Listening and laughing lesson.

My house was clean before children, sorry you missed it.

Regular box of kleenex.

Box of Kleenex after Addi gets to it.

a God stop

I've been working on this grant. My brain loves to wrap itself around these things. Get into it and get it done. I emailed and researched and wrote and emailed and re sized photos and networked. Then I went to submit and realized that I had neglected to complete the second half of the project.

Curse, curse, cursity, curse, curse! I volunteered for this project and now I am going to have to go back and tell everyone I failed because I am forgetful and my brain cannot do things that require anything more than changing diapers, filling bottles and helping a first grader do homework.

Then I see it.

On the page where you are supposed to submit your completed application there is a text box that reads, "Canada and U.S. application deadline has been EXTENDED!" Then I check my email and get a message from the company with the details.

PRAISE THE LORD! I am really sorry for cursing. PRAISE THE LORD!

I have one more week to procrastinate.

BONUS! I have a super awesome friend and a super awesome neighbor that are helping me create one super awesome creative submission. If we don't get this grant I will eat a banana... and I HATE bananas.

being free and pee

This morning I took the diaper off the baby girl and let her 'air out' a bit. I think she loves being naked and free. So after a few minutes of playing with her sister and brother I heard #1 screech. You know what happened.

At least it was only pee.

HE HE HE.

What happens when dh gets ahold of the camera...

This is in Oakland, CA. It is 30 some degrees out and about to rain. We are headed to the game when my dh decides to snap this photo. Very funny...not.

Satuday's Satirical Sayings and Snow Surfing

Today #1 wanted to play with the baby. I was trying to explain to her that #3 was not in the best mood. "That's perfect, mom. We are putting on a show and her part is the crying baby."

Later, the kids were in the backyard getting ready to snow surf when a neighbor boy came over with no hat, unzipped coat and missing his snow pants. #1 said, "You can come sledding with us if you go home and get your snow pants on." to which the neighbor boy responded, "My mom is letting me sled today without my snow pants, I don't know why." #3 then said, "Well, at least zip your coat or you are gonna freeze your butt off."

A few minutes later they were snow surfing. I wish life was this easy again.

Quotes from the kiddos

#2

• I am gonna need to sharpen my hair to match my new sharp clothes
• (while shopping) hey mom here are some shirts I don't already have
• ooo, I want that sparkly one (only funny if you know #2 is a boy
• hey look #1 has some new moves (the baby is kicking in her swing)
  
• that car has a nice big trunk, we can fit a lot of dead bodies in there (guess who watched too much CSI, guess he's not asleep yet:))
• I already got too much stuff, let's save that toy for next year
• these are my favorite shoes, cuz they make me run the fastest
• (after trying on the baseball pants he got from grandma) when I get my baseball shirt on to match Jake is gonna call me Gordo!
  

#1

• I keep trying but I get frustrated with myself, that's when I get naughty
• (after a long lecture on saying sorry like you mean it) well the teacher says sorry is not enough sometimes
• I try not to get strikes, but sometimes I fall out of my chair
• in the car on a road trip to MN #1 has two pair of sunglasses and won't share, I say to her you can't wear two at the same time she says "WATCH AND LEARN" I was too shocked to do anything but laugh. Now #2 says it all the time. Note to self; do not laugh as sassy phrases #1 says, it will come back to haunt me.
  
• mom, you have to write it down or you will forget
• my calendars all out, guess the year is over and done with, what do I do now?
  
• Thank you Jesus and Santa. You both know I love pink and sparkly.
• (after watching a documentary on TLC about conjoined twins) #3 is like my twin but with her own body and head!
• (writing words is what she is obsessed with lately, she brings me out a list she has made all by herself) Mom, here is a list of things you and dad do 1) fit, 2) cuk, 3) cleen. I read them to her and she says, "not fit, FIGHT"

oh no...

1 - box of pure white fudge covered Oreo cookies purchased Monday evening.

1 - cookie is a serving boasting 100 calories (almost half from good old fat)

12 - cookies in the box when purchased

0 - left in the box today

4 - people in my house that did not eat any cookies

crap

I think they're dry now...

I have been hanging my clothes on the line the past few days because the wind is so cheap, it's hard to pass up, especially when we're overdrawn...but that's another post altogether...
Then I noticed the other day all these little red itchy bumps around my ankles and they are really annoying. (Dh is certain they are chigger bites and the only time I ever spend time in the grass is when I am hanging clothes so it must be from there. So I haven't been sleeping well at all, needless to say. I searched on the Internet how to stop the itch and the best thing I have found so far is Vic's chest rub...it works long enough for me to fall asleep soundly for a couple of hours anyway, until my bladder wakes me up.)
So Dh was kind enough to hang the sheets and blankets out for me today and man do I wish I had a video camera. It is so windy today. I swear I would have paid money to watch him do it again. His baseball cap must have blown off his head a half of a dozen times and his flannel shirt kept flying up in his face. Finally he just threw the sheets over and plastered them with clothespins. He walked inside, sat down on the couch and said, matter of factly, " I think they're dry now."

I really need a bandaid...

Today was a LONG (the kind of long that involves hours upon never-ending hours of watching/babysitting teenagers while they try (and keep trying no matter what) to weasel out of homework, sitting in their desks, staying awake, staying in the classroom, following any rule whatsoever)day.

I was kinda cranky when I got home. I had planned to make some wonderful homemade spaghetti sauce and from scratch bread sticks, but I had no energy. My wonderful and supportive hubby ended up using a can-opener on a 99 cent can of sauce and adding it to noodles, which tasted like an amazing gourmet meal to me; another sure sign I was cooked.

So we all sat down to a 'family', as the kids call it when all four (almost five) of us are at the table. My ds was preoccupied with something and dh finally asked him what was going on. "Well, my foot has an owie on it and it has been hurting for (and this part he really emphasized) TEN HOURS!" My dh looked at me and we both busted out laughing. Thank goodness my mouth was empty or a noodle may have come out my nostril. After a few moments of our uncontrolled giggles, my ds stood on his chair with his hands on his hips and said, "So, can I have a cool band aid, or what?" He was referring to the colored band aids I recently purchased. He has probably been searching for an owie since I took them out of the shopping bag.

I need a cool band aid, too, for my sore feet and my stretched out belly and my aching body. I wonder if they make cool band aids for mommies. I think it's called a spa day...

blogger elbow?!? OUCH

For the past couple of days my left elbow has been sore. It feels like a bruise, yet there is hardly any evidence of one. I even asked my hubby to take a look at it last night, it was so sore.

Then this morning, as I sat down to the computer with my hot coffee and opened the 35 blogs I try to read daily into tabs, I leaned forward to start reading and realized that I have been setting my left arm on the edge of the computer desk. The sore part matches perfectly with the spot I was leaning on.

Hmmm, how ridiculous would I look wearing elbow pads while reading blogs at the computer?


****This blog will be temporarily interrupted by a quick weekend trip to Texas with my mother and sister. Have a super weekend everyone. I will blog back next week.

Yup, I am definately in the runnings for mommy of the year for this one...

a short time after I stopped working full-time I came across (with the help of an amazing friend) the Tightwad Gazette.
Now, many of you may or may not have heard of Amy Dacyczyn (A.K.A. the Frugal Zealot)but she is a super star in the world of living cheaply.

Anywho, I had a few leftovers today and I thought of her universal casserole recipe, so I took the thick volume off the shelf and looked up the page. Here is what I found.

1 cup main ingredient
1 cup second ingredient
1-2 cups starchy ingredient
1 1/2 cups binder
1/4 cup "goodie"
seasoning
topping

Main ingredient suggestions; tuna, cubed chicken, turkey, ham, seafood.

