Camping

Tonight, Trophy Hub and Peanut are camping in the back yard. Peanut is beyond excited. He keeps following Trophy Hub around telling him he loves him and calling him his camping buddy. Although he was excited, he still wouldn't cooperate for a picture.
Did someone knock me on the head and brainwash me into thinking this could be fun? I actually told Trophy Hub that it would be fun to all go if we had a bigger tent. Huh? What? Who am I? This is what I really think about tent camping...

I am way too girly to sleep with the bugs and have to walk outside to go potty. Get me a camper with some A/C, a potty, a shower and a fridge and maybe we'll talk.

Any guesses on how long Peanut will last outside? I say he'll be in here by 2am.

What day is it?

This week has been so long and so weird...I'm confused. I'm exhausted. I think I could sleep for 4 days straight. But, of course, I doubt I will sleep no later than 7am tomorrow.

I will try to post again tomorrow after my head is clear.

I hope everyone else has had a great week!

Beach bums

We decided to head to the beach early this morning because we knew we were in for a long day. Going early on the weekends is definitely the way to go, so we really thought we were going to have the beach to ourselves since it's a weekday.

So picture my face when we pulled in and saw 2 Cedar Rapids school buses in the parking lot.

Augh.

Now picture my face when we get down to the beach and see that it's not 2 buses full of 3rd graders, but rather high school kids. Half of them with tattoos and potty mouthes.

Double augh.

Whatever. We still had fun. See?

Meanwhile, back at camp...Bubba ate watermelon.

He enjoyed some water time too.

He's golfing with the angels now!

I can't remember the first time I met Wayne. He just has always been there since I've known Trophy Hub.

If you didn't know him, you would probably think he was grumpy. He wasn't...he just told you how it was. His language had a tendency to be colorful; which always made me laugh.

He loved with his actions and not with his words. He loved our boys like his own grandchildren and lit up whenever he saw them.

Tomorrow, we say goodbye. We are going to miss him so much, but we know (as cliche as it is) that he is in a better place.

If you have room in your prayers tonight, please pray for my MIL as she finds her way without him.

Crackers

Have your kids had the kiddie crack disguised as Mac & Cheese Crackers?

Ohmygosh my kids love them.

Personally, I think they are gross. But I'm a little quirky. And I don't like food that tastes like something else. (Don't even get me started on Jelly Bellys - ick!) And they definitely taste like Mac & Cheese.

Pick up a box for your tater tots - they will thank you!

Heavy heart

It is with a very heavy heart that I post tonight. This week...

A very dear co-worker of mine lost her son suddenly to a brain aneurysm. A young man. A young father. Died too young. I hope his children feel his love for years to come and feel blessed that his organs saved many lives.

My sweet mother-in-law is slowly, but too quickly losing her partner...the one she has loved for many, many years to cancer. An old man. A grandfather. A man who has lived a long life, but will missed so much by so many when his time comes.

And my brother...the one who has struggled for so many years against his own demons, continues to dig himself into a hole so deep I wonder how he will ever come out. A young man, who for some reason feels he doesn't deserve a good life. A father, whose daughters may wonder if he loves them. A son, whose parents made the heart breaking choice to turn away instead of watching him self destruct.

Please pray for these three men and their loved ones. They need it.

Not me! Monday

Yes, folks, it's that time again. When I confess all the things I did not do this past week. Because if I did, I certainly wouldn't post them on the Internet for all to see. Head on over to MckMama's site to see what everyone else has not been doing this week.

While doing laundry, I did not take my bra off, throw it in the washer and then walk outside onto the deck in broad daylight with only a tank top on. Nope, not me!

I did not allow my children to do this to the living room:

simply because they were entertaining themselves while I was baking cookies. Nope, not me!

After Bubba started to pee in his pants before we could get to the bathroom while we were out garage sale-ing this weekend, I most certainly did not take him to just one more sale to see what they had instead of taking him straight home. Nope, not me!

I did not start brushing Bubba's teeth while he's in the bathtub at night to save time. That's ridiculous. Nope, not me!

I am not still trying to recover the basement from garage sale preparation. And I do not still have tubs of leftovers in the garage. I am not completely disorganized! Nope, not me!

Tune in again next week to hear about all the things that I haven't been doing!

Wordless Sunday

All you need is love

Sometimes being a parent can be overwhelming. Most days I'm just trying to survive. And of course make sure the kids survive. I just hope that I'm not doing something that will send one of them straight to the shrink's couch.

All I can do is love them. That's about the only thing I can do consistently. That's the only thing that everyday life does not get in the way of. The other crappy things I do like send them to bed without brushing their teeth (tonight) or tell them they're driving me nuts in Wal-Mart (tonight) I can only hope are over-ridden by the love that I smother them with.

I hope, but I'm not always convinced.

Then I walk into the room and see this...And it makes me feel like love is enough.

Manners!

I think I'm getting old and grumpy.

I will be the first to admit that I am pretty attached to my cell phone. If I'm halfway to work and realize that I left it at home, I turn around to go get it. If I can't find it right away in my purse, I start to feel a little panicky.

But...

