Tomorrow is...

LOST comes on tomorrow! LOST comes on tomorrow! Did I mention LOST comes on tomorrow? I am so excited! :)

I watched a SNL special last night in memory of Chris Farley and it was GREAT! I had forgotten how funny SNL used to be. "My name is Matt Foley and I live in a van down by the river!" Ha! Then Adam Sandler sang "Sloppy Joe, Slop-Sloppy Joe" and Farley played the lunchlady who fell in love with Sloppy Joe and got married. I love it. So stupid, but hilarious!

Maybe I'll have some time this weekend to sit down and write a real post on here. Right now I am sleepy and my battery is dying on Red Fred (my laptop). Til then...

Don't forget... LOST comes on tomorrow night (10pm)!!!

NOT happy birthday....

Did you know my buddy Carmen was born on April 23rd? She and I made a pact not to celebrate birthdays after our 29th, so I would like to wish her a very happy ordinary not-birthday kind of day tomorrow. Not at all happy birthday, you see... just a friend hoping her friend has a good day that just happens to be the same day as when she was born. That's it.

Things they say...

Lily has been cracking me up this week with the funny little things she has been saying. Katie was over here and we were eating dinner with Lily at the table. I was telling Katie about someone we know who is pregnant. Lily chimes in "Yeah, I'm pregnant, too." !!! Just like it was nothing! :) I asked her if she knew what that meant and she knew exactly! She said she had a baby in her tummy. Oh well... I've really fallen down on the momma job, I guess...already gonna be a granny. :)

We went to the fishing lake the other day and daddy pretended to throw her in (it's a rite of passage for all kids in our family). She was not at all upset that he might drop her, but when he finally put her down, she huffed off and crossed her arms and said, "Paw! Now my shoes smell like fish!" Who is this child and where did she come from?

I am so impressed with her vocabulary, too. The other day she used the word "circulation"...and used it correctly! I asked her what it meant and she told me it meant her blood moving around. I was amazed! Sam always says, "Actually..." at the beginning of his sentences. He sounds like Brainy Smurf when he does it. He really is a brain, too. He brought home straight A's again and I am so proud... cause I'm NOT one of those momma's who does her kids homework for him. He does it and I look at it (most of the time). We don't spend time studying spelling words or word lists and he makes hundreds and passes those lists off like it's nothing. I'm not bragging about how little I am involved with my child's schoolwork, because I know I would be more involved if it was necessary, but it's not. Not yet, anyway. You know, I know he is my child and I am biased, but he is just such an all around good kid. He likes to play outside and he learns so much that way. He wants to watch things on tv like animal planet and dirty jobs, which he learns from. He reads without being forced to. He can get a little wild, especially when he's getting attention and he starts showing off, but for the most part, he is mild mannered and sweet. He still has enough child in him that he wants to cuddle up to mom every morning for a few minutes before he gets ready for school. And it still just melts my heart every time he says he loves me out of the blue. I really am proud of who he is becoming.

I've been really busy this week catching up on all the laundry from being out of town last weekend. I haven't had much time to write on here but I have definitely been thinking about it! It is such a release...just like I am talking to someone and getting it all out of my system.

My friend Kathy wants me to go on Biggest Loser with her. She is crazy and I have this fear that with her as my partner we might actually be selected. I definitely need to lose the weight ("Don't you want your hot bod back?", she says) but I am a lot more reserved and introverted than her. She says let's apply and if we get selected it's God's way of saying get up and move! If we don't she says we'll just have to call and make each other exercise and eat better. I still have my hesitations about it but the odds are on my side that we won't get picked and I won't have to go on National TV in my bra and panties.

Speaking of bras and panties, I will close with one more Lily funny that I was just reminded of... I was getting dressed for school the other morning and she was sitting on my bed watching me. She said "Mom, you look so beautiful in your polka-dotted panties and your brown bra." Only Lily.

Catching up...

Well, I have been working hard to get caught up from my trip. I am so sleepy today. I guess it just hit me that I only got around 10 hours of sleep while I was out of town. I have been trying to get back on my treadmill and into the walking again. I am trying walking in the evening because I have such a hard time getting out of bed so early in the morning. It's working out ok so far. I usually have an hour long snack binge when I get home from school and I have tried to replace it with a little exercise. Probably a good move if I want to lose some weight, huh? Anyway, my buddy Greg's grandmother passed away this weekend and the visitation is tonight but Lily has dance at the same time. I think Brad is gonna go.

