Palm Sunday...

We had a lovely Palm Sunday.

I was singing on praise team with my Mom-In-Law and Bubbalu was scheduled to sing a few songs with all of his fellow preschoolers during the service.

We were right in the middle of a song at the beginning of the service as the kids were being led down the aisles, waving their palm branches with gusto, and being arranged on the front steps of the stage.

I had hoped he wouldn't see me. I figured he would act up if he saw me.

However, he found me.

"MOMMY!!! HI MOMMY!!!" He is standing with his back to the crowd, waving his palm branch at me with the HUGEST grin in this universe on his face.

I know I smiled, and I'm certain I missed a few notes.

He kept looking at me and then got this strange look on his face. I'm thinking he was wondering why I wasn't going to him or acknowledging him.

Then....tears, huge crocodile tears, open mouth...and wailing.

Thankfully his wonderful Little Lambs teacher stepped in and comforted him. Poor kid. Musta though his Mama was completely deserting him.

He managed to go back up and maybe even sang a word to two during their songs. Gotta love little bitty kiddos singing their hearts out...or twirling in their new dresses...or making faces at their parents :)

The kiddos did a great and adorable job (per the usual) and then were dismissed...to do it all over again during the next service.

So next service (while singing) I backed up farther and hid behind my Mother-in-law so Bubbalu wouldn't have a repeat performance. I KNOW there were people in the crowd watching me hide while Bubbalu craned his neck looking for me. I may have distracted one or twenty-two folks. Sorry bout that.

Almost three days later and it still makes me smile to think how happy he was to see me and of his cute little face singing, "Hosanna in the highest!"

Ya know, after the crocodile tears were wiped away.

A

The Day the TV Died...

The day the TV died.

On the day the TV died it was quiet and still.

Sure, we were sad to see it go but thought, "Hey, no big deal, we'll just do without".

On the day the TV died Mama sat and read the paper front to back.

On the day the TV died Bubbalu missed his Sprout, Thomas and Super Why and didn't understand why.

(Fast forward two days)

We start shopping Craigslist for a cheapo replacement!

While measuring the size of the TV, we turn the TV around, and guess what?

The TV never died. SOMEONE just unplugged it.

I have a pretty good guess who that SOMEONE was...

A

Naptime Piles...

SCENE: Post afternoon "naptime". Mother traipses up the stairs and into her son's room to discover a problem, and proceeds to confront him regarding the problem.

....and....ACTION!

Mama (angry look on face), "Uh Bubbalu? WHAT. IS. THAT?!?!"



Bubbalu (matter of factly) , "It's a shirt, Mommy."

(Mama rolls eyes)

Mama, "Yeah, I KNOW it's a shirt, but what is everything else on the floor?"

(Bubbalu looks down at the problem)



Bubbalu (once again matter of factly), "Those are ALL of my clothes, Mommy."

Mama (growing in exasperation), "I KNOW those are all of your clothes, but WHAT are they doing ALL OVER THE FLOOR?"



Bubbalu (with a "well DUH Mama" expression), "I made a pile of my clothes, Mommy".

(Mama once again rolls her eyes.)

SCENE closes with son picking up clothing and Mother supervising.

Moral of the story: If you take all of your son's toys and books out of his bedroom to encourage resting during naptime, he WILL find SOMETHING to play with.

A

Phanty III...

If you are an elephant you might want to think twice about living in my house.

Poor Phanty. Poor poor Phanty.

He just can't catch a break.

Or rather, he keeps catching too many breaks.

That's right, Phanty got the ole Bubbalu treatment (AGAIN!) and has now been lovingly recreated (AGAIN!) by Moi.

I'm going to just choose the glass half full perspective (yes, it IS a choice) and just say this:

Phanty got a makeover!!! SURPRISE!!!

At least someone in this house should have a makeover. Why not an elephant?

Introducing the NEW and IMPROVED Phanty III :



Elmer has been altogether ignored. Bubbalu seems to fancy Phanty. (Fancy Phanty...say that 10 times fast. *snicker*)

But watch out Elmer, he may get you next!



