Enough already!

We all have limits, right? But what happens if you are stretched past your limit? Doesn't your limit just stretch a little farther? It has to, right? The alternative is just too scary.

I'm just putting this out there because I think we're just about at our limit and I am on my knees trying to survive. It's been a rough couple months. Lots of fighting between the boys and from them to us and all our best efforts to hold the peace are not really working. I wake up every day feeling like I'm going into battle.

Both boys have taken to being physically rough with me when they are angry. Jonah adds verbally abusive language to his anger. Cason just screams, hits me and sometimes tries to bite me. We even had a phase of hearing "I hate you" daily. From a six year old. What in the world am I doing wrong that deserves that? Thankfully he seems to have realized how truly horrible it is to tell someone you hate them, but I still get called names daily, told that I'm mean, that I'm bad. Sometimes it falls into the funny...yesterday Jonah tried to insult Josh by telling him that he was young and ridiculous. We're not perfect, but we do not talk to the boys or each other like that. I'm waving the white flag. We do automatic time outs for physical anger, but it's not changing the behavior.

If you're wondering what's setting this off, here's an example. I was in the kitchen a moment ago, putting some dishes away. Jonah asked me what was for dinner. I said lasagna. He started yelling at me that he wouldn't eat that. Lasagna is in his "foods i like" book. Something we tried to get him to engage in the idea of eating more than just pizza, chicken nuggets, tacos, Pb & J, and hot dogs. By some miracle a few months back we actually got him to try lasagna and surprise...he liked it. But today he's yelling at me, "Lasagna is already in my foods I like book!" "I don't have to eat it again!" Pizza is also in the foods I like book, so it's not like once something goes in he never has to eat it again. So he's yelling and I'm still at the sink, so he comes over and starts head butting me on my lower back, it hurts. I took him to the time out chair and then started crying out of frustration. He asked me why I was crying and I said it was because he had hurt me on my back and his response was to tell me I was hurting his feelings by crying.

This was last night. This morning is no better. From the moment they woke up the boys were fighting. Jonah decided he was too tired to get dressed...it goes on. To add to that Rio is sick. Josh is on the phone with the vet now. We sent Tina back to the rescue people. She was overwhelming me anyway, but I thought it was safest if she went back so she didn't end up getting sick too.

We need your prayers.

Tina! Eat your dinner!

Freckles found his forever home yesterday during the adoption event. Last night Tina joined us for the week. We assume she's a Jack Russel/Beagle mix. She will keep us on our toes. She's lively, but so far has done okay with our correction.

Buddy of the Week....Tina.



Bonus points if you get the movie reference in the title.

Buddy of the Week

As I mentioned in an earlier post, we have decided to be a foster family for a local puppy rescue. It's a nice way to get Rio comfortable with another dog and we don't have the long term commitment. So I'm starting this series called the Buddy of the Week highlighting the adventures we and Rio have with our canine visitors.

We got our first pup yesterday.

Meet Freckles or Speckles (as Cason calls him).



Isn't he cute?! He's a pretty good pup. We'll have him until Saturday when the rescue is having an adoption event. I suppose there is a chance he could come back to us, but I don't think he'll have any problems being adopted.

Rio's loving having a buddy. What's not to love about having a smaller pup around that he can steal toys from?

And take naps with...



Ahhh, puppy love.

Spring Break

Spring break week felt really long and wasn't at all relaxing, but we did end it with a fun weekend. We forgot to bring our camera, so you'll just have to use your imagination. During our trip to Colorado Springs we....

1. Stayed in the Holiday Inn Express, which Jonah has been wanting to do since we moved out here. You can't beat the HIE continental breakfast.

2. Had dinner with an old friend and her daughter. Famous Dave's. It was messy, it was loud. The kids were a little crazy, Jonah was grouchy with Ellette (our friends 2 1/2 yr old), Cason and Ellette made up a song "Diesel 10 is destructing, Wooo". With we could've had more time to catch up, but it was still great to see Steph.

3. Went swimming twice. Cason was tentative but enjoyed it. Jonah didn't want to get in at all, until Josh coaxed him in and he learned that he could stand on his own in the shallow end. It was a big breakthrough for him.

4. Went to the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo. We got up close and personal with the giraffes feeding them crackers (the zoo sells them). Cason was grossed out by their very long gray/blue tongues. We left the area just in time to avoid a mating in nature lesson. Cason's favorite was the little turtle that he got to pet. Jonah and I really liked the baby tigers. Their trainer was feeding them when we came by so we saw them being really active.

5. We also had dinner with Ed and Amber. Josh met Ed at his job at Della Terra. They graciously had us over for dinner and stuffed us with flank steak and baked mashed potatoes and the most moist carrot cake I've ever had. We enjoyed chatting with them while the boys entertained themselves in a toyless house. Honestly, I think not having toys around was good for them, they were a little crazy, but no fighting at all! Hmm??

6. We also made a couple stops at the parks in the area and let the boys romp. And as we do every time we go to Colorado Springs we drove around reminiscing at all of our old spots.

Distracted

This has been an off week, for several reasons which I don't feel like going into. One of the reasons has been completely resolved which feels great and I love being able to move forward. The other is still present and though I hope it's on it's way out of my realm, it's still keeping me from really being present in my life. That's my subtle way of asking you to pray for me, even though I myself find it completely annoying when asked to pray for an "unspoken" request. I'm just too curious. Sorry, though, that's all I can offer.

It's spring break around here. Jonah seems to have a little cold and Josh is working extra this weekend so we're not doing much. The boys are watching Cars for the second time in two days. We have a couple things to look forward to next week though. Some playdates and we're capping off the week with a trip to Colorado Springs. We're all excited about staying in a hotel, going swimming, a trip to zoo, and seeing some old and new friends.

Why I liked this weekend...

Yesterday Josh and I had a date for the first time since October. It's appalling. We will not let so much time pass again before we take some time for us. But it did make the three hours we had to ourselves yesterday very nice. It was a midday date so we didn't do anything all that special. We did stop by a puppy adoption drive and volunteer to be a foster home for dogs waiting to be adopted. It's crazy, but that's not all that far off from everything else we do. We've been dreaming about getting another dog, a buddy for Rio, but know it's not really the right time for adding another canine companion. Being a foster home means we'll have another dog around without much commitment. It's a week to week thing, so we can have an extra dog around for as long or short as we'd like. We think it'll be great for Rio. Fun stuff. In the coming weeks...lots of puppy pictures.

We also had a delicious lunch at a tiny little Thai place. Our first time trying Thai food and we really enjoyed it.

Today we're using the Daylight Savings excuse to be lazy. I took Rio for a walk. The guys are playing a game on the other computer. It's one of those mornings where just being together is cause for contentment. I love these kind of days.

For Mom

While my parents were visiting this past Sunday, my mom casually asked if I was thinking about getting the boys haircuts. The conversation went something like this:

Mom: Soo....are you thinking about haircuts? (While gesturing towards Jonah's near mullet.)

Me: Well yeah, I've been thinking about it for a while, it's the doing it that is stopping me.

Neither of the boys are very keen on having their hair cut. Last time it took a ton of post-Halloween candy to keep them sitting still. But last night Josh and I decided to take the plunge. We prepped the boys as well as we could and headed to Great Clips.

Surprisingly they both did exceptionally well.








Jonah....Before and After









Cason...Before and After

Thanks for the nudge, Mom!