If life were only as simple as a database.....

Blogging from the bathroom

2011-10-18T19:57:00.001-04:00

Wow finally an app for blogger! How long has this been out? So many times I have wanted to blog, but not near my computer.

So, I'm kind of bummed tonight. Daniel asked to take his bath separate from Matthew. I knew this day would come at some point. It is so convenient to give them a bath at the same time...it also saves on water. But it really just signals the end of one childhood stage and the beginning if another.
Daniel has been maturing by leaps and bounds lately. It's crazy to watch happen. To think of how horrible bath time was before Matthew came along. Daniel would scream, cry, and claw his way through it. No matter what we did, bath time was a nightmare. Then Matthew came, we would have Daniel help do the baby baths. Then eventually they just had baths together. Then Daniel loved baths. The two of them would play and laugh. We would joke that at 16 and 14 maybe they would want separate baths. Knowing it would be much sooner than that

Tonight, Matthew came in while Daniel was in the tub. He tried to be all casual about "checking it out", almost like he was waiting for Daniel to change his mind. But I could tell his feelings were hurt. We talked for a bit, and Matthew had a lot to say ( hmm where could he get THAT from;-), but as usual he went with the change like a champ. He was able to play his own way, without a bossy, bully brother.

However I'm still a bit sad...maybe we'll have a few more combined baths before it's all over. On the bright side, in a few years I won't have to deal with bath toys anymore....oh wait that still makes me sad:-(

Memorial Day

2011-05-30T22:27:00.000-04:00

So this weekend we had no real plans. My only goal was to get laundry done, and I feel like I did accomplish that. However it was not boring (well at least to me lol). Today was actually a highlight of the weekend. Daniel is in t-ball and the Little League kids can march in the village parade. We have never been in town this weekend, so we have never actually been to the parade here. So we weren't to sure what to expect. Well, it was small....really small. At one point Daniel assumed he was leading everyone else

You can see from the picture, he was not actually in the lead....but in his mind he was. It was funny to see him off by himself waving to everyone, without a care in the world. He was smiling and I was cracking up at him....Chad was carrying Matthew behind us with the rest of the players. Later one of his buddies did catch up with him. Which increased the cuteness factor.

It was a short parade route which ended in the cemetery. They had a nice service there and had all the Little League players put flowers on a memorial. There was a flag raising with a three-volley salute, and taps being played. It was actually quite touching and a real way to pay honor on the holiday.

On the way home we decided that we should build a sandbox....OK I decided...but to be fair, in my mind it was going to be a simple box.....that's it. After much frustration between myself and Daniel (who wanted a much much much more complicated sandbox)....Chad had to intervene. Instead building a sandbox that somehow looked and worked like a loaded (or digger....he was flexible there)....they came up with the idea to build a truck sandbox. So much much later (well after bath and jammie time), this is the finished project:

It is really cool, and the boys are just so lucky to have such a handy daddy! The front of the box is the "hood" of the truck, and it is where they can store their sand toys. The back is the "bed" of the truck and that is where the sand is. There is a dashboard, where a steering wheel can be added later. There is even a "windshield"...which doesn't double for anything (yet) but is just for decoration. Daniel was very happy with the end result, and Matthew gave it a big thumbs up:-)

We are finalizing plans for a deck and putting up a fence. I feel like at this rate, actually resting on a holiday won't happen for a long while;-)

Perfect Day

2011-04-30T20:15:00.000-04:00

So today is about as perfect of a day as we can get in our house. We slept in until 8:30. I realize that for some that is really sleeping in, but for others not so much. Every household is different, but I enjoyed every minute of it. We actually ate breakfast together (which never happens) and then did a quick household cleanup. Happily...the cleanup didn't take very long. Then we had to go off to run some errands, one of which including picking up some annuals.....garden stores always make me very happy:-) Finally it was back home to do some yard work. Just like the house clean up in the morning, the yardwork did not take as long as I thought it would. I was able to plant some bulbs, and we prepared the flower and vegetable garden for spring planting:-)

Then it was onto pizza night!

We love to make our own pizza. We probably only get to do it once a month. Most times we try to make our own dough.....but we have also used pre-bought shells in a pinch. Chad and I try to make pizzeria style looking pizzas. But the boys come up with these creations, that well....they are creations lol.

Chad's pizza (the camera phone does not do this justice, it looked and tasted awesome)

My Pizza (ehh....it looked a bit over done...but it tasted great)

Daniel (like many other kids his age) pretty much just invents his own pizza. Today he did a "donut pizza". He put a hole in the center. Then put on cream cheese, pinneapple, mozzerllea cheese, parmesean cheese....then ham....then pepperoni. As usual, I looked at it and thought
"no way will that be good!"

But it actually wasn't all that bad. The boy has a way with pizza. His pizza always taste good. Sometimes it's even better than ours. Although because of this pinneapple and no sauce phase he is in, his pizza hasn't tasted the "best" in a while. But still I was impressed, and he liked it too:-)

Matthew generally follows whatever Daniel does. His pizza was similar, just without the ham. It was not as good. But he ate a good bit of it.

(Happily, the kitchen was quickly cleaned up after our pizza making, so it didn't undo morning clean up;)

To end the perfect day, the boys are taking baths. I am finally writing a blog entry....and hopefully some cuddle time will wrap things up.

Tomorrow if you are in the Northern Macomb County area and want to hear why "God Hates Religion too"...come on over to VOX church at 10 am. It should be fun!

Party update

2011-03-04T19:56:00.000-05:00

I feel like I should be updating because I have been doing pretty good lately with the whole blogging thing. The birthday parties went really well. McDonald's was super reasonable. We had a respectable turn out despite the horrible weather that morning.

After we made use of some Build-A-Bear gift cards. Oh boy am I glad we had those gift cards. We are also glad we used them on a birthday. That place is fun, but expensive. It made it worth it to celebrate something, and not go there just because. I had a picture of the boys at the mall with their bears...but I somehow deleted it off the camera.

I have been trying to take and catalog more of our pictures. Easier said than done for me. But I did finally get a bunch of photos off of my phone. That alone is a huge accomplishment:-)
We have had a nice steady pace to the last few weeks. It's still kind of hectic. But we have taken time to enjoy small things.

Thankful on Thursday

2011-03-03T08:41:00.000-05:00

Ten things I am thankful for:

The sun is back out and spring is around the corner
Morning walks with my neighbor and our dogs
Seeing deer in my neighborhood (but not yet seeing the coyotes)
Healthy growing kids
A husband who does dishes
A cat who entertains and the dog who puts up with her
A good church
long standing friendships and new ones
A job I can do from my home....I do complain about it, but really....it's a blessing
COFFEE....and roof over my head to enjoy it:-)

I really should try to write out stuff every day....but I would be amazed with myself if I could do this once a week;-)

Nothing much

2011-02-23T18:09:00.000-05:00

So I feel like I have been hiding my "new relationship"....well it's our family's new relationship guess it's not mine alone;-) We finally found a church. I still hesitate to say it's "our church" because we had so many other churches that were close, but not at all right for us. But at this point it's weird not to call it our church.
The church is very young (I think this week will be the 23rd service), and it's very close to home. They don't focus on hot button issues, but instead of ways we can serve others as Jesus does. We really feel connected to everyone there. We are excited to be involved in the different ministries and see what church can do.
So, I have no real big revelation to add. We had been looking and praying for a while to feel more rooted in this community. Now it seems like we have found what we are looking for.

Happy 5 Daniel!

2011-02-21T09:04:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I had the pleasure of talking with a woman who has a baby due on March 4. I had to laugh and tell her that Daniel was also due on March 4....but came on Feb 21st. She said she was OK if her baby decided to do the same. I told her I would think of her today.
While it was hard for me to believe...and deal with the fact that Matthew turned 3 last month. It's not as hard with Daniel. It's weird to look over his birth story and his first photos, because it seems like a world away. He has always seemed to be my little buddy and I just love watching him get older.

I can't say enough what a fantastic big bother he is. Matthew looks up to him and just adores him. Daniel loves to take care of Matthew in return. In preschool Daniel has been working on writing his name. He can do it, but he just doesn't want to take the time for it. On the other hand he is starting to do math on his won with little difficulty. He is still my kitchen assistant (well when he feels like it), and he really is a help. I'm amazed at how well he can scoop and mix. He has also taken to making cheese sandwiches for him and his brother on days I am distracted and can't get to lunch/dinner fast enough.
I love this little guy with all my heart. I can't wait to see what year 5 is going to be like.

Help my Supermom cape makes me invisible

2011-02-16T22:49:00.000-05:00

Lately I have been feeling very invisible. Either with work or at home I feel like I am answering the same questions over and over again, and no one seems to remember ever remember my answers. I have to ask the kids to do things a million times before they seem to hear me....and even then I don't think they really do. Even yesterday at the pharmacy they thought I had left the store because they didn't see me. It's been really discouraging, I told Chad that I bet I could stand out on the street naked and no one would notice.
I was talking with my neighbor this morning about how down I felt about it. She pointed out how with the kids, I am always around them and they are just used to me being there. She could relate how she knows how that feels with her own kids. I realized how this is true with a lot of what I do. I am always there. I have been working crazy hours since November, and have always been around to finish up a task. While Chad does help a great deal around the house, I am the one who is around the kids more. So much so that Matthew each morning says.
"I want Daddy and Daniel to be home"

We are always the ones at the family holiday, hearing about how everyone else who can't make it is missed. I rarely leave the house, I actually don't like to go out much on my own anymore. I don't want to further the feeling that I am not seen. The more I thought about it, the more depressed I felt.
But then I realized what a beautiful day it was. My workload had lightened a bit for the day. I know the snow we have left will not stick around for long. So I took the boys on a walk.

I enjoyed the brightness all around, I realized how little daylight I have seen in the past few months. The boys particularly liked jumping in the puddles left behind by the melting snow.

And I realized, that it's really not all that bad. Kids will be kid. They are just not wired to appreciate the fixtures in life. They want to explore, learn and experience just as much as they crave routine. With work, I do just need to take more real breaks and enjoy what we are so fortunate to have. Lately I have just been going through the motions throughout all of life. Once I get outside of the house I kind of choose to wilt into the background. I do need to get out more, but I also need to get out of the habit of accepting dullness.
It can be hard to do, but the weather sure is helping.

Happy Valentines Day Honey

2011-02-13T21:51:00.000-05:00

Quite often I forget what a big heart Daniel has. He, like many boys his age doesn't really want the hugs and kisses. He gets quite confused on how to show affection, even to the pets. He loves to be in charge of every little detail of everyone moment. So much so we joke that he is our little dictator. He can be so rigid and controlling that you forget that he has a big, sweet, and breakable heart. We do try to work on his control issues, and generally don't give into his dictatorship.
Last Thursday Chad took the boys to get haircuts, and then to Matthew's yearly doctor check up. Since they had both been good (and Matthew had the all clear) he took them to T@rget as a treat and to pick up a Valentine's day gift for Mommy. Chad was thinking that they would pick out a heart shaped box filled with candy....end of story. Well, unfortunately that wasn't so easy.
A few weeks back I saw a giant stuffed dog at another store. I told the boys
"Hey tell Daddy this is what I want for Valentine's day when you go shopping for something"
....I was kind of joking....but seriously it would be cool to get a giant stuffed dog.
Well, Daniel did spot one at T@rget.....and when Chad said no....bring on the tantrum. Long story short, Chad did not buy the dog, and spent a good few minutes waiting in line to check out with an almost 5 year old screaming
"Daddy go back NOW, Mommy really wants that. GO back Daddy....GO"
When they got home, Daniel's side of the story was a more heartbreaking sob story:
"I really wanted to get you the doggie....but.....(sob) Daddy said no"
Without hearing any more from either Chad or Daniel I could piece together what happened, and I kind of felt horrible that I somewhat caused it all. Daniel was still beyond upset. I explained that I wasn't upset about not getting the dog, but I did feel horrible that he was so upset. I knew he loved me so much he wanted to make me happy. I do know that there was a little in it for him too since he would also get to play with the dog. But he was honestly more heartbroken that he thought I would be disappointed.
The next few days Daniel's behavior has improved and we have been working on his communication some more. Chad said he had to do some "shopping" last night and Daniel went along. To my surprise, I am the proud owner of Honey.....the stuffed dog.

Daniel was so happy to bring her to me. I was so happy to see her. I guess it may have undone the whole lesson we were trying to teach him.....maybe not. But at least she will be a reminder that there is a lot more to my little guy's heart than I will ever realize.

Full House

2011-02-12T19:08:00.001-05:00

This afternoon we had a small family party to celebrate both boys birthdays. My mom came down Friday afternoon, and brought my niece to spend the night. My sister came down as well, so we had a nice full house for Friday night. This morning Chad took all 3 kids to L0wes to do a building workshop. I stayed home and finished up the cake, which this time I managed not to drop on the floor. My in-laws came over and we had a nice lunch, opened presents, and ate cake.

After some more playtime it was time for everyone to go. At the moment it's earlier evening, but it's been a long but fun 24 hours. We definitely need to have my niece over again. She is the youngest of 3, and just loves leading our my two boys. In turn they love being lead around by her.

My goal to have done by this weekend was to have all of our frames filled with pictures of family and friends. Well before the move we packed a lot of pictures away and never got a chance to unpack. Then we couldn't find where we packed them. While we did do a small search, we did not make my deadline. But last night Chad finally located what seems to be all of our printed pictures. So over the next few weeks we will be doing lots of scanning and printing. We are trying to get in the habit of actually printing out pictures instead of just storing it on the computer......and forgetting which computer/folder/hard drive we stored the "good": ones on. I'm excited to finally get more of "us" in our house. It takes us a while to figure out how we want to decorate and put our stamp on our home. But I am so thankful to have a home to put a mark on it.

Because it's fun to talk about sex in church

2011-02-10T12:32:00.002-05:00

I love this video, cracks me up.

AT THE CAR WASH from VOX Church on Vimeo.

Two parties

2011-02-04T18:00:00.000-05:00

It's the birthday season for us, we have one down and two parties to go. One joint birthday party for the boys. Well it's mostly for Daniel, since we kind of already celebrated Matthew's birthday. However a few more family members are a this next one, so it will be a party for both. Eventually I would like to do the one joint birthday party for family, then the they can do stuff with their friends on their birthday. Right now Matthew has one good friend from church, and doesn't really know anyone other kids that well. That will change with preschool next year. But anyway....the one coming up is at our house, and is a low key casual kind of thing. BUT....my mom is going to bring my niece over the night before to spend the night. It sounds like so much fun to have her over, but I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Tis the season to get sick you know.
The next party is at McDonald's for Daniel's friends. While we haven't gotten the guest list hammered out quite yet, we do have reservations. I remember going to a few of these as a kid, but that was before play places, and I was a bit older. I guess they have a meal, cake and gift bags....plus the play place....but it still sound stress inducing to me. But no house to clean for it, so bonus!
So this weekend I am going to try and get the house ready for next weekend. I have my energy back so I think we'll pull it off.

Rested and ready to go

2011-02-02T23:33:00.000-05:00

So my last blog post I was really whiny...very whiny about needing a vacation. I think stress got to me and I spent most of Monday and Tuesday evening sleeping and being generally grumpy. Then this morning I woke up with a headache....a really bad headache. So I called in "sick" for work. For some reason that is just bizarre to do when you work from home. I took some medicine and drank some water...but I just started to feel worse.. Daniel came down later and made his own breakfast (ok poured cereal into a bowl...but still lol) and then I went back to bed. Luckily Chad's office was also closed (which is really unusual) so he stayed home and hung out with the boys.
I felt bad when they did all the snow fun while I just laid on the couch. But I did get a few pictures, and made them hot chocolate. When they came in first thing I hear:
"mmm it smells good, Mommy must have made us hot chocolate"
Daniel is so sweet:-) Can you believe he is almost 5? Making his own breakfast.....and the other night he made dinner for himself and Matthew (butter and pretzel sandwiches....sigh....I've really not felt well lately lol)....anyway it was nice to hear.
Not to long after I could feel the headache slowly going away, and I was actually really thirsty for the first time all day. So after more hydration I started to feel so much better. I guess I didn't realize how ill I had been feeling until I was well. I kind of feel like I can do anything at the moment. I am going to need a bit more sleep. But we are hosting a party in a week and half....and I actually think we can pull it off...whoo hoo...go medicine lol. Vacation smacation, I got stuff to do;-)

...and it begins all over again

2011-01-30T21:41:00.000-05:00

What a weekend! We celebrated Matthew's some on Friday night with just the 4 of us. I had planned to take the day off...but unfortunately there was just to much that needed to be done at work and I got stuck working straight until 2pm before I could finally take Matthew out to lunch.
Since he shares a birthday with my mom, and it is 2 days after my Father-in-law's birthday, we thought it would be nice to meet somewhere for lunch. So we decided to head up to Frankenmuth to have a lunch with Grandma G and Papa. Of course as we were planning this a week or so ago, we realized there was a "snowfest" going on at the same time. So as expected it was crazy and crowded there. But it was fun and worth the memory. It just took forever to leave the town. We didn't get home until later in the evening on Saturday.
So today after church we spend the afternoon trying to relax and catch up on all the things we didn't get done earlier in the week or during the day Saturday. It's always so much fun trying to cram everything in one afternoon. I'm exhausted, there are coupons to be cut, toys to be sorted, floors to be cleaned, laundry to be done....and I never finished organizing my closet I started a week ago....and here we are again Sunday night and not enough time to do it all.
I know whine......whine....whine. But I feel like it has been this nuts since November.....well actually it HAS been this nuts since November....overtime at work, and skipped vacation time....plus just normal life stuff......well after a few months it gets to you. I know I need to add more "balance" to my life. But it's really just been one nasty project we have been working on that just seems to not have an end point....there is an end point.....but it just seems to never get here.

Guess I'm just saying I need a vacation......I know "everyone" feels like they need a vacation...but my point is I...ME...I...N-E-E-D a VACATION!

I'll gladly do laundry and organize the entire house during it too;-)

OK rant over now

Hey....isn't blogging so much better than facebook sometimes?

Happy Birthday Matthew!

2011-01-28T07:45:00.003-05:00

I know it's so cliched to say, but I can't believe it's been 3 years. I have to admit this milestone has been difficult for me. Because he has really moved out of the baby stage. He is still a cuddly sweet little boy, and gives the best kisses. But he is also trying to be just like his big brother, so I know in no time I won't have those cuddles anymore.

He sure is a talker too. If he can't figure out the right word, he just makes one up. He has a crazy sense of humor and is always trying to make people laugh. But then he can also say the sweetest things. I honestly could go on about Matthew (well about both of my boys), but I would also like to be coherent and at the moment that is impossible...because I CAN'T BELIEVE HE IS 3....but the past week I have just been trying to savor every last moment of him being 2. I made him promise a while back....pinkie swear actually....that he would stay a baby forever. Somehow I don't think that promise will hold. Actually I don't want it to, I look forward to seeing him grow up:-)

OH, and Happy Birthday mom! I am so happy my sweet little guy gets to share his birthday with you:-)

Lying parents who lie

2011-01-26T21:17:00.002-05:00

A while back a friend shared one of her parenting secret

"We keep juice pops in the freezer. When the ice cream truck comes by they go to the freezer and get those. They are better for them and less expensive."

She was proud of their trick....and well she should be since that is a good idea. I had to laugh though.....because we haven't had that issue. Because we don't have an ice cream truck in our neighborhood. Instead we have a "dancing truck". Whenever an ice cream truck drives by our boys don't ask for a treat, instead they go out and dance. I think after a while this annoyed the driver....but whatever.

OK....so we are lying parents who lie lie lie.....but I would dance right along with them.

So thanks to a certain yogurt company and their commercial I think the boys have figured out that some trucks (which play music similar to a dancing truck) have ice cream on them.

They did notice last summer that their are pictures on the "truck" but the driver usually zooms past us to fast for them to notice what they are....plus they're dancing. For now they seem to think their are two trucks, they just happen to have one for dancing.
It's been fun, and I am surprised it has lasted this long. But at some point they are going to realize what a big lie we told them.. I would feel guilty....but do you know who I first heard of this trick from? My Mom and Dad! Apparently my older brother was fooled for a while too;-)

A car conversation

2010-11-21T19:09:00.001-05:00

This is an actual conversation we had while driving.....and yes I said all this (to be fair I've been under a lot of stress lately.....but it's really how I feel lol)

Daniel: "Mommy why are they putting out Christmas decorations out now?"

Me: "Well because the stores want to make more money, so they figure that if they put stuff out now you will think you have to buy it now because it's important to buy stuff for Christmas. But you know it's not about buying stuff, it's about Jesus, and God put his son on earth for us. But most people just think about Santa and gifts and stores know this, so they put their Christmas stuff out so you will spend money, and then they will make money to buy their family stuff they don't need"

Daniel: "I know why Mommy.....they put Christams stuff out because it's almost Christmas"

Me: "Well yeah there is that too"

Spooky Houses and swinky things

2010-11-03T17:15:00.001-04:00

I am still in disbelief that summer is over....it was such a good summer. Fall is closing in on us....so far it's been a great fall. Earlier in September we painted the boys room. Early in October we hosted two parties....one for some of Daniel's school friends. We went apple picking a few times (twice as a family....I really wish we could have fit a third time in), and picked pumpkins....also a few times lol. We've done quite a few hayrides, went on picnics on beautiful fall days even saw a civil war reenactment on one of them. (We're in Michigan so I have no idea what part of the civil war they were reenacting....but cannons went off so I didn't question;-)
And now, Halloween is already past us. Chad and I went to a Haunted House for a date night. I love seeing how stupid and silly they are. My dad used to take me when I was little (seriously I think I started to go when I was 7)... and although I jump I never quite get "scared"...it's all really fake. But that is what makes it fun for me. Daniel was really curious as to where we went. We told him it was a "spooky house", and explained it was people who jump out and scare you, but they just wear funny makeup and outfits. The other day we took the boys to a corn maze. Part of the setup at this farm had a "haunted house". It was open, but not really running. The rooms were still set up, but nothing was moving, and there weren't any actors. So we took the boys through to get an idea what a "spooky house" was like. One room was set up like a kitchen and had a sink....but it was some kind of grizzly scene. Daniel said later:

"the sink in one room was really dirty and needed to be cleaned, the room was so messy there was red paint everywhere"

I had to laugh, because he didn't even associated what the red paint was supposed to look like....only that it was red paint. Also that messy house = scary ....lol guess he won't end up on Hoarders. Trick-or-treating was fun.....except for the cold. Daniel was a farmer, and Manu a teddy bear. About halfway though Manu had enough and asked to go home. He was so cuddly in his costume and I was happy for the chance to cuddle with him for a bit that night.
This fall Manu has also come up with a new word...."Swinky". I don't know if he completely made it up, or thinks he is saying something else. But it generally means he doesn't like something. When getting him dressed he will tell us he doesn't want to wear an item because:

"That's to swinky"

He's even accused Daniel of being "to swinky" .......someday I may agree with him.....someday when I figure out what it means.

Well maybe we should take the long way to the store afterall....

2010-10-20T22:14:00.000-04:00

There is construction on a main road near our house. Which makes a freeway bridge inaccessible to us. Unfortunately that means going to the Me1jer closest to our house (and the best one) takes longer than normal because you have to go another way. We have just skipped going grocery shopping since we were stocked up. I haven't had the time to shop lately anyway....on Sunday when I did have time...I napped. We did complain (it also takes Chad a little longer to get home) but I just thought of the money we were saving..it was all good.....or so we thought.

Well this evening we did our normal cruise by the construction site to see how far along they were. The boys love seeing anything construction related so we figured....this was exciting...it was FUN

"oh look boys a crane"...Chad says
"well it looks like they have a ways to go still" I sighed
We turn around to go home.

Suddenly from the back seat:

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! NO! NO! NO! NO! WHY did...you...you're supposed.....NO! NO! NO! I .....said.....bridge.....NO!.....wah wah wah wah"

Daniel was in a fist pumping rage. I turned around and asked him what was going on since I had no clue what he was actually trying to say. After a minute and a lot of tears, we realized this whole road construction was taking a bigger toll on him than we realized.....he's become exceptionally worried about his beloved store (well 2nd after T@rget).....not to metion the Subw@y....(the Subw@y wit the drive thru!).....also the Chinese restaurant.....and the haircut place he last went to. Oh it was to much for my poor little 4 year old to process. Finally through heavy sobs and with a quivering chin he said:

"Maybe....we...could send a message....sniff sniff....sob sob.....maybe if we sent a message they would work faster"

I just never realized how crushing it was for this poor little guy to do without part of his known world. It upset him to such a degree. He was really tired...so every hurt is just magnified. But his feelings were real. However I am one of those moms who for the most part can't keep a straight face......I started to giggle.....and giggle....and giggle......I had to cover my mouth and turn away. It was dark so I am not to sure if he could see me shaking in laughter...I hope he couldn't. But I composed myself. With laughter tears streaming down my face, I told him I would send an e-mail in the morning. I also mentioned that there were other ways to get to the store.....we just hadn't gone yet. Poor little guy.

I did handle myself better the other night at dinner. Daniel proudly declared that:

"mommy dogs poop puppies, and mommy cats poop kittens....and chickens poop eggs..and mommys poop babies...or is it eggs?"

Did I mention this was at dinner? I fortunately did not choke (amazing), and suppressed all laughter (somehow). We talked with him how animals do NOT poop babies and some basics. But where did he learn this you ask?

Milo and Otis.

Yikes we have a long road ahead of us don't we?

So any topic requests.....I so neglect this blog!

What we will do for kids

2010-09-16T23:22:00.000-04:00

You see this bus:

A few weeks back Chad took Daniel to L0we$ to make this bus. It comes with chalk, and those people on the sides.....well it's a strip you can move flip it so it shows different people. Also there is an extra set so you can create a wonderful assorment of people/aliens/pets....whatever you little heart desires. Daniel loves his bus.

Last week....we went to the apple orchard and picked apples. We also picked up some cider. Daniel also loves cider.

This morning Daniel's Papa was here. Papa's name is also Daniel, so what better way for the bus to be shown off than to have the name Daniel written on it.......and drink some cider....then get on your real bus and go to school.

Well Daniel left his cider on the kitchen table (my son....not Papa), and I was working and didn't notice...plus...he can finish it when he gets home anyway. When he did get home, I went about making lunch, Daniel gets fruit snacks for him and Matthew....there is talk about how to open the fruit snacks, and they mention something about cider. About an HOUR LATER, I notice cider on the floor, and table. I lecture Daniel on how he has to tell me when something spills....and that he should start cleaning it up when it does spill. How very important it is that we clean up spills ESPECIALLY when it's juice or cider.
I notice on of the bus people strips is covered in the cider. I throw it out.

Before going to bed I pick up a little, put out the garbage for the morning. I pat myself on the back because I HATE dealing with garbage. Ick.....I spot a frog outside, I freak a little...and run into the house and am all safe.

10:30 tonight. Daniel comes into my room sobbing. He wants me to come to his room. Very unusual for him. So I go in his room, cuddle next to him on the bed and he proceeds to sob out his problem:

"you...blah blha...Cid....blahh wahhh awwwa my....buaaass...whahh favo....sob sob sob"

"Huh" I say

"my wahhh wahhh wahh...us....it was my favor.....waahhhh people....waaahhhh"

"your....what? Sweetie you have to try to stop crying I can't understand you"

"my bus....whhaaaa.....it was my favorite.....wahhhhh people.....wahhh"

thinking.....thinking....thinking...."Oh your bus people that got the cider on it, I threw it out?"

"YEESSS!!!!!! WAAAAAAAAAAA WAAAAAA BAAAA sob sob sob"

"OH, OK.....welll ok I guess I can get that out of the garbage for you"

"sniff sniff sniff...ok"

"Oh shoot.....I just put the garbage out....and Matthew's diapers are on top, I can't get it out"

"NOOO wahhhhh wahhhh"

"OK, I'll fix it, I will"

And that folks is why I was picking through garbage at 10:45 at night....I did find his "favorite bus people"....I'll try not to think of where they have been.

2 Day Staycation

2010-08-24T14:35:00.000-04:00

Boy has this summer been flying by. Work has been fairly busy for me, and having a sitter has helped out tremendously. We have fit in a lot of Geocaching since our last treasure hunt, and the boys have started to have fun with it. Actually a few weekends back we explained how there are trolls living under most bridges and if you are quiet enough you wont scare them away and may even meet one. Oh and trolls don't like to hear crying! Since then we have been finding all sorts of neat things in the woods....and there has been less crying about it;-)
We spent last week at my mom's house while the Cheeseburger fest was going on. That would have been more fun if I didn't get a cold right in the middle of it, which at one point led to a migraine and took a day of mine away. We went home Friday night and I spent most of Saturday and part of Sunday asleep. I was kind of disappointed in the lost summer weekend. But we didn't have any big plans, other than to let the boys rest and possibly get rid of the bad attitudes that had been developing.
Since my sitter was going to be camping I decided to take the pat two days off and have a small "staycation" with my boys. Yesterday started kind of late (still being sick it's hard to get motivated to go anywhere) but we went to get my license renewed (only 2 months to late oops!), then onto lunch, then to a park....where we discovered evidence of trolls:

After that it was back home for naps/rest. Later on we actually had a chance to play with the neighbors across the street. There are actually two kids Daniel's age really close, but because of circumstances for both families we rarely see each other. I really need to exchange contact information with them so we can set up actual playdates.

Today on the agenda was a playdate! I have belonged to this mom's group for a while, but never get to do the park dates becaue they are held during the day. I decided to take the boys to the one being held today at a local mall. It's an outdoor mall and it's dog friendly....so we call it the dog mall:

After playing in the kids area for a bit, some of us decided to suit everyone up and go to the splash area. Every time before we have been to this mall the boys get soaked. Today I came prepared with suits.....they don't want to get wet....go figure. But they made some friends....including a doggie (oh....we haven't taken our Belle here...so kind of ironic that the dog's name is Bella):

I talked to another mom who is part of a nearby MOPS group that meets in the evening. I have never had the opportunity to join a MOPS group because of my work schedule. So it may be nice to check one out. After the splash area we went to lunch. They ate their lunch so good we went to a toy store (got some great ideas for Christmas gifts):

Then onto the Morley Candy factory, where we watched them make some candy, had ice cream, and pick up some small treats. If you are ever in the Detroit metro area this is a nice quick stop for treating kids....and adults without having to spend a fortune.
Both days the boys were exceptionally good. Today even more so. I really hope this mommy break is what we all need, I wish I could do it more often...I also wish I didn't have my energy drained by this dang cold! I may skip my Zumba class tonight because it's no fun to Zumba with a cold....but also to spend a little bit more staycation with my boys! I may need to schedule something else before school starts back up!

