The itchies

All spring/summer we've been dragging our feet on fencing in our backyard. We decided early this spring we were going to go for it and given the position of our driveway (it wraps around the back of our house) we'll have to put a gate across the driveway and thus a small pain in the ass to have to open/close. (I did look into automatic gates but uhm, well, $3,000 isn't really in the budget. We aren't royalty like that LOL!).

Our original plan was chain link. The neighbors (with Gracie) have chain link which borders our east side of our yard. We only have to fence the south and west (the house stretches pretty much all the way across our property line). But, like I said, we've been dragging our feet.

At the old house we had 6' privacy fence all around our yard and it was SO nice and peaceful and just.... private. We loved it. It just always felt so "finished" and the fence was a great backdrop for landscaping.

Here, we love our neighbors and we love chit chatting while we're out in the yard so we aren't wanting to put up 6' fence. I'm not sure why we didn't think of this before, but we've decided to put up 4' privacy fence so that we have a "little" bit of enclosed in feeling yet we are still pretty open and able to wave over the fence and say hi.

After running errands, I traded vehicles with Ryan and came home to yank out some of the hedges on the west side of our property line. Ryan came home and we continued working on the hedge.

We had a little incident with Ramsey... she hurt her foot, so we asked our neighbor to come over (they are nurses) and see if they thought they could tell what might be wrong. In conversation with them Ryan found out that not only had we been yanking out ugly hedges but also poison ivy, poison oak and sumac. Nice. I had napped, played with the boys and done all sorts of stuff without showering. Ryan is HIGHLY susceptible to poison ivy... he gets it EVERY summer and it spreads rampantly.

So for now we play the waiting game and see who ends up with the itchies.

Musical beds

Internet, give me your thoughts.

Recently we've been discussing furniture and looking at beds for Hudson. We don't plan to move Hudson out of his crib for another year or so but I just want to keep my eyes open and get a feel for what type of furniture I want in his room.

Right now here are the rooms we have and what beds we have:

Our room: Queen bed
Guest room: Full bed
Porter's room: Twin bunks
Hudson's room: crib

Porter has pretty much moved into the guest room. Err "gas" room he calls it. For some reason he prefers to sleep in there and its less of a struggle to keep him in bed if we just let him sleep in there. At first I refused, but then my grandma said "Don't make it an issue... let him sleep in there and he'll grow out of that phase." So that's what we've done. But now he's like, only wanting to sleep in the guest room.

We had a talk tonight about the beds and I asked if he just didn't like the bunk over his head. That would be easy enough to solve as we could give Hudson one bed and Porter the other (although, for possible houseguest purposes, we wanted to keep bunks in one room). We took the top bunk off and Porter still wanted to sleep in the guest room.

I asked him if we should move the bunks into the guest room and the guest bed into his room and if we did, what room would he want to sleep in? "My room but in the guest bed."

Ok, I don't blame him. The guest bed is SUPER comfy. As in, I would choose the guest bed mattress over our queen mattress hands down. It is like heaven.

So, I'm wondering.... should we buy a twin mattress that is super comfy like the guest bed mattress and put that on the bottom bunk for Porter and hope that makes him want to sleep in the bunks again?

We only have one mattress for the bunk right now.... the top bunk just has an air mattress... so really, this is a completely logical option.

Should we save the bunks for Hudson's room and let Porter have the full sized bed for his room and buy a new bed for the guest room?

I really hate to use the bunks in any room other than Porter's since I bought two twin quilts for Porter's room. And I already have the fabric to make a twin sized quilt for Hudson's room. If we give Porter the full sized bed I'd have to buy him a new quilt, buy more fabric to make a second quilt for Hudson's room and I'd have two twin quilts extra from Porter's current bed situation (bunks).

Or, should we just MAKE Porter sleep in his room and refuse to let him sleep in the guest room?

What would you do?

Kids and Kabobs

An impromptu scrapbook night turned into a day of entertaining with some close friends. We had the Dawsons and the Huffs over for "lunch on the grill"... hawaiian themed (in a way).

I found a yummy Hawaiian Chicken Kabob recipe online and mmmmm... soo good. (I omitted the sherry and added red and green peppers). I also made rice pilaf, salad and fruit kabobs. It turned out delish. Probably one of my favorite barbecue meals ever.

Jane and I also made some desserts... brownies and some chocolate chip cookie cupcakes. The brownies were yum and the cupcakes were so so.

We all hung out until dinnertime and then us girls headed to the Ladies Lair (haha!) to scrapbook. Sadie was able to join, too, and well we all were just not that into scrapping so we ended up watching a movie I had rented from Netflix. Regardless of our productivity, it was a much-needed ladies night (queue "Ladies Night").

Summertime contest..... time is running out!!

Maybe you haven't heard yet.... I'm having a Summertime Fun contest on my photography blog and am going all out on the prize. Normally I give away a free session and maybe a storyboard or a few free prints.

Not this time.

This time I'm not only giving away a free session BUT ALSO the COMPLETE SESSION ON DISC with a release to print wherever and whenever you choose!

Folks, this is big.

For more details on how to enter, check out the photography blog. Entries MUST BE IN by 5pm MONDAY!!

Poor confused soul

My husband must be so confused! He must think we're entertaining our company in the laudry room this afternoon. I mean, that is the only explanation I have for why he is folding laundry in the basement while I'm frantically trying to get food ready, clean the house and get my makeup and hair done before company arrive in half an hour.  Poor guy....

Too good not to share

I have two recipes that are "to-get-fat-for". OOOH they are delish.

First off, a few weeks ago I made chocolate chip cookies. And they were devoured in like 2 days. YUM. So, here is that recipe:

INGREDIENTS:
3/4c vegetable shortening (butter flavor)
1 1/4c firmly packed light brown sugar
2Tbsp milk
1Tbsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 3/4c flour
1 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 cup choopped walnuts (or whatever nuts you wish to add, or another 1/2 cup chocolate chips)

1. Preheat oven to 375*
2. Combine shortening, sugar, milk and vanilla in large bowl
3. Beat at medium speed with electric mixer until well blended
4. Beat in egg
5. Combine flour, salt and baking soda in small bowl
6. Mix into creamed mixture at low speed until just blended
7. Fold in chocolate chips and nuts
8. Drop rounded tablespoonfuls of dough 3-inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheet
9. Bake at 375* for 8-10 minutes for chewy cookies (they will look light and moist- do not over bake) or 11-13 for crisp cookies.

And for some reason we've been on a banana eating strike and have let the last 2 bunches of bananas I bought go bad. We had 6 bananas sitting in our fruit bowl with blackened skin so I decided I needed to make banana nut bread. I searched for a recipe and altered it a bit and OH MY WORD this bread is awesome.

INGREDIENTS:
1 3/4c flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup white sugar
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 eggs
3 overripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350*. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans
2. Mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.
   
3. Stir in nuts, eggs, bananas oil and vanilla extract
4. Pour into prepared pans
5. Sprinkle sugar on top
6. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes

Postcards from Yo Mama

Have you read this blog? I found it the other night and it is hilarious. It is basically a website where people email in their hilarious emails/texts/conversations from their moms.

A few of my favs:

Don’t Passive-Aggressive-Smile-Face-ME

Mom: So when we come to Sydney can we stay at yours?

Mom: Hello?

Me: Oh. Sure. Well, actually there are a number of awesome hotels just a two minute walk from my house. I’ve just emailed you a bunch of links. Have a look! Am happy to book any of them for you. But, yeah, of course you are welcome to stay at mine, if you really want to.

Me: Mom?

Mom: You were welcome to stay in my uterus for nine months, and then my house for 17 years. But I understand, a week at your apartment might be a bit … much.

Me: Don’t you passive-aggressive-smile-face-ME, woman.

Mom: Fuck off. Love you – M.

The Grown-Ass Woman’s Club

Friday I’m doing something fun as well. Joan and I are starting a club called The Grown-Ass Woman’s Club. Our mascot is Gert Boyle (One Tough Mother) from Columbia Wear. Your stepfather is making fun of us but I think he’s just petty and jealous. I finally told him to shut up. That’s what GAW do when they are confronted with negativity. One of our field trips is going to be on a Saturday and we’re going to find those Red Hat Ladies and shove them down. They’re ridiculous and need to be eliminated.

Be Careful and Don’t Talk

Me: i have a date tonight
Mom: just be careful out there
Me: MOM, he’s fine. I’ve talked to him and he seems really cool. I’ll probably fuck it up anyway
Mom: Oh, don’t say that. Just smile…and don’t talk

Subject: The World Needs My Outlook

We were talking to Lora after you last night and she said I should write a blog. I have decided that the world needs my outlook. So I’m going to. Like today we went to the bank with Oscar, we were there for two hours. As Dad said it’s pretty bad when you can say your accomplishment for the day is to almost open a bank account.

Stuff like that. I am now going to email Bob, I don’t know how to make a blog get on the internets. He will know how to do it, but be a pain in the ass about telling me how, and that I can’t write anything anybody would want to read. I’m sort of dreading this already. You don’t know how to make a blog be on the internets do you?

The Lawn Whisperer

Mom: I can hear the lawn calling out–begging to me mowed

Me: Oh really? That’s weird I don’t hear anything

Mom: Listen closer

Fashion Tips for a Drag Queen Son

Backstory: My mom will often give me (her dragqueen son with nails and purple hair) WAY random and out there advice on fashion. One day she was asking what I was going to be wearing to a family function.

mom: so what r u gonna wear?

me: i dunno. something black Im sure.

mom: really?!

me: well all my pink clothes are in the wash

mom: well just don’t dress like Cher and don’t wear tight sweaters, they make you look cheap.

me: all righty then…..

Subject: Start Littering, Stop Breathing

Backstory: I got a notice today saying someone at my office was diagnosed with the Swine Flu. Some good advice from my mother on how to handle it…

Wash you hands, wash you hands, wash your hands. Don’t share pencils, etc. Put a paper towel over the bathroom door handle as you leave and drop it on the floor if you can’t reach the trash can while you hold open with your foot.

PS Don’t breathe at work. Love, MOM

Mom Vs. Telemarketers

Me: Mom, do you have a fax machine now? My calls won’t go through.
Mom: Yes, we bought that to stop telemarketing calls. We turn it on, and they can’t call us.
Me: Mom, NO ONE can call you.
Mom: Oh, I guess you’re right. Just send me an email when you want to call and I’ll turn off the fax.

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Better yet.... go read the Highest Rated.... OMG I was cracking up at these all night long!!!

Misc

• The kids were incredibly whiny today. Insanely whiny. Porter is in this horrible mouthy stage and backtalks all the time. I put Hudson down for a nap around noon, as soon as lunch was over because I swear if I heard him whine any longer my eardrums would explode. I let Porter stay up a little longer and then got him in bed.
  
  He's pretty much moved into the guest room at this point. Weird.... he prefers to sleep in there to sleeping in his room. Not sure what's up with that but we're just rolling with it and hoping he'll start to like his room again soon.
  
