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3/30/09

Kids Say the Darndest Things

When the girls were toddlers, I used to sew most of their outfits & dresses. I had a sewing area set up in the living room of the house we rented, and spent quite a bit of time in that corner sewing.

One day when R was about 3, I was walking from the kitchen to the living room. She stops me and asks ~

Can you fix my dress on your sewing-a-seam?

It took her about 6 months to say it right!!


Outfit not made on my sewing-a-seam!

3/29/09

17 Years Ago

Since I did a 'Then & Now' of the girls, I thought it only fair to do one with Sean & I. We haven't changed much in 17 years. Just your typical weight gain {both} & gray hairs {Sean}. It'll be a long time until I know when I'm going gray!!! {Thank you Miss Clairol!!}


I wanted pictures of us when we were 2, like the girls, but I didn't have one of Sean. I did, however have one of me.



If I don't say so myself, I was pretty darn cute!! And that was my most favorite jumper. I probably wore it just about everyday. I was not happy when I got too big for it & had to give it to my stinky little sister.

I was also not happy when Mom came home from the hospital with her.

She ruined everything.

But that's a whole other story....

3/28/09

These Girls, They Are a Changin'

Feeling nostalgic today....


She stills mugs for the camera. But only if I'm not holding it!!



OMG!!! Those eyes. Need I say more??




She used to like me taking her picture.
Now she acts like her Grandma!

I'm So Bad

Thursday night, S did laundry, R & D watched TV, Sean watched {his monster} TV in the bedroom, & I was messing on the computer. Whatever the girls were watching, donuts were mentioned, and shown. Donuts are a treat around here & we hadn't had any in a long time. And the ones on TV looked so yummy.

So I whispered to R;

"Go tell Daddy you want donuts for breakfast."

She was happy to oblige. She ran into the bedroom & 30 seconds later comes out;

"Daddy said 'No'."


Bummer. That didn't work. But I persist.

About 30 minutes later, S comes up from the laundry room & I whisper to her;

"Go tell Daddy you want donuts for breakfast."

She happily obliged.

30 seconds later she comes out of the bedroom;

"Dad said 'No'."

Darn.

But I refuse to give up.

Last night R & I were watching 'Castle' on the computer & D was in the bedroom watching {the monster} TV with Sean. I didn't get to her on Thursday night to beg for donuts. This was my last chance.

She came out to the kitchen for a cup of water & I told her to tell Daddy she wants donuts for breakfast. But being the youngest & not always catching onto the game, I had to tell her "DO NOT say I told you to ask for donuts!"

30 seconds later she comes into the living room & says;

"Daddy says donuts kinda sound good."


I'm breaking him!! He, he, he.

He then comes out of the bedroom about 20 minutes later saying, "Now I want a donut!"

Ah!! I've broken him!! Maybe they'll be donuts for breakfast.

Guess what was on the kitchen table this morning???!!!

Now, this isn't the actual box of donuts we had. R & D had already grabbed a donut from it, so it wouldn't make a pretty picture. {Thank you Google!!}

Plus, I couldn't very well take a picture of it without Sean asking why.

Then I'd have to tell him I was Blogging about it.

Then he'd ask why the heck I'd do that.

Then I'd have to tell him this story. And he'd know I masterminded the whole thing.

Just so I could get a donut.

Good thing he's never on the computer.

And won't be reading this......

3/26/09

Reality. Or Living With 3 Girls

I remember, years ago, when the girls were toddlers, many people would tell me I was so lucky to have 3 girls. I thought Yeah, I am. They have the most adorable clothes & shoes, and I can 'do up' their hair.

You can't do that with a boy.

And I remember mother's of boys telling me I was lucky because boys are so loud. And always into things. And difficult to potty train. Worst, they were messy & smelly.

Why do parents think that's only boys?? Come to my house any day after school & tell me my sweet little girls are quiet. Yeah, right.

Potty training??? When I first started potty training, D refused to use the potty if I told her to. I would get her up in the morning, tell her she need to go on the potty. Put her in there & nothing. Throughout the day {every 1/2 hr to hr, so there would be no "accidents"} I would put her on the potty. And throughout the day ~ nothing. My stubborn youngest would hold it ALL DAY until I got busy cooking dinner, then the flood gates would open.

