A day in the life

Today was just a day. Nothing on the schedule, nothing to do. I even did all the laundry yesterday (I know, right? It is a crazy idea. Normally, I am so behind. Ask my husband). So really, nothing to do. We woke up, had breakfast, did the normal routine. The even got up early today, so I think we were dressed, fed, and ready at 9am. Even the beds were made.

We started out playing a Thomas game, because that's what you do when you have a boy who loves Thomas. You play Thomas games. After that I thought I would go on the computer, check some emails, do the Facebook thing, etc. It was then that I just sorta snapped a bit. James was playing with his Bronco Mr. Potato head, and insisted that I have an arm. I said no, I don't want an arm, I'm on the computer! He kept on insisting, and I kept refusing. Finally, I snapped and threw the arm the other way and declared (not very nicely) that No James, I did not want the arm! He got really sad, and rightly so. I knew I shouldn't have been computing away (doing nothing really productive, of course) and that I should be giving my kids love and attention. I notice that I become the mean, grouchy mom when I start to do the things that I want to do at not the right or good time. Like whenever I try to sneak on the computer for the umpteenth time, and the kids all start to hover, it's then that I snap at them to leave me alone- when really, I don't need to be on the computer anyway. Guh. I don't like when I'm out of sorts like I was today. My kids were totally good and fine, but for some reason, little things would make me snap. Patience was not my virtue.

In an effort to redeem myself, we had spurts of good times today.

We made monster pictures:

We played with chalk:

We were superheros:

We went on a walk:

  (Clara's idea for good walking shoes are one strappy high heal and one old flip flop. It's rather unbalanced).

There were ups and downs, goods and bads. I have no idea why at times I felt off. Nothing really was wrong in my world or heart today, and like I said, we had really nothing to do. I guess that is the rollercoaster that is motherhood, isn't it? (Or being a woman? Or human? Or maybe it's just me). (On a sidenote, I find that pictures are so funny too, because if I had just posted the pictures, it looks like a completely different day, perhaps a good one. But when I share some of the moments in between the snapshots, a different one unfolds. But I digress...). I just hope my kids keep all the good moments, and the bad ones just fade away.

So that's it. I don't know what the purpose was in sharing this post or this day, but it felt good to get off my chest. There you go, world. I wasn't perfect today.



Just around the corner...

I know fall is almost here. I can just about feel the cool, crisp days inching closer. I'm envisioning crock pots full of steaming soup, hot orange spiced tea, and warm, cozy sweaters. I can feel it. It's almost here.

Oh, and football season started. That always gets me in the mood...

Yes, once we start having those weekly match ups at high schools across the greater southwest Michigan area, I know that fall will soon be here. And I love it. (Did I mention I love fall? I love it. I didn't know how much I loved it 'til I moved to the midwest where there is an actual legitimite fall).

Tonight was the first game of the season. It was an unusual game since it was not held at a high school field, but at Waldo stadium, the home field of the Broncos at WMU. I've never been to Waldo before and it was a cool experience for me and the kids, minus the dozens of steps we had to climb up and down to get to our seats. That was not fun.  Though the football playing was very fallish, the weather, however, wasn't getting the memo and was instead very hot. Oh well, it will get the message sooner or later. It was also (and always) great to see my hubby in action. I love seeing him coach- he has such a passion for these kids.

He's the one in the gray hat. Bringing a three year old and eighteen month old to a football game does present its challenges as to actually watching the game, but was able to enjoy at a lot of it and catch the two touchdowns made by our team. (Sidenote to my dad: This is as close as you'll get to Dave wearing USC colors. Beggars can't be choosers, so you better enjoy it!)

Touchdown GA!

The kids favorite part of the game was half time with the band. After each song, Clara said,"More, more!" She's pretty sweet and dear. Though being quite unequally matched to our opponent, I think the team put up a good fight and hopefully feel good with how they played. Though we lost, it was a fun first game, and I'm excited for the next ten Friday Nights!

Snakejuice

  A while ago, we got rid of our cable TV and just went to your basic TV, with those digital converter boxes that the government were giving away for free. Since then, I haven't really watched much TV. In fact, I have maybe turned on that box twice. I should clarify though, because I have been watching lots of shows, just not things that are live TV.  Specifically, I've been consumed with Scrubs on DVD. Since last Christmas or so I've been working my way through seasons 1-8 graciously loaned to me by my beautiful sister-in-law. After finally finishing the show a good eight months later, my evenings have been, well, empty. It is a couple weeks before all my favorite shows start for fall, and too late to get into any of the regular summer programming, as they are almost over. So besides watching Dr. Katz at night with my hubby, I've been rewatching some of last season's episodes of Parks and Recreation. Do you all watch that show? I just started this past year even though it's two (or three?) seasons in. If you are not watching it, you need to, because it's hilarious. First of all, it has Amy Poehler, which like Tina Fey, needs to be my best friend. Also, it's based in Indiana which is always fun because they reference a lot of Indiantonian (?) things that I know and love. Lastly, it's just awesome.
  So I was rewatching an episode called "The Fight," and one of my all time favorite scenes is in this episode- it just might be my favorite scene from any other show that I have known and loved. I have the clip here, but if you want the back story or the whole episode, you can watch it here. (Basically, the office staff goes out to support one of their own workers and one of his enterprenual (?) ideas, which leads to some fun...)


Everytime I see it I about cry. And I do watch it alot, so I do cry alot. It makes my day, so hopefully it brings a smile to yours!


Also, don't forget to enter my contest, as time is running out! I am not sure when the last day to enter is, but mark my words, it will be soon!

A Giveaway, of sorts.

I like reading blogs. Alot. In fact, I would say that its about 60% of what I do online, besides obsessively checking Facebook and reading articles about Harry Potter. I like blogs of all sorts, from my friends and their daily lives to those famous mom blogs that are too funny (seriously, if you don't read RFML on a regular basis, you need to now. Go, do it. Then come back to me please!)  and some fashion blogs (though I seriously lack in that department). I have found that many of the more "famous" blogs out there, who have more followers than people I have even met in my entire life, always seem to have giveaways. Not giveaways in the sense like, "Hey, I've got some old crap in my garage and I'm giving it away! Come by and pick it up!" No, no. Giveaways like "If you comment on my page and follow my twitter and email me and text me and Facebook me and....then you could be entered to win all this free makeup from Clinique because the Clinique presidents liked my blog and therefore sent me all this fabulous stuff so I am giving it out to one of you, who I'll pick at random." Phew. That was a mouthful. Ya'll know what I am talking about?

Well, my blog isn't that cool. I have no corporate sponsers and I believe my only readers are my relatives and three friends (maybe four). So I'll never have a cool giveaway like a free frip to Paris. But I thought to myself that that shouldn't stop me from having one! Let's call it The Unpopular Blog Giveaway, sponsored by me. Cool, right?

So here's the deal, to enter, you have to put your work into it. First, go to wikipedia and find the article on the state you were born in, then go to the line in the article that corresponds with the month you were born in, and using any words found in that line, create your own movie or book title. Leave a comment with your winning title and my panel of judges (well, just me) will select the winning entry. Additionally, all non winning contestants will automatically be entered into a drawing for the second place prize.

For example, I entered "California" and the twelfth line (since I'm born in December) read as

"American victory in the war led to the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, in which Mexico ceded Alta California to the United States. Western areas of Alta California became the state of California..."

so my movie title is "The State of United Victory: The Guadalupe Areas." Who knows what that movie would be about!

Here's the important stuff, the prizes:
-First place will recive ONE candy bar of their choosing and an entire blog post written about them on my blog.
-Second place will receive ONE candy bar of their choosing.

Choose wisely.


Fine Print. My husband thinks that I am a complete nerd for doing this, but I am doing it anyway.

A little try at DIY

I have some really crafty friends. Friends who make their own scrapbooks and cards, who make dresses out of old t-shirts, who make purses and wallets, and the list go on. I have awesome friends. Unfortuantely, I am not that crafty. It also seems that every time I find a new "mommy blog" on the interweb, not only are they super crafty and pros at DIY projects, they even have their own little shop on Etsy with all their cute things. Apparently, being cute and crafty is a requirement to be a mom, a category that I don't grade the highest. Yes, I can scrapbook, and yes, I can whip up a cute project for my kids to do every now and then. I can't, however, make my own curtains out of scraps found along the roadside and have them happen to match my bedroom. In fact when I was telling Dave the other day that I would like just a little sewing kit for Christmas with some needles and thread and such to do mending type things around the house, he jokingly laughed and said, "Why? Isn't that why we live so close to my mom, to send our things to her?" Ha. Ha.
With a little inspiration from my dear friend, Erin, I attempted a little project of my own. For a while, I have had a nice little black and white bedspread that I love. The furniture in my room, however, was very not black. She has a dresser in her room that was at one point white and is now black. She said it was pretty simple to do, all she used was spray paint! Well, seemed easy enough for me! Off to Wal-Mart I went with a renewed crafty sense of purpose and energy.