If I'm having lunch with a friend, driving in a car with a co-worker or in a public restroom, my phone is on vibrate - in my purse. It is insanely rude to be talking on the phone or texting while you are supposed to be with spending time with another person. Don't make the person you're with think they aren't interesting enough! I think people have completely forgotten their manners. Just because technology allows you to do this doesn't mean you should.

So, please...the next time you are at a restaurant leave your phone in your purse. If you're a man, leave it in your pocket. Or even better...leave it in the car! Enjoy the person you're with.

Toot your horn Tuesday!

Something new! I heard about Toot Your Horn Tuesday a few weeks ago from Leah and I thought it would be fun to participate this week. Although sometimes I feel like my entire blog is one big toot.

Ok, that came out wrong.

Anyway...

Trophy Hub has totally been my MVP around this joint for the last week. I was totally preoccupied with the garage sale last week and he completely picked up the slack. Toot toot! I made sure I thanked him because men really like to be thanked and praised for helping out.

Speaking of the garage sale, we made $500!! Toot toot!

Both of my kids love Johnny Cash. How many other 2 year olds and 5 year olds know the words to "Ring of Fire"? Come on. Toot toot!

Ok, I'm done tooting for now. Consider playing along. You can toot and it's completely allowed!

Someone's praying for a baby

Peanut has been on this kick lately saying that he "wants a sister". And tonight the question that I've been dreading came.

"Mommy, how does a baby get in your belly?"

So I did what any normal mother would do. I lied. Sort of. I told Peanut that once we were ready for another baby, we would pray to God and ask for one. And if he said yes, he would put one in my belly.

Without missing a beat, he slapped his hands together, closed his eyes and said "God, my mommy really wants a baby. Please put one in her belly."

No no no, Peanut!! Not yet!

Cutest darn puppy I've ever seen

Tonight's conversation with Bubba...see if you can follow the random thoughts and quick topic changes.

Me: Bubba, you need to go to sleep. (He was laying bed kicking the wall.)

Bubba: Mommy, will you lay wiss (with) me?

Me: Yes for a little bit.

Bubba: Will you lay wiss me for a long time?

Me: Just for a little bit. And you have to let me kiss you. (Lots of kisses on his cheek.)

Bubba: You can smooch me. The bird pooped on our pool.

Me: Really?

Bubba: Yeah, under the deck.

Me: Hmmm.

Bubba: We went to the airport yesterday. (He has no concept of time. Everything happened yesterday.)

Me: Yup, you came and got me, didn't you?

Bubba: Yeah, yesterday.

Me: Ok, Bubba. Goodnight. I love you.

Bubba: I love you too Mommy.

Leftovers, anyone?

The garage sale is complete! More on that later, but we do have some clothes leftover. I haven't separated everything out quite yet, but I think it's mostly 6-24 months (boys of course).

Before I get rid of them, does anyone know a family in need that could use them? Most of them are are still in great shape and still have a lot of wear.

Finally!

Peanut is riding his bike on his own! He has had very little interest in doing this - he would rather just ride his scooter. Peanut does things his own way - always has. (He was breech, remember?) So we pretty much had to make him practice. As you can tell from the photo, he's pretty proud of himself and happy.

The bike (that I bought at a garage sale 2 years ago for $7 thankyouverymuch) already looks too small for him and it's his second one. Hopefully we can just move the seat up and it'll be ok for the rest of the summer.

Speaking of garage sales...I'm still working on getting things ready for ours this weekend. Wow - it's a lot of work! Probably more so since I'm sorting through things instead of getting rid of everything. I just hope that most of it goes. If there is a lot left over or I don't get to everything I want to, I may have another one. Or I may just go to Goodwill. We'll see how my mood is Saturday at noon.

My children are starving!

I need help!

Remember how I was saying that Trophy Hub's new schedule will be good? Well..it still is, but I need some dinner suggestions.

As most of you know, Trophy Hub is the main chef in the house. I like to cook, but he does most of it for a few reasons:

1. He likes to cook.

2. With the old schedule it made the most sense. (He could start cooking as I was on my way home and we could eat right away, which made for more family time in the evenings.)

So I need some ideas on what all of you other working folks do for dinner. I already know all the stand-bys - tacos, spaghetti, etc. But how about some recipes that I could throw together quickly when I get home? Or even make ahead of time? Any good crock pot recipes?

Please post a comment with your favorite quick recipe (or two or three!). My children thank you!

While the cat's away...

Everyone keeps asking me what I did on vacation. Honestly, we didn't do much. Don't get me wrong - we had a ball. But we pretty much just shopped and talked. Not much to tell! If you want to come over, I could do some show and tell with my loot - that would be fun. :-)

Back at home, things were a little more exciting. So the question should actually be if the boys had fun on my vacation. Here were some photos Trophy Hub emailed to me to show all the bad stuff they were doing in my absence.

First, Granny brought some turtles home from Kansas.

Then, Trophy Hub let Peanut run around in the street...in the rain.

Lastly, they even had enough energy after all the rule breaking to make funny faces for the camera (but they were bathed and had PJs on!). Ok, all kidding aside, Trophy Hub did a great job holding down the fort. Not that I doubted him...but all I really wanted was for everyone to be alive. Not only were they alive, but laundry was caught up and the house was as clean as I left it.

Sounds like an invitation to be gone more often, huh?