Health Message

Just a little funny I had e-mailed to me. :-)

As I was lying in bed pondering the problems of the world,
I rapidly realized that I don't really give a rat's hiney.
It's the tortoise life for me!

1. If walking is good for your health, the postman would be immortal.
2. A whale swims all day, only eats fish, drinks water, and is fat.
3. A rabbit runs and hops and only lives 15 years.
4. A tortoise doesn't run and does nothing, yet it lives for 450 years.

And you tell me to exercise?? I don't think so.

I'm retired. Go around me.

Letting Go

At some point, as a parent, you have to let go of your children and let them venture off to do new things and have new experiences. Well, this week was my week to let our daughter go. She is staying with my hubby's parents for the week.

I didn't want her to go but unfortunately even though I wasn't ready to let her go, I didn't really have a choice. They made me do it. Once the idea of staying with grandpa and grandma was in her head and they told her all the fun things they could do, places they could go, if she stayed with them, I didn't really have a choice but to say yes, she could go, whether I wanted her to or not. If I'd said no, I was the bad guy, the mean mommy, and she would have been mad at me and of course, I didn't want that.

Right now I'm a bit upset over it all and really miss not having her here. This is only the third time I've ever been away from her overnight. The other times were some time ago. Twice when I was in the hospital and once when she stayed at the hotel when hubby's parents were in town visiting.

Being away from her while I was in the hospital wasn't too hard. I missed her but I don't think it bothered me as much because, well, I didn't really have a say so in being away from her. It was out of my control. I had to be away.

When she stayed at the hotel with hubby's parents while they were in town visiting, that wasn't too bad either but she was also only gone basically long enough to sleep and then they came back. Plus, they were right here in town, close to our house, not hundreds of miles away in a completely different city and state.

To make it worse, some of the things hubby's parents are going to do with our daughter this week are things that we wanted to do with her like go shopping, go see a movie, and take her to their local zoo. I know we can still do those things but it might not be as fun or mean as much to her if she's already done them. I'm sure we'll be able to do other things with her to make some memories too though.

While she is staying with them, I think they also plan to take her places that I would prefer she DIDN'T go, and I think they know this, but they will still probably take her there anyway. What can I do though? Nothing really.

Our son was extremely upset when we left sister at their grandpa and grandma's house. He was crying so hard that hubby stopped to talk with him. My hubby even thought about going back to get our daughter, that's how upset our son was. Even though our kids don't always get along, our son LOVES his big sister SO much!

Some might think I'm being crazy and selfish about this whole ordeal but no one but me understands how I feel about my kids. I'm a different kind of mom who would rather have my kids close to me so I know what they are doing and that they are safe.

Yes, I sometimes complain about my kids and their behavior. What parent doesn't at one point or another? And yes, I enjoy an occasional date night out with hubby or a day out and about with my mom to get a little kid free time, but overall at the end of the day, I want my kids here with me when it's time for bed so I can tuck them in and say I love you.

Don't get me wrong, I want our children to have a good relationship with their grandparents. I have a wonderful one with mine. I'm just upset that I was forced to let go before I was ready. It would have been hard for me regardless of when it happened, but not getting to decide the timing on my own, made it THAT much harder.

Yes, I'm an adult and it's crazy that our daughter is handling this better than mommy. Yes, I will eventually get over it because it isn't the end of the world. Yes, there are MANY other things in life that CAN and probably WILL be harder to handle than this. I realize all these things but still can't help but miss our little girl! This week CANNOT get over soon enough for me!

Quote For The Day- 7/29/2012

If you can dream it, you can do it.
Walt Disney

Where's Daddy?

Yesterday hubby went downstairs to do some laundry. Yes, you read that right! My hubby does laundry! I'm a very lucky woman and I know this!

Hubby carries down all the dirty laundry to the basement. He washes and dries it, then carries it back upstairs. I then fold and put it away although sometimes hubby helps with this part too. No, I will not trade him or rent him out! I'm keeping this guy all to myself!

Sooooo, back to how this blog post started. Hubby went downstairs to do some laundry yesterday and my son was trying to find daddy. I told him he went downstairs. He wanted to go get him but I told him to just wait, he'd be back soon.

