I love long weekends

Yeah, it's Sunday night but I'm not sad - I have one day left! :)

This weekend has been great so far. Yesterday, I had 'spring cleaning' on my mind - (which I always do again in the fall.) So, I woke up wanting to start in my kitchen. It had really gotten out of hand. So, I got up to clean it up and put away groceries that never made it to the pantry, and mail that never got sorted, etc... But then I saw them. The ANTS. These are a recurring problem in this house. I love my house, but the ants kill me. I had an any problem only once in my old house in 10 years... and once I got rid of them, that was it! Here, I get rid of them and they find another crack in the grout between tiles to come through. It is ANNOYING. The tiniest of crumbs can attract them - and by them, I mean LOTS OF THEM. So, I removed everything from my counters and sprayed every crack in the grout. Then I decided, I needed to go buy some caulk and cover up and of the openings where they could get in, at least around the counters.

Side note - someone who owned this house before me installed tiled counters and backsplash. I can tell they never sealed it because the grout is stained and you can also tell they weren't pros because a lot of the grout is falling apart. A kitchen remodel was pretty high priority when I bought this house, it is a hideous kitchen. However, the adoption changed my plans so the kitchen is on a very long hold. I have to deal with the ugly kitchen - the cupboards still hold my dishes afterall...

Anyway, we went and bought caulk and I caulked most of the kitchen, there are a few parts that I couldn't get to yet, but I will. I'm gonna do my part to get rid of these suckers. I do pay for a pest service, but I swear, the home remedy ant killer works better - and longer, than the stuff they spray.

It's also heading towards fall, and the next on the pest agenda... MICE. Gotta love living near the woods... I get all sorts of things in here. Ants, mice, SNAKES. Yes, I've had a snake in my house before. Gotta love it!

I got out the old Play Hut that Matthew used to play with for Maia. She LOVES it. She played it in all day - and at one point, took her Dora chair in there to make a comfy home! She put the chair in the corner. then she took part of the paper in there and read it! It was classic. I was too busy watching her to go get a camera, but maybe next time! It was great! So cute!!

Tomorrow we plan to go to the pool one last time for the season. It is supposed to be nice weather. Maybe I'll get some pictures there.

Any difference in a year??

Here is Matthew on his 12th birthday....

Here is Matthew on his 13th birthday....

Wow - he's growing up!! I wonder what he'll look like at 14!! (I'm certainly not rushing him though... 13 is old enough for me!) I'm sure the next year will be full of even more changes for him.

He's still my little boy though. :)
Sorry Matthew... :)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MATTHEW!!

happy 13th birthday matthew!!

i can't believe you are a teenager!!

you've brought me 13 years of joy and i thank you for that!

here's to a wonderful start to your teenage years.

i love you!

The Invisible Woman

I saw this on my friend Michelle's blog and loved it, so I wanted to share it as well.

Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9YU0aNAHXP0

Sunday night

I don't know what it is exactly, but I am not a huge fan of Sunday nights. I guess it's because it's the end of the weekend and the start of a new work week, or school week, as the case has been over the years. Now, I understand if I didn't like my job why I wouldn't want to go to work, but I like my job, so is it just because I'd rather be at home in general? Is it because last Monday, although working, I was in Utah attending training, and not in the offfice? Or because next Monday I will be on vacation at the beach and not in the office? Or the Monday after that I Labor Day, so I will get a holiday and not be in the office?? Is it because I just don't want to work tomorrow because I don't have to work so many Mondays in a row? I have no idea... I just get so sad when the weekends are over!

I got home from Utah on Tuesday just fine. It was a simple, easy flight and I read the entire way home. I don't get to, or take the chance to, do that very often, so it was great. It was so great to see the kids that afternoon. Then, my mom has a hair appointment that night, so she left, and Matthew had Boy Scouts, so my dad took him to scouts, and I was home all alone with Maia. We had a wonderful evening playing outside and enjoying the cooler (80's) less humid weather. It was so much fun watching her play!

The thing that has occupied the majority of my time the past week, however, has been the Olympics. I swear, I go in stages weather I watch or not over the years, but this year, I can't turn them off!! I watched Michael Phelps make history last night, and Matthew enjoyed watching every race and watching him win!! Some handily, some not so easily! In any case, we watched history being made and it was awesome!! Now, this has meant that for over a week I have gotten very little sleep and this weekend, finally got to make some of that up!! Believe it or not, all THREE of us slept in until 10 a.m. on Saturday!! Then, today, we got up at 9:15 a.m. This morning, I think Maia had been up for a few minutes, at least, before I got up, but she didn't make a sound.