  He still SOO needs a nap in the afternoons but I've been telling him he doesn't have to sleep as long as he lays in bed and reads. Usually this works, and he usually falls asleep but today he kept getting up. And then he'd throw a fit when I told him to go back to bed. His fit woke Hudson up after just an hour nap. Lovely.

• We finally got our taxes back. My accountant is great, and very cost efficient, but oh my he takes FOREVER. Anyhow, great news... we overpaid last year by a LOT and are getting a nice chunk of change back.. along with next years taxes being paid/taken care of (see... with owning my own business we get estimates on what we would owe in taxes and last year I paid quarterly for this years taxes. So... we won't have to pay quarterly this year... its all taken care of!). The refund is pretty much a fluke and I doubt we'll get money back next year as we have a better estimate of what my photography income will be.
  
  So... what to do with this chunk of money!
  
  My first thought is AWESOME!
  
  And then I thought... hey, let's take a vacation! Take the boys to Mexico. Spend a week in the sun, sipping margaritas while the boys play in the sand.
  
  Then I thought OOOH I can get the new camera I've been saving up for. And bonus! It'd be a write off for next year!
  
  Then reality hit me and I thought.... hey, we could pay off over half our debts with that money and be almost a year closer to being debt free via the Dave Ramsey Plan! Being the responsible, level headed adults that we are (HAHA!), we are planning on paying off debt. Boring, I know. But it feels SOOO good to have that out from over our heads.
  
• Speaking of vacations... I've had a few places pop into my head that I would love to visit. Our plans are to take the boys to Disney when Hudson is 3 and Porter is 5. We want them to be old enough to enjoy it. (and at this point.... baby #3 will be discussed....)
  
  And then today I saw this post from Matt Logelin and was in awe of his pictures. I thought.... I want to go THERE! I want to take my kids to see something amazing, a magnificent work of nature. I want to go on a road trip across the country with 2 kids! Yes! Ok, I might be slightly insane but I think Ry gets 3 weeks vacation and how awesome would it be for him to take 3 weeks off in the summer and just spend that time road tripping across the USA? We could drive a day, stop and spend a day or two in a city and so on and so on.
  
  And then I started thinking I want to make a list... a list of awesome places I want to visit. I mean, Disney is fun and all but.... I don't know. We went 2 years ago and while it was fun it just is definitely not somewhere I'd visit over and over and over and over. I, myself, have been there uhm... 3 times I believe and well, I'm about over it. I know we want to take the boys there and of course then Baby #3 will be left out so we'll need to go when he/she is 3 or 4 or 5ish.
  
  But anyhow.... all this rambling. I am going to make a list. A list of places I want to be able to expose my children to in their lifetime. Places I want my family to experience together. List to come later.
  
  
• Ryan called me from work today and wanted to do a date night. I was super excited as its been awhile since we've gone out just the two of us. He wanted to do dinner and a movie but I had chicken fajitas planned for dinner and was really looking forward to them so we ate at home. He had to help his dad with some vehicle swapping after work and when he finally got home and his dad came over to babysit I was cranky and exhausted from dealing with the boys all day and part of the evening. Lately, I will admit, I've been doing pretty darn good with the boys. We've had lots of great days and occasional bad ones as well. Today was a bad one.
  
  Well, then Ryan and I couldn't agree on a movie. I went to the movies and dinner with some co-workers on Wednesday night and saw The Proposal. I had never heard of the movie until I got the invite from them. And what do you know, after I get home that night Ryan lays on the guilt that that's the movie he wanted to take me to see. Well, dink wad, why didn't you tell me!?!
  
  Anyhow, that leads me to tonight. There aren't that many wonderful movies in the theater right now and the only thing I really wanted to see (ahem ahem.... pay $40 to see...) was My Sister's Keeper. And Ryan wanted to see Transformers (meh..) or Hangover (meh meh....). Road Block #1.
  
  Then.... I had coupons for one specific theater in town for popcorn/pop... Large for $3.75. The movie I wanted to see was at the other theater. I wasn't about to pay $10-$15 for popcorn/pop. So, I looked at the Goodrich Theaters in nearby towns (like, 30 min away) and they did have the movie I wanted to see as well as The Proposal, which I volunteered to watch again. Ryan has something against going out of town. Road Block #2.
  
  So, that got us hollering about damn movies and I finally said forget it I don't even want to go... I'm cranky, we can't agree and neither of the movies he suggested were moveis I cared to spend a bazillion dollars to see. So, he ended up going by himself. And our date night ended with me, Porter and my father in law watching Beethoven's 2nd in my living room. Nice.
  

Hudson: 13.5 months

• Speaks fluently in sentences, although we have yet to figure out what language he is speaking in.
• Words that we do understand: Mama, dada, kitty, car (Caaah! as if he's from New York), drink, eat, more, (he signs the last three as well), night night.
• Eats like a teenager. In fact, I was starting to wonder if we had 2 teenagers in the house... both of the boys eat so well. We pretty much have to order them EACH their OWN kids meals at restaurants. And they usually polish them off.
  
• Has a temper like a dragon. The child ohh... the child. He is quick to whine, scream, kick his feet, swat your hand/cup/toy/bribe away. Last night he was cranky and whined and fussed the ENTIRE time we were grocery shopping. Fun times.
  
• Knows how to push his brothers buttons. He likes to want the same things that Porter has. If Porter has a toy, Hudson wants it. Ooooh.... ugh.
  
• Still isn't walking. Or standing unassisted. He just crawls this silly caterpillar crawl, one knee down, the other foot down.
  
• Is incredibly loving. He loves to snuggle, give hugs and smile. Oh the child smiles and it is so precious.
  

Chantilly Lace

1997-ish?

Today I took the boys to see my first pride and joy... Chantilly Lace... aka Lacey. I blogged about her awhile back... I can't believe it has been 14 years since I first met Lacey.... both of us pretty green at riding and, well, horses in general. We had quite the time learning together... me learning what made her tick and her learning how to do what I asked. I'll admit, there was much trial and error as I had no business owning a 3 year old green broke horse. However, I think we both came out of it pretty darn well and had some amazing memories.

I feel so lucky that here we are... 14 years later... and MY KIDS are able to share the joy of Lacey with me. It was so great to see my boys love on her and enjoy riding her. I drove home today thinking... WHY don't I go riding more often? I can ride any darn time I want, and I'm so so lucky that I have that privilege, and I don't take advantage of it.

Well, this summer I am going to take advantage of my time off. I need to and want to. I hope to take Porter to ride with me... he really enjoyed Lacey and has talked non-stop about going back to see her.

And I also hope to get some time to ride with Barbie again soon. I miss my teenage years riding with her... spending hours on horseback in the country chit chatting about everything under the sun.


Hudson, my sweet and loving boy... I hoisted him up on Lacey and he grinned. He grinned so big and laid down on her back to hug her... grinning the whole time. I ran to get my camera (Barbie was near him), and of course when I had it, he had turned the other way.


Porter was really unsure about her. She is intimidating, I'll admit. He didn't want to sit on her bareback but once I saddled her up and got on, he wanted to ride with me. He even let me trot her... riding with me and with me leading her.

Five little monkeys

Look who I hung out with Monday afternoon!!

A few before and afters....

a
We're coming up on our ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY of living in the "H House".... I am hoping to get in gear and do a big "Before and After" post with all the changes we've done.

For now... I thought I'd post one "big" project we accomplished this weekend. Or... should I say Ryan accomplished? My walk in closet has been a disaster zone since we moved in. Whenever we knew we'd have company and would possibly be showing the house to people for the first time (note... first time.... after that you see the real, true mess! LOL) I'd do a quick once over on the house and anything out of place got thrown into my closet. I am not sure there was ever a time I could see the floor of it!

I've been wanting Ryan to build me a closet organizer for awhile but we've continually put it off because the back wall needed to be mudded, sanded and painted. I didn't want to deal with the sand. (the back wall used to walk through to Hudson's room). Well, my wonderful hubs decided to jump right in and get that wall done. I'm so glad and relieved to have some organization in there now!

I also worked a bit on the landscaping today. Not long ago we ripped out about 75% of the existing overgrown shrubs and well, our landscaping is pretty bare. I've slowly been working on it. I have finished 2 small areas...

The first area is by the mailbox. I cleaned out the weeds, filled in with more dirt and moved that bush. This spring I added some annuals which i wasn't sure of at first. They never look very good when they're first planted. However, now that they're growing a bit they do look nicer. I wish they'd fill out a tad more though.



This other little area is on the side of our house by our driveway. I was a mess of weeds when we moved in. It now has some sedum, a mum and some othe rplant that I'm not sure of.
That's all for now! Must head to bed now that we can actually FIND the bed in our room... the past few days its been covered with the contents of my closet!

4th of July

We had a rather relaxing 4th of July... the Howards came over to barbecue and then we had a bonfire while the kids....errr... LeeAnn and I played around with sparklers.

Porter and Lukas did like the pop rock things...


Hudson was on a weird schedule today... took a nap from 2 until about 6pm and I even had to wake him up at that time. He was still exhausted and cuddled with Ryan for awhile. He practiced walking around the driveway and then was back in bed around 8:20.

Lukas and Porter bounced off some energy on the neighbors trampoline


And of course it wouldn't be play time without these boys wrestling or jumping on one another.
Like I said before.... us moms were more interested in the sparklers than the boys. They had fun for awhile but lost interest quickly. I bought cheap, small sparklers from Wal Mart and they were afraid of burning their hands.

And THIS is what LeeAnn and I spent our evening doing.....

Toledo Zoo... spurring the soap boxes. Watch out.

I'm so over my 30D. Seriously! I don't think I will ever take it to the zoo, children's museum, field trip etc... again. What the hell do I need "creative" pictures at the zoo for? My kids are too busy staring at animals and running wild. I don't care to have "great" pictures of the zoo animals (hell... I don't even care to have ANY pictures of the zoo animals!) and any "great" pictures I get of my kids standing still are of the back of their heads.

So, why can't I just have snapshots?

Because... I took BOTH cameras... my 30d (with 2 lenses... my 30mm 1.4 and 50mm 1.8) as well as my point and shoot. Took out the 30D once. ONCE. And the rest of the time I just got snap happy with my little point and shoot. Never again will Wilma (that's her name... Black Eyed Wilma) come with me to the zoo. Eww.

Anyhow... off my soapbox. I must think of a name for my little P&S. I'm thinking Little Louie. Kinda cute, no? I'm just much more apt to take pictures on the fly with my p&s. I just bought this cute little case at WalMart and its so easy to throw in the diaper bag/purse.

So... we took the boys to the Toledo Zoo. I thought it would be a GREAT idea and since Ryan had all week off (he was gone from Sun-Wed riding his dad's 4-wheelers on trails up north). The weather was amazingly perfect.... partly sunny, a little overcast, mid 70's. Couldn't have asked for a more gorgeous day.



Unfortunately, everyone else had the same "bright" idea as I did. The zoo was packed. I mean, it wasn't TERRIBLE but I was kind of hoping for a vacant zoo LOL! No dice.

