Ahoy, There Fancy

I’ve mentioned before that we are fortunate to live nearby the “fancy” Kroger in town.  There are two that stand out as just a little bit more important that all the others, I think probably because they compete with Whole Foods.  Whatever reason, it makes me feel a little more lavish to do my grocery shopping at such a bougie establishment.  This past week, Lila and I were picking up a few items at our neighborhood Kroger and as we moseyed through the produce department, I couldn’t help noticing that part of the apple display had been repurposed as a real-live cranberry bog.  I have no idea how many fresh cranberries are sold during the holiday season.  That is not my area of expertise.  But it seems like they would still be just as good, just as fresh if they were sold in the plastic bag.  I am very curious if fishing for your cranberries makes them taste any better.  Whether it does or not, my little girl is loving the new addition!

And I feel very froufrou with the addition of the bog.  It’s almost like if they got rid of the apple display altogether and just installed fruit-bearing trees.

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I purchased something for my youngest “child” the other day and was absolutely thrilled when it arrived in the mail.  Some of you readers may know that I have a special affinity for all things nautical.  My favorite colors have always been navy and white and 95% of my wardrobe consists of stripes…..and navy and white.  I have anchors scattered throughout my land-locked house and even Lila’s 2nd birthday had a nautical theme.

My navy and white summer stripes

My navy and white cooler weather look

Those are anchors on my first day of school shirt

And my husband’s wedding band looks like this:

Its a wonder my children are named things like “Portside”,”Starboard”, and “Outrigger”.  And this was our family Christmas card picture two years ago:

My sweater says “El Capitan” and that is a giant wicker anchor we are posing with…..it typically hangs on my kitchen wall

Since I can’t buy her a sailor dress and she doesn’t wear hats, this was the next best thing…..maybe even better.

I feel like she doesn’t even need her dog tags attached because with that sailor collar, everyone ought to know who she belongs to.

**********************************************************And lastly, because this is my blog and that gives me permission to brag on my children a bit – I wanted to take a second to give a little shout out to my girl Mattie Belle.  Not only is she smart, thoughtful, and lovely on the inside and but I am terribly impressed with her ability to draw an Arkansas Razorback.  That is no easy pig to draw my friend, so what if the tusks aren’t even.

WOOOOOOO PIG SOOOIE

Happy Thanksgiving Week friends and may you take a minute to find joy in the little things that sometimes make the big things easier to manage.

Pumpkins on The Beach

Not quite a month ago, my little family and I took a trip.

I didn’t blog about it.

It’s not that I have forgotten about it, quite the opposite actually. It has been my touchstone several times over the last few weeks, my little spot of calm and perfect in the chaos that has seemed to envelope our lives.*More on that at another time, or maybe not at all because frankly, I don’t want to talk about it.* It was a perfect little trip, to a little spot of Heaven on the shores of Santa Rosa Beach.  If you have never gone to the beach in October, I would highly recommend it.

We got in the car on a typical Memphis October day, with pumpkins on our front porch and the leaves starting to fall…….and in a few hours, we arrived in the balmy air, still warm from a sunny day, that stays year round in a magical place simply known as 30A. Even though it was dark by this point, and a bit late – we gathered up our little crew and took a moonlight walk along the beach.

I wish I had tons of stories to tell about our crazy adventures.  Actually, I don’t.  Because I really loved the fact the our entire time there was relaxed and calm and we spent probably 85% of our time in the same plot of prime beach real estate.  Mark, Steph and the girls met us there and we had a lovely little Murrman family reunion.  Our men had worked hard on finding us the perfect little beach house, just across the street from the glittering Gulf Coast.  Let me just say also, this rental place was incredible! It was new and smelled nice and stocked with plenty of towels and t.v.s….but more than all that Steph and I were swooned by the little extras.  Extras like, a whole set of plastic dining wear in the kitchen for the kids, laundry detergent and dryer sheets down in the utility room, a closet stocked with board games and dvds and a garage equipped with 3 Beach Cruiser bikes, an umbrella, ice chest (we didn’t use) beach chairs, toys, and a little cart to put it all in.

