Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Project Life Week 7

I was gone all day yesterday so didn't get to post on Tuesday with all the other Project Life people but here is week 7.


I had started potty training her the day before but our nice beautiful wooden potty from Whispering Pines with toilet paper holder and magazine rack didn't cut it so we had to make a jaunt to Walmart for a "Pink Princess Potty" we got the last one. As soon as she got home she made it "sing' (it plays music when she potties). At least she's trying!



This is Pirate Princess Ella who is also wearing 2 different dress up shoes.


No its not lip gloss, its a new product being marketed to babies called chin glimmer.




Laci and Ella gave us their first joint puppet show. It was very long...

Made a yummy Farafelle pasta dish with zuchinni by the Pioneer Woman . Loved it!

P
Icicles on the side of our house





Ella has a matching cheer outfit now and is very happy about it. She sits in the stands and cheers with the girls but when people giggle because she's cute she ducks down and says "I hide now".

Monday, February 22, 2010

Not Me Monday

It certainly was not me who told my Laci that I'd take her for icecream if she pushed down her bully cousin the next time bully hit or pushed down Ella. Granted I asked her to do without a bribe she wouldn't even after me explaining that 7 year olds who hurt babies need to be taught a lesson.

It wasn't me who set her 2 year old up with a bowl of cocoa puffs no milk, because I was too tired/sick to feed her some with milk. Never.

Wasn't me who bought tons of ingredients for all the recipes I was so excited to make a couple weeks ago and now, with the exception of making maybe 2 dishes, said ingredients are rotting in the fridge b/c everything I thought sounded so good now makes me gag.

So what haven 't you done this week?

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Project Life Week 6

Sunday, February 7
















Ella is big into dress up lately. The only clothes she'll wear around the house is dress up costumes and this little slip has become her go to outfit. It falls just above her belly button and just makes her look like a cute little early 1900's baby. I love it. I'm going to have to do some real pictures of her in it. She just looks so sweet and innocent like a little antique baby doll.

Monday, January 8

















She told me she had made a bed and was putting herself to sleep. Didn't happen.


Tuesday, January 9



Add Image













She kept running around saying "What am I going to do? What am I going to do" with her little hands on her face. I have no idea what was perplexing her but it was funny.
















She took her goldfish crumbled them out and spread them out on the tv stand. Then she jumped up in the chair I was sitting in and standing on my legs said "Whaddya think?" I said "what do I think about what" She flails out her
hand like a baby Vanna White in the direction of her "creation" and proudly yells "Goreeka" (I guess eureeka). She was just too funny to get too angry.


Thursday February 11
















Laci filling out her Valentines for her class party. I think we were the only school in Maryland to have school last Friday!

Friday, February 12

















Saturday, February 13

Ella wants to crawl in bed with Laci all the time and "go to bed" she usually pops back out about 3 min. after I leave. It will be nice when she's old enough for them to have sleep overs if Laci wants to by then!






















Started potty training. A book I orderd from Amazon for her came and apparently it was good Potty Propoganda b/c she wanted to try immediately. No luck on this day. Note the sippy cup I made her sit and drink to try and help the process. She sat here for 45 minutes. When she got up she refused diapers because Molly Matthews in her book got big girl "unnerpants" when she sat on the potty. I relented and while I ran upstairs quickly to grab a shirt I heard "I gotta go potty" I came down to see I was too late in a mere 10 seconds. She had not just peed but stood on Laci's bookbag of all places and peed. Poor Laci.



















Here is a bonus Wednesday picture! It won't go where its supposed to though :( We had our first ultrasound last Wed. Unfortunately the ultrasound tech was an older guy and though we saw really good shots of the baby he obviously wasn't worried about getting us a nice picture. We got 3 all of this which looks more like a chicken nugget than a baby ;( But at least we saw the little bean!

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

2010 a year of blessings indeed!

I think I vaguely recall starting this whole blog thing off with a post about change in my life. In that blog post I remember writing how with all this change about I was sure 2010 was to be a year of blessing in our life, following up a bit of a tough one for us. Little did I know just how much blessing was in store!

