one post.   I'll just tell you that my first two months back in California are comparable to what my first two months in Texas were like ... only minus all the stuff in boxes (that's all in storage ... it includes the majority of my clothing ... for some reason I thought that I would only need 6 Fourth of July printed t-shirts ... 4 black in the same pattern, 1 blue, and 1 red ... a few pairs of shorts, lots of underwear (?),  and 1 bra) and the kids whine differently now that they are 2 years older.  One actually had the nerve at one point to let me know they hadn't eaten a single vegetable for over a week ... I wanted so badly to point out that they had fries at least twice and for now that counts as a vegetable.

Oh and there is the total frustration of losing TWO posts about moving to California

Stay tuned ... for those of you who actually care anymore about what happens to me ... I am actually putting the finishing touches on a post about my first two months in California. 

And, in case you would want to know ... it seems like we sold our house in Texas on Monday.  If we can find a new residence before the end of the year, we will have moved FOUR times since July 2nd. 

Now ... is there anyone left who is still wondering why I haven't been blogging????

I think the better question is ... Can I get any of my readers back?  or has everyone finally given up on me?

I have been reading everyone's blogs and enjoying all the great posts.  Sorry to be so absent with the comments.

At this point, I'll stop promising to be a better blogger ... I've broken too many blog commitments this past 4 months.  I'll just say that I really like the blogging community and all the friends I've made the past year.  I really appreciate all the support from everyone.