I have no words...

I have no words for the tragedy that happened today in CT.  A man was so angry at his mother that he shot her then went to her school and shot innocent children.  5-10 year olds.  Beautiful, sweet, innocent children whose voices will now be forever silenced because of one man's anger.

I will always remember where I was when I learned of the Twin Tower's being hit by airplanes.

I will always remember where I was when I learned that 2 high school boys killed their classmates in Columbine.

I will always remember where I was when I learned that a shooter killed a theater full of people waiting to watch the new Batman movie.

And now I will always remember where I was when I learned 20 innocent children were murdered.

The part of me that is a mother screams and cries for these grieving parents.  I can't imagine being told that my child's school has been the target of a murderer.  I just can't.

My daughter is 6-years-old, the same age as some of the children who were killed.  My heart just aches thinking about losing my baby girl.

I am so thankful for my children.  For the innocence they still have.  For the fact that I can hold them both in my arms tonight and kiss them good-night.

I'm also thankful that I'm not the one who punishes the wicked and evil.  There is ONE who will have the final say and His judgement is far greater than anything we as humans could ever give.

I will sleep better tonight knowing that HE has me in his palm and is watching over my babies.  

Sometimes being single means you get the small ornament

Since it's Christmas-time and everyone seems to be telling stories of Christmas' past, here's another story of Christmas in my family.

It was the year 1998.  I was coming home after my first semester of college in Ohio.  What college student doesn't look forward to coming home, car full of dirty laundry.  I think once you've been away from home for a few months, you forget all the little things you hated about home.  You are excited to be pampered by mom.  She'll cook your favorite meals, wash all that laundry, and wipe your nose remind you that all is well in the world.  This was how my Christmas break began.  It was a wondrous thing.

Then Christmas day arrived.

My brother and his wife were there.  My sister and her fiance were there.  My parents and I were there, of course.  It was a tradition in my family that my mom would get a Hallmark ornament each year.  Sometimes the ornament was a milestones, like "Our First Christmas Together" or something.  This year was special for my sister because she was engaged so she got a special one.  One by one they opened their precious ornament box.  I can't remember what they got but it was a normal sized ornament.  Then came my turn...

I tore off the wrapping paper and found the box...

Ok, the box was small but whatever.  Then I opened the box to see the actual ornament.

Still don't believe me that it was small?  Here's another view...

Seriously.  Why was the polar bear holding a fish in a block of ice?  It's like the bear is saying "It's ok that you're alone.  Here.  Have a fish".  I just stared at it for a minute.  It took that long to comprehend why Hallmark would even make an ornament that small!  My sister giggled a little then made some remark about how tiny it was.  Of course my mother felt horrible.  She didn't think the ornament would be THAT small.   We laughed about it and continued on with the gift giving.


I learned a valuable lesson that day.  Sometimes being single means you get the tiny, reject ornament.  So I needed to get married for no other reason than to get a better ornament.  Luckily I found a guy who could look past the tiny polar bear ornament.  :) After I married and put our first Christmas tree, I found that ornament tucked away in a box.  I put it on the tree and smiled.  Then I turned to show Joel how much tinier it looked on the big tree.  One problem...I couldn't find it again!  Seriously!  It was gone!  It had blended in with the tree!  We eventually found it but every Christmas from then on that ornament was left in the box.  Couldn't risk it being a choking hazard.

Go Karts and Spider Webs

I grew up in the country.  Now before you all think I'm a country bumpkin who can churn her own butter, let me just tell you that the "country" doesn't mean Little House on the Prairie.  We had an acreage surrounded by farms.  Pig farms, cow farms, and corn...oh my.  It was a great upbringing.  Back in those days you could ride your bike for hours and not be concerned about horrible things like kidnapping and child endangerment.  My mom would kick us out of the house and tell us to be back by supper.  We'd walk the 1/2 mile to the elementary school at the end of the street (because it had the only playground for miles).  Sometimes we'd even wander the prairie grass the took up the back acre of our land.  You never knew what you'd find back there.  Deer carcasses, pheasants, and garden spiders.

Now I hate spiders.  HATE THEM HATE THEM HATE THEM.  It doesn't matter if they're teeny tiny or ginormous.  I hate them all.  If I see one in my house, I scream for Joel to come kill it.  If he's not home, I will buck up and kill it.  I'm like a mama bear protecting her cubs from the mountain lion.  I will go insane on that spider.

So one day my dad bought a go-kart for us kids.  Where it came from, who knows?  It doesn't matter because it was OURS!  We could ride that thing for hours.  Didn't matter that it was only a piece of metal with 4 tires, a seat, a wheel, and absolutely zero shock absorbers.   We thought it looked like this...



