Family Reunion HERE WE COME!!!

10 Jul

Yay!! We leave in just a little over 24 hours for 9 days of Family Fun!!

First of all, 21 hours of car time. But no worries. I am prepared and loaded for BEAR.

First off, we have an awesome practically new Toyota Sienna WITH DVD PLAYER. Let me just say that the best part about this is that the kids won’t fall asleep during the day, so when we stop at night, they will be tired enough to sleep so us, the drivers, can sleep as well.

Speaking of which, every other trip we have taken, we always talk about stopping, but I think a hotel room should cost $50. So when we drive by on I-70 and everything is $75-80-99, we decide not to stop. KOA is $20 and I don’t feel like paying that and then having to set up the tent either. So this year we got on priceline and bought nice hotel room in Denver for $50. My first time bidding on something on Priceline! VICTORY! It has a pool in case the kids need to get some energy out before bed. I’m not allowing us to watch the TV though. We are stopping so we can get sleep! That way we will not end up at a truckstop somewhere in Wyoming at 4 a.m. trying to snatch a nap because we just can’t drive another minute. Ahh sweet sleep.

Second, I have coloring books, including one of those cool ones that has the colors printed on it and you “paint” it with a wet q-tip. My kids have never seen one so it will be a huge hit.

We are not taking crayons because those melt in the hot car, so we will be taking colored pencils and markers. I also have batteries for Bubba’s sudoku puzzle game and his rubix cube game.

Third, I am giving the kids some control over their snacks. They will each have a snack bag and be responsible for portioning out their own treats. This way, I hope they will bug me for things less. Don’t worry, I’m keeping back snacks so we are not left bereft if they gobble all the treats in the first hour of driving.

Speaking of snacks, I put a great deal of thought and friend research into choosing snacks that would be yummy but not too sticky or messy AND not make us feel sick by the end of our trip. Here is what I came up with:

Cheddar whale crackers (cheaper than goldfish and just as tastey)
Wheat thins
Pretzels
twizzlers
smarties
starbursts
cheerios
fruitloops
mint gum
bubble gum
Capri Suns
water bottles

Then in the cooler:
Apples
Grapes (were on my list, but at $3 a pound, did not make the budget after all)
chive & onion cream cheese for the wheat thins
Blueberry Bagels (with choice of plain or strawberry cream cheese)
baby carrots
cellery sticks
already peeled boiled eggs **this is a maybe
baby dill pickles and toothpicks
PB&J on store bread already made up and cut in cute triangles
slices of cheddar cheese
lunch meat (turkey) for sandwiches or just eating
Milk
gatorade

Side note(these snacks and food for 2 days of car travel cost the same as a week of groceries. yikes! That is the hard thing about travel food. maybe i’ll be lucky and can stretch it for the two day trip home as well. After looking at my list, it seems heavy on the candy. It didn’t seem that way in the store….)

What did not make the list
Granola bars (my kids never quite finish the ends and then drop those sticky messes on the car seat for me to find later)
Suckers (same reason)
laughy taffy and fruit snacks(same reason)
oreos & animal crackers (same reason)
cookies & graham crackers & homemade bread– too crumbly

One of my friends says she has her kids wear their shirts inside out in the car. That way when the get where they are going, they turn the shirts right side out and look clean. GENIUS!!!!!!!!!

Last of all, I have a bag of magic tricks for when the kids just can’t make it another mile. I scored some pretty sweet stuff at the dollar store, including a set of travel games and one of those magnetic fishing games where the fish rotate around and their mouths open and close. also one of those pictures that you can change the hairstyle by moving the iron filings around with a magnet, a mini magna doodle and a mini etch-a-scketch.

If only my printer worked and I could print off a few Madd Libbs games for Bubba and Magpie, it would all be perfect. None of the coloring book places had Madd Libbs. Just endless crossword puzzles. you’d think they could have ONE madd libbs book.

I still need to compile the CD’s and DVD’s for traveling and see if the library has any good books on tape. But I think we’ll be good.

I can’t wait to see all my family good times will be had, and probably enough good belly laughs to keep us all out of the hospital for another year. Plus I’ll meet some of my husband’s family that I’ve never met in person before. His family has never done a reunion, so he tried to organize one this year. He didn’t get very much response, and got pretty discouraged for awhile. I think he wanted more involvement on the planning side. I kept telling him, just plan a potluck at the park and tell people when to show up. That’s what we’ve finally done, reserved a park pavillion by a lake, so …..here’s hoping lots of cousins come!!

Happy Father’s Day

7 Jul

Okay, I know it has been nearly a month since Father’s Day. But I want to share what we did, cause it was AWESOME!!

Copying this idea from alphamom.com, which I first saw on homemade by jill, we made SUPER SNACKS for our very own SUPER HERO.