Yeah, girls are so much easier to potty train.

And who says girls do not smell???

Believe me you do not want to be in the house when S or D take their shoes off after a day of wearing them.

Gasp. Gag. Choke.

S's feet occasionally stink even though she's wearing flip flops!!!

{Don't tell her I told you. She gets mad about things like that. 'Cause she's 15 ½. And she thinks I'm a dork. Which I am. Sometimes.}

And let's not even get into 'boys are messier than girls'. Have 3 girls share 1 bathroom then tell me who is messier. Take a look. Does this look like girls are neat? And they tell me "this is clean!"




The counter isn't so bad. They did after all "clean up". It's nice they left the broom in there. It's also pretty obvious they haven't used it.

I'm constantly telling them "When you get out of the shower, you're going to your room. Take your clothes with you!!"

Want to hear the excuse??

"I can't hold on my towel and pick up my clothes."
What?? Are you now handicapped???

All the towels on the floor are a mystery.

And will remain a mystery.

They belong to Noone.

Noone has used them.

Noone knows how they got on the floor.

I'm still looking for Noone.

If anyone has seen Noone, will you please tell me.

She has some towels in the girls bathroom that need to be taken care of.....

3/25/09

Dinner & a Movie

Well, not quite. But I'm not very good at coming up with titles & today's ramblings do have to do with dinner & a TV.

We love baked pasta & I usually make it a couple times a month. It was "that time of the month" again {no, not that time of the month, baked pasta time!! Come on folks.} & I wanted to do something other than cook up a huge dish of it. So, as I was sitting around yesterday, {remember, I'm unemployed right now} I glanced over at the china cabinet & remembered these ~

I love these little colorful flower bowls. They can be found in thrift stores for pennies.

I love thrift store finds.

For pennies.

Anyway, I thought it'd be fun to make the girls individual pasta bowls and use our pretty colorful flower bowls. So I set to work in my little, not at all gourmet kitchen {my kitchen sounds like me!! LOL} to whip up a batch of pasta bowls. I toiled & toiled for hours & hours to make the perfect dinner for my family.

Okay. Not really. Baked pasta takes next to no time to make. And is not at all difficult. After the bowls were done, the garlic bread toasty {now if I was a gourmet cook, the garlic bread would've been made from scratch. Thank you Pepperidge Farms!} I couldn't just set a bowl on the table. That's not very Martha like. Not that I want to be like Martha. Remember, I'm not gourmet. But the bowls just look so sad & lonely, alone on the table. With no one. And nobody. So I did this ~


This is my idea of serving dinner a la Martha. They really needed to be on smaller plates, but I didn't have any that were plain white. And I wanted to "show off" the wonderful colors of the bowls. {Said in my proper Martha voice.}

Enough with the Martha already. Okay?

Now on to the TV section of the post...

As I was in the {non-gourmet} kitchen whipping up my spectacular dinner, I hear Darien saying the TV in the living room is smaller than the one in our bedroom. I wondered what in tarnation she's talking about, since the TV in the bedroom is a 20" TV & the one in the living room is a 27". Clearly making the living room TV the bigger one. So I popped the bowls under the broiler & went to see what was going on. I see Sean measuring the living room TV then walk back to the bedroom. I thought for a minute he lost it. Can he not see that our bedroom TV is most definitely SMALLER than the living room TV??? Did he really need to measure them??? Was he loosing his mind??? I walked into the bedroom to see what was going on & yes, he lost his mind!! Here's why ~

I now get to wake up every morning, sit up in bed & see this monster. Now, don't get me wrong. I have no problem with a TV in our room. Many nights the girls & I want to watch one thing & Sean wants to watch another. This solves that issue. But unless you have a big bedroom & an armoire to put it in {the TV not the room!!}, a large TV just doesn't work for me.

We've had a TV in our bedroom since the girls were little. Starting out with a 12", then someone gave us a 14", then we got another TV from someone {Jane, I think} & the 20" from the livingroom went in the bedroom. Now, because Sean has a friend who just happened to have an extra TV, we now have a 27" TV in our room. And the worst of it is, because it's so big & NOT a flat screen, my dresser now sticks out from the wall 6"!!!

