crazy driver

I've been wondering lately if my driving habits are odd.
Does anyone else do this?...

• When I'm looking for a place or address I take off my sunglasses and turn off the music when I get in the vicinity. Like that helps me concentrate on finding the place I'm looking for or something?...

• When I'm pulling up at a red light and I'm the only one there or the first in line, I always move over to the left hand lane in case people behind me want to turn right at the red light. I always think there's no reason I need to be in the right lane if I'm wanting to go straight, and someone behind me might be waiting to turn right, so I always make sure I'm in the left lane so they can make the right on red. And I know it's dumb, but consequently when I'm running late and I'm sitting there at a red light wanting to make a right hand turn but the person in front of me is sitting there in my way waiting to go straight thru... and there's no one next to him in the other lane where he could have just as easily been sitting waiting to go through the light... I'm always irritated.

• When I have my kids with me, I always park in any open spot next to any cart return corral thingie at the store. That way I can throw my stuff and my kids in the car and return the cart without having to walk halfway across the parking lot. When I'm by myself, I never park anywhere near them... in my mind, leaving them open for other parents. In reality I know other people without kids are just as likely to take that spot, but still. I can't make myself take them when I don't need them.

• When I drive with cruise control on, I still have my foot hovering over the gas pedal. I just can't get myself to relax and put it on the floor. It's like I want that split second more time to react if I suddenly need to hit the brake or the gas for any reason. I don't even realize I do it until I'm done driving and my front calf muscle's all tight from holding my foot like that. I took a road trip down the west coast once with a girlfriend and she would drive my (stick shift) car with cruise control on and one leg tucked up under her half indian-style all the time. Freaked me out, every time!
  

• If windows are rolled down, I like the one on the opposite side to be rolled down the same amount. I know, this is weird! It's something about the flow of the air that bugs me. It drives me nuts when one of my kids wants their window down and the other one doesn't. I have issues.
  

do we have to go back to winter??

Sixty degrees was the forecast yesterday. I never heard the actual high, but I wouldn't be surprised if it was 70*. It was awesome.

We were outside The Entire Afternoon. Between lunch and bedtime the kids had been all over the neighborhood, covered the entire driveway in chalk, fed the ducks at the pond around the corner, ended up barefoot in the sandbox and splashed in a couple of homemade puddles in the driveway.

May I remind everybody; this is February.
This is 5pm on a Wednesday evening in February in the midwest -and my kids are outside barefoot in shorts splashing in the driveway.

(and here it looks like they're praising the Lord for it! ha!)














(Bonus: we got the first scraped knee of the year)

(Hey- isn't February a little early for scraped knees??)

It's supposed to be 66* again today.

I'm sure we'll be punished with tornadoes tonight.

goodbye dixie

I have a few Works For Me Wednesday posts brewing, but in the meantime here's an easy one that just dawned on me that I could share...

Growing up, we never used dixie cups in the bathroom. Or any rinsing cup for that matter. We brushed our teeth, loaded up the toothbrush with extra water to "rinse" the mouth, and that was that. I remember visiting friends houses and being envious of those cute little "fancy" (to me) dixie cups. In the fancy dispenser, no less!! I remember thinking, to some extent, they must be rich to afford to buy all those cups they just throw away all the time!! HA!

Anyway, all that to say, I don't quite recall how, but somewhere along the line, my kids got hooked on dixie cups in their bathroom. I think our first batch may have even been a gift? (leftovers from a gramma or something??) The kids really liked that toothbrush finishing rinse, plus it took care of the last I'm thirsty! Can I have a (inch of water) drink?? before bed. So I started collecting coupons or stocking up on dixie cups when I saw them on sale.

But it really bugged me literally throwing away that money all the time. Not to mention the waste. Don't we make enough garbage?? I made them reuse cups for a few days at a time, but still, it didn't sit well with me.

Also, I didn't want to get a permanent "bathroom cup" to use because it kind of yucks me out. I was sure I'd forget to wash it often enough, and I knew that when I did remember, I would always forget to put it back in the bathroom. Just sounded like a hassle.
Much easier to throw away disposable cups :)

The guilt finally did get to me though, and I decided to go out in search of a real cup for each of the kids to have in the bathroom. And then I found an even better solution...








I found this whole stack of 6 cups at Target for $2. (and look! they match the kids' bathroom!!)







Now we keep this stack of cups in the drawer rather than the disposables. The kids use one for a couple of days and then it comes down to be washed. And I don't have to worry about getting it cleaned and put away back up there right away, because they already have a stack of clean ones waiting to be used! No hassle, always available, easy to clean, and green (and green) to boot!For more Works for Me tips, check it out at it's new home at We are THAT Family.

spring fever

Birds! I heard birds singing springily (yes, I said springily) at 6:30 this morning. The sun was up and the sky was blue and the birds were singing. Mmmm.... almost forgot it's still February.

