Do plaid and polka dots go together?

Is it possible that the little girl, that looks so much like me, and lives in our house isn't mine? The girl is all about fashion. This isn't something new either, as soon as she could toddle around the store she would pull clothes off of racks and beg me to look at and touch the pretty outfits. As a wee little one she would pose in front of the mirror before we would head out the door for daycare. You won't find me gazing at myself wondering if everything is in just the right spot. I want to look presentable but that is about as far as it goes. Even in high school, I was your t-shirt and jeans girl, never really caring about what was in fashion. At one point I wore combat boots with a strategical placed marshmallow had a cute face drawn on. Clearly I wasn't concerned about what was in style. Even now when I need to buy new clothes Jeffrey urges me to buy something trendy. So when I watch Kati try on many different pairs of shoes to find just the right ones to go with the outfit I have to wonder, "Was there a mix up at the hospital"?

I do have to say, with pride, that although she is wrapped up in fashion she is concerned about being lady-like. We talk from time to time about what is acceptable and what is not, pointing out pictures of girls we see and not actual passers-by. Kati will flat out tell you see doesn't like Bratz because of the way they dress, "Ladies don't dress like that" she says. She has actually turned into the modesty police. Today as we headed outside to play in the kiddie pool she asked me "Is that what you are wearing?" After I answered yes I could see her eyeing my swimsuit top, I had not tied the halter top string to avoid tan lines. And recently while shopping for some much needed p.j.'s (before Jeff and I head off to camp) she told me I should not buy the pajama's the girl on the poster was wearing. Looking the girl over, I had to know why she thought, what I found to be a decently clad young teen, was inappropriate. "Showing too much leg," she said.

And although I don't like to be corrected myself I do find it comforting to know she is headed in the direction we would want our daughter to go, respecting her body. Just this week we shopped for a swimsuit for her. Of course we headed into the dressing room with six or seven different suits, even though she had eyed many more on the rack, leaving some behind because they weren't appropriate. After trying them all on and admiring herself in the mirror she wanted them all but much to her dismay I told her she could only pick one (and informed her she would need to get a job really soon). I was so proud of my girl that I had to share the experience with Jeffrey when he got home.

"Babe, she was so cute trying them all on. Every time she put a new one on she turned around to check that her hiney wasn't hanging out."

"No, I wasn't. I was seeing if it (her hiney) was cute."

................................................maybe my pride was cast too soon.


And Kati, there is no doubt in my mind about whether or not you are mine. Aside from fashion we are just alike, and you know Uncle John is always calling you Stacy.

He couldn't have given me a better gift

My Bear, my precious Bear. My little man who hates to have Kati put her arm around his shoulders. My dingbat who wouldn't snuggle with me until he was over a year. My Bear gave me the best gift yesterday. Cuddle time. For my birthday I wanted us to all watch a movie together after dinner. Of course my darling, hard working, husband fell asleep about 2.3 seconds after his head touched the floor and I settled in on our love seat to get comfy. Imagine my surprise when my little man came over and asked "Can I lay wis you?" Now how can a cuddle starved Momma say no to that, or even what to for that matter. He was so patient every time I had to get up to do something and every time I can back he was willing to snuggle more. Happy Birthday to me!

Timbo's present to me-- He took five steps.

Wanting to blog again...............

Oh, how I am missing blogging. Now follow closely y'all, I'm about to get all technical on you. The doohickey where I am suppose to put the card thingy from the camera is broken. So I can't upload any pictures. If I were crafty enough I could blog without all my pictures but my writing is not so hot. But I will try.

Happy Birthday to Stacy!!!

I love you Baby!

Eight years ago today

Jeffrey asked me to be his wife. What a blessed woman I am. I would share a picture from that night with y'all but the stinkin' scanner isn't working. Just trust me, the picture was cute!

I think this pretty much sums it up.


I don't know how to make it only this Sunday's comic, so if you are reading this on Monday scroll back to the comic for Sunday.

Reward

The kids have finished up this years AWANA and are already looking forward to next year. At the end of the year the children are rewarded with a free trip to Pump it up. Last year Bear didn't get to go so this was a new experience for him.............................and he wasn't really a fan.

Kati on the other hand had a fabulous time. She didn't even care where Jeff and I were. She would just take off on her own. I bet she will be sore tomorrow. That girl jumped and climbed and slide for as long as she could. Some of those slides were pretty high, I was really proud of her!

Love

Exciting news

I think last time I used that title it was to announce a pregnancy, well that isn't it.

I've been on a bit of a blogging slump lately. My heart just isn't in it for some reason. But this was too exciting not to share.

Timothy is a taking a few steps. Jeff, being the great Dad that he is, has been working with Timbo encouraging him all the way. And Kati heard Timothy say her name for the first time yesterday. It was priceless. I'm kicking myself that I don't have a nanny cam somewhere that caught that moment. There was jumping and shouting, stuttering and pointing, and huge smiles. She is such a proud big sister. Anytime she spies him doing something new I hear "Mom, come with me, you have got to see this."

Loft Bed

He finally got his bed. The poor little guy has waited so long. Jeffrey had already started the bed when Brendon hit his head and got a concussion and everything had to be put on hold. By doctor's orders he wasn't allowed to sleep in the bed so we quit working on it for the whole month.

When we were finally able to get started again we let the kids join in and help.

Jeff, just like last time, did a wonderful job. Brendon was so excited. My mom took care of the kids so we could get the room all set up for Bear.Do you think he likes it?

Aren't those the cutest little boy sheets!Jeff did a great job! Too cute.

We added the black curtain to his bed to make a dark spot for their view finder and they love it. It's also nice for me because it hides a lot of their mess :)

Happy
Mother's
Day

I quit. I surrender. I give up.

