You Capture - JOY

When I was growing up we had a tattered little book that I assume originally belonged to my brothers (in other words, was around since the early '60's). It was a Peanuts book called "Happiness Is..." wherein it included several pages of what Charlie Brown and his friends felt "happiness" was all about.

So, I'm approaching this week's You Capture post with similar flair.

JOY is...

Smiling boys (one with CRAZY hair!).



A bowl full of fresh, ripe berries.



Pretty spring blooms.


Please visit Beth at I Should Be Folding Laundry for more You Capture entries. You won't be sorry!

P.S. If you'd like to win some FREE chocolate go to my See's giveaway post HERE!

P.P.S Tomorrow I'll be hosting Past Post Parade again and I'd love for you to come back by and post one of your previous posts from days gone by...

WW - Tex Rex Takes on Dora's Casa

He came, he saw, he caused l'entertainment center to come down upon Dora and her Papa, he conquered, he left. It was all very fast and furious. I know there is no sound but trust me, that's the way it went down.

For more Wordful Wednesday visit Seven Clown Circus.

For more Wordless Wednesday go to 5 Minutes for Mom.


p.s. "See" here for See's Chocolate giveaway!

Tuesday's Tribute - Chocolate (Giveaway!)

I love chocolate.

Y'all have never heard me say that before, have you? Nah. (masking my "shifty" eyes with a Hershey's wrapper...)

Believe it or not, things were a little "iffy" there for a while between me and "The Big C" at the beginning of this pregnancy. I did not (I can't believe I'm about to type this) want it AT. ALL. (I KNOW!!!)

But as I already knew, there is a God, and once my first trimester was over, the sweet nectar of the cocoa bean and I became friends again. Although I mysteriously went from a dark chocolate lover back to a milk chocolate girl. And the Easter candy? Well, it never had a chance!

And now, there's another holiday coming up in which chocolate makes a wonderful gift (but then isn't there always?)

See's Chocolates recently contacted me again and has generously offered one of my lovely readers a $25 gift card to their site just in time for Mother's Day!

If you'd like to win please visit their site here and tell me what you'd pick out for your Mom or even yourself in a comment below! (you must do this to be entered).

You can gain an extra entry by tweeting this giveaway and leaving me the link to your tweet.

Giveaway closes this Friday night (May 1st) at midnight (CST).

Open to U.S. and Canadian residents.


And please, don't blame me for all the drooling that you do while visiting their site (wiping drool from chin as we speak...)

P.S. Tuesday's Tribute is hosted by Angie now. Go over and check it out!

Did I Ever Tell Y'all About the Time...

... that I peed my pants in the third grade?

What can I say? It's late and I need to post something.

Third grade was fine otherwise, except for THAT day. Well and the one where I got in trouble for talking too much in social studies and the teacher made me go back into my home room class and write my name on the board in front of the TAG (talented and gifted) kids. That wasn't so fun either.

Anywho, on with the pee story.

I had to go after recess but I guess I ignored my urges and missed my chance. When we got back into class and were working on something I REALLY had to go. I walked up to my teacher's desk and asked her for the hall pass. I clearly remember her slathering on her bright red lipstick while asking me why I didn't go when everyone else did after recess. I told her I did not know but that I had to go now.

She refused me the the pass and pointed to my chair with a very stern finger to sit back down. So like a good little girl, I did. And then not too long after than, my bladder gave out.

I. was. mortified.

And, honestly, I'm pretty sure she was too.

Most things are a blur post-accident except I do remember the puddle in the blue chair and one little boy named Johnny asking me, "did you do that?" Um, yep, that was me, thanks.

I assume my mother was called to bring me a change of clothes, but honestly, I don't remember. I know I didn't stay wet all day, so that must have been the case.

I was mad at that teacher for a while. As a matter of fact, she went to the same church as my family and I would often see her there and think that it wasn't a very Christian thing that she did that day. I understand trying to teach kids a lesson but NOT when it comes to their bladder and TOTAL embarrassment in front of their classmates. NOT. COOL.