Onto another soap box... wow... Ryan and I were amazed at the number of 3 year olds walking around with pacifiers, 8 year olds riding in strollers and 5 and 6 year olds on leashes! I am NOT kidding you.

First off, if your 3 year old still has his sucky at bedtime, I guess so what to you. But does he REALLY need it walking around at the zoo?

And your 5 and 6 year olds... are they not old enough to understand the concept of STAYING by you at the zoo?Sure, there were times Porter was way excited and wandered ahead of us and momentarly out of our sight amongst the crowd but never to the point where I thought I'd need a leash.

Why is your 6, 7, 8 year old riding in a stroller? We took the Chicco unbrella stroller for Hudson and let Porter walk. The entire zoo. He rode in the stroller for maybe 5 minutes of the entire day.... can you believe we saw a couple different families with their BIG kids... I'm talking around 8 years old, riding in strollers, having conversations with the parents. Two moms had 2 strollers with 2 big kids in them and they would push them up to the viewing area of the animals... the kids NEVER got out. What the hell is wrong with that picture? I mean... I look at the kids at school and I can't imagine any of my students.... any of my 6 year old 1st graders or my 8 and 9 year old 3rd graders.... riding in a stroller at the zoo. I can't even imagine agreeing to push my 3 year old around the entire zoo.

WHEW. I guess I had a lot to vent about with the zoo!!





We took a picnic lunch and the zoo had many picnic areas to eat at. That worked out perfect and saved us a lot of money! The boys LOVED the seals. We probably sat by the seal exhibit for 20 minutes. Hudson cracked up at them.




Poor Hudson... he napped on the way to the zoo but by the time we were done with lunch (we got there at 11, saw the seals/polar bears... rode the train through Africa and then had lunch... saving the majority of the zoo for after lunch) he was exhausted. He spent most of the time laying back in the stroller, sucky in mouth, cuddled up with his "banky", rubbing the silky edging on his face. We got him out a few times to see animals that he would recognize but he was so tired he wasn't that into it. He finally fell asleep as we were on our way out of the zoo. Go figure.

Chrysalis and resources

Yesterday morning we woke up to find 4 of our 5 larvae transforming into their chrysalis. Awesome!

This morning, the 5th had begun the process. So, in about 7-10 days we'll have butterflies!




I did find some websites online that might be useful if anyone is interested in raising butterflies this summer...Their typical life cycle is a couple weeks and then you can release them. You can also raise them in the winter, but obviously you have to be prepared to keep them inside for the duration of tier life cycle (aka... until they die).

All about Painted Lady Butterflies
Purchase milkweed seeds at Butterfly Encounters
My Monarch Guide
Purchase live Monarch eggs or larvae at Live Monarch
The Butterfly Site also has some great information and kits to purchase

The Butterfly Project

In our 1st grade class, we raise Monarch Butterflies every spring. It is an awesome experience and I am amazed at the process. Our kits were like this, with a milkweed plant for the caterpillar to eat.

This year, I thought it would be fun to raise butterflies at home and let the boys experience their life cycle. So, I hopped online and purchased this Live Butterfly Garden from Amazon. I am a little disappointed in the kit. It is Painted Lady Butterflies, but I didn't think that'd make that much of a difference. However, the larvae come in a little clear cup with holes in it and artificial food and it tells you not to take them out until they form their chrysalis. At school, our caterpillars roamed the pop-up cage freely and formed their chrysalis on the top or on the milkweed plant.

I did open my little cup of caterpillars and let them crawl around their cage. (It said not to open it in case you introduce bacteria. Really? Bacteria? These little insects that live OUTSIDE are worried about bacteria??)

**Sidenote... I did find online that Painted Ladies eat a common plant called Cheeseweed, which I'm pretty sure I've seen out back in our wooded area. I am going to try to feed them the Cheeseweed.

Anyhow... I did a little research on Monarchs and, knowing they eat milkweed I thought... I should try growing some milkweed in the yard and maybe we'll find some Monarch larvae. Silly me... I called the local nursery to see if I could buy milkweed and they probably thought I was crazy... they told me "No, we don't sell it... but I'm sure you could go out into any field and dig it up yourself for free." Duh.

So, Porter and I hopped in the van, shovel and bucket in tow, and drove a few miles and lo and behold... MILKWEED! All along the side of the road. Duh!

We planted it in our yard and hopefully we'll find some larvae. If not, I might purchase the larvae online and just bring leaves in for the caterpillars to eat.

Porter is really excited about this project. He loves watching his Painted Lady caterpillars and we're just waiting waiting for them to form their chrysalis'.

Just for shits and googles. Err giggles.

I typed in "what if" in Google's search bar.

These are the recommendations I got:

What if...

What if...god was one of us
What if... I am a black woman
What if... god smoked cannabis

Let's try some more:

How do...

How do... you know if a guy likes you
How do... you know if you're pregnant
How do... you know if a girl likes you
How do... you get a passport
How do... you sleep
How do... you get pregnant

If I....

If I... were a boy
If I... promise to hold you all of my days would you
If I... were a boy beyonce

What should I...

What should I... do with my life
What should I... eat for dinner
What should I... get my boyfriend for valentine's day
What should I... be when I grow up
What should I... weight
What should I... major in
What should I... read next

How can...

How can... I keep from singing
How can... I get pregnant
How can... I make my hair grow faster
How can... you tell if a girl is a virgin
How can... she slap
How can... you tell if someone is lying

Interesting the things that people google!!

Train Track layouts

Thought I'd share.... I've been looking for websites with wooden train track layouts to design the boys' train track. Yes, I'm a dork. I've been hot glueing their tracks together so they stay put for awhile. The hot glue peels off once you take the track apart.

• Dazy Free Layouts
• Plans for Track layouts
• Squirrel Tracks Layout Examples

And these SureTrack Locking Clips look like the'd come in handy instead of hot glue.

Bucky Harris

Another good day. What the hell... husband leaves town and all of a sudden I have patience with my children? It might be something to do with the fact that I have one less child... err... person... to pick up after at the end of the day. Who knows.

The weather today was GORGEOUS. 70* and sunny, albeit a bit windy. I had planned on going to the water park/pool with the boys but it wasn't really warm enough for that, so I decided we'd go to the playground and take a picnic lunch.

We went to Loomis Park, which is in town... large and lots of kids. Porter had fun but Hudson, not being mobile on 2 legs, was kind of a burden to carry around. Its hard to keep your eye on a child by staying in one spot so I was constantly following Porter.




I decided not to picnic there as there were a lot of kids/people/some riff raff in the picnic area. We went to Good Will where I scored a cute pair of Baby Gap sneakers for Hudson this fall. Then we went downtown to Bucky Harris park to eat lunch.

WHY have I never come here for lunch? It is such a perfect little park! Its a 1/2 acre, has a fountain and benches and tables and lawn area and flowers and its smack dab in downtown. Not that there's a ton to do downtown but I just love the busy-ness of it. It even has speakers up on the light poles and was playing music. Awesome.






The boys and I plopped down on the lawn and ate our lunches. Porter ran and ran and ran... exploring everything and watching busses and cars and trucks go by. He tried walking in the fountain (which is relatively shallow at like 6 inches deep) and slid and fell on his butt!




We'll definitely go back more this summer! There aren't any kid-toys to play on but it was nice just to have a relaxing, quiet lunch with the boys, music softly playing in our ear and the sun shining.

Twittering in Church

Our church was recently in Time Magazine . I've copied/pasted the article here:

Twittering in Church, with Pastor's O.K.

John Voelz isn't trying to brag, but it's fair to say he was down with Twitter before most people knew it was a proper noun.

Last year, Voelz, a pastor, was tweeting at a conference outside Nashville about ways to make the church experience more creative — ways to "make it not suck" — when suddenly it hit him: Twitter. (See the 2009 TIME 100: Ashton Kutcher on the Twitter guys.)

Voelz and David McDonald, the other senior pastor at Westwinds Community Church in Jackson, Mich., spent two weeks educating their congregation about Twitter, the microblogging site that challenges users to communicate in 140 characters or less. They held training sessions in which congregants brought in their laptops, iPhones and BlackBerrys. They upped the bandwidth in the auditorium. (See "Finding God on YouTube.")

As expected, banter flourished. Tweets like "Nice shirt JVo" and "So glad they are doing Lenny Kravitz" flashed across three large video screens. But there was heartfelt stuff too.

"I have a hard time recognizing God in the middle of everything."

"The more I press in to Him, the more He presses me out to be useful"

"sometimes healing is painful"

There's a time and place for technology, and most houses of worship still say it's not at morning Mass. But instead of reminding worshippers to silence their cell phones, a small but growing number of churches across the country are following Voelz's lead and encouraging people to integrate text-messaging into their relationship with God.

In Seattle, Mars Hill churchgoers regularly tweet throughout the service. In New York City, Trinity Church marked Good Friday by tweeting the Passion play, detailing the stages of Jesus' crucifixion in short bursts. At Next Level Church, outside Charlotte, N.C., it's not only O.K. to fuse social-networking technology with prayer; it's desirable. (See pictures of John 3:16 in pop culture.)

On Easter Sunday, pastor Todd Hahn prefaced his sermon by saying, "I hope many of you are tweeting this morning about your experience with God."

"It's a huge responsibility of a church to leverage whatever's going on in the broader culture, to connect people to God and to each other," says Hahn.

If worship is about creating community, Twitter is an undeniably useful tool. The trick is to not let the chatter overshadow the need for quiet reflection that spirituality requires. At Westwinds, people can ask questions about the sermon that the pastors will answer later, or they can tweet in real time and hope another congregant offers insight. Some use Twitter as a note-taking tool. Often, it's pastor-directed, with McDonald preaching while Voelz taps out, "In what way do you feel the spirit of God moving within you?" Discuss.

There have been at least a dozen "Twitter Sundays" at Westwinds, but the 150 or so Twitterers of Westwind's 900 adult members are free to tweet at any time, at any service, whenever the spirit moves them.

The same rules apply at Next Level, where pastor Hahn headed straight to his office to log on as soon as the inaugural Twitterfest ended in April. Punching in "nextlevel" in Twitter's search function, he read:

"had awesome music today and yes i am twittering in church.

"nothing u do 4 the lord is in vain."

"I think my thumbs are going to be sore"

Next Level has no plans to make Twitter a formal part of each week's service, but Hahn advises parishioners that "if God leads you to continue this as a form of worship by all means do it."

Robbie McLaughlin took him up on it. The graphic designer used Twitter the Sunday after Easter and says he intends to do it again, as he was caught up by the way it transformed how he worshipped. He likes the way it helps him see what God is doing in other people's lives during the service. (And there's another benefit too: no more misplaced musings jotted down on that day's program. "With Twitter," he points out, "your notes are there forever.")

Though the Next Levels and Westwinds may be the face of the future, for now, they're just a quirky minority. But Voelz gets at least five e-mails a week from people inquiring how to launch Twitter within their church. How did you rig the screen resolution so people could read the tweets? What was members' reaction? And, not surprisingly: Got any tips to persuade church leadership this is way cool?

