Friday 5

1.
My mother-in-law Cathy came to visit last week for Bailey's birthday. She always comes bearing gifts - usually for the kids. This time she had a special gift in tow for me as well.

They stole my heart

Bailey  Avery  Graham

It's a mother's necklace from Jade Vine Jewelry on Etsy.

Cathy works at a post office and meets all kinds of people that sell their creations on Etsy, including Cassia - the owner of this particular shop.
I absolutely love the necklace. It's personal and beautiful at the same time. I've already worn it twice in the past week and received many compliments on it.

2.
Last night I attended my first Bible study ever. 

I think it was maybe a year or two ago, there was a post on a blog I typically read and she was talking about starting a Bible study as a great way to make new friends and create long-lasting relationships, your own little sense of community. I remember thinking, that would be awesome, but everybody around here already has their established friends. 
And that is actually somewhat true about a small town. It seems everybody already knows everybody and people already have those links established. But in the last year, I've been surprised by the number of new families with small children that have moved to the area. People our age, in the same stage of life, going through the same things we are. It wasn't just us. 

The tricky thing is meeting those people. And not coming across as a total creeper desperate for human contact.
Which sometimes I feel like I am...
Making friends is hard. 
I know I've said it before. I went to college out-of-state. The people I was closest with in college live at least an 8 hour drive away. So while most of us are in the same stage of life right now (married with small children), we don't get to see each other.  So the people I share a lot in common with aren't around to sit and share a cup of coffee. I have two other close friends in the area, but I don't get to see them all that often either. 

So I was pretty excited when a woman I met a few months ago at library story time invited me to a Bible study she was starting at her home. It seems like we are in the same boat, wanting a sense of community, looking for people that could possibly become real friends, desiring conversation beyond topics of preschool and sleep schedules. And it's work. It takes putting yourself out there. It's not as easy as it was in school or even in the workplace. But I think friendship is worth the effort. 

The atmosphere was relaxed and homey, Brigette (the hostess) made such cute delicious snacks, and the video series really seems like it is going to be a great fit for our group. I have high hopes to learn a lot and fill in a bit of that friendship void while I'm at it. 


3.
We just watched the season finale of How To Get Away With Murder.

Girrrrl! That show always keeps us guessing.
Not sure how they are exactly going to transition into the next season, but I guarantee we will tune in to find out!


4.
Random fact: I hate this blog name. 
I started this blog back in 2011 without knowing whether or not it was something I would enjoy doing. I think Jared came up with the name, and I was cool with it. But over time, I don't know... I just don't really think the name is very "me." I don't know if it's because it seems overly cheery and perfect while I am more realistic and sarcastic or what exactly.

In hindsight I wish I had picked the URL to be something less specific to the blog name, that way the blog name could be easily changed. Literally "thesolkos.blogspot" would have done the trick. But I was new to all this and thought it was supposed to be the same. So now it is in the URL and it seems like a lot of work to switch it at this point.

Like, would my 7 or so regular readers be able to find me?!

Maybe it isn't that much work. Who knows? It did take me basically two whole years to finally bring myself to create a new email and abandon the old one that I created when I was 14. So maybe in another couple years I will work up the gumption and do something about it.

5.
Have you ever heard of or played Cards Against Humanity?

Jared found out about this "party game for horrible people" and immediately wanted it for Christmas. My apologies, baby Jesus. We have played it a few times and - shocker- since we're horrible people, we thoroughly enjoyed it.

This past weekend Jared insisted we play it with my parents, sisters, Justy's boyfriend Zac, and Jared's mom. Can we just say, this isn't necessarily a game you should play with your in-laws?! I was basically forced into playing along.

The premise of the game is just like Apples To Apples. One person reads a card (the black card) and everyone else playing chooses a card from their hand to play to answer the first card's question. The original reader picks the one he or she likes best. There are usually some good ones, sometimes some that aren't as funny, and then there are some like this:

My dad read the top card.
The winning card (the white one) was played by my mother.
I almost nearly died laughing.

It was funny when it was read aloud, but it was even funnier when my mom raised her hand to admit she played the card.

They sell expansion packs and we most definitely will be needing one of them soon.