A

Hair, There and Everywhere...

Bubbalu was looking a tad scary. His overgrown locks only magnified that impish grin...and may contribute to his mischievousness:



In an effort to hopefully reduce the impishness....Haircut time!

We're officially ready for summer. We've shed our winter coats and have our summer 'do on and ready to go:



Guess what? It didn't work.

He's still impish. And mischievous. And destrucive.

In other hair there and everywhere news, Lil Chick is now officially sportin' her very first ponytail. The word "Ponytail" is kind of a misnomer, as tails usually hang DOWN. Like a pony's.

Not so with Lil Chick.

She has a spurt of a pony"tail" that for the life of me I can't get to hang down. It defies gravity without the use of any haircare product:



But that's OK, she doesn't seem to mind:



A

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The BOYS...

Yeah yeah yeah, I KNOW urine is sterile.

I KNOW bathrooms are the place to empty thyself of urine.

I KNOW toilets are supposedly the place to put the urine INTO.

But.

Can I just say???

Boys are disgusting.

Thank you,

A

Shopping for Toothpick Boy...

I am freshly back from a refreshingly efficient shopping trip. Meaning I was able to cross some things off of my list.

Item #1: Get Destructo Boy some new jeans.

After all, his ankles were starting to get frostbite. It's not such a good look to have come short-wearin' season.

And can I just say? Trying pants on a toddler in a dressing room is NOT my idea of relaxation.
Those dressing rooms ECHO. "Mama, why are you taking my pants off??? Mama, I don't want to try on jeans!!! Let's go home, sound like a good idea???"

And then when I finally gave up on him and had the AUDACITY to try some on for myself, (because of Item #2: Get Mama some new jeans that don't make her look schleppy) he yelled, "Mama, why are you taking your pants off??? Let's go home, sound like a good idea? Mama, stop looking at your buns!"

BIG echo.

Finding pants for my toddler boy is proving a real challenge. Especially when your 33 lb and off the charts height toddler is able to remove his already cinched to the max jeans easily without undoing any snaps, buttons or zippers. He is one skinny little string bean. Kinda like a marshmallow head with a toothpick body.

However, Old Navy once again came through with their regular dark wash jeans, 2 for $22, plus an extra 10% off entire order coupon.

And I almost forgot to mention, I DID find myself some new jeans. I am STINKIN excited.

Perfect fit, perfect wash and on the clearance rack....with an extra 50% off lowest price.

Y'all, I paid $7.25.

Wait! I had an extra 10% off entire order coupon!

Y'all, I paid $6.52.

:)

A

*** Make my day and become a fan on the Vintage Dutch Girl Facebook Fan page found HERE ***

Destructo Boy Makes His THIRD Appearance...

(Written last night)

Completion of dinner preparation thwarted by toddler (soon to be officially renamed Destructo Boy) performing a tagging of the house with a foolishly unguarded glue stick. At least it wasn't a sharpie this time around.

He hit the dining room, stairs and stairwell and once again, the office. What is WITH the office that is so enticing to him? At least he left the computer screen alone this time.

Funny thing was, I was listening to Duffy's song. 'Mercy'

"I'm begging you for Mercy! Why don't you release me? You got me beggin, You got me beggin, You got me beggin! For Mercy!"

Yeah, I'd say that's pretty applicable for how I'm feeling right about now.

C'mon Bubbalu. Give Mama a break, huh?

A

At Least I Can Cross "Eat Some Chocolate" Off My List...

Things I should be doing instead of trying to nap in Bubbalu's bed while he pretends to rest with me:

- Put the folded, then un-folded by Lil Chick, then refolded by Mama laundry piles of clothes away.

- Unload and reload the dishwasher. Pretty sure I have another complete load of dishes on the counter.

- Put my makeup on and do my hair. It IS 3:30 in the afternoon. You'd think by now I'd have gotten my war paint on and tamed my tresses for the day. After all, I don't want to scare anybody if they come to my door.

