Hee Hee

Just makes me laugh.

It Is What It Is ...

Just a quick rant.
What's going on with this 'upcycling' business? everywhere I turn - literally everywhere - I see crafts where people upcycle a old jar or upcycle a picture frame. Upcycling PLEASE.
I guess RECYCLING isn't good enough for us anymore. We are to fancy to recycle. I mean in my humble opinion recycling is just a fancy way of saying 'using garbage'. It's almost as bad as vintage - I think you mean 'old'.
Just calls (yes calls) it as it is, it detract from the cuteness just because you call it recycled.
BTW - I just did spell check on this here post, and upcycle is not even a WORD.

PS - Sorry to my 3 readers if you use the word upcycle - don't worry it dosen't make you a bad person. I still like you.

My Posts are Like My Life

I look back on by blogging past, and I have come to a very obvious conclusion. My blog is a very good representation of my life. I know I know you are like, yeah we know because your posts are about your life so ... YEAH, this blog does represent your life, what's your point.
Here's my point. I go full force posting a few times a week and then BAM. Nothing for weeks even months on end. That happens in my life. I do really great at something, ie: brushing my teeth ... well no let's not use brushing my teeth that could get gross. Let's use cleaning my house. I get on a cleaning kick. I clean my house really well, most things are organized and tidy, I stay on a cleaning routine and then BAM (for no apperant reason), I can't for the life of me get it together and my house ends up in complete shambles and I end up yelling at my kids to 'clean up this crap' (see previous post, I know I blogged about it at some point).
So what can I learn from this ... umm ....at least I brush my teeth regularly.

Numers

Here's the difference between your first and third child.
First child - on the suspicion of a tooth you check almost hourly - Is there any teeth, have they come in yet?
Third (and last ... hopefully) child - Look, he has 5 teeth! Ya, he seemed a little cranky these last few days.
If you are wondering on the title of the post, here's the story. (I'll warn you it a touch boring) Ethan went to get Nate from his crib one morning and as they were coming into my room Ethan said. 'oh mom, his numers are getting so big. Mom, numers are what I call his teeth!'
I thought it was adorable, he will most likely murder me if he ever finds out I posted it, and you all probably don't care.
And sorry no pic of said teeth (which BTW, he just sprouted another one since, so total count is at 6) he sticks his tongue out every time I try to take a pic. So after 2 tries I gave up.

Fresh Friday

Sorry this blog title really sucks. I was trying to find a word, starting with F, that is related to laundry in some way. Something clever, preferably. But I couldn't find anything clever so you got something lame, SORRY.

Friday is quickly becoming my kids fav day. I've come up with a new plan. This plan has been in place for about a month and it is working wonderfully. I was going menal (you know mental but without the t) because my kids would throw every item of clothing they wore or thought about wearing or thought about thought about wearing. I was literally (said like Rob lowe from Parks & Recreation) doing 2 or 3 loads a day. MENAL!!!


But now no more. I told my kids I do laundry on Friday and it was now their responsibility to budget their clothes accordingly. If they chose to throw every pair of PJ's in the laundry they could sleep in the nude until Friday for all I care. It's going swimmingly if I do say so myself. At first, around Wednesday or even Tuesday they started belly aching that they didn't have many pants or PJ's left. But this morning I heard Ethan say to Ella 'yeah it's Friday, we get clean clothes.'

Don't worry everyone my kids are not turning into the stinky kids because I am lazy and refuse to wash their clothes, they have more than enough clothes to go the entire week. Just in case you were contemplating calling SS. (Social Services)

PS - Your welcome ladies for the Rob Lowe pic.

Cleaning War Path

Do you ever look around your house and get so frustrated with the mess? No just me? Everyone else's homes are spotless and perfectly organized?

I find myself on the cleaning war path about every 2 months (in the summer it's every 2 days, GEEZ I hate it when my kids aren't at school - or in a more positive statement I love it when my kids are at school.) I think my kids can sense it coming. It usually begins when I trip over something. I get all pissed (my mom thinks that is a swear, but I don't), and I kick the said object outta my way. From here it can go one of 2 ways. If one of my kids scurry to collect the kicked item and get it out of away Crisis averted and I usually calm down. But if they continue on with their playing and don't even glance up, WATCH OUT! HERE I COME! My kids know that when they hear the words 'this house is a freakin' disaster' they run for there favourite toys and remove them from sight. Then of course they run back to me and help me clean because they are amazing kids ... what? they run back to me out of fear. No thanks i prefer to believe they are amazing kids. (it keeps me going).

