Raise Them or Ruin Them

Another reason why I love her

2010-08-27T11:51:00.000-07:00

Back in July, we took a vacation up north to visit my sister. We were fortunate enough to get to spend time with her husband's family that I just adore!

His sister went in the house with her new born to feed the baby (natural style, if you catch my drift). Mooka had been in there watching tv, which meant they were sharing the couch during lunch time.

Suddenly, Mooka comes running outside, face completely flush and said "I have to talk to you!"

Her next words were priceless, "Mommy, what is she doing to that baby?"

I had to explain how babies get fed from their mommies, which I think helped solidify her decision to not have babies ever.

Fast forward to this week, when we went to the hospital to visit my step-mom. We decided to make a pit-stop on the baby floor before leaving since it's the same hospital where I delivered Baby Bear.

We were able to get a small view through the window of the nursery as there were several families standing around looking at their new loved ones. I had no prouder moment when the following conversation ensued:

Moo (to her brother): Hey, when you were in there they fed you with their boobies.

Me (quietly): No, honey, only Mommy could do that.

Moo (not quietly): O, hey, Mommy fed you with her boob when you were in there.

Baby Bear: I want to go now.

Me: Yeah, me too.

She's not a shy one that little girl of mine!

Babies and belly buttons

2010-07-20T19:11:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, we pulled in to the Payless parking lot and proceeded to get out of the car. When Mooka got out of the car, in a moment of complete randomness, she nearly burst into tears explaining how she did not want to get married.

ME: Okay, sweet heart. No one is going to force you to get married. May I ask why?

MOO: Well, when you get married you have babies and I don't want to have babies.

ME: Okay.

MOO: I'm going to just live with you forever.

Baby Bear: Yeah, me too.

I thought it was a sweet conversation and moved on.

Tonight, in another moment of randomness, she starts naming the different phases in a person's life - baby, kid, teenager, mom, grandma. I said, well sometimes people are adults and don't become a mom. Which must have triggered her adamant opposition to marriage and babies again, because she started in on "I don't want to have babies."

ME: Honey, why don't you want to have babies?

MOO: Because when you have babies, your belly button stinks.

ME: My belly button smelled like that before I had babies.

MOO: Pause...Mom you are so gross!

:)

Because our lives did not stop

2010-07-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

After much deliberation, I have decided to continue to post here. The point of this blog was for me to have a way to document my children's lives, especially considering how horrible I am at scrap-booking and please don't mention the baby books.

So while our lives changed, they did not stop.

And thanks to the back dating option in blogger, I will be able to go back and fill in the blanks.

Continued thanks to all of you who stop by here on a regular basis and who have been supportive/patient as we define our new normal.

Mini blog vacation

2009-12-21T18:53:00.000-08:00

As soon as I get my life organized, I promise to be a better blogger. Until that time, enjoy these!

You're never too young to start

2009-12-10T19:32:00.000-08:00

The other night, I took the children on a hunt for pink, blue and green feathers for the Christmas tree. (Why be traditional, right?!) So, after I picked everyone up from school, off we went on our trek to the craft store.

As soon as we walked in the door, Baby Bear says "Mom, can we get some toys." I said, no, I don't have money for toys today. He reaches into his pants pocket and pulls out several coupons cut from the Target toy catalog. He hands this wad to me and announces that he had brought coupons so it won't cost a lot of money.

First - I picked the children up from school and went shopping.

Second - Neither child knew this was the plan.

Third - I wonder how long he has been toting around coupons in hope of that perfect opportunity to use them?!?

Never a dull moment :)

Tis the season

2009-12-08T19:09:00.000-08:00

For a little gingerbread house making fun!

I recently got an email announcing a gingerbread house workshop and honestly peed a little due to the excitement. I was certain after the instructors saw some of our mad construction skills, they would want to cast a bronze statue of our creations.

(See here and here, if you have no clue what I'm referring to)

Alas, we weren't recognized during our class, but we had a great time.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!

2009-11-26T06:31:00.001-08:00

Today, I am thankful for my family. For me, that can be interpreted a couple of ways.

I have a wonderful extended family. I love the holidays and the time for getting together. Seeing my grandma, my crazy aunt and uncle, the cousins that I rarely get to see, my parents and brother and sister - I love every minute of it.

Then, there is MY family or OUR family, the one that A. and I have to work at every single day. Some people make having a family look super easy and sparkly-butterfly-fun, then there are those that throw in the towel and go their separate ways to achieve sparkly-butterfly-fun. Well, A. and I fall somewhere in between except there aren't a lot of sparkles and more sparks. But, at the end of the day, we entered a covenant with God that we would make this thing work. And on the days (months) when I forget that, A. gives me my space and I've learned to give him his. I think we both wake up most days and try (it may only be for 5 minutes, but, it's an attempt) and until we get it right, we'll keep trying. And for that, I am thankful.

Side note...I asked the children what they were thankful for this morning.

Mooka: I am thankful for all of the people in the world, even those that I don't know.

ME: And you?

Baby Bear: Candy.

What I'm thankful for, pt 2

2009-11-25T06:22:00.000-08:00

I am extremely thankful for my friends.

It's rare for me to go out and do things with other people. I never pick up the phone and call. A large percentage of the time, I have no idea where my phone has landed and even if I do hear it ring, I don't jump up to answer it. Email and social sites, while incredibly convenient, I rarely write a note to anyone.

I should probably rephrase my original comment to say, I'm extremely thankful I have any friends.

Anyway, you each know who you are and whether you are the person I call when I may have been drinking and can't remember the name of a song or the one I call when I want to talk about "what-ifs" or the one I call when I just need to get away from the house or the one I talk to once a year or the one I sit next to every day at work - thank you for being the best friends a person could have!

What I'm thankful for

2009-11-24T19:10:00.001-08:00

There are a lot of folks who have updating their blogs daily this month to include messages about what they are thankful for. I knew that I couldn't commit to a full month of posts, so in my head, I was really going to commit to post everyday this week.

I'm not real good with commitment.

So, it's Tuesday and that's close enough.

Plus, my first what-I'm-thankful-for post includes two things, which technically means I'm only one day behind.

These two little gifts are absolutely the most amazing people in my world. They can drive me absolutely crazy, but at the end of every day I am thankful to have such wonderful kids. Sometimes, I read other peoples stories about the struggles they faced with getting pregnant or early childbirth or diseases that impact their babies lives and I am deeply humbled at how different our experience has been from those. It makes me appreciate what we've been given that much more. And there is not a day that goes by when we don't thank God for what He has blessed and entrusted us with.

So for today and every day, I am thankful for my babies.

Update on the non-updates

2009-11-14T06:37:00.002-08:00

1) I work a lot.

2) I am lazy.

3) I may be dealing with a pinch of depression.

Bundle it all together, and you get my lame excuse for the lack of posts.

The kids are great and as soon as I can put together a coherent post, I'll update. Right now it is a wicked routine of get up early, drive kids to two separate schools, race to get to work on time, work, race to get home, pick kids up from two separate schools, pretend to make something worthy of being called dinner, put kids to bed, crash. Repeat.

I have decided to branch off and keep a separate blog to talk about the weight loss. There is a bunch going on in my head the contribute to points 2 and 3 above. I'm hoping writing it down will be a coping mechanism for me. The update on the progress in that department is that I have continued to enjoy my 44 ounces of the sweet nectar known as Dr. Pepper daily. You do the math.

We are off for a busy day. I hope to post more this weekend.

Christmas Carol

2009-11-06T06:37:00.000-08:00

I was SUPER excited this morning to get our pictures back from The Christmas Carol train thingy that we went to back in August.

Well done Disney, on the coolest marketing campaign I've ever seen.

BB as Tiny Tim

Mooka as Scrooge

Clearly they got their father's taste in music

2009-11-04T17:20:00.000-08:00

Tonight, as I was on my miserable drive home from work, I decided to pop in Galore by The Cure and went to my happy place. I was so happy bopping along and then I thought, why have I not let the kids hear this yet. They would LOVE it.

When I got BB in the bus, I was giddy as I pressed play for us to listen to Why Can't I Be You on our drive to get the girl.

We didn't make it a mile down the road and he was sleeping.

Fine, maybe he's just really tired.

So, I get the girl in the bus and she starts chattering about her Christmas program cd that we have already listened to 1,000 times and she can sing it in her sleep and I'm wondering how can neither of these children pick up on the brilliance that is flowing from my mini-van sound system right now?!?!?!?!?!

I'm going to try it again in the morning. They are MUCH more receptive to new things at 6:30 a.m.

This one's for you new mommy in Chicago :)

It's 40 degrees outside and you want to do what?

2009-11-03T07:00:00.000-08:00

That was the response I got on Saturday morning when I announced that it was time to get swimsuits on and head out the door for lessons. No one was too excited about it.

I was really surprised at how well Baby Bear took to the water this time around. You may remember from last time, that he was more interested in the teacher than the actual lesson. This time he literally jumped right in the water and was always first to volunteer to try something new.

Mooka was so excited to be back in lessons, especially after the whole cheer leading incident.

Overall, week one was a success minus the chilly morning. Hopefully by the end of this session at least one or both of them will be able to swim without a float belt.

The Halloween Post...a few days late

2009-11-02T10:52:00.000-08:00

We made sure we gave the kids plenty of opportunities to get candy this year. The church had a fall festival, then we raced to get to Boo at the Zoo and then on Saturday the traditional trick or treat.

They dressed up as Tinkerbell...

And a pirate...

More picture fun...

