It was a beautiful week... weather wise

I'd like to say it was a good week other wise as well but it's been a tough week. As you know from my last post I've been sick. I worked Tuesday with a fever and all. Wednesday I stayed home and slept until noon. I managed to go to work the rest of the week but it was not fun. I'd much rather have stayed home but just staying home the one day I did made me return to a mess that I am still trying to catch up on. I've had a headache since Tuesday, and one of the worst colds I've had in a long time. The only enjoyment I've had all week is laying in bed with Seadra and Zoe curled up next to me. They love me and the feeling is mutual. Of course Craig has taken good care of me. And then to top it all off Jordan woke up sick this morning. I hope she gets over hers faster than mine seems to be going.

Sorry I don't have anything exciting to blog about. I walked around the yard Wednesday with Seadra and Zoe and snapped a few photos. The weather was so beautiful! And now that it is the weekend it's freezing and snowing. Oh well, soon we will have nice weather to stay.

sick....

I woke up at 3:00 this morning with a raging sore throat. I got up to take some cold medicine and get a cold drink. I went back to bed praying for a miracle. At 6:00 I was no better but something processed me to go to work. I thought I'd try to work at least half a day and hopefully come home early to bed. I should have known better. It was crazy busy, one issue after another to deal with, I didn't even have time to take a lunch. As the day went on I increasing felt worse... raging sore throat, feverish, body aches, head throbbing. After 10 hours of work I could barely walk out to my car. I already told the doctors and my co-workers that I will not be to work tomorrow.

When I got home I immediately went upstairs, put on my most comfortable pj's and crawled into bed. Seadra is curled up next to me and I'm not moving the rest of the night. My wonderful hubby brought me some cold tea for my throat and at my request made me some rice for dinner. He's taking good care of me.

Just the other day I was thinking "Wow, I haven't had so much as a cold or a sniffle since last fall". Usually something attacks me each winter. I thought maybe I had escaped it this year. Hopefully this will be short lived.

So here I am, laying in bed, watching TV, and blogging.....

My beloved Robins returned this week. I've already been chasing them around the yard with my camera. Craig and I were outside doing yard work last night and the Robins were just singing away... such music to my ears.

Craig took me to Allen Michigan last weekend for a day of antiquing. The photo shows my latest obsession. I've been collecting these for about 2 years now. Most of them are small planters and a few are figurines. They were made in the 30's thru the 50's. Some are McCoy and some are Shawnee but most I don't really know where they came from. I just love the fact that they are old and I love the color. It's fun and exciting when I find a new piece.

Now for some bragging.... Last week it was announced at school that Jordan is Valedictorian of her class... actually she is a co-valedictorian with one of her best friends, Aly. They will both be giving commencement speeches at graduation. So proud.... For our family and friends close by Jordan's graduation is Sunday June 13th. Jordan's graduation open house will be the day before on Saturday June 12th. More to follow....

Hope you all are staying well.....

We should have been Boy Scouts

Last Sunday we were all excited to go to my parents house and burn the brush pile that's been sitting there for over a year. Last spring my parents had a bunch of apple trees pushed out which made the big pile.

Dad's been telling us that he'd been trying for weeks to get it going but couldn't ever get it started. How hard can it be to start a brush pile on fire? Certainly we wouldn't fail.

We threw in a bunch of cardboard and a match.

It looked like it was going to start and we were encouraged.

A few minutes later this is what it looked like... just smoke.

I think Lu-Lu was laughing at us.

We must have tried 4 different times but each time it would just burn out.

At least it was a nice day and the dogs were loving being outside.

Finally we gave up. Craig thinks we needed a little breeze to get it going.

Here's my Dad looking all defeated. He's getting embarrassed calling the fire department every few days telling them he's going to try again. We are going to try again next weekend if any of you have any bright ideas on how to get a big brush pile to burn.

I Am Free.....

I've had this laundry conversation on my blog before. And so the story continues.

How much of a mother's life is committed to the basic chore of laundry? I wonder if anyone has ever studied that. All my married life I've had a love hate relationship with laundry. In our early married life, pre-kid, I think laundry was pretty much just that... a chore. But somewhere along the way that changed. When the kids were babies laundry became a reflection of who I was... somewhat. It became a challenge to how well I could keep my kids clothes looking new and fresh. I became a genius at getting out the worst of stains. Before any clothes were washed I would sit on the floor and go over every single piece of the kids clothes scouring them for stains and scrubbing them spot free before they were thrown into the washer. I used "Goop" hand cleaner and a toothbrush. That stuff got everything out if you scrubbed hard enough. I prided myself on my kids looking beautiful, clothes all fresh and clean in their closets and drawers.

As the years have gone on it's pretty much stayed the same. My friends and family (including Craig) have told me for years that the kids should be doing their own laundry. A few times I've come close to letting go but I just couldn't do it. Even when I would complain and get behind in the laundry it was still nearly impossible for me let go of the laundry control. The little that the kids and Craig do drive me crazy.... the clothes are not sorted by color correctly, the washer is packed too full, they let the clothes sit in the dryer for 2 days and wrinkle all up, they don't put the clothes away or hang in the closet what needs to be hung up.... you get the picture.

