Garage Sale Flop

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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....

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

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

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!

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

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 :)

The everyday

In Chicago we went to a restaurant with an airplane theme-in the lobby they had airplane seats that the kids, especially Emma adored!!! When we were leaving Emma stopped a hostess and was asking her all kinds of questions about the seats :) Love these little guys

So sorry I haven't been on here lately. The children keep getting sick and then better and then sick again. My poor babies. It cannot feel good to not be able to take any medicine when you are sick. Cal was sick with the stomach flu for an entire week and I think I can say with ease that I have never done so much laundry as I did last week...whew! Thank God for a dependable washer and dryer...since we are on the cusp of being in a big boy bed I haven't bought any new crib sheets and the ones we have had have either gotten thrown away from being shot or are on their last leg...so I did a lot of linens laundry as I don't have as many crib sheets as I used to.





Emma has been on again, off again sick. My poor dear. One day she's complaining of a headache with a fever and the next day she's sick to her stomach. She's gone a couple of days feeling okay and last night I came home to Nick telling me that she has a cold. The poor little angel.







We have been having a lot of fun though. Cal is just talking up a storm. Wowwie it is just amazing. He loves singing Jack Johnson songs in the back seat which is just too, too cute and melts me every time.







Some cute things he's been saying/doing:



* He's been setting up his disney characters. He will open up the bin, dump them all out and then flip the bin over so he has a flat platform to put them on. He is so good about setting them up carefully without knocking the rest of them over.


*My mom got them troll dolls...I've always been a little weirded out by these things but in Toy Story 3 they were in a train as "orphans" so ours are called orphans...Cal carry's his everywhere and when it is time for a meal he gets them a fake plate of food from their play kitchen and sets them down to eat on the floor...so precious!


*Cal likes to jump up and down and then scream "I'm a rockstar!"


* We unfortunately are parent's who bribe. What can I say, it usually works. We've been working on potty training which has been a huge fail. We're starting to get it...I think...I hope! We've talked to him that we are going to Disney World next year but we are not taking kids who aren't potty trained. So everytime he successfully goes potty he stands up and screams "I'm going to Disney World!!!!"...you'd think we won the Super Bowl or something...my friend Denise laughed at that comment and said, "get it? Super Bowl? BOWL????" She's just too cute for words, that one.


*We are loving firefighters...we pretend to be a firefighter all of the time. Last month the kids went to the firehouse and Cal took his little firefighter guy. One Firefighter really took a liking to Cal...he took him into the truck and got down to play with Cal's little guy with him. It was really special and you could just tell in Cal's eyes that he thought that was the neatest thing ever. It was so special and I was so grateful to Firefighter Aaron :)
*We are going to Speech Therapy one day a week. He attends the school in the park near our home. He loves it. I think he just likes going to school like Emma. One day we were on our way home from somewhere and he thought we were supposed to be going to his school and we passed it. He started screaming in the back seat "go back! go back! My school!" Even when I got him home and in the house he was still screaming "go back in car and go to school!" Poor guy just could not figure out why we weren't going to his school. His teacher's name is Mrs. Lara and she always greets him with a "hello handsome" and then he takes her hand...he's definitely a ladies man!






Here's what's been going on with Emma:



*Emma has a boyfriend named Eli. They are so stinking cute together! I love his mom too and am having so much fun getting to know her. God gave us each a friend, I guess. Sometimes at night when she is getting ready for bed she seems kind of mopy. Nick asked her the other night what was wrong and she said "oh nothing, just wondering what Eli's doing right now." How cute is that? She's even called him on the phone which was adorable...she looked like a tiny little teenager which just about broke my heart. Even Nick got tears in his eyes when I was telling him about it all. "I thought we had more time" he said.


*Emma's in ballet now and is so good and is having so much fun! Her teacher thinks she is a joy to have in class!


*We are having a kitty cat party for her 5th birthday so her and I have been shopping and coming up with ideas for the party. This is the first party that she is inviting friends to and she is super excited!


*Emma is reading!!! She's starting to and is at about a 1st grade level from what I can gather


*Emma tested into the Academy that we applied for. We are super proud of her. We are still praying though about what we should do and which direction we should go. We kind of feel like God wants us to homeschool so we are just waiting to see what we are going to do. No matter what though I am sure she will have a great time!


*Emma has such a big vocabulary! Sometimes its kind of funny when she talks because she will use really big words completely out of context! It makes me laugh every time and sometimes its a challenge to figure out what she means!


