We actually got a night out without the kids last Friday. We hired the 15 year old babysitter, got dressed up and attended the wedding of a close friend. It was a wonderful night and the only downer of the evening was returning home to find out Jaxson had pooped on the floor. The poor babysitter will probably avoid all calls from the Borowski home.

This is my favorite ice cream right now. It is key lime pie from Brewster's. I LOVE it. You see the brown swirls? That is actual crust. Crunchy crust in my key lime icecream. There is nothing better in the summer than key lime!

ABC's

The ABC's of me. Go ahead and try this. It is not easy. For every letter of the alphabet list something about yourself that others may not know. Sounds easy but towards the end, you are struggling to find words.

A=Athletic. I put this not because I am athletic but rather I am the opposite. I do not like sports and especially hate playing sports. Being the mother of two boys, I am trying to develop a little interest.
B=I have always been Shannon B. I started my life as Shannon Brown. I have become Shannon Beardall and the current Shannon Borowski.
C=CHEESECAKE! I am in love with cheesecake. I can eat it until I am sick.
D=Daughter.I am one of 4 daughters to my father. My poor father had no sons and now his daughters have all produced nothing but grandsons.
E=Engineer.I married a chemical engineer.
F=Forty.I am already dreaming and dreading the big FORTY! I don't know why the thought of turning forty sends me into hysterics. Age is but a number right?
G=Gladys. No, not the my middle name but the middle name of my beloved grandma. My fondest memory is of my grandma telling me her middle name was Glad-Ass. She would tell me to call her Grandma Happy Bottom.
H=Hymn. My favorite hymn at church is A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief
I= Iguana. I have a strong dislike of Iguanas. I think they are ugly and they bite. I would say it borderlines on a phobia.
J=Jader. I married my Jade Barrett Borowski in July of 2000. J also stands for Jaxson my baby.
K=Kentucky Fried Chicken. My LEAST favorite fast food. I HATE this fast food joint and gag just to see someone else eating it.
L=Laugh. I love to sit and laugh. My fondest memories are sitting with my family laughing because I come from a long line of comedians.
M=Mormon. I grew up in Utah but did not become active in the church until I was 22.
N=Nurse. I am currently working on my goal of become a nurse and have only 9 months left before I am completely finished with school!!!!
O=I spend a majority of my childhood in Orem, Utah. My teen years were spend in Provo, Utah
P=Poop (I bet you thought I was going to say Provo) I hate poop. So, since I hate everything there is to hate about it, I am going into a profession where I will deal with it probably everytime I work.
Q=Q-Tips. I am that person that likes to take Q-Tips and scratch the inside of my ears as far and deep as I can. I sometimes take the cotton off the end to get the full effect of the scratch.
R=Rabbit. Not the furry animal that you see running on the ground. I am talking about my Volkswagen Rabbit. My first car. It was white and a piece of junk. When I was 16 I sold it behind my parents back hoping to buy a ticket to Maui. They found out and confiscated the money (sadly, I never made it to Maui)
S=Snakes. Snakes are my phobia. I have monthly nightmares about them and can't even stand to look at them behind the glass of the zoo. I think they are utterly repulsive.
T=Tone deaf. I am tone deaf and also the best singer in the Sewell ward-according to my ears.
U=Unicycle. I don't know how to ride a unicycle and I'm okay with that
V=Violin. I never learned how to play the violin. I played the clarinet and the flute. I wanted to be in the orchestra but my mom put me in the band. Had I been in the orchestra, I would have played the Violin. I remember watching Little House on the Prairie and I envied Pa for the way he played that violin.
W=Watermelon. I love watermelon. It is my favorite fruit next to raspberries.
X=X-rays. I took many, many, many x-rays on teeth when I worked as a dental assistant. I still have dreams at night of positioning the camera just right to get that perfect angle of the teeth.
Y=Yoo-Hoo. Quite possibly the most disgusting drink ever made. I do not know how my kids drink this brown liquid.
Z=Zabriskie. My mothers maiden name and the last name of my beloved Grandma mentioned earlier (please see G)

