anything goes.

First off, let's try to ignore the fact that it's been awhile since I last blogged. It's certainly not because I hadn't thought about. And it certainly wasn't because I didn't have anything cool to blog about....

...oh, who am I kidding. This place does not exemplify coolness. We are the house of randomness. A house of chaos and crazy. We've got toys everywhere, Legos falling out of the kids pants when out in public (no lie, that just happened Saturday), and the reality of my husband's multiple careers is beginning to take over our kitchen counter. I love being creative, but sometimes, I just have to keep everyone fed and alive. Anything goes around here.

So this morning, after a night of non-stopping coughing, Lydia woke up looking and feeling not-so-good. When I went up to get her this morning, she insisted that I crawl into her germ-infested bed to snuggle her. Then she proceeded to tell me that she wished she had a TV in her room.

“Mom, I wish I had a TV in here. We could just put it up there (pointed to the ceiling) and stick it up there with some tape. You know, mom…we can just go to that store where Daddy and I went. The TV store. The one where Daddy and I were and he forgot his wallet (it was in mommy’s purse 7 stores away). That one. They have TV’s there, mom.”

I had to call the pedi, since she not only had a cough and runny nose, but she complained that her ear hurt. A first for her. Darn you, swimming lessons! I’m thinking taking my kids swimming in the fall/winter months is a bad idea. I mean, we’re either going to miss ALL of the classes because they're sick…or, the few classes that we DO make it to are going to cause them to get sick. *sigh* I’m seeing this as a lose-lose here. I mean, water safety doesn’t really come into play here between September and May. I may need to rethink this. Perhaps we’ll just teach the kids to swim in the safety of our own home. “Hon, the kids are ready for their swim lessons!” (in the bathtub)

This was the scene when I brought Sicky McSickerson downstairs.

On a positive note, she did promptly ask for breakfast after she finished her juice. She was beyond indecisive with her choices, and went from having pancakes (I vetoed that one), to cinnamon toast, to cereal, and finally landed on a smoothie.

"The banana-berry one, mom."

Out came the frozen strawberries, banana, strawberry jam, and rice milk. After a quick blend in my not-so-Vitamix-blender (I'm still sulking over the way QVC taunted me with their Today's Special Value yesterday), she was happy.

Max sucked down a cereal bar and a banana, and was as content as anything. The little guy is free from torment and torture when he's in high chair! No wonder he loves being in it so much.

We wrapped up our morning with some playing, singing with Elmo, and several sneezes and coughs onto mommy's laptop. Yay me. Anyone know how to disinfect a laptop keyboard?? Yeah, didn't think so.

I did take Lydia to the pedi, where they confirmed that while she didn't have a full-blown ear infection, she was well on her way. So we scooped up her antibiotics and some Gatorade at the drug store and came home to enjoy some yummy vegetable soup and garlic bread.

I topped off the evening with some Dancing with the Stars. I'm considering a little kettlecorn to make this day complete. Hopefully I can keep away the side of germs that'll inevitably try to sneak into my snack. We'll see how successful I've been in 3-4 days. ;)

so much to do....so little time....

Honestly, I don't know where to begin today! I have sooooo much to do!

This Saturday, we're having a birthday party for Max (finally). Consequently, I have umpteen million projects that need finishing.

*sigh*

Home decor projects...furniture revamping...party planning/decorations...then the laundry....cleaning...oh, so much cleaning....

And Lydia's big-girl mattress arrived a few minutes ago, so we'll be converting her crib later today into the big-girl BED! GASP!!! When did my baby girl grow up?!?!

***SOB!!!!!!!!!****

Many of the projects have to happen while kids are napping or in bed for the night.

Clearly, it's a Monday. I'm rambling. More coffee, maybe?

How about a completely random picture to put a smile on my face??

There. That helped. :)

Alright, off to organize the disorganization in this joint.

**linking up to:

Disorganization Anonymous

Ramblers-R-Us

Confused Mommy.com

&

The Group for the Monday-Challenged

(totally kidding on these. LOL)

hot diggity dog!!!!

For the last few months, I've been like this with my computer.

It's really been giving me grief. *sigh* I've had this laptop for 5 years now and Steve bought it for me BRAND. NEW. He surprised me with it - isn't that sweet?!?! I have looooooved this thing. It was my first Mac and my gosh, I really can't say enough good things about it. Well, let me take that back....up until a few MONTHS ago, I only said fantastic things about this sweet little 12 inch Power Book. Lately, though, I really haven't had many nice to things to say about. It's been systematically destroying each and every program. Word won't 'Save As' anymore...my address book no longer opens up....e-mail and other programs randomly shut down...I can't 'force quit' anything...and my iPhoto library is gone. I mean, I'm WITHOUT MY PHOTOS, people!! Refer back to that photo above.

However, last night, we did it. We ordered the new one! Steve found a super deal on a refurb'd 15 incher. CRIMINY! I'm BEYOND excited!!! I seriously cannot wait to get it! And get this....I'll be able to run....

...wait....

...wait for it....

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

PHOTOSHOP.

(this last computer couldn't handle PS)

Oh yeah, I'm PSYCHED!!!!

Needless to say, within the next few days, I'll be able to forever forget that image above....

Image found here

...and embrace THIS ONE! Along with my sweet new laptop!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh :)

too early for this.

We woke up to ants this morning. OY. You know, those little, tiny, little baby ants that come in packs of thousands? They're pretty slow, but man, they're annoying. So, with no coffee in my system, I tackled those pests. I'm sure a few are lingering, and we're fresh out of Terro, so we'll see what the day holds.

While I'm trying to process the whole ant situation, Steve was fixing a crashed server, and Lydia's like, "Mom, I need something.....something that's yellow, has salt and pepper, and is on a Mickey plate." Here's what I want to know - when did everything turn into a CLUE around here?!?! It's like we live with Dora, but with fewer Spanish words. And no talking backpack. And I guess we don't have a sneaky fox trying to take our things either. But still - you get the idea. Instead of asking for "eggies," she has to go through this big mystery to figure out what, exactly, she'd like to eat. I'm not really complaining. In fact, I really love it. It's darn cute and someday I'll say, "I remember when you made us figure out what you wanted by giving us clues! Awwww!!"

So I'm off to drink my coffee and make eggies for my most favorite little girl.

stage debut + birthday wishes + creative overload = my weekend!

What a weekend! I've had a few pretty nice days, I must admit. Friday night, my daughter had her very first school program. She did SUPER! Oh my gosh - SO PROUD here. She sang all of her songs, did all of the movements, and listened to her teachers. She looked like such a BIG girl up on the stage - and she's only 3! She wore a mommy-made dress and was just adorable. She was so excited that she had family watching in the audience and was surprised when daddy gave her flowers after the show. All in all, Friday night was darn near perfect in the world of a mom!!

So then Saturday was my birthday. I'm getting old, but really, I don't feel it. Steve wanted me to get out on my own for a bit, so I went to my mothership - Hobby Lobby. Honestly, I could have walked around there for HOURS. Like, 5...maybe 6 hours. That sounds crazy, but really - there's so much to see there! I carefully selected a few things I liked and decided I need to checkout and get home. Well....as I'm unloading my cart and the cashier starts to wrap up my breakables, I reach into my purse for my wallet. Um, no wallet. I DUG through my purse (which barely had ANYTHING in it - I mean, I could see the bottom of the bag easily, but still no wallet in sight. I panicked. I told the cashier to hold up, as it didn't appear that I had my wallet with me. I called Steve - "Hon, can you check the diaper bag and see if my wallet's in there?" He's like, "Oh no...you drove all the way over there and forgot your wallet??" Yes, I did. I'm a doofus. Sure enough, the wallet was in the diaper bag. Why??? Because I've probably only left the house 2 dozen times in the past 3 1/2 years WITHOUT a diaper bag. *SIGH* So, I had to come home empty handed. They held my cart full of goodies for me and I was able to go back later that day to get my things. Geez - how embarrassing! I apologized no less than 10 times to the cashier and the woman behind me in line.

We went out for a yummy dinner Saturday night, and although I didn't have a birthday cake, I got to have some super delicious Tiramisu (specially adorned with a candle!).