Daddy came back up but a bit later he went back downstairs again. When my son noticed he was gone he wanted to know where daddy was. When I told him he had gone back downstairs he said, "Again?"

It is so cute to hear the little people talk! Some of the things they say are really adorable that you wish you had a tape recorder going at the time. It would really be cute and fun to share with others or even just listen to it again yourself at a later time.

Air Conditioning

This past week was a bit hectic for us. Hubby was out of town leaving me to play both mommy and daddy, while he was working long hours in a warehouse with no air conditioning. He took a picture of the thermometer in the warehouse and it read 110 degrees Fahrenheit. Wowsers! That's HOT!

I know I'm glad hubby is back home now and I'm sure he is glad to be back home too where he has air conditioning! Can you imagine NOT having it when temperatures climb so high? 

Quote For The Day- 7/26/2012

I've worked too hard and too long to let anything stand in the way of my goals. I will not let my teammates down and I will not let myself down.
Mia Hamm

Quote For The Day- 7/25/2012

I was motivated to be different in part because I was different.
Donna Brazile

Getting Up Early

So last week we were preparing for my grandparent's anniversary party which made last Friday a shopping day so that meant we had to get up a bit earlier than we normally would have. Being that it is summer now, the kids and I have been taking advantage of not having to be up early to get my daughter off to school. We've been sleeping in a bit nearly everyday lately!

Since we needed to get up earlier on Friday, that meant putting the kids to bed earlier on Thursday evening, which back fired on us because Friday morning our son was up earlier than we wanted to be up.

From his room, we hear our son's little voice yell, "The potty is here!" Hubby got up to go get him and I looked at the clock. It was just after 7am!

After my son was finished using the bathroom, he came in my room and said, "I got out of my room. It's morning. Get up!"

Yeah, hubby and I were NOT ready to get up yet but alas we did. Kind of had no choice. I walked into the living room and hubby was lying on the couch. I looked at my son and said something like, "When I said you had to get up early, I didn't mean this early."

So that afternoon, after all the shopping was finished and we were back home, our son had a nap. He definitely needed it after getting up SO early! I could have taken a long nap too but didn't. I did I think catch a short little power nap though while lying down with him until he fell asleep.

Quote For The Day- 7/23/2012

I don't believe you have to be better than everybody else. I believe you have to be better than you ever thought you could be.
Ken Venturi

Relaxing

Yesterday we celebrated my grandparent's 60th wedding anniversary. We had a meal and then a delicious cake for dessert. Lots of planning and work went into the event. I think my grandparents really enjoyed it although my grandpa was feeling a bit under the weather. We're still not sure what was making him not feel good but hopefully he'll get some rest and be up to par again, feeling like himself soon.

I counted the names in the guest book and I believe we had at least 54 people attend the anniversary party. We definitely had enough food. Better to have too much than not enough. After we cleaned up the church where we had the party, we loaded up everyone's vehicles and went to one of my aunt's houses to continue to visit and hang out for awhile.

Our day yesterday began with getting up early and getting home VERY late so today the kids and I are just sitting around the house relaxing in our pj's. Hubby went to a movie with one of my brothers so in a way he's relaxing too. None of us are probably going to do much of anything today. After yesterday, we deserve a day of relaxation!

Quote For The Day- 7/21/2012

Go big or go home. Because it's true. What do you have to lose?
Eliza Dushku

Quote For The Day- 7/20/2012

Either you run the day or the day runs you.
Jim Rohn

Quote For The Day- 7/19/2012

By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail.
Benjamin Franklin

My Thirteenth Featured Etsian

Meet Donna, from the Etsy shop mystuff2! Her shop can be found here. She sells bookmarks, greeting cards, and gift tags. I chose her to be my thirteenth featured Etsian for two reasons:

1.She is just one of the sweetest, and I mean SWEETEST people I've met on Etsy. I'm betting that those of you who know her would totally agree!

2. The items sold in her shop are just fantastic! If you've purchased her items before then you know what I mean by fantastic. If you haven't purchased from her then you are missing out!

The bookmarks found in Donna's shop are just the right size, well made, and would make for a GREAT stocking stuffer idea for anyone you know who likes to read. If you don't stuff stockings, pair up one of Donna's bookmarks with a book as a gift for that avid reader you know.