Well, that's it for me. I am off to bed early. Tomorrow Justy and I are going to go get cheap reflexology sessions at the massage therapy college and then see a matinee of 50 Shades of Grey. I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess the book isn't actually better in this instance.

Goodnight!

Friday Faves

1. Blankie has been found!
Hallelujah!
Praise the Lord!
all that.

He had been M.I.A. for the past four days. Things were getting serious. We last saw him (yes, the blanket is referred to as a person around these parts) on Sunday when Graham went down for a nap. And then that night he was no where to be found. 
We. tore. this. place. apart.
Nothing.

I was on the fence about full-on accusing Jared of taking care of him Chicago mob boss style. See, Jared started to despise Blankie about 6 months ago when Graham figured out how to tear tiny bits of the fleece/cotton/whatever mixture off of it and roll it into balls. It's like a weird OCD thing he does when he is falling asleep. Whatever. Point is, there are tiny blue clumps of cottony fabric all over his room. So there was possible motive there...

But yesterday Bailey came running up the stairs yelling, "I found him! I found him!" The him, of course, being Blankie. The blanket had been stuffed into a small nightstand drawer in the spare bedroom. Clearly I owe Jared an apology. He did not shove him in the garbage and hustle it out to the curb Monday morning to cover his tracks.

Now that Blankie has returned, nap times are bound to go much more smoothly again.


2. Christmas decorations! 
We spent a large chunk of last Friday unpacking tub after tub of Christmas decor. 
The Pandora Christmas station was playing.
The tree went up.
Lights were hung.
Decorations are now in almost every room.

I particularly love our buffet in the dining room that helps spread more of the Christmas spirit around the house.

Jared even put up a couple strands of white lights on the girls' bunk beds. It's a fun substitute for a lamp for a few weeks, plus Bailey and Avery think it's pretty special.


3. And speaking of Christmas decorations, if you have a fake tree, you definitely need to purchase these bad boys.

Scentsicles. 

Jared hates that we have a fake tree. But I like to have the tree up for a month, plus live trees are more work, as well as being more costly since as we got a good after-Christmas deal on our fake one. Jared mostly misses the fresh tree scent.
So we bought some Scentsicles on Amazon.
Under 9 bucks. 
Problem solved. 
It makes the whole room smell amaaaazing!
Totally worth it to buy a pack every December.

4. The girls' school pictures came in yesterday. I tried to scan them, but it made the quality of the already not-exactly-high-quality photos even less. 
But I was pleasantly surprised with how they turned out. Bailey as always did fine. 
With Avery, I had to go in with her after school got out. Her teachers tried and tried during her scheduled time, but she refused and wouldn't stop crying/freaking out. In the end I had to jump around acting crazy while bouncing her Hello Kitty backpack above the photographer for her to grimace smile at the camera. So considering all that went into them, they work for me.

And $80 later we have two somewhat okay photos that we could have taken ourselves in our own living room. But it's like a childhood rite of passage, right? You need these sometimes-good/sometimes-extremely-awkward photos to fully commemorate your school experience. Or they are just good for a laugh when it comes to making fun of your grown siblings. Either way.
Fe - your 7th grade v-ball photo. 
Nuff said.
(And you're welcome for not posting that photo here!)


5. Tonight I get to hang out with Sarah, one of my oldest friends. We've been friends since 3rd grade. 

us, 15 years ago

She is definitely one of the few people who will tell it to me straight no matter what the consequences, and that is one of the things I appreciate most in a friend. I can't wait for the laughs and over-sharing that is about to occur in a few hours!

Five on Friday

1.

Tomorrow is our 6th wedding anniversary. 

We aren't huge into presents (correction: I am not huge into presents); we prefer to go the experience route. I would much rather go do something or go somewhere new than get a pair of earrings. My parents volunteered to watch the kids overnight so that we can get away and go do that something new. I have been looking forward to it all week!

2.

My newest addiction:

It's a TV show about exactly what you are thinking it is about. It's on Showtime so it is naturally racy, but after the first episode or so it settles down... a bit. It isn't just smut though - there are complex characters and story lines that keep you wanting to watch the next episode. But let's be honest, there ain't nothin' wrong with a little smut. 

