not me! monday

happy not me! monday!! while my last post gave you a quick run-down of last week, here's a look at what did NOT happen!



on wednesday evening samantha and our 6-year-old neighbor boy were outside playing together, when all of a sudden samantha ran inside and did NOT say "MOM!!! MAURICIO JUST WENT POTTY ON OUR STEPS!!!" i figured he wet his pants, but when i went outside he already ran into his house. so i got the story from samantha...

this summer we've had slugs on our sidewalk and steps at night, and apparently mauricio thought he'd try to kill a couple. with urine. so he did NOT drop his pants in front of samantha and pee all over our steps. she told him not to do it, and she wanted to come inside but it was too late. so she did NOT cover her eyes so she wouldn't see anything! good girl!

and it was NOT my daughter who didn't give into peer pressure when he said "don't tell your mom! don't tell your mom!" according to samantha, she did NOT have the strength to tell me!

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one morning while eating my breakfast of lucky charms, i did NOT decide to multi task and read my email at the same time on my brand new 3-week-old laptop. i did NOT think of all the things that could go wrong with holding a bowl full of cereal over a new laptop, so i made sure to be extra careful.

and then my cell phone rang.

in my haste to get up, i did NOT quickly close my laptop, which somehow hit the spoon in my bowl, and did NOT send milk and lucky charms flying... all over ME!

note: no laptops were harmed in the making of this post!

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remember the coupon party i went to? well, i decided to make lemon bars to bring. and since i'm such an expert in the kitchen, i decided to use the betty crocker mix that i just happened to have. i read the directions: press the ready made crust in the bottom of pan... pour filling on top and bake for 25 minutes. easy peasy. i mixed the filling, poured it on top, and stuck it in the oven.

while i was cleaning up the counter, i did NOT glance at the back of the box. *gulp* i did NOT fail to read the directions entirely. press the ready made crust in the bottom of pan... bake for 10 minutes... pour filling on top and bake for 25 minutes. i did NOT think that since the crust was ready made i wouldn't have to do anything else with it, like bake it!!

in the end the lemon bars did NOT turn out okay, with just a bit of a crumbly crust, and they did NOT still taste good!

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last night after the kids were in bed, we did NOT have a runaway fish. ben was going to put samantha's new fish, swimmy, into the fish tank. and before adding her to the tank he had her in a small temporary container on top of the tank. about a half hour later, when he was ready to introduce swimmy to her new home, he did NOT say "OH NO.... WHERE IS SHE?"

we did NOT search all around on the floor until finally we found her. she had NOT jumped out of the container, flopped across the top of the tank, and fallen 4 feet to the very dusty carpet behind the fish tank. we thought for sure she was a gonner. and then she flopped! ben did NOT scoop her up, dust and all, and stick her in the fish tank. there are NOT dust bunnies floating around in the water...!

and swimmy is thankfully NOT still swimming today!!

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last week while cleaning out the kids' closet, i did NOT find about 10 princess pull-ups that never got used when samantha was potty training.

ryan is NOT potty training right now.

i'm sure y'all are smart enough to put two and two together, right?

yes, my little man is NOT sporting a cinderella pull-up today. goodness, after this incident ryan is going to be scarred for life!

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happy monday!

scpm

hopefully i'll be back to some normal blogging soon. but for now, here's a quick run down of the week:

monday: tacos. last time i blogged.

tuesday: busy. sad.

wednesday: bad day. couldn't even blog it was so bad. samantha's first night of awana.

thursday: almost as bad as wednesday.

friday: ryan's neurology appointment. will blog about that later. coupon party. will also blog about that later!

saturday: shopping. with coupons. cookie dough twisted frosty at wendy's. yum!

if you'd like to participate in saturday cell phone mosaic, go visit ace's blog!

not me my child! monday

welcome to not my child! monday--the kid's edition of not me! monday. because let's face it, like mckmama said, mothers aren't perfect and neither are children! so let's dive right in to the wonderful things my children have NOT done this week.



while shopping in the makeup aisle at walmart last week, samantha did NOT point to a picture of a beautiful woman and say, "mom, if your eyebrows looked like this i'd like you more. and if your whole face looked like this i'd like you more too."

i did NOT then proceed to have a talk with her about liking people for who they are and not because of their looks...

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one morning as samantha woke up and walked by my room she did NOT say to me, "mom, sorry we woke up so early." it was NOT 10:30am!

and along those lines, after waking her up at 7:30am for church yesterday morning, she did NOT say, "thanks for letting me sleep in today mom." (and the day before we slept in till 11am...)

no, my daughter does NOT have weird sleeping habits or a bad perception of time!

