five years

I could go on some huge rant about what a piece of crap my ex is today on this five year anniversary. I will simply state that today marks five years since he's laid eyes on his children. FIVE years. I realized about a month ago that this year would mark the big five years. It's been making me angry inside ever since. I always told him, you will be in or out, not both. And after seeing what the in/out stuff did to the boys, I am thankful he picked one or the other. But you know what. He's the one missing out. I can't even think of all the things he's missed. They are amazing. Smart! Just plain gorgeous little girls. Between Lacey's intelligence and Tessa's personality, they are simply awesome. There was a time where I wanted to call him every single time they pushed me to the verge of tears. Just to let him have it one more time on how thankful I am that I was doing this parenting thing all by myself. But over the years that anger disappeared. Quite frankly, until this realization of it being the big five year "anniversary", I hadn't thought about calling him for a couple years. I had forgotten what it was like to be a single mom, and reliving those memories this past month has been rough on me. But it's made me realize a few things, and just how thankful I am for them, TheMan, and the way my life is right now. It's still sad to me, though, that someone doesn't give a shit and can just go on with life pretending that two little people, that are half their genes, don't exist. Well, guess what? They DO exist. And they are fucking awesome!

table for 4 - Banushi's Bar & Grill BBG's stoughton, wi

Often we are asking for a table for six, but other times, there are just four of us.

I'm not sure how many people are familiar with Wisconsin, but around here we have Friday Night Fish Fry's. This means almost all restaurants offer a baked or fried fish meal, usually with coleslaw and a potato, as their Friday night special. BBG's was no different.

We decided to try out BBG's a couple Friday nights ago. We arrived around 6:45pm, which was late for us. The wait for four of us was 40 minutes. Yikes! However, by the time we went someplace else, that 40 minutes would fly by. I heard the hostess tell another couple that it usually calms down around 8:30pm on Friday nights, wow!

We ordered two beers, one for each parent, and a sprite for the girls to split and gave them my phone to play games on while we waited...starving. There were several benches to sit on, which was a bonus.

When we were seated each girl was given a coloring book (My Little Pony and Smurfs!) and a large pouch of crayons. We were surprised to realize that the dining area was MUCH smaller than we anticipated for such a large building. This is because there was another LARGE bar taking up half the dining area. No wonder it was such a wait. It was also a bit loud with high ceilings and nothing to absorb the sound. There is another high-table seating area in the front bar, but it was of normal bar seating size.

Our waitress approached our table a few minutes after we were seated and asked what we wanted to order. She seemed a bit short, and although we waited 40 minutes, we hadn't looked at the menu yet, leaving us feeling a bit rushed. Tessa didn't know what she wanted and this cued a meltdown from a tired and hungry 4-year-old.

We ordered bruschetta as an appetizer. We received three large pieces of your standard garlic bread with fresh bruschetta on top, and some sauce drizzled over the top, and they were pretty good. I ordered the fried fish, two pieces, with a baked potato and coleslaw. TheMan ordered the prime rib special, Lacey ordered spaghetti with marinara sauce, and Tessa had grilled cheese with oranges.

We waited an average amount of time for our food and it looked great! Our waitress also became more friendly, and made sure we were taken care of the rest of the visit. I received two long pieces of fish, a good size baked potato and a large portion of coleslaw. The fish was good. Lacey inhaled her spaghetti and ate a few bites of my fish. Tessa ate all of her oranges and 3/4 of her sandwich. TheMan said the prime rib was the best he's had in a LONG time. He prefers his meat medium rare and it was PERFECT. After cutting all the meat out, Lacey ate half of his scraps! She was one hungry little girl!

Website: http://www.banushis.com
Decor: casual, sporty, bar-like
Dress: casual...there were people in jeans and hoodie sweatshirts, and some in khaki's and polo shirts.
Family Friendly: Yes, there were quite a few families with kids of all ages, coloring books and crayons provided.
Menu: Decent size adult menu with a wide variety of options.
Kid Menu: The kid's menu offered a cheeseburger, chicken strips, spaghetti, or grilled cheese, and a small drink was included (bonus!).
Drink Menu: A lot of different craft beer choices, whoohooo!
Portions: Average
Service: Average
Price: Average for the area (Approx $55 w/o tip, which included 2 beers with the meal and an appetizer)
Overall Comments: I didn't feel it was any better for Friday Night Fish compared to other area restaurants, and with that kind of wait, we could go somewhere else. It was also quite loud. However TheMan said the Prime Rib was THAT good. I'm sure we'll be back just because of that. 
Will we go back?: Probably, but not without a reservation!

today you turned five

Today you turned 5 and I can hardly believe it.

taken with my cell phone this morning

Here are my favorite things about you...


your gorgeous red hair, bright blue eyes, and big deep belly laughs.

the way you HAVE to say "Good night, sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. I love you. See you in the morning!" every night when I put you to bed.

and I have to say all of those things back to you or you yell your part again as I walk down the stairs.

