Learning new things and having fun doing it!

Wish school had been this way for me!

I'm not proficient on the internet, so this blogging has really made me learn by the trial and error way. It's fun anyway, except that day I thought I'd lost my whole blog.

Well, today I jumped back on twitter (it's been over a yr.), wrote some comments on a blog I really love to read here, and hope that I can win some lovely vintage purses!!

This addiction is really getting the best of me!! It's inspiring to read about others that enjoy it too!

The Weekend Pt.2

So this part actually starts on Thursday, June 17th. I was at work and I get a little phone call from home. Yep, it's the hubby and he says the Liyah is needing her mommy. Why you ask (I know you wouldn't be reading this unless you really wanted to know), because she has fallen off the platform under the zip line at the grandparents house and has skinned her side from armpit to hip on the tree as she went down.

Okay, sweet she wants her mommy to make her feel "all better". NO, she just wants a new set of ears to scream in as she dramatically lets us know that she doesn't want us to "Look at it, touch it, kiss it (or a mile within the vicinity of it) or put anything mediciney on it". Yikes, I hate it when my kiddoes get hurt, they are WAY too dramatic for me!

So we bandage her up and medicate her with some ibuprophen and she finally falls to sleep. The next day is good, until my sisters wedding rehearsal... ahhh yes the little flower girl is of course the princess of the party and a ballerina to boot. She does very well at the rehearsal (as reported by daddy), but was executing her beautiful ballerina twirls and got a little too dizzy and fell... but being Liyah (did I mention she had a broken arm and four stitches in her forhead before the age of 2?) she had to land with her ear on the corner of the wooden pew in the church. Double ouch-- OUCH, OUCH!!

My mom made sure that the blood wasn't coming from an amputated upper ear and sent her on her way home. Still bleeding when she got there, once again we went through the "don't look, don't touch"... oh you get it now!! I finally convinced her to watch cartoons, laying on her sleeping bag with an icepack on her ear! More ibuprophen and when she finally zonked out I put medicine on her ear and side!!

Whew, then Saturday came. When we picked up Lauryn the first thing she noticed about Liyah was the bruised and bloody ear.... oooh she hates the b-word!

Final note, Liyah made it through the weekend. She did an absolutely awesome job being Auntie's flower girl. Made sure every last rose petal was out of the basket! She has healed up well from her accidents and may only have minor scars to show with the 2 other ones that she has (did I mention she fell on the sidewalk one day and split open her chin? No stitches, but a nice scar).

No wonder Father's day was pretty anticlimactic at our house!

The Weekend Pt.1

Well readers, it was THE weekend! My morning on Saturday started out bright and early getting something for everyone to eat (hubby does the coffee yummmm). The day for getting Lauryn from her week of camp. We hadn't had any phone calls, emergency emails or any other indication that her week had gone horrible... and we were pleasantly surprised when we arrived to see a smiling face and receive great big hugs from our oldest chicky!

She reported a wonderful week of swimming (2x's a day--everyday!), games, snack shack (supplementing her skimpy meals), and crafts! She had tales to tell, and a DVD to show us of her activities throughout the week.

Then 20 minutes later she was crying and throwing a fit because she didn't want to eat "in" at McD's (not that she didn't want to eat McD's, she just didn't want to eat at the restaurant).

*SIGH* there goes the peace and quiet. There goes the enjoyable conversation, the laughs and the good stories. Here comes the craziness of trying to enjoy life with the unenjoyable... laugh with the unlaughable... sing about the unsingable.... soar above the unsoarable!

I never in my life thought that I would have such a "HARD" relationship with one of my children. I never in my thoughts considered that I wouldn't be able to relate to a child. I was a nanny for 10 years (even took Lauryn to work with me for the first 18 mos. of her life) and never had such a strained relationship with any of those children. Whew, confessions hurt...

She continued to act up and act out the whole rest of the weekend, kinda making it miserable for all of us in the house. Yesterday seemed to be a bit better. Hopefully she will be getting back on track to only being grouchy 60% of the time, instead of the 95% from the weekend.

More weekend news to come!

PS. I do love my Lauryn, I just really hate how she is behaving and cannot wait for this stage to pass... and if that never happens... I'm pretty sure I can find a small cabin in the woods, near a calm peaceful lake, with songbirds in the trees and padded walls throughout!!

"The Ring of Fire"

Yeah, it's probably not what you are thinking (unless you are our friends in small group)... I've not become a big Johnny Cash fan, I don't care for all things vintage.

The story goes this way.... first a man meets a woman...they fall in love.... some get married/some don't.... inevitably, unless they are extremely careful or unlucky, they will have little ones! The woman will come to the man and tell him, "Guess what we've done.... oh yes, it's true. A little one is on the way."

They will be happy or shocked, giddy or unsure. They will spend (hopefully) nine months planning for the new arrival. They will shop, party, and go to "CLASSES".

