A family of 5, Super Mom, USMC Dad, & three boys ages 5, 7, & 9. This is glimpse into the daily life of raising 3 American boys while living in Bangkok, Thailand.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Thursdays...

Thursdays are not fun days. Thursdays are usually the days that my weekly homework is due so I am usually pretty stressed since I procrastinate. Well, today was not much of an exception. I did however finish one of my classes homework yesterday so I only had one class to finish. Anyways, stressed about homework, and continuing to deal with our townhouse in Virginia. Trying to purchase a dishwasher, get it delivered, and installed when I am living 3,000 miles away from the store is not as easy as I thought it was going to be...long story, lots of coordinating, not to mention they want me to sign something can't email it and I don't have a fax....blah, blah, blah.... THANK GOODNESS we are finally getting everything together so that we can sell the stupid place, which of course is another reason for my stress today. Bottom line I spent most of the morning/afternoon dealing with stuff with the house, the afternoon went just as crappy. Thursday is Karate's at 4:45. I needed to sign Justice up for next month's session so we left at 3:30 so I would have plenty of time. The boys (mostly Brosnan) was horrible in the lobby, then, they didn't have the updated list for the authorization for the colored belt class. After realizing that he was already in the class they decided that they would let him sign up for it again next month. THEN of course they inform me that I need to re-register with the Child & Youth Services before I can sign Justice up for Karate. We still had about 40 minutes before his Karate started so I said sure, I had time. The lady then gathers a stack of paperwork for me to fill out. Stupid & Ridiculous! The EXACT same papers that they already have from last year. I thought I would just have to tell them, yes all of the info is the same and they'd reregister.... There was NO way I was going to stay there with the kids and fill out the pages of paperwork (oh, did I mention I did not bring in Arcadian's stroller because I assumed I'd only be in there for 5 minutes???). So I got nothing accomplished, have to go back next week.

The fun continued after we got to Karate. I made the mistake of letting Arcadian walk (instead of being in the stroller) so he was pushing it successfully into anything and everything in his path. He literally shrieked and screamed when I tried to guide him in a certain direction. I've never heard those sounds come out of him before. THEN, Brosnan, Arcadian and I were sitting at a table playing with some Lego's when Brosnan decided he wanted to go to another area. I said that was fine but he had to put the lego's back. He got upset and threw them on the floor in the middle of the hall. We had a bit of a power struggle, I told him we were not going unless he put them away, he said no, so I made him stand against the wall until he was ready to pick it up. He continued to say no... He finally picked them up, I got excited thinking I won.... wrong... He picked them up then threw them back on the ground spreading the mess out even further. Arcadian started crying, Brosnan was yelling at me telling me he wasn't putting them back. I finally picked them up and headed towards the door. Brosnan reluctantly followed but was screaming telling me we can't leave without Justice... We got outside, he continued to be upset because he wanted to go play in the other room... About 15 minutes later I finally got him calmed down and we went back inside. Life was okay...  After karate was over and got everyone locked in the carseats I realized Brosnan didn't have his robot... unbuckle everyone go back inside....THANK GOODNESS it was found quickly...back to the car, buckle everyone back in and we headed home.  After that things were okay. The older boys watched "Spy Kids 2" while Arcadian and I watched an episode of Blues Clues before bed time.

After about 30 minutes of Justice & Brosnan in and out of bed they finally fell asleep and I was able to finish my homework.  Fridays are days that I usually leave free to do anything or nothing at all. No homework is due, no where to go... generally a laid back day. Tomorrow that is what I plan on doing, nothing but spending time with the boys. At least until they go to sleep, then I have to work on one of my two papers that are due on Sunday.

Did I mention Justice got in trouble at karate today. Him and two of his friends had to stay after class and do pushups for messing around during class. Is this what my life is going to be like for the next 16 years?

JP

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

One of those days....

Wow- Today has been a long day. I feel like I've spent way to much time being angry at the kids...especially Brosnan. He has just been in everything today. Every room, every drawer, every thing he is not supposed to be doing he has done today. Not sure what his problem is, he is usually pretty good.

Today there was a point when I thought the boys were being good. They were in Brosnan's bedroom playing with the big lego's. I checked on them and they were being so good and nice with each other. They wanted me to close the door (not uncommon because of their younger brother), so I closed the door and went back to work at the kitchen table. I heard them making more noise then they should be, sounded like maybe they were throwing blocks and dumping toys out. I said to myself, I'll just let this slide... they are not fighting and I am actually getting a little work done. Big Mistake.... I checked on them a little while later and in the corner of the bedroom is EVERYTHING....  Toys dumped out, everything off the shelves, books...everything. They were even starting to take stuff from other rooms to add to their pile... So, I told them to clean it, Brosnan ran off to another room and Justice whined that he didn't know where everything went. He did try though, but did not get to far before he gave up. It was crazy, and yes, in the end I was the one that cleaned it up.

