"Not me!" Monday

By now, you all know that I am a perfect wife and mother. All who meet me IRL or through my blog are generally amazed and dazzled by my perfection. I am always confident, talented, forgiving, creative, thoughtful, patient, in control, kind, nonjudgmental...just to name a few of my traits. To prove my exemplary mothering, wifing and homemaking skills here is a list of things I did not and would not ever do...

I did NOT have to ask another women in the grocery store if she was a mom. When she said "yes," I did NOT have to ask her if she knew where the chicken nuggets were. I mean really! What kind of mama doesn't know where the chicken nuggets are?

I did NOT feed my boys our red velvet wedding anniversary cupcakes for breakfast one morning. I did NOT think, "Well, their crazy sugar rush won't be my problem since I'm not working at school today!"

I did NOT eat one of those cupcakes for breakfast myself.

I did NOT start a bad bedtime habit for Logan by taking him for a walk in the stroller to fall asleep. I certainly did NOT do this while wearing my pajamas...no matter what my neighbors say.

I did NOT gag when I noticed that there was mold growing in my toothbrush. I did NOT not have a spare so I did NOT use one of my kids' toothbrushes.

I did NOT think "Ha! Now you know what it feels like!" when Jack was trying, unsuccessfully, to get Logan's attention by saying his name over and over again.

Visit MckMama for more "Not me!" Monday posts.

Aren't I the gracious hostess?

You've heard me mention how blogged down I've felt lately. I don't think I'm really any busier than usual so I'm not sure why I'm getting so behind. But I'm so behind that I have tons of awards and tags coming out at the seams. I'm not exaggerating...I have 7 awards and 2 tags!

So here is the deal...it would take me forever to type out all of my friends that I am passing these on to and I've got to get to bed soon. So, please take what you want from the awards and tags below. What's mine, is yours. No, really. Please help yourself... (Am I lazy or a gracious hostess? You decide.)

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The Entertaining House's Jessica and A Sense of Humor is Essential's Martha both awarded me the One Lovely Blog Award.

Here are the rules:
1. Accept the award, post it on your blog together with the name of the person who has granted the award, and his or her blog link.
2. Pass the award to 15 other blogs that you’ve newly discovered. Remember to contact the bloggers to let them know they have been chosen for this award.

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Martha at A Sense of Humor is Essential also awarded me the Queen of Alll Things Awe-summm!!! Award.

In order to keep this crown, I have to list 7 Awe-Summm things about myself.

• I'm extremely efficiency driven.
• I take decent photos.
• I love my kids and husband with every fiber of my being.
• I'm not afraid to make a fool of myself in public for the kids.
• It only took me 2 weeks to write this post.
• I'm trying to do small things to help our planet for the sake of my kids.
  
• I was able to list 7 awesome things about myself really quickly (yea, right!)
  

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Veronica Lee of Of Mice and Ramen awarded me 4 unique awards.

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Christina at Rant-Rave-Roll passes on the Super Follower Award to me.

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Christina, of Rant-Rave-Roll, also tagged me with 6 Unimportant Things That Make Me Happy.

Here are the rules:
1. Mention the person who nominated you.
2. List six unimportant things that make you happy.
3. Tag six blogs, state the rules & notify them with a teeny comment on their blog.

Here are 6 unimportant things that make me happy:

• My bed
  
• Coke Zero
• Watching TV and my DVR
• Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars
• Sleeping in
• Driving with the windows down
  

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Enterainingmom, Jessica, of The Entertaining House passed on the '5 favorite things about summer tag' to me.

I realize that I have been a bit whiny about summer, specifically how to fill 90+ days with my wild boys. But I really do love summer...
Here is my list of five favorite things about summer:

• The smell of sunscreen on the warm bare skin of my boys
• Reading in the hammock Scott bought me
  
• I don't look weird wearing flip-flops (as opposed to the rest of the year, especially if it's raining)
  
• Seeing my boys play at the water park or in the sprinklers
  
• More daylight
  

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What a weight off my shoulders! Whew... I feel so much better. I just hope that I didn't forget any.

Random bits of randomness

Am I insane?

Lately I've felt very, very behind on writing blog posts but even more so on reading your blogs and commenting. As Mimi would say, I'm feeling very blogged down.

So I must be insane to consider joining Facebook and/or Twitter. Why do I need to add more instant technology to my life when I'm already feeling like I'm failing at what I've got?

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I've taught the boys that it is not nice to tease. So it's ironic that we have an ant farm on the dinner table, right?

Unusual centerpiece, huh? Poor little ants want our dinner but all they have to eat is that weird blue gel.

