Super Busy at Home

Valentine's Cards

2012-01-18T21:50:00.001-05:00

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We ordered our Valentine's Cards! You can click on here to check them out.

Just a reminder to order yours too!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

2011-11-20T11:07:00.001-05:00

This is my friend Elizabeth! Isn't she cute? Today is her birthday!

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

On my Birthday she wrote this beautiful post that made me laugh and cry...in response to that all I can say is, pay back is sweet dear one...

My friend Elizabeth and I kind of grew up together until she had to move away and then I felt sad and broken. Elizabeth and I dated a lot of the same guys in junior high and high school. I guess I picked up her left-overs :). She was always the cool friend that always seemed to have it all together...I wanted to be like her...which isn't why I dated those guys btw, those are just two facts.

I feel so blessed to now be able to be friends with Elizabeth through Facebook and emails. Her and I became stay-at-home Mommies about the same time. I've got to admit that when I left work it was really hard. And scary. It was so wonderful to be able to write back and forth about trusting in the Lord concerning finances, children's health issues, and attitudes. It's nice to have someone in the same boat. It was nice to have a sounding board whom I knew was there.

Elizabeth has been through a lot and she faces everything with strength and dignity. I am so proud to call her a friend and a Sister in Christ! She leads me through her example of grace and faith. I am sure that today on her Birthday and every day her children rise up and call her blessed and her Husband gives her praise.

Happy Birthay dear, sweet friend. I'm thankful for you always inspiring me to be a better person. I love you and am so blessed to have you in my life...still!

Happy Halloween!

2011-11-02T20:28:00.000-04:00

Well here we are, on the other side of Halloween!

Hope you all had a great time! I know our kiddos did. My parents came over and went trick or treating with us in our neighborhood. Living in a historic district it is so much fun to go to the old houses and beg for candy. Half way through our jaunt my mom said "it's like we're on a movie set!" and it really does feel that way. You could be trick or treating in the 1950's and it would be the same.

This year I dressed the kids as Zack Morris and Kelly Kapowski from the famed show Saved by the Bell that aired in the 80's and 90's. How cute are they?

Ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-ba...Bayside!

He heart's big phones :)

Emma was cool being a cheerleader but Cal had no idea who he was supposed to be. So half way through I told him his phone shoots lasers at people...so here he is shooting everyone and everything...then he liked it.

And just so you don't think I am a horrible mother, I did let them dress up how they wanted. Here are is our little Tinker Bell and our little Spiderman. Halloween was about the 3rd time we had dressed up so I thought it was okay to have two different sets of costumes this year..we may do it every year just to make each time different and special rather than "okay you know the drill, costume back on!"

Hope you all had a great time with your little ones! We now have a bowl full of candy on the counter which is very tempting :)

Bleary Weather, Part 3

2011-11-01T21:21:00.000-04:00

Okay where was I?

Oh yeah he gave me a necklace and it had a ring on the chain.

Well maybe it's because I'm an idiot. I think it's because I was so worn by the emotional rollercoaster that my mind could no longer wrap itself around the fact that he was proposing. But it's probably because I'm an idiot. Whatever the reason, my dumb self actually thought that someone had sold this necklace to the antique store in the box with the ring on the chain and hidden...

see? You think I'm an idiot now too.

Whatever the reason I actually told Nick, "oh someone left their ring on the necklace!"

As I asked Nick what he thought just now he told me he was thinking seriously? Do you really not get what is going on here? I'm assuming he was probably second guessing his proposal at that moment.

I finally grasped what was going on when he got down on his knee.

Nick (as he describes himself) isn't one with the words, so he said "Lindsay Ann I love you, will you marry me?" Short and sweet. He said it was wet and cold on his leg. Wimp.

Of course I said yes and honestly I have barely any remembrance of this moment. I just remember the smooching and hugging and a really, really big smile on my face. Huge.

If you haven't read my blog for very long, I wrote about my ring a LONG time ago. If you want to read all about it you can click here.

After we got back in the car and bathed in the heat (oh my word I couldn't feel my toes!) we called his mom. His sister was living at home then and they were waiting by the phone...I thought that was so cute that he had filled them in on that he was proposing. He's so cute. We called my family.

After we left Minnetrista we went to the super market and got Raspberry Sorbert...for the life of me I have no idea why. I asked him what he would have done if I'd said no. He said "You wouldn't have said no. It's funny you ask though because the guys in studio (Architecture Class) asked me the same thing and I told them 'I'll punch her in the face and leave' ". Nice, real nice.

Then he took me home. It was a wonderful evening. Full of adventure and excitement and memories. We laughed, we cried. I was pissed, I was joyous...it was wonderful.

Then the next day I rolled out of bed ready to plan the wedding...

Well that concludes the engagement story. If any of you yokels want to here more I can keep going. Just let me know if you're interested :)

Bleary Weather, Part 2

2011-10-30T15:36:00.000-04:00

...Anyway, I was looking out the window, it was about 10:00 at night by this point when Nick looks at me and says "hey look, it's starting to snow". It had been just lightly raining but now the first snowflakes of the season were starting to swirl down.

With my bummer mood, I felt like rolling my eyes and emphatically twirling my finger in the air, accompanied by an emphatic "oh yeah", but I held it together and tried to seem as excited as a Christmas elf.

We were driving by the entrance to this place called Minnetrista. We went to Ball State which was founded by the Five Ball Brothers (you know Ball from Ball Canning). Anyway, Minnetrista was this cultural center where all five of their houses either stood or still stand. There are trails, and gardens, and some of the houses have been turned into museums. We always liked going there to walk around or get away from campus and look at the stars...but not in the rain and snow!

Needless to say I was surprised when he pulled in to the entrance and started making his way to the entrance of the head building. "let's go for a walk" he said.

uh, what? First of all, it was late. And Dark. And wet. And cold. And snowing. And wet. And cold.

I remember he came around to my side of the car and he was standing there waiting for me while I just stood there in the once warm car, staring at him thinking, are you insane? Is this some type of feats of strength test I have to pass?

I was still in a little in shock but hustled when I realized he was losing his patience with me. It was something like "come on, just a short walk. Just get out of the car...GET OUT OF THE CAR!" Okay he didn't yell, but I could tell he was on edge about it. Looking back he was probably freaking out, wondering what he was going to do if I refused to budge. Looking back I wonder how long I really just sat, staring at him from inside of the car.

Anyway, we made our way around the main building (they call it the cultural center) to a gazebo we had frequented before. Isn't it pretty? Anyway, we got JUST inside of the gazebo and Nick says "oh I forgot to give you your Birthday present".

He opened up this box and inside was this shell necklace I had seen at an antique store. I had fallen in love with it and he had bought it for me on the spot but that had been about 6 months before and I had completely forgotten it. He had bought it in it's original box from the jewelry store and everything and it was such a pretty color, but I was so sad...again. No ring.

He said, here you can put it on. To which I was thinking "yeah out in the freezing wet cold. GREAT!".

He took it out of the box and on the chain I saw there was a ring on it. You know, like you are going to the beach and you don't want to lose your jewelry so you take off your ring and put it on your necklace...like that.

Well I don't know what the heck I was thinking but...

Ha! I'm really stretching this out...now you have to wait for part 3!

Bleary Weather

2011-10-29T13:48:00.000-04:00

Today is a very cold, blustery, rainy day.

Days like this always remind me of when Nick proposed.

Which by the way was the weirdest and most romantic day ever. I'm sure he doesn't see it like that. To him everything went wrong, but to me it was perfect, and unique, and so distinctly us.

Have I ever told you the story of Nick proposing? If I have, please, go onto someone else's blog and check them out...if not please feel free to read away as I reminisce on when he asked me to marry him.

Well Nick and I had been dating for almost two years. We talked about getting married but we were both in college still and I honestly had no idea when he was going to propose. I was glumly facing the realization that it would probably be after we graduated, which at the time, was still a year and a half away.

I know a year and a half doesn't seem to be that long of a time period, but you have to understand that between Nick and I we've always had this bond...like we just can't be away from one another. It was always horrible when we had to be apart. I can't explain it and if you've ever been in love you know what I mean. But I just had to be Nick's wife. There was just this need in my heart, this longing, this ache in my stomache.

Anyway, my Birthday's at the beginning of November and I turned 21 to the usual fanfare that happens when you turn 21...Nick carried me home and took care of my hung-over self. He told me he was going to take me out to dinner but then he never got around to it. He always was coming up with some excuse as to why we couldn't go.

About 4 days before Thanksgiving he randomly said to me "we have to go out for your birthday! Let's go tomorrow night". Right away my curiousity was piqued as Nick is about the most laid back guy ever in the world to live. He always leaves me to fret over details and times and dates. It was just so out of character for him to plan something and say an exact time. I knew SOMETHING was up.

He took me to this restaurant which was the nicest restaurant in our little po-dunk collegy town. I mean seriously it was probably about the only place that had cloth tableclothes and it was so, so expensive. I remember being so worried about him having to pay for our meal! I mean, the poor guy was just a college student.

Anyway, I waited all through dinner for him to pull out a ring...I was biting everything really carefully so as not to choke on a cleverly hid ring. I mean, it was classic television sitcom at our table. But alas there was no choking or hiding or asking or saying yes. There was just us having a meal...a really fancy meal where I had to get really dressed up and he was in a suit...for apparently just my birthday which had been 19 days before.

On the way home I was so bummed I found myself fighting back the tears. I was angry with myself for setting myself up for this kind of dissapointment. And that's when he looked at me and said...

Hahaha! You'll have to wait for part 2!

Weekend Amazingness

2011-10-25T05:32:00.000-04:00

Well this past weekend I can't say that we did anything spectacular. Except one thing...

we got to love on Nick!

Friday was the start of a three day weekend for him and we had so much fun with him! It was his first day off in a month...no weekends off, and he's gone about 15 hours a day so when he does get home there's not much time for him to do much of anything other than eat dinner, shower, and go to bed.

It was wonderful having our family all back together. And kind of funny. Nick hasn't been around so much that he kept trying to get the kids down for a nap (who don't take naps anymore), sending the kids up to their rooms with toys that we now keep downstairs, and trying to get them to watch programs we don't watch. So funny. I can't imagine what it would be like having a husband deployed or something...

We visited a lot of amish, went on a field trip, went to church, our zoo's halloween festivities, carved pumpkins, and laughed a lot.

It was so wonderful. We are so blessed. Nick Sunday at dinner told us thank you for such a great weekend.

But it's us that should be telling him Thank You.

I'm sure there are so many guys who wouldn't be home on their first days off.

They'd be at the golf course.
Or a buddy's house.
Or a bar.

But not Nick. Nope. He has no where else he'd rather be than at home with us. With our messes and our tantrums, our loud playing, and our sword fights.

And that to me, is amazing.

Sidenote: I have pictures somewhere on my camera...goal today is to find camera :)

Finding Things in the Oddest Places

2011-10-20T07:41:00.001-04:00

Nick and I have started our Christmas shopping. I always have this dream that I will find the neatest, coolest gifts for everyone. But it is hard to do when you start shopping after Thanksgiving. By then all of the shelves have been cleared of the neat and unique and are instead filled with mass amounts of products, all the same.

Don't get me wrong I buy those gifts too! But it's always nice to find something that you think "hey that's neat!" or "so and so would LOVE this!"

Anyway, we went shopping last night for the kiddos at TJ Maxx. Sometimes they have Thomas the Train stuff for super cheap and they always have characters that are hard to find/discontinued.

Well last night I could have gone to just the toy section and then bolted but Nick and I looked around. TJ Maxx isn't usually where I buy coffee but I spotted in their gourmet foods section a 40 oz. bag of Starbucks French Roast coffee. Yum!

I was a little skeptical thinking it must be expired or something but it wasn't...the date was still way beyond and the beans were still vacuum packed in their delicious little bag.

Well the thing about this bag was, it was only $16.99! And according to my old fashioned kind of math, that makes it only $6.80 per pound! Which is a great deal for Starbucks! So we bought it and then we went to the grocery store where I noticed that Starbucks there was $9.79 a pound.

So I scored!

So the moral of the story here is don't limit yourself to what you buy in certain stores. Keep an open mind and your eyes wide open for bargains. Evidently you never know what you'll stumble upon!

These Tentacles are Tantalizing!

2011-10-19T07:36:00.000-04:00

Do you like our lunch? This is one of the most asked for lunches in our house...by the kids anyway. Nick and I aren't that big of a fan!

Isn't the little guy cute?

Here's what it is...all you do is take a hot dog and about 3/4 of the way up you cut slits. Microwave for about 45 seconds and his legs spread apart and kind of curl up...I cut little eyes and a smile into him too before nuking him to a firey death! hahahaha...but if your kids aren't afraid of things called condiments you could give him a ketchupy smile or a little olive hat...the possibilities are endless.

He then sits on macaroni with some goldfish crackers scattered on top for some sea-like ambiance and voila! Lunch is served!

Thought I'd share this because sometimes lunch with kids gets a little blah...at least it does here.

Today's mac and cheese!
Soup!
Grilled Cheese
Peanut butter!
Chicken nuggets!

That's really about all I have in my arsenal for things the kids will eat for lunch.

For dinner they have to eat whatever I make! But for lunch it's a whole different game.

Hope your little ones like the octopus-macaroni special :)

It's Tuesday!!!!

2011-10-18T07:01:00.002-04:00

Greetings on this cold blustery Autumn Tuesday morning!

I am hopeful starting this day as yesterday unfurled a heaping of chaos on me that I would otherwise like to ignore, thank you very much!

I woke up with Nicholas at the appointed 4:08 a.m. as always, only so did two little children as well.

Emma's been so upset that Nick's been working more, the poor dear crys every morning he leaves and begs him not to go: heartbreaking for us all.

Cal likes to wet the bed, or say he wet the bed to come sleep in our bed.

Well after Nick left for work the babies just seemed to need some snuggling so we all piled back into my bed and slept. It was heavenly!!!! I thought, I'll just sleep with them for half an hour and then sneak out of here and do my devotions...

Well we all woke up at 7:50. 10 minutes before we start school. Ugh.

I was already beating myself up...I didn't have everything printed out that I needed for school that day so I was already running behind before my toes even touched the hardwood.

I think I was in the bathroom when Cal asked through the door: "Are we going anywhere today?"

Speech therapy later! I yelled back (you know, yelling due to the door). And then I had one of those moments....

Blind panic.

You know the ones. Where you suddenly realize...

You have a doctor's appointment this morning!

Aahhhh!

Needless to say we threw on clothes, downed some breakfast and shot out the door.

It could have been a lot worse but I still felt frazzled and guilty and upset with myself at putting us in this position of hurried chaos. The dear ones didn't deserve their week starting out like that. And I hate the days when Emma's doing her schoolwork all throughout the day...

Here, do this worksheet. Okay let's go. Now I'll read to you. Let's go. Now you read to me. We've gotta go...

The peaceful part was that after school ended (at 2:30 in the afternoon! We usually are done by 11) the children had naptime, Nick came home, and then we took the kids to my parents'. They took the kids to a pumpkin patch and they had a great time! Nick and I went out to eat and then shopping for Christmas gifts and groceries. It was really nice to steal some time away with him after the harried day we had and I'm sure the kids appreciated some time away from their insane mother!

Here are some pictures I took Sunday...

The kiddos and dog running around the yard. Aren't they cute? You can see our grass is dying. :( Our grass company has stuff on it that's supposed to make it pop up come spring...apparently it's dormant? Anyway, I love the Kazoo's outfit :)

And they are off! Leaving Mommy in the dust. Lately Mommy's been the dragon or the bad guy or whatever in their playing...apparently I am not wanted! On a side note, do you like how our mailbox is leaning? That's what happens when you find your son HANGING on it. I'm glad it didn't fall on him. And yes, I need to clean out my flower beds

I leave you with this picture because it is so my life...here's my fall mum!....and a boot. One random boot, abandoned and lonely...wondering, with the lady of the house, why on earth it is outside in the first place... I'm cherishing these moments. Someday the dust will settle, our house will be as quiet as a tomb and I'll wish the children were little again to leave me random boots to collect up...

Happy Tuesday All!

What I've Been Looking At

2011-10-16T07:58:00.000-04:00

Pumpkin Cream Cheese Swirl Cake

I ran across this recipe for bars/cake and am planning on making them tonight. They look super yummy!

I am soooo in love with Pinterest! Have you ever heard of it? If so, then good for you. And if not then you should really look into it. It is amazing! A screen shot of my computer is above so you can check it out. You can click on it to make the picture bigger. But basically pinterest has "bulletin boards" that you can "pin" posts and websites you like to help you remember things. Pinterest has helped me to discover so many new projects and so many no-brainer ideas for everyday things that are just so clever and I never, ever, ever would have thought of them on my own! There really are so many smart, clever mommy's out there in the web world.
*Just a disclaimer, every time I type clever I type it as cleaver and have to change it...is that weird?

Anyway, here are some things I've discovered on pinterest...

Bakerella's adorable snowmen are a bottle of milk with a donut hole...how cute!

This mom makes paint cups with Starbucks lidded cups...so smart!
There are a million ideas...tons of things that have been "pinned" onto friends' boards come up when you first open up the page or you can search for whatever you are thinking of. I've searched for ideas for our mantle for Christmas, family photo poses for our Christmas Cards, and new tutorials for bows.

Anyway, hope you all are having a great weekend!

Yesterday the kids and I walked to the park where we fed the ducks and played...it was a very crisp, clear Autumn day and we had a lot of fun. It's days like these that I cherish and love!

Whew!

2011-10-13T05:39:00.001-04:00

Yesterday was one of the busiest days of our school year so far.

It started Tuesday evening when my alleged "mentor" in the Girl Scouts organization suggested we meet together for a picnic.

No big deal. I can pack a picnic. I know where the park is. It's fine...

Until I woke up in a cold sweat, realizing that we were out of bread.

Then Nick couldn't wake me up so I wasn't up to give him the bag of library books to return...

If you haven't caught on to my complaining about this, when I don't wake up with Nick I don't wake up...it's horrible. I have no idea why/how I turn off the alarm in my sleep.

Anywho, so what happened was that apparently the children and I were VERY tired and we all slept in until 8:30...that's right folks, 8:30.

I don't think I've slept in to 8:30 since before we had Emma.

Oh, and by the way...we usually start school at 8...geesh we were running late.

So I got the kiddos up, dressed, ready, fed, and then we left for the library, the store, and then to the Girl Scouts office to visit their little store thing-y for supplies.

By the time we got home I had 20 minutes to pack our picnic before we had to leave for the park...and in case you haven't noticed in this story we had not done any schooling yet.

So we went to the park, did all of that, and then we came home. We did school FINALLY in the afternoon, didn't get it all done, then came down had made dinner.

After that it was back to the library and then to the vitamin shop.

Anyway, it was just kind of a harried day but it pales in comparison to how busy today will be...

