Motherland.... again...

Home again, home again.
Jiggity, jig.



This time to see

(taken while talking on Skype)

We are so excited!

Double Standard

Nate: I want more pancakes.
Me: Sorry, you were goofing around (typical) and took to long with your breakfast. Kitchen is closed. No more pancakes today. How about some toast and jam or eggs?
Nate: No, I just want something with sugar in it. How about some candy corn?
Me: ...... (wasn't expecting that one)


My standard is no candy for breakfast.... but I just had a few.....

Rebecca

Gone to book club tonight

Sutton Grace

http://suttongrace.blogspot.com

Because on Sunday nights I waste hours browsing design blogs.

I found this one.

She's amazing.
By the way, the kitchen was made from an old entertainment center. Inspired?

The Marathon

2 registration fees for Ashland, Wisconsin's Whistle Stop Marathon= $120
2 nights stay at the AmericInn with Splashland Waterpark = $400
Traditional pasta dinner the night before the race= FREE
2 knee replacements for Chris= $70,000
Running a marathon with your spouse= PRICELESS

at least that is what he thought at the time these pictures were taken....

Best Parts

• training for months with Chris
• running the marathon with Chris
• having my mom there to watch the kids
• late (9am) start time so I could eat breakfast beforehand
• breathtaking scenery (the lake pictured above is at the start line with cell phone)
• Looking over at Chris while I was running and smiling at each other
  
• inside jokes- "Do you have a map?" "No, but I have an atlas"
• my mom coming along (I know, but it needs to be said twice)
  
• enjoying the norther Canadian sounding accents of "the locals"
• planning future trips
• s'mores (provided by the hotel- campfire was out back on the lake)
• water park in the hotel
• Going on a trip with the family
  

Worst Parts

• Freezing cold! Literally, one of the water cups they handed to me at an aid station had a top layer of ice that had formed while the cup sat on the table
• Ice on the road for the first few miles
• FREEZING COLD at the start line with no bonfires or any way to keep warm
• Nate setting the fire alarm off at the gas station (pushed the emergency exit bar on the door. The employee could not figure out how to get it to turn off. The fire department came)
  
• realizing it was 7+ hours away, not 6
• Chris hurt his knees. Badly.
  
• SO COLD! I had 5 layers on top and, at times, I was STILL cold!
  

TRUE STORY

On our way home tonight, Chris said, "Maybe we should just give up trying to make new friends"


Here's why.


During dinner at our "friends" house Nate was running around like.... well...... to be honest..... like Nate. We kept apologizing saying he was really excited to be over at Avery's (their daughter) house.

As dinner progressed he pumped the entire contents of a bottle of Bath and Body Work's hand soap in to the bathroom sink .

After dinner he dumped an entire bottle of lotion.

All over the bathroom sink.

While Avery was in it.

She was covered in lotion from head to toe.


He said he was trying to make her face white like a clown.




They laughed.

I was mortified.

So was Avery.




I am pretty sure we won't be invited back.

HOME (part 1)

TRACTORS

COUSINS (and the rest of the family)

COOL GRANDPA AND HIS MOTORCYCLE

A TASTE OF WHY WE LOVE GOING THERE

Back on Monday

We are going back to the Motherland

to see these cute girls.

My child's prayer

Dear Heavenly Father,


Thank you for me.


Thank you for mom.

Thank you for Dad.


Thank you for Andy.



Please, please, please protect us from bad guys.
Please, please, please protect us from monsters.

Please make it so their eyes can't see me.
Please take their eyes out.
And their feet.

So they can't come to my house.



Amen.


My Prayer
Please let me child sleep through the night.
Please. Please. Please.


As you can tell, we are having taxing time with sleep around here. I have not idea where Nate's fear is derived from. He has never even seen Monsters Inc. let alone anything truly scary. I don't even watch the local news when he is awake. But every night around midnight he wakes up screaming.

Help.

Please.Please. Please.


and yes, I did laugh out loud when he asked for their eyes to be taken out.

Design Dilemma

I removed a shelf on that open part of the bookshelf to break up the monotony and add a point of interest.... but I don't know what my point of interest should be. Should I put a picture there? A mirror? Vases, bowls, things of that sort? Another angled shelf like the one with Audubon's Birds of America on it? Or just put the shelf back in the middle?

