Mama’s Day Out and My Cleaning Service

I had planned to follow up my last post by posting again the next day.  I had planned to tell you all about my big day out.  How I woke up with plans that required the husband to take the girl to school because I needed to immediately get to getting ready as soon as she was out the door.  I was going to tell you about exciting it was to have my hair fixed and wearing “going someplace ” clothes and driving the grow up car.  The one with only two car seats as opposed to 4.  I even had a babysitter for the morning and treated myself to a danish from Panera.  Granted, the sitter was actually my husband and that’s parenting not babysitting, but still……and while I’m fully disclosing, it was my annual “lady parts” doctor visit that I was going out for…..but it was a high day just the same.  I could have done without the whole visit with the doctor part, but I enjoyed my alone time.

I suppose after reading that, you are all glad that I didn’t blog anything and could probably go for forever without having read that.  In news having absolutely nothing to do with my health and wellness, I put my kids to work this week.  Mattie is trying to raise money for her Uncle Ronnie and dear friend Mr. Adam who will be riding in a big deal road race that benefits juvenile diabetes coming up in September.  Mattie’s teacher has diabetes and the girl has asked these two riders if they would wear a sticker with her teacher’s name on their helmet if she can raise $100 for each of them.  She is always asking about jobs that she can do and usually, she is too busy just keeping up with her regular day-to-day stuff to take on new things.  But this week has been spring break and I’ve put her to work.  She and Reese spent the better part of Wednesday afternoon deep cleaning my car.  They probably aren’t ready to start a business based on their final results, but considering how it looked before, this was a great improvement.  It also kept my two bigger kids busy for the entire afternoon…..and that was definitely worth the money!

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Since Mattie is on vacation, that means we are in Arkansas.  We have been here since Wednesday night, and though we always have a good time visiting Mumsey and Poppy, this was an especially monumental visit.  As soon as Poppy finished with his classes Thursday night, we girls headed out on an adventure.

I have been blessed to take my kiddos to do a few special, once in a lifetime things.  I have been so moved to get to experience their excitement and if I’ve learned anything in my life, it’s to take advantage of the opportunities given.  Of everything we’ve been given, time is one of the most valuable….especially when that time is during someone’s childhood.  I loved every minute of taking Reese to Monster Jam and that Sunday back in the fall where Poppy and I got to have our racing experience goes in my bank of moments to save forever.

And this trip was Mattie’s turn.

The car was gassed up, we had a bag full of snacks and Reese and Poppy were going to have a man time sleepover.  We girls were headed through the plains with our gps dialed in to Oak Park Mall in Kansas City……home of the closest American Girl store.

Surprisingly, the girl had no problem sleeping and thanks to the black out curtains in our room, we all slept in till almost 9.  We dined on exquisite hotel breakfast fair, bathed and were headed to the mall by 11.

She didn’t say much as we drove………but she was excited.

I, too was excited, but I’ll admit a little nervous.  Mattie, like me, has a way of building events, moments, experiences up and then being terribly disappointed when a) it’s over or 2) that moment doesn’t happen quite as expected.  For as much as she had been looking forward to this, I could see how it could easily be a disappointment.  When we found out there wasn’t an American Girl Cafe at this location, I had braced for a full on meltdown.  The kind with rolling around on the floor and possibly even tearing her clothes.  She has talked about eating lunch at the AG cafe with her doll in a little doll chair using little doll sized dishes, since before Elizabeth came into our lives.  She handled it with a grace that we have not come to expect from Mattie Belle.  She was just happy to be going.  And as long as there was a doll hair salon, we were okay.

I took a picture of Mattie, Mumsey and the dolls in the parking lot right before we entered.  Mumsey looks happy, the dolls look like plastic, well loved toys and Mattie looks like she just might cry she’s so happy.

I’m going to put that picture in the “bank”.

 

Even Puke Is Better With Balloons….Oh, and I Had a Wreck, Too.

It’s been about a week since I blogged and I think more people looked at this site in the past 5 days, then in the past 30.  I wish I had actually written something, but then again maybe absence makes the heart grow fonder.

It’s been a week since I blogged because things have been hoppin’ around here.  Monday (of last week) started off giving me a false look into what sort of week I would be having.  I was extremely productive last Monday.  I think I may have even gone to bed Monday night with everything crossed off my to-do list.  It’s possible that I may have even wondered to myself, “What in the world am I going to do tomorrow?”  And for about 11 minutes, Tuesday was also just as amazing………

Then Reese woke up.

