Hunters

A couple weeks ago the kids and I were sitting at our table eating lunch and looking outside. All of a sudden a prairie dog ran by. I've never seen one around here since we've lived here (10 years!). They decided they wanted to trap it.

So after lunch they dressed up in their own versions of camo

*notice Kate's dress has a flower on it, hence camo...and Jack has a Bronco jacket on (not sure how that works but you just don't argue)
**also notice the fierce hunting faces

They were armed with a carrot (for bait of course), a box, a piece of string and a stick. And they went out and set up their trapand waited for the prairie dog under the trampoline.
Aren't they sweet?They got a little frustrated with me taking pictures. They felt like I was too noisy and the prairie dog wasn't going to come if I was there.

They sat and waited and waited and waited for about 3 minutes and then got bored. They decided to go look for him instead. So they took their Nerf guns and hunted in the area behind out house.

In the end there was no prairie dog but they had an adventure outside so I was happy with that!

Spa Day

If you read my post yesterday you would know that by 9:15am I needed a spa day. Unfortunately my day only continued to spiral. It wasn't a horrible, no good, very bad day but it certainly wasn't one that I wanted to repeat every day. Just a lot of miscommunication, noise and mishap after mishap. I'd like to say that I took the challenge and came through like a champ but I can't. I think I had moments of grace and patience but they were mixed in with moments of frustration and annoyance. God still has a lot of work to do in me and my attitude :)

Thankfully today is a new day!

I wanted to share, though, some of the good things my children were up to yesterday in the midst of the stress.

They each got one treat after lunch and they chose suckers. They all laid on the floor of Kate's room and begged me for a picture. I obliged.Then a bit later Kale came to me asking me for cucumbers. I asked him why on earth would he need cucumbers. He told me that were playing "spa" and that they needed cucumbers for their eyes. I have no idea how they know about that. Mark says Phineas and Ferb. Who knows. I told them I did not have cucumbers but they could cut out green circles and pretend they were cucumbers.

I helped them with their project and this is how I found them later. It's hard to see that they're colored green but you get the idea...

Interesting...

Kale came out of his quiet time the other day with this picture drawn.In case you are unable to read his phonetically spelled picture it says:
Before 55.4 = poop = After 55.0

Apparently he lost .4 pounds after he pooped.
Interesting....

All in the Family

The boys share the talent of raising one eyebrow.I do not have that talent.
Kate does not have that talent.
Impressive.

Kale and the Kamera

Here is what happens when you give a 7 yr old with an obsession for the cat your cell phone and show him how to take pictures. This is what he's interested in....

Obi

Obi again

Obi's eyeball

Up Obi's nose

Himself

What do I look like with my tongue sticking out....

I didn't feel like posting all 12 pictures of the cat since I figured it wouldn't be too interesting. Just got a few of the "best". He also shot a picture of a picture of himself....Nice Kale.

So confused

Mark brought the mail in last week and eventually I sorted through it and found this... Is anyone else as confused as I am as to why they would send us (in Durango, CO) a mailer for Dish Network in Chinese? Spanish yes. I can understand that a bit better. But Chinese? Are they worried that we weren't choosing to go with Dish because we didn't like the English mailers? I'm so confused!

Adventures in Mommyland

When you become a mom of children who can talk, your whole world changes yet again. They start saying things that crack you up, confuse you as well as embarrass you. (you know like making comments about stuff in a public bathroom? Asking if the lady next to you just tooted? Yeah it's great) You kind of get used to it after a while. However, it's hard to get used to them pointing out things on your body and making comments. That's a bit harder to swallow.

They will laugh while you dress, point at stuff, ask questions, make comments....Obviously it's how they learn about themselves but sometimes it does make you wonder.

Like the other day when the kids and I were doing school. I was reading them the story of Elisha and Naaman. If you don't know the story, in a nut shell it's about a man - Naaman - who had leprosy. He went to Elisha to get healed and Elisha told him to wash himself in the Jordon River 7 times. Naaman didn't want to at first but eventually did and was healed.

