fill in the blank friday.

Linking up with Lauren!

1. My favorite color is: Black. I know, I know. I need to spruce things up a bit. It's clothes we are talking about right? My other favorite color for everything is blue.

2.  My travel destination of choice is:  Key West, FL!!

3.  My favorite food is:  Cheese! Throw in some Chardonnay and it's heaven.

4.  My happy place is:  the Cabin or our House. I'm not picky...

5.  My favorite saying is:  "I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together." - Marilyn Monroe

6. My dirty little secret is:  I only wash my hair every 2-3 days. Don't you worry. I still shower daily. I'm not totally disgusting.

7.  Something friends might say about me is that I:  may have a problem with rearranging my furniture at home. I always "have an idea" my Husband starts sweating whenever he hears those words from me. Ha, ha! I like to keep things different.

Ok, I know that was 2 posts today. I'm done, I promise! Have a good weekend!

Another Birthday Weekend.

TGIF dearies!

This weekend is going to be another blur. So. Much. To. Do. After work we are heading up to the lake. Still have to pack and make 3 shirts real fast. Our house will pretty much be crazy town tonight while we are packing, chasing dogs, feeding 1 kid quick like, then I'm sure the headphones for the DVD player will be out of batteries so that will be a slight emergency. My poor husband just gets bag after bag thrown at him. We'll get there, open a bottle of wine and then start unpacking everyone just in time to have a bonfire and put the kids to bed. Whew. Oh yeah, feed the other kids too. Can't forget to do that. Ha, like that would happen.

Saturday's Agenda

Big news is Ella turns 7!!! I can't believe it. She is still my sweet girl so I will cling on to that for now. We can't wait for her to open her gifts from us. We got her an American Girl doll, Kanani. She will be so excited!! We also got her some golf clubs. She will love those too! Grandma has a cake ready to go for her big day, part 1.

Here's the birthday girl!

Here she is one year ago.

Saturday is also Ryan (Bro-In-Law) and Angie's going away party up at the cabin. Angie was accepted into Duke for Graduate school. She'll be working on her PhD in Molecular Cancer Biology (this girl is a smartie, working on saving our ta-ta's) over in North Carolina. So far! She leaves in 2 weeks already. Ryan is following her out there in November so we at least have him for a few more months. They are about to begin their next chapter together and we couldn't be more sad and excited at the same time. The bright side is we have another warm destination to visit in the winters.

Here's Rangie, in a fountain: 

Their couple name is "Rangie" if you remember my previous post, which you probably don't so if you are that bored and want to read it, go here. So to lighten the mood at the party on Saturday (there will be a lot of tears) we picked up some blue t-shirts (Duke blue) and iron on letters to spell out "RANGIE" on the shirts for our 3 lovely kids to wear to the party. I can't wait to see their faces when the kids come running out of the cabin - well 2 of the kids can run. The other will be carried out - details.... I'll get photos to document, don't you worry.

I also plan to get some quality lake time in. If there's a will, there's a way. Plus we just got 2 new tubes, so I'm sure the girls will want to try those out.

Sunday's Agenda

Up and at 'em early. We will have to leave the cabin by 11 am to get back for part 2 of Ella's Birthday celebration. We are going Roller Skating! Well, I'll be playing the roll of paparazzi from the sidelines but she'll be rocking out with her friends. Just picked up her pink sequin shirt/dress last night. So cute and it will sparkle under those disco balls so perfectly!

So sit in the car for 2 hours, driving back from the lake. Drop off dogs, empty car so we can transport cake and gifts.Wait, we'll have to pick up the cake too, on the way to the party. Maybe we should leave the cabin at 10:30am. Hmmm.

Party for a few hours then back home to collapse on the couch hopefully. The nice thing about these parties is we don't have to do a thing. They cook, they set up, they serve, they clean. We just show up, have a good time and leave. Sounds like plan Stan.