But it actually looked more like this...



We'd ride that thing all over our yard.  My brother was the crazy, insane one.  He'd push the gas pedal as hard as he could and go flying around the house and between the trees.  And he'd do it all with his mouth open!!  I'm pretty sure his uvula blocked at least a few of the flies from going straight down his throat.  My sister would go a little slower but freak out if she went too fast.  She and her friend, Mari once knocked over a pine tree.  But that's a story for another day.

My dad wanted us to have more fun with the go-kart and we had a whole acre of land not being used so he back there with the lawn mower one day and blazed a track for us.  It was awesome.  It was basically 2 giant circles, the short path and the long path.  We had just one entrance to the prairie grass track but then it split into 2 tracks from there.  One path did a little loop then headed back to the entrance/exit.  The other path made a larger loop then headed back.  Endless fun for us.  Sometimes we'd scare up a pheasant or two.  Occasionally we'd see a deer carcass.  Those were...awesome...occasions.

An even better occasion was when you encountered a spider web.  Better yet when a garden spider was planted in the middle of the spider web.  Now imagine, if you will going full speed through the best darn prairie grass go-kart trail west of the Mississippi.  You're maxed out at 10mph but it feels more like 60.  You're looking around at all the scenery in the prairie grass.  There's a pheasant flying over head.  Bambi and her mom have found a place to sleep.  All is well in your little corner of the universe.  Then BAM.  You hit this...
                            
...the spawn of Satan.  Suddenly your nice, peaceful trip is interrupted by screams of agony!  There's a spider on your head!  It's 8 legs of torture are winding their way to your face so they can suck the life right out of you.  Why would this spider make a web directly over your beautiful prairie grass track?  For all that is humane in this world, WHY?

I shall tell you why.  Because spiders are the most horrific, terrible creatures in this world.  I'm convinced that they are only in this world to cause pain and destruction.  They're like little aliens, looking for our weaknesses so they can take over the world.

So here is my challenge to the 4 people that read my blog.  Rise up!  Kill the spiders!  Let kids ride their go-karts through their prairie grass track in peace!  People of Blog-land, unite!

My little wippersnapper

Hannah just cracks me up sometimes.  She'll say something with such honesty and boldness that I can't help but laugh.  After the whole "Panera" incident, I've learned that she's not shy about asking questions or stating facts.  Here are a few snippets...

I have a rule at dinner that you have to eat as many bites of food as you are in age.  So for Hannah, 6 bites.  For Noah, 3.  Here's what happened:

Me: Hannah, you need to eat 6 bites of your soup before you can get up from the table.
Hannah:  Well, then I guess you need to eat 32 bites before you can get up, mommy!
Me: uh...ok.

Here are a few more...

Me:  Noah, tie your shoes.  I mean, Hannah tie your shoes!
Hannah: Mommy, it's ok that you forgot my name.  You're old.  You forget things.
Me:  I'm not old!  I'm 32!  Oh good grief.  I'm arguing with a 6-year-old.

Hannah: Mommy, am I going to die?
Me: Well, at some point, yes.  But not for a very long time.
Hannah I'm glad you're going to die before me so I can see what happens.
Me: Well, I'm glad I could help you out.

Hannah: I lost my first tooth!
Me: Yea!  Go put it under your pillow and the tooth fairy will bring you a quarter.
Hannah: Mommy, I know you and daddy are the tooth fairy.  And instead of a quarter can I have an IPad?
Me: Uh...no.

Christmas Memories...

So you know how everyone has these memories of wonderful Christmas' of the past?  There's caroling around the tree, drinking hot chocolate while watching the fire crackle and burn in the fireplace, tucking the kids in bed while they can barely contain their excitement that SANTA is coming...

Those aren't my memories.

Now, I didn't have a rough childhood.  We always had plenty of presents under the tree.  I've never believed in Santa (gasp!) but I loved getting up early on Christmas morning (my big brother would set his alarm so he could get up my sister and me...we were dorks).  Inevitably I'd get shoes, underwear and some kind of book.  Classic "you needed them" presents.

However, my most memorable Christmas didn't happen when I was a child.  It happened just a few years ago at my daughter's first Christmas.  Before you think I'm going to get all sappy and talk about how she opened a present and gave us a huge grin, thereby inducing tear filled moments, think again.  I'm not that nostalgic.  Or sappy.

I like to call this story "The day we almost starved to death".

