Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Oh, the joys of having a big brother.

I wouldn't know. I only have a little brother. Those are a whole other set of joys I suppose.

This morning, I fished out the toy bar for Ella's bouncy seat. She's started to pay attention to her surroundings more and more, so I thought I might get, oh, say 3 1/2 minutes of entertainment from it so I could do some dishes.

I showed Miles "bay-ee Ella's toys" that go across it. He said "kewl". I say "cool" to him when I don't know what he's said.

Miles: "askdj assoieghjda kwieuw, momma".....
Me: "cool"

Pretty soon, she's crying and I look over to find him doing this...

He was piling his toys onto the seat. Anywhere he could stuff them. Cars, trains, a hand held Wheel of Fortune game that is 25+ years old... ha!, a Thomas DVD case (that he loves dearly)....

So sweet. He takes care of his little sis.

So I moved her to the floor. You gotta change things up to keep the little munchkin entertained, you know?

As I was taking pictures of her, random things would creep into my camera's view.

This truck made a pit stop...

This hand stopped by to say "Hi Bay-ee Ella" and pat her on the back...

He grabbed his juicy cup and just plopped down for a second or two to see if what she was doing was more fun than what he was doing...

It wasn't, so off he went.

There were trains to play with...

...and furniture to be hammered.

Meanwhile, Ella found her thumb.

Busy morning!

Monday, June 29, 2009

It was a busy weekend.

Friday night, we had a small, family get-together for my brother, who turns 21 on July 1. Mom grilled and made his favorite foods and we ate. That's how the Molleur clan parties. With lots of F-O-O-D! It's the Savoy in us... And man was it gooooooood!

Birthday boy.

I finally cleared the dining room (mostly) so we could use it. And I loved having people sit at the bar and the dining table, visiting, eating.. It was what I hoped for when we envisioned this house for our family.

This picture is from the party. Miles loves to wrestle with Rwach.

It's completely out of focus, but tells a great story, so I love it.

Just before the sun went down, Rachel and I ran outside and took some fun photos of her. Here's one.

And another.

And the cover of her new country music album.

O, how I'd love to be a professional photographer when I grow up. So much to learn....

Saturday night, Britton was out late, so Miles, Ella and I fell asleep on the living room floor watching Cars. He didn't move us when he got home, he just joined us. So this was the story Sunday morning.

We had an accidental camp out. It was fun. And my back hurts.

Today was busy as well. We're all wiped out and I'm hitting the B-E-D.

But, because I'll get in trouble if I don't, here's a big dose of cuteness...

Thursday, June 25, 2009

Lazy day.

While most everyone is complaining about this heat, my only complaint is that I can't seem to get out in it. I love to get outdoor work done on a good hot day. Makes it nice to jump into the pool as a reward. I want to weed eat, mow, etc... Oh, and I need a tan. "Need".

But these guys do better in a cooler environment. So we lazed around the house today.

And, well, since they're two of my favorite people, I sure don't mind hanging out with them in the AC.

We were all still in our pj's by the time Britton got home from work.

Ooops.

And anytime I couldn't find Miles' juice cup today, this was where it was...

"Horsey drinkdt, mommy."

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

I've been shopping for a pool. Not the kind that's already in my yard, but a lap pool that I can really get down to swimmin' in. There are three in Shawnee.

1. YMCA
2. OBU - my Alma Mater
3. St. Gregory's University

Yesterday morning I got up at 6:00am, fed Ella and took off to try out St. Greg's pool. It's membership is the cheapest of the three. And I'm cheap. So I figured if it had water in it, I'd probably join and that would be that.

But I got there and the pump was broken and the maintenance guys wouldn't be in until after 8am.

Dangit.

So I hung my head and left.

On the way home, I passed by OBU. They recently converted their pool to a salt water system (which is the new thing apparently, no chemicals/chlorine) and their membership fees are the most expensive, even for an alum. It's in an awesome new wellness facility and you have to buy in to the whole package. But with a newborn, I really only have time to jump in the pool, swim like crazy and go back home. I just want a pool membership, but they won't do it.

I did figure, however, that they would give me a free "trial" swim if I walked in as a new resident of Shawnee wanting to try out a new salt water pool. I was right.

And it was great. And now I'm trying to figure out how to afford a membership. More on that some other time.