Sawyer and I are taking advantage and getting some extra spring cleaning done around here today. It's due to be 60 degrees and I plan on having all the blinds and shades open, windows cracked and get this place aired and cleaned out. It's especially nice for Sawyer's bedroom and his allergies. Besides being more diligent about vacuuming and hot washing his bedding regularly, I've been using this spray every couple of weeks to help knock out the allergens in his room. He has drapes on his window and an upholstered rocking chair, not to mention the small collection of stuffed animals I just can't get him to completely give up. All those things are his enemies when it comes to keeping his dustmite reactive eczema down. I think the spray has been helping this winter, but it'll be nice to get some fresh air and sunshine in to get stuff circulating, moving and out of his room.

Also, I like to take advantage of these nice sunny days to clean all the windows (inside and out). I have to wait around all afternoon for the cable guy anyway -our internet and VoIP phone have been almost nonexistent for 2 days-, so it's a good day for a good cleaning.
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that Ryan can get home on the early side as well and we can work on the garage a little while we have the warmer weather...
This weekend, of course, it's supposed to be getting back down to twenty degrees.
*sigh* I'm so glad March is almost here.

afterglow

You guys-- you need to have a Bead Party.
I had so much fun with the two get-togethers that I had for sharing this BeadforLife stuff. I was so blessed by it. I really encourage you to think about taking an opportunity to do this yourself if you or any of your friends around you like any kind of jewelry at all.

I fall more in love with this stuff every day that it's here in my house. I've worn different random necklaces out a few times and received so many compliments on them. I wore a five-strand multicolored one, a nice fat single strand, a long mauve colored strand, and another long strand that I doubled up to wrap around twice and be shorter. That one was my favorite. It was mostly a ruddy reddish brown, but it had some really deep dark blues in it and on the glass beads in between the paper beads. I love that looking through the piles of jewelry, I still find new pieces I missed before or some other color that stands out to me or that I find new bracelets to compliment a necklace that's caught my eye. I'm going to have a hard time sending it all back... I'd love to keep it all!

I also keep falling in love with the story of BeadforLife itself. Watching the dvd they sent along with the package and hearing the stories of these women and their journey to freedoms through the help of this organization, the good that it's doing for the communities. It's refreshing to see the simplicity of what these women need to be happy... it's a sharp contrast compared to the world we live in here every day. I like that just by sharing these things with my friends, by wearing this jewelry, it makes us all stop and think of what we so often take for granted.

And sending back over $1300 to BeadforLife? I like that too.

$1300. And all it took from me was getting a package in the mail, laying it all out on my dining room table, setting aside an evening and an afternoon to host my friends, preparing some food (African themed of course!)(I'll post recipes later if anyone's intersted), cracking open a bottle of wine, playing a dvd for my friends to watch and after that the cause, the goodwill, the jewelry, it all speaks for itself. Two girls came back after each party, wanting to look through and get some more.

$1300. I can't get over that number. It's crazy to me, because I think the jewelry is very very reasonably priced. It's not like we're buying $50 pieces of jewelry here. I'm talking $5 here and $15 there. Between both parties, I think I had not quite 30 people here. And from that, I'm sending $1300 back to these women and their community. (BeadforLife takes merely 3% of that money for administration. Just three percent. 30 cents out of every $10. Only $39 out of our $1300 The rest of that money goes to the beaders and to community development programs; education, medical programs, housing, etc.)

Savannah and Sawyer are BeadforLife fans too now :)
Savannah has had her eye on one of these pretty pastel pink bracelets this whole time and I finally decided (after her tooth trauma) to buy it for her. Of course Sawyer then wanted one (and they're offered right now buy one, get one free) so he picked out a nice (manly) black one. Savannah had been asking all about the jewelry of course and knew it was made by women in Africa, so I put on the video for them and played the part about how they make the beads. Sawyer sat and watched it three times! We talked about who maybe made their bracelets and how they chose the colors and made it so pretty. Sawyer wore it to church on Sunday and he showed his teacher his bracelet and showed her the little charm on it that says BeadforLife and he was so proud, telling her it was a special bracelet and it was from Africa. Then his teacher showed him the one she was wearing (she had been to my party on Thursday!) and he was just about blown away, so excited to share something special with her!!
Even just today, as I put him down for a nap, he had it on and held it out for me reminding me it was special... he wanted "to sleep with it because it's special to me from Africa and it's special because it's Bead For Life, right mom?"

It was an extremely rewarding thing to be a part of. I met people I didn't know before, had friends of friends of friends in my home sharing food and drink and sifting through piles of beads, got some Christmas shopping done (in February!!) and just really enjoyed the whole experience, knowing it might make a small difference in someone's life on the other side of the world. And! At least a few people I know, from random churches and circles of friends, are probably going to have parties of their own sometime in the near future too (one of them being a fellow book clubber)!
That I'm excited about because, Yay! More jewelry!! A whole batch of different pieces to go through! That's what is so much fun... every single piece is so unique and different from the next one. You never know what you're going to get!!