Let me set the stage.  Hannah was 7-months-old.  Like many Christmas' before, we all gathered together at my husband's family's house.  And also like many Christmas' before, Joel and I were the first ones there.  When we're told we're going to eat at 1, we're there at 12:30 so we can set up our food and be ready to actually EAT at 1.  Silly us.

Now let me just say that Joel has 5 sisters.  3 of those sisters have 5 of their own children.  Simple math tells you that 15 kids right there.  At this time we only had 1 and another one of Joel's sisters only had 1.  So there were 17 kids to be fed, plus 12 adults.  Again with the simple math.  29 people.  Let's just round up to 30, shall we?  I'm probably forgetting someone anyway.

I love Joel's family, I really do.  But when it comes to punctuality, well...there is none.  I could tell another story about my wedding day, but that's for another day.  Since my family is notoriously on-time for everything, this took a lot of getting used to when I married in to his family.  Luckily I beat  helped Joel be a punctual person and he helps me to lighten up a little :)

So back to Christmas day.  1:00 came and went and still Joel, Hannah and I were the only ones at his parent's house.  Over the next hour, 3 of his sisters arrived with their kids.  1 sister lived out of state so she wasn't coming.  2:00 came and we were still waiting for the last sister to arrive.  By now my stomach was more than growling.  It was becoming this loud beast, making gnarling sounds and cramping.  And lest you think I'm a terrible mother, Hannah was a baby so she ate...something or other.

FINALLY the straggling sister arrived with her brood.  It was time to eat.  Or so we thought.

Let me say again, I love Joel's family.  I really do.  But some Christmas traditions need to be postponed until the empty caverns that were out stomachs could be filled.  But some traditions can not be postponed.  So we all gathered together in a room the size of a 1-car-garage (because it was a renovated 1-car-garage) and proceeded to read the Christmas story.  Did I mention there were 30 of us?  Oh, and did I mention the fireplace was on?  After the Christmas story was read, it was time to sing carols.  Now you may be thinking of just a few "Oh Holy Nights"  Nope, the living room has a piano.  And we had hymnals.  By this time my stomach was starting to eat my spleen.

I can't remember how many songs we sang since I'm pretty sure I blacked out from starvation for a time.  What I remember next was a tape being put into the tape deck.  Yes, the tape deck.  They still exist!  My father-in-law does have a nice singing voice.  So he thought it'd be nice to share a special music number with us.  Like I said, he has a nice singing voice.  A nice, LOUD singing voice.  Remember how we're all crammed in a small space?  Remember that there are 30 of us?  Remember how we're all sweating from being is the above-mentioned small space and the fire going?  Oh, and remember how I'm losing my spleen? Well, then imagine being yelled at graced with a special 4-minute song.

By the time the song was over and it was announced we could eat, it was closing in on 3:30.

Some people have wonderful Christmas memories; I'm just thankful I still have my spleen.

I'm totally going to blog about that!

Sometimes I go through my day and think "I'm totally going to blog about this!".  And then I get home.  My kids need fed, bathed, put to bed.  Laundry needs to be done.  Life needs to continue.  So by the time I actually have a moment to sit at my computer, I've completely forgotten the last time I peed, much less what happened that was blog-worthy.

Today it happened again.  I had something witty and fun to post.  And now...blank.  So instead, I'll treat you to a funny story.  And yes, it's about me.  And yes, I'm making fun of myself so if you're a fun-hater, stop reading now.

A few weeks ago we took the kids to the pool in the million degree heat.  Yea, us.  Parents of the year.  Now let's not overlook the fact that I hate being in public in my bathing suit.  But even still, I was willing to get past that so my kids could enjoy the pool.  Since Hannah and Noah are at the point where one goes one way and the other goes the other way, Joel took Hannah and I took Noah.  Off Joel and Hannah went to the deep end.  Noah would like to think that he's a fish and can breathe underwater.  He'll just take off walking through the shallow end, continuing as the water gets deeper.  Never mind that the water's now up to his chin  and he's needing to tip his head back to breathe.  Nope, no big deal.  Just keep walking.  Little stinker.  So I introduced him to the kiddy slide.  It's a super wide slide that is about 30 feet in the air, gently sloping to the pool where it ends on a big pillow of softness in the water.  No injured baby bottoms for these kids.

Of course he gets scared.  I think if the slide had been in the deep end, he would've walked right up to it but no, he gets scared of the shallow end.  Ugh.  Fine.  I'll go.  What's worse that being in a public pool in a bathing suit?  Getting on a slide where there's barely enough water running down the slide to brush my teeth, much less slide my body down.  But I'll go.  Because I love my son.  I. L.O.V.E. M.Y. S.O.N.  I must keep reciting this phrase.

