What IS your favorite ’80’s band?

I can’t say as I have a personal favorite. I am an equal rights music lover.  but shout out to the cure for the great song referenced above. Anyways…

Friday was a semi-busy day, but in actuality turned out to run much smoother than I anticipated (as it usually does in situations like this.) I had a ton of fun at a shoot for our friends of their three darling little boys – I blogged them at our 2sisphotos blog, but here are a few of my favorites for your viewing pleasure:

And then Ben got home much earlier than anticipated so we were able to go have a good family lunch at chipotle, come home and relax a little before heading out to the big dress rehearsal, and eventually make it to small group. It was a totally humid week all week, and still no real storms like they kept predicting. At least it is making my tomatoes and the girls’ sunflowers grow like mad. I think the corn in the fields surrounding our house will be about head-high by the fourth of july. It hit knee area about a month ago! i am always just fascinated by how fast some things seem to grow in the summer, since we spend all winter and most of spring around here just starting at dead, brown, dry branches and yucky brown ground. God’s creation truly amazes me sometimes.

And that was Friday. Kinda blah. But that’s just kind of life these days. Keepin’ on keepin’ on. Trying to enjoy the litle moments that make up the days of life with my three precious girlies. enjoying the boost in energy i have felt lately. having fun planning for birthday parties and celebrations of another year of good life.

life is good. sometimes, as boring as that sounds, that’s as good as it gets.

Ok watch out – massive picture overload here.

i am so proud of karissa! if you know the whole karissa saga, you will understand what a battle that child has been through, and why it is so amazing that she will be dancing in her first recital this coming Saturday. if you DON’T know her whole story….as a synopsis, she was born with a very mild form of spina bifida and no hip socket on her left side, meaning she basically couldn’t move her legs voluntarily for the first two months of her life. Nor could she hear until tubes were placed in her ears when she was two and a half. Through a lot of testing, therapy and doctor’s visits, she is the happy-go-lucky, dance to anything with half a beat, shake-your-groove-thang little girl that you see today. God has truly chosen her for something special. I am so lucky and proud to be her momma. (and as my eyes well up with tears as i am writing this, down the stairs she comes out of bed to tell me that she “needs a dwink”. end of sappy emotion.)

So all that to say – this child has worked her little booty off to catch up to the rest of her dance class and be in the recital this weekend. Compared to the absolute TRAUMA of kealey’s first recital (where she emphatically did NOT want to learn that dance, she wanted to just get out on stage and do her own little show), i think this time we will actually have a child who can appear to be keeping up with the choreography. I’ll hopefully have a little video of it to share after tomorrow nite’s dress rehearsal. 

In case you can’t tell, they’re bumblebees. Doing the bumblebee salsa. I had no idea there was such a thing.

But it is cute as a , well, a bug. Or a bee. As the case may be.

And then just one more favorite – technically, a horrific picture (the sun came out as i was snapping a picture messing up my settings and blowing the highlights to heck).  But the expression on kaylen’s face and just the funniness of the white trash child in a diaper only – i dunno – it makes me smile. So i’ll keep it, blown exposures and all.

holy heck could today have been any muggier? We really didn’t do a thing except go to dance class, but still, with this humidity, who would have wanted to? We did manage to have a little “picnic” out on the porch in back with some fresh baked chocolate chip cookies (who? me? getting all domestic??? ok ok, they were break and bakes, but still…) And other than that, i am not sure exactly WHAT managed to fill our 12 hours…The girls have been SO good this week with Ben gone. I am so grateful for that because it just makes life so much easier when i am not having to discipline for two. I have been really sticking to their 8:00 bedtime, and finding that they are actually sleeping better/longer in the mornings on the nites that i do. Kealey is starting to slowly grasp the concept of earning an allowance (which she doesn’t yet), but I want her to get that being part of this family just comes with its responsibilities, not all of which she should be “rewarded” or “paid” for. And truly, she has such a good little heart and is such a help to me…I have to find a good happy medium between just getting her the things she wants (which this week is a Webkinz animal), and paying her for doing things which i feel should be part of her daily responsibilities. Its finding those above and beyond jobs and helping to attach the reward to the good attitude in doing those things without being asked.