Then, poor Arcadian. He skinned his toe up and keeps re-skinning it. He sneaks outside every chance he can get and I can't seem to keep his shoes/sandles on him. He came back inside the house after playing in our brief sun break, and his poor big toe was bleeding. I went to the bathroom to get a band-aid and he started running away from me. The older boys think bandaids are the best thing possible and want one for any type of pain, Arcadian thinks they are evil. He ran away crying when he saw what I had. He did manage to let me put his sandles back on though. So he went outside and played for a while then came back in whining...not uncommon... I picked him up and saw that his little toe was hanging out the side of his sandle, which was why he was whinning and wanting me to pick him up. Thank goodness I noticed it because it looked like the circulation was getting cut off :-(  Him and his toe are thankfully okay.

Justice...he was pretty good today. During the room debacle he dressed up in the Dr's play outfit and came out to examine me. It was pretty cute.

Today has just been one of those weird, off days. I think part of it has to do with knowing that we are so close to Justice coming home. 9 more days... I am sure these 9 days are going to take forever, and the 3 days he's home are going to go buy too quick.

JP

Monday, May 17, 2010

            Whoops, it's been a while since I've updated. The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days. It has rained a little bit here and there but it has been relatively warm and the boys have spent the majority of the time playing outside.  Arcadian can open doors now... I'm glad that his motor skills are developing but that means I need to figure out what to do with some of the doors. I can't really child lock the bathroom because the older two need it so they can use the toilet. Although, they pee outside most of the time right now, hmmm. We are actually having some small issues regarding peeing outside. I do not really mind that they do it but Brosnan (and Justice) will pee right on the patio, literally right outside the door. Yuck!  Brosnan also does not quite understand discretion and when it is and is not okay to pee outside. We were at my friends house last week and he pulled down his pants and started peeing in her back yard right where everyone was playing, something to work on I guess. Since I am female, I do not think I will ever fully understand their desire to pee outside.

        My dad came over yesterday to fix my lawnmower. He was nice enough to stay and help me get my yard in shape. We mowed and weed whacked and now the yard is all nice and clean. I suppose I need to do it more often now to keep it looking nice. It was kind of funny because when Dad was out in the backyard mowing, there was a knock on my door and some guys wondering when I was going to cut my lawn. Not sure if they were neighbors that were disgusted by the unkept yard or if they were looking to make a few bucks. Thanks again Dad for coming over and helping! Yardwork is not one of my favorite things to do.

         In 11 days Justice gets to come home for a visit! We are pretty excited about that. It's been 5 months since we have seen him. To bad it will only be for a couple of days. Hopefully by the end of the month we will have a better idea about when we will all be together again! Right now we are waiting patiently.

       I just started my 6th week of the quarter. That means that I am halfway done with this quarter and almost done with my coursework! Today I spent a good portion of the day doing some homework, trying to get it done early since I have 2 papers due this weekend that I would like to start before Sunday night! I worked hard and finished my weekly work for one class today (3 days early)! Tomorrow (after speech therapy, karate, and the park) I plan on finishing the other class so the rest of the week I can focus on the papers.

       Enough for now, it is late, and I am tired. I was up until 3am this morning finishing up my paper. I actually finished it around 1:30 but I think I OD'd a little on caffeine trying to stay awake that I couldn't sleep even after I was done.  Alright... time to go check my bed and see if I have any visitors. A 3 year old has a tendency to sneak in there on occasion.

JP


       

Saturday, May 8, 2010

The Sun is HERE!!

Nice weather has finally arrived...for a few days at least! After soccer this morning the boys went directly outside and stayed there most of the day. We were inside briefly after lunch. Justice and I took a nap on the couch while Brosnan played on the computer and Arcadian slept. Trying to get the kids ready and out of the house by 9am is to early and  I dread it every Saturday morning. It makes me tired for the rest of the day.


I mowed part of the lawn today. Something is up with the lawnmower and it was making strange noises so I decided to stop mowing until I figure out what is wrong with it. I got the boys Big Wheels out for the first time in a LONG time. We have 3. A small 4 wheeler (ages 1.5 -3), a two seater Jeep, and a bigger 4 wheeler. Brosnan likes them, but he would rather play in the dirt. He was digging for worms today. Justice loves the big 4 wheeler. Arcadian was interested in the smaller 4 wheeler at first but once he discovered how to make the Jeep work he spent quite a bit of time in it. It was pretty cute because he would open up the door, get inside, close the door, then start going. He'd stop, open the door get out, close the door. Brosnan got in it one time and he didn't close his door so Arcadian bent over Brosnan to close the door for him.  It is so nice to watch the boys all playing outside. They all have their own interests but every once in a while for brief periods of time they converge and begin interacting with each other. Yesterday they were playing...and this is a quote from Justice..."Brosnan and I run and Arcadian chases and tries to touch us"  That was the name of the game.  I watched them play this and they were all enjoying it. Arcadian never was able to catch up with them but he had a smile on his face the whole time so we will just leave the unfairness as it is for now.


