Why I'm Proud of Myself:

• When I walked into the cold, dark bathroom only to turn on the light to see Adeline's stuffed animal on the floor that is the same color and size of a dead rat, I did not vomit, scream, or faint.
• I have made breakfast, lunch, and dinner everyday for countless days.
• Without complaint.
• This does not count as a complaint, more of a sharing of information.
• I have made a goal to not go out to dinner at all this month.
• I have realized that this is a really dumb goal.
• I got all {one sander} of the stuff out to finish a project that I started way last week.
• I have washed the breakfast dishes before lunch.
• I played Barbies with Meg and Adeline for an entire hour yesterday morning.
• I did not die of boredom.
• I played Connect 4 with Elizabeth five times yesterday.
• I did not let her win on purpose.
• I have looked at images of short haircuts on line.
• I got like a 50 lb bag of Swedish Fish for Christmas from a generous friend.
• There is still some left.
• I have even been known to share some on occasion.

Why are you proud?

Katie

Facebook

Did you know that if you hit 'Enter' after typing the title of your post, it will automatically post...?

Yup.

Anyway.

On Thursday I posted on Facebook:

"Hoping Bryce calls and tells me to not worry about dinner, he picked up a pizza....miracles happen, people."

Bryce called me saying he was going to be a bit late, he got caught up doing something at work.

Happens all the time.

I started hot dogs with chili cheese fries for dinner.

{I don't feel like I have to explain my eating habits to you right now.}

Bryce walks in at 5:30 pm with Pizza Hut pizza.

I was shocked, and felt a little guilty.

You might think, well Katie, that's what you wanted isn't?

Yes.

But Bryce NEVER checks Facebook.

Ever.

{So if you're his friend on Facebook, I'm sorry to tell you, but he has no idea what's going on with you or your status.}

That's why I posted that, more like a plea to the universe.

However....

Bryce and I have a mutual friend, who saw the Facebook post and called the IRS office, which is no easy task, and told him to pick up pizza for his wife.

Facebook isn't just a social network, it's a miracle network.

Thought of that, just now.

Katie

Not A Project Post

I didn't get one single project accomplished this week.

Daily routine got the best of me.

I'm focused on getting the rest of the paint scrapped off the windows before I move onto anything else.

I did get started on my Sister's Weekend stuff, though.

My sisters, sisters-in-law, and my mom started doing a Sister's Weekend.

We each pick a project, the same one for everyone, and then we send it to everyone with in a week period. So you get like seven different packages in one week. It's pretty fun to see what ideas everyone comes up with.

Last year I sent everyone the vintage yo-yo hair accessory.

Here's to hoping you all have a great weekend.

Katie

Worth It

My Personal Compilation of Things that I am Willing To Spend Money On:

• draw string kitchen trash bags




• real Ritz crackers




• Sherwin-Williams paint




• good shoes




• Crayola crayons




• disposable diapers




• high quality shampoo and conditioner




• a good haircut, I'm just not talented enough to make a bad hair cut work




• happy hour at Sonic




• junk (treasures) from garage/estate sales




• fabric




• perennials




• high-speed Internet




• cream




• cold cereal




• some one other than me to paint the house, although that attempt failed miserably....




• babies




• curtain rods




• books




• fresh fruit




• spray paint




• light fixtures




• dinner at a restaurant, that is warm when it gets to me, I didn't have to prepare and I don't have to clean up after it

What about you?

Katie

Re-assesing

I had a DAY on Monday.

You know the kind of day where you wonder if there is a medical condition about having post-partum depression with your two year old?

The kind of symptoms where you don't like them, don't want to hold them, you wonder if this is normal, you feel like you're not bonding, and all you want to do is send them back?

The kind of day where you feel like you're not getting ahead?

'Ahead of what', you're not exactly sure.

That it feels like it's you versus the kids and the kids are winning?

And you just feel....defeated?

You look back on the day and can't think of one success?

Where you think 'this is not what I signed up for'?

I signed up to be the loving mother who doesn't yell at her children while making Rice Krispie Treats, like on the commercials....

