Life in the Realm of "Crazy"

Happy Birthday, Sister

2011-10-20T10:21:00.001-05:00

“The day which we fear as our last is but the birthday of eternity.” ~Seneca

It’s still a vivid memory. The first time I saw my sister, it was through the nursery glass at the hospital. I was wearing my “I’m a big sister” shirt, and Kim, my new baby sister, was screaming, red in the face. I remember thinking that the nurse with the too-bright red lipstick grinning at me from behind the nursery window must have been hurting my baby sister as she held her up for me to see. And it made me angry. Of course, I know now that she wasn’t, but from that day on, I felt that same sense of protectiveness every time I was in Kim’s hospital room. And over the last three years, I sat at her bedside in a hospital room way more times than either of us could have ever expected. Most of the time, there were other people in the room, usually my parents. But there were moments when it was just the two of us, sisters, lifelong best friends, companions, confidants (like the Golden Girls, only with less grey hair and wrinkles!). Depending how she was feeling, Kim and I would either talk (she’d fill me in on which nurses she was mad at and wanted to shank with a sharpened toothbrush), watch TV (you can find some very odd things on cable television), or I’d just sit in her room while she dozed in and out (sometimes doing what we called “the Deedo sleep,” mouth hanging wide open, just like our grandfather, Deedo, did when he fell asleep in his recliner). She always apologized when she woke up, but I always told her, “Hey, I came to see you, so I’m the one who has to be good company, not you, but you were doing the Deedo sleep.” She always laughed at that, and after Deedo passed away last November, the mention of the Deedo sleep always led to reminiscences of him; how Kim always offered to shine his head for a quarter and how we poked fun at him relentlessly when we found out his middle name was Marion.

Kim was well-known for her hospital goodie bags, and if you were ever on the receiving end of one of those goodie bags, you know exactly what I’m talking about, and most likely, you ended up putting one together just for her, too. They always contained candy (lots and lots of random candy), gum (which she rarely ever chewed in front of other people), disposable toothbrushes, small silly toys that she put in there just for a laugh, chapstick (the goofier the flavor, the better, and she always gave me one with a Disney princess on it, so I did the same for her), and fuzzy socks (again, the goofier/weirder, the better, and I still have the knee socks she painted for me when I gave birth to David, complete with toenail polish and an ankle bracelet, with the words “It’s a BOY” painted on the bottoms). And I always included a new coloring book and a brand new package of crayons, since that’s what we got when we were sick as kids. Kim’s goodie bags to me, like every present she ever gave me, was packaged with copious amounts of tape. It was her trademark. I knew it was going to be good if I had a hard time getting it open. :) (See here, and then watch this video.)

Kim was also well-known for her sense of humor, particularly in the face of adversity. Since Kim’s colon cancer diagnosis after her surgery in which doctors removed part of her colon, potty humor became a fixture: poop jokes, colon jokes, fart jokes. And then there were the scar jokes. Kim told me one time, talking about all the surgeries she’d had, “I’m going to look like a freakin’ connect the dots puzzle!” She was able to laugh at herself and her situation, and I’m sure many people didn’t quite get how we could make jokes out of things like cancer. But our family has always been that way, as long as I can remember, finding the humor in any situation (and yes, sometimes inappropriately so... she made me laugh way too many times in church). You have to be able to laugh – otherwise, the grief can be too much to bear and can overwhelm you. Mark Twain said that “Humor is the great thing, the saving thing. The minute it crops up, all our irritations and resentments slip away and a sunny spirit takes their place.” And that’s the truth. Kim’s sunny spirit was an amazing legacy.

Despite her fight with cancer, and in the midst of all her treatments and surgeries, how many of you can recall Kim asking “Why?” I can only think of a very few times we ever discussed it, and her question was not “Poor me, why is this happening to me?” She wanted to know “How do we fight this?” And I’ll be completely honest here, even though I know some of you are going to think this is silly. Kim’s ready acceptance of her situation and willingness to fight for her life, knowing from day one that the odds were highly stacked in cancer’s favor and not hers, came from a place of security, because as a child, Kim asked God’s forgiveness from her sins and had accepted His gift of salvation from hell. She knew that no matter what happened, if she died soon or lived another 30 years, her place in Heaven was secured. Faith in God changes the way we think and the way we see the world and our place in it. As heart wrenching as it is to know that my baby sister does not live in this world any more, and that I will never again be able to call her whenever I feel like it or send her a random goofy text in the middle of the night, or sit with her and giggle about something silly, I KNOW and fully believe in my heart and in my mind that I will see her again someday, but in a place that is so much better than either of us could have ever dreamed. Because I, too, have the hope of salvation and the security of knowing that my faith and my very essence lies in God’s hands. Sometimes it’s hard to put all of our burdens on Him and let Him take care of things, but the longer I live and the more struggles and hardships that I go through, the more I am realizing that He will do exactly that. He will help us go through the hard times with a strength we didn’t know we possessed... because we don’t. It all comes from Him and His grace. If you knew Kim very well at all, you know what a strong person she was and how amazing it was to see her spirit and vitality, even until the end.

And what an end it was. She knew it was coming, probably days before. She knew it was the end, and even while she retained a bit of stubbornness and hope, not really wanting to believe it, she accepted it. Her concern was never for herself, because she was secure in her faith. Her main concern was how her death would affect her family: her two little boys, Seth and Sean, and her husband, Will. My brother-in-law loved my sister so much, and you could see it when they were together. Kim never wanted him to have to go through that kind of pain and did everything she could to make it easier for him. It’s hard to watch someone struggle and feel helpless, knowing that there’s nothing you can do to fix it. That takes a toll on anyone, but most especially, one’s life partner. Those last few days in the hospital were horrible for all of us, knowing what was coming and being unable to stop it. I will always cherish that last smile I saw from her around her ventilation tube (I had told her that Mother and Daddy stopped for donuts and didn’t bring me any, and she smiled, most likely wanting to say “Haha, you don’t get any donuts!” if I know Kim). Kim was a part of my life from the moment she was born, and I was there to witness the moment she left. “Watching a peaceful death of a human being reminds us of a falling star; one of a million lights in a vast sky that flares up for a brief moment only to disappear into the endless night forever.” ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross. It was amazing to witness... one moment, she was there with us, her spirit and determination shining, even with the medications and even while she was fighting to breathe, and the next moment, literally in the blink of an eye, her star winked out and she was gone. It was exactly noon (with the second hand and everything, it was amazing) on April 6, 2011. I don’t know if I can describe it any better than that, but I will always remember that I was there to see her off, and I was standing at the foot of her bed, looking at her face in the moment she took her last breath. The sense of my loss was tempered by the sense of relief I felt, witnessing the cessation of her pain and struggle.

So today, on what would have been her 31st birthday, while I wear the pair of Converse I inherited from Kim and drink a huge Dr Pepper in her memory, I shall cherish those good memories of her, and hold on to them, pulling them out any time the grief starts to weigh heavily.

And I know we all have good memories of Kim – funny memories, sweet things she did for you, things she gave you, impressions she left in your life, lessons you learned from her. If you’d like to email me some of them, that would be awesome! I am planning to put together a book for my nephews, Seth and Sean, and I’d love to include your memories and stories, even photos, if you have some (and I know you do, Kim was quite photogenic and not camera-shy at all). Reply to this post and let me know you’d like to contribute, and I’ll send you my email address, or if we’re Facebook friends, message me there.

Shampoo-less experiment: Day 13

2011-08-28T10:45:00.000-05:00

So I've managed to stick with this experiment for nearly two weeks now, and at this point, I am undecided as to whether or not I like it. I've not noticed a real difference in my hair since I started this whole experiment. And there are a few drawbacks, first and foremost being the vinegar smell. Usually, if I shower and wash my hair before bed, the smell has disappeared before morning, but there have been a very few occasions where I needed to shower again (it's 9000 degrees here, so if I've worked outside at all, many days are two-shower days). And it doesn't seem to matter how much I rinse the vinegar out, the smell seems to linger, at least until it dries. I have been using a VO5 Hot Oil treatment on the ends of my hair once a week, and that does help mask the smell, but I can't do that every day. So as of right now, I'm seriously considering giving up and embracing my old friends shampoo and conditioner. I may experiment with different types of SLS-free shampoo (Burt's Bees has several that interest me), but I doubt I'll blog about that unless I find something I like a lot. All in all, I'd give these first two weeks a B. I will say that I do like the baking soda as a scalp exfoliant and I've read that it really helps with product build-up and dandruff. I don't usually have those problems, but that may be something I can add into my regular shower routine anyway.

But I do miss that shampoo-fresh smell. :)

Shampoo-less experiment: Day One

2011-08-16T11:32:00.000-05:00

Okay, so for the past several years, I've seen so many blog posts and articles about going shampoo-free, and I've finally become intrigued enough that I'm taking the plunge. First off, I have waist-length hair and do not perm or color my hair, and never use any sort of styling products - no hairspray, no curling iron, hot rollers, mousse, or anything like that. Just shampoo and conditioner, and air-drying for the most part. I have been using mostly Pantene shampoo and conditioner for years, sometimes switching to something like Garnier or Herbal Essences. My main reason for starting this experiment is that my hair tends to get really oily after about 24 hours, no matter what I do, and it's annoying. Switching brands has had no real effect on this issue, so I've been looking for something else.

There are so many different ways to get started, but I've settled on this one as the easiest. I'll try it for a while and see how it works, and tweak it as necessary. My first experiment with this was last night...

First, just to make things easier, I decided to keep a small canning jar filled with baking soda on the bathroom counter and a squirt-top water bottle filled with apple cider vinegar in the shower (lots of people recommend using the organic apple cider vinegar with the "mother" still in it, so that may be an option later on, but for now, I'm just using the regular kind from the grocery store because that's what we had at home). Before I showered last night, I added two tablespoons of baking soda to a separate 8-ounce canning jar with a plastic lid and took that in the shower with me. After I wet my hair, I filled the jar with water and gave it a good shake to mix well. Starting around the hairline, I poured the baking soda/water mixture, making sure to separate my hair to get it all over my scalp, especially the underneath part at the back of my neck (my hair is not super thick, but I still have to work to get the shampoo worked throughout my hair).

I'll just say here that the baking soda scrub felt really weird, like I'd been swimming in the ocean all day and had gritty salt/sand buildup. I'm used to having handfuls of suds, so this took some getting used to. I did enjoy the scalp massage, though! I can totally see how this would help exfoliate dandruff or even acne in the hairline.

So once I got the baking soda rinsed out, I also rinsed my jar really well and squirted a couple of tablespoons of apple cider vinegar in it, then filled with water. One site I read recommended dipping the ends of the hair in the apple cider vinegar/water, so I did that and let it sit for a minute or two, and then poured the whole jar over my hair, starting at the very top. I let that sit while I scrubbed my face, then rinsed it all really well. My bathroom smelled like apple cider vinegar, so I couldn't really tell if my hair still smelled or not. So I towel-dried it a little, ran a comb through it (no tangles, just like with conditioner) and made my husband smell it. He said it still smelled like the vinegar just after showering, and again after my hair dried (I always let it air dry unless it's freezing cold outside, and then I'll use the blow dryer on the cool setting), but this morning, the smell was mostly gone. My husband said he could still smell it a little, but that you had to pretty much shove your nose right up next to my scalp to be able to smell it, so I'm okay with that. If anyone but him shoves their nose up next to my scalp, whether or not they can smell the vinegar is not going to be the first thing to cross my mind.

As far as the texture of my hair, I didn't notice a difference. I've seen some posts where people said their hair felt brittle and dry or even oily after the baking soda and vinegar treatment, and many say that there is a retraining period, where the hair has to get used to it, but to be honest, my hair doesn't look or feel any different than when I used shampoo and conditioner. Granted, this is after the one treatment last night, but if it stays this way, I'll be happy. Baking soda and vinegar are WAY cheaper than Pantene!

I did have to go outside and water the plants this morning, and I got a little sweaty, which is never a good sign for my hair, but it seems to be fine right now. We'll see how it looks tonight after I work outside some more later today. I may end up washing it again when I shower tonight, just because I hate feeling all sweaty and gross.

Also, I have been growing some silvery-grey hair for about six years now, and have read nothing as to whether or not this method affects grey hair, so we'll see. If nothing else, if they'll just NOT stick straight up on top of my head, I'll be happy.

I plan on doing this for at least two weeks, probably longer, to see how it works long-term, so I'll keep you all updated!

Just a little self-promotion!

2010-10-01T07:25:00.000-05:00

All I heard was POW and then I was floating in a cloud

2010-07-01T16:34:00.000-05:00

Hmm... does my title intrigue you? Pique your interest? Well, then, settle back and prepare yourself.

DISCLAIMER: DO NOT, UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, GO GET YOURSELF A SNACK RIGHT NOW. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

Like every day, I was on my way to school this morning. I was minding my own business, driving down the back roads, singing along with the radio, with my window rolled down because I don't have air conditioning in my van. I was making pretty good time when I caught a glimpse of something odd moving out of the corner of my eye. Before I could turn to see what it was, I heard...

POW!!!

And then all I could see was a fluffy, billowy cloud floating all around me. Peaceful, even.

And then it dawned on me that I was still in my van, driving to school. And I immediately realized I had hit something. Since I was still driving down the road and seemed to be all in one piece, I figured I was okay. I pulled over and it occured to me that the cloud floating around me was made of feathers. And the feathers floating around in front of my face would probably indicate the presence of a bird. I felt something on the side of my face and reached up to wipe it off, pulling back a hand covered in blood and feathers. (I hope you listened to my warning above and that you are not munching on something gooey right now.) Luckily, I knew the blood did not belong to me, and proceeded to get slightly (only slightly) grossed out when I realized it had belonged to the afore-mentioned bird. I looked down at my arm and saw that it was covered in the ICK, and my shirt had also been similarly affected. I leaned back and over in my seat to reach down for a napkin or tissue when I felt something warm and smooshy between my back and the car seat. I froze for a second, and then turned to find PART of a bird with a leg and wing still attached to a portion of the body. This was not a small chunk of bird, either, and I may have squealed "Oh, sweet mercy!" out loud when I had to pick it up and drop it out the open window.

(Side note: Those who know me very well will immediately realize just how shaken I was by the lack of photographic evidence in this post. End side note.) (Oh, but you're welcome.)

Because I have no A/C in my van, I usually carry an extra shirt to change into once I get to school (because HELLO, no A/C + 45 minute drive + 9,000 degree average June/July temperature = SWEAT) (also, armpit sweat rings) (also, EWW), so I was able to change and YAY, I didn't end up wearing a dead bird to class. I also keep a stash of wet hand wipies in my van (because I AM MOMMY) (also, I have tons of napkins, packets of ketchup and Taco Bell sauce, plastic utensils, straws, Ziploc bags and a whole package of those little caps that go on the valves where you put air in your tires), so I was able to clean off my arm and the side of my face reasonably well. After I picked all the feathers out of my hair, I was pretty much okay and ready to go to class.

OH, but did I mention the SMELL? GAG.

When I got out to go in the school, I saw the carnage all down the side of the van and was able to quickly inspect the inside of the van for more ICK (and possibly the rest of the bird). I found feathers ALL OVER the place and a tiny bit of goo that needed to be cleaned off my daughter's carseat, but other than that, all was fairly clean.

HOWEVER (you knew there was a however coming, right?), when class was over, I ran a quick errand and discovered that despite the "adventure" earlier that morning, I was absolutely starving. I tried to balance the hunger with the big feathery smear of EWW and preliminarily, the hunger won out, so I went to Taco Bell and ordered a burrito (subsequently adding to my sauce packet collection). It occured to me, though, as I drove home, that the texture of the burrito I was only smi-enjoying seemed to greatly resemble the SMEAR currently residing all down the side of my van. It took every ounce of intestinal fortitude that I possessed to finish off that burrito. I couldn't eat the chips that came with it, though. Crunchy reminded me too much of the little birdie foot I had been accosted with.

The moral of the story is this:

Oh, who am I kidding? There is no moral to this story. I just felt like gifting you all with the details. Because I needed to share.

Also, I had to scrub the guts off my windows when I got home because they had dried while I was in class and wouldn't come off with just pressure from the water hose.

My daughter called it my "Barf-Day," but I prefer "my 29-for-the-fourth time day"

2009-11-21T11:22:00.000-06:00

I had an excellent birthday this year! I would have thought it would be tough to be 29 for the fourth time, but it's getting easier as the years go by. Had a wonderful home-cooked meal at my parents' house last weekend, got some desperately-needed new shirts from my parents, got to visit with my Uncle Chuck and Deedo, my grandfather, who gave me lots of goodies from his garden, including two beautiful Lantana plants. Can't wait to decide where I'm going to plant those! On Monday, I spent my birthday money on some new clothes and made a visit to Bath and Body Works, a store I usually try to avoid like the plague, but that money was burning a hole in my pocket, so I gave in. Since it WAS my birthday and all. And since they had a Buy-2-Get-1-Free sale going on. So I bought two, got one free, and have enjoyed smelling great ever since.

And then on Thursday, my birthday gift arrived all the way from Utah, from my sister, Kim, and included hand-drawn cards from her boys, Seth and Sean.

Kim thinks I stink:

I have thoroughly enjoyed these already, too. Thanks, sister! I guess I won't have to super glue your Christmas gift closed this year. Unlike last year, this gift was NOT sewn inside a fabric bag and I didn't even have to get my seam ripper out after it.

This is the card from my 6-year-old nephew, Seth. (Click for larger images.) I think of all these items, the one I really wanted the most was the mustache, but I don't have 100 dollars to spend on one, and besides that, Seth says I can't have one anyway. Boo hoo. Joke's on him, though, because we already have a motorcycle. So ha!

The card from my 3-year-old nephew Sean, with explanatory captions from his mom. My personal favorite is the mustache he drew just for me. He and his brother apparently didn't collaborate in the card-making process. Mister Hee Hee might be a close second, though. That is, if I knew what a Mister Hee Hee actually was. The best part, though, was the "Happy Birsday Aunt Thathey."

Thanks, you guys! Love my gifts and cards! This was the best 29th birthday I've had so far.

And just because it makes me laugh every single time, here's the video link of Kim and me opening our gifts from our dad last Christmas.

Wherein I send my last baby off to Kindergarten

2009-08-26T10:57:00.003-05:00

On Monday morning, I dropped off all three of my babies at school and went home by myself. Photos are here. I have to admit that my own nervousness at sending my youngest off to Kindergarten was probably a lot stronger than when I sent my oldest off to Kindergarten. (With my middle child, my Princess, I was more worried for her teacher than for my own child, but that's a different story...) My Tiny Man, besides being the youngest of my three offspring, is also the youngest to start school. When they started Kindergarten, Big Brother was just a few weeks away from turning 6, and the Princess was 5 1/2. The Tiny Man just turned 5, so he is younger and also much smaller than his siblings were.

As it turns out, though, I needn't have worried about him. He never expressed any apprehension about going to school. At all. He was just super excited to get to go to school like his brother and sister. I woke him up Monday morning and he jumped out of bed, ready to go! Eating breakfast and getting dressed were just necessary evils on the road to the ultimate goal... SCHOOL! YAY! His brand new backpack that lights up wasn't even as high on the excitement meter as actually going to school. He had already met his teacher, who was also his big sister's Kindergarten teacher last year, so we know her and absolutely love her, and he was looking forward to being in her class.

I noticed that when he got in line on the first day and headed off to his classroom, my Tiny Man is the shortest kid in his grade. Being fairly short myself, I can relate, and if you know SuperDad, you KNOW he can sympathize. I don't think my boy even noticed, though. I will admit that my throat got a little tight when I sent him off to get in line and he never turned to look back at me, but at the same time, I was quite proud of him and realized he was SO ready for this. He is an extremely smart little boy and learns new things very quickly, so academically, he will do well. Socially, he's only ever regularly been around his siblings, and even though his sister is only 15 months older than he is, I was a little concerned about how he would react with other kids his own age, but I didn't need to be, it would seem. After two days of school, he has already made two friends that he knows by name - both girls, incidentally.

