Saturday, February 28, 2009

I think I need to take a half of a muscle relaxer every Friday night :) I was so exhausted yesterday. All day long I was pooped and CRABBY! Man, look up crabby and there was definitely a picture of me right along side of it. I just wanted to be left alone, crawl into a hole and not come back out. But today? Much better. I went to bed at 8 and was out by 8:30p! Jack was up in the night with a fever and he even threw up, but Erk took care of it. I was pretty loopy!

Needless to say, the effects of the relaxer are making me like "whoa dude" today. I could sleep at the drop of a hat! Actually a few hats have been dropped and I didn't fall asleep, so that's good :) Erk had to scoot in to work today for a good chunk of the day, so I can't afford to fall asleep! Maybe at nap time? We'll see. I tried that yesterday but didn't have any success with the loud and crazy boys who thought yesterday was opposite day when I said QUIET time, they thought that meant LOUD INTERRUPT BANG THINGS TOGETHER PLAY BASKETBALL AGGRESSIVELY in our room. Yep...

Ohh, the water is boiling for mac n cheese. Off to put the noodles in!

Friday, February 27, 2009

Crazy House

Here are some recent pix...

Molly dipping Cheezits into banana pudding... yeah, I know....


Is that Mikie under all that pink?

Umm, this was the scene as we were trying to rush out the other day and I ran upstairs for 2 seconds to get some socks...

Thanks to Mol, the mess was made. But thanks to the boys for helpin' clean it up!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

I'm NOT perfect, but I like me

What an interesting week this has been for sure. I’ve cried, I’ve laughed so hard I banged my hand on the table and the silverware made a loud bang, I’ve been ticked, been blessed, spoken in front of a group of women (last night for a presentation Shawna and I gave). Been yelled at by a teacher for my park job, had Jack’s school say on walkie talkies “hold the buses!” as I ran frantically in his school to pick him up, fearing he had gotten on the bus. Been stressed while trying to hold it together for my kids’ sake…

And I can’t help that thoughts creep into my mind from earlier this week when I was spoken to harshly, disrespectfully. I can’t change what others think of me. I can only hope that I live my life to the best I can, with God’s help and amazing grace, and hope to raise kind, loving children in His likeness, along side of my wonderful husband who supports me and brought me home flowers and brownies and my favorite ice cream on the roughest day I’ve had in a while. Ohh and the syrup to put over top of it all :)

But now in hindsight, I can honestly say that I have no regrets for what I said or did when faced with some nasty words. I didn’t swear back. I didn’t yell back at the other person like they did to me. Sure, I lost sleep over it, but now? I’m thankful to be who I am and don’t doubt myself. I’m not “dumb” as I was told, I’m not “blind,” I’m NOT perfect either. But I’m me. And I happen to like me for me. And I know a few other people do too.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Heart Warmer

Is there anything that would warm your heart after a day like today than this?

Jack says as I say goodnight and start to walk out of their dark bedroom into the lit hallway...

"I love you, Mom, with all my heart."

I stopped and turned around and said,

"Really?"

"Yeah," he says sheepishly, "I actually love you with all these insides and these here and over here (pointing around his stomach)." I love Daddy and Mikie and Molly that much too. Molly is so cute... Mikie... he's my best friend... and Daddy is a great daddy. And you're a great Mom."

With tear filled eyes I told him that just made my whole day.

Life Ain't Easy

You know, life isn’t always easy. You get “clowned,” put down, told hurtful things at times, but ya need to pick yourself back up and move forward, dust off the dirt and just put that smile back on your face.

So many people out there in this world are hurting. Physically, emotionally… I think of my friend at church who’s husband needs a kidney transplant. He’s facing some life altering changes and it’s very difficult on their family. Or baby Bracey who just celebrated his first birthday and underwent a surgery which put him into NICU because of major complications. Or people who have recently lost loved ones, or jobs...

As you can tell, I am struggling a little with some recent things “slung” at me, but I know in my heart that God will provide. He never said this life on earth would be an easy one. And what I’m processing? It in no way compares to what these other folks I know are dealing with. I can’t help what others say about me… I can’t help what others think. I can just do what I can to love and live and when I mess up, I’ll admit it. It’s hard to be told hurtful things, but when ya know they aren’t true, ya just need to focus on the positive. We are VERY blessed in our cute lil’ place we call home, with not only this roof over our heads, but 3 amazing kids who are growing so fast (and cute as ever). Thank you Lord for all that you provide.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Hello World!