Kate was asking me about leprosy (and Kale was asking if it's still around, if there's a cure, if you can catch it....he's more worried about that kind of stuff). I explained to her that leprosy was a disease where you had sores and scabs all over your body.

Here's the kicker....

She looks at me sweetly and innocently and says "Like the sores on your face? That's leprosy?"

No sweetheart. Those are zits. Thankyouverymuch. Not leprosy. Obviously I know why she thought that. It's just always ever-so-great to hear how obvious your flaws are to a 5 yr old :)

Marriage and Ministry?

My blog title is a woman's journey through motherhood, marriage and ministry and it is not lost on me that most of my posts are about motherhood. It's an easy one. My kids do the weirdest, funniest, silliest, scariest and sometimes horrible-est things and it's interesting. Plus they don't have much of a say about what I decide to blog on. They're great blog material (and I find it keeps me sane).

But when it comes to marriage and ministry? That's a whole other story. Those two things involve people who do have a say about what I blog about. They may, or may not, want to be my blog material. I totally understand that and want to respect other people's privacy. This is sometimes difficult though because so much stuff happens in both of those areas of my life and it's really challenging to figure out what I can blog about.

I'm saying this because I decided to do a, hopefully, light-hearted blog about marriage. More specifically what it must be like to be married to me.

My friend posted this on her facebook status the other day and I immediately thought of Mark and I. We're weird. But our weirdness is compatible!

"We are all a little weird and life's a little weird, and when we find someone whose weirdness is compatible with ours, we join up with them and fall in mutual weirdness and call it love."
— Dr. Seuss

One of my weirdness qualities is my ability, or inability, to just sleep. I think I'm a pretty annoying actually. Well I'd be annoyed if I were Mark. I guess that's why our weirdness' are compatible.

For one, my eyelids are way too thin. I turn my clock almost completely off at night because I can still see the light through my eyelids. I have to make sure the curtains are completely shut because any crack of moonlight or sunlight, I see. My cell phone - which charges near my bed - must lie facedown so I don't see it's light. When Mark gets up earlier than me I have to bury my head under the covers because the light that escapes under the bathroom door annoys me. I think I need to invest in one of those masks...

Also I hear everything. I hear a kid crying (and not through the baby monitor), a cat scratching, a dog barking, a coyote howling, wind blowing, rain falling, diesel trucks starting, Mark snoring, the cat giving himself a bath, a watch ticking (I could not sleep one night because there was a watch somewhere in our room that was ticking so loudly!), my own breathing and my mind racing. Sometimes it's so hard to sleep with myself.

We climb into bed, Mark's head hits the pillow and within a matter of literally seconds (maybe 90 seconds at the most) he's asleep. I hear his deep breathing and I'm amazed! I still haven't adjusted my covers, my pillow or my pajamas, or made sure there's no light shining anywhere. I kinda feel like a dog spinning in circles trying to figure out the best way to sleep. It can take me anywhere from 20 minutes to an hour to fall asleep depending on how many things I "see" or "hear".

Mark tells me to just ignore it. That's what he does anyway. Believe me if I could I would. I'd rather not toss and turn and get up and adjust things. I'd rather fall into a deep sleep like I'd like to but it just doesn't happen that way for me.

We share a queen size bed and really it's fine. We're little people so a king size bed feels enormous. Plus we get cold. Mark says we have a symbiotic sleeping relationship. And I don't really mind sharing warmth but once I'm asleep there's an imaginary line drawn down the center of our bed and I know in an instant if he's crossed it. I've wound up rolling onto my side and rolling right into an elbow. Of course I wake up and Mark does not. Sometimes I'll roll over and there's Mark's foot....across the line! This is going to sound completely ridiculous, I know, but I feel claustrophobic. I kinda gently move him back onto his side of the line.

