End of the School Year

Last week was our last week of preschool for the school year, which ment my 5-year-old daycare boy graduated!  I made him a graduation hat, diploma, gave him a nice poem to hang on to, he said he's going to tape it up on his wall where his dog won't scratch it.  Cute kid.  We also had celebration cupcakes for the end of a successful school year.... which were of course a huge hit!

I'm very proud of their accomplishments this year.  Babydoll has another year before kindergarten and she already knows the names of every letter, and the sounds of all but 2 letters (U and Y are tricky)!!  Next year she'll be working on learning lowercase letters and blending letter sounds to start reading simple words!

We also did a flower petal project using roses that Spencer recently gave me.  They were getting wilty so instead of throwing them away we played with them.



Sorry there's no finished product picture, but you get the idea :o)

Wishful Wednesday

I wish and pray that everyone who has been hit by the recent tornados can get their lives put back together quickly, and comfort for those who lost loved ones.

I wish Sweet Pea was old enough to babysit her brother and sister... that would be awsome!  At what age can a responsible kid babysit siblings?? I know she's not there yet, but thinking ahead!

I wish it wasn't going to rain again this weekend.

I wish our lawn mower was fixed already... it was being worked on today though!

Your Turn!  What are you wishing for today?

Pregnancy: After Effects

Pregnancy lasts 9 months, or 10 months depending on how you count it, but after the baby is born and your body ceases to be a vessel for growing tiny humans - you'll find things are never quite the same again.

After effects of pregnancy, in my case:

Stretch marks, though they fade, they never go away.

When I buckle my seatbelt I still automatically place it as low on my abdomen as possible, under the imaginary baby bump.

My surgeon was AMAZING and my c-section scar is barely noticable, and it's only been two years.  But it does remain.

Throughout many collective months of "morning" sickness and gagging everytime I brushed my back teeth, I still have trouble with that.  When I brush right away in the morning I have to be careful where my tongue is or I gag, later in the morning or day I'm fine. Apparently morning sickness can remain long after babies are born?

After months of eating healthier, minimizing caffeine, not so much as a drop of alcohol touching my lips, once my babies were born and nursing allowed, I said goodbye to vitamins, and hello to my daily pot of coffee and my occasional beer/wine.  I probably eat the worst after I have my babies than I do at other times, because after months of my body belonging to the baby, I wanted it back!

That little mommy-pouch below the bellybutton, unless you are one of those tiny hundred-pound mommas, are incredibly difficult to get rid of... though I persevere.

I have at times been so convinced that intestinal rumblings were little baby kicks that I once took a pregnancy test to make sure.  Many gas bubbles feel like early-on baby kicks.

And then there's the whole - "there's a child in my house" part. 

As far as I'm concerned I'm done with the having babies thing, so maybe these things will go away eventually? (Except the whole "child in my house" thing... that takes at least 18 years).

I know there's more to add to this list, so what have you got?!

Dieting Secret for Women, Who Knew?

Last fall I started The Spike Diet and over the course of a little over 2 months I lost just about 20 pounds.  I gave myself some slack the week of Christmas because, lets face it, there are way too many goodies at Christmastime to be on a diet!  During that week of over-indulging I managed to not gain any weight, which I credit to the boost in metabolism that the diet gave me.  The problem came the next week though when I didn't start the diet back up.  Turns out taking a week off can make it hard to get back on... who'd a thunk it? 

I kept trying to get back into it, but lacked motivation, until recently.  I can't complain too much though since I lost almost 20 lb in 2 months and after about 4.5 months of not dieting at all I only gained back 10 lb. 

A week ago was my sister-in-law's bachelorette party, which we spent downtown club-hopping.  There was an insane number of bachelorette parties out there that night, at the first place we went I lost track after the 7th bride-to-be and their entourages!

Now let me tell you a valuable dieting secret: Nothing will get you back on your diet faster than dozens of skinny 22-ish year olds in slutty dresses strip-dancing on the dance floor.  That was it, summer nearly here, I have a wedding coming up that I want to look fabulous for, and I was getting back on the diet!

Here's what I did last week.  Increased my protein and fiber, drank more water, my dad brought over my parent's orbitrek that they didn't want anymore, and I ran on it every night but one.  My results when I weighed myself first thing the morning of my spike day: down 5 pounds!

So here's hoping I can lose the other 5 lb before the wedding, and then keep that number plummeting through the summer, my goal is still to reach the weight I was at before and shortly after I had Sweet Pea, which is just 13 lb away!

The Spike Diet website: http://spikediet.com/

Wishful Wednesday

Sweet Pea very recently figured out how to whistle. I wish this didn't irritate me so.

I wish I could remember things.

I wish Spencer wasn't diabetic.

I wish my whole family was healthy.

I wish for a successful surgery for a friend of ours today.

Your turn! What are you wishing for today?