End the weekend on the couch in the arms of the man I love. Possibly with a glass of wine watching the last 3 episodes of Big Brother that we have missed. A girl can dream. One more weekend of Birthday parties and we are good until March. Amen.

Nails

In other news, I painted my nails last night. Tried out that whole new nail trend. I need like 10 more coats of the glitter to make it really bling but I always seem to decide to paint my nails after 11pm. No sheet marks this time = success!

I love Dwight by the way. Yes, I took a photo of myself, in my cube at work. Just for you all. I hope you laughed, I did!

Ignore the man hands (my phone was super close) and double chin (no excuse).

Photography Challenge - Week 1

{Week 1:  Self Portrait}

I did this one last night. I had my hair all up in a the messy pony and then I started "getting ready".  My husband gave me a strange look as I threw on my pearl necklace (we were done eating and it was basically wind down time) so I explained "The Challenge" I would be participating in. I waited until he left to go pick up kids then basically stood at our front door and started snapping. My 1 year old was sitting on the floor right by me just staring. I bet he was shocked because usually, I have that camera in his face. What was Mommy doing? Ha, ha! 

I did try and get a few pictures outside because I thought the light would be much better but they were not turning out and the neighbors came outside to water plants so I ran inside. Ha, ha!

I have a Sony DSLR but I do not have a tripod or remote, so it was the extended arm self photography I guess. It took a few tries but I eventually got one that didn't give me 17 chins. 

I think I may have over-edited this one though. Live and learn right?!

Family fun.

On Sunday, we had my Husband's Company Picnic. We were all exhausted from the party the day before but we have things to do, people to see.

The heat and humidity gave way a bit so it was actually (dare I say) comfortable outside for once. We walked up to the shelter area where the food and drink was and saw it. The pig. It was also a pig roast apparently. Now, no big deal right? Well, the girls were so disgusted/shocked/intrigued. Ella felt bad for Little Wilbur and Taylor sent her friends photos, she couldn't wait to send it to her vegetarian friend - whom by the way screamed when she got the picture. Girls can be so dramatic.

We all ate. Turns out the pig didn't do any damage to my girls - whew!

Then it was time for my Hubs to get in the dunk tank. That was pretty funny. It was in the name of charity. Good karma for all!

They also had potato sack races for the kids. Ella did great. She almost won - almost. It was pretty funny to watch, the slight decline in the grass provided for some unexpected spills for some kiddies.  No injuries = complete success. She walked away $10 richer in the form of a Target Gift card too. I never had prizes like that when I did any "races". These kids don't know just how well they have it. I would win a spider ring or jacks or something lame like that. Ha, ha!

Here are some of my favorites from the day, labeled for easy explanation. Which turns out doesn't matter because I can't figure out how to line them up side by side. So just ignore those letters in the lower left. Thanks.

{Justin in the dunk tank, Ella throwing.}

{Taylor, Jack, Justin hanging out taking pretty pictures for yours truly.}

{Jack with Daddy - Jack's in another cute guess how old I am shirt.}

{The potato sack races. Ella's in the middle, blue tank top.}

{All kids were given a medal because - we are all winner's.}

{Jack watching all the madness that was the potato sack races.}

{Precious.}

{I think she thought that if she didn't make eye contact, I wouldn't take the picture...}

Crafty Mother.

 (This is happy crafty Mother. May or may not have been 4 years ago, meh. Details.)

I was blog browsing yesterday and came across a super cute little blog that I fell in love with! Laura Beth over at A Step in the Journey, was kind enough to tell me what machine she has the cuts out those letters oh so perfectly in her recent postings.

What did I do? I immediately Google "Silhouette SD" and fell in love. Check out all the things you can do with this thing here.  Amazing. I will be one crafty mother, pun intended.

First hurdle, convince the Husband that I NEED this. Check.

(Really wasn't too hard considering all the money I spend over at etsy. Now I can make my OWN stuff. I am so freaking excited about this. I even mentioned how I will need a craft room. Ha, that won't happen but a girl can dream.)