Actually, it wasn’t so much that he woke up, it was Mattie coming down the stairs to inform me that we had a puker up in the bathroom.

I immediately wanted to go back to bed.

Instead, I went to check on my puker, who was now leaning over the bathtub.  My children are nothing if not thorough in making sure that every surface has been vomited on in the room they are currently in.

It really is a wonder that we actually got Mattie to school at all, much less on time.  But we did and I am going to admit here, I felt just a little bit like a super mom because of what I had already encountered in the hour that I had been awake.  I should never, ever pat myself on the back – because not 500 yards away from the school parking lot, Reese started heaving again.  There was nowhere to go and nothing to do but drive and try to say reassuring things from the front seat while the little guy expelled his dinner all over himself.

Nothing deflates that ol’ ego like having to glance in the rearview mirror and see your child in absolute horror, because that’s what vomiting is to a little kid, absolute terror because they just know their insides are going to start coming up next.  And all you can say is, “You’re gonna be okay big guy….maybe see if you can catch it in your shirt because mommy doesn’t know about getting puke out of the upholstery.” Yeah, those weren’t my best momming moments.  We did manage to pull over and I got his sister’s car blanket (they both have blankets for the car) spread across him so that the mess stayed contained.  We also pinky swore to one another that we would not tell her what we did with her blanket for at least 10 years.

We made it home, just about, when I saw towards the end of our street a whole, huge mass of balloons tied to a street sign.  When I say huge mass, I mean, this street sign looked like the old man’s house on the movie Up.  There had to have been at least 2 dozen balloons there, waving in the breeze…..it was like a siren to me, swooning me.  So what if I had a child covered in his own vomit in the backseat?  He seemed to have got it all out at this point and hey, he had made it this long, surely we could drive a few more feet and investigate what was going on with all of these balloons.  I had no idea I was such a sucker for gaggles of silver and pink mylar balloons but it was like a trap had been set and I was paralyzed by their force.

We got to the corner and immediately saw that someone had been very busy the night before decorating this particular cul-de-sac.  Each house  had at least 1-3 balloons either placed somehow in the yard or tied to the mailbox, but then the chosen house, had a yard full!  Other than Disney World, or maybe when I took Mattie to see Sesame Street Live, have I ever seen so many balloons in one place in my life!  They were everywhere, hundreds of them and I have no idea what they were there for, but they completely made my pukey day.  Reese and I decided that someone must be celebrating their Sweet 16, but it probably brightened several people’s day.  How can you not smile when you look out your window and see an army of mylar pink and silver?

I think we should balloon bomb people’s front yards more often.  I am putting that in my bucket list, to balloon someone I love’s yard before I die.  * And as a side note, those balloons have lasted for days and I have smiled from ear to ear every time I’ve driven by that cul-de-sac.  Thank you so much whoever did that.  I don’t know about the recipient, but I sure loved it.*

We made it home, showered the boy for the 2nd time in 30 minutes and decided to take a slow day.

Which is good, because little did we know what was looming ahead of us for the car ride back to pick up Mattie from school.

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At about the same spot that Reese had lost his cookies earlier that morning, we sat pointed the opposite direction, waiting for the light to turn green, just a few yards away from Mattie’s school.  We were almost there, just waiting for the light, about 4 cars deep when we felt the whole car shake violently, jerking us forward and heard that terrible sound of metal against metal.  If I hadn’t realized it as it was happening, Reese hollering loudly “What was that for?!!!” quickly brought me into the present that we had just been rear-ended.

I don’t know what it is about our Acadia’s back bumper and college boys,  but they seems to be working collectively to destroy it.  College boy and I moved our cars over to the closest parking lot and he immediately got out of his car, ran over to us and asked if we were okay, quickly following that by a rather frantic, “what do we do now!!!!I’ve never done this before!!!!!” I calmly got out of the car, (I think my calm came because I realized I hadn’t done anything.  My experience from the last accident was overall pretty positive, so as long as I wasn’t going to have to pay for things and we were all okay, whack away on my bumper.) checked out the back and told the boy that we needed to call the police.

He asked if he could call his mom first.

I said sure.

