Monday, April 30, 2007

What we do for fun 'round hee-ar.

I don't know if I have more visions of Woodstock or those screaming Orc things from LOTR. Whichever, he had a B-A-L-L in the mud. Can you believe how big he is?





My older boys are too prissy to get dirty like the girls. The oldest was 3.5 when I put him in a tiny mud puddle and he SCREAMED his head off that he was dirty. His 1.5yo sister just laughed and splashed away. When we told this story he said "Yup and I still don't like to get dirty!" That's alright son, neither do I, most of the time. The 5yo boy did eventually get in but only when he thought no one was watching - he's funny like that. Anyway, they're all bathed, and watching "Night at the Museum" (again) and DH and I are going to try "Stranger than Fiction" with Will Farrell. Should be a nice quiet evening...

Thursday, April 26, 2007

I can't decide which video to post first...

Our whitest kid dancing (short but good)

Baby torture at the carwash (no babies were permanently harmed)

3yo's gone stir crazy (A very entertaining type of crazy)

My husband butchering the word Arkansas (Complete with thick NY accent applied)

7yo caught singing in the shower (and she doesn't seem to care)

I forgot one!

Lipsynching baby (complete with dance moves)

Alright - y'all decide!

How to tell when a Catholic is driving too fast...



This cracked me up! Can my Catholic friends relate? I know Natalie can! hehe

Sunday, April 22, 2007

The infamous Wedding Meme

Everyone else did it! ;-)

