Taking a momentary break from the fumes

First of all, let me just say that Logan is fast asleep on the couch (he’s running a fever and not feeling so hot today.  Think it’s the swine flu?)  Camryn is asleep.  And I am wasting being productive through the oh-so-rare nap overlap.  I really don’t want to remove any more moldy caulk during these peaceful, quiet moments.  I figure I deserve a break, right?  Actually, all the moldy caulk is gone.  The entire shower has been bleached into oblivion.  The doors have been CLRed.  (sidenote.  That stuff is nasty!  Like burn your eyes and nose, don’t breath nasty.  But it worked like a charm on the water spots all over the door!)

Really, I meandered into the kitchen to get my caulk and read the instructions.  Um, yeah.  I have a strong feeling that I will just be using the other shower for a few days until Derek can do the caulking for me.
Step 1: Remove dirt, grease, moisture, and old caulk.  Check.
Step 2: If joint size exceeds 1/2″ x 1/2″, use backer rod. Use what?
Step 3: Mask both sides of the joint. with a batman mask? Or a clone trooper mask?
Step 4: Load sealant cartridge into caulking gun. oh. I was supposed to get a caulking gun.
Step 5:smooth or “tool” bead if needed. tool? like use a tool? or tool, as in act like a jerk?

I thought all you had to do was nip the tip and put it on. It’s a good thing we have 2 showers.

Right before lunch, I was holding Cami while checking email, and Logan wanted to crawl up into my lap.  I seized the opportunity to make a little movie, and Logan was even fairly cooperative!

And speaking of movies, I’ve added a Flip Video to my wishlist.  Actually, it’s really the only thing on my wishlist.  Besides new carpet.  And a king size bed.  And a new lens for my camera.  And some new clothes.  And…just kidding.  I really don’t have a huge wish list.  Anyway, I texted Derek about it (I’m trying to drop some not-so-subtle Mother’s Day hints), and he wanted to know when I became such a gadget geek.  Oh Derek…I learned it from watching you, honey.  I learned it from watching you.

I sort of like the smell of bleach

The time has come.  The day is upon me.  I can no longer turn a blind eye. Today I am dedicating myself to hard core cleaning my shower.

Now, first of all, let me just say that I clean my house.  Almost every day, I do something.  My bathroom gets cleaned once a week.  I mop the floors, clean the toilet, wipe the counter, clean the mirror, and wipe down the bathtub and shower.  When wiping down the shower, I very deliberately ignore the moldy caulk, the rusty corners, and the soap scum covered doors.  But really, I can’t ignore this problem area forever, and today is the big day.

Camryn, Logan, and I hit up Wal-Mart for the essentials, which included these Glam Gloves.  Surely, this task that lies before me will be more fun with pink gloves.  Surely.

If you don’t hear from me for awhile, maybe someone can call and check on me.  I’m going to be deep in the land of bleach fumes.  (But not bleach and amonia mixed, right Noel?)

And on a totally unrelated note, I would like to say that I got 5 mosquito bites up and down my legs yesterday.  The kicker?  Yesterday, I wore jeans.  That sucker was totally uninvited and I hope he died a slow, painful death.

An Afternoon in Bluebonnets

Or rather, an afternoon in a field that used to have bluebonnets.

I admit that I was a little disappointed when we arrived and they were gone.  But, the bluebonnets weren’t the only reason we drove to The Woodlands.  We also got to catch up with this lovely family.

Eddie happens to be Derek’s old ACU roommate.  And I do mean old…they are coming up on their 10 year reunion this year.  Okay, they aren’t old at all, but it is hard to believe they’ve been out of college for 10 years!  Anyway, Eddie married himself a lovely Megan, who was also born in the 80s just like me.  Love her.  Love seeing her with her two kiddos.

It worked out perfectly to meet at this park.  It was super nice, and the boys had a blast playing there.  This is the only picture I got of the two of them.  They were deep in Star Wars Land the entire time.

While the boys played, and Eddie and Derek visited, Megan and I followed sweet Claire around and tortured her with my picture taking.  She was much more cooperative than the boys are! In fact, it wasn’t torturous at all!

Of course I took a few pictures of the princess, too.  I’ve been trying to get her to wear hats in anticipation of the upcoming summer fun.  She is so blond and I know that her little munchkin head is going to get burned if we aren’t careful.  She isn’t so keen on the hats.  We can trick her into wearing it for a bit, and then she pulls it right off.

