Melissa and Girls

The month of February was pretty slow for us except for a few things. The beginning of the month brought the joys of our cat Tripe going into heat. Normally this is not something I would proudly post on my blog however it brought a few moments of drama for us. To put things in perspective this cat is already a "talker" and loves to be scratched and petted to the point that it can be annoying. So, with her going into heat it was a nightmare. She was yowling and wandering all over the house and WOULDN'T FREAKING STOP!!!!! At night I had to turn on all the bathroom fans and close the bedroom doors so I could actually get some sleep. Monday, February 1st was kind of a hectic day. After work I picked up the girls from the day care and then took them to see the movie Planet 51. By the time we left the movie theater it was a little past 9:00 p.m. My parents were up here running some errands and at about 9:30 met me in Mapleton at my car shop to finally switch cars (this is a whole other story). By the time we got home it was pretty late and Brooke had fallen asleep in the car. Well, when we got home I realized I had accidentally left my garage door remote in her car so I parked in the driveway and unlocked the front door then went back to the car to get Brooklen while Jordyn and Maegan were going in the house. Jordyn is TERRIBLE about closing doors. She is always leaving them open. So, needless to say, she wanted to get in bed and left the door open when she realized Tripe was running out the door. I was carrying Brooklen and told Jordyn to get back in the house. I put Brooklen on the couch and ran back outside to try to catch my 3 legged cat that is in heat. Well, that didn't work so well. Why she can run faster with 3 legs than she can walk makes no sense to me but she can. So, off she goes down the street and I decided I wasn't going to be able to catch her. When I got back in the house Jordyn and Maegan were sobbing! Jordyn felt sooooo bad about leaving the door open. I told them there wasn't anything we could do about it at this point so they just needed to get in bed and I would try a couple more times to look for her and if she didn't come back by morning we would make some 'Lost Cat' signs for our neighborhood. About 10 minutes later they both come downstairs, still crying, and say they can't sleep. By this time it's well after 10:00 and they really need to go to sleep but I decided to take them in the car and drive around the neighborhood a couple of times to see if we can find her. Well, after a few slow trips they realized they weren't going to be able to find her so we went home. They finally fell asleep and I kept poking my head out the door calling for Tripe. Around 11:15 she finally came running back up to the house. My first thought was, "Oh good, I'm glad she came home" followed by a quick, "She'd better not be pregnant because I do NOT want kittens!" Alright, does that sound like a happy ending? Oh wait, there's more! So, the next morning I'm getting the girls ready for school and we are running late. The girls had such a late night that I think they are just "off" and things aren't running smoothly. I am partially dressed, I had on some black dress pants and a black shirt but don't have on the rest of my outfit or shoes, and I am doing Maegan and Brooklen's hair. Jordyn was ready so I asked her to go out to the car and get my cell phone so I can call my boss to let her know I'm running behind. I opened my blinds so I could see what she was doing and the next thing I know I hear her screaming and running after......Tripe. Yes, Jordyn had left the door open AGAIN!!!! Well, the townhouse I live in is really close to a VERY, VERY busy road where the speed limit is 50 mph so of course you know people are going faster than that. I was worried that Tripe was going to go running into the road and Jordyn would run after her so I am running down the stairs and out the door to chase after my 3 legged cat and my daughter. When I get out there they are no where to be found. I'm looking up and down the street and then realize my neighbors on the end of the row of townhouses have a little opening in their fence so I go peek in there and Jordyn is trying to get Tripe out from under their back porch. It's about 7:30 a.m. and still freezing cold so I tell Jordyn to go home and I work on getting the cat and head back home. I get back upstairs and finish working on hair when I ask Jordyn if she got the phone. Her response? "I dropped the key!" Yes, that's right, and to make matters worse because I had only picked up my car from the shop the night before I hadn't put it back on my key chain so it was just a single key. I told her she was going to have to go and find it. Well, luckily she was able to find it pretty quickly. So, don't ask me what's going on with Jordyn's thought process at this point but she still didn't get my phone. I told her to go and get it again and are you freaking kidding me? The stupid cat got out AGAIN! This time, Jordyn tried to block the door but somehow Tripe was able to get past her leg. So, once again, Jordyn goes chasing after her and I go chasing after them. The fun thing about this go round was there was a great big orange, tabby tom cat outside. Jordyn was trying to pick up Tripe and I was worried about the tom cat attacking her so I had to yell at her to drop Tripe and get back in the house. I scared the other cat off (I can only imagine what my neighbors are thinking at this point if anyone was watching) and then was able to catch the damn cat, excuse my french but I was not in a good mood by this time, and brought her in the house and locked her in the basement. Holy Hannah!!!! Seriously, this was a BAD morning! But, with the stupid cat locked up in the basement, we finally made it out the door and I was about an hour late for work but eventually things calmed down. The good news is I'm pretty sure she's not prego and that's the biggest thing I am grateful for. Well, that and now Jordyn actually closes the door behind her.