My Printer is broken–as in, it makes a terrifying shreek when I turn it on and then comes up with ERROR 5#@$^)%3582#$)(@#&$91802q1 and refuses to print.

Actually, my printer has been awesome for 4 years. I just miss it alot now that it doesn’t work.

Anyway, because of the printer malfunction, we couldn’t use the already made printables (origionally made by Jordan of O Happy Day), so we had to make our own. I think we did a pretty amazing job.

The best part was the Happy Father’s Day cards that Bubba and Magpie made up all by themselves. My kids are awesome.

Hopefully, these snacks have kept our SuperHero happy and full of energy while he is off fighting villains and stuff so we can have food to eat and a roof over our heads. He isn’t perfect, but he does his best for us every day and that is all a woman can reasonably ask for, after all.

Rodeo!

18 Jun

We took the kids to their (and my) first rodeo last night. It was just a small town rodeo, nothing too big or crowded.

I tried to tell the kids what would go on at a rodeo.
They were excited about seeing horses IF they got to ride the horses.

I explained that you had to know how to ride a horse because the riders were competing and you had to be at least 15 or 16, I was sure, to compete.

Then would there be pony rides?

Probably not pony rides, but they might have something my friend told me about called “Mutton Busting” where they let kids ride a sheep.

When we got to our seats at the rodeo, I read off the program to the kids:

Bareback Riding
Steer Wrestling
Calf Scramble for the kids
Team Roping
Barrel Racing
Bull Riding

Ever hopeful of getting to ride something, Pumpkin Pie asked: “How old do you have to be to ride a bear?”

Day 5 of the Jane Austen Dress

11 Jun

day 5: Jane Austen dress
Today I took a break from actual sewing because the muslin was freaking me out.

I know it’s so I can make sure it “fits right” but on a style of clothing that is so very different from what I’m used to, how do I know if it is fitting right?

I read some internet articles on regency fitting and regency stays, but just let them sit in the back of my mind, I wasn’t sure yet how to apply the knowlege.

Also I needed a helper.

So I weeded the garden and contemplated the fact that I’m actually about Mrs. Bennett’s age and not Elizabeth Bennett’s age.

Summer Cuts II

4 Jun

Here are the much cooler, hair cutted, Sweetie Pies. The tank tops are because it is 90 deg and I haven’t turned on the air conditioner.

you can see from the back that Pumpkin Pie’s isn’t quite straight. But she tilts her head so much that it is hard to notice when she is moving around

They are A-line cuts. Which is different than an A-line skirt. A little language thing that always bugs me.

Cutie Pie got a baby hair cut.

After looking at how sweaty she is even after the hair cut, I turned on the a/c.

Peach Pie just informed me that I need to “go somewhere” because she hasn’t got to see her favorite babysitters for a long time.

Cherry Pie joined in, “Yeah, you and Daddy need to go on a date.”

Peach Pie: “You guys need some alone time and we want Savannah to play games with us.”

Eyebrows

3 Jun

Okay. It seems that the 1st Lieutenant who sometimes resides in my house took MY camera with him to his State Emergency Tornado Cleanup Duty. Thus I can provide no pictures of the murderously short summer haircuts. (Which looked better in the light of day next morning, thankfully.) So if I wish to blog, I must content myself with blogging about something for which I already have pictures.

That means I have to tell a story on myself.

Sigh. Here Goes….

As you will note in the following picture, some people in my family have great eyebrows. Some people meaning all of my sisters.

Don’t they look fabulous? p.s. this little pouf hairstyle is the one that earned me the polygamous hair comment from a friend. My sometimes resident 1LT reluctantly admitted upon questioning that it seemed a little old fashioned. I said, “But so & so wears her hair like that.” He laughed and said, “Yeh, she does.” Apparently that was not good defense on my part. dang’t

So about a year ago, I decided that kempt brows would help with making me look more like I cared how I look (You can always tell a cheerleader/soccer mom by her thin eyebrows, even if she has no makeup, a messy ponytail and sweats on. You can also tell her by how skinny and tan she is, but I have limits. No offense intended to any of my readers who are skinny or like to tan a lot. I still love you, my skin just genetically will not tan. Plus I fear cancer.)

anyway…
I got my brows waxed for my birthday. After that I tried to keep them up myself. Last summer, while in Dallas for Mary Kay Seminar, I sat down in front of one of those lighted magnifying mirrors. It was amazing. I could see every little hair. I got a little carried away and perhaps overplucked a bit. (alot) In my defense, I think I had low blood sugar and it affected my judgement.

exhibit A:

Several months later it was again my birthday and I mentioned that perhaps I would go have my brows waxed.

