I am alive!

I survived the stomach bug that had me wishing for death for several days.
Ironically, prior to my battle, my post was going to be saying that I had seen it all....
Every day, when I pick Al up, I park & wait for him in the golf course parking lot next to his school. As I sat there one day last week, 2 men come out of the clubhouse, each with his own set of clubs. The one with dark sunglasses was also using a white cane, the kind with red-ball tip!

Sleeping Princesses

When I found Gman, he was putting all of his sister's Disney Princess figurines on the kiddie table, but he was laying them down instead of standing them up. I asked him what he was doing. He laid the Cinderella hand towel over them and said "Go ni-nite." He's going to grow up to be the sweetest, most sensitive guy ever....when he's not pretending to be asleep to get out of doing work for his wife.

Vehicle Rear Window graphics

Jane's posted pics of some odd ones. I've seen all the usual ones...cartoon drawings of each family member (saw one of those with 12 kids once); "In loving memory of so-n-so"; pics of sporting equipment with the child's name by it. Great way for a mom to strut her child's accomplishments and boost her kid's self esteem all at the same time!

Here's one I'd never seen before. And it was one of 3 on the car. Each crown was shaped differently, leading me to believe they are representations of the actual crowns for each of the 3 pageants.
It says "Miss Belle of the Bluegrass"

Girl stuff

Princess has a friend (we'll call her OM) who invited Princess over for a celebratory Tea Party last week...I think we were celebrating OM giving up the paci. They had so much fun with their crackers, cheese and teas-sized pb&j sandwiches!

We also went shopping at Old Navy
with OM & her mom earlier this week and all the kids had a great time hiding under the clothes and playing together.

But apparently Gman thinks that after 40 minutes, Old Navy just becomes "Old." He's actually laying there pretending to be asleep.

Follow up to: Sweet Baby Boy

And what words did Craig JUST hear come out of 4yo Princess's mouth while roughhousing with Gman?

"You want a piece of me?"

My Sweet Baby Boy

Gman is actually Craig's nickname for our youngest. I call him My Sweet Baby Boy alot-- a moniker that is probably best to not follow him thru life. He's a devilish one, but a true sweetheart, too. He has been in speech therapy for 13 months now and isn't one to talk at length anyways. So, I take great delight every time I hear a new word, phrase or just anything that demonstrates his understanding of communication without just repeating back what he heard. Last night as I rocked him in the rocker in his room (which is next to his toybox), he kept trying to get toys out. I told him to stop or else he'd go straight to bed. He got quiet & still for a few minutes, then leaned over the side and said "ganight toys." That's My Sweet Baby Boy!

Boy vs girl inquisitivity

One of the neat things about having children of the opposite sex so close in age, is that you can TRULY see the differences between the genders at this stage.

As I've mentioned before, Princess is a pro at rapid fire questions about whatever topic is on her brain....to the point of driving you out of your ever-lovin' mind til you beg her to go do something, anything, other than asking you more questions. Today's example:
P: Why are the flowers on the trees turning green?
Me: They aren't. The flowers fall off. Those are new green leaves.
P: Why are they green?
Me: Because that's what color they are in the spring.
P: How long will the leaves be green?
Me: Long time, til autumn.
P: Why do they fall off?
Me: Princess, I'm driving.

Gman on the other hand, would much rather check things out for himself. I had to take the cover off the base of the fridge to pull out the filter. He pushed me out of the way so he could look under there. He looked. He shrugged. He said "Hmf." End of conversation.

Future Roofers of America

We finally got our new roof!! I'm soooo excited to have the only blue roof in da 'hood. I was a little nervous about taking such a bold step, but ultimately very happy I did. I think it looks beautiful! I know one of the neighbors loves it, haven't heard any comments from any others though. If I can remember to do it, I'll post a pic of it.

Princess and Gman were FASCINATED. They watched this guy do that whole section above the porch. The guy was a little freaked out by it though!

Picture for Queen B

I saw this and thought of you...wish it had been in time for your b'day!

Posting time was for you too! (although google time and my computer time don't seem to match)

:-)

Best Birthday present!

As y'all know, my computer croaked a few weeks ago...everything was lost. Files. My tax spreadsheets. Software that we can't find the disks to. And worst of all...about a thousand digital pictures of our lives for the past 4 years. Kid's coming down the stairs Christmas morning. Al's football games. Halloween costumes. Vacations. Family reunions. Grandparents who are no longer with us. When my old computer died while Craig was out of town, he called his coworker James to see if he could help. I wasn't sure James would recognize me when I brought in the old computer, so I told Craig to describe me as "The blond cry-baby lady carrying the 20 pound paperweight."

I must throw a HUGE shout out to Craig's coworker James. I'm sure I will greatly appreciate all of my family members' birthday presents for their thoughtfulness and love. But this year I'm not sure if anything could touch my heart more than the gift of James' taking the time to crack into my old, rickety, apparently virus infested computer hard drive and retrieving what appears to be 99.9% of those pictures!! (And the 1 pic I can't find...I can get again from my mother-in-law!) So "Thank you, James! You totally rock!"

I've got a semi-permanent computer as of last night (thanks, guys!). My birthday present from Craig also, was the new version of the photo editor I used before. (Now I just need to find those Kodak CDs so I can actually get pics off my camera!)

Potty Dude

Gman successfully used the potty today! For the first time! Twice!
The first time was quick and easy--he'd just awakened dry from the night. The pic is from the second time (fortunately he didn't go while taking the pic, or I would've had a real mess on my floor/phone/me--hence the strategically placed black box). That time took forever and was torturous for me, but if you entertain them long enough on the potty, eventually it has to come out! PS--yes, those orange "pimp hats" are a favorite in this house!

A sincere apology

I really owe an apology to Ann.

A while ago, she had a post that had "reading material" so I clicked over and read the article. I was just so angry after reading the article that I clicked back and typed my little rant. It wasn't until a few days later that I noticed my little rant was the opposite of her opinion of the article. While my opinion wouldn't change, I definitely would have expressed myself a little more diplomatically. And so my not paying full attention was really quite rude to her....and I'm very sorry, Ann.

PS--Ann, there's a package being shipped to you, addressed to "Paula H****, c/o Ann N****". It's for you. Just a little somethin' to say "I'm sorry!"

Birthday Princess

Happy Birthday to our favorite Princess in the whole world!

We had her party on Sunday and everyone was absolutely shocked to see Cinderella came too!

Here's our 3 'Rellas--see the cake, too!