okay so....

so i feel bad. i had no intention of leading all you (because sooo many people read this. but those that do are important.) dear readers on that something big and beautiful was going to happen around here. i'm not a tease. really, i'm not. i'm so not a tease that for every holiday, the day i buy tim's present and try to tease him about it, i usually give it to him. in the four years of our marriage and even when dating, i don't think we have EVER made it to the actual holiday without already giving the present. by december 15th, 2007 i had already received my christmas, anniversary, and birthday presents. this is probably indicative of many other things, but i state this to prove that i don't like to tease or be teased.

so when i first mentioned that i was going to do something different blog-wise, i really thought i was going to---like the next day. but it wasn't all dependant on me. it also involved another person. that was the idea-me and another person, who shall remain anonymous, were going to do a blog together. i was excited, they were excited, and i let that excitement get ahead of me. well, we did a test run, but their enthusiasm faded, or maybe the timing isn't right, so i don't think it's going to happen. i know this is a lengthy explanation and not really that big of a deal, but i thought i owed it to you....because i'm sure it was hard for you to continue on with life with so much suspense built up. to make it up to you, anyone who leaves a comment by next monday will be entered to win a prize. don't ask what it is. but you'll love it. and it will make you forgive me and return me to favorable status.

in other news and to explain my absence....meet sawesome. (as in awesome, with an "s".)

yep. we got a dog. i'm not really an animal person, but my guys are. i really like her though. she's a great dog and a very good fit for our family. i can honestly say she's already enriched our lives. she's also made me do things i swore i would never do, and in the first day of having her no less.

she likes to chew things. like the trees i had trimmed.

she's also peace loving, destroying these weapons in an effort to make our yard a safer place.

and oh does she like to dig. but apparently doesn't like for other people to dig, thus the need to destroy these sand box toys.

she's also gone through two leashes in one week. between her and max, it's a dangerous place around here.

i now have the all-american life. two kids. a dog. heck, we even have a bit of white fence by our front gate, although not picket. the rest is just gravy.

ready for my audition.

so, we may need to forget that i ever said anything about changing this blog. maybe. i know, i'm obnoxious.

in other news, this is how we've been entertaining ourselves lately. we tell ben repeatedly that he is only supposed to draw on paper. not on max, not on himself, not on the walls of our home, furniture, etc. and then we go and do this. our parenting style can be summed up as "mixed messages".

it was actually one of my sweetie nephews that helped me with this project. tim is innocent. i don't know if i even told him about this.

ben was patient. for the most part. he got tired of it after awhile and then we had to bribe him to finish the project. ahh, bribery. what would i do without you? it is AMAZING what can be accomplished with a few teddy grahams! ben calls them piggies. cute.

what a pose.

i love this little crazy.

that's about all i have to say.

important breaking news

i found SANTA!!!! or at least ben's playmobil wiseman that he calls santa. and in his defense, it was probably not him who misplaced it (she said sheepishly). i may have thrown it in a bag with a bunch of other random toys as i was cleaning up and then thrown said bag upstairs to be forgotten. i can only hope that you have the same luck finding farmer, monica. and oh erin, i hadn't even thought about puzzles. yikes!

right now i'm typing on our old beastie computer. tim takes the laptop to work and i decided to do some computing because.....the clouds parted and God's golden rays shone down upon me. which means, both of my boys are sleeping at the same time. yes, it's a beautiful and glorious thing. and i using this time wisely. no. moving on.

so typing on the computer, i feel like a 1990s era hacker. the sound the keys makes is so very odd and my fingers are a bit fatigued from the stiff keyboard. i'm very particular about the sound of typing. i love the sound laptop keys make. i guess i just like the sound of typing in general. there that's my confession for the day.

no pics today. beastie does not like pictures.

if i were a good mother i would brag that max has started pulling himself up on things, like us, by our ears. or share some recent ben insanity. but i won't. because this is about me gosh darn it.

in other news, this might be the end of practical strawberry. what, you say? gasp. a life cut so short. well, as i teased before i'm working on something else and i think it's just about ready. or maybe i'll just keeping dragging this out to see how much attention i can get. hmmmm.

just keep waiting. just keep waiting.

i goofed a bit and forgot to make a crucial step that would allow me to move forward with the aforementioned "bigger better blog" so i'll have to entertain you with some random blathering. but just to tease you a bit more, just think...my brilliant commentary, plus someone else as equally entertaining and neurotic...and it's not tim. at least not yet.



in the mean time, go to playmobil and enjoy the visual feast and childish lust that will surely ensue. there are about a million things there that i want. we have tim's firetruck from when he was a wee lad and a dear friend gave ben the nativity set for christmas. i'm so protective of the pieces that it's a bit ridiculous, but ben honestly can't be trusted with something so awesome. i'm still mourning one of the wisemen that ben calls santa and get very frustrated when he flippantly states, "we'll find him someday."



i was always a bit of a toy hoarder.

rolling. not newsworthy, or new for that matter. just cute.

since i've been gone...

okay, i'm back. please excuse my absence-i was really busy being lazy. i've been oh so tired lately because my dear boys don't value sleep in the same way that i do. and i knew that if i blogged, i would go to bed way later than i should.

so instead i wasted time do other things, like reading magazines. oh how i love magazines. working at my dad's office was a dream job in that i basically got to read magazines all day long. whatever came in the door, i read-national geographic, parents, time...even the occasional field and stream or ebony. oh how my teen heart fluttered when seventeen found it's way in. and since my dad thought most of them were trash, which they were, he would throw them away. and then i would have to rescue them from the trash, making sure they hadn't landed on anything to terrible. i still remember on one particularly slow afternoon learning how to properly call a turkey and breastfeed with ease. and boy did that knowledge come in handy.

(that was quite the digression i just took you poor fools along on. )

the other reason i have been absent is because i've been scheming an even bigger, better blog. how is this possible? well, you'll just have to wait and see. you're dying from the suspense aren't you.

oh how i love this power. and the picture at top has nothing to do with anything, so don't try to figure it out.