Probably most, if not everyone now knows I am pregnant. Today I had my first dr. appointment and ultrasound. Having had a previous miscarriage, ultrasounds no longer are a source purely of excitement for me, they're mixed a bit with sadness and even a bit of panic or terror. The first ultrasound of the baby we lost was the one when I was in the E.R. after a nice lunch with friends and that ultrasound told us our baby had died. So I went into today with reserved excitement and a pit in my stomach. Though I felt all was well, and looked forward to solid confirmation that familliar dread crept in. I held my breath as he laid the probe against my exposed tummy and fought the urge to turn my head to the side not facing the monitor squeezing my eyes shut. Thankfully I didn't because immediately my little baby bean popped up on the monitor. The tech found the exact right spot with his first try, and we could even immediately see the flickering of a tiny heart. (so I'm crying now as i type this the full realization of the mix of emotions cascading on my mind during this retelling)

If you've never had the heartbreak of losing a baby, you can't understand, and thank God for that. I dont' wish this understanding on anyone. Every mom is esctatic to see that heart beat, but none more so than the mother who has seen the still baby or the empty sac on the cold monitor. That not only baby, but also heartbeat immediately were easily visible to my untrained eye I truly thank God for, my rainbow of promise. A tight squeeze in my hand by Tony and I'm sure he was thinking the same.

The ultrasound was quite short but long enough for us to see the wiggling of tiny limbs which have the outlines of hands and nubs of digits and even a close up on that tiny yet to be fully formed face.

I feel I can breathe easier now knowing that in my womb there is still a life that God knew even before it was created. A heart beating (and strong at 170) that will one day be given to that God in devotion and faith. And a year that indeed is bursting full of blessings.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Project Life Tuesday- Week 5

Sunday, January 31st

Ella's birthday party had to be postponed a day due to unruly snow, so we had it on Sunday instead of Saturday. This is my beautiful Princess Ella Mouse on her 2nd birthday. She looks so grown up it breaks my heart, but I am truly enjoying this stage. She loves playing ded at her make believe skills. Her older sister was alwaress up and I'm amazys so intellectual and beyond her years, its fun to have a toddler who acts like a toddler this time, not a civil war scholar!











Monday, February 1st
I can't believe January is over already! This is what I walk into after stupidly trying to clean another room. This does not show the extent of the Skittle spillage. My carpet looked like a Twister mat for bugs or something. This is Ella enjoying an upside down snack hanging off the couch. I don't know, I really don't. Notice the Jasmine costume top that seems to have slipped off during her hand stand. She wears costumes all day long now.












Tuesday,February 2nd

This is Ella - in a gift bag. She was running around like crazy, a video would be more appropriate to post as it was quite hilarious the way she was moving those skinny chicken legs. I walked in and at first since it covers most of her all I saw was this giant bag darting across my living room, very spastically. Then I saw legs . This kid is nuts and always finds some quirky antic to make me laugh each day.
























Wednesday, February 3rd
This is Ella holding her cousin Gavin after I did a photo session with him and his mom, my sister. I had to take this quickly while she was putting the other kid in the car because she probably would have had a spazz attack knowing Ella was holding him. I thought it was cute and particularly like how she is cautiously holding him yet letting him dangle off her princess couch :D She tried to get him to give her a piggy back ride earlier in the night when he was having tummy time on the ground. She sees a back-its fair game and time for a ride!














Thursday, February 4th

We went to look at cabinets with our contractor and his wife. We saw his handiwork in 4 houses and are excited because he is awesome!!! Our cabinet maker does beautiful custom work as well and I am so excited (even though I really don't care about cabinets) to have custom made oak (i think we're doing oak, maybe hickory) cabinets in our house! He also does the countertops and we came home with several hundred samples, here's a few we're considering. Any suggestions? It was a nice night, they took us out to a nice dinner afterwards. Sadly, this is the first "date" we've had in months, and it was with our contractor! They're nice people, I'd double with them anytime :D













Friday, February 5th

This is a tree outside our house snow, snow, snow and this was just the begining of what was to come.