Giving it another go round

2009-10-22T19:29:00.000-07:00

Unless you live in a hole, you have probably seen the recent ad campaign for Slimquick.

The children have clearly seen these commercials and believe the product will work.

SCENE: Crowed Wal-Mart last weekend. Children in the cart. We enter the vitamin aisle.

IN UNISON (at a volume that could be heard throughout the entire health and beauty department) : Mommy, mommy, stop! There it is!

ME: There what is?

THEM: The stuff you need so you won't have such a big butt. Here lets get two because you really need it.

And so it goes...

I'm back on a diet.

Now in all honesty, I have not done anything to attempt to get healthy for the past year. And consequently, I now weigh as much as a linebacker (not a running back, a linebacker.)

Sure, I've thought about it. But, I've also thought about all the reasons why I should eat nachos at 10 at night while watching Chelsea Lately. I feel like I have earned that down time. Why ruin it with exercise?

But, I'm really unhappy about the way I look and most of the time I am too exhausted from lugging around 46% body fat to even think about fixing it. I have considered starting a second blog to try to hold myself accountable like this guy did, but I'm too ashamed to actually post how much I really weigh. So, as a compromise, I have decided that I will post how much weight I lose each week on this blog. Depending on how that goes, I will determine if I need to get more aggressive with accountability partners.

So, wish me luck and if you have any tips, please feel free to send them my way!

Parenting lesson #740

2009-10-21T17:18:00.000-07:00

Always expect the unexpected when you ask the question, how did your day go.

I'm beginning to think that watching bad comedy movies while rocking Baby Bear to sleep when he was still an infant may not have been the best idea. I've mentioned several times before that he tends to do things seen in Napoleon Dynamite. But today, he switched movies on me.

ME: How did your day go, did you have any poopie problems.

*NOTE* for context, we have had some serious poopie problems in our house for the past 5 days.

BB: Well...I went poop in my pants. And I kept my poopie pants on ALL DAY LONG. {Said in a proud-as-can-be tone}

ME: You have extra underwear, you could have changed them.

BB: NOPE! And it is all over my underwear.

ME: {Shakes head}

At this point, I think the responsible parenting skills were supposed to kick in and I was supposed to give him a speech about good hygiene. Instead, immature adult self showed up and caused me to call my sister to share in the good fun.

If you've not seen Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, here is the clip that I am referring to.

Torn

2009-10-20T07:00:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago (and yes, I've been very lazy with updating this blog) Mooka came home from school with a big packet of information stating that she had qualified for the gifted program.

I think most parents would be excited to get that sort of news, but I was more like, well, duh. I have actually been worried that she is not getting enough out of school as she and her brother seem to be covering the same type of lessons while he is still in pre-school.

Less than 5% of the kindergarten and 1st grade students combined are invited into the program and she is the only one in her class who was selected. This is another thing that bothers me. I don't want her to feel like she is different. I don't want her to feel pressure to have to perform a certain way in school. I remember being a junior in high school and nearly giving my self a aneurysm when I thought I wasn't going to make it into National Honor Society. And guess what, my grades have never impacted me one bit in my adult life. It's not like I've ever gone into a job interview and been asked "What were your grades like in high school English?" It just really doesn't make a whole lot of difference.

So, I actually struggled with the decision to let her be a part of the program. When we talked about it, I asked her if she knew why she was being asked to go to a different class or if she knew what they would do. She was told it was a special reading class so that she could read more books. Which is fine with me. I would prefer for her to NOT hear that it is a "gifted" class because of the stigma that is associated with that word.

The good thing is that we can take her out of the class at any time. They also wrap up the testing to get into the program with the regular standardized testing that the school does each year. And if she doesn't get in next year, that it A-OK by me.

Queen of hearts costume

2009-10-19T17:30:00.000-07:00

I normally do not play the normal mommy blog game of entering contests or posting giveaways, but this is just too good to not mention.

First, you must understand that I love Alice in Wonderland. Specifically, the rabbit character.

Second, you must appreciate my daughter's strong willed personality to understand the "perfectness" of this costume.

Third, you need to understand my love for things that are unique.

Then you will really appreciate my link to this blog contest.

Seriously, this is the cutest costume I have ever seen. And we are borderline with having the costume size fit, so I'm hoping that we win it!

So if you are interested in winning an Alice in Wonderland costume (cuz Queen of Hearts is spoken for) head over to the Grosgrain blog and check it out!

Tiggie update

2009-10-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

Thank you to the Disney Store for not messing up the shipping on getting new Tiggie to us as quick as possible. And just in time too, because a certain someone pee'd all over old Tiggie during nap time.

Can you tell which is which?

Good morning

2009-10-18T06:44:00.000-07:00

I love waking up to the lamas.

Dog for sale - real cheap.

2009-10-07T15:36:00.001-07:00

It has been a rough week at our house, thus the lack of posts. The kids have both been sick at separate times, this was A.'s long week for working overnights, the dogs are on my last nerve and work is work.

The straw that broke my back this week just happened this afternoon when a small congested four year old boy let out a shriek that a dog had attacked his tiggie.

I may have at one point said to the dog "I will CUT you!"
Please don't call PETA.

For those of you who have spent anytime with Baby Bear, you understand how much he adores his Tiggie. He does not go to sleep with out him. He takes him to school and keeps him in his cubbie all day long, everyday. This is actually Tiggie #2 as the first one had to be retired several months ago because he had made one too many trips through the washing machine. And Tiggie is always laying within reach of one of the three dogs. Why they decided today was the day Tiggie was going down is beyond me.

In case you were wondering, Tiggie #3 has already been ordered. And I will gladly ship you dog #3 in the container once it arrives.

Are you ready for some football?

2009-09-30T18:56:00.001-07:00

We are. Is it obvious?

No need to call Dallas just yet

2009-09-28T07:00:00.000-07:00

As part of Mooka's birthday presents, I let her go to this cheerleader camp offered by one of the local high schools. The way day worked was 3 hours of camp in the morning, then a break for lunch, then come back and perform during the second quarter of the football game.

When I came to get her from camp, I walked up to see her squatting and twirling her hair.

We went to lunch and talked about how her morning had gone. She said that cheering made her tired and hurt her legs. She then asked if she could take swimming lessons again.

She had a great time once we went back for the actual game. She just did her own little thing and looked adorable doing it. There was a storm that had been brewing all morning but had held off, until the last four minutes of the quarter.

Then.it.poured.

She was pretty bummed that they didn't get to finish the quarter, but she's excited about starting swimming lessons again.

The birthday cake

2009-09-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

I was actually pretty impressed with the way this one turned out. Unlike some of my other attempts to be creative in the kitchen, this one actually resembled the picture in the book.

I got the idea from this great book called "Hello Cupcake." It has a ton of great pictures and provides step-by-step instructions.

And most important, the birthday girl LOVED it!

Happy Birthday baby girl!

2009-09-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Dear Mooka,

I cannot believe how quickly this past year flew by. It literally feels like yesterday that I was sad because you were turning five. And now you are six! Six! We now have to use two hands to count your age.

The things I will remember most about you being five...

You LOVE your brother and you do everything with him.

You LOVE to read and you read everything to us.
You eat like a bird, unless we are having fondue or sloppy joes.
You hate to have your hair combed.
Your favorite girl singer is Taylor Swift.
Your favorite band is Skillet (and you can sing most anything by them).
You save every single note I write and stick in your lunch box (even if it's on a napkin).
You flip out at the thought or mention of the squirrel from the movie Ice Age.
If kids were allowed to compete on American Gladiator, you would be first in line for try-outs.
You still suck your thumb and twirl your hair.
You still crawl into bed with us most nights.
You are absolutely the sweetest little girl as long as things are done your way.
You love to make us laugh.

The biggest difference I have noticed in this past year is that you have gone from being a baby girl to a little girl. So much about you has changed. I wish I could just stop time and keep you this size forever.

But, no matter how big you get, Daddy and I will always think of you as our little baby girl.

We love you so very much. We thank God each and every day for blessing us with such a wonderful gift!

Love - Mommy and Daddy

Fired up...again

2009-09-16T18:42:00.000-07:00

Unless you have been living under a rock, you have already heard about how the town we live in just made national news with a horrible bullying attack on a school bus.

The whole ordeal has made me sick and brought me to tears for several reasons.

First - I can't stand bullying. I was never in the popular crowd, but I also wasn't an outcast (at least not in my own opinion.) I hung out somewhere in the middle. But, I always have had compassion for the person who isn't quite like everyone else. I remember in grade school, I would make it a point to play with the kids from the special ed class because no one else would. I didn't mind if everyone in high school thought I was a freak. I worked for The Salvation Army for thirteen years and once ate Easter dinner with a prostitute and a "John". I never once felt like I was entitled to something more or better than them. My point is, it doesn't matter what life experiences a person has walked through, everyone is on a journey to be better than they were the day before. I believe everyone deserves to be treated equally and with respect. To me it doesn't matter how different a person happens to be, they still are human with dreams, hopes and feelings. At the end of the day, each person is going through "something" and as humans we should help each other in this walk. With all my heart, I believe no person is better than another regardless of race, education, title, gender, you get the picture. When I see or hear about someone belittling another person or attacking someone because they feel like they can, it makes me want to vomit.

Second - The media should be ashamed of themselves for continuing to promote the video. I will not link to the video or any stories that provide the details about what happened. There has been entirely too much promotion. Kids now think it is cool to gain notoriety by posting videos of beating the crap out of each other. The media is continuing to feed the monster.

