Wordless Wednesday

Days of our lives

So last week I thought I would go ahead and get Jake potty trained. I bought the underwear a few weeks ago and we are really tired of buying diapers for two kids right now.

We've had a potty seat that fits onto the toilet for a year now so this is not something that is brand new to Jake. After polling my friends I decided the best course of action was to take a couple days where we didn't leave the house and we kept Jake in his underwear while we were inside and naked when he was outside.

I'm sad to say I lasted about a morning and a half with this whole business. I just couldn't commit. I took that child to sit on the potty several times the first morning. He would not sit for more than a minute or two. He would tell me he went potty and get all happy and excited when he didn't do anything at all! So we went outside for some naked time to try to get a feel for what going potty is really like. We weren't out there for long when he looked at me with pee going down both legs and said "MAMA! I GO POTTY!" Well, I whooped and hollered and made a big old deal out of it. Then I told him that next time we would try to make it to the potty before he actually went. I thought he would recognize the feeling of needing to go now.

Not so. He went again. Down his legs. So I sat down and asked him if he felt the need to go potty before it happened. He looked at me and said "Mama! There are little cows living in the playroom." I kid you not. He has not a clue about what I'm trying to teach him. The second morning we succeeded in him going pee and poop in his underwear. We went through three pairs of underwear before I gave up. I just don't think we're ready for this yet. I'm looking into buying a video a friend recommended called Potty Power. Nothing speaks to Jake like movies. They are his love language.

Meanwhile, in Emma news...let's just say she is throwing everything in the trashcan these days. Before we go through the trash we have to sort through it to make sure no valuables go out the door. Yesterday, I found a book, two shoes and my dead cat Molly's ashes. I could not find the box that poor Molly resides in anywhere. It was quite disturbing. Miraculously, when I woke up this morning the box was sitting on my shelf with Molly returned inside. I guess we had some divine intervention. I wish we could get some with Jake's potty training!

A picture says a thousand words

Could they look ANY sadder about having me as their mama? Maybe they're embarassed about the way my hair looks...

Wordless Wednesday

My babies daddy

Although I still haven't gotten my own dad a Father's Day gift this year, I did get Mike exactly what he said he wanted. A canoe trip with Jake. The three of us left Emma at home with her babysitter while we went out and rented a canoe for an hour and a half. It was Jake's first time and I think he liked it. We saw lots of turtles, ducks and fish. I think Jake's favorite thing to do was to lean as far over the side as he could with his bottom still on the seat and drag his fingers through the water. I was actually amazed that he sat still for so long. This is definitely something we can do with him again. When Emma gets big enough we can have our very own rowing team! I think Mike had fun too although he says I was slacking in the rowing department. I have a bum shoulder and I was doing the best that I could do while working on my tan.

On Father's Day the kids and I took Mike out for ice cream after eating burgers cooked on the grill at home. That's a good day, right? I've been blessed to have a wonderful daddy for myself and a wonderful hubby who loves our kids.

Summer travels

We started off the summer with a little road trip. I took the kids up to my sister's house where we got out of our car and into her car and then she drove us all to Amarillo to see our parents. My niece came too. I would love to go up and visit my parents more often but I'm scared of my children. At least I'm scared to be alone in a car with them for nine or ten hours. They're little and sometimes they just don't deal very well. But Cheryl has a nice, comfy car with a DVD player so Jake was happy. Emma did pretty good too as long as I kept handing her snacks. When the snacks ran out, Katie did a good job of entertaining her. I also found out that my wallet will keep a fifteen month old occupied for a LONG time. Emma had so much fun taking out all my cards and then putting them in different places.

We had a good visit with our family. I have to say I was exhausted by the end of the week. I shared a bed with Jake who sleeps horizontally instead of vertically. I woke up every morning with a foot in my side or a leg thrown over my head. We will not mention the poop in the bathtub incident. We will not mention how as Jake and Emma were taking their bath one night, Jake starts screaming "MAMA! DOG POOP! DOG POOP, MAMA!" I did not see a dog in the bathtub. Let's not talk about how I pulled both kids out of the bathtub and began to look around for something to bail the poop out with when I realized there was also a trail of poop leading from the bathtub, across my mama's bath rugs and up to Emma's little bottom. For to mention it will cause me to relive it. Some things are best left in the past.

Here's our motley crew the morning we left Amarillo to come back home.

Happy Father's Day!

