Saturday, November 5, 2011

it's a beautiful day for some potpourri



Cate sometimes starts her sentences with "It's a beautiful day for..." and it just cracks me up. Where does she hear this stuff? Sadly, it's not from me. It's a beautiful day for the park, Mama. It's a beautiful day for some ice cream, Mama. It's a beautiful day for preschool, Mama.

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That's Baby Ray Ray one year and one day ago. He didn't really love being plopped down in that pile of leaves for pictures.

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The kids and I raked some leaves for our neighbors yesterday. I wasn't trying to make work for them, just us. Turns out, I made work for them. Oh, well. All I was trying to do was teach my kids that it's fun to help out our neighbors without being asked (in hopes that maybe they'll learn that it's also fun to help out around the house without being asked).

We just raked two big piles and then the leaves got dumped in the back with the horses. I guess they eat them. Yuck. When we were walking away Danny whispered to me, "Who are we going to help next?" with a hint of happy anticipation in his voice. Try and not smile when that happens.

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I mowed the backyard yesterday too. I knew the storm was a-comin' and I wanted to get it done. I've never mowed over dead leaves before. It's kind of stinky, like something's burning. I was a little worried the lawnmower might explode but I just kept going anyway. It didn't explode.

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I made some chocolate peanut butter pretzel bars late last night while I was watching the episode of Grimm I had recorded. That's a spooky show. I like it. Reminds me of X Files (which I also like). I liked the chocolate peanut butter pretzel bars too. Especially yummy since I doubled the chocolate layer.

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I took this picture of Danny and Ray Ray a few days ago. Can you imagine how cute it would have been if it hadn't been so dang blurry? Someone please tell me how to take non-blurry pictures of kids indoors without using the flash. Please.

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I took the kiddos to the doctor yesterday. The coughing and runny noses had gone on long enough. They've both got medicine to take now. I threaten Danny with calling the doctor for a shot if he won't take his nicely this time around (see last time if you don't know what I'm talking about). So far it's worked. I also tell him that if he doesn't brush his teeth then he'll get cavities and the dentist will have to give him a shot inside his mouth before he uses a drill to make a hole in his tooth to get the rotten parts out. That works pretty well too. I'm evil but he loves me anyway.

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The kids had a sleepover in Danny's room last night. I'm the dimwit who said yes to it. How could I not expect that they'd be waking each other up with the coughing all night? What is going on inside my brain sometimes? I have no idea. We were ok until Danny had to go to the bathroom at midnight. Cate had migrated to the bottom bunk with him. He woke her up. I decided to take Danny to my bed and make Dan go sleep in Danny's room with Cate. Cate didn't like that idea so she cried and cried. I got her settled in her own bed.

When I got back to my bed, Danny was already back to sleep (with his legs all the way over into my territory). He tossed and turned and coughed for about an hour. I asked him if he wanted to go back to his own bed. He said yes. Dan slept on the top bunk. Danny on the bottom. Pretty sure we were all extra tired this morning. No more sleepovers. I don't know how you people sleep when you have kids that share rooms every night.

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The other day Danny said to me, "I wish I could be with you all the time!" I don't know when he thinks he's not with me. Preschool twice a week? When I'm in the shower? Night time when we're asleep? That's pretty much the only time we're apart.

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I broke the rake this week. Lucky for me it was after I had filled up the green waste container with about a zillion dead leaves. I was remembering the raking I did 5 years ago when my belly was filled with baby. I raked and raked and raked but I couldn't bend over to pick any of it up. Nothing. Too fat.

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Cate slept until 9:41 on Tuesday morning. I feel like that is noteworthy.

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We passed this house on the way home from preschool last week. See those green things over the porch lights? They're those cheap jack-o-lanterns that kids take trick-or-treating. I'm thinking you just cut a slit up the back and slip them over the lights. Very clever. I'll have to remember this one for next year.

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I've been grounded for a week. Our wireless quit working and now I have to be plugged in. It's annoying. I think being grounded actually cuts down on my screen time though. That's probably a good thing.

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I clipped Cate's fingernails. Shortly after that she came to me and said, "Now I can't get my boogers out!" I asked her why not (not having a clue why she was telling me that). Her reply, "Cuz you clipped my fingers!" Danny saved the day. He shoved his finger up his nose and said, "Look, Cate! My finger gets them right out!" I told her to stop picking her nose and go get a tissue.

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Sometimes I think that if this mothering stuff was my full time job and I could punch a time card, I'd punch it at 5:55 pm. I can't seem to function past 6:00. The patience is gone and I just hit the wall. Done. Done. Done. Every day. Just like how Danny cried from 5:00-7:00 every single night for the first month of his life. Every night. Crying. Crying. Crying for no reason and then at 7:00, done. It was so weird and exhausting and extremely frustrating.

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I've felt a very strong urge to get Christmas shopping done early this year. That started in about August. I'm done. Have been for a while. I've never done this before. I'm usually shopping in December (which I hate with a passion). I kind of worry that maybe something horrible is going to happen to me and that's why I got it all done. At least my kids will have presents under the tree even if this horrific thing happens. I'm really hoping nothing horrible happens and that I'm just being very prepared this year and I don't have to go to the store in December. Maybe I'll still go to the grocery store but that's it.

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Cate and Danny had a field trip this week. Their class went to see a play about pirates. Except the morning of the field trip Danny woke up saying his throat hurt and that when he coughed it sounded like he was honking. He stayed with Aunt Judy while I took Cate to the show. It was fine and dandy until she ate all her popcorn (before the thing even started) and then choked on a piece and puked it all back up.

Luckily, I'm the mom who has learned her lesson with this kid and eating popcorn and her tendency to puke. I had an extra cup. All the puke got in there. The kind lady in front of us offered me a wipe and wondered if Cate was sick. I told her she's just got a very sensitive gag reflex. The mom kept telling her daughter to stop staring at Cate. I'm glad Danny stayed home because I'm not sure he would have liked all the singing and dancing. I'm not sure I liked all the singing and dancing either.

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We got our first snow of the season this morning. That's why I wanted to get the raking and the mowing done. It was barely noticeable but the kids were happy. Cate licked snow off the dead leaves. She's crazy.

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We went to the fun kid place again this morning. Danny loved the fake grocery store again. It's so funny watching him walk around with that little cart. He was picking out ingredients for soup.



Cate dressed up as a bear and got on stage. I hated to make her leave. She was having a blast. Dan came with us this time. He said it was torture. Following kids around and trying to make sure you don't lose them. He's right. It is torture but we do it because we love them. The cheese fries we ate on the way home made up for it though.

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And last but not least, Grama Bama had a little procedure at the hospital on Monday. I told Dan she better make it out ok or else she'd ruin Halloween for the kids. He told me she better make it out ok or else we'd be really sad. Very true.

She's fine. Hallelujah! She'll probably be mad at me for mentioning it but oh, well. She can come be mad at me to my face when she gets here in less than 2 weeks. Hallelujah again!

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Time for bed. Even though the powers that be say I get an extra hour to sleep, my kids do not agree. Stupid time change.

1 comment:

Marisa said...

It's a beautiful day for snow. I'm insanely jealous that you had some. I'm so ready for snow!

It's impossible to take a non-blurry picture of some kids. Jack—always always blurry. He's constantly moving. But making sure they're in the brightest part of the room helps. And using manual mode (if your camera has one) or Shutter Speed priority and making your shutter speed and ISO really high will help.

Hooray for peanut butter bars! Glad you liked them. I miss X Files.

Hooray for Grama Bama, too!