A work in progress

Since we put our addition on, one of our home improvements was a master bath where EJ's old room used to be. It's coming along. Slowly-- but it's coming along. Here's a pic so far:

Notice the big ol tub. I desperately wanted a jetted tub. A big tub I could sit in and not have my upper half sticking out of. And now I have one. I've used it three times since January. Yes, three. But it's there if I actually get some alone time to use it, right?

I'm sure you're all jealous of the window treatments. Yes, that's a cardboard box. I'm sure you'll be seeing it on HGTV sometime soon. I'm ahead of my time in decorating.

See those closet doors on the left? Behind them is a brand new washer & dryer. They work great! Well I should say the ones on the kids floor work well because they are the same model....and the ones behind those lovely doors aren't hooked up yet! No power for them! (and that lovely full hamper of clothes needs to be dragged up a flight of stairs)

See that mirror on the left? Yea, it's facing right at the toilet. And you know what? No one should look at themselves while sitting on the toilet. It's. Just. Wrong. But I have no other place for it at the moment, so there it shits. Um...sits.

Someday I'll get the extra tiles put away. And empty out the tools from the vanity drawers and on the shelf in the laundry closet. Someday.

Wordless Wednesday 8.27.08

I love the tongue sticking out. It's his "concentration" look.

You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

Works for Me Wednesday 8.27.08

Hey, Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer is back in action...and so is Works for Me Wednesday! This week, what works for me is EveryStockPhoto.com. This site has royalty free pictures available to use on your blog when you don't have a personal picture to use. (And we all know pictures make your blog pretty more interesting!) Each picture has their own terms of use so please follow them. That's what works for me this week!

One down....

EJ started his first day of 2nd grade today! He had a good day and says he likes his teacher. We now have to walk to the end of the road to get the bus which really stinks. And when he came home today, the bus was really packed and I don't know where they are going to put the kindergartners when they start next Tuesday (and that means Maddie!).

Make lunch fun (psst...it's a giveaway!)

Now that the kids are back in school (or almost back in school for me!), let me tell you about a great product I recently ordered! Have you seen Kids Lunch Box cards? They are super cool! These cards will make your kids' lunch fun! There's 5 different fun packs of cards: Mystical Little People, It's a Wacky World, Ewww...That's Gross!, Riddles and Looney Laws. Each pack has 5 cards in it...one pack equals a whole week of lunchtime fun.

The cards are so colorful that my 8 year old spied these on the kitchen counter when I got them and wanted to dive right into them. I had to steal them away and hide them. These will brighten any kids lunch and I bet their friends will love them too! The cards have a place on the back to write your son or daughter a message to let them know you are thinking of them. They could even be used as a postcard and sent to family or far away friends. If your child doesn't bring his or her lunch, why not drop them into their backpack or a coat pocket. You could even write a note to the teacher on the back of them. I know my 8 year old is going to love these (especially the scratch off ones!)What else can I say about these unique cards? How about you can win them?! Yes, it's the first Giveaway ever on Mommay's Mayhem--I'm so excited! One lucky winner will receive one set of all 5 packs....that's over a month of fun for your child. All you need to do is

• Visit Kids Lunch Box Cards then come back here and comment about your favorite set and/or which one your child would like best. Give me some feedback about the cards such as new packs you'd like to see or another use for the cards.
  
• You can get an additional entry by spreading the word about the contest: Blogging about it on your blog, tweeting about it or emailing friends and family. Comment again here about what you've done.
  

You have until 11:59 pm September 1st to enter. I'll randomly draw a number from all your comments on September 2nd! Please be a US Resident and please have a way for me to get in touch with you (email, blog etc). You have 48 hours to claim your cards or a new winner will be drawn.

Privacy Please!

Why is it that I can be doing things anywhere in the house for hours but the minute my ass touches a toilet seat my kids MUST find me and talk to me then? It must be a 6th sense for the kids "oh mommay's going the bathroom. Must. Find. Her. Now."

note to self: start locking bathroom door

A new camper!