Personalized tattoos anyone?  Our birthday parties will never be the same. If only I could have found this gem of a blog weeks ago. Dang.

Guess who will start on Christmas presents early this year. This girl.

Etched wine glasses anyone? Shhhhh. This is my gift idea this year.

While I head home to think of other things I create, I will leave you all with a question I just overheard a co-worker ask another co-worker.

"How do you spell sausage?"  - Old co-worker to older-ish co-worker.

Good day.

1st Bday Photo Recap

Whew.

Weekend is over.

I'm exhausted.

Jack's 1st Birthday Party has come and gone. I didn't get photo's with him and every guest who came but oh well. You can't control everything right? I did go with having everyone sign his picture frame so at least that went according to plan! I will leave you all with a few photos from the big day.

 

 

 

I think he was confused. Why was he outside in his highchair? Who were all these people? Who was the girl taking the pictures?

P.S. My friend was taking the cake pictures for me. He doesn't see her all that much. So no smiles for the camera. He was Mr. Serious.

fill in the blank friday.

New linky do-dah. Linking up with Lauren @ the little things we do.


1. One of my happiest moments ever was definitely marrying my best friend and soul mate Justin. Love of my life seriously. I always thought I knew what "love" was but once we met, I knew I had found it. (Too much mooosh?) Love you babe! Muaaaaaaaaaaaah.


2. Summer is wedding season and weddings are so much fun! Nothing better than seeing two people declare their love for each other and then breaking it down on the dance floor for hours after! There is always a good story to follow. So much fun!! Although, I must say, what's up with the weddings on holiday weekends? That drives me nuts. We are very much looking forward to a fun fall wedding though. Wink, wink Carolyn. Can't wait!


3.  This summer is flying by. How can it already be almost-August? Noooooooooo. I love having no routines for the kids, for the most part. It's like the pressure valve has been released. I still have another month until school schedules. Breathe.


4. My summer food choice has been anything that involves grilling. I love me some steak or grilled chicken with bbq sauce. Yummm. Oh yeah, we also always do the grilled potatoes sprinkled with cheese. Throw in some sweet corn. Heaven.


5.  My summer uniform has been black yoga pants and a tank with some flip floppies (much to my hubs displeasure I'm sure.) Seriously, everyday after work, that's what I'll be in. Total Mom outfit. Comfort first!


6.  If I could spend the entire summer in one location I would choose the cabin. We try and get up there as much as possible. Everything is wayyy slower up there. There is no where to rush. Cabin time.


7.  My summer anthem is "Faster" by Matt Nathanson. Just a fun song. OR "Dirt Road" Anthem by Jason Aldean. OR "Dog Days Are Over" by Florence + The Machine. I love all three songs. I love music period.



Happy Weekend to you all!

p.s. I cannot for the life of me figure out why those 2 questions are highlighted. Uncle.

Party People.

It's almost party time. Yikes. We are not even close to being ready for my little man's 1st Birthday Party.

On Saturday, just 2 short days away, we will have 30+ people over for Jack's party. (Insert Macaulay Culkin scream from Home Alone here.) I have so much to do. Scrub floors. Re-clean kid's bedrooms that are not quite up to par. Do the pile of laundry left over from the 4th of July - sitting in the laundry room. Vacuum and re-vacuum the dog hair that just loves to present itself over and over and over like tumble weeds on our hard wood floors... At least we have the Dyson, that thing is heaven sent. Never have I been more excited to do floors.

I swear I'm going to have an anxiety attack just thinking about this all. I keep thinking of all the things we need to get done and then it's like I'm some sort of computer that friztes out on overload. Too. Much. Now my house is NOT a hoarder's house by any means but I seem to think every inch must be perfect. What if someone went in the basement closest downstairs and saw how un-organized it is. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

I want it to be perfect.

