What have I been up to?

Art projects. I may actually reach my 5-in-a-year goal!  But grr, they never photograph well.

 Cleaning up after kids.  I was doing my hair in the bathroom when Violet came up to me and informed me that Charlie had ruined her rug.  When I asked her how, she said, "He put his hands on it." So I came into her room to find this.  She had given him an enormous peice of  chocolate candy, and it was everywhere.  But boy, did he love it.

 Enjoying the weather.  It has been pretty nice out lately and Violet and I even caught a show at Miller Outdoor Theatre.  I'm not sure if she was more excited about watching Cinderella or sitting with her friends, but who cares, it was free.

 Crafting.  We painted some pumpkins for the first day of fall, and Violet was thrilled about it.

 And enjoying time with Brandon.  He frequently gets tackled by the kids, and is a great sport about it all.  He has finished all his interviews for internships next summer (I know, this last one just ended!) and has THREE offers so far.  I can't complain about that.

And I haven't had too much time to blog because I've been too busy enjoying it all!  (Minus the cleaning up after the kids part.)

Things that annoy me

I'm not sure where else to put these, so here it goes.
- When I go to people's houses and they apologize for it being "so messy," and I look around and all I see are 2 dirty dishes in the sink and a toy on the floor.  Some day I'm going to say, "Are you just trying to make me feel bad about my house?  Because this is cleaner than my house is, ever."

-When people pin a picture of an outfit and put the caption, "Casual," and the outfit involves big earrings and high heels.  Please, if it doesn't involve either a t-shirt you found on the floor or your birthday suit, it's not casual.

-When people say, "Pin now read later."  In other words, "I'm trying to get a record number of pins but the content really isn't that great."

- Old men who brag that "in fifty years of marriage, we have never had an argument."  Congratulations.  Try being married to me.

Fall pictures

It has become somewhat of a tradition for me to take pictures of the kids every fall at Hermann Park. My friend asked me if her son could tag along and get his pictures taken too, which was a ton of fun, especially for Violet.  I made them a scavenger hunt and they had to find "clues" that told them where to go and how to pose.   So I got pictures while the kids thought they were just playing a game.  Worked like a charm. The only hard part is deciding which ones I want to print out!

The best kind of sick day

I do not cope with pain well.  I know that we women like to pretend that we're all tough after we have kids, but honestly, with both of my deliveries I only lasted through an hour of labor before I was crying in the fetal position and asking for an epidural.  Being tough is just not my thing.

Yesterday I woke up sick.  No fever, but I felt like my muscles had been sent through a meat grinder and there was a construction crew in my head.  I used to like the achy, lay-in-bed symptoms, but I now have kids, so I dread the days when I have to deal with them when I feel like making a cocoon in my bed.  Luckily, Brandon has a super flexible schedule, so he got up with the kids, changed our flat tire, and took care of them until about 1:00.  He is an awesome husband.  But eventually he did have to go to school, and when I got home from dropping him off I was in bad shape.  I called my friend who lives in our complex and she volunteered to take Violet and Charlie for awhile.  I was more than happy to get rid of them for a few hours, so she came over and took them home with her.  I then took a glorious nap and woke up THREE HOURS later, called, and she said that the kids were being great and I could leave them there as long as I wanted.  I came to get them awhile later and after I got home, she came over again with some chicken soup that she had made especially for me.  And in my head, I was thinking, "WHAT? Who does that?"  I'm beginning to lose count of all the times she has saved my butt.

And that got me thinking about the last time I was really sick and I had equally great help.  It was when I was bed-ridden after having Charlie and having a nasty spinal headache.  I remember laying in bed with a little newborn, and Brandon comes through the door with Gatorade, pills, and IcyHot, and offers to rub my back.  I don't think I could have been happier if he had come through the door on a white stallion.  That was exactly what I needed.  I spent the next couple of days watching movies on the bed and taking several naps a day.  Then when my sister came into town, she sang and danced to Jingle Bell Rock just to cheer me up, took Violet for the day, and came back with two 44-oz drinks from Sonic-- an Ocean water for yumminess, and a Coke for caffeine.  For weeks after that, any time I went to Sonic, Violet would ask if Poodle was coming, too.  My sister also laughed uncontrollably when I was hobbling to the bathroom and Violet ran up behind me and slapped my butt, and actually knocked me down. And even though I was bed-ridden, post-partum, and pathetic, those first days after having Charlie are some of the fondest memories I have.  I have to say that I have very good sick days.

Blogging inspiration

Do you know who is the best person in the world at motivating me to blog?  My sister.  She called me last Sunday and we spent at least 15 minutes on this topic.  I told her that I feel like I can never blog unless I put a bunch of pictures, because that's all anyone cares about.  But she assured me that she likes it when I just post about how crazy my life is, with or without pictures.  Because it's funny.  Having days where you feel like shooting someone and then hiding in the closet with a bucket of ice cream is fine, as long as you can laugh about it. Right?

 

Well, fortunately I haven't had many of those days lately.  But it does still seem like my life frequently throws me curves.  It's a good thing I have such awesome friends, because I feel like I am always the one who calls and asks really weird favors of people.  "Can you drive stick? And if you can, could you drive me and my kids to the DMV in my own car that I don't know how to drive?" Or how about this one, "Can I come over and take a shower at your house? Because we just inexplicably lost our hot water and tomorrow is Sunday and I'm starting to stink." Yes, these are actual questions that I have had to awkwardly ask my friends these last couple of weeks. Luckily, we ended up getting our hot water back and I didn't have to shower at someone else's house.  But really, it seems like weird things always happen to me, and nobody knows that better than my friends.

 

I also love having a friend who always gets me into the zoo for free. Score!  And our zoo now has a splash pad in it!  How cool is that?