Bonus: it is set in the 1950s, so that always adds an interesting dynamic - the hair, the clothes, the gender inequality...

And in case you are wondering, no, we do not get Showtime. In fact our cable package costs about 20 bucks and all winter I hear my sisters whine during their visits about how we don't even get ESPN. We use an amazing little site called CouchTuner and it is awesome. You can thank me later.

3.

From smut to the anti-smut...

I have been in a classic book reading mood lately. I have zero idea how I graduated high school having read hardly any classic novels, especially since I love to read and was in an English lit class every semester. I was forced to read Beowulf (shoot me now), but never picked up a copy of The Great Gatsby or The Grapes of Wrath.

In the past month I finished both of those books. I felt like I needed to read them. 

I need to be able to answer those Jeopardy questions! 

No, but really. 

I am glad I read them. And maybe it is a good thing that I am reading them now instead of 12 or more years ago. I don't know if I could have appreciated them fully as a teenager. Both books had excerpts where I got caught up in the writing, reflecting about life. I think that those parts would have sailed right over my clueless teenage head.

Next up, an Agatha Christie classic: The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.

I have heard it referred to as one of the greatest mystery novels of all-time. I am looking forward to reading my first Christie novel.

4.

Random outdoor photos

5.

That's it, folks. 

My uneventful life is tapped out at 4 subjects this week. I am off to sneak in an episode of my aforementioned guilty pleasure while Jared is out drinking a beer with our neighbors. 

Happy Weekend!

5 on Friday

1.
As I said in a recent post, I gave up Facebook. Not gave it up for Lent or something. Just gave it up. And I have to say it's been a great decision. It took a couple days to get past the initial itching-to-log-in-when-bored phase, but now Facebook just doesn't even cross my mind.

It is helpful that Jared still has it. We have quite a few of the same friends so he updates me when something major has been shared online. Other than that, I am glad to be missing out on it all. I never thought I would say that. I always thought it was sort of different when people refused to be a part of the Facebook world, but now I totally get it.

2. 
I departed the Facebook world just to enter the world of tweeting.
I know, I know.
But I spend all of one minute a day on Twitter. Mostly it allows me to blow off parental steam in a social media kind of way.

Plus I have zero idea how to manage it anyway. I followed a couple of people and now I am annoyed by their five bajilion retweets a day, but I have no clue how to unfollow them. And I also have little interest in really figuring it all out, so here I am. With a total of maybe four tweets ever.


3.
I have been in a reading kind of mood lately. I love to read but sometimes just don't make the time. Or I have so many books on my list, I don't even know where to start. Since I take the kids to story time at our library a couple times a month, I have no excuse not to ask our local librarian for her recommendations. We chat about books frequently and we seem to have similar taste. So she has pulled a few of her favorites and basically made me check them out.

Right now I am reading Life After Life by Kate Atkinson.

It's a different kind of book, about a girl/woman that keeps dying and being reborn, living her life over and over until she gets it right. I am maybe a third of the way through it right now and like it so far.


4.
We are all getting a little stir crazy around here. I am tired of snow and temps in the 20s. It's time for some legit spring weather.
So when the temperature cracks 50º we all behave like it's a heat wave. We get out the stroller and bike and head outside for a walk. Bailey started riding her bike at the end of last summer. She does pretty well despite our long pothole-filled driveway.

As a kid I didn't ride bikes much. We lived out in the country on a gravel road so biking wasn't much fun. My sisters and I opted instead for go-carts, 4-wheelers, and mopeds. So the fundamentals of bike safety weren't on the forefront of my mind. Jared took care of that.
Bailey's new bike helmet arrived this week. And while Bailey protested it at first, she quickly gave in when she saw Daddy has one too.

We are hoping the weather warms up and stays that way soon.
 But in the meantime, I am looking forward to...

5.
...Our sister weekend!
Last year I met up with my three sisters, used up a free-stay hotel voucher, and spent 24 hours shopping, eating, and drinking.
This year we thought it would be fun to repeat last year's idea. So I booked a nice hotel suite on Priceline and we are all set to meet up this Sunday.

And as you can see from the picture above:
No kids.
No husband.
No responsibilities....
*Heaven*

Happy Friday!

Friday Five

1. 

I quit Facebook.

And the obvious question to this statement is why?
And I thought the answer to that was complex, but really it is pretty simple:
I have slowly come to realize over the past few weeks what I have known all along: Facebook isn't making me happier.

I have had a couple conversations with friends recently where the honest-to-God actual answer to their discontent/anxiety/you-name-it is "Stop getting on Facebook."
And it applies to me too.
I am happy with my life. There are obviously things I would love to be different (bye bye 20+ pounds, hello Jamaica, etc) but I am definitely a content person. Yet sometimes I log on to Facebook wanting to return a message or post a picture of my kid being cute and I leave with a bad taste in my mouth.
Sometimes that taste is jealousy. 
I am done having kids. I don't want any more babies. Why am I jealous of this acquaintance and their new baby?
Sometimes it's frustration.
Seriously, so-and-so keeps f*ing up her life royally and our family member just keeps rewarding her bad behavior!
Sometimes it's mommy guilt.
Look at those DisneyLand photos. I hope my kids like camping. In tents. For free. 
And other times it is just the inadequacy you feel from seeing the "perfect" picture painted by all your Facebook friends. 

We live in a keepin'-up with the Joneses society and Facebook feeds into that. Even if I am happy with myself and my life, some of those feelings creep in even when I log on quickly. And I don't think it is just me. Study after study gets play on the news, correlating feelings of unhappiness with social media such as Facebook. 

I am happy to hear from my friends and family about their happy news - engagements and babies and new homes and promotions and awesome vacations - all that.
Because we are friends. And I am actually happy for them.
It's all the extra. The stuff I wouldn't hear about if there weren't Facebook.
I want to hear about the real stuff, not read the picture-perfect airbrushed version that gets posted online.

What finally solidified my choice was talking to a friend who had to give up Facebook awhile ago for legal reasons. When I asked her how she felt about it, she replied that it was hard at first and family members gave her grief about how they needed Facebook to stay in touch and keep up with her family.
But then a great thing happened:
People sent handwritten letters.
They sent cards.
They emailed.
They picked up the phone and called.
She started having real interaction with people again.

In essence, the people who actually care about you are going to make the effort. And the rest? The rest were just your Facebook "friends." And in my case, I write this blog for family and friends so that they can see photos and read little stories and hear about what is going on in our lives. I'm not dropping off the face of the earth.
And who knows how long my deactivated status will last?
All those cat memes are pretty great - I might be back...

2.
A slightly-sad/slightly-amazing thing happened this week:
Graham's off the boob.
He turned 15 months old and decided enough was enough.
His sippy cup has officially taken over my position.

I have mixed emotions.
I was ready to have my body back to myself, but it's a little odd. Like, what shirt do I wear now?
(I kid, I kid. Sort of...)
I have been pregnant or breastfeeding nonstop since June of 2009. It's no wonder I have a non-existent wardrobe.

The transition was easy, for which I am glad. He is happy and doesn't seem to miss it.
The part I am going to miss the most is the fact that while he was nursing it was easy to pretend he was still my little baby.
But he isn't.
The first year of his life flew by faster than it seemed to with our others. Probably because he is the baby. And because he is our last.

I can honestly say that breastfeeding my kids has been one of the best parts of being a mom. It sounds crazy to some, but for me it's true.
Those quiet moments, snuggling your baby, providing something only you can provide... there is nothing like it.
There is no way to describe it to someone.

I have no plans to nurse another child, so that makes those particular memories just a little bit more special. So it is with a sadness/happiness mixture that I bid a big farewell to the Boppy and my used-and-abused nursing camis. You were all so very good to me.
But now I can drink a delicious cocktail whenever I want with zero guilt.  Win for me.


3.
This past week we held our 2nd Annual Shrimp Fest at our home.
Okay, just kidding, it's really not that cool.
Last year my parents were in Louisiana and Mississippi on vacation and brought back fresh shrimp. Since my mom hates seafood, my dad asked Jared to cook it up for him. There was a large amount so we invited over my grandparents and Justy too. We made some fettuccine alfredo along with the shrimp so that those who can't/won't eat shrimp had something to eat as well.
No one went south this winter, so we had to settle with shrimp from Hy-Vee. Whatevs. It was still delicious.

And afterward we ended up watching the movie Uncle Buck in its entirety.

So random.
Because that is how we roll apparently.
I hadn't seen that movie in a long, long time and enjoyed quite a few laughs. Particularly the part about Felix, because I am a perv.

4.
I read this blog last night about giving up something for Lent. Wow, this is me.
It is a humorous blog and the author was writing that what she should really give up for Lent is the last hour of the day that she is awake. That last hour when she does nothing beneficial, just sits around watching House Hunters or other worthless TV while browsing the internet and laying on the couch thinking about how she should be in bed already.
Me.
Right here.
I do that all the time.
And every day when I wake up tired and slightly cranky, I tell myself, "I am going to go to bed at a decent hour tonight. I am going to get in bed early!" and it never happens. I like my personal time too much.
Jared leaves for work at 10 pm and "me time" truly begins.
No kids, no husband.
And clearly no time management.
Before I know it it is 11:30. How did that happen? Oh well, it doesn't matter because I am totally going to bed early tonight.

5.
I have been stumbling across a lot of quotes this week.
I have a daily devotional my mother-in-law gave me for Christmas that eerily seems to apply to my life daily. I will turn to the designated day and then so many times the story and verse correspond to exactly what I was needing to hear.

I also was reading a blog (actually the same one I mentioned in #4) and it quoted someone named Terry Pratchett, and while I have no idea who that dude is, I like the quote:

"Poison goes where poison's welcome." 

And really, it's just so true. 
So many times in life we experience negative things and wonder why it's happening. And while it doesn't explain everything, it explains a lot of the drama we have in our own lives. Because drama goes where drama is welcome. This probably ties in to #1 on this list, because without Facebook, I have exposure to so much less drama. And quite honestly, I think that is a good thing. 

Friday Five

Some random (per usual, right?) thoughts for my Friday.

1. 
First up: new hair
I basically never ever switch it up. I haven't desired to be a different hair color, and I am not a risk taker in any sense when it comes to my hair. It's not a diss on Jared's part when I come home from a haircut and he doesn't notice. I am boring when it comes to hair. Well yesterday I decided that it was time to take a little risk and embrace a little change.

Here it is.
Highlights.
Several inches taken off.
Bangs.
Pretty big stuff for little ol' me.

(And my hair isn't a different shade, just different lighting than my profile picture.)

And ugh, can we just talk selfies for a moment?
Once you're of a certain age, aren't they just kinda awkward?
Like I am clearly taking a picture of myself to post/show other people. It just feels weird. So this is the best I got to offer. I digress..

I am happy with how it turned out and even happier that I just rolled with it and gave my hairstylist control over my virgin hair.

And on a funny/ironic note, it turns out my friend Sarah and I both just got haircuts. We both decided to go for bangs. Yeah... we got the same haircut. Apparently great minds think alike. But as long as we don't go back to that boy bowl-cut we had back in 5th grade, we should be good.

2. 
I will never ever again buy Puffs instead of the Kleenex brand.
Not because they are bad, they are great in fact - much thicker.
No, I will be buying only Kleenex brand because of the simple fact that with children, the pull-out-the-top-of-the-box feature is an absolute necessity. Yes, they will still be able to pull one after another after another after another out of the box, but that takes time. And I could possibly catch them before they waste an entire box.

The Puffs on the other hand, it took only a couple of seconds for Avery to use an entire brand-spankin-new box as "toilet paper" in the toilet. Because naturally she went and used the toilet by herself, making a mess. And being the thoughtful, cleaning-prone girl that she is *can you hear the sarcasm?*, she decided to clean up.
Cut to me: digging an entire box of tissue out of the #2 filled toilet.
An awesome mental picture, right?
So... No more easy-access kleenex boxes for the Solko family.

3.
I am just mentally preparing myself right now for Graham's inaugural trip to the emergency room.
It's gonna happen.
This kid is ridiculous.

He climbs e-v-e-r-y-t-h-i-n-g.

My other two climbed. They would get on top of the table and grin, all proud of themselves. I took them down, whatever. They moved on to other things.
Not our Baby #3. 
He is fixated on trying to climb things. Things I can't even prevent him from climbing on.
Just the other day I came in to the living room to find him standing on the back of the couch balancing precariously by holding on to a table lamp.
I'll close the roll-top desk just to find he has scaled it anyway and is sitting on top, mocking me.
He will stand on top of the kid-sized rocking chair in the girls' room (while it is rocking back and forth - just adding to the challenge, Mom!) and use it to hoist himself on to Bailey's bed.

Keepin' it tame this time with some simple chair standing.

If I spent my day removing him from things he shouldn't have climbed on to, I would literally get nothing done. So I just do the dishes and let him sit on the kitchen table watching me. He's kind of like our cat: he wants to get up on the table, but he doesn't know what to do when he gets there. So he just chills. Sucks his thumb. Shouts out at me every 30 seconds so that I wont forget he is up there and that he is oh so clever.
So yep, ER here we come.
One of these days. Be ready for us.
4.
Coffee.
Until about 3 weeks ago, I can honestly say I had coffee only once before. Ever.
And then I finally tried the deliciousness that is the coffee Jared bought from Costco, and I have since become a fan.
Sure I need a lot of Splenda and some milk, but I am working my way up to full-strength.
Slow but steady progress.
I have become one of those people who thinks she needs coffee to tackle a morning with a large to-do list.
Laundry, breakfast to make, cleaning to do, whiny sick kids, and a dog that pissed in his kennel overnight? I. Need. Coffee.
Like that.
Whatever gets ya through the day, right?
5.
And I will finish up with a sweet picture from this past week.
Our kids love books.
And for some reason books in bed are an even bigger hit.

Notice Graham and his chair balancing?
Typical.

Happy Friday!

the Friday 5

1.
So this is probably gonna sound very un-American-ish, but the winter Olympics in Sochi are underway... and I just can't bring myself to give a crap.

The summer games in London? 
We were all about them. We watched the opening ceremonies, recorded hours of coverage during the day, discussed the results... 
Honestly, this time around I will probably watch an hour or two at most, and probably while painting my nails or talking on the phone. 

I mean, yay! for the athletes, but I am just not that in to snow, let alone snow sports. So U-S-A! and all that, but I think I'm gonna pass.

2.
Speaking of painting nails, I used a Christmas gift card and bought myself a new brand of polish to try: Essie.

color: Russian Roulette

(I swear, only a coincidence to the subject in #1)

I have happened across quite a few people recommending it and singing its long-lasting praises. And since nothing is more annoying to me than actually getting around to painting my nails for once and then watching them chip on Day 1, I pulled the trigger and bought a bottle of color and the all-in-one base and top coat. It's a little pricier than a Walmart special, but only by a dollar or two. Plus the color selection looks pretty amazing. 

3.
We missed out on the last big storm that rolled through this week. We got maybe 2 inches is all. 
Most of the time the little stuff that isn't quite up to snuff in our house doesn't bother me. 
But then winter rolls around...
And it becomes quite obvious that living in a house someone else previously "fixed up" can be a bit of a pain in the ass.

Exhibit A:

Notice the cute little drift of snow in our front entry??

I am not shocked.

This room is tiny, and it is separated from the rest of the house by another door. This room also seems to have zero insulation. And tile floors. Talk about instant feet frostbite if you dare walk in barefoot. We never use the coat closet in this room, because to do so involves surviving the 30 degree temperature drop from the rest of the house. I can almost see our money floating out of this door. (And I can literally see the outside through the door frame when it is closed...)

I am all for do-it-yourself-ing. By all means, save yourself some money and tackle small projects on your own. But if you don't know how to do something right, then either figure out how to, or hire someone else. Because this is just so not legit.

Can anyone say Summer Project? 

It's next on the list. And sadly it will probably pay for itself just in the energy savings from one winter...

4.
I just finished reading American Wife.

It's not new. It came out in 2008 and apparently I missed all the buzz about it back then.

I like to get recommendations about books, but not overly research them. I like to know it's a type of book I would enjoy, but I don't want to read reviews and perhaps ruin a good book. So I didn't know ahead of time it was loosely based on what the author imagined Laura Bush's life to be like. And I don't even know if it is what she imagines her life to have been like, or if it was just an easy place for an idea to take off - a solid idea on which to base some facts and then let her imagination run wild. 

Either way, I really liked it. 

This has only been the second book by Sittenfeld that I have read, the first being Sisterland, but I liked them both. Apparently I like a journey into the mind of someone else, someone who might be vastly different than you, and finding the similarities that make us all human. Because even though she ends up a wealthy woman of privilege that becomes First Lady, she is still entirely relatable. 

Essentially it is a lot about marriage, and there were parts in the book that I found comforting. Like the small but definitely not-so-pretty parts that I am sure occur in every marriage, we just don't talk about them. It was wholly entertaining to me. I like to see how people get to where they are. 

What shaped them? 

What were they thinking? 

What drove them to do that? 

People are interesting to me in general, and her characters are jump-off-the-page real as you read, at least in my opinion.

I would definitely recommend.

5.

Then there is this cheeser:

He's doing anything for a laugh these days, even if it means eating a whole meal with a piece of ham on his nose.

He's learning new words - two in one day: yummy and baby.

His new favorite game is to get a long distance away and then run in to give you a hug. Followed by a big open-mouthed kiss of course.
Heart melted.

He is ornery already, following things he has clearly learned from sister Avery. She on the other hand seems pretty pleased with her new pupil.


Welp, that's all folks. 

Happy Friday!

Five on Friday

 

1.  
I am back to the world of the able-bodied: walking, lifting, and bending. Oh my!
It is amazing how helpless you feel when you can't even put on your own underwear without ridiculous pain. I most definitely intend to never fall down the stairs ever again.

2.
And speaking of damaged bodies, there is my father. He had surgery on his right foot after enduring a year of increasing pain with any movement. He is basically stranded in a prone position for the next week, and saying he is going stir-crazy is a bit of an understatement. 
(Any prayers for my poor mother would be appreciated.)

And because everything is made better with sweets, we baked up some cookies for poor Grandma Papa.

I always wanted to be one of those women who bakes up theme-appropriate cookies just because. You know, hearts in February, pumpkins in October, etc - channeling a bit of Martha Stewart.

Yeah... I have owned this set of heart-shaped cookie cutters for years and this is the first time they have ever seen the light of day...

Bailey is really getting into this apron-wearing, sugar-cookie-baking thing.

3.
My favorite thing this week has been to watch all 3 kids run buck-nekkid down the hallway to the bathroom for their nightly bath. Especially Graham, his cute little bum and bowlegs running get me every time. 
It makes me smile just thinking about it.
I love it so much I videotaped it for posterity. 
And so I can embarrass my children in about 15 years (or sooner).

4.
My hubs is making us a storage unit for the kids' play space. 
I am highly anticipating its completion. 
He obtained plans from a website he uses frequently, and it is based originally on a Pottery Barn version.
He will be building ours to look like this one with a few changes.

I will probably post some pictures of it when it is all finished and the kids' toys are finally organized to my liking. :)

5.
I don't want to say too much about it yet because it isn't set in stone, but I am pretty excited about a job opportunity that sort of fell in my lap. It's just PRN and probably only a day or two a month at first, but it is in nursing and would be very schedule friendly. 

It's an answer to a prayer that I never really consciously prayed. 

A couple months ago I was pondering my life and its purpose in a WTF Wednesday post, and this position seems like a good chance at being able to make money for my family and put my nursing skills to use while still being able to mostly stay home with my kids. Lately I have grown more cognizant of the fact that my nursing skill set is getting a little rusty. This job could be a good way to avoid that huge gap in my resume and hopefully avoid starting over like a new grad when I return to regular work in the nursing field someday. Oh, and did I mention it pays amazingly. Here's hoping all works out!

Five on Friday

It's the Five on Friday link-up!

