Just a Little Insight into Our Day...

Jacob woke us up last night at 3:30 having just thrown up on the floor outside the bathroom. He was just standing there looking like he didn't know what to do, poor little guy. So, I cleaned it up, disinfected as good as I could (not being awake and all) and the sent him back to bed. He got up a few more times, I was only aware of 2. He just handled it himself. Such a sweet, sweet boy. He's still sick and hasn't been able to keep anything down including dry toast and water which is really all I've given him.

On a positive note, no one else has gotten it yet, I'll let you know how that goes. I'm optimistic by nature, but also a realist. I'm pretty sure it'll spread.

I have spent the day cleaning. It isn't something I enjoy and would actually just rather not... but eventually I just can't stand it anymore and go a little crazy. That would be today. Right now I am taking a break from the pile of papers that have needed to be filed since I did it last time, which was actually last January. I'm pretty sure that by now you are all aware of my procrastinator tendencies, they encompass every area of my life!

Well, now that I've had a little bloggy break I think I need a little coffee break... see how it works??

Follow the Letter...

*UPDATE* I can't believe that I forgot BRYAN ADAMS!! Oh my goodness. That should have been number 1. OK, I have 11 things I love that start with "B".

If you want to play, leave a comment on this post letting me know, and I’ll assign you a letter. You write about ten things you love that begin with your assigned letter, and post it at your place. When people comment on your list, you give them a letter, and the chain continues on and on...

A few of my Bloggy Friends have been participating in this fun meme. I thought it sounded like fun so I hopped onto Rachel's comments and asked for a letter. I was hoping for "P" because I already had half of my list figured out if I got that letter but, she gave me "B" and for the last 3 days I have been thinking of things that start with "B" that I love. Well, I finally thought of ten. Here they are, in random order.

• Books - I love to read. Most of the time I read completely useless novels that have absolutely no redeeming qualities, but once in a while, if I follow the advice of my friends I read something that challenges me.
• Boys - it started in middle school and has grown from there. I am especially fond of two particular little ones and one rather tall one. I also have a soft spot for cowboys.
• Birds - I can't wait to see those robins show up in my yard this year. It is one of the first signs of spring (and I'm pretty sure you're all clear on the fact that I'm not in love with winter). I also love listening to them sing in the mornings when the windows are open. That is my favorite way to wake up, no alarms, just bird songs.
• Blogging - I can't say that I think mine is all that good, but I love to do it and I love to read others. I am often moved to either laughter or tears and sometimes both when I read the stories that you all share. I feel like I have made more friends even if they aren't real life ones. I always thought of it as a way to stay in touch with family and friends that live far away, but then I started thinking of it as the new "pen pal", the other night my father-in-law told me that he viewed it as a diary. Whatever it is, its fun.
• Buddies - which just doesn't do justice to the friends that I have. I love them and trust them and am so very glad that God has placed them in my life. I have never laughed so hard or felt so broken for anyone as I have for them.
• Bouncing on a Trampoline - I hadn't had the opportunity to ever bounce on a trampoline until a couple of years ago when Chad & Rachel got theirs. Oh my, I loved it from the start. Of course I can only jump 3 or 4 times and then my legs get all tired and breathing becomes difficult, but it is soooo much fun.
• Bronzed skin - I know that laying out in the sun and getting a "glow" is frowned upon by doctors everywhere, but I love to have a little summer tan.
• Booty - of the pirate variety. I have a thing for pirates, not real ones of course, just the adventurous, romantic movie variety. (I didn't know how else to get them on my "B" list, I would have been completely fine if I had gotten "P", but alas...)
• Blankies - I love blankies. I have a few, my favorite is a green one that I keep on the end of my bed for nap time or reading time or whatever. Even in the summer you will sometimes find me wrapped in a blankie.
• Be Bold, Be Brave - is the mantra that I spout to Jacob every time he falls apart at the prospect of trying something new. He was not born with his mothers sense of adventure. I have noticed though that I am not all as bold and brave as I'd like to be. I aspire to be and because of that, I have decided to go skydiving for my birthday this year. I am very, very excited about it! And once I actually have it scheduled I am sooo going to put up a little ticker doo-hicky!

OK, if you want to play along just leave me a comment and let me know and I will assign you a letter. This was a lot of fun once I got going. I came up with the last 7 today. I am just a slow starter apparently -- procrastination would also have been on my "P" list ;-)

Project 365 - week #4

Yes, I am back to my old procrastinator tricks. I actually have more bloggy goodness to catch up on so either there will be more than one post today or I will post more this week. We will just have to see how it goes. For now, here are my pictures from the past week.


This was taken last Sunday while Curt was snow blowing the driveway. Yes, that is Curt behind all that snow. He hates snow blowing!