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yesterday as i was going to tell ryan 'sit so i can put your shoes on,' i did NOT get my words mixed up and accidentally say a naughty word. thankfully samantha was in the other room so she didn't hear. but when daddy told her that mommy said a naughty word she did NOT say to me, "mommy, did you say the s-word?" no, my daughter does NOT know what the s-word is. i refuse to believe it.

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it has NOT been my son that has been screaming at naptime and bedtime for no reason. so that two hours of screaming you heard last week? must have been the neighbor's kid...

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on the other hand, ryan has NOT been amazing me by his wanting-to-go-potty craze. i mean, who wouldn't fancy sitting on the potty for 20 minutes singing fun church songs and then getting mini gummi bears?! he does NOT like it so much that now when i go to the bathroom?... can you guess?? he follows me in, sits on the step stool in front of me, and and starts singing "i'm in the Lord's army." which is followed by clapping, of course, after i go potty.

i do NOT reward myself with mini gummi bears...

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and last but not least, ryan does NOT wave bye-bye to his potty when we flush the toilet. so it really shouldn't have surprised me when he tried blowing a kiss to his tinkles the other day. and in his attempt, he did NOT end up licking the toilet seat...


what has your child NOT done this week? stop by mckmama's blog for some other hillarious not my child! monday posts.

happy monday!

i ♥ airports

planes have always facinated me. i remember how fun it would be to drive by our tiny small-town airport just as a little puddle jumper plane would come in. and oh what a thrill it was when we would go to the big city and watch the huge planes fly right over the interstate. and it was even better when we'd get to go to the airport and watch them land. you know, back in the day when you could actually do that.

i still love to watch planes.

and i still love to go to airports. especially when you get to do this:

so tell me, what's not to love about the airport?!

welcome home, cam!! we're proud of you!

p.s. look for my 'i hate airports' post in two weeks when we send him off again...

gag me

today i took a shower.

*pause for applause*

yes, i'm quite proud of myself too, seeing as that didn't happen for me yesterday...

ahem.

anyway, towards the end of my shower i couldn't help but notice the nice little pool of water i was standing in. drat. the drain probably needs to be declogged from the massive amount of hair that falls out of my head, i thought to myself.

and then the thoughts continued in my head: man that really grosses me out. i can't stand to pulling hair out of drains. it makes me want to throw up. oh i almost did throw up that one time when ben said he had a present for me and he proceeded to show me what looked like a living creature made of hair, soap scum, etc. that he pulled out of the shower drain. that was so mean of him. i hope he'll declog the drain again so that i won't have to. i would probably end up throwing our little plastic drain declogger right in the trash with the gobs of hair. i am NOT gonna touch the gobs of hair...

[side note: this is also my thankful thursday. because i am so thankful that ben will declog the drain for me...]

so as i was standing in the shower thinking about how gross drain hair is (well, hair in general. you know, when it's not on your head where it was made to be.), i got to thinking about all the things that make me gag.

and i knew you all would be dying to know too.

so here's my list of the top ten things that make me want to puke:

10. the thought of eating sushi.

9. the smell of sulfer

8. spoiled milk. apparently not chocolate milk though!

7. slimy food particles in the dishwater.

6. other babies' poopy diapers. (i'm SO glad i don't work in the baby nursery at church!)

5. seeing kids chew on paper.

4. the thought of having my eye poked out.

3. having anything in my mouth for too long. gum, pen, keys, etc. there comes a point where i will start gagging on it. (too bad it didn't work with chocolate. or ice cream...)

2. dryer lint. i couldn't touch the stuff until i had kids! and it still grosses me out to touch it.

1. hair!! hair in drains. hair in food. hair in my mouth (refer to #3.) stray hairs in the shower. globs of hair in dust bunnies. seriously, they all make me gag!


ahh, now i will be able to sleep better knowing that you now know what gags me...

and hey if you like reading lists and/or making lists, stop by sara's blog and check out top ten thursday!

wedding mishaps

my bloggy friend ace is hosting wedding mishaps today. and this comes at a perfect time, seeing as it was our anniversary on monday. what an opportune moment to reminisc about the good & not so good events that took place 7 years ago!