Pretty much all we had to supply were the adorable kids to frolic on the ocean, a little bit of food and sunscreen.

Uncle Mark helped them build a sand car

My childhood bestie and her precious family – the real thing is so much greater than the pretend husbands and babies we had as little girls

Uncle Mark’s boy

We spent our whole vacation on the beach, except to check out a Goodwill around the corner, a gift shop and a Children’s Consignment Sale at a church that we passed on our way back from Goodwill.

Making Mattie a mermaid

The ocean beckoning to Kiki…I love the little footprints in the forefront

Yes you are Birdie, yes you are

Our one night dining out – we saw 3 or 4, maybe five different wedding parties or brides and grooms getting their pictures done on the beach. My purse may have photo bombed several of their shots.

We will be back Santa Rosa Beach.  We didn’t get to ride those bikes as much as we would have liked.  October at the beach, no crowds, perfect water temperatures, and you get burned without even breaking a sweat.

Plaid

I made my bed again yesterday.

We had a babysitter last night and I always assume that when left alone, sitters will roam my house and make judgement calls about our cleanliness, whether or not we have committed any crimes, and all sorts of other personal business.  So I clean up for their snooping (that I am assuming they are doing) and hope for the best.

I have no reason to believe that our sitter did any snooping and actually, when we returned home we found her marooned in the dining room, possibly in the dark, because the kenneled Cybill kept barking at her in the living room.  But if she did, she would at least think that I make my bed regularly.  She for sure thinks our dog is crazy, but never mind that.

In other news, I was looking through old pictures from last year and came across this one of Reese and Landon at last years school Zoo Day:

It seems they have a history of roaming the zoo pushing a red stroller and looking like bored, hipster dads.  Even though the little sisters probably won’t be interested in stroller riding at all next year, I think it should come just to see if these two boys are drawn to pushing it again.

This year, in case you forgot

And while we are comparing pictures from this year and a few years back – I have been known to hang on to things, items from my children’s early days.  They each have a box with special things, first night gowns and favorite church outfits.  There are some things that all 3 have been able to pass down…..but mostly not.  Because I was only going to have 2 kids, when I found out the #2 was going to be a boy, there was a huge liquidation sale on all the baby and little girl clothing that I had been hanging on to…..just in case.  Mattie had tons of darling little dresses, but unfortunately most of them didn’t end up in the special “Save Forever” box.

This is Mattie Belle in one of my favorite Christmas dresses – please forgive the “picture of a picture.

Right around 2 years old

And somehow, this little dress has made it back into our lives just in time for the holidays again…..about 8 years later.

A few months shy of 4

These two couldn’t be more different, but its always striking for me to see their side-by-side pictures.  One has light, stick straight hair and the other a dark curl top.  One a bit more ornery than the other.  But both VERY strong-willed, vivacious independant little women……who know how to wear a plaid, holiday dress!

And while on the subject of plaid………….

There are some people at my children’s school who take the dress code VERY seriously.  Its a big deal to make sure that everything is just so and that our children never, EVER deviate from what is written in the handbook.  It’s a good thing that Target has our back .  While shopping for toilet paper and paper towels yesterday (my favorite!) I happened down the band-aid aisle and came across these beauties:

Guys, that blue is our school’s plaid!  How did they know?! Now I can tend to my childrens’ first aid needs without worrying that they might be compromising the dress code.  To be honest, (and a little sarcastic) I have been wondering when the day would come that I would get a note home or a phone call asking me to come get my child because their Elsa or plain, flesh colored band-aid was not natural looking or had the school logo.  Now my worries are over!  I’m so excited for that first injury!!!!!!!

Have a great Tuesday!

I Am A Stay At Home Mother, Not a Maid…..Just For the Record

I am not proud of it.