Saturday, February 6th

And here is what came! We had close to 40"! Maybe I'll post a few, poor Laci has yet to make an appearance in this week. This pregnancy wipes me out in the afternoon and I just haven't felt like taking any after she gets home from school. Making a mental note for next week!!!



































Thursday, February 4, 2010

Stay at Home Moms are idiots and my rules for dealing with brainwashed Libs.

Or so I learned tonight while debating with a public school teacher who has the grammar of a fourth grader and spelling skills of a highly trained ape. No, really.

My friend homeschools and she was writing on facebook, the bastion of free thought and opinion (snicker), how much she loves it, the support, the community and the resources that are so abundant her children just can't partake of it all.

This guy pops up and immediately posts incoherent arguments about why private school is evil. Okay, she homeschools, he's yelling about private, agenda anyone? So of course, I have to jump in because I think public school is the pits quite honestly and who can argue, as he did, that public school is so far beyond comparison with the underlings private and home. (no underling is a 3 syllable word, he used double at best and couldnt' spell them correctly).

His first point which rides till it is legless and beyond is:

Public School Does Not Kick Out Kids Who Do Not Fit the Mold.

This one I decimate immediately noting that my daughter's school alone is filled with kids who have been PERMANENTLY KICKED OUT OF PUBLIC SCHOOL. They have no other option, but, where, oh yeah A PRIVATE SCHOOL. This simple point is lost on Mr. Dunderhead (no that's what his students call him), although eventually (55 posts later) he gets it, I think, because though he doesn't address it he mysteriously drops this faithful steed and jumps on the next lame horse.

Private Schools Do Not Take In Disabled Children.

This guy is totally playing from Liberal for Dummies handbook at this point. I immediately negate this too, as I know of some in my own daughters school again. He tries the old lib play of attack the messenger when they're smarter than you, by saying "well you're a sub, enough said" Really, because I am a sub, or even just a parent of a student, I don't know enough about the school, how about I know these kids have disabilities, (none as great as his) and I proved you wrong jerk.

Well he never can get a point across that holds water so then I am uneducated, based solely on the fact I now have chosen not to be a full time worker. He goes on and on about this in a condescending tone. Unfortunately, for him, its hard to be upset by claims that I am unintelligent by someone whose posts look like they were translated from Japanese into English by a deaf, blind, mute, who only speaks Spanish. No really, his arguments were incoherent and misspelled, proving my private/homeschool can often be the best choice for a child argument.

He then gets into politics saying my friend and I are just repeating a pledge from Glenn Beck or something. Okay, I don't know how that even fits in to the current debate, but I respond by saying "yeah, because we're incapable of forming opinions independent of Fox News correspondents" he thinks he's cute so he deletes his comment making it look as though my friend and I are admitting this. I suppose sarcasm and wit are something that this particular "educator" also has trouble with along with basic English, because even without his comment anyone could see it was sarcasm and not some sort of admittance. Too funny!

So it goes on and on, him calling me stupid despite my education, just because I choose to stay at home. I have never been fired from anywhere and could do darn well whatever I wished, yes I'm that darn smart, but because I choose to invest in my children and not into a career, I'm a moron. (pretty sure moron was spelled by him with a c somehow.) Again liberal playbook, attack and run.

And run that little bugger did. I unleashed my unholy pregnant rage on his "unbiased" behind and you know what he did? He deleted every vile nasty comment and every lame point he made in an effort to look innocent. Too funny. Just like the Obama administration scouring the internet deleting all the past unsavory comments made by him and his Land of the Czars (do we use the cz or the ts version? I'm new to being communist). No really, and it was so funny, because I think what really got his goat was when (after he kept telling me to GET A CLUE, b/c remember I"m a dummy b/c I stay at home) I wrote : "BTW, Get a clue, really that is such an awesome burn. Idk how you built your way back machine, but if you have time do you think you could steal a comeback line for me from the 50's too?"

