hairbrained schemes

Embracing my inner redneck.

Fact:  When no one is around I listen to the Blue Collar Comedy Network on that satellite thingy Jason put in my car.  And I often find myself laughing and nodding in agreement.

Fact:  Tonight, while I was preparing this evening's meal of hotdogs and chips I wondered if I should open a bottle red or white wine.

Fact:  I have a deer head sticker thing on the back window of my Jeep.  (I'm still counting that even though Jason put it on as a joke and then finally broke down and told me that he did it a week later because I didn't notice and I'll probably take it down, but I haven't yet because it seems like too much effort to walk around the car just for that).

..............................................................

This is the view from the living room window of the house we're renting.

Pretty nice, eh?  All the snow is now gone, which makes it even nicer. 

We were really fortunate to find this house while we build, but it feels like we're in a state of suspended animation.  Just kind of floating along until we move in and have all of our own stuff around us again. 

Today is the last day of spring break. I can't say I'm totally disappointed, but I do have to admit the whole having to get up and get dressed first thing in the morning doesn't seem nearly as appealing as staying in my pj's and drinking coffee until noon.

In our neverending quest to encourage (force) our children to enjoy the arts (practice guitar) Jason has made a deal with Jake. 

The deal started out as "practice for ONE HALF HOUR every single day and in 30 days we will purchase FOR YOU a drum amp with which will simultaneously give you the power to be the envy of all of your friends and make the girls will FLOCK adoringly to your side." 

(FYI I am totally hearing Jason voice this in his on-air persona as I write)

Jacob, being quite the little negotiator, soon had Jason down to 20 minutes a day excluding Saturdays. 

Jason is an easy touch.

Oh and for those of you who were wondering which wine to serve with a meal of hotdogs and chips, the answer is beer.

What Have I Done?

My mom made this insightful connection about a couple of my last posts.

My sweet, loving, but occasionally slightly crazy looking son...

and this...

 

I may have to rethink some of my parenting strategies.

In my defense, I would like to submit this:

Exibit A: "his mother's antics haven't ruined him"

and this:

Exhibit B: "Normal is, as normal does"

(please disregard his thoughts on how he got to be a big boy.  I think that must have come from his father's side.)

I apologize in advance for any nightmares induced by the Ted Nugent album cover (sorry Candice). 

I'll just get to the point.

Here's the lowdown since I last posted.

• house, as of yesterday

(back)

(front)

• photos

(my totally cute friend, Shannon, who only has 2 weeks left in her pregnancy and still doesn't look pregnant until you see her tummy.  Seeing her looking so great and glowy and wonderful totally gave me a flashback to being 6 days overdue with Lucas, lumbering into the clinic for my appointment and refusing to get on the scale and daring the nurse with a stare to just try and make me.)

• tv

I am currently watching a rerun of Malcolm in the Middle while typing this. 

Don't judge me.

• pets

I am currently considering taking an agility class with Bella

Kitty woke Jason up at 4 am to go out last night and then again at 6 am to come in.

She had better tread lightly or I fear she may "go to live at a farm where she can run free with the other cats".

• boys

The boys started soccer camp this week. It goes from 9:30 to 12:30 every day until Friday.  They were exhausted afterwards.  I guess a winter of cultivating their inner couch potato will do that to a guy. 

Jacob's guitar teacher told us on Saturday that he is a "natural".  But also that he doesn't seem to like to practice. 

Tell us something we don't know. 

Now that he actually has a few songs in his repertoire he seems a little more interested in the practicing part of it. 

Sidenote: One of the songs he is learning is Ted Nugent's "Cat Scratch Fever".  I don't know why but that struck me as especially hilarious.  Maybe it was the fact that the moment he started playing it I had a visual of the front of that particular album.

Yah. This one:

Fun hey?

• music

Gorgeous George got me a satellite thingy for my Jeep. After he installed it my windows mysteriously stopped working. Imagine how this throws a wrench into my drive through visits.

I am certain that after he reads this he will take that satellite thingy out of my Jeep and give it to someone who will appreciate it in the manner it deserves to be appreciated.

• books

Just finished "The Other Boelyn Girl". 

Enjoyed it very much and have loaned it to my friend, Michelle.

Bought "The Kiterunner" and haven't started it.

Borrowed "Marley & Me" and haven't started it.

• culture

Attended a Settlers of Catan tournament at Dawn and Joel's.

Coveted the special tshirts that Dawn's brother and SIL made. 

Came in 2nd last, but ate enough appetizers to make up for it. 

• scrapbooking

Feeling ultra-uncreative the past few days.

Am considering forcing myself to do something tomorrow to try and break the funk.

• miscellaneous

Jacob informed me in the car today that for halloween he would like to be a disco guy.

He would like:

big hair

star sunglasses

a white jumpsuit

possibly a disco ball, but if we can't find one he plans to make one

Then he giggled and said, "Mom, it's going to be awesome, it will be just like I'm back in the 80's".

FACT: I have a funny kid.

• the end

Mommy's Little Helper.