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Seems weird to me but the boys love, love, love balsamic vinegar. Logan, if given the chance, will dip his hand in the container and then stick it in his mouth. Yummy!

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Is there anything better than siblings getting along?
The boys are reading their Lego magazine together.

Kill him with kindness & The other side of the camera

Kill Him With Kindness

Today I worked at the boys' school which means that we can not be late. Jack was having a rough morning but we were in the home stretch. Just socks and shoes and out to the car. But, of course, there was some sort of meltdown regarding these final tasks before leaving. So I did what I always do...I told him that I was going to leave without him.

You've said this to your kids, right? I'm not the only heartless mama threatening to abandon her kids when the going gets tough and well, when it's time to go. Right?

I knew the day would come. And today was the day...

Jack called my bluff.

"Jack, come here and let me put your shoes on or you are staying here while Logan and I go to school!"

"That's okay. I'll stay."

"I mean it...I'm leaving and you will be home all by yourself," I said sternly.

"Okay."

"Logan, head out to the car. Your brother isn't coming with us."

"Bye Logan!"

"Jack, we'll be gone for...about 5 hours. That's a really long time." I'm still all business at this point.

"Okay."

"I mean a really, really long time. Like 3 movies long."

"Okay."

"Don't go poop while I'm gone, okay? Because I won't be here to wipe you."

"Okay."

"And you might get hungry while I'm gone but the food is hard to reach so you'll just have to wait...5 hours before you can eat."

"Okay."

"And don't forget to put yourself down for a nap."

"All right."

"I'm really leaving."

"Bye Mama!" Great...now what?

"Ummm...Marley will be in the backyard in case there is a problem."

"Okay."

"But dogs can't really help out too much so you are really on your own."

"Okay Mama."

At this point, I shut and locked the sliding glass door. I was outside heading to the car and Jack was on the other side looking like he had not a care in the world. He happily waved at me.

I opened the car and put my bag in. I climbed in and buckled up Logan. I opened the garage door. I snuck a peek back at the sliding glass door. Jack was sitting on the sofa playing with some Lego people.

Tough love was not working. Hmmm...what's a mama to do?

I headed back to the house and opened the door. I decided to try the old softie approach.

"Jack, I'm going to miss you today. Won't you please come with us?," I said in a sweet sing-song voice.

"Nope...I'm going to stay here."

At that point, I took a deep sigh entered the house and began doing what any defeated self-respecting mama would do. I killed him with kindness...I tickled him. I smothered him with kisses. He was laughing so hard that I was able to pick up his socks and shoes, tuck him under my arm, turn on the alarm and lock up the house.

Once in the car and finally on our way, Jack told me the reason he was going to stay at home today.

"I didn't think you could handle two of us."

"Huh?"

"The two of us boys. I didn't think you could handle both boys today."

"Oh, gee. Thanks, I guess."

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The Other Side of the Camera - Dessert

Part 2 of this post is my weekly pic with the boys as part of Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans's challenge.

These are kind of random photos but it was kind of a random night. After dinner the boys went out to run an errand with Scott. It was getting late when they got back so I quickly got them in PJs and told them they could have a little dessert on my bed. (Of course, I decided if they were in PJs I wanted to be too.)

Here they are having strawberries, bananas, whipped cream and a couple mini chocolate chips.
"Jack, how about a little bite for your mama?"
"Lady, quit looking at my dessert!"
Notice they neither of them would look at the camera. They were a bit preoccupied, I guess.

Shaking in my flip-flops!

Lately lot's of blom's (blogging mom's) posts are filled with "Hurray! Summer is here!" Am I the only one shaking with fear in my flip-flops? Surely there are other bloms out there worried about how to fill 90+ straight days with their very own kids.

Next week is the inaugural (sounds fancy, huh?) edition of Tuesday's Tips for Summer Survival (TTSS). It's a way for other scared shitless mamas concerned parents to share alcoholic mixed drink recipes kid-friendly tips so we can end up on the other side of this summer with what little sanity we had when we started. We are always encouraging our crazed monkeys little ones to share so isn't it a good idea that we lead by example.

Don't hoard that good idea all to yourself. Share it and know that you could be saving another mama's sanity!

It could be:
an outing
a craft
water play
cooking
a backyard activity
an idea for playdates
a kid's movie recommendation

There are no limits. If you've done it (or even just thought about doing it) with or for your kids, then pass on the activity, recipe, craft, etc.

A project big or small.
An activity quick or lengthy.
An idea for a younger or older kiddo.

