Look what happened!

Yesterday, this is how I found the Bear when I came home from picking up the Princess from preschool. Apparently, the kiddo didn't want his shoes removed when his daddy was changing his diaper. Once he had a clean diaper, my hubby put his shoes back on. But that didn't stop my little guy from being crying mad at the situation. He bolted, while still crying, for his room to make sure my hubby knew he was still upset. My hubby said he heard the boy crying for 2 minutes then all was silent. He thought the Bear had finished up his tantrum and was paging through some books in his room. 5 minutes later, my hubby went to look in on him and found the Bear sprawled out on the floor. I guess the tantrum took it out of him. He stayed there for almost an hour and a half before we saw his smiling face emerge from his room.

Plans for the day

Here's my basic plan for the day:

Wake up before the kiddos I woke at 6am

Get the coffee brewing Got it on at 6:10am

Get the breakfast stuff out. Get a sippy of H20 and a glass of milk ready. Bowls out. Cereal ready. Drinks in the fridge!

Drink some coffee. Oh yeah!

Get the Bear out of his crib, change his diaper, and get him started on his cereal. He got his mix of Cheerios & Fruit Harvest with some wheat germ in it.

Drink some coffee. Yup!

Get the Princess cereal poured into her bowl. She got Apple Jacks today

Drink some coffee. I was sipping away

Get the dishes into the sink. I washed as they finished

Wash up their hands, brush their teeth, and get their clothes changed. Yes, yes, yes

Start a Baby Einstein video. I actually started a Blues Clues tape

Drink some coffee. yes

Get myself ready for the day. I actually did this while they ate breakfast

Drink some coffee. Still working on that coffee

Lounge about for a little bit & drink some coffee. Almost done

Drive out to Gymboree Play & Music. It was a quiet drive

Give the kiddos a snack after I've loaded them back into the car after class. It was Apple Nutrigrain Bites today

Stop by Target to exchange some shoes that the Princess got for her birthday for a larger size. Ha! I actually did this!

Get the oil in my car changed. Uh-oh...didn't make it here

Arrive at home & make some lunch -- cheese sandwiches, Vegetarian Alphabet soup, & blue chips. Yes, yes, but it was regular tortilla chips

Get the Bear down for a nap. He went down without a fight after lunch...[doing the happy dance]

Color or play a game with the Princess while the Bear naps. We played a memory game & started watching "Day After Tomorrow". I also painted her toenails a shade of blue/silver!

Start a video after the Bear wakes from his nap. We skipped this

Give the kiddos a snack (sliced nectarines & cheese) Only nectarines today

Run, tickle, & play with the kiddos until 4:45pm We played!!!

Fix dinner (Spaghetti with Italian sausage with garlic bread) It was regular spaghetti, garlic bread, & salad - the kiddos were really hungry too

Wash the kiddos up. Wash the dishes. Wipe down the counters. Sweep the floor. yes yes yes yes

Veg with the kiddos after dinner. I started a Blues Clues DVD. The kids watched for a bit & then did their wrestling & running.

Get the kids ready for bed. Got them tucked in by 8:10pm

Take a shower after the kids are in bed. Finished showering

Fall asleep after my hair dries. Hair still wet...but I'll probably surf the web for a bit....

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Can you see how the details get more vague as the day goes on? Oh...I wonder how close (if even) I'll get to my plan???? I can only dream that it works out as smoothly as it looks on paper. Note that I didn't put in any meltdowns, any yelling, any fighting between the kiddos. Hmmm...if the day starts to get away from me I may just have to stop by the drive-thru Starbucks and get...more coffee! Ha!

So the day didn't go as badly as I'd anticipated. No major blowups. Just some reminders to be more gentle with each other & to sit on the couch (versus jumping and walking on it). Hope tomorrow is as smooth! [Crossing my fingers & toes]

Open your eyes!

Oh my husband! Why is it that you cannot search for things thoroughly?

I'm sure I'm not the ONLY one who's got a husband who performs the cursory search. You know what I'm talking about. When he's trying to look for something and does a once over. His head is moving around but he's not really seeing??? It's so annoying!

Then there's the other issue of asking me where things are. "Honey, where is my comb?" "Hon? Where is that blue button-down shirt of mine?" It's YOUR item, why don't YOU know where it is?