Classes that are to teach, encourage, and prepare the parents-to-be. They will usually scare, confuse and in the men's case, gross out the inexperienced couple. They will tell of water birth, natural birth, Lamaze, epidurals, spinal blocks, C-sections.... etc. etc. They will make you feel lightheaded with all the information, and unsure of what would be best for you and your baby.

The parents will give their input, the siblings/sibling-in-law will share their stories, the friends will scare you with stories they've "heard".

YET NO ONE TELLS YOU HOW IT WILL FEEL TO PUSH AN 8LB.3OZ GINORMOUS BALD HEAD OUT OF A SMALL LITTLE HOLE.... YOU KNOW WHERE!

No one says.... oooh yeah it's gonna burn like the dickens, you will want something for the pain and it will be too late. No one will say, the contractions are nothing compared to when that little billiard (scratch that) huge bowling ball starts to make it's way (AND YOU CAN'T STOP IT) out! If you thought you were miserable before, let me assure you..... you haven't felt anything until you've experienced.........

NUFF SAID!!

Ooooh, more friends

from Australia none the less! Welcome Lori from "Random Ramblings of a SAHM" hope you enjoy what you read!

This is a Thursday, last day of "time off for good behavior" this week. SAD, yet so much to do and look forward to doing in the next week!

Fri.-- Wedding Rehearsal

Sat.-- Lauryn comes home

Sat.-- Little sis gets married (Liyah is flower girl, Greg an usher. First time since our wedding I'll see him in a tuxedo. Be still my beating heart)

Sat.-- My b-day!

Sun.-- Greg is out the door early to play drums @ church, that means I get to do all the nagging alone

Tues.-- Our 8th Anniversary!! Celebrating? Probably not, too hard to find someone willing to take the kiddoes and the GP!

Then we are looking forward to July, when Liyah goes to Princess Camp @ a local dance studio. Lauryn goes to a 3 day camp, and the fam (- Greg most likely) goes with my side of the family to the UP of Michigan for some R & R on Lake Michigan!

Looking ahead to post some pics from the wedding. I know Liyah will be stylin' and profilin'. She is so hyped about getting dressed up and wearing a new dress and shoes and flowers in her hair! I've got some work to do tonight!

Li did some entertaining last night (around 9 pm) for us. She put on her hot pink "Moxie Girl" wig and Lauryn's swimsuit top, bunny jammy pants, pink socks, new shoes and star shaped yellow plastic glasses, then she rocked it with her microphone! Songs like "Frosty the Snowman", "Hickory, Dickory, Dock", and some other impromptu! Cracked us up.... wish I had brought the camera to work with me... she's too funny.

Leaving on a high note... I know that I have grumbled, complained, groused, and in regards to the puppy, inviscerated my husband on this blog.....

LET IT BE KNOWN, HERE AND NOW, MY HUBBY IS AWESOME, GENEROUS, THOUGHTFUL, HARD WORKING AND LOVING-- and he follows orders well!

Yesterday he mowed yard (pretty much a 4 hour job), did dishes, did laundry (ours and the girls), fixed meals (well one anyway), cleaned the girls room (not a job for the faint of heart), and was cleaning the bathroom when I got home!!! Let's just say it was his lucky day (of course it didn't hurt that he got out the nice smelly lotion and massaged my feet). XXOO

A Wow for this Wednesday!

SO Lauryn is at camp this week..... my firstborn, grown up and gone for a whole week of fun and new friends. How do I feel you ask? (Well, I can pretend you ask because this IS my blog.) I feel surprisingly curious. I thought, after 6.5 yrs. of dealing with an extremely strong-willed, overtly opinionated, and stupendously smart child, that I would enjoy (speak for outright exuberance) a week without her. A 5 day reprieve from the daily grind and wearing down of my motherly authority! I truly thought I would be so excited that I would have some time without the usual "Lauryn Lyrics" of "it's boring", "I don't want to", "I don't like that" and her famous.... "there's nothing to do".

Don't get me wrong, I HAVE loved the quietness of the house, the peaceful mealtimes and the 50% decline in the whining. Yet, I have truly missed her. Talking to her, watching her learn and seeing her get excited about things that I would overlook. I'm soooo curious to know how she is doing! Is she complaining to her counselor? Is she "yucking" every meal? Is she whining about having to brush her teeth and hair, or take a shower? Is she being bossy to the other girls in her group or is she following along with their suggestions?

When is she eating, swimming, playing or sleeping?

This experience has let me look forward to her homecoming. It has allowed me to relax and know that what I tell myself in my mind is true in my heart.... I DO Love my Lauryn!!!!

I love her despite all her shortcomings (she's 6, she doesn't have THAT many yet) and she loves me in spite of mine!!

I LOVE YOU LAURYN, AND I'M LOOKING FORWARD TO HEARING ABOUT YOUR WEEK AT CAMP!!

Some self portraits.....

showing her sassy side.....
and her goofy grin!!