- Get something ready for dinner since we ARE having our bro and sis in law over. However, they are relaxed and unpretentious. Spaghetti it will be.

- Change out of my morning walk clothing. Because it IS 3:30 in the afternoon.

- Taking the recycle out from under the sink and bringing it out to the garage. ( So am I the only one who shoves and wedges the recycle stuff in the recycle carton located under the sink until the sink is about to pop from it's place and get stuck into the ceiling? The next person to open the cupboard gets plastic tubs, newspaper ads and glass jars spewed at them. Then, when I can't fit any more under there I start piling it on the counter. Why why WHY can't I just take it the extra twenty or so more odd steps out to the garage? Because I'm a dork, that's why.)

- Start the NEXT round of laundry. It never ends.

- Put the Ambrosia 10lb Chocolate chip bag away. Ya know, hide the evidence.

- Vacuum. Either that, or get a dog specifically trained to eat all of Lil Chick's mealtime contributions to my floor. That dog also has to be completely potty trained, take the recycle out, be able to efficiently unload and reload the dishwasher and put folded, unfolded, then refolded piles of laundry away.

- Post about Bubbalu's and Lil Chick's birthday parties. I did promise to do that after all. Something about cake, a tutu, and dimples, remember? Yeah, I didn't forget. I'll get to it. Sometime. Eventually....maybe.

- Take pictures, crop, recrop and upload them and list new spring flower pins to the Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop. SUPER cute new colors, just can't get up the gumption to do it yet.

- Make amends with my serger. The first time around I broke a needle and has to figure out how to replace that WHILE rethreading all four threads. My brain almost stopped working.

- Complete the Sharpie clean up.

- Dole out and frame the pics I got of the kiddos in November. They are super cute pics, I should SHOW THEM.

- Stretch. The power pump and body blast classes I'm taking at the gym are working, but they produce some major muscle "issues".

Ah well, some days are productive, some days aren't. Today I hung out with my Bubbalu and Lil Chick and ate some chocolate.

And that's just fine by me...

A

*** Make my day and become a fan on the Vintage Dutch Girl Facebook Fan page found HERE ***

Destructo Boy Strikes Again...

On Saturday mornings we try to sleep in.

Usually this means we get up at 6:45 instead of 6:40.

Our 34.2 lb "alarm clock" usually wakes us up.

Last Saturday our alarm clock woke up at SIX.

Um, NO. Back to bed you go.

Bubbalu wasn't too thrilled at being put back to bed and wandered downstairs whilst Mama and Papa tried to sleep in.

I was dozing and could hear him rummaging around with his train set. After a good while it got quiet.

TOO QUIET.

The TOO QUIET is NEVER good with young children.

It's the TOO QUIET that makes you sprint down the stairs to find out what's going on.

This time the TOO QUIET was:



and:



and:



and (look closely, window AND windowsil) :



and more window and windowsil:



and:



and:



Oh yeah, and I forgot, the pièce de résistance:



Kinda ironic that I'm googling "how to remove sharpie" and reading the hints and tips THROUGH a sharpie scrawled screen.

Surprisingly, the computer screen was the easiest thing to clean. How I did it? A pencil eraser. It erased the sharpie RIGHT OFF. I was astounded, but very relieved that my computer screen wasn't permanently damaged. Oh, and when I picked up my camera to take a picture of the sharpie-marked room and turned it on, sure enough, he'd gotten the back display too. Pencil eraser once again to the rescue.

Mr. Clean Magic Eraser got most of the sharpie off the computer, mouse, printer, exersaucer (didn't take a picture of those) , camera, window and windowsil. If you remember, this isn't the first time Bubbalu has marked the windowsil.

No, I never did get around the sanding it down and refinishing it the first time around. Good thing because I would have been that much more upset...as if that's even possible.

Took me only an hour to laugh about it all. Lance smiled right away.

It was one of those JUST CHOOSE JOY moments. This time it took me an hour. I'm working on shortening the time distance between THE EVENT to THE JOY.

