Life is a Zoo

Hey all!

2011-02-17T17:31:00.002-06:00

I know I've been a terrible blogger on this page...I wasn't loving blogspot and over the past year I had a lot going on so I kind of put everything on hold for a while.

Now I'm excited to report that the hubs and I bought a new "to us" house that is going to be a large remodeling project and I bought a domain name to blog all of our home renovation adventures, family adventures, craft adventures and all kinds of stuff! I miss all of my comments and interaction with you guys, so if you would move over to:

http://taylorhousetohome.com with me, I would LOVE it!

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

2010-12-05T22:16:00.002-06:00

Mama’s Holiday Wish List Meme

TodaysMama (link to: http://bit.ly/tmwishlist) and GameStop (link to:http://bit.ly/gamestop10) are giving away a sleighful of gifts this holiday season and to enter I’m sharing this meme with you.

1. What is your holiday wish for your family?

My family holiday wish is for us all to be together and happy and just enjoy the holidays all together this year.

2. What is your Christmas morning / Hanukkah Nightly tradition?

We get up Christmas morning and find all of the presents that Santa left under the tree and open our stockings and I whip up some cinnamon rolls and start cooking the rest of the food for the Christmas dinner later in the day.

3. If you could ask Santa for one, completely decadent wish for yourself, what would it be?

A Cricut Imagine with 12 cartridges. :)

4. How do you make the holidays special without spending any money?

Attend church service and go out to look at all of the holiday lighting displays.

5. What games did you play with your family growing up?

Trivial Pursuit, Monopoly, Life

6. What holiday tradition have you carried on from your own childhood?

We let the kids open one gift on Christmas Eve.

7. Where would you go for a Christmas/Hanukkah-away-from-home trip?

Either a ski trip to Tahoe or somewhere on a beach. :)

8. Check out GameStop (link to: http://bit.ly/gamestop10) and tell us, what are the three top items on your GameStop Wish List this year?

The new Rock Band controllers and game with keyboard, etc, 3 DSI's (I have 3 boys) and Black Ops for the PS3 for the hubs.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-20T21:32:00.003-05:00

I'm snitching a photo I got from Annie over at http://mamadweeb.com because I'm a dolt and forgot to bring my camera last weekend when I got to go out to lunch with her and Katie http://katietalksabout.com/. We met out at Johnny's Tavern in Overland Park, Kansas, which was yummy, and then went out to Town Center Plaza to do a little window shopping. Great time and great conversation! Thanks girls!

Summer Gardening Update

2010-07-15T13:39:00.004-05:00

Gardening is something that's in my blood. My grandparents gardened, my dad gardened so it would stand to reason that I would garden also. Of course I'm gardening on a much smaller scale than those who came before me, but considering that it's my first attempt and I have a serious lack of space here, I don't think it's going too badly.

I'm already making note of changes that I want to make next year (item #1, buy enough dirt). I didn't get enough this year so one of my square foot gardens didn't get planted and now I'm regretting it because there are other veggies and plants I would have liked to have had.

Another note to self: Find a stronger trellis for the tomato plants next year! Even though my dad and grandparents gardened, I guess I never really paid attention as a kid, so I grossly underestimated the weight of tomato vines, dang those things are heavy! I bought this little wire trellis thing at Lowes and as soon as the plants started growing the poor little thing just couldn't withstand the weight and snapped and is now leaning precariously. The good news is, we have 20 tomatoes!

Here is my sage...I love the smell of sage. It reminds me of my Grandma Kathryn and fall and Thanksgiving. It's not gotten very big but I'm hoping to have enough to cut and dry for seasoning things.

Another note to self: Next year get more pepper plants and in a few different varieties. If you look very closely, you can see down at the bottom the lone little jalapeno on the plant. I sure hope we get more than just the one...there are still several blooms so I'm hopeful.

Excuse me waiter, there's a fly on my dill plant...

I'm happy to report that the marigolds have done well as far as keeping the bugs off of the plants...well except for Mr. Fly on the dill...and the rest of the herbs are doing wonderfully too. I totally messed up the lettuce this year and didn't thin it in time and it choked itself out, so no lettuce crop to speak of. I also have a mystery plant that I don't remember what it was growing so I guess that will be a surprise if and when it produces anything. I'll keep you posted!

Is anyone else growing anything this year? How's it going?

Wordless Wednesday

2010-07-14T19:35:00.002-05:00

First Ripe Tomatoes of the Season

Well the one on the right isn't "quite" ripe

but the little neighbor girl picked

it too soon, so we'll put it out to ripen.

Reading List Update, Halfway through the Year

2010-07-13T21:57:00.003-05:00

At the beginning of the year I posted a reading list of books I was going to try to finish during 2010...I'm happy to report I've made some progress and added a few here and there also but I've still got a ways to go....

1. "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne
2. "Say You’re One of Them" by Uwem Akpan - I got about halfway through this one and I just couldn't read any more...I hated it. Nothing particular about it, I just hated it. Ugh.
3. "The Looming Tower" by Frances Wright
4. "Prisoner of the State" by Zhao Ziyang
5. "The Bear" by William Faulkner - Actually reading this one right now.
6. "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles
7. "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry
8. "Underground" by Haruki Murakami
9. "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
10. "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson - Done, pretty writing, pointless plot
11. "The Regeneration Trilogy" by Pat Barker - This one is in progress...I read book #1 and I have #3 but don't have #2 yet...
12. "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood - Done, this one I really liked
13. "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines - Done, can't go wrong with the classics
14. "No Excuses" by Kyle Maynard - Done, bad writing but interesting story
15. "Echo in the Bone" by Diane Gabaldon- Done, if you haven't read any of her "Outlander" series, check them out, I love them all
16. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
17. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahme-Smith and Jane Austen
18. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom - Done, very sweet
19. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger
20. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy - Done, amazingly written, sad sad sad story
21. "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell - Done, a little kitschy but good
22. "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe
23. "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman
24. "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry - Done, I loved this one
25. "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn - Done, loved this one also, keep me hanging till the last pages
26. "Making a Family Home" by Shannon Honeybloom - Done, wonderful tips and beautiful photography

So as you can see, I've gotten at least a little over halfway through the list. I've also added in a few others:

1. Once an Arafat Man by Tass Saada - Fantastic book written by the father of a guy I went to school with, very interesting

2. How to Photograph Absolutely Everything by Tom King - Hey I got a new camera...enough said.

3. Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert - Very good

4. Essential Buddhism by Jacky Sach - Interesting, never hurts to learn about something new

There may be more I'm forgetting but that's off the top of my head for the moment. Considering I wanted to finish 26 books within the year, I don't think 18-1/2 is bad now that we're in July.

What all are you reading this summer that I'm missing out on? Any recommendations?

Random Update...

2010-06-27T14:00:00.003-05:00

It's summertime and I suck at keeping up with blogging and computer time and all of that in the summer...ok, well maybe I keep up well with Facebook and Frontierville, but as far as blogging and such, I stink.

I've actually had some time to READ this summer, which has been wonderful. I've finished "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy - has anyone seen that movie? I want a recommendation yay or nay...Excellent writing but the book itself made me so sad.

I also read "The Handmaid's Tale" by Margaret Atwood. Wow, bizarre. It makes you really stop and think with all of the conspiracy theories out there if something like that could really happen...although I don't personally buy into any of that stuff, it's crazy to ponder in a hypothetical sense. Great book though, I'd give it a thumbs up.

I am currently reading "Eat, Pray, Love" by Elizabeth Gilbert. I'm about halfway through it and I'm totally jealous of her ability to just pick up and leave for a year. It would be nice to take that kind of sabbatical. Of course she didn't have five kids, two dogs and a husband to worry about...by the way, I wouldn't trade any of them for the world.

I've also been reading some books on photography and Photoshop Elements 8, trying to do a little self-education so that I get the most out of my new camera, etc.

I won a book over at http://hauntjaunts.net called "The Tale of Halcyon Crane" and I'm looking to jump into it next. Thanks to Courtney over there for sending it!!

I also won an Amy Butler book "In Stitches" from @sheyb on Twitter and there are so many cute projects in there I'd like to try, but finding time to sew this summer has really been slim to none.

I've been watching baseball and the FIFA World Cup...I'm sad that USA isn't in it anymore but I really enjoy watching worldwide sporting events like the World Cup, Olympics, etc. It's interesting to me. I'm also convinced that I need to order a vuvuzela to blow at the children when they aren't listening.

I've also got a ton more of that court stuff I can't blog about yet, sighhhh. When I can finally blog this crazy story, you guys are going to crap at all of the nonsense we've had to go through over the past few years...as a side note though, I'm happy to report that all is going well and continues to be positive and encouraging news.

Tonight we're off to the zoo for the Friends of the Zoo membership night. I'll take the camera along and get some good pictures to post this week. I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. I think in a couple more weeks I'm going to start asking "When is school going to start again??" :) I love being home with the kids but I also enjoy the "routine" of the school year. Summer kind of feels "all over the place" for me.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-06-16T14:52:00.002-05:00

One EskimO, Great Guys, Great Show

2010-06-16T10:24:00.007-05:00

Recently I was offered the opportunity to review a band called "One EskimO" at a local venue in Kansas City called Crossroads.

I'm going to be totally honest for a minute here. I had no idea who this band was. I sent my littlest sister-in-law a message on Facebook to see if she knew of them and I got the response back, "Oooh I LOVE them" so I immediately agreed to do the review.

Here's the band on the stage at the Crossroads. They are an indie rock group from London (except for Pete Rinaldi, the guitarist, he's originally from Australia) and according to Pete, he's known Kristian Leontiou (the lead singer) for about nine years and the band has been together for about four years. They have a bluesy, acoustic blend and sound fantastic.

Let me give you some advice, if you get the opportunity to see these guys live, definitely go! They are extremely talented and they write really great music.

Here is my littlest sister-in-law (she's 14) anxiously waiting for the concert to start. I was pretty excited about this too because they were nice enough to give me a photography press pass for a "no cameras" show, which I thought was really nice of them. I called ahead to confirm with the tour manager that it was okay to bring my DSLR and received a text from him minutes later saying, "I'm getting you a photo press pass, bring the camera, no problem." What a nice guy!

I love this picture I got of Kristian Leontiou. He has a really unique voice and I thoroughly enjoyed listening to him.

This is Jamie Sefton, bass player and horn player. This guy is extremely talented.

I also can't say enough nice things about Adam Falkner, drummer. He rocked it on the drums throughout the show and it was great to meet him. He even offered to make us a cup of tea on the tour bus, how sweet is that?

This particular tour they are opening for Michael Franti and Spearhead, who apparently have a running joke to run onto the stage during One eskimO's performance and do something crazy.

Here's Pete Rinaldi, the guitarist. He is so talented and such a nice guy. We got to interview him on the tour bus after the set and he answered all of our questions and even got me a copy of the setlist for the evening. I also purchased a CD for my sister-in-law at the show and he was nice enough to walk it around to the guys and get it autographed for her.

Michael Franti on the stage with One eskimO in a chicken mask...hilarious!

Pete told us that they originally came to tour in the United States a year ago opening for Tori Amos. He said the most memorable place for him that they have played was Radio City Music Hall in New York City, for two reasons; he said that seeing the band name on the marquee at Radio City Music Hall was surreal and also his sister from Australia happened to be in New York City at the time so she got to see him perform as well.

We asked if the band has anything new in the works and he said that having the tour bus is a nice opportunity for them to be able to work on new music, and one of the songs they played during the show, "Hurricanes", was something new that's not on the current album but will probably be included on the next album.

Setlist for One eskimO at the Crossroads, Kansas City, MO 06/13/2010:

"Giving Up"

"Astronauts"

"Simple Day"

"Amazing"

"Hometime"

"Chocolate"

"Kandi"

"Hurricanes"

"All Balloons"

"UFO"

I can't stress enough if you get a chance to give these guys a listen, you won't be sorry, and if you ever get the opportunity to meet them, DEFINITELY do it - they are some of the nicest guys in the music scene and they were so gracious to me and my sister-in-law, answering all of our questions and letting us hang out with them in the bus after the show. Thanks again, guys!

P.S. You can also find them at www.oneeskimo.com

I was given the opportunity to review this show by the One2One Network. I got 2 free passes to the show but I was not compensated in any other way to do this review. My opinions are 100% my own...and my sister-in-law's. :)

Wordless Wednesday - Full Fledged Pout

2010-06-09T23:39:00.000-05:00

How I Know it's Summer...

2010-06-07T23:40:00.006-05:00

I can tell it's summertime at our house because my house looks like a tornado hit it with the little cyclones I have running in and out around here. :)

I also know that it's summertime because of the amount of towels that we're going through...
Another clue that it's summertime in our house is that it seems like the grocery bill DOUBLES!!
But I'm really loving every second of it...
Summer is my favorite season of the year!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-31T23:18:00.003-05:00

My birthday always falls on Memorial Day weekend, which is kind of depressing I guess but I went up to north Missouri and put flowers on all of the graves last week and so this weekend was for food, family and fun. :)

When you have five kids (plus 2 additional friends of the oldest) the best things in life ARE free, so we headed down to Union Station in Kansas City yesterday for "Celebration at the Station".

The Kansas City Symphony plays a variety of patriotic music at Union Station with Liberty Memorial in the background with an awesome fireworks show when it gets dark.

We packed the kids all up in a couple of cars and headed downtown...Here's my friend Sherri with my daughter on her shoulders, my friend Bryan and his girls came down and met us too.
The littlest in shades...hilarious...
Bryan and his girls, aren't they pretty?? My middle child has a big crush on the one on the left and he would love it even more if he knew I put that on here. :)
Here is what a pile of boys looks like sprawled out on a picnic blanket.
Miss Priss was loving the music and the crowd and all the excitement.

Brotherly love...

I played around a little with my camera once it got dark and we got the kids all those glow in the dark necklace things....I thought this one turned out kind of cool with the flash off.
Liberty Memorial, the only WW-I memorial in the nation...you can see the eternal flame lit at the top.
Union Station with stars and red white and blue...so neat!
The fireworks show with the Memorial...so pretty.
I had a great time with my entire family together and we really enjoyed the evening. When they played "Taps" towards the end of the concert, it made me a little teary remembering my dad, uncle and all of the other veterans in my family who have passed on; however, this was a celebration of their lives and we enjoyed it to the fullest.

We come, not to mourn our dead soldiers, but to praise them. ~Francis A. Walker

Kansas City Dinosaurs Unearthed!

2010-05-18T19:55:00.005-05:00

We were looking around last Sunday afternoon for something to do inside that was out of the rain. We got together with my friend Sonya and her boys and headed down to Union Station in Kansas City for their current exhibit "Dinosaurs Unearthed".