Just a couple of Goonies

2010-07-23T19:32:00.000-04:00

As parents, what we think expect to happen with our kids versus the reality.....well generally it's completely opposite outcomes. No matter how you prepare everyone, or how you lower your expectations....it's always surprising how completely off you will be. Tonight we thought we would have a magical moment with the boys, playing along with their imaginations and going on an adventure with them. It was going to be fun and memorable.......because how could it go horribly wrong?I have been on a mission to get 100 miles of walking in. So the other night I took Daniel and Matthew to a park, and I convinced the boys to walk with me a bit by going on a "Dora" like adventure. After that night Daniel has been talking fairly non-stop about looking for a treasure. In an attempt to nurture this creativity Chad made a map of our neighborhood for him, and Daniel pointed out where he thought treasure may be. At this point is where my own imagination gets the better of me. Because ....wouldn't it be awesome to take the boys on a treasure hunt? Wouldn't it be cool if they dug around in the spot Daniel had marked on the map and found a "real" treasure. Oh how giddy I got thinking of the excitement in their faces. We would walk away (all holding hands) talking about how neat that was. They would talk about this to everyone and show them their treasures. Oh and the treasure, it would sit on a shelf in their room forever. ....My fantasy ends with Daniel giving a speech at some point in his life about how this treasure hunt was a defining moment in his life. Well I know I was expecting way to much out of this. But really it couldn't end badly at least....right?
The first red flag that this would go wrong was when I asked Daniel to go before dinner, and he said no. We weren't to sure how long the rain would hold off.....as well as "other" treasure hunters that may stumble upon the booty. So we had to do a little convincing to get him to go. I found it odd that he talked about this all day and then didn't want to go. But I shrugged it off and we got the map and got in the wagon and then we were off

.....off to get shovels. There was some arguing over what shovels were appropriate and then onto who had what shovel. But after a few minutes everyone was somewhat satisfied. Now we were finally off to find the treasure. So we get to the trail that led to the "X" on the map. Daniel had his own ideas where the treasure was and didn't want to listen to our suggestions. But after explaining that on the map there were special instructions on where the treasure was....he grudgingly followed along. So we were within feet.... and well this would be a good time to go over some educational skills. Counting (steps) and left versus right.....ohhh we could make this a magical moment AND a learning experience! Now......we are going to be featured in a parenting mag for SURE!.......Well that was the thought still going on in my head. What happend was actually very anticlimactic.

He was obviously not impressed with the find at all. After that we walked more into the neighborhood because Daniel was still determined to find a "treasure". After a while I had to ask him what exactly did he think a treasure was:

The video app cut out where he said no money was in a treasure box. Also a it is supposed to be big.....and not a baby food container. It wouldn't have been so bad if Daniel wasn't so sorely disappointed. But he had a bad attitude for a while after. Now he has had his dinner, and is playing with the kitty and Matthew. Who knows what they will remember about this. But I am considering burying a bigger treasure box filled with old bears and fish cookies just to make my boy's fantasies come true;-)

Summertime

2010-07-19T22:45:00.000-04:00

I haven't had to a chance to blog in while. Work has gotten crazy and we have been making the most of our summer when I am away from the computer. We've have gone through one T-ball season and it was fun....although I don't know how Manu will deal with one more year without a team for him. To sum up our activities

We've been to a carnival,

and saw fireworks,

explored the world around us and saw new (to the boys) things,

been to many parks,

went swimming,

visited the zoo

camped, picked wild berries, played in the rain, worked in the garden,....and got to know our new family member.

It's just been wonderful. As much as I want to capture all the special moments and record them for all time....I just never get a chance because we are having so much fun!

We hired a sitter for the summer. She is here half days at first it was in the morning, but then she had to switch to the afternoons which worked out well. I can get much more work done and have less stress doing so. The kids stay active without watching TV and continue to learn to play together. The house also gets a little bit cleaner with her helping clean up after them. It's been worth it.

I still wish our end of the neighborhood had other kids the boys could play with, especially during the day. Preschool and T-ball helped us get to know some of the other kids who are nearby, so maybe by next summer we can have "friends" over. With me working it's really hard to get to know other families, and have the time for visits.

I have taken on a 100 miles in a month walking challenge. It was just something a friend threw out on Facebook. I already did 2/3 of a mile everyday with Belle so I just extended that to a mile....and then try to find a way to at least do 1 more mile during the day. Then some evenings and on the weekends Chad and I have been putting in a lot of extra walking where we can. I am pretty sure I will make it now.

This past weekend we went camping. I miss camping! Well I miss it the way Chad and I used to camp. It was so much easier back then. With the kids, even with help from the in-laws....it isn't as fun. But this past weekend wasn't so bad. Both boys were interested in helping and they did really well around the campsite. Someday we will go back to a more rustic style of camping with just the 4 of us (well 5 with Belle), and even some canoeing:-)

Our garden is doing well. We put in a small pumpkin patch this year. It seems to be doing well. At least better than pumpkin patches I have tried to do in the past. I hope to can and freeze some things this year. I have froze apples and zucchini before. But this year I really want to put more effort into it. I have never canned before and it's a skill I would like to pick up, if only on the most basic level:-)

Well that is all for now. I still have some work to do. I have a report that is almost a week overdue (other work related things prevented me form completing it...not the kids), ....at some point it would be nice to be caught up with my work life so I can enjoy even more summer. The past few months have been fun, but it's been a little bit rougher to juggle my 9-5 job, and my mommy job;-)

Without You

2010-06-20T22:23:00.044-04:00

Without you, there would be no super cool vegetable garden...or new strawberry patch

Without you, we wouldn't be looking forward to homegrown pumpkins in the fall

Without you, this cat wouldn't have a super fancy cat toilet;-)

Without you.....our day and evenings just wouldn't be the same. You tickle, you wrestle, you hug, you tell stories, and provide all that you can. You give our boys someone to look up to.

Thanks Chad for being a great dad!

Doesn't it look like we are going to have a great summer?

Wonderful weekend

2010-05-31T22:15:00.002-04:00

I can't believe summer is just about here. This past weekend we had a wonderful glimpse of what this summer will hopefully be like. Perfectly seasoned weekends, and a touch of rain when you are done enjoying the outdoors.
We visited my mom this weekend and used up our time to have a yard sale. We still had quite few "big" items from last year's sale. So we hauled it up to my mom's and set up shop. We found the pace dramatically better than at our house. You really don't even needs signs people just drive through each neighborhood waiting to snatch up bargains. Most of our big items are gone. My mom even sold out.....granted she didn't put as much out.
Although some credit to our increase in sales had to go to my cute little boys who ran a lemonade stand.

Daniel once again did a great job in selling, he sold to just about everyone who stopped by. Once he got them to buy a drink, he made sure to point out some of our "big ticket" items. For a kid who is so shy he is a great salesman:-) Manu helped out a bit too...well mostly he just stood and looked cute. A couple of times he chased people down with a mostly empty cup. Maybe next year he will get the concept a little more.
I would say we plan on doing the yard sale again next year. But I will have to wait and see if we have enough stuff to bother with bringing up there.

We also spent some time at the beach with my brother's family. Luckily they remembered to bring a sand pail!

The cousins all joined in to make a "sand city":

Last night my mom had the excitement of having all her grandchildren spend the night at her house. An experience I don't think we will soon forget;-)

It was a great weekend, and I look forward the coming weeks. Hopefully summer behaves this year:-)

Thank you to those who serve in the military and their families. Without your sacrifice not as many sandcastles would be built. Thank God for those who made the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom!
I hope everyone had a great weekend.

My prayers are with you all!

Adjusting

2010-05-19T15:55:00.002-04:00

Well Monica is adjusting well to our family.

Don't let this picture fool you though. After about 30 seconds of nice petting, Daniel started to poke at her nose. So she got out of there real quick then. But she did seem willing to cuddle with him for a bit.
She definitely likes me. She really likes me at about 5:30 in the morning when she tries to wake me up to play!

Dreams

2010-05-17T08:39:00.000-04:00

In the morning in my family we used to tell each other the dreams we had the night before. My dad had some pretty crazy dreams, and I seemed to have in inherited that from him. Although since having kids I don't dream as much, I miss it, but I do like my sleep.
Recently Daniel has started to tell us his dreams, and it's starting to get pretty interesting. This morning he told us that he had a dream about his school bus. The tire was flat and he had to help. He went into detail about this elaborate system they had set up to change the tire (a ladder and some kind of button). It was so cute and just made my morning. If only I recorded it!
Manu told Chad yesterday that he napped and drove a car. I think he was trying to tell him his dream. So hopefully there will be more dream telling yet to come from both of the boys. I love having dreams, and I love hearing other people's dreams. It's more entertaining than You Tube:-)

Kitty toilets, a new friend, and grumpy days

2010-05-11T18:00:00.000-04:00

So about a year ago our cat died. While I was really sad, I also wanted to get another cat soon. But, Chad had one request.....to get a Cat Genie. Not only do you not have to clean the litter box, it's environmentally friendly and cost efficient. But the drawback is the upfront cost. It is expensive, but since you don't have to buy so much litter you save after a couple of years. I only explain this because of the many, many, many crazed looks we got when we told people this was what we were going to buy. Try explaining what you are buying plumbing supplies for to a H0me Dep0t associate and you will understand;-) So in the end we waited until tax return time. Spent a few hours installing. Then after a few days of searching I found Monica:

We had no idea when we were going to find a Saturday to visit one of the local pet stores to meet some cats from area rescue groups. Fortunately, last Saturday opened up. I had planned a neighborhood clean-up/potluck for that Saturday. I was looking forward to it, but lack of participants, and the horrible weather canceled those plans. So we decided to meet up with one of the groups I had been in contact with, one of the foster moms had 3 cats that would fit our family. I wanted to surprise Daniel by just showing up and leaving with a kitty. However, he wanted to throw one fit after another until we had to finally tell him we were getting a kitty and he had to be good or else we weren't going.
After getting her home, and showing her the (expensive) litter box.... she hid really really good. We let her settle in for a few hours, then we tried looking for her.....and couldn't find her. Finally Chad sent Belle down to the basement to find her. She did it in less than a minute (good nose Belle!), after that Monica felt a little more comfortable hanging out with us. She is really sweet, 9 months old. Playful and cuddly.
Sunday, Mother's day we decided to skip church and spend a little more time at home with our new family member. You know how on Mother's day, you want to wake up to smiling kids, a card and maybe some flowers. Well....mine wasn't exactly that. Daniel threw a fit because Matthew looked at him while he was eating breakfast. Actually most of my mother's day I was treated to Chad yelling "It's Mother's day, that means BE NICE!"......Later in the morning, I made some chocolate covered strawberries for my Mother-in-Law while the boys said they wanted to "nap". They never did nap.....and we got a lot of attitude from them all day. We did have a nice visit with my in-laws (thanks for dinner Joni:-) We also watched Belle and Monica play together in the morning. She did get a chance to play with the boys in the evening too.

Daniel's attitude has not changed much from Sunday. Between that and the weather I have been so grumpy. Actually, everyone in our house seems that way. So tonight I am going on a date night with Daniel. He has been having so many issues lately regarding Matthew and has been so snippy to me. I keep thinking there is a little bit of jealousy. He has a hard time telling us what is wrong, and sometimes a special night out helps. I hate to reward him for his behavior, but I really think there is more to it. Since I mentioned it earlier today he has been behaving much better, and has been talking about where we are going.

Sick but lots 'o stuff to do

2010-05-06T18:48:00.000-04:00

We had the last (I hope) round of winter colds at our house this week. After Chad's party, the house stayed all nice and organized (well as much as it can for a house with little ones;-)....then I got sick. So last weekend I didn't get much done except for catch up on some T.V. (why when you are sick is there NOTHING to watch on TV? and we have a new DVR so all of my old collection was gone!).....then Chad started to get the cold on Monday, then took Tuesday off. The boys also seemed to have small colds, Manu mostly. Of course being kids you can't tell, except that they were super crabby. Well more than usual LOL. So I have felt so behind all week. Last night we had "family clean up night". We usually do that on Friday nights, but it was so bad that it needed to be done early.
The boys do participate in "fcun"....Daniel even has his own working swiff3r-like mop and sweeper vacuum. It was nice to wake up to a clean house:-).....well we are still way behind on laundry...oh well:-)
Daniel has started T-Ball. The first few practices kind of worried us. He is one of the youngest (if not the youngest) on the team. There are quite a few older kids who don't use the T-ball stand. I didn't want to force him to play if he wasn't having fun. But we have had two games and he did fairly well, and now seems to enjoy it. The last practice had a lot less kids show up, so he got a little more one on one work with the coaches. But now that he kind of knows what is going on, he wants to practice on his own too. It's weird to already be involved in a "team", and all the trappings that go with that. One night is practice and one night is a game.....and this goes on for 2 months. In a couple of years it should be lots of fun with 2 kids lol.
Well, I have to get back to our evening activities. Tonight is lawn mowing and Zumba.......oh and maybe laundry.....whoo hooo!
Have a good weekend!

Prayers with you all!

Surprise Chad!

2010-04-27T17:59:00.000-04:00

So in midst of all my overextending myself I decided to throw Chad a surprise party. Because that is what a normal person decides while painting the kitchen....right? Anyway I figured it was a good time since we had just painted and cleared a lot of "junk" out of the living room and kitchen and had been generally reorganizing around the house. Plus we just painted, it still looked new and I wanted to show it off. So I contacted a small group of people to see if they were available. Lo and behold 3 other families of our close friends (with small children) were all available the Saturday after his birthday! So it was to good of an opprotunity to pass up. Once we had a date and time settled I just had to figure out food. It was going to be hard for me to get enough food ready without him getting suspicious. So I farmed out most of the food prep to my (wonderful!) Mother-in-law and Chad's Aunt. I told Chad that I had arranged for his parents to come over for a nice pasta lunch and I since I wanted to work on the cake his mom would make the sauce. I picked up a few other party things during the week and hid them in the van. Chad was instructed not to look back there because that is where his present was. Chad is a good boy and listens to things like that.
Somehow Chad never thought it was strange that I wanted to do so much cleaning all last week. We reorganized the basement Thursday night. Spent Friday night (his actual birthday) cleaning the kitchen, putting up a shelf, a can opener and knife rack. Those were already on our to-do list for a while but somehow they all got magically done on Friday night. In fact Chad did all the vacuuming....and cleaned out the fridge. I honestly thought he suspected something and was just playing along. After his mom and dad came over I told him I needed to set up his birthday present and I needed his mom's help. So I sent him upstairs to wait. Meanwhile his mom and I moved an extra table and some chairs upstairs. About as soon as we were done with that, one of the families arrived. So I had them come in. Then called Chad down to see his present, and then surprise! So....at that point he thought I just invited them....then my mom came.......and he was surprised again.....then another family....and at this point he was kind of in to much shock to even register any more surprise!

It was actually really easy to plan. I had LOT of help from my In-laws and some really easy going party guests. I was hoping that we could be outside but it ended up being to cold for that. It was a little cozy, but neat to have so many kids around. Daniel and Manu weren't in on the surprise. They were acting up all morning and had been sent to their rooms and started to nap a while before everyone got there. So they were a little thrown off when they woke up and there was a party going on in their house. But it was fun. Oh, and the really awesome part, my mother-in-law had the kitchen all cleaned up. After everyone left you could hardly tell we even just had a party!
Later that evening we had a babysitter come over (our first time!) and I had one more surprise planned for Chad. He knew we were going out but just didn't know where. He actually kept saying that is what he wanted for his birthday a night out with me (how sweet:-). So I had made reservations and told him turn by turn how to get there. It was a fondue restaurant, and it was was just OK. I have some complaints but just don't want to take up the room here. Plus what do you expect when you pay to cook your own food lol. But it was a nice test drive for the boys and a babysitter and chance for us to be together.
Daniel has actually been obsessed (thanks to Caillou) with the idea of us having an actual babysitter and mommy and daddy going for a "nice night out". It actually worked out well because she got them in bed without a fuss. If it were us, after that party they would have given us more attitude all evening. I am glad we found someone other than a relative to watch the kids. It was kind of scary, but we have been ready for a sitter and she lives nearby Also I have been getting to know her mom and know she comes from a good family. Goes to show God had the best timing.
We have a few things planned over the next two weekends. So I am looking forward to a weekend with nothing planned at some point:-)

Our Trip

2010-04-27T17:34:00.001-04:00

We took a weekend earlier this month and it was just what our family needed. We didn't do anything huge (well other than see Elmo) but we got to spend time together, just the 4 of us. No worrying about how clean the house was. No worries about work. No running around doing errands..... Just time to focus on being together. The boys were really well behaved (well they were just "OK" in the art museum lol;-). They loved staying in the hotel room, they kept saying it was "a nice new home". They did great on the way down and back. They seemed so entertained by watching the world go by.

Of course we were tired out Sunday night, but it was well worth it.

Thanks again to WMAG for the tickets to Elmo:-) It gave us the motivation to take the trip. Also thanks to Chad for all the driving and earning points for the two nights at the hotel:-)
Below are some our pictures. I always feel like I take to many in the moment. But when I go back to look I feel like I don't take enough.

Ready for a getaway

2010-04-14T23:02:00.000-04:00

I mentioned in the last entry that Daniel seemed homesick when he was grandma's while we were painting. Since he came home there has not been a day that he hasn't said "I missed you when you were painting", or asks us if we missed him. We got my bike out today put Manu's seat on back so I could take him for a spin. Daniel didn't want to ride along, instead he wanted to help daddy fix the truck. But told us to "be good", "be careful", "have fun" and "oh one more thing, it's getting dark so be home soon love you". Then Manu said "BYE Daniel".....I really wish I recorded that whole snippet of life. But what I did get was kind of cute too:-)

I want to install cameras all around the house so we can instantly record the boys whenever they are being cute, silly, sweet, funny....or heck even when they are being bad. In reality that is a very, very, very bad idea. But I would love to show the candid moments like when Manu is being a chatter box, or showing off his keen sense of humor. Daniel is still kind of serious, and still has trouble finding the right words to express what he is feeling. But he does come up with crazy stories, and the strangest worries. They are opposites, but for now they get along so well. I love to watch them grow up, and can't wait to see what develops next.
For us, what is next is a road trip to Ohio. I won free tickets to see Elm0 L1ve, Chad had some hotel points so we scored a great room for 2 nights for FREE. This will be our first real road trip with just the four of us. I am excited, but also trying to keep realistic expectations.....since we are traveling with 2 young boys:-) But I am ready to be away from work, home projects, and other stresses. It should be a nice small get-a-way:-)

A preview

2010-04-12T08:42:00.008-04:00

A preview of the finished kitchen. We still have touch ups to do. And some items to hang/display in the kitchen and living room. Busy week again, so it will be a while before I feel like we are done:-)

I am happy with the purple. I really want to take a good picture with a real camera. I will have to wait for Chad on that one since he is an expert and all. I am not to sure about the other color. It is called cork, and it appeared lighter on the color chip....then Daniel called it cheese paint. It looks neat with the purple, but on the other side in the living room.....well it just looks weird to me. But once more stuff is put up, I think it will all work. Apparently we had one homesick 4 year old and didn't get as much time as we wanted. But it was nice to hear him say he missed us:-) So we still need to dig out our decoration stuff.....most of it was packed away 4 years ago.....FOUR YEARS AGO!

On another note. Easter went very well. I was most happy with the angel food cake. I don't normally brag about what I do, but this cake was lovely! We had it sitting out for a day and it was still light, airy and moist. I want to make another just because I can!

Daniel and Manu didn't get much candy on Easter morning. We have been concerned about Daniel's sugar intake lately. It's kind of been an ongoing discussion with us for a while. My mom pointed out it may be his metabolism since he is on the tall thin side. He can't seem to focus when he has sugar in his system, Manu doesn't seem to have the same reactions. So does anyone know of a good book on kids nutrition? I mean we know the basics, and we try and avoid processed foods. But I just wonder if there is something out there that is more detailed. Leave a comment if you have a good recommendation.

Possible topics for next time:
* A day in the life
* Facebook friends....who do you friend who do you not.....who do you stalk
* Adults who say they are bored....and how I don't get them
* Why do boys wrestle?
* Suggestions?

Prayers with you all!
Feel free to comment

What did I get myself into?

2010-04-03T09:42:00.000-04:00

So, this is Easter weekend.....I may have overextended myself.
For Easter brunch with Chad's family I wanted to make and angel food cake, an apple-cabbage salad, and homemade bread. No problem, I've done angel food cake (from scratch) before, and it's actually not that hard. The salad I make often and it's quick to put together. Bread.....usually isn't a big deal and if it goes horribly wrong no one is going to care if it's store bough.
We also finishing up the kitchen/dinning organization project.......All I need is a shelf put up for some items I want off the counter. I also still need to organize the office space. But that is going to wait until after we paint.
Which is another thing I have planned for this weekend. We are starting to paint. Mostly today we are going to put the tape down, move things out of the way, fill in holes, and wash walls. I, as usual, just want it all done.....fortunately Chad wants it done right lol. Most of the actual painting will have to wait until Sunday night and all day Monday......You know that is the traditional way to celebrate Easter.....really it's in the bible Jesus rose from the dead and they painted....look it up if you don't believe me;-)
On top of all of this I am trying help organize a neighborhood wide clean up/potluck get together. That in itself wouldn't be to bad, but I am finding my communication skills are extremely lacking. First I was sending e-mails to the wrong address to someone. Then I find out they have a hard time reading my e-mail altogether. That wouldn't be a problem because I can also reach them by facebook. Unfortunately facebook is crashing on me anytime I send a message. So every message I send on facebook has to be written...in it's entirity.....at least twice. So somewhere I missed something in my schooling regarding communication because I am apparently very bad at it. Oh well.

So sitting here, on a Saturday morning with a perfect storm of project overload. But it's nice.

It's nice to be able to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus with family, and pass tradition onto my boys.
It's nice to finally have the kitchen counters cleaned for a bit this week.....they are now cluttered a bit because of the painting project...but that is only only temporary.
It's nice to finally get a start on painting, I have been living (and working) in "blah" for way to long.
It's VERY nice to have a mom who volunteered to take the kids while we paint!
It's nice to finally feel like I have a chance of getting to know my neighbors. and finally..
It's nice that it finally feels like spring. I know rain is coming, and there will probably still be some cold days ahead. But my goodness doesn't it feel great that spring may actually be here?

Prayers with all of you!

Feel free to comment:-)

possible topics for next time:
??????????????.....ahh to much to do think about it lol.
suggestions lol

I'm a winner!

2010-03-29T22:29:00.000-04:00

So I have entered a lot of blog giveaway contests, and never won. But today....I actually WON something. We won a 4 pack of tickets to see Elmo's Green Thumb, thanks to Working Moms Against Guilt! The show is in Ohio, so it will be a nice get away for us. We take the boys up north a lot, and went on one crazy adventure to California last September. But this will be a first get away with just the 4 of us.
Manu LOVES Elmo and will be so excited to see him. Hopefully Daniel (who's not really an Elmo fan) will enjoy it too:-) We still have some planning to do, but it looks like we can get some great rates on hotel rooms in Ohio.

Thanks WMAG!

Yippee!

Our House is a mess.....no....really, it gets bad

2010-03-28T23:45:00.000-04:00

So I have been "hinting" about how messy our house gets. I would love to have people over more, but I really just get embarrassed by our clutter. We really can't even can blame the kids, since neither of us is very organized to begin with. Of course considering time, kids don't help. Daniel does seem to have a touch of OCD and likes to help clean. Manu also likes to help, but creates more mess than he cleans up.
I am home all day, but I am working. So I can't just get up organize, do laundry, or vacuum. But by the end of the workday, and after making dinner I don't have the energy, or motivation to be little Suzy Homemaker.

We have a nice house, with lots of space. Closets of plenty. But not a lot of actual storage in the way of shelving. Other than the kitchen, there isn't many cabinets. We have a space designated as an "office" complete with a filing cabinet, but it's not always convenient to use. We do organize and find clutter solutions when have time. But we still have to make an effort each week (usually Friday) to do a big whole house clean up.

Most of the time we end up of one pile of paperwork, magazines, bills, and whatnot. we have all intentions of putting that "away"....but then we remember there is no real "away". The next thing we now it's Sunday night. The house is a little cleaner than Thursday night, but not as nice as it was Saturday morning.

So this weekend. We (ok mostly me) decided to try and get help. So I bought a book to help us turn things around. The book goes week by week outlining how to organize common problem areas. So I hope to tackle our problem areas one step at a time. If all goes well I will update you on our progress. For now, I leave you with this picture. It's our current bill paying/school work/paperwork......OH and / KITCHEN area. Ok here it goes

Remember, this is 2 days after it was cleaned. In my defense, after dinner I "we" had to make a basket for an Easter bunny at school. There are cans of tomatoes out because I still need to go into Sparkpeople and enter the recipe I used for dinner so we can update our food logs. But really, it's usually a lot of this and that all the time....and it's been worse. I already have some things bought to help with the paperwork. I also need to work on the kitchen a bit to find better places to put things. But, I hope to have some progress to report on by Friday.

Next week won't be an organization project though. My mom has volunteered to take the boys during Daniel's spring break. All so we can FINALLY start to paint around here! The entire house has this flat one coat white primer. It gets dirty so easily AND if you try to clean of the dirt, you take off the paint. I CAN NOT wait to have some color on our walls! We will be painting all day Monday, and then after work the rest of the week. We are going to try and do the kitchen, dining room, and living room. I hope it doesn't take the whole week, because I will miss my boys:-(

Aren't grandmas awesome?

Patience and friendships

2010-03-26T17:03:00.000-04:00

If you know me, then it's no secret that I have no patience. I believe that at times I am the most impatient person in the world. I am sure a lot of people feel that way, and I don't think anyone likes to be impatient. The anxiety that comes along with it can't be healthy either. But I am working on it.
This week I tried to practice some patience by waiting for response to an email I sent on Monday. Not hearing back (and checking the spam box) I wonder, should I try again......or do I wait. But, the thing is, this is a small thing. A really small thing....but it’s the type of stuff that bugs me in the worst way. I think:

"What if I ask again and I seem like a pest?"

So instead of actually doing something (send another e-mail, who cares what they think of me) I sit and worry.
Because for me impatience and worry, they go hand in hand.
When we moved here I have just been impatient to "fit it". I was looking forward to setting down roots. Along with that would be meeting neighbors, fellowship in a new church, meeting other parents, and just generally making new friends. But it seems like every attempt we made, just fizzles out. Of course this causes my anxiety to go up:

"Is it me?"
"I talked to much, right?"
"Oh I shouldn't have said THAT, now that is all they will remember about me!"
"Do we appear to needy....we look to needy"
".....do we stink?"

This can go around in my head all day long. I know there is no real answer. You can't force friendships. They need to develop, and that takes.....patience.

So, who knows? Maybe this whole "fitting in" thing is God's idea of a life lesson. Put on a brave face, trust in him, and SMILE. Of course shower just in case it IS because we stink;-) There is so much bad going on in the world; it's so silly to lose patience about making "new" friends. Plus we are blessed to have so many "old" friends....a supportive family, jobs, a roof over our head, food on the table, our health, running water, electricity....the list goes on. So, just need to keep practicing patience.

......now....do I send a second e-mail, or wait one more day?

Prayers with all of you!

Possible topics for next time (I really do have some of these started):
* Our fantastic house painting plans (so excited about this possibility)
* A day in the life
* On making friends, and our failed attempts
* Facebook friends....who do you friend who do you not.....who do you stalk
* Adults who say they are bored....and how I don't get them
* True confession: our house is a mess

Pizza Night

2010-03-24T18:27:00.001-04:00

Last night was pizza night. It was a "good" dinner night. Meaning no crying and they ate dinner. Plus they entertained us.

Daniel also put a post on his blog about his great idea.

Possible topics for next time (I really do have some of these started):
* A day in the life
* On making friends, and our failed attempts
* Facebook friends....who do you friend who do you not.....who do you stalk
* Adults who say they are bored....and how I don't get them
* True confession: our house is a mess
* I agree being a mom is the "best job in the world"......if your job is in the 7th level of hell;-)

Prayers with you all!
Feel free to comment

Preschool update

2010-03-23T17:09:00.000-04:00

Daniel is about 3/4 of his way through his first year of preschool. He was entered into an early intervention program because they noticed a slight speech delay. I am very proud to say that he is caught up with his age level and no longer needs the help. I will also admit that when I heard that my stomach drooped a bit. Because I thought:

"oh no, he is going to be removed from the program!"

Thankfully, his teacher was quick to add the "but". They decided to keep him in the program to increase his fine motor skills. So, like this year, next year for 5 days a week a bus will come pick him up and drop him off. He will continue to play and learn with all his friends. The teacher was concerned that he just would have a hard time in kindergarten if he was pulled out of the program now. We were concerned about that as well. The regular preschool would only be 3 days a week. Plus our district has a full day kindergarten. It would be a lot for him to adjust if he didn't remain program. Also his teachers are awesome and he loves to work with them. Working with me....not is not so much on his list of fun things to do. Well except for in the kitchen, Daniel and I will always have the stand mixer to bond over;-)

It makes me wonder how I am viewed as a parent when I say "YES, he is still delayed! Whoo hoo"......kind of sends the wrong message. While most parents will proudly tell you how advanced their child is. We want him to have an issue..(well at least at this point)...weird. But then again I think a lot of things I do as a parent are....different from what you are "supposed to do". While I have zero confidence in myself as a mom, I guess I get the job done:-)

Possible topics for next time:
* A day in the life
* On making friends, and our failed attempts
* Facebook friends....who do you friend who do you not.....who do you stalk
* Adults who say they are bored....and how I don't get them
* True confession: our house is a mess (well duh now that is obvious)
* I agree being a mom is the "best job in the world"......if your job is in the 7th level of hell;-)

Prayers with you all!
Feel free to comment

Sickly week

2010-03-19T17:22:00.000-04:00

So after last weeks rah rah post about how great everything is......I got sick. I already had a cold, and I thought it was almost gone. But it wasn't. So I woke up on Saturday all ready to do taxes, and had a horrible headache. But I sucked it up and got taxes almost done (needed some info from Chad)....did a treadmill workout (with a headache still), started dinner, and finished up laundry.
Later on that night I just felt horrible.....I woke up Sunday morning feeling like my face was going to fall off. My sinuses were so blocked, and nothing seemed to help. So no church, no organization, no family fun and I pretty much slept all day.
So this week we just felt behind. Added to that we couldn't find the charger to the dog’s collar; this just annoyed us beyond belief. We had always kept it in one spot, and I hated seeing it out all the time so I decided to move it to somewhere "better".....So last night I was ready to send the kids off to grandma's house and take two weeks off so we could FINALLY get the house in order.
We found the charger, my head finally stopped hurting, and it's Friday.
So maybe next week.....I will post something of interest. But for now I just hope to enjoy the whole weekend!

Possible topics for next time:
* A day in the life
* On making friends, or our many failed attempts
* Facebook friends....who do you friend who do you not.....who do you stalk
* Adults who say they are bored....and how I don't get them
* True confession: our house is a mess (well duh now that is obvious)

Prayers with you all!
Feel free to comment

Back on the treadmill again:-)

2010-03-17T21:00:00.001-04:00

They are growing up so fast!