I think this may be a life-long journey, this CHOOSING JOY business...

A

Merry Christmas...

A Merry Christmas to you, from our family to yours.

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing!

A

The Crabbiest Human In the Universe Makes a Choice...

(written Tuesday afternoon)

Today I might possibly be the crabbiest human on the face of planet earth.

OK, maybe the crabbiest human in the universe.

Yeah, that about sums it up.

So why why WHY would Bubbalu choose this day to break his own "see how many forbidden things I can get into and destroy/maim/render useless/deface/shred/combust" record?

Methinks it may have something to do with the 4:30 wake-up. He stealthily crept into our bedroom and from 3 inches away stared at my face until I startled awake.

"Mommy, I has to go potty".

On one hand, hip hip hurray to Bubbalu for staying dry all night long as a JUST turned 3 yr old. On the other hand, Bubbalu has a hard time going to the potty by himself and needs Mama (*AHEM* or PAPA...) assistance.

As a parent, some days are SO frustrating and mind-numbingly exasperating that you just HAVE to make a choice to choose joy. You can choose to completely lose it, or you can smile, laugh and go about your day.

Today, Bubbalu has been very...uh...inventive in his creativity and pursuit for knowledge and the inner workings of, well, EVERYTHING.

Near the end of this trying day, Bubbalu cajoled Lil Chick to once again climb the stairs and go and play in Mommy and Daddy's bedroom. Normally this is just fine as I have a strategically placed basket of books, dolls and cars for them to play with instead of wreaking havoc. I was downstairs in the laundry room, and having a dryer that isn't QUIET covers up the kids being TOO QUIET.

You know, the TOO QUIET that causes you to run. No, SPRINT.

I was just thinking to myself, "Hmmm, wonder what they're up to?" and heard a loud THUMP. Then a few more. THUMP thump THUMP.

What in the world are they up to!?

Raced upstairs to find that Bubbalu had located Mama's Christmas wrapping paper stash hidden under the bed...in a huge plastic under the bed type storage bin.

How how HOW he managed to pull it out (it is HEAVY - remember, I shop at Costco. Costco has AWESOME wrapping paper. True to their norm, you get a LOT of wrapping paper per roll. Each weigh a TON...and I had at least four of those in there as well as numerous other paper rolls), unlatch both handles and get the double sided lid off is a mystery to me.

Then he must have decided that since it was hidden under the bed, put away neatly and clearly MEANT for him, he started to investigate.

Really now, it wasn't that bad. From my view into our bedroom I just had to take a deep breath and just choose joy. Choose to smile and not to scream.

Then I followed a paper trail into our master bathroom.

And again had to CHOOSE JOY...after gasping out loud, of course.

Bubbalu had triple lined every square inch of the place with wrapping paper.

BRIGHT, GLASS HALF FULL SIDE:

-my previously undecorated for the holiday season bathroom is now VERY festive
-my boy understands which colors coordinate perfectly for wrapping
-my boy knows QUALITY paper...he chose the best, most expensive wrapping paper for his "decorating"
-my boy knows how to entertain his younger sibling for great lengths of time
-my Christmas wrapping paper stockpile is now so low I must replace some posthaste
-my paper recycle bin is VERY full

And that is it. No DARK, GLASS HALF EMPTY side. Why???

Because THIS Mama, despite starting the day off as the crabbiest human in the universe, is choosing JOY...

A

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The BIRTHDAY PLAN of 2009...

I've been busy up in the bonus room. Just a quick smattering of projects. I've felt super inspired (yes, AGAIN.) and ready to do some major sewing and creating. Why why WHY do I have to be all inspired on the busiest week and month of the YEAR?

OK, it may not be THAT busy for you. What's on your plate this week? Maybe an office Christmas party, online shopping for those last 3 gifts you can't find and a quick trip to the mall?

This week we have TWO birthday parties. And I'm throwing them. Yep, Bubbalu and Lil Chick both have December birthdays....4 days apart....two weeks before Christmas. In DECEMBER. FOUR days apart. TWO birthdays. TWO weeks before Christmas.