We first saw this camper back in February at the camper show. We loved it then with a door that goes in to the bathroom (no dirt tracked thru camper!). It also had a good sized kids area at the back with 2 bunks, loft bed and a trundle. Master end was nice and had a cool flip around tv so it was in the main area or able to be watched in the master. (I'm totally guilty of watching tv to fall asleep) There's so many more things we loved about it but we just didn't want to buy at the time.
Well after last weekends trip, we decided we should go get a bigger camper. We looked at lots of models but in the end came back to the one we loved in February. One left on the lot as a leftover and it's now ours! YEA! We pick it up on 9/3 and we'll use it for a trip Columbus Day weekend. It will be great because we like to camp and with the kids, we needed a bit more space inside.

The kids are gonna be thrilled!

My bloggy blog is fantastic!

Yea! My new design is up and I luuuuuvvvvv it! I still have some tweaking to do but it's great! Steph & Staci at Blogalicious Designs did it for me. I was a pain in their ass and I'm sure they are glad to be done with me. lol

Check them out if you want a blog makeover...you won't be disappointed!

Not going to be a good day....

My day is off to a great start! It started at 3:14am when I heard a loud noise outside of my open window. Then it would stop. Then start up again. Went over to the window and figured out the sprinkler system was on and there was a table (left out from out Hawaiian party in july!) over a head. Oh joy. Not about to walk outside to move it so I shut the window. Didn't help.

Finally that zone was done so the noise stopped. Then I heard: Beep. And a few minutes later: Beep. Gosh darn fire alarms again! Usually means that a battery is going dead somewhere. But you never know which one it is because it's so fast and just echos. Great.

I told dh about it when he was up at 4:30ish because he took one down a few weeks ago because they were all going off. He never put it back up. So what does he do? Takes down the carbon monoxide detector in the livingroom. Nice.

I still keep hearing it: Beep. For the love...I'm getting up now to try and resolve the stupid beeps: put new battery in smoke detector that was down and put it back up. Then I swear I heard it: Beep. From the upstairs. WTF???

I'm not going to be fun today. My poor kids....

Wordless Wednesday 8.20.08

Fishing on our camping trip. =) You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

The Water Bottle Incident

Yea, with all my packing last week, I neglected to post about the "water bottle incident"!

There we are at the local Super Walmart getting groceries for our camping trip. Got out of the car and me & Lucas were walking to a cart. "Me walk!, Me walk" Lucas says. Oh no....I'm not going to shop with him walking beside me. Or should I say, him disappearing from my side while I try and shop. So me and my bright ideas: I coax him into riding in the cart by getting him his own big boy water bottle out of the machine. Should be no big deal....he can drink out of a regular cup pretty good and does well out of a water bottle too (though no one can share with him since he's Mr. Backwash). We're doing pretty good throughout most of the store. Lucas refuses to put the cover on the water though and would rather 1. play with the cover or 2. put the cover in his pocket.

As I'm getting the last of the things I need I hear "ma'am? ma'am?" They can't be talking to me... do I look like a "ma'am?" "Ma'am? There's water dripping from your cart" Then I realize, he is talking to me and look to see Lucas' water bottle on it's side with water pouring into the carriage. Oh wonderful I think, "Lucas give me the cover!" and he starts to fuss while I put it on his bottle. Then I really look and see that the water bottle has spilled to where else but my PURSE!

Nice. Fast forward to the car and my cell phone is soaked, wallet is soaked, everything is just soaking wet! I get home and empty out everything onto the table to let it air dry. I didn't know I could fit all this crap into my little bag! I guess it was time to clean it out anyways?
This is all the crap that came out of my purse! And it still sits on the table since we were leaving for camping!

We're home from camping!

We're home from camping. We had a good time but I know it will be more fun when the kids are all older. Or should I say when LUCAS is older. EJ & Maddie are fine and can go off and ride their bikes or check the pond out for little fish. But Lucas still needs that attention and totally still needs to be watched. (He is only 2!) Dh and I got some down time when Lucas napped and after the kids went to bed. I'll post some pics in a bit when I get them on the computer. Glad and sad to be home. ;)

Growing up way too fast!