This morning, we went to a Civil War Reenactment weekend/day. We went to a WWII one in July and the Civil War this weekend. It's not my favorite thing, I'm not that good with history, nor do I care too much... But, Matthew loves it, and I actually learn a little from going as it is different from learning it out of a text book, which I am no good at regarding history. It was a pleasant day and we enjoyed it. Maia was great in her stroller the whole time! (A little less than 2 hours.)

I wanted to grill out tonight, but never did make it to the grocery store this weekend - so we ate a frozen pizza... it was fine - but I wanted some good, grilled, summer food! Maybe next weekend at the beach!

OK, I'm going to post a few pictures and go read some more and go to bed. Hope you all have a great week!!

View from room in Utah... Awesome!

Maia has started sleeping with her bottom up in the air - I think that is so cute!!

At night, Maia falls asleep with her foot hanging out of the crib. Sometimes like this, against the wall, and sometimes the other way, hanging out in the open!!

Maia sharing her bubbles with me...

Maia and Matthew. We had gone to a birthday party for one of Maia's friends and she was in a party dress... Of course, by the time I got home and took a picture, her hair was all in her face, her socks and shoes were gone, but I still wanted a picture!! :)

Maia enjoying her (self-fed) yogurt! Yes, she did actually get SOME in her mouth!! :)

182 days, 6 months, Half a year

Is anyone as amazed as I am that I met precious Maia 182 days ago today? She was 16 months old then, and is 22 months old today. I am away in Utah on business, so I don't have any pictures to post today - but I am thinking about her and how the past six months have been nonetheless!! I have called home a few times and everyone seems to be doing well. I think Mom and Dad took the kids to the pool today - they love that!!

It is amazing how much life can change in 6 months, isn't it?? Of course, this can go for good things and bad, but the last six months of my life have been so great. Matthew and I were a very happy family just the two of us, but we are thrilled to have Maia as part of our family now to share our love with her and have her bring us joy as well! What a blessing!

I've been gone since Friday, so I am ready to get home and see the kids!! I enjoy some free time and a new city, but I miss the kids and can't wait to get home and see them both.

Six months - WOW! Cha-cha-cha-changes!!

Oh... kids!

I have to share this story. It may be TMI, but when we're talking about a one year old, I don't think so... now if it were about an adult. then it would be!! Enjoy it for what it is... a cute story about Maia that made me laugh!

Tonight, Matthew was at his dad's house, so Maia and I were solo for the evening. We got home and were both hungry, so we ate dinner first. She ate like a champ! After the main meal, I gave her some yogurt (which she loves) and some couscous.... not the easiest thing to eat for a little one. Well, first picture that Maia often eats yogurt like Winnie the Pooh. While she holds a spoon in one of her hands, she dips her fingers, up to the second knuckle in to her yogurt. She then puts her hand/fingers in her mouth, as if they were one, up to atleast the second knuckle, or beyond. Anyway, add the couscous to this and MAN did we have a mess tonight. Usually, I don't like her to make a mess with her food, and I probably don't let her make enough mess on most occassions, but tonight, I thought it was cute! I also knew my plans of watering the flowers and letting her take a 'bath' in the water/hose outside. So, make a mess Maia! When it was time, we headed on the deck to water the droopy flowers.

After lifting her leg like a puppy dog to get it wet initially, she decided she was more brave tonight, so she walked full body in to the streaming water. Cute enough, but there's more! Then, although she resists water in her face come bath time, she was walking FACE FIRST in to the streaming water and standing there, smiling and loving it. When I would try to redirect the water off her face and say on her hair, she would raise her head higher so her face would get the stream again. But wait, there's MORE!

So, a while later, the flowers were watered and it was getting late... especially since she took a full 30 minute nap tonight... 3o minutes!! She was getting tired... SO, I got the shampoo and a towel and did indeed give her her 'shower' on the deck. I took off the onesie and diaper she had been wearing up until this point, and started to spray her chest again so the water would stream down over the lower parts of her body... For the first time ever, she took hold and control of the hose/nozzle and directed the water flow to her newly exposed diaper area, and just smiled and laughed!! It was like a Jacuzzi for little kids! She was just holding the hose and laughing her little head off - getting herself quite clean! LOL.