1. I am loving getting the mail this month. Seeing all the sweet faces of our friends and their kids (or pets) really makes my day. I honestly thought I had been an overachiever this year. I had our cards ordered and addressed, all ready to go, and I waited to mail them because I thought it might be too early. Well we got our first three cards in the mail that day, so I decided it was safe to mail them out.

2. I am done Christmas shopping. Like done-done. And said purchases are all wrapped too.
Yeah, I'm bragging.
It is a great feeling to know we can just enjoy the rest of the month now. How people can handle the pressure of buying gifts on Christmas Eve Day is just way beyond me.

3. Jared has been a bit MIA lately, mostly working in the basement. He has had quite a few orders from his little Etsy side business. Our cousin has an old barn/corn crib that is being torn down bit by bit. Jared has been using that wood and making signs out of it. It's a win-win for everybody. Free wood for Jared and a little less of the barn for my cousin to tear down. This is his latest creation.

4. Our kids have watched a few Christmas movies this season. (Wow, I am having lots of Christmas thoughts today....) They were pretty taken with Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, even if their dad can't appreciate its 1960s awesome-ness.

Graham sat still for all of two minutes.

His new birthday toys are much more interesting.

5. I have to admit that my kids have never met Santa Claus.

(I know, I know. What kind of mother am I?)

Last year I had plans to take them during the winter celebration in our town. Well turns out I had a baby that day instead. Whoops.
And this year, that same annual celebration is the same day that my younger sis graduates with her Master's degree in Education. (Go Beaner!) So we will be missing out again. And as much as I would like to take them, I just don't know that I have it in me to brave the mall on a weekend.
So... *fingers crossed*...  next year?

Five on Friday

Seeing as it is after 10 pm, I am a little late to the game.
And this late night action is actually my first Five on Friday post ever.
But I like easy, and blogging about 5 random things seems to be about the easiest thing out there.

So here goes! 



1) We arrived back from Colorado  yesterday afternoon. (More on that trip soon.) We unloaded all 3 kids from the car and went trick-or-treating an hour later. Everyone was on edge and Bailey was half-sick, but chocolate candy apparently does a lot to improve your outlook on life.


2) Speaking of chocolate candy, whose idea was it to get back to eating better today? Oh yeah, mine. One of my dumber moves. There is a huge pile of brown-wrappered mini bites of delicious just sitting on the counter right now, taunting me. I was actually doing pretty well with my decision. Then I spotted one of these bad boys in the kids' goody bags from our neighbors:

This is my heroin, people.

I made it until 8:15. Then I caved. It was delicious. Then I brushed my teeth to curb any more eating outbursts. Because clearly I am too lazy to rebrush. Problem solved.

3) On our flight to Colorado, we overheard the stewardesses talking about the service animal up in the front of the plane. And not just any service animal.

A service pig.

How sweet is that!?

Apparently the pig's neighbors in the surrounding seats were not amused. (Snobs.) I would have been all over that! It wasn't like a huge pig; it was small enough to sit on the lap of its owner.

Now if I go blind or something (one again, F you, diabetes) I might have to opt for the pig option, just to stand out in the crowd. And as my friends and family already know, I had a pet pig growing up. Not like the run-of-the-mill guinea pig or potbellied pig variety. I had a pig. His name was Persy and to this day I still get harassed by family members about how great the bacon tasted later. But I do not care, he was cool. I would totally post a picture of him, but I am a zitty lookin' 7th grader with horrible glasses who hadn't "thinned down" yet. So nope, I won't even post that embarrassing shit in Persy's honor.

4) We are so behind on our TV shows. This is a problem. I have certain addictions that need to be maintained! Between two out-of-state funerals and a husband passing out on the couch the second I put the kids to bed, we are weeks behind.

Nashville just might be my favorite show,

especially since Downton Abbey and Game of Thrones is not on right now.

You definitely do not have to be a country music junkie to love this show. Although that probably makes it even better. The music is pretty damn good.

5) Bathroom remodel starts Monday! Yippee!

And if you need a refresher on how overdue this renovation is, please click on this here little link: Our Purple Bathroom.

Gross, right?

Stay tuned: I plan to annoy you all with random updates on the progress.

Hope everybody had a happy Friday! I am off to bed. Finally.