I'm watching Molly walk around with a bag of Goldfish in one hand and Bean's toy in the other. She's egging on both dogs at the same time :) They want her food AND toy... and she knows it. There she goes, around the dining room table.

We did our usual routine this morning, took Jack to school, then ran to get a snack for Mikie's preschool class - he was desperate to fit all kinds of things in the "share bag" and low and behold, we did get it to zip! Then we headed to his school and parked in the back. Key is, I park in the back when I have my hands full (literally). Mikie offers to carry everything for me, his "share bag," backpack, even MOLLY.

"Umm, I'm not sure that's gonna work Mikie."
"No, really I will Mom, I have two strong arms."

Not only does he not really help with all of the above, he just runs to his class to play. I'm carrying a paper bag with the snack (the plastic one ripped), Molly is in tow and wanting to head down the steps, I have the share bag and his hat that somehow got plopped into my hands. Thanks a lot Mikie :)

From there, Mol and I went to Target to get some things for our upcoming trip south. We can't wait! Mol did well in there, it was so fun trying shoes on her. She's RARE. Speaking of shoes, we pull in the Target parking lot, parking is tight cause of the snow and rather large truck we have and I go to get her with the door only able to open 2 inches and she has taken off both her shoes and socks. And chucked them. So I have to climb in over top of her (still buckled), butt crack saying "hello world" trying to find her other sock. Finally grab it, while putting that on, she chucks her shoe outta reach. Butt crack comes back out and finally we get outta there. Beak!

We did get some super cute stuff at Target though, I went a size bigger for Mol cause I know it'll shrink and I'd like it to last til summer!

Well, we'd better head to get Mikie. I'm starving! He told me he wants to take a nap after lunch today. He's so cute... That is one of my most favorite things, to take a nap with him. He lays practically on me, has to be touching my side the entire time, his breathing, him sharing my pillow. It's priceless :)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Our Trip to the Children's Museum

Jack the bubble man!
Can you HEAR ME!?

Mikie working at the post office (I kept telling him if he bent my package, I'd have him fired and he was cracking up. So cute!)

Gone fishin'




Nice tunes, Mikie!

How's that sound, Jack?
Why hello! It's time to get some breakfast on the table but I wanted to quickly post some pix from the boys and my trip to the children's museum yesterday. Erk stayed home with Molly, which ended up working out great! We were all gonna go, but let's be honest, it'd be a marathon keeping up with Miss Mol there :) So Daddy and Mousie had some good quality time, as did the boys and I. We had so much fun!

Friday, February 20, 2009

Definition of Crazy House~



Rocky
a fort gone WILD!
Smooches for Daddy

Crazy boys!

Mol is blah

I think lil Mol is feeling blah today! I'm holding her in one hand and typin' with the other. I called the doc to see about an ear check today. She's been pulling at them for a few days now and had a cold for over a week. She can't breathe thru her nose and I've had a sore throat, imagine I got it from her!!

Speaking of Molly "big" Molly is coming up to see us tonight! YEAH! It'll be so great to have her here to visit and hang with us! I just told the boys we'll all take a nap today so they can stay up later to visit. Jack isn't too fond of that idea! I am though :) :) I'll take one too... I know Jack is tired, he's been miserable, so I bet he'll end up sleeping and waking up a new man.

Have a great day! Don't work too hard in whatever it is you're doing!

Thursday, February 19, 2009

Blah

I'm in a zone today. I'm kinda tired but also just blah... Ever feel this way? That's me! I just got home a bit ago from grocery shopping and put all the goods away. Now I'm checking up on email and all, and then I'm gonna plop my butt down and watch GH before heading to get the kids from Nanny and Papa! I'm sure they've had a good one over there!

I hope your day is more entertaining than mine! More soon :)

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Go-Go-Go

Today was one of those days where it was good to be go-go-go. We stuck around home all day yesterday, with the exception of a spur of the moment dinner out with Daddy. It was nice to be in our groove today, drop Jack at school, ran to the post office to check the PO box for our bizz, dropped Mikie off at school, came home in between, went back and got Mikie, grabbed Subway for lunch, stopped at Jack's school to take some pix (I'll explain) and now we're home and Molly is napping and Mikie is chillin. What a great mornin!

