Sorry for another video- this one is mainly for Steve

This and That

I've been meaning to blog the last few days since my dad is in Spokane for some training and I know he checks our blogs daily.  My plan was to pressure Rachael and Lisa into posting everyday this week with me so we could give him plenty of reading material.  He left Sunday night, and by Monday evening, my mom and I were having dinner with him, in Spokane.  There went day one- no posting, I traveled instead.

I didn't post on Tuesday, I was too busy shopping (in Spokane).  Sorry, dad, there went day two. 

Wednesday's post may happen.  I have 6 minutes until it's officially Thursday.

Over dinner, he told us that him and another guy sat in the back of class and he showed him our blogs.
Gotta love a dad who's proud of his daughters blogs!

So, without anything particularly important to blog about, I'm just going to make it a bit of 'this and that'.

I can't get enough of this kid's drawings.  I really need to finish taking pictures of some of my favorites so that I can document them.  He's doing awesome at reading and writing, his journals crack me up.  I'm so impressed with his ability to sound things out and hope that he loves to read as much as I do.

 

 

                                                         "Mad at Dad"  by Spencer, age 5

I'm not sure what it is about this picture, but Jason and I love it.

You're right, Mom.  He does look just like Little Quack.

And since nothing features Sophie better than a video, I'm crossing my fingers that blogger will let me upload one....

Another Sophie Video

Another Sophie Video, Take 2

Part One of the Princess Series

I'm going to have to break this up into more than one post so I can effectively document her love of princesses without a princess overdose for the rest of us.

This weeks obsession-

Snow White Costume and Shoes

 

 

Three mornings in a row, I've been woken-up by a little girl shoving her costume in my face asking for help to put it on, over her jammies.

During bath time, the costume had to sit on the counter so she could 'watch it'.

It was put on as her outermost layer of clothing after her bath.

It went with us in the car to her Doctor's appt.

She put on a few performances while dressed up for family when they came to visit.

More than once, she suffered from mistaken identity, like when she told me that Snow White was sitting on the couch ready to watch a show. 

We had a crisis on the fourth straight day of wearing her shoes.  I was at the kitchen sink when I heard the weeping and wailing of a broken hearted little girl across the driveway in our grandma's yard.  I looked out to see her carrying a piece of a shoe in each hand.  One of them had literally snapped in half.  Apparently little princess shoes can't handle the strain of constant wearing and trekking through grass. 



R.I.P Snow White Shoes....you will be missed.

Video for Part One of the Princess Series

A Few Perfect Minutes

A small, and very much needed, miracle occured in our house this afternoon. 

The sun was shining, Disney music was quietly playing, and everyone was calmly and quietly engrossed in their own things...

For a glorious 40 minutes, I sat and played on Jason's computer, while being entertained by the sights and sounds of my kids being healthy, normal, imaginative children. 

And for those 40 minutes, I took back everything I said during the rest of the day about wanting to sell them to the circus (that's code for a lot of things I can't or shouldn't repeat).

And during the time it took me to write this post (about 30 minutes), I've cleaned up two spilled water messes, physically pulled Sophie off of Spencer, threatened to send Spencer to his room for back talking, been accused of "never giving us candy!", pulled Carson off the table twice, and have listened to nothing but screaming and crying. 

Ah, the glorious days of being a stay at home mom.

Looking Forward to....

Finishing this art caddy....

and this...

And maybe all of these...  

This needs finished....

And this...

  

This may never be finished....

 

And this may have been finished before this post was...

Item(s) of the Day...

I'm loving having a little bit of spring inside, even if it's early.  Helps with all these terribly grey and dreary days.  I'm so ready for sunny days and warm weather!

Rachael and I checked out a local antique store a few weeks ago and I fell in love with this broken chair.  I love everything about it.  The chippy yellow paint, the spindles, the randomness of it being only the back of the chair.  I may be worrying my family just a little bit with some of the random and eclectic decorating things I've been trying out. 