*We bought Emma a bedside table and you would think that we have given her the world! She has a picture of her cousin Praetorian on it, her bedside lamp, tissues, and chapstick. She just keeps talking about how neat it is to have a table next to her bed..."how convenient" she says :)

What I've Been Working On

This week has been busy! Crazy busy but super fun too! Monday Emma had her Valentine's Party at school which I was in charge of. We had a lot of fun! Thursday we had Cal's meeting at the public school for his therapy evaluation. I am super pleased to say that they tested his intelligence, fine motor skills, gross motor, and on and on with the speech tests. He tested either on the high end of normal or way over normal into advanced on everything except articulation. So he will be going to speech therapy once a week at the school. We were happy to hear that they even have it pinpointed what sounds he needs to be working on and which ones he's gotten really good at. :)

Here are some other things/projects I've started this week:

I am writing a story on a school having a "turn off your tv week"...it's due tomorrow. I guess I should get started :/

We are ripping apart our attic. Even if we don't use it as a homeschool workspace we will need it for the kids to play up there. I am so excited to see how it turns out. Nick is taking down a wall to add space to the non-storage part of the attic. Yippee!

Ripping apart the attic means that we are getting rid of things, organizing what we have and getting it all in tip top shape. So the clothes and toys are going to a resale. I am THRILLED to be a part of a Christian Woman's resale...it goes along with the Proverbs 31 principles of making money out of your home by being resourceful and to help others in their community. (And off the record any baby stuff is or has been passed down to family)...you have no idea how many big guy clothes I have...it is unbelievable! It is also neat that the sale is at the church I grew up at, First Church, so it is super cool to get to see how it's changed...it still smells the same if anyone knows what I mean. It's just a nice walk down memory lane :)

We also have gobs of stuff that Nick's cousin gave us...some of it they wanted back so we are getting all of that together to return. We are going to Chicago to visit them next weekend and we are all super excited!!!! We are going to IKEA and a few other stores that we just love!!! Yippeee!!!! So we will have that stuff out of our house too which will feel nice. I have been so concerned with keeping it nice...we just keep shuffling it back and forth from one placce to the other to make sure that it is out of the way.

Organizing. I am sure that it is the whole spring cleaning bug but lately I have been in the mood to organize! It all seems to go together in this house which is just wonderful. The children have tried all of their summer clothing on to see what still fits (that is in fact how little our children grow)...the too small are going into the sale and the still fits are now freshly organized and ready to be worn...if only the weather would cooperate!

Easter outfits. I know I am a dork but I like us all to have a general theme for holidays. I'm thinking seersucker this year so watch out everyone!!!! My Aunt Jan passed down a wicked good deal for photos so I need to get the outfits picked out so we can have those done...thanks again!!!

Emma's Birthday Party. I can't believe that it really is only about 2 and a half months away. This is her first birthday party with friends coming so she is super excited. She also wants to make the cake with me instead of Auntie Bean so we'll see how this goes folks!!! Yikes, the four year old is putting the squeeze on me!

Our yard. Have you seen this thing??? We've finally surrendered and admitted that we need some professional help! We've spoken with a few landscape companies about coming in after the snow's gone for a consultation...soil samples, on and on. I am just wanting to get it done so we at least have a tiny yard our kids can at least play in without getting all muddy.

So that's what I've got going on right now. How about you???

Happy Lord's Day everyone!!!

*Disclaimer: this is a super sappy story. I had doubts about sharing it because it is so private and is now a sacred moment to me.*


On our way home from vacation we passed through Indianapolis. Nick lived there when he was single and then we lived there when we were married so it's a virtual treasure trove of memories. Our antique mall. Our old church. His old neighborhood.

We passed a golf course and Nick told me he used to go hit balls there.

"alone?" I asked stunned. It's weird to think of someone you are with and who goes golfing now with multitudes of men doing something alone.

"Well yeah, I used to do everything alone." he told me.

"That's so sad" I told him. "I don't like the thought of you being alone."

"Well I was. I was waiting for you."

He was waiting for me. This means so much to me on so many levels. But he was waiting for me, and his little heart just knew it. Maybe that's why he said he felt like he had come home when we met. We were just waiting for one another.

It sure makes me feel even crappier for standing him up. Twice. :/

Grocery Shopping

Well last night was our grocery shopping night. Yeah, said not so enthusiastically.

Every Monday my parents come over and watch the kids. The children love it. They also have piano lessons so really we're killing two birds with one stone.

While my parents are here Nick and I duck out to go Grocery Shopping.

My confession here is that I used to hate having Nick go grocery shopping with me. He was always throwing things into the cart. But we set ground rules so now we are okay:
*I leave a little bit of money in the budget to allow for the said throwing in of items
*he knocks it off...for the most part.

So anyway, now it kind of feels like a date, which I know is dumb because it is so utilitarian, but still...it's my grocery shopping and I can view it as a date if I want to!

Anyway, while perusing the produce section I was going over our menu for the week and he just stopped me and kissed me. Romantic fall off your chair kind of kiss.

"I'm just glad you're a wife that wants to make me dinner. I don't care what it is."

See? This is why Grocery shopping feels like a date!!!!

In other news Nick came home with a tractor tire.

It weighs 300 pounds. And when rolling through our yard is taller than me.

