mental health day

speed dial 3. That's my Mom. I called her on Wednesday just to see what the chances were that she could take the day off today (Friday) and make a trip to the outlet mall. HOLLA!!! 100% chance!!!! She already had a doctor's appointment scheduled in the afternoon, so she decided to take the whole day. Call it a 'mental health day'. So, I got on the horn and got a sitter for Maggie, and a plan was born! Love me a good plan, especially when it involves shopping with my Mom!! {Tried to get my sis and sis-in-law in on the plan, but they had to work. Boo.}

We headed out around 9:30 and once we were on the road, it seemed like less than 10 minutes later, we were there! In reality, it took over an hour to get there, but we were like those little yip-yap dogs that never shut up. ;) We both talked a hundred miles a minute as we filled each other in on what's been happening. Oh, and we both talk with our hands a lot, so I'm sure we looked like blubbering crazy people to each driver that passed by!! Ha!

We ate lunch at Cracker Barrel {yes, I know we ate there Tuesday, but we both love it!} and then hit the stores. Mom found cute Christmas pj's for all the kids and a few other odds and ends. She even got me a new top {reason #2 I love shopping with her!}. I'm sure she bought it for me because I am her favorite child {even though she said "if you drive, I will buy you something"}!! As we were headed home, there was a lot more chatting, only a little less animated. We were both feeling sleep attacks coming on! ;) Thanks, Mom!! It was a fun day and I'm glad it worked out for us to go. Also, thanks to my niece Emilee and my sweet MIL who split the day and watched Mags for me. What a blessing!

in love, again

I put things off.
"Read Twilight." Noooo...I will not. And, now I love Edward.
"Join Facebook." Noooo...I will not. And, now I even have it on my phone.
"Join Pinterest." Noooo...what the heck is that?? ;)

And, I did. I joined a couple of weeks ago, but tonight is the first time I actually sat down to figure it out. I.am.hooked. It can be a major tImE sUcKeR, but I am in love!! I love the idea of organizing my thoughts, ideas, recipes, etc. in one little area online. And, let's face it, it enables me to do one of my favorite things...stalk a lot of you! ;)

Today, my MIL came over to watch Maggie while I met my friend, Melanie for lunch. Melanie is very with child!! She is due with Baby #3 in less than 3 weeks! So exciting!! Of course, I grilled her about ALL THINGS BABY! {are you skeered, how are you feeling, what were you thinking...just kidding!!!} I was asked to be present during her first two deliveries, which was an honor!! One was an emergency C-section, so I couldn't. But, I was able to be there when her little girl was born. Such a sweet experience! I hope to be able to see this little booger born, too. :-) We shall see!!! I'm so thankful for all of my friends. I'm sure they don't hear that enough from me!!!

a bird on a cane and my project

Last night, we met my parents at Cracker Barrel. I love CB!! It is the one place I can go and seriously stare at the menu forever! Each thing sounds so good and while I contemplate getting something new, I usually end up getting the same thing...grilled chicken tenderloins, mashed potatoes, no gravy, green beans, and hashbrown casserole. Yes, I am boring. But I love it. :-) Isn't your life more complete knowing that?? So, we are sitting there, waiting patiently on our food, and Levi needed to go to the bathroom. My Dad stood up to take him. As they walked away from us, Maggie breaks out into a murderous screaming cry.... "BUBBY....PAPA....BUUUUBBYYYYY". Awkward. I wanted to crawl under the table. An elderly man next to us was trying to calm her down by showing her his cane. It had a bird carved into the handle. At first, she stared at him like "how dare you speak to me while I am throwing a fit" but then she really did calm down. Oy. She is a MESS!! ;)

After I got the kids in bed, I settled in to watch some tv. I love watching tv and staring at my tree. It is very calming. :)
And, yes, in the front of the tree, you can see this... Even through a rough season, still gotta represent! ;)

Last night, I finished up a project that I started last week. Our basement is about 75% finished, so we decided to put our tree downstairs this year since that is where we spend most of our evenings! I'm trying to slowly make it more homey and add decorations as I come across them!! Sadly, I am very bad at switching out old pictures for new! All of the frames in our house still have Levi and only one has Maggie, and she was 6 months old. Shame!! So, I ordered a bunch of new pictures and started to put a collage of frames together. This is on a ledge by our back door. I like how it turned out!!

Jami, do you recognize the "bear chair" at the bottom of the picture??! ;)

Getting this finished made me more excited to decorate downstairs! I may have just opened up a can of worms!!!! Love it!

hiatus

I've taken a small blog hiatus since Halloween. Believe me, I've had plenty of things to write about, but actually sitting down at the computer has been hard. I've not managed my time very well the last week!! Blah. But, one super exciting thing is that we are all decorated for Christmas!!
I L.O.V.E., Love, love this time of year, as I know a lot of you do too! We don't usually decorate quite this early, but it was the only Saturday that Eric will have free for a while. :/ I'm so happy it is done. To me, Thanksgiving and Christmas go hand in hand and it doesn't bother me one bit to get ready for Thanksgiving while staring at the white sparkly lights! If you know me well, you know that I love trees! I add one to my collection each year. And, I love the new one I got this year...it is the one in the middle...