IN DECEMBER.

OK, I'm officially done whining.

Truth is, I love throwing a party. I don't like to keep it simple and blah. When things are simple and blah I feel a bit sad. I LIKE to make parties special and create something unique for them. I also want to make sure my kids don't get the "oh, your birthday is so close to Christmas let's just lump the parties together" and have their birthday overlooked altogether. Problem is, throw two parties that I'd LOVE to have fun with together in one week (*ahem* 4 days apart) and there just isn't enough time to do it all.

Unless, that is, I plan ahead and maybe even create an excel spreadsheet detailing (insert booming loudspeaker echo voice) THE BIRTHDAY PLAN of 2009 complete with scheduled crafting, cake baking, decorating and even a rest time or two thrown in to keep Mama's sanity intact.

Good thing I plan ahead.

Lil Chick turned ONE yesterday. She makes me smile. She makes other people smile. She has dimples when she smiles.

We had a lovely, yet subdued (for me) party. Stay tuned, pictures coming soon.

There will be cake, there will be a tutu, and there will be dimples...

A

Reasonable, Understanding and Rule-Following Child...

My husband and I had a great, Christmasy time wrapping all the kiddos Christmas (and birthday) presents yesterday afternoon. We listened to Christmas music and talked about how the kids would love their presents.

We had a strict talk with Bubbalu about the presents needing to stay under the tree and that they were strictly off limits.

I'm just SO glad he has recently developed into a reasonable, understanding and rule-following child:



It will be a miracle if the presents remain intact until the 25th. I'll keep you posted...

A

Destructo Boy...

I am renaming Bubbalu as Destructo Boy. I will applique his new initials "DB" onto his superhero cape as well as spray paint his initials and logo onto his trike.

A small sampling of Destructo Boy's recent accomplishments:

- got into my toiletries and sprayed an entire small bottle of perfume all over my walk in closet, our clothes and Lil Chick. Husband will be thrilled to find he now smells like a woman. Discovery of crime due to Lil chick screaming in protest. Apparently she thought she was sufficiently fragrant.

- broke 8 candy canes into thousands of tiny pieces. Not such a huge tragedy as I can now make white chocolate peppermint bark.

- unwinding an almost full bobbin of elastic thread and stringing all about the living room. Discovery of crime due to Lil Chick screaming in protest. Apparently she didn't like having elastic thread woven around her NECK and cutting into her skin.

- dumped the newly reorganized, size appropriate, freshly washed and laundered (like ONE hour ago) top drawer of clothes of Lil Chick's dresser. ONTO Lil Chick. Once again, discovery of crime due to Lil Chick screaming in protest. Apparently she didn't like having a drawer on her foot.

- discovered an unattended container of itty bitty black beads and proceeded to unscrew lid and dump them all over the carpet. "They have holes in dem Mommy, little holes in dem!" Turns out that was too boring so he sat at my sewing desk and proceeded to unwind and tangle as many different bobbins he could in a limited amount of time. And let me tell you, that boy is efficient.

- picked out itty bitty black beads off of the carpet one by one and put them back into their container (punishment).

- but that was boring so he dumped the entire refilled container of itty bitty black beads into an empty, open bottomed sewing machine case sitting on the carpet.

- picked out itty bitty black beads off of the carpet one by one and put them back into their container (punishment WITH supervision).

- reset the thermostat. One again, that boy is efficient when time constrained. I'm hoping he'll give me a tutorial of the thing.

- discovered unattended new container of Soft Scrub on kitchen counter. Discovered how to climb ONTO kitchen counter. Discovery of crime due to appearance of soft scrub container sitting in a puddle of squeezed out product.

- attempted to pry metal labels off my Father's legal office file cabinets. Fortunately was unsuccessful.

- also attempted to push every button, turn every knob and try every handle in the interior of aforementioned legal office. ( I fled the office after 5 minutes fearing Destructo Boy's Rate of Destruction was going to multiply exponentially.)

