Happy Birthday Jessica & Gram

We've entered the time of year that my family celebrates a LOT of birthdays - and today is my sister in law, Jessica's, birthday...I should mention that it's a BIG one - she's 30!

I'm fairly sure that Jessica has accomplished more in her thirty years than I will in my entire lifetime. She is hands down the most creative person that I know, which is ONLY outdone by what a hard worker she is. THIS GIRL CAN DO ANYTHING.

I LOVE Jessica's fashion sense. She always looks put together without going overboard, and looks better in orange than any person on the planet. She even looks hot in a mustache - how many people can claim that??!

Happy 30th, Jess! I love you tons!

Now, I generally keep birthday reminders to my immediate family and thier spouses (if I branched out any more this would LITERALLY be a birthday blog) but I can't write about Jessica's birthday and not also wish my ADORABLE grandmother a happy birthday as well.

Can you believe this lovely lady is 94 today? I love you gram!

What the Heck?

One minute her face looked fine, the next minute it looked like this:

When I asked her what happened, she said, "Um, I think I just scratched myself."

Happy Birthday Mandy!

One of my FAVORITE things about Mandy is how she's always up for everything. She will literall try anything - and I love that about her. My kids also think she's the greatest person on earth. She's an amazing photographer, and an awesome house-guest.
Come see me you guys - I miss you!!

Happy Birthday, Mandy!

I'll bet none of you saw THIS coming. Peaches and Peach Jam....MMMMMM. I guess I'm officially a stay at home mom. I have to admit, I had NO idea these were such big production. Rob mentioned me using the stove for these, and I was so confused. I just figured that you sliced up some peaches and put them in jars. Yep, I really am that domestically challenged.

Memory Lane

My friend Stef tagged me in a High School Memories Tag - and seeing as how VERY few of you that follow this blog actually knew me in HS, I figured it might be kind of fun to fill you all in. Stef also made threats against my life if I didn't comply - but that's another issue in our rocky relationship....

1. Did you date someone from your High School - NEVER. I went on a few dates with them (dances, etc) but never really liked the guys at my school.

2. What kind of car did you drive? My first car was a black 1992 Saturn (Sammy) - which was AWESOME. Then my senior year I got my Red Jeep (Pepe') Which was the car I was driving when I met most of my followers.

3. What was your most emberassing moment in High School? I had a LOT, but I vividly remember falling asleep during some kind of "safe sex" assembly. When my friend Tim woke me up everyone had already climbed down the bleachers. Tim helped me up - then let go of my hand before I realized that my leg was completely NUMB, and I fell down the bleachers with everyone watching. Rather than coming to my aid, Tim walked away.

4. Were you a party animal? Not EVERY weekend, mostly because I was afraid of getting in trouble - but as soon as I could drive and go parties in other states - and stay overnight with friends I was.

5. Were you a flirt? I didn't even learn HOW to flirt until I was in college.

6. Were you in band, orchestra or chior? No. I wasn't part of anything that required me to come to school early or stay late....ALTHOUGH, I DO think I sold enough Advents Kalendars to be an official member of German Club - does that count?? I should add that it was only because I thought it would help me ace German. I was wrong.

7. Were you a nerd? I hope not...

8. Were you on any Varsity Teams? Nope - wasn't interested.

9. Did you get suspended/expelled? I was caught smoking a couple of times, and was often busted for ditching class, but the only punishment I got was a few Saturday Detentions. But those weren't TOO bad, all my friends were there anyway.

10. Can you still sing the fight song? Could I then???

11. Who were your favorite teachers? Believe it or not - I actually REALLY liked the principal. We were pals. I could do without the teachers.

12. Where did you sit during lunch? Jono's Car, Portillos, Nick's Pizza, and Einsteins's Bagels.

13. School Mascot: A Redhawk

14. Did you go to Homecoming, and with who? I went to a few of them - I think my date's names were Matt something, Jon North, and Andy something. We've OBVIOUSLY kept in touch over the years.

15. If you could go back and do it again, would you? Wow - the option to relive the worst four years of my life? Never. College? Definitely.

16. Who was your prom date? His name was Jon Ward. WORST. DATE. EVER. We all went to the dance, then back over to Jono's house for the night - then we were supposed to go to a lakehouse for the weekend, but I told Jon I was sick about 4am. I made him take me home...and ditched the lakehouse.