Reflections

I was thinking today that we're coming up on our 1-year anniversary of owning our house! I thought it was pretty interesting the change our house has gone through in the past year, as well as the changes our family has gone through in the past few years.

June 28, 2009:

(More photos of the foyer and pictures up the stairs on this post)

June 28, 2008: Not quite homeowners again, but working towards it....




June 28, 2007: Vacationing in Florida



June 29, 2006: Itty bitty Porter!!

Entertainment Today

I'm so relieved to say that we had an AWESOME day today... and we never left the house! Ryan left this morning to go 4-wheeling with his dad up north, so I'm flying solo for the next few days. I was hoping that the days wouldn't consist of me yelling at the boys and drinking lots of alcohol.

I filled up the kiddie pools and the boys played for a few hours early this afternoon. We had lunch outside and then all 3 of us took a nap. Hudson has been sleeping for 4 hours each afternoon... in addition to an hour morning nap! We've been wearing him out! Yesterday I laid the boys down at 2pm and Porter slept until 6 and Hudson slept until 7!! They were so tired still and were back in bed at 9pm.












I grilled hot dogs for dinner and we had a picnic dinner outside on the quilt. The boys crack me up with their eating habits....

Hudson is all about eating meat and fruit. He ate TWO hot dogs and a bunch of cherries. Wouldn't touch the broccoli and cauliflower.

Porter loves his veggies and fruits and has been on somewhat of a meat strike. He ate all of his AND Hudson's broccoli and cauliflower but barely touched his hot dog. He's been weird with the skin of meat... he doesn't want to eat it at all. Ryan and I refuse to peel his hot dogs/chicken etc... so Porter ends up demolishing it in his attempt to peel it himself.

I got the boys in the shower and then we headed downstairs to have a movie night. They picked out matching pj's and had popcorn while watching Homeward Bound "Cisco" as Porter calls it (Homeward Bound: Lost in San Fransisco). Porter is obsessed with the 2 Homeward Bound movies. He's watched them both numerous times (Thank you Netflix!) and cracks up at a lot of the parts. The only thing I don't like about the movies are all the mean names the animals call eachother (stupid, butt face etc. etc..) . I looked it up on Common Sense Media and Kids in Mind Media and surprisingly the language didn't even register on their scales. Although, it seems like its getting harder and harder to find any type of kid movie that doesn't have characters calling eachother idiots or something. (I know, I know... pot calling kettle black HAHA! We have potty mouthes in our house but IMO cursing is a different form of bad language than calling people stupid or butt face or idiot.... I may curse when I'm mad or stub my toe or whatever, but we don't run around our house calling eachother mean, nasty names kwim?)



What a relaxing day! I'm excited for tomorrow... hoping that it goes as smoothly as today has!

QUESTION for readers:
Do your kids use the same cup/sippy all day or do you get them a new one each time you get them a drink?

I've noticed that I have been getting cup after cup after cup all day long... mainly because either I can't find their cup from earlier (it always shows up eventually) or their previously used cup may contain milk that has been sitting out for hours and I think its gross to use the cup again. I realized today that each kid probably went through 4 or 5 cups each!

Bucket Filling at its finest

Porter seems to be catching on to this bucket filling. I had picked up these two books from the (Lucy Calkins) Literacy Conference I attended for work last week. We've read them with Porter a couple times before bed and discussed behaviors that will fill buckets and behaviors that make you a bucket dipper. I wasn't quite sure how or if he would catch on. But...

• The next evening at dinner, Porter shared two of his favorite hot wheels with Ry and I. He got a big grin on his face and said:
  
  "I just filled your buckets! I'm a bucket filler!"
  
  
• The other morning, he was in bed with me and trying to steal my pillow. For some reason he really likes my pillow and, well, I do too. He said to me, extremely seriously...
  
  "Mom, remember we read the book about buckets? Now, we can both share your pillow."
  
  HAHA! I was totally not expecting that one.
  
  
• We had this conversation after he bit his brother:
  Me: "I'm so sad that Hudson's bucket is so empty right now."
  
  Porter said "And my bucket is full!"
  
  Me: "No... no your bucket is very empty too. Its so sad."
  
  Porter got a very sad look on his face and said "Yeah, I was being a bucket dipper. But.... Hudson was being a bucket dipper too!"
  
  I told him "Well, instead, you could have been a bucket filler for him and you both would have very full buckets right now instead of empty ones."
  
  He says... "Yeah...."
  
  
• 
  

Love that kid and the way his mind works. Sometimes it drives me crazy but oh my... he cracks me up so much and surprises me so often with the things he understands.

And now a glimpse into what I'm dealing with

A huge sigh can be heard from me numerous times a day.

Ryan let me sleep in today and when I got up Hudson was kind of fussy. So I got him breakfast and sat him up to the table to eat his oatmeal. And then I noticed it.

A bite mark on his arm. A 3-year olds bite mark. (Thanks, Little D!)

I called Porter over and asked him what it was.

P: "It's from me."

Me: "Why did you do that?"

P: " Because."

I questioned a couple more times and finally Porter pauses, looks at me with all the seriousness in the world, sticks a hand out, the other on his hip.

P: " I know what his problem is, Mom. I know what the problem is. I just need him to be back in your belly!"

I. Kid. You. Not.

I ask day after day... WHERE did this kid come from and WHERE does he get these things?

I bit my lip to stop from laughing. We had a long talk about how biting is such an UGLY thing to do and a VERY BAD choice. We discussed better choices of things to do besides biting. (turns out Hudson was trying to take Porter's truck?)

It seemed to hit home when I said "I'm so sad that Hudson's bucket is so empty right now."
Porter said "And my bucket is full!"
Me: "No... no your bucket is very empty too. Its so sad."
Porter got a very sad look on his face and said "Yeah, I was being a bucket dipper. But.... Hudson was being a bucket dipper too!"
I told him "Well, instead, you could have been a bucket filler for him and you both would have very full buckets right now instead of empty ones."
He says... "Yeah...."

I'm just not sure what to do about the biting. We've never had to deal with this before.. Porter has always been able to verbalize what he was mad/angry about and never resorted to this type of angry actions until he was bit by Donnie a few times when we were camping. I'm just not sure what to do to nip it in the butt. Any suggestions?! My only thought right now is to bite him back. It makes me so angry that he's resorting to this!

Spoiled

Awhile ago, when we were working on the treehouse for the kids, someone made the comment to me...
"Your kids are so spoiled."

I kind of shrugged it off and thought to myself... what parent wouldn't do this for their kids if it was within their abilities?

Well... I'm starting to realize... holy hell my kids are spoiled.

Our backyard is beginning to resemble a daycare. A daycare that has exploded. I should take a picture of all the crap that fills our garage and yard. Here's a rundown of the "big stuff"...

2 climbers (Craigs List)
A treehouse with slide and swingset (came with the house... but we added on and got the slide for free!)
Hammock chair (garage sale!)
2 kiddie pools (store bought)
a 4-wheeler (curb-side pickup from BIL in Dearborn... FREE)
2 picnic table (another curb-side pickup from BIL... FREE; the other was garage sale)
2 ride on cars (one from garage sale and the other was bought new for H's b-day)
a bike (new: gift for P's 3rd b-day)
a tricycle (new: gift for H's 1st b-day)
a sand/water table (Craigs List)
a pedal go-cart (garage sale)
a gas pump/cabinet (Free: curb-side pickup)
wagon (new, but super discounted)
basketball hoop (garage sale)
and that doesn't include the zillions of toy cars, shovels, sand pails etc...

To be fair, they do use it all. Really, they do. And most of it is from garage sales or Craigs List... aka... USED. I rarely buy new toys for the boys. That's probably how I justify having so much crap for them because I get things at such a great price we can afford to buy more and more... and whatever ends up not being a popular toy... plop it right back on Craigs List or in a garage sale! :)

For example... my mom picked up this super cute gas pump/cabinet. For FREE.

Someone down the road from her had it outside with a FREE sign on it so she scooped it up. It has some paint spatters on it but she figured I could either repaint it and put it in Porter's room or just let the boys use it outside to fill up the 'gas tanks' on all their cars/bikes/toys. So far, its still outside.

Their newest fun things are the sand/water table I bought from Lisa and today my mom surprised Porter with a pedal go-cart. He calls it his Mach 5.





We have been kind of hoarding up in the house the past week or so because its been so hot. I'm not a hot weather person AT ALL, especially when it is humid. I hate feeling sweaty and sticky and ick ick ick. This afternoon, though, we did go outside for awhile. I moved the table and chairs over to the one shady spot in our back yard near the treehouse. Hudson hung out for awhile and played with the new dump truck Grandma brought him.






Porter drove his 'Mach 5' all around the yard and up and down the driveway. His head was sweating, but he insisted that he wear his helmet LOL!

The Haircut Chronicles

This morning I decided to do a little project with Porter while Hudson napped. I'm going to attempt to do an alphabet letter a day (or at least 3 or 4 a week) with Porter. No Time for Flashcards has a ton of great activities for this age.

Today we did the Letter A for Alligator. Quick and easy and simple. Porter's favorite part was using the scissors (pay attention... ). He liked just cutting up the paper so I let him have the scraps and play around. Build up those fine motor skills haha!

At lunchtime, I got the boys settled up at the table and I headed downstairs for a few minutes to swap laundry or something.

I come back upstairs and I see little clippings of hair all over Hudson. OH NO! Porter looks at me and says "He needed a haircut! His hair was too long, Mom!" GAAAHHHH! I quickly surveyed the damage... I've been holding out on Hudson's first haircut for his baby mullet to get a little longer so I have enough to save in a little pony tail.

LUCKILY.... Porter only managed to snip a lock off the front and you really can't tell. Whew!

Fast foward to this afternoon. I had put the boys down for a nap, made margaritas and Jane brought pizza over. Our modified lunch get together since I had the boys and was in a cleaning mood today and didn't want to shower. (LAZY ME!)

Jane takes off and I happen to notice blood drips all around the kitchen floor. I can't figure out which of us is bleeding... no signs of being cut anywhere. I walked outside to see if Jane left a trail (HAHA! I know... sounds retarted huh?) but no signs of blood outside.

A few minutes later I notice blood drops in the hallway by the basement stairs. And in the living room. And I follow the drips to the foyer and upstairs to the hallway, and they are all over upstairs. What the hell!

I figured it has to be the cat... maybe one of them cut their paw or something. I run downstairs and find Ella with half her head all bloody. Her ear is bleeding!

I pick her up and try to figure out what is going on. She has a slice on her ear... looks like its been CUT. CUT WITH SCISSORS!!! After a stressful half hour trying to find somethign to contain her in the car (we don't have a cat carrier... well, we do now because I went and bought one!), I took her to the vet. I'll pick up my cat tomorrow, pay the $200 (TWO HUNDRED, yes!) bill for her anesthesia and sutures in her ear.