Anyway. Fun stuff. Fun and worthwhile. What more can you ask for.

Please check it out if you haven't already...
beadforlife.org

two teeth

Savannah lost her second tooth this past weekend.
Well, "lost" is putting it nicely. This was one that had to be more pulled than lost.

This was the tooth that was loose first... weeks before the next one was wiggling, and now a week after that one went ahead and fell out, this one was still hanging on. The permanent tooth was growing in far enough behind it that it wasn't fully pushing it out. It would wiggle all over the place, but still had two good roots holding on in the front. It was bugging Savannah and she could push it out front so that it was actually sticking out perpendicular to the rest of her teeth. It was gross. But still holding on for dear life.

After much whining and complaining about it on Saturday, I decided it needed to finally come out.
So in the midst of Savannah waffling back and forth; "It's ready to come out! Wait, no! Just get it out! No, don't! I want you to pull it out! I don't want it to hurt! I want Daddy to pull it out! No, don't!", and much crying and struggling, and then a pull, a twist and a pop (eww!), out it came. And Savannah about fainted.

That night her trauma bravery was rewarded by the tooth fairy leaving a little something extra for her.

She doesn't really have a toothless grin, as the two new teeth are already pretty far in. I never took a picture after she lost the first one last week, so after the ordeal Saturday, I tried to snap one. The thing is, when she smiles for real you can't really see her bottom teeth very well and her trying to smile with her mouth open... well the results aren't all that pretty. :)

Regardless, here's my favorite five-year-old minus her two first baby teeth...

checking in

I can't believe Friday's here already. This week flew by. And it's not stopping anytime soon...

The first of the two of my bead parties was last night. It was a great turn out and we had a great time. We snacked and had some wine and watched a short video of BeadforLife and just spent the evening chatting and looking through the beautiful jewelry. There were about a dozen friends (and friends of friends) who came by and they wiped out about half of the jewelry I had here. It was amazing. I almost feel bad because there's not as much selection for the girls coming later this weekend, but oh well!
I think I'll be close to sending almost nothing back to BeadforLife! Except for lots of $$$. Good stuff :)
I think I'm going to do this again sometime in the fall... everyone can get some Christmas shopping done!

*****
I'm hoping Savannah takes a nap today. Wish I could. She was up in the middle of the night for about an hour and a half complaining of a bad stomach ache. Nothing ever happened and she eventually fell back to sleep (I think. At least I did!), but she's really dragging today. I sent her upstairs to rest, but then a friend stopped by to look at some of the bead stuff and Savannah came down to visit, after which I sent her back up, but I can hear her reading up there and we have to go get Sawyer in an hour.

*****
I'm trying to finish reading The Shack this afternoon. Our book club is meeting tonight, so I'm down to the wire! I have less than a hundred pages left, so I should be good. I'm very interested in discussion about this book tonight. Like I've said before, I don't really know any of the women in this group real well, including where they're coming from spiritually, and so I'm especially intrigued with how conversation about this book will go. It's definitely a discussion kind of book. Have you read it??

*****
We finished up our playroom mini re-do, so I just have to take some ta-da pictures and I'll tell you all about it. So far it's a hit with the kids!

t.g.i. tuesday

Oh Lordy, did we have a long day yesterday.
Note to self: take note of everyone's mood and attitude prior to attempting a morning of running errands with both kids.
An obnoxious five-year-old, a feisty three-year-old and a mom trying to be focused and on a mission, were not a good combination for us yesterday morning. I had three places on my agenda to hit before meeting Ryan for lunch. I gave up after the first one.
It was that kind of day.
The kind of day where you are THAT mom with THOSE kids in the store. The kind of day where I felt like the morning pressed new lines in my face from all the scowling I did and that I probably pressed new lines into my daughter's hand from holding it throughout the store... not so nicely. The kind of day where at one point in the car I yelled so loudly at my kids that my throat was left burning. The kind of day that you feel obligated to tender your resignation for this job called Mom. Reason for resignation: Equal parts lack of qualification and also how can I be expected to work with these people!

Luckily we had a really nice lunch with Ryan. The kids were very good (and they should have been after the guilt trip lecture talk I gave them all the way over to pick up their dad!) and ate their whole lunch with pleasant conversation like perfect angels.

Other, more pleasant thoughts to dwell on...
Here are a few pictures of the kids I snapped last night during a break in our revamp-of-the-playroom project. Savannah situated the bare lightbulb lamp just so behind them and they used the freshly painted blackboard wall to put on a shadow puppet show for me:Excuse the lousy quality pics, but we were having a great time and I know these will always make me grin!

Anyway, our day yesterday must have seemed a week long because all day today I keep thinking it's Thursday or Friday already. But alas, it's only Tuesday. A much better Tuesday than our Monday, but still only Tuesday...
Anyone else need a weekend already??

bead party

It's just a little bit daunting when sitting Monday morning at 7am, thinking about your week ahead, you cannot seem to pinpoint a single free moment in the next 7 days...
Seriously.

