My busy week is over, the house pretty much cleaned back up (at least the parts that I see!), the cornrows are gone, and I am officially another year older.

Wednesday I was out and about with my new hair-do and I couldn't help but notice the looks and the second glances I was getting walking around with cornrows. I know that I could have pretended that everyone had just finally noticed that I am hot, but reality was slapping me back in place and I just felt out of place in a town where I don't think I have ever seen cornrows on anyone. Maybe I just don't notice.

So I drove my PMSing self and all the kids to my friends to help her set up her garage sale. I knew that I should have refused because she is moving to Texas in the fall and she has the nerve to actually take her kids with her! I made myself take the high road and help anyway. I have been hearing that us moms set the tone for our homes and so I have been working on not showing my PMS as clearly as my family tends to see it, so I took a few deep breaths and made it through the afternoon helping her with all 7 kids (hers and mine) running into the garage every 10 seconds giving a play by play.

I give myself a thumbs up for coming to the realization that I don't really have PMS, it's just that one week a month my family decides to hide their true selves and turn into these evil trolls set out to destroy my happy little world I created. I wish I had realized this years ago when I have been blaming me and my hormones all this time. I should have known it was not my fault. PMS is gone now and everyone is back to normal.

So my birthday comes around. J-Bird decided to play the mama's boy/ youngest kid part and give me a kiss for my birthday. I don't mean the chocolate one. Nope, no candy for me. A quick peck on the lips, a "happy birthday mom" and things are taken care of on his end. J-Bell gave me some coupons totaling 3 free hours of her cleaning her room. Knight got me a MP3. Now, if I could just figure the thing out. I have been wanting one, but have never really messed with one before.

We had company today. Including my family there was a total of 7 adults, 13 kids. The town has an annual parade and since we live on the parade route we have a cookout. After most of the company left we still had 8 kids running around but I set the timer for 20 minutes, told them all to speed clean and if they get the house put back together before 20 minutes I would make them homemade caramel corn. Under 15 and they would get me to play a game with them too. The house was cleaned back up in 13 minutes flat.

See why it's paradise???