My dad the movie star

Even though I am on a blogging hiatus, I had to post this because my father is on his way to stardom. Not long now before I get to attend the Academy Awards. And you can say you knew his daughter way back when...

Check it out:
I'd like to thank the Academy

Blogging Hiatus

For the one or two of you who actually read this blog I thought I should let you know that I am on a self imposed blogging hiatus. My new year's resolution was to take the pressure off of myself on the blog and I am going to assert that right now. 

The kids are in school and activities which makes life CRAZY busy and I have started a new job.  Add that to a husband who works a ton, constant chaos in my head because of the house addition we might be doing soon, and you have a busy person who doesn't feel very creative and is kind of checked out of blogging for now.

I know this will not make a major impact on the world, not even a tiny ripple, but I just thought I would let you know.

When my headspace gets cleared up, I will be back at it.

Thanks!
Robin

Special Promo for you guys!

Full disclosure: My brother and sister in law own this company. 

However, that does not stop me from thinking it is a great idea and one you will want to check out if you are or you know someone who is getting married.

The website is Wedzines and it is so cool! You (with the help of the Wedzines editors) can create a custom wedding magazine about you and your soon to be spouse. There are some really cool things you can include in the book - AND they are being nice enough to give a special gift to you guys.

Here is what you need to do:

1) Go to Wedzines and check out all the fun stuff you can do! 
2) Register here
3) Enter promo code: ROBINSNEST which is good for a free standard digital Wedzine (a $20 value)
4) Post it on Facebook and tell all of your friends how cool Wedzines are!
5) Enjoy!

5 question friday

Yes, I know it is Sunday and for a person who is punctual to the point that it is annoying, this is killing me.  But with the crazy week I had (husband out of town for 5 days, 1 kid starting kindergarten, 1 kid starting preschool, starting new job, preschooler battling stomach flu, and so on) I have not had time to write my own creative blog so here goes this awesome thing from My Little Life. And I have to apologize with this new computer I cannot figure out how to copy the cute little linky guy for this. I will figure it out one day.

1) Do you have any nicknames and if so how did it come about?
My first nickname was Robinsky from my parents.  In high school much to my parents' horror my nickname was Boner.  Not for the reasons you are thinking, dirty minds. I was a good girl in high school, it wasn't until later that I became the degenerate I am now.  Somehow my name went from Robin to Robone, to Bone to Boner.  My husband likes to call me Bob which drives me crazy, I'm cool with Rob cuz it is short for Robin but BOB?  That is a man's name (yes, yes I do realize Rob is a man's name too. I didn't say it made sense).

2) What is your birth order amongst your siblings?
I'm the third (baby) and the only girl.  Greatest situation EVER!


3) In the movie of your life who would play your significant other?
He has to be cute and funny just like my husband.  So I'm going with Paul Rudd.  He is a Kansan too - perfect!

4) What is currently your favorite song?
I have no idea, SAD.

5) Are you saving money for anything right now? Big or small purchase?
We just made a large purchase that is attached to the back of our house. Because our wallet asked for a breather, all purchases of any kind are on hold.  Next up possibly an addition to our house or a new overstuffed chair for our living room.

Hubs is back in town now, kids have started school and flu is out of here. Hopefully this week I will be funny, creative, etc. Stay tuned!

Those advertisers are speaking to me

E started Kindergarten today. I'm not sure how this happened, because it has gone so fast. However it also seems like she has always been in our lives and I cannot imagine anything without her. 

It is amazing how much I pay attention to all of those back to school commercials wondering if I have purchased her the right things and if there is anything that I can buy that will ensure success in friendships, school and all around adjustment to life.  I've been in advertising for 14 years, you would think that I know that all of these ads are made by people sitting in a room who probably don't even have children, however that does not stop me from wanting to pull out my credit card and consume, consume, consume.

The one that totally speaks to me is a mom who wishes she could take her child in the classroom and tell all the other kids what a great kid she has. I so am fighting the urge to do that.  If I could, I would make a Powerpoint presentation on E and all of her amazing traits.  She is incredibly smart, hilarious, sweet and considerate, unbelievably sassy (and not always in a good way) creative and a budding artist.

I'm proud of my little big girl and she did an amazing job walking in the school like she owned the place and didn't have any qualms about me leaving her.  Not sure I felt the same way :)

I will learn to love my PC, I will learn to love my PC, I will learn to love my PC and why I love Geeks

I am a Mac girl, have been one since college and have really really been one for the past 8 years while at my old company.  For my new company there is a need for me to have a PC because of a certain software that we use. 
I got my brand new fancy schmancy PC the other day. It has Windows 7 which according to the 1,000 commercials I have seen on it - is awesome. My husband who is pretty smart with this stuff tried to help set it up to work with our wireless Internet.  No luck. We literally worked on this all weekend. It would tease us by working every once in awhile but never for a long amount of time. It was so infuriating.  If you walked away from the computer for one second, the Internet would stop working and anytime my husband tried using his Mac with the Internet, mine would shut down. 

I was so incredibly close to hopping on a plane and going to California to retrieve my beautiful Mac from my old company's IT guy. I had offered to purchase it but they needed it as an extra.  But this time I wasn't going to be so nice about it. I wasn't above holding said IT guy up at gun point. If he would just hand over the Mac, no one would get hurt - except maybe my PC.

My husband left town for work on Monday AM and left me alone with this mean horrible beast.  I had never gotten it to work at all on my own so I was totally screwed.  Finally, after 5 days of this, I called the Geek Squad (1-800-Geek-Squad) and told them of my woes. (Note: I am so pathetically dependent on the Internet that I had to call someone to get me the phone number to the Geek Squad because I recycle all of the phone books I receive immediately and get all phone numbers I need online) I was ready to set an appointment and have some guy come out for 13 hours and pay him $1,000,000 to figure out this mess.

The guy was super nice and asked me if I had hit FN key and F2 key at the same time.  Uh, no.  "Well try that," he said.  SUCCESS.  YAY!!!!!

I am so excited to have Internet I cannot tell you!!!  And I love the Geek Squad.

And I am trying to get over the fact that my computer made my husband and I look like total morons for 5 days. We are going to find out a way to get along, we really will.

Star studded week

So we had a big party on the new deck this past weekend.  Seriously are you so tired of hearing about the deck?  I need to shut up about it.  But I guess you can tell how much I love it.

