Random Pictures

Brennan gave Stella rides through the house yesterday.

I painted our tiny ass main floor bathroom a dark brown red color a couple weeks ago. I really like it. The beige walls had dirty handprints all over it. The room feels clean again. Forgive me for not cleaning the mirror or the cherry poptart residue on the sink, which I didn't notice until I posted the picture. Imagine the torture beige walls went through.


We rearranged the kids' rooms today. Yes, Brennan is still sleeping on a blowup mattress with no decent bedding, but no complaints from him and he sleeps pretty good. We'll have to get him a real bed soon. I'm thinking of painting his room green.



Maya dressed herself for school today. Honestly... I did nothing. The teacher's called her Miss Vogue.
Adam made this bench for me to hold some of the kids' toys and a speaker I hate. I still say I can hear the TV just fine out of the TV. Boys and their speakers.

WinterDaze

I suppose all of us midwesterners are dealing with the same weather, but what is up. Tuesday I dropped Maya off at school at 12:45 and it was 54 degrees. At 3:00, when I picked her up it was 22 degrees, windy and freezing. That night around 6:30 I had to go to another house party and it was 7 degrees with crazy winds. I opened my car door and lost it's grip. I honestly thought the wind was gonna tear that sucker off. I enjoy a good storm every now and then, but it's hard to go to bed and hope you are going to wake up with your roof still attached to the house. It was cold too! So cold again, that the kids' bathroom pipes partially froze. Today we are expecting 4-6 inches of snow, followed by some warmer temperatures next week. Maya is already talking about the groundhog that is supposed to pop it's head out on saturday. I'll give him $100 to say spring is coming.
On another note, when did this 100 Day Celebration at school begin? Children now celebrate being in school 100 days? Just another day I now have to volunteer my services to the school.

Lucky Kids

So when I was in the shower having my alone time for the day, I was thinking about how my kids have done more by the ages of 3 and 4 than I had before age 18. For instance, Disney... my parents took the family when I was 16. M and B went when they were 2 and 3. They've taken many plane rides, my first one being age 17. I was talking to a friend while we were watching our daughters do gymnastics and we had similar reasons for having our kids in activities. I was telling her how I was never in anything. No dance, swim lessons, gymnastics, sports (until my freshman year in high school. Softball... by which time I was gonna not be very good anyway, cuz everyone else had been playing for years). Why no activities?? I am sure a number of things. My parents didn't have the money to do it. Maybe they didn't realize how much I wanted to do something. I did take piano lessons for a couple years which I do love. Anyhow, back to my girlfriend talk, she too was never involved and both of us said, we wanted our kids to have the chance to do these things cuz we didn't. I'm not living through the kids, but I want them to have fun and not feel left out. I want Maya to have the techniques down to be a cheerleader, just in case that is something she wants to do later on. Blah Blah Blah... the good thing is, my kids want to do these things. They love being active and playing with others. That being said, however, Brennan's first day of tumbling was awful. Something triggered the evil twin to come out and he was hitting, pinching, biting.. you name it. Yesterday, Maya had soccer practice. Poor Brennan was pissed again, as his sister got to kick balls on the gym floor and he didn't get to. I did feel bad, but these are the little issues with children this close together. One year makes a big difference at this age. Maya wasn't well behaved at class. Quite lazy to tell the truth. Like gymnastics, she gets one more chance to make an effort to learn the game or this "opportunity" will be taken away from her. "I'll listen next time. I promise" are her cries in the car as I tell her I am not going to waste our time if she's not even gonna try. Sassy little thing.
Saturday's school carnival went really well. The prize table was crazy, but I survived. I got to watch the cake walk go on, and I was happy to see my cake went third! (Winners chose the cake they wanted from 60 cakes) I ended up making a chocolate bear cake. My parents came and helped Adam with the kids. I think everyone had a fun time. Maya left with kid make-up.. oh boy! and Brennan with a bouncing Dora ball and truck. Maya says "There's always next year"... to get a better prize.
Adam is going to England next month for work. I think he'll be gone a just a couple of days, but who really knows. My only request.... bring back some Cadbury chocolate. Speaking of, my brother who works for Hershey, stocks Cadbury. He gave me a whole box (48) of cadbury eggs. Yum yum.
Nothing much else going on around here. Random birthday parties keep our weekends busy and the kids love a good party.