My baby is growing up way too fast! Lucas is 26 months old now and he's really living up to the saying on one of his shirts: Mr. Independent. His favorite thing now is the kitchen sink. He'll pull over the step stool and wash his hands all by himself. He'd stand there all day if I let him. Today was a new thing: filling his own cups! He grabbed a sippy cup which was sitting on the counter, took the lid off, filled it up, put the lid back on and drank from it. Oh crap I thought....he can open his sippy cups! The other kids never opened their cups, so they certainly didn't fill them themselves! I think he likes to do things they way he wants....WHEN he wants. I'm in trouble.

I must be a slob....

...and my friends are just too nice to tell me so!

Seriously...every pair of shorts and practically all my tshirts have a some sort of oil/grease stain on them. I see some handswipe marks on the side of my leg/ass...some drips on my chesticle area...a big ol blob on my thighs. I don't remember dropping anything onto every shirt I own but they are there. I've tried to get them out with Dawn, stain remover and detergent but they don't want to leave.

So don't sit next to me while I'm eating I guess....

A new cook in the house....

Maddie made her own cake the other night!

She did just about everything to prep it, including licking the beaters!

I put it in the oven and took it out since at 5, I think she's too young for that and didn't want her to get burned. She frosted it. Yes, we used store bought frosting. I will show her how to make my yummy butter cream frosting one of these days.

She even put sprinkles on it to decorate it. It came out great and tasted as good as it looked. Way to go Maddie!I think it's important to let the kids help out in the kitchen...that's the way they will learn to cook, right? I just need to relax more and realize they aren't going to be perfect at it!
Do you let the kids bake or cook with you?

Wordless Wednesday 8.13.08

As taken by my 5yo daughter of me & dh.


You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

Another giveaway over at MomDot!

MomDot is having a cool giveaway....a custom self inking stamp from Blooming Babies! These stamps look so cool! You can use them as return address stamps, stamp your personal library books, stamp crafty creations of yours, stamp stickers "from the kitchen of " when you give away yummy treats....the possibilities are endless! These custom stamps would make a great gift too!

Hop on over to MomDot and enter to win your own stamp. Or just go to Blooming Babies and order your own!

Testing all the vowels I guess....

Lucas was in early intervention for his speech over the past year. He finally graduated because he's now at an "age appropriate level". There's one thing though that hubby and I think is funny: his way of saying "yes".

For the longest time, his word for yes was "ooohhhh". People used to think he was saying "no" and we had to tell them that was his word for yes. A few months ago, that turned into "aaahhhh". We would get him to say the word yes and he could, but out of habit, he just said "aaaahhhh". Well yesterday, that turned into "aaaiiiiiii". Dh thinks he's been channeling Mr. Miyagi. So we keep making him say "yes" when we hear him say his newest version. One of these days...."yes" will stick!

No, its not Blue Man Group

We went to a 30th birthday party this weekend for my brother in law. The cake was brought out and someone decided it was a good idea to start a cake fight. My son EJ and his cousin TJ were pretty covered in blueness! I told EJ he was Smurfed. "huh?" came back at me with a blank stare. Oh that's right...you don't even know what a Smurf is!

So that got me thinking....what are some of the shows you watched when you were little that your kids have NO idea who they are?

Here's a few I came up with:

• Smurfs (did you know it's their 50th anniversary??)
• Rainbow Brite
• She Ra and He Man
• New Zoo Revue
• Banana Splits
• Jem (is truly outragious!)
• Mighty Mouse
• The Jetsons
• Tom & Jerry
• Mighty Mouse

Which ones do you remember??

Tag you're it!

Carrie came on over and tagged me to do this meme. What is a meme you ask? Here's a link that tells you all about them.


And.....Here is a list of my 6 unspectacular quirks:

1. I tend to dwell on things that annoy/piss me off.
2. I lose my temper too fast with my kids.
3. It annoys me when dh bites his nails, yet I'm a nailbiter myself
4. I tend to gossip about things/people too much.
5. I hate to be wrong.
6. I hate toe nails. And I need to keep mine really short.

Should these all be negative? I must have some quirks that are good to have??? But of course, I can't think of any. Now, I'm going to tag YOU to do this meme!

I've tagged....

