It's HERE~

We are off for a week plus at DISNEYLAND and CALIFORNIA ADVENTURE and we are sooooo excited!!!!

You know it's almost fall break when....

this is the view into your oldest child's bedroom...just after big brother and little sister finally went to bed, at 10PM... and you just don't even care!!!!!

Anyone thirsty?

You will all think I am nuts. It's ok, my hubby knows I am. He disregards my OCD tendancies and my not so OCD ones, as well. Thankfully he embraces my need to stock-pile for the right reasons. Like, say, 35 cases of Powerade Zero if my groceries are either free or dang near close to that.

Now, in truth, I have to blame this all on my friend Shanen... or hug her over and over until she bursts, just to thank her. She is the one that explained coupon sense to me. Then, my favorite checker at Fry's streamlined the whole process for me and BAM................

Today was the best shopping trip ever for me. EVER......................

Hold on to your wallets............ and Tommy, you can kiss me over and over again...... LATER........ my grocery bill was a little bitty......................

$ 649.52

(Ok Tommy, please inhale...NOW)

At one point, I was actually being paid to buy my groceries. Does that sentence really make any sense? SERIOUSLY. My mom was rather shocked too.

My wallet is proof positive...... I took a $20.00 bill with me today. I came home with $11.35. Yep, I paid a very, "happy to hand it over, in 40 plus transactions".....

$8.65

for all my goodies today. Now some will laugh... but I was actually mad at myself because I would have walked away not paying one single penny... the dink in me forgot diapers for my Pudgie man and I had to fork over $6.33 for a package of diapers (why can't they sell emergency packs of one or two diapers??) and then I had to get a peanut butter and I did not have a coupon for that. There was the additional $2.32. Yeah, I am that much of a freak when I am on a mission like this one. I accounted for ever single cent. The checkers were none too pleased with this chick. Oh well......... So what did I get??????????

20 four packs of toilet paper
62 diapers
lil swimmers
6 bottles of bbq sauce
10 tubes of toothpaste
5 air wick air sanitizers
1 jar skippy peanut butter
32 bottles of shampoo
3 packages of sliced turkey
2 big tubs of omega butter
5 boxes of Honey Nut Cheerios
10 boxes of Stackers Fruit snacks
330 bottles of Powerade Zero
16 bags of cat food
6 bottles of dial hand soap...

The list is insanely long so I am gonna end it there..... I couldn't even take pictures of everything since I had to put it into the freezer or refrigerator and did not want to do the work twice!!!

Not soon enough.....

I nearly crushed Tommy's heart a while back when we were heatedly talking about Disneyland. I quickly snapped, "Disneyland is not a vacation. Not only will I have our three kids to babysit all day, now I will have you to babysit too. NOT A VACATION!" He was sad and hurt. Possibly crushed. I have carried the guilt of that conversation for about 9 weeks now. I am so very sorry for those words. I have not felt this bad, about something I said, in a long, long time.

Tommy was not totally understanding that Mommy never, and I mean never, gets more than 10 minutes away from anyone in this family. EVER! I was frustrated and totally not looking forward to Mickey and Minnie and all the junk associated with this, "wonderful and happy," place. Call me a bad mom, a jerk of a wife, a horrible person.... that is me. I don't get 12 hours away to be on "vacation" (at work) from the hum drum of the house and the kids and meals and the dog and the cat and the diapers. Work is never ending..... no matter if mommy has a headache, 40 loads of laundry waiting, calls to return, dr. appointments to make, parent teacher conferences, or back pain that would put every single person I know in the hospital. I was just not excited at all. I grew up taking vactions to Hawaii and Tahiti.

A beach, a book, a beer....I'm there.....

Then, something started to flutter in MY tummy. The weeks started getting closer and the kids started talking about everything they wanted to see and how exciting it is that Grammie Diane, Grampie Frank, Grammie Alkire and possibly Grampie Alkire, were going to share in all this fun with us. I was actually looking forward to this trip. I wanted to take my kids to Disneyland and California Adventure. I wanted to take the tourist pictures of all three little ones by Mickey and Goofy and Cinderella. I wanted to spend an awful amount of money in Goofy's Kitchen so my kids could hug Chip and Dale and dance between tables. I am more excited than the kids now, I think.

It is still, what feels like, an endless amount of time away, before these little munchies, I call my family, go on vacation... but it feels like Christmas in our house. Mommy is happily gearing up for Pudgie's first ever, "vacation." Daddy is boucing around like a 'lil guy as well. Jax and Brinkley have nearly and simply, lost it. We are so excited....

