Verbally Challenged

I’m about to justify my tv watching so get ready.

There are two shows this week that made me want to get to gettin’ – Jon&Kate plus 8 and Wifeswap. Wifeswap, I only catch if I happen to be sitting by the tv and it comes on. So I took it as a sign this week when it happened. The swap was between a rockstar family and conservative Mennonite family. What caught by attention was the Mennonite family. While a bit extreme FOR ME, there were things that I liked about this woman. Things like always having a clean house, being all prettied up, baking fresh pies and bread. So in my world that means no piles of clutter, boy shorts and tanks, Sarah Lee in the freezer and Wonder bread in my pantry. OK. Got it. And the woman did all of this with three kids. I can’t seem to find time to curl my eyelashes with two kids, let alone bake a pie. But remember, I’m observing. Taking what I can because it really would be nice to be superwoman sometimes!

And then another show that I’m now DVR’ing, Jon&Kate plus 8. It’s about a family with four year old twins and two year old sextuplets. This woman Kate has got it going on and is the epitome of organization (with some OCD thrown in for good measure). Her house is clean, laundry done, healthy meals prepared and she has EIGHT kids….and SIX of them are TWO! She makes me want to slap myself for not getting my act together and making a pot roast. Not that I’d ever mop my floor three times in on day like she does or make a pot roast since we’re vegetarian, but you get the idea.

It’s all about feeling a little more domestic. Wanting to get a better system to stay more organized and make healthier choices for my family.

All of that from those two tv shows. Not bad eh?

OH…and on a completely unrelated note…we’re going to the Wiggles concert this afternoon! It’ll be our fifth year in a row (last year here)– keeping an open mind about the new Sam Wiggle. Photos to follow!

Off to make some fresh…uh…toast with my wonder bread. Baby steps.

Can you hear me sobbing? Today, my baby girl is 7 month’s old. Sigh. She’s growing so fast.

And the stats – just because I need to get them down.

Still rolling – EVERYWHERE! I swear it’s why she isn’t sitting so well – she’d rather roll.
Has two bottom teeth…and the tops ones are moving down but they haven’t come through yet.
LOVES to sleep – just like mama and is REALLY cranking when she has missed a nap.
Is a mama and daddy’s girl. She needs one of us around at all times.
Still won’t take a bottle but will take a sippy cup. It’s something right?
Eat’s organic oatmeal and rice cereal AND likes it. I tried fresh avocado today – she wasn’t too sure about it.
Weighted 15.9 pounds at our last doc appointment. That’s 50th percentile. Her height was 50th as well. Her head is still only 25th. That’s why her cheeks look so big (doc didn’t really say that).
Has a favorite toy – a fish by Imaginarium with ribbon gills and a great big tag.
Laughs at her Sophie giraffe when it squeaks. And chews of the legs – GREAT teether!
Stills naps well (three a day) and sleeps through the night.

I may add more later but that’ll do it for now!

Now why didn’t I think of that!!!

In case you didn’t know, I’m supposed to be in Chicago right now attending CHA – taking in all of the creativity and new things the industry has to offer. I was also supposed to work in the Piggy Tales booth tomorrow morning doing make and takes and meeting all kinds of awesome people out there. But things came up and it didn’t work out and I’m here at home where I should be. So because I can’t be there I’m scouring the internet for every possible peek out there so that I can be there without being there. You follow?

And I’ve seen a lot of really cool things. Super fun barn door books from Piggy Tales, new papers from BasicGrey, cornder round squeeze punch from Fiskars (no more wounded hands), super fun and funky papers from Miss Elsie, FAB papers from Scenic Route, and my absoluate favorite so farLACE cardstock! AND those letter and numbers sheets? I see some preorders in my future. It’s just amazing. Brilliant and amazing. Now why can’t my brain function like that and come up with these incredible ideas?

Back to drool onto my computer.

You know it’s bad when you look at the wallpaper in the Big Brother 8 house and think, hey that looks like Amy Butler paper!

Heck, you know it’s bad when you admit to watching Big Brother 8.

You still love me right?

Sigh. I am. And I need to install a video camera outside overlooking my garden because I think that I just re-enacted the snake scene from funny farm…without the snake. You know that one?

So I’m making some macaroni and cheese for lunch and decided that I wanted some fresh tomatoes from my garden in there. I have a great garden, and it’s doing really well this year but the tomatoes are just starting to turn. So it’s hard to find them. AND I didn’t stake my tomatoes this year because they had a major growth spurt in June while I was on vacation. So they’re doing their own vining thing and it’s not the easiest to find the ripe ones…yet.