In addition to decorating for Christmas, I've had a sick baby on my hands. Maggie started to get a cold Friday morning and it quickly turned into a nasty case of SNOT invading my house! Ugh. She developed a bad cough, so we headed to the doctor yesterday and discovered another ear infection. She seems slightly better today, so I'm thankful that the worst is behind us. It's funny to me when my little 1 year old reeks of Vick's! ;)

Speaking of my little 1 year old...I had to post this picture for Gretchen! {Sorry, it isn't the most flattering picture of Maggie! But, I couldn't get a good one of her while she was awake. This is the best you get for now!!} On Sunday, Maggie wore this dress to church. Hope passed it down to us. :-)

I hope to sit down tonight and play catch-up on reading all the blogs! I'm sure each of you are sitting around crying because I have not commented in a while. ;) Forgive me.

happy halloween

Halloween was a little different for us this year! Right now, when something falls on a week night, Eric has to miss it. BOO! But, I took lots of pictures throughout the night and sent him many o' texts!!! We started out the evening with a visit to Great Granny & Great Papa's!! They always come away with a bag full of goodies. :-) Optimus Prime and my sweet little kitty were ready to go! {you may have to enlarge the pic to see Maggie's cute whiskers!}
Levi is not really a Halloween kind of kid! He has never been big on costumes or running up to people he doesn't know and asking for candy....guess that's a good thing! Ha! So, this year, when I offered the option to hand out candy, he squealed in excitement! The Spin DJ's were setting up shop in our circle again this year and handing out candy!!!

They had part of their lighting set up as well as some kickin' music! We, along with several neighbors, set up our chairs and passed out our candy. The kids were sooo excited to just hang out and dance! {Levi thought it was hilarious and embarrassing that I knew the words to songs like Thriller, Let's Do the Time Warp Again, The Adams Family theme song, etc.} Even Maggie got out and boogied for a long time! Here is dj Jeff workin' the tunes...
Our niece, Emilee came up to get in on the action! :-)

Levi and Hillary passing out LOADS of candy!!! {I think they inhaled more than they passed out!}

Oh, and because I am the biggest scaredy cat out there, I don't really know who this is! {Yes, I can hear the snickers and gasps!} Todd dressed up as Mike Meyers? From some scary movie...Halloween or Friday the 13th...?? I've heard his name, but have no clue what he did. Murdered people in a horrid way, I'm sure. ;)

Natalie, the sweet witch!

Maggie and me :-)

We had a blast hanging out and seeing all the little kids all dressed up. I love watching my kids just party down and have a good time! Can't wait until next year!!

paul would be proud

This morning, we tried two new things. Breakfast at Subway {thumbs up!!!!} and visiting a fire station!! :-) When Levi went with my parents to Chicago a few weeks ago, he missed a field trip with his class to the local fire station. Boo. So, Eric made it up to him today by setting up a meeting. Yay! One of Eric's drivers is also a fire fighter and invited us to come today. {FYI...did you know you can go visit any fire station at any time? I didn't know that! Not that I would just walk up and do that on my own. But, a def to do with little kiddies!} Levi has lots of fire truck toys and several documentaries on fire fighting {most of them were made in the 80's...good shows! :/ Complete with banana clips and acid washed denim jackets and jeans!} so he led the way in, thinking he knew everything about everything!

This is Fireman Ron. He seemed excited to show us around. He was SO nice to the kids!! He showed us pretty much every inch of the truck, inside and out. They have lots of gear!

And this shiny thing here is a new firetruck. Hot off the line! Hasn't been on the streets yet.

Little man making himself at home inside. I really was surprised with how much he knew about firetrucks and fire safety. He loves this stuff!!

Maggie took it all in, too. She kind of had a deer in the headlights look the whole time! She may have just been afraid that we were going to leave her there...

Two cutie patooties!

Firefighter Ron told us that not everyone gets to do this...climb up on the top of the trucks! {Not sure if he just said that to make Levi feel special, but it was nice of him to let us!}

They turned the lights on for Levi and he was paranoid they would turn the sirens on too! :-)

Ron showed Levi what happens as soon as the alarms go off and how he gets into his full gear. Very impressive!!

I want to give a shout out to Paul, who has recently become a volunteer fire fighter! You guys do awesome work and we are a family who is very thankful for you and others who put your lives on the line everyday just to keep others safe! Thank you!!

don't be jealous of my artistic abilities

Today was my first feel as the room parent for Levi's class. Oh my. All I can say is that this reaffirms my decision to NOT become a teacher. I have the utmost respect and admiration for elementary school teachers!!! I think every day should be "thank your teacher and for goodness sake, give them a high-five (or a pedicure!)" day!! ;)

So, this is Sarah and me..two coolest room parents at the school today. ;)
I have to give a little disclaimer here. Eric took this picture. When I previewed, I thought my hair looked really weird in the lighting...looked like an awkward red and my grey is popping out really bad! He called me vain. Humpf! So, I decided to keep it AND put it on the blog so I wouldn't be vain. ;)

We got there and the kids were in the pit. Adorable! Levi turned around and shot me a huge smile and said "Hi Mom." He looked SOOO big. Sad. His teacher is really sweet and expecting a baby in March! {Levi said he gets to pick the name, but when I told her that today, she laughed and said this was the first she'd heard of that!}

We started getting everything set up and the kids were bursting.with.excitement. Oh my!

Cupcakes...adorable!!

And a cute bowling game that Sarah found!! It was a hit!

We put Eric in charge of the bowling game and by the end of the hour, he was sweating to death. {Hilarious! I sat in a chair and watched my group of kids color.}

We had some time left over after the crafts were all done, so Sarah and I did some hand painting. I have zero artistic skills, so my line of kids got a pumpkin, ghost, heart or smiley face. Period. I wasn't doing any dancing fairies sitting on their unicorns or any transformers blowing the world up! Poor kids! Here is Levi's ghost...a John Deere colored ghost for Papa!! I know you will be jealous and blown away...

Today was one of those days when I was thrilled to be a SAHM and be able to hang at my boy's school. ;) Love him!!!