We have the moonwalk rented. We ordered the cake. We ordered the cupcakes. We then added Lemon Bars to our order because really, we need them too. I blame Byerly's bakery for this. Bakery Chick - you should have told me NO when I wanted that lemon bar. We still have to make our Costco run to get our sandwiches because really - we are not going to be cooking at all during this, and by we I mean my Husband.

I want to do something unique and realize I'm running out of time. Any good ideas for a keepsake for Jack that incorporates the party guests? If I don't come up with something really cool, I'll just do the whole "have the guests sign the matted pic frame with his cake filled face pictured". I did that for Ella and its HUGE. And still in her room. She still reads it and asks questions about her first birthday party so maybe I'll just do that. Who knows but I gotta figure it out SOON. Like today soon.

I have my oldest at home cleaning and switching laundry as we speak. I just keep chatting her and she's doing it. She is also doing it without any sort of push back. Hmmm. I'm not an idiot. Something is up. She wants something. She actually just did ask my Husband if she could go to Lil Wayne. We said no. She'll have to wait a few years before we'll go to that concert. Unless Usher is there with him. Then we'd go, well, I would.

I am so busy with trying to figure out this party I'm forgetting the point here. My baby is almost 1. My last baby. 1. Growing. Older. Every. Day. Makes me sad.

This applesauced face will soon be a cake covered face. (His Sister Ella helped feed him dinner one night, I wasn't drunk I swear.)

It's getting in hot in here.

Ok. Not getting, it's BEEN and STILL IS.

Here in Minne (Minneapolis for those not sure what the h I'm talking about), it's turned into the rainforest. Which really, I would rather have than -72 degrees so I'm not complaining. I'm just saying. With the 81 degree dew point, it's actually like 115 degrees these past few days. Freaking humid. I know most of the country is in the same boat, but if you are not familiar, preheat your oven to oh, 350 and wait 5 minutes and open it up, stick your head in nice and close. There. That's what it's like here when we walk outside up here in these parts.

So what do I do? Spend as much time as possible out there! Why? Because we only get like 5 months of "nice" weather with no snow.

Yesterday, we went to the Twins vs.Cleveland game. Noon game = half day = happy me. It was warhhhrm. Like so warm, we left at the top of the 7th. Couldn't handle it, now I sat through tornadoish weather earlier this season, but this. Couldn't do it. Couldn't drink beer (hear that violin?), couldn't eat peanuts. Just sipping on the H20. We snapped a few pictures of Taylor and her friend and ran. Well, Justin ran to get the car. We stepped into the nearest bar with AC and refreshments and waited to be picked up. He's a man like that. "There's no sense in all of us walking 6 blocks in this, I'll come pick you girls up." Love him. Here are some of the photos of the girlies. Who by the way, put on tanning oil before they left for the game.

Lily & Taylor

(This glove is metal, it was a bit warm to the touch.)

Lily & Taylor with Kirby Puckett

(They looked at me like I was crazy when I told them to "fist pump!")

Lily & Taylor with Harmon Killebrew

(They had to either stand there and appear to be hit in the head or I couldn't see them on my phone.)

I didn't get one of Justin and I because I was a sweaty, nasty mess by this point. BUT we did go to Saturday's game too vs. Kansas City. Here is a picture from then. It was just as hot. I took one before I was sweating balls. This game was much better though. We won at least.

***********************************

In totally unrelated news.

Weird photo of the day goes to.... drum roll please?!?!?!

Me on the elliptical today over lunch.

I actually had my iphone with to listen to my jams after I was done reading my Kindle, so I don't normally do this sorta thing... I jumped on and saw it just staring at me and thought "I'll send it to Justin!" You know. Random. Funny? I would laugh anyway if I got this picture. I'm actually still laughing. Gross. Ha, ha!

I was working it out while taking a picture, which is not the easiest thing. Throws off your balance. At least I got my large self up there. For 40 minutes. Not too bad for being MIA for a while. I also didn't get Caribou OR a cookie today! Yay me!

