Nick

I Seriously..........what do I even say about this picture except that it's truly Nick!!!

This working mom thing is for the birds!!

I found out today that I have an interview tomorrow for a developmental opportunity in Public Affairs at my work. I am excited about this but I have no time to prepare for it and I have not had an interview in over 8 years. Then to make matters even "better" I found out I have to do a "write up" to prove my written skills after the interview. To say I am nervous is an understatement. However, that being said, I am very happy in my current job and I'm just happy to have a safe & secure job right now.
On my way home from work I had to stop at Sam's and pick up some food. I came home, got dinner ready, fed my family & cleaned up the kitchen. I literally have 5 minutes to write this blog (I know what my mother is thinking...if you have that much to do, why are you writing your blog?) and then get cookies out of the oven. Then I have to find things in the house that start with the letter "Z" for daycare for Nick tomorrow. Then it's off to baths, story time and bed time. After that is over, I will need to pack over night bags for the boys because they are spending the night with their grandparents tomorrow night. After they go to bed, I will finally be sitting down and reviewing material for my interview tomorrow.
When I leave work tomorrow the biggest decision I will have to make is whether I want white or red wine. Ugh!

Morning Moods

This morning I had the boys in their matching CAT shirts. As you can see only Jay was in the mood to have his picture taken. Nick, not so much. I think Jay had done something to him right before the picture that set Nick off. Typical brothers!!!

Scrapbooking weekend

I scrapbooked all weekend with my sister and our friends, Stephanie & Lindsay. Kim is the "life" of our group. She keeps us constantly entertained with her stories (some of them we wish we didn't hear, you know what stories I'm talking about Lindsay & Stephanie). Stephanie is the art teacher who we depend on to liven up our pages and Lindsay is the probably the quietest of the group but she sure made us laugh with stories about her husbands hair (which I got to witness myself, ha).
Kim and I have been scrapbooking together for 7 years. For several years we did not have a really good group of girls to scrap with until Lindsay & Stephanie came along. The four of us did our first weekend scrap in 2006 & I told Kim that we had finally found our "group." The 4 of us have done our weekend scrap in February for 3 straight years. Kim wasn't able to join us last year because Lauren was a little peanut. So to Lindsay, Stephanie and my sister (who all read my blog)..........you girls are the best!! I had another great weekend.

Sickness & Smoothies

Nick and I are both home sick today. He was running a fever yesterday at daycare but he seems okay today. I kept him home anyway, just in case. I am feeling miserable. However, Nick and I both enjoy a good smoothie when we are sick so that is exactly what we had this morning for breakfast.

I Live With Boys!!!

Somehow and I don't know how it happened but Nick is actually my grossest boy in the house. Last night when I put him in the tub he immediately grabbed his you know what and peed all over me..........laughing hysterically. I did not find it funny. Tonight we went out for dinner and Nick belched loudly at the table. Then the other night I was giving Jay a spelling test and Nick kept yelling in the background.............."spell penis, Jay, spell penis." Nick also toots more than Mike and Jay combined. I will say he promptly says his usual..........."Cuse me" when he does this but it's constant and heaven forbid I flush the toliet before Nick has a chance to inspect his poop. Mike, Jay and Nick spend their life in this house being disgusting. Don't get me wrong, I truly love my boys and all their grossness but sometimes it gets to be a little much.

PS: It's hard to stay upset with Nick for too long. As I'm writing this he just came up to me and cuddled against me and said, "I love you, mom." It makes all his disgusting habits a little less disgusting when he does those things.

The Bar Stools

I wish I could say I am thrilled to get my bar stools tonight that we ordered over Thanksgiving weekend. The stools we ordered had arms on them, as you can see these stools do not. Plus the wood trim on the stool Nick is sitting on was cracked and split when Mike opened it.

We have been assured that we will get our stools with arms on them and until then we have these to use. At this point, the joy of finally being able to buy nice bar stools and use them has been shadowed by the complete lack of customer service from the place we purchased them.

Maybe when Nick enters kindergarten I will finally be able to post a picture of the bar stools we actually ordered. UGH!

The Nerf Gun

Sometimes are parents you make some really poor decisions. Yesterday & today was one of those days. After Jay put half his money into savings he had $40 he could spend himself. Yesterday, before we even left the house he said he wanted a nerf gun. I didn't think anything about it. It was his money and if he wanted a nerf gun, then so be it. We got to Toys R Us, purchased the largest nerf gun (the $40 one) and came home. When we got home, Mike reminded me that he had gotten a very similiar "nerf" gun for Christmas. Plus, something else that didn't occur to me (but my husband was so kind to point it out to me) was that Jay was probably going to use Nick as his target. I also realized when I got home that I didn't purchase batteries for the dumb thing.
Today is a new day so I went to Target to get 6 "D" batteries. I picked the boys up from daycare and is always the case...I get in the house and everything goes crazy. Nick is asking me for a drink, Jay is obsessed with getting the batteries in his gun and I'm trying to unload the million bags from my van. Jay and I tried unsuccessfully to get the batteries in the gun. Jay is almost in tears and I realized that I should have never mentioned that I bought the batteries. Mike got home from work and immediately had to spend about 20 minutes fixing the damage that Jay and I had done. When will I ever learn?
Oh and as I finish this blog my husband just nailed me with that gun.

Good Friends

I had my 2 best friends (Jenna & Jenny) over for dinner last night. I have been friends with Jenna since our early days at First Christian Church and I've been friends with Jenny since I met Mike which was 14 years ago. You girls are the best!!!