2010-03-13T13:19:00.000-05:00

Thought I would take a moment to give some updates on the boys.
Daniel is doing really well in preschool. About this time last year I was wondering how long I could go on with working from home and having both boys around. Daniel especially was having....issues. Nothing out of the ordinary, he was just so bored at home. At that point Matthew was very mobile but not yet capable of doing anything other than get into stuff. By the end of the workday I was about ready to pull my hair out, and dinner still had to be made. But what a blessing preschool has been. He works so well with his teachers (much better than when I try to teach him something) and has been making friends. He has grown up so much the past year! Not a baby or even a toddler anymore. He cracks us up every morning with his stories and his ideas. Lately his favorite thing to say is "mommy I got to tell you something" or "I have an idea, how bout we......" which usually is "how bout we go out for dinner" but other times he imagines inviting different people over and deciding who will sleep where.
“how bout we have Grandma K and Papa spend the night. Papa can sleep in our room, daddy can sleep down here, and Grandma K and Mommy can sleep in Mommy and Daddy’s room”……yes that was the actual sleeping arrangements he came up with lol!
He has a big interest in trains, and construction....with a DVD collection to prove it! Although he won't admit it he does love his little brother. He really loves to wrestle with him too, and we have to watch that because he doesn't always know his own strength. I can’t wait to have another adventure filled summer with him. There is just so much to look forward to!
Matthew is my little cuddle bug. He also loves to chit chat. From when he wakes until he goes to sleep it is just constant noise from him. It is amazing the things he says, and it seems like he was speaking in sentences just after he spoke his first words. We taught him some basic sign language and he just soaked it right up, when we tried with Daniel at the same age he wanted nothing to do with it. Of course this has just upped the cuteness level of “Please”…..the chest rub (the sign for please) can just melt your heart. He has entered the terrible twos, while not as crazy as Daniel's was; he does provide his own challenges. He can get so upset over the silliest things so quickly, but just as quickly you can usually calm him down. But sometimes when he is tired it can be an emotional roller coaster. Happy, cuddly and laughing one second, screaming and crying the next. But naps usually solve that problem.
He really does love his big brother, and isn't afraid to show it. His big interest is pretty much whatever Daniel likes....but lately his has had an obsession with necklaces and beads. He also loves to dress up!
It's funny to see them play. Every once in a while when we are busy with something else, we look over and see the two of them talking to each other. We always say “look the toys are talking to each other!” It's fun to watch their little conversations. So far they are on the path to being good buddies:-)

Prayers with you all!

Finding Contentment

2010-03-11T17:51:00.001-05:00

I have come to realize that in the past few months, we are happy. We finally seem to be settling in around here. It sounds crazy that after almost 2 years in a home you don't feel completely settled, but that is how it is. It helps to have Daniel in preschool, since we now have a routine, and he is making friends. The odd thing is I don't know these friends. I stumbled across someone on facebook who is the dad of one of the girls in his class. What a strange world we live in where we find people through facebook and not in person!

We hope to be settled back into a church again. We really did think we had found a new church last year. But we never felt like there was a place for us there. Then they purchased property further away and it just became apparent that it wasn't the right fit for us. We always had this feeling that it wasn't quite right. We liked everything else, music, sermons, people.....but it just never felt %100 percent to us. So we have been dragging the kids around church to church in hopes of finding something that felt "right". Last week we found one that seemed good, and we are looking forward to going back on Sunday! I would really love to get involved in a small group, I miss being with other Christians.

We have also got back on the eating right and exercise bandwagon. BUT...BUT....BUT, this time we aren't focusing on weight loss I even had Chad hide the scale. We just went back to sparkpeople and are trying to stay within our calorie range and maintain a certain exercise level. My goal is to record everything I eat for a year. Before in if I had a bad day I didn't record what I ate. Now I do record all of it, and enjoy it even if it was "bad". Wihtout focusing on the weight lost, or beating ourselves up over bad days makes it enjoyable and stress free. I love that we are modeling better habits in front of the boys, and they do pick up on that stuff. Oh and I am losing the weight....even if I don't check that often

The other thing I have had to accept lately is that, I work. I am a working mom. There is this expectation out there that to be a "Godly woman" you MUST be a stay at home mom. You hear other moms say or write things like:

"well my husband and I prayed and read our bible and realized that mothers BELONG at home with their children, that is the way God designed it"

I admit that hurts to hear/read that, I feel attacked ...does that mean I am not Godly. Seriously if they didn't say "mothers, or women" and only referred just to their own situation, I wouldn't care. But when they make it about ALL woman, well that includes me. I know a lot of times it's written in defense of why they stay at home. So generally they don't mean to attack others. But in the end I have come to accept that we prayed, we saved, we agonized (need I go into detail about selling the house again).....all in an attempt for me to be that "ideal Godly woman"....but you know what? I think God gave us our answer long ago I am here for a reason. I am a mom, I work, I am a mom who works, and it's all good. In some ways I have more advantages since I do work from home.....but that is a post for another day...titled something like
"Don't tell me I am LUCKY....I work HARD to earn this!!!!!!!"

So there is where we are at:
routine+God+healthy habits+acceptance = happiness

at least that is our formula for now:-)

maybe next time:
*A day in our life
*The toys are talking to each other
*True confession, our house is a mess
*Manu speaks....and speaks....and speaks
*My Zumba fears
* or something else that pops in my head between now and then

Prayers with you all, and please feel free to comment!

Multimedia message

2010-03-05T00:30:00.000-05:00

2010-03-04T23:45:00.001-05:00

OK....really I will be back to blogging soon. I miss it! The boys are growing up so fast and I love being able to document it in some way. So testing out mobile blogging again. Hopefully that helps:-)

Leaving on a jet plane

2009-09-16T14:27:00.001-04:00

Wish us luck, one 3 year old and one 18 month old on a plane....to California.... tonight. I hope to post a summer recap when we get back. It's been one crazy summer:-) But I will no longer neglect this blog!

July....and it's still cold

2009-07-29T07:23:00.002-04:00

I've been meaning to post, but just don't have a concrete post in my head. Plus with kids, the job, and home projects. it's just hard to find the time. I have been trying to get up earlier to get things done and have time to myself. That has helped. I have also been sick off and on. I keep catching the bugs that go around Chad's office...oddly enough Chad does not always get these bugs. Right now I have a sore throat that just sounds worse than it is.
So far we only went swimming once this summer. It just hasn't been warm enough consistently. The past few days have been nice, and almost swim weather. But this morning it's raining and there is a slight chill in the air again. We have a nice beach just minutes from our house too!
Oh well we are enjoying evenings outside when we can at least.
Hopefully more later!

Why am I cold in June?

2009-07-02T16:14:00.003-04:00

OK, so I have lived in Michigan all my life. So why does it surprise me that last week it was unbearably hot
"no kids we can't go outside...wow look how burned I got for standing on the front porch for a minute" HOT.

BUT

This week....the past few days especially I have contemplated wearing sweatshirts. Go figure.

When it's not raining we have been riding bikes and organizing the garage. One day we found this in the garage:It is a Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) or at least that is what I could figure from this butterfly website.

Last Saturday we took the boys to see a fireworks show in Port Huron. They both did so well and we all enjoyed the show very much. Manu didn't even flinch at the "booms" (he cries at loud noises normally) he just was contently sitting on my lap. We hope to catch another show sometime this weekend.

Happy Birthday Denise!!

2009-06-23T15:22:00.003-04:00

I just wanted to steal Denise’s blog for just a moment. On this day the love of my life came into this world. We grew up about a mile apart and probably crossed paths many times when we were kids. We’ve been a couple for over 14 years now (married for 10) and I haven’t been happier in my life. I can’t begin to imagine what my life would be like without Denise in it. If it wasn’t for you I’d be standing for hours in front of the bananas at a supermarket somewhere trying to figure out which bunch to pick.

Thank you for being a wonderful mom to two crazy little boys. I know it’s not easy being a Working stay at home mom trying to stay at your computer to get your work done, getting the boys dressed and fed, keeping them from beating each other up, then worrying about making a sensible low calorie dinner. But it could be worse; we could be trying to sell the house. You give more of yourself every day to your work and your family than most people do in a year. You are a fun, thoughtful and loving person and the boys and I are lucky to have you in our lives.

Happy Birthday Denise! I know I’m not that great at making good decisions for events like today, but I hope you have a wonderful day!

I love you!

Chad

Is that Chad or is it Smokey???

Yippeee Summer!

2009-06-22T16:32:00.003-04:00

Happy belated Father's day to my wonderful husband Chad! How wonderful is he you ask? Well Saturday he (with assistance from Daniel) took Belle to the vet...when he left the house was realtively peaceful. When he came home I was standing in the living room knee deep in loveseat and couch cushions and pillow "insides", with my mom's steam cleaner in hand. I turned to him and said "WE HAVE to get these in the washer! I can't take the smell anymore!" Well instead of turning around and running from the crazy lady he helped. After we got the covers in the washer, he steam cleaned the back of the couch and helped pick up more and THEN proceeded to vacuum all on his own.

OH I guess I should explain about the "smell". It goes back to our dear kitty Tess, whom we still miss terribly. Well at the end she was kind of peeing on lots of things....one of those things being the couch. It was only certain areas and I think we have treat those to an acceptable point. But I could still smell a small funk. I realized that she may not have peed on the cushions themselves....but she did lay on them. The last time we put the covers in the washer it was kind of a hassle. This time not so bad, and the smell seems to be gone for now. At any rate we are in the market for new living room furniture.

We had an awesome day together yesterday, it was so nice that it also happened on the first day of summer. Our church has been having fundraisers for a teen mission trip so I "hired a teen" to mow the lawn. So Chad got a break from that, and we got to spend a quiet Sunday together. He even got to go to Home Depot all by himself.....no child to take along. We also spent some time with Chad's dad on Saturday. We took him out to dinner and they watched a ballgame together while I took the kids for a walk. For not planning much or having any kind of agenda, it was a great weekend!

Tada! And other things:-)

2009-06-10T17:00:00.006-04:00

So we have been a little busy around here the past few weeks. Mostly with house projects. I already blogged about the garage sale. I am proud to say that all of that got moved back into the basement and is actually organized for the next one......whoo hoo yay us!

Oh......the week before we had our garage sale, it was our anniversary. The Friday evening before we had a picnic and then went for a hike in a beautiful state recreation area by our house. We LOVED it, Belle loved it. We had a nice family hike, we SWORE we were going to be back again and again.....heck we even noted that it would be a great place to take Chad's dad fishing. Then we came home.....and found ticks! Lots of ticks! The poor dog never got such a bath and inspection. So.....we won't go back. Even with a repellent, it is just not worth the risk to any member of our family. OH well. We have great pictures to remember it at least.

The next night we went out for the night, and left the kids at Papa and Grandma's house. It was weird to be home without the kids, dog, or cat (sniff), for a whole night and morning. But it was needed. We went to pick up the boys and from there headed to Greenfield Village with some friends. We got to ride a train....but I think Daniel was a little disappointed. Because now when he says he wants to go on a train, he clarifies it with "I want to go on an inside train". Manu kept asking to get down about halfway into the ride......and well that was a little scary since it was an open air train.

This past week we finally finished up the front flower bed. We need to add some mulch. I choose cedar. I like the bright color, but mostly I hope they will keep the bugs around our house at bay. We have a lot of open lots around our house with standing water which can attrack bugs. We keep bugging (lol pun) the village and association about it hopefully it will be cleared in the summer.

I am really happy with how it turned out. I have some roses planted that won't bloom until maybe next year so more color is on the way. But it is so much better than what it was.
I still want to brick in the space to the right of the house. We just put mulch down so it looked finished until we can get to that project. Oh now our porch is "fixed", but we'll see how long it lasts. There is more drama to that, but....I will just move on.
Next we need to work on organizing the garage so we can get the van in:-)

And as promised, my finished (ahmm sorta) vegetable garden. We still need to put up a trellis, but I have a makeshift one for the snap peas in the meantime. I am just so happy it's pretty much done. Chad did a great job!

Now there are a bunch of projects that need to be done in the house. Ones that involve me to be organized and neat and clean.......things I am not lol!

Garage Sale update

2009-05-31T22:17:00.003-04:00

Well the sale didn't go that bad. At first we were kind of disappointed with the slow pace. But then we started to find out from neighbors that they made less and had the same traffic problem. Today at church I mentioned to the pastor's wife that we had a garage sale this weekend and she said they had one too. She only did slightly better than us, and she has older kids and had more items out. We figured that we were both in sub sales....and there were so many going on all over, people were just driving by and thinking "oh maybe I will go back to that one" but never coming back for whatever reason (spent to much already lol). So while participating in a sub sale we help get more traffic, it must also overwhelm buyers...plus the people who shop at them...may have been holding there own.
At any rate....we kind of caught the garage sale bug. The "good" stuff that didn't sell....we are just going to put back in the basement (we have enough room) and try again next time. We feel kind of challenged and want to figure out what to do different. I know there is still a lot of things we can put out there.
Having cold drinks, chips, and cookies seemed to help. It especially helps to have a cute little boy trying to sell them. We bought things that we could eat or drink after so the cost isn't really additional.
We did get a lot of yard work and other things accomplished while holding the sale. We did so much yard work on Saturday we never noticed the lulls to much.
I am so happy that we finally tackled the front flower bed. It is almost done it just needs some more annuals and mulch. Of course while doing that I decided on another project so the front isn't quite done. But it feels so much better to look at flowers instead of nasty hard ugly dry clay. I will post pictures soon (ok I won't say promise...but I am honestly so happy with how it turned out I can't imagine I would forget.
Hope everyone had a good weekend. Today is the last day of our vacation, and I know it is going to be a long day tomorrow.....if you know where I work and watch the news you should know....a really really really long day.....what a way to time a return from a vacation.

Garage Sale

2009-05-28T12:47:00.002-04:00

We had decided a while back to take this week off. Mostly to officially "move in"....there were still some odd boxes laying in various places and just some general disorganization that was driving us nuts. After making that decision some people in our neighborhood message group had decided to have a garage sale this weekend. So we decided to join in, and just make that our motivation to get some other stuff done. Some things I have learned

Yes we do have enough "stuff" to hold a garage sale
Yes people actually do show up on Thursday at 8 am
The people who show up on Thursday at 8 am, can be a little quirky
The thing you figure won't sell....will be one of the first things to go
I have the urge to explain why I am selling everything. But I am sure the lady buying the "our cat" brag book doesn't need to know that I bought that years ago and the cat just died and I feel awful for never using it...she was such a good cat....blah blah blah....hey at least I didn't tell her just silently told myself in my head....I'm not crazy.
Daniel is a good salesman, he got 3 ladies to buy the snacks and cold drinks we bought.....he promptly turned around and tried to buy some himself with his earnings.

It is muggy and raining right now (whoo hoo the air is being installed as I type)......it is supposed to be nice the rest of the week. So hopefully we will sell out.

Maybe I should do a live blog on Saturday lol.

Adventures with a new home

2009-05-15T15:12:00.004-04:00

So, I am very very VERY grateful to be out of the old house and here in the new house. You can't imagine the number of times I stop and thank God for my home. Especially considering where we live and the economic times, we are well aware of how lucky we are. However.....that doesn't mean we still have our own aggravations.
I mentioned a couple of posts ago about getting our porch fixed. Well after telling us nothing can be done until July, some guys just showed up and started to tear it up. While there was no warning and not any time to discuss it, I was happy. My porch was getting fixed.
Of course while they were taking out cement, digging, and pouring....the boys eagerly watched. Imagine the excitement when the loader pulled up into the driveway to take away the debris. Well as they watched, I also watched. I thought it was kind of funny that they didn't really prepare the ground as I expected. I watch my share of home improvement shows and well don't you put gravel down? I thought it was different that they just piled more dirt up in a mound.....but heck what do I know right....when they pour they will do all that....right? Well um no.
So last night while out walking we started chatting with another neighbor who has the same style house with the same issue. He wasn't to happy either. All of the things that bothered me bothered him as well. At that point he had already started to make calls and complain.
So this afternoon when they cam to finish the job. I was all ready to fight and ask my questions. "Why isn't there gravel down" "How do I know this isn't going to happen again".....Well the first question he couldn't answer, the second question he said "well you get it fixed again" (gee thanks)...and then he proceeded to tell me "my boss told me to do this house, that house...so I got to put these down"
....(ok and trying to remain PC....but English was not this man's first language, while I don't have a problem with that.....it kind of stalled my smack down)......
So after a few minutes of back and forth (lol I think at one point I said something like "yes you say it's dry, I agree it's dry, God and the whole heaven agrees it's dry....but is it fixed?") he finally said "ok well I can call my boss, you don't want me to put these in"
and I said "No, sorry you got stuck in the middle of this"

After that I watched him go to the neighbor. That conversation looked more interesting. Bonus, he got on the guy's cellphone at some point (probably to speak to the "boss")...he was sent away from there....and the same thing happened at the third house. I laughed to myself thinking "ha, yes, I stood up to THE man....strength in numbers.....who hoo aren't I a toughie"

That is when I remembered my arm..........

