He’s got style

c_outfit.jpgOh yes he does. When I think about this day, I really don’t want to remember the bad parts. And trust me, there were bad parts. It was just one of those days. What I want to remember is that when Connor did finally go get dressed by himself, this is what he chose to wear. I love it. You better believe that I loaded up the crew and headed to the store with Connor dressed like that. I think that was our happiest hour this whole day. Connor loves talking to people at the store, loves helping me shop, and I love that I can just look at his crazy outfit and smile at him expressing himself. I am not sure how I will feel about self-expression when he is a teenager and comes home with blue hair or something, but for now he can dress himself in whatever weather appropriate outfit he chooses.

Conversation with Connor:

“Mom, can you fix my airplane?”
“Connor, you know how to fix it. Why don’t you do it?” (we were having a rather helpless day today…)
“But mom” he says tearfully,”I don’t know how to get the wings to stay, and I certainly don’t know how to put the front wheel on!”
Behind muffled laugher, “You’re certainly right, Connor. The wing and wheel are very tricky”

I love when my 4 year old talks like a 20 year old. Cracks me up.

Sorry for the delinquent blogging. It’s just been a really busy couple of days-I am sure you know how that goes!

First of all, check this out. Connor really likes to do art projects with me. He loves to draw, color, cut, glitter things, etc. Today, during our little art time together, he told me he wanted to scrapbook. With pictures just like mommy. I am so proud of his little pages!

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While he created that little masterpiece, I did this:
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I love that he loves to do crafts and be creative. It’s such a fun thing for us to do together.

I was at the park with the boys one day last week, and I got the idea to write down what we had done that morning. I mean all the little details. Because I have a lot of days where Derek gets home and I try to tell him what we did all day, and I literally can’t think of a single thing. So I wrote it down. I only did it until lunch time, but I am sure the afternoon looked very similar.

7:08-Wake briefly and smile as I realize Connor and Logan are still sleeping.
7:23-Connor jumps into my bed. The day begins.
7:35-I manage to milk 12 more minutes in bed before heading to Connor’s room to play trains.
7:45-Get C some cereal, toast my bagel, and sit down to eat and check email and blogs.
7:58-Logan wakes up. Change his diaper, get him dressed, and get his cereal and milk.
8:05-Start a movie for the boys. This morning’s selection is Rescue Hero’s. Head to the shower and say a prayer that the house remains peaceful while I shower.
8:20-Connor calls me. His goggles are stuck on his head. This is quite distressing.
8:42-I am done getting ready. The movie is over, and I tell Connor it is time to get dressed. This is met with a crying fit. I calmly tell him to knock it off and that I will be ignoring him until he pulls himself together.
8:45-start a load of laundry
8:47-vacuum up spilled cereal from breakfast.
8:49-get Logan his second breakfast, a pop tart. This miraculously stops C’s crying.
8:52-after speaking with Connor about the ridiculousness of his tantrum, I get him a pop-tart too.
8:55-Start firetruck song.
9:00-vacuum up pop-tart crumbs
9:03-start firetruck song again.
9:07-Connor heads to his room to get dressed. I finish cleaning up breakfast.
9:15-get Logan’s shoes on and start packing up the diaper bag.
9:20-switch out laundry
9:23-check on Connor’s progress. He’s wearing shorts and a t-shirt…it’s 50 degrees outside.
9:30-Connor comes out dressed appropriately. He’s wearing white baseball pants, a blue shirt on backwards, and sandals on the wrong feet.
9:35-make adjustments to C’s wardrobe and head to the car.
9:37-Logan is buckled and Connor is in the back “buckling the air hoses” a.k.a. buckling all the seatbelts in the way back.
9:42-C climbs into the trunk to fetch his NASA backpack. He needs it so he can have air when we blast off in our space shuttle.
9:45-finally on our way.
9:49-arrive at the bank.
10:02-arrive at Diedrich’s for some much needed caffeine.
10:20: arrive at Hobby Lobby. While shopping, Logan opens a large tub on foam stickers, spilling them everywhere. But other than that, it was a very smooth shopping trip.
10:58-leave Hobby Lobby and decide to stop at the park. The boys have a great time and I write down all these silly details.
11:40-Head home for lunch

That’s as far as I got. Exciting stuff, huh! I am sure one day this will make me smile when I look back at it. I would say that is a pretty typical morning.

It’s almost Wednesday already…this week is flying by! Happy hump day!

Instructions or the Man

I made it to Lowe’s today to find new hardware for the dresser and table, and when I could not find hardware that would fit into the existing holes on the dresser, I decided I would get some curtain rods. I love them. The are black and have a little swirly flourish on the end, and they are going to look great with whatever sheer curtains I pick out. At first, I decided it would be wise to wait and let Derek install them. But, as always, I got excited and decided to do it myself. I read the instructions and gather the tools called for-a drill, a level, a pencil, and a screwdriver. I put in the first call to Derek-where are the drill bits? And he, with skepticism in his voice, wants to know what I am drilling. He informs me that I don’t need a drill to put a screw in the wall, that our handy electric screwdriver will do the job just fine. Even if I am putting the screw into a stud. So I measure, level, remeasure, and level again. The moment of truth. My heart starts to race, my face flushes with pride, and I feel so independent and handy. And, before I even realize what’s happening, the screw head is falling to the ground, leaving about 1/2 inch of screw body sticking out of the wall. I put in another call to Derek. Use pliers, he says, or just wait until he gets home. I decide the second option is the better one.