Third - My heart breaks for those of us raising children in this day and age. While society has continued to make advances in technology and science, it has also taken major steps back in areas like values, respect, and family. I know in our house, it takes a LOT of work to make things work. We have also made the commitment to raising our children in love and letting them know every single day that our lives are blessed by their presence. And each day, it feels like we are slipping into the minority.
Babies have become accessories. Children are raising themselves and I think we are starting to see this generation act out survival of the fittest. We now have kids that are mature way beyond their years overtaking the innocence that once was childhood. The things that some children are exposed to now in grade school, I didn't have figured out until I was out of high school. There is just so much evil attacking their little souls.

And finally, I pray that the school takes a stand. A FIRM stand. I think the kids that did the beating should be taken out of the school system and put into serious therapy. I think the parents of those children, should be put into crisis counseling. I think the children who cheered on the bullies should be suspended and if any of them are seniors, they should not be allowed to walk with the rest of their class in the spring. The school has to let it be known that this type of behavior or supporting it, will not be tolerated.

Parents - hug your kids. Turn off the tv and read them a book. Tell them how much you love them. It's up to us to make a difference with this next generation.

How was your day?

2009-09-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

It's the standard question that I ask when we sit down to eat dinner. I usually follow it with, what did you do today?

The typical response that I get from the girl is "good and nothing."

The boy, however, tends to be a bit more unpredictable. His days are much more adventurous and he usually ends it with "and we ate green beans for lunch."

Yesterday, was no exception.

Me: How was your day?

BB: Good. The teacher brought in baby polar bears and then they got angry and scratched off the teacher's faces. Then we played with them. Then we had meatloaf and mashed potatoes.

Me: Silent.

BB:Oh, and we had green beans.

Me: Of course.

Aspiring artists

2009-09-12T07:12:00.000-07:00

I bought some cheap craft paints, recycled some displays from my last job, handed the kids some sponges and said "CREATE!"

This is what they came up with...

Mooka's

Baby Bear's

Instant modern art for our dining room! The whole project cost me $3. Not too bad for two custom art pieces.

An update, but only so Aimee will still be my friend

2009-09-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

There is nothing going on, but at the same time things are a little chaotic.

The kids - They are great. Moo is settling nicely into school. She comes home daily to tell me about her new friends and then proceeds to roll her eyes when I ask their names. Apparently, she is not one to get bogged down by those details. She is also motivated by rewards. Last week, she came home and insisted that she learn her phone number immediately so that she could get this FABULOUS ribbon. She then spent the next ten minutes recounting the details of the colors, pattern, and size of said ribbon. (Maybe if her friends wore more vibrant clothing, she could recall their names.)

The boy has been moderately traumatized because his best buddy has not been at school for the past two weeks. Each day he gets in the van and asks if she will be back today. I think the economy has taken a toll on her family and they have elected to have her out of the school for a bit. Hopefully, she will be back soon because his big sad eyes just break my heart everyday.

The job - Well, it's officially over. Fortunately, I am only technically unemployed today. Tomorrow, I start a temporary position through the end of the year. Not the ideal situation, but I am not going to complain (I spent Saturday feeling sorry for myself and now I'm over it.)

And that's about it. Life is full of surprises, but at the end of the day I've got an amazing family and that's all that matters to me.

First day of school 1.4

2009-08-26T08:24:00.000-07:00

Today is the real first full day of school - YAY!

On a side note, I have really begun to enjoy the time alone that Baby Bear and I have in the car alone after we drop Mooka off at school. There are about 7 miles between her school and his, so we have a little bit of bonding time.

This mornings conversation went like this...

Both of us were singing along with the radio.

BB: Mom, how do babies get in mommies bellies.

Me: I'm sorry, what?

BB: How do the babies get in the bellies.

Me: Honey, why do you want to know.

BB: Because I want to know how them get in the bellies.

Me: Because Jesus puts them there.

BB: Okay!

Silence the rest of the way to school.

Where do they come up with these things and what in the world was going through his little head that made THAT the question for the morning?!

First day of school 1.3

2009-08-24T06:37:00.000-07:00

I think we are going to consider this the first official day of school, since she will technically be there all day. Today, she had school until 12:30 but will then go to latch key. (Which apparently is extremely cool because it's all both of them talked about this weekend.)

Walking up to the doors...

Peeking in the window...

Ready for Mom to leave...

And someone scored a cookie for breakfast because Mom was a wreck...

And in case you were wondering, I didn't even make it back to the car today before the waterworks started.

Last weekend's update

2009-08-22T14:09:00.000-07:00

Because I was so school focused this past week, I never got around to sharing the pictures from last weekend's follies.

We made our annual trek to the Illinois State Fair.

We made the decision to let them ride this ride for the first time this year. They both were well above the height requirement and were both begging, so I gave in. I'm not going to lie though, I about crapped myself (and no, there is no better way to phrase that) after the thing started moving. I have an absurd fear of carnival rides/heights/things that go fast, in fact my palms are sweating as I am typing this and reflecting on the moment.

Clearly, they were not phased by my constant screams on the sidelines...

I love the sheer joy on their faces in this one...

We and by we I mean A. always takes the kids on the big slide. After going down first with the boy, they were quite disappointed in the lack of speed they were able to achieve. They made up for it on the second pass with the girl and while this picture isn't the best, you will see what happens when you get over zealous on the big slide. (this one is just for you Grandma Gayle)

First day of school 1.2

2009-08-21T09:33:00.000-07:00

Today, she opted to have her picture taken in front of the morning glory vines.

As I mentioned yesterday, today was only a two hour day and she was without me.

I got to hang out with this red mustache bandit.

Her report when I picked her up was "I really like kindergarten."

There were no tears until I had dropped everyone off at day care and this song came on the radio.

O, well...there is always Monday :)

First day of school 1.0

2009-08-20T10:03:00.000-07:00

Today was Mooka's first day of school...sort of. I am finding that they make it easy for kindergartners to make the transition by having a week worth of firsts. Today was an hour orientation that I was able to attend with her. Tomorrow is two hours on her own. Monday and Tuesday are half days. Then finally, Wednesday, she will go for a full day. I love that they ease into it, but if you are trying to capture the true "first day of school" it makes it a bit difficult.

Anyway, so here is version 1.0.

The orientation was set up so that the kids were separate from the parents. I was completely shocked when she grabbed a hold of my arm and asked me to not let go of her hand. (No, I did not cry.)

A teacher came over and introduced her to some other girls and took her hand to lead her into the room. She blew me a kiss and away she went. (No, I did not cry.)

I went into her classroom to get her things situated and to meet her teacher. As I sat in the tiny chair and looked around the room, everything just felt completely surreal. (No, I did not cry.)

Afterwards, I was able to walk Mooka through her class and show her the desk. She is sitting in a quad with three other little girls. I noticed that there is another quad of girls very near by, so the class is nicely blended with a total of 14 children. We finished our tour and then it was time to go.

As I drove her to one of her last days at daycare, I looked in the rear view mirror to see her looking out the window while sucking her thumb and twirling her hair just like she has done since she was a baby. Neither one of us said much.

When I walked her up to daycare to join her brother, she did not want to go "because those are the little kids and I'm in school now."

It's so hard to be in that transition phase.

Baby Bear came running right up and started asking all sorts of questions, so off they went.

I got back to my car and sobbed all the way to work. The exact same way I did 5 short years ago when I dropped her off with her Grandpa on my first day back from maternity leave.

Cherish each day because they just fly by.

Don't be a Grover

2009-08-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

When I was a kid, I used to LOVE this book.

And now, my kids love this book.

The basic story is Grover starts flipping out after the first page when you read that there is a monster at the end of the book. Page after page, he constructs new obstacles to try to keep you from going forward. And, page after page, you prove his efforts to be futile.

At the end of the book (stop reading if you don't want me to spoil it for you) there isn't anything but Grover. He's the monster at the end of the book. He freaked out for nothing and even points out his embarrassment.

As we were reading this the other night, dear old Grover taught me a pretty big life lesson.

The reason why the kids (and I) always love this book is because it lets them demonstrate...

courage,

determination,

confidence,

strength,

bravery,

all of those things that we want for our kids.

Lately, I have been less like them and more like Grover. I freak out about what the future holds when it's going to happen regardless. And, most likely, the only bad thing that is going to happen was all constructed in my own imagination. At the end of the day, I'm just sitting there embarrassed about all of the time I wasted worrying about something didn't even happen. I'm not sure when I changed, but I don't like it.

Has anyone else experienced this, the lack of fearlessness as you've gotten older?

Guessing game

2009-08-14T10:19:00.000-07:00

Take a look at these pictures and guess where we were this morning.

You may also notice that Baby Bear now has even shorter hair than he had two SHORT weeks ago.

You get one guess.

I was laid off from work on Tuesday (everything is going to be fine - I'll post about that later) and had a better reaction to that than the one I had when the school called to say come pick up your ~~dirties~~ children.

But, the visit to the doctor said we are clear for at least another 10 days.

YAY for parenthood!

By Your Side

2009-08-09T15:03:00.000-07:00

This song has been on repeat for me for the past week. It's by Tenth Avenue North and serves as a reminder for me that no matter what is going on, I'm not the one in control.

