Don't Trust A Girl Left Alone With A Package of Oreos

Earlier this evening I was on the phone with my sister-in-law while finishing up dinner. Ella was in the living room playing with a nearly empty package of Oreos. She was shaking it like a maraca, making lots of noise. It got quiet for a minute, so I went in to check on her. When I saw her I started laughing so hard I couldn't even explain to Lynsey what she had done.

Luckily there were only two in the package. She had already eaten one when I got in there. She quickly stuffed the second in her mouth & devoured it, too. Then, she tried to wash it down with some milk (her momma taught her well). Alas, the glass was empty (thank goodness for that). That next to last picture is her excited face. She scrunches up her nose when she's really happy or excited - so cute!

After cleaning her up & eating dinner she went straight into the pack 'n' play so she didn't create any more mischief.

































In my defense, I usually don't leave packages of food lying around in her reach. She's getting in three teeth at the same time. We had a rough night last night. She woke up after being in bed for maybe 45 minutes and thought it was party time. I think we both passed out on the couch around 11:30.

Conversations in the Car, Chapter Two

This was a conversation between Wesley & I had one afternoon a few weeks ago. We were leaving Rural King & saw the store owners (I'm assuming) walking out to a helicopter parked (do helicopters park?) beside the store. It looked like they were getting ready to leave so we waited for what seemed like forever for them to start it & take off. It was pretty cool. As we were leaving...

Wesley: That was so cool!
W: You know, you can't roll down the windows on a helicopter

Me: No, you can't.

W: So if you puke, you have to puke in a bag.

M: You are correct. *laughing*
W: But I wouldn't puke.
M: You wouldn't?
W: No, cause I'm not afraid of heights.

I thought it was so funny (& kind of gross) that I made a scrapbook page about it...

that diagonal line on the layout isn't there IRL (in real life)
it's just from having to scan it in two separate parts since the layout is 12x12 & my scanner is not

Spring Cleaning for Normal People

Photo courtesy of Free Digital Photos

So, if you've visited our blog in the last couple weeks you've noticed the button over to the right about the spring cleaning party at simple mom. Well, I need to make a confession...

I haven't made it past day two. I'm thinking I should start a spring cleaning for full-time-outside-the-home-working-moms-in-the-middle-of-baseball-season-and-the-busiest-time-of-the-year-at-work party. How's that for a catchy title?

Anyhoo, if you're interested in following along with my progress or *gasp* want to join in, I'm still going to follow simple mom's lead with the areas & process, just at a much (MUCH) slower pace. Call me a snail spring cleaner. Ha, ha, get it? Snail's pace, spring cleaning. Ho, ho, he, he - okay, no one else is laughing. Back to our regularly scheduled programming.

I'll be linking to her day-by-day process with some before & after pics as I move through the house. If you want to join me, post on today's post & just say, "Hey, count me in," or "My house is filthy, too" (just to make me feel better) or "I like the color blue" - I'm not picky about blog comments (or the lack thereof - hint, hint for you lovely people who drop by & leave no evidence you've visited :)

The older I get the less I like clutter & general schtuff in my house so this should be fun. I've never done an overall cleaning out in a (relatively) short period of time. It's usually more of a can't-close-the-closet-door induced purging or (more often) an oh-no-our-parents-are-coming-to-visit-in-two-days cleaning of the house from top to bottom (which equals not a very thorough job - think surface clean). Mom, Dad, if you are reading, just forget you read that last sentence. I promise my house stays that clean 365 days a year.

Worn-Out Woman Syndrome

I don't know if you noticed, but I recently changed up the blog links in my sidebar, not only to include a blogroll, but also to add some new blogs, like Crystal Paine's Biblical Womanhood, Money Saving Mom and Mom of Littles. I have been so blessed over the last few weeks since I found her from Simple Mom (who I found from Ali Edwards). Not only have I become an avid coupon clipper, but I've also begun examining a lot of the things in my life which are unneccessary distractions from my main purpose in life - to live a life that glorifies God. In this season of my life (as Crystal puts it), that means pouring my energy into being my best as a wife, mother, homemaker and employee.

