pirates booty

we been noticin' that some of our personal stashes of treasures be missing.  we  be confused at the thievery that be happenin' on our own ship. what scurvy pirate would be stealin' our treasure? alas the captain be thinkin' that perhaps we should go diggin' for the treasure in hopes of findin' it. so away we a go to the land behind to seek out our treasure. we had no map to help us, but the trusted sailors were keen on eye and good with shovel. twas not long before the captain with her loyal sailors be findin' buried treasure on the land.
we knew it could be only one man......

captain jack

that scurvy pirate be takin' all our treasure and putting them in the land behind. for what purpose we know not, but alas the scurvy dog had taken with him 4 shirts, 7 socks, 3 pants and other treasures of the ship.  trust me ye hearties this captain jack is a dirty rotten pirate that can not be trusted with open doors on ye ship.

lifechanging

ok, so maybe not life changing, but for the first time in years i went out and spent real money on real makeup. i used to be a huge makeup girl. i loved it. but for the past several years, namely 8 years, makeup has definitely not been on my priority list. i looked in the mirror the other day and thought i looked old. i was looking tired. trust me i am tired, but i do not want anyone else asking me if i am tired. i went out to a real beauty store, had them make me up and bought whatever she used. it felt so good. love it! smashbox, thank you!

also life changing (again, with the drama) is maybe tmi, but my blog, my joy and chance to creep you out. i went and got fitted for new bras. (i told you tmi)i had no idea what i was missing! also shocking for me, i was shopping with a friend for said bras. needless to say it was very uplifting. i highly suggest you get fitted by a pro.

i'm a simple girl, and these are the things that excite me.

sshhhhhh dont let them know

i play while the boys are away. it's so so dang fun.......and addictive!

family bondage.....oops bonding

my sister and her 7 kids....that's right 7 kids.... are temporarily without living quarters (she likes to say homeless, cause as the middle child she needs the attention).
"temporary" meaning the entire summer.
what do you do when you have no place to live for an entire summer?
why what any sane person would do. load up your 7 kids in your suburban and drive across country to hang out with the east coast family (i say the better half, cause i'm the youngest child and drama comes naturally to me).
anyway at the end of this week, my brave sister will load 'em up and move 'em out for the summer adventure of a lifetime!

i am so excited!!!
a week at the outer banks followed by day trip adventures are sure to fill this summer with fun. my 3 and her middle 3 are close in ages, so a built in partner in crime will be so much fun. as a member of the east coast family we rarely get to hang out with the "mountain wac's" so again i say
i am so excited.

(i almost capitalized that sentence, but couldn't let my emotions show. )i'm the one in green and shes the one in stripes crossing her arms.
yes, were still that awkward.

off the rag

no..........

not that rag!

this one.......


since the princess was a baby she has had a burp rag in her mouth. it's really quite disgusting. not to mention that it stunk. really.
i hated it, but honestly did not care that she went to bed with it. i knew that i should take it away, but let's face it, i was too lazy to do it. it was an easy out at bedtime.

i am happy to say that we are off the rag.

it took one night. hindsight this could have been done forever ago, but well.....see lazy note above.

it's a big accomplishment for us.

next time you see me, give me a pat on the back........or drugs of some sort, cause i may need them raising a girl.

:)

see this....

this is my cordless phone from home hanging out on my wiper after driving around for roughly 20 miles.
it's that whole mom a.d.d. thing. you know what i'm talking about, right?

you go downstairs to pick up toys, and on the way down you spot clothes on the floor, so you pick them up and throw them in the washing machine, you change loads and you empty the lint trap, only to notice that your garbage can is overflowing so as you take the trash bag to the bin you see the kids' bikes are in the driveway, and as you start moving them you notice the grass needs to be mowed. bikes are put away, grass is cut, some laundry is done, but.......you never picked up the toys in the basement.

oh well.


as scarlett o'hara would say: "tomorrow is another day"

or maybe that's just me that has the disease?

