Resolutions Review

Well, it's been a couple months since I announced my list of resolutions, so I thought I should own up to how I'm doing on them.

Here's my original list--let's go over it, shall we?

--To floss/use my "gum simulator" twice a day. Complete and utter FAIL! I give myself an F--. Why can't I do this? It doesn't take too long. I must work on this and turn myself around!

--To exercise three times a week (twice with a trainer, once by myself). I guess I'll give myself a B- on this one. I have been doing the workouts with the trainer and occasionally by myself--but not often. Must work on this too!

--To go to my watercolor class once a week. Finally an A!! Now, there were a couple of weeks when I just couldn't go--the snowblower fiasco and the spelling bee were conflicts--but other than that I went. This week is my last class.

Speaking of which--have I told you about that class? There are two other students besides myself (everyone else dropped out)--one is a woman who seriously looks and sounds like she's escaped from a mental institution--at the last class she sat there whispering to herself for like an hour. It was so creepy!

The other person in the class is a mailman. He:

A). Looks just like John Malkovich.

B). Is obsessed with pop-up books.

C). Wears full-blown "farmer's" overalls (unless he's in his mailman outfit).

D). Stutters.

E). Told me that when he first saw me, he thought to himself "This girl is wild!" (!?!?!)

--To practice painting three times a week (not including the class). Hmmmm--I'll give myself a B- on this one--in my defense, it's been really hard to get my supplies out what with the constant cleaning and decluttering. I could do better though...

--To only eat foods that are heart healthy (except for special occasions). Major FAIL**.

--To not eat anything in the evening once I have finished dinner. Another FAIL**.

**However, effective today, I have started a HARDCORE diet. Like a low/no carbs/lose 20 pounds in two weeks kind of diet. We go on our Spring Break vacation in two weeks and I just don't want to feel gross! As of today I am super motivated and I would give myself an A+ so far--but tomorrow could be a completely different story, so any motivation/words of wisdom you have would be greatly appreciated!!

My Weird Shoes

My friend, Cathy, from Noble Pig (one of my favorite blogs!) wrote a funny post the other day about these shoes:
They are sort of kooky Nikes with this "cloven hoof" type design. She wrote about how she ran into someone wearing them and she thought they were bizarre (which they are!).

So the post was totally fun, talking about these crazy shoes and wondering what other people thought of them. She got like over 100 comments and I was amazed at how many people totally hated these shoes! I mean really hated! There was venom dripping from those comments.

OK--I have these shoes. I've had them for a few years and I don't wear them all that often because I don't find them too comfortable, but I do think they're kind of cool and I wear them when I'm in a kooky mood.

So here's the thing--it doesn't bother me that so many people hate the shoes--I'll go right on wearing them as I did before--but it does surprise me! Stuff like "ghastly" "ugly" "fugly" "yuck" "strange" "just wrong" "gross" "dreadful" "hideous" "scary" and stuff like that!

So I mean, that's cool, people don't like them--but what really surprised me was stuff like "it's an insult to woman everywhere" "why would any self respecting woman wear these?" and my favorite--"Why anyone would degrade themselves wearing the Nike's... is beyond my scope of intelligence"

Wow! This was really an eye-opener for me! I had no idea I was causing such a scandal when I wore my crazy Nikes. I mean, maybe people aren't even noticing the eyeball ring and the pink hair--my shoes are the real shocker!

So I just have to ask my blog friends--and you can be totally honest with me--are these shoes really that weird and are they degrading? Because, honestly, I've worn way weirder shoes than these!

They do get a thumbs up from Pickle--we all know she's strange though!

Hi From Vacation!

We sneaked (snuck isn't a word, is it?) away for a quick weekend getaway and I'm writing this on my iPhone in a restaurant--it's threatening low battery do I don't have much time!

While I was writing that sentence, Gooser ate the entire piece of apple pie we were sharing...

So far all we've done on this trip is eat and drive in the rain! Not too much blog fodder. The kids have strongarmed me into renting a scary movie for us to watch--I'm sure I'll bitterly regret this decision when they keep me up all night because they're scared.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have a more interesting post!!

This is Dumb...

Well we had the showing on our house today and the feedback was about the dumbest I've ever heard--the realtor said they really liked the house and spent almost an hour here, but in the end they decided it was "too big."

Too big??

That's a new one on me! I mean, I know people downsize when the kids get older and stuff-but this is a family with young kids. Maybe they didn't like it and were just trying to be nice?

Besides, our house isn't even that big!

Don and I joked that maybe they should just buy it and wall off some of the rooms they don't need!

Oh well, onto the next showing...

Boring Stuff...

We got a call from our realtor tonight that there will be a showing tomorrow morning--finally--it's been like two weeks! But of course that means we are in full-blown cleaning mode. I ran to the grocery store to I get some flowers and so far I've done a few arrangements. I've done so much flower arranging lately that I'm getting pretty good at it! Tonight I did some "experimental" type arrangements! Here's one of them:Kind of kooky?

And here is a bonus pic of Dr. Hoppy.

He loves to sprawl around the house in this position! He is getting so big I might have to get him another cage. Stop growing, Dr. Hoppy!!

I apologize for this disjointed post--must get back to cleaning. Please cross your fingers for a great showing--I can't take much more of this!! And please join my pal, Candid Carrie, for her phreaky phriday foto phrenzy!!

"Mom of the Year"

My friend, Kristin, at The Way It Is gave me these two sweet awards:And along with them, a few mom-related questions. Here we go!

1) Admit that ONE thing you feel awful about involving being a mom. Get it off your shoulders. Once you've written it down, you are NO LONGER allowed to feel bad. It's over with, it's in the past. Remember, you're a good mom!