- decided that his nap chart in his room was a stupid place to have stickers. During nap time (where's that sarcastic font???) stickers were relocated to finished wood closet doors. Why not?

All this along with eleven hundred ninety seven near misses and Mama interventions.

And I wonder why I'm exhausted at 7:42 PM?

A

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A Beautiful Court Date...

I was in court today.

For an INCREDIBLE reason.

No no, I wasn't contesting a traffic ticket (never even been pulled over - holla!)

It was for a much more beautiful reason.

Remember my awesome sister Rebecca? Yaknow, the one who had a precious baby girl only three weeks before her newly adopted 6 month old son was brought home from Ethiopia by her husband Dusty?

( psst! You want to see some grown folk cry the Boo Mama coined "ugly cry"? Force them to witness a newly adopted child be brought home and placed into his exuberant and loving new Mamas' arms. Yep, ugly cry. But a GOOD ugly cry.)

Today, I witnessed my Father in court (haven't seen that since I was probably ten), who represented my Sister and Brother in law, as they finalized/re-adopted their sweet baby boy...my nephew!

It was an awesome day.

Except when Bubbalu bonked the JUDGE on the nose with the balloon airplane toy he was given right before entering the courtroom.

This Mother? Mortified.

The Judge was cool about it. After all, he's worked with my Dad for many years and has a heart for children. He was wiping away tears with the rest of us.

(Besides, I don't think you can hold a 2 year old in contempt of court.)

Welcome to the family Isaiah! We love you and are honored to be your family.

(psst! And your Auntie Amanda ALWAYS has cookies for you. ALWAYS!)

A

I Need a Vomit Roomba...

Yes, it IS disgusting.

No, you would never CHOOSE to be a vomit cleaner-upper.

However, if you are a mother, chances are at some point you WILL have to clean up vomit. (I've heard of Mom's who REFUSE to clean up vomit. UH, what do you do if they puke at 9 AM and you're the only one home for the rest of the day? Do you just LEAVE IT? Nasty!)

OR, you had SO MUCH practice cleaning up your own vomit while afflicted with morning sickness it doesn't even phase you. (*Or so I've heard, not learned through personal experience.*)

I hates me some vomit.

"BUT WAIT!?", you say. "AREN'T YOU A NURSE!?"

Um. Yep. An OB nurse.

And didja know? Blowing chunks is a GREAT sign of labor! Yippee!

So, aside from the food poisoning I had when one week postpartum with Lil Chick (and that is a JOY let me tell you), I haven't done much spewing myself.

Sunday night Bubbalu came down with some lovely croup. Bark bark bark! And while he is now much better, he still has a cough.

Today Bubbalu came sauntering down the stairs when he was supposed to be napping and said he needed to talk with me. ( Polite, no? )

Apparently he had coughed so hard he vomited.

How to clean up VOMIT:

1. Forget about trying to isolate the puke-pile to only things you can see are hit. Assume EVERYTHING is tainted.

2. Assume you will touch vomit. Right when you think you've got it all your hand will land in a huge slop o' puke.

3. Wash EVERYTHING. Throw all bedding, towels, clothing etc. into the washing machine.

4. Sanitize EVERYTHING. Those handy dandy sanitizing wipes containers? Keep one in the kids bathroom. Use to wipe down floor, toilet, sink, door handles, door (don't ask), stair railings, bed frame...um, I could go on but I think you get the general idea.

5. Give kid a shower and make em brush their teeth. I combined these today and he happily scrubbed his pearly whites in the shower for at least 15 minutes. If child is old enough, that gives you time to strip the bedroom. ( I'm now wondering if he used the bar soap as toothpaste to scrub other things. Mental note to self: sanitize or replace Bubbalu's toothbrush!)

6. Set kid up on the couch with a beverage and a movie.

7. Blog about it for therapy ;)

A

*** ALSO: Vintage Dutch Girl now has a fan page on Facebook. So, if you are on Facebook, do check it out HERE and make my day by becoming a fan.