Happy Tuesday lovies!

I'm the paparazzi yo.

I have children, so I take a lot of pictures. I'll take like 10 pictures of my kids doing nothing. Why? Because it's cute duh. Do I develop all 10 of these sweet love filled pictures? No.

I found the most adorable photo-editing lady on etsy.  I took photo's from the series I call "The faces of Jack" (yes, I named them all) and turned it into a super cute Birthday Invite! BAM!

Link to Kara the awesome Etsy lady here. Your welcome!

(She's Jimmy John's freaky fast too! Like hours and you have your proof.)

**************************

While I was uploading photo's from the 4th, I came across another fun series of pictures of Ella. First, I'll give you a mental picture.

 

At the lake we like to do bonfires. At the bonfires, beer is consumed by the boys, mixed drinks or wine by the girls. It's fun. People tip over, tell stories and there are even s'more's involved. The kids stay for the first hour maybe then off to bed they go. The "adults" (used loosely because really, no one acts like one at the bonfire, let's be real) stay out as late as 3am. The next morning, is bonfire cleanup. Things get left behind. Coolers, koozies, cans, boxes of graham crackers - you get the idea. 

Ella likes to wake up early and head down to visit Grandma every morning for breakfast. If no one answers at her cabin she comes back and hang's out with the dogs. Well one morning after a bonfire (which I was not in attendance, pretty sure I was checked out by 11pm.) she's out playing with the dogs. I look out the window again, and I see her with a Miller Lite can and her Uncle Ryan's cowboy hat on. Just walking around the cabin, no big deal.

After my eyes bugged out of my head (there are many cabins up there with people outside, probably looking up cps as I stare with my mouth wide open) and I called Justin over to come see this - then I called her in for questioning.

"Ella WHAT are you doing with THAT?"

"Oh, Ryan must have left his hat at the bonfire last night. I better keep it for him until he get's back from golf." 

 

 "No, not the hat THAT!" as I point to the Miller.

"Oh, this was in our yard so I just dumped it out in the lake" she explains.

NBD. 

I explained the whole "grown up" drink, blah, blah, blah. Please don't do that again speech. She agreed. Not a word from the other cabin peeps either, so at least they don't think we let our child drink Miller Lite for breakfast.

Here she is right after my great parenting speech. (Excuse the un-brushed hair. It's early and it's up at the cabin.)

Here is Uncle Ryan, from the day before at the Island.

Good thing I'm a closet blogger and he'll never know I shared this gem of a photo!

Have a good weekend Ladies!

 

 

Responsible.

This little convo just happened between Justin and I via google chat:


Hubs:  Should I tell Taylor that we'll pick her up from Melissa's at 9 tonight or would we want her home sooner than that? I guess they are going over there after the rec center. She asked to stay until 10.

Me:  Yeah no. That's too late. 9pm. Ha, ha.

Hubs:  That's what I thought.

Hubs:  We'll be a glass or two into the wine by then. Which we need to get more Chard.


We are responsible rents what can I say? I love us. Wine consumption dictates curfew.

Aren't we just the cutest couple? Bahahaha!

Honey, we got Tp'd.

So yesterday as I was road ragging driving home from work, I thought about how my oldest was now 14 and how fast time flies. Holy crap. She's going into HS this year. Homecoming Dances. Football games. Soccer Games. Basketball Games. Hockey Games. (She'll be cheering at them all. That should keep her out of any trouble I hope!) Half-time performances. Peer pressure. Oh god, peer pressure.

So what did I do? I opened a bottle of wine after dinner. Just needed to reflect and start planning my next move. This is a whole new ball game of parenting. I cannot fail her. Crap. What are we going to do? I wish I could pause where she's at. Well, rewind a few years back to say...11. That was doable. It's funny a thing, this whole parenting. Every year has it's own little kinks. "Terrible Two's" etc. I need a manual.

