Wednesday, April 29, 2009

spring cleaning!

* warning *
please be sure that your "sarcasm alert awareness" button is engaged. the (*) will notify of severe sarcasm throughout this notation, okay?!
so, yup. it is time for spring cleaning. i really am excited. seriously. cannot even keep my socks on i am jumping for such joy. (*)
i started a couple weeks ago. in the kitchen. got the inside of the windows washed. was going to borrow a ladder to do the outsides. then husband informed me that the windows flip in to clean to outside. really? (*) yeeeahhhh...lived here almost 6 years. never told me that before.
now i am going to tackle the basement. which is just 2 rooms. sounds simple, huh? not so much. one big room...which is the "jodi's home office", "karl's home office", "kids' playroom", "storage room" and "tv room". the other room is our laundry room. occupancy 1 person and 1 cat. yep, laundry room/litterbox room. so...i was going to post a "before" photo, but then i decided that no one really needs to have that visual seared into their retinas. and i do not need a visit from cps (and i can guarantee that having a close relative that works for the state, in cps, would not help things go "well"). and well...those of you who are currently my friends and think i am organized and all of that would probably become not my friends upon realizing that my basement is the equivalent of "monica's closet" (of you do not get that reference, please click here). (*)
so...now i am off to clean. heigh-ho, heigh-ho...whistling whilst i work. don't you all be hating on me now, okay? if you want to see the basement, come on over. but beware: you will be helping.

Monday, April 27, 2009

monday, monday...

"it is very simple," she thought.
"you get up,
you go,
you do,
you see,
you put one foot in front of the other
and along the way you do
your very best
to enjoy it..."

Sunday, April 26, 2009

confirming

the last two sundays i have spent at confirmation services. watching numerous young people confirm their faith in front of a church full of people. i have watched their chosen scriptures and statements about their faith be shown on large screens. and the sermons were delivered directly to them...the young christians...and the resounding "theme"? continuing your walk...continuing your faith. confirmation is not necessarily a beginning...since these your people have probably spent their elementary days in sunday school, and no doubt have spent the past few months getting into the bible. getting to know Jesus. and God. and gaining some insight into their own faith and christianity. and it certainly is not an end. this should not be the last church service they attend. nor the last day they open up the bible. and yet, when those words were spoken today by our senior pastor i could not help but go back to my own confirmation over 20 years ago. well, actually, to just one conversation that i had with the pastor at the time.
**
my mom had cancer. she had to travel over 50 miles, one way, for her chemo treatments. one week i told our pastor that i wanted to go with mom to her treatment and would not be able to attend confirmation class. his response? if i chose to go with her to her chemo appointment, i would not be allowed to be confirmed. for missing one class, to go with my mom to her cancer treatment, i would not be confirmed. i made what i thought to be the right decision at the time. i was confirmed.
**
i was faced with another decision later that year. i was a sophomore and was rumored to be a starter on the high school basketball team. our coach had made it clear that attending practice and working hard at each practice was what was required. especially if you were in the running to be a starter. i had lettered my freshman year. be a starter was a huge deal. so, instead of going to the airport with my family to see my mom and dad off to mexico, i went to basketball practice. i made what i thought to be the right decision at the time. i started the next game.
**
in hindsight, what i did not know would have changed both of those decisions. i did not know that my mom was dying of cancer. not living with. being treated for. but dying. my dad returned from mexico 2 days after christmas with my mom in a casket. she died 5 days before christmas. after her funeral, my church attendance became rare. that lasted for years. literally years. although i did not stop believing, or give up my spirituality...i gave up church. until about 7 years ago.
**
it feels good to be confirming my faith again.

Friday, April 24, 2009

my ode to oliver (02/03/00 - 04/24/08)

i am still missing my big kitter oliver...
he was 26lbs of pure, kitty joy...
































Wednesday, April 22, 2009

winner, winner, chicken dinner

so....i enter a bloggers' giveaways. quite a few. but only for really, cool stuff. not crappy things. and so...i freakin' won. yep. won. me. yeah! me! and here is what i'm-a-gettin':
basically, something else for the girls to fight over. so...instead of going with the whimsical bunny toile, i chose fabric to match the living room (i know, some of you are asking, "match it to what?!" i'm right here. no need to yell, okay?) in order to make the "snuggle set" a "brown chair" exclusive. it's not enough that the girls bicker about which of my legs they get to snuggle up on. nope. now i'm gonna add a "snuggle set" to the equation. but there will be no trips to either girl's bedroom. i repeat: not trips to either bedroom. maybe my own bedroom, but not my offsprings', okay?! that outta last, oh ummm? a day.
anyways...here are the fabrics i chose (after spending a couple hours online scrolling around):
SOFTEST BLANKET . . . EVER:
&
(tell me that you could've resisted the :butter fluff"? really? could you have? i thought not!)
title of this blog? yeah...i have no clue what teeny-bopper show it is from, but a mom of a almost double-digiter said this to me when i was telling her about entering blog giveaways. i am almost certain that she was making fun of me.
no. i. AM. certain.