I did get over it but even to this day, if I see her at my parents' church while we are visiting, I think of her as "the teacher who didn't let me 'go' and therefore caused me to pee in my chair." What a way to go down in my mental history, huh?

So to all you teachers out there. PLEASE, I implore you, let the kid go pee. 'Cause like Annie says, "When you gotta go, you gotta go..."

This is an Equal Opportunity Blog

I kinda feel like it's been "The Little G" show around here lately so I thought I would give The B Man some equal time. Because he's pretty darn cute himself you know...

A few weeks ago I gave him the little interview that's gone around many a blog in the last few weeks and here are his replies (with my commentary in parentheses):

What is something that Mommy says to you a lot? NO (very true.)

What makes mom happy? Gavie (a nickname for his brother)

What makes mom sad? When I yell

What does Mom do to make you laugh? Say “don’t laugh” (and then tickle him and then it makes him laugh)

What was I like as a child? A little kid

How tall is Mom? Taller than a great blue heron (what?)

What’s Mom’s favorite thing to do? Clean up (uh....no, sorry mister, you're wrong on that one!)

What does Mom do when you’re not around? Play hide and seek (also, no)

What is mom really good at? He first said “that’s a tricky one” Then... "good at spotting birds" (HUH???)

If I become famous what will it be for? For being a celebrity

How do you know Mom loves you? You give me a hug and a kiss!

What am I not very good at? Getting good hiding places (I'm sensing a Hide And Seek theme here...)

What is my favorite food? Bananas, mango, zucchini, oranges, grapes (mango? where did that come from?)

What makes you proud of Mom? For cleaning very good (apparently our house is very clean... yeah, you just keep thinkin' that!)

If mom were a cartoon who would she be? Tom and Jerry

What do Mom and you do together? Play hide and seek (there it is again!)

How are we the same? We are all equal in God’s eyes (no lie…so sweet!)

How are you and Mom different? No one looks the same

Where’s mom’s favorite place to go? The grocery store! (That's a bold-faced lie right there!)



I took him to the doctor for his 5 yr check up last week and despite some allergy issues, he's a healthy little dude. He's finally moved into the 25% for height and weight so he may not be THE smallest kid after all. (He's always usually only been 10% or a little lower.)

We also attended Kindergarten Round-up together last week and after we came home that afternoon he just kept saying "Kindergarten Round-up was AWESOME!" I hope he still feels that way in a few months and that I'm the only one with tears in my eyes that first day... It'll be here before we know it!

You Capture - Letters

This is my first week to join the You Capture carnival hosted at I Should Be Folding Laundry. This week the theme is "Letters" which I interpreted a few different ways.

My first photo is of a letter we received from the child that we sponsor through Compassion International, Casbert. This was the letter that made me cry as I read all the things that he and his family were able to buy with the extra money we sent him for his birthday last year.



The next one is of a twig that The B Man brought to me the other day saying "Look Mom, it's the letter "Y!"

And lastly, several of the books that reside on the shelf in the boys' playroom, with lots of letters on them!
To join You Capture take a trip on over to I Should Be Folding Laundry. You can wash and dry that last load tomrrow...

WW - Fever, Cute Shorts & Snuggles

Little G was sickly yesterday. I kept him home from "school" due to a fever and an understandable grumpy disposition. Plus, I figured he'd get a better nap here at home.

In the morning he seemed better but by the late afternoon his temp was around 101.5 and he was just NOT happy. He didn't eat much all day and fell asleep around 6:45, right next to me on the couch (this has NEVER happened). He was also extremely clingy and just wanted me to carry him around while he laid his sweet head upon my shoulder.

At one point during the day I was in his closet looking for some comfy shorts for him to wear with the pajama top that he refused to take off all day (he's been doing this lately, wanting to keep "dis shirt!" on for the entire day. "dis shirt" being his p.j. shirt). I came across some shorts he wore while we were at the beach last Summer and all I could think of was this picture.