The greeting cards in Donna's shop come blank inside leaving the option open for you to use for numerous occasions from thank you cards, get well cards, or simply just to say hello cards, to name just a few.

The gift tags that Donna makes are probably one of my most favorite items found in Donna's shop. These little gift tags not only would work for a gift tag for a gift, a thank you card for your Etsy buyers, but from personal experience, they make for AWESOME little lunch box notes. I've used them to send notes in my grade school daughter's lunch. The pretty flower ones and animal ones were a hit with my daughter.

Don't think that the pictures in this blog post are the only designs that Donna has to offer. Go check out her shop for more wonderful designs!

60th Anniversary

This month my grandparents will be celebrating being married for 60 years! Can you imagine being with someone for THAT long? That's a whole lotta years!

My hubby and I have been married for 15 years and I look forward to being able to celebrate 60 years with him! I can only hope we'll still be just as happy after all those years like my grandparents seem to be.

My grandparents are so sweet and cute together even after all this time. Definitely true love right there! They were married and not long after, grandpa went overseas. How hard would THAT have been?

This week there is a lot of party preparations going on as we will be celebrating their anniversary this weekend. It's a lot of work putting together such a big event but well worth it in the end. We know that everyone will enjoy helping my grandparents celebrate this wonderful occasion.

I'm sure that lots of fun memories will be talked about especially after everyone gets to looking at the old photos we'll have displayed about. It will be a great time to reminisce. I'm looking forward to it!

My Twelfth Featured Etsian

I found my twelfth featured Etsian, Harriet, on one of our daily treasuries we have been making this year. The shop owner of the Etsy shop HarrietDamave, which sells unique contemporary hand painted delft porcelain, took the time to leave a comment on our treasury when she was not even one of the featured shops at the time.

All items in this shop are hand formed and hand painted in the traditional Dutch Delft technique using cobalt oxide and transparent porcelain glaze or tin glaze in Harriet's home studio in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

I love the items listed in this shop! Well, because as you can see by the pictures posted in this blog, they are blue! Any of you who read my blog on a regular basis quite possibly know that my all time FAVORITE color is blue so I really enjoyed browsing this shop!

These photos are just a few of the wonderful items made by this talented Etsian! If you want more color than just blue and white though, be sure to check out her other shop, houseofharriet.

All Dressed Up

Today my daughter wanted me to wear a dress and wear my hair down. Normally I don't do this unless I'm going somewhere special or it's date night with hubby but I thought, eh, why not!

My daughter also wanted me to wear one of her flower hair clips because she said it matched my dress. I personally thought the flower a bit big for my taste, but I wore it.

I sure did feel pretty today! A girl needs that every once in awhile!

Got Home Later Than I Thought

Well dear readers. I've been doing SO well with my New Year's resolution to post on my blog daily this year but alas I didn't post yesterday.

Last night we went to our friend's daughter's 12th birthday party with all intentions of just staying for a few hours and then coming home. Ummm.....that didn't happen!

I was going to blog and make my daily treasury when we got back but we ended up getting home later than I thought we would so by the time we got home and baths/showers were taken, we called it a night.

It was a lot of fun sitting around relaxing and chatting with friends that we don't see all too often. So I missed a day of blogging and treasury making. No big deal. I'll post two blog posts today and make two treasuries today to make up for it! All is good!

So stay tuned for another read later tonight! :-)

Getting Your Teeth Cleaned

Isn't it funny how before you go to the dentist to have your teeth cleaned you do at least one of these:

brush them

floss them

use mouthwash

Ummm....isn't that why you are going to the dentist? To have your teeth cleaned? So why do so many of us do part of it for them before we even go? Well, I know the answer to that. It's so our mouths aren't all gross but still, isn't it funny?

If only we did ALL three things everyday then that dental cleaning would REALLY be a breeze!

I know I brush my teeth on a daily basis more than once a day and use mouthwash at times but I am definitely guilty of not flossing as often as I should. How about you?

Getting My Hair "Fixed"

My daughter likes to "fix" my hair. She will get all kinds of hair accessories, mostly hair clips, and a comb or brush then she's ready to give me a new hair style.