1. Where/How did you meet? DH and I don't agree. He says he first met me at the firehouse, I say we met once at a carnival. I remember because I scoffed my nose at the 21yo riding a bike in the Pink Floyd t-shirt. ;-) He says he saw me at a FD parade but I didn't see him. So, the first time we agree to have seen each other was at the Firehouse on the day we were both sworn in (August 1st, 1996). Me like men in uniform.
2. How long have you known each other? It will be 11 years this August
3. How long after you met did you start dating? "Funny" story, he had a girlfriend he didn't tell me about before we dated. He tried to kiss me one night and I told him I didn't kiss other peoples boyfriends. I was a bad girl but not that bad. ;-) He came to my job one night and told me he broke up with his g/f. I was a bit disturbed how happy he was telling me the news but I knew he really liked me so we went full speed ahead into speed dating mode.
4. How long did you date before you were engaged? OK, in our world "engaged" means "pregnant" so 4 months until we found out we were expecting. ;-) I remember being so nervous how he would react but he reacted better than I did. He was extremely excited to start a family.
5. How long was your engagement? 11 months, DS#1 was 1 month and 2 days old at our wedding.
6. How long have you been married? It will be 10 years this November - wow! Who'd have thunk?
7. What is your anniversary? November 8th.
8. How many people came to your wedding reception? I dunno, I didn't know half of them, met most of his family there. LOL Probably 50ish?
9. What kind of cake did you serve? I have no idea, I remember hearing stories of my dad cursing the whole way from the bakery because the cake was sliding everywhere, it was tiered. My youngest SIL bought the topper as a gift to us.
10. Where was your wedding? At a Mormon church, nope, we're not Mormon, it was just the cheapest and Geo's family used to be Mormon. The Lutherans wanted $500 PLUS classes. It was a shotgun wedding (OK so a late shotgun wedding. We don't have time for stinkin' classes!
11. What did you serve for your meal? Well, no coffee, no liquor (remember, it was Mormon), oh 'cept for the Coca Cola that the BISHOP was drinking. :-O My dad did an AWESOME job and catered it all by himself. He owned a deli and he made all my favorite things, swedish meatballs, baked ziti, chicken marsala (I think), sausage and peppers. Damn I'm hungry!
12. How many people were in your wedding party? My mom was my Matron of Honor, my friend Nat was the Maid of Honor, and a friend Heidi a bridesmaid. DH had his best friend Greg and his friend Giovanni.
13. Are you still friends with them all? My mom of course, Michelle and I keep in touch VIA e-mail, same with Natalie although she's a dietician now so I call for advice occassionally. Heidi became a strict Jehovah Witness and I don't talk to her much except when she sends me religious material through the mail (lol). We haven't talked to Giovanni since he stood us up the last time we moved (we tried), and Geo's still best friends with Greg, we just got back from his wedding in fact. ;-)
14. Did your spouse cry during the ceremony? No but his foot was tapping like crazy (nervous habit), we make fun of it on the tape now. ;-) My parents may have cried in despair...haha
15. Most special moment of your wedding day? Honestly? When it was over. I was extremely uncomfortable during the whole thing. Probably eating was my favorite part. Or when I danced with my dad. We had a really great time laughing and joking (OK and making fun of people). And we both teared a little (had something in our eye).
16. Any funny moments? Well, I was wearing heels and I'm taller anyway so when we started to dance I kicked my shoes off into the crowd. Also my ring didn't fit during the ceremony. hehe
17. Any big disasters? One of my best friends at the time thought she was pregnant and told me in the bathroom where she cried and I consoled her. LOL Geo's uncle couldn't handle not drinking so he took his flask to the parking lot. hehe
18. Where did you go on your honeymoon? *sigh* Open up old wounds shall we? For some reason everyone was just TOO busy to take our son on our wedding night. So, we took him to the hotel suite at the Hilton we were spending the night in. Well, he was never formula fed before and my dress made it impossible to breastfeed so we had family give him bottles at the wedding (I would have done it different today) and they bought formula with IRON for a baby not used to it. So, he kept us awake ALL.NIGHT.LONG in the hotel room. DH and I tag teamed pushing him in the stroller around the suite or rocking him. Every hour we switched off. Romantic. Then in the morning DH took a bath with him and there was a poop explosion. We still talk about that today. LOL Oh and of course today everyone claims they could have watched him. ;-) We're waiting till their grown then we're going on a long luxorious honeymoon!
19. How long were you gone? Just one long.... agonizing... night.
20. If you were to do your wedding over, what would you change? I'm not sure. Back then I don't know what I would have changed. Today I would have only invited family we enjoy, probably have the ceremony outside, and enough money saved for a long vacation. Oh and we'd definately have alcohol.
21. What side of the bed do you sleep on? Wherever there's a spot.
22. What size is your bed? California King.
23. Greatest strength as a couple? Divorce isn't in our vocabulary, well OK it is but we know it's not a valid option for us. We both love our children and we're both extremely loyal to each other. We both love the Lord.
24. Greatest challenge as a couple? We are both pig headed and strong willed and defiant. We both like to spend more money then we have. We can both be selfish at times as well. Hey, how come the challenges were easier than the strengths to come up with? lol
25. Who literally pays the bills? Whoever gets the cut-off notice! haha Seriously, we both do, depends on who's in the mood to do it at the time, or we barter and/or draw straws.
26. What is your song? Well our wedding song was "How Do I Live" by Leanne Rimes. But I like to say it's Still the One by Shania Twain. Especially the part that says "They said, "I bet they'll never make it" But just look at us holding on We're still together still going strong "
27. What did you dance your first dance to? See above. Then we danced to "Baby Mine" with our son.
28. Describe your wedding dress: On clearance at Davids Bridal. It was really pretty and fancy, a bit of Scarlett O'Hara and a bit Rennaisance. It had a huge train and ruffles. My MIL made a beautiful veil. The Bishop wasn't happy it was off the shoulders but I really didn't care. I'll post a picture if I remember.
29. What kind of flowers did you have at your wedding? My MIL made the arrangements. I'll have to look at the pictures to see. She did an awesome job, she really kicks ass - she's multi-talented!
30. Are your wedding bands engraved? I don't think they are. I don't even know where they are. I got pregnant, DH got fat (OK, I got fat too) and for awhile I wore it around my neck then gave that up too. I wear a fake engagement ring to keep the pervies away. Neither one of us wear wedding rings.
31. How old were you when you got married? I just turned 19 and DH just turned 23. Yeah, we were babies.