17. Where did you go for Senior Ditch Day? Wow...I REALLY can't remember. It may have actually been the day my friends and I left for our Cruise.

18. What do you remember about graduation? I remember that I was SO ready to walk away from my high school, that I didn't pick up my diploma at the end (they handed out empty diploma holders on the stage). I figured they'd probably mail it to me at some point. I'm still not sure I ever got it...but that's okay, it was only a "pity diploma" anyway. They wanted me gone.

19. Are you going to your ten year reunion? I REALLY doubt it.

Oh Joy

I forgot to mention in my last post that my very-emotionally-attached-to-diapers daughter is FINALLY potty trained. Working with her was so difficult - I tried every known idea to inspire her: sticker charts, bribery, "all your friends are doing it," letting her "feel wet," you name it - it failed. When I took her in for her three year check-up her pediatrician flat out said, "You're wasting your time." He explained that if you can catch a two year old at the right window, AND they're ready - great. But that potty training a three year old was a completely different game. He explained that three year olds have to feel they're making the right-choice with potty training, and once that idea sinks in - they'll take it up and never go back.
So I decided to tell it to Maddie straight. I said, "Listen, Maddie. Mom and Dad are spending too much money on diapers already, and adding more baby diapers will take away all of our money. So, how about tomorrow you be Mom's big helper, and start wearing panties.." She agreed, and it was done. THANK GOODNESS. I DO realize the emotional distress that may come later from our "little talk," but that's at LEAST ten years down the road, right??!
Along with potty training, Maddie's other obsession has been with Christmas and Santa. She is always telling me to clean up so Santa can come over, and loves to see his picture on the computer. However, things went a little too far this afternoon when Maddie intertwined her two new favorite things. She asked if we could go to the store and see Santa, and I said that when he comes we could. That's when she replied with, "Yeah. He wants to see my panties."

Unloading

Let's be honest, shall we? My mind is not in the blogging mentality - AT ALL. So, in order to make up for my blogging laziness as of late, I will unload a bunch of pictures off my camera - and try to pass it off as a decent post. Let's ALL pretend it 1. is interesting, and 2. makes sense.

Now, for some reason - I have a lot of pictures of my kids eating. I would love to take the I'm-seven-and-a-half-months-pregnant-and-all-I-do-is-eat blame for it, but they were actually taken by Rob.




Jodi - doesn't Jude look like Coleman in that top picture??!

Now, here's where I can take the "all I do is eat" blame. Here I am at 32 weeks. Rob took about ten pictures, and I looked awful in all of them. I guess you can only blame the camera SO many times. I have surpassed my goal of only gaining 10pounds - and am now at 14. I think about eight have gone to my big belly, and the other six have gone to my face!

Counting Down

I'm in the final stretch of this pregnancy, and I'm still lying in bed at night trying to think of names for this little lady. I think I have it narrowed down to a close few...but as my mom will tell you - I'm one "fickle pickle." Anyone have any suggestions for names?? You won't get any feedback from me on this one...I'm keeping the name quiet until she's born - whatever we choose!

So Lucky

I've been thinking for the past couple days about how lucky I am to still be so in love with my husband. This all came to an emotional head last night when Rob and I started discussing his new work schedule. He's decided to start working four-ten hour days, and then take off Fridays. Now, most people would think, "Hey! That's great - you'll have a three day weekend, EVERY weekend!" That was my initial reaction as well. And seeing as how I hardly see him during the week anyway - this seemed like an IDEAL situation.

Then Rob (out of nowhere) mentions that with his new schedule he'll be gone every morning before the kids wake up. I asked if that made him sad, and he admitted that it did. THAT WAS IT. I totally lost it. Even though I already knew he'd miss the kids in the morning, hearing him say it threw me into a downward spiral of "all the things he'd be missing in their lives." Granted, he only saw them for a half hour in the morning anyway, I suddenly was very sad about missing the time that included breakfast, Dora, bothering Dad in the bathroom, and waving goodbye with the kids. It's become a morning tradition that I obviously have come to enjoy.

So, SERIOUSLY, how lucky am I that I still have a husband who means the world to me; someone who I want to be with ALL the time, and someone that my kids love more than anything? I think that's pretty amazing.

Thanks, Rob. You're the best.


Here's a picture of Rob on our honeymoon...what a youngin!

Preschool

Maddie started preschool last week and LOVES it. Here she is on her first day:

After a few days of fighting her hair, we decided it was time for a back-to-school-hair-chop: