Rain, Glorious Rain.

I just ate a handful of chocolate covered raisins. To be fair, it was more like a small bowl full. The morning started off with a power struggle between me, Joshua and some blueberry pancakes. I'll spare you the details but lets just say his reaction would have been appropriate had I been asking him to eat anchovies. And when he did take a bite ... and started to gag ... I told him he would be cleaning up any vomit should he choose to continue the drama. Without skipping a beat, he looked at me and said, "Oh, I'm not throwing up. I have a cough. You need to take me to the doctor because I can't stop." And the first 25 days of having a four year old was looking so easy ... I guess that dream is gone.

Eli ... he and I have our own power struggles and I decided this morning that should we choose to home school our children, Eli will need a surrogate teacher. You see ... Eli is far too concerned with the big picture of life to be bothered by such insignificant details as say ... telling me different colors or counting correctly. It is impressive that he has the word "nineteen" in his vocabulary ... but his counting pattern goes a little like this: "one, two, four, seben, nineteen." And if you try to correct him, he says (in his deep, husky voice), "No talking. I already told you. Nineteen."

I could tell my morning was going no where sunny.

It got worse when I entered my closet. I still can't find half of my belongings. It's not like we moved across the ocean ... just down the block. And what is hanging in my closet is not that attractive. Sweatpants. Knit tops. More sweatpants. And the thought that there are 19 more weeks of no style was almost too much for me. So ... I put on my sweatpants and stuck a flower in my hair. At least my hair was going to have style.

Oh ... and how, might you ask, is that $5 haircut coming along?

Well. We were in Portland two weeks ago ... Ben was taking a seminary class and I was taking the weekend off. We spent a FABULOUS 3 days in my favorite part of creation.
We sent Ben off to school ... (I thought a kiss under a broken off pine tree limb was a good way to start the day ... and pay no attention to the sweatpants ... I already warned you!!) ...
And Em and I ... scoured the town for fun. We stopped off at my favorite antique store (pictures of those finds to come), ate about every 2 hours and just enjoyed talking NON-STOP (Em might be the only person on the planet who can get more words out per second than me??) And after all that we accomplished, well, our minds got to wandering and apparently when our minds wander ... they land upon cheap haircuts. Some of us like to take it a step further and have the "two months into their program beauty students" color their hair too ...
Two beauty students ... two hours ... a LOT of tin foil ... a bit of panic that my hair was ever so slightly orange ...
Two husbands and a friend (who was done A LONG TIME BEFORE ME) awaiting the results ...
And well ... it could have been WAY worse of an outcome. The teacher ended up cutting my overly poofy locks because the school was closing down for the day. And when the two students came back and attacked my head with a blow dryer and NO PRODUCT, I knew it was going to be a sticky finish ... but
I think it turned out all right for $5 ... and we ended the evening with the BEST food ever (thanks for hosting us, Tim and Em!!) So ... there you have it. I've pounded on the floor 3 times while writing this because one of my precious children thinks napping is optional. I'm determined to ignore the chatter for at least another 40 minutes because I'm going to a birthday party tonight and I'm pretty sure I need to find something else to put on other than the sweatpants I'm currently wearing.

And things are looking up ... I just ordered a fabulous chandelier for our dining room and I see a staple gun in my future ... with a new seat cushion to boot. And I promise ... no more blueberry pancakes for the firstborn. I'll make them plain. It will make our house a whole lot quieter.

Back Blogging Installment #1: Christmas Favs.

I just downloaded A LOT of pictures. A LOT. And I really tried to skip over all the events of December. Really, I did. You should have heard the self-talk. It was an impressive argument between my more dominant Type A side and my less vocal Type B side. And if you know me ... at all ... you know that I'm a rule follower. And there might not be any "real" blog rules about this sort of thing but leave it to me to make up my own. And so I give you ... a Christmas summary (because in back-blogging ... it's best to be brief - or so say my made up rules).

#1. The Best Hot Chocolate Face:
#2. The Best Gingerbread House "Supervising Stare":
#3. The Absolute Best Expression For A Gift Costing Under $1.00:
#4. The Best Fiery Dragon Impersonation:
$5. The Best Black (or Somewhat Green) Eye:
#6. The Present Taking The Most Wrapping Paper:
#7. The Most Anticipated Present and The Most Man Hours Required to Assemble Present:
#8. The Most Random Combination of Presents:
#9. And the Best Stolen Present:
#10. Christmas 2009 comes to an end. Only 1 month and 2 days late.

And for those of you who want to see my "jaw dropping" reaction at the Pink and Blue Party ... check this out: The Blog Of A Lifetime

Pink and Blue Party

The ultrasound was on Friday. The only news we got from the doctor was that he saw the pictures and that he fully agreed with the technician on the baby's gender. And since he's a world famous radiologist, I took that as a good sign that whatever he saw ... it was VERY accurate. So ... for the past 48 hours, we've been wondering ... is it a ...