So that being said, I don't have a ton of time, but I did really want to share a bit about the Bead for Life stuff I'm so excited about doing this week.

Bead For Life is an organization in Kampala, Uganda, whose goal is to eradicate poverty through creative means. Instead of just accepting donations, they empower their Ugandan women (who have been through situations I cannot imagine) to create beads from recycled paper: old calendars, magazine pages, and even cereal boxes. These beads, in brilliant colors of reds, oranges, pinks, blues, greens, purples and more, become necklaces (long, short, flat, woven or circular), bracelets and beaded jewelry bags.
The profits they receive from selling their jewelry go toward their own community projects and six other organizations in Uganda.












The stories of some of these women who are a part of Bead for Life are amazing. You just can't even begin to fathom some of the lives the young women living in that part of our world have lived. Not to mention the older women... a thousand times so. War crime victims (read: raped for years), some who have -or who's whole family has- HIV, families living in poverty (the average person in Uganda lives on less than $300 a year) and just in general being so unsure of what the future holds. With the money they earn they buy food, pay rent, pay for medicine, send their kids to school and build themselves a better life. And the jewelry is gorgeous! I wore a 5-strand necklace of mulit-colored beads to church yesterday and I got so many compliments on it. That is one of the best parts of this I think... not only am I buying jewelry that benefits these Ugandan women, but every time I wear the jewelry, and undoubtedly get comments/questions about it, it's an opportunity to share about this great group of Ugandan women.
Recycling, encouraging women's sustainable development and beautiful jewelry all rolled into one package. Can't get much better than that!

You can buy Bead for Life items directly from the online store or host an event or party for neighbors, friends or your church, which is what I'm doing this week. I'm having two separate open houses (two different days just for more opportunity for people to be able to make it) here at my home. I simply filled in a form on the Bead for Life website and signed up to host a party. Bead for Life takes care of everything; you tell them the approximate size of your party(ies) and they send you everything you need. I printed out an informational invitation sheet and handed it out to pretty much everyone I know... at church, at the kids schools, my MOPS group, friends in the neighborhood, etc. I also sent out an email invitation (that Bead for Life already has set up) for friends across town, or that I don't see regularly.
I got my box of things from Bead for Life early last week and was in awe going through everything. This stuff is truly amazing and it makes it all the more incredible thinking about where it all came from and why. Thinking about the hands of the women who's hands have created these beads, where they've been and what they've been through. And the work they're doing to make a better life for their children and those around them.

I am so looking forward to sharing all of this with the friends around me. I have a couple of people who are just coming over on a random afternoon to look through this pile of stuff because they can't make it to one of the parties. And another friend who just wants me to pick out a handful of stuff for her. That makes me happy.
The only frustrating thing I've come across in all this, is that when I've invited people, saying I'm having a "Bead Party", many many people jump to the conclusion that I'm having a "party" like other sell-from-home "parties"; Pampered Chef, Home Interiors, Arbonne, Creative Memories, candles or other jewelry parties. I've had a really hard time getting people to understand I'M NOT SELLING ANYTHING. Seriously, they get this look on their face that just tunes out 'another chance for her to sell her goods'. I've had to try and make an effort to invite people personally, so I can point out and explain to them that this is all about Bead for Life... that it all goes back to them, that I'm not selling this jewelry for me. I make nothing from this, it profits me in no way. I simply signed up to get a shipment from them, trying to help them get the word out and the jewelry bought up, and whatever I have at the end; money and remaining jewelry, gets wrapped up and shipped straight back to them. It's as simple as that. I'm just a resource... it's a good cause, it's here at my house, you don't have to pay for any shipping like you would ordering through their website, and I'm hoping with our combined efforts, we can make a small difference in the lives of these women on the other side of the world.

Anyway. That's the story.
I'll report back after the parties this week!
If you're a St Louis area blog stalker :), or someone I know and somehow left you off my invite list, let me know if you're interested in stopping by.
If you're interested in hosting your own party or you have an event that would work well to involve Bead for Life, you can get more info at their website, beadforlife.org.
eta: bead party afterthoughts here.

me and my valentine

Came across a new meme suited for Valentine's Day this year.
Care to join in the fun??

What are your middle names?
David/Lynn

How long have you been together?
7 1/2 years

How long did you know each other before you started dating?
Uh... three days or so.

Who asked who out?
I asked him.

Whose siblings do you see the most?
Neither really, since they're all out of state.

Do you have any children together?
Two.

What about pets?
not anymore

Did you go to the same school?
nope.

Who is the most sensitive?
That'd be me.

Where do you eat out most as a couple?
As a couple? Does that mean without kids? I don't even know. That question should be "Where do you eat out EVER as a couple?"... We often default to Outback. Or any good pub around.