My friend, Jen, dubbed Lucas "Mr. Up To No Good" when she saw this picture.

My friend, Libby, wondered if that was the picture they would use when he appears on Inside Edition sometime in the future. 

He was merely helping me get ready to take some maternity pictures of my friend, Shannon. 

Man, a guy tries to help out a little and look what happens.

That's not to say I'm not going to go hide the dog and the silverware after I post this.

Bad answers to good questions.

Just so you know...

If you answer your 6 year old's question "How did the world start?" by saying "seventeen"...and then follow up with, "seriously.  seventeen.  think about it" when they say your answer makes no sense, you will have a good 10 minutes worth of peace and quiet in the car while he "seriously.  thinks about it."

A worthy followup is "orange" when he can't make sense out of "seventeen".

4 wheels are better than 2.

We had marginal success with the dirtbikes.  Jacob jumped on and cruised around, Lucas jumped on and wiped out.

Then he decided that he enjoyed riding his buddy's quad instead.  With a bit of coaxing he tried his bike again and did a little better. 

Considering he has a mother who managed to run her own leg over on an ATV tour in Mexico, I can kind of relate.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y.

Just a few layouts I did for the Simple Studio that are now "retired"

Finally, the snow has melted and the boys have gone to try their new dirtbikes that Santa brought them.  I'm meeting them in a few minutes to take some pictures. 

On Bathrooms and Such.

Can I get a Hallelujah for shopping around?!

We got a second quote today on the bathroom/kitchen stuff and it came in at $4,300.  I have a feeling the first place gives kickbacks to the builders which is why they point you in their direction. 

Just a feeling.

We did change a few things, like went with chrome fixtures in the kids/downstairs bathrooms and didn't do all the spa spray heads and nifty shower things in the ensuite.

Here's what we ended up getting:

Kitchen:

that's a pot filler for behind the stove.  Totally unnecessary, but totally cool

Kitchen faucets and sprayer.

Farmhouse sink.

Powder room on main floor:

The above sink with a faucet like this:

and Gorgeous George is going to build a cabinet for it a little something this:

Ensuite:

The sink is similar to the powder room sink, but wider and deeper and the faucet will be the same.

We're having a seperate tub/shower in the ensuite and for the tub filler we chose these:

And here is our house as of this morning:

As for the daily photo?

Pretty lame, but the kids are in bed and I am determined to get that lens. 

I actually took my camera off automatic and played with it in semi-manual mode. I'm trying to learn about depth of field and am slowly kind of figuring it out.

Tom Petty wasn't kidding.

Waiting really is the hardest part.

What's new today:

• priced out bathroom fixtures and kitchen sink/faucets
• the quote came back at $9,500
• we frantically spent about 2 hours trying to figure out how to cut it back to our original budgeted amount ($5,000)

But look how nice these are:

         

Maybe we can put an outhouse in the back to save on toilets and stuff.  That way I can have the faucets I want.

But then, I'm the only one in our house who can't pee standing up, so by doing that I would be shooting myself in the foot.

Literally and figuratively.

Budgets suck.

We went skiing a couple of weeks ago.  Here are some shots of my insane children:

 

And here are my cute new gloves.

Yup.  Gloves.  That's what I'm showing Gorgeous George.  Gloves.

I'm all about the fashion when it comes to skiing.  And coffee in the lodge.

Follow Through.

I am guilty of talking the talk, but not (trying to get out of) walking the walk.

My big mouth has gotten me into trouble on numerous occasions.

For example, many years ago I was bigmouthing to my boyfriend at the time about how I would TOTALLY go skydiving but sadly couldn't afford to do it being a poor student and all.

The next day he called, told me he had two spots booked and it was his treat.

So I had to suck it up and go.  And it was actually really fun.  Not that I would ever do it again, but not being one to learn from past mistakes, I'm pretty sure I have told that story and made it sound like I would TOTALLY go skydiving again.

So me outing myself as a hypocrite leads to this photo:

The hypocrisy is twofold.

1. I have been very vocal about how fugly Crocs are and how I would not be caught dead in them.  Enter the Mary Jane Crocs.  Still ugly, but cuter than the originals and they are like walking on clouds. 
2. When I was bigmouthing a couple of blog entries ago about how I was going to take a picture a day, learn how to better use my camera and thus deserve a new lens at the end of one month of picture taking.

So yes, I took a picture today.  Of my new ugly shoes.  To share with my yahoo girls. And now here I sit passing it off as my "photo of the day" because I'm too lazy to go take a real picture.  See how I even tried to pretty it up with a frame around it?

My hypocrisy (and sneakiness) knows no bounds.

And I'm totally okay with that.

And while we're on the subject of shoes...

Jason's broken ankle?  It was broken 10 years ago.

You know, from that OTHER time he hurt himself badly and refused to go to the doctor. 

So he's been walking around with a broken ankle bone for 10 years.  Gross huh?  And while nothing new was broken this time, he has some torn ligaments, which while not great news, is much better news than a newly broken bone.

Oh. And this happened the other night at our house: