New School Shoes

So who doesn’t love the new shoe feeling that comes along with a new year of school?  As a little girl, I didn’t get a ton of  new school clothes at the very beginning.  There were two very good reasons for this a) it was still 100 degrees outside and even though they were super cute, it really made no sense to start buying sweaters and that sort of thing that all the stores were stocked with for “back to school” quite yet.  And 2) my birthday comes in September, so my new school clothes often came a month later in the form of birthday presents.  I guess I could also add a third good reason and that would be that I didn’t grow a whole lot over the summer so it’s not like the new school year came and suddenly my pants were high waters or anything.  But though I didn’t get whole outfits, I always got new shoes.  And to this day, I still feel the need to get new shoes around the time that the school supplies pop out at Target.

As I mentioned in a previous post, Mattie received new shoes for school this year.  Sweet little white leather Keds.  And as of week number 3 I think it is of school, she still hasn’t noticed that all the other little girls have the same shoes except for her.  I picked her up from school today with plans to wash her little kicks, this being a long weekend and all and those silly little shoes often take a day or so to dry all the way through.  Upon arriving home, the shoes were kicked off and brought to the laundry room for their bath.  I will take a minute here to say that I do not examine my children’s shoes on a daily basis.  I don’t know many people who do, so I’m not going to feel bad about that.  But as soon as I picked up Mattie’s little shoes, a huge rip in the leather practically screamed at me.  I have no idea how she sliced her shoes and again, since I don’t do a nightly check of their wear and tear, I really have no idea how long they have been like that.  I am hoping she didn’t go the first day with holey shoes…..but it is possible. Some times the smaller details escape me.  But she does have an adorable back pack so hopefully that distracted from her homeless child shoes.

Anyway, here at week number 3 or so, Mattie is getting her 2nd pair of back to school shoes.  I immediately went to amazon.com to order her the same little saddle oxford Keds that all her little friends have and that she has had for the past 2 years.  But right before I did, I was checking out some little sneaks for Reesie and just to see what she thought, I asked her opinion of a pair of navy and white Puma sneakers, completely expecting her to turn up her nose at them.  Primarily because I have the grown up version.  And also because even though she is a very unique little girl, she likes to look like everyone else and I figured she would instead love the opportunity to have shoes just like all the other girls in her class.  But shock of all shocks, she loved the Pumas.  Who knew?  I haven’t brought to her attention yet though that I have the same ones.  I still don’t know if that would be a selling point or not.

In other news, Michael’s has all their fall/ Halloween fun out now.  This might not be a big deal at your house, but when you have a little boy who adores bats, this is just about the best time of year.  He was absolutely thrilled when we walked in looking to pick up some scrapbooking paper, and discovered it was bat season.  It’s hard to resist your little man when he is holding a package of Martha Stewart die-cut bats (that don’t have scary halloweeny faces or teeth or anything I might add) and saying, ” Please Mama please can I have these so they can sleep in my room like a real live bat cave?” He was absolutely giddy when we got home and stuck them upside down with their little wings wrapped around their bodies on the underside of his bunk bed.  He wanted to put some by our fruit bowl, being fruit bats , but we haven’t really decided on that yet.

An one more little thing, Reese also got a new coloring book while we were at Michael’s.  They were all only a dollar and it’s not very often that you find Batman coloring books.  He has now been coloring for a full 2 hours.  And it’s not complete scribble/scrabble!  And he’s even been in a room by himself.  Reese really isn’t much for being alone.  He also is much for sticking with one activity for really long amounts of time, especially when they involve a whole lot of just sitting there and being still.  But apparently the secret to getting him to stay put in a room by himself, quietly on task, for a long period of time – is a batman coloring book.  I plan on buying 3 more.

And that is about all I have for today.  We are packing up and taking the show on to Mumsey and Poppy’s for the weekend.  Reese hates to miss out on sleeping with the bats, but Mums and Pops rank just a wee bit higher than the bats so he isn’t too bummed.  He did insist on packing his Jimmie Johnson gear though to watch the race Sunday with Poppy. Go #48!

 

A few Pictures, A few little Stories….Maybe some Pooh

I have a few posts in my head, they are stewing in there and I go to write them out and then delete them because they just aren’t ready yet.  They are getting close though.  But in the mean time, I just have a few random things to share with you this Tuesday morning.

I know that sometimes our own kids say things that we think are just hilarious and then we go to share them with other people and they aren’t quite as humorous as we originally thought.  But yesterday, there was an exchange that took place between my children that just cracked me up and I think its even share with strangers worthy.  We were driving along, traveling home after piano lessons and for some reason, Mattie had decided to be especially kind to her little brother.  Out of nowhere came the announcement that as soon as we got home, she was going to……….play with him.  They frequently do play together, but it’s not necessarily something that is done voluntarily or even really cheerfully.  If often has to happen accidentally for it to go smoothly.  Anyway, she announced that upon our arrival they would play with one another and when this event happened, Mattie would be Reese’s pet.  This in and of itself was just kind of funny to hear because you would have thought that she was announcing that Christmas would be coming early or that our tree out front was growing brownies.  But Reese’s response to his sister’s charitable offer was the best.  In a very serious, almost deadpan voice he said back to her (complete with his wonderful lisp), “Okay, but I’m not going to feed you.”

