Ode to my mama...

I was glancing at a picture of my parents today and it provided the inspiration for today's blog.  I love my mom, she's great.  She's funny and crazy smart, and usually knows the right thing to do in any situation.  And while I do LOOK like my dad in drag,  I have however noticed there's a couple of my mom's crazy quirks that are seeping thru the genetic gene pool I never really thought I'd see...

• I'm beginning to truly appreciate bacon so crispy it's actually dusty.

• I dance in the grocery store and don't realize it....until the kids say something.

• I value a good fleece vest.

• I like the imaginary break on the passenger side of the car....I use it often.

• I try with all my might to not to swear....but if I do, I make it good.

• Uck....no matter what pants I buy....no matter what style.....they are still mom jeans.

• Everything is better with balsalmic vinegar and olive oil.

• Poptarts are to be toasted and buttered.

• There is no better time to plan for the next meal than while I am stuffed from the last one.

• Don't go to bed angry.

• Smile and nod.

• Thank you notes.....okay, so that one is always in the back of my mind....not so much on the actual writing of them, gotta admit.

• I talk to myself and when the kids catch me, I tell them I'm just singing...

• I will look for my cell phone in my purse, and panic thinking I've lost it, while talking on my cell phone...

• Try to always comb the kid's hair so it looks like no matter what, "somebody loves them".

• Date your husband.

• Wine is good and often necessary.

• Finally, say "goodnight" whenever you leave or hangup the phone...never say "goodbye".  Goodbye can be forever while goodnight is see ya soon.

My dad is great and gave me my quirky sense of humor and large calves, but my mom is responsible for a lot more than I tend to give her credit for....love ya mamasita....oh you too Pops.

Smarty pants...

These were Robin's excuses for why he was unable to do school today:

• "I have to stretch before I read,"  so he did....for ten minutes.
• "I have to finish licking my knee."
• "But my eyelashes are burning!"
• "Hungry."
• "Too many boogers mom, I can't concentrate."
• "But I only got to play for two hours!!"
• "I can't see anything when my eyes are rolled back in my head."
• "My fingers are too busy shooting lasers out of them."
• "I'm smarter than a cowboy jumping off a hill, why do I have to do this?!"

Homeschooling is so easy anyone can do it!  And the kids never complain and they always sit still and answer with "yes mom," "thank you, mom,"  and my personal favorite, "please mom, can you teach me some more?"

Are you swimming in the sarcasm?  'Cause I'm literally scooping it up in giant handfulls and heaving it at your head.

I really am glad we made this decision for our family....but I'm wiped....and my sarcasm levels are dangerously low.

H :)

All you need is love...

Listening to the kids run around upstairs this morning.

Jumping, giggling, ka-powing, toilet flushing loveliness....until the inevitable....crying and then blaming.

Katie's threatening to come downstairs and tell me what's happened, Robin's frantically apologizing.

I hear Katie's footsteps down the stairs....and half way down, the footsteps stop.  Robin's upset with her, saying she blames him for everything.  He's preventing her from coming down the stairs to talk to me.  He's overreacting and she can't even get a word out of her mouth without an interruption from him.

I decide it's time for me to stop making breakfast and get involved in the altercation.

I stand at the bottom of the stairs, looking at them.  They are eyeball to eyeball, no one is standing down.  Robin breaks eye contact first and looks at me.  "Mom, she blames me for everything!  Is everything my fault?!"

I say, "Yes, Robin.  Absolutely everything is your fault.  Get used to it."

He plops down on the stairs, crosses his arms and pouts, definitely not in the mood for my teasing.  Meanwhile Katie has walked down the stairs and is standing behind me, peaking up the stairs at Robin.  

I ask Robin for the story...I still don't know what happened....something about forgetting to flush the toilet....I'm trying to sort it out.  Robin's just getting more frustrated and flustered and aware of where he's wrong but still has no desire to admit or own any of his part in this whole thing.

His arms are waving around, he's loud and angry....and then Katie decides to walk back up the stairs.   

She plops on the step next to him.

He's still mad, pointing out where she's wrong and he isn't...and she scoots closer to him.