We also play covers-tug-o-war. He pulls the covers with him when he rolls over leaving me with a cold side. So I pull them back. We do this several times a night. Sometimes when he wakes up and see how many covers he has, he's amazed! Of course he doesn't wake up in the night when we're doing the tugging....

There are the nights when I pray....a lot. For peace. For sleep. For thicker eyelids and ear plugs.

And nights that I pray a prayer of thanksgiving for Mark. Somehow, even though he shares a bed with me, he sleeps! I guess this is one of those weirdness compatibility things.

Oh Dear

I just got off the phone with poison control about half an hour ago. I've been a parent of curious kids for 7 years now but as usual I have the Jack-factor. This morning I had given him a dose of acetaminophen and his Tamiflu to get him back on track. He's been feeling better but still not well. Then he went off to play with Kate and Kale and I went to go blow dry my hair.

When I came back out I found Jack had done the pull-the-chair-to-the-counter thing and was standing there with his bottle of acetaminophen playing with the cap. And yes he had gotten it off. I asked him if he had drank any and tried not to panic. He said yes {like I can really base everything off the word of my 2 yr old}.

I called the pediatrician who told me to call poison control {duh! why didn't I just do that first? sometimes you just don't think all the way through....}. The lady at poison control was very nice and after asking me a bunch of questions and measuring the remainder of the bottle we determined that he'd only somehow drank 2 tsp more than the 1 had just given him and that based on his weight he did not overdose to a point to be poisonous. He can't have anymore for 24 hrs but I don't have to take him to the ER. What a nice morning jolt to my adrenaline. Who needs coffee? I got Jack!

So he's fine. Everyone's fine. Kale and Kate are oblivious to anything that happened and I'm ready to blog!

I was actually going to tell you about a funny conversation that happened yesterday afternoon. I found a bunch of short documentaries and IMAX movies on Netflix so I saved some to watch. The kids found one called Beavers - The Best Dam Movie You'll Ever See {seriously that was the title of the movie, I promise!}. Hilarious and thankfully over their heads.

I told them that beavers were really fascinating and how they take down trees and build dams is truly amazing. So we watched it. About 2/3 through they showed a *ahem* mating scene. And let me tell you, I was quite uncomfortable watching these 2 beavers making woopie! They played romantic music in the background and the beavers were making very loud noises. Seriously I sat wide eyed staring at my children for their reaction.

Kale asked what they were doing. I didn't quite know how to respond so I was quiet as I was contemplating my answer. Then he said "They must be dancing". Sure! I said. Let's just stay with dancing for now. I'm not interested in using these beavers to explain how baby beavers are made....

So they keep showing this - it seemed to go on forever! - then they panned to a porcupine. He looked like he was watching {I so do not understand the minds behind the people filming}. After Kale noticed that the creature was a porcupine he said very matter of factly "He must be the judge of their dancing."

Yeah okay. Oh dear....

Last night after the kids were in bed I showed Mark this part of the documentary and told him the story. We were rolling! I think Mark was very thankful that he wasn't there when the kids watched it :)

Tickets Please

Kale's been having fun {at least most of the time} using his new found knowledge of words and writing. It's not often he does school related anything on his own but he was having a blast writing up tickets for everyone in the family the other day. He'd write them on his pad and then tape it to the person with masking tape.

Here's Jack's blurry mugshot.

And this is what his ticket says:

You won't have to do this thing

{Kale had heard me, while changing Jack's poopy diaper that morning, say, 'If you'd just go on a potty you wouldn't have to have your diaper changed ya know...}

I'm guessing the whole sentence was just too much for Kale to fit on his small ticket. Jack wore the ticket around the house most of the evening and got upset when Mark tried to remove it.

Kale wrote one especially for Mark.

It says: Please $5 You drive too fast 5 days [to pay your fine]

Kale was very, very disappointed to learn that Mark was not going to actually pay him 5 real dollars. Oh yeah like it's that easy to get money out of us!

