Exhausted

The Merriam-Webster dictionary lists one of the definitions of

EXHAUSTED is: to tire extremely or completely

I think that fully describes how I feel.

Another long Sunday morning. We had a 12 top, a 13 top, a 11 top, a 8 top, several 6 tops and 7 tops. It was a long morning.... it didn't last as long as last Sunday but I did get yelled at twice. And the servers seemed a little more needy then normal but that was probably because we sent home two people for showing up late. We are trying to crack down on servers being late and sticking to our word when we say "next time you will be sent home"

We are trying to work out our call ahead and walk-in seating. How it should work is when someone calls ahead a time gets written down saying when they called and when they are expected to show up(some call hours ahead of time). Then when they show up they are fit into our walk-in list. This means that someone who calls at 10:30 and someone who walks in at 10:30, should be sat around the same time. It then will decide who gets priority when it comes to bigger tables, for example a 12 top and 13 top. For those who don't know, I work as a key manager on Saturdays and Sundays. On Sundays I usually work the host stand which consists of seating tables as fast as I can. Normally we have two tables in the restaurant that can seat 6 people.. if you add chairs you can seat 8. We have 9 booths that can seat up to 5 people. We have several booths and tables that can seat 4 and some that seat just 2. Other than that we have to push tables together to seat anyone who comes in with a party of 9 or more.

Today we had a party who called ahead with a party of 13, they said they would be here in 10 minutes and wanted to be sat right away. I asked the host who took the call if they told them that that was impossible and they said no, they didn't say that they could be sat right away either. So when the party showed up the host at the host stand said the wait was an hour(an accurate time for a party that large), she didn't know it was a party that had called ahead. The lady then wanted to talk to a manager and I was there to talk. I told her that I was so sorry that the host had given them that time and that she must not have been informed that the party had already called ahead. I told her that we were sorry if she had been told on the phone that she would be able to be sat right away. That that was not our policy. Those who call ahead are placed on a list and then fit in to another list when they arrive. I told her that we had several large parties ahead of her and that we would get her sat as soon as possible. Whew!

Then later I had a party of 5. Supposedly the lady had come and looked at our list or asked someone where she was on the list and someone told her that she was the next one to be called. Now that does not necessarily mean that you will be the next one called. Especially with a party of 5. She said several tables had been called ahead of her and that her husband is diabetic. I asked her if she wanted us to bring out some bread for her husband, that the tables that I had called were probably smaller than parties of 5 and that is why they were sat before she was or that they were parties that had called ahead. She than said that there were some 6's that were called.(still a possibility... I don't remember her asking me and I think I would have.... .her name was on the top of a list but it might have not been the list I was calling from... which doesn't make her on the top) I told her we would get her sat as soon as possible, luckily we had just had a table that seats 6 open up that I could put her party of five at.

We were off a wait around 2pm.

Some guy gave me $2, told me I was doing a good job. He has done this for the last couple weeks. Him and his wife like to be sat in a particular room at one of the larger booths.

On the way home a grabbed a couple of Starbucks fraps. That is the only reason I'm writing this blog and not sleeping. Unlike N here, who hadn't had a nap and crashed on top of his daddy.

Popcorn and other randomness

I don't know why it took me so long to figure this out. Maybe because I avoid taking the children out shopping? Or thought it would cost more than $1.07? What ever the reason my be... I wish all shopping places sold popcorn. We went shopping at Target this morning.... it's a dangerous place to walk into with cash in your pocket. It was raining before we left. I was already dreading the shopping trip and the rain was just taunting me. In Oklahoma when it rains its like taking a shower. A umbrella is a must if you plan on walking more than a foot to get to your destination. Of course you know how children are. Rain is fun. Rain is exciting. Bring on the rain so we can run outside in our boots and umbrellas. So before we even made it outside the umbrellas were out. N wrecked one... he turned it inside out, good thing it was a kid one that we bought at a rummage sale. Thank goodness I told them all to put their snow boots on. As soon as we were outside, down the steps, they were walking in the puddles. It's like no one has ever told them that the "correct" way to walk is to walk in the driest spots possible. Like when we had all the snow- the best way to get to the car was to walk over all the piles of snow, not in the shoveled or plowed areas. Kids. Anyway we eventually made it to the van and in the van and to Target. Oh Target.

