SNOWPOCOLYPSE 2011~

First of all...I told myself when I started this Blog that I would feed it 5 times a week...I'm not doing so hot!
Busy job, busy lives, blah, blah, blah...HOWEVER, since I have been confined within the walls of my house since Monday night, I may as well get back to it!
Record snow fall, record low temps and patience among the members of this house are about to reach a record of their own!!
Sharing a small condo on the beach is one thing...sharing the space in your own house with no escape route is another.  I'm all for quality family time!! I love to listen to my kids laugh and play together, chase the puppy around the house and break out the baking stone and make some yummy chocolate chip cookies, but ....we are WAY beyond all of that fun at this point.  The laughs seems to be followed by screams of  "GET OUT OF MY ROOM!" and honestly I think the puppy is just trying to run away from us all by now! I've made and helped consume about 3 batches of those yummy chocolate chip cookies and the scale is not my friend any longer!! (The Frito Chili Pie, animal crackers, popcorn and granola bars haven't helped either!)
The once joyous sounds of my children's voices are making me want a Malibu and Diet 7-up before noon! I sware if Nick screams like a girl one more time I may have to put him in time-out on the porch!
Amazingly enough I have had a couple of clients calling about wanting to see property, which I would love to show them if I could get my car out of the garage...how sad is it that venturing out into sub-zero temperatures sounds entertaining at this point!! The more the kids squeak the dog toy the more enjoyable all of this becomes!
On the bright side, my house is in decent shape! Kids have done most of their chores, I have knocked out about 10 or so scrapbook pages and the laundry pile is getting smaller!!  While I do love the productivity that SOLITUDE provides, if I don't get these kids and myself out of this house soon...it could be BAD!

4 minutes is all I really need!

You know those mornings when you look at the clock and think WHAT?!?!? It's what time?!??! My alarm didn't go off!! AHHH!! You jump out of bed like a NINJA and grab your stuff fearing, in my case,  that my ride to the gym would be here in approximately 4 minutes, since the clock read 9 minutes after the hour and I usually get up at 10 minutes before the hour!!
I dash to the bathroom clothes in hand and frantic to run a comb thru my hair and a brush across my teeth and hope I don't get the two confused since I'm barely awake!  To my amazement...not my amusement...I find the the dog in the bathroom, not in his crate...not asleep as he should be!! So with 3 of my 4 minutes remaining I am cleaning up dog pee (GRRRRR!) and not thinking kind thoughts of my 17 year old son who should have been the one to put the dog to bed...**hand over mouth...insert cough...&$*#(#&(...cough again**Love him, but responsibility is sometimes not his strong suit! I digress...pee cleaned up, dog crated, shoes on, dash to the back door to turn on the outside light on, back to the dining room to grab my bag. WHEW! I can get ready in 4 minutes!! I sit my phone down on the table and the time caught my eye just as it had 4 minutes prior...only NOW, I am more lucid and awake and I realize the reason my alarm hadn't gone off! It's because it is 3:15!!! NOT 4:15!!
)(&#@)&$(@*#$ seriously!!!! When looking at the clock in the middle of the freaking night/crack of dawn, pay close attention to all of the numbers, not just the two on the right of the colon! Deep breath....
Shoes removed...workout clothes still on...back to bed. 
My alarm went off just as it should have at 3:50am, and I proceeded to get up and hit snooze a couple of times because after all, all I have to accomplish at this point is putting my shoes back on and grabbing a jacket.  4:15 out the door, just like usual. 
"Extra coffee will be required today" is all I can think of on my drive to Joplin and wouldn't ya know it....the dishwasher at the office is running with MY coffee cup in it! And if you read yesterday's blog, you know how much I love to be without that!! Good Grief!
Me and my expectations...

Routine Challenge...

3:50 am...alarm goes off...I hit SNOOZE! Like 5 more minutes makes a difference, but I will take it.  Gym clothes on, freshen up, grab my water bottle, my ipod and head outside to meet Jacy.  Routine weekday!
As much as I have fought the word "routine" over the years, I will have to admit that after 34 years I am starting to get the Warm Fuzzies for it.
I'm not a planner.  I don't want to know what is going to happen at every turn, I don't need a play by play...I actually get annoyed at too much detail, BUT... my alarm clock going off at the crack of dawn, my trip to the gym at 4:15, my workout that begins at 4:30...ahhhh, I love love love it! Home, shower, get ready for the day!! It seems weird to me that it took this routine to get me into so many other routines!
After 14+ years of marriage and 4 kids I have FINALLY made and enforced a "Chore Chart"...now THEY have a routine! And it works!!  My house has been cleaner, my mood has been calmer, and there has been far less drama! Who knew!
My work focus has been better! Not that there is much control over real estate and the endless adventures that it brings, but I have created a "routine" there also...I scheduled my days off for the ENTIRE YEAR , I made a routine of being off by noon every other Thursday, and of planning ME time! Before exercise taught me routine, the only consistant thing I did every day was drink out of the same coffee cup! (And heaven help you if you tried to steal it from me!)
I wonder why it has taken me so long to realize the peace that a routine can bring? Why I was so resistant to it for so long? How I raised 4 kids with no nap schedule or strict bedtime until they were school aged?  Live and Learn I suppose...I'm learning!!
So what next? What else can I schedule? What more can I control? CONTROL??? OMG...I just related the word ROUTINE and CONTROL...And with me being a CONTROL FREAK this makes perfect sense! This could be bad! Hehe!
Look out world...I've got high expectations!

I'm getting with the program!

I've been told a million times that I needed to start to a blog...so after the 1 million +1...I'm here!  For personal entertainment? For professional exposure? For a new forum in which to place my soap box?  Not sure which direction this will spin...but spin it will!
Until then...