My dad is impossible to shop for. He is one of those people that will tell you all he wants for Christmas or his birthday or Father's Day is for his family to be happy. I never have a clue what to get him. This year I thought I could get him the square foot gardening book Mike and I have been using because he is an avid gardener. But I found out he already bought the book for himself and is in full blown square foot gardening mode as we speak. You can't buy him clothes because he has one shirt that he likes to wear and he just buys it in lots of different colors. I'm ashamed to say that as of right now, this Father's Day, I have not bought him a gift. I did get him a card three days ago. When I tried putting it in the envelope to get it in the mail I realized that I had picked up the wrong envelope at the store. No matter how I tried, I couldn't stuff that card into the envelope and I don't have an extra one on hand that fits either. So, basically my daddy has not gotten anything from me for Father's Day yet. And he is truly the best dad in the world. So, I think I'll compose a special Father's Day list that will have to suffice until I come up with another plan. Happy Day daddy!


Top ten things I love about my daddy:

10.) He is a calming presence in the face of any storm

9.) He is a talented musician. I love to listen to him sing, play piano and especially used to love to sit and listen to him play his guitar.

8.) He has OCD just like me. Now, when I find myself counting the number of stairs I'm climbing or the number of jelly beans in a jar, I just think to myself, "Thanks, Dad.)

7.) He loves animals even though he used to pretend like he didn't to discourage us from bringing home stray animals. Which didn't work by the way. Almost all of our cats through the years have been strays.

6.) I have never heard him say anything bad about anyone else, EVER.

5.) When he talks, everyone listens.

4.) He made time to come watch me run when I was little at those elementary school track and field days.

3.) He taught me how to pitch a mean softball.

2.) He loves the Lord and spends time in prayer and Bible study.

1.) He gave me cool nicknames when I was little like "Rinkledink" and "short stuff".

You can learn a lot from a garden

Mike has been bugging me to put up more pictures of the garden. So, you can stop reading now if you want. This one is for Mikey.

I have always been a nature geek. I love to sit and watch living things. I try to figure out just what they're doing. Tidepools, in my opinion, are the absolute best places to observe nature but our own backyard works fairly well too. Just look at the garden.



Everything is growing! The tomatoes and corn are off the hook.




Look at the lavendar and cilantro living side by side in perfect harmony.



The sunflowers are starting to bloom.



I've noticed a certain type of little, green caterpillar on the sunflower leaves. I probably picked off ten of them before I found the big mama. She was a couple inches long and yellow and very hairy. I thought it was very polite of them to eat only the sunflower leaves even when they were surrounded by such a plethora of greenery in the garden. I thanked them as I hurled them over the fence.

How about this tiny cucumber? I think it's precious.



And then there's the bell pepper. We thought this plant had something wrong with it. Turns out it just takes a long time to produce something so good. The jalapeno plant has been showing off for weeks now.



What about the tiny white flowers on the strawberry plants? Who knew strawberries had flowers?


Finally, the lettuce. I'm including it because I think it's pretty. However, looks can be deceiving. Turns out that once temperatures get hotter than about 85 degrees the leaves of the lettuce plant turn all bitter tasting. It was a dark, dark moment when we realized this fact.



I'm reading a good book right now called Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver. It goes into much detail about the growing seasons of different plants. Who knew there were such things as growing seasons? We can buy whatever we want, whenever we want at the supermarket. But it tastes so much better if you grow it yourself or get it from someone who grew it themselves. If you just wait until it comes into its natural season. The one thing I'm confused about? Why in the world does lettuce go bitter before the tomatoes get ripe? How am I supposed to make a decent salad?

Wordless Wednesday

It's all good

Last week on one of the blog's I read, the mama posted pictures of her cute little girl in an all out temper tantrum. I thought it was so cute. Usually, we post the happy, smiley things in life. But life isn't always happy and smiley. Sometimes you get this,



and sometimes you get this.