I pulled them off the shelf to eyeball them and see if I thought he could wear them again this year and I'm pretty sure he can. I mean they looked like capri pants in this picture so I think we're good.

I just hope today finds him feeling much better. I can't stand to see either of my little guys sick, even though I admittedly enjoyed the extra snuggles. : )

For more WordFUL Wednesday visit Angie at Seven Clown Circus.

Tuesday's Tribute Trifecta

So Tuesday's Tribute has moved from Jay's place to Angie's since Jay is taking some sort of blogging break. I miss you already my bald friend.

But of course Angie is a wonderful and gracious hostess herself and where the tribute goes, I shall follow!

My tribute comes in triplicate this week so here goes.

To Spring - I LOVE you dear Spring. Well, except for the never-ENDING wind you've produced this year. Oh and the fact that said wind made ANOTHER branch fall off of our tree out front. Oh and the way you've made my ENTIRE head ache, my nose constantly stuffy and sneezy and my throat scratchy. Oh yes, I just LOOOOOVE all of that...

One of your only redeeming qualities so far? This:


My second tribute goes out to maternity pants/jeans/capris (and no I will NOT be adding shorts to that list). Although I am not really looking forward to wearing them for the next six eight/nine months, what would we do without them? And to prove my point, here's a 16-week belly shot. Yes, I already look REALLY pregnant. And please, no comments about how big my bootie is too. 'Cause that would be just rude.


And my last but SO NOT least tribute goes out to my bloggy friend Melanie at Adventures of the Reluctant Housewife. I recently won a giveaway on her blog which included some crocheting supplies, which I did receive AND MORE! See, SHE'S the crocheting expert herself and she made this gorgeous blanket for the baby-to-be and these little "monster guys" (as The B Man calls them) for the boys.

How incredibly sweet is that? Thanks so much Melanie, you made a difficult day much less so with your thoughtfulness.

Head on over to Angie's for more Tuesday's Tributes.

Who's That Girl?

We had the pleasure of meeting this sweet little child, Rosemary, yesterday. Isn't she just a full plate of precious-ness?


She's the daughter of Tim's cousin Fred and his wife Amy. I only got a few minutes to nuzzle her (she was quite happy playing on the floor with her toys) and it did give me a glimpse into having an infant around again. Although she's already sitting up and I'm pretty sure they don't do that right away...

She's just a really good-natured little baby and hardly made a peep while we visited, ate dinner and played. G did get a little jealous after seeing me hold her and came to sit in my lap after I placed her back in her play spot. It should be interesting in a few months when I am with our"baby" all the time.

I have an OB appointment this Thursday and will be 16 weeks on Wednesday. It already seems like it's flying by. And the BIG sonogram is on May 21st and for some reason that seems so very far away. I believe it must be because I'm pretty eager to find out this time. As I've said to quite a few friends and family already, it's going to be interesting either way because if it's a boy then I'M GONNA HAVE THREE BOYS and if it's a girl (which I'm guessing it's not) then IT'S GONNA BE A WHOLE NEW WORLD!

Also, my allergies have been kickin' my behind this week and I've been VERY tired. It's like I traded "morning" sickness for tiredness. Ugh.

Anyway, just a little update.

Happy Monday everyone...

Random Picture Challenge

This weekend I am participating in the Random Picture Challenge hosted by 4 Little Men & Girly Twins. I love this because you get to look at pictures from the past and when I saw what this one turned out to be, I just had to post it.

2008, 13th Folder, picture #42



Here is Little G getting a "sink bath" after he REALLY dug into his giant cupcake at his first birthday party. I couldn't let him open his presents covered in frosting and thankfully I had thought to take his shirt off before the destruction began. Look how little he is, almost one year ago...

PSF - I Love It All

I can't decide which is my favorite part about this picture. Maybe it's the sweet grey eyes or little button nose. Or, the dirty little boy face or the fine blond hair in disarray or even the shirt that says "You can't catch me."