at first i was having a hard time coming up with mishaps. all i could think of was crying bawling in the bathroom at mcdonalds 2 days before the wedding because my mom told me we were going to have lemonade at the reception. lemonade. i was crying my eyes out about LEMONADE!! (remember that mom?!) now i look back and laugh equally as hard about it as i remember crying! and i realize i was maybe a slight bit stressed and a tad bit more PMSy!

but as i went through today, thinking back to that day, a few things came to mind.

morning of the wedding: our reception was going to be outside at a park with a big white tent (without sides) for everyone to sit under (the tent was going to be right next to a pavilion where the food and cake were going to be). so that morning my parents and some other people were getting stuff set up. it was a beautiful day! we prayed away rain for weeks before, but forgot to mention anything to God about the wind. it was a beautiful windy day and stuff was blowing around and off of the tables. my parents had the tent people put a side on the tent, but that didn't help with the pavilion part where all the food was going to be. so my parents went home, dug through their camping gear, and grabbed all the tarps they could find. they went back to the park and somehow secured the tarps to the side of the pavilion. although it didn't look the greatest, in the end it was better than all the food flying around!

right before the ceremony some of the groomsmen were decorating the car. that's not such a bad thing, right? until the spray foam/car paint stuff that my soon to be brother in law was using exploded all over the front of his tuxedo. and it wouldn't come out. i was hid away in my little room (so ben wouldn't see me) and i knew something happened, but no one would tell me what. ben's sister was scrambling around to fix the problem and after the ceremony i found out that she put black mascara on the front of her husband's tux to hide the color. and it worked... we were even able to return the tux without additional fees!

the ceremony went pretty well. no one fainted, it wasn't too hot, and ben didn't cry too much (when we were standing there he had tears in his eyes and i was smiling and kinda laughing at him. ahhh... he was so cute!). but... my pastor forgot ben's last name. so at the end when he announced us he said, "...i now present to you mr. and mrs. ben... *pause*...ben...." everyone started clapping so we didn't have to tell him what to say. but yes, we are mr. and mrs. ben ben.

reception: remember how i said it was a beautiful day? well it was... to us minnesotans! but ben's family came from missouri and illinois and they were FREEZING. i guess we didn't take them into consideration when we planned an outdoor reception. but thankfully walmart and target came to the rescue---they were much warmer with their hoodies on!

i originally planned to write about our honeymoon mishaps... but maybe i'll save that for another day!

so go check out ace's blog to read some more hillarious wedding mishaps! and join in on the fun! even if you're not married, i'm sure everyone has a great wedding story!

me? i'm gonna go have a glass of lemonade...

seven years ago today...

ben and i got married. and our lives changed forever! marriage has been such an incredible journey and i wouldn't trade it for anything.

except for maybe...


...nope. just kidding! i wouldn't trade it!! did i get ya? :-)

last year for our anniversary i posted the ten best things about being married (check it out if you missed it!). and this year, for our 7th anniversary, i'm gonna tell you seven things i love about ben. now don't worry, i'm not gonna get all sappy and sentimental and say stuff like 'i love that ben loves me...' (which i do love), but you get my drift.

so here goes...

1. when i buy something for me, he doesn't ask how much it was!

2. he doesn't need to have the best this or that. but he makes sure i do! example: i have the better car, better computer, and 99.9% of the time, the best hamburger/hot dog/chicken that he grilled!

3. he prays with me.

4. he likes his clothes ironed... by the DRYER! score!

5. he likes to make up things. games? contests? i don't know what you'd call them. but one time i told him "you're a nut." and he responded by saying "DING! that's one nut point for me." and it went from there... when he gets a certain amount of points (which i uh, accurately keep track of...), he can cash them in for a hand massage, back massage, etc.

yes... my husband is a nut! and just because it's our anniversary, ben, you can have 7 nut points. which brings your total to um... 8!

6. he gets my thinking, and at certain times, we think alike. it's a little scary, but it's fun while it lasts!

7. he doesn't require our house to be spotless!

bonus: (ok, it's not a bonus. i apparently couldn't count and typed out 8 things.) he loves to go shopping. at target. 'nuff said.


i love you ben! here's to another wonderful 7 (times 7) years!

not me! monday

monday is here! time for not me!



on friday morning i did NOT realize that samantha had a birthday slumber party to go to... that afternoon! i did NOT call the mom and make sure she could still come, quickly pack her bag, and go shopping for a gift. when i dropped her off at her first friend sleepover i was NOT a tiny bit sad that she was growing up!

you know that well known phrase, no shirt, no shoes, no service? well this weekend i did NOT try out the no shoes part. on saturday morning i went to pick up samantha from her friend's house and took my flip flops off at the door. 3 minutes later when we went to leave there was only one flip flop by the door. my friend's dog had taken off with it and chewed it up and slobbered all over it. so instead of driving all the way home to get different flip flops, we did NOT go to target to buy some new ones. i did NOT walk barefoot all the way from the back of the parking lot and all through the store to the shoe section. i did NOT feel like such a dork, and i did NOT feel like i was wearing a huge lit up sign that said hey people, look at my feet--i'm not wearing any shoes! i did NOT quickly find a replica pair of my chewed up flippy flops and proceed straight to the checkout. i told the cashier i didn't need a bag because they were going right on my feet. when she hesitated and asked if i was not wearing shoes i was NOT worried that she wouldn't let me buy them because of the whole no shirt no shoes policy. but thankfully she laughed about my story and completed the transaction! the best part about this? the flip flops were NOT on clearance! ahhhh... i do NOT love target!

being the good mom that i am, i let samantha have chocolate milk for lunch yesterday. i did NOT grab a used cup off of the counter that had a trace of chocolate milk from the day before and poured some milk in. i took a drink of it, and it tasted a bit funny. i figured it was the dirty cup, so then, being the even more good mom that i am, grabbed a clean cup for her and gave her the milk. later, after the kids were in bed, ben went to the fridge to get a drink. he grabbed the chocolate milk jug and ask, "hun, is this milk still good? the expiration date is the 11th..." he did NOT then open the milk and take a big old whiff of spoiled rotten chocolate milk!.... that i did NOT give to samantha earlier.... which is still NOT sitting on the counter to be disposed of.... ugh. next time i'll check the date!

this weekend has NOT been a bad sleeping weekend for ry. on friday he did NOT take a 5 minute nap. and yesterday he did NOT cry/scream for the first 2 hours of his nap, finally fall asleep for 20 minutes, then wake up and cry for another 40 minutes before i finally got him up...

today is NOT our anniversary... every year it seems like i nag and nag ben asking him if he wants to do anything to celebrate. last night i was NOT having a crabby, pms-y attitude (note that this was right after ryan's screaming crying 20 minute nap. i deserved to be crabby, people), and decided that this year i was not going to mention anything about our anniversary. if we did anything, it would have to be ben's doing. so this morning when ben got up for work he did NOT wake me up with a kiss and tell me happy anniversary (yea!). and then he did NOT tell me he was gonna see if his mom could watch the kids tonight so we could go out to dinner or something (bigger yea!)! thank you ben! and happy anniversary hun! and for the record, after a good night's sleep for ryan (and me!) i am NOT in a much better mood this morning!

happy monday everyone! stop by mckmama's blog to join in on the fun!

wordless week: update

i finally have an update on our neighbor, M, and her three kids. from this side of our shared wall it unsurprisingly seems like it has been a rollercoaster week for them.

we were able to finally chat with M and her 15 year old daughter J this morning. they have either been gone most of the week or had family over. M has some good moments, and then some really hard times. she has probably been so busy that her grief hasn't totally caught up with her yet. J has been able to sleep a little more; her 6 year old, M, seems a little scared that the three men have not been caught; and her 2 year old, B, puts her hands up and cries like she's looking for her daddy to hold her; however they all seem to be doing quite well despite the circumstances.

they were a culturally mixed family: she is from the U.S. and he was from honduras. he has some family living close in the area as well as family still living in honduras. so there have been some differences regarding the place of burial, cultural traditions in preparing the body, as well as customary practices pertaining to the actual funeral.

some issues have been resolved, however there is still not a date for the funeral. M is anxious to lay him to rest, but they are still waiting for some family to arrive and some differences to be resolved.

thank you for your prayers (one of the specific requests on my facebook page has been answered!) and please continue to pray for everthing to be worked out and that they would be able to move forward with life and start healing.



here is a link to the interview M did with our local new station the other day:
http://www.kctv5.com/video/20382440/index.html

and the article that was in the paper:
http://www.kansascity.com/115/story/1380065.htm

wordless wednesday week

after my week of not blogging last week, i was all prepared to blog it up this week! i had something prepared for about every day this week. yesterday i put off blogging all day and was going to wait to post until after the kids went to bed.

then our neighbor knocked on our door right before the kids went to bed and gave us some heartbreaking news: her husband had died the night before.

and then i became wordless.

the wife was on the phone most of the time, so i didn't get to talk to her last night. i just sat with her teenaged daughter while she cried on my shoulder for about 10 minutes. her 6 year old son doesn't really grasp what happened, as well as her 2 year old daughter.

