Not exactly what I meant

One of Sam's chores he is to perform this week is a daily walk for Lew around the yard.  Lew needs the extra excercise to combat his belly.

 (Lew was sitting on the reverse lever- Sam had to take matters into his own hands)

After his 'walk'- Lew came in a took a big nap.  He was wiped.

Personally- I was concerned about getting him out of the Jeep that Sam had carefully stuffed him into- his heiny was wedged in there pretty tight.  Sam might consider a trailer or something next time.

Or just take him on an actual walk.

We are sneaking away for a couple of days- so I'm gonna be gone from my little blog.  We're going to the land of someone else making my bed, cooking my food and entertaining me and my family. 

I'm SOOOOO ready.

See ya on the flip side!

Too big for his britches

 Notice anything?  Other than one grouchy faced boy?

Within the past month- dang near every pair of pants this kid owns have shrunk.

Something tells me there is no need to pack up any of his clothes from this Winter for next Fall.

My new friend

There are several things I had contemplated posting about this morning.  But I will have to save them for another day, because I've got this new demanding friend that is sucking up all my time this morning.

His name is Dave.  Dave Ramsey.  And HE thinks I should have my check book balanced to the penny.  Which means that my current method of 'here's our total- give or take a couple hundred' isn't what he wants.

Sheesh.

Now I painstakingly record every single transaction in our checkbook register.  Every check, payment and debit card purchase.  And I bring down the total.  I even play detective and go online to track down what Dan's been buying- which is just gas and mountain dew basically.  Sometimes that total shows in the negative.  Sometimes it's negative hundreds of dollars.  Which is okay- since I think that there have been some minor errors here and there and basically I think there might be up to $300 more than what is listed in my checkbook.  But who will ever know because there is never a good time to not use the checking account for a week and see where the dust settles.  Sure, I will say this is the week.  But then I debit at Target, write a check for piano, find a gas entry for Dan, and buy groceries.  And now I have to wait ANOTHER week.

Point is- I keep good records.  I am an obsessive compulsive neat freak who CRAVES organization and complete tidyness trapped in a family filled with chaos!  Either that, or I have multiple personalities- one really organized and one hoarder.  Either way- this isn't my fault, obviously.

So I had to give my time to Dave this morning- filling out charts and balancing my checkbook.  Which I almost zeroed out, but I needed to make a couple of online payments so we'll have to wait for those to clear.

I'm not even really sure we need to do this Dave Ramsey thing- seems like I pretty well have our finances under control.

Like a poke in the eye

I get like 60 minutes per day to myself for my own personal selfish things.  This is not all at once mind you- it is broken up along the day.  And it doesn't include restroom breaks. Cause any mother knows that those are not 'by myself'.  I ALWAYS have some little person, or big person (side eye to Dan) tracking me down when I'm in the restroom, but that's a story for another day.

Today- my story is about my magical time of the day between 6:54am and 7:30am.  This is when I start my day.  Now, it's not when I would choose to start my day- but Allyson's school says otherwise.  And although I initially thought I would use the time to excercise, the fat girl in me threw that craziness overboard and instead I use it to drink piping hot coffee and read blogs.  It's also when I typically update mine.  Which is why it has turned to sh*t this past year, cause I'm basically still asleep.  Sorry about that.

But today- Sam is all up in my junk.  He produced his bad self at 5:30 AM in my room........awake for the day.  But still tired.  So we have a bit of whining mixed with uncontrollable hatefullness that is making me want to pluck out my own eyelashes.  He also has began his daily demand list like drinks, food, play a game with me, change the tv channel, and on and on and on...........pre-my morning coffee.

And I still haven't gotten my proper wake up 36 minutes that I require.

I can tell- this day is going to suck big fat giant easter eggs.

(In case you are wondering- my other 24 minutes of personal time is late at night after the kids have gone to bed.  Not immediately when they go to bed- after the 68 trips they make into the living room to tell me they are thirsty, not tired, scared, forgot to read their library book, want different jammies on, have to go potty, need another story or want to see what I'm doing.  My time starts after they quit all that.  And ends when I fall asleep watching a dvr'd show that I will never have time to see the end of.  ever.  Which is why I still don't know who was voted off survivor..........two weeks ago).

Book Bash

Today is our bookin' buckineers book bash.  What's that mean? It means you dress up as your favorite book character.

Last year- Emily wanted to be Amelia Bedelia.  But when she got to school, she forgot her name so she just told her teacher she was Fancy Nancy.  I'm sure her teacher thought I was  complete nut job, as emily was wearing a prairie type dress, a straw hat and an apron rather than jewels and a feather boa.

Whatev.

This year..........

She wanted to dress up as a character from No David.

Only, instead of one of the recognizable characters like, hmmmmm.....I don't know....David, she wanted to be his mother.

You know- the one who you only see the bottom part of her body and her pearl necklace.

So this is what we came up with.

 Yes- I did in fact turn a pair of panty hose and one of dans old socks into David.  I was afraid no one would know who she was otherwise.

And they probably still won't since he may or may not look like a posessed gremlin.

Emily was happy- so I am too.

However, I'm pretty sure Davids mom doesn't own sparkle sneakers and grinch socks.

The Red Carpet with Mynde

Only it was green.  And it really wasn't a carpet.  It was more of a parade.  A St. Patricks Day Parade to be exact.  If you had been there with me- these are the things I would have said to you.

 I LOVE the St. Patricks Day parade!