These things were awesome and they moved and growled and had placards with information on them. It was a great learning experience as well as fun!
Here are the kids in front of the t-rex outside.
We got our tickets, had some lunch, checked out some other parts of Union Station (coming to a later blog) and headed downstairs for the exhibit starting at 3:00 pm. Here is "the talk" from Dad a/k/a the hubs. "No running, no acting like fools, stay together, keep your hands to yourselves..." all that good stuff.
This is one of the five fully articulated skeletons in the display. Sooo cool!! The kids thought they were awesome!
Here they had a panel of all sizes of dinosaurs. Here are my two middles with the Stegosaurus.
And my littlest testing out his "dinosaur stomp and roar".
Here are my friend Sonya's boys, all smiles over the dinosaurs.
Here's Sonya's oldest next to a leg bone. Yikes! This thing made me feel tiny!
They had a stand set up where you could use paintbrushes (or your hands) and sift out the dinosaur bones underneath.
The littlest hard at work with his brush and the daughterling checking it out too...
She was not so much a fan of the 24 animatronic dinosaurs and spent most of the exhibit roaring back at them from the safety of Daddy's arms. :)
This triceratops looks like it's about to chomp the 7-year-old's head off. He doesn't seem to mind...strange, isn't it?
I will admit I'm not much of a dinosaur guru but dinosaurs with fur? Bizarre...
I had to practically bend over backwards to get the shot of this tall guy.
The exhibits were very kid-friendly and interactive and the boys all loved them.
This is the face we got...
...when this bad boy growled at him! PRICELESS!
Another one of the cool skeletons.
Union Station is a gorgeous old building and holds much history in Kansas City. I got some more cool pictures and info that I'll post in a later blog. I think I'm on picture overload as it is.

The kids all definitely gave "Dinosaurs Unearthed" at Union Station in Kansas City 12 thumbs up (we took six kids)!

Delaney's First Baseball Game!

2010-05-18T08:59:00.003-05:00

At Kauffman Stadium, home of the Kansas City Royals, twice a year they put on an event called "Girls' Night Out at the K". It's a great way to get ladies out to the ballpark and a portion of the proceeds from the evening goes to charity, usually the first event of the year goes to Susan G. Komen Foundation and the second goes to the American Heart Association "Go Red for Women" campaign. Since Miss Priss is now 3, I thought we would try to take her and see how she did trying to sit through a baseball game. Here's the color guard for the National Anthem:

Wrong hand on the heart there, Sis. :) Hey at least she was being respectful and paying attention to what was going on.
In the first few minutes we were there, we had to make 2 trips to the bathroom and as soon as she sat down she said, "I'm hungry and thirsty, Mommy." So here she is enjoying some "machos" (which is what she calls nachos) and watching the game.
They handed out free bunny ears at the game. Also the first 10K in the gate get a free t-shirt but we were running a bit behind so we didn't get there in time, darn it.
When Alex Gordon isn't playing, our favorite player defaults to Billy Butler. She was into it too, she was singing the "Let's Go Royals!" chant and everything.
We went to walk around the stadium to burn off some energy when she started getting restless. Thankfully at the K there is a ton to do and see. I really love it since they have redone things out there. Here she is checking out the letters outside of the Royals Hall of Fame exhibit - really cool inside if you have time to check it out.
They also have a section out at the K called "The Outfield Experience" specifically designed for kids. Kind of pricey but fun for those "once in a while" times...You buy tokens to do the specific activities and I think they are like $2 each but taking into consideration what it is to ride things/do things at other parks I guess it's really pretty comparable. Here is my little future softball player in the making:
And we couldn't pick the cool baseball themed carousel spots to sit...we had to pick the "pretty horse, Mommy, with pretty flowers on it!!" I might get her to play softball but she's a girly girl through and through...
Every Friday night at the K after the game is over (we won by the way, 6-1!!) they hit the lights and turn on music and up in the sky....
It's FIREWORKS FRIDAY! I was a little worried about this, because my daughter tends to be kind of a chicken when it comes to EVERYTHING and I was scared to death of fireworks when I was little.
However, as you can see, she thinks they are "Just booooo-ti-ful!!" She didn't want them to be over.
And on the way home, I had one tuckered out little girl who thoroughly enjoyed her first baseball game and first time out at the K.
Oh and as a side note, if any of you here in KC or the surrounding area bring your little ones to the K for their first game, if you take them to the Guest Services office in the stadium and tell them, they print out a certificate with their name on it and the date saying that they are an "Official Royals Fan" and thanks for your attendance at your first game. This is a free service that the stadium provides and is really a neat keepsake to have. I wish I would have scanned it but I forgot...

Random Thursday Thoughts

2010-05-13T16:03:00.004-05:00

I typed this entire post, decided to add a picture to it, and then accidentally deleted everything I had just typed. Super.
Here's the random picture I wanted to add to the random post. It made me laugh when I took it because it looks like a 2-headed giraffe.

The terrible three's are way worse than the terrible two's ever thought about being.
I'm paranoid that my camera battery is going to run out when I'm out somewhere and want to take pictures and probably need to think about picking up a spare.
My hubby will be happy that I ordered the daughterling a one-piece swimsuit for this year.
I wish if people wanted to know things about me, they would just ask me instead of trying to put someone else in a bad position. However, just because you ask, doesn't mean you're getting an answer, some things just aren't anyone else's business.
Saturday is Rockfest and I'm afraid it's going to just be one giant mud-pit. I'm still super-excited to go though.
My daughter should have taken a nap today and didn't and now is a complete bear to deal with.
There is a door-to-door salesman wandering the neighborhood. I'm going to let my dogs out on the porch so he won't knock on my door.
Tomorrow night is Girls' Night Out at the K. I'm bummed because it's going to be too chilly for my daughter to wear the dress I've been making for her. Guess she'll have to wear it to a warmer weather game.
I'm still getting used to wearing glasses. They feel weird on my face.
Monday is my hubby's birthday. He doesn't like cake.
I won a giveaway on Twitter MONTHS ago and never got what I won. I've even asked the person about it. I ordered a product from someone else's website as a result because I don't think this person is reliable.
Trey Hillman just got dismissed as the KC Royals manager...too bad they can't dismiss the cheapskate owner too.
We've had too much rain the past few days and I think my poor little garden is drowning.
My 2-year old needs to realize that he in fact cannot fly like Buzz Lightyear. Being able to say the words "To infinity and beyond!" does not grant you the ability to fly. I am afraid we may require an emergency room trip before this phase is over.
It is 5:00 and I have made no plans and have no ideas about what we are doing for dinner.
Today is my hubby's first day of a nine-day vacation from work. I'm so excited! Just think of the honey-do list I can make!! :)
If I ask you a question that requires a "yes" or "no" answer, a "yes", "no" or even "I don't know" will suffice. If I want an opinion to go with said answer, I'll ask.
I need a different shirt to wear to Rockfest this weekend. With the temps being in the 60s, the original tanktop I was going to wear is not going to work out.
The kids trashed the living room today...sighhhhh.
Where in the hell are Max and Ruby's parents? Did they abandon them because Ruby is such a little witch??
The word of the day today is "gobba" - only Brittany is going to get this.
I hate when people who have never had children try to tell me what I need to be doing or not doing with my kids. It's a super pet peeve of mine.
I'm looking forward to going to the zoo Sunday with some friends.
My terrier has a serious case of Napoleon syndrome.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-05-12T07:30:00.003-05:00

I took this picture the other day at the zoo and I love how it turned out!

Have a happy Wednesday!

Quiet morning

2010-05-10T07:12:00.002-05:00

I love mornings like this. I'm enjoying my first cup of coffee of the day and everyone is still asleep but me. I can turn on the news and not listen to, "My shows, Mommy, I watch MY shows!" I can check email, catch up on my google reader and sip coffee in peace and quiet. This is a particularly quiet morning. There's a gentle rain falling outside and it's still nice and dark outside, so hopefully the kids will sleep a bit longer and let me enjoy my peace.

Gardening with the Kiddos

2010-05-09T18:03:00.004-05:00

I knew I wanted to put a garden (or three) in this year so I went shopping yesterday for the supplies we would need. I didn't buy enough dirt for all 3 of my gardens, but we at least got 2 done today. Here's Keegs dragging some dirt to the back yard.

Liam opted to spend most of his gardening time doing this and Keegan, who was the one who wanted to do the garden in the first place, lost interest shortly after he realized it was WORK and at least managed to entertain Liam.

He did manage to come around again when actual tools were involved. I'm not sure why he needs his tongue sticking out to do anything that resembles work...see above photo also.
Jaidie and Miss Priss were good helpers. Here they are after putting the tomato plants in.

Here is our herb/salad garden with a rhubarb plant also. We've got basil, oregano, cilantro, lavender, rosemary, chives, dill, sage, spinach and lettuce in this one.

Miss Priss asked for a rose bush, so we obliged and got her this one and put it out by the driveway. She was pretty mad that she didn't actually get to help plant it but dang, that thing was thorny...

Here are my potted impatients, impatiens, I can't ever remember which it is....

And a hanging basket of those also for the screened in front porch...

Since we didn't have enough dirt to do the 3rd garden, I went ahead and planted the seeds to get seedlings for when I can finish things up. Here are the zucchini and cantaloupe...

And then green onions and cucumbers in this one. I think I might need another trellis too...not sure yet.
I also planted some ground cover plants and a couple of butterfly bushes. All in all, everything turned out great and it's supposed to rain the next couple of days so I didn't bother to water, yet. My dad loved to garden and I think on his birthday weekend he would have been happy to see the grandkids out digging in the dirt.

Happy Mother's Day!

2010-05-09T10:17:00.003-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all of the Moms out there! I'd like to say thank you to the decent fathers out there that make us mothers and help teach their children respect and love of their mothers, like my husband. He is a great role model and father figure for all of the children, mine and ours alike and I appreciate it so much! This is what I got for Mother's Day from the kids and the hubby:

Isn't it gorgeous? I absolutely love it! I didn't wear it today though because we're spending our day putting gardens in and I don't want to mess it up. :) More to come on the gardening later...I'd also like to thank my neighbors for providing awesome BBQ to eat for lunch today, it really hit the spot!

Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!

Happy Birthday to 2 very special people in my life..

2010-05-08T11:35:00.002-05:00

I tried to be in denial last year that I was the mother of a teenager but now that he is 14, I don't think I can deny it anymore. Oh wait, he isn't "technically" 14 until 11:02 pm, so I can live in denial for a few more hours. He's reached the "teen-I-hate-you" years but I love him anyway. He was my first. His younger siblings adore him, especially his baby sister. How could you not adore him? Look how handsome he is... Happy birthday, son. I love you so much!

It's also happy birthday to another one of my favorite men. Today would have been my dad's birthday but we lost him to cancer a couple of years ago. I miss him every day but I know he is with us in spirit. On a day when I've done something particularly stupid I can hear his voice in the back of my mind saying, "Girl, you need to grab both ears and pull." (pull your head out of your butt, for those that don't speak Jim-language).

My brother is the best...the cemetery is about 2 and a half hours away from me, and he lives closer so he went and put flowers on his grave this morning. It looks so nice. I wish I could have been there in person to see it. Today is kind of rough for me, this Daddy's girl is missing her daddy. Happy birthday Dad!

Children's Music CD Review

2010-05-07T13:35:00.005-05:00

Recently I was contacted via Twitter for a free link to a song from @beauticreatures and a request to review their CD.

Here is an excerpt from their website http://www.beautifulmusic.co.za/aboutus.php

"Beautiful Creatures was formed in South Africa in November 2004 by Alan Glass, Ed Jordan and Paul Choritz who felt there was a need for "Parent Friendly" children's music. Using the best session musicians, actors and singers in the country, Beautiful Creatures prides itself on being uniquely South African with a positive global message."

I downloaded the rest of their CD and set it to play a few mornings ago while the toddlers and I were going about our morning routine. We go to the zoo a lot around here (we have a family Friends of the Zoo membership to the Kansas City Zoo) and so my little ones LOVE animals and so songs about animals were an obvious fit for them to like.

They danced all over the living room to songs like, "Imvubu the Happiest Hippo" and "Zee Bee Dee Bee Dee", that was a song about a zebra. The only songs that they didn't love were the lullaby songs but it was because it was only 9:00 am in the morning and they said "Mommy, it's not bedtime right now!!" However, they were great songs and as an adult, they didn't make me want to gouge my eardrums out, which is a DEFINITE bonus. Sometimes "kiddie music" just doesn't "do it" for me but this was not standard "kiddie music" and was something that I enjoyed listening to with the kids.

You can get the songs at iTunes here: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/beautiful-creatures/id327863543 for 99-cents each, which I would definitely be willing to pay for to have music that the kids and I can both enjoy together.

**Disclaimer : I got the CD for download for free but my opinions are my own and I wasn't paid to write this review. I don't normally do reviews so I'm not sure how this disclaimer is really supposed to work but I think that should pretty well cover it.

And I'm behind again...

2010-05-07T12:45:00.003-05:00

So much for the trying to stay on top of blogging this year. I'm a week past again and I had things I wanted to blog about and then got sidetracked and then forgot and now I can't remember what it was I wanted to talk about...it's "mommy brain", that's what I'm blaming at this point.

Also the month of May is always crazy-busy around here. We have the oldest son's birthday, which was also my dad's birthday :(, and then Mother's Day and then Rockfest and then hubby's birthday and then my birthday...craziness! We were supposed to have court this month also but that has been cancelled, which I will try to "vaguely outline" in another post...It's good/bad news type of scenario and I'm disappointed that it's taking longer than I wanted but in the end I feel like it's going to work out the way it is supposed to.

I did finally launch into the cell phone revolution. Yes, I know, I've been living in the dark ages forever and hubby finally said it was time. Then I picked some over-the-top gadgety phone - I got the Motorola Android - that is probably too much phone for me but I love it anyway. And I especially love the pink cover that hubs picked out for me! :)

I also got a new camera, which I LURVE (this means really really really really really - you get the idea - love). Here are a few pictures of a few of the kidlets for your perusal.

So I've been spending some time learning how to operate my gadgets and not been keeping up on the blogging. I've got some awesome picture posts coming up and also I got asked to review a kids' music CD that I need to tell you all about. I don't normally do reviews unless it's a book that I've read or picked up myself at the store but I gave a listen to this CD and found that it was well-worth talking about and the little ones love it so that's coming up soon too. Maybe tonight if I can manage to pause for a minute to get it done. Now I need to get a notebook out and make notes of the posts I said I would do so that I don't sit down at the computer later and say "Now what was I going to write about??" LOL

I hope everyone has a good weekend and a fantastic Mother's day!

I love rainy weekends sometimes...

2010-04-24T15:59:00.005-05:00

It's been a while since I've had time to make anything. Between kids, the house and other stuff I've been keeping crazy busy. I made a trip to Joanns the other day and bought some fabric and decided it was time to get back on the wagon. Summer is coming and little Miss Priss could use some cute things to wear...This weekend the weather is rainy and cool, so that keeps us stuck in the house but it's perfect for sitting down at the sewing machine

I bought some material called "mock smocking" which makes SUPER EASY sundresses. Little miss loves "Fancy Nancy" and I found some with Fancy Nancy on it...perfect. I didn't take pictures of all of the steps but basically all I did was sew a seam up the side and add ribbon straps...ta da!! Dress in under 30 minutes!

As you can see, she loves it!! I made one more trip to the fabric store today (hey, patterns were on sale for 99-cents, and for anyone that sews, that's a CHEAP deal!) and picked up one more piece of smocking in Disney princesses, so that will be another project on the horizon.

We are planning an upcoming outing next month to "Girls Night Out" at the K (Kansas City Royals stadium) so the project I'm now working on is a special "baseball dress" for her to wear that night. It's my first time working from an actual pattern, so wish me luck! I've got all of the pieces cut and ready to go but I didn't realize I needed fusible webbing for the project so I'm on pause until hubs gets home from work and I can make a quick dash to grab some.