Because my husband spent two weeks gallivanting (okay yeah I know it was for work but I like to say gallivanting anyway) around Europe with them, he became pretty good friends with some of the rappers who are his clients.  So these guys came to our party on Sunday.  What better way to christen the deck than to have Tech N9Ne and Krizz Kaliko hanging out?  It was awesome.  The hubs told me I wasn't allowed to geek out and ask for their autographs or anything. You will be proud, I didn't. But I never get to see these famous people he gets to work with so it is kind of exciting for me.

Although we had some famous dudes at our house this weekend, this post is really about my dad and his start studded weekend.  As you may or may not know my dad is working his way towards an Academy Award.  He is so adorable and actually spent a day this week filming a major Hollywood movie.  You have to go read his blog about it all, it is very entertaining.

http://actingyourage1.blogspot.com/

Really am going to start charging for the use of our yard

The other day I wrote about how some of the neighborhood children use our corner yard for their lemonade stands.  Since I wrote that post we have had a few more little entrepreneurs set up shop.  And like I said, I really am okay with it.

But the people selling their homes are seriously starting to annoy me.  I watch the realtors in their high heels and dark suits pull up in their shiny Mercedes, leave the engine on, glance around quickly to make sure no one is looking, dart to my yard, stick their sign in, hop in their car and peel out.  Seriously, how hard is it to just come and ask me if they can stick a sign in my yard?  I would say yes. I really would.  There are a lot of advantages to someone on my block selling their house.  Potential for my property value to go up, potential for new kids my kids' age, potential for a new best friend to sip margaritas with on my new deck and much more. But when you don't ask, guess what? The second it gets dark out, I'm going to go and rip that sign out.

There is a homeowner on our street who did it today. She is selling her house For Sale By Owner.  Granted she lives like 10 houses down from me and we have never met, but I would think since we live on the same street it would just be good neighborly niceness to take the 30 seconds to walk to my door and ask me if she can put her sign in my yard. I watched her put the sign in. Didn't even look up at my house while she was doing it. I expect the realtor's to be less sensitive to me, but I really take much more offense to the FSBO chick doing it.

Guess what I will be doing about 9:30 PM???  Really, really, really I need to get a life and get real things to worry about.

Disclaimer: Just so you don't think I'm a huge ginormous ass, I don't throw their signs away. I just pull them out and stick them on the sidewalk.  Just enough to annoy them and have to stop and put it back every day.


Disclaimer 2: I don't just sit and stare out my front window all day. It just happens to be the view from my kitchen and office - where I spend all day long.

The long awaited deck...

Our deck is done! Our deck is done!  Here are some photos. Everyone is invited to come and hang out. We can probably fit 200 of our closest friends. It is a large deck!  Hehe, I said large deck.















This is where my husband cooks delicious dinners for us.

This is where I sit and drink and let him do that.

Warning, this deck has a tendency to turn you into a lush.  Not sure how it happens but every time I set foot on it I start drinking.  Very strange - it must have magical powers.

 This is where we eat those delicious dinners.                                                                                                   

I am a happy woman! If you don't see me blogging for a few days, come to my deck, take the margarita out of my hand and tell me to snap out of it.

Code Yellow

I was a star player in a Code Yellow yesterday at Kohl's.  What is a Code Yellow you ask?  Well let me tell you.

It is when a rambunctious little 3 year old feels the need to run away from his mommy and disappear into thin air

It is when a mommy grabs her 5 year old holding on to her for dear life and runs frantically through the store yelling said little guy's name

It is when strangers look at mommy like she is 1) a crazy woman or 2) the worst mom on the planet

It is when those strangers are correct

It is when mommy tries (not very successfully) to hold her tears over the fact that a horrible stranger has most likely snatched little guy and walked him right out the door trying in order to reassure sweet scared sister that her brother will be found any moment

It is when mommy has every Kohl's employee looking for the little guy and gives death looks to any employee who isn't searching under beds or in the clothing racks because mommy knows that all employees heard the Code Yellow! announcement over the loud speaker and cannot fathom why they are not about to pass out from panic like she is

It is the complete stopping of time

It is by far the scariest thing that has ever happened to this mommy

It is the absolute release of tears after, what seems like 4 hours, the loud speaker announces that little guy has been found and is at the front

It is the tightest hug you have ever given your terrified child and the ability to squelch the monster lecture you want to give him about the danger of what just happened

It is letting your children know how special they are and that you love them more than anything in the world

It is something I hope you never experience

Bieber hair

My 3 year old has Justin Bieber hair.  If you don't know who that is, good for you.  But if you do know who he is you might think my child needs a hair cut and you would be correct.  Z man refuses to get one and although I am the mom and should probably assert my authority I really have no desire to put some poor hair stylist through the agony of trying to hold him down. I know from experience that it is not fun.

The funny thing is that it has been so long since he has gotten a haircut that the hair has gone back to being cute.  Sort of like if you hold on to your clothes for long enough they will come back in style.

Plus now we have a fun thing to tease Z with.  We call him Bieber all the time and he insists in his cute 3 year old voice "I'm not a beaver, I'm a little boy!"

Meanest Mom on the Block

We live in the corner house and often times kids use our yard to hold a lemonade stand.  I'd by lying if I told you I haven't thought about going out and asking for 10% of their money for the use of our yard. I'm not that big of an ass, I wouldn't really do it, I just think it would be hilarious.

Today two girls from the street set up shop in our yard.  One of the girls lives in the last house on the other end of street, another corner, so I'm not sure why they didn't use her yard - but whatever.

She rang our doorbell and asked if I wanted to buy lemonade. I explained that my kids were in the bathtub and I could not leave to go outside right now. I assured her I would buy some later. And I truly meant that. I knew E would be excited to go out and purchase it.

10 minutes later she rang the doorbell again. I know it was her because I  peaked out of the window upstairs. With kids still in the bathtub, I ignored her. 10 minutes later the doorbell rang again. By this time my kids were out of the bath and E saw the pushy lemonade salesperson at the door and yelled to me to answer it. I was busted.

Like I said, I did have every intention of buying the lemonade from the girls but I was in no hurry to pop my happily splashing kiddos out of the bathtub for it.

I answered the door and pushy lemonade girl asked if I was going to buy lemonade. I responded "Yes, I do plan to but, as I said last time, I am getting the kids bathed and I will do it when I can."  Off she went back to  bully other people sell lemonade.

At this point I was annoyed, but I still gave E $1 and told her to get herself and Z man some lemonade. Z man said he did not want any.

E skipped along with her dollar bill and came back with a red Solo cup containing no more than 3 sips of lemonade in it.  For her safety, as it was at the edge of the yard and close to the street, I watched the entire transaction and I know E didn't drink any of the lemonade.