Where is the furthest you two have traveled together as a couple?
Furthest from where we live now? San Juan Islands, Washington.
Furthest from where we started out? Hmmm... Nashville, Tennessee, maybe?

Who has the craziest exes?
No real crazies. I dated some.... let's say interesting chaps, but not really what I consider exes.

Who has the worst temper?
He.

Who does the cooking?
Both.

Who is more social?
We're pretty level on that one.

Who is the neat freak?
It may have been him but I think I've brought him down a little bit.

Who is the most stubborn?
LOL. It depends on who you ask. I'd have to say him. But he'd probably disagree.

Who hogs the bed?
He doesn't hog the whole bed, just my side.

Who wakes up earlier?
Definitely me.

Where was your first date?
I invited him to join me (and a group of friends) to a night out at a comedy club. After, the two of us went for a walk and hung out on a playground at the park down the road.

Who has the bigger family?
Me.

Do you get flowers often?
Yes, but uh, that's because I usually buy them.

How long did it take to get serious?
Instantly, I guess. We were there from the beginning.

Who eats more?
I think it usually evens out.

Who sings better?
Probably me.

Who does the laundry?
I wash, he usually ends up helping me get it all put away... days later.

Who’s better with the computer?
The guy is a wiz.

Who drives when you are together?
Him.

Who picks where you go to dinner?
It's usually a struggle for us to figure out where we're gonna eat... we both want the other to decide.

Who is the first one to admit when they’re wrong?
It seems like I'm always the one apologizing and giving in. He'd probably disagree.
He just won't admit it. :)

Who wears the pants in the relationship?
Neither one of us really likes wearing skirts.

Who has more tattoos?
That would be me; one is more than none.

Who cries more?
That'd be me. Definitely me. That question could be 'Who cries EVER?' and he still wouldn't be in the answer...

Who eats more sweets?
That'd probably be he. But I can be competitive.

just another friday drive-by

I think I've become trigger happy on this blog... are you sick of posts full of bullets yet?
It boils down to directly reflecting how my mind is organized lately. My week has been full and consisted of lists, to-do's, and short little bullets of things I need to remember to talk to people about (hopefully more interesting than my lists and to-do's).

• What do you pack for a "school" lunch for a three year old who won't eat sandwiches, doesn't like pizza, and is allerigic to peanut butter. I'm at a loss...
• Savannah lost her first tooth this morning... she was in the bathroom at 6:15am playing with her dangling tooth in the mirror. Can we get a 'no toothpulling before dawn' rule around here?
• I'm attempting to shop for a swimsuit today. Ugh.
• Watched Fireproof last night. A little cheesey, but a great movie. I must say I've never had a crush on anyone like I had a crush on Kirk Cameron when I was 12 years old. (And did I tell you he called my voicemail?!) Should I be embarrassed to say a smidge of that crush was revived last night?
• I'm getting ready to throw a couple of Bead Parties next week... super excited about this and I'll have a post all about it coming soon.
  
• Also: I think the kids are excited about Valentine's Day...

I got a nice holiday greeting from my toilet this morning!

That's about it... gotta run this morning!
Happy Friday all!

thursday morning

I don't even want to write this, as it's after seven o'clock in the morning and shhhh- not one, but both of my kids are still in bed sleeping... and I hate the good ol' jinxing rule... I know any second they're going to wake up and come find me now that I've gone and mentioned it! But I just had to share my excitement in a quiet morning :)
I cannot remember the last time they've both been asleep after sunrise. Sure, maybe one kid or the other now and then, but never both. Of course this has to be the same morning that I've been wide awake since Ryan got up for work at 5:30. That's okay though; I actually got out of bed at 6 and I've managed to get quite a bit accomplished this morning in the quiet.
Also, it works out well, as this is probably the only time I'll have to be on the computer today.

Not that I have anything of much consequence to say...

I'm glad it's finally Thursday. It seems this week has crept by soooo slowly, which is bizarre to me as I've really been busy and had a lot going on this week, so I would think it would just fly by! I'm really looking forward to the weekend, as we have almost no plans at all.

It's been awhile on the Thoughts for Thursday topic around here. I want to jump back in, but without the time to put together any real organized thoughts this week, I'm going to start off easy today... not so much 'what are your thoughts' as just simply 'what are your habits?'...
A list of morning questions for you:

• Would you consider yourself a morning person?
  
• What time do you typically get up in the morning? If you have kids, do you get up when you have to get up with them, or do you get up earlier to get a jump start on your day?
• Do you get ready immediately and then tend to any other morning duties, or do you get the kids, animals, other things out of the way first and then get yourself ready at the last minute before you have to be somewhere?
• How long does it take you to do your hair and make-up each day? (do you do it each day??)
• Do you exercise in the morning?
• How late would you sleep in if you didn't have to work or get up with kids or do anything on a Saturday morning?

valentiny

Warning: Martha post ahead.
Hehe, not truly Martha-ish , as there wasn't much real crafting going on at all... I just wanted to preface this post for certain people who are suddenly professing their "Martha" hate at any given opportunity and like to knock the homemade goodies that I love some people enjoy putting effort into. You might want to look away.