The weather forecast tonite was supposed to be pretty severe T-storms, but so far, not too many clouds in sight. Still miserably muggy, and a TON of fireflies out in the front yard. Pretty cool sight. And now some fool is letting off forking bottle rockets. If they wake up my kids i am going to be severely upset!

Did you go vote yet? so far its a girl by a landslide! What are you people trying to do to me!?!?!? VOTE! ————————> its over there and its easy.

And Jenn, about the stroller, its the Kolcraft Contours Tandem. i was looking at the Phil&Ted. I even thought I would definitely have to drop almost 6 bills on one. Then I found this one, read the raving reviews on it, and the test drive helped solidify. The price? $200. A dream. Maybe Phil & Ted will take theirs back…

Ok – I am off to watch some Intervention with some milk and FRESHLY SLAVED OVER cookies. What a good combo…

Chow Mein Cookies -

terra

Today i was paid what, to me, was a huge compliment. This kind-souled mom at gymnastics, who herself could not possibly have been more than 25 or 26 years of age, said that she was shocked that I had had so many kids so young. I said, “young?!?!?” She thought I was 24. I could have hugged her, folded her up and put her in my pocket to keep with me forever and ever. Now we all know that me = 24 is a HUGE stretch, but it still spoke volumes to me about how I felt like I stood a little taller just having someone think that in my sleep deprived, rush out the door with three kids hanging off me look, that I looked young. It just made my day. So if you feel the urge to give someone a compliment today, do it. You never know what it will mean to someone.

In other news, my darling sissy, affectionately referred to as “poopface” (I have no idea why, she’s truly one of the most beautiful people I know), has come up with the PERFECT b-day theme for Kaylen’s party. So now I just have to figure out how to have a July4th themed cupcake party. Everyone is hereby officially invited, but I know that with the 4th being a holiday and all, most people have family plans to attend to. But we usually have a big BBQ here at the ranch, sometimes even a big bounce house for the kids(adults I mean) to jump in. And then we all wander down to our neighborhood park for great seats to watch the Bolingbrook fireworks (and this year, the added airshow…)

Speaking of the ranch, I feel like the Pioneer Woman today. I have no cell phone. After one and a half years of abuse that can only be heaped by being the favorite toy of three children, and the possession of the klutziest woman on the planet, my dear hella-cool red Razr has gone to cell phone heaven. I am trying to be strong and not shed tears. I saved up for that phone, I cherished its purchase, I looked SO forward to owning it. And now he is gone. Rest in peace dear Razr.

How, you ask? His last painful moments were spent gurgling under a pool of Sunny D, accidentally poured out into the handy dandy little well in the stroller. Submerged. I am sure that some phones can recover from perhaps a quick bout with WATER. But there is something uniquely circuit frying about the sugary stickiness of sunny d on a hot day. Absolutely fricking fried.  Thank the good lord above I still had my old cell phone. And it only took FOUR sprint operators (one of whom actually spoke English as a first language), to figure out how to “swap phones”. This process does not seem like rocket science to me. And yet I had to keep being transferred to different departments. This is a handy marketing technique known as “frustrate the pizzang out of the customer so they cave and just upgrade and lock into another 84 year contract with us.” Good thing I am more stubborn than this marketing technique. My new cell phone love? the 3G iphone. Now Justin, I know you are yelling at me in your head for caving to the god-like hold of Steve Jobs, but i really and truly believe that this phone holds the key to happiness. Ok, maybe like, just ONE of the keys. But it will make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Some women need Coach purses and Gucci sunglasses and “designer” jeans – me, I’ll settle for a nice piece of overpriced electronic technology. Embrace your inner geek. Switch to AT&T with me!!!!!!! I cannot wait for the day I can blog from my iphone. Mind you this will not be until December when my contract with Sprint expires. And in fact, if the expiration of my contract happens to coincide with the appearance of Baby Cuatro, please believe that I will be checking out of the hospital early to run to the nearest AT&T store.

