I Don't Want To Make You Jealous....

....but besides still being able to wear the earrings I wore in high school, I also have the most awesome kids! They have been so thoughtful and helpful since I have been stuck all last week and weekend doing the company books. I know I am such a slob making a mess at the kitchen table.

I just don't know where they get their neatness and thoughtfulness from. Must be from Dad. They were so good and patient picking up after themselves....

....and jumping right up when I asked them to fold the laundry for me.

I mean I didn't even have to scream and yell so that my head split open and my evil side came out! I just wish that the pic of the dishes they so thoughtfully took care of for me came out. Yes, I took a break to actually make them dinner and they showed their gratitude. I just wish that I paid enough attention to what I am doing as they do, maybe the pic would of turned out.

The boy was even thoughtful enough that WHILE he was jumping on the trampoline....

....he left the back door wide open so he could hear if his little sister needed anything. I feel so horrible now for yelling at him to close the door cause of a silly little thing like a $300.00 gas bill!

What a horrible mother I am!

When the older one took the bitty one upstairs....

....I know it was to clean their room! I mean they are so thankful that we gave up the biggest room to the two of them they keep it spotless!

And just when I thought I had it all? They even took down the tree like I asked 2 weeks ago!

See that? Not one ornament left on the tree. Ok so the tree is still up, but it is artificial. I mean, how much can you expect them to do in a weekend?! They do need some free time from doing cleaning! Now today, since I do believe that I have a permanent imprint of the caning of my kitchen chairs on my buttocks, I can take a break from the books!

What will I do with myself??

Cause I am such an outright braggart, I am posting this to Decor Chicks Real Messes Party! Ya'll should know by now how I love to brag about my neat, clean, thoughtful, well behaved children!

A Little Camera Play

Yesterday was one of "those" days. You know, the one where you wonder why you even got out of bed?! I really didn't have anywhere to go and it was snowing. So I changed into my jammies from the jammies I had slept in. It should of been an indication of how my day was going to go when I found my deoderant missing. It was probably the same stupid burglars that break into our house and plant evidence of wrong doing in my son's room. Poor kid, he is so innocent too! I bet that they snuck in here last night and stole my almost used up deoderant too.

Ummmm....

Anyways, since I was not going anywhere and it was just sitting there, I used my husband's Old Spice deoderant. Why not?! Why, because about a half hour my hubby called and needed me to run up to the bank to get some lien waivers notarized. I won't even bore you with what a lien waiver is. We need one for each and every invoice for one of our customers. Ok, so not a problem. The bank is only like a block away.

Here is where my day took a turn for the worse.

While I was sitting there the bitty one decided she would help me out and comb my hair. She is pulling a comb, not gently, through the back of my hair while I am trying to type up the lien waiver. Needless to say, I was getting really annoyed and just wanted to get this done so I could get back to not doing a whole lot of anything. It's finally done, grab her and we are out the door.

We get to the bank, me in my loungey jammies and sweatshirt looking as glamorous as ever. Being a SAHM is a real glamorous job you know. Anyways, I go to my favorite teller and ask her if she can notarize some papers for me. No problem. While I am standing there talking with her, she mentions how she just loves the smell of Old Spice.

Oh crap!

I totally forgot about the fact that I slathered on my hubby's Old Spice deoderant. Luckily when I looked up she was looking towards the old man standing in line. Phew! Atleast she thinks he is wearing it! I get all done with my stuff and turn to walk away. She calls me back with a big smile on her face. I go over with a big goofy smile on my face. She leans over and whispers....

"Do you know you have a comb tangled up in the back of your hair?"

Yes, yes I do. I always make it a practice to come out in public in my lounge pants, smelling of Old Spice with a freaking comb stuck in the back of my head! I know, all of you who are so jealous that I can stay in my jammies all day are probably just green with envy now right?!

Yeah, I would be too....

In less disturbing news, I decided that I am going to take some digital classes for my camera. In the meantime though, I am trying to self teach myself about it. Yesterday was my first "lesson". ISO measures the sensitivity of the image sensor. The higher the number, the more sensitive the sensor. So, I played with the ISO to see how it affects my camera. I really don't care for the flash on my camera. One, it blinds everyone and two, sometimes it is just not right. According to the site I used, if you can control your ISO you may not need a flash.

Hmmm....

I took this pic of my creche that is sitting under a window during the day. For this pic, I let the camera set the ISO.

This one I cranked up the ISO to the highest setting, 3600. They say you get a grainier pic with a higher ISO, but I don't notice it. Maybe I am more pickier when it comes to picking out a deoderant for the day.

I do have to say though....

....nothing beats....

....a good ole black and white photo....

I Tried To Be A Good Girl....

....but it is so hard and boring. I really did try though. I had plans to spend the whole weekend doing taxes. *Yawn*. I took the bitty one to preschool on Friday and tried to get settled down to work.

I know it is an extravagant office. Admit it, you are jealous. See how hard I was working too? My blog is up on the one puter. I have to tell you though, these are the most comfortable chairs to sit in for 16 hours doing puter work too.

NOT! My buttocks almost went on strike when I even thought of sitting here for any length of time. These chairs are like some early farmhouse torture contraption. Have you ever had your butt go numb from sitting in a chair? I never had and I do have to say it is an odd feeling. So it was to the couch with my big bad sore buttocks. Yeah, I'll get alot of work done there. I was trying to get in the spirit of things, til I spied this.

Aren't those about the ugliest feet you have ever seen? I mean, not that feet are pretty. Those poor ugly misshapen toes. I do love my new jammies though. I got enough jammies for Christmas that I never have to get dressed in real clothes again for like 2 weeks. As long as I stay caught up on the laundry, I wouldn't ever never have to get dressed again. Well.... maybe for special occasions like weddings or funerals. As you can see, I was getting alot of work done while contemplating my ugly feet and comfy jammies.

Then, I needed coffee and to pee. Seems like peeing and filling up my coffee cup go hand in hand. When one is empty, the other is full. It can be a real inconvenience when I am working so hard too.

Why is it that 5 people live in this house and I am the only one that can tell when the garbage needs to be taken out? I mean, isn't all the crap overflowing onto the floor a hint? It is rather resourceful how they shoved the can against the wall so they could pile more on top without it flowing onto the floor. Now though, it is past that point and yet it still is here. Guess I should take care of that....

Which also leads to this. Is there a invisible force field around the basket preventing clothes from getting into the basket? This one is very baffling. The clothes will get brought in here and just thrown on the floor in front of the basket. I know that they do have to bend over and actually pull out the basket, put the clothes in and then push it back in. I think I just ask too much of them and should really lay off.

Here is another little conundrum. We do have hand towels. We do use hand towels. Maybe they are just thrown in front of the dirty clothes hamper pretending like they are being used though?! Cause this cute little curtain that I hung to hide all the junk on the shelves in the bathroom looks like it has been used as a hand towel. I can wash it and a couple days later, it is dirty again. Does it just breed dirt? Never fear though, I have iron out now!

Here is another one that I don't understand while we are on the subject.

"Moooooom! There's nothing to eat!" Really?! Are you serious? I can't cram any more in here and yet, there is NOTHING to eat. I would think that maybe I should get their eyes checked, but they just had that done. They really don't even have to cook either, just heat. Or is that too much? Maybe instead of storing leftovers in containers I should wrap it up on plates to make it easier for them.

Here is another baffling mystery of the farmhouse.

Actually this is not too bad. It has gotten so bad that they will step over the junk on the stairs to go up. It's all their stuff that needs to go up to their rooms, but it never makes it up there. I have asked them how they can walk past it, walk over and not think to take it up. Iuhhohh.... that is caveman for I don't know in case you don't speak caveman. My kids do it frequently so I am quite an expert in interpretting it.

Out of all this do you know what is really awesome? Besides the fact that I totally avoided the taxes? The fact that I whined and cried about NEEDING a new camera, got a new camera and used said new camera to document to the blogworld what slobs we are!! Won't my hubby be proud?!

I was fully supervised this weekend so I did get some work done on the taxes you will be glad to know. I do better being closely supervised. Maybe it is just that when I am asked to do something I can get out of it by saying that I am working on something?

I do have another pic though for you. I know that you are on the edge of your seat waiting for it too.

I know, I know, you are probably sick of hearing about them. Here are my 2 new best friends. Don't I lead a full life that my best friends are cleaning products? I thought that I would post pics of the bottles though. Sometimes it makes it easier to look for something when you know what you are looking for. I have found them everywhere except for Walgreens. Meijers, Walmart, Target and Kroger carry them.

Ok, now I will shut up about them. They really do work though. I have even tried them on a few other things too. But enough of that.

I have to get back to my taxes and ugly feet.

*****

I know this is an old post, but I am linking it up to Decor Chick's Real Messes Linky Party! This is about the only linky party I can participate in right now. Thanks Deborah for the suggestion!

I Will Never Fear White Again!

Ok, I'll admit I am as much a drama queen as Scarlett, but this is how I feel about white.

I love white.

It's pure, clean, untouched and had no business in my house with my tribe.

Last year when I redid the bathroom, I bougtht white towels against my better judgement. In two months time they were ugly orange with tan stripes. Not really what I had in mind. I thought of dying everything in the house black. I even went as far as to take the whites up to the laundromat. Everything still was orange.

Now....

....life and my whites are much brighter. I know, I know, you have heard this all. I have got proof now though.

Look at those bad boys! That is only after 1 washing! The one on the left is before and the one on the right after. 3 cheers for iron out!