Sadly I don't have a picture of Kate's. She wore hers proudly as well. Her's said: Don't be a blee {bully}. Not sure she understood that he was bossing her at the time...

I don't know how I escaped this exercise. No tickets were issued to me.

Not much and a lot

Not much and a lot. That would be the answer if the question you asked me was what did you do this weekend. Yes I know that it doesn't make sense. And I would say to you that not much in my life makes perfect sense :)

We had a chiropractic appointment Friday morning, I went and gave blood while Mark took the kids home (I laughed when I told the woman I had 3 kids aged 2,4 &6 and she asked why I didn't bring them in while I donate...obviously she doesn't have small children of her own {I don't mean that disrespectfully, the lady was super nice. Maybe I should clarify and say she doesn't have my small children...}), then I went grocery shopping, then came home to unload groceries, eat lunch, pay bills (or try to...), cook dinner and go to our small group (game night! love it!).

Saturday we had hoped to sleep in since we'd been up late on Friday but alas Jack's diaper was not going to hold the apparently massive amounts of water he had drunk the night before so we were woken up to a screaming Jack-a-bo who needed a diaper and clothes change. Mark got up and let me sleep (I need to document this so the next time I think he never does it I can go back and see that yes, in fact, he has done it....once) although I use the term sleeping loosely. Basically I laid in bed lazily while listening to the tremendous amounts of noise that my family was making (this is where a bigger house would come in handy....) while eating breakfast.

I wasn't feeling all that hot but couldn't quite pinpoint what the problem was. I was just achy and run down. No cold or flu symptoms. Just achy. We finally took down our Christmas stuff and that felt like a huge accomplishment. And then I laid on the couch...for the next 7 hours or so. I seriously didn't want to move!

I slept pretty good except for the slapping of my arm repeatedly at about 4 this morning. Smack, smack, smack. I startled awake to see my secret, stealthy, ninja daughter staring at me. Apparently she was frustrated that I hadn't heard her come in (she's so quiet!). So she smacked me awake so I could help her blow her nose. *sigh*. Did that then sent her off to bed. 20 minutes later she came back. Helped her again. 10 minutes later she came back. I got a box of kleenex and told her to stay in her room and wipe her own nose! 4:50am.

5:00am Mark's alarm went off. Joy joy. I was able to doze while he was getting ready but it wasn't good sleep. I had prayed last night that God would make it easy for me to the make the choice about whether or not to go to church. If I was still feeling crummy I didn't want to go spreading it around. On the other hand staying home stuck on the couch with 3 kids running around wasn't so appealing either. Thankfully I felt much better today so I popped out of bed {ha! like I ever pop out of bed. Only if I hear throwing up and know if I don't hurry I'll be cleaning up a huge mess. Plus if God wanted us to pop out of bed He'd have us sleep in toasters...} and got myself and the littles ready for church.

I greeted, offered {took offering} and taught the 4 and 5 year old Sunday school class. All of it I love to do but let me tell you that I was ready for a nap at 10:30! So I'm heading for that nap in about 2 minutes as soon as I wrap this rant up. Kale is about to go in the room for his quiet time which helps me to have mine :)

So there's my weekend where we didn't do much but we did a lot. Hmmmmmm.

**********Update************

Apparently I really was desperate for a nap. Slept for 3 hours! That never happens! And by the way, my husband is the best in the world. Not only did he let me sleep in on Saturday but he took over kid duty, dinner duty, and bedtime duty Saturday night. And he kept the kids occupied this afternoon so I could keep on sleeping. I love him ;)

Back in the Saddle and Rambling on

Here I am. Back in the saddle. I don't have everything organized yet so this post will most likely ramble on in an attempt to catch up a bit. Hopefully it'll be interesting.

I'm on the down side of my vacation hangover. I don't know about you but when I get home from a trip I kinda feel like I'm in a fog for a while. This hangover is quite a doozy. I spent the first day back (Thursday) doing endless loads of laundry and attempting to organize the new gifts. At the end of the day I was worn out but my house was still a big mess. Much more digging out to do. The house is slowing coming back into order...just in time to get back into school (which I still need to do a post on - homeschooling Kale is a whole other blog!).

I got new pots and pans for Christmas (I'm not sure exactly when I got so excited for sensible gifts but I love all my new kitchen stuff) and I've been using them the past week. I never realized how old my old ones were until I cooked scrambled eggs in my new skillet and didn't have to soak and scrub the pan afterwards. Sad isn't it?

We got Just Dance 2 for the Wii for Christmas and we've been having a blast dancing up a storm. Very fun game FYI.

We did the Quiet Times for Kids Advent study and it was wonderful. We didn't do it every single day which I figured would happen but we did do quite a few and had some neat discussions about it. I'm excited to do it again and again and each year see how the kids grow in the knowledge of their Savior. It was a sweet time.

I haven't had much time to blog as you can tell. I decided to break while on vacation and I've also been reading a book for book club - Bonhoeffer. This is one serious book. About 543 pages of seriousness. Difficult reading but actually very good. What a life this man had and what he gave up in his obedience to Christ. Great biography.

I crocheted another blanket for our living room. I've been cozying up with the red one I made last Christmas and Mark was getting jealous. He asked for one for himself. It's black and gray and I think it's pretty sweet. Mark does too.

Our Christmas decorations are still up. You've got to be joking if you seriously thought I had one inkling of time to take anything down this past weekend. And as much as I love all Christmas happiness there does come a time when it just needs to come down. That time is coming soon.

We've been to the chiropractor twice since we've been home and we're going again in the morning. We're doing our 3 times a week for 2 months stint. I realized (yes I'm a bit delayed sometimes) that we'll be spending an extra 3 hours a week in the car driving to and from our appointments. So I went to the library and figured out how to download some MP3 books for the iPod to help pass the time. The kids usually like audiobooks so here's hoping it helps pass the time and keeps the kids motivated to spend that much time in the car.

Jack is hilarious and his hair is long. Neither Mark nor I have wanted to attempt to strap that kid down for a haircut just yet. So he's sporting the long locks for now. Kinda cute and big kid looking right now. And I think it makes him an inch taller.... He's desiring to be naked more and more. I've found him stripped down - including diaper - numerous times. He loves his freedom! He also loves his candy. We've found him shut in a room several times over the past couple weeks with a mouth and fist full of candy, the little sneak. He totally knows he's wrong but he's happy with his sugar rush!

Kate got 3 adorable skirts - twirly skirts - for Christmas. She's all dolled out and stinkin cute. Being gone for 10 days was tough for her (and us). No routine, many more parents, more sugar and attention and not quite as good sleep all led to come challenging moments. But overall she did good. She got some beading kits for Christmas also so I'm sure she and her friends will have new bracelets and necklaces soon.

Kale is the Lego maniac. He got a Lego watch and Star Wars Legos for Christmas and has been in heaven. He's very engineer minded and loves putting things together. He's also at the age where he's trying to figure out how to be the bigger kid and is bummed that he's still little. He tries to joke around more and interact with adults and is learning what that looks like - which is still a tad awkward for him. I realized that a ton of parenting, besides character building and school stuff, is social skills. Yup. We're there.

We saw Under the Sea 3D at the IMAX while we were up in Denver. It was really cool. Jack fell asleep. Not sure how he did that. I'm guessing it was because he kept taking his glasses off and the screen was blurry so he was bored. The 3D part was really neat. Sea snakes slithering toward your face, seals kissing your nose, jellyfish floating near you. Definitely worth seeing.

I think that's about all for now. Told you it was random. Still have stuff to share as well as pictures but that'll come later. I gotta get you reading the blog again!

A Kid's Merry Christmas

Sunday morning was our children's Christmas program. Mark and the worship team led a couple songs in the beginning and then the kids took over and we were not disappointed.

