Dangit Ange!

Mad Skillz

2012-01-25T16:55:00.000-06:00

My first born loves to play with clay. She's got mad skillz.This would be her rendition of Smaug, the dragon from the Hobbit. He's guarding his treasure. (click on the picture to see the big version)

And every dragon needs a Hobbit, right? (I LOVE his feet!)

Here's the back of him. Buttons on his buttocks. ;)

And here's her phoenix.

I learned something new

2012-01-22T05:43:00.000-06:00

I've been seeing these gorgeous Twister or Whirlygiggle type quilts all over the internet (like on Pinterest) and I SO wanted to make one. But... I didn't want to spend $10 or so on the template to make one. So, I did some reading online, looked at several tutorials and then, I took my cute little four inch square template and drew a couple lines on it.

Then, I cut up some scraps of fabric into 5 inch squares and sewed them together. I also sewed a three inch binding around my squares. And then I started cutting my sewn together blocks into new blocks. This is how you line up the template. You carefully cut with a rotary cutter around the template to get new blocks. As I did this, I understood why the one tutorial I read was SO anal about making sure each row of your stitching goes the alternate direction---lumpy seams makes your template hard to hold in one place. I'll be more exact next time.

Here you can see at the top, two rows of blocks waiting to be cut. At the bottom are two rows already cut and twisted into the new pattern.

And her's the final product. It's doll sized. :) I think I should've used higher contrast fabrics, but it's still fun.

Cuteness

2012-01-21T06:12:00.000-06:00

It snowed here. Finally. Two of mine have been having a LOT of fun playing outside.

Chop chop!

2012-01-20T13:23:00.000-06:00

Someone decided it was time for shorter hair. Before:

And after. :)

So obedient

2012-01-18T21:49:00.001-06:00

The Wonder Dog loves me. That means, my 150 lb. bundle of hairy love wants to be with me, all the time. Especially if I'm in the kitchen and might accidently drop something fabulous. Early on, we taught her the command, "Out!" which means out of my kitchen. See how well this command works?

Technically, she is not IN the kitchen. Well, except for that tip of her nose.

Her grooming is lacking

2012-01-18T09:49:00.001-06:00

While playing a game with a certain 7 year old, I noticed her seriously long fingernails. I pointed out that we needed to clip those today. She responded,"No! These babies keep people out of my bubble!"

Pillow what??

2012-01-16T17:15:00.001-06:00

My younger two have the very popular Pillow Pets. They love them. The Pillow Pets must live on their beds tho, because I don't want them downstairs collecting dog hair. Therefore, when they're on the main floor, they snuggle with me. The other night, M snuggled up to me, put her head on my chest and started singing what I thought was the Pillow Pets commercial jingle. I was wrong. She sang,"It's a pillow. It's a breast. It's a pillow breast!"Um...yeah...

She's such a good friend

2011-12-22T16:39:00.001-06:00

We went shopping with a friend and her 4 year old daughter, who happened to look adorable in a skirt I made G several years ago. The four year old announced she needed to go potty and we discovered that the store didn't have a public bathroom. G solved the problem with the following suggestion, "You just pee in your panties and then I'll give you mine and I'll go home commando!"

Planning ahead

2011-12-20T05:24:00.000-06:00

G asked, "Mom, do you have show and tell in college?""No. Why?""Because I was thinking that if we did, I could puke in this pickle jar and save it until I go to college and then I could take it to show and tell and say,"I've had this since I was NINE years old!"Eww...

She's on a roll

2011-12-17T06:21:00.000-06:00

The girls had pickle spears with lunch today. M picked a seed out of hers and asked what would happen if she planted it. I told her nothing. She responded,"oh, so it wouldn't grow a pickle tree?"

Observant little critter

2011-12-16T11:21:00.001-06:00

While watching the news with M this morning, we heard a story of some less than intelligent person that committed a crime. I called him an idiot. M looked at me and seriously said, "Mom, they're everywhere!"

Aging well?

2011-12-10T09:38:00.001-06:00

We decorated the Christmas tree today which always involves a great deal of reminiscing as the girls see all the familiar ornaments again. G pulled out the ornament from "Our First Christmas" that contains our wedding picture from just under 18 years ago. She looked at it and let out a squeal, "Wow Dad, you had HAIR!! AND Grandpa glasses!" Then, to add just a bit more, A piped in, "it's like you're young and old, all at the same time!"

Who's a turkey?

2011-11-20T08:18:00.001-06:00

Saturday morning I had planned to sleep in. When that didn't happen, I decided to beat the Saturday morning grocery store rush by getting there early. A local store had turkeys for $.58 a pound with a $25 purchase. So I made my list and set out before the children were even out of bed. (I brought them home doughnuts to make up for leaving them all home while I shopped. Win-win!)I moseyed thru the store, enjoying the fact that it wasn't packed with shoppers, filled my cart, paid and went home.The DaddyMan came and helped me carry in groceries and as I shut the van door and turned to hand him the last bag, he asked, "Where's the turkey?"Um...yeah... The turkey. I had to go back to the store. Thankfully, they honored my 10 minute old receipt and gave me the sale price.I think I'm going to be a highly entertaining old lady, don't you?

She really does like to read...

2011-11-16T09:06:00.001-06:00

M is still working her way thru The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. I love this book and it builds good phonics foundations. But every so often, I've learned to take a break, pull out the collection of colorful first readers that I have and we read thru those for a few weeks before going back to 'the reading book.'M informed me this morning that she likes reading the easy readers over 'the reading book' because the easy readers have pictures. "The reading book doesn't have pictures so I have to make them up. And sometimes, they come out a little wonky."

A new smile.

2011-11-08T21:39:00.001-06:00

Miss M's front teeth have been starting to look a little wonky. This morning, I convinced her that I should just pull the especially wonky one. I grabbed hold and told her I'd count to three. I counted to two and gave a good yank. This was the result. :)

Once that tooth was out, the loose one beside it started hanging a bit wonkier. So, I started trying to bribe her to let me pull it. I already owed her $2 for letting me pull the first one. I upped this one to $3 if she'd let me pull it, but she wouldn't take it. Shoot..Later we met some friends for supper, followed by ice cream at McDonalds. I upped the ante to include McDonalds fries AND the money and she bit. I got a grip and.....

What happened to my baby?? Just one more sign of her growing up WAAAY too fast!

Baby, it's cold outside!

2011-10-14T19:09:00.001-05:00

The girls and i are getting back into the habit of taking the Wonder Dog for a nice long walk each morning. Today we got started earlier than usual and it was downright chilly outside! G and M were riding bikes while A and I walked fast to try and warm up. M apparently hadn't gotten the memo to wear socks and her feet were cold. At one point she stopped to ask, "Mom, can I borrow your socks?"

Excuses, excuses.

2011-10-05T06:04:00.000-05:00

The small two were in the tub together the other morning. Seriously, they can be entertained in there for hours, but on this day, we had stuff to do and they were supposed to be hurrying. They weren't. When I hollered at them to get out (for like the third time!), G informed me that they weren't out of hot water yet. Great. I've trained them well. :eyeroll:Later in the day, the small one, M, was in the bathroom. Again, I needed to be doing something else with her and she was dawdling. When I pushed her to hurry it up in there, she said, "but I'm not done with this magazine yet!"

Time to change my hair color

2011-10-04T06:11:00.000-05:00

I planted new hydrangeas this spring and the girls have had fun watering them. It's been raining every few days for the last couple weeks and we haven't had to water. It's been great because now I don't get asked by every child, daily, "Can I water the flowers??"

One day last week, A and I were together out front and I noticed some of our front sidewalk was wet. You know, the part by the hose and ONLY the part near the hose. I commented on it and looked, but didn't see any water coming out of the hose. It kinda looked like someone had stepped on the hose and gooshed out what was in it. So, I didn't give it another thought.

About three days later, we were outside again and again, the sidewalk near the hose was wet. This time A looked closer and announced, "Um, mom, the water is ON! It's trickling out of the hose!" Oh dear. As she went to shut off the hose, I noticed that there was a nice, plush quarter circle of long, green grass at the corner of the yard where it's been getting a trickling of water for the last TWO WEEKS (or more!).

Whoops.

Mom of the Year

2011-10-03T07:06:00.000-05:00

Last Sunday as we were rushing to go to church, I thought M's dress looked kinda funny. I forgot to check. When we got home, I realized it was on backwards. Whoops.

This Saturday, during her soccer game, while she was on the field I thought I saw her drawstrings on the back of her pants. Of course, I forgot to check. Until, hours later when we got home and she was changing for bed (yep, ALL day), she did indeed have her pants backwards.

I rock.

Good news, bad news

2011-08-09T22:27:00.004-05:00

Good news: We had a lovely time outside riding bikes and brushing the dog this evening.
Bad news: It looks like a dog exploded on the lawn from all the hair.

Good news: The weather was perfect outside tonight.
Bad news: We enjoyed it about an hour longer than I planned to.

Good news: I'm very good at keeping ALL the main floor windows locked.
Bad news: That makes it hard to break in when all the doors are also locked.

Good news: My neighbor's son is a cop.
Bad news: Not even a cop can break into my house.

Good news: The neighbors have an extension ladder that reaches my upstairs window.
Bad news: The screen had to be sacrificed to get in.

Good news: A six year old climbed the ladder, climbed thru the window and unlocked the doors.
Bad news: My bright red bra was layin' in the middle of the bathroom floor for said neighbor and said child to see.

