Long time, no see...

It's been over two years since I posted on my blog. Maybe it's because I've been busy. Maybe it's because I've been lazy. Maybe it one of a million reasons that kept my voice silent.Most likely, it's because I was afraid that every thing I post would turn into a negative post because of how negative I have felt. But now I'm ready to jump back in. Or maybe I'm ready to dip a toe in the water and see how it feels.

I tend to avoid saying the personal shit. Mostly because one of my favorite pastimes is watching drama on Facebook so I know others are watching for it too. I belong to entire groups where we just post to send each other to check out other people's drama, then discuss it to death. I'm not sure what this says about me as a person. But I feel like sometimes that what I see on the computer or phone screen is what's really happening in a real person's life.I know I'm not alone in forgetting this. 

My daughter has been having some issues lately. Recently she ran away from home  I used Facebook as a tool at the time and it panned out. I was able to find her because of people sharing on Facebook. But I was absolutely astounded at the reaction. So many people sent me messages asking what happened or what was going on and why she would run away. People I don't know, or barely know thought that they needed to be a part of very private details of my life. People I haven't spoken to in person since the second grade sent me private messages asking for details. Strangers did the same.

Maybe it's the down fall of social media. If I've sat at home on a Saturday night and watched your very public break up the I feel like I know you a lot better than I do. If you post things that I relate to and I give the status a like, in my head it's almost like we've had a conversation and bonded over this feeling. This tricks people into thinking that they're closer to someone than they think. Because if I post a funny meme that relates to my life, yes I check to see which people like it,but a week from now I'm not going to remember that someone liked a majority of what I post so obviously this means we should be good friends. But on the other side of it, I'm going to notice when a person posts only things that I relate to and wonder if they would make a great friend in real life. 

I've had entire conversations with someone on a status and then not felt comfortable enough to say hello to them in the grocery store a week later. But I've stopped myself several times from asking someone if they're ok because I realize that I don't know them all that well and my friendly gesture might be taken as me fishing for details.

Social media has its bright sides too. I've reconnected with people I barely knew in high school and found that I've had way more in common with them than I thought, and wished that we'd been friends all of these years. I even ended up helping to plan my high school reunion, and no one who knew me in high school would have predicted that I would ever willingly even attend that thing.

In a way I'm a little envious of the kids growing up in this time. I've managed to make friends all over the United States and even in England and Australia with things in common with me that no one else would understand. Like being a mother of triplets, or a huge fan of a TV show that only lasted 4 seasons 10 years ago (Veronica Mars).

I sort of went off on a tangent. I planned to make a point at the beginning of the post and then move on to what I wanted to say but it seems to have turned into a post all on its own. The perks of being a writer I guess. So I will save the rest for a future post. 

To bring this full circle I will end this post by saying the usual promise that I plan to write more. But also saying that I plan to write some personal things here. I don't plan to be dramatic, or post a public break up. But I don't plan to post all fluff anymore. It's exhausting trying to seem that perfect and happy, and no one needs that anyway. 

The blogs I read the most are the ones with REAL moms, moms who say fuck a lot, and admit that they aren't perfect moms.The ones who admit when they have a bad day, or that their kid is acting like an asshole.

The winter break from hell...

Winter break is a time of year that a lot of kids (and sometimes their parents) look forward to. I am usually on the fence about it. I usually hope that its far enough away from summer that they don't remember all the ways their siblings wronged them then. I hope that they have been so busy with school and plays that they have missed their siblings and are looking forward to spending time with them rather than fighting the whole time.

Our winter break started off with a small hiccup in the form of a cancelled baby sitter. I asked around and all of the usual people that I would trust leaving my children with were sick. Luckily, my mother happened to stop by and was willing to stay with them.

On the 23rd my husband's ex called. Stormy and Braydon had been with her for a couple of days, she called to tell us that Stormy wasn't feeling well, and she wanted us to meet her at the ER. Stormy had a slight fever, and had been complaining that her ear hurt. His ex decided to take her in because Stormy's ear had started leaking. It turns out that her ear drum had popped. Three hours later we left the ER with a prescription and a Stormy who was looking forward to sleeping in her own bed.

Christmas Eve was when the real fun started. Alex (the husband) started throwing up that morning, and so did Josh and Eric. We managed to power our way through our Christmas Eve traditions. Luckily, (for the first time ever) we had gotten everything ready early, so all we had to do was set everything out and go to bed.

Christmas day was ok. We didn't have anyone that was sick, and we felt well enough to visit our families. Sorry if we left behind germs, I didn't know what I was dealing with at that point!

Every single year for the past 14 years I have had a party on Christmas night. A bunch of people get together and get drunk to celebrate the fact that Christmas is over. Due to the fact that I was feeling pretty crappy Christmas night, and the fact that they were predicting a huge snow storm that night, I decided to break tradition and cancel the party.

I think we had one get sick early in the morning on the 26th, and the baby had a mystery fever on the 27th. We had one randomly throw up on the 28th. The 29th everyone seemed well so Morgan went to hang out with her best friend and I went to hang out with her mom. It wasn't long before my husband started texting me about Sidney (the baby). He threw up all over his bed, then fell off the couch!

I was feeling pretty crappy on New Year's Eve. I ended up laying around most of the day, not doing much. Alex and I ran out at around 6 or so to get dinner. We grabbed some Little Caesar's pizzas for the kids. We settled in to watch Brave and wait for midnight. We were an hour into the movie when the hell began. Stormy stood up and started walking towards her dad. She got about halfway there before she stopped and puked on the floor. We sent her to the bathroom (where she promptly vomited in front of (not in) the toilet. While we were dealing with those messes Eric quietly slipped into the bathroom and threw up. When we finally settled back into watching Brave, we gave Stormy a bucket to use, just in case. Twenty minutes later she made use of the bucket. Which apparently prompted Braydon to get sick on the floor. Then they were sharing the bucket for a few minutes while all of the other kids scattered. This in turn prompted Eric to get sick again, and Morgan joined the pukefest too.

I sort of lost track of all the days after the New Year's Eve vomitfest, but here are the rest of the events between then and today:

-Alex fell over the baby gate, hurting his arm, back and head.

-We tried to go to the bowling alley to cash in on the gift certificate we got for Christmas, only to be turned away for leagues. (Despite the fact that I called before we loaded 7 kids into the van and drove there on the last of our gas and was told that it was a good time to come in and use it.)

-We had to take Eric to the doctor with a mystery rash. (virus related?)

- Had to rush Morgan to the ER when she broke out in hives.

- Both Alex and I have gotten sick a couple of times.

I think that's it. I think I managed to tell you everything.

Of course all of this was on top of the kids fighting and beating the hell out of each other, and figuring out every imaginable way to torture each other. But that's normal every day stuff, right?

Thanks for reading (and hopefully being glad that your break was not this bad)

~Kelli

The Batmobile

Not that long ago I saw on Pinterest where someone had turned one of those Fisher Price Cozy Coupes into a Batmobile, and I just had to do it for Sidney!

It wasn't that difficult!

I started with a Cozy Coupe.

Sorry about the picture, I had already started taking it apart when I realized I should take pictures of the process!

I took off all of the parts that I could, the front wheels, the steering wheel, the top, and the door. 

Then I spray painted the whole think with grey primer. Make sure you get spray paint that is meant to be used on plastic or things won't go well. 

The next step is to paint the car black. I decided to use yellow on the steering wheel and accent pieces. 

I ordered some vinyl stickers online. I set them on top of the side table. Then they disappeared. I ordered some more, then the day that they came in the mail, I immediately put them on the car. So I wouldn't lose them again. This is a photo of me, putting the stickers on the car. :)

The stickers really were the final step. After that it was done!

It really was an easy project. If I hadn't lost the first set of stickers and then gotten distracted by other projects it would have taken maybe one day at the most, and he LOVES it!

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

Peanut Allergies

I'm a big believer in Karma. When my oldest Morgan was in the first grade and the triplets were less than a year old, we learned on her first day of school that she shared the classroom with a girl who was allergic to peanuts. I'll be honest, my first thoughts were of how much of a pain in the ass it was going to be. We were presented with a list of snacks that we weren't allowed to send in with our children, and that included no cupcakes for birthdays!

"How unfair?!" I thought. "My kid has to miss out on bringing cupcakes to school because this girl can't have any?!"

Of course Karma kicked in. I was only a few months later that we discovered that Hannah was allergic to eggs, and that Josh was allergic to peanuts.

