Quiet, rainy afternoon

It's a very rainy day here. Dreary, dreary, dreary. I've been napping and blogging and watching 'Confessions of a Teenage Drama Queen' with Emmy. Now I must go 'make groceries' at the Dixie of Winn. Things I'd rather do than that:

1.) Eat doodle bugs.
2.) Pull out my eyebrow hair.
3.) 100 push-ups.
4.) Kiss a lizard.
5.) Just about anything.

But I'm off, in the rain, to do just that. Wish me luck.

Understanding (Happy 17 months, Monkey-John)

John M. still isn't say much of anything, but I'm constantly in awe of what he understands. I use to let him off the hook for things because I'd chalk it up to 'he doesn't know any better'. Well, unbeknownst to him, I'm on to his little game. He knows; he just chooses not to listen. It's gotten to the point where he'll walk in the house, march right to the cat food dish, dump it on the floor, give me his premeditated -'Uh-Ooooh' and then fetch the dustpan and the broom and hand it to me. Can you believe him?

I was convinced of his game even more today at my mom's house. She has a pool table that he LOVES to get on top of and play with the balls. He tends to throw them or bang them hard on the table. In the past, we'd tell him not to do it and assume he just didn't 'get it', but today I explained to him that he had to ROLL the balls or he'd have to get down. He raised his little gold eyebrows at me and reared back as if he was going to throw the ball. I gave him that 'you do it and die' look and he put the ball down and pushed it gently with the back of his little hand and smiled. Little booger.

He's now saying these words (let me keep count here b/c for his 18-month check-up, they're going to ask and I'm going to be struggling to remember):

Mama (this is the most important one!!)
Dada
MawMaw
Ball
Bye-Bye
Bella (the babysitter's dog)
Gimme

I think that's it. Uh-oh, I think he's failed that part of the oral exam. Oh well. He can babble like nobody's business. That should get him some extra points.

Cuteness Abounds!

Okay, I know there are many similar ones here, but they were all so cute I couldn't decide on just one. Last weekend, we had some really cold (for southern La.), nasty weather out. Mark bundled up his favorite wee cowhand to help with the farm and took these (beware, much cuteness below):







Then, how to warm him up we asked?
I know, we'll boil him!

Way Back Wednesday

Circa 2001.

No, that's not a pack of cigs I have poking out of my pocket.

No, I've not doing heavy drugs; I just looked a little dazed.

Yes, those are 2 cute little girls.

Yes, those are 2 wooden fish hanging on my cabinets. A Mark purchase.

Notice, too, the red spider lilies behind us. I love those.

My list of worries as of 2/21/2006

I keep reminding myself that the reason I started this blog was to be able to look back at it, in many years, and have it serve as a diary of sorts. I also hope to show it to my children when their older, so that they can read stories of things that they've done, that their old mother has forgotten about. It's a peek into my life as it is now, a snapshot in time. As I've said before, I'm a worrier, so I figured I should post about my daily worries. Things that cross my mind daily and cause me to worry, the same things that keep me awake at night or the wee hours of the morning. Here they are:

- something bad happening to Anna, Emma or John, health or accident-related
- ditto for Mark, my mom, my sister's family
- money, not having enough from day to day, week to week
- future expenses, especially college and weddings - how in lleh are we going to pay for that?
- having my own health problems
- the need to lose weight, growing older
- social problems for my girls, 'mean-girls' teasing them, etc.

These are the biggest ones that come to mind. There are more, but they are a little more petty and not as worrisome for me. I guess most of these are the typical things that most wives/mothers worry about, but I just wanted to share.

Do any of you have some big worries to add?

Gauchos, camisoles, spring blazers . . oh my!

I have serious Spring fever when it comes to clothes buying the last couple of weeks. I've been getting all the new catalogs with the cute gauchos, and pretty chocolate, peach, turqouise color combinations. And the cute little blazers and jackets, and camisoles and crocheted sweaters! See this little chick on the left here. I love her gauchos! I've been adding things to my online shopping bags like nobody's business. Someone stop me before I get out of hand here. Or maybe it's too late.

I even bought a cute spring skirt at Wal-Mart this weekend, because I spend half of my life there, so I may as well buy some fashions too, right?

Okay, I'll be seeing y'all . . I just realized I need some cute little strappy sandals . . .

'Our Home, Louisiana'

At the girls' school mass this week, the children sang a beautiful song
called 'Our Home, Louisiana'. I had never heard it before and it really touched me that day as I listened. Turns out it's a song by a New Orleans songwriter named Jep Epstein, who wrote the song about the rebuilding of our state after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. The song is used in an ad campaign for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana. It touches on Louisiana traditions and our sense of family and community that I feel is something that defines our state as a whole.