This was Monday morning as I looked out our front window. As much as I don't like winter I think a lot of it has to do with the lack of sunshine. We had about 3 straight days of sunshine last week and I was in a much better mood. Of course, today the sun is shining and it is -1 degrees. I am not happy about that.

This was from the inauguration of President Obama on Tuesday. I did not vote for him, but he is now my President and I will support him and pray for him even when I don't agree with him. God has allowed him to be in this position of leadership for a reason. I may never understand it, but I trust Him.

Wednesday I picked up Jacob and the Girls from school. When we got back to our house they played Wii and ate some peanut butter balls. I love Wednesdays when they come over. I love seeing them all play together and have fun. I often wonder if they will grow up to be friends in High School and continue on into adulthood, will some of them marry each other or will they just go their separate ways. It is going to be interesting to watch how their lives develop and change.

This is what happens when I don't have anything to take a picture of. I get all goofy and start taking pictures of myself in a mirror. Uggh! At least I was sporting a cute little scarf. It is the year of the scarf you know... (oh, and I'm wearing my skinny jeans!)

On Friday I stopped by Tim Horton's for a huge mocha, that's exactly what I asked for. The drive thru girl said "that would be the x-large". I said, "OK, I want that and I need a ginormous hot chocolate". She said, "that is also the x-large". Then I heard her giggle. I love to make people laugh. Anyway, the mocha was for me and the hot chocolate was for Rachel and the Timbits were for everyone! Of course, Rachel and I ate the most.

Friday night Curt rented "Journey to the Center of the Earth" which comes on a 3D DVD. The boys wanted to watch it again on Saturday and try it with the 3D glasses. It didn't work very well and they ended up switching back over to the regular version, but they were awful cute with those glasses on!

That my dear bloggy friends is our weekly wrap. It is amazing to me that we've already been doing this project for a whole month. Only 11 more to go!!

I just realized...

that I totally missed my 100th post. I was planning on doing the ol' 100 things you never wanted to know about me bit, but it slipped right on by without me noticing. Sorry. I do hope your not disappointed. Maybe I'll come up with 110... naaa, who am I kiddin'.

I had a bit of an epiphany this past Saturday night. Hubby took the little boys off to Detroit for a little MONSTER JAM action (I've been told it was great!) and I stayed home by myself.

Oh, is there anything sweeter than stay-at-home-all-alone-time (other than the need for new "skinny" jeans)?

Anyway, they left around 3 in the afternoon and I immediately sat down in front of the T.V. Why you ask would I immediately park my fanny in front of the ol' tube? Well, in our house I don't get T.V. time. Usually it is always on sports and although I am home all day I don't turn it on unless the boys want a movie (yeah, I'm that mom who doesn't even let her kids watch PBS). Back to the epiphany. It is rather huge. Are you ready? You may want to sit down...

I have discovered that I don't like T.V. (except for Dirty Jobs and Nascar) and if I were single or not married to the wonderful husband that I have who is a huge fan of all things sports (except for soccer and that other sport we don't understand and I can't even name right now) I would not be paying for cable. I would not own a dish. I would just have a T.V. hooked to a DVD player and call it good. That dear bloggy friends was my epiphany. It took me all of 20 minutes of flipping through channels to realize I would rather read a book or do some laundry or even clean the toilet, but I didn't go quite that far.

Hope you aren't too disappointed. I know there are some big fans of Lost, 24, House and several other shows. I even participated in watching them. Just not anymore.

Project 365 - Week #3

OK bloggy friends, it appears that we have some sort of miraculous intervention happening right now as my very fingers type these words. If you remember, the last two of my Project 365 posts have been a day late. You will notice that although I am working in the evening hours, this is being posted on Sunday. ON time. Do not however get yourself all in a tizzy over the fact that I may be losing my penchant for lateness. Oh no! I have spent years cultivating the art of procrastination and you will find that I have cultivated it well. I just like to throw you off a little bit with some "on time" maneuvers once in a while. Keeps our relationship fresh and all...

Last Sunday my two Bestest in the Whole World Friends came over to scrapbook with me. It was going really well with lots of productivity and lots of laughter. However, Rachel decided to take it up a notch by stepping in Rachel's itty bitty embellishment tray. It was priceless and instead of hollering "Hey, I'll help clean up!" I yelled "Don't move, this is the picture of the day!" Yes people, I have my priorities straight. I did help clean up, but not until I had this very fabulous photo.

Monday Jacob was just concentrating so hard on his math homework. He kind of talks to himself while he's doing it and his little pinky finger is at just the right angle to aid in his thinking. Very studious!