Why are you striving these days
Why are you trying to earn grace
Why are you crying
Let me lift up your face
Just don't turn away

Why are you looking for love
Why are you still searching as if I'm not enough
To where will you go child
Tell me where will you run
To where will you run

And I'll be by your side
Wherever you fall
In the dead of night
Whenever you call
And please don't fight
These hands that are holding you
My hands are holding you

Look at these hands and my side
They swallowed the grave on that night
When I drank the world's sin
So I could carry you in
And give you life
I want to give you life

Cause I, I love you
I want you to know
That I, I love you
I'll never let you go

Jump around

2009-08-07T06:41:00.001-07:00

We bought this thing before Mooka had even turned two. As you can see from the pictures, it was as much for ~~Daddy~~ us as it was for them. A friend of ours had a summer party at their house and decided to buy it. After the party, they realized they had no use for a ginormous trampoline and sold it to us for a ridiculously low price. I'm so glad we have room for it again, as it had been in a box for the past three years.

Rock the River

2009-08-05T08:12:00.001-07:00

If you follow me on twitter or facebook, you are probably sick of hearing me talk about Rock the River. But seriously, I cannot express how much fun we had!

If you haven't heard about it yet, allow me to share. Rock the River is a music tour coordinated by the Franklin Graham. It is targeted towards the younger generation and they do an amazing job.

Leading up to the day, I did not have high hopes for having two kids out at an all day concert. They cannot behave for a 30 minute trip to the grocery store, let alone, 9 hours in the sun.

We prepped them by letting them know that there favorite band Skillet would be performing.

And it worked.

They got along most of the day. There was limited fighting. There was minimal whining.

The only negative to the day was when we had to make the trek to go potty. The funny thing is that it was so horrible, that they didn't ask to go back again. (If you have ever been out to eat with the House of O, you know that this is MAJOR as we normally make no fewer than 5 trips to the commode during an hour long dinner) I'm not exaggerating when I say we were gone for nearly TWO HOURS. Someone thought it would be a great idea to only order 15 porta-potties for the event. Since nearly 71K people were there, it did not make for a fun experience.

I digress.

How about some pictures!?

I absoltely love this one, so I had to feature it by itself.

During the time between bands, they showed video testimonies from people that the kids in the audience could relate to. These were very powerful. When they showed this one from Brian Welch, you could have heard a pin drop under the arch.

It was a surprisingly great day. If you live in Minneapolis, I highly recommend catching the show next weekend!

Busy, busy

2009-08-04T07:04:00.000-07:00

We made up for our previous week of being shut off from the real world this past weekend. I have lots of pictures to share.

First up, we headed out of Saturday morning to preview the new "A Christmas Carol" by Disney. They are doing a US wide train tour promoting it.

You walk through the train and see the process they used for creating the movie... from concept art,

to paper models,

to the technology behind making a real actor become a cartoon character.

At the very end, there was a 3-D screening of the movie.

Everyone had a great time and even better, the whole thing was FREE!

There ain't no bugs on me

2009-07-31T06:52:00.000-07:00

At least for now...

The horror stories that I have read all confirm that you are not completely out of the woods for a good three weeks. Until that time, all of the toys will remained quarantined; carpets, beds and furniture will be vacuumed nightly; sheets will be washed daily.

I took the kids in on Thursday morning to get doctor approval for them to return to school. I'm really not 100% sure the doctor didn't just give us clearance because I ~~slipped her the extra cash to write that note~~ was pleading for her to make them just go away. Regardless, they are clear and I have not had to pick bugs for the past 24 hours.

This has by far been the worst thing I have had to deal with since becoming a parent. Seriously, give me the labor with no drugs again, just don't make me have to dig bugs out of my kid's hair for hours on end. (And yes, I not so selfish to not recognize that if THIS is the worst I've had to deal with, then I'm actually pretty blessed. I have two amazing healthy smart kids, so things are really good.)

But I still hate the lice.

They won't leave

2009-07-29T13:26:00.001-07:00

The thing about lice is they don't just go away.

They are still here.

I'm so sick of doing laundry, I want to scream.

My hands are burnt from using the lice kill shampoo.

Mooka is the only one who still has them and for a kid who has very little hair, it still takes 2.5 hours to comb through each strand. And speaking of combs, they don't work on fine kid hair. That would be 2.5 hours picking them out with my finger nails.

Seriously, I would welcome underwear full of poo or a lap of vomit over this experience.

We went to the doctor yesterday. She just looked at me compassionately and said, sometimes they can be hard to get rid of. I was hoping for her to pull out a laser gun and zap the kid's head, but she just said, the prescription is the same as what you can buy over the shelf. You'll just have to go hair by hair and pick them out.

really.

REALLY.

So, I went and got Baby Bear's head shaved. I really like the super short hair cut look on guys and it's summer, so no harm.

I would be lying if I said I didn't think about plopping the girl up in the chair next to him and giving her a Sinead 'do.

After 2.5 hours, I felt accomplished and confident that we would get up today, able to go back to the doc and get the all clear.

7 a.m. - bug check.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

WHERE DO THEY KEEP COMING FROM?!??!?!?!

I found a tip on the internet today that said to put fresh rosemary in the pillow cases and sleep on it. We'll be doing that later (AFTER THE PILLOWS AND PILLOW CASES FINISH WASHING).

If you can pray against lice, I need it.

How was your weekend?

2009-07-27T11:34:00.000-07:00

You know how you come back to work on Monday and the first thing someone says to you is, “How was your weekend?”

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you were completely honest?

Imagine the look on people’s faces if I decided to indulge them with the details of exactly how my weekend went.

Friday night, Mooka broke out in hives for no real good reason. She was also doing the itchy dance all over the house. By Saturday afternoon, she was in full on hysterics over the itchies, so I did the head inspection.

(Do you see where this is going?)

That’s right.

Lice.

Disgusting, repulsive, creepy crawly lice.

GROSS!

Upon further inspection, all four of us had it.
Sorry if you just threw up in your mouth, cause I did.

If you’ve ever had your car broken in to and you experience that violated feeling, well, that’s how it feels to get lice.

The next three hours of my life were spent treating, washing, combing, plucking, rinsing three heads.

This was followed by twenty loads of laundry over the next 48 hours.

My Saturday night was supposed to be spent at a friend’s birthday party (again, how is THAT for an excuse on why I didn’t show up).

Finally, at 9 o’clock at night I made the trip back to the store to get more supplies to do my hair.

I must have used too much of the goo on my hair, because after the wash and rinse step, my hair looked like I had attempted to give myself a Jheri Curl treatment but with too much Jheri and without the curl. I normally use “ethnic” hair products on my hair and have no issues with being over conditioned (another story for another day). This stuff made me an oily mess.

The next morning when I got up to go to church, I noticed my hair still rivaled an Exxon spill. Fortunately for me, it was my week to play in the church band. I tried to channel my inner-artist-formally-known-as-prince-self and do something with it, but just ended up looking like a hot mess. No one said anything about it (but if you’re reading now and you did notice, thanks for not asking.)

The house, cars, furniture, walls, kids have all been fumigated, but I still feel completely dirty.

And that was my weekend. How was yours?

Parenting Lesson #288

2009-07-24T06:44:00.000-07:00

It really pays to plan ahead.

Me: We're running late. You need to pick out your own clothes and get dressed.

Baby Bear: K!

Me: I'll meet everyone outside.

Me: Really?

Baby Bear: Yep.

Great baby shower gift

2009-07-23T07:22:00.000-07:00

One regret I have from each of the kid's first year is not capturing the same pose month after month to document how fast they were growing. I had great intentions, but just didn't quite get it together. So when my Chicago friend hinted that she wanted this simple but wonderful gift, I was excited to order them.

The concept is easy: put baby in onesie, place sticker on baby, take picture, repeat once a month. AMAZING! The best thing about this idea, is it won't get tossed out or become obsolete after the first three months.

If you're giving it as a gift, buy the stickers and a variety of sized white onesies, voila! You're done. I highly recommend this idea for anyone who has to buy a baby gift. Especially after trying to navigate the baby shower registry in the store the night before the shower - that was a disaster.

You can buy the stickers at www.pickysticky.com.

This month's favorite song

2009-07-23T07:19:00.000-07:00

Is it wrong that this is my kids favorite song right now?

Llamas, Boas and Babies O, My!

2009-07-20T08:48:00.001-07:00

The title is the summary of our weekend.

We spent Friday just watching the neighbors grazing and enjoying the rare cool summer evening.

Saturday, we got to go to my Chicago BFF's baby shower. I seriously don't think I've ever seen a cuter pregnant lady!

Before we headed out for the shower, I was on a mad dash to find a coloring book. Story telling tangent - Jenny (from over here) had this great idea at her baby shower. All of the guests colored sheets from the Charlie Harper coloring book while they were waiting for the actual shower to begin. I thought it was a fantastic idea and tried to replicate for this weekend's shower. However, my attempt was a complete failure that left me scrambling hours before the big event trying to find something that would work. Note to self, don't buy something off of the interwebs and count on having it when you need it.

Back to the other story...so when we drove up to the store, there was this guy walking down the street carrying a giant yellow boa constrictor. Like any responsible mom would do, I drove up and asked if he would take a picture with my kid. I expected her to just stand off to the side, but no, she asked if she could hold it!

More avoiding the task at hand

2009-07-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

Again last night, rather than unpack, I decided it would be fun to hang out in my freshly painted furniture outside and read a book.

While I was reading, I noticed the little things kept running back into the woods and returning with sticks. After about 5 trips, they went in and got some marshmallows. They set up their chairs and had a pretend camp fire. It was so cute.

I also took some time to take outside shots of the new house.