And I did manage to get some cleaning done today, so I didn't blow the whole day on hobbies (darnit). Sometimes I really love rainy weekends.

It's time for summer food, yay!!

2010-04-21T08:01:00.002-05:00

Thanks to our neighbors, we recently acquired a grill (Thanks Missy and Rick). I LOVE grilling out in the summer and since I'm dieting, that's even better!

This was my dinner last night - steak (yes it was a lean one and no I didn't eat it all because the littlest kept yelling, "STEAK, I want STEAK! Can I please have STEAK?" lol

Then I chopped up summer squash, zucchini and eggplant with a tsp of butter and some minced garlic, wrapped them in foil and tossed them on the grill -mmmm, heaven!

I love grilling, being outdoors and basically all things "summer".

Have a great Wednesday!!

My baby is turning into a big boy...

2010-04-20T08:02:00.003-05:00

This is the last baby I'm ever going to have and he's 2-1/2 now.

Isn't he a cutie?

Check out the hair...the long, shaggy kind of haircut because every trip

to get a haircut ends with Mom having to sit in the chair with him

holding him pretty much in a headlock and him shrieking every

time the scissors come near his head. However, unluckily for him,

Mom and Dad don't go for the "long hair" look on boys. :)

Summertime especially is "short boy haircut" time around here.

Since he screams and hollers with the scissors and has a general fit,

I decided that clippers might be the easier way to go. Also, frankly it's

almost embarrassing to try to take him to the salon where I look

like "Mother of the Year" having to hogtie this poor baby to get

his hair cut. Instead, I asked my friend and neighbor to come

over with her set of clippers, and here is what we ended up with:

I know all moms say this, but isn't he the cutest thing??

You can just see the ornery little expression on his face, and

he IS ornery and all boy...well except when he gets mad that

his sissy and I are painting our toenails and won't paint his too...LOL

I'm almost sad at how big he is this year. Last year when he played outside,

he tried running around to keep up with the bigger kids and stumbled and fell

and had a hard time keeping up. This summer he's running right along with them.

My baby is turning into a big boy...sigh.

Moms Cannot Go Pee...

2010-04-19T19:20:00.004-05:00

Because when we take 5 minutes to go to the bathroom, things like THIS happen:

She was not so happy that I took this picture

and showed her what a mess she looked like...

And of course it couldn't be ANY old lotion,

it had to be my Victoria's Secret "good stuff", grrrrrr.

Gotta love girls...

It's our one-year anniversary!

2010-04-18T18:04:00.006-05:00

Happy anniversary to my hubby! I would have to say after a year, I still feel like I made a good choice. hehehe

Sitting in church today brought back memories of our wedding day...all of it was absolutely amazing, but my favorite part is that we wrote our own vows and I saved his vows that he wrote to me and I'm going to share them today with a picture of him reading them:

"Our lives together have been full of many twists and turns. When others said we shouldn’t or we couldn’t, we did. We have made it this far by living by the motto “one day we will look back on this and laugh”. Never knowing what waits for us around the corner, there aren’t many things I can promise, but I know a few:

1. I promise I will always say the right thing half of the time.

2. I promise to snore you to sleep every night.

3. I promise you will never have to paddle the canoe.

4. I promise to love all of our children as if they were my own.

5. I promise to choke down multiple servings of your awful cooking for your sake.

6. I promise to kill all bugs, spiders, mice and other crawly things.

7. I promise I will never spit in your sock again.

8. I promise I will never bore you with cheesy lines like the guys on Grey’s Anatomy.

9. I promise to decorate our house with my socks, underwear and towels.

10. I promise to love you completely every day for the rest of our lives.

Sometimes when I am sitting around the house, I think, “What have I gotten myself into?” and then I see your beauty in Delaney’s eyes, I hear your love of life in Liam’s laugh, and I see your strength, imagination and sensitivity in Schuyler, Keegan and Jaiden. When we found out Delaney was on the way, you told me everything would be okay, and when Liam came along, I got to return the favor. Many people told me before I became a father that my life would be over, I think that is when my life truly began. There is nothing in this world I love more than my family and there is no one I would rather face the twists and turns of life with than you. You accept me as I am, and support me in everything I do. I love you very much and when we grow old and the children are gone, there is no one else I would rather look back with and laugh."

Isn't he great?? Gotta love him...and I still haven't figured out when he spit in my sock.....

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-14T17:45:00.002-05:00

Again, since it's our anniversary weekend, my Wordless Wednesday is going to be pictures of our wedding from last year. We got to have all five of the kids in the wedding and everything about the day was just awesome!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-04-07T23:07:00.002-05:00

Since April is my anniversary month, I'm going to do all of my Wordless Wednesdays centered around my wonderful hubby this month.

As you can see here, I love him for his sense of humor...

However, sometimes you just can't take him out in public...LOL

Easter Egg Hunt

2010-04-04T11:36:00.003-05:00

Here is the egg hunting gang. They are a wild bunch after being totally sugared up.

She found one!

He's mad because one of the bigger brothers grabbed one he saw before he could get to it. :(

Miss Priss posing with her flower shades on.

I love this outfit I found at Gymboree. Love the Later Gator hat!

Mr. Cheese!! :)

I found one!!!!

She's too busy trying to be cute to find eggs...

We hid the eggs, found them, re-hid them, found them again, and so on at least 4 or 5 times. A good time was had by all and the only one that managed to step in dog poop in the yard was me. :( It seems to be the kind of day I'm having but at least the kids are having a great time!

Happy Easter!

2010-04-03T21:20:00.005-05:00

I decided this year that decorating eggs is messy, stains things and is wasteful because no one around here really likes the eggs well enough to use them after decorating them...

So we decided that decorating cookies was a good idea instead. I made chocolate/chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies, got some cream cheese frosting and some Easter sprinkles and we were good to go.

Delaney is hard at work on her cookies... She was really concentrating.
Liam did a "little" decorating and a "LOT" of licking the frosting off the knife. :)
BUSTED! Yes, I saw you put that in your mouth, son.
Gotta love it when the kids pick up the camera...no makeup and my head is cut off...great.
Putting some sprinkles on...
Look, I finished one!
She was very focused on this whole process...
The finished result...still messy, still have sprinkles all over the place but at least the cookies will get eaten.
And to anyone who is worried that I'm depriving the children of some Easter experience, I still got plastic eggs to hide. :)

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-23T23:28:00.000-05:00

Smoochy face for Mommy:

A Strange Request

2010-03-23T08:59:00.004-05:00

This is my "Peanut". He's 7 and getting ready to turn 8 in June. Since the boys' birthdays are all in the summertime, once spring starts rolling around, the discussion of "what I want for my birthday" begins.

We made a short run to Wal-mart Friday night and he says, "Mom, can we go to the Garden Center and buy some plants?" I said, "Not tonight buddy, it's supposed to snow all weekend long." He says, "Well that's what I want for my birthday." I was distracted and trying to get what we needed and get out and said, "You want what for your birthday?" (thinking he was looking at a toy or something in passing) He says, "Plants. I want plants for my birthday." All righty then...

He does love working outside in the yard with me and here's a picture of him planting some mums in the fall. He loves digging in the dirt. One year I got him his own little set of gardening tools and he LOVED them.

Granted, I'd love to get some new plants for the yard and such but it seems kind of like cheating him if he gets them for his birthday so I thought maybe something like a mini terrarium or something for his room? If anyone has any great ideas, I'm open to any and all suggestions.

Easter is coming...

2010-03-22T21:23:00.004-05:00

Every year I try to avoid the cheesy stuffed rabbit to put in the kids' baskets...in fact I try to avoid baskets in general. Usually a bucket or a bag or something they might actually play with later on...

Last year I took the little ones to church for the Easter egg hunt. They avoided the candy route for the eggs, which made me happy, however, they put little toys inside the eggs. Good deal right? Right. Until....my daughter opens a plastic egg and there is a little fluffy baby chick toy inside. She throws the egg and lets out a blood curdling scream.

My daughter is not a fan of these:

It's a baby chick for pete's sake. Seems innocuous enough. Yet if she sees one, she will run in the opposite direction, screaming at the top of her lungs. I have no idea where this fear came from either...

And it's not just chicks she is scared of...she doesn't like these either:

Who doesn't like baby ducks? My little princess, that's who. She is not a fan of birds in general. We tried to look at a couple of bird exhibits at the zoo last year, which went really well - until she realized there were real birds in there. At the mall one day in the parking lot, a flock of birds flew over and she's screaming, "No birds! No birds!"

My neighbors have pet birds and we've tried "making friends" and showing her that they aren't scary to no avail, she isn't having any of it.

She is, however, going to look adorable in her Easter dress that her Uncle Shawn bought her, don't you think?

Dinner Tonight...FAIL

2010-03-22T19:12:00.004-05:00

WARNING: This post is not for the weak of stomach - if you gag easily (umm Jeni this means you), do not proceed to read any further.

Still reading? OK, don't say I didn't warn you.

I spent around 30 minutes in the kitchen tonight whipping up some awesome cheeseburgers with the onion soup packet mixed in the meat along with a side of Green Giant pasta/cheese/veggie combo, because my little ones are not huge veggie fans unless they are mixed in something else.

I get everything on the plates and we get ready to sit down and eat. The daughterling announces suddenly she has to go to the bathroom and gets up from the table. No one has taken a bite of their food yet and then it starts....

Barf....exorcist style...for like five minutes straight...on the floor next to the dining room table.

Yep just like that...

Hubs grabs a towel and announces that he will gag if he has to clean it up. I'm already wearing my fair share, so I grab the towel and clean it all up and clean her up. I grab the mop and clean up the floor. Then I haul her upstairs and put her in the bathtub to get her all cleaned up. I came back downstairs and hubs managed to choke one of his cheeseburgers down but had a look on his face like it wasn't going well... I tried to take a bite or two of mine and finally said "Forget it, just give it all to the dogs." Dinner = FAIL due to unforeseen circumstances.

I hope this is just a fluke "something she ate" issue and not the beginning of a household flu epidemic. Now I get to go start the laundry associated with the whole fiasco.

The dogs aren't complaining tonight, they ate like kings.

Dear Mother Nature:

2010-03-20T17:54:00.003-05:00

Dear Mother Nature:

Today is the first day of spring...This is what I SHOULD be seeing:

In anticipation of this, we got out the summer ride on toys the other day and put them in the back yard, all ready to go.

However, on this first day of spring, this is what I am ACTUALLY seeing:

I request a redo and the immediate cessation of this white crap that I hate.

Sincerely yours,
Ready For Summer

Is That a Pitbull in a Tutu??

2010-03-17T14:56:00.004-05:00

Today the UPS man showed up to drop off a box. I have to block the dogs inside because they aren't very stranger-friendly. I went out to the screened in front porch and the dogs immediately jumped up on the couch to see who was at the door.

I'm signing for the package and the UPS guy looks up and says "Ummm ma'am, is that a pitbull in a pink tutu?"

I said, "No, that's a boxer in a tutu." He looks at me quizzically and I said, "I have a 3-year-old daughter." He shook his head and said, "OK that explains it, have a nice day." LOL
Poor Buster...he's very tolerant though, don't you think?? LOL

A Prequel to Summer Festivals...

2010-03-16T18:20:00.004-05:00

Summer is right around the corner. That means it's time for outdoor concerts, festivals and the like. I love summer and everything outdoors, so the thought improves my mood exponentially.

We will be attending Rockfest at Liberty Memorial in Kansas City again this year. Yes, I'm a mom and yes I still enjoy rock music and yes I think that's ok and no, I don't think that makes me a crappy role model. Moms enjoy a little fun too now and then... The lineup is going to be good and they are having it earlier in the season, which hopefully means we won't die from heat exhaustion out there this year. :)

However, the parts I am not looking forward to are the people stomping all over me as I try to enjoy the show, pot smoke floating through the air (gross), and the general nonsense that comes with dealing with a show of this type. Last year I ended up with a giant gash on my neck that almost makes me want to reconsider going this year.

You have to excuse the lack of makeup and flat, sweat-soaked hair - hey, it was like 95 degrees out there, you wouldn't look like a million bucks either...

Hubby was not a happy camper after that happened...
In thinking about the summer concerts, it brought to mind a post I wrote on my Myspace blog (I know, Myspace is so last week and I never use it but I keep it around because I have pics on there I haven't saved yet, lol) so I thought I'd recycle the post and bring it back to my new blog for others to enjoy.

OUTDOOR CONCERT ETIQUETTE

"After attending Rockfest yesterday, I feel the need to express to the masses a few little points on what I feel should be necessary outdoor concert etiquette. Let me start off by saying that Rockfest was awesome and the bands were great. Seeing STP reunited was an experience that I wouldn't trade for all of the nonsense that went on throughout the day.

When attending an all day, outdoor festival, there are people that are smart bring a blanket to sit on and place their things. Those that aren't so smart go wandering through the crowd stepping on whatever is in their path including blankets, bags, food, drinks, and people. Sometimes the occasional blanket step is unavoidable and must be excused, especially when the offender is at least making an attempt not to step on you or the rest of your stuff. "Excuse me" can be pretty powerful words, people, USE THEM. There were also major offenders. People who would step on your blanket or you or even OVER you when they can see you sitting right there. Obviously their mothers did not teach them any manners either because there was no "excuse me" forthcoming. To these people I issue a warning: if you are going to come trampling over me and my stuff and step in my nachos or knock over my $5 beer and I happen to have a lit cigarette in my hand, expect to be tagged with a small reminder on your leg of why you should not step over or on people at concerts. I counted yesterday and there are 7 people out there with a small circular burn mark on their leg as a reminder from me to them not to step on me when there is a perfectly reasonable grass path in which they could have gone around. The people on the blanket behind me offered to take up smoking and follow the same practice, as they were getting pissed off from being stepped all over by offenders also.

Secondly, when attending an outdoor festival such as Rockfest and you intend to partake in alcoholic beverages, PACE YOURSELVES, PEOPLE! There were a ton of people that 2 hours into the festival yesterday that were passed out and ended up being carried out of the place by their friends at the end of the night. You paid $30 a ticket and $30 in beer probably to see one band for an hour, smart move. And a side note to the guy who was passed out face down in a puddle of his own puke before the concerts even started: First rule is PACE YOURSELF and second rule is GET NEW FRIENDS. If you are friends with a bunch of assholes who amuse themselves by kicking the crap out of you while you are face down in the ground in a puddle of your own puke, it's time to trade up and get new friends, man. Especially in 90-something degree weather where you could have alcohol poisoning and die of heat exhaustion and your friends' concern is kicking you in the kidneys and laughing and the people that actually go to get some help to assist you don't even know you, I see this as a problem and it's time for a trade in.

My third and fourth concert etiquette issues are a little controversial and touchy for some. The third is going to address weed. Let me start off by saying that I am not a weed smoker, but you wouldn't know if by the bloodshot eyes I have from inhaling second hand smoke out there. This, however, is not my complaint. If you want to smoke weed, that's entirely up to you; however, to those that got asked to leave the concert yesterday or got arrested because of weed, here is a piece of advice that may apply to you: WEED IS STILL ILLEGAL, people! If you know this and choose to do it anyway, certainly it's your deal, but then don't bother being indignant when you get busted. You would have been better off taking the money you wasted on frying your brain cells and put it in the Bikers for Babies fundraising cans and enjoying the concert in its entirety. Note to these people: $30 for a concert ticket, plus whatever weed goes for these days (I have no clue) to see a band or two for a couple hours and then get kicked out or arrested? Probably not economically feasible...especially if you were one that got arrested and had to come up with bail money also.