Second ingredient suggestions; thinly sliced celery, mushrooms, peas, chopped hard-cooked eggs.

Starchy ingredient suggestions; thinly sliced potatoes, cooked noodles, cooked rice.

Binder suggestions; cream sauce, sour cream, can of soup.

Goodie suggestions; pimiento, olives, almonds, water chestnuts.

Topping suggestions; potato chips, cheese, bread crumbs.

Thoroughly mix your combinations of the above ingredients. If it seems dry, add 1/2 cup milk or stock. Place in buttered casserole dish and bake at 350 degrees for 30-45 minutes.

So I used a cup of baked chicken and two slices of ham, onions, garden tomatoes and a can of peas, my homemade cream of soup recipe (thanks again clm), some cooked macaroni noodles and cubed cheddar cheese. I topped it with a few of the crumbles left in the bottom of the chip bag. I seasoned with my Tastefully Simple seasoning salt, so much for being frugal?!?! Of course it was twice as much as I needed so I had to add a little milk and I baked for 35 minutes at 350. The result was a fresh, light dish that the kids gobbled up. Well, the 3 year old picked out the tomatoes and the 5 year old picked out the onions, but otherwise they gobbled. I served it with apple slices.

Then for dessert (which you have to have on Sunday). Homemade chocolate cake with cocoa-mocha frosting. Mommy of the year, I am telling you...

yet another dose of three year old wisdom...

I was getting dressed this morning when my three year old son comes into my room.

Looking into my mirror I stated, "Mommy has a big baby belly, huh?"

Without missing a beat, ds shot back, "and a big baby butt, too, mommy."

Why are my watermelons caged?

We had a beauty of a watermelon growing; it was a bit bigger than a softball and she was perfectly round. With my 10+ years of 4-H experience in Horticulture Judging (I even once won a trip to Denver)I had little doubt this almost perfect specimen would be a purple ribbon winner.

Today the watermelon wrangler got her mug around the 'looks too much like a ball so I gotta have it' fruit and watery stools are in her future.

So, we caged the other two tiny bulbs of melons and we'll see if we can get one...

open mouth, insert foot and leg and hip...

On the way home from dh's ballgame yesterday we saw three highway patrol cars in less than a 10 mile radius of the back roads we were traveling. About 5 miles from home I said, "If we see another hi-po, I will strip naked and ride the rest of the way in my birthday suit."

Would you believe another cop car came up over the hill less than a minute later?

AAARRGGHHH.

and no, I didn't!

The Mommy Test

I was out walking with my 4 year old daughter. She picked up something
off the ground and started to put it in her mouth. I took the item away
from her and I asked her not to do that. "Why?" my daughter asked.
"Because it's been on the ground, you don't know where it's been, it's dirty
and probably has germs" I replied.

At this point, my daughter looked at me with total admiration and asked,
"Mommy, how do you know all this stuff? You are so smart." I was
thinking quickly. "All moms know this stuff. It's on the Mommy Test. You
have to know it, or they don't let you be a Mommy." We walked along in
silence for 2 or 3 minutes, but she was evidently pondering this new
information.

"OH...I get it!" she beamed, "So if you don't pass the test you have to
be the daddy." "Exactly" I replied back with a big smile on my face.

Happy Mother's Day!

Deja vu?

This morning my dh helped fry bacon for breakfast. Every time the smoke alarm went off my ds ran to the end table climbed up on it, took his sock off and waved it frantically in the air below the alarm. My husband, after composing himself, looked at me and said, "He's had this experience before, huh?"

No comment.

Laughter is the best medicine...

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1098259204041420273&hl=en

Note to self

Do not put knee highs on shortly after applying new self tan lotion.If you do, expect to have a one inch ring of milky white skin below the knees when you take them off at the end of the day. When the bottle says "allow several minutes to dry before dressing" it means just that. On the same subject, self tanner works in only one application, especially if one wants to look slightly orangy. I could post a picture, but I won't.