Spaghetti Night

We had spaghetti & French bread for dinner tonight. Mmmmmmm...

Elijah sat in his high chair smack in the middle of the kitchen stripped to his diaper. He fed himself his little cut up noodles and had a good time of it. He must take after his mommy - he tried his very best not to make a mess & didn't like it when he missed. He picked up every noodle that he dropped.
Little Vern sat at the back porch and enjoyed his spaghetti while he watched the cool lightening show going on outside..
Kirsten joined Little Vern watching the storm. She ate double what I did. She must be ready to grow some more. Fabulous.
Brandon, who helped me make dinner, watched TV while he ate. He's been loving Hell's Kitchen this season. Even I was glad to see Sarah go home. Ick.
Vern sat at his desk while he ate like he does most days. I'm not sure what he was playing. We were just about ready to serve dinner when he walked in the door. He tends to head for his computer pretty quickly.
I sat by Elijah, ate more bread than noodles and tried to decide who I was going to nominate to give Elijah a bath. lol I ended up doing it myself.

We are so not an around the dinner table family. We don't have enough dining chairs for such things, and for some reason it isn't a habit we've ever established. It works for us. I smiled tonight thinking that we were all home and had the same thing at the same time. We may not have been bumping elbows at our little table, but it was good. It was us.

Somebody slap me please.

So I've had the phone number for the internist my doc referred me to sitting on my desk for over a week and I haven't called and made an appointment yet. I'm not sure exactly why this is a scary thing for me but it is.
So go ahead and slap me. Maybe that'll get me to pick up the phone.

Oh, and I must say, I almost didn't get out of bed today. It was so incredibly comfy - no horrible heat or stickiness. Heaven. If only there weren't so many things to do I might still be laying there. Ahhhhhh... Maybe I'll get to sneak back up there at nap time.

I haven't spoken to Julie & Kyle in weeks. Kyle's computer is broken so we haven't been playing like usual. The gaming break has been kind of nice for my kiddos, but I miss my friends. :( We're thinking about you guys! Hope everything is okay.

Speaking of gaming, I have a different sort of proud mama moment I'll share. Brandon has a level 60 warrior as his main character in WoW. Since we've had WoW back up he's joined a fairly big guild and has been MTing in places like MC & ZG and doing a rocking good job at it. Gibberish to anyone who doesn't play, but those who do will understand. It's sort of akin to having your little athlete make captain of the team or something. :)

That's enough random Monday stuff I think.
Have a great day!

Saturday naps & kisses.

If you were this little guy's mom could you resist this kissy face? lol
A hundred times a day my answer is absolutely not.
Now to go wake Vern up and see about getting some shopping done. He had to work this morning and came home & collapsed on the couch.
Hmmmm... Maybe I should let him sleep a bit longer.

Happy Saturday!

Happy birthday Vern!

My sweet hubby is 32 years old today. Sadly, he left for work before the sun came up and won't be home until late tonight. Hopefully he'll at least be able to get away for lunch.

Vern wasn't raised making a big deal out of birthdays. It makes it hard when I want to do special somethings for the kiddos on their special days. He figures the hoopla is silly. He made it into adulthood without ever having anything more than cake on a Sunday for all the family birthdays within the same month. That's fine, and I'm glad he's cool with that, but it doesn't stop me from wanting to change it. I think everybody should be made to feel important and special on their birthday. I mean it's only one day a year. I'd love to whisk him away from work. Really, he deserves the day off but that is so very out of the question with the iso audit going on.
*sigh* It will be one more uneventful birthday for Vern. At least I can control how it ends. I'll do whatever I can to make sure he has a great evening.

Have a great day. I'm off to make a cake.

Hodgepodge

The thing about not blogging every day in the summer is that I can gather things to talk about, hodgepodge as they may be.
Woohoo!

Vern and I went to see the Lake House. Good movie - we both liked it.
We took the kids swimming yesterday. It was the only sane thing to do in this heat. My eyes are still bugged out from all of the chlorine though.
We're still trying to plan the August trip. After figuring out actual costs I'm a little worried that we're not going to pull it off. Hey miracles happen - I'm not giving up just yet. :)
I'm going to be an aunt again any day now. Beth has been ready for weeks, poor thing. That baby will arrive sooner or later. Hopefully sooner. August babies make for hard third trimesters. I know - I have two mid-August children.
Tomorrow is my hubby's birthday. He gets to celebrate by going in to work early and staying late. (It's the first day of their ISO inspection.) He was thinking today would be the same. Makes for a possibly rough week. Fun.
I'm thinking I should play with my camera today so that I can have some sort of recent picture to share.

Have a great day!

Another blank

I opened up this window figuring that I should blog today. It's been days again.
Thing is I'm totally blanking.
I haven't even been playing with my camera lately to be able to share a new picture.
Maybe some fabulous idea or thought will come to me later.
Crossing my fingers.

