Break from the kitchen :)

I'll take a break from the kitchen, we're heading out of town today until late tomorrow night, for our new baby nephew's baptism. I get to be his godmother :*) I'm not even Catholic! LOL! But I can promise that no other Godparent would love him as much as me :) Anyway, the kitchen looks basically the same, we're putting final coats on everything, I still have to paint the baseboards. And my tile looks positively disGUSTing. :X I'll be on my hands and knees scrubbing the snot out of it either today or tomorrow, depending on how long it takes me to make baby Jack's baptism blankie this morning. Here's my kitchen picture today.... HRH helped paint. She was so proud, when anyone comes over, she has to show them the wall SHE painted. And of course, it's unanimous that HER wall is the best looking one in the kitchen!


So my good friend Angela had a great blog about GETTING REAL. About how sometimes moms try to give the impression that they are so together and with it and everything is June Cleaver-y in THEIR household. (My summarization, not hers, lol), and why do we do that? I'll admit right now that I tend to be WAY more patient with my girls in public. But I think it's subconscious. Also, I honestly think my girls ACT better when we're in public, b/c they love being out and about. They get bored and restless here at home, so that's when they act out the most. I always get tickled, though, when people tell me "Oh, you're so patient with them, they're so well-behaved" etc. The well-behaved comment always gets an incredulous "THEM?!?!" in my head, lol. So, for you, Angela, and you, Flo, here are some of my "real me" examples. Will you still want to be my friends? :X

~My house is NEVER clean. I mean never. Well, the day before my mother comes to visit, I frantically run around and clean it up to where *I think it's spotless, and I'm sure she still comes in and wonders how I raise my children in this mess, lol!

~I honestly don't CARE that my house is not spotless. Dust and dirt bother me, but clutter rarely does. It bothers Prince Charming, though, so I make an effort to try to clean for him. Especially when I have to put all of my receipts into Quicken :X

~I say I'd rather be playing with my kids than spend my time cleaning, but let's be real, I'm just a little lazy sometimes. And I'll cop to using the fact that I haven't had more than 5 hours straight sleep in over 4 years to help cover that. It usually works.

~I still nurse my 2 year old daughter for a number of reasons. It's better for her health, better for mine, etc., etc. But the top reason is that I just don't want to take the time to wean her. I'm trying a little now, but my heart's just not in it.

~I use cloth diapers for the girls (well, not HRH anymore, obviously), but since Christmas, I just haven't wanted to deal with the laundry, so she's in sposies. I should feel guilty about this, for the environment, but I don't.

~I don't read to my girls as much as I should. I try, but I can't get them to sit still when I have time.

~I haven't cooked supper for my family in over a week. We're doing the kitchen, but I'm sure I could have found a way to do it. I just don't want to. I'm in a funk about it.

~I have a list of sewing projects a mile long that I say I'm going to do. I swear, by the time I finish them, the girls will be in college. Doesn't stop me from buying fabric, though. (Ang, Emerie's nap mat cover will be made ASAP, though, lol.)

~I let my girls choose their own outfits on days HRH doesn't go to school sometimes. So, we have gone to pick up wings with them in full-on princess gear, or the Hurricane dressed in her sister's swimsuit and a grass skirt and princess heels with a feather boa and my sunglasses. And I thought she looked darn cute!

~Laundry usually gets folded when Prince Charming gets sick of it sitting in the baskets :X and I usually wait to do laundry until we're all out of underwear, so I have a day of doing literally twelve or so loads.

~I have absolutely NO head for finances :X My sweetie pays bills and tells me "You have $________ for the rest of the pay period". Lord love the man. And he never cares what I spend it on, as long as I stay in between the lines ;)

I could go on for days and days, but I won't bore you. However, if you ever want to feel really good about your own housekeeping and organizational skills, feel free to pop over for a cup of tea any time :)

~

Kitchen, day 2

We painted until 9:00 last night. A good friend came over with her two kids to help out. Then we spent from 9 to 10 cleaning the playroom, which the kids had completely destroyed, lol, but we didn't care because they played together nicely and let us paint!

The granite guy is coming by this morning :)

Let's remodel!!!!!

Prince Charming and I have decided to remodel our kitchen in preparation for trying to sell our house in about a year or so. There's really nothing WRONG with it, so much as the fact that it's pretty dated. So I'll report progress here. We're very much do-it-themselvesers (translation : too cheap to pay other people what we could surely figure out ourselves..... it's a common trait among airline pilots.... I believe it comes from the rice and beans years of flight time building and flight instructing). So, on our list is: paint and do an antique glaze on the cabinets, granite counters (we're having someone else install them), tile backsplash (we're going to attempt it ourselves), new hardware for cabinets, new sink,, new faucet, new cooktop. We got new floors a year ago, and we were so surprised at the difference it made! I can't wait to see what this looks like when we're finished! It may take us a month, though, lol!