If you're interested, here are the lyrics:

OUR HOME, LOUISIANA

A flickering lamp, a fire bright,
The lights are on again,
Graceful trees tell quiet tales,
And you remember then.


All our dreams head homeward, chere,
Smiles bring other smiles,
Neighbors, friends, and family join,
Together, we survive.

This is our love,
This is our life,
This is our home, Louisiana,
This is our day, come what may,
This is our home.

A breaking dawn,
a tender morn,
A canvas we design,
The band parades, a jester laughs,
We share momentous time.

And all our hopes flow back to you,
The music plays in time,
The river calls in majesty.
Together, we survive.

This is our love,
This is our life,
This is our home, Louisiana,
This is our day, come what may,
This is our home.

Church bells ring,
the children sing,
My sunshine, you are mine,
Hello old friend,
I knew you when,
Together, we’ll unwind.

May all our prayers be noble now,
May all our work be pure,
May we be thankful once again,
Together, we endure.

This is our love,
This is our life,
This is our home, Louisiana,
This is our day, come what may,
This is our home.

This is our love,
This is our life,
This is our home, Louisiana,
This is our day, come what may,
This is our home.

“Our Home, Louisiana” Words and music by Jep Epstein © 2005 Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Louisiana

If you'd like to hear the song, you can download it here:
http://www.bcbsla.com/web/customer/Our_Home/Our_Home_Louisiana.asp
There's also a CD that Blue Cross has on sale and proceeds go to the Hurricane Relief effort.

For all of you out there that have ties to Louisiana, you know it's a great place, one like no other.
If you've never visited here, I hope one day you can make it down and get to live the feeling that this song speaks of.

John's increasing vocabulary

In addition to 'Maw-Maw' and 'Da-da' and his all time favorite 'uh-oh', we now have, . . . drumroll please . . . 'Mamamamamama' (that SO counts as 'Mama'!) and 'ball'. It sounds more like 'baw', but we know what he means. At this rate, he'll be forming complete sentences by age 6!

Go, John!

That wacky Aunt Flo

Okay, girls (MarkD and Spikey, y'all may want to sit this one out, as it deals with the 'P' word), can someone please tell me what the deal is with my menstrual cycle these days? Ever since Aunt Flo came back after I finished nursing John M. (last May, I think), things have not been right.

This is the way it goes, Aunt Flo comes in with a little light bag, you couldn't even call it a true 'carry-on', and then her little bag gets lighter and lighter. This can go on for close to a week, a full 6 days this month! Just when it looks like she's left town all together, she comes in with a complete set of luggage! And some furniture too. It's not pretty. But, she just stays 2 or 3 days tops and then she's gone, quicker than a wink. All in all, her stay can last anywhere from 10-12 days? WTF?
I know I'm older now and my hormones are out of whack, but still.

Do any of you have similar experiences? Please tell me that this is temporary and I'll be 'normal' again one day. Please.

Even if you have to lie a little. ;^)

Can you guess what's going on in this picture?

Did you guess the 4-H Sew With Cotton contest at the parish library yesterday? You did?! Well, you'd be right.
This was Anna's first year taking part. She was not looking forward to the modeling part. They had to make aprons, so modeling an apron isn't real exciting, I guess. She told me beforehand that she was sorry she had decided to do it and she most definitely was not doing it next year. I totally understand because I used to take part in this same contest eons ago and I despised the modeling part. I wanted to sink into the floor when I had to walk out in front of all those people. My mom has pictures of me in my stylin! 4-H dresses and I'm all hunched over and looking miserable. I need to post those. Y'all would enjoy them. Anna won a purple ribbon (notice it in her hand) and that made it all worth it. She even said she'd do it again next year. The dashing young man next to Anna is my nephew, John, who took home the overall first place prize! The only man in the competition too!

They're following in their grandmothers' footsteps, that's for sure, because if you're looking for a seamstrss, don't stop here.

***Update to this post. My mom found the picture. She has been welcomed into the 21st century and actually owns a SCANNER! So, here it is. Guess which one is me. HINT: I'm not the one on the right. Question #2, guess which one is my sister.

Mooooo for Mama

As mentioned before, this little booger will say 'Maw-Maw' and 'Dada' all the live long day. Will he say 'Mama', 'Mommy', 'Mom', anything of the sort? No.

Mark was trying to get him to say 'Mom' this morning and he busts out with the exact same sound he makes for the cows mooing. It's like a 'Mmmmm', with a tiny bit of 'ooh' in it.

Mark thought it was funny that his cow sound and his mom sound were the same. Both providers of milk. Close enough.

Longing for Spring ..

I wasn't sure what to post about this morning, so I started looking through pics I have on my PC. I found this one from three years ago. It was March and the grass was so green, but some of the trees were still bare. The girls LOVE to sell lemonade, and the weather starts getting warm, he head out to do just that.