The kind of day where you take all four of your kids to Home Depot and one of the things that you walk out with is a lock?

Not the kind of children's lock you put on the door handle....

Nope, that would be silly, because you know as soon as you buy one of those at 9pm at night (because it's that or turning yourself into the officials for feeling homicidal) to put on their door, they will figure it out, even the not-even-two-year-old will be escaping by the next day.

A real lock, the kind the hooligans can't reach on the outside of the door?

Yup, that was the kind of day Monday was.

Just wondering if you've ever had one of those days...

Katie

Yes, That Just Happened

I am interrupting my regularly scheduled idon'tthinki'mgoingtosurvivepaintingtrim day to share a brief post.

I have been painting for two days now while still maintaining regular responsibilities, minus three children. You don't have to tell me, I know, I'm awesome.

Spencer is down for is quick catnap before his bath, eating and getting-ready-before-bed hour.

So, I thought I'd take a quick break and peruse the latest issue of Better Homes and Gardens......in the bathroom, on the toilet.

Normal, no? Don't try and tell me you've never utilized the time in the bathroom, especially on days when it's the ONLY time you get to sit down, to read an article or two. Well, you can tell me otherwise, but I'll secretly think you're lying to me.

Anyway, I'm in the bathroom, and I notice a shadow in the mirror which reflects the window....I'm making this too complicated....here's what happened:

Bryce's co-worker who came over to help us paint trim was going up the ladder that was right over the bathroom and caught a glimpse (it may have been longer than that, but that is what I'm telling myself to make it less traumatic) of my cute, white be-hind, while I was reading a magazine.

It's an old house, there's nothing blurry about the glass on that window.

Pretty great.

Yup, mark this down as a completely embarrassing, onlykatiewouldfindcomfortinpostingsomethinglikethis, total lack of pride post.

Katie

MIA

Dear Kind Readers: (who probably haven't even missed me)

I'm not posting today or last Wednesday for that matter.

I am super busy getting ready to....

PAINT the outside of our house.

Exciting, I know.

Pictures next week.

The chickens, and all children, are still alive.

Katie

I Feel Like a Dork When....

• I document the first tomato I grew as an adult, and the picture takes place in our horribly out-dated kitchen.




• I get out smarted by Blogger.




• I trip up the stairs.




• I call the wrong number but pretend that I didn't.




• I'm walking home from a class, in college, down a main street, that is also a large hill and I trip on a rock (I'm not to this day convinced there was actually a rock there) and face plant, right next to a bus stop, in the rain.




• I go see the-down-there-doctor, regardless of the reason.




• I buy a lot, I mean a lot, so much that I'm embarrassed to take a picture, fabric from an estate sale and I haven't completed a quilt in months. I think I may have lost Meg in the mounds.




• a cashier at the grocery store opens up a new check out just for me because I'm pregnant, my cart is full and my kids are outofcontrol.




• I have to tell my neighbor that we broke her dish because I let my five year old wash dishes.




• I forget that I'm potty training Meg, and that I also forget to put a diaper on her before we leave the house, and she pees all over the cart and the floor at Home Depot.




• the only fun thing I can think of to do with my kids is to take them to Toys R Us because you can ride the bikes and play with the toys without fear of getting kicked out.




• I tell my kids we can go to Barnes and Noble to play with the Thomas train set and then I find out they don't have one at this store.

I'm going to go shower now. Don't judge, it's only 9am here, and it's the second day in a row....

Katie

P.S. My mom is here and I went through the whole list of projects that I want her to help me get done, so hopefully between the two of us, something will get done....

I Feel Like a Rock Star When....

Before During

• Adeline lives to tell another tale.



• I get all three kids down for a nap at the same time.



• I take a shower and no one was seriously injured in the process.



• my kids tell me dinner was delicious.



• I've lost 18 lbs in the last two weeks, never mind the fact that I had 18 lbs to lose.



• I get an awesome package in the mail from a great friend with all of my favorite things: embroidered pillow cases, hand made quilts (one just for Spencer), vintage Christmas ornaments, etc.