We just wish it was tomorrow.

I Love Lolah!!!!

Call me crazy, call me insane, call me weird.... but I could kiss Lolah smack on the lips after today. I love her. I want to squeeze her until she bursts! Lolah is one of my new best friends. I have not seen her for a while. I actually thought that I had gotten her in trouble a few weeks back. I thought maybe she broke up with me. She didn't. She was just hiding. And she was back and full of sercrets, for me, today.

Lolah is my favorite check out lady, at my favorite Fry's. She whispers sweet stuff to me when I am getting ready to do the self check out. She calls me her exercise arms girl. I call her my angel. We have quite the affair going on.

Today she smiled big when I started getting out my 113 coupons. She told me a secret and I had to revamp all my groceries for the day. She was thrilled. She does coupons too. I love her!

I REALLY LOVE HER!

Today she saved me....

$356.01

Yep, my bill would have been

$413.02

and I paid a measley

$57.01

Seriously, when can you buy 156 bottles of Powerade (even on sale the Powerade alone would have been $78.00), 28 rolls of toilet paper, 18 bottles of shampoo and conditioner, 11 tubes of toothpaste, 6 bag of healthy vegetable chips, 2 bags of sun chips, 2 jars of natural peanut butter, 120 ziploc bags, 30 ziploc containers, 2 big bottles of fabric softener, 4 boxes of breakfast bars, 6 crunch bars, a bag of cat food, cat treats, barbeque sauce, and 2 boxes of dishwasher tablets for that? I paid about 4 cents for each item. Can't beat that with a sharp stick or huge baseball bat! I actually could have done even better, but I was stressing about time...since I did 28 different orders. I will be at Fry's again tomorrow in a hot second. That is, right after I hit the gym. I have a goal to beat today's order...with over 30 individual orders. I am hoping for a little over $400.00 worth of goodies to oogle for around $10.00 to $15.00, because I am too cheap on Monday's!!

Happy Sunday to me!

(DID I MENTION THAT I LOVE LOLAH?)

Divorce~

What an insanely difficult word this is. I never understood divorce. My parents have been married almost 40 years. No one in my family had ever been divorced... they literally died married and that was how life as I knew it was.

I knew marriage was sacred. I never took it lightly. The engagement thing I kinda did. I was engaged 6 times. Ok, stop gasping. I knew that when I really found the right man to marry, I would know in an instant and he would be the one and I would want to marry him, yesterday. This is all neither here nor there.

You see, I married into divorce...literally. It has never bothered me. I just never really understood it. I am much better at understanding it now. For anyone that is wondering, no, Tommy and I are not going down that road. We are perfect (well, in my eyes) and I am one lucky woman to have him. He was married before me. He taught me that marriage is not to be taken lightly and got me to trust in the fact that he did not get divorced to be alone. He married me less than two months after he got divorced and I knew that we were meant to be together forever. Again, this post is not about my marriage.

I have wondered for a long time why women stay in loveless marriages. Why they stay in abusive marriages. Why they let their children see the violence of anger or just plain absence of their husband. Why women allow this is one thing I just can not wrap my mind around. I was that cop that went to these calls and prompted these "tough guy" husbands to go ahead and hit me. I begged for it. I purposely took the guy away from the girl even if my partner was the biggest guy on patrol that day. I tried to get theses stupid men angry at me. I wanted them to throw a punch or get verbal with me. I wanted these jerks to understand that women don't need to take this b-s treament, especially from a dirtbag. Funny enough... none of them ever took a swimg at me, and, they only said nasty things after they had been dropped on a floor and handcuffed. Still this is not about me...

This is all about my sister, my only sister, Kelly, who after too many years of abuse, (that I did not know the actual truth about) found the courage and the strength to walk away. She walked away and has filed for divorce. And I am so damn proud I can barely type without crying.

Kelly and I are complete polar opposites. Kelly married young and had her babies and then moved onto the big career. I was so completely opposite I think my parents wondered whose child I really was. I needed the big career first. Kelly had the big wedding and what I really thought to be, the most wonderful life. She hid things from me. I understand it now. Looking back, I see those things and how they were not all perfect and shiny like I believed, or wanted to believe. I didn't want to see those things in my family. I lived it at work everyday...and it just couldn't happen to my sister.