Now if you have read my blog for more than 12 seconds you know I am prone to exaggeration but honestly there was about 1/4 inch of lemondae in her cup.  I took a picture of it because it was so ridiculous! Unfortunately my photo does not do the absurdity justice.

Just curious, I asked E if she had gotten any change and of course, since she is 5, she looked at me like what the hell is change?  I was really annoyed by now because I really felt they were taking advantage of E since she is only 5 and didn't know any better.

NOTE SO YOU KNOW I'M NOT A TOTAL JERK: I always give kids more money than they are charging for their lemonade.


I marched out to that lemonade stand and told the girls that E accidentally forgot to get Z man's lemonade (knowing perfectly well he didn't want any) and that I needed another cup.  Because the mean mom was there they filled this one much higher. I didn't give them any money for it (I could see their sign at this point and it said $.50/cup which is what I ended up paying) and walked off feeling justified. Had they been less stingy they would have gotten to keep that extra $.50.

Yay! Mom Power! Way to stick it to a couple of 9 year olds, Robin!  What is wrong with me? Why did this bother me so much? Clearly I need a hobby.

Construction Peep Show

22 days until Z man needs to be potty trained for preschool.  Major derailment this weekend - apparently he is allergic to potty training because once boot camp began he started throwing up everywhere and continued to do so for 3 days. That was not fun, but nothing can deter me from my goal of getting him to start preschool on day 1.

Clearly I'm all about him learning preschooly type things like sharing with others, using scissors and gluing thing to paper, but really I am most worried about the break I need during the day for the few precious hours he will be there.

I'm trying the "be naked at all times" method of potty training and as you know we have deck construction going on. Z man LOVES the activity outside and really likes to watch the guys use their tools. He logs a lot of time watching them out the window - sans pants.

I'm sure the guys are really appreciating the view from their side:


You cannot even imagine how many "My! What a big deck you have!" jokes have been made by my husband and myself. We are hilarious.

Not so green

Am I the only one who has a table that looks like this when they leave Baskin Robbins?  I feel very bad about the tree that gave its life so my son would no longer have an ice cream covered face and hands and legs and ears and shirt and hair and - well you get the picture.

Oh and fun fact, I knew a girl growing up named Robin Baskins.

LV love

I get the itch a lot. The decorating itch. I love to decorate and redecorate and then redecorate again our house.  Recently we got some new windows and, as I write this, there are shirtless guys (Z man keeps looking out the window saying "they're neekid!!!") working on our new 12 foot by 50 foot deck.  I'm a happy woman! (Let me clarify, I'm happy because our deck has been started, not because there are 1/2 neekid men in my backyard - although that doesn't suck.)

But every once in awhile I see a picture in a magazine that inspires me to paint a wall or recover a chair and this photo totally spoke to me in that way.  There is a spot on the side of our house where the paint is starting to peel - so clearly we need a new paint job and I'm thinking this is really the way to go.

What do you think?

I'm Stealing It #12

My friend Lindsey passed this along to me.  I have not done it yet and neither has she but she will be doing it tomorrow so I will report back on what she thinks.

If you go to this site you can have Mickey Mouse or one of his friends give your child a call!  It is free and you can tell them your child's name and something you want them to mention.

For example I have a little guy who has to be potty trained in exactly 28 days and that might be a great incentive for him. I am going to let Mickey know (HOLY CRAP 28 days!!!!! I'm in trouble!  Sorry for the interruption it just really hit me) that we are potty training and he will let him Z man know how proud he is.

I also have a big girl who is going to Kindergarten next year.  Although she is excited about it, tomorrow is her last day at the school she has been going to for years and she has a great deal of anxiety about that. It might be nice to hear some encouraging words from Mickey Mouse.

I think this is a terrific idea and can't wait to use it!

My week

It has been a great week since the hubs got home.  Very action packed.

We ate things out of my garden! People this is huge, I have a charcoal black thumb and the fact that I grew things that are edible is amazing. Seriously my kids are the only things I've ever managed to keep alive.

My son got his foot caught in what looks like a foot guillotine and I had to have hubs come home early from work to get it out.  The crazy kid was more worried about me having to break the toy than getting his swollen, bent foot out.  When I gave him the option of breaking the toy or wearing the toy forever  - he chose the forever route.

We headed up to cute Weston, MO for one night and had a great time. Going to a winery town and doing wine tastings like there is no tomorrow is a brilliant thing to do the night before this:

I ran a 5K at 7:00 on Saturday night that was in no less than 3,000 degree heat.  I had a pretty impressive showing - 104th in your age category is pretty good right? Please hold your applause.

I'm waiting to find out, but I'm guessing there were like 105 people in my category.  Don't know why the logo will not let me show the whole thing but if you want to find out more about it, go here

Quite a fun week, so glad to have the hubs home!

UPDATE: 5K race results were posted and I was actually 95th out of 130 in my age group. Pretty pathetic but at least I didn't come in last :)

Yay! He is coming home today

The hubs is coming home today! I'm super excited. I'm busy scrubbing the house from top to bottom and scrubbing the kids from top to bottom as well.  I want to make sure everything is all shiny for him.

I realize that he must be a large part of my blog because I have literally had nothing to write about for the past several days.  Sorry I am so boring.

I'm sure I'll be back at it in no time. Thanks for hanging in there my friends :)

Why we love daddy

Day 12 of 15. We are in the homestretch people. I think we are going to make it.

So they do not forget him (maybe I am being a bit dramatic) I thought it would be nice to put together a list of reasons the kids love their daddy. For your viewing pleasure here they are:

E's list:

1) He is nice
2) He is funny
3) He is so silly
4) I love to go to Old McDonald's with him
5) He is a great daddy

Z's list:

1) I love daddy's sunglasses
2) I love you mommy
3) I love me
4) His favorite color is green

My list:

1) He kills spiders
2) He entertains the children from about 6:00 PM on
3) He builds better Lego contraptions than I do
4) Wine is much more fun to drink with him than alone. Although... wine is much more necessary when he isn't here.  Go figure
5) He gathers and takes the trash out to the curb on trash day and then brings the trash cans back in after they have been emptied
6) He is a better snuggler than a pillow

I'm over it, come home!

Day 10 of 15.

I originally thought the hubs leaving town for 2 weeks would be miserable because of the lack of help with the kiddos, but I did not anticipate how much I would actually miss him.

After almost 10 years of marriage/mortgages/careers/kids/housework/chaos who knew how much I really like being with him? I guess that is a good thing.  So, okay, message received. I like my husband. Noted.

You can come home now.

Check out my latest article in KC Parent magazine!

I am lucky enough to be a freelance writer for a local parenting magazines, KC Parent and KC Baby.  Usually I write light hearted things about the craziness of childrearing but this most recent article was a very important one because it covered the topic of SIDS.  Writing serious was a stretch for me but I learned some incredibly valuable information.

Check it out here

Keep your kiddos safe and have a Happy 4th of July weekend!

Twice in a month! I'm getting spoiled.

I was given another award and I am over the moon about it! It definitely takes the sting out of having a husband who abandoned me and went playing around Europe for two weeks.  (Okay really he is there for work but I don't get quite as many sympathy points when I say it that way)

Kelly over at Kelly's Breakroom bestowed this Sunshine Award honor on me and I couldn't be more honored because I love reading her blog! She is funny, honest and super cool because she can still rock it on a Ms Pac Man Machine.

Part of the award is to point out other blogs that you enjoy reading and I am going to do that - soon. I just wanted to recognize Kelly for her nice award now - I'm the kind of girl who doesn't sleep until she gets all her thank you notes out. This is my virtual thank you note to Kelly.

The kiddos and I are leaving town tomorrow to hang out with mama and papa Robin's Nest at their lakehouse.  I'm really looking forward to that - not just because I love my parents so and can't wait to see them - but because I am going to have some help with the rug rats for 4 days! Single moms out there - this is a HUGE shout out to you.  I'm just beginning day 4 of the hubs being out of town and I'm about to throw in the towel.

I take it all back!

Still glowing from my brave frog rescue, I woke up in the morning to my son trying to get out of his bedroom by shaking his door handle.  Before I could get to him, the inevitable happened, Z man locked himself in.  Trying to squelch my freak out from my daughter I ran around the house grabbing everything small I could stick in the hole of his doorknob.  Scissors = too big, earring = too small, pen  = just right but not long enough, so on and so forth.

E piped in with "Daddy always uses a Q-tip."  Always? This happens often? How was I not aware of that?

After a lot of 5 year old gibberish and stressed mom talk back and forth I figured out she meant a toothpick.  I got a box of toothpicks and ran back to Z's room. Granted I had tried to shove many things into that hole over the past 7 minutes, but really I had no idea what I supposed to do once I actually got something in there.

I stuck the toothpick in and jiggled it all around poking and prodding at things to no avail.  All the while I'm cursing Dan for being in Oslo, Norway because I could not pick up the phone to call him.  If he were on this side of the world he could at least make fun of sympathize with me while I was attempting to free Z man from what had now become (in my mind) a room full of dangerous, sharp, poisonous, menacing, choking hazardous, items.

There is clearly a God out there because he 1) gave us a child with a happy go lucky demeanor.  The entire time Z kept saying "Mom, you are so silly, open this door!" and unlike me he wasn't freaking out  and 2) God heard my inner panic (it is possible the neighbors heard it too, it was loud) and opened that door because I KNOW for a fact that it was not my clumsy fumbling of the toothpick that did it. (Vows to go to church more often)

So yes, I take back everything I said yesterday, I cannot live without the hubs.

If I am doing this on day 2, what will I be doing by day 15?

As I have mentioned ad naseum, yesterday the hubs left town for 2 weeks (15 days actually) and today the construction dudes finished installing the door that will exit out to our new deck.

On the outside of our house we have several window wells that are attached to our basement. Two of these wells are full of leaves and will be covered up when the deck is installed. I decided I should clean them out before they get covered up.  It is like when you move your stove to rescue the stray green Lego your child kicked under there and is yelling at the top of his lungs for - then you end up scrubbing the floor behind the stove.  No one is ever gonna see it, but you do it anyway.

So at 10:00 PM I got out a shovel and started shoveling leaves into a garbage bag. The fact that I thought of cleaning out the leaves, knew where a shovel was and then actually did the task is truly a freaking miracle.  Hubs is in charge of all things leaf-like. Maybe next I will try to mow the lawn!  Just kidding.

Anywho, In the first window well I found a baby frog and honest to God my scream was quiet enough to not wake all of the neighbors. Wow! Who am I? Did I mention I do not do critters? I looove animals but just not ones that hop, slither, squeak, etc. in my home.

I rescued the little guy and took him over the grass so he could hop off into froggy happiness.  In case you are wondering - Noooo I did not touch him - I put him on my shovel and gave him a lift.

On to window well #2 - and guess what?  Two more frogs!  One big one and one baby one.  I rescued them both and shuttled them over to what I am assuming was their long lost baby brother/son.

Although my heart is still racing like I ran a marathon, I'm SUPER proud of myself! Maybe I could survive if the hubs decided to run off and stay in Europe.

Realistically, what is going to happen next is:

1) I will not stop thinking about the initial sighting of frog #1 and the way in which he scared the Holy BeJesus out of me.

2) I will continue to itch and freak each time I feel something on me for fear that a frog somehow jumped into my house and onto my being.

2) Tonight's sleep is completely screwed because I am convinced there are other baby frogs that got scooped up in the garbage bags and are sad and separated from their mommy.

I'm a very complicated person...

We have a winner!

Congratulations One Frugal Lady - you are going to have a happy mother in law because you won the Dishwasher Art! Look at you gaining points with the MIL - nice going!

Tomorrow when I have more energy I will notify you by email and let you know the next steps.

For everyone else - please check back to The Robin's Nest in the near future for a few reasons:

1) I have some other great giveaways coming up soon and you would not want to miss them. If you know a bride, a man or a wall that looks lonely you will want to check these upcoming giveaways out.

2) I'm super funny and have lots of totally entertaining things to say. Also, I'm not cocky in the least.

Sorry I have not been a good bloggy blog friend this week. I've left this giveaway up for like a week now and have not posted any new material - but if you had lived in my household over the past 10 days you would have done the same. Here are some of my better excuses:

1) I quit my job and took a new one. Now for those of you who do not know, I work from home and my new job will allow me to do that as well- which totally rocks. That change might not seem like a big thing to most of you since I can still work in my pajamas and my commute is still from my bedroom down like 8 stairs to my office, but I've been at my old company for 7.5 years and it is saddening me to make the move. With that being said, I'm SUPER excited about my new opportunity and cannot wait to see what it brings.

2) Construction started in our house a few days ago. We (when I say we, I don't mean me or the hubs, come on really?) are ripping out two windows and turning them into doors that open to our soon to be built 12 foot by 50 foot deck! Yay! If you have lived through construction you know it is very disrupting to the daily normalcy (if you can call it that) of your life.

