A Cut & Paste X-travaganza

So there is this thing going around on Facebook. A tag. I've always been allergic to tags but since I saw Flem do it I figured it'd be OK for me to do it too. And since I put in the effort to please the brazillion people on FB who tagged me, I figured I'd be lazy and just post it here too.

If you do this tag me on FB so I can see it.

Anyway........

25 Things I Know You Are Just Dying To Know About Me

1. I've been tagged to do this, like 8 times. That obviously means I'm crazy popular and people are intrigued by me.
2. I drink abnormal amounts of diet soda a day (Diet Dr. Pepper is the drink of choice) but canNOT drink it straight out of the can. It must be in a glass, crushed ice, straw (I buy bendy straws in bulk)... or from Sonic, of course.
3. I'm a total homebody. My favorite days are spent around the house with nothing on my To Do list.
4. I wish I could simply say one city & one state when people ask "Where are you from?" I have to give this whole lecture about how I grew up in Boise but moved to NJ for my junior & senior year of HS...blah blah blah. So complicated.
5. I have just enough natural curl in my hair to be annoying. I can never just wash & go.
6. I hadn't exercised since my last varsity basketball game in 1993. Then two years ago I started going to the gym and have worked out at least 5x a week ever since. Why do I have no middle ground here?
7. I consider myself to be above average organizationally. I've seen much better but I've seen much, much worse.
8. I have a hilarious husband who makes me laugh every day and has never, not even once, made me cry.
9. I'm not cheap/frugal, but I'm not a big spender either. Shopping is a necessary evil most of the time.
10. I actually kinda like making dinner if I have a plan & all the ingredients. I stink at throwing together something from nothing.
11. I love working with the youth at church. The more I hang out with them the more I realize that teenagers and I are on the same page about most things.
12. I have been to Forks, WA. If you don't know why that's fun I'm sad for you.
13. I still listen to old school Madonna, Michael Jackson, NSync & Britney Spears regularly. Don't judge me.
14. I have lived in eight different states. Six of those states have been in the last twelve years.
15. I never want to move from Colorado.
16. I'm starting to get serious wrinkles around my eyes. I keep telling myself it's because I'm so dang happy so I smile all the time. That doesn't explain the becoming-perma-crease on my forehead that shows up when I'm mad at my kids though. Oopsy.
17. I love doing laundry.
18. I go through so many paper towels/napkins a day it would make your head spin. I need to become more environmentally friendly.
19. I went retro 50s housewife on my heiney yesterday and bought & used S.O.S pads for the first time. They totally work, you guys.
20. My in-laws are some of my favorite people in the world.
21. I eat a peanut butter & honey sandwich on white bread every day for lunch. As I make it I eat about 6 knife fulls of peanut butter too. There is just something about Jif Creamy Peanut Butter that has my number. Oh, and I apparently have the taste buds of a 4 year old.
22. I wanted all boys. Now that I have a girl I realize I was an idiot.
23. I love all things photography & Photoshop.
24. Some things that make me pause & be grateful are: climbing into bed with freshly washed sheets, watching my kids sleep peacefully, walking into my warm home on a freezing day, laughing with Gty, a knife full of peanut butter (duh!)
25. I hate, hate, hate scary movies.

I forgot to add that I'm addicted to blogging..... but you gize already knew that.

The Curious Case of Smelljamin Stinktton

A tale for you all....

A tale of mystery.

Of intrigue.

Of magic.

But mostly of mystery.

Wait, no magic either. Sorry.

And pretty light on the intrigue too, come to think of it.

Anyway... so I go into the downstairs half bath the other day. I TCB (that's take care of business for you unkool kidz out there) as normal. As I'm in there I smell something.

Something nasty.

It's one of those difficult smells to pinpoint. Is it common dirty bathroom stink? Is it something rotten? Is it bad breath? Very difficult indeed. Pervasive is this stink.

I decide to take matters into my own hands and clean the bathroom. I guess I was banking on dirty bathroom stink. I get out my lemon scented wipes, Comet & Windex and go to town. 6.5 minutes later the bathroom is sparkling. Unfortunately it still stinks.