reason 1990283 i love my kids

tonight during prayer baby e prayed that he could make it to the gate and get as far as mommy has gotten.

confused?

cute though right......

except

it's about a wii game people! he wants to pass a level (or a gate) in my sims:kingdom.

what have i done?

rip my love

my poor phone died an uneventful death. we've had a long history together...well 3 years is a long time technology wise. i could have gotten a new phone anytime, but i love her.
she stopped ringing last month. i still held hope that i didn't need the phone to ring.
enter monday morning. early release for school. me shopping forgetting it was early release monday.
baby e sat in the school office for 45 minutes waiting for me to get there, all because i never heard my phone ring.
it took him 30 seconds to get over it. he looked at me and said "now can we go rent the wii game from blockbuster". love this kid. we got 2 video games for him and my new phone is on the way!

oh my heck

i mentioned that whoever could name an object would get a blog post about them, and here it is.

so psycho...aka minds, aka mindalicious, aka min, aka whatever i felt like calling her, was my college roommate for 2 years. holy cow this girl! she is the most fabulous friend. she is the kind of friend that you can talk to even rarely and just instantly reconnect with. we have many a history together.
we met her freshman year living at the glenhole in provo. i think neither of us were in a very good place in our lives, but nonetheless we bonded. probably over boys and ice cream. we roomed the next two years together with dana. they were my bridesmaids, and my best friends, and the girls i knew would always be entertaining. they roomed together after i married the hubster and psycho ended up marrying, ready for this....the hubsters' roommates little brother...get that? well anyway it makes us nearly family. she has a completely infectious laugh, and has more energy than anyone i know. now, we bond over our boys....minus the ice cream, although we definitely need to.
i love you psycho.
psycho + weenie = bff4vr! lol

day with daddy

we were lucky enough to have hubsters home all day wednesday. it was a fun middle of the week treat for everyone. he is always so good about doing something fun and interactive with the kids, and yesterday was no exception.
one trip to michaels, 15 dollars and an hour equals pure joy!

such a girl

guess who found mommy's wedding dress....

big dreams of little kids

disclosure: iphone is a phone not a high quality action photo camera.

when His plans are different

forgive the long post but here goes...

our story starts about 5 years ago (2004). we move into a 2 bedroom condo with a 2 year old and a newborn. it was great, except it wasn't ours. about 10 months into our lease our condo when on the market and sold in 3 days. we prequalified for a loan by calling the bank and having them ask us how much money we wanted to borrow.(this was 2005, think....) we thought $300k was good enough so off we went house hunting. this was the beginning of a trying, frustrating and crazy time. contracts with escalation clauses, no contingencies all sorts of no-no's. the one townhouse we loved we lost by about 30k. it was in manassas, which is far out but hubs worked about 15 minutes away. when we lost that house we gave up. we signed a year lease on a great townhouse.

we loved this townhouse, and even talked to some neighbors about buying their townhouse for $300k. that fell through when the market started falling. after being in the house for a year i got pregnant with #3 and did not want to think about moving. well knock knock the landlord shows up one day and tell us we needed to be out in 60 days. what?!? i'm 8 months pregnant! we didn't have time to buy something. we had to find a rental.....again.....

we found this amazing house in a great neighborhood. it was the most horrendous move ever. ever. several months into our lease the owner offered us a chance to purchase the house from her. we were ecstatic. fast forward to 3 months ago when the owner called and said she had to decided to come home and not sell the house. what?!?!

each time the Lord has shown that he knows more. for example 3 months after we lost bids on townhouses in manassas hubby changed jobs closer to d.c which would have given him an hour + long commute. then gas prices went up. we would have been sunk. that house just foreclosed on for $140k. the townhouse in reston is also valued at $60k below what we had discussed.

we make plans and try to make them work. for us, the Lord clearly has a vision far greater than our own. our upcoming move is sure to show us something more that he has in store for us.

"There is a divine purpose in the adversities we encounter every day. They prepare, they purge, they purify, and thus they bless." - James E. Faust

sigh....

it's been a typical virginia spring. 90 degree weather followed by 45 degree weather followed by 50 degree weather with rain. typical
btw - as i'm typing this baby e is rubbing my head and playing with my hair. he's a gem
anyway back to my topic. so this morning in the 50 degree weather with rain i began the task of packing. i will remind you that we will need to be out of this house by the ends of the month, and i have not "packed" a single box. i rented a storage unit and took over the first load. the weather combined with another move has got me down about this move. i am in complete denial about it, or maybe i have just done this so much that i just don't even bat an eye anymore. sad. so right now my version of packing is taking everything that has been in rubbermaid containers for the past several year and stacking them in the garage. this will be our 12th move in 14 years of marriage. yeah, pretty sure i know what i'm doing. sigh....

what was your worst or favorite move?

for posterity

james informed his dad last night that he knew all about his future family.
he is going to have 2 boys. the first named jackson, the second named michael. by the way there is no reason for him to know anything about the former artist known as michael jackson cause we don't have a record player anymore.
he then said that he might have a girl later on named michelle but he wasn't sure.

classic

if any of you have girls who want a man who knows what he wants. this is your guy. maybe don't show her this picture though.

why?!?!?!?!?!?!?!

why must you taunt me? why must you ruin any healthy eating plans?
why must companies come out with new ways to torture me just when i have reestablished a new healthy routine?
why must said companies have a window to my soul?
am i that transparent?

lazy shoes

I love baby e, but he is among the laziest children alive. honestly. it's ok, we work with it for now.
one of his things that he is particularly lazy about is shoes. he wears ugg's in the middle of summer and rain boots to the store, and even church shoes out while playing. why, you ask. cause he can just slide them on.

now this is totally my fault. i do the same thing. unless i'm working out i'm a "slide on shoe" kinda gal. j doesn't know how to tie his shoes cause he's stubborn and he can just slide his shoes on.
last year, despite my better judgement, i bought crocs. i hate crocs! i understand they are comfortable, but they are not very attractive or really that practical (they may be plastic, but wearing them in the rain is not recommended). not only did i buy crocs, but i bought orange and red. basically the brightest colors they have. e loves the crocs, cause you see he's lazy.

i must confess, i am lazy too cause it's 30 degrees outside and i don't fight against him wearing crocs. i just tell him to put socks on. so at our house the last words every day out of my mouth are e - crocs and socks.

now....how to break him of putting his clothes on over his pajama's. seriously....he is that lazy.

my frustration

if i can't rant and rave why have a blog. so here we go...

i've made a decision to live healthier, lose weight, work out and to eventually run a mini marathon. for the past month, yes it's only been a month, i have been hitting the gym 4-5 days a week, cutting calories and not eating after 7pm. i feel like i'm doing good.
well imagine my surprise when i get on the scale today only to see that i...
gained weight!! 3 pounds!!

and please i do not want to see a single one of you tell me that i am probably losing inches, or my body is just changing cause i know all that, but numbers show me with my own eyes a visible proof that my work is paying off. my ultimate goal is weight loss. how can i net 1000-1200 calories a day and not lose weight.
so in my self pity i was driving to pick up baby boy from preschool just about in tears and ready to self loathe when on the radio came one of the greatest 80's hits

faith by george michael

i wont put up the youtube video because there's too much bum in the video for you my friends ;) but trust me listen to it online and it will get you moving, remind you not to give up and make you want to shake your money maker!!

red dye #3

remember that warning in the 80's about red dye #3 being dangerous to your health? well i think what they did was remove it from food and put it in the hair dye that i used tonight. oh the horror. no pictures, because then there would be evidence and i would have to plead guilty to stupidity.

commune with nature

over the next few days i will be communing with nature along with 108 young women and 12 adults. i may make it back in one piece, but if not let it be known that i went by my own free will and choice. (maybe i should have checked with a therapist first?)