Did I tell you Jack's teacher asked me to take pictures and then make them into scrapbook pages for display for parent/teacher conferences? How nice is that? I am flattered! It's hard to go though cause in the afternoon Mol is sleepin, ya know, but I thought we'd just stop by randomly and see today. They weren't at Art or Music or Library, but they took a nice class picture for me and then I got some shots of "free time." It was fun! Molly and Mikie were good as gold, so that certainly helped too! The twin girls in Jack's class, along with a boy who has a baby sister kept a close eye on Mol at all times :) Mikie just fit right in with the kids.

Mom and Dad are headed for sunny Florida next week! We sure are gonna miss 'em! We will be joining them (Lord willing) on the 5th of March though so that'll be wonderful. A short trip this year, just 5 days, but it'll be nice to be with them and in the SUN!

Now Mikie is building a pots and pans train and wants me to check it out! Have a good one :)

Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Fun Transition











Girls?

My daugher is a certified DRAMA QUEEN. I'm not sure when this happened? Seems just lately that she can really manipulate the situation (most of the time, so SHE thinks) - but she fakes it. Fakes hurt feelings. Fakes crying. Fakes being ticked. Well, maybe not the ticked part :) It's rare and can be kinda draining at the same time! Ohh and the tossed in "MAMAMAMAMAMA" bit can get old. Where do girls pick this up??

Monday, February 16, 2009

Short and Sweet

Hello! The boys are watching tv in the other room... Mikie is eating his 3rd snack of the day and Mol is still taking a nap. 3 hours today, NICE!

We had M2 this morning at church, Mol and I, and then went to pick up Mikie from preschool, then headed to McD's with Sandy and her little girl, Emily. It was great to catch up! Please pray for her husband, he is needing a kidney transplant :(

From there we came home and Mol went down for her napparoni and Mikie took some quiet time. Now with Jack home, the boys are zoned out watching Arthur and I'm saying hello to you. Pretty soon we'll head to Granny and Grampa's house!

Have a nice evening!

Saturday, February 14, 2009

Jack's V-Day Party


Jack and his buddy Ethan

Beaming

Yesterday was a crazy busy day. Jack had his Valentine's Day party at school that I got to help with, Mikie wore jammies to school and had his party. Ran to Shawna's in between taking the boys to school to get some invites/stamps for our next gathering we are holding on the 25th of this month. Ran to the post office, dropped Molly at my folks, here, there and everywhere. Just one of those mornings! After eating lunch at Nanny and Papa's, I noticed I had missed a call. From Auntie Pat? I wonder why she was calling me? So I listen to the voicemail. It wasn't Auntie Pat, but Mikie (hers, not mine :)...

He was calling to ask Jack and Mikie to be in his wedding on the 4th of July!!! It was the sweetest message (I saved it for Erk to hear) and I was just beaming when I hung up my phone. The boys are SUPER excited and can't wait to get all decked out in suits. How cute is that? We feel so blessed that he asked, not only will this be the boys first ever wedding they have gone to, but they get to be a part of it. So cool! We already booked our campsite for that weekend too so that'll be a vonderful time :) Thanks Mike and Camille!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

SMILE!

Ok now.... Ok. Can you get a page MUCH cuter than THAT? And it took less than 2 minutes! Smilebox I tell ya, SMILEBOX!

Human?

Hey there! I figured it out - something silly, but major in the world of communication. Bean has facial expressions. It's true. You've seen them in pictures on my blog, haven't ya? Rocky doesn't have facial expressions. His face is cute as all get-out, but be it he's happy, confused, hungry, wondering what's going on? His face stays the same. Bean dog? I think the ears definately help get her point across, but her eyes change. If she's scared (storms/the kids being nutsoid) she definately does this squinty thing with her eyes. When she's wondering if Rocky will leave her alone? She repeatedly blinks at me. I tell ya, Bean isn't any ol' dog, I swear she's human under that soft brown coat!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Crazy Kids

I’ve got crazy kids – you all know it! Mol is in here talking to some stuffed animal she found in the pantry, the kids ultimate toy hide-o-rama. The boys are watching Arthur and the dogs, well, they have finally quit wrestling (for 2 minutes). The weather outside is nasty, mainly cause with the huge snow melt, all ya see is the dog poop in the yard!

