Friday Funny

Soccer Update

Liam did not play in the dirt. I should be so proud, only there was no dirt, because we played indoors due to heavy rain.

Instead, he kissed his teammates. Apparently, we need to work on to whom we offer kisses.

A New Phase in Parenting

Rick and I are officially entering a new phase in our parenting tonight. The phase where we shuttle our children around town for ball practice. Liam will be wearing up-to-his-arm-pit socks and shin pads tonight, as he attends his first-ever soccer practice.

I think Rick and I are more excited than he is. This could be a problem. When we talk about playing on a soccer team, Liam says, "I wanna play baseball." But his birthday falls too late for him to join the T-ball leagues.

Maybe when I remind him that he gets to wear those socks, in public, he'll get excited.

I'll need to be reminded of my own excitement in a few years, when it's truly hectic getting three little boys to their own sporting events. But, for now, we'll all shuffle to Liam's events and hope that this wasn't wasted money.

I hope he's not one of those boys that squats down to play in the dirt, all the while his teammates are playing a soccer game. I would be mortified. I know, I know, he's only 3 1/2, and if he decides to waste our money by playing dirt instead of soccer, then it's no big deal, because he's still a little boy. But I may need counseling for my competitive spirit, if my son, my son, can't seem to find the soccer ball.

I'll let you know how it goes. Wish us luck!

Wordless Wednesday: Jack and the Lone Ant

I really can't leave this without words, but I'll keep it short. We took the boys to the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens this past weekend. Jack found one ant crawling up this tree, and he stopped to watch it. He is my boy who notices the tiniest of details.

For more Wordless Wednesday participants, please see 5 Minutes for Mom.

Pears and Prophecy

Four years ago this week, Rick and I painted this canvas. We were living in Colorado Springs at the time, and we had been home for a few days due to a blizzard. As soon as the roads were cleared, we were ready to get out of the house. We are not artists by any stretch of the imagination, so when Rick said that we should go to Hobby Lobby and pick up painting supplies, I thought he was crazy. But spontaneous he is, so off we went to buy supplies. Now, please don't ask me what type of paints or brushes we used. I have no clue! In fact, it took me ten minutes to remember the word "canvas" for the first sentence of this post.

I remember that we came home from Hobby Lobby and placed all of our newly bought supplies on the dining room table, and we looked at each other and said, "Now what?". We began making sketches on paper, and we liked how pears looked. We mixed paints and painted away, and the rest, as they say, is history. (Notice how I'm avoiding any great details on our artistic skills? Because we have none!)

Ever since that day, the painting has held an important place in our home. Part of the reason it holds such an important place in our house is because we're pretty darn proud of how it turned out. (Those of you who are truly artistic, please bear with me here. I know it's a rather elementary attempt at art.)

But there's another reason that we hang it so proudly. Two days after we failed to become Matisse or Picasso, we were set to become parents for the first time. However, that baby ended up being our eighth failed adoption. It was a very hard time for us, but three days later we found out about a baby boy due to be born in Louisiana. And that baby was Liam!

Stick with me here, because I'm sure I've confused you by now. About a month after the pear painting, we became parents to Liam. Fast forward another 21 months, and we became parents to Garrett. And three months later, we adopted Jack. Three babies in 25 months...yes, it was a whirlwind!

But think a little deeper here. Refer back to the pear painting, and "read" it from left to right...green, yellow, green. And our boys, by order of adoption...black, bi-racial, black. Prophetic, don't you think?

Accomplishments

Mondays are usually our days to stay home. We stay busy on the weekends, so I use Mondays to get the boys back into our routine, and I typically try to clean the house. Well, I haven't gotten much cleaning done today, but I must not be too concerned, being that I'm sitting here with you.

But I am proud of two accomplishments today. First, the boys and I exercised first thing this morning. Recently, I posted about dropping my gym membership, and since doing that, I have really struggled with getting into a new workout routine. I decided that this week, yes, this week, was the week to address that issue. Immediately after breakfast, we hit the outdoors to get our hearts pumping. Liam rode his bike, Jack and Garrett rode in the jogging stroller, and I attempted to run, only my "run" is more like a walk because my body is not what it used to be. Anywho, let's not go into any great detail about that.

Let me share some photos of our ride/run:

Take a good look at Liam's socks. He loves those socks, and I, uh, don't. They came in one of those cheap packets that comes with, you know, 100 pair of multiple colors, when all you really need is a couple pair of blue and black. When I bought them, I didn't read the fine print on the package that said, "WARNING! These socks come up to your child's navel!" Which is exactly why I don't like them. But he loves them. When I was getting everyone ready for our ride/run, I told Liam to go get some socks out of his dresser. In my head, I said, "It's okay if he comes downstairs with those ugly socks. It's really okay. We're only exercising, so we don't have to look fashionable." Sure enough, he came down with those army green, up-to-the-navel socks!

And here are Jack and Garrett being silly for the camera. They love to ride in the jogging stroller, whether I be running, walking, or pulling them behind my bike. Notice that all three boys are still in pj's. No, we don't stay in our pj's all day, but I didn't feel the need to get them dressed before our workout.

But don't you worry. I did dress myself, since exercising in my pj's in public might not be a good idea. But I will not be showing a photo of myself in workout gear, no, I will not.

Okay, so back to my accomplishments for the day. I told you there were two. My second accomplishment is enjoying my boys. We have laughed and been silly together for a good part of the day. If I had cleaned house, then I would have missed out on the opportunities to dance, sing, play instruments, read books, and make silly faces with my boys.

We did, however, have to break our stay-at-home-all-day-on-Mondays rule. We had to run to the cleaners, since daddy might want some clean clothes to wear to work tomorrow, and we had to go to the store to buy milk, since these growing boys are working on building strong bones. And this is what Liam wore to run those two errands:

He picked this outfit in its entirety. The shorts and shirt are fine for hangin' around the house. These are his soccer socks. You know, the ones that you fold over their shin guards? Yep, he loves them, because they come up to his arm pits! But I am so proud of myself for allowing him to wear them in public! Will he be able to wear them to church or to our next play date? Um, no, probably not.

And now for some cleaning.... See ya tomorrow.

Friday Funny

As we sat at the dinner table recently, Liam said, "Mommy, pull my finger."

What?! Boys will say the darnedest things, won't they?!

Have a good weekend! We will try; however, we are in mourning over the Aggies' loss to Memphis last night.

An Oxymoron

I love oxymorons! The true definition of oxymoron is: a rhetorical figure in which incongruous or contradictory terms are combined. (Dictionary.com) Some examples: jumbo shrimp, deafening silence, poor little rich girl.

The boys and I had to run out to get a few essentials yesterday. Among our shopping list were laundry detergent, diapers, milk, and diet Coke...all very essential! Because I really wanted to stick to my list, I decided to do this shopping at Wal Mart. (If I dare darken the door of Target, I will come home with thirty items that were not on my list. Oh, how that store tempts me beyond my will power!) Anywho, I don't believe that I've ever blogged about my feelings towards Wal Mart, but let me just keep it short by saying that I loathe that store!

As I was pushing the shopping cart with my little chattering boys, I overheard another woman's remark. "This is a nice Wal Mart." A nice Wal Mart?! That is an oxymoron, if I ever heard one!

Have you heard any good oxymorons that you care to share? If so, post a comment.

Works For Me Wednesday: Nail Biting

Liam has been biting his nails for about a year. This habit consumed him so greatly that he had whittled his nails down to mere nubs, all ten of them. I tried applying different terrible-tasting remedies to his fingers but to no avail. Whether it was the cheap $2.89 bottle from Wal Mart or the high-dollar purchase from the internet, no lotions, creams or polishes helped him. I had even broken a house rule and allowed him to chew sugarless gum at all waking hours in an effort to keep his mouth busy on something besides his nails. This helped somewhat but not enough to merely break the habit. I had given up, thinking that he would have gnawed-off nails for life. That is until my mom had an excellent idea.

Didi, as he affectionately calls her, told Liam that if we would stop biting his nails, then she would take him to Target, his favorite store, a boy after my own heart, and buy him a special surprise. Within days, he was catching himself in the act and would tell me, "I don't want to bite my nails anymore." Within two weeks, I was having to trim his nails. And a couple weeks later, Didi came through with her promise and took Liam to Target. He was thrilled to pick Hot Wheels Blast and Crash, a battery-operated track for his favorite cars.

He's had this toy at home for two weeks now, and he has still not resumed biting his nails. He's so proud of himself! Was this bribery? Maybe so, but it worked for us!

For more helpful tips, please visit Shannon at Rocks In My Dryer.

For the Love of Baskets...Revisited

Rick was out of town last week, and when he's out of town, I usually "treat" myself to a little something. Being that I'm a stay-at-home mom by choice, I normally try to spend very little money on myself, in order to continue my "retirement" from the "real" working world. But when Rick is on business trips, I tend to cut myself some slack and buy a little something for me.

As I've mentioned before, I have a fetish for baskets. When I originally posted about this fetish, Rick was also out of town at that time, and I had just found some ever-so-cute baskets at Garden Ridge. I did not purchase anything that day, because I felt oh-so guilty about buying just one more basket. But one particular basket has been calling my name every. single. day. since. then. So I gave in last week and made another trip to basket land and purchased this:

Isn't it cute?! And, as I've told you before, every basket in my house has a function. Here is what this cutie holds for me:

It is the perfect size for a box of kleenex (For it is sneezing season in Texas.), a bottle of lotion (I keep lotion close at hand in an effort to keep my hands from aging beyond the rest of me.), a timer (I am the queen of timers!), and our paddle (Yes, we spank these angels from time to time.). My camera also fits into this handy-dandy basket, but I can't figure out how to take a picture of my camera, silly me. All of these items used to sit on the counter, and it drove me insane to see them pile up in plain sight. Now, they pile up in this basket that sits on the counter between the kitchen and living area.

Do you know what's even better about this practical purchase? It cost $4.99! If you have such a basket fetish, run out to Garden Ridge. (No, this is not a sponsored post, but boy should it be!)

A Random Post

Besides last Friday's funny, I haven't posted anything worthwhile in weeks, possibly months. (I'm not exactly certain that Friday's funny was "worthwhile", but anything worth a laugh in my house is worth sharing, in my humble opinion.) So, here I sit, with my up-and-running laptop, and I'm not certain where I should begin with today's post. I have many thoughts running around in my head, so let's just see where this takes me.

Maybe I should begin with listing all the things that I accomplished last week while the computer and the husband were away. I cleaned and organized all closets, dusted all ceiling fans, blinds & baseboards, polished kitchen cabinets, touched-up paint throughout the house, picked weeds, and sorted the boys' toys. I feel so much better! When I told Rick about all that I had accomplished in his absence, he asked if he should go away more often. Absolutely not! I'm worn out! But I might need the computer to be taken away from me every few months in order to accomplish household duties. Eek, did I really just say that?!

And since my computer was gone for a total of 19 days, may I suggest where you should NOT take your computer for repairs? Ahem!

I would like to share some recent photos of the boys, but that would require getting up to retrieve the camera. Maybe tomorrow.

Please excuse me while I interrupt this boring post with a celebration! Gig 'em, Aggies! We're gonna' tear it up this Thursday in the Sweet Sixteen! Whoop!

I'm Back...with a Friday Funny

My computer is back...yahoo! I'll write more next week, but here's a Friday funny.

Liam (almost 4) asked me this question at the breakfast table earlier this week: "Does God poop?" Ha ha! I'm sure you want to know how I answered that one. I simply said, "I don't think so, because God is not a person. He's God." That must've been confusing enough for him, because he didn't pursue it any further.

Have a great weekend! I look forward to catching up next week.

Still no blogging...

I'm still without a computer; I've been promised that we will be getting our computer back from Best Buy soon!

Check back soon.

Takin' A Break

Without my own computer and the freedom to post during the boys' nap, my only time to blog is after 8 pm, when my brain has turned into mush. I'm going to give myself the rest of the week off. I hope to have my computer and schedule back on Monday. See ya' soon!

Party Time

There's a party goin' on in Bloggityville. Go to 5 Minutes for Mom to join the celebration.

Help Wanted

I've belonged to a local gym for the two years we've lived here. I was fairly faithful to go in there three times each week to torture my body. But I'm tired of dragging three little boys up there, because really, that's a workout in itself. And that doesn't count the energy I must draw up from some deep recesses of my body to wind those boys down after having complete and free reign for 1 1/2 hours in the gym's childcare. Oh, and don't even get me started on how many times I've walked in there to find my toddlers running around with lollipops in their mouths. (No problem with lollipops, but please, for crying out loud, have the children sit down! Have you ever heard of choking hazards?!)

Ahem. I'll climb off my soap box now.

I've decided that I'm not going to renew my membership this year. Instead, I'm going to workout at home before the roosters crow and before my alarm (a.k.a. Garrett) starts singing.

This is where you come in. Because it's been a long time since I've been in the market for workout videos, who/what do you recommend? I'm looking to be challenged, but I need to be able to climb stairs and lift children when it's all said and done. Please leave a comment with any ideas. Thanks!