Even if it's something local or specific to your area, it might spark an idea in another mom to look for a similar activity in her own city. Even if it's an old post that you want to link to, we don't care! We need all the inspiration we can get!

So long as your kids had fun (or will have fun) doing it, then share the idea. And I hope you'll post a picture...or two...or three.

Here is an example:

teeny tiny pool + slide that never gets used = good, clean summer fun

We have a tiny inflatable pool that my boys can barely both sit in let alone play in. Last summer I realized that if I lifted the rarely used slide of our jungle gym and slid the pool under it (before filling it with water) we had an instant splash (pun intended)!

This is what we did today and it was followed up with my ice cube tray smorgasbord lunch.

So grab my cute little button*(the code is over there on the left in the side column) and start thinking of what great idea you plan to share. I'll see you back here next Tuesday, June 2. Well, hopefully I'll see you before then since I will be writing other posts but you know what I mean...


You could save a mama...well, her sanity at least!

*Designed by the talented Jen over at Following the Footsteps

Random Tip #62

I like to wrap gifts. There is something soothing about working with my hands and trying to make a present look pretty. But sometimes I have to resort to the dreaded gift bag. (Why do manufactures have to make toy packaging so bumpy, lumpy and uneven?)

Recently, I realized that instead of buying a traditional gift bag I could do better. I'm now using reusable shopping bags as gift bags. The price is comparable (and often cheaper). Once the present is out of the bag and being played with, mom can use the bag for shopping, sand toys or another gift. So one less piece of trash in the landfill.

I've seen cute bags at Ikea, The Disney Store and Toys R Us.

The two above are from Ikea and are filled with my favorite summer birthday gifts...sidewalk chalk, sand toys and bubbles. But, shhhh! Don't tell the Emma and Quinn, the birthday kids...

The other side of the camera - School morning 2

I'm participating in what I think is a really smart weekly challenge hosted by Carin at Forever in Blue Jeans. It seems like mamas spend an awful lot of time behind the camera. The idea of this challenge is for mamas to get on the other side of the camera in at least one photo a week.

When my boys grow up they'll inherit hundreds of thousands of photos taken from their childhood, but how many of those will show their mama? At least for this year I can answer 52!

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This week I was late getting a pic...but better late than never. Scott took these pics of the boys and I in our backyard on our way out to school this morning.



No special occasion... Just a mama and her two boys on a typical day.

Love those little monkeys!

Portrait of a mama...

Every Thursday I participate in a weekly challenge to make sure that I am in more pictures with my kids. (Click here to see some of my past posts.) And I am loving this challenge. I know that I will never revert back to my old ways of only photographing my kids.

But nearly every week, I complain about how I look in the photo. I generally say something like "this isn't the best photo of me but at least I'm in it." It got me thinking about what I do consider to be "the best photo of me."

Of course, I don't actually think I look great in the following photo. It was a ridiculously hot and long day at the animal park. But the photo was taken by Jack. He was two years old at the time. I was mid-sentence and probably asking him to quit fooling with the camera and to keep up.

I guess what I love about this photo is that this is how Jack saw me, his mama.

If your kids don't have a camera, it's high time to get them one. No, the quality isn't great but I love seeing the world through their eyes. For the longest time nearly all of Jack's pics were his feet and Logan's were of the ceiling or sky. Luckily they've gotten a bit better as the years have gone on.

My 52 Week Challenge post will be a bit late this week. I hope to get a pic of me and the boys tomorrow...but I'm sure it won't be half as special as the one Jack took of me almost 2 years ago.

Day 1 of the rest of our lives...

Earlier this week Scott and I celebrated our 6 year wedding anniversary. I thought I'd take a little stroll down memory lane and show you when it all began...

The morning was so foggy and gloomy but it cleared shortly before the ceremony. We were supposed to be married at sunset but that wouldn't leave enough time for dinner and dancing so our ceremony was in the late afternoon. Here is the site of the ceremony:


We asked a good friend to perform the ceremony. She had to be deputized by the county clerk's office to make it legit.

Our wedding was very small. So small in fact that we didn't have a wedding party. When Scott and I were just best friends we had joked that one day I could be his "best gal" at his wedding and he could be my "man of honor" at my wedding. So when we started dating each other and got engaged it just didn't seem right to ask anyone to fill those spots. We were, and still are, each other's best friends.

Not quite the first kiss as husband and wife but close. My vail was a bit on the long side and had blown around behind Scott.

Our photographer wanted us to walk back and forth and back and forth on the beach so she could take pics of us. We felt so ridiculous and laughed the whole time. (Notice my shoes...I was not joking when I said I wear flip-flops all the time.)