Tuesday Ethan and I were just having a bunch of fun taking goofy pictures and this is the least of the goofy ones of me. So, that is why I picked it. I look just a little less goofy that I did in the others. See, priorities.

I started working out this week. So far, I've done two workouts with Turbo Jam and let me tell you all, I love myself some Turbo Jam. It is so much fun. Anyway, I also did a Firm workout once. The Firm girls say I should see results after only 10 workouts. I'm gonna let you know how that goes. My goal is to have a new backside by the end of February. I know, my goals are lofty, especially for a procrastinator.

I have however lost enough weight to need some new skinny jeans. Really could anything bring a tear to your eye faster than the need for new skinny jeans. I can't tell you how my heart is singing. These beauties were delivered to my door by my faithful UPS man.

This is my Friday picture which I really took today, but honestly it looked just like this on Friday too. I'm beginning to think that I've inadvertently moved to the North Pole. If I hadn't just spent money on new skinny jeans you can bet I would have bought some new elf shoes. I hear they're all the rage up there.

Yesterday my dear hubby took my two little boys a couple of friends and his dad to Detroit to see Monster Jam. I guess it was fabulous, but I wouldn't know because I was left home alone (please note here that I was not at all disappointed by this). I just am not able to convey the coolness of the experience like Curt can. So, if you so choose you may read about the Monster Jam extravaganza by going here.

That my dear bloggy friends is our weekly wrap up. We had two days off school for dangerously low temperatures this past week and tomorrow Jacob has school off because it is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I am looking forward to Tuesday!

Just Another Ordinary Debacle...

I have to say that "debacle" is one of my favorite words. I didn't really use it at all until I met Brad and Rachel and heard all about the "Checkbook Debacle of 2004" and then Chad and Rachel started adding it to their repertoire of words and have had a number of debacles themselves. Curt and I haven't had any debacles and I was starting to feel a little left out of the special "Debacle Club". I have however taken it upon myself to rectify the situation with my own debacle. Keep in mind that although I was feeling left out of the club, I did not intentionally create a debacle. A debacle is only a debacle if it happens unintentionally, and usually has some crazy consequences.

Last year my friend Rachel (yeah, I know they are both Rachel and well, you'll just have to click the link if you want to know which one...) was telling me about a computer program that really helps keep your household budget on track. It doesn't exactly keep you from overspending, but it does let you see where your spending, how much money you have and to what account it belongs too. I had been using the envelope system which this computer program emulates just without the actual envelopes. So, I thought I would check it out. I was struggling with the borrowing from one envelope and then not paying it back thing. I thought that if I could keep the money in the checkbook and just keep track of what went where then I wouldn't dip my little fingers into those cash envelopes to buy another pair of shoes I didn't really need. And you know what, it works. We have money left in our checkbook every month, more than I ever thought we would. It all belongs somewhere, so we can't just go and spend it, but it is a beautiful thing to see the total growing instead of... well... not. Anyway, the computer program has a checkbook register built in so you can see what you have spent and take it directly out of its little envelope. This system has really been great and I have seen some very positive changes in our spending habits. But, I still have to keep a written log. I tend to fret about the possibility of our computer crashing and losing all that data and not having it written down somewhere. So, although I enter every receipt, every deposit, every payment into the program I also keep a written ledger. This has led to my recent "debacle". Let's just call it the "Online Bill Pay Debacle of 2009".

I started using the online bill pay system through our bank last year and really like it. I figure it saves money on stamps, envelopes and checks. I haven't even had a late payment since I started... ahem... until now. Apparently, the payment to our cell phone provider was past due. They called to let me know and to allow me to make the payment over the phone. I thought, "wow, how did I miss that?" I looked in my "written" checkbook ledger because it was closest to me and I had in fact made the payment. Hmmmm. So, I came up to the computer, looked on our little budget program and yup, I did make the payment. Hmmmm. So then I looked on our bank site and you know what? I didn't make any of the payments from that week... none of them. I had entered them into both of the checkbook ledgers and then neglected to actually make the payments. It wasn't just the cell phone, it was the mortgage, the credit card, the gas, and the electricity. Fortunately, I found out in time and was able to send in the payment request today so although some of them might be late, they are not going to be completely missed. Thank you cell phone provider for the heads up!!

I haven't screwed up like that since Jacob was 6 months old. So, that's my debacle. I don't know how much it is going to cost me in late fees, but I'm sure it will be better than having the heat and electricity shut off.

The good news of course, is that I'm now part of the "Debacle Club"!

The Goggles....

Just Call Me "A Day Late and a Dollar Short...