Please note above pic is NOT my house.

Make Up Fast

I know I know, the title of this post is shocking to anyone who knows me. A fast from make up ... NO NEVER!!!! But yes I did.

It didn't start out as a plan to stop wearing make up. It actually started due to my eyes burning b/c of my cold -see previous post on laryngitis (I don't do links so find it yourself if you care). Then I gots to thinking ... why do I wear make up? Is it b/c I love it or is it b/c I need it?

I thought I couldn't go out in public without 'my face'. But I gave it a go. I continued to do my hair and I didn't go out in my 'Wal-Mart clothes'

side note: I heart Wal-Mart.

Stick to the story lady. SO I still washed my hair and otherwise got dolled up, but didn't put on the make up. At first I was super self conscious, I was like 'don't look at me I am hideous. But then I was like, 'WHAT you gotta problem, yeah that's right I am not wearing make up'. And finally I was like 'people don't even care, make up doesn't define you.'

So in conclusion diary: I love wearing make up because I love make up.

On a somewhat related note. After a week with no make up, I looked like a street walker when I finally put on make up. I am not saying it was a bad thing, I am just saying.

Pin of the Week

This is my goal next week.
Organize pantry was my first thought, but then I told my self, ' Self, get real'. So now this is my updated realistic goal. it seems pretty attainable, but honestly I will be shocked if I post next week updating you that I have organized my cans. Should I expect more of myself?
No I am awesome just the way I am!

So I believe that I have really turned a corner in the mothering of my youngest child. I am starting not to hate him ... NO NO NO that sounded bad maybe I should rephrase that. I am starting to really like him... yes that is much more PC - Now let me explain before you jump on the horn to SS (Social Services).
I've always loved him and I've always made sure he was well taken care of and such. But lately I've found myself not cringing when I hear him crying after his nap and dreading the thought of this peaceful bliss I call 'alone time' being over. I am actually excited to see him.
BTW, just in case you didn't know this about me I HATE with a capital H-A-T-E, taking care of babies. I LOVE with a capital L-O-V-E taking care of kids. I really do love being a mother, but those infant years I could really do without ... although I hear they are important to their development or something?
PS - I didn't title this post because I thought 'I Hate My Baby' was an inappropriate title. Don't you agree?

Oopsy Poopsy!

I don't know what happened with my last post but I am too lazy to figure out how to erase it and such, so I'll just post an apology post. SORRY for wasting your time today. I have nothing to say. other than this:
BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!

Organizing My Fav

Organizing is my favourite thing to do (don't misunderstand and believe that my house is perfectly organized, I consider it a work in progress). If you wanted to get me a present you could let come and organize your house.

I am always looking for way to organize my stuff. Make up is tricky because after you organize it, a week later you end up with this:

Note: Not actually my drawer, I didn't do before and afters.

So I got this great idea (I would like to give credit to my inspiration, but honestly I don't remember where I first saw it. So if you did it first, I am not attempting to steal your idea for my own). Anywho, MAGNET MAKE UP BOARDS. This 'craft' ,and I use the term lightly, literally took me 10 minutes (and that is with a 5 year old helping me).

Yes, these are actual pics. Please forgive that they do not look all glamorous like on craft blogs and what not. They are what they are. But you get the idea. And they really work. It's been about 2 months since this was done and it still looks like this:

Laryngitis and Glasses

Laryngitis is like a pair of glasses you want it until you get it, because when you get it, you want to murder someone because it is so annoying. Glasses are the same you want 'em and you are so jealous of everyone who has glasses, sometimes you might even pretend to wear glasses (which is actually very insulting to us vision challenged people, kinda like when the full head of hair guy shaves his head must be very insulting to bald guys. They would kill to have a head of hair - I am just guessing though, not being a bald man). And then you actually get glasses and you want to murder someone because they are so annoying.
In case you couldn't put it all together, I have laryngitis and I am going to murder someone ... it is so annoying!!!

