treasures in the shed

I did a little cleaning in the shed yesterday. Look what I found. A hanging scale. Where does it want to be? What does one do with an old hanging scale these days? For now it'll just hang out right there.



I found this sprinkler contraption. I thought it was some kind of toy tractor at first. I guess you're supposed to hook it onto your hose and the water makes it move along the hose. I don't quite understand the reasoning behind that. Maybe I'll have to hook it up and see what it can do.



I like this old Rain Bird sprinkler head. Cate does too. I hooked it up to the hose and turned on the water and she oooohed and ahhhhhed (and squealed a little too). The middle part shoots the water way up in the air. The spinny things on the side shoot the water sideways. I remember when my grandma used it. I like green. I wonder what the numbers are for. I'll be experimenting with this one.



I found this 8 quart milk can (at least I think it's a milk can...I could be wrong). It's cute. I don't have a clue what to do with it but I like it.



I love this sprinkler head. Looks like my grandma was quite the collector of sprinkler apparatus. This one hooks on and makes a lovely shower to water the flowers. I'll be using this one for sure.



This little cabinet was in the back corner and covered with spider webs and dust and dirt and who knows what else. I dragged it out (it's pretty heavy for being so small...or I'm just a wimp) and sprayed it off. Inside the drawers I found three contraptions that go on your fishing rod (I have no idea what those are called) and a bunch of stuff for painting. Lots of old paint sticks, an old spatula covered in dry paint (I wonder if Grandpa got in trouble with Grandma for using her spatula to stir the paint) and some old rollers. When I touched that one on the end the old foam stuff just crumbled off on my fingers.



So here's the lovely back porch scene I created once all dust and spider webs were removed. I found the flower pot in the shed too and just planted some flowers I picked up at Walmart. The watering can is Grandma's too. The chairs are probably from Walmart too, just a few years ago.

I'm itching to paint that cabinet now. It needs a few new handles too. I don't really know what color it wants to be though. Any ideas?

For now it's sitting happily on the back porch just waiting for me to make a decision.

I hope it's patient.


p.s. Remember the other stuff I found in the garage that's waiting to get spiffed up? It's all still waiting. I've done nothing.

what's up with cate?

She's three. That's what's up with Cate. Here she is bright and early on her birthday morning. This is the second bright and early of that morning. The first one was at 12:47 (not so bright though) when she woke up and pitched a fit of massive proportions. We're not sure what she wanted because all she did was scream. Dan got her calmed down and read her a story. What a lovey way to ring in her third birthday.

She enjoys wearing the "gobbles" she gave me for my birthday 2 days earlier.

She loves her new Dora ball house from Grandma. I love picking up the balls and putting them back in the Dora ball house 56 kajillion times a day. Just in case you think that's a pretty cool looking Dora ball house and you want to have a turn sitting inside and throwing all the balls out, forget it. Well, unless you're a three-year-old girl or her almost one-year-old cousin. That's all that's allowed inside. We made that rule pretty quickly. Dora ball houses are not to be shared with older boy cousins or older brothers.



I came through with my promise of a polka dot cake. I didn't actually make the cake. I never promised that. She didn't care anyway. I used my birthday gift certificate to a cute little cake/cupcake/cookie shop and bought this mini cake for Cate and a dozen cupcakes for everyone else. Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do.

I squeezed on the polka dots and made the little sign and she was happy as can be. She didn't even eat that cake. She wanted a cupcake instead.

More pictures from the birthday:





















I just love Cousin Ray Ray's hair. I'm hoping he doesn't get a hair cut for a few years.



Other stuff about Cate:

She's really good at making the silly face for the camera.

And the pouty face too.



Dan took her to the doctor for her three year check up. No shots. Thank heavens.

She weighed in at 39 pounds. I think she might pass up her big brother soon. Who would've known when she was born weighing 4 1/2 pounds that she'd be in the 83rd percentile 3 years later? The kid likes to eat.

Her tonsils are big. We have an appointment with the ENT next month. Ear tubes have fallen out. One's in the ear canal still. I wish Dan had told the doctor to fish it out for me so I could save it. I saved one of Danny's too.

Know what else I saved? Danny's shriveled up cord thingee that fell off his belly button. I would have saved Cate's too but she was still in the hospital when it fell off and those nurses didn't even tell me when it happened. Seriously. That's a momentous occasion right? It's probably for the best that I don't have 2 shriveled up cord thingees in my house. One is probably enough.



Cate loves to play hide and seek. She never asks me to play, just her daddy. She considers putting a blanket over her head and standing still in the middle of the room "hiding."