The Before Shot.
I have one book shelf, one night stand, and a kids rocking chair I found at a garage sale for 25 cents! The chair had a little rust, but since I was feeling brave, I got a can of white spray paint to change the it from green to white.

My great husband helping me out. He's such a trooper.

Here I am, midway through the project. As you can see, it was pretty dark, so we stopped and finished up another day.


And the finished projects, if you please....

I am pretty happy with how they turned out. My bedroom definitely feels more uniform now! I am glad I did it! Here's the rocking chair...

I am pleased with the chair as well. Clara reeeally loves it. I just need the help of Lauren or Jes or someone else to help me make a cover for the seat and back. It's not too horribly ugly now, but I would like it to match Clara's room somehow, with pinks and reds. If you can help a girl out, let me know!

I am glad I got brave and did some little projects. I feel a little better the next time I want to do something around the house!

Singin' in the Rain

Though it is completely sunny and mild out now, I promise that it was rainy, dark, and stormy earlier. And this is what happened:

Things that don't belong

In honor of my SIL's "Things that are supposed to work" post, I thought that I would do my own rendition of "Things that..." In this case, it is in regards to things that in their own right, are okay, but in a different situation or used for the wrong purpose can be bad.

1. Mice in trashcans. This one is fairly obvious. Mice are okay, but in cages. Trashcans are okay, for holding trash. It is not okay for a dead mouse to be in a trashcan. Nope, sure isn't. I was empyting my laudry room basket which is downstairs, fairly large, and mostly holds all the lint that I throw away from the dryer. It also doesn't have a bag in it. Upon emptying into the outside trashcan, I found a dead little mouse snuggled up amongst the lint. I tried banging the laudry room can against the larger trashcan, but the mouse just won't come out. I was therefore forced to get some paper towels (alot of paper towels) and scoop it up. Blech. I don't know why it was stuck there, but it was. I can only imagine at one time the lint was warm and the little critter climbed in thinking he had found the eureka of all warm places to be. Little did he know more and more would be piled on top of him, resulting in his untimely death.

2. Ants in brown sugar. I was going to make cookies today, and when it came time in the recipe to add the brown sugar, I realized that my little air tight container was all out. I went into the cupboard to get my half-empty bag of b. sugar to fill up the container. As I was dumping it all in, two ants fell out of the bag in a little sugar avalanche. Disgusted, I threw out all the brown sugar and postponed the cookie making until later. I have since bought some more and was able to finish my batch. This situation could explain why we have been finding so many ants in the kitchen lately. They had found a pretty good stash! May I point out that these are not your run of the mill "cute, little" ants. No, these are the mean older, larger cousins of those ants. And they suck.

3. Clothes in the bathtub. This is never a good idea, especially if you are a three year old boy. Clothes, are good. They keep us from being naked. Baths are good, they keep us from being dirty. Combined, they can create a grumpy momma. I explained this a bit in my last post, but here are some pictures to prove it:

I couldn't really be mad, could I?

Caught in the act...

4. Girls on pans. Girls are always wonderful, pans can be useful. What is not really helpful is a girl on a pan, but it is awfully cute.

She was doing this while I was trying attempt #2 of the day for making cookies. I'm totally biased, but she's just the sweetest thing I have ever seen. Here's a bonus picture just for fun....

This is the first time that I have said "Smile" and she actually did something that resembled a smile. Big girl!

5. Things that do belong together:

James and Clara. Milk and Cookies.



Home Again.

I don't know why I clean up my house and make sure everything is in order before I leave. The moment I walk in the door from a trip and unload the car, the house looks just the same if not worse than when I cleaned it up before we all left. I just don't know why. I guess it would be doubly worse if I didn't clean it the first place. Oh well. That has to be some cosmic law of the universe that a once cleaned house will be quadruple-y worse upon your return. (Other cosmic laws include when you leave your son clothed in the bathroom and presume he will take off his clothes and then step into the bathtub, he will confuse a couple of steps and leave the clothes on while entering the tub. This however, is just a cosmic law and by no means not something that happened in my house tonight. Except I do have photo evidence and I do have some 4T clothing items hanging to dry in my bathroom right now).

