Hey, guess what? Tomorrow is my blogging anniversary. I started blogging on April 24, 2000. Yep! SEVEN years ago. Isn’t that crazy? The face of blogging has changed so much over the years, too. Back in the day, you didn’t hear about “Mommy Bloggers.” People were just, y’know…bloggers. There weren’t really a whole lot of niche blogs around then, either - most blogs were basically of an assortment of links and anecdotes and pictures and personal ramblings - the only thing making each one unique was the author’s personal flair. And no one ever even thought about monetizing their blog! Boy, times have sure changed, huh?

I was just chatting with the dad of the other speech therapy pupil Mallory has class with on Mondays - he was asking me if I planned to put Mallory anywhere for the summer. For her speech therapy needs, I guess. I told him I hadn’t really considered it, but I was more worried about Pablo being off for the summer than Mallory - in my opinion, she really doesn’t need to be in speech therapy, but she enjoys going to “school” so much that I don’t mind taking her at all. I can’t believe these kids get out of school in just a little over a month! This year has really sort of flown by.

I’m still gathering up all of Pablo & Mallory’s info for their preschool registration. I really just need to track down copies of Pablo’s birth certificate and shot records, which I have filed away - somewhere - and get Mallory’s pediatrician to fill out a form outlining the results of her last physical. That will be more of a pain to get filled out! I guess I can drop it by one day while Pabo’s at school this week. I just hate driving all over the place, really for no good reason. I don’t want to drive 10 miles for the doctor to fill out a stupid form, y’know? Maybe we’ll go play at the mall whatever day we end up going there, since it’s near the doctor’s office.

And, yay! It’s Monday. And we didn’t do Jack Shit this weekend, let me tell ya! We had all these lofty plans of doing a bunch of spring cleaning, and pulling out a bunch of stuff to sell on eBay, and we did NONE OF IT. Paul’s dad and stepmother were here yesterday, and it’s great having them here visiting with the kids and all, but as Paul says, it’s a huge time-suck! It’s all too easy to kick back on the patio, watching the kids play, and drinking iced tea when you have people visiting for six hours, y’know?

But I’ve got my shopping done for the week. The girls and I went to Sam’s Club this morning (yay! Love me some Sam’s Club!) and bought ginourmous quantities of everything we needed. I can’t believe how many wipes and diapers you can buy at one time when you go to a store like that. It’s just…bizarre, almost! Mostly the idea that we will USE that many, in just a couple of weeks! Sheesh. Now that we’re basically 2-down, 2-to-go, I keep thinking I should push the girls to start training, so I can get rid of the diapers altogether except at bedtime. Ahhh, that will be nice on the ol’ pocketbook. Pain in MY ass, spending one third of my life in the bathroom, coaxing small children to let their poop come out, but still.

Okay, off I go, to fix four little lunches and put away groceries and spray sunscreen on small children.

P.S. Guess what else I bought today? Hair dye. Hee!

Actually, not the content, just the concept. I was checking out my favorite Misty’s Saturday Sundries post and thought, what a good idea. I should do that every week. Not that I’m a stranger to the bulleted list style of posting, as I’m sure you know! I’m just inspired by her cutesy name and graphic for it. She always has cutesy little relevant graphics for the stuff she posts! I want to be all creative like that. Anyway. Here goes.

• I was watching Medium the other night, and Joe mentioned to someone that he and Allison had been married 14 years. And I was thinking, fourteen years, damn! That’s a long time. You see people with teens or preteens and think, wow, they’ve been together a long time. Fourteen years! I hope when Paul and I have been married for fourteen years, we’re still all in love with each other and joke around all the time and actually enjoy spending time together. So then it occurred to me, after thinking about all that stuff, that if I hadn’t divorced my first husband, we would have been married 13 years this year. We were married for 6 1/2 7 1/2 years and we’ve been divorced almost 5. I can’t even wrap my mind around the idea that we’ve been divorced almost as long as we were married! Wow.

• So after thinking about all that - and by the way, this is what I do while standing in my laundry room, folding endless piles of tiny little shirts and pants and socks and crib sheets - after thinking about all that, it occurred to me that I’m OLD. I keep forgetting I’m old, since 99% of my girlfriends are younger than I am. And not just by a little, but by, like, seven years! I think my subconscious mind thinks I’m 27 or something. I guess that’s okay, though, right? I can pull it off. At least I’m not 27 and acting like I’m 20. Not that I’ve ever done that or anything. cough

• This is becoming one long-assed bulleted list! I think maybe I’m defeating the purpose of the condensed list, here. Too bad. I’m just going to keep blathering on.

• We’re going to a family birthday party tonight - I’m excited! I always enjoy hanging out with Paul’s family. It’s always nice to see families hanging out together, in spite of their issues with one another. To be quite honest, it makes me completely jealous that they have little impromptu birthday parties and barbecues and get-togethers and people actually show up and hang out with one another and drink beer and laugh and tell stories. My family doesn’t do that AT ALL. Whenever I get together with my parents, it’s almost painfully uncomfortable! I think they’re just too old to have a bazillion rambunctious grandchildren climbing all over them very often.

• I renewed my Sam’s Club membership the other day. Actually, I think I wrote about it over here, too. Paul likes Costco, and doesn’t like Sam’s Club at all, and I am just the opposite! Our membership to Costco expired in February, and I kept threatening to go back to Sam’s Club, and he kept complaining about how Sam’s Club has shittier quality of stuff and blah blah blah. I have always loathed shopping at our Costco, though. It is so crazy busy, no matter what time of the day you go, and it seems like most of the folks shopping there are grouchy old people who hate children. Sam’s Club is not like that at all - it’s nice and quiet in the morning when I like to shop, and I always see a whole bunch of other mommies with their children. So, I decided to make an executive decision, based on the fact that I am the one who actually does the shopping. Wheee! Sam’s Club! I’m home again!

• Kind of sad, really, how excited I get over this sort of thing, isn’t it?

• I’m thinking about dyeing my hair a completely different color, in the hopes that I’ll hate it less. Think that plan will work? Or do you think you’ll be reading fifty more blog posts about how I hate my hair even more now? We shall see!

• I’ve recently become obsessed with the amazing looking recipes, complete with beautiful photos chronicling each critical step, all showcased at Confessions of a Pioneer Woman. I’m dying to make that cake. And those sandwiches. And the lasagna. Seriously. I’ve even thought about these recipes in the dead of night, after I come back to bed from fetching extra water for my screaming child, and can’t fall back to sleep. I’m going to have to make a bunch of this stuff next week, and report back to you.

• I never know how to wrap it up when I’m doing a bulleted list. I hate just stopping without some sort of goodbye! Anyway. Goodbye. I’m going to go take a bath while my kids are napping. I’m all achey and tired from pulling weeds in the hot sun after getting no sleep last night. See ya!

Mom called yesterday, asking me if I’d heard from you. I’m not sure what’s wrong with her phone, but evidently she bought the model that doesn’t call Oklahoma, so I guess that’s why she called ME instead of you. She said she and dad really enjoyed the time they spent with you while you were at their place, and now she’s thinking about you more than ever, hoping everything’s going okay and that you and the mister are doing all right and that your “other” family isn’t running you ragged. And since I am apparently the mom/Kim interpreter, I thought I’d pass that message along.

Have a super weekend!

Love, Lolly

P.S. I miss you!!

I don’t know what the deal is with Lexi, but lately she’s been waking up every night - like, 2 to 3 times - crying because she’s either out of water or she wants to be covered up. It’s driving me crazy! I hate her to go thirsty, and it worries me when she’s crying because she’s so thirsty, so I always quickly fetch her a refill for her sippy cup. I think she’s got me trained now, like one of her staff. And it bugs me that she can’t just pull up her OWN blanket! Jeez, what is she, two? Oh, yeah. She is two.

So I’ve had bizarre dreams the past couple of nights, because you know how you end up sleeping not-so-restfully when you keep getting awakened, and it carries over into your dreams? I thought I’d sleep great last night, since I had two big margaritas and all, but I went to bed with a headache, worried about going to court today, and worried for Paul taking his exam today, and worried that we’d all oversleep and the world would come to an end. And then when I finally DID fall asleep, Miss Lexi woke my ass up over and over! That child.

I actually laid down when my kids went down for their nap, intending to nap along with them. I was almost asleep when the phone rang. Bleah! No rest for the weary. Oh, I hope we all sleep well tonight. Would it be bad parenting to give her red wine in her sippy cup before bedtime? Probably, huh?