Thursday, August 25, 2011

Every little thing I do

I heard this today on the radio and completely related to it.



I have no idea why.

Saturday, August 20, 2011

Ironic, isn't it?

My husband informed me when we were still dating that he would like a snake or a lizard. At that point I was planning on eventually marrying the guy and decided I needed to take some action in determining what type of creature would be habitating in our future home together.

After much research, I decided that a leopard gecko would be the best option.

1. It wasn't a snake

2. They get to be about 6 inches long

3. They are easy to take care of

4. I thought they were kinda cute

So I paid around$20 for one and also bought a tank, sand, warmer rocks, and several habitat things to go in the tank. I got it for his birthday and he named her Mortimer. After we were married, we added Bosco to the family.
Mortimer and Bosco lived happily in their tank. We bought them cricket and superworms every week and an occassional pinki whenever Mortimer got pregnant.

Several times she laid eggs and we desperately did every single thing we were supposed to do to hatch gecko eggs in captivity. But they never hatched. Nothing. No babies.

The irony you ask?

We now have baby Mediteranean House Geckos.

Wild baby Mediterranean House Geckos.

As of Tuesday, we've seen 4 in the house. And they seem very happy. And consequently our ant problem in the bathroom is gone and every single house spider that lived in a corner is gone.


1. We paid nothing for them.

2. We don't have to feed them.

3. We didn't have to buy a tank or special warmer rocks to regulate their temperature.




Irony. Gotta love it.

Friday, August 19, 2011

Friend-day Friday

Well, we started back to school the first Monday of August.

Why you ask?

Because it is so stinkin' hot in Texas that there is just absolutely nothing else to do. It's too hot to swim. The pool water is as warm as the air. It's too hot to breathe outside much less attempt any sort of physical activity. It's just too hot.

So the kids and I decided that if we started back the first week of August, we could take off the entire month of December.

Brilliant.

So we did.

But since all our friends are heading back to school next week we decided to have one last friend bash. We called it 'Friend-day Friday' and everyone invited over their bestie.

The new rage here in Texas are the painting places where you can go, pay money, they provide all the supplies and take you step by step through a painting. It's fun to go with a someone so you can paint an identical picture with your friend. We thought it would be fun to do the same at our casa.

It really wasn't that hard or expensive. Hobby Lobby has the economy canvases at $5 for 2 and their Annie's acrylic paint is so cheap, they almost give it away.

So the kids would have a little more success, I printed out a picture of the project they picked out and then outlined it briefly with a pencil on the canvas.

We went step by step in painting. We looked at the pictures and discussed which colors would work best. It was really fun.













And they all went home with a fun picture that they painted with a friend. A fun momento that they could hang up in their room. Or their closet. :)


This is a friend-day activity that we will definitely do again!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

We should have named her Lola

That's right.

Like the song.

Oh come on... you know the song....

Whatever Lola Wants......Lola Gets...

Our baby girl is almost two and she wakes up most days with a 3 step plan to take over the world. Step one is to take out Mama.

Me.

That's right.

My husband calls her a high-maintenance terrorist.

I'm pretty sure she can leap small buildings in a single bound.

We used to have a no-negotiating-with-terrorists policy. Which meant with the older 3 kids, we didn't give in to their demands.

We have completely given into Lola. She'll come in the room and ask for her 'bobbi' (bottle). I'll tell her she can't have it right now. She'll ask again in a slightly louder tone. I'll politely tell her she can have it later. She screams, 'BOBBI!!!!" and we are all scrambling to fix her bottle so she'll be quite.

Go ahead and judge. I know I used to.

I would see people at a restaurant with their kids. They would leave and the table underneath was a wreck and my husband and I would shake our heads and proclaim that we would never, under any circumstances, leave such a mess.

Yeah right.

When we had a 4, 3 and 2 year old eating out, we would always be appalled at everything that ended up on the floor. We did our best to discreetly clean up our humble pie, leave a huge tip and exit as quietly as we could.

So go ahead. Judge away.

But really, that's not the best part. The best is that she has learned how to get out of her crib. And she politely declines to sleep in the very cute Pottery Barn Green Daisy themed twin bed I have for her. (I would like to take a moment and thank Craigslist and all the parents out there who upgrade the theme of their child's pottery barn room after only having it a year) And if we shut her in the room with the childproof handle on the inside, she cries for hours on end.

So we have just decided to let her wander around the house at bedtime until she gets so tired that she falls asleep.

And we go find her and carry her to bed.

I realize we have fallen far into the depravity of parents who have no boundaries with children. We are working on a plan, I promise. But there are days where I think it would be easier to just let my children be happy and not worry about their character one bit.

We really thought that the 4th kid would be the easiest. She would be easy going, laid back, have a desire to obey and please her parents.

Nope.

Our 4th kid is 5 years younger than the next sibling and she acts like a first born. Fortunately God made her so stinkin' cute that she might just make it through the next couple years based on her cuteness alone.

And this is what I am going to put on the wall of her bedroom.

Very fitting, don't ya think?


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Update: 8-23-11


Lest you feel that we have totally given up on parenting our 4th, I wanted to put in an update that we have been working on setting boundaries with her and also putting her in her big girl bed at her 8:30 bedtime. The first night we stood quietly outside her room and put her back in bed everytime she came out. After 27 attempts at escape, she finally decided to sleep the night in her bed. The second night only took 17 attempts and last night, after 5 attempts to leave her room, she stayed in bed and slept there all night! There may be hope yet. For her and us!