The fourth issue regarding concert etiquette is also a little sensitive for some, including myself but I am proud to say I was not an offender. This is wardrobe, especially for the larger folks. To the women, if you have 3 spare tires where abs used to be, a bikini is NOT a good choice for you. It's not cute or sexy and trust me, NO ONE wants to see this. I know, it's hot outside, but there are plenty of other appropriate cool-to-wear objects that do not subject others to their eyeballs burning for having viewed you in this state. If it is a tan you are trying to achieve, your back yard might be a better venue for this. Case in point:

I don't know any of these women but let's just say it and put it out there - Good Lord! And I'm going to go equal opportunity on the sexes here to be fair. Men, if we cannot see your belt from your gut hanging over it, there is no reason on earth to remove your shirt. Try a loose tank top to stay cooler for future events. Everyone will be happier for it. Keep in mind that as I write this, I am fully aware that I have five children and that no one wants to see my stomach, therefore a camisole that covered it was satisfactory temperature wise and pleasing to the eyes of others in mixed company.

Another side note to the men....those of you that scream for chicks to take their shirts off at concerts are the ones I am addressing here. Are you really that lame that you can't get some action at home and have never laid eyes on a set of boobs before? However, to the ladies, if you've got a great set and feel the need to show them off, go for it. However, if you are like me and have had five kids and they aren't where they used to be or weigh 300+ pounds, if you hear a man hollering to see tits, it's probably not at you, keep them put away.

My last concern is purely a safety issue. By the end of the night people were launching full water bottles through the air. Granted the mist from the water flying through the evening air was cooling, but did any of you think about the poor sucker that got whacked in the back of the head by the half full water bottle coming down? I counted probably 30 water bottles spinning gracefully through the air shooting water last night and with the crowd as packed as it was, I have to believe that there were at least 25 people who went home with a huge bump and bruise on their head. So last etiquette rule on my little diatribe here: WATER BOTTLES ARE FOR DRINKING AND SHOULDN'T BE LAUNCHED IN THE AIR AS MISSLES.
However, like I said at the beginning of this little editorial, Rockfest on the whole was a great time. The weather was fantastic, spending the day with Paul, and the rest of our group made for great company. The people on the blankets sitting around us were all great and I ran into some old friends, which was great also. The music was good and I thoroughly enjoyed the experience as a whole. And my wonderful guy Paul, who in general refuses to buy concert t-shirts, bought me a concert t-shirt. :) I hope all of the others that attended had as good a time as I did and got home safely."
A couple more pictures for your perusal....this is what being mixed up in a crowd of 50,000 people looks like during the day...

And at night....

End rant...errrr, blog....

Potty Training

2010-03-16T12:07:00.003-05:00

The littlest has been going through a phase of streaking here lately....I cannot get him to leave clothes nor a diaper on lately. Thank goodness it's getting warmer outside or he might freeze!

Last night Daddy made a Wal-mart run and picked up a package of size 2T Nickolodeon big boy underpants. He was pretty jazzed when he got up this morning and we had Diego, Spongebob and Wonderpets underwear to choose from. He looks so cute in them and if there weren't a ton of creepos on the internet, I'd probably add pictures to this post, so I'll just put a funny picture for aesthetic purposes instead:

First we started off with the Diego underpants and he decided those were not the deal and he needed to move on to Wonderpets.... Then Wonderpets weren't good either and we needed to check out the Spongebob pants.

He has expressed interest in sitting on the potty chair and one day he climbed up on the big toilet and went #2....with the lid down....what a mess but I at least made a big deal out of the fact that he tried. :)

Since potty training the daughterling, our diaper expense has gone down about $40 a month...I could be saving DOUBLE that if I could get him trained too!! Maybe I could get a monthly massage at the day spa?? Or pay extra on some bills, which would be the most likely solution...dangit. I think I should get the massage as an award for potty training two toddlers in the course of a year, right?

The Spongebob pants lasted a total of a few minutes and he's back to streaking again... Do you think it's prohibitive to the cause if I duct tape the darn things on him??

A Social Experiment...

2010-03-12T20:26:00.005-06:00

I have picky eaters...little picky eaters that every night at dinner, it doesn't matter WHAT I fix, they go "Ewww gross!" I could fix something they like and they STILL complain...The older boys are great eaters no matter what but the little ones are not. I think they get it from their father personally...

Tonight we ordered Chinese food for delivery. The kids sat up and happily ate everything on their plates, even the vegetables in the lo mein, cabbage in the egg rolls and crab rangoon.

Hubby and I sat and discussed how they will eat anything on their plates and not complain when we go out to a restaurant and they will eat anything that comes in a takeout bag; however, they won't eat a decent home cooked meal. And before anyone decides to be cute...I CAN cook. LOL

I think I'm going to try an at-home social experiment. I'm going to the store and buying some kind of "to-go" containers. Then I'm going to make dinner, pack it up in the to-go containers and have hubby carry it out the back door, around the front of the house and walk in the front door and announce that he brought dinner home and we're going to see if they eat it.

Anyone wanna make bets?? LOL

The Story of a Peep Peep

2010-03-11T10:59:00.003-06:00

Once upon a time, my little angel turned one year old...

Her Grandma LuAnn and Pawpaw Pat bought her this pink teddy bear as part of her birthday gift. Who knew it was going to be love at first sight??

Originally this bear started off as "Pinky Bear" but as her owner got older and talked better, she became "Peep Peep" and she was very well loved.

She was so loved, in fact, that she became seriously ratty...no amount of washing has restored the original bright pink color and we've been left with a grayish pink bear.

Grandma Bronna (the neat freak of the family) decided that a replacement Peep Peep was in order, so she found an exact replica and brought it for Christmas when she was 2....alas, Original Peep Peep was not to be replaced and Replacement Peep Peep got put in the top of the closet with the other stuffed animals. If we tried to convince our dear princess to switch, she adamantly replied, "That bear is NOT Peep Peep!"

She sleeps with Peep Peep every night and at every nap and it's a very rare occasion that we make it out of the house without Peep Peep in tow. Here she is asleep standing up but still has Peep Peep tucked under her arm.

Peep Peep even goes to the zoo with us when we go. Poor Replacement Peep Peep has sat up in the top of the closet, neglected and unloved. However, I got a message from a good friend that is helping a family member out and keeping their little girl for a while and she had asked me if I had any hand me down clothes and things they could use. I said that I was sure we had some things and took a bag upstairs to dear daughter's room this morning.

My kid is a total clothes horse and had a meltdown over every piece of clothing I put in the bag, even though I explained to her, "This stuff doesn't even FIT you anymore!" Finally I tried the tactic, "There's a little girl that needs these things that doesn't have nice things like you do, so we need to be nice and share with her, okay?" You could see the wheels really turning as she thought this over and then she pointed up to the closet and said, "Mommy, can you get me that pink bear?"

I pulled down Replacement Peep Peep and handed it to my sweet daughter who then patted her and placed her gently in the bag and said, "We need to send this too, Mommy. Every little girl needs a Peep Peep."

And she's right, every little girl DEFINITELY needs a Peep Peep and I hope Replacement Peep Peep ends up as well loved as the original.

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-10T17:48:00.003-06:00

Here's the gang finally getting to go outside and play on a spring day!

Jaiden cruising on his bike.

Liam thinks if Mommy is calling him to get his picture taken, that means he has to come inside and he's not happy...

Here comes the tattler - "Mommy, the brothers won't play with me!!"

Isn't he handsome? You'd never believe he was once a preemie...

Anyone else notice that my oldest is always conspicuously absent from all my Wordless Wednesdays?

Yeah...me too. :(

What I'm Reading Now...

2010-03-10T00:09:00.004-06:00

I just finished up "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines. It's a classic and never fails to bring tears to my eyes. I've read it before, but every now and again I love to get an old tried and true classic out and read it again.

This is my current "fun" book...I am loving it so far. I haven't seen the movie yet because I hate seeing the movie without reading the book first. Hopefully I will have the time to finish it up this week.

I got this book for free and I decided to sit down and see what it's about. It really has pulled me in more so than I thought it would. Having had past credit issues (thanks jerkface ex) and living on a limited budget, it's really given me some great ideas on how we can manage things and get things paid down by making a plan. I don't buy into everything that Dave Ramsey says but the book does have some solid ideas that I believe are worth following through on. Once I finish the book, I plan to sit down and write out said plan and will probably blog about it too, so look for future postings on this.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic week! Mine is off to a rough start but I am hoping it will smooth out before long. I think zoning off into some reading could be a great cure!

Monday Mayhem - Weekend Recap

2010-03-08T11:49:00.007-06:00

Mondays always make me feel out of sorts. It seems like the weekend is total chaos around here, especially on the "all kid" weekends.

Friday we took our first trip to the zoo...I would post pictures but after we got halfway there, I realized that I forgot my camera and hubby refused to turn around and go back to get it...meanie. We decided last year that it would be nice for grandma to do a "group birthday" present for everyone and so we asked for a Friends of the Zoo membership to the Kansas City Zoo. If you have the opportunity in your area to do something like that and especially if you have toddlers that get totally worn out and crabby a few hours into a day-long trip, I definitely recommend this. We can go for a few hours, spend some time really SEEING a few animals and talking about them rather than pushing through and glancing at things on the way by. It's been a great learning experience for all the kids and we see a section at a time and go home and can come back another day to do something else, so we don't feel like we're doing the same thing every time we go. This year we got something called the "Family Gold" membership, which is AWESOME and almost negates our need for a stroller. It includes admission to the zoo for the whole family and free train, tram and carousel rides for everyone - for our family of 7, that saves us a TON of money and we can ride the train or tram to different areas of the zoo and the little ones are at the age where they want out of the stroller every two seconds to look at the animals so we left it at home this last time and it worked out just fine. I love the zoo and the kids love it too so it's a great family outing that we all enjoy together. If you have a zoo and the opportunity for a family membership wherever you are, I definitely recommend it.

In other news...I actually saw TWO ROBINS in the front yard Friday morning...I think that means that spring must be near (let me pause and do my hallelujah dance real quick - - - wait for it - - - okay done). The weather was GORGEOUS this weekend and we got to play outside quite a bit which is awesome for the kids and awesome for mom's nerves when everyone doesn't have to be piled on top of each other in the house because it's too cold and nasty to be outside.

Friday night was Wii night for Paul and the kids (and his friend Nick, who is also a big kid, lol). I got to spend some time with my friend Sherri, whom I hadn't seen in AGES, and she was nice enough to color my hair. By the way friends, Sally's Beauty Supply closes at 8:00 pm, which is helpful to know when you decide you want to color your hair at 7:40 pm and have to take a flying run up there to get the stuff before they close. :) I got rid of my grays and got a good visit in, so I consider that a darn good evening.

Saturday, we went outside and got the bikes out and I took my laptop out to the front porch so I could supervise the festivities. The 8-year-old and I went to the grocery store and I spent $56 on a bunch of crap...he wanted fully loaded nachos for dinner, which were yummy but not $56 worth in my opinion. I need to start being a better coupon shopper. It's on my list of things to do...

Sunday was more playing outside, the sun was out and it was in the high 50s. I also love the playing outside for the "wearing kids out" factor...they have been going to bed and sleeping like little angels at night, which is great for Mommy.

However, the little angels are awake and being crazy this morning, so I'd better wrap this up and go back to Mommy duties. Hope everyone has a fantastic Monday!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-03-03T08:51:00.003-06:00

This picture was taken after she had danced the night away at my cousin's wedding reception. I wish I had some video of the dancing...she was really shaking her booty. :) She was also very disappointed that she didn't catch the bouquet so my other cousin was nice enough to give her the flowers that she had used. She was totally crashed out here but wasn't letting go of those flowers. Aren't they sweet when they're sleeping??

Some Books I've Read Lately...

2010-02-28T17:18:00.003-06:00

"Regeneration" by Pat Barker was kind of a slow read but was a great historical fiction about the impact of trench war in Europe and the psychological impact of PTSD that wasn't really recognized then like it is now. I have put the other two books in this trilogy in my wish list on www.paperbackswap.com.

"A Reliable Wife" by Robert Goolrick. I read this book in one night. Also a historical fiction, a woman with a past answers an advertisement looking for a wife placed by a man with a past. How their lives intertwine is a definite page-turner, and it was a great love story with a powerful theme of ultimate forgiveness.

"Witch & Wizard" by James Patterson (umm wow the picture is big but I can't figure out how the heck to resize it, sorry) This is the first installment in a new young adult series by James Patterson. A brother and sister who find out they are a witch and a wizard are imprisoned by a "new order" government. I think this series is going to be worth keeping up with.

Last night I started "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines and got about a quarter of the way through it. So far I've added a couple books to my original reading list but I think I'm keeping up pretty well...

Our Friday adventure part II

2010-02-28T12:29:00.004-06:00

The other part of our Friday adventure, also in Crown Center was visiting the fairy tale village exhibit they had going on for free (free is always good in our world).

They had kid-sized little rooms built inside a large exhibit area...just large enough for kids to dart through the passages and me barely to squeeze through as I chased them from spot to spot...
Here they are checking out the Little Red Riding Hood area...you could push the button on the wall and it would say a line from the story...honestly some of them were a little creepy..."My what big teeth you have!" LOL
Liam thought being a knight in the castle was awesome!
When Delaney pulled down the rope, the curtain swung back and revealed Sleeping Beauty, who was also a little creepy...kind of haunted house style if you ask me, but she thought it was cool.
Liam really enjoyed hopping across this bridge.
Here's Delaney sitting in Mama Bear's chair from the Goldilocks room.
Me and the kids...I am totally squeezed in this little tiny space...
Here they are sitting in Cinderella's carriage...they can never ever look at the same time...sigh.
Well that was the last of the Friday adventure...as you can see they really enjoyed it. Now it's time for a big brother adventure soon!

Fun eats in KC!

2010-02-26T19:13:00.013-06:00

Hubby had the day off work, so when he asked what we wanted to do for dinner tonight, I had an idea to get out and have some fun with the little ones (the boys are on a "father" weekend).

In Kansas City (for those who aren't from the area) there is a great place called Fritz's that if you have young kids, it's a must to check out and the burgers are great too. There are two locations, one in Kansas City KS and then the one we went to located in Kansas City, MO at Crown Center. Here's what the front looks like. Pardon my crappy camera but you will get the idea...

Here they are in their conductor hats waiting our turn to be seated.

This is the "view" from our booth. A painting of the Kansas City skyline behind the glass and an actual model train that goes around the loop of the restaurant and comes by every few minutes. You pick up the phone below the window to place your order.

Here's Daddy perusing the menu while Liam watches for the train to come by again.

Little Miss Fashionista sporting her conductor hat.

"Chugga chugga choo chooo!!!"

Here are the tracks that go all around the top of the restaurant...

When someone's order is ready, it gets put in the basket underneath the train there and comes around the tracks...cool huh?

Here comes ours!

It gets dropped on this little platform...

Which lowers itself down....

And you can grab it off the tray...

Here's my fattening burger, complete with hash browns on top...yummmm

Here's what it looks like when a conductor is pouting about being too busy watching for trains to eat his dinner...

Delaney is enjoying it though...

