So Whats New With You?

So whats up with you? Stressed about the economy? Getting really annoyed by political ads? Got a cold? Kids shaving their heads? No? Well good for you!

We have been playing lots of games like "I spy" and "silly rhymes with billy" which is a hilarious game to Ella and daily it just erupts into a big giggle fest. Plus it is good for early reading skills.

Lets see.... I am looking for some part time work to add onto my part time work. So we don't drown.

I am now so afraid that silence on Ella's part means she will be returning to me missing an arm or the rest of her hair. I am so jumpy now it is crazy. She is experimenting a lot and it is making me nervous. I miss preschool.

Alex is carpooling into his new job which I am incredibly excited about. His truck isn't sucking gas this whole week!! Which will help in that not drowning thing. Theoretically we will save about 1/4 of the amount of money we spend in a month on gas. I won't even think about how much money that is but it is a bunch.

I am gearing up for my trip. I know. I shouldn't be going. I wouldn't be if the ticket wouldn't go to waste. I can't not go though. I need to go help out ma sista. I am also still trying to figure out the best thing to do with the kids while I am gone. Alex has to work as it turns out. We shall see. There are a few options. We shall see which I feel most comfortable with.

I am busy missing preschool. Did I mention that? We have been out since last Monday due to coughing and blowing of noses. This has not worked out well for me seeing as I need the money and the sanity entertainment for the kids provides. Being out of school has let to a great amount of mico-management on my part, something I really do not like. I feel like I am telling Ella how to do everything or to stop doing everything. Should I really have to say "STOP licking my couch" that many times though, really?

She and Nate have been doing pretty well though. I pretty much let them work out their problems between the two of them. This has saved me from pretty much all cases of "Mommy!! He ____ me!!" They haven't really started beating the snot out of each other yet though and they are well matched. Ella is bigger than Nate but much less likely to defend herself. Nate is more aggressive but less balanced and smaller. It has been good for Ella to have a little brother because before she has no sense of self defense. Physically or even emotionally. So she is teaching him it isn't all about him and he is teaching her to move fast if someone lunges at you bearing their teeth!

Trend Setting Beyond Her Time....

So last night Ella decided this bob & bangs thing - soooo last week. Its out with Dora babe. She needed a new look. After thumbing through some of the hot fashion magazines she decided upon this look.... A short cute pixie cut Victoria Beckham style. Apparently then seemed like a good a time as any to figure out if she wanted to be a hair stylist when she grew up. Afterall... she is a "Big Girl" and she knew where mommy kept her hair scissors.

She then decided it was time for bed and got on her nightgown, trotted into the living room and strolled over to me to ask a question. When I looked up my reaction went something like... "Whaaa?? You...? Whaaaa!!! Oh Noooo!!!" Then Daddy looked up and his reaction went something like "WHAT DID!! YoU!?? How?? Why?? Oh NOOOOO!" We kind of both sounded like porky the pig getting smacked really hard in the face by a moving train hauling obese elephants.

So I took her in the bath room and surveyed the damage. Oh yea. Your typical chop job. About 3/4 inch length spot right up front as well as on right on top. She also thought the 80s needed another go round. No no, not the 80's bangs girls. Boring! No no, the "Rat Tail" and the "Mullet"

Oh yea.

Obviously this is no place for the novice. I needed professional help so I called the pros at Peek-A-Doo in Durham, NC. It is a child's salon and only 20 dollars to fix that mess? I am so sold. They did a great job fixing it and she was a happy girl again.

Anyways, no I didn't totally freak out because I didn't want her to freak out. I also didn't want her to think her beauty is in anything on the outside of her body including her hair. Daddy however freaked out a little. He and I had a little "talk" after which he explained that he just loves her hair. Sweet. It will grow back. Don't traumatize our daughter thanks lol.

So drumroll please..... Ladies meet Victoria Gabriella. The cutest little pixie ever. Fully equipped with sparkles and sans both mullet & rat tail. Mommy bought some headbands & Ella's 1st "product" for her hair so I can take care of that little whale spout later. I will post another picture after I figure out how to do this do.

I swear I did not pose her like that.

"So Ella, who cuts hair? Does Nate cut hair?"
"Noooo"
"Does Darby cut hair?"
"Noooo"
"Does Ella cut hair?"
"Not agaaaain!"


as a side note... I am now considering asking her if she wants to get earrings. I think they would look so cute with this haircut.

On Pink and Proving It...

Cristy: soooo how about I had a dream where you were at this Mary Kay event and you were dressed from head to toe in pink talking about your pink car, and that you used to hate pink...

