Randomness...with some funnies at the end

I painted today, with Mckenna. She threw away 2 drawings/paintings before completing them. I feel so bad...she totally inherited my perfectionist gene, and my self-critiquing gene. She was trying to paint some difficult stuff, but her frustration got the best of her, so I let her throw them out.

I, on the other hand, kind of liked my painting. I might even frame it and hang it. We will see.

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Speaking of painting, I bought spray paint to refinish some furniture. Now, I realize how redneck that sounds, but hang on a minute.
1. The furniture is already painted, and it would take more time than I have to strip the paint--and who knows what is actually underneath.
2. Our room (the whole house, actually) has large white walls. We need some color!
3. I have a plan, and have done some research, and I think it will turn out well.

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We are busy, busy, busy.

We had something going on every night last week, and this week is the same.

The kids have noticed. They like most of our activities--though not all. I feel like telling them: Just wait until school, soccer, and AWANA start...then you will see busy!

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A Gabe-ism for you, just because.

Mom: Gabe, looks like this book is for you!
Gabe: Mom! What's that book? It looks like a Bible story!
Mom: Yep, it sure is!
Gabe: It's, it's...David and Galactica!

...Containing my laughter...


Mom: Yep, sure is buddy. David and Galactica.
Gabe: But mom, why is he so tall?

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And, proof that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, a funny Daniel moment.

Context: We have been trying to find various and assorted businesses in our new hometown, and keep our eyes open for places we haven't seen before. As we were driving away from the post office, I saw a building tucked away called Life Bank, with a large red blood drop next to the words.

Me: Hey Babe, I bet that's the blood donation center.

Daniel, instantly: Or a Vampire Store.

I love him.

LOL

Moments that have made us laugh since we moved to the desert:

- The refrigerator barely fits in its space, not because the space is extra small, but because we have a huge fridge. I apparently forgot just HOW huge it is. Daniel went to the store to get a couple of things, including ice. The next morning I found everything but the ice, and went searching--I looked in the car, the garage, anywhere I thought he might have left it by accident. He had put it in the freezer after all; I forgot there was a second drawer and didn't check it.

- To say we have gone from extreme to extreme is an understatement. No matter how long Daniel lives off the mountain, he will always be a mountain boy, as evidenced by when he thought he was turning the a.c. "on" by turning the switch to red. That is "on" in the mountains, since you run heaters there, but it is most definitely "off" in the desert. This was only funny after I figured out what was wrong because the a.c. was broken for the first 3 days we lived here (and it was 112), and we feared it was broken again.

- Our kids are freezing! They are not at all used to air conditioning or ceiling fans, and find it to be unpleasantly chilly. Of course they are roasting the second they walk outside, but inside they are cold and sleep with blankets, and we keep the a.c. at 80 or above, and off at night.

- We have 3 adrenaline junkies for kids. We knew Kenna loved speed and heights from her first trip to Magic Mountain where she rode everything big and bypassed everything small, and Gabe loves rock climbing at high heights, but we only discovered our third child's love for a rush last week. A family outing to Soak City revealed that our sweet girl is unafraid of heights, thrives off sliding down huge slides over and over, and will keep up with the big kids.

More Gabe-isms

Mom to Mckenna: You should probably listen to Dad, since his opinion is the only one that counts.

Gabe: I can count. I can count really well.

Dad: Gabe, it's an expression.

Gabe: Well, I still can count.

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A conversation in the car...

Gabe, for the 5th time in 2 minutes: Can you play that one song?

Dad: Buddy, stop asking.

Gabe: Okay, but can you play it?

Dad: We already said no. You aren't getting it.

Gabe: I'm getting it. (pause) So, are you going to play it?

Dad: Gabe, the answer is no, we are not playing that song. You need to stop asking.

Gabe: Okay. (pause) So, I should stop asking?

sigh.

I love this kid.

Continued...

Read the previous post first!

As we rounded the corner in chronological order the cries for help did not cease.

Juliana stood on a step stool at the refrigerator with a cup in one hand.

The cup runneth over.

What we thought was the scraping of furniture was actually the ice machine crushing ice.

When we first got this frige the kids would occasionally get their cup stuck in the door with the ice or water running and realizing their need would cry for assistance. The trick was you had to push to get more ice or water to get it unstuck, which contradicted their instinct.

This was not the case today.

The cup was not stuck--it was in the right position at the water/ice dispenser-- and yet the crushed ice kept flowing. As I slid up next to Jules and grabbed the cup, I found it surprisingly difficult to stop the flow of ice.

That's because she was still pushing.

Seriously.

I used force to take the cup away from her. I dumped some ice in another cup, added a little water to her pile of frozen H2O, and she merrily drank her refreshing beverage.  It would seem that wrestling caused her to feel overheated and parched.

Gabe ate some ice off the floor.

Dan and Mckenna stood dumbfounded as I explained that the cup had not been stuck.

Seriously, we will just never understand.

Note to self: When little one runs and you hear loud noises, go.

