Resolutions

I'm not always big on making resolutions because,lets face it, I can't even complete the stuff I'm supposed to do. Why add to my list. But I'm going to anyway. So, for the fun of it, lets recap 2008:
1. Make a quilt - Nope. Didn't happen. Too busy rebuilding an already built house.
2. Be a better wife and mom - Hmm. Ask the fam.
3. Spend time with my favorite friends - I'm doing okay. The move to "the middle of nowhere" has put a damper on that, but I've found a way to fit them in.

Now, for 2009:
1. Make a quilt.
2. Spend more time with the kiddos. Amazing that I can be with them all day and feel like I haven't even seen them.
3. Make Doug feel like a king. I didn't say "make Doug the king." And that's a very important detail. Between you and me, as long as they feel like they're in charge, all is well. We all know who keeps things running around here.
4. I would like to learn another instrument this year. The bass guitar is looking promising, but I don't want to steal Doug's thunder.
5. Adopt a kid. That was on the back burner because of all that was going on, but maybe now we can get the paperwork out. Oh, yeah, and that brings me to #6.
6. Prove my citizenship. Apparently that's an important detail when you want to adopt a kid. I mean, really. Nobody asked me when I had a kid if I was an American citizen. What the heck.

Now I tag Dawn, Pam, Chad, Kristin, The Melissa's, Lisa and Andrea for their resolutions. And none of that crap about losing weight or being a better person.

Not Just a Box of Junk

What do you get when you cross three kids with a hot glue gun and a box of junk?


Robots! And at least an hour of fun. Thanks Grandpa for all the junk. I guess you were right - keep it because you might need it someday. :)

On another note, the kids got CC skis for Christmas and went for their inaguaral ski today. Madelyn lasted about 20 minutes with me picking her up every few feet. Ty was in tears and pissed off because he didn't master it immediately. And Brooklyn has skied all day. In fact, she's asking me right now to go out with her and help her back into her skis....but I'm blogging so she'll have to wait.

Merry Christmas to All.

All I really want for Christmas.....
Watch this.

I've been tagged!

This is a very exciting first. Melissa, who've I've been stalking for some time, has tagged me! So now I'm supposed to go to my sixth photo folder and pick the sixth picture and tell a story about it.
Here's our little Thanksgiving Day photo shoot. I was trying to get the perfect picture of the kids on the bridge above our house. It took awhile....


Now I tag Andrea, Kristin, Chad, Dawn, Pam, Melissa S., and Lisa

Apparently Baby Chloe was born yesterday. It just took her parents a few hours to figure that out.... I think its official that her name is now Chloe Adelyn. She's still cute.

Its hard picking a name for those little ones. You have to think of what kind of horrible nickname the schoolyard children will make up and torture your children with. We had a difficult time picking Cameron's name. We were sure about "Ty" but Doug didn't want that as a first name which is funny because we call him that most of the time now. And he didn't want a long first name because we have a long last name. So how he got the name "Cameron" I still don't know. But I was on drugs.

Baby Chloe did not arrive today. But baby Genevieve Adelyn did. And she's cute. Kind of like her aunty.
She was 7lbs 3oz and I totally want to have my tubes untied.
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And now a word from the torture chamber. Apparently nobody should have a mother who makes them eat tomato soup. You'd think it was poison from the response I got!

Look everyone! I'm a knitter

As if I needed another project to try to complete. I've taken up knitting because "all the girls are doing it." I'm finding I have a lot of little breaks these days between swim practice and dropoff/pick up of kids, and all the errands I have to run but then I arrive too early and have to wait - anyway, little snippets of time that I can fill up with a handy little project I can tote around with me. And speaking of swim practice, there's two sets of bleachers: There's the "athletic, cool-mom bleachers" and then there's the "geeky knitting mom bleachers" and ne'er the two shall meet. I belong to the latter and that's fine. What's important is that I belong somewhere..... But back to the knitting. This was supposed to be a square washcloth. Still trying to figure where I went wrong..... Thanks Melissa for all your advice. Someday I'll knit cool stuff like her fingerless gloves. But that's many swim practices away.

