Casey on the Case AKA Mommy Extraordinaire

Archives:

April 2012

May 2012

-- Sack 'O Beans

-- Decisions, Decisions

-- That Darn Disposal!

June

-- A Funeral

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Sack 'O Beans

Friday, May 11

You know that saying, "April showers bring May flowers"? Well, I wonder what May showers bring. It has been raining most of the day, and now it's a raging storm. It is late, a little after eleven.

There was this HUGE clap of thunder and then lightning struck, and it set our alarm off.

Our alarm is loud, which I suppose it should be, but sometimes I think it's absolutely too loud. I guess that's a motivator to haul ass out the house in a real emergency just to escape the noise. Anyways, once Chester reset the alarm, and got me two aspirin, he got back into bed and settled in again.

About two minutes later, our bedroom door creaked open…

Our door creaks. It is in desperate need of some WD-40 and a paint job…and some new hinges…

Crap, now I'm going all Home-Depot. I never get tired of that store. Our house was built in 1949, so it's pretty old. While most of it is refurbished, there's still some handy work to be done every once in a while.

So.

Our door creaked open, and here come the kids trailing in one by one, Samantha first and foremost because it's ladies first, then Adam, and then Matty came hobbling in, crying and holding his arms out because he was afraid of the storm. Chester got up and picked up Matty and he calmed down the moment he got some attention from his daddy. He was still whining though, and he was missing his pacifier, but Adam and Samantha, however, came prepared.

Adam had his favorite stuffed frog, and Samantha had her blanket and cup of water in her hands.

Yep, it was Camp Out In Mommy and Daddy's Room Night.

And now, here we all are, huddled in the bed, the kids between me and hubby. Yep, we've got a sack 'o beans and it's so great, although it makes Mommy and Daddy Moments kind of difficult because we have to reach over the kids to kiss or hold hands or whatever.

But it's kind of funny because me and Chester are both up now, and he's reading a book and I'm blogging, and it's not uncomfortable at all. The kids are sleeping peacefully, and seeing my little beans make me think of well…beans.

I found this really good recipe for black bean soup, and I think I should make it tomorrow for dinner.

But I remember my Grandma Louise used to go to like these old time grocers in Virginia, and one day she brought home a truck full of sacks of things…beans, pure cane sugar, coffee beans, salt, potatoes. My grandparents owned a farm, and me and my brothers would go visit her a lot when we were growing up. She died when I was ten and my Grandpa Noel died when I was twelve, and we had to give their farm over to another family in need, but before they died, I remember seeing my Grandpa Noel driving up the road in his beat up old Ford, the back of it weighted down with sacks of things.

For my grandparents, things were always simple.

Grandpa Noel would always tell us, "Life is hard, so make the living simple."

I take his advice to heart.

Posted by: SweetieMama 11:39 PM EDT 8 Comments Submit Report Of This Post

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Decisions, Decisions

Monday, May 14

Little kids are picky.

It's just in their nature because trying new things is a part of that stage in their lives. Of course, the choices they have to make are not that serious, especially when it comes to their little taste buds, and sometimes I envy them because for my little ones, things are just that simple.

Unfortunately, I am an adult, and I must make some tough decisions and Chester has to make some tough decisions that will impact our marriage, our kids, the way we live. Neither of us can afford to be picky when it comes to our responsibilities. We can't pick and choose what we do and do not want to do.

So…

About two months ago, Chester told me something concerning our kids that I didn't know that he wanted to do before. We talked a lot about having children and how we wanted to raise them even before we got married.

We wanted to raise them Catholic, we wanted them growing up knowing their grandparents, growing up open-minded, we wanted to raise them knowing about their heritage, and of course raise them to read and explore their world.

We never talked about school.

I had my own ideas, and he had his.

I naturally just thought that sending them to public school was best because I went to public school when I was growing up, even though it pains me to think about the first day Sam and Adam go to school. It's a sign that they are growing up.

Samantha will be five next year, and I was thinking, okay, straight to kindergarten at public school.

Chester was thinking home school.

Boy if that wasn't the BIGGEST curveball ever.

I had no idea, and I was truly, utterly, completely shocked.

Home school??

We had a discussion about it, and I asked Chester what gave him the idea that home schooling would be good for our kids, and he said that he didn't want our beans in public school because even though we're in a pretty good district, it's still over crowded and the middle school and high school are not exactly up to par. Of course, middle school and high school are years away, but he has his heart set on home school and I just can't wrap my head around it.

I was thinking that for elementary, we can do PS 78, but then consider Catholic schools for middle and high school. Chester was 100 percent not going for that. He has his heart set on considering home schooling, and all I can see in my mind is our kids becoming hermits in our house, afraid to go outside and all pasty and over achieving nervous introverts.

Chester laughed at me.

It's definitely safe to say that we had our wires crossed.

We talked about it more, and I started to like the idea because our kids are very intelligent (okay, I know that sounds kind of biased because I am their mama after all, but they are really smart, thinking kids) and I honestly think that they will be bored with sitting in a class room all day.

I also started liking the idea because Chester and I both want to raise our children to be good, faithful Catholics, and have those Christian values in them. They can't get that in public school and their souls are very important to me. Even with Catholic school, I think it would be confusing to them because it's so traditional.