We've got all kinds of valentine goodness going on around here today.

First off, I've eaten way too many of these today... so addicting! Mmmm... chocolate covered pretzels. This bowl was pretty much full earlier today.

*ETA* I did not make these pretzels... I found them, heart-shaped and already covered and decorated at Walmart a couple of weeks ago.






Anyway, back to our busyness...
This morning Sawyer made a valentine box for his class (graham cracker box, wrapping paper and foam stickers) that he's quite proud of.

Don't ask me why there's a P on there.... but it was a must, believe me!!









Then Sawyer was in charge of sorting out candy and putting three to a bag (super job buddy!!) for the kids' valentines while I got some tags printed out for them...














Both Savannah and Sawyer are giving these silly seals out for their classroom Valentines:














I got them on the cheap from Oriental Trading and we're tying on the little bag of Hershey's Kisses for a Valentine that's "Sealed with a Kiss"!














I know... cheesey, isn't it? But so cute!
I think I may peruse Oriental Trading's selection and see if I can come up with any other 'punny' phrases for next year and buy them even more marked down after the holiday.

Last year Savannah just gave out the regular old, run of the mill, boxed (Island Princess) valentines. Given my tendancy towards handmade, I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed and bored by it. Here, write your name on 20 cards and tape a piece of candy to it. Done. Savannah didn't even get excited about it. And she loves Island Princess AND candy.
The year before that, her first year in preschool, we made some heart shaped crayons and gave those out taped to a piece of cardstock signed by Savannah. Those were cool and we had so much fun making them and talking about each friend as she picked the colors each kid got. She couldn't wait to hand them out at school.
So this year we're back to the more unique route. Savannah and Sawyer played with that box of red and pink seals for more than an hour yesterday... That alone was worth the ten bucks they cost me! And this morning when Sawyer was color sorting the Kisses and lining them all up and putting them in the bags, we were really having fun. He loved putting these together himself.

I've never been a huge Valentine person. But like I said before, celebrating holidays with kids just makes it so much more fun. I've never liked the mushy hearts and kisses and flowers and dinner out that are expected to go along with Valentine's day. Don't get me wrong... I do love getting flowers or being pampered-- who doesn't? I'm just not a huge romantic and Valentine's day has always been put on as THE Romantic Holiday.
It was much more fun when we were kids, wasn't it? When it was simply about who got what card from who and what was the best candy?

These days, we just like to celebrate loving each other, in whatever small or silly or special way we feel like. Sometimes I get cheesey valentine decorations from the party store and fancy up our dinner table for our traditional valentine spaghetti dinner (spaghetti just cuz it's red). Sometimes Ryan gets me flowers, sometimes I make him a little gift, sometimes we don't really do anything at all for each other. With the kids, we like to send cards to friends and family and just remind them we love them. And every year Ryan and I surprise the kids on Valentine's morning with a fun mylar balloon and a special book wrapped up for each of them. A book specifically picked out to remind them how much Mommy and Daddy will always love them and how special they are in this family; on Valentine's day and every day.

Okay, now I AM getting mushy and sappy. Enough of that.
Do you do anything special for Valentine's day?

wasting away

I'm busy today.
Of course, not so busy that I couldn't waste at least a little time on the internet. :)
Waste being the key word.
Which resulted in no time for a real blog post.
But did result in a score of 92% (with an average error of 6miles and a time of 343 seconds) on this puzzle quiz. I impressed myself. Geography is right up there with chemistry (and history and trigonometry and biology and p.e.)(yes, I said p.e.) as my worst subjects in school. However, I think roadtrips and interstate moves have helped with my geography retention in the past 10 years...

How about you??

dude, where's my weekend?

I guess I blinked and the weekend is gone already. Cram packed full and go go go and now here it is Monday already. More than halfway thru Monday already.

Highlights:

- Went out for an adults only dinner with friends with some yummy beer and yummy food.

- Aforementioned dinner was followed by attending a Cirque du Soleil show here in town. Always awesome. I've said it before and I'll say it again... and again and again... if you haven't seen Cirque du Soleil, you need to see Cirque du Soleil. Check their schedule for a tour near you. And check again and again and again.

- Our Sunday family movie night selection was E.T. Why did I not remember some of the language and attitudes and iffy behavior of some of those scenes?? I guess my memory failed me after twenty-seven years. I about fainted when I said outloud that it had been twenty seven years since I had seen it. Has it really been that long since I was six and a half??? Anyway, it was fun to watch again (for the first time in twenty-seven years) and the kids both loved it.

-Gorgeous weather... can't really ask for better than seventy degrees and sunshine in February!!