The more flustered he gets the closer she gets to him....one little cheek shuffle at a time.

Finally, she's right next to him, practically in his lap....he finally notices what she's doing and leans away, still irritated with her....and she gets closer to one flailing arm and plants a kiss on his shoulder.

"I love you Robin."

He immediately stops....looks at her and starts to laugh.....the anger gone, then they run up the stairs together and the giggling, ka-powing, super-heroing starts up again.

Jesus talked about loving your enemy. He said, "Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." 

Katie showed Jesus to her brother today.  But what I love even more was Robin's heart in the whole ordeal.  He knew love and he accepted it....and I couldn't be more proud.

H :)

Bracketology....

So....it's March Madness time.

For the past ten years we've done the whole bracket thing with a group of friends.  Some of our friends now have kids that are participating in the bracket....which is kinda weird, but I'm still not afraid to trash talk with a nine year old, that's how thick skin is developed, right?

Anyway, I usually do okay most years.  I really only care about beating my husband....I could come in 2nd to last place as long as his name is right below mine.  I'm not competitive or anything, I just really have to beat him!

So, this year I pulled my usual trick, while Sean is paying attention for weeks before the tournament, reading articles, following ESPN, ESPN 2, ESPN HD, ESPN 85....and then diligently following selection Sunday and weighing out all of the scenarios teams are playing under, I could care less.  In fact, the soothing sounds of the jibber jabber on selection Sunday tend to lull me into a delicious slumber.

I wake up from my nap, refreshed, hungry, and awaiting the e-mail from my husband where I get to make my picks....which historically has consisted of random upsets, picking teams because I like their mascots or not picking teams because they rejected me when I was submitting college applications (yeah, Washington...I'm talkin' to you!).

This year though I'm a little worried about my selections and my reputation....my husband is quite a few points ahead of me and has made some rather smart choices, once I actually started paying attention.

Oh well, I guess I could let him win just this once....and I won't be bitter about it...I swear!  Hey check me out....I'm maturing.

H :)

Some days you gotta dance...

Playing brokety-broke ball for too many weeks lately.  Not so much on the side of really fun things I like to do.

So, we've been getting creative around here.

For instance instead of going to the bounce house place...the kids get to jump up and down in the living room....whenever they want.

Instead of going to the movies, we watch one of the 75 million cable channels and I talk the kids out of every toy and cleaning product they see advertised.  Apparently we have dirty showers and they are quite concerned about this fact and Kaboom would be great to get because there's no scrubbing!

It's Thursday, so I decided to submit an application for a reality show....I'm sure nothing will come of it, and I wasted a whole five minutes of my day....but it was break time for school and the kidlets where occupied upstairs so I figured why not?

Kids have been bored out of their gourd with all of the lovely rain we've had, so we've spent lots of time encouraging our imaginations.  The kids played with Auntie Sarg and Uncle J Wadd the other night.  Katie put on a sailor hat and pulled out a globe and a magic blanket that would transport them anywhere....but of course Auntie Sarg had to paddle and I think J Wadd was steering the blanket....I don't know, I was off playing guitar with my pops.  Anyway, from what I could hear they spent time in Canada looking for silverware and then they moved onto Iraq...just to look around.  Katie has a very curious finger and she tends to pick spots on the globe that are colored in pinks and purples....so look out Uzbekistan....you might be next.

And we dance a lot.  Katie and I prefer to dance while doing the dishes....Robin prefers to dance while he should be writing in his journal.  I can take away all distractions to get him to get his work done....but I can't take away his love of the dance.....unless I introduce electric shock therapy...but I'm afraid I might end up too trigger happy with that one.

So, in summary...broke sucks, jumping, TV, amazing scrubbing bubbles, Thursday, Uzbekistan and some days you gotta dance.

And that concludes my blogging experimenting for today.

H :)

Me and that dude I married...

My husband is super dooper great.

Really, he is.

I've only been married to him....really only dated him, frankly.  But, I think as far as husbands go, there's not much better than him.