Preschool, homeschooling, home, lunch, dentist appointment, library, home, change, gymnastics lessons, home, make dinner, walk dog, and then fall on the couch and die.

In good news though I was supposed to have a girl scouts meeting at my house tomorrow but due to not enough people coming we are rescheduling...so I don't have to get the house guests-I-have-never-met-in-my-life-before-clean. Praise the Lord!

A word about Girl Scouts: we signed up and then found out that there isn't a group for Emma to join because no leaders have come forward. So here I am being a leader. I am finding that my Mentor lady eats/sleeps/breathes for Girl Scouts and lets be honest, that's just not me. I'm doing the best I can to be on board with everything and I don't know how these other troop leaders do it but I just don't have the time to skip off every weekend for some "leadership training summit" in which you have to be staying overnight...nope, not gonna do it.

So there it is, I've been a little busy and am really looking forward to putting these days behind me. :)

Welcome to the Gun Show

2011-10-10T05:24:00.001-04:00

How cute is this picture?
This is my husband in case you are just tuning in. Not some random man I'm taking pictures of in the middle of an electrical field apparently.
We were at the pumpkin patch.
His name is Nick.
He likes to do funny things when I try to take his picture.
He's hot.
And now we're caught up.

My husband has been working tirelessly every.single.day. for the past three weeks. He puts in at least 12 hours, usually more. Then drives his 45 minute drive back home. He doesn't complain. He doesn't get mad. He's perfect.

But there's me back home complaining becuase he's gone. Because it's every day. I know it's not his fault. I know that he would rather be home with us.

I love him so much and he is such a great guy. Thursday when I came down with what was obviously the plague, he just put me in bed. He took care of everything.

This weekend at the market we were checking out and I spied Macaroons in the cart. "I didn't know you liked macaroons!" I exclaimed.

"I don't. But you do." He said. Swoon :)

My husband has never been a romantic man. Sometimes that bothers me more than other times. It's something I work on. It's something he works on. Once he gave me a watch, a beautiful expensive watch. We were broke. He forgot wrapping paper and proceeded to dump out a box of tampons and give it to me in the tampon box...unwrapped. This is a true story folks, you can't make crap like this up.

Anyway, back to now...he doesn't plan these elaborate things but he's always there to tuck me in bed, take my earrings out when I'm too sleepy, he comes home with a bottle of wine, he sticks macaroons in the cart.

I love him so much and I am so thankful for him. And I'm thankful that I'm the only one who gets to go to his gun show :)

Little Pumpkins

2011-10-09T13:06:00.001-04:00

As mentioned in my previous post, Emma and I have been sick. Well yesterday (Saturday) I was still sick but I was determined to not spoil our plans. Nick took the day off and we had so much planned I was a little worried about getting it all done and having it still be a fun day. I mean, at what point does running errands on a beautiful Fall day stop being fun and simply become checking things off of your list of "to-dos"?

Well I shouldn't have worried because we had such a wonderful time together! We started the day super early...we were out the door without any breakfast. We stopped at this Italian bakery in our neighoborhood for doughnuts and coffee and then made the drive to a tiny town south of us that has a great butcher.

Since we were down there we made a drive to Nick's hometown to another store with great cheeses and bulk baking items. We stocked up on things we need. I love the fact that we live in a metropolis area but can drive 10 minutes in any direction and be in the country. LOVE that. I also love that we live so close to the Amish folks and can take advantage of their wonderful baked goods, produce, and meats.

Anyway, we FLEW home, changed clothes and then it was off to a fashion show Emma was a model in. After that it was time for some shopping, lunch out, a trip to a Nursey for mums (I heart Mums so much!), and then onto Pumpkin Picking!

While Pumpkin picking we had a great time but it was so weird! It was 82 degrees out...Nick was in Birkenstocks for crying out loud! Usually we're wearing gloves! It was a weird day, and while picking pumpkins we had a Stealth Bomber circling overhead for the football game going on. It was kind of weird but neat all at the same time! :)

If you'll remember apple picking pictures the children were enamored by the wagon and as you can see here, they still love the wagon! Apparently they have a system where Emma pulls, Cal pushes. They fell into their positions quickly.

Emma found her pumpkin quickly and how cute is she? I just love her to death!

Here's Cal's...his isn't that heavy but he just could not figure out how to hold it...Nick's teaching him how. Cute!

These little pumpkins made Emma's day...she thought they were sooo cute! They were 3/$1 so Nick told them each to pick 3. Well Emma did quickly and Cal only had one. He kept saying "I only have one" so Nick kept trying to help him pick 2 more out. Finally Cal declared "I only have one because I only need one!" Oh! Now we get it. I love that Cal doesn't like excess. And sometimes he's confusing but when he let's us into how his minds working and what he's thinking it makes so much sense to us. Nick just said "okay, that's cool" and we were done. It's times like those that I love when he tells us what's going on in his mind.

Here's our shopping trip. I got pumpkins to stack so I'll have to take a picture of that when I'm done.

So that was our day yesterday! We came home, made dinner of burgers, brats, green beans, and pierogis, ate dinner, and collectively crashed on the couch to watch Gnomeo and Juliet. It was a full day. It was a gorgeous day. It was a wondrful day.

Happy Lord's Day!

2011-10-07T12:58:00.000-04:00

Well here I am. What weird days these have been.

Yesterday I was doing some work on the computer during naptime and went downstairs to check on the children. I figured I would finish up my work last night but never made it back to the computer.

After I checked on the children I felt kind of tired so I laid down on the couch and took a short nap. When I awoke I felt suddenly miserable...chills, achey and my head felt like a rock...I couldn't even lift it up. I was dizzy and weird.

When Nick called to say he was on his way home I could barely get the phone. I have such an amazing husband. He told me to not worry about getting dinner around...just to stay on the couch and he would take care of everything.

I have such an amazing husband. I am so blessed. When he came home he got me into bed and then made the children dinner and played with them all night. I was sleeping but apparently he sent the children upstairs to get their pajamas on...that's when Cal thought it a good idea to try to climb his dresser.

It fell over on him...not good.

Thank the Lord he is okay. He has a little bruise but other than that it is okay. Which is amazing as Nick said that the whole dresser was on him and his leg was pinned in a drawer.

About 1:45 in the morning I woke up and felt so much better. I woke up Nick who confirmed that yes I didn't feel like I was going to catch anything on fire anymore...praise the Lord my fever had broken!

I woke up and felt better (not 100% but maybe about 57%?), got Cal to bed and Emma and I got back on the couch to watch some Kit Kitteredge. Did I mention Emma? Last night she started saying her head was feeling "swimmy"...she had a little bit of a fever but not too bad. When I checked on her last night in her sleep I knew she felt bad because she looked horrible!

This morning she couldn't get her head off the pillow it was so "swimmy" as she put it!

I've given her some Motrin and now she's starting to feel better. We are both on the upswing but decided that movies are the way to feel better.

Nick's Mom picked up Cal from preschool so we could rest and he will be spending the afternoon over there...I'm hoping that that will give us a chance to recoop and it will help keep him away from us sickies.

So there are our days. I hope to be feeling better tomorrow so I can get back on my feet and get things in this house around...it is very apparent that Daddy's were not meant to run households!

Salted Caramel Mocha Latte

2011-10-06T13:17:00.000-04:00

Thanks, MomAdvice!

I would like to introduce you to the website of Mom Advice! Mom Advice is Amy Clark's blog and while I've never met her (I saw her in Target once!), I consider her a friend. Yep, that makes me sound like a weirdo stalker but I'm not I promise!

I just consider Amy a friend because 1) we share a butt load of friends, 2) we live super close to one another (again, not a stalker, promise!), and 3) I've been reading her blog since the day when she was journaling about their journey out of debt long ago.

Anywho, Amy does this crazy awesome thing in which she gets super high on caffeine in the process of copy-cating Starbucks' coffee specials. The one she has put together this time is the Salted Caramel Mocha Latte.

The kids were good today, I managed to get out of bed at the correct time (it's the little things, right?) and so I thought I would treat myself so I followed her recipe jobby and made this.

One word...amazing!!!

The only thing I didn't have though was Caramel Syrup but I did have some weird Caramel Cinnamon (or Vanilla?) creamer so I used that. I was a happy camper.

Here is my reasoning for making these at home: I don't have the luxury of having a Starbucks right down the street...close it is, but I just hate schlepping the kids out to get myself a coffee. Also the last Starbucks coffee I had was horrible!!! I can't even tell you how bad it was. Bleh. Thirdly, I always feel bad buying coffee. It's 5.08 for the pumpkin spick dealy and I don't make the money around here so I always just feel bad. Sometimes I even call Nick and ask permission in which he acts like I'm this huge waste of space and time and tells me, yes for God's Sake just get the stupid drink.

Okay then.

So now I can make them at home and everything will be right in the world. Birds are singing, angels are all aflutter. Ah, it's a beautiful thing.

So click on one of the many links I've snuck in here to get the recipe yourself or click here to get it. Just know that I couldn't get the exact recipe's link to work so if this doesn't take you to it just explore her blog until you find it. It will be worth your time!

Check out the Outfit

2011-10-05T16:59:00.001-04:00

Sorry I didn't post anything yesterday...we had a crazy busy day. We went to this thing in our area called "Homeschool Hangout". I HATE meeting new people sometimes and I was super nervous for some reason. But I met some really great moms and the kids played with a lot of wonderful children...win, win for everyone!

We also had a super late start yesterday. When Nick goes to work I try to get up at 4 in the a.m. with him to get things done around the house and feel a little organized before the house is all a'whirl. Well I was REALLY tired and decided to go back to bed for a few minutes. I set the alarm for 5 and buried myself in the covers. I woke up at 8 with my hand hanging over the bed and the alarm clock turned off...fail. I hate when I turn off the alarm in my sleep.

So we didn't get up and around until 9:30....it still feels like we are still trying to catch up after starting so late. Ugh. Yesterday was one of those crazy busy days where you don't know what you are in fact so busy with but you find yourself having a panic attack before your feet even hit the floor...ever have one of those days?

Well enough about yesterday...what's in the past is just that. I'm learning from it and moving on. Let's just say yesterday and I had a huge fight and broke up...

Today however is good. Great! Woke up at 4!

Worked out!

I was dressed and had eaten breakfast before the children awoke!

We got homeschooling done!!!

It was pretty great! Except for one thing...

Do you see this outfit? Just so you know, that's a long sleeved polo shirt on backwards and underneath his undershirt...fancy right? I asked him if he was comfortable, to which he said yes...so we've left it. I didn't have the heart to change the way he thought it should go. And just so you know we haven't left our little home (well we rode bikes and played in the neighborhood but you know what I mean!). If we had gone somewhere we would have changed it.

Here's Emma...she's wearing a little glove eraser that she likes...we are learning days of the week so the ka-jigger (technical term) behind her is a dry erase board that we write the days of the week on. I think we are almost done learning them...hooray!!!

I was super proud too that they know the pledge of allegiance (and actually SAY the right words!!!). We are learning fractions now and compound words, spelling, we are reading Heracles, and learning about Ancient Egypt. Tomorrow we start learning about dogs.

So that's all that's going on here in our little Manor. Hope you all are doing well!

Homeschooling About Dogs

2011-10-03T06:26:00.000-04:00

Thank you Homeschool Creations for your genius printables!

As I mentioned in a previous post regarding homeschooling, we are studying animals right now for Science. One animal a week. We study it, we research, we learn the scientific name, what species it is, we go to the zoo, pet shop, living room and observe it. We are that animal.

This next week coming up we are studying dogs.

Who let the dogs out? Who? Who? Who? Who? Who?

That may be one too many whos...

Posts like this come when children wake up at 3:45, refusing to go back to bed.

Where was I? Oh yeah dogs.

So anyway, I found this amazing set of printables for our dog section. There is math, writing, everything in there...I like to be coordinated on dog days so everything is dogs, dogs, dogs.

Some of this stuff is a little young for Emma, which actually works out perfectly for me because then Cal has something to do while Em is working on spelling, or math, or literature.

I've said this before and I'll say it again...you do not have to be homeschooling to use this stuff! So much of this stuff if just plain fun! Clip out the letters and start using them with your babies. Use the "follow the lines" for little guys starting to use those cute, fat crayons. The opportunities are endless. Endless, Jerry, Endless!

Speaking of dogs, I wonder where Lucy is? I guess I'd better track her down...she's probably hiding from the chaos that started four hours earlier this morning!

A Tour of Our Autumn Loveliness

2011-10-02T06:42:00.002-04:00

Thank you readers for keeping me accountable and on track with the whole idea of decorating. Yesterday afternoon I was lounging around the house during naptime, trying not to fall asleep and wondering what house work I could do that would not disturb the children when I suddenly remembered decorating...I had told ya'll I would finish decorating and post pictures.

So away I went. In fact I was still at it when Emma came down from quiet time, so she was thrilled to help as well. Here are some of the decorations...

It's all about simplicity here. I filled a bowl full of apples. I am still so busy with apples, so these few can do a good job of sitting and looking pretty for the time being.

This is the newest member of our family. Do you like? Our neighbors gave it to us! Can you believe the rocking awesome neighbors we have? Nothing like having neighbors who you feel are like a fill in set of parents and friends all at the same time. They are such wonderful, wonderful people and we are so blessed by them! Anyway, I really want to decorate the dern thing but can't come up with anything...any ideas?

Ah, my little Hallmark sign and some pumpkins. The sign sits on the buffet which is the perfect size for a five year old to add some pumpkin candles!

Alright I left out the best part of this picture...the tv right above the cut off. Here is my mantle this year/so far/I give up. It's lame. Emma added leaves. Which are dead. D.E.A.D. But she REALLY wanted to add them. I want height, flare, pizazz, but again, ginormous television about it kind of prevents from having huge cornucopias or anything...I'm still working on this. I think I may have to go shopping for some inspiration! Do they sell inspiration?

Here's the center of my mantle, again...LAME!!! I'm working on it. This is by no means the finished product. I'm just going to keep telling myself that.

Here is my centerpiece on the dining room table. Simple. Is this lame that I used a wreath as a candle ring? Let's call it inventive!

Giant candle...I have fun with thing adding things in around the candle...candies, sand, shells, it goes on and on. This sits in a window between the blue room and the fireplace alcove in our living room, which I realize makes absolutely no sense if you've never been to our house and perfect sense if you have. One of my best friends, Elizabeth, who has in fact never been to my home (hi!!!!) said she really wants to see it because she has this idea of what it is...so come on up!!! We'll go shopping!!!

Anyway I have a HORRIBLE confession to make to you...I had to scrape, scrape!, conversation hearts out of the bottom of this thing to get the pinecones and pumpkins in. Yep, you heard it here first folks, I had left that thing sit since Valentine's Day with the same thing in it. And do you know what the mortifying thing is? It's in the center of our home. Not tucked away in storage or anything, nope, right there for God and everyone to see that I am some kind of moron who got used to looking at the gross nasty candy. But that will just be our little secret so, shhhhh!

Here is the mirror in our entry way. Hi mirror! That's the top of my twinkly light tree in case you are wondering there on the right.

Here's my front door wreath. Kind of proud of this thing because there's a story behind it. My Grandma (whom I love dearly) makes wreathes, bless her heart. Well since I had a purple bedroom when I was, oh about six years old, every wreath I get has purple roses. Big, plump, lacivious looking roses.

Well anywho when we moved back home from Indianapolis she wanted to make me a wreath for my door. I summoned all the courage in the world to tell her I had a different idea for a wreath...one with Fall colors since we moved in in September, and I gave her a picture of one like this.

And she made it for me. As far as I know I'm one of the only people to ever get a wreath with no flowers on it. She thought it was ugly but said if that's what I want she'll make it. I think it's just grand.

And finally here's my pilgrim lady on the foyer table. Hi pilgrim lady! Her hat makes her look like a WWII nurse, but that's totally beside the point...and if you look REALLY close you'll see that she has boots accompanying her at the bottom.

So there's my tour...whew! I'm pooped...see yourselves out will ya? :)

My Planner

2011-09-30T16:52:00.001-04:00

Those who know me know that I am a very organized person...sometimes no where else but in my head, but nevertheless, I like to at least feel organized.

I have always had a planner. The school I went to believed in planners and supplied us with at the beginning of every school year. I cannot tell you the joy I felt when I received that new planner every year. It was such a thrill to have a new one to fill in with my orderly duties pertaining to homework.

And as I have grown so has my love of all things planners. When I was a business girl I had the ones that matched my outfits that I could put a notebook into...you know, the big honkin' ones.

The past few years Nick has been getting these lovely leather bound planners with the beautiful gold trimmed pages and satin ribbon placeholder. He always writes something wildly spectacular in them at the front and then I have that to look at all through the year.

I still have that planner and love it with all of my heart. But for Mother's Day, Nick's cousin Jodee got me the planner you are about to see below and I love it! It was such a breath of fresh air...which incidentally describes Jodee as well. I love her and love being around her...she's such a godly woman who I take such joy in being around...hi Jodee! Hi!

Anyway back to my planner explanation...

It isn't my poor old planner's fault but I was so used to the design and layout that my eyes were just running over it and not reading anything. Does that may sense at all? I would write "Nick's Birthday" and then realize as I was writing "Nick's Birthday" under it that I had already written it. My eyes were just skipping over everything because it all looked the same to me. (Reading this sounds like I am totally lame, but I just.can't.delete.)

Here are some things I like about my new planner:

The days are side by side and I can look at the whole week in one glance. The top portion is for my schedule and then you can write in everyone else's schedules. Since we don't have enough kiddos to take up all of the spaces I have a row for "Lucy/Roscoe" (flea treatment, heart worm pills, vet appointments), and "$" (bills coming due, when Nick's paid to remember to check the bank and make sure everything's correct).

I am one of those people that if I don't write something down I perpetually think about it. Over and over and over and over. It's pretty maddening. But if I write it down it just kind of, poof, goes out of my head and I know I don't need to try to remember it anymore.

Here's the cover of my planner. By default, it has to be pink...of course. Boy howdy does Jodee know me :)

Jodee was sooo excted to show me the best part of the planner...stickers!!! There are oodles for all of the fun activities the kids do. I just love them!

I stick my schedule in the front of the planner. This is my daily cleaning schedule, just so ya know. This is how I keep myself sane and tidy.

This one's blurry but in the back there are 3 prooferated lists per sheet that are for shopping lists...I have a perpetual shopping list going at all times. Again, so I can get it out of my mind, onto paper, and just forget about it.

A card holer on the back. I haven't put a card in there yet but when someone gives you one when you are out and about it's nice to have somewhere to put them.

I swear I tried to flip this picture 18,000 times and it still looks like this! But anyway, this is on the cover of the planner and it helps keep me grounded. And whose time this really is. I can try to plan as much as I want, but ultimately He's in charge of this life.

If you like my planner you can click here to order your own. No one's paying me to say this...I just like the dern thing.