We waited for over 45 minutes.

My kids ate all the snacks I had and I even offered the College Boy a piece of gum.

He seemed to be roughly Mattie’s age, which could explain why he hit me.  Nine year olds shouldn’t be allowed to drive.

He also never go ahold of his mom, which made me sort of sad because he called over the place looking for her.

There was one point while we were waiting and my children were playing tag around our cars, that he suggested that maybe we should just exchange insurance info because it was taking so long.  I think one of the many people he had called had offered up this piece of advice.  I assured him that I was pretty sure neither of our insurances would really like that idea, and we were fine to wait.

I didn’t tell him that the main reason we were waiting was because, even though I was being very calm and understanding, not giving him a mom lecture about paying closer attention and not once asking him if he had been doing something irresponsible like texting, that he still had part of his lesson coming to him.  Since this was his first accident, I didn’t want to deprive him of that reaming by a uniformed police officer that makes you feel like a complete idiot…..or that fat ticket he was also going to certainly receive.  It wouldn’t have been fair of me to not let him get the whole first accident experience.  So we waited.

Our officer finally arrived and when he pulled up and assessed that we were okay, his next question was what had happened.  The young boy started to talk, I figured that was fine because I really didn’t know what had happened either.  Officer interrupted him to ask the boy at what point did he finally see the large, black SUV directly in front of him.

It was at this point that I decided to busy myself with getting my kids back in the car because obviously this officer was not sparing anything in the humility department and as much as I enjoy a good laugh, it’s not so much fun at someone else’s expense.

We drove home, dragging a small portion of my back bumper along behind, but at least we were all safe and sound.

And I hope that young boy eventually got ahold of his mother.

I also think he would have been a prime candidate for a balloon bombing of his front yard.

 

 

I Have A Sleeve of Diapers Left, Should I Buy More?

Lila is taunting us, me in particular.  Friday morning, she made it very clear that she would not be wearing a diaper.  It frustrated her immensely and she demanded that it be removed from her body.

I obeyed

I then asked her if she would like to try to use the big girl potty and she actually said yes.  That in and of itself is huge, because up until the last 72 hours or so, Lila’s vocabulary consisted primarily of different ways of telling us no.

The tiny girl sat on the looming potty and………..she actually went.

I think she even surprised herself by what was going on.  There was much clapping and major high-5ing.

She rather ceremoniously threw that diaper into the trash and we headed victoriously into her room to dig around and find the teeny, tiny American Girl Doll sized underwear I had been saving for this very day.  * Side note* It isn’t really doll underwear, but it is about the same size as a pair of briefs Mattie’s Build a Bear came with….minus the slit in the back for the tail.* Because potty training is just that easy around here.

Don’t let my pompous air fool you, she peed on her “Auntie” Chelsea who was visiting for the weekend, within the hour.  And it was back to diapers because wetting on a friend was very upsetting and traumatic to her.

We don’t push potty training around here.  Mainly because it isn’t easy and its messy and there’s a certain level to commitment to it that really scares me.  Plus once you start, it’s really frowned upon to go backwards and I’m going to be real honest here, my life is pretty nice at the moment without having to constantly be checking in with a person who is barely verbal, about whether or not they think they need to go potty.  I have been in the middle of that twice already, and it is not fun.  It is no fun having to pick up your child and run like the building is on fire to the nearest restroom, praying that you packed an extra set of clothes in your bag because you desperately need to buy these groceries and they won’t let you with a urine soaked child.  Or worse yet, one naked from the waist down.

It’s time like these that having a little boy is just a little bit easier than a little girl.  Having your little boy go over to the bushes (even in a parking lot) and turn his back to you with his pants down around his ankles doesn’t seem nearly as unsettling as if your daughter just squatted there next to your car.

Anyway, potty training is hard and though its nice to get it over and done with, it’s quite the obstacle to conquer.  But Lila is interested and I am trying to foster her intrigue. I am not pushing things, but not stifling  her either.  She went twice today and received a Sweetart candy both times.

Then, while I was in the shower, I heard a little bit of commotion in the bathroom and peered out to find that her standing there next to the toilet with her mouth wide open, displaying her blue candy.  She then proceeded to show me, using gestures, how she had put the toilet seat down and climbed up, helping herself to the reward candy.  She was very proud of herself.

