the simple life

groups of 3

I found my first grey hair today.  Boo to that.

I was reminded of when my Mom found her first. Hers came in a group of 3, and she said that she had one for each kid.  I panicked and quickly scoured my head for any more greys.  And then I thought, "What if this is only the first that I can see? What if this one that is prominently in the front of my head is just a sign of what's hiding in other more obscure places on my scalp?" 

Annabelle walked into the bathroom and since she's usually pretty good at making me feel better about things (she has a great outlook on life)  I pouted and showed her the tiny grey hair I had just plucked out of my head.  "Look Bella", I whined. "My first grey hair."  

She looked at it and then looked at me and said, 'Hmm...yeah. Mama, that's probably NOT your first grey hair." 

Then she spun around on her little twinkle toes and waltzed out of the bathroom.

DISOWNED.

Wons u pona time...

Today was the last day of school! One of the best things about the end of a trimester is when the kids bring home their writing folders.  Here are a few of my favorite's from Julian's folder.  

*Julian's cursive practice.  They don't learn cursive in 1st grade and he was impatient, so he created his own version*

 

"Once a ponea time a tiger danst in a candy stor and the candy cam to live. The candy danst too.  Then the tiger aet the candy. Then the tiger spets the candy out. Then the candy danst agin."

 

"Wen is a raney day I like to be lassy. I like to be lassy beakus ther is nothing to do. So I jest stae in bed and woch tv. I play vedeo gams too."

 

"One spring day I went to a boling aly. I lernd how a boling set gose. Then we bold and had pizza and rote bere. Then lots of lits came on. Then ther wus a vedeo game sekshin. I wun a prizz. Then we played lazzr tag. I wus the green teme but the red teme wun."

 

" I feel sad when my brothr ters up my Lago Magsens. It mackse me mad."  (Lego Magazines)

 

"Faks about Julian

I like candy.

I like to rade. (read)

My skin is aprcot.

I like to run.

I like tortolline.

I like to pant. (paint)"

 

Wons a punu time that was a town cald chikinsvill. Evrey wun is a chikin so it is colld chikinsvill."

 

"One day I wint to the moll. My Mom lost me and I wus all ALLONN!!!!!!!!!!!!!  I fawnd sumwun. Theay said go awt the ohponidor.  (open door)  I said are you awt of yor mind?  So I did. I wint home and I got a popsicoll."  (this never happened)

 

"Over brak I had two cresmesess. I got mor toys then evrr. I got a wii game too! I got so much toys my room is a mess. I got a Yoshi bak pak. It can onle hold one toy. I got a postre too."

 

Cankles and elbow dimples

I had taken the kids to Culver's, a local treat, for a free scoop of Custard (frugalistas, unite!).  We arrived just before dinner time, and it seemed as though there was a convention in town for people with unusual shaped bodies. 

I am no small woman, so it really takes a lot for me to mention people with large bodies, but at one time I could look around the room and see an enormous man in overalls, sans shirt, a girl who was SO tall, that I'm positive if I stood next to her, she could use my boobs as a chair, and an elderly woman in a tank top, with arms so large and misshapen that I prayed that my children would not look in her direction, for they wouldn't be able to contain themselves from blurting out an unintentionally rude comment.

It wasn't just that she had large arms, but she had dimples along her arms in the strangest of places.  I'm familiar with fat elbow dimples, I may have a few of my own, but these were like nothing I had ever seen before.

Apparently, they were like nothing Ezra had ever seen before, as she caught his attention and he blurted out, "Oh WOW.  WOW Mama, look!"  I was doing my best to shush him, even though she sat too far away to hear him.  Before I could stop him, Ezra said, "She has BIG muscles!  Wow, Mama, I bet she's REALLY STRONG!"

It was one of the most precious compliments I had ever heard. He was in awe of this ladies muscles. At moments like that, I really appreciate his naivete, and will do what I can to cultivate it.

 

HEY HEY! You are going to LOVE this.

My brother, as you may remember, lives in Chicago.  He is very tall and dark and handsome, although sometimes quite intimidating looking, especially when unshaven and in a cranky mood. Well, here, you can sort of tell here, that he is no delicate flower.  :)

He is talking to me on his phone while walking down the sidewalk and mentions that now that the weather is nice, there are people on every corner, raising money for some cause.  One group wants to save some building, another wants money to save a river, each cause more deserving than the next, of course.

He is very annoyed by these requests.  

He mentioned that last week a man jumped in front of him on the sidewalk, obviously trying to lure him into  a charitable place by throwing his arms in the air and declaring, "HEY HEY! YOU are going to LOVE this."  

CJ throws his arms in the air and replies, "HEY HEY! I don't talk to strangers", before continuing on his way.

I love that this tall, intimidating looking, nearly 30 year old man still uses the "Don't Talk to Strangers" line.  

Dear Tooth Fairy:

It is a well known fact that the Arkansas tooth fairy pays quite a bit more than the Iowa tooth fairy.  When Julian had his first wiggly tooth, Annabelle tried to convince him to leave it alone until Summer vacation when we would be in Arkansas visiting the Grandparents. 

On our last trip to Arkansas, the Tooth Fairy paid through the nose for a tooth pulled on the last night of our visit.

So this past week, Annabelle pulled a tooth and asked me how much I thought she could get for it.  When I said she would probably get the usual $1 bill for it, she scoffed, reminding me that she could get $5 for the same tooth in Arkansas, EASY.

(I did not mention that she would be lucky to get anything the Tooth Fairy could dig out of the couch cushions, if she continues to lose teeth on the day BEFORE payday!) 

Before placing her tooth under her pillow, she penned this cute little note to the Tooth Fairy,

"Dear Tooth Fairy,

Can I get 10 dollars? You do 'relise' that this is the 13th tooth that I've lost so far."

Annabelle

PS  I LOVE MONEY

*Puppy dog eyes do not work on the tooth fairy* 

 

So...

Let's just act like I've not avoided my own blog for most of 2011...

 

Just wanted to share a few things from Facebook that I never want to forget.  

***

Julian: "Mama, you know what's my worst enemy candy? Black licorice."

****

As I picked the twin mattress up off of the floor and placed it on Ezra's bed, he said, "Wow. You're the toughest Mama I never seen." Best Compliment Ever.

*********

Julian:  "Mama, Jesus probably gets hundreds of presents on Christmas, because it's his birthday AND Christmas.  He probably gets action figures that look like him."

Ezra:  "AND Barack Obama!  Barack Obama is one of the Beatles!"

Julian: "Ezra doesn't even know who Barack Obama is!" 

Ezra:  "Yes I do!  He's the American Flag GUY!"

******

All hopes of Julian being a famous Olympic ice skater have been tossed out the window. After our second time around the rink, he said, "Mama, it IS a school night, you know? I better go home and get some rest." 
It then took us 30 more minutes to get back around the rink to our shoes.

*********

Sitting in Subway with Ezra and a tall black man in a nice suit walks in. Ezra says, "Hey! Barack Obama! I saw you on a commercial!"

*************

We took the kids to see Gnomeo and Juliet. After it was over I asked the kids if they loved it as much as I did. The boys agreed enthusiastically. Annabelle said, "Yeah...but did you really have to laugh SO LOUD? It was kind of embarrassing". It was like she had never met me before. I'm the Mommy. I laugh loudly. Mindi in a nutshell.

*************

In Target Ezra is telling me everything about everything. I say, "Ezra you sure are smart. How do you know so much?" He says, "Acause I'm a genius, that's why". Any questions concerning Ezra's lack of self esteem can now be laid to rest.