I hope you all aren’t getting tired of the pages I post on here of digital scrapbookin – I think they are fun to share!? This one I made today with pix from yesterday. Like I said, CRAZY KIDS :)

Shawna and I are meeting with Sally tonight to discuss her doing scrapbooking for people thru our website! Then we’d print the pages she does for ladies. Fun stuff and a whole new world. Lookin’ forward to talkin’ it out!


(you probably knew this, but you can click on the page to see it better)

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Goods


Good day! Well, turns out them huge tonsils of Mikie's need to come out. And he needs tubes in his ears! Both will happen on March 30th. Crazy. I feel for Mikie, I hope and pray this surgery/procedure helps him out. Poor kid!


Here is a page I made on Smilebox, a really cute website for creating digital scrapbook pages. Ya just drop your picture in and bam, it's done. CUTE or what!? I made like 4 other ones on that website today, but can't seem to find where the beak they were saved.
Mol is up now from her 3 1/2 hour nap so I'd better be done here. She likes to get on the table when she sees my "goods" within reach :)

Monday, February 9, 2009

So Huge

Hello there! Mikie and I are about to head out to see the ENT for him. Umm, I was supposed to be doing nose spray with Mikie for the past few months to see if that made a difference in his tonsil size and ummm, we'll I'm a bad mom! I never remember! I'm so bad with that! Ohh well, so it goes. Them things are so huge, they need to come out. What's up with all our kids having HUGE tonsils??!

Thanks to Papa, he will come and wait for Jack to get off the bus, and if Mol is still sleeping, I think I'll leave her home too. Mikie and I can go and come back and hopefully we won't have any pee in the pants issues or run super late like we have before when we've gone there.

I've been on this freaking computer so long, now it's telling me the battery will be dead soon! I've been doing business stuff, I just went in and introduced myself in a digital scrapbooking website's forum. A NEW world to me I tell ya! What fun - what a fun way to talk to other ladies and toss our name out there too. I'd better go before I get cut off here - have a great Monday!

Saturday, February 7, 2009

A Few New


a couple of pages that were done-zo last evening...

I'm a Calendar Girl

I'm up to my eyeballs in numbers right now! I've been digging into Quickbooks a tad more this morning while I have a quiet house! The kids spent the night at Nanny and Papa's last night while I was at my first "Calendar Girls" of the year! I know, the name sounds funny - but it's not like that! It's a group of scrapbookers who get together the first Friday of the month to scrapbook the previous months pictures. I had thought I'd just catch up on last year, but then the whole idea of it clicked... I can do 2009 month to month, and by December (HOPEFULLY) I will have this year DONE? WOW! I can go back to '08 at retreats and things like that. So I'm pretty excited! I got quite a bit done last night and have a few more pages to go. Maybe I'll see if I can upload some of my pages on here for you to see 'em.

So I was scrapbooking and Erk is up north for a guys weekend skiing! So with my 6p-12midnight gig last night, the kids were super excited to spend the night with Nanny and Papa. I was happy to come home to two dogs - helped me feel safer with them both here :) Rock has a deeper bark than Bean, so if nothing else, the two combined barkin' would certainly scare someone off! I just talked to Dad and they are gonna bring the kiddos back home around 1pm. Nice or what? So I can freely be up to my eyeballs in numbers and don't have any distractions. It'll be nice to have them back home though...

I hope you have a nice weekend! I just squirted some Zicam up my nose to help with the starts of this cold I'm feeling. Have you ever tried that stuff? It works wonders!

Friday, February 6, 2009

Rocky... what a cute boy!

How Did You Sleep Last Night?

Ever since I had kids, my bladder is weird. I guess it would be, it’s been accordian’d, smushed, stepped on and moved outta the way three times. Along with that, when I have to pee, I have to pee! So last night I was up 3 times having to pee so bad. Every time I was up, Rocky thought it was party time. We had him sleep on the floor in our room while Bean was in with Mikie on his bed. Let’s just say, Rock doesn’t have a tail, he has a 2x4 attached to his hiney! A 2x4 that rhythmically slaps the opposing walls/doors/closets, sounding like a builder finishing his project. Mix that in with Rocky puking in the night (fortunately I got him to come down the steps and “get rid of it” on the wood floor). Molly cried out twice in the night, Erk took one turn, I took the other. Erk snored like a chain saw when he was sleeping... I think you can get my drift. Here you have your answer to the question, “how did you sleep last night?”