Tonight against my desires I had to give the boys a bath. All three of them were literally covered from head to toe in dirt. The bathtub was filled with dirt after Arcadian's bath so I got smart and rinsed the other two off before I actually filled the tub up with water.


Tomorrow is mother's day. The boys and I will be going up to visit with my mother. I got a delivery from my hubby today. It is a miniature/bonsai tree/bush/flower thing of some sort. I'd be more specific but I can't remember exactly what it is. I'll take a picture and post it someday. Right now there are no flowers on it but hopefully it won't take to long for it to bloom.  Thanks Justice (and my boys), you are a very thoughtful husband.


Off to finish some homework, or give up and go to sleep.... I've been pretty tired today for some reason.


JP

Tuesday, May 4, 2010

Another day...

Today was speech therapy for Brosnan and my weekly trip to Fred Meyer for the staples (fruits, veggies, dairy etc). Nothing to exciting.  Brosnan is doing good at therapy. Today was better than last week. He is more into it some weeks than others. After I got back the boys and I ate lunch. When Arcadian went down for a nap Justice and Brosnan wanted to play with marbles so they went into Justice's bedroom. The first 15 minutes they were fighting, Justice wanted all the marbles and he was not wanting to share with Brosnan. Once they figured out how to share they were good. I tried to get some work done while they were quiet, about 30 minutes later Justice comes out very excited and tells me that he has something very cool to show me. I went and looked and he had marbles stacked onto the lego's. It was pretty crazy! I had to take pictures of course.

This afternoon was Justice's first day of Karate in his new, colored belts only class. I think he was a little intimidated at first. The building was packed. They just opened a new building for the Child and Youth Services (CYS) on Ft. Lewis and now the Karate, Dance, and gymnastics are all held in the same building and classes are going on at the same time (in different rooms). We used to go on Mon & Wed and it wasn't nearly as crowded. So tons of people there and Justice was not really interested in standing in line waiting with the other kids. Once class started and he headed off to the Karate area he was fine. He didn't really say anything about the class afterwards. He said he had fun and got to do some new moves.

After we got home from Karate I spent a good deal of time trying to coordinate our girls night out tomorrow. There are 5 of us going and we are spread out between Tacoma, Orting and Enumclaw so we wanted to make sure it was easy for everyone. In light of Cinco De Mayo tomorrow we will be going out for Mexican food. I am looking forward to hanging out with pretty much all of my best friends from school. 

Enjoy the pictures :-)
JP


Justice was playing with his Daddy's marbles today and made this wonderful Lego/Marble thing.
 
                                      




Here are a few shots of Arcadian's skinned up nose. Poor kid.... He had just gotten out of the bath so it looks a little shinier then normal.
 
And a few misc shots of the boys watching Spy Kids after Karate. Brosnan was posing for the camera.

Monday, May 3, 2010

It was a windy Monday!

I can not believe how windy it was outside today. It was crazy! Today we spent most of the day indoors. The boys ventured out into the wind on occasion but they did not last very long. They were pretty good today. I actually got some work accomplished. The power went out for about 30 minutes. The boys were not to happy about that.  Arcadian was in bed and the older two were watching a movie. The power went out I heard yells coming from the family room saying the TV turned off all by itself. I tried to explain to them what it means when the power is out. The told me that it was okay, they'd just watch tv in another room, or play video games. They were not to pleased when I repeatedly told them, "nope, that doesn't work either." I finally convinced them that their two choices were to either go play in their rooms or play the Nintendo DS's. I figured everyone was calm enough for me to go take a shower and as soon as I got into the bathroom the power came back on.  The boys were very happy!

After Arcadian woke up from his nap I loaded the boys up and headed over to G-Pa's (my dad) house for dinner. Dinner was delicious, Thanks Dad! Nummy steak, salad, asparagus, and tater tots! The boys were crazy, they get outside of the confines of our house and go nuts. Arcadian and Brosnan escaped out the back door when I went to the bathroom. When I got out G-Pa was carrying poor little Arcadian with a bloody skinned up nose. Poor guy looks horrible. Didn't seem to phase him much. Justice finds it a little repulsive though and refuses to look at him. I'll try and get a picture tomorrow. It was good times though, I am still looking forward to a year or two from now when my kids don't go crazy so much. Right now they just feed into each other's craziness. Oh well....It can only get better.

Enough for now, I was up late working on homework and work and now I'm beat. Tomorrow is speech therapy and Justice's first Karate session in his new colored belts only class.

JP