My sometimes resident 1LT said, “Just don’t go to the place you went last time. They gave you old lady eyebrows.”

me (!!!! no way am I admitting I did that to myself!!!)

“Was it that bad? You didn’t say anything at the time.”

Him: “Well, you really couldn’t do anything about it, so no point in making you feel bad.”

Me: “Don’t worry, I won’t go back there.” (note to self: Never pick up tweezers without having eaten something first. ever.)

I’d like to interject here that he said it all very nicely and picked just the right time to tell me when I could appreciate his advice and not have my feelings hurt. I really was glad to have been warned away from making the same mistake twice. So don’t be hating the 1LT.

I think I’m doing better as the first pic in this post and the following one show.

Meh, I don’t know. My eyebrows are still more round than angled. The thing is, I have round eyebrows. Just do. No getting around it. ha ha… around it … round eyebrows… whew! I should get some sleep.

The thing is, I can’t sleep tonight. It’s one of those nights where I keep thinking of all the ways I fell short today and what a terrible selfish mother / friend I am. Sigh. I just have to do better tomorrow and be grateful that most of my friends are the really forgiving type. You know, the kind who always look at dumb things you do or say and think of the most positive wonderful reason why you did/said that. The kind who know I meant well even if it all came out horribly wrong.

I love you guys.

You help me to have hope that I can be better.

Thanks.

Summer Hair Cuts

31 May

My GirlFriends’ Guide to Pregnancy says that under no circumstances are you to ever do something drastic during pregnancy–like getting a new hair cut.

After tonight, I am sure it should also say that under no circumstances should you ever cut your childrens’ hair when you are pregnant.

Pictures to follow tomorrow morning when the girls are awake.

Lucky for them, they are so cute that they still look cute with my murderous hack job hair cuts.

Also, lucky for them, my insanity stopped short of giving them bangs like they asked for. At least I knew that would be a disaster.

Lucky for me, the Man of the House is gone for 2-3 weeks with the National Guard helping clean up the Joplin tornado. Maybe their hair will grow back enough that I can take them to someone who knows what they are doing and have it fixed.

So, does skinny = beautiful?

30 May

I ran accross this article in the New York Daily News.

It was all about how quickly celebrities lose weight after having babies. and how jealous we should all be because they get their “svelt” bodies back so fast. I quote, “Don’t hate on them because they’re famous. And rich. Hate on them because they look so darn good so soon after having kids.”

First of all, Some of them don’t appear to have lost that much weight–they’re just smartly wearing clothes that camoflage it.

Second of all, I’m sure those celebs who did lose the weight spent like 4 hours a day with personal trainers and weights and treadmills to lose the weight so fast. Also, they ate nothing but salad and vitamin water and they could get away with that because they have maids to clean their houses and don’t have to worry about having energy to clean and cook.

But that isn’t my main point.

I looked through the photo gallery of 50 different Hollywood stars and Runway models. Each had a baby bump picture and a post baby skinny picture along with a brag about how quickly she got skinny.

The thing I kept thinking as I looked at the pictures was the pregnant celebs were prettier than their post baby skinny selves. Preggo they look glowing and radiant and healthy. On the other hand, in their skinny pictures, most of them have really sharp, anglular faces that look tired and starved next to their rosy pregnant twins. Also, you can see their arm bones under their skin, even on their upper arms.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying that I wouldn’t like to lose some weight after I have this baby. I would. And I’m proud of those celebrities who had the sense to eat food and feed their growing babies even though that meant they had to work their buns off later (literally). I’m just saying, I don’t think skinny is necessarly the only judge of pretty and happy. I don’t think the skinnier the better. I’m saying skeletal isn’t pretty, in my opinion.
What do you think?

**all pictures came from the article mentioned above

***Yes I cheated and used the pictures that were the most extreme examples of what I’m talking about. But I noticed that many of the preggo pictures were taken at 6 months pregnant or earlier. Thus, those celebs got a whole lot rounder than they let us see.

Appendix Out

28 May

Took Cherry Pie to the hospital last night, thinking she might have appendicitis.

At that point, she couldn’t stand up straight because she was in so much pain.

The Resident Lieutenant is in Joplin – activated with his national guard unit to help with aftermath from the Joplin tornado. Seems like it is always when he is gone that stuff like this happens.

She really, really didn’t want to go to the hospital.

She really, really didn’t want to have an operation.

Finally, she said, “Okay, I will have my appendix out, since Grandpa had his appendix out.”

What a brave, brave girl.

After the operation, the surgeon told me she needed to take it easy for about a week.

After 3 days, I had to tell her not to climb trees yet. 😅

It is hard to slow her down.

The Best Part

19 May

The best part about selling Mary Kay is these beautiful friends I get to rub shoulders with.

← Older Entries
Newer Entries →