{did you hear that?}

Ever heard your kid start crying and say to those around you "he's fine, I'm sure he's just mad about something" and then he comes out of his room all turning blue with a massive bump on his head, so then you spend the next few minutes trying to rationalize your lack of motherly concern while trying to get ice and kiss him at the same time?

Yeah, glad that never happens to me.

{Thanksgiving}

I'm pretty sure I don't need to eat again for like at least two weeks.

We had a great time with Hubby's family, eating, playing games and just hangin' out!

I'm so thankful for wonderful family, healthy kids, jobs and God's many blessings.

And who doesn't love a turkey coma.

Another talented child in the Corley house

Daymon's soccer team won the last game of the season! He was so stinking excited and received his very first trophy!




He said that proffesionals always kiss their trophy's so of course he should too.

Our lovely dauther Aliya is going to perform her routine in gymnastics for us on December 5th and photos of that will be forthcoming. Because in reality we have THREE talented kids in the Corley house.

Dylan is going to buy me a house when he's in the NFL

Just wait and see.
He's currently playing for the NFL Youth League and just so happens to be pretty dang awesome. His team just won the championships! I can feel motherly pride just oozing out of me.

{know what sunglasses and cell phones have in common?}

I drop/scratch/break/lose them both on a regular basis.

This morning I dropped my cell phone in the {toilet} In my defense it was in my pocket.

*big fat sad sigh*

Hubby said he was going to get me a new one for Christmas as a surprise since mine was on it's last leg anyway. As I stated previously, I'm not super great at keeping them safe.

But I promised Hubby that I would take care of a new one. A nice one. A nice, new possibly pink one. And never put it in my pocket when using the, um, bathroom.

You might be wondering what my response was when I heard it hit the water. You might be thinking "she's so classy, I'm sure she carefully put on rubber gloves before retrieving her phone". Assuming you think I'm classy. Which you probably don't.

Nope. I just let out a little girl scream and reached right it. Then washed my hands about 40 times.

If I don't return a call or text from you, don't take it personally. It may be a few days before I get my new, maybe pink, phone. Because my Hubby is super sweet and trusts that I will take better care of my new one. He's awesome.

{my super awesome bff}

You know that whole "forever" part of bff? Well for me and my best friend it just happens to be true. My bff is also my aunt and is eleven days younger than me. So we have literally known each other forever! I used to brag when we were kids that I was older, but it has backfired on me now. Dang it.



I was so very fortunate to get to go see her recently. Hubby suggested I go so I threw some things in the car and drove the 10.5 hours to her house in Texas. So worth it! I didn't realize just how much I was missing her. We had so much fun together and I loved doting on her beautiful, amazing, charming, hysterical daughter, Jade. I only have a few pictures because we were too busy chatting and laughing to take many. I'm so blessed to have her in my life and I'm so very thankful for how God enriches our lives through friends.
I love you Tara!!

Mini me

My daughter is exactly like me. Except that she has blond hair. And blue eyes. And hates chocolate. But other than that, she's exactly like me.

So what's with all the emotion? I mean I don't cry over every little thing. Just ask hubby. And I certainly don't get upset for no good reason. They are all perfectly good reasons.

I was under the impression that hormones would not kick in until the teen years. Um, yeah, about that. Welcome to the "tween" years. That strange world between little girl and adolescence when everything is a huge deal and phrases like "UG, boys are so weird!" are uttered. The same boys that are so weird are also the ones being talked about continuously. Allow me give you a visual.

"S* is so weird mom. He follows me everywhere and his spies are always trying to get my phone number for him, but I'm like, NO, I'm only ten! So then they're like, why not and I'm like, hello, go tell him I said no. He's so weird. And B and A say the weirdest things and they chase me all over. They think I like them but I don't, they're weird. But they seriously chase me all over. I can't even get away from them at recess. C is really nice, but he doesn't chase me. A and B are so weird!"

*Names have been altered to protect the innocent.

Things can escalate from calm, sweet and helpful to I'm-going-to-kill-my-brother-if-he-even-thinks-about-entering-my-room. Picking out clothes in the morning can put her dangerously close to a freak out {especially if I'm involved} and when asked what she wants for Christmas she replies "I only want clothes and or accessories or both. Mostly both." My baby is growing up! She no longer wants anything to do with dolls and her Disney princess posters have been replaced with High School Musical paraphernalia. Zac Efron and Taylor Launter are now way more interesting than Dora and she only likes pink when it's bright and mixed with black.

