I might just shave my head

After today’s experience, I am so utterly disgusted with hair that I might just shave mine off completely. Warning: This Blog Will Contain A Disgusting Picture

For the past few days, the drain in our shower has been a little slow (I bet you know where this is going already.) There are few things that gross me out more than wet hair balls. Actually, any wet hair that is not connected to my head grosses me out. It’s one of those weird things-it literally sets off my gag reflex. So pulling hair out of a drain is definitely Derek’s job and has been our entire marriage. And I realize that 98% of the hair in our house belongs to me, but it’s still just his job.

Well, my Handy Dandy Husband is not here at the moment and I decide to get all ambitious and take care of it myself. How bad can it really be? Derek has mentioned that he wishes I would take care of more stuff like this while he is gone, so since I am going for Wife of the Year, I will fix the slow drain. And also the next time I see an ant covered dead cockroach, I will at least kill the ants.

I gathered the tools, the most important being long rubber gloves. I unscrew the drain guard thing, stick my finger down the hole, gag, pull up hair, gag, pull up more hair, gag again, close my eyes, hold my breath, pull up more hair, and gag again. I barely open one of my eyes and see that there is still a big glob of hair that I can’t reach with my hand. So I get a metal hanger, put it down the hold, gag again, and pull up a kitten-sized clump of decaying hair. And I of course gag again.

Have I mentioned the smell? Yeah, not pretty.

I decided that I needed proof for Derek at how disgusting it was, so I did take a picture. Brace yourself.

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Now if pulling that out of a drain doesn’t award me at least a Wife of the Year nomination, I don’t know what will!

I just gagged again.
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Suzanne did this on her blog (Shauna, I am still waiting for yours!) Here is my transformation:

Before Make-Up:
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After Make-Up and hair fixed. Now, hair fixed is really unfixed this time of year. It is raining today, so it’s all about the waves. My hair really isn’t quite long enough for my wavy hair. But my hair is either like this or in a ponytail until October when the humidity goes away. Straightening it is just WAY too much work.

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12:40

That’s the time right now. 12:40 a.m. I just got home about 10 minutes ago from a friend’s house. Sometimes it’s really fun, even just for one night, to pretend like I’m footloose and fancy free and that I can stay up late and sleep in late. Will someone please send my kids a memo that I would like to sleep in until 9:00? Thanks!

But it was a totally fun night. I love making new friends and finding a friend you just click with. And, the whole reason I was at her house so late is because Derek was having an xbox party with her husband and a few others. I wasn’t necessarily kicked out, but I happily invited myself over to Brook’s house in order to avoid the testosterone fest that took place here tonight.

I asked Derek if he bonded with Dwayne. He gave me that “what kind of question is that” look, and said “uh, I guess we bonded over recreational activity.”

I replied, rather urgently, “well, I hope you bonded because we are so going to be couple friends with them!”

Here’s to couple friends!

Summertime….and the livin’s easy

We are all still here, alive and kicking. I just haven’t been in the mood to blog. Not much to say…I could give you the run down of my days, but c’mon. That’s just sort of boring. It’s officially summer! This is the first summer that I get to experience the joy of having both kids home all the time. And by joy I definitely mean excitement, over stimulation, and eventually the countdown of C starting school again. I can’t wait until the pool opens up next week. I predict we will go swimming nearly every day!

On a totally different note, does anyone know how to get blood out of carpet? Apparently, Connor felt the need to hang over the side of the couch for awhile before alerting me to his massive bloody nose. Resolve made it not look like a crime scene in here, but now it’s just a huge brown stain. Any ideas? Of course, now it’s been 2 days since in happened, so it’s nice and set in…

If you have a little girl and you invite us to your birthday party, this is what you will most likely receive as a gift:

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I made that for a little girl in Connor’s class. I filled it with some markers, a little notebook, a few pencils, and stickers. I love how it turned out, and it’s was such an affordable little gift.

Okay, time to figure out what is on our agenda for today. I am sure I will be back to normal blogging soon!

Evidence

Logan is as crazy as they come. I am constantly amazed at how fearless he is. Everything that Connor does, Logan has to try. And a lot of the times, he is just as successful! He can jump off the couch and land on his feet, climb up and down the bunk bed ladder, climb in and out of the car and his carseat, play on every big kid playground we visit… I could really go on and on. The bottom line is, if Connor’s doing it, Logan will follow suit. I have come to expect this, and most of the time I am not surprised by him, even when he gets looks from others with his antics. More than once, a stranger has lunged at him to catch him while doing something that most two year olds wouldn’t do. I just laugh, smile, and explain that he thinks he is 4 and is not only coordinated, but extremely tough. It’s a good thing that I am extremely laid back about climbing, exploring, running, and jumping at the park.

Anyway. all of that is to preface these pictures of nutso Logan. He did this over and over again…sometimes clearing the slide, sometimes not. But laughing and smiling the entire time.

Cannonball!
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I give him a 9.5 on form in this one.
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Maybe I need to post a “No Diving” sign.
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don’t forget

Happy Mother’s Day!

I had a good Mother’s day. I woke up with a splitting headache-the kind where you can feel your heartbeat in your brain. I promptly laid down on the couch, fell asleep, and woke up about 45 minutes later when I heard our new old car beep. It beeps every time it’s unlocked…not my favorite feature. anyway, I milked my couch time for 15 more minutes when Derek and Connor arrived with donuts and coffee. Nice! We went to church, and I spent the rest of the day relaxing, reading, scrapbooking, and pretty much doing nothing or whatever I wanted. That’s the perfect mother’s day!

A few stories that I don’t want to forget about…

We’ve had a little roach problem lately. Those of you who live in Texas know that roaches don’t equal a dirty house. Huge (I mean huge…3 or 4 inches long) roaches will sometimes come in the house. They are NOT welcome here! After our weekend in Arlington, we had a big one in the bathroom. Connor discovered it, and let the rest of the family know it was there by shrieking “there’s a lobster in the bathroom!” A lobster. That’s how big they are. And for the record, Derek is the official lobster killer in this family. And our pest control peeps. I love them. I called them after the lobster incident, and the problem is mostly fixed…except when it rained the other night and one crawled across Derek while he was on the couch. I shudder just thinking about it…

Connor is really into talking about what he’s going to be when he grows up. Last week, during our daily grown-up job conversation, he said, “hmmm…I have a lot of things I need to learn before I grow up. I need to learn how to be a fireman, an astronaut, a construction worker, a garbage man, a time traveler.…”

Two of Logan’s favorite things are spinning around in circles and walking backwards. It can spell disaster when he tries to combine the two.

When Logan needs comfort, he nuzzles his head down on the shoulder spot that was made for kids, and he twiddles my hair. I love that.

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My New Old Car

For a few months now, I have been seriously thinking about how D and I can get out of debt. I’ve talked to lots of friends and family about it, committed to not putting a single thing on credit card, and worked out a budget that would allow us to be out of credit card debt in the next year or so. Several people I talked to mentioned Dave Ramsey and his total money makeover. On Monday, I checked the book from the library. Today, we sold our van. My lovely, wonderful, spacious, new van with the glorious automatic sliding doors. Maybe it’s a little crazy, but we wiped out $7,000 of debt with that move and cut our car payment nearly in half. We will be out of credit card debt in 8 months, and will have our new old car paid off within two years. Exciting stuff I tell ya! It actually feels really good. Dave Ramsey’s book is SO inspiring. I highly recommend it!

Here is our “new” car-a 2003 Honda CRV. She is pretty and definitely looks cooler than a mini van!
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Friday Five

I love my friend Carrie’s Friday blog posts. It’s simple-just post 5 pictures. You all know I don’t need an excuse to post pictures, so every Friday I am going to play Friday Five along with Cares!

This weeks edition of FF highlights some pictures from our trip to Arlington a few weeks ago. Plus it’s easier for me to put these up for Suzanne and Maggie. If you guys click on them, they should be pretty big so you can save them to your computer. Saves me some emailing. 🙂

Maggie and Weaver. He has the roundest brown eyes ever, and he makes the cutest faces!
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Maisy Girl. Connor cannot wait until she comes to visit us and we can take her to NASA. He talks about it nearly everyday. Sometimes he forgets her name and calls her Emily, which sort of makes me giggle. He loves her but cannot for the life of him remember her name.
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Suzanne and Jaxon. Such a cute picture of you guys. I love Jaxon’s seriousness!
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Ryan, Maggie, Me, and Derek. We got to go out sans children. It was great fun! I really wish Midland was closer to Houston.
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Juli Beth, Me, and Staci. I can’t even remember when we became friends, but I am going to guess I met them about 20 years ago! Love them so much. In July, we will have the first official (wouldn’t we all love it if it was the first annual?) girls weekend with two more of our friends. It is going to be the most fun slumber party ever! Who cares if we are all in our late twenties!
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Need something to blog about? Play Friday Five!

Wednesday already?

Dude, this week is flying by! Actually, this whole year has flown by! Connor’s last day of school is next week. It really feels like I just dropped him off for his first day. Last night, we attended his end of the year program. Is there anything cuter than a bunch of 3 and 4 year olds singing songs? I seriously love it SO much. I love when there is one kid who you can hear above everyone else, usually a few words ahead of the rest of the group. I love how you sometimes need subtitles to really understand what the group is saying. And I love that all their songs have clapping and jumping, which every single child does, even the ones who won’t sing.