Creepy or Cute?

Is this creepy or cute? I can't really tell.

I actually don't even know if this pic is for reals.

Book Club

Since I don't have a book club - this is not a pity party, I am just saying I don't attend a book club. I am sure I could find one if I wanted, I am just not at a point right now that I want to attend a book club. Are we all clear on my book club situation? Can I continue on with my post? If you have any questions on anything to do with my book club, feel free to post them in the comments section.



But since I do love to read. I thought I could post good books or just books that I 've read. Here is my review system:



READ



DO NOT READ

This book is a READ.

Pin of the Week

I got nothin' else to blog about so I'll post my best pin of the week, just in case you missed it. Cause I know that you are all not only following me on Pinterest, but you all care so much about what I pin. To quote Dr. Sheldon Cooper, 'That's sacrcasm right?'

I love watches. Surprising I own very few watches for the amount of love I have for them.

Smartie Pants or Smarty Pants? Cause There is a BIG Difference.

I called Ella a smarty pants the other day - literally the other day, not like 3 months ago other day. She was being a trouble maker, so I thought smarty pants was a better choice of words than smart a**. But apparently I really hurt her feelings. It didn't hurt her feelings that I was punishing her by having her clean up the entire loft by herself, or that I was mad at her, or that I raised my voice to her (just a fancy way of saying I yelled at her.) No no she was upset when I called her a smarty pants. When I asked her what smarty pants meant, she didn't know. But Ethan piped in with 'that would be cool if it meant you had smarties in your pants.' Ella was still VERY unimpressed.

BTW -How can Americans even call these things smarties? It's a cryin' shame, they really are missing out on so much without REAL smarites in their lives.

slthough? What the ...

Slthough ... is that even a word? Umm, I don't think so! Hello doesn't anyone spell check around here?

PS - if you are confused by this blog please see last post. Apparently I am kind of an idiot.

But not as much of an idiot as THIS GUY:

If you know who this guy is and you agree with me on his douchyness, CALL ME, we'll discuss. If you have no clue what I am going on about, watch TLC's 'Sister Wives'. Then CALL ME. Cause I know you'll agree, he is the number one DB around.

New Girl

My new fav show this seas (short for season, slthough it would have been much faster to just have written season, saved me alot of explaining) is New Girl. I love love love it.

She's so cute, Zooey (not pronounce ZOO-E, but spelled Zooey ... ?).

I Did Participate in Summer

As I was looking back at my posts from summer - YES, I enjoy going back and reading my own posts. I realized I hardly posted anything from my summer. I had a better summer than last year, since last year I was pregnant (gag me), but I still had a baby (gag me some more) so I was somewhat limited. We had lots of fun times. One of the funner things we did was ...

At our block party there was a giant slip n' slide. c'mon how fun was that?

Baaahaaaaa!

Laughed so hard I cried!

Genius I Tells Ya!

For anyone with kids still in a high chair I found the coolest thing. It's a highchair in a bag. It comes in a little drawstring bag about the size of a VHS tape (if you don't know what size a VHS tape is, you should NOT be having children yet). And it fold out to look like this:
So NEAT! It just slips onto most chairs and BAM highchair. Great for travelling.

I Want a New Pet ... I Will Call Him Minke.

I am not going to bore you with a bunch of pics of my kids on our vacay. I know most of you don't really care about how my kids thought it was awesome to walk through the gate of Old Quebec and Ethan was searching for bullets in the wall.
or how we went to the cutest bakery that was 300 years old and the lady still cooked the bread outside in a wood burning oven.

or how we found this awesome candy shop called 'Becs & Bonbon'.

or how I love the streets of old Quebec

SO, since I am not going to bore you with all of those deets I will move on to the best part of the trip.

Whale Watching! I love, love, loved it.

Ethan was old enough to come with us, so it was really fun.

We saw some humpbacks (not pictured), blue whales, beluga whales (also not pictured) and minke whales. So much fun, they came so close to the boat. We saw about 75 whales.

Bart really should have never let me go on this trip because now I want a whale of my very own.

You are Truly a Golf Widow

I know I know I said I would post vacay pics, and I will soon. Get off my back geez.

