Monday, November 30, 2009

Yah, yah...getting there! and Check out this email!!


I know, blog already! Getting there-I promise! The construction is almost done, I painted my room today, and heck, if nothing else, I'll blog your little ears off (eyes out? what would that be exactly?) next week. I'm having my tonsils out on Friday, so as I sit and recover and do nothing while hubs takes over the craziness here, I'll blog. Probably multiple times a day. And you'll get to see plenty of pictures of all of our goings on.

I apologize in advance.

Anyway, that's part of the reason I'm scrambling to get things done this week, so it's all done before I go all wonky on painkillers.

BUT! You MUST read this email I got today. Oh sweet heavenly joy, I couldn't be any happier!!!

In response to your email regarding M&M'S BRAND COCONUT FLAVORED CHOCOLATE CANDIES.

Thank you for your email.

Great news! M&M'S BRAND COCONUT FLAVORED CHOCOLATE CANDIES will be available starting
January 2010 as a permanent item.

We hope you will watch for them!

Have a great day!

Your Friends at Mars Chocolate NA
MM/HERNLIND011100713A

Yes, I actually emailed the folks at M&Ms. You see, these are no more to be found, and I found some on ebay. Aside from the fact that it's kind of a little creepy to buy food off ebay, I debated buying a case of Coconut M&Ms. But they were $30. Before shipping. Which made the suckers nearly $2 a bag. Oh, the pressure of high stakes decisions. So yes, I emailed them. and bless them for emailing back. And bless them even more for adding this little piece of heaven to their regular line. My thighs will not benefit from this, but my sanity sure will. Coconut M&Ms forever!!!
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Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Best article I've read in a long time

Seriously-you need to read it.

It reminded me so much of my life. Especially of any given event and/or Sunday when any poor unsuspecting, misled person comments on my family being put together/well behaved/ sweet and patient/any other thing along those lines. (I have told you about Sunday mornings at our house, right?) I'm willing to venture a guess that many of you would feel the same way. Ok, well, maybe at least a couple of you.

Anyway-very entertaining, and right on. Don't believe me? Here's the opening snippet:



"Lately, I've been thinking about realities.

Like the reality that you have four pairs of great jeans in your closet, and you can only fit into one.

Or the reality that you deeply love your children, and yet today, you want to physically rip out their vocal cords if they sass you one more time."

See-told ya. Now go read the rest of it HERE. Enjoy!

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Friday, November 20, 2009

Baptism by Fire-Welcome to Chaos

It's been a couple of long weeks.
Obviously.

One thing after another, projects taking longer than anticipated, new projects thrown in the mix, too many sickies day after day....you name it, it's gone on.

I'm sure there will be a slew of catching up things going on in the next few days. Some big things have happened (like Alaina's baptism!) in the past two weeks. I just need more than 90 seconds to sit. My allotted sit time doesn't seem to last longer than that lately. And that makes Twitter fun, right? Or a good vent, or however you want to categorize it.

Anyway.

This week we've had a couple of house guests. in the form of two cute little kids from down the street. Our friends have spent the week in Aruba (can we say jealous?), and we have had the pleasure of tending their kids for a few days. Cute kids. Sweet kids. Not used to the chaos kids.

*sigh*

It's quite a change to go from a quiet, calm house with two kids (age 9 and 3), to a constantly noisy, constantly moving, constantly something somewhere (or some days everything everywhere) house with 7 kids. And two dogs.
I'm hope we haven't scared their 9yr old daughter so much that she will never want to come back.

Tonight she asked "is having 7 kids hard?" I told her that sometimes it's hard, but it's always messy, it's always loud, and always fun. She said, "yah, it's definitely loud!"
The best was when she looked at me the other night as we were in the middle of the bedtime round up and asked, "so....you want more kids?"
hahaha! She asked it at the perfect time too-it was right out of a sitcom. Cute kid. I hope we haven't scared her out of having a family of her own one day.

She's been wonderful with Charlotte, helpful around the house, and even cleaned up part of my girls' bedroom the other day while they were at Knowledge Bowl practice after school. She has appropriately sheltered and mothered her little brother, just like any good older sister would. I just feel bad that this hasn't been more of a vacation for her. (but it's ice cream and movie night tonight-hopefully that will help!) She's so polite that she would never say it, but I think that the whole get everybody up and going and out the door in the morning thing here scares the bejeebies out of her. Inevitably something collapses for someone 5 minutes before walking out the door, then I tell them to let it go, kiss them on the forehead and shoo them out the door anyway while I wave like an idiot yelling, "Be happy! Have fun storming the castle!" as they slump down the sidewalk with a frump on their face. Kind of a rude awakening if you're not used to that every day.
But hey, at least she will be likely to give her parents the welcome home of their life, right?

So what about the 3yr old? Meh-he fits right in with the other little boys. He's wild, he holds his own. It's almost like having another Lincoln around. Watching the two of them interact has been nothing short of seriously entertaining. He seems to be having a great time! No tears (I worried about bedtime), no panics or freak outs....he's just gone with the flow. And he hasn't hesitated to jump right in the fray, or climb right in my lap for a story. Aside from a couple of run-ins with Charlotte (But she's ok! Thankfully she's tough, she's used to older brothers), he's just assimilated himself into the norm. In fact, he just climbed up and sat on the desk right next to me here, while he drives his car on my arm and yells at the dog to go away.
Yep, fits right in.

Moral of this story? I don't know. Maybe if you only have a kid or two (or even three or four) and they aren't appreciating you and your home, send them here for a few days. They'll come home loving you a lot.

Now I must return to the chaos. And some dancing in the kitchen.

It's loud.
It's messy.
But it's fun.
And it's all mine.




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Friday, November 6, 2009

The Big Pink Winners!

A little slow today...Mother in law is on her way here. I am attempting to give the impression that I don't live in filth. Two little boys are sabotaging my every move.

But that's not what you wanted to know, so let's get to it!

The winner of #1, the Big Pink Walker package is:
Blogger jamiem said...

I've been following for quite some time....I'm so proud of you on the 1/2!!

November 3, 2009 8:49 AM

(awww...thanks jamie!)

And the winner of the Big Pink Running package is:
Blogger Steel Springs said...

I would love #2. What a great bunch of pink swag!

October 31, 2009 11:27 PM


Congrats ladies! email me with your info so I can get the good sent out to you!

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Sunday, November 1, 2009

The Annual Adult Costume Party


Not as in a party to which you wear "adult" costumes. A Costume party for adults.

Every year we snag a few of our friends and make them dress up for admittance to our house to hang out, eat too much, stay up too late, and laugh too hard.

It's great.

They all think we're nuts, and we have some costume resisters, but they oblige anyway.

We're very convincing that way.
The hard part is that we can't fit everyone we want to invite into our house. Also this year I never even sent invitations, so it was just the group that was already expecting it.

Next year we'll just pack everyone in like sardines. That will be fun!

This year was a little crazy, and a very short party because of when it was scheduled.
On that same night we had a church party, a school carnival, a city trunk-or-treat and Halloween activity, and it also happened to be Alaina's birthday. Oh yeah, two of us were running early the next morning too.

Our party that starts at 8 and lasts until 2 or 3 was just not meant to be.

Not to say it wasn't still a blast. And that there weren't some very strange inside jokes created, such as "eat it like it's Red Riding Hood."

We all laughed too hard, most of us ate too much, and a couple of us were up too late, even though we didn't start until after 9 and kicked people out at 12:30.

I think a few of our friends might be getting old or something.

The costumes this year were great as always, and it wouldn't be fair not to share them with all of you.

Already looking forward to next year!



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