I digress.file:///var/folders/-m/-mLbfKdcFN4F2d+2mOqBBE+++TM/-Tmp-/com.apple.PhotoBooth-T0xa100a0.tmp.3lFh8d/Photo%207.jpg

Anyways – look at this – two days in a row of blogging. I’m on a rollllllllll!!!!

In other exciting news, file:///var/folders/-m/-mLbfKdcFN4F2d+2mOqBBE+++TM/-Tmp-/com.apple.PhotoBooth-T0xa100a0.tmp.6MG6og/Photo%203.jpgmy dad got a facebook. i am not sure what else to even say about that. 

Ok I have two very tired girls to force into naptimes.

Its been an adventurous day already.

More later.

me

That is how i would describe my creativity skills. Completely and utterly lacking.

I am trying to come up with a cute theme for Kaylen’s 1st birthday party (which we will celebrate on my birthday) and for Karissa’s 4th birthday, which is her first REAL birthday party, and will be celebrated on the day of Kaylen’s birthday. i am considering having a party for myself on the day of Karissa’s birthday, just to continue with the confusion. (for those who do’nt know, my birthday is the 4th, Karissa’s is the 7th, and Kaylen’s is the 12th – got it? good).

Anyhoo – if you have ANY creative ideas for a 1st birthday – let me have ‘em!  And if you happen to be firmly in the Ben Atkinson camp of “its just a birthday party for a baby who wo’nt even remember it, forget the theme” – then….well, that explains a lot about your childhood! Anyways , there WILL be a theme this year. I am just determined of it. And in spite of Karissa wanting the quintessential cheesily marketed Disney Princess Party from Pukeville, I will find a way to make this a FUN and unique party for her.

oh my gosh. We had a housecleaner come last week. Its just one of those things that i NEVER do. another area where i am woefully inadequate. i mean, I keep the house straightened and as yet we have no mold spores growing anywhere obvious (knock on wood). But this lady was AMAZING. the house SPARKLED. It still does, but 12 hours after picking the kids up from memaw and poppa’s, its starting to return to its normal condition…It was such a huge boost to my energy though i just sat and took in the clean smell of it. Luckily, we left the morning after she came to drive up to Milwaukee to be with Ben for one nite at his hotel where they had a little waterpark for kids. I have no pictures because Kaylen was a complete nightmare child from the second we got on 294 until…..well  until i dropped her off with Memaw! I have no idea what is wrong with her – all i can assume is that its molars, a possible head cold, and milk allergy all kind of taking their toll all at once on her. The girls had an absolute BLAST at this little park thing though – I am surprised they are not completely waterlogged! and then they got to spend the whole weekend with their grandparents so….I got to SLEEP IN!!!! TWO WHOLE DAYS IN A ROW! It was ……the best feeling. So relaxing, such a wonderful break. I missed them, definitely, but I know it was a break that I needed and I am so grateful to my parents for being willing to take on the craziness of my life for a few days so that Ben and I could enjoy our anniversary on Saturday!

Friday nite after dropping off the girls, I went out to Friday’s and the comedy shrine in downtown naperville with the women from our church small group. it was such a blast and i laughed SO hard at the improv comedy I burst into coughing fits. I think my favorite part was when the normally quite reserved brenna volunteered the following as a “sentence that someone said to you today”: “I didn’t poop in my pants!”  Ahhhhhh – motherhood! The ensuing skit based on that phrase was probably when i got to laughing the hardest. Anyways – that was a blast and i think i was asleep in bed within about ten minutes of getting home. Saturday morning, slept in till 10:30 ( i know!!!!!), went to a nice anniversary breakfast (lunch), went to see the new M. Night Shymalan movie “The Happening”, and then got a mani/pedi. We FINALLY decided on dinner at 8, and went, of course, to Buca’s. Slept in again Sunday morning, went to church, and then went up to get the girls, where we had to tear them away from fishing with Poppa at the pond. It was a great anniversary weekend. Nothing fancy, no gifts or cards, just us, some sleeping drugs, and lots of sleep. and some good food. There’s not much more you could ask for in life for your 11 year anniversary!