Last week, my mom and Mallary decided to take a spur of the moment trip up to Dayton to visit a couple antique stores.  Rachael was pretty bummed that she couldn't go and nicely watched Sophie for me.  In an attempt to make her feel better, and as a thank you, I brought back a couple towels that she had seen at a store and debated buying.  As I was giving them to her, I couldn't handle how much I loved the green one.  Again, I love everything about it.  To me, it's got the perfect green, yellow, and red.  I love the vintage style labels, and the ruffle at the bottom.  Lucky for me, my dad's been making frequent trips to Dayton for work, so I sent him with Rachael's towel and asked him to stop at the shop and see if they had another one for me.  Gotta love a dad that's willing to walk into a shop with a frilly towel and ask if they had another one available!

Do you recognize this man?

This picture appeared in the Tri-City Herald today.

My dad reads the paper every morning, faithfully.
He also calls us if there's anything of interest to pass on to us.
I thought it was strange that he never called today, so I called him.
I asked him if he saw Jason's picture in the paper.
He laughed and said he didn't.
As I started to describe the picture to him, he knew exactly which one I was talking about.
He said he looked at the picture more than once.
He read the caption.
Before he read the caption, he wondered if the picture had been taken at St. Pat's Church in Pasco (where he went to school/church as a kid).
He could tell me without looking at the picture that the girl had a really long ponytail and the guy was holding a squirt bottle.
Again, he had read the caption.

And somehow, it completely escaped his attention that the man holding the squirt bottle, who's name was in print next to the photo, was his son-in-law, of almost 7 years.

It's kinda like all those times in high school when we would pass him coming in the opposite direction, or be at an intersection as he drove by, or sometimes even be in the lane next to him, flailing our arms and hands waving, and he would never notice.

Sorry...

It didn't think about the fact that without putting a title to my last post, the assigned title in everyone's reader would be the first complete line of my post.  It looked a little doom and gloom, with a touch of insensitivity, to me when I glanced at Rachael's google reader this morning.  Sorry!

Untitled

My cousin lost her husband in a motorcycle accident yesterday.  She's 38, he was 43.  They have three girls, the baby is only 8 months old.  I couldn't help but think of her throughout my day.  Do the rest of you imagine how you would react to a tragedy like that?  Do you picture yourself answering the door?  Calling your family?  Telling your children?  Or is that just some weird, self torturing thing that I do?

Times like this make me want to be more involved with my children, spend more time with my husband.  Does anyone else find that easier to do in your head?  When it comes down to it, you still speed through your day waiting for the moments you want?  Like bed time, a clean house, and quiet, calm children?  I think that that is one of my biggest struggles.  I am a much better mom, wife, sister, and friend, in my head.  I always find myself thinking of all the things I should do/could do to be a better person, but in the end, my self-centered tendencies win.  It is honestly something I struggle with, when I face it.

This morning I couldn't help but think again of Angie and her family.  I thought about all the things I take for granted and I realized that most of the time there is one thing I don't ever forget, whether my husband believes me or not.  I'm happy.  Not the goofy, silly, playful type of happy that I think Jason wishes I was (he told me a few weeks ago that I'm not a happy person, to which I was offended, until I realized that him and I have different interpretations of the word), but the content, satisfied, kind of happy.  There are a lot of areas that I need to improve on, daily, but in the scheme of things, I am happy. 