Honesty

For some reason, as soon as I sit down at this computer I suddenly cannot think of a single thing to say. I think it is because I have alot to say but I am always worried about someone reading my post and taking something the wrong way or reading what I REALLY think about and thinking I am completely crazy. (which, by the way, I am) Should I tell you what the past two days have really been like? Ok, this will be my honesty blog. Tuesday night I worked the graveyard shift. What is the graveyard shift like? Well, interesting! We had a patient that had to be restrained down to the bed and when you went into his room, you had to cover his mouth because he would spit on you. Hmmm, what else? Well, I had a patient that liked to keep track of his burps and farts. I kid you not! I went into his room and he was sleeping. I noticed on the table next to his bed he had a note on which he had written: SMELLY BURPS=100 SMELLY FARTS=250. While in his room he broke wind 2 times so I was going to be considerate and change his count from 250 to 252. I didn't. I got home at 7:30 AM and Jaxson woke up at 7:32 AM. I was with the children until 5:30 when Jade FINALLY got home but honestly, I cannot tell you much about my day. It was all a blur. It is so exhausting to work from 11PM to 7 AM and then stay up with the kids all day. I do remember taking a quick drive to the gas station for slurpees because some stupid kids in the car in front of me thought it would be funny to slam on their brakes. I just about hit them. In fact, if I didn't have the reflexes of a cat, I would have smashed right into the back of them. I did not just let this little joke fly by. I pulled those kids over on the side of the road and gave them a good old fashioned scolding. Ok, so I TOTALLY flipped out on them but it was so frustrating to pull up next to them and kindly (ok, so I was NOT kind) but to ask them why they slammed on their brakes in the middle of the road and have Beavis and Butthead reply, "I thought I saw someone in the road" WHAT??????? You thought you saw someone in the road? Are you kidding me? It is 2 o'clock in the middle of the day, the sun is shining, the road is clear.............how in the world could you even imagine someone in the road???? After saying a few choice words I told Beavis and Butthead (as kind as I was when I asked them why they stopped) to go home because they shouldn't be driving if they are hallucinating. Today, my day was boring. I cleaned my house that had been neglected for the past week and did all the grocery shopping. The most exciting part of my week??? Well, once again it involved body fluids..........Jaxson has been holding his stool (or poop as I usually refer to it) and when I say hold it, I do not mean in his hand, I mean he is standing in the corner with his legs crossed and using every ounce of control to keep the poop inside his body. After months of fighting with this kid and numerous bouts of self-induced constipation (because we all know if you hold it in, it gets cozy and just decides to stay in) I took him to the doctor and she gave us a daily laxative for him. Because if the kid decides not to let it out, we will FORCE it out of him. RIGHT? Well, the dr. assured me that the laxative was mild and would not cause him discomfort or diarrhea. Yeah, my dr. is a big, fat LIAR! I gave Jaxson the drink at 2 PM and as of 9:10 PM he has had two messy accidents in his pants. Not fun. I just cannot win this. I don't want it to stay in him but I don't want it running out like it is trying to win a marathon either. I am to the point that if I knew that it wouldn't cause him bodily harm I would just say, "FINE! Let it just stay in you" Unfortunately, I know of a little thing called bowel obstruction and so far Jaxson's record has been 2 weeks. I decided to just give up on worrying about it and the kid went 2 weeks so I had to intervene with enemas. Why do I blog about this nasty unpleasant subject? Because this is what I would write if I had a journal because I cannot wait to tell Jaxson all about his bowel problems when he is 13. I suffer from memory loss so this is just one of those memories I have to write down so I don't let it escape me.

So, there you go. My true and unpleasant activities and thoughts. Digest them the way you want but please don't judge me. I do not profess to be normal.

The Beach

Jaxson looking cool in his sunglasses

This picture was so funny!!! I snapped this pic because Jaxson was actually in the water. When I went to take it, a wave came in and Jaxson turned around and started running for the beach. This is his face filled with fear for the wave coming towards him!

Connor loves to ride on his board

This is Connor and his friend Jesse. We went down to Ocean City, NJ over a week ago but I have been slow getting pictures uploaded. We took the kids to Storybook Land this Saturday and pictures are coming soon. Until then, enjoy this preview of the first thing I saw when we entered the gates at Storybook land. I was a little worried!

SCARY!!!!!!!!!!

Work

So, tonight I start work. I got a job working at the local hospital as a nursing assistant. I feel it will give me some recent experience and will be a good way to earn some extra cash. I will work 2 shifts a week.......the only bad thing about the job??? I work from 11 PM to 7 AM. I have arranged my schedule so I will work on Friday and Saturday nights so I will have Jade home to take care of the kids while I sleep. Since I am doing orientation, I have to work tonight, tomorrow, and Tuesday. I am praying hard that I will just have enough stamina to work, be somewhat functional during the day with the kids and make it until 5 PM when Jade gets home and I can crash into my bed. I keep telling myself "YOU CAN DO IT!" I hope I am still saying that when I get home tomorrow morning at 7:30 AM and the kids are screaming for breakfast. Wish me luck!

So, I am not MIA. I have started potty training Jaxson. Knock on wood, he is doing REALLY well. We are on day 2 and have had very few accidents. I have been doing little steps up to this point but two days ago we took off the diapers and went cold turkey. I am so proud of him! He even stayed dry while I took him to Walmart and did the grocery shopping!!!

Funny to me

This is my funny for the day. I overheard the following conversation.