If I have to stay in this house with screaming kids for one more day I might lose my mind.

I declare we are going to the zoo.




Maybe someone will think the kids have escaped from somewhere and kindly take them back.




At least in the wide open spaces the screaming and fighting with one another wont seem so loud.

It seems as if I have lost total control over here. No one is listening to anything and the lies are flowing freely. The problem is they are convincing liars. Maybe not good at it, some of the things they say are ridiculos, but convincing. I have never seen a kid keep such a straight face with such indignation about something when they are lying threw their teeth.

Here is an example, just the other day the kids and I were all in my room playing on the bed. Brendon lost his balance and feel off and the next thing you know he is screaming about how Kati pushed him off. If I hadn't been right there looking at them while it happened Kati would have been in big trouble.

But don't feel too sorry for Kati, she does her fair share of making things up as well. Just last night there was a fight. I knew that Bear had hurt her because her back had the marks to prove it. Jeffrey got the job of sorting out the details while I finished making dinner. Bear claimed that Kati scratched him too but she profusely denied it. When Jeff showed her the marks on Bear's back she still denied any wrong doing and then said Bear did it to himself. So I asked her if she saw him reach his hand around and scratch his own back and she agreed. To try and shorten this some, Jeffrey came up with his own lie, wrong I know but desperate times call for desperate measures and you haven't been living in our house. Jeff told Kati that he found Bear's skin under her nails, so she claimed that Bear scratched himself and then took off the skin and put it under her nails. All with a straight face. I'm doomed is all I can say.

The worst of it is today when Brendon screamed out at the store "You're choking me", now mind you, I was only holding his elbow. Then he proceeded to declare that I was a mean mommy and I hurt him. But then again, I guess no one likes to be told not to drink out of cups they find sitting on the store shelf.

Pretty soon, the police will be coming to take me away. But at this point being wrongly accused and jailed might be a nice break compared to living here.

Oh, the good ol' days, before it was possible to lie.

The good ol' days

......................when you could fall asleep where ever you were.

As the weather has become more and more lovely we have been spending more time outside. You know, we only have a small chance for loveliness here before it just becomes sweltering hot.

If you have walked up to my front door before then you have probably seen empty floor pots. They sit there, empty, because my thumb isn't green, it's black. When people have bought me plants Jeffrey says "Why would you do that to a plant?"

And, well, he is right.

But just like every year I decided I would give it another go. This time I thought I would try seeds. Somehow the thought that I can't keep already blossomed plants alive didn't cross my mind while in the check-out line.

Anyhoo, we had a great time digging out all of the dead leaves and yuck from the pots and then aerating the soil. I love to let the kids help. I am just hoping that they will have been passed on the planting gene from my grandma. We planted one package of seeds and only after the rock like looking seeds had been planted and covered did I see on the inside of the package that they wont germinate until next year. We were robbed. It said nothing of the sort on the outside. I had purposefully chosen something I thought would grow quickly because I had made this a part of circle time with the kids. Oh well, the kids and I laughed about it and moved onto the next package of seeds.

Wild onions.

Yes, that's right wild onions. An odd choice I know but they bring back fond memories of playing in the backyard/woods with my little sister. We thought we had our own cooking show. Maybe you saw us on cable. I was looking forward to seeing little green sprouts of green in 7 - 10 days. I told the kids to check out the pots every time we left the house to see what was happening in there.

In the next couple of days we had rain. And when I say rain I don't mean we had a nice little sprinkle, I'm talking gushing siren inducing wind and rain.

Much like me the kids like the idea of something for the first few days and then the newness quickly fades and you forget. A week later I noticed my lack of green sprouts. And then another week. I blamed it on the rain and not my black thumb. And then because nature wanted to thumb her nose at me grass began growing in my pots. Great.

A few days later, I'm nothing if not a procrastinator, I went to pull them up and noticed it wasn't grass it was my onions growing. It grew. I actually grew something! But sadly I didn't get to share this news with my kids because they were resting. See how I didn't say napping. We are having napping problems from time to time. And of course, being the forgetful person I am, I forgot to share this very exciting news with the kids. About the onions not the napping, trust me they know they aren't napping.

We have also been spending a lot of time outside while I am painting Bear's bed.

Neither one of the other kids was big on the play pen, oh wait, no one calls it that anymore seeing as it sounds like it's fit for a dog, I mean the pack-n-play but Timothy does just fine. Really, he has been a trooper. He just loves throwing all of his toys out and watching the kids throw them back in. From time to time the kids would stray to long to far away and I would have to ask them to come play close to him again so he didn't feel left out. Since they love their little brother they didn't mind and the situation worked out wonderfully. Just about the time he would get re-interested in his toys or the world around him the kids would go of on some adventure like finding rocks or "pee-cans" as Bear likes to call them. No one be jealous. We don't really have pecan producing tree in our yard, they are really acorns and he knows that, it's just that "pee-can" is so much more fun to say. Bear loves to gather up a whole bunch and then take them over to the concrete and smashing them. I love being the mom of boys. No sarcasm there, it's really great!

Kati on the other hand loves to color with chalk and run threw the grass picking weeds, umm, I mean "flowers". And from time to time I find wilted dead weeds, umm again I mean flowers, on my dresser, their dresser, the bathroom, the laundry, just about any ol' place. She just loves plants. She even likes that weed that looks a little like short green wheat. Maybe it doesn't look like wheat but that's what I always thought it was as a kid. She likes to pick them and rub it on my arm to show me how soft they are. Nature makes her happy. So imagine her delight when she found grass that smelled just like onions.

That's right she picked nearly all of my onions. Well, I guess there is always next year.

Kati

"Way down inside my belly it's still thirsty, so can I now have a drink?"