What if...

Only a week since my last post? Man, it feels like it's been at least a month since I had a chance to linger at the computer long enough to log in, much less write a post. I am so glad the week is over, with tomorrow starting a new one, fresh...and healthy!? Crossed fingers. Strep paid a visit last week, and although the refrigerator still holds two bottles of cold pink medicine, reminding me twice a day of what was, the kids are happy and healthy and sleeping well again. Life is good. And strep has moved on.

But the week wasn't all bad. Between taking temps and giving meds and cleaning puke, I managed to snag a great job that I'm very excited about. Starting very soon, I'll be the PreAssessment Literacy Support Specialist at a local elementary school. Nah...I'll be a reading tutor, helping 3rd, 4th and 5th graders prep for end of the year testing. Just thought I'd throw in a completely fabricated, yet impressive sounding title for any of you that dig that kind of thing. Subbing has been fun, but this is a much better gig for me right now. Not only does it fit perfectly into our schedules...and our checkbooks, it also gives me a chance to scope out the school that Lily and Luke will attend next year (we've been rezoned). And hopefully with sickness behind us, we'll all make a smooth transition.

Exciting day ahead tomorrow, we've got a surprise planned for the kids. Two words...BIG-TOP!

Saturday

Satallday


Really. All day. Ahhhhh.

Thanks Heather for passing this my way. Here are my 15 random things, a perfect way to end what has been a very random week!

1. I'm a rule follower.

2. I married David when I was 19 years old; completed my BA, Magna Cum Laude, two years later. (Eat that naysayers.)

3. I really enjoy random lists like this.

4. I have an excellent memory for the obscure and pointless, but struggle to remember the ages of my children's milestones, medical terminology, scripture references, or any other important information.

5. I have very eclectic music taste; my latest downloads included Pink, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and a string quartet album.

6. I cry at everything, from worship music to Hallmark commercials, and most certainly, Disney movies.

7. I get attached easily...to anything. Including house plants. And most recently, Rudy, our new betta fish.

8. I have kissed my husband, in the rain, under the twinkling lights of the Eiffel Tower.

9. The inside of my left ear is discolored like a dark bruise. It has a medical name, but I can't remember it (see #3) so we just call it a birthmark. It is not: medicine, a hearing aid, a quarter, a tattoo, ink stain from scratching inside my ear with a pen or marker...you name it, I've heard it.

10. I HATE frogs.

11. I love PopTarts. My favorite flavor is the Chocolate Vanilla Creme, which, despite the similarities, is not the same as the Oreo or Hot Fudge Sundae flavors.

12. David coming home in the evening is the highlight of my everyday. On Fridays, with the weekend ahead, I'm purely giddy. Yay!

13. I just overcooked a batch of cookies. They're done, but I prefer them slightly underdone.

14. When Lily was 4 months old, I found out I was 5 weeks pregnant with Luke. I corrected the nurse who informed me by saying, "No, my baby is in the waiting room."

15. I love to check email, flip through magazines or fold laundry while I watch TV, but it drives David a little bananas.

Snow, we are so happy to see you today! Thank you for stopping by. It's been awhile, and I must say, you're looking better than the last time you visited; actually, the best I've seen. And thanks for playing with the kids, they love your visits and anxiously awaited your arrival when they heard you'd be coming our way.

Please don't worry about the messy footprints in the foyer or the piles of wet clothes in the laundry room; your visits are so rare, I'm more than happy to clean up after you for the brief time you're in town.

But, Snow, some guests, yourself included, are best enjoyed in small doses. Let's not ruin a good thing. With the slick roads and sidewalks, the blanketed vehicles, the runny noses, chapped cheeks, frozen fingers and toes...I must admit, I hope you don't overstay your welcome.

But never the less, it's good to see you. Please stick around at least for today.

...stealing blog post ideas from friends

...Level Seven, or is it Level 7, or maybe L7

...homemade potato soup

...leftover homemade potato soup

...snuggling this little guy while he sleeps (quite certain Chelsea has made a mental note to check here first if he's ever missing)

...sunshine

...David with bed-head and sheet marks on his face, walking into the living room to find me like a groggy toddler (hee, hee)

...Lily's snaggle-tooth smile

...the way Luke really seems to think we have trouble seeing him when he's wearing a camo shirt

...Sunday evening services at Elevation

I should stop there, but because it's so cold, and my feet are cold, and that makes me a little grumpy, I'm adding:

I "un" *heart*

...cold feet

...knowing the low temp in Florida is warmer than our high temp here

...the convenience of the "Exercise on Demand" channel, combined with ambitious friends

...the drabness of January

...waiting on a phone call


If your *heart* list doubles your un *heart* list, you know that life is good!

I've got a "catch all" cabinet in my kitchen that was beginning to look like it might soon throw something back. I decided I better sort through it while I had a free morning...I'd just throw out the things I didn't need and make room to consolidate some other "catch all" areas into this one. That was the plan.