My story changed rather quickly after that. LOL

Now I'm that mom who stands up at Back To School Night and mentions it whether I know if the teacher is aware or not. I want to make sure that everyone knows. I don't want to just leave it up to the teachers to make sure my kids are safe. I can't give up that much control!

I've had people who accidentally gave my kids their allergen say "Oh well they only had a little." The amount ingested doesn't matter! If they had no reaction this time, Good! Great! next time could be a different story. Every time they ingest the allergen could be the one that puts them into anaphylaxis!

So I read this article today. I'll link it so you can read it too.

Basically schools are starting to ban peanut products because there has been such a rise in peanut allergies and it's really pissing some people off. I've been there, I know it's annoying, but why are people getting so pissed off?!

Someone made the point that there are autistic children who refuse to eat anything BUT peanut butter for every meal. I can understand that. It's got to be frustrating, but your autistic child missing out on that peanut butter sandwich at that one meal per day isn't going to KILL him.

For some peanut allergic children, just being around a peanut butter sandwich can kill him! KILL him.

I would much rather your child miss that one meal than my child die. If it's the difference between your kid eating a late lunch after school and the other parent planning a funeral, then you're just being fucking selfish. That's all there is to it.

What are your thoughts? Comment my readers. Tell me how you feel.

The article!


Thanks for reading!

Kelli

Accidental mom!

I never intended to be a mom to so many kids. I will be honest, I hadn't even considered whether I wanted to be a mother before I got pregnant. Don't get me wrong, the minute I learned about my daughter's existence, I wanted her. I just hadn't ever thought about that decision before fate made it for me.

Little did I know that she was the beginning of this life.

She was a whole lot of fun as a toddler. The kind of fun where you question on a daily basis whether you want more children! LOL When she moved past the toddler years and started kindergarten my ex and I decided it was time to add in that little boy we had been talking about for a while. Regular readers know how that ended up, but in case you are a new reader, I'll explain. ;)

I found out I was pregnant and was quite happy about it! I knew something was different though, so I saw the doctor pretty early in the pregnancy. We listened to the heart beat and she said everything had sounded great. She listened to my concerns and said that we would get an ultrasound to check everything out but she was sure everything was fine. Fast forward to the ultrasound tech telling me how excited she was because she had never found triplets before! My doctor was so shocked she came to the ultrasound building in the middle of the day so she could see for herself!

When the triplets were 4 or so, after their father and I had mutually agreed that we didn't belong together, I began seeing my current husband. He brought along his two amazingly awesome kids which brought the total to six children!

So when I was again surprised last year to learn that my youngest was coming, it was a little scary! I already had six! Of course, there was never a question of if he would join the family, just HOW. LOL

So I guess I am an accidental mother. People ask me all the time if I am done. I usually answer "probably." I think our family is complete, and we do our best to prevent further members, but what I've learned so far is that if it is meant to be then there isn't a whole lot I can do about it!

Some women with large families made this choice at some point in their lives, hopefully with the help of their husbands! I guess I never actually made the choice. It just sort of fell into my lap, like I'd won the lottery. In the last nine years I went from one child to seven!

I guess my point is this: I'm not sure what the hell I am doing!

I'm not organized the way that someone with seven kids should be. School notes get lost, shoes get lost, things go unnoticed. Today, for example I didn't notice that Braydon was wearing his pants backwards until about six this evening. Things like this happen all the time.

But I try every single day to be the best mother than I can be to these kids of mine. I try to teach them right from wrong and to own up to their mistakes and try to be better next time. I make mistakes. I hurt their feelings. I forget what they tell me. I mix Josh and Eric up all the time. But I desperately love them, and my world wouldn't be complete if any single one of them were missing from it.

I think that means I am being the best mom that I can be.

Isn't that the point?

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli

The Birdcage

This post is brought to you by my Lifespan Psychology class. The assignment was to watch a movie and relate it to the themes we had been studying in class. When I saw that The Birdcage was on the list I of course picked it. I love that movie! Albert is just hilarious, so of course I chose to focus on him for my paper. I am posting the entire paper below, I hope that you enjoy it!

            Albert is an older man who is having anxiety over his many roles in his life and his satisfaction with his life. His partner Armand owns a club where Albert is the headlining act (as a female impersonator named Starina. Albert struggles with being the star of the show, becoming hysterical in the opening scene insisting that he is too old and fat to go onstage and perform. When Armand arrives to calm Albert/Starina down Albert begins acting worse until Armand threatens to send someone else onstage. Albert calms down, but argues with Armand accusing him of cheating, and demands a palimony agreement so that he isn’t left with nothing if Armand dies or leaves him.