While I was swimming in the pool, I remembered my college experiences with it. I took lifeguard training there with my friend George. I then got a job life guarding there the 6am-9am shift on Friday mornings. And there was this one day my freshman year when my roommate, Sonja, and I decided to go for a random swim. Our fish had just died and we needed to get out I guess. While in the pool that day, we wrote a little diddy about that fish. We laughed our heads off and performed it at his funeral that night in our hall bathroom. All resisdents of 2nd North in WMU were present.

I garnered a bit of fame around campus for that silly song. People I did not know would ask me to sing it. I even took my guitar to English 101 and sang it on creative writing day (holy cow, I'm so totally embarrassed about that fact).

Anyway, if you know the theme song from the Beverly Hillbillies, start humming it in your head now.

That's the tune.

And here are the lyrics.

Ode to Posieden Martin

Once there was a story 'bout a blue beta fish
He lived downtown in a little bitty dish
And then one day I was walkin' through the store
And he said "help me lady, I can't live here anymore!"

So, Britton bought him for me and I took him to my room
But I thought that I was gonna send him to his early doom
There was chlorine in the water, so we went back to the guy
And I said "please help me mister or my fish is gonna die!"

Well, we fixed up the water and he was doin' fine
I showed him to Sonja, and told her he was mine
I let Britton name him, 'cause he bought him for me
He named him Poseidon, the greek god of the sea.

But then one day he was floatin' at the top
So I changed his name to Martin thinkin' maybe he would stop
We thought that he felt he couldn't live up to his name
But when the morning came, he floated just the same.

So I took him to the third stall, 'cause it's my favorite one
My fishy wasn't swimmin' and I thought his time was done
When I reached into the bowl, to get him with the net
Poseidon started swimmin', he wasn't finished yet!

There are two more verses in this Poseidon Martin song...but I can't find my copy of the song at the moment and I can't remember them. Yes, folks, that means I whipped out the 5 verses above off the top of my head. It's been 11 years. I'm a freak of nature.

After the near flushing incident, I took him back to the pet store because they had a 30 day policy or something like that. I told the store owner, who looked like he should've been working for West Coast Choppers - chains, tats, black leather vest, that I thought the fish was sick and I wanted another one. He took the fish bowl out of my hands, walked around the store and plucked various ornaments out of all the fish tanks along the back wall. Basically, he decorated the bowl up like a Vegas Casino - glittery rocks and signs. When he sat it back down on the front counter, we all watched as the fish began to swim in circles again. He looked me dead in the face and said "that fish was depressed".

Good grief. Who knew?

So Poseidon lived on. At least another month. That poor, dramatic little fish.

Speaking of fish, Miles sure does enjoy the pool.

This one's not-so-much a fish yet. But her bathing suit sure is cute...

Monday, June 22, 2009

I've been without a vacuum cleaner since we moved into the new house.

Friday, I picked it up at the repair shop and now realize that I wasn't desperate to get it back because my carpets were dusty, or even because we have a rollie pollie infestation and there are about 47 of them on the floor each morning. No, it was a subconscious need that I had. Something buried within that I had forgotten about.

But today I remember why.

Can someone please explain this to me?

Baby crying....

27 seconds later....

Vacuum cleaner on = no crying baby....

It used to work with Miles too. It got him off to sleep MANY times and saved my sanity. Sometimes it would just sit there and run for 30 minutes... ha! I think I have video of it somewhere. Wonder if I can find it...................

(1 hour later)

Yep!

He does not so much enjoy it these days though.

PS - I know he needs his hair trimmed.

Hope I'm not the only one who's discovered this trick. Tell all your new mommy friends.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

I struggle to get out of bed early. I'm not a morning person. Except this morning for some reason. I was up at 4am organizing and backing up digital photos. That was a freak thing.

But Saturdays? Saturdays are the easiest day to get up early. Well, I should really be more specific. Saturdays in the spring and summer....and sometimes the early part of fall.

Why?

'Cause it's garage sale season people!

The last two weekends, with 5 week & 2 year old in tow, Britton and I have been up and at 'em on Saturday morning. Hunting the items on our lists and finding other unexpected treasures along the way.

We're pretty good at it. We get good deals. And I will now share with you some of our clever and near 100% effective tactics.

1. You must start the hunt with a healthy breakfast.

Donut shops usually have newspapers, so you can grab one of those if you need to.

2. You should develop a plan.

Since I was up at 4am on the computer, I went ahead and printed the list of garage sales from the classifieds page. If you can manage to do this, it saves you 50 cents that can later be used to purchase a garage sale treasure.

Also, if necessary, you can also print out maps to get you to the garage sale locations.

