A lot happened on the first day of school

It was also this boy's birthday and he hit the big double digits! I keep telling him to stop growing, but he isn't listening to me.

The day started with a trip for some birthday donuts with Dad. Then, I made some cupcakes for Sparky's class. Then all focus was turned to the birthday night. This birthday was all about Legos. I attempted to make some marshmallow fondant for this little Lego cake masterpiece, but it didn't work out the best. Apparently I am not the Ace of Cakes.

All the boy really wanted for his birthday this year (aside from Legos) was the computer game Spore, but we threw in a few other things as well.

After the birthday dinner, Sparky strapped on his Scout uniform and we headed off to pack meeting where he received his Bear badged and moved onto Weblos. Way to go Sparky!

I think it was a good day. Stay tuned for pictures from his birthday party which occurred this past weekend.

Day Sixteen

A quick rundown of the weekend: On Saturday, I felt myself come out of sleep, but it was still dark out and so I rolled over. Then I started thinking. I wondered what time it was and so I looked at the clock. Low and behold, it was 6:20 am. Wow. I naturally woke up at 6:20. So, what did I do to celebrate? I rolled over and went back to sleep of course. But only until 7:30. It was, afterall, Saturday. On Sunday I didn't set my alarm because I wanted to see if the same thing would happen. It didn't, but I did wake up at 7:30 am. I am really liking 7:30 am. If only that time would work for me during the week. Well today, day sixteen, I woke up at my new weekday time of 6:15. It was hard. I had a long night and my head hurts. Today is going to be a very long day, especially if this headache continues at its current intensity. All that aside, I am starting to enjoy being awake earlier. I still really, really dislike actually getting up, but I am seeing the benefits. I think I shall continue.

He just has his own way of thinking

Sparky: What just hit our car?
Me: It was just a stick hanging down from that tree.
Sparky: Actually, it looked like a dead parasitic vine.

First Day of School = A Happy Mom

The first day of school was glorious . . . for me (oh, and for the kids)! The last month has been rough and I guess I didn't realize how much of that had been due to the fact that we were all just ready for school to start so that we could have a routine again. Here is the before school money shot. This was right before Sparky went off to have his birthday donuts with Dad. You see, Sparky's birthday was also on the first day of school. A fact that definitely put an extra bounce in his step this day.


KK racing off of the bus, excited to tell me all about her first day.


Tiger really missed his brother and sister. I thought he was doing pretty well until he had a total meltdown over something silly and was impossible to console. Seeing the kids at the bus stop definitely made his day.


This picture just makes me laugh. I told the kids to hug because they had been so cute and happy and I must have caught Sparky mid-drama over this hug because he totally looks like he is crying and that KK is consoling him. I promise that he was all happy smiles with no tears. Actually he was probably whining over the fact that the sun was in his eyes (because heaven forbid that I ask him to smile for the camera when the sun is shining).


So there you have it. Another great school year has begun. Stay tuned for Tiger's first day back-to-school coming next week.

Day Thirteen

All I can say is that if the kids didn't have school today, there is no way on earth that I would have gotten up this morning. I have been a very bad girl lately and have been going to bed way too late. But, on a positive note, I have gotten up at 6:15 for the last three mornings. This has made a huge difference in my attitude when I have gone in to wake up the kids. I have to wake them up at 6:30 and it is very hard for me to be nice when waking them up when I am not quite awake myself. Plus, by waking up a bit earlier I am more ready to make their breakfast and lunches.

P.S. KK is a lot like me in that even if she goes to bed early, she still wants to sleep in. She is also a lot like Doug in that she is impossible to wake up in the morning. This is going to be another long year for this poor girl.

Day Eleven

Tiger: Mom, do I like peanut butter?
Me: No, peanut butter makes you sick.
Tiger: Yes, peanut butter makes me sick and chocolate makes me better. Mmmm, chocolate is so yummy and delicious. . .and spicy. It's spicy and it makes me better.


Today I feel as if a black cloud has been lifted from me. Oh yes, school started today. I didn't realize how incredibly ready I was to send the kids back to school. Now only one more week and then Tiger will start school as well. I almost feel like I can breathe again.

Yesterday I totally didn't try to wake up early at all because it was the last day of summer break, but lucky (??) for me Tiger decided to wake up at 7:30 and so that got me going a bit. Today however, I set my alarm for 6:15 and, . . . wait for it . . . I got up, and I stayed up (and it's even darker at 6:15 than it is at 6:30). Ok, granted I had to get the kids up at 6:30, but still, I consider the fact that I got up a little bit early a huge success. Especially considering the fact that I didn't go to bed until 1:00 am. To shake things up a bit, this morning I tried turning the light on as soon as I woke up and it made a huge difference (for those of you concerned for my other half, that man can sleep through anything). Now I just have to figure out some way to have the lights come on automatically when my alarm goes off. That would be an immense help in my waking up efforts.

Oh, and today is Sparky's birthday. My boy has hit the double digits!

Day Nine

I am just going to skip days 7 & 8 because they were utter failures. Moving on to today: Success. I awoke at 6:35 (because it took me 5 minutes to hear my alarm) and stayed awake. I'm not going to lie. It hurt and every part of me was begging to roll over and just go back to sleep. But I didn't, even though it was cloudy and dark in my room, even though it was nice and cool and I was warm and snugly. Nope, I stayed awake. Now the question is, will waking up early become easy? Can it become a habit for me? Can I even do this tomorrow, on my last day of summer vacation? For those are the true tests of this experiment.

Photos - For your viewing pleasure

This year my KK decided to try her hand at softball. I think she had fun, but at the end of the season she informed us that she thought that softball was tennis and that she didn't think she wanted to do this again.

Day Six - I am a lightweight

I haven't been sleeping and so occasionally I try taking Unisom, Tylenol PM, or most recently Melatonin. These are great. They help me turn my brain off so that I can fall asleep, but most importantly when I wake up during the night for whatever reason, they help me actually fall back asleep. The problem is that they stay in my system forever and make it extremely hard to wake up in the morning which is why I don't take them very often. I am a serious lightweight when it comes to sedatives. In fact, a dose of Benedryl knocked me out right after I gave birth to Tiger and anesthesia works amazingly well for me. Anyway, I have taken Melatonin quite a few times this week and I tell you, it is making it really hard for me to wake up in the morning. I don't think I would be up right now if it weren't for the fact that Tiger woke up early. So, I think that if I am going to be able to succeed in Operation Wake Up Early, I will have to stop taking my little happy pills. The whole point of this is to get my body into a better and healthier sleeping pattern anyway. So here's to optimism (raise glass and . . . clink).

Day Five

I really need to go to bed earlier. That is a huge downfall for me in this whole trying to wake up early thing. Today I have to say that although my eyes were technically open around 6:50 this morning, I didn't technically get out of bed until around 8:15. I just didn't want to. I really just wanted to roll over and go back to sleep. It is just so hard to convince myself to get out of bed when I don't think I really fell into a decent sleep until around 4:00 am and nobody else is in the house is up early either. Perhaps I should try to enlist Doug into this little experiment of mine? Hmmmm . . . Somehow I don't think he is going to go for it. I have to say though, that on the mornings this week that I have been awake earlier, it has been much easier to get out of the house at a somewhat decent time. That is an aspect of this that I definitely like.