This was Jack's first official Christmas program. The 2-3 yr old class rocked out to a song about the best thing about Christmas is the baby Jesus. They were hysterical. And Jack? Well he kept us entertained. He danced off to the side showing everyone his moves. I really had no idea what he'd do up in front of everyone. My other two are more shy and reserved. Not Jack. He danced like no one was watching and I loved it.

During their first performance 1st service I snuck in (I was helping out in the toddler class) to watch. Jack climbed up on the couch on stage and chilled out. He can kinda act like he owns the place. :) He got herded back to the group second service when he tried again to veg on the couch.A friend of ours whose little girl was also performing got a video of it and posted it on facebook. I stole it to post here in case we aren't friends on FB. He's a bit of a crack up. Hopefully it'll work.



My barefoot princess is performing here with her 4&5 yr old class. They sang a rocked out version of Away in a Manger. I believe they are doing "stars in the sky" here.
"looking down where he lay" Kate's little friend, Anna (next to her in the striped sweater) just stared into the crowd the whole time. She was pretty funny. I kind of expected Jack to do that.
Kale and the big kids' class sang 2 songs. Go Tell it on the Mountain {I believe they are doing the mountain here} and Joy to the World. Their choreography was really cool and they were actually in sync with each other. And since they have more of an attention span than the 2 yr olds they weren't funny...just great.
Well except for this picture when I caught Kale sticking out his tongue - he yawned a couple times during the performance too. Sorry I didn't get a great center shot of him. I was off to the side and if I centered him I got lots of arms with cameras attached...

One of those days!

I know everyone has had one of those days. The ones where you can't believe all that's gone on? Well I'm having one right now and even though the day is barely half over I have to document this.

It started off with me in the shower after my workout this morning. It was 10 to 7 and I knew it'd have to be a quick one. I'm shampooing my hair when I hear the door open and two loud little boys barreling in. The youngest loud one was yelling for a snack, toast and a nana (banana). I'm thinking - where's Mark?! Help!

I send them out, hurry and finish, jump out and block the door. Which makes them start pounding on it of course. After I'm dressed and ready to get them breakfast Mark makes his appearance. I almost laughed. Almost.

The morning goes on. I talk to Pete (awesome carpenter man) about the leaky sink and the crazy light issue in our bathroom, cut Kale's hair, we did some schoolwork and played out on the front deck (the weather is stinkin amazing! It feels like spring not fall!). Then my dad calls. I spend a bit talking with him about the remodel. Of course I always get a bit distracted when I'm on the phone. All of a sudden I realize Jack used the Vis-a-Vis marker on my off-white couch. On 3 different cushions! Stinkin stuff does NOT come off easily! I've tried many things and thanks to some facebook friends I have many more ideas of how to do this. Wow. Fun times.

Then I discover, later, that Jack also moved his chair over to the counter (his favorite thing to do lately...he insists on helping...) and pulled the top of the candle wick off and wiped the soot stuff all over the counter like paint. Lovely.

He also used the marker to mark up a chair and part of the table. Seriously I need more eyes! My 2 are definitely not enough!

After putting the 2 littles down for naps (whew!) Kale and I finished up school. Then Pete comes in. He tells me that our neighbor who lives behind us (you might remember her from a post a while ago about how she locked our dog in the garage) rode her horse onto our property to tell him that she wasn't pleased with our new back deck lights that are now shining in her house. She didn't stop to tell me. No she just wanted Pete to know. Little does she know that Pete likes us! He suggested to me that we get brighter bulbs....I am seriously considering that...

Then as I'm doing laundry Kate comes out of her room to inform me that she threw up. Thankfully it wasn't a my-tummy-isn't-well kind of throwing up. More of a coughing-so-hard-I-gagged-myself throwing up. Much easier to deal with.

So. Here I am. It's like 3:00 and I'm in awe of my day. See why?

Is it Monday yet? Oh yeah...it is.

What in the world happened to the weekend?!