I tried to get there early to get good seats, but you know how preschool parents can be…this was my view during the show:

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I could at least see him, and Derek was up in the balcony video taping (along with most of the other men attending the show.)

First the 4 year old performed, then the 3 year olds, and then they all went back up for a few songs together. A few of the parents at the back had this great idea to go up to the front and sit on the pews that were previously reserved for the kids. What a great idea! I was totally that mom who moved to the front with her big camera to get pictures of her kid.

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But I was not the parent who sat on the front row, straight up, blocking everyone’s view behind me. I consider myself to be a considerate person. I understand that everyone wants to see, and the least I can do is hunch down a little so the people behind me can see.

But let me tell you a story about the worst preschool parent ever.

It started before the kids even started singing. While the kids were all getting assembled, lots of parents filled the aisles at the front to get pictures. This mom (who, mind you, had front row seat minus the row of kids.), starts tapping everyone on the shoulder asking them move. She can’t get a clear shot with her video camera. We are all polite and move. The singing starts and I keep hearing sighs behind me. Someone from the back sneaks into the aisle again, crazy mom asks her to move, and I hear more grumbling. Being the polite person I am, I turned around to make sure that me or Logan (who was in the aisle) wasn’t blocking her view. “No” she grumbles “when I asked that other lady to move, I hit pause and missed that whole song!” I turned back around and rolled my eyes. I continue to hear sighing behind me. And muttering. “she keeps moving into my sight!. Ugh. I can’t see. She is blocking my view.” She is totally talking about me! Dude, lady. If someone moves into your line of sight, you simply adjust! I am hunched over as far as I can, and besides. You had a front row seat the entire show! After the show is over, she grumbles something about the standing order and the “tall kid” who was standing in front of her kid so she couldn’t see him. I have to laugh, because there is a chance she is talking about Connor. In fact, I sort of hope it was Connor standing in front of him! Is that bad? I think you had to be there to fully understand how obnoxious this mom was, but we all know them and have probably had an experience with one. This was my first yuppiville stage mom experience, but I am sure it won’t be the last.

In other family news, Logan had his speech evaluation this morning. His receptive, and expressive language was rated right at 25 months, so he actually isn’t delayed! But, he does qualify for therapy because of “atypical expressive language production”. He drops the ends of almost every word, and is very hard to understand most of the time unless you speak Logan like Derek, Connor, and I do. His therapist is going to come out just once a month to keep an eye on how he progresses. If after a few months he isn’t doing better on his own and with my help, then she will start coming more. The goal is to have him completely caught up by the time he is 3.

So that’s it for today! Happy Hump Day!

Saturday

Did you know that today is National Scrapbook Day? Pretty cool that we have our own holiday, huh! I have been doing some scrapping and plan to keep at it all day. (Sorry, Derek!) But I thought I would take a little break and blog.

Guess what we did this morning? Got up and ran 3 miles! I am back on the running wagon again. Derek and I are running together with the boys 2-3 times a week. One week down, many to go! I am am actually contemplating training for the marathon again…but I also want to have another baby…marathon…or baby…hmmm…

anyway.
It feels good to run again. Really good.

Last night I made Rice A Roni with dinner (along with pork chops, pasta salad, and green beans. It was, as Ray Ray would say, Yummo!) Rice A Roni has made some changes to their directions that I must comment on. I threw away the box, so I can’t give you the word for word directions, but they went something like this:

1) Brown rice vermicelli in 2 T of butter or margarine containing No Trans Fats.
2) Add 2 cups of water and seasoning packet and bring to a boil. (For best flavor, do not add seasoning packet)
3) Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes.
4) For best flavor, stir in special seasoning and let sit 3-4 minutes.

Okay, Rice a Roni people…of course I want the best flavor possible! Why would you think that I want the option of sub-par creamy cheese flavor? I found those instructions really weird. I added the seasoning packet last, and it really was delicious. Even Derek, Mr. I-don’t-like-cheese-flavor, thought it was really good.

The boys went swimming yesterday afternoon. Because posts are way more fun if they contain pictures, here are my two favorite pictures from yesterday.

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Back to the scrap table! Have a great Saturday!

For Pawpaw

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During our visit in Arlington this past weekend, Pawpaw gave Connor several fighter pilot patches. They have been a huge hit! This is Connor’s new favorite shirt. Thanks, Pawpaw!
(The 2, 3, 5 are just stickers form HEB. He loves stickers almost as much as he loves his patch.)