I'm working on it

Yesterday as I was in my exercise clothes Emma came up behind me and "smooshed" my love handles. "This looks normal," she says as they were flattened by her smooshing. Gee, thanks. "Is that why you do all that work?" Yes, dear--I try anyway.

Good thing she is my own daughter. I'm off to the treadmill, although I don't think any amount of running will ever make those love handles "normal". Just one of the many gifts of childbirth and genetics. I can't wait to tell her that in about 30 years.

Where did this ambition come from?!

I think I've mentioned before that I am very decorating challenged. I don't know what my decorating style is, or if I even have one besides "cheap, easy, and boring". My crowning achievement in decorating is the gallery wall I put up last year, but other than that we have lots of blank wall space. I mean LOTS.

It seems like everyone's house I go to is beautifully decorated. Obviously they have more talent (and money) than me. I've even put off having the neighborhood gals over because of my lack of decorating skills. Don't get me wrong, I have a beautiful house--I just want it to feel like my "home".

I have a couple friends (and friends of friends) who are either interior designers or just very good at decorating. In the past couple months they have visited and given some suggestions, and yesterday I decided to get cracking. I started with the entryway since it is the first thing everyone sees when they come. I still have a few things to finish off, so no pictures yet. (I know, this post is useless without pictures--I just wanted to document that I actually did something!)

Here are a few sneak peaks of what may be in store for when you come to visit:






The rug I got is actually bigger than this one has has more of the floral pattern to it. For all I know it may be way too big for the space but the colors were exactly what I wanted and I loved the pattern.

There is also a picture frame (awaiting a photo from our photo shoot) and my large mirror which I need to rotate after being given that suggestion by someone who knows way more about decorating than me.

Now I only have about 8 or so more rooms to go. I have a few more ideas rattling around my head and even have some of the materials to put things up, but need many more opinions from the "experts".

And what is your feeling on the vinyl wall sayings? Can you have too many? Will they be passe soon? I love the look of the one I put up in the entryway and am ready to put them up all over.

The county fair--by the numbers

Number of:

• Nights spent at Grandma & Grandpa's -- 4
• Hot dogs/corn dogs consumed by two girls -- too ashamed to admit the actual number
• Homemade ice creams devoured -- 2 (not enough, but I stayed away this year)
• Times riding the small train around the fair -- 3
• Hours spent riding rides -- 4
• Times they asked if they could ride rides again -- 10,000
• Times the girls went on the pirate ship -- at least 8
• Meltdowns -- 1 (seemingly over a hamburger split into 2, I think she was over-tired)
• Wheels on the stroller with cow poop currently on them -- all
• Contests entered -- 1 (we didn't win)
• Miles put on the van just going back and forth to the fair (6 mile round trip) -- 80
• Withdrawals from the Bank of Dad -- I lost count
• Potty accidents being in underwear full time -- 0
• Times I did my new Jillian Michaels "No More Trouble Zones" DVD while on vacation -- 2
• Miles I ran at the fitness center while on vacation -- 2.5
• Calories consumed -- not enough to be burned off by 2 DVD sessions and a 2.5 mile run
• Years of marriage celebrated by my parents today -- 40

I hope to get pictures up on the blog, they are on Facebook already. We had a great time!

Lazy Days of Summer

As someone *cough, Glenda* pointed out on Facebook, it has been awhile since my last post. Like about two weeks. And although I wish I could say I was too busy organizing the closets that need it desperately or I was working on the girls' baby books which are fairly empty and incomplete at 6 and 4 years after their birth--that wouldn't be the truth. The truth is being lazy takes up a lot of time.

I will say in the past two weeks we have been to a minor league baseball game, picniced (is that a word?), got drenched, watched fireworks, played golf (not me, hubby), ate good food, played with cousins and second cousins, had family photos taken, visited the zoo, watched hubby play softball, visited with a college friend, and went out with adults by myself. So see, I haven't been that lazy. But since most of that happened in a three day span, we don't do too much on our "off" days.

I promise, there will be more posts coming. There are things I can talk about like how maybe we have conquered potty training. And how I am crazy and am running a 5K tomorrow. Maybe even some pictures of our fun three-day vacation to Omaha. And next week the girls and I are making our annual trek to my hometown for the county fair, so lots of blog fodder there.

Before that I'll leave you with a link to a preview from our family photos. I "met" Amy online when she and her husband were looking for information on the hospital in Omaha as they were expecting a baby with CDH and leaning toward moving there. Their CDH baby, Liviana, is now almost 18 months old and cuter than can be. Amy joins me in the ranks of overeducated and underpaid moms as she also has a master's degree and stays home. She recently discovered a love for photography and started her own business. I was so happy that she was able to meet up with us in Omaha and meet Leah and take some pictures. Check them out here. And that adorable girl in her header is Miss Liviana, their CDH miracle.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation (so far)

You would think that with my infrequent blogging, we are just busy, busy, busy with summer activities. Um, yeah. Not so much. Still, summer is flying by and we have to be doing something to pass the days like:

I would be the one doing this, not the kids. Usually they are my audience or play Webkinz on the computer while I sweat away. And considering I started this shortly after my birthday in March, I am doing more of a 100+ day shred.