3) My daughter has had 2 melt downs in the past two days that are not just contenders but clear winners for the Guinness Book of World Records (Have I ever mentioned that my 96 year old grandmother is actually in that book? Well, story for a later time...). Really I'm to the point where I am seriously questioning my abilities as a mother and am wondering if we would all be better off if I just ran away to Uruguay and didn't leave a forwarding address.

4) My husband is leaving for Europe on Sunday for 2 WEEKS. Yes, you read that right. He is leaving me alone with E and Z for two weeks while he gallivants off to Europe for work. I have been doing all of his laundry this week so he can have stuff to wear in Europe. I said Europe as many times as I could to get my point across, did I succeed? I can't imagine I have to elaborate any further on this one. I'm assuming just for the mere fact that Europe is involved and I am not going, I get a sympathy pass on the not blogging thing, right?

Anywho, sorry. I will try to be a better blogger this upcoming week - that is if I have not been gagged and blindfolded by the children while the hubs is away in Europe and no one is around to rescue me until he comes home from Europe.

Giveaway!

I have got to say this is one product I never knew I needed until I saw it! Now I am loving the seasonal ones and want one for every holiday. It has to make doing dishes more fun, right?

Marti at Dishwasher Art told me a bit about herself:

"I am a retired 70 year old who loved to paint as a hobby. A hobby that was more expensive than profitable. I had all these paintings hanging in my basement with no place to go (friends and relatives already have their walls covered).

One day I was looking at my all white kitchen and knew I had to do something to brighten it up. The only two flat surfaces I had was the refrigerator (which was covered with to do lists and grand kids pictures) and the dishwasher. Then it hit me --the dishwasher would be a perfect place to display my art. After some research and trying various printers my art work was transformed into a magnetic panel. Thinking others might like to jazz up their kitchens, I started my web site.

My art has now found a home in all fifty states as well as many other countries (France, Great Britain, Italy, Canada, Australia, and Germany."

How great is that?

Marti is being nice enough to give away one of the dishwasher panels to Robin's Nest readers.

Rules for entry:

1) Go to dishwasherart.com and tell me which panel you would want if you were to win. Leave a comment on this post. This must be done before any other entries will count. (1 entry)

2) Tweet/blog/shout from your roof top (okay not really, that is dangerous)/ about this giveaway and come back and let me know what you did to spread the word. Make sure and leave a direct link to your posting. (1 entry per medium)

3) You don't have to be a Robin's Nest follower to win but it sure would be nice of you. We have fun over here!

Open to US residents only.

Contest will end on Friday June 25th and winner will be selected at random. Winner will be announced and emailed (please make sure and leave email address in your comment or make sure it is easy for me to find) and has 48 hours to respond. If no response, another winner will be chosen. So on and so forth.

Happy looking and good luck!

Note: Dishwasher Art is providing the panel at no charge to me and I provided my honest opinion. No other compensation was received for this giveaway.

Rainbow, rainbow where for art thou?

We had the most beautiful double rainbow last night in Kansas City. (Note: I did not take this picture. It was taken by Holly O'Keefe and it is the actual rainbow from last night.) My daughter could not have been more excited. This was right up her alley. If you ask her what her favorite color is her response is always:

"Weeeeelll, it used to be pink and purple, and before that when I was a baby, it was blue and yellow, but now it is rainbow!"

We happened to be in the car when this magnificent color explosion appeared and we made every attempt to find its end point but alas no leprechauns were to be found. However, it was really fun and I think maybe the thrill of my kids' young lives. We got home, got in pajamas and stared in awe out of my daughter's window for another million hours.

Then as rainbows do, it disappeared. All hell broke loose. E flipped out. She missed the rainbow. At first it was really cute and sweet. Then as is the way with this 5 year old drama queen, it just got to be ridiculous. Major fit of sobbing ensued and all the explanations in the world of how rainbows would not be special if we saw them every day fell on bright red tear-soaked deaf ears.

Exasperated, I finally asked her what it is she would like me to do about the fact that the rainbow was gone and her response: "Paint the sky"

At that point if I had a ladder big enough I would have given it a try.

Someone get this kid to preschool

Thank goodness Z man is starting preschool in the fall. His ABC's need some serious work. He sure does look cute doing them though and really you have to give him credit for his big finish. Who taught this kid jazz hands?

Summer in my 5 year old's eyes

I completely stole this idea from Yankovich 6 Pack and I am really glad I did.

I asked my daughter to make a list of 30 things she wanted to do this summer and I have shared it below:

1) Go swimming (sweet! we have already done that like 7 times!)

2) Go to the spray park at Uncle Bucky's. (Note: My brother is Uncle Bucky. Bucky is not his name but that is how she said "Uncle Brett" when she was little and it has stuck. Also, Uncle Bucky lives in Washington DC and has a spray park 3 houses down from his house. This one is probably not gonna happen.)

3) Have a little jog

4) Buy special kid jog clothes (what is with her and jogging?)

5) Go to the park (again DONE!)

6) Take a walk in the stroller (We do this all the time. Maybe we have not done it since it was technically "school is out for summer summer time" but we can check this off really easily)

7) Paint

8) Collect leaves

9) Go to the neighborhood park. (There is a tiny little thing I guess you could call a park at 75th and Mission - a major intersection by our house. There is literally a bench there and that is it but since we drive by it 1,435 times a day she really wants to go. I can accommodate that request - maybe we will even walk there in the stroller. Look at me killing lots of birds with very few stones.)

10) Go to the beach. (Hmmm. Oh wait we are going to my parents lake house and we can totally find a beach there. It will be an Oklahoma beach and I don't think that is probably what she is wanting - but it's not my fault she wasn't very specific.)

11) Get the mail (We will do this 5 times a week for the entire summer. She is going to be in hog heaven.)

12) Got to a garden to see pretty things. (Is that a diss on our landscaping?)

13) Have a bike ride (Super simple to accomplish numerous times. This kid is easy!)

14) Buy another snow globe when we go visit Uncle Bucky. (I just visited Uncle Bucky when on my business trip this past weekend. I got her a snow globe and her brother broke within 24 hours of us having it. But yeah, we still aren't going to DC...)

15) Help daddy build a lemonade stand. (Strangely she did not mention actually selling lemonade)

16) Hug and kiss Z. (Seriously how cute is our kid?)

17) Go shopping, like for toys (I knew it had to show up somewhere)

18) Drive to Pump It Up. (Ummm... do we have to go in?)

19) Plant some flowers (again dissing our landscaping)

20) Have a nice, cozy summer. (Oh my gosh. Heart melting. Cute kid)

21) Play the farmer in the dell. And then she said: "Don't worry I will teach you."

