Funny Faces Friday

Here are some snippets from our holiday weekend. Enjoy! I know we did.

Merry Christmas from our bunch to yours! If you enlarge, you might just catch a glimpse of the thin mint left Santa left behind! Yeah I said it...thin mints.

OJ was very pleased with his footy dog pajamas.

Till can't help but pose with some sort of "trying to be cool" look. Sheesh.

Mixing up the frosting at Grandma's house. What fun!

Sissy took this very seriously. Okay, well, she appears to be taking it seriously, but she was actually very, very tired. Nap time followed soon after.

TO was more than happy to hang in Great Granny's basement, playing ping pong and chasing cousins in the dark. He received a good poke in the eye from it, too.

OJ and his cousin Buddy. Buddy had on a Santa shirt complete with the black "belt" on it. Too cute!

In this following video, I ask that you excuse the mess and the trash bag. We were in the middle of cleaning up dinner and tidying up for the night before unwrapping gifts. The music had the kids distracted, and I clearly found a way to get distracted watching Sissy.

Monday Mumbles

I didn't forget, I know they're late. I was busy sleeping in, importing photos, and generally pretending to tidy up the house which is in complete chaos. 

1. I caved in on a certain tradition I grew up with and have always done with our kids. I realized compromise is apparently a key component to a decent marriage, so I did it. And it didn't kill me. Shocking.

2. That's not to say I still wouldn't have wanted to do it MY way, but choosing Hubs' way wasn't terrible.

3. Why do cleaning commercials always demonstrate their cleaning in places that already look clean? Except for the few dropped bits of whatnot. What they should do is take the dust bin from my vacuum, shake and spread it all around their demo location, and then see what their pretty little cleaner looks like after that. Because let's face it, it's when they get all dirty and dusty that the real work begins.

4. It's the day after Christmas and I'm ready for my tree to come down. Today, it will be.

5. I won't pretend our holiday weekend went off with the kids being angels. Those posts are reserved for those special mommy blogging sites that, although they very quietly admit a child had a "small meltdown", everything went off without a hitch, rainbows appeared on their freshly fallen snow, and they truly believe Jesus was sitting with them on the couch while they opened gifts. But honestly? They were really good, and only Evelyn had a few moments of meltdown.

6. I ate a LOT of food between Saturday and Sunday. More than any normal human should have consumed.

7. Sissy got a picnic basket. Owen wanted to play with it. Sissy got a shopping cart. Owen wanted to play with it. Sissy got a play microphone. Owen wanted to play with it. Sissy got a play phone. Owen wanted to play with it.

8. This is the first time in a very, very long time that I've been able to snag a couple days of vacation around the holidays. Not only do we get the recognized Monday off, I also took off Tuesday AND Wednesday. I'm not sure I'll be able to handle all the madness that will ensue here at the house with all the mess and chaos and new toys.

9. Macaroni and hot dogs to the rescue!

10. No matter what you did the past weekend, or how you socially gathered, I hope you did so in your own personal image of a castle-like existence. I know we did.

Funny Faces Friday

Back on track to a happy Friday, I thank you for your kind comments yesterday. It might have seemed like a weird time to post it, and Hubs told me so very frankly. He said I should have talked to him instead of writing it on the blog, where things should be happy chatter about preparing for the holidays. Talking to him isn't always the easiest solution, especially if we're simply rehashing something he thought we'd put behind us. So I wrote it, and your comments were kind. And I felt like I lifted a small weight. I will channel Pumbaa and Timon, join the pillow dive, show my kids a happy mommy, live intentionally, remember that these worries are biggest only to ME, know I am not meant to live perfectly, and attempt sincere apologies more often. Thank you.

Onto the fun. I can't wait to see what kinds of funny faces we gather over this coming weekend, but for now, here are a few to hold you over.

Evie loves this hat that was made by my cousin. We think she looks alright in it.

Owen is becoming a particular little eater, but he does well with a banana and milk. Oh, and a milkstache.

Poor Turner had to receive a treatment this week. He wasn't pleased to be photographed with his shirt off.

And while she's learning to smile (see above), she still gives the squishy face most often.

The Curse of Me

We all make mistakes, stumble on our own foolishness, and then pick up and get going again. We brush off the dust or put a band-aid in place. Sometimes we look back over our shoulder, and take time to fill the pothole that tripped us.

But what happens when the dust leaves a stain, or the wound is still open when the band-aid falls off? We're left to stare at the foolishness once more, forced to remember our careless ways and poor choices.

"Done so many things wrong, I don't know if I can do right"*.....