The Eisenhards Go Tree Hunting

This weekend we traveled up the road to a new Christmas Tree farm. It was a small family farm that just opened this year. We rode in on a horse-powered drawn wagon driven by The Son-in-law, complete with hay bales and cuddly fleece blankets that I didn't want to use because they were too nice. When we arrived we were greeted by The Father of the joint and then shown around the 7 acres of trees. It didn't take us long to find the perfect tree but we had to keep exploring so we took a jaunt through the "forest." Being out in the woods apparently induces the need to pee, so Doug found his own perfect tree (tacky, I know. But don't worry because it wasn't a Christmas tree, just a tree in the woods). The kids had a ball knocking snow off of the trees and onto one another. At the end of our adventure, I payed The Daughter in the gift shop full of handmade loot, and we all gathered around the bonfire and roasted marshmallows with Father. Back down the hill to see The Mother and tell her how much we loved the farm and will be back next year.

This is Brooklyn's first attempt at doing her own hair. I know, she's 7, but she's never really taken much interest in doing her own hair other than brushing it. So I was happy to see her with some, um,.... style. She must get that from her mamma.

Let it snow

I was told to pretend the blankets were snow. I guess that's what happens 14 days before Christmas when there's no snow outside. I want to know who gets to shovel that snow up when playtime is over. Hmmmm. I wonder.

My sister has a new blog and today's post is funny. Go check it out.

This past weekend was Brooklyn's one and only swim meet. I decided when we were there that this would be the one and only. It was jammed packed with hundreds of parents cheering on their kids who couldn't hear them because - hello - they're UNDER WATER! Quit yelling, people! Anyway, it was an experience, and one that I could probably do without for another, oh, five or six years. But she really wanted to participate and because we do whatever our kids want to do, we signed her up. ;)
I sound so negative about this event. It wasn't really all that bad, but just not my thing.
So when little Madelyn asked to play "I spy" at this swim meet I did not pick the most difficult thing to spy in order to keep her occupied for a LONG time.
And being that this was quite possibly the only swim meet Brooklyn will ever compete in, Doug, my friend Melissa and I DID NOT totally miss her swim her first race! When she showed up all soaking wet and proud of herself we did not look at each other with a "did-you-see-her-because-I-didn't-see-a-thing" look on our faces. And we did not congratulate her anyway and tell her what a fabulous job she did. And her face did not light up like a Christmas tree with all the pride she had in her little heart for completing the race. (For the record - the mob of people was obstructing our view and no I'm not just throwing that detail in there to make myself look like a better parent)

Just look at those smiles. They loooooove their daddy.

Busted

All was well Saturday night until... the son wore his roller shoes on a jungle gym. The parents of the year (again) let that one slip by their watchful eyes. And yes, he fell off. Broken right arm. To the walk-in clinic we go only to find out on the way that they closed at 4 pm - about three hours too soon. Minor detour. Head to ER. Only have to wait for about 20 minutes but get to see some good "ER waiting room drama" so it was totally worth it. A splint and some Vicodin do wonders for the little one. And today the ortho doc says he doesn't need a cast which means we don't have to pay for casting :). But get this - he says to "make sure he's not too rough. You know, no running, jumping, falling, wrestling, blah, blah, blah." Did I mention he's 6? And a boy?
And now, time for:

When I found out the Walk-In was closed and I had to go to the ER and pay three to four times as much, I did not think in my mind "this arm better be broken." I would never think such things.....

Post Thanksgiving Hangover

Not from wine, in case you're wondering. No, I think I have a sinus infection and I've eaten way too much apple crisp and apple pie. I make apple crisp with twice the amount of crisp. I don't know why I even add apples.

