Quirky Things About Me

Lauren tagged me the other day. She wanted me to come up with seven strange things about myself. I told her I would probably only be able to come up with a few because I am not all that strange. As it turns out I am a little stranger than even she thought. I have eight.
So here goes:
8. Clutter makes me crazy. I will deal with for a long time then one day, I just can't stand it anymore and go through the house like a hurricane.
7. I have to sleep on the side of the bed away from the door. That way if someone comes in to get us, they will get Jason first and I will have time to run away.
6. I am a barefoot queen. In the summer I almost never wear shoes. I find them too confining.
5. I have to get the kids dressed as soon as they get out of bed. If I don't, I feel that we haven't accomplished anything that day. When it's done then I can say "There we did something today. The kids are dressed." Weird, huh.
4. I can't stand for someone to add ketchup to food I make unless the food was designed to have ketchup or some other condiment on it(ie. Burgers, hot dogs and sometimes eggs). When Jason and I got married he put ketchup on everything. I found it incredibly offensive for him to put ketchup on a stew I spent half the day making. I am not sure he would have married me if he knew that was in the small print of our marriage license.
3. I can't stand the TV on during the day. Even if I am not watching, it makes me feel like a slug and can't we find anything better to do with our time. As it turns out we can because we never watch television during the day.
2. I am a list freak. If I go to the store, start a project, or start my day without list, I feel completely disorganized. If I don't take a list shopping, I always forget the most important thing I went to the store for. And that drives me batty.
1. I love rocks. Where we lived in Virginia, there were no rocks(I know, doesn't that make you sad). I used to get rocks from the creek that runs by my parents house. Then I drove them down to Virginia to put in my flowerbeds.(Gas wasn't quite so expensive back then.) When we packed the PODS, I took my favorite rocks and brought them up here to our new home. I also brought a tree stump that I found interesting. A friend, who helped us move, thought I was nuts.

Boy after all of that, I bet you are wishing you lived here. Poor Jason; he is stuck with me.

Lauren has already tagged everyone I would have tagged so I won't tag them all again. If you are someone who just happened by and would like to play, please feel free. Let me know so I can come and check out what is strange about you.

Too funny

This was the scene that greeted me when I came into the livingroom last night after putting the kids to bed.

If the picture isn't clear; that is my computer monitor in the background.

A Walking Disaster

I bet you were thinking I was talking about Mark or Anna. Well, I wasn't. I was talking about me.
Yesterday, we took a walk through town, as we do most days. Jason and I were walking side by side talking about a construction project being proposed in our town. I was walking and talking. (a very bad combo for me) I was looking off to my right pointing at what they are doing. SMACK...I ran right into a bench sitting at the edge of the sidewalk. Dumb, right! I know! Not one of my finer moments.
Then this morning, after I got the kids up, we came downstairs. I slipped and fell. I was holding Anna at the time. She was, thankfully, not hurt. I, however, in protecting her scraped the backs of my elbows and the backs of my legs badly. I also bumped my butt badly enough to leave a bruise.
So today I am hobbling around here like an old lady. Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed. I should have stayed in bed yesterday and today. Can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

Birthday Treats

Whenever one of our kids has a birthday, we always get to look forward to this special treat.
The other day Peyton (my niece) spent the night with Grandma Shirley. She and Grandma were very busy.

This one was done when Mark turned two. It features Jason's brother and sister-in-law (Chad and Gina). The kids are Vincent and Peyton, our nephew and niece.

What a musical family I married into. Thanks guys!! We love it.

Anna Is The Big One

One year ago today, we welcomed this little gift to our family.

She was a tiny little precious person. She was also quite loud and she wasn't at all afraid to let us know when her needs were not being met to her satisfaction.

As time went by though she became this wonderful little person who is so full of life. Don't get me wrong, she is still very opinionated about the way things should be. She is not all all afraid to voice her opinions. But in between those times, she is a joy to be around.


She is my little climber.

She is always sweet and affectionate.

Sometimes she even wishes she had listened to her mother who told her not to put that in her mouth.

On her first birthday, I think back over the year we have been blessed to have with her. This year she has come so far. It is hard to believe that little baby we brought home from the hospital is the same one who is playing at my feet as I write this. I can't wait to see what the future holds for my little girl.

Happy Birthday Anna!! I love you so.

In a day or two I will post a video showing her ever expanding vocabulary. She isn't feeling very cooperative today.

A Few Pictures for Monday

Don't those eyes just go right through you.

My little beauty.

Happy Monday!!

A Surprise

I make no secret of the fact that I am new to town life. Where I grew up there were lots of farms and fields. It was a wonderful way to grow up. We could go in any direction and find untamed land in which to roam. In the summer we tromped through the creeks and the woods that make up the landscape around my parent's home. In the winter we loved to sled to down the big hills and sometimes right into the road at the bottom. In short,there were always interesting things to see and do.
Jason grew up much different from me. He has lived in town pretty much his whole life. He was born on a farm in Minnesota but they followed his father's job. That led them to a few states in the mid west. Most of the places he lived were quiet little neighborhoods much like this.
So the other night we were sitting in the living room after dinner playing with the kids. We heard a noise that Jason was familiar with but was very new to me. It was a faint music. I had heard of this strange phenomenon before but had never seen it in real life. The music kept getting closer and closer.
We grabbed the kids and ran outside to see what it could be. We waited in anticipation of what was coming

Then we saw it.