you love to help me make fresh salsa, but you will not eat any.

you could eat peanut butter sandwiches...with butter all day every day.

you love to accessorize...bracelets, rings, necklaces, hats. You are a little fashionista and come up with the most interesting outfits.

you're obsessed with your cowgirl boots. Not to be confused with cowboy boots.

you like to draw and scribble on everything, and repeat the same thing over and over in your drawings. Oh, you really like stickers too!

you can write your name, with the "e" upside down, backward "s"'s and a filled in circle with a tail for the "a".

you love movies and ask to bring a movie to daycare daily. Although you rarely sit through an entire one.

you are constantly bringing little things with you where ever we go. My back seat is full of little Tessa treasures.

you are growing out of your size 5 clothes, and have size 1 shoes.

that you wear leg warmers on your arms.

you somehow know what wheels we have on every one of our vehicles and point out other vehicles that have the same wheels...or even when they don't.

you just learned to whistle...and snap...and you will randomly do both. I think it's just to make sure you didn't forget how to do it.

your days are filled with songs. You love to sing about anything and everything, and repeat the same songs over and over and over.

you beg me to straighten your hair often, although you happily keep your curls to "be like mommy".

you are a wonderful dancer and love ballet class. And "bun buns" high up on your head.

you aren't afraid of bugs, unless it's an earwig.

you love to go camping and especially love campfires and smores.

you are trying hard to learn to ride your bike with only two wheels.

your favorite blanket is an old colorful quilt we bought at a resale shop. And I secretly LOVE that you love an old treasure so much.

the way you stand at the door waving and blowing kisses as I drive away from dropping you off every morning.

you always know just the right time to tell me that you love me.

 Birthday dinner and dessert at Red Robin

oh shut up already

I'm not sure how dumb people think I am, but I'm actually very good at reading between the lines...and I have an amazing memory of all things unrelated to me. I will remember that Facebook status update that you posted. Oh that comment you made 6 months ago...yep, I remember!

I should write a book about people I've worked with over the years. But today I'm going to write about *Greg (all names changed to protect the innocent guilty). Dude, we all know you have the hots for that other girl on our team. When she's talking about wedding dresses and mentions she should just wear a sleazy one to piss off her family, did you forget you said "I sure wouldn't mind!" OUT LOUD? Oh, and when you ask us all what our plans our this weekend, and I tell you about my dad's band that is playing, you act as if I didn't speak, but then honestly consider driving 4 hours up north to wherever she'll be that weekend. Yes, I know she said, "you should come up and join us" but I don't thinks she really MEANT it. Or, when she specifically asks me for some drugs because she's getting a headache and you quickly jump in to say you have some too and look glare at me out of the corner of your eye as if it's a race while digging in your desk drawer to get them. Seriously, I'll let you give her the damn meds...trust me, I'll need mine to deal with you!

P.S. If you forgot, you are married, and she has a boyfriend. I'm just sayin'

mom's in time-out

I've had the pissy attitude from hell and I can hardly stand myself lately. But the other day I hit the mother-load and put myself in time-out. Bad mommy.

TheMan and the oldest boy were at an appointment. I came home pissy and decided to sit in the dark office enjoying a snack of pretzels and bacon cheese to calm down. Bacon cheese always works. Once I was over my pissy self I ventured out to the living room where Tess was passed out on the couch and Lacey and boy2 were playing on the computer. Tess woke up and I said "Hey guys, let's go get some dinner" and we all got in the car. It was going to be great with just three kids. I had Culver's on my mind. We ventured to town to get some air in my tire and I gave the kids three choices for where to eat. Bad idea #1. Why did I just do that?!?!?

They each picked a different place. No, we need to ALL agree. Tessa reluctantly changed her mind and agreed with Boy2. Lacey would.not.budge. I gave everyone 2 minutes to agree on a place or we were going home. Once that clock said 6:36 (yes I remember that godawful time) we were going home. I even specifically warned them that there would be no "ok ok, I pick...." when the clocked changed to 6:36, they had to decide BEFORE 6:36. The clock struck 6:36 (you all knew that was going to happen). They had not agreed Lacey had not changed her mind. She wanted SPAGHETTI DAMNIT and they didn't have that at Culvers! We drove home. When I passed the last road that would have taken us to Culver's I had two girls in complete meltdown mode. You see, usually I would have turned and just made Lacey deal with it. Because mama's hungry too! And holy heck I was dying for a turtle sundae. But not tonight. This mama is D.O.N.E. I lectured them all the way home but the whining and crying pushed me over the edge. I yelled and screamed and then went silent. When we got home I told Lacey to go to bed and told the other two to fend for themselves or wait for dad to get home. I put myself in time out for the rest of the night...in my bedroom...without supper.

No children were harmed in the making of this crisis. Boy2 and Tess made themselves some spaghetti-o's in the microwave. Lacey got over it, kind of. And TheMan eventually came home. Late.