I no longer cringe when opening the dishwasher after running it. No gritty feel that you have to try to rinse off. No orange dishwasher. No orange dishes!

The one on the left is just out of the dishwasher. The one on the right is how they usually look. The glasses are clear and clean. No spots! Woo hoo lemon shine!

As for the crappy pics, I took them with my phone. It was before I got my new camera.

Now the the dishes are clean and the laundry done, I feel like sipping a mint julep on the porch pretending like I am at Tara.

I WILL NEVER BE ORANGE AGAIN!

In With The New, Out With The Old!

I can't believe another year is over! I hope that everyone enjoyed the holidays. Even with all the chaos they bring, I wouldn't trade them for anything! Now, you know the drill, go pee, get a cup of coffee, feed the dog, anything pending cause it's gonna be a long one!

First, guess what I got for Christmas?!

Boy, you would of thought that atleast I could of done something better with my hair. Maybe color those roots atleast..... Yes bloggy buddies, Mama got a new camera! A Canon EOS Rebel t2i and.... a zoom lens too! I'm still playing with it. I'll get better though.... promise!

As for Christmas.... it came....

.... made a complete.....

....mess and left too quickly. It's amazing that everything was cleaned up for dinner and family coming over later!

We got tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra for the 30th for a gift.

They were so nice....

....to allow the crazy lady....

....with the new camera....

....onstage to take pics.

Okay.... so they didn't really. We were in the 6th row and I used my zoom lens. I took tons of pics though and won't bore you with all 1623 of them!

Then was New Years Eve.... and....

....can you believe the bitty one is 4 now?! Yup! 4! I can't believe where the time has gone. One minute we were bringing her home from the hospital and the next she is turning 4. Yeesh!

My husband brought home his newest mount. Our great guard dog is scared silly of it though.

She's so crazy! Who would be afraid of this?

Oh! Remember the Fantabulous Basement Challenge?! I haven't given up on it.

The floor is visible.

You can see my partner in crime. Now, I have more stuff to go through and sort out. It did make Christmas easier. I didn't have to buy paper, bows or ribbon this year. After I found all that I had squirreled away, I had more than enough for this year. It's so nice having it all in one place!

It does seem that I can't get all the junk out of here as fast as I have been sorting it out. You won't believe what we have in store for here. I am so excited about it. For right now though, it is a secret!

Actually we have quite a few BIG changes planned for the White Farmhouse.

As for now....

....it isn't time for a nap. Time to get back to work!

Prolly the mostest unChristmasy post in blogland!

I couldn't wait though. See.... I thought I had killed the dishwasher that I had just gotten replaced last May. I called the repairman and he was very nice when he told me "if you hold this button for 3 seconds the child lock goes off and it will work". Yes, all weekend spent handwashing dishes just for him to come out and politely tell me I am an idiot.

But....

I did get to pump him for info. I felt he owed the idiot that much with such an easy repair. We have well water. I am a city girl. I know nothing about well water. Hence, everything that we own that touches our water is orange. No matter how much freaking bleach you use, still comes out orange. I did find out about Works a few years ago and use that on just about everything. I have found out though that Works is not the answer to everything. Did you know it will melt a brillo pad? Yup it will....

So I showed him the inside of my dishwasher and my "I have to have white dishes that my water has turned orange". It's so bad that I have to use Works on my dishes about once every 2 weeks. I also showed him the 8,973rd product that I had bought and not tried yet that promised to get not only my dishes sparkling clean, but my dishwasher as well. He told me that it would help. Help?! I don't want it to "help", I want it to do the work for me so I can sit on the couch eating chocolate covered cherries watching Christmas shows. He told me how to use it and I paid as close attention to him as I could inbetween munching on candy canes. The instructions are on the bottle.

So let us fast forward to after I followed the directions and opened the dishwasher.... Holy Crap! That stuff really works! I almost dropped my ginormous gingerbread man I was decapitating. It was sparkling clean! So sparkling clean that I actually cleaned all the dishes, even the good ones we never use.

Thankfully, they were nice enough to call back the next day to make sure the idiot was pleased. I told her how wonderful he was to suggest Lemon Shine even though I had gotten it 3 days before he came out. I gave him the credit cause who would believe the idiot who didn't know the child lock was engaged on her dishwasher and spent all weekend hand washing dishes. I asked her what to do about my white laundry that is orange now.

She told me to use Iron out and soak them overnight in it and then wash. Okay, soak I can do. As long as there is no hand washing involved. She also told me to not use bleach since that will not help with rust, but to get some Borax for stains. I was even still on the phone with her when I jumped in my car to go to the store to get Iron Out and Borax. You know what?! That stuff works too! Our clothes actually look like I did wash them. No more orange clothes for us!

So now I am off to the store in my pearly white whites to fetch some vittles to put on my super clean white dishes. I am trying to figure out a reason to call them back to find out how to get stains out of my living room carpet.

Wish me luck!

Memories of Eddie

I come from a large family even though I only have one sister. My grandparents had 8 kids, three girls and 5 boys. My dad grew up during the depression. He has told us stories of growing up and their family was close and pulled together. My grandfather bought a pony and would take it around the neighborhood taking pics of kids on it on the weekends.

They went on to give them 31 grandkids. We were just as close growing up also. I remember spending lots of time with my cousins. Spending the night at each others houses too. I was the 8th oldest out of the bunch. My cousin Julie was my best friend growing up since we were only a few weeks apart in age. Her oldest brother, Rich, has always been my hero. Julie and I were playing at the top of the stairs at my grandmothers house with her new puppy. Needless to say, I tripped over it's leash and took a header down the stairs. Rich was the one who carried me into the house all bloody. Eddie and his brother Bill heralded our arrival with "we didn't do anything grandma!"

Eddie was always there. The oldest of the grandkids. Our leader. I always thought he was so much older than me, but it was only by 6 years. It was always fun to be around him when I was younger. He was honest and said what was on his mind. He was strong and yet gentle. He joined the Marines after high school and loved it.

While he was in the Marines he had a breakdown. It ended up that he was discharged from the Marine Corps that he loved so much. He was diagnosed as being schizophrenic. Here was a wonderful person, a brother, a son, a cousin, a grandson trapped in a world that wasn't his. His mind stole so much from him, but worst of all it stole his future. It also weakened his body. The medications designed to help him weakened him. His heart, which was always strong, gave out. The body trapped by his mind could not take no more. He was 54 and now 6 years does not seem like such a big difference.

I still mourn for the life that was lost. The life that should of loved and been loved. The life that should of influenced the world through children of his own. He deserved so much and received so little. He was the first of the grandchildren to bring joy and tears. It will be a sad reminder of how the diseases of the mind can rob a life.

It is also a lesson on how strong a family is. It was comforting to be surrounded by family during this sad time. Even though the structure has fallen apart since my grandmother died, it was comforting to have cousins supporting cousins. The holidays may be overshadowed by his passing, but the spirit is alive with the support of family.

I have and always will love you Eddie.

Catching Up! Again....

It seems that this last part of the year has been so crazy. I have just gotten lost and caught up in all the goings ons here. I have been starting over on some things. Trying to rearrange my life to accommodate 3 kids in school and going back to work for Jeff.

It's not going well....

But.... I thought I would show you some pics of some good things that did happen around here.

We found a new zoo that the kids enjoyed. Binder Park Zoo near Battle Creek. The bitty one here loved feeding the little birds.

Then the crazy school year started! One in high school, one in middle school and one in preschool. The bitty one just loves school! She still does not understand why she can't go all day 5 days a week.

Neither do I honey.... neither do I....

She just loves her teacher. I don't know if you would find a better teacher to expose your kids to. She is just wonderful! You can tell that she really enjoys the kids and teaching.

Of course I volunteered to bring the snack for the first day since I had so much time on my hands! Fruit made to look like flowers stuck on sticks. Thankfully, the kids loved it!

Then came this ham's birthday. 12 years old! Here is his own rendition of dressing like a homecoming queen! It is very disturbing having your son coming and asking if you have a pair of high heels he can use!

Then of course we had the big day. First dressed up dance for Brianna! Dad even got her a corsage. Aren't they cute?

There was the manicure and pedicure....

....the hair....

....and the dress. Which all added up to mom crying over her "baby" looking so grown up!

Then came Hammy's birthday. He didn't really want a party so we took him and his friend Michael to the Howell Nature Center. They did the zip line....

....had lots of laughs about it....

....screamed and yelled the whole way across the ravine....

....and then climbed the tower. They loved it!

Then it was over to the amusement center for a couple of hours of video games and go carting.

The bitty one and her class also had their first field trip. They read the book "Little Red Hen" followed by a trip to the Great Harvest Bread Company. They learned how the bread is made and got to sample some also. I know I gained 5 pounds just walking into the place from the smells. Mmmmm.....

The it was onto Halloween. The bitty one decided to dress as Minnie Mouse this year.

Her teacher looked so cute dressed as Snow White that I just had to sneak her in....

The bitty one was so proud of her pumpkin that she helped to carve. Of course, she wouldn't clean out the seeds cause that was GROSS!

Now it is onto their little Thanksgiving Feast. They all were so cute singing their song they learned about Thanksgiving!

Now to just try to survive the holidays with some sense of sanity. They have already started out bad. I lost my cousin Eddy this past Sunday. He passed away from a massive heart attack at the age of 54. The service is this Friday.

I do want to wish everyone a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with love and laughter.