Woman: So, I saw your old childhood friend Ralph at an AA meeting the other day
Man: What was he doing there?
Woman: What do mean what was he doing there? He is an alcoholic just like everyone else that attends AA

LOL,LOL

Saturday adventures

Saturday was one of "those" days. We started off the day doing a service project. The boys had a lot of fun and I hope it is planting the seeds of service in them. We got home, showered and decided to head to Kohl's for some desperately needed clothes for Jade. Of course none of the carts had child seat belts on them that worked so Jaxson was constantly crawling out of his seat. While looking at some pants for Jade, we turned around just in time to see Jaxson take his final step out of the cart onto the floor only to lose his balance and fall backwards. Unfortunately, the back of his head landed on the edge of a rack. Jade picked him up and gave him a hug and I noticed the blood pouring out of the back of his head. He had split his head open and blood was pouring out fast. He started drawing a crowd because his cries could be heard in the next town over, and by this point his face and my arms were covered in blood. We looked tragic. Someone notified management and we were quickly whisked away to a dark office where they offered us some paper towels and ice packs. Once the bleeding was under control, we were presented with all the store forms they wanted us to sign. We came home and shaved the hair away from the cut. Luckily for us, we have a friend who is a doctor, and he gave us some of the bonding agent they use in the hospital so we "glued" the cut after much resistance from Jaxson. Oh, the best part of our whole "incident"? I took Jaxson to the car while Jade paid for the clothes. We pulled into our driveway and Jade says, "Oh, I hope I remembered to grab your purse out of the shopping cart". Guess what???? He didn't. I had to call Kohl's and ask them to go and search the carts while we drove back. The purse was recovered and we finally came home to just stay in the safety of our own home.

Connor's soccer

Connor asks me at every practice, "Mom, when will I win a trophy?"

Transformation of Jade

Our journey begins here with a furry, almost mountain man look. The eyes look a little wild and the facial hair is beginning to look untamed.

I call this "devilish" The eyes have developed almost a twinkle.
This one is just creepy. I will call this one Sam. Remember Yo Samity Sam from Looney Toons? Hmmm, this style looks familar. I just can't place the name.........
The final product. A hair free Jade!

Connor started soccer yesterday. He loved every minute of it. He needs some practice but for the most part, he did well. I will post pics soon.

I am losing my mind. I was going to list all the pressing issues on my plate right now but I will just tell you that I am juggling a lot of "to dos" right now. I will use this excuse to justify my brain fart yesterday. I did NOT realize until I got home and really thought about it that I had taken Connor to the wrong coach yesterday for soccer. Three different teams were practicing at the same time and I did not have enough common sense to ask the one that I took him to for his name. Had I been in the right frame of thinking, I would have asked his name and realized that I had Connor with the wrong team. The kicker??? The coach that I took him to.........I know him. So I didn't even need to ask his name.........I should have just known that he was with the wrong coach. DUH!

My other idiot moment yesterday? I started planning this wonderful weekend getaway for our family and only realized right before I confirmed the hotel that we already have plans this weekend. Plans that we have had for at least 4 weeks in advance. I am losing my mind.

I am blaming my lack of common sense on the Washington Township school district. I am registering Jaxson for preschool and let me tell you, it is a circus. I feel like they want my signature in blood. They take registration seriously. I understand that they want to be certain that the child lives at the home that they claim to but I am seriously expecting them to come and knock on my door to confirm that we do in fact live in Washington Township. My only comfort is knowing that my trouble will be over as soon as Jaxson is fully registered to attend their preschool and their troubles will just be beginning.

Ocean City, New Jersey

It feels like the summer is winding down as our last guests left yesterday. I usually feel excitement and anticipation when school is getting ready to start again but not this time. I am not ready to go back yet! I don't know if I would ever get ready to go back though. I am so ready to be finished!

I do not have any pics up yet from our recent trip to Ocean City but I will have them soon. I will admit that I have become a beach person. I know just a few short weeks ago, I was complaining that I did not like the beach. I have changed. The beach has now become one of my favorite spots.

Connor gave his first talk in primary yesterday. He spoke about baptism and although I was there whispering every word in his ear, I was so proud of him. He has come such a long way with his speech. It was only two years ago that he was saying nothing at all. I was a teacher in primary and a little boy got up to give a talk and I cried because Connor had just been diagnosed with oral apraxia. I felt like my little boy would never be able to get up and give a talk in primary. More upsetting than my worries was the frustration that I saw Connor experience when he went to the playground and tried to play with other children. It was heartbreaking to know that my child was "different" It has been such a blessing to see Connor work hard in speech therapy and progress to such a strong spirit. He has become such a chatterbox and will talk your ear off. He is my little joker. He loves to make people laugh and has such a silly personality like his dad. I thought that the greatest joy in life would be watching my children grow but I have discovered the opposite. I do not want them to grow, I want them to stay exactly as they are now, children so that I can be selfish and just love them forever. The greatest joy that I have experienced being a mother has been seeing them happy. I love the moments that I just laugh with my children.