Hey it may be temporary.....but it sure makes mommy a bad @ss;-)

Mommy Day

2009-05-10T13:06:00.011-04:00

Weird....I thought I posted this yesterday, guess I never did.

Happy Mothers' day to all the ladies out there. Especially to my mom Chet and My Mother-in-Law Joni.
Right now I am enjoying the end of a nice weekend at my mom's house. Daniel had left on Thursday with my sister to have a mini vacation at Grandma's. He was a good boy and charmed everyone he met.
Yesterday it rained all morning, we had planned on going on a hike as soon as possible. We were really hoping to try out the !phone$ with Geocaching....but it was looking like we were going to be out of luck. BUT after dinner it cleared up enough that we were able to make it to the state park and go on a hike. There was a ranger there and she gave the boys junior ranger badges and had Daniel take an oath to protect the animals, it was really cute.

We found to caches and even found a travel bug. Daniel was a little upset, because he didn't see any "animals" he swore to protect. It was a really nice hike, and on the drive back we saw a beautiful sunset.
This mother's day so far is just right, no crazy running around, no worrying about if the house is clean enough for a showing. I am just thankful for everything and everyone I have in my life. I am also grateful for all the wonderful woman in my life who continue to show me how to be a mom.

Schedules are filling up

2009-05-07T06:55:00.002-04:00

My oh my, is it getting busy lately. But a good kind of busy. It's weird how your schedule fills up between may and September, then again between November and January. I prefer the spring/summer busy to the winter one. There is just more daylight to fill the hours. Plus I can spend a lot of time outdoors.

A couple of weeks ago I posted about a garden design I saw at S@m's club that I wanted. Well, I happen to marry a very handy guy who loves a good challenge. The garden is almost complete. Mostly we just need to finish filling it with soil and Chad needs to put up a trellis (which I have a redesign for;-) I am doing a square foot garden since we don't have as much room, and it just seems more efficient for us. My in-laws have been doing it for a few years now and have great success. The hard part is finding all the soil components. When it's all planted I will post pictures.

The other thing we have been working on is getting our porch fixed. The steps are just dangerous and not to code. I also want to just redesign it so it's more useful. Because we are still under a builders warranty, the builder should have to fix it (we would pay for the extra cost of the redesign). BUT the warranty company doesn't want to fix it until our 11th month. That way they can do all fixes at once. It's all starting to become a big hassle, and we may have to wait until July.

Also, we want to put up a fence in the backyard. There is already a fence in the back of the yard and on one side. So we just need to finish it off. The problem is we need to get approval from our association. You think that would be easy,
"hey how do I go about getting this approved"
"here fill out this from"
oh no no no.....it took about 6 e-mails back and forth to get that. Although now that we have the from, it should be easier from here on out....should.

We had meeting to go to last night so my sister came down and watched the kids. This morning, she is going to take Daniel with her back to my mom's house. We are heading up there on Friday to spend the weekend. So Daniel gets to spend extra time with Grandma G:-) I don't know what Manu is going to do when he realizes his buddy is gone. I don't know what I am going to do with Manu while I work lol. I somehow used to do this with Daniel, so I should be fine. I think we will all be missing our crazy little guy until Friday.

Well I plan on posting a "Mother's Day" post...but if not, happy Mother's Day to all the ladies!

One preschooler rounded up!

2009-04-29T21:35:00.003-04:00

Well it's official....we have a preschooler! We had an appointment to have Daniel "evaluated" for local preschool program. To be honest it was nerve wracking to see my 3 year old go through an evaluation. Don't get me wrong the teachers were as nice as can be, and they didn't give the impression "boy your kid sucks!" in fact they just giggled along with him. But it's just hard to not jump in and translate for your baby:-)

The bad news.....Daniel seems to have a slight speech delay. The speech pathologist said he score was actually quite high, but he just needs a little help in some areas. He says lots of words, but his sentences are harder to understand to someone unfamiliar with him.

The good news....he qualifies for a special program that meets for 2.5 hours per day M-F, where he will get to do normal preschool things. In addition to that he will meet with the speech pathologist 20-40 minutes at a time 4-8 times a month. So he will get both normal class time, and one and one time.

The great news.....it's all F-R-E-E...... We went in bracing ourselves for a tuition based program, but walked out with an opportunity for free preschool.

The AWESOME news.....Daniel gets to take a BUS to school. It will even pick up and drop off at the house! We are refraining from saying the "B" word around Daniel because Bus just ranks just after train and boat for things he wants to go on. Although he has been on a bus, he just doesn't remember....but If we mention it now, he won't let up until he gets on one.

Well.....I honestly think the awesome news is the free part, but I am sure the whole Bus thing is going to be Daniel's number 1. I am not to sure how easy it will be to let him get on by himself and watch him go......I have some months to get used to it.

The school itself is cool. It is housed in an old high school, so old looking on the outside you just don't know what to expect. However it has a very nostalgic feel to it....good "bones" as they say. They are still renovating another floor for administration. It will be neat to see when everything is done. They redid/added on to the building for the preschool wing and it has a very modern bright feel. It really seems to encourage a learning environment.

I admit I am still hung up on the whole speech "delay" thing. I get it, and I agree with it. I am happy to have such a nice program that will help him....and did I mention the FREEness of it all? I tell Chad I know I am crazy for wondering "why" he is delayed. It's just who I am, I obsess:-)

Now for some more fun........I moved the washable paints to a bookshelf in the living room....where Daniel was able to reach them.....and where he pulled them down....and where I must have not realized that one was left within reach of a certain one year old.......

It took me a while to realize that Manu had gotten a hold of one....and why...WHY did it have to be the blue one? It's washable, and the carpet already looks better...his faced washed up nice.....but still. I guess every 1 year old needs a picture like this right?

Happy Birthday Chad

2009-04-24T07:25:00.004-04:00

So yesterday I did the most horrible awful thing EVER! I forgot to wish my wonderful husband a happy birthday on this blog! I know.....throw me into jail.....where there will be no work, and meals cooked for me...wait that doesn't sound so bad lol! So yesterday was his birthday.....here is what I should have written:

As many (well ok 3 who read this blog) know Chad is a super husband he helps out around the house. He will do dishes, laundry, and vacuum plus any number of normal "wifely" things I slack off on. Not only is he handy, he is always excited to take on new house projects like making me a raised square foot garden:-)

As a daddy he is super attentive and patient. I wouldn't have survived Daniel's terrible 2's
without him. He is never afraid to show the boys affection or just sit and talk with them about anything (lately it trucks;-). His "girl" Belle can still expect him to play with her.....but most of all he has taken charge of making sure she is fed.

He strives to do the best possible job at work. He makes these awesome videos. Recently one was about Autism, and before that there was a homeless student video. When he works on them he really gets into the subject. Not only am I more educated from watching them, he just brings home a wealth of information. How awesome is it to be so passionate about your work.

I really couldn't have asked for a better husband. I don't know what I would do without his support. I could not ask for a better man for my boys to look up to!

The long goodbye

2009-04-21T13:26:00.003-04:00

Before our move last summer, in the midst of packing, we noticed something was wrong with our cat Tess. Well it wasn't that we noticed all of a sudden. It just seemed that all of a sudden she got really bad. Although she was always kid of small, she really seemed to have lost about half of her weight. I pretty much prepared myself for her not making the move with us.
After starting her on thyroid meds she got a little bit better.

Since the move it has been one month of "getting better" and one month of getting worse. In the fall our new vet noticed she had a lump in her bladder. It was kind of pointless to figure out what it was. Even if we did want to pay for an x-ray, there was no way she could have an operation at her advanced age.

So we just kept up what we were doing. Medication mixed into wet food (which we swore we would NEVER give her on a daily basis) twice a day.

She continued to be her normal self. Just a little more bossy when it came to food. She still cuddled. She was still good with the kids. She never really went upstairs in the new house. Which was fine with us, because she picked up this habit of peeing on things....something she never had done before.

The peeing got worse and worse. We had been giving her antibiotics and it would help some. However this last month or so, it no longer really worked. It finally got to the point where she could no longer groom herself either.

Yesterday, after a reassuring talk with our vet, Chad had taken her in to put her down. In some ways I am happy to have at least had a goodbye. It's odd despite having children, and buying a house...we feel like this is a first "grown up" decision.

We were straight with Daniel. We told him kitty was going to the vet and she won't come home with daddy. That it was time to say bye bye to the kitty. He cried.....because he wanted to go to.....I don't think it has really sunk in, he is 3 afterall:-) He does say "I want kitty back"...and after I tell him that she isn't coming back. He says "daddy get new one".....again he is 3 lol!

I could not have asked for a better cat, Tess was a best friend to me. Whenever I was sick she cuddled with me. She had an uncanny ability to understand what we said. She lived previously with Chad's parents. When we brought her home to our apartment. I told her
"You can't go under our bed until I see you use the litter box"
She looked at me turned around and used her litter box. Rarely did she do typical bratty cat behavior like scratching, or (until the last year) peeing. She never tried to bite, swat, or even hiss at me, Chad or even the boys! She did give Belle a few (well deserved) swats as a puppy. But she and Belle were friends in the end.

I will miss our Princess Tess....but it was nice to have such a good friend.

Updates

2009-04-20T08:13:00.004-04:00

I can't believe how fast time has been flying lately. I keep meaning to update, and I have things I want to say but then bam, it's already Monday of a new week!

Please keep Taye in your prayers. His parents have kept their blog pretty well updated. Actually amazingly updated despite the situation. Prayers for his continued progress, as well as strength for Joanna and Ben are needed. I know God is working miracles!
I was talking to Chad last Thursday about Taye, and we both admitted to thinking of him every 5 to 10 minutes. Needless to say hugs to my boys have become a little tighter and a little longer. I don't know how Ben and Joanna can keep strength up, they are amazing.
We had a rare occurrence this weekend....we spent Saturday and Sunday near home. Well Saturday we spent the morning cleaning up, and then went to an earth fair, out to lunch, and S@m's club......then home for the evening. Daniel and I even got to spend some quality time just the two of us. We shared an ice cream at S@m's, went for a walk, and sat on the porch in the twilight and talked.
Daniel seems to have hit a patch of the troublesome 3's (and I don't feel I have made that up lol). Not as bad as the terrible 2's....less fits, but just more whiny. We don't give in when he whines for something or turns on tears. We try to do the opposite. But still....sometimes he just isn't any fun;-)
Except for his whining jags, Daniel has become quite the conversationalist. With us he just jabbers on. In the car, he tells us all the trucks he sees. He tells us when we have crossed railroad tracks. He also likes to point out places where you can get nuggets. The other night he was telling me how he would drive a boat.
Oh and I think it is safe to say potty training is over. He can do #1 and #2 (which he calls "nuggets" not to be confused with the nuggets above)....he can stay dry all night. The only thing he has yet to do it #2 somewhere other than home. But there are woman I know who don't do that....so all is good!
Manu is on the move. I think we jinxed him back in November. That is when he was first pulling himself up to stand. We kept saying "wow he is going to be walking by Christmas"...nope....then it was "oh he is going to be walking by his birthday"....nope..."Daniel's birthday"....nope......well now....maybe Earth day. He is walking somewhat...He can take steps. But he still prefers crawling and being carried. When he does walk he gets so excited he falls.
Despite a slow start in the tooth department Manu is well on his way of having a good set. the first few were so painful we kind of wished they sold baby pain medicine at by the quart...at least. But now is a small bit of fussiness when they come in.
Belle and Manu have become the buddies I always expected from Daniel and Belle. Daniel never quite took a shine to her...although he loves to have her do tricks, and tell her what to do. Manu on the other hand just adores her, and she him. Although with Belle it has more to do with Manu's policy of "one piece for me, one for the Belle". Manu definitely loves to throw stuff of his high chair more than Daniel ever did.
With the help of my mother in law (Thank's Joni!) Chad and I each got !-phone$.....and they are as fun as they look. We have yet to find anything there isn't an "app" for yet (ok except (a free) blogger ahm....hint hint wink wink). I am still trying to get work stuff setup on it. It will be nice in the summer to take a break but still be reachable.
Before last week, I never used my cell phone for anything but making calls and pictures. I dislike texting (and so far still do)....but well this phone is a toy.....an expensive toy, but there is just so much to do on it......but we have still not mastered how to solve...we are in a strange location and need something to eat...quick find me something now! There are apps, but it's still tricky to do while driving.
Chad has been working on 'designs' for my new garden. But between that, installing a privacy fence, and improving our front porch......I don't think there are enough weekends in the summer....heck not enough weekends in the year considering how we are never home for them. But we at least have some containers for my garden, so I can at least start soon. But I can't wait our projects to be finished....I love having a handy husband!
OH I recently read Twilight...and OMG....OMG ....I HATED it! Could there be a more annoying main character in Bella? Really.....is this the kind of girl we want tween girls to look up to? Really?

Well that is all for now. Kind of scattered, but someday my blog project will get started!

Please Pray

2009-04-16T15:44:00.002-04:00

I have put this up on Facebook, but just to spread the word here as well.

Please keep, the McKinney's and their son Taye in your prayers. Taye was injured yesterday and he is in the hospital. I haven't been able to stop thinking and praying for them all day.

For my Garden

2009-04-04T18:17:00.002-04:00

I want

A Beautiful Ethiopian Adventure!

2009-04-02T09:48:00.004-04:00

Hey, I have lots to catch up on, been super busy with work, life and whatnot. BUT I have to stop for a moment to tell everyone who reads this to stop over at Ben and Joanna's blog and catch up on their exciting news if you haven't done so already.
I can't wait to meet their newest family member. They have some awesome stories to share now and a lot more to come. I honestly can't remember being so happy for another family, there is nothing but pure joy in their adoption stories!

Trying to find the beauty in a long winter

2009-03-02T09:13:00.001-05:00

2009-02-28T14:35:00.000-05:00

See flying dogs

Long week

2009-02-28T10:51:00.003-05:00

It has been a really long week. As much as I do enjoy the work at home thing; doing 2 jobs (mom and "work" work) at once is exhausting. Most days everything goes smoothly, and on other days I am just wiped out by the time Chad comes home. This past week I just seemed wiped out each evening. Last night when Chad got home, I had dinner ready, but I just went up to bed almost as soon as he walked in the door. After dinner the boys went to Target while I just kept sleeping. I had to get up shortly after he put them all to bed.....so I could finish up more "work" work. Then after some TV, I went back to bed.
Today I am not as tired and I feel like I am slowly coming out of my funk. I kind of feel bad for basically checking out of being a mommy for like 12 hours. We decided to try and get out of the house and do something. There is an outdoor show by our old house. But it is becoming a chore just to get Daniel to behave. Lately he has become possessive of toys and other things. Manu on the other hand has been crying about something every 10 minutes or so (I think he is teething) and Daniel doesn't help when he starts to yell at him for one thing or another. When you tell Daniel not to be mean to his brother, he gets all mad and starts to throw a fit.....which gets Manu going even more. So we really aren't that keen on taking them out, in public of all places lol. But we (especially me) can't stay couped up in the house all day long. Also lately they have been really good when strangers are watching......isn't it usually the other way around?
Other than not being so nice to his little brother Daniel has been great lately. He has stayed dry for 2 days straight (keeping my fingers crossed for day 3:-), and been great when we take him places. It just seems like he finally hit a stumbling block when it comes to having a baby brother. He loved it when Manu was a baby baby. He used to love to help, and bring him things, and give him kisses and stuff. Now that he can get around and play well a baby brother is a bother!