Hey It's Beej
Havoc & Mayhem
A Day to Share with Tammy
Crunchy Green Lovin' Mom
Feels Like Home
Mark, Kris & Mason's World


Here are the rules when you get tagged:

1. Link back to the person who tagged you
2. Mention the rules on your blog
3. Tell about 6 unspectacular quirks of yours
4. Tag 6 following bloggers by linking them
5. Leave a comment on each of the tagged blogger’s blogs letting them know they’ve been tagged.

Driving mommay insane....

Do you have any language pet peeves? You know when people constantly mispronounce something? Or use a word in the wrong way constantly? What are they?

Here's a few of mine:

• People who say breffast. It's breaKfast people!
• Good ol Valentimes Day. Times? No, it's ValentiNes!
• People who can't umm......complete a umm.....thought without using umm......
• Or if they like, use the word like constantly
  
• Liberry. No, go to the library and look up the pronunciation!
• I aks you this...how do you pronounce ask?
  

My 5 year old constantly says breffest. Dh laughs and points it out to me every single time! I'm trying my hardest to get her to fix it. I know there's more...but I can't ummm...like think of ummm.... them right now. Maybe they will come to me after breffast tomorrow or before we head off to the liberry. ;)

Cheaters!

Well, apparently there was some cheating going on for the cake contest! The site owner reset all the votes because of it unfortunately. So, if you don't mind, clicking HERE an revoting for my (Jen M's) pumpkin cake---thanks I appreciate it!

Vote for my pumpkin cake!

Jen at Cakery Supplies is having a cake decorating contest! Please vote for my pumpkin cupcake cake! When you vote it's Jen M's cake! Click here to vote!

Thank you!!

Time to kick up my workout routine!

After dinner on most summer nights, we all go out to the pool and swim as a family. No friends are allowed...just us to swim together. I think it's important for some family time.

The other night things were going good, kids were all out at the pool with dh. I went in and got my bathingsuit on. It was a little tight, I think it was a size too small, still sitting in my drawer. But it didn't look that bad, so I thought.

I got out to the pool and my darling little EJ looked at me and said "Mom, your belly looks huugge in that bathingsuit."

Dh shot him a look and said "you don't say things like that to anyone, especially your mother"

"Whaaaat? It does!"

Oh. Thanks. He's not my favorite anymore.

Almost back to school time...

...And here's a very cool thing to win over at MomDot! Lunch box cards! These very cool cards come in different packs from riddles to gross facts. You know the kids will love to get these in their lunches. If you visit MomDot you can try and win a month's supply. You can also check them out and order them yourself if you want at the main site here. I really want to win these for EJ....I know he'd get a huge kick out of these. And if I don't win, I'll definitely be ordering some.

Not music to *my* ears

Can you hear it?

Off in the distance?

The kids are running around in crazy circles waiting for it.

Yes, it's the music from the ice cream truck!

The kids have supersonic hearing when it comes to that. It's at least 10 minutes away but they can pick up the faint sound of the music and get in a dizzy asking "can we get an ice cream? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeese?"

We don't look forward to dishing out almost $10 for 3 silly tweety bird/spiderman/dora ice creams. So today we said, "ok, you can get a $1.00 ice cream only". But in the back of our minds, we knew what would happen....and it did.

"Here it comes! It's getting closer" shouted EJ. "Yeahhhhhh" shouted Maddie. Lucas was jumping up and down.

And then it happened.

"Oh man! It just went right by" ::insert sad little faces, dropped shoulders and almost a tear in their eyes::

Stupid ice cream truck did it again! We notice it goes right by our road often. Apparently, we're not worthy of his truck. Or maybe if he drove out of the road a little slower when he did come down it, he'd get the sales. So many times I've gone out to stop him and he's going so fast, I don't have time to motion to him. His loss!

So I sent the kids in for ice cream sandwiches and they were happy.

Summer Fun Photo Contest

5 Minutes for Mom is having a Summer Fun photo contest! This is the photo I'm entering. EJ likes it when daddy throws him into the air....and daddy is one hurting unit the next day! Head on over to find out how you can enter your own photo!

Somewhere....under the rainbow.....

....is our house! How cool is this picture???

We just had a big thunderstorm roll through and these were left after they were gone!