Fist pumpin over here!!!

 

Why you ask? Because it’s almost the freakin weekend and I have some stellar fun plans!! It’s the bro-in-laws 30th birthday (ha! old man!) so the hubs and I are going to Manhappiness (sans kids) to celebrate with my siblings and their significant others!!! Picture this if you will: my 3 siblings and I, no kids, K-State football game with LOTS of tailgating, the Ville, and glorious sleep (again with no kids!)………….fun freakin times!! I can’t wait! Oh yes…ahem…..I WILL miss the kids, but let’s be honest here, I am more than ready for a night off!

This was me and the sibs last year after one of the games………..I love you guys! Get your game faces on for Saturday, cause it’s ON LIKE DONKEY KONG!!

We aren’t leaving until Saturday morning (so we will miss Friday night festivities, sad face) BUT it is our last Saturday group run for the half marathon and I really wanted to be there for that. Mainly because it’s group picture day and sorry but the group picture just wouldn’t be complete without my mug in there (kidding people!!) It’s only 5 miles on Saturday too, holla holla!! And then…..next weekend…..as in a little over a week away……is my race!!!! I can’t decide if I am nervous, I don’t think I am, but ask me a week from now and I will probably be a wreck!

Ya know what else is super exciting in my life right now? We are FINALLY finishing our basement……..what? you didn’t just get super excited for that? Loser. Ok so maybe it’s just exciting for me, and maybe my family so they can have their own guest room and bathroom now and won’t have to sleep in Paxton’s room. Construction should start in about 3 weeks, right now we are cleaning out the shit fest boxes and clutter down there and moving it all to a storage unit.

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Ok I may have gasped when I saw this…….it’s a kids nook UNDER the stairs! We have a space exactly like this under our basement stairs and originally it was going to be storage……until I saw this. Then I was like “oh no you di’nt just show me this adorable little nook” and then I was all like “it has to be MINE……….er, the kids I mean, it’s FOR.THE.KIDS.” However, if you can’t find me one day, I might be holed up in there, reading and drinking wine….. hey it can have dual purposes!! Play nook/Mommy Time Out Spot!! I dig…big time. Here is another example:

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Oh be still my heart, it is all just too cute!!

 

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This is kind of what I am thinking for the basement, pretty neutral with lots of color pops! NO dark colors cause it will already be so dark down there. Doesn’t this just scream “come on down and cozy up in the love shack and watch a movie…….ignore Mom who is giggling like a mad woman in the kids nook/wine and reading room, she is still a bit excited about it.” Yeah I thought so too.

What’s that you say? You want updates on the kids? What kids? Oh MY kids, that’s right, I forgot I had those since they are both currently sleeping and thus not yelling, crying, drooling or destroying the house!!

Paxton:

He is ob-sess-ed with Dinosaurs, he LOVES Dino Dan and learns all these long named dinosaurs that even I can’t pronounce! He will be hiding in his room and I will ask him what he is hiding from and he will say:

“Constanopus, MOM!!”

What the h-e-double hockey sticks is a Constanopus and how do you even freakin spell that?

check out Baby Girls crazy nap hair….don’t be jealous.

I think I need to buy him a pet. Poor kid STILL talks about King, the fish that I killed (not on purpose, I swear!!). Then the other day in the yard he was digging in the dirt and found a worm and he carried that worm around and talked to it and was so gentle with it. A WORM…..A WORM!!! Yes I do believe I am traumatizing my kid by not allowing him a real pet and thus forcing him to have a worm as his pet (and no wormie did NOT come inside, I told Pax he had to be an outdoor pet). I just can’t think of any pet that doesn’t shed, poop, make messes, smell, etc. A pet rock? That would be ideal.

helpin Papa mow our yard……..look at what the hot summer did to our once lush yard………I am pretty sure Josh cries whenever he looks at it. No worries though, they already planted new grass…..duh.

We were talking in the car the other day about what will happen when Pax is all grown up with kids of his own:

Me: One day buddy, you will live in your own house and have a wife and kids of your own. Until then you have to live by my rules (holy cow I have turned into my Mother!!)

Pax: Yes I will have kids Mom, but not a wife, I am allergic to girls. I think I will live in Kansas City with Aiden instead. But Mom you HAVE to tell him he has to share his toys with me!

Me: So you won’t ever get married then?

Pax: No, Harper can be the Mommy and clean the house while I go to work at Willies.