Even if I'm not where I imagined myself being six years into marriage.  By now, I imagined us in a home of our own, enjoying projects and to-do lists.  I imagined a husband who worked a traditional 9-5, home every evening for dinner.  I imagined well-behaved children.  I imagined myself 25 lbs lighter.  I may not have any of those things, but, I have so much more.  I have a home to live in and though it's not mine, and it's little, I will someday miss my little house.  I will miss the coming and going of family that I've been afforded living next to my grandma and my aunt, and just a block or two from my cousins.  I have a husband who is not often home for dinner because he is busy working two jobs so that I can stay home and take care of the three healthy, spunky children that we have.  I may not look like the girl I envision in my head, but my friends and family don't seem to care (at least they don't tell me).  I have a mom and dad I can count on every day.  It's rare that a day goes by that I don't talk to one of them.  I have sisters who are always there for me, and there isn't a day that I don't talk to one of them.  I have more family than my heart can even handle.  Seriously.  I have friends who I may not see often but I know they are there, especially when they leave the ever so coveted comments.

I know life can change in a split second, when you're least expecting it, so I hope to remember as often as I can, to be truly grateful for what I do have.  And maybe to take more opportunities to write it down, because my husband just may be a little bit right, I may not act like I am as happy as I know I am.

The best part of....

 Since coming up with the list of ideas for blogging topics to keep Rachael and I going, it's been my job to pull the ideas out of a jar and then email her and Lisa.  But posting about the same subject is getting a little tricky.  In fact, it's starting to feel a little like it does when we're out shopping together and it's all about who sees it first, or when the three of us girls go somewhere together and the two passengers have to beat each other to the front seat.

It's all about who hit's publish first. 

So, while my intention was not to copy any of Rachael's list, I'm not sure I can avoid it, because I also think the best part of...

-a cinnamon roll is.... the outside
-talking to Rach on the phone is.... the 1.1 second hang-up time
-my year....the ocean trip
-girls night out....laughing so hard you're crying

-a Monday....volunteering in Spencer's class
-cookies....the dough
-brownies....the batter
-the summer....a warm weather rain shower
-the Xbox....streaming Netflix
-socks....knee-highs
-the winter....7 p.m. bedtime (for Carson)
-warm summer evenings....staying out past dark at grandma's
-a morning....Sophie exclaiming that the sun is out
-a tired Carson....rocking him to sleep
-an afternoon....Jason coming home for lunch
-Katie babysitting....coming home to a clean house
-being out of the house by 10:30 a.m.....sausage egg mcmuffins
-last minute laundry....putting on a warm pair of blue jeans
-having an artistic husband....bribing him to help with most of my projects
-blogging....that's a tie between knowing that my dad is my most faithful reader, and waiting for Rachael's phone call making me proof read her posts, too bad I don't have anyone proof reading mine!

Recently, Excessively Viewed Kids Movies

For Sophie, we've got Snow White topping the list for the most requested movie...

She can tell you the entire story line complete with the dwarves names, sometimes they're called elves, the poison apple, the evil witch, and the Prince who kisses Snow White after she 'dies'.  I recorded her the other day telling me about "Dofie, Sleepy, Snow White, Bashful, Grumpy, Doc, and Snow White, and Sneezy."  If blogger ever lets me upload, I will.  My favorite is when she starts singing "Some day my prince will come..."

We've been trying out a free trial of Netflix and unfortunately Spencer has picked Spymate as his most recently requested movie...

My all time favorite is Beauty and the Beast, but we only get to watch it whenever Aubrey brings it over, which lucky for me is almost every weekend.  I seriously never get tired of listening to the music from this movie.  Even Jason can't resist belting out the words to Gaston's song.  I heard it may be re-released this year and though I will say we're buying it for Sophie, it really will be for me.

Our other recently, excessively viewed movie is one I watched as a kid that we found on Netflix...

Spencer and I can both be found singing "Pippi Longstocking is coming into your world, a freckle faced red head girl...."  all too often!

Revisiting December, Part Three

As most of you probably read from this post, we had our annual Christmas party with the kids. 
There's not much more to add, I just happened to be the one with the pictures! 

                                                                                 Kids playing bingo!
Rachael had super cute decorations, she had come up with great game ideas, and the food was plentiful and delicious.  Now we're wondering what we're going to do next year to top this years!

                                Carson was super excited about the snowflakes hanging from the ceiling and kept pointing to them!

                                                                                                  Playing "Pass the Present"

           
We loved having the Great Grandma's with us!  It was a super fun evening, and the perfect start to a super fun month!

It's not been going good....

I'm tired of not being able to load videos.

I'm tired of not being able to make collages in picnik (my december post may have to wait for another day).

I'm tired of the font being all crazy on my last post.  I'm tired of not having a cute header image.

I'm tired of my husband's conspiracy to make me think he has conspiracies for 'offing' me someday.  I'm actually not tired of it, it's just another completely random part of our relationship.  He conspires with one of his co-workers, who also happened to be the one who took this photo of us.

Hard to imagine that a guy as lucky as he is would ever consider bringing home a powerade for his obviously lovely wife in an attempt to make her think he was poisoning her.  Too bad I hadn't heard the original story in the news, so no paranoia ensued.  The conspirators were a tad bit disappointed...

My Husband....

has had some pretty classic lines in our relatively short marriage.  Like the time he told me that if he knew then what he knows now, he wouldn't have married me (rest of the story here).  Or the time when he came home and told me that one of his co-workers said that I was a big girl.  Or like last month when he told me that he'd rather work on a project outside all day in inclement weather than spend 10 minutes inside working with me. 

Now, some wives would be offended, but anymore, these comments are just like water off a ducks back for me.  I try to regard them as cryptic comments that are chock full of love and admiration.  After all, every 5 years or so I get a little surprise like this, which definitely reaffirms his love for me, right?  

But, then again, there was this and this.


But seriously, I love this guy and whether he believes me or not, I find him incredibly entertaining.  


Until he comes home and starts conversations like this:

Jason:   If the world was taken over by zombies, and everyone you knew is a zombie, would you try to stay here and hide and hope that someone would come rescue you or would you set out on your own and try to find help?

Amy:  uncomfortable laugh, followed by moments of silence.  Turns and looks, and thinks "yep, he's really waiting for an answer." 

Uh, I don't really know....I would probably stay here and die from major anxiety.

Jason:  So what if I wasn't a zombie and I was going to go out looking for help, would you come or would you stay?

Amy:  Do we have kids at this point?

Jason:  No, they were zombies.

Amy:  I'm not sure.

Jason and Amy at same time:  You would come with me. 

                                                      I would come with you.

Amy:  We both know I don't do well being left behind.

And then, the conversation was over, and Jason just walked away.

Sometimes entertaining and annoying can be used interchangeably. 

Revisiting December, Part Two

In December, on the 18th to be exact, we celebrated Jason's 29th birthday.  Yes, 29th.  Yes, he's a lot younger.  Like 4 years younger.  He was in 8th grade when I graduated.  He's the same age as my 'little' sister.  It always gets a laugh in my family.  Fun times. 

Anyways, so, in celebration of his birthday, we got some balloons and streamers and decorated the dining room.  Sophie and I made a cake, nothing fancy, just a box and a can of frosting, set on a pretty little cake stand I had recently purchased. 


Wanna fancy up a generic cake?  Stick it on a bright red scalloped cake platter, stick some tall, fancy, sparkler style candles on it and you're set. 

Wanna push a mom over the edge?  Set that same bright red scalloped cake platter on a low hutch and let loose the toddler in the house. 

We had sent Jason and Carson to the grocery store while we worked hard on decorating and dinner.  The table was set, the cake was in place, dinner was ready to be served.  Carson and Jason walk in, and with in seconds, I hear a thud, coming from the dining room.  Apparently, after staring at it all day, Carson had developed a super-spidey sense for the cake and knew within seconds of coming in the house, that the cake was finally within his reach.

Our pretty boxed cake, with it's tall, fancy candles, was smashed underneath the cake platter, Carson standing over it.  It was not a pretty moment.  After a mini-melt down, we scooped the cake up, did our best to fix the candles, and lit them.  My only regret was that I was too busy being upset to take more pictures of the chaos.