Find the beauty in every day

Yesterday I had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad, day! For those of you who haven't heard ... Jarrod and I are in kind of a strange work-life arrangement right now. Don't worry! We still love each other very much (more than ever) and are very happily married 9 1/2 years later. :) When Jarrod left fellowship last year the Radiology job market was very tough. It continues to be tough today. We searched for jobs in Iowa, Michigan and even San Diego, close to my brother. But it all turned up dry. Then Jarrod found his dream job - ER Radiology. Seven nights in a row, then 14 days completely off! Only one catch ... It is in Cleveland. I love the dance studio I teach for and we already had a house (that isn't worth much at this point) and I didn't want to go to Cleveland. So we didn't go. We are still living in Detroit and Jarrod is driving to Cleveland every three weeks to work there. He stays in an adorable little 1 bedroom apt in the city. I'm really jealous, can you tell? Well, yesterday, was day 5 of his seven days gone and I was tired. I had taught dance the night before and it was a tad bit cold outside and I just couldn't get going. Well, the kids noticed and they decided to take full advantage. In one day, I was bit so hard it bled (Dylan), smacked in the face so hard it stung (Grant) and hands-down destroyed by a witty 4-year-old (Nora) who in turn lost every privilege imaginable (in retrospect that just made my day even worse - no TV, no books, no games - yeah, well, game over Molly). I share this with you all in hopes that you will not judge my lovely family. They make me proud most days and boy do they ever behave for other people. (Just ask Melissa and Jason Westphal who kindly watched them for an entire day last weekend). But yesterday, the universe took a big ole dump on all of us. I could have drank five glasses of wine and felt sorry for myself, but instead I drank one big one :) and decided to make a plan for the next day so that they would not defeat me again. Here I am, writing this blog post and feeling pretty darn good -- so as you can guess -- mission accomplished. There was one small morsel of beauty in yesterday; it made me better prepared for today. I wanted to put it out there that we all have bad days sometimes and to the women at Goldfish Swim School that shamed me yesterday for the way my boys were banging each other over the head with their balloon swords I say this: The world would be a much better place all the way around if us mothers would stop judging each other and instead open the door when a tired, frustrated mother is trying to corral an angry four-year-old and two frustratingly tired two-year-old twins into the swim school. Then laugh with her and say, "Boy do you have your hands full." It is really simple ... God, I hope I can remember it!

So I'm done ranting ... back to the kids. The boys continue to get more challenging but more intelligent. They are talking so much now I can't keep track. They say anything and everything and are now putting two word sentences together. "Go play", "Go outside", "eat fishies" and "sissy's shoes" are just a few of the common ones. Nora has adjusted wonderfully to her new preschool and has made lots of really good friends already. I see a big difference in her social skills between last year and this year. She talks tirelessly about Graham - a little red-headed boy in her class. Today she told me, "Graham is the only nice boy in my class. I want to go to his house and play."  I think she has her first crush :)

Here are some recent pics:

The boys in the fancy bath tub at The Herrington Inn when my brother and Nicole got married over Labor Day weekend. This was the NICEST hotel Jarrod and I have ever stayed in!! And congrats to the new couple!

 Petting a bird with Memaw at a local fair

Now holding the bird :)

These blankets, given to the boys by my mom's good friend, Susie Lucas, have suddenly become the most important thing in their world. They constantly want to be wrapped in their "blanky"

A few weeks ago - everyone got hair cuts - here is Dylan at Target post hair cut

Grant's new do - I had to keep it long - he's just so stinkin cute that way

Miss Nora got a trim 

Jarrod and I got 50-yard-line seats for the Iowa Homecoming game - it was a blast

 My mom had bilateral knee replacement surgery last week. Here are two of the munchkins in her hospital bed a couple of days later. Grant took his turn too, but we couldn't fit three at once!

My mom recently purchased a kite for Nora and she was allowed to use it for the first time after she FINALLY learned to strap herself into her seat in the car