More high-5ing and clapping.

I am torn about whether or not to just grab this by the horns and make a week of intense toilet training.  On the one hand, it seems like a good idea.  But on the other….her dad is going out-of-town for the weekend and I have a wedding shower to prep for on Sunday, that’s a lot of gambling and I only have about 3 pairs of the teeny, tiny panties, which could mean a lot of teeny tiny loads of laundry.

Funny, when I bought that box of Pampers at christmas, I really didn’t think it would be her last.  I also didn’t think she would only ever wear up to a size 2 and still be in Swaddlers.  But then again, we used to joke about Mattie going to 3rd grade, still riding in a car seat and that is very much a reality much to her chagrin.  Now I’m beginning to wonder if she’ll ever be able to ride in the front seat….ever.

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I other news, we found a wonderful painter to refinish those furniture pieces that I was beginning to think were going to live in my garage forever.  I wish I had thought to take before pictures, but they are looking wonderful now.  Reese’s desk makes me so happy and he thinks it’s the coolest thing ever.  He doesn’t have a chair and we have no idea what exactly he’s going to put in his desk, but its navy blue and unlike anything his sister has and that makes if fabulous.

I think I thought I had more time to ponder the perfect drawer pulls for Mattie’s dresser, so now its painted and ready to be moved in and I haven’t finished my part of the deal.  I suppose I do still have a little bit of time though, because that dresser weighs more than all of the members of this family put together and I have no idea how we are going to get it upstairs to the girl’s room.  Drawer pull problem solved and postponed for at least another week or two.

Now that I have found myself a painting person, I am feeling all sorts of inspired to go furniture treasure hunting again.  But the husband just laughs because he knows that I have given up my visits to Goodwill until Easter……my plans of furniture flipping foiled by Lent.

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One of the little thing I would like to share just because it baffles me.  I did a little eBaying today while the kiddos were napping.  Nothing exciting, just trying to put 4-5 things up every few days or so and today was she day.  I listed a little pair of Lila’s sandals from this past summer, a pair of white Sun San Sea Wees for $6.99 at 3:44 p.m. For those of you not familiar with Sea Wees, they look like this:

They are pretty standard footwear for any child under the age of 12 here in the south during the summer months, which means from about late MArch to Mid October.  Just because I never do, I decided to also include a buy it now price so that someone would have the option of forgoing the auction entirely and just buying the shoes.  That price was set at $16.00, which I laughed at as I typed it in because it just seemed silly.

At around 6:45 this evening, there was a little “ding” sound on the iPad (which means you got a bid) and then a “cha-ching” sound which means someone has paid.  Not even 4 hours were those silly shoes up for sale, but they were bought (at a rather high price for used baby sandals I might add) and paid for.  I’m not really even sure what to make of that.  Though, there is another pair of the same type of shoes, only in navy blue that are in equally fantastic shape and the same price – so if any one of you  might be interested………..

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Have a Happy Tuesday and may your sandals all sell for the Buy it Now price and your children decide to potty train themselves.

Let’s Get Patriotic

We have a darling little video of Mattie, barely age 3, wearing a precious little sundress and sandals with her hair in those fabulous, natural  little curls that mysteriously disappear around age 6.  She is standing in front of a large mirror at my mother’s house, without a clue that I am watching her and also recording her, saying the pledge of allegiance complete with her hand across her heart.  The best part is right at the very end when she finishes and then says to herself in the mirror, “I need to go potty!”

I have been waiting for Reese’s big, solo patriotic performance.

He hasn’t really heard the pledge that much, and I’m not really sure where Mattie got it from either at 3 – but we don’t question her.  That girl has proven to have a wealth of information and intellect, but in completely absurd areas.  She is having her nana send her Russian phrases to learn ever week or so, and is doing really well I might add.  Her english speaking, however, well that could still use a little work.

Anyway, back to the point…….I figured it was coming soon.  Every Sunday, he and I faithfully watch the military jets do their flyover during the pre-race ceremonies of our NASCAR races.  We take off our hats and bow our heads for prayer that each driver will drive to their greatest abilities, be fair and sportsman-like, and walk off this track when the race is over.  And we put our hand over our hearts as someone sings our national anthem.  I usually sing along and he has been mouthing the words for a while now.  The olympics were a little bit of extra practice for him, right before NASCAR season started up again.

