Just Keepin' It Real.

I always laugh when people tell me that I seem so happy. I mean, I AM happy. It's just that the statement almost sounds as if happiness is an aura. Perhaps it is. I don't know. I have always been of the opinion that just because one LOOKS happy, doesn't necessarily mean that they ARE happy.

One of my favorite quotes is from the movie Just Married, with Ashton Kutcher. It's towards the end of a movie and Ashton's character is talking with his dad about life. His dad looks at him (and flow with me here, as I may be completely botching this) and says that you never see pictures in a picture album that are unhappy. The pictures in a picture album are just the bookends of life. They get you from one good scene to the next. The statement makes me smile because I find it an accurate assessment of my life. You see, this blog is filled with all kinds of fun memories and pictures. But in reality, they are just bookends of my life. Hidden between the pages (posts) are real life moments. Moments where I yell at my kids, argue with my husband and walk around in public without showering for 3 days (don't judge until you've had children... then you will realize the value of an everyday shower--ha!).

Today was a day between the bookends. There aren't any cute pictures that were taken today. In fact, I'm pretty sure that if I had a snapshot from today, it would be something that someone would say "EWWW" the minute they saw it. It was one of those days from H-E-L-L. It started rather smoothly, with Drew being a saint and allowing me 15 extra minutes in bed while he fed Brayden and they ate together. When Drew left for work I quickly got Brayden ready for the day, scarfed down breakfast and then went to feed Connor. For some reason both boys were a bit on the cranky side, but I marked it up to just being one of 'those days', and went on with my plans to run a few errands this morning before the rain came. We made it through Target, at which point Brayden decided to talk every single minute. The talking is ok. However, the talking soon morphed into whining. I still didn't think anything of it at this point, so we continued on to Sam's so that we could get the tires rotated on the CR-V. We were about half way through the shopping trip and my nerves were FRIED. Whining, nagging, and "mommmmmmmeeeeeeeee" over and over and over again. I really thought to myself "am I about to be one of those parents who makes a fool out of themselves for going postal on her kid in public?" It pretty much took everything in me not to snap Brayden's head off. About the time I started questioning my sanity (or what little I have left at this point), Brayden started shivering. We were drinking an icee together, so being cold wasn't a huge surprise, but he was shivering like whole body shaking shivering. He seemed warm, but I couldn't tell if that was because I was holding the icee cup. It was getting close to lunch time anyways, so we headed up to the front of Sam's to grab some pizza. Normally B eats an entire Sam's slice of pizza (which is equivalent to 2 slices of normal pizza)... he refused. That's when I knew... he was sick. It was about this same time, of Brayden refusing food, asking for a nap and repeatedly yelling in his whiniest voice "MOMMMMMEEEEEEEE" that Connor started crying because he was hungry. So there I sat, pizza in front of me, trying to convince Brayden to eat, trying to balance a bottle to feed C in his car seat, and wondering if I would get to eat at all. Our car was still in the shop at this point and I was praying to the good Lord that it would finish quickly, as we were pretty much in meltdown 2011 for both boys. Connor decided that 3 ounces was enough to satisfy his pallet (he normally eats 6 oz at least), Brayden decided he was all done with pizza and drink and would take on screaming "mommmmeeee" as a full time hobby. People were staring at me. Now, I normally am not one to really worry about what other people think. But as my nerves were unraveling by the second I realized we could have an ugly scene on our hands. So I rushed to the back of the store to grab the refrigerated goods we needed, and rushed back to the front of the store to do self checkout. In my attempt to be speedy at checkout, I knocked over my FULL Dr. Pepper in the buggy. Normally this wouldn't be a big deal, but my diaper bag weighs about 50 pounds (Drew says I pack for the apocalypse) and was giving me a neck ache, so I had put it under the buggy. Which means that the Dr. Pepper that spilled out (about a 1/4 of the cup) fell into the side pocket of the diaper bag. Looking back now, I can say that atleast it fell in the side pocket. But still... we were in meltdown mode and the last thing I needed was for my freakin' Dr. Pepper to spill in the bag. I grabbed the burp cloth, wiped things down as best I could and prayed no one would get behind me in line (which they didn't), finished checking out and went to get the car. I must have had "annoyed, frazzled, about to explode mom" written on my face, because the sweet guys at the Sam's tire center parked my car right next to the door at the club for me so I would have to run across the parking lot in the rain with the boys. Both boys were asleep before we even got out of the parking lot, and I made it home in one piece. I did eat cold pizza today for lunch, but at that point I just needed nourishment so cold pizza had to do.

Brayden WAS running a fever by the way. 102.7. It broke with ibuprofen, but came back as quickly as the meds wore off. The guy just doesn't feel well, which is a bummer. A bummer for me too because tomorrow is supposed to be Mother's Day Out, but that's obviously not happening. Considering this is the second to last one of the year, I am pretty bummed about it. Thankfully Drew is an amazing husband and came home exhausted, but let me leave for some sanity tonight since I'll have both boys all day tomorrow. I went to none other than Chick-Fil-A for my sanity run, where I sat and ate a salad, organized my coupons and listened to classical music. :)

All of that is to say that it's not all happy days around this neck of the woods. And that's ok. It wouldn't be as interesting if we didn't have drama from time to time. So enjoy the bookends that are shown on the blog, but know that it's not all fun and games around here :)