************
 (While on Spring Break vacation in Arkansas) 

There is this big stray dog in front of my parents house so my Mom calls the kids inside as my Dad steps out with a bb gun. Julian, who doesn't know what a bb gun is, says, "Ew, this is gonna be GROSS."

************

Bella is talking in her sleep. She says, "I know definitely what I gotta do. I gotta get dry and get some food. Yep.". It IS raining outside, maybe she is dreaming that she is a hungry puppy?

**********

Ezra walks into the office and says, "Mama, what's for dinner?" I start to answer, when he crosses his legs and shrieks, "WE CAN TALK ABOUT THIS LATER!!! I GOTTA GO TO THE BATHROOM!"

*********

 (After a week of being really sick) Feeling a bit better than yesterday and it must show, because Ezra just walked in and told me that I only look "a little bit disgusting".  

Smell this

Dustin walked in from Walgreen's, eating something, and was pretty enthusiastic about it.

"Okay", he says, with his hands behind his back.  "Open your mouth and close your eyes".

Me:  "Um, NO."

"Come on, you're going to love it.  AND, it's fat free!"

"NO."

"Mindi!"

"DUSTIN!  There are a few games I do NOT play.

1. "Open Your Mouth and Close Your Eyes"

2. "Smell My Fingers"

3. "Mama, Come and Look at This in the Toilet"

 

Also, any variation on #2, such as "Smell these clothes and see if they are sour", "Smell this that just came out of the fridge and see if it's still good", "Smell this carpet.  This spot, right here". 

Nope, not gonna do it.

 

P.S. He was eating black licorice.  I hate black licorice.  This is why I don't play that game, among other reasons. 

Ezra’s identity crisis

I just overheard Ezra having a conversation with himself. It went like this:

 

“I hate being Ezra, because he can’t sneak into anything.  I want to be Bella”.

“Okay.  I want to be Julian.”
 

”Why?”

“Because he gets to sleep on the top bunk.”

“Oh, that’s a good idea.”

*photo from last Spring

p.s.  daily reminder to VOTE! Click here and thanks SO much for your help :)

Tow Mater and Ken walked into a bar...

Birthday week has been beautiful and amazing, one of the best in a long time.  Which really just means that Dustin is home and not working a million miles away, we have a positive balance (tiny, but still, positive) in our checking account and I got to buy a little present, and my kids were sweet for almost the whole day that my actual birthday fell on.  :)  Setting my standards high, eh?

We enjoyed dinner at our local Mexican joint and the kids talked about things that they remembered about living in Mexico...which wasn't much, seeing as how they were 1 and 3 at the time.  We were happy to fill in the gaps for them. 

I also got to spend a little time shopping at one of my new FAVORITE stores, Domestica. 

She had just gotten in a large shipment of music posters (my weakness) and I picked up this sweet Tegan & Sara number, as well as two other smaller pieces.

Found here: Gingiber

found here: sassandperil

I did whine a little about how Dustin was too tired to clean up the kitchen (a birthday treat I look forward to more than most) AND he didn't have time to pick up a cake or a cupcake or ANYTHING.  :(  Yes, I am 5  years old.

So the next day we spent all evening at a friends house while Dustin went to the doctor.  I hadn't heard from him, so I called home around 6:30 to see what he was doing.  It sounded like he was taking a nap!  Ugh. I was a teensy bit annoyed and asked him if he had remembered to pick up a birthday treat for us.  He hemmed and hawed and I just said, "Nevermind.  I'm on my way home, I'll bring dinner".  When I walked in, I was greeted by a clean house and this:

No, I did not turn 28.  I also do not understand where Ken or Tow Mater fit in, but it's just perfect.  PERFECT.  And the smart boy bought not one, but TWO pies, in case little miss cry baby didn't like the first one that he picked out. 

31 is off to a good start.  Plus, today the weather is cold and grey and rainy, just how I like it.  ;)  Hooray November!

BIRTHDAY WEEK!!!

This is my birthday "week".  We like to celebrate around here, and birthdays get at least a 
full week of celebration, sometimes longer depending on how persuasive the birthday kid (or grown up) can be.

I love that my kids celebrate birthday weeks.  If you look at the November Daily album, you'll see an..interesting birthday creation from Annabelle.  It was based on this photo that we saw online a few months back.

 

Bless her heart.

So anyways, here's a random confession: We've put together some kind of gingerbread house for Christmas or Halloween every year....only not until after the actual holiday.

For instance, today, November 8th, we did this:

And do you know why?  Because it was like, 80 cents, that's why.  I'm a cheapskate. I wait for Target to mark their holiday stuff down to 75%-90% off and then stock up on fun things for the following week or year.  I lucked out and found a CUTE Halloween cookie pan that we wanted the moment that Halloween stuff was displayed back in, oh JULY.  I waited and waited and ended up getting it for under $1.  I didn't even have to hide it in the Vacuum aisle, guys.  How awesome is that?

So yeah, the kids worked on decorating this bad boy. But they were impatient and didn't let the icing dry enough and the house started to cave in. And then some pieces broke.  And then, as I sat downstairs folding laundry I heard the commotion of devastation upstairs, which quickly turned into the commotion of a "NEW IDEA!" and within a few minutes, I was being called upstairs to celebrate my second Birthday treat of the week: A gingerbread house that has been hit by a tornado.  Also, there was a legless black candy cat underneath the house, which really added to the reality of the destruction.

My kids are awesome. I'm so excited to see what they'll "create" for me to NOT EAT on my actual birthday.

Happy Birthday month to the rest of you November babies.  Hooray for us! :)

LEDERHOSEN!

Isn't "lederhosen" a fun word?  I wish we wore lederhosen in the US, just so I had more opportunities to use the word with a funny accent.  One of my Mom's friends brought these outfits back from Germany a few years ago when Julian and Annabelle were too small to wear them.  As I cleaned out my laundry room a few weeks ago, Ezra found the bag and claimed the "Leprechaun" clothes for himself. 

things to be afraid of

There are so many things about Annabelle that remind me of myself at her age.  She likes to be right, she's pretty argumentative with me, but an angel for her teachers, she's a tad bossy, she loves animals and she's super creative.  The one thing that really stands out, however, is her fear of everything.  Not fear, like being afraid of the dark, or afraid of spiders, but her anxiety that something bad could always happen.

Things I've noticed just this week that she has stressed or fretted about:

• not taking books back to the library on time
• not returning Spring photos to the school on time
• taking the Skittles from Aldi into Target (inside my purse) and her fear that somebody would accuse us of stealing them from Target.
• somebody kidnapping her from the backyard
• fear of jail time if somebody notices that Julian picked all of the dropped jelly beans from the Target candy bins off of the floor and stuffed them into his mouth. 

and on and on and on.

I talk to her about her fear and worries quite often, and try to assure her that Mommy deals with similar fears, and that if I am sure that everything will be okay, she can believe me.  I talk to her about the stomach ulcer that I got when I was in 2nd grade, and about how I have to work hard to not let fear control my life and my decisions and that sometimes I fail, but I never keep trying. 

As we were wrapping up today's discussion in the car (after Julian's thievery of dirty dropped jelly belly's at Target), Julian said, "Mama, I'm scared of some things too.  Wanna hear them?" 

"Of course I do."

"Well, here they are:

Number one: bees.

Number two: That school is never ever going to end.

Number three: Someday I'm gonna have to get married.

