Thank Goodness They Check

I went to the gym this morning. I know, I know. It's not me. I hate the gym. But it's time to get healthy now before it becomes a real issue. I've actually been going for awhile. I look at it as time to myself where I can zone out and not think about things like cleaning the house and putting the laundry away.

But I digress.

S went with me and since both K and L are in school today, H was our only tag along. The ladies in the child care center are so sweet and H has a great time in there (usually). I dropped him off and went with S to start lifting.

In the end, S finished before I did so he went to pick up H. Since I was the one who dropped H off and the ladies had never seen S before, they were suspicious. They found me and asked if that was, indeed, H's father. I smiled and said, "Yes, that's his dad." She said they haven't had any issues but they like to be safe just in case.

That did this mother's heart a world of good. What if it hadn't been S but someone else? How easy would it be for someone to take a child? I'm so thankful for those wonderful ladies at the gym. Thank goodness they checked!

A Birthday and Other Things

Um, so H's birthday is Friday. That's right; Friday. He'll be one. He's having his first birthday. I'm amazed at how fast this year has gone (it's had its slow moments, too). I have been working on a letter to him that I'll post on his birthday.


As for the fabric mentioned in the previous post, here's what I found out. They don't have it. It's on the website but they don't have it. And they don't know when they'll get any more in. Yeah. I didn't even hear her type anything into a computer to find out about it. Her first words were "I don't know about that fabric. It's on my website?" So if you're interested in fabrics, please don't call this place. I'm pretty sure they don't know what they're doing.

L went to a strawberry farm near our house last week and I got some great pictures. K is going this week so I'll post a bunch of pictures after that event. L had a great time and we came home with some really wonderful strawberries. I let the girls help me make shortcake to have for dessert that night. I'll post that recipe later since I'm upstairs, it's downstairs and I just don't feel like going to get it right now. I know, I'm lazy.

What Do You Mean You Don't Have a Computer?

We have an old sofa. By old, I mean at least 15 years. (I do realize that many of us have furniture way older than this but you must remember quality is very important when holding on to pieces of furniture.) It was given to S and I just before we got married by a family friend who was updating their living room. Although it has served us well, it's time to move on. I must get rid of the forest green plaid! Oh, I forgot to mention that it's broken and has been for the past year.

The good thing about a free, old, broken sofa is that you don't really care if the kids spill yogurt or throw up on it. It's not a big deal. But I've had enough of the old sofa. I found a great sofa and picked out the fabric I wanted and everything. One of the fabrics is a really neat print that would look great on a side chair. I just happen to have one of those that needs some new fabric (peachy-pink doesn't exactly go with our decor).

I was able to find the fabric online for a great price but needed to know both the vertical and horizontal repeat so that I'd know how much fabric to order. So I called the company. A nice woman answered but quickly got testy with me. When I asked about the fabric she said she'd never heard of it. Did I find it on their website, she asked. Yes, I did. Yes, I had the right store. We went around this for several minutes. I figured she could just look it up in her computer or go to her own website for the info. "We don't have a computer." WHAT? You're a fabric company with an extensive website and you don't have a computer? "We keep our computer in the office. I don't have time to deal with computers so I don't have one." You can't even bother yourself to go to the office computer to look this up? Apparently not. I was told to call back on Monday and speak to the woman who runs the website. She should know about this specific fabric. She was, conveniently, not in the office on Friday.

My immediate response was to never call back and warn others that this company is incompetent and they need to get themselves a computer. This isn't 1953, people. However, I want to see if this web girl knows about this fabric that she has posted on this website. Any bets?

Heartbreaker

Has anyone seen Dan in Real Life? It's a sweet little movie. Dan is a widower and has three daughters. The middle one is beginning to date and when Dan forbids her from seeing a boy she calls him a "murderer of love."

L announced last night that she needs a boyfriend. This was in the middle of dinner. With no prompting from any source. It just came to her head. Why do I get the feeling she's going to call us "murderers of love"?