Okay, okay, sometimes he'll be looking for something else. "Honey, where is the bottle opener?" It's in the knife drawer where it always is." "Ummm, I don't see it." [I pull open the drawer. Look all the way in it. Pull out the bottle opener. Hand it to my hubby] "What was it doing all the way in there like that?"

The latest example of his shoddy searching skills occurred on Sunday and yesterday. His training class is up in Salt Lake City. It's a little cooler up there than it is down here in Tucson, so my hubby had to unpack some "winter" clothes on Sunday. He opened the two large packing boxes we've got in our bedroom in search of clothing. The one box was marked "Winter Clothes" in his writing. The other box was unmarked. He opened the first box and pulled out what he needed. He then turned to me and said "What's in this other box?" I thought to myself, how the heck am I supposed to know? It's unmarked! I just shook my head and shrugged my shoulders. He opened the one side (since it was taped shut) and peered in. "Oh, it's houseware stuff" and put the box back up against the corner. I'm thinking houseware stuff? I would have unpacked it if it was houseware stuff because if we didn't need it then the stuff should be in storage....

Yesterday, my hubby got all his stuff packed. His flight wasn't until 3pm, so he took the day off so he could get some last relaxing moments in before he was away from home. We left the house about 1:30 to get him to the airport. As I was strapping the kiddos into their carseats, he turns to me and says "I forgot my leather jacket!" He does an about face and walks back to the townhouse. The kids and I waited for what I felt was a long time before he returned empty handed. I thought "Where the heck was the jacket?" He got into the car and said "I think I left the jacket is in storage." I thought he'd unpacked the jacket and that it was hanging up. Oh well!

Well today I looked into that 2nd box -- the one that was not labeled. I actually pulled back both flaps of the box and looked inside. The "houseware item" he saw was the base of the computer monitor. What was under the monitor? CLOTHING! The first layer was some of the Bear's sweats. The rest of it my hubby's stash of jackets. Yes! His leather jacket was on top!

I'm hoping REAL hard that it's cool as heck up in Salt Lake this week. I hope that dork freezes his tooshie! If he'd only taken a real look into the box he would have seen that it was full of HIS crap. That's what he gets for not doing this thoroughly! HA!

Big feet

Have I ever mentioned what big feet my Bear has? They are some chubby-wubbies! They are meating up on top of his feet. They're also WIDE. His toes seem to all line up in a row (well pretty much)! We call them "Barney Rubble" feet.

Anyway, I always have to buy wide shoes for him. I've been trying to get him some Nike Picos (photo below) but I couldn't find them. So, I ended up having to order them on-line from Famous Footwear. They should arrive sometime this week.

I happened to be in Target (love that store) this morning looking for a birthday gift. The Princess and I are going to her best friend's 4th birthday party this Saturday. Anyway, I was browsing around like I normally do and found the cutest little shoes for my Bear! They look like the photo below. I got them in a deep chocolate brown. What's great about them is that they're slip-ons - easy on and easy off!

He's already got these fantastic soft leather booties from Buskins, which we've nicknamed his "Texas shoes". Aren't they the cutest?

So my little boy will have some rugged looking shoes to add to his "all boy" wardrobe. He's got lots of red, white, and blue in his clothes, which he looks fantastic in. So all his shoes (yeah...all 3 pair) will coordinate really well with whatever he's wearing.

Let me just say what inspired me to write this is that when I went to try the shoes on him when I got home, he hasn't let me take the new Target shoes off. He's strutting around in them. Yes! He's strutting! After he's walked around them for about 10 minutes, he stopped in between my hubby and I. He bent over, touched his shoes, and said "Shoes" Clear as day! That was the first time he's said that!

"Uh-oh!"

My Bear is the funniest little guy. He is now in that stage where he says "uh-oh". He uses the phrase in the appropriate manner - he doesn't just say it nilly-dilly. He says it when he's dropped something. He says it when something falls down. He says it when he knows he's done something wrong. Yes, he's learning that business of right versus wrong.

It's amazing how some people never seem to learn that lesson. I rented "The Emperor's Club" this weekend. It's a movie about a boy's school and how one young man ends up cheating during a contest. His instructor doesn't rat him out though. Turns out this young man grows up and seems to redeem himself...but then falls back to his cheating ways. He never learned the difference between right and wrong.

I'm sure a lot of folks have their own perception of what's right and wrong nowadays. Seems that back decades ago everyone had a specific code of ethics and morals. It was when folks were more the same than different. Most families attended church. Most kids did chores. Most moms were homemakers. It was a simpler time. I'm sure it was complicated back then. I'm sure everyone had their personal traumas and dramas, but for the most part as we look back it was simple.

In the 21st century, it seems that people define their own standards. We've got a nation of diverse ethnicities. We've got people who believe in very different religions (if any that is). We've got parents who don't get their kids immunized. We've got adults who think adultery is okay. We've got a whole slew of the nation who has their own way of thinking.

Don't get me wrong...I enjoy the fact that people have different views. But it makes being a parent difficult when I want to bring my kids up with certain ideas of what's right and wrong. There are so many ways my kids are exposed to inappropriate behavior. I can only shelter them so much. Now that my daughter is in preschool I know that she's exposed to a lot of other kids who've been brought up differently. She's now having to decide on her own what's right and wrong.

I don't let them watch any of the kids networks (Cartoon Network, abc Family, Nickelodeon, Disney) because there is horrible behavior in so many of those shows. Cartoon characters that talk back. Sassy talk and sassy words (stupid, idiot, hate). Yes, I expose my kids to these words but my daughter (who is 4) knows that we don't use those words in our house. When we're out and about and we overhear someone using a "not so nice" word, my daughter will oftentimes look at me. I'll raise my eyebrows and she'll nod and shake her head. She knows it's a words we don't use and she acknowledges it. That's how we distinguise right and wrong for our kids. We explain that other people might say certain words or do certain behaviors, but "we don't do that in our house."

Yes...the phrase "uh-oh" is just the beginning. This business of right and wrong takes a lifetime. I feel like I've got my daughter on a good path so far. Now I've got to work on my little guy. Hopefully he'll watch his sister and learn. I know that it's a long hard path trying to steer these little ones into decision makers that we can be proud of.

Negative tidbits in my brain this week

Yes, I've had more than a few nasty thoughts running through my brain this week. I've been a cool cat. I've kept most of my negativity to myself this week. Well... when it relates to my hubby.

Here are a few thoughts:

You just threw in two ice cubes into your glass of soda. Okay, that's fine. What? You've left one ice cube in the bucket? Why didn't you empty out the two ice cube trays so the bucket would be full. Then we could be freezing more cubes.

Now then. You've used more ice. Did you empty out the two trays into the bucket like you should have earlier? Nope! You've used that last one in the bucket and chipped out two more out of one of the trays. What the hell?

[Rolling over in bed] I suddenly realize why I've rolled over. You've gotten up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. You do your business and what? You don't close the door as the toilet is still flushing. It's too damn loud man! Why didn't you wait in there a couple more seconds until the toilet finishes cycling? You know how sensitive I am to sound at night!

A sense of caution comes about me as I half-wake laying in bed facing you. I realize that you're about to roll over towards me. And what is that? An arm in the air? It's coming down on my head! I raise my arm to my eyes to block an elbow in my eye. Call it my 6th sense on danger????

Don't do it! Don't do it! Don't let those children of ours eat their Nutri-grain bars outside the kitchen! Not on the carpet! Damn! Damn! Damn! You did do it! Frick! Where the heck is that vacuum?

Can you not feel all the crumbs under your feet as your walking through the kitchen? Why can't you take out the foxtail & dustpan from under the sink & take two minutes to sweep that crud up?

Fine, you wiped the island. How much cleanser did you use? The island is about 4ft x 2ft....& you only sprayed once? You think that's enough cleanser to fully clean it? Then what the heck is your wiping technique? I can see spray that hasn't been wiped. I can see sections of the island that are still UN-wiped. Didn't your mom teach you to go over a place more than once?

From the wiping technique comes the vacuuming technique. He didn't vacuum this week. Dang it! When WAS the last time he used that vacuum? Months ago at least! Well, for some reason he's one of those folks that seems to think vacuuming is a race. He thinks one pass over a section of carpet/rug is enough. Doesn't he know that you're supposed to go over the carpet/rug twice - and that's a minimum? Then you need to go over the carpet at different directions. Additionally, you need to go forward and backward at a relatively slow pace. No throwing the vaccum forward and back like a whip -- you're not Zorro! Slow & steady!

Is that enough complaining?

What kind of dumb stuff does your spouse do on a regular basis?

Mom & Dad update

My folks did receive the options list from the builder on the model they really like. They're going to take a detailed look at this weekend. They're going to determine what options they want and what options they need for the house. It's such a hard thing to decide. I know that they'd like to have a 3-car garage. I know they want to have a laundry room versus a laundry closet. I know they want to get upgraded cabinets. I know that my Mom dreams of having granite countertops & stainless steel appliances. I know that she'd LOVE to have hardwood floors in the great room, hall, & kitchen. There are the big ticket things people think about, but what about the smaller things? Additional recessed lights. Additional electrical sockets & switches. Upgraded lighting fixtures. Upgraded plumbing fixtures. Where to have the cable connections installed? What kind of facade to you want for the fireplace? All those little things add up to big dollars. I do hope they think about those things to when they're figuring out their budget. I'll keep you updated on the situation....

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday...Happy 66th birthday Mommy!

I just called my Mom up last night about 8:30pm and talked to her. She sounded tired but good. Can you believe she still works? She didn't even tell anyone at work that it was her birthday. No one would have known if my older sister hadn't had some flowers delivered to her work. Everyone at work apparently felt so guilty about not knowing. They sang "Happy Birthday" to her and that was all they could do. She went out to dinner with my younger sister and my Dad. They were all in my sister's car when I called. Yes! They were just driving home after their dinner out. But like I said, she sounded good and happy...that's all that matters.

I can't tell you how much I admire my Mom. She's such a good person. She isn't one who acts nice when people are around, we've all seen those "falsies". She has a genuinely kind soul. She has the best heart and is always looking out for others. She has this even temper too. I, unfortunately, have a HOT temper like my father. Anyway, she defends her family like a good mama-bear would do. She's very soft-spoken but quick to pelt out a hearty laugh or give you a mischevious smile. There's a spirit within her that shines. It's amazing. She's so much like my grandmother, her mother. Then there's my 2nd sister, who is much like my mother. They're the kind of women that I aspire to be. Those women who seem to brush off negatives like they were no big thing. Those women who has immensely quiet strength you can see in the way they hold their shoulders and the way they walk? Those women who have steel-like determination in their eyes but a kind touch? Amazing women...that's all I can say...

Is there a woman in your life that amazes you? Who is it?

Dream House - Feder Home [update]

Don't forget to watch Dream House at 9pm tonight on HGTV!

Well....I know that I'll be watching it. This current season's home was built in Tucson, Arizona. I'm not exactly sure where in Tucson though. It's supposed to be a custom home that's about 9000 square feet. That's right! 9000 square feet! And it's a home with a couple and their two small children.

The first show was last week and I only caught the last 5 minutes of it. It's such a bummer that HGTV doesn't replay the show on another day so folks can still catch it. They replay other shows over and over again throughout the week...why not this one?

Anyway, I hope that the show displays the beauty of the desert. The beautiful sunsets filled with oranges, pinks, purples, & greys. The expanse of natural vegetation that Tucson is so adamant about keeping (in compared to Phoenix that removes most natural vegatation). The way the clouds roll over the mountain range and into the city. Also, the thunder storms that roll through. Talk about an amazing display of Mother Nature with her lightening and thunder!

If anyone knows where the Feder home is located, I'd appreciate the info. Also, if you've got any pull over at HGTV programming...repeat the episodes!!!! Please!

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It was a great 2nd episode about the Feder residence. I can't believe that they ended up buying three 3-acre lots to accommodate that house! But I guess if you've got the money then it's not an issue. I understand why they'd want such a big house - especially living in Arizona. In the summer it gets blistering hot. We end up being stuck inside. It's like you folks that have to deal with snow in the winter. You end up inside for months on end. Well...that's how it is for us out in the Arizona heat. We stay indoors. With a sprawling 9000sf home, they'd all have space to themselves while being couped up inside.

I feel badly for their neighbors. It must have been a huge mess and inconvenience for them as the Feder's built their home. It didn't look like their street was very wide. I'm sure all the excavating kicked up a bunch of dirt & debris. Hopefully the Feder's pitched in and had their neighbor's windows cleaned once they finished construction. That would have been a fantastic gesture. Plus, did you see how normal sized the homes on the other side of the street looked? I'm wondering how THEY feel about the huge home next to them. Does that bring their home value up or down?

What's bugging me is that there's no description on what's going to be happening in upcoming episodes on the HGTV website. All they've got are the titles of the episodes. What good is that? Also, they've got no additional info as to how long the project took. Floorplans of the house - I'm sure it would interest lots of folks to see how they partitioned out 9000sf!