Spray Paint Someone's BEHIND And Call It A Day...

This is my favorite fall picture from last year:



I have it up as my computer background, but check out what I've just recently noticed:



Ain't that PRECIOUS.

Enter spray paint feature in Paint program, because we're not cool enough to own Photoshop:



Ahhhh, that's MUCH better. Can I just say, I have never spray painted anyone's...ah...BEHIND before. Felt kinda silly. Now it just looks as if there is a large camouflaged person in my picture. Much less offensive to have as the computer background now. I actually might print and frame it now.

You can't really see it, but I was less than two months away from delivering Lil Chick and only a week or two away from full-time bedrest. I love that one of my favorite pregnancy pics is one where my glorious belly is all but invisible.

You wanna see my other favorite preggo pic?

Brace yourself.

It's actually quite stunning:



And by "stunning" I do mean outlandish.

Happy October! May there be no large behinds in your cute pumpkin patch pictures.

A

Health Has Returned From Its Vacation...

I was able to give Lil Chick her very last dose of antibiotics this morning and dump the rest down the kitchen sink.

(insert sigh of relief)

Guess what? Her eyes aren't red rimmed and glassy. Her little body is no longer a fever factory. If her appetite is any indication of health, she is H.E.A.L.T.H.Y.

Bubbalu is better as well! I know this because he is being his normal stubborn ornery self.

Last night he said to his dear sweet Auntie Joanie, "You shut your mouth Joanie!"

Of COURSE he was punished. But the little stinker would NOT apologize. More punishment. He still would not apologize. After about a ten minute long time out period he sauntered over to me, his Grandma, and Auntie Joanie and started quietly chanting, "you shut your mouth, you shut your mouth, you shut your mouth" and slowly increasing in decibels until I could hear him.

Yep, he is ALLLLLL better now!

A

p.s. The Customizable Jones Soda Giveaway still going on over at the Vintage Dutch Girl Giveaway Blog! Go and enter to win!

WallyWorld Therapy...

Quite frankly, it's embarrassing how excited I was to go to WallyWorld yesterday afternoon. I may be getting a touch o' cabin syndrome.

Nothing like the promise of inexpensive bleach spray cleaner and a rock bottom butter price to get yer engine going.

That, and the spray paint aisle. I got tingles.

We're going on THREE weeks of sickness for those under three. While I would hate to complain and seem whiny and weak I do think it bears repeating. THREE WEEKS of being sick.

Despite the THREE WEEKS of being sick, there were some good times in good ole Wallyworld. Thankfully, my Mom was along to run Bubbalu interference while I had Lil Chick in the Bjorn.

First we drooled over adorable dresses, leggings and t shirts for Lil Chick. Next up I picked up some needed fabric for Lil Chick's harvest festival outfit. Yes, it was tulle. No, I won't tell you what color. Hopefully I'll get it done in time, because, THREE WEEKS of being sick has severely cut into my crafting/sewing time.

I'd hate to complain and seem whiny and weak.

Then my knight in khaki's and a button down shirt came and collected the kids so Mom and I could have kid-free shopping - woot! Thanks honey.

Before we hit up the chocolate and munchies aisle, I helped Mom pick out some rocking new duds for the guest bedroom.

This gorgeous new bedding:



The teal is stunning. STUNNING I tell ya.

And we totally ditched the blah beige sheets and switched em out for STUNNING teal.

Mom, I vote for a dark chocolate wall behind the bed with the frame (you know, the large ornate gorgeous one you are hiding from me) spray painted TEAL hanging above the bed.

Not any teal...STUNNING teal.

After all, it's just spray paint. Easily changeable, inexpensive and quick results.

That said, I'm ready to add something like this to my Christmas list:



However it may require an air compressor.

Maybe I can convince my khaki's and button down shirt clad knight to put that on HIS list? Especially since we've been dealing with THREE WEEKS of being sick, we really could use a special treat.

I'd hate to complain...

A