Daddy and Liam are debating about how many more bites a kid has to take before we can move on to the next part of our afternoon adventure...

I think I've posted the limit of pictures on this particular blog, so I'll continue the adventure tomorrow. Here's Fritz's website - their prices are reasonable too and definitely worth it for the novelty of the place. http://fritzskc.com/

Thursday ramblings...

2010-02-11T12:28:00.004-06:00

I realized after Brittany over at The Greer Five http://thegreerfive.com/ featured me on her blog (Thanks Brittany), I hadn't gotten a chance to blog in a while so I'm going to ramble for a few minutes and then try to get myself back in a routine again.

Things are crazy busy around here. I'm in the process of spring cleaning (wishful thinking with snow on the ground but I'm ever hopeful) but it's makng my house more of a mess than it was to begin with. :) I'm trying to go room by room and get rid of things and rearrange and reorganize so making a mess to get everything in order is well worth it to me.

Court proceedings are...well they are proceeding...it's a long process but I'm confident of the end result and I'm trying to have faith in the system to do the right thing, and although they have yet to prove it to me, I'm holding strong.

The two and the three-year old are going through a "terribles" phase and good grief, it wears me out! The seven and eight-year old are doing great although a little rambunctious (as boys generally are) with not being able to get outside and play in this freezing weather. The thirteen-year-old still isn't speaking to me but I still love him and have faith we will work it all out.

I've read a few books lately that I enjoyed, but I didn't love them enough to do individual reviews on them, so I'll do a short synopsis of all of them in the next blog. I do, however, totally recommend the new YA series that James Patterson is doing and read the first installment "Witch and Wizard" and now I'm kicking myself. I hate, hate, hate waiting on the next book in the series to come out. I would rather wait on the whole series to be written and then read it straight through. I didn't touch a Harry Potter book until this past year for that very reason.

OK I'm off to work on the cleaning some more and see if the "wonder spray" that the hubby got me will actually take Sharpie off the walls like it claims (thanks to the little guy for the extra work, ughhh).

Anyway, to wrap it up, there's a ton going on around here but I'm hanging in there like a champ and ready for the next challenge to make good things happen. Have a great day!!

Stupid Groundhog, Stupid Winter, Stupid Meteorologists

2010-02-02T08:02:00.003-06:00

It's Groundhog Day. Every year on this day, thousands of people gather at Gobblers Knob, Pennsylvania to see if a rodent named Punxsutawney Phil sees his shadow or not to know if we will have six more weeks of winter or if spring is on the way. This is supposed to be based on hibernation and if the groundhog is ready to get out of bed or not for the year. Heck, if I could be a weather predictor in winter, I'd never get out of bed just for the extra sleep, so it's no wonder he sees his shadow. Really, it's more of a tradition than a weather indicator and the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (sounds like a pretty important government faction to be commenting on a groundhog, doesn't it??) even says that Punxsutawney Phil has "no predictive skill". Really? Are people not smart enough to figure this out about a groundhog that you felt the need to come out with an official comment??

Of course I don't think that Punxsutawney Phil has much more predictive ability than the meteorologists on the news. I think I had it all wrong as a little kid when I said I either wanted to be a mommy or a teacher - I should have said I wanted to be a meteorologist. They can be wrong at their jobs CONSISTENTLY and still make good money - what other career can boast about that??

I really wanted to write this post so I could repeatedly type "Punxsutawney" (say it a few times, it rolls off the tongue nicely) but here are a few fun facts about Phil:

Phil made his first appearance in 1887.
His official website says he is over 100 years old...righttttt.
The average life of a groundhog is 6-9 years.

Let's think about that for a minute... It's 2010 now.

2010 - 1887 = 123

If we give Punxsutawney Phil a decent groundhog lifespan, considering he's probably better taken care of than the average wild groundhog at 8 years:

123/8 = 15.375

Seems to me, we're on our 16th or so (give or take a few groundhog mishaps) Punxsutawney Phil. It could probably be more than that - maybe the townsfolk of Gobblers Knob start to go crazy after a particular rodent has seen his shadow a certain number of times and send him off to groundhog heaven to try their luck with a new one?

My take on this is F you Punxsutawney Phil, F you winter and F you meteorologists!

A productive day out of the house!

2010-01-31T10:02:00.004-06:00

For those of you that know me well, you know that I usually remain pretty homebound around here. :) With two toddlers at home during the day, and we only have one vehicle that the husband takes to work most of the time, I end up here in the house a lot. Cabin fever generally sets in right after Christmas along with the cold weather and yesterday was just what the doctor ordered! I got a sitter and everything!

My friend Sonya and I decided to sign up for some classes at the local Home Depot. They had a class on painting, a class on tiling and a class on closet organization scheduled for Saturday so we signed up for all three of them.

First just let me say that I'm totally mad at myself for forgetting the camera...it would have been fun to have some pictures to go along with this blog. Oh well, maybe next time.

Second, even if you register for the classes online, you might call the store ahead of time to actually confirm that the classes are going to happen. The painting "class" no one appeared to know anything about and we ended up standing around in the paint department talking to an older gentleman about paint colors and finishes and what rollers to use, etc. I did learn a few tidbits I never knew before; however, it took all of about 15 minutes, so we piddled around the store for the next hour, oohing and ahhing over things I can't afford. LOL

We checked at the customer service department and the tiling class was a "go", so went and sat down at the table for that. We even got to use the tools, how cool is that??? I'm pretty convinced that I need a tile cutter and a pink toolbox and I'm trying to convince the husband that letting me tile the bathroom floor is a good idea and he has rolled his eyes at me now twice...sigh. He has no faith in me...no faith. I think I need a Home Depot credit card... (JUST KIDDING HONEY!!) I also need something called a "wet saw" but I'm not really sure what it is. And a cordless drill and a hammer and a trowel and a squishy thingy (I can't remember what it's called but I'd know it if I saw it). Honey, are you getting all this? Oh and don't forget - a pink toolbox...I need something to put it all in, right? (Yes, I know, this is where your daughter gets it from)

We completed the tiling class and decided we had an hour to kill before the closet organization class, so we headed off to lunch. We ate Mexican food at the Salty Iguana in Independence. The spinach enchiladas were pretty good although I have to say the blue corn tortillas they wrap them in kind of gross me out visually. :) Again...left the stupid camera at home so no pictures of this. Finished lunch and headed back to Home Depot.

The same guy that taught our tiling class, Josh, also taught the closet organization class. It wasn't too much of a class, but he was a nice guy and humored all of our questions and talked about how his wife buys too many shoes and he was going to have to build her a special closet just to put all of her shoes in. He lost points with me because he then proceeded to talk about playing Warcrap, which we all know is the bane of my existence. His poor wife, I feel for her.

As far as the closet organization, they have a really cool website at www.homedepot.com/closetmaid where you can go in and design your own closet based on the dimensions, etc with their closet organizer products, so we probably could have skipped the class but we had a good time and learned about the website so it was worth it.

I totally enjoyed my day out with Sonya and we had a good time learning about something new. I'm definitely excited to try out some more of their classes - next up: Updating Bath Fixtures and Installing Light Fixtures - next time I'll remember the camera!

Six of the Worst Movies....EVER

2010-01-30T07:58:00.004-06:00

Small talk six for this Saturday is a list of the six worst movies you've ever seen...I wish I could remember the name of the awful movie my husband got out of the clearance bin at Hy-Vee the other day...it would definitely make the list. Oh well, here goes...

1.

Seriously...this is horrible...and I really like Luke Wilson but good grief. What makes this one #1 in my mind is that my husband loved it and still walks around quoting it at times. "But honey, it's got what plants crave..."

2.

The only redeeming quality of this movie is that it had Tom Petty in it.

3.

I'm a girl and this movie made the list. Long, drawn out and awful.

4.

This could have been a reasonably cool scary flick if it didn't make me totally sick at my stomach just watching the awful jiggling of the cameras. I get that was part of the charm for some people, but I get motion sickness and I hated it.

5.

You don't follow up the original "Grease" with this...seriously.

6.

Terrible, terrible movie...although it did give me a giggle that there was a character named "Janessa" in it. Otherwise, L-A-M-E.

I could probably drag this list out a whole lot longer but I've got things to do today. This stay-at-home mom got a babysitter for the afternoon and I'm getting out of the house for a while, whoohoo!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-27T10:13:00.005-06:00

I know "wordless Wednesday" is technically supposed to be wordless, but I can't help but comment on these pictures...

A couple of years ago, the husband and I decided we should get a dog. All kids should grow up with a dog, a dog would provide extra security for the house, all the normal dog-getting reasons...

He wanted a boxer. I told him how I had an immense dislike for the breed (I had one in the past - can you say stupid & stubborn?? Oh wait, that was my ex-husband...). He persisted and one day came home with this:

Cute little booger, wasn't he?? However, ALL puppies are cute at one point... A white boxer is also an anomaly generally considered a "defect"...My handsome, sweet husband felt sorry for him and therefore we ended up with him. Now as he makes messes and accidentally plows everyone over in the house, it's generally US who are sorry....

That adorable little puppy soon grew into this:

Look at the awkward, gangly, all-legs, vision of goofiness we now have residing in our household. There are the two dogs...the other is a terrier named Scrappy, but we'll tell his story another day...normally they are fighting and picking at each other constantly but I happened to catch this rare moment of snuggling so I felt compelled to snap a few shots.

Now for the mugshots...

Mugshot #1: Front view. His name is Buster but I think we should have named him Mugsy...he looks like a Mugsy, doesn't he??

Mugshot #2: Side view. Check out the saggy lips...ridiculous looking silly creature.

He's lucky the kids adore him! lol

Speaking of potty...

2010-01-26T21:42:00.005-06:00

We've been working on potty training Miss Sassypants for a while now. She does really well peeing in the potty but has pretty much always refused to do the rest of her business. She would wait for the nighttime or naptime diaper and do it then. Gross! However, we cut out the naptime diaper this week and that seems to have propelled her willingness to do her business on the potty, thank goodness!! I would have taken away the naptime diaper a month ago had I known that!

Today when she did her business and we cheered appropriately she asked her daddy if she could have a "prize". She has been begging here lately for, and I quote, "Daddy, I would like a princess bike, with princess seat, a princess helmet, some princess pads, and princess training wheels, with a princess basket and a princess water bottle." Are you seeing a pattern at all here??

We found such a bike set and made an agreement with her that if she can go 30 days with no accidents, then we will buy the princess bike with the princess helmet and the princess...well you get the idea.

She has seen a chart on the little show she likes to watch "Olivia" so she gets the concept of marking things off on a chart. She actually suggested, "Mommy, I think we need a chart." Well all righty then. I went in and started pulling out the scrapbooking materials. She added plenty of input so I finally had to wait until she went to bed so that I didn't have a supervisor the entire time. LOL She said, "It needs to be bancy (fancy), Mommy!" Ok, a fancy potty chart it is:

I had some old typewriter letter stickers, some antique flower stickers and some scrapbooking paper and the "bancy potty chart" was created. I already added a sticker to day #1 since we had no accidents today. I'll keep you updated on the progress of the process as we go along...hopefully we will be trained once and for all, then we can get the youngest started!

3 going on 13...

2010-01-24T21:52:00.004-06:00

My daughter discovered Miley Cyrus today...somebody kill me now.

Note the mismatched dancing shoes above...lol

She definitely knows how to rock out...
Can you say "divalicious" in the sequins rockstar dress-up outfit??

See my shiny skirt??

I love it, it's soooo shiny, Mommy!

It's a "Party in the USA" at our house.

Testing...testing...aarrgghhh!

2010-01-23T10:22:00.003-06:00

Small talk six for this weekend is to name six ways in which your children have tested you in the past week. Well to make it fair, I have five kids so we're going to do one for each and then a collective one at the end. lol

1. The oldest. He has decided at 13 years old that he hates me and has gone to the d-bag's house and "supposedly" refuses to come home, which is part of why we are in court. I keep trying to tell myself one of these days he's going to see things for how they are but at this rate it may be when he's in his 30s with kids of his own. It's frustrating but I love him very much and this is breaking my heart.

2. The second. He would LIVE on video games if I would let him and has also taken to just making random noises for no apparent reason.

3. The middle. Still have thumb sucking issues with him when he gets tired or is engrossed in a TV show. I've tried everything to stop this with no success.

4. The daughterling. Let's just say how DOESN'T she test me?? She's the only girl of the bunch so the boys spoil her rotten, her dad spoils her rotten and she is a one-girly girl toddler wrecking crew. She will tear up anything just for the sake of tearing it up. Drives me crazyyyyy.

5. The littlest. He assists his sister in all of her little criminal adventures and his latest thing has been throwing things at people; balls, legos, hot wheel cars(owwwww). He's got pretty decent aim for 2 years old.

6. Collectively, can someone tell me WHY when you tell a child NOT to do something, they turn around and do it again immediately???

Me: Don't touch that.
Child (Doesn't matter which one, they ALL do it, even the 13 yo): **Reaches out and touches it again**
Me: I just SAID don't touch that and I know you heard me!! Why did you touch it again?
Child: I don't know...

Sighhhhhhh. It's a good thing I love them all so much. Seriously, they make my whole world. :)

Book Review - "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn

2010-01-21T23:34:00.006-06:00

First I want to give a shout-out to my friend Gregg for recommending this book to me. This was one that I did not want to put down! I stayed up until the wee hours of the morning (2:15 am) to finish it.

The plot continued to build all the way to the shocking end. Camille Preaker is a journalist in Chicago that grew up in a small town in Missouri. Her editor sends her back to her hometown to report on two young girls that had been recently murdered in the town. Camille's family is bizarrely dysfunctional and as the story develops, Camille's history of hospitalization for cutting herself is revealed as well. The story was intense and entertaining. The characters were sometimes a little "typically small town" but mostly well written. I really enjoyed reading this from start to finish, and I cannot wait to read her newest book, "Dark Places". I'm definitely adding this author to my reading list for a long time to come.

Pottymouth...

2010-01-21T14:48:00.005-06:00

With a 2-year-old and a 3-year-old in the house, it is hard not to find yourself slipping up and saying things that you shouldn't at times. The big boys are not bad about saying things they shouldn't although they do slip up with an occasional "crap" or "this sucks", which I believe they are allowed to say at the d-bag's house but not with Mom. I am guilty of cussing at times; however, my husband is the KING. LOL And for some unknown reason, the wee ones don't tend to repeat me when I say bad words, they only seem to repeat him.

Last night in a period of 2 hours, our 3-year-old repeated 5 different bad things he said, ending with calling him a "jacka$$", at which point I sat with my hands covering my face in a desperate attempt not to die laughing. It was decided at that point that we needed something more concrete as a reminder to not curse like a sailor.

Hence:

The birth of the "Pottymouth Jar". I took an empty Folgers canister and covered it in scrapbooking paper. I tried to take a good picture of the caption but stupid digital camera didn't want to take a clear picture so it says:

The Pottymouth Jar

"When Daddy says something bad,

it buys Mommy something good."

Dear hubby said that I had to pick out something specific that I wouldn't otherwise buy for myself to purchase with the money collected, so I have decided I need one of these:

I can already picture the craft projects I'm going to do with this little beauty and the hubby already owes money in the jar today, so one of these days it WILL be mine, bwahahaha!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-20T00:11:00.003-06:00

Scrappy and the snuggling siblings. :)

"The Lace Reader" - Book Review

2010-01-19T11:01:00.004-06:00

Publisher's note:

"Towner Whitney, the self-confessed unreliable narrator, hails from a family of Salem women who can read the future in the patterns in lace, and who have guarded a history of secrets going back generations. Now the disappearance of two women is bringing Towner back home to Salem—and is bringing to light the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister."

If you keep up with the blog at all, you'll notice that this book review comes only a couple of days after the last one. :) Once I started reading this one, I didn't want to put it down and my housework is showing it.

I love stories about Salem. One day I'd love to go there. The history is intriguing and woven throughout the book but doesn't detract from the plot of the story. All of the characters were well-developed and the plot was engaging and unpredictable.

Originally when I came across a description of this book, it was under a Young Adult classification, but I really feel that this story will appeal to all ages. It has suspense, magic, eccentric characters, romance...just some of the qualities that made this a great read. One of my favorite books over the past few years was "The Thirteenth Tale" by Diane Setterfield, and it was really comparable to that as far as keeping me engaged and intrigued. I didn't want to put this one down. A definite thumbs-up!

Book review - "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson

2010-01-16T11:40:00.007-06:00

I finished reading this in the wee hours of the morning last night. Here's the Publisher's Weekly synopsis:

"Fans of Robinson's acclaimed debut Housekeeping (1981) will find that the long wait has been worth it. From the first page of her second novel, the voice of Rev. John Ames mesmerizes with his account of his life—and that of his father and grandfather. Ames is 77 years old in 1956, in failing health, with a much younger wife and six-year-old son; as a preacher in the small Iowa town where he spent his entire life, he has produced volumes and volumes of sermons and prayers, "[t]rying to say what was true." But it is in this mesmerizing account—in the form of a letter to his young son, who he imagines reading it when he is grown—that his meditations on creation and existence are fully illumined. Ames details the often harsh conditions of perishing Midwestern prairie towns, the Spanish influenza and two world wars. He relates the death of his first wife and child, and his long years alone attempting to live up to the legacy of his fiery grandfather, a man who saw visions of Christ and became a controversial figure in the Kansas abolitionist movement, and his own father's embittered pacifism. During the course of Ames's writing, he is confronted with one of his most difficult and long-simmering crises of personal resentment when John Ames Boughton (his namesake and son of his best friend) returns to his hometown, trailing with him the actions of a callous past and precarious future. In attempting to find a way to comprehend and forgive, Ames finds that he must face a final comprehension of self—as well as the worth of his life's reflections. Robinson's prose is beautiful, shimmering and precise; the revelations are subtle but never muted when they come, and the careful telling carries the breath of suspense. There is no simple redemption here; despite the meditations on faith, even readers with no religious inclinations will be captivated. Many writers try to capture life's universals of strength, struggle, joy and forgiveness—but Robinson truly succeeds in what is destined to become her second classic."

This book is beautifully written, there is just no other way to describe it. It is exceptionally introspective from the point of view of Rev. John Ames. The only negative thing that I have to say about this book is that if you are looking for a plot in any way, you will be disappointed. It is written in letter format to his young son and that is exactly what you will find, a letter with several anecdotal episodes along the way.

With my own father passing a little over a year ago, reading this book made me wonder what he would have written if he had left a similar "letter" to my brother and me. It also gave me pause to consider that even from a minister's point of view of Christianity, it is commonplace that they don't feel that they have all the answers to life's questions either and ponder things just like the rest of us.

This book was kind of a slow read for me, but definitely a beautiful piece of literature worth checking out.

Next up? "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry

Six Items of Clothes/Accessories I've Loved from the Past

2010-01-16T09:43:00.004-06:00

This week's small talk six is to list items of clothing or accessories you've loved and you wish would come back into style. I don't know that I wish that any of these things would come back into style but they were all things that I loved at one point or another. Gotta love the 80s.

1. Who didn't have a pair of Mork suspenders back in the day?? I got these at Christmas one year when I was probably 7 or 8 and I loved the silly things. I wanted to wear them everywhere.

2. I also loved my pink Chuck Taylors circa middle school. Granted they have come back in and out of style a few times since then but just past the mid-point of my 30s I just can't justify attempting to wear them again...dangit.

3. I had this awesome pair of red suede cowboy boots at one point. I can't tell you if they were ever in style but I loved them anyway. I'd totally wear them again if I could find any like them. lol

4. I also loved my rainbow toe socks. I've even seen these from time to time in stores but I never seem to be able to justify picking any up. Next time I see them in the store, I'm totally getting them.

5. Acid wash jeans...need I say more? Oh wait I do. Only with the tight roll at the bottom too...anything remotely loose is NOT going to work. LOL

6. I had a green prom dress made from that shiny material that was RIGHTEOUS, people. If I weren't so lazy, I'd drag out the pictures and scan them - my mother made me go to the Sears studio to get my picture taken in this thing. I still have it in my closet to this day and it is GREAT. Sadly it does not fit me anymore but a friend and I have made a pact that if we lose 15 lb and she can fit in her silver one and I can fit in my green one, we're TOTALLY hitting an 80s night at the bar. A-W-E-S-O-M-E (Like totally!!) lol

I'm Sick of this Damn Tree!!

2010-01-15T11:00:00.006-06:00

It's Friday! Oh wait, I'm a stay at home mom - that word really has no significance in my world. Hubs is working the overnight shifts this weekend so there are no plans, the big boys are at the jerkface's house so it will be more of the same of a regular week - me and the wee ones hanging out.

I still haven't gotten the infernal Christmas tree down. It's beginning to be the bane of my existence. The tree and I have a stare-down daily that goes something like this:

Me: (Glare) You're coming down today.
Tree: I don't think so, you aren't unplugging me, woman.
Me: Not only am I unplugging you, you're going back in the box and back into storage.
Tree: The 3-year-old will revolt. She loves my pretty lights.
Me: I'm sick of looking at you....sighhhh.
Tree: (Continues twinkling sarcastically).

The tree is winning this argument because by the time my dear daughter goes to bed at night, I've lost all motivation to take the blasted thing down. Maybe I should start making some heart shaped ornaments and stick them on there for Valentine's Day?

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-13T09:42:00.006-06:00

Here is the "way back Wednesday" photo. This is me and my younger cousin and I'm wrinkling up my nose like "what the heck IS that?" You will note my age with the righteous upholstered couch that I'm sitting on....LOL

I searched for a while to see if I could find a picture of the daughterling with her nose all wrinkled up but I got tired of flipping through endless pictures. Anyway, here is my mini-me with a lighter shade of hair than I had. Every time she runs across one of my childhood pictures she says "Oh look, it's a picture of me!" :)

Winter blahs...

2010-01-12T16:28:00.005-06:00

It's warmed up here from a high of about 7 degrees last week to about 29 degrees this week, whoohoo! Get out the sunscreen, it's time to go sunbathing! Rrrright....

Unfortunately I still pretty much feel stuck in the house because there is still snow all over the ground and it's still too cold to get out and do much of anything. Looking at these same walls day in and day out is making me hate this house. lol Granted when we bought this house, we knew it wasn't our "forever home" and I'm thankful I have a roof over my head. I find myself looking at real estate websites and dreaming about the next house, wherever that may be. I just know it isn't going to be here. It almost makes me motivated enough to start packing. :)

I'd like to say I'm really motivated about cleaning and laundry and getting things done in the house; however, this weather really has me in a rut and the kids are bouncing off the walls (and coloring on them too, geesh) and it's about all I can do to keep up.

I started reading the first book on my book list for 2010 - "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson and while it's beautifully written, it's kind of depressing too. It's basically about a man who married a younger woman and has a young son and he is dying and the book is basically a letter of things that he wants his son to know about him, life, etc. I'm hoping when I get to the end there will be something uplifting about it or I will have wasted a few nights on it...not that there haven't been things to ponder in it, because there are several parts that have been very thought provoking for me. I guess in this winter season that has me in a blah mood anyway it probably wasn't the best choice of reading material for the time of year. I'll let you know how it comes out, one way or another.

Now I'm just going to stop and be a bitch for a minute, so pardon me ahead of time if this offends or pisses you off at all. I've never been known for my social graces and I'm sure not going to start now... Apparently there was another blogger out in blogland that committed suicide (today or yesterday?). First off, I didn't know her personally or even on the internet so I have no personal connection to this whatsoever. My heart goes out to her family and the ones left behind, but on a purely personal note - suicide is seriously the most selfish, crappy thing anyone could ever do to their loved ones and there is absolutely no excuse for it. In this day and age of mental health awareness and availability, there is always, always a different alternative.

Oh and one more thing? I get that we live in a world of online social networking, I do. However, rather than put the circumstances of someone's death all over the internet, wouldn't it be better to let the family grieve in peace? Notify people? Sure. But I don't think we need to know every personal or miniscule social networking connection to the person that you had or thought you had. If something happens to me, there will be no follow up on my blog, nor will there be anyone "tweeting" it. And before anyone gets their panties in a wad over this, get over yourself already. I named no names in this blog and am making a general observation and voicing my own opinion, it's not a personalized attack on anyone. Stepping off my bitchy soapbox now....

Sorry, I'm not known for always saying the "right thing" - in fact, I'm very rarely known for saying the right thing but I will tell you the truth and what's on my mind and never leave you wondering how I feel about it. So my thoughts and feelings for today in a nutshell are:
1. I hate winter.
2. I'm not wild about this book I'm reading right now.
3. I think suicide is a selfish coward's way out.
4. I hate that this woman's family is having to go through this hurt and heartbreak because of her cowardice.
5. I'm unmotivated.
6. I'm sick of this house.
7. No one is allowed to tweet about me after I'm dead.
8. Did I say I hate winter already? Because I do...

COME ON, SPRING!!

And as an aside...I blog for myself and myself only - it's not a publicity thing for me. If it happens to entertain anyone reading, that's cool too. Consider this my "personal public diary" if you will. I don't do sponsorships, giveaways or review things (except books that I get for myself) and probably never will. I can offend you without worry of what my advertisers or corporate sponsors think and with the exception of a very few, I probably don't care what you think either. Just thought I'd put that out there for anyone ready to type their little hands off to flame me for this post that "I don't give a shit" in advance. ;)

Childhood Memories

2010-01-08T23:11:00.005-06:00

The Small Talk Six for this Saturday is to list six of your most vivid childhood memories...

1. Cutting a Christmas tree at the farm with my grandpa when I was four. I had on this stay-puft marshmallow style snowsuit and Grandpa wanted to cut a tree that was on the side of a hill. I was not any more graceful then than I am today and I kept falling and rolling down the hill in my snowsuit. My older cousins kept having to come down and pick me up and haul me back up the hill. They would stand me up and I would topple all over again.

2. When I discovered the tooth fairy wasn't real. I stayed up, determined I was going to get to see the tooth fairy. I had my tooth all set in my tooth fairy pillow with the pocket on the side next to my bed. About midnight, I heard a noise outside the door and squinted my eyes shut. I even stayed still through the flashlight shining in my face to make sure I was asleep. The noise gets closer, closer, closer and then "MOM!!!! YOU'RE THE TOOTH FAIRY?!?!" Scared the crap out of her and my dad was in the other room dying laughing.

3. Making cinnamon rolls with my Grandma K. We made these cinnamon rolls that were completely awful once. I have no idea how old I was at the time. We took some out to Grandpa, who was trying to choke them down, and we sat and giggled at him trying to eat them because we knew how bad they were.

4. Squirrel hunting with my dad. I used to beg relentlessly to go hunting with my dad. He always told me no and that I had to stay at the house with my mother and grandma...sigh. Finally I pestered him enough that he gave him and told me we would go squirrel hunting the next day. He shoots a squirrel and points to where it drops and says "Well, go get it." EWWWW, seriously??? Picture me as a young girl, walking through the woods, holding dead squirrels by the very tips of their tails, arms stretched out as far from my body as they would go. Yep, he cured me of wanting to go hunting and I never asked him again. :)

5. Getting called to the principal's office in elementary school for the first time. Let's preface this by saying I was a very well behaved child up until I was in high school probably. :) They called me to the principal's office over the intercom and I felt my stomach flipflop. My mind is racing, thinking "What did I do? Did I do something wrong? Why are they calling for me?" A 50 ft walk to the office felt like miles. By the time I got there I had tears in my eyes - the school principal was a formidable man and back then, the principal gave out swats with a paddle for misbehavior. :) By the time the school secretary walked me into his office my knees were knocking, my heart was in my throat, and he says "Would you like to help me with the school's United Way campaign this year?"

6. First attempt at giving someone else a ride on my banana seat purple bike with the basket on the front. :) My friend Kristy came over to spend the night and we went out to play the next day and took my bike. I think originally we started to take turns riding up and down the street and then decided that I could give her a ride on the back. We were probably about 8 or 9 at the time?? We take off down the hill and the front wheel starts wobbling. I cannot control it - at all. We make it to the bottom of the hill before wiping out - knees skinned, elbows skinned and Kristy had the biggest goose-egg on her head I think I've ever seen. We get back to the house and I got totally chewed out by my mother because she was horrified to have to send Kristy back to her mother looking like she's been beaten up. :)

I have a ton of memories growing up but those were the first that came to mind. Enjoy the rest of your Saturday!!

Friday ramblings...

2010-01-08T12:56:00.007-06:00

If you're expecting some well-written, cohesive post today, I'll start by saying I'm sorry to disappoint. I've been stuck in the house so much lately I've got cabin fever and I'm feeling a little ADHD. However, today has been a fantastic day so far for me. Now I'm just praying that it continues...

My wonderful hubby got up with the wee ones this morning and let me get a little more shuteye. That always makes the day start off great. The coffee pot apparently got over its issue from yesterday and the coffee actually brewed correctly instead of bubbling out the top of the coffee filter thingy (which is what happened yesterday).

I won two blog giveaways, one at www.oopsicraftmypants and one at http://northernmama-northerngirl.blogspot.com - yay!

Then as I was checking my email, I got a comment on my reading list from one of the authors!!! How exciting is that?? I can't wait to get to the bookstore and buy her new book - I've seen some previews of it online and I've got to say, I have kind of a girl-crush on her. LOL Oh here's a link to her book, check it out, it's GORGEOUS. http://www.steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=9780880107020

I got two more requests for paperback swap books, so I got those ready to mail and put them out. I feel sorry for the poor postal workers during weather like this - I don't even like poking my nose out the door, much less having to be out delivering mail in it. It makes me wish I had some styrofoam "to go" cups hanging out in the cabinet to hand him a hot cup of coffee as he passes by our house.

The Christmas tree is STILL up...so much for my idea that it wasn't staying up one more day, argh! Even Paul, who was originally on the bandwagon with the 3 year old that it was fine to just leave it up, is saying "People are going to start talking about us like we're weirdos if we don't get this tree down..." Ah well, I've been talked about before, it won't be the first time and certainly won't be the last...

It is snowing AGAIN!! Big, fat, fluffy, white flakes are coming down as I type this. The temperature is currently 3 degrees with a windchill of -11. It's pretty in a nightmarish sort of way. I've got cabin fever something awful but don't want to drag everyone out and then go through rounds of sickness and colds...

So far the children seem to be staying in their rooms for naps. HALLELUJAH!! I guess I should get a few things done before the natives start getting restless. I hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!!

Wordless Wednesday

2010-01-06T20:16:00.003-06:00

The littlest with the dogs...using the white boxer as a pillow with the terrier cuddled up on top.

Meet Mr. Romance

2010-01-04T14:44:00.004-06:00

Yep here he is girls...it's ok to be jealous...he's all mine! :)

He would kill me if he knew I put this picture on here - this is him at a party after he had a few brewskies attempting a dance of some sort. LOL

My husband is an amazing guy - and much more handsome than in this picture. He's a great guy, my best friend, an amazing dad...he has it all...except that he does not have a single romantic bone in his body. He hates chick flicks and will only watch them if I have whined sufficiently for a period of days until he gives in. He doesn't do PDA at all - not even a peck in public. When we discussed our "wedding kiss", he said he had a plan and the words "One, two, three, BREAK!" were actually spoken out loud. His idea of romance is picking up a Diet Coke for me on his way home from work at the gas station. It IS sweet that he does things like that; however, not what I would consider "romantic".

I've been talking about my reading list for 2010 and I got "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman in the mail today. I show my dear husband and say "Honey, we could go have a picnic in the park this summer and you could read this to me. It would be romantic"

Mr. Romance's response? "I'm not doing that. That's the gayest thing I've ever heard." (**Disclaimer: My husband is not a homophobe - felt that needed to be clarified at this point.)

At the moment before he said this, I had taken a slurp of my scalding hot coffee. The moment he said it, I couldn't help but snort and hot coffee shot out my nose. I burned my nose on the inside and now I can't stop sneezing today.

Yep, I think we're in the running for romantic couple of the year around here.

Sunday morning snow...

2010-01-03T11:16:00.004-06:00

This is the view out my front door this morning. It's still snowing. It can stop any time...I won't be sad.

My next door neighbor feeds the birds. Note to self: If and when we ever get to move, buy a bird feeder. Isn't this guy gorgeous? Look how chubby and beautiful he is!
It also makes me add a new camera to my wish list for the year...and Photoshop. This could have been a fantastic picture and it's so-so due to the camera and lack of editing software. LOL

There were some beautiful birds out this morning around her feeder and this is probably the best picture I got. I hope everyone has a wonderful day and I hope we can dig out of this snow at some point...maybe March???

Small Talk Six

2010-01-02T09:37:00.003-06:00

OK so I know the topic for this week is "Six Ways You've Decided to Change Your Life in 2010"; HOWEVER, I've done like 3 posts on my intentions for the year, reading lists, etc so I'm pretty well over it by now. Instead, I'm going to do "Six Ways You've Decided NOT to Change Your Life in 2010". :)

1. As I sit here drinking my first cup of coffee in the morning, let's just go ahead and put it out there that I have no intention of giving up caffeine....probably ever. I need it. It makes everything right with the world. So poo on you health experts, leave me and my coffee & Diet Coke alone.

2. I am not going to give up on teaching my children manners. In this day and age where it seems like manners and respect for other people have flown out the window, it makes me even more determined to impress upon my children that having manners and respect for yourself and others is vital. So guess what kids? There will still be no elbows on Mom's dinner table, the words "may I please" will be more likely to get you what you want, and you still need to say "thank you".

3. I am not going to continue to try to live up to my mother's unrealistic expectations. I live in a house with five kids, two dogs and a messy husband. Guess what? My house is not going to pass the white glove test and probably never will. (Hey lady, you had two kids, 9 years apart in age and you were miserable to live with - we rarely felt like we could even play.) I want my kids to enjoy life to the fullest and if it takes a bit of clutter to achieve that, then so be it.

4. I am not going to leave the Christmas tree up for another day, regardless of how my 3-year-old daughter feels about it. ("It's beeee-youuu-ti-ful Mommy, I want to leave it there! Pwease don't take it down!) Tonight I am waiting until she goes to bed, having the hubs get the boxes out and we're packing that baby up - I'm sick of looking at it.

5. I am not going to stop cooking healthy meals, sorry children and junk foodie husband. We are still going to continue to eat veggies, no matter how much you loathe them, yep even you, Mr. Man. The entire contents of the grocery store do not reside in the frozen food aisle, family, deal with it.

6. I am not going to apologize for who I am or my choices in life. I've made some mistakes, some whoppers. I'm the one that lives with the consequences of them and I do the best I can with what I have. I'm not going to be perfect ever and I'm okay with that.

Well those are my six things I'm not changing. I'm sure I could find more but those are the big ones off the top of my head as I contemplate my second cup of coffee. Hope everyone enjoys their weekend!

New Year, New Post

2010-01-01T14:48:00.005-06:00

Happy New Year to everyone! I think writing the first post of a new year is rather intimidating. I'd like to say I woke up this morning with a whole new me, but I didn't. I'm still the same old me with the same old issues and same old messes to clean up. However, I'm trying to remember that it's a blessing to be me and have issues and messes to clean up; otherwise, I'd probably be pretty lonely and I definitely wouldn't have anything to write about.

We brought in the New Year very low key this year. The hubby played World of Warcrap (I hate that damn game), the boys are at their sperm donor's, the little ones went to bed on time and I sat and flipped through the various NYE specials on TV (all of which were horrible) and knitted. Geesh, how old does that make me sound? Oh well, I am justifying it by saying I was doing something productive.

The first day of 2010 I would say has been par for the course around here...streaking toddlers, marking on walls, emptying the refrigerator while Mom is in the bathroom, and a general refusal to nap (however, they are at least staying in their rooms so I can't complain TOO much). I got the living room cleaned up from the two mini tornadoes that played in here earlier and the kitchen is half straightened. I'd love to close my eyes and nap but Lord knows if I close my eyes even for a second, my two little stinkers will escape from their rooms and proceed to destroy anything in sight.

I added a couple more books to my reading list so I can go back and update that post later on and I finished a few more inches of a scarf I'm working on for a friend. Now I think it's time to go hop in the shower before the hubby comes home from work and surprise him by actually being in clothing today instead of PJs. Hey, if you were a stay-at-home-mom, you'd stay in your PJs too, it's ok to be JEALOUS! LOL

Thanks for sticking around and reading my nonsense. Here's to hoping we have a lot of fun nonsense to write about this year!

Happy New Year to all of You!!

2009-12-31T10:58:00.002-06:00

"We are all of us down in the gutter, but some of us are looking up at the stars."
~Oscar Wilde

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-30T10:28:00.004-06:00

The toy of the day yesterday was this pair of safety goggles found in the junk drawer of the kitchen. They had a blast playing "bug" and "spaceman" and all kinds of things...love it when we spend hundreds of dollars on holidays and birthdays and they want to play with things like this...sighhhh. Have a great Wednesday everyone!

2010 Reading List

2009-12-29T11:54:00.008-06:00

I'm working on my reading list for the upcoming year. I made a goal to read 26 books this year, but I've only managed to come up with 23 for the list so far. Please feel free to leave me comments with more suggestions. Realistically I love to read so I will probably end up reading more than 26 books but I'm starting with 26 on the list to follow rather than wandering willy nilly through the bookstore trying to curb my desire to grab every book in sight.

Without further ado, here is the list so far in no particular order:

1. "The Bolter" by Frances Osborne
2. "Say You’re One of Them" by Uwem Akpan
3. "The Looming Tower" by Frances Wright
4. "Prisoner of the State" by Zhao Ziyang
5. "The Bear" by William Faulkner
6. "God: A Biography" by Jack Miles
7. "The Unsettling of America" by Wendell Berry
8. "Underground" by Haruki Murakami
9. "Leaves of Grass" by Walt Whitman
10. "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson
11. "The Regeneration Trilogy" by Pat Barker
12. "The Handmaid’s Tale" by Margaret Atwood
13. "A Lesson Before Dying" by Ernest Gaines
14. "No Excuses" by Kyle Maynard
15. "Echo in the Bone" by Diane Gabaldon
16. "The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows
17. "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" by Seth Grahme-Smith and Jane Austen
18. "Have a Little Faith" by Mitch Albom
19. "Her Fearful Symmetry" by Audrey Niffenegger
20. "The Road" by Cormac McCarthy
21. "Julie & Julia" by Julie Powell
22. "The Physick Book of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe
23. "The Magicians" by Lev Grossman
24. "The Lace Reader" by Brunonia Barry
25. "Sharp Objects" by Gillian Flynn
26. "Making a Family Home" by Shannon Honeybloom

Any other suggestions? As you can see by this list, I don't discriminate when it comes to books, I read all genres. I'm revisiting a couple from school days but let's face it, as an adult sometimes it's nice to refresh the memory now and then.

I signed up for paperbackswap.com this past year because I kept hearing great raves about it, and if you have patience and don't want particularly "new" books, it's a great site. But if you want anything that is new or rare, might as well get on a waiting list...I think the waiting list for "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" is like 45 weeks or something, gah. The price is right though and my hubby has been happy that I've cleared out some of my paperbook stash I could stand to part with also (which isn't many, I hate getting rid of books, I'm a book packrat).

I'm starting off with "Gilead" by Marilynne Robinson because I received it in the mail the other day. I'll let you know how it was when I get done with it.

Leave me some suggestions if you've read anything great lately!! Happy reading!

Mom...Zombie Style

2009-12-28T10:13:00.002-06:00

I haven't gotten my Christmas wish yet...one good solid night of sleep. I am BEAT. I'd take a picture and post it but don't want the rings under my eyes and zombie-esque look to scare anyone. The three-year-old is having issues staying in her own bed in her own room at night. Last night we went to bed about 1:00 am. My wonderful husband takes his half out of the middle of the bed and promptly starts snoring in my ear. I finally doze off and feel a little body crawl up in the bed next to me. She starts snoring shortly after... I am wedged between two snoring bodies with a stuffy nose and cannot get comfortable. I manage to wiggle my way towards the end of the bed so I can get out from between them without waking anyone up. I grab my pillow and head downstairs. Stretched across the entirety of the couch is the 80-some-odd pound boxer. I tell him to get down....he looks at me and blinks. He isn't moving. We have a staring contest.... He wins because I'm too tired to keep my eyes open. I finally give in and tell him to scoot over. Sleeping on an uncomfortable couch with an 80-ish pound boxer wasn't much better than being wedged in between my daughter and husband upstairs. I woke up to the 3-year-old and 2-year-old teepeeing me and the living room this morning. Fantastic. There is no amount of caffeine in the world that is going to be enough today. I need a nap, bad...

Small Talk Six Sunday

2009-12-27T21:35:00.004-06:00

The topic for this weekend is six things you are looking forward to in 2010. I already did the resolutions/goals post so I'm not going to go back over the same things again but there are other things I am looking forward to that I can put in here.

1. KC Royals opening day. I already made my blue/white striped scarf I want to wear and I am getting tickets to this, come hell or high water. I love my boys in blue, no matter how much they suck.

2. A summer float trip. I don't care where, I just want to go. There's nothing better in the summer than floating down a river on a canoe with a cold beer in my hand. No need for paddling, that's what I have that husband guy for sitting in the back.

3. Family trip to St. Louis this summer. We have been talking about doing this for ages and I think this year we are finally going to do it.

4. Getting myself a different vehicle that will fit all these kids!! I cannot wait for this. It's not going to be anything brand new or fancy but it will be mine and I can't wait.

5. Finishing as many crafting projects as I can fit in this year. This is something I love and enjoy and hope to keep up with.

6. Last but not least, I'm sure I covered part of this at least in the last post but surviving all these stinkin court dates and coming out with what I want out of all of them. Please keep us in your prayers on this - we need all we can get.

Is there a difference between a resolution and a goal?

2009-12-26T09:34:00.003-06:00

Resolution: 1) Resolve or determination; to make a firm resolution to do something. 2) The act of resolving or determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc. 3) The mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute; firmness of purpose.

Goal: 1) The result or achievement towards which effort is directed; aim; end. 2) The terminal point in a race.

I guess in this case one word really leads to the other; you make the resolution to get to the goal. Unfortunately I really suck at resolutions and rarely make them. Just using the word "resolution" itself makes me feel like I'm setting myself up for a big failure.

This year instead I'm setting myself a list of goals, some of which I am keeping to myself and some of which I will share with you.

I still have 20-25 pounds to lose from the last pregnancy. The littlest is 2 years old now, the post pregnancy excuses are gone. I've got to get up off my butt and do it.
I am going to take a knitting class and maybe a sewing class also this year. I started knitting scarves on this little loom thing but I would love to be able to really knit, and knit something besides scarves. I'm just hoping to find a class out there that can cater to the left hander that learns everything backwards when it comes to crafts and such.
I am going to read at least 26 books this year. I started with a grand plan of 50 but with five kids and craft projects, oh and that house cleaning and laundry stuff, I decided I had to pare it down some. I am currently working on this book list, which I will share in an upcoming blog, and I also need to find my booklight, which is in the abyss of my bedroom somewhere and put new batteries in it, since I do my best reading at night before bed.
I am going to get through all of the impending court dates we have this year without having a nervous breakdown (I hope).
I want to have potty training complete in our house this year and never buy another diaper again - EVER!!
I am going to try to make a menu and corresponding grocery list every week and stick to it so that we are eating better around here, which should also assist with the first goal.
I want one monthly date night with my husband - any babysitting volunteers out there?
I am also going to really try to keep up on the blogging regardless of what else is going on with my life this year.

These are just a few of a list of GOALS (not resolutions) I have set for myself this upcoming year. Do you call them resolutions or goals? What goals have you set for yourself for 2010?

Beautiful...

2009-12-24T23:49:00.003-06:00

Mostly because I don't have to be out in it, but this is the view outside my front door at about 11:30 pm on Christmas Eve. Santa has been here and he left to go to work the overnight shift and I'm getting ready to head to bed pretty soon. By the reports we are supposed to have between 5-7" of this stuff. I'll take more pictures tomorrow!

Remembering the reason for the season...

2009-12-23T11:50:00.003-06:00

The coffee is nice and hot this morning after the beautiful snowfall last night. There are fresh blueberry muffins out of the oven making the house smell amazing. The wee ones are playing with their toys. I hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmas morning!

I wish we would have been able to make the Christmas Eve service at church last night but I didn't want to venture out in the blizzard conditions with the kiddos. I'm leaving you today with a clip of a show I've watched since I was a kid and it never gets old.

Christmas Eve

2009-12-23T11:40:00.005-06:00

We are having a quiet Christmas this year. The older boys are at their father's this year, my mother is preparing to move to Texas, my brother is up in north Missouri and the hubby got stuck on the overnight shift at work. My good friend and neighbor up the street invited us to go to her house at noon tomorrow for dinner and I might take her up on it. Then the evening of Christmas will be spent between Paul's parents' houses, weather permitting.

I haven't been much in the Christmas spirit this year but this is one of my favorite Christmas carols. I hope everyone has a merry Christmas!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-12-23T11:24:00.003-06:00

Happy Holidays to Everyone!

Haven't posted in 2 months...geesh

2009-12-21T17:53:00.004-06:00

Well I haven't posted in a while, which I realized after I won a blog giveaway over at http://unusuallyunusualfarmchick.blogspot.com/2009/12/nordic-ware-mini-scone-pan-winner.html

I've been consciously/subconsciously avoiding posting on the blog because the things I would like to vent about are all tied up in various courts at the moment (yes, pertaining to the d-bag ex) and I can't really put anything "out there" until it all gets heard in court. Please keep me in your prayers that I come out ahead on all of it. He is seriously a thorn in my side and my older kids are really suffering as a result of it.

This has been alternatively one of the best/worst years of my life - is that possible?? I married the love of my life this year.

He is seriously the best thing that has ever happened to me and I enjoy sharing every single day of my life with him, even though we arent' perfect and drive each other crazy at times.

I also taught myself to sew this year..

I am a master pillowcase dress maker now. :) I also made a couple of small purses to match said pillowcase dresses. I started on Delaney's Christmas dress but it's December 21st today and I'm not done with it yet...could be a bad sign...lol

We also got a Friends of the Zoo membership this year to the Kansas City Zoo and we LOVED it - thanks to Grandma for providing that as an extra birthday present to everyone - and took several trips to the zoo this year.
Here's a picture from one of our adventures. The kids learned a ton about animals this year and got to observe them while learning so it was a great experience for everyone.

I've done some more knitting, made some more scarves and I'm "over" posting pictures at this point because it's a pain in the butt to put them on here and then move them all around. :)

I'm not going to delve into all the "bad stuff" any more than I did up above. We're doing what we need to do around here to take care of the situation and that's all we can do. It would be fantastic if the courts would move a little more quickly but they don't and so patience and perserverance is the key (at least that's what I keep telling myself).

I hope everyone is having a fabulous holiday season and I hope that 2010 brings all of us even bigger and better things for the future!!

Thanks to Tammie over at the Unusually Unusual Farmgirl for making me get off my butt and actually post. I'll try to get back a little more often now.

The cold weather is approaching - it's reading season!!

2009-10-11T12:35:00.002-05:00

The time of year has arrived when I start making a reading list for myself and the kids. I love to read and enjoy sharing my love of reading with the children also. I believe the benefits of enjoying a good book are life-long.

I started my list with the new Dan Brown book, "The Lost Symbol". Here is the description from the publisher:

"In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world's most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling-a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown's most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C.,The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale. As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object -artfully encoded with five symbols-is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom. When Langdon's beloved mentor, Peter Solomon-a prominent Mason and philanthropist -is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations-all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth. As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown's novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown's fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet. From the Hardcover edition."

This book kept me engaged from start to finish. I liked it even better than "The Davinci Code". I tend to be a fast reader, especially when it is a good book, and I had this one done in 2 days. I loved that the entire story took place in Washington, D.C. I also enjoyed the fact that you knew exactly who the villian was from start to finish and had realistic and descriptive visuals throughout the book.

I have read all of Dan Brown's books thus far and he will continue to be an author that I seek out for future reading enjoyment.

Small Talk Six Saturday - Party Time!!

2009-10-10T11:56:00.002-05:00

Today’s topic is “6 unconventional things you think people should celebrate by throwing a party.” You can answer this with a list of 6 words, 6 phrases, 6 sentences, 6 paragraphs, 6 photos, 6 videos, etc . . My answers are probably going to be all over the map, so be forewarned...

1. Groundhog Killing Day Party. Let's face it, we get hopeful for early spring every year and the little bastard always sees his shadow. Yeah I'm sure the PETA people will eat me alive for this one but who cares... Put him and us out of our misery and rid us of the hope of an early spring - it never happens anyway.

2. Grade card party. I would actually consider doing this for my oldest if he could pull his grades out of the crapper. Or we could go in the opposite direction and make the ones that didn't make good grades sit in a corner with dunce hats while the party is going on...lol.

I think I'm in a mean mood today...

3. Hump day party. I think this would be more of a private affair (but to each his own...whatever trips your trigger) - candles, wine, kids put in bed for the night and some time alone with the hubby every Wednesday evening - at this point you need to fill in your own blanks...I could definitely go with this idea of a party.

4. Veteran's Day Party. I think instead of making this a day of mourning and remembrance, we should throw a good ol' celebration for the men and women in uniform that make it possible for us to live in this free country that we have. I think it should be bigger than the 4th of July...let's throw a huge kegger and hand them all a beer for all the hard work that they do. Whether you choose to agree or not with what they do, you get the opportunity to disagree because of these fine folks. Let's celebrate them!

5. A potty party. I have one that is potty training right now and one that I'd like to get potty trained but it's probably still too early for him. When I get them potty trained, I'm throwing a potty party for all Mommies and Daddies that have survived the trials and tribulations of potty training. And I'm celebrating after training the youngest that I will never have to potty train anything ever again...well maybe unless we ever got a new puppy...LOL

6. A Clean House Party. If I could ever get this house perfectly clean, I might be tempted to throw a huge party, which in turn would totally defeat the reason for the party in the first place, since my house would be trashed afterwards. Although a perfectly clean house would definitely be a reason to celebrate around here.

M-I-Z.....Z-O-U

2009-10-08T18:49:00.003-05:00

We are big MU fans around here. Even the little ones know it. The daughterling begged for this new cheerleader outfit when we were out shopping yesterday and her daddy is a sucker. :) However, why is it that taking pictures of two little ones at the same time is I-M-P-O-S-S-I-B-L-E??

The littlest has his eyes closed here and I have no idea if she is sticking out her tongue or what...

Here he looks like she just scared the crap out of him...hilarious!

Here is the cute little ornery smile that I love and of course she is not paying any attention...

Now I get the cute dimples from her and he is not looking...

Now this is some sweet sibling love and about as close as I'm getting...I give up and call it good at this point. :)

Here's to hoping for an MU Tigers victory tonight!!

Wordless Wednesday

2009-10-07T15:23:00.003-05:00

This is a picture of my oldest I took recently for his "About Me" collage at school. When he first started playing the saxophone, it sounded like a dying cat but he has improved so much over the past few years. Sometimes when I look at him it is hard to wrap my brain around the fact that I am the mother of a teenager. Where did all the time go???

Morning routine....

2009-10-06T10:13:00.002-05:00

I need to revamp my morning routine. However, that would require me getting up much earlier, which I don't want to do but I believe that I'm going to have to suck it up and just make a stronger pot of coffee or see if someone sells a caffeine IV drip that I can start about 30 minutes before the alarm goes off.

The average morning routine with the big boys here and not at their idiot father's house is to start with the oldest child. He has to be at school first so he is the logical first step in the wake up routine. Now if I could just get him to be cooperative with the program, that would be fantastic. I go downstairs and holler, "Son, it's time to get up and get ready, let's go!" No answer. "Son, you've got to get up and get dressed!" No answer. I flip the light on to his room. No response. I need to get that kid his own alarm clock that jolts him out of bed - wonder if I can find one that sprays ice cold water? Finally after cajoling, stealing the blankets and threatening to dump ice cold water on him, he drags himself to a sitting position, eyes bleary and unresponsive.

Second group of risers are the 7 and 8 year old. This also usually includes the 1 year old because these three share a room. I get their clothes for the day out for them and put them on the end of their beds, tell them to get dressed. This inevitably leads to a fight between the two of them about whose shirt is whose, even though I have put them on their individual bunks of their bunkbed and told them, "These are YOUR clothes for the day. Put them on." Punching and kicking commence... The 1-year-old has no issues in the morning, he just wants breakfast. However, he doesn't want to wait for it, he wants it RIGHT NOW AND NOT A MINUTE LATER.

Usually within the chaos of the boys, the daughterling wakes up. Her mission in the morning is to prevent the boys from going to school. She is quite angry that they all get to go to school and inform her that she is not big enough yet. She gets her Dora backpack and princess dress complete with heels and tiara out each morning in anticipation that one of these days they are going to let her go with them too. Poor thing...

Breakfast becomes a hurried mishmash of me playing short order cook. The kids enjoy this because it is the only meal of the day I am flexible on - otherwise around here it's "either you're going to eat or be hungry". While they are eating, I pull the clothes out for the wee ones. When breakfast is done, the tag team wrestling match commences. I tackle the 1-year-old as he tries to dart past me sitting on the living room floor. I wrestle a clean diaper on him and if I have to let go of his leg long enough to reach his clothes, I'm screwed. He's laughing and off and running again...some mornings I am lucky enough to tag his dad in when this is going on. He catches him, brings him back to me and volunteers to dress the daughter, who is generally more cooperative about these things...UNLESS you pick out clothes she doesn't like. If she does not approve of that day's clothing selection, there is kicking, screaming and pouting on the horizon. Does she think I'm running a democracy here??

By the time the morning routine is finished and the boys are off to school and the daughter is forlorn in the window of the screened in porch that she got left behind once again, I am worn out and ready to go back to bed. Maybe I need vitamins? :)

Small Talk Six Saturday...

2009-10-03T10:47:00.002-05:00

A group of ladies I've recently come into contact with over at momdot had a blog topic to write on for today. What are the six things that you say that you don't want your children to repeat? Are you sure that it only says "six" and not "sixty"??

1. I'm going with the word "shit" on the first one, simply because it's the word that hubby and I say the most and immediately regret when the little ones repeat it immediately and then proceed to run around and repeat it over and over and over and over and over....getting my point here?

2. "Dammit." We were at a store the other day and I dropped something and Delaney said "Oh dammit, Mommy". Funny to me? Absolutely. Funny to the 80-something-year-old lady in the store next to us? Probably but we got an awfully disapproving look. Old fuddy duddy.

3. "Because I said no." This is a favorite of the youngest. We have been going through the "why" phase here lately (he's almost 2 and his sister is almost 3) and they hear it a lot. Picture a scene where I pick him up and go to give him a kiss and he yells "No!!!" and I'm like "Why not?" and he grins his little ornery grin and says "Because I said no." Well all righty then...

4. "Do you want me to beat your ass?" Now let's put a disclaimer in this one before we get the anti-spank people all in a snit. We don't beat the kids - our preferred method of discipline around here is time out; however, a tap on the butt never killed anyone (I'm still alive, I'm typing this, right?). However the words "I'm going to beat your ass!" or "I'm going to beat you to death" are very self-satisfying to say when you are particularly frustrated at whichever child is annoying at that very moment. I honestly don't know why I bother anymore - they all know it's a bluff - the big boys and the little ones alike. For example, last night: Dear daughter does not want to go to bed. Daddy takes her to bed, reads her a story and tucks her in. Five minutes later she is out of the bed and back downstairs and trying unsuccessfully to hide next to mommy on the couch. Daddy says, "Young lady, get your body upstairs to your bed like a big girl or I'm going to give you a swat on the butt." She walks directly to him, pokes her little cutie patootie out and says "Just swat my butt, I don't want to go to bed." Pardon me while I walk out of the room to DIE LAUGHING before I come back and finish this list...

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Still laughing....
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OK better now.

5. "Your grandmother is crazy." Yeah that's a good one to discuss right before a big family dinner. Fantastic.

6. Although I've got to say the one that my daughter spouted off that I approved of wholeheartedly was this particular gem. My ex husband had come over to pick up her big brothers (the older 3 boys) and he's trying to be nice and say hello to her standing next to me outside. She is FURIOUS. She has figured out this is the guy that comes and takes her big brothers away. She says "No!!! I no like you!!! You a JACKASS and you not take my brothers any more!!!" He stood there stunned and said, "She was serious wasn't she?" I replied, "Umm, ya think?" and he said "She really hates me doesn't she?" I said, "Well thank God she is displaying better taste than her mother ever did." and with that I picked up my daughter and walked back in the house because ya know what? He IS a jackass - she nailed it right on the head.

As I am sure you can imagine with five kids, I could write a much longer list than this. I'm not known for my clean as a whistle language all the time for sure and neither is my handsome husband. Ah well, the humor makes it well worth it - well...except at family dinners. LOL

Have a great weekend everyone!

I'm a book winner! And another book giveaway link..

2009-10-02T22:36:00.003-05:00

I won a book tonight off of Northernmama's blog and I was soooo excited. I never win anything - ever.

She also has another book giveaway going on right now and I love the author of this particular book, so I thought I'd give her a blog shout out here and if you want to enter to win and check out her great page, go for it.

Northern Mama: A Separate Country ~ Book Review and Giveaway!#c2814749373145570275#c2814749373145570275

Let the wild rumpus start!

2009-10-02T12:15:00.003-05:00

Am I the only one who cannot wait for this movie to come out?? This has been a favorite book of mine for years and a favorite of all of the kids. I'm really excited to take the 7 and 8-year-old to see this. I imagine the 13-year-old will say he is "too old" and "too cool" to go with us. I'd love to take the little ones too but is it just me or does it have kind of a creepy, dark feel to it? I don't want to scare them...maybe after we see it I can be a better judge of how they would handle it or we can just wait for the DVD to come out for them.

And a quote from the trailer that I'm using as inspiration for today:

"This is all yours. You're the owner of this world."

Mom Time...

2009-10-01T20:14:00.007-05:00

Mom time comes in small spurts...naptime if I can get them to nap at the same time...after bedtime...very occasionally I wake up early in the morning before they get up and enjoy a hot cup of coffee on the screened in front porch. The early morning one doesn't happen very often because I am NOT a morning person in the least.

Top 5 things I like to do during Mom time:

1. Read. Right now I'm between books but I just finished Alice Sebold's "The Almost Moon". It was a good book but a little bizarre for me to read because of a history of an awkward relationship with my own mother. I'm a sucker for books. I love them. My bedroom is stacked with them. Recently I've attempted to part with a few by signing up for www.paperbackswap.com. I LOVE this website and it is a great money-saver, which is great for our family of seven.

2. Scrapbooking. I love to do this but I generally don't do it much during "mom time" because it involves a process of dragging out all of the supplies, actually accomplishing something and then putting all the supplies away again before little people come and start rifling through it all. For scrapbooking time I try to set aside a time when Daddy is home, invite my good friend Diane over and we set the baby gate up and block off the dining room so we have the whole table to ourselves without little hands "helping".

3. Sewing. This also has the dragging out of supplies issue. Although this one isn't as bad because my daughter knows when I drag out the sewing machine I am generally making something for her so she wants to help and watch. She is also very good at saying "No no, brothers! This is for GIRLS!"

4. Glass of wine and mindless TV. I like white the best but will go for an occasional red. My mindless TV choices lately are my old standby's "Grey's Anatomy" and "Private Practice" (which I am watching as I type this). I've also been watching "Modern Family" and "Cougar Town". I am also into the HGTV channel, "Ace of Cakes" and the Food Network. If there is nothing interesting on, I am a CNN junkie. My afternoon guilty pleasure is "One Life to Live". And no you don't have to tell me how lame that is...I already know.

5. A long hot shower. This has to be done while children are sleeping. I never shower in the morning and here is why. Small children banging on the door, small children stripping off their clothes and hopping in the shower with me, the older boys turning the water off and on in an attempt to scald me, or the husband hollering through the door for me to hurry up because the children are going crazy. (I often ask him what would happen if I died - he assures me he and the children will all move in with his mother. I wonder if she knows this? She would go to any lengths to keep me alive at all costs, that's for sure. lol)

What are your favorite things to do during "mom time" (or dad time, such as the case may be)??

Wordless Wednesday

2009-09-30T12:06:00.002-05:00

This is not a new picture...it's from a few months back but it's still one of my favorites. This is my youngest and this is what happens when Mom goes to the bathroom and doesn't put the baby gate up to keep children out of the kitchen. He climbed onto the cooler my dear husband left in the kitchen, got the flour out of the cabinet and played in it. This is what 4 minutes unsupervised gets you....but look how proud of himself he was!

The moral of the story is: Some days you have to laugh or else you will just cry...