Looks are deceiving

I have this photo hanging in my dining room. I get compliments all the time. My sister in law loved it and didn't even wait until she went home to California to take one of her little one's tiny toes. I laugh when I think of all I had to get through to get the shot.

I was trying to make it for Jim's birthday. It took two adults and a lot of sweat and patience. I don't know that I had any patience...but finally I got the shot. Remember, I had a 10 month old that wanted no part of sitting still, let alone under a blanket, and a two and a half year old...and the terrible twos were in full bloom.And finally the money shot came...and even then I had to crop out the top left corner to get the picture.

But apparently it was well worth the hard work with all of the compliments that I get. I love the picture...and the little tootsie toes.

Flashback Friday..Posted on Saturday

It was Christmas...what can I say.

In the spirit of Christmas, I am posting this picture of the boys from years ago. It's not exactly the one I was looking for, but it's the one I did find.

Happy Holidays to all!

Christmas

I tend to get too into the holiday to remember to take pictures or video. That and the fact that my new camera picks up any little movement and makes the items blurry. That doesn't make for very many good photos. With the excitement, the boys are also too quick for me to keep up with. So I tried to get some when Auntie brought their gifts over.

Video games are big on Christmas day. We had PS2 but got them PS3 all together. Jeffrey was testing out the UFC video game (also big in our house..both the show and living room brawls). Joshua was trying out his new DS dirtbike game.

Man what a mess it all leaves behind. Luckily we have the stairs to the new basement right there so we threw the boxes and packaging right over the railing. Otherwise we wouldn't find toys or eachother.

Jacob wasted no time getting in to all of his toys. Thank goodness for big ole scissors with all that plastic crap they hold the toys down with.

I actually got a smile and almost full face for a photo....score!

Jacob set up his new wheels. I'd love to be able to sit on a shoe box :) and have it not turn into a pancake.

Now we wait for the arrival of our cousins from Tennessee!!! Mommy's favorite present!

Big Belly for a reason

Santa came and enjoyed some treats on his stop.

Jacob was a little disappointed. "He barely ate anything. I worked hard on those cookies." He made them on Christmas Eve at a family gathering. Made two for himself and two for Santa. I had to remind him that Santa stops at lots of houses for snacks and has to watch that belly.

Flashback Friday

A day late, but well worth it. They say what goes around comes around...and this picture proves it in more than one way. The first being style. Old styles just seem to keep recycling. Call them bell bottoms or flare or bootcut...hip huggers or low rise, it keeps coming back. Hair is no different. That is why I for one am holding on to my 80's/90's big hair. It will make an appearance again one day soon. The other thing is that parents always wish for their kids to have kids like them :) Well Jim now has a son who has hair like he once did, and he is beside himself as I'm sure his mom once was as well.

Flashback Friday

This was the weekend Jim said he fell in love with me. Do you think it had something to do with the bikini????

Busy Beavers

Joshua loves to go to the Monarch's games. Jacob...not so much. He just doesn't have the attention span for it. They had a little coloring contest and gave kids free tickets just for entering. Jacob ended up doing pretty well and made the hole game.

This is the little blimp that flies around dropping oil change coupon's and such. I've never seen so many kids excited to get an oil change coupon :) (I'm sure there are some free fries coupons too)

This was a busy weekend. Jacob started basketball practices. I think he will do well with this as they are moving most of the time. That and there isn't any dirt to find bugs in :)

He is number 33, my favorite hockey player's number....and some famous Celtic Player :)

Joshua was itching to get in and help. He didn't want to play on his own since he would be in a different age group than Jacob. After practice he had Jacob go up and ask the coach if he could be a helper. He said yes. The kid cracks me up.

We also had our first real snow, if you can call two inches real snow. That didn't stop Joshua from being excited and wanting to go out. When I came down in the morning, this was what I was greeted with on the kitchen floor.