Whatever you use, just remember to get organized and stay organized. An organized mom makes for an organized home and an organized home is a peaceful, happy home.

Breakfast Smoothie

2011-09-30T08:40:00.001-04:00

I love Fruit Smoothies for breakfast. They are the ultimate go-to meal for moms. Quick and easy to make they pack a punch of vitamins, protein, and nourishment...all in a smoothie that can be taken anywhere.

I try to make a fruit smoothie every day. Sometimes I just get too busy, but on the mornings I can actually REMEMBER to make the silly thing, the smoothie always seems to make my day go "smoother".

Really, I'm horrible.

If you're new to Smoothie's they are so super easy to make. Here's my recipe/combo for a smoothie:
1 cup of orange juice
1 banana
1 cup of blueberries (or strawberries, raspberries, anything)
1 6 oz. carton light yogurt

Just thrown into blender and blend. Easy peasy!

Some of my notes are:
I think the banana and yogurt are musts. These really help bind it all together and make it creamy.

I hate light yogurt. Bleh. I bought some and hated it but had so much left I had to find something to do with it. So I used it in this. And I promise you can't taste the light-ness of it. Just trust me on this one.

Sometimes I add powdered flax or kelp...it adds extra nutrients and protein and you really can't taste it. In that too comes spinach. If I have spinach on hand I throw some in. I know it sounds disgusting...that's what I thought too but I PROMISE you can't taste it. It does give it a funky cool green color though. Just be warned.

So there you have it. Now we can be smoothie buddies and drink our smoothie's together.

One of the things I love about the smoothie is that it packs so much stuff together. Seriously, it would take me FOREVER to eat everything on its own. Yogurt, then 2 servings of fruit, then a glass of orange juice. With the smoothie I just pour it into a glass and carry it with me through the house as I'm tidying and getting the kiddos ready. On mornings I take Cal to preschool I just throw it into a travel mug and go.

As Emma says that's Easy-Peasy-Lemon-Squeezy :)

Decorating for Fall

2011-09-30T06:36:00.000-04:00

This year I thought I was being pretty good about the decorating. The week after Labor Day Nick schlepped the bins down for us and Emma and I got to it.

But as life sometimes does, it got crazy, and for the past few weeks the two bins have been stacked together and the end of the couch, making for some weird collegy concoction of a coffee table.

Today however I am vowing to get the Fall decorations put out once and for all. I have so much stuff and a blank mantle right now, so there is no reason to do some decorating, there, if no where else.

I browsed the internet this morning for some inspiration. Isn't that just the best thing? So many creative ladies at the simple move of my fingertips...heavenly!

Some of my favorites are below. And I am making this promise to you...I will post pictures of my fall decor tomorrow...and it will be around the house, not just in a bin!

I love the banner...not sure if I have enough creativity in me to make one but I have the "drive" to make it to Hobby Lobby :)

I am in love with the twinkly lights! We have twinkly lights for Christmas time outside but I am in love with this...What is that plant? Wisteria? Some neighbors down the way have wisteria like that with twinkly lights and I LOVE it!

Nothing is better than big, huge mums inviting you into someone's home.

Happy Friday ya'll! Have a great last day of the week!

Free Fall Printables

2011-09-29T21:50:00.000-04:00

A Huge, Pumpkiny Spiced thank you to Myra at My Blessed Life for posting 12 free Fall Printables! I LOVE printables! Mainly because I can't design anything to save my life. Period. I mean, if you were to put a gun to my head and make me come up with something it would look like something off of Windows 95 and would have the creativity of a four year old.

But anyway, I also love printables because I am a stay at home mom who doesn't have a lot of money to refresh my home decor as often as I would like. The printables allow me to swap out frames with cute, seasony things from time to time. They make me smile and so grateful for them.

Anyway, you can click here to go and print some of your own.

Fore!

2011-09-29T15:25:00.001-04:00

Nick took the kids to the park by our house to teach them to golf. The kids have been begging him to teach them for, like, totally forever. He didn't want to have them hogging the golf course somewhere so I suggested the park.

Like, duh dude.

The kids both seemed to really enjoy it.

Cal liked it but had a hard time positioning his hands (gee, like he doesn't do that with every other thing he does). It will be good for him to practice. Well, the hands and how to NOT try to hit everyone in the face with the club/stick thingy.

I love her little foot... :)

We made her carry the bag home...isn't she just so cute?

Nick really wants to get Cal into sports of SOME TYPE so he suggested golf...no other people you are trying to watch out of the corner of your eye while your brains telling you to intercept something, something and block, and grab and...We thought that was just too much for him right now.

So like I said the kids really enjoyed it. And seeing how Nick is crazy good at golf, he enjoyed teaching them as well. This is something we will definitely be doing more of.

That is, if it ever stops raining here. It's been a werid rain in that it has been raining pretty consistently for the past 4 days but there are no puddles anywhere. We must have needed the rain.

Well, pray for us. Cal starts soccer tomorrow :)

Marilou and The Joy of Cooking

2011-09-27T13:11:00.000-04:00

Hi there. This is Marilou. I worked with Marilou in college at a museum where I was a docent. Later I worked at the same museum after college and again got to work with her. She was a wonderful lady and I loved talking with her. She was from the city where I went to college. It was amazing to here her stories.

Nick had proposed to a place called Minnetrista, which was a cultural center comprised of the old Ball Brother Mansions (the Canning Company, Ball). Well when we were there they were just museums and things of the like, but Marilou remembered attending Daughters of the American Revolution Teas at the Ball mansions...with the Ball ladies.

She met her husband at Ball State (just like me!) and was one of the ones who made me want to elope with Nick...a lifetime together was what I wanted, not a big fancy wedding.

A couple of days before I left with Nick on a big plane to go to a small island and marry the love of my life, Marilou gave me a wedding gift...it was "The Joy of Cooking". As a former teacher and librarian, it was so Marilou to give me a book.

Anyway, Marilou passed away in May. She was a wonderful lady with a wonderful family. She taught me how to properly make tea. Sometimes her yogurt used to spew yogurt in my direction. And everytime I open up my Joy of Cooking book, I think of her and smile.

Thanks Marilou...I love you!

2011-09-27T12:09:00.004-04:00

Well the good thing about complaining is that sometimes on the very rare occassion, someone actually does something about it.

Yesterday as mentioned I was frustrated with our park. It just seems crazy to me that our park is inadequate and we have to drive to other parks when there is one just a couple of blocks away! Well I called the director of the parks and she actually called me back this morning!

She told me it was such a "minor issue" to them that it had fallen through the cracks. She said that she was having a staff meeting later this week and would address the problem then. She even told me she would call me back!

I guess I was happy she was honest with me and admitted to me that it had fallen through the cracks, but that also kind of peeved me off! I mean, us moms in the neighborhood have taken survey's and meetings regarding changes that could happen to that playground. We spent time thinking of it before giving her suggestions in the spring about what could be done to improve it. All of this by the way, she had asked us to do.

So then saying it had fallen through the cracks because it wasn't a big deal just seems silly. It's a big deal to us! We want to use that park every day!

Anyway, it pays to make your voice known sometimes, see?

Serving in the Home

2011-09-27T07:02:00.003-04:00

Photo courtesy of Beth Mann

Who doesn't feel this way sometimes? I know I do. Sometimes it feels as if there really is a chance my precious angelic children are out to sabatoge me. In fact just this morning I discovered that there's either a barbie head or a peach pit in the drain of the downstairs bathroom sink. I'm not finding out...I'll let Nick :)

I came across this verse this morning in my devotions:

"If anyone serves, they should do so with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen." 1 Peter 4:11b

Now, I've read this verse before but it spoke differently to me this time. Don't you just love that about the word of God? It speaks to us differently and shows itself new and in different ways.

Anywho, this morning I read this verse in regards to serving my children and family. In regards to serving in the home.

Rather than complain about the piles of clothes I sometimes muddle through or the beds I find with toys shoved under them, I should take care of the mess in a godly way and do it with a serving heart.

I want everything I do to bring glory to God. Whether anyone else can see it is irrelevant...because God can see it. He knows my heart behind things.

I also love the part of the verse that talks about the strength God provides because honestly there are a lot of times when I am just sick and tired of cleaning the same things over and over and over and over...day in and day out. But I know that it is God who gives me the strength to do it. And I know that He's there that I can reach out in times when I feel desperation and anxiety creeping in.

Mildew doesn't take care of itself you know :)

Let God be your strength today. Lean on him and He'll stand you upright :) And if things seem HORRIBLE and you just can't go on, try looking at things with new eyes...you are taking care of your little blessings and your home which God has given...take care of things for Him.

Nick's Jeans

2011-09-27T06:35:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I thought I had linked up to Lands' End so you could buy some jeans for yourself and I didn't...so sorry about that! The link is below...and the link to the uber cute shoes I bought for myself! I'm hoping they are comfy as my flats are about on their last legs...the poor dears!

Click here to go to these jeans :)

Here are the shoes I bought too :)

Random Thoughts that a Monday Afternoon Produces...

2011-09-26T15:21:00.001-04:00

Homeschooling is done, the children are napping, and I find myself with the devil and angel on my shoulders...

Relax!

Get to work!

So I did...kind of.

I ordered these jeans from Lands' End for Nick...cute right? They are 14.99 on clearance and if you use the promotion code "Discover" with the number 6956 you'll get an additional 25% off and free shipping (no minimum required)! Awesome, huh? Thanks Money Saving Mom for, well, saving this Mom some Money!

A side note is, if you don't shop at Lands' End then I really recommend that you do. They are always having super great bargains! And they stand behind the quality of their products which is something I love and respect about them. I buy almost all of my clothes from there and I love them! I also love that they are sold at Sears so I can find some super great bargains there and I can return something there if it doesn't work out...none of the having to mail it back business!

I also spent a lot of time on the phone which I hate doing but sometimes it just can't be helped. Nick and I's debit cards expired in August but weren't replaced. Weird, we haven't had debit cards. Well we got them...we got 4 cards total...all with different numbers. So now which ones are we to use? I was a little frustrated that the girl told me to take them ALL to the ATM and try to use our old pin numbers as they should be the same. At that point I was so frustrated I just said "okay". Okay not meaning okay but rather meaning, I'm making my husband call about this...

My final call was to the Parks Department of our City. Again, frustrated with them. I have spoken numerous times with the lady in charge there about getting our neighborhood's park playground equipment updated. She assured me in the Spring that something would be done, but now it is officially Autumn and nothing has been done. I try to think that it would be nice to have it done, but it's nothing that I'm owed or something. But then when I think that we pay taxes and should be able to ENJOY our park, then I get a little torked off. Is that how you spell torked??? I also spoke to someone about the tennis courts in our neighborhood. We have some wicked nice tennis courts, let me tell you. No exagerating people come from all over the country to play on our courts. But for us common folk they are hardly ever open. And I have a couple of kiddos who just want their Daddy to teach them how to play. So I was on the phone with them for that. Apparently you have to ask about 7.25 people before you find someone who knows about tennis courts. Weird, wild stuff going on around here.

My final question/random thought here as I ramble on has to do with homeschooling. I've been printing off things for Emma and things are either too hard or too easy. So here's my question for all of you, and you don't have to be a homeschooling mom to answer...if your child can breeze through things do you give them MORE of that to practice (oh say, addition worksheets?) or do you make them try to get something harder (multiplication? Fractions?) Emma's only a Kindergartener but I've been using first grade curriculum and she's finishing everything in about half the time they say to work with her on it. I don't know if that means I should give her more practice or if she's ready for 2nd grade material. And yes, I do feel kind of stupid asking this. Just so ya know...

Happy Monday! Make some coffee and perk yourself over that midday slump we're in now :)

Thank you!

2011-09-26T05:33:00.001-04:00

I just wanted to say thanks to you all for reading this blog. A lot of times, when things are awry in the day and I have no one to "vent" to, I take solace that come naptime I can sit down and type my feelings out. It helps.

It gives me something to do that's not covered in dried playdoh or other ucks.

It always touches my heart and spirit when someone pulls me aside at church or the grocery store and tells me how much they enjoy my blog.

Seriously, sometimes I wonder if anyone reads this thing.

And it's not about readers, its about just sharing what's on my heart. But I can see numbers and I do see that you all are reading, so I thank you.

If we were in person right now I would sing you the "Golden Girls" theme song, but we aren't, so I won't :)

Our Humble Home

2011-09-26T05:27:00.001-04:00

http://mypaintinggallery.wordpress.com/2010/04/23/thomas-paintings/kinkade/

"Thank God, O women, for the quietude of your home, and that you are queen it it.
Men come at eventide to the home; but all day long you are there, beautifying it, sanctifying it, adorning it, blessing it.
Better be there than wear a queen's coronet. Better be there than carry the purse of a princess.
It may be a very humble home.
There may be no carpet on the floor. There may be no pictures on the wall.
There may be no silks in the wardrobe; but, by your faith in God, and your cheerful demeanor, you may garniture that place with more splendor than the upholsterer's hand ever kindled."

--Reverend T. DeWitt Talmage, D.D

I love this little snippet of inspiration that was spoken by Reverend Talmage (1832-1902). Last week and the week before I was feeling a little blue. I wouldn't say it was a full-blown depression, but I just was feeling mopey and uninterested in anything for no good reason. Does anyone else ever feel this way? Ugh, sometimes there's just no good reason for it.

I'm so glad that I have a loving Heavenly Father who makes sure to snap me out of it before it spirals out of control. And I have a husband who is on me to talk about it and do whatever it takes to feel like myself again.

So I talked to Nick about it. A lot. I remember him telling me that I am the little heart of this family. Isn't that just the most precious thing??? He went on to explain himself: that when I am sad and mopey that is the general feel of the whole house. Everyone waits to see how I am reacting. Our home's warmth and feeling reflects my own.

And I guess that is somewhat true. So when I read this quote above the other day, it really hit home.

I desire a home that is quiet and peaceful, and no maybe we don't have the most stuff or the nicest things in the world but the job God gave me is to work with what I have to make our home welcoming, and inviting, and my family's safe haven.

So my prayer is that in the coming months I may offer my family a place of warmth, and refuge, physically and spiritually. This goal has brought me out of my slump, and when I think of it, I take the time and make the effort to stay up a little later than normal to get the kitchen completely clean, or wake up earlier than I prefer to fold laundry and tidy our little home.

My prayer:
May all who enter our home leave feeling better than before.

God bless you and your home today...

Apples to Apples

2011-09-25T21:46:00.001-04:00

Apple picking is one of the highlights of the year for us.

This girl is ready to go! She grabbed the wagon on her own and hightailed it out of there.

Here we are! Aren't they cute?

Bucket heads!

They are so cute...I just can't get over how cute they are!

Here's Emma's first apple

Here's Cal's first apple

Okay this is so cute! I love these series of photos...while Nick and I were picking apples, you know, the actual work, they kids took the wagon up the hill in the background and then would come back down...

They would go up....push and pull, push and pull.

And then they would come tumbling down the hill like Jack and Jill...sometimes quite literally! Nick and I just held one another and listened to their squeals and watched them. I praise God that they are able to live perfect childhoods...what a gift He has given them.

Here's Emma's basket!

Here we are almost reado to go. We had one more basket too but we couldn't get it to fit...50 pounds of apples folks makes for one happy Mommy :)

Yummy!

Check out the size of these apples! They are huge!

Fall Party

2011-09-24T12:04:00.000-04:00

Homemade Snickerdoodle cookies...perfect Autumn food :)

Here's our picnic. I love our life

This sweet little boy loves bread. There is nothing he loves more than a good piece of bread. And that's one of the things I love most about him...the simple things in life are the ones that bring him such joy.

Apple cider of course

Aren't they so precious? Don't you love the little waterfall behind them?

This is what usually happens at the end of a photo shoot...it's how I know they are fed up with having their pictures taken

Here's my big guy. It amazes me how big he is getting. 4T? Are you kidding me? What happened to 18 months clothing?

My little girl. She looks so big to me! I know that someday I will look at her someday and think "my little girl!" but right now she looks so grown up to me!

I love this series of photos... "hey where's Cal?" "hey where's Em?"

"There you are! Get over here!"

Kisses!

Pure bliss!

I love these Dahlias! So cute! The kids called them apple flowers which is so true...they really do look like apples!

Here are the two of us...we are usually just in the background of the fun, watching to see what the kiddos are doing. How they will surprise us with their magnificence. Watching them running around and chasing one another, and laughing, and laughing, I couldn't help but notice tears in my eyes. The time will be gone before we know it and I cherish the days where the sun is shining, the weather has a bite of cool in the air, and we have the time to watch, to laugh, and to cherish our family.

Yesterday was the first day of Fall. We celebrated with our picnic of Panera, cider, and Snickerdoodles. Afterwards Momma got some pictures and then we toured the mill in the background of the picture above. We do this every year and it is one of my favorite things to do! The children were fascinated with it and every year we notice something different about it. I may have forgotten to mention this but it is actually a working mill! We buy our stuff from there. Today I needed cornmeal so that's what we got. There's something really special about the millstone's grinding the wheat into flour right in front of your eyes, placing your order, then the man gets a bag out, scoops it up out of the freshly ground bin right next to the millstone, weighing it on the ancient scale, and then tying it closed with a piece of twine. The kids really understand where things come from when we watch it being made!

After this we went to pick apples. But those pictures are for another post... :)

Coffeemaker Cleaning Time!

2011-09-24T10:13:00.001-04:00

Just a friendly reminder to clean out your coffee pot! Mine had become a little slow. I realized that I was a little late in cleaning it so I did it the other night.

If you use tap water like I do (and your city water stinks, like ours does) then over time the inside gets a little calcified and needs DE-Calcified. Have you ever done this before? It's super easy!

Take your coffeepot and mix half water and half vinegar. I used 3 cups vinegar and 3 cups water. Put that in your water reservoir.

Turn on. If yours grinds beans like mine, make sure to turn that feature OFF before you do this or bad things will happen to you. Bad things.

Let it brew away on the vinegar concoction and when its about half way done, turn it off. You want to have that vinegarry water all throughout the tubes and machine so its sitting in there cleaning everything out. Let it sit for half an hour then turn it back on to finish brewing.

After that throw the gross water away, fill the pot with fresh water and brew fresh water through it. Then do this again, just to make sure that the vinegar taste is out. After all who wants vinegar coffee? Bleh!

Then in the morning you will have a wonderful coffeemaker experience with super fast brewing and wonderful taste. I hadn't realized that my coffee was tasting, well, different. I don't really know how to describe it, the taste was just a little off.