I mean, I'm super proud of this and I will stand by it :D And I don't know how thin skinned you are, but if it offends you, 1. buck up 2. he was flat out namecalling and being degrading, this doesn't even touch his. 3. Its hilarious, deal with it.

I had already declared myself champion ( i really did, I told him thanks for continuing to prove my point by posting poorly worded misspelled posts I like going to bed a champion), so his taking his ball and going home by deleting his more abrasive posts ( i say more because they all were) declared me victor officially :D

My point is :

1. If you engage a rabid liberal be prepared for a lot of poorly regurgitated facts. Also, be prepared to hear the same ones again and again, because original thought is not a trait they posess.

2. Be prepared for the use of the word "unbiased" in the most biased of sentences. Libs pride themselves on being acceptant of everyone and their ideas, when really the slightest deviation you may have from their trained thought throws them into a hell bourne rage nothing can stop. THEY ARE RIGHT YOU IDIOT.

3. Blind acceptance of non-fact as cold stone fact in the face of obvious repudiation. (goes along with being "unbiased")

4. When they realize somewhere deeps in the recesses of that soul that has been beaten into a corner, that "oops, that sounded like a fact from my opponenent" you will be verbally punished. You will be slandered, demeaned and ridiculed. (poorly and much like schoolyard taunting and name calling) The liberal is terrified to have his/her worldview questioned/threatened with truth (and truth shines through darkness) so much so, that they will attack and try to make you feel like an idiot. You knowing this already will laugh and appreciate that sad attempt on the little LIbby's part.

5. When you have thoroughly proven yourself superior in intellect and capable of forming coherent truthful arguments (the liberals achille's heel) they will finish berating you then run off to hide, often erasing all incriminating evidence to their stupidity. They may also try and trap you using "your own words" sadly confused by your use of wit and clear sarcasm.

6. You'll always win, because, face it, liberalism is a failed concept, need proof, look no further than the last 2 years. Do not expect an accepatnce on the libs, part, no, libearls, being short sided and often shallow are incapable of introspection. This however does work to your advantage, because you can easily defeat them next time when they pull out the same "facts" you've already decimated.

Good luck. However, don't listen to me, I'm just a stupid stay at home mom :D

*Disclaimer because we live in a PC society and anything anyone says tongue in cheek or not that doesn't agree with one's own world view is seen as a threat or attack I wish to say I by no means hate public schools or their teachers. My characterization (a most flattering one) for this particular oaf does not reflect my view of the many well qualified, hard working teachers out there liberal, conservative or otherwise. I do not think public schools should be abolished, not that they would, nor do I think everyone should have the same view point as I.I do not look down on people who send their kids to public school or said children. I do believe for me and my family for a myriad of social, religious, political, educational and more reasons, public schools are not a fit for us. I do not believe all private schools are perfect. I do believe in a voucher system or something in the way of the wildly successful, Charter program in DC opening up choice to families who have no option other than public schools. The government is doing a great injustice to many kids who flourished under such a program, just because Charter schools wildly outscored the public schools once again showing government can do nothing right, therefore, they had to be quashed. If you take offense to this, its your issue and I'm sorry contact me, and we'll talk it out, but I'll respectfully stand by my opinion and champion your right to yours. If you are a liberal and are reading this, more than likely we are friends and therefore though you know I deeply disagree with you and your political beliefs at their very core and can never reconcile what I see is misguided and damaging to this nation with my own beliefs, you are not an idiotic liberal incapable of hearing other sides. Therefore do not take the above description to heart as it does not apply to you. You have your beliefs and are entitled to them, where you differ from above Liberal is you know I have mine and indeed am entitled to them and are not enraged at our impasse. Good for you, should you ever care to engage in a lively, civilized debate without name calling or degradation I would be happy to oblige.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Kind of behind this week, so I didn't have time to write days on the pictures. Oh well! It was a crazy week, with snow storms and birthdays, which ended up being postponed birthdays and I was pretty much home alone this week as Tony was out of town most of it!