All of that to say, Rocky is sucha sweet boy, we love having him here. Bean wasn't too sure at first (she was playing the "older, more mature dog card" - but now they are running together, tackling each other and having a good ol' time.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

again... the life of this animal!





He Shoots...


looks like the Nerf set isn't only a big hit for the boys :)


Restless Bugger

I just had a freakin’ whoppin’ morning! We went to run some errands, like the library to drop books (only could find 11 of the 12 we had to return!) and then we ran to get me an external harddrive for my laptop. I went to the store I bought it from, figuring I’d just tag it on my account there and be golden. Well, after having to lolly gag, and it was obvious I was lingering for someone to HELP me, I had to ask computer nerd worker guy if there was someone “else that can help me?” since he didn’t seem to notice me and my three kids standing there waiting while he chatted it up with some old fart about computers. Once I asked him that question, he turned from old fart and old fart was like, “ohh, you can talk with her,” then looks at me and says “we were just shootin’ the stuff.” Ok, shoot the stuff, but preferable not on my time when Molly is taking tampons and my wallet, mints, old crumbled crackers and my form I need to go get my cholesterol checked, outta my freaking purse! The boys were being picture perfecto, but I was in no mood to wait. So once computer geek guy starts talking to me about what I need AND trying to sell me crap I don’t (tampons are still flying around the shopping cart), my phone starts ringing in my pocket. I ignore it but he can’t. He’s like “ma’am, you need to answer your phone.” Out of politeness, I grab it to see who’s calling and stick it back in my pocket. He then starts talking to me about my cell phone and “ahh, a Palm Centro, blah blah” and I’m just not really feelin’ it. I’m underneath getting frustrated and wanna go. Finally he “checks in back” and finds what I want, I go to checkout. Well, not without issues. They can’t find my account info so they have me call customer service hotline while standing there in a vacant checkout aisle, tampons and mints have been put back but 17 month olds know how to unzip purses. I’m on hold, hold music playing, finally tell someone my issue, then am transferred to another representative who needs my account info to help me. I DON’T HAVE IT! So I hang up and start to leave while another dude who works there is asking if I found what I needed. “Umm, not really, and it’s too hard to wait here with my 3 kids” I say and leave. I did write down what I need and will find the account info here at home on my statements and make a freaking purchase online. Sheesh.

From there we run to Target so the boys can pick something out with the $5 they each got from Nanny when she got home from Florida. It should be noted that Mikie initially thought “Papa exchanged $3 with me for my $5 bill!” He thought that was some kinda deal, til I explained that it wasn’t and was SURE Papa wouldn’t do that. Sure enough, Papa hadn’t, Mikie found all 5 of his $1’s! Anywho, they wanted to pool their cash and buy a toy. We looked up and down every toy aisle, Molly knocked things off shelves, wandered off, tried eating the boxes on the bottom shelves. The boys couldn’t decide and internally? I was coming unglued! I told them we HAD to pick and get out. So we did – they found a Nerf basketball set and were thrilled beyond imagination. We got in the truck and I told the boys how much I appreciated how great they were, and told them I was just frustrated with the Office Max dude and Molly. We laughed, talked the whole way home and were all good. Got home and hooked them baskets up and they are SWEET! The boys are playing bball now! Mol is down for a nap the restless lil’ bugger and I’m off to dig into my website tasks for today. Shawna and I met last night and both came away yet again, EXCITED with where this site is taking us. HOW FUN! Have a good one -

Ohh, and Rocky (Granny and Grampa's old dog) is coming to stay with us for a few weeks while his new owner goes to Florida. He's sucha good pup, we look forward to having him here!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

More Recent Pix

the kids all wore their Halloween costumes for a bit yesterday. Mol lasted in hers until she got dressed after breakfast (she spilled milk on it anyways), Jack wore his until breakfast, and Mikie? Well, he wore his all day long!
construction worker? fireman? robin?

jack working on his school valentine's






and again with the batman and robin this morning at the butt crack of dawn!

mol wasn't too happy with mikie putting this on her

some cute ones i took the other day of mol...