So there you have it. How to clean your coffeemaker. :)

Otters

2011-09-22T23:49:00.000-04:00

For our homeschooling science this year, I decided that we would study 3 different things: animal science, health science, and plant science. We are spending time studying animals first. I think we are studying 19 animals for the next 19 weeks with obviously, 1 animal a week.
This week we have been studying River Otters. Our zoo has otters so yesterday we went to the zoo and spent time observing them, their habits, and their habitat.
Today we spent more time with all things otters: we studied their bodies, what they eat, and how they live. The children seemed to really enjoy it. The children drew a picture of an otter and then we made a craft of an otter our of toilet paper roll. I included the links of the things I used below. The children seemed to really have a great time with all of the projects and doing things like this is why I love homeschooling!
http://www.dltk-kids.com/animals/motter.htm

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/mammals/weasel/Riverotterprintout.shtml

We also found out that they are endangered and filled in our journaling sheets about what they eat, how they live, how long they live, etc, etc. Emma seems to really be enjoying it and anytime I can get Cal excited about it, well, that's just icing on the cake :)

Wonder Woman

2011-09-22T23:47:00.000-04:00

Why yes...

That is our dog dressed as Wonder Woman.

Why do you ask?

Preschool

2011-09-22T05:27:00.001-04:00

The week after Labor Day Cal started Preschool. Honestly I knew this day was coming. It's been marked on my calendar for months, I attended orientation meetings and had to fill out all of the application forms for him to be reviewed. I've had a hand in this. But the night before Preschool I found myself in shock and disbelief that my baby is going to preschool.

I had no idea how he would do. But he has wanted to go, begged to go, since Emma had started. He has been so, so excited.

So here are some pictures of his first day. You can see he's armed with his new sneaks and his new Chuggington backpack that Gigi and Pops got him. He's such a big guy.

These pictures have a strange effect on me. They make me smile and sob simultaneously. Weird stuff that is.

Sporting stitches on his first day of school. Nick was telling him he'd be a big hit with all of the ladies :)

Sporting his new Chuggington backpack :)

Raining on the first day of school :/

Praying...I got this picture with Emma too during our morning prayer time.

Hot man, 12:00. Sorry, just can't help myself...is it bad I tell people behind his back he's growing beard for a Prostate Cancer awareness benefit? That's not bad, right?

He didn't even look back. That's the way he is. He's wanted this for two years.

When he was done all he could talk about were the cool toys that were there. Every time we visited Emma's class he just loved the toys and was so excited that now they are his class' toys!

Cuneiform

2011-09-22T05:04:00.000-04:00

http://www.ancienthistoryforhomeschool.com/homeschooling.html

This year Emma (and Calvin I guess) is studying Ancient History. That's right folks, my 5 year old little bitty girl of a thing is studying from the dawn of time to 400 AD.

Cal would say that's "impressive!"

We've been studying Ancient Mesopotamia in the Fertile Crescent and are learning so much. We learned that their writing was done on wet clay tablets and they developed a writing style called "cuneiform" by using reeds to write with.

Well wet clay I have not, and reeds I have not. But I did have playdoh and shish-ka-bob skewers! So we went with that and made our own cuneiforms. I showed Em on the chalkboard how they used symbols instead of letters and she could tell a story.

This is her intently working when I reminded her to tell a story or make some sense of what she's doing (I didn't say it like that!) Her response? "I've got it. I'm writing you a list of what you can buy me." Well played Emma, well played.

So that is what we are up to around here. The mesopotamian people would also bury their dead under the place in their house where they sleep. Ew and ew. I think we'll skip that hands on project :)

It's Fall Ya'll!

2011-09-21T05:15:00.001-04:00

I really wished we lived in a place where it was appropriate to use "ya'll" in everyday language. I mean, why does that have to be a Southern thing? I'm southern...South of Canada! But alas Yankees think it isn't proper (said with pinky in the air, mind you!)

Had to share this photo with you...aren't they just the best? This picture was taken when we were getting ready for church, and as you can see, we were playing "the adventures of Woody and Buzz". I love that they play this on a regular basis. I love that Emma plays with Woody still...and American Girl dolls, and does her hair at her little vanity...if I had sent her to school she's probably wear a "Beiber Fever" t-shirt all of the time and have her nose pierced. Well maybe not, but you know what I mean. I love that we've captured that child like youth and I plan on holding on to it as long as I can.

The other thing I love about this photo is that they came up with it. They plopped down next to Lucy (who by the looks of it had to do some serious scootching over on her bed) and then they yelled to me in the kitchen, hey mom! come take our picture! Of course I'll take your picture!

I love that we have these pictures because I can capture their footwear. Emma has these amazing boots...why don't I have boots like these? And Cal is almost too big for his red chucks and that makes me sad :(

I also love Emma's sweater dress. Adorable!!!! I somehow buy their clothing, wash their clothing, iron their clothing, put their clothing away, pick out their clothing, lay out their clothing, and then when they have it on I have this child like wonderment at their outfits. "Hey! When did you get that awesome dress?" And then Emma rolls her eyes at me and says her catch phrase of really dude, really? And then I remember that I bought it! Me! With my husband's money that he makes me say is my money! I feel so grown up!

Anyway it is Fall here and we have started decorating! Yesterday Emma BEGGED me to let her help put things out. The girl loves Fall just like her Mama! Fine by me baby, fine by me.

Last night Cal needed nighttime pull-ups so a trip to Target was in order. I swung by Starbucks for a Pumpkin Spice Latte (and think of my Aunt Jan as I find myself doing in a Starbucks drive through...hi Aunt Jan! Hi!!!!) and had a grand ole' time perusing the aisles. I think that made it Fall for me.

Hope you all are enjoying fall! We are enjoying that we haven't had to have our air or our heat on for nearly a month! The weather is crisp and perfect and everynight the season beckons for us to reintroduce a comfort food dinner. Yum!

Prayer Requests

2011-09-18T05:10:00.000-04:00

Isn't the transformation of kids amazing? Sometimes it seems like just yesterday I was propping up my potato shaped baby to take a picture on couch we no longer own. Wow, how things change.

My baby boy is no longer a baby. Just a boy.

I love him.

There is no one else like him.

In many things Cal has overcome like a trooper. And it's not that we didn't expect it deep down. When we were trying to get him to sleep in his crib, we let him cry it out...he screamed for 4 hours and 15 minutes. He's always been so easy going but the most stubborn person when it comes to things that are important to him.

Cal has overcome severe GERD as a baby (acid reflux basically), a seizure, some physical development challenges, and Apraxia of Speech, which basically means he couldn't speak. It amazes me how God has gotten him through.

And now we are at our newest challenge. Yesterday was my first post. I hadn't posted a lot because quite frankly I didn't know what to say. Life is hard sometimes and it makes putting simple words or emotions into play difficult or paralyzing.

Anyway, two weeks ago we went to a Developmental Pediatrician regarding Cal. His regular doc had suggested we do this back in May but I had put it off. I was hoping things would get better...the temper tantrums, the inability to get out of his routine, the insessant questions, the mind numbing OCD.

But they didn't.

So I finally bit the bullet and made an appointment. As it stood I made the appointment with the intention that Nick would be there, but having to go into work, it was just me and the boy. So we went.

The doctor was amazing. She let me be myself and didn't make me feel like I had to be a super mom or anything. The diagnosis?

It's too early to tell which one, but it's either ADD or Autism.

What???

To tell the truth ADD I can handle. Well somewhat. I had been reading anything I could get my hands on regarding child development and problems or challenges. And I kept being drawn to books that in the end would conclude your child has ADD or Autism. In my mind I had already diagnosed him with ADD.

But the possiblity of Autism blew my mind. Secretly I've always feared he had autism. How he banged his head on ANYTHING he could for the first two years of life. How he can't figure inflection out in speaking. How he hates to make eye contact. But we've had him checked/examined/studied twice and both times we were told "definitely not Autism".

In the past two weeks since the visit I really haven't had much time to sit down and think of everything. I haven't had "the big cry" (as Nick calls it!) I inevitably have after any big diagnosis or appointment. But it is slowly sinking in that no matter which one of these disorders it turns out to be, this is not something he will outgrow. Nope, we are in this for the long haul.

And somehow I've got to make this work. I'm the Mom...it's my job.

The doctor was amazing in that she said that she wants us to think of it as ADD for right now. She had some orders for us regarding ourselves rather than Cal...things like take a break from him, you've got to, spend more time with Emma, don't yell, cut yourself some slack. I don't know why but having a doctor tell me I am doing a good job, having ANYBODY tell me I am doing a good job meant more to me than anything else she could have said.

So for now we are dealing with an ADD child. I put it out of my mind when he doesn't understand I am asking a question, or understand what makes people feel sad. ADD, ADD, ADD, ADD...

And I know ADD is so common and so often people are like "oh they have ADD? Ritalin!" but ADD is so much more complex than people know. I'm learning that his mind doesn't work with abstract thoughts and he might not even understand that I love him. Heart breaking for a mother to hear.

In the coming weeks and months I ask that you keep us in your thoughts and prayers. I know this isn't a life-ending tragedy we are dealing with and for some it may seem pretty boring but to be honest, it has collectively made it very difficult to even find our way out of the other side of a day. Every day is a struggle. Every day is a battlefield. Every day is not my own.

You mother's know what it is like. There are days when you just want to crawl back in bed, clothes still on, and throw the blanket over your head. But you don't because their your kids and you love them so you just keep going. Keep trodding on. Keep fighting the good fight. Believing that all of this will culminate in well behaved adults who love you one day.

Thank you in advance for your prayers. I've listed some specific requests for each of us dealing with this. And please, PLEASE if your child has ADD and you have some advice for me, I am dying here to know. Thanks.

Prayer Requests

Nick: Nick has a hard time keeping his emotions and expectations for Cal in check. Not that he's beating him or anything but the two of them basically fight like cats and dogs, and at the end of it Nick comes out yelling at me saying "well he won't do (blah, blah, blah)" which is basically something Cal can't do. Needless to say its stressful on our household, our family, and our marriage. Please pray for patience for Nick and for God to put in place the words he needs to say as the head of our household.

Cal: Our little Calvin. Our precious baby boy. Please pray for clarity of mind. Please pray that he can TELL us what he needs, wants, thinks, feels. Please pray for his understanding and forgiveness when we mess up and are not doing what he needs. Please pray for God's healing...the healing that erases disorders clean away that we are told are life long and life altering.

Emma: Our little Kazoo. Our bright, sweet angel. Please pray for her to have strength and patience with her brother. Please pray for her to have some understanding of all of this. The poor dear is usually the brunt of the physical stuff, so Cal pummelling her has become just a part of her day. Please pray for this to end. I desire so greatly that they be the best of friends. And for the most part they are. I pray she doesn't remember the times it gets ugly. Please pray that she doesn't feel second to her brother as we spend time trying to help him figure things out. She is so independent that it is hard sometimes to remember that she's only 5! And still needs to much from us.

me (Lindsay!): I don't even know where to begin. I guess please pray that some weight of this burden will be lifted. I pray/plead/beg God for me to just be a cool fun-loving mom and every day I find that part of me just kind of slipping away and not happening or working anymore. Please pray for patience for me. Pray for somehow there be a little bit of me time. Pray for my sanity!!!

Please pray for our family. For understanding. For peace in our household. For our marriage. Pray for love. Pray for Grace.

The Notebook

2011-09-17T20:54:00.000-04:00

"So it's not gonna be easy. It's going to be really hard; we're gonna have to work at this everyday, but I want to do that because I want you. I want all of you, forever, everyday. You and me... everyday." ~Noah from the Notebook

Have you ever read or watched The Notebook? One of my best friends just now watched it and loved it. If you haven't watched this movie you need to. Now. Just stop reading and go watch it.

The movie does something to you. Some movies are like poetry and speak to your soul.

Anyway, the quote from the movie above has somewhat become the mantra of our marriage. It is just like us. Two passionate people who are totally different who insist on being together. We have to be. We work on this every day. Every. Single. Day.

Some times it is really hard. Sometimes I scream and pound his chest and just don't understand. Sometimes he's the one to be mule headed and stubborn. But we always make up. We always agree that we will never see eye to eye but we both are in awe of one another's opinions.

We've tried everything. Me being a submissive wife does nothing for Nick. He begs me to fight him because that's when we see into one another's souls. We walk away from fights knowing more about one another than we ever thought possible.

The only good thing about fighting (I hope!) is that the children KNOW that we love one another and that fighting is okay. Just because we fight doesn't mean we don't love one another. We have to be together. We are one another. It's just that simple.

Ready or Not, Fall...

2011-09-03T05:47:00.002-04:00

Here we come!

In our household we are very much ready for Autumn. Have been for quite some time. Our children just do not like the heat we have had this summer, and alas, are still having. I didn't imagine we would be rolling in football season and Labor Day with highs in the 90s with 90% humidity but here we are.

The children beg, BEG, to not have to go outside. I try to get them to play out some every day but when the weather is like this they just stand outside and cry until I let them go back in. What kind of mother am I?

My favorite season in the whole world is Autumn...apple picking, pies, comfort foods, sweaters coming out for the first time, pumpkin picking, my birthday, all of the beautiful jeweled colors, Thanksgiving, leaves changing, the crispness in the air...it's all just so magical.

Emma's favorite season is Winter but she adores autumn because its just one step closer to winter. She's cute like that.

I hope you have a great Labor Day weekend. We will be working on the attic, but most importantly, we will be getting out all of our Fall Decorations! :)

The Attic

2011-08-31T21:50:00.000-04:00

Well I am sitting here in the attic so I thought I would post on it. We've had the attic since we moved in...shocker I know. Here are some things you should know about the attic (and I'm going with bullet point style because I am too lazy to put this into coherent paragraphs!):

The attic comes up from the closet in the guest room. You open the closet door and there's the stair case.
I don't even know if you would call it an attic. It's not attic material like in "Christmas Vacation" or anything
Up until now the attic has consisted of two halfs...one half has gabled 12' celings and hardwood floors. The other part, well, I guess you could think of that as atticy. Because it had attic written all over it.
When we toured our house before buying it there were foreign soccer players renting the attic out as an apartment. Yep, it's true.
There are two dormer windows that are opposite from one another. One of them is kind of hid away behind the banister of the stairs (does that make ANY bit of sense?). That area is going to be a reading corner full of comfy pillows and blankets. Kind of excited about that.
If you've ever visited our attic you may think we are crazy because it was too hot or cold...rest assured that there is heat and ac in the attic...we just had it closed off because we never used it.

Anwyay, here is what you should know about what the attic is going to be like:

Nick has reworked some walls so that the "atticy" part of the attic has been cut down in size. Basically he bumped out the livable part so we have more room.
I am going to have a real live wall of wrapping paper and ribbon storage...super excited about that.
In my mind I have things mapped out into sections...there is the homeschooling area, then a craft/ebay area.
Nick is running new electricty up to the attic. The circuits/boxes (I have NO idea what I am talking about!!!) are full so he is running an entire new electrical system up here...a new circuit box and everything. He's doing that because he is putting another air conditioner and heat unit in for just the attic. It does get cool and warm but he wants to make sure we are really comfortable and since it is soooo far up it is hard for the air to travel that far.

As a side note I just have to tell you that even though it is behind schedule and even though I haven't seen the finished product I am just so very proud of Nicholas. He has done everything with this project. He has worked on it every day he's had off. If he didn't know how to do something, he researched it and talked to people who knew about it, and figured it out. I love him for that. I love him also because he's really taken the time to make sure I am getting what I want. He's putting an outlet on the floor below my craft table so I don't have to go all the way to the wall to plug in my hot glue gun. He's sinking it into the floor and then covering it with a fake piece of floor...it's just the little things that mean a lot to me. When I say, "I wonder if we could..." he takes the time to listen to me, doesnt' dismiss me and tries to get it to work. He installed can lights over where the sewing machine will go so if I need a ton of light I can turn those on...there are other lights too but he is putting those in for my weak bad eyes...and the switch will be right there so I don't even have to get up! He's just really gone the extra mile and we all really appreciate it.

Anyway, that is the story with the attic. Again, can't wait to show you the finished room!

A little of this, a little of that

2011-08-31T21:32:00.001-04:00

Days here of doing nothing are coming to an end. Tuesday we start homeschooling and a week from tomorrow Cal starts preschool. I am just in awe of how big they are getting. Size wise and maturity levels just blow me away. I can now stop the car, Emma will unbuckle and come over to Cal's side...I'll unbuckle him, he gets out, she gets out...easy peasy Lemmon Squeezy! No car seats, no diaper bags, just boosters and army men in my days. Sad but always nice. I'm enjoying whatever stage we are in and this one is fun.

Here are some random pictures from the everyday:

I let Emma play a computer game once a day. It helps her with her wicked computer skills and she likes it. Look how big she is getting! So long and lanky!

And here's our baby who is not a baby any longer. Everyone's been saying for a while what a big boy he has become but to me he still looked little. Not anymore. Now he looks like a big boy to me too. Sad but true.

Here we are. Mommy and Cal. This was on our way to preschool orientation. We had lots of fun together just he and I.

So that's our day. I helped Nick drywall the attic today and quite frankly I am pooped. But it is looking great...I am just such an impatient person and cannot wait for it to be done. I want paint colors and cute rugs, and well, organized! But it is getting there and I cannot wait. I've taken plenty of "before" picture and will be so excited when I can show you "before and after" photos! Have I talked about the attic much to you?

Summerfest

2011-08-30T05:21:00.000-04:00

Every year our neighborhood has a party called Summerfest. It is a lot of fun. The firetrucks come to let the kids tour them and then they hook their sprinklers up to the hydrant and let the children run through them. There are water balloon fights too, which the kids loved. We even vote on which house should be on our neighborhood's Christmas ornament this year.

As a sidenote, in case you didn't know we live in a historic district here in our little city. We are on the state, city, and national historic registrys. We are a proud neighborhood and we like to get together...we have Summerfest, a Halloween Party, a Christmas Caroling party, and an Easter Egg hunt.

The neighborhood originally was owned by two men and then they eventually sold off their land (kind of like subdivisions are today I think). Our house was built by the daughter and son-in-law, who was a prominent attorney in our area, of one of the original owners. Anyway, I wouldn't have known all of this except our neighborhood has a book of the history of houses and that's what is says about ours...kind of neat, right?

Here's Cal who apparently had never tasted water so good. He was just DYING to get more from the cooler.

Kazoo caught in a case of seriousness. How beautiful is she?

Here are the kiddos playing in the fire department's water...they had a great time except for, and I don't know if you can see it or not, but the street is brick and it got VERY slippery.

All in all we had a great time and got to socialize with some really great neighbors.

Sunrise

2011-08-28T21:15:00.001-04:00

While on vacation we took the kids out of bed at about 5 in the morning and headed to the beach. They didn't seem too thrilled. One of our favorite things to do as a couple is to go watch the sunset...we whoop and holler. We hold our breath in wonder of God's paintbrush at work in the sky. It's just fantastic. I have no idea when Nick and I started this but we have watched the sunrise in lots of places...this was the first time with the children though. When we arrived at the beach, this is what we were greeted with...

