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.