The other night before going to bed, I deep cleaned my bathroom.  It was late, entirely too late to be entertaining my inner Mr. Clean, but it had to be done.  The next morning when I woke up, my priority number 1 was to make my bed.  I started to do it while the husband was still in it, but eventually decided to postpone my room cleaning frenzy until after the room was no longer occupied.  It was not because the messiness of my room was bothering me.  The hairspray film that was starting to coat my counter top like a new paint job wasn’t my favorite, but I had learned to live with it.  Some people require that the bed be made when the go to get into it again each night – I have no problem with my sheets being just as I left them when I wake up.

So why the sudden nocturnal cleaning frenzy?

The plumbers were coming sometime between 8 a.m. and approximately 10 p.m.

I wanted to be ready

I realize that these men work in a field that deals with more toilets than the average job.  They are faced daily with clogs of human hair and almost as much human feces as an early childcare provider……stay-at-home-moms are in this category, also.   So much poop!

Why is there so much poop in these early years?!

But I would be darned if these men left my house, after examining my toilet, and even had a fleeting thought that my bathroom was anything less than sparkling fresh.  And a woman who has no job should have plenty of time to make her bed in the morning……I don’t personally have that belief system, but I automatically assume that everyone else does…..especially my plumbers.

My toilet is now fixed and my bathroom is clean, but the damage is done.  The realization has hit me that not for my own self, not for the health and well-being of my family, not even always when we have company coming over do I clean my house.  But for the impending plumber visit.

Thankfully, the cleaning lady showed up today

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I thought that it was time that I shared some baby pictures.  It is the “in” thing to do these days, to take a picture of your infant with a prop (a pillow, or stuffed animal, something that will not grow) to show from month to month how much the little one has grown.  I was looking through pictures from last month and came across this one of Miss Cybill, back in August.

So sweet and tiny and sleepy.

It just so happened that next to me on the couch (because I’m at a vulnerable time these days and have no will to tell her no) was that same canine now 2 months later:

It looks like November Cybill ate end of August Cybill.

*Side note, Cybillion had surgery to be spayed and reconstruct her vulva (because she’s fancy) the last week of October.  She had her sutures removed this past Wednesday and the doctor has declared that she can be cone-free today.  As a family, we have voted to keep the cone for at least another month.  She is must easier to catch when running away from you because she has swiped something, when she is wearing the huge plastic satellite dish.  It is also a deterrent from weaving in and out of the table and chair legs.  The cone also acts a blinders and keeps her face from smashing quite as hard into the front door when she comes barreling down the stairs. I do have some lovely bruises on the back of my calves from her daily practice of “coning” me out of her way.  And by the color and size of those bruises, I’m in her way a lot.  But I think it’s a fair trade*

One last little thing before I go, to maybe clean other parts of my house now that my own room looks so nice – this was shared with me the other day, something a friend put up on Facebook and I thought it was fabulous.  I am saying nothing about my own up bringing, but Mattie and Lila……..You’re welcome!

This isn’t something they teach in those parenting books…..it’s just a gift……possibly handed down to one generation after another.

I Didn’t Want To Fold The Clothes or Take Ebay Pictures

It was blog or take eBay pictures this morning.

Taking pictures seems easy enough at first, but I prefer to take my photos outside and Cybill is outside.  She is minding her own business and just basking in the sun, I would hate to interrupt that.  Also, I would hate to have to cram her happy, excited, ever-growing body into her kennel and there is no way I could be outside and her not want to jump and play.  Something tells me photos of children’s clothing with a rabid looking dog leaping in the background aren’t going to be particularly beneficial in my sales.

I would like to use some of my time here to send a public service announcement to our home team, the Memphis Grizzlies.  They have been on the road, out West, and things haven’t been going well.  That is putting it very, VERY mildly  We aren’t really sure what’s going on, as we had high hopes for this year in basketball.  A bad season won’t sway us, we are loyal.  But a win would be nice.  I am also considering calling in to our local sports radio station and just asking them what I need to do, as a concerned citizen, to help my team out.  I have friends who think this would be a wonderful idea, considering my wealth of basketball and all other sports knowledge.  I think I could quickly become a favorite caller.

So to our team, we believe in you.  We are concerned about you and it’s no fun to watch your games at the moment.  Being spanked was no fun as a child and it’s not any better now as an adult, so any time you want to get your act together and start playing ball again would be great.  But in the mean time, we will grind on……faithfully.

I will stand on my couch, swinging a yellow towel above my head yelling “I believe” even as you miss 3 after 3.

Because we do believe.  The magic will be back.  Memphis vs. errrrrrbody, right?

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So last weekend was Halloween.  We are not particularly big about Halloween here, though my middle child went through about a 3 year phase of really loving skeletons, which led many to believe that we were really into spooky things.  Just because your boy sleeps with a skeleton torso doesn’t mean he’s into ghosts and ghouls, people!  And he has bats on his window because they are his favorite animal and he likes the idea of them sleeping with him in his room.  I suppose some people could think we are really taking the Halloween decorating to an extreme, the stuffed bats hanging upside down from his top bunk creating a “Bat Cave” feel in his room.  But really, it has far more to do with a love of nature than a belief in the undead.

But we still dress up

My kids love dressing up and since we live in one of Memphis’s top rated Trick or Treat destinations, it only seems right to let them go out all decked out and collect 10 lbs of chocolate from our neighbors.  (Truly, 10 lbs I weighed it and that was after we had all grazed on it for a few hours.)  Mattie likes them to go as a theme.  Some years I have done better than others.  There was our third year here when we went as the Krispy Kreme family.

And Peter Pan and Tinkerbell were pretty adorable, too.

I may have been reaching a little with the Bindi Irwin and her croc and turtle

And I’m not going to lie, last year’s malaria got lost on most of the neighbors

M-A-L-A-R-I-A…diseases never looked so cute!

But I think we really hit a home run again with this years’ group ensemble.

Can you guess what they are?

I don’t know if it’s a sad thing, a funny thing, a weird thing or if I should be proud, but all of those items they are wearing as part of their “costumes” are from their actual closets and part of their regular wardrobes.  The cape was a new addition, thank you Mumsey, but other than that………….Lila doesn’t usually run around in her nightgown, but it’s not completely unheard of either.

We had a great evening, the kids actually working together as a little team – they learned early on that people like sibling theme costumes and show their appreciation by handing out larger quantities of candy.  They held hands and skipped up the sidewalks together, cheerfully harmonizing “Trick or Treat”.

Okay, that’s a complete lie, but they at least waited for each other before crossing the street and there wasn’t any tattling or fighting.  That’s about as close to harmony as we get these days and I will take it!

I’m Not Avoiding You

Every day for the past two weeks, I have had a nagging voice in my head reminding me that I have a blog and I should probably write something on it.  Every day, it has become easier and easier to ignore that little voice and just continue on with whatever it is that I am doing instead of blogging.  I hate to admit how much time I have recently devoted to sitting on my favorite stair (the 4th one), coffee mug in hand, pajamas still on my body and just stared blankly out my front door.  I have no idea what I’m looking for out there or if I’m really seeing anything at all……but doing that has felt far more enticing than writing here.  The biggest times that I feel compelled to write are when I am in the middle of driving.  I think my head plays tricks with me because it knows that it is physically impossible for me to actually write (on my laptop, especially) when I am driving my car……..but that is the time I find that I actually want to do it.

We have been busy here.

Every weekend, something going on or somewhere to be.  This past weekend, we started things off right with Parent/Teacher Conferences.  Nothing rings in the weekend quite like chatting with your kid’s teacher right after school……especially when you have to remember to bring “The List” with you.  The only good list to have is the wish list for christmas, even grocery lists can cause trouble some times.  We all lived through our conference, all items addressed and hopefully taken care of.  I feel like we handled things well, though I was chugging my bottle of coke a little too desperately.  I probably shouldn’t have even taken a beverage in with me.  In hindsight, that seems really unprofessional……but then again, I’ve never claimed to be a professional parent.

Saturday, we went to church and then over to our friends the Woods house for dinner….which turned into desert, which led us into afternoon “Fellowship” which carried us right into supper time.  In our defense, we would have left hours earlier, but Dr. Gina kept putting more cookies out on the table and everyone knows that as long as the hostess keeps feeding you, you’re still welcome to stay.  And stay we did………

Squish and Uncle J

Really getting a blessing from church , aren’t we boys?

Sunday, we had school.  That sounds really weird and truth be told, it is weird.  I’m not exactly sure why we have a few required Sundays of school, though I think it has something to do with snow days or us being able to get out of school at a certain time.  But regardless, it is just something that I have come to accept.  We parents complain, the kids even complain……that is until they get there and then they are suddenly the happiest they have ever been because they are with their friends, and it’s not a normal school day, it’s Sunday and it has been SUCH A LONG TIME since they last saw each other (like 36 hours maybe).  I think they very first year, we actually made an attempt to see the animals while at Zoo School.  But things have changed.  After doing this little ritual for a few seasons, we veterans of Zoo Day Sunday have learned to just mosey along and let the kids just enjoy each others company.  Most of us have zoo memberships so our kids have been there a gazillion times.  They like the zoo, the like the animals, but the novelty has somewhat worn off.  Also, no matter how cool the animals are, there is just something magical about being surrounded by your friends.  This visit, we spent the longest amount of time congregating outside the carousel (which wasn’t even running or even opened for the day yet) while the kids played on these weird vibrating massage chair things.  It wasn’t until the kids had been completely enthralled for about 15 minutes, that a sneaky parent actually slipped a quarter into one of the machines….igniting it.  They screamed, they scattered and then as fast as they could, they all piled back on again to be shaken for 45 seconds.

Riding the quarter foot massage chairs

Funnest ride ever!

I am not 100% certain, but I’m pretty positive that all of those kids in our little caravan have been to some sort of amusement park, been on a plane, or even ridden that silent carousel.  But they acted like that crazy foot massage chair was the most incredible thing they had ever experienced.  We spent another 25 minutes and $2.50 in quarters there before we finally made our way on through the zoo.

Who needs exotic animals when you can sit on a curb and play with leaves with Emily?

Is it just me, or does Landon look like a miniature man who is on a mission

Besties

After the zoo, we stopped by home to let the dog out, eat a hearty meal of Spaghetti-o’s and then headed to Mattie’s second last soccer game.  I did not type that wrong.  This was her second, last soccer game.  Last week was supposed to be the last.  That’s what the calender said and that is why I made a big deal about getting something extra special for my snack mom duties….because this was their last game!  But it wasn’t and after Sunday, I found out that one wasn’t either.  This is the longest soccer season ever!  It’s the Groundhog Day of Girls 3rd-5th grade rec league soccer.

And when we got home, I sat on the couch and did nothing.  Because I had been doing SOMETHING since entirely too early on a Sunday, I thought I deserved a little nothing time. I watched my race. It was just the tail end of it, but it has been forever since I saw the end of a race! And our guy won!  Our team won their football game too,later that night (and the night before). It’s a wonderful feeling to do nothing, but to win at it.

And now the week has started back up again.  The dog and her cone collar are sitting here next to me, inspiring me that this is the week that I rise out of my slump and become productive again.  That pile of children’s clothing that was supposed to be out of my office weeks ago because I was going to sell it and get a nice little addition to my fun money stash……..I’m coming for you.  You’re days are numbered clothes-I-have-already-spent-the-money-I-was-hoping-you-would-bring-in.  Not really, but the fun money tin is getting low.  This mass of pictures and little anecdotes I have jotted down in my phone, oh you are going to be blogged about.  It might just end up being a senseless photo dump tomorrow afternoon, but by George, it’s time!

Happy Monday!