But, there are two more windows. And, I can be handy, I know it! I start on the second window. I get all 4 screws in the wall, just like the instructions say. I attach the hardware. I get the regular screwdriver to tighten and finish up the job. And two more screw heads fall to the ground. I put in yet another call to Derek. He chuckles good-naturedly (because, let’s just be honest. Pretty much any time I try to build or install something, I screw it up somehow.) At this point I decide for real to wait for Derek to fix it.

But I think I learned an important lesson today. When the instructions call for a drilled hole, it’s probably a good idea to just go with it. Despite what big, strong, handy hubby says.

This is addicting

House projects. Once I get started on one, my mind starts racing with a million things. It’s both good and bad. It’s good because of all the ideas floating around in my head. It’s bad because I know that it won’t last forever. I have to slow down, do a little at a time, or I get burned out. I painted my room all week, one wall at a time. I learned something about myself. In the past, I paint, paint, paint all in a day or two. And after about an hour, maybe two at the most, I start to do a really bad job. But if I just do a little bit at a time, then every detail looks pretty good, I don’t get burned out, and I actually enjoy it. I think this is backwards from most people. Most of my friends who I have talked to in the past week about this are the opposite-they want to get it done. Which way are you? Get it done, or enjoy the process? I think I am just all around an enjoy the process kind of girl. I am like that with scrapbooking. It’s more about enjoying the process and the creativity than about getting it done or being caught up. Anyway, I digress.

House projects. More specifically, the bedroom project. It’s painted (thanks Cindi and Denise for the color idea-I went with Sherwin Williams Blonde. I highly recommend it!) I bought a cool thing for over the bed, which I think I am going to expand from eventually. I revamped and revitalized the dresser. I wanted to wait until I had the whole thing put together to share pictures, but we all know I don’t have the patience for that. When I get excited about something, I have to share right that second! Plus, this is going to take me the next month or two to completely finish up. I have to hit Hobby Lobby each week for sale items. 🙂

Here is the wall behind the bed:
(Sidenote…these were taken at night and don’t really do the color justice. I promise it’s not the same as the old color, despite the way it might look in these pictures.)

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And here is my favorite part so far (ok, the only other part that is done…) The dresser. Remember this:

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Now it’s this:

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I LOVE it! I told Derek we were not allowed to stack our junk up on the dresser anymore. We aren’t kids! We are grown ups, and grown ups don’t clutter up their dressers. (I pretty much guarantee that we will clutter it up, but it’s still a nice thought.)

Tomorrow I am headed back to Hobby Lobby for one more look around, and to Lowe’s to look for new hardware for the dresser and to scope out curtain rods. My mind is racing with fun ideas for Connor’s room. It’s going to need to be redone since he ripped down the border I so lovingly put up…I want to paint the living room an earthy, not too dark, green, but first I need to do something with the forest green fireplace…not to mention the forest green backsplash in the kitchen that needs to go…and maybe, just maybe in the future a cute, new nursery…so many ideas!

I’m giddy. I love my house.

Ding ding ding!

Most of you got it! Connor’s masterpiece is an airplane-a propeller plane with lots of windows. I’m not sure what is written underneath…he can write his name, so I don’t think that’s what it is. It’s probably the name of his airplane, which would be something like B356 coo-coo.

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You might think the beautiful flowers are from Valentine’s Day, but they aren’t. They are from my birthday, and I just remembered that I never posted a picture of them. Aren’t they beautiful! D had them delivered to me at my parents’ house. It was the first time I have ever had flowers delivered. So fun to get these in the mail. Love him.

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You might think this beautiful blooming jasmine is from Valentine’s day. Nope. It’s from Patrick and Noel’s wedding. I transplanted it and look how good it’s blooming! I don’t have a good history with flowers, but I am really going to work on actually watering this one. But I can grow cucumbers. Which reminds me that I should get started on my veggie garden soon.

Valentine’s day did not go unnoticed. D left a card and some candy. I had a yummy meal planned, but it had to get rescheduled, since I ended up babysitting Justin and Kayla, and i wasn’t about to take 4 little kids to the grocery store. But I made it tonight, and it was SO good. To quote Derek, “This is restaurant good!” It was a Rachael Ray 30 Minute Meal, so it wasn’t even super difficult. It was spaghetti with sausage and peppers. I am sure some of you will want to make this, so here is a link to the spaghetti recipe, and here is the link to the peppers and sausage. I didn’t serve the sausage and peppers over the bread like the recipe says-I just served it with the spaghetti. It was so yummy!

How cute are these? I love Connor’s artwork so much. This one he did at school. My favorite part is Derek’s beard. Love that he draws those little details in!
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And this one he did at rest time one day. It is the first time that he has ever drawn something and I could tell what it was without an explanation. Can you tell what it is? Or is it just because I am his mom and I know what is on his mind?