The next big event was just Valentine's Day. The girls had to make boxes for school and each grade was assigned a theme. 2nd grade was Love Bugs and 4th grade was I Love Utah. Maegan wanted to draw a bunch of bugs and put them on the box. Jordyn wanted to draw Utah with a "I 'heart' Utah" on it. I thought for Jordyn's it would also be fun to draw things about Utah and put them on the box as well. I'm not going to get into that too much here but let's just say that it was easier said than done. This year Jordyn is really struggling with her attitude towards school and her lack of pride in her work is really ticking me off. So, we had a few rough moments but eventually we got the boxes finished. Anyway, for valentines I bought boxes of Crayola crayons and we made tags that said, "Have a Happy Valentine's Day for 'crayon' out loud!" We just used heart stickers to put the tags on the boxes. On Sunday morning we got ready for church and I decided to give them their gifts before we left rather than wait. I gave each one a bottle of lotion, a lip gloss and then a piece of jewelry. Jordyn and Maegan both got some earrings and Brooklen a necklace. Sounds like a great start to a great day. Oh no, it was a BAD day! My girls were being absolutely horrible. They were fighting, whining, complaining, hitting each other, talking back to me etc. etc. So, I decided I had had enough. I made them each give 10 of their favorite things. Jordyn FREAKED out when I took away her favorite stuffed animal. I told them that their life was going to change and if I had to get rid of everything but a pillow and a blanket on the floor I would. They need to learn how to appreciate what they have. So, we are having "Boot Camp" at my house! They will have to be absolutely well behaved in order to earn any privileges such as watching TV, and then they can earn back what I took away. The next day, I didn't have to work because of President's Day. We spent the ENTIRE day cleaning. I let them have a 15 minute break in the morning, they got a 1 hour break for lunch and then another 15 minute break in the afternoon. Surprisingly the day went fairly well. Unfortunately, since then they still haven't earned even half of their stuff back and it's been about 13 days so that tells you how well they're doing. But, we are all working really hard at being more respectful with each other.

Okay, so last major event. On Saturday, the 20th, I thought it would be fun to take the girls to a movie and to lunch. Well, as I mentioned above the girls are supposed to be earning their privileges but they did not earn the movie. Eventually did get their chores finished and I thought they earned us going to lunch. So, we went to Winger's. It was really fun and we had some good 'girl time'. Afterwards we stopped at K-Mart when Brooklen told me she didn't feel very well. I was trying to make it to the bathroom when suddenly she threw up all over. It was on her clothes, on my clothes, on Jordyn's coat, in the middle of the aisle....everywhere!!! How embarrassing! Jordyn and Maegan are covering their mouths running away while I'm trying to make sure no one walking around me steps in it. Luckily there was an employee close by that was able to get a kid to come out and clean it up. I wanted to help clean it up because the poor kid was dry heaving the whole time so then I was even more embarrassed. The lady was so nice and went and got me another cart and told me not to worry because it happens a couple of times a month. Needles to say we got out of their ASAP. Brooke didn't feel good the rest of that day and then Maegan got sick on Sunday. I was worried that Jordyn was going to get sick next so I kept everyone home on Monday. We just watched movies and hung out and thankfully no one else got sick.

Oh yeah! And, I bought a new couch and it was delivered the day before V-Day! I was so excited so I can't believe I forgot to mention it. My old couch was in really bad shape. One of the couch cushions had a huge hole in it from the dogs and the slip cover was a big pain to keep looking nice. Happy Valentine's Day to me! Well, even though there were only a few things that happened I am still tired just thinking about these things! Take care!

I'm back!!!! Again. How many times is this now? I am happy to say that the internet at my house is back for good so I should be able to post more often. I don't think I'm going to take the time to go back and catch everyone up on the past few months so I'll just post starting from here on out. Well, eventually. I need a few more minutes to actually type something up but I need to get going on dinner. Bye!