The facts are these:
1. My Tiny Man was very ready, intellectually, to go to school
2. He was so excited and wanted to go to school
3. He has made friends already over the first two days of school
4. He comes home and talks nonstop about how much fun he has at school
5. He LOVES everything about school
6. He's never gone to day care or preschool; he's been at home with me up until this point. Last school year, it was just the two of us.

Consideration of the above-listed facts has led me to one conclusion:

I MUST BE BORING.

He needed school. I guess I'm okay with that.

(Next up... Mommy, the Human Napkin enters full-time student mode.)

Wardrobe repurpose/refashion/recycle Part 1

2009-06-10T11:25:00.004-05:00

I've had this dress in my closet for several years and have only worn it a couple of times. There's nothing wrong with it, really, but there were several things I didn't like about it. First, the denim fabric met the flowered fabric in a very awkward position and it made me look fat.

And then there was that whole lace/rosebud thing on the neckline that didn't match the skirt fabric at all. So I put the dress in the give away pile, but the more I looked at it, the more I thought I could salvage it into something I'd actually wear.
So I got out my seam ripper, took off that lace thing, removed the sleeves, and removed all the buttons.

I pinned it back together where the buttons were and stitched it closed all the way down the front. Then I took my rotary cutter and cut the top off, right above where the top buttonhole is.

Then I ripped out the seams where these two ties were attached and stitched the seams back together, saving the ties to make straps.

I wanted to use bias tape on the armholes instead of folding them over, but the white bias tape I used initially just looked weird, so I decided to make my own bias tape from the excess denim fabric I cut off the top of the dress. Here's how I did that: I had already cut another piece of white bias tape to the right size, so I used that to measure the fabric and cut two pieces, each two inches wide...

I ironed them in half, long ways...

Then I pinned the top down to the ironing board to keep it from moving. I also drew a line with a washout marker right down the center where the fold is, just as a reference point.

Next, I folded the bottom up to the center line and ironed it flat.

Then I flipped it around and did the other side, like so...

And then, with the folded edges still folded toward the center, I folded the whole thing back on the center line and ironed it flat, then pinned it in place on the arm opening...

I stitched it down and took this photo as evidence that I am incapable of stitching a straight line, even with a good machine.

Then I made a casing for the neckline by folding the top over twice (1/4 inch the first time and then a little over 1/2 inch the second time) and stitching it down. At this point, it was just a matter of how to do the straps. I thought about just threading some ribbon (or the denim ties that I removed) through like in the pillowcase dress tutorial, but instead, I used two pieces of elastic for inside the casing and stitched the denim ties to the ends. Then I cut each denim tie at the halfway point and stitched up the ends to finish them off.

Then I tried the dress on, double knotted the ties to fit correctly, made some covered buttons with white fabric, and voila! A summer dress that I will actually wear! I didn't change anything about how the flowered fabric and denim fabric meet, but repurposing the dress this way made it so that that part of the dress hit me a lot higher than it used to, so I don't get that fat look. I love it! Can't wait to wear it somewhere!

Next project is going to be a sundress for the Princess from an adult-sized dress. And then I have another dress that I don't wear that has the same fat-look effect because of the way it's made. Both of those have zippers down the back, though, so that might be a challenge. We'll see!

My own lasagna recipe!

2009-06-02T14:14:00.002-05:00

I finally got around to posting another recipe on the recipe blog! Click here or below to see my recipe for lasagna!

Stacey's Lasagna

CRASH!!

2009-05-20T13:09:00.003-05:00

Middle of the night. Very, very quiet. The kind of quiet you can only get out in the country. Dead sleep. Suddenly, there was an extremely loud CRASH in the kitchen...

But earlier in the day…

We came home from the baseball game around 7:30 PM and sat down to eat dinner, at which point, we noticed one of the (open) windows in the dining room was missing a screen. I immediately looked around and checked all the usual things people steal when they break into a house. Nothing looked unaccounted for, so I started asking the kids if they knew what happened. I got two “no” answers and one very guilty look. The Tiny Man said he pushed it out before we left for the game. No one wanted to go get it just then because we were eating dinner, so we put it off. I was slightly alarmed that we had been gone for over an hour with an easily accessible window open, but we live way out in the middle of nowhere, and I figure there are better places to break into than our little flimsy run-down house with the two-foot-tall weeds, unless someone really wants to steal big piles of junk, so after a quick check, we determined that everything was fine.

After we put the kids to bed, it felt a little chilly in the house, so I went around closing windows and remembered the screen outside. I closed the window and told John I’d go get it the next day. We watched some season finales I had recorded earlier, one of them being about a serial murderer. I took an allergy pill with dinner, so by the time the shows were over, I was falling asleep. I couldn’t keep my eyes open. I was SOOOO tired... We went to bed around midnight (super late for me!) and pretty much went right to sleep. Sound asleep. Dead sleep. Medicated sleep, on my part.

The clock said 1:30 AM when we heard the crash…

My first thought was that one of the kids was up and had fallen or knocked something on top of themselves. John said later that he had just been dreaming that someone was trying to break into the house. We both jumped straight out of bed and I followed John as he went running to the living room. He said his first instinct was to try and scare off the intruder, so he yelled and smacked the wall, open-handed, before leaving the bedroom. Instinctively, I knew his intention was to scare off an intruder, so I immediately became all scared, thinking we had an intruder, and then angry at the possibility of an intruder in my house. I hovered in the bedroom doorway, heart racing while John looked around, and I seriously considered going for the shotgun. I didn’t, though, because after a minute or so, John pointed and said, “Look.” I went into the kitchen to find my crockpot in the floor. The biggest crockpot. The heaviest one I own, with the removable stoneware insert. The one that stays on top of the refrigerator. Totally confused! How on earth could something that heavy just fall from that high up... OH, WAIT. The cat came in after dinner. Did he knock it off? Was he strong enough to knock it off? He’d have had to push on it pretty hard to get it to fall off. Why would he be on top of the refrigerator? Where WAS he, anyway?

The effects of my allergy pill magically disappeared.

I turned to check on the kids when we heard another noise. Still haven’t figured out what that noise was. I think it was probably the dogs moving around on the porch when they heard us. We looked all around the house and checked on the kids, who had all slept through everything – the CRASH, Daddy yelling and hitting the wall, Mommy yelling, and the general commotion. They hadn’t budged.

I found the cat, curled up in one of the dining room chairs, looking like he’d been there all night. He seemed annoyed when I picked him up to check if he’d been hurt.

All the windows were closed. The doors were locked. We knew we’d checked everywhere earlier when we realized the window screen was gone. The only logical conclusion is that the cat was on top of the refrigerator and knocked the crockpot off into the floor.

My crockpot is broken. One whole end was crushed in around the handle, the lid was broken in the fall, and it’s not usable any more. (Also, there might be a hand-sized hole in my bedroom wall right above the light switch.) It’s good to know, though, that in a fight-or-flight situation, the fight instinct kicked in for both of us. If someone HAD been trying to break in, they wouldn’t have gotten very far! I really think we were both ready to body slam anyone who dared enter our home without our permission. On the downside, though, if one of the kids ever decides to be sneaky in the middle of the night and accidentally makes noise, their Daddy and I will probably scare them so bad they’ll pee on themselves.

My Little Mud Bugs

2009-05-14T13:08:00.003-05:00

After it rains, our yard is a veritable swamp, so the kids like to play outside and get nice and muddy. Last night before dinner, they got out the waterhose and put soap and water in their (empty) sandbox and had a fabulous time!

I guess at least it cleaned some of the mud off of them, right?
Poor girl... her shorts were so wet that they kept falling down.

Here's a close-up of my sweet delicate flower:

Do you know how long it took me to comb those dried mud snarls out of her hair? There was much wailing and gnashing of teeth in the little bathroom last night.

I told the dogs to "SIT" and this one actually sat down and raised a paw to shake hands. He laid down as soon as I raised the camera, though. The other dog was being too spastic to have his photo taken, so I cropped him out.

Here's our lazy cat. I walked in the house and found him meowing his head off, but with no effort to get up and move anywhere to find someone to annoy. I couldn't quit laughing when I uploaded this one. Doesn't this just cry out for a LOLcat caption? :)

Weekend Adventures

2009-04-28T09:15:00.004-05:00

Well, I figured it was about time for another post, so here you go.

Big Brother played in another baseball game on Saturday morning. His team didn't win, but they have been improving a lot, and had a lot of fun. They played the other team from their school, so they were playing their friends' team. The uniforms of both teams look exactly alike, so I was constantly confused as to which team was up to bat. Haha! During the game, the Princess and her best friend got manicures. Her friend brought a purse full of little nail polishes and lipsticks and painted the Princess' nails purple. I was nagged until I agreed to have a green sparkly polish job, but then they made me do it myself, and I had to wear a huge purple plastic ring with lip gloss in it on my pinky finger for the duration of the game. Unfortunately, the polish was the 20-minute kind that peels off almost as soon as it's dry, so my fancy manicure only lasted until I put my hands in my pockets. I was quite disappointed, and didn't get a photo of it. Later, I promised the Princess I would go buy her some nail polish that wouldn't rub off immediately. More on that later...

Here's Big Brother in his uniform, posing in the bluebonnets in our front yard:

Later in the day on Saturday, we headed out to the lake, where SuperDad's friends were camping (his friend Brian keeps a camper at the lake), and the kids had a blast playing in the dirt and getting absolutely filthy. Here is the Tiny Man, the Princess, and Brian's 5-year-old son:

Here is the Princess, demonstrating why it's not a good idea to pick up a handful of dirt and let it drop when you are downwind from the falling dirt. Evidently, the dirt didn't taste very nice:
SuperDad and Big Brother played a game of catch:

The Princess drew her favorite shape in the dirt and I managed to get a photo of it before the boys' cars drove right over it:

Brian was on his way to put this pig in the smoker, and I said "Say cheese!" SuperDad kept asking when the dog was going to be finished cooking. LOL! It does look like a small dog, doesn't it? It was really a pig, I promise! Oh, and EW.

We didn't get to stay long enough to have some smoked dog, er, I mean, pig. We left about the time the sun went down and stopped by my parents' house to visit and pick up Big Brother's library book he left there two weeks ago. (I told him not to take it, but did he listen?)

On Sunday, I had to go grocery shopping, so I picked up a multi-pack of tiny nail polish bottles for the Princess. She had blue, pink, green, yellow, purple, and orange to choose from, and we painted her toenails purple. Her fingernails are hot pink. She insisted that I take a photo of her fancy pedicure, and wanted mine in the photo, too, so here you go:

Life is busy around here, as usual. We're working on getting the oven fixed and operating again. Long story short, living out in the country = you're going to have mice. I'll spare you the details, and just say that we had to replace the insulation in the oven. While we have it all cleaned up and taken apart, SuperDad is mouse-proofing it, so hopefully, we won't have this problem any more. (And yes, I hear you muttering something about mouse traps and getting a cat... we have done both, and still, there is a mouse problem. See previous statement RE: living out in the country.) So in the meantime, we've been having dinner out of the microwave and/or electric skillet. My dryer is still making a terrible noise, and we think it's either the motor or the bands around the drum that are causing it, so that is next on the list. After that, we'll be taking the dishwasher out so I can clean out from underneath it and behind it, and SuperDad can mouse-proof the opening in front of it a little better (close up the gap between the wall and the dishwasher so they can't get underneath it/behind it). This will keep the mice out of the cabinet under the kitchen sink, too, which I cleaned out yesterday. Ugh. Slowly but surely, we're getting all this repaired and fixed. It just takes time, and in most cases, money. Both of which can be in short supply around here. Especially since SuperDad has been working overtime lately. But that looks like it's winding down (we hope!), and school will be out soon, so that will be nice. I know the kids are looking forward to summer already!

Bad case of lazy...

2009-04-13T21:39:00.008-05:00

Okay, so I know it's been weeks since my last post, and the ones before that one were sporadic at best. I have no excuse other than I haven't felt like writing anything. Lazy might be the appropriate word here. So I'm going with list form again. Here we go...

A. Like I mentioned in my last listy-type post, Big Brother has started baseball again. They played two games in a pre-season tournament two weekends ago and had their first actual game tonight. We're exhausted - him from playing, and me from watching and cheering. I try not to yell too much (bad memories from 6th grade softball - thanks, Mom) (oh, I'm kidding) (sort of), but he did so well that I couldn't help myself. He hit the ball every time he was up to bat and made it all the way home twice, sliding once and everything! It was awesome! They didn't win, but the whole team played really well and there were lots of proud moms in the stands near where I was sitting.

B. Yes, I took a photo of Big Brother in his uniform. But no, I haven't uploaded it yet. It's still living on my camera's memory card at the moment, along with every photo I've taken since the Princess' birthday party. I'll get around to uploading them eventually. Maybe I'll even go crazy and post one! Woo!

C. My youngest child is going to be starting Kindergarten this fall. I'm not quite sure how I feel about that yet, but rest assured I'll make a point to let you all know when I do. He turns five in June. How did that happen? Yesterday, he was this clingy little blonde-headed thing who couldn't form the letter "L" to save his wittwe wife, and now he's a bit less clingy, and can correctly pronounce the word "clingy" with no trouble. And makes the most awesome sound effects I've ever heard in my life. Seriously, you should hear his helicopter sounds. There might have to be a video involved here somewhere.

D. I'm all set to go back to school this fall when the Tiny Man starts school. I'll be taking two classes online and two on-campus classes two days a week. I am quite nervous, actually. I haven't taken a full course load since I was pregnant with my first child. But on the bright side, at least this time, I won't have an 8 AM class three days a week to compete with debilitating morning sickness, right? I was blessed with very understanding professors that semester. They didn't even flinch when I had to "suddenly exit" the room. So anyway, I'm still waiting on Financial Aid to come through and then I'll know how much they'll cover. I'm hoping for 100%, but waiting anxiously until they let me know.

E. Have I ever told you how much I heart Half-Price Books? Well, I double heart them. Someone who reads as much as I do really needs access to a Half-Price Books nearby. Since the beginning of the year, I've read a little over a dozen books (that's roughly one a week, if you're counting), and they've all come from a Half-Price Books store. SuperDad likes to stop by there after work and surprise me sometimes with a handful of books. I think I'll keep him!! And in case you were wondering, I just finished "All Quiet on the Western Front" (really liked it! Didn't think I would!) and am about a third of the way through "The Three Musketeers." I think Alexandre Dumas might be one of my favorite writers. After Jane Austen, of course (because hello, it's Jane Austen, and have you read "Sense and Sensibility?"). I loved "The Count of Monte Cristo" so much that I bought myself a copy just so I can read it again (read it the first time via DailyLit, which I also heart very much except when I couldn't get all that interested in Moby Dick and it took me forever to see the "suspend delivery" button in every single email because I have these amazing powers of observation, but I digress). Next up after "The Three Musketeers" is "The Man in the Iron Mask." I'm a little scared of this one because I've seen the movie. I hate seeing the movie first and then reading the book because literary film adaptations are never completely faithful to the book. Like "Eragon," for example - I read the book before seeing the movie, so I knew that the movie was a terrible adaptation. I know that people who don't read wouldn't care nor would they know the difference, but I like to know how the original story is supposed to go before I watch it on the silver screen. I'm quirky that way, I guess. Books trump movies. Period. (Hi, I'm Stacey and I'm an English major. That's how we roll.) (I'm also a big dork. Don't be so surprised.)

F. Speaking of movies... Why can no one make a "scary movie" that is actually scary? I have become disenfranchised with the whole horror/scary movie genre. Story lines take all sorts of stupid twists and turns, people Scooby their groups, they all sleep at the same time like dummies, they go out at night, girls wear heels and skimpy clothing when they should be wearing running shoes or combat boots and body armor. Stupid non-scary movies. I don't heart you. Not one bit, especially with your random gratuitous violence and completely unnecessary nudity and foul language. SuperDad and I agree that the way to get a truly scary screenplay written is to let a group of role-playing gamers write it. Gamers know how things should work. That would be one kick-butt horror movie. Maybe I'll write my own. Hmm.

G. I wasn't just hearing things with my dryer. It's currently sitting in the middle of the kitchen floor, begging for some attention. I better not have to get a new one!

H. FedEx CANNOT find my house. Ever. I always track my shipments, and they always say "Delivery exception - customer not available." Hello! I've been home ALL STINKIN' DAY and they never showed up. I wonder if they would be offended if I asked them to hand it off to UPS?

I. It's allergy season. Yay. And that's all I'm going to say about that because I am now going to go take an allergy pill and go lay in my bed and read until I fall asleep. Good night, all!

Some catching up to do...

2009-03-24T08:09:00.001-05:00

Well, I’ve been out of the blog loop for a while now, except for a few pop-in type posts. Spring has sprung, and we’re all pretty much healthy again (for the most part), but I just can’t seem to sit down and compose a coherent post lately. So I’m resorting to my old stand-by: list form. I love list form.

Number One: I have developed spring fever and feel the need for a change. On my desktop wallpaper. Yeah. So it’s no surprise that I’ve spent the last few days perusing all the desktop wallpaper links I found at How About Orange. This wallpaper by Shanon Gass is what I have on my desktop right now. I love it!

Number Two: Baseball has started up again for Big Brother, so we’ve been going to practice twice a week. His team is gearing up for a tournament next weekend!

Number Three: My dryer started making a funny noise a few days ago. We (and when I say “we,” I mean SuperDad) pulled it out and opened it up. Can’t see anything obviously wrong, so maybe I was just hearing things. It wouldn’t be the first time.

Number Four: The Princess had a fabulous time at her birthday party, and you can see the photos here.

Number Five: We totally enjoyed our Spring Break last week! The kids got to go spend the night at Grandma and Grampa’s house one night and they haven’t stopped talking about it yet. SuperDad took Thursday and Friday off from work and we all spent four days just hanging out and doing stuff as a family. We took the kids out to eat (Applebee’s – the Princess’ choice) and to the movies on Thursday (we saw - and loved - “Race to Witch Mountain”). Friday, we went truck-shopping (for something to haul things in around here), but didn’t find anything we liked that we could afford, so we’re still looking. Saturday, we spent the day with Uncle Jim and Aunt Ruth, and on Sunday, the kids and I went to my parents’ house for dinner because my sister and her boys were in town for a few days. I’ll be uploading photos from Sunday night on my Picasa page soon, too.

Number Six: I now have tons of laundry to get caught up on, and some Pilates calling my name, so thus ends the list form.

Six years ago today...

2009-03-11T16:57:00.001-05:00

Six years ago today, I was quite busy. Growing a family is hard work, people! So to spare you the details, let's just say that after lots of sweating and medication and umm, other stuff, my second child, my little girl, was born:

Here she is, three days later:

And again at two weeks:

And pictured below is that same little girl, who walks and talks and runs and sasses me and loves to color and can be totally sweet one minute and totally rotten the next and is one of the smartest kids in her Kindergarten class. Since her party isn't until Saturday, I ran to town today and got her a rose in a super cool purple vase and a balloon and delivered them to school.

She had a special birthday breakfast this morning - chocolate glazed donuts - and requested her favorite food, taco salad, for dinner tonight. I took her with me to the store last night and let her pick out a special dessert to have tonight after dinner. She picked this purple monstrosity:

Yes, people, that is an oversized Hannah Montana cupcake with purple frosting and sprinkles. That's enough sugar to keep her going until she turns 7 next year.

Hey, look! I finished a project I started!

2009-03-09T13:10:00.002-05:00

Hey, remember when I repurposed this broken chair into a stool? Here's a photo of it:
Last week, I finally got around to finishing the other two! Here's a photo of the first one. I love this hot pink color and I think the flowers are neat. I have no idea what kind of flowers they are. I just painted something that I liked. So here you go:

And here's the second one. I love this Jane Austen quote because it pretty much sums up my feelings exactly. I'm a homebody and would much rather sit around and be at home with my family than out doing stuff. So I decided to use the quote on this stool. I was afraid to ruin it with my first attempt at sunflowers, but they came out halfway decent, so I slapped some varnish on and called it a day!

Here they all are, lined up and ready to be put to use:

Kids back to school

2009-03-04T07:19:00.003-06:00

Well, after running a fever all weekend, Big Brother stayed home on Monday. The Princess was also running a fever that morning, so I kept her at home, too, and they both ran a low fever all day. Tuesday morning (yesterday), neither of them had a fever, so the planned call to the pediatrician never happened. I still kept them out of school, though, because the school's policy is that they have to be fever-free for 24 hours without medication. So we had a nice, fever-free day, and they just left on the school bus about 20 minutes ago. Let's all pray that I don't get a call from the school that one of them needs to come home!

I'm hoping that maybe we're done with the sickness(?). Big Brother is still coughing, but not as bad as he was last week, so I'm hoping he's on the mend. I sent him to school with a pocket full of cough drops, just in case, and strict instructions for NO running on the playground. I think the Princess is fine and honestly, I really don't know where her random fever came from (this time). Hopefully, we'll all be back to normal in no time. The Princess turns 6 next Wednesday, and we'll be having parties soon, so I really don't want to have to deal with illness on top of all that!

Illness and more illness. Ick.

2009-02-26T13:48:00.003-06:00

Not much to report here. I'm feeling much better, but not 100% yet. I've spent the last week getting caught up on all my house cleaning duties. (I still need to vacuum.) SuperDad was sick for about a week, and the Princess, who had strep throat and ran a fever for a week before that, has been back to school for nearly two weeks. The Tiny Man is coughing, but not too bad. Big Brother, though, has had the bark-y cough for several days now. I got a call from the school this morning... he was running a fever of 101, so Grandma went and picked him up for me and brought him home (thank you again, Mom!). His temperature has come down a little, but not quite below 100, so he's resting on the couch right now. He said he was hungry, so I made lunch an hour ago, but he ate very little. I'm hoping his fever comes down and that he gets better quickly and that we don't have a repeat of the Princess' illness. We're going to keep an eye on him and if he starts having the same fever spikes that she did, we'll be taking him to the doctor, too.

And I just realized I never posted about the Princess' illness, so here you go...

When the Princess first got sick, it was a Wednesday evening (Feb. 4). She ate dinner and went right to bed, saying she didn't feel well. I put the boys to bed a little while later and took a shower (I was still pretty sick at that time). When I got out of the shower, I went and checked on her and she was groaning and flopping all around, so based on her body language, I knew she was going to be sick. I took her to the restroom and well, I was right. So we put her on the couch afterward and she felt hot, so I checked and she was running a fever. On a whim, I checked myself and I was also running a fever. Wonderful. So I slept in the recliner that night to keep an eye on her (and also so I could breathe easily). Her temperature spiked several times over the next few days, so she spent a considerable amount of time taking cool baths or showers. SuperDad took over night duty that weekend, sleeping in the living room, and by Monday morning, we were frustrated and at a loss for what to do. We'd tried everything we could think of to bring her fever down and nothing worked. Other than that one bout of vomit, she had no other symptoms, so we were totally confused. I took her to the doctor on Monday (Feb. 9), and she tested positive for strep. The doctor gave us the choice between liquid antibiotics over the course of several days, or a shot. The Princess chose the shot! She was very brave, but it was a shot in the hiney, after all, so she ended up very unhappy for a while. Her fever finally broke late that night and was gone all the next day (Tuesday, the 10th), but jumped back up again late Tuesday night, so we kept her home on Wednesday, too. She finally went back to school on Thursday, Feb. 12. By that time, the horrible chest congestion I'd been fighting was going away, but I still felt like I'd been hit by a truck, so we spent Valentine's weekend at home, being as restful as possible. On Monday, the 16th, when I posted last, I was feeling better and SuperDad was on his way home, sick with what we're pretty sure was the flu. He missed the next day of work, but had to go back on Wednesday, even though he was still feeling pretty bad. He's feeling better now, but it's been slow going for all of us here, fighting off illness. The kids' school has had many kids out with strep, the flu, and another stomach virus.

And now I have a splitting headache, so I'm going to go try to convince the Tiny Man that he needs a nap so we can all rest quietly. We'll see how well that works out. :)

Still here...

2009-02-16T09:49:00.000-06:00

Well, I'm still here. My illness hasn't killed me... yet. The past few weeks have been full of tissues, cold medicine, and chicken noodle soup. My daughter is recovering from a bout with strep throat, I'm still feeling pretty run-down and slightly hoarse, and SuperDad just called to say he's coming home from work right now because he's sick, too. So we're still here. Just trying to rest as much as possible and GET WELL ALREADY! I'm sick and tired. Literally. So bear with me if I don't post for a while.

Hello? Is your refrigerator running?

2009-02-02T13:18:00.002-06:00

If ever there was a good time to make prank calls without fear that someone would recognize my voice, it’s now. Well, if everyone on earth didn’t have caller ID, that is. Curse you, caller ID! You spoil all the fun.

Over the last several days, a combination of a hacking cough, a terribly sore throat, and various cough/cold medications have ensured that I currently sound very different than I normally do. This morning, I could only whisper. I’ve regained use of my voice enough to bark (literally) commands to the Tiny Man, the only other person in the house, except he’s acting so nice and sweet and considerate today that I haven’t had to get onto him, even a little bit. So I’ve regressed to a whisper when necessary. I figure if I don’t have to use my voice, it’s best to let it rest, right?

I’ve done tons of research over the past several years (and I use the term “research” quite loosely, meaning I read in my home remedy books and do web searches and stuff), looking for ways to quiet a cough and break up chest congestion. For me, the very best thing to break up the knot of congestion I’m currently trying to breathe around is standing in a really hot shower, but I can’t do that all day (as much as I’d like to). So I’ve had to resort to other methods. The one the kids hate the most is this concoction: take a clove of garlic and an equally-sized piece of fresh ginger. Smash them up really well with a meat mallet or the bottom of a heavy glass, place in a mug, and add about an inch of fresh lemon juice (or, if you’re like me and RAN OUT, use lime juice instead). Microwave until lemon juice starts to boil, then let the whole thing sit and steep for about ten minutes. For the kids, I’ll give them about a teaspoon every couple of hours or so and it quiets the cough and helps break up the congestion. For me, I strained the garlic and ginger pieces out and added ALL the liquid to a large mug of hot (jasmine green) tea with several spoonfuls of honey. Surprisingly, it doesn’t taste bad, just a little spicy, which doesn’t bother me. And the heat from the tea, along with the honey, really soothes a sore throat. (I'm also taking Sudafed - the real stuff with pseudoephedrine - and Mucinex DM every 12 hours, with ibuprofen about every 6 hours or so.)

I’m glad this works for me because I needed some relief today. To be honest, this morning, my throat was SUPER sore and I had some serious chest congestion and I even emailed my parents and sister and told them I was dying. Evidently, feeling this bad really brings out my flair for the dramatic. Too bad no one can understand what I’m saying.

Vote for me!

2009-01-26T09:08:00.001-06:00

Today is the Ugly Mug contest over at 2nd Cup of Coffee, so head on over there and vote for my ugly mug! Scroll down to see my post with the photo of my entry!

Do you think my ugly mug is an ugly mug as much as I think my ugly mug is an ugly mug?

2009-01-16T12:04:00.005-06:00

Linda at 2nd Cup of Coffee has thrown down the gauntlet and challenged us to find our ugliest mug and the winner will get a Starbuck's gift card! I don't know about you, but with the cold snap we're having this week, I could really go for a very large caramel macchiato with whipped cream right about now.

Is it weird that I think the pirate guy in the button is sort of cute? Or that he sort of looks like a leprechaun?

Well, then, let's get started. I pulled out all my mugs and photographed them. My official entry will be at the bottom. Pictured below are some mugs I own that used to belong to my dad. At work, they'd get coffee mugs for certain promotions. The one in the middle is from 1988. The only problem is that I don't really think these are that ugly, except for the handle on the white one that I had to glue back together. You can't tell in the photo, though. So strike these off the list. Next?

This mug was a gift from my friend Sabrina when I graduated from high school in 1996. It had a little graduation bear in it. Aww! The gold is sort of chipped/scratched in places, but I'm not sure this mug qualifies as ugly, either. Classy in a sad "I'm holding on to the past" sort of way, but not so much in the ugly category. (Cynthia gave me a personal-sized coffee maker, so these were my favorite gifts, especially when I moved into the dorms at college that fall.) Moving on...

How could anyone think Marvin the Martian is ugly? He's my favorite Looney Tunes character. Hence, I own the mug. I've had this one for about the same amount of time I owned the graduation one above. Not ugly, unless you're a Marvin hater. And if you are, then shame on you. You can't be my friend. So, what's next?

Oooh, I know! How about the free mugs we got when we moved to a new town back in 1999? The ones on the left were a gift for opening a new checking account at a bank, and the ones on the right were free when we signed our apartment lease. My kids eat/drink chicken noodle soup out of these. Not very ugly, although very, very green. Hmm, let's keep looking...

Aww, it's Pooh and Tigger! Nobody thinks they're ugly. These are a matched pair - Pooh on one side of each mug and Tigger on the other. These were a Christmas gift from Sharon, my sister-in-law, several years ago and came with hot cocoa and chocolate chip cookies. I love them and because they're larger than other mugs, these are what I usually drink my coffee out of. They're just the right size for my coffee plus sugar and half-and-half. So not ugly. Who else do we have?

This one below doesn't count as a mug, but I did drink coffee out of it once. Kind of weird looking. Not to mention that drinking that much coffee at one time makes me have to pee every 15 minutes for about two days. It's better used for parfaits. Or hey! You can use the recipe on the side for an Oreo milk shake! Are there no ugly mugs in these cabinets of mine? OH, WAIT...

Here's my entry. You might not think it's that ugly, but check it out in all its glory:

I got this for free (well, sort of) with the purchase of some sort of hot beverage (coffee? cocoa? can't remember?) at Six Flags Over Texas about fifteen years ago. It's plastic. It's scratched up (click the photo to see it larger). It has a lid! It also used to have a red plastic base thingie that slid on the bottom, but I don't know what happened to that. Anyway, the story is that I was in drill team in ninth and tenth grades and one year for Christmas (ninth grade), we took a trip to Six Flags in Dallas for their annual Holiday in the Park. But what's sad is that my boyfriend (the future SuperDad) had to work that day and couldn't go, so I was forced to tag along with my friend Sabrina (of graduation mug fame) and her boyfriend. It was December and it was cold! So I had to ride all the rides all bundled up in ten layers of clothing! Now here is where you feel sad for me. But at least I got a super-lame mug out of the deal, right? How is it that I still own this mug and haven't thrown it out yet? OH, YES! I know! It's so I can take photos like this:

And here's where you go "Awww," and compare the mug to the cute little boy and decide that the mug truly is ugly, and so you go to Linda's blog on January 26th and vote for me and my scratched-up plastic Holiday in the Park mug.

Fourth Picture - Tag, I'm It!

2009-01-09T14:48:00.008-06:00

Bethany issued an open tag for this meme. We're supposed to post the fourth picture from the fourth album in our pictures, so here's mine:

This is Big Brother, age 2 1/2, and the Princess, about one month old. Can you see the birthmark on her forehead? The doctor said that's an imprint of my tailbone because I was in the last stage of labor so long. And she also said it would go away. It hasn't yet. Ahem.

Anyway, by the time the Princess was two months old, she had lots more hair on top that stuck way up, like this:

Here's a more recent photo, complete with the mark on her forehead:

Miss Sassy Pants

The Tiny Man had a similar mark on his forehead, but it's not quite as visible. Here he is at age two - you can see it right between his eyebrows:

And at age 4 1/2, taken this Christmas...

Okay, well, I think we were only supposed to post ONE photo, but I couldn't help myself. And since I've gone a little overboard already, here's a photo of Big Brother at 13 months old. He has a nice big round head with no birthmarks... he was a C-section baby. If you feel like playing, consider yourself tagged, too!

Breaking News

2008-12-29T14:30:00.004-06:00

We'd now like to follow up on a story we brought you last week. As you may know, the small town called Grandma's Snow Village sustained some damage last week from what was then thought to be straight-line winds. Recent investigation has uncovered evidence of another force at work in this disaster, but we'll have more on that in a moment. (Click here for the original story.)

A visit to Grandma's Snow Village yesterday revealed the happy news that cleanup efforts have gone well, and the town has been restored to order. Here, you can see that Matt's Gas Station is back to business as usual, although it does appear that there are a couple of young people on the road near Matt's place with car trouble again. I hope they can get someone to help them out with that.

Search parties were able to locate the two campers who were missing after last week's storm. Looks like they're back out on the mountain, doing some more sightseeing. The General Store did not sustain any damage in the storm, and it looks like the townsfolk are out in full force, perhaps preparing for their New Year's Eve celebrations. It would appear that all is well and back to normal in Grandma's Snow Village. It is so heartwarming to know that a community can pull together and help each other out in times of crisis like these.

Back to you in the studio...

.........

BUT WAIT!! What's this?!? It's a giant! He looks like one of the two that are rumored to live in the Utahian mountains! Why would he stray so far from home?
Ladies and gentlemen, I am just astonished at this rare sight! I'm sure we all have questions, but it seems that the giant is back to unleash more destruction! Let's see if we can get his attention and scare him away from Grandma's Snow Village.
Success! The culprit is on the run! Someone call the nearby Grampa's Police!

Hold on... it appears that the Grampa police force has caught our suspect red-handed! He doesn't look happy. And it's no wonder... he's facing hard time for his crimes against the people of Grandma's Snow Village.
Updated: Questioning of the suspect has revealed more details in this investigation. The suspect will only identify himself as Hurricane "S." It seems he just wanted to play with the snow people, but because he is a giant, the force of his jolly laughter blew down all the fences and trees and the people ran from him in fear, knocking each other down. So he decided to eat some of the snow, but didn't like the taste. Like plastic, it seems.

Hurricane "S" also mentioned something about Thuperman and "wee-wiwwas." Evidently, we will need to call in Aunt Thathey, our professional translator, for further questioning.

That's all for now. We'll keep you updated.

A Christmas Disaster

2008-12-25T19:37:00.006-06:00

This just in... yesterday's straight-line winds have caused major damage in a small town known to locals as Grandma's Snow Village. The town's mayor is calling for the state governor to declare Grandma's Snow Village a disaster area and approve federal funding for repairs. Most heavily hit was the area near Matt's Gas Station. As you can see from this aerial photo, several trees and fences were knocked down and quite a few pedestrians injured. Two young men can be seen trying to push a disabled vehicle to the side of the road. The building seems to be intact, but it looks like business will be slow for Matt in the days ahead as cleanup efforts continue.

Volunteers gathered outside the local General Store to organize a search party for two young male campers who were reportedly sightseeing on a nearby mountain at the time of the storm's onset. No word yet on the ages or identities of the missing young men, but we do know that one young man was wearing a green pea coat with blue jeans and the other, a red and brown snowsuit. Treacherous shifting snow and heavy continuing winds are delaying the search. Anyone who wants to assist in search efforts or anyone with helpful information can contact the local sheriff's office. Our hearts go out to the families of these young men.

Luckily, the school house in Grandma's Snow Village was spared, as were the children attending school at the time. As you can see, the displaced STOP sign in their school yard did not deter these young ones from having a little wintertime snow fun!

We'll keep you posted with any new developments.

A very exciting Christmas so far

2008-12-25T14:18:00.006-06:00

Yesterday was packed full of food, fun, family, and fpresents. (Haha, see what I did there? That's about as clever as I'm going to get today. Lack of energy... too much food... not enough sleep... etc. etc.)

SuperDad had to work yesterday, so the kids and I took him to work in the morning, drove out to my parents' house and had lunch and opened gifts with them. I have photos, but don't have them uploaded yet. I think I'll put them all in a Picasa album, because there are TONS, especially of my sister opening her present from me. :) Click here to see what she gave me for my birthday last month (be sure to read the captions under the photos) and you might be able to imagine what her Christmas gift looked like - well, the wrapping, at least. Her Christmas gift to me was wrapped in a preemptive retributionary strike for what she imagined I might do to get her back for that wrapping job. And was it ever a doozy. But our dad got us both, in a big funny way - I'll have photos of that soon, too. The kids (and I) had a blast, visiting with my sister and my nephews (whom we haven't seen since June) and my grandfather (my dad's dad) and my uncle. My mom's mom and another uncle are coming to my parents' house on Sunday, so we'll be going back for lunch and gifts with them.

After lunch with my family, we picked up SuperDad from work and stopped by our house to drop off presents and pick up the mail. (Side story - I ordered a Christmas music CD on December 6th that never arrived, so they sent me a replacement shipment with a shipping upgrade at no charge. Well, it figures that the original "lost" shipment and the replacement arrived on the same day. Dual copies, yay! At least it was in time for Christmas, right?)

We unloaded gifts at home and headed out to have dinner and open more gifts with SuperDad's family. I ate more than I probably should have (BTW, is there anything better than tamales? Because I can't think of anything, except maybe tamales followed by a whole avocado sprinkled with salt and pepper and lime juice, which is exactly what I had for dinner last night - so, yeah, YUM) and the kids had an absolute blast visiting with family that we haven't seen in ages. I got sweet hugs from all sorts of awesome little people, including a bunch that don't even belong to me! Okay, so kid hugs are better than tamales. Better, even, than tamales with avocado. And that's a fact.

We got some cool gifts yesterday, but the best part was getting to see everyone. We didn't get to visit with everyone as much as we wanted, but we did have a great time. We rolled into bed around 11:00 last night and I was hoping the kids would sleep in. Naturally, they were up at the crack of dawn, getting into all their new toys and things before Mommy and Daddy were awake. I woke up and told SuperDad that I was afraid to go in the living room. I finally did and it was as I expected - toys absolutely everywhere. We made them clean up before we'd let them open the gifts from us. And now they're playing with all the toys. And I'm avoiding looking at the floor or my excessive-toy-related twitch might come back.

Photos to come later on. Possibly today. But probably not. :)

Merry Christmas, everyone! May your day be merry and bright and devoid of any toy packaging-induced seizures or fits of rage.

Merry Christmas, Everyone!

2008-12-23T11:18:00.001-06:00

Crafty photos, part the second

2008-12-17T16:32:00.003-06:00

Our "snowflakes." White pipe cleaners and sliver or clear beads would have been more accurate, but our supplies were limited. I don't think the kids really care, though. :)

Our bead "wreaths." It kept the kids busy for the better part of half an hour while I cooked dinner, so it was a win.

Their paper angels. The Princess' angel worries me, taped up there like that. It has five pennies and a quarter taped to the back side, so it's a bit on the heavy side. She said she wanted her angel to take some money up to God. Okaaaaay.

Little houses from The Toymaker site. They would be better stuffed with cotton balls, but we are fresh out. The middle one there is the Tiny Man's house. It is filled - and I mean completely FILLED with beads.

And here is the Tiny Man, demonstrating what happens when you run at top speed into a room, ricochet off the hiney of an older sibling who is climbing up the end of the bunk beds, and do a face-plant into the corner of a bookshelf. Bloody doesn't even begin to describe the situation in our house the other night. Poor little guy. (He's also sporting a Kool-Aid moustache.)

Crafty Photos

2008-12-17T08:35:00.004-06:00

(I tried to post this last night, but Blogger was giving me fits.)