OK, that took over an hour. Which is why I don't do those things! But my coffee date cancelled and DH has been playing WoW all day longggggggggggg (I only played half the day) so I had to conjure up some good memories so I don't cop an attitude. ;-) I think I'm going to go have some coffee alone with a good book!

Thursday, April 19, 2007

To make up for the non-snarky post below...

Courtesy of thoseshirts.com



Go ahead and laugh, even if you consider yourself a liberal. You know it's funny. ;-)

My first non-snarky post ;-)

I was surrounded by family when I first heard about the Virginia Tech massacre. To be honest it was easy for me to push aside the shock and horror at the time, I was surrounded by babies and children full of unconditional love. It's remarkably easy to push aside the evils of the world when there's a chubby baby laughing on your lap. But later on, in our hotel room, hearing all the gory details it wasn't as easy. Our black & white 9yo wanted to know *why* someone would do this. Hmmm I wish I knew. We explained how sometimes people are just broken inside. They didn't get enough love or laughter or Faith or all of the above and they do things without regard to the consequence. And that most of the time they end their own lives just like this young man did. I'm an extremely compassionate person so I can't help but wonder what his life was like to do something like this. What anyone's life is like. Did he just have something in him that hopefully none of us have, and it snapped? Was he born "broken" or did an event or series of events cause him to break? We may never know. Whatever the reason I resent having to watch bits of my sons innocence swept away because of the evils of the world but I'm not naive, I know it's inevitable.
Yesterday he cried out of nowhere because he wanted his family to stay as it is, forever. He didn't want any of us (or his extended family) to die. He is a faith-filled child, he's an inspiration to both my husband and I some days. And yet, this horrific tragedy made death a little more real to him, and a little more scary. I can't imagine how the survivors and the victims families feel. And the shooters family. Wow.
I am hoping this doesn't turn into another anti-gun campaign. Yes, guns can kill a lot of people. So can poison. So can cars. So can big airplanes full of innocent people. But we don't outlaw airplanes. I don't think stricter gun laws would have fixed this young man. Nor do I think that VT could have reacted differently to prevent these senseless deaths. Hindsight is 20/20.
No real point to this other than my rambling. We're almost back to our state after 2500+ miles of driving round trip. (we're home now) The kids did great. We created some awesome memories, met family we haven't had the pleasure of meeting yet, and we're coming home a little richer (emotionally, we're poorer financially LOL). I know I have grown a little bit. I'm a little surer of things, as unsure as the world is. We are incredibly blessed with the family and friends we have. Incredibly.
So I'm trying to work out the vacation/back home transition right now. Part of me wants to move again. I want to be closer to family, not next door but within an hours drive. Life is too short. But the other part of me knows that our life here is the one we're supposed to be living right now. In this season anyway. It's a hard transition to make and growing up an only child I can't tell you how much the chaos and love and dysFUNction means to me. I have 3 sisters, 3 BIL's. Countless neices and nephews. And I've been in the family 10 years now, I've been an aunt to almost all of them since they were born. It's a neat feeling. I'm really glad we had 5 children now that I see the fruits of a big family as they're grown.
Sorry this isn't snarky. I'm just not feeling snarky. Actually I'm feeling a bit feverish. And the babe is feverish as well so I've felt like a mama kangeroo most of the day with a joey attached. ;-) But he's sleeping now finally and I need to take advantage and be productive. WHY didn't I clean more before we left? LOL

Sunday, April 15, 2007

Entertainment

OK so when one decides to travel across many states with 5 children and a dog one gets close to the brink of insanity on occassion during the trip. So, what did we do to entertain ourselves when we were all DVD'd and sing-a-long'd out? Our 3yo entertained us with her many faces. She had us all in stitches...