I read more books in the summer than any other time. While the girls play outside, I sit my ass in a chair and attempt to read inbetween requests to get snacks, put on helmets, applying sunscreen and negotiating world sisterly peace,. So far this summer I am into books about people who find dead people. The first series I read was by Charlaine Harris (still have to read the first book in the series of three) and the one I am currently reading is the Odd Thomas series by Dean Koontz.

Ah yes, a majority of my time is spent making peace between the girls. They actually play together about 90% of the time--I maybe have to intervene 25% of the time.

Since I read a lot, we tend to visit the library a lot. The girls also love to read and check out DVD's. Right now we currently have 46 items checked out. The girls are both doing the summer reading program; Emma has probably read a ton more than I have given her credit for.

With the grocery store around the corner now, we seem to make it there once or twice a week. Maybe someday we'll even walk there.

Of course there are the weekly trips to Target.

And when you mix Target with 90+ degree temps and humidity that would rival the Amazon, you end up with things like this. Of course we never had one growing up, so who am I to deprive my children the opportunity to slide down a wet, slippery piece of plastic into ice cold water? Leah can't quite hurl her 30lbs down the slide, so she ends up running and then crawling to the end. Yesterday I put in in the backyard down a slight decline, so gravity and a push from big sister helped give her some momentum. I haven't tried it out yet, the warnings of death are so far deterring me. That and I don't want to look like and idiot when I get stuck halfway down the slide, too.

At the end of next week we will make our annual trek to Omaha for baseball, food, fireworks, family, the zoo, and anniversary celebrations. After that is the county fair--the girls and I will spend the better part of a week up at my parents. Then swim lessons for Emma, the State Fair, and school will be starting. Summer is almost over! :P

Happy Birthday, Hubby!

Friday was hubby's birthday. Since his birthday was pretty much covered by the new golf clubs, shoes, driver, clothes, and golf trip to Nevada at the beginning of the month, we had a pretty low key birthday celebration. I had the girls color some pictures for him and we hung those up around the house with some balloons and put streamers on the door into the house from the garage. Emma drew him a picture from the cat and they helped pick out his poker-themed birthday card.

He got to pick where we ate tonight and his choice was more about the view than the food. There is a restaurant near campus that is located on the 7th floor of an apartment building. From the windows you can see campus and beyond--the girls loved the view. After supper we took a quick walk around Lake LaVerne and even saw Sir Lancelot and Elaine. The girls love going on campus and Emma told us she is going to live ON campus when she grows up. If she is anything like her dad who spent many a late night studying at the library or in one of the engineering buildings, it may feel like she literally lives on campus.

When telling the girls how old daddy was, we said he was a Leah (3) and an Emma (6). Note, it isn't addition, just putting the two numbers side-by-side. ;) Don't think that will happen again!

Here are the girls singing "Happy Birthday" to daddy


The birthday boy and his cake


Happy Birthday, honey!

Miss Independent

Geesh, you give a kid a kindergarten diploma and she thinks she's ready to "set off" on her own. Seriously, those were her exact words. We were talking to the fabric cutting lady at JoAnn's and Emma told her she was going to set off on her own when she had enough money and buy a dog. Where does she come up with this stuff?

Here she is getting her diploma at the end of the school year

And with Grandma who came to watch the program


Her plan is to move into the house next door and live by herself. But she would come over to get food of course and Dad would pay the bills. Why do I foresee her living with us after college?

She is our athelete and just finished up softball. Albert Pujols, watch out!

Hubby was working on her batting out in the front yard and she was crushing that plastic Better Batter Baseball ball. The next night she had a game and told her coach "My dad gave me a few tips for batting." When her coach asked her what they were, she replied, "I don't remember."

If you remember, she used to wish she was a boy. She liked boy colors. She wanted her hair like a boy. Last night she asked if she could sleep in just pants with no shirt, just like a boy. I told her that was fine because I remember wanting to do the same thing when I was about her age.

But she surprised me yesterday when she asked to get a dress. And she wanted it to be just like Leah's so they could match. Huh? Where did this come from? The girls want to surprise Daddy on Friday for his birthday by wearing matching dresses. We'll see what he thinks since the last time I dressed them the same he thought it was silly and said, "They aren't twins, you know." That time it wasn't voluntary; this time they thought of it themselves.

I really should start writing down the funny things Emma says. Like this morning when she told me I should really clean up the cat puke because, "When I am a Mom, I would clean it up right away!" Or the other night at supper after I told her "no" to something she told me, "I would always say 'yes'!" She has many parenting tips for me, yet she claims she isn't going to have kids when she grows up.

Just stay like you are, I'm not looking forward to the angst of the pre-teen/teenage years!