Oy.

Piano thoughts

2011-07-27T12:31:00.001-05:00

A just got done practicing a new piano song. It took her a while to plunk out the right hand and then the left. Even after she put both parts together, it was plunky and far from beautiful sounding. I mentioned that it sounded like she still needed to work on that one a bit. She informed me, "No, it's just ugly. If ugly had a sound, that's what it would sound like."

Weird dreams

2011-07-07T07:04:00.004-05:00

Some nights I dream the oddest things....

In my dream, I was doing laundry. In the toilet. (This didn't seem at all strange in my dream, mind you.) I put in some clothes, added soap, stirred and shut the lid. To soak? Or maybe there was a wash cycle on the toilet, I'm not sure.

I came back later and found a clean, empty bowl. The DaddyMan had FLUSHED my clothes. And...they went down. Horrors! In the next frame, I was yelling at the DaddyMan that he had flushed my favorite jeans, favorite long sleeved shirt, favorite short sleeved shirt down the toilet!

He, of course, was not nearly as upset as I was. :P

Good morning

2011-06-27T07:06:00.002-05:00

M is an early riser. She's her father's child. She is always the first one up, regardless of what time she goes to bed. This morning, was no exception.

A couple minutes after five she came into my room and quietly informed me, "I was just getting up to go potty, but then I saw the sunrise and it's really pretty and you should see it. It's pink."

Could she be more adorable? (Yes, probably at 7 am, she could be.) Oh and I missed the sunrise, because I laid in bed an extra 10 minutes after she wandered in. :)

Government lesson

2011-06-06T07:51:00.000-05:00

The girls wanted to watch tv after a late supper and we wanted them to go to bed. The DaddyMan laid down the law with a "Go to bed!" and A protested that she didn't get a vote. The DaddyMan informed her that she didn't get a vote because this isn't a democracy, it's a benevolent dictatorship. Since we've been discussing absolute monarchs in history, I pointed out that that's what the DaddyMan is.

A looked at her dad and said, "Ooh! I know what those are! People killed them! Things aren't looking so good for you buddy!"

More from M

2011-06-05T19:46:00.002-05:00

The child's on a roll tonight. The DaddyMan was teasing her and she was threatening him with a "Dont even think about it!". And then she said,"Oop,, you thunk about it!" and proceeded teo give him a wet willy.

A few minutes later, the DaddyMan asked who she was most like, Mommy or Daddy. She very matter of factly said,"Well, I just tooted and it smelled and I get that from YOU!"

M, the gabby one

2011-06-01T18:07:00.000-05:00

The entire time M was getting speech therapy, the DaddyMan maintained that she needed speech due to the fact that her older sisters never let her talk. I disagreed.

Now that she's graduated from speech and is more confident in her speaking abilities, she's making up for lost time. This girl's had diarrhea of the mouth for quite some time (and especially tonight!). After chatting incessantly thru dinner, she sat beside me on the couch and asked, "can I scroll thru the channels and see if there's something good on tv?". Goofball.

An A-ism

2011-05-31T17:23:00.004-05:00

Look at that, I lost track of a whole 'nother month. To sum it up, G turned 9, my inlaws visited for 10 days and I caught 8 mice during their visit. There are so many things I could say about that last sentence..... but I won't. I may try to put up pictures of the incredibly ugly cake I made her or maybe I'll preserve my vanity.

In other news, my oldest child is um...quick? Intelligent? Sassy? I'm not sure which fits her best. You decide.

She's recently asked me, "My friends are going to X, so can I go with them?"

I said, "If they all jumped off a cliff, would you?"

She responded, without hesitation, "Well, I'd get to see Jesus!"

(I told her to go ahead with her friends... I mean, her logic isn't all bad....)

Hooray!

2011-05-03T07:10:00.001-05:00

After waiting 18 months, we finally painted the family room! :D I've been wanting to get this room painted since we finished the basement and put in new floors up here (November of 2009) but the DaddyMan took the year of 2010 off from doing home improvement projects. Sigh. He also didn't think it needed painted. :P

But I convinced him and I LOOOOOVE how it looks.

(click on it for the BIG picture)

Yes, there is still a blank spot over the couch. But...I'm getting something for Mother's Day to hang there and I'm VERY excited about it! I'll let you know when it arrives! :D

Wedding plans

2011-04-19T07:29:00.002-05:00

One of my children isn't much for hugs. She's really not much for physical touch outside of very brief hugs or a pat on the head. Since she's my oldest and approaching the age of :gasp: boys, I'm okay with this.

For some reason yesterday we were discussing weddings. She still thinks seeing people kiss is super gross and that weddings are mushy. She informed me that the only reason you go to weddings is for the cake.

So we discussed HER wedding and we've decided it'll look something like this.

"I do."
"I do."
"Don't kiss me! Let's have cake!"

Yep, short and to the point. ;)

A.D.D? I don't think so!

2011-03-29T05:36:00.002-06:00

A couple years ago, I made a quilt. It took me 2 years. This fall, I started a throw sized quilt for the couch. It took me 4 or 5 months. In mid-March, I started a quilt for M's bed. Yesterday, I finished it. Yeah, baby! 19 days!! Here are a few of the 841 pieces I needed to make this quilt. :) Yes, you read that right....29 tumblers times 29 rows= 841 pieces! Crazy, huh? Here's the finished quilt laying on someone precious's bed. :)

And here's someone precious. :D If you look at the binding, you can see it's made from scraps too. She LOVES it! (And I love that I stayed on task and finished it! :D)

Planning ahead?

2011-03-28T11:13:00.002-06:00

I was sitting beside M this morning, listening to her read from her phonics book when she asked, "Can I have this book when you're dead?" I was caught a bit off-guard. "When I'm dead??" "Yeah, when you're dead. So I can teach MY kids to read."

Some days, I just suck.

2011-03-23T13:11:00.002-06:00

Some days, I really suck at this whole parenting thing. No, really, I do. It's not all happy schooling, game playing and cheerful children doing their chores and playing.

Monday, I was a very crabby mommy who was mad at her broken computer, mad at the DaddyMan for not backing it up and just plain MAD. Because of this crabby fit, when I messed up on the quilt I was sewing, I said a few choice words. At the moment, I don't remember which words they were, but I blurted them. Two of my children were upstairs resting and I didn't give a thought to where the big one was.

I learned last night, in front of two of my dear friends, that when I blurted ugly words, my beloved 13 year old was in the next room, quietly reading. She heard me. After announcing that she heard ugly words, she tried to console me with, "Don't worry Mom; they were ones I already knew."

Oy. That wasn't consoling. Not only did I suck on Monday by saying those words out loud, but apparently I've sucked in the past because she'd heard them before. I truly don't make a habit of swearing, but I'll admit, unwholesome talk does occasionally come out of my mouth. Like yesterday, when I smacked my head so hard on the liftgate of the van that I seriously considered sitting down on the rain covered parking lot. Boy, did that hurt! And I handled it well.... I sucked again by blurting out a word I shouldn't have.

So, there, twice in two days, I've broken the "no unwholesome talk" rule that's been posted on my fridge for YEARS. Today, I got very frustrated and yelled at the child who acted like she'd never seen math problems before. This would be the child who either gets them ALL right or basically turns off her brain and misses almost all of her problems. I didn't say ugly words, but my tone was ugly and I was c.r.a.b.b.y at her.

After a nice long sobbing fest in the shower this morning, I found my 13 year old, hugged her and apologized. She forgave me. I still need to apologize to the smaller one and I know she'll be just as forgiving. So then, why is it so hard to forgive myself??

Life's little trials

2011-03-22T04:30:00.002-06:00

Only once in our 17 years of marriage have I seen the DaddyMan NOT be able to fix someone's computer.

Until yesterday. The computer he can't fix? That would be mine.

You know, the computer that has pretty much my entire LIFE on it? I had many friends that live in there, my emails, and lots of pictures. Lots and lots of pictures. You know, the ones I deleted from the memory card and stored on it? Yeah, those.

Was it backed up? Because you know, all good geeks back up their computers! Mine was backed up. Yeah, in 2009. :( My resident computer geek took out the hard drive, put it into his computer and got nothing. Nada. Zip.

So now, it's on the way to some data recovery place along with a large chunk of money they charge for the ransom of your files. Today I'll be rewriting a big portion of stuff I need for a church meeting tonight. And praying that all my pictuers come back from the abyss that is a lightning fried hard drive.

The little trip we took

2011-03-15T05:35:00.001-06:00

Yep, we did an "as seen on tv" move and completely surprised the girls with a trip to DisneyWorld. As you saw in the video, they're just not overly excitable at 3:30 in the morning. They did get more excited as the day went on. A was excited after her shower, G was excited when she saw her new Rapunzel shirt I'd bought her to wear that day and M...well, she woke up after we got to the airport. LOL

We had so much fun! (A side note--I sewed the little ones' dresses while they were around AND showed them to several of my friends before the trip. The girls---clueless!)

This one will have us giggling for years to come, I think:

My girls did "Pick a Pearl" and all managed to get the very rarest...silver pearls. Um..yeah.

I think this one sums it up well--this was spontaneous after they'd picked their pearls, we headed off to meet some friends and they decided to skip. This picture I treasure.

Still here

2011-03-14T05:21:00.002-06:00

I got asked last night by someone if I was abandoning my blog. He pointed out I haven't posted since January. Let me give you a rundown of where I've been. First off, I was planning a top secret trip. Here's the video.