We had a rather long walk back from the beach and man...was my dress heavy! My dad shot this photo and it's one of my favorites.

We had a red velvet wedding cake just because I thought a red cake would be cool. (Though it's worked out well for anniversaries because I can buy a box mix and whip up some red velvet cupcakes for the family.) On our cake table we displayed photos of our parents cutting their cakes on their wedding days.

Happy anniversary to my wonderful husband! The wedding was an amazing start to the amazing life we've created. I feel so lucky to be your wife.

TTSS doesn't stand for Tater Tots on Salty Saturday

Last week, I mentioned Tuesday's Tips for Summer Survival. TTSS will be a weekly carnival from June 2 to September 8 because mamas need all the help they can get when the kids are out of school.

I have to admit that this weekly carnival was designed for purely selfish reasons. I could say that it was designed by a mama for other mamas. But who am I kidding?

It was designed by me for me. Because I'm terrified...of spending all summer...with my kids! (How horrible, right?) My kids aren't really that scary. But I have two young and wildly energetic boys. And there are lot of long summer days ahead of us...

So, if the rest of you mamas get something out of this weekly carnival, then great!

I've even got an adorable button (which I won last week...fate, I tell you!) designed by the talented Jen over at Following the Footsteps. A cute button makes it official right? Can't have a carnival without a button...

So, whether it's outings or backyard fun or indoor time, please share your ideas. It could even be something local, like a kids concert series, that might spark an idea in another mom to look for a similar activity in her own city.

It could be:
crafts
water play
cooking
ideas for playdates
kid's movie recommendation

There are no limits. If you've done it (or even just thought about doing it) with your kids, then pass on the activity, recipe, craft, etc.
A project big or small.
An activity quick or lengthy.
An idea for a younger or older kiddo.

So long as your kids had fun (or will have fun) doing it, then share the idea. And I hope you'll post a picture...or two...or three.

Next week I'll do an sample post to work out any Mr. Linky kinks and hopefully inspire you to participate the week after.

You could save a mama...well, her sanity at least!

"Not me!" Monday - The "Apologies to Scott" Edition

Nearly every week I write a "Not me!" Monday post. I'm obviously a perfect mother as evidenced by my lists of all the things I never ever do. I thought that this week I prove what a perfect wife I am too.


I did NOT do absolutely nothing for my husband's birthday. He did NOT buy the ingredients and make his own chocolate eclairs. He did NOT have to buy and wrap his own birthday present.

I did NOT take a roll of toilet paper out of my husband's bathroom to refill mine instead of getting a new roll from the closet.

I did NOT find a dirty pan put away in the cupboard. I did NOT automatically assume that my husband put it there (even though I know perfectly well that it could have easily been me).

I did NOT do absolutely nothing for our wedding anniversary. I mean, of course, I would do something spectacular considering all I did NOT not do for Scott's birthday.

When talking to a friend about our wedding anniversary and she asked in what year Scott and I were married, I did NOT say, "2003, I think."

Feel free to leave your condolences to my husband in the comment section...

Visit MckMama for more "Not me!" Monday posts.

The moral of this post is...I need to get the car detailed!

Carrie at Martin Manor Happenings wrote a cute post about the random sticky. noisy and sometimes smelly things that can be found in her family's car (which also holds some precious cargo by the names of Alex and Emily.)

I was a bit scared but I thought I'd take a little peek into the nooks and crannies of our car.

A bag full of change & dollar bills because we live in city that doesn't believe parking a car should ever be free

A bucket of Matchbox and Hot Wheels cars

Two leis

Two of the smallest screwdrivers known to man

A cup full of "treasures" (The teacher at the boys' school hides little shiny confetti in the sand box for the kids to find and they've made it everywhere...the laundry machine, the beds, the junk drawer, the bathroom counters and of course, the car!)

Cream of Tartar (wish I could tell you why but I truly have no idea!)

A goldfish cracker way under the seat (and a carpet stain)

Another two Goldfish crackers and some serious nastiness

A smooshed Goldfish cracker and more nastiness

A wrapped but very beat up present from who knows when

A tennis ball with a smiley face

A bag of $1 toys for Makes-Mama-Happy Meals, sand toys, a bag of towels and swimsuits (just in case), a bag of reusable shopping bags, a changing area with extra clothes and wipes and pull-ups

A very special bag of animal crackers

And what is so special about this big bag of animal crackers? When two cookies are eaten while listening to track 6 on this CD...

..my precious cargo does this neat trick:


And last but certainly not least, somewhere in my car is my camera lens cap which I managed to lose while taking these photos!