I simply adore this picture. I can remember this morning with this picture. I remember the sound of the waves and the seagulls crys, the feel of cold, damp sand in between my toes, the feel of salt water misting my face, the the transcendent glow of the sky ahead of us. Wow, God, wow...it's all I can think to say.

Anyway...

Cal and his sleepy smile in his jammies

Emma always has a big smile waiting, even sleepy with bed head wearing a nightgown

And the sky continues to pinken and grow more and more beautiful and suddenly...

Why hello Mr. Sun!

Gorgeous

I love it

And we're up and at 'em.

I adore the sunrise. It happens every single day and every day it is different. God is amazing. He loves us so much. He wants us to be happy, to experience joy and warmth, and peace. In our home we are teaching the children that creation is one of God's big ways that he shows us His love. After all he created ALL of this for us to explore and enjoy. Sunrises feel like a hug from God...warming, and a gentle reminder that God's in control of the day ahead...don't worry, I've got this one...

Thank you sweet Lord for sunrises and the children we can introduce them to...

It's Friday!

2011-08-26T05:23:00.000-04:00

Today is Friday. Do a little happy dance! Being a housewife every day is a weekend day or a week day for me, take your pic. Same amount of work to do. When we start homeschooling I have a feeling I will be begging for the weekend sometimes. But I am excited for this weekend because Nick is off and, well, I just love the socks off that guy.

Today Nick's mom is taking Cal for the day. Emma and I are having a girls day. Full of nail polish, scrapbooking and shopping. If the girl were really cool we would go and get sushi together but alas my own daughter thinks sushi is gross. Ugh.

The girl doesn't know it but I think I am also going to drag her to some garage sales too because, gosh darnit, I haven't been to one in FOREVER! And I know how much you miss those posts where I drag everything onto the piano for a good old picture.

Tonight then we are doing more shopping with going to the presale of the resale that I am in. Presale of the resale...say that three times fast. Whew! I will post what I get...I am hoping it will be incredible...people will cry because of the amazing deals I find.

Okay, don't cry. Here are some vacation photos for you to enjoy... I am thinking I will post them little by little because, one I hate posts with 8000 photos, and two, it makes me think I am still on vacation if I am looking at the photos!

Aren't they just adorable? This was after we ate at this little cafe I had eaten at the first time I was here. It was so fun to drive around and find it, and we were certainly glad that we did! They had the best sweet tea and friend green tomatoes. Can't beat that, right?

Then after lunch we headed down to the ocean. As you can see we were not prepared with our suits as we had JUST gotten there. But the kids wanted to see everything. So we took them on a mini little tour. Kids, Ocean. Ocean, Kids.

This is pretty much how we felt the entire time we were there... :)

And I tried to take a picture that said "Atlantic 2011" to mark this historic date upon when they saw the ocean. But as you can see they are both less than enthused, the sun was glaring into their poor little baby eyes and you can't even see what I wrote. Epic fail.

Why Hello There

2011-08-25T22:42:00.000-04:00

We are back, did you miss me? We went to South Carolina and had such an amazing time. We visited family, ate way too much, introduced the children to the ocean, visited some dear, dear friends, visited tons of plantations, and laughed more than we ever have before. Ah, the memories a family vacation gives us.

But now we are home and this week has proven that vacation is over. Back to the daily grind, the mounds of laundry, the meetings, the agendas, on and on.

We've been hitting things really hard.

Tuesday Nick had off and we pulled apart every room. Rugs up, furniture out. We scrubbed walls, vacuumed, mopped everything. It feels so nice having a clean slate here.

Nick is working like mad to get the attic done in time for homeschooling. I know it isn't going to be done in time...I am so surprised...NOT! But I am doing a really good this time to just let it roll off my back. It will get done, HOPEFULLY soon. In the meantime he's been doing so many hard things that I can't help but cut him some slack. He's built and framed new walls, ran new electric, installed a new electric box (or whatever...can you tell I have NO idea what I am talking about?), and on and on. I am so impressed that we haven't had to hire anyone. He initially decided to just hire the work out and then later decided he wanted to figure it out as he went.

I've been ebaying like crazy. One reason is because I have soooo much that needs to be sold. It would be nice to decrease my inventory before I have to set up a new office once the attic is done.

Children's resale. Another thing I've been going at full throttle. These children of mine have some type of magic closets or something because I have no idea where they get all of this clothing from...it must multiply or something! Needless to say we have oodles and oodles of clothes that need to go to someone else's home. So they are sitting nicely at the resale now and in two short days will be the resale where we hopefully will get rid of a lot.

So that's it! We're home, we're busy, and we are safe and sound. God is so good to us. In life I get so swamped and tired and just, well, in the thick of things that sometimes I don't see the big picture clearly. But when I do see the big picture, holy moly is it just incredible. God is so good to us and we are so vastly blessed.

It is Finished

2011-08-07T05:16:00.014-04:00

I wanted to make something personal for our niece's first birthday but let's face it, talented I am not. But I have been making Emma hair bows for a while now without anyone saying "ew, what's that in your hair?" so I thought I would give it a go.

Ta-da! Finished product! In case you are wondering I make 3 different type of hair accessories. First there's the rosette, or the flower clip you see right in the center. Then I can make corker thingys with all of the bouncy corkscrew ribbons. And finally I make bows.

I added lace around the little pail and put some green felt over the foam inside. Then I painted a bunch of popsicle sticks to be "stems". The ribbon wrapped around the bottom of the pail is actually a bow holder for her wall.

The "one" on the front I made by attaching rhinestones to paper and then that paper to a bigger sheet of cardstock. And voila! I would love to know your opinion on this. Is this cute or dead ugly? Maybe you'd like me to make one for you :)

The only thing I know about is that bow bouquet is gosh, darn hard to say 3 times fast! :)

So this is what I've been working on. It really wasn't that hard except I had so much on my plate this week that when figuring out what to make, my mind would just kind of melt like icecream into a pool of mush. When I was working on it I was thinking of something else and vice versa.

So there it is...she doesn't get it for a week so shhhh, don't tell her! I hope she doesn't read this...she seems pretty smart so she might...quick, act natural...

Anyway, give me your thoughts...is this the ugliest thing ever? Is it okay? I have a hard time Price is Righing my stuff, you know holding my hand out and saying "and look at these fabulous bows! Aren't they extravagent?" (kidding!) But Nick thinks they are cool. So let me know what you think too!!!!

Little Cookie Monsters :)

2011-08-06T05:06:00.000-04:00

God sure knew what he was doing when he gave me my little guys because they sure love to make cookies! When Nick and I had first gotten married we were young and in love, dreaming of one day having a family. I told him I wanted to be the kind of mom that made sugar cookies with the kids all throughout the year. We would decorate cookies and it would be oh-so much fun. Hence the enormous collection of cookie cutters :)

The kids had been BEGGING to decorate cookies. This was totally a place where I needed God to speak to my heart and he sure did. See, this has not been an easy week. Mama's had to get ready for vacation and has had a birthday gift to prepare and clean and pack and clean and pack and clean some more. Plus RIGHT when we get back from the vacation I am participating in a children's resale so all of my items need washed and ironed and taped and shined and buffed and tagged. Ugh.

So as you can see it would have been so easy for me to just say "no" because I don't have time. But God told me to just stop and take time out of my schedule for this. And it worked so well. Today is Nick's family reunion. So I decided we would take the cookies. I know not everyone eats decorated sugar cookies. Usually I bring two things. But this is the season of life that I am in. I will relish it rather than run from it.

Don't you just look endless possiblities with frosting?

Cookies!!! Nick said they looked funny because I cut in some whole wheat flower...shhh...I don't think you can tell under the frosting

Is there anyone in this world who can resist the power of sugar sprinkles??? They are magical.

They both were so serious. This is Kazoo's face you get when you say "don't crack a little smile..."

I said the same thing to Cal and this is what I got... so different those two

This is where Lucy is when the kids are at the table. Ever faithful. Hey! Who dropped sprinkles?

So there you have it, cookie decorating in the middle of the summer. It may seem weird to some but for us it is just life, and we love it. Love, love, love it. I also love it because we sit around and talk about Christmas cookie decorating which none of us can wait for. We talked about my Aunt Jan and cousin Liz coming. Hi Jan! Hi Liz! Emma's hoping they come and bring Auroralynn with them...she's counting on that :) I think she has big plans or something...

And a Quick Vent...

2011-08-02T15:49:00.000-04:00

I've been told recently that our marriage seems perfect.

Oh boy I am so sorry if I have been portraying everything in that manner.

The truth is...

sometimes I just want to kill this husband of mine.

I love him so much. Please don't get me wrong. In fact there are two things you should know:

1) I love him so much
2) I am so, so not perfect

My resons for fighting with Nick usually stem from two things:

1) Nick forgets things
2) Our differing parenting styles

Tonight I am going out with some girlfriends. So, So excited. I've had this set up for a couple of weeks. I reminded him last night. We were good to go.

This afternoon I get a call from Nick saying that he has a meeting tonight. The poor guy, I just wanted to kill him. After a few minutes to compose myself and a few phone calls to girlfriends later and I had the situation solved. So I called Nick and appologized for screaming at him.

I don't share a lot of spats with you because, quite frankly, its not the purpose of my blog. And my job as a wife is to be as uplifting as possible. I am to submit to my husband and honor him. Me bashing him all of the time doesn't really fulfill that purpose, now does it?

So there you go, we are definitely not perfect. We fight all of the time. Do you hear me??? All of the time!

But that's the way its been since the beginning. We fight, we make up, and we're done. We are both passionate, we fight hard and make up even harder :) We do try to shelter our kids from BIG fights, but our children know that Mommy and Daddy fight, we make up, and it will never change anything...we always love one another and our family. Bottom line.

So that's where we are, I assure you that we are so far from perfect. This afternoon was just one of many examples. I'm sure there will be lots more.

A Little Cabin in the Big Woods

2011-08-02T05:10:00.000-04:00

Last week the kids and I set out to do some hiking at a local park. I had only ever been once but seeing how the park is only 5 miles from our house, I thought we should start to take advantage of the free admission to it on weekdays (score!)

Before I get started here I just have to say that is always amazes me how much stuff there is around us to do that we never even knew about. It's just mind boggling to me...okay moving on.

The kids and I and Lucy, the adorable 65 pound black lab who is always hyper, bumbled along on paths and had a grand old time...

We hunted for bugs... I love the way God gave my daughter the love of bugs and gross stuff where Cal gets queazy :)

We peed in the woods...

And we just discovered all kinds of stuff...this picture is one of Cal discovering a patch of light shining through the tree canopy. He was just fascinated and while I watched him put his hand in the light and try to figure it out, it was as if time just stood still. We all were in the woods for who knows how long, just watching him be absolutely fascinated.

Later we found this little stream with an adorable little footbridge to walk over. So we did.

Lastly we came across a cabin. I was so intrigued by it that I looked up the park history when I got home. Evidently it was built in the 1830's and you can rent it out and stay there. How neat would that be? It has a huge porch swing that the kids and I swang on for a long time. It was a really fun time!

Nick has tomorrow off so we are going back to the park tomorrow to take him on the same hike. Between you and me I am a little curious as to what he will say about the hike...I LOVE hiking and he, well, not so much. Also I am curious to see which one he'll say...will it be a) "oh this isn't that bad?" or b) "how did you do this alone with the kids?"

We shall see my friends, we shall see...

Glasses Magoo?

2011-07-27T16:06:00.001-04:00

At Emma's 5-year check up the doctor reported that Emma may need glasses. Ugh. So Emma has a very exciting appointment with the eye doctor next week to find out if she needs glasses.

I am trying to act like glasses are the coolest things in the world, but between you and me, gee I hope that girl doesn't need them.

Do you like my rendition of Emma with glasses? I know you are super jealous of my mad drawing skills in the Paint program. Try not to hate me because I'm so good. I also seem like a stellar mother, drawing goofy glasses on my child, right? I should earn awards for these skills, I tell ya.

So please pray for Emma to not need glasses. It will save us money and headaches, and jeez oh pete I just don't want to deal with cleaning a 5-year olds glasses!

2011-07-26T15:56:00.000-04:00

"The profound impact that a solid marriage, familial love, and godly order has on the children in a Christian home is dramatic." ~Passionate Housewives Desperate for God

I am currently reading/have been reading this book forever and I just love the quote above. Nick and I mulled over it last night and have made it our parenting mantra. It is just so true. What we do and how we raise these children affects them for the rest of their lives.

Often I get so caught up in the day to day, so overwhelmed by the needs of the everyday that I forget the big picture.

The bottom line is that my ministry is these children. Our life, leading them to Christ, raising them to somehow manage without their mother, that is what I am doing here.

The quote has helped me to put it in perspective. My children need to have our marriage strong, and our home filled with order and our family's love.

Happy Tuesday!

2011-07-24T21:42:00.000-04:00

I try to get a cute picture of the kids during the summer. There's just something about summer pictures. They're tanned and happy and all smiles. Just look at these kiddos. Aren't they just the cutest? I could just eat them up. One reason I love this picture is because up until now I hadn't realized how much they look alike. But if you look at their smiles and their eyes, noses, and cheeks...they have the exact same features! I am so in love with them.

This weekend Nick had to work. As mentioned before he has a crazy weird schedule. He works something called a "swing schedule" which is kind of what nurses in hospitals are on. Anyway, he worked this weekend so he should get Monday and Tuesday off. But the man is working.

And let me tell you, these kiddos are missing their Daddy. Every day he comes home exhausted and they just want to climb on him and wrestle. He's such a trooper. But having Daddy home in the evenings just isn't the same as having him home all day. Friday though he will be home and I know we all can't wait.

One reason I can't wait for him to be home (besides the fact that we are crazy in love) is because I am planning on doing some serious garage saling.

If you are wondering why I haven't mentioned my finds lately, its because I haven't had any! Can you believe this insanity??? Needless to say I am itching to get out there and get some good deals!

As much as we missed Daddy this weekend, we had loads of fun doing nothing! Cal has started making sound effects...lazer shooting noises and the like. So cute!

Emma has taken to football so we've been out back playing catch with her. The girl has some mad football skills. Crazy! She is reading so well and is just advancing so well. Also have to tell you that she dances hilariously!!! I should try to get a video of her. The problem with my kids and videos are that once they see that camera, they just become complete goofballs and distracted from what they were doing.

Well that's all from here. Hope you had a great weekend! I have a sleeping Nicholas next to me. Time to drag him upstairs to bed.

Look What the Postman Brought!

2011-07-24T12:38:00.000-04:00

I am so happy that this little bundle of joy has arrived! This is the purse/tote Nick got me for Mother's Day. Isn't it beautiful? It's so me! I just love the color combination! Anyway, I guess I shouldn't say this is my Mother's Day gift as this is now the third one of these I've been through. Hopefully this one will last forever like a Coach bag is supposed to. That is why the man bought it for me anyway. The first one the little threads of the c's started pulling out...after a day! The second one the leather on the bottom started pulling apart, so hopefully third time's a charm and I don't have any problems with this puppy!

The ladies at the Coach store were super nice. This last time though was fairly upsetting. I called the store and was told that they no longer have that. Maybe I'd be able to find it at an outlet store by calling random stores and then visiting. I was upset. I mean, this is 2011! Isn't there some way to find it at another store without me hunting down outlet stores?

So Nick took their advice and called the store in Myrtle Beach. We're vacationing there soon. Maybe they could hold it for us??? Mail it to us??? Something? The manager ALL THE WAY down there heard our cry for help. She started calling stores around the country and found one in New Jersey that would send it out. We've been told this is just about the last one in the country for sale.

Needless to say I was so thankful for that manager in Myrtle Beach. I am planning on visiting her in person to thank her for her customer service.

So that's the highlight of my week. All is right with the world now that my purse has been replaced. Now if only I could find my camera battery...

But I'll save that story for another time! :)

Math Scavenger Hunt

2011-07-23T05:35:00.000-04:00

Well if you are like me you were ready for the weekend! Not quite sure why I was ready for the weekend as I don't work and this weekend Nick has to work. I guess it still feels exciting when its the weekend!

Emma's in the picture above doing math. She is getting so big! Cannot believe it! Anyway, to practice our math we made a math scavenger hunt. She took her little plate of manipulatives (frozen marshmallows) to each math problem she found to figure them out.

She got 100%. She is just doing so great. I've been searching the internet high and low for new ideas. I guess I just have to keep things interesting for her. She like the scavenger hunt and was super careful to keep those marshmallows on the plate so she could gobble them up when she was done...smart girl!

Hope you all are planning on a great weekend! As I mentioned Nick has to work this weekend (blah!) He has a weird schedule in case you hadn't noticed! :) I'm debating whether or not to take the kids hiking this weekend. It would be by myself so not too sure about that. Maybe during the week next week I will.

I hope ya'll are staying cool. It has been super, super hot here. Hot where they have weather advisorys telling you not to go out, hot. Ugh. Needless to say we all feel spent simply because of the heat and we are all pulling out our hair because its so hot. It's only supposed to be 95 today so hopefully that will offer some relief. I really cannot believe I just sait "It's only supposed to be 95 today..." Sheesh!

Well Happy Weekending! Do lots of relaxing and summer things like eating corn and watermelon! :)

The Birthday Boy!

2011-07-22T09:21:00.000-04:00

Okay this is a terrible picture to post as it's not of anything special except one thing...look how much hair Nick has! This was a picture of Nick on our honeymoon and today he celebrates his 33rd Birthday! I love him so much and I feel so honored to get to share my life with him. Happy Birthday Honey!!!!

Blueberry Picking

2011-07-19T11:18:00.000-04:00

Last week we went blueberry picking. It was hot. But then again it is the middle of July in the midwest, so I guess that is to be expected. We are so blessed to live about 15 minutes away from an organic blueberry farm.

Our kids LOVE blueberrys. That may even be an understatement. We save so much money picking the berries ourselves. To give you an example of how much we save, Meijer had blueberries on sale for $1.50 a pint this week. At the blueberry farm we got organic blueberrys for 1.75 for a pound! I get dizzy with the money saving excitement!!!

We picked 30 pounds of blueberries. Holy Cow that is a lot of fruit! We froze almost all of them. I am hoping to have enough left over to use throughout the year. And I'd love to have enough to make fresh blueberry muffins for Christmas morning...yummy!

Here's the gang on the tractor taking us out to the farm. This farm is so organized it is just unreal. They have acres and acres of plants. They drop you off at a row where a worker takes you and puts you at a bush. The bush hasn't been touched so you have an entire bush of berries to pick rather than try to aimlessly look for a bush with fruit still on it. Yeah!

Don't they look delish?

This is what Cal did the entire time! The worker gave him his own bush and when I was done with mine I picked from his. That little stinker had half of his bush's berry's gone and NOTHING was in his bucket. Nothing! That's a lot of blueberrys to eat!