We spent Friday morning running errands which included a mini-shopping spree of sorts (with our own money of course...which makes it a bit more painful...) to buy what we needed for our bathroom remodel. A vanity, a counter top, a mirror, tile for the shower, light fixtures, faucets, shower heads....Big stinkin' heavy cart to lug around, not to mention the 3 littles making lots of noise. So thankful that Home Depot isn't a quiet store. This was after we'd already drug them around Walmart. I know, we're a bit insane.

Friday night we had our small group over which is always fun. We talked, laughed, ate too many sweets and wondered why men who can't find mayo in the fridge and won't spend 10 seconds looking for it will wander for weeks in the wilderness to find an elk or a deer...(yes I put that on facebook so it will sound familiar to some of you).

Saturday we got up, ate breakfast and put on one of the best babysitters we have (totally confessing parenting sins right now) Diego. Yes, my children watched a few (okay a lot) of episodes of Diego while Mark and I tore up our bathroom. We pulled out the shower and tub, the vanity and the mirror. It was exhilarating! Getting rid of the old nasty in preparation for the new fabulousness was so therapeutic (and blogger does not recognize fabulousness - seriously? how can that not be a real word? Obviously they haven't envisioned my new bathroom!) I will post before and after pictures when I have the after ones to show but for now I will share with you what we found behind our bathroom mirror.It says Bill Hey macho man you dirty white boy. Nice huh? Ick Ick Ick! Glad to be fixing that!

Oh and then Kale, during his quiet time on Sunday I think, added his art...I think there's a dragon, 2 knights and a damsel in distress. I give him points for creativity but I said I hoped he got out all his desires to draw on walls cause if he ever did that to a painted wall?! Boy will he find some trouble. But for now it's comical.

After our day of work my sweet friend Kim invited us to their house for dinner. So nice to hang out with friends!

Sunday was church and mama's naptime! And then all of a sudden it's Monday. Wow....

Here are a few shots of our dining room/kitchen floor project we finished last weekend.

Here's one of the nasty subfloor - which was sadly better than the old carpet.The nasty kitchen floor.

The laminate wood floor going in. Seriously easy which is wonderful for folks like Mark and I. Ya know, people who don't really know how to remodel a house?

And here's a pic of our finished floor. Looks like wood floors doesn't it? Now I may have to paint my cupboards so they look more different than the floor...or not for a while since I love Mark too much to add one more fing.

Oh that's also our new dining room table. It pulls out to be an 8 person square table. Very cool! We got it from a family at church. They were going to take it to a consignment store and Mark saw it. The guy said make an offer. We did, then he changed his mind and said he wanted us to just have it! How fun is that? I'd been wanting a way to seat more people at the table but our old one only sat 6 with the leaf in. This is perfect! Yeah God!

I had a rough time getting motivated today because of the cloudy, rainy day we're having and then I was hit by the desire to make a quick trip (that's laughable in and of itself) to Bed Bath and Beyond for some window shades that were on sale - 50% off! Can't beat that! Of course we got caught in major rain and wind and I ran (sort of) to the car with a heavy bag of window shades dragging crying children with me who were mad at the weather and me for dragging them out in it. Lovely. Sorry no pictures of that to amuse you :)

I'll finish up this long post with a quick funny (at least funny-to-me-now) story.

Thursday evening Mark was at worship practice so it was me. Alone. With the 3 kids. I know I do it all the time but there are nights when it's super frightening. Anyway, we were eating dinner and talking and I had to correct one of them - honestly I can't remember the whole circumstance even if it was just the other night - I just remember what one of them said. Kale I think. He says "I forgive you mama".

What? What do I need forgiveness for? I had to discipline one of them and they feel the need to forgive me for it? Seriously? I would've laughed if it wasn't slightly irritating at the moment.

So that's all for now. Happy rainy, dreary-but-with-a-hint-of-sunshine (it is Colorado after all) Monday to ya'll!