Spencer's 30th Birthday

My old man husband just turned 30 last Friday.  I know, I'm not far behind him, but I have until January to still be in my 20's, and I'm going to soak it up for all it's worth!

Though his birthday was the 13th, I planned him a surprise party on the Saturday before, so he wouldn't see it coming.  I had been telling him that there was some bridesmaid thing that night - we were getting together to talk about some of the final details, get to know each other before the bachelorette party, and have some drinks and games at Dave & Busters (game place/bar).  Sort of believable but we still needed to get him there.  My soon-to-be brother in law called him up earlier that week and asked if Spence would come along with him because he was going to be sober-cab for us ladies that night, Spence of course agreed and we hired a "last minute" sitter (planned not so last-minute actually).  We got dressed up for "my" night out and Spencer's "glorified chaperoning" as he called it, and I drove us out to Dave & Busters.  I pulled into the parking lot and as we were walking up to the building he spotted his mom's truck (it's impossible to not recognize) and commented on it.  I told him, "well she is the mother of the bride and it is a wedding planning thing so she probably decided to come out too."  He bought it. 

As we got closer he noticed one of his friends, and then the rest of them, sitting out at a big group of tables in the outside dining area.  Big smile on his face and a little light hearted swearing - he was thrilled!

Lots of people came out for the surprise and dinner/drinks.  It was fun, and I felt so relieved to have it go off without a hitch!

After people were dispersing we went with some friends, his sister and soon-to-be-brother-in-law, to our friends' house and continued the party there until I finally was able to usher Spence into the car and drive him home. 

For his actual birthday last Friday we had dinner at Mongo's (mongolian bbq), played at Best Buy and got him a game, and came home to make some fun drinks. 

Here's the photo recap of the dinner part of his actual birthday... I was a moron and forgot my camera for the surprise one.

Heading out to Mongos

Little Man grabbed everyone's chopsticks and made an arrangement.

finishing off the sunday.

Dandilion Nose

We recently had a gloriously warm day outside and played in the baseball field across the street.  We also found some dandilions (or a million dandilions) in the yard on the walk back.  When we got inside, this is what happened.

Wishful Wednesday

After a freakishly long bitter-cold and freakishly snowy winter, the temps soared above 80 today! WOW that felt awsome!

I wish I had a personal assistant who would massage my neck, back, and feet, and bring me drinks and fluff my pillow.  And if you were about to suggest my husband consider yourself laughed at.

I wish my mothers day had been better, but it was partly because of my own scheduling so I can't complain too much.

I wish our coffee pots and lawn mowers didn't die all the time.  Coffee pot has been replaced and the mowers are in the shop waiting to be fixed.

One of my daycare families suffered a terrible and unexpected loss on Mothers Day and my prayers go out to their entire family.

Your turn! What are you wishing for?

Sleeping Beauty Pictures

Sleeping Beauty is over.  It was a great run but I'm glad to have things calm down again.  Last friday night I finally got my chance to see the show from the seats rather than backstage, and Spencer and I took Babydoll and Little Man too of course!

While we were waiting out front our director thoughtfully upgraded BD's ticket to the princess parlor package and she went in the princess parlor to have her makeup done and get dressed up by Sleeping Beauty and the fairies!

 LM loved running the halls before the show.  He found some wall art that he had to show us and look at for a while.

 Both kids LOVED the show! LM was pretty difficult until it started, but then he was completely glued to the stage.

LM loved the horse Samson and the Raven the most.  Babydoll's favorites were Aurora and Maleficent... go figure.  She has always had kind of a dark sense of humor so I'm not surprised at all that she was drawn to the villian.

When the show was over BD got to take pictures with the cast on stage!

Broom, Bucket, and Mop

Goons

Maleficent (BD thought she was "really funny" even when she was cursing the baby princess to death)

remember the dark sensed of humor? yeah.

Full size and mini Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather

Prince Phillip

Princess Aurora

Narrator (in red) and Ladies in Waiting. 

The ladies in waiting also play the Fairies for half of the run of the show

2 of the Woodland Fairies

LM and his Samson, but it was 9PM and he was too sleepy to be up for touching the giant stuffed animal horse.

Sleeping Beauty was a great experience for Sweet Pea and she looks forward to doing the next one... this time probably with Babydoll as well!  The next Youth Theatre Workshop production is scheduled to be Rudolph the Red Nosed Raindeer!

A Tragic Jinx

You know how you mention how bad something would be if it happened? Or how lucky you've been that something hasn't happened?  And then it happens, like, the next day?

Happened!! :P

Yesterday I was chatting with one of my daycare moms about how I panic when I set the coffee pot up the night before using the very last of my ground coffee... only to wake in the morning to coffee overflowed and a mess everywhere because I didn't put the carafe in all the way.  Nothing like starting your morning with the only coffee in the house splattered all over the counter and floor, and full of coffee grounds (if it weren't for the coffee grounds everywhere I might have started licking the counter).