In the midst of this fun weekend, the clean-out process swung into high gear over at my grandpa's old house. He passed away not quite 4 years ago, and it's been tough to get going on the clean-out process. But it's underway finally and I've gotta say, it's kicked this creative streak I've been exploring lately into HIGH GEAR! Basically, it's an entire house full of things - clothes, furniture, accessories, dishes - you name, it's probably there. I was able to go over last night with my mom and we looked through some old things my grandmother had treasured (i.e., silver plated serving dishes, old lamps, pot-de-cremes <---have you heard of these?!?!). I'm SUPER excited about a hutch we'll be bringing to our house from there. I'll be painting it, shabby-ing it up a bit, and putting it in our kitchen. I have sooooo many ideas running through my head right now of projects I'm hoping to do soon, I can barely keep everything straight! I blame this creative overload on the reading of blogs. Many, many blogs. Holy cow, are there some creative people out there or what?!?! And so many love to post their creations on the internets!! I'm fascinated, inspired, and completely overwhelmed. I'm lovin' it.

I'll be getting up some pics soon for what I'll be working on. In the meantime, I'm tired. Peace out from this now 34-year-old mama.

Could it be.....the PLAGUE???

Good grief, am I tired of being sick. **sigh** I have now had a 'cold' for two weeks straight. Basically, it blossomed pretty quickly into a sinus infection, but since I'm still nursing, I can't take anything. The pressure in my head...the swollen glands...the mucous...sounds attractive, right?!?! Wrong-o. And last night, the icing on the cake was when Max woke up to party at 3 a.m. Not sure whether it was the hours of thunderstorms or teething, but at any rate, he wasn't a happy guy. Seriously, could a Tylenol/Motrin recall have come at a worse time?? I think not.

Tomorrow is our anniversary (10 years!) and we're celebrating with.....wait.....wait for it....BULK TRASH DAY! We just hauled out a bunch of crap from the basement, including a large, non-working television. I had visions while we were pushing this beast up the steps of it letting loose and crushing us both and then wondering what on earth would happen in the morning when the kids wake up and mommy and daddy don't come running because they're TRAPPED under a GARBAGE in the basement. Yeah, I think my brain's still a little loopy, you know, from this congestion and all.

On the creative front, there's been little action. I did finish a dress for Lydia last weekend. But for the past few days, I've done nothing. Nada. Zilch. I'm a blob of creative nothingness at this point. BUT, I'm hoping it passes soon! I've got so many things on the horizon and things I really want to get done, so I need to get cracking. Maybe if I get super motivated, I'll post a pic of the quilt I need to start for Lydia.

In the meantime, I'm gonna soak up some juicy daytime drama with today's GH episode.

mommy guilt

I’m completely sure that I cannot be the only mom on the planet who experiences mommy guilt. You know, the kind of guilt you get as a mom because you are, let’s say, going to work, when you have to tell your kids ‘no,’ or just that overall bad feeling you get when you can’t please your kids 24/7. I was chatting with my sister-in-law last night on Facebook and we had both had long days. We were conversing about how our days consist mostly of toddler conversations (her youngest is 2.5) and that the ‘outside world’ feels so foreign to us at times. We also discussed how other people in our lives (mainly the men – sorry guys!) do not understand the full-time nature of being a mom. I am not at all discounting the work that our husbands do outside of the home, or how HARD they work (geez, I think Steve is one of the hardest working people I have ever known!). However, the job of a mom is non-stop. A mom is a caretaker, a meeter of needs, a healer, an ombudsman, a scheduler, a cook, and a cleaner (well, only sometimes in my case! LOL). From the time we wake up in the morning until our heads hit the pillow at night (sometimes we even have night duty with the little ones), our minds are constantly going with what needs to happen next within the household.

This topic popped into my head recently because I’ve been realizing that I need to take more time to myself. I should NOT feel guilty about having ‘me’ time – uninterrupted time to shower/craft/walk – whatever!! So many times I’ve ‘asked’ Steve if he’d mind keeping an eye on the kids so I could go shower. He’s pretty much always been completely fine, but at times, I do get an eye-roll or a sense of frustration from him that he has to stop what he’s doing to watch the kids. Then I feel bad because I even asked and I don’t even get to enjoy my shower, darnit!

So here’s to all the moms out there who don’t take enough time for themselves and who feel guilty for not being ‘Super Mom’ ALL of the time. Lighten up, and go take a shower!

what the heck happened yesterday???

Yesterday didn't really turn out how I had originally hoped. Lydia's cough was still too nasty for me to send her to school....Max got more miserable as the day went on...the kids didn't nap at the same time, which meant no downtime whatsoever...and Steve ended up getting home late, which meant no by-myself walk to regroup. *sigh* I'm tired just thinking about it!