We're back from a wonderful trip down south. It's always nice visiting Corie and her family. It's like a vacation. Nice place, good meals, great conversation. I couldn't ask for more. Dave was away coaching football camp for four days (on a military base, no less. I found out what a cadence run was. Well, I knew what it was, I just didn't know that the thing that it was had a name), so rather than be home by my lonesome, the kids and I endured the long drive in the heat with an un-air conditioned car and made it safe and sound. James is really fond of his cousins, Lily and Tessa. Clara is really fond of her cousin, Faith, more affectionately known as "Bee-be.....Bee-be...." The three of them are growing into quite the little group. They all play together so nicely, and seem to really enjoy hanging out together. The night before we left when I was telling James we were leaving the next day, he got really sad. I told him, "Aren't you excited to see Dada again?" In a purely heart wrenchingly sad James face he said something along the lines of, "Can't Lily and Tessa come too?" And continued to go on and describe how he wished that Dada, Lily and Tessa could all be together-then he'd be perfectly happy. To console his little heart, I offered that we go on a walk before bed. I asked, "Would that make your heart happy?" "Yes, but it will be a little happy to walk, but a little sad to miss Lily and Tessa." He also threw in something about his heart glistening. My dear boy.

I'm glad to be back with my hubby though. I think the four of us function much better when we are all together. We're heading into a busy season though, football is in full swing, Dave goes back to work at the school next week, and I start back teaching my girls in about three weeks! Eeek! We'll be some busy beavers, for sure.

California Gurls

You're thinking of Katy Perry now, right? If you're not, something's wrong with you. Just kidding...Or not.

If you don't know (but I am guessing you do), I am oringinally from California. Not even the cool NorCal part of California, but L.A. Even as I type this, some of you (including my husband who is reading over my shoulder which I don't mind at allllll...ahem....) maybe thinking that the L.A. part is way cooler. Well trust me, I grew up there. I'd trade my collection of wicker baskets to live in the northern part than the southern part any day (that is if I still lived there). It is probably cool to live in L.A. if you are a movie star with lots of money and can shop at cool stores where they only make size 0 and you happen to be size 0, but unfortunately, I am not nor will ever be any of those things. Or it can be cool if you like the beach. I don't.

I won't completely bag on it, however, because I grew up with good friends, went to good private schools (Eww. Doesn't that make me sound awful? I apologize), and met my husband at college there. I have lots of fun, awesome memories growing up in those suburbs. And Pasadena is really cool....so there are good things. But for me, I didn't want to end up there my whole life. Or raise a family in all that concrete. I do like to visit.

This whole big, long California Rant was to say that my dear dear friends from California are out in Michigan, and I was able to see them today. It was so great and wonderful and fun and excellent to spend time with these three ladies. The one down side to moving 2,000 miles away from your family and friends after you graduate college is not getting to see my dear friends and family regularly. I really miss those people in my life who were so pivotal during my early years. I'm always trying to get people come out and visit me, so whenever it does happen, it's exciting. I'm also so glad they get to see and hang out with my kids.

Though Rebecca, Sara, and Julie were out here for some sad reasons, it was nonetheless good to see them and catch up on life. We met at the Cracker Barrel, which I guess you have to do if you are visiting the midwest. Just like if you go to L.A., you must, MUST go to In-n-Out. It just has to happen.

James and Rebecca

Cracker Barrel Rocking Chair and Checkers. And Sara.

My Sweet Delby

All the hot ladies. And James.

Thanks you ladies for making the trip to see us, we so appreciate it!



An adult's lullaby

  A while back, Dave asked if I had ever watched the show "Dr. Katz." I said no, I hadn't. He showed me the show, and at first, I am going to admit, I wasn't impressed. It's a cartoon that was on Comedy Central during the early thousands. (Is that how you say it? If it was on air during the years 1999-2000ish? Thousands? Or turn of the century? I don't know, either one makes me feel old, because 2001 doesn't seem that long ago. However, it is ten years, which is a long time. But I disgress....) After that one epidsode, I tried another and got hooked. The show is about Dr. Katz, a professional therapist, and his son Ben. There are also segments of him interviewing his clients, which happen to be famous comics like Dave Chapelle, Sarah Silvermen, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Ray Ramano, etc. Now at night, once the kids are in bed and the house is picked up (because let's be honest, I'm like Monica and God forbid a shoe be out of place before I go to sleep...) we bring our little laptop in our room, YouTube Dr. Katz, and fall alseep to those sweet comedic stylings.
   I don't think we ever really make it through one episode on any given night. It's the kind of show that doesn't really have a long plotline that you have to follow through to the end of the episode, just a series of jokes weaved into different scenes. It's become something that I look forward to in my day. When the house is quite and the world is still, there's nothing better than cuddlin' with your honey and falling asleep to the calming voices of Dr. Katz and Ben.
   So check it out! I do think it helps you fall asleep faster, because my husband who notoriously can't fall alseep at night, is out within minutes once these guys come on. I might need to market this method of medication for insomniacs....


