The two little kiddos are sleeping and the two older kiddos are running around downstairs playing happily (for the moment). One of their favorite things to do is to have me print out coloring pages of animals and they make up stories about them while they color them. They can do this for hours. They continue the stories after they're done coloring and usually end up having a whole afternoon and evening of pretend play with their coloring pages. Eventually they end up asking me to staple the pages together into a book and then the book gets filed along with all their previous books. Most of the time their animals names are Lisa - or some variation of that theme. Today they were both perplexed by the odd dressing behaviors of their animals and decided that they needed to talk to the doctor about it since it might mean something was wrong. They had been sending each other to get the answers until I explained about HIPAA and then they gave each other written permission to share information before they went to the doctors. It's quite amusing.

I could get used to sitting here on the sofa blogging. It feels a little more like a 'real' journal, although I'm still aware of the public nature of an online blog. I'm out of practice with real journaling. I talk to people a lot more than I used to. I'm not sure I like the transient nature of a conversation as much as the physical record of a journal, except for one thing: while I like going back over my thoughts and conversations, they can be used against me. By nature my blogs are brain dumps and my journals are raw emotions, unprocessed, uncensored, untempered by time or good sense. I realize that and find it amusing later on, but not everyone does.

In other news, I have a ringing in my left ear that happens every time my kids talk. I swear I am not making this up. Last night it was doing it every time I would talk or hear any noise. Today is seems attuned to my kids' particular frequency. It's very annoying. As if hearing them whine wasn't annoying enough...

Liam is asleep at the moment. He woke up at 6 and I put him back to bed at 7 after he'd spent most of that hour crying. I'm not sure why he didn't just go back to sleep at 6 when I gave him a bottle and rocked him, but he didn't. And so Lorelei got woken up by his tantrums and then neither of them would let me lay on the sofa, so I feel like I've been up for a long time.

I saw robins in the backyard this morning and heard birds singing outside the bathroom window this morning. It gives me hope that there will actually be warm, sunny days ahead. I can't wait to be able to have bare feet and not freeze. (Actually, I freeze even when I do wear socks these days, so it will be nice just to be warm without layer upon layer of clothes and blankets. At night I sleep with a heating pad under me just so I'm not cold.)

I dyed my hair last night. 'Deep chocolate brown' I like it. The actual color didn't change all that much, but it looks richer and shinier. Hopefully it will last for a little while. I really hate my hair cut with a passion, though, so my hair can only look 1/2 decent. I messed with it for a while last night and there's no getting around it: I look like a soccer mom and I hate it! I can't wait for it to grow out again! I've decided that I'm going to let it get at least a little past shoulder length before I get it even trimmed again. At that point my nasty little bangs should be just long enough to tuck behind my ears.

Lorelei is a cranky butt today. She's usually a pretty whiny kid, but lately it's been over the top. She just doesn't seem to get the concept of asking nicely for something. No matter how many times I tell her, her first mode of communication is to whine.

Ug. Off to do misc things. Maybe. If I can get my butt off the sofa.

Ok, so this is just going to confirm how schizophrenic I really am, but I changed my email to brweiman@gmail.com and she feels like a very different person than beccarose@hotmail.com. I'm almost embarrassed to write it because it sounds so silly. Do they seem to represent different types of people to you?

Newness and Oldness

There are a lot of new things in our house lately. A lot of changes too. For the most part I like them all. The most recent is my laptop - from which I am typing right now. The keyboard takes a little getting used to, but it's not too bad. It's a lot nicer than my old one and the best part is, I'm not remote desktopping into AM, so everything goes faster. JJ feels like MY computer instead of a way to get to my computer. Maybe, eventually, I'll even take her into the living room instead of sitting at the school table all the time. :)
I have some fun things I could be doing. We bought some decorations for Liam's room and I FINALLY got mats for my photos (although I already put most of those up). There's also general house cleaning/straightening that could be done, but I'm exhausted today, despite already taking my supplements and eating breakfast and being 1/2 way done with my 'energy' drink. I just can't get moving. Last night sucked. The only kid that didn't get up at least once was Maggie. I was in once with Lorelei, once with Molly and twice with Liam. Bob was up with Lorelei and Liam and Molly at least once each. I'm not really sure why we bothered to go to sleep, especially since it was well after midnight when we finally tried.
Liam is standing next to me fussing. He's been doing that on and off all morning. I think he must be teething again. He's chewing on his blanket more than usual.
*took a break to put up some decorations*
Now Lorelei and Liam are fussing... it's too early for naps, otherwise I'd put them both down. I don't know what Lorelei's problem is today (everyday). She's just so cranky. It doesn't seem to matter what I'm doing. You'd think that Monday's wouldn't be so bad. Especially since I got some major breaks yesterday. But the breaks just aren't long enough. I'm so tired these days, even though I'm not nearly as tired (or in pain) as I used to be. It's still enough to wear my patience thin and make my brain dead.
I have decided that I love JJ and her pretty mouse! :)