Yesterday was Becky's first day of maternity leave and I already miss having her here at school with me. There's no baby yet, but I am praying for her sake that the baby will come early. He isn't due until the 22nd but you can tell she is SO uncomfortable. That last week or so was definitely THE WORST part of being pregnant. So Beck, if you're reading, I'm doing all I can for you girl!

Home Sweet Home...

Whew... glad to be back home. We pulled back into the school parking lot between 5 and 5:30 this evening. Our trip, as it usually is, was a lot of fun for the kids and a lot of work for the adults. The kids were very well behaved and I got to know some of them a lot better, which is the primary reason I like going on the trip. I am so relieved to have this trip over with. For many different reasons, most of which I probably shouldn't go into on this blog, this year's trip was extra stressful and difficult to pull together. I am so sleepy now I can't hold my eyes open so I am going to hit the hay. I will try to write more sometime tomorrow. Just so excited to go get in my own bed and NOT have to listen to the people above me wrestle until 3 or 4 in the morning. Ahhh...

A good morning...

This morning was a good one at the Cornwell house. No fights, minimal crying, and we all made it out the door in plenty of time to get to work/school without speeding. I truly appreciate what it is like to have a sense of rhythm and peace in a household (on the days when I actually have it in mine). Tonight we have dance pictures and I have to pack for our Outer Banks trip. We're taking 173 8th graders to the other end of the state for three days.... are we crazy or what? I leave in the morning.

Pound Cake...

It actually is probably more of a bad thing than a good thing but I made my first pound cake last Sunday and it was delicious! So this morning I got up, walked my mile in the treadmill, cooked breakfast and then made another pound cake. I tweaked this one a little and I had a nice warm slice as soon as it came out of the oven. Yummy! I might as well have saved myself the trouble of walking, huh? Anyway, this week when I am stress eating over my overly-independent daughter, I will have something good. FYI, she has been pretty good for a day or so. It is noon on Saturday and we have not yet had a tantrum today.... cross your fingers!

The Power Struggle continues and my nervous breakdown...

OK, so I lost it this morning and left the house sobbing. What a wimp! This morning it wasn't so much over clothes as it was just any old thing. First, I picked out two outifits... pants and a shirt and a sweater dress with tights. I gave her a choice between the two. She began crying because I didn't pick out a skirt. It was too cold for a skirt, or I would've let her because she was really good yesterday afternoon (no fits). So, I calmly told her that she was going to lose her skirts for a long time if she didn't stop crying. She continued to whine (at least it wasn't all out bawling) because she couldn't find her bobby, then she couldn't get her shoes buckled, then her tights were too long, then her dress was hurting her waist, blah, blah, blah... She was wailing by the time we were ready to leave and I just sent her out to the car to sit in it and wait. Then she cried because the dogs ran up to her to say hello and then because the door wasn't already open and waiting in her to climb inside. See what I mean? It is not just clothes... I mean, that's what starts it a lot of the time, but then she goes on to other things. It is really just her trying to get her way. When we started out the driveway, and I was ready to throw her out the window, she got quiet while watching Looney Toons on the DVD player. By the time we got to Grandmomma's she was perfectly peachy. Grandmomma wants to come up to the house and get her ready so I won't have to go through it in the mornings but that is really just stepping around the problem in my opinion (and probably creating another problem at the same time). I had a good cry about it and now I guess I am recharged and ready for another battle when I get home from work. Make no mistake, I will win this fight. I say that as much to reassure myself as I do to reassure those of you reading. You know, I feel like I am never anything but mean but she gives me no choice. I hate to admit this, but I wasn't even glad to see her when she got up this morning and I have always been so happy to see my children first thing in the morning when they are all sweet and cuddly and they haven't done anything to piss me off yet. :)

Yet another...

We had another huge clothes related tantrum this morning. Got all of the family in a great mood to start off the day. Then this afternoon I guess we had been home for about 5 minutes before the next clothes related tantrum started. I honestly am at a loss for what to do about this. I just know I have to fix it because I am NOT (did every one hear me???), NOT, NOT going to have a child who acts this way. If I have to give away every stitch of clothing she owns and dress her in all solid color pants and t-shirts for the rest of her life, I will. And believe it or not, that is the solution I am cooking up in my mind right now. Thinking out loud here... what if I took all of her clothes and locked them in her closet so that she could not get to them, and only allowed her to wear a select few outfits(plain, of course) until this behavior stops? I could make exceptions for church, and maybe dance class and that's it. Do you think that would help? I need something because between Brad and myself there's just not enough patience for this EVERY day. My nerves can't take it. My friend Christy said she heard about a book called "The Strong-Willed Child"... maybe I'll look for it because that's definitely what I have on my hands here, to say the least.