I really have no idea what that even means.  Was he implying that the theme of their play was going to be homeless cat?  Or did he want to focus on other areas of pet care like grooming, for example.  Or maybe like his mother, the idea of meal preparation, even if just for an imaginary pet makes him anxious and somewhat panicky.  Whatever the meaning, she seemed perfectly fine with this plan.

Another highlight of our day was going to Super Target to pick up a few things and seeing a new Lay’s potato chip flavor, Spicy Ketchup. Now what in the world does that mean?  I have seen chips with flavors like, garden salsa or zesty veggie, something along those lines – but never just plain old ketchup flavored.  Other than for the “what in the world” factor, I wouldn’t imagine that there would be a very big draw to such a flavor of chip.  We didn’t purchase them, being that we are more of a barbecue or ranch family ourselves.  I am terribly curious though, so if your Target is selling this same chip flavor and you feel more adventurous than I did and don’t have small children begging and pleading for everything within grabbing distance, please purchase them and then tell me all about them in the comments section.

Now on to a little news from today.  I don’t really like to be that mom that only has poop and eating stats to report when you ask about whats going on in my life.  I know that other than my husband, that sort of thing really doesn’t interest anyone and my kids especially probably don’t want it documented about their very personal life.  That said, it’s also very important to have at least 2 good embarrassing babyhood pooh stories to be able to throw out when the time comes.  I know my parents have theirs about Matt and I and to be really honest, they are pretty funny.  So here goes another one about poor Lila.

There has been some sort of darkness clouding over Little Lila since about Saturday night.  Things went from cloudy to thunderstorm late in the night when we were trying to watch some tv with Chris and Shannie and Lila just couldn’t seem to get to sleep.  Again, no one really likes the details about other people’s stomach issues.  So we will just say that it seemed as though Lila had a touch of some sort of tummy bug that required a lot of laundry being done throughout the night….over and over.  She seemed better on Sunday.  Sunday night, however, we were met with another stormy situation.  This time it just involved a lot of really loud, man-gas, lots of crying and she ended up sleeping in our bed with Brandon and I taking turns rubbing her tummy and patting her booty.  Last night was more of the same.  So this storm had been brewing.  Building and fuming a little, but not really coming to a head…..that is until today.

I walked into the living room where Lila and Reese were and immediately looked around for Crosby, just sure that he had had some sort of accident in the house.  As I was sniffing along, Reese says rather nonchalantly, Lila smells the worst ever of any baby.  And he was right.  I picked her up out of the swing and immediately headed to the tub.  As I unbuttoned her jammies, it only intensified.  I for one don’t really have a problem with baby pooh, especially breast milk baby pooh.  It’s certainly not a scent that I would like to have a candle made out of or anything, but usually it doesn’t really bother me.  This was not like that.  The smell that radiated from my child was like everything bad that you can think of all spewing out of one diaper.  It was like all the hate and war and pestilence and carnage that has every happened on this earth was being represented and coming forth out of her diaper.  I really expected to see a full rainbow and possibly a unicorn fly by, because there should be nothing bad left on this earth after what came out of her.  While cleaning her, the idea of using the Fantastic bathroom cleaner with scrubbing bubbles actually crossed my mind and I wondered if a person could get e coli just from exposure to themselves.

I was grateful that this had happened at home because all the wipes in the world could not have helped me try to figure that mess out.  And its possible that I may have been arrested for some sort of terrorism by baby plot.  And I just don’t have time for jail and bail bond isn’t in the budget.  All this makes me wonder if she got some sort of a bug or if she overheard me telling Brandon that we need to give my friend Stephanie her baby clothes back that she has loaned to us.  What type of person is she going to grow up to be when as a baby she annihilates borrowed clothing just so she doesn’t have to return it? I worry about us.

Lastly, before I go.  I just wanted to share a few little pictures.  The first are just a sampling of the 4 year photo shoot that Reese and I had yesterday.  He wasn’t feeling the whole picture-taking thing, so I did what every good photographer does…….I paid him.  For his time and effort he was paid 4 Cadbury mini eggs and allowed to wear his claw slippers for the entirety of our shoot.  I thought it was pretty fair of a deal.

 

We have also been doing a little “homeschooling”.  I started working with Mattie on her pre kindergarten skills when she was 4 and I figured I would do the same for Reese.  He enjoys doing his little workbook outside.  I hope he always remembers what a fun teacher I was.  I mean, not many teachers allow you to wear your pajamas and work outside.

Busily at work

And for recess, he took Lila for a spin in the Tonka truck……because she’s too little to ride in the F-150 out in the garage of course.

