Nightly Prayers

It's so cute that Lucas is learning our nightly prayers. He can say them with me now in his little boy voice. My other two don't say them as often anymore and I think I need to get them to do it once again. The first part of our prayers is the book "My Little One" by Flavia. It was a favorite of my son's when he was little and we just memorized it since we read it so often. The second part came from a mommy in my September 2000 Mommies group if I remember right! It goes like this:

Thank you Lord for the day I had
Thank you for my mom & dad.
Help them take good care of me
God bless my friends & family.
Help me sleep well all night long
Guard me with your angels strong
When I wake up, on a brand new day
Help me love & learn & play. Amen.

Do you have any prayers that the kids have learned? Are they for bedtime? Dinnertime?

He is just the sweetest thing...

Every Monday when I pick Lucas up from daycare, I hear "he is just the sweetest thing!". I look around because they can't possibly be talking to me! My Lucas? Well, yes, he is a good time sometimes but it's funny that no one ever sees that "other" side of him. And no one believes me when I tell them about Mr. Smucus.

Sure, he can be a great kid but every day I get to see the real Lucas. The little boy who has a temper and will chuck whatever is in his reach when I tell him no. Or the boy who will repeatedly hit himself when he doesn't get his way. Oh and the sweet child that will scream and scream at bedtime and refuse to go to sleep. That is the Lucas I know. That is the Lucas that drives mommay insane.

Apparently, he does none of these things at daycare. Or with the babysitter. Or with anyone else but me. Not even Daddy gets to see Lucas in all his glory most of the time. Am I losing it? Is he really doing these things? Why just torture mommay with it all? Someone please tell me it's a phase? A two year old thing and he'll grow out of it soon? Very soon?

Friday Fragments #1

I'm loving this meme! Quick little tidbits to post...great for a Friday!

1. I'm so proud of EJ. His teacher said how personable he is, all the kids like him, he's very well behaved (unlike other boys in the class), he's very bright and she's very happy to be his teacher. Love to hear that! Must be doing something right, right?
2. I really need to clean my house. I keep putting it off and off. Will today be the day to do it? Nah...probably not!
3. I need some new recipes. I'm making the same things over and over and over. Send me your favorite recipes/recipe websites. please! My family will thank you.
4. I really want a Turkey, Bacon & Cheddar flatbread from Dunkin Donuts. They are so yummy. But not a bargain at 8 WW points!
5. I want to see 2 movies..."The Women" and "Nights in Rodanthe". Has anyone seen them yet?
6. I really hope my brother gets better and gets his life on track.
   
7. Saw this over at Cheaper Than Therapy so I did my own blog. Genius? I don't know about that! And I don't know if that's a good thing.
   

Thursday Thirteen #1!

My very first Thursday Thirteen! I'm going to tell you thirteen tv shows I must like to watch. (that's alot!)

1. Grey's Anatomy (yeah! it starts TONIGHT!)
2. How I Met Your Mother
3. Bones
4. House
5. Law & Order Criminal Intent
6. Nip/Tuck (when is that coming back?)
7. The New Adventures of Old Christine
8. 90210
9. Gossip Girl
10. Swingtown (I soooo hope this comes back!)
11. Cold Case
12. Private Practice
13. The Mentalist (has gotten my interest!)

For more Thursday Thirteen....go here.

Just forgot the clever title I had too

Geez...I feel like I have mommy brain all the time lately! I came here with the intent of blogging about something specific, then got sucked into looking at the followers, which then led to looking at some blogs. And now here I am, wondering what the hell I was going to blog about.

I can't tell you the number of times I've went upstairs to the kids rooms, then just stood there trying to remember why I actually went up there.

Or walked outside to do something and then look like the neighborhood idiot staring into space to figure out what I was going out for.

I should write these things down so then we I get distracted, at least I have something to jog my memory. But I'd probably forget to do that too.... I know it's not just me, is it? Tell me that you have mommy brain too!

Tackle It Tuesday

Wow...I just saw that yesterday's post was my 100th post! YEAH ME! lol

Back to today's scheduled posting....

This is my first Tackle It Tuesday. I'm very excited to finally have this done! Many of you remember my lovely bathroom renovation that's slowly getting done. Well, I'm happy to report that one of the last things has been done--cleaning all the tools, painting supplies and left over crap out of the closet! Witness the before picture:

And the after:I'm so excited! Now I have a clean place to put away our extra sheets and blankets AND it's nice to look at instead of annoying the hell out of me!

What have you tackled this week? Have a great Tuesday!!

A shopping I will go

So today while Mr. Whiney Lucas was at daycare, I met my friend Anne for breakfast at Percy's and right next store is the cutest little country store. Because I have animals kids, there's no way to visit this store with them in tow so we went there after breakfast. I really want the store owner to just come to my house and set up my livingroom. I loved everything in there! For instance, this lamp: It would be great on my side table in my bedroom:They also had a really cool high back country check chair & couch. They were pretty darn comfy (but a little too expensive for me)! I did buy a cute little bench with a picket fence back to put out front on my porch. It fit perfectly!! They have another store a few towns over that I'll go check out too. And there's a letterbox out front so I can do that while I'm there as a bonus. Oh and the store clerk told us about some really cool holiday event they have at the other store on a Friday night to start the Christmas season. Definitely going to check that out!

I think it will be my mission to scope out cute country stores on Mondays. Then I can meander through the stores alone. (and I'll try not to spend too much!)

Need some ideas

You'd think that with kid #3, I'd have the hang of this parenting stuff. I have raised two other 2 year olds. I need some patience...I'm supposed to get more patient with the more kids I have, right? Didn't I read that in the handbook somewhere? I think it's just that Mr. Lucas is so headstrong and really likes things done on his terms. My other two really did what I said when I asked them to for the most part. (or is that just that selective forgetting you get as a mom?) But with Lucas, it's a constant fight to get anything done. And when he doesn't get his way...watch out! He'll throw whatever is closest to him: a ball, a pumpkin, knock over a chair..anything in his reach. Then he'll start to hit himself. I need to find out how to stop that!

What the heck did I do with the other kids all day? I need ideas of things to do with Lucas. I feel like he watches too much tv for a toddler and I need to do more "hands on" things with him. Give me some ideas people...give me some games, songs anything!

Everyone says that the third one puts you over the edge. I think "everyone" is right. #3 is definitely making me reconsider #4...

Give me some advice, trusty readers (and moms!) Please? pretty please?

Happy Anniversary

....to me! Dh and I have been married for 10 years today! And even more spectacular is that we've been together for 20 years! We met through my friend Kelly who was dating his friend Anthony. He used to pick me up from JUNIOR High in his mustang, lol. I was 13 and he was 16 when we started "going out". We've come a long way since those days....we have 3 beautiful kids, a nice house, our own company and we still like each other most of the days! Here's a few pics of us through the years....



Happy Anniversary Honey...I love you!

Listen up!

Listening is not my husbands strong point. It's funny how he never hears the end of conversations. Never. For instance, he'll go to Dunkin Donuts and I'll ask for a decaf tea with milk and an equal. He'll come home with a sweet n low. "Isn't that what you said?". Um, no. Or how about me asking him to put Lucas to bed, make sure he brushes his teeth and don't forget jammies. Can you guess what he wore to bed? Yes, his clothes. Really! But I guess it's all my fault...I need to put the most important things at the front of the sentences or better yet...make the end of my sentences jibberish! "Hey honey....can you put the trash out, pick up the livingroom and bonk a pillow?" ::insert eyeroll here::

Does your husband listen to you? Or does he have selective hearing?

Wordless Wednesday 9.17.08

Maddie & Lucas watching the fishies in our pond. You can see more pictures at Wordless Wednesday and 5 Minutes for Mom.

My boy turned 8!

Yesterday was EJ's 8th birthday! I can't believe he's EIGHT. Time goes by so darn fast! I made him a lego cake and he says it's the "best cake ever". It was cute. Tasted oh so yummy if I do say so myself! (I make my own frosting and I put chocolate pudding between the layers) We had a family party last night and although the kids were crazy, I was very unstressed. That was a nice thing! My hubby is taking EJ and 5 friends to a local arcade this morning.....good luck to him! No more parties for us until Christmas now. =))

You know what would have helped me while making my son's cake? An apron! Yes, I need an apron. Especially while making my frosting. I end up with powdered sugar from head to toe! I entered the giveaway over at Momdot for a new Vixen Apron. Why don't you go enter too?

Enter to win a Tiny Prints $50 Gift Certificate!

“Show and Share”

New Holiday Card Design Contest

Win a $50 Gift Certificate from Tiny Prints

Yes, it IS that time...time to start thinking about those cute Christmas cards to wow your friends & family! And while you're thinking about it...how about you try and win a $50 gift certificate from Tiny Prints!

Show your holiday spirit and share your favorite new card design for 2008....

A leader in holiday photo cards, Tiny Prints is so excited about the upcoming 2008 holiday card line that they couldn’t wait to offering a sneak peek to showcase the all new card designs. Enter their contest to help determine what cards will be most popular this coming holiday. During this early preview period, the new holiday cards are not yet available for purchase; however, for a very limited time you can receive amazing early-bird savings on their soon-to-be retired photo cards, Christmas cards and holiday invitations.

To help them celebrate the launch, they’re looking for contestants to review any of their very newest 2008 Christmas cards, holiday photo cards and business holiday cards for those who work in or own companies.

All you need to do is...

1. Simply go to Tiny Prints (www.tinyprints.com), browse your favorite 2008 holiday card designs currently being previewed and save your favorite 2008 design in your account by clicking the “save in favorites” button.

2. Then come back to my blog and provide a link to the specific holiday card (see link for example) in the comments below and tell me what you liked best about it.

Please note that some designs are so new that they cannot yet be customized, but will be soon (by early October and there will be hundreds more designs)!

The contest will run through Tuesday, September 30^th 2008. Winners will then be drawn at random from people who have properly followed the above directions and left comments here on my blog. You must do #1 and #2 above to qualify for the drawing or your comment will be deleted! Don't forget to leave your email address in your comments so we can contact you if you don't have a blog.

Please leave your comment using the same e-mail address you used when creating an account on Tiny Prints so participation can be verified.

Wordless Wednesday 9.10.08

Dh and EJ at the Pats game last Sunday. =) EJ had a blast!

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

Everyone's a Critic

So there I was rocking out to Everclear's Santa Monica on Sirius' Lithium station (love it!).

♪ I am still living with your ghost Lonely and dreaming of the west coast I dont want to be your downtime I dont want to be your stupid game

Lucas starts in with "stop mommy!" (yea, he hasn't gotten the memo that its mommay). I thought, oh that's cute.

♪ With my big black boots and an old suitcase I do believe Ill find myself a new place I dont want to be the bad guy I dont want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore I just want to see some palm trees Go and try and shake away this disease

Then he gets louder and louder "stop mommy! no more singing mommy!" Geez, is my singing that bad?

♪ We can live beside the ocean Leave the fire behind Swim out past the breakers Watch the world die

"STOP NOWWWWWW!" and he has a mean ol look on his 2 year old face. Apparently he just doesn't like that song because once In Bloom by Nirvana came on and I was singing that he was just fine and was even smiling at me.

♪But he dont know what it means ....Dont know what it means

Awards

Well apparently there's other bloggers here in bloggerland that ran out of bloggers to give awards to think my blog is cool. A big thank you to you all! I have no idea what to really do with these awards and think all the bloggers I'd want to give them to have already got them. So I'll leave them here and if you come across this post and want one, feel free to steal take it and claim it as your own as a gift from me! I'd like to say....

....thanks to Jenni at Jiggety Jigg and Mama of Romance at Sex Diaries of a Mom

....Big thanks to Jenni at Jiggety Jigg and to Jen at Happily Ever After

..... yet another thank you to Jenni at Jiggety Jigg

um..... oh yea....Thank you to On the Verge and Kelly at The Neurotic Mom

Oh yes...another thank you to Jen at The Dirty Shirt

I think that's all of them. THANK YOU!!

The Last Supper

Well, maybe not last supper but it will be the last big fattening thing I eat when I know I shouldn't be eating it! Tomorrow I'm going to my first Weight Watchers meeting. I've done the WW thing before at home with some success. I think going to the meetings will help me to keep with it though. So for dinner, I devoured ate a steak n cheese calzone. No more of those greasy puppies for me! I'm sure it had a whole days worth of points in that one meal! I know I can do it! I need to do it! I want to fit into all the size 12 & 14's sitting in my closet! This picture was taken in high school and I was a size 10 (please excuse my picture of a picture...the scanner is broken!) That would be nice to see again but I think that's pushing it! lol But if did.... I could do this same pose in front of dh's 1979 TransAm now...but I digress. Please send me any WW tips/websites if you have them.....and I'll put them to good use!

I'm also going to keep up my walking...gotta exercise too!

Tubby time

I did it. I made myself take a nice tubby in the big girl tub tonight. I filled the tub up with some extra hot water and some nice "stress & tension" salts. Plopped myself in there and was instantly bombarded with 2 kids that "really want to come in there" with me. Apparently, the same buzzer attached to the toilet seat is rigged in the bathtub too. Once I got them out of there I tried to relax. But then I felt something a little weird in my belly button. Can you guess what it was? No. Nope, not that. Nope, not that either. It was a rock. Yes a ROCK. Well, maybe a pebble. But it was in my belly button. Seriously, how could a rock get there? As I laid there wondering about that I noticed it. On one of the tiles. It's a cro-magnum's face in the design of the tile. I have a freakin cave man staring at me now! And he's smiling. Ok, I'll just shut my eyes and "crack". Oh crap, what is that noise? Crack again. and again. Great, now my tub is going to fall through the floor. I'm done. Can't relax while the caveman is staring at me as my tub falls onto the bar below. Got my ass out of the tub and I'll try again another day.

Little Diva

My daughter is too funny. Lately when she goes to bed, she insists on putting on her little sleep mask. I asked her why she likes to wear it to bed and got: "First, it helps me fall asleep really, really fast!" (maybe I should get one of those for the other 2 also?) and "it makes me wake up really fast when I'm about to have a bad dream" Hmmmm.....