Justin and I talked about what our next moves would be in this game.  We decided against some of the ideas like "lets lock the doors every night with a screw gun or get camera's installed." Those scream crazy people. We are not crazy people. Not yet anyways.  11:15 pm rolls around and that's pretty late for a work night, we should get to bed. So we go down stairs to where our Master Suite bedroom is and lights out.

Fast forward to this morning. Justin is feeding Jack his bottle while I'm getting ready for work. I hear him coming downstairs a little earlier than usual and he say's "honey, we got tp'd."

Huh.

"We were tp'd" he says again.

"How do you know?" I ask. Really. How do you think he knows idiot?

"I was feeding Jack and saw it blowing around outside." DUH. For the record, I'll blame the wine consumption combined with lack of sleep and stress of children.

Now, I did my fair share of tp'ing back in High School. It was the thing to do during Homecoming Week. Drive around and tp anyone older. Or School Staff. We got them too. There may have been eggs involved in some instances. At least we weren't out doing drugs right?

So I go outside and survey the damage. Thinking of how mad I'll be if it rains before we get this mess clean.

Rookies! I actually had to laugh. Not that I will give tips to my Daughter or her friends. It was definitely a rushed job. They left a pile of plastic forks on the sidewalk along with a pile of rubber bands. Ha! We were almost forked and almost rubber banded. For those not up on the vandalism lingo, you stick the plastic forks into the grass all over the front yard. Then, pieces break off and it's nearly impossible to get all the pieces out of your yard. As for the rubber bands. You spread those out all over the drive way. It's not very easy to sweep up rubber bands from your drive way. Try it. Will drive you insane, instantly.

I have vision's of setting up a nice chair in our front bushes (if we had front bushes, this is just a vision remember) with a bottle of wine and the hose ready to go. I could sit there all night waiting.

I will leave you today with photos of the job NOT well done.

and

So it begins.

Birthday's

Got to keep it short and sweet today my friends!

Today is my daughter Taylor's 14th birthday. Where in the heck does the time go? So here's my big shout out to my oldest! Happy Birthday T-Money! Here is one of my favorite pictures of her from a couple years back.

While we are talking birthday's... How cute is this invite for Ella's upcoming birthday?!? Love it!

friday confessional

{I confess}
I really need to cancel my tanning package that I bought months ago. It's unlimited and all the beds are included but I don't go. Plus it's a hundo a month. Waste. Of. Money. 3 month's worth of wasted money to be exact. I haven't been in there since April. Crap. I have to remember to cancel that bad boy.

{I confess}
I am a Reality TV junkie. I love Big Brother. So much in fact, I challenged the Hubs to a fantasy draft for this season. What the winner will get is still unknown but it will be fun, just the 2 of us. I was NOT impressed with Brenden and Rachel being back on this season. Hate them. Her laugh makes me want to break things. Insta anger when I hear that cackle.

{I confess}
Stranger's love us. Really. We are combining our softball team with another team from our division so that we have enough girls for a Tournament this weekend. If you didn't know, my other half and I coach my daughter's fast pitch softball team (1st-3rd grade girls) "The Rockstar's". We are combining with "The Lightning" so naturally, we had to meet with the other team's coaches (also Husband & Wife duo) to form our game plan. We met after dinner on Wednesday, thinking it would take 30 minutes or so. We ended up staying for 3 hours! We just met these people. We ended up hanging out with complete strangers for 3 hours, planning our softball game. Yes, wine was involved. Man, we must need to get out more. Ha, ha! Speaking of the girls, here are a few from the team. Blurred out because really, what if they didn't want me posting their face all over the internet. Ella is the only non blurred Rockstar featured here, far right.

Wish us luck on our 8am game tomorrow morning. Dang that's early!

{I confess}
I have listened to "Best Love Song" by T-pain & Chris Brown a zillion times today. At work, with my headphones. It's my power song. Don't judge. If you feel that way, go ahead and kiss yo baby. And now we got tha whole stadium in love like aye aye aye aye....