Hungry?

2011-01-29T06:35:00.000-06:00

Somehow during dinner last night, we were discussing fishing. From there, someone commented on 'what if you caught a mermaid?' and 'could you eat it?' That prompted A to ask, "Would that be cannibalism? Oh and what about a centaur? Would that be cannibalism?"

Anybody hungry? :P

A little grammar lesson

2011-01-28T05:33:00.002-06:00

Yesterday we studied William Shakespeare. He used a lot of alliteration so I was giving a lesson on it. A quickly piped in with "Alliteration? Is that like obliteration? You know, blowin' stuff up? Kaboom!"

And it went downhill from there...

A Toy Story

2011-01-17T17:19:00.003-06:00

I stunk up the bathroom today. It wasn't pretty. I turned on the Scentsy and left the room. In our house, since no topic is left undiscussed, the odor was quickly discussed. I'm raising little stinkers....what can I say?

A few moments later Piper the Wonder Dog came in from outside and following her nose, investigaged the bathroom. A promptly turned on the "Piper Voice" and started talking for the dog (this happens regularly).

So, as Piper sniffed the bathroom, the voice said, "Hey, I liked drinkin' out of that bowl. Hey! Someone poisoned the water hole!"

Piper then came and did that nasty thing that dogs do....she sniffed me. I told her to go away. The voice said, "Just checkin' to see who poisoned the water hole. Now I know it was YOU!"

The one where I was the village idiot

2011-01-11T06:38:00.003-06:00

We had a bit of a mystery around here. Sunday after church, just after the DaddyMan arrived home, parked his truck in the garage and shut the door, the garage door reopened. I was in the kitchen at the time, doing some tidying and we both thought it was weird but forgot about it.

Monday morning, just after the DaddyMan went to work, I was in the kitchen waiting for the Wonder Dog to do her morning business, the garage door opened again. It was early, it was dark and that was rather freaky. I called the DaddyMan and he knew I was a bit freaked by the whole thing.

I went to the computer and started googling 'garage door opening unexpectedly' and such. I came to the conclusion that after almost 6 years in the house we either needed to rewire the base pad, change all the remotes' batteries or figure out which neighbor got a new opener that was now opening our door.

Later in the day, I remembered that somewhere in the house there is a spare remote that we use when we go for walks and whatnot. My van doesn't need a remote because it's programmed into my van (somehow, magic or something. LOL The DaddyMan did it).

This extra remote typically lives in the basket on top of the fridge where the charging cords for our phones/iPods/etc. live. I took down the basket and set it on the counter and BAM! the garage door started to open. Sure, enough in the basket was the remote. This morning when it opened....I'd thrown the iPod charger in there. Yesterday afternoon when it opened....I'd just thrown my phone charger in there.

DUH! Mystery solved. You may now return to your regular programming. The idiot has solved her village's issues.

Overheard

2011-01-10T08:07:00.004-06:00

My children lack modesty. For example, after a certain small child used the bathroom, during dinner, she announced, "My turd wouldn't come out. So I sucked it back in and tried again."

:P

And this morning, a big child sat down at the dining room sized school table and apparently a certain Wonder Dog needed her attention. The child told the dog, "Piper! I can't do my school work when your head's on my paper!"

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T20:36:00.002-06:00

Another year has come and gone. Someone told me when I first started having babies that "these are the longest days, but the shortest years." They weren't kidding!

What a year we had! We were going to move, then didn't. We left a church and helped start a new one. Everyone got a year older, we visited family, we went to family camp and on and on and on.

We are feeling blessed as we start the new year. It's always exciting to see what the new year will bring. Hopefully, I'll do a bit better with the blogging....

My firstborn

2010-11-02T05:29:00.003-06:00

The other day A and I were bustling around the kitchen trying to get dinner on the table. A bumped into me (almost like a chest bump, except we were both in a hurry and it wasn't planned) and she told me, "That was a hug---just without the arms."

Then last night, the DaddyMan and I were lounging on the couch while we all watched tv and A needed some affection. She plopped on the DaddyMan's lap, pulled up her legs and said, "Look! I still fit!"

Blog?

2010-11-02T05:25:00.002-06:00

Oh yes, I do have a blog. A pitifully neglected one! Some quick updates:

G's arm is all better. She had a cast for 20 days and then a 2 week check up after that. Her arm wasn't quite straight at that appointment, but in the two weeks since, she's able to mostly straighten it and she's doing cartwheels and flipping backwards off the swings. I think she's better.

We're continuing to plug away at school. Last week I took Friday off and called it a professional development day. As a homeschooler, I used it to clean house and hit a garage sale. I scored a bunch of Hannas and Gymboree stuff for the little two. Yay!

A got her braces off. I took pictures. But I haven't posted them yet.

M turned 6. My baby! Waah. She also lost her first tooth. I have pictures of that too.

I'm so behind...

School gone awry

2010-09-24T08:02:00.004-05:00

For a part of A's daily language art curriculum, she's required to take three sentences and write them in a more appealing way. The other day she was given these three sentences:

The potted tulip was a gift.
The tulip is dying.
Grandma gave it to Mom.

What did my child write?
Grandma gave Mom a dying tulip as a gift.

Funny, in the teacher's guide, they made it look like it was unfortunate that the gift Grandma gave Mom was dying, instead written in a way that so clearly shows Grandma's dislike for Mom.

At the eye doctor yesterday, this same child wanted me to write "terrorist" as her occupation. I suggested "slacker." We decided to leave it blank since we couldn't agree.

Since we last chatted...

2010-09-21T17:34:00.002-05:00

A lot has happened. We completed two, (or was it three?) weeks of school. We socialized a lot with some other families from our church. In fact, one night while having dinner at a friend's house, G fell out of a tree and broke her arm.

I've spent the last week and a half taking her to three doctors, then she had surgery and today was the follow-up. Thankfully, all is healing well.

We also learned in the last two weeks that our church elders have decided to force our beloved pastor to resign. Since this same debacle happened in our last church, it's an odd sense of deja vu. It's like a bad movie--it just doesn't end any better the second time you watch.

So, my child's getting better, but my church is not. Emotionally, I'm rather weary. And that my friends...is just keepin' it real.

Wow.

2010-09-01T06:09:00.003-05:00

Time sure flies when you're trying to squeeze all the family fun you can into the last month of summer. Here are some highlights from the last month.

All the children are now pretty proficient in Pig Latin. Two of them can now give the dinner blessing in this great language.
We went to Family Camp with our church. I went in with very low expectations. We all had a fabulous time. The DaddyMan had so much fun that people around him started saying, "Wow! I've never seen him smile so much!" and he won the Happy Camper award.
Our counselor for that week (who's actually a lot like a nanny, which totally rocked!) taught my children "The Chrissy Game." That would be the game you play in the lake with a child wearing a life jacket. You shove them under the water and wait for them to bob back up. The children all love it.
We've been bowling several times. Kidsbowlfree has been so fun. I like bumper bowling best.
We started school. It's gonna take a while to find my groove. Learnin' three kids their three Rs is gonna take some time. ;)

Bad influences

2010-08-02T10:18:00.003-05:00

We took the girls to see Despicable Me over the weekend. They loved it. I loved it. I laughed, I almost cried...it was good.

At one point, the non English speaking Minions are shown photocopying one of their butts and as each one popped out of the copier, the other ones would yell, "Butt!" Juvenile? Yes, but still funny. We laughed. (And no, we don't say butt around here, we say bum.)

So this morning, A asks me, "Do we have a copier?"
Knowing where this was going, I said "No and if you sit on the scanner to copy your bum, you'll break it."

She paused half a second. "How 'bout if I hover?"

My name is not Grace

2010-07-12T13:00:00.003-05:00

Saturday morning, for the first time in weeks, the DaddyMan was home. That means, I got to go out garage saling all alone. Oh, was I excited! I hadn't been out garage saling by myself all summer and I was almost giddy. (Of course, I did kinda wish I had a local mom friend who loved to garage sale to go with me, but I got over it at the idea of being able to have a complete thought since no one would be talking to me!)

I hit a few sales and didn't find anything exciting. At one sale I chatted with the woman about her Creative Memories stuff she had for sale. Then, I walked down her driveway towards the van.

And that's where the ugly happened.

This subdivision was fairly new and therefore, the powers that be, had not yet laid the second layer of asphalt on the road. Therefore, there was about a two inch drop off after the gutter into the street. Yours truly stepped on the edge of that, twisted her left ankle which made me lurch forward and fall onto my right knee. Hard. Thankfully, I caught myself with my hands.

I sat in the street for a moment, deciding if I was going to live, before the garage sale lady gasped and came to my aid. She offered me ice and asked repeatedly if I was hurt. It took me several minutes to assess how badly I was hurt (sprained ankle, giant bruise, hamburgered knee and bruised hands) and I decided I would live.

Ow. I'm too old and too fat to fall down. Now excuse me while I go ice a body part and whine.

We need to work on history

2010-07-05T07:14:00.003-05:00

Yesterday at church, they did a presentation with quotes from some of the founding fathers and how their faith helped shape our country.

Since we've never studied American history, I was leaning over and filling A in on who the people were that said the quotes. I pointed out that Alexander Hamiliton was a president, Patrick Henry was a patriot and then there was a quote from Samuel Adams.

A leaned over to me and informed me, "He's a beer."

Technically....she's right... sigh...

tap....tap....tap

2010-07-02T05:53:00.004-05:00

Is this thing still on? Someone mentioned the other day that I haven't been blogging much. They're right. I'm behind. My life's insane. Here's a rundown:

The DaddyMan came home one day and told me they're closing his office. The higher ups want us to move 2 hours south.
My head whirled with all we must do to get the house on the market. I contemplated throwing up. I got diarrhea instead (TMI??)
2 days later we drove to PA for the graduation, then to Niagara Falls then home to a picnic with friends where my 'prone to carsickness child' puked. Whoops.

The next weekend, we helped my dearest friend move her family two hours away from us. We've known this move was coming for over a year and were so excited. But now, we're moving and we'll be about 3 or so hours away. Aargh.
I spent the next week spinning in circles. That's what one does when one has an insane amount of work before them and doesn't know where to start. We also hadn't told anyone about the impending move so trying to sit on this news AND be productive didn't go so well for me.

The following week was garage sale week. As in, I purged my house and ended the week making some good bucks by having a sale.
Now we're into mid-June. My girls went to VBS. I packed 3 boxes and prepared for my inlaws to arrive for a week.
They were here while the DaddyMan and I went to a work conference for him. There was some fun stuff as well as some uber-boring talk about what he does for a living. Being a sahm is far more exciting I think.
I spent the rest of that week with my inlaws working on house projects and letting my mind relax a little bit.

That brings us to this week. The graduate from a few weeks ago (wait, by now it's been like 6 weeks and it's been a whirlwind since then) is here for a week. This is a holiday weekend, there's lots to do and lots that needs done.

By next week...perhaps life will slow down a bit and I'll have time to take the 40000? pictures off my camera and do a proper blog update. Time will tell.

Are we speaking the same language?

2010-06-24T06:06:00.002-05:00

I went out of town again. If you're keeping track, this was the third time in just over a month. For one who loves to stay home and could write poetry about her love for her Select Comfort mattress, that's a lot.

Before I left, I kissed my M good bye. As I was also tucking her in for her nap, she was more concerned with making sure that Grandma had been given proper instructions on her care than she was with actually telling me good-bye.

Me--I love you.
M--Make sure you tell Grandma we get a snack after naps.
Me--Do you love me?
M--Like popsicles.
Me--You love me like popsicles??
M--No... I want popsicles for snack.

Hmm. Both of us were speaking English, but funny, we just weren't communicating.

Guest blogger part two

2010-06-10T05:49:00.005-05:00

In case you missed installment 1 of our trip to Pennsylvania, scroll down. :) My uncle Tom decided during graduation that he would write the blog and I would put in the pictures. So, enjoy. My comments would be the ones in italics. Also--my pictures are BIG--click on them for the full effect. Same with yesterday's post. :D

So the next morning--- back to the pool. Then up the hill again to Baccalaureate and Graduation. 50+ girls, all in long gowns and 3 inch heels walking on grass. This was a well thought out idea. I'm still impressed that not one of them did a face plant.

A little blurry, but this is the type of obstacle course the girls in heels had to walk thru. Impressive, no?

Again perfect little children. (truly, those were Tom's words and no, he wasn't paid.) :)

Graduation- was outside. Well—first Baccalaureate—it was inside and not painfully long. One of the Graduate’s peers who spoke compared it to the Hogwart Academy. Such was the highlight of that part.

Graduation--- outside. Bright sun. Some people with hair challenges were seen standing in the tall leafy hedges to find shade or even placing the program on their heads like a paper hat--- not that I would know, but crude and effective.

Our graduate— beautiful in a long white dress, graduated! (Note -I was told in effective writing class at ISU (my family will say, what is ISU but if you are reading this you know AA and GS and the ISU love story involving cold walks from a dorm on the edge of Des Moines)that underlining is generally ineffective—that’s why I used BOLD! C!
Isn't she beautiful? My fun cousin C, aka The Graduate.

So we killed time, gave gifts to house moms, entertained the little ones (GS, G and M) by taking lots of photos and finally went to the Hotel for naps before dinner. That would be the guest blogger on the right.

GS pointed out to me, that the silly radio station had built their transmission towers several hundred feet below the hotel on the lowest ten digit coordinate there was in sight. (Debbie thought this was the most bizarre thing anyone could notice—ask Geo about “the engineer and the talking frog”.) And we drank Y______ing. They had gotten a six pack.

Then back to the pool before dinner at the best restaurant in Tyrone. Note with particularity, that I did not say a fine restaurant in Tyrone. The second best, according to the Graduate is Burger King (sorry BK, I can’t do the little trademark sign) and the third best (I may have these reversed) is the Dog Pile, the favorite carry out / delivery establishment of the 250+ girls at TGS. But it was a fine dinner—with a great group of family and friends--- including the Graduate’s god parents.

Dinner was notable for several reasons—nice toasts to the graduate, perfectly behaved little girls (ok—they got carried away taking pics, but did we care? NO!).

And Geo demonstrating “Mikey will eat it” to his lovely perfectly behaved daughters. It would seem that every time someone at the table got full, they gave their uneaten portion to GS. His college days eating skills are still there. I think at last count he'd polished off the remains of 3 appetizers, his own entree and 3 others.

The next morning the Wisconsin clan plus Great Uncle went swimming--- M & G got to wake (pounce on?) V and C after their hour and half swim. Best part of swimming? M on Uncle Tom's shoulders, pulling up his hair into spikes on either side of his head and announcing "PIGGIES!" It was suggested by someone that her dear uncle's hair was a looking a little longer than usual. I'm thinking said commenter's child's idea to put his hair in pigtails only reinforced that observation. ;)

The Wisconsin family were off to Niagara falls---w/o this correspondent so Dear Reader/Observer I will speculate that the tone, meter, complexity and such of this travel narrative will under go a step function up or down--it will be a radical transformation, me thinks.

AA gets credit for always having games, puzzles, writing supplies and such condiments handy, which led to the perfectly behaved children. She’s my favorite!

TGF

Family Trip to PA by a guest blogger

2010-06-08T06:28:00.002-05:00

Note from dangitAnge, hereafter referred to as AA by the writer of this guest blog post, written by my dear Uncle Tom, probably best known for getting me a wee bit tipsy following his last child's high school graduation. I have shared that story here. My comments on how the following story really happened will be in italics. :) Enjoy!

There we were in the bright sun, quite warm, waiting for graduation at The Grier School (TGS) when AA ( that’s the owner of this site, contrasted to A who is her oldest daughter, who is also known by some as BK, which is “Bright Kid”) and I, her favorite Uncle, and hence her children’s great uncle, decided that I would write this piece and she would populate it with pics. AA for the record is the niece I taught to drive and taught decimal equivalents of sevenths to and also to drink beer (the last instructional point didn’t take).

So having never written for a blog before, and only about 80% sure that is the name of what I am writing for—I wish to state some ground rules. All typos, confusing sentences, and portions thereof, punctuation and the like, are strictly AA [ AA is both singular and possessive—please try to keep up. ] fault. My family is big into finger pointing, so I wanted to get that out of the way early. This appears a good time to add that I had to clean this up a bit before posting. I do have SOME pride. ;)

Flashback—Dear Reader—just because I did that once doesn’t obligate me to tell you the next time that I reverse course. And the photos may or not match so ... IDK what. (IDK—the Graduate taught me that – it means “leave me alone, Dad”, in a text.)

So having dropped (not physically or at least not far—she has bad hips , I trust) Piper the Wonder Dog (they wonder, why, how, when and such about him. ( Her?) Her. off with a friend, who must be of questionable sanity, the Shimada clan, hereinafter GS, AA, A, G, and M. Formerly known as The DaddyMan, dangitAnge, A, G and M--please try to keep up, climbed in a van, strapped the poor little ones, G & M, into car seats and headed East to Tyrone, PA on Thursday afternoon.

Why you ask ? Well so they could enjoy Chicago rush hours up close and personal, rather than just on the radio and to attend AA cousin’s graduation from TGS. Hence, a road trip from Wisconsin to Tyrone. I wasn’t there but no one had much to say about Thursday and Thursday night except the Chicago rush hours. (hours is not a typo). Friday a.m. they got up at GS time and most of them went swimming. Then GS insisted they follow the Garmin rather than common sense and the PA turnpike so they could see more orange barrels than exist in seventeen western states of your choice and the back roads of PA.

They arrived about two hours late or several hours early depending on one's perspective at the hotel. Great Uncle Tom greeted GS with a beer. (the local one that starts with a Y). { An short aside—the locals swear by this beer—best in the land--- every time I stay at this hotel, they are out of or run out of Y_____ing. So I asked why they don’t order more, if they are always out/running out. I asked three bartenders, “gee I don’t know”, which is close to a IDK ! } ( an end of paragraph note, technologically I can not do footnotes--- the space is intentional--- the three employees were not bartenders, they were merely tending the bar—no mixed drinks until later, when the bartender came to work.)

So GS was now OK. He is easy. M and G got to meet Aunt Debbie who perhaps never got them straight, name wise. Of course, she had help from G who delighted in saying she was M, or even A upon occasion.

The group, including the graduate C and V,the older sister of the grad, went swimming. Out of the pool and with a hour to get ready for the graduation dinner, all should be copasetic. Na... Great Uncle, whom is also dad of the grad and V, forgot that teenage girls do not get ready for major events, (which is anything more important than going to the kitchen for chocolate, when no one else is home), do not and can not get ready in an hour. So running late, we went to TGS from the hotel in a cloud of dust and a hardy Hi Ho Silver! (well, that dates me, I guess)

V and A at dinner. Aren't they adorable? :D

Now the praise for M & G and also A. They performed perfectly at the Graduation Dinner. And at the hour long musical and dance recital that lasted two hours. Really? It was only 2 hours? And even at the TGS Ancient Candlelight ceremony that followed. OK, really, G eats a little slow, and M eats only sugar concentrate and sugary accruements, but hey!

New toys are the key to keeping small children entertained during an after dinner speaker. Look closely and you'll see the graduate and her big sister being entertained as well.

And V, who has a better/worse nickname that the one I have for G, that is now a secret between her and I, didn’t fidget too much either. And GS didn’t snore,at least noticeably. Great Uncle calls G "Squirm." She pretends to hate it, but loves being the one w/a special nickname. And GS may not have snored during the dance recital, but he did count down until the final dance. There were 13 dances in all, just in case anyone cares.

A photo of C, the grad and her mom after dinner. More to come.... Some bloggers can be sooo long winded. :)

Perhaps we should rethink her movie choices

2010-05-24T06:36:00.003-05:00

We recently went on a road trip and started the bad habit of the girls having a 'screen time' pretty much every time they got in the van. Between their iPods and the van's DVD player, they've been happily plugged in. (I'll be breaking this habit soon, don't worry... LOL)

The other morning on our drive across town, the two in the back were happily watching a movie on the DVD player and wearing headphones to hear it. A was beside me watching Lord of the Rings on her iPod. I was listening to the radio. Over the radio, I could hear what sounded like a battle scene on A's iPod. So I asked her if they were fighting. They were.

Then I said, "You know, you really should turn it down when they're fighting and you don't need to try so hard to listen to conversation."

A-"They're talking too. They're talking in Elvish."

Me--"Honey, you don't understand Elvish, so why do you need it so loud?"

A--"Not yet. And, there are words at the bottom of the screen."

Me--"So you turned it up to read the words??"

A--"Um yeah."

Me--"Honey, if you learn Elvish, you're going to be labelled as one of those goofy homeschooled kids."

A--"Too late." :grins:

Me--"Well, you're called to be set apart as a Christian, not as a goofy homelearned kid."

A--"Oh."

Busy, busy, dreadfully busy...

2010-05-13T06:25:00.002-05:00

Oh. Life's been crazy. For a recap....

I did some sewing. I got the biggest order of my simple little business's life. 16 Cozy Carseat Covers later--I was done.

Then we had a sick dog. This is how she spent an entire morning. She was truly pitiful. We realized just how awful she must've felt when she didn't even get up to greet her favorite human, A. After a trip to the vet, a huge chunk of change, some x-rays and medicines, she started to act normal.

Then someone had a birthday. She's 8. Wow.

All done!

2010-05-03T06:08:00.002-05:00

A bit over two years ago, I started a project. Wow...two years is a long time! But... FINALLY.... I finished that project! Yay me!

And I think a certain young child is very happy with the finished result. :)

Well, that's an option

2010-04-30T13:09:00.004-05:00

The girls and I did errands this morning. As usual, someone asked, "No school today?" Today it happened to be the check out clerk at the the grocery store where we often shop. I told her we homeschool and we chatted about it for a moment.

As she rang me up, she asked, "Do you need cash back?" and I said, "Yes. Can I get 20 $1s?" She said, "Sure." Then she added,

"You goin' to a strip club?"

I laughed. Then I said, "Well, that's an option I hadn't considered."

Truly, I hadn't. I was thinking about tomorrow being the first and getting ones so I could give the girls their allowance money. But now... now I see I really could use those ones for something I hadn't even considered. Maybe I'll consider it after I go wash my hands again. Or not.

Trash to treasure

2010-04-26T06:14:00.004-05:00

After the great basement finish was completed last fall, I've been in the mood to 'finish' the rest of the house. You know, paint, organize and decorate the rest of the house just the way I wanted. It's been six months and I'm not there yet. I still have quite a ways to go, actually.

I came one small step closer this weekend though. One thing our family room's been lacking is end tables. Seriously, we have NO place to put your drink in this room, other than on the floor where it's guaranteed to be kicked over.

So, I was super excited to find this lovely table at a sale. It cost me..... 50 cents. SCORE!

We found the lamp at Goodwill. Based on the fact that it had a partially removed price sticker on it--I think I saw it at a garage sale a couple weeks back. I should've bought it then, but didn't 'cause I didn't have a table to put it on. :P It cost me $5.

A few hours later, after a trip to the store for spray paint ($10--textured metal paint's kinda pricey compared to your basic RED, a $2 harp, $1.34 finials and a $10 shade), I had this:

It was a good day. :) I did go back and buy one more can of slightly darker red paint, 'cause this is a tiny bit brighter than I wanted. If it ever stops raining, I'll give it another coat or three.

Delayed gratification

2010-04-23T11:38:00.002-05:00

I've said before that I love to garage sale. There are things I'd like to buy, but it's just SO much cheaper finding things at garage sales than in real stores, that I typically wait. I love that my girls are learning that it's okay to wait and that typically, we do eventually find what we want at garage sales.

About two weeks ago, We set out to hit some of the first sales of the season. I told A I hoped to find an end table for the family room and a bike for her. She wanted a bow and arrow set. She's wanted it since last summer, but we never found one.

God sent her a bow and arrow set, new in the box, on the FIRST day we went garage saling.

But...she didn't have the $20 she needed. Knowing she'd get it soon (and it was too good of a deal to leave behind!), I bought it and she had to buy it from me. She counted her saved money, then earned more doing childcare at church. She still needed a dollar and 7 cents.

Walking out of church a week later, she found a crumpled $1 bill laying in the grass. Some people get 'pennies from Heaven' but no, God sent my dear daughter a whole dollar.

Now she needed 7 cents. She told her story to about 5 people. ALL of them (except her mean parents) offered her the money. Even her little sister and her youth group leader (who probably think I'm the meanest mom EVER). She told all of them, "No, I need to come up with it myself."

Last night after swimming lessons, G pointed under the bench in the locker room and yelled, "LOOK A!" Yep, sure enough, there was a dime on the floor.

A was so excited! "Look Mom! Now I even have three EXTRA cents! I only needed 7 and God sent me 10!"

She asked and she recieved. God is so good.

They're on to me.

2010-04-22T16:40:00.001-05:00

Today we had to go to a different town to have A's orthodontic appointment. After we did some shopping, I took the kids out for fun drinks at a restaurant. Big drinks.

Then we hit the big grocery store and drove a while to get home. M and I had to pee. I maintained I had to go worse than she did since I'm older and have given birth three times.

As we got close to home I gave out jobs--A, bring in the groceries, G, empty the van and M, get the mail.

They rode quietly for a few minutes until M says, "I get it! You gave us jobs so you can go to the bathroom first!"

Why yes... I did. And it worked. Mission accomplished. :D

Darn vandals!

2010-04-09T11:31:00.004-05:00

Garage sales have started! It's a happy day in our house!

The girls and I set off this morning and found a few treasures. At one sale, they had a box of spray paints for sale. I pointed them out to A and said, "Hey, we could be vandals!" She laughed.

A few minutes later, as we left the sale empty handed, she said, "But aren't you going to buy the spray paints?"

"Nope."

"But,it's been a slow week!"

I've been busy

2010-04-05T06:51:00.002-05:00

My poor neglected blog. How often do I read that on other people's blogs and think, "Wow, I really should update my blog too?" And then, I don't.

I've been busy and it's a good busy. I've had some friends coming to sew and I'm loving teaching some newbies to create pretty things. We started with some simple sundresses for their daughters and I'm amazed at how fast two women who'd never sewed before picked it up! They did great. :) I love having people join me in my happy place.

I also made Easter dresses. I got a new pattern and I absolutely LOVE it. I whipped up one for M and then one for G and used a different pattern for A's dress. A's didn't fit right. The bodice was a poor fit on her pre-teen shape and even after reworking it about 5 times, it still didn't fit. So, Saturday afternoon (the day before Easter!) we went to the fabric store, bought new fabric and started from scratch. Her new dress was a slightly more grown-up version of her sisters' dresses. They all looked fabulous.

We've also been plugging away through school. A's finished her grammar, has less than 20 math lessons to go and is eager to be done. She's pulling off a B in a math book that's a couple grade levels ahead and I'm so proud of her. G's reading like a champ and will finish her math book this week. She still needs practice on her math facts but they'll come with time. M's passed the goals on her speech IEP and we'll find out next week what they recommend next. I'm eager to be past this stage of her life, but I don't want to quit her therapy before it's time.

The weather's finally warming up and the girls are loving playing outside, riding bikes and getting filthy. Aaah, spring. I love the renewed hope that comes in the spring--that life goes on and it's not going to be cold and snowy forever.

Life is good.

In case that last post wasn't nasty enough

2010-03-25T18:34:00.002-06:00

One of my smaller children, whom I shall not name, informed the DaddyMan tonight, "My sister's tongue tastes different than the dog's."

Eww.

I cannot top this.

2010-03-23T08:27:00.001-06:00

Seriously, nothing I can say today will top what Erica's children did.

(please swallow whatever you're eating, before clicking this link. Consider yourself warned.)

Erica's post about Training Daughters

I'm raising pyros

2010-03-19T13:35:00.000-06:00

It's been beautiful and sunny here this week. To my children, that means it's time to ask repeatedly if they can wear capris (no), go barefoot (no), or play with magnifying glasses (yes).

Yesterday, A and G were busy at work trying to burn things up on the patio. A came in and asked for a birthday candle. Um, no.

She came back a few minutes later and told me about the book she's reading. In it, the boy uses his hatchet to strike a rock to make a spark and start a fire. She wanted to know if we had something metal she could use to hit the bricks of the patio with. Our conversation went something like this:

"Butter knife?"
"No."
"Sharp knife?"
"No."
"Hatchet??"
"NO!"

So she disappeared for a few more minutes. Very shortly, she came back.
"Mom, where's your hairspray?"
"No."
"Isn't it flammable?"
"No."
"It isn't?? I thought it was."
"It is, that's why you can't have it!"
"Oh. Can I have some cooking oil? It's flammable, right??"

Igpay Atinlay, anyone?

2010-03-18T16:51:00.002-06:00

When the girls were small and we wanted to talk without them knowing what we were talking about, the DaddyMan and I simply spelled things to each other. Okay, mostly I spelled to him and he'd blurt it out, just to bug me. But on occasion, we could spell things and get around the little eavesdroppers.

Now, they can spell. We've had to change our strategy a bit. I've switched to Pig Latin and it's making them NUTS! I love it!

Tonight at dinner, the DaddyMan and I were tossing words at each other because they were clueless. M's convinced it's either Spanish or French, A's wants to know what country this language is spoken in and G decided to just start spelling everything she wanted to say.

The only pitfall of our perfect little system was when the DaddyMan called me something slightly less than nice. I corrected his pronunciation and said it back. G repeated it. Perfectly. Oops. Let's hope she forgets that word before she gets a grasp of Pig Latin or I'm gonna be in BIG trouble.

I probably shouldn't laugh

2010-03-01T16:13:00.001-06:00

Our church has a reward system in Sunday School. If you say your Bible verse for the week, you earn some points. If you participate in the discussion, you earn some points. If you say ALL the books of the Bible, you earn a LOT of points.

G's already said the books of the Bible and gotten her points. Yesterday she went to Sunday School during a different hour and therefore had a different teacher. She tried to convince that teacher that she should be allowed to say the books of the Bible and earn more points.

The teacher happens to be a friend of mine. She knows my child and knew she's already earned those points. So, she told G that the only way she could earn more points for the books of the Bible was to say them backwords or learn to spell them all correctly.

So, Miss G, turned around with her back to the teacher and proceded to say the books of the Bible. Yep, that's right....she said them backwards.

She didn't like the chicken.

2010-02-24T06:23:00.002-06:00

One of my children eats like a normal person.
One of my children eats insanely slow.
One of my children likes to stuff huge amounts of food into her mouth so she can be done.

That last child also has to use the bathroom a lot. Today, I made the connection. As I was putting a magazine away under the bathroom sink (what? doesn't everyone keep them there??), I found a dried up wad of half chewed chicken.

I had several lightbulb moments. 1)This explains the other dried crusty bits I've found in this cupboard in the past. 2)THAT'S how she polished off Monday night's chicken SO fast.

Now to figure out how to stop this problem. I need an appropriate punishment. I also need to remember not to let her off her chair when her chipmunk cheeks are full.

The fun of being a mom never ends.

Growing up too fast....again

2010-02-10T16:54:00.002-06:00

I needed a pan off a high shelf. Like normal, I hollered for G to come be my helper. Then I told her what pan I wanted, lifted her as high as I could lift her scrawny 50 pounds and she got my pan. I put her down, she gave it to me and ran off to play.

I commenced filling the pan. A watched, rather pensively. Then she said, "I can't wait until I grow breasts and then I can use mine to hold up small children so they can get stuff down for ME!"

The look on GS's face was priceless. It will stick with me probably as long as the memory of the look he made when one of my then breastfeeding friends groped her own breasts in front of us, to see which side to nurse the baby on first. Aaah, good times.

Moms shouldn't have favorites

2010-02-03T05:35:00.003-06:00

As I mentioned the other day, I've been walking on the treadmill most days. G thinks this is strictly a weight loss plan and apparently has given this some thought. As she hugged me yesterday, she said, "You're going to look a lot different when you're thin."

I was rather shocked. "G!"

With a sweet smile, she responded, "I'm just sayin'." :shrug:

Later that same day, I was watching a few minutes of a talk show and the host was asking the guests if they worried they turn into their abusive mother. (okay...whatever.) A overheard and said, "I think it'd be good if I was a mom just like you."

Seriously....that's the nicest thing anyone's said to me in WEEKS. I reached out to hug her, tears forming in my eyes and was met with, "Eww! Don't HUG me!"

That's okay, she's still my favorite. ;) At least for today....

The one where she talks about toilets

2010-01-31T13:47:00.002-06:00

Our toilets suck. Seriously. I kid you not, I bet I have to plunge one of them no less than 5 days a week. We have invested in heavy duty plungers for EVERY bathroom in the house. And they see LOTS of use.

Last night when I went to put the girls to bed, I noticed a funky smell in their bathroom. Once again, someone had done the deed, clogged the pipes and forgotten to mention it to a grown up in the house (that'd be me, 'cause the DaddyMan gets crabby about it.)

So, I plunged and plunged and plunged and when the water threatened to overflow, I left the seat up, the plunger IN the water and walked away.

This morning, as we were getting ready for church, I was in the girls' bathroom again and noticed that now the water in the toilet had receded, but in it's place was a HUGE wad of soggy toilet paper ON the plunger. EWW! I about went ballistic. "Who used the toilet that is clogged!? And WHY??? AAAARGH!!"

A small sweet cherub sweetly said, "I needed to go to the baffroom!" I was still in shock. So I had to ask, "How did you go potty in a toilet with the seat up and a plunger in it??"

To which she replied, with a smile, "I've got SKILLS!"

(I still don't know how she did it.)

Lazy Winter Days

2010-01-26T06:11:00.003-06:00

Nothing exciting is happening right now in my life and I'm okay with that. We're spending the days doing school and keeping the house somewhat clean (why isn't Piper naked?? I'm vacuuming up the equivalent of another dog every.single.day!).

We bought a 750 piece puzzle at Salvation Armani on Friday and I spent a good chunk of time finishing it yesterday. Oop, wait, I lied--it was really only a 745 piece puzzle. Oh well, for $.64 did I really expect ALL the pieces?

Ow

2010-01-13T08:22:00.001-06:00

Today after sweating on the treadmill for 45 minutes, G greeted me with, "You don't look any thinner."

She is not my favorite.

Happy New Year.

2010-01-12T07:28:00.002-06:00

Um yeah, it's like the 11th already, isn't it? And I haven't blogged the Christmas photos or A's birthday. And while it seems a little wrong to make the first post of the new year be one that has a bad word in it...well, three days later, I'm still laughing, so that's what I'm starting with.

I took the girls to Sonic over the weekend. Since we eat there about twice a year, I let them get kids meals. The kids meals came with card games. One of the games involves spelling out words (you know where this is going, don't you?).

So, G (age 7.5) sits at the table and plays her new game with the DaddyMan. He lays out the cards and she tells him when she finds a word. They play nicely for several minutes.

Then she starts to sound out, "Shhhhhhhiiiiit. Shiiit. Mom, is sh!t a word?"

I tried hard to keep a straight face. So does the DaddyMan. A turns her back on her little sister and silently shakes with laughter.

The DaddyMan pipes in with, "Not a nice word."
The best I could do was, "How about hits or hit or sit?"

But no, she knew it was a word and collected all four of her letter cards. I guess I should just be happy that she learned to read with phonics and can sound things out, right?

My happy place

2009-12-22T05:29:00.002-06:00

(Click on the picture to make it big and be able to see it all.)

One of the main perks in fiinishing out the basement, is that I get a sewing room. Finally! A room of my own! I'm still trying to get the house back together after all this stuff's been done but last week I decided to crack down and tidy my sewing room. After all, I had some Christmas sewing to do, which obviously made it a priority.

I painted several weeks ago and didn't love the color. It needed girlied up a bit. So I took some painter's canvases and covered them with fabric. 5 minutes with my rotary cutter and a staple gun and I had art. The picture over my desk is a series of pictures of my mom at about age 5. She was pretty cute. She used to sew all the time. The picture to the right of that is a magnetic board. I was going to hang it just as a dry erase board, but it had some ugly spots, so I covered it with fabric too. The big beautiful flower? G made me that. :)

I've spent hours folding my stash to make it neat and tidy. I've noticed in looking at other sewing rooms online, that my stash isn't really THAT big. I would like to get a bunch of it used up tho and some of those pieces have been hangin' around a while.

There ya have it.... my happy place.

Someone should limit her tv.

2009-12-21T05:36:00.001-06:00

The other day I had the tv on to watch the noon news. I saw a commercial for a store where a friend works. Low and behold, our friend was pictured in the background. I told the girls, "I just saw Mr. R on tv!"

A responded, "What are you watching? Cops?"

What's your IQ?

2009-12-10T18:34:00.003-06:00

Tonight A made some witty comment that had the DaddyMan and I rolling our eyes. I told the DaddyMan that I read an article this week saying that babies who cry too much or have to 'cry it out' to go to sleep have lower IQs.

"Thank God we let that one cry or she'd be WAAAY too smart," I told him.