So, I decided to have her turn around so I could get some water on her backside as well. Well, at first, she ran away as I was spraying her back... Then she realized what I was doing, and like a Mack truck beeping as it's in reverse, she backed up with her heiney slightly leading the way - putting it right in the line of the streaming water.... I just couldn't stop laughing after that. I was trying to control myself though, so I covered my mouth with her towel and she new EXACTLY what I was doing. She covered her mouth with her hand and laughed and laughed and laughed.

Needless to say, this was the easiest 'bath' I've ever given her. I've decided two things.

1. Maybe she should skip straight to showers.

2. Maybe I need to get a Jacuzzi?

Either way, I think she's be perfectly happy during bathtime going forward. LOL. One can hope! Maybe next time we have an outside shower, Matthew will be home and we can actually get some video of this funny stuff. I'll never forget this though - I'm still smiling!

What a lovely day!

It was just a 'normal' weekend - but what a nice day today was!

First of all, I have to say, I had a bad Saturday - I waited what seemed like forever for Matthew to come home and then when I have both kids home with me, I have to go and get in a bad mood. Why do I squander days off from work and time with my kids in a bad mood? How stupid!! No one did anything wrong, and I don't really know what the problem was, but as the mood continued, I made it worse by feeling guilty. What a dumb day and a waste of a Saturday with my kids! I hate it when I'm like that and really WANTED to stop the MOOD from invading, but it just wasn't budging most of the day. Bah - humbug.

Now, we still did some things - got some school supplies and then went to Target and just looked around a bit. Then it was home for Maia's nap, but after her nap, we went to a local outdoor market. We were hoping she could run through the fountain/sprinkler, but they were having an outdoor concert, so the fountains weren't on. We ate some dinner and then walked over to a store we like. I bought some bird food that the squirrels won't eat! Then we could tell it might rain - it was looking rather ominous - but Matthew really wanted to go to Ben and Jerry's for ice cream. So we walked back over to the other side of the square and stood in line for some delicious ice cream. We were expecting to eat outside, but NO - it started to POUR and was really lightening a lot!! So, we were stuck inside, a bit after the ice cream was gone even. Then we walked back to the car and went home. It was about 8 pm now. This should tell you a little about my day - I FORGOT to wear SHOES when we went to the market. How you ask, I don't know!! But I did. It is an outdoor thing though and for the most part I didn't feel too bad. I will say though, that Matthew shared his VT flipflops with me because I thought it was more appropriate for a child to be barefoot than a grown woman (when her children were both wearing shoes!!) He graciously shared with me! :)

The exciting news yesterday was the Matthew became a big brother, AGAIN. His dad had another baby yesterday, this time a little girl. Matthew got to meet her today and spent some time with his dad and his brother, Evan, too. His new sister is Paige. Here he is meeting her when she was just about 24 hours old.

He really enjoyed meeting her and will go spend a couple days this week with all of them when they get home. Maybe Wednesday and Thursday.

Maia and I had a nice day today too - we ran more errands in the morning and came home for lunch. Then she had her nap and I caught up on some much overdue 'things'. (Embarrassingly, some very belated thank yous... for one.) It was a GORGEOUS day out, I even have a few windows open. It wasn't humid and there was a lovely breeze all day long. It will be really hot again this week, so I enjoyed this respit while I could. There was a hint of fall in the air this morning, and with football on the TV at this moment.... I'd say we are getting close!! School starts in one month for us - so we know we're getting closer!! First, we have to have a teenage birthday party at the end of August! Wow.... I can't talk about that yet!

I'm glad the weekend ended with the better of the two days... I just wish I had enjoyed Saturday more than I did. Next weekend I'll be in Utah (for work) and I think, in a way, that made me sad too, knowing that I wanted this weekend to be perfect (whatever that means!) since Matthew wasn't here last weekend, and he'll be gone some this week, and I'll be gone next weekend - it's a summer of transitions - he's getting a lot older and active, and I try to really enjoy the times I do have and I think I just put too much pressure to make it the perfect day, or whatever, and then I feel bad when it's just a normal day. Anyway, I don't know if this makes sense or not, but I wish I had had two Sundays, and I could forget about Saturday. Moving on....

The laundry is done and the new week is beginning. My parents will arrive Friday to watch the kids for me while I go to Utah. I'll be home Tuesday. I am excited to see those gorgeous mountains in Utah, but as I said, will be sad to leave the kids. I hope the trip is a good one, and an easy flight!

Tonight is the finale of Design Star - can't wait!! Gotta get ready for it - so I'll talk to you all later! :) Have a great week!