Before:

That's the only good picture I had on the computer. And of course, don't you know I only thought about doing before pics AFTER we had started taking off the cabinet doors. Yep, I'm really "with it" like that!

This morning:

ACK!!!!!!! Wish us luck!!!!!!!!!

Scariest moment ever

Imagine your worst fear. Then multiply it time about eight hundred and fifty thousand. That happened to me today. Just about an hour ago. I took the girls to our local kids festival for the second day in a row. Yesterday we went and had SO much fun, I thought today we'd go with the girls' swimsuits so that they could do everything that they didn't get to do yesterday. Great idea, right? It was. We had so much fun. They did bubbles, water slides, played with the puppies from the animal shelter, etc. Then we watched Scooby Doo Live, which they both thoroughly enjoyed. At the end of the show, Shaggy threw out some little mini frisbees to the kids in the audience. HRH ran up to get one, which was fine. I could see her. She finally got one, then decided that we should go get Lucy one (isn't she a sweet big sister? :) ). Our awesome neighbors were with us, so Lucy stayed with them while Madge and I ran up to the stage. I turned around after about 3 minutes (literally..... 180 seconds) and Lucy was no where to be found. She had started following us, and my neighbor thought I knew it, so we both had assumed that she was with the other one. There were probably 200-300 people at this little amphitheatre watching the show, and I could not see my sweet little peanut who's only 33 inches tall anywhere. This is the point in your life where you literally can FEEL your heart constrict and your lungs struggling to fill with air. I'm calling "Lucy!" , which the people around me pick up and start doing, I race up to the stage with a very upset 4 year old sister to find a policeman to report a :::::::::::gulp:::::::::: missing child. I have given birth twice, struggled through years and years of infertility treatments, had all sorts of icky things happen to me, and trust me when I say they PALE in comparison to having to tell a policeman that your two year old is missing. It's like you're on autopilot, reciting what they're wearing, their name, hair color, etc. The nice policeman was getting all of the information ready to send out over his walkie talkie when an organizer from the festival comes up and says "you're looking for a little girl? What's she wearing?" A wonderful angel of a lady took her to the registration tent, which is also the lost and found, it was about 150 feet from where we were. I don't know who that lady was, all I know was they described her as a pretty black lady, but lady, whoever you are, you have my devotion for the rest of my life. I really really wish you had left your name with the organizers. You saved my life. I will be eternally grateful and hope that some day I can help someone out the way you helped me. Lucy was just fine, a little quiet, had some tears coming down her face, they said she asked them for water. And wouldn't tell them her name. She kept saying her name was Juli.

Please let this be a lesson to anyone who reads this. Make sure your children know what to do if they can't find you. Madge has it down pat. She will recite it for anyone who asks. She is to go find a mommy with a baby (we used to say policeman until we realized it might be hard for her to distinguish a policeman from any other uniform, so now we say mommy), tell her "I can't find my mommy. My name is (first name) (last name), my mommy's name is Juli and my daddy's name is David". Lucy, on the other hand, we never really thought we had the need to teach her that so soon. She's just a baby! I know better now. And I pray that I never feel what I felt today again. And that none of you ever have to feel it either.

Go grab your babies, no matter how old they are, hug them, squeeze them, kiss them, and tell them you love them. Let them get away with a little something today. Let them stay up late, eat ice cream for supper, something special.

Quick post

Just a quick shout out to my sweet hubby this morning. The girls and I are about to head out to drive to Austin to see him cross the finish line of the BP MS150. He biked about 90 miles yesterday, and said he had around 70 to go today. You can read more about it (and donate!) at www.ms150.org. We are so proud of him, and it's going to be so cool to see the riders coming into Austin. I doubt we'll be able to pick him out, seeing as though there are something like 13000 riders. But it will still be exciting. :) Wish me luck wrangling both girls in the crowd! I'm thinking the Hurricane on my back in the mei tai is probably a good idea. Then I can have HRH on my hip. A stroller would probably suck in that situation, no?

Anyway, way to go, Prince Charming!!!!!!!!!!!! We are SO proud of you!

TWO!!