Dan told her to count from one to ten. She went over to the wall (their counting spot), covered her face with her hands and said, "One, two, ten!"

Cate requested Dan get her a banana one day. He asked if she wanted to eat the whole thing (because sometimes she just wants half). She said, "No, just the inside." Well, duh. She must think her parents are a bunch of dummies sometimes. They don't even know that you only eat the inside.



Last night Dan made Danny obey and Danny didn't want to obey so he went to his room and cried. No yelling. No spanking. Just Danny not obeying. Cate told Dan he needed to go to work because he's a mean guy and the rest of us are nice guys.

Cate got hurt one day. She came to me with her "owie" and I kissed it. She said, "Hey! That doesn't make it feel better! Need a band-aid!" Imagine that. My kiss didn't make it feel better. She's figured me out.



Here's one I hear a lot.

her: I want something to eat.

me: What do you want?

her: Tell me.

Right. Like I'm a mind reader or something? So I list some choices and we usually end up with her eating cheese.

One day she decided on almonds. I asked her if she was done when I found them sprinkled all over the floor. She told me yes, because the almonds were freaking her out.



Cate likes to twist her hair. I don't like it when Cate twists her hair.

She calls her ankle her hippo. Sometimes she calls it her wrinkle.



This kid has more stainless steel (or some kind of play version of it) pots and pans than I do. And she's even got 2 pink ones. I want pink ones too.

According to Cate, a rooster says dock-a-dock-a-doo. A gun goes wa-hoo (a toy gun made from legos of course). A rocket ship goes woooooo. And the wheels on the bus go wa-wa-wa.



She's into knock knock jokes now too. This is my stand-by. Knock-knock. Who's there? Lettuce. Lettuce who? Lettuce in, it's cold outside.

Here's her version. Knock-knock. Who's there? Salad. Salad who? Salad it's raining outside! And then she laughs and laughs like that's the funniest joke you've ever heard.

She also enjoys a good game of I Spy when we're in the car. She makes up her own rules and we let her.

She's a cute kid with a good sense of humor already. I think she's pretty funny. We'll keep her.

the end

A Little Update: I was wrong. She's in the 97th percentile for weight. 83rd is height. Carry on.

weekend to do list update

Considering the fact that my weekend to do list only had two items, I feel happy that I was able to accomplish almost everything.

Stuff.

We certainly did lots of stuff.

Grama Bama and I tended the cousins on Friday while their parents worked. Cate and Danny came along too, of course. We sent Cate home to be with her daddy after a few hours at the cousins' house since she woke up at 6:30 that morning and was a beast by 10:00. I love her dearly but man sakes alive she's a beast when she's tired.

This picture was taken a little before Cranky Cate emerged. Isn't she adorable in Grama Bama's hat? Yep. She is.



We sat out front and watched Baby Ray Ray do his adorable wobbly walk down the sidewalk. I try to not let it bother me that he learned how to walk at 10 months old and Cate didn't master that very important milestone until 17 1/2 months old. Ray Ray's just an overachiever.

Kris kept himself busy catching bees in the back yard. BEES! That kid's a crazy daredevil. He did set them all free after a few minutes. That freaked me out too because I figured if he was lucky enough to not get stung when they went in the jar then surely he'd get stung upon release.

He didn't though.



We headed to the parade in the evening. Cate was still sleeping when we left (a little before 6:00) so we left her at the house with Grama Bama.

They walked down later when she woke up because she wanted to see where all that music was coming from.



I'll just go ahead and admit that I got a little choked up when the Silver Band came rolling past. If I get my piccolo cleaned up and in working condition do you think I could try out to be in the parade next year? If I had a bucket list that would be on it. Play the piccolo on the Silver Band wagon.



I was excited to see Danny and Dan when they finally walked past our viewing spot. Danny was thrilled to be in the parade. He didn't look so thrilled when we saw him though. Hot and tired and grouchy is more like it. I'm glad he gave it a try though. He's not usually one to be thrilled about anything but Star Wars and Legos.

Danny ditched the parade and sat on the curb with us to play Angry Birds and watch the rest of the floats.



Cate joined us later and Aunt Judy snapped this picture of us.

Look at her skin.

Then look at mine.

I mean really. What is up with those wrinkles? I know you're tired of hearing about the wrinkles but look at them. I'm 38 not 88. Sheesh.



Help is on the way though.

Look what my lovely sister gave me for my birthday last week.

I'm saving it to use closer to my high school reunion (which is only a little over a month away). I'm hoping I can show up to that looking a little more like a 38-year-old instead of a 38-year-old's great-grandma.

Saturday was spent attempting to be awesome. I'm not sure I made it but I tried.

I did make scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast. I usually just pour cereal into bowls so I think a warm breakfast qualifies as awesomeness.

Grama Bama and I took the kids to Costco.

By the time we got back (2 hours later!) it was time for Quiet Time.

I ditched all the sleepy heads and ran some errands, bought some new shorts and picked up a few foodstuffs at the Walmart.

The only part of that afternoon outing that was awesome was the new shorts. And that I bought the same size I bought last year and they fit (despite the fact that I've been feeling like Fatty McFattington lately).



We headed to Cocolito's for dinner.

I'm definitely awesome for suggesting that.

(Sadly, nobody let me know that I had failed to remove the little baggie that holds the extra button on my new shorts and it was hanging out the back for all to see on our little dinner outing. Good thing I was sitting for most of it.)



Cute kids on the ride home.



And a new pepper. The first veggie in the garden. Looks like it's pretty big but this was the first time I'd seen it. I guess I don't check on the garden very often. I've kind of let that be Dan's thing.



I was once again mostly awesome when I made some rice krispie peanut buttery chocolate and butterscotch bar thingees.

Then I stacked them all pretty on a plate to take their picture. When I came back from getting my camera, here's what I saw:



I tried to get Cate ready for church and she rejected my dress choice. She said it was "too stripey."

She picked out this little number from the closet instead.

Three years old and already she has an opinion about the stripey-ness of her outfits.



After church, time with the fam.

It was pretty funny watching Danny try to learn how to use a slip n' slide on a hill. Most of the time his feet slipped out from under him and he landed on his bony little bum.



So that's the to do list update.

I did stuff.

I was a little bit awesome.

That's the kind of to do list I could get used to.

so much to do

Source: flickr.com via Kathy on Pinterest

I'll be working on my to do list this weekend.

I'm going to be very busy (as you can probably guess by looking at it).


Some stuff included under Stuff:

attending a parade or two (with kids running in the road to collect candy)

listening to the rodeo in my backyard (and hoping it's not loud enough for Cate to hear it at bedtime)

hanging out with Grama Bama (since she's so awesome)

praying for Cate to sleep through the night and NOT wake up at 6:30 (because it's been way too long since that happened)

making something sweet and tasty (to help me eat away my sorrows and frustrations over having a three-year-old whose really wonky sleep habits are making me really really tired)

going on a date with my main man (since Grama Bama is visiting and she just loooooves putting my kids to bed)



I have no idea how to pull off that second thing on my list but I'll do my best.

Maybe making some of these or these or this will help me be awesome. Even if they don't, they'll fulfill that "make something sweet and tasty" goal under Stuff. It's like multi-tasking at it's yummiest.


This is where I feel like I should say something like Happy Friday or Enjoy the Weekend or some such cheery phrase but when your kids are little enough that they don't have a summer vacation from school and your husband is off work for the summer (since he's a teacher and he does have summer vacation) every day feels like Saturday. Boo hoo right? I'm sure you feel really sorry for me.


Happy Friday anyway.

how to make a girl feel old

"This is so many! It's like a candle forest!"

Ha!

Imagine what he would have said if we'd actually used 38 candles instead of the 18 I managed to scrounge up from the junk drawer.


On the other hand...

how to make a girl feel young:

A lady at youth conference last weekend asked me who my parents are
(just making small talk and thinking she might know them I suppose).
I told her Wayne and Glenora, but they live in Alabama so she probably didn't know them.
She laughed and said,
"Oh! I thought you were one of the youth!"

Ha!

She thought I was 20ish years younger than I really am.
Maybe she didn't have on her glasses because my wrinkles and gray hairs are kind of hard to miss.

I'll take the compliment though.
I'll take them any way I can get them.

today she's three

Happy birthday to my favorite girl!

happy, happy, happy

Happy Father's Day to that guy up there

I've never had a better dad.



Happy Father's Day to this guy too.

It seems crazy to think that some day I'll be saying the same thing to that little guy.
Crazy indeed.


Thanks for doing stuff like this

and this

and this

and this.

And even this

and this

and especially this.

Most of all, thanks for giving me these.

They make me happy.

One last happy...



Happy birthday to 38-year-old me.

(but I prefer this Me because I erased lots of her wrinkles and a few ginormous freckles)

Wrinkles or not, I'm an even number again.

And that makes me happy too.