7 things about me

So this is my pretty new award....... (Look, isn't it shiny and nice?)

Given to me by this awesome blogger........ (who I am copying and pasting her nice compliment here:

Holly at I Heart Bowheads – Don’t you just love that blog name?! Holly is a fellow DFW blogger who makes me smile, chuckle, and sometimes full out snort laugh.

- because - um, I want to)

and these are the 7 things about me that I can think of really quickly on the fly, with a four year old boy coloring next to me (not sure how long that will last) and wearing only one slipper because Penelope the Pug just took off with the other one that I need to run and find......

1. I should TOTALLY be cleaning right now.

2. I am getting way to old to type things like all caps TOTALLY

3. That is a very bad pug

4. I really love that 4 year old boy - he is a good little guy and I am glad that I get to keep him and watch him grow up.

5. I have to take my 6 year old's lunch up to school in a bit because I did not put it on the counter and the mean ladies in the office are going to look at me condescendingly and mutter something under their breath. I wonder if on the application to work in the front office of an elementary school it says that you need to be a tight nit click, and a little bitchy? (scuse my language but sometimes , if the word fits - you gotta wear it)

6. I am VERY excited about fall weather but with a high of 72 next week, I really need to find all of my sweatshirts since I am pretty much freezing at that temperature.

7. I think that each parent should have to take a class entitled "the fine art of navigating the parking lot of your child's school" before they are allowed to pick them up. I know it does not seem like rocket science but you would be surprised how much trouble some people have with it. Here are a couple of hints:

* kiss them BEFORE you leave the house

* I like watching them walk in also - do it as you are slowly carefully pulling forward

* if they cannot unbuckle themselves, um park and do it there - seriously do you get out of your car at the drive through at a fast food joint? No. Well don't do it at school - you are slowing the works down.

I could go on and on but the pug has my other slipper now and I have not even given an award away yet so......

I award Megan at Sweet Sadie Marie and Julie at My Four Sons because - no matter I how busy I am, what I am up to. I always click on over to them and I think that says something about their blogs!

A Stoic Pug

Stoic - Noun: A person who can endure pain or hardship without showing their feelings or complaining.

It is not easy being a Pug - don't let anyone tell you different

I Heart Beef

I am not gonna lie to you folks - I had a good time today. The stars aligned and 4 grade schoolers went off to school without a hitch and two Mimi's stepped up to the plate and kept 3 preschoolers (at their own houses but it sounds so much better when I say that we were able to ditch er I mean find someone to care for 7 kids) so that my friend Stephanie and I could head off to Milestone Culinary Arts Center with a bunch of other DFW area bloggers. (Feels quite official that the author of little old I Heart Bowheads can refer to herself as a DFW area blogger.)

Anyhoo - we were there for this.....

The Texas Beef Council threw a big old Moms Day out/education/cooking experience thing and if you ask me it was great. I am a sucker for anything with folders and neat labels - they pretty much had me as I walked in the door saying that this was the best day ever. Now I am linking up to a lot of stuff today (I am trying to keep organized and put all links to other sites in red by the way.) So that you guys can go check out the cool stuff I learned today. Seriously go visit the Beef Council link - it is one of the websites that I have been to since I have been home that I am most excited about. A lot of good stuff there.

Anyway - I digress......

I FINALLY got to meet Holly from June Cleaver Nirvana - I sort of felt like I already knew her but in real life - we had never met. It was great to meet her and we greeted one another with a big old - bear hug long lost relation - kind of thing that was fun. :)

We all introduced ourselves and then we had our first speaker. Angela of Mommy Dietitian Blog spoke to us about feeding our kids! She was really nice and provided a lot of great info. I was able to ask her a question about my 8 year old and she had some great ideas. I was so sort of caught up in the moment at this point that I totally forgot to take her picture. (I did take a picture of the cool folders and stuff cuz I'm a nerd like that you know.)

Then we got to learn from Chef Richard Chamberlain.

The whole thing was very Top Chef

I kept wanting to say - utensils down - hands up - oh who am I kidding - I said that at least twice

The coolest thing was after each thing he showed us - we got a little yummy plate.