But I did find some ripe ones, three little yellow tomatoes to be exact. PERFECT for my meal, right? Um…no. Because I am a weenie. You see, my garden is planted in six raised bets with lots of weeds in between the beds. And on those weeds, beetles. And remember, I’m a weenie. I love the idea of gardening, and the benefits of gardening but I HATE BUGS! I really really hate bugs. So these beetles are really ugly and not something that I want to go near even though I KNOW they won’t hurt me (they’re still ugly). So I find a section without these weeds hoping to avoid the beetles when one falls onto my foot, right between my toes…and I’m wearing flip flops. So not cool. So I kick my foot to remove the beetle and off goes my flip flop. Now remember I’m in the weeds, now hopping to my flip flop, trying to avoid the beetles. I got the beetles all while remaining beetle free. Whew.

I have to say that I did think about going inside and putting on more clothing and better footwear to avoid the beetles, but I was too lazy. So I scouted out another path and went in for the tomatoes. And when I went to grab the tomato, I see a lovely three inch slug….ewwwwwwwwwwww! And I KNOW the slug won’t hurt me. But, the slug won because remember, I’m a weenie and totally not interested in those tomatoes anymore. In fact, I decided that I really don’t need any tomatoes with my macaroni and cheese. Not interested.

So I leave the garden and latch the gate to keep the deer out. Lucy, the stray dog that we took in ages ago was tied up to the garden area and likes to jump and she was wet and muddy – I didn’t want to get jumped on. So I did the next logical thing – made a run for it! Off I went with a major fake out and I was ahead of the jumping beast when….my foot went in a hole and I went down. Into the very wet grass and mud that I was trying to avoid…and then greeted by miss Lucy the dog. Nice.

Now here I sit eating my mac and cheese without fresh tomatoes, wet and muddy and smelling like a dog. Why? Say it with me folks:

Because I AM A WEENIE.

Just when you thought that I was going to be a big ol’ slacker butt…again…I’m back. This time to share a few things that I’ve done for IT Kit Studio using the August kit. Man…I love these kits. Again, such a great concept that last month’s kit goes with next month, and even the next month too! AND you get stamps in there – awesome stamps that are unique and fun to play with. It’s different – and that’s cool.

So here goes…one with my girl:

One with both my babes:

AND I need to add that I broke out the embossing tool for those flowers…I NEVER emboss but now I’m hooked… again. Love revisiting things like that!

And then I made this cute little calendar page for my computer. It’s on the bottom of my monitor for a quick date reference. AND it served as a lovely blog banner too..gotta love that! Easy peasy! Now…who wants to guess how long it’ll take me to change it once August hits?

So that’s all for now! More later!!!

I once thought that summers were supposed to be low key and relaxing. Lots of lounging around, book reading and catching up on lost sleep. Maybe it’s like that in your house, but not mine – definitely not with kiddos!

It’s sad to think that summer is half over (or summer weather at least where I live). But when you take a vacation that lasts almost an entire month you really can’t complain that you missed summer back “home”…or can you? I’ve been counting the weekends until Liam is back in school (boooooo) and trying to schedule family things to make the most of them. Enjoy the weather, all of us, together. And we’ve been doing that so no apologies for the lack of blogging.

Some things that have been happening around here:
A couple trips to the beach (a lake beach as Liam calls it – no crabs)
A day at the big fair
Family picnics and gatherings
Outings to the playground
Trips to the swimming pool (and it’s an awesome pool)
…and the zoo

and then at home:
major clean-up in the studio (it took me almost a week and still doesn’t look as pretty as I’d like)
painting the upstairs bathroom (it no longer looks like the incredible hulk vomited on my walls…lovely right?)
new shades on the deck pergola
new furniture on the deck
some household organization stuff
projects completed for IT Kit Studio
doctors appointments

And that’s just the stuff I’ve been a part of. Nate has been accomplishing tons of other things around the house – all since we’ve been home from vacation. It’s awesome – it feels good.

And because I’m behind:

My Addy. Sweet as ever! Now the colors are all glowy…darned save for web option!

More soon. I promise.

But it wasn’t easy. After navigating the airport at 10pm with two kids, a stroller, four carry-ons and two checked bags (no cart), the people standing on the moveable walkways (MAJOR pet peeve and another blog entry) and the extended parking lot (11e was REALLY far away) we were ready for our one hour drive home. Home free right?

So that’s our driveway, about 50 feet from the front door. I took the photo in the morning because remember, it was REALLY late. And it’s a good thing our headlights worked or the van would be in the shop this week.

Thankfully I’m married to Paul Bunyan and will be ready for a really cold winter.