There are moments when I reflect on the many, many poor choices I made over the years. While I like to believe I have learned from them, there are memories I cannot seem to escape. Some days, I tell myself that youthful impulsiveness was to blame and forgiveness is necessary. Other days, I look at my actions and wonder how I behaved in such a way I surely knew better than to do.

Some mistakes were a dozen years ago. Others were a dozen days ago.

Forgiveness is hard, whether it's meant for someone else, or whether it's meant for you and you alone. It's even more difficult when you aren't the only one who won't let you move forward. It's easy to hurt one another by reminding them of their shortcomings. Places they felt short. Failures they may have experienced.

It's in moments like this where forgiving yourself is the last thing you'll do. After all, you DID make those mistakes. And we can't forget them, can we? Lest we forget and might impulsively travel down that road again....

Every mistake I make - as an employee, as a sister, as a daughter, as a wife, as a mother, especially as a mother - weighs on me like a boulder. I can tell myself I won't make that same mistake again. I try and uphold that. But what if that one solitary moment, when that first mistake was made, was enough to leave a damaging wake?

What if a repeat performance on my part won't matter? What if I irreversibly damaged their ego, or our relationship, or their trust on the first go 'round?

Sometimes, I feel like, no matter if I played a perfect game from here until my dying day, it wouldn't matter. The damage I've done with past mistakes will be my legacy, a blurred version of who I am and want to be. Futility is a lonely feeling.

*Lyrics by Tracy Chapman

Monday Mumbles

It's Monday. The final Monday and final week before Christmas starts for those of us celebrating the overzealous and obligatory giving day. Say what you want about "what it really means", I bet you bought some presents too! And that's okay...it's a joyous occasion to spoil our family and friends once a year.

1. There is some sort of annual blogger christmahanukwanzaakah going on over at THIS place. I ask that you scroll through (if you don't want to hear them all) for two individuals in particular. The first is for Jessica from Bern This and the other is Carrie from A Sassy Redhead. One is a new read for me, the other an old. I find them both fabulously funny.

2. What do you hunt? DEER.....FISH. Fantastic.

3. Seriously. The Chevy Santa commercials are a crack-up. YouTube 'em.

4. I love my friends. I love good conversations with them. I love loosening up as I get older and realizing that sharing parts of me that I keep hidden in deep, dark places won't kill me or push them away. I am also learning to respect the relationships as they change and evolve, even if I wasn't expecting it.

5. What I really love is keeping good secrets. About friends. And about babies. That may or may not have been baking for the past 15 weeks. Yea!

6. Evie can't stay away from the grown-up bookshelf in the living room. Never mind the fact she has her own, overstuffed kids bookshelf (2, actually) in her room. She takes my books off my shelf. I cringe with every page turn and potential page tear. I love my daughter. I do. But I really love my books. 

7. So I decided to feed her need by reading her my books, and try to deter her habit. So I read to her from my quote book. About the word Community. It didn't work so I started reading to her from Salman Rushdie's Midnight's Children. She sat perfectly still. I guess I lose.

8. I had my first taste of Shutterfly this past weekend. Oh my.....oh my my my....can we say addiction?

9. I must continue their birthday scrapbooks though, with printed out photos and handmade loving pages. I must. Must. Yes, I'm still three birthdays behind. Be quiet.

10. Giggle box. Love. 

I'm Such an Old Woman

I hate calling myself "woman". It sounds so old. But then again, saying "girl" makes me feel like I'm short-changing myself. And silly. Except when I say "girl's night out". No, sometimes that sounds silly, too.

I know that, technically speaking based on that age and number game, I'm a woman. I'm married, must act responsibly as a working zombie, and mother little people who expect to be fed (and more) each and every day.

But when all the work cohorts gather around the non-existent water cooler (because really, who puts water coolers in the office these days besides doctor offices?) and start chumming it up about their weekend, the talk inevitably centers around drinking.

Ummm, I pretty much hung that hat up at the ripe age of 25. Not that I did a whole heck of a lot of drinking to begin with, so it wasn't difficult. The first time I realized I couldn't drink on a week night and survive an actual work day afterward, I stopped trying. So as they chat it up, laugh about concoctions and various silly things that happen when drinking is involved, I become the "woman" of the group.

I am not the oldest female.
I am not the only parent.
I am not the only spouse.

I am, apparently though, the only non-drinker of the group. I wonder, do I stick out like a sore thumb? Probably. But I laugh at their stories because they're funny, I make faces at the things they drink because it makes me ill to think about, and I repeatedly mother them and remind them about drinking and driving.

Never will I share any stories that I have involving liquor. Or dancing. Or peeing in inappropriate locations. Ever.

I'm a woman, for goodness sake.

Comment Consideration

How long has it been, people? I feel I've neglected you. I truly love your comments. Please know that. In fact, feel free to leave multiple comments per post. Really. One word per comment is completely fine. I have a smart phone now. I can publish them from work  at my leisure all day long!

1. Carrie
To bad we all can't stay as cute as we are when we're that age. What cutie-faces!!


Speak for yourself, but I for one know for a fact I'm as cute NOW as my baby girl is today. See?

2.  Jamie
Do you know how many times I've replied to strangers with the stupid earpiece phones because I thought they were talking to me?! Ugh, always awkward... I agree! And I love how you use the word tinkle! I do and I think together we can make it have a comeback! "pee" is overrated!


It MUST be overrated because Evie won't use it at all! When she's tinkling in her diaper, she tells me she's got "poo poo". I don't get it. Does she always want to be stinky, or does she just toot a lot and get confused?? I dunno. 


3. Intense Guy
I hope the coughing and hacking quiets down - or maybe you need to turn up the volume on "Angry Birds"?

Ear pieces... yes, I think its time for new glasses - and if its been a while - you are in for a rude shock with the prices theses days...


Okay, I am STILL not playing Angry Birds. I refuse, due to the fad. As for the cost...Ugh. It's the entire reason I've avoided getting both contacts AND glasses each year, even when my prescription changes!


4. Rebecca
The mere fact that you even consider getting up for Boot Camp in any weather puts you miles ahead of me. I'm all for a good run - in the afternoon!

I have purchased 1, yes O-N-E, Christmas gift. I will pay for this lack of preparedness later...for now, I don't care.


I do miss getting to run in the afternoons, after work. Unfortunately, those are my only solid consecutive hours with the kids, so I've had to forego the p.m. runs for...morning or nothing. It's really, really hard. So hard. (Have you bought anymore gifts since you left this comment for me last week? I hope so!)


5. RAHKed
I followed your blog long ago then I fell out of the blogging world, like for a couple of years:) I come back and you have added the prettiest little girl and your boys are so big and adorable! They all look so happy!


I was so excited to see someone RETURN! Yes, indeed, the girl now lives here too (how did THAT happen?) and the boys....OY. Big, adorable, loud, obnoxious, crazy. You've got plenty of adjectives to pull from. Welcome back!

Monday Mumbles

I had Thursday and Friday off last week. Unfortunately, my new position requires me carrying a Blackberry and I didn't do a very good job of staying away from the emails. In fact, I took Owen and Evelyn up to the office on Thursday for a quick, 20 minute visit and work stop. Oops.

1. Isn't it such a refreshing feeling to rearrange your furniture? The room feels different, it feels renewed, even if you still have the same old dungy carpet in the same too-small room. It just feels BETTER.

2. And then you stick a too-BIG tree in it, and the room goes back to feeling small, but shiny. Decorative and shiny, yes.

3. Owen likes to follow up Hubs' dinner time prayer with a prayer of his own. It unfailingly goes, "Dear Lord, thank you for the food. Thank you for the milk. Amen." Well, Saturday night I had served up the plates, but hadn't yet gotten around to the milk. Owen did his praying and it went, "Dear Lord, thank you for the food. Thank you.....uhhhh, where's the milk?" I interjected and said we have it in the fridge, and we'll get it in a minute.  "Dear Lord, thank you for the food and.....uhhhh, ummm, I don't know what to do."  I again interjected and said we can still be thankful for having it in the fridge. Continue. "Dear Lord, thank you for the food. Can I please have some milk? Amen."

4. This past weekend Till turned 14. Holy moly, we could potentially have a child move OUT of the house in approximately 4 1/2 years!!! Oh, and happy birthday Till. Please continue to outgrow these teenage years as quickly as possible while remaining young at heart. We need your refereeing and lego-building skills.

5. I like to put my kids in swishy pants so that I can hear where they are at all times.

6. Evelyn giggles like a maniacal little devil when she's really, really having fun. Is that a good thing? Probably not.

7. I followed a link that a fellow Twitter friend posted. I thoroughly enjoyed the writer's style, and even the post itself until the final sentence. Where she stated the exact thought that prevents me from fully committing to this thing called religion. And while some sentences standing alone can bring a meaning entirely different than its intention within context...I don't think this one does. It might have been a bit tongue in cheek, but still...grrrr.

