Tricked

I love my kids!  I love their craziness if for no other reason is they are constant source of stories which I love to tell. 

Last Friday I hauled Logan in from the car after a long drive around.  A college age girl followed me in and told me that they were opening a new office in town and as a way to get business they were shampooing one room for free.  Would I like to have them do one.

First mistake...  I looked around our stairs are looking a bit shabby "Sure could you do the stairs?'

15 min later they showed up with unopened Kirby boxes.   woowoowoo Kirby boxes? 

4 hours later I finally had the girl packed up and waiting for her ride.   During the course of her demonstration she had asked me to pour baking soda on the carpet and then use my vacuum to clean it up.  She then showed me how much mine had missed by using hers.  Here is where my kids rock.
Standing in the doorway with her vacuum packed up  Logan swings his arm around and knocks over the entire baking soda box onto the carpet that she had just spent the last 4 hours cleaning.  She looked like she might actually cry.  I pushed her toward the door and pulled my own clearly inferior vacuum out to clean it up.  Good Night Kirby and no you may not clean my carpets for free!

December 31 ,2011

I see it all. 
They say hindsight is 20/20. 
I see the kids taller and more agile, I see the absence of diapers and baby things.  I see the thinking behind the eyes as they are asked questions.  The scream of last years Santa was replaced this year by a very robust  "big bike no baby... like Tia" half signed half spoken.

I wonder where the year went. Where my time was misspent and well spent.  I wonder where I will be sitting, what I will be feeling and thinking next year at this time. 
I will be turning over some new leaf's I am sure but there are many more that I hope stay unturned just a little longer.

Wishing all a wonderful and safe New Years

Cheers to 2012!

Rookie Mommy Mistake

So Mommy made a herself a huge mistake.  There was one of those little carnivals new our supermarket a few weeks ago.  Well... without thinking we decided to pull in and put the kids on a few rides.  There was a little roller coaster, cars and a bear ride.  The kids were so so so excited Logan was giggling in delight at the idea of riding the bear.  Well we marched our happy behinds up there and my heart just broke. Alas Logan was too short to ride any of the rides.  I had already talked with Sophia that she could only ride the ones Logan could and she was fine with that.  When we realized though that he couldn't ride anything well lets just say I had a moment.

Sophia bless her 4 year old love filled heart, she looked and David and I and said "Momma don't worry we can just go to the carousel at the beach." (Jantzen Beach) Signing to David hurry Dad horses.  Then she took her brother by the hand and talked about how we would go "and maybe we could get ice cream after if we are real sweet."  Well Logan had himself a full on 2 year old tantrum (and rightfully so in my mind he wanted to ride the dang rides) and Sophia just went right along telling him how it was OK and that we would do something else fun and not to cry. (Have I said how proud I was?  I actually sat in the front of the car all teary eyed listening to her.)

...and I'll be damned if she wasn't right we did have a great time.

...and they were real sweet and did get themselves an ice cream

I think he forgave his Momma for the little error in judgement.

p.s. we did drive clear around that supermarket until the carnival was gone... good riddance I say (I hope he is tall enough next year!

Norman Rockwell

In my sons room hangs a pair of Norman Rockwell photos of a boy and his beagle.  These were actually purchased at an auction in Kelso for my husband.  He grew up with beagles had them as a kid.   Well looking at these photos on the wall I often wonder what in my life resembles a Norman Rockwell?

I got nothin!  HAHA

Blog Pause

As you may have noticed I have been taking periodic blog pauses.  It seems at times that life just sprints away.  All the things I want to do get put on that back burner for those things that have to be done.  We have hit a mighty pot hole in our road of life as of late and then subsequently got stuck in the mud.  I try to always keep this place on the positive and so please excuse my lapse into negative Nellie mode.

David lost his job in October and has been subbing ever since.  We have done all the things we know to do to cut back on spending...no more cable, no yard waste, took out the land line for the phone and cut back in every other way we can think of.  So... as I am typically very frugal this should be just another challenge but in some ways this is like survivor and I did not addition for the show.

So as we work through this as many other Americans do we find that some ridiculous things hold true

• Healthy food fruits and veges are expensive (crappy food mac and cheese are cheap)
• When you can't get your kid to sleep and a drive around the block will easily do it sometimes it's worth putting a few bucks in gas and eating mac and cheese again for dinner
• Kids underwear cost $12.00 for 5  two kids you you do the math
• 2nd hand clothes from friends are a true blessing
• Free babysitting on Fridays with Baba typically includes a good lunch for the kids and extra food and fruit for the family
• Crummy weather really blows when you are looking for free entertainment to wear your kids out
• Banks really don't give a rip about actual people and making homes affordable program is a joke
• Free weekly coffee is truly something to look forward to
• Family is really the only necessity

I know most people want to hang on to stuff when the money runs out.  I on the other hand want to toss everything.  I look around at the excess toys, clothes, and junk and see money previously wasted that we could be using now and I just want it gone.  We have taken 2 loads to the second hand shop and my hopes is to take 2 more by the end of the week. 

So here I say to to the cyber universe I give up my need to control this situation.  It is all as it should be.   All of you in my boat I salute you.  Keep on paddling around the rocks, it's all down stream from here.

I am back!

Well the economy has finally impacted our family.  David lost his job.  Now that I am over the initial shock I am ready for the challenge.  We have always lived cheap and we have the skills to live cheaper.  We are not alone there are many families coming to the same conclusions as we are.  We buy more than we need,  time is more important than toys and above all else we are all (knock on wood) healthy.

On my morning walks I am spending more and more of my time just being thankful.  I guess that is my one wish for everyone be thankful!

What are you thankful for?

Good Things

What a day, back to work full tilt! Busy Busy! I made a costume late into the night, last night, for a celebration at work tommorrow.  I will get a pic of the costume to post.  It's Max from"Where the Wild Things Are" and wow I thought it would be simple but it took a lot to get the pieces right! Ears, Tail and crown!

The best most amazing thing that happened to day is my good friend Christiane just popped in to see me at work on her way to a gig.  It is always and was simply wonderful to see her for a quick gab. She even brought me a cuppa joe which I so badly needed!
I enjoyed that drink for my final two hours at work and felt a tiny bit sad when I tossed it in the can on my way out!

Ahhh makes the rain ok when you have a good coffee! (have I mentioned I have been trying to cut back on my coffee intake? Yeah not really working LOL not sure I really want to.