What not to wear

Although I had officially decided not to buy a new swimsuit this year, I saw a cute one in an ad for Kohl's and went shopping anyway. After much looking around I decided they don't make swimsuits for anyone in the age range of 30 to 60. And definitely not for anyone who has every carried another human being in their belly for nine months. Everything was either very skimpy or very floral. I decided to do some bra shopping instead. The only way I can stay halfway cool in this heat is to wear shirts with thin straps or sundresses. This completely contradicts my rule about baring my ridiculously large upper arms. A girl's got to do what a girl's got to do. Anyway, to wear such apparel properly you need the right kind of bra. Up until now, I've been making do with my strapless bra I wore at our wedding. It actually had adhesive strips that stuck to my skin on the side rather than any sort of back closure. Needless to say, I ran out of the adhesive long ago. So, I've been using duct tape. It really is the magical fixer upper. However, I ran across a problem with it in church the other day. Ridiculously hot weather combined with playing with babies in the church nursery can seriously inhibit the effectiveness of the sticking power of duct tape. (It is duct and not duck, right?) Anyhow, let's just say I had to excuse myself from my volunteer duties for a few minutes while I went to the restroom to try to fix things.


Back to the bra shopping. While I was in the dressing room trying things on I noticed someone go by the room I was in and I thought I saw the top of that person's head and the eyes attached to it looking in on me. I was a little shocked, but then I heard what sounded like an older woman taking a young girl into the room next to me. I guessed she was just peeking in my room to see if it was occupied. But, really? Next time, just look for feet under the door. Those are the rules.

Speaking of rules, I believe one rule that should never be broken in intimate apparel dressing rooms across America is that men are not allowed. A few minutes after the "eyes" incident, I heard an older man's voice right by my door asking "Flo" if the 36C was working or did little girl need a different size. First, let me just say "yuck". PaPaw, what are you doing looking at bras for your daughter or granddaughter? That is a mama's job alone. The next thing I knew, this man was resting his arm on the top of the door of my dressing room. Clearly, another broken rule. Are there really people out there who are not aware of proper dressing room etiquette? Maybe he thought my room was vacant. Again, I say feet people. Check for feet.

The next five minutes were complete torture for me as Flo and PaPaw discussed the merits of each of the bras this poor girl was trying on. I was trying to get dressed as fast as possible without calling any attention to myself for fear of PaPaw peeking over the door at me. Who knows? Maybe he could have given me some helpful advice too.

Days of Summer

Summer is here. Our last day of Mother's Day Out was last week. The weather here in central Texas is hot with a pretty good chance of getting hotter. Reluctantly, I decided it was time to dig out the old swimsuit. I bought a nice suit two summers ago. I paid way more money for it then I ever thought I would spend on a swimsuit. I justified the cost by telling myself that it would last me four or five years. Also, it was really cute.

Well, we took the kids to the pool for the first time this year about two weeks ago. It did not go well. Both kids were VERY unhappy about the temperature of the pool water and refused to get more than their little toes wet. Jake loved the pool the year before. By the end of the summer he was jumping off the side of the pool into our arms. This year we couldn't even get him to wade in the water. It was a little disappointing. They were done in about fifteen minutes. It was not the workout this little mama had hoped for. Still, I put my happy face on as we were leaving the pool. Until Mike brought attention to a flaw in my swimsuit. It seems that over the course of sitting in my dresser for nine months, the material at the top of my suit got stretched out. There was a silver-dollar sized pucker in the fabric. It made me look like I have three nipples. I felt like Chandler in "Friends." Remember when he had the nubbinectomy to remove his third nipple?

Anyhow, I have yet to buy a new suit. There are other things we need more right now so I go to the pool as an outcast.

The good news is that since the water has warmed up so have the kids. The last time we were there they both enjoyed themselves. Right up until the point where Jake got hurt. Imagine having your three year old jumping joyfully off the side of the pool into your outstretched, waiting, capable arms. Now imagine your friend standing beside you screaming something about a big bug at the exact moment your child jumps. Now imagine becoming distracted about the big bug and looking to the side to see just what sort of monstrosity is about to eat you alive. Now imagine your child launching himself like a missile into the side of your head. And biting his tongue as his face collides with your bone. Imagine if you will, the screaming and crying that ensues. And then if you can, imagine getting your child out of the pool and taking him to the bathroom to assess the damage and seeing yourself in the mirror with blood running down your shoulder and arm and your third nipple. Imagine if you can.

It turned out he had bitten his lower lip which bled a lot but was not a serious injury. And the best thing? He got right back up on the horse and jumped off the side of the pool again before we left for the night. If he can do that, I can wear my deformed swimsuit for one more season.

Wordless Wednesday

Little Dipper

We gave Emma some dip to go with her chips for the first time the other day. She had so much fun with it! I think some of it even ended up on her chip.