Then I got the text message that the youngest had forgotten his PE uniform. Semester just changed so it’s an easy forget. BUT I had to get up and do it right away. And so it began.

From there it was just one little thing after another. Thankfully I had one of my little blueberry muffins at 6am because I didn’t get to eat until 1:30pm! However, that did have to do with the fact that there was a cancellation after my daughters massage and I took it. See, I am totally open to the good things that happened today. I’m just not going to ignore the shit.

It’s the end of wrestling season and I know from last year this is when I’m about to lose it. That would be enough but then add having my bday this weekend ON sub-regionals and I’m just super over it. Next week hubby will be having a talk with the kids. Today I ran all over the place for them and not a single thank you. They need to show appreciation for people doing things for them but I can’t be the one to tell them or I’ll get an eye roll and lose it. I’m holding on by a thread as it is.

Just wait, there will be plenty more. This weekend is my bday and I’ll get to celebrate about 5 seconds of it. I’ve hated birthdays for decades and it has nothing to do with the age I turn. So yes, this is all part of my growing shitty day today. My bday was taken over 14 years ago by my oldest being born the day after (by choice, they wanted to induce ON my bday) and then now and for the next 4 years by wrestling.

Don’t get me wrong. I love it and I will love spending the day watching wrestling. I really mean that. But the lack of appreciation for what I did for the brats today is just setting me off. I know the day has to be better than I’m thinking. If not, I’ll get pictures of the carnage that ensues.

Instead of bitching about how busy I was today I want to post all the things I’m thankful for. I was just in such a good mood and so were people around me. Always a miracle around the holidays.

So without further adieu…

1. I’m glad my daughter still needs me to drive her around. Yes, I said it outloud for the whole world. It would be wonderful if she’d gotten her license on time and so much easier, but I don’t get much more time having her fully rely on me. So yes, I’m thankful for getting up at 5 and leaving at 5:30am to take her to morning practice.  I’m thankful I’m able to because so many can’t.
2. I’m thankful that between us and my parents we could afford to get her an incredible letterman’s jacket with no-holds-barred. It came today and even though I should have done work I ran to the town next door to pick it up and then took it to her at school. It’s just so easy to think back and how exciting it was. I knew everyone at practice would want to see it and she was dieing to show off her graphic she created for the back.
3. I’m thankful hubby got to see our son wrestle today. Even though he lost, it was an awesome fight and he almost pinned the guy. He just needs a few more finishing moves. But killer job for his 4th match ever.
4. I’m thankful for an awesome chiropractic office, Henschell Chiropractor. I’ve been going there for something around 10 years. I love everyone in the office, they are so helpful. Now that my lower back is much better we’re going to work on seeing if we can improve some of my chronic health issues. Then there is my amazing massage therapist Amanda. Even though she usually makes me cry, I’m thankful she can work magic on these horrible knots I get. If you stop in there tell them I sent you!  You can just say Val or even just my blog, they’ll know lmbo
5. I love the customer service I ran into everywhere I went. Not just great service, but happy people too. THANK YOU!
6. I’m thankful for coffee and sushi, no not together EWWW.  My fav teriyaki place just started serving sushi too. I’m in heaven.  It was amazing and they have some very different combos that I’m looking forward to trying. ALSO, they are now open on Sundays! That is typically the day I don’t want to cook at all after such a busy week of running around.
7. I’m beyond thankful for my husbands job that he loves, that gives us great insurance (pays for above chiro and massage) and pays the bills so I can be here for all my families needs.
8. I’m thankful that my sites are allowing me to keep being home and pay my bills, which leaves me open to do all of this running around as well.
9. I’m super thankful that after a long day of running around I have these fuzzy fleece jammies to melt into and a nice glass of cab from right here in Washington.

A wrestling Mom’s tale

It’s the day before Thanksgiving and all through the house,

Not a creature was pushing to be a tiny mouse.

Wrestling weigh ins causing a long food time gap,

The dilemma to enjoy dinner or just take a nap.

One child trying to gain, another working to lose,

Then me in the middle of the food dilemma blues.

I remember the reason we stopped visiting family on this day,

It’s too difficult to say no to the stuffing, taters and buffet.

A long line of wrestlers we do come from,

But they love to heckle from being under prior thumb.

To all the wrestling moms, I bid you adieu,

I’ll see you at state where you can kiss my butt too.

Yeah, I’m poetic like that. I started out all nice and ready to post this on my “mommy” blog. But then I couldn’t help myself. My personality came out so it immediately got copied to my “momma” blog. Yes, this is a Val Selby original so don’t steal it cause it’s obvious.