To finish it off, I took a shot of Mooka's newest pose. She LOVES to do this when she is getting in trouble. And yes, I've already caught myself saying 'Don't do that or your eyes will stay that way.' Completely unsuccessful.

Note: the marshmallow on her face makes this one extra special.

How to avoid unpacking 101

2009-07-13T13:25:00.000-07:00

This weekend I found plenty of ways to avoid unpacking. At this point, everyone has enough underwear for seven days straight and a decent rotation of clothing for during the week, so I figure we are in good shape.

Our basement is a walk-out with a very old door. An old door with a big window that would allow you to see straight in and given my families love for "being free" it just wasn't working for me. I bought this stuff at Home Depot and loved it. Typically when I start a project, I want immediate results. The beauty of this stuff is that it took about 20 minutes from start to finish to complete.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

The second way I avoided unpacking was by re-painting my outdoor furniture. This, however, was not a project that I loved. It took entirely too long and who knew it would take 7 cans of spray paint to complete. I had purchased three cans thinking that would be more than enough, so the project was not completed in one sitting. AND it hurt my finger (queue violins) to have to spray that much paint. AND, those spray can nozzle holder things that they sell are junk. AND, truth be told, I probably could use a couple more cans, but have completely lost interest in this project.

BEFORE:

AFTER:

Even with my lack of commitment to the project, I think it looks 100 times better. I still want to get an outdoor rug and paint the concrete, but it will take me a couple weeks to make nice with the furniture.

My next project is to purify the little swamp area next to my outdoor room. Also, please note, if you have kids, having a garden pond is the worst.idea.ever. Mine are using it as a carnival game in which they toss peaches from the tree into it to see who can make the biggest splash.

More genetic evidence that he's really mine

2009-07-13T06:54:00.000-07:00

For as long as I can remember, I have been obsessed with the idea of becoming a hair stylist. The fantasy of tossing the 9-5 lifestyle to attend the Aveda Institute in Minneapolis will forever be my dream.

When I was younger, all of my Barbies had custom cuts. My sister was my life size doll to practice my skills. I even convinced my mom and BFF to let me work my magic on there heads.

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered Baby Bear had gotten ahold of his sister's My Little Ponies and gave them a couple of buzz cuts, evidence that he would share my obsession for providing the world with perfect coiffes.

Then on Friday, I was greeted by Vidal Sassoon when I got to day care.

We unpacked the children

2009-07-09T10:13:00.000-07:00

The move is done and yes, we did bring the children.

See, I took a picture of them last night in their giant over-sized bathroom.

Seriously, their bathroom is like a little condo. It's crazy.

The move was long and painful, but we have all of our junk out of the old house.

I went out Monday, bought a book on organizing and have enlisted the help of a friend to sort through it all.

Bottom line, we have WAY too much stuff. I've been able to get my living room and dining room set up. I haven't put anything on the walls, no knick-knacks on the tables and you know what, I love it! I'm definitely moving towards the minimalist approach. So if you need any home decor, come by my place every Wednesday morning as it will be sitting out for the trash guys to take away.

As I get rooms done, I will post pictures, but don't expect anything anytime soon :)

Thank you to all of you (and your spouses) who spent countless hours helping with the process. Thank you to my parents who helped watch the ~~crazies~~ children while I attempted to work, get things packed, and tend to life while A. was out of town.

Meet the neighbors

2009-07-07T08:55:00.001-07:00

This is Stella. She lives across the street. She has a family of about 100.

Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my new place?

Sorry, if you already caught this yesterday on Facebook. I have zero motivation right now to come up with original material.

No, Napoleon, we don't store food in our pants.

2009-06-30T20:03:00.000-07:00

O, yes. He did.

The boy has done nothing but eat the past two days. Yay! That's one less box I have to pack, but I am seriously ready to buy the child a feed bag. If I hear one more "Mommy, I'm hungry" I may just drop him off at Golden Corral and come back at closing time.

And then there is tonight.

As I was trying to get the girl to brush her teeth, I noticed a certain someone stock piling cheesy poofs in his pull up.

Really, how is one to respond to that?

"Sweet heart, no cheesy poofs in your pants please."

And I'm pretty sure a good mom would have showered him down so that he would not have had to sleep in cheesy crumb goodness all night, but I'm just too tired for all that. A little wet wipe magic and he was good as new.

Please send meds.

K? Thanks!

Love, J.

Light week

2009-06-29T05:35:00.000-07:00

Before I start to get hate mail from Aimee and my sister, I'm just going to throw it out there that I'm not going to post much of anything this week. Life here is in a moderate state of chaos and I can't be expected to write it all down.

If you need to be updated, just reread this post.

My house looks like a bomb went off.

We've collected way too much junk during our 10 years of being together.

My advice to new parents is to just give your child a new cardboard box every three months. You will save thousands and three months is the average life cycle for all of the junk the baby industry insists will make your life easier if you own it.

The heat finally moved out of our area (THANK GOD) so this place is no longer like a sauna.

I cannot STAND moving.

Yesterday, after packing for a good couple of hours, Mooka came into the room, make up kit in tow and said, "You know, you might look a little better with some lip gloss."

I just stopped an starred at her.

After getting spruced up, she stood back and looked at me, "There, now you look like a princess."

How did I end up with such a girlie girl?!

All Alone

2009-06-24T11:54:00.000-07:00

Somehow, I thought I'd enjoy my alone time this week.

But actually, I'm just lonely.

Missing these...

And daddy too.

Soap Box - Reality TV

2009-06-23T14:21:00.000-07:00

Note – If you are part of the majority, you will probably disagree with everything in this post.

It’s all over the media today.

The big announcement.

I haven’t watched the show for several years and gave up celebrity gossip months ago, but yet I still decided to watch.

Not because I wanted to watch another marriage bite the dust, but because I was hoping for them.

It’s completely disgusting to hear all the comments about “Like we didn’t see THAT coming.” I watched, because I thought maybe, just maybe, they would announce that they were going to get help. And then everyone today would be saying “WOW, I really didn’t see that coming.” It’s like all of the television viewers just wanted to watch the train plow into the brick wall.

But no, they took the selfish route.

This is a topic that is very real in my life. I know I am surrounded by people who constantly disagree with me when I say I choose to make marriage work for the sake of my kids. Argue as you would like, but it’s my life.

The thing I’ve learned about marriage is that it is a selfless commitment.

Sure, I think my husband is lazy (most of the time – he’s trying).
And yep, I’m a control freak and rude 70% of the time (I’m trying)
And no, it’s not easy.
And yes, there are days, weeks, months where I’m ready to throw in the towel (or pick up the baseball bat.)
And yes, I’d love to be able to go get my nails done rather than dispense 500 sippy cups of juice on a Saturday.
And yeah, A. would love to be able to buy a 75 inch television rather than pay for daycare.

But WE, made a choice. WE have two amazing little lives that WE were CHOSEN to raise. So regardless of what comes our way, WE have to put our own selfish desires aside and figure out how to make it work.

It seems like we are in the minority when it comes to this mentality anymore. Anytime we have a rough patch, the advice I’m given is leave. The advice all of the broken families get is leave.

Well, what about staying?
What about trying to work out your differences?
What about trying to focus on someone other than yourself?

It makes me so angry when I hear things like “I’m only 32, I still have my life ahead of me.” If you call chasing tail making a life for yourself, then yeah, you’ve got the rejection, loneliness and uncertainty to look forward to. Enjoy.

It made me even madder when it was said "We want what's best for the kids." Really? What's best for the kids is for the parents to grow up and start seeing beyond the end of their own noses. Kids need loving families. End of story.

This family has a ridiculous amount of money and could have paid for the best family counselors available. But the show didn’t take that route, just announce the separation take a commercial and announce the divorce.

Why not at least show them trying?!

I suppose that would not have made for must see tv.

Father's Day Survival

2009-06-22T09:08:00.000-07:00

We spent our Father’s Day weekend reenacting the television show “Survivor”.

Only we weren’t on an exotic island, we were stuck in our house.

And even though we were each voted out of the tribe on several different occasions, none of us actually left.

You see, our A/C blew up on Saturday morning, just in time for 100 degree weather. Since we move in 10 days, there really aren’t funds, need, desire to drop several thousand dollars to get it fixed.

So Saturday, we spent the day ~~trying to not kill each other~~ laying in front of fans. Sunday, I knew at least one of us would spontaneously combust if we didn’t do something. We broke down and bought a small window unit.

Last night, the four of us, a couple of dogs and a tiny A/C held up in one bedroom in our 3000 square foot abode.

Thank GOD – A. and the kids are gone this week, which leaves me to pack up our hot box and get things ready for the move next week.

At the whole thing is just becoming funny. It’s like I’m living in the movie “The Money Pit”.

In fact, I woke up this morning and had this reaction when I discovered that our pool had drained itself during the night.

The Wilderness

2009-06-18T20:06:00.000-07:00

"There are some things that can only be learned in the wilderness."

I found this quote this week and it has really stuck with me.

You see, I have always been a fickle person. I am always curious about what else is out there and I want the next best thing. I also must be in control at all times. Both have lead me down some very bad paths. And while my life on the outside looks to be pretty peachy, I definitely recognize now that I have spent the past 12 months in a state of wilderness both with managing my finances to my relationship with my husband.

I have spent many hours in the past year trying to figure out what my next step. Many hours crying because my life wasn't turning out the way I wanted it to. Many hours just feeling lost.

But I still refused to surrender or admit that I had any real issues to deal with.

Within the past 3 months, I have been trying to not focus on what I don't have but appreciate the things I do have. And it's been during the past 3 months, that I have been able to put aside my pride and ask God for help.