If only I could remember....

you know the hubby and I were talking about some very specific topics that I could write about in the blog, just last night. If I could remember a one of them I would write something about the topic right about now! But as the b-day is coming, summer is in full swing (and the kids are driving me up the wall), and I've had my mind on a number of more important things than blog topics.....I am unable to access my spongy brain to write about anything!

Whew, they say getting older is tough, I'm pretty much enjoying a good reason to be forgetful.... I think?!

How about you? What are your excuses for forgetting the things that you thought you wouldn't forget, but have come to realize that you have forgotten? Sticky notes may become my best friends!

WOW-WOWSER-WOWSIE

OKAY! So I left you last week with the post of my blundered blog.... I was devastated all weekend, but didn't have the time to get online and fix it. So, I think that I have everything the way it was, funnily it popped up today when I hit a few buttons (no error reading HTML today!).

My weekend went well, I was better than better and we had a wonderful time as a family. We didn't get to do any shopping to feed this girls addiction, but we did the next best thing and got groceries and the last few items for Lauryn's week at camp next week!

We finally spoke to the dance place that has the Princess Camp. Signed Liyah up today for a week in July and maybe she'll love it enough she'll want to go back in August.

The girls are enjoying the summer break and I think mommy and daddy are surviving. The stress with GP mounts everyday and then dissipates overnight. There are so many things that we have to do for her now, feeding and such, that she was able to do a year and a half ago. Thankfully we are looking to get some respite help, so we can have some "couple" and/or "family" time!

Looking forward to what the rest of this summer will bring....

Oh, by the way, a big wow this week was Monday night. Greg and I got to go out after sunset and see with our own eyes Venus, Mars and possibly Saturn!! As far as I know you can continue to see these planets in the western sky (in MI anyway) soon after the sun goes down.

General visibility times of the planets in 2010 Visibility times of the planets are shown here in general terms for the current year; for a description of each entry, see the box below. With the exception of Mercury, the times are based on the planets' positions at mid-month. Note that, although a planet may be listed as being visible at a particular time in a month, this does not necessarily mean that it will be visible from all locations on Earth. The observer's latitude and the local season can affect whether a planet is seen or not; this is particularly so for the 'Dawn' and 'Dusk' entries and especially so in the case of Mercury (see under Mercury's description for more details). Since the planets' viewing times can change in the course of a month (eg. from Dawn to Morning sky visibility) the entries inevitably contain an element of imprecision; consequently the table should only be used as a general guide to assess the best times at which to view the planets.

I am IN- SANE.....

I have been trying to update and make my blog look nicer. Easier to read and look at. Without being too crowded looking! Well, this is what happens when you put a nincompoop behind a computer keyboard and they don't have a freakin' clue what they are doin'!!!!

I have not only lost my beautiful background, but I have lost all my links to other blogs, buttons to other sites and all the other pretty little things that I had goin' on!

So now here I go again, because even tho' I saved a template of the HTML, it has an "error" on the page and won't reload everything that I had before trying to redo the blog.

Note to self..... don't get jealous, covetous, or think you are just plain "keeping up with the Jones'" in blog-land.... you will lose, ruin and send into oblivion all that you had (and worked so hard to figure out how to do).

Talk about going crazy!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I apologize to my various readers who may come along and see this depressing blog... it will be back to normal. As soon as I can figure out how to do it all over again!!

Shirley Temple - Come and Get Your Happiness

Missing it...

I missed WOW Wednesday this week thanks to a very well known visitor, "Aunt Flo". I was down sick and didn't get on the computer. You know as a 13 yr. old, first meeting "Aunt Flo", I never would have thought that almost 30 yrs later she would still be a miserable guest!

So I missed work for a couple days and just hung out around the house with the girlies, GP and some ibuprophen. I'm feeling much better today. Things are flowing smoothly, you could say.

Lauryn enjoyed a take your kid to work day yesterday (Greg thought I could use a little reprieve I think). Boy, did she have fun! She got to swim in the pool with Pete, had pizza with daddy for lunch and got to play on the computer (internet @ Pete's is great). She came home last night @ 7:30 happy as a lark that she got to spend the day with Greg and didn't have to compete with anyone else for his attention.... that made her a VERY good girl! Greg said she was wonderful and they had a great day!

Liyah was okay at home with me. We went to the library again, after we had MickyD's for lunch (note to self don't let GP eat her ice cream by herself, more than half of it went on the floor or lap). Then her cousins Annie and Raymond came over for some play time. Raymond made his departure when Li was suggesting that they have a tea party.... Annie stayed and helped serve up a yummy tea!

GP and I, well I'm the one choosing, chose to watch some movies the last couple days. I thouroughly enjoyed the clothing and decor in the movies (40's-50's). We watched a Shirley Temple movie and I thought there would be nothing better than dressing Liyah in those cute little dresses, hats and coats that she wore in "Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm". Li would love it as she is the "fashionistah" of the household!