i will spare most of the details and names here on my blog, but he was shot on monday evening (not at home) and died later at the hospital. his death was the result of sick, sinful, depraved men. and his life came to a value of less than $100.

this may be a wordless week for me. my blog will not be high on my list of priorities. top of the list: loving on my husband, hugging my kids, and doing anything and everything to be a blessing and show God's love to a suffering family.

not me! monday

welcome to not me! monday. this blog carnival was created by mckmama. you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

i have NOT neglected my blog for a week. so in addition to catching up on reading blogs, i also have to catch up on posting.

remember how i do NOT need new clothes? well it was NOT me who went shopping at jcpenney outlet and got a few new articles of clothing, one item being a pair of khakis. i am NOT so cheap frugal that i was on the fence about spending $12.99 on a pair of pants. so when i finally gave in and decided to buy them, i was NOT super excited that they rang up for $2.69!!! (and i was NOT ecstatic that i was able to fit into the pair that was 2 sizes smaller than i used to wear!)

i did NOT have a bad backache one night from 1-4:30 am. so i did NOT lie on the bathroom floor because it was the only thing that somewhat helped. yes, the bathroom floor that had NOT gone uncleaned for 2 weeks... and just to top things off i did NOT grab the used bath towel and proceed to use it as a blanket.

it has NOT gotten incredibly HOT here, so i did NOT finally get samantha's pool out this summer. and one sweltering afternoon, my sister and i did NOT decide to put on our suits and hop in samantha's kiddie pool with her, despite the redneckish feeling we had while sitting in it! it was NOT incredibly relaxing and refreshing. and in the 12 inches of water? well, we did NOT get totally and completely drenched!

yesterday as the heat index approached 101 degrees outside, i was NOT sickened when samantha said to me, "mom, i'm cold." and then she most certainly did NOT curl up in a heavy blanket...

i am NOT anticipating having ben home tonight. he has NOT spent the last 2+ weeks working super hard and super late (last night he did NOT work until 2am...). so tonight will NOT be my first time of real cooking in over a month!

happy monday everyone!

not me! monday

welcome to not me! monday. this blog carnival was created by mckmama. you can head over to her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

first off, i have NOT been thinking and praying for stellan and the whole mckfamily this week. and checking twitter for updates has NOT been a priority to me. nope, i did NOT unsuccessfully try to avoid a shopping trip to target one day just so i could stay home, close to the computer...

while scrambling to find something to wear to church sunday morning i did NOT grab the new shirt that i wore on friday night for our family pictures. it was definitely NOT the unwashed shirt that was NOT gently laying in the hamper... i did NOT freshen it up with a spritz of perfume, concluding that my dirty, perfume masked shirt was NOT the nicest shirt i own. i do NOT need new clothes...!

ryan is NOT beginning to show his 2-year-old colors. he has NOT been defiant and stubborn lately. note, adorably defiant and stubborn. and in a moment of his deliberate naughtiness, instead of administering some much needed discipline, heather and i did NOT burst out in laughter. ahh, this should be a fun year with ryan!

in an attempt to do some kung-fu moves on me, my husband did NOT totally biff and land on his already injured bad knee. immediately following the fall i did NOT hear girlish laughter/crying. but on the upside, ben's spirits were NOT lifted due to the fact that my sister got some great action shots...



i did NOT have a couple heart to heart discussions about marriage with samantha this week. it did NOT make me sad and a little bit scared, considering she's only 6 years old. one day out of the blue she did NOT say to me, "mom, i just don't know who to choose to marry---him* or him*---last night i was just laying in bed thinking about who i should choose." oh goodness, i will NOT have my hands full with her for the next 12+ years. and after reading this, ben will NOT want to invest in a shotgun.

*i promised i wouldn't tell any names. come to think of it, i might have promised not to tell this story... shhh.


there you have it. what have you NOT done this week?

just for kicks

we were blessed to have my photographically inclined sister heather take family pictures of us yesterday. and let me tell you this was WAY overdue: our last formal family picture we had taken was 18 months ago--ryan was only 6 months old!

the pictures turned out SOOOO good and i'm SOOOO excited to share them with you. but after i edit a couple. and after my sister leaves. (no, i'm not SOOOO excited for my sister to leave...)

so just for kicks*, i changed my header picture with a sneak peek. more to come...sometime!

*pun totally thought up and copyrighted by heather, and used without permission.