Oh boy and yippee all at the same time!

Our Weekend

We sat in a cozy booth Friday afternoon and ordered lunch. I stared at him, I laughed at his jokes, the food came. We bowed our heads, and he prayed, "may we please have a fall in love kind of weekend Lord". We lifted our heads and I couldn't help but smile.

I am already so in love with my husband. But the weekend helped too.

This past weekend Nick took me to our favorite little place. It was divine.

Friday afternoon we rolled into town and found that there were only a few shops opened. We sat and had a wonderful lunch then just meandered around in the sunshine. It was almost 50 degrees there, which compared to the -15 windchill we've been used to felt heavenly.

We went to one store where Nick always gets lemon drops. I saw him walk up to the counter with a rolling pin. "What are you doing?" I asked him.

"You've wanted this. I want you to have it."

The fact that he remembered brought tears to my eyes. He remembered. And not only that, he cared.

Dinner was at a new brewery. We tried to find a new place for dessert but everything was already closed so we settled on a winery with live music. I don't think I've laughed that hard in a long, long time. All of these drunk people were up dancing and Nick was making fun of them. Ah, how making fun of people makes me laugh. Nick's been dancing like them in my kitchen now which is equally laughable.

The next day we shopped, we had an amazing day all around. It was a long, long day though as it started with me working out in the hotel and ended with us lugging two sleeping children upstairs in the very, very late hours of the night when we got home. So it ended with a workout too.

We know that we are truly blessed by our marriage. God has created us for one another. There isn't any tension of trying to shove pieces together that just aren't meant to be. We've always been made for one another. But we do work on it. Some friends don't work on their marriage at all and for us to see, it's just sad. You've gotta take the time folks.

Nick makes me laugh. A lot. He's hands down the funniest person I've ever met. But he also still gives me butterflys after 10 years. And that's pretty hard to do after that amount of time. Anyone that just turns around in the middle of the street and kisses you is bound to give you butterfly's, right?

I am definitely one lucky girl to have him. Nope, scratch that. I'm a blessed girl to have him...I know luck has nothing to do with it. And we definitely had a fall in love kind of weekend :)

He Needs an...Operation!

This is Buzz...he's tiny. MAYBE two inches tall. Cal has approximately 6 Buzz Lightyear's and yet this is the one he insists on carrying everywhere. Well last week his leg broke. Have you ever had to hunt down a small plastic leg that's about half an inch tall. Not fun, folks. Surgery was inevitable for young Buzz Lightyear:

Here's Buzz Lightyear all fixed. As you can see I make a lousy surgeon and his legs all turned in and wonky. It is also now somehow longer than the other one. I gave him to Cal and said "well here you go. I don't think he'll ever walk again." To which Cal started crying. Remember buddy? How he could NEVER walk before? Geesh :)

Alright this picture is wonky...but here we are with the tape...Buzz's only hope

Ugh...what a sad picture. Do you like the doctor stuff? See how we're using all of this stuff Aunt Jan? Heehee. And isn't Buzz gross? He's all dirty from someone carrying him around all of the time. And the paint is coming off his head.

He's definitely well loved. We'll see how long his leg can hold on this time....

Making Valentine's

It's official. The kids and I are starting to go crazy. Being in the house all of the time is wearing on all of us. We've tried going out to play in the snow...goodness have we. Cal HATES the snow. He'll stay outside for maybe all of 2 minutes and then he's sobbing and begging to go inside. It's probably scary to have snow up to your ears :)

Yesterday I pulled out all the stops. I'm realizing that for us to have some more fun outside of the normal stuff we are going to have to make a mess. Yesterday we made the craft kind of mess. It was a lot of fun.

The kids have their own "art cart" with oodles of stuff to do, but we always do a craft every day and I could tell that they were b.o.r.e.d. So I went up to the third floor and brough down all of my scrapbooking stuff. That seemed to do the trick...we got to work making Valentine's.

Emma's a glittler lover-all the way. Too cute! :)

Cal is so thoughtful. He asked for a green heart for Daddy since that's his favorite color

Here are our busy bees...they worked on these things forever...such a blast!

It's nice that they are at the age now where we can all work on something together. Before it's been I'm trying to help Emma with a craft and help Cal with playing something and we've never really been able to have fun together! Now they can both do the same thing and they seem to really enjoy it! :)

Next weekend Nick and I are going out of town to....

BROWN COUNTY!!!!

I know I am such a dork. It's not a cruise. It's not some slutty beach trip. Nope, we're going to our boring favorite place on earth. Nick surprised me with the trip actually. I knew something was up when he was on the phone and slammed the door in my face to keep me away. hmmm, that's not usual. Awhile later he told me the news...he'd been on the phone with our travel agent putting something together. The little weasel.

It will be nice to get away and just be the two of us. I love that man so much. Eeeeek!

I made him a Valentine yesterday too :)