Oh child there are so many things wrong with that sentence. First of all never marry your sister, that’s illegal. Also I MUST get it through your head before you are older that woman are NOT just put on this earth to clean up after men (finger snap!) and let’s explore medical school before going the sports bar route mmmmkay? It will pay better and Dr. Paxton Hall has a nice ring to it don’t ya think?

his hair is getting long, think we may let it grow out a bit. Summer IS over after all!

Today when I put him down for his nap:

Pax: Mom, you can’t leave your heart chained up, you have to give it away.

Me: Uh……….what?

Pax: Give your heart to God, don’t keep it chained up.

Me: Oh!!!! Yes Pax, giving your heart to God is good, do you give your heart to God?

Pax: Yes he is in my tummy right now.

Hmmmmmm….

Harper:

She continues to uphold her reputation as my difficult child.The diaper issue is about to put me over the edge!! I walked in her room the other morning and she just holds her diaper out to me and smiles all innocent like and says “hi Mommy!” while standing in the crib stark ass naked!! Gah!!

Yesterday Josh was home with the kids all day and he informed me that she went poop in her diaper, then took the diaper off so the turd fell out. He scrambled to pick it up and went to throw it and the diaper away, walks back into the living room and she is peeing on the carpet!!! Ha! So glad he gets to experience those glamorous moments of staying home with the kids………….see dude? It’s not all bon-bons and soap operas (are soap operas even on still?)

She has also went all Jersey Shore on me and goes around the house yelling “MA!” at me.

Uh yeah……we were at an outdoor wedding on Saturday and Harper started throwing a fit so Josh took her around the corner so she wouldn’t  interrupt the ceremony. After it was over, Josh brings her back………..looking like this!!!

One day she kept yelling “hoo hoo hi” at me. I had no idea what she was saying and she was getting so mad at me because whatever “hoo hoo hi” was she wanted it…..NOW!! She walks in the kitchen and pulls open the kitchen drawer where we keep paper and pens, and she pulls out a pen and says “hoo hoo hi” and smiles. Oh duh (smack my forehead) of COURSE “hoo hoo hi” means pen!!! It’s so obvious isn’t it? What the hell?

The other day I walked into the living room and she had gotten the kitchen towel and was putting it on the ottoman. She jumped when I walked into the living room and looked all guilty so I went and moved the towel and she had wrote all over it with the “hoo hoo hi” and knew she was in trouble so she was covering it up with the towel! Shneaky shneaky little lady! (the pen came right off, thank goodness)

So wow that post just turned into a novel…………my bad! Have a good Wednesday, only 2 more days until the weekend (fist pump, fist pump, fist pump).

 

 

Picture day….

 

The pictures in my last post had some new pictures I had taken of the kids last week.

I decided not to work on Thursday since I had Kids Night Out Saturday night. It was so nice out that I thought I would get the kids dressed in the morning and go to a few spots I had seen around town that would make for cool pics.

I hurried up and made a headband for Harper to wear (yeah I made that, wha-what!!) Can I just tell you how all sorts of out of control her hair is these days? It is….. in a major way. It won’t be long before it’s a full blown mullet…..can’t tell you how excited that makes me (sarcasm people, SARCASM).

Soooooo we drive to the first place and I get the kids to stand by each other and then Harper sees a bug…..and freaks out.

Sooooo we drive to the next stop, get the kids to stand next to each other, Harper hears a truck go by……..and freaks out.

We move to the other side of that house where there is less traffic, I get the kids to stand by each other, Harper hears a train in the distance…………and freaks out.

You can see the trend here can’t you? So I got a few pictures of Harper crying, and quite a few good ones of Paxton. Not sure how I managed that since I had a little monkey screaming at my feet and trying to climb up my leg. Not to mention that I was an idiot and wore a baseball cap, well it’s IMPOSSIBLE to use my camera with a hat on because the bill gets in the way. So I had to turn my hat BACKWARDS!!

Can you picture this? Me rockin the backward hat, squatting on the ground and even falling over a few times because Harper was still trying to climb up me, all the while screaming at Pax: “smile!” “look at the camera!” “no a REAL smile, you look like you are pooping!” It’s ok if you laugh, I am sure anyone watching us was totally laughing, AND pointing, AND possibly taping it for youtube.

I gave up, I threw in the towel, the kids won. We went to the park.

I got a couple of cute pictures there, Harper was a little more in her element…………..until a fire truck went by……..and well you can guess what happened next. SIGH.