Continuing on . If you don't know what the pic above is then you might as well stop reading because you will not relate to the rest of the post. As for the rest of you who know the pic because you recognize it from your own life ... my condolences on the lose of you husbands to the game of golf. Only a couple of months left until they come back into our lives.
PS - It's a pic of golf tees in the dryer lint trap.

Don't Worry I am Still Here.

I know you have all been checking this blog hourly for my newest post and from the middle of my heart (not really a 'from the bottom of my heart' feeling) I am sorry to have been a disappointment to you all.
It's a simple explanation. I've been vacationing. I didn't want to post my vacay plans before I went cause , you know, I got a lot of stalkers . And honestly I am afraid that if I gave out that info pre vacay, I would have come home to a dead bunny in my bed.
So, the true point of this blog is to let you know there will be more posts to come.

Worst

You know what the worst is? ... Let me enlighten you. The wost is when you are enjoying your evening (after your kids are in bed, your sittin' on the couch, watchin' your stories, eatin' your cookies) and you think everything is going good and then ... WHAM! One of your kids comes downstairs and says 'Mom, I don't feel good." (sometimes it has even been known to be accompanied by some puking at the end of the sentence) It's the worst for many reason. FIRST and foremost, hello! this is my time and you are interrupting. Secondly, I guess, your kid is sick - poor them and such. Thirdly it screws all your plans for the next day!
Kids really do put a damper on things! And yet I continue to torture myself with adding more to the fam, I must love them or something.

Love It!

I absolutely love this product. You sprinkle a little in your hair and it makes your hair non flat - I don't want to says puffy, I guess I could have gone with voluminous. And when you have short hair volume is a must have. Plus the other amazing thing is that it gives me and extra day to not wash my hair. Don't judge me on my unclean hair.

Pretty

Here's some pics I took the other night from my deck. It was really beautiful to watch the rainbow as the sun went down and the sky was changing colour.

A Real Pic

I just realized the only pics of my baby that I have shown you guys have either been creepy hair baby or a sleeping baby. So if you are interested here's what the monster actually looks like. He's pretty darn cute if I do say so myself. But feel free to comment on his cuteness!




I personally feel he looks like a cabbage patch kid, and in case you don't know I had a slight childhood infatuation with CPK's, so I couldn't be happier with the resemblance. But let me just say he was not picked out of a cabbage patch, the way he came to me was MUCH more painful

If I Had To Do It Again!

I think this is so cute. If I got married again I'd do this for sure!

Summertime Blogging

Summer blog creepin' is the WORST! Nobody blogs in the summer. I suppose they are all out enjoying the weather or playing with there kids or whatever, but c'mon I need to be entertained. Entertain me DARN IT!

Stalking Inspiration

One thing I really miss about my old house is my front window. In the new digs I can not see what's the haps unless I go outside. And let me tell you from experience, it is hard to spy when your neighbours see you standing on your front steps.
The one saving grace is that fact that from my side kitchen window I can see my neighbours kitchen. The downside to that is that they are very boring to spy on. There is never anything good happening. But there kitchen is always clean, so I've been inspired to try to keep my kitchen cleaner so that if someone is spying on my maybe I can inspire them.

House Rules

Here are a few of our house rules. Being a teacher you might think that the rules in my house are similar to the rules I had in my classroom. Show respect for other , show respect for property and show respect for yourself. But NO NO NO.


Here are a couple of hard and fast rules that I have in my house:


1. The answer to the question 'Mom what can we do?' Answer -'work.'


2. If I am on the phone the answer is always NO!

-my kids haven't wised up to asking the questions like, 'mom, do want me to not have a cookie?' That is a day that I DO NOT look forward to.

Couldn't Stop Laughing!!!

So so so funny.

Adorable Yet Creepy - Cradorable

Yeah, I would definitely call this cradorable! Sans his sister's hair I would just call him adorable.

Bad Mom or Good Baby?

Look how good my baby is, he just falls asleep anywhere!

Look how bad of a mom I am I take pics of it instead of putting him in bed!

Gotta capture the memories!
WOW, lotta exclamation points used during this post.

Fun times with grandpa!

When was the last time YOU and your grandpa sat down for to play video games together... my guess is probably NEVER.

Do You Have Faith in ME?