They both really enjoyed this…..really

And in other super exciting news, Matilda has learned to ride her bike without training wheels.  It took all of about 5 minutes and absolutely no tears or bribes.  There is definitely something to be said about waiting until they are ready and they decide on their own that they want to do things.  The times we push, it seems to go very badly.  But when we let them lead……well, this happens

Good job Mattie Belle!

 

There’s Just Something Women Like About a Pick-Up Man

Reese and I are big fans of consignment sales and thrift stores.  We call it “treasure hunting” because you really never know what you might find.  We have certain things that we like to keep our eyes out for, but for the most part, the fun is not knowing just what you might stumble upon.  This is one of our favorite times of year because several of the large churches around here (and there are hundreds) have these huge weekend long sales in the spring and fall.  It is fall consignment sale season in Memphis.  One of the things that we keep our eyes out for is toys.  If you have kiddos, or have ever purchased toys for them, you know that they can be super expensive.  Plus, I know my kids will often get these ideas in their heads that they really want a certain toy and then when they finally get it, they lose interest way too fast.  It feels like I am always saying no to them when we go to Target or something and they ask for a toy.  And toys are kind of like cars, the moment the packaging is taken off and thrown away, they are suddenly not worth anywhere near the 19.99 or more that was spent on them.  That’s where the beauty of used toys can come in.

I think it was last fall, Reese was still very much into Thomas the Train.  We needed a bag or box to put all his tracks and train cars in and on one particular Friday, had planned to go to Target to get a Rubbermaid bin right after we hit up some of these sales.  Well, at the sale, we found a Thomas bag with plenty of room for all his track and these special little compartments for his train cars.  It was fantastic and looked like new (it was actually still for sale at Target that same season) and it only cost $5.00. He has also scored a really elaborate Fisher-Price car wash, some fun Batman gear and a TON of books! Mattie even got a brand new in the box never been open Easy Bake Oven for $5.00. It’s wonderful because if the kids lose interest, you haven’t spent a whole lot and if they end up absolutely adoring that treasure, well you still didn’t spend a whole lot.

So Thursday marked the first sale of this season and we were excited.  Reese is hunting for batman legos this year.  Rather specific I know.  Will he find them, probably not, but hey its worth a try and you never know.  We scoped out the scene, lots of games and videos – not really our thing.  Reese found a Transformer that kept him occupied while I checked out the clothes (another thing I hunt for are uniforms.  Not even necessarily for my own kids but to put in the “trading closet” at school.  Uniform shorts, pants and jumpers from the actual uniform store are ridiculously expensive, but I have found several of them for way cheaper at consignment places.  I’ve even run across a few of our schools plaid jumpers which are normally $46.00.  So like I was saying, it wasn’t really looking like a real score for us until we were just about to leave and we saw IT.  Off by some junior sized golf clubs and a rack of Halloween costumes, as though it was just waiting patiently for us to turn around and see it – a Power Wheels Ford F150 Reese Sized truck, complete with a working radio. If you aren’t familiar with Power Wheels, they are kid sized vehicles that actually drive and my children have been wanting one for quite some time.  Mattie wanted a pink Barbie Jeep, but we never really had a place for her to drive it.  She is getting on the edge of being too big for one now, but Reese is still perfectly in the window of Power Wheel play.

He immediately jumped right in and didn’t even ask me if he could have it, he just sort of claimed it.  He turned on the radio, buckled the seat belt and just sort of looked at me like, “Whenever you’re ready mom, take your time.  I’m just going to wait here in my truck listening to my a.m. radio smooth jazz.” He did get out a few times to lift up the hood and check out the “engine” and then to put the tailgate down.  I reminded him that it wasn’t a Chevy and he does favor Chevys. His response, ” I like Chevy’s best, but I can like Fords, too.” I’m not sure if it was just because the truck was a steal or if I was still feeling very guilty about the burn on his little arm, but that Ford F150 came home with us.  I called Brandon and told him that Reese and I had found an awesome deal on a used pick-up and went ahead and bought it.  He didn’t believe me for a minute.

I have told Reese since he was very small that I would buy him his first truck.  We have agreed that Brandon and I will provide the kids with their first set of wheels as long as they contribute to the cause a bit.  Strangely enough, when we asked Mattie what she wanted for her first car, she said a van.  What does that even mean?  It still makes me laugh here as I type, little tiny Mattie driving around in her 15 passenger van.  Or better yet, one of those big conversion vans.  Or a mini van.  No matter how you picture it, it’s really hilarious and I love thinking about it.  Reese has always wanted a truck, like Poppy and Papa’s trucks….oh and Jimmie Johnson drives a truck too.  And Adam at church.  Reese admires Adam from afar.  Cool men drive trucks and now Reese is a cool man, too.  And I have made good on my offer to purchase his first truck.  The next one is all on you little man. 🙂

Reese begged to drive to Mattie’s school and pick her up.  Since that wasn’t going to happen, I compromised.  I let them out of the car at the end of the driveway and Reese ran up to the garage, fetched his ride, scooped up Mattie and technically drove her to her door.  She thought it was fantastic.