• I write 500 thank you notes.



• I don't tell off the lady in line behind me who is trying to give me parenting advice about Meg.



• I see a project on HGTV that I did years ago.



• tons of family, including eight siblings, all call me for my birthday.



• I know exactly where the Easter decorations are in the basement.



• I go downstairs to get said Easter decorations and there is no dead rat to be seen, not that I was looking that hard...



• I suck it up and go to McDonalds - where the only play area exists in all of Medford - and don't think twice about their horrible, horrible value menu.



• someone reads a book from my goodreads list and liked it.



• Bryce goes out of his way to tell me that Slum Dog Millionaire will be on TV and he even remembers the date and time.



• I've already washed two loads of laundry and I'm home....by myself.....for the first time.... with all four kids...



• Meg is wearing panties and hasn't had an accident.

When do you feel like a rock star?

*The project seen above is more finished then you see in those pictures. I'm just too lazy to walk all.the.way upstairs to take a photo. I'll post the more completed photos at some future date. I'm not committing myself to anything specific, mind you.

A Conversation with Myself

While shopping for jeans:

'I love these jeans. Nice color, good length, great bum. I'm totally getting these. Where have they been all my life?'

6 months later, same pair of jeans, while looking in a full length mirror:

'Oh my gosh, I can't believe I've been wearing these jeans almost every single day and they make me look like this. Why hasn't some one told me they look awful? My bum has NEVER looked worse. I definitely need to go jean shopping. I'm putting these in the far recesses of my dresser drawer. I'm humiliated.'

While shopping for jeans:

'I love these jeans. Nice color, good length, great bum. I'm totally getting these. Where have they been all my life?'

6 months later, same pair of jeans, while looking in a full length mirror:

'I hate these jeans. I don't know why I ever bought them. What a waste of my money. I'm putting these in the far recesses of my dresser drawer.'

While putting 2nd pair of jeans in far recesses of my drawer, I happen upon 1st pair of jeans, I put them on:

'Holy smokes, these jeans look awesome. I wonder why I haven't been wearing them? It's like the whole package. I don't know why I thought those other jeans were better than these ones, it's pretty obvious they're not.'

Repeat yearly.

Happy Valentine's Day

Katie

10 Things...

I want right now:

1. a nap


2. to not be pregnant so I can take Ibuprofen


3. a snack I don't have to prepare for myself


4. Meg to potty train herself


5. for my kitchen to be painted


6. to be able to find some maternity pants that actually stay up


7. to never have to pluck my eyebrows again


8. for Bryce to realize that I have the better list of boy name options


9. for Adeline's play date to show up so she will stop incessantly asking when she'll get here


10. for my kids to never learn how to tell time. Cruel? for sure Effective? without a doubt

You'll find in my trash can:

1. hair clippings, the girls got a haircut last night


2. countless pages of unfinished and forgotten about art work


3. leftovers


4. lots of tissue from my ever-running nose


5. dead flies, remember those maggots, well, apparently they weren't all vaccumed up and now we have a lot of flies, fortunately they're pretty stupid...


6. fabric scraps from the quilts that I'm making for Meg and baby boy


7. my sanity


8. my patience


9. a broken plastic hanger


10. dirty diapers

I'm decent at making:

1. breadsticks


2. toast


3. a bowl of cereal


4. anything with cream of chicken


5. chili


6. green salad


7. love


8. people laugh


9. a to-do list for Bryce


10. grape juice

Katie

20 Rules I've Broken

1. Jay walked all.of.the.time in college. I actually don't remember a specific time I used the crosswalk.


2. On more than one occasion I didn't finish my food growing up. Although it looked like I had finished my food, it was really in the toilet, in my napkin, in the heat register behind my chair, or under my youngest siblings' high chair.


3. I speed, daily.


4. In college, I went on multiple dates with multiple boys all in one day. I actually don't know if it's a rule how many boys you can see in one day...