This was a very lovely and well-timed surprise because I believe at one point I turned to Stephanie and mumbled something along the lines of "

this smells so good and I am so hungry I am about to start gnawing my arm off"

or something like that

anyway

I now own a WONDERFUL cookbook - signed by Chef Chamberlain himself.

Check out all my awesome stuff

and a meat thermometer - I REALLY needed a new meat thermometer - one of those things like floss - you only think about buying when you need it.....

Now I am a hair out of order here but this is the FABULOUS dish that our group made. I am TOTALLY making this again - totally - do I sound hip and young?

oh well - you can't win every time - back to the story

Here is Chef Chamberlain putting the finishing touches on our plate with Trista

So this picture was taken because I was cooking our squash and asparagus and Lee Ann and Holly were just chatting and taking pictures like mad and I busted my phone out of my pocket and said, "hey girls - let me take a picture of you two watching me cook"

Now it is possible that Lee Ann has a video out there somewhere with me allegedly joking that I wondered if I dropped the AWESOME knife that I was cutting with in my bag if anyone would notice - allegedly I might have said that - in jest.....

Anyway - carrying on

Me and Stephanie - having an awesome time

The very cool Top Chef er I mean Milestone Kitchen

This was our recipe card and "work station" not Top Chefish at all though. No way I cracked another Top Chef comparison here - not at all. (and no way I was totally pretending that I was a contestant in my head all day - no way)

Long story short - it was an AWESOME day and I really want to thank Holly and the Texas Beef Council again. I had the greatest time and I can't wait to cook dinner tomorrow night! (I am not going to lie - tonight I ate a veggie burger from Mooyah and felt a little blasphemous. Tomorrow for sure though I am going to make a beef recipe that my family will drool over!)

Take me out to the ballgame

Take me out to the crowds

Buy me some peanuts and cracker jacks (or pack me a spiderman lunch box)

I don't care if we ever get back

Hope you are all enjoying your fall as much as we are! (Although - I am not gonna lie - it is still ridiculously hot here in Texas - not complaining - just saying - well - maybe complaining a little bit)

How I amuse myself in the drive through line at school

Gotta keep busy - right?

Your Words Have Weight

So I have been talking a lot with my kids about the phrase

Your Words Have Weight

My middle child asked the first time I said it to her.....

"so they have to be patient???????"

No baby - not wait - weight - they are heavy.

Your words have meaning.

What you say counts.

The words you choose can change the people around you.

They can make someone feel so good

or so very very bad.

Then my 8 year old says (now just being silly)

"So - they could squish you?"

4 year old boy now chimes in

"yeah squish you - hee hee"

I grin and we moved on. I have mentioned it on a couple of occasions but that was the biggest conversation. It happened probably a month ago.

Tonight - I was in the middle of a big pep talk for my 8 year old girl. When I finished I said

"Does that make sense my ladybug?"

She said

"Yes, Mommy - your words are the perfect weight."

I Heart Faces - My Summer in Review

We .......

Loved being together,

Played hard,

and generally just enjoyed hanging around!

Conversation in the car

Me: How was school girls?

Girls: How was school girls?

Me: Oh you learned the copy game?

Girls: Oh you learned the copy game?

Me: My Mommy is sooooooo pretty and we love her sooooooo much.

Girls: (giggling) My Mommy is sooooooo pretty and we love her sooooooo much.

Me: I am going to do nothing but read and eat vegetables all weekend.

Girls:

silence

Scrapbook Sussies

So - I recently joined Scrapbook Sussies

Now - once a month - a lovely box shows up on my front door with many, many pretty things for me to crop with.

I love it - I mean I REALLY love it.

A. It always comes at the perfect time. This morning I was home, playing with the kids, doing some yardwork, husband golfing when yippee a present for Mommy shows up.

I love to scrapbook

but

there are only 24 hours in a day.

Somehow - I am behind.

I LOVE the Sussies because I just put the prettiest pages together with basically little or no effort. :)

These are pages I made today. In between mowing the yard and putting that damn transformer back together (scuse my language but really - it is for a little boy - it should not be rocket science to transform it!!!!!)

Anyway - I tend to use my cricut - a lot and what I love about these very embellishment heavy kits is they help me get a little more depth to my pages. Not to mention - I would never ever ever go out and just buy myself some random pretty embellishments one Saturday a month - wouldn't do it.