- He cleans the bathrooms.
- He cleans out the car....even the nasty french fry seat.
- He gives me his Christmas money so I can go buy a guitar...and all the cool guitar stuff to go with the new guitar...like picks and straps and stuff.
- He makes good coffee.
- He totally pays attention to me and takes the kiddos when I have that "I know why some animals eat their young" look on my face.
- He watches ridiculous girl movies with me.
- He eats my cooking and puts up with my snoring. (yeah, how hot am I sounding right about now?...)
- He listens when I tell him to bring home chocolate or don't come home at all.
- He makes a big deal about my birthday.
- He plans trips for us....especially the good "just the two of us" kind.
- He lets me blog about him....well, this will be published for the whole world to see before he reads it, but he'll get over it.
- He usually smells good.
- He plays rock, paper, scissors with me to see which one of us has to attend to a child crying out for help in the bathroom....and he's okay with losing a lot.
- He'll paint little girl toes.
- Did I mention my snoring?  ...I feel it needs to go down twice.
- He usually gets up if the kids need something at night, since I can't hear anything in my coma-induced state of snoring hibernation station each night.
- He talks me out of crazy ideas.
- He thinks I'm cute.

But he isn't perfect....in fact some of the time I'm ever so slightly annoyed with him.  The Type A thing he has going on can get to me and my slobbish ways from time to time.

'Cause sometimes I just want to be me and not take a shower until 2 in the afternoon and stand in the kitchen and eat cake right out of the pan.

Sometimes I want to smother myself in blankets on the couch in my favorite hoodie, with my iPod and my bible and check out for an hour or two, and be totally selfish and when it's time for dinner I just ask what kind of cereal everyone wants.

Sometimes I need people to understand the laundry isn't done for a perfectly good reason....like I just didn't feel like it.

His perfectly nice and organized ways interfere with my spontaneous laziness.

He doesn't appreciate Marx Brothers movies and has never watched Pride and Prejudice the whole way through with me (one of these days he might make it through the opening credits).
 
He has a strange and organized style of eating Oreo's (and it doesn't involve milk!) and he loves Spaghetti O's....which I insist he eat when I am out of state.  Yeah, so he's not perfect all the time....so really I think I deserve some kuddos tolerating him and his foreign ways. (So, kuddos away people...and don't hold back!)

When I told Sean I was blogging about him, he started so say, "I have a feeling it's going to be filled with....(and he paused just long enough for Robin to spew out and finish the sentence for him) "blood, poop, vomit, teeth, boogers, fingernails!"   Yeah, he's learning that the kids and their sarcastic ways are greatly influenced by me, but he puts up with us anyway, he's a good boy.

Love you babe,
H :)

Things I learn from Katie Lou...

Katie is my precious and very proud four-year-old.

She is adorable and stubborn and sweet as pie.  She is extravagant and a tomboy in a Cinderalla dress and cowboy boots.  She is also wise beyond her years, and teaches me things on a daily basis:

• Your imagination can create anything....from a wedding cake, to a blizzard, to horses in the living room and swimming on the kitchen floor.
• A smile never hurts....neither do dimples.
• Howler monkeys are cool.
• Every outfit should be topped off with pink cowboy boots.
• Each day should begin with a hug for the dog.
• Mandarin oranges are yummy.
• Love your BFF.
• Give people Gold Stars just because.
• Go shopping and only consider the needs of others.
• Laugh when you toot.
• Cry when it hurts.
• Burp when necessary.
• Smile with above mentioned dimples so people don't care about all of the burping, crying and farting.
• Always have your Dora suitcase packed in case an adventure should suddenly arise.
• Your purse should include a good book, a stuffed animal for company and chapstick, and mabye spare panties...
• Everyone loves a tu-tu.
• Love without limits.
• Sing "Twinkie Twinkie Little Star" every night until you fall asleep...keeps the bad dreams away.
• Eskimo kisses are good, even if they are a little snotty.
• Love your brother, even when he's being "shelfish"
• Ask for ice cream every morning for breakfast...one day you might get it.
• Love your daddy.
• Refer to the Lord as "My Jesus."
• Drop anything for chocolate.
• And...accesorize, accesorize, accesorize!  Fedora, boa, bracelets, tights....all of the above.

I love my Katie-Lou. :)