I hate it when my furniture sticks out from the wall.

I hate big TVs in my bedroom.

So if any of you have a huge TV you were thinking of getting rid of DO NOT ASK SEAN IF HE WANTS IT!! 'Cause he will take it. And put it in our room. And make my dresser stick out 20".

I hate it when my dresser sticks out from the wall.....

By the way, the pasta was delicious.

And I know you're looking in the reflection of the TV to see how messy my bed is! I would be too. But stop it. My bed is messy.....

3/24/09

I WANT!!! I WANT!!! I WANT!!!

Mom just sent me an email with a picture of....

wait for it......

wait for it....

this ~





I love this color green, which ironically Birkenstock calls "Peridot Green", and is my birthstone! I love my Birks.

My feet love my Birks.

My back love my Birks.

My kids hate my Birks.

Well, S does. She is after all 15 ½ & thinks her mother is a dork.

Which I am.

Sometimes.

I wrote Mom back & told her that although she told us {constantly} when we were young no 'I wants'....

I WANT!!! I WANT!!! I WANT!!!

Weird, True & Freaky

I've been walking D to school lately. I should. I have no job. And could really use the exercise. This morning, like I do every morning, I left her at the sidewalk in front of the school, turned on my MP3 player, & turned around to walk back home. 

A man walking his dog nearly ran into me. He stopped, looked at me, stammers then says to me; "I thought you were a student." Now, I've always had people think I looked younger than I really am, but never that young!! LOL I think what threw him off is I'm the height of the average 4th or 5th grader!!!

Speaking of height, & measurements. Here is some info about our little family you may not know. 

R & I always joke that she has freakishly long arms & legs & I have freakishly short arms & legs. So we pulled out the tape measure last night & here are the weird, true & freaky facts about us ~

*R's arms, from shoulder to tip of her middle finger are ½" longer than my legs!
*Sean's arms are ½" longer than R's
*R's legs are 1" longer than mine
*R is now 1 ½" taller than I am {she's 5' tall}
*S is now is now 4 ½" taller than me {she's 5' 3"}
*D right now is 1 ½" shorter than me

At this point I gave up measuring. I don't need a tape measure to prove how freakishly short I am....

3/23/09

Conversations

S got a ride home from school today & when she walked in the house I was watching Jon & Kate Plus 8. After making a pit stop to the bathroom, she sits down next to me on the couch & we have the following conversation ~

S: Why is Kate in a wedding dress?

J: She & Jon are taking the kids to Hawaii where they are going to renew their wedding vows.

S: Oh. **Pause** Why? Do they run out????

Riley Had a Baby!!

Meet Will, R's baby ~

OK. So, he's not a real baby. She is after all only 12 years old!! He's a "Real Life Baby". For Home Ec {which, by the way is no longer called Home Economics. I forget what the new PC name is} the kids get to take a baby home for the weekend to experience what it's like to care for an infant. All Will did was sleep, eat, and need an occasional diaper change. {By the way, in the above pic, Will is "sleeping". It's kinda creepy 'cause his eyes didn't close} The hardest part for her was waking up every 2-3 hours during the night to feed him. Here she is Sunday morning about 9:30-10:00. She looks pretty exhausted.


I told her it'd be more realistic if the babies pooped & spit up. You really haven't experienced infant care until you've changed a stinky diaper & had spit up on your shoulder!


Here she's changing Will's "soiled" diaper. If you look closely, you can see the pink wrist band she's wearing. This is a chip that identifies her as the "mother". Whenever Will cries she has to rub the chip on her wrist band over his sensor, then "feed" him. Which means she just has to hold the bottle against his lips. Again, the bottle nipple & his lips have a sensor so you know he's suckling.

By Sunday morning, she was bored with Will......

3/22/09

D's New Glasses

For the past few months D has been complaining of not being able to see the board when her teacher writes on it.

I kinda chalked it up to the youngest needing more attention.

When they did the annual sight & hearing tests @ her school, they recommended she see an optometrist. So I took her to a very nice doctor, Dr. Pearson, just down the road.

Turns out her left eye is perfect, but she is nearsighted in the right.

So lenses were ordered.

She looks even more like my side of the family now!!