*****
This morning Sawyer and I went to the public lottery to try and get him into the church preschool at the end of our neighborhood for next fall. He got the #14 spot out of 16 in the last class available. Phew! It'll be so nice to be so close to the school... we walked down there last Monday for the pre-registration and it was such a nice (albeit chilly) morning, I was just delighted at the thought of being able to do that and it only taking five minutes to walk him to school twice a week. One minute if it's yucky out and we drive. Yes!

Hmmm... I just realized that theoretically, I may not need a car next fall. We've been talking alot about vehicles lately, not that we're looking for one at this point in time, but to add another child to our family, we do need to talk about it and have a plan in place. So it just occured to me that possibly, maybe, we could feasably get away with being a one car family for a bit. Both the preschool and the elementary school are within walking distance of our home, as is our church where I have a morning Bible study weekly, MOPS bimonthly, and help out in the office off and on. Ryan carpools, so he only actually drives his car in to work every third week, leaving it in a parking lot less than a mile from our house each day for the two weeks in between. There's no reason I couldn't just keep the car on his off weeks.
That might be an interesting thought to explore. I sure would get a lot more productive things done around here if a car to run out and do whatever on a whim wasn't so readily available all of the time.

Speaking of which, I've got to get busy around here. I was close to feeling June Cleaver-ish last week with a clean house every day... spotless kitchen and dishes too, which is an amazing feat for me! Somehow our whirlwind weekend left this house absolutely trashed, and even though we were away all morning this morning, no magic fairies came and did dishes or attacked this mess for me. I suppose I should attempt to regain a small semblance of order around here before the day's over already.

more

I feel like I've been a major MommyBlogger lately with all the pictures of my kids and documenting their amusing quips. Not to mention the going into labor talk. :)
I definitely have more non-mom 'me' stuff to write about, but it's kind of heavy and while I know it'll be therapeutic to write it out, it's kind of draining putting it all out there... especially in a way that makes sense to anyone but me. I'll get to it one of these days.

In the meantime, more MommyBlogging:

• Savannah now has two loose teeth! I wish these kids would stop growing up so fast!!

• Sawyer is on a huge five kick... it's five everything around here. Things happen in five minute increments, we'll do things again in five days, he always takes things in servings/piles of fives, and the best one... "I love you so much Mommy!" "How much do you love me?" "I love you Five Days!!"

• I think we're going to take a little family mini-vacation this spring. It's looking like our blog trip is off, so I'm thinking spring break-ish might be a good time to spend a long weekend up in Chicago together or maybe hit up one of these water park resorts. Just some fun getaway time with the four of us.

• We have a couple of projects to attack this weekend; a mini-makover of part of the kids' playroom and also the laundry room. It'll be nice to get some things crossed off the house list.

• We've been on a random Little House on the Prairie spree around here... our elementary school's mascott is a Pioneer, so that started it all off this year. They've had a few pioneer days at school, and Savannah was very intrigued with all of that. She's now read all of the My First Little House Books and I think we're about to dive into the real Little House Series that we all read when we were younger. The past two weeks I've borrowed library DVD's of some of the tv series episodes and Savannah is obsessed. She loves them. I have to admit I love watching them too... that's one of the only shows I remember watching as a kid and my sister and I spent countless hours playing "Little House" and driving a covered wagon (aka perching on the footboard of the top bunkbed with the "reins" of the cord to the shades on the bedroom window).

Is anyone else as happy as I am that it's Friday?!!!

TFT: for girls only

So I had a conversation last week with a friend who's expecting a baby in May. She was voicing a common pregnancy fear; what if my water breaks in public?!?
We all got engrossed in this conversation about the old "tips" we've all heard of 'carry a big jar of pickles with you in the grocery store' and the like.

Most of the rest of us had already had a baby or two or three and she asked each one of us if we went into labor with our water breaking or not, and if so, where were we. About half of us women (four out of the eight of us there) had our "baby time!" signaled by our water breaking... and the funny thing was, for each of us it was either in the middle of the night or somewhere convenient like in the shower.

That got me wondering... for all the worry you hear about it happening... I've never known anyone personally who's water broke in public or in an awkward situation. So I wanted to take an informal poll...

My story: My water broke first with my first baby (dr broke it just before delivery with my second). It was two days before my due date and in the middle of the night I had gotten out of bed to go to the bathroom. As I finished up on the toilet, I realized the tp roll was empty and reached over to get a new roll from under the sink next to me. Just as I leaned over and reached for it, gush.
While I was on the toilet.
Can't get much more convenient than that, eh??

So if you've had a baby (or two or more!) leave a comment and let me know if you had an experience with your water breaking or not. Or a story of someone you know. I'm curious how often it happens and how likely it really is to create an embarrassing situation.

the eyes have it

I always feel a little silly entering some of these same contests as real and amazing photographers... I am not even close to pretending that I know what I'm doing, and my images are almost laughable compared to most of theirs. I do however, stumble upon some shots in my camera every once in awhile that I love and decide, what the heck, it's fun to enter. Nicole introduced me to this new site, I Heart Faces, all about getting up close and sharing the faces we love through our cameras. Each week they open a contest with a theme and not only is it so fun to go through and see everyone's perspective on capturing faces, it's a great place for not-really-photographers like me to learn and be inspired!