i won't even get the honorable mention t-shirt...sigh...

no "mom-of-the-year" award coming to me...again.
"why?", you ask.
well...our 2.5 version (aka linnea) just drank a sip-cup of milk. from at least 2 days ago. yep. that's right. 2-day-old milk. a forgotten cup. momma on a phone call. this AFTER the 2.5 version pilfered through the daddy's wallet while he was showering. removed all his photos. credit cards. everything. luckily, all was found under our bed. she is sneaky. cannot wait for the teen years.
sigh...

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

of cats & kids...


the cat's out, errr i mean IN, the bag: after puddy had the zoomies for about 15 minutes this a.m. he then decided to slide all over the kitchen floor in a plastic bag. here he is taking a quick break. probably to breath. he is a kook.


breakfast of champions: linnea and her 'picy cheese...please notice all the nimble/chomp marks on the block of cheese. anyone know where to get a refrigerator lock??

Sunday, April 19, 2009

the curse of the momma-good-water

when i was pregnant, both times, i got completely addicted to carbonated flavored water. my first fave was key lime. then it was mandarin orange. i drank and drank and drank and drank and drank this yummy water! i loved it for the carbonation and that even if it got warm i still loved it. warm caffeine-free soda just didn't do it for me. i also loved that if i knocked over a bottle of it, it was just water and there was no stain, no sticky, just wet.


after having the girls, i remained firmly addicted. but as any good addict/mother would/should do, i did wait to introduce my girls to the tongue-tingling joy for quite a few months. but once introduced, it was the nectar of the gods to each of them in time. they too loved the water. in fact, it soon became known as "Momma Good Water". not that i ever called *regular* water bad or anything. but momma-good-water it was. and is.

so a few months ago we (the momma and daddy) decided that perhaps going through 4-6 large bottles/day between us 3 girls was perhaps a bit much on the Budget. and so the weening process began. it was bad. see, the girls love the momma-good-water. so we had to try to sell 'em on tap water. it quickly became "delicious & refreshing tappity-tap water". and within a few days we had the girls down to the new routine of having momma-good-water only at naptime and bedtime. recently we cut out the naptime serving. so it is just at bedtime. and if we run out, it is not good. it is a very, very, very bad thing. even teasing about being out of the stuff can send the girls into a loud hissy-fit (such was the case as i was typing this and littlest came to ask me for some...and i said we were out...she did not like that answer! luckily i have a stash - what good addict doesn't?!).


our oldest rarely drinks her cupful of momma-good-water. our youngest drinks it as if it were a guzzling contest, burps and begs for more! to which she gets the delicious & refreshing tappity-tap water. not always happily received by her. she then in the morning will sneak into big sister's room and take her leftover momma-good-water and drink it before big sister catches her. she delights in her sneakiness at obtaining the momma-good-water!


there are worse things to be addicted to, although i have a hard time convincing my husband of this at times. he does not like the momma-good-water. at all. there will never be a "green eggs & ham" moment for him with it.


so our latest attempt at a conquest of an addiction? bedtime snacks.


wish us luck.


and Godspeed.


Wednesday, April 15, 2009

momma-mia

i generally do not get all "hallmarky" about holidays...hubs & i do not get one another extravagant gifts or go overboard for birthdays, christmas, or any other holiday - real or hallmark. but...it really do think that this necklace would be a perfect sentiment of love for me from my favorite husband and daughters for mother's day:
of course, i would want it to be me "momma",
because that is who i am to the girls...
yep.
this really needs to be at home around my neck.
i found out all about lisa leonard's hand-made jewelry on this blog . . .