Hop on in, sis and put your stuff in the back there with my blanket

Pulling into his spot in the garage

Taking his turn on the open road…and Mattie bailing

And it’s good for the environment, it’s an electric truck of course! Plus he doesn’t have any money for gas

On a completely different note, we also purchased a little Noah’s Ark alphabet puzzle.  It is made of wood and starts with an alligator and it ends with a zebra.  From a to z, there are different animals, very cute though it is missing a monkey (m) and a snake (s), but really would life have been so bad had the snakes been left off the ark?  The really weird thing is that the animal for letter u is a unicorn.  I didn’t realize that there had ever actually been any unicorns on this earth? And to have them represented as an animal that was put on the ark just seems a little questionable.  So if they made the cut for animals saved from the flood, where are they now?  Just kind of a weird little discovery that we made while putting together our otherwise normal Noah’s Ark puzzle.  I think Reese and Mattie are okay, but this might really create some questions for Lila.  I better start working now to prevent a big heart to heart when she is around 4 of “Where have all the Unicorns gone mommy?”

Reese would like to put it out there that if anyone needs anything hauled or just wants to come and listen to some soft jazz as that seems to be what he is favoring, come on over or give him a call.  He and his truck are ready.

Mama Tried to Warn Him

Curling irons can be dangerous.  Which is why I tell even Lila, to not touch them because they are hot and will hurt you.  Mattie wouldn’t even bring mine to me from my suitcase to the bathroom while we were on vacation because she said that it was best for kids to just stay away from them.  I thought I had them all trained…..I was wrong.

This past Tuesday, it was just about time to fetch Mattie from school and I was just finishing my hair fixing for the day.  Reese had been up in the bathroom with me chatting away, and as I unplugged the curling iron and scooted it off to the side of the vanity, I said the familiar words of, “don’t touch this, remember it can hurt you”.  I thought he and I both walked out of the room, but I guess he slipped in behind me and actually used the bathroom.

I was downstairs putting Lila in her carseat, all set to be right on time to pick up Matilda.  Then Reese came walking in the room and the look on his face said that something was very wrong.  He was just sort of whimpering and right away I saw the familiar mark of a curling iron burn on the underside of his forearm.  Having hair that requires some heat to make it presentable, I have had my share of these burns.  It didn’t seem too terrible, though I’m sure it hurt, so I just sent him back up to get his shoes.  I barely got turned back around to start buckling Lila again, when I heard the scream.  The scream that I am sure all the neighbors heard as well.  I flew up the stairs to find Reese just standing there howling with tears flowing and this look of sheer panic on his face.  I asked what was wrong and all he could get out was, “my skin fell off!” as he stood there holding his arm.  Believe me when I say I did not want to look at his arm, but seeing as I was the only grown up around I figured I needed to put on my big girl pants and take a look.  Let me also take this moment to say that burns are one of my ultimate fears, not just for myself but for my kids and really everyone around me.  I so didn’t want to look at his burn, but even though it didn’t look good, it didn’t make me gag.  If I don’t gag right away, we are probably going to make it.  Right away I determined that we needed back up.  I do not know a whole lot regarding burn first aid and really, all my focus was on trying to make it not hurt so bad because Reese was still bawling and squeezing any part of me that he could find.

We decided this was a doctor worthy injury and called up our favorite pediatric nurse Tracy.  She told me to get her boy to her, now! And here we thought we were going to be right on time to pick up Mattie.  Thankfully, through all of this, my dear friend Sara was able to fetch Mattie, who then got to enjoy an afternoon with her friend Luke.

At the doctor’s office, we were told a few things – a) Reese would most likely scar due to his olive skin. 2) It could have been a lot worse, but it was still a good thing we came in. c) we needed to come up with a better story for him than a curling iron.  This was not the explanation that a boy who is going to grow into a man needs to have for an injury that is going to scar and stay with him for the rest of his life.  Especially when this person has very curly hair and so far everyone we had talked to about the curling iron had made some cheesy joke about him either not needing to use a curling iron or so that’s how he gets those curls.  Some before we left the doctor’s office, we came up with the story that he was working on a hot engine and burnt his arm.  That’s his story and he’s stickin’ to it.

So this week, I have enjoyed my new duties of burn care nurse.  I can’t think of a better event to wake up to than knowing I get to change Reese’s bandages.  I will save you the gory details, but lets just say these changes involve the word scraping.  That should be enough to make you throw up a little in your mouth so I won’t share any more.  Reese will no longer come into my room at all while I am doing my hair and I just haven’t been able to use my curling iron since then.  It’s just seems sort of wrong…..at least for now.

Absolutely pathetic isn’t it?

And this is also Reese showing off his favorite new shirt that Aunt Steph and Uncle Mark, Rosie and Kiki sent him for his birthday.  They live in North Carolina where Jimmie Johnson lives so he feels like it’s that much more important than his other number 48 shirts.  I have washed it 2 nights in a row now so he could wear it over again.  I think my curling iron burning him may have caused a little bit of mommy guilt and he has received a few more yes answers to requests that usually would have been met with an “I don’t think so buddy.”

