buying friendship

because tim is on his way home with a free! pizza from knolla's,

because i finished the work that i had been putting off even though i would have rather stuck needles into my own leg,

but mostly because you guys crack. me. up! with your comments,

i am doing a giveaway.



seriously-you guys encourage me, commiserate with me, and literally make me laugh out loud. and sometimes through my nose. (can someone please give me an accurate descriptor of the action of exhaling/laughing through one's nose. neither guffaw nor snort is quite appropriate.)

i love stationary and love getting mail-who doesn't?! pretty/cute cards are such a satisfying cheap thrill for me. so as an excuse to buy more cards and in an attempt to thin out my own stash, for christmas i made these compilation sets of a bunch of cute, blank note cards. i gave them as part of my gifts to tim's mom, my sister, and several other people. this set was intended for a friend, but then i didn't want her to feel obliged to get me a gift and set the precedent for gift giving between us, so i didn't give it to her. (yes, i know i over think things.) they have been sitting in my craft/storage room ever since, longing to be loved.



so leave a comment giving me the word i desperately need to describe what i do when elizabeth describes matt rolling her down the stairs and using the word "girth" in her comment. (see the comments on my last post if you are confused.) if you need me to imitate what i do, ask me in person. i considered doing a video of my snort laugh but that would be weird even for me. (but in person i have no problem ;)

i'll select a name at random, but the best word might garner an extra prize. (brother-if you win, i'll man things up for you, drenching the cards in beer before i mail the package to you.)

thanks for brightening my days with your comments. seriously, thank you.

hot time. summer in the city.

put on your imagination eyes. the camera needs to be charged so no pictures have been taken this week.

we stayed at our annual vacation resort this week for two days. red hot bel aire!!! tim's parents were out of town and graciously told us we could hang out at their house, eat their food, swim in the pool, watch cable, and bask in a fully ACed house. we had talked about it for several days, but other things kept coming up. then, tuesday night after dinner, tim decided to pack up and go. he packed for himself and the boys and left me to come after i went to knitting.

inspired by his light packing (stuffing their clothes and max's necessary multiple special blankets into their respective pillowcases) i to (too? whatever) packed light. i felt the nudging to pack food for us but was being lazy, and, slightly annoyed that tim makes things look so easy and i always seem to over complicate things, i didn't.

once we got there and i realized there wasn't much food (i know, really, how rude of them not to fully stock their fridge before going on a week long vacay!)i refused to go grocery shopping because i didn't want to have to pack home whatever didn't get completely consumed, and well, i just didn't want to go shopping.

(this could be a post itself: mary's weirdness about grocery shopping. i'll spare you this time, but just know, i have issues. lots of them.)

my avoidance of shopping and therefore lack of food definitely effected the quality of our vacation. if nothing sounds good to me, i just don't eat. or if there's only enough cereal for the boys to eat, i just don't eat. but the catch is, when i don't eat, i get "grouchy". it takes me a really long time to get uncomfortably hungry, but in the mean time, i will have been "grouchy" for a looonnnngggg time. if tim ever makes this connection, i think he'll just start pinning me down and stuffing food in my mouth when the stink-eyes start shooting his way. (on a funny cereal note-proof that my boys are seriously deprived in the cold cereal department: ben got really, really excited about fiber one cereal, the blandest cereal ever!)

the fact that tim had to work both days we were there and that i had work stuff that needed to be done could have also been a factor. or that i was deliriously tired, but instead of going to bed early one night, i got sucked in to "i didn't know i was pregnant" on tlc. lack of sleep also makes me "grouchy".

or the fact that there was a pool-cool, refreshing, and tempting, calling out to us, but i wouldn't let the boys swim. max is way too daring around the pool and i didn't think that i could handle both boys by myself. i finally gave in one evening, and with the help of all of our guardian angels, managed to stay alive and have a good time.

or the fact that my boys aren't good sleepers, which is amplified by being away from home. ben fell out of the (quite high) queen bed twice both nights. it didn't seem to bother him much at the time but he seemed pretty grouchy during the day from the interrupted sleep. max actually spent one of his naps sitting up in the pack-n-play. he fell asleep while nursing but woke as soon as i layed him down and threw a fit. after he quieted down, i went in to check on him and yep, he was sleeping sitting up in one of the corners. i think it was the biggest "doh! i don't have the camera" moment of my parenting thus far. i watched my adorable sleeping budda for a while before ben started yelling for something and i dove out of the room to silence him.

after really only staying for one whole day and one morning, i threw in the towel on the vacation that was anything but. we headed home at max's naptime and of course, he only slept in the car and didn't transfer in to the house. damn you, illusive transfer-of all days!!

by thursday evening i was very, very "grouchy".

i learned a few things from this "vacaton".