8. Speaking of Twitter, I'm @Toojemama and who are you? Post yours in a comment so I can check you out. My Twitter rules for myself are that I won't be posting the same thoughts as Facebook, and I won't be posting links to my blog. If you read my blog, you already know how to get here. If you have me on Facebook, you already read or hid what I said. No need to duplicate.

9. Anyone else finding some joy in the Chevy commercials where the salesman looks like Santa? Please say you do. He's funny.

10. I've found that if you teach your eldest child really, really well, they can become really, really good instructors to the youngest children. Or else Turner is just 'specially fantastically super duper great. Whatever.

Funny Faces Friday

What IS That, Anyway?

How often have you been involved in a conversation where your conversing partner said, "I didn't say anything because it's none of my business, but....."?

And what are they doing in that moment? With you? Saying something! To someone it either likely has nothing to do with, or everything to do with.

Why do we feel it's our duty to say whatever we wouldn't to the correct person's face to all the incorrect people? And we're not just talking about the person they're spilling all of their "non-business" to, who might be across from them at the lunch table. It's usually everyone at the nearby tables, as well. Let's face it, the non-business business spiller isn't typically a QUIET person.

Or maybe they are spilling to the people in their little, silly-looking ear pieces at Target. Up and down the aisles they meander, jabbering to the greeting cards, short sleeve shirts and tampons, about their non-business business, sharing it not only with the ear piece people but with me and you.

What kinds of things have you learned? I mean really.

We're all guilty of gossip. I get it. I just hope the next time I tell you guys, in confidence on this BLOG, that I might or might not have tinkled my pants when running long distances at lightning speeds, you won't be blabbing in the Depends aisle, telling your girlfriend from elementary school how you know this blogger who has serious bladder control issues and should probably seek help.

Monday Mumbles

The sniffles have hit our house. The sniffles and the hacking cough that drives me up a wall. I've climbed nearly all of them in our tiny little mouse house.

1. The problem is the sniffles and coughing are allergy and asthma related, so it makes it harder to get "mad" at the culprit. Not that I'd get angry at the kids for being sick, but if it were Hubs....I wouldn't promise anything.

2. Hubs and I wrapped every single present we have for the kids Saturday night. We have 1.5 gifts left to buy for Till and then we can wrap his final 3 gifts. This is the furthest ahead we have EVER been. EXCITED.

3. I finally resolved that I need new glasses. I can't honestly recall when I bought the frames I have, and I know for certain that the lenses in them are 3 prescriptions old. Evelyn has gotten hold of them one too many times over the past few months and one of the poor arms (are they called arms? I'm having a brain meltdown at the moment) is dangling like a sad little Viagra patient.

4. Hubs is officially addicted to Angry Birds, and both Turner and Owen can play it. The end has arrived.

5.  When I look at my kids, I don't see them behaving like Hubs, or behaving like me. I don't dwell on their little idiosyncrasies and think, "This one melts my heart because they remind me of me." I'm not sure that'd be a GOOD thing. I'm thankful that I see them as a unit, working together sometimes, and tearing each other apart at other times. But a unit, all the same.

6. My friend Stacy, who first got me started in boot camp, forced my hand to go this morning. I've been bad and skipped for....nearly 4 weeks? Eek, I know. But it got cold!!! I am NO good in the cold.

7. It's not often that women who are thin can complain about being thin without getting the "OH MY GOSH, SHUT UP you skinny bitch" look. But you know what? I'm tired of apologizing for being thin, or keeping my mouth shut when people slide in eye rolling comments about weight and how I don't encounter their issues. I'm 34, and I'm not sorry. You know why? Because I have ZERO BODY FAT to keep my ass warm during morning boot camp, and IT IS AWFUL! Bone chilling, finger-and-toe-frost-bite-AWFUL.

8. Me love my iphone long time. Or 4 days. Fantasy football, Facebook, Twitter. I just love staying up to date and not sitting with my face in the computer at night time.

9. Owen has been concerned lately with every single person he knows dying and he would be left alone. I said God would watch out for him and let him come live with all of us. He then worried that I wouldn't be able to walk and find him in God's barn because I didn't have feet. Is this kid hinting at what my Hell would look like, or is he just morbid? I'm not sure.

10. Because, for the record, sitting in one place for my eternity would be Hell to me. I like to be on the move, up and going, seeing people and being active. If I sit too long, I get extremely antsy to the point of anxiety attack, I think. Okay, maybe that's a bit hypochondriac of me, but still....you get the gist.

Funny Faces Friday

Mama's Got Herself a New Toy!

Mind out of the gutters people.

I'm finally smart.

And when I say I'm smart, so is Hubs.


image found here