So wish us luck on going out. We have called in the grandparents for backup. I just keep reminding myself we are fortunate to have jobs, a new house, and loved ones to help. Not only that we have the opprotunity to see flying dogs!

He did it!

2009-02-24T20:47:00.002-05:00

So I hate to follow up a food related post with a well...waste related post. But after many months of trying to capture #2 in the potty....we have success!

Finally poop in the potty!!

We danced, we sang, we hi-fived, we called grandparents....and well now a blog post. Let it be known on 02.24.09 my son went poo poo in the potty! We of course are unbelievably proud.....and yes there is real picture of his accomplishment. But since that is kind of gross to post, you can have this picture.

Laissez les bon temp rouler

2009-02-24T18:21:00.002-05:00

Well we had a fun and adventurous day. I had to take Daniel to his 3 year old checkup (again 3 years...wow!), and well Manu had to come along for the ride. Since it was scheduled for 1:30, I decided to just take the afternoon off and use some vacation time for something fun like.....errands. Well first we went to lunch. That is always fun to figure out how to get kids and a tray of food to a table. But it was fun to spend time with my little guys out of the house, and they were both really good.

Daniel got to pee in a cup, and it was cool, and while I did not get a picture of this proud parenting moment, it will be talked about for ages......grandchildren will speak of it. During his checkup Daniel continued his charming ways, the doctor said "well I see he can talk well" I had to laugh, because yes Daniel lately can talk your ear off. He was given a clean bill of health. When she went to go she said you're all set. Daniel kept asking "we can go?" and kind of looked at her in disbelief. I had prepared him for the possibility of "shots" since its been a year since he went to the doctor and I couldn't remember what he might need. She said that he was up to date, so it was a quick visit. This office gives out books at each checkup and they have free books all over the office. Daniel became attached to one truck book in particular so the receptionist gave it to him after she played peekaboo Manu.

So after that we weren't done yet! There was a quick trip to the grocery store to pick up some items for dinner. The boys were being especially good there too. I have never heard so many compliments about my guys in one trip. People kept stopping us and telling me how cute either Daniel or Manu is.

So after that, we had to make a quick stop at a local doughnut shop to pick up some Packzi. For those of you that don't know, in the Detroit area (and some other places) it is a tradition to eat.. Packzi....I say pounchkey.....but, well, I never got the pronunciation right. They are basically doughnuts with more butter, sugar, and eggs....with different fillings. The owner of the local doughnut shop is a cute older lady of some Eastern European background. So we had a feeling they would be good. She talked me into trying prune one, which is the traditional filling.

So then it was back home. Well the afternoon probably doesn't sound as tiring to some of you out there. But we rarely leave the house so that many trips and in winter especially is a task. By the time we got home I had two tired little boys who easily took naps. I thought I would be more beat, but I was ok. So I proceeded to make gumbo. And.....well it turned out good. I have made gumbo before, but I never darkened the roux as much as I did today. It made it so much better.

Oh and the prune Packzi......it was great.....I think that is the only kind I want from now on:-)

Happy Birthday Daniel!

2009-02-23T14:10:00.004-05:00

Wow, Daniel is 3 years old. So this post is a few days late....but I never bothered to send in my entry as mother of the year so its all good.
Its been an amazing year with my little daddy's boy. He started straight into the terrible twos....they actually seemed to start before his last birthday. By summertime we wondered how much more terrible he was going to get......then magically our sweet, silly, smart little boy came back. We had a lot of stress early on last year and I am sure that didn't help matters. However once we finally moved, and finally got somewhat settled we realized we had this little boy living with us. One of the results of our move was the decision to let the kids stay home with me while I worked. This arrangement has been better than I expected. I think Daniel has enjoined it too, he even seems to like me now;-)
Potty training got started in the fall, and well its still going. Yesterday it was going well, today...so-so....but we see a light at the end of the tunnel! Each day Daniel just does or says something that cracks us up. Weather its saying in an oh so serious tone "Mommy that's a digger, its not a backhoe" or if its handing me imaginary tools to help repair one of his trucks. You just never know what to expect, but its fun to play along.
He still loves to clean things, and play with bubbles in the sink. He still loves to color, and can even draw a decent circle. He has started to learn numbers but still refuses to learn the alphabet or any letter. Singing, is still sometimes a no no around him. But he still loves to help me bake, as long as I don't sing as I do it. Bath time is not so horrible now that he and Manu can play together in the tub. There are some nights he begs for a bath.....instead of begging not to take one.
Life has been amazing with a 2 year old around, I look forward to the hijinks of a 3 year old. I cherish every kiss, every hug, and every giggle. These kids do grow fast!

Church search

2009-02-15T21:34:00.004-05:00

Well we may have found a church. We still want to meet with the pastor to kind of go over some questions (not major ones), but it feels like the right one.
After the first dud we kind of gave up until after the new year. So the middle of January we started up again. We had found 3 churches that sounded like they were a good fit. The first one we liked right away. I kept thinking "ok what is the catch, what aren't we going to like". By the time we left we kind of figured what it was. It was already kind of a drive (but not bad, 20 minutes at the most), BUT they are planning on moving. Now this move won't happen for a while, they have no idea where the move will really be, and well the area they are thinking of isn't to much further. So really its wasn't that big of a deal. The other 2 churches were ok. Well the 3rd was very similar to the 1st.....but we really just feel right so far at church #1. Daniel seems to be in agreement. When we pulled up this morning his eyes lit up and he said "Fire Engine church"....he apparently likes the selection of toys at this churches nursery better than the others. You always have to think about important things like toys, when it comes to serious matters like God.

Book recomendation

2009-02-13T20:48:00.004-05:00

I usually forget to put my book recommendations on here. I have all intentions of saying "oh this is a good book you should read it!" But other things come up and then I forget to post of a week or 2, then then I forget about it. Well I can't let this one go without begging everyone to go out and get a copy. It is called Schuyler's Monster, I have had the link to the author's blog for a while now. I have always liked reading his blog, because it gives a glimpse of what it is like to be a parent of a "broken" (his words) child. Although Schuyler (pronounced Skyler) is still young Rob and his wife have to fight so their daughter has the chance she deserves. They have stood up for her weather its working with doctors to get the right diagnosis, schools in getting the right education, or just strangers in grocery stores. All this while their baby transforms into a beautiful little girl before their eyes. This book describes the struggle, from birth until very recently.
I rarely read non-fiction. But I couldn't put the book down, and I knew the ending. I honestly think anyone can be touched by this book. Get it, read it, pass it on.

2009-01-31T19:01:00.001-05:00

Manu's Coney Island

2009-01-31T12:01:00.001-05:00

Buddies watching Cailou

So many topics, so much effort, so little return

2009-01-29T23:21:00.001-05:00

Uggh.....this blog is still here. I used to like blogging. It was a nice way to update people on what was going on, it was a nice way to show pictures of the kids to people who care and might otherwise just see them in a Christmas card. Lately however it has become a big chore. From time to time people tell me "oh I read your blog"...and I guess I believe them. However lately traffic has dramatically died down...DRAMATICALLY. I have a site meter on here, and there is about one person per day (other than me) that comes on here. Also its now been a month since I received ONE comment. I seriously don't need comments every entry. This is not meant to be a request for comments, although feel free to say WHATEVER you want....I can always delete if I don't like what you say lol. I realize not everything I post even requires a comment. But....I do put some effort into each entry. Even for just sending a picture from my phone, I go back in add a title and maybe a comment, for one picture.
I have a lot of topics I kind of want to write about. But they are kind of big topics: 'the ugly side of facebook', 'being a work at home mom' (a two or three part....where maybe I should turn comments off lol), recent book reviews, dreams and nightmares.....plus lots of kids topics. But if I don't have readers, I would rather just write privately.
I am on facebook, I like the feedback you get on there. Plus there is no effort to the updates.
Again this blog has not been about "comments" really. I don't want to be one of those professional mommy bloggers that offer up free stand mixers. I am not looking for random strangers to start following me. I relaly just want to keep in touch, and keep track of our lives. I can do that without others seeing. Overall I am just kind of sick of the effort.
So I haven't made a decision, I just don't want to surprise anyone with this being closed out. I will wait until Daniel's birthday, and then I will figure out what I want to do.
Bloggers: anyone else seem just put off by blogging lately?

One Year!

2009-01-28T15:19:00.005-05:00

My sweet sweet baby Matthew is now officially 1. Its hard to believe a year ago I was in the hospital getting to know you. With him everything has been easier. I know some of it is my "experience" but a lot of it is because he is just an easier baby. He is so laid back and he loves to laugh and babble. Lately he plays a game where he looks at me and says "um...um...um" until I start....after I repeat "um....umm" after him he switches to "eh....eh....eh" we keep going until he laughs. Daniel still just loves him. He is always watching out for him. He also loves to say "No Manu". Although he is just worried about Manu getting into something he shouldn't he gets a little rough with pushing and shoving. Today however when he saw him getting to close to the stove (it was off or else I would have been there) he gently pulled him away and said "No Hot Manu"...so maybe he's getting better lol.
My favorite thing to do with Manu is to cuddle. We didn't cosleep really at all with Daniel, with Manu it was more natural those first few weeks. Although he is in his own bed now, I still love to cuddle with him a bit before bed. I also love it when I have the chance for snuggles on the couch during the rare downtime I have. So far he is just a mama's boy.
He loves bathtime. Daddy and Daniel make him laugh. He loves to feed the dog. He gets excited to see Papa, Grandma, and Sunny. He loves to say Kitty Cat. He also can say Mama, uh oh, up, Belle, and Daniel....probably some others I am forgetting. He is always getting into something, and he loves to climb stairs. He loves to laugh. Today Daniel and I made cupcakes during lunch while Manu napped. We will sing and have some cake tonight, but he has his big party on Saturday. I am so happy to be able to celebrate his first year!
On a side note.....happy birthday to my Father-in-Law Dan (Monday), and my mom(today)!

Facebook

2009-01-25T00:38:00.002-05:00

I have been lost to the world of Facebook......I knew Facebook existed, I have heard about it for years. However after being on Myspace (which I HATE!) I wasn't at all interested in trying Facebook. Well the other day I finally went in, and OMG....that is where everyone is. People I haven't heard from in 10 years, people I have TRIED to find....are there. I finally called my mom today after sending her a Facebook invite, telling her she HAD to try it. I knew she would find some people. It was funny to hear her on the phone "oh here is so and so,....oh I know him....look Red Hat ladies". I actually won't be surprised if she collects more friends than me.
It was a really rough week and it was nice to find old friends. It took a while for Chad to get why I needed to find some people. He kind of hates to reconnect ("what if they want something....or the conversation is uncomfortable?")
He goes into work and sees actual people everyday, they talk about work, talk about kids, talk about TV or whatnot. While I am VERY thankful to be able to work from home the conversations I have are mostly about work and its over an Internet connection, so I don't get to chit chat about personal issues. On rare chance we go out, it usually to see his family, or his friends (OK to be fair I like his friends, and we went to the same high school so I guess they are technically my friends too..... but still, the connection is still his). A lot of my friends are from high school and college. I have sadly lost touch with many of them. For the most part when I left these groups I had a phone number and physical address to contact them. Not many had e-mail, no one had a cell phone...I was never a phone person or letter writer......plus are they still living with their parents?......or are they still in college? I moved on started to work and just got into the everyday of life. For me a lot of the reason why I "need" to find people is so I can remember who I am. I need to find people who remember me......not Chad's wife.
However there is something else that feeds my search. I need to know my friends are "safe". I want to reconnect, but that doesn't mean I have to find them so I can hang out with them as soon as possible. I just want to know they are OK. What happened to them? Did they go to college? Do they need help?
For some reason it just bugs me to not know what happened to someone. At our last class reunion I found out one classmate died of cancer. I did not know this until the reunion. I was not really close with him, but I had known him since I was young. It bothered me that I did not even know he was sick. I wouldn't have been able to do anything other than offer up prayers.
Daniel likes to line up all his beloved stuff animals and put blankets over them, and he will talk to them and tell them night night. He also likes to line up all his trucks and has them watch his "Mighty Machine" movie with him. If one is missing he will enlist help in finding it. It may not be the favorite that is missing, but he still wants to know where the truck or animal is hiding. Its kind of the same thing with me. Well I am not going to line up my friends cover them with blankies and force them to watch a movie....that would be creepy.....I just want to know where they are, I just want to know they are safe.

Why I love Detroit

2009-01-14T15:16:00.002-05:00

Mitch Album just sums it up best:

Stardom is a funny thing here. You don't achieve it by talking loud or dating a supermodel. You achieve it by shyly lowering your head when they introduce you or by tossing the ball to the refs after scoring a touchdown. Humility, in Detroit, is on a par with heroism. Even Dennis Rodman didn't get really crazy until he left.

I have mentioned before how it's been "bad" around Metro Detroit for a long while. Slowly we are starting to see this recognized on national level. For my family I honestly have a much more positive outlook for the next year. However I know its just going to get more rough for everyone else around me. But like the article says, I say "when" Detroit will be fixed, not "whether".

2008....the year it FINALLY happened!

2008-12-31T17:00:00.003-05:00

What can I say about this year, it really has been a great year. It started in January when our second son Matthew was born on my mom's birthday (and 2 days after my father in law's birthday:-) He has just been a sweet easy going baby. I did not realize how difficult Daniel was until having Matthew. Daniel adjusted so well to being big brother, he is still really good at it. Daniel had bouts of terrible twos that seemed like they would never end, but at times they were greatly entertaining!

The summer brought trips to the zoo and camping....and finally the day we all were waiting for came. An offer on our house! After the offer it only took..... ohhh.... FOREVER to close. A closing which involved us living with my in-laws for a month, renting out our house for free, and then there was several times when the whole thing was called off. All of this while all of our stuff was locked up in a POD in the driveway of our new house and us with only 4 days worth of clothes a piece. Then when we actually could move, we had to do it all in a matter of hours. We could not get the keys to the new house after the closing for the new house which happened in the morning. We could only get them after we closed on the old house later in the afternoon. So my mother-in-law had to pick up our new keys (with both kids in tow) before the office that held them closed. THEN we had to move all of stuff in that night, or else we would have to pay for another month's rent on the POD. We had all the stuff moved in, said goodbye and Thank you to my in-laws and finally spent the night in our beautiful new house. The next day......Chad got up and went to work while I sat in a foodless house waiting for various utilities and Sears to arrive. While it felt good to have the whole ordeal over with, we realized it was going to take a while to heal the anxiety we felt about having our house up for sale during a bad housing slump.
Fall brought us lots of time for apple picking, and walks to the park. Daniel's terrible twos subsided and we settled into a nice routine. I had lots of fun playing in my new kitchen with my ever helpful two and half year old. There is no sarcasm in that statement, Daniel is my little helper through and through.

Christmas time came up fast and quick. We did not accomplish as much as I wanted, nor did we did not see as many people as we would have liked. However it was a white Christmas, we spent it with family, and we no longer had a unsold house hanging over our heads...what a blessing!

I truly do look forward to 2009. Despite all the doom and gloom in the news I believe we will see a lot of good. Even if my inkling of good things isn't true, it seems like no matter what comes we have gained strength and wisdom to face what comes.

Best wishes to all in the new year!

Does Christmas have to be over?

