Sentimental Value

Should it stay or should it go? The ultimate question when prepping for a garage sale.

This morning the kids and I were playing around in Natalie's room, and I started cleaning out extra toys and things for the garage sale I have been putting off for weeks and I encountered a few problems. Natalie was much more willing to get rid of special things than me! So I had to decide, do we keep this sweet little toy because so-and-so gave it to her or because it was her first such-and-such, or do we sell it because she has openly said she doesn't play with it or doesn't want it anymore?

My choice was easy, keep keep KEEP! So now I wonder, do I want to keep them (and she not) because I am old enough to realize the memory factor of the item, or because she has the clarity of the fact that if she doesn't use it we don't need it. Who is right? What do I do? Some things I absolutely can not bear to part with, but what about the other stuff? (For example the cute little soft cat that Brady and I got for her when we were out running errands, that she loved to death for at least a week or more.) What do you think? Let the kid decide what stays and what goes? Or let Mama have the ultimate staying power because we can see that in the future it may be something they miss?

Oh, and I know I have a lot to catch up on, for my far away family and for my own personal record keeping, but I just can't bring myself to do it right now. Too busy, or just too lazy, take your pick...

Brilliant

I probably saw this somewhere, so I won't even try to take credit for it. But with a few thumbtacks, some extra ribbon, and some clothespins I made a fun place to display the kids artwork. This will save me from making millions of holes in the wall, and it is now much easier to rotate out art as the season and kids styles change.

I absolutely love how it brightens up that part of the house.

hard knock life

It's hard out there for a kid. Apparently.

Keith just informed me of a small conversation he just had with Brady.

As Brady is heading into the bathroom to go potty, he says, "I am just cold and tired and freezing."

As he plops down to go potty, said in his saddest most depressing puppy voice, "It's tough."

Another First

And then it started to pour!

Sweet Treat

The easiest fruit pizza you will ever make, and so good!

Dough:
2 C. flour
1 C. softened margarine
1/2 C. sugar
1/2 C. minced nuts (optional)

Mix together until a soft dough forms, press into half size cookie sheet or 13x9 pan. If you use a larger full size cookie sheet double the dough. Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, just until browned. Let cool.

Topping:
1 8oz. cream cheese, softened
1 8oz. cool whip
1 C. powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and sugar till smooth, beat in cool whip on low speed. Spread over cooked and cooled crust.
Top with your favorite fruit, or whatever you have on hand. We have used kiwi, canned mandarins, berries, bananas, peaches, etc. Yum!

Monkey Boy

Overall pretty darn cute, considering he was freezing, distracted (by the monies in his pockets), or apparently starving to death (as we found out after). All done by Missy, check her out here if you are in the DFW area. Oh, and there are some normal shots too, but these were too...Brady, not to show you. Can you read his lips? They say "CHEEEEESE"!

2 Minutes in Crazy Town

The kids and I have just been at each other all day, probably just coming down off the weekend full of activity. Anywho, after dinner, the noise was reaching an all time high and I just couldn't take it anymore. So I said, let's turn on the timer for 2 minutes. I want you all to just make as much noise as you can, scream it out baby! And afterwards we are done with noise. No more for the evening. So we did! Scream and scream, and I checked the timer and it had only been 40 seconds! After about a minute I was sitting on the floor trying not to die of laughter and Keith and the kids were running up and down the hall like Kevin in Home Alone (waving their arms above their heads). It was hilarious. Totally worth it. It broke up all the tension, and so far they have been nice and quiet since then. I may have to do this more often.

A Quickie

1. Keith gets sworn in tomorrow. This really IS the last thing that has to happen. The fees are paid, and this will make it truly official. I still can't believe it.

2. Keith's Mom and my Dad were able to make it to town for the ceremony. It's nice to have family in town, if only for a little while. It makes life a little less lonely.

3. I got my iPod shuffle in the mail today. Oh. My. Goodness! It is TINY, and when I say tiny I mean, TINY. Minuscule even. It's SO cute! Too bad I am giving it to Keith, I even got it engraved for free.

4. We got our new callings. Keith is the Deacons advisor, and I am the visiting teaching coordinator. That's right, I am the person in charge of creating all the pairs of sisters, and yes, I don't know anyone in the ward. And yes, the whole system needs redone. This should be interesting.

5. I am officially signed up for my vacation from work. 3 weeks off. I don't think I will know what to do with myself. Hopefully something fun. At least I have the 4th of July off this year, it will be the first time in 3 years. Woo hoo!

6. I am not afraid to admit that the close of all my favorite TV shows for the summer has me a little saddened. I love a good escape at the end of the day, plus it keeps me going when work gets slow.

7. The nice weather is still holding out, but I know (and am fearing) what is coming next. HOT. TEXAS. SUMMER. Have I mentioned before how much I hate the summertime? I have? Too bad. Cause I HATE it.