Porter made like he had no idea what was wrong with Ella's ear. I asked him if he cut it, or if he was trying to give her a haircut and he said no. He hasn't got the lying act down yet so I immediately believed him. I figured if he had cut her ear, he'd have noticed blood right away (it was bleeding ALL OVER!) and would have told me. Ryan, however, called me when I was at the vet and said he'd asked Porter a few more times and Porter said he did, and hid behind the chair. I think, though, that Ryan probably guilted him into thinking/feeling like he did or that he needed to confess to get him off his back because I sat down with Porter at dinner time and asked "So, what was up with Ella's ear? What happened to it?" And he said "I don't know."

Anyhow... scissors are going to need to be banned from his reach from now on, I suppose!

Teaching Quotes

If a doctor, lawyer, or dentist had 25 people in his office at one time, all of whom had
different needs, and some of whom didn't want to be there and were causing trouble, and
the doctor, lawyer, or dentist, without assistance, had to treat them all with professional
excellence for nine months, then he might have some conception of the classroom
teacher's job.
~Donald D. Quinn

"There is no word in the language I revere more than teacher. My heart sings when a kid refers to me as his teacher, and it always has. I've honored myself and the entire family of man by becoming a teacher."
~ Pat Conroy, from Prince of Tides

Jon and Kate + 8... Deflate

I would be lying to say I was not devastated by the news that Jon and Kate are divorcing. I am baffled and sad and sick to my stomach. Weird, I know. I don't know these people other than from watching them on TV. But... I've watched them from the beginning and have always loved their "realness". I've always been able to relate somewhat (ok, a lot) to Kate. She's a take-charge kinda gal and Jon is just really laid back, takes no initiative.

Here are some of my thoughts... they'll probably be random but I swear, after the season premeire on May 25th I kid you not I spent the entire next day thinking about them. Thinking about how tense they were towards eachother. How sad it was that their marraige had come to this.

Team Jon or Team Kate? Well, I used to really like them both. Some would say she's a bossy wench and he has no balls and that (in old episodes) they had no love or respect for eachother. I, however, always felt that they had a comfortableness, sureness about their relationship and I related to that. Anyone close to Ryan and I know that I can be a bossy bitch and that Ryan takes a lot of crap from me. He's nowhere near as laid back as Jon and will stand up for himself and toss my bickering right back at me but we're comfortable enough with eachother and we love eachother enough that we know that whatever is said is blowing steam, in the heat of the moment and we're done and over it not long after. Water under the bridge. I used to really think Jon and Kate had that comfortableness with eachother but obviously Jon wasn't happy with how things were. And from what I've seen on their recent episodes, he's decided this life isn't what he wants so he's going to make a fresh start. After all, he's "only 32" and he's "sad but excited about the fresh start." Gag.

I'm all Team Kate, can you tell?

Here are some of my random thoughts on all this. My "reasonsings" for things that are being said, speculations that are being made. Obviously I really don't know jack about what is going on inside their relationship, this is all just my thoughts and opinions on what I've seen/been shown on TLC.

• Everyone says Kate has changed so much... she has a new hairdo, a tan, a rockin bod and great fashion. So what. Yes, she does. She's finally beyond the "survival" mode of having 6 babies in her house and is finally able to give herself a little attention. And speaking of changes... look at Jon.... earrings, driving a $40,000 2-seater sports car, hanging out with women at bars, wearing teenage looking clothes. They both have changed... how can you point your finger at either?!

• I hear flack about how the show was the demise of their relationship. I don't think I could believe that if this were true they would honestly keep the show going. Yes, it makes them a ton of money but I think they are both out for the best interest of their kids (when it comes down to it) and if that were the case I believe they would stop the show if that would save their marriage.
  

• The show obviously isn't the issue as they are still divorcing and are still moving forward with the show. They will just be filmed with the kids separately.
  

• Jon complains that he doesn't like being on the show... doesn't like the spotlight etc. He sure doesn't seem to be complaining about his new wardrobe, his new sportscar and custom OCC bike. Remember, Jon, you wouldn't have all this stuff if it wasn't for your kids... or your show.
  

• On Kate and her bossiness.... from what I've seen Jon is very... sluglike. He doesn't seem to take initiative to do anything unless he's told. And with 8 kids in the house (I guess you could say 9 if you count him?), things have to be orderly and luckily Kate is very orderly. You can't always be sweet and cordial when things need to get done PRONTO with 8 kids. Hell... I only have 2 kids and I can get pretty snippy (as can Ryan!) when we're under pressure/rushed/stressed etc. I can't imagine if we had 6 more kids to deal with!

• I don't understand how things could go so downhill in such a short time. They JUST renewed their vows in Hawaii in August 2008. And now, just 10 months later (less, if you count that the filming happened before Mother's Day..) they are divorcing.
  

• In the season premeire Jon was whining that Kate was gone a lot on her book tours and that he was home with the kids since he didn't work. And that he didn't like his "job" of being a stay at home dad. Tough shit. How many years did Kate stay home with 8 kids... 6 being infants/toddlers? The HARD ages? And he's complaining that he has to play daddy all day while Kate makes money now?
  

• This recent episode Kate mentioned Jon won't talk to her or tell her why he is so angry at her. Jon dances around any mention of exactly why they are divoricing. Kate says she is not thrilled with the decision but she supports it if it brings peace to the house and for the kids. All that makes me feel like it is Jon who is wanting the divorce... that Jon wants out.

• Jon seemed so insincere when he'd quickly toss in "for the kids" at the end of every statement that's seemingly selfish.. I just need to do what's best........ for the kids!" All the while, he's totally zoned out visualizing the lap dances he's going to be getting in New York at his bachelor pad at Trump Tower.
  

• Have they not explored marriage counseling? I've never heard anything mentioned about that.
  

• A previous episode awhile ago showed Jon and Kate in their early years. They were so lovey dovey. And when they met... Jon was 22 and Kate was 23 (I think).... Jon said so himself, on camera, that he wasn't doing anything with his life. He was just bumming around... didn't want to get married... didn't want to have kids etc... So then he met Kate, they got married and seeked fertility treatments. Ok, you don't do that all on your own. He had to have had his say in it.

I honestly believe that all this, all Jon's actions, are because he wants to be that 22 year old again. He is thinking "I'm 32... have 8 kids.... my life is boring." Haven't we all felt that way at some point or another? Haven't we all, as parents, fantasized what life would be like if we were living single and free? Its one thing to think about it but another to act on it.

I won't lie. My stomach had knots in it when I read that they filed papers to dissolve their marriage. I even shed a few tears. Its incredibly sad to see all that they've gone through... to see them barely acknowledge eachother now... I just wanted them to hold hands and kiss and make up. Kate had said that she doesn't know what Jon wants... she doesn't know if he even knows. She doesn't know if he realizes the repercussions of his actions right now.

I may be naieve to point the finger at him, but I am. I'm just thinking to myself... who would want to be with him now... sure, he has money... his KIDS money. He has EIGHT kids. Seriously? That's serious baggage. I hope that he will realize what he's doing, what they are doing, and they will seek help and work things out.

GAH. How's that for a vent? And its not even my life!!

Bought a 'fill a bucket' book at the teacher conference. Going to try the method with porter. Anyone try it at good as opposed to in a classroom? More later... Must be a good student.

Why do bikers ride right next to the center line on the highway? Do they really need to be that close to other traffic?

Father's Day

Father's Day was pretty low key. We had plans to go to Ry's dad's house to grill out steaks and chicken later in the afternoon. Ryan ended up taking Porter over there early so that Dave could take P to meet Lori, Don and the girls at the lake for a boat ride. While they did that, Ryan played around on the 4-wheelers at Dave's while I hung out at home with Hudson. We all met up at Dave's around 4:30 for dinner and driving. The 4-wheelers, that is.

Now, before you get any misconceptions from these pictures... Dave lives in a neighborhood. A typical ranch-style-suburbia neighborhood and his yard backs up to woods. There are trails all through the woods but obviously we weren't going to take the kids on trails. So what else to do? Drive all around the yard, that's what! Yes... we dug up parts of his yard, made all sorts of racket and probably looked like nothing more than a bunch of crazy hillbillies. But, we all had fun. I kept thinking.... Cathy would NEVER have let this happen LOL! She's probably rolling her eyes at us now LOL!

Lia and Porter were probably the most drawn to the 4-wheelers. They loved to go fast and you couldn't keep the grin off Lia's face. Porter was as ambitious as always and almost ran me over. Ryan drove up near me with Porter riding with him. He stopped to chat with Lori, Lina (who was visiting next door) and Porter reached up and hit the throttle and nearly ran me over! Crazy kid.

Squirrel!!

Friday night Ryan and I took Porter out for a "Special Day" movie night. We went to see Up and oh my... it was hilarious! I think Ryan and I laughed more than Porter did... he kept saying to us "What, mom? What? " because he didn't 'get' the parts we were laughing at. The best was Dug, the dog. Oh how I loved him. POINT!!



We didn't see it in 3-D. Its $2.50/ticket more for 3-D and we're cheap like that. I mean, really... it already cost us $17.25 for the 3 of us to watch the movie!! And that was the matinee price before 6pm!! Ridiculous.

How much are movies in your neck of the woods? Did you/would you splurge on the 3-D?

Neighborly love... or not?

At the other end of our road is a house with lots of landscaping and they have some perennials out by the road for sale. Cuttings from their perennials.

This house is one that Kathy and I had invited to the Neighborhood Party (of course... because they live on our road, right?) and the husband had answered the door and acted quite confused as to what we were inviting them to. What? A party? Where you MEET your NEIGHBORS? He acted like it was unheard of.

So today Porter rode his bike and I walked down to this house to check out their perennials. Since digging up those bushes in our landscaping, I've been trying to figure out what to plant!! There was a bucket with a box in it that said "Leave money here." Ok...

I knocked on the door to see if someone could tell me more about some of the plants that I was unfamiliar with. The wife came out and admitted that she didn't know much about the plants... her husband was the gardener.

Anyhow... after some plant chit chat and me telling her where I lived, she asked if I was one of the houses who put on the neighborhood party. I said yes, and she asked how it went. (This family didn't show up).

I mentioned the families that did come and said the party was great and it was nice to meet people who lived on our road. She said they had lived there 16 years and didn't really know anyone on the street... not even their neighbors. She said when they moved in they heard that it was a pretty private street and everyone kept to themselves. And that they had really liked that.

Oops.

I laughed and said "And then we move in and mix it all up! " HAHA!

Well, come on, SERIOUSLY? You don't want to know the people you live next to? Weird.

At least the 4 houses immediately near us are extremely friendly. So much that we even mow each others front lawns LOL! A month or two ago when Porter and I were into our "Friday Morning Mowing time", Porter and I mowed Gary and Linda's front lawn for them two weeks in a row. Not that we HAD to, but Porter really likes riding the lawn mower and Hudson was sleeping and well, their front lawn connects to ours and it isn't that big or anyting. So we'd just ride all the way across and mow their front lawn.