I knew it was coming, his solo performance of our national anthem and yesterday it did.

All was going beautifully and I was so proud.  It was right up there with the camp rodeo at Camp Kulaqua.  Where the horse barn staff people would wear these shirts that , right up until that moment, were so dorky – they were long-sleeved and sort of this canvas material that looked like they had cut up a flag and made a shirt out of it.  But as soon as Lee Greenwood’s “Proud to be an AMerican” came on and they would all come galloping out into the arena – holding their flags, wearing their flags, and their cowboy hats – I teared up ever single time.  I was starting to have a flag wearing, horse riding, Lee Greenwood moment

Then this happened….

Normally the song begins like this:

Oh, say, can you see, by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hail’d at the twilight’s last gleaming?
Whose broad stripes and bright stars, thro’ the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming?

Well, Reese sang that last line like this,”O’er the man parts we watch’d, were so gallantly streaming.”

Man parts, to Reese, are exactly what you were probably thinking the are.

I would give my right arm if I could go back in time have that recorded.  Just hanging out in the backseat, singing his little heart out about male genitalia and our nation’s flag.

I have laughed and laughed and then laughed some more.

We will be working on his pronunciation of ramparts for the remainder of the week.

And on that note, have a beautiful Wednesday and God Bless America

 

Wild Indians and The Best Cookies In The World Together In One Afternoon

I read somewhere that should you give something up for Lent, you shouldn’t tell anyone.  The reason for this is because then there is more pressure on you and also more temptation to veer off your path.  I think that’s exactly the reason that I shared with my blog friends, so that you could help hold me accountable.  Plus, I can’t very well get on here and tell you about my amazing Goodwill finds if I’m not supposed to be going there.  So far, I have held strong.  I did hit up City Thrift, which is another fine second hand store, much like Goodwill only a little seedier, but hey….no Goodwill.  I felt kind of like we had to go to City Thrift, though .  We go every Friday and there is a lovely woman named Shirley, who doesn’t have even 50% of her teeth, who adores Lila.  They have a special little thing going on and both seem to enjoy their Friday afternoon visits.  I went for Shirley….not for myself and my own need of a “fix”.

So I have a story about what else we did on this past Friday, because it was the first day in what seems like forever that going outside wouldn’t result in frostbite, but before I share that….I did something today.

Do you ever have one of those experiences where you are doing something, and you know that to people who might be watching you, it looks WAYYYYYYYYY worse than what it actually is?  And you really want to stop and walk away because you know just how bad it looks, even though its not bad at all, but you can’t because there is a reason you were doing it in the first place.

I should probably just tell you what I was doing.

So the kids and I hit up the grocery store today.  Lila had slept in until 10:30, Reese was in a fabulous-helpful mood, and M (my bonus baby) has given up napping at our house – so we headed out for a little hunting and gathering.  Our shopping trip had gone magically well.  No one bit anything or anyone, we didn’t have to open any food items before purchasing them, asparagus was on sale and since it was nap time, we pretty  much had the aisles all to ourselves.  We were literally skipping out of the store (that may have been part of the problem) when I heard that unmistakable sound of glass shattering.  Since my basket was full of children, I had to put my bags of groceries on the bottom of the cart and all that jostling around caused a jar of spaghetti sauce to jump ship.  We were about 3 cars away from our car and it looked terrible, like a crime scene right there in the middle of the grocery store parking lot, and I felt like I needed to do something.

Not sure what though……..

So I parked the cart, positioned Reese on baby patrol, walked over to the pile of spaghetti sauce and stared at it.

I looked really bad!

If I hadn’t know better, I would think that someone had vomitted (and here I was staring at it).  I didn’t know that there was really anything to be done with the unsightliness of the whole thing, but the shards of glass needed to be taken care of.  So I squatted down, there in the Kroger parking lot, in front of what looked like a pile of intestines and ran my hands threw that pile ever so gently searching for every last piece of that Prego jar.  And that’s the scene I created, knowing how terrible it looked, like a crazy person playing in their child’s puke.  Cars drove by, slowly, with elderly women gawking out the passenger side windows.  I’m pretty sure that one woman who missed the very crucial first 5 minutes of the whole dibocal, but had a front row seat for everything else, went to her car and had her very own puke fest.

Just looking for shards of glass fellow Kroger patrons, just looking for glass.