As it came closer, I wondered, could it be an ambulance? Jason assured me it wasn't.

What is this? Could it be? A truck that comes right to our house and delivers ice cream. Oh happy day!!

I wasn't the only one who was happy.

And it was good.

I think I am going to like town life.

Look what I found Today

I knew it was out there. I saw it last week when I was watering my tomatoes. It was just a tiny bud then. But oh the possibilities it held wrapped up in it's tiny little self. I wondered, would it be red, yellow or maybe white. I was wrong of course. Today, when I went to water my tomato's, I saw it again. It is Pink.
It was such a special treat. It was almost like gift to us from the former owners. I wish I could thanks them for it. That little rose made my whole day.

Front/Back Door Meme

My mom over at Dlyn invited me to be a part of her front/back meme as our front and back yard recently changed. No longer do we share their yard.
I didn't take this picture straight out my front door. I would have taken a picture of the house across the street. Some people don't like that. I don't want to offend the nieghbors already. This is an angle looking down our street. I love our new digs.

This is one of the big reasons I love this house. We have a very deep yard. We have sidewalks and a big yard. We really couldn't ask for more.

I don't know many people so I won't tag anyone specific. Please feel free to participate if you want to.

Two Special Dads

I have two very wonderful Dads in my life. They are very different from each other both unique and special in his own way.
The first Dad is my own dear father. He is the best Dad I could ask for. He is fun, caring, loving, tender, and hardly ever cranky.
As you can see from this picture he is funny.

He is a very sporty dresser.

He is not a bad baby holder either.


I love you, Dad. Happy Father's Day!!

Then we have other Dad in my life. I am talking about the Dad of my darling kids. Now this Dad is so special. He is loving, caring, patient, kind, fun, funny, and a wonderful Dad.
He is handsome.

He is a very snappy dresser.

He is a wonderful baby holder too. His kids have always loved to relax in his arms.


I love you, Jason. Happy Father's Day!!

I guess they have more in common than I thought. Man, am I ever lucky or what.

Anna Gets Her Groove On

Anna has a new obsession. She is a dancer. It is just too funny to watch. If there is any music on anywhere she will dance to it. Yesterday, we were playing in the yard and our neighbor had her radio on. Anna just loved it. She danced and danced.
This video features Larry the Cucumber. If you want to listen to the song in it's entirety, it is on You Tube. They are actually quite a hoot. Please be forewarned that this song will get stuck in your head and won't come out for days.

I love child smell!!

No, I am not losing my mind. I am not talking about that gross smell of a baby who needs a change or a kid who has played in the mud. I am talking about that wonderful scent of a child who had bath last night and slept in a in his or her bed all night. Then woke up this morning and played enough to get just a little be sweaty. Kid sweat doesn't stink like adult sweat. Kid sweat smells sweet and Delicious. It makes you want put you nose right down into their hair and inhale deeply. It is right up there with fresh cut grass for me.
Anyway I just wanted share that. Now here are a few pictures of those Delicious smelling children.
Mark and Anna have started taking baths together. They just love to sit and splash around in the water. It makes me happy beyond words to see them get along.

Makes you think Mark contemplating the meaning of the world. Well, he isn't. He is thinking about what kind of badness he can do without getting caught. I have seen that look many times.

Kind of reminds me of Kilroy, that thing people put on the front of their vehicles.

We are in big trouble. (We still have a few boxes sitting around as you can see. I am too busy taking pictures to unpack them. I am a busy lady.)

I love to watch them play.

Ode To High Speed Internet

For those of you have never had dial-up Internet or who switch from dial up long ago, let me tell you about it. It is sooooo slow, molasses in January moves faster. You see, in our last home there was no high speed. We wanted it oh how we wanted it. We begged and pleaded for them the run the lines for it but did they do it for us. NO!! I called our local telephone company time and again. I cried and cried to them to run DSL down our road. But did they do it? NO!! I even looked into get satellite Internet. Do you have any idea how much they charge to connect that. They really should be ashamed of themselves for trying to get that much money out of people. So that was out for us. We lived with very slow internet for 4 long years. When I sent pictures of the kids to thier grandparents, I set it up to upload when I went to bed because it took hours and hours to do anything. While it was uploading you couldn't do anything else.

Anna Is No Longer Vertically Challenged

In case you didn't understand from the header, Anna can stand up all by herself. This brings both joy and dismay to the hearts of her father and I, as any other parent can understand. We are so excited to see her stepping toward independence. But we also are looking toward the day when she climbs all the way to the top of the stairs or some other daredevil trick that will scare us to death. All of that is forgotten because she is so proud of herself when she get up there. She looks around to make sure someone in watching. Half the time she is so excited she falls right back on her butt. It is too cute. This doesn't usually slow her down any. She just gets right back up. She is a hoot to watch.

My dear Dad deserves credit in helping Anna learn this newest trick. It has been coming for a little while but he is the one who gave her the final push in learning how. He is a very good Grandpa.

Hope you enjoy today's video.

The video is to show you that she can stand. It isn't a very good video of her though, so I included a few of her cuter pictures from recently. Enjoy!!
When we were staying with Mom and Dad, we sat on the porch every day for "cocktail hour." It was so nice to watch the sun sink lower in the sky and just enjoy each other's company. This was taken out on their porch with the sun behind her. It makes her look like she was glowing.

I could just take pictures of her all day. And some days I do.

This is one of her favorite toys. She will stand there forever and push the little button to see what happens next.

Imaginary People

We recently entered the world of imaginary friends. Mark has two of them; Boy and Baby (creative names I know. He gets that from his mother). Boy is quite naughty. He is always getting into Mark's things, or worse, my things. Mark puts him in time out a lot. They talk to together all the time. When I ask Mark what he is doing he says "Just talking to my boy." He also has Baby. I know Baby is a girl. When we lived with Mom and Dad, Baby lived in my parents TV cabinet. Now, I feel this a poor place to keep a baby but Mark didn't see anything wrong with it. Also he wasn't really supposed mess around in there himself so he felt that gave him a license to be in that area. I am not sure where Baby lives in our new house. I have to hold Baby a lot though. Mark doesn't really like to hold his own baby. He must prefers Jason or I do it. We aren't really supposed to put Baby down anywhere either. If we try, he will go get Baby and bring her back.

When we were in Wisconsin last year, we got some books from Jason's parents' house that belonged him and his siblings when their were young. One of the books was My Friend Jasper Jones by Rosamond Daver. Unfortunately this book is out of print and I can't even find a picture of the cover. It is a wonderful book though and I highly recommend it for anyone with little kids. It is about a little boy who lives in a nice little house with his parents. He has a friend named Jasper Jones. Jasper is kind of a naughty kid who gets himself into all kinds of trouble by doing things like painting walls with peanut butter and filling his dresser drawers with leaves. I won't spoil the end of the story. You will just have read it for yourself.

We have been reading My Friend Jasper Jones to Mark for a long time. It is so neat to watch him develop along the same lines as the little boy in the story. I know that someday the Baby and Boy will fade but for now I enjoy watching him play with his "friends."

Disclaimer: Mark never ever yells at his parents so he never ever ends up with a spanking or time out for it.

Home Again

Last night I said we have a new house. What I meant was the house is new to us. The house is actually over 100 years old, built is 1900. I think it will be really neat to live in a house that so many people have lived in before. As I walk around here I think about the other parents who have raised kids here and the lives they lived. It's also neat to think about how far this house has come in the 100 years it has been around. I hope we get to learn about some of the history of the place we get to call home.
This is our new home. Don't you just love it.

The PODS are going on Thursday and I can't wait. It will make it feel like the whole ordeal is really over.

Here are some before and after pictures. The befores are from right after we moved everything in. (I forgot my camera when we moved so I had to take pictures with my phone. Sorry the quality isn't wonderful) The afters are now. You will still see a few boxes laying around, but we have come a long away. Lets face it we have only lived here four days.

This first one is of the kitchen. It is the first room you enter from the back of the house. We went out to dinner the night it looked like this.

It is much more functional here. It is still a bit messy but I am working on it.


This is the living room.

It looks a little cozier here.
We even have the obligatory dog in the middle of the living room floor. Makes any house a home.

This is Mark's room. His room has a door to the attic in it. So all of his stuff plus everything that was headed to the attic went in there. It was really messy for about two days.


This is his room now. He loves his new digs.


Anna's room didn't really end up with a whole lot of stuff in it. Somehow the head and foot board to our bed went in there.(Ask Jason) But, that was about it. I didn't take a before picture but this is what it looks like now. It looks an awful lot like it did the day we moved in. Anna doesn't really need the play space on her floor so her room wasn't a priority the way Mark's was.


You will notice I am not including a picture of our room yet. We are still sleeping on a mattress on the floor. Unfortunately, when they built this house, they weren't thinking ahead to a time when people would have queen size box springs. We wrestled with our box spring for about two hours. There is just no way to get it up those stairs. (Anyone want to a box spring? We are selling it cheap or free. Just come and get it off the sun porch)We are exploring other options right now, but until I have our room more finished I am unwilling to show off it off.

Out of Time

I ran out of time to do the pictures of the house today. So I am falling back on my old stand-by: videos of the kids. Mom took this while we were at her house. I don't know why it is on my camera but I am using it. Hope you enjoy.

We're Home!!

Last Friday we finally closed on our new house. It's hard to believe the drama is finally over after three long months. Mom offered to watch the kids while we moved and we gratefully accepted. We took two days to get our things in and get set up for life. We drove down yesterday and picked them up. We got to spend all of today as a family. It is wonderful to finally be together again.
Tomorrow I will post pictures of our house before and after. I unfortunately forgot to bring my camera up with me when we moved so my pictures are taken with a camera phone. You will get an idea how far we have come already though.