The slideshow is not perfect, in fact it sets my OCDness all aflame but it's really really late and my in-laws get up really really early and I want to be up and dressed before they come for breakfast for a change. ;-)

Anyway, so forgive the imperfectness but I thought it would keep y'all off my back about bloggin' for a few days anyway. ;-) Just keep in mind, we've visited 4 states and driven across even more so I should have blogging material for a year! ;-)

Watch our crazy but adorable impromptu entertainment here

Wednesday, April 4, 2007

Do it for yer babys daddy

Dy and I were talking the other day about exercise, er...well... more like our lack of. I was doing great for awhile but I just could not get myself remotivated after illness and household disasters took place for a few weeks. I was venting to Dyan how I deplored the fact that every exercise video has a perky, skinny, perky, big breasted, did I mention perky, talkative, smiley, bitch woman as the instructor. OK, truth be told I don't know that I'd buy an exercise tape from a woman in curlers with a baby on each hip and a cigarrette hanging out of her mouth but I tell ya what, it was sure fun to imagine!

I do think one of these days in all my free spare time (<--- this is me living in denial/fantasy) I will make a segment or 2 of this video. Or at least some stills. We decided we would call it: Do It Fer Your Babys Daddy Say it with a southern drawl.

The "instructor" will be someone like me, fresh out of bed, hair uncombed, coffee dribbling from her lips. Stained t-shirt, ripped sweatpants, and a pair of ratty slippers (optional) will be the uniform of choice. I hope you're not the sensitive type because she's probably not a morning person so she may use the words "lazy" and "ass" a lot to motivate you.

Don't worry about keeping up because there will probably be no pattern. She may run off camera from time to time, ignore any off camera crying, yelling, or throwing of things, consider it background music.

Finally, there will be GREAT motivation factors. She suggests placing your box-o-wine between your feet and refill your glass every 10 sit ups! For push-ups we suggest having a page turner handy so while you're doing your reps you can catch up on the latest Nascar Illustrated copy. Oh and as an added bonus the tape will include a razor so you can combine shaving with stretching (yes, it's that time of year to shave again).

Oh and be sure to buy the censored version if cussin' is an issue. It's only about 6 minutes long as opposed to the 35 min full version but you'll get the gist of it.

Happy Easter week folks!

Sunday, April 1, 2007

Bah Humbug Mom!

Both my girls stay up way too late and complain if they have to get up before let's say, NOON! It's ridiculous, especially on Sundays. I won't go into whose genes they have. ;-)

Last night our 3yo was particulary stubborn and when I checked in on her at around 2:30am she was finally lying in bed, but she was not asleep yet. DH also told me she woke up in the wee hours of the morning to try to get into bed with us but after 5 kids we have kiddar (kind of like radar) and now wake up and see if they'll go back to their beds. 9 times out of 10 they're half asleep and just head on back to their own lairs. So, she was up at least once during the night. At 10am DH and I went into the girls room to try to wake them up. We tried shouting "tornado"! Yeah, we're weird but thankfully the kids know this and don't get scared easily. So then we tried singing to them at the top of our lungs in our worst voices ever. The Older Girl stirred. Ahhhh She reluctantly got out of bed and put as much space between her parents and herself as quickly as possible. The Younger Girl did not budge. I finally went over and gently nudged her awake and she was Oscar The Grouch from the moment her eyelids fluttered. I reminded her we had church this morning and she should have went to bed when mommy & daddy told her, but it was almost time to go. She barely put up with me dressing her and brushing her hair. There was much gnashing of teeth on her end. She was not happy, not one bit.

She ended up going to church and enjoying it. And although I napped for 2 hours this afternoon she did not and she's still going. Amazing creatures children. Amazing.

So, here's a picture I will keep forever. And I will slip it into her first dates pocket as a gentle warning of what he may be getting himself into if he falls in love with my beautiful daughter. ;-)

Right after this picture, she started warming up and being human again. I asked if she was ready for church and she said sleepily (but seriously), "Do they have a bed there?"