Thank you Murrman, this shirt has gone into the rotation along with the batman shirts and two other Jimmie Johnson t-shirts. The Reese uniform of 2012.

 

School Shoes and Elvis Sightings

I have so many fun things to share, but because I don’t know how long I have here to write before my younger two children wake up, I will have to do it in little chapters.  First of all, I would like to say that we had a crazy thunderstorm last night.  That kind of thunder where you are pretty sure part of the earth cracked open just a little bit.  It wasn’t even raining for the majority of it, just this massive thunder making you think maybe it was the end of the world.  But all of that racket last night has created a very green, yet dark and dreary morning that I am kind of enjoying.  Maybe not the dreary part, but in our neighborhood, which is like living in a very dense forest due to the gazillions of huge trees all over, it’s very cozy feeling this morning.  I see now why Brandon and I were drawn to the couch that we chose.  It’s the color of a rainy day and who doesn’t like curling up on the couch and taking a great nap on a stormy day……..in the forest?

So back to my point, its been a big week here.  Mattie started 2nd grade.  Hurray Hurray!  She adores her teacher, Ms. Nkana.  They go way back as she was Mattie’s first grade teacher as well.  Brandon and I adore her, too and are so thankful that Mattie is with her again.

This was actually last year – big first day of first grade

All posed by the front door for the first day of school, 2nd grade

And here we are with Ms. Nkana on the first day of 2nd grade. Be careful Mattie, that backpack might get away from you!

Funny little story for you, more like a preschool version of the song “Ironic” actually.  So Mattie’s school has uniforms and part of the uniform dress code is that your shoes must be white, black, brown, gray, or navy.  Very typical of schools with uniforms.  Back when Mattie started kindergarten, I got her the little navy and white saddle oxford keds to wear.  They were appropriate for the dress code, were still sneaker-y enough for her to run and play, yet looked cute with her jumpers.  Most of the other girls wore shoes that weren’t really what you would call dress code approved.  They were more along the lines of this.

So Mattie and I would have little battles about her shoes.  She didn’t really dislike her own shoes, but she wanted some flashy ones too.  I would tell her that those weren’t the kinds that the handbook said she was supposed to wear and of course she told me that everyone else was wearing them.  I then told her that I wasn’t everyone else’s mother and we were going to follow the dress code.  I also have to take a minute here and say, I may be a little biased, but I thought my daughter looked absolutely darling in her little saddle oxfords and they just looked so classy with her little uniform.  I was raised a classic kind of girl and it would have just about killed me to mix hot pink sparkles and sequins with private school plaid.

Well, this year, instead of purchasing our regular navy and white keds, we had a pair of plain white keds that Mumsey bought her a few years ago.  This year they finally fit!  She liked that her shoes were something different (though pretty much the same as the years before) and was very excited about wearing them the first day of school.  Unbeknownst to Mattie, the powers that be at school had decided to actually enforce the shoe dress code this year.  No more flashing lights and flare on the footwear.  So she shows up to school on the first day and all of her little classmates, every last one of them is wearing the same little saddle oxfords that I have been buying her in years past…..except for this year.  So the year that you finally would have been like everyone else, actually the leader of the trend, and that’s the year that the shoes Mumsey bought you a few seasons ago finally fit.  She hasn’t complained about it yet…..yet.  I’m hoping she will have the attitude that she is a wardrobe innovator and she got all of these other little girls to wear shoes like hers and now she is moving on to something else.  Like being ahead of the times.  If keds can ever be ahead of the times, which I don’t really think is possible.

And one last little thing, this is a special week here in Memphis.  Yesterday is the anniversary of a sad day in rock n roll history, yet a reason for thousands of visitors to flock to our city every year – sporting raven colored side burns and weird lip twitches.  Don’t even think about trying to buy a pair of huge, gold sunglasses because this town is sold out.  Luckily, when you move in here you automatically receive an Elvis costume for all the members of your family (j/k, but wouldn’t that be something?) Yes, yesterday was the anniversary of the death of Elvis and there was a huge candlelight vigil held at the gates of Graceland last night, and there is a monstrous Elvis tribute concert at the forum this weekend and a 5k and all sorts of other activities honoring the King.  And most of this happens downtown.  But yesterday while Reese and I were purchasing a few first aid supplies at Target, we saw that a few Elvis fans (or maybe it was his ghost) had ventured away from the masses.  I suppose maybe they needed hair gel or something else.  It’s kind of a joke, living in Memphis, people ask if you ever see Elvis.  But yesterday, We saw 2 of him.  One of him was wearing an Elvis t-shirt of course and his trademark hair and some shoes that about cause Reese to trip because he was staring at them.  And the other had on a bowling shirt with TCB (elvis’ trademark saying – Taking Care of Business) all down the front.  He too had the hair and the glasses and the voice, fact is, he all but did a hip shiny right there in band-aid aisle.  I expected this day to come, just not at Target…..or on a Thursday.