As promised in yesterday's post, here are some photos from the kids' day off from school. This is in nowhere near all the crafts we did yesterday, OH no. We still have things that need to be cut out and glued/taped and displayed. I'll take photos of those as soon as I get them put where they need to go. In the meantime, here are the kids about 3:30 yesterday afternoon, hard at work on some beaded wreaths and snowflakes that I don't have pictured yet.

(Click any of these photos to see them larger.)

We made a wreath out of the kids' handprints:

Here are some angels made from plastic spoons. Of course, the boys wanted to make boy angels, so theirs are in pants instead of gowns. And we only had colored pipe cleaners, so we have halos in a rainbow of fruit flavors.

I made an absolute mess with this next one. I cut out big gingerbread people for the kids to decorate and ended up with these brown construction paper frames, so we shaved some crayons in between two pieces of waxed paper and I ironed the whole thing into my ironing board cover. But hey, these stained glass things look neat! (The weird brown spots are where I blurred their names.) I also made that garland thingie underneath. Didn't let the kids attempt that one, though.

Someone decorated my kitchen cabinets last night while I was cooking dinner:

These aren't crafts - well, not that you can see, anyway, unless you have X-ray vision. The kids insisted I take a photo of the gifts. Since we don't have a tree, I cleared some counter space for gift storage.

Here's a close-up of the Princess' little tree stand thing. She saw this at Grandma and Grampa's yard sale and it wound up coming home with us. I figured she'd love my little pink glass ornaments on it, so I undecorated all the little plastic rings and used raisin boxes and candy wrappers she had put on it and pinkified it. (That is TOO a word.) Next to the tree is my favorite nativity. We got it for Christmas several years ago and I keep it in my china cabinet, so sometimes I forget to get it out at Christmas. But I remembered this time!

My nemesis: Nestle Butterfinger flavored Jingles. Stupid dollar-off coupon. These are addictive.

Maybe I'll save the rest of these and give them to my nephew. See him in this video, requesting, nay, DEMANDING candy from Grandma and Grampa. He didn't say he wanted candy from Aunt Thathey, but Aunt Thathey may give him some anyway. (He says my name in this other video.)

More photos to come later on! I'll be busy making cupcakes today for class parties tomorrow, so we'll have to wait and see when I get time to take more photos. I also need to make a grocery list and go shopping tonight, so it may be tomorrow morning before I can get photos taken and uploaded.

Ice Day!

2008-12-16T12:53:00.004-06:00

The alarm went off around 5 AM. And every nine minutes thereafter. AHEM. About 6 AM, I was awakened to the sound of Foreigner singing "Hot Blooded" in my ear. Which meant my cell phone was ringing (I know). I didn't recognize the number, but knew it was local, so I answered and found out that our school's new alert system works! School was to be delayed for two hours, so the kids got to sleep in until around 8 AM. Which meant SuperDad and I slept in until around 8 AM. We figured if it was too iced over for the buses to run, it was too iced over for him to try to head into work, so what was the point of getting out from under the pile of warm, cozy blankets, right? Anyway, we finally rolled out of bed and I got the kids up. About the time they were putting their shoes on, Foreigner let me know I had another call from the school alert system.

School was canceled for the day.

The kids rejoiced, jumped back in their jammies, and I wandered around for a while, lost without a reason to rush to get the kids off to school. SuperDad headed off to work after heating the car up and scraping a nice thick layer of ice off the windows. I put in a movie and bundled the kids up in blankets, hoping they'd watch TV and maybe just be content to stay warm and cozy. I live in a dream world in my head. Unfortunately, this dream world ONLY exists in my head, because I blinked and suddenly, my living room had turned into a karate dojo. One where you have to YELL LIKE A BANSHEE.

With the sounds of my dream world exploding into a fiery inferno in my mind, I decided that some sort of intervention was in order. I couldn't go hide and eat chocolate candy in my room. We needed some structure. So I pulled out the construction paper and glitter glue and we've been creating Christmas crafts all day long. The maniacs are eating lunch right now, so I have a few minutes to sit and do nothing (or type a blog post, as it were). After they're done, I'm going to put them to work peeling the ten tons of broken crayons I've been picking up off the carpet over the last few weeks and then we're going to make some sort of stained-glass effect gingerbread people cutout thingies to hang in our frosted-over windows. We already have angels made from spoons hanging in the doorway to their bedroom.

These websites have been invaluable already today:
DLTK Kids Crafts (I've printed out all sorts of Christmas crafts from here)
The ToyMaker (We're doing some little houses, the dodecahedrons and the twirly-copters, and may do the little rocking horses later on)

If we get bored, I have six rolls of old fax paper that I'll have them make some banners out of. Hopefully, we won't run out of stuff to make! If nothing else, I'll pull up the dance music playlist I made for them and we'll work off some energy. (Not me... them. I have no energy to speak of. Too much of the afore-mentioned chocolate candy. Curse you, Nestle for those bell-shaped Butterfinger-flavored Jingle things that I CANNOT STOP EATING.)

I'll take photos when we get all finished and post them so you can all marvel at the excessive use of glitter glue and Scotch tape.

Season of Giving

2008-12-04T13:13:00.006-06:00

I hate the commercialism of the holidays, don’t you? For my family, Christmas means celebrating the gift of Jesus. God sent His son to Earth to live a perfect life and then to die as a payment for our sins. That alone is reason for celebration, wouldn’t you agree?

But it seems that everywhere I look right now, I see advertisements that scream “BUY THIS” or “YOU NEED THIS.” Do we really need that flat-screen TV or the designer jeans? Or could we focus a little more on others? I think we could all stand to think more about giving than getting. Think about all the people in the world (America included!) that literally have nothing. Children who don’t have shoes, mothers who don’t have enough to eat to support the baby they’re nursing, let alone the rest of their families, and parents who can’t afford to send their children to school or even get them a Bible. So I put together a list of some ways we can all get involved.

The 50,000 Pairs in 50 Days Challenge is a great way to help provide shoes for children who don’t have any, and also a great way to teach our own children about giving. Click here:

I love Angie Smith’s story of how she introduced the 50 Days Challenge to her own children. I might have to borrow her idea for my munchkins, too.

You can also make little caps for newborn babies in Haiti, security blankets for hospitalized children, and there are lots of ideas on the Learning to Give website to get kids thinking about how they can contribute to their communities and to people around the world.

How about supporting a missionary family? You not only help that one family with day-to-day needs, but it also enables them to spread the Gospel to those who haven’t heard. Here’s our favorite missionary family (not just because we’re related to them). Do you know any missionaries? Does your church support any missionary families? If you can’t afford to send money, will you commit to pray for them? Maybe send them a card and let them know you appreciate what they’re doing and that you are praying for them. Have your kids send their kids drawings or notes or cards on their birthdays.

Maybe you could consider sponsoring a child in an impoverished country. Go here and look through the list of children and I promise you'll be blown away by the looks on their faces:

It’s also not too late to create and drop off a box for Operation Christmas Child! You have until Saturday, December 6. Check and see if there are any locations near you and even if it’s too late by the time you read this, save the link for next year! This would be a great Thanksgiving activity! (I wish I’d remembered it in time. Ahem.) You can also send boxes year-round to one of their locations. Check the Samaritan’s Purse website (the organization in charge of Operation Christmas Child) for lots of other ways you can get involved.

I also put together a list of links that I recently found, have used myself, or that seem helpful right now as we all get ready for Christmas. So here you go:

Want to make your own gift boxes this year? Here are lots of tutorials that show you how.

Don’t forget your child’s teacher! Shannon has some really good guidelines here for teacher gifts.

Here are some FREE activities to keep the kids busy while they’re home on vacation - Christmas coloring pages, craft links of all sorts, some super cute print-and-cut paper toys, and lots of fun tongue-twisters.

Did you know that you can listen to Christian music online for FREE? Click this here button - they even have a channel devoted solely to Christmas music! Score!

Or you can gather the whole family to create a free online playlist of your favorite music to listen to while everyone is off on Christmas Break! Or you can just do what I did yesterday, and purchase a good Christmas CD (I bought Selah’s Rose of Bethlehem – can’t wait for it to arrive!). Play songs about Jesus’ birth while you make cookies with the kids, decorate the house, visit with family, open gifts… whatever it is you do at your house to celebrate Jesus’ birthday! I’m considering making Jesus a birthday cake this year.

And lastly, I wanted to share this with you all. We don’t put up a Christmas tree. But we have been doing a variation of the Jesse Tree (minus the actual TREE part) for the last few years. This website has ornaments and ornament patterns, lots of display ideas, and devotions, too! And this website is where I found the devotional verses we use. I just usedthe verses and the general illustrations as a guide. Typically, we all sit down at bedtime and Daddy will read the verse and then we all discuss what it means and what we need to learn from it. And here are some photos of our setup:

I would say I’ll be taking some time away from the blog for the holiday season, but that really shouldn’t come as any surprise since my posts have been few and far between for a while now, anyway. So I might pop in and post here if I feel like there’s something I need to say, but we’ll see how often that actually happens.

Oh, and go congratulate my cousin Lydia on the birth of her first baby! Welcome to the family, Baby Caleb!

And Merry Christmas, everybody!

Black Friday

2008-11-28T15:14:00.005-06:00

This article I just read completely disgusts me. I cannot believe this happened! What is wrong with our consumer-driven society? A Wal Mart worker was trampled to death this morning by shoppers intent on getting a good deal and then THE PEOPLE KEPT SHOPPING. The details of the incident are unbelievable.

Click here to read the article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081128/ap_on_re_us/wal_mart_death

I think every one of those people that shoved past him and walked/ran(?) right over the top of him to get in the store should be arrested for manslaughter. That is truly ridiculous.

The best holiday dessert recipe

2008-11-25T13:37:00.004-06:00

I have a new post up on the 2500 Mile Cookbook with one of my favorite holiday recipes! Go check it out!

My photo albums!

2008-11-21T19:24:00.002-06:00

Well, I finally jumped on the online photo album bandwagon a while ago, but am just now getting around to linking to it on my blog. In case anyone is interested, here is the link to my PicasaWeb page. I've created a few new albums in the last week or so - one with photos of our fishes for my sister and her boys to see, one for a Girl Scout trip I took the Princess to, one for my birthday dinner with my side of the family, and one solely about the gift my sister sent me for my birthday. She's the current master of gift wrapping. Until Christmas, when she receives her gift from me. :)

Some housekeeping

2008-11-12T09:02:00.004-06:00

I found yet another cute resource for free blog backgrounds (via my cousin Cynthia's new blog), so if the look of my site starts changing once or twice a day and looks all wonky, just bear with me while I find something I like. Although I do kind of like this beige with the flowers. It's supposed to be not quite so wide and there are blue columns on the sides that aren't showing up (click here to see a screen shot of what it's supposed to look like), so I'm not sure what's going on. I like the blue columns, but I also like it this way, so I guess we'll see if I can figure out how to fix it. If not, I may just leave it like it is. I also added new backgrounds to the recipe blog and to my photo gallery blog for my Etsy items (although that last one has the same width display problem as this one does, maybe it has to do with the 3 column versions?). I really like the one for the recipe blog, personally!

And also, to go along with the "housekeeping" title of this post, my children got to experience their first discovery of a cat's hairball in the living room floor this morning. The Princess said, "Umm, Mommy? I don't know what that is, but it's sort of gross." So I cleaned it up while explaining exactly what it was and how it came to be lying on our carpet. One of the kids said, "Soooo... that's cat barf?" And then they all giggled uncontrollably, to which I replied, "you just wait until you get to clean it up! And wait until you see him actually depositing the hairball in the floor!" They didn't think that was quite so funny. :)

Here's the furry monster himself, laying where I found him one afternoon... in the dirty clothes hamper. I guess that's better than laying in the clean clothes basket, right? Crazy animal.

Handmade Holidays! Yay!

2008-11-06T08:44:00.004-06:00

I have already started making my Christmas gifts, which, for me, is HUGE! I usually wait until December and then I run out of time and end up spending way too much money on last-minute gifts. I think I've got this year's list all ready to go and have pretty much everything I need for everyone on the list. I've even completed a few so far.

Part of my inspiration for making handmade gifts this year was last year's Handmade Holidays from Sew, Mama, Sew! Every day in November, they listed links to tutorials all over the internet and I had way too much fun and spent way too much time perusing all those fun tutorial posts! My bookmark list GREW exponentially, but I have had fun all year long making things I found back then. So imagine how excited I was when I found out that the ladies over at Sew, Mama, Sew were doing Handmade Holidays again this year! I guess I better organize my bookmarks list now. :)

Click the logo to visit the Sew, Mama, Sew blog.

They've got some great tutorials listed so far! I had to laugh when I saw the link to the Rocket Man. I found that tutorial this summer and have already made it for my 2-year-old nephew for Christmas. It turned out super cute! I'll try to post photos of some of the things I'm making, unless I know the recipient might read my blog. Then you just have to wait until Christmas!

In the whole histowy of evewything!

2008-11-03T14:24:00.001-06:00

The Tiny Man claims that these are his "favowite socks in the whole histowy."

VOTE

2008-10-30T14:02:00.006-05:00

I hardly ever talk politics on this blog. That doesn't mean I don't have an opinion, though. I think these designs I found on CafePress pretty much sum up my views for you...

"The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not." --Thomas Jefferson

Are you voting on November 4? Do you know WHY you are voting for the candidate you've chosen? Skin color and gender are irrelevant. Have you looked at his or her voting record, past political experience, policies? Where does your candidate stand on the issues?

Just checking in

2008-10-28T07:20:00.003-05:00

Not much to report this morning. Big Brother has been fever-free and feeling well since yesterday, so he just got on the bus and headed off to school. The Tiny Man's fever is gone, too. He slept really well last night and woke up bright and early this morning, ready to be as loud and active as possible. I'm trying to figure out how to convince him we need to go back to bed after breakfast. Knowing him, it's not going to happen. The Princess is still on the couch, though. She slept the night through with no vomits and her fever is pretty much gone, but we still have some intestinal issues that warranted me keeping her at home. I don't want her teacher to have to deal with that, if you know what I mean, and if you're a mom, I think you do. Big Brother was sent home in Kindergarten one day because he had some intestinal distress issues, so it's best to just let her sit out another day at home. Convincing her that she needs to eat and rest is going to take up the better part of my day today.

It's freezing outside, so I had to break out the space heaters and extra blankets this morning. I'm considering donning a second pair of socks and warmer pants, covering up with my lap quilt, and working on embroidering as much as I can today. I'm making pretty much all handmade Christmas gifts this year, except for a very few things I've already purchased, so I've gotten a pretty decent head start. I can post photos of the gifts whose recipients I know don't read my blog, so that gives you all something to look forward to. I have to admit that I've never really embroidered before, but thanks to Janet from Primrose Design and her Stitch School series (scroll down - links are in the right sidebar on her blog), I decided to give it a go this year for Christmas gifts. And I am absolutely loving it! I've already completed an embroidered handkerchief for my grandfather. I'll post a photo of that soon.

Revenge of the stomach contents

2008-10-27T17:02:00.002-05:00

Just a few things to report in the illness category:

1. The rash, it didn't budge. Still red, still itchy, or so she says, but she hasn't been scratching.

2. The cat came in the house after the kids went to bed. He followed his usual routine: come inside, eat, drink, poo, make a nuisance of himself. Except something went awry in the poo stage and his aim was off or something, so he got a late-night bath.

3. The vomits, they made a return twice last night... once in the Princess' bed, and once in the trash can after I moved her to the couch.

4. Washing barfy sheets and pillows and stuffed doggies in the middle of the night scares the cat.

5. Sleeping in the recliner gives me a crick in my neck.

6. And my hands fell asleep because the cat decided to exact his revenge for the washing machine disturbance and the late-night bath by sleeping in my lap. On my hands.

7. No fevers to speak of in the boys, and the Princess has only been around 99.3 and below since she went to bed last night. I'm thinking the antihistamine might have been responsible, but don't know for sure.

8. The Princess and Tiny Man have spent most of the day on the couch and in the recliner, watching TV. They feel pretty much okay, but are mostly tired, I think. I can fully understand that myself.

9. What do I make for dinner?

A continuation of the puke post

2008-10-26T20:58:00.005-05:00

Well, we made it through the night and all day today with no more vomit events. However, the Princess is still running a low-grade fever, as are Big Brother and the Tiny Man. She has had very little appetite today. For breakfast, she ate about 1/4 cup of applesauce, lunch was a slice of bread and a very tiny bit of chicken and rice soup, and dinner was another slice of bread. It all stayed down, but she just wasn't very hungry. Niether was the Tiny Man, but he managed to eat a lot more than his sister did before declaring himself too full to eat anything else. Big Brother, on the other hand, has had a voracious appetite and would have eaten all day if we'd let him.

Aside from the low-grade fever and vomit-free-ness of the day, the Princess now has this weird rash all over her body. From her knees to her chin. It looks mostly like a heat rash and she scratches it unless I keep her gooped up with some heavy-duty lotion (I love this stuff!). I gave her an antihistamine after her shower at bedtime, too, which should help. I hope! Other than the appetite issues, everyone seems to feel fine, which made it hard to keep them all in a state of "resting and recuperating" as opposed to "running around and yelling like we belong in the zoo." Although I have to admit that they were fairly worn out and two of them were completely asleep and snoring before I was finished tucking them all into bed. :)

I think it's probably for the best if I keep everyone home from school tomorrow. Honestly, I'm kind of hoping they start to feel a little on the poorly side tomorrow so that maybe they'll actually lay down and rest when I tell them to. I know that's what they need to get better, but as soon as they start to feel less ill, they're up and running again. I guess I'd prefer that over trying to parent a house full of grumps, but I'd like for them to be quiet and sit still sometimes, too.

Our day was fun. Or something.

2008-10-25T23:05:00.000-05:00

Well, let me tell you how much fun our day was so you can be envious. (Or not.)

Big Brother was invited to a birthday party for his friend from school this afternoon. I dressed all the kids, put them in the car about 11:05 and headed to Wal Mart. The plan was to grab a quick lunch and a birthday present, then we were going to go to the party at the bowling alley. SO, we got about ten miles from the house and the Princess informed me that she felt like she was going to throw up. I said, "NO, you're not." I told her to close her eyes and take long deep breaths and relax. Honestly, she has a tendency toward the overdramatic (I have no idea where she gets it), so I thought she was just hungry because she didn't eat much breakfast and she would be fine and didn't turn around to take her home. Mistake #1. So I turned up the A/C, told the boys to hush, and put in the Xanadu soundtrack (that was more for me than anything else). She was fine until we got to Wal Mart and then said she needed to go poo. So we went to the potty but nothing happened. She announced to the whole restroom that "nothing is coming out!" I kept asking her how her tummy felt and she said it was okay. So we went back to McDonald's and I ordered them each a McNuggets Happy Meal. She ate all her McNuggets and most of her McFries and said she needed to go McPoo. So we went and she did. Everything came out fine this time and she felt better. Good, even. We got a present for the birthday boy (Legos, in case you wondered) and a few things I needed (olive oil, cereal, and pop tarts, to be exact - pop tarts are TOO a necessity, especially since they're the Fiber One kind and I had a coupon). I paid, we got in the car, and headed to the bowling alley. We rounded the corner on the road to the bowling alley and the Princess yelled, all of a sudden, "I'm going to throw up!" I tried the whole "no, you're not, just relax and breathe" technique, which worked for all of about ten seconds. As we turned onto the service road, I heard it. I looked into the mirror and saw it. And as we pulled into the bowling alley parking lot, my car started smelling like regurgitated McNuggets. I believe my brain had a mild hissy fit and I may have said a bad word in my head. Out loud, I said something like "it's okay." We pulled into a parking spot next to the door and I sent Big Brother in to deliver his present along with the message that we couldn't stay because the interior of my car had been barfed upon and Princess McPukey Pants didn't have a change of clothes in the car because I'm obviously always fully prepared for situations like this. I'd make a bad Girl Scout. Don't be like me. Eight-year-old boys pout when they have a mother like me. Poor Big Brother. That's the second time he's been invited to a birthday party for someone he's not related to and both times, we didn't get to go. I promised him we would try really hard to make it next time. He was sad, but he understood.

Since we got home, the Princess has been on the couch with a cold rag on her head because she started running a fever after she aromatized my car. It's fairly low, around 99.5 to nearly 101. I put her in a cool bath about 9:00 tonight and it came down from just under 101 to around 99.3, so that helped. She has had quite a bit of ginger ale all afternoon and exactly four bites of applesauce about 30 minutes ago with another dose of Tylenol. I'm trying to keep her with the cool rag on her head and some cool liquids so she doesn't get dehydrated. She did start feeling better after her first dose of Tylenol around 2:00 and decided she felt well enough to go play outside. I said no, Daddy said no, so she pouted for a while before she got up and started running around with the boys. I told her I'd spank her if she got up again, so she laid down and fell asleep for a while. She watched a movie and complained that the boys were being too loud, she shushed us while we ate dinner, and she slept some more. And I just started hearing her snore just now, so she's asleep again. She hasn't been sick since that one time in the car, so hopefully, it was just a one-time event. Those words better not come back to haunt me in the middle of the night.

And thus ends the tale of how I got to clean slimy puke out of all the nooks and crannies in the middle carseat and off the upholstery in my car. On the plus side, Nissans come with ScotchGarded upholstery and carpet. So that was a score. Cleaning partially digested McNuggets out from underneath my fingernails? Not so much.

On the sixth...

2008-10-19T21:45:00.006-05:00

I saw this on Lydia and Carolyn's blogs, so I just knew I had to participate (I have a whole separate hard drive where I keep my photos - it's a sickness - I can hardly ever bring myself to delete a photo, even blurry and unidentifiable ones).

So, here's the deal:
Open your pictures folder.
Go to the SIXTH folder.
Go to the SIXTH picture.
Publish it to a NEW POST and tell the story of the photo.

Wow. Just... wow. I followed the instructions - this picture came up and I immediately got all teary-eyed. This was taken in April of 2003 when the Princess was about one month old. Her great grandmother, whom I called Mow Mow, is holding her while she sleeps. Mow Mow passed away in October of 2004, just a few months after the Princess became a big sister. This picture means a lot to me. I'm glad my two oldest kids were able to get to know her, even for just a short time. I make sure they know just how much Mow Mow loved them and what an amazing woman she was. She always laughed at my "poor kitty" impression. :)

And as a bonus, here's the picture that was right after...

(It's like he's waving "hello!")

This is Deedo, my grandfather, holding Seth, my sister's oldest boy, who was about two months old at the time. This was taken the same day as the photo above - Seth is just one month older than my Princess. I think these are two of my favorite photos of Mow Mow and Deedo.

Oh, and just so you know... this man right here can grow anything. ANYTHING, I tell you. Roses, tomatoes, persimmon trees, blackberries (OH SWEET MERCY, the blackberries), bell peppers, you name it, and he can grow it. His prowess in the garden is truly amazing. To say he has a green thumb just seems like a gross understatement. I currently have a giant box of acorn, butternut, and pattypan squash that we're slowly making our way through.

My kids are truly blessed to be the grandchildren of these two people and to have such a wonderful legacy.

Some cat photos

2008-10-11T17:24:00.004-05:00

I'm taking a break from all the sneezing and coughing to check in and post some photos. Because who doesn't love furry cat belly shots? (Even if they are from three weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to posting them.)

He might be a little spoiled.
The downside to the cat with the furry belly being so cute on my bed is that now, my special baby clothes quilt has cat fur on it. I guess that's a fair trade-off. It'll wash, right?

"The Realm of Crazy" has turned into "The Realm of Sneezing, Coughing, Stuffy Noses, Ear Pressure and Tissues"

2008-10-08T14:59:00.006-05:00

That title sounds like a Nyquil commercial.

I think this photo pretty much sums up the past few weeks around our house. Blech.

Big Brother and the Princess have the next several days off of school for Fall Break, so SuperDad took those days off, too. But it's looking more and more like those will end up being sick days for all five of us. I guess the upside is that at least we'll all be home, able to rest and relax and recover, right? The downside is that if my sinus cavity could hurt any worse, I'd probably be begging for an ice pick to release some of the pressure.

We had a visitor!

2008-10-06T13:18:00.002-05:00

Found this little guy outside, clinging to the ladder on the porch. We don't see frogs around our house very often, so the kids had fun watching him sit there and do nothing. He eventually hopped away, off to go find himself some flies and a pond somewhere.

Things that happened over the past few days, in list form

2008-10-01T11:03:00.005-05:00

1. I was hit by a Mack truck. Oh, some people might call it a head cold or whatever, but I'm convinced it was a big truck. I'm feeling better today than I did yesterday, but I've spent two sleepless nights in the recliner, trying to find a comfortable position in which I could sleep AND be able to breathe through my nose. I frequently find myself laying back with my nose stopped up and my mouth open, which, oddly enough, causes me to drool. This annoys me. SuperDad stopped and got me a better decongestant on his way home yesterday, and it has helped a lot with the stuffiness. Not so much with the drooling, though.

2. I was running a fever of nearly 101 when SuperDad got home yesterday, but we needed groceries and I was feeling more "just icky and sick" than "certain death is imminent," so I went shopping. My fever broke in the frozen food section. Know how I know? I was looking at frozen juice and got all sweaty all of a sudden, so I was fairly confident that my fever had come down. I'm too young for hot flashes, so it had to be the fever.

3. My biggest complaint right now is a sore throat that won't go away, probably from all the drainage and all the coughing. I'll spare you the yucky details. OH, and apologies to my mother, who was not spared all the details.

4. Although I could probably also complain about the two coughing children who won't be nice to each other. That's right, I said two children. Read on.

5. The Princess came home yesterday with a low fever. She and the Tiny Man have been coughing a little, but last night, I could have sworn there was a chorus of baby seals in their room. So I kept her at home today because I am a glutton for punishment and actually enjoy dealing with two sick fussy kids all day. It's only 11:00 and already, they've hurt each other at least twice and have been sent to bed once. I finally convinced them both to sit quietly and watch a movie and color, so they're occupied for the time being.

6. The Tiny Man made a discovery last night while I was grocery shopping . We already knew that your teeth, tongue, and top lip will turn blue if you drink blue Kool-Aid (and moms, you already know that your child will have the green poops after too much blue-tinted drink). Did you know, though, that if you sit on the dining room table and plunge both hands up to the wrist in a cup full of blue Kool-Aid, your hands will be stained blue? And that the blue stain will stay until you are bathed the next day? It's true, and we have the Tiny Man to thank for that little bit of info. If I hadn't been feeling so icky, I'd have taken a photo.

7. The cat can sense when I am not feeling well, particularly in the middle of the night. His solution is to jump in my lap and shove his head into my chin so I'll pet him. Then he settles his big, furry, shedding, heavy self on my belly and purrs and radiates this unbelievable body heat, which was nice when I had a fever and felt like I was freezing. He stays there until I need to get up to take a drink or use the Chloraseptic or go pee (frequently due to all the liquids), and then he goes to sleep in the bed at SuperDad's feet. But only until SuperDad realizes the cat is on the bed and kicks him off. Literally. And then I get a visit again. Except for the night before last, when he cornered a giant mouse behind a box fan and couldn't reach it at about 4 in the morning, so he made all sorts of noise until I got out the BB gun and shot it and made SuperDad get up and dispose of it. Afterward, the cat paced the living room, meowing at me, upset that I'd deprived him of his kill. Too bad.

8. There were coyotes outside our house last night.

9. The Princess just colored her thumb green.

Under the watchful eyes of Gotham's protector

2008-09-29T11:58:00.010-05:00

Well, since I said the tank seemed a little bare, I decided to spruce it up a little. I suggested to Big Brother that we could paint an underwater scene on some paper and tape it to the back of the tank. But this morning before school, I came up with an idea that I thought would be perfect for him and he loved it! I painted some fax paper with a night sky and a row of skyscrapers, printed out and attached a photo of the moon and added the finishing touch: The Batsignal! Our fish can rest assured that they're protected against villains. I can't wait for Big Brother to get home and see it.

It's not really that cloudy - I don't know what happened... maybe a shadow or something? It really is clear water in there. Hmm. Maybe Gotham has a smog problem.

Also, I went looking for something in the kids' room a few minutes ago and saw this:
Now, if you click here and read the story of what happened the last time I saw something black poking out from underneath a door, you'll understand why I very nearly screamed and did a double-take and jumped about six feet in the air. Once I calmed down, though (and got the camera), I moved the door and found this:
In all the commotion, he barely moved. And then he looked at me like "What's wrong with you? Why you gotta come in here and make so much noise? I was sleeping here, woman!"

Crazy animal.

(That's a table I painted for Big Brother when he turned 2. The kids climbed on it and now the legs won't stay on any more, so there it sits until I can fix it. And it apparently provides an excellent feline hiding place, although it helps if the one hiding doesn't stick his leg out from under the door where everyone can see it.)

Sorry, crappy plastic toy industry. We voted you off the island.

2008-09-27T21:22:00.007-05:00

Big Brother raked in the dough at his birthday party last weekend, so today, I took him shopping so he could spend some of it. We walked ALL OVER the store looking at stuff. He finally decided he wanted to spend $32.00 on a plastic toy that just screamed "shabby workmanship!" to me. I inspected it and informed him that it was nowhere close to being worth that much money and that it would probably break in a week and that he shouldn't buy it because that would be a waste of money. He got all pouty and we had a long talk right there in the toy section of Wal Mart about spending wisely and investing in something that he'd be able to enjoy for a long time. We looked at desks, which is something he's been wanting for a while, but there really wasn't a very good selection, so we looked at some DVD movies and the Christian music CDs. SuperDad had suggested he save his money and put it toward a computer, but Big Brother positively balked at the idea of leaving the store empty-handed. He did find a CD he wanted (the new Superchick), but put it back when he finally decided on this:

He is very happy with his selection! It's a 10-gallon tank and we also purchased 10 goldfish and 1 snail to go in it (counted when we got home and there are actually 11 goldfish, so I guess we owe Wal Mart a whopping 38 cents). I set it up when we got home and just before bed, the kids and I stood around the tank, just watching the fish swim around and eat. They were evidently ravenous when we sprung them from the bag they'd been in, so we ended up feeding them twice. The kids were quite entertained and enjoyed getting to know Big Brother's new pets.

Yeah, I know. It's a little bare. It needs some plants or something.

Some have names already. One has a black stripe down his back and a little black T-shaped mark over his top lip that totally looks like a moustache, so we named him Pedro (you have to say it with an Antonio Banderas-esque accent). There are two orange ones with matching white spots on their sides, so they were dubbed Pete and Repeat. The snail is named Marathon. All the other orange ones are named Rerun because we can't tell them apart. There are about 4 Reruns. Several don't have names yet, but one is mostly white and swims backwards more often than not. We named him Reverse. Only you have to emphasize the "Re" part, southern style. Reeeeverse. See? He has a tendency to sort of float aimlessly and run into the tank walls and Pedro likes to nibble on his tail. I have a feeling that Reeeeverse might be "upside down fish" in the morning, but hey, we did get one extra for our money, so at least if he croaks, we'll still come out even. And if not, then we'll love our special needs fish just as much as we can until he finally exits stage left and goes for one last romp out in the deep blue sea. Or, umm, toilet bowl. As it were.

No one has ever called me eloquent before

2008-09-26T21:06:00.000-05:00

Your result for The Absolute Language Test...

The Rain In Spain Stays Mainly In The Plane

73% Eloquent, 61% Well-Versed, 22% So-So, 11% Amateur and 8% Ignoramus!

The statement above is a play on words, I know it's supposed to be "plain." So please no more e-mails about how I spelled it wrong.

You are a master of the art of language! You probably speak more than one language and are very well cultured because of it. You also get annoyed with people who don't use proper grammar and constantly correct them. Give yourself a pat on the back! You're ready for the Embassy Ball!

Take The Absolute Language Test at HelloQuizzy

A two-fer post!

2008-09-23T10:34:00.005-05:00

Carrie tagged me for this meme and gave me an award, so here’s both...

6 Quirky Things About Me:

I’m supposed to tag six people to do this meme, but I have tons of laundry to do today, so if you want to play along, consider yourself tagged!

1. I am not one of those people who can just sort of rinse out a coffee pot after each use. I need to use plenty of soap and scrub it and make sure it is ALL completely clean - the filter basket, permanent metal filter (I don’t use the paper kind), warmer plate, lid, handle, every part of the coffee maker has to be clean. Anything less makes me feel sick to my stomach. This is why I generally do not drink coffee unless I make it myself in my own coffee pot. I can’t stomach it otherwise. I also regularly run a cycle of vinegar through the machine to clean out any water deposits or icky stuff down in the reservoir. PLUS, I am very particular about how my coffee is made – I measure each scoop exactly. I don’t like it too strong or too weak, although most people who have ever had my coffee have said it’s WAY strong and won’t drink it again. Fine with me. I don’t like sharing my pot (of coffee, that is!), anyway.

2. I was a very conceited child and very concerned with my appearance as a preteen. (Looking back at photos of myself, I realize now that my style was questionable at best, but you know – the late 80s were a questionable time for fashion, anyway.) Now, though, I just don’t really care. As long as I’m clean and my clothes are presentable, I’m good. I rarely get dressed up, and I don’t have to have the latest fashion or spend a lot of money on clothes to feel comfortable out in public.

3. I don’t really like dogs that much. I had forgotten how much of a cat person I am until we got our kitten, Poe, who is now a big long-haired fuzzball that tries to get me to pet him when I’m asleep by shoving his sometimes cold nose under my hand. I just mostly tolerate our dogs because they help keep the coyotes away and bark when people drive up. If they didn’t, I wouldn’t really see the need for them (unless the kids really wanted one, that is).

4. I love my silver hairs and I frequently discover new ones. I want to be a little old lady with really long shiny silver hair that I will wear up in a bun or in a long silver braid. I never intend to color it. Ever.

5. I read a wide variety of things. I love classic novels (think Jane Austen and the Bronte sisters), and I even like Shakespeare, but I also love books by R.A. Salvatore and other novels in the fantasy/D&D genre, which is probably why I like playing World of Warcraft (even though our accounts are turned off right now – six separate MMORPG accounts are just too much, so now we only have three – two for City of Heroes that we all, including the kids, play on and one Warhammer Online account for SuperDad). As far as nonfiction, I sometimes read – don’t laugh – college textbooks, even when I’m not in school. I know. I’m a nerd.

6. I really really want this song for my ringtone on my cell phone. The only reason I haven’t gotten it before is because I couldn’t justify spending even a couple of dollars if I wasn’t sure how my phone would play it. You know, I was afraid that it might just be cheap-sounding tones made to sound like the song and then that would be a waste and it would annoy me. HOWEVER, I got an email from our cell phone provider advertising free ringtones and downloaded this song (the link for this song just happens to be set with clips from one of my favorite shows!). I am pleasantly surprised at how it sounds on my little phone, so it’s only a matter of time before I splurge on the first one I linked to. :)

-------------------------------

And now for the award part:

The Blogging Friends Forever Rules are:
1. Pass along to five people and five people only.
2. Four have to be dedicated followers of your blog.
3. One has to be someone new, or recently new to your blog, or live in another part of the world.
4. You must link back to whoever gave you the 'Blogging Friends Forever' award.

We’ll start with #4 – I was given this award by Carrie, whose blog name might be my favorite ever – Chocolate, the Other White Meat. She gets an honorary BFF award because she gave me one and because we emailed each other like ten times yesterday so I feel like I got to sit down and chat with her.

Okay, so here are my five people:

1. My mom! If you click over to her blog, you can see some of the awesome scrapbook pages she’s done! She’s always been good at creating pretty things, and her scrapbook pages are no exception. Read her posts on creating a legacy of faith, too! Plus, there are some really good photos of my kiddos and my nephews at the very bottom of her site!

2. My sister, who, like I mentioned before, is taller and skinnier than me, even though I’m older. No fair. But she did give birth to my two favorite nephews, so I guess that makes it okay. Even if she moved far, far away. On top of all that, she’s kicking cancer’s stupid hiney and doing it well.

3. My RLBFF, Cynthia, who I’ve known practically forever. Or at least, since we were about 13 and we met at church when she walked right up and said “Hi!” We’ve been best friends ever since and we were in each other’s weddings and even though she lives a bazillion miles away now, we still talk on the phone and email a lot and she even texted me last night, and even though I’m super slow at texting and my keys on my phone are tiny, I texted her back because she’s my BFF and I love her.

4. My cousin, Lydia, who I’ve known my whole life and who just sent me the cutest set of magnets in the mail! I always thought Lydia was a neat kid when we were little and all the cousins would play together at family reunions at Uncle Rex and Aunt Mary Sue’s house. And she’s an even neater grown-up! Plus, she’s going to be a mommy in the next couple of months, and I know she’ll make a great one, especially if she’s anything like her own mommy! Lydia is the one mentioned in rule #3 above who is recently new to my blog. We’ve both had blogs for several years, but only recently discovered each other’s sites a few months ago, so you could call that new, I guess!

5. Kandy at Ramblings of a Redneck Woman - Go visit Kandy and tell her hello for me! I’ve been reading her blog for a while now and her posts are always honest and real, no matter how down she’s feeling. She’s expecting, too, a little girl named Ruby, and I have been praying for them both. Kandy’s faith is honest and evident in every post she writes and she has been a real inspiration to me, even if I don’t tell her that enough. She’s also the only person I’m giving this award to that I’ve never met in real life.

Here I Am!

2008-09-22T10:01:00.004-05:00

Randi had this idea for us to post photos of ourselves and I decided to participate, even though I don't usually like having my photo taken and end up making a silly face or looking ridiculously goofy. As moms, we hardly ever take photos of ourselves - we're usually behind the camera, taking photos of everyone else. Well, unless you're me, and those shots usually include a fake finger-up-the-nose (I have a whole stack of photos I've taken of myself since I was a teenager, including the finger-up-the-nose shots). What, you don't do that? Well, then, forget I said anything. And I promise I won't post any of those. (Yet.)

So here we go...

The whole family at my mom's on Easter Sunday 2006:
Our 10th Anniversary party last summer:
Me and the Princess on Mother's Day of this year:
Me and my younger, taller, skinnier sister , also on Mother's Day of this year:
I took this picture of myself, because I'm a dork, while we were on vacation last month. It's one of the only photos of me from the last several years with my hair down:
My mom took this one of me at Big Brother's birthday party on Saturday:

So, it's nice to meet all of you! I hope I didn't scare anyone too badly. :)

Big Brother's 8th Birthday Party

2008-09-20T20:42:00.006-05:00

Okay, so I got distracted during the gift opening, and that's when I stopped taking photos. I realized this afterward and took the two photos of Big Brother and his friends. Then I put the camera down and forgot all about it. Oh, well. They had a blast! Big Brother was so excited that his friends got to come!

My kids are so wound up right now that I'm afraid they'll never go to sleep. There must be something in that red dye. There's a slight chance that it might have something to do with all the cake, but I'm going with the red dye.

On the plus side, I managed to make it all day without wearing some of that red dye on my shirt. (We just won't discuss the red frosting I had to clean off my keyboard a few minutes ago. So shh...)

FINALLY!

2008-09-20T10:36:00.001-05:00

Some of my most recent craft projects

2008-09-16T19:57:00.006-05:00

I've been busy the last few weeks, and so has my sewing machine. Here's just a few of the projects I've cranked out so far:

Another nightgown for my daughter in the same style as the heirloom nightgown I made for her. Here's a close-up view of the top:

This one was made from a men's dress shirt. SuperDad never wore it and the embroidery was beautiful, so I removed the pockets and used this tutorial to make a pretty nightgown for the Princess. I think this one is too pretty! I'm thinking some thicker button-down shirts, maybe in size XL or bigger, would make perfect summer dresses next year!

Full view:

I also made myself a nightgown with the same tutorial, except I actually used pillowcases for this one. I stitched together two off-white extra long pillowcases and it hits just below my knees. I love it!
The full view:
My nephews moved to Utah this summer and since winters are a lot colder up there than they are down here, I made them each a flannel patchwork scarf:
And some flannel mittens with a cotton batting layer in between to keep their little fingers extra warm. I used this tutorial for these:
And the Tiny Man requested his own pair of mittens, so I went ahead and made some for the Princess, too. Big Brother is a little big for mittens, I believe. These both have metallic accents (the snowflakes on the green ones and a glitter overlay on the red ones):

Next on my list is scarves for my own boys and some more crayon rolls, to hold 24 crayons this time. Oh, and a baby quilt is in the works for my lovely cousin Lydia and her baby boy (who, by the way, is due to arrive the week after my birthday)!

Works-For-Me Wednesday: Getting the skunk stink out of my house

2008-09-10T08:58:00.008-05:00

I don't know if you've ever had a skunk spray right outside your OPEN windows, but let me assure you, it's not pleasant. If you scroll down and read my previous post, you'll understand that today's Works-For-Me Wednesday idea was not just something I came up with on my own out of the blue. It was forced upon me by a most unfortunate event this morning. You probably need to read the previous post to understand what I'm talking about, but to make a long story short, a skunk sprayed my dogs right outside my OPEN windows this morning.

My house reeks.

The skunk "attack" happened just before 7:00 AM. It is now about 9:15 AM. I finally opened the windows about 8:00 and since the odor had dissipated (except for right outside my bedroom - I'm avoiding that whole area for now), I stuck some fans in the windows. I started feeling less nauseated and the pounding in my head began to ease a bit, but it was still a breathe-through-your-mouth kind of situation, so I added these:

Those are lavender scented dryer sheets. I put two in each window and two directly onto the front of the fan. They're held in place with clothespins. It seems to be helping somewhat.

Lysol spray makes my nose completely stop working (nothing in, nothing out), so this was an acceptable alternative. Burning the house down might take care of the stink, but I thought I'd give this a try first. I still get the occassional whiff of skunk stink. I think the skunk sprayed the side of the house, but I have no idea how to go about getting rid of that. Also, the cat is outside somewhere, too. I don't think he got sprayed, but if he even smells a little bit like skunk, he's sleeping outside tonight instead of in my armpit (his favorite place after the stool next to my bed).

Anyone have any other ideas on how to get rid of the stink? I have a feeling it's just going to have to wear off on its own. If it gets hot later, I'll close all the windows and turn on the A/C, but I'm not sure how well that would work. It might make it worse.

I know God made skunks for a reason, but I'm sure having a hard time understanding that right now. My poor nose.

My nasal passages will never be the same

2008-09-10T07:19:00.010-05:00

I can barely see straight to even type this post. My head is pounding and my eyes hurt, not to mention all the tears from all the sneezing. But there's a good reason (well, the term "good" is relative here, but you get my meaning). And I shall share this reason with you all right now.

We get up pretty early to get SuperDad off to work and the kids ready for school. This morning, it was still dark when the children were all eating breakfast at the kitchen table and SuperDad was putting on his shoes. I was wandering around, getting lunches together and stuff. It was nice and cool outside last night, so we had all the windows open.

We heard the dogs barking. Not unusual, really... they bark at everything. I assumed they were barking at the cat, who had jumped out the window as soon as the kids woke up (can you blame him?). I walked over to the open window and yelled "What are you barking at?" I then happened to look straight down and there, right next to the house, I could barely make out the upturned tail of a skunk.

It was still pretty dark, but there was no mistaking the faint telltale musk odor that told me I was looking at a skunk rather than our black and white cat. A skunk whose tail was sticking straight up. I did what any sane person would do. I immediately closed the window. I forgot, however, to close the other window - the one with the box fan in it. SuperDad quickly reminded me to close the other one, so I did, but not until after the stink had wafted in the house.

I don't think SuperDad has ever been happier to get in the car and go to work.

I don't know if you've ever been that close when a skunk sprayed his stink, but it's ten thousand times worse than just driving past a dead skunk out on the highway. (It got the dogs, not me, by the way. I think a direct hit might have rendered me unconscious.)

I quickly ran around closing the windows on that side of the house. My bedroom is right next to the living room and that is the direction the skunk was headed, so the stink is at its worst in there. I left the windows open on the other side of the house and aimed the fans that direction. It's been about 45 minutes now and I can still smell it. I have a feeling it's not going away any time soon. I'd use some Lysol spray, but that would ensure me being unable to breathe through my nose for at least 24 hours. I will probably break down and use it anyway soon, because it can't be any worse than the skunk smell. I can't really breathe through my nose anyway right now, so it probably doesn't really matter. I'll just take an allergy pill with the inevitable ibuprofen I can tell I'm going to need. I think the skunk ran away after it sprayed the dogs, so I may take the Tiny Man and go outside for fresh air. I'll try opening the windows again and getting some fans going in them soon, too. I realize I have begun rambling. I think you'll all agree I have a fabulous excuse, right?

Forget about breakfast. I have absolutely no intention of eating anything any time soon. Even my tea tastes icky after having my nasal passages assaulted like that.

Sweet mercy, I hate skunks.

The long-awaited first day of school post, two weeks after the fact

2008-09-07T16:37:00.006-05:00

This little lady just started Kindergarten:

It’s hard to believe she’s that big already, since it seems like just yesterday she looked like this:

Nobody cried on the first day of school. Her big brother told her how fun Kindergarten is and we had already met her teacher and seen the classroom and even met a few of the girls at her table, so she wasn’t totally unprepared. She was disappointed that her best friend wasn’t in her class, but that’s probably a good thing, since the two of them would talk constantly to each other.

I went in to the school with the kids and guided the Princess to the gym where they would wait for school to start. She introduced herself to several of the kids near her and when classes were called to line up, I had to chase her down for a hug. :) She went off to sit with her class while the principal addressed the students. Parents waited in the hallway to see their babies walk down the hall to their first day of class. I snapped a photo of Big Brother, but there was a teacher walking at the end of the Princess’ line (she was last in line), so all I got was a blurry photo with a teacher in the way.

I picked the kids up after school and asked the Princess how her first day went. The first thing she said was, “I forgot about my lunchbox!” I said, “What do you mean?” “I ate lunch in the cafeteria because I forgot my lunchbox was in my backpack and my backpack was in my classroom and I forgot to go get it and so I had to get a tray and I carried it to the table all by myself and didn’t spill anything and I got to drink chocolate milk!” I assured her that it was okay, being the first day and all. There was a lot to remember and tons to do and the whirlwind of activity on the first day of school must have been overwhelming. She subsequently fell into a deep slumber in the car and slept all the way to SuperDad’s work.

Since we only have one car, the kids ride the bus to school, so the next morning, we waited patiently for the bus...

Probably her favorite part of getting ready to go to school has been picking out her outfits...

Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Day 4:

I think the strain of behaving all day has taken a toll on her by the time she gets off the bus because WOW, does she ever come home grumpy. It’s not that she’s tired because we do put the kids to bed at a decent hour and she doesn’t get up much earlier than normal, but I think she just gets tired of being good all day. We’ve had some serious battles after school and she’s had to go to her bed quite a few times. It’s getting better now that she’s been in school for two weeks, but she’s also been in trouble a few times at school, too. We have trouble following directions and not talking when the teacher is talking. Last week, in the lunchroom, the teacher asked the class to line up and follow her to the library, except Miss Priss had been talking instead of eating and wasn’t finished with her Jello, so she just decided to stay and finish eating instead of doing what she was supposed to and when she was finally done, she had to ask the principal where her class had gone. So we’ve had long talks about following directions (something we’ve had lots of trouble with at home, too, so I’m not totally surprised by all this) and she has agreed to try and pay attention more and follow directions and be quiet while the teacher is talking, so we’ll see.

In which I really hope not to scare too many expecting moms

2008-09-01T11:56:00.005-05:00

Alternate title: "I was a grump in labor."

Since my computer ate them about two years ago, I have been meaning to retype my birth stories for a while now, but never seem to find the time, so I couldn’t resist this meme over at Rocks in My Dryer. Shannon also has a Mr. Linky going, so you can read other bloggers’ answers, too!

How long were your labors?
Child number 1: From very first contraction to delivery, approximately 3 days, which is, oddly enough, the number of times I went to the hospital in labor. The hard, painful labor lasted for 28 hours (from 10 AM on Monday morning to delivery at 1:50 PM on Tuesday).
Child number 2: Roughly 2 days. Painful labor was 22 hours, from 8:00 PM on Monday night to delivery at 6:40 PM on Tuesday night.
Child number 3: Only 19 hours this time! Labor began around 7 in the morning, I went to the hospital, got sent home, and opted to stay home for the majority of labor this time because I was really trying to go drug-free at least once. Went back to the hospital at 10 PM that night, and the Tiny Man made his appearance at 1:52 AM, which would have been sooner if not for a botched, ill-advised epidural…

How did you know you were in labor?
Child number 1: Felt what were definitely NOT Braxton-Hicks at about 2:00 PM on a Saturday. Went to the hospital and was “monitored” and strapped to a bed for two hours before I was sent home with the offer of a sleeping pill, which I turned down. The second time, they strongly suggested that I take the pill, so I did. It didn’t really help me sleep, but I did nap and woke up feeling like my stomach was going to split in two. They let me stay the third time we showed up at Labor and Delivery, about an hour later. How nice.
Child number 2: Wasn’t so sure I was in labor this time, so I alternated between long bubble baths and sitting in my chair working on some cross-stitch while I timed the contractions. The next day, we kept a lunch date, then went and hung out with some friends for most of the afternoon. About 8:00, I was hurting, but didn’t want to go get “monitored” again (I hated being “monitored” and “checked” and was determined to avoid it at all costs), so we went to the mall and walked the halls for an hour before we headed to the hospital. They let me stay! The maternity ward was relatively empty, so I stayed in my own private labor and delivery room while SuperDad and Big Brother got to move to my post-delivery suite, which was where everyone gathered the next morning when all the people started arriving.
Child number 3: I woke up around 6:30 AM and got up to change the Princess’ diaper (she was only 15 months old at the time) and thought my water had broken (it had never broken on its own before), and although it was only a small trickle, we still headed to the hospital. The nurses tried to convince me I had just peed on myself and let me walk the halls to see if labor progressed. I had dilated a tiny bit and was told that it was more than likely my water was leaking rather than completely broken. So they sent me home and I determined NOT to go back until I was sure delivery was not far away. So I walked up and down the road, did some aerobics, and walked some more to try and speed things up. By 8:00 that night, I knew I was delivering before morning, but wanted to wait a little bit longer. So I took hot showers, did some stretches and exercises to ease the pain, and finally decided to head to the hospital. We got there right before 10 PM.

Where did you deliver?
Same hospital for all three, which is also the same hospital SuperDad was born at!

Drugs?
Child number 1: In our prenatal classes, they let us hold and look at an epidural needle. My exact words were “No way are they putting that in me!” But after 16 hours of the painful labor, being confined to my hospital bed, and two terribly uncomfortable and disturbing doses of Stadol (worst “pain” medicine EVER), I begged for the epidural. I figured if I was going to be poked and prodded by every member of the hospital staff and “visited” and stared at by everyone living within driving distance of the hospital, I might as well be doing it pain-free. For what sadistic reason do people feel it necessary to visit a woman in labor? Why? Oh, and then I got the full-on spinal for my c-section (see below)
Child number 2: I did ask for an epidural about halfway through my labor this time because frankly, I was going for a VBAC and was afraid. And people kept coming (and coming and coming…) to visit me and tried talking to me and I wasn’t handling it well at all. So yes, I asked for an epidural. Turned down the Stadol, which did nothing the first time except make me incoherent in between contractions and unable to properly focus and concentrate during the contractions.
Child number 3: I really intended to go drug-free this time. I stayed home as long as I could, hoping we’d get there too late for them to try and convince me to get an epidural (they really were pushy about that, too). I was elated when we got to the hospital and I was pronounced to be at 9 cm. They said they’d break my water and I’d be ready to push shortly. Long story short, SuperDad couldn’t get hold of anyone to come watch the two older children right away and I got stressed out (plus, I was also in the transition phase of labor), so when they broke my water, I went back down to 8 cm, so that frustrated me (and my doctor, who was tired and had been at the hospital all day long so she was more than a bit cranky), so when my doctor said “You should go ahead and get an epidural because it’s going to be a while,” I was in pain and in transition and not really thinking clearly and I agreed. And then the ineptitude of the anesthesiologist was staggering. My epidural, instead of numbing me from the injection site DOWN, numbed me from the injection site UP, meaning my upper body and my HEAD were numb and I could still feel everything from there down. I could still feel all the “exams” and annoying intrusive things they do down there quite clearly, but I couldn’t say or do anything about it. It was all I could do to stay awake. At one point, the machines that measure the baby’s heartbeat became so loud to me and I could have sworn the heartbeat started slowing down and I truly felt like I was dying. I know I wasn’t really dying and that I was hallucinating from the effects of the epidural ON MY BRAIN, but it was nevertheless a very scary moment and I still wish I had never agreed to that epidural. I was still so out of it after the baby was born that I can’t watch the video (again, why a video?!?) of myself without being disgusted and embarrassed.

C-section?
Child number 1: Yes, a c-section after 28 hours of labor. I need an award for that one.
Child number 2: No c-section this time! All VBAC, baby!
Child number 3: My 2nd VBAC!

Who delivered?
Dr. K, the best OBGYN ever, even when she’s a little cranky from being awake for days on end.

That’s it! I hope I didn’t scare anyone! LOL!

Head over to Shannon’s to see more stories!

Also, I did the whole meme and posted it before I realized that today is Labor Day. Which makes this completely appropriate, don't you think? Happy Labor Day, everyone!

My favorite nightgown that's not mine any more

2008-08-28T13:40:00.004-05:00

My grandmother passed away in 2004, several months after my youngest child was born. Among the piles of her clothes that I took home with me, I found a blue and white flowered nightgown. It immediately became one of my very favorites - the fabric, the style, the blue flowery ruffle at the bottom, and most of all, the memories. I wore it during that first year that I was nursing my baby and thought about my grandmother (I called her "MowMow") quite often. One day, I stepped on the hem and tore the neckline. I stitched it back together, but then it happened again. After about the third time I repaired it, I decided to just put it away and figure something out later on. I thought I might get some coordinating fabric and make a new neckline to go with the swishy skirt part that I loved so much.

And then I ran across this tutorial. It's for making a little girl's dress out of a vintage pillowcase, but I immediately thought of MowMow's nightgown. I took it out of my bottom drawer where it had been folded and buried underneath piles of my cold-weather jammie pants, scarves, gloves, and hats. With my rotary cutter, I cut away the ravaged neckline, stitched armholes and a top seam, added the ribbon and a little white satin rosebud, and MowMow's nightgown took on a whole new life. It's the perfect size for my Princess. It will be ankle-length right now and the skirt will be very full (perfect for spinning around in giant swirly-skirt circles), but I left enough ribbon inside the seams that her new heirloom nightgown will fit her for quite a few years. I hope that when she wears it, she remembers her great-grandma and how much she loved her.

Waiting...

2008-08-24T15:14:00.003-05:00

We're all feeling the pinch of rising costs of everything, I know. The monthly bills just keep climbing and I have a hard time seeing how it's all going to work out and balance. We look for ways to scrimp and save and it doesn't seem to be enough. We cry out, "Why is this happening to me?" And we realize it's happening to everyone, but it's hard to see past here and now and look at what's going on with your neighbor when your own plate is full with your own set of trials and hardships. And we whine. And we pray and we wait for God's hand to work. We know He is always there, watching over us and guiding us where He wants us, but we get all fussy when we don't see results right away; when we don't know what will happen a week, a month, or a year from now.

Sometimes waiting for things to happen is the hardest part - waiting for things to work out like God wants them and being afraid that it won't work out like we think it should or in a way that we're comfortable with. I guess that's where faith comes in, right? Fear is a powerful destroyer of faith and it's hard to get over that when it seems constantly in your face. But at the same time, I realize we are very blessed to be living here and now, in this country, with all our freedoms. The freedom to own our home and stay at home with the kids and go to college if we want and worship at whatever church we want to attend. Fear and uncertainty can overshadow all that. It's hard to deal with sometimes. I whine too much when I should be praying. I'm too impatient to wait. And I wonder what's wrong with me. Where is my faith?

"My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defense; I shall not be moved. In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God. Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us." -- Psalm 62:5-8

Some "After" Photos

2008-08-15T08:46:00.002-05:00

Here are the "after" photos of the bed board I painted for the Princess. This is what she sees when she's laying in her bed:

(If you click the above link, you'll get a better idea of what this actually is.)

The photos I took after I put this back in place didn't come out very well - inadequate lighting and weird angles and all - so here are some close-ups:

You'll notice the dates on the photos are from June 22, so this only took a couple of days from start to finish. And since the Before and After Challenge thing at BooMama's was postponed and a new reveal date hasn't been, umm, revealed, I decided to go ahead and post the after shots here.

This is for the twelve-year-old girl in me

2008-08-14T16:20:00.004-05:00

Okay, so yeah, my inner twelve-year-old girl is all giddy. Just completely giddy!

So is it weird that I totally clicked the "Preorder" button?

Tell me honestly...

Look! I grew stuff! It's even edible!

2008-08-12T21:21:00.002-05:00

Is there anything better than the bounty of one's own garden?

Besides knowing that I managed to not kill them before they got ripe, I mean?

We vacationed and I took some photos. The end.

2008-08-10T19:52:00.006-05:00

We headed out Friday evening for our annual family vacation. We were only gone for the weekend, but we came home refreshed after our much-needed break. We spent Friday night and Saturday night at what I've come to affectionately call "the reeeeeesort." This particular reeeeeesort is nestled in the pretty piney woods of East Texas. I like it because the rooms have air conditioning and since we're diamond club members, we get to do lots of neat stuff for free, including staying overnight whenever we want. Plus, they let me pick one free item from their shelves of jellies and syrups and preserves and things. I chose some habanero salsa for SuperDad. For free! I love the reeeeeesort.

Saturday morning, we slept late in our air conditioned condo! And then went swimming! We had the pool pretty much to ourselves at first. The lady checking the pool passes was a very sweet older lady who played praise and worship music on her boombox. It was awesome! This is the only photo I have of our pool visit, though. It's hard to take pictures when you're in the pool, you know? And I spent the whole time in the pool, helping these monkeys learn to swim...

Here are the kids on the porch of the condo, blowing bubbles after lunch...
And climbing all over the place, including the porch railing...

We brought a huge Ziploc bag full of all manner of bubble-blowing paraphernalia:
Some wild animal got into my tea:
They blew some mighty big bubbles, too!
After all the bubble madness, we walked over to the Activity Center and let the kids romp on the playground...

Naturally, since I was wearing a long black sundress and plastic flip flops, we went here:
And hiked. This was our view:
The kids thoroughly enjoyed the trek through the woods (except this part... this was overlooking some sort of sewage drainage ditch):

We saw lots of this:
And this:
And a big vine of these:
And on the way home, we spotted a teleporter:

Just disregard those little flags that say "SEWER." It's a teleporter. The kids insisted.

Maybe we needed the time away from the video games a little more than we thought?

MeeMaw's Table

2008-08-06T13:38:00.005-05:00

So I have this table. It's small, measuring roughly 13 by 23 inches on the top. It stands about 3 feet high or so. I inherited it from my great-grandmother after she passed away in 1996 and it has been with me for my whole married life. It's served several functions and had several different types of Contact paper on top. I replaced the Contact paper that was there when I got it with a black and white checkered design (leftovers from what I put on the counter around the sink in my dorm room - that was super lovely).

Several years later, after recovering an old scratched-up computer desk with plain off-white Contact paper (does anyone see a theme here?), I used what was left over to recover the top of the little table. The table legs/bottom part was plain wood, but it looked to be several thin pieces of wood glued together, and since it was so old, the adhesive was disintegrating. So I did what any genius like me would do... I painted over it with a thick white gloss. It was still separating at the bottom, but I stuck it off in a corner and put a plant on top and it was fine for about five years (the plant is a different story).

However, I have since moved it to its current location next to an armchair and it has taken its fair share of abuse. The kids would climb up on top and jump off, one child would lay sideways in the chair and put her feet on the table and push it back and forth against the wall, and it had been colored on. With non-washable crayons. Lovely!

I knew I wanted to do something to try and repair the table, but didn't know what until I saw this tutorial over at Me and My Girl. I have an abundance of cute scrapbook papers, so this would work great. So I ripped off the Contact paper that now sported a rough sketch of an alien-looking "person" done in bright purple crayon, removed the leftover adhesive and sanded the whole top, including the layer of green paint under it all. I was ready to decorate, but first I had to fix the legs and scrub off the crayon marks on the sides. I scrubbed as best as I could and sanded, then I got out the super adhesive and filled in between the wood pieces and clamped overnight. OF COURSE my camera batteries died about that time, so I have no photos of the process. Then there was the problem of what to do with the parts of the legs where thin pieces of wood had been completely broken off. My answer was wood filler. I went to work with the wood filler and sort of rebuilt the bottom parts of the legs, as well as filled in all the gaps and scratches. I sanded it down smooth and painted the entire table with several coats of bright white. I removed the metal piece around the top and painted underneath it, too, mostly to protect the wood in case someone spilled a drink on top, so that it wouldn't seep into the unpainted wood and ruin my whole new pretty table. Maybe this visual will help explain what I mean:

So once the white coats were dry, I added a few coats of Mod Podge to the legs and underside of the table. I pretty much followed the steps in the tutorial for the paper on the top, except I cut mine into two-inch squares and used a bright yellow acrylic to paint a border around the top of the table, several inches wide. The papers overlapped the yellow paint.

I wanted to paint the metal piece thing around the top, too, so I sanded it and cleaned it up, propped up the corners with canning jar lids, then added a layer of white paint. Once that dried, I sponged on the bright yellow and let dry. Then I added a layer of Mod Podge, but instead of painting it on smoothly, I smooshed it on with the sponge brush, so once it dried, it has a sort of stippling effect and a nice texture. You can see it in this photo that I took before it dried (the white spots are where the Mod Podge is still wet):

And here's the finished product:

I think I might get a clear sealer of some sort, maybe a glossy polycrylic, to cover it all. The Mod Podge is a bit sticky. But I like it a lot, even though it doesn't match anything in the house. I don't really care, though, because I made it myself.

The kids better not color on it.

We're in the middle of a war zone

2008-07-24T07:21:00.002-05:00

Well, it's official! If we hadn't already decided we wanted to keep him, Poe has proved his worth to our family!

Last night, he was really interested in the underside of the stove and kept running around and trying to get at something underneath it. SuperDad and I commented on it and figured it was probably a mouse he was after. I said "Well, it just better not be a snake." Poe staked out a spot on the floor and diligently watched for hours. He was still there when I went to bed.

I woke up around 3:30 this morning to find the Princess sitting in the bathroom sink(!?!), yelling for her big brother. It seems there was a baby cricket somewhere in the vicinity and she was sobbing, afraid to get down. I'm not sure if she was still half-asleep or if she was really that freaked out over a tiny bug. At any rate, I sent her to bed and headed back to my own room. What I found on the way was Poe, still staking out the stove. I chuckled at him and said "get 'em!" before I went back to bed myself.

The alarm went off later on and while SuperDad jumped in the shower, I headed to the kitchen to gather things for his lunch today...

I heard the cat playing with something. I went to investigate. You've probably already guessed that he had caught a mouse. I was surprised, though, that it was a good-sized mouse, not a baby. He had killed it and was swatting it around on the floor. I watched him, giggling, for a few minutes. He would smack it and send it skittering across the floor, run and attack it, flip it up in the air a few times, and then turn his back on it. A second later, he'd turn as if seeing it for the first time, then run and jump and start the whole swat/attack process all over again. When I turned around, however, I realized that my kitchen floor looked like the scene of a great big bloody battlefield. Yet another use for my giant bottle of bleach.

We traded Poe a big piece of turkey for his grisly trophy, a trade he was more than willing to make at the time. Before he left for work, SuperDad disposed of the mouse, which had obviously been dead for a good while. Poe finished his treat and went looking for his prized catch, but I'd already bleached the floor clean and he meowed for a while when he couldn't find it. I told him he'll just have to go hunting and catch another one. I'm fairly sure that wasn't the only mouse in the house, so that shouldn't be a problem for him. Living out in the country, surrounded by fields, there is no shortage of mice that make their way inside. It's a neverending battle, but we may have just pulled in a secret weapon. You go, Poe!

Awwww, who's a growing boy?

2008-07-22T19:37:00.005-05:00

Back during the first week of June, an ad from our local Freecycle group caught my eye. Some kittens had been born to a stray mama cat in a metal shop, where they had been living for a while. I replied to that posting and the next day, I got a call. The kittens were mostly boys, mostly black and white, but there was one solid black male kitten.

That afternoon, the kids and I had looked online for a list of good names for a solid black kitten because they had decided they wanted the solid black one and we decided to name him Poe (after Edgar Allen, although they have no idea who he was).

So that evening, when SuperDad got home, the Princess (who had been BEGGING for a kitten for months) and I loaded up in the car and headed to Wal Mart for some kitten supplies. Then we headed off to go pick out our new kitten! The very first one we saw was a black and white male - he was smaller and scrawnier than his brothers. And yet, the Princess kept reaching out to pet him.

The Princess took forever to decide, but she ended up pointing to the very first little black and white kitten. He hissed at us. We took him out to the car and put him in this new laundry basket I'd bought for him to sleep in (I figured he'd eventually outgrow it, which he has, and I'd have another laundry basket, which I do). He hissed every time I reached into the basket to calm him on the way home. He hissed, but didn't try to scratch or bite, which I took as a good sign. He was a tiny little spitfire of a thing, but the Princess was instantly in love. Poe, however, was not. He hissed every time someone came near him. He was scared of the three very boisterous voices that went with the three very bouncy children. Understandable, though...

So, how about some photo goodness of the little furrball?

June 4, the first day we brought little Poe home. He looks like he's winking.

June 5: He's ventured out of the laundry room where we kept him barricaded overnight. Believe it or not, this baby gate actually deterred him for a night or two. After he discovered the whole jump-and-climb technique, we closed the door and barricaded it with a 2x4 left over from building the new porch.

June 24... This photo should be called "Are you talkin' to me? Whaaaaaat?" Or, "Could my ears be any bigger? When will I grow into the ears?" Oooh, how about "Got Milk?"
Still a bit skinny, but not skittish in the least. He loves hiding under the bed and jumping out to attack unsuspecting ankles. And just attacking me when I'm trying to photograph him. It's almost as bad as trying to take pictures of my kids when they're in "go" mode (so, you know, on days that end in -y).

And also, ouch...

July 7: He's taken to sleeping in the garden tub in the master bath. I'm not quite sure why.

He's getting bigger, though...

July 21: "My kitty. Go away." (This was totally staged by one of the kids.)

Poe loves this rug. I made six of these for Christmas gifts and ended up only giving a few away, so I have many in my home and he loves them all. This one is right next to the back door, close to the window from which he and our two dogs stare at one another. We've introduced Poe to the mutts. They seem to tolerate each other, but we don't leave him outdoors unattended yet. If they'll kill and eat over a dozen of our neighbor's chickens, there's no telling what they'll do to a cat. Even though I think Poe could hold his own. Or at least climb a tree.

He's grown a lot since that first day with us. Now, his favorite place to sleep (when he's not hiding from the kids behind the refrigerator) is on top of the A/C vent in the floor. Usually right in front of the refrigerator. I do have pictures of that, too, but my camera is holding on to them for dear life. Some such nonsense as dead batteries. Whatever. Cranky camera.

Poe has also learned that he can "cute" his way into some scraps when SuperDad is cooking. He even greeted him at the door today and tried to climb his leg. Aww. I told SuperDad that Poe was giving him a welcome home hug.

Now, if could just convince him to go poo outside instead of in the litterbox, we'll be cool. Well, that, and teach him NOT to try and eat my hair when I'm asleep...

New Blog Launch!

2008-07-15T08:03:00.004-05:00

I've teamed up with my best friend Cynthia, my mom, and my sister to bring you a brand new blog called "The 2500 Mile Cookbook." The title is perfect, if you ask me, and Cynthia came up with it... that's the distance from her town to my sister's town with a stop in between to visit me, my mom, and Cynthia's parents, too! So go check out our recipe site. We'll be posting our favorite recipes to share with you all! Click the graphic below (that's the view from my driveway, by the way), or click the button over in my left sidebar to go see what we've got up so far.

Before and After, Part Six

2008-07-08T15:49:00.005-05:00

For the first chair post, click here.

We left off after the top of the chair was sponge painted with a Vintage White paint. At this point, I sanded and decided I liked it that way, so then I got started with the design. I had this sort of lattice-like big plaid background in mind. I double-loaded my brush with Thicket and Sunflower paints and painted on the plaid pattern, let it dry, sanded it down, and decided it was too bright and I needed to tone it down a little. So I took my sponge (just a regular kitchen sponge that I cut in half for painting with) and lightly sponged on some more Vintage White:

To me, it looks like a lawn chair that has gotten so stretched out over the years, people are afraid to sit in it. Here's a closer view:

It's not perfect and I can't paint a straight line to save my life, but I liked the way it came out after the addition of the white sponge overlay. At that point, I was ready to paint some flowers and to spare you the long, drawn-out details, here is what I ended up with:

I think roses may be my favorite flowers to paint (it's a good thing, too, because I paint them on EVERYTHING). My leaves need some more practice, although they're tons better than when I first started painting. At least now they sort of resemble leaves! (Just don't look too closely.)

It needed something more after the roses and leaves were done, though, so I went for a blue-ish hydrangea type of flower. It doesn't really look like a hydrangea, but I think it's pretty and gives some nice bright color to the whole piece. They're a little more blue-ish in real life than in this photo, though.

This chair/stool now sits in a place of honor in my bedroom. It has a dual purpose: it holds the closet door shut while also holding a stack of clothes that I need to put away. Fancy, no?

So here's some info you probably weren't wondering about, but I'm going to tell you anyway. I first started painting after hearing my mom talk about this lady she saw on PBS that made it look really easy. Well, I ran across the show one day when PBS was doing a pledge drive, so I ended up watching about four episodes of "One Stroke Painting with Donna Dewberry," and let me tell you, I was hooked! I started out painting (mostly roses) on newsprint until I felt comfortable enough with my work to actually let other people see it. I bought a teaching guide and learned how to paint magnolia flowers, which I ended up painting on the lid of a small green trash can. That was six years ago, and over the past few years, I've used my new-found hobby to adorn all sorts of things: plaques that I painted with flowers and last names for Christmas gifts, tons of birthday cards, a lampshade for my best friend, table tops in my house, shelves, a canvas painting with scripture for a wedding gift, and lots of other stuff; most recently, this chair and the bed board from previous posts. One Stroke Painting really is awesome, and Donna Dewberry's techniques, besides being completely gorgeous, are super easy! I've even considered, more than once, teaching my children to paint using this technique. But I'm still in the "considering" stage.

Things I've learned...

2008-07-07T14:56:00.004-05:00

Oh, hey, if you're considering getting a kitten, let me make a recommendation:

Get one of those kitty litter boxes with a lid. Unless, you know, you actually ENJOY sweeping the floor sixteen times a day because your feline friend has flung litter far and wide, as far as he possibly can, to distances which are inexplicable for so small a critter.
He just looks sweet and innocent. In reality, he has embarked upon a campaign to see how long it takes before I have a heart attack from having my ankles attacked at random times.

"If I were bigger, I'd jump up there and have you for dinner, lady."

Before and After Series, Part 5 - New project and a tutorial (sort of)

2008-07-06T10:51:00.005-05:00

Well, I mentioned my broken chair in a previous before/after post and since it's been finished for a week now, I decided it was time to go ahead and post the photos. I managed to remember to take photos of each step, but only after each step was done, so we'll call this a sort-of mini tutorial.

I inherited a nice solid wood dining room table and four chairs after my great-grandmother, MeeMaw, passed away. The table now sits in my kitchen with various plants on top of it, but the chairs haven't fared so well with my three active little monkeys who like to climb on everything. One chair was broken beyond repair and went to the burn pile. Two chairs have been knocked over so many times that the rungs are loose and/or broken, much to the surprise of the guests who sit in them. (I guess we ought to try and fix that.) Here's what the chairs looked like before (this is one of the loose-rung ones):

The chair I'm using for this series of posts had the back part broken completely off, and also split down the middle. SuperDad repaired the split, so it was functional as a stool except for some broken wood sticking up out of the place where the rungs used to be. I got out SuperDad's Dremel tool and ground the stick-up parts down past the holes, then filled in the holes and the part where the split was repaired with some wood filler. I let it dry completely, then had to go back and fill in each hole again to repair the fingerprint indentions that some small sneaky person had made. Then I sanded down the wood filler spots with a fine grit sand paper and this is what it looked like:

I figured it could be prettier, so I picked a green paint (FolkArt Fresh Foliage) for the base coat. I realized that even as thick as the paint was, I'd still need a white base coat under that or I'd end up having to use all my green to coat it. I sanded the entire top of the chair to get rid of some of the existing varnish and to give the paint a better, not-so-slick surface to stick to. I then realized that I used all my white paint on the bed board from these previous posts, and all I had was a metallic white. I figured I'd be painting over it, so I gave the chair a double coat of Metallic Pearl (the one step I didn't photograph, so just pretend you see it in your mind), and for that, I used a big 3-inch wide sponge brush (like these). I sanded over the top of each coat after they dried, too, just to smooth things out. Then on went the Fresh Foliage with my OneStroke 1" paintbrush. I didn't like the finished product, but here's what it looked like:

Way too bright green for my tastes, so once I sanded it smooth, I decided to get after it with some light yellow (Sunflower, to be specific). I thought about sponge-painting a light coat of that, but didn't think I liked the way it looked, so instead, I put it on in a big swirly motion with the sponge:

This toned down the green, but then I decided I didn't like the swirlies. So I sanded it again, then sponged on some Vintage White, which I liked a lot better:

Here's a close-up:

I sanded that down once it dried, and since this post is getting photo-heavy, we'll save the rest for later. But here's a sneak peak at what comes next:

Stay tuned!

Part four in the Before and After series

2008-06-27T12:19:00.002-05:00

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3

Part three in the Before and After series

2008-06-26T12:42:00.003-05:00

Just a few photos to show the progress of my Before and After project...

For the full story and progress photos:

Click here for Part 1.

Click here for Part 2.

Stay tuned for more photos and an entirely new project that presented itself when I took the sticky foot thing off the ceiling of the kids' room!

Part two in the Before and After series

2008-06-23T08:06:00.003-05:00

Well, the first challenge I ran into for this Before and After project (scroll down two posts or click here for the first "before" shots) was the issue of having enough paint to cover the whole board. I really wanted to paint the whole thing white, but didn't have enough white to go around. Also, the Princess begged for purple. So I found a container and started a-mixin' up some paints. And yes, that is FIVE bottles of paint down there in the photo...

Here's a close-up of the paint, pre-mix stage:

Looks yummy, right?

I later added what little bits were left in smaller bottles of several lighter colors (pink, blue, peach) to try and lighten it up. The purple you see in the photo was a pigment, which meant it basically just laughed at the white I added and stayed a pretty dark purple. I later had to add an entire old 8-ounce bottle of a porcelain blue color to the mix, mostly to have enough paint, but it lightened it up a little, too. I ended up with plenty of paint to do one good solid coat on the board (all it needed - Folk Art acrylic paints are awesome like that) and some touch-ups, with some left over.

Here's the board standing up, pre-paint job (just ignore the pile of papers - that's where the kids stack their artwork, and the Wal-Mart bags of stuff - those are birthday party supplies):
Here it is after I slathered on a coat of purple:

That's it for now, but I will leave you with this... this didn't take nearly as much time as I expected (I'm done already and it's back in its rightful place in the kids' room, so yeah), so I've added another project. I inherited a kitchen table and four chairs from my great-grandmother, but one of the chairs' backs broke off. It's been sitting around the house with jagged edges poking out where the back broke, so I decided to paint it and turn it into a little stool. It's a super sturdy, heavy chair and the rest of what's left is in perfectly good shape, so all it needs is a little love. I'm thinking about doing a tutorial-type or "how-to" post with the chair, so I won't post the photos just yet. I'm still working on it. Depending how long that one takes, I might have to scrounge up something else to do. Too bad I don't have any "before" shots of the bathroom we just finished re-doing. (BTW, who's the genius that decided carpet in a bathroom was a good idea? Because NO, it's not.)

Also, the kids' wall art is still in place. I need a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to take that off. I could go the whole extra-elbow-grease route, but... why? I've cleaned crayon off our walls before, and the Magic Eraser does the best job. Now, if I could just keep the kids from drawing on the walls in the first place, that would be awesome.

The sticky foot thing is still there, too. I just haven't gotten around to that one yet.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go make sure the house stays in fairly good shape. We're having a par-tay this weekend! My Tiny Man is going to turn FOUR years old next week! Where does the time go?

Good times with the alphabet

2008-06-22T10:20:00.003-05:00

I'll be posting again in a couple of days with progress photos of the project I'm doing for the Before/After thing at Boomama's. Stay tuned!

I saw this over at Bethany's site and couldn't resist doing it, too!

A) Age - I’m 30!
B) Burger of choice - Hmm… I think homemade ones are the best, but like Bethany, I love Big Macs, too. And Whoppers with cheese. And the big, fat, juicy ones from the little bitty store down the road.
C) What kind of car you drive – Brand new Nissan Sentra that we just got a month ago. I love it! Much nicer than the PT Cruiser we traded in for it. I think PT Cruisers are made out of this stuff. I'm not kidding.
D) Dogs name - “Lefty,” because his front left leg is solid brown (We didn’t name him that – I voted for changing it, but he already knew his name was Lefty, so it had to stick. I know he’s a “Paco” at heart, though, and I can call him that in my mind if I want to.)
E) Essential item you use everyday - My toothbrush! I hate when my teeth feel all icky and gross.
F) Favorite TV show - I can't decide... here's my top few: Smallville, Supernatural, the CSIs, and reruns of Battlestar Galactica (can't watch the current season because we don't have cable)
G) Favorite game to play – Monopoly or Scrabble
H) Hometown – a little (and I do mean tiny) town you’ve probably never heard of in Texas
I) Instruments you play – Does my nose count? Because my sister and I used to be able to play “Wipeout” on our noses. She’s now going to strangle me for putting that out on the internet.
J) Favorite Juice – Orange juice without the pulp. Pulp is icky.
K) Whose butt you would love to kick – I prefer to plead the fifth on this one because of the result I got on this quiz.
L) Last restaurant you ate at – Jack in the Box
M) Favorite Muppet – As a kid, I loved Miss Piggy
N) Number of piercings – One in each ear, although I haven’t worn earrings in forever
O) Overnight hospital stays – Total nights: 11. Ten were when I was in the hospital after my kids were born (3 stays), and then I spent one night with SuperDad when he had his appendix out, about a year after we got married
P) People you were with today – My family! SuperDad, Big Brother, the Princess, and the Tiny Man (who isn’t so tiny any more and will turn FOUR in a week!)
Q) What you do in your quiet time – Be quiet. Haha! I usually don’t have “quiet” time because it’s never quiet here. In those rare moments, I read or nap. Except now I can’t nap because the cat will eat my hair or bite me on the floppy part of my upper arm.
R) Biggest regret – Every time I forget to rinse the dishes and they sit out all night and stink the next day, that becomes my new biggest regret.
S) Status – Awake.
T) Time you woke up – Way earlier than I prefer to wake up on the weekend.
U) What you consider unique – About me? Umm, I don’t say curse words, except on very rare occasions in my head.
V) Vegetables you love – All except sweet potatoes. Because EWW. (Shredded coconut is worse, but that’s not a vegetable, which doesn’t really matter, anyway, because I still won’t eat it, except in Girl Scout cookies.)
W) Worst habit – Letting the dishes and laundry pile up until it takes hours to clean it all up. Oh, and not keeping a close enough eye on the bank account.
X) X-rays you have had – Hmm. I know I had some done on my lower back when I was 19, and I had some done on my wisdom teeth around the same time, but beyond that, I don’t know.
Y) Yummy food you ate today – Toasted English muffin with cream cheese and homemade blackberry spread that SuperDad made with some sherry and the blackberries from my grandfather's garden - double yum!
Z) Zodiac sign – Scorpio, but I don’t believe in all that stuff. Don’t tell my grandmother, though. Oh, wait, her psychic probably will, so never mind.

Well, here's the "before" - stay tuned for the "after"

2008-06-19T08:55:00.003-05:00

I read about Boomama's Before and After challenge this morning and I just have to play along.

Click the link to see what's going on. Since I'm a master procrastinator, we'll just go ahead and jump right in... Here's the before photo:

What, you can't tell what that is? Okay, so here's a better shot:

The top photo was taken as I was laying on my back on the Princess' bottom bunk (the one with all the PINKness). Big Brother sleeps up there on top, in all the BLUEness. The Princess has been begging me for months to paint the board under Big Brother's mattress. She wants something frilly and girly to look at when she's laying in her bed. I ask you, as her mother, who am I to say no to my only daughter's request for the frilly and girly?

Also, the board poking out the edge there, on the floor... that's Big Brother's train board. For his fourth birthday, my dad built the train board and my parents gave Big Brother a full set of Thomas the Tank Engine trains and track. I painted the "Island of Sodor" knock-off scene on the board. (What you can't see is the mountain range that doesn't look anything like a mountain range.)

So the plan is to take Big Brother's mattress off so I can sand and paint the board it rests on. This means Big Brother will be sleeping on the couch, but to be honest, he usually ends up there anyway after he goes to the potty at night. I'll put them all to bed in their room, only to wake up and find that Big Brother migrated during the night. So the whole sleeping on the couch thing isn't that big a deal for him.

Besides, while I'm in the process of beautifying the Princess' bedtime view, maybe I can do something about the "artwork" on the walls:

And on a whim, maybe I'll even find time to pull the sticky foot thing off the ceiling. (I won't tell how long it's been there, but after I took the photo, I noticed the greasy spot where it's stuck. EWW. Must clean that, too.)

So that's my plan! Head over to Boomama's to see what everyone else is up to! Then come back here or there on July 25 and see all the "after" shots!

As in "Edgar Allan..."

2008-06-13T11:50:00.002-05:00

Hi, my name is Poe! I am a 2-month-old baby boy kitten. I like to hide under the bed and attack people's feet, particularly Mommy's, while she's doing laundry. I know how to use a litterbox, but the smaller people in my house don't always let me finish my "business" before they pick me up and carry me off. Mommy had to bathe me once because of that. Eww. I am mostly a good kitty! Nice to meet you, internet people!

Too bad the animals aren't bigger... we could have survived weeks longer

2008-06-04T07:28:00.001-05:00

OnePlusYou Quizzes and Widgets

I don't think it's even real meat

2008-05-28T18:45:00.002-05:00

I don't care how desperate our financial situation gets due to rising gas costs or whatever... I refuse to buy Spam, even if it is cheap.

"Nice Muu Muu, Mrs. Johnson"

2008-05-19T12:46:00.006-05:00

My sister offered me $20.00 to put on the muu muu and go outside where the rest of the family was. She recanted on that offer when I started to put it on. So she put it on herself. And went outside. I snapped her photo and said "you do know where this is going, right?" She answered, "straight to the internet!" She knows me well.

Here is my sister in all her glory, wearing the muu muu. (Big Brother couldn't help himself - he had to be included, I guess.)

The Muu Muu...

It's classy!

It's sassy!

It's the Muu Muu!

(And out of respect for our mom's "old lady" act, I won't tell where we got the muu muu.) (Oops, I guess I just did.) (Hehehe.)

(Also, if anyone doesn't get the reference in the title, I suggest you go rent all the Ernest P. Worrell videos you can get your hands on and prepare to laugh yourself silly. Good ol' Ernest provided hours of family fun for us when we were kids. Jim Varney was an acting genius. KnowhutImean, Vern?)

Good fashion runs in the family

2008-05-17T17:04:00.003-05:00

I snapped this first photo earlier this evening. Boots and baseball? I don't know, either.

What I do know is that he comes by it honestly. These next photos were taken in 1981 and 1980, respectively.

Boots...

And baseball...

Obviously, I was a fashion icon. I wish I could find my copy of the photo of me with Bo Derek braids.

Links I Have Been Enjoying...

2008-05-14T15:22:00.002-05:00

So a man uses gun as a backscratcher and, well, you can guess what happens next. Only in Texas, right?

Did you know that Chuck Norris has a regular column on Townhall.com? It's worth checking out!

Here’s a fun idea called Think-ets for keeping children busy. I’m thinking summer traveling would be a perfect chance to give one of these a try!

Have you been over to Me and My Girl lately? There are tons of fun crafty ideas for moms and daughters to do together! We’re seriously itching to try out the table and chairs decorated with scrapbooking paper!

Go check out The Knack, a new website from Michael’s craft stores.

UPDATED! Let's all give a collective "WHEW"

2008-05-09T19:23:00.003-05:00

I am officially finished with school for the semester! I took my last final exam yesterday. During this week, I got caught up on the housework (called "avoidance," see previous post), so today, when I sat down at my computer, I had nothing to do. I thought "Hmm, maybe I'll read a book." So I sat down with my copy of "The Complete Works of Jane Austen" and got through the first few pages of "Sense and Sensibility" before I started nodding off and decided I'd much rather watch the movie. So I did.

To recap... today, I watched a movie, washed a few dishes and prepared dinner. Exciting, I know. Tomorrow is jam-packed, though, with a girls only lunch with my mom, sister, and my daughter, and then my oldest son is playing in two back-to-back baseball games. I just might need that nap by tomorrow evening! (Let's also hope I don't forget to slather on the SPF 50 this time.)

UPDATED on Monday, May 12 - Final grades: I got an A and a B!

It's called "avoidance"

2008-05-08T10:46:00.002-05:00

Well, it's finals week again, and for those of us taking online classes who have been given until Friday to take the final exam, that means we still haven't taken the exam and keep coming up with other, more important things to do, like vacuum out the car, rearrange the DVDs, or watch three episodes of Battlestar Galactica in one day until we wake up and realize it's Thursday and maybe, just maybe, we ought to crack a book.

What? You don't do that?

Well, then. AHEM. I don't do that, either. I just read about it somewhere.

I need to go study. Rumor has it that Fridays come right on the tail end of Thursdays.

I'm developing a twitch

2008-04-27T23:04:00.003-05:00

I have been sitting in front of my computer for days on end, doing research and trying to get two major term papers written. So far, this is what I have written:

...

Yeah, I got nothing.

I do realize the grammatical EWW in that sentence, but what can you do? I'm on brain overload. If, for some reason, you feel the need to discuss early American linguistics with me, please know that I might just be compelled to throw something at you. Whatever is readily available. Like a CD or a pamphlet for Padre Island or maybe even my MLA handbook, even though it is shiny and silver and pretty and I use it all the time and if I lost it I might just pull my hair out so please don't make me throw it at you. K?

KTHX.

SEE? See what stress does to me? I just typed KTHX in all seriousness.

SRSLY.

My head might explode.

Even more helpful advice

2008-04-26T19:13:00.003-05:00

This is purely hypothetical (or something). If you read the last post, you know what happens to one side of the face when one forgets the sunscreen to go to a baseball game. But let's just say that the next week, you happened to remember the sunscreen and feel all proud of yourself. You even remark, "Hey, I remembered my sunscreen today!" Here's some advice to remember... ALSO, PUT SOME ON THE ARMS AND NECK. That might be helpful. And much less painful. But if you don't remember to slather the sunscreen on the neck, under no circumstances should you SCRATCH the neck, even if it itches from the little hairs that won't stay up in the clip no matter how hard you try and then you really feel the urge to scratch. Just don't. Because OUCH.

Still no photos. Sorry.

I'm not wearing the half raccoon, though. Just a little more tan-ish in the facial area. Much better than red, if you ask me.

Ow. I just scratched my forearm. Note to self: invest in some SPF 50 and wear it always.

Helpful advice of the day

2008-04-20T20:26:00.003-05:00

If, say, you are getting ready to go to watch your oldest child play baseball at 10 in the morning on a nice sunny day, it's probably not a good idea to look at your bottle of Mary Kay Day Solution with the SPF 25 and think, "Nah, I don't need it." Because you will be wrong. Dead wrong. And you will wear proof of the lack of SPF coverage for several days on JUST ONE side of your face. This is particularly important if you plan to wear sunglasses and if your bleachers do not provide sun exposure to both sides of your face equally. And also, if you do happen to make this mistake once, DO NOT FORGET AGAIN TWO WEEKS LATER!!! You will feel like a total doofus. Again.

That is all. There will be no photos. Sorry.

Decisions, decisions...

2008-04-07T09:43:00.003-05:00

She can't decide which dress she wants to wear when we go to town (in about four hours). It all depends on which shoes go with which dress. She's quite the fashionista. She doesn't get that from me... I throw on my shorts and a clean T-shirt and go.

I call this next one "To color or watch TV? That is the question."

He can't quite keep his attention on one thing at a time. There are just way too many things to do and see!

If I start seeing giant spiders, we're moving

2008-04-07T09:29:00.003-05:00

First, we were infested with rats that turned out to be giant mice.

Now, it appears we have been visited by Mothra:

Last night, while I was washing dishes, I spied Mothra here flittering around outside the back door. Actually, I heard it first - the sound of its wings on the window - and went to see what it was. I picked up the Tiny Man, who was standing nearby, and we watched Mothra fly around next to the outside porch light. Then I heard SuperDad ask me if I had the BB gun handy because there was a mouse under the kitchen table. I shot it, but only wounded it, so SuperDad had to bludgeon it with a shoe (MY shoe, to be exact). When he opened the back door to go throw the mouse out into the field, Mothra came into the house. It seemed to really like the lamp hanging from the ceiling, so SuperDad had to climb up in a chair and try to shoo it outside. It didn't want to go, so he had to grab it by the wings and took it outside, where he tossed it away, but it followed him back in the door and attached itself to his shirt. It is at this point I would have screamed if it were on MY shirt, but since it wasn't, I thought to myself "This would be a good photo for the blog," so I said "Wait! Let me get the camera!" So here I am, sharing yet another installation in the critter infestation story with my internet peeps. You're welcome.

Those knee pads are almost too big for him.

2008-04-05T17:20:00.007-05:00

Big Brother had a baseball game this morning. There was a tournament last Saturday morning, but circumstances regarding our vehicle (i.e. a minor wreck on the way to the game - our car was in the shop all week) kept me from posting pictures, so here are some from today. (You can click on the photos to see them larger, too.)

Big Brother is the catcher for his team. His coach sent the helmet home with him from practice last week so he could practice taking it off. I'd be lying if I said he didn't fuss at me for making him actually do it. I watched from the window while he practiced putting it on and taking it off really fast. Poor thing. I'm so mean. Anyway, here he is in position at today's game:

An action shot:

One of the things I worried about this year was the fact that he's not in tee ball any more. He's in coach pitch and he'd never really practiced hitting a ball that wasn't stationary. But he's a fast learner and he takes instruction really well, so he's doing great! Last week, he made several hits during both games in the tournament, and he didn't strike out today, either. Here he is, ready to swing:

Ooooh, strike one:

But then he connected with the ball and since I have an awesome new camera, here is a serious action shot, complete with the ball in the photo!

His team didn't win today, but they won both games last weekend and they're really good! I am not generally a sports watcher. Ever. Unless my child is playing, that is. Watching my own son play baseball may just be the most exciting thing ever. And, he has so much fun doing it, too.

My boy. He's growing up. He's not a baby any more. But he does get more awesome every day.

Are these the only dresses we owned?

2008-04-03T18:07:00.004-05:00

Cynthia has a photo of the two of us in these same dresses at a completely different time, and a completely different place. This was taken at church camp. This might also be the year we told people our names were Leslie and Renee...

Cynthia and I signed up to be in a Spades tournament at church camp that year. We were seated at a table with another teenager whose partner was one of their adult counselors. The counselor asked us our names to write them down on the score sheet, but before we had a chance, he said we looked like a Leslie and Renee, so that's what he wrote. So we just went with it and took it a step further when we'd walk up to people and say (very loudly, I might add) "Hi! I'm Leslie! And I'm Renee!" And then this one time a teenage boy, who I believe was younger than us, replied "And you're kinda cute." So we added that to our mantra that week. "Hi! I'm Leslie! And I'm Renee! And we're kinda cute!" I don't think it was really that cute. Probably just weird, judging by the looks we got. That's not as weird as this other time, though...

Cynthia and I met at church, but we attended different high schools. Our schools were in the same UIL district, though, so sometimes we saw each other at UIL Academic meets. Since we also sang at church together sometimes, we decided it would be a good idea to walk around the building we were in and sing. Loudly. I think two teenage girls, one dressed to recite an Edgar Allan Poe poem, skipping around a college, arms linked, singing "Going to the Chapel" might have been sort of, umm... odd? Yes?

Nobody ever said we were normal.

I'm also his personal Kleenex

2008-04-02T16:23:00.004-05:00

Boy, this one sure does know how to turn on the sweet when he wants to. The other night, I put all the kids to bed and he came back into the living room, climbed up in my lap, and said "Mommy, you're my forever girl." I think I might have melted right into the floor.

Construction alert!

2008-03-31T08:04:00.006-05:00

I'm playing around with my template today, so if it looks like a blind monkey took everything and shook it up and then threw it all around willy-nilly, it's only because I can't leave well enough alone. Maybe I'll mess it up so bad I'll need professional help to fix it and then it will look tons better. :) We'll see!

UPDATED at 2:15 - Well, I guess I didn't mess it up TOO bad. What do you think? Is there anything that looks all wonky?

Cynthia started it

2008-03-26T15:35:00.007-05:00

Okay, here we go. Remember this post? I found the red hots picture of Cynthia. This is to serve as an example of what happens when you dare your best friend to see how many red hots she can get in her mouth at one time (it's a LOT, apparently):

And now, since I said I would in the comments on her post, here's a quite unflattering, and yet award-winning, photo of me. During my senior year in high school, I participated in a tacky fashion show at a teenage girls' retreat with our church. Guess who won? Yes, ME!! I refuse to tell you where all those parts of my outfit came from. AHEM.

Oh, and for good measure, here's a picture of my sister since she got all smarty-pants about the photo of me and Cynthia:
She was about 10 or 11, I think? There's no date on the back of the photo, but check out those glasses! And the fake hypercolor T-shirt!

I have lots more photos, mostly of me when I was younger and had less (WAY less) fashion sense. As opposed to my current fashion sense, which consists mostly of T-shirts and sweat pants. AHEM.

So, should I post more photos? Anyone want to see them? You vote.

I would like to apologize in advance for the photo contained in this post

2008-03-25T16:05:00.006-05:00

I KNOW, I KNOW... I promised I wouldn't do this again, but the mouse story, it just keeps writing itself. Either that, or I'm starved for entertainment and am forced to create it wherever I can find it.

Or maybe the smaller baby mice are just stupid and aren't familiar with this equation:

Crazy lady in pajamas being really still and quiet + large shoe in upraised position = mousey is about to get bludgeoned to death.

He knows now, though, doesn't he?

He knows now.

She's lucky I like her so much

2008-03-17T11:15:00.005-05:00

Anyone want to see what I looked like when I was sixteen? My best friend in the whole wide world and I had our pictures made together for Christmas in 1993 and she posted it on her blog. Only my best friend could get away with that.

Click here to go check it out... I'm the one on the right, in the white shirt and HUGE glasses.

And also, I have no explanation for my hair or anything I'm wearing except that it was 1993.

The best $10.50 I spent all week

2008-03-16T10:22:00.012-05:00

I heard them before I saw them. Like little street vendors dressed in brown vests, hawking their wares... "Ma'am, would you like to buy a box of cookies?"

My answer went like this: "No, I'd like to buy three!"

Incidentally... that purple box above? These are the ONE and ONLY way I will EVER eat coconut. Ever.

And also, these two just might be a match made in Heaven:

Because YUM.

Also, just so you know... Wal Mart on a nice, sunny, warm Saturday during Girl Scout Cookie season can be a detriment to any diet. Good thing I'm not actually ON a diet.

Some random photos of things that make me smile and/or laugh out loud

2008-02-29T22:13:00.006-06:00

Out with the old and in with the new! I bought my first bagless vacuum cleaner last week and was it ever worth the money! It works phenomenally well. Either that, or someone dumped an entire sandbox in my bedroom floor. Eww. The only drawback: when left unattended for about nine seconds, a three-year-old will figure out how to operate the lever to release the canister and then that whole sandbox worth of dirt? Yeah... you'll have to vacuum it up all over again. But a bonus is that when you vacuum with the new bagless wonder, the handle doesn't come apart every time you move it. Score!

Guess what we made last night? Is there a more perfect food? They're all gone now, but boy, were they yummy! Especially with some spicy green tomatillo salsa on top. That's almost as good as guacamole. If I hadn't eaten my weight in tamales today, I'd want some more. I will be making more tomorrow morning, though, so we'll see...I am convinced that younger sisters exist solely for the amusement of their siblings. She makes it so easy when she does things like this: (Okay, so maybe it was for a pirate-themed party. Whatever. I choose to believe it was for my own personal enjoyment.) First of all, I just have to give a shout out to the fabric remnant bin at Wal Mart. Oh, how I love the fabric remnants bin. (Have I said that on my blog yet? I totally meant to.) I found 1/2 yard of this super-cute pre-shirred fabric yesterday, which is the PERFECT amount to make a sweet little flip-flop-themed sundress. All I had to do was stitch a back seam and add some ribbon ties. I just might have to go back and treat myself (okay, the Princess) to 1/2 yard of all the other fabrics like this. I think I saw some in my size, too. Hmmm. The ties could have been a little closer toward the middle, but she doesn't care. AND, it's a much more summery look than "Miss Sparkly Wrestler," don't you think?
Please don't ask me where those sparkly wrist and ankle things came from. Because I will lie. And the blue thing on her head did NOT previously reside on a white felt drill team hat. Okay, so that's a lie, too. I didn't keep the sl*tty pink and black outfit, though, although I did wear it once to a church teenage girls' function when I was in high school and won a tacky fashion show in it. So maybe it was worth having, if only for the exhilaration of winning that Prom magazine. And now I wish I had a scanner so I could share that particularly colorful bit of my life with the whole interweb. Stay tuned... I just might feel compelled to find one and use it.

Sisterly Love

2008-02-28T23:03:00.003-06:00

My sister has started a blog! Click here to see one of my posts that shows how much we reeeeeeeeealy love each other.

So go, check out her blog!