Funnies

It's no secret that my three-year-old is not potty trained.  Not even close.  We have had major issues.  And while I'll certainly spare you the details of the pull-up change we just had, I'll leave you with words from Rella:
"Ugh! I am going to go erase my eyes!"

Overheard last night at Jason's Deli (while Fancy was eating her odd concoction from the salad bar):
"Ewww - this bacon has meat in it!"

And speaking of funnies, if anyone out there has great ideas on how to turn a child into a comic strip for Halloween, those ideas would be much appreciated here.  Thanks!

My sweet boy

Talk to the hand

Today, I have had it up to HERE with little Rella complaining about anything and everything under the sun.  So I told her I wasn't going to listen to it anymore and that if she had something to complain about, she could go in her own room and take it up with her stuffed animals.  Now, as I am cleaning out Fancy's dresser drawers, I am doing so to the sound of Rella holding court with her animals, fussing loudly about how she just doesn't have enough lipstick and that mean mommy won't plug in a night light behind her bed because it might catch fire.

I mean really, it's a hard life she lives.

Text-only Page

I saw someone at Sea World wearing a cute Disney World t-shirt that I thought would make for a great scrapbook page.  Yep - I was actually on the lookout for scrapbook inspiration on this trip!  I used the idea to list all the fun rides and restaurants we experienced on this vacation and I'm happy with the results.

Tuesday Morning Funny

Conversation with Hi-Hat, the 2nd grader:

Hi-Hat: Dad, I was thinkin'.  You know how my friend [D] and I want to go to Virginia Tech together and be roomies?
Geof: "Sure!"
Hi-Hat: Well if I want to take teacher classes and [D] wants to take architecture classes, do they still let you roomie?

Sometimes I could just eat him with a spoon.

Rainy Monday

Just wanted to post bunches of little stuff since I've been off blogging for a while.

- The other day we took the kids to our favorite little town that's about half an hour away, and as we were sitting in our favorite little soda shop, having ice cream for dinner (!), we were talking about baby names.  Not because we're having a baby, but because we're getting our first niece/nephew very soon!

We were trying to recall name finalists from all the baby name spreadsheets Geof has created over the years - sheets that ranked names, came up with different combinations and ranked combinations, etc.  Way too complicated for me, someone who really only cared about what color the name was.  Geof escorted Fancy back to the restrooms, and he reported the following conversation when they got back:

"So, Dad.  ARE we having another baby?"  Geof: "No, we're not."  Fancy: "Will we ever have another baby?"  Geof: "No, probably not."  Fancy: "Oh...[pause]...Is it because Mom is too old?"

- Several days before that gem of a conversation, I got the following report from a very sad Rella when I picked her up from school.  "I don't want to go back to school." Me: "Why not?" Rella: "See-cause there's a boy with a horrible smell in his mouth. I need to switch to a new school."


- Last night after the kids were in bed, Geof and I noticed that all of Rella's stuffed animals were down in the living room.  I wondered if she would sleep ok without Big Dog, Baby Bear, Owl Pillow and Daddy Dog.  She did.  When I got her up for school this morning, I found her snuggling with 2 light blue paper plates.  

- We're finally getting around to decorating Hi-Hat's bedroom.  He is way overdue.  I really wasn't sure what theme he would want to go with (or if it was more a matter of just choosing colors and rearranging furniture since he IS getting bigger after all, and every kids' room doesn't have to have a pottery barn-esque theme like owls or cars or surf boards or elmo).  Well, it looks like we're going with a theme.  The theme?  City skyline.  How interesting!  He's learning about comparing urban, rural and suburban settings in school, so I think he's got all things urban on the mind.  He was thoroughly confused  by our trip to Pittsboro on Saturday - what IS this place?  Is it urban? Is it rural?  We couldn't settle on a description other than small town, and he didn't seem convinced since that wasn't presented in school.  Maybe small towns are more of a third grade topic. :)  SO, we're going with city skyline theme.  I found great bedding with skylines and streetlights and it even had the same color scheme he had in mind - orange, blue and gray.  This morning I purchased an absolutely awesome vinyl wall decal off etsy that will cover his ENTIRE wall, floor to ceiling.  Photos to come once the project is underway. :)

- We were in our favorite little town (that's neither urban nor suburban nor rural) this weekend en route to go apple picking.  I had settled on an orchard earlier in the week, and then saw a friend had recently gone, so it sealed the deal.  And then on the way, through the fishbowl that is facebook, I saw that more friends were driving down the road at the same time to the same orchard.  Well, let me just say that I think in the future I will save apple picking excursions for trips to the actual mountains.  Like the Blue Ridge Parkway for winesaps or something.  AND, I will wait until it is not 100-degrees outside.  We did come home with apples, but I was not overly impressed with this orchard or the heat.  The kids were so hot and the apple trees were rather shrubby and picked over.  What apples there were tended to be too high for them to reach, so Geof was having to knock them off with a long pole.   We came home with just 13 lbs, which still seems like a lot to me.  You see, I didn't really think this through.  I'm not a huge apple fan, and I tend to only like eating them raw.  And I'm a little scared of eating these raw since the card that came home with them said to soak the apples in bleach-water for 5 minutes before using them.  Hmmm.  We don't eat applesauce or much apple butter and I don't can.  I did make some apple bread that is ok and I'm going to look into apple muffins and some kind of tarts.  Not sure what else.  Ideas?  What I do do is . . . wait for it . . . take pictures.  

I am now declaring her too large for my baby bucket. 

 Fun on the orchard tire swings

I'm up to my ears in fun projects around here - room decorating that will kick off as soon as Rella's new big girl furniture arrives and we dig out paintbrushes for Hi-Hat's room.  Photo proofing for some great sessions I've had recently.  Some crochet projects that have resulted in Fancy wanting to also learn to crochet.  Baby shower planning.   Halloween costume hunting.  It's fall, when life tends to get busy.  But we've scaled back on extra activities and I'm feeling pretty good about enjoying this season.  Maybe I'll even have time to keep up with the old blog.

Have a great week!

Page 15

Well, hello!  It's been a while.  There was a time when it seemed I would update the blog multiple times a day.  Now I'm doing well to visit a couple times a month.  I guess I'm just too busy to show you how busy I am.

I am up to my ears around here in Disney photos (um, remember how I searched for the perfect point-and-shoot camera so I could leave the big mama camera at home?  Well, I took both the big and little cameras and double fisted the photography and came home with over 3000 photos... oops.), crochet projects, fun photo sessions, the start of fall activities, making freezer meals, planning a baby shower (yes, I'm about to become an auntie!), decorating a big girl room for our latest big girl, and of course, laundry.  My hope is to start updating the blog with Disney photos before too long and to get back to letting you, dear reader, in on what we're up to around here.  I've posted some of my Disney pics on facebook, but here are two of my favorites if you haven't seen those pics.  More to come, I promise!

Sweet and relaxing times.

And now, for the real reason for this post.  You know how whenever I post about something cute and crafty we do around here, I usually say that my great ideas come from Family Fun Magazine?  They do. I'm not shy about that.  I love that magazine and will probably subscribe until my kids go to college.   Actually, I'll probably keep it up after that since I'll actually have time to do all the cool stuff in the mag.  Every month I look through and tear out the ideas I want to try one day, and I keep a big binder of them.  Today I got a heads up from a friend on facebook  that she was thumbing through the latest issue of Family Fun and saw my name in it!  I have been waiting all summer for this, y'all!  I had not received the October issue yet and decided I could not wait for tomorrow's mail (all we got in our mailbox today was a new ROKU - explanation of that will have to wait for another post about how we are moving away from cable/satellite tv in favor of an HD antenna and the ROKU...Note that the ROKU is not nearly as cute as my zoku, but all reports are that it is still pretty awesome).  Sorry about all that - you're probably thinking, Laura, WHAT are you talking about???  Anyway, quick run to Target after orchestra rehearsal this evening, and I now have this in my hot little hands:

There's a blurb about my summer kid wash project in the October issue's Mailbox section (page 15, to be exact)!  Here's the link to my original blog post about the project.  Hi-Hat was beyond thrilled when I showed it to him tonight.  Slow grin spread across his face, big round eyes, "Mom! I'm famous!" (I got a similar reaction last night when he saw a photo of me taking event photos posted on the local Chick-fil-A bulletin board - "Mom! You're famous!" [OK, I have to break into this rambling post to continue rambling and report that the phone just rang and it was Geof.  Or actually, Geof's phone calling from his pocket.  He's playing tennis and I got to overhear him serving.  Weird.  Check it out - his pocket is calling again... Three more serves.  He's winning this set.  Listening to a tennis over the phone via the player's pocket is not as interesting as one would think.).  Anyway!  I highly recommend the October Family Fun issue as it always has fun Halloween stuff inside, but now I REALLY recommend it.  The kid wash was a project I had been putting off for several years, and I finally got it done.  And now my project and my photo got into my all time favorite magazine.  I'm just tickled!  I've made it, baby! :)

*Note - after writing this post, it has become apparent that I am sorely out of practice and have adopted a style best called "rambling."  I promise I'll work on.  Really, I can do better.  Please visit me again!