Then one of the children asked what IQ meant. I said it was a measure of how smart you are. G told her sister, "You're dumb! You have DQ!"

:snort:

Randomness

2009-12-09T21:18:00.003-06:00

I think I gave the last post the same title. Oh well...

My house is coming together. It's no longer looking quite so much like a bomb went off, but still has the 'we just moved in' feel to it. I put a bunch of stuff on the school shelves and I've put my sewing machines on the sewing table. Aaah, that's homey.

I'm doing a bunch of sewing for Christmas. I love sewing. The house is still a mess but at least I'm making pretty things. That makes me happy.

We haven't decorated for Christmas yet. I REALLY want to paint the family room and kitchen in a more mature color scheme (my kitchen is currently 'painter's tape blue') and I haven't done it. I was going to paint my sewing room and those two rooms the same color, but the sewing room's darker than I wanted. A told me it's the color of puke. Lovely. I think it's more of a dark khaki. When I take pictures, you can decide for yourselves.

We did school in our new school room today. That made me VERY happy. Finally--the thing that's super high on my priority list has it's on space! No more books all over the kitchen counter and table!!

I found an adorable little Pottery Barn table on Craigslist last week. We stayed home from our regular activities that day because M had a fever the day before. Thankfully she wasn't too sick to be loaded in the van and drive for an hour to pick up the table. It's the perfect size for both G and M and I love to watch them sit and work at it.

Pictures will be coming. I promise!

More chaos

2009-11-21T07:04:00.003-06:00

A week ago, this was my office. You know, the place where I sit on my computer and the children pratice piano? Then, we emptied all the furniture, had the carpet ripped out and this pretty floor installed.
We didn't stop with just the office. No siree Bob, my entire main floor's been redone this week. Which explains why--there's no place to sit, I can't find anything and what I can find is covered in dust. It's like I moved, but I didn't purge first, nor did I put things in nicely labelled boxes.

My house is a wreck. But the floors are pretty.

Basement

2009-11-11T06:59:00.003-06:00

This is how our basement looked the first of October. (click on the pictures for the full view!)

Here's how it looks on November 10th.

It still needs carpet in the other room, doors, trim, furniture and stuff on the walls, but really, it looks pretty stinkin' good for 6 weeks of work. :) Yay for the DaddyMan!

And now it's November

2009-11-03T08:50:00.002-06:00

Wow, time's flying. Mostly while we're busy with this big basement finishing job, school, musical practice and so on.

The DaddyMan has become part mole and spends several hours a day living underground, aka. in the basement. He's also been referring to himself as 'slave boy' and makes a whip cracking sound frequently. Apparently he's been talking this way a bit too much because the other night when he mentioned that someone needed to cut Piper's toenails, M told him, "So, get on that slave boy."

Today while doing school, M was practicing saying 'girl'. R and L together is hard and she was saying it again and again. I pointed to her big sister and asked, "What is A?" M looked at A and said, "Mean old sister!"

I tried not to laugh....but it didn't work.

October?

2009-10-20T07:25:00.003-05:00

Wow, it's been almost three weeks since I last posted. Life's been busy. News at 11.

The first and most important thing that's happened is that my baby had a birthday. My baby's now 5. Sniff. I've put off posting pictures because maybe if I don't, I can keep her 4 just a little longer. I'm really not ready for her to grow up.

Not to mention, I'm a wee bit embarrassed about the commercialization of her birthday. For years I've done my best to avoid character toys. I've invested a lot of money in Playmobil, Schliech and other great not-movie-affliated gifts. But, this is my baby! And of late, she's had one interest- the movie Cars. Lightning, Mater, Sally, Doc are some of her favorite things right now and therefore, that's ALL she wanted for her birthday.

Auntie R got her Shake and Go cars. She loves them. They run on their own and make lots of noise. What's not to love?

Auntie C and Uncle D sent Mack. She loves him too.

My folks sent her money. She was VERY excited to see that! "I can buy more Cars!" she squealed. And she did. I know, I'm such a good mom.

Finally was the gift from Mom and Dad (funny that Dad gets the credit and seeing what 'he' bought is just as much of a surprise for him as it is for the child.... but I digress).

I need to clarify again, how much I hate character toys, okay? Please remember that. Because you know, I wouldn't want you to think that my child is spoiled or else in 30 years she'll be single and living in my basement, moochin' off my generosity still. That wouldn't be good (although I've told her she can live with me forever....).

Here's what she got from the DaddyMan and I. It made her jump and squeal and say, "It's just what I always wanted!"

There are no pictures of her birthday cake, because I just can't bring myself to post how commercialized my baby's birthday truly was. She loved it. And really, I guess that's all that matters. Right?? Please tell me that it is.

Just another day

2009-09-30T18:00:00.002-05:00

As we were doing our ten minute tidy today--you know that's the massive cleaning spree we do in the 10 minutes before the DaddyMan arrives home that makes it look like we did a full days work--I made A do the vacuuming. (Lest you think I'm a mean ol' mom, I was cleaning the kitchen of lunch dishes, groceries, mail and shoes. The small ones were putting away toys.)

I noticed she had managed to vacuum the entire family room before her sisters managed to clear the floor of some good sized toys. I said, "I find it interesting that you managed to vacuum the whole floor when it's still covered in toys."

She said, "Yep, pretty amazing, aren't I??"

Oy.

Just tryin' to teach them SOMETHING.

2009-09-28T12:01:00.003-05:00

We're studying birds. It's so exciting (hear that drip of sarcasm?). I'm not the one into flying in this familiy and birds don't thrill me. So, I'm trying hard to make it interesting and fun.

Today we discussed molting and how if a bird loses a certain feather off it's right wing, it loses the corresponding wing off it's left wing. (Cool, huh?) In an effort to engage some conversation, I said, "What would happen if instead, a bird just lost all it's feathers off one wing?"

Smart Alek A, suggested, "All the other wittle birdies will point and laugh and make fun of him?"

Class dismissed.

Rooftops?

2009-09-23T20:43:00.002-05:00

As we were driving in the car today, something prompted the two in the backseat to talk about rooftops. Since they tend to be as random as I am, I have no idea what prompted their conversation.

A was beside me in the front seat and asked, "Isn't there a song about rooftops?"

So I started to sing, "Up on the rooftop, reindeer pause, out jumps good old Santa Claus..."

She interrupts "That is SO dumb!"

(oh great, I thought, here comes her rant about how dumb Santa is (yes, I've indoctrinated her))

She continued, "Reindeer don't have PAWS! They have HOOVES!"

"Pause, dear, P A U S E."

"Oh, riiiiight. But it's still a dumb song."

Home Alone 4?

2009-09-17T20:07:00.002-05:00

This week has been overbooked. Waaay too busy for this truly-prefers-to-stay-at-home mama! By 3:30 this afternoon, I was wiped. I sat down for a few moments on the loveseat to rest and within minutes, the snuggly Miss G crawled up on me and sat very still. I was thisclose to being asleep.

Then M showed up. She talks and wiggles and pushes sharp appendages into my squishy parts. Ow. I was still veggin' tho and trying to pretend that I had nothing more important to do.

But then, it hit me. "Oh CRAP! It's Thursday! We're supposed to be at piano at 3:30!"

Thankfully, the brand new piano teacher is less than 5 minutes away but still! It's our first week with the new teacher and I'm now going to be 15 minutes late! Can you say, "Airhead??"

I run the girls there, come home, dink around, talk to M and then I tell her it's time to go back to get her sisters. She gave me a flippant gesture and said, "You go. I'll just stay here by myself."

I had to remind her that she's FOUR and that's really not an option. She rather huffily clomped across the room, sighing deeply and got her shoes. But she let it be known, that she doesn't need to go along.

Because she truly believes, she'd be fine, all.by.herself.

It's a dog's life

2009-09-12T12:21:00.002-05:00

Today as the DaddyMan watched Piper the Wonder Dog dozing on the floor, he said, "I think the dog has the best life."

I responded, "Oh you mean, like, love deeply, forgive quickly and sleep the rest of the time?"

"Yep, pretty much." he said.

I thought of something else, "And don't be afraid to pee on the floor if you're really scared."

He came thisclose to blowing water out his nose. Dangit. THISCLOSE!

Smile!

2009-09-04T06:47:00.001-05:00

Garage sale score

2009-09-01T06:20:00.003-05:00

A few months ago, my friend, Ree aka Pioneer Woman, posted about this cool looking pot from Le Creuset. "Wow, I want one!" I thought. Then I searched online and was a bit shocked at the $225+ price tage. I didn't win P-Dub's give away either. Shoot. I lumped it into the 'things I'll never own' category and went on my merry way.

Saturday, I went garage saling. All alone. It was blissful. It was rather a bust tho, since I wasn't finding anything overly exciting. That all changed tho, when I saw this sitting on the table, in the middle of some random junk.

Hmm..."That's a fun color for a pan." was my first thought. But then, I lifted the lid and saw the words "Le Creuset" and my heart started to beat a bit faster and I started to get a wee bit excited. The inside of the pot was rather scary. It was mostly black and the residue of cooked on noodles was still stuck to the bottom. It has some chips, the paint's sorta scratched and the lid's handle shows it's been in the dishwasher.

I asked the woman holding the sale, "Do you think this will come clean?" and she replied "I have no idea what my mother did to that pan!" Since the woman I was talking to was pushing 60, I had visions of a slightly forgetful 80 year old woman forgetting about her mac and cheese and charring it to the pan I held in my hands. I laughed and said, "Well, if nothing else, it'll make a dog bowl the dog can't spill, right?" She agreed.