If you hurry, you can make it here just in time for all the festivities of the weekend.  And I just heard on the news that several local eateries will be serving a special Elvis menu of the King’s favorites until Monday.  Probably something you don’t want to miss.

A Little Shot of Sisterly Sweet

 

 

I have some fingers and you have none, I’ll share my fingers it’ll be so fun

When I am old, I will hoard brownies and jump in Bounce Houses

I have several things that I would like to chat with you, my one reader as I imagine there are only about one of you out there, about.  But I feel like most of them will have to wait, but I have 2 items that happened just today and are fresh on my mind.

Number 1: Today was potluck at church.  I love a good potluck and once a month, we have one at church.  It’s lovely to get to sit and eat with your church family, but not have them all come over to your house.  It’s also wonderful when everyone participates and brings lots of yummies.  Today, many people attended potluck, but very few of them actually brought food.  I imagine there is a back story there (I would hope), maybe they drove off and forgot it or we had a lot of visitors that strongly resembled members of our church….either way, we were running a little short in the food department and a whole lot short in the dessert section of that food department.  The dessert table was cleared to empty before everyone even made it through the regular line.  This might just be the way I was raised, but to me, and this is just my humble opinion and doesn’t really count for anything, but it is just sort of tacky to go through the dessert line directly after going through the regular line, especially when you can see that there isn’t going to be enough dessert for everyone.  It just kind of come across like saying “I am scared to death that I won’t get dessert and even though I might be full after I eat all of this on my plate, I want to make sure that I have one of these 12 brownies even if that means many others won’t”.  That being said, I have gone through and got my dessert right after going through the entrée line when it was something like my grandma’s pie or Ms Erin McBride’s pies and cakes back in Tulsa.  Those were just incredible!  But there was a ton of other treats on the table as well, so it was more of a “I’m just going to save myself a trip” sort of a thing because there was plenty.

Anyway…….So after finishing their lunch, the kids made the startling discovery that there was no more dessert left on what had previously been the dessert table.  Nothing, not even crumbs.  Reese was particularly bent out of shape because he has wanted brownies for days and that was one of the options today.  And I have to say, I really felt bad having to tell them they were all gone…..but were they?  About that time, I just happened to turn around in my seat and noticed that the elderly gentleman at the table next to us seemed to not have the potluck dessert beliefs and values that I do.  In a bowl in front of him was not one, not two, not even three, but after staring at him for a really long time, I counted seven brownies !  It’s as though he took the whole platter and just decided that he would make it easier on everyone and not let anyone have any.  Not that it would have really made a difference as I am pretty sure that the person who made and brought them hadn’t prepared them just for him, but I stared at this scene hoping maybe he taking them home with him.  Nope, he sat there and ate every last one of them.  I even took a picture of him with my phone at one point but have decided against sharing it with you all, mainly because it upsets me. 🙂 I was just amazed at that and have talked about it all day to anyone who would listen to me.

And Number 2: On our way home, we pass by several assisted living centers.  Today as we were coming home, one of these centers had a huge bounce house/ jumping castle thing in their lawn area.  I was delightfully entertained at the questions that just came flooding into my head. Was this a special treat for the residents of the assisted living center?  Had they been really good and were being rewarded?  Had they all got together and decided that since they maybe had never bounced in a bounce house before, that they would like to do it now?  Sort of a “bucket list” sort of thing?  Was a child having their birthday at the assisted living center?  I’ve never thought of that particular venue as being a possibility, but hey, it could work.  And then a completely different thought came to mind.  I have always assumed assisted living centers to be for the more “elderly” set, but I suppose it could be for anyone needing some assistance with their living.  I for one could use a ton of assistance in my daily living!  I might just enjoy living in an assisted living community, I imagine my children would love it and with all the extra time and relaxed life I would have, I just might want to rent a bounce house to put out on the lawn for my family and any of the elderly to enjoy.  There was really no other explanation for the happy, bouncy castle sitting completely unoccupied in the lawn.  No signs advertising anything, no balloons or anything making the area look any more festive.  I just had so many questions!  But one question I don’t have is which nursing home I’m going to ask my kids to put me in when the time comes.

Baby Pictures

I had an odd experience yesterday.  It was a truly, “what in the world just happened” sort of a moment.  Mattie goes back to school on Monday and being the real plan ahead kind of mother that I am, I was at the uniform store getting her new set of MJA polo shirts.  I had all three kids with me, Lila hanging out in her car seat and Reese and Mattie were doing their best to keep her entertained.  I was waiting at the counter for the young man sporting hair cut similar to my mother’s and wearing a pink head band, to locate some Mattie-sized polo shirts, when the woman behind me began talking to her daughter about what I thought was Lila.  This sort of thing happens when you are out with a baby, I would imagine, to everyone.  The baby is looking around and making faces at people and they can’t help but talk to it.  Woman finally told me just how cute she thought Lila was.  I, of course, said ” thank you” and told her that was very kind of her to say.  She repeated it a few times and I have to admit – though I find my babies to be adorable, it’s also kind of a pat on the back when others out there say it too.  And I figure  random strangers, if they are going to bother to say it, must be telling the truth. I was quickly booted from my moment of thinking how lovely my offspring were ,to chatting again with head band boy when he came back to tell me that the uniform store was completely out of all navy blue and white polo shirts (just as a side note before some of you shake your heads at me as wonder why I was bothering to go to the uniform store to get my polos in the first place when Target has them for much cheaper, let me say that they must have the school insignia on them and you can only get that at the uniform store).  I would like to know how in the world a store that specializes in polo shirts, runs out of the two most common colors at the beginning of school.  You would think that they would have ordered a few extras this time of year and all.  Anyway, so head band and I were discussing my polo shirt options when I heard a click sound – the exact sound you hear when an iPhone takes a picture.