 I hope child protective services doesn't come down and find me for taking the kids out of school?

 How sweet that Sam put his beads on Kitty Cat.  Also sweet?  This was the first year at the parade where my kids stayed on their heinys and I didn't have to worry the whole time they were going to get stepped on by a horse.  Yay for small miracles!

 First up- the crazy motorcycle police guys.  I think they are supposed to spell out INDIANAPOLIS, but we'll have to just assume that is right because they never really get in order.

 Sam- contemplating his future career as a police motorcycle parade driver.

 Sweet niblets they are SO close!  Scares me to death!

 See that big giant horse?  He was totally NOT happy about being in a parade behind a bunch of lunatic police motorcycles and wiggling, pulling, turning around.  Then all the horses started turning around because he was.  I thought for sure it was going to make a break for it- and I was already planning how I was going to lay across my children to save them.

 This is the guy who drives behind the horses to scoop up their poo.  Poor guy.

Hey little leprechaun man- isn't 11:30 a little early to already have such a huge buzz on?  (I do believe he was a little tipsy- if I do say so myself)

 

 Hoosier Lottery had a group of professional dancers that would bust into moves occassionally.  I never got the call that they were looking for dancers.  Maybe because I would be a better fit for the ball shaped powerball guy?  Regardless- I was a bit hurt by the whole thing.

 The mom behind me was pointing out ruff ruffman to her kids.  HELLO?  Obviously that is....................who is that?

 Wow- look at the hair on that little gi.............wait a minute.  Is that a wig?

 Seriously, I spent like half my time looking at this child and trying to figure out if that was her hair or not.  Final decision?  Wig- like a beauty pageant kind.  I know because she at one point began shaking her head and playing with it.  Yep.  Gotta be a wig.  Or is it?

 The lawn chair brigade.  Gosh these guys are funny.

 Is it really safe to drive something close to that many people with a fur covered bucket on your head?

 Apparently.

 Seriously?  No one really knows who any of these people are.  Just folks with enough money to buy a spot in the parade.  I'm gonna save up.  Next year I could drive my easter egg in the parade waving and smiling and throwing crap at people.

 This was my view most of the parade.  A mom behind me squeezed her kids through ally and my lawn chairs and parked them right in front of us (while saying stay out of the nice ladies way girls- quick go get that candy- hurry run out there for the beads).  Every freakin' year this happens.  We arrive an hour before the parade so that we can sit up front, and then someone shows up 2 minutes before it begins and shoves their little honeys out in front of us.  I seriously wouldn't care if the big one wouldn't have whined the whole entire time that she didn't get candy from everyone in the parade.  And when they would throw a handful at all of us?  She'd pick up every single piece.  One time I made her share with Emily and Sam- cause we don't want little honey to be rude, right????  Eventually, their mom instructed them to go straight out to the float people so that they could grab anything they wanted right out of the cars/wagons.  At least it gave us a little break.

At one point- the little girl didn't get a set of beads from someone and she turned around and shouted "I hate you mommy".  Her mom didn't hear her, so she waited until she had her attention and shouted it again.

Mommy pulled her back and explained that was not nice.  So there you go.

T

 Wow- back away from the self tanner.  (I wish I could have gotten a picture of her face- wowzers)

 Finally- a float for the adults- but alas, no one running along passing out free beer samples.  Shoot.

 Where does one buy giant eyeball balloons anyway?

Great day!  Totally worth the kids missing partial days of school.  And we'll do it again next year! 

Except I'm bringing stakes and caution tape and blocking off our area 100%.  Not that it will help, but it will make me feel better anyway.

My kids are old enough that they are not all about the stuff they are passing out (finally- yay!).  Don't get me wrong, they love getting a little candy and such- but they also just enjoy the day.  The excitement, the floats, the music, the marching bands, the time to sit out in lawnchairs and just chit chat along meridian street.  But parades bring out the greedy in people- that's for sure.  By the end, the folks passing out stuff didn't even make it along the sides to where we were because there were constant mobs of people all over them out by their floats and stuff.

I missed about 300 pictures that I totally could have blogged about.  And I know you are disappointed to miss my thoughts as I watched one marching band mom (who was obviously a marching band participant herself) 'marching' and knee bopping and shoulder wiggling right along with the kids.  She was holding an umbrella or something- right up against her chest like her instrument.  It was great.  Or the street vendor who turned a shopping cart into his mobile display and the police officer chasing him out of the street.  Or the inner city marching band whose shoes didn't match and the girls outfits were a bit more risque- but they beat the rhythme out of the other bands!

So there you go- Gren Carpet Edition 2011.  See ya next March!

Top of the mornin' to ya

I love St. Patricks Day!  Actually, I love any day that involves fun little things that don't require a bunch of planning on my part.  Christmas is totally awesome- don't get me wrong.  I look forward to celebrating the birth of our King every year.  But 'we' have added so much to it that it is like work.  Dinners, presents, decorations, school programs, plays, cookies, concerts...........it takes some preparation.

But St. Patricks Day?  Just wear a little green and grab a bottle of food dye and the world is your oyster!  Green milk!  Green cookies!  Green koolaide!  Green pancakes!  (Green Apple Martinis!)

Throw in a visit from the leprechaun who plays little tricks on the kids on st. patricks day morning (like dying the toilet green and filling their rooms with green balloons) and a parade and VOILA!  instant fun day!

Hope yours is too!  Feeling blue?  Take the opportunity to pinch someone, it will lighten your spirits!