So I paid the lady and brought it home. I figured with some elbow grease, I could make it useable. I did some online research, scrubbed it ferociously and it's no longer black inside. It's stained, but clean. Apparently these pans are so durable that it's not uncommon to have them for 50+ years. I like to think that mine was well loved by someone long before it came to me.

She's a little battle scarred, but isn't she pretty?

(did you notice the children admiring her too?) Okay, really, they were dawdling their way thru dinner and asking "Why are you taking pictures of a PAN, Mom??"

They just don't see the excitement in buying a Le Creuset Dutch oven for $1. I don't know why.

Back to normal?

2009-08-27T20:29:00.003-05:00

We started back to school this week. As per tradition, I took the girls out front and made them pose for pictures. I took individual pictures, but they just weren't quite the challenge that group photos are with my ladies. Ladies? I'm not sure that's the proper term for what follows.

I really, truly don't know where I got that one. She must take after her father.

About this point, I realized that I didn't appreciate how easy it was to take a picture of only one child when that's all I had to photograph. Or even two. Do you know how many pictures I have that have my first two children, looking at the camera, smiling and looking normal? Tons.

I may or may not have threatened bodily harm to get this shot. No one heard me and the children won't tell.

Will anyone notice if this is our Christmas card photo this year? It is only 4 months away and my odds of getting another picture of three normal looking children are pretty slim.

It's been awhile....

2009-08-22T14:02:00.003-05:00

Summer's been busy. And now, sadly, it's pretty much over. We're starting school on Monday. I'm not sure I'm ready yet since mentally I still need a vacation.

We were supposed to vacation last week to Mt.Rushmore, Yellowstone and then to my inlaws in Montana. But, the DaddyMan's grandpa died in Omaha, so we went there instead. We did make one day fun by going to the zoo and that was enjoyed by all. Somewhere, there are pictures. I don't see the camera at the moment but it's around here some where. If I got off my butt to find it, I would instead see the garage sale finds of this morning that need put away, the laundry that needs done, the lunch dishes that need dealt with and inevitably I'll never get back in here to post today, so it's best I just stay here on my butt and ramble some more.

My brain is feeling tired. I think that may be exacerbated by all the scents I smelled at Bath and Body Works, aka The Stinky Store, a while ago. I want something to make my house smell pretty but I wound up with a headache and overloaded brain instead. I guess we'll just continue with the "Eau de Chien" that we currently have. (That's "smell of dog" for you non French speaking people.)

I read two books this week. Funny how all that time in the car with three children plugged into a dvd player gives a mom lots of time to read. I love to read. The idea of finishing this series makes me almost want to go on another long road trip. Or not.

I had to go to the chiropractor yesterday after we got back to town. My back and neck were messed up. I'm not sure if it was the stress of travelling, the awful hotel beds or my dearest-frien- in-the-world's wickedly firm guest bed. I think when they move, I will buy them a nice Aerobed. And then I will invite myself over and sleep on it. Thankfully my chiropractor fixed me right up yesterday afternoon. He has magic in those hands. Aaaah.

If the DaddyMan ever leaves me, I'm going to hunt down a single chiropractor and make him marry me. That is, after I makes sure the DaddyMan doesn't leave with my Select Comfort mattress. I love it. I love the DaddyMan too and sure don't think he'll leave me, but if he does.... I have a plan.

I should go climb into that bed now and take a nap instead of posting such ramblings on the internet for the two people who read my blog to giggle at....

I AM a fun mom, dangit!

2009-08-06T16:05:00.002-05:00

This morning while garage saling, G found this hat. You can't tell from the extreme closeup, but she's wearing a pink and orange tie dye shirt and it matches perfectly. So cute! When she found it, she popped it on her head and said, "Please Mom?" How could I say no?? We did a bunch of errands after that sale and every one told her how adorable she was. She ate it up.

Since she was looking so adorable, her two sisters decided they also needed hats and we set out to find the necessary supplies. Three craft stores later, we went home to create. Here's M.

And A opted to go 'a little bit different, but still kinda the same' and I like it.

I took the photos to show them the next time I get told that I'm not a 'cool, crafty mom' or that Miss Carrie's funner than I am. I've got to maintain my status somehow!

Sisterly love?

2009-08-03T12:27:00.002-05:00

Overheard--

First child, from the bathroom--"Eww! I made a green poop."

Second child, from the kitchen, eating her lunch-- "Really?"

First child--- "Yeah! Come see!"

Second child-- "Okay!" and she darts to the bathroom, still chewing.

Second child, upon viewing -- "You're right, it IS green! What'd you eat??"

Aaah, sisterly love. Because outside of your sister, who else would you invite into the bathroom to view your bodily waste? That's right... no one.

Summer time

2009-08-03T06:46:00.002-05:00

What, doesn't everyone empty a big bowl of watermelon while sitting in the top of their playset? This is how we've been spending our days. :)

No swearing.

2009-07-19T20:34:00.003-05:00

Tonight as I kissed A at bedtime, I kissed her repeatedly and got back an equal number. In between kissing her and receiving her kisses, I told her how much I loved her and always would. I told her that even when she grows into a teenager and has crabby moments, I would love her.

"I won't get crabby." she told me.

"Really? Can I have you swear that...." I asked

"I can't." she interrupted.

"You can't get crabby? I'm so glad but when you get older I want proof that you said you wouldn't. I'm going to video you saying you swear you won't get crabby."

"But Mom, I can't swear."

Oh. Right.

Not now honey, Mommy's Facebooking.

2009-07-17T18:23:00.002-05:00

I'm on Facebook. I enjoy it. I love Scrabble, Bananagrams and as of this week--Mafia Wars. It always seemed like a mean sort of game so I'd put off playing. But then the DaddyMan started playing and needed another member of his 'family', so I joined.

When I was performing some Mafia Wars jobs, A asked if she could have a turn on the computer. I told her as soon as I was done with MY game. She asked what I had to do and I told her, "A few muggings, hold up a corner store, rob a warehouse and beat up someone."

She responded, "Ooh, sounds like a lovely family game."

She might be right. Maybe I should go back to wasting time on Webkinz.

Small Fry

2009-07-16T06:47:00.003-05:00

While her big sisters have been at a day camp all week, Miss M aka. Small Fry and I have been spending lots of quality time together. Yesterday at lunch, she was being so adorable I could've eaten her with a spoon! And she knew it.

This is what I got when I kept asking her to look at me! She was trying very hard NOT to.

And all of my children have an odd knack for making goofball faces when I try to take their photos. What's up with that?

Potty humor

2009-07-10T19:35:00.004-05:00

Today we spent the afternoon swimming in a friend's man made, big pond/lake. They have a wonderful set up and are very hospitable, right down to having a readily available port-a-potty.

After a few hours of playing in the water, M felt the call of nature and I directed her towards the small blue building. She came back a few minutes later with hastily pulled up swimsuit bottoms and informed me, "It's clogged!"

I told her it was okay and not clogged but that instead they only flushed it every few days so to go ahead and use it. She hurried back inside.

About 30 minutes later I saw her head for the small building again. But, it was occupied. She stood outside the door, holding herself and informing me she had to go 'really bad!' Finally it was her turn and all was well.

Does anyone else think she didn't really go the second time she went in there? I'm thinkin' not. I guess that it's been so drilled into her to not use a clogged toilet that she couldn't bring herself to do it. That is, until she HAD to.

Fourth of July

2009-07-08T07:16:00.004-05:00

A few pictures from our Fourth-of-July-Wienie-Roast-over-the-firepit. First of all, my plan was to do this on the 3rd, since that's the night we went to fireworks but due to a breakdown in communication, we had no wood. Secondly, when you have all girls, the word 'wienie' only refers to 'hotdogs', not body parts.

We started with some hula-hooping. I must say, that I think their skill comes from playing WiiFit.
(and yes, that is their pathetic excuse for a trampoline in the background...okay?)

G has also become a master hula hooper. Super de dooper hula hooper. Gosh I need to pooper hula hooper. Sorry.... I'll stop now.

M on the other hand..... she needs help. Thankfully, she has an obliging sister as you can see from the following.

G eating a slightly warmed wienie. Some of my children don't have enough patience to fully cook the wienies.

Here's a slightly different angle and crop on the same setting. NO, that is not her drink. The DaddyMan's chair was next to hers so he borrowed a cup holder. It made me laugh when I saw it which is why I'm including it. I was raised in the 70s and there are tons of pictures of me with beer cans. I turned out just fine. (shut up!)

Piper the Wonder Dog guarded the food. She's very good at what she does. So good in fact that you had to step over her to get to the food as M's demonstrating. :)

A and I had a s'mores eating contest. I let her win. She ate 3, I had two. I so could've beaten her but every so often I like to give her self confidence a boost. Okay, really, I was saving room for all the Twizzlers I knew I'd eat during the fireworks.

Things that make you go 'hmm'.

2009-07-07T06:20:00.004-05:00

G was playing at the computer. From the next room, I could hear her singing a song that she was making up as she went along and randomly clapping too.

It sounded rather....odd. I asked, "Honey, why are you clapping?"

There was a brief pause and then in a slightly confused voice she responded, "I have no idea."

It's always good to know that I'm not the only one plagued by "why am I doing this??"