We get up to the top and wait to get to the front.  I watch at other kids went down before us.  No big deal.  You sit, you slide, you land on the pillow ever so gently and are greeted with smiling faces from all the parents and grandparents sitting in a semi-circle around the pillow.  Now it was our turn.  Ok.  Down we sit, Noah sitting right on my lap with a huge grin.  I. L.O.V.E. M.Y. S.O.N.  The lifeguard gives us the go-ahead sign and we go....nowhere.  Because I'm sitting on a dry spot.  Crap.  I wiggle over a little to where the water is cascading down in a slow trickle.  Off we go.  We land on the pillow.  Oh wait...Noah's on the pillow but I keep going!  It's like a horror movie.  Somehow I went flying off the slippery pillow and landed straight into the pool.  The cement pool with lots of people sitting in the water watching.  There was no graceful landing.  Oh no, it was all legs in the air, hands flailing, wedgy-inducing horror.  When I finally stopped, my swim suit bottoms had firmly planted themselves in wedgy formation, my boobs were precariously close to popping out and I had taken out the first row of on-lookers.  Ok, that last part may be a slight exaggeration but I had sprayed water all over them.

Then I had to get up.  Somehow, without drawing too much attention to myself (because that would just be embarrasing), I had to un-wedge my bottoms, pop the girls back in place and somehow maintain my dignity. I. L.O.V.E. M.Y. S.O.N.

Later I looked in the mirror and saw I had raccoon eyes from my mascara and cement-burns in bad places.  I am all shades of classy.

Hope you had a good laugh at my expense.  Laughing makes the pain go away :)

HOTLANTA....or HOTANKENY?

For anyone living in the midwest, it's been a strange summer.  Temps have been in the upper 90's and into the lower 100's for many weeks.  Iowa tends to get a few days of temps that high but not a long stretch!  It makes being outside unbearable.  Couple that with 2 very active kids and it makes for some creative indoor activities.  We've taken advantage of anything and everything that's free/cheap and indoors.  On my days off you can find us at the splash park from 10-11:45, while it's free.  Once they want us to pay, we're out of there!  I bring our lunch and we either eat in between splashing each other or go out by the lake to feed the ducks our leftovers.  After that it's back home for some cooling down before heading to either McDonald's to play in their play place or maybe to Backyard Adventures to play.  Whatever I can do to keep the kids active but not overheated!  It's ridiculous how hot it's been!  I feel bad for anyone who has to work out in this heat.  Seriously.  Makes me VERY thankful we have A/C in our house, car and workplace.

So what's new with us?  Well, hmmm...our house is on the market.  That's probably the biggest news.  Yes, we're moving.  Where?  No clue.  We haven't exactly decided.  Our plan is to stay in our house until it sells (good plan, huh?) then move to a rental here in Ankeny until Hannah finishes 1st grade.  Noah will be in preschool this coming year too.  He's already enrolled at the same preschool Hannah went to and it'd be hard to get him in anywhere else this late in the game.  After they're done with school, we'll figure out where our next house will be.  We love Ankeny, we love our neighbors, we love our house.  BUT we feel the need to move somewhere more affordable so we can save more.  It's important to us that we contribute to our kids' college fund.  We haven't been able to contribute as much as we'd like.  There are other reasons too but the main reason is to save more $$.  There is a slight chance we'll stay here, if something things change.  We're kinda in limbo right now.  Have I mentioned how very impatient I am?  Apparently God is trying to teach me something.

I've been doing a kickboxing class at the Y.  I LOVE IT!  It's not just your 'normal' kickboxing class.  In this one, I get to wear boxing gloves and actually hit and kick a bag.  It's awesome!  I sweat more in that 45 minute class than I do mowing the entire yard in the 100 degree heat!  The instructor kicks our butt and it's awesome.  I like to think that I'd be threatening to anyone in a dark alley but in reality, I'm sure I look like a complete fool.

So here are a few pictures of what we've done this summer.  Enjoy...

Family photo shoot

Noah would follow this girl anywhere

They're going to hate this picture later...

The boys at Adventureland

The girls

The kids at the park (and eating an Oreo)

At the beach

Safety First!

Back on the boat and cold after a dip in the lake

Beating the heat at Aunt Salli's house

I thought this was Noah when I uploaded the picture.  It's actually my nephew Jack but he's so stinking cute, I kept it :)

Fatigue

*WARNING*::  This post is very raw.  It's me in my most honest state.  You have been warned...


