Monday, June 28, 2010

Eclipse

Can I just say that being popular is FLIPPING AWESOME!?!?! I wouldn't say I was "unpopular" in high school, but I wasn't exactly homecoming queen either. I have plenty of friends now, but it's not like people are waiting in line to bask in my presence. But now, everyone wants to be my friend. I sort of love it. :-) I guess that's what happens when you have an awesome mom who lets you invite your friends to a preview showing of Eclipse the day before it opens to the public. Sadly, the popularity will end in a couple of days when the show is over and I'll go back to being my regular self. I guess it could be worse -- I could be in high school again!

Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Games Children Play

I love listening to my kids play. Today was no exception. Tyler and Nicole were playing house and this is what I heard:

TYLER:  Nicole, that's not right.
NICOLE:  Of course it is, Tyler.

TYLER:  I don't think so. I think I'm right.
NICOLE:  Ugh. Tyler, listen to me. I'm the mom and you're the dad. That means I'm always correct and you are always incorrect.
TYLER:  Okay.

I'm pretty sure that's the most accurate "house" game ever played.

Monday, June 21, 2010

Shape Collage

I LOVE collages with a bajillion pictures of my cute little kids. Unfortunately, they take flipping forever to make! Luckily, I found a great place to make your own in just a few seconds! I made this cute collage for Ben for Father's Day and the hardest part was just deciding which pictures to use. They have the unique option to input text and have your collage in the shape of words. I just want to make a thousand collages and never worry about scrapbooking again! I also really liked that the tutorial was a video so you could see exactly how to do everything. I do much better when I can hear and see the instructions at the same time.
Happy collage making!

Saturday, June 19, 2010

Nicole's Bun

I got Nicole all signed up for ballet/tap classes this summer. She is unbelievably excited. She has her leotard, tights, and ballet slippers. Hopefully today we'll get the tap shoes. (I'm a little worried that Nicole will use our hardwood floors as her "stage" for practicing while I'm not looking. I may have done the same thing to my parents when I was a kid.) Anyway, yesterday she went to get her ballet slippers with my mom and I put her in her tights and leotard so she would have the whole ensemble together. I put her hair in a bun and she thought it was great. So great, in fact, that she didn't want to take it out when it was time for bed. So she slept in her bun. This morning it was drooping and falling out all over the place. She felt the back of her head and found a chunk of hair sticking out of her bun. She said:

"This can be the hot dog sticking out of my bun!"



Get it? Hot dog? Bun? HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! This girl cracks me up!

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Say What?

"What?"

It's a question we hear around here a lot. Tyler has a ton of fluid in his ears. It's not infected, but it makes hearing much more difficult. I don't know if he's milking the situation or if he's genuinely not hearing me, but it's very frustrating! It doesn't seem to bother him at all. Other than not being able to hear the t.v. He turns it up so loud! I have to constantly remind him that we can all hear just find and sorry, but you can't crank the t.v. up that loud. I took him to the doctor and she said that it usually resolves itself within 12 weeks. TWELVE WEEKS!?! Are you kidding me? I don't want to wait 12 weeks for my little boy to hear again! Good thing it's summer and it won't affect his school work. Sigh. If it doesn't resolve itself, they'll put tubes in his ears to drain it out. Ben and I both had tubes as children, so it's not a huge surprise to either of us. But this is what he looks like most of the time:



He looks confused all the time. So, if you're talking to Tyler and he gets this look on his face, don't worry, he just can't hear you.










Hopefully the hearing problem won't interfere with his Karate lessons. Doesn't he look awesome in his new duds? I think so, but I'm his mother and I'm completely biased. There is no whining allowed in karate, so I'm planning on using that at home to keep the whining at bay. Will it work? Who knows, but it's worth a shot!

The first rule of karate: karate is for self-defense only. 

I'm glad they covered this during the first lesson, otherwise my girls might become punching bags. Well, maybe not Tori. She can hold her own. Nicole, she'd be toast.

Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Can you say ARGUMENTATIVE?

Look at this face. Isn't she sweet? Sure, she's a little dirty, but still sweet. You would never look at this face and say, "wow, I bet this girl LOVES to argue with her parents." But she does. She will purposely tell me something she knows to be false just so I'll correct her. When I do, she gets a funny little smile on her face that says, "yes! It worked! She's going to argue with me!" Ben doesn't help the situation at all. He walks right up to her and says "yes" just so she'll say "no" and they go back and forth for several minutes. It's their favorite game. I don't think he'll think it's so funny when she's 16 and puts her arguing-with-dad-skills to the test. At that point, I will put on my I-told-you-so smile and just watch the drama unfold. :-)

Just before I took this picture, she pointed to her bowl of spaghetti and said, "all done". I said, "no, you need to keep eating." Then came the mischievous smile and "all done". I took the bait and we continued to go back and forth until the game got old. Then I grabbed the camera and said "say cheese" and this is the sweet smile I got.

Of course, as soon as I took this picture, this is the face she made:


(I think that's pretty much her attitude about life.)















But she sure does love spaghetti!


(On the other hand, Nicole didn't like it. She likes to tell me things herself but blames them on Tori. For example, she said, "Mom, Tori says that this is the most disgusting dinner you've ever made." Obviously, Tori didn't say that; she clearly enjoyed her disgusting spaghetti very much. Sometimes "Tori" doesn't like my hair, clothes, jewelry, or the t.v. show that's on. Good thing I have Nicole to interpret Tori's mumbles into insults directed at me. Sigh. Girls are crazy.)

Wednesday, June 9, 2010

My New Bedroom!

I have a king size bed. Actually, I should say that I had a king size bed. Now I have a California king size bed! My parents needed to get a new mattress so they gave me their old one. I got our king size bed at a garage sale for $20. It was a decent mattress and I got a lot of good sleep on it. But this one is a double pillow top, super mattress. I was so excited when I heard that I would get this bed! For those of you who don't know the difference, a California king is longer and narrower than a regular king. That means that my bedding didn't quite fit anymore. Ben said that I should get new bedding. I suggested that maybe I could re-do the whole room and have a whole new look. To my surprise, he agreed! I found a new set on www.kinglinen.com and designed the whole room around it. Ben suggested that I should do the room by myself. This was the hard part. I never decorate by myself. I always need help from my mom. She has a good eye and everything she touches comes out looking like a million bucks. I was nervous about doing it myself, but I knew it was something I needed to do. I needed to prove to myself that I could do it. Also, as I get older I have started to have my own ideas/tastes/quirks so I knew this room would be more "me" than any other room in my house.
So, here's the before:
And here is the after!
I was able to use a lot of the same stuff, I just used paint and such to change it up a bit. It was my first "by myself" decorating attempt and I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. I still need to tweak a few things, but that can wait for another day.