This is our new breakfast bar that Mike just finished. However, the bar stools that we ordered Thanksgiving weekend still have not arrived (that is a whole other story for another blog). Our house is a work in progress. We have lived in our house for 4 years so it's a big deal that the breakfast bar finally got done. Don't get me wrong, I am so thankful that my husband is so handy but he's also a perfectionist (although he won't admit it) so every project takes twice as long. He also likes the "best of the best" because he says if you get the more expensive product the first time around you won't have to replace it. He may have a point but again as a result...........I still don't have a master bathroom. I've told Mike I would like my own bathroom by the time the boys are in high scool so I don't have to share a bathroom with my 2 high school sons. As it is now I am constantly tripping over match box cars in the shower and I'm tired of the dinosaur themed towels I have to dry off with every morning. I'm getting side tracked.........Yes, my house still needs lots of work but it's home to us and we love it and doesn't the bar look great?

Doesn't Jay look great as Abe Lincoln? He had a great day!!

A Wonderful Day

Jay has been complaining of a sore throat for a couple of days. This morning he was really complaining so although he did not have a fever I kept him home. Nick went about his usual routine and went to daycare so it's just been Jay & I all day which never happens. It has been such a wonderful day. I want to stop time for a short while because my son is growing way too fast. We spent the morning playing the game "Memory." We read Curious George books and Jay watched "WALLE" before lunch. After lunch we put together four jigsaw puzzles. I really hate puzzles. It's amazing to me what we as parents will do for our children. I sat down with Jay and together we worked about 1 hour putting all these puzzles together. He would occassionaly "sweat me" that I wasn't do my part by not finding enough of the pieces. What surprised me is I actually enjoyed doing it with Jay and what surprised me even more is I wasn't half bad at it (like I thought I was). I will have to go back to work tomorrow as Jay will have to return to school but I sure enjoyed a nice and leisurely day with Jay.

What a day

It was a gorgeous February day. However, it was so warm that the pavement was wet and muddy which is a perfect day to wear cream pants. KNOT! As soon as I made the long walk from the parking lot into work this morning I regretted my decision and kicking myself because I knew wearing cream on a day like today was a bad idea but I did it anyway. Even at age 34 I continue to learn things the hard way. I realized that if I didn't get my pants washed soon they would be permanently stained and I love my cream pants. Luckily, my co-worker and good friend, Jen, lives close to the office. We jumped in my van, drove to her house and washed my pants. She got me a pair of her jeans to wear which made me feel pretty good because that girl is a stick. Of course they were some of her bigger jeans but I didn't care. I just wanted everyone to know that I was wearing Jen's jeans!! We sat down and ate our oatmeal and watched the TODAY show while my pants washed. Needless to say it was very tempting to just hang out at Jen's house all day but we got back to work and the stains in my cream pants came out. Tomorrow is a new day.

Saturday Morning Exhaustion

It never fails, every Saturday morning Jay is up earlier than he would have to get up for school (6:30). Of course on school mornings I have to wake him but on Saturdays the boy is up rip roaring ready to go. He has always been that way. It has never mattered what time Jay goes to bed, he still gets up early. Nick, on the other hand, will actually sleep in on a Saturday. This particular Saturday neither of them slept in. Mike and I awoke this morning to hear the chilling sounds from Jay's halloween flash-light and after we awoke to that noise we opened our eyes just in time as Jay threw it across our bed landing right in Mike's "family jewels." He was trying to be funny but needless to say we didn't find it so funny but he got our attention, we were wide awake at that point. We are always exhausted on Saturday morning as I'm sure most parents are. Once I'm out of bed and I've had my coffee I'm good to go but the initial shock of Saturday mornings is always tough.

Lucky Me

I got up at 4:30 this morning so I could leave work by 10:30 (without having to use personal time) and have lunch with Jay at school. It was really nice. He is still young enough that his face will still light up at school when he sees me. I'm sure those days are numbered. However, for now I'm enjoying that he asked me to have lunch with him and that he was excited to see me.
Now I am at home enjoying a beautiful, sunny day while Nick is sleeping. He and I came home after my lunch with Jay and we read books. Jay will be home from school soon but for now I'm enjoying some quiet time.

Jay & Abe Lincoln

Next week is the 200th birthday of Abe Lincoln so the kids are learning a lot about our 16th president. Jay is really interested in learning about Abe Lincoln. He came home tonight to tell me that Mr. Lincoln's mother died when he was a boy and that one of his hobbies was reading. It was like Jay realized that if Abe Lincoln liked to read then perhaps he too would make reading his new favorite past time (Jay is actually becoming a very good reader and seems to be enjoying it more these days). He's also asked a lot of questions as to why John Wilkes Booth shot the president. I have really enjoyed listening to Jay ask all these questions & seeing how my little 7 year old is really turning into quite the student. I, myself LOVE history so it's been fun for me to see my son enjoying & learning from this part of our history.
Next week on Abe Lincoln's actual birthday the kids can dress up as either Mr. or Mrs. Lincoln. Since Jay is to "into" honest Abe these days I ordered him an actual costume. I'll be sure to post a picture of Jay next week dressed up as Abe Lincoln.

Hair Cuts

The boys finally got hair cuts yesterday and it was long overdue. Jay and Nick have completely different hair. Jay's hair is thick and coarse. It's like a brillo pad and it's hard to find someone who can cut his hair correctly. Nick's hair is fine and straight. But I'd say they both look pretty handsome!

Today it was warm enough to get outside and build a snowman. Granted the snowman we built is kind of pathetic but we had fun putting him together anyway.