I'm ticked.

You know what this means......I just cleaned my bathroom for nothing.

Having given the bathroom a good once over I conclude the stench is not originating in there. I proceed into the laundry room which is just next door to the bathroom. The smell is a bit stronger in there. I get excited because by now I am obsessed with ridding my home of this invisible menace.

I check in the cupboard under the laundry room sink.

That's when I see it.

A mouse trap I had set way back in the day.

I put it in there because that is where we keep Maggie's dog food. And you know how them meeses love dog food. It is one of those covered traps. I can see that the trap has been set off but it's facing the other way so I can't see the "entrance" to the mouse condo. I cringe.

I call Gty and yell at him for being out of town and I curse the boys for being in bed.

What am I supposed to do now? Leave a rotting mouse under my cupboard until Gty gets home?

I decide to go to bed & have JBird inspect it in the morning. I am NOT touching that thing.

Cut to the morning.

JBird wakes up & is given his assignment. Like a good little "man of the house" he does his duty. He reaches in, pulls out the trap, looks....... no mouse.

Wha?

I'm relieved and annoyed. No mouse but my house still stinks for no good reason.

So I proceed to get the boys off to school.

I'm finding jackets, getting snacks together, pulling old papers out of backpacks, etc. I reach into TBone's backpack and pull out a library book. The pages are all warped and it smells like barf. I look down deep into the backpack. That's when I see it.

A chocolate milk that has been in there no less than forever. Rotten. Exploded. Dripping out of TBone's backpack and on to the floor. I literally gag. I make the boys smell it just for fun. I find a strawberry milk that is well on its way to the same fate. I then throw TBone's backpack away. It's just not worth it. I pull out his kindergarten backpack. TBone cries that backpack is for kindergarteners. I give a small lecture on what happens to milk when it's not refridgerated. TBone declares it the worst day of his life.

Mystery solved.

Footnote: The boys come home from school holding their jackets at arm's length. Yeah. The backpack on the hooks had dripped onto both of their coats. They said their hallways at school smelled like barf all day.

Lollerz.

Kids are fun.

Where, Oh, Where Has My Two Year Old Gone?

If I still scrapbooked I would totally do that title all cute with stickers and stuff, you gize. But, since scrapbooking and I broke up a while ago this is going to have to do.

BEEBEE TURNED THREE!!

Since many of you are still playing catch up on my life (::eyeing Marci who has never seen my kids IRL yet has known me for what... 14 years?::) I will do yet another "Their Life in Pictures" post. I promise I won't do this next year. I'll just put a link to this post. But for now, you must endure. It shouldn't be hard though. She was/is so freakin' cute.









Top THREEteen Things BeeBee Does On a Daily Basis

1. Ask for her BlanketBinkieJuice. Yes, that's all one word.
2. Scream at Tbone for various reasons.
   
3. Line up all her "prunsussus" (that's how she says it). She has big dolly ones, barbie type ones and teeny tiny ones. She puts all the Sleeping Beauty ones together, all the Cinderellas, etc. The big ones are "the daddys" the barbie ones are "the mommys" and the little ones are the babies. She puts everything into families, come to think of it. Hair clips, brushes, chips... whatever.
4. Apply lip gloss.... 1000 times a day.
5. Gives me a compliment. "Oh, Mommy! I love your belt!" or "Oh! I like your hair like that!" In typical girl fashion, she notices stuff.
6. Asks to watch Max & Ruby and/or Tom & Jerry. She's very diverse in her TV tastes.
7. Tells me to do her hair "Up One" or "Up Two." Up One is shown above with her in the brown sweater. Up Two is the one shown below. She's not a fan of ponytails or anything of that nature anymore.
8. Tells me she HAS to have help going pee one minute and then says she can do it by herself! the next. I haven't documented it but I think it's in direct correlation to how much attention I've been giving her.
9. Helps me clean (this only applies on the days I DO clean, obviously). She loves Clorox wipes but she goes through them so fast she is breaking me.
10. Says "Thank You" hundreds of times. She's into that.
11. Says Gty is her "prince."
12. Gives lots of hugs & kusses.
13. Is such a good widdle mommy to her dollys. They are very well fed and never have a wet diaper. And they get their clothes changed several times a day.
    