22) Get more nail polish. (This kid has like 12 bottles of polish but heck her summer wish list is so easy I think I can accommodate this one.)

23) Buy some sunglasses (Good plan)

24) Cook with mommy (Fortunately she is too young to realize I CANNOT cook.)

25) Do a secret for mommy because you are such a nice mommy. (Aaaah. Probably buttering me up so we can do #17)

26) Make a rainbow. (I mean wow, she is so stinkin' cute)

27) Do the outside exercise. (She loves it when I come home from a jog and I bench press her in our front yard.)

28) Take gymnastics

29) Get my own candle in case my room smells stinky. (Huh??)

30) Play pretend

This has got to be a new tradition. I am going to ask my kids to make this list each summer and see what they say. This was too cute and I am going to to feel like a rock star mom by the end of the summer because we can do just about everything on here!

What do your kids want to do this summer?

My first Award!!

I have been crazy busy with work for the past two weeks. By far the busiest I have been in quite some time. Of course those were the exact same two weeks my kids had a break from "school" before their summer session started. On top of the craziness I had to leave town on Saturday morning for work and got home Monday night.

I got to stay at my brother's house though which made the trip infinitely better. His darling house, great wife and adorable kids were a huge perk to my travel.

Anyway, I got home late Monday night and my kids had me up at the crack of dawn. I was exhausted but imagine my surprise when I came home to the coolest thing ever - an award for my blog!

Jenny has a cute blog that I have really enjoyed finding. She has a ton of children and handles it all beautifully. In the small world it continues to be, we actually live very close to one another!


There is the award - isn't it pretty? It truly made my day.

Now there are instructions that go along with the award. I must pass this along to some amazing bloggers and I have to share 10 things about myself that you do not already know. I must say that I do not expect the blogs I list below to do all the instructions that come along with it - I just want to let you know that I love you guys!

1) I am allergic to cats. Boring but true.

2) I have turned into a crier. I cried at the Kindergarten Roundup meeting for my daughter, I cried last night at the rehearsal for her ballet recital. I cry a lot. I was NOT this person before I had kids.

3) I am the youngest of three children - and the only girl. There were definite advantages to that. I was a bit spoiled and I loved it! But I turned out to be a nice person, so it's all good.

4) I have no natural instinct for cooking. My husband can throw things together and make something fabulous. I can follow a recipe to the T and make something mediocre.

5) Although I make fun of him a lot in my blog, I am very proud of my husband. He works really hard for our family and is an amazing and wonderful partner.

6) I know of 11 people whose birthdays are on April 23. I think that is strange.

7) I share the exact same birthday as Nick Lachey - same year and everything. I spent a summer at a school in Switzerland and spent a lot of time with Robert Di Niero's son Raphael. Raphael and I have the same birthday as well - although not the same year.

8) If I could do it all over again, I would have gone to school for interior design. People keep telling me it isn't too late, but I'm entirely too lazy to start all over again.

9) I never missed not having a sister as I was growing up because I had really cool brothers who were very good to me.

10) I just did a post a few days ago about all the tid bits you never wanted to know about me. You can find it here.

In addition here are some great blogs that really deserve this award and places you should definitely spend your free time checking out.

Acting Your Age. This is my dad's blog. It is so cute and he is even more adorable. The blog chronicles his walk to stardom. I do not expect him to pass this award on as I am sure he doesn't read any blogs other than mine and his but I have to give him a shout out!

Momma Amma. Another person who I found that lives very close to me. She is very creative and has super cute kids.

The Mother Load. Another person who lives by me. Kansas must be chalk full of talented blogging ladies. She is funny and has really interesting posts.

Alabaster Cow. This girl is funny, really funny. Enough said. You have to check her out.

Penny Pinchin Mom. She always has the latest deals and coupons and because of her I've scored some great stuff!

Little Green Notebook. She posts such beautiful items that I am in a constant state of stress on choosing which direction I should go in completely redecorating my home!

Live Off Groupon. I'm a Groupon junkie. If you don't know what Groupons are, go here. This guy is living solely off Groupons for a year and it is pretty fascinating. What a fun thing to do!

Lex Loci Lori. Like me, she is originally an Okie but she currently lives in Colorado (we lived there for about 3 years) so she must be cool.

Enjoy!

The sensitive father

Like most kids, my kids are picky eaters. But because we live in Kansas City and because my husband recently purchased a new Smoker and has not stopped smoking things for more than a 5 minute period since, my children love BBQ. Gates sauce is a favorite in our household and my daughter will eat it on anything. It isn't normal how much our 5 year old likes it. She loves anything and everything BBQ'd and I know this because I think my husband has smoked every kind of meat known to mankind since he got his new toy.

Today we were driving past a graveyard (bet you are wondering how these are related) and my daughter was really fascinated by it and asked where her great grandfather's graveyard is. I looked at the hubs and kind of gave him the look of why don't you take this one. You see my husband's grandfather was cremated and I was just not sure of how to explain that to her in a delicate manner. I can now for certain tell you how NOT to explain it.

D: "Well honey, when they die some people's bodies are buried like the people in this graveyard."

E: Getting impatient. "I know that dad, I'm asking where Grandpa's grave is."

D: "He doesn't have a grave. His body wasn't buried, it was BBQ'd."

It's unfortunate that we live in the BBQ capital of the world. I'm pretty sure my daughter is never going to eat it again.

I've outdone myself this time

Tonight is Jazzoo. It is a super fun party at the zoo that we go to every year. The dress for the evening is "creative black tie"- which puts a lot of pressure on me. Creativity is in my blood, no doubt about that. See the posts here. However for some reason I choke each year. Unlike my mom who as I wrote here last year would probably be able to skin a kangaroo and make it look adorable as her attire for the evening, I freeze when it comes to ideas for the party.

But this year I have really outdone myself. This week and last week have been insanely busy for me with work - I mean insane! And of course to top that off, the kids were on a two week break from school. With these variables I have not had time to come up with anything for Jazzoo -but someone was watching out for me and made it happen anyway.

See:



Sorry for the disgusting picture - of my pale white legs.

Isn't that perfect? I think it is very zoo-like. I'm gonna tell everyone I got in a tussle with a lion! But of course, just like finding the perfect dress for a party and then someone else shows up in it - my friend Lindsey apparently yesterday went out and got the same accessory for herself. She REALLY committed. The lion scraped her wrist, knuckles, both legs and her feet. Geez, my friend group is clearly clumsy!