Sunday January, 24 2009

Joaquin Phoenix stopped by for a visit.






















Monday January, 25 2009

I was taking a picture of how Ella's room (which is just a playroom since her toddler bed is in our room) is now covered wall to wall with toys after the double whammy of Christmas and her birthday, and she decided she needed to add some excitement to the shot.


















Tuesday January, 26 2009

I wanted to do something fun with the girl's so we had our first ever Ice Cream Sundae for dinner night.


















Wednesday January, 27 2009

Ella has to dress up to watch Mickey Clubhouse now. I love that she is in the dress up stage, its always so cute. She is so good at playing pretend too. She tells you who you are supposed to be and who she is and doesn't break character. Pretty impressive for a 2 year old.


















Thursday January, 28 2009

I melted a plate again. Well, not again, its not usually plates but other random items. Laci could give you a rundown if you really wanted to know. She started reciting the litany of them to me when she saw this. I can never do just one thing though, I have to multi-task. And sometimes with muti-tasking there are some casualties...





















Friday January, 29 2009

I had to decorate for Ella Bella's Meeska Mooska Mickey Mouse Birthday Bash! Luckily my mother in law had blown up a bunch of balloons and hung them from the ceiling, prom style, already so it didn't take as long as last year! This is just the coloring table.



















Saturday January, 30 2009
This was supposed to be Ella's birthday party, but we had to postpone due to weather so I thought I'd break some news instead with this picture.


















Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Project Life Tuesday...

And I'm ready this week! Yay! I really like this. I "keep" a journal for both girls since they were born. And by "keep" I mean that I write several months at a time b/c I get behind...with this project I'm capturing real everyday moments and I think they speak even more. And I can always look back on these to fill in my spots in their life journals :)

Sunday, January 17

Yes, she shoved an entire piece of broccoli in her mouth. She loves her "bawky trees"



















Monday, January 18

Something went terribly wrong when she tried to take her shirt off. We both found it amusing, I took pictures while she walked around for about a half an hour this way...













Tuesday, January 19

I'm pretty sure I didn't pay $100 for a drawing tablet... Our Wii Fit is now red and blue streaked...














Wednesday, January 20

Ella is in the stage where she likes to where everyone's shoes. This day it was my autographed Newsboys chucks and she was quite proud of herself.

















Thursday, January 21

Ella gave me a manicure...














Friday, January 22

Ella's first piggytails. I've been putting it off, because I knew she would look so old, but she does look adorable with them...














Saturday, January 23

"....No I don't think so" Laci loves the cheers with attitude, like this and especially ones that say boom where she shakes her hip out...she has those parts down!

Monday, January 25, 2010

The Parent Trap

Parenthood is quite stressful for me the last two weeks. I believe some evil person gave Ella the memo about the terrible two's covertly hidden in a birthday card. I'm serious, she turned two 2 weeks ago and instantaneously got wilder. By no means was she ever our calm child but the extreme switch has been switched on her.

She does not stop! She has taken her manic tiny Robin Williams act, reserved normally for when she's overtired and put it into all day use. There is only so much I can handle. The destructor in her has also felt a greater need to be expressed. I daily cannot find my floor despite vain efforts to follow behind and pick the disaster in her wake. Just today I stupidly decided to do something productive and do a load of dishes in the dishwasher while she watched Mickey. In the time it took me to unload and reload the dishwasher, she had destroyed the living room including covering it in crushed up Cream Cheese and Chive crackers all over, taffy pushed on the tv, various other crumbly food mashed all about, where that came from or how she opened it I don't care to know.

In the midst of the Ella chaos I have Laci who is coming home with more and more homework, because she evidently is not finishing her classwork. She already has too much to begin with and her short attention span ignites both her dad's and my fuses. It does not take a normal person a half hour for one worksheet and there is no reason she needs her hand held for every little detail, but alas she does. She also feels the need to tattle on everything Ella does in the most whiney of voices, as if anyone in this house can do anything about it. She's two and she's terrible, deal with it. Laci's over emotional state helps nothing, nor does the fact Tony is back with CSX which is a good thing, but he comes and goes at odd times, mostly going, on a train, that has no kids, sleeping in a hotel room...that has no kids...how I'd love to board that train somedays.