I guess probably yelling. I hate yelling, but it seems like when things start getting hectic and I get overwhelmed--I'll start yelling. Then I always feel really guilty afterwards. It's a vicious circle and I hate it!! Hmmmm...I wrote it down--but I still feel bad!

2)To remind yourself that you ARE a good mom, list SEVEN things you love about your kids, you love doing with your kids, or that your kids love about you. These are the things to remind yourself of EVERY DAY that you rock!

--My kids are all "good" kids--they are kind and respectful--they never talk back or give me a hard time.

--They all have a great sense of humor! They have me laughing all the time. Tonight at dinner we were talking about super heroes and what the dumbest super hero power to have might be. One of the hilarious ones they came sup with is a guy that could chew through things. We decided he would be called "The Gnawer" and could grow big yellow rabbit teeth if he needed to chew his way out of some predicament.

--I feel like I'm good at choosing my battles. I let certain things go-- but the kids know that if I'm serious about something--they'd better listen!

--I love cooking with and for the kids. I'm lucky because they are very adventurous eaters and are always so enthusiastic and complimentary about what I make for them.

--I love the way all the boys take such great care of Pickle. They spoil her rotten and she loves every minute of it! I really appreciate that if I need help while I'm making dinner or something, they'll happily play with her and never complain.

--I love that the kids are so musical. The older boys play 2-3 instruments each and I know Gooser and Pickle will follow in their footsteps. They are good about practicing their instruments and going to their lessons.

--They are all fun to be around and I hope they feel the same way about me!

OK--I feel better now!

Thank, you Kristin, for those awards. I am supposed to give them out to five great moms--but I think you're all great--so whoever would like this award and questions--they're yours!

And a quick update on Pickle and the Play-Doh--I took her to the doctor and (with much difficulty) he checked her nose, but didn't see anything. He seemed to thing everything would be okay, so we are just leaving things alone.

Why Watching TV is GOOD For You!

This was supposed to be a much different post.

It was supposed to be a post about how we are participating in "TV Tune-Out" week in which we do fun activities with the kids instead of watch TV.

Gooser was very excited to get going with the fun activities right after school so I said we could make homemade Play-Doh--and to make things extra-exciting, we were going to make it in four different colors!

So, see-this was going to be a post about how much fun it was to make Play-Doh with the kids and I was going to share the recipe and post fun pics of the kids playing with the dough--like this:

So everything was all fine and dandy until I had to go pick up the big boys at tennis. Pickle didn't want to tear herself away from playing with the dough and insisted on bringing some of it with her in the car.

BIG mistake.

When I was waiting for the kids outside the tennis place, Pickle started crying and semi-freaking out in her carseat. I thought she was crying because she had dropped the dough--but then I realized that she was saying something about the Play-Doh and "Get it out!"

I said "Get it out of what!?"

"My nose!"

Nooooooooooooooo!

She is the first of my five children to ever put something up their nose--but I've heard enough about it to know that if something goes up the nose, it has to come out. So we went home and I tried some different maneuvers with nasal aspirators and flashlights--but no luck.

I put a call in for the doctor and waited and waited for him to call back--it was WAY past her bedtime, but I was afraid to put her to bed in case I needed to take her to the emergency room.

Finally "Dr. F-word" called back and said that she didn't need to go to the ER tonight, but that I would have to bring her to the doctor's office tomorrow and they would try to remove it. He said if they can't do it, I will have to take her to an ENT doctor.

Soooo...that's going to be fun!

The thing is, I have no idea if anything is still in there! She sneezed a bunch of times when we were still in the car, but I have no clue if it came out or not. Her little nostril is SO tiny that I can't imagine she was able to get much up there--but who knows!

Something tells me that watching Spongebob would have been so much safer!!

So for my own good health and safety--I'm going to go watch Real Housewives of New York!!


Hatching evil plots!

Harmony

When Pickle and Gooser play together, you might see a scene like this:
Dolls tucked in...
...with a Batman cape!

And, in this scenario, a cape and a Batman pillow!
A boy and a girl in perfect harmony!

Drawings!

I wrote the other day about the animal drawings Teddy and I have been doing and some of you said you wanted to see them--here ya go!



Remeber that SNL bit with Mike Meyers "I like drawrrring! Do you like drawrrring?" I keep thinking about that!

Anyway, here's Teddy with a couple of his. Spider:
And a turtle:
Aren't they good!?! He's only twelve!!

And here are some of mine--a weird kangaroo/rat thing:
Hmmm...The pics aren't showing up too well. here's the kangaroo rat again:
Here's a crazed rabbit:
They're just not showing up--I'll show close-ups.

Bat:
and bird:
My latest thing is that I'm attempting to do a watercolor painting of the house we are planning on buying so I can give it to the current owner (Mr. Howell!) at the closing. I show you guys as soon as I'm done!

Gooser Concert

Gooser was SO excited the other night because it was the big kindergarten singing concert. It was his first school concert and he was on Cloud Nine! He wanted to get dressed up in his very best clothes. Here he is when we were about to head out:I don't know why I had him pose in front of the dog food dishes!?

Here he is on stage--the theme was "transportation" and he's wearing a car hat. It was funny, because as the concert went on, his hat inched lower and lower down until it was basically covering his eyes.

There were a couple of mishaps on stage--a couple of boys were pushing each other and one got shoved off of the riser, then another boy had to be escorted off stage--I think he was about to throw up! And another poor little boy got a bloody nose and had be escorted off as well.

Luckily Gooser made it through unscathed!!
Doesn't he look cute??

P.S. How is it March already!?!