{I confess}
I would love nothing more than to be a SAHM. Reality (according to my Husband, not me) is that we can't afford it. I would have to get a part time job at the very least and I don't want to work weekends. So, it just doesn't work now, right? WRONG. I think I've thought of the PERFECT part time job. Bingo player. Yep, I could be a Bingo hall chick. If I can just win a few rounds of bingo every week, I can stay at home with my children. Sounds good to me! Ha, ha! Wonder what my Hubs will say to that one? Deal Justin?

"What does your wife do for work?"

"Oh, she's a bingo player!" he'll proudly say.

Rando.

 "Let's practice our splits!"

That was a real statement made during lunch today. A sober lunch mind you. No alcohol was consumed. Although, I must argue, I think I would be way more productive AND happier at work with a glass of Chard sitting in my cube. Just saying.

So there we were, sitting at our usual table in our cafeteria, munching on our beloved healthy chocolate chip cookie that I've been trying to swear off and clearly have not succeeded in doing so... I even tried on my old work pants from before I was preggo this morning and they STILL won't go over my ass. Saweeet! Hey, I didn't stop for a Caribou this morning on my way to work, so there was progress made in ONE area of my fat life.

I was telling my gal Carolyn about how my daughter Taylor has to work on her splits and every Monday, they post how close they are on their cute little Cheer Facebook page. So we decided, why not? Is that weird? I think not. Don't you worry, I'll keep you posted too.

We Want to Know Wednesday.

Linking up with the ladies... Janette, Impulsive Addict, Mamarazzi & Seriously Shawn.


{1}Name five of your favorite new blogs that you're reading.

Powered by Mom Spit 
One Big Happy Family...Usually
Sarcasm & Curls
Analyze This
Clover Lane


{2} When you were a young child or teenager, did you have an idea of how many children you wanted and what their names would be? Did you follow through on your ideas?

I originally wanted 2 kids. Back in the day, Jr. High that is, my friends in I would all keep our kid's names in a notebook. That way, we all knew what was off limits. Let's be real. How many of your Jr. High friends do you still talk to? To the point where it would matter who named their kid what? That's what I thought.

Girls name? Pretty sure Keisha (kinda like Iesha but not really) was one of my top names. May or may not have been from the musical influence of Kriss Kross. Yep. I was a huge fan. I even shaved notches into one of my eye brows. Bahaha! Wonder what those boys are up to now? Hmm. 

Boys? I am pretty sure I didn't even have one single boy name picked out. Wait. I take that back. I may have had David after the baseball player David Justice. I was obsessed with him when he played for the Atalanta Brave's. That is until he beat the crap out of his then wife, Halle Berry. I ripped down all of his poster's on my bedroom wall and scratched "David" from my list after that escapade. Never had another boy name picked, apparently I was convinced I would only have girls? Boy was I wrong. 

 {3} What is the silliest thing you fight with someone about? Could be your spouse, sibling, parents, co-worker etc. 

 It's not a real serious fight. It was with a co-worker (kinda). Our "chef" at the cafeteria at work. Chef is used loosely here. This man is 100% creep. I actually gave him the nickname "Powder" because reminds me of someone who just got off the prison bus. So he totally needed a prison name. Hence the name Powder. 

Any who, the cashier up there, makes "healthy cookies". Supposedly they are only 150 calories. Hungry Girl chocolate chip cookies. They are so good and good for you so naturally, we wanted one. Well, the cashier that bakes them was gone for a week or so. Sadly, we were forced to go without the cookies. After days of almost rioting, one day the cookies appeared. (The cashier was still gone, they kept telling us they didn't have the recipe. We begged them to call her on her funeral leave and get it. We needed these cookies dang it.) 