5. I hardly ever iron. I think that must be some sort of housewife rule. Isn't that what the dryers for?


6. I bribe my children hourly. I've read a lot of parenting books that say you shouldn't do that but....


7. When I play the piano, I never count. I know how, I think, but I'm really lazy.


8. Sometimes I feed my kids cereal for lunch.


9. I sleep my babies on their tummies.


10. I rarely take my prenatal vitamins.


11. When we used to go to the zoo, there was this door for employee use only, I used it all of the time.


12. I wipe junk from my counter into my open dishwasher rather than into my hand and then the trash can.


13. I only shave my legs a couple times a week.


14. I don't floss.


15. I rarely remember to put on sunblock.


16. I call African-Americans black.


17. I let my kids eat food off the floor.


18. I wear white socks with mostly everything.


19. I left A-Town without paying my $4 library fine.


20. The tags on my van are expired.

Pretend You Are All Priests

and what I say in this post as far as confessions goes no further than me and all of you.

I haven't been completely honest with all of you. It's true. I hold back some things. Mostly things that I'm embarrassed or ashamed about. Things that I think will prevent people from thinking I'm awesome - which I am only some of the time.

As you read through this post it will explain why this is not a typical Friday post.

Here it goes:

• I didn't finish a single project this week. I got some closer to being finished, but nothing to show off. By closer, I mean I got two of 9 panels of curtains hung.



• Lots of times I wait until a project is completely done before I post about it.



• Nothing makes me more cranky and out of sorts than kids waking up when it's still too dark to see what time it is.



• We had maggots. Gross, I know. Apparently some unsuspecting fly laid her eggs in between our floor boards. I thought at first that it was rice. I feel more than violated. They're under control now, as in dead, as in smothered in bleach in my front yard.



• I don't dress Meg till about 9am.



• Remember that one post where I said our shower was leaking? That was a lie. It was like a torrential flood into our basement. We had to get the bathroom completely re coated, it looks really great now and....no flooding.



• Some months I buy too much fabric and we have no money left over for food by the end of the month. We have food, it's just nothing terribly exciting.



• Elizabeth rides the bus home from school. The bus stop is about three houses down from ours. I leave the other girls home taking naps while I go pick her up. I'm gone for about seven minutes. Please don't call the CPS.



• Our neighbor has some sort of large 'indoor' lap pool. I really hope he invites us over to go swimming some time.



• We have a large back hoe sitting in our front yard. We have mounds of random dirt scattered throughout our yard. Some things just take heavy machinery to accomplish.



• I lost some pillows. The logical conclusion is that they're in the basement somewhere in one of the 25 boxes still unpacked. I hope it's true.



• I try to get Adeline to play babies so I can be the kid and take a nap. Barbies are not so conducive to napping.



• Bryce and I have not agreed on a single boy name.



• I don't really like bananas or cooked carrots.

I think that's it. Feel free to leave a confession, I promise to read it, sympathize with you, and then erase it from my memory, which is kind of what I'm hoping you'll do for me.

Katie

I'd Rather Be....

Many a morning rolls around, the birds are chirping, the sun is shinning, Bryce picked up some donuts for breakfast, the kids slept in and some little woodland creatures secretly landscaped our yard while we were sleeping.

There are some rare occasions when none of the above happens, not even one single concept.

On those days I'd Rather Be:

• sunbathing on a deserted, unknown island with monkeys that bring me fresh pineapples.



• taking a cross continent trip with exorbitance amounts of money for antiquing.



• on a cruise. The boat wouldn't even need to have a destination.



• perusing books at Barnes and Noble with a hot chocolate and no screaming kids at the back of the store with no escape route besides the front of the store.



• being interviewed for any sort of anything: a-hard-working-young-mother-of-three-fashionista, the next big HGTV series, an amazing blogger award, nothing to do with living with rats....



• on a weekend get away with Bryce on someone else's tab.



• in the audience of The Price is Right.



• at the Smithsonian Museum.



• at a restaurant where I didn't cook the food, no one asked me to get anything, no one comments about how yucky everything is, my food is warm, I may or may not be eating by myself while reading a great novel, title unknown, written by a famous relative who put me in their will.

What would you rather be doing?

Katie

What They Don't Tell You....

is that...