The Celebration

We opened presents after church & that was about it. I promise I did not tell her to pose this way. She does it on her own. Pinky swear.



One of the brazillion things I love about Beebs is how excited she gets about everything. Her birthday presents were no exception. Everything was the greatest thing she had ever seen. My favorite thing was the matching ballet outfits complete with leg warmers she got for herself and her BittyBaby "Katie." TDF. Truly.



All you mothers of just boys need not read on but I have a question. Is it just me or is girl stuff irresistable to buy?? I couldn't help myself. I bought her so much freaking stuff. With the boy goods I'm like "Oh, they want this so we'll get it. They don't need that though. This will be enough... blah blah blah." With BeeBee I'm like "Oh my gosh. We must get this. We HAVE to have this. We can't get this and NOT get this!.. blah blah blah!" Unbelievable. Gty was like "What the?" She is going to bankrupt us. Am I alone here?

TBone x 2 + 5 = Going On A Mission!!

Aaaaaaaah! I srsly feel like my kids are getting way too big waaaaay too fast. Make it stop!! Tomorow is TBone's 7th birthday and BeeBee's 3rd birthday. I'm dedicating today to TBone (cuz we celebrated today) and manana I'll do a feel good post regarding da Beebs.

Looking through these pics of Tbone makes me want to cry. He was so widdle tiny itty bitty! Always a squirt, yes, but back then he was a little squirt.

My labor with him was 3 hours start to finish. I was lucky that the hospital I had him in in Albany, NY didn't have a "window" for giving epidurals because I would have missed it. By the time we got to the hospital I was a "stretchy 7" (isn't that disgusting when they describe it like that?) and he was born maybe an hour later. He came out screaming and didn't stop until he was about 3. Unlike his brother who put himself on a schedule, TBone still has never had a schedule. He is his own man. I think that will work in his favor later on. ::crossing fingers::

So, here I give you his life in pictures. They are pretty much in chronological order with very little commentary needed.

his best W. impersonation ^^
^^what he did at Memzy's house

^^ has always been super into American Idol

Top Ten Things You Need To Know About TBone

10) He loves anything the Japanese have ever produced.
9) He will usually eat the main dish but rarely eats any sides (including fries-- Wha??)
8) He speaks his mind but is getting better about realizing other people have feelings too.
7) His dad was his best friend until Gty took away his "buried treasure" (a rusty old screw he found out on the driveway when he was 2.5) and then it was over. He just barely forgave Gty about a year ago for that.
6) He cracks people up. Even his Tae Kwon Do master... "Ah Tanna... you funny boy, huh?"
5) He rarely gets his feelings hurt. A roll with the punches kind of kid.
4) He gives us a run for our money behavior wise but is the biggest gusher we have. It is not uncommon for him to say things like "Hey mom! Thanks for cleaning my room! It looks great!" or "I love my family" or (regarding dinner) "Well.... I don't hate it."
3) He will probably grow up to be a professional gamer. Jbird asks him for help on most games when he is stuck.
2) He has a size 18-24 month swimming suit that he can still fit into.
1) He loves that he is both a BIG brother & a LITTLE brother. He reminds us of that fact often indicating that is what makes him special. Here's to hoping the middle child syndrome is just a myth.
OH and
.5) I think it is physically painful for him to look at the camera and smile at the same time. So he doesn't do it very often.

He really is a hilarious kid. I cannot tell you the number of times people have come up to me and said "I just have to tell you the funniest thing TBone said/did the other day...."

So he chose Red Robin as the venue for today's celebrating "for the ice cream sundae they bring out." I'm giving him the "K, please smile & look at the camera" speech I always give and the subsequent result of that lecture. Uh-huh.

The folks at Red Robin made his dream come true. He insisted I take that creepy pic of him with his half eaten sundae.

And here is the loot he opened when we got home.

Sorry this is so freaking long!! But you know, a kid only has the day before his actual 7th birthday once.