wordless wednesday—minnesota style

from this...

to this...

(and yes, those little yellow lines are supposed to look like a heavenly light coming from the 20+ degree cooler forcast!)

*images from accuweather.com

it's like getting behind on your bills

that's how i've felt the past three weeks. first you miss one payment, then decide just to wait to pay it with next month's, and something comes up and you need the extra money for new tires or something, then you start hiding the bills so that you won't have to see them, with the hope that they'll go away...

i'm sure all of us have experienced at least something remotely close to that. and no, i'm not behind on our bills right now. but rather my BLOG, and blog reading. (i'll get caught up on everyone's blogs, i promise! i just may not comment on every post!) really i had something half written to post on january 1st, and then that obviously didn't happen, and about 5 different things to post after that. but the more i went without posting something on my blog, the more i wanted to avoid it altogether.

so here's my mass payment ramblings from the last month that have piled up in my head:

Christmas was great! i actually hope to post something on that later. (yeah, we'll just see how that plan turns out...) i learned some things this Christmas though. to name a few...

my 6 year old daughter can still wear size 4T snow pants. albeit they were a tad short, but they worked!

ryan would be satisfied with a train, a car, and an airplane for Christmas.

it's the little things that are special—a spontaneous slow dance to silent night with my husband and children, my 2 year old boy singing sentimental Christmas songs at the top of his lungs, and a homemade, hand-written, heart-shaped note from my daughter that said "i love you SO much mom."

our family does not need 10+ dozen Christmas cookies. case in point—we still have over half of them left.

spaghetti noodles can be mistaken for oral stitches, and vice versa.

i went to MN for 10 days to celebrate Christmas with my family, see my alaska gramma, and met my new grandpa! he had open heart surgery last friday and is still sedated, but getting better. thank you all for your continued prayers for him and my gramma!

my house is a complete and utter disaster. it's like getting behind on blogging—i don't know where to start. hence, i'm blogging today. yeppers, i'm making myself blog right now just so that i can procrastinate on housecleaning. it's a vicious cycle. but hey, at least my suitcase is put away and all the laundry from our trip is done!

i did something really stupid but funny the other night that deserves a post of its own. but just as a teaser, it involves me cooking mounds of food this weekend. let's hope that i don't burn down my house in the process!

samantha got me the perfect brownie pan for Christmas. it was actually very cute, because i knew that's what she was going to get for me. and when the infomercial would come on she would hint around and say, "don't you wish you had one of those, mom?!" and when we were in target one day and i was looking at a bar pan she said sternly, "mom, you don't need to get any pans for brownies or desserts because we have some at home, and maybe you'll get one for Christmas, OKAY?!" all that to say, i love my perfect brownie pan. i hope to write a review with the pros and cons, but you know how i am—in case it doesn't get blogged about, i'll tell you right now that i'd recommend it.

ryan is doing really good. he hasn't had any seizures since the last time i missed giving him his medicine. he is starting to use the right side of his body more, and is getting better at standing up and maneuvering the stairs. and he is definitely developing a mouth like his sister's—loud and never ending!


and now, i feel just a slight bit caught up. see y'all in another 22 days...!

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...

not me! monday

yay! mckmama's back for not me! monday... go visit her blog to see the most recent pictures of her fab four, to read about what everyone else has NOT been doing, or to join in on the fun with your own not me! monday post!



but first...

i have NOT given myself a big bloggy vacation (did y'all miss me?!). i was NOT at my parents' house (and away from my husband) for 2 weeks. and when i finally came home last monday, i did NOT bring my parents home with me for 5 days. (actually, they brought me...) so i do NOT have a lot of catching up to do!

anyway, on our trip home from minnesota last monday, at one of our stops, i did NOT have a most interesting conversation: while washing my hands in the restroom, a lady that had just used the hand dryer did NOT say to me “wow, there’s powder in the dryer!!!” so when I went to dry my hands she pointed to a little sticker on the dryer. so i told her, “oh, no, it says 'feel the power,' not powDer.” she apparently didn’t hear me because she did NOT keep rubbing and feeling her hands saying that they felt different and she was NOT trying to figure out how in the world they put powder into the hand dryer. and when i finished drying my hands she did NOT say to me “feel your hands—don’t they feel different?” i did NOT quickly say "no" and exit the bathroom…!

before leaving my parent's house, i did NOT hide a leather candle for my sister to find. (it is a tacky little candle thingy that travels between me and my sister... click here to read about it!) i did NOT hide it inside the little gas tank door on her car. and i did NOT duct tape it in there just to be sure it wouldn't fall out. so when heather went to get gas the other day i did NOT freak her out because i did NOT fail to think of the fact that having something duct taped to your gas tank might be a little suspicious and could possibly look like a bomb... (sorry heath!)

this week samantha did NOT ask me "mom, do we live in an apartment or a downsizing?” i did NOT have to contain my laughter when I replied, “no, we don’t live in an apartment or a downsizing honey, we live in a townhouse. (seriously, where did DOWNSIZING come from?!)

i most certainly have NOT been drugging ryan up at night ever since he did NOT stay up until 2:45 the other night. nope, it's not me who has been pumping him full of tylenol and orajel every night. and it has NOT been working!

today our nephew is NOT leaving to join the US Navy. so on saturday night we did NOT have to tell him goodbye (yes, in the taco bell parking lot). i did NOT think it wouldn’t be too hard to tell him goodbye. and as i was hugging him goodbye and went to let go, he did NOT keep hanging on. i did NOT lose it. and i did NOT cry like a baby in the car after we left.

and yesterday when i was looking at the pictures on my camera, i was NOT taken by surprise to see a picture (that ben had apparently taken) of me crying and hugging him. i did NOT almost lose it again. Cameron — I love you, I’ll miss you, and I am so very proud of you!



well, since i have NOT done any housecleaning of any sort in three weeks i'm NOT off to do mounds of laundry, dishes, vacuum, dust, mop, clean the bathrooms, etc. oh, who am i kidding, i'm NOT going to go read some not me blogs!

what have you NOT done this week?!

a favor...UPDATED

UPDATE: samantha's ankle is feeling much better. after i wrapped it in an ace bandage last night she attemted to walk on it a little bit, and then when her auntie rah got home she pretty much ran to the door to tell auntie about her injury. she told me to write to everyone "thank you so much for praying. my ankle feels better." so thanks!

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ORIGINAL POST: today was a beautiful day here in minnesota (i'm at my parent's house for a visit), so this afternoon we went outside for a while. when we were done samantha started running to go inside. then she lost her shoe and was hopping around on one foot. we got her shoe back on and she said her ankle hurt. when she started walking again she limped for a couple steps then started sobbing. she bawled as i carried her all the way back to the house. so she either twisted it or rolled it or something. i don't know. apparently it hurt a LOT because she asked me to please call the doctor! i propped her ankle up and put ice on it, and as she was crying the questions came "mom, will i be able to walk again?" and "what if i can't play games at awana tomorrow?"



then after a few minutes she said with the saddest look and with tears rolling down her face, "mom, can you put it on your blog so that people will start praying for me?"

absolutely.

so, if you would, please say a little prayer for samantha's ankle to feel better!

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in other news, ryan started throwing up on sunday, and he didn't sleep well that night. we took our 11 hour trip to minnesota yesterday with him throwing up in the van only once! and after a better night of sleep last night he's been much better today! i guess he just needed gramma!

not me! monday

thanks to mckmama, it's not me! monday. go stalk visit her blog like the rest of us and please continue to pray for baby stellan who is starting his 4th week in the hospital.

this has been a fun week full of not me moments, so lets get started!

we were NOT busily cleaning the house this week since my sister heather was coming for a visit. and when we got done with said cleaning, samantha did NOT say "IT'S A MIRACLE!!!!"

since heather was not supposed to get here until 10:30pm on wednesday, i did NOT let samantha stay up just so that she could see her. she did NOT got to bed until 11:30pm!

heather, di (ben's sister), and i did NOT go to phantom of the opera on thursday night. i was NOT so excited to go that i wanted to throw up. i did NOT enjoy phantom soooooooo much that i cried. four times. i did NOT have tears rolling down my face as we left. and when we got home i did NOT look to see if there were still tickets available for the next night. go read heather's post about how great the opera was!

after leaving phantom i did NOT weave in and out of the pillars (while driving my dad’s van) in the parking garage just to annoy my sis-in-law. don’t worry dad, i did NOT hit anything. hehe!

after a big fiasco (which made me really mad) with the walmart photo department a year ago, i did NOT go back there this week to get some graduation pictures printed out for my niece. after i got all the pictures printed out, they wouldn’t let me purchase them because i didn’t have a copyright release (saying that i give myself permission to print out the pictures that i took. ugh.). but instead they said that they would put my name on them and i could get them when i bring back a copyright release. my whole conversation with them (that was much too long for this already long story) did NOT make me very mad! so i did NOT decide to give them my name with the intentions of never picking up the pictures. and just so that they couldn’t track me down, call me, and make me pay for the pictures i was not going to pick up, i did NOT give them my maiden name…

when we were all done with the photo department we exited the store and in front of us was a mother with her probably 2 year old twin girls and 4 year old daughter. as they were walking out she was yelling at the oldest girl “when we get home i’m gonna…” they went down one row in the parking lot and we went down the other. we got to our car and heard a bunch of yelling/cussing. i looked up and the person parked right in front of us was yelling out her passenger window at the mom saying that she was sorry and she didn’t see them. the mom was NOT cussing back at the lady saying about every word you could imagine. and NOT in front of her girls. nice one, mom! we did NOT just stand there and watch for a couple seconds because we were shocked at how the mom was acting. she did NOT then cut through the parking lot over to her car which was two spaces away from ours. she was NOT still loudly cussing at the lady, now in front of MY kids, so i did NOT politely say, “hey, my kids are listening.” she did NOT then turn to me cuss me up one side and down the other. samantha did NOT start digging through her purse for a God loves you paper to give the lady. no, I didn’t let samantha give it to her…. on our way out of the parking lot, the lady did NOT give me the finger (after I honked and waved at her of course!!). and after we left the parking lot i did NOT keep checking my mirrors to make sure she wasn’t following us!

i did NOT make a picure/diagram of the walmart parking lot while riding to MN just so my story would be easier to understand. (yes, the ovals are cars. you can only do so much in a car!) it was also NOT a good way to pass time….. there goes 100 miles…

also on our trip i did NOT get one of those microwavable ham and swiss sandwiches at the gas station for our dinner. and the microwaves were the type that just had a dial and went up to 6 minutes with 15, 30, and 45 second markings. i totally did NOT read the dial incorrectly, thinking that it only went to 60 seconds. so i did NOT put our sandwiches in the microwave and turn the dial to 6 minutes thinking it was only 60 seconds. after the dial got to the 4 and I thought only 20 seconds had gone by instead of 2 minutes, my sister did NOT come to my rescue and tell me to take the sandwiches out before they blew up! thanks, heath!

i am now NOT at my parent’s house in Minnesota. and my dad did NOT finally get high speed internet this year, so hopefully i WON’T be able to keep up on my blog for the next 2 weeks!

happy monday! what have you NOT done this week?!

catching up

my parents came down for a visit on tuesday, october 7th. we had a wonderful vist. when they got there on tuesday evening, we had a quick dinner then went to ben's softball games, in which he skinned up the sides of both legs..... let me just say that you should be glad i didn't take pictures because it was pretty bad!


on wednesday we worked on miscellaneous projects around the house. i don't know how this happened but my mom ended up helping me wash the windows. i never wash the windows. i haven't in about 2 years. so why we ended up washing them i have no idea. what a nice way to treat my mom on her vacation, huh! :-)


on thursday mom, ryan, and i went shopping while samantha stayed home to play legos with papa. little did we know we'd be gone for 5 hours. oops!


on friday we went to penguin park and had a picnic. right when we got there samantha got stung by a bee. thankfully i had a princess ice pack in the cooler so it didn't swell up.


we had a fun filled day on saturday. we went to a children's farmstead in overland park, kansas. we had a great morning there. i thought it would be a fun field trip for samantha, but i think we all enjoyed it.


on monday the 13th my parents had to go back to minnesota. and the kids and i went with them. (yes, it was planned!) the kids were pretty good, so we had a nice 10 hour trip!

three busy weeks.... part 2

the week after heather was here, the kids and i went back to minnesota with her and stayed at my parent's house for a week. we left tuesday morning, july 1st. it was a nice LONG trip, but thankfully we can drive it in a day. the day after we got there was COLD! i never know how to pack for MN in the summer because what is nice to them is now cold to me! but other than that the weather was beautiful while i was there.

yea.... almost to gramma's!

tired from a long trip

a day or two into our stay ryan got sick. i thought he might be teething, but i think it was just a cold because he hasn't gotten any new teeth lately. he wasn't feeling well, so we didn't go do a whole lot during the week besides shopping, of course.

ryan hanging out under the couch

the strawberries in my parents' garden were ripe so we got in on the action. samantha enjoyed picking them and then eating them! YUM! they were good!

picking the strawberries..... mmmmmmmmmm they were good!

two days later we got over twice this many -- strawberries galore!

on saturday morning becky and her family came. we had a tea party lunch for samantha's birthday, so the girl's got to eat inside with all of gramma's nice dishes, and the boys had to go outside on the porch with papa. then that night we had a pre family reunion at the dam, then came home and samantha & ryan opened birthday presents and we enjoyed cake and ice cream. one of the most fitting presents samantha got was a hat from auntie becky that said "little miss chatterbox" on it. if you know samantha, you know that it suits her well!

sunday we went to church, then came home to get ready for the family reunion. it was a little crazy because a lot of stuff was miscommunicated and not planned the greatest. but it was a gorgeous day and it was nice to see family, even some that i haven't seen in 20 years!

monday we went to see my friend's new baby, then it was a packing day! we all had to get everything ready for the trip back to kc and heather had to pack for her trip to alaska.

tuesday morning we left for minneapolis/st. paul. it was nice that we could take our time and didn't have to get up super early. we didn't have to drop heather off at the airport until evening, so when we got to the cities we stopped at subway for lunch, then went to the como zoo. it's a great little zoo. it's not too overwhelming to kids and you can see everything in a couple hours. it's cheap too....! :-) it was fun. samantha enjoyed seeing all the animals, especially the baby orangutan.

lilly pads at the como zoo. they were incredibly huge.

mama orangutan and baby

i love how the giraffe's are all lined up..... like the kids waiting to get measured at gramma's!

after the zoo we dropped heather off at the airport and continued south. we stopped just inside of iowa for dinner and gas. when we were about 10 miles from the exit dad said he didn't think we'd make it because the gas light had come on. i asked him if it had just come on and he said "no, it came on over 30 miles ago!!" i don't know why he hadn't stopped before, but at least we made it there! we got home to kansas city at 12:30am. the kids were so excited to see daddy, as was i. ryan didn't go back to sleep until 2 - 2:30. then we crashed!

back to normal

i have finally created a blog.... after many promptings from my friends and family, i've decided to give it a try! hopefully it will keep you updated on our life, especially samantha and ryan!

it has been a busy 3 1/2 weeks and things are now back to normal. my sister, heather, came for a vist on friday, june 20th. she was here for about a week and a half, then on july 1st the kids and i went back to minnesota with her. i stayed at my parents' house for a week. it was so nice to see family. i got to see my sister, becky, and her family, and my dad's side of the family had a big family reunion while i was there. then, on july 8th, we headed back home. heather, my mom & dad, and the kids and i drove to st. paul, MN. we went to the como zoo for a few hours, dropped heather off at the airport (she was flying to alaska), then continued on our journey to kansas city. we got home at about 12:30 am. it was a LONG day! my parent's stayed at our house for a week, and went home yesterday, july 15th. ben didn't have to work so it was nice to spend the day with him and the kids. so life is getting back to normal now. it's weird not having people around now, but it's nice to get back into a routine.

a lot has happened in the past few weeks; samantha turned 5 on july 27th, ryan had his first birthday yesterday, and we were busy with family. i'll write about all that individually and post pictures later. i didn't want to cram it all into one post! see you soon!