1. don't think that staying up way too late will make me any less grouchy just because we are in a different environment.

2. my already very poor time management skillz don't stand a chance against cable television. i really can't resist the beast.

3. a vacation, when both parents are working, is not really a vacation. thinking any differently is just a set up for failure.

4. although a pain in the tushy to plan, food is very, very important. me need to eat.

5. i love, love, LOVE my king sized bed. although not very aesthetic, (monica, i think you mentioned this.) the amount of space is soooooo essential for us.

don't get me wrong-we had some fun times in the exotic land of bel aire. but it was good to come home.

something clever

i was reprimanded last night by a reader (although one who has never left a comment-ahem missy!!)that i haven't been blogging enough lately. reasons for not blogging include:

-i'm lazy.

-i've been tired.

-i've been busy.

okay, i'm lame, i know. my lack of blogging is certainly not for lack of material. plenty of weird and noteworthy things happen around here. but with summer comes later bedtimes for the boys, which means less computer time for me. actually, when i really think about it, in the winter i go to bed later than the summer. so that meant: the boys would go to bed around 7, then i would curl up with the computer for warmth and stay up really late. i think i stayed up so late because although my brain was exhausted from the boys, my body was still restless from lack of activity. i'm pretty worthless in the winter and really should just hibernate. (maybe the boys will get the memo this year.) but i feel unfulfilled from the lack of activity and the dark gloom of winter so i seek stimulation and cheeriness online. amongst all that random computer time i would eek out a few blog posts.

but now it is summer-ahhhhh glorious summer! i'm doing so much more because i'm not half frozen and my body, as well as my mind, are both pleasantly tired at the end of the day. my computer time is just enough to keep up on blogs i read and facebook, but not the endless internet wandering of winter. (wow, no wonder i feel so pathetic during the winter.)

and i've been working on house projects. and we've had a lot of family stuff. (i feel like i've said all this before, but i'm too lazy to go back through old blog posts. see bullet point one.) and when i've been away for a while, the mental que of posts builds up and then i'm overwhelmed into inactivity.

so this is what you've been missing. it is guaranteed random.



our "daycare" kid is with us this week and as i was walking out the front door i couldn't resist trying on his sandals. my feet are only slightly bigger than an almost six year old's. i used to worry about ben being tiny. now i thank my lucky stars that i don't have monster children. although maybe i wouldn't give in to max demands of being carried all the time if he weighed 40lbs. or maybe he could carry me. hmmmm. (is it weird that i tried on his sandal? i didn't think so until i wrote this and then i kinda felt like a creeper.)

(excuse me. lord maximillian has awoken. i must go fluff his royal pillow and lull him back to sleep.)

(i'm back. he's lucky he has gloriously soft, golden curls i can kiss and stroke and kiss some more as i nurse him. seriously, if it weren't for his hair, i would have weaned the boy in february.)



me thinks these tiny toes are much cuter. ben got these sandals for his birthday and max thinks they are his. he threw a huge fit when ben dared to wear them. when ben first opened them max begged to wear them. so i put them on him, with the elastic cord still on them that holds the two sandals together-it made max waddle like an inmate. he thought it was pretty funny.

thanks for all your kind comments about "blurg" and the whole car situation. i read all the comments to tim because really it was his decision and kindness. because the whole reclaiming the car mess happened in the middle of the night, i actually woke up in the morning hoping it was all a really annoying dream. of course it wasn't, but we both just let it go pretty quickly, which was totally a grace thing.

after a week of back and forth with different interested peoples, we sold the car. again. because it's kind of a niche car, even though it wasn't running, there were still quite a few people who were, in fact, interested. the kid who bought it actually paid more for it than we sold it for the first time, but we bought the parts he would need to fix it. so it pretty much evened out and we didn't have to spend the time (that we didn't have) to fix it. the story could still not be over because he's making payments to us on the car. not ideal, but he was willing to pay the most and his down payment was what most people were willing to pay total. so we'll just wait and see. but my goodness, does God sure have a sense of humor about how he provides!



these gorgeous lilies are blooming in front of our house. because the flower bed is so terribly neglected and overgrown, combined with the fact that the grasshoppers DEVOUR them, they are almost depressing for me to look at. so i brought them inside and played with them. ben ooooed and ahhhhhed at them and max literally climbed up on the table after his nap as soon as he noticed them and kept exclaiming "pitty! pitty! pitty! (pretty)" as he jabbed at them.





i settled on this little jar and these happy little bottles. i love random jars and bottles so much more than vases. the bottles are from a trip tim and i took when i was pregnant with max. while strolling mass street in lawrence we stopped into a fun little import shop and tim picked up a bottle of orangina (the round bottle)and i got a bottle of "sanbitter". i picked it solely because i liked the bottle and knew i would save it. fortunately i had no expectations for the drink inside because it was awful! a fun memory of a great trip that is now repurposed on my table.