Fatigue (also called exhaustion, lethargy, languidness, languor, lassitude, and listlessness) is a state of awareness describing a range of afflictions, usually associated with physical and/or mental weakness...


That's from wikipedia.  I hear people say they're 'fatigued' all the time but I never really understood what it meant.  I always thought it just meant you're tired.  'So go take a nap!', I would think.  But it's more than that.  It's can be a combination of both mental and physical weakness.  It's a lack of energy and motivation.   


Lately I've been fatigued.


It's a combination of things, I think.  One, I've been busy.  Any way you cut it, my life is busy.  I'm sure if I compared myself to others, there will be plenty that have 'busier' lives than me.  Hannah and Noah are still pretty young.  I know it's just going to get worse.  Secondly, I've been so frustrated with my body.  Bleh.  Who wants to talk about their body?  Not this girl!  But I'm doing it anyway...


Joel and I went through a rough patch a while back.  Without airing all our dirty laundry, the root of our problem was me.  I'm not trying to be a martyr about it; it's just the truth.  I have the self-esteem of an ant.  When I was young, someone who I looked up to tried to bribe me to lose weight.  I was always a chunky gal.  Part of the problem was that I was head and shoulders taller than anyone else in my class, boys or girls!  So I ate...a lot.  Not healthy things like fruits and vegetables.  Nope, it was cereal, bread, cheese...anything that tasted good.  So I gained weight.  


Through the years, I've yo-yo'd.  I've been happy with my weight, then mad.  I've been overweight, underweight, then right where I needed to be, only to jump up on the scale again after having babies.  So I felt like crap.  That spilled over into my personal life.  I didn't feel pretty.  I wanted to hide in the closet and never come out.  Who wants to look through their closet full of clothes and not find a single thing that fits right or looks nice?  It wore me out.  Joel could sense there was a problem but I was too ashamed and embarrassed to say anything.  Eventually he gave up trying.  Looking back, I really can't blame him.  He was married to a sloth.  I was a sloth.  


Joel and I had a 'come to Jesus' talk one night.  We were at the end of our ropes.  Something had to change or it was over.  Neither of us would accept that.  


Through the course of the next few months, we figured out the root of the problem.  We've already established it was me.  Yep, me. So I started working out, I watched what I ate, I tried to be happier about everything.  And guess what?  My self-esteem went...nowhere.  All I was doing was looking for acceptance in other's opinion of myself.  How was that healthy!?  So I plateaued.  I had been doing so great then BAM.  Nothing.  That leads us to the present.  


I am still a sloth.


The past few weeks I haven't worked out at all, haven't cared what I ate.  I could give every excuse in the book.  I injured my knee (doing what, I have no clue!), I'm busy, Noah suddenly HATES going to the Y child care so he kicks and screams whenever I mention it.  Makes working out pretty hard when you're worried about your son.  If I wait until the kids to bed before doing a video, it's late and I'm tired.  And getting up early in the morning?  R.i.g.h.t.  That would take discipline.  


You know how everyone who has someone in their past who has doubted them will always say "oh, I'm going to show them!"  I would love to be that person.  I would love to look that person in the eye.  The person who told me I'd never be pretty because I was too fat.  The person who told me I'd never get married because no one wants a fat girl.  The one who told me they'd give me $500 just to lose weight.  The one who told me I was going to be a diabetic if I wasn't careful.  I'd love to tell that person that I'm better than that.  I can do it for me.  Not for them.  Not for Joel.  Not even for my kids.  I can do it for ME.  


I'm tired of being fatigued.  This sloth is ready for some action.  

The Gallery Wall...

First of all, blogger has changed their look.  You may not be able to see the change since it seems like it's all 'behind the scenes'.  Let me just say it's annoying.  Ok, that's all.

So I recently discovered Pinterest.  I act like it's such a new thing but in reality, I think it's been around for a while.  I kept hearing people talk about it and it sounded like such a dumb idea.  You 'pin' stuff?  What the heck is that?  If I wanted to have a huge pinboard, I'd make it myself!  I totally didn't get it.  Then one of my co-workers 'invited' me to join Pinterest.  For a long time I kept that invitation in my e-mail inbox and just stared at it.  It was like a giant booger hanging from your nose in public.  You know it's there but you just can't don't know what to do about it.

So I finally decided to check it out one day.  I seriously thought I'd try it once and hate it.  Uh, I loved it.  It took me a little time to figure out how to really use it for my benefit but once I did, it was a.d.d.i.c.t.i.v.e!  So one day I was wasting time searching for a new living room layout and came across a gallery wall.  What's this?  A large amount of pictures put in somewhat matching frames and arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way?  I loved it!  Click here  and here to see my faves.

So then the fun began.  I had to break the news to Joel that I was going to be majorly slightly redecorating the living room.  He was annoyed thrilled!  I showed him the pics from Pinterest and he just grimaced.  I will admit that it did seem like a lot of work.  Still, I wanted to try it.

Because of the remainder of our living room style, I knew I wanted all black frames.  I read a LOT of blogs about how to start your gallery wall, how to design it, how to choose frames.  There's a lot of information out there but the basics are the same.  First get your frames.  After a trip to Ikea, I realized that this was going to be a pricier endeavor than I wanted.  So then I had a brilliant idea.  Goodwill!  I raided Goodwill and Salvation Army for crappy ugly nasty used frames.  I didn't matter the color or design.  There's a magical item called spray paint that can cover even the worst of frame sins.  And there were a lot of them!  Seriously, some of these frames could have been found in my grandmother's house back in the 1950's.  There were a lot of wedding frames too.  Didn't matter.  As long as they were the size I wanted and still in decent shape (meaning the glass was intact and there weren't huge gouaches out of the frame) I could paint over anything.  It took a few weeks of raiding Goodwill and Salvation Army but I finally got what I wanted.  I also shopped the clearance shelves at Target and Walmart.  There were a few really nice frames in the ugliest of colors but a quick coat of paint and voila, all is forgiven.  There were a few frames that didn't have hanging hooks on the back.  For that we used Command strips specifically for hanging pictures.  There's velcro on them to you can take off the frame without ripping half the wall off.

I had to order some prints in 5x7 to fit some of the frames but I made sure to get frames that were both 4x6 and 5x7 to mix it up a bit.  It seemed like all the gallery walls I had researched also had some sort of words or letters mixed in.  So to Etsy I went.  I found some awesome stuff!  Click here and here to see what I got.  Amazing deals and the sellers were great to work with!  Apparently when this is your own business, you're nicer to your buyers.

So then it was time to begin.  Another hint just about everyone gave was to cut out paper matching the size of the frame so you can figure out how you want the frames arranged.  (also you can draw where the nail is going to go...a HUGE time saver!).  Here's how it looked...

Joel aligning everything.

The finished rough draft.  

After a few hours of pounding nails, leveling and re-leveling, this is how it turned out...

I love this!

Another view

And yet another view

So that's our living room redo.  Next up is Hannah's room.  She wants a 'butterfly room'.  I found some amazing ideas on Pinterest.  I'm getting in touch with my creative side.  :)

Before and After...

We just redecorated Noah's room.  It was bittersweet.  He's 3 now so it was time to move him up to a big boy bed.  Plus, the room was a weird shade of green.  Why was it green?  Well, because it had been the nursery for both kids.  Even though we knew Hannah was going to be a girl, we wanted to make the nursery neutral so any future child could use the room.  Hence the green walls.  Instead of being a nice green, it was a shocking mint color.  Seriously turned me off of mint chocolate chip ice cream for years.  I'm still traumatized.

See the ugliness?  I'm sure my kids will be seeking therapy for  spending the first few years of their lives in this room.

So began the transformation.  I had picked out bedding for Noah a few years ago while at a huge consignment sale.  It's a Pottery Barn "Transportaion" themed room.  To make the room a little less weird and more boy-ish, we picked a light blue color.  Pretty.  That's all I can say about it.  P-R-E-T-T-Y.  No trauma here!

So much better!

My sexy husband's head.  

We already had the bed frame.  Funny story...my dad and uncle had matching bed frames growing up.  They ended up being my and my sister's bed frames as we were growing up and now they've been passed on to my kids.  Seriously, things aren't made like that anymore.  I'm hoping they last for my kids' kids.

Ok, so we already had the bed frame, bedding, dresser...what were we missing?  Uh...a BED??!!  I happened to mention to my co-worker that I was going to be buying a new twin box spring and mattress.  What did she happen to have in her storage room collecting dust?  An almost brand new twin-sized box spring and mattress.  And we could have them for FREE.  Amazing.

I searched random places for decorations.  I found a cheap coat rack on a facebook swapping page, gave it a coat of white paint and voila!  It matched the rest of his room.  I called upon my best friend (and amazing artist), Laura to make a few wall hangings to match his bedding.  She also made the step stool you can see in the above picture.  She free-handed them.  I'm still in awe of how great they look.  After a trip to Ikea for a bookcase, and a few stickers on the wall, we were DONE.  Noah is thrilled with his new room.  I'm just thrilled to have the green gone.  Next up is a gallery wall for the living room...

I love this bedding.  