            Starina (Albert) finally goes onstage and we meet Albert and Armand’s son Val. Val seems closer to Armand, and has arrived to inform him of his upcoming marriage. Later Albert rushes to the apartment above the club he shares with Armand and hopes to catch him cheating, and seems disappointed that he doesn’t. Armand informs Albert of their son’s upcoming marriage, and Albert becomes hysterical.

            We see Albert in the role of a parent the next morning as he tells Val that he is too young to be married and asks him to wait. Albert is more of the “mother” figure to Armand as the father, and Val seems to dismiss everything Albert says. We see Albert’s love for his son as he looks through a baby book later sobbing over the fact that his son has grown up.

            Val’s fiancé Barbara Keely comes from a conservative family and their daughter marring the son of a gay couple would not be agreeable to them so she lies to them about Val’s family. Barbara has lied to her parents even to the point of telling them the wrong last name to hide the fact that her fiancé comes from a Jewish family. She changes their last name from Goldman to Coleman. Barbara’s father is a Senator in the middle of a scandal, and they decide to avoid the press by visiting Val’s family.

            Val asks his father Armand to hide the fact that he is gay and convince Albert to go away for the weekend so that he can impress his fiancé’s family the Keelys. Albert agrees but shows Val his disappointment of him for asking this of his family.

            Armand attempts to manipulate Albert into leaving town but his attempts end up making Albert distrustful, and feel like Armand doesn’t want him around. When Armand finally explains the situation Albert is very upset and hurt by the fact that he is being excluded and from this important event in his son’s life. Armand feels bad about excluding Albert and attempts to teach him to be manlier so they can try to pass him off as an uncle to the Keely family. Albert loves Val immensely and wants this to go well and agrees to leave town, but Armand changes his mind and tells Albert he can stay.

            Val’s next request causes even more pain to Albert. Val asks his father to convince his biological mother to join them for dinner. Val feels like Albert is obviously gay, and that Armand would look less gay if he had a mother figure to introduce to the Keely family. Armand goes to visit Katherine, Val’s biological mother, and she agrees, but Albert becomes upset and feels that Armand was flirting with Katherine.

            Albert has been hurt many times by this point, and doesn’t feel like he belongs in his own home or family anymore due to all of the expected changes to please the Keely family. Albert has reached his breaking point and attempts to leave Armand, feeling everyone would just be better off without him. Albert has been arguing with Armand during key points in the movie, demanding that he be given a palimony agreement by Armand. Without this agreement he feels vulnerable, and Albert feels that this agreement would prove that Armand loves and trusts him. When Albert threatens to leave and seems serious about doing so, Armand finally produces the agreement for Albert.

            To me is seemed like Armand was saving this agreement for the moment when Albert’s antics reached a serious point. Throughout the film Albert was constantly trying to get Armand to show him his love, or prove it in some way. Albert constantly fought to have all attention on him, and have people fawning over him, but his true goal seemed to be to get this from Armand.

            Albert is very pleased when he receives the palimony agreement, because it is more than expected, instead of the property and the club being half his and going to him fully after Armand’s death, the property and club belongs solely to Albert, proving that all along Armand has cared about him in a way he hadn’t seen.

            Albert becomes upset again upon returning home and discovering that Katherine is still coming to dinner and he hides in his bedroom. The Keelys arrive and things are very tense. Armand is struggling to act straight and lie to the Keely family. Katherine is late, and things are just not going well.

            Albert arrives to save the day when he shows up dressed as a woman and introduces himself as Val’s mother. The Keely family loves Albert and accepts them. Eventually the Keely family discovers the lies. Albert is again shown his worth to someone as Val stands up and identifies Albert as his real mother over Katherine. The Keely family is upset but when they attempt to leave, they discover that the press has tracked them down. They escape the press by dressing up as female impersonators and escaping with the crowd from the club at the end of the night. This seems to bond them with the Goldman family and they accept their daughter’s relationship and upcoming marriage.

            Albert seems to be struggling with life satisfaction and role strain. Albert has many roles to fill in his life that of mother, wife, star and meeting his own needs. He has reached an age where he is reflecting on his life and deciding whether it has lived up to his expectations.