Well, this morning when I started my coffee pot (after I warmed up a cup of coffee from the day before... because I'm kind of a freak when it comes to my morning brew) it only brewed half of the water in the reservoir.  The good news was that I at least got a few cups of coffee out of it.  The terrible news was I would need to now buy yet another coffee pot by the end of the day.  This is terrible because coffee pots only seem to last me about a year before I kill them from what I am guessing is overuse.  And I'm not buying the super cheap ones, typically in the $40 range.

My only options for tonight were to run to the gas station and buy 2 very large cups of coffee to reheat in the morning, or get to Target to buy a new pot before they closed for the night, so I raced to Target after our Sleeping Beauty performance and picked myself up a new pot.

I got a Black and Decker 8-cup thermal programmable coffee maker.... with a very much needed 2-year warranty built in!


I know what you're thinking... only 8 cups? how is she going to live off of only 8 cups of coffee per day?  I'm not entirely sure but if I have to brew a small pot of coffee around dinner time then that's just what I'll have to do.

I also bought some hair color, shoes for Izzy, and baby food for the daycare babies, and headed out to my car.  I was partway into the parking lot when I realized that I probably looked like a complete douche lugging my ONE box, ONE target bag, and ONE purse out to my minivan in a cart at 10:00 at night... into a parking lot that had already been completely cleared of carts.   Creature of habit maybe?

So just in case the poor guy who has to run around and get the carts was cursing me out from the store window, I tried to save face.  I put my cart just on the edge of the cart thingy and made a big to-do about getting my "bulky" purchases and purse from my cart into my van (which was in the spot immediately to the right of the cart thing). 

I figured if he saw me struggling with my one bag, one box, and one purse he'd understand why I felt the need to take a cart with me.

Little does he know I carry/adjust 2 6-ish month old babies around all the time. 

What he doesn't know won't hurt him right?

Wishful Wednesday

I wish it were summer. The sun. The free time. The heat.  I can't wait!

I wish there were more hours in the night, for relaxing and sleep.

I wish I had been able to sleep past 3AM last night.

I wish we had a second car.

I wish I had more quiet time to read.

Your turn! What are you wishing for?

Facebook - The Rants and Raves

Facebook.

It's pretty much awesome as far as I'm concerned.  While there are some aspects of it that drive me nuts, I don't know what I would do without it.  It's kind of a double-edged sword, allowing us to reconnect with people we haven't seen in years, stay current on what our friends are up to, and organize/invite friends to events easily.  At the same time it has completely killed my ability to connect with friends who are not on facebook unless I see them often. 

A recent example of this: a very good friend of mine from high school and early college years had refused to join facebook for whatever reason.  While we used to talk on the phone every few months to catch up, over time we talked less and less until our only correspondance was through Christmas cards (until I lost track of her address and even that had to go).  I could have emailed back and forth I suppose, or for that matter picked up the dang phone from time to time, but for some reason facebook seems to be my only method of non-face-to-face conversation anymore.  So when she finally joined recently as did a little happy dance in my living room because I could finally get my friend back.... pathetic? yep!  This friend has ment a lot to me over the years but I apparently suck at staying in contact with anyone outside of my newsfeed.

Then there's the things that drive me nuts. 

Item number 1: people constantly feeling the need to let everyone know that they now have another cow in their farmville game, etc.  I don't care about how you're doing in a game I don't play, and when all you do is share your game news withe everyone just know this... I will "hide" you from my newsfeed.  You've been warned.

Item number 2: "status shuffle".  Status Shuffle is a thing where you can click on it and it will give you choices of clever/funny/ironic statuses that you can use.  I will openly admit that I have tried it a couple times... no big deal.  BUT if 90% of your status updates come from Status Shuffle... then really what's the point of updating at all?  If your day is so boring or unoriginal that you can't come up with your own update then just close the dumb thing.  You know what though? even if your update is boring, it's at least yours. I had a recent status that spoke of how hungry I was at the time... what can I say - other than the fact that I'm often stressed out and really busy - my life is pretty borning, but at least it was original.

Item number 3: Terrible terrible grammer.  It is facebook and I'm not suggesting you need to proof read your updates or use all the proper punctuation/spelling/grammer, but it really gets my goat when someone types an entire paragraph or story without a single freaking punctuation mark.  I type run-on sentences like they are going out of style, but at least you'll get a comma every now and then to take a breath!  I'm no grammer-snob, but really god-awful grammer in facebook statuses have caused me to actually "hide" people from my newsfeed simply because I can't stand to read it.  Drives me nuts!

Ok, that rant's over.  I love facebook for the ways in which I can keep up with my friends/family.  I love it because I don't have a single coworker to randomly exclaim how hungry I am or how I want to glue my chatty 4-year-old's mouth shut and it allows me to throw it out there in about 3 seconds for anyone who cares (or doesn't care) to hear.

Oh, and please don't judge me for that last sentence in the previous paragraph.. I'm not perfect! :o)