But now

Someone sends them to me

I really heart them........

A new skill discovered

Birth Story for a Baby Boy

Well - I have to say - I am basically in shock and denial that my baby boy is four! I like to retell their birth stories each year on their special day and well - here is another special day.

I guess I should begin with how we came to have him in the first place. Sorry if this is too much information but this is basically a story that is tossed around at family functions quite a bit anyway so I want to go ahead and tell it here so that I have it down on paper er I mean computer somewhere. :)

We were a very happy little family of four and we talked about maybe trying for a third one day but we were certainly not looking to add on to our family at that time. It was Christmas Eve 2005 and we were celebrating, as is our custom, at the my Sister in Law's house. We were enjoying some good food and family fun and I was enjoying an adult beverage. I raised my glass and said, for the universe to hear,

"I am having the BEST time. This is the first Christmas in forever that I have not been pregnant or breastfeeding!!!!!!!"

Fastforward to one week later - yes - one week later - New Years Eve - I knew I was pregnant.

The Buddy's pregnancy was nothing like my pregnancies with my girls. I pretty much knew this one was different from the beginning. I had a small puddle of blood that was sort of pooling between my uterus and abdominal wall and had to go for a BUNCH of ultrasounds. I was also supposed to be careful about lifting things (yeah right with a 4 yr old and a 2 yr old).

When it was time to go in for my 3D Ultrasound at 20 weeks I took my oldest daughter (then age 4) with me. She was very good and we found out that our baby was a baby boy. I had her call Husband and he picked up and she said, "Hi Daddy - guess what? It is a boy baby!!!!"

We moved in May of that year - once again - pretty much a whipping to be 6 months pregnant with a 4 year old and a 2 year old and move but - we were actually doing pretty good!

Then - it happened -

the dreaded P.U.P.P.S rash.

I went ahead and made that a link if you are interested in it but basically it is a terrible itchy red painful rash that goes across your big sore pregnant belly and in the creases of your arms and legs.

Now - not to beat this point to death BUT - here I was - new town, a 4 year old and a 2 year old (have I mentioned that?), August, in Texas, 110 degree heat with a terrible painful rash.

I tell you -

talk about being trapped in your own body and life -

pretty miserable I will say.

Positives - my husband and the girls were really great and those two little girls were so sweet and good to their Momma - I will never forget that.

Anyway - my doctor wanted to induce me on August 27th. I said - "no way am I am having a boy in Texas in August" (the cut off for school here is September 1st and he was not due until the 16th so I felt very strongly that he needed to cook a little longer).

September 2nd came and we headed off to the hospital for the third time at 5 o clock in the morning to be induced. Things went pretty smoothly and my husband went to go grab some lunch. The nurse came in to catch me and I had gone from a 5 to a 9 REALLY fast so I had to call him - "Honey - come back FAST!"

My doctor (who is the GREATEST) came in - checked me and we told him that my husband would be back in just a second. He said, "ok good - I need to go to the bathroom anyway and you guys can wait a minute - perfect" and off he went. I had this crazy urge to call after him -

"be sure and wash your hands"

but anyway......

Husband came rushing back in and it was time to meet the Little Buddy.

That is when I heard my doctor say,

"oh, oh, well, ok, well, he is ok"

and then he said something like, "I want to send that off to the lab."

I cannot really describe what that split second of fear felt like but I can tell you it was so tangible that I remember what it tasted like.

We were told that he had one single knot in his umbilical cord and two double knots in his umbilical cord and the entire thing was wrapped around his neck. My Doctors exact words (and I will never forget them) were,

"he is destined for greatness - he really should not be here - I have really never seen this and have it turn out ok. I just lost one like this at 37 weeks."

We induced him at 38 weeks. He was 7lbs 8 ounces and he was perfect.

Everytime I think about it.

Everytime I think about how close we came to losing him I get a chill.

I thank God each and every day for that terrible, awful rash!

I kept asking, "are you sure he is ok? He is really ok?" and he was.

That night - in the hospital room - I felt a sense of euphoria that I really had never felt and have not felt since. I could not sleep - all I could do was sit up and watch him sleep.