It's been a long long time.

Ok so it's been forever since I added something to this blog....  I have been playing around with new backgrounds and learning how the HTML code works.  I have been wanting to design my own backgrounds for awhile - I really like doing that.  Until then, I am borrowing this one.  I think it's pretty cute and fits the season.

Nothing too exciting to write about - but a couple things silly enough to mention...

We were out of ketchup and I made fries and hamburger patties for dinner....sooooo I had to improvise.  I made homemade ketchup from a recipe on the Hillbilly Housewife website.  It actually turned out quite good - something a lot different from what comes in a bottle.  If you haven't seen that website, it's worth taking a look at - kind of a joke at my house.  Check it out:  http://www.hillbillyhousewife.com/

Another crazy thing that happened today is I noticed the cat outside eating something so I put on my shoes to go check it out and walked out where the cat was sitting - at that moment here comes Benjamin running out the door to see what I am doing and he steps right on the blood and gut infested dead bird the cat is chewing on.  It sticks to the bottom of his shoe and his mom about had a cow!  Eeeewwwww!

Hopefully I can make this blog a regular thing again.  PEACE!

First Haircut. Terrible.

We finally took Benjamin to get his first haircut. He is really shy and I also didn't want to admit my baby was growing up... so we put it off for a long long time. He did not enjoy it one tiny bit. He thought the place was cool and wanted to get up in the fire engine seat... that was until the stylist came over... then he freaked out. Roger had to hold him - it was awful. Poor thing.

So it's been awhile...

It's been quite awhile since I blogged - I thought the least I should do is post some pictures.

Our visit to the Space Needle after the family Christmas party. I don't think I had my camera so this is with my cell phone. It was kinda foggy/cloudy/misty so there was a really cool shadow of the space needle in the sky.



Uncle Garrett with Benjamin at the Christmas party.

Cousins! YAY, it sure is great having Garrett's family close again. They moved from Florence, AZ to Kent, WA just before Christmas. From left to right: Dalton, Patrick, Benjamin, Jeremy, Alex, Dylan.

Eating dinner on Christmas... Patrick didn't eat anything... picky picky..

Waitin' for Daddy

Just hanging around waiting for Daddy to come home from work. Somewhere I have a picture like this with Patrick and Molly too - I will try to find it to post.

Bzzzzzzz!

Take a look at what Patrick found in our tree in the front yard! It's huge! We always thought there were a lot of wasps around that tree but never saw this.

He loves it!

The first day went well. Patrick told me first grade is AWESOME! They got to have music class and he told me they get to have PE too. He is so excited! I hope we can keep this momentum going once the expectations start kicking in more.

Mondays and Wednesdays he will have music. Tuesdays and Fridays he will have PE. Thursdays are early release days - and they alternate between music and PE. Wednesdays are library days. Lots of good stuff to keep my little guy busy.

I emailed the PTSA and will be joining. The first meeting is next Wed. I offered to build a web site to post the meetings minutes and upcoming events (right now they just post them on the bulletin board across from the office). They want to talk about it more at the meeting next week.

Now I need to find something to sign me and Benjamin up for - so he can become more social before I go back to work and have to put him in daycare. I think I will look at the Y or the city website, or find a play group.

First Day of First Grade!

I can't believe my baby is in first grade! Patrick got up at 7:30 and was dressed by 7:45 (with a lot of help from me - hope we can work on that so he will do it all on his own). Our routine will be that he gets up at 7:30 and gets completely dressed and takes his medication before Curious George comes on at 8. Then he can eat breakfast and watch tv. After Curious George is over, he brushes his teeth and does his hair (he did that well this morning).

We got to school with plenty of time to spare even though we had to go back home to get his lunch. We were about 1/2 way to school when I remembered. His teacher (Ms. Allen) is standing in the doorway in one of the pictures below. There are 22 kids in his class (I think). 6 of the kids he knew from PM Kindergarten last year and 1 he knew from Pre-K the year before.

My plan was to get Benjamin down for his naps at 12:30 - that way he could sleep for at least 2 hours and then have a snack before picking big brother up at 3:25. Today didn't work out that way. I was so thrilled with my new found freedom that I ended up going shopping and didn't get Benjamin to bed until after 1. I hope I won't have to wake him up, but I probably will since I had to wake him up early this morning.

Cross your fingers for a good day at school!

Open House at School

Last night was open house at Patrick's school. We got to meet the teacher, find his desk, and put his supplies away. I picked out clothes for Patrick to wear so he looked nice - and he told me "That's not what I planned". We wanted to wear his nice nice clothes and his tie. Ok little man - you're the boss! : )

Excitement!

Here's a video of the boys having a great time. Benjamin loved it so much that after they were done he climbed up on it and his foot was on the gas and it took off. Luckily he didn't fall off - he was stopped by hitting the lawn mower. I about had a heart attack but he wondered what all the fuss was about. The dang thing doesn't have a way to turn it OFF without unplugging the battery.

Toys, toys EVERYWHERE!

Not anymore!

You ever feel like you are picking up the same things like 400-thousand times per day?! That's how it is at my house. First of all, we have WAY TOO MANY toys. Way too much everything actually. Too much clutter everywhere. Well it drives me crazy and I just get exhausted trying to deal with it everyday. Just how many bouncy balls do we need, really? For years I have been organizing them into their own separate "bouncy ball bin", but come on - WHY? Why do we need all of these? Just so I can pick them up over and over and over again?! I can have all the toys picked up and the family room looking half way decent 10 minutes before Roger gets home from work but when he walks thru the door it looks like a bomb just went off again.

There are so many areas that need tackling and yesterday I decided to do something about it. To me it made sense to start with the toys because maybe after I dealt with that it would give me some free time to do the other areas. I dumped every single cubby, container, bin, box, and loose toy I could find (except a few) and put them into a super HUGE black plastic yard waste bag. It is huge. I think this bag could substitute for Santa's big black bag and provide toys for every child around the world! My plan was to someday (when Patrick is not around) take it outside and get 3 bins and for every one we put in the keep pile, put 3 in the give away pile. Then of course there would be the throw out pile for broken things. You see this done on those organizational shows. Why don't they ever show up at my house? I would be so embarrassed to be on tv though. Anyway... now that all the stuff is in the bag - I just want to take it to the dump. Terrible Mom? Maybe! Argggh. I don't know - probably.

I think want to do this with the rest of the house too. Just simplify... cut down... make things easier. I remember before I had children I said I would never buy that many toys... I wanted my kids to have a few special things they cherished and actually played with. Hmmm - guess I got WAY out of control. We all have way too much. Too many choices in the grocery store (check out the cereal aisle!), too many pictures. Ok I have like a gazillion digital pictures that I have never printed out - there are so many I can never decide which ones to print and which ones to delete (delete?, could I really do that?!! It freaks me out to even think about it). But just think - if we didn't have all this junk, how much easier life would be. I could actually maybe be out there enjoying my life instead of being overwhelmed by all this madness.

Gotta go, so much more to do!