• those cute blogs about home remodeling, the wife cried three days before the before and after post.



• people working on your house, instead of taking their trash with them, will just leave it in the large pile of debris in front of your house for you to take care of.



• you'll miss a garage and a driveway, terribly.



• anyone and everyone will give their opinion about your house, whether or not they know what they're talking about.



• small town craigslists stink.



• you'll find a discount bread store, but it's not run by a loud and fun black lady that gives your kids free donuts.



• sometimes you really do wish Santa existed, just so you didn't have to actually do any Christmas shopping.



• wallpaper is surprisingly easy to take off, if it's glued to fabric that's been nailed to a wall over the original wall that already has bits of wallpaper and newspaper already on it.



• it will cost you the same to put in new hardwood floor in one room as it does to refinish the hardwood floors in the entire rest of the house.



• only having two TV channels that never come in is lame and will make you want to take the promotional offer for cable that's only $5 more a month.



• being a parent for Christmas is way more fun than being a kid, even though it's a.lot.more.work.



• there's something terribly satisfying about seeing full book shelves in your home again.



• not having a working shower is dumb and feels a lot like camping.



• not having a fridge or an oven in your kitchen feels a lot like camping also.



• not having an oven in your kitchen alleviates your guilt when buying a Pizza Hut pizza, or two.

Katie

Update!!!

Maybe if I put exclamation marks I will fool you all into thinking that this is going to be a great post.

I cut Meg's mullet off. Now she has a cute little bob that kind of looks like Scout for the movie To Kill A Mocking Bird.

I watched the Hallmark Hall of Fame movie last night and I didn't cry.

I totally lied when I said I would be sending the camera down with Bryce to take pictures of the house. My apologies.

A moment of honesty....when we first moved I really wanted to be in a house by Christmas not because I need space, I do, but the primary reason? I have all of these Christmas decorations that I've been accumulating over the year and I don't think I could stomach not putting them up for another year...

I'm becoming a bit rotund. If I say that out loud to myself, maybe I won't get my feelings hurt as much when other people say it to me.

I ran out of diapers....yesterday.

We won't be in our new house by the 4th, more like the 11th. Don't worry, you don't have to tell me how lame that is.

Katie

In the Future

Remember that one time I was supposed to post on Friday and I didn't? Sorry about that. I had no idea what to post, so rather than post and tell you that I had no idea what to post, I just opted not to post.

If I weren't a stay-at-home mom with three beautiful children on the brink of buying a really cool old house that needs my love and attention and a wife to the husband I adore, I would be:

• A truck driver. Never mind the fact that I don't know how to drive a stick despite the fact that three different male individuals have attempted to teach me how. Side note: has anyone seen that show about the truck drivers in Alaska? My first thought when I saw that show, maybe if the drivers are trying to traverse scary terrain on the final frontier with flammable material, they should not be distracted by narrating to a camera.


• A commercial actress. You know, the commercials where they have a really crazy, irrelevant dance scene? That would be me.


• Owner of a really cool quilt store.


• The third in that show American Pickers. I just recently came upon it since entering the world of Dish. These two guys go around to different homes and climb through other people's junk looking for stuff to buy and re-sale. It sounds really lame now that I'm typing it out, but it's not, trust me.


• A book critic. Or the person that writes pages of true but boring information at the beginning of timeless books that no one ever reads, unless you're an insomniac.


• A college professor. I would probably be just an adjunct one since I have no interest what-so-ever in doing research and being published. And based on the adjunct teachers I had in college, I could be great.


• A sleep expert. I would travel across the nation putting people's infants on a sleep schedule and charge by the hour. I don't have a plan yet what I would do with all the money, but all in good time.

Katie

P.S. If you care, I've been dreaming about paint colors.

Defining Moments

You know those moments in your life that define you as a person, they determine who you will be as an adult, they sum you up as a child?

I had such an experience in 3rd grade. I was calm and quiet back then. We must of had some free time in the classroom because I wasn't sitting at a desk when the incident occurred.