Here are the rest of the pics from that eventful day, if you didn’t see the other pics I took scroll down to the post before this one (and shame on you, just kidding, sort of):

see that tiny speck on the corner of the brick that Pax is staring at? Yeah that’s the bug that Harper freaked out about. Terrifying isn’t it?

 

 

That’s life………..

 

What happens when you let your 3 (almost 4!) year old wash his own hands before dinner?

A flooded bathroom, that’s what.

He usually washes his hands by himself, it never crossed my mind to check after he was done, I should have suspected something when he came out of the bathroom and closed the door. He NEVER closes the door behind him.

Nope, didn’t think about it, I was too focused on the homemade apple crisp I was going to be tearing up after dinner (you can see where my priorities are).

I went into the bathroom to get something out of the closet, and I hear water trickling in the sink behind me. Not full on gush, just a slight trickle.

I think to myself “silly Pax, he left the water running a little.” I turn around and see that the water is up to the top of the sink! He had pulled the plug up when he washed his hands so it didn’t drain.

I screamed and shut the water off and drained it. The water hadn’t spilled over the sink, so I laugh and tell Josh how lucky we got, it could have been a disaster!!

Or so we thought…………

I go in a couple hours later to wash my face for bed and step onto the rug in front of the sink and hear a “slosh.” The entire mat is soaking, as is the baseboard and the linoleum.

“What the………” I think to myself.

I call Josh in, we are trying to figure out where the water came from. It is not in the cupboards or the drawers, it is all UNDER the vanity, and UNDER the floor!

“Josh, the basement!” I said. This only occurred to me because one time when we were little, my sister and I decided to turn our bathroom into a slipper slide thinking my parents would never know……until water started dripping on them downstairs in the living room.

We run downstairs and sure enough there is a huge puddle on the floor underneath the bathroom and the insulation is all soaking wet(the basement is un-finished).

Luckily it leaked on the side where we don’t have anything stored so nothing important was damaged.

So now we are going to have to rip out the vanity and linoleum (can someone say mold?) and assess the damage. I HAVE been wanting a new vanity or at least to paint the one we have, so maybe this is a good excuse to finally do that.

When asked why he pulled the plug up when he washed his hands, Pax replied: “what else are you supposed to do with it Mom! It will never get used if you don’t!”

Of course……why didn’t I think of that?

 

 

Remember…..

 

I was 19 years old, I was sleeping peacefully in my bed in Tri-Delt, no class that day, only work.

My roommate bursts through our door, breathless and crying. Nothing new….she could be a bit dramatic at time. She is mumbling something about her Dad, about a plane, about a fire.

That gets my attention…..I sit up straight in bed, rubbing sleep from my eyes.

She is not making sense, something has happened….something bad…..something bigger than we could ever imagine. She walks out of the room. I follow her.

I walk to the pledge lounge, it’s one of the only rooms in the sorority that has cable.

There is a huge crowd in there…. I think to myself “why isn’t anyone in class?”

My roommate is still crying, still on her cell phone, people are trying to comfort her.

I look at the t.v. I see a plane crashing into a building, a plane crashing into another building, and the word TERRORISM being said over and over.

“What is going on!” I think to myself

I listen to what is being said: 4 planes, 3 buildings hit, 1 plane crashed into a field, many deaths.

I watch those buildings collapse, over and over, the panic in the reporters voices.

Our world will never be the same.

My roommates Dad worked at the Pentagon, she kept calling him frantically, not knowing if he was ok.

I had to go to work, life had to keep going, I was the assistant manager after all, I had no choice.

I drove to work, looking up to the sky and thinking how odd it was not to see planes up there, not to hear the sound of airplanes that I was so used to hearing every day.

Instead silence, in the air, in the streets, everywhere.

I remember, how can you forget?

It takes on a new meaning now.

I have children.

I have a husband.

What would I do?

What if it was my husband? My child? My loved one?

When you are from Manhattan, Kansas, not Manhattan, New York you can separate yourself.

But can you?

Little Apple; Big Apple; we are still Americans; we are still connected; we are still impacted…….. it could have been us.

Terrorism was a new word to us that day……. now? It’s a word my kids will grow up being familiar with, knowing that it could apply to them at any minute.

My roommates Dad was ok, he survived that fateful day. But I am sure it changed him, just like it changed all of us.

That is why I remember today, I remember every day, and I will never forget.