Flashback Friday

This is my gram and grandpa. My grandfather died in 1997 right at the start of the year. He was such a funny, well loved and incredibly generous man. I loved spending the little bit of time I got to spend with him. They lived in Florida and would only come up in the summer, and then I was only with my dad every other weekend. I used to love to sit around and listen to the stories they would tell about my dad when he was yound and adopted him and about all of the parties and guests they would have at the camp. My grandfather had a 'claw' that he always tried to pinch us with, he loved globs of butter on his Chips Ahoy chocolate chip cookies and toast burnt right over the flame. He hated to wear his false teeth but that never stopped him from eating anything! He in fact tried many times to barter them for something he found more useful. He loved my grandmother to pieces and always wanted to help her even when he could no longer move on his own. "Leave the trash there, 'Cil'. I'll get that for you". He was always working on his 'girlish figure' (as witnessed by all the butter) and proclaimed every meal 'another job well done'. He loved to give and provide to all he knew and didn't. Tearing up many bills for money people owed him.

He is greatly missed everyday and every year that passes!

Sold!

Finally, after much procrastination and down to the last minute, I found a new van. New to me anyway. I vow to never actually buy a new car knowing that they loose thousands of dollars in value once you leave the lot.

This one is a year older than the one I originally wanted, but has 8,000 less miles. It also only has 7 seats, which is what we have. The other one had three seats in the second row. We didn't really need the 8th seat, but it did fold down to make a little table between the two seats. Bottom line, this dealer went down to the price I wanted to be at. The other one was still $1,700 away. So they lost out. It really didn't take us much time to make the deal either, I'd say about 15 minutes if that. I guess there is an advantage to coming in two days before the end of the month.

They are taking my van in for a trade, which isn't much, but I don't have to deal with selling it. Especially knowing the work that needs to be done. Don't get me wrong. I loved my van. But the fixes needed were expensive.

Though wouldn't you know...two years ago they told me my coolant lines that run along the bottom to the back were rusting and needed replacing to the tune of $500. I put that off. I had other things to do with $500. Today, a day after signing on a new van and a day before I need to trade this one in, a whole finally made its way through the rust. Antifreeze everywhere...except in the car. Thank goodness I have a resourceful husband who came up with a little fix to get me through the day tomorrow and to pick up the van tomorrow night. I hope...pending me getting the bank run in and registration done after work. Please let the town hall me my friend tomorrow.

Flashback Friday

Boy time flies. Holidays will do that to you. I had all day to post but just realized now that it is Friday. No time for lengthy prose...just a picture will do.

Just a reminder to all of us with divorced parents...they did love each other at one time :)

Car shopping

Those of you who know me and find me a bit aggressive in personality would be surprised to know that I hate car shopping. I hate anything that has to do with bargain hunting. I avoid flea markets because I am not comfortable with the price haggling, that and the people drinking beer at 1o am with their donuts in wife beaters, without bras.

It is time for a new car. Mine is rusting more each day, all around the gas cap as well as underneath. Two years ago they told me the undercarriage coolant lines were starting to rust. I can only imagine what they look like now. Night time is a bit treacherous since my headlights are so cloudy not much light actually gets through. The worse part is that my blower is not working. It wasn't too big of a deal until the damn frost had to come. I have to whack it with the kids vitamin bottle to get it going. (you'd think that was enough to remind me to give them their vitamins....hasn't happened) The last thing I have in the morning is time to wait for the windshield to clear enough to see.

I have put it off and put it off. Now with the holiday looming, I literally have a handful of days before I am up a creek without a registered, inspected vehicle. On most days I couldn't even decide what I wanted, another minivan or a car. I haven't had a car payment in almost two years...and I am not looking forward to another one.

Today we went looking and this is what I am looking at. The Toyota Sienna. I was first thinking about the Odyssey, But I like the shape of the Sienna better. Oh, did I mention my parameters are pretty strict...right price, looks good. Jim is beside himself about my lack of certainty. I will never get the car I would really like, unless we were rich and it was a third car. Because an Eclipse is really not a family car nor in my price range.

Things I loved about the Sienna.

• nice ride
• stow and go third row seating
• deep back if seats are up
• 8 seats
• three separate seats in the second row that each recline independently
• two side sliding doors
• windows go down in the side doors, so cool
• cd player...I have a tape player
• middle seat in second row folds to make a little table with cup holders
• the color was cute too

Thing I didn't love....$20,000 price tag! (Bottom line price)

Flashback Friday

Oh the places we've been....we've come a long way since this day.