We had a fabulous Thanksgiving and have so much to be thankful for. Its too bad we only have Thanksgiving once a year. But if nothing else it causes us to pause and realize all we have been given.

36 years and counting

My parents have been married for 36 years today! That's a long time to be with anybody..... I don't care who ya are.

Happy Anniversary Folks. You've done well.

Tastes Like Chicken

It was a cool, autumn night at the Eisenhard Family Farm. And Pepper had chased me one too many times. So he became a science lesson for my children.
This is our chicken, Pepper.

Uncle Shane did the killing (I guess you're supposed to call it butchering when its your pet). Can't say we'll be raising chickens to eat next year.
I know you're not supposed to play with your food, but Doug was opening and closing his mouth saying "Delena, why did you have to kill me...." Kind of creepy.

I found this from Melissa's site and had fun reading her answers. Enjoy.

1. YOUR REAL NAME: Delena
2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME: (first 3 letters of real name plus fizzle.) : Delfizzle
3. YOUR DETECTIVE NAME: (favorite color and favorite animal) : Purple Rhino
4. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME: (your middle name and street you live on/or neighborhood if it's a number) : Lindsay River
5. YOUR STAR WARS NAME: (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first name): Eisde
6. YOUR SUPERHERO/CRIMINAL NAME: (Your 2nd favorite color and favorite drink): Hooker Red Tall Extra Hot Vanilla
7. YOUR IRAQI NAME: (2nd letter of your first name, 3rd letter of your last name, 1st letter of your last name, 2nd letter of your moms maiden name, 3rd letter of your dads name, 1st letter of siblings first name, and last letter of your moms first name) : Esealke
8. YOUR WITNESS PROTECTION NAME: (parents middle names): Lavonna Stanley
9. YOUR GOTH NAME: (black, and the name of one of your pets) : Black Pepper

Cameron Ty

Ty during his helmet phase. He wore his bike helmet EVERYWHERE including the bathtub.
Easter 2003. What a roly-poly.


I came across these pictures today and had to smile. They are from a time not so long ago. How can he be 6! Six used to seem so old. Ty is my sweet little boy. He's the sensitive one but all boy nonetheless. He loves to hunt and destroy. He has a collection of knives he's not supposed to get into unless he has permission. He's recently been jumping from heights that are way too high for my liking. He loves to help me cook. He absolutely adores his daddy, but he's mamma's boy, too. He's not into kisses, but if I pin him down I can usually plant one on him before he wipes it off with a grin. He's a hard worker and is really motivated. He's friendly and kind. He really wants a puppy. He's learning how to pray and loves to practice his Bible Quiz facts. He's the easiest of the three to discipline. A stern warning will usually do the trick. A spanking totally crushes his little spirit. He wants to grow up to be firefighter, a policeman, a game warden and an appraiser, all at the same time. He's going to be great at whatever he does.

Name that Cat

Since our new discovery yesterday, the name of our cat has changed. He's now either "Woreo (like warrior. Ty's idea) or Pokey because he has polka dots (from the girls, of course). Doug and I tried to explain that Oreo was a perfectly appropriate name for a boy kitty but the jury is still out on what the final name will be. I'll keep you posted.

Surprise

We took Oreo our cat in to be spayed today. She's been "out and about" so we wanted to prevent any little kitties from joining our clan. And, surprise, she's a he! Just for the record, I never "looked" so its not my fault we were wrong all this time. Other people looked and told me so I naturally beleived them. But now he's neutered. I suppose we should get rid of his pink collar. The girls are going to be so disappointed.

I have nothing too exciting to report today. I did, however, stay up late last night baking a pumpkin. This country thing is really sinking in. And then I used the food processor - the one my sister loaned to me and I conveniently never gave back - to mash up the pumpkin into, well, mashed pumpkin. It was my first try at baking a pumpkin to see if I should do that next year with all the pumpkins I'm going to grow. Now I just have to figure out what to do with all of it. I made pumpkin muffins for breakfast that Ty thinks I should make for Christmas morning (he said that about my blueberry muffins, too. I think he just likes muffins). Hopefully my friend Melissa will share her pumpkin scone recipe with me. Any suggestions for pumpkin mush?

And on the subject of country livin' I think the chicken is going to meet his demise. Sorry Chad. But I think he's stalking me. At first I pretended that he was running after me because he wanted to be friends and I was okay with that. But now whenever I turn my back, he high tails it for me, like he's going to strike. And then when I turn around he just looks at me like "What are you looking at." I'm telling you if that little sucker attacks me, we're having chicken for dinner.

As you wish

The other night I went to dinner and we had a waiter who answered everything with "as you wish." I'd like water..."as you wish." And he had this thick spanish accent so it was even cooler. I instructed everyone at the table that I would now like to be answered with "as you wish" whenever I give a command or suggestion. So far its not working....

So earlier when I started this blog I decided to start my list of 1000 things I was thankful for. Would you beleive it but I keep forgetting to add to my list. That's embarrassing. So I've decided to make a sidebar and keep it that way. Then it will be staring me in the face and hopefully I wont forget. Got this idea from a friend Kristen and I think its great!

Its the holiday season.....

Never is it more apparent that the holidays are upon us as when Starbucks brings out the eggnog! They started serving up the hot frothy bliss today. Sigh.... I love fall. The flip side is that its kind of a downer when they finally run out of the holiday cups and the seasonal flavors.

On a totally unrelated note, Ty received the awaited bundle from Toys-R-Us today. He won a contest from Chad the Chicken (thanks Chad) and he received a $50 gift card. That thougtful son of mine gave his sisters some money to use, too.

He ended up with THREE lego sets and the sisters each got a substantial toy, too. I was surprised at how much he could buy for $50. Here's a picture of the "lego assembly." I beleive Maddy is trying to eat a lego. I put the kids in the picture for effect because really its just me assembling the toy (not my favorite thing) as they search for all the pieces that were flung off the table in their excited haste to open the packages. The things we do for those kids....

Wordless Wednesday

Who would tell the kids they had to "inspect" their Halloween candy so it was safe.... and it would probably take til morning so they'd be better off just getting a good night's sleep? Hmm. I would never.

Who would hide the M&Ms and tell their kids they were all gone? Not me, but maybe Doug.

Would would ever plan on taking their kids trick or treating so they could steal their loot! Well, definitely not me!

And who would go to one of the busiest neighborhoods in town so their kids could get a load of goodies. Not me. But it would make sense that I would do such a thing since I live in the middle of nowhere. But, no, I wouldn't do that.

Guess where I'm typing from!

I'm sitting at my home.....at my kitchen table..... looking out my window! Say it isn't so folks. I'm connected!!! No longer a country bumpkin. I have high speed internet! Email me, people, and email me often because now I can respond!

Okay, enough of that.

I had a harvest party at my house last weekend with a bunch of kids in super cute costumes. We had a bonfire and carved pumpkins and hid a treasure chest full of candy that the kids had to hunt for in the dark. I was hoping our hiding spot would keep them occupied for at least a couple of hours. But who am I kidding. A bunch of under-10-year-olds? They could probably smell all the chocolate. We kept them looking for approximately 4.2 minutes. Next year I'm burying it.



Cute little Zoe dressed up as a chicken, which explains why the rooster tried to attack her. She was not impressed. But what do you expect when you dress up as a chicken around a very lonely rooster (all the females are dead. But you wouldn't know that because I don't blog....)

Little Ella. I love this picture!

I'm not dead

I've just been a little busy. But I'm back! Here's the abridged version of the last month of my life.

My beautiful girls.


A fabulous new Starbucks coffee drink I shared with some fantastic friends. It was a salted caramel hot chocolate. Note to self: buy a small one next time. And get a large water to go with it.

One of my kids' faces. They got ahold of my camera. I think its Madelyn.