Number four: That one day our entire house will burn down and I'll lose my family...BUT, the good thing is that I'll find some marshmallows and have a campfire. But the bad thing is that I won't have a bed to sleep in."

Oh sweet Julian, you seem to have issues that are ALL your own. 

not pooping in my pants.

Ezra has started lying in an interesting way...

Mama: "Ezra, what are you doing?"

Ezra: "Not playing with paint."

Mama:  "Ezra, what are you doing?"
Ezra: "Not pooping in my pants."

Mama:  "Ezra, what are you doing?"

Ezra: "Not putting beads in my mouth."

Mama:  "Ezra, what are you doing?"

Ezra:  "Not eating toothpaste."

Surprisingly, it's making my life a little easier.  It gives me a couple of seconds to envision the scene instead of just walking into a paint splattered bedroom. 

THE WORST PAINFUL THING IN THE WORLD!!!

My little Annabelle is quite the dramatic child.  She never gets hurt, but rather is always within minutes of death.  Julian doesn't just push her down, but instead "THROWS her to the ground using ALL of his muscles, nearly breaking her bones!!".  Ezra didn't accidentally scratch her with his too long fingernails, but he does "try to RIP HER SKIN OFF with his CLAWS!"

Every pain is accompanied by eardrum shattering shrieks and screams of anguish, and as much as I want to be a good, caring Mama to her and help her feel better, I'm guilty of telling her to "STOP SCREAMING, NOW" before I even glance at her wound of the day. 

Yesterday, she tried to do better.  She has realized that screaming only frazzles me, and that talking through the pain gets my attention.  So when she fell from the swing set, scraping a layer of skin from a small area of her back, she ran inside with wide eyes, determined to not cry, but talk about what happened.

I wiped the dirt from her back and applied a thin layer of Neosporin to the area.  She asked me to blow on her skin to make it feel better and as I did, she yelled out in pain to soothe herself.

"THIS IS THE WORST PAINFUL THING OF MY LIFE!"

"I CAN THINK OF HUNDREDS OF BAD THINGS THAT I WOULD RATHER FEEL THAN THIS PAIN!!"

"I'D RATHER BITE MY OWN HAND OFF THAN FEEL THIS PAIN ON MY BACK!!", she screamed, while biting her fist.

"I'D RATHER CHOKE MYSELF (simulated choking herself with her own hands) AND THEN UN-CHOKE MYSELF THAN FEEL THIS PAIN!!"  (un-choke, because only death by choking could be worse than this pain)

"I'D RATHER BE OUTSIDE ON THE MOST FREEZINGEST DAY IN THE WORLD THAN FEEL THIS PAIN!!!!!"

And to be honest, that's when I knew that Annabelle was truly hurting.  You see, my kids have come to hate Winter.  Winter was no big deal, a rather fun season when we lived in the South. We got to wear warm clothes for a few weeks, experience one or two snowy days, and a few freezing days that allowed us to "ice skate" from sidewalk to car.  But now that we are here, in the land of 6 month long Winters, my kids hate it.

Last year, as we usually do, we went to Arkansas to visit family during Spring Break.  We left behind icy temps and enjoyed a week in the sunshine, grilling dinner and eating outside, rolling around in the grass, riding bikes in my parents driveway.  We returned home to Iowa at 2am one morning, greeted by large mounds of dirty snow along the highway and piled in our yard.  Julian woke up and realized that we were home, and grumpily said, "Why did Daddy do this to us?"  "THIS", being, move us to a land where Winter was a real season. 

While we try our best to make Winter fun, with frequent sledding excursions and lots of hot chocolate and building forts inside under covers on the worst of the snow days, in my kids eyes, Winter will always be just slightly better than "BEING THROWN FROM THE SWINGSET AND RIPPING ALL OF THE SKIN FROM YOUR BACK UNTIL YOU CAN ALMOST SEE YOUR BONES!!!"

At least, according to my dramatic daughter, who was stung by a wasp on the playground today.  Lord help us and her very patient school nurse.

*spoiler alert*

Julian recently learned the phrase "Spoiler Alert".

Tonight we were all on the couch reading a library book, "The Grouchies", that Julian had read on his own earlier in the day.  After reading the first page, which shows a little boy being followed around by dark grey "grouchy" clouds, Julian said, "Spoiler Alert!  At the end of the book, those grouchy clouds are smiley faces".  

Determined to be a twerp

Ezra is quite the sneaky little boy.  It's a trait that all of my kids have embraced at one point or the other, and while Julian holds the record for the longest sneaky streak, Ezra is definitely the most determined.

He will do anything to get to what he wants. 
When anybody asks me what to get Ezra for Christmas or birthdays, my answer is always the same, "Don't bother, he will just want whatever Annabelle or Julian receive."  And it's never failed.

His current obsessions are

1. The kids Nintendo DS games.

2. Annabelle's makeup

3. Any toothpaste (to use as paint, obviously)

4. Any computer/camera/other device that would cost more than $200 to replace

5. gum.  Oh the gum.  Lord help me.

So last week, I sent Ezra upstairs to get something for me and it took him a few minutes longer than it should have.  As soon as I heard a kitchen chair scooting across the kitchen floor, I darted up the stairs to find:

 

A small step stool, a Worm toy, small blue kids chair, heavy duty kitchen chair. 

I have a feeling that my small step ladder would have been the next object pushed in front of the fridge, to reach the top, which held: my camera, my camera flash, Julian's Nintendo DS, and Julian's DS games.  In other words: JACKPOT. 

What a turkey.  A very determined turkey, at that.

December 8---blueberry pancakes and Biggest Loser, my kind of combo

Well, the cold and snow has arrived.  School dismissed at 1:50 today, in anticipation of record snowfall and high winds.  Basically, a big fat blizzard. 

I got an e-mail from a local news site that let me know that schools would be dismissing early, and there was a voicemail from somebody that I didn't know, letting me know of the school's plans to dismiss early.  However, I had to laugh, when at 4:28pm I received an automated message that school would be dismissing early TODAY at 1:50.  School normally dismisses at 3:20, so if I still hadn't picked up my children by 4:28...geez.

It's about as reliable as a "birthday alarm" that I signed up for years ago that sends me e-mails when a friends birthday is approaching.  This year it wished ME a Happy Birthday on November 12th...only 3 days after my actual birthday.  

+++++++++++++++++++++++

In anticipation of a "Snow Day" on Tuesday, as well as Dustin's regular day off, Dustin sent me to Redbox to pick up a movie or two, while he loaded the kids up on popcorn and hot chocolate.  

The snow was coming down really hard, the interstate completely covered in slick white stuff, and I have to confess: I totally pretended to be an Ice Road Trucker while driving in that mess. 

2 HOURS later, I returned home with "Julie & Julia" (which I loved and enjoyed much more than the book), a Starbucks Frappuccino, just in case it was days before my next Starbucks visit, and  blueberries and maple syrup.  A recent issue of Woman's Day had me salivating for blueberry pancakes, and that's just what we had.  Dustin said, "Best pancakes ever", and asked me to make them again for a midnight snack, (um, no.) and we enjoyed the season finale of Biggest Loser.  Holy cow, didn't Danny look amazing???  

 

December 6---ME SCARED!

The day after E's birthday, we celebrated at Chuck E. Cheese's.  It was busier than ever, but we had fun.  I really enjoyed sitting and waiting on the pizza while reading a DIY magazine, because that meant that Dustin was watching all the kids...and I was sitting, enjoying a magazine.  The good life.  :D 

Ezra enjoyed calling Chuck E. on this toy phone.  He told him that it was his birthday and that he liked his hat. And then something funny happened...

Chuck E. SHOWED UP.

Chuck E. Cheese was walking around in full costume tonight.  Freaked my kids right out. 

I tried to act excited, but I was freaked out a bit too, to tell the truth.  I saw him approaching from some distance, so I pointed him out to Ezra and Ezra almost fell for it.  Ezra got a big smile on his face and said that he wanted to go give him a high five!

Big Chuck saw the kid coming and approached Ezra, and once he got closer, Ezra saw just how huge he was, and turned right around like a little animated character with a spinning wheel for legs and yelled, "ME SCARED!!!!"  

As long as Chuck kept his distance, Ezra was okay.  I told Ezra how awesome it was that he called Chuck E. Cheese and he came right over to visit!  We shouted to Chuck E. that it was E's birthday and Ezra asked him to sing him a song.  And then Ezra worked up some courage to give a high five and spent the rest of the night camped out by the stage like a groupie, waiting for the concert to begin.  (The Chuck E. on stage was mechanical, not the real deal, but E didn't care). 

(For the record, Annabelle saw Chuck E. and hid near the ball pit, Julian saw Chuck E. and turned right around and walked the other way.)

We had a great time.  Julian hit a big jackpot, and won 100 TICKETS at one time!!

A lady came over to compliment us on Annabelle.  Apparently she was giving her little boy free tokens when he ran out of his, and she was quite impressed.

I was feeling like a pretty darn good parent, when I heard squealing and screaming, and knew right away that it was Ezra.  I was sure that Security must have been dragging him off stage, but no, it was Dustin, dragging Ezra by one arm and holding a plate of birthday cake in the other hand. 

Silly me, I thought Chuck E. must have found some cake for E. but nope.  That would have been too easy.  Ezra saw another kid celebrating a birthday and helped himself by digging into the cake with his hand.  HIS HAND.  Embarrassing.  So embarrassing.  Dustin tended to him immediately and a lady called him out.  She said, "It's okay, he's just a kid!" and gave Dustin 2 pieces of cake to bring back to our table.

I was so embarrassed, and Dustin even more so...but we sure enjoyed that tasty cake.  I even thought about sending Julian over to dig another piece out!  haha! :D And hey, nobody was farted upon, so that counts for something.

When we left, 2 hours later, we found a Winter Wonderland waiting for us outside! If we only knew that this little snow was just the beginning...

OH! And look!  Ezra got his cotton candy!  Thankfully Julian won LOTS of tickets, and we only had to shell out 200 tix for that bag of sugary goodness.

BUY THIS!

Arrested Development Series

If I didn't already own this series on DVD, I'd swipe this deal in a second. Possibly a nanosecond.

Amazon's "Deal of the Day" is the entire set of Arrested Development DVD's (Season 1-3)  for...

$28.99!!!!

Are you KIDDING me?  That's a 74% savings! 

Dustin and I are HUGE Arrested Development fans, and quote our favorite lines DAILY.

If you are a fan of FUNNY, buy this for yourself or other funny loving people for Christmas.  You can thank me later.  ;) 

Arrested Development Series

I'll be back with a real post soon, I'm just spreading the word before this deal ends.  :)

December 4--my donut guy

After nearly 2 years of living here, Ezra and I found a Krispy Kreme today.  I felt two extremely opposite emotions at the EXACT same time when I saw that beautiful Krispy Kreme sign:  "OH Holy heck YES!" and "OH CRAP."

However, it's just inconvenient enough (far from my house and closes fairly early) that I won't make frequent visits (not like the one that was within sniffing distance of our home in Austin!) especially since I don't like to visit unless the donuts are hot and fresh off the "donut train".  :)

Also, I'm pretty committed to our current Donut spot, "Donut Hut".  When my parents were here, I took my Mom on our weekly donut trip after school, and the place was packed.  I've never seen other people in there when I was there, and the new owner was running around passing out coupons and being very hospitable.  He seemed excited.

A day or two later, I was at Old Navy and he walked in the door.  We both got big smiles on our faces and greeted each other.  (is it bad when you're recognized in public by a NEW OWNER of a donut shop?)  I was so happy to see him, I just wanted to hug him and introduce him to everybody around us as "My Donut Guy". 

I felt a little like my beloved Liz Lemon (30 Rock) at that moment.  And by the way, did anybody else HOWL with laughter at 30 Rock last night?! 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Today, as I was taking Ezra's pajamas off to dress him for the day, he pulled away from me (in diaper only) and started dancing and singing, 'Boom Chikka Bow Wow, Chikka Bow Wow!"

Also, he's been talking about "Barkobama" (Barack Obama) lately, and I don't know why.  We almost never watch the news when the kids are awake and I honestly don't know how Ezra even knows that name.  Today as we drove past the Harley Davidson store, Ezra pointed and said, "There's Barkobama!"  I searched and searched and finally figured out that he was pointing at an American flag.  Apparently American flags are "Barkobamas".

December 3--snow + tooties

Ezra will be 3 years old on Saturday.  There's a lot of little boy excitement filling up my house right now.  :) Today, as I drove to Archiver's to use my 30% of coupon, he fell asleep in the car and when he woke up, it was just beginning to snow.

His eyes got so big, and he hugged me tightly as I took him out of his car seat.  "Thank you Mama!!! Thank you for my snow!!"  (sounds like "hnow" since he still doesn't pronounce his "s" sounds very well.

It's always so precious to hear the funny things that he thanks me for. 

I totally took credit for it.  I just hugged him back and said, "You're very welcome, Ezra.  It's for your birthday!"  :) 

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In other 3 year old news, it's like he's trying to cram all of his "terrible two's" into this last week.  I won't even list all of the chaos that he has caused this week, because I think it would reflect negatively on me as a parent (seriously!), but let's just say that he purposely farted on a stranger in the play area at the mall.  Among many many many other things.

In my memory, 3 was actually much worse than 2 for Annabelle and Julian, so I'm slightly dreading the wild things to come from this sweet baby of mine in the coming year...hopefully the sweet good stuff will outweigh the bad...

"gimme" holidays

Julian and Annabelle were naming all of their favorite holidays as we were Trick-or-Treating the other night.  Christmas, Halloween, Birthdays, Easter, Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving...

Realizing that Thanksgiving wasn't really a holiday where they received gifts or candy, I asked Julian what he liked about Thanksgiving.  Was it the family time, and seeing loved ones that we only saw during the holidays?  Was it time spent with favorite cousins?  

"Dessert," he said.  "We always get TONS of desserts at Thanksgiving".  

That's my boy.

Trick or Treat!

For Halloween we did homemade costumes.  The original plan was to buy costumes, but Dustin has had truck problems for the past few weeks, and has missed several days of work to sickness and no vehicle, so our budget was cut drastically to zero dollars. :)

I felt like I was in a bad episode of Project Runway yesterday, when I realized that I had an hour and a half to complete 3 kids Halloween costumes, with zero dollars.   Oh, and the models were terribly impatient, constantly interrupting and cracked out on sugar from the day's earlier Halloween parties at school.

Ezra's was fairly easy. My parents sent this Razorback football costume to Julian last year, obviously in an attempt to see him beat up by children in Iowa football costumes. Ezra's pretty tough though, so if anybody could pull it off, it was him.  The hardest part about this costume was finding the darn shoulder pads, which ended up being in a Goodwill donation box on the porch.  Thanks for that, children.

The only negative part of his costume was that the shoulder pads kept shifting, giving him the impression of having breasts under his jersey, and his chin strap itched him after an hour or so.  He ended up taking that off and using it as his candy holder.

Annabelle considered being a kitty, a princess (always), a vampire pirate, or a ghost.  We went with ghost, because I found a solid white bed sheet in a box of old photo props. 

During the "fitting", she could see easily, but add in rain and strong winds, plus people in the mall constantly stepping on her costume and shifting the eye holes, and she pretty much walked blindly all night.  At one point, we were leaving a house to walk back to our car, and Annabelle was "floating" sideways away from us.  She had to be maneuvered by Dustin all evening.  It was really precious. At the end of the night, she said, "Mommy, I know you thought I was jokin, but I seriously couldn't see anything all night long."  Poor girl.  She gets extra candy, for effort and good attitude.

After ripping up the bed sheet for Annabelle's ghost, we switched Julian's costume from "Spooky Chef"  (a chef outfit that came with our play kitchen + a creepy ninja mask from the dress up box) to a mummy.  It was awesome.  One older man commented after entering the mall, "Now THAT'S a mummy!"

We did have to stop and re-tie strips all night, and he had to be immediately CUT OUT of his costume when we walked in the door so he could use the bathroom, so this is definitely a one-time use outfit only, but it ended up being such a fun and somewhat easy to make (and free!) costume.

Happy Halloween!

"melling" pudding

Remember how I told you that Ezra made random appearances in the background of every food photo I've ever taken?  Example from last July: click here.

Well, in an attempt to photograph some pudding treats yesterday...

 

I got about 3 shots in before I heard somebody yell, (somebody who can't pronounce his "S" sounds), "I WANNA MELL!"  

And there was Ezra, my little photobomber, smelling the pudding treats, and then making a delicious slurping sound.  And then our photo time was over, b/c every time my camera clicked, there he was, "melling" away.  :)

remember this:

As I was taking the kids to school this morning, Annabelle said, "I think I'm going to start a club today." 

I was a little envious, as my plans for the day are never as fun and full of promise as starting a club with my best friends.

I'd like to start a club today too.  

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The second that Julian walks in the door, he heads straight for his art box.  He normally asks for a snack or to play video games (even though he KNOWS that Friday is video game day) or to play outside, but this week, he's very focused on art.  Drawing and book making, mostly. 

After 2 hours, he emerged with a cardboard box full of art projects that he was giving out as gifts.  He had a paper that listed our names, and which gift we were to receive.  As he was giving Ezra's gift to him, Ezra snatched up Annabelle's gift.  Julian became SO upset.

He yelled over and over to "GIVE IT BACK!" but Ezra did NOT care.

Julian pointed at his "gift list" and threatened, "EZRA!  If you don't give it back, you're gonna be X-ed OUT and you'll NEVER GET A PRESENT AGAINNNNN!"

I giggled at the use of the phrase "X-ed out".  I"m going to remember that one for the future.

I really love that it's impossible to jump on this big air pillow (at our favorite Apple Orchard) without making a funny face.

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Ezra: "I'm a mean robot and I'm going to cut your neck open."

Mama: "OH NO! Can't we be friends, mean robot?"

Ezra: "NO. I GOT TO DRIVE."

Mama: "Where are you driving?"

Ezra: "CHINATOWN."

We've made plenty of threats to "take you down to Chinatown", but this time, Ezra meant business.

Yesterday I was skimming through a thread on one of my message boards, and this photo popped up in a joke about angry puppets.  Ezra happened to be standing at the desk when I scrolled past this photo, and he said, "WAIT!  GO BACK!"  So I scrolled back up to see the photo. 

He made a quietish scared noise, "AHHHHH! ELMO ANGRY!  ERNIE CARY! (scary)"  As much as I tried to move on to a different website, he kept begging, "GO BACK!  GO BACK TO CARY ELMO!"  It was like watching a child discover for the first time that Santa's not real. 

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You may recall that Ezra can't pronounce his "S" sounds. Today when I turned off the TV to leave for Target, Ezra said, "Mama! Don't turn off the TV! That wuh my favorite ho!" (show) I'm sure Dora is many preschooler's "favorite ho".

Parkour!

Do you watch the Office?  It's one of the best things about my week.  :) 

super juju

Not everybody is so lucky as to live with a Superhero.

I just so happen to be a lucky one.  I have, sleeping upstairs at this very moment, a living, breathing, superhero living in my house. 

SUPER JUJU!

Super Juju doesn't have one particular specialty.  He isn't limited to flying or being invisible or having X-ray vision.  He can do it all.  Although, he'll have you know, that flying is his favorite.

 

Once he dons his pillow case cape, look out bad guys.  And he doesn't just fight crime.  Oh no, he fights monsters under beds and boogie men and anything else that might give you bad dreams.

Earlier tonight, as I sat at my desk, Julian came in to tell me that he would be going to bed soon.  He gave me a hug and said, "Mama, if you fall asleep and start to have a bad dream, you just call my name and I'll come down here and take care of you.  I'll give you some snuggles, and you'll be okay.  Alright?"

Oh yes, a girl can rest easy with  Super Juju on duty.

Goodnight John Boy! Goodnight Tupidhead!

As I am putting the kids to bed, Annabelle and Ezra run back and forth between each other's bedrooms, still engaged in their game of "Kill the aliens".  Julian is under the covers wearing nothing but Lightning McQueen chonies and Diego house slippers.  He informs me that is how aliens dress. 

Hm.  I never knew that.

Julian closes his eyes and tells me, "Mommy, when I go to sleep, the only thing that will wake me up is true love's first kiss."

Somebody's been watching a little too much Shrek.

Annabelle calls out from her bedroom, "Goodnight little aliens!"

Ezra shouts back, "Bella, you a tupidhead!" 

Tupidhead, is now used as a term of endearment, as well as an insult.

We're not quite the Walton family, but we do have a more interesting bedtime routine.

P.S.  I realized after posting this that I hadn't shared here about Ezra's "tupidhead" obsession. 
Quoted from my facebook page:

"stupid head= Ezra's naughty word of choice. I hear it about 4 million times a day. When he's angry, when he's happy, when he wants a reaction from somebody. Sometimes he lovingly kisses me on the face and whispers, "Mommy? You...'re a tupidhead." And I say, "Ezra, can you say "S"? " and he can't, so I say, "Now who is the Tupid head?"

animal clowns

day 3:  guess who lost his first tooth?

there has never been a child more excited about losing a tooth, i'm sure of it.  :)

When he discovered that it was "wriggly" a few weeks ago, Annabelle told him not to pull it until he was in Arkansas.  Apparently the Arkansas tooth fairy pays more. 

On the 3rd day of school, Annabelle brought this magazine to me and asked me to fix her hair like the girl's on the cover.

Julian thought that was so hilarious, that he brought me a book called "Animal Clowns" and asked me to make him look like the frog.

Ezra brought me a copy of Woman's Day and asked me to make the cupcakes on the cover.

7 smiley things

little things that made me smile today:

1. happy bricks that live in my neighbors garden.

2.  this cute girl's ability to strike a pose in a second.  I literally said, "Hey Annabelle, can I take a picture?"  and she turned around with this.  And 3 other completely different poses in a matter of seconds.   

3. Ezra's harmonica playing.  My Mom sent him his own, so he'll stop slobbering all over Dustin's.  He found an Elmo book that plays "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and pushed play, then played along with it on his harmonica.  After much trial and error, he can almost play the whole song.  He's got his Daddy's ear for music. 

4.  another unexpected smiley face, found on one of Dustin's tools.   

5. Julian's SUPER excitement about Kindergarten, and news of a fabulous 2nd day of school. Lordy, he's adorable.

6. My neighbor's kid came over today, sporting remnants of his dad's recently trimmed beard.  Hilarious, if not a bit gross.  (he glued the beard trimmings to a band-aid, and then applied the band-aid as a mustache)

As soon as Ezra saw him, he shrieked, "Hey!  You Mario!"  (Mario Bros.)

 

7. Finally, this lady makes me smile.  She drives her "Rascal-esque" (Dustin and I LOVE their commercial)  scooter like it's a car all over town, and occasionally walks her dog while riding.  There are a few other women that I've seen do the same thing, and they decorate their Rascals according to the upcoming holiday.  Their July 4th decor was fantastic.

p.s. I updated the blog with a new Summer look.  I don't *love* it, but it doesn't matter since I'll probably be updating for Autumn in a week or two.  :D

Happy Sunday!

hamburger haters

  

At our Dentist office last week, Julian noticed signs similar to these three, posted near the door.

He asked, 'Mommy, that means that you can't talk on a phone in here.  And that means you can't smoke in here.  Why are little kids smoking, anyway?"

I explained that even though this dentist was for little kids, the sign was for parents, and while most parents know that it's not okay to smoke in the dentist office, the sign is just there in case somebody doesn't remember the rules.

He said, "Oh.  So no phones, and no smoking.   Why do they hate hamburgers?"

more first day and ezra's awesome photo bombs

It was a dark, stormy morning.  I asked the kids outside to take photos, but it was raining too hard, so we headed to the porch.  Not a prime photo taking environment, but we did our best.

Notice Ezra's sweet face in each picture.  He wouldn't move.  Can you tell he felt a little left out this morning?

Isn't Ezra hilarious?  I have a few more pictures, none really worth posting, but he's making funny faces in every one.

Julian picked out his shoes.  They are so super sweet.  I expected him to pick out light up Mario shoes, or fast running tennis shoes, instead he chose these sweet, preppy, brown loafers.

He may not be able to run fast in them, but they are good for picking up the ladieees.

but then again, who needs shoes when you've got a face like this?

am i right or am i right?  or am i right? or am i right?  (movie quote trivia? from the first movie Dustin and I watched together before we were dating) 

anyways, it was a fantastic first day, both kids came home with smiles on their faces and stories to share.  this Mama can relax and not worry so much now, and instead focus on the little brother at home who feels incredibly left out and concerned about his big people while they are gone.

the one where i complain about McDonald's

Several months ago, we were in the habit of picking up McD's Happy Meals on Wednesday nights for dinner.  Their Happy Meals (in our area) are half price on Wednesdays, and cheap meals + my lack of enthusiasm for cooking = a good deal for Mama.  (I justified the routine by the fact that the kids get apples and apple juice for their sides, instead of fries and sodas, but I honestly don't think I would have cared either way as long as I didn't have to cook)

Well, after a few months of this, we had a few stupid experiences at the McD's closest to our house.  Once, on our way to a soccer game, we picked up dinner and they forgot to give me our apple juices.  I stopped by with our receipt on our way home to pick up said juices, and they balked at me not returning earlier.  I explained that we were late for our soccer game and didn't realize until we got there and had nothing to drink.  They gave me that look, like I was lying and reluctantly turned over the apple juices that I had paid for 2 hours earlier.

Countless times they got our order wrong, and we would have to return to have it fixed, which is such a pain with 3 hungry kids and one cranky Mama around dinner time.  Remember, this is supposed to make my life easier, right? 

The final straw was one week when the kids were SO excited about the toys in the meals.  We got our order (after a little confusion during an apparent shift change), got home, unloaded kids and food, sat to eat, and there were no toys in any of them.  I wanted to shrug it off, but the kids were so disappointed, so we loaded back up, took the meals with us, returned and waited in line and found a new boy working at the window.

He asked to see receipts.  He asked to see our meals.  He said, "I KNOW you got your toys because I packed the meals myself."

I stared at him and said, "Are you actually accusing me of LYING to get free cheap toys??" 

He shrugged.

I told him that it was a WOMAN who packed our meals and handed them to us out the window, and that I didn't go through this complicated ordeal of waiting 15 minutes to order, loading and unloading kids and food multiple times for a couple of cheap toys.

He just smirked and walked away from the window.  The original woman walked back to the window and apologized for her co-worker, and I left so angry.

I wrote a letter to McD's customer service, got a reply that they forwarded the complaint to the manager and I never heard another word again.  No apology, nothing.

Goodbye McDonald's. 

SO in an effort to explain to the kids why our Wednesday ritual was over, I let them know about the boys rude behavior, and then explained that we could make our own Happy Meals at home if they'd like.  I explained that fast food wasn't really good for us anyway, so we weren't really missing out. 

Julian, who was the most invested in this Wednesday night tradition, said, "Mama, couldn't you just take us to Wendy's?"

I asked, 'Why Wendy's?"  as we never really go there.

Julian replied in a commercial "voice over" tone,

"Because 'It's More than just fast food, it's WENDY'S!"

(one of Wendy's advertising slogans)

Apparently Wendy's advertises on Nick Jr.  And my son is the exact reason why.

big tiger dweams

Last week Ezra woke up from a bad dream and walked into Annabelle's room.   He had a pouty face and slumped shoulders.  He said in his deep, nasally morning voice, "Bewwa, I have bad dweam.   I dweam BIG tiger chay me!"

She said, "Oh Ezra!  A big tiger chased you?  What did you do?"

He declared, "I POKE HIM IN DE EYE!" and made little jabbing motions with his finger.  

Judging by the ferocity in which he poked when re-telling this little dream to me later, I'd say Ezra won.  

That night, I was in the boys bed doing the bedtime routine.  After we read books, I sing the same 3 or 4 songs, give hugs and kisses, and then pray the same prayer.  They don't like me to deviate from it much, as it mostly consists of praying for good dreams and sweet sleep and fun days in the morning.

(Julian once misunderstood me say that he should "Play with Tata (his grandma)" and thought I said "Pray with Tata".  He stopped in the middle of my parents living room and said, "Jesus, I pray for Tata to have good thoughts and good dreams and SWEET sleep, so she can have a fun day tomorrow.  Amen." )

Anyway, on this particular night, I told the boys that I was getting sleepy and they should pray tonight.  Ezra laid his little hands on my face and said, "Jesus, Pway for Mama, have good dweam, and no dweam dat a BIG TIGER CHAY HER! Amen."

it's me again Margaret

After 3 long, frustrating months, my computer is fixed and my internet is back.  :)

What the heck is that Spring banner still doing up there?  I'll have to fix that soon...but first, I have about Eleventy BILLION blogs to catch up on. 

And I suppose I should wash some dishes so the kids can stop eating dry cereal from the box...

Little Farrell

My 7 year old asked for more "grown up things" for her room. When asked for an example, she said, "Oh, you know, maybe a Ben Harper poster or something?"

YES. YES YES YES, and also a poster that says, "I AM THE MOST AWESOME CHILD IN THE UNIVERSE". (that one's my idea, not hers)

Seriously, it was one of my prouder parenting moments.

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This morning, Ezra stripped completely naked and went streaking throughout the house.  He came downstairs to our bedroom, with the kids right on his heels laughing and pointing. 