8. I got to hold a teensy baby this week. So very teensy. I don't care who you are, holding that baby girl would make you want one of your very own. I am no exception.

9. Natalie didn't join her ballet class early enough to make it into the recital, and for this I am glad. Why? Because the dang thing is on a Sunday. We have had small issues with keeping the Sabbath pop up here and there, but as the kids get older we know it is going to be more and more of a problem. So we took a stand, no more nothing on Sunday. Nada. Because we don't want to have to explain why such-and-such is kinda ok to do, when this-and-that isn't. I have a feeling it will be rough.

10. Lastly, I am slowly coming out of a funk. Blogging and otherwise. I just haven't been feeling myself, I have been missing my family and friends (again). I am hoping that having some distractions here will help me not to be thinking about all the other things that have been making me so sad.

Quality Time.

We have been doing lots of art in our house lately. This is the oldest piece. Natalie does lots of different things during quiet time while Brady and I nap. One day she asked to cut, and when I woke up wanted some paper to glue her pictures too. I found this cloud paper and gave her a glue stick and voila! I love this so much. She even cut out the letters for Dad.
She made me this one for Mother's day. Words can't explain how much I love that she came up with doing this on her own.

Here are our aforementioned egg carton caterpillars. Of course I didn't have any pipe cleaners, so they are more like worms, but the kids and I had fun painting these. Even if we had to use finger paints, so the colors aren't very vivid.
Lots and LOTS of water painting. It's easy, Brady can do it, and it cleans FAST. The front two are my favorite. Natalie is getting better and better at drawing and creating things. she does it all on her own.
And lastly, we picked up these little kits on major clearance at WalMart for these little puffball creations. They were just too adorable we had to try them out.

They look cuter on the picture, these were a LOT harder to make then I was hoping for. But the kids seemed to like it, and they like the animals too. Apparently they are "the cutest things (they've) ever seen!" (repeated multiple times).
It is hard to get motivated to do crafts with the kids, honestly sometimes I just want to sit and read, or veg out. But when I see how much they love it. It almost makes me want to do one every day. Almost.

More good stuff.

The other day Natalie brought me this little note. She was so proud of herself. I asked her to read it to me. She was playing restaurant and these are the names of her dolls; Sarah (SER), Rosie (ROS), Kia (KIY), Bear(BEH). If you look at what she wrote she sounded out the names and got them pretty spot on, except for the last sound of each word. Pretty cool! She loves writing, and I am trying to encourage her to do it more and more.
Brady had his 3 year well check on Tuesday. I am so excited that both kids are all caught up. He only had to get one shot, and he took it like a champ. He is also officially potty trained, except for pull ups at night time, just in case, he wears "unders" all the time. I still have to ask him occasionally if he needs to go, but for the most part, he tells me when he needs too. WOO HOO! It only took, what? 3 months? I'll take it!

I had a long day today with no nap. Which stinks when you are up until 2, and wake up at 7. Thankfully my night in shining armour had some dollar bills hidden away for a time like this, and he came home with this beast! I will be pretty impressed if I finish it off. That's a lot of Diet DP, but I'm thinking I won't have trouble staying awake tonight!

little things

Perfectly perfect crockery found at a random garage sale, to match our fairy plates. Lovely cupcakes from a friend at church.

"sweets"

Lounging in my favorite socks. Easter clearance baby.

Mother's day bling. The long hoped for teeny tiny initials necklace, by Lisa Leonard.

My first noodle necklace. I wear it proudly.

Also: Getting to see a good friend's new wee one, french toast and strawberries for breakfast in bed, a long nap, pretty pictures made just for me, and all the hugs and kisses and cuddles a Mama could ever dream for.

About me...

Facebook has really opened my eyes to the inner workings of my soul (and many others souls as well) through it's masterfully written quizzes. Here are a few tidbits I have learned about myself in recent days:

My Garden Gnome name: Clumsy SaggyPants. I actually did the whole family as well, Keith was Paranoid , Natalie was Crazy, and Brady was Grumpy. You can call us Mr. and Mrs. SaggyPants from now on. Or not.

If I was to be a random object I would be a weed whacker. Apparently I'm "Spinny. You're very spinny. You leave a very small path of destruction where you go, but you do make it possible for a small person to walk through tall grass." Ahhh...it's all becoming clear. Or not.

If I get the Swine Flu, I will survive. Here's how: "You didn't take the hype too seriously. You didn't even rush out and buy a mask... But when push came to shove and it became real, when people far too sick to survive were using up all your medicine you did ANYTHING to survive - including setting the infected on fire while you raided a derelict hospital and survive you did." Wow, just wow.

Thanks to the Inner Nationality Quiz I confirmed that I am, in fact, an American. Glad we cleared that up. Oh, and I am also 100% Oregonian. Yay!

I should also be married to Johnny Depp, because he is my soul mate. I guess "{I} like the bad boy turned good type, the hotel room trasher turned loveable daddy type." Keith is my Johnny Depp.

And lastly, I am completely and utterly addicted to a small game called MouseHunt. It has taken over my life. I live in 15 minute increments. It is sad but true. Thankfully, all I really have to do is click a button, and then move on with things. But oh, how that button rules me. It's a sickness. It really is. At least I am not the only one addicted, there are many of us, and plenty of support groups. The thing is? I like being addicted. What can you do?

Now my life is complete. I can walk a little taller knowing these things about myself. And don't you feel like you know me better now?

For a dollar

Brady and I got to take a walk, meet some neighbors, and hit up his first ever garage sales. We kinda got lucky as there were two going on right down the street. Score! No good material or anything, but we did get a few good thrifting finds.

Two tiny, fairy green plates that are just screaming for a tea party (and maybe a cupcake or two...) and some retro books. Brady just had. to. have. the red one. It's called Jet's Choice...no clue what it is about! But, it was 25 cents and I said he could pick out any treasure he wanted, better than the Styrofoam pumpkin he had his eye on at the first house.
The second book is my favorite! It's an old text book from the 50's and I love the illustrations, the cover, the whole thing. I think it may even have some great stories in it!
I think I may have to start garage sale hopping more often!

The current state of things

** The weather we have been having here for the last few weeks makes me happier than a clam (I think that is a good thing). It has been overcast, sunny, cool, warmish, rainy, breezy, stormy, everything under the sun except HOT. Which I hate. So it's all good. If only there was a state that was like this almost all of the time, oh wait, there is. Oregon. Remind me why I don't live there again?

** The kids have been...wait for it...sleeping in! Seriously, Brady slept in until almost 9 this morning. Having their own rooms has been a beautiful thing. Natalie wakes up around 7:45ish, but she knows to play in her room quietly until Mommy is awake (normally 8:30 or so is when I get my lazy butt out of bed). It doesn't always work beautifully like this, but more often than before. And I am a more rested (and happy) woman for it.

** I have an insatiable urge to bake. All. The. Time. Seriously, I have baked more in the last few weeks than any woman should. I am containing myself from going to make cupcakes right now. It's not that I want cupcakes (or even NEED them) it's that I just want to be in the kitchen baking them! What is wrong with me? I have made banana bread, brownies, cookies, soft pretzels, muffins...It's just not healthy, literally and figuratively. Seriously, not healthy for my figure!

** I think there is a person (or maybe a laundry gnome) living in my closet wearing our clothes, because the amount of laundry we have is out of control. I swear I clear out the baskets, washing every single piece, and a day later they are overflowing. What the heck? Does anyone else have strangers hiding in their house dirtying every available piece of clothing as soon as you turn your back?

** I hate our car. Seriously, we fix something, and 2 minutes later something else breaks, or another light comes on, or some new strange fluid is leaking out. Enough already Lola! Just stay fixed! Haven't we done enough?

** Keith works a lot. I know this is probably just the tip of the iceberg, but he has been leaving before the kids and I are even dreaming about being awake and getting to work at 6, sometimes before. And staying until 4 or later. Yes, that is a 10+ hour day. Every day. I think he needs to go golfing or fishing or hunting or SOMETHING. Because he has really been working hard. I am proud of him though, he knows we need the bigger paychecks to get caught up in life. But whew! Just thinking about it makes me tired!

Remodeling

It's time to redo and clean up the blog. Too much clutter, and since my new goal in life is to simplify, it drives me cray to look at my blog. So please pardon the mess, if it even bugs you, haha! And if you don't see your blog listed, it's because I subscribe to all the (public) blogs that I read, which explains why I rarely comment anymore, haha, darn google reader.

Suburban Saturday

Today was absolutely jam packed. It's amazing how many activities you can do when you never stop. It was a first for this family. No errands to run, no work, no nothing. Just doing whatever we wanted, all day long. I am actually pretty proud of myself for staying up as long as I did, I can tell you after I write this I am crashing into my bed to settle down with a nice episode of Lost.

Today included playing chalk, riding bikes, digging in the dirt, fixing the lawnmower, mowing the lawn, edging the lawn (all three of which Keith graciously did), taking baths (washing out the dirt from every nook and cranny), playing inside, making cookies, eating lunch, napping, playing fort, hiding from storms, painting caterpillar egg cartons, running around the house like lunatics, making a new recipe for dinner, reading, resting, watching ESPN coverage of this, playing Mario kart, playing wii bowling, and finally brushing teeth and scooting off to bed. Remind me never to have a day like that again.

Though Natalie saying that today was a really, really, REALLY fun day kinda made up for it. Plus, I think she is already asleep. Nice.