Me: that wasn't a dream that was a nightmare

Cristy: hahaha

Me: I do have a pink bra - its quite pretty but under clothes is the only place I will allow it

Cristy: hahah

Me: and that's just to prove to Alex I am a girl - because girls wear pink

Cristy: the parts weren't enough?

Me: Well I dress them up sometimes

Me: It distracts from the unwashed hair

Merry "Random Photo Of A Goat" Day

No. I didn't make that up!!








Ok Maybe I did. That's just how I roll. I'm cool like that.

First Signs of Autumn

from our yard

I feel like I just did this post about the first signs of spring but that was seven moths ago and my kids are seven months older now. It is technically the first day of autumn today! Do you know what that means? That means crunching leaves to stomp beneath your feet, hot humid muggy cool crisp air requiring a light jacket, pulling the squishy guts out of a pumpkin, hot spiced apple cider, and the magnificent display of changing leaves! A good autumn to you all!

I Baked

...and by bake I of course mean turned on the oven, had Ella plop some of these premade - preformed - no flour measuring involved cookies onto a pan and I threw those babies in the oven. I love baking.

We had family movie night tonight. The feature?

Yes, I liked it. Yes, Ella swam around the living room instead of getting ready for bed demand I call her "Crusoe" and wailing "but I'm not Ella I am a waaater horse!" A fun night. Also, the movie just cemented for me that I really need to get to Scotland some day. Beautiful movie.

A Labor of Love with A Bit of Frustration Just to Make It Interesting

Did you know that good moms hand sew baby quilts for their little loved ones? Apparently they do. Really great moms can whip these babies out while chasing after the rest of their brood while 8 months pregnant while darning socks (what does darning mean?) and still manage to cook their man up some vittles (southern word for food I'm pretty sure) when he gets home from a hard day's work.

I have never pretended to be that woman.

I did make my daughter a quilt though. Never having attempted such a thing I went to the store and stared at miles and miles worth of quilting fabrics. I pondered and thought. I hemmed and hawed and then... I got overwhelmed and cried and went home. I was pregnant after all. That is what pregnant women do. They go look at something "simple" and they get overwhelmed at the gravity of what they are undertaking - creating not just a quilt but a life and if I can't pick out quilt colors how am I ever going to raise a baby without it's head falling off! AND WHAT ABOUT SIDS!! And so I ran out of there screaming and hyperventilating.

Eventually I went back and got some fabric. At her 2nd birthday I finally had it finished and got it into her sweet little hands.

Roll over to the second baby and I am the picture of a put together mom. I found a quilt I liked at Pottery Barn kids and I looked at the price tag and thought Wow these white women are insaaane to pay that much. I will make it myself. I started my quilt and got the whole front done before my sewing machine went all ghetto on me and I haven't touched it since. Nate will be 2 February 1st, 2009. I have until then to prove that I am super mom and not a complete domestic failure. But I refuse to hand sew this thing. I am not that good. Nor do I pretend to be. I don't darn and I don't cook my man vittles. I just cook food.


Do you think I will get it done? If I don't does it prove I am indeed an unfit mother? You know, because I let number two pick up his binkie off the floor instead of immediately diving for it to pick it up and boil it like I did the first child. By the way, I made this one bigger so if I don't get it to him till he is say, 8 years old, it will probably still fit. See, I am at least thinking ahead.

Sweet Drooler in the Keys

I remember this day so clearly. We were down in the Florida Keys at a beach on Islamorada. It was just the four of us there watching the fish swim around our toes. All alone with the fish! Ella was having so much fun walking out so far in the water and loving their warm clear waveless perfection. The sky was perfect with white fluffy clouds set against a vibrant blue background. Nate and I snuggled under a mangrove tree while he ate and I just drank everything in. He was still little enough, three months, that he was content slobbering on his toes and watching us from his car seat when he wasn't snuggling up for milk.

Boy those content being in one place days are over aren't they!!
My sweet baby boy.

Aprille, The Conquerer

***I looked people. NO LOVE LEFT. Shame on you. Click around that label cloud people.

So I have a new friend to introduce you to. My friend Keri who I met at church has started blogging. She is Ella's teacher in children's church and she LOVES Miss Keri.

Know what happened? She got hooked by looking at people's blogs. Yea, you know. So go give the girl some comments. At first your pleasantly surprised by comments, then you start craving them a little, you move on to obsessively checking to see who has commented and then you sadly arrive at the point where you start screaming talking to your dashboard in a disgruntled voice when it obviously isn't letting people post comments. "What is wrong with blogger today! I don't have any comments!" Be an enabler - show her some love.