Maybe it's the way that I did "catch him", with my camera, looking back at me in a moment that I was able to capture and put in the pocket of my brain forever.

Or maybe, just maybe... it's just the total package.


Hosted by Cecily and MamaGeek

You know you are a mom when...The sequel

Last week my bloggy friend Kristen did a post entitled "You know you are a mom when..." and I thought it was such a cute and funny concept that I asked if I could continue the list from my perspective.

So, here's my "You know you are a mom when"s...

- You have to say "stop playing with your brother's pen*s" more than once in a 2 minute period.

- You find bits of play-doh in your bra.

- You walk around the house singing the theme song to "Toot & Puddle."

- You clean out your car and then the very next day it looks as bad or worse as it did BEFORE you cleaned it out.

- You find yourself opening several plastic Easter eggs late at night looking for the "good" candy.

- On your way to bed at night from across the house (all lights out) you trip over one fire truck, one pair of baby boy shoes and something else that you aren't sure what it was.

- You do your best to answer questions about how far it is to heaven but are pretty sure you fail miserably considering you don't actually know the answer to that and know NO ONE who does.

- You load the dishwasher with more IKEA kids dishes than actual, adult, breakable dishes.

- You realize you've been eating your fair share of Goldfish lately too.

- You are at the park and smell poopy on the toddler. When you go to change him in the car and realize that you have NO baby wipes, you are VERY thankful for the bottle of water and paper towels in the back of the car. And also quite glad you did NOT clean out the car THAT day.


So there you have it.

I'm sure some of you have your own "you know you are a mom when"s so if you do, please post your list and then let me and/or Kristen know. We'd love to read 'em! : )

WW - Art That Touched My Heart

Last night The B Man drew this picture and dictated the words of his original "short" story to me. It says, "One day baby decided to go to the park. He talked to his Daddy, his Daddy said yes and he brought his two babies to the park and they played & played & played."


I sat and watched him while he drew each tree, each mouse and the grass and then later added the sky and sun to "complete the picture."


There really isn't that much signifigance to this drawing, except that I just wanted to preserve it, here on the blog and in my memory. I want to be able to go back and see what his five-year old little mind was thinking and creating at this time in his life. And I want to remember our time together as we worked on his "project" as mother and son, laughing and smiling the whole way through...



I also want to say Happy Birthday to my mother today. She was born on this day, in 1939. Thanks Mom, for always being here when I have a baby (hint, hint for this time too...) and for being one of the best cooks ever. For loving us unconditionally and without judgement. For giving SO much of yourself to your children and grandchildren. She's MANY other things to me and my family and I could go on and on... I honor and pray for her today, on the 70th anniversary of her birth.



For more WordFUL Wednesday go see Angie at Seven Clown Circus.

Tuesday's Tribute - Time Wasted. Patience Tested.

This week I am participating in Jay & Deb's Tuesday's Tribute. And although I am usually a pretty positive person, today is not so positive. Just warning you.

Once upon a time I was in a hurry (which happens a lot by the way) and had just 30 minutes before I needed to pick up the kiddos from school. This was actually on The B Man's birthday and I decided to stop at the Big Lots near our house (and school) to grab some wrapping paper. After also finding a cute $1.00 scrapbooking item and yet another bag of plastic eggs, I was good to go.

Until........

I got to the check-out.

There were two lanes open. And let me just tell you right now, I picked the WRONG one.

As I began to realize what was going on in front of me I started to see my life flash before my eyes. And curse my name for getting behind these two. These ladies, mother and daughter, that managed (truly GOD himself only knows how) to spend just shy of $350.00 at Big Lots. That is NOT a typo.

They pulled everything from 100 thread count sheets to ketchup out of that cart. And as I began to feel week and dehydrated, the daughter (who was probably in her 50's) continued shopping in the front of the store, adding things to their enormous purchase.

She piled on 4 plastic lawn chairs, a bag of charcoal, an Easter bunny, some candles and a couple of bags of chips.