My baby is two years old now. I guess this officially means she's not really a baby anymore. How can that be? She's supposed to be a little bitty baby! She IS little bitty, she's a petite little thing, which is surprising, given her Amazonian mommy and big sister whose nickname used to be Gigantor. But she's so OLD. She's so mature. It's such a fun age for her. She's so cool to talk to. :) And talk, she does. That girl could talk the bark off of a tree. HRH talks a lot here at home, she even talks in her sleep, but the Hurricane talks to anyone, anything, anywhere, as long as she's not sleep. One of her new things, since we're working on going to sleep without nursing to sleep, is to make up her own bedtime stories. I'm a mean mommy and when she lays there asking me questions over and over again at 11:00, I'll start ignoring her, so she just starts talking to herself. She'll go over her day, then she'll start talking about who's asleep, lol. "Madge aseep, Daddy aseep, Mommy aseep, YuYu aseep..... no!" LOL! After a while of that, she'll start with her stories. "Onca time, petty pincess go sopping. Take-a baby Target. Pocorn". (Guess where WE like to go for afternoon snacks, lol!). It is SO stinking cute! Almost makes me ready to have another baby! ALMOST! I'd like another year, I think. Prince Charming would really like to wait until we have a bigger house, so I guess we'll see what happens when we try to sell our house next Spring. Of course, we had all sorts of plans when Madge was 1 or so. We were going to try to get pregnant after she turned 2, so they'd be about three years apart. Um, yeah. So much for us trying to tell God what WE had in mind, lol! HRH and the Hurricane are 2 years and 10 days apart. Best surprise ever, though :)

Sewing funk

I've been in a bit of a sewing funk lately. I go in cycles, I'll be a mad sewer for a few months, whipping out stuff right and left, then be completely uninspired. I've been in an uninspired mode for a few weeks now. I finished a patchwork twirl skirt for an auction winner, and embroidered a tank to go with it, I think it was the reason I was in a funk. I think it turned out darling, but I wasn't in love with the materials to begin with. I had envisioned something funky, bright, etc., (I want to make the girls ones with zebra print and hot pink prints with a dash of lime green thrown in), and they picked floral quilting fabrics. Beautiful fabrics, but when you have one thing set in your mind, it's hard to change over happily (for me, anyway). Still, it turned out cute, and with my new serger, It went super fast! (other than the gathering of 320 inches of the ruffle, which would surely take less time if I could figure out my ruffling foot, but I haven't fallen in love with it yet, due to it's bulkiness and noise).

And now that THAT is done, I have been inspired by this darling seersucker print that a friend gave me two yards of:

I just can't decide if I want to make twirl skirts and pair them with bright lime and hot pink or turquoise or orange or yellow tanks, or if I want to make a sundress using the tank as the bodice. It'll come to me soon enough, I guess. I have some solid turquoise seersucker, too, and as soon as I get off of my lazy tush, the lovebugs and I are heading to Hobby Lobby. We have to get thank you cards for the girls' birthday party gifts, and while I'm there, I'll see what they have to go with this.

I also want to pick up some broadcloth to make some super twirl skirts (gathered at triple fullness instead of double). I think I'm going to make some red, white, and blue ones for the fourth of July this year! Broadcloth is so cheap, and those whip out pretty quickly, and the girls simply ADORE them, so I assume we'll have them in all sorts of colors for summer :)

Any sewers out there? What are YOU working on? Got any favorite tutorial links for me?

DWTS tonight

I actually have time to blog tonight about DWTS because both of my lovebugs are asleep! Can you hear the Hallelujah Chorus where you are? They made it through DWTS and conked out right after. Pre-recap info.... HRH wore a fantasically ugly homemade nightgown that I made her last year, total muumuu style, patchwork fabric and all, I adore it, lol. The Hurricane chose some Hello Kitty panties, a see-through purple tulle tutu and a hot pink satin top with a sleeping beauty applique. The style my girls have, it's astonishing, I tell you :) Of course, they both had to wear princess shoes to dance in. During the opening sequence, HRH informed me that she thinks "the pretty girl in the blue dress" is going to win. "You know, the one with the yellow hair like Collin". (Leads to a story about her obsession with my friend Samantha's son Collin, who she has met one time, almost two years ago, yet is in love with. If you ask her who her favorite boy is, she'll say Collin. She talks about when she grows up how she will be able to be a Mommy with Collin being the daddy. It's crazy, lol!) . Which leads to Lucy insisting that "dat cinnerella win!" (said while pointing at Priscilla Presley) and demanding pretty arms like "dat cinnerella". She liked the flowy sleeves, I guess. Add that to the sewing project pile.