I told Dustin, "I think he's channeling his inner Will Farrell."  (We always joke about how Will Farrell always ends up naked, or in his undies in all of his movies)

Annabelle, who has no clue who Will Farrell is, laughed hysterically and said, "Exactly!  He's definitely channeling his Little Farrell!" 

Um, I don't think I want to know what a "Little Farrell" is.  :D

when toddlers attack.

Julian's pre-K teacher came over yesterday.  They do "home visits" 2 or 3 times during the year, and it was time for the  "end of year" visit.  :)

Her birthday was today, so Julian asked if I would make cupcakes for her.  I assured him that I would, but the night before the meeting was also Annabelle's music program at school so I wasn't able to  make it to the store.

I woke up to a very disgruntled 5 year old who insisted that I whip up  cupcakes from something in the kitchen.  We ended up finishing these strawberry cupcakes as she knocked at the front door.  We even made lemonade, because when it's 85 degrees outside and humid (and your home's air conditioner and car's air conditioner are broken), well, you deserve to have as much ice cold lemonade as you can stand.

Ms. E. was very surprised.  :)

It's a strange thing to have your child's teacher in your home.  I found that even though her stay would be less than 20 minutes, I cleaned the house in a frenzy.  I was afraid for her to see the crumbs beside the stove in the kitchen (the kitchen that she didn't once enter).  I even hid the dirty laundry in the downstairs bedroom.  You know, in case she decided to give herself a tour of our home.  (she did not)

Everything was going well, and I looked like the world's perfect mother/hostess, and then Ezra walked up with a pink water pistol (no idea where it came from), pointed it directly into the teacher's face and shot her repeatedly with his best set of "angry eyes" in place.  You know the ones:

Thankfully, it was empty.  I don't have a strong stance on toy guns, though we don't usually keep them in the house.  I did feel like my 2-year old's  enthusiasm for shooting Ms. E. in the face brought the June Cleaver ambiance that I had created down a few notches.

And then Ms. E. told me that Julian was one of the most creative children she had ever taught.  Okay, that may seem like blatant bragging, but if I were bragging, I would tell you that she actually said, THE MOST CREATIVE" child she has ever taught.  See?  I wasn't really bragging at all! 

After that, she basically threatened me with bodily harm if I didn't continue to encourage that creativity in him as he grew up.  Fearing for my life, I assured her that I would.  I then vowed to myself to never buy the generic 97 cent box of colored pencils ever again.  It's only the high dollar stuff from here on out.  Look out Crayola, here we come!  ; )

I would dare say that aside from the assaulting 2 year old tyrant, I walked away from the meeting convinced that we're not doing such a bad job of raising these monkeys at all.  
Thank goodness she didn't ask to see the rest of the house.

She's going to be CS Lewis when she grows up

Dustin's been sharing "Narnia" stories with the kids from memory.  Every night, before tucking them in, he searches deep into the recesses of his mind to share bits and pieces of his favorite stories from his childhood, no book necessary.

A couple of days ago Annabelle woke up and came to ask me for a pen.  I told her that she should just use one of her colored pencils or markers, as pens vanish quickly around here.

She said that she couldn't, she had something important to write.

When pressed further, she said, "Well, I'm going to write a story about a place called "Narnia".  Daddy's been telling us these "Narnia" stories at bedtime and I've just GOT to write them down."

Sweet girl, she thinks she's stumbled upon a goldmine of an idea.  Too bad C.S. Lewis beat her to it.  

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In other news: I failed miserably at the color project last month.  Yellow is quite scarce in the Bartell household and I think I need to do something about that.  I'm continuing to search for yellows throughout May, and possibly June!  As for the rest of May, search for PURPLES!!  

Sorry for this late post, it was confirmed that our computer has a virus explaining the slooooooow loading issues.  We may just use May and June for purples until we get this computer thing worked out.  I know I may need 2 months for purple as well.  It's obvious that I have a color bias in this household, which worked out perfectly for green blue and pink!  :) 

Martha Stewart, you little prankster.

I was flipping through April's issue of Martha Stewart Living, and noticed "Martha's Calendar" toward the beginning of the magazine.

Martha's calendar always makes me a little exhausted.
"Flip mattresses"
"Turn compost pile"
"Clean chandeliers using a natural-fiber duster".

Does she ever have a day for "wear pajama pants  into Walgreen's to pick up a pint of Haagen Dazs"? 

If you'll notice her agenda for April 1st (April Fool's Day), you'll see that Martha actually scheduled a reminder to herself to, "PLAY PRANKS TODAY." 

I love this.  You don't even know how much I love that Martha scheduled "playing pranks" into her eventful day of recording a television show, a radio show, and washing storm windows.

I'm thinking Martha's idea of a prank is to sneak into her Everyday Food Magazine's  Test Kitchen and switch the  label on the Kosher Salt jar with the label on the Organic fine sea salt jar, then sit back and watch the hijinks ensue. 

 

Tooties.

 

Sitting in the recliner with the boys, watching "Max & Ruby".
Ezra stands up, puts his booty in Julian's face and farts.
He then sits down, calmly says, "Tooties." and continues watching cartoons.
Ahh.  Boys.

"KEEP OUTTA THE VULVA!!!!!"

This is what my son SHOUTED in the middle of Target today. 

There are red lines painted on the floor, all over the store, and Julian and Annabelle were pretending that the lines were "LAVA" from a volcano. Only, Julian couldn't pronounce volcano properly, so we were carefully saying "VOL-CAN-O" as he repeated it. 

He finally got "Volcano", and then shouted, "OH NO!!! There's more vulva!!! KEEP OUTTA THE VULVA!!!" 

I. 
nearly. 
died. 

(he realized that he was saying it wrong, but after all the "volcano" practice, he couldn't remember the word "lava". )

I doubled over in laughter, as did the lady walking behind us.  Ezra took that moment to let go of my hand and sprint through the jewelry department as Annabelle was yelling "It's not "VULVA"!  It's LAVA!"  (she doesn't know what "vulva" is either, but she does know that it's not lava!) 

So, have your kids mortified you in public lately?  

Rules

Annabelle posted some rules in the dining room this week:

No playing at the tabbl.
No toys.
No smoking.  (made me laugh so hard.  I guess this is directed at me and my bad cooking?)
No roud manars.
And no yousing you're hands.
No any roud nis. (rudeness)

Toe the line, people.  Toe the line.
She's going to make a good bossy Mama some day.

Lulu goes to "French"

One of Julian's birthday presents this year was a big "art box". 
He loves to create and we have a special art time every day during Ezra's nap.  He can cut and glue and staple and draw with markers for up to 2 hours every day, and he uses the ENTIRE 2 hours to make art.

He fights me over every single thing that I attempt to "recycle", b/c he can find some way to use it in one of his projects.

On this particular day, he made a "dress" for Annabelle's puppy Lulu.

It's a simple green construction paper smock, and he said that this is her "dress for wearing at home", and the other dress (the one that came with the dog) is for her to wear "When she goes to French."  (France)

I think he would be an excellent contestant on Project Runway in 15-20 years, don't you think?  :)

(his lips are terribly chapped, although they aren't the shocking shade of pink that they were last week.  poor boy)

domo arigato mr. roboto

I am not normally obsessed with the Oscar's, but tonight I abandoned all responsibilities after dinner, had Dustin handle the bedtime routine for the monsters,  and sat perfectly still for nearly 3 hours just to watch.

Some of my highlights:

*Kate Winslet! WOOHOO!!