...because it seems to be my life mantra. I am once again posting my Project 365 pictures a day later than everyone else. I'm thinking this is just gonna be the way it is. Thanks to Sara for hosting this weekly blog carnival. It is the only one I've ever participated in. I'm thinking its because there is always a deadline and it just stresses me out. I can't be witty and funny when I've got a deadline. Hence the "day late and a dollar short". Enjoy the pictures, I've been enjoying yours.

This was taken last Sunday. I just need to say that I did not do this to "quiet" him, it was his own idea. I'm still not sure what he was pretending to do or be or whatever. Just his own imagination and a chip clip.

Our Monday evenings are spent at the local high school pool where both Jacob and Ethan take swimming lessons. Jacob is doing pretty good and can almost swim the whole length of the pool without a rest. We just can't get him to put his face in the water.

On Tuesday I decided to take our recyclable items to the "recycling spot". It took about a dozen trips to the basement to bring it all up and loaded into the van. Most of what you see is just the cardboard box stuff. All the plastic and paper and glass and metal are behind the boxes in bins. I think I shouldn't wait quite so long between trips...

Wednesday the kids had a day off school because of icy roads. My friend Rachel brought her 3 girls over for a play day and we did a little scrapbooking. I think we all had a good time.

I have great picture of Ethan coming from my friend with him wearing his swimming goggles while we were in the church office. She said to him "It's a good thing you brought those goggles, you never know when you might need them." His reply, "I sure don't!" Priceless.

Friday evening the boys had a picnic in the living room (this is a fairly regular occurrence) and they were just so cute and engrossed in their movie.

Saturday it snowed all day. Between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening we accumulated about a foot and a half of snow. When I looked out my window I just kept thinking that it was like one giant snowflake out there!

Thanks for stopping by and looking at my week. I hope you all have a wonderful Monday.

Music Videos...

Around our house we are very fond of music. We tend to listen to and sing all kinds of songs, rock n' roll, oldies, pop, heavy metal, celtic, country, the list could go on and on. The thing is, at our house we don't usually know the whole song or in many cases the right words. Sometimes we've been known to use the tune, but make up our own lyrics. (I do hope that isn't plagerism, we certainly don't sell it)

Anyway, tonight I taped the boys singing a "snippet" of a song. It is truly the only part of the song that we know and we just sing it over and over and over again. I hope that you enjoy the musical entertainment we have prepared just for you.

Jacob and his boots

Ethan sang his own version (which is really my version). Ethan is a lot like me, Lord have mercy during those teenage years.

Ethan and his lips (made for smoochin')

I hope you all have had a Happy Wednesday!!

Project 365 - week 1

Yeah, I know. I was supposed to do this on Sunday, but if you know me at all you know that I excel at procrastination. So, here is my week one of the 365 project. The more I do this, the more fun I have with it and the more excited I get about actually putting it together. Thank you Rachel for talking me into this!!

I actually officially started this project on Dec. 28th because that was Sunday, but I managed to forget to take a picture (did I mention the procrastination already?) Anyway, I am just going to write up a "year in review" or "top 10 of 2008" or something equally as cool with bullet points to put in that little pouch.

This is my pic for Monday the 29th. We went to see Bolt and I forgot the camera. So, I printed off a pic I found online and also saved our ticket stubs.

This was taken on the 30th. The lights of my life.

This is New Year's Eve. I have a couple of pictures I could choose from (all equally silly) but, this one actually has everyones entire face in it.

New Year's Day was spent with my parents, but again, I forgot to whip out the camera. So, I am going to list my New Year's resolutions and a couple of goals.

Jan. 2nd my friend took a picture of me doing a job that neither of us like at work. She hasn't e-mailed it to me though, so I can't show you. (no guilt Rachel, I'm sure you'll get it to me someday...)

This was taken on January 3rd. This is my biological dad (George). He came down for a visit. We only see him a couple of times a year and I don't have many pictures of him. It's a good thing he doesn't cheese all crazy for picture taking time....

Happy New Year (with just a little giddy thrown in for good measure)!!

The crew (Rachel, Brad, Rachel, Chad, me, Curt) out for dinner.

We had a ridiculously good time on New Year's Eve. I was positive I was going to throw up several times during the night and just so you know, it was not due to intoxication as there was no alcohol consumed at all. It was just from laughing so hard.

My dear husband showing us once again how to stuff a face with style.

After dinner we came back to our house and played Wii. It was Rachel's first time and like me she excels at bowling. It must be the form, we've got it down.

fancy-pants the speed skating bowler


This is why my "cheeks" have been a little sore... anyone for LIMBO!?


The girls playing Mario cart and the guys well, being the guys...


The first pic of 2009

The crew again... looking more ridiculous than ever.

I wonder what kind of mischief we're going to get into this year...

I hope you all had a safe and Happy New Year!!