So the above picture is my entry for this week's "The Eyes Have It" theme. It's from almost a year ago, but Savannah's eyes are what have always stood out to me in this picture, and although I can never quite decide what exactly her eyes are saying here, I kind of like it that way. That, and her eyes are such an amazing combination of color... they're not really hazel, but a freckled mix of distinct brown, blue, green and gray. Very cool to look at and I love when I get a good shot of them.

Check out the other faces at the blog:

superboy

Sawyer loves yogurt. I think being deprived of it the first two years of his life (dairy allergy), he's more than made up for it in the last one. The thing is, he's not a fan of many fruity flavored yogurts. He doesn't like strawberry or blueberry or most any flavor we offer him. He'll tolerate strawberry banana, but usually I just keep some plain vanilla on hand for him. I've tried sneaking berries or other fruits in there, but he won't eat it.
Strangely enough, he would eat it with quite a bit of wheat germ mixed in there. So of course I'd let him eat that almost every day.
Suddenly now though, he's decided he hates the wheat germ. Even if I try to sneak the tiniest pinch of wheat germ in his bowl of yogurt, he boycotts the whole thing. It's been going on for a few weeks now and I'm about ready to give up. I had a conversation with him about it this morning...

Sawyer was pulling a tub of raisins out of the pantry and I said, "I'd like you to eat the yogurt you asked for before you eat anything else Sawyer."

"I did eat my yogurt!"

"I mean all of it, not just a bite to tell me you don't like it."

"But I don't like it. I tried it and it's terrible. I don't want those yucky sprinkles in it."

"You used to love the sprinkles. They're good for you."

"They're not good for me! They're terrible."

"They help keep you growing and healthy."

"I already growed. I'm a big boy."

"But you need to keep growing, and they help make you stronger!"

"I already super strong" showing me his muscles

"They can help make you faster."

"I already super fast.
Mom, -and here he held up his hand, I guess to emphasize that he was done arguing with me- I already have all the powers. I don't need sprinkles today."

feeling soupy

Time to put a call out for more of your recipes!
Oooh you guys came through with some great sounding ideas last time!
Let's do Soups this time around. It's been so cold this winter, even just thinking about a nice warm pot of soup should help. And just think of all the yummy soup recipes you'll have come next winter if I get a good collection of them here!

I'll probably do more than one category this month, but you can send in anything at any time to me... no need to stay in the restraints of what I'm currently asking for!

Email me your recipes -with pics if you have them!!- at notes4heather(at)yahoo(dot)com.

keep it covered

I was getting ready yesterday and must have had a shorter than usual shirt on, as when I was reaching up to my hair, my waist (using that term loosely) kept peeking out from between my shirt and my jeans.
I kept pulling my shirt down; even though there was no one to see but me. It wasn't the most attractive sight in the world.

It did make me chuckle though, remembering back in the good old days...
Many instances of getting ready in front of a mirror and doing the exact same reaching, peeking routine, only back then that smooth stomach actually looked cute. I'd stand there holding a hair dryer above my head and actually admire the few inches of sexy stomach that raising my arms revealed. I didn't mind catching a glimpse (myself or by others) of that flat, smooth, tiny tummy when a shirt might happen to sneak up above my waistband in public. Or a peek of part of the tattoo above the back of my hip. It was nice then. Not that I wore crop-tops or mid-drifts or anything... but I sure didn't mind feeling a breeze around my midsection once in awhile.

It made me laugh thinking about that, and how different it is now. How I love nice, extra long shirts. How I'd be embarrassed beyond belief if any skin between my waistband and my shirt happened to make an appearance in public. That space is definitely not what it used to be. Pale, puffy and stretchmarked sure is a stark contrast to that twenty-something pre-baby skin. Even knocking off this last 10-15lb buffer I've had hanging around since then, I know my middle will never see the light of day again. It's a good thing long and layered is in style these days... much nicer for a thirty-something mommy of two!

let's say

Let's say, hypothetically, you were wanting to enter a certain photo contest, just for fun... one in which let's say, the theme was "The Eyes Have It"... and say you were trying to take a challenge from that topic and had some grandiose ideas for getting the perfect shot for the contest. But let's say your portrait subjects (say, especially the subject of the three-year-old sort) were less than cooperative. So let's say you had the following array of previous images to choose from... which would you pick? If you were, let's say, hypothetically wanting to submit a photo, that is...

Would you say these eyes have it?
(and can someone tell me, what is IT exactly?!?)

How about these?

Or what about these??

What do these eyes have?

How about Peek-a-boo eyes?...

This is my favorite. (Even though the eyes are horribly out of focus)
This shot always makes me smile.

Which one do you think best fits "The Eyes Have It"???