I can not even tell you how cute those wall hangings are!  Laura is an awesome artist.  

Why yes, that is a little purse hanging from the rack.  Hannah thought Noah needed it.  

Hannah helped put the stickers on the wall.  They're a little heavy on the right.  Whatever.  :)   

Noah turns 3

I can not believe that Noah is 3!  I know every mother says how she can't believe how quickly the times goes by...blah, blah, blah.  But it's true!  I think back over the past 3 years and it seriously has flown by.  Would I do it over again?  Heck no!  The first few months suck.  There's just no way to word that any better.  You're so sleep deprived, it's a wonder anyone gets fed or bathed.  And I'm sure there were days I didn't brush my hair.  But we all survived.  And now that little man is 3.  

So what'd we do for his big day?  At first we weren't going to do anything.  Great parents, I know.  Then we decided we should do something, just the 4 of us.  Then we decided to invite my parents.  And then it turned out that Salli and her kids were coming down.  So our small little family dinner turned into a small party.  We went to Incredible Pizza to celebrate.  It's this really cool place with a pizza buffet and lots of games for the kids to play and ride.  

The kids had a great time riding the go-karts, bowling, and playing mini-golf.  Then it was time for cupcakes.  Being the cool mom that I am, I made gluten-free cupcakes from home then slapped a 'Happy Birthday' on them.  Noah didn't care as long as they were chocolate.  

So what new and exciting things is this 3-year-old doing?  hmmm...

• potty-trained!!!
• sleeps in big boy bed 
• newly decorated 'transportation' themed room
• dresses himself (although sometimes the underwear is backwards...hilarious)
• thinks that honey can go on everything

Gluten-Free Living

Joel and I are now gluten-free.  Why, you ask?  Lost a bet.

No, I'm kidding.  There isn't a short answer for this.  I'll try to condense.  A few months ago, we started looking at how we were living, what we were eating, how we were feeling.  Both of us agreed that we weren't eating enough "fresh" fruits and veggies, we felt tired and lazy, just not very good.  So we did some research.  Most of what we were feeling could be traced back to a gluten intolerance.  This shouldn't be confused with a gluten allergy or celiac disease.  Those are serious medical conditions.  Ours is simply a body's inability to properly digest gluten when eaten in mass quantities.  What's gluten?  Basically anything tasty.

Kidding again!  :)  Gluten is like a glue that keeps food together.  This would be any grains, flours, rye, barley.  For a better definition, click here.

So we made the switch.  It seems like people's initial reaction is one of two things.  Either they say "Oh, when were you diagnosed with celiac" OR "What do you eat??"  Makes me want to hit them.  I just laugh.

I have to admit that I kinda thought the same thing at first though.  I thought "no pasta???  I'll die!!"  Then I opened my eyes a bit and did what I do best...googled it.  I was amazed at how much we could eat.  There are even plenty of gluten-free breads and pastas out there.  And they're actually good!  And Hy-Vee has a great GF section of their store!  And they offer 10% off on Wednesdays!  AHHH!!!  I was in GF overload.

I knew if I didn't get to eat some of my favorite things, I'd quit.  I'd just give up.  So I went to my favorite recipe website.  Allrecipes.com.  LOVE THEM!  On a whim, I just entered "gluten free" in the search option.  Low and behold, there were tons of them!  Now, some had weird ingredients that A) I didn't know how to pronounce or B) you had to buy a big bag for $20 then only needed 1 teaspoon.  Not my cup of tea.  Then I found some pretty easy chicken recipes.  Hey, I like chicken.  Oh and I can have parmesan cheese.  Coupled with a few other ingredients, I made an incredible parmesan crusted chicken.

After a few weeks, I found that I could alter a recipe to make it GF without causing much difference in the taste.  There are days I just want to have a piece of toast or a big bowl of cereal.  I still can but I just have to choose the GF items.  They're not exactly cheap so it makes me choose a little more wisely.

So how are we feeling?  Well, immediately I had more energy.  That was the biggest thing.  After a week I noticed that I didn't feel so bloated all the time.  My pants fit looser too!  I lost some weight.  Not a ton and to be fair, I've been hitting the gym more often.  But that goes back to having more energy so it's a win/win.

Being gluten-free isn't for everyone.  Some people just can't fathom giving up their pizza or spaghetti or beer.  To that I say this...I made a pizza using GF crust and it was better than any pizza from Godfathers.  There's GF spaghetti noodles that are actually good.  And for beer?  There is a GF beer out there.  And it's actually good.  Tastes like Boulevard, which happens to be my favorite beer.