Sometimes I actually get it right

Our daughter is on swim team. I use the term "swim team" loosely as my daughter doesn't know how to swim. At this level it is basically swim lessons.

Our pool has two kiddie pools and one big pool. Totally my fault but because our little guy has to stay in the kiddie pool our daughter spends her time there as well. Because of this her swimming skills are not what they should be.

Yesterday was her first "lesson" and there were about 15 kids in the class. The kids started in the big pool holding onto the side with one hand and holding onto the kick board with the other. They numbered the kids into 1's, 2's, 3's and 4's. E was a 1.

They asked each group to use their kick boards and kick to the other side of the pool.

1's took off. E stayed.
2's took off. E stayed.
3's took off. E stayed.
4's took off. E stayed.

She was the only child left.

I'm a rule follower. Always have been and so I was a bit taken aback that E had not done what was asked of her.

I went up to one of the coaches and said "She is a 1 but she didn't go." He said, "oh this is just for fun, it's okay."

I think he thought I was a bystander tattling on her. I went on to tell him that I am her mother and I think she needs some extra help as she is scared. I walked away feeling like a despicable stage mom.

A couple of coaches went to her and helped her across. I could see her fear begin to turn into a smile. By the end of the lesson, the coaches had convinced her to actually let go of the side and swim to them a few feet away. Stage mom was on the sideline in tears.

I was so proud of her for taking that leap of faith. She struggled a bit and I had to resist the urge to plunge into the pool fully clothed and swim her to safety. She went under water for a second and came up coughing and crying - but she did it! The coach held her and calmed her - but who was there to calm me? Thank God big sunglasses are fashionable.

At times I get so frustrated with her because I know she can do so much more than she is willing to try. She is a cautious child and even though I was a rule follower, I was willing to try everything. Although she was literally the only child in the group that could not swim, I was beaming with pride when she kicked her little legs and held herself up unassisted for about 3.6 seconds.

I cheered and hugged her and made a huge deal about how she swam.

Her response? "No I didn't, I sank."

I pointed out that before she sank, she did swim and we now know that she can do it.

Although she walked away from that lesson never wanting to swim again I was able to turn it around and make her proud of what she accomplished. She is actually looking forward to her next lesson tomorrow and so am I. Even if she is behind her peer group she is working harder and trying harder than any of them. For that she is my little hero.

Most of the time I totally screw things up and give my children oodles of ammunition for the therapists they will inevitably have but this time I think I really got it right.

You search and you come across me - that has got to be a disappointment

I'm the kind of nerd who LOVES spreadsheets and such and so I find Google Analytics thoroughly entertaining. One part allows you to see how some people ended up on your website by the search words they put into their search engine.

The people who stumble across me fall into 3 categories as you will see below. I think I am safe in saying that 100% of them were disappointed that they ran across a mom blog.

Category 1: Tech N9Ne
For those of you who don't know, he is a rapper for which my husband directs music videos. I have written a few posts about things related to him (here and here) and here is what Google Analytics told me people typed into their search engine and unfortunately for them came across me. Being the wonderful person I am, as a public service I have added some notes in green italics so these people do not walk away without the answers they need.

1) What to wear to a Tech N9NE concert (From what I noticed, not a lot of clothing is necessary)
2) 16 year old at Tech N9NE concert (Probably not the best idea)
3) A mom rap w/ two kids (Not sure what to say about this one. I can't rap, but I have 2 kids)
4) How long does a Tech N9NE concert last (Not long enough)
5) Is a Tech N9NE concert crazy (Yeah, crazy fun)
6) Tech N9Ne concert what to wear (See #1)
7) What should I expect from a Tech N9NE concert (See #5)
8) What songs have they played at the Tech N9NE concerts 2010 (rap songs)

Category #2: Robin's Nests
1) Ants in a robin's nest (That sucks. Try Orkin.)
2) Do they have higher nest for robins (I can't answer this question without more information. Who is they?)
3) What to do when robins mom is gone (Rest assured, my mom has not gone anywhere. I mean she could have left and gone to the store or something but then she will be back.)

Category #3: Miscellaneous
1) KC Parents magazine (It is a rocking magazine that has this amazing freelance writer named Robin. You should totally check them out.)
2) Put cake in ass tube (HUH? Which one of you was searching for that?)
3) Sprained her ankle (ouch. elevate it and put some ice on it. Have two glasses of wine and then go to bed)

The laziest post ever

I'm beat from working like a mad woman yesterday and so I'm going the lazy way out on this blog. This is a cut and paste from one of those things people make you do on Facebook. I did this in January of 2009.

Here are all the things you never wanted to know about me:

1. I had no middle name until I got married
2. I traded down on last names when I got married.
3. I love to clean out closets and have no qualms about throwing anything away
4. I can cross only one eye
5. Some of my best friends in the world are people I have known since I was about 3 years old
6. I do not know how to make a pot of coffee (update May 2010- I have now made a few pots of coffee. Not sure why it took me so long, it is quite easy)
7. I hate painting my toenails because my feet always freeze when I do it
8. I cannot sleep without a down comforter on me no matter what the time of the year is
9. I may have been involved in a drunk late night mugging of a passed out college guy (I did not take the money)
10. I have read about 2 full books since my oldest child was born more than 4 years ago (update May 2010 - daughter is 5 1/2 years now and haven't read any additional books - lots of PEOPLE magazine though)
11. I have never had a cavity (update May 2010 - I had 2 cavities about a year ago. How did I go 30 something years without them and now have them? Not cool.)
12. I never had braces
13. I never ever want my husband to write a song for me or sing to me even though he is the lead singer of a band
14. I love interior design and constantly think about redecorating every room in my house over and over
15. I really hope my children have as great of a life growing up as I did
16. At the time, I was the youngest patient Dick Story had ever put in contacts. Had to get rid of those glasses
17. I recently found out that my mother was actually highlighting my hair when she told me she was doing a "conditioning treatment" on my hair. That started when I was in 5th grade.
18. I can make the most annoying noise on the planet with this fake laugh I do. It drives my husband insane - hence the reason I do it.
19. I did not fill my car up with gas myself until I got to college.
20. I have never gotten a speeding ticket
21. If you give me a word, I can immediately say it back to you backward
22. I once saw Pink Floyd in Venice, Italy
23. My first car was a yellow 1978 Country Squire Station Wagon with fake wood paneling - even though my father owned a car dealership.
24. I was one of the only 2 people who did not get accepted in chorus when trying out in 7th grade.
25. I was an extra (along with the rest of OKC) in the movie Surviving with such stars as Molly Ringwald, the guy from Gremlins (Zach Galligan), River Phoenix, the girl from Poltergeist, Marsha Mason, Paul Sorvino. I wore my brownie uniform in my scene.