Dr. Katz - 307 - Day Planner by limblessjudo


What do you think?

Through her eyes

It's not really a mystery that James gets most of the attention in our house. I mean, for starters, he's the first born. He's got a couple of years on her, which obviously means he's got a little more life under his belt and a lot more things to say. If you've spent any time with him, you know he likes to talk. Alot. Also, about 87% of the toys in our house are "James' toys," or things that aren't really good for an 18 month old to play with. That being said, a lot of time what Clara wants to do, or what Clara wants to watch, or what Clara thinks comes after what James wants to do, see, or think. (We are currently watching "Batman" right now, which surprising, Clara is laughing at. I don't gets what is funny, but she sure does). Realizing this, we've been trying to get Clara more toys that she likes to play with, or let Clara "pick" what we do, or take her on dates with just Dada or Momma. It's done a lot of good, I think. We've recently found that she loves babies, so we got her a baby and stroller. She's gotten into Elmo, which is really sweet and dear. (Though "Elmo" and "Momma" sound a lot alike in Clara-ese). She also loves any sort of animal, particularly ducks, fishes, horses, and dogs. So in honor of Clara, I am doing a day-in-the-life post about my sweet little Delby.

I realize James is in this picture, but it was sort of sweet seeing them play together with one of Clara's things. Here they are using Q-tips to clean up the baby. James might have "painted" her nails pink.

She really loves this baby. It's so darlin' to see.

"See Momma? Baby."

She takes good care of her baby too. She wipes her nose, cleans out her ears, changes her diaper,

then leaves her face down on the floor admist a sea of diapers.

She likes James' books. More accurately, she likes throwing James' books on the floor.

The Delbster likes to blow her nose. Alot. I buy tissue boxes all the time, since we got through them like water.

She's also very devious. It was very quite in my house, for a long time. As a mom, you know too much quite normally isn't a good thing.  I think she liked the candy, though.

It's hard to be mad at this face.

Poor candy bar didn't see what was coming. Also, for not having a complete set of teeth, my daughter can do alot of damage.

That's it. I love you little Clara Dell!

P.S. Since I named this post "Through her eyes," that song "In your eyes," was going through my head on repeat. I was lame and actually had to look up who sang this song, because apparently I am not hip on cool 80's trivia. It was Peter Gabriel, if your wondering. Which, I bet your not, since you are cool and hip and know things like this.

Another year

Happy Birthday honey!

Since he might be a little modest about his age, I won't go advertising it on here. Let's just say he's 100-80+30/2+2. Got that?

I am so happy and grateful that he's my husband. Not only does he do wonderful cool things like provide for our family, coach football and track, work on getting his Master's degree, and be involved at the middle school, but he always makes me smile, makes me feel valued and appreciated, and works hard as the leader of this family. I don't know how he does it all, but I am so so thankful for him doing it. (He also spell checks and grammar checks all my blog posts, so that's pretty great too).

Michigan State Games 2011

Fourth of July 2011

Tackling Dada

Blueberry picking



Happy Birthday Dave! We love you so!

Blueberries for Sal

A couple of weeks ago, we went blueberry picking. Berry picking is one of my all time favorite summer activites by far. When James was just a wee boy, we took him raspberry picking.  That day ranks as one of my most memorable days in my life, full of sweet memories being outside, time together as a family, and good fruit to eat. We didn't do any berry picking last year, mostly because having a teeny tiny Clara, it was hard to do anything that involved an extended period of time out in the hot sun. This year our family is significantly more mobile, so we continued the tradition again. Instead of picking raspberries though, we headed for a blueberry patch. If I was a good mom, I would have read Blueberries for Sal before going out.

I did at least think about the book when we were out, so that counts for something, right?

Moving on...here's some pictures from the day. We went to Kendalls Blueberry Farm in Hastings, MI. The farm was simple, just a stand with buckets for you to put your blueberries in and a basket to put your money in once you were done.

Ready to go!

Can I just say that I love my little man so?

We might have done more eating than picking of blueberries.

See what I mean?

It's serious work, you know. It was slow, but near the end of our time Clara sorta grasped the concept that we wanted blue blueberries, not green ones.

We ended up filling up one whole bucket, and for only six bucks!

The boys

My sweet girl

Mouthful of berry

So there you have it. We had blueberries for a long, long time. Dave made som excellent blueberry crepes wtih it. If only I had his mad cooking skillz.  If you haven't gone berry picking yet, I suggest you do!