My son has the monkey see monkey do thing going on so of course when my daughter is "fixing" my hair he wants to do the same thing.

Sometimes he wants to "fix" my hair even when my daughter isn't. This was the case a little over a week ago. He asked if he could and when I told him yes, he was off to get the comb from the bathroom drawer. He doesn't care about all the hair accessories like his sister does. Lol.

So I'm sitting there and as he twists my head around telling daddy to look at my hair, my son looks at me and says, "You real pretty." Awww, how cute is that?

My Eleventh Featured Etsian

Some time ago, I posted a blog post about how I enjoy featuring fellow Etsians on my blog and wrote that if you had an Etsy shop and wanted to be featured, to let me know.

Well, my eleventh featured Etsian let me know! The spotlight for this blog post is shining upon Heather, the shop owner of spunkysensations on Etsy.

She would like to think that she is a jack of all trades! She is really enjoying promoting small Etsy businesses! That is who she is and what she loves. Check out her Etsy shop here and her blog here while you are floating around in cyber space!

The Adult Feud

I was watching the television game show called The Family Feud tonight and have decided it really should not be called that. It should be called The Adult Feud!

Here's why I think this. One of the questions asked of 100 people on tonight's episode was- Name a large animal that has a large package. Really? On a game show called The FAMILY Feud? Like children need to hear things like this! I know I don't want my kids hearing it so they will not be watching this show anymore!

This isn't the first time I've watched this game show and heard things that I felt inappropriate for children. If you read my blog posts on a regular basis then you might have seen my other post about this show. If not, it can be found here.

This show may have contestants who are family members but it really is not a show for the WHOLE family to watch. It is at times not too kid friendly!

Quote For The Day- 7/9/2012

Believe in yourself! Have faith in your abilities! Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy.
Norman Vincent Peale

Cooler Weather

We had cooler weather in our area today if you can really call it cooler? After having triple digits this past week, low 90 degree temperatures sure felt cooler!

Tomorrow our high temperature is suppose to be 89 degrees. Wow! We'll be back in the 80's! Hooray!

Hubby and I are BOTH already waiting for Fall to arrive! If I'm on board with being done with summer already, and it's only the beginning of July, then you KNOW it has been HOT here!

Helpful Daughter

Since I blogged about my son yesterday, I decided I wanted to blog about my daughter today. She'll be thrilled to know this as she LOVES it when I blog about her.

She likes to be helpful at times and then other days she wants to be lazy. I never really know which to expect from her but that is pretty typical with kids, huh?

One time in particular that I remember her wanting to be helpful was about a month and a half ago. She wanted to help get her little brother dressed. I heard her in his room going through his drawers trying to find something for him to wear.

She came to me holding a pair of his summer pajama shorts. I told her his shorts were in one drawer and his shirts were hanging in his closet. She said, "Oh." She then went and picked out an outfit for him to wear.

She took him to my room to help him get dressed. Next thing I know I hear this strange noise, almost like rustling paper. I look in and see her with a diaper in her hand. She was planning on changing his diaper too! I told her I'd change his diaper but she could still help him get dressed.

Hmmm..wonder what made her want to be so helpful she'd even change a diaper? She must have wanted something? Although, I really don't remember if she did or didn't? More than likely she didn't. She usually gets in a helpful mood sometimes just because. It's nice! Wish she was that helpful ALL the time!

Knock Knock

So anyone with kids, grandkids, or someone who has just been around kids knows they can say some cute, adorable things at times along with doing cute, adorable things as well. Of course you know they have those NOT so cute, adorable moments too but we won't discuss THOSE right now.

I thought I'd write about something my son did some time ago that I thought was cute, adorable, and funny all at the same time.

My hubby was in the bathroom, door shut and locked, when our 3 year old son goes to the door and knocks LOUDLY, then yells, "It's me!"

To which daddy tells him, "Shhhh." I think this was for a few reasons. I think our daughter was already in bed AND he didn't need to be yelling. Only thing was, I also think daddy was wanting him to be quiet and go away from the door. Our son translated the "Shhhh" as to mean he needed to whisper.