A zillion years ago I use to write poems all the time. My parents have a ton of them. See how stupid my brain works?

I believe I was still MIA around here during last wrestling season. This is when my daughter decided to wrestle as a sophomore and found a true sport passion. It’s incredible to watch, especially since I’m a wrestling junky to begin with. I don’t even have to know anyone on the mat and I’m yelling and screaming lol If she had to wait to find her sport, I’m so very thankful she picked one that rocks!

So you’ll be hearing more about wrestling. My son also decided to join in at the middle school this year. I’m pretty sure it was to show up his sister, but hey, competition is good. Plus, the conversations in the car after practice bring literal tears to my eyes. They try to one up each other about mat work, but they also explain and learn from each other. It’s just plain awesome.

We done did right somewhere. (sniff, sniff) Now go kill em. Oops, my redneck showed

Yep, these are my big dates for Halloween. Hubby is working and both the kids went to friends houses. I have 2 more hours before I go pick them up. I’m feeling really unfestive and even turned the porch light off. I usually love Halloween, but it’s really different this year.

For one thing it’s on a school night so that stinks. Then the kids are just too old to trick-or-treat anymore. We did get some costume stuff for the youngest, but the oldest is just at a get-together at her boyfriends house with some friends. eww, that’s weird to type!

I had big plans of sitting here watching horror movies and drinking some wine, but then I remembered I have to go out and pick the kids up. arghhh, spoiled plans. I watched The Crazies, but now I’m bored with scary movies which is not normal. I’m in a funk So I’m catching up on Grey’s Anatomy and Private Practice instead lol Yet another fun-filled holiday!

But it’s impossible to believe she’s hit 15. As a summer baby, it means she only has 2 years left before graduationg. BLEH, OMG, WOW, UGH, YAH lol We’re working on her getting a lot of college courses completed before graduation and she won’t get into drivers ed until Novemberish. We’re doing ok I think.

But with her bday and the week of her on vacation I’m in a fit of denial. My oldest is 15 at 1:26pm. I’m way too young to have a 15 year old, R U Kidding me?!!!

We have a fun evening planned just the 4 of us which will be expensive as hell and FUN AS HELL! I’ll try to remember to take pics, I’m horrible at that. Then we’ll have a family BBQ that my aunt and her hubby are in town to attend so they’ll bring their grandbabies My parents are coming up and bringing her laptop for sure. Can you imagine your grandparents giving you a laptop for your bday? I can’t and yes, I’m jealous. But, this is why we never moved away. My parents want to be and ARE the grandparents I never had. It’s very cool. My parents are there for way more than just stuff. My kids have a completely sick relationship with their grandparents that I can’t even relate to. One of so much joking and they know each other so well, definitely not what I grew up with.

Anyway, I’m excited for my daughters bday. I’m excited to plan her sweet 16 next year even though hubby has no idea what is necessary. lol I’m happy with what we got her and I can’t wait to take her on her family day

My youngest is a little over 12.  I’m sure he’s officially taller than me, but I refuse to measure until tomorrow so I can blog today/nite with no official knowledge that I hit shortest like I always knew I would.

I’m 5’6″.  I’m was shortest in my immediate family growing up.  No idea why as my male cousins are tall, it’s just us female cousins that are shorter than our parents.  WHAT?  There’s a chromosome study ready to go!

But hubby is 6’3″ at his tallest and my cousins and brother are over 6’4″.  I know son will be tall.  Cool thing is he’s comfortable in his skin.  But right now it’s hurtin as he grows.  It’s just so fast.

Old moment happened when he told me that he couldn’t believe he was taller than me and he never thought it would happen.  WHAT?!!! Holy shit, I’ve known it would happen and sometime around this age as well. lol  Did I not pass that on well enough?  Guess not or he wouldn’t be surprised by it.  DUDE, you are going to be tall.  It’s why we talk about your weight training.  We’ve got to add the muscle to your speed, agility, endurance and height you already have.  Very few can put it all together at 12!!!  Yeah, that’s my sports star in the sideline

Whether getting home from work, running the kids to activities or getting to our own evening meetings, dinner can sure get in the way. It’s not easy to find a schedule on some nights that is perfect for everyone to eat, let alone a time to cook that meal.

I do enjoy cooking, it’s just that being such a busy mom I don’t have the time most nights or I’m too tired to enjoy it. Menu planning and once a week cooking have changed this.