A phrase we hear often is "I'm just feeling a little emotional right now". I've taught her to give us all fair warning. I have to do this as well. I find it makes those "holy crap, run for the hills, she's lost her mind to mad cow disease" times a little easier to understand and handle. I figure by the time my boys start dating they will have a firm grasp of the wide range of female emotions and will be able to fully cope. Or they will choose a life of celibacy and join a monastery. But I'm hopeful for the former.

I'm pretty sure God knew that hubby and boys could only handle two women in the house, therefore only giving us one daughter. Which is fine with me because our mommy-daughter dates rock. Aside from my mom, she's the only one who likes to watch Seven Brides for Seven Brothers with me and likes chips and salsa almost as much as I do. And I'm confident that we'll navigate through the tween and teen years with little or no permanent damage done. I'm just not looking forward to the day when boys aren't so weird anymore. I'd like to keep her a mini as long as possible.

{Halloween}

I'm a little late in getting these posted. Too many of them turned out fuzzy, maybe becuase of the darkness, I'm not sure.

Daymon is Snake Eyes, the good G.I. Joe.

Aliya as a punk rocker and her little friend Ryder. How cute is he??

The whole gang.

Dylan was Storm Shadow, another G.I. Joe but he's the bad guy. I think the G.I. Joe people have their colors mixed up. Don't they know that white=good and black = bad? Wow, I could really get myself into trouble right now. Good thing you all know what I'm drivin' at.

And this is some of the yummy candy I get to steal and pretend that I don't.

Ear plugs please

How is it even possible that three little human beings could argue so much about absolutely nothing. I think I'm an okay mom, maybe even a good one, so when I say that I want to stab a pen in my eye when they start fighting or have had the occasional day dream about making them walk the last mile home, it makes me feel a little less like an awesome mother.

I used to think it was a joke when you would see kids on TV say things like "she's looking at me!" but oh how wrong I was. My kids fight about things I didn't know it was possible to fight about. Like staring too long at the other or blinking too much. Ridiculous things like when we drive to the bus stop {yes I should make them walk} they always call "shotgun". If you're unlucky enough to forget to call it, apparently the immediate response should be to cry. Then make the entire 15 minute wait a living hell by regailing everyone with just how miserable and unfair your life is because you have to sit in the back seat. And don't even think about sitting on the arm rest in the middle of the drivers side and the passenger side if you did not in fact claim shotgun first. This happens every day. I'm pretty sure CPS will be called on me. I'm obviously a horrible mom. I mean what kind of person makes their children take turns?

I've resorted to taking away their privilege to speak when they fight. And the weird thing is, it works. One day in a fit of "I'm going to completely lose it if you guys say one more word" I instead said "That's it. Speaking is a privilege not a right and you have all lost it. No more speaking until I say. And buckle up, 'cause it's gonna to be a while."

And there was silence. And it was good.

What the blagnard? That's all I had to do? Well in that case, watch out, I may start taking away other things like, I don't know, blinking.

But just when I think all hope is lost and my kids must hate each other and I've failed miserably, they do something so sweet and surprising that it restores my faith in sibling love. For example, Aliya has been afraid to take a shower, she's scared of aliens and I guess they like water, so it's either she becomes the stinky kid at school or someone stays in there and talks to her. Daymon stood by the door the other day for a half hour telling her jokes and making sound effects and never once complained. Or when Dylan let Daymon sleep with him when he had a bad dream, and Aliya played with Daymon too when she had a friend over and didn't make him the villain or the husband in the game. It's the little victories. And I'll take all I can get.

{How am I suppossed to blog in this environment?}

My family keeps interrupting me when I'm blogging to ask for food and clean clothes and love. Don't you think the expectations are a little high? I'm trying to focus here people and honestly your incessant concerns about "has the dog been fed today" and "mommy I think I'm bleeding" are just too much.

Well, maybe it's not quite that bad, but I do think I may be developing "bloginess". If it were a real word.

I'm pretty sure it means that everything is in blog-view. Every funny thing my kids say, moronic people at the post office, crazy people on the road, anything really, may just be blogged about. You never know. It's like when I used to be really into scrap booking and would take pictures of everything. Okay I still do that, but you get the idea. I didn't even know what a blog was a couple years ago. But now my eyes have been opened to the wonder of blog world. There are a lot of really funny moms out there, who yes, despite having kids that drained brain cells faster than they could drain a glass of chocolate milk, are really quite witty and intelligent. It's fun to read about other moms going through similar issues and feeling like you're connected by the bond of motherhood. And the bond of having a uterus. That too.

I like knowing that it's not just my kids who put boogers on the wall, or have bad aim in the bathroom or think that bathing is optional. And it's good to know that other moms have fights with their husbands and don't shave everyday despite being told they are "prickly". Plus sometimes it just feels good to vent.