In the midst of this just when I truly feel like I will most definitely lose it, I can see my hair sticking up frayed, blood shot crazy eyes, typical frazzled cartoon mom they actually do something to remind why its all worth it.

Laci hugs Ella and tells her how much she just loves being her sister (moments after declaring she never wanted a sister why does she have to be cursed with this one ) or announces "mom I washed Ella 's hair for you" (which is more trouble than help, but the thought is touching), Ella gives me the best squeeze the neck hug saying "I wubby you mommy", or like tonight while I carried her out to the car she looks up says "oooh Moon" and grasping her hands together by her cheeks says dreamily "I wish, I wish". Moments like that give the strength to flatten down the hair standing on end, rub your eyes, take a deep breath and wait for the next onslaught of chaos. If only for a moment you remember why kids are so wonderful, especially yours and just how fast they are growing and its once again all worth it.

Of course as I finished that Ella kicked me off the couch, although followed it up with a neck squeeze from behind. At least she's starting to balance the terrible with the lovey.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Project Life Tuesday!

So my bestie Jenn P. introduced me to the world of JesusNeedsNewPr, by Matthew Paul Turner http://jesusneedsnewpr.blogspot.com/ and subsequently his wife Jessica's wonderful blog http://jessicaturnersblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/project-life-tuesday.html. One of the things I found so great on her site was the idea of Project Life. You take a picture everyday, just one, so its not too much pressure and scrap it to give a wonderful overview of your life each year! I thought it was great but hadn't looked much into it when Jenn decided that this year we were doing it! So excited. Now, as I said I had only taken a cursory look at it and was going to come back so I didn't realize that we're to post our pics each week, so this will be a catchup week w/ two sets being posted. Here we go:

Sunday January 3rd:



We went to my mother in laws for some more time with Tony's cousins who now live in CO, we love seeing them and now unfortunately they live so far that it is no as much as we like. This day the kids did the Christmas scavenger hunt that has been a tradition since Tony was a kid. The girl's also had a joint Birthday party since the CO girls don't usually get to come to our parties anymore.


Monday January 4th:

Took some shots of her after a bath, thought she had a sweet expression here, maybe a bit bewildered...













Tuesday January 5th:

We've had quite a bit of snowfall this year and apparently my husband has been shovelling the snow from our walk way into one huge pile that looked like a nice mountain for Ella to perch upon.











Wednesday, January 6th:

Daddy was on the road working, so we celebrated his birthday a day late.









Thursday, January 7th: The Wii Fit came today. Laci is addicted and Ella brings in the scale as her own Wii board.













Friday, January 8th:

Went to Princess and the Frog with Jenn and Mia, the girls also exchanged Christmas gifts.









Saturday, Januray 9th:
My 2 girls, Ella was very sad that Laci and Mommy left her Friday for a girls' night out so Laci spent some quality time with Ella this day.












Sunday, January 10th:

Laci up at the house we are remodelling, apparently in Alaska.










Monday, January 11th: While Laci was at dance I took Ella to pick out her birthday crown and sash at Claire's. She picked the biggest crown they had! She also had to have a silver purse with a sparkly pink chiuhauah (sp) wearing a pink crown. She thinks the dog is Sleeping Beauty.












Tuesday, January 12th: Ella Bella Baby Boo's 2nd birthday. So sad :( Have to put a picture w/her princess cake in here too....














Wednesday, January 13th: This picture will have to wait to be released at a later date....

Thursday, January 14th: My beautiful Laci and her love of headwear... Notice the scratches on her forehead, Ella has been attacking her face!













Friday January 14th: I took pictures of Laci's school cheer and basketball teams..
Laci is in the second row on the left.









Saturday, January 15th: Laci cheered at her first game. She did so well!