Also guess what? I figured out how to do some stuff on a new program. I didn't cuss at the computer a lot while I was doing it either - I am so excited - I conquered it! I did her blog makeover!

Chicken Scratch with a Little Soul

That Purple I Was Promising..

So my four year old needed a makeover on her room. I decided against the ETSY decals and decided to risk painting them myself with the hopes that Ella would neither cry nor walk into her room and inform me that we do not paint messes on walls.

Well, Ella loves her new room! I just made the room fit her sheets and blankets from before so that saved a bit of money there. I got a completely different look for about 60 dollars including paint and decorations. Sweet! Best of all the new curtains, a nice thick twill, have added on approximately 10 minutes to the time she generally wakes up in the morning. Hey, I take what I can right?

We painted her room "Grateful Grape" after I planted the seed that she really wanted a purple room and she agreed that purple was simply the most fantastic color she could even imagine for her room. Good girl succumbing to Mommy's brain washing. Now if I could just get through to her on the vegetables...

She thinks it is brilliant and I love that she has only pointed out that a few of the dandelion fluffs look "kinda silly" as in "Mom you kinda jacked that one up a bit didn't you?" I was just glad she got what it was when she walked into her room. I am no brilliant painter.

(Ignore the missing crown molding. This is real life not HGTV)

A fun cheap kid's room makeover idea.... I used 3 of those paper folding globe thingies and hung them in the corner like paper lanterns except way more fun. They were 1.50 each.


I painted all the wall flowers and made a reading area out of an old ottoman we cant fit in our living room. Covered it with the flat sheet we don't use on her bed and scooched her bookcase up near it and bam... Private book nook complete with "potato flowers." I don't know. Thats what she called them and she likes them. I'm good with that.



Add in a cute cheap rug, some butterfly curtain tie backs, leave room enough to dance and park your tricycle and you have a happy kid.

Futbol, Football, Soccer, Ball Ball

Whatever you call it we have fun doing it. Saturday morning was spent enjoying a day where we had little screaming at us to be accomplished. This is a rare Saturday indeed. They are usually spent running to see these people for this or needing to fix something here or there. Instead, we went and watched Daddy play futbol with the guys. The kids kicked around the "ball ball" as Nate says, got really hot and then splashed in the water and got soaked. Good times, good times.

I love these days. I really should have been doing something domestic like... cleaning. Really.
I wouldn't give these days up for the cleanest house in the world.

Pink Shoes

She loves shoes. It amazes me how she smile when she puts on a pair of new shoes.
Shoes for the Soul.
Check them out. They do great work.

9.11.08

More Pink!

I'm going to be an aunt and ...

She looks just like Ella did. Like a cute little alien!

Profile..

What I Dreamed About While Hubby Was Gone At Night..

Nope.

Airline Tickets. Specifically Airline Ticket (singular)

Yes ladies and gentlemen. I am getting away. By myself. As in no children. Alone. Without my kids. Or my husband. Or my kids. Or their diaper bag. I am going to Seattle Washington to see my sister and help her get ready for a baby. I get to play with baby stuff and not be the pregnant one. I get to do it without my kids. And she doesn't have any yet so there wont even be kids present.

Yes, I imagine I will indeed go crazy about 19 hours after I leave my kids. Kind of like a sad sick withdrawal you hope you will never get over. Alex will be in charge of the kids for 8 days and 6 nights. Or something like that. I will be in charge of me myself and I, my favorite travel companions. The great thing? He is totally capable and I can relax.

What ever will I do with all that time? Here is where you can start flipping me off like I did Carol in this post. We will be driving down the Pacific Coast Highway languishing down the Washington Coast south into Oregon. Maybe we will see some whales, some waterfalls, a volcano. Mostly we will probably be stopping for me every few miles or so in order for me to take photos with my Christmas present from my Mommy so I can blog about the trip. All I know is I will not have to worry about a four year old needing to potty "SOOO BAAAAD" or my son screming because he has thrown his car again and mommy is refusing to engage in a game of "pick up". There are a fair number of hostels for us to stay in so look forward to some posts containing the words "those darn kids" and "racket at that hour" that make me sound old.

This is my first trip to the west coast. I can not believe I am 28 and just saying that. I am so excited I even made a graphic. I think my husband may lay down on the floor and kick his legs and flail his arms yelling "No you can't Gooo!" like a 3 year old if I mention how excited I am one more time but really it would be just as effective as when Ella decided to do it.

Did you flip me off yet? No? Guess what? NO ONE IS GOING TO INTERRUPT ME IN THE BATHROOM!! HA you hate me now DON'T YOU!!!