And then I began to recognize the wilderness.

Without going into all of the details here, I'll try to sum it up. For the past 30 days, I had no idea where we would be living after July 1. We purchased our current home and really got in over our heads. The home sold but not without some painful lessons learned along the way. In the past 60 days, my husband had two job offers literally slip away. Essentially, as soon as I handed it over to God to deal with, things got really bad. For someone who normally has every detail planned out, living in a state of uncertainty has been a tough battle for me to face.

So, for the past 30 days, I have tried to continually focus on faith. And let me tell you, it has not been easy. But, I'm still believing.

And while I have been learning, God has kept His promises...
14 days ago, A. started a job that is significantly better than the two that slipped away.
10 days ago, we were led to the perfect house for us and yesterday I completed the paperwork to move.

I know that I will continue to grow as a wife, mother and person. Sometimes, we just have to leave our little happy place to learn those life lessons that help us grow.

Photo converter

2009-06-17T07:05:00.000-07:00

In my blog perusing, I came across this really cool photo converter. It will take your photo and age it 100 years. The site is in Japanese, but there is an English option.

Original:

Aged:

Happy birthday to me!

2009-06-15T08:06:00.000-07:00

Yesterday marked my 35th year of existence. As I lay in bed last night, I reflected on the day and compared it to my 25th year of existence celebration.

6 AM: (Year 35) convinced my standby baby sitter Walt Disney to watch the kids for 90 minutes so I could sleep in. (Year 25) Oblivious that it is 6 a.m.

7:30 AM (Year 35) head downstairs to discover that Walt failed to let the kids know that star burst are not an acceptable breakfast. (Year 25) Oblivious that it is 7:30 a.m.

8 AM – 8:30 AM (35) prepare waffles and eggs for the children. Begin packing up kitchen appliances. (25) Oblivious.

9 AM (35) discover that there are waffles stuck to the dining room wall and somehow son has managed to spray perfume in his hair. Shower children and self. Notice self in the mirror and wonder what the heck happened to my body. Could stand to lose 80 lbs. (25) Wake up and notice self in the mirror. Could stand to lose 10 lbs. Call to make tanning appointment.

9:30 AM (35) head to church (25) head back to bed.

11 AM (35) get inflated confidence and decide to take the children our for lunch (25) head out to tanning appointment.

11:10 AM (35) remember that taking the children to lunch is the worst.idea.ever. (25) remember that I need to get some more thread to finish up the snake skin pants that I have sewn for myself to wear out to the club at night.

1 PM (35) return home and beg the children to let me take a nap (25) think about taking a nap before I go out tonight.

1:30 (35) bribe children with candy for a 30 minute nap (25) head to a quiet little sandwich shop with my sister for lunch.

2 PM (35) begin pulling hair out because I’m so tired (25) pick up fabulous wigs to wear out to the club.

2:30 (35) head to basement to pack more boxes (25) head back to bed.

5 PM (35) make pb&j for dinner (25) make a batch of margaritas.

6 PM (35) take children to VBS and consider taking a nap in my mini-van for 2 hours in the parking lot (25) make sure my fancy sports car is cleaned out for rolling up to the club.

8 PM (35) retrieve children and head home, noticing in the car on the ride home that something has thrown up on my pants sometime between 9 AM and 8 PM (25) pace myself on the drinking because I don’t want to throw up between 1 AM – 5 AM.

9 PM (35) head to bed (25) head to the club.

10 PM (35) oblivious that it is 10 PM (25) just getting started!

And I wouldn’t trade my life now for the world (maybe just a nap).

Salmon

2009-06-12T04:23:00.001-07:00

For the past 6 months, Baby Bear came home from school and always had a story to share about the day he had with Salmon. I never stopped to question the child's name, because who am I to stifle freedom of expression. I also assumed Salmon was a boy because most of the stories were prompted by me asking, why did you take off your shoes and run in the mud? or do you just eat dirt all day long?

Well, last week I got to meet Salmon.

And well, her name isn't Salmon. BB just has a unique way of pronouncing her name.

Her mom and I were talking and she told me how every day "Salmon" comes home from school with stories about how her and BB went digging for worms, bugs, or other assorted creepy crawlies.

Given his tight knit friendship with his sister, I'm really not surprised that his best buddy is a girl. And in his eyes, I'm sure she's that much cooler than his sister, because she likes bugs.

Happy 34!

2009-06-10T06:04:00.000-07:00

Someone in our house turns 34 today; however he won't be celebrating with us.

He will be at Disneyland.

He started a new job on Monday so it only makes sense that day three would be a trip to Disney.

Whatever.

Disney ain't got nothin' on my cake makin' skills.

So, anyway...

We celebrated on Sunday.

This year's cake was inspired by his love for yard work. You may recall my passion for making all birthday cakes at home with lots of love.

It was inspired by these cupcakes on familyfun.com. However, I don't think they made their cupcakes in the humid land of So. IL. My lawnmower handles just wouldn't stay perky.

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you and miss you already!

Busy, busy, busy

2009-06-05T08:14:00.000-07:00

I probably could have posted more this week, but it would have looked something like this...

Sunday - Yelled at dogs, kids, and husband.
Monday - Yelled at kids and husband.
Tuesday - Yelled at husband.
Wednesday - Yelled at kids and husband.
Thursday - Cried.

So, I'm hoping for a better weekend.

The reason I broke down on Thursday is because my baby graduated from pre-school.

Seriously! I cannot believe how quickly these kids are growing up!

The school had a very nice program. Then afterward they had a BBQ and playtime for the kids.

I will post later this weekend about my Baby Bear discovery that happened during the BBQ.

Strawberry picking

2009-05-27T10:12:00.001-07:00

Our fun outing for the holiday weekend was strawberry picking at my most favorite place in Southern Illinois.

Mortified

2009-05-23T12:16:00.000-07:00

Remember when you were a kid,

and it was so much fun to play outside,

and sometimes you would feel the urge to go to the bathroom,

and you really didn't want to because you were having so much fun,

but you ran inside anyway?

Well, my kid experienced that last night.

Except, he missed that part about running inside.

My neighbor and I were sitting out on her deck, enjoying the evening while the kids played on the swing set. When suddenly the three girls started shrieking "EWWWWWWWW!!!!!"

The rest is a bit of a blur because I'm pretty sure I blacked out from the embarrassment that ensued.

Me: What happened?

Girls: He pooped in the yard.

Now, I get that it's tough to be a boy in a neighborhood of girls and that it's his job to be gross, but COME ON!

Seriously, I'm trying really, really hard to be a good mom. I promise I have never at any point given this child the indication that dropping turds in public was even remotely okay.

After collecting my children and delivering them to their father, I took the walk of shame back over to the neighbors house to PICK UP MY KID'S POOP IN THEIR BACK YARD.

Just mortified.

Her new talent

2009-05-22T06:32:00.000-07:00

She is really proud of herself for this one! She has been working on it for about 2 weeks.

Look at this kid's eyelashes

2009-05-20T07:31:00.001-07:00

Birthday event of the season

2009-05-19T10:47:00.000-07:00

Or something like that.

The kids were invited to our neighbor's daughter's birthday party on Sunday. Little did I know that we were about to experience our own private Disneyland.

When the neighbor girl spoke of the party prior to the big day, she would only say "It's at my dad's house and he's rich." Now to a 5 and 4 year old, this statement meant nothing, but it peaked my interest.

And it turns out, she wasn't exaggerating.

We arrived at the path to the home and were greeted by massive black gates. There in the front garden was Cinderella and not far behind her was Spiderman. Once the festivities began, Cinderella gave all of the girls make overs, created magic wands, taught them how to dance for the royal ball, read them a story and then declared them all official princesses.

Where was this stuff when I was a kid?

Spidey took the boys down to the lawn to teach them "moves" and let them run races.

And so yes, I suppose her dad is pretty rich (I saw 5 living rooms and I was only in a quarter of the home AND I'm pretty sure the game room is bigger than my entire house). BUT, there was several things about the day that just made me sad. This little girl sat alone at the kitchen table with my friend and I while she opened her presents. No parents, no pictures, no nothing...just alone. Then she became bored with the process about half way through so she left. There sat an entire corner full of unwrapped gifts and a table full of untouched toys.

The whole experience just made me appreciate that we don't have a lot of material things, but we do have a home full of love and reminded me to never take it for granted.

Art fair exploring

2009-05-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

One of the 101 reasons that I miss living in Minnesota, is the plethora of activities that kids have the opportunity to participate in. Sure, there is stuff to do around here but it either costs a ton to do or you have to drive a long way just to get there.

However, this weekend, our little town came through with an event called Art on the Square. It's a two day event wherein 105 artists from across the U.S. invited to come display their work. They also have a load of activities for kids.

We stamped bags...

And made our own puzzles...

And just had a great time all around...

Oh, and in case you were wondering...the number 1 thing I miss about MN is my sister.

O to be a boy

2009-05-14T07:11:00.000-07:00

Me: Why did you just pee on the floor?

BB: Because I had to go.

Me: We have a toilet for that.

Me: (removing his wet pants) Now, take off your underwear and get cleaned up.

BB: But I didn’t pee in my underwear.

Me: What? (feeling underwear) How in the world did you manage that?

BB: The pee came out of the tunnel in my underwear.

Me: (dumbfounded)

Basic cooking

2009-05-08T17:34:00.000-07:00

Take one box of this...

Add a few of them...

Mix with a couple of these...