We may be the land of the free, and the home of the brave, but we are not invincible, bad things happen to us too. So don’t forget that. Love your kids every day. Love your husband every day. Love your family every day.

Today, remember that day, as hard as it may be. It is a true testament to the greatness of our country. To the brave who sacrificed their lives, to the families still dealing with the pain, to the ones we owe our freedom to.

10 years ago they tried to break us…………. Today we can stand up and tell them they never can.

I remember…..do you?

 

I see skies of blue…..

 

“Clouds of white, the bright blessed day, the dark sacred night, and I think to myself what a wonderful world!”

Don’t you think we all need to be reminded of this sometimes? I couldn’t think of a blog title, and I was thinking how easy it is to let life get you down sometimes but you can’t let it……ya gotta keep on keepin on peeps!!!!

It’s hard not to feel happy with the weather we are having, it’s fabuloso, fantastico, magnifico, beautifico, and downright glorious!! I had to run this morning in pants and a jacket (fist pumpin!)

Our labor day weekend was good, nothin too exciting: A short little 10 1/2 mile run Saturday morning (yes Brandi it IS important to throw that 1/2 in there, leave me alone); a little K-State football action Saturday night (Cats, we gotta pull ourselves together, that game wasn’t pretty); a night out with friends Saturday night (holla holla holla); Sunday family grocery shopping trip (H.E.double hockey sticks…just sayin); dinner at a friends house Sunday night (yummo!);and work on Monday for Josh and I (boo, yes you CAN feel sorry for us). That was our weekend in a nutshell.

So I finally remembered to write down funny Paxton sayings this week, so in no specific order, here they are:

At the bank drive-thru:

P: “Mom what would happen if bunnies jumped into our house?”

Me: (looking all around for a picture of a bunny or SOMETHING that would have sparked him saying this, there was nothing) “Uh, then we would have bunnies in our house, why do you ask?”

P: (looking out the window) “Oh just wondering.”

One day while I was working on computer and Pax was playing on the floor:

P: “Mom! Do you think it’s ok to get off the couch and just leave without giving your kids hugs and kisses!”

Me: (Racking my brain, wondering if I had done this lately? I NEVER leave without giving the kids tons of hugs and kisses) “No Pax, why would you say that?”

P: “Just sayin…… it wouldn’t be nice.” (never once did he quit playing during this conversation, odd.)

Note to self: DON’T LEAVE WITHOUT GIVING KIDS HUGS AND KISSES, APPARENTLY PAX WILL BE PISSED.

In the bathroom the other day, I am getting ready and Pax walks in and starts going to the bathroom while CLAPPING his hands!!

Me: “Gah!! Pax do NOT clap while you pee!! Keep it in the toilet!”

I only write this because I NEVER thought those words would ever come out of my mouth. EVER.

I like to pretend my kids are always like this:

“Oh look at us being all B.F.F on the front porch, havin a nice little chat.” (yes this pic was taken through my glass front door and YES those are finger prints all over the glass, don’t judge me.)

Or maybe they could always be like this:

“Here we are posin in our purple getty-up before the K-State and Butler game. We LOVE each other!!”

But……….remember in my last post when I talked about Paxton’s issue with respecting personal space, mainly his sisters? Well let’s just see what happens shall we?:

Here is he is, getting closer, she is eyein him like “boy don’t you even think about it!! Doesn’t this drool all over my shirt deter you at ALL?!?!?”…..

Nope apparently big drool spot does not deter him so he goes in for the kill and………….

“Bam! Sucker punch in the face! I warned you fool!!”

 

“What? I didn’t do anything. I am perfect, I am a princess, don’t you see my sweet smile?” (and more drool, seriously teeth COME IN ALREADY!!)

Oh pity me, this is so my life these days. I really should wear a black & white ref shirt all the time, I bet I could go pro with it. How much do refs make these days? I should look into that.

But sometimes (really stressing the word sometimes here folks) I turn around and catch them doing this:

And I think “ok good, they DO love each other!” Literally I was in the kitchen and they were sitting on the floor watching cartoons and the next thing I know I look over and he is holding her. Awwwwwww.

And 2 more pics of my little “princess”

Ha! Doesn’t she just EXUDE orneryness (is this a word? it is now). She is still getting naked in the morning, and apparently she took her pants off in Kid Zone today……..yup totally lady-like, that’s how she rolls.

Happy Wednesday all!!