Albert is having a hard time finding his place and balancing the roles of being the wife figure, mother figure, and stage star at the club. He constantly seeks validation from everyone around him, constantly resorting to manipulation and hysterics to make everyone prove their need for him. He doesn’t feel important so he makes everyone around him show how important he is to them. This movie shows Val ignore Albert in his role as a mother several times, and dismiss his worth and even demand that Albert be sent away during this very important time in his son’s life. If Val is so willing to do this during an important point in his life it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for the viewer to believe that Albert has valid concerns over his worth in his family’s life.

            I believe in the end of the movie Albert has shown his worth to his family, and they in turn have shown Albert how much he means to them as well. The movie ends on a good note with Albert firmly in place as the Mother of the groom sobbing in the pew as his son gets married. Val’s biological mother is at the wedding too, but not sitting with the rest of Val’s family, showing that Albert is his rightful mother.

            Albert began the movie reflecting on where he was in his life. He was due to go onstage and be the star of the show for Armand, but he is upset and worried about his ability to perform perfectly for Armand, and worried that he has become too old and too fat to carry the show. No attempts to tell Albert otherwise are successful. Only when Armand stops feeding into the hysterics and threatens to replace Albert does he finally get angry and decide to prove that he is the only one who can do it. Albert feels like his life hasn’t turned out the way he wanted because he feels like he has been standing by as the wife while Armand built a successful club and that none of that belongs to him. He wants validation in his life.

            He eventually gets the validation he needs when Armand confesses that the club has always been in his name and that his club and his life would be nothing if Albert wasn’t a part of it. Later in the movie after many sleights by him, Val finally stands up and declares that Albert is his real mother, and he is proud of that. These events finally give Albert the validation that he needs to know that he has a satisfactory life. 

Thanks for reading!

~Kel

Reviews!

I don't wear makeup very often, but for some reason I love to buy it! I check the make-up section every time I go into the store to see what is new, fun and pretty! Lately the trend in makeup seems to be long lasting make-up so I have tried a couple of these products out, and today I will be telling you all about it! There are also a couple of other gimicky things that have sucked me in, and I'll review those too! I'll probably even steal some photos from their website to illustrate my thoughts!

Here we go!

Revlon "Just Bitten" lip stain:

I mainly bought this because I was getting married. Alex always tries to dodge my kisses when I am wearing lipstick because he doesn't want to wear it too. So I knew that the next time I saw this in the store I would be purchasing it for my wedding day at least. I actually love this stuff! I throw some on in the morning, and get a little surprise later when I look in the mirror because I've forgotten that I put it on. I have a red color and a pinkish color. I honestly can't tell much difference between the two. The color lasts 3-4 hours. One end is like a marker you color your lips with, and the other end is like a clear gloss. I usually use sparkly lip gloss with it, cause I like to sparkle! LOL

Rimmel London Stay Glossy lip gloss:

I bought this in "Stay My Rose." The giant poster in the store promised it would last (up to) six hours! I had high hopes. When I put it on I was excited about the gloss wand, it picked up a lot more gloss than other glosses that I have. I applied it before my psychology class. I figured I wouldn't be eating or drinking or doing much talking so it seemed like a great time to test it out. With minimal mouth contact and movement the gloss lasted about 45 minutes to an hour. I was not impressed with this at all. It wasn't worth the added cost.

L'oreal One sweep eye shadow:

I bought this on my wedding day because I didn't have a lot of time, but I wanted pretty eye shadow. It has three colors of shadow, and a giant eye sized applicator. Honestly when I saw it in the store, I laughed and made fun of it. I officially apologize for that. It worked really well. When you follow the directions it does apply in the stripes, and it takes a minimal amount of blending to make it look professional. My only complaint is that like most eye shadow, it only lasted a couple of hours and settled into my crease quite quickly. Which brings me to my next review!

L'oreal Infallible 24 hour eye shadow:

I bought this one specifically to see if it did what it promised. I bought a purple color. Here is the evidence:

This is what it looked like a day and a half after I applied it. I love this stuff! It didn't settle into the creases or smudge up around my eyes and make me look like a crazed raccoon. I even went out and bought another color after trying this one out!

So those are my opinions of these products. As a little disclaimer, you should know that I used my own money to buy these things, and no one gave me them for free or told me what to say about them.

Thanks for reading!

~Kelli