And VOILA! You have dinner that two little kids will eat!

Go ahead...look really close. The spaghetti is coming out of the hotdogs.

I totally wish I could claim the creativity points for coming up with this one, but I can't. I found it earlier this week on this lovely blog.

The boy added some ketchup and ate the entire bowl. The girl added some spray butter and enjoyed hers just the same.

I, however, thought it looked absolutely disgusting and opted for some pretzels.

First love

2009-05-06T07:51:00.000-07:00

Monday night, I attended the monthly all women program at our church. You may remember me coming home from the first one feeling like a complete failure.

This week’s service highlighted a panel of moms. The wisdom that one mother shared moved me in such a way, that I feel like I’ve had a complete renewal of my spirit.

The question was “What is the most important lesson you’ve learned being a mother?”

She responded in two parts…

“First, appreciating that God chose me to be the mom for my kids.”

WOW – think about that one. The spirits that God placed in those two little bodies that we created were chosen just for us.

“Second, no matter what kind of day I’ve had with my kids, my heart still melts when I see them sleeping on their pillows when I go back in to check on them. And God is the same way. At the end of a day when I feel like I have been the worst parent in the world, God still looks down on me with that same Fatherly love as I rest.”

And that my friends, is the bit of wisdom that I needed.

Sunday morning quotes

2009-05-03T15:28:00.000-07:00

This morning when I picked the kids up from Sunday school, BB exclaimed (in front of a full room of other kids and teachers):

BB: Mommy, I didn't poop my pants today.

Me: Well, great!

I have no clue why he would have considered this a victory today as we don't currently consider it an issue.

Once we got back to the car, we did our normal questioning about what did you learn today. Apparently, it was about being a good servant so A. asked what that means.

Moo: I told everyone that I go down to the basement and help Daddy look for mice so Mommy doesn't have to.

At least our reputation is consistent wherever we go.

Fairy visits

2009-05-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we planted fairy gardens on our front porch. I think all of the fairy power must have summonsed the Tooth Fairy, because last night we lost another tooth.

P.S. - I'm in love with the collage feature on Picasa.

Just because

2009-04-30T07:54:00.000-07:00

So what do you do when you're feeling down about your parenting skills?

Go to Build-A-Bear!

There really was no reason in the world for this trip other than I did not want to sit at home on Monday night.

I'm glad we went, the kids had a blast.

Sometimes it's not so pretty

2009-04-27T10:43:00.000-07:00

Raising kids is hard work.

Raising my kids is especially hard work.

This blog has been dedicated to our little story about raising these kids, but I’ve left out one key element. It’s not always fun and sometimes, no matter how hard I try, I can’t find the humor in the situation.

Sometimes I get really annoyed with them.

And during those times, I feel like a horrible human being. I think about all of those parents who are desperate to have a child and feel like I'm being selfish. We've been blessed with two amazing healthy children; but they behave like wild donkeys.

Because I’m an individual who is driven by logic, I always think I can read the perfect book or watch enough Nanny 911 to “fix” whatever craziness has overtaken their tiny brains. What I’m discovering though, is that thinking I can outsmart them is about as effective as the dog owner who thinks they can yell “SHHHH” at the dog like Ceasar Milan and have it make a difference.

This weekend, the girl decided to strip down and get nekkid in the front yard during the neighborhood yard sale. She wanted to put on her swimming suit. And I’m sure there may be a funny story here, but it made me really mad. And how do you explain to a 5 year old, that there are a bunch of random strangers in the neighborhood and one could just decide to run off with your nekkid little girl self – without freaking her out to the point that she will never function normally in society?

And not to be left out, the boy went to the neighbor’s house and decided to spray everyone with the garden hose so that it created a huge mud pile for everyone getting on and off the trampoline. Then after he finished his timeout sentence, he through one of the biggest fits of his entire 4 years of existence when he was handed a popsicle with the wrapper already removed. And as I carried him back to our house to his room, he kicked and hit and spit the entire time.

Other parents tell me similar horror stories, but it always seems like my kids are able to out-do them.

So this week, I’m weary. I feel like they’ve won. I’m thanking GOD we have committed to not having any more children. I’m feeling like I’ve already failed and we are just barely into this thing.

If you have the magic beans to make this thing work, please send them right away.

Light Weight

2009-04-22T06:51:00.000-07:00

And in this corner, weighing in at a mere 44 pounds, I introduce...

THE BEAR

After spending Friday in the ER, BB woke up on Sunday morning with a black eye. No clue what happened and when I asked him, he told me Tiggie did it.

To top it off, last night as he was getting ready for his bath, he ran into that little thingy on the door that allows it to latch when you close it (for lack of the more technical term). And POW...instant bleeding and swelling.

And yes, he's okay. But I wouldn't want to meet him in a dark alley...he may bump into you.

Please send bubble wrap.

Parenting Lesson #8

2009-04-20T11:46:00.000-07:00

Taking a child to the ER will never be easy.

On Friday, I got a call from the school letting me know that we needed to come get Baby Bear. He had been hit in the head with a child’s garden hoe.

What the heck was a garden hoe doing on a school play ground? Thank God A. was the one who got to ask those questions.

I work about 40 minutes away from the school so I sat on the phone with A. and got the full play by play as he picked up the kids, went to the doctor’s office and then over to the ER.

Walking up to the ER doors I just wanted to throw up.

Bad things are not supposed to happen to your kids.

We were very blessed that he only had to have one staple and for the most part, he was completely un-phased by the whole thing.

There really just isn’t a worse feeling in life than not being able to “make it better” or take away the pain for your child. This is my first real go around with this feeling and I pray we don’t have to go through it again anytime soon.

Ginormica

2009-04-17T07:13:00.000-07:00

These pants fit just fine in December.

And this morning...

Another first

2009-04-15T15:45:00.000-07:00

Last night after Mooka had already brushed her teeth, I noticed that she had hijacked a package of Skittles into her room for her midnight snack. There she stood, chugging them as fast as she could.

Me: You aren't supposed to have those and you are going to need to get in here to brush your teeth again.

*Insert door slam here*

Moo (from behind the door): When is daddy coming home?

I won't continue with the rest of our discussion as positive reinforcement was NOT a technique that I opted for. Let's just say 5 has been a tough year for my parenting tolerance level.

I am including this photo because this is the look she had on her face when I opened the fore mentioned slammed door...

The difference between girl mice and boy mice

2009-04-10T08:39:00.000-07:00

Early on, during our relationship contract negotiations, A. and I came to the following agreement:

I kill the spiders.

He kills the mice.

So, the other night when we were watching Rachel Getting Married (which was really lame, but that's another story) and a mouse scurried across the foyer floor, A. began fulfilling his duties to track and destroy said mouse.

I politely mounted my observation deck on top of the foot stool and then later the stair case.

For the next hour and half, I watched him chase little mouse through the coat closet and play room.

He finally was able to coax little mouse into a container and then carry him down the street for his release into freedom.

A couple of disclaimers here:
- While I HATE mice, I did not want to see it smashed by a broom or baseball bat (yes, both of which were used during the battle royale)
- The poor little mouse actually surrendered more or less after being whacked in the head several hundred times, he just kind of stood up against the wall and looked A. in the eyes as if to say, "Look dude, you people are nuts, you've got Crazy over there who has been squealing for nearly 2 hours, you're hitting me, let's just call a truce and how about you get me the heck out of this place."

Surprisingly, neither of the kids woke up during the fiasco.

However, the next day when they came down the stairs to discover every pair of shoes from the front closet and every single toy had been tossed from the front of the house to the back of the house, they immediately announced that they had not made the mess nor would they be responsible for cleaning it up.

After telling them what had happened, Mooka just looked at me in complete disgust. She then asked if it was a girl mouse or a boy mouse. I told her there was really no way of knowing. She then asked (with a certain how-did-you-get-to-be-a-mom tone)...

"Well did it have eye lashes or not? The girls have eye lashes."

Of course, how could I have not thought to look for eye lashes.

She must have learned that in Disney Biology 101.

Parenting Lesson #12

2009-04-08T06:11:00.000-07:00

The saying "Patience is a virtue" becomes your mantra after having children.

I have learned to accept a ton of things and to be patient as a parent.

Coloring on the walls - check
Using finger nail polish to paint the carpet - check
Peeing on the floor - check
Throwing food - check
Crying in public - check
Constant bickering between the two of them - check
Never liking any food put in front of them - check
Hiding lunch meat in the closets - check

And the list just goes on.

However...

Baby Bear has started this thing where he talks like Carol Channing and it drives me bananas. He loves to make his sister laugh and has an assortment of voices that he will use to entertain her.

But this one...makes.me.crazy.

Yes, I'm really a parent to two children

2009-04-03T15:08:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, we had our first ever parent/teacher conference for our kids. I had no idea that they even did such a thing with pre-school.

There really weren’t any surprises…they are both exceptionally smart for their age, Mooka is a natural leader and Baby Bear does not like to sit still.

It was what happened during the conference that is particularly concerning.

First, let me just throw out this disclaimer – I have the maturity level of a 10 year old boy, especially when it comes to farting or acting appropriate in public.

We sat down with one of the teachers and 2 minutes into the conversation, I noticed it - a rather long (at least one inch maybe even two) hair growing out of her chin.

Must.
Hold.
It.
Together.

I made the mistake of glancing at A. and his eyes were completely locked in on it.

Can’t.
Laugh.

Now, I’ve been known to erupt into full on hysterics when something strikes my fancy and I was so freaked out that I was going to lose it. At one point, a tear actually slid down my cheek.

I tried really hard to maintain eye contact and did not dare glance A.’s way.
The entire time, I just kept hearing Austin Powers in the back of my mind.

I'm trying really hard to grow out of this phase.

And here it is...

2009-04-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

For those of you who track my incredible cake making skills,I bring you the birthday cake (or birthday sushi).

And, yes, once again, those are twinkies in there. The kid's both LOVED it.

In order to keep the birthday posts to a minimum, I'll just go ahead and let you check out the pictures for yourself.

For my little guy

2009-03-31T19:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Baby Boy,

I cannot believe you celebrated your fourth birthday today. You really aren't much different today than you were yesterday, but at the same time when I looked at you tonight sitting up on your new bicycle, you looked like a little kid. You are starting to lose those chubby little cheeks and looking more like a big boy everyday.

Actually, your transformation began two years ago when I made the mistake of getting your long curls cut off (in an attempt to disguise that your sister cannot grow hair) and I've regretted it every day since.

While I can't really say I have fond memories of the actual process of getting you into this world, I can say that I have cherished every single minute since that time.

Your birth was a long drawn out process that started with me thinking I had peed on the floor. (Right, I know, not much has changed with me in four years.)

When you finally decided you'd come out and join the rest of us, your poor little face was severely bruised. So much, that I remember the nurse telling me to not worry that it would fade.

But when I saw you, I didn't see any bruises. I just saw a beautiful little boy.

As you have grown up, I have fallen in love with your sweet spirit. You melt my heart every time I look in your big brown eyes. The way you are curious about everything around you has helped me learn to just slow down and enjoy the little things.

I know this year you will continue to lose more and more of your toddler like qualities and further develop your kid personality. I promise to be right with you every step along the way.

Love,

Mommy

Reflection

2009-03-31T07:42:00.001-07:00

I plan on posting later today about how thankful I am for my little boy; then I read this post from one of my friends and wanted to make sure I shared it.

Jamie helps confirm how precious each and every minute of life really is, regardless of how old or young we are.

Please take a minute to read her post and contribute what you can.

Morning dialog

2009-03-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

Me: Good morning sweet little baby boy. It's your birthday. Do you feel any older?

(Insert MONSTER man fart here)

Baby Bear: Nope!

Less and more

2009-03-29T06:30:00.000-07:00

Today's lesson will be about opposites.

MORE

and LESS

Dear Time,

Please slow down.

K?

Thanks!

Weary Mommy

Loose Teeth

2009-03-26T07:55:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was out of town for a week for work. It's always weird coming back home, because I swear they both change so much in one week. This last trip proves my point.

Everything seemed to be as normal as our home gets right up until bedtime. We had tucked Mooka away for the night and I went to catch up on television. About five minutes later, there was screaming and banging and crying coming from her room. A. was the first on the scene. She proceeded to frantically tell us that she has a loose tooth.

What the heck?!

She's only 5 (and a half, but I'm trying to ignore that detail).

The next day when I dropped them off for school, I asked the director about what is normal. She showed me a couple of the kids who already have those gummy smiles.

Great, so she's normal.

But seriously!

Fast forward to today, she now has TWO loose teeth. Baby Bear has started checking his now on a daily basis just so he can get in on the action.

UGH - this is all going way too fast!

On a more fun note, I was able to find these adorable tooth fairy pillows on the Lil Pink Chicken shop on etsy. I figured I'd go ahead and get BB one since we'll be doing this with him very soon too. I just hope the pillow gets here before she actually loses it.

For her...

For him...

Jump around

2009-03-24T07:04:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, we went to Grandma with the brown hair's house. Grandma and Grandpa have recently gotten into the inflatables business so we got to try it out.

If you are located in this area and need a great idea for a birthday party or get together, you should check them out at www.herecomesfun.com/mei

Blogged out

2009-03-22T20:42:00.000-07:00

Either my kids have become completely normal, or I'm in a blogging rut. I feel like we've constantly been busy, I've just not stopped to document any of it. I'll try to do better this week.

In the meantime, I leave you with this.

Quote of the week from the past week:

"You and Daddy can have the healthy food. We want the disgusting stuff, so can we please go to McDonalds?"

BB after I picked him up from school on Friday. (Side note: we have not had fast food since January and they are going through withdrawals.)

Here are a couple of pics from a recent trip to Monkey Joes with our friends...

And finally, I leave you with a consumer report on sleeping masks. You must get one. During a recent trip for work, I picked one up at the airport and it was truly life changing. So when I got home, I shared my secret with Fatty Fat Fat and she gave it an A+.

Sometimes they are really sweet

2009-03-16T20:52:00.000-07:00

Tonight at dinner, Mooka asked me to tell her about my best friend. Shortly afterward, Baby Bear shouts out "You're my best friend!" to his sister.

Seriously, could this kid get any sweeter?

And to think, I felt she may be missing out by not having a sister.

Hair cut

2009-03-15T07:29:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed from my last post, that a certain little boy was in desperate need of a haircut. I had tried to convince A. that we should grow his hair out like some of the celebrity toddler boys, but he wasn't hearing it.

We tried out a new kid's only salon called Kiddo's Closet and Clips. It was AMAZING.

Even before the haircut started, Baby Bear was able to pick out his favorite movie to watch on the personal flat screen tv posted at each station. Then he got to pick out which "ride" he wanted to sit on.

He sat still for the entire haircut which was an achievement in itself not to mention he got a really good haircut.

The salon owner was kind enough to ask Mooka to hop up in the chair for an unscheduled styling.

Overall, I can't say enough good things about this salon and highly recommend it to anyone with toddlers or young children.

Tennis time

2009-03-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

I became moderately obsessed with teaching the kids how to play tennis after finding some rackets on clearance. Fortunately, this weekend the weather cooperated and we were able to try them out.

And as with most athletic activities, Mooka excelled right away and Baby Bear was more interested in hitting inanimate objects.

Cousins

2009-03-09T09:15:00.000-07:00

The weekend before last, we went to a cousin's 4th birthday party. While I didn't get any good pictures of the birthday boy, I was able to get this one of the girls.

Why one of us will be moving out when she enters highschool

2009-03-05T10:38:00.000-08:00

Over the past few months, my daughter (yes, it's during these times that she becomes daughter) has these week long episodes where she is a holy terror.

You may recall the oranges episode.

If this is foreshadowing of what's to come, one of us will not make it through her teen years.

Last night I came home to one of her overly sensitive hormonal attacks.

Each of the following instances resulted in full.blown.crying.

Crying because she couldn't have doritos before dinner...

then it was crying because she didn't want THOSE doritos...

then it was crying because she wanted to do crafts and eat the approved doritos...

then it was because she didn't want to finish dinner because she was cold...

then it was because she wanted ice cream...

then it was because she didn't want to take a bath, she wanted a shower...

then it was because she missed the end of American Idol...

then it was because her pajamas were too hot...

And right about that time, Animal Control showed up and shot it with a tranquilizer and it went to sleep.

Thank GOD we didn't have 2 girls.

Boogie Wipes

2009-03-02T11:16:00.000-08:00

It's very rare for me to get excited about products for kids, mainly because I feel most of them are just a higher priced version of something that already exists for adults. Which I entirely expected to be true of Boogie Wipes when I discovered them at the wal-store this weekend.

Truth be told, I made this purchase largely based on the name of the product. And partially because I didn't have anything else in my purse to wipe the barnacles that had formed on Mooka's nose. But seriously, who wouldn't want something in their purse called Boogie Wipes.

May I borrow a pen...let me look...no, but I have Boogie Wipes.

Or in the event that I find myself in an impromptu game of Let's Make A Deal, I always want to be ready.

Regardless of my intentions, these things ROCK. Because I was so stoked about the name, the kids automatically got stoked about using them! So not only was there a reduction in the number of fits they through in the store, they also didn't look like little creatures from the forest running around and they willingly wiped their own noses.

If you are on my we're-having-a-baby-this-year list, guess what you'll be getting!

Kinda like a cup of soup...

2009-02-28T18:59:00.000-08:00

Tonight we enjoyed dinner with my dad and step-mom. While we were waiting for the food to be brought out, the kids were the main source of entertainment. We showed off that each one of them now knows their birth dates.

Grandpa: Do you know where you were born?

Mooka: No, Mommy - where was I born?

Me: Minnesota

Mooka: In a cup of soda.

I really need to work on my lazy southern mumble.

Mardi Gras

2009-02-23T10:15:00.000-08:00

Not unlike many others in St. Louis, we also spent Saturday celebrating Mardi Gras. The biggest difference is that we did not have "grown up drinks" or anyone running around flashing (at least not related to any celebrations.)

We did have plenty of beads on hand, homemade gumbo and party masks.

In keeping with true Mardi Gras style, Baby Bear decided to pee someplace other than the toilet.

I heard a substantial splash coming from the bathroom, so I went in to check it out. Much to my surprise, I found a nekkid son, standing in front of the toilet with his rinse cup covering his man parts. When I asked what in the world he was doing, he replied "Peeing in a cup."

Of course...

Some days it's best to just go with the obvious and not ask questions.

All because of some oranges

2009-02-17T17:18:00.000-08:00

In keeping with the never ending quest to ruin my children's lives, I made them eat their oranges tonight for dinner.

Full blown on the floor crying...

It made her even madder when I grabbed the camera so she resorted to holding her breath...

What the boy was doing during this fiasco...

And finally, not to let a little chaos interrupt her dinner, who actually ate the oranges...