I was kind of doing it as a thank you for me going beyond the "Hey can I borrow a cup of sugar".... I had wanted to make pancakes for dinner one evening and realized I didn't have eggs. So I sent Porter next door to ask to borrow and egg (in which he ended up standing on their front door staring in the screen door at them watching tv because he didn't know to knock and he couldn't reach their doorbell) and they sent back an entire dozen eggs. And then a couple days later I had to borrow some baking soda. I didn't want them to think I was an absolute mooch HAH!

And now, the past two weeks, Gary has mowed our front yard. Now isn't that nice? I guess its our turn to return the favor now...

So tell me... what are your favorite perennials to plant? What about shrubs? My favorites, I'd have to say (and I'm pretty limited on knowledge of plants!) are Stonecrop (aka Sedum), Hostas and Spirea. And I do like Stella de Oro Daylillies too. OOOh and Hydrangeas. I love those... but haven't attempted to grow them.

Head. Aches. Ugh.

For the past 2 weeks or so (since probably about the time I painted our entire flipping basement. By myself. ) I have been getting these annoying headaches. Not quite migraines. Not really headaches, but more of a combo. I have some weird motion sensations like a migraine... like if I move weird or sit up too fast, but its not as (damn... blanking on the word) intense.. yes... not as intense as a migraine.

I've been going to the chiropractor for the past week. I've gone 3 times and its helping, but not fully yet. Not sure what's going on... something is out of alignment or something. Chiro thinks I'm stressed and am carrying the stress in my upper back/shoulders... which is where the pain starts. Then it goes up the sides of my neck and into my head. I can't think of anything I'm overly stressed about, though.

I'm sick of taking Excedrin Migraine... I took a Midrin the other night before bed but woke up at 3am feeling wide awake and refreshed as if I had slept for 12 hours. Annoying.

Mama's Boy

Hudson has turned into quite a mama's boy lately. Doesn't like me leaving the room, undoubtedly prefers me over daddy, and (melt my heart) is so happy to see me when I get home. While sometimes annoying... I do love it. :)

Modified Microblogging

I know its not technically microblogging, but awhile back I mentioned I had been "assessing" how/what/why I blog. I kind sometimes feel like I have to outline a whole story or fill in the gaps or whatnot and I often feel like I'm more or less writing to an audience than for myself. Which, really, I AM writing to an audience but I'm not necessarily writing FOR the audience. My blog is for me, and there are so many times I have little things I want to write, things I'm thinking, things I'm feeling, and I might just want to jot them down.

Up until now I've been Twittering, which is linked to my Facebook account. Its nice... but its not going to be archived as my "journal". I love Facebook and am addicted (not so much to Twitter, but that's the only way to post to FB from my mobile) as all get out. I just signed up with mobile Blogger and can now blog from my cell. Which will be nice for those little one liners, thoughts, feelings, moments that I want to remember but am not at a computer to write it down.

We'll see how my "modified microblogging" works out...

Condensing Naptime

I think Hudson is starting to wind down to one nap a day. He's starting to do the same thing Porter did right around a year old... his morning nap ends up being extremely long (like 2-2.5 hours!) and then he doesn't want/need an afternoon nap until super late.

While one nap a days IS a lot easier to work around than two, the process of getting there consistently sucks. At least it did when Porter went through that transition. I don't look forward to it.

Since Hudson has been sleeping in until 9am some mornings, he has just been skipping his morning nap altogether and laying down around noon. Today, though, he was up a little earlier and since I was out running errands all morning (NO KIDS!), Ry laid him down at 10am and he slept until 12:30. At least, he was awake at 12:30 when I went to peek in at him.

He's so cute when he wakes up... he ALWAYS has his sucky in upside down. And if you turn it right side up, he twists it upside down again. Funny boy!

Yes, he still has his sucky. We had whittled him down to barely using it but he typically fussed for awhile before going to sleep. And then we went camping and I figured it'd be easier to give in and just give him his sucky while we were away from home than to deal with trying to get him to sleep in the camper quietly. And now, well, he still has it. Not sure what I'm doing so far.

Testing out mobile blogging...

Ready for the weekend?

My first week of summer vacation is coming to an end and luckily the end of the week has been better than the beginning. I think the boys were just wiped out from camping, plus Hudson is cutting his molars so he's been extra fussy.

The boys are settling into a good little routine of SLEEPING IN!! Porter has been sleeping until 8am and Hudson until 9am. WOOO HOO! It is heaven, I tell ya!

It'd be nice if it'd stop raining for a few days. I swear for the past couple weeks all its done is rain rain rain. At least every other day! Its incredibly humid and muggy and I feel like my makeup is melting off my face as soon as I step outside. I know its nowhere near as bad as it is down south, but for me... any humidity is too much. I finally turned on the AC for the first time this year to try to cut out the mugginess. It was only registering 74* in the house but it felt so sticky and gross. For some reason our house stays incredibly cool during the summer... last summer I think we only had the AC on for a couple weeks total out of the whole summer.

Yesterday we were supposed to go to the waterpark/pool in town but the forecast didn't look so great so I decided to skip it. Turns out the day was beautiful, so I made some mac n cheese for lunch and the boys and I hung out in the backyard and the boys played in the pools (yes, I set up 2 kiddie pools so there was no fighting!). I wanted to set up some of the new sprinkler toys Hudson got for his birthday but our hose has like zero water pressure so pretty much no sprinkler toys will work.

I call this one: "Don't pee in your brother's pool!!!"

Porter rode his bike around like a maniac. Our driveway is awesome for him to ride his bike. He's getting really good at stopping and turning and going fast. He has named his bike Crazy Laser. No idea where that came from but he tells me that all the time.

Hudson had his 1 year appointment on Wednesday. At 13 months old he weighs 20lbs 4oz (10th %) and was 30 inches long (25-50th %) and his head was in the 75th %. It was pretty uneventful. I was happy to hear his pediatrician recommend we keep his seat rear facing until 2. She started to ask about his car seat and I could tell she was hesitant and trying to feel me out to see if I had turned it. I told her we still had it rearfacing and planned to keep it that way until 2. She said "Good! So you must have heard about that somewhere? A lot of parents have been coming in for their 1 years and have already turned their carseats around but we're recommending keeping them rearfacing until 2." Good to know. :)

Holland 09

Our weekend camping with FOUR other families.... 10 adults, 7 kids (under the age of 3!!) for 4 days was a complete success. We had beyond an awesome time.

I was a little hesitant that the trip would completely bomb.... the other 4 wives had either never camped before or had camped before and hated it and, well, let's just say that the last couple times we've done any sort of family vacation with friends hadn't fared well for those friendships. I'm happy to be able to say we left Holland in great spirits and no one hating camping or each other. At least that we know of. HAHA!

We arrived in Holland on Thursday. The Dawsons and Collins were joining us a day earlier than the other 2 families. As we arrived, the rain (which had been on and off the entire way there) was on break. However, as we got the camper set up it began sprinkling. Hudson and I headed off to WalMart to grocery shop before Jane and Adam arrived. By the time I left WalMart, it was pouring. Not fun.

Jane and Adam had already set up their camper when I got back so we decided to head into Holland to catch a bite to eat at the Holland Brewery. After dinner we browsed around downtown to check out their Street Performers. Every Thursday throughout the summer they have Street Performers. We saw a ventriloquist, dancers, a guy on stilts, guitarists, jugglers, a clown doing tricks and a balloon maker. It was pretty fun for the kids and luckily the rain stayed away.



Donnie and Porter had a blast riding their bikes around the camp. Our sites were in a perfect location in the middle of a loop and a paved path on the other side of Jane's site. So, the boys were able to ride their bikes around and around and around and around and still be within calling distance away. Lukas didn't have his bike, but that didn't bother him... he ran literally for 4 hours straight, keeping up with Porter and Donnie on their bikes. The next morning he was feeling it, though, and could barely stand up to walk. Poor kid! The 3 boys, though, I think had the best time out of everyone. They played ALL day long.... running and riding and playing in the water faucet and just being, well, boys. The fun started as soon as they woke, they'd be out there riding their bikes in their pj's.




Friday afternoon we spent at the beach. The weather was gorgeous, although the water was a chilly 55*. Not unusual, though, for Lake Michigan. We must have looked like a nut house, all of us saggy-boobed, saggy bellied, white cellulite-assed moms in our suits with a slew of maniac toddlers running wild on the beach.












The kids had an absolute blast... Hudson first thing buried his face in the sand. He had sand caked in his eyelashes. The boys ran and ran and buried each other and threw rocks into the lake and built sandcastles. The girls kind of did their own thing.... filling buckets with sand and playing quietly. Roly Noly was attached to his "Mama"...err Daddy's hip.

The bosses (as Porter has dubbed us) had the kids in bed by dusk and sat until the late late evening around the fire laughing and joking and having a great time. I need to remember all the crazy one-liners we laughed about and jot those down for memory's sake.











Before we all left Holland, we stopped back by the beach for a group shot... color coded, of course. We decided next year we'd have to have t-shirts made with "Holland 10" on the front and our last names on the back. Because we're hot like that.


I'm so excited that everything turned out SO well. I'm really impressed with how smoothly things ran with so many little ones! Once we were all up, we'd make breakfast (which was something new for Ryan and I... we usually keep it simple but we found that making breakfast was really easy and fun!). We made scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes, bacon and even donuts! Then from 10am to about 2pm it was a variation of naptimes. At any given time between those hours, typically someones kid was napping. Which worked out fine as it gave us time to sit around and chat, take showers and get ready, clean up from breakfast etc. Then we'd venture out to do something and head back around dinnertime to cook. After dinner was cleanup, get kids ready and in bed and then "Boss Time" LOL!

I took way too many pictures but I had a great time capturing it all. I can't wait to plan another camping trip and know that we now have 4 other families who are at least somewhat interested in joining us! We're already talking about making this an annual trip which makes me so happy :)

{45 Things}

I got this off Denise's blog and I just loved it. I thought I'd share...

{45 Things}
1. Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
2. When in doubt, just take the next small step.
3. Life is too short to waste time hating anyone...
4. Your job won't take care of you when you are sick. Your friends and parents will. Stay in touch.
5. 5. Pay off your credit cards every month.
6. You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
7. Cry with someone. It's more healing than crying alone.
8. It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
9. Save for retirement starting with your first pay check.
10. When it comes to chocolate, resistance is futile.
11. Make peace with your past so it won't screw up the present.
12. It's OK to let your children see you cry.
13. Don't compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.
14. If a relationship has to be a secret, you shouldn't be in it.
15. Everything can change in the blink of an eye. But don't worry; God never blinks.
16. Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
17. Get rid of anything that isn't useful, beautiful or joyful.
18. Whatever doesn't kill you really does make you stronger.
19. It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
20. When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
21. Burn the candles, use the nice sheets, wear the fancy lingerie. Don't save it for a special occasion, Today is special.
22. Over prepare, then go with the flow.
23. Be eccentric now. Don't wait for old age to wear purple.
24. The most important sex organ is the brain.
25. No one is in charge of your happiness but you.
26. Frame every so-called disaster with these words 'In five years, will this matter?'
27. Always choose life.
28. Forgive everyone and everything.
29. What other people think of you is none of your business.
30. Time heals almost everything. Give it time.
31. However good or bad a situation is, it will change.
32. Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
33. Believe in miracles.
34. God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
35. Don't audit life. Show up and make the most of it now.
36. Growing old beats the alternative – dying young.
37. Your children get only one childhood.
38. All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
39. Get outside every day. Miracles are waiting everywhere.
40. If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
41. Envy is a waste of time. You already have all you need.
42. The best is yet to come.
43. No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
44. Yield.
45. Life isn't tied with a bow, but it's still a gift

No title tonight

• Been busy with home "renovations"... as always.
  
  • Painted the entire basement (well, the finished area of it, not including my office).
  • Painted basement stairs (tedious!!).
  • Sanded, stained and poly'd our Duncan Phyfe dining room table.
    
  • Bought some new shrubs for the bare landscaping.

• Had a garage sale last week and did great! Sold a ton of large items, lots of baby stuff out the door. A little moolah in our pockets to fund our upcoming vacation to Holland.

• Porter had a birthday party to attend on Sunday for his little friend Ashley. He's actually only played with her once, but I'm hoping that we (as in, her mommy Rachel and I) can get together some more this summer!!

• Attended a Bead for Life party at Jane's. LeeAnn and Lukas were there and thankfully we (along with Kristen and Jane's mom) were the only ones there as Lukas and Porter were rambunctious little heathens. I'm sure Kristen is a little nervous to see what she has in store with little Rhenner!!
  

• Porter finally figured out how to pedal his bike! He's still not completely consistent on it, but he did manage to ride it over to the neighbors. He gets SO frustrated when the pedals get stuck in an awkward/hard to pedal position. He tends to get ticked off and then doesn't want anyone to help because he's so ticked. Temper, temper
  
  
• Porter had his soccer team photos tonight. I didn't buy any of the pictures (figured... hell, I can set my kid up with his foot on a soccer ball with some trees behind him and take a picture!) so I snapped a few of the team picture for the scrapbook and called it a deal! Out of the 6 or so pictures I took, this is the best one (and sadly, I had to photoshop one persons head in from another pic!). No one looked happy haha! Porter, precious little angel, started bawling when I made him go up with the team for the picture. What kind of mother does that to her child?!?! LOL!
  

• I am anxiously counting down the days... Two more days. Two more days... Two more days of work and I'm on summer break! Two more days and we head to Holland for the weekend with a. bunch. of. super. fun. friends. We're going to be a sight, that's for sure.... 7 kids under the age of 3! Three 3-year old boys, Two 2-year old girls and Two 1-year old boys. YIKES!
  

Another 65lb harness carseat!

I just found out about this new seat: the Graco My Ride 65. It is Rearfacing to 40 lbs (Yes, 40!!) and Forward Facing from 20-65lbs with the harness. It also comes in a pretty pink and brown.

Its basically the convertible "sister" seat to the Graco Nautilus. Where the My Ride goes Rearfacing and Forward Facing, the Nautilus is Forward facing only, from 20-100lbs. The harness on the Nautilus, like the My Ride, goes up to 65lbs.

I do think its cool that the My Ride supports extended rearfacing up to 40lbs (although, the height of a child could make a difference in how long you keep it rearfacing). We have decided to keep Hudson rearfacing until he's at least 2... I've read a few articles on 2 and 30 is the "new" 1 and 20. Children who are turned forward facing at a 1/20lbs have a much greater risk of spinal injuries and internal decapitation from the force of whiplash. Here is a great site regarding rearfacing into toddlerhood: http://www.car-safety.org/rearface.html

Anyhow... just got a carseat kick after reading Ashley's blog about her daughter's booster seat. I came across the new carseat on Carseat.org and thought I'd share it!

They rhyme!!

As rambunctious and gnat-like-attention span as Porter is, he is quite an observant kid. He notices things that I don't think many 3 year olds notice. For example... trucks. He can tell you what is a Dodge Ram, a Durango, a Chevy, a Jeep, a Hummer etc.... He saw a Dodge Caravan yesterday and said something about "the lady in the Dodge Van"....

Last summer when we went camping (he was 2.5) we saw a black Hyundai Santa Fe. He pointed it out to me and said "That's like your brown car we gave Simon!" Insane that he matched it up with the tan/gold Santa Fe that we traded in just 2 months after he turned 2 years old. And here he was almost 5 months later matching up a car that was a different color, yet same make and model.

And he can tell you cars that people have. He saw a green Chrysler Concorde at swimming lessons and pointed it out saying "There's a car like Omas!" Only... Oma's is gold. But she does have a Chrysler Concorde. And he knows Pacificas. He sees white ones and of course those are LeeAnn's cars. Red Rams are Tony's trucks. He saw a navy Pacifica turning into Menards this week and said "Thats the Pacifica I saw at Aubri's birthday party!" Yep... I had taken him behind my sister's friend Kelly's navy Pacifica to pee. I told him it was Kellys. "Why is Kelly going to Menards?!"

Anyhow... so many times he'll point out the most random things.... or remember the most random things. He knows how to get to LeeAnn's house. Whenever we go to the bank he remembers seeing a truck a year and a half ago with a dead deer on top of a 4-wheeler in the bed. He sees the building my mom works in and knows its where she works and knows the numbers are 3-0-0.

Awhile back he was really into rhyming words and he still kind of his, but not as often. However, he's been picking up words that he sees similarites in and will say to me "Hey mom, those words rhyme!" (even though they don't rhyme...). For example... we were talking about Peter Pan and he said "Mom! Peter and Pan! They rhyme!" So of course we went into a discussion about the letter sounds etc.... Another day it was "Gum and Gummies". And at Target last week he said something along the lines of "sheet and sheep" rhyme. He's getting closer!

Its so amazing to me to watch him blossom and explore words like this. I'm proud of his ability to recognize little details and sounds in words and well, in other things too. The kid has a memory like an elephant and even though half the time you think he's not paying attention, he's recording every little detail in that 100 mile an hour mind of his.

Listen Up, Parents!

I found this on Molly's blog:

Now they are trying to take away our rights as parents. Don't turn a blind eye and assume someone else will stand up for your rights ... get involved!

I have linked everything to make it easy to take a stand!

The Problem:

Read the article

See what could happen (pay special attention to the 2nd list)

Speak up!

Sign The Petition this will only take about 30 seconds of your time

Want to do more?

Write your Congressman

Write your Senator

When you are all done let me know your thoughts ... did you sign? What do you think?

Heavy Hitters... You can't top this!!!

Aubri's 4th birthday party was this afternoon. We arrived at the park to find that there were about 3 other parties going on there as well. The parking lot was packed and there is only one in/out road, which runs alongside the playground. We get to the end and realize there aren't any parking spots so we attempt to turn around/back in, out etc. This beat up blue Acura speeds in and blocks us in. He apparrently gets frustrated with the parking situation so he throws it in reverse and speeds through the parking lot, backwards... mind you- the drive part of the parking lot runs alongside the playground and there are kids/people no more than 15 feet from where this maniac is speeding IN REVERSE.

Ryan and I drive out, behind him and follow him to the parking lot across the road (we were going there to park, but he obviously was too). Ryan pulls up beside him and says "Are you a f***ing idiot? You just sped through that parking lot where there are kids running all around!" The guy... either in his late teens/early twenties, starts cussing at Ryan and tells him not to mess with him "today"... whatever that means. Ryan repeated himself, a little cockier, saying he could have hit a kid etc. and the guy spouted back and said "I'll f***ing shoot you with my f***ing gun right now!" Then he proceeded to flex his arms across his chest, getting in Ryan's face (we're still in the van... my kids are witnessing this idiocracy.) I plead with Ryan to roll up the window and back out and park somewhere else. I get on the phone and call 911.

The guy, turns out, is attending a party right next to where Aubri's b-day was. Great. The police arrive and I explain what happened and they walk over to the guy and frisk him in front of his family/friends. They take him to his car and I'm assuming search it. He must not have had anything on him as he walked back to his party without the police escorting him. As he walked past us he was spouting off something along the lines of "Heavy Hitters... you can't top this." Yeah... whatever the hell that means. It ended up being the joke of the party.

Need a knife to open a toy? I bet your new friend over there has one.

Grandpa wanted to join the wedding party for the booze? Just tell them you're a Heavy Hitter and they'll let you in.

Won't let your kid have seconds of ice cream? Oh, don't be a Heavy Hitter...

Brought a gift Aubri really liked? Can't top this....

Anyhow... that was the highlight of the evening. A-hole.

Other random thoughts...

• Check my photography blog later tonight for some sweet pics of Lukas' session this afternoon.
  
• I now have 3 sessions I'm behind in proofing. Guess you know what I'll be doing as soon as I'm done with this blog post.
• Went grocery shopping tonight. Had a few revelations....
• When you buy fruit or veggies, do you weigh them or just buy as much as you want? I've observed some people weighing their apples and such and I thought... why not just buy like, 5 apples if that's what you want? Why bother with the weight?
• The cashier had something on his thumb that resembled a thumb condom. I thought at first it was probably for helping him turn pages of..... what?? What does he need traction on his thumb for? Ok, well, maybe money but I SWEAR this was like a teensy tiny condom for thumbs. Seriously.
  

Saturday: Full of Pictures

Ahhhh Saturday. Well, it started off rough. I could tell from the moment I woke up I was crabby and cranky and if I didn't do something semi-structured with the kids I was going to lose. my. fricking. mind.

Katie and I had planned to meet up at the park with the kids. Sweet.

Woke up.

Heather forgot to leave Addi's carseat.

No big deal... I had Ryan take Hudson's out of the truck although I had wanted to avoid uninstalling/installing/uninstalling/installing one of our seats.

Then Porter found dog shit in the playroom.

Ryan cleaned it up.

Kids were whiny. Toddlers were loud and obnoxious.

Got 2/4 kids dressed.

Sat down in the playroom to dress Hudson.

My ass is wet. As in... I sat in piss. Dog piss, to be exact.

I felt my bloodpressure rise.

Text to Ryan: "Your fucking dog pissed in the fucking playroom and I fucking sat in it."

Removed Ikea rug (which has been peed on at least 6 times) to rinse off with the hose.

Cleaned up carpet in playroom.

Dressed Hudson. Fed Addi.

Got out the door ON TIME, I should note, and decided to go to Toy House to find a book about butterflies. I had bought Aubri and Porter a live butterfly garden (Aubri's for her b-day) and I wanted to get a book to go along with it.

Made it to Toy House. Note: Balloons all over parking lot.

I parked minutes before 10am and noticed multiple cars pull in at the same time.

What is going on?

Discuss Rules In The Store with Porter and Aubri. Make them recite them back to me.

Get P and A out. Manage to get both babies out and carry them both to the store. Wonder how I'm going to put both of them in a cart.

Put both babies in the front of the cart.... one baby for each leg hole.

The store is a madhouse. Turns out its their 30th anniversary "Birthday" and the store is mobbed. Great.