We even managed to score a family photo.  I love this picture.  Sure, we aren’t all looking or smiling.  That’s Connor’s “I’m in kindergarten now and I’m required to have an awkward smile” smile.  And Logan is going through a big time “don’t take pictures of me” phase.  Miss Camryn was just a little grumpy by this point.  And Derek and I…well, I guess we just look like us.  A little rumpled, but smiling. I love my family.

It was a really fun night, and my kids have asked at least 5 times since yesterday if we can go back.  Too bad with traffic it can take almost an hour to get there!

And kind of random, maybe someone knows the answer to this…but whenever I edit my pictures, they always look different on here than they do on my computer or printed.  Any idea why that is?  It irritates me!

Hope you all had a beautiful, fun filled weekend!

Calling All Scrapbookers!

Paper Trunk is hosting an online crop with tons of cool challenges for the next 10 days!  The first challenge is already up, and there will be a new one each day until May 2.  There are opportunities for lots of cool prizes, and you can even win a $25 gift card to scrapbook.com just for spreading the word about the crop on message boards or blogs.  Head on over and check it out!

Rite of Passage

It may not be as important as the first Christmas or the first steps or the first tooth or the first day of school. But it’s still a rite of passage, at least for my kids! On Wednesday, I introduced Camryn to the fun found in the tupperware cabinet.

Just like her predecessors, she took to it right away.

And even when things got a little perilous…

She didn’t let that stop her fun.  Or her smiles.

I love my tupperware cabinet.  It has served me well for many years.

(And if you want tupperware organizing tips, clearly you need to read a different blog.)

Right now, the house is completely quiet.  Derek and the boys are at chuch and I’m home with Miss Cami who is fast asleep.  She has been working hard on her top two teeth the past few days and is pretty much an unhappy mess.  She hasn’t been napping well (and the HUGE storms we had yesterday definitely did not help matters), and she’s got a Super Snot Nose.  She was fast asleep when it was church time, and I just didn’t have the heart to wake her up.  Plus I wouldn’t put her in the nursery with all the snot, just in case it’s from more than just teething.  Which means I end up sitting out in the foyer all of service with a cranky baby who needs a nap.  So we stayed home.  I should really do something more productive, but that’s what Mondays are for in Megan World.  However I just finished my second espresso drink of the day (I have NO idea what made me do that!  It just tasted so good!)  So I’m not going to be sitting still for long!  Maybe I’ll organize my tupperware cabinet.

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!

sewing:unveiled

I present to you The Chair.

(and you can see the new tile on the fireplace!)

I really should have taken a picture of the original fabric.  It was a delightful 70s brown and orange plaid.  Three years ago, I recovered it in a bit more modern red plaid.  But, as it turns out, I really just don’t like plaid in my home very much.  Can’t go wrong with a neutral fabric with fun pillows.  I really like how it turned out!  And, I didn’t have one single sewing meltdown, much to Derek’s relief.

Camryn likes the chair, too.  She was more than happy to model on it for me.

Today, she is 9 months old.  Seriously, 9 months already??  She’s been out in the world as long as she was in my belly.  Just like any proud mama, I think she is pretty amazing.  She is so sweet, so fun, so cuddly, and pretty much rocks our world.  The other day I was thinking about how for awhile I wasn’t sure if I wanted to have any more kids after the boys.  And now that she is here, I can’t even imagine what it would be like without her.  She has brought so much joy to our family! She is getting better and better at crawling.  This morning I looked over at the rocking chair and saw her standing up, holding onto it.  That’s only the second time I’ve seen her pull up by herself.  She says “da da da da da da” all day long, and it cracks me up because Logan is constantly telling her in a somewhat frustrated voice that “daddy is not here!  He is at work!”  One of her happiest places to hang out is right in front of the windows facing the backyard.  She loves to watch the boys play out there, and every once in awhile, she gets a little visit from Dallas.  She loves Dallas.  If he’s in room, her eyes are locked on him.

She is starting to eat more and more little finger foods.  Yesterday I gave her fresh cantaloupe, and she ate and ate and ate it.  She absolutely loved it!  She could also eat her weight in Cheerio’s or those little fruity Gerber puffs.  She makes a face at me when I feed her green veggies, but she eats them anyway even if they aren’t her favorite.  My girl loves to eat, that’s for sure!