But, today is another day! It's a work day for me. I have 4 evals. to do today, and while I don't love doing 4 in one day, it does make the day go by quickly and I feel super productive. The coolest thing about work days??? MAKE-UP! REAL clothes! NICE HAIR!! I actually look like a human on Wednesdays. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love and adore the time I spend with my kids. My schedule is perfect and I love that I get dress up at least one day a week, go out and see the world, and come home to my sweeties. Plus, it's super cool when Lydia says, "Mom, you look so pretty!"

The one bummer about work days is going in and seeing people who tend to have their priorities totally messed up. I don't want to sound like I'm judging the people I see, but rather, I see it as a flawed system that contributes to their funky life choices. Such as, families will come in wearing hip clothes/shoes, toting cell phones and Nintendo DS's, but then the kids complain about not having much to eat or the parents claim they 'don't have the money' for the kids to participate in much-needed summer programs or extracurricular activities. And it breaks my heart to hear the kids say that their favorite foods are cookies, chicken nuggets, hot dogs, and candy. I mean, I totally get the love for cookies and all things sweet (chicken nuggets, not so much), but how about some fruits? Maybe a few veggies? I really don't want to get all political on this blog, but seriously - if the government can demand us to get healthcare, why can't they demand people receiving government assistance to buy healthier food?? And, to NOT buy cigarettes!!! Ugh. I could go on and on, but I won't. Stay positive, Krissy, stay POSITIVE!!! This is your day of beauty!!

On that note, I must go beautify myself.

WOOT WOOT!!

Who's got two thumbs and is darn proud of herself this morning??? THIS GIRL! I actually got up when I set my alarm and worked. out. GASP! Yup, I did it. I rocked out 45 minutes of Turbo Jam this morning. And, I feel super! Let's hope this day continues in the same manner. It's a Monday, so I'm not going to get overly excited, but I'll stay optimistic for now.

Not too much on the agenda for today. The kids and I will be running out at some point...the bank, the meat market, then home for playing/laundry/naps (and maybe even a little fabric cutting for the next sewing project). I don't have too much writing to do for work this week, so I've got a little extra time to sew........or wade through the clothes-bomb that went off in our bedroom. But seriously, the sewing sounds much more fun.

my non-weekend

This weekend doesn't go on the charts as being one of the most fun, most memorable, most exciting weekends ever, that's for sure. I've got 3 sickos here - two kids and a hubby. Needless to say, I've had my fill of snot, tissues, watery eyes, coughing, whining, and Gatorade for a loooooong time. I got in some nice snuggle time with the kids, so that's a positive.

I also snuck in a little sewing! I finished up a new top for Lydia. It's a pattern by Pink Fig and it's the 'Olivia' top. I ended up not doing the shirring on the bottom because I think it looks super cute the way it is now. And - BONUS - it FITS!!! I'm super paranoid about making things for Lydia and then them not fitting her...particularly making sure stuff is going to go over her head. She loves it, I love it, it's a win-win in my book.

gettin' started...

I'm finally going to give this blog world a go. It's been a long time coming (at least in my mind it's been a long time), but I'm here. I'm ready!

A quick run-down of today...Lydia's sick. She's got a cold/fever/mucous...let's just say, germs are everywhere. We snuck a walk in this a.m., and at the FURTHEST point from home on the walk, she says, "Mom, I have to go potty!" Um, ok. I looked around and actually thought about picking a random house, knocking on the door, and asking whomever answered the door if we could sneak in for a quick "peep." Well, I rethought that crazy idea and decided to tell her to hold it. I high-tailed it home, while she asked every 3 seconds, "Is that our house? Is THAT our house? How about THAT ONE, MOM?!?!"

I was hoping that while the kids napped, I'd be able to sneak in some crafting time, but I've been obsessing over this blog instead. I have an half-done shirt that I'm hoping to finish up tonight, although there are no guarantees this shirt will even FIT Lydia. It's looking a touch small. I may have to tweak things a bit. Being a beginning sew-er (can't type that without the hyphen - I'm not into waste management as a hobby), I'm learning 'sew' much (HAHAHAHA), but I'm still trying to figure out how to fix mistakes, undo, redo...all while trying not to break the machine itself. It's all girly, of course, with big pink/yellow/turquoise flowers and brown/pink polka dot sleeves. Maybe I'll practice putting up some pics later.

I can't wait to get this blog a bit more set up. I've been reading a bit lately online and have found some great sewing blogs and other creative sites I want to make sure I reference.

Ok, Max is up...I think I need more caffeine.