And that’s a pretty good overview of the weekend. For today….

well. not much is planned. I feel kind of like a bad mom today. I just do’nt know what to do with them, nor do I really want them to feel like every minute of every day needs to be CRAMMED FULL of non-stop exciting FUN just for them! So I am not sure where the bad mom guilt is coming from…

I really am craving a hot dog right now. Well, ok more than one. i want one chicago dog and one chili cheese dog. Maybe two of those. I should have had breakfast. ok enough rambling.

give me birthday ideas please!

Hope you all have a great Monday! I AM going to be better about blogging this week. I think i can i think I can…..

terra

Kealey asked me today – “mommy, isn’t there like a kids day or a children’s day or a sisters day or SOMETHING???” (this is while we were shopping for Ben’s Father’s Day gift.) I told her that yes, actually, there was a Children’s Day that  some places and people celebrate ( I just heard this on K-LOVE, I have no idea if its fact or not). She said “When is it?????” (very excited). “It was last Sunday, actually”.

“AND YOU DIDn’T EVEN GET US ANYTHING?????!?!?!???”

I was lucky I was stopped at a stoplight or I would have surely gone off the road from laughing so hard at the expression on her face. You would think the child never got ANYTHING special just because! This raising kids thing is harder than it looks, truly.

This has been a crazy week. Just so jam-packed full of running around….yeah. Meetings, appointments, classes, etc. – plus it doesn’t help that this was Ben’s first week gone since before his vacation (so he was home for about a month straight).  and now he will be gone for about a month straight. But he WILL be home on the BIG DAY

July 2 at 10 am we get to answer the question  “Are you finally going to have that boy?!?!?!” This has got to be  one of the strangest questions I get asked (on a daily basis, at least 3 times a day). Can someone point out to me where its a part of the American Constitution that all families must have at least one boy child offspring? I mean, I am asked this by people who are like – upset – that I dared to have three girls without producing a male, presumably as my way of giving back to society? Perhaps trying to offset the chaotic estrogen-filled activity I have unleashed upon the world with my three female offspring? i do’nt know. But at least I can ANSWER the question after that.

Here is hopefully a video of the girls at the B-brk mall today in the sprinkler park, getting absolutely SOAKED by the sprinklers. It was apparently hot enough that Kaylen

didn’t even care that kealey almost drowned her in the big sprinkler – i am talking, not even a whimper out of her! But they had a blast. if you do watch the video, watch how kealey rolls the whole stroller over the sprinkler, ensuring that kaylen would be completely soaking wet the whole way through, head to toe. Good times. Good summer memories. I hope this embeds right.

Anyways – i am finally getting tired enough to call it a day. got another long crazy day ahead tomorrow.

have a good day!

me

We survived the year. I started with such tears and apprehension about sending my baby out into the big cruel world. And i ended it still not sure I like this whole school thing, but glad we made it. here they are = kealey’s last morning as a kindergartener, pushing their sister in the broken baby stroller, wearing their new last day of school dresses. (Don’t ask me why karissa has one too. its just easier to not explain things to a 3 year old in the middle of walmart.)

she looked so grown up this day. She has started to look grown up to me all the time actually. I hear her doing little hand clap chants with her friends outside and I think – when did she learn that? Wasn’t she just learning how to say “shobbigo” (popsicle), and “blesshit” (bless it), and “numno” (tylenol)? And now she’s this big “first grader”, ready to take on the world.

But on the last day of school, Ben hurried home from work so  we could all go greet her at the bus stop. I felt like i was waiting for her to get off the plane after a month long journey. This was the last time for a blessed three months that we would wait for the big bus to round the corner and deliver her safely back home. I started out the year with good intentions of always meeting her AT the stop – but then cold rainy snowy weather hit, and I realized that I was just as good of a mom if i watched from the window.

  I think, in spite of our big huge banner that I had painted saying ” Yay Kealey! We’re proud of you!”, that she was happy we were all there to get her off the bus. I only cried a little bit. More like, teared up. for her “graduation” present, we had gotten her her own little digital camera, which i will admit, i was VERY torn about letting her take to school, but she took very good care of it and is starting to really take some nice pictures. I’ll have to dump her card soon here and share some.

And since I am on a roll with a picture heavy post – here are some more.