I am pretty positive that after just telling me what a lovely baby I had, that mom behind me took a photo of my lovely baby.  I was a little slow in putting all this together because I was thinking about shirts and gathering up my kids and the fact that the headband wearing boy had put the seed in Mattie’s head that she wanted a new headband in our schools plaid and could we please just see if they had any.  It wasn’t until I was paying for our things that it finally clicked that yes, a complete stranger had just taken a picture of my kid.  I have no idea what she was planning to do with this picture and really, since she didn’t know our name or anything, I’m not super concerned. It just seems odd to me, was she sending it to a friend just to say something like, “look at this cutie in front of us in line” or is it going to become her new wallpaper on her phone?  And either way, it can’t possibly be the greatest picture of Lila seeing as she was strapped into her car seat.  And if they had bothered to sit there and chat with me anyway, why didn’t they just ask if they could take a picture?  I suppose with phones equipped with cameras, this could actually be a daily occurrence that I just never realized before.  But it really seemed odd and I am so incredibly curious as to just what happened to that picture of Lila Bird yesterday.

In other news, Mattie got a haircut today.  Nothing huge as she is trying desperately to grow her hair out for Locks of Love.  I hate to tell her that I don’t imagine they will be able to do much with her hair, she is unfortunately the offspring of two people have extremely thin and fine hair.  Even if she grows hers out to her feet, there will probably only be enough hair to make eye lashes.  But the girl can dream.  She was very excited because she was going to go to the beauty shop and wanted me to sit in the waiting area so she could have her own private time with Nan, our fantastic hair stylist.  I heard her rattling on and on to Nan the whole time about this and that and at one point, as Nan had finished drying her hair and was about to use the curling iron – Mattie put her little hand out and very sweetly told her that she would rather it be straightened instead.  Cracked me up! So now, even though she doesn’t have her polo shirts, she is ready for school.  Because she has had her hair did.

And while I am just sharing little random stories, I have another little one I don’t know if I should be cringing over or laughing about.  Either way, it’s still funny.  So Mattie and Reese were in the playroom the other day enjoying a little game of what appeared to be restaurant.  Reese was sitting at the table and Mattie had just come up to take his order.  I didn’t quite catch the first part of what Reese said to Mattie, but she replied back to him that he had just missed Happy Hour and he would have to pay full price.  Before you judge me to harshly and think that my children have been bar hopping with me or something like that, I am pretty sure that Mattie was referring to my addiction to Sonic and their half price drink Happy Hour.  That still isn’t something I am exactly proud of, it would be nice if she was modeling some other, slightly more useful habit or even a godly trait – but it could also be much worse.

And lastly, moving seems to being out an odd little quirk in Brandon.  He has a bit of an organizational addiction, (similar to my route 44 sonic sweet tea problem).  It’s not so much that he has to have everything in its place and is always straightening things, he doesn’t have any obsessive compulsive issues either.  Mainly, it’s just that he loves purchasing sectioned containers to put our things in.  I think the reason he loved this house so much is because the closets had all been outfitted with these amazing organizers.  He couldn’t have been happier the other night when he brought home a new shower caddy and found an identical utensil holder at Wal-Mart to the $30 one he had fallen in love with at Williams-Sonoma.  He has probably spent a small fortune on these little guys and I really think that maybe next year for his birthday, I should fly him to the closest Container Store and just let him go wild.  I was expecting this quirk to come out, but I wasn’t expecting this other one.  Brandon and I are both clean people (I know some of you who spend much time at our home might be laughing as you read that – but yes, Brandon and I are….its just that Mattie, Reese and Lila don’t seem to be and they outnumber us).  We had the house professionally cleaned before we moved in and there’s just something about living in other people’s dirt that seems worse than living in your own dirt.  So we wanted a fresh start with the house……I hadn’t expected that to go down to the toilet seats.  Clean them, of course.  Come home and spend an entire night wearing rubber gloves and changing them out for the new ones you just bought at Lowe’s…..hadn’t planned on that.  That one really wasn’t in my new house budget.  I should have known better.  But he is proud as can be about those puppies now, especially their “no-slam” feature.  I guess he was just looking out for all of us when he picked them out.  He and Reese because the lids and seats won’t slam down when you go to close them – they just kind of magically coast down.  And us girls because I guess he and Reese plan to put the lids down.  So when you come to visit, make sure not to mention our oddly placed couch, but please let Brandon know how awesome your bathroom experience was due solely to the incredible toilet seats.