I am dreading 15!

What Do You Want to Be When You Grow Up?

When I was around 3 or 4 my preschool teacher sent home a questionnaire for our parents to help us fill out. It had such questions as:

• How many stars are in the sky? 100
• What is your favorite color? Green (I have no idea why)
• If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go? Smith's (the local "dime" store, but it's really just another word for toy/fun store)
• Name two chores you have at home: taking the laundry out of the dryer and putting it on the bed (my mom made this one up as I really didn't do chores at 3 even though I probably should have)

The best question, in my opinion, was "What do you want to be when you grow up?" Most of the kids said things like fireman, policeman, lion tamer, astronaut, Superman, etc. Just your average, run-of-the-mill 3-year-old answers. My answer? Mom. I wanted to be a mom. That's it. Not housewife, not doctor, nurse or anything else. Just mom.

That's now come true for me. The one thing I wanted to be was a mom. And most days I love it. Some days are better than others. Some days I think I can't make it to 7:30 (bedtime!). And there are some days I can't believe it's already 7:30 and I need to put the kids to bed.

Saturday is a great example of why being a mom is what I love. After the birthday party for K's friend, the girls wanted to play in the sprinklers. So when S went out to light the grill for dinner, he turned on the sprinklers and let the girls have fun. They squealed and smiled and ran around with such delight. H had fun, too, discovering the sprinkler heads from the back porch. I stayed in to get the rest of dinner ready, including homemade mac & cheese and steamed summer squash. It was all so tasty. That's my idea of a good Saturday night.

My life is nowhere near perfect. There are many times when the kids demand things of me that I just can't provide. But I'm so thankful for them, that they fulfilled a lifelong desire for me. That's one of the best blessings a person could ask for.

Edited to Add: After conferring with my mom, I was the one who made up the two chores, not her. My teacher asked us the questions and we gave our answers. And my favorite color was green because my eyes, at the time, were green.

The Playground

Most afternoons after K gets out of school, I let the girls play on the playground at school. In fact most of the moms allow their kids to play out there so I get to visit with other Mommies and the girls run off some steam. It's win-win.

Today was no exception. H and I hadn't finished lunch and food is not something we mess around with. The girls were having a great time as K played with her friends and L made new ones. Honestly, that girl doesn't know a stranger. I'm sitting chatting with a mom, feeding H minuscule bites of chicken nugget, when I notice that the teachers on the playground are all watching a child go across the monkey bars, encouraging her with each grasp of the next bar. That's when I notice it's my child going across the bars. Not K but L. The three-year-old. The one who barely weighs enough to be in a forward-facing seat! And she flew across those bars.

Y'all, she was so proud of herself. It was so much fun to watch her accomplish something she'd never done before. And those teachers were just cheering her on as if she were one of theirs. What encouragement!

Catching Up

I have been such the delinquent blogger this week and there's really no reason for it. It's not like I haven't had the time after the kids are in bed. I guess I'm just too tired to come upstairs and get on the computer. So here's what we've been up to.

K had a field trip to a local TV station to learn about the weather and news reporting. It was really cool. Each child got to stand in front of the green screen, pretend to do the weather, and see themselves on TV. Very cool. Except that K didn't want to do it when it was her turn and then decided, at the very last second that she did but it was too late. Bummer.

Ballet pictures were Friday afternoon and the girls were so excited to get into their costumes. They both looked so cute. K's dress is a princess dress and she looks so beautiful in it; so grown up. They did not want to take them off when we got home. They do like to play dress-up!

H is into anything and everything these days. S gave him a hard-boiled egg this morning. Check out the picture below for how that went over.

I hope all of you are doing well and I promise to be back with more pictures very soon!

K, practicing her ballerina twirls...

L trying to open her eyes in the bright sun so I could get a good picture...

L walking away from me because she wanted to have her picture taken by herself and not with K. K smiled sweetly.

H getting egg all over himself. He did get a bath right after this!