The first cry came from N when I tried to put him in his seat... the one facing me. You know how Target has the cool carts you can fit three kiddos in? Two seats face forward and one backward. Usually the girls sit in the two forward facing seats and N in the backwards seat. He didn't want to sit there during this trip. I made the executive decision to put him in one of the forward seats and doing so I forced one of the girls out, thinking she would be alright with sitting in the backward seat. Boy was I wrong. Well, one one girl was out the other one was too. So half the trip was spent yelling at the girls to come back into view and if they ran out of sight one more time then no bear slushies!(Target has cool slushy cups that have a polar bear on them) It didn't help that I was trying to buy stuff off a registry. I have now decided to never make registries for anything anymore. It is way to hard to shop off them.

I finally decided to buy them a bag of popcorn. Cost=$1.07 Result=Priceless. Not only did my children sit in the seats. They did not fight over where they sat, nor did they fight over the popcorn or try to get out of said seats again the whole rest of the trip. Why did I not find this out sooner.. that my kids become angles when popcorn is put in front of them? For practically a buck I can shop in peace? Now I only wish that it wasn't only Target who had popcorn. Maybe Target knows that I can't walk out without spending my life savings.

M's Sentences

The cat sat on the mat. M sat on the mat. The end.

M wrote this by herself today after completing some pages in her reading workbook. She likes to box in her words.. it's her idea of spaces between the words.

Life Happenings...

Have you ever felt that for once everything is falling into place? Or had a secret that you are dying to tell the world but at the same time are loving that you have a secret and for some weird insane reason you want to keep the secret for... for.. forever, that is if you could keep it forever? Or heard your child say something crazily cute and thought, "I'm going to post that on Facebook or my blog" and then after all of life happenings between the cute comment and the point in your life when you sit down in front of your computer you have surprisingly forgotten the crazily cute comment that your child said?

The facts are that we are moving. Which in one respect makes me extremely happy and in another- extremely sad. It seems like we have a house. Although we have not closed on it yet. The optimistic side of me says "Be happy.. jump with joy" and the pessimistic side says, "It is technically not yours. Don't get too excited. Something might fall through and then you will be very disappointed" So the optimistic side is looking at paint samples and pictures of the house and planning what room I'm going to paint what color. Dreaming Dreaming Dreaming And the pessimistic side..... will you can imagine what that is telling me. The pessimistic side is waiting until we close before it gets excited. I'm happy that we might have a house. I'm happy that we will be closer to some of our friends and our families. I'm sad that we will be leaving some of our very, very close friends(who I consider family) here. I'm sad that I'll be leaving my work, a place where I find sanctuary in some respects. A place where I find my sanity after being home with my lovely children all day. I'm not sure what I will do without it. It will be greatly missed. So every time I think about moving I am happy and sad.

My secret. Well, that is mine to keep and mine to share and although I really, really, want to tell you. I really, really want to see how long I can keep it a secret. So for now... you can't know. Unless I tell you personally. ;-)

And the crazily cute comment. I still don't remember what was sad. The joys of motherhood.

He's Two!

(He blew out one candle before we were able to sing "Happy Birthday" to him)

How would I describe my little man? Handsome. Energetic. Cuddly. Hug-able. Happy. Terrific.

He is everything I could have ever wanted in a son. Everything I ever hoped for and dreamed of.

His birthday celebration started a day early. I requested off Valentine's Day(His birthday) from work but did not get the night off because it's Valentine's Day, go figure. So we celebrated the night before. The girls and I made the cake in the afternoon when I came home for work.

I went to Kohls on my way home and picked up the presents.

J went to Walmart while we were baking the cake

to get wrapping paper(I had forgotten) and another gift for N.