Never a Dull Moment

This afternoon the 5 of us were wrestling on the bed--a common activity around here, usually filled with an even mix of squeals of joy and squeals of pain. Usually perceived pain, not actual pain. 10 minutes into the tackle fest our little one ran from the room. I noticed, but it didn't raise red flags.

It should have.

Within seconds I heard a door slam and then a strange noise. 

"Shh...everyone quiet. What is that?"

I should have raced from the room. I didn't. We just listened.

"It sounds like furniture moving," Dan said with a question in his voice.

Curious, but still without urgency, we all sat like statues and listened.

"Help! Help! Somebody help!" 

I would have leaped from the bed and raced to the other side of the house, but there were 2 children intertwined on top of me since we had only paused our activity.

"Go....GO!...GO!!" I shouted as the cries for help intensified and the strange furniture moving noise continued.

We untangled and raced out of the room only to find....

Can you guess?  

To be continued.

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.

Let's just get the big stuff over with.

I did not walk straight into a pull-up bar at the park, fall on the ground, and wake up crying. I was not there alone with my kids and a friend of theirs. I did not decide that laying where I landed, on the wood chips, was the best decision, at least for a little while until my vision came back. I did not ignore the probable but never confirmed mild concussion. My eyes and nose are not swollen and a little black and blue.

I did not go with 27 people, including 6 jr. highers and 9 small children, to the beach, in charge of BBQ-ing dinner, and forget the grill, lighter fluid and a spatula.

(Me with a cool jr. higher at the beach)

I did not go to my parents' house for some R&R for 2.5 days only to take 30 phone calls, solve 3 crises, and answer 40 emails. I do not have a problem relaxing.

Glad we got that done with.

I did not come home from my parents' to find out that my husband had swapped the furniture from 2 rooms, including moving light fixtures. He wanted to paint too, but I could not remember the name of the color. He is pretty much amazing.

I did not BBQ chicken the other night only to realize the package and the chicken smelled suspicious, leave the cooked chicken on the BBQ in anger and heat up chicken nuggets instead. The chicken is not still on the BBQ 2 days later. That would be gross.

And I did not dump the bags from my trip to my folks' and from the beach trip in the hallways outside the laundry room thinking I would just do laundry from them, only to trip over them nearly a week later.

That's right, I did not.

Photo-Filled Wednesday (?)

Missed "Not-Me! Monday." Too many pictures for Wordless Wednesday. What can I say? I should be back to normal next week. Except I have Jury Duty. Drat. "Normal" eludes me again.

Gabe was so proud he picked out clothes that "matched" his dad, 

and I performed "matching" hair cuts today. 

Take me out of the mountians, and I don't have such a black thumb!

Coupons for our fun date. We saved up coupons, went to 4 different restaurants (and sometimes I drove through while Dan went inside with another coupon), and picked good food like fish sandwiches, double cheeseburgers, and huge burritos. Before we left home we each guessed at how much we would spend. 

This is what we got! For $13.00 we got dinner and dessert for 5! Dan also got the closest to the total and got to pick how we spent the rest of the night--XBox and the spa.

Wordless Wednesday

In Love

Do you know a couple whose names just flow together as if they were one person? Our wonderful, dear friends Mark and Audrey are like that. Around here they are not Mark.......and......Audrey, it's more like MarkNAudrey. All smooshed together. One of the very wonderful things about them is that they are not just MarkNAudrey anymore, although they were wonderful when they were. Hayden was born on Juliana's 1st birthday. The funny thing is that Audrey sometimes asks me how old Jules is, and I ask her how many months Hayden is. Seriously, since our kids share a birthday one year apart you would THINK we could figure it out(you know, add or subtract 12 months). But, no, we have mommy brain*.

MarkNAudreyNHayden recently bought a house bringing them within reach for us. They are a quick 20 minutes up the freeway ***can I get a WOOT WOOT*** and we plan on hanging out a lot more. They really need their own post, I could write about their wonderfulness forever. But for now, let's move on to last week.

I watched Mr. Hayden himself for a few hours while they worked on the new house. We already planned to write "The Contract"  when Hayden was born on Juliana's birthday, but after seeing them together, it's a done deal. Sorry kids, I know this is the 21st century in America, but can you say, "Arranged Marriage?"

Their version of wrestling. My version of cuteness.

 "Here Jules, eat my slobbered on chicken nugget. I love to share with you." If that does not spell L-O-V-E I do not know what does.

When I dropped him off at home he protested. I pretended it was me he wanted, but we all know the truth. I told Audrey it was no big deal, I hardly noticed there was another kid running around. She laughed, and said that if I dropped off my three at her house she would NOT say the same thing. We agreed she should get them in two's, and one of the two should be Mckenna, cuz she's more like a babysitter than a kid. 

*Mommy Brain is a technical term for the recuring loss of simple brain function. One suffering from Mommy Brain will often be found repeating simple phrases, searching for lost items, and scratching one's head asking, "Where did all these children come from?" When a Mommy Brain sufferer is alone in a store, do not ask them if they need help, even if they have been there for hours. It "might" be on purpose.