I could go on and on about how fun and special she is and about how much I love her.  But I’ll stop for now.  I think you get the picture. Happy 9 month birthday, baby girl!

I sewed yesterday

You read that right. Yesterday, I started a sewing project.  I’m re-upholstering a rocking chair and sewing a few throw pillows to go with it.  I’m feeling so very domestic and crafty, and hopefully it will look okay from a distance.  That’s all I really care about.  Please, don’t ever look closely at my seams because I could guarantee you they are not even close to being straight.  And lining up a pattern on fabric?  That’s way overrated in Megan style sewing.

Back in the days when I was a young, married, poor college student, I decided that I wanted to sew myself a few skirts.  I had done curtains and pillows and even a shirt.  A skirt couldn’t possibly be that difficult to sew, right?

First on my list was a denim skirt that came down to a point in the front and back.  Remember those?  I couldn’t find a pattern of exactly what I wanted, so I decided to wing it.  Winging it didn’t work so well.  While it wasn’t the worst thing I ever sewed, the points were definitely at 1:00 and 7:00 instead of 12:00 and 6:00.  (I really wish you could have seen the look of extreme concentration on my face as I figured out the points in relation to a clock.  I am so slow on picturing things like that.  It’s the whole spatial relations thing, which probably explains why my skirt came out all wonky.  And why sewing and geometry do not come naturally to me.)

The next skirt was to be a simple, black, knee length ensemble complete with an elastic waist because the button and zipper thing eluded me.  They elude me still.  After my failed attempt at “winging it”, I decided it would be best to stick with a pattern.  I measured, re-measured, and effectively took over every square foot of our living room for the project.  I focused all of my creative energy on this skirt.  It was going to be my very own Sistine Chapel, my masterpiece.  After hours and hours of work, it was time for the big moment.  It was time to try it on.  I was absolutely convinced that never was there an article of clothing that would fit me as beautifully as this custom made black skirt.  I slipped one foot in, and then the other.  I gently tugged it up to my hips…where it got stuck.  My darn hips have been causing me trouble all the days of my life.  I tugged a little harder.  And a little harder.  It was absolutely not going to make it past my hips.  Somehow, in all my careful measuring, something had gone amiss.

I felt the anger and the frustration start to build.  I felt that little bubble of fire in my belly, and I knew it was not going to be pretty when it erupted.  I let out a cry as frustrated tears sprang forth from my weary eyes.  I’m pretty sure that I screamed at the top of my lungs.  I grabbed that skirt, that fine piece of material that I had purchased on sale for something like $2 a yard, and ripped it will all my might.  It tore easily away from my body.  I held it in my hands, tears streaming down my face and proceeded to rip out every single stitch I’d spent hours putting in.  “You suck!  You can’t do anything right!” my inner voice screamed at me.  Then, for good measure, I threw it onto the ground and stomped on it.  And finally, in a show of utter defeat, I crumbled to the ground in a sobbing hysterical heap, where I lay until my husband came home to hold me and tell me that I was still beautiful and good even though I could not accurately measure and sew a skirt.  He reassured me for neither the first time nor the last time that my worth did not come from my ability to do something well.  He’s a good man, that Derek.  I’m not sure he really knew what he was getting into when he married me.  But then again, who really does?

Speaking of being a good man, Derek took on middle of the night hospital duty on Friday night.  At 10:00, Connor woke up, writhing with stomach pain.  We quickly ruled out that it wasn’t his appendix because of where he was hurting.  But 2 hours later when he was still curled on the couch, unable to straighten his legs or walk, we decided a trip to the ER was in order.  It turns out that Connor’s little system is unbelievably backed up, and thankfully it’s something we can easily take care of at home.  Poor guy…I felt awful for him.  He and Derek got back home at 3:30 a.m. and it was after 5 a.m. before he finally crashed out on the couch from sheer exhaustion.  Needless to say, we were all a little tired yesterday.

So naturally, I decided that it would be the perfect day to start a sewing project.  I have the weirdest timing for things like that.  I’ve learned that when inspiration strikes, it best to just go with it.  So far so good.  Half of the chair is covered, and 2 pillows are 75% of the way complete.  I’m planning on finishing it up this afternoon.

As I sewed my pillows yesterday, I couldn’t help but think back to my disaster of a black skirt.  I’ve come a long way since then, but some things are still the same.  I still need my husband to hold me and tell me that I’m good, and he still does that for me when I need it.  I still struggle with putting all my self worth into how well I can do something, and I sometimes think that is a demon I will fight my entire life.  But right now, I am confident that no matter how much I screw up my pillows or my chair, or how often I don’t say or do the right thing, my Jesus loves me.  He forgives me.  He died for me and He rose for me.  Praise God!  He is good.

Happy Easter to you all!

the dress

If you were to open Camryn’s closet right now, you would find a good number of dresses.  Over the past 9 months, she’s aquired quite the little dress collection.  She’s got sundresses, jumpers, knit dresses, sweater dresses, smocked dresses, and more.  But she needed I wanted to get her a special Easter dress.  After much searching, I found the perfect one a few weeks ago.  When it arrived in the mail, I literally squealed with delight over the perfection of the springy color, the simpleness of the embroidered flowers, and the sweetness of the little scalloped edge.  When I tried it on her, I’ll admit that I felt a little giddy.  It seems so silly that I get this excited over girly clothes, but I really do love it.

Last night was a beautiful night, and since there is a good chance that our Easter Sunday will be rainy, I decided to take Camryn down to our neighborhood park for a photo shoot.  Unlike our backyard, our park has really nice landscaping.  (It’s good to know that our homeowners association dues are put to good use.)  I took about 150 pictures.  I would say at least 50 of them had some variation of this face, aka her “scrunchy nose face” (I just realized that when I say “scrunchy” in my head, I actually say “scwunchy” as if I were a little kid yet to learn my r sound.)

There were also a lot that were out of focus, or her eyes were closed, or she was turned around checking out what was behind her.  There were a few where instead of Camryn, I got Logan’s blurry legs as he scampered in between us.

She must be conscious that bathing suit season is just around the corner, so she worked on her downward facing dog yoga pose.

And she refined her sprinkler dance.  She knows it’s a skill that will take her far in life, and she must start working on it now.

There were also some really cute ones.  (I love how the flowers match her dress.  So perfect.)

And then, my favorite.  This next picture is probably one of my favorites of all time.  I guarantee you it will be enlarged and in a frame by next week.  It embodies everything that I love about having a baby girl.  I could hardly believe it when she struck this pose for a split second in between wobbles and scrunchy faces and gummy smiles and, not only that, I managed to capture it.  I showed it to Logan right away, and he declared it her Princess picture.

Sweet princess Camryn in all her Easter dress glory.  I love it.

I used to have straight hair

It didn’t have the kind of straight hair that hung long and luxurious without any effort, but I had the kind of straight hair that just needed a quick blow dry and nothing else. That all changed when I got pregnant with Connor. As if it wasn’t enough that I put on nearly 50 pounds, and had my entire body break out it zits, but suddenly I had to contend with unruly wavy hair. Oh, and it was really only wavy on the underneath parts, so it’s not like it was cute movie star wavy hair. I’ve spent most of the past 7 years straightening my hair. I did go through a wavy season…it got even wavier when I was pregnant with Logan and I just decided to embrace it, especially when we moved the Land of Humidity.

One thing Suz and I did last weekend was mess with my new haircut. We died it slightly blonder, and she decided that I needed to mess it up a bit instead of painstakingly flat ironing it. I liked the result…it’s different…very voluminous…but much easier and Suz was freaking out about how cute it was. So that’s what I’ve done the past 3 days. I have to admit that I’m liking it, but I’m not sure if it’s because of how it looks or because it takes me less than 5 minutes to fix. I’m all about 5 minute hair, especially with a cut that will not work in a pony tail.

So, tell me.
(and yes, this might just be a shameless “tell me I look good!” post.)
but really. what do you think?

In 2018

I wonder what my life will look like in 2018?
I can tell you one thing for sure.
In 2018, I will be buying deodorant, febreeze, air freshener, and scented candles in bulk.
In 2018, I will have a 13 year old boy and a 15 year old boy.
And I have a feeling that 2018 is going to stink. I think it will literally smell bad.
This morning, I walked into Connor’s closet and it smelled bad. Like dirty clothes, dirty boy, wet puppy bad. Connor piles his dirty laundry in there next to his dresser, and he hadn’t taken it to the laundry room in a few days. His little pile of clothes stunk up the closet.
And he’s only 6.
Lord help me in 2018.