First day of Kindergarden for Joshua. He so looked forward to this day until it actually came and went. Day 2-100+ were not so good :)

Fashionista

I always thought Joshua was the obsessive one. But Jacob is giving him a run for his money. The kids loves his dirt bikes and four wheelers. He sits at the table for hours drawing them, cutting them out of magazines and making pictures with the cutouts. He has practiced making posters for Hundred Day and keeps asking me to write a note to his teacher to make sure he will get to do it for school.

This week he wanted to take it one step further. Last Father's Day I had them each draw a picture and we made shirts for JIm. They each had a truck of course and kept waiting for each or theirs to be worn. Well Jacob wanted to make his own shirt. He thought we could just tape or glue the pictures on to a shirt. I figured at $3.50 for the shirt, we could do it. It was the transfer that end up costing the money, $15. for five sheets. Which is fine unless you screw up...and like I'm not gonna screw up. Luckily I had a staples rewards coupon so the first pack was 'free'. I tell you, this was no easy project and took all of us to do. Auntie did the ironing, mom did the scanning, printing and cutting (all those damn four wheelers and dirt bikes) and we needed Jacob's little fingernails to peel that G-damn paper off the back of the transfer. Joshua made one too, but his went on to day two...screw up that I mentioned would happen. I took a picture of his too, but forgot to download it. I will add it in when I do.

I'm sure Jacob would take orders if anyone needed a Christmas present idea :)

Halloween

I use to love getting the boys ready for Halloween, when they were younger. You know, before they had opinions and told me what they wanted to be. I liked it much better when I could gently prod them in my direction. I enjoyed making Jacob's costumes the last couple of years and took pride in the outcome. Now I'm 'out of business' as they are both into scarier stuff.

Joshua as Bob the builder.Joshua the army man...two years in a row. We actually watched a home video not to long ago of him practicing putting on his face make up. It consisted of 10 minutes of him brushing the same spot on his face with a miniscule brush....and the cutest little voice ever!My first costume...Jacob went as the cutest cow ever. Jacob was so easy this year. Going through the aisles he just wanted a hat. I took the hat (saved me money) and went with it. These cheap black sweat suits go a long way in the costume making world. Joshua on the other hand was soooooooooo indecisive. This was his start into the scary stuff.

I knew this would be my last year making Jacob a costume. He really wanted a scary one but I told him he was too young. I didn't let Joshua have one in kindergarden either. I kept this costume and it is in my Halloween decoration box. I'm hoping someone will get to use it again. Michelle, let me know if you want Christian to be a scarecrow. It was a large 4T :)Black,and more black. Jacob wanted to be Evil Canevil this year...which is totally him, but really wanted to ride a scooter to complete his costume. I told him it isn't really safe with so many kids around, so he settled for a dirt bike rider. We saw a costume at Walmart and it was so cheap, plastic mask and plastic suit. I told him if he wanted to be a dirt bike rider, his stuff was much cooler. I'm guessing next year I'll have two kids with black robes, scary faces and a bucket of candy.

Flashback Friday

Everyone thinks that Jeffrey and Jacob look just like Daddy. From this picture I would have to agree. I actually think Johsua has been through stages when he looks like him too.

Flashback Friday

In honor of my birthday, I'm posting an old school picture of myself. Back when I was so cute :)Well ik...there are two, I just couldn't pick one. Can you guess which Carly Simon song my dad always use to sing to me as a teenager staring in the mirror?

Charmingfare Farm

Charmingfare farm is a place that has some farm animals and others you would expect to see more in a zoo or something. Like these beautiful wolves.

This raccoon was hainging from the top of the cage and laying on a bar. It was too funny.

For Halloween they had a couple of events planned and one was for the kids. They started out feeding the farm animals, once again confirming how mean goats are, especially to baby goats!

I didn't actually take pictures of them.

Then they had a horse drawn hay ride to see the decorations in the woods, that doubled as a scary hay ride at night.They dropped us at a hay maze in a barn and then took a tracker wagon ride to a corn maze, which was flooded out :( The kids got to wear their costumes and each station gave out candy. A little pre-trick-or-treat day. They are holding the animal food. The goats grabbed the bag right from Jacob and ate most of the bag as well. No wonder those little suckers have such big guts!