The chefs had been busy at work ...

creating all sorts of YUMMY desserts!

The guests had arrived ... wearing the color of their guess ...

I chose blue. A blue shirt. Blue jeans. And a blue, flowered necklace ... with a pink pearl. My guess ... 98% it was a boy ... 2% ... girl.

7:30 arrived and it was time for the big reveal. The teams took their sides (Team Pink WAY outnumbered Team Blue). We opened the present. A pink bag with blue tissue paper. I wanted to give each side an equal shot.

Let's just say ...
There were a few team BLUE people who were SHOCKED ...
And a lot of double checking the ultrasound picture ...
And triple checking ...
And a big brother who was more interested in the treats than the news ...
And a little bit of a disappointed bigger big brother who won't be using the name Santa ...
Because ...

It's A GIRL!

Playdough.

Confession. I haven't uploaded any pictures since 2009. My camera is sitting on the hall table. Cool thing is ... we now have a hall that can house a table. But still ... the camera sits, awaiting to be freed of picture memories. The past 10 days have been a bit of a blur. Partly because I was in the hospital for a few hours ... due to some dizziness and a numb arm. That might have contributed to the "head fog" ... that or that my blood pressure is 110/60 and I'm apparently half dead. Who knows. Or ... we were in Portland for a few days (a trip I forgot to take my camera on ... but there will be borrowed pictures coming and you'll want to stay tuned because I had myself a $5 haircut in the Northland) ... and came home to our power being turned off. Ooops! Forgot to transfer it into our name. Good thing we know our neighbors because they are now storing most of our food in their extra freezers. (I'm planning to collect it tonight). And then ... there is the microwave/convection oven/oven nightmare. Lets just say ... it's not working. (That's the short version) and I'm taking it back to 1950 and using the gas stove for reheating purposes.

Bunco is at our house tomorrow night. I haven't found my glue gun yet. Not that you need a glue gun for Bunco but it would help add a bit of spunk to my decorations.

We have a Pink/Blue party on Sunday where we will discover the gender of Baby #3 and while there were plans for oven baked foods at both events ... those plans have changed. The oven won't be fixed until Tuesday.

But ... we LOVE our new house. I LOVE seeing all the new paint colors hit the walls ... Ben has become quite the painter man. Our bedroom has switched from a pale blue to brown. And there is a wonderland of toys downstairs that is in desparate need of organization.

And then ... I keep adding things to the list by traveling to my home away from home ... IKEA. Ben might shoot me if I come home with one more Swedish piece of build it yourself furniture. I'm just saying. Apparently I have the easy job with just swiping the credit card.

Are you loving the rambling?

And since random seems appropriate for today ...

I'll send a blog thank you to Aunt Jenn and Uncle Bob for this KILLER playdough. At first, I was being a Type A mom and refused to let the boys mix colors ... but then I relaxed to a Semi-Type A and decided that with everything else going on ... mixed playdough really should be at the bottom of my list.

And here's to hoping I unload some pictures before February or we're going to be doing some serious back blogging.

Is It Monday Yet?

Some of us have been working very hard over here.

And others ... well ... they're not so into the whole work thing.

But it's almost Monday.

And Monday means ... MOVING DAY!

That makes a few of us scream in terror ... (especially if you saw all the half-packed boxes around this joint!)

But others of us ... we're just as happy as toads to be moving.

Back to the other side of Mayberry.

Back to the same street we used to live on.

We're exhausted. Some of us might have even been a bit cranky. But we're BLESSED and BEYOND excited! Naps can come later because Monday will be here very soon!

It's A Jungle Over Here ...

New Year's Eve involved a lot of vomiting.

New Year's Day gave us the explanation. Double ear infection.

January 2nd. Day one of THREE antibiotics.

January 3rd. The almost 4 year old decided to catch the bug.

January 4th. The now 4 year old declared that it was not his birthday because he was feeling yucky and that I could open all this presents and just take them upstairs for him to play with.

January 4th. Also included packing up our kitchen and hunting for twenty minutes to find the recently packed baking sheet when I remembered we were having sweet potato fries and I needed to bake them on something.

January 5th. I decided to get in on the game and caught the bug.

January 6th. Painters come.

January 7th. Handy-man and more painting and pool fence.

January 8th. Cleaning lady.

January 9th. Carpets cleaned.

January 11th. MOVERS!

So if you're looking for an exotic vacation ... say ... to a jungle? Skip to airfare and just head over here. We can provide PLENTY of entertainment!

And we might even let you pack a box or two.

A Golden Birthday ...

J. Howard ... 4 DAYS old

J. Howard ... 4 YEARS old

Happy Birthday, Joshua!

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The birthday boy has requested balloons to fill his room in the morning ...

Sprinkle cake and ice cream ...

and ...

PRESENTS!

Lucky for him ... I think we can fulfill all THREE requests!