All the homemade applesauce I made from some apples we stole from my neighbor's tree. (Okay, he said we could have them) I'm really getting into this country living. Do you see the smile?

The stolen apples.

A nest we lifted from the same apple tree. It made a great science lesson. I've never really looked closely at a bird nest. It is AMAZING what kind of engineering goes into a nest.

Brooklyn getting her ears pierced with Grandma.
The before:

After:




That's all for now. Be back soon...... I promise.

How my weekend went

1. I did not go to yard sales on Friday. Too much to do. Put that off til Saturday, and I didn't go then because I found I do not like to go look at people's junk all by myself. I feel bad when I don't buy something, like I'm offending them for not buying their garbage that even they don't want anymore.
2. I blanched all the peaches and cut them up into little bits. Me and the kids will make ice cream tomorrow for our cooking part of school. Then we will devour it, probably before its even frozen.
3. I went to that stupid exercise class. I remember now why I quit exercizing. Everything on me hurts. If I don't post again this week its because I sat down to pee and couldn't get back up. You better come looking for me. I'm pretty convinced that this class was created by al-quaida to torture and kill Americans. Thankfully I will be out of town next week so, too bad, I can't go.
4. I went to the woods to find my little camper/hunters this weekend. It was fun to try to find them with very vague directions and then surprise them. Here's my little hunters. Can you see them?

And this must be why the didn't sneak up on any animal.
So that's all. Now I must find a way to get out of this computer chair and back to the football game.....

Well, its the weekend. I don't have any plans. And I kinda like it that way. My, how life has changed. :)

We've been so busy this summer that its nice to not have anything on the agenda. I'll fill up my weekend for sure. Don't worry about me sitting idly by. I might:
1. Go to the gym. (I'll wait for you to get back up off the floor....and stop laughing).
2. Go yard-saling. I'm not usually a yard-saler. In fact, I really hate looking at a bunch of other people's junk. But I'm a reformed shopper after having moved way too much stuff. I no longer buy stuff I don't need (not very often, anyway). And I sure don't want someone else's junk. But last week I went with my sister and I found some cool stuff. I brought home a Pottery Barn chair that helps to fill up my living room, a cute pillow and a bag-o-crayons for 50 cents. I'm trying to decorate the house, and I'm kind of going for a hodge-podge look. I'll let you know if I find any treasures.
3. Make homemade ice cream. You know, after the gym workout. My sister in law gave me some super ripe peaches. Why eat them raw when I can put them in ice cream.
4. Hang out with my little Madelyn. Doug is taking the kids hunting again, so its mommy-and-daughter weekend.

The little camper/hunters are home from their weekend adventure. I'd show pictures but somebody forgot to take them.... Doug took Brooklyn and Ty to go run around the woods with him. I don't get it. Why would anyone want to wake up EARLY and then leave a warm bed to go walk around in the FREEZING, WET, COLD woods and then repeat the process the next day? It must be a guy thing. He probably doesn't understand why I would cut up little pieces of fabric just so I could sew them back together.

The troops came home VERY TIRED! And they had apparently adjusted to camp time because they woke up at 5:30 this morning. AGGGHHH. Doug said Brooklyn had plenty of Bigfoot stories to tell, trying to freak out Ty. And Ty fell down a hill, rolling end over end seven times.

Me and Maddy stayed home. My sister, her daughter, her husband and his sister came over on a whim on Friday night. I picked up something at their house and said "why don't you come have a slumber party." So they came up and Shane helped me finish tiling my laundry room floor - the floor I've had six weeks to finish but waited until the night before Sears was delivering a new washer. Yeah, that one.

My friend Melissa came up with her daughter on Saturday. Her little girl is quite the chatterbox ;) and had me amazed at how long she could stay awake talking! I have some talkers in my life, but I think her little one takes the cake.

And then I watched FOOTBALL ON SUNDAY!!!! Yeehaw. Its football season again!