Kids are magnificent in the store. No meltdowns. No lost kids. Well, Porter did wander off for a moment to the ride on toys but I wouldn't call that lost.

Found a butterfly book. Aubri picked out a Fairy Toy she wanted for her b-day.

Met an adult Hudson! Neat! Had lots of gawks and comments from the employees about bringing 4 young children in.

Got all children in car. Toy House excursion: SUCCESS!!

Met Katie and her boys at the park. Super relaxing time, kids played well, ate lunch, had a blast.



These 2 little monkeys cracked me up. I hope they grow up to be buddies like Porter and Donnie are.



The bigger boys....

Made it home and got all 4 kids down for a nap. I took a siesta on the couch after reading a bit of the Multiple Bles8ings book I borrowed from a co-worker.

Heather and Ryan got home (Ry was golfing with co-workers).

YAY! Made it through the hard part of the day!

We decided to rip out the dead/ugly bushes in the front of the house. Ryan loves his truck. Porter was still sleeping after we pulled the first one out. I ran upstairs to wake him up and said "Porter! OH my gosh come look what daddy is doing to my front yard!"

The first thing he notices is "Why is daddy's truck in the yard!?" Not... why is the bush in the middle of the yard and dirt all over the walkway.

He says "What are you DOING Dad!? Oh my gosh!!"

I play along... "Oh my goodness, what is going on! My plants!"

So funny. Porter has the funniest expressions. He then got into ripping out the bushes and wanted to help. Everytime Ry would get the bush out he'd say "That was a great job, dad!"



Our little onlooker...
High Five!!

After the bushes were out and cleaned up we grilled out and the boys played. Hudson got daring! He had been trying, and succeeding, at climbing onto his ride-on toys all afternoon. He decided to get daring and stand up on his car!

I helped Porter draw a road in the driveway, complete with houses for the boys and driveways next to their houses.
Porter had fun pushing Hudson around the "road".
Then we found a caterpillar, which Porter named "Pluto" but he says "I call him Caterpilly"


And the end to our day.... I put up the Hammock Chair I bought for $5 at a garage sale on Friday. I put it under the treehouse and its a perfect spot! Its a little gaudy with the colors, but oh well. It'll be fun to sit and relax and let the boys play this summer!

Frankly Friday

• The boys and I have had a very productive morning.
  
  • Porter and I woke up early (6:30!!) and I had a load of laundry on the line before 7am.
    
  • I put another load on, got Hudson up, got the boys breakfast and we headed out for a 3-mile walk.
    
  • Stopped by a garage sale and snagged a coat rack (I plan to paint!) and a hammock chair (I was told it was from Mexico) to hang underneath the treehouse.
    
  • We got home and played a bit, fed the boys lunch and put Hudson down for a nap.
  • Consumers came over to fix our dryer... which turned out to be simply that the fuses weren't screwed in tight enough (the dryer is on a fuse box with the old screw-in type fuses)
    
  • Porter and I mowed the lawn (its our Friday morning tradition.... we mow the lawn while Hudson takes his morning nap... Porter loves to ride the mower and we like to take that chore off of Ryan's shoulders for the weekend)

• I've been doing Weight Watchers and getting up early to exercise (although, not running... bummerrr) and am happy to say I've lost 2lbs since last week. I feel like my saggy mommy-tummy pooch is feeling smaller. (sick, huh?)
  

• I can't wait to try out this recipe for Margarita Cupcakes with Lime Frosting. YUM! (isn't that a total contradiction to my previous bullet?)

• Tonight I'm heading to my friend Rachel's house to scrapbook!

• I have so many house projects on my mind its making me crazy. I don't know what to tackle first. And its frustrating because all the projects require me needing Ryan's help, which is only available on the weekends. And our next few weekends are shot.... we have the girls the next 2 Saturdays, this Sunday is Aubri's b-day party and I have a session, next weekend we are having a garage sale and Ryan may be going out of town with his dad and the following weekend we'll be out of town camping. So, that brings us to the third weekend in June before we have any substantial time to start projects. Grrrr. I might attempt some of these projects by myself during the week this summer since I'll be home. I just hope I don't jack it up... Ryan knows how to do things so much better than I do.
  
  • Put in my closet organizer: which requires me to patch the wall where we closed off the closet door to Hudson's room as well as sand and paint the entire closet.
    
  • Rip out the dead bushes in the front landscaping and rearrange/put in new plants
  • Level off an area beside our driveway to make into a makeshift patio
  • 
    

• 2 more weeks. 2 more weeks. 2 more weeks until we go camping with our fabulous friends (and all of our rugrats!!). 2 more weeks until schools is out. 2 more weeks and I'm done watching Aubs and Addi. 2 more weeks and I'll be faced with a full 12 weeks of summer freedom and time with my boys!

Porter amazes me sometimes with his thought process. A few weeks ago Porter was insistent that he dump out his truck bin (which goes under the train table) and that it was his "bus." I let him do what he needed to do and this is what he came up with....

Look closer. Yes, he's sitting in the bin... his "bus"... yes he's using a plate for a steering wheel. Notice the buses' wheels.... he took apart his big Automoblox truck and placed the wheels around his "bus". Only, they wouldn't stay up that well so he used objects like... his hat, his tiger puppet and parts of the Automoblox to hold the wheels in place.

Soccer... getting to be fun

Last night Porter had his 3rd soccer game. The last one he didn't play at all. Practice was before the game (not idea, IMO) and by the time the game started he was done. Well, in his defense I had given him Tylenol with Codeine before the game to help with a cough/cold he had. Oops!

We were contemplating pulling him from soccer and getting our money back but decided it wouldn't be a great example to give him. We decided to just go to the games and put little to no pressure on him to play- but that he needed to wear his team shirt and sit and watch his teammates play.

Porter did great in practice, he was definitely acting more himself (although he did bring back the somersaults while he was waiting in line LOL!) nd he actually played in the game a little bit last night. He was able to kick the ball off to start (not sure what that's called??) and once he had control of the ball for a bit he was into it. However.... all good things come to an end, right? The second someone stole the ball from him he fell to the ground bawling. He just didn't understand that everyone is supposed to be able to kick the ball and that even if someone steals the ball he is supposed to go in and try to get it back. Made for some good laughs watching him go from huge smiles, running and having fun to a crumbling meltdown in a blink of an eye.

We celebrated with ice cream (and sprinkles!) and a trip to the park to feed the ducks with Lukas and LeeAnn. While eating ice cream we watched a pretty ridiculous show of "Jackson's Finest".... a large group of kids/teens/adults (all with I'm sure the same maturity level) scream and run around like yahoo's "scared" of the geese. At one point they were all (a couple kids and about 5 teens/adults, a few holding onto toddlers) standing on two picnic tables, screaming like idiots when the geese walked towards the tables. They then proceeded to take over the playground area and throw wood chips at the large family of geese. Ridiculous. We took the kids over towards the pond and quietly fed a small family of geese. I shot the Yahoo's a couple glares and notice them watching us feed the ducks who SURPRISE weren't lunging and charging at us like they were them.

Jibber Jabber

Hudson is such a little talker, although most of the time we don't have a clue what he's saying. He's especially chatty right after waking up. Its like he's happy to see us and has so much to catch up on.

The past few days we've noticed him saying words out of the blue. Usually he'll copy what we've said. Some of his new words are:

• Jake (my grandpa's dog)
• What's that? (Aunt Heather swears he said this while handing her a ball)
• dancin'
• Hudson

Some of his regular words he's been saying awhile are:

• mama
• dada
• truck (along with truck noises)
• night night
• bye

I'll probably add more as I remember, just for memory's sake.

Transition in progress

Tonight Hudson went to bed without his sucky. This transition wasn't exactly intentional, although I've always said at a year old I'm pulling the plug. Literally.

We used to have like 8 suckies laying around the house but somehow we've whittled down to 1. And that one solo sucky was left behind at Aunt Heather's house when she babysat today.

I was a little afraid that we'd have an absolute meltdown and he'd cry and cry for hours. However, he went to bed with minimal fussing. YAY!

He really only has his sucky at naptime/bedtime and we very very rarely let him have it while he's awake. I just never wanted to get into that habit. And since he's stuck with the sucky up until now (as compared to Porter ditching the sucky around 4mos), I really wanted to get rid of it now before it became an ugly habit that was too hard to break.

So... aside from a nightly bottle, he's on his way to toddlerhood! He drinks fine from a cup but I like to make sure he chugs milk down right before bed and he chugs better from a bottle than a sippy. Other than that he so does not need a bottle. It really is all for me... I like to baby him a little LOL! We'll cut this out around 14-15 months like we did with Porter.

And of course he's 100% on big-people food and has been since at least 10 months old. Now if we could only get rid of those diapers....

Life: needs organizing?

I had a dream last night that I cleaned out my fridge and organized it.  What the hell is that supposed to mean?  Does it mean anything that I remembered the dream when I got in the shower?

Land of the Free... because of the Brave

My friend, Mandi, had this as her Facebook status and I think it is absolutely perfect. Thank you to those of you who have sacrificed for our freedom!

Today we had a pretty low key day. Ryan went golfing with Adam and I hung out with the boys. We picked Jane and Grace up and headed to the duck pond (not the actual name... but...) to feed the ducks. Grace is on a different schedule than the boys so I ditched the boys' afternoon naps in order for us to get together. Poe napped for a little bit in the van on the way there but Hudson didn't sleep at all.

They really enjoyed the ducks. Well, Hudson just liked the bread LOL! We almost got attacked by geese a few times. Jane and I were cracking up as we discussed how much Canadian Geese weigh (which, according to online is about 12 lbs) and if we'd be able to drop kick them if they attacked.








We took a quick spin around Target with the 3 kids and then went back to Jane's to grill out with her parents. Porter ran wild around their backyard (of course over-wound because of no nap... and a "flushy" at Target) and Hudson refused to sleep at their house (I'm noticing a pattern of him having issues sleeping at places other than home...). Food was great and we had an awesome time. It was a perfect end to our weekend.

First Birthday Bash

The more kid-birthdays we celebrate the more I realize I REALLY like planning and decorating for these things! Since we pretty much do family-only b-days after the first birthday, I was so excited to have Hudson's first birthday to have a big bash. Probably more for my socialization needs than his benefit, anyhow, but we had a great time.


I had planned on putting fondant circles on the top of the cupcakes but decided to keep it simple. I had too much to do!

I made these pompoms, courtesy of Martha Stewart
And some pinwheels...

We had our family and some close friends over and grilled out. The weather was perfect- sunny and actually quite warm, but we can't complain because we've been sick of the cold for so long. Unfortunately our yard doesn't have much shade so we didn't have much relief from the blazing sun.





Hudson loved opening his presents and was so smiley all afternoon despite his earlier refusal to take a nap.


We got Hudson the Step 2 Whisper Ride Buggy.... we rarely buy the boys large toys brand new because you can typically find them used for a fraction of the price. However, I was feeling guilty about the whole second child syndrome and him always getting hand-me-downs so we splurged and bought this new. He loves it!