the cloth underneath the flowers is a burp cloth that i remember using for my baby brother. i love the fabric, and again, it makes me happy to see it getting a new life.


several other events deserve there own posts but i just needed to break the blogging fast.

random, as guaranteed.

blurg.

please weigh in on what you would have done. i'm really curious to get opinions:

tim sold his nissan 240 sx to a guy from fort riley last night. the guy was really excited and happy with the car, we signed over the title, money in hand, car was sold.

on his way back to fort riley, somehow the fan ate the fan casing, spraying shrapnel in the engine, cutting a fuel cable, thus killing the car. total freak accident that was in no way a pre-existing condition of the car.

the guy calls tim in the middle of the night, tim drives to mcpherson, reclaims the car because he feels bad for the guy, giving him his money back, even though he knows it was in no way his fault, and has the car towed (fortunately for free-AAA) back here.

now we have the broken car, and although i'm very frustrated, i kinda feel like it was the right thing to do, but still feel kinda torn. so what would you do, cause either way someone is out of luck.


discuss.

blessed

although today certainly had it's "if you whine one more time, my head is going to explode!" moments, overall, it was a very blessed day.

my fabulous nephew/partner in crime and decoration who helped me turn ben blue last summer (the link didn't work for some reason) came over this morning and made my day a happy, productive, more quiet than usual day.

seizing the coolness of the morning, we went outside after our late breakfast and i got to work on cleaning out the garage ALONE!!! while nephew extraordinaire entertained the boys. normally the boys are right with me, doing and undoing whatever i am trying to do. so, although i had tried many times, cleaning out a very messy shed with their help just wasn't working. to have the luxury of working on the project alone was beyond words wonderful. the task itself was really gross and overwhelming, but i made really good progress and am quite satisfied with my accomplishment. major, major, major! accomplishment!

while i was cleaning out, nephew asked if they could play with the (unused)tomato cages that were laying next to the garage. i made a lame joke about pretending to be tomatoes, he humored me and laughed, and then i said sure. i thought maybe he was going to make an obstacle course with them, but instead he put them on the boys and they thought it was really funny. ahh the simple pleasures.



i may not have gotten a garden planted this year, but these little creatures have been growing like weeds and might earn me a purple ribbon at the fair.

then nephew laid them end-to-end and challenged ben to crawl through.



we can't resist a challenge in our family. ben was quite pleased with himself and i have to admit, i was pretty proud to. it was quite reminiscent of the ridiculous things we did to entertain ourselves growing up and it made me happy that ben was game for such quirky goofyness.

they also played jail and alien with the cages, all without anyone being impaled by the pokey ends.



while the boys played and i cleaned, tim was able to focus on returning calls for a car we are selling and was actually able to hear the people without the boys being crazy yahoos in the background. we received a great response on our craigslist post for the car and if all goes well tonight, we will have the car sold in just a little over 24 hours since posting. God is good.

although we are both sad to get rid of "daddy's fast car", it was not practical and at this stage in our lives, we couldn't justify the expense of it. but gosh was it fun to go on dates in that noisy car! hopping into a four-door cavalier just isn't quite the same. just thinking about it makes me want to call tim and cancel the sale. alas.



tim saying goodbye.


while i was taking a few pictures of the car to remember it (sniffle, sniffle), i noticed a katydid on the window. although i didn't notice the reflection of our house until after i took the pic, i really like all the layers in the shot.



after tim left for work, i got out the boys' little wading pool and they had fun cleaning/filling it. give my boys water and scrub brushes and they'll be happy for a long time. as long as i don't mind dealing with the mess and accept that they'll be totally soaked when they're done "cleaning", it is a great activity when i need a break.

one my way to walmart after returning my nephew my mom called and invited us to dinner-could my day get any better?! my parents have been immeasurably helpful with tim's crazy schedule and we go over there a lot. in exchange for fabulous food, i beg to clean her kitchen in an attempt to earn our keep. we truly are blessed.

to top off the day, before i sat down to dinner, tim called with exciting news about his job. although nothing is official, he may get promoted several months sooner than we had thought he would. i was so excited and relieved and proud of him, i nearly cried while on the phone.


thank You, Father, for all these blessings. when i am weak, these days where i can almost literally see Your hands at work renew my spirit.

now off to collapse into bed.

t.i.r.e.d. !