Do you think that I could go an entire week without TV? I am not saying that I am going to do it, I was just wondering if I could ... my guess is NO. Sometimes I do fantasize about all the things I could get done in a day if I didn't shut down after 8pm and my kids are in bed. I guess we'll see what happens. You'll know if I follow through with the thought b/c this blog will updated much more regularly.

Here are some recipes I tried recently:

French Dip Sandwiches - SO GOOD!

Chocolate Chip cookies - also SO GOOD, but cookies are my weakness, so as long as they are in cookie form they are AOK with me.

Breadsticks - I've made better.

Hawaiian Pineapple Chicken - The Best - Bart said it was the best pineapple chicken he's ever had. in fact I've made it twice already.

I am Ready .. Bring on the Pageants

Ella had her first dance recital. It was really fun! She was in HEAVEN she literally loved every second of the weekend (that's right it was 2 days of dance practices and recitals). She didn't even complain when she had to sleep in her sponge rollers.

C'mon adorable!

This is a pic of her first outfit - sorry she looks a little out of focus. She also had another blue one that was just as awesome. Don't worry everyone I am checking into the availability of adult size costumes, I'll get back to you.

So now that I am officially a dance mom I am ready to take on the big leagues and be a pageant mom. We signed up for 'Toddlers & Tiaras' - applications pending, I still need to get her a flipper (you know so she can have that super creepy adult teeth smile), but once that is in the bag I am set. I'll spray tan her up and off we go.

PS - if you haven't seen the Tom Hanks Toddlers & Tiaras spook on JKL you must find it on You Tube. Funniest thing. I would set up a link but i just don't wanna.

I am A Good Mom ... Well

I like to take the afternoons for myself, you know a nap here, a bath there. Basically I just don't want to see or talk to my kids. This is one of the activities Ella found to do for herself.
In case you can't tell, she is wrapping her dolls up in wrapping paper. And I am a good mom b/c I took a pic and went along my merry way. Plus I am also a good mom b/c she knows to use safety scissors.

Does Anyone Want to Murder Foofa?

Actually I will murder the whole lot. Foofa, Brobee, Plex, Toodee (copied from the Facts of Life) or Muno. I absolutely detest Yo Gabba Gabba. Why do I continue to let my child watch you ask? Well duh. It keeps her quiet. But it doesn't means I don't have fantasies about brutally murdering the whole gang - yes brutally-, including DJ Lance for continuing to open that case .... NO PLEASE KEEP IT CLOSED DON'T LET THEM OUT!!!!!!

Did You Know?

If you watch Jimmy (Fallon) - for those of you that are new around here Jimmy Fallon is referred to as Jimmy or my BFF (he has yet to be informed, but none the less he IS my BFF.)

Anyway on Jimmy the other day the older brother from Hannah Montana was on - Jackson - (yes , I watch Hannah Montana. Yes, even with out my kids there. Yes, I enjoy it but sometimes want to punch Hannah/Miley in the face). So guess how old Jackson is in 'real life'. Here's a pic in case you are not a Hannah Montana fan.

Obviously he's the one in the striped shirt... so you all have your guess?

He's THIRTY FOUR!!! Can you believe it?

Not really useful info, I just personally found it interesting. Feel free to pass it along to all of your friends.

What is wrong with people don't they know everyone is staring?
I was in the Dollarstore - real high class like - and this lady and her friend were both loudly (is that a word?) getting angry at their kids. The kids were only about 3 or 4 and they were telling them that they were both being so bad, how they didn't need those toys, yelling at them to get in the cart, I could go on. It was honestly embarrassing/awkward - a little funny - but mostly embarrassing/awkward. C'mon have the decency to save it for home.

On a different note I tried the following recipes from Our Best Bites:
Banana Cream Pie (really easy, plus it makes 2 pies. So one for your neighbor, or screw your neighbor and 2 for you. I am not here to judge.)

So so so GOOD, and I don't even like Banana Cream Pie !!!!!

Italian Burgers

Not great I won't make it again. And my kids hated it. Bart, because he is a wise man, said he liked it, but seriously have you met me? You don't want to be telling me that you don't like something I've made. EVEN IF I say that I don't like it first. The safest route is the one taken by Bart. He is the reason we are still married.