I cannot believe how big kaylen has gotten. Not size-wise necessarily (she’s still in a LOT of 3-6 month clothes), but just – becoming more toddler-like and less baby-like. Here she is – proud of herself as can be that she opened up mommy’s file drawers by herself. And YAY she is finally starting to grow some hair! i was comparing pics of the other girls on their first birthdays – kealey had two paltry little piggie-tails, and karissa had a FULL ON ponytail with a huge bow. Kaylen will be lucky if i can use enough karo syrup to glue a barrette on!

In this one – her eyes look a little weird – its because I thought it was so cool that you can so clearly see me taking the picture reflected in her eyes – you have to look close for it…but a cool shot nonetheless. And plus, how can you resist that adorable face? I do not know why kaylen’s pics all got the watermark and none of the other ones did…but just deal.

Karissa is so excited to have “See-See” home all summer. They really do play together so well for the most part. Until Kealey starts sending Karissa in to do the dirty work (i.e., in a stage whisper heard across the house, “Karissa, go ask mommy if we can have more Oreo’s!”), and then her plans backfire and she STILL is the one getting in trouble…and then its naptime! But other than those random times – they are good friends. And i am so thankful for that. Here is Karissa walking around with her bracelets between her toes – thinking it was THE MOST hilarious thing she had ever done.   We finally have the pool up now and I think they have been in it pretty much all day. Nevermind that the water is about 45 degrees and is a little too chlorinated still. They are FISH i tell you. We had Kaylen in for about 20 minutes too and she DID NOT want to get out. I have to find our baby float or my arms are going to be killing me all summer holding her up!

On that note – I better go get dinner started. We have a crazy weekend ahead. Actually a crazy month ahead.

But what else is new?

Oh – one more thing.

The Indi-flamers concert that was cancelled this past spring has been rescheduled for OCTOBER 5!!!!! I can get tickets on pre-sale since i got gypped last time. i would LOVE To go with someone. I was going to drag my good friend CLC with me last time, but she will have a nursing infant this time around…If you would like to go with me – EMAIL ME (terra@2sisphotos.com) I have to buy tickets on June 19th. Please someone go with me! It will be fun I promise!!!

the inimitable T-crest

I am good at it.

In fact I am doing it right now. Procrastinating doing all that I NEED to do by coming up with random items to add to the to do list that i pretend are important.

This includes blogging, eating an oreo, checking email (again), and looking through a catalog. (OK that one is actually semi-related to the real to-do list, but still.)

i was going to post kealey’s last day of school pics, but I have to process them, so that will have to be a continued later post. But while i was looking through my May folder, I found this little gem. I am going to guess here that while “menzach”was trying to be sneaky and get some pictures of us playing rockband, he first attempted to take a picture of his child by using the screen on the back, like most digital cameras do. You have to use the VIEWFINDER dude. While i am a HUGe fan myself of the head chop as a portraiture style, i think SOME eye contact is necessary. Now its just a disturbing picture of some green “Steve-from-Blue’s-Clues” pajamas. But it made me laugh.

Anyways. More procrastinating.

So this sometimes works – I am going to post my to-do list here and then come back and check it off when I am done.

• MOPS Steering Team Meeting outline created and emailed to ST Leaders
• Order created and placed at Oriental Trading for MOPS and KT
• Finish laundry, fold and put all away
• clean up toys in living room to go into basement
• load dishwasher
• wipe counters and table
• vacuum floors
• mop floors
• grocery list made
• pictures developed from camera
• orders taken to PO

AFTERNOON EDIT: So i wasn’t quite as productive according to the list – but I was actually a little more productive than this. We actually went grocery shopping with the list I made, which, with all three kids, is truly an adventure. I also made lunch. (Instead of letting the wonderful afternoon crew at mcD’s do it for me). and I got most of the house straightened up.

That is all I can think of right now. Anything else will exhaust and overwhelm me.

So ready….set……off i go

back later for the update!

So – best laid plans don’t always happen – but having the list is somewhat handy. It gives me a reference at least when I feel like I don’t even know where to start.

And now I have to finish getting the orders ready and throw all the kids in the car to make it to dance class on time.

Later dudes.

Terra