Lily's nebulizer solution is in this cabinet and once the space was cleared out a little, there was room for the entire breathing machine and accessory equipment, and it certainly makes sense to keep it all in one area. Then I noticed how many pieces I'd managed to collect...the tubing, the mouth pieces, the solution chambers...so I began sorting them out. I decided to keep only what was absolutely necessary, sanitize what I was keeping, and then move on. But while I waited for those pieces to dry, I thought I'd take a quick second to work on another cabinet that needed attention, the one where I stick all the crafty stuff I come across...bottles of glue, paint brushes, stickers, etc. Made it through that cabinet fine (well, only a few minor sidetracks), but overall a success. Moved on to the the counter top below. Another success. But then I came to the next counter top, it's the little nook where I keep a few mementos from our trip to France, all needing to be dusted off. But handling them just got me wanting to look at the pictures, so I abandoned that chore completely to peruse my France photo album. But while looking for that album, I noticed how disorderly my albums were, so I began sorting and straightening them. And of course, I couldn't straighten photo albums without peeking in one or two or ten of them. Before I knew it an hour had passed; an hour full of "man I'm crazy about that David" and "they're growing up too fast" and "wow I miss them" and "oh, I'd forgotten about that"...and rather than organizing anything, I'd managed to spread photo albums everywhere.

Now that leaves me with one counter top full of nebulizer equipment, long since dry, waiting to be put away. One counter with French pottery and Eiffel tower knick-knacks, only half of which have been dusted off. A living room floor full of photo albums needing to be put away. And much less time to do it all than when I started.

So I decided to blog instead. That's just how I work.

They got a little silly with the flour, they weren't really quite that messy!















Crunchy Oven Baked Chicken Toes and Pasta and Trees, from Rachel Ray's cookbook for kids, a Christmas gift from my parents. Not bad, not bad at all!

Billy Mays tried to warn me. He said this would happen. I guess I should've paid attention. Oh, wait...I did. Mighty Putty was tops on my Christmas list. Guess I wasn't a very good girl last year. And after David comes home to all this, I'm guessing I'll be on the naughty list for 2009, too.



Rats. Shoulda just bought the dumb amazing stuff myself. If it has the strength to pull a fully loaded, 80,000 lb tractor trailer, surely it would've worked for my small wrought iron hanger. Now, not only do I need Mighty Putty to finish my little project, I need it to fill in those dadgum holes. (And maybe re-adhere a chunk of skin to my thumb?)

When we moved into this house 19 months ago, I was borderline obsessed with creating the perfect girly room for Lily. Up until then, she and Luke had shared a room. Even before he came along, her nursery was unisex because we didn't know what we were having until the beautiful moment she arrived. So five years of pent up girly-decor-desire came pouring out, landing all over the pale yellow walls in the room that became hers. Three dimensional butterflies, polka dots, tulle...with the help of my mom and sister, I stopped only when I had to...when there wasn't room for even an ounce more of femininity.

And then there was Luke's room. We painted the white walls blue right away, but he wanted rockets. I searched the internet and found very little room decor available. Target had a cute rocket bathroom pattern so with help of my mom and a pair of scissors, a shower curtain became bedroom curtains. About 6 months later, the pattern was discontinued so the $25 trash can, marked down to $6, was added. He had lots of wall space but I drug my feet on doing anything about it. I priced wall appliques a time or two, but they were just too pricey. So the poor little guy's room stayed pretty blah. Until last week. Apparently, rocket bedrooms are now "in" and my mother-in-law found a great rocket comforter for Luke for Christmas. Adding this to his room inspired me to do more. So with a bin full of craft paint, a few of those sponge painters and a wet rag for errors, I went to town on his walls. I had to throw perfection out the window and just wing it because it would have taken three times longer to measure the space, draw lines for reference and then pencil in the design. I'm pleased with the results, but more importantly, so is Luke. Here's what he ended up with...but don't look too closely, in fact, you'll probably be more impressed if you squint a little.

The rocket kind of a combination of what's on his curtains and what's on his comforter. I used different techniques with each of the planets, such as sponge painting; and the stars are stick-on glow stars that he'd spread all over the room months ago. I rounded them up and gave them a proper "space"...pun intended!

The countdown, which is on the opposite wall, begins at 10 and ends at 1, but I zoomed in a little to show off the "fiery" words. I put orange, red and yellow on the sponge tip so the letters would be multi-colored. I made an attempt at some smoke coming off the letters, but it didn't go well...that's what the mistake rag is for!

Now I've been bitten by the painting bug. There isn't an inch of space on Lily's walls so I'm not sure where to go next. I don't know, Holly, I may not stop until my own bedroom is full of cherubs!

visit a place I've never been.

listen more than I talk.

plan a pleasant surprise for a loved one.

do something clever that generates a "wish I'd thought of that" reaction from others.

speak all the compliments and kind things that pop into my head.

leave harsh and negative things unspoken more often than not.

surprise Lily and Luke by saying "yes" to a request made with that "I know you're going to say no" look on their faces.

send handwritten cards and letters and notes for birthdays, special occasions and no good reason at all.

cook more fresh vegetables, finding a way to make David and the kids eat them, and like it!

say "hurry up" only when absolutely needed...in case of fire or oncoming traffic...not when the kids are just being kids, taking their sweet time to load up because they like to watch their breath on a cold morning or see where the squirrel is running too.

fix all my household problems with Mighty Putty in one hand and a Sham Wow in the other, along with a tube of Mighty-Mend It in my pocket.

keep my two new house plants alive.

memorize and speak more scripture.

I'll be back to blogging soon, but in the mean time, Happy New Year!