*Robert Deniro's comment to Sean Penn about how he was able to play straight men all these years!

*John Legend...oh yes.

*Kunio Kato's speech: "Sank you bery much, sank you all my stuff, sank you Academy, "Domo Arigato Mr. Roboto !" LOVED THAT.

*Shirley Mcclain's sweet words for Anne Hathaway, and Anne tearing up, saying "I LOVE YOU SHIRLEY! SO MUCH!"

*Ben Stiller! HA!

*Meryl Streep arriving in her silver Prius with her cutie pie daughter.

*Tina Fey and Steve Martin are genius together.

*Seth Rogen and James Franco watching Milk together and cuddling.

Do you watch the Oscar's? 
I thought of all of you musical loving nuts during Hugh Jackman's "Musicals are BACK!" piece.
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While watching I was reminded of a few other musicals that I actually loved:

West Side Story
Moulin Rouge
Grease
The King and I

I have a feeling that there are a few more.  I was shocked to remember so many that I really liked!

diaries and private parts...

Annabelle is my little writer.  She journals daily for school, but she has started keeping a "diary" and a "writing journal" at home on her own.

It is so sweet to see her scribbling away all day.  For the past few nights I've gone to tuck her in and she has to finish "just-one-more-sentence" before lights out.

I heard her talking to Julian in the hallway yesterday.  She said, "Julian, you know how sometimes girls have things that nobody can look at. It's private and they don't want anybody to see it?  Well, that's what this is..."

I quickly stuck my head around the corner to see just what exactly she was showing him, and saw him looking at her blue puppy dog diary in awe.  I was more than a little relieved to see that they were talking about diaries and not other private things that girls have that nobody should look at...like purses...or junk closets. 

A few nights ago she asked Dustin if he would read to her out of some of his personal journals.  He has (literally) hundreds of notebooks that he's filled with writings and songs and thoughts and other scribbles.  They are very personal and private as he doesn't censor ANYTHING in his writing, but he grabbed one to read to the kids before bedtime.  

He told me, "Luckily I found one from the time when Annabelle was being born. I read a few things to her but had to skip over a lot."

I asked him what he had to skip over and he said, "Oh, you know, things like 'Mindi's in so much pain right now' and stuff like that..."

I said, "Well, she knows that it doesn't really feel GOOD to have a baby.  I don't think hearing that I was in pain was going to scar her or anything."

He said, "Well, okay.  Stirrups.  I skipped over the part about stirrups because I just didn't want to have to be the one to explain all that...stuff."  

It's good to see that he does know how to censor when he needs to.  

the longest 20 minutes of his life

I almost never watch musicals.  I know I'm probably missing out on a lot of classics, but my parents both hated musicals and they instilled in me the fine art of the super quick fast forward reflex when a character bursts into song.

So chatting with my Mom the other night, she casually mentions,
"We watched Mamma Mia last night."

"Seriously?"

"Well, yes, sort of.  We didn't realize that it was a musical. "

"Well, yeah.  And an ABBA musical at that!"

"Well we love ABBA!  We just didn't expect the whole movie to be one long song.  Every time somebody started singing Dad would say "FAST FORWARD!", and every time that song ended, a new one was starting!"

"Mom, it's  a musical.  I think that's how it's supposed to be."

"I guess.  We watched it in about 20 minutes."

*laughing*

"Your Dad said it was the longest 20 minutes of his life."

I love my parents. :)

 I haven't seen Mamma Mia but I love Colin Firth so much, I know I'll have to try to watch it eventually.  Do you watch musicals?  I remember watching a few when I would baby-sit for my Aunt, whose children only watched classics, musicals and John Wayne flicks.  My favorite was probably "Meet Me in St. Louis" with Judy Garland.  I haven't seen it in YEARS, and I still get songs from that movie stuck in my head ALL.THE.TIME.

you have four eyes

Missing again! Sorry.  We all got REALLY sick.  I was consoling myself this afternoon with some mindless internet browsing, and came across this video that I thought you all would like.

It's of a little boy who had a tooth removed, and his laughing gas hadn't quite worn off yet...

It's eerily similar to how I behaved during my delivery of Annabelle, right after they gave me some pain meds.  :)

Charlie Brown

this made me smile today :) enjoy!

12 bits of randomness on a snowy monday evening

1. it's been snowing this week.  before this, we really haven't had much snow since before Christmas.  Cold, yes.  Snow, not so much.

2. i LOVE LOVE LOVE waking up to snow.  i wonder how long it will take to get tired of that feeling?

3. i made no plans to leave the house all day...until I saw in my Sunday paper that K-Mart was doubling coupons again.  Up to $4!   Made a quickish trip for a few necessities.

4. also picked up chinese food from Panda Express  and a movie.  Picked the movie based solely on the hotness of the lead male character, and have no idea what the movie's supposed to be about.
 that's bad, i know.  I hope i don't hate it.
  

5.  Dustin helped me with the overwhelming stack of dishes in the kitchen.  I miss having a dishwasher.

6. First week back on WW, and I rocked it.  9 pounds down!  Booyah! <---a word that is so not "me", but I use it a lot with a silly accent.

7. have an addiction to a new breakfast type meal, that I've eaten for Breakfast, lunch or dinner almost EVERY day this week.  Whole wheat english muffin (toasted), spread 1 wedge of light swiss laughing cow cheese on that, fry or scramble an egg and put on top of muffin, add 1 Morningstar veggie sausage.  Booyah.  Best meal ever, and I don't miss McDonald's sausage biscuits at ALL anymore.  I was addicted to those rotten things also.

8. Two  nights ago I was doing my grocery shopping, and got a panicked phone call from Dustin.  Ezra's fingers were smashed in the bedroom door, and looked HORRIBLE.  I took him to the ER.  He's okay now, but we were so worried that they might have been broken.  They were swollen like little sausages, and they guaranteed me that they would turn all shades of ugly colors, but the next morning they were perfectly fine.  Thank goodness.

9. Ezra tried to scare me with another ER trip by attempting to stick a beater from my hand mixer into an electrical socket.  Caught him just in time.  Little stinker. 

10.  Ezra also says a new word (as part of a song that he loves):  "Bamboleo"

11. Dustin said that he finally understood a complete sentence that Ezra spoke today while I was at K-Mart. "I want my mama." He's a mama's boy and I rub that in Dustin's face a lot. I love it. ;)

12. Look at this cute placemat. 
I bought it at Target (of course) and when I was drying it, part of it stuck to my window.  So I stuck the whole thing on the window.  And now the table needs one more place mat b/c this one is staying here for now.  The colors make me happy (and also keeps my backyard neighbors from seeing me from the neck up when I'm washing dishes). 

 

daily Frizz report

This is our Frizz report on accuweather.com for Des Moines today. 
I've never noticed this before and it just made me smile.  :)

Does your city have a daily Frizz report?  



Frizz Index

 

Frizz Index

The weather can have a dramatic effect on how well people’s hair looks and holds it style. The Frizz Index uses a proprietary algorithm especially developed by AccuWeather.com that combines measurements of atmospheric humidity with other weather factors that create hair frizz. The Index correlates to the level of frizz that can be expected under various conditions:

• Frizz Watch = Light frizz and flyaway hair are possible for frizz-prone hair.


• Frizz Advisory = Some frizz is possible, especially for people with naturally curly or wavy hair.


• Frizz Warning = Frizz is likely for all hair types.


• Frizz Emergency = Frizz is unavoidable! Sticky weather affects all hair types, so anyone may have a "bad hair day".