I've been slowly reading through some of her older posts on Biblical Womanhood and have been soaking up her Godly advice on a number of subjects. One of her series, From Exhaustion to Rejuvenation, Overcoming the Worn-Out Woman Syndrome, (four different links to the four posts) is something I have found to be especially helpful. I don't know about you ladies, but I never realized how very much there is to do as a mother and/or wife until I became one. Ever since then I have felt (to varying degrees) like I'm burning the candle at both ends just trying to take care of children and husband while attempting to keep a spotless, well-organized home (emphasis on the attempting). Throw on top of that trying to be a dedicated full-time employee, a good friend, sister, daughter and church member.

Anyhoo, I just thought I would share links to that series so it might help someone else who has felt the way I do. I'm quite sure I'm not alone in feeling overwhelmed with the day-to-day of being a wife/mother. I'm sure if you are neither a wife, mother or homemaker that you can still glean some helpful information from her posts.

Her name...

I saved this post as a draft a couple months before Ella was born last year since we were keeping her name a secret. I just saw it the other day & realized I had never posted it.

Made this with a neat little site called Spell with Flickr. It uses images from Flickr to spell your word. Pretty cool.



mine...

Anthony's...



and, Wesley's...

just a cute picture

Try to look at this picture & not smile. Just try.

I bet you can't. At least, I know I can't.

Document your weekend

Saw this on Ali Edwards' blog this morning. I took a class she taught a couple years ago at CKU Nashville called A Week In the Life where you document your everyday life in pictures & by recording the little details like what you ate that day, what you worked on, etc. Even just two years out it's neat to look at the album & see what our life was like pre-Ella. I would encourage you to try her challenge for the weekend even if you're not a 'scrapbooker' - you can post the pictures on your blog or just stick the prints in a picture album & add some little 3x5 cards behind them recording the details of your weekend.

If you do participate, come back here & post a link to your blog/flickr account/etc. & share your 'Weekend in the Life' (I just made that up) with me. I'd love to learn more about you.

As for me, I will start this afternoon after I get off work because that's when our weekend rituals usually begin. I will at least post my pictures to flickr for you to see - maybe even post the pages/mini scrapbook I make from them here as well.

Conversations in the Car, chapter one

Riding around in the car on a Friday night back in March waiting on our pizza order to be ready...

Anthony sees an old sign that he thinks is neat & wants for his shop. We stop & he loads it in the back of the vehicle (which, by the way, reminds me of my childhood when my mom would see something on the side of the road & stop to load it up - I would always have a strong urge to duck down in my seat lest anyone I knew see me & cause me to die from embarassment - my mom is one of those people who doesn't EVER throw away anything that is still remotely useful - she even made us wash out ziploc bags to reuse them - oh, the childhood memories). Got a little sidetracked there; back to the story...

The sign had letters that you could change around - sort of like those blinking arrow signs

Anthony: What should I put on it?

Mindy: Pistons

(For those that are automobile illiterate, pistons are a vital component of the engine)

A: Yeah, that's good.

Wesley: How about DANGER!

We all crack up.

Click here to listen to Wesley's recounting of the special way he said DANGER!

Follow up to 'I love texting'

If you watched that video I posted about texting, this story will illustrate one of the things he talked about...

Yesterday one of my sisters sent this text: I need new pics of Wesley and Ella!

Me: I’ll upload some newer ribs of the kids to Wal-Mart & send you a link.

Her: Haha. ribs? I do that all the time.

I was thoroughly confused for a few seconds because right before the text about pictures of the kids, we were texting about sauces to put on meatloaf. I was thinking, "Does she put ketchup on her ribs, too?" and "Why would that be funny?" Then, it dawned on me that I might have messed up my text, so I looked in the sent box & sure enough, it said ribs instead of pics. So, tell me, why does my phone think that I would be texting about ribs more frequently than pics?

Anyways, I got a good chuckle out of my mistake & the quick mental picture it conjured.