Oops!

I don’t make mistakes very often, hardly ever really.  So when the rare occasion happens that I do have a little blunder….I like to do it up really big.  I hope you read that whole last line as sarcasm  and didn’t for a minute take me seriously.  Anyway, I make mistakes quite often and it would be nice if my frequent mistakes could be little ones.  Yeah, that would be nice.  So yesterday, I had two of my finest “oops” moments and I really appreciate that they could be in the same day.

Brandon and I ordered a new couch for our living room back before we left for Florida in July.  We were very excited about finding something that we both really liked relatively quickly and it was a decent price.  Yes please.  The only problem was that it was a sectional and we weren’t  100% positive  which end of the couch needed to be longer.  Unfortuantely, when we closed on the house, the previous owners were still living here and we couldn’t just skip on over to measure the room.  So instead, we guessed.  And it was primarily me that was really sure about this guess that we made.  So even though Brandon was slightly hesitant, I insisted and we went ahead and ordered our big ol’ sectional.  It was scheduled to be delivered on the 14th, but to my excitement, I received a phone call this past Friday letting me know that is was going to be delivered ahead of schedule on Monday.  I decided to keep this a secret from Brandon and have him just come home from work Monday night and be pleasantly surprised. And we will just pause the story of the couch right there and move on to oops moment number two.

It is my job to pay the bills here in the Baughman house.  Our Discover credit card usually gets paid over the phone, but this month, for some reason I decided to pay it online.  I have never paid this bill online.  Brandon has back in the day when he used to handle the bills, but me, I have not.  So it took all of 5 seconds and I was done, not to think about it again.  That is until yesterday morning when I was upstairs spending some time with my breast pump while the mover man was surprising Brandon with our couch before he even left for work.

I decided to check my email and to my surprise, I had an email from Bank of America.  We have a Bank of America account but we don’t use it ever and I really wasn’t aware that there was more than 25 dollars in it.  I went ahead and clicked on it and saw that our account had been overdrawn by over $1,000 over the weekend.  What in the world?  I was completely perplexed as to what had happened. It was about the time that I realized the “Pay online” account was still set up with our old bank account that Brandon called up to me that the couch was lovely but I needed to come and see it.  I have to say, after making that money discovery, it didn’t surprise me in the least to walk downstairs and find that the couch was the wrong one.  The longer portion of it ran all the way from the wall to our tv cabinet.  It created sort of a couch fort in the living room.  It would be the perfect soft baby gate for when Lila gets a little bigger, but really wasn’t the look we were going for.  That was frustrating enough, but then when we called the furniture store to ask them about correcting this issue, that’s when I really just wanted to crawl into a hole.  It was going to cost $95 for them to come back and pick up the couch, 25% of the original couch price to restock it and another $95 to deliver us another one.  Mistakes are usually annoying, but when they involve money….oh those are some of the worst!  I did end up getting the credit card situation figured out and neither the bank nor the card were going to charge any fines, but that couch situation just was getting much better.  Brandon had called the customer service number and got the restocking fee down to just 10% of the overall price, but still.  I had decided that I would just be tapping into my little personal “cash stash” seeing as it was my mistake and all, but oh it made me sick.

Just to humor my mom, who through all of this was being very supportive and saying it wasnt that bad, we decided to move the couch around a little, just to see what it looked like.  It’s not what we had originally imagined at all, but we have decided that it will work just fine for now.  Especially if it means not being out a couch again for another month and having to pay another large chunk of cash.  So from this point on, we are going to pretend that the couch is exactly where we originally wanted it placed and we love it.

One other little thing I would like to mention that has nothing to do with any mistakes I have made lately, is our mail.  Actually, it’s not really our mail and that’s what I would like to talk about.  The previous homeowners here, wife especially, subscribed to some fabulous catalogues!  Because they are considered “bulk mail”, these magazines don’t get forwarded to their new address, so I guess that now makes them mine.  But the kids and I are loving them.  Every day there are usually at least one, but sometimes up to 4.  Yesterday, one arrived that was full of these adorable costumes.  Pretty outrageous little things, but so cute.  Reese is still carrying it around today after taking it with him to bed.  So thank you Holliday Family for daily entertainment via the mail.

Mumsey is leaving today, we are very sad as we have had a great time with her here.  It has been wonderful for me because I have had help with the kiddos and company all day long.  I don’t know if she would agree though because we have put her to work since she arrived.  She has been busy sewing curtains for the girls’ rooms and even reupholstered my dining room chairs.  Oh, and she also did my laundry, cooked for me and changed every diaper Lila has dirtied since last Tuesday night.  I will have to post pictures of the girls rooms and my new chairs and maybe even our couch later.  But right now, I am going to enjoy my last morning with Mumsey.