(too lazy to upload pictures. maybe someday. it's good exercise to use your imagination.)

i've been quite a busy little bee lately-hence the absence. (sorry to leave you dangling in suspense, elizabeth.) okay, honestly, i've been plenty lazy with a few spurts of super productive.

the day of my last post, when i escaped for some craft therapy, i came home to a half way painted master bedroom. whah, what?! yes, instead of cleaning the house and taming the boys, tim plugged the boys in and started painting the bedroom. we had given the room up to ben last fall but were ready to reclaim it and hoping to put ben and max together, finally. painting the room had been on my to-do list and i had already bought the paint but just hadn't tackled the project yet. it had been a nice, soothing "herbal" green before, and i now wanted it white. plain white. after laying in bed and being nauseous while pregnant with max, the color wasn't very soothing to me any more and i just wanted a clean look. but i knew it would take several quotes to cover and was waiting for a magical, elusive burst of energy to start.

so i came home to even more house chaos than when i had left. praise the Lord i had the strength to bite my tongue and just thank tim for starting the project. it was very sweet of him to help me (as he knows one of my love languages is acts of service, along with quality time ((joel)), but my goodness did my tongue hurt. tim is not a project kind of guy and will do whatever it takes to get the task done as fast as possible. (or whatever it takes to avoid the project completely.) in the process of helping with this project he scratched the wood floor and broke the glass in a very sentimentally valued, large piece of art. as i came into the bedroom to behold it's glory, which he declared done, i observed walls that looked what could be best described as sad green walls that had been white washed. he had already done nearly two coats, but they would definitely need more. i painted for awhile but then just had to let it go for the night and thanked tim for giving me the motivation to start.

the next day i first tackled the house, then over the course of the next couple days, finished up the painting. once it was done, tim admitted that it looked so much better than his version and apologized for the floor and picture. although we've moved our dressers and bed in and are using the room, it is far from my done vision. i wish i could reveal an awesome, totally put together project but i'm trying to get creative (read thrifty)and it takes a lot more time and energy than just going to the store and buying a room in a bag. but i already love it so much more than before and nothing, NOTHING beats getting to look out the window at night to a starry sky and wake up in the morning to cool breezes. and that's what money can't buy.

so that was and continues to be a big project, along with consolidating the boys and their stuff in one room, cleaning out and organizing clothes, and restoring our upstairs to a lounge/storage room from a bedroom/closet/storage room.

to aide the cleaning out and organizing, today, a friend and i started our garage sale. the house already feels lighter and maybe i'll use some of the cash to finish up my projects. but it was a big undertaking. probably it's own post. several rooms had already been purged in may, knowing we were going to do one some time this summer, but all of them got cleaned out this last week.

last night we stayed up too, too late getting stuff ready and i only got four hours of interrupted sleep before heading back to the garage sale, zombie style. of course, instead of writing all this i should have went to bed, but i needed to wind down a little and wait for ben to fall asleep because he's....sleeping in our bed. the boys in the same room isn't working so great, but, eh, we have a king sized bed.

so cheers to getting stuff done, even if it means i'm totally pooped!

craft therapy

yesterday i was having a really challenging day, feeling really overwhelmed by work, the boys, the house, life. because it was tim's day off, i left, with no boys and no plan. after dropping off paperwork at work and clearing my head over a sandwich and a newspaper, i headed to the goodwill. i love thrift stores and was not disappointed yesterday. this happy print was just what i needed to lift my spirit.



yes, it may have been a bed sheet, but it didn't have to be used as a sheet. for $2 i got several yards of adorable, soft knit fabric, begging to be crafted into something for a sweet little girl.

after a quick call, i headed to my sweet momma's house and this happy little room.



i should have taken more pics yesterday because this one really doesn't do it justice. on the shelf is a cute row of thimbles and a pincushion that reads "i (a heart) my mom" spelled out in needle heads that i did long, long ago. i love her little craft room, were the sewing machine is always set up, she has every color of thread i could need, and sharp scissors always in their place. but most importantly, she kindly, with the bribe of a shoulder rub, threads the machine for me and even makes me bobbins. yes, i own a sewing machine. but it is not magically threaded by a fairy who then offers helpful tips and keeps me company.



not wanting to deal with a pattern, i invoked the help of my paternal grandmother, eyeballed the fabric,and started cutting. i used the elastic edge of the sheet as a waistband, sewed up the side for a skirt, and made a hem. once it was done, i walked over to my brother's house (who lives in the same neighborhood) and tried it on my niece, the intended recipient. she showed her approval in her own 16 mo. old way-namely, not pulling it off. because it was a little big, i went back to the happy room and sewed up the side a little more. then i made two more for two other nieces.



when all was said and done, i had this much thread left:



it felt so good to accomplish something, with no interruptions from the boys and no demands being placed on me. granted, the skirts were pretty wonky (and wrinkly), but i don't think the girls mind and fortunately they have very kind mothers who don't judge or look too closely.

honestly, more therapeutic than the sewing was getting to see my adorable nieces, along with their cute brothers and understanding parents. by the time i wandered home, my boys were beautiful again and tim had undertaken quite an interesting surprise.

oh this crazyhardincredible life i live.