Well... I have finally come to my breaking point. I've decided that at this point the aggravation of doing the kids laundry has gotten to be more than the aggravation of letting them do their own laundry. I am tired of turning every single sock right side out because they are ripe them off inside out, same for jeans and shirts. It irritates me to no end that they cannot wear a pair of jeans more than once. Caleb has to wear a uniform to work, why have I made it my job to make sure his work clothes are clean and ready for him??? HE'S 20 YEARS OLD!

I have no one to blame but myself. I know this is a control thing but I am so ready to let go of it. Last Saturday I informed the kids that they would now both be doing their own laundry. It really wasn't a surprise and they both looked at me like it was no big deal. When I sorted out the laundry I separated out Caleb and Jordan's dirty clothes, took them back to their bedrooms and put them into their laundry baskets. After their clothes were removed I only had about 3 loads of clothes to wash.... Wow, what a difference! I will no longer spend a complete day on the weekend from morning until night doing laundry! I AM FREE!! I AM FREE!!

Now the challenge will be how well will I be able to keep this up? Will I be temped to go into their rooms and grab up the laundry after a few weeks? Will I be able to tolerate them not doing the laundry to my standards? I can do this, YES I CAN! Pray for me......

To my faithful blog followers

If I still have any followers out there... thank you for not giving up on me! And in case you are wondering what we've been up to at the Mullauer household:

1. My new job is still totally consuming me. But I can honestly say I love it. I love working with the patients and their families and all the responsibilities that go along with it. A lot of changes are happening in our practice the next few months, including one of our doctors retiring. I'm giving it until summer when things iron out a little more to see how the workload ends up. Right now I am not convinced that one person can do this job. But everyday I am more thankful to have a job considering the unemployment rate in this country. The extra hours I'm working have made me love my paychecks as well. It's a great feeling when your son brings home a $800 tuition bill and you can write a check without wondering how you are going to buy groceries that week.

2. I am sooooo excited about getting our chain link fence installed as soon as the snow melts. They are coming out Monday to give us an estimate. It took a lot of convincing for Craig to agree to this one. Craig likes the openness of our back yard and I agree with that. He's afraid that putting up a fence will be confining. But I think the trade off will be well worth it. With 3 dogs it's just too hard to keep track of them when we are outside. I LOVE the outdoors and want to be able to enjoy being outside without being constantly consumed with where the dogs are every moment, which is what it takes when they are outside with us. Another big plus.... no more skunks. For those of you that have followed my blog know the horror stories we can gone through with skunks and our dogs. And it hasn't been an isolated incident.

3. We've attended several Ferris functions with Jordan this past week. We went to Grand Rapids Tuesday for a new student reception and Saturday we went to Big Rapids for Jordan's testing/competition for the honors program. There were 350 students competing for 290 spots. I'm confident that Jordan will have no problem getting into the honors program. Jordan has been working hard studying and retaking her ACT test. She's trying to get an extra 2 points (she has 29 now and needs a 31). If she can get a 31 Ferris has guaranteed her a full tuition scholarship for 4 years. We have enrolled Jordan into a Kaplan ACT class at Western starting May 1st for 6 weeks. They meet twice a week. It's not cheap at $500 but they guarantee your student increases her score or your money back. It will be well worth it if Jordan can get the two extra points. Pray for Jordan!

4. We are all soooo ready for spring. This winter has not been fun in terms of the usual winter stuff we usually do. Snowmobling has been for the birds. I only went on two rides the whole winter. Craig did go up north sledding with club members a few times, but even the snow wasn't great up there. I'm dreaming of our camper trailer, gardening, getting outside with my camera, my spring birds (hummers, orioles, bluebirds!), you get the picture...

5. I'm trying to learn to love Fiona. Do I sound like a terrible person? As I type this she is curled up next to me snoring. This is a rare rare rare occurrence. She just never settles down and lets me love on her. Craig says that Zoe was the same way but I don't remember that. She is relentless in her constant badgering of Zoe. Poor Zoe goes upstairs to be by herself to get away from Fiona. This makes me sad as Zoe is such a people person. And Seadra just hates her. Sorry if I'm sounding negative, I want to love her. I'm hoping when we are not so cooped up in this house once spring gets here that it will get better. What was I thinking!!!!

6. We signed up for Netflix this winter and I really enjoy that. Right now I have the television mini series Roots coming one episode at a time. It is so worth the money. We only pay $8 a month and you can turn over a movie every 2 days. It's wonderful. And some movies I can watch wirelessly on tv or my mac. The biggest perk is no late fees. I can't tell you how many late fees we've paid with the kids renting movies.

7. Track season starts Monday for Jordan. It's another one of those lasts that we will be enjoying with Jordan this spring. I'm hoping that I'm able to get out of work early on track meet days. Watch for track photos on my blog.

8. Caleb's keeping busy working and going to school full time at KVCC. He's making a little more noise about switching his major to education.... we'll see. I think Caleb would make a great teacher. He's such a people person. He's anxious for spring as well. He's dying to get his Mustang on the road again.

9. Craig and I are going to Allen Michigan Saturday antiquing. I can't wait. Allen is the antique capital of Michigan. It's such a fun day and I so need a fun day.

Take care my friends... I miss you and I miss my blogging.