Each week I take a few hours. I head to the grocery store with my pre-written shopping list and then get cooking my main dishes. I can enjoy cooking again and have found I love it even more. It feels great to have all the dinners cooked up and ready to go for later use.

I always toss a couple of the meals in the freezer for the end of the week. This way there’s a quick answer to, “What’s for dinner?” I keep the week’s meal list on the fridge and cross them off as we eat them. It also helps to let one kid pick which meal will be next. Less arguments about eating said meal.

Plan for the week and spend less time in the kitchen!

It’s because I have to think before I post anything. This blog gets quite a bit of traffic now. It’s easy for locals to find, it’s not like I’ve ever been hiding here. The blog name is my username on just about every forum and is my facebook page for goodness sake. But now I feel the need to be careful what I share.

A big thing is I don’t want the kids to be embarrassed. Not like I embarrass them everyday, but I mean truly embarrassed by someone reading something that is about them. My kids are a teen and tween, we are going through some major changes here. Things I’ve wanted to blog about so many times. But thankfully I haven’t. How pissed did I get when my Mom told the town everything about me growing up? Let alone if she’d blogged it to the whole fucking world? Yeah, I’m sensitive to how it could be read.

So alas, that means I have to censor some things and I’m just having a little bit of problem trying to do that since this blog was created so I don’t have to censor anything. I’ll work through it, it just could take me some time and toss me in a new direction here for a little bit. Maybe I need to do more movie reviews? Those are safe

My aunt, Mom and I were on the way home from a meeting (over 2 hour drive each way) and my aunt was talking about how she stays up really late now that she is retired. I brought up how I’m now taking the ambien so I can try to sleep earlier and stay asleep. My aunt was very unhappy I’m taking it and started in about all sorts of other things I needed to be doing. Habit forming stuff. Yes, I know that SOME of my sleep issues come from habits formed. But if I can stay up until 2 or 3am, get up at 6 and sometimes stay up or go back to bed for 1.5 hours and then do it again the next night? If I can do that for over 7 days and not crash? Someone is comparing apples to oranges. This leads me to why I don’t talk about my issues. Everyone has exactly what I am doing wrong and it’s my own fault. K, shut up…I already tuned you out and your mouth is still moving.

This leads me to the title of this post. I knew my Dad always had sleep issues. I’ve tried to pay attention and there is no rhyme or reason to it. But back a few years ago when I’d have a few days of barely any sleep, if I talked to my Dad, he would have had just about the same problem at the same time.

I was trying to explain this to my aunt when my Mom piped in. “You know your Grandma and Great-grandma were always night owls too?” WELL CRAP. I think I remember that Grandma was, but I never put it together. My very cool Great-grandma passed when I was younger so I wouldn’t know she was a night owl. That is 3 generations before me that are “night owls”.

In this day and age we like to label everything with a syndrome or disorder. We’ve moved those that don’t need as much sleep to a new category called “sleep issues”. Previously we just called them night owls.

I’ll be weaning off of the ambien. It doesn’t make me go to sleep but it is keeping me sleeping better through the night. However, I’ve been taking it for almost 2 months now and changed my sleep/wake pattern up drastically. If I don’t take the ambien I will not sleep before midnight and yes I’ll be up before 7am for sure. I’ve been thinking of only taking the ambien on nights that hubby is at work because I can easily stay up all night then.

I’m keeping an eye on everything and I will communicate this family history with my doc when I next meet with her. But I’m leaning towards the sleep not being an issue and I’m forcing something that my body doesn’t want to do naturally. Of course that is my expert and professional opinion. lol

But today was Spring cleaning. Yeah, you heard me right. It’s Feb. 21st and we are Spring cleaning. It’s in the 60′s and not a cloud in the sky. El Nino has been here all Winter and we never did get one. We had such high hopes when we hit the slopes on Nov. 15th. lol What a teaser that was!

I’ll take the kids up a couple more times just because we’ve already paid for it with our season passes. But I have a feeling we’ll be lucky to get 2 more weeks in unless some miracle of snow happens. Again, working on being ok with that.

But as I stood at my kitchen window watching my hubby mow the lawn for the first time of the season I was hit with thankfulness. He’s been home for 4 weeks on Wed. with his calf injury. He barely limped as he mowed the lawn. I’m so very thankful that the injury wasn’t worse and he can still go rock his job soon. I’m thankful he’s so healthy and so strong that the damage was so minimal even though it didn’t seem so at the time. Thankful that because of this he also healed so quickly.

Have you stopped and given thanks for something small in your life recently?