Country Living

So this is what living in the country is like. The picture isn't the best quality. But go ahead and click on it to get more of the effect.

The really sad part is that this is one of three fly strips that we filled! And there's many, many more to be caught. Sometimes, when we weren't paying attention, we'd run into them! SOOOOOO DISGUSTING!!!!!

Maybe I shouldn't admit this. One of those things you just keep to yourself. Don't tell anyone and let them know how you really live. But my closet is full of too many skeletons! Not enough room for things like "how many flies thrive because of your sloppiness?" I'd appreciate any comments that go somewhat like "That's nothing. You should see our fly strips" or "we can't see eachother through the black cloud of flies." Anyone?

Banana Bread with a hint of Egg

Yesterday the kids and I made banana bread during school. I'm cooking with the kids on Mondays so that they can start cooking every meal for me. Purely selfish motives here. Its really a total fiasco every time, everyone wants to scoop the sugar and crack the eggs and turn on the mixer full throttle. Flour flies, kids cry. Great times.

The bread was a bit shy on banana flavor, though. Wait. Let me back up a bit. The reason for the banana bread instead of something else was because Ty decided he would take the sharpest knife from the drawer and cut the huge bunch of bananas into small chunks. Banana Bread.

Apparently I wasn't paying as much attention to the troops as is required. I was doubling the recipe and got sidetracked because halfway through I forgot I was doubling the recipe so I had to go back and re-add everything I missed. That meant two more eggs. I think Maddy was in charge of egg round number two. And I think she just may have thrown them in whole. "How did you not know" you ask? I had my back turned and the mixer was on, so its quite plausible that they were chopped to little, tiny bits while I wasn't looking. I noticed, though. Boy, did I notice. Every bite had a distinct crunch to it. "Maybe its the crust" I tried to tell myself. Nope. Not the crust. No nuts in this recipe. No crystalized sugar. Eggs. Or, rather, egg shells.

I'm back

Its been at least two weeks since my last post. Hahahaha to think that the computer set up would go smoothly. It apparently was the "worst case scenario" and got even worser. But I am currently typing in our office, in my basement. That's good news! So now I need to catch up on all my friends' blogs.

I wish I could find my camera cord because I have some pics to share from my last month or so. We celebrated Ty turning 6, Doug and I celebrated our 9th year of wedded bliss, we went to Silverwood, we had a campout with some great friends and a chicken (whose also a great friend),and we finished our laundry room. Stay tuned.

I am aiming to blog everyday this week, so come back and check it out and make me beleive I have people who actually read this thing.

This is how we know our little Madelyn had a good time.

All the kids had play dates today. They were thoroughly exhausted by about, hmmm, 5 pm. Madelyn was the only one, surprisingly, who fell asleep on the half hour ride home. I was watching her in the mirror as her eyes became heavier and heavier and closed......and then POPPPED back open. And then heavier and heavier and then zzzzzzz. Are you yawning yet? Are you yawning now that I asked if you're yawning? I just yawned.

My hands are shaking. My palms are sweaty. I have butterflies in my stomach because I'm so excited! I'm reading my favorite blogs again!!! I feel like I've been on some sort of sick sabbatical, like I'm fasting the internet or something. Its quite disgusting!

Still no computers at the new house. They said worse case scenario they'd have them installed by Wed. This must be the worst case scenario.

I was sitting in the eastern corner of my couch yesterday, though, under the ceiling fan, and my cell phone worked. The really good news was that I could check my hotmail! As long as I didn't move too far west, or north or south. Quite exciting.

Today the kids went to day two of Mega Sports Camp at church which is looking like total fun. The kids love it. They must have really loved it today because they came home TIRED and CRANKY! One of the leaders asked Brooklyn if she was excited to go back to school. She said "No. I'm having a fantastic summer." HA! We've fooled her again! I'm glad she thinks it was so fantastic since its been full of neglect on our part and hard work on everyone's part.

Tonight I'm going to dinner and a movie with two of my most favorite people, Chad and Pam. The three of us together are DANGEROUS! But they make my life more exciting.

Stranded in the land of no internet

Help! I've (finally) moved to the middle of nowhere and have no access to the outside world! I'm going through withdrawals. There is a real problem here. I'm addicted. I'm an email addict, but they say the first step is admitting you have a problem. I admit it. Doug makes fun of me because I check my email all day long. I don't know why. The majority of my email is junk.(that's a hint to send me message) But, oh how exciting it is when I get an email from a friend! You all know what I'm talking about. So I made a special trip to town to get to my faithful friend, the computer.

This problem should be remedied tomorrow or the next day, so hang in there faithful readers. And sometime I will replace that picture of my heels with a new one - my heels are soft as a baby's - well you know.

The new house is great. I love it! I have been leaving the back door open til I go to bed so I can listen to the river. Its very quiet. And when I got up yesterday Doug said "Shhh. There's a turkey in the yard." I'm still not quite sure why I needed to be so quiet. There are boxes everywhere and I still can't find anything important, but it gives me something to do (as if I needed another thing).

We went to Spokane for the weekend and to Silverwood on Saturday. It was sooooo fun! The kids swam as soon as we got to the hotel and then swam all day at Silverwood and then swam (with the rest of the hotel kids) on Sunday morning before we left. I don't know how they do it. Brooklyn couldn't open her eyes in the sunlight because of all the chlorine burning her eyes. But a good time was had!

Summertime Heels

Tomorrow night I'm going to get a pedicure. And not too soon! Here's the toes. They don't look so bad.

But here's my heel. And I have another one that looks equally disgusting. (That little red spot is where the shoes I bought tore into my heels. They don't sell a size 11 in this town!)

Its my summertime feet. I can't stand to have shoes on my feet anytime of the year, but summer is even worse. I spend the warm months exclusively in sandals. On the rare occasion that I actually exercise, I wear tennis shoes. And sometimes I exercise in sandals, too.
This picture really doesn't do justice to the extreme crevices packed with dirt and grime. The skin catches on my sheets. It scratches my legs. I think I've even drawn blood on Doug's calves before. He hates my summertime heels and fully supports the pedicures. I think he wishes I would go weekly so they could scrape the skin off.
Speaking of that, the last time I went in for a pedicure the poor little Asian lady had chunks of skin flying over her shoulders as she was using the cheese grater to scrap my heels. I was a)embarrassed and b)possibly more grossed out than she was.
I'll see what kind of wonders they perform on my feet tomorrow. If its good, I'll post the "after." And if you have any miracle cure (besides wearing socks to bed) I'll take it!

I should have known

Its 7 pm now. We're not moving. Too much happening today. ARGGGGHHH. So annoyed. Oh well. Tomorrow is another day :)

Could it be?

In fear of jinxing it, I hate to write it, but...... we're moving today! I'm writing this at 5 pm and it hasn't happened yet, but the night is young.

I woke up early (6:30 on a Saturday) to get started moving everything out of the in-laws'. I washed all the sheets and remade three beds, packed up everything into our suitcases, emptied the shower of all the junk I need to shower with (amazing how much was in there) washed all our dirty clothes so I didn't have to move dirty clothes, loaded the trailer and then went to a tea party at Queen of the Universe's. This was all by 1 p.m. Things were looking good until.....

Doug called at 2:30 to say he has a flat tire about 30 minutes from where I was and in the opposite direction of where I was planning on heading. Oh, and Grand-dad was working on the house and sliced his hand so bad he had to go to the hospital. Oh, and we are supposed to be babysitting the niece so that her parents can go to a concert at 4 p.m.

So now its 5. I'm back at the in-laws, tire is fixed and on the car, baby here. No unpacking happening.... but the night is still young.

#15 I'm thankful that my day may not go my way, but it goes His way.

Its a girl!

My sister found out yesterday she's having a girl in December. Secretly I was kind of hoping for a boy for my own selfish reasons because my little Ty needs another boy cousin that's close by to play with. But, I suppose we (me and Ty) will survive with another baby girl to dress up in the incredibly adorable clothes! Now we can dress Zoe and baby Delena (just throwing that out there for name suggestions) in matching little dresses and such.

And now we sit back and wait for December 17th.....

Had a great time

I thoroughly enjoyed my trip to North Bend. My MIL and SIL are my kind of shoppers. No "I think I want to look inside this store even though I have no intent of buying anything. Oh, and I'm going to peruse every book, read every card and try to find a stuffed armadillo for my great neice."

We arrived with a plan - head to the Dress Barn! As a little note, I swore I would NEVER shop at a place that has the name barn in it. But to the credit of the Dress Barn, I really like a lot of their clothes. Tracy, the SIL, had her new Baby Aspen with her and just so happened to forget her carrier, so the plan was diverted slightly as we had to stop by Carter's to see if they might have an umbrella stroller. No stroller but LOTS OF KID CLOTHES!!!! Our favorite. It took us about 20 minutes to overload ourselves with outfits for all four kids. Boy, was that fun!

The MIL found a stroller next door at the toy store, so with that out of the way we could finally shop! As if there was any $$ left after Carter's. On the way to the DB, we got sidetracked at a kitchen store. Now that is where I can go crazy! I love all the gadgets. If I had unlimited space, I would surely try to fill it up with all kinds of gizmos that I would indeed use. I'm trying not to buy stuff that I won't use/don't need, so that makes it easier to go into such stores. I did, however, find a magnetic spice rack that attaches to the inside of my cupboard door. And it was on sale! I've been looking for this very item for quite some time so I was super thrilled. I wish my camera's battery was charged because I already have it hung up and all my spices in the containers and alphabetized. Love it!

Finally.....we arrived at the barn. Found some great outfits that I LOVE! Very happy. We stopped at a couple of other stores, made the mandatory fudge shop stop, and hit the road with the little Subaru trunk stuffed to the gillies with bags (it's a small car but stuffed nonetheless). I had a great time bonding with the girls. It made me want to take the kids school shopping which is kind of funny because they only go to school once a week.

Today I'm off on a whim to North Bend to do some shopping. My SIL suggested it yesterday, so she and my MIL are going with. We're going to the outlet malls which is quite deceiving. They make you beleive you're getting a great deal because its an "outlet." I rarely find that much of a better deal to make the jaunt worthwhile, but I do like that all the shops are in one place. We have a limited supply of big chain stores here in the big city of Wenatchee so its nice to go someplace with a bit more variety. I actually don't like to shop. Hate trying on clothes because that means I have to take off all my garb for EVERY outfit. Call it laziness. I love to spend money and get cool stuff. But I don't necessarily like to shop.

Now what I do like to do is shop for the kids. I could spend hours in the kids clothing stores. They are entering an age, though, where they have to pick the clothes they wear and try them on because if it doesn't fit just right or if they don't like how it looks, they wont wear it and I'm out the $$. Gone are the days I could grab anything and they were thrilled with something new. No. Now we're picky.

That's all. Hopefully I'll come back with new outfits that make me look amazingly skinny. Wont hold my breath, but a girl can always dream....

Our Little Village

Not to be outdone by Supermom Dawn who is always making little fairly lands, I made a little village today for the kids. It was actually an excuse to get them to play outside. The girls can sit for HOURS playing with their little figurines. And Ty needed something to do. So I made little TeePee houses tied together with vines found around the yard and then covered in leaves and grasses. After today, I think I could make it in the woods if I got lost - on a very warm, dry, short summer night....with a full backpack, a knife and a sleeping bag. Survivor Man would be so impressed.


Yes, that is Snow White, the abominable snowman, and I think Mrs. Claus under a skull cap roof. Oh, and My Little Pony came over for a visit below. Beat that, Dawn!