Mondays

9:48 a.m. CLEAN(at last)!

11:23 a.m. Dirty (again)!

...and so it goes...

p.s. yes, I do realize that the only thing I blog about it my lack of blogging or how amazing my life is. Lame. I'm moving on.

H.A.P.P.Y.

Just so you know, I do feel guilty about not blogging. I do think about it often. I should really blog today. I should upload my photos some day. Well, dear friends, that day is today. My kids are currently in their rooms bouncing on their beds while they should be napping. But I will get my blogging done. So, to catch you up to speed in the life and times of Russell, party of 4....

We celebrated birthdays

by eating cake,
naturally.

Oh, and 500 ball pit balls (great idea by Chris- Andy loved it!)

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He learned to peddle.
Fast.

He learned to walk.
I miss the bear crawl already.


He passed the bar exam.
And wrote chapter one of his novel.



I reupholstered a chair (all by myself!) this week
Next project: paint my kitchen chairs.


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We are so happy.

I am not sure if it's the fact that we are done with school,

putting down roots
and planning to be somewhere long term,that I am done nursing,


or that we just got these amazing bookshelves.



No matter the reason, we feel truly blessed.

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1st day of preschool

My Fave

Mom, Dad, anyone else who still reads this blog. Sorry to lead you on and get your hopes up that I had become an amazing blogger. I just can't commit to that. Hopefully, tonight or one day soon I will upload pictures off of my camera and blog a few. In the mean time. I found this amazing website. Hayley C. and Mom- you will love this if you haven't already come across this!

http://www.thepartydress.net/?cat=69

Mondays

It's Monday. And I am cleaning. In a skirt. After the chaos that is Saturday and Sunday around here, my house is trashed by Monday morning. As I was scrubbing the floor this morning in a skirt (too hot for pants and no clean shorts deemed it a skirt day) I couldn't help but feel like Cinderella. Come on, I am sure you do too.

Cinderelly, Cinderelly
Night and day it's Cinderelly
Make the fire, fix the breakfast
Wash the dishes, do the mopping
And the sweeping and the dusting
They always keep her hopping
She goes around in circles
Till she's very, very dizzy
Still they holler

Keep a-busy Cinderelly!

Worth EVERY penny

Andy is sick. Still. My aid in sanity, Boogie Wipes. They are made with saline so they dissolve the mucus. No more scrubbing boogers off a screaming baby's face! It gets better. They are alcohol free and moisturize with vitamin E, aloe and chamomile. It is so heart breaking to have to take a tissue to your baby's bright red (some times cracked or bleeding) nose. Andy honestly starts to cry the minute he sees me reach for the tissue box. He still fights getting his nose wiped, but at least I know that it isn't actually causing him pain with these Boogie Wipes.

I first tried these when we went to Mall of America for the New Years' Eve bash. Andy got really sick on the drive up. Being the bad mom that I am, we went along with plans as normal since he was only 4 months old and was going to (hopefully) sleep in his infant carrier most of the night. We made a pit stop on the drive up to Minneapolis and I sent Chris in to buy every medication that was available for a baby this age (which, as you know, is not saying much). He came back to the car with these. I asked how much they were. I think he said like $4. I scoffed and said that was ridiculous. I eat my words, friends. They have saved all of us many tears each time Andy gets a bad cold. Sanity, now available, for $4 at your local Walmart.


No, I do not receive a commission for any purchases generated by this blog post. Yes, I am aware that this post did sound like a advertisement. What can I say? They really work:)

My randomness

We are sick around here. Andy first on Monday, then me on Tuesday. I was better by Friday just in time- Nate woke up sick (and Andy is STILL sick!) Currently he is lying in my bed while I am birthday gift shopping for Andy (this Thursday, yay!) I am pretty sure Nate is delusional from the fever as he just asked what that basket was on my head and if it was Brynn's..... anyway, point of this post was that I came across these little gems while looking for a play tunnel on Ikea's website.

Flatware made of stainless steel for $6!!

10 pc set made of stoneware for $10!!

So... if you are like me and start thinking about Christmas shopping when everyone else is thinking back to school shopping (no, I don't finish by September, yes I do like to start brainstorming and start looking- really, I just can't resist) here is the link to check out all of their digs:

http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/categories/departments/childrens_ikea/10401/