My Arch Nemesis

She's relentless.

And messy.

She makes me want to pull my hair out by the handful.

She pushes me to the very limit of sanity.

She's tricky.

I think I've got her licked,

but, nope, I don't.

She's back for round 2 (or round 32).

She makes me long for days of peace and quiet.

Days when I could sit in one place for 5 consecutive minutes.

When my life was a whole lot cleaner.

But the feeling I get when I've taken all she's got, 

And victory is mine...

Priceless.

So long, diapers.

Potty training complete.

:)

I'm crazy, you're crazy.

The day has come.

I will begin potty training in earnest.

I say potty training,

but what I mean is the battle of all battles!

The bladder against all that is cleanly!

The crazy-mommy making task to top all other tasks!

I don't have teenagers, but I imagine it's quite like this.

Struggling with a 2 year old brain,

trying to get them to see the wisdom of following mom and dad's advice.

Whatever, MOM!

I do what I want!!

You can't make me!

Tee hee.

Please God, make this relatively painless.

Forget that!  Make this quick!!

I feel my mind melting already and we are only 3 hours in.

The 5 year hair experiment...

So, when I turned 35, I hatched a plan...

I've always felt that women over 40 look better with short hair.

Don't get me wrong,

I don't mean short, butch I almost look like I could be a boy short.

I mean shoulder length or shorter.

Short and sassy!

SO, when I turned 35, I had really short hair.

Like this:

I thought "This is it, girl.  In five more years, you won't look so hot with long hair. You better do it now... if you ever want long hair again."

So I embarked on the 5 Year Hair Experiment:

Grow it as long as I could before I turned 40, then CHOP it!!

It got pretty long.

There was a "just a trim" disaster incident,

where my sister trimmed an inch or so off the under layer only to drop down the upper layer and...

yikes!  There was a 6 inch difference!!

(note to self:  get your hair trimmed MUCH more often!)

So 6 inches came off maybe 6 months before my 40th bday.

Here I am the weekend before my 40th:

The last two weeks were torture.

It wouldn't do anything!!

I wore it in a pony tail or bun the whole time and FRIZZY!

Hello, brillo pad.

So glad to make the trip to see my sis and say Sayonara!!

It still needs a few tweaks.

I want it shorter in the back and less of a bob look.

And I need to color it RED!

But seriously, hello short and sassy!!

(In the interest of full disclosure, I did freak out for about a week.  It was a big change!  I'm not saying I cried, but it was close.)

Monkey See, Monkey Do

My daughter, who is my youngest, likes to be like her big brothers.

As in, they like light saber fights, she likes light saber fights.

They hate broccoli, she hates broccoli.

They want more TV, she wants more TV.

They pick their noses, she picks her nose.

You know, all that good stuff.

Well, she also likes to take her shirt off when she's they're hot.

I wonder when the time arrives that this is deemed no longer "appropriate"...

I don't want to become the "creepy" mom who lets her daughter run the neighborhood naked.

God knows I've never made a social faux pas in my life!

Hee hee, as if!!

Who's made U laugh today?

I love my kids.

They always make me laugh.

Today, my 4 y/o Ethan and I were talking weather preference.

I said, "I want summer",

to which Ethan replied, "I want winter."

(Oh, ornery age 4!)

So I ask Ava, at almost 2 y/o, "how about you?"

She says, "I want cookies."

Um, me too.

Then over lunch Ethan and I were discussing cheese.

Specifically, types of cheese and what he wanted.

He says, "I want who cheese."

(I don't know what "who cheese" is,

but I trust he does.)

I couldn't help myself though.

I replied, "You're too young for hoochies."

And lastly, on the drive home from Target,

where I resisted the cutest pair of wedges, thank you very much,

a "Shake&Go" car went off in the back seat.

If you don't know, it revs.

Low and kind of gravelly.

I started freaking out.

Why is my car making that sound?  What is going on?

Then the toy says, "speed?  I am speed."

The light bulb goes on.

I am so dumb.  :)

Green with Envy

I painted one of our bathrooms!

It use to look like this...

 Hello, boring little bathroom!

(loves the tp roll on back of the potty - classy.)

After a lot of debate...

And I mean years worth...

I settled on Botanical Green.

Hold on to your hats!!

Hello, Luscious Green!!

Okay, I have to admit,

when it first went up,

I was nervous.

Really nervous.

Like am I really going to have to paint this bathroom white next week kind of nervous.

But she grew on me.

And after a little of this:

(Dang.)

And a lot of this:

Now instead of looking at this,

 suddenly we're looking at this:

So earthy and beautiful.

(but in the interest of full disclosure, it does give one's skin a disconcerting hue.  Maybe not such a good color for the vanity mirror.  My little boys don't care... green is awesome!!) 

I have an art project planned for the walls.

But, another day. 

Now all I need is a cute little window over the throne to let in some natural light.

Baby steps, baby steps.

Mind Melt

So I was going to attempt a post today.
I figured it was time.
And just as a opened up a new post,
Don't ya know it!  I remembered...
I'm suppose to make beef stew for supper...
In the crock pot...
Should've been done 2 hours ago...
Dang it!
So this post will have to wait for another day.
But on the plus side, I am in the middle of painting,
and if I wait another day, I might actually be able to show you what I'm doing.
But to be real, this is me still.
I do things on my own timetable.
(Don't rush me.)
xoxo