Happy Birthday Uncle Tim

The Naked Post

No pictures taken the last week. We've been running around or just laying around trying to keep warm. Last week I kept busy trying to find volunteers for Maya's school carnival which is this coming weekend. It begins! My first cake addition for a cakewalk. I loved the cakewalk when I was a kid. I love cake... so why wouldn't I love winning it for a prize. The only thing was you could win a yucky cake. I think I got pretty lucky and got some good cakes. I was thinking, since I had a lemon cake and lemon frosting in the pantry, I would make a double layer round cake and make it into a yellow smiley face. Not too much effort with that design. I am set to work the prize table. Unfortunately we also have a bday party that night and I may miss the delicious real bakery cake. Last thursday, the girls in my neighborhood got together for our monthly Bunko night. We never play the game, but it is always fun to get out of the house and realize we all feel the same way and deal with the same things with our kids (and husbands).
Adam had classes to obtain an accredidation this weekend, so really there was no break of a weekend. Saturday, the kids and I traveled with my parents down to Effingham to visit my brother. He turned 28 on the 17th. I glimpsed down the road to Charleston with a smile and a flood of memories. Frankly, I couldn't tell you about many classes I took at EIU, but I do remember all the, let's say, extracurricular activities I participated in. Probably 3 years of life I would go back to in a heartbeat. Sunday evening we spent with friends watching the football game and playing poker. MLK day, my dad and I took the kids to see the Veggie Tales Movie. I couldn't believe it, but this theater was 3/4 filled. The kids did really well.
So the upcoming months are filled with lots of activities. Maya is taking a beginning soccer class so she's ready for soccer in March. In May, she starts T-ball. Feeling guilty of all of Maya's activities, I signed Brennan up for a tumbling class on friday evenings. He loves flipping around with Maya, so I thought we'd try it. And lucky Stella... she's signed up for puppy classes on sundays. I lost my sanity a long time ago. Keeping ourselves busy with activities dbeats watching tv all day.

Crazy Kids

The kids have been very imaginative lately. (Hence the picture "Brennan and the Remote Control" by Maya) They are dressing up, doing arts and crafts and just mimicing each other. Brennan has learned the cartwheel! If I can ever get video of this I promise to post it. He basically puts his hands in the air and does a head dive. It is hilarious. The funny thing is he is so proud of himself. He's got all these random costumes (batman, bob the builder, and an knight) that he has appeared in throughout the last couple of days. Maya is the only one who is able to get him in these costumes. I don't think there has ever been a boy that looked up to his big sister so much. Not that she's that much older. Best buddies. And now, little canine sister Stella has thrown herself into their gang and been accepted!
I really love to go shop for this dog. Somebody stop me... I'm one of those crazy types.
Let's talk TV. Total surprise last night... "Bret Michaels..Rock of Love 2". These girls are a ton worse than last round! Plus the boobs are all bigger. I watch it shamefully. One of the best shows, in my opinion, came on again last night... "Brothers and Sisters". If only I could elect Rob Lowe's character for president. "October Road" is another absolute must see. I wanna live in that tiny town. Idol returns this week. As much as I don't want to watch the try-outs I know I will. Lost is coming back in 2 weeks!!! Yeah! I hope it is good. It was slumping, but I watched faithfully. "Friday Night Lights" was something I was hoping I wouldn't like for the sake of adding another drama to my week, but it is pretty good. Project Runway is one of my favorite reality shows, but I found myself cheering for the hippy couple in Amazing Race last night. I tell myself, no... don't get addicted to these things and then I do. "Vegas" sucks now, I am happy to delete that from my list of must watch. Ultimately, if I miss something I miss something, but those are my nightly shows. Man, do I sound like a lazyass. But essentially I am.
Maya starts soccer next week and I think Brennan is going to start a tumbling class near the end of the month. There's not a day on my calender that something isn't going on. Insanity!

Survey Time

Alright. Here's a question for all of you: What do you do with your Christmas cards? Do you keep them? I hate to throw them away. They sit around in a spot in my house until summer when I finally feel better about tossing them. You can't keep every picture ever sent to you. Can you?

Thought I'd post some pictures from the holiday times plus lots of Stella. I love this dog. She is by far, better than our two cats ever were. I'm having fun buying her clothes... hehe. She has a sweater, a dress and a coat and I'm sure at some point she'll need a dresser of her own. Obviously baby syndrome covered by getting a dog. She is quite cute and the kids love her. She hasn't shed one bit and she appears to be a food vacuum. She had her first vet visit monday, weighing in at 6lbs. Her DOB is 9/14/07. Alright alright... she's just a dog, I know.
The kids have been doing well. They got plenty of new toys that seem to have somehow found a home in this house. They've had some fun in the snow and have basically been busy chasing Stella. Our New Year's was fun this year. We spent the early eve at a party of a classmate of Maya's house. We met a lot of nice people and the kids had a blast. Later in the eve, we went to our neighbors and celebrated the actual New Year. We got home around 2:30am, which in the past, we were lucky if we stayed up to midnight. Kudos to us! Nothing too exciting, but it was fun hanging out with other families and couples for an evening. Now, I have to see if I'm gonna go forth and get on that treadmill everyday like I promised I would. I'm not an exerciser by nature. Fingers crossed something on my body gets toned this year. Happy New Year to All.