2008-12-28T23:08:00.003-05:00

I can't believe I have to go back to work tomorrow! It has been a nice, but busy Christmas. We didn't get to see as many people as we wanted. We also didn't go to Greenfield Village Holiday Nights,. We didn't want to take Manu because it would just be to much trouble to carry him around keeping him warm. Since we live further away it was just going to be to much trouble to drop him off with the grandparents and get there in time. Oh well there is always next year.
Daniel got his first train set. We took the boys still in their jammies over to Papa and Grandma's house on Christmas day. Daniel couldn't wait to tell Papa what he got. He ran in the house and before he even saw Papa he said "Papa I got a TRAIN!". So cute....after we laughed at him as he told everyone there "Hi Kelly, I GOT A TRAIN"....I remembered what I got I had to say "I got a KITCHEN AID STAND MIXER!". I was really happy to get it (although I accidentally figured it out....I really didn't want to know, but it was an accident)....but....I am seriously in no mood to make anything sweet lately lol. Oh well there is always bread...and I just may be making Manu's first birthday cake from scratch. I am trying to remember what Manu got for his first Christmas, but it was like socks, some clothes, a stuffed dog, and toys that Daniel likes to play with. He is still such a baby, he likes to climb and put things in his mouth, so he is just interested in the paper. Daniel got less for his first Christmas. Actually Manu slept through dinner. Oh and Our Christmas dinner was fantastic!
Last wek we went to Frankenmuth with my family to celebrate Christmas. Daniel and Manu got to swim a little. Manu got to cold, and Daniel is still iffy in the water but he had a great time. Daniel loved the arcade in the hotel. He loved staying in the hotel so much that he figured out how to open the door and just start off on his own. We figured out pretty quickly that we had to keep the deadbolt on.
I had so many plans for getting the house in shape while I was off....and we didn't get much done. Chad helped me sort through baby clothes tonight and that felt good to get that off my list.
There is still some general organization left to do, and lots LOTS of laundry, but hopefully we can catch up this week.
I had more plans to document this Christmas more (like with pictures).....but not tonight. Uggg I still can't believe I have to work in the morning!

2008-12-28T16:04:00.000-05:00

High winds watch where you poop!

2008-12-25T10:52:00.000-05:00

Our Not so traditional Nativity scene

2008-12-08T15:13:00.001-05:00

What the bible doesn't tell you.....Bethlehem was experiencing a LOT of construction when Jesus was born.

I can't help but wonder what the animals in the back are all looking at.

And yes we have an outhouse in our Nativity scene...don't you?

Menu Plan Monday 12/07/08

2008-12-08T06:00:00.002-05:00

Zip on over to Laura's site for more great organizational ideas!

Monday - Paprika Chicken Thighs
Tuesday - Chili
Wednesday - Tuna Casserole
Thursday - Pork Roast (Chad's request)
Friday - Shrimp and Whitefish Tropical Curry (well my attempt at the Thai food I had last week)
Saturday - leftover day
Sunday - Pasta

Long overdue for a haircut

2008-12-06T18:59:00.004-05:00

Before

After

And Daniel's inspection after. Manu didn't seem to notice.

To be quite honest, I don't like it a whole lot. I told the lady I wanted short layers, but not to heavy on top. I wanted bangs, but the top still looks to puffy to me. I wanted a younger look, but it feels very momish to me. I am happy enough to wait until it grows out a little bit.

I like the back though:
Oh and yes the hair was donated to Locks of Love.

Quick Dinner

2008-12-04T17:00:00.000-05:00

So, earlier this week I decided I was so over eating turkey. We had two turkey dinners and lots of turkey leftovers. I was creative and used up pretty much all of it. However on Monday I made a turkey pasta, and it was good, but I had to push the turkey away. Although guilt ridden that people are starving everywhere in the world, and would not mind eating Turkey for the 8th day straight I declared "I can't eat any more turkey....".
Work has been crazy, so Tuesday we had pizza (again guilt "you're not feeding your family a healthy dinner FOR SHAME!"), and last night I was again stuck. I had some time during my lunch break to put something together. But what? We had bought mashed potatoes from GFS on a whim for the first Thanksgiving dinner (in case anyone really wanted some).....but I didn't like them. They were still in our fridge mocking me (you DIDN'T MAKE homemade....loser!)... I didn't want to throw it out and I didn't want to eat it. So I made gnocchi....and bad as it was as mashed potatoes, they made a yummy gnocchi. I had the dough ready so when Chad got home he got some sauce ready (leftover red, and a jazzed up jarred alfredo), while Daniel helped me cut the dough (and he did a FABULOUS job for his first time). With a quick simple salad not only did we get a great meal, but we also had a fun time in the kitchen together!

Mary's dream

2008-12-01T19:23:00.000-05:00

I saw this on several sites today.....

Mary’s Dream

I had a dream, Joseph, I don’t understand it, not really, but I think it was about a birthday celebration for our Son. I think that was what it was all about. The people had been preparing for it for about six weeks. They had decorated the house and bought new clothes. They’d gone shopping many times and bought elaborate gifts. It was peculiar, though, because the presents weren’t for our Son.
They wrapped them in beautiful paper and tied them with lovely bows and stacked them under a tree. Yes, a tree, Joseph, right in their house. They’d decorated the tree also. The branches were full of glowing balls and sparkling ornaments. There was a figure on the top of the tree. It looked like an angel might look. Oh, it was beautiful.
Everyone was laughing and happy. They were all excited about the gifts. They gave the gifts to each other, Joseph, not to our Son. I don’t think they even knew Him. They never mentioned His name. Doesn’t it seem odd for people to go to all that trouble to celebrate someone’s birthday if they don’t know Him?
I had the strangest feeling that if our Son had gone to this celebration He would have been intruding. Everything was so beautiful, Joseph, and everyone so full of cheer, but it made me want to cry. How sad for Jesus -not to be wanted at His own birthday celebration.
I’m glad it was only a dream. How terrible, Joseph, if it had been real.

Author Unknown

I survived

2008-11-29T18:16:00.001-05:00

So I never did the "Black Friday" thing. Well I never got up early and waited outside a store. In fact since I hate shopping I am probably the last person most people expect to do something like that. Well.....yesterday was a first. I got up at 5:15ish.....fed Manu, put him back to bed, went out the door, and got to T@arget around 5:45. The line was already quite long. I wondered at how in the world did I agree to go do this. I actually volunteered to go do it. I got to the end of the line and struck up a conversation with another woman who was like me. Hates to shop, never has done this, and feeling kind of silly. Neither of us were there for any kind of "door buster" item she was looking for a (in her words although I agree) a "creepy doll". However we were both motivated by fear of a deal being gone before we woke up, and the fact that our kids were still sleeping.

It was 6 am, and the doors opened. The line moved....then the line stopped.....another minute went by and the line moved again. We got in, wished each other good luck. Then the adrenaline started to pump. Oh yes I will admit, I also wanted to squeal and scamper like the woman in the "Yes I'm a soccer mom shirt"....but I kept my cool thank you very much. I was kind of scared that my Target wouldn't even have the item I was looking for. After some maneuvering I got to the correct aisle. I looked and looked and looked.....it wasn't there! I couldn't believe it....was it already gone...or was it just never there (it is a smaller T@rget). I went to the next aisle.....nope it wouldn't be there, it could only be in that one aisle. I went back one last time. I read every tag...then I saw it. I jumped (ok I probably squealed) and got it. Another woman came in the aisle just after I found my prize. I said "Oh I thought it was gone already"....Smiling she took the last one and said "I figured it would run out quick"....then they were all gone. Victory! I was waling a little taller as I noticed each nod to the item in my cart. "That's a classic" one man said smiling to his wife. The checkout line moved slow, but I basked in the glow of a mission accomplished:

Ok the funny thing.....this may not even be a Christmas gift.....he just may get it for his birthday.

But......I may just be a Black Friday shopper from now on. I picked up some other things, got home walked the dog, picked up SEVEN baggies of poop....all before 8 am.....All in all it was kind of fun.

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T15:18:00.000-05:00

What you don't know....Manu has no pants on;)

What we couldn't finish today

2008-11-27T15:15:00.000-05:00

As we sat down to eat, we all realized the appetizers were plenty to fill us up. Just take a look at how much pasta was left! A nice quiet relaxing Thanksgiving.

Thanksgiving Dinner and Daniel dresses Manu

2008-11-25T21:24:00.000-05:00

Dinner from Sunday
On Monday Daniel insisted on picking out Manu's clothes. It didn't exactly match the top was a lightweight material. It is blue with a construction theme. The pants....red and grey velour. However he was less concerned about the pants, and more concerned about him wearing a tracker shirt. I really wish I had a better picture because it was pretty funny looking. I do have to say it looked ok once the matching velour jacket was on. Oh and yes, we have a baby sized velour jump suit. Daniel looked very cool in it, like a rap superstar....Manu kind of looks like an old man, but a cute old man. I just wish I had a side by side comparison of the two.

I'm a NaBloPoMo loser

2008-11-24T13:55:00.001-05:00

Well, totally forgot to blog all weekend. I also forgot about the "Friday Firsts"....blah. I honestly just don't have the time for the blog every day thing. However I do want to commit to blogging more often. Especially about family stuff.
We had Thanksgiving with my family yesterday. It was nice...everyone was here...in our HOUSE! Not a house that is up for sale, not a house that is to tiny to comfortably entertain in cold months, not in a house without a coat closet. It was in our nice new house, with multiple bathrooms, and even a place for the kids to play! After dinner we got to sit around and talk, after pie the kids got to play some more. Chad danced (as much as toddlers can dance lol) with Daniel and my niece. My nephew and brother sat on my couch playing a game on my mom's computer. Manu got to flirt with my sister in law. My other niece demonstrated her newest step dancing moves for the rest of us. It was wonderful. We get to do it all again on Thursday, when Chad's family comes to visit. Well....with less kids....but maybe Chad's mom and aunt will be willing to try some step dancing moves to liven thins up;-)

Sick again

2008-11-21T09:08:00.000-05:00

So I have been fighting a cold for 2 weeks now. The worst of it is over, but a sinus problem is still there. This morning I woke up feeling like I have the flu. I rarely leave the house......why am I the one getting sick?

Loan 25 billion now....or lose 156 billion later

2008-11-19T15:56:00.000-05:00

So I have to revisit this b@ilout issue again. One one hand I am not a fan at all of government intervention in business. When you live here in the middle of all this, its hard not to see the arguments for government assistance. Plus just think of the income revenue that is lost.
Check it out
There is a video and some FAQs

It probably is apparent that my job is one that would be affected. However the loss of my job isn't as devastating to me as the thought of a total collapse of the @uto industry. I am afraid of what will happen to this area. Again if you have ever lived here you would understand exactly how widespread those types of jobs are. The other thought just scares me is thinking of our military having to depend on foreign made vehicles. I doubt that foreign companies are just going to set up shop here and replace the US companies.....a few plants here and there maybe. But if they have no US competition, they will be no incentive to employ our workers. They will just go where the labor is cheap.
On a funny note, we keep thinking of how we can redo my mom's 2 bedroom 2 bath home and garage..... so when we lose our jobs she can house all her kids, their spouses, 5 grand kids, and 2 dogs lol.

So tired

2008-11-19T13:23:00.000-05:00

I am so tired today. I stayed up way to late last night. The reason? I watched the documentary Lioness on PBS last night. It was fascinating.....however that just doesn't seem to be the right word. We owe gratitude for our men AND women serving in the military. That I never doubted. However somehow hearing a female soldiers perspective on serving in Iraq just hit home for me. I could relate to each one of these woman and their story. I think we need to hear from more woman like them.

They're back

2008-11-18T18:05:00.000-05:00

So Chad and Daniel came home last night. After telling me on the phone that he loved me, missed me, and wanted to go home....Daniel completely ignored me after he came in the door. Refused to hug me, refused to say hi, pushed me away.....so I went off to the store....blissfully because I was all by myself.
When I got home we had dinner, and Daniel was all better. Then Chad said that on the way home he kept saying "Mommy making dinner"...well they got home earlier than I anticipated so I didn't have dinner ready for them when they got home. I thought about it and wondered could he really be mad at me because when he got home Mommy wasn't in the kitchen like he expected...but on the couch with Manu? Boys.

While they were gone I bought the boys some matching jammies. This is actually the best picture we could get of the two of them. They just did not want to sit still.
To smooth the transition of being fancy free at Grandma's, to being back in the normal grind at home I let Daniel paint a birdhouse. He had lots of fun and stayed pretty quiet. However I am not to sure about the resale value due to the bad real estate market, and the color choices made by a 2 1/2 year old.

Rough times

2008-11-17T09:28:00.000-05:00

So I try to refrain from political talk on this blog. Mostly its for family updates and the like. However, its hard not to talk about a possible @uto b@ilout when it does effect our family so much. I grew up here in the Detroit area, and know how hard it is to find a person NOT involved in the @uto industry. On top of the people working directly (union, white collar, and contract) you have many many retires. Please understand not all retires live the high life in some Lake House. Some are still working and trying to make ends meet. The loss of a pension and health insurance would just devastate them. After all those people, think about waitresses, daycare providers, realtors, cashiers.....the list goes one. Also understand we have experienced tough economic times for years now. The mortg@ge/credit crisis just made everything worse. No credit given means less sales. If help doesn't come.....well I would hate to see what happens. I have heard all the arguments against a b@ilout. But I think unless you have lived here you just can't understand the magnitude of not having help will bring. Bankruptcy is not the answer. It's sad times.

This article articulates so much better than I can.
This article helps debunk some myths

I'm not really trying to make a case for help. I'm just trying to somehow record my thoughts on events that will impact my family.

Menu Plan Monday 11/17/08

2008-11-17T07:48:00.001-05:00

OK...another attempt lol. Check out Laura's site to get involved and see more tips on organizing.

Monday - No Chad, No Daniel....means I'll eat whatever and whenever I want no big dinner
Tuesday - Stew
Wednesday - Teriyaki Chicken Stir fry with noodles
Thursday - Meatloaf, brussel sprouts, potatoes
Friday - pizza possible homemade
Saturday - Pasta
Sunday - Thanksgiving dinner #1 with my family

Oh Shoot

2008-11-16T21:32:00.000-05:00

So I forgot another day. Chad is hunting with his dad. Since they are staying with my mom Daniel goes along and has lots of quality time with Grandma G. So, Manu and I have been enjoying a weekend to ourselves. Its been a lot of fun, and oh boy is it easier to clean without my little "helper" around.
I finally got a chance to watch "The Devil Wears Prada"...and well not that impressed. Maybe it was over hyped for me. Love netflix. Its nice that we both pick out choices and watch whenever. I started to hate sending Chad to the video store to pick out a movie. I lost count of how many duds he picked out (ok I picked out some to, not as many as him though). If its not a dud, its some war movie that I am not at all interested in. We can always have a Daniel movie on hand too. Although right now you could just get home video of trucks and he would be happy watching that. The boy loves trucks!

Holiday food specials

2008-11-14T16:33:00.000-05:00

I have been watching food network, and some shows are about Thanksgiving. It seems a lot of the hosts say "Thanksgiving is one of my FAVORITE holidays"....honestly...I have yet to hear anyone say "I really hate this holiday but I am going to show you what I make for it anyways...'cause that's what they pay me for."

Dear Jon and Kate....

2008-11-13T16:21:00.000-05:00

So, like most people I am/was fascinated by your show Jon and Kate Plus 8 on TLC. I am amazed at what you can get done in day, hour, minute.....etc. I love how your show exhibits large families in a positive light. BUT I am honestly annoyed that anytime I get a chance to channel surf your show is on. Not only that, but yesterday I saw a preview of your "wedding event"......seriously?
Now I really don't have a problem with your family. Yes, Kate your OCD and the "is that an organic sucker" does get to me. I am just more of a free spirit and less of a control freak. To each his own. Plus I assume you have an enormous backlog of sleep and aren't so so snippy in person. Also both of you for some reason you need to constantly remind the audience that having 8 kids requires more planning for everything, and isn't the same as having...1 or 2. I assume that is more of a production decision and not really something you feel needs reminding just about every show.
The annoyance lies in the constant air time you receive, well its just overboard. Again I realize this is not your fault. Its up to TLC to decide how much you air. Thank you for showing me how you can indeed have a picture perfect house with such chaos, I will never make it to your level of living. Kate, you would probably cry if you saw the daily state of my house. I no longer need to see my defaults on a daily....nay hourly basis. I have seen you, I admire you, and I am done. Your kids are adorable by the way, and best wishes.