Our parish is rather progressive, and it still references the core Catholic values, but our parish embraces a different concept about prayer and confession and the saints.

So, in my mind I've kind of compared and contrasted my children's personalities in accordance with home school versus public school versus Catholic school.

I feel like I a lawyer all over again and secretly, it gives me a bit of a thrill and…I can't believe I just admitted that.

God, why does this have to be so hard?

Well, this does concern our children's futures in education

I guess my main concern is will I be a good teacher.

I know that Chester would love nothing more than to be the teacher, but we both know that's impossible, so from the get go, it was left up to me.

He of course said that whatever I decide will be alright with him, he just always thought of home schooling as an option.

I have no idea what to do.

I've been praying about it, waiting for the right answer.

Blog moms out there…any advice?

Posted by: SweetieMama 10:04 AM EDT 25 Comments Submit Report Of This Post

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That Darn Disposal!

Saturday, May 19

So, as you can guess, the disposal is a piece of crap.

It's completely…ugh.

I've been feeling pretty crappy lately myself, and while Chester and I have our disagreements every once in a while, it's not often, and it's not over little mishaps like this. We rarely argue about anything, really because Chester is just a calm, rational guy. It takes a lot for him to get angry, and I've only seen him get really angry maybe one time since we've been together which is such a blessing upon him because I know that I can be a rather frustrating wife.

Anywho, I wake up this morning as usual, only I feel all sluggish and just yucky, but I decide I'm going to press on.

So I go downstairs to the kitchen and I'm greeted with this awful smell.

Immediately, I go over to the culprit: the disposal.

Not even those scent pearls are working, and Chester swears up and down he can't smell anything, but I sure as hell can, and it's bugging me.

I turn on the hot water and drop a few pearls into it, and turn the disposal on, but then, the other side of the sink begins to back up and I can see dirty, mucky water with food bits floating around in it.

I am completely disgusted at the smell, and the kids are in the kitchen and Adam and Sam are pinching their little noses, saying "Stinky mommy!" rather happily when it is not I that is stinky.

Chester had come downstairs, and were it not for the broken disposal and my crappy mood, I would have found his dripping wet half naked body very appealing, but not this morning.

He was clutching his towel around his waist and he was looking at me like I did something wrong and I was looking at him like, "Are you going to fix it?" and that's when our morning tiff began.

So now, here I am, watching hubby put in the new disposal because try as we might, we couldn't save the poor bastard thing, so in the dumpster the old disposal went. We're both still upset at each other from this morning, and he'd left the house and headed straight for the hardware store.

It's really stupid that we're mad about a silly disposal.

Right now, I'm starting to see the sweetness of the whole situation because this is turning into a learning opportunity for Adam. Adam is right by his dad's side, watching intently and handing him the tools that Chester needs.

I can't hardly remember what else we argued about. In a marriage, arguments over little things are often the result of being frustrated over something much bigger, and we both just stopped, knowing that there's something going on between us.

I think we're just both in a funk today, because I certainly can't pin point exactly what's going on between us, really. Chester is a good, faithful husband, he's an excellent hands-on father…there isn't anything in particular that he has or hasn't done…

I guess it's just one of those days, and as long as we don't go to bed like this, I think we'll be fine.

Posted by: SweetieMama 1:43 PM EDT 6 Comments Submit Report Of This Post

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A Funeral

Thursday, June 4

Yes, on Monday, I am sad to say that we had a death in the family.

The kids were absolutely devastated and they still are, even a couple of days later.

Bupkis, my dad's beloved old bloodhound mix, died on Monday at the animal hospital. He hurt his leg really badly a few weeks ago, and I do believe that's when he just kind of gave up. My dad said that Bupkis was whining and biting away at his leg and he took him to the pet hospital. Bupkis was in a lot of pain, and he was too sick so my dad had to put him down.

We all knew that it was only a matter of time before he died, but my beans were so heartbroken because they loved Bupkis with all their hearts.

Adam and Sam were asking us why Bupkis had to die and then it lead to questions about dogs going to heaven…

So we gave Bupkis a funeral, just to give Sam and Adam some closure and some understanding as to what happens after animals or people die.

They are still upset though, and I've been trying to comfort them.

I was actually kind of sad myself because my dad's had that poor dog since I was maybe fifteen, and at that time, Bupkis was already five years old. My dad found him on the side of the road and he took care of Bupkis, groomed him, fed him well and spoiled him rotten.

R.I.P. Bupkis.

Poor old dog.

Now, the kids may be sad, but Adam and Sam think they can outsmart Chester and I. They think they're slick.

I've noticed that they have been trying to parlay this situation to their advantage. They spend a lot of time with their Grandpa, so they felt that Bupkis was their dog too. Well now that he's gone, my beans have been dropping hints about getting a new dog, not to give to Grandpa to stay at his house, but one to stay at our house.

Chester and I just looked at each other.

Ha!

We've got your number, Miss Sam Slick-Chick (because we just know she's the brains behind this latest scheme).

We want to see how far they're going to take this. Results are always hilarious.

Posted by: SweetieMama 1:15 PM EDT 10 Comments Submit Report Of This Post