Just looking at the picture makes me long for Spring, and warm weather, and green grass and my phlox blooming! March is next month, right? I can make it!

Way Back Wednesday

I'm doing this again . . with another photo from my sparse stash. This was from April 1999 - so let's see almost 7 years ago. It's me (don't you love the green short-skirt suit, my friend Jolie, my friend Cindy, and Nonrev (he's a whole 'nother post by himself CRA-ZY!). We had gone to eat lunch at a Fuddrucker's (how I miss it, it's gone now, sniff sniff) and for some reason, decided to take this picture afterwards.

I'm going to have to use my mom's scanner to scan some old pictures if I want to keep this up.

"I'd rather have 'nothing' than have to give in!"

Just a quick Anna and Emma story from last night:

The three of us are playing Polly Pockets (my personal favorite all-time thing to play) and we're having our normal 'pageant' where we each get 5 Pollies, dress them up, and narrow it down one by one (beauty pageant style) until there's a winner.

Well, there's usually an argument about who gets to pick the winner. This is done when there are 2 left. One person picks them up, juggles them around while the other person closes their eyes and picks the winner. Neither of these people is ever me. (I know, this is crazy, but this IS my house, so what else would go on besides craziness?) Anyway, last night. It got down to this part and who was going to pick the winner.

It went something like this:

Anna: Okay, Emma went first picking who to 'vote out' (yes, we live EVERYTHING in the style of Survivor), so I'll pick the winner.

Me: Okay, that sounds fair.

Emma: Nooooo-awah!! I want to pick the winner. Mom said I could.

Me: Well, that was when . .

Anna: No, Mom said I could do it because you went first!

Emma: No, I get to do it.

Anna: (some whining something)

Emma: (some whining something in return)

Me: (thinking I'll nip this in the bud right away) Okay, well I guess we'll just have to stop playing and go to bed if y'all can't agree.

Anna: Okay!

Emma: Alright

And they both throw the Pollies in the 'Polly Bucket'.

Hence, the title. Even 'nothing', going to bed, no more playing, is BETTER than having to agree and give in.

Proof that I have two of the most stubborn children ever.

And where does 99% of that stubbornness come from?

That would be me.

Blessings Count

Thanks, Heather, for reminding me regularly, through your blog, to count my blessings. I forget sometimes.
Here goes:

1.) This face:

2.) The faces of that face's two sisters, that I'm too lazy to import pictures of at the moment.

3.) Having my family nearby to keep me going on a daily basis.

4.) A great babysitter who watches my three little faces and gives them loads of love and attention when I'm away.

5.) Cane's chicken tenders

6.) Great, big comfy sweatshirts to sleep in.

7.) The automatic door on my van.

8.) My blog.

9.) Warm weather.

I feel better now. Blessings counted.
It's only 8:44 but I'm going to bed.
Good-night.

Way Back Wednesday . . one day late

7 years ago.

Here I am, age 29, with my friend Tiffany (who has long since left town for the sunny beaches of Floriday, sniff, sniff). Why am I attempting to graze Tiff's right breast? You'd have to know me pretty well to know the answer to that. But she sure does look happy about it, doesn't she?

This was at our old workplace, months after I had Emma. Those were the days. Could my clothes be more baggy? But I DO wish I still had that sweater. It went with everything. So, umm, what's my point?

I'm pretty sure I don't have one. I just found this on my computer and wanted to share. I don't have a scanner so it's hard for me to participate in Way Back Wednesday because I have no old photos accessible.

So, that's all I have to say about that.

Overwhelmed

Do you find that you're constantly overwhelmed by everything that you have to do?

I've been finding that more and more.

Overwhelmed because my house is never clean. I have things stuck to my floor that I can't identify. I have enough hair on my bathroom floor to build Cousin It's wife.

Overwhelmed because I can't keep up with the huge tidal wave of laundry that my family manages to accumulate week after week.

Overwhelmed because I can't seem to keep enough food in my house. You'd swear I had 4 huge ogres living with me, instead of 2 smallish girls, 1 smallish husband and a wee tot of a boy.

Overwhelmed because the girls have so many school projects and extracurricular activities, that there's always at least one thing on the fire. This morning it was making pancakes to bring to Anna's class so she could do a presentation on Vermont (maple syrup and all), music lessons, Adopt-A-Class, art class after school and the book fair.

Overwhelmed because 1 smallish husband (mentioned above) seems to NEVER be home to help out.

Overwhelmed because I'm trying to accumulate a tiny bit of leave to make up for the vast amount of leave taken when I birthed the wee tot (mentioned above) almost a year and a half ago.

Overwhelmed because I never seem to have enough time for my immediate family, my extended family and my friends.

Just.Plain.Too.Much.To.Do.

You get my drift.