Next thing our 3 year old did was whisper over and over again until daddy was finished, "Open the door please. It's me. Open the door please."

Once daddy opened the door, our son told him, "I knocked knocked on the door like this." Then he preceded to knock on the door again. Gotta LOVE those toddler years don't ya?

Pretzels

Bags of pretzels make for a good, quick snack. I don't like the regular salted pretzels too much but do have a few other favorites. One of the better brands of pretzels that I do like are the Hy-vee butter braided pretzels BUT my all time FAVORITE type of pretzel would have to be the Rold Gold Cheddar pretzels. At $3.00 to $4.00 a bag though, unfortunately my checkbook doesn't let me buy my FAVORITE pretzels too often.

So the other day when we were in Hy-vee picking up a few other groceries and hubby wanted to go down the chip aisle, you can bet I snatched up a bag of cheddar pretzels QUICKLY when I saw they were on sale for the AMAZING price of $1.88 a  bag! I probably should have bought more than one bag at that price but I didn't. Oh well. I'm definitely enjoying snacking on the bag I did purchase though.

If you've never tried cheddar pretzels, you should! Who knows? Maybe you'll love them as much as I do, maybe you won't. You'll never know if you don't taste them for yourself!

And that my dear readers is your try it before you buy it review for today! Now get to the grocery store already and get your own bag of cheddar pretzels! Hopefully they'll be on sale for you too!

Happy 4th Of July

Happy 4th Of July everyone!

Today is another scorcher of a day here in our neck of the woods. Temperature is suppose to reach a whopping 102 degrees! Can you say HOT?

Hope everyone has a safe, fun, cool day! We're staying cool right now sitting around in the air conditioning! 

Too HOT!

I don't like the winter months much because, well frankly, I don't like the cold. I'm a big baby when it comes to cold, snowy, wintery, freezing weather. I'll admit it any day!

So when it's cold outside, I'm wanting warmer weather. When spring arrived this year I was glad! I think spring and fall are my favorite seasons. Not too hot and not too cold. Pretty much just right!

Now that it is summer and going to be in the triple digits for like a week, well, I'm not so glad that the weather is warmer.

I wanted warm weather, not HOT! Triple digits is too HOT! It is currently after 11pm and yet our temperature is STILL 91 degrees! Crazy! Crazy!

I went outside earlier and wasn't even out there but a short time. I wasn't even doing anything but standing outside and yet I still had sweat rolling off of me. You know it's too hot if I'm sweating like that! I'm usually the last one in our family to be hot so I know my hubby and kids were hot too.

So during the winter I was waiting for spring and summer. Now I'm waiting for fall!

Actually

My son had crayons and paper. He was sitting on the floor drawing pictures. He was trying to trace around his hand.

I got down on the floor with him and he traced my hand. He was going to trace my hand again but then changed his mind. He wanted me to trace his.

It was too cute the way he let me know he wanted his hand traced. He's just three years old and used one of the biggest words I think I've heard him use before so I just had to smile. He said, "Actually, you do mine."

Actually. Just picture a 3 year old voice using that word. It was adorable!

Strawberries

We just might get some strawberries off our strawberry plants this year! Key word is MIGHT.

Last year we built a two tiered box and I planted a bunch of strawberry plants that we purchased from one of our daughter's school fundraisers. I waited too long to plant them last year so we didn't know how many of the plants would return this year.

Only a few of the plants from last year made an appearance this year. This past spring, we purchased some more strawberry plants from our daughter's school fundraiser but this time I got them planted not long after we received them.

So with the ones that came back from last year and the ones we purchased this year, I think we have over a dozen strawberry plants and some of them are already growing big enough to shoot off runners growing even more plants.

After a battle with the animals digging them up and eating the few strawberries that were starting to grow, we have finally seen progress and just might end up with a few delicious strawberries!

We had to put some fencing up around the box we built where we've planted our strawberry plants. It seems to have helped keep out the critters.

Yesterday I went out and pulled all the weeds growing around the strawberry plants. Boy, were there a lot! Hubby had taken one of those hoses that has all the tiny holes in it and wrapped it around in the box where the plants are so that makes for easier watering.

Only time will tell how many strawberries we'll get to enjoy eating this year!