Emma was hiding! She picked berries the entire time! She is so diligent in her work! She was keeping a berry track of what she would eat which was so cute. She'd yell out "I've eaten 5 now! I'm up to 5!" She cracks us up.

Can you tell we were kind of hot? Ugh, it was miserable. The good news is that I got a rockin' awesome farmer's tan! The blueberrys are behind the kiddos. So when we got home yours truly got to package them all for freezing. 14 bags later and I was done! Whew! It is so worth it since we love blueberries!!!!

Garage Sale Finds

2011-07-18T14:04:00.000-04:00

As I mentioned earlier I had the chance to go garage saling this weekend. I was so happy that I did! Here are some of the things that I got...

This wonderful fireplace screen for $5.00! I thought it was a steal. I realize some of you have never seen this chairs before either. I don't think I had them at Christmas time. Anywho, they are from Nick's Auntie up in Chicago. I love them! Our fireplace looked pretty ghetto-fabulous when we moved in so I think they jazz the place up a bit.

I got these three shirts for Cal at a garage sale. I think total I paid $1.75 for them. One even has the tags still on it! SCORE!!! Two of them are from the Gap and the other from Old Navy.

These are practically new GAP girls jeans. They had a bajillion pairs of them; Nick wanted me to buy them out of jeans to ebay them, but I hate doing that. I'm glad I stuck with my gut because these sell but not super well. We got each pair for $1.00

These are some other shirts to ebay. Two are gymboree and one is gap. I paid $1.50 total.

This is a sweater I bought myself for $1.50. I actually bought two more of these...the exact same sweater in aqua and black. I am no fashionista but I think this is called a shawl neck sweater. And I think I look super duper cute in them so I bought them. This was actually my first purchase for myself at a garage sale. I got some other things at the sales but have no idea where they are right now...weird, huh?
I got:
A brown eddie bauer vest for myself for $1.00
two recorders for homeschool music for $1.00 total
A few homeschool books for $.25 each
a super cute gap sweater with a hood for emma for $1.00 (I might have to hunt this down to show you...so cute!)

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I am always so thrilled when I find good things! How about you? What did you find?

We're getting there!

2011-07-18T07:53:00.001-04:00

See this cash register? This is the gift my Aunt Jan gave Emma for Christmas. Simply because she's an awesome Aunt is the only thing I can figure.

This register has helped me in more ways than I had ever hoped for.

See first of all, the kids LOVE this thing.

But also on the box I saw that it was made by this company called "Lakeshore Learning". So my interest was piqued. Hmmm...what's this place? So a few google requests later and I found out it was this awesome educational store and there was one in CHIGAGO!!! Actually there are 2!

If you have never been to one of these stores, you should go. Even if you don't homeschool. There are games and toys and books galore.

Anyway, we went there once when we decided to homeschool but didn't really get much. I had no clue what I was doing (still don't!) and just kind of wanted to see what they had to offer.

This weekend we went back to the store, flagged catalog in hand, ready to do some serious shopping. I spent $73.00 which I don't think is much in the grand scheme of things. I was in need of a lesson planner too because the one I had bought from the buck section at Target was already falling apart. And I had found a coupon on their website for a free planner! God is so good!!!!

I got trays to put Kazoo's work in, a magnetic wand thing for science projects, all kinds of curriculum, writing strips, a multiplication activity/game, THE PLANNER, paint sets, crayons, and lots, lots more. I am excited because we are almost there!

The attic however still isn't done, which consequently means that all of my homeschool stuff is stored in boxes. I now have three giant boxes filled with supplies and things just itching to be put somewhere super cute! Can't wait! But we will get there, I know it's just a matter of time and patience.

Our garage sale was pretty successful. We didn't make enough as we had hoped but we made some. And that's all that you can hope for, right? God is soooo good,folks.

I even had a chance to do a bit of garage saleing (saling???) myself. I'll try to take pictures of everything I bought during naptime today and post that.

Happy Monday ya'll. Hope you had a great weekend!

2011-07-16T05:38:00.000-04:00

Coupons.
I've become one of those people when it comes to coupons. I am in no way hoarding things or what not but I do have quite a few coupons and I know how to use them.
However, I do realize that quite a few people don't know how to coupon.
I know you know how to clip them, how to save them, how to never look at them again. It is hard work, this couponing. So here are some pointers for those of you wondering.
1) There are different types of coupons. Mainly there are STORE coupons and there are MANUFACTURER coupons. The type being determined by who is footing the bill regarding the money that you are saving. So either the manufacturer is going to foot the bill of the $1.00 you save, or the store. These two coupons can be used together at most stores. So say you have a $1.00 off coupon from the newspaper. Well if that item is on sale at, oh, say Target, you can look on Target's website for a Target coupon for that item. Wham, bam, thank you ma'am. That would be the perfect coupon equation...sale +manufacturer coupon +store coupon= darn good deal :)
2) If you are looking to get into couponing, google "coupon blog" there are a bajillion out there. Some of my favorites are Money Saving Mom and My Frugal Adventures. These lead you to the coupons to just print and take to the store. Just look around and surf a little. You are bound to find some that you really like and that can help you save some money. A lot of these sites also have tutorials on how to coupon.
3) Have a game plan before you go to the store! You have to!!! Especially if you have children. If you are the one standing over your coupon book in the store trying desperately to find "that one" coupon that you "just know has to be here somewhere" than I'm guessing you don't really like to coupon. Start at home first. I go through the sale ad and list everything on sale I need. From there I look for coupons in my book that I can match with the sales. If I don't have a coupon I look online. Then I look for coupons in the same ways for things that weren't on sale but I need. If say I need toilet paper, but can't find any in a sale flyer, then I will pull out all of my tp coupons and put them with my coupons to use. That way I know where they all are when I get to the paper aisle and can start comparing prices rather than trying to find a coupon among hundreds of others. I take my coupon book with me but only for one case: clearance. A lot of times Target will have things marked down that I can pair with a coupon I have. Other than that I try to have all of my coupons ready to go and with my list before I ever set foot in the store.
4) Don't let coupons lead you to sales. I have had coupons before that have almost gotten me. Let me explain. This week Target had a coupon on Keebler cookies (and maybe you want to go snatch this deal). Well they were 2.39/box. Target had a coupon for "buy 3 cookies, get 1 free" and being that that's 4 boxes I could have used 2 coupons of "1.00 off 2 boxes Keebler Cookies" Well that math for that makes the cookies 1.29/box! That's a pretty good deal, right? I almost put them in my cart too, except my voice of reason, aka Nick, pulled me in. Because after all, we don't need cookies. Let alone 4 boxes of cookies! So I put them back. Deals and coupons are only helpful when you are buying things you need and use, not something that you wouldn't normally buy had you not had the coupon. That is by the way, one of the reasons company's put coupons out there...to try to get you to buy something new. Don't fall for it! Unless you can get it for free! :)
So there are a few tips. Maybe sometime I'll share more with you. Feel free to share some too!

HomeSchool Resource: Homeschool Share

2011-07-15T21:51:00.001-04:00

Homeschool Share is a website that I stumbled across thanks to Money Saving Mom! There are lots of unit studies there to help you out. They had oodles and oodles of lapbooks. What is a lapbook you ask? Well a lapbook is a little book that you can make about something you are studying. The theory being that if the information is in something that the kids put together and then have to look at and study, that maybe the info will stick a little better. Nice, huh?
Again you don't have to be homeschooling to use a lot of these websites. I saw that they had a lot of information regarding Beatrix Potter's books. It would be fun to make your way through those books and do the fun little activities about them.

Book to Read: The Hand that First Held Mine

2011-07-15T05:42:00.000-04:00

The Hand that First Held Mine
This is a book that I am wanting to read but also not because I'm such a reader who can't put a book down.
Motherhood.
It consumes me and binds me, and yet has identified me in a way that is beautiful and freeing. Anyway, this is an excerpt from the book that I stumbled on. It's a dead on description of my life. And that of any mum's. All of you mother readers out there, please feel free to comment. This can't just be me feeling this...now I know at least this author feel's this way too!

We change shape, she continued, we buy low-heeled shoes, we cut off our long hair. We begin to carry in our bags half-eaten rusks, a small tractor, a shred of beloved fabric, a plastic doll. We lose muscle tone, sleep, reason, perspective. Our hearts begin to live outside our bodies. They breath, they eat, they crawl and-look!-they walk, they begin to speak to us. We learn that we sometimes walk an inch at a time, to stop and examine every stick, every stone, every squashed tin along the way. We get used to not going where we were going. We learn to darn, perhaps to cook, to patch the knees of dungarees. We get used to living with a love that suffuses us, suffocates us, blinds us, controls us. We live. We contemplate our bodies, our stretched skin, those threads of silver around our brows, our strangely enlarged feet. We learn to look less in the mirror. We put our dry-clean only clothes in the back of the wardrobe. Eventually, we throw them away. We school ourselves to stop saying 'shit' and 'damn' and learn to say 'my goodness' and 'heavens above'. We give up smoking, we colour our hair, we search the vistas of parks, swimming pools, libraries, cafes for others of our kind. We know each other by our pushchairs, our sleepless gazes, the beakers we carry. We learn how to cool a fever, ease a cough, the four indicators of meningitis, that one must sometimes push a swing for two hours. We buy biscuit cutters, washable paints, aprons, plastic bowls. We no longer tolerate delayed buses, fighting in the street, smoking in restaurants, sex after midnight, inconsistency, laziness, being cold. We contemplate younger women as they pass us in the street, with their cigarettes, their makeup, their tight-seemed dresses, their tiny handbags, their smooth, washed hair, and we turn away, we put down our heads, we keep on pushing the pram up the hill.

Maggie O'Farrell, The Hand That First Held Mine

Our Gorgeous Girl

2011-07-14T05:13:00.000-04:00

Well as you can see, our little girl, Emma Kazoo just keeps getting more and more beautiful. It's a curse really. I thought I would make this post all about her as she is just getting so big! Here's a little secret...Emma and I have a special club. Now, I am sworn to secrecy as to the name of this club or where meetings take place. But we study Proverbs 31 and try to carry out some of the traits God instructs us to have.
Emma's favorite trait is Eagerness. Ever since we've started it, whenever I need a little helper-bee, she is there. And she talks about it...a lot. "I just love my new life mom, I feel so much better". She's talking about having Jesus in her heart. Our precious little one asked Jesus to forgive her sins and have Jesus come and live in her heart. It makes me full of emotion to see her so on fire for God. She is just so tender and sweet.
Last night we were at Nick's parent's house getting ready for the garage sale. She had been coloring on paper with a marker, found a shoebox and had started coloring away on that. No big deal but I had asked her, "did you ask Grandma if you could color on that?" and she immediately started crying. No, sobbing! The poor dear felt so bad for having Messed it up (as she told me later). I felt so bad for her. :(
She just wants to make everyone happy, and that's a pretty tall order sometime.
Here are some other tid-bits about Kazoo:
The girl would eat cereal all day long if I let her.
She'd also play video games/computer games/watch television all day if we let her. She's our little techie girl.
She loves worksheets, and math problems, and writing. She begs me to put together math problems for her to do.
The girl is a whopping 36 pounds. She weighs only 3 pounds more than her brother.
She is tall and very thin...we are in a world of hurt come college time.
She is also hilarious. HILARIOUS. Have you ever seen Dispicable Me? Well the kids have and they also have listened to the soundtrack about a kajillion times. Just a note, the music in that movie is a lot of heavy beats/rap music...moving on. I was out garage saling one morning and Nick said she came downstairs and breaks into this rap, saying "Cause Gru got the speakers and the trunk to make you bounce, bounce, bounce, bounce bounce". Needless to say my husband had no idea what was going on and was just kind of like what???? Um, she dances to it too.
She's the neighborhood busy body. She likes to open up her window and yell at people. Not being mean, just saying hi, seeing how everyone's doing. She knows when people are coming and going.
She loves Mac and Cheese and Shrimp Stir fry.
So that's a little bit about our girl. Hope you have a great Thursday. No garage sales for me as I am HAVING ONE!!! I am praying that we have a good turnout and get rid of lots of stuff!

Power Outage

2011-07-11T21:11:00.000-04:00

Do you like what our family does at Target? Today we were having a pretty hum-drum morning. Nick had the day off so he was cleaning the gutters and all of the sudden the sky darkened, the wind was blowing at about 80 mph and the power went out. Blank. Thankfully Nick had basically threw the ladder down and came inside because it looked scary...praise the Lord he did.
Well we passed a couple of hours iin the hosue with no elecrtricity and no air conditioning before deciding to hit it and head to Target. Holy Moly we got some good deals. If you like coupons and haven't discovered Target coupons you need to look them up. Like now. You can use them with manufacturer coupons. I end up getting so many things for free by combining coupons it is just unbelievable.
So we kicked around there and three slurpie refills for the kids later we were ready to go home. Thankfully we had power and life was good again.
So that was our Monday, how was yours?

Cherish Those Little Ones :)

2011-07-10T07:38:00.000-04:00

I saw this on a website frequent, Baby Good Buys and thought I would share. It really irritates me when I see mom's just buying crap for their babies. Grrr. When I go into the Target baby section to get Cal's Pull-Ups, I'm irritated just by the fact that all of that junk is there in the first place. Wipe warmer? Nope, don't need it. 8 different bouncers? Nope, not needed. On and on. So if you are preggo's and getting ready to register, please think twice about everything. I know you need stuff (good lord the amount of junk that my kids have is mind-boggling!). But you don't have to have ALL of the stuff that the baby stores try to convince you that you need. And to those moms who already have a baby, please don't start the suburb-competition game. You know what I mean. The game of "so and so" has a better stroller, so now I'm going to get a better one. With every little thing. I've been down this road with some friends and trust me, it's just not a good road to start down. It will consume your life and as the quote above talks about, take away from time you could be cherishing your little one. And that is the most important thing, right?

Happy Sunday!

Lazy Day

2011-07-09T17:41:00.000-04:00

Today we didn't do much of anything. It was very nice. I woke up with Nick at 4 in the MORNING! He left for work then and I couldn't get back to sleep. So I was able to work on the garage sale stuff then and haven't touched the stuff since. I have over 500 items priced for this silly, silly sale. I have charities ear marked that various things are going to. Clothing is going towards a woman's charity, books are going to our library's organization that has book sales to raise money, on and on. Our garage sale is this coming Thursday and Friday if you are in the area and want to hang out.

For the rest of the day we did nothing. It was nice. I guess I shouldn't say "we did nothing" because we did some stuff, just not much. Our zoo has these mornings called "Member Mornings" on Saturday mornings where you can go in before the zoo opens to watch them feed the animals. So the kids were both up by 7 and we trekked over to the zoo. Only there were no animals. Bummer dude. Lions, Tigers, Crocodiles, Otters, Camels...all were down for count. They must be in pens somewhere. The kids were so sad. I was kind of irritated. But live and learn, right?

Then we went to Target. I went to get more labels (which cost me $1.94 btw) and ended up spending quite a bit more. Whoopsie-daisie. I did get some really good deals and I simply have to tell you about this one...

Starbucks Coffee, originally $8.99/bag was on sale for $8.49. If you bought 3 you got a $5.00 gift card back. Score. THEN I had 3 $1.50 off 1 bag of coffee coupons that I used so I got 3 bags of Starbucks Coffee for $20.97 or $15.97 after you factor in the value of the gift card! That made each bag only $5.33. I usually get Meijer's ultra cheap/on-the-verge-of-being-gross coffee for $5.99/bag so I was super, duper excited. It's the little things, I guess.

After we got back home I did nothing. Well I got the job of watering the grass. Which is dying by the way. It makes my heart tense with sadness to have to tell you that. Mr. Nick is not a happy camper after paying to sod our yard twice now. He's been talking to the sod company to figure out what to do. The good thing is that we at least have SOME grass. They said since we have some we should be able to put some shade seed down and it should work. Ugh. But anyway, probably only my Aunt Jan knows, but our yard is about the size of a post stamp and it is a straight up crazy weird shape so to move a sprinkler somewhere that isn't hitting our house is, well, let's just call it a challenge, shall we?

After that I made the awesome mistake of not even getting anything out for dinner so after our incredibly boring/unproductive day I am now sitting here writing this instead of making dinner. I made some homemade yogurt so I wouldn't feel so bad. It helped. A little.

Nick is on his way home and I made the mistake of calling him for dinner ideas. It went something like this:

me: hey babe. I didn't make dinner what do you want?

Nick: I don't know what do you want?

me: I don't know. See me calling you here to ask? (silly!)

Nick: Gyros. I'm picking up gyros.

yeah

The End

Lesson learned I should have said...

me: hey. didn't make dinner. I called an order in at Blank-blank restaurant. Can you pick it up?

But he did have to work on Saturday so if the man wants Gyro's he should get Gyro's. It's not that I don't like Gyro's. I do. Really I do. My intestinal tract however, seems to have a different opinion.

And on that note...Happy Saturday night! :)

It's Been a Bust

2011-07-08T21:46:00.000-04:00

I realized that I haven't written about my Garage Sale finds and, well, that's because I haven't had any.
Bummer Dude as my youngest sister would say.
We went out and haven't come up with anything.
Last weekend was the holiday weekend so I think most people weren't too into the garage sale scene.
This weekend there were a gajillion sales and I just couldn't find anything.
I was frustrated with myself this morning because I thought maybe I was just being too picky.
But as I mulled it over during the rest of the day I came to the conclusion that there was just nothing out there for me. Everything I saw wasn't nice. Things were broken or incomplete. Not for us, thank you.
So there you have it on my update as to the sale situation.
Tomorrow there is neighborhood sale with over 100 homes. I may go but Nick has to go into work so if I do go it will be me taking the kids. We shall see! Have a great evening!

2 Teaching Mommies

2011-07-08T21:39:00.000-04:00

I wanted to tell you about this website because I was so, so excited to find it! It's 2 Teaching Mommies! You should totally check it out! There are all kinds of amazing ideas for field trips, family fun nights (can't wait to have a baseball themed night at home!), devotions for little ones, and printable lessons. Such a great, great resource.

I know that not all of my readers are homeschoolers like I am soon to be. But so many of these sites can be used for so many things. Sunday School classes, playdates, time with the grandkids. They aren't "teachy-teachy" things but more fun things to do with kids. Such a wonderful thing!

Anyway, hope you enjoy this site as much as I am! I just printed off the devotional about shining like the sun with God's love and we will be starting that tomorrow morning!

Fair Time

2011-07-08T06:47:00.000-04:00

Wednesday we made it to the fair. We went in the middle of the day and it was very caliente, hot! Next year we are totally going at night. I think it's fun at night with the lights and all of the action, but it was definitely less crowded during the day which was a nice advantage. This was also the first year that the kids could actually ride some rides together. Last year Cal was too little and Emma was barely able to ride a couple of rides so while she rode those two rides she was tall enough we tried to console a grumpy two year old who didn't understand the concept of not being tall enough. Plus, last year Cal wasn't potty trained so we had the diaper bag, and the sippy cups, and the stroller, and on and on. Boy what a difference a year makes! It was nice to just go to the fair. Just to get out of the car and go. No gear, no bags, nothing.

The first thing the kids wanted to ride were these motorcycles. Notice how happy Emma is. She loves it. and then you have...

Mr. Serious. He was intent the entire time. I really think he legitimately thought he was driving this motorcycle. It was his job and he wasn't about to take it lightly. So cute.

Here's Cal with his 4-H project. See how nicely he stayed in the lines? NOT! He's so cute! This was his first year so he was excited to find his project. Not as excited as he was to try to tear down everyone's model building projects, but still excited. Don't worry...no models were harmed!

Here's Emma...she did a sewing project. Hard to see, sorry! It was a butterfly and when we turned it in the fair people thought there was no way she did it on her own. I'm not the doing my 5-year old's fair project, type of Mom, you know.

My little hear swelled a little when the kids passed up another ride in favor of the carousel. So many kids think they are boring but our kids LOVE them. They watched the mechanics the entire time! Emma picked a horse away from Cal and I was so worried she was going to fall off and die in some fiery crash. I kept asking "Are you okay?" And by the end she sounded like a teenager answering "ugh, YES, maummm. Leave me aloooone!" Okay, okay.

Here are Cal and I...he's such a happy little guy! I love his hat! We scored it at the GAP. If you like the GAP you should go. They had things on sale and then an additional 40% off. His hat was some crazy cheap price like 2.00. Holy Moly.

I love these three people so much it makes my brain hurt thinking about it.

Here is my favorite moment of the fair. Nick took them on this ride. I have never been on it. My mom would never, ever let me go and as a result I am now terrified of it. But Nick wanted the kids to experience it as it was always the thing he looked forward to do (isn't that just the cutest thing?) So he took both kids up. I was really expecting that Emma would get out there and chicken out. But she didn't...she loved it. She screamed the entire time coming down! I guess as a result of me not going I got this cute picture so it was worth it. :)

A fair's not a fair without some weird side show race thing, right? Here we have the "weiner dog" races...don't you just love their costumes?

And here are the pig races. Seriously my husband was more excited than anyone to see them and I have no idea why. They were pretty cute though. We had fun and then went home.
The End.

HoW's tHiS???

2011-07-05T14:04:00.002-04:00

Do you like this font? Is it okay to read? Sorry to put you all through the font-wringer lately. I am so not a "Times New Roman" font size 12. But it's also hard to find something that is readable on all ya'll's computers. PLUS I REALLY like the font of my title's of each blog (that's not going anywhere no matter how much anyone makes a fuss) so I want something that kind of goes with it. Ya know? Do font's really go together?
Well I'd better get going. It's my turn to do some shopping (grocery that is, yee-haw) and I need to get crackin' on my list.
Eggs and bacon till we meet again...

4th of July Fireworks

2011-07-05T11:27:00.002-04:00

This past weekend Nick ended up having 4 days off and we did nothing. NOTHING. It was heavenly. We worked around the house, we spoiled the kids rotten, and we made tons of little family memories. The only thing on our agenda was turning down invites to picnics and people's houses...we just wanted to be together and recoop after our seemingly crazy schedule. So we did a lot of this...

Ah! I'm sad this is probably our last year for footie-pjs. There's nothing like snuggling up with a kid sporting those soft pajamas. Here he is waiting for fireworks to start.

And here they are! All together now...oooh, ahhh. It was a fun night. I love living downtown for the fact that we drove 3 blocks to see them.

Here's Emma watching...

And Cal with Daddy (and blue easter bunny...cleaverly named, right?)

So that is what we did. I did do some garage saling but found practically NOTHING! So we went to Goodwill and had a grand old time. I found the ugliest dress EVER! And bought it :) hahaha!

Hope you all had a happy 4th and did everything you wanted to do :)

Parade!

2011-07-02T15:01:00.003-04:00

Well as I mentioned we went to a Parade on Wednesday. It's a family tradition of ours that we go down to Nick's mom and dad's and watch the parade go by their house. The kids love it. Here are some pictures of the big day...

Emma dancing...isn't she so cute? And yes folks, that is gen-u-wine shag carpeting...museums are starting to call...

Here's my boy shotgunning black olives as fast as he can get them on his little thumb. It's amazing to me how much he's looking like Nick and Emma's looking like me...weird, right?

Here we are getting ready for the parade. Believe it or not but this was the time when they were NOT getting along at all. We were having some "be by each other, but don't talk to each other, don't look at each other...just leave one another alone!!!" time

Seriously...this girl loves to pose. vogue, vogue, vogue

Their annual spot...CHEESE!

So sweet.

They both were wearing red shoes...I am thinking of blowing this pic up REALLY big and finding a place for it in our home. What do you think? I just love the simplicity of their little feet in cute little shoes out on the curb, waiting for the parade.

I try to get a picture of their profiles, side by side, every year. No idea why...it just makes my heart go pitter patter...

The parade is also the kick off to the town's fair so afterwards we walked down and got some carny good. I think the kids were a bit overwhelmed by their cotton candy.

Happy Fourth of July!

Hang in There

2011-07-01T06:56:00.002-04:00

I am going Garage Saling by myself this morning. Super excited about that. I have such an amazing husband that is cool with sleeping and not getting up to go with me at the crack of dawn around town. But I like doing it.
Anyway, me and my punk self TRIED fixing the font but I think I made it worse than it was before. SORRY!!! Just wanted to let you know I am working on it still and I think I am going to have to call in the big guns to fix it (Nick).
Happy Friday!!!

Garage Sale Flop

2011-06-30T12:23:00.002-04:00

Today the children and I went garage saling. There were three sales to go to so we weren't out long. Ugh, we didn't find anything. NOTHING! I was pretty bummed. But tomorrow I am going out by myself. I know I was going out Saturday but Nick is going to be off tomorrow and I am noticing that all of the sales I am interested in start tomorrow rather than Saturday. So might as well go, right? Makes sense to me!
Anyone have any big plans this weekend? We are looking forward to not much which sounds heavenly right about now!
And even though our Garage Sales were a bust today we have played in the sprinkler and had lots of fun! Happy Thursday!

Homeschool Fashion

2011-06-30T06:03:00.004-04:00

As many of you know we have decided to homeschool Emma this upcoming year. While many (make that Many, Many, Many) people have expressed their distinct distaste in this decision, there was one distaste that stuck with me.
When we were thinking about the idea of homeschooling I was still working. Well out of home. My boss gave me this horrified look and said "you're not going to dress like them are you?" Looking back on this it makes me laugh and I can most assuredly tell you, no. No I am not going to dress like them. Whoever "them" is referring to.
But you know who she's talking about...the people who wear wood soled clogs and corduroy skirts (in my Seinfeld voice I'll back that up with not that there's anything wrong with that).
A girlfriend down the street homeschools her four children (heaven help her) and she was talking to me about homeschool fashion. She was saying that her kids can wear whatever they want because they're homeschooled and sometimes their outfits are so odd that she's sure the neighborhoods abuzz with comments.
Maybe I will be eating these words in the coming years when the aliens have scooped my brains out and left only soft, worn denim in their place, but I will not be dressing my family in this fashion. So here before God and my country I make you this pledge:
*I Lindsay-not-telling-you-my-last-name will not wear clogs
*I will not wear a corduroy skirt unless they become back into fashion in a big, big way
*My children will not wear something that came out of the swiss alps collection
*They will stay well groomed
*They will be dressed in clothes, not pajamas or something that could pass as scrubs
*Until Emma gets that streak where she refuses to wear anything I like, our children will be fashionable (well as fashionable as an old prude like me can dress someone as). After Emma insists on dressing herself, there's no telling what we are in for.

Whew. I feel so glad to have that out in the open. I will be blogging more about homeschooling as we get closer to the school year starting, aka when my head will explode and roll around on the passenger side of the car.
Amen.

FINALLY...My Saturday Finds

2011-06-30T04:59:00.003-04:00

Good Lord, where has this week gone? I honestly cannot remember it. Wowwie. Well first of all let me give you a little recap of Saturday. Nick had to go into work so it was me with the kiddos alone to go garage saling. I was a little worried!
But it was fine. It was also nice that it wasn't somewhere that we had to go. If they acted out (meaning, Cal's pulling Emma's hair and Emma's punching Cal in the face on the ground...and yes, this HAS happened) we could just go home...it wasn't somewhere we had to be. This was all optional, folks. The kids figured out soon enough that some garage sales do not have things they want to play with and beg and beg and beg for. So they asked to stay in the car.
FINE WITH ME!
I brought some toys and their breakfast in the car so they watched mom garage sale from the comfort of their plush car seats with cup holders. Ah the life, right?
So anywho, here's our loot...it ain't much folks :)

Emma insisted on posing...this pic took years, gents, years...for some reason Vanna kept sticking her bum out inappropriately. What kind of blog does she think I'm running around here? Yeesh!
My peecture is a not a so goood, but it will work. In total I paid 8.25 for Monkeys in a Barrell (old school game), Bob the Builder slippers (never worn...kind of weird about worn shoes), 2 Gymboree dresses/outfits, magnetic "paper" dolls from Melissa and Doug, metal noise makers (I remember these from my Grandma's house when I was a little girl), a train station for Cal's train table, a yo-yo, a creepy clown Pez dispenser (that was in a free box!), flash cards, two paint with water books (those suckers are HARD to find in the store!), a couple of stuffed monkeys, and a small Superman and Cinderella. Not bad, right? Nothing that was "shockingly good" in the deal department but oh well.
It was also 50% off day at the Goodwill so we went there...to one. Here's what we got for $5.00...

That's a RL Polo (ebay), a Fisher Price stove (Ebay), A wire basket (any ideas for this folks? I saw something like this in The Farm Chick's Christmas Book with some red thing in it at Christmas...maybe I'll do that???), a few books (PTL the Children are bookies), and Toy Story bath toys...which aren't squirty so I could sanatize the crap out of them! muhahahahah!
Here in Hicksville, Today is garage saling day again today and I have no idea if I am going out again or not. We'll see how the kiddos wake up. And Saturday Nick doesn't work...did you hear me? Is this thing on? SATURDAY the man doesn't work. He's already said I could go on my own. I feel so grown up. I secretly am pretty sure he just doesn't want to get out of bed to go with me, which I understand :)
BTW, a Funny story...When we go by houses this is what Cal says (please repeat this for every house you have in your mind we drive by...) "That garage sales closed". At first I thought yep, no garage sale there. But then I realized that he calls Garage DOORS, Garage SALES. So their garage DOORS are closed. Silly kid. He makes me laugh. People probably think he's a real bargain hunter searching for those garage SALES. :)
Happy Thursday!

Parade

2011-06-29T08:19:00.001-04:00

Well Blogger is having some technical issues (what else is new?) so I can't upload the picture of the parade from last year...it's so cute :( Oh well. :) Tonight is the parade we go to every year. The kids are super duper excited! I'll post some pictures of it :) Happy Wednesday!

Thursday Garage Sale Finds

2011-06-24T20:43:00.004-04:00

Well here we are...everything we got at the sales...I was so excited when I got home and realized how little I spent for so much!

Here is a picture of EVERYTHING! Well Everything except a shield we got for Cal. He is so in the sword phase and the poor guy's been toting around a serving tray as a makeshift shield. So the kid needed a shield for 50 cents!

Do you like these gals? The kids love Pez so we've kind of started collecting them simply because we have so many of them. Cinderella and Princess Leia for 10 cents each!

Oodles and boodles of clothes! I got a gymboree shirt for a buck (to ebay), three pairs of jammies for Cal for 5o cents each, a gymnasts outfit for Emma for $3, and pair of jeans for Em for 50 cents.

An American Girl Molly book for 50 cents and these little Christmas bears that make music together and their little bells light up for 50 cents

Cal liked this superman for 50 cents. Nick said they had a Spierman and a Batman too but they were mean looking...is this really the happy looking one out of the bunch?

Other things we got included a Fisher Price Race track ($1), a little wooden racing track thingy ($1) , a metal filing box ($3)...old and vintage and cool, 3 puzzles for 50 cents each and an Incredibles guy for 10 cents.

Well I think that is about it. The only upsetting thing was that we found this gigantic tub of Barbies...it was HUGE and spilling over. It had 4 vintage cases, all kinds of clothing storage boxes, and little fold open houses for Barbies. There were tons of Barbies, clothes, shoes, accessories...everything you could ever want. Well they wanted $20.00. Saying it now it sounds CRAZY...but I thought it was kind of pricey so I called Nick over to look. He told me to pass it up.

Well we kept saling and then I kept thinking of the Barbies. Afterall Emma's starting to get into Barbies and anything she didn't want I could sell or donate or SOMETHING, right? I mean one Barbie outfit was $6.00 so for all of that I thought it was a steal! Well we went back and it was gone. G.O.N.E. Gone. I was crushed. I had really wanted those 1960's cases. But oh well. What's done is done, right? Nick assured me that I will stumble across more Barbies and I am sure he is right.

So that's it. I've got the kids cereal in to-go containers, smoothie ingredients in the blender glass in the refrigerator, and my to-go coffee cup is next to the coffee maker ready to go. Hopefully we have luck tomorrow and I'll have even more to show you!

Thursday Garage Sales

2011-06-23T22:55:00.006-04:00

I've gotta tell ya, I was totally naive when it came to garage saleing. I believe it was last summer when I was talking to my Aunt Jan about garage sales. She was telling me about after work sales. And we were talking about Wednesday being a popular day for sales. How weird, right? For some reason my pea-sized brain had only been able to comprehend Saturday as a garage sale day.

Well I remembered that conversation this year and started paying more and more attention to Thursday sales.

In our area they are actually really, really popular. And for those brave souls who have a 3 day sale (thursday, friday, and Saturday), their best stuff will still be there.

On a side note I can not imagine having a three day garage sale. If you've ever had a garage sale you know that by the first day you are utterly exhausted, wanting to fall to your knees screaming "why God, why?"

Then you have to do it another day. So I can't even imagine doing it for three days.

Anywho, this past Thursday Nick and I took Cal to go garage saleing. And why you ask?

Well I found this awesome blog, Yard Sale Mommy. You have to check it out. I want her life. Well I pretty much have it, but I want her and I to be BFF. We can talk about Kit dolls, and drink Mountain Dew...and garage sale of course silly.

I found her blog through a website I've been going to for a coon's age (like to add hillbilly lingo juuuust to make sure you're listening). That website is Money Saving Mom...which helps you save money as a mom...just in case you can't put two and two together on your own.

Anyway, Yard Sale Mommy (whose name is Jen btw) goes out Saturday mornings and hits up the sales for cute things to ebay and for her kids. Looking at her finds inspired me to get out there and get shopping!

So that is just what Nick and I did yesterday. We took $60.00 out of the bank and we didn't even break into it...just some spare wadded up monies I found at the bottom of the purse were used. And we found so much stuff! It's scattered ALL over the house now with clothes being in the laundry and the kiddos playing with things. I will get a picture together for you. And you will see the awesomeness that is upon us, muhahahahah!

Anyway, it's the little things that make me happy I guess! I am planning on going out tomorrow Garage Saling but here's the kicker...Nick has to work. So that means I will be schlepping the kiddo's around with me. Here are my ideas for how to handle this:

I invited my college age sisters. Or should I say Seesters? Anyway it's not looking good on that front as, you know, they have lives and all.

I've kicked around the idea of dragging around my grandma...exnay on the ringbay randmagay. Did I Pig Latin that right?

Third option is to throw them in the car in pj's, buy a box of glazed doughnuts and just leave them in the car...but then I have to deal with glazed dough goo everywhere and sugar induced coma children when I get home. Hmmm...

My final option here is to take them with me and hope and pray and beg and threaten and plead for them to be good. This will probably be what I will do.

We are also going to a sale at a neighboring college. I usually wait in line at insane times for the best selection but for some reason the kids don't like standing in a line for hours at a time in the dead of night. Weird, right? So we are going later...later is 9ish. I am totally expecting that nothing will be left but then again something might be there, right? Maybe?

I so wish that my husband didn't have to work weekends. It just kills me and makes me not feel nice. It sucks to speak not so lady-like. But then again, he only works every other weekend and he is here and he has a job and it is fine. See? I can talk myself out of complaining...I just need to start talking myself out of complaining before I'm complaining.

Anyway, happy Friday evening. I'll try to find the scattered pieces of garage sale finds and take a pic or two!

Okay Sideburns

2011-06-23T22:46:00.002-04:00

I have to tell you a story...
today Nick and I went garage saling with little Cal in tow. He was sitting behind me and kept putting his feet on the back of my seat (ugh, so annoying). Anywho, I asked him to stop and do you know what his reply to me was?
"okay sideburns"
Oh geesh. Nick says that all of the time to myself and the children so of course that is where he got it from.
Anyway you've probably been wondering where I've been. And if you find out, could you let me know, because I've kind of been wondering too.
Truth is I've been in major funk-ville lately. Just can't seem to shake it. Please pray for me. Whatever it is, it's got to stop now. NOW, you hear me? NOW!
So anyway, sorry I didn't fill you in before, it's just becoming so regular for me to have to say "sorry I wasn't writing gang..." but in reality I would love to write.
I am thinking that maybe if I force myself to come up with things to write about then I will be writing about things that I do. So I will actually do things other than housework and kid stuff and blah, blah.

Desires of your heart

2011-06-21T05:25:00.002-04:00

This morning during my devotion time I was reading in the book of Psalms. I'm horrible at remembering where a verse in the bible is that I like so when I stumbled upon this one I was so happy:

Psalms 37:4
"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart."

This is a fairly well played verse...if you're a Christian you've probably heard it before.

This verse has a particularly great meaning to me. I was working at a Christian Bookstore over Christmas break during my freshman year of college. I had been exposed to all that was out there at a party school and was really looking for a fresh start. More than anything I wanted to find a godly man who would be my husband. I was stocking shelves and all of a sudden I came to a bookmark lying askew on the ground with this verse on it. Well I bought the bookmark and it really became my mantra. I prayed it over and over and I really tried to delight myself in the Lord. How hard can that be, really? Christ died for me! That's not something that is really hard to celebrate, you know?

Anyway, about three weeks later I met Nick and the rest is history. I've always deep down thought that this verse kind of kicked off our relationship and has kept us going ever since. We delight in the Lord and what He was done. We are married with our home, I get to stay home, and we have two wonderful children.

Today delight yourself in the Lord...He WILL give you the desires of your heart!

Things I've Learned Tonight

2011-05-21T23:30:00.000-04:00

1. Target (a Target that doesn't have food) is a particularly lame place to buy eggs. Why did I think to go there to buy eggs?

2. Oh yeah to look around at everything else

3. Target is a lame place to hang out pre-prom.

4. Not cool

5. Prom attire is ug-o as of late. Yikes.

6. Or maybe people who shop at Target while in their prom dress with their prom dates need some fashion help.

7. Cinnamon rolls are horrid to make the night before. I want to eat them all. NOW.

8. It's 11:21 pm

9. Listening to Pink blaring on the radio when I am alone makes me feel not so alone in the whole "feeling lame" ordeal

10. Starbucks should make nothing that doesn't have mint in it.

11. Please excuse the double negative. I don't talk no good.

12. Good night.

2011-05-05T07:12:00.002-04:00

Grass.
Birthday Party.
Cat Birthday Party.
Arguing with Emma every 5 seconds for her to not tell her brother she will kill him if he doesn't get out of her room.
Getting Cal out of Em's room.
Pitching story ideas to my editor like a Cub's pitcher.
A bad Cub's pitcher.
Oh it's the Cub's for pete's sake...they're all bad pitchers.
Who are we kidding?
Arguing.
Watch out.
Wrapping clementine's in yarn.
Again...kitty cat party.
Shooting my son up with medicine because he's allergic to grass.
Putting new grass in.
Training the dog to pee in the ivy not the grass.
Eating leftover cinnamon rolls.
Cleaning everything.

Yeah, that's how this week has gone...how has yours been?

This Vile, Vile person

2011-04-28T22:20:00.004-04:00

I wish I could tell you that everything here is hunky dory all of the time. As it should be.

Duh.

I am a child of God for pete's sake.

Whoever Pete is.

Hey Pete.

But I am so often stressed it's just frustrating.

Nick thinks I should start smoking.

How nice.

There are things that I find I am stressed about that I didn't even realize I was thinking of because they have become so engrained into my mind. Here are a few of them:

Parenting...am I doing this right?

How bad was today? I'm a terrible mother!

What am I doing wrong with Cal?

Again: I'm a terrible mother (please repeat to self 57,000 times to get the point)

Bill...are there bills due today? I paid the bills that were due earlier right? Why on earth am I in charge of paying bills anyway?

Run frantically to computer to check...again (sigh)

Of course I did.
Kick myself because I doubted myself...again.
Wonder if Nick is happy with our marriage.

Sometimes I worry about things that are just silly. Why didn't I want to call my friend today? Should I call my friend today? Is God trying to tell me that I should call my friend today but I don't want to so that's why I feel guilty for not calling my friend today? Pray that I'm doing God's will. Still not want to call my friend. Pray again. Realize I just don't want to talk on the phone.
Then realize God doesn't play head games.
Duh.
Realize I over analyze everything...EVERYTHING.
Wonder if I am upset I over analyze everything when in fact God maybe designed me to over anyalyze things so am I in fact upset with the way God made me?
Please repeat "over analyzes EVERYTHING" about 1200 times more.

Where was I?
Oh yes, I feel bad about not praying enough.
About eating too much.
About sleeping too much, or too little. Of which I can usually never remember which I am guilty of that day.
Of reading too much.
Of cleaning too little.

You are probably starting to agree with Nick that I should start smoking.
Or Chewing.
Or Both.
At the same time.
Is that even possible?
Ewwww.
We don't smoke, we don't chew, we don't date boys that do. then stick out tongue for affect.
I taught that song/rhyme/poem to Emma the other day.
It was while I was trying to break into someone else's car.
I about ripped off the door handle before realizing that it wasn't our car.
I laughed.
Emma laughed.
then we ran.
To our car.
Then we laughed some more.
I guess as long as I have moments like that throughout the day then I can deal with my constant worry and weirdness and anxiety.
I often times think its my personality. Or a disease. Or I'm just weird.
Whatever it is, I would like it to stop.
Thank you.

The Three-Piece Suit

2011-04-28T20:44:00.003-04:00

There can't be anything sexier than a man in a three-piece suit. Right? That is unless you are talking about my husband when he has taken off the jacket from his three-piece suit and then...
ow-ow!

(whistle, whistle)
That's one fine package of man meat wrapped up there.
Sorry family...just had to say it.
I love this man. Glad he's mine.
He is fyyyyyine.
He makes my heart skip a beat.
With butterflies.
And goose pimples.
I think I need to go find that guy.
Bye.

conjumbilation

2011-04-28T02:09:00.000-04:00

My counter space in the kitchen is a relatively clean work environment. I don' keep mail on it. I don't use it for shining my shoes (gross). I like to keep every day household things off of it to allow room for the fun things in life...cooking, baking, cleaning.
No for shizel dizel, this mama likes those things.
Promise.
I ain't lyin' dawg.

Okay sorry for that. Snoop Dogg had taken over my body. I'm back. Weird.
Anywho...there is thie weird wooden counter that is in my kitchen though and that is where things seem to "end up"
See what I mean????
Scroll down carefully as this may be harmful to your health...

"eeeeekkkkK!" you scream!
See what I mean?
The weird thing is those socks you see?
I looked everywhere for them yesterday.
Apparently not everywhere. But I looked everywhere where it seemed that socks would be.
Yes those are mine.
Yes, irresponsible is my middle name, got it.
Yes those are clean.

You all have piles of kaaaa-wrap that isn't home there right?
Right?
Hello?
You know, you could just LIE to make me feel better.
But that is LYING...refer to 10 commandments.

Where were we? Oh yes, the random crud. And speaking of crud on your counter tops, have you seen my countertop? Does anyone with a history major or wild passion for interior decorating know why one would have a wood countertop? It is not fancy butcher wood that would actually be useful, oh no.
Plain old wood.

So yes, just wanted to show you this clutter and let you know that this is my life. Fortunately I have the counter clutter mostly confined to this small area.
Which houses canisters.
Which reminds me of a super cute story.
Cal, Em and I were making cookies the other day and Cal pushed all of the canisters together.
"Buddy What are you doing?"
"Look Mommy, Daddy vun, and Mommy vun, and Sister vun, and braaaader vun"
"Cute bud"
"It's us Mommy!" clapping! "It's our family"
Makes me tear up. That's us, just a family of canisters.

The REAL way to Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-27T01:34:00.001-04:00

If you thought getting your basket out and skipping gaily through the yard was the way to hunt for Easter eggs, boy were you wrong.
This year Nick thought it would be fun to take the kids' JEEP to Gram's house to hunt easter eggs. They had a blast.
Well, sort of.

This is how it went most of the time. Cal drove, Em hopped out and got eggs. Gee go figure. Guy sits around relaxing while girl gets up and does all of the work.
Haven't heard that story before.
I wonder where they concocted that dynamic from.

Here is Cal zooming along. Doesn't he look devious? He is out to hit someone. Which he usually did. Only as much as you would think it was on purpose based on that face, it's not.
Nope. And how do I know you ask?
Because homeboy can't drive to save his life.
If you think JEEP driving is bad you should see the kid on a tricycle.
Watch out folks the kids driving a lot of metal around!
Where was I?
Oh yeah, look at how cute the eggs are in the back! I love it!

Here's what happened for most of the time...

Emma hopped out and was all cute finding eggs! Can I please just keep these kids little forever??? Who told her she could go getting all grown up and stuff? Uh, so not cool. Anyway, Emma get's out and is adorable and...

Cal drives away. Because that's how he rolls apparently.

Yes.

Pun totally intended.

Judge not lest you be judge.

Pun judger you.

And as adorable as Cal is too, kind of irks ya to watch him make Emma chase after him.

The little weasel.

I guess to make it even Nick and I will just have to eat some of their candy.

Seems only fair to me.

Easter Egg Hunt

2011-04-26T07:26:00.000-04:00

This past week Emma had an Easter Egg hunt at school. Would you like to guess who was in charge of it? That's right, yours truly!
I straight up am not good at things like this. But parent's (thank God!) donated candy and Nick and I stuffed 250 easter eggs. I made whoopie pies with the typical-like cream cheese filling and m&m cookies.
Then my new best gal pal Natalie and I hid them. So much fun! Dishing and hiding eggs at the same time is a blast!
Emma always looks so little to me when she is with other kids. That's normal, right?

Emma with her boyfriend/best friend Eli. How cute is he? How cute are they together? Coincidently my new friend is Eli's Mommy...we are all very, very happy in the friend department these days!

Emma pulling up her pants because...

I see biscuits! I saved you from the crack shot! Her poor dilemma of a non-existant buttser means her britches are always falling down and her biscuits are hanging out.

You also all really love that I put her in tennis shoes, don't you? She and I call them "sneaks"...cause we're sooooo cool like that .

Opposite Day

2011-04-25T08:06:00.002-04:00

Good Friday we decorated Easter Eggs because I'm such a good mother and made sure we didn't decorate eggs at the very last minute and had ample time to enjoy them before easter.
Oh yeah, you didn't hear?
It's opposite day. :/

Also because I am an amazing mother my son doesn't have 8,000 bandages on his chin. See, I'm a fantastic mother who was watching my son while he was not screaming about taking a nap and so then he didn't have the chance to flail himself around his room. Since he was in my
excellent care he didn't crack his chin open.
See?
Opposite day.

Okay. I didn't take this picture. Nick was in charge of the children at this point because I was making dinner. See what I mean about last minute? So I was looking through the photos and came across these and it made me smile so much. I'm just imagining him handing the kids these glasses. He probably told them they were egg-stra special dying glasses.

Of course Egg decorating is an event that calls for antlers, right? I mean the reindeer will deliver all of these to special boys and girls.

Oh wait, wrong holiday.

Whenever I say holiday I hear Dick Van Dyke, aka, Burt (Bert?) singing "ow, it's a golly hawlidae..."
That's normal right?

Love :)

Super proud of myself that I bought two sets of dye an special egg cups...last year they had a death fight to the finish over the colors...this year there will be no sharing.

I am a great mother. Here kids, don't learn how to share, I'll just buy you each your own so we don't have to teach life lessons.

Like I said, opposite day.

Stink List

2011-04-25T04:22:00.005-04:00

1. Coffee...why is my coffee soooooo much better on Monday mornings than any other time? Hmmmm???? Little elf people maybe. maybe. I'm serious dude, the coffee rocks my socks.

Coffee is one of those words I have to keep typing because it looks weird to me spelled right.
And wrong.
So then I have to figure out which is right. And which is wrong.
You know what I mean right?
No?
You stink.

2. I smell of garlic. Not some oh gosh you remind me of my plumpy grandma making baked ziti smell. Nope. Rather a oh my gosh, what were you rolling around in, some type of garlic aoli all night long?
We ate at Bonefish last night for dinner.
We hardly ever eat at bonefish so really I am kind of a fish out of water ordering there.
Pun intended.
Laughing ensues...
thank you, thank you.
Wheer was eye? oh yeah...so I ordered some devil dish and the next thing you know I am warding off vampires or something.
ugh, I stink.

3. Our house is trashed. I mean, college boys came over from animal house, trashed my house and then moved on to the next one, trashed.
I'm unclear as to how this keeps happening.
Except for the fact that my kids think I am some type of maid.
What was the maid's name on the Jetson's?
Rosie?
Reebok?
Reebox?
Roseanne?
Hmm...it was something with an R.
This stinks.

4. The kids do in fact think that I am a maid. Now that I theeenk of eeeet. Shoot, gotta stop that somehow. Wasn't that a brilliant deduction? I'm certain they think of me as a maid because this is how mornings work:
Wake up, shuffle, shuffle, yawn, shuffle, shuffle
Emma comes down stairs
Calvin comes to the stairs..."momma! get me!"
Momma says "no buddy, just come downstairs"
Repeat last two lines in your head 47,000 times
Cal comes down stairs.
Sits on couch.
Yells (no matter how close I am btw): "Snack and drink!"
Repeat last line 52,000 times.
So maybe they don't think I'm a maid as much as Cal thinks I am a maid.
Which I am not.
I must disengage this behaviour.
I put u's in words sometimes to seem cool. Behaviour. Saviour. Colour. See? You think I am smart-like.
Anyway, what was I saying?
Oh the maid thing...
Yeah, being a maid stinks.

5. I have to workout this morning.
Hate working out this morning.
Or afternoon.
Or evening.
Or any other morning/afternoon/evening combo you can swip-swap at me.
This stinks.

6. I am thinking of not sending Emma to school today. I told Nick about that yesterday. Me being the world's weirdest mother doesn't just decide to skip school. Nope, gotta plan. That's me. I'm a planner.
Anywho, I told Nick I was thinking about not taking Emma to school and he asked "why not?"
And I said "because I don't feel like it."
And he said "uh huh"
These are very deep convos we have.
Don't you ever want to just stay holed up in the world and feel like you are missing things just to be together?
We just keep runnin' and runnin' and runnin'.
And that stinks

7. Dog puke. Yep, I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the dog puking. Nice, huh? Cinderella awoke to singing birds. I awake to the sound of Snots working up a bone. Thanks a lot. Being the ardent house cleaner that I am (see #3) I put the pillow over my head and went back to sleep. When Nick woke up I think I managed to mutter "watch where you step. The dog puked!"
Nick didn't find it but I did. On the rug. With no socks on.
Gross.
That stunk.

8. The cat peed in my dressing room! How disgusting is that? It was last week and So the kitty has been living in the bathroom. She goes in this week to the doc to see why she did what she did. Apparently kitty's don't pee for no reason...excuse that double negative. I'm not quite believing that. I think she's secretly out to destroy me. To me it doesn't stink. I think I got it cleaned up in time. And cleaned up and cleaned up and cleaned up. But for God's sake if you come to my house and my house stinks, you have to tell me. Got it? I don't want to be THOSE people.
I think I'm going to go clean it again.
Just to make sure it doesn't stink.

2011-04-15T07:19:00.001-04:00

He sat in the middle of the store. On a little kid bench. Legs sprawled, he hunched over to play paper dolls with Emma. I stood in line to buy jeans and felt a huge lump in my throat.

I am not going to cry while standing in line at this store.

A giant of a man to me. So tall. So brave. So handsome.

Suddenly in a clump, practically on the floor, willing to do anything with his daughter.

I'm sure so often this guy feels like he's carrying the weight of the world on his shoulders: bills, a huge work schedule, a naggy wife, tons to do around the house. How often through the day does he secretly feel like a clump? So close to the ground when he should be standing tall?

It's my job as a wife to make him feel like the tall giant of a man he is. He's huge in my eyes. He's the tallest, bravest, smartest, kindest man in the whole wide world.

I hope I always make him feel tall and never make him feel like a clump.

yeeeaaaah....

2011-04-11T14:49:00.004-04:00

So as you can see I've been out of the picture for a while. Just busy...no reason. kind of burnt out. Sometimes I wake up motivated and sometimes more often than not I wake up not wanting to do anything.

Did I mention that last week was Spring Break? We had so much fun. Can't wait to be homeschooling!

Did I mention that we have decided to homeschool the Kazoo? We are so flipping excited about it. Emma is too! I can't wait to see how this turns out. And no worries...if I completely am horrish at teaching then to school she will go next year. But I don't think that will happen.

I've already got the kid in first grade curriculum...in every subject.

Who needs Kindergarten anyway? Ha!

Anyway, I promise sometime soon I will start writing again. And when I do, watch out.

I've been in thinking mode (which is always bad, I know!) about how to do this. Sometimes I want to do it and sometimes I don't. Thinking that maybe it's time I vamp this up a bit and try to actually have a professional blog? Dare I say it??? We'll see.

With that one needs to have a niche and let me tell you, niche I have none of. It has to be something you do. Well here's what I do:

Hang out with my grandma
Crafts
Homeschool
Shop
Coupon
make out with my husband
Cook
Walk around our yard pretending to be gardening

Yeah that's about it so unless you want me to show you how to make out with your husband (gross) I'm plum out of ideas.

Well, till next time Matilda...

Bowling

2011-03-20T17:07:00.002-04:00

Here are Emma and Cal with their bowling balls...they were so proud. Didn't realize till we got there that I had him in a "that's how I roll" shirt...teehee :)

This past week we also took the kids bowling...it was a seemingly busy week! Whew! The kids had a lot of fun. We did too! Poor Nick basically had to throw Cal and his ball down the lane each time. It was a great time too as Nick and I had our first ever date going bowling! We went with two friends and I always tease him that he flirted more with my friend than with me! He swears it isn't true but it really was!!! Oh well...we all know how that story ends!

Here's my hottie of a bowler! Nick's a really good bowler so he really enjoyed this!

Here are Emma and Cal waiting their turns...Cal had a REALLY hard time waiting...he was great though! I love their little bowling shoes, too cute!

Here is Emma bowling...she did great and they put up bumpers for the kids which was fun

*Sorry if the format of this blog is all janked up...no idea what this thing is doing :/

Icey Fishing

2011-03-19T07:36:00.002-04:00

Emma caught a fish...I can't find it in this picture but it was the only one I have of her smiling :)

This is what Cal did most of the time...he was bound and determined to get this boat in the water, poor guy :(

Here's Cal and his fish! He was the first one to catch one

He actually kissed the fish! Ewwww!

This past weekend we went up to Nick's Grandmother's for Sunday dinner. She lives on a lake so the kids went fishing. Most of the water is still frozen but they had broken the ice away from the pier so the kids could go.

They had a great time even though it was very, very cold! Poor children...it is hard to fish with mittens on :(

All in all though we had a great time fishing and a nice visit with family.

Shove it in!

2011-03-15T14:43:00.002-04:00

Nick and I thought breakfast was done but apparently we were wrong. Saturday morning I made monkey bread for our little monkey's. They LOVED it as they always do. We all got done from breakfast and before I could clear off the table this is what I found! I saw them from behind, grabbed my camera and tried to be discreet...

I think Emma has spotted me in this one...

It was so nice of Cal to at least shove some in Em's mouth before he went to town on it. I love how the platter of monkey bread is pulled up to them. "Plates? We don't need Plates!". Emma's face also makes me laugh too. She looks like she's thinking oh shoot are we ever in trouble...

I just couldn't stop laughing when I saw them together. How fun. I'm glad they liked the breakfast!

Children's Museum

2011-03-13T20:57:00.002-04:00

Emma's "planting" a sunflower...the poor girl was only 1/2 the size of the plant!

This is how pictures look when I want them to smile "at me"...they kind of look up smile at something and then go playing...they don't have time for pictures when they are too busy playing!

Calvin had lots of fun "planting" these into the ground :)

Here's the Kazoo and I!

Emma did a lot of sliding on her belly down from the treehouse...

While Cal did a lot of puzzles...

So silly...and so willing to pose!

Nice pose here! "Eye" see you!

Last week there was a free day at the Children's Museum near us and so we went! I have to say that I am just so thankful that I have a husband who allows me to stay home so I can make memories like these with our children. We just had a blast! The kids were so well behaved, it just made me so proud! My proudest moment though was when Cal was getting ready to go down the slide, backed out of the line, came to me and said "I have to go potty!" I think we are close to being fully potty trained folks!!! So excited about that! But seriously I love these little ones and we are having so much fun together these days :)