For a long time I have prompted her to leave. WALK AWAY. Take your kids and leave the stuff behind. Stuff is just, "STUFF." "You can buy more stuff," I would tell her. I tried begging her, pleading and then threatening her. I tried to reason with her explaining to her that her daughters were going to think this is how relationships should be and find some jerk that treats them the same way dad treats mom. Then where would she be? Nothing was getting through to her. She was being the typical woman I had encountered on hundreds of family fights. I wanted to choke her myself.

Then she finally broke down and had taken enough from him. It took a long time but Kelly finally admitted to me that she was embarassed that it had come to divorce. She felt that she was letting our family down. She thought that she was the black sheep that everyone would look down upon and think bad things about. She didn't want my mom and dad to think that she didn't try. She didn't want to let her girls down.

My heart broke for her.

It is a long road that she has been traveling. I think she felt that she needed to travel it alone. I still, am not sure why. We were not raised that way and my parents are not ones to ever let their kids fend for themselves. Thankfully, she has taken hold of help and let us walk with her on her road. It is one hell of a road.. as you can well imagine from my previous post about her truck. We are walking it as a family. Helping her when she will let us.

I am sure it is not easy. If life was easy, it wouldn't be worth living. I am hoping that she understands that we are so proud of her. It takes strength to walk away. It takes strength to admit when you do need help and even more courage to leave a life behind to build a new one! We see the joy in her face. We see calm behind her eyes that used to be filled with anger and uncertainty. We see the light at the end of the long tunnel and we see a future filled with happiness.

We are proud and we are behind you 100%.

99 days baby......

Ok everyone....roll your eyes...cringe a little
not ..
wait..
no...
hang on
just...
hold...
NOOOOO...

OKAY...

NOW!



99 DELICIOUS DAYS UNTIL CHRISTMAS



I am already dreaming of decorating



Anticipating 6 trees in the house



Anxiously awaiting nights of yummy candles smelling up my bedroom as I wrap presents into the wee hours of the morning



I love the feeling of Christmas in our house



I love giving



I love the planning



I love the wrapping and making things glitter like I have snow inside my house



I love watching the kids dance around like they really do have butterflies in their tummies



I love knowing that this year...Pudgie will "get" Christmas



I love Prime Rib with my family on Christmas



I love all the lights



I love that Tommy never complains that I decorate until I drop



I love that we have blue trees for boys and pink ones for girls



I love that I have a plan for shopping and it shall not include Walgreen's or CVS this year



I love Christmas!



I love that I only have to wait 99 more days until it gets here!!!

JUMP~WHEEEE

The kids are just loving that we have the jumpee up in the backyard now. I have to admit, Tommy is a little more "Ruley" than I am when it comes to the water and stuff, but we both agree on almost all the BIG rules. Like, for instance...

*Absolutely, do not drink the water*

*Be careful with the baby and only help him go down... don't make him go if he does not want to*

*One at a time*

*NO JUMPING ON THE WAY DOWN*

I have the best kids and man, can they listen or what?

LUCKY....... ONE?

One might say, my nieces are lucky to still have their dad, alive!

One might also think seatbelts save lives.

They do, if you wear it.

One might think you would finally hit rock bottom at some point in your life,

if you continue to go like this...

One found out....bottoms just fall out and then you keep falling.

One might wonder how someone can survive this horrific wreck.

One knows the truth....

One might regret things...

One does not.

One might stop pushing fate,

One just keeps taunting it.

One needs to figure out that enough is enough. I mean seriously...enough.

One has finally figured out,

you don't hit my sister anymore.

One might think people feel sorry for them now...especially after all the losses they have caused...

I, am not that ONE!

Strike a Pose~

Yep, it is official. My hubby is the newest celebrity to pose for the one thing you don't want to get when you reside in that one expensive city we all know and well... you get the picture.

My hubby was chosen as the face of the new alarm brochures that officers will hand out to owners of residences and businesses that are having, oh shall we say, difficulty understanding that it is not a good thing to have constant false alarms on their record ....

a.k.a.

WASTING THE POLICE OFFICER'S (or Sgt's) TIME!!

We can't wait for the actual brochure to come out!!!

Mommy's Math

QUESTION:
What do you get when you cross

7 P.M. with

a 3 year old

7 monster trucks

One Shrek Pubbie with bottle

One water bottle

One big box to carry toys

2 woobies

Huge crocodile tears

The words "Mommy Daddy work, Pubbie schkew (his word for snoring)....PEEEASEEEE in Daddy's bed"

1 never ending death-grip of a big boy hug?

ANSWER:

A push-over of a Momma

and

A big bed fit for a King, in my bedroom, but filled with my little Prince!

An every nighter?