Happy Saturday!

A couple of things...

I've been meaning to write on my blog, but it's been a little crazy around here of late.

I found out today that I need to be on medication for high blood pressure. It'll be good to try to get it under control. When I went in for my yearly ob/gyn appt. last month he didn't like how high it was. It was even higher when I went back for a follow-up today. Bummer. Unfair when you consider that I actually love to exercise & take care of myself. Grrrrr...
Kirsten's new school is a year-round elementary & we're trying to figure out which track she'll be on. She could be starting in 2 weeks. She's excited, but we aren't quite ready. She's grown out of so many of her clothes. She's outgrown her shoes too. Can I send her barefoot in underwear? Probably not. She's in desperate need of a shopping trip.
We're trying to figure out a way to get to the Buffalo/Niagara Falls area in August to try and meet up with my family. They don't know this yet, and I'm not sure how or if it's going to work but we are trying. I'm looking into hotels & Vern is figuring out car/gas stuff. Vern's boss gave him the go-ahead if we can figure it out. I'm really hoping that my younger kiddos will finally be able to meet my mom. I'm not sure how we're going to get her to Niagara Falls from Toronto, but I hope we can. It's been way too long since I last hugged my own mama.

His list

If you were to ask my dad how he's doing this is the response you would likely recieve.
"I'm falling apart. I have a touch of emphezema, a partially collapsed lung, fat around the liver, irregular heartbeat, sugar diabetes, high cholestoral & hearing aids in both ears. But hey, at least I still have my hair."
At least that is the response I got when he called this morning to wish my hubby a happy birthday. He was 10 days early on the phone call (his b-day isn't until the 26th) but it was good to talk to him. At this point every time I talk to him I worry it will be the last time. He's right, he is falling apart. And when I asked him if he's managed to quit smoking yet he didn't answer. That old man is going to die with a cigarette hanging out of his mouth choking the air he's already struggling to get. I'm worried he'll be gone before I have the chance to see him again.

Five for Friday night.

1. Elijah is finally napping. He hasn't slept much this week. Makes for one sleepy mama.
2. Vern is bringing home pizza. Hooray! It's too hot to cook.
3. We're one day closer to SGU! I can't wait to get away for a weekend with my friends in August. It's been too long.
4. I think that the excedrin is finally kicking in. Goodbye headache!
5. There is snickers ice cream in the freezer. Mmmmmmmmmmm...

How To

The Google homepage has a How To of the day section. Some of them have been comical. Some have seemed useful. Mostly I just glance at it to see what they've come up with next. These are some of the more current ones:

How To:
Begin Running
Expand Ivory Soap
Be Photogenic
Protect Yourself in a Thunderstorm
Solve a Sudoku
Grow a Goatee
Deal With Being in Prison
Understand Soccer Strategy
Make a Cloud in a Bottle

These were from today:
How to Cool Yourself Without Air Conditioning
How to Protect Yourself in a Thunderstorm
How to Do a Running Catleap

There you have it. Some possibly helpful how-to's. If you actually want to see one that I didn't link to you'll have to go to the google homepage yourself.

Thanks Google.
lol

Five Words

Five words that describe me today.

Tired. The story of my life as a mom of four.
Sore. I worked out yesterday. Really worked out. Yay me!
Loved. My kiddos are experts at making me smile & feel loved.
Comfortable. Yes, it is the middle of the afternoon & I am in my PJs. I plan to shower & get dressed soon. I do love a slow start to the day - complete with brunch in my jammies at my computer desk.
Happy. I may not have everything I want, but I have sufficient for my needs and then some. Vern & I have made it through the past 10 years & have the sweetest kiddos. There's a lot to be happy about.

An old favorite.

I remember the day I took this picture of Kirsten. Two homes & more years than that ago.

This shot made me smile back then.

It still does.

Sometimes

Sometimes the only truly stress-free thing to do is nothing.
That's exactly what we did last night. Bliss.

I'm tired and wishing I could do the same today, but there's laundry to fold, messes to clean & kiddos to feed. Oh, and I promised LV we'd go get slurpees later. Now that I'm looking forward to.

Happy Birthday America!

We celebrated the Fourth with a family bbq followed by the fair & fireworks at Riverton Park. Elijah & LV were both sound asleep by the finale.
I didn't get to take many pictures due to the rain. It was just a little drizzle that seemed to begin & end with the fireworks. It was actually enjoyable except for the fact that my camera isn't currently equipped to play in the rain. I was looking forward to new fireworks pictures. Oh well.
A storm earlier in the day brought high winds & closed down the booths, cutting short some teenaged playtime for Brandon, Lauren & Kori. They managed to have fun hanging out at their house anyways.

All in all it was a fun day. We enjoyed a slow, quiet afternoon and a family & fun filled evening.

Oh, and the pictures that I was able to take I'll share soon. I'm too tired to upload them tonight.