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

contentment



yesterday was such a good day! i did miss having hubs be able to go to lunch with us girls, but i am thankful for his job change last august (even if he is DTO now instead of just a few blocks from home)! the girls & i ran a couple errands (mailing uppercase living orders & some banking), went to the bookstore and got 3 (yep, three!) new books and Easter Basket books for the girls...and then lunch at our traditional birthday place: red robin! ah...good day! i did go into work last night, but even that was okay! they surprised me with a yummy ice cream cake...and then when i got home...another surprise: hubs and the lils CLEANED UP THE LIVING ROOM, KITCHEN, BATHROOM & GIRLS' BEDROOMS! i had asked hubs to just have the girls pick up their toys since we have our babysitter, kristyn (who my littles L-U-V! she is awesome!!), comes this afternoon...he went above and beyond!
a few days ago i had a couple minutes to myself and beelined it to one of my fave fabric stores. i am feeling the urge to sew (after tax season of course!). so i got some swatches to make fresh-springy pillows for our couch/living room and each of bedrooms! i will post a photo of my purchases another day! this leads me to a fabu site that i have fallen in complete unabashed love with: http://www.javisdavis.com/index.html i think i must have the "cottontail toile"...since it has 2 of my faves: toile & whimsy! the only thing that could totally make me nearly faint would be if it were damask! i found this site through blog-hopping and ventured on a new blog that i will stalking, err i mean stopping by, on a daily basis from now on! http://makeroomforstyle.blogspot.com/2009_04_01_archive.html
(and it doesn't hurt that she too does accounting AND is creative, too...it can happen!)
oh, the photo? some of my birthday loot!
oh, the title? yeah, sometimes i need to remind myself that contentment does not always lie in big, amazing moments but in the tiny, seemingly ordinary, real-life ones!

Monday, April 6, 2009

you say it's your birthday? hey, it's my birthday, too!

yep...it is truly April 7th...and it is truly my birthday...and it is the 18th anniversary of my 21st birthday...oh the joy of entering the last year of my 30's.


but as much i think i should commiserate about "how old i am"...i do not really feel that way at all...in fact, all things considered, it's all good. and as i have said before:



birthdays and shoes...

you just can't have enough!



so it'll be a a girlie day spent with my 2 favorite lil honeys! oh...and i do believe that there are gifts already for me upstairs...from the best hubs e-v-e-r and the 2 most adorable daughters e-v-e-r.




so....


happy birthday to ME!

*************************

p.j. monday!


when i first started my current job, domestic engineer at larson inc., i had "p.j. mondays". the girls & i would stay in our jammies all day. unless someone spit-up or had a blowout and had to be changed. we stayed home. we snuggled. we watched some shows. it has been a long time since we had a monday like that. but, i remedied that TODAY! nea has put a different dress, because she got syrup on her jams. otherwise, we are still in jammies. hair has not been combed. two pots of coffee later...we are having a great "p.j. monday"! and after our weekend...we needed this day!


wren had her first dance recital last night. she was so very, very, very, very, very excited. and i do not use those FIVE "very's" lightly! she loved her kittycat costume (even though it had no pink, other than her tights). she loved her kittycat ears (even though it was a headband bobby-pinned to the hilt!)! she loved that i polished her toenails a pretty pink (her class does not require ballet shoes...so they had naki-toes!). she even loved the make-up (which was very theatrical...bright lips, eyeliner, "twiggies" under her eyes, mascara)! she loved that her hair was pulled into a bun...just like the big girl ballerinas! and she especially loved the the daddy, the lil sister, the cousin, and three aunties came to see her dance on the big, bright stage at the rose theater downtown!


there were 4 kittycats in wren's group. three were a bit scared and unsure of what to do. one was not. she ran out onto the stage. she was exuberant. she did the routine (no, absolutely not flawless...but "lead" the others!) and those kitties got the most laughs and applause! all of wren's guests were in tears from our laughter! i was so very proud of my wren!


and, the best part?! she got to do the dance TWICE last night! unfortunately there were some sound issues...and after the first 5 routines, miss robin came out, apologized and stated there would be 15 minute intermission and then they would be starting THE ENTIRE RECITAL OVER FROM THE BEGINNING! and the 2nd kittycat performance...the other 3 kitties did much better...and wren did really, really well...again! she got flowers from the daddy, the lil sister and an auntie!


we went out to eat afterwards to celebrate and had a delicious dinner and dessert with aunties and a cousin!


wren asked me on our way home when her next recital will be...she was a bit disappointed it will a year! but i told her that she can continue dance classes this summer...and even do some drama/acting classes if she wants in the fall. she LOVED that idea!


okay...we are off to have lunch, read wren's new book "do princesses wear hiking boots" ( a dance recital celebration from another auntie!) and then snuggle down to our afternoon snoozers (yep, momma, too!).


hope your monday is as relaxing and good as ours!