So I'm not missing out on anything...except gluten.  :)

My dog is a lesbian...and other short stories

We have a dog named Bella.  She's a mutt.  She's a rescue dog who had been a stray so no one really knows her background at all.  However, after spending some time with her at the dog park today, I'm convinced she's battling with her sexual orientation. 
Bella is a girl.  As far as we know, she's never had puppies.  But again, she was a stray for a time.  That must be why she continues to run away whenever she can.  She has no idea her boundaries.  But I digress...
We've gone to the Ankeny dog park many times with Bella.  She loves to run around and play with other dogs.  It's a good way to wear her out.  Tonight however, she decided to assert herself onto other dogs.  Yep, she was humping away.  The first time I just stared at her.  The second time I yelled at her to stop it.  Eventually I had to actually physically remove her from the back of a dog.  What in the world?!  My dog is a lesbian. 

A few months ago, Hannah asked where babies come from.  The conversation went something like this:
Hannah:  Mommy, how does a baby get inside the mommy?
Me:  Huhwhathowwhen?  (At this point, Joel was trying really hard not to laugh)
Joel:  Yes Sara, how DO babies get in there?  (Have I mentioned how much I LOVE my husband?)
Me:  Well, uh...Hannah, when a man and women love each other, sometimes that love spills over and makes a baby (Yep, I totally stole that line from a cheesy Lifetime movie).
Joel:  Are you kidding me?
Hannah: OOHHHH...ok.
Conversation over.  I rock at parenting.

So then last week we were at Panera having dinner as a family.  Out of the blue, Hannah looks at me.  Here's how it went:
Hannah:  Mommy, how do babies get out of mommy's tummies?
Me:  What now?  (Again, Joel is almost wetting himself trying not to laugh)
Me:  Well honey, when it's time for the baby to come out, the mommy knows.  She pushes and pushes really hard and the baby comes out...of...her...bottom.  (By now the little girl at the next table was listening in and I really didn't want to say the "V" word)
Hannah:  Out of the pee hole or poop hole?
Me: (are you freaking kidding me!) Uh...well...(Joel is now turning all shades of purple and red from not laughing)
Me: Honey, mommies are made with a special...hole...for the baby to come out.
Hannah: But I only have 2 holes?  When do I get the special hole?
Me: (CRAP!) Uh...you actually already have the special hole.  You just don't know it's there because you don't need it yet.
Hannah:  Is it on my front bottom or back bottom?
Me: (glaring at Joel as he is hiding behind a napkin) It's in the middle.
Hannah:  HUH?
Me: (totally ready for this conversation to be done, especially since the next table over is completely eavesdropping) Hannah, it's called a vagina.  Girls have 3 holes.  The pee hole, the poop hole, and the vagina.  The vagina is in the middle of the pee hole and poop hole.  You don't need to worry about your vagina for a VERY long time.  Trust me, it's there.
Hannah:  Oh, ok.
End of conversation.  Man, I'm the best parent in the world.   

It's been a while...

OK, I did not realize it's been 2 months since I last posted!  My bad!  In my defense, it's been a busy time.  Christmas, New Year's, family crap time.  Here's a run down...

We had 3 weekends in a row of Christmas'.  1 weekend in Minneapolis with my immediate family, 1 weekend at home with my extended family, then 1 weekend in Cedar Rapids with Joel's family.  T.I.R.I.N.G.  Still, it was fun.  Probably the most fun was New Year's weekend when my entire extended family was here.  We rented Pump It Up for a few hours so everyone the kids could run around and burn off some energy.

Here are some pictures.  Enjoy...

Hannah and her gingerbread house.  Joel took her to the Salisbury House for the morning.  

Mommy, Hannah and Buzz Lightyear

Joel and I took Hannah on a helicopter ride to see the Christmas lights.  It was a first for all of us.  It was a lot of fun.

Hannah and one of her presents...an angry bird

a THOMAS shirt!

Could this boy be any cuter?

Noah LOVES mints.  Seriously, no other present received this reaction

Me and my wonderful sister, Sallisha Marie (I'm the one on the right)  HA!

HA!

Look!  A box!

Watch out girls, he's going to be a heart breaker

Katie and Noah sitting in the cupboard.  And I'm pretty sure they're feeding Lucy too

My little cutie-pie at Pump It Up

HA!

My other cutie-pie

Wow.  Proud wife moment

It looks posed but it wasn't.

Natalie and Hannah sitting on the throne.  Hannah looks like she's making a royal declaration

 Noah looks like he's pushing Hannah off the throne

By the end of the day, Hannah was absolutely exhausted