Like a fat kid in a candy store, we squealed were delighted. As we are putting the cookie's on a plate, we say "thanks for getting the recipe!" "These are the healthy cookies right?" As to which Powder replies "yeah, your welcome". 

"Really, these are Kathy's??" we ask yet again.

"Yes" Powder confirmed.

Well, never trust a man you nickname Powder. He lied. Hours later after telling the Kitchen Manger how much we loved him for baking for us, and obviously calling and getting the top secret recipe from the grieving cashier, he bursts our bubble. "Those were not the healthy cookies. They were regular old chocolate chip."  WHAAAAAAAAT? 

We immediately confronted the liar we call Powder. To which he replies "so, a cookie is a cookie." 

Um. No. We wanted healthy cookies. Cookies made with applesauce NOT lard. Cookies that taste good and only cost us 150 calories. We doubled our calories and had no clue. THE HORROR!  

As we walked out of the cafeteria, ticked off. My co-worker Carolyn threaten to punch him in the face for lying. I had to add in there, nonchalantly, to Powder "you better hope we don't find your car out there in the parking lot. If we do, we are puking on it." Wait, what did I say?? Those words actually came out of my mouth. Unreal.

TRUE STORY. Happened a few weeks ago. Don't tell my kids. I would hate it if they solved problems with vomit. Gross.

{4} What is your favorite scent that other's may not find very nice? ie: gasoline, sweat from your sweetie, etc. 

I love the smell of gasoline. I also love the smell of nail polish. 

{5} Thoughts on Plastic Surgery? (had it? want it? regrets?)
  
I would totally do it if it was with the best doctor ever and money was not an issue. I'll take one of everything! Tummy tuck please and thank you. This body has definitely not snapped back after 3 kids.  I once compared my boobs to an empty Capri Sun. Breastfeeding can do a number on your girls. I just need a little lift back to where they once stood. Ha, ha!

BUT, there is nothing in the world like working hard at getting your body back. Just. Takes. So. Much. Time. 


HAPPY WEDNESDAY LADIES~






 

The price of freedom.

Every 4th, we over pack and hurry to get out the door and on the road for vacation. There can be some tense moments in our house while packing for 3 kids and 2 dogs always under your feet. We get out on the road and sit for what seems to be an eternity sitting in traffic with the rest of the Twin City-ians doing the same thing. While on the 2 hour drive, I stalk my fellow Facebook friends like crazy. I check Twitter when there are no longer any new status' of my liking. Then I hit up TMZ.

Eventually, we get to the cabin, fight over the bathroom and throw our crap everywhere unpack.We hang out at the lake, bask in the sun, have a few drinks. Relax with our loved ones. We eat too much, laugh too much and maybe even drink too much. We go to the fireworks and ooh and ahhh over the show.

We can so easily take it all for granted.

Both of my Brother's served in the military, both are out and home safe. I used to get pretty emotional on this day when they were in active duty.  Praying that they made it home. Praying to just get a phone call from them even if it was for just a minute. Sometimes I randomly think about those overseas serving, alone, away from family and friends. Then the moment passes and I move on with my day to day activities.

I read an article in our paper this morning that really got to me. A Marine from MN who gave the ultimate sacrifice in Afghanistan last week. He stepped on a IED while on foot patrol and died. He left behind his family, his wife and his unborn son due to arrive in September.

A Son that will never meet his Daddy.

A Wife that will never speak to her Husband.

A Mother that will never speak to her Son.

A family no doubt, left to grieve and try to make sense of a real life nightmare. A family that will have to find the courage and strength to get through each day. It breaks my heart. I will hug my children extra tight and pray for this family. We are complete strangers but I cannot help but feel this great loss. My heart is heavy. I want to cry for this family.

Marine Sgt. Chad Frokjer thank you.

Thank you for your service.

Thank you for your selflessness.

Thank you for defending our country.

Thank you for all you gave.

Thank you from my family to yours.

You see, there is a price for freedom. This man paid with his life. RIP Chad Frokjer.