And if you're really commited, you'll put the sales in order according to geographic location so you can hit as many as possible. Believe it or not, there are tools available to help you accomplish this.

http://www.yardsaletreasuremap.com

3. You must identify the item you want and decide what you're willing to spend.

Britton set his sights on a Craftsman jig saw for $10 early in the morning. It was old, but in excellent condition. $10 was a little steep for him for some reason. So he hopped back in the car and said "we'll come back later and see if it's still here".

TIP: This is a good move on a morning when there are TONS of garage sales in the paper. Folks are spread to thin. Your chances are best that it will still be there on days like this.

Also, you should keep in mind that it's much more gratifying to get what you want for what you are willing to spend. Be patient and stick to your budget. If this one doesn't work out, there will be more!

4. You have to remember to go back.

I'm serious. Like I said. The 2 year and 5 week old munchkins were in the car. Sometimes screaming, sometimes not. I totally forgot about the jigsaw. But Britton remembered. AND he remembered WHERE that particular garage sale was located. This is another important aspect of the hunt since we had not flagged it as a "go back" on our paper.

5. Send in the person who is most equipped to get the good deal.

If you are garage sale-ing alone, you can't do this very well. But if you're part of a team, select which person will be most likely to get the "deal".

This particular sale was operated by an elderly gentleman. He was nice, but firm when Britton asked about the price of the jigsaw. We thought it best for me to go try to bat my eyelashes and work some mojo on the situation.

This is me. Cruizin' around the sale pretending to be interested in everything they have. Even though we all know I'm only there to get the jigsaw for $5. That was all Britton gave me when I got out of the car. That way I wouldn't be tempted to spend more.

TIP: Have a $1 bill pocket, a $5 bill pocket and a larger bill pocket. That way you're always ready to pull out what you need and say "will you take $X?". This has worked well for me over the years.

I opened the box, looked it over, played dumb. Asked the man if I could plug it in to make sure it worked. Told him my husband "sure would like it".

TIP: See how I used "old man speak"? Good tip.

Boom! $5

I could go on and on with tips. But the ankle biters are awake and need attention, so I must move on. This should get you going. It can be so fun.

Case in point:

In July 2004, my mom and I drove a trailer to Arkansas for the 130 miles of garage sales from Ft. Smith to Conway. (Yep, 130 miles. & I think it's bigger now.)

I purchased this for $5 and I've always loved the splash of color it bring to the kitchen.

See?

What a cutie.

Yesterday morning, on my way home from the bank, a garage sale called out to me from the side of the road. The kids had dozed off, so I pulled the car over and stopped.

5 years, and a million garage sales later, Mr. Sunflower-Tin-Box......

Meet your family.

Isn't it cute? Wait, there's more...

Yea! Wait, more still...

Don't worry you cute little tiny tin. I'll put flowers or eating utensils in you since you don't have your lid.

And so the story continues. Maybe I'll find a little yellow lid somewhere down the line....

Friday, June 19, 2009

HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Thursday, June 18, 2009

I've tried all day to capture Ella's "smile". It's definitely what she's doing, it's just not very big.

I was so involved in what I was doing with her, that I forgot I left the box of Nilla Wafers on the floor.

Sneaky.

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Morning assembly line.

Coloring.

Son, did I forget to mention that you're only supposed to color on the paper?

A bit of crafting for me.

I recently ran out of note cards but had some random envelopes. So I made cards to fit the envelopes using scrap fabric and card stock. Kinda fun. Wish I had some really colorful and cute summer fabrics. I'll have to put that on my garage sale list.

Embroidery hoops are also on my list.

Did I mention how excited I was to find some this weekend?

Britton and Josh came home for lunch having decided that they want to swim tonight.

The former home owners left this seemingly nice swimming pool. I'm still waiting to find the leak.

Refrigerator train art.

Afternoon nap.

Pool progress.

Good day so far.

Saturday, June 13, 2009

The makings of a good day.

1. Sleeping in. Well, staying in bed until 9am.
2. Donuts Holes.

3. Garage Sales.

4. New room decor.

Just kidding.

But embroidery hoops have been on my garage sale list for months. I was SOOOOOOOO excited to get these for 50 cents each!

5. Other cool stuff.

I got these little girl dresses. So cute. They're 5T's and since I can't wait until she's big enough to wear them, I think I'm going to cut them up and use them for a few projects in Ella's room and them maybe a dress she can wear now.

6. Fun in the sprinkler.

O, this face.

Ella played in the water a bit too in her new bathtub.

7. A freshly mowed lawn.

I like Saturdays like this.