I glanced at the man standing behind me and mouthed the word "WOW!" and for a moment we had a good little chuckle together. They were COMPLETELY clueless. But then reality set in again as I turned back around and realized they were STILL there and the checker was STILL scanning items.

And, just as I was about to cry and play the "I'm-pregnant-but-not-really-showing-yet-so-please-let-me-out-of-here-with-my-$4-worth-of-crap" card, they were finally finished. As my heart started to beat again, Momma pulled out her check book. I haven't seen anyone write a check at a store since like 1999. I really thought I might go into cardiac arrest.

Once I eventually saddled up to the counter with my few items and my $5.00 in cash I looked at the checker and said "My transaction is going to be quite a bit easier." For some reason, she was not amused.

As I passed Mama Cass and her daughter packing their car, I hopped in mine and realized it had been a 5 minute shopping trip, with a 15 minute plus wait to check out. And while picking up the kids and taking them home I figured they were probably still there loading their canned chili and colanders into the back of their Toyota Tercel.

So to the two ladies from Big Lots, I honor you for spending more money in that store than I EVER thought was possible. And while I'm at it, good job at robbing me of my time and patience. If I see your clown car in the parking lot next time, I'll be sure to take a detour over to my dentist and get a root canal instead.




A Jay and Deb Production.
P.S. Today's the last day to enter the giveaway for The Noonie!

Easter, in an Eggshell

We had a lovely Easter weekend that included wonderful home-cooked meals, family, chocolate, cupcakes, egg hunting, churchin' and well, rain.

When I woke up around 5 a.m. to hear the torrentual down-pour on my windows I just knew there would be nary an outdoor egg hunt for us Sunday. But I was wrong. The sun finally decided to show itself in the late afternoon and things dried up just enough for a lovely hunt out in the driveway/front yard.

The B Man didn't want to go to the egg hunt at our church so we did not attend and he was happy with just our own little event here at the house. Admirable if you ask me, because I helped them stuff the eggs at church last weekend and woah! But that was fine with me since we have enough candy around here already to last us as long as a package of Peeps. (the ones sitting by me on my desk don't expire until 2012, thankyouverymuch.)

So on Saturday we made some fun "bunny" cupcakes. (Thanks to Wendy for tweeting the link to these!) The B Man had a blast decorating several all by himself and I think he did a fine job if you ask me.

Here is the very first one he decorated.

Pretty good, huh?

Little G had fun stacking the "naked" ones into a cupcake tower. But it wasn't a very pretty scene when we had to tear him away to commence nap time...

And here are the finished products:

While Little G napped we colored eggs.

I had to leave that night for a while to go to the Easter Vigil service and even though it's a long one, it was well worth it for the chills that ran up my spine as our choir finished the "Hallelujah Chorus." Our church has good acoustics. : )

Then on Sunday we rised and shined early to go to church again (well me anyway) as a family. After digging into their Easter baskets we took the sugared-up kiddos to mass! Aw, just kidding, Little G managed to only break into one piece of chocolate (I think...). And please, take note of the Peeps that we will still be able to eat when my child, that is currently in the womb, is 2.5 years old.

As you can see below, Little G absolutely refused to wear his tie (and I mean REFUSED!) but other than that, they looked sharp, my boys...

(this picture perfeclty reflects their personalities, by the way...)

And a family one (it's the best we could get!)

For lunch we enjoyed glazed ham, steamed asparagus, potato casserole, ceasar salad, and homemade rolls (my first time to make them from scratch!). It was ALL good. And for dessert? Bunny cupcakes and angel food cake with strawberries. Delish.

And here are a few shots from our Easter egg hunt. And yes, Little G is still wearing his church clothes, which he also napped in. No, he would not wear a tie, but he also would NOT take these off. Absolutey REFUSED (where have we heard this before?). He's got a mind of his own, that one.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter. I can certainly say mine was blessed with family, renewal and love.

Here's a last pic of my Mom and The B Man relaxing together out back, listening to the birds and watching the squirrels...

There's still time to enter the giveaway I'm hosting - go here to check it out!