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Happy Friday!

Little Grown Up

Connor has been cracking me up lately with his grown up phrases. Here is a sampling:

I’d rather not say (said one day when I asked him how his day was)
I guarantee…
Actually…
It’s looks very nice. (said when I asked how he liked paint I chose for the bedroom. I think this one made me laugh because of his tone. It was said so formally!)
In a moment.

Funny kid, that one. He’s growing up so fast. Sniff.

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Totally different topic…
While I was in California, I got the opportunity to spend time with some of my best friends. It was so fun and wonderful and just what I needed. Have you ever had a conversation with someone and not realized at the time that it was sort of life-changing? I had one of those, and I’ve been meaning to blog about it, but haven’t. So here it is. The somewhat life-changing conversation. I simply asked my friend Beth what was in their future as far as her and her family moving. It was something we both talked about a lot when I lived there-she has never felt that Southern California was where they would stay permanently, just like Derek and I. Basically, she answered the question like this: “just live where you are.” On a church leadership retreat, they had studied an Old Testament passage that basically said to put down roots where you are. Marry your kids. Get involved. Don’t worry about what’s next. She was completely convicted by that, and in turn, so was I. Just live life where you are. I realized that I haven’t lived here. And I’m not sure I really lived in Pasadena either. For the past 9 years, I have been living life looking forward to what’s next. In college, it was marriage. For several years, it was looking forward to having babies. Then looking forward to D finishing school and moving. And even now, I haven’t really put roots down in Houston, knowing that chances are high we will move again in the next few years. But that is no excuse! Am I going to live forever always wondering, always looking ahead, and never fully living anywhere? NO! I’m telling you, it was really convicting. Since that conversation, I decided it was time to really get involved in our new church. Time to put down some roots, build some relationships. And it has been amazing. I joined a women’s bible study that is just exactly what I need-I can feel myself growing and changing. I love that. Derek and I joined a couples group. We went to a super bowl party. Went to lunch after church with several other couples. I hit McD’s with another mom after our bible study this morning. It feels so good to really live here. It feels good to put down some roots and and start to build meaningful relationships. So that’s it. Four little words that have had a huge impact on my life. Live where you are.

Coming tomorrow…an example of something that I know now was completely and totally the hand of God leading us.
Then it will be back to the regularly scheduled blogging about bedroom makeovers, kid stories, and general Meg-ness.

Muffins and my nose

Last night I had a very unfortunate accident involving a delicious chocolate chip muffin. I enjoyed every last crumb, and when it was gone, my nose and throat just felt funny. So I coughed and gagged and hacked and finally blew my nose into the sink. I little morsel of muffin flew out, which was really surprising and disgusting. I continued with my picture project, but my nose was just still bugging me, so I grab a kleenex and blow with gusto. Several chunks of muffin flew out my nose. Derek will verify this fact-not only did I look at my prize in the kleenex, but I also made him look. Come on, I know you look at your boogers, too. Am I misspelling boogers? My fancy Mac spell checks everything I type and it is underling that word. Weird.

Anyway, muffin came out my nose. This isn’t my first encounter with food and my nose. When I was really little, I stuck a raisin up there. Then, in high school, either a large sneeze or hysterical laugher caused a macaroni noodle to go up and out my nose, instead of down. But last night, there was neither laugher nor sneezing. This morning as I ate another muffin, I lived in fear with each and every bite. I hope it’s another 10 years before food comes out my nose. Or maybe what I should really hope for is food never comes out my nose again.

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Connor is really into knock-knock jokes today. His favorite goes like this:
Knock-knock.
Who’s there?
Banana.
Banana who?
Banana rocket ship underpants!

The first time I actually chuckled because it was just so ridiculous and pretty cute. But 15 times later, I am not laughing so much. Anyone know any knock-knock jokes I can teach him?

No children were hurt in the making of this.

On a scale of 1 to 10, how tacky is this? Logan has a new face. He makes it for 2 different reasons: 1) He is getting in trouble, but trying to be brave. or 2) something has happened that he doesn’t understand that is upsetting, and he is, again, trying to be brave. And example of number 2 is when he rubbed his hands all over the care tires, turning his hands black. Anyway, the face. It is probably the cutest pouty face ever. Seriously. I mean, you have all seen how luscious his lips are. Just imagine that big fat bottom lip sticking way out, big blue eyes looking up at you…so freaking cute. It’s really, really hard not to laugh when he’s making it for reason number 1. Like when I am trying to be all stern about him smashing his banana and throwing it all over the kitchen. So for the past 2 days, I have been on a quest to capture a picture of this pout (because I MUST scrapbook this face! I know it will only be around for a short while!) Every time he starts to get upset, I get out the camera and stand, ready and waiting. And every single time, nothing happens. It’s like the little booger knows I want to get a picture of it, so therefore he won’t make the face any more.

But look at these pictures that I have taken…I promise nothing really bad was happening to the kid…I’m not that mean!

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Check out this picture of Connor. It’s 24/7 with this kid. I seriously never know what I am going to find him dressed in when I go check on him when I go to bed. He is the most imaginative, creative kid ever! I love this about him so much.

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