But it looked so bad….

And then cars started driving through it and it looked REALLY BAD!

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So back to Friday

We have found the amazing new cookie place and we are loving it.  I love a good sugar cookie, not too soft, but it can’t be too crunchy either.  It can’t be too shortbread-y.  And the frosting/ icing….I prefer it to be slightly hard.  There used to be a place by our old house that had the best little cookies, and they had the tiniest hint of almond extract.  I dream about those cookies sometimes. And this little place……it’s like they read my mind!

Everything I long for in a sugar cookie, though they are a little pricey, but hey – that could be a good thing, keep me on the straight and narrow.  We first hit up The Whimsey Cookie Company, which happens to be co-owned by Collins Tuohy (I was/ am a big fan of The BlindSide so this was very exciting to me) the Friday before the Great Snowpocolypse.  It is beautiful and whimsey, just as their name would imply.  Like a tiny little Wonka Chocolate factory, only pretty.  You walk in and immediately just want to wear a tutu and toss pink sugar over your shoulder like pixie dust.  I would imagine that if you peeked into the kitchen, there are probably unicorns with golden horns actually making the cookies.  Its just that fanciful.

And so we went back again this past Friday.

It was beautiful outside and we had the golden ticket of all cookies in a pretty little box in our hands.

We headed out to rediscover our own little Narnia that has been hidden in winter for far too long…

The backyard…..

Cookies were savored…..

Watching how sis does it

Reese had a chocolate covered pretzel

My little piece of heaven

Don’t be scared, this is a happy snarl

Enjoying that cookie

A new friend was brought outside for the first time to enjoy the sun…and cookies

Cookies with Prim, her sweet bear made for her birthday by “Grandma Patti”. Grandma Pattie is our previous pastor’s wife and she and Lila share a birthday

Socks and shoes were thrown by the wayside….(this is sadly true, I took off my shoes and put them way up high on the playset and completely forgot about them until a few days later)

Mattie pulled out her braids and let her true afro go free…

My children have some freakish hair

This is why she doesn’t usually go out in public without her hair contained

And then it magically happened, they ventured off the deck and the backyard then turned into a forest and their little imaginations that have been so absorbed in movies and apple products for the past few months, took control again.  They were children and they were indians and it was wonderful to watch.

I want to freeze this little girl

They started with sneaking around in the bushes, spying on me and the neighbors playing basketball in the driveway behind our house.

Holly hobby was very fascinated with stick collecting

Backyard crouching and spying

The best sticks are in the brush

Then they climbed the trees, and it was so wonderful that I just laid down in the hammock to suck their childhood right on into the memory banks.  I may have even rolled around in it a little. Savoring…..

Making plans

It was a wonderful, Peter Pan-y type afternoon.

They got dirty

She’s pretty excited about finally being a big girl and getting to roam free

They spoke in hushed tones playing the roles of indian siblings that were trying their hardest to create a meal using the “clay pots” that they had found (in the shed) and the “salmon” that seemed to be abundant in our backyard amongst the monkey grass – it was actually moss.

Making gruel

Looking very authentic in her school uniform

Sawing off the leaves

There was a lot of violent shaking of this tree that my photo just couldn’t capture

Reese was Little Bat, Lila was named Squawking Owl, and Mattie was Minnetonka.

The boy and his pot

Teamwork

Probably not to you, but this picture is just hilarious to me

De-barking a stick…a big deal

Now, pounding the “salmon” (actually moss)

De-barking this branch was exhausting…had to take a break

Things really got exciting and realistic when our “nephew dog” Gus arrived to spend part of the weekend with us – his parents had to run to Nashville for a bit.  Gus just happens to have a little Great Dane in his mix and makes a fabulous imaginary elk, moose, or whatever other large game they needed him to be.

Preparing our dinner

I don’t know who was more tired, the dogs or the kids, when the sun finally set.  Was it the magical cookies that brought on this magical afternoon?  Probably not, but they sure made a lovely pair.

 

 

It has Been a LONG week!

I’m not even sure if my child is enrolled in school anymore.  I sent her off with her father, backpack ready and lunch packed….but I’m not even sure that they know how to get to school anymore…..it’s been so long.