Brinkley takes notice of everything ADULT lately. Some things I can not even mention what she has questioned me on and other things, well they are just funny. Friday night at our party we had a circle of chairs on the back patio with a table in the middle for the adults to sit and talk. I had a candle lit on the table and everyone seemed to just make themselves comfortable and hang out there when they came outside. It was really nice and I liked the look of it so nothing has been moved. It is nothing fancy at all....seriously. But for whatever reason, Brinkley took notice of everyone talking and laughing and holding their drinks in their hands.


We decided that we are going to leave the jumpee in the backyard for now, since the weather is attempting to cool off. So all day long on Saturday, the kids were in and out of the house jumping and playing and sneaking the hose onto the waterslide. It was a good break for Tommy and I, seeing as that we were beat from the 2:30 A.M. bedtime.


Sometime during the early evening, Binky asks when am I going to light the candle? Pudgie is adamant that he wants to blow them out so I don't lite too many lately, but I tell her, "when it is darker and cooler, I will light the candle." Wait, why?" Binky proudly announced that, "from now on, we need to sit in the circle, light the candle and have drinks while we talk amongst ourselves." "Oh, really?" Then she giggles and says, "yes, every night and we have to throw our heads back like this (as she flips her hair laughing and slamming her head into the chair) and laugh at something funny a boy said."

Great.....we obviously had two single people in the chairs Friday night!

I am starting to ponder a firepit for the rock area.... I think that would surprise everyone!

Family, Friends, Fun.....

celebrating friendships, and remembering 9-1-1!

What a fun night we had here at the Jensen house! Tommy started out wanting a "simple" squad party since he supervises a new amazing group of men and women. It slowly grew. And grew. And grew. Considering he ony has 5 people that work for him..... this somehow turned into 10 times that!

What a great night we all had. Tons of kids on the jumpee. Even more kids (ahem... adult kids, that is) on the Wii and playing Guitar Hereo. We had friends from the gym and work and some that we have not seen in forever here. Family and fun just rounded out the evening when we celebrated Pudgie's birthday!

You know it was a fun night when your social butterfly of a little girl sleeps 13 hours straight!!

~Finally...I love it on top~

If you are like me, which most are not (be thanful, be very thankful as Tommy would say)....my housekeeping skills, or lack-there-of, this entire.... hot summer, have been on hold. Seriously and Completely on hold. Don't get me wrong. My house is not a dump...maybe a dumping ground some days, but it is still clean enough for the kids to safely play without catching a serious virus, clean enough to have certain company over and clean enough to just get by before I started gagging....even still, it was due for the window sills to be cleaned and the floors to be completely scrubbed, finishing touches of wall words and pictures put on the walls that have been waiting to be hung for oh, say, two years...... etc. A serious scrubbing and cleaning up after a summer of kids running rampant and me being sick and tired of this friggen heat.

Now, with that being said... a three year old and clean house truly never go hand in hand. (Well, except for one of my friends and you can't even tell she has a child. And I would eat off her floors anyday, but that makes me sad and is a totally different post !!)

The last few days have been so different around our house. I asked Pudgie to find things for me, and he actually did. I asked him to help me clean the floor, and he did. I showed him how to clean the banister on the stairs, and then he cleaned them all. He dusted, he picked up toys, he fed the dog for me, he then fed himself anything he could reach that looked unhealthy in the pantry... he was pretty much...my underage, underpaid hard laborer for the week. And really, what are little ones for anyways, right ???

So, in hindsight, underage laborer, that has no choice if he wants to eat, was a really good idea, seeing as that there are going to be upwards of 60+ people here tonight. Most of them have never seen our house and have been told some pretty tall tales of it. (Sometimes I think I live in the twilight zone when I hear what kind of house I live in from other people!) I always tell people we live in a shack that we are bursting out of it at the seams..... and I hate having any color on the walls and my kids sleep in the toy closet, under the stairs. I know...I'M A LIAR!

So, I love when I get on top of this house. Cleaning things out and getting rid of stuff we just don't need anymore. So nice. Somehow it just makes me breathe better. A little less clutter and lot less yelling makes for a great weekend to come!!!

P.S.

Don't forget, we are having a huge garage sale next Thursday and Friday. You name it...we most likely have it and are gonna sell it. Baby crib, baby glider and ottoman, eliptical trainer, treadmill, leather pottery barn chairs, rugs, dishes, toys, leather benches...stuff, stuff, stuff, and more stuff. (No, I am not selling any of Pudgie's ride on toys ... ahem ... Daddy!)