Not I said the...

I spent the whole morning painting up a storm and there is nary a white wall left on the main level in my house.

I tried to solicit some help.

"Who will help me paint these walls?"

"Not I, said the dog" -- too busy napping on a pillow like royalty


"Not I, said Jerome the Gnome" -- too busy fake painting in another room...
Fine, then I will do it myself!


A friend of Bryan's painted this painting and gave it to us as a wedding gift. It says "Il Primo Prossimo Esestesso," which means "Charity begins in the home" in Italian.

Marvelous, just Marvelous

Yeah for me! After frustratingly trying to start my own, I joined a local Mom's Group that I found using www.meetup.com

There is practically something to participate in every day and I have already RSVP'd for a few upcoming get togethers. I am so excited to meet some new friends for myself and the boys. What fun!

My mom is coming from Alaska this Friday! I can't wait to see her and my little sister and show them our new house...oh, but I really want to finish some painting on the main level before Friday and have everything be just perfect :) We'll see if I manage to accomplish it!

Especially since I can't seem to pry myself away from the political news today. John McCain just gave a 'surprise' announcement and it was marvelous, truly I felt like he finally hit one out of the ballpark. All I have to say is:



Yeah! Okay, so I am just having my own private McCain/Palin rally at my house this morning ;) I am about done, now where did I store all the paint supplies?

Marble Run

What a great toy! I remember playing with this when I was little and my boys love it now too. Although I have to confess that I had a bit of trouble putting it together and I have two Engineering degrees ;) After a few corrections, we finally got it all working properly and I had two shrieking boys watching the marbles and catching them at the bottom.


It is just so nice to see them play with something other than Starwars stuff for a little while!

Mmmm....smell the Love

I do love my new Harajuku Lovers perfume 'Love'...oh and also Diet Dr. Pepper while I am on the topic :)

Jack and I went to the play area at a mall nearby this morning and I finally caved and got this lovely fragrance. Well, actually I took something back and exchanged it for the perfume so as to not spend any money since, ya know, we are no longer a dual income family.

What else am I loving right now:
1. Bright sunlight in the afternoon without the accompanying summer heat.
2. The music to my ears when Jack says "I have to go potty!"
3. Getting a random compliment on my complexion from a complete stranger/passerby at the mall today...especially since the complimenter was a gay man with a great complexion himself!
4. Talking to Bryan on the phone today and hearing him say how happy he is with his job and company...thank goodness one of us found a career to love!

Our Busy Day

Whew! What a day. We spent the morning at a great Children's Museum in a town north of ours and then spent the afternoon collecting leaves for an art project and making a yummy dinner.

Jack took an after nap nap on the couch yesterday, which was just so out of the ordinary I had to take a picture:

I think he is going through a growth spurt because he has been sleeping so much lately and has quite the appetite for him.

Warren is so enjoying the days he spends at home and his demeanor has really improved and settled down...this smile says it all:


Lastly, here is the delish supper we had...Bryan is out of the state for work but that didn't stop me from cooking up a huge pan of spinach tortellini and meatballs. I made the sauce using canned crushed tomatoes and lots of yummy spices:

31 Random things about me today:

1. Where is your cell phone? tucked neatly in its compartment in my purse on the kitchen counter
2. Where is your significant other? at work in a really important meeting I am told
3. Your hair color? Dark blonde naturally and I have some highlights and lowlights to make it more interesting and less "mousey"
4. Your mother? Shannon
5. Your father? Hmmm, that's a good one. Any takers?
6. Your favorite thing? I am lusting after the Harajuku perfume in Love. Hint, hint for my upcoming birthday present. I might have especially ran into Macy's yesterday just to spray some on.
7. Your dream last night? I dreamt that I was forced by the government to learn French and I only had one day to master it. Oh, I can't wait for this election to be over and all things political to subside...
8. Your dream/goal? Maybe have one more baby and find a job/career I love at some point in my life.
9. The room you're in? Office
10. Your hobby? cleaning, thrifting, working out
11. Your fear? Democrats (JUST KIDDING), see answer 7. I fear my kids getting sick in a way that I cannot "fix"
12. Where do you want to be in six years? Here in this house still, no big ambitions really.
13. Where were you last night? Went for a walk around the neighborhood and then stayed home the remainder of the evening.
14. What you’re not? Selfish and stressed
15. One of your wish list items? Infiniti FX35...go big or go home, right?
16. Where you grew up? Alaska
17. The last thing you did? Started a load of whites and took a shower.
18. What are you wearing? My favorite Lucky Brand jeans and a cozy cream colored sweater that I bought yesterday with a gift certificate that was about to expire.
19. Your TV? I don't think of it as mine since I hardly ever watch it, but we have several in the house. Always tuned to the news or Sprout or Noggin.
20. Your pet? Reagan (Jack Russell Terrier)
21. Your computer? PC, it's a Dell.
22. Your mood? Happy and totally in love with Jack today. I keep asking him what he wants to do today and he just smiles.
23. Missing someone? My mom, but she is coming to Colorado for a visit on Halloween, yeah!!
24. Your car? Honda Odyssey
25. Something you’re not wearing? OH, my wedding ring because I took it off to do the dishes, thanks for the reminder!
26. Favorite store? I'm a Nordy girl, I LOVE Nordstroms.
27. Your summer? Flew by because we moved in May.
28. Love someone? I try to love everyone...it is exhausting ;)
29. Your favorite color? Orange at the moment, burnt orange to be exact.
30. When is the last time you laughed? When I dropped off Warren at preschool this morning and he asked his teacher if he could bring spinach to the pajama party on Thursday.
31. Last time you cried? The night before last. I had a weird feeling of impending disappointment so I had a good cry and felt better the next day.

Anyone that feels like joining in....post a comment here with the link to your post....=)

the LAST box

We are officially moved in! Well, I unpacked the last box this morning, which was full of medicine cabinet stuff. So, now it is all put away in cabinets up high and I won't have to rifle through a giant box the next time one of the boys has a runny nose.



A little snippet from this morning's play time with Jack:

Jack: handing me a car - "mommy, this is your monster truck now play with it with me, okay?"

Me: "Wow, this is a cool car, Jack."

Jack: "Are you kidding me, it is a truck, mommy."

Me: "Oh! Of course it is, what an amazing big red truck. And look, your car, er truck, is red too! We are both red!"

Jack: "Yup."

Me: "And can you tell me which truck is bigger?"

Jack: "Mine is."

Me: "That's right, you are such a smart little boy. How about we count the wheels on our trucks?"

Jack: "Quit talking and just drive your truck around like this." Makes that car engine sound that boys are just so gifted to make nearly since birth and takes off.

Dumb and Dumber

I ran upstairs to see what all the ruckus was and it was these two hams on the rocking horse and they literally had it coming up off of the floor they were rocking it so hard.



Upon closer inspection I noticed they had a stash of snacks in the side saddle too.

As seen in...

...my living room. My new coat hook from a store that gives all the proceeds to the YWCA for battered women. Isn't it darling?



Oh, and I am going to try not to drink ANY coffee today...we'll see how it goes. I just had a cup of tea instead and I don't have a splitting headache yet...

Gummy Bear Engineering

Bryan and I have long joked that there isn't much hope for our boys to be anything but technical minded geek types for lack of a better word, being that both of their parents are degreed Chemical Engineers.

Yesterday's snack time with Warren did nothing to prove us wrong. I gave Warren a pile of gummy bears (ya know the good Black Forrest kind, yummy!) and when I came back to check in with him a few minutes later he was in the process of sorting them, but he made sure to let me know that he wasn't done yet and that he would let me know when he was done.

Sure enough a minute later he yelled to me to come see the finished product and he was just so proud of his Gummy Bear rainbow that he even let me eat a few red ones, since "he had way too many of them compared to the other colors."




He has his first field trip today for school so I am sending him off with a "snack" lunch and 8 dollars to take to the pumpkin patch...all he can talk about is riding on a school bus though - he is just so excited! I love him so much!