It is Thursday now and Mattie is just having her first day back after this past weekend, due to the crazy ice/ snow storm that blew in early Monday morning.  We were expecting school to be cancelled Monday….I was prepared.  We played some games, did a few little chores and the dad even came home from work early.  The kids watched Frozen too, which seems perfect because A) it was frozen outside and 2) We had just watched the Oscars the night before and were still laughing at John Travolta’s strange interpretation of Idina Menzel’s name when introducing her to sing, “Let it Go”…..from Frozen.

By the way, you can go online and put your name into the John Travolta name generator and it will show you how he would mispronounce yours, as well.  I would be Kyle Brazent.

Anyway, Day #1 was pretty good…a little hairy here and there and things got a little louder than necessary on a few occasions, but I think we all rather enjoyed our day.  I have to say though, I was a little confused and perplexed when we got the news that there would be no school on Tuesday.  Things seemed to be melting pretty well and it was supposed to be above freezing.  Tuesday did not go quite as well as Monday had.

Tuesday brought an all out brawl between my oldest children and I am pretty sure that we have now watched ever single American Girl-inspired movie ever created.  This may have only been the second snow day, but it was the fourth day that Mattie had been out of school counting the weekend and they were very over one another’s company.  Tuesday night, Brandon received a text that we would not be having school again on Wednesday.  This now just seemed like some sort of mean joke.  My yard has daffodils sprouting in it….not snow. Why why Why!!!!!!!!

As a joke, I may have texted Mattie’s teacher and asked her what time she wanted me to drop Mattie off at her house the next day, because she couldn’t stay here.  Thankfully, her teacher was also a little over spending the day in her apartment with a young puppy and could really use a 9-year-old girl with 3 days of stored up energy to play with said puppy at the park.  Mattie was thrilled to get to do something, especially with her teacher, and I’m not gonna lie, even though it was during nap time, it was so nice having one less child to keep entertained or in their bed.

Technically, it is 8:06 as I am typing this, so that must mean that there was school since Brandon was able to successfully drop her off.

Crazy stuff though, I guess that just north of us still in our same county, things are absolutely treacherous and school is still cancelled.  It’s supposed to be in the 50’s today I think and here in the same school district, the roads are covered in ice.

Oh no! I hear the garage door!!! Please don’t tell me she’s back?!!!?!!!

False alarm. the husband just forgot something.  Phewwwwwwww, that was close.  I have absolutely no idea what I would have done to keep them all entertained today!

On another note, Mattie came to me with a very good question yesterday.  She had been looking at her calendar and saw that yesterday wasn’t just Wednesday, it was Ash Wednesday and the start of Lent.  We are not catholic and she doesn’t really get out a whole lot, so this day was completely foreign to her.  I tried my best to explain, (with the help of a website called catholic questions kids have).  I must have sounded pretty convincing, because the kids asked if we too could celebrate Lent because they also wanted to give up something that usually brought them great, though temporary happiness to find truer happiness with Jesus.  Mattie is giving up movies.  This girl loves movies and loves nothing more than having her way with the remote while trolling through Netflix.  We were going to take away her iPod, but that has her sleeping music and alarm for the whole waking up for school thing so it got to stay.  No movies though.

Reese gave up Lego Batman, the video game….he’s hurting right now as the 8 o’clock hour in the morning often finds him getting his daily allotted game time in.

Brandon has given up carbonated beverages.  I suggested coffee and you would have thought that I asked him to quite breathing for 40 days.  He didn’t get hysterical, he just looked at me and pretty much said, “I’ll die…you know that. And kind of scoffed at me as he continued on with his dinner.” He’s probably right though, so the coffee can stay.

And it was decided that I would be giving up Goodwill.  I had first suggested chocolate and still feel like that is a very fair Lent sacrifice, but the others in my family thought it was a cop-out.  And they are probably right.  I think it’s a little unfair though because I wasn’t allowed my Fat Tuesday of Goodwill Hunting the day before it was taken from me.

Lila is screaming right now.  Sitting at the top of the stairs, screaming because she has given up her pacifier….except when sleeping.  We have caught her hiding “sosas”.  I witnessed her going into her room and crawling on her belly under her bed.  She came out with a “sosa” in hand and just plopped down on the floor and had herself a good tug.  She had her back to the door so she couldn’t see me watching her.  She just like a little addict, digging frantically through her stash to get a little fix.

Easter, please come quickly!