SO..... they start with Kristy. I've been reading so much about maybe some of the competitors and professionals thinking she has an unfair advantage. I think they might be right, and it's more than a little annoying that everyone talks about her like her winning is a done deal. That irritates me. I'm such an underdog fan, too, so I have a hard time rooting for her. Who was next? Priscilla, maybe? She is freaking amazing! And oh my it totally looks like she has a thing going on with her partner, no? They've got great chemistry. You go, girl! Then Jason Taylor. I LOVE him. He looks like a huge ballerina out there, he's so graceful. Just beautiful. (these will not be in the correct order, I warn you!) Adam Carolla.... bless Julianne's heart. He's getting better, though, I guess. What was UP with the unicycle, though? He's a nut! Cristian..... oooooooooh, he's muy caliente, no? Juli likey :) Must be something about me and Latin men ;) Shannon Elizabeth, who as I mentioned before, is HRH's pick to take home the mirrored ball trophy. She did great! Poor Derek's neck. He's such a cutie! And I'm wondering what is going on with the two of them.... can you imagine how gorgeous their kids would be?!!?!?!? LOL! Mario did great! Weird, I was flipping channels today, and saw a movie that he was in, and it was about dancing. He didn't dance in it, though, at least that I saw. Step Up? Maybe? Something like that. Not a memorable movie, but I saw him, and once I figured out that it wasn't Chris Rock, I knew it was him, lol! Marlee Matlin did wonderful, once again. Her partner should win some sort of medal, he's amazing with her! And Marissa! Way to go, girl! I can't believe she could be serious for that long! I'm so proud, lol!!!!

I realize that this is boring to anyone who doesn't watch DWTS, but we love it here. And tomorrow night is Hell's Kitchen and Wednesday night is Top Chef. I'll try to blog about something non-tv related soon, though, I promise!!!!

Reality TV WrapUp

Ok, I finally finished the reality shows I'm addicted to, lol. DWTS, Top Chef, and Hell's Kitchen. Here we go!

DWTS - Oh, the Gute is gone :*( I just think he's adorable. I'm sorry to see him go. I think it should have been Adam Corolla. (sorry, Adam). And might I add that his "Man"-go was one of the funniest things I've seen in a LONG time! LOVED it. Priscilla Presley just continues to amaze me. I hope I'm in as good of shape when I'm her age. I wonder what she does to stay in shape? Probably something other than me, LMAO! I swear when Hurricane Lu starts Mother's Day Out next fall, I'm going to join a gym. I think I'd like to try yoga and Pilates. Anything else would probably not be up my alley, lol. The biggest plus in my opinion to yoga is that my sister Lara promises that I'd get to be still and silent for like 5 minutes at the end! Try that now in my house, I DARE you! You'd have glitter stickers from head to toe and Sharpie toenail polish, ROFL!!!!

Does anyone else think Kristy Yamaguchi has an unfair advantage? The more I think about it, the more I do. She's doing so well, I just think that it's not really fair to lump her in with some of the others. Although, Marissa sure keeps getting pooed on for "not being as good as she should be". I was surprised to read that she's expecting a baby (via surrogate) right now! So I imagine that the DWTS judges can probably say whatever they want and she'll still be happy. I also think she's the giggliest person on the planet. Seriously. She should get a medal or something. Didn't like her hair Monday, though :X

Top Chef - OK, Spike and Andrew annoy me. I don't know why. Dale SHOULD be the one annoying me, from my past experience, but it's Spike and Andrew. And Manuel a little, although that's a moot point after last night. Wasabi and white chocolate WHA?!?! I'll have what THEY'RE having, please! How on earth could a brain come up with those flavors? I love TC, lol, when he said "I really looked for a reason to not like this dish, but I couldn't find one"! He's so cute. He needs to shave that ridiculous little soul patch, though, or whatever they're calling those lately. Padma, girl, help a dude out! Give him a hint!

HK - WTH was Gordon thinking?!?!?!?! He's surely going to be kicking his own butt after watching that show. Jason goes MIA during prep for dinner service and he sends the adorably geeky SAHD Dominic home? ::::Smacks Gordon upside the head:::: Then Louross should be in big trouble for not even putting Jason up for elimination. I honestly wonder if he was trying to ensure that Bobby got sent home (which totally should have happened). Gee, THAT worked out well for ya, Louross, huh? Ugh! Gordon is going to have to redeem himself with me. You hear that, Gordon? Snap to it and get your head out of your rear.

Alright, I'm lucky I even had time to do that small of a recap. I have a patchwork twirl skirt that HAS to get finished soon, a stack of embroidery, and a double birthday party to throw this weekend. Not to mention some family coming in that I need to wash sheets and clean house for. ::::whew:::: I think I'll sit here and have some M&Ms :-)

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!

How is it possible that I have a four year old?!?!??!!? This morning, she informed me that now she loves me FOUR minutes and a rainbow :*)