This

While he was opening presents he would say "oooo" and "wow"... so adorable.

He was super excited when he was ripping the paper off the gifts.

I forgot this is the perfect age for presents.

They are excited about everything they get.

He kept on coming back to this gift, his Cars chair and saying "car".

Block tower from Melissa and Doug. The girl's loved this. Imagine that.

N kept on knocking the blocks down after the girls stacked them up.

My happy two year old boy.

Eating cake.

Lazy Day?

Maybe it's the snow?

Or the bitter coldness?

Or the fact that I wake up in the morning utterly exhausted?

Whatever the reason may be I feel like doing nothing today-if nothing includes facebooking, blogging, giving my children a bath so I can dress them up in cute clothes and take pictures of them in front of our sliding glass door that's letting in an amazing amount of natural sunlight.

I dig natural sunlight when it comes to taking pictures.

Yes.

I plan on doing nothing today.

N decided not to climb into our bed last night or this morning.

The girls said he slept with them.

I like that.

I like that a lot.

Maybe he has discovered that they won't tell him to

"Go back to bed!" when he climbs into their bed?

I found this on our couch this morning.

Little beds made for each child, pillow pets and all.

Cute.

Here's my cute boy. New haircut and all.

More to come on this later

(I'll post about it after I get the cute,

dress up picture of him with the natural sunlight,

after the baths)

This was taken yesterday of M. I told L to tell M that she looked weird.

L thought that was funny, she kept on saying

"M looks weird. M looks weird" quietly to herself, over and over again.

These are the words I put into my children's mouth.

Wow, I'm the greatest parent ever.

On that note.. here's to the day!

I plan on enjoying another cup of coffee,

showering,

bathing the children

and then

doing

nothing.

Snow Snow and Some More Snow

The past week our lives have been largely controlled by the forces of nature

and Oklahoma's lack of

1. snow removal equipment

2. know how regarding the removal of snow

and

3. Oklahomans lack of driving knowledge(when it comes to how to drive on

snow covered roads)

It all started on Monday around 11p.m. I just left my work called J and asked if I should try to stop by the store before coming home and pick up the essential food items. He said I should and I was so extremely happy that I followed his advice. It was around 10:45 when

I went into the grocery store, at that time there was no sign of sleet or snow. The shelves at the store wear almost completely bare. Bottled water was almost sold out. The bread aisle was completely empty(I found some bread on a display elsewhere. Eggs were sold out. Milk was down to a minimum. Canned goods were somewhat depleted. They were out of potatoes, bananas, apples, I guess it's safe to say that they were out of most of their produce. I grabbed what I thought we needed to get us through a couple days. When I left the store around 11p.m. it had started. Sleet, pouring down from the sky. I quickly loaded my two bags of groceries into the car, started the car, brought out the handy scraper to scrap the windshield clear and then carefully drove the 4 miles home. Now in Oklahoma, schools close in anticipation of severe winter storms. All the public schools had closed already. When we awoke Tuesday morning, J's college had closed. We turned on the news which they had been running since 4:30a.m. , it was around 9:30(time for the Early Show but Snowmagedon in Oklahoma is way more important), the snow had created a disaster area. All Tuesday it snowed. Late afternoon they announced that the whole city was at a standstill. Plows were not even plowing anymore because of the hazardous driving conditions. Late Tuesday afternoon the girls and I ventured outside to clear some snow off our porch. Wednesday I let M out to play and she saw a small tractor come plow our condo's parking lot. Wednesday evening we ventured to Walmart. The streets were snow packed, it was quite the bumpy ride. Thursday J went out. Friday it was sunny, the kids and I ventured to a friend's house. It was the first day I would describe our roads as being in "good" driving condition. Public schools were cancelled through Friday and most colleges were cancelled too. Monday J went back to classes but public schools are still cancelled. The mains roads are mostly clear but from what I've heard all the neighborhood streets are still snow or ice packed.

Now to round two!

We are suppose to get hit with more snow tonight. They are prediciting 8-12 inches between tonight and tomorrow afternoon.