There were four of us sitting at the back of the classroom where the cubbies were. Two boys and two girls. At the time I probably assumed that was just coincidence, but, looking back, I'm positive it was fate.

We were gathered in a circle. We were singing. The song? The Name Game. Why, oh why, did we think that was a good idea? I guess I'll never know.

Anyway, my turn approached, and I selected a boy out of the circle named Tucker. It seemed harmless enough. I was so short-sighted back then.

Then I began to sing:

Tucker, Tucker, Bo Bucker
Banana Fanana Fo &*^@#!%

And that was it. What more can I say, it speaks for itself.

Katie

100th

Today marks my 100th post. In honor of such an occasion, I will post 100 things about myself. Just kidding. How boring would that be? Answer: terribly. I thought about doing a giveaway, of Adeline, yesterday. Today she is sitting quietly on the floor looking through an 'I Spy' book, with her hair in crooked looped pigtails looking like a little Swedish baby. Maybe I'll keep her.

If I were in charge of the world: a list.

• It would be illegal for a mother to take her 8 year old son into the women's bathroom and he would be imprisoned for peeing all over the toilet seat and not flushing.


• Garage sales would be all year long.


• Blizzards at Dairy Queen would always be on sale for buy one get the second one for $.25.


• Bags would fly free on any airline.


• Dinsneyland Park ticket prices would be substantially lower.


• People would be given a heavy fine for saying inappropriate things to pregnant women.


• I would out law meatloaf as human food.


• Baby showers would be given for every baby.


• Kindergarten would be all day across the nation.


• You would get a tax break for authoring a great blog.


• Kids would be awarded for how many books they read, not how many points they scored.


• Oreos would be fat free, but still taste deliciously fatty. We're talking double stuffed here.


• Kool-aid could be purchase for $.10 a packet, just like in the good ol' days before child obesity issues.

What would you do?

Katie

P.S. The inspection went fine. The house is in remarkably good condition despite it's age and run of multiple homeowners. We will proceed as planned, meaning buying the house. Does this sound calm and collected? I hope so, never mind the fact that I've been losing sleep about all the home improvement, home decorating, money that will be spent, and happiness that I'm so looking forward to. Can you put a price tag on space? Yup, and it's substantially less than the asking price.

The Good and the Bad

Good news: I will be doing a post today, obviously.
Bad news: It will be the only for the week.

Good news: Bryce will be in town this weekend.
Bad news: After next week he still has four more weeks of training. Bleh.

Good news: We made an offer on a house.
Bad news: It needs a.ton.of.work.

Good news: We made this really low ball offer for the house and it was accepted.
Bad news: N/A

Good news: Adeline has not wet the bed for like four weeks.
Bad news: Meg will still need to be potty trained.

Good news: This house, was built in 1875.
Bad news: This house, was built in 1875.

Good news: Christmas is three months away.
Bad news: We still have three months till Christmas.

Good news: I have 57 followers.
Bad news: I did have 58. Please do not try to console me by saying insignificant things like: you probably don't want them to be your followers anyway, they're in a better place, it's only because they didn't win a quilt, etc.

Good news: I've read four books in the last five weeks.
Bad news: My children have been sorely neglected, if that's possible with cousins, toys, and grandma always around.

Good news: I had a great time in Idaho.
Bad news: I went horse back riding and don't think my bum will ever forgive me.

Good news: Harry and David have 2,000+ fans on Facebook
Bad news: I'm pretty sure none of that is a direct cause of my efforts.

Good news: I get to start looking at paint colors for the inside of the house.
Bad news: I will be the one doing a lot of painting.

Good news: One of my best friends from college sent me a Facebook message this week and had nothing but flattering exaggerations to say about me.
Bad news: I was lured into a false sense of security about how great I am. What goes up, must come down.

What's your good news?

Katie

Good news: I just did a spellcheck, and I had no misspellings. Go me.

If anyone is interested, I will find the link of the real estate listing for the house. We close the first part of November, assuming everything is not horrible with the inspection.

There's another site that had about nine pictures of it, but I was unable to find it. Remember to have lots of vision, lots and lots, when looking at the pictures.