Love notes to my guy

Yesterday was the dog's day for their annual visit to the vet and apparently in order to see the their entire picture of health, the vet needed their morning delivery.

I went for a run in the morning and left this note for my husband who was still in bed at the time.




The good news is his day could only get better from then on, right?

P.S. When did I start writing like a serial killer?

Super cool give away - on someone else's blog

I saw this on Momma Amma's blog and I just thought this give-a-way was too cool not to mention. I haven't been reading this blog until now but with the name of it (Let's Have a Cocktail), I'm sure she and I will be fast friends!

This give away is really awesome, I just wonder if I could ever find a photo where my kids are doing something as cool as her kid is in that one! Most of our photos have one if not both of the kids doing a combination of crying/hitting/screaming/picking a nose/etc.

Go here and check out how you can win some personalized art for your wall.

The things people will do so they don't have to hang out with me

I'm training for a 5K. Yes, I do realize how pathetic it is that I have to train to run 3.2 miles but that is my reality. I exercise quite a bit but I just don't run long distances (not that 3 miles is a long distance) - until now.

My friend Erica and I decided to run it together and we decided to train together - eventually moving toward training for a 1/2 marathon. This is going to be so much fun especially since the 1st 5K we signed up for is at night and there is drinking involved afterward. I will totally run to a summer brew/glass of wine/etc.

5K signed up for, running schedule and plan in place, music list downloaded to ipod, cute new shoes and running clothes, we were ready to go. Yay!

Next day, Erica broke her ankle.

See:


She did have a cute pedi going on there though, didn't she?

Geez, if she didn't want to be my running partner she just had to tell me.

My daughter, the super model

Admittedly my daughter did take a modeling course last summer but it was not really what you think of as modeling. It was a great experience where they learned manners, learned about nutrition, about how to take care of their bodies and some tips on fashion. It was extremely age appropriate and in no way taught my daughter to pose for every picture like this:or this (and don't worry she was not let out of the house in this outfit)Because they are not my children, in several of the photos I cropped out other kids. They are all standing next to one another in a normal fashion and smiling sweetly for the camera and then there is a dead space and then my kid in her super model pose. Where does she get this?

Need some gifts? Look no further...

I love jewelry, always have. I got that from my mom. Some of the rings she has could blind you and they are fabulous. When I started having kids my jewelry wearing got put on a back burner until my mother-in-law bought me this awesome bracelet - it was basically a modern day charm bracelet.

I love my bracelet and for awhile I was getting great additions to it each holiday from my in-laws and my husband. It was fantastic because my kids couldn't destroy it but it entertained the heck out of them when we were at a restaurant. When they got restless, I would pull up my sleeve and we would talk about the different charms and where they came from and what they each meant. After awhile I stopped getting new charms and my sad bracelet sits waiting for someone to add to it.

Well check this out! This awesome website, Coppins Gifts, has bracelets similar to the one I have called DaVinci Beads but they are way more affordable! No more waiting for someone to buy the charms for you - you can definitely afford to score these on your own whenever you feel like it. The charms are adorable and there are millions to choose from.

This site has other great things you should peruse as well. I'm loving the My Pillow Pets. We have some road trips in our summer plans (God, help me) and those would be perfect for the kiddos!

Coppins Gifts is definitely a must check site for now on whenever I need to purchase a gift.

My worlds are colliding and it is fantastic

So, I admit it. I watch The Hills - and The City too - don't you judge me. I know you watch stupid TV too. Yours might be a different special kind of dumb, but dumb nonetheless.

If you live under a rock and don't know what The Hills is, it is a ridiculously over the top show about a bunch of obnoxious rich LA twenty somethings. Does Heidi Montag and 438 plastic sugeries in one day ring a bell?

Although I think Heidi looked prettier before and that her face (well her top lip really) resembles a platapus a bit now, I'm not judging her plastic surgeries. Hell, if I had the money and the cajones, I would have oodles of body parts lifted, tucked, sucked out, plumped up and placed back where they originally started. Probably wouldn't do it all in one day though...


But I digress. I love the Hills and don't care what you think about that. I get enough grief from my husband.

As you might know, my whiteboy husband directs rap videos which in itself is really funny. Anywho, while watching the Hills this past week they featured Tech N9NE, one of the rappers who is a client of my husband's!

That was fantastic for a lot of reasons but the main one is that my husband is no longer allowed to give me crap about watching the deliciously terrible show. His client's music was on there and in some way that probably involves lots of algebra or something, that relates directly back to him, right?

In the score of life, wife: 12,465 husband: 6

Worst mom ever

We were robbed!!!

Oh wait, no we weren't, I'm just the worst mom ever and have not been to the grocery store in like 10 days. Notice we are not low on alcohol though - priorities people!

Since butter and yogurt for dinner won't fly two nights in a row I guess I will go to the grocery store today.

Mommy's Little Helper

This morning the kiddos and I went to the park to burn off some energy. By the time we got home it was time for lunch.

E looked at me and said, "Mom, you work so hard. You should take a rest and let me make lunch." Absolutely, I cheered!

We decided on ants on a log as the main course.

So after I

got out the peanut butter
got out the raisins
got out the knife
got out the cutting board
got out the lunch plates
got out the celery
cleaned the stalks
cut the ends off of stalks
figured out what to serve with the rest of lunch
gathered those items
plated it all
made drinks
set the table

E got to work and assembled the ants on a log


















Then I cleaned Peanut Butter off

the counter
3 knives and 1 spoon
the peanut butter jar
the cutting board
the bottom of the dishwasher
the stool she stood on
her shoe
her elbow
all 10 of her fingers and the 2 palms
her brother's hair
the celery bag
the raisin container
my knee (how did she get it there?)

and cleared the table

Aaahhhh, so relaxing. Isn't she so helpful?

Happy Birthday to my Blog!

It has been a year since I did my very first blog post. Happy Birthday bloggy blog!!! (To be 100% accurate my blog's birthday was 5 days ago but I'm not organized enough to get it exactly on the right day).

For my kids I usually make a cake based on their latest love - like these (kids cakes) but what kind of present do I give my blog?

1) More attention?
2) Better writing?
3) Less inane ramblings?
4) A clean out of the 1,422 blogs I started but never finished?
5) More readers so it feels loved?
6) A stronger grasp of punctuation?

I'm thinking all of the above wrapped up with a pretty bow is the least I can do for it considering what all it has done for me in the past year.