Pre-Holiday Season Toy Sort

Guess what I did this morning? I took out ALL of the toys from the toy closet in the hallway and from the boys' bedroom and went through everything. Put back together all the games and made sense of all the random pieces and ended up with two giant trash bags of stuff to take to Salvation Army.

I do this every year about this time to get rid of things that are broken or no longer played with for whatever reason to make room for new things they will get for Christmas and Jack's birthday is in December as well.

It was quite the scene in the loft and I was completely overwhelmed more than once and considered just cramming it all back in the closet. But, I didn't and it now feels good to have everything temporarily organized, heck we were even able to actually play Warren's memory game with all the pieces in tact :)

Ugh.

I think I have mentioned before that I am a pragmatist, so it is with great disdain that I must start to mentally prepare myself just in case these polls are not as corrupt as ACORN voter registration. Not to say I am giving up hope, just that I realize how many people are all about HYPE not really hope for anything other than a quick and easy handout from the government at the long term expense of our country's best interest and truth be told the dignity of those set to receive the handouts.

So, I am trying to figure out some potential "bright sides" if this does really go the way of the socialist, narcissistic, liberal...so far I can only find some solace in the fact that a couple of my democratic friends and one neighbor with an obnoxious display of political yard signs will be happy. That's about all I got.

October Sun

I couldn't resist the chance to capture Reagan truly basking in the sunshine on the office floor today. He just epitomized bliss and I am pretty sure he is enjoying my being at home these days!

Our Hot Dog:

He actually has his tongue hanging out:

Finally, a more respectable position:

Even Jack was in on the rolling-around-on-the-floor action:

Wingman's guide to survival

What do you do when your little bro (aka lifelong parter in crime) is the ring bearer at a really, really long Catholic wedding?

Warren's step by step guide to surviving:

Step 1: Impatiently wait for him to get it over with and "marry Ava," the flower girl, since Jack is convinced it is his wedding

Step 2: Greet your newly wed brother, who peed in his suit pants just prior to walking down the aisle, with a great big man hug

Step 3: Proceed to rock the reception with mischief and charm simultaneously

wonderFALL

And the winner is________!

I left it blank because I really don't know. I am officially taking myself OUT of the rat race for a while. Namely, I am no longer working outside of the home. That's right, I took the boys out of daycare, quit my job and am just feeling so much relief and excitement to spend the next year giving them 100% of my attention, affection and energy.

Warren will continue to go to preschool three days a week though for the socialization and academics.

I believe I had a bad case of "burn out" from the non-stop pace of life since I left home at 17 for college. I guess I am not as strong and capable of everything that I tried to be and maybe thought I was. Life is going to get a whole lot simpler for me and my family this year. I am clipping coupons and planning meals and taking the boys to the park for long stretches of time (without a blackberry in tow!) and hugging my husband (now both the primary and only breadwinner), all the while knowing that I can go back to work whenever I want to.

There is no pressure (probably never was) to be the Super Working Mom of the Century -- who would even want that title anyways ;)

some things never change

I used to love pouring over the cereal boxes in the morning when I was a kid. Taking in all the pictures and little gems of advertising that are plastered all over the boxes made me feel more connected to whatever brand of shaped and colored puffed grain of the day.

Jack likewise loved looking at the "Trix bunny" this morning while he crunched and dribbled his way through a little bowl of cereal.

Recycling Bandwagon

Check us out - we are green and trendy!

The best part is that we don't have to sort the recycling or anything, just toss it all in the container and wheel it to the curb every other week. You can put all junk mail in there too, which is enough reason for me to subscribe to recycling all by itself. I am SO bothered by the waste of junk mail, I literally loose sleep over it. So, I have decided that in addition to recycling it, I am going to put in some effort to try to get off of the mailing lists for a lot of these flyers and magazine things...here is the website I am using:

http://www.proquo.com/stopjunkmail/

Shocking Junk Mail Statistics
*Each year, 100 million trees are used to